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 86
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The Hoover Manufacturing Company, of which Mr. Hoover is presi- deut and treasurer, has served to give a name and prestige to the little Village of Avery, in which it is not only the largest institution but also the chief source of livelihood to the inhabitants. This company now makes thousands of potato digging machines every year, and its sales are made in practically every country that grows potatoes. Mr. Iloover patented his machine in April, 1885. After getting his patent, he took none of the means so frequently employed to exploit his invention, but proceeded quietly, and his industry has been a growth more than a sudden creation. At first he intended his machine only for use in his own fields, and the first year manufactured only one. It did the work which he expected, and in the following year he made ten machines, all of which were marketed in Erie County. The third year the output of his shop was fifty machines, and from that time the business has been increasing almost every year, and is now the largest industry of its kind in the United States and one of the most important considered from any point of view in Northern Ohio. At the present time about 5.000 machines represent the output each year. an average of nearly twenty for every working day. These machines are shipped and sold to every civilized country. The great plant covers fully four acres of ground at Avery. Avery is a small station located in Milan Township on the Nickel Plate Railroad, and the machinery goes out frequently in carload lots from that station. From 75 to 100 employes find their chief source of livelihood in these shops.
Erie County may take pride in the fact that Mr. Hoover is a native son. IIe was born near Sand Hill in Groton Township, January 3, 1845. and grew up in that locality and gained a practical education in the local schools. About forty years ago he moved into Milan Township,
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and there became a practical farmer, but was soon developing the potato crop as his specialty. Ile inherited some considerable degree of mechani- cal ability from his father, and he exercised this faculty in producing his first potato digger, and from that has built up the great business already described.
Ilis parents were John and Elizabeth ( Woolverton ) Hoover, both of whom were born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania. The lloovers were of Holland ancestry, while the Woolvertons were New England Yankees. Both John Iloover and wife came to Erie County when young people, and were married in Groton Township. John Iloover was a stone mason by trade, having learned that vocation in Pennsylvania, and in Erie County was employed in the construction of a large number of houses in his time. In 1849, with perhaps half a dozen other friends and neighbors, he made the trip across the plains to California. His purpose in going West was inspired by a love of adventure and a desire to see the country rather than primarily as a gold seeker. Hle spent a year on the golden shores of California, and altogether was absent from Erie County eighteen months. After many interesting experienees in the West he returned by way of the Isthmus of Panama, and then settled on his farm in Oxford Township of Erie County. Living there until 1875 he removed to Bushnell, Illinois, where his brother Joseph Hoover was living at that time. Mrs. John lloover clied at Bushnell in 1891, when about seventy-five years of age. Soon afterward the father returned to live with his son Isaac in Milan Town- ship and also spent part of his time with his daughter, Mrs. A. H. Prout, then a resident of Oxford Township, but now of Cleveland. John Hoover passed away in this county in 1905 at the age of ninety-two. He was a democrat in politics, and while not interested in offices was always progressive and public spirited, and enjoyed the reputation among his fellow townsmen for industry and most sernpulous integrity. Besides the two children already mentioned there were two other sons. Louis V. now lives in the vicinity of San Diego, California, where he is a fruit grower and also has interests in the city, and has a family about him. George, who lives in Alberta, Canada, owns more than two sections of land there, devoted to stock ranching, and is married and has sons and daughters.
After leaving the old home Isaae W. Hoover took up farming in Oxford Township, also lived in Huron County for a time, and in 1875 established his permanent home in Milan Township. There he bought seventy-four acres of land, and was soon numbered among the extensive potato raisers, an industry which has long flourished in that section of the county. Mr. Hoover is now one of the largest land holders in Milan Township. His lands are divided into four large farms, each one sup- plied with a complete set of farm buildings, Ilis total acreage in Milan Township is nearly 700. and all of it is highly improved land, and pro- during besides potatoes all the staple eereals.
Mr. Hoover is also a director in the Farmers & Citizens Bank of Milan, of which his son Arthur L. is president and director. This bank has a capital of $25,000 and is a well managed and solid institution. Mr. Hoover is also a director in the Huron County Bank of Norwalk. In politics both he and his son are democrats.
In Oxford Township Mr. Hoover married Miss H. Jane Bear. She was born in that township in 1846, a daughter of Hiram and Abigail ( Kelly) Bear, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania and came to Erie County about the same time as the Woolverton family. Mr. Bear died in 1860 in middle life, having been born December 24. 1819. His widow survived him many years and passed away at the home of her daughter Mrs. Hoover April 18, 1900. She was born April 20, 1817. and
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at the time of her death was eighty-three years of age. Mrs. Hoover's parents were members of the Baptist Church, and in politics her father was a democrat. Mrs. Iloover was one of a family of six daughters and two sons, seven of whom married, and all are now deceased except Mrs. Hoover and Susan 1., wife of George Laws of Oxford Township.
There are three children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover. Marian, born June 21, 1868, is the wife of Harry Mason, a farmier and sand dealer at Avery, and their children are Leonis, deceased, and Lloyd J., Grace D., Harry N., Donald M., and Merle M., whose twin brother Max L. died when nine months of age.
Arthur L. Hoover, the only son of Isaac W., was born November 23, 1871. He was well educated, attending besides the local schools the Milan Normal and the Sandusky Business College. He is now secretary of the Hoover Manufacturing Company. One other officer of this com- pany is William F. Olemacher, vice president. Arthur L. Hoover was married October 11, 1898, to Harriet Woolverton. Their children are named Margaret, Fay and Mary Jane.
Helen Grace, the third child of Isaac W. and Mrs. Hoover, was born March 13, 1876. She attended schools at Milan, but graduated from the Art School at Cleveland and is now the wife of Dr. Ralph E. Garnhart, who is a graduate of medicine and is in active practice at Milan; they have a daughter named Eleanor Louise. Mr. and Mrs. Hoover are Baptists, though they attend the Methodist Episcopal Church at Milan. He is affiliated with the Lodge and Chapter of Masonry at Milan, with the Council and Knight Templar Commandery at Norwalk, and the son Arthur is affiliated with the same branches of the order, has gone through the chairs of the lodge at Milan and is past high priest of the Royal Arch Chapter. Both Mr. Hoover and his son have employed their ample means for the development of the community in which they live. They have constructed two magnificent homes at Avery, and these homes represent not only the most modern type of architecture but also combine the beauties of effective landscape gardening, and each one is numbered among the choicest country estates in Erie County. Their homes are surrounded by large grounds, with beautiful lawns and drives and foliage of all kinds, and their garages are well supplied with some of the finest cars manufactured.
FREDERICK J. OLEMACHER. Nearly thirty years ago Frederick J. Ole- macher came to the United States a young man without experience in American ways, with no capital, and with willing hands and a steadfast ambition and purpose started to build his own fortune. His success has been such that he is now accounted one of the largest land owners and farmers in Milan Township, and has surrounded himself with those things which constitute real and substantial success in the world.
He is a native of Germany, born in Hessen, October 18, 1841, a son of Daniel and Dorothy (Sauer) Olemacher. They were born at Bursch Walbaugh, in Hessen. His father was of old German ancestry, and through all the generations they had been largely shepherds. The Ole- macher family was of hardy and long lived stock, and Mr. Olemacher's grandparents were respectively seventy-five and seventy-three years of age when they died. Daniel Olemacher himself became an expert shep- herd and for many years tended his flock among the hills of his native locality in Germany. His first wife, Miss Sauer, died when her son Fred- erick was twelve years of age, being survived by seven children, two sons and five daughters. Daniel later married Henrietta Mitz, of the same locality. The children of Daniel who first came to the United States, preceding the rest of the family, were Phillippa. Carolina and Philip, all of whom located in Erie County, married there, and are now
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(leccased, though their descendants are still found in this and other parts of the country. In 1886 Daniel Olemacher and his second wife with their four children and with the children of his first marriage who had not already immigrated, set out for the United States on a sailing vessel from Hamburg, and after thirty-two days of a rough passage landed in New York City. The family came on to Monroeville in Huron County, and they soon found employment in different occupations. The first work performed by Frederick J. Olemacher and his father was in shearing sheep at 10 cents per head. At that time they considered it marvelous if they could earn as much money in a single day as they had been accustomed to get after a week of labor in Germany. Daniel Ole- maeher spent the rest of his days at Monroeville, where he died April 15, 1893, at the age of eighty-three. His widow passed away Septem- ber 12, 1912, aged eighty-seven. They were both of the German Re- formed Church, and he was a democrat. Frederick J. Olemacher has one sister still living, Nettie, the wife of Philip Detrich of Bryan, Ohio. IIe also has three half-sisters living in Erie County.
Ilis early training was that of a shepherd boy on the hills of his native country, supplemented with the usual education given to German youth, and he was also obliged to serve the regular three years in the Germany army. He had just about finished his term as a soldier when he made it convenient to come to this country with his parents. After arriving in America Mr. Olemacher depended upon hard work and keeping everlastingly at it in order to make progress. Ile rapidly adapted himself to the new conditions imposed by a strange land, strange language and strange customs, and out of his earnings accumulated enough in a few years to enable him to make his first purchase of land. This was 100 aeres in Milan Township, on one of the prominent high- ways, and when he took possession much of the land was still unbroken and unimproved. To the management of this property he gave the same energetic handling which has been characteristic of him in all his undertakings, and soon had a fine and valuable farm. Upon it he has erected two fine barns. one 35x66 and the other 25x50 feet. Ilis home is a model place for a country residence, and the large white house contains twelve rooms. He has made himself an expert in the growing of the staple crops of eorn, wheat and oats, and there has been no lapse or diminution in his steady advance to greater prosperity. In the years sinee his first purchase Mr. Olemacher bought 175 acres in Huron Town- ship, which he gave to his son Adolph. He also owns 133 aeres at Spears Corners, and this is now owned and occupied by his son, Henry H. Another sixty acres which he formerly owned belong now to his son William, near Avery in Milan Township. Another son. Fred. has received through the assistance of his father seventy aeres in Milan Township, and this place is also near Avery. His son Elmer is still at home, an active assistant to his father, and is the prospective heir to the homestead. All the other four sons are married and have children of their own. Mr. Olemacher also has four daughters: Minnie, wife of Jacob Crecelius, a sketch of whom will be found on other pages : Mary, wife of Herman Crecelius, another successful farmer of Oxford Town- ship; Louise, wife of Henry Schaffer, who is foreman with the Hoover Manufacturing Company at Avery: and Lillian, who, like the other daughters, is very well educated, is still unmarried and living at home.
Mr. Olemacher's first wife was Minnie Lewis, a native of Germany. by whom the first children were born, and there are two children by the present wife. The mother of the younger children of Mr. Ole- macher bore the maiden name of Catherine P. Selinee. She was born in Oxford Township, March 16, 1864, and was reared at Bloomingville. Ohio. Her parents were William and Christina (Schaffer Schnee,
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both of whom were born in the Province of Hessen, Germany, coming to the United States when young people, locating in Oxford Township. where they met and married. They started out as farmers, and in 1870 the mother of Mrs. Olemacher died at the age of thirty-four. Mr. Sehnee married for his second wife Mrs. Elizabeth ( Tessue) Schaffer. They reared a family of five children, while Mr. Schnee by his first marriage had seven children, and his wife by her first union was the mother of eight children. Mr. Schnee died February 25, 1905, at the age of sixty-five, and his second wife passed away March 17, 1915. All these families are German Reformed Church people. That is the church which Mr. and Mrs. Olemacher attend, and in polities he is a democrat.
EDWARD S. STEPHENS. On the basis of a very ereditable record and service Edward S. Stephens has for a number of years been recognized as one of the leaders of the Erie County bar. His success came from his own efforts, and he has always measured results by the highest ideals of professional and personal integrity.
Born at- Bogart, Erie County, February 2, 1869, he is the son of Isaiah S. and Mary Ann (Desoe) Stephens. He was reared in the coun- try on a farm, attended the district schools, the private school at Milan, and the Ohio Northern University at Ada. Part of his edueation was won through opportunities gained by his own earnings and hard work, either as farm hand or teacher. For seven years he taught in public schools and at the same time carried on his studies for the law. lle was admitted to the bar in 1897, and has since had his home and office in Sandusky. Mr. Stephens made a specially creditable record as referee in bankruptcy, an office he filled from 1900 to 1906. He left that office to become prosecuting attorney, and his term of service was from 1907 to 1911. Since then he has enjoyed a large private practice as a member of the Sandusky bar.
On March 6, 1910, Mr. Stephens married Emeline Blancke. Fra- ternally he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias.
JAMES S. SANDS. IIere is a name that reealls many interesting asso- eiations with early history in Erie and Huron counties. Mr. Sands has spent nearly all his life in Milan Township and is the proprietor of a fine farm in that locality. Mrs. Sands as well as himself is closely con- neeted with the pioneer stoek in this section of Ohio and their own industrious lives have been in keeping with the many respectable tradi- tions connected with their names.
It was in the immediate vicinity of his present home that James S. Sands was born, December 24, 1857. His birthplace was originally known as part of the old Abbott tract, and later as the Sands homestead. His father's farm was the site which still has great historie interest to both Huron and Erie counties, where the first courthouse and the first jail were located as the county seat of the original Huron County. That was before the setting off of Erie County as a separate jurisdiction in 1833. At the present time there is not a vestige remaining of the old county seat. The lands have been cleared off and used for agricultural purposes, and there can hardly be found a stick or stone to indicate the publie buildings which onee stood there. Even the old well which sup- plied water has long since been filled up. The associations of this old locality are of particular interest to the Sands family, and Mr. Sands' grandmother, Naney Laughlin, was as a girl employed in the old Huron County jail, and while living there she married Grandfather William Sands, becoming the mother of William Sands, Jr., father of James S. The many details concerning the membership of the Sands family and
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its early associations with Erie County can be found on other pages in the sketch of George M. Sands.
James S. Sands was reared and educated in Milan Township, attended the district schools near his home, and was also at one time a student under Mrs. Palmer at Milan, one of the noted early teachers of the county. Adopting the vocation which has been that usually followed by other members of the family, Mr. Sands after reaching manhood became the owner of eighty aeres of his father's large farm, and still has that property. Thirty-two years ago, in 1883, he bought the farm on which he now has his home, comprising sixty-five aeres, on the Milan Road two miles from the old homestead. This was formerly the old Captain Minuse Farm. Ilis enterprise and his diligence have resulted in many striking improvements at his farm, including the erection of a comfort- able eleven-room white house, modern in all its equipment and arrange- ment. There are also a number of barns and sheds for the care of his stock, implements and farm products, the principal barn standing on a foundation 30 by 60 feet. Mr. Sands is a first class business farmer, and makes most of his money as a stock raiser.
IIe is also regarded as one of the leading men of affairs in his seetion of the county. He has long been one of the leaders in the local republi- ean party and for several years held the office of township trustee. Few residents of the county have gone further in the work and rites of the Ancient Order of Masonry than Mr. Sands. He belongs to both the York and Scottish Rite, having taken thirty-two degrees in the latter. IIe is a member of Zenobia Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Toledo, is affiliated with Norwalk Council and Commandery, and with the Blue Lodge and Royal Arch Chapter at Milan. He is past master of his lodge and at present is high priest in the chapter.
In 1881 Mr. Sands was married in Berlin Township to Miss Lavina Jenkins. She was born in Berlin Heights, March 13, 1863, was carefully reared and educated and for thirty-four years since her marriage has proved a devoted wife and a kind and loving mother in her family. She comes of a sound old English ancestry, originating in Lincolnshire. Toward the close of the eighteenth century her great-grandfather immi- grated to America. His name was Henry Jenkins, and he died at the age of 103 years. It is not known definitely that he was married when he came across the ocean, but his wife's Christian name was Rachel, her surname being unknown. Among the relatives of the family in England there is still a dispute carried on by litigation in chancery courts over the large estate. It is perhaps to be regretted that a more careful record of the family on the American side was not kept, since such a record might prove the means of sharing in the ultimate disposal of this Eng- lish property. Henry Jenkins settled in New Jersey, where his son William was born, who, in turn, had a son James, the father of Mrs. Sands. James Jenkins settled among the Lower Catskill Mountains in Dutchess County, New York. That was then a wilderness, and around his early home the woods were made frightful by the howling of wild beasts. Mrs. Sands' father, James, often related to her incidents of his early boyhood, and partienlarly of being chased home by the screaming of wild cats when he was rounding up the cows from the commons where they grazed. The grandfather, William Jenkins and wife, Saloma Goetchens, who was an English girl born in the vicinity of Lincolnshire. reared their family in Dutchess County. He died in April in the year 1853, aged seventy-two, his wife having passed away in March, 1844, aged sixty years. He was a farmer and miller, and was a man of no little distinction among the early settlers.
Their son James, father of Mrs. Sands, was born in 1803 and grew up amid the rugged scenery of Dutchess County. Before he was twenty
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years of age he married in 1824 a neighbor girl, Dorcas Ayers, who died in 1844. Through one branch of her ancestry she was descended from Holland Dutch people. Not long after the solemn compact which made them man and wife, James Jenkins and bride, with the ambition for gaining a home which inspired the migration of so many people at that time, set out for the new and growing west. They established themselves on a large traet of land along the east line of what is now Milan Town- ship, and not very far from where the first log jail and courthouse had been located as the seat of justice for the original Huron County, that being about ten years before Erie County was established. Here Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins as young people of hope and energy started life on a pioneer farm. Mrs. Jenkins was a well educated woman, and for a number of years was the principal teacher of the young children at the Laughlin Corners. She died there in 1844, and her only child, Emma, had died in infancy. This sudden breaking up of his home almost dis- couraged Mr. Jenkins, and that event and also the unhealthy conditions which prevailed at that time in the swampy district of his home caused him to sell out his property in Erie County and return to New York State. There he was married in 1848 at Poughkeepsie to Aun Eliza (Barnhart ) Bennett, widow of Charles Bennett. She was born in the Catskill region of New York, October 26, 1823, and was of German and French parentage. She grew up and learned the trade of dressmaker, which she followed in Poughkeepsie until her marriage. Not long after- wards James Jenkins and wife came West and located in Berlin Town- ship, where he became one of the prosperous farmers and lived there until his death on December 19, 1881. His widow survived until April 1, 1914, and she died at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Sands. She was a lifelong consistent member of the Methodist Church, while her husband was a Presbyterian. In the Jenkins family were the following children : Anna E., who died unmarried at the age of twenty-three; Dorcas, who died after her marriage to Clarence Saunders, leaving sev- eral children; Charles, who is married, has four children and lives at Cleveland ; Leman, who is a hardware merchant at Berlin Heights and has five sons and one daughter; Sarah Jane married L. B. Austin and lives at Elyria and has a family : Lambert lives at Los Angeles and is married ; Lavina ( Mrs. Sands) and Moses James of Berlin Heights, Ohio.
Mr. and Mrs. Sands have a son and a daughter. Roy M., born June 23, 1884, was graduated from college with the degree of civil engineer in the class of 1906, and has been very successful as a bridge builder and superintendent of cement construction for a firm of Toledo contractors. The daughter, Forrest E., born October 13, 1885, was a graduated bach- elor of science in 1910 from the State University of Columbus, has since specialized in a domestic science course, and is now a teacher of that department, much of her work having been done in Erie County.
SAMUEL MI. WINTON. The Winton family of Berlin Heights, probably have as many interesting associations with the early settlement and the early families of Erie County as any of the representatives of pioneer stock that can still be found in this region. The Wintons have lived in this part of Northern Ohio upwards of ninety years, while Mrs. Winton's family was settled here more than a century ago.
Samuel M. Winton is of Scotch ancestry, though the name has been identified with this country for several generations. His parents were Montville and Charlotta (Barnes) Winton, both of whom were natives of Lorain County, Ohio, and both of Connecticut families. Both Winton and Barnes families came to Northern Ohio during the early '20s, when all the country was little more than a wilderness. The Wintons settled in Vermilion Township of Erie County, while the Barnes family
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