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 84
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objected in the least. Mr. Smith handles each year an average of 100 cars of potatoes, the product being purchased in Erie and adjoining counties and then shipped to the leading markets. Mr. Smith maintains his home at Iluron, and is known and honored as one of the steadfast and reliable business men of the older generation in Erie County, where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances.
Mr. Smith is a stalwart and well fortified advocate of the principles of the republican party, takes a loyal interest in public affairs of a local order and is now serving his second term as trustee of Huron Township. Ile is an ardent temperance man and his example is well worthy of emulation, for he has never taken a drink of spiritnous liquor and never chewed or smoked tobacco. Ile is one of the most genial. optimistic and companionable of men, and a more loyal friend has never called for the friendship of others. Ile and his family hold membership in the Presbyterian Church.
In the City of Sandusky. this county, was solemized the marriage of Mr. Smith to Miss Louise Woodward, who was there born and reared and who is a daughter of Edward R. and JJane ( Stapleton ) Woodward. who were early settlers of that city, where they continued to reside until their death, Mr. Woodward having been for many years in charge of the oil department of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad at that point. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have four sons, all of whom have con- ferred honor on the name which they bear: Edward G., who is success- fully established in business at Madison. Lake County, is married but has no children ; William J. is identified with the sand industry at San- dusky, is married but has no children : Harvey W., who remains at the parental home, is associated with his father in the produee business and is an enterprising and popular young business man of his native county ; Andrew is engaged in the grocery business at Huron, where he has a finely equipped store and caters to a representative trade: he married Miss Vera M. Hart, of this city, and they have a daughter. Vera May.
HIENRY J. KISHMAN. Some of the best farms in Vermilion Town- ship have as their proprietors people either of German birth or German parentage. No element has been of greater influence and benefit as developers of the soil and as good citizens in Vermilion Township than the people of the fatherland. The Kishman family has long been prom- inent in Vermilion Township, and one of its representatives is Henry J. Kishman.
He is a farmer who thoroughly understands his business and has made his enterprise not only profitable to himself but a factor in the community welfare. Ile owns a fine place of 106 acres in Vermilion Township on Rural Route No. 2 out of Huron. Ilis land is nearly all under cultivation, and season after season he has succeeded in grow- ing the finest of erops of corn, wheat, oats and potatoes. Among other good farm buildings he has a substantial twelve-room house. Mr. Kish- man also owns forty acres of highly improved land on the lake shore in the same township, and that has building improvements. ineluding a substantial barn.
On the first farm mentioned Mr. Kishman has had his home steadily since 1889. Ile was born on a place along the lake shore in Vermilion Township April 21, 1863, and as a boy attended school in subdistrict No. 3. His parents were Werner and Eliza (Lutz) Kishman. ITis father was born in Kurhessen, Germany, in 1843, and when a young man came across the ocean on a sailing vessel to America, locating first in Vermilion. Erie County, there learning a trade as blacksmith. He met and married in Brownhehn, Lorain County, Miss Eliza Lutz. After their marriage they moved to the farm on the lake shore in Vermilion
William Wheelock
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Township, where they were confronted by a pioneer undertaking in the clearing and developing of their land. There the wife and mother passed away in April, 1896, aged fifty-six years. Werner Kishman died at the home of his daughter in Sandusky May 20, 1911, when in his seventy- third year. He was a democrat in politics, and served in local offices in his home township. He and his wife were confirmed members of the German Reformed Church, and he was a charter member of the Mitte- wanga German Reformed Church.
Henry J. Kishman was the oldest in a family of six, four sons and two daughters. all of whom are married and still live in Erie County. Mr. Kishman himself was married in Vermilion Township to Miss Bertha Reiber. She was born, reared and educated in the same town- ship, and is the daughter of John Reiber, long one of the prominent citizens here of German birth and ancestry. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Kishman are three in number. Catherine like her brothers acquired a good education in the public schools and is still at home. Werner is unmarried and is an active farmer on his father's place. John is still a student in the public schools, being in the eighth grade. Mr. and Mrs. Kishman and children are all members of the German Reformed Church, in which he is an elder. Politieally he is a democrat. He and his wife have taken a specially active part in church affairs and they are people who maintain the highest standards of morality and do all they can to make their community a better place to live in.
WILLIAM WHEELOCK. While the late William Wheelock spent only a few years at Milan, where he died November 27, 1897, he is recalled by a great many people here as a pleasant and genial gentleman, a sue- cessful business man, and Mrs. Wheeloek is still identified with this interesting Erie County town and has increased the quality of respect and esteem which are associated with the name. In many ways Mrs. Wheeloek is a remarkable woman, and like her brothers and sisters, possesses a thorough business ability, and is still active in mind and body and is well informed on all current topics.
The late William Wheelock was born in the State of Rhode Island in 1830 and was sixty-seven years of age when he passed away. llis parents were Manning and Mabora (Southwick) Wheelock. His father was a native of Rhode Island, while his mother was born in Mendon, Massachusetts, and of the fine old Massachusetts stock that became prominent as bread manufacturers. Manning Wheelock some years after his marriage moved to Connecticut, and was overseer of a large farm belonging to a milling company. He died on the farm and he and his wife were both buried there but were subsequently removed to the Enfield Cemetery. where they now lie side by side. They were the parents of six children as follows: Harriet, Daniel, Manning, William, John and Cynthia : all now deceased. All are buried in the cemetery at Enfield, Connecticut, except William, who is interred at the Ames Circle, Saratoga, New York. Daniel Wheelock has one son living and he resides at Thompsonville, Connecticut, where he lives retired.
On the old Conneetient farm William Wheelock grew to manhood. Subsequently going to Rockville, Connecticut, he became associated with William Skinner, and they built up an extensive business as retail meat dealers. He was very skillful as a entter of meat. but impaired health finally obliged him to retire from the business, and for a time he lived at Saratoga, New York. From there he moved to Minonk, in Woodford County, Illinois, and took the management of a large store owned by his brother-in-law. Miner T. Ames, one of the extensive coal operators in that section of Ilinois. Ile was very successful in manag-
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ing this company store, and his personal popularity added not a little to the prestige of Mr. Ames. From Illinois Mr. Wheelock finally removed to Milan, Ohio, and spent the rest of his days there somewhat retired. Ile was an active republican in polities, his parents were orthodox Quakers, while he was himself a Presbyterian.
Mr. Wheelock married for his first wife Henrietta Bush, daughter of Capt. John Bush, of Enfield, Connecticut. She died when her only son, Frank Howard, was two years of age, and was laid to rest in the Enfield Cemetery. ller son, Frank HI., was reared in his father's home, was given a good education, and had a thorough training in merehan- dising in the store of his unele, Mr. Ames, in Illinois. Subsequently he took the office management of the firm of Meeker & Hedstrum, coal dealers. at Chicago. While there he died about twenty years ago, after having opened for himself a most promising eareer. He was laid to rest beside his father in the Ames Circle at the Saratoga Cemetery in New York. At the time of his death Frank HI. Wheelock was engaged to be married to Anna E. Meacham.
Mr. Wheelock was married in Chester, Massachusetts, to Mrs. Lucy Ames ) Gibbs. Her former husband was Nelson D. Gibbs, and was born in Blanford, Massachusetts, was enjoying a promising career as a farmer at Chester, Massachusetts, at the time of his death in 1862 when in the prime of life. He was an active member of the Congrega- tional Church and in polities a republican. He left a daughter, Mary Ella Gibbs, who died of measles at the age of thirteen.
Mrs. Wheelock was born at Becket, Massachusetts, October 6, 1834, and during her girlhood she walked a mile to attend the village schools. Her parents were Justin M. and Anna II. (Chaffee) Ames. Her mother was the daughter of Thomas and Abigail (Knowlton) Chaffee, while Abigail Knowlton was the daughter of Colonel Knowlton, one of the heroes in the Battle of Bunker Hill. Justin M. Ames and wife spent all their lives in the farming community around North Becket. Ilis wife died there at the age of fifty-six, leaving ten children. Mr. Ames subsequently married Calista Harriet Bracket, and they moved to Sara- toga, New York, where she died in middle life without children. Mr. Ames for his third wife married Harriet, the only sister of the late William Wheelock. They lived at Thompsonville, Connecticut, where Mrs. Ames died when past seventy-five years of age, and was laid to rest at Enfield, Connectient. Mr. Ames had died several years previ- ously at the same place at the age of eighty-seven, and was laid beside his first wife at Beeket. All his marriages were happy and most con- genial.
Mention of the Ames children, of which Mrs. Wheelock was one, is briefly recorded as follows: Samantha married Joshua Barnard, and in territorial times went to the Northwest frontier and improved a farm in the wilderness of Minnesota, where Mrs. Barnard died and where he afterwards married, and subsequently lived at Port Huron, Michi- gan: there are no children now living by his first marriage. Zeruah became the wife of Joseph Osborn of Becket, Massachusetts, who was a tanner by trade and subsequently established a tannery at Girard. Pennsylvania, and died there, leaving a son, Bert, who is now married and lives in California. Chaffee S. Ames spent his life as a farmer in Saratoga County, New York, and died leaving a daughter, Ellen, who is now married and occupies the old homestead. George Ames also lived in Saratoga County, New York, died there at the age of sixty-one, and his widow is still living. The next in order of age is Mrs. Wheeloek. Lucinda became the wife of James Meacham, of Middlefield, Massa- chusetts, where he died, and she subsequently removed to Milan and is how living with her children in that village. the children being Anna E.,
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James Alfred and Wilson A. Minor T. Ames has already been men- tioned as a coal operator in Woodford County, Illinois, though he made his home in Chicago, where he died. He was twice married. having 'children by both wives, and Knowlton Chaffee Ames, of the first mar- riage, is living in Chicago, while Adelaide, of the second marriage, is the wife of Mr. Ross, a prominent attorney of Chicago, and another daughter, Hattie, married Mr. MeCormick, who was for a number of years identified with the management of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel at New York City. Wilson Ames became a distiller of cologne spirits in Chicago, and later a coal operator at Seymour, Illinois, and at his death was buried in the Ames Circle at Saratoga, New York ; his widow and son. Hamilton, now live in Brooklyn, New York, where the son is engaged in manufacturing. Juda was for many years in charge of a department in the great store of Marshall Field & Company, in Chicago, also bought goods for the firm for several years in Europe, and finally retired to Norwalk, Ohio, and died there at the age of fifty-six. Frank- lin Ames was for thirty years buyer and head of the wholesale carpet department of Marshall Field & Company, and subsequently acquired an interest as a stockholder in that business, but retired a few years ago. and has a son and daughter.
PATRICK J. MILAN. There are few citizens of Erie County more widely known over the country at large than Patrick J. Milan. While he is classed as a farmer and at that one of the largest and most success- ful in Oxford Township, his earlier experiences were all with railroad affairs, and in that profession he gained only less distinction than his noted brother, Capt. Thomas Milan. for twenty years motive power chief of the National Railways of Mexico and subsequently president of the Vera Cruz and Pacific Railway-a position he held for a long time. Many years ago he went into Texas during the early railroad period of that state and served as captain in the Texas State Militia, from whence he gets his title, was never married and now retired, resides in California.
This branch of the Milan family originated in Ireland, where Patrick J. Milan was born in County Galway. December 26, 1843. His parents were Thomas and Cecelia ( Rowan ) Milan, also natives of County Galway. Thomas Milan with his wife in 1848 emigrated to America, and in May, 1849. established his home in Sandusky, where he found employ- ment with the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad Company, while he served in various capacities for thirty-five years, and died at San- dusky. widely known and respeeted in 1897. Circumstances and con- ditions were such that when Thomas Milan and wife emigrated from Ireland they were obliged to leave their three children, among them Patriek J., then five years of age, in charge of his wife's sister, Miss Nora Rowan. In 1851 Miss Rowan brought the three children to Amer- jea, and they were reunited with their parents at Sandusky.
Patrick J. held positions of great responsibility with railway com- panies, as general manager of the Rio Grande & Eagle Pass Railway of Texas, general master mechanie of the Cotton Belt Route, master mechanie of the main shops of Central Railway of Georgia at Savannah, at that time the largest in the old South ; left there to take charge of the Pan-American Railway as its general superintendent, the world's great scenie line, the objective being to connect the Americas, to make the New Yorker and Patagonian next door neighbors. From the latter position Mr. Milan resigned to live on and develop his Erie County farm.
AMEOL BOOS. In the field of agriculture it has frequently happened that the fathers have seenred the broad and fertile traets of land which
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the sons have brought to their full capacity of productiveness. The rough, preliminary labors of the pioneers have been as necessary as the developing work of the later generation; all combine for the general advancement of the wonderful agricultural interests of Ohio. Of the men of Erie County who are engaged in farming operations on land secured originally by their fathers, Ameol Boos, of Huron Township, is a sterling representative of that class of reliable, industrions men who are acknowledged to be broad and scientific in their methods. He was born at Sandusky, Ohio, September 11, 1855, and is a son of George and Catherine (Miller) Boos.
The parents of Mr. Boos were born in Germany and there . reared and educated and married in their native land, probably in the Province of Baden. The father was reared to the trade of locksmith, which he followed for some years in Germany, and following his marriage he and his wife went to South America, where they resided about one year. their oldest child, Sophia, being born in that country. In the early '50s the family came to North America and after landing at New York City made their way to Sandusky, Ohio, from whence, in 1852 or 1853, they came to Huron Township. The father purchased twenty-five acres of almost wild land, on which he built a little home, and began to clear and cultivate this primitive farm, under the direction of Mrs. Boos, who had been brought up on a farm in Germany. As the children grew up they assisted their parents in the work of development, and later fifteen acres were added to the original purchase, this subsequently being added to from time to time until the homestead consisted of 105 acres. Here the father erected a good home of seven rooms to replace the first little dwelling, as well as a substantial baru, 30 by 83 feet. He was an industrious and energetic worker and learned to be a good farmer. putting in a great deal of open ditches, which have since been covered by his son. It may be said that this farm is nearly perfect as regards drainage, for there are more than 50,000 tile here. The land grows fine crops of all kinds of grain, the wheat fields yielding an average of thirty bushels per acre, while potatoes are also grown in great quantities. Throughout his life George Boos continued to intelligently till his fields. and through a career of honest and straightforward dealing won the respect and esteem of the people of his community. llis death occurred July 14, 1909, when he was eighty-seven years of age, while Mrs. Boos passed away April 13, 1893, aged nearly seventy-six years. She was a Catholic, while Mr. Boos was a member of the Lutheran Church. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Boos: Sophia, who died after marriage ; Ameol, of this notice: Amelia, who was married and met her death in a railroad accident on the Lake Shore Railroad at Sandusky, Ohio, in 1897; Mrs. Lena Post, of Huron; and Mrs. Mary Heminger, of Perkins Township. Erie County.
Ameol Boos was born in Sandusky, but when he was a few weeks old his mother returned to the farm and here he has passed his entire life. Hle was given the educational advantages to be secured in the public schools, and was carefully reared to agricultural pursuits, which he has made his life work. At the time of his father's death he succeeded to the ownership of the home farm, and has since added twenty-five aeres to it, now having a finely-eultivated tract of 130 acres. He does general farming, and his life has been one of quiet and uninterrupted devotion to his home and surroundings, and out of his labor and experience has come the regard of all who knew him and a reputation as a good and publie-spirited citizen.
Mr. Boos was married in Huron Township to Miss Mary Steiner, who was born on the old Steiner farm in Erie County, in 1860, and died April 10. 1894. Three children were born to this union: George M ..
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who is a farmer of Huron Township and has one daughter. Mary, now four years of age; Charles, who is married and lives with his father, whom he assists in the operation of the farm; and Ameol, Jr., also married and a farmer in Huron Township. Mr. Boos married for his second wife Lula Curtis, who was born in Huron Township in 1874.
Mr. Boos and his sons are consistent members of the Roman Catholic Church. They have always supported the principles and candidates of the democratic party.
HARDEN A. TUCKER. Among the notable pioneer residents of Erie Connty still surviving, the lives of few have been so lengthened by a gracious Providence as to afford them a retrospective view of eighty years of their own participation in the development of the county. Such, however, is a distinguishing feature of the career of Harden A. Tucker, "The Grand Old Man of Milan," whose life in Milan Township, where he still makes his home, spans a period of four score years. A companion of the wilderness, when wild animals still roamed the untamed forests, a pioneer teacher when schools were few and far between, a witness of primitive conditions and a participant in the wonderful development of this region, he still stands among the younger generation, like a forest monareh among the younger growths. Ilis life has been full and eminently useful ; his record is one on which no blemish appears.
HIarden A. Tucker was born near Scituate, Rhode Island, April 21, 1833, a son of lIarden and Sabra ( Clark) Theker. natives of that state and of fine old New England ancestry. In 1836, after the birth of three sons and one daughter, the parents set out for what was then the Far West, making their way down the Hudson River and Erie Canal to Buffalo, and then to Huron, Ohio, by way of the Great Lakes. There they settled on a wild farm near the present home of llarden A. Tucker, first erecting a primitive home, later replacing it with a more substantial and commodious one, and finally building a good brick dwelling, in which the parents resided until their retirement, when they sokl out and moved to Milan. There the father died in June, 1872, when sixty-eight years of age, the mother passing away at the home of her sons, in Jan- uary, 1879, when seventy-nine years old. They were Spiritualists in religious belief, and in political matters the father was first a whig and later a republican. Harden and Sabra Tucker were true pioneers of Erie County. In spite of leaving the refining influences of New England, with no experience in the rough life of the frontier, they accepted con- ditions as they found them, worked out their own material success, and reared their children to lives of usefulness and honesty.
Harden A. Tucker was but three years of age when brought to Erie County, is one of the oldest living settlers of Milan Township, and is the oldest man of Milan on the North Road. His boyhood and youth were passed in the midst of pioneer conditions and his education was secured in the primitive log sehools, but he made the most of his opportunities, and when a young man divided his time between cultivating a farm and teaching in the local school. The wildest of game were still to be found here, and Mr. Tucker relates many interesting experiences in regard to incidents of his early years. On one occasion, while he and several other persons were passing under a large chestnut tree near his home, a panther leaped from a tree sixty feet across the road, and, to use Mr. Tucker's words, "let out a yell that could have been heard three miles away." A few more leaps and it had disappeared into the dense forest. At another time, when Mr. Tucker was returning to his home at night, a huge panther followed him for more than a mile along the wild highway. the beast not turning away until he had reached the very door of his house.
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Mr. Tucker settled on his present farm in 1866, and has owned it since 1868. This tract consists of 96.81 acres, the greater part of which he has himself improved, in addition to which he has cultivated other land, and has turned more furrows of land than any other man who lived in Milan Township. Here he has erected modern and commodious buildings, including a brick house, and the land has been thoroughly tiled by him, making it one of the most productive in this part of the county. The land lies almost level, drifting north toward the Iron River, and on it the best of all kinds of crops may be raised.
In 1915 Mr. Tucker celebrated his golden wedding anniversary. Ile was married Angust 10, 1865, at Speares Corners, Milan Township, to Miss Elizabeth Rockwell, who was born in New York, January 19, 1838. and was six years old when brought to Ohio by her parents, and eleven years old when she came to Milan Township, where she became a school- mate and neighbor of Mr. Tucker. She has been a devoted wife and much of Mr. Tucker's success he attributes to her assistance, advice and good management. Mrs. Tucker is a daughter of John and Sarah ( Wilcox ) Rockwell, natives of Connecticut, of an honored New England Family. As young people they moved to New York, and then to Erie County, Ohio, where Mrs. Rockwell died in Oxford Township, aged seventy-two years, while Mr. Rockwell died at Milan when past his eighty-fifth birthday.
To Mr. and Mrs. Tucker there have been born the following children : Henry, who is a prosperous farmer of Milan Township, is married and has six living daughters, of whom four are married, while one son and one daughter died young; Charley, a widower without children, who resides with his parents; Glenn, who is operating the homestead property, married Lula Snyder, of Milan Township; B. Frank, who is a bachelor and lives on his farm at Hartland, Iluron County, Ohio.
Mr. Tucker has been a lifelong republican, his first presidential vote having been east for John C. Fremont. Ile has been content to be a voter rather than an office seeker, but has taken a keen interest in the success of his party's candidates and policies and has always given the Grand Old Party his warmest support. Mr. Tucker has been a diligent, energetic and industrious farmer, and in all the privations, hardships and difficulties ineident to the life of the early settlers manifested that resolution, patience and perseverance that enabled him to contribute his Full share toward the development of Erie County, of which, for eighty years, he has been a representative and highly esteemed citizen.
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