USA > Ohio > Fulton County > A standard history of Fulton County, Ohio, an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and county, Vol. II > Part 11
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Robert S. Blair attended school in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, until he was seventeen years of age, at which time he left school and devoted himself to helping his father on the farm until he reached his majority. Mr. Blair then went into the lumber woods for two years, and for the subsequent four years was in the pine woods of northwestern Pennsylvania. Having been attracted to Fulton county, Ohio, Mr. Blair came here and in partnership with his brother, Frank T., bought 160 acres of land in York Township and they farmed it for six years.
In 1879 Mr. Blair was married to Elizabeth Tedrow, a daughter of Jeremiah Tedrow of Clinton Township, and member of one of the old and prominent families of Fulton county, and they became the parents of ten children, all of whom are living.
Following his marriage Mr. Blair sold his interest to his brother and rented 160 acres of land at Tedrow, Ohio, on which he spent eleven years, and then he rented another farm for two years. In the spring of 1909 he bought sixty-four acres of his present farm, to which he later added sixteen acres and has made it a valuable, well- improved property.
Mr. Blair ran on the republican ticket for township commissioner and was only defeated by fifteen votes, and then he was again the nominee of his party for the same office; although once more de- feated, he made a very creditable showing. He has been township trustee and is a dependable man and official. The Evangelical Church holds his membership and benefits by his generosity. A man of great energy, he has known how to make his work yield him a reasonable profit, and as he is thrifty, he has acquired a comfortable competency. Mr. Blair is a man of considerable importance in his community where he is well and favorably known.
GEORGE FRANKLIN EVERS. Only since 1882 has the Evers family been connected with the history of Fulton county. George Franklin Evers, of Lyons, was born November 9, 1873, in Williams county. The family home was at Pioneer. He is a son of Joseph D. and Louisa Ann (Ritchey) Evers. While the father was born in Penn- sylvania, the mother was a native of Williams county. They lived at Pioneer after their marriage until 1882, when they removed to Fulton county. They lived for a while in Royalton, then bought a farm in Pike in 1884, and in 1893 he died there. Later Mrs. Evers became the wife of Oliver McLain and removed to Wauseon.
The children in the Evers family are: George F., who relates
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the history ; Sarah, wife of Jacob Harmon, of Pike; William H. and Charles E., of Pike; Warren S., of Royalton; Sophia Rosella, wife of Vitus Eberly, of Pike; and Stella who died in infancy.
On February 5, 1895, G. F. Evers married Luella Barnes. She is a daughter of Oliver P. and Rebecca (Scott) Barnes, and the family home was in Clinton. They lived on a forty acre farm already owned by Mr. Evers in Pike, but two years later they sold it and rented a farm in Royalton. Three years later they removed to Williams county, where they bought a farm of eighty acres. Two years later they sold the Williams county farm and rented again in Royalton for three years.
Mr. Evers then bought an eighty acre farm in Royalton, where they lived for eight years before retiring to Lyons. There is one son, Kenneth D., who enlisted and spent several months in training at Camp Sherman. They are raising an orphan child, Mabelle Barnes. Mr. Evers votes the republican ticket. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge of Lyons, and has been through all of the chairs. He is also a member of the Rebekah Lodge of Lyons. For five years Mr. Evers served as president of the Mutual Telephone Company of Lyons, and he is now the treasurer of the company.
As one of the successful men of Fulton county it is important to note that Mr. Evers began his career as a farm worker and renter and accumulated prosperity through the slow process of good man- agement and against many handicaps. The Town of Lyons and Township of Royalton are fortunate in having a man of his ability and tried experience as a working factor in the community.
CHARLES C. HOLT, mayor of Lyons, is only one generation removed from a German immigrant, his father, Frederick Holt, having been born in the Fatherland. He was eleven weeks crossing the Atlantic when he was 'a sixteen year old boy. He married Jane Gilmore, of Pennsylvania, and they took up their residence at Toledo, where he hired out to farmers before loeating in Fulton county. However, C. C. Holt was born, May 26, 1858, in Royalton. His father had entered government land when it was in the virgin forest, and had added to it until he had an improved farm of 480 acres, and it is still in the Holt name.
The pioneer family, Frederick Holt and his wife, both died there in 1896, the husband having attained to seventy-four years while his wife was twelve years his junior. Mrs. Holt's parents, Ambrose and Elizabeth (Stebbins) Gilmore. removed from Penn- sylvania and lived in Royalton. They also entered land in the tim- ber and wrought the transformation. The children born in the Holt family were: Oliver, who was sheriff of Lenawee county, Michigan, died in 1915; James, of Blissfield, Michigan ; Mary, who was burned to death in childhood; Charles C., who enrolls the family in the annals of Fulton county; Harriet, wife of Perry Carpenter, a merchant of Lyons; George, who died in boyhood.
On November 18, 1880, Mr. Holt married Mary Naylor, of Nova. Ashland county. She is a daughter of James and Priscilla (Deibler) Naylor, the father a native of New York and the mother from Pennsylvania. There is English and Irish in the Naylor blood, the grandfather, Charles Naylor, having come from England, while the grandmother, Diana (Weisner) Naylor came from Ireland. On the other side. George and Elizabeth (Streeter) Deibler were of Pennsylvania stock, and all of Mrs. Holt's grandparents were early
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settlers in Ashland county. Her parents had lived in Henry before coming to Fulton, and they later removed to Hamilton, Missouri, where they died a few years ago. Their children were William, who died in 1904; Mrs. Holt, of Lyons; Charles, of Kansas City; Frank, of St. Clair county, Missouri.
When he was first married Mr. Holt lived for eight years with his parents on the farm. His parents then moving to Lyons, he remained for twelve years longer and then he located in Lyons. While he already had a farm of ninety acres, when his father died he bought the family homestead in Royalton. He lived there for a time, making many substantial improvements, and being exten- sively engaged in raising Holstein cattle. He added more land until he had a tract of almost 600 acres, all of it excellent farming land, and after disposing of part of it he still has 350 acres in. Royalton. January 1, 1904, Mr. Holt gave up farming and again he located in Lyons. However, he is still a "telephone". farmer, always plan- ning the farm management.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Holt are: Pearl, wife of Rev. Nichocal Ziilch, of Fostoria. He is a Christian minister, and their children are: Paul, Mary, Frances, Ruth and Esther May ; Mabel, wife of Robert Barnes, of Royalton. Their children are: Gladys, Chester and Genevieve. Iva Belle died at the age of six years and six months.
The Holt family belongs to the Christian Church, and he has served both as deacon and elder. He is republican, and has served as township trustee and as a member of the school board. He has filled all the chairs in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge of Lyons.
A busy and fruitful career has been that of Mr. Holt. In sixty odd years since his birth he has achieved those things that ambitious men in all generations have sought, a fair degree of worldly pros- perity, a home and family, and the esteem of his fellow men. His present office as mayor of Lyons tells what that community thinks of him, but the best evidence of his industry is found in the country and in the improvements of his farm.
AUGUSTUS NOBLE, of Lyons, was born July 12, 1841, at Warsaw, Wyoming county, New York. His father, Dwight Noble, had lived there, while his mother, Eunice (Watrous) Noble, was a native of Connecticut. They were married in New York, and in 1844 they migrated to Ohio. They crossed Lake Erie to Toledo, driving the first team into Royalton township that had ever been seen in the community. The father had entered a quarter section of wild land, and he out the timber off of it. He died there in 1879, and his wife died ten years later.
The children born to this pioneer Noble family were: Electa, deceased, was the wife of Warren Morey; Emily, the widow of Philip Rose, of Wauseon; Eliza, deceased, was the wife of George Carll; Catharine, who died at the age of sixteen; Augustus, of this sketch ; and Olive who died in infancy.
In September, 1867, Augustus Noble married Adelia Patterson. Their children are: Albert, of Royalton, and Edward, of Mont- pelier, Ohio. Later he married Martha Baldwin, who died within six months. In 1884 Mr. Noble married Elmina Westfall, of Gor- ham township. The children of this marriage are: Opha, wife of Floyd Bardon, of Royalton; Electa, wife of George Burgess, of
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Lenawee eounty, Michigan; Fred, of Lyons; and Bernice, wife of Charles Malone, of Metamora.
Mr. Noble has always lived on a farm although part of his land is within the corporate limits of Lyons. He cleared, fenced and tiled it and it is under cultivation. In 1911 he rented the land to a son. His father, Dwight Noble, was the first sexton of the Lyons cemetery, and as long as he lived he had charge of it, and sinee that time Mr. Noble, who lives aeross from it, has always eared for it.
Mr. Noble was a Civil war soldier, enlisting May 2, 1864, in Company D, One Hundred and Thirtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and being discharged September 22, 1864. He saw service around Richmond, Virginia. After completing the common school lie spent one term in the Lyons Academy, and for several terms he has served as trustee of Royalton. He has served as township assessor and as a member of the Lyons town council. Mr. Noble votes with the demoeratie party. He is a member of Baxter Post No. 238, Grand Army of the Republie, of Royalton Union Lodge No. 434, Free and Aeeepted Masons, and of the Eastern Star Lodge of Lyons.
Augustus Noble through a period of three-quarters of a century has been identified with Royalton township. His early reeolleetions go back to the time of the big woods, the swamps and an uneultivated wilderness. He has played a worthy part in redeeming the wilds, and his service as a soldier testifies to his patriotism as well as to his virtues as a home maker in Fulton county. He is not only one of the oldest residents of Fulton county but one of the county's best eitizens.
ASHABEL ASA BARNES. The ancestry of Ashabel Asa Barnes of Amboy represents several states, and his immediate family have lived in Illinois as well as Ohio. He was born May 7, 1846, in Boone eounty, Illinois. He is a son of Willard and Elizabeth (Kitehell) Barnes. The father was born in 1808, in New York, and the mother was a Conneetieut woman. The aneestral Barnes family eame to Lueas eounty in 1821, and settled between Maumee and Waterville, along the Maumee River. The country was wild and there were Indians in the forests.
The maternal grandfather, Cerinus Kitehell, eame in 1826, and settled where Swan Creek was afterwards placed on the map of Fulton county. At that time it was all Lueas county. Cerinus Kitehell was a lawyer in the frontier community. He also eon- dueted a tavern on the stage route where horses were ehanged and travelers were entertained in the wilderness country.
When Willard Barnes and Elizabeth Kitchell were married they settled on a farm in Springfield township, Lueas county. In 1839 they removed to Boone county, Illinois, and there oeeurred the birth of A. A. Barnes. In moving to Illinois they drove a yoke of oxen and had a long, tedious journey. They entered a quarter seetion of government land near Belvidere, and in 1853 they sold it, buying land in Sangamon eounty, near Springfield. However, they never lived in Sangamon county. They traded the Sangamon eounty land for ninety aeres of partially improved land in Spencer township, Lucas county. After twenty years they were baek again in Ohio. They moved on the Lueas county farm in 1859, and he died there in 1879, while she died three years later.
There were many children in the Barnes family, and today more are beyond than are living. Those living are: John, of Ithaea, Michigan; Mary, wife of John Sabin, of Breckenridge, Michigan;
MRS. D. J. PRICKITT
D. J. Prickitt
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Ashabel A. Barnes; and Charles, of Spencer township, Lucas county. Those deceased are: Joshua, Harriet, James, George and Caroline, who were twins, Miranda, William, Oscar and Sarah. There were thirteen children in all.
While he lived with his parents A. A. Barnes sometimes worked for others at farm work and for a time he was a driver on the Erie Canal tow-path. The young men born before the middle of the nineteenth century did not have the lure to the city that attracts the young man of today. In October, 1868, Mr. Barnes married Mary S. Nichols, of Seneca county. She was a daughter of James and Mildred Nichols. They lived together thirty years. She died March 30, 1898, and December 28, 1899, Mr. Barnes married Louisa D. Eschenburg, of Spencer township, Lucas county. She is a daughter of August and Sophia (Busack) Eschenburg, who were immigrants from Germany.
On October 18, 1863, Mr. Barnes enlisted in Company L, Ninth Ohio Cavalry, at Camp Denison, near Cincinnati. He remained in camp until January, when he was taken to Louisville and later, when he reached Georgia, he went with Sherman to the sea: "As we go marching through Georgia." He returned through the Carolinas and was mustered out at Lexington, North Carolina, and on July 22, 1865, he was finally discharged from Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio.
Mr. Barnes returned to the home of his father, where he lived until his marriage, after which he farmed four years in Lucas county. He left the farm and spent three years with a construction crew on the railroad and then located in Maumee, where he engaged in the wholesale butcher trade. He operated the butcher business in connection with his Spencer township farm, continuing the butcher business about five years. He also owned a threshing machine, which he ran for several years.
In 1878 Mr. Barnes moved to a farm of 160 acres he had bought in Ogden township, Lenawee county, Michigan. It was all in tim- ber but ten acres, and he cleared, tiled and fenced the farm and erected necessary farm buildings on it. In 1906 he sold a part of the land and bought a stock of merchandise at Whiteville, Amboy township, Fulton county. He was postmaster and agent for the Toledo and Western Electric Railway, remaining there three years and four months. When he sold out he bought a farm of thirty- eight acres in Amboy, and he added to it until there are now 118 acres, and until 1918 he farmed the place himself.
Mr. Barnes has a modern farm residence with heat and lights, and the necessary barns for sheltering stock and caring for the products of the farm. The children are: Mary Eloise and Wendell Curtis, and Theodore, who died at the age of 61/2 years. Mr. Barnes is a republican, and since 1914 he has been a member of the Amboy township board of education.
DANIEL J. PRICKITT, a retired farmer of Franklin township, Fulton county, Ohio, well-known and esteemed as an agriculturist of enterprise and energy for the greater part of his manhood years, and earlier of worthy Civil war record, has of late vears, with his wife, Lydia (Glover), whom he married just after the close of the Civil war, lived in comfortable retirement. As a patriot he gave his country full service, his war record embracing the full four years of stress. As a churchman he has been consistently active, serving as elder of the Christian Church for many years; and in the civilian
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walks of life he gained the respcet of his neighbors by a praiseworthy steadiness of private life and by an cnergetie industrious application to manly toil, such as comes within the sphere of a responsible suc- cessful farmer. The Glover family, to which his wife belongs, is one of the pioneer families of Franklin township, having owned land in that township since the early decades of settlement. And also his own association, which has almost been life-long, with Franklin township establishes him firmly as one of the representative eitizens of Fulton county.
He was born near Lumberton, Clinton county, Ohio, in 1840, the son of Japheth L. and Phoebe S. (Borton) Prickitt, settlers of that section of Ohio. He received a country school education, and his early years of manhood were spent amid the perils of the Civil war. He was still in his minority when that terrible struggle began ; but that did not deter him from offering his arm to the military forees of the Union. He enlisted in 1861 at West Unity, Williams eounty, Ohio, and was mustered out in 1865. Between 1861 and 1865 he took a full man's share of in the struggle for the emaneipa- tion of the slaves of the South, and served in cavalry and quarter- master units of the Union forces. For the greater part of the time he was a member of the Third Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infan- try. He is an honored member of the West Unity Grand Army of the Republic Post. Soon after receiving honorable discharge from military service in 1865 Mr. Priekitt married Lydia, daughter of Benjamin and Abigail (Borton) Glover, of Franklin township, Ful- ton county, and thereafter for twenty-five years applied himself steadily to the management of an extensive acreage at Franklin township. His wife, Lydia Glover, was born in 1839, in New Jersey, the home of the Borton family in that state being near Moorestown ; but she was only six months old when her parents took her upon an adventurous journey, by wagon, from New Jersey through many wild parts of the country into Ohio, and eventually to Franklin township, Fulton county, where their journey of six weeks duration ended. Her father purchased a traet of 244 acres from a Mr. Paek- ard, who had acquired it from the government. And there the family has since settled, her father living on the property until his death in 1888, when she inherited it. And on it she has spent the greater part of her life. The home was practically hers to manage for more than twenty-five years before her father's death, for her mother died in 1861. And a few years later, when she married Daniel J. Prickitt, it seemed but the proper logical course for him to take over the management of the extensive farm, seeing that her father gave much of his time to other business interests. He was always interested in railway extension, and Mr. Glover was one of the original promoters of the Mansfield and Cold Water Railroad Company, in which enter- prise however he lost money.
Mr. and Mrs. Prickitt are the parents of eight ehildren, who, in order of birth, were: Anna Margaret, who married Mr. Pershing, of Wisconsin, bore one son to the marriage, Phillip, and died in 1904, at the early age of thirty-eight years; Jemima Elizabeth, who married Warren Martin Steward, son of Philo and Amelia J. (Brad- ley) Steward, of Franklin township, in 1889; they have no chil- dren and Mr. Steward, a republican, a good Methodist, and a man well respected in the township, now works the whole farm, so that Mr. Priekitt is able to enjoy freedom from the responsibilities of the family estate; Lydia Gertrude, who married Alonzo Mangus, died in 1910, the mother of four children, three of whom are liv-
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ing, Paul Raymond, Jessie Lois, and Gerald, Arthur B. being de- ceased; Daniel James, who went into Canada, and now owns a good property in Andalusa. Alberta married Pearl Borton, of Fulton county, and they have two children, Lee Clemons and Lena Pearl; Phoebe Abigail, died in infancy; Benjamin Japheth also died in infancy; Jessie Ellen, who married Daniel Meyers, of Fayette, Ful- ton county, has issue as follows, Donald, Margery, Merlin, and Ken- neth, all living, and George William, deceased, he having not long survived his birth; Mary Eva married Samuel Burton, of North Lib- erty, Indiana, and to them were born three children, only two of whom however survive, the deceased child being Melin David, who died at the age of fifteen months, in 1918, and the surviving two are Albert Eli and Lydia Dorothy.
Mr. and Mrs. Prickitt are therefore abundantly blessed in grand- children, and although some of their own children have passed away, the descendants must bring to them much real satisfaction, linking them as they must with their own children now passed forever from this world. Mr. and Mrs. Prickitt were the recipients of many indications of the general esteem in which they are held when, in 1915, they celebrated the golden anniversary of their wed- ding. Both are esteemed in the community, and both have taken worthy part in the public and church life of the community. Mr. Prickitt is an elder of the Christian Church, and is the oldest member of the West Unity Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. He has been a life-long republican. But apart from his civic repute his Civil war record would make him an honored citizen in any community.
WILLARD CROCKETT. While the name "Davy Crockett" belongs to the early history of the United States, the Crockett family repre- sented by Willard Crockett of Metamora is among the pioneer fam- ilies in Fulton county. Mr. Crockett was born in York State, Decem- ber 1, 1834, and is a son of Nathaniel and Mary (White) Crockett. They were natives of Maine.
When the pioneer Crockett family came west they crossed Lake Erie and settled in Lenawee county, Michigan. He secured a quarter section of government land by entry, and settled in the wilderness of Lenawee county. Mr. Crockett purchased other land in Hillsdale county, and with the help of his sons he cleared it. He spent his later years in Iowa. Of the ten children born to the family three are living today: Willard, of Metamora; Clarissa, wife of George A. Sebring, of Lenawee county ; and David, of Adrian, Michigan.
While he was not exactly a "Forty-niner," in 1853, when Wil- lard Crockett was a young man of nineteen, he was filled with the spirit of adventure. He went to New York City and boarding .a sailing vessel he went to the Isthmus of Panaina and around Cape Horn to California. He remained there in the gold regions 51/2 years, when he returned by the same route to his home in Lenawee county. He worked for a time on a Michigan farm, when he bought land and for fifty years he resided there, and in 1906 he retired to Metamora. A great many Fulton county people retire to Morenci, Michigan, but here is an exception-a Michigan man retired to Ohio. Mr. Crockett lives in a modern home in Metamora.
On March 18, 1862, Mr. Crockett married Hannah Rice. She was a Michigan woman, born in Ogden township, Lenawee county. Her parents, Samuel and Margaret (Sebring) Rice, were born in New York. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Crockett are: Addie,
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wife of Edgar Ritchie, of Metamora; Jennie, wife of Ira Dennis, of Amboy; Alvah, who died at the age of forty; Clara, wife of John Kahle, who lives with her father; Cassius, of Sylvania, Ohio; and Russell, of Metamora. Mrs. Crockett died March 18, 1918, after having been inarried fifty-six years, her death occurring on the anniversary of her marriage.
While he has reached an advanced age, Mr. Crockett is interested in the news of the day. In politics he is a republican, and for a great many years he served Lenawce county as a highway com- missioner. Few men have had inore stirring experiences than Mr. Crockett. While the name "Davy Crockett" belongs to the "Kit Carson," period, Willard Crockett has had his share of ad- venture.
DANIEL T. MILLER. In his early life Daniel T. Miller, who is now living in retirement in Metamora, worked in the pine forests of Michigan for two years and later he was a brakeman on the rail- road for a time. He was born August 27, 1844, in Pike township. He is a son of Reuben and Elizabeth (Tom) Miller, the father a native of Maryland and the mother of Holmes county, Ohio. In 1843, while it was yet part of Lucas county, they located in Pike township, Fulton county.
There were nine children born to this pioneer Fulton county family, although Daniel T. Miller is alone. The father died in 1847 and the mother in 1855, and for a time Mr. Miller made his home with a brother. On September 22, 1862, he enlisted in Com- pany I, Thirty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and two months later he joined his regiment at Rolling Forks, Kentucky. As yet the tents had not been pitched, and his first army experiences was slcep- ing on the ground, but he later had part in some of the hard-fought battles of the war. He was at the battles of Stone River, Mill Springs, Missionary Ridge, Jonesboro, Hoover's Gap and many others, his regiment supporting the Seventh Ohio, which had suffered badly from its encounters. In recent years Mr. Miller has served as junior and senior vice commander of McQuillan Post, G. A. R., of Delta. In the last year of the war he was detailed to duty at army head- quarters. On July 22, 1865, he received his discharge and returned at once to Fulton county.
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