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 97
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He was born in the Village of Vermilion in June, 1861, and lived in town until twelve years of age. In 1872 he went with the family to a farm five miles southwest of Vermilion, situated on the Barton Ridge Road. There he grew to manhood, completed his education in the district schools, and kept his home there until about two years ago, when he located on his present place of fourteen acres, comprising a fruit farm, also on the Barton Ridge Road. Since taking possession of this place Mr. Meyer has rebuilt an old house into a modern six-room residence, with cement basement, heated by hot air furnace, and with all the improvements and facilities that make life comfortable. He has good farm buildings and grows large quantities of fruits, including apples, cherries, peaches and much small fruit. He is a man of good judgment, is a skillful operator in fruit culture, and has the reputation among his neighbors of doing well whatever he undertakes. Mr. Meyer has never married.
Ilis parents were John P. and Anna (. ( Morris) Meyer. His father was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1822. After gaining a common school education he entered the German army when about eighteen. served five years, and was still a young man, about twenty-three, when he came to the United States. He crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel. and soon after landing came west as far as Erie County. In Vermilion Township he found employment on a farm, also worked in the Furnace at Furnace Corners, a short distance south of Vermilion Village, and and still later was employed as a section man on the Lake Shore Rail- road. That was his varied line of work up to 1872. In that year he moved to the Bartow Ridge Road, bought eighty acres of land. increased it by another ten acres, and by hard work and intelligent management pursued agriculture on a profitable scale so that his last years were spent in plenty and comfort. Hle died January 28, 1911, when in
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his eighty-ninth year. He retained his faculties almost to the end. As a child he had been confirmed in the German Reform Church. His wife passed away May 15, 1910, and she was born in 1831. Her birth- place was Kurhessen, Germany, and having lost her father when she was a child she came with her mother and brothers to this country and to Vermilion Township when she was eleven or twelve years of age. Iler mother married for her second husband John Roeder and they lived out their lives in Erie County.
Mr. George Meyer was one of a family of nine children. The five now living include George, the oldest; Nicholas, who has never married and is living on a farm in Vermilion Township; Mary, widow of J. S. King, lives near Ogontz and has a daughter Marguerite; Anna is the wife of Elmer Wasem of Ogontz, and they have children named Charles, Lucile, Paul and Edith; Elizabeth lives with her brother George and is a woman of thorough education, and has taught for one year in the State of California and Erie County, Ohio, and is now a teacher in the fifth grade in Vermilion Village. Mr. George Meyer is a democrat in politics. While always busy with his farm work, he has shown an intelligent interest and publie spirited disposition to help forward any publie improvement in his home community.
CHARLES S. BRISTOL. The Township of Vermilion has some very fine farms and some very wide awake and enterprising farmers. One of the first to be mentioned among these is Charles S. Bristol, who looks after an estate of 177 aeres near Axtel on the old Butler State Road. He devotes his time to general farming purposes, the raising of good stock, and the growing of fruit, chiefly apples. While his farming enterprise is conducted on a considerable scale, less than half of his land is thoroughly improved, but that part would bear favorable eom- parison with any of the improved lands in this section of the state. He uses first class business principles and energy in his work, and grows all the staple field erops and fruits, a considerable part of his revenue coming from the stock he raises.
For about twenty-six years Mr. Bristol has ocenpied this farm and has owned it since 1893. It was the property of his father for fourteen years previous to that. Under his own direction Mr. Bristol has di- rected the improvements and the eultivation, and the building equip- ment all represents his work and investment. He and his family oc- cupy a substantial and comfortable nine-room house, surrounded with good barn buildings.
Charles S. Bristol was born in Birmingham, Erie County, October 26, 1859. Ile grew up and received his education in that locality, and for ten years of his early life lived in Henrietta Township of Lorain County. His father also owns a farm there. From Lorain County he came to his present location in Erie County, and there is no resident of Vermilion Township who enjoys higher respect than Charles S. Bristol.
ITis parents were Charles A. and Charlotte (Dennison) Bristol, both of whom were natives of New York State. They came from Ithaca, New York, when young people and were married in Lorain County. After their marriage they first located on a thirteen acre farm. To this the father added from time to time until he had 150 acres of fine land. On that old homestead were born children named Jane, Aliee, Alva, Emma and Edith. In 1858 or 1859 the family moved from Lorain Connty to Birmingham, where Charles A. Bristol bought sixty-two acres. Out of this land four or five acres were set aside for cemetery and Methodist Church purposes. The farm had originally been owned by Clinton Ennis and Mr. Bristol bought it from that owner.
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This was the scene where the parents spent their last days. Charles A. Bristol died in 1901 at the age of eighty-two, while his wife had passed away about a dozen years before, being then three seore and ten years of age. Both were members and -aetive supporters of the Methodist Episcopal Church, while in politics the father was a whig and afterwards a republican, and the confidence felt in him by his fellow citizens was manifested by their choice of his services for various local offices. He and his wife were sturdy workers, people of the highest character, and as the result of many years of effort they secured and improved the greater part of three different farms. As already stated, the father owned the farm on which his son, Charles S., now' lives, and had first bought it in 1875, though he never occupied it as a place of residence. Both Charles S. Bristol and his brother William were born in Erie County. There are three sisters also still living, Alice who married George Blanden, and Edith and Emma, who were never married.
Charles S. Bristol was married in Florenee Township to Hannah M. Hamann. She was born in Louisville, Kentucky, August 19, 1857, and was a young girl when brought to Erie County by her parents, Henry and Martha (Grepps) Hamann. Her parents were both natives of Hesse, Germany, came when young people to America and met and married at Louisville, Kentucky. Mrs. Bristol's father died at Birm- ingham in 1896 at the age of sixty-nine. He was a democrat in politics. HIis wife has sinee twice married and is again a widow and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Libby Huffman in Clyde, Ohio. The Hamann family had membership in the German Methodist Church. Mrs. Bristol is one of the older in a family of ten daughters and three sons, as follows: Catherine, Carrie, Sophia, Mary, Margaret, Libbie, John, William, Leibert and Hannah and three that are dead. Those still living are all married.
Mr. and Mrs. Bristol have created an excellent home and have sur- rounded themselves with children, most of whom have already taken their independent stations in the world of activities. There were seven children born to their union : Emma is the wife of William Noble, living at Cleveland, and they have a son Carlton. Bertha Annetta was reared and educated in Vermilion Township and is still living at home. Cora B. is the wife of Charles Heidrich, and they are farmers in Hen- rietta township of Lorain County. Charles A. lives at home and assists his father in farming. Ethel L., who like the other children was edu- cated in the publie schools, remains at home. Ray E. is connected with the implement business at the Village of Vermilion. Ira D. is now attending the high school at Birmingham. The family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church and politically Mr. Bristol is a republican.
CHARLES D. PALMER. Although a native of Michigan, Mr. Palmer has been a resident of Erie County since childhood days, and has made for himself a successful and honored position as a farmer and stock grower in Vermilion Township, and is recognized as an alert, loyal and public spirited citizen. Ilis attractive and valuable home- stead of sixty acres is located near Axtel. The land is exceedingly fertile and highly improved, and under his management has been made to grow all the staple erops in abundant quantities, and he also pays much attention to the better grades of live stock. The buildings are in good condition, ineluding a house, barn and other outbuild- ings. This has been the home of Mr. Pahner and the scene of his best activities for the past thirteen years.
Born in Cass County, Michigan, May 1, 1865, he lived there until eight years of age, but has since been a resident of Erie County, where
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he grew to manhood and gained his education in Vermilion township. His father, Daniel Palmer, was born in Michigan. Daniel Palmer still lives in Michigan, is a hardware merchant at Mareellas, and by a second marriage has several children. Charles D. Palmer's mother was born in Vermilion Township near Axtel in 1841. She was reared and educated there and after her marriage went to Michigan. Seven years after she returned to Erie County with her son Charles she married Shepherd B. Grover of Vermilion Township. Mr. Grover was a sub- stantial farmer and died in that community in 1905, when nearly eighty years of age. During the Civil war he was in the Union serviee as an employe in the Government Navy Yard at Philadelphia. While there he learned the trade of ship carpenter, and this furnished him a vocation which he pursued during all his active years. He helped to build the Golden Age at the Fries Shipyard near Milan. The Golden Age was a noted old time boat on Lake Erie, and at one time the largest vessel on that body of water.
Mr. Palmer's mother before her marriage was Miss Louise Champ- ney. She died in 1898, having for many years been identified with the Adventist Church at Axtel. Her father was Francis Champney of an old and honored family of pioneers in Vermilion Township, where he spent practically all the years of his life. Charles D. Palmer has a half- sister living, Edith Ann, who married IIarley Clawson, and they live on the old Grover home in Vermilion Township near Axtel, and have a son Grover Clawson.
When he established a home of his own Charles D. Palmer selected as his wife and companion Miss Adda E. Heyman. They were mar- ried in Vermilion Township, and Mrs. Palmer was born near Axtel October 16, 1881. All her early years were spent near her birthplace. Her parents were Adolph and Aliee (Dean) Heyman, the former of German parentage and the latter of English. Her parents spent all their lives in Ohio and largely in Vermilion Township. IIer father died March 21, 1902, at the age of forty-three, while Mrs. Heyman is still living and was fifty-five years of age on December 3, 1915. She makes her home in Elyria, Ohio, with her daughter, Bertha Regal, wife of James E. Regal. Mr. and Mrs. Regal have one daughter, Ethel. Mrs. Palmer has one brother, a twin of herself, Alva B., who married Gertrude Diekel, and they have five children, Irma, Aliee, Harvey, Martha and Alva W., Jr.
Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Palmer: Cora A., born December 31, 1900, is now attending the Vermilion High School ; Louis A. died at the age of three months; Dean Heyman was born March 27, 1906, and is in the fourth grade of the publie schools; Arnold F. was born June 27, 1910. Mrs. Palmer is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Palmer takes considerable interest in demo- cratie polities but is especially known as a good eitizen in favor of every local improvement.
JOHN A. CROLL. Hard work has been the keynote of the success of John A. Croll of Vermilion Township. When he was abont eighteen years of age he eame with the rest of the family from his native fatherland to Northern Ohio. A few years later he assumed inde- pendent responsibilities and started out to make his own fortune. There were handieaps in the way of laek of knowledge of language and enstoms, but he overeame them all, and by persistent industry has attained praetieally all his worthy ambitions. He now has a fine farm, has a comfortable and good home, a devoted wife and children, and is pointed out in his locality as a very successful and much esteemed eitizen.
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He was born in Hesse, Germany, fifty miles from Hesse Cassel May 9, 1866. Ilis parents were Elijah and Barbara Elizabeth (Reidash) Croll, natives of the same province and of old German lineage. There were just two children in the family, and Mr. Croll's brother is Conrad Croll, a farmer of Iluron Township, in Erie County. Conrad married Carrie, daughter of Andrew Houtenlocker. They have a daughter Alta, now fifteen years of age and a student in the high school at Sandusky.
In Germany the family lived according to the simple standards of the time and their community. The boys attended school and were taught to be honest and industrious. In 1884 this little household embarked on the ocean liner Suabia at Hamburg and landed in New York City on the 31st of July the same year. From there they came on west to Brownhelm Township in Lorain County. Here the father had little time to fortify his family against the future since he died four years later in 1888 and was buried on the 29th of July. He was then about fifty-three years of age. His widow is still living and makes her home with her son John and is seventy-four years of age and quite enfeebled by years. Both she and her husband were members of the Reformed Church.
After coming to this country Jolin A. Croll lived in Lorain County until he was twenty-three and then moved to Vermilion Township. HIere he secured the opportunity of working a tract of land on the shares, and continued that plan of operation for several years. He raised large erops, disposed of them to advantage, and soon had a little capital besides the credit that naturally goes with such self reliant industry. He invested his money in a farm near the lake shore, and conducted it for eleven years before he sold out in 1906 and bought his present place, which is near Axtel on the Harmony Ridge Road.
Mr. Croll's farm comprises 150 acres of fine land. It will grow all the staple crops and his fields have never failed to respond to his in- telligent cultivation. He has an excellent assortment of farm buildings and improvements. The principal barn is on a foundation 36x60 feet, and attached to it is another barn 24x90 feet, especially adapted for the care of stock. fle also has houses for his hogs, a shed for wheat, a tool house, eorn crib and practically everything needed for the hous- ing and care of stock and grain. Some special word of commendation should be paid to his home surroundings. The ten-room house sits on a large lawn surrounded with abundance of shade, and while Mr. Croll does not pose as a landscape gardener he has wrought some exceed- ingly attractive effects around his house, and it is a very inviting place both outside and in. Besides his general farm enterprise he grows considerable fruit.
In this township which has been the scene of his successful work as a farmer, Mr. Croll married Miss Anna E. Knitel. She was born in this township February 10. 1867, and grew up and received her education in the same locality. Her parents were Jacob and Susanna ( Altmiller) Knitel, both of whom were born in Hesse, Germany, were married there, and some time during the decade of the '50s they crossed the ocean and established a new home in Vermilion Township of Erie County. They continued to live on their farm, which they improved from year to year, and their last years were spent in a comfortable good home and with plenty for all their needs. Her father died at the age of sixty-one and her mother at seventy-eight. They were members of the Reformed Church and Mr. Knitel was a democrat. Mrs. Croll was one of a family of six, four sons and two daughters and all are living except one daughter and all married and have children of their own.
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The household of Mr. and Mrs. Croll has been blessed by the birth of six children. Jacob K., born September 20, 1892, was educated in the public schools, is still unmarried and has done something to show his own enterprise as a farmer. Carl, born February 15, 1894, has also completed his education in the local schools and is still at home. William, born July 16, 1896, has finished his school work and is lending a helpful hand about the home farm. Albert, born March 8, 1899, has finished the local school course. IIenry, born November 15, 1901, is now in the eighth grade of the public schools. Mary A., born Novem- ber 9, 1903, is also in the eighth grade of school. Mr. and Mrs. Croll and family are members of the Reformed Church at Vermilion, while in politics Mr. Croll and his grown son exercise a judicious care in select- ing the best candidate irrespective of party.
LUCIUS S. ILARRISON. If a man may be judged by those aceumu- lations which reward his business enterprise and by the esteem which he enjoys from his community, there is no question of the position ocenpied by Lucius S. Harrison in Vermilion Township. As a farmer he has done more than well. At the present time he is proprietor of two high grade farms. One of these, on which he lives, contains fifty- six acres of highly improved land, and the conspicuons feature of it is a fine peach orchard. 500 bearing trees, and in the average season they produce many hundreds of bushels of this fine fruit. His other farm is in Florence Township, and also contains fifty-six acres. It has been brought to a high state of cultivation also. The keynote of Mr. Harrison's farming activities has been progressiveness, and he has made a business success without sacrificing any of those genial and generous characteristics which are his personal endowment.
It was on a farm in Florence township of Erie County that Lucius S. Harrison was born on January 17, 1854, a son of Thomas and Ruth A. (Iline) Harrison. His mother was a member of one of the very early pioneer families of Erie County. She was born in Florence Township July 18, 1822. Erie County was a wilderness at that time and her parents were among the first who penetrated into that partic- ular section and made for themselves rude beginnings of agriculture and home life. She was reared and spent practically all her life in Florence Township, and died within a mile of her birthplace July 5, 1908. Thomas Harrison was born April 28, 1813, near Amsterdam, New York, and left that state at the age of twenty-one, going to Mich- igan, and in 1836 came to Erie County. Here he met Miss Hine, and a year later they were married and started out as farmers. Not long afterward the parents of Thomas Harrison, Philip and Catherine (Philips) Harrison, came also to Florence Township from New York State and here spent the rest of their days, passing away when quite old. The grandparents were aetive chureh members, and the grand- mother was particularly a leader in church affairs. After their mar- riage Thomas and wife settled on a farm two miles northwest of Birm- ingham. He was an industrious worker, was systematic and careful and condueted his farm so as to bring out of it the best results and in time he made a very comfortable home. On the old homestead he passed away on July 6. 1891, when in very advanced years. His wife was a member of the Congregational Church. In polities he was a republican, but made no effort to gain official position.
Lueins S. Harrison is the only surviving child of these parents. His sister Mary married Iliram Butman, and they lived and died' in Wiseonsin where their only child, Alice, is now living as a widow, with one son, Newton Burton. The other sister, Elizabeth, married William Bell, and she was born in 1856 and died in 1889, leaving two daughters :
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Ada, now the wife of Bert Myers of Milan; and Ora, wife of Ed Starr of Norwalk.
On the old homestead in Erie County Lucius S. Harrison spent his boyhood and early youth, He attended the local schools, and was well prepared by industrious discipline for the responsibilities of manhood when the time came. At the age of twenty-four he married in Ver- milion Township Miss Ella L. Williams. She was born in Vermilion Township September 26, 1857, and was educated in the school at Axtel. Her parents were Joel F. and Silvah (Humphrey) Williams, the former a native of New York State and the latter of Ohio. They were married in Sandusky, lived there a few years, and then moved to a farm in Vermilion Township where they spent many years. Mr. Williams, who was born June 1, 1827, and died March 6, 1885, was a moulder and engineer in early life, and after his marriage became a lake boat engineer, and followed that occupation until his death at his home in Axtel. He was well known, particularly in lake marine circles. His wife, who was born June 24, 1832, died February 28, 1907. Mr. Williams was a republican in politics. Two of Mrs. Harrison's brothers, Edward and Elmer Frank, died young, the former at three and the latter at ten years. Three other children, Eva, Frank E. and Edith, all died within a single week, strieken with diphtheria. Mrs. Harrison is now the only living member of her immediate family. In polities Mr. Ilarrison is a republican.
JOHN BROWN. The people of Milan Township frequently refer to John Brown as "a fine old Scotchman" and his residence in that eom- munity for more than forty years has been productive of nothing but good. Upon the typical Scotch characteristics of thrift, eandor and intelligence, he has gained by training the habits and morals of the industrious and upright business man, and possesses something akin to genins in the handling of a mechanical industry.
By occupation he is both a farmer and a wool carder. His home is not far from the Village of Milan and on the Ruggles Hill road. There he has lived sinee 1873, in which year he bought a yarn factory and spinning rolls for hand spinning. Business was largely carried on with somewhat primitive machinery and with little organization in the industry at that time, but many changes have sinee intervened, inelud- ing great business organizations known as trusts, and for some years Mr. Brown has confined his business to the carding of wool for eom- forters filling. Around his little plant he has an excellent farm of forty-two aeres, well improved with substantial buildings. His home is an eight-room house. Ile also owns some property on the Huron River near Milan, in the locality where his first woolen mills were located for some years. The high waters made it impossible to conduet his factory with water power, and he finally removed as much of the machinery as was needed to his farm half a mile distant.
A little more than seventy years ago, on June 2, 1845, John Brown was born on the east coast of Scotland near the North Sea. He came of an old line of Scoteh ancestry. Ilis parents were James and Isabella (Gray) Brown, who were also natives of Aberdeenshire and grew up and married and followed the voeation of farmers in that locality. The father died there in 1847 when only twenty-nine years of age. His widow subsequently married James Laws. With their children they came to the United States and to Erie County, and Mr. and Mrs. Laws spent the rest of their years in Oxford Township, where she died at the age of seventy-three, surviving by two years Mr. Laws, who passed away when nearly three score and ten. There were two sons reared to maturity by Mr. and Mrs. Laws, while John Brown was the third in a
John Brown
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family of four sons. All members of the family were strict Presby- teriaus. Mr. Brown's oldest brother Alexander lived for a number of years at Sandusky and died at North Attiea, Ohio, where he left sons and daughters surviving him. The second of the family was James Brown, Jr., who is now a farmer in Huron County, Ohio, near Fair- field, and has several sons and daughters. The youngest, David, has a small store for miscellaneous wares in Sandusky, and is also married and head of a family.
For the first twenty years of his life John Brown lived in his native shire in Scotland. Ile received a good training in the local schools, and applied himself to a rigid apprenticeship in the trades of weaver and wool carder. He was twenty years of age when in 1865 he came to the United States, and in a few days after landing at New York reached Sandusky. His first employment there was in a large woolen ntill. but a few years later he ventured his capital in an independent enterprise in Milan Township, and now for more than forty years has operated one of the few woolen factories in Northern Ohio.
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