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 28
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Until he was twelve years old John Leitner remained at home, but at that early age began working for neighboring farmers by the month, and continued to do so until his marriage, which occurred on July 25, 1886, when he was united with Mina Pontious, born in York Township, a daughter of Isaac M. and Hannah (Slack) Pon- tious, natives of Pickaway and Fulton counties. Jacob and Ma- tilda (Grist) Pontious, the paternal grandparents, were born in Ohio, while the maternal grandparents, Philip and Hannah (Wright) Slack, were pioneers of Fulton county. For two years subsequent to his marriage Mr. Leitner rented a farm and then moved to Swan Creck Township and spent a season there. Then, in 1892, he bought 100 acres of land in York Township, where he has since resided. In it he has erected all of the present buildings and made other val-
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uable improvements, and here he carried on general farming and dairying, his herd numbering from eight to ten cows of the Hol- stein strain. Mr. Leitner moved to Wauseon in November, 1919, having purchased the property at 429 East Chestnut street.
Mr. and Mrs. Leitner became the parents of the following chil- dren ; Estella, who is Mrs. Fred Vollmer, of York Township; Ora, who lives in Clinton Township, married Bessie Williams, and they have a daughter, Fern; Laura, who is Mrs. Cecil Miller, of Wau- seon, Ohio; Howard D., who is a farmer of York Township, married Ruby Swigart, and Floyd K. and John Archie, both of whom are at home. In politics Mr. Leitner is a republican, but he has not as- pired to public office as his time has been too fully occupied with his farm duties. Both he and Mrs. Leitner stand very well in their neighborhood and are worthy of the confidence which they inspire.
LOUIS N. PILLIOD. The Pilliod Lumber Company, organized July 8, 1902, succeeded the firm of L. N. Pilliod & Brother, who established the business in Swanton, taking over the Swanton Manu- facturing Company. Since 1909 the company has discontinued the sale of lumber and has engaged in the manufacture of tool chests. The boiler blew up and destroyed the sawmill end of the business, and when the firm rebuilt they engaged exclusively in the manufac- ture of cabinets. In 1913 the factory burned, but it has since been rebuilt and cabinets are manufactured again.
Louis N. Pilliod, now identified with the business interests of Swanton, was born at Napoleon, Ohio, May 24, 1859, a son of Au- gustin and Amelia ( Harris) Pilliod. His father came from France while his mother was born at Genesee Flats. New York. When his parents married they located at Napoleon, later moving to Swan- ton. They lie buried at Swanton. Their children are: Louis N .; Augustin, of Grand Rapids; Charles J., of Toledo; F. E., of Swanton ; Henry J., of Portland, Oregon; Mary Eugenia, deceased; and Cor- nelia, wife of Edward Hill, of Swanton.
When Louis N. Pilliod was eighteen years old he started the milling business in Toledo. From there he went to Holgate in the milling and hotel business, and from there he came to Swanton. In partnership with two brothers he bought a grist mill and operated it until 1898, when they divided their business and he started the lum- ber business in Swanton. L. N. Pilliod was president; Lillian Pil- liod, vice president ; Thomas J. Pilliod, treasurer, and Lawrence L. Pilliod, secretary.
L. N. Pilliod was married first in August, 1886, to Emma Hill, and they had one child, Thomas J. In July, 1891. Mr. Pilliod was married to Lillian Mabry, and they have four children: Lawrence L., Esther Lucille, Agnes L. and Edmund D.
Until he was ten years old L. N. Pilliod attended publie school, and then he had two years in Catholic parochial school before going to Notre Dame University for three years. He is a member of the Swanton Board of Education and of the Swanton Town Council. He is chairman of the Board of Public Works of Swanton. Mr. Pilliod holds membership in the Order of the Knights of Columbus in To- ledo. The Pilliod name will always be identified with the business interest of Swanton.
ARNER D. BAKER. The native heath of Abner D. Baker. of Swanton is in Knox county. He was born there in March, 1861. and some of his ancestors were early settlers there. He is a son of
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Samuel and Lydia (DeHaven) Baker, the father from Morrison's Cove, Pennsylvania, and the mother from Richland county, Ohio. The grandfather, Andrew Baker, came in an early day to Knox county. The DeHaven ancestry, Joseph and Catharine (Free) De- Haven, were early settlers in Richland county. It was in Richland county that Samuel Baker married Lydia DeHaven, and they located in Knox county.
Samuel Baker was born in 1833 and his wife in 1842. He was a miller by trade, and they later lived in Lucas county. Their chil- dren are: Abner D. Baker, of Swanton, who relates the family his- tory, and Mary, wife of Charles Kelsey, of Lucas county.
Abner D. Baker had a common school education, and when he was twenty-three years old he went to Akron, Ohio, and worked as a machinist in a machine shop. From there he went to Erie, Penn- sylvania, and worked one year in the Erie City Iron Works, later going to Detroit, where he worked in the Frontier Iron Works three months. At this time he returned to Lucas county and started a repair shop on his father's farm in the country. He conducted a prosperous business there for many years, and in 1895 he opened a similar shop in Swanton.
He conducted the Swanton business as a repair shop until 1901, when it was incorporated under the name of the A. D. Baker Com- pany, and he engaged in the manufacture of traction engines. He had already built five engines as a personal business enterprise be- fore he organized the stock company. The A. D. Baker Company now conducts an extensive business at Swanton, with all the depart- ments of a modern machine shop and factory. The average num- ber of men on the pay roll is one hundred, with eight men employed in the office.
The A. D. Baker Company has had satisfactory business expan- sion under the management of John Chrisman, president; A. D. Baker, vice president; Charles Chrisman, treasurer, and F. E. Pil- liod, secretary. There are nine stockholders in the board of di- rectors. The A. D. Baker Company is a valuable adjunct to the busi- ness interests of Swanton and community.
In April, 1886, A. D. Baker married Ella Berkebile. She was a Lucas county woman. a daughter of Levan and Mary (Farmer) Berkebile. the father a Pennsylvanian, who came to Lucas county. They have one son. Louis R. Baker, who is the mechanical engineer of the company. He married Ethel West, of Ontario, Canada. They have one daughter, Lillis. The Bakers vote the republican ticket.
The Baker locomotive valve gear was patented by A. D. Baker, August 20, 1912, and together with F. E. Pilliod he began the manu- facture of it. A stock company was later formed in Swanton, called the Pilliod Company, and Mr. Baker is a stockholder in it. He is also a stockholder in the Swanton Milling and Elevator Company. Mr. Baker is an active man in the Swanton business community.
JACOB SCHUG. The name Schug dates back to Germany, the parents of Jacob Schug, of Amboy, having come from Germany to America when they were young. Peter and Catharine (Mohr) Schug both came to the United States in 1842. and they were mar- ried June 9. 1861, and they bought a tract of land in the timber in Amboy. Here Jacob Schug was born. April 3, 1862, and he has always lived in Amboy except for temporary absence, when he was working as a painter.
Peter Schug, who brought the name to America, started with the
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purchase of forty acres, and he soon added twenty, and later he bought eighty-one aeres of partly improved land, and now all of it is cleared and under cultivation. He was born in 1834 in Germany, and passed away January 23, 1920. ITis wife was born in 1832 in Germany, and she died in 1914 at the family homestead. Their children are: Jacob, who enrolls the family; Peter, of Fulton; Mar- garet, wife of Gottlieb Eckert, of Pike, and Samuel, of Pikc.
Jacob Schug resided with his parents on the farm until he was twenty years old, when he went to Toledo and worked as a painter in the Wabash car shops for six years. From Toledo he went to Ports- mouth, Virginia, where he worked as a painter six years and the last four years he was foreman in the car shops paint department. When he returned to the old homestead in Amboy he followed house painting for eight years. When he started farming again he worked by the day, but in 1914 he took charge of the Sehug farmstead. He now resides in Swanton.
On May 3, 1914, Jacob Schug married Bertha H. Foster. She is a daughter of Daniel C. and Henrietta (Shreve) Foster, and was born in Fulton Township. The father came from Starke and the mother from Huron county. At the time of her marriage Mrs. Schug was Mrs. Bertha Foster Sehug. She was the widow of John, a deccased brother of Jacob Schug. There is one son, Gerald Vin- eent.
The Schugs are members of the Reformed Church. They vote the democratie ticket. Jacob Schug holds membership in the Knights of Pythias Lodge at Portsmouth, Virginia. He is a mem- ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the National Union of Toledo.
DANIEL E. CARROLL. There is a Lucas county side to the fam- ily history of Daniel E. Carroll, of Pleasant Place Farm, in Fulton Township. He was born April 8, 1865, in Spencer Township, Lu- cas county. The Carroll history there dates back to 1844, when his father, Jeremiah Carroll, located at Maumce. "It's a long, long way to Tipnerarv," but Jeremiah Carroll was born in Tinnerary county. Ireland. He married Mary A. Dowling in Fulton Township, and they settled in Spencer Township, Lucas county. They had three sons: Frank and Henry, of Spencer Township, Lucas county, and Daniel E. Carroll, of Fulton, who relates the family history.
D. E. Carroll attended school at Old Swanton and the Toledo Business College. When he was twenty-five years old Mr. Carroll went to Toledo and worked for three years, although for two years before that he had taught school in Metamora. September 15, 1894, Mr. Carroll married Mary Zenk, in Spencer Township, although she was born in Richfield Township. She is a daughter of George and Catharine (Dutch) Zenk. The father was born in Germany, but the mother is an Ohio woman.
The first year after he was married Mr. Carroll lived in a log cabin in Amboy Township, remaining there about five years, when he traded for eighty acres of unimproved land in Fulton Townshin. which he cleared, and aside from thirty acres of wood land it is in a high state of cultivation. He erected a modern brick farm house and has all the up-to-date conveniences in it. While he does gen- cral farming he has registered Poland China hogs, Holstein cattle and Shropshire sheep.
The Carroll children are: Clarence, in the Army of Occupation in Germany. He was in the Sixth Regiment of machine guns in
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MR. AND MRS. A. A. POWERS
1
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France and Germany. Homer, Arvilla and Jerome are at home with their parents. The family are Catholics and members of the church at Caraghar. Mr. Carroll has been a member of the School Board for many years. He has introduced a co-operative plan among his children in taking care of the family exchequer and expenses. He is independent in politics. He is a member of the Catholic Knights of Ohio, and of the Knights of Columbus.
For three-quarters of a century the name Carroll has been identi- fied with northwestern Ohio, and in Fulton county Daniel E. Carroll has exhibited those qualities of enterprise which has taken him from one progressive stage to another until he owns a fine home, a valu- able farm, and as a stock breeder, farmer and citizen has served to make his family name widely known over Fulton county.
LOUIS I. WALTER. Since 1887 the Walter family history, of which Louis I. Walter, of Fulton Township, is a representative, has been in Fulton county. He is a son of George and Hattie E. (Jef- ferson) Walter, and was born March 27. 1875, at Milan, Erie county. The father was a native of Huron and the mother of Erie county. The Jefferson grandparents, Oresamus and Sarah (Mc- Cann) Jefferson, were residents of New York.
When George Walter was married he settled in Erie county, but in 1887 he removed to Fulton county. L. I. Walter was twelve when as a child he came to Fulton county. The father died in December, 1917, and the mother in the following May. Their children are: Louis I. and Fred B., of Toledo.
On February 19, 1895, L. I. Walter married Fannie E. Enfield. She is the daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Shank) Enfield, and lived in Pike Township. Her father came from Holmes county, while her mother was born in Fulton county. For thirteen years they lived on one farm and for six years on another, when they bought their present home, and they have added to the improve- ments until they are modern and comfortable. Mr. Walter does general farming and has a fine Holstein dairy.
In the Walter family there is one son, Lynn, born August 21, 1896. Mr. Walter is a republican and has twice been elected trustee of Fulton Township. The family belongs to the Ancient Order of Gleaners of Ai, and Mr. Walter has served as conductor.
ASAHEL ALBERT POWERS, proprietor of the Fountain Valley Farm in Gorham Township, is one of the veterans of Fulton county agri- culture. His part was not so much that routine cultivation as it was actual pioneer development work. Mr. Powers when a young man used the strength of his body to cut down the timber and clear many an acre of good land in Northern Ohio. He did more than his indi- vidual share of that strenuous work, and his capital and enterprise have been means of developing several other farms. Mr. Powers is an extensive land owner, though in recent years he has turned over the labors of the fields and the responsibilities of management to younger shoulders.
Mr. Powers was born in Chesterfield Township July 26, 1847, son of Peter and Julia (Kennedy) Powers. His mother was a native of Berkshire, Massachusetts. His father was born at Batavia, Genesee county, New York, in 1819, son of Peter and Eurena (Clark) Powers, the former a native of Seneca county, New York, and the latter of Elba, Genesee county. Peter Powers, Sr., was at one time sheriff of Genesee county. The junior Peter Powers came to Chesterfield
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Township at a very early date. His first purchase was forty acres of timber land, which cost him only two hundred dollars. In course of time he owned over five hundred acres in this section of Ohio, and much of it was cultivated and productive of crops. Peter Powers was twice married, and by his first wife had a son, Henry, who died while a soldier in Company H of the Third Ohio Infantry, at Lebanon, Kentucky, in 1862. Peter Powers died in September, 1894. Of the children of his second marriage Asahel Albert was the oldest. Sarah Amelia is the deceased wife of Byron Brink. James A. lives in Fulton county. Mary E. is the wife of Henry Russell, of Chester- field Township. John F. died in Chesterfield in 1918. Clark W. and William P. L. are both residents of Chesterfield. Julia Etta is the wife of Estell Beck, of Gorham Township, while Frank B. re- sides at Morenci, Michigan.
Asahel Albert Powers has some interesting recollections of Fulton county as it was seventy years ago. Some of his most interesting experiences as a boy were when he stayed with his grandparents Kennedy in Chesterfield Township. On more than one occasion while at the Kennedy home he saw Indians passing along the trail, and the sight of them would frighten him so that he would run and hide behind his grandmother's skirts. That old Indian trail is one of the landmarks of Fulton county. The present Hoosier motor highway, a popular route for automobilists, follows largely the same course of the trail between Toledo and Fort Wayne. Mr. Powers had only a common school education, but made good use of his oppor- tunities, and early learned to respect the power of hard work as a means of advancement. He worked at home, also did farm work at monthly wages, and after his marriage in 1872 he moved to an eighty- acre tract of swamp land. Very little of this could be cultivated, since it was covered with brush and timber, but every subsequent scason he was able to put a larger area into crops. There he laid the founda- tion of his business as a farmer and land owner. He increased his homestead to the extent of 240 acres. He also owned eighty acres at another place in Gorham Township, another tract of 173 acres in the same township, 80 acres in Lenawee county, Michigan, 90 acres in Williams county, Ohio, all of which constituted him something of a capitalist in land. The homestead farm and eighty acres be- sides he cleared mainly through his own exertions, but the other parcels of land mentioned he bought already improved. Mr. Powers continued in the fields and in the management of his home place until 1918, when he turned it over to his son. The farm known as Fountain Valley farm is one of the most valuable and productive in the entire county.
Mr. Powers has always been public spirited, and as supervisor of roads and school director has given the benefit of his influence in behalf of better highways and good schools. He has always been a republican in politics.
On April 11, 1872, he married Julia Sutton, who was born in Williams county, Ohio. She died August 16, 1874, and her only child, Julius, died in infancy. On February 22, 1875, Mr. Powers married Elizabeth Smith. She was born in Richland county, Ohio, September 27, 1845, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Perrin) Smith. Her father was a native of Switzerland. Mrs. Powers' first husband was William T. Wood. She is the mother of two children by that marriage: Lenora, Mrs. Jerry Hicker, of Fayette, Ohio, and Mary Almina, wife of Frank Powers, of Morenci, Michigan. To Mr. and
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Mrs. Powers were born six children: Davis, farming his father's place in Gorham Township; Leulla, Mrs. John Heimbishner, of Williams county ; Arvilla, Mrs. Lansing Burnham, of Gorham Town- ship; Grace, wife of William Shaffer, of Lenawee county, Michigan; Leola, who died at the age of twenty-six, leaving two daughters; and Beryl B., wife of Burr Ford, a merchant at Powers, Ohio.
WILLIAM DAVID CLIFTON. "Back to the farm" was the call heard by William David Clifton, of Fulton Township, after he had been in business for a while in Wauseon. Mr. Clifton was born near Bowling Green, April 15, 1868, his parents having come to Wood county from England. He is a son of John and Elizabeth A. (Burn- ham) Clifton.
When he was twenty-two years old John L. Clifton came from England to the United States. He had been a butcher in England, but when he located in Wood county he became a farmer. Before locating in Ohio Mr. Clifton was a butcher aboard ship and went twice around the world as a ship butcher. His parents were dead when he left England. George and Mary Burnham, the maternal grandparents, also came from England and located in Toledo. He had been a butcher in England.
John L. Clifton and Elizabeth Burnham lived for many years near Bowling Green, when they traded their forty acre farm there and acquired 260 acres in Freedom Township, Henry county. They died in Henry county. Their children are: Robert, deceased; Clara, deceased; Rose Ellen, wife of Martin Hoover, of Henry county ; George L., of Wauseon; Alice M., wife of J. J. Leininger, of Wau- seon ; Elizabeth, wife of W. A. Mohr, of York, and William David, the youngest of the family, who relates the family history.
On October 26, 1892, W. D. Clifton married Aletha Gasche, of Clinton, a daughter of George and Esther (Dickerson) Gasche, some of the family living in German Township. For seven years they lived on the old homestead in Henry county. When it was sold they bought another farm in Fulton Township. While it was all cleared and well improved, Mr. Clifton has remodeled and added to the buildings until he has a desirable rural residence. In Novem- ber, 1918, he rented the farm and removed to Wauseon, where he bought and butchered livestock, shipping to the Toledo market, the business of his ancestry, but a year later he returned to Fulton Town- ship and the farm.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Clifton are: John L., of Am- boy ; Mabel, wife of Frank Estel, of Fulton; Harold, Marjorie and Helen. Mr. Clifton has been trustee of Fulton and a member of the Township Board of Education. He is a republican and a member of Berry Grange at Ai. It only required a short residence in Wau- seon to convince Mr. Clifton that farming suited him better than butchering and shipping livestock.
PERDY COLE. While the grandfather, David Cole, came from Paulding county to Fulton county in its early history, the parents of Perdy Cole, of Fulton Township, are natives of Fulton county. He is in the third generation of Coles and was born August 25, 1875, a son of Simon and Julie E. (McCaskev) Cole, the McCaskeys having come from Michigan. The mother is a daughter of Jonathan and Catharine McCaskey, of Lenawee county. The grandparents were all early residents of Fulton county.
Simon Cole first settled in Pike township, but he later traded for
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a farm in Fulton. He died there in 1884, but Mrs. Cole still lives at the old homestead. Their children are: Anna, wife of John Shrock, of Elwood, Indiana; Miles, of Monroe, Michigan, and Perdy, who is the youngest of the family, at the old homestead. For a time he was away and returned and now owns the old farm of seventy aeres, ยท with sixty aeres under cultivation.
In August, 1899, Mr. Cole married Alta Trumbull, of Lueas county. She is a daughter of Rufus and Alice Y. (Files) Trum- bull. Their children are: Luida, Lawrence, Arthur, Julia (de- ceased), Ernest, Oliver, Russell, Robert and Earl. Mr. Cole at- tended district school and Mrs. Cole attended high school in Spring- field. They belong to the Evangelieal Lutheran Church, and he votes with the republicans. A nephew, Carl Trumbull, was in the navy sixteen months and made seven round trips to Franee in the convoy service in the World war.
Mr. Cole found duties and responsibilitet ready at hand when he reached mature years, and the outstanding feature of his career is the fidelity with which he has discharged his obligations and the industrious and intelligent management he has displayed in the handling of the old homestead. His name is properly associated with the most progressive element in the farming distriet of Fulton Township.
HARLEY J. MILLER is a well-known resident of York Township, Fulton county, Ohio, and a prosperous and representative farmer of the county, and comes of a family which deserves a good place in the history of the district. His grandparents were pioneer settlers of a section of Fulton county; in fact, they were in the seetion of York Township before it even was part of Fulton county. The Mil- ler family was the second white family to take up residence in York Township, and John Miller, grandfather of Harley J., has the dis- tinction of having been a member of the first jury formed in Henry county, Ohio, in which county York Township then was. John and Rebecca (Wright) Miller, the pioneer, entered government land in the section, and lived upon it for the remainder of their lives, clear- ing it gradually and enduring resolutely and cheerfully all the priva- tions of pioneering life. George Miller, son of John and Rebeeca (Wright) Miller, and father of Harley J., was born in Seneea eoun- ty, Ohio, and eame with his parents when they took up government land in York Township, and there he lived for the remainder of his life. He married Ellen Leist, daughter of David Leist, and after marriage settled on a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in sec- tion 10, of York Township, where they lived for very many years. and raised a large family. Mrs. Ellen (Leist) Miller was a good mother and of a kind-hearted, hospitable nature, and she had many friends of long standing in the township. She died in June. 1897. Her husband, however, lived for another twelve years, until Novem- ber, 1909, he being then seventy-one vears old. Their children were: Mary, who married H. C. Milev, of Finley, Ohio; Stanton, who died at the age of forty-two years; Harley J., of whose life more will be written ; Charles, who now lives in Henry county. Ohio; Lucy, who married Charles Whiteman. of Napoleon, Ohio; Blanche, who mar- ried Louis Spiess, of Swan Creek Township.
Harley J., son of George and Ellen (Leist) Miller, was born in the parental homestead, seetion 10, of York Township, Fulton coun- ty, in February, 1876, and in due course attended the distriet school of the township. Even as a boy he manifested earnest purpose, and
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