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 33
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DAVID STOLTZ is one of the enterprising men of Fulton county whose energies and capabilities have been centered upon the develop- ment and cultivation of his fine farm of 153 acres in Franklin Town- ship, in this work not only gaining for himself a fair competence, but also doing his part in the production of foodstuffs for the country at large, and lately for the world.
David Stoltz was born on a farm in Lycoming county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1848, a son of Jacob and Henrietta (Heishley) Stoltz. The paternal grandfather, also David Stoltz, came from Wurtemberg, Germany, to the United States and settled in Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, bringing with him his son, Jacob, then a child of five years, and his two elder brothers. With the industry and thrift of his people, the elder David Stoltz went to work to acquire a farm and clear it of the natural timber which covered it, and there he passed away at the age of fifty-five years, leaving a family of four children.
Jacob Stoltz remained on his father's homestead until 1868, when he sold his interests and came to Fulton county, buying the farm now owned by his son David in Franklin Township. Like his father he was a constructive citizen and a hard-working man, and after he had secured his property he went right to work to place it under the plow. At the time he came to the township the greater portion of it was covered with timber or stumps. The trees were chopped down by hand, and the stumps grubbed out, usually the latter being done after a crop of two had been raised on the land. Plowing, plant- ing, cultivating and harvesting was then done in a very different manner from now, and the implements were few and crude when compared to the equipment of a modern farming plant. Yet on it Jacob Stoltz reared eight children and made a living for them and for himself and wife, and saved up a comfortable fortune.
David Stoltz attended the district schools during the winter months until he was sixteen years old, and then left his schooldays behind him and did a man's work on the farm. He has never left the homestead, and after the death of his father bought out the other heirs. Here he is carrying on a general farming business and making money, owing to his knowledge of the work and his conveniences and machinery.
In 1870 David Stoltz was married to Mary A. Waltz, a daughter of David and Mary (Ulmer) Waltz. Mr. and Mrs. Stoltz became the parents of the following children : Harrison A., who is engaged in teaching school at Pettisville, Ohio; William A., who is unmarried, lives at home; Arthur O., who married Iva Shetler and has six children ; Nelson L., of Franklin Township; and W. D., who married Lulu Andre, lives in Franklin Township and has two children. In politics Mr. Stoltz is largely influenced by his own judgment as to the fitness of the man for the office. For three terms he served Frank- lin Township as treasurer and administered the affairs of that office in a very efficient manner, and he has also been township trustec. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church and is serving it as
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trustee. Successful in all of his undertakings, he has not lost his sense of responsibility for the welfare of his community, and lives up to his highest conception of good citizenship and upright man- hood.
LEONARD STINE. Agriculture is just as essential to peace as it was to war, and consequently now more than ever must the farmer receive due credit for the work he is doing and the responsibilities under which he rests, for to him and his labor the whole world is looking for an adequate food supply. The farmers of Fulton county are measuring up well under present day requirements, and one of them who is doing good work with his fifty-acre farm is Leonard Stine of German township.
Leonard Stine was born in Jefferson Township, Richland county, in 1849, a son of Daniel and Mary (Evarts) Stine, and grandson of Joel Stine, who came from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Richland county, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life. Daniel Stine moved from Richland county to Franklin Township, Fulton county, in 1853, and buying a farm spent the remainder of his years in cultivating it, and died on it in 1890.' His wife died many years before him, passing away in 1878. Of their three children, Leonard Stine is the eldest.
After he had completed the country school courses at the age of nineteen years Leonard Stine worked on his father's homestead for a year. His next step was to engage by .the month or day with farmers, and remembers distinctly wielding the cradle in a wheatfield for sixty-eight cents per day. Of course all wages in those times included board and lodging, but the hours in a day were many more than would be tolerated now, and the men were driven at top speed. After four years of working about the country Mr. Stine was mar- ried on September 6, 1873, to Mary Sine, a daughter of Joseph and Amanda Sine of German Township, both of whom were born in France and came to the United States in their youth. They had seven daughters and five sons born to their marriage. All of the Sine family belong to the French Catholic Church.
After Mr. and Mrs. Stine were married they began housekeeping in a log cabin, and Mr. Stine alternated farm work with carpenter- ing until he had saved up enough to buy fifty acres of land, which property is still his homestead, and he has lived on it ever since, improving it in every way. Mr. and Mrs. Stine have two children, namely: Albert Jean, who lives at Walden, Michigan, married Ger- trude Clark, and they have four children, Retta, Florence, George and Harold; and Myrtle, who married Francis Peters of West Unity, Ohio, and they have five children, Richard, Malcolm, Ralph, Mary and Allen.
Ever since he bought his farm Mr. Stine has carried on general farming, and believes his place is best adapted to the growing of diversified crops. A republican, he is serving as a trustee of Ger- man Township and as a director of the Edinburg, Ohio, School, hav- ing held that office for nine years. He belongs to the State Grange, and for fifteen years has been president of the Patrons of Industry of the county association. Interested in the development of local enterprises, he has invested in stock of the Mutual Telephone Com- pany, and has in many other ways proved his value as a citizen. In the creed of the Disciple Church he finds expression for his religious belief. and is active in the local congregation of that denomination. A violinist of marked talent, Mr. Stine is oftentimes asked to favor the different gatherings he attends, and with obliging good humor
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complics with these requests. There is no doubt that had he cared to devote himself to a musical career and in his youth possessed the means for continental study, he would be a well known figure in this art, but he has used it as a relaxation and finds in it a pleasure which increases as the years pass by.
JOHN ASHBROOK STULLER, who for more than thirty-five years has been an official of the New York Central Railway Company, Lake Shore Division, and for twenty-nine years has been freight and passenger agent at Pettisville, Fulton county, Ohio, has during that period been one of the leading residents of that place, active in public affairs and an able administrator of sincere public spirit and of alert attention to projects that have been consequential to the community. And during the recent war he proved himself to be a citizen of whole-hearted and useful patriotism, serving effec- tively and enthusiastically on all the local committees organized to effect the purposes of the national loan campaigns in his district. His interests in the various activities of Pettisville is demonstrated in his public record. For fifteen years he was a member of the Pettis- ville Board of Education, for many years he has been a director of Pettisville Cemetery and president of the Cemetery Board of Trustees, and in church work his record is praiseworthy and in- eludes seven years as secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Pettis- ville Union Church and twenty years as treasurer of that board. It will therefore be recognized that Mr. Stuller has been a helpful resident of Pettisville.
He was born in Edon, Williams county, Ohio, January 29, 1863, the son of James and Phoebe (Foster) Stuller. The Stuller family is of German origin, but for many generations has been resident in America, members of the family having record in the early gener- ations of Pennsylvania settlement. The grandfather of John A. Stuller drove along the blazed trail through the wilderness from Pennsylvania into Ohio and settled on a tract of wild land at Edon of that state and there for the rest of his life he lived, raising his family there, at the outset experiencing all the rigors and priva- tions encountered by the average resolute pioneer, but latterly win- ning for himself and his family comparative comfort in the posses- sion of good tillable land. His son James, father of John A., suc- cceded to the family property and farmed industriously throughout his life, his four children, two sons and two daughters, being born on the farm. John A. as a boy attended the Anspach country school during the winter months, and spent the long summer vacations chiefly in tasks upon the home farm. So passed the years until he was about seventeen years old, the family then moving to Edger- ton. Williams county, Ohio, where for the next two years he assisted his father in the management of the Cober Hotel, which his father liad acquired. John was nineteen vears old when he entered the employ of the Lake Shore Railway Company as telegrapher at Arch- bold Station, Fulton county, Ohio. He had previously undergone a course in telegraphy at the Maguire School of Telegraphy, Edger- ton, Ohio, and had become an efficient operator. For three months he was night operator at Archbold Station, and then was transferred in the same capacity to Chesterton, Indiana, where he remained as night operator for eleven nights. That brought his career to the time of his first introduction to Pettisville affairs. He was trans- ferred as night operator to that station on September 11. 1883, and remained so employed at that place until June 6, 1888. On the 18th
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of that month he was appointed day operator at Swanton, Ohio, from which station he went to that of Corunna, Indiana, as day operator, and as such for a few weeks in 1889 was in Goshen, In- diana thence to Ligonier, Indiana, December 14, 1889, back again soon afterward to Corunna, where he remained until January 26, 1891, when he was ordered to Stryker, Ohio, as day operator. Next he was at Brimfield until June 15, 1891, when he was promoted to the Pettisville station as freight and passenger agent and day oper- ator. As the responsible and capable agent of the New York Cen- tral Railway Company at Pettisville, Ohio, he has remained ever since, proving by his long service that he is a man of constancy and loyalty, and also of definite efficiency.
His energetic disposition and his interest in the community he served brought him much into public life. He was ever ready to co- operate personally in community movements, and throughout his residence in Pettisville has been a helpful spirit among those pub- lic-spirited citizens who sought to promote the interests of the town. He interested himself particularly in educational matters, and for fifteen years was a valued member of the Pettisville Board of Educa- tion. He has been a director of the Pettisville Cemetery and presi- dent of the Cemetery Board of Trustees. He has always been a consistent churchman, and his record of church work in Pettisville is especially commendable. He is secretary-treasurer of the Pettis- ville Union Church. He was secretary of its board for seven years, 1893-1900, in the latter year being elected treasurer of the board, which office he has held continuously until the present, a period of twenty years. He is a member of the Christian Church at Wau- seon. Politically Mr. Stuller is a republican of independent lean- ing, and while he has taken close interest in national politics of con- sequence he has not followed national political movements as closely as he has those affecting Pettisville. In local affairs he has for many years been active, and might have secured election to local civic office had he so wished, for in the community he is held in high esteem. Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In the former he is affiliated with and is a charter member of Lodge No. 248 at Corunna, Indiana, and has held membership in that branch since 1899. Of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows he is a member of Wauseon Lodge No. 362. He has since his carly years of man- hood been a citizen of loyal, manful type, and during the recent war was whole-heartedly with the federal administration in the pros- ecution of the struggle. In Pettisville he co-operated in every movement which had for its object the betterment or strengthening of some phase of the national purpose, and was a valuable member of the local committees responsible for the raising of the Pettisville quota of the various Liberty Loan issues, and of the other funds raised for auxiliary organizations engaged in war work. And he had the gratification of seeing Pettisville take good place among the loyal communities that over-subscribed their quota.
Mr. Stuller's many working interests and the esteem he enjoys in this community have sustained him through personal bereave- ments. He lost both his children, and recently was deprived of the companionship of his good wife after they had been married thirty- four years. He married in 1886 Minnie May Broughton, daughter of Amos and Mary (Blakeley) Broughton of Pettisville. Mrs. Stuller's death occurred March 31, 1920. The two children who for some years blessed and brightened their home were a son, J. Leroy, and a daughter, Vesta Mary.
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SAMUEL K. DAVIS, of Shady Side Farm in Swan Creek Township, does general farming and conducts a dairy business. In early life he received a common school education, and later he has served as a sehool director and road supervisor in the community. Mr. Davis is republiean in polities. He is a member of the Delta Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and has filled all the chairs. He is also an active mem- ber of the loeal Grange. He was born January 10, 1853, in Rich- land eounty. He is a son of Abner and Mary (Vance) Davis. The father was born in 1790, and died in 1864, the mother having died eight years earlier. Mr. Davis married a second time, and Sam- uel K. Davis was reared by the stepmother, continuing to live with her until manhood.
On March 18, 1874, he married Phoebe R. Wilson, of Ashland county, Ohio. She was born March 23, 1853, and is a daughter of Maxwell and Sarah (Van Valkenburg) Wilson, the mother born in 1815 and the father in 1817, in Washington county, Pennsyl- vania. In 1843 they drove through from Pennsylvania to Ashland county. They died in 1892, inside of twenty hours of each other, and they were laid in the same grave.
After his marriage S. K. Davis moved to a farm his father had left him in Richland county. In 1896 he sold it and returned to Fulton county, locating in Pike Township, where he bought eighty acres. In 1910 he sold his farm and bought forty acres in Swan Creek Township, remodeling the house and adding the necessary farm buildings, and now everything is modern and comfortable there. Wherever he has lived he has given attention to livestoek and dairying along with general farming operations.
The children in the family are: Myrtle, wife of Elliott Griffin, of Toledo; Dora, wife of William Arnold, of Bellvue; Ruby, wife of Jay Turpening, of Swan Creek. Another child, Samuel Kirk- wood Yarman, was "bound out" to Mr. Davis when he was four years old, and he lived there as a son until he reached his majority. Mrs. Davis had the following brothers and sisters: Henry, who died in early life; George, who lives at Mansfield; Martha, wife of John Mapes, of Paris, Illinois; James, of Vermilion, Illinois; La- venia, wife of Andrew Strickler, of Paris, Illinois; Walter, deceased; Sarah Jane, wife of Joseph McCowen, of Paris, Illinois; Mary, wife of Ebert Cole, lives at Jefferson, Iowa. Mrs. Davis is the youngest in the Wilson family.
Evidently progress has been the keynote in Mr. Davis' career. He has made good use of the opportunities presented during the forty-five years sinee he married, and while he has lived in two dif- ferent eounties and on several farms, each move has been made in order to give him larger effectiveness as a farmer and stockman. All of these communities have likewise known him as a very in- telligent and publie-spirited eitizen.
GEORGE LEININGER. While George Leininger, of Swan Creek Township, is a native of German Township, having been born June 27, 1854, at Archbold, the family name was brought to the United States from Alsace-Lorraine. His father, George Leininger, Sr., was an emigrant, although his mother, Nancy (Ditto) Leininger, was born in Seneca county. His grandfather, Jacob Leininger, came in an early day to German Township, where he owned forty acres of land near the City of Arehbold.
The maternal grandparents, George and Susan (Folk) Ditto, were also early citizens of German Township. While George Ditto
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was born in Pennsylvania, his father was born in Ireland. He lived for a time in Seneca county, and later moved with a yoke of oxen to Fulton county. He entered 320 acres of land where the west half of Archbold is now situated, and he owned it long enough to receive as much for one acre as he had paid for all of it. He entered this land at Archbold when he was forty-two years old, and forty years later he died there. George Leininger, Sr. and Nancy Ditto were married there. They lived on an eighty acre tract that is now within the town of Archbold. George Ditto died in 1915, aged eighty- eight years. His wife died in 1895, aged sixty-four years.
The children born to George and Nancy Leininger are: Andrew, of Springdale, Arkansas; Aaron, of Archbold; John, who is de- ceased; George, who relates the family history; Amos, of Archbold; Susan, widow of Adolph Bergt, of Dodge county, Nebraska; Re- bekah, wife of Emil Chulke, a Lutheran minister; Nancy, who mar- ried Charles Heupel of Toledo; Philip, of Stillwater, Oklahoma; and Henry, of Archbold.
When George Leininger was nineteen years old he began learn- ing the wagon maker's trade in Defiance, Ohio. After six months he returned to Archbold and worked for two years with his brother in the wagon making business, when he moved to the Ditto farm owned by his grandmother. After her death he worked 31/2 years in a gen- eral store of the L. D. Gotschall Factory. He later worked in a stave factory and at the carpenter trade.
In 1886 Mr. Leininger purchased an eighty acre timber tract in Swan Creek Township, and two years later he removed to it. He cleared this land, and it is now all under cultivation but a five acre tract used for pasture land. The farm has modern buildings, and it is inclosed with excellent wire fences. It is all tiled and under high state of cultivation.
On August 27, 1879, Mr. Leininger married Jennie C. Spade, of Napoleon. She is a daughter of George and Eliza (Cunning- ham) Spade. Her father was an early settler and helped hew the logs used in building the first courthouse in Henry county. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Leininger are: Amanda, wife of William Osterhout, of Swan Creek; Myrtle, wife of Irvin Kurch- ner, of York Township; Edward, of Delta; Rudolph, of Pioneer, Ohio.
In his early life Mr. Leininger attended the public school and the parochial school in Archbold. He is a member of the Lutheran Church and has served as one of its trustees. In politics he is a re- publican. As an incident in the family history it is related that his maternal grandfather, George Ditto, owned and operated the first grist mill in Fulton county. He brought it from Seneca county. The mill drew patronage from ten miles around, and it was of great advantage in the pioneer community. Those who had grist to grind brought it to the mill and others were enabled to purchase the prod- ucts for less money than they could procure them from distant points. The Leininger-Ditto history is closely identified with the beginning of things in Fulton county. And, moreover, the work done by the earlier generation has been worthily continued in the person of Mr. George Leininger, who deserves especial credit for the excellent farm and fine country home he has developed in Swan Creek Town- ship. While he has always been known as a man who has looked diligently after his own business, he has always been concerned in a public-spirited way with the welfare and advancement of his com-
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munity, and his influence and support are frequently regarded as necessary to the success of some local enterprise.
FREDERICK A. SEGRIST, a successful and respected farmer of Swan Creek Township, owner of a good agricultural property in that township and of another farm of eighty acres in York Township, Fulton county, has lived a worthy life of persistent but enterprising industry. The Segrist family has had association with the develop- ment of Fulton county since its early days, and the two farms of Frederick A. Segrist are those won practically from the wilderness by his father, John Segrist. The Segrist family has honorable place in the earliest records of York Township, Fulton county, and worthy place among the consequential pioneers of this section of the State of Olio.
Frederick A. was born in York Township, Fulton county, Ohio, December 14, 1872, the son of John and Lucinda (Bowman) Se- grist, and grandson of David Segrist. His father and grandfather were born in Wurtemburg, Germany, but John Segrist was in early infancy when brought by his father, David, grandfather of Frederick A., to this country. At the outset of their American residence the Segrist family lived in Pennsylvania, but early came into Ohio, and eventually entered government land in what is now Fulton county. John Segrist eventually married Lucinda Bowman, and for many years lived in York Township, where most of their children were born, but eventually he went into Swan Creek Township, acquiring a farm in section 17 of that township. Frederick A. was born in the old Segrist family homestead in York Township, and there spent most of his youth. He was twenty-two years old when he married, after which important event in his history he took up his residence on a farm belonging to his father, the property being situated in Swan Creek Township. There he and his wife passed the first six years of their married life as tenants, but since 1910 the farm has belonged to them, being acquired by Frederick A. Segrist from his father with the proceeds of his fifteen years of industrious work as a tenant farmer. He has since much improved the property, and has built a substantial modern dwelling of nine rooms, and has been able to fit it with most of the modern conveniences that add to the comforts of life. Furthermore, his success in farming the Swan Creek acreage gave him the means wherewith to purchase the old Segrist homestead in which he was born in York Township. That property, eighty acres in extent, he acquired more for sentimental reasons than any other, and he does not himself operate it, renting the farm to mutual satisfaction. He has been a close student of modern developments of farming, and has been apt in recognizing and in adapting to the conditions of his own farm many modern improvements. His farming has been of the general order. and he has had substantial success in stockraising. His Swan Creek farm, known as Woodlawn Farm, is a well-balanced property, and he maintains it in a high state of fertility, knowing the real bases of good farming.
Politically Mr. Segrist is a democrat, but has not closely followed national political movements. In local affairs, however, he has been interested, and might have been elected to office in the local admin- istration had he so wished, for the Segrist family has an honorable record in the district, and he, personally, is of good repute for moral and material integrity. Formerly he and his wife were more active in the social life of the community, and they are very hospitable.
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His wife, whom he married on March 28, 1895, was Emma Snyder, who was born in York Township, daughter of Samuel and Ellen (Frederick) Snyder, well-known York Township residents. Mrs. Segrist's parents were not, however, born in the township, her father being a native of Pennsylvania, and her mother having been born in Piqua, Miami county, Ohio.
ORREN NEWTON DETWILER. The Detwiler family story began in Fulton county in 1862, when Orrin Newton Detwiler came to Swan Creek Township with his parents. He was born August 26, 1855, in Marion county. He was a son of Jacob and Penelope (Miller) Detwiler. They belonged to the first quarter of the nine- teenth century, he having been born November 14, 1816, while his wife was born August 28, 1824, eight years later. They were mar- ried December 15, 1843, at Marion Ohio, and resided there until 1862, when they removed to Fulton county. She died June 5, 1888, while he died September 5, 1889, both being highly respected pioneer citizens.
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