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 99
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On landing at New York City Mr. Barnes gave up his charge and accompanied his family to Monroeville in Huron County. Here he earned a living for a time as an employe in a brewery. Later he went to a farm in Huron County, and for a number of years owned a small piece of land there. From there he moved to Berlin Township in Erie County, acquired a farm north of Berlin Heights, and on that he lived out the rest of his honest and industrious career, dying when past seventy-two years of age. His widow died four years later, and was about three score ten years of age. The children born to them after they came to the United States were: Betsy, who died leaving one son, David ; Garner, who is married and lives in Berlin Heights and has a son and two daughters; and Frank C .. the youngest of the family.
The latter lived at home, enjoyed its comforts, and attended school until thirteen. Since then he has been dependent on his own resources. lle has never been at a loss for an occupation, and has been steadily progressing toward a more substantial prosperity. For twenty-one years he was in the service of the Nickel Plate Railroad, in different depart- ments, part of the time in section work and he also looked after the rolling stock of the road to some extent. Finally leaving the railroad service he bought a small farm at Joppa Corners in Vermilion Township, and here he has since thriftily pursued his vocation as a farmer and fruit grower. Under his management his farm has returned him steady profits, and his neighbors regard him as well fixed in life and also look upon him as an honest Christian gentleman.
In Hudson, Michigan, Mr. Barnes married Miss Sarah Barnes, a cousin. She was born, reared and educated in Evansville, Indiana, a daughter of John Barnes, who was born in England and was a brother of the Frank Barnes already mentioned. After coming to America he took some extensive contraets in building canals. He married Sarah Ballou, who was born in Missouri. Both parents died a number of years ago.
Mrs. Barnes died January 16, 1908, at the age of fifty-three. She was the mother of five children: Vora, wife of Ed Larcher of Milan Township; Charles, who died at the age of eleven years: Maude, wife of Henry Baker of Ogontz, Berlin Township: Callie L., who lives at home; and Frank, who is a mechanie living at Elyria, Ohio.
SHERMAN E. SHOOP. By hard and successful work as a farmer, by good citizenship. by an influence steadily directed towards the better- ment of his own family and the community in which he lives, Sherman E. Shoop has played a worthy part in Vermilion Township, where he has spent practically his entire lifetime.
The old Shoop homestead in which he was born November 21, 1869, is located on the Joppa Road in Vermilion Township. He grew up in those surroundings, received his education in the public schools, and has spent all his life in Erie County with the exception of the two years from 1884 to 1886 when he was west in Iowa and Nebraska. Mr. Shoop has a fine farm of 108 acres mueh of it devoted to general farming purposes. but its special feature is the large vineyard of ten or fifteen acres. Its principal varieties are the Delawares and Ives. The grapes from the Shoop vineyard will meet the highest standards of viticulture along the Lake Erie shore, being particularly esteemed for their fine flavor and the large amount of sugar they contain. Mr. Shoop also has a pear orehard of 150 trees and a number of peach trees. Sinee he took possession of this land he has improved it in many ways. particularly in the way of buildings, has barns and sheds for his stock, grain and fruit, and has remodeled his home into a very comfortable and attractive
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eight-room residence. Ile is one of the practical fruit growers on the southern shore of Lake Erie.
Mr. Shoop was a very small boy when his grandparents died and he has only few memories of those worthy people, who were of Pennsylvania nativity. Mr. Shoop himself is a son of George and Sarah (Driver) Shoop, both of whom were born in Erie County and after their marriage located on what became known as the Shoop homestead on the Joppa Road. There George Shoop died March 21, 1882, at the age of forty- seven. Ilis widow is still living, and on February 26, 1915, she eele- brated her eighty-third birthday. She is now quite enfeebled with years, and she lives in the home of her son Sherman.
Sherman E. Shoop is the youngest of the three sons, all of whom are married and have homes of their own. Alvin lives at Joppa Corners in Erie County, while Simon lives in Missouri. Sherman E. Shoop was married at Joppa to Miss Della L. Driver. She was born in the State of Indiana, but when nine years of age came to Erie County and lived with her parents until her marriage. Her parents were Enoch and Amarilla (Minkler) Driver, both natives of Maryland and of English ancestry. They came as young people to Indiana and some years after their marriage moved to Ohio and settled in Vermilion Township of Erie County. Mr. Driver died there and his widow is now a third time a widow and is living with her children in the State of Washington, being about sixty-four years of age.
Mr. and Mrs. Shoop have two children. Grant Dewey, born October 2, 1899, finished the course of the eighth grade in the public schools in 1914 and is now assisting his father on the farm and in the vineyard. Myron was born March 16, 1911. In polities Mr. Shoop is a demoerat, and is serving as a member of the school board.
ANDREW E. BEECKEL. Successfully established in business at Ver- milion as a dealer in furniture and as a funeral director, Mr. Beeckel is a scion of one of the sterling pioneer families of Erie County, though he himself is a native of the State of Michigan. He is one of the repre- sentative business men and influential citizens of Vermilion, where he has served continuously as a member of the board of education since 1907 and where he is now serving his fourth consecutive year as presi- dent of the board, besides which his eivie loyalty is manifest in other directions also, especially through his active membership in the fire department of the thriving and vital little city.
Mr. Beeckel was born in Lenawee County, Michigan, on the 21st of October, 1870, and is a son of John and Catherine (Laubach) Beeckel, both of whom were born and reared in Erie County, Ohio, where their respective parents settled in the pioneer days, John Beeckel, Sr., grand- father of the subject of this review, having been one of the pioneer farmers in Milan Township and having emigrated to Ohio from his German fatherland.
John Beeekel, Jr., father of him to whom this sketch is dedicated, passed the closing period of his life in Michigan, where he died in the year 1876, when his son Andrew E. was a child of five years, the latter having been but nine years old when he accompanied his widowed mother on her return to her old home in Erie County. Here she estab- lished her residence at Vermilion, where she has passed the long inter- vening years and where Andrew E. was reared to maturity, his educa- tional advantages having been those afforded in the public schools of the village in which he is now serving most efficiently as president of the board of education. The mother of Mr. Beeckel celebrated her seventy-first birthday anniversary in 1915 and is one of the revered pioneer women of Erie County.
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From the early age of fourteen years Mr. Beeckel has been virtually dependent upon his own resources, and that he has made the passing years count well in achievement and worthy service on his part needs no further voucher than his standing as a business man and as an hon- ored and popular citizen of the county which has represented his home from his boyhood days. From a position of minor order in connection with business activities in Vermilion Mr. Beeckel made advancement through fidelity and effective service until he was able to initiate an independent business career. For eight years he was here one of the interested principals in the George Fischer Lumber Company, and in 1904 he sold his interest in the business of this corporation and estab- lished himself in business as an undertaker and as a dealer in furniture, both departments of his business being maintained at the best modern standard and his reputation as a thorough and straightforward business man constituting his best commercial asset.
Mr. Beeckel is essentially and vitally progressive and public-spirited, and his fellow citizens have had full appreciation of his eligibility for positions of distinctive trust, as evidenced by the faet that he is at the present time serving as treasurer of Vermilion Township and also as treasurer of the public schools of this township, of which latter office he has been the valued ineumbent for several years. Since 1909 he has held also the office of clerk of the board of public affairs of the Village of Ver- milion, and none could have been more earnest and liberal than he has been during his incumbeney of the position of the office of president of the Vermilion Board of Education. In national and state polities he gives support to the cause of the demoeratie party, but in local affairs he is not constrained by strict partisan lines. He and his wife hold mem- bership in the local Congregational Church and he is serving as a trustee of the same. In the volunteer fire department of Vermilion he has held various offices and has been active and influential in making the work and service effective. In a fraternal way Mr. Beeckel is affiliated with Ely Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, as well as with the local organiza- tions of the Knights of the Maceabees and the Modern Woodmen of America, the while he and his family are popular factors in the repre- sentative social activities of the community.
Mr. Beeckel married Miss Jennie Versoy, who was born in the City of Newark, New Jersey, and of their three children the first born, Myron E., is deceased, the two surviving children being Nelson A. and M. Lois.
ALMON J. LEE. Representing the fine old American stock that first peopled and settled this section of Northern Ohio, Almon J. Lee has for many years applied himself successfully to his chosen work as a farmer in Vermilion Township. With farming he has combined fruit growing. His work, thrift and industry have been well rewarded. His name is always spoken with due respect in the community where he spent most of his life, and his accomplishment and those of other members of the family well justify that this record should be printed in permanent form.
The Lee family came originally from Maryland. Mr. Lee's grand- father, Henry A. Lee, was born in the City of Baltimore, and was married there to Polly Driver. The children born to them in Baltimore were John, James and Thomas. Then in 1841 this little family set out upon the long journey to a new home in Ohio. They were people in modest eireum- stances, and all their worldly possessions were stowed upon a wagon drawn by a single horse. They went along the highways day after day before reaching their destination, and camped out by the wayside. On arriving in Vermilion Township they selected a place along the Joppa Road, and there in the wilderness they exchanged their temporary abode in the wagon for the comforts and privations of a log cabin home. Year
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after year they worked industriously in improving the land and consti- tuting for themselves and their children a better home, and both grand- parents lived to a good old age. They were members of the Methodist Church, while the grandfather was a republican. Of their three sons all grew up and married, and the only one now living is Thomas, whose home is in Berlin Heights. He is seventy-six years of age, he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church and in politics he is a repub- lican.
John Lee, father of Almon J., and the oldest of the three sons was born in Baltimore City January 9, 1839, and died at his home on the Joppa Road March 20, 1913. He was very young when the family came to Erie County and received his education in some of the old time schools. For his vocation he applied himself to general farming and grape grow- ing, and well deserved the comfortable success he enjoyed. He finally changed from the republican party, with which he had early affiliated, to the democrats. For his first wife he married, in Vermilion Township, Sarah Ann Johnson. She was born in Pennsylvania about 1835, and was still a child when brought to Erie County by her parents. She was only about twenty-two years of age when she died, and her son Almon at that time, her first and only born, was one year of age. Mr. John Lee married for his second wife Miss Harriet Merriman, who was born in Ohio, her father being a Methodist minister and consequently living in many different localities while Mrs. Lee was growing to womanhood. She is still living on the old homestead east of Joppa Corners, and is now past sixty-eight years of age. She has been a consistent member of the Methodist Church, and Mr. John Lee was of the same faith.
Almon J. Lee was born December 21, 1856. As a boy he attended the local schools, and after his marriage he made his home for a number of years in the villages of Berlin Heights and Vermilion. He has now been identified for a long time with the community at Ashmont in Ver- milion Township, and his home is on the Joppa Road. Mr. Lee as the result of many years of steady industry has accumulated seventy acres of good farm land. Of this he has nine acres in fruit, and has a very attractive and prosperous looking home. He and his family reside in an eleven-room residence situated in the midst of a large lawn, and sur- rounded by various farms and outbuildings.
On Hill street in Vermilion Township Mr. Lee married Miss Rozella Hill. She was born in the house that still stands on the old Hill farm December 28, 1862, and has spent practically all her life in Erie County. Her parents were John W. and Charlotte (Swartwood) Hill, both natives of Ohio. They were reared in Vermilion Township and were married there. The grandfather of Mrs. Lee was David Hill, who came in the early days to Florence Township and secured a large tract of land, improved much of it, and his instrumentality in laying out Hill Street or Hill Road caused that thoroughfare to be named in his honor. David Hill and wife both died in Erie County when old people, and John W. Hill and wife were likewise full of years when called to their final reward. John W. Hill was one of the well known and successful farmers of Florence Township, was a republican in polities, and he and his wife were members of the Methodist Church.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee naturally take much pride in their children, several of whom have already assumed the serious responsibilities of the world and are making good. The oldest. Vedah A., is the wife of Arthur Heys, and they live in Elyria and have a son Floyd. Elgia L., who runs a market in Rocky River, Ohio, married Elsie Kitson and has three children named Gilbert K., Evelyn and Grace E. Walter H. is showing a great deal of executive and administrative ability in assisting his father run the farm, and like the other children completed a good edu-
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cation in the local common schools and high school. The daughter Helen, the youngest, is still at home and a student in the local schools. Mr. Lee and his sons are republicans in politics and since he was twenty- one years of age he has been a Mason and is at present a member of Ely Lodge, No. 424, F. & A. M., has filled several of the chairs and his son Walter is also affiliated with the same body of Masons.
ORRA G. JUMP. It is the ambition of every man to make his work and ability count for something in the world. The world's work is carried on by a great multitude of individuals and there is a place and responsibility for everyone who has the proper sense of duty, and is willing to serve himself best by serving others. One of the men of Erie County who has accepted these opportunities with good grace and is now performing a worthy part is Orra G. Jump, who combines his business as a railroad station agent and telegraph operator with fruit growing and farming. In farming he is particularly assisted by his son, now a very capable young man, only recently having turned his majority.
Very close to where he now lives on Joppa Road in Vermilion Town- ship, Orra G. Jump was born August 9, 1869. He has spent nearly all his life in this county and in 1892 he accepted a place on the payroll of the Nickel Plate Railway as telegraph operator at Florence Siding. In 1899 he took up his duties as agent and operator at Shin Rock, when that was made a station on the Nickel l'late road. Ile has been a faithful employee of the Nickel Plate system for twenty-three years. In 1902 he bought from his father twenty-five acres where he now lives at Ashmont on the Joppa Road in Vermilion Township. Since then he has carried forward many improvements. One of these was the con- struction of a good barn, 20x30 feet, and one special feature of his farm is an excellent vineyard of two acres. From this he has gathered as high as seven tons of grapes. The soil is especially adapted to grape growing of the finest quality and quantity. He also owns twenty-four acres just across the road from his homestead and has two acres of that set in apples.
This is a family that has long been identified with this section of Northern Ohio. His grandfather, Ira Jump, was of New York State and Connectieut lineage. He married Sarah Dann, and for some years they lived on Long Island where some of their children were born. During the decade of the '30s they came west to Ohio and located on a new farm on the Joppa Road in Vermilion Township. Here the grand- parents spent the rest of their days, as quiet, industrious and honored citizens. The grandmother passed away when about seventy and the grandfather at the age of eighty-four. In politics he was a republican. Some of their children are still living. Lorenzo is now ninety-two years of age. Other sons were Levi, Rufus E., Charles L. and Giles L. The daughter Laura A. died after her marriage to Harvey Sanders, who is also deceased, and their son Levi H. Sanders married Roxy Ann Sanders of Vermilion Township. The daughter Abigail is the widow of William Driver and she is now living in Indiana at the age of ninety. Mary is the widow of William Hobbs and lives in Indiana at the age of seventy- eight. Catherine is deceased.
Giles L. Jump, father of Orra G., was born in Vermilion Township January 7. 1845, and spent his active career as a farmer and fruit grower. He died at the old homestead February 11, 1913. He made a record as a soldier in the Civil war and served two years with the 98th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, chiefly on guard duty at Camp Chase near Columbus. Giles Jump married Mary Pickett. She was born in Mary- land, March 17. 1850, and came to Erie County a young girl. She is a sister of William Pickett, a well known citizen of Erie County. Mrs
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Giles Jump is now living at the home of her son Orra. Orra G. Jump has two sisters: Mrs. Bertha Crum and Mrs. Myrtle Altvater of Castalia.
In the neighborhood where he grew up Mr. Jump married Miss Nettie Bryant. She was born at Monclova in Lucas County, Ohio, Sep- tember 15, 1871, a daughter of Lovinus A. and Fannie M. (Hakes) Bryant, who were both born in Ohio and were married in Paulding County, Ohio, lived for some years in Lucas County, where Mr. Bryant followed his trade as painter and later was a farmer. He died there in 1880 at the age of about forty-five. His widow passed away in Norwalk three years later aged thirty-four. Mrs. Jump was nine years of age when she came to Erie county, and since then she has made her home in this locality.
Mr. and Mrs. Jump have two living children. Bernice Ora, born January 12, 1893, was educated in the local public schools and gradu- ated from the Vermilion High School, spent fonr years as a teacher, and is now a member of the class of 1916 in the old Ohio University at Athens. Wilmer L., who is a capable assistant to his father on the farm, was born July 17, 1894, and was graduated from the high school at Vermilion in 1911.
WILLIAM T. PICKETT. One of Vermilion Township's highly respected citizens is William T. Pickett, the owner of a farm which has considerable distinction in that township for the fine quality and variety of peaches that come from it and go to the markets each year. Mr. Pickett has lived a quiet, honorable and upright life, has worked hard, and has ample provisions for declining years.
He was born in Carroll County, Maryland, April 26, 1846, and is a son of Thomas and Matilda (Driver) Pickett, who were also natives of Carroll County, Maryland, and of old Southern stock. While the con- nection has not been accurately traced, it is believed that this branch of the Pickett family is not distantly related with that which gave the Southern Confederacy one of its greatest generals, the leader of the famous Pickett's charge at Gettysburg. Mr. Pickett's maternal grand- father was a Methodist minister and also a shoemaker by trade, and came to Ohio as a pioneer preacher and died in Erie County in old age. Thomas Pickett, the father, was a blacksmith, and died in Carroll County, Maryland, when in middle life. His widow with her four children then came out to Ohio and located on the shores of Lake Erie in Vermilion township. Here she married a Mr. Slocum, and they spent the rest of their lives on their farm in Vermilion township. She was eighty-four years of age when she died and Mr. Slocum was also an old man. She was for many years a Methodist, but later became a member of the Latter Day Saints. By her marriage to Mr. Slocum she had a son, Morris D. Slocum, who lives on a farm at Ogontz in Berlin Township, and is the father of three daughters, two of whom are now married. William T. Pickett was the oldest of four children. His sister Lucy died after her marriage to Andrew Date, leaving two children, Ethel, now deceased, and Clayton, who is married. Mary R. is the wife of Giles L. Jump, a farmer in Vermilion township, and their children are Ora G., Bertha, Myrtle, and Ellis. James W. is a mechanic in Elyria and has four sons named William, Guy, Harry and Carl.
Owing to family circumstances William T. Pickett has to spend much of his youth and childhood among strangers and what he has accomplished has been the direct result of his own well directed labors. When he was less than eight years of age he went to live with Mordecai Lee, on a farm near Lake Erie, and in that home he spent the rest of his youth. On reaching manhood he started out on his own account, Vol. II-42
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worked for others for a number of years, and by careful saving was finally able to buy 341/- acres of land. He made this purchase in 1875. The Pickett farm is located near Joppa Corners in Vermilion township. It is nearly all in cultivation, but the conspicuous feature of the place is the orchard of 1,000 fruit trees, including such leading varieties as the Elberta, the Bear Smock, Champion Yellow, St. John Fitzgerald, and the Salloway. This orchard yields nearly 1,000 bushels of peaches every year, and while its care and superintendence are a large responsibility upon Mr. Pickett he enjoys a corresponding profit. As he has never married he has little need for a large home, but has a house of substantial comforts, and sufficient barns aud ont- buildings to meet all requirements.
In politics Mr. Pickett is a democrat and for a mmmber of years served as constable of the township. He has been strictly honest in all his dealings and has long been able to say that he owes no man a dollar.
GEORGE G. GLIME. What the possibilities are of Erie County agri- culture as a means of independence and profit are well illustrated by the case of George G. Glime, whose fine farm lies in Florence Township. Mr. Glime spent nearly a quarter of a century of active service as a railroad man, and was reared on a farm and since returning to country life has shown a capacity for accomplishment in that line such as few of the veterans have attained.
His birth ocenrred in Vermilion township of Erie County February 17, 1862. Ifis parents, Philip and Catherine Glime, were born in Hesse Cassel, Germany, and of old German stock. They came when young people in the same vessel from Bremen to New York in the winter of 1858-59, spending six weeks on the voyage. From New York they came on to Vermilion township, and were married there in 1859 and then secured a small farm of sixteen acres in that locality. The father worked industriously and improved his land, but gained his livelihood and support for his growing family at first by employment in Leonard's stone quarry near his home, and for eight years operated a "whip saw" in making ship huuber for the vessels which were being constructed in the Vermilion shipyard. "Whipsawing" has long passed ont as a feature of the industry connected with ship building, but a number of years ago it was a trade requiring special proficiency and skill, and was paid for at so much per foot. Philip Glime was able to make about $5.00 a day at that kind of labor and that was considered very high wages. In 1871 he traded the little place which he had first bought in part payment for the farm which is now owned by his son George, situated on the Lake Road one mile north of Florence Village in Florence Township, and comprising fifty-five aeres. At that time the land was little improved and its buildings consisted of a small log house and a little frame dwelling. In 1879 Philip Glime moved to East Toledo, and on February 16, 1880, was accidentally killed on the Lake Shore Railroad tracks near his home. While stepping from one track to the other he was struck from behind by a rapidly moving train and instantly killed. He was then fifty-five years of age. Two months later his widow and her children returned to Florence Township and resumed their residence on the old farm, where the widowed mother died in July, 1888, at the age of sixty-five. Both parents were members of the German Reformed Church and in polities he was a democrat. There were five sons: John was accidentally killed while crossing the Lake Shore Railroad tracks at Vermilion in 1893, at the age of thirty-three, this being the second fatality of the kind in one family; the next in age is George; Henry is a farmer east of Florence Village and by his marriage to Minnie Sinning- ham has the following children : William, George, Lucy, Carl, Elizabeth,
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