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 35

Author: Reighard, Frank H., 1867-
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 628


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 35


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The early life of George Henry Haynes began on his father's farm in Fulton county, and he acquired a good knowledge of the branches usually taught in district schools. On December 14, 1874, at the age of twenty-four, he married Oliva Koder. Mrs. Haynes was born in Fulton Township January 24, 1852, a daughter of George and Mary (Stout) Koder. Her parents were born near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and were numbered among the early settlers of Fulton Township. Her father while tilling the soil of his farm also exercised his skill as a casket maker a number of years. George Koder died August 16, 1881, at the age of seventy-four, and his wife on May 26, 1888, at sixty-seven.


After his marriage Mr. Haynes lived with his parents two years and then moved to Swan Creek Township and bought fifty acres in section 12. Only half of this acreage had been improved, and for many years succeeding Mr. Haynes exercised his strength and toil in putting the land under cultivation and improving it with mod- ern buildings. He has done well as a general farmer, and has con- tributed much of the value to his land by his own management and effort. Thirteen acres of the farm are within the city limits of Swanton, and much of this has been sold off in town lots. Mr. Haynes also owns a quantity of wild prairie land in Ward county, North Dakota.


Enjoying the confidence of his fellow citizens, he has been a capable local official and served ten years as township treasurer of Swan Creek and ten terms as township trustee. He is a democrat in politics, is a member of the National Union at Toledo and is actively


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affiliated with Lodge No. 526, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Swanton, having filled all the chairs in the Lodge, and also a mem- ber of the Encampment at Delta.


Mr. and Mrs. Haynes had four children: Edgar E., born Sep- tember 5, 1875, is now foreman in the shops of the Pilliod Valve Gear Company at Swanton. He married Elsie Knight, and their seven living children are named Hilda, Clifford, Dorman, Charles, Howard, Gerold and Cleora. The second child, Myrtle, is the wife of Edward Brinley, of Swanton, and has a daughter, Londa. Wil- liam, who died at the age of twenty-five, married Orpha Wales and left one son, Kenneth. Laona, the youngest of the family, is the wife of Thomas Pilliod, of Swanton, and the mother of two children, named Emma and George.


CHARLES L. ALLEN, who served as a member of the advisory board for this History of Fulton County, has been identified with the business and community life of Fayette since prior to the Civil war, in which he took an honorable part as a soldier and Union officer.


Mr. Allen was born at Clarkson in Monroe county, New York, November 16, 1838. son of Isaac and Mary (Terry) Allen. His father was born at Enfield, Connecticut, April 26, 1794, where also his mother was born April 27, 1800. His father died in December, 1885, and his mother in 1876. Isaac Allen was a soldier of the War of 1812. In 1816 he located at Clarkson, New York. He was a hatter by trade, but seven years after his marriage, which was celebrated September 10, 1817, he became a farmer. He enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens and held many offices of trust and honor. The names of the children of Isaac and Mary Allen were: Chauncey, Isaac, Harriet, who married John Little, Mary, who became the wife of James S. Hobbie, Julia, who was Mrs. Gil- bert Aldridge, Joseph O., Emily, who married Nathaniel Phillips, Henry, who served as captain of Company A of the One Hundred and Fortieth New York Infantry, Charles L. and Arthur. The only ones now living are Charles and Arthur, both residents of Fayette, Ohio.


Charles L. Allen acquired a very good education for his time. After the common schools he attended normal school at Brookport, New York, also an academy at Hawley, New York, and a business college at Rochester. He came to Fayette, Ohio, in 1859, at the age of twenty-one, and after one term as a teacher found a job clerk- ing in a general store at eight dollars a month and board. The pro- prietor of that store was G. W. Thompson. He had not been en- joying this compensation and experience very long when the stern call of patriotic duty sounded, and in August, 1861, he left the counter to enlist in Company K of the Thirty-eighth Ohio Infantry. He was elected and mustered in as second lieutenant, and went with the Army of the Cumberland, participating in many campaigns through Kentucky, Tennessee and other states of the middle South. He was promoted to first lieutenant and quartermaster and finally to adjutant, serving as such until December, 1864, when he resigned his commission on account of disability and soon after his return to Fayette was commissioned captain and raised a company, but the war came to an end before it was ready for service. The war over, Captain Allen settled down at Fayette as a general merchant, and continued that business fifteen years. After that he bought and sold produce, but in 1880 closed out that business. In 1885 he became


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one of the associates in the organization of the Bank of Fayette, his partners being Col. E. L. Barber, Arthur Allen and Judson Tro- bridge. Captain Allen was manager and cashier of the institution, and continued at that post of duty until the bank went into volun- tary liquidation in 1913.


Captain Allen has long enjoyed the complete confidence of his conimunity not only for his business ability but for his personal in- tegrity. He served nine years as justice of the peace, as school ex- aniner nine years, and was a member of the Sixty-fourth and Sixty- fifth General Assemblies, and again was elected to the Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth General Assemblies, serving the second time with- out opposition. He is a stanch republican, and is a charter mem- ber of Fayette Lodge No. 387 of the Masons, acting as secretary of the lodge many years. Only two charter members are now living, James Grisut and C. L. Allen. He is also a member of the Loyal Legion, and is a past commander and present quartermaster of Stout Post No. 108, Grand Army of the Republic.


In October, 1865, Captain Allen married Susan C. Gamber. She was born in Seneca county, New York, daughter of Henry and Mary (Hartrenuft) Gamber. Her parents, natives of Pennsylvania, were settlers in Fulton county in 1847. Her father bought 160 acres of timbered land and set off part of this tract and founded the town of Fayette, which he named in honor of Fayette, New York. Cap- tain Allen has two children : Carrie B., at home; and Elsie M., wife of Dr. Clair S. Campbell, a well known Wauseon physician. Dr. and Mrs. Campbell have one son, Charles Allen.


FRANK BUCK, of "Brookmead Stock Farm" in Amboy, is a native of Royalton. He is the only son of Charles S. and Matilda (Clendenin) Buck. While the father is a native of Amboy, the inother was born in Springfield Township, Lucas county. The pa- ternal grandparents, Abner and Lucy (Norton) Buck, came from Massachusetts to Portage county, Ohio, in the early history of the country. In 1838 they moved to Fulton county, settling on the Royalton-Amboy line in Royalton. The next two generations of the Buck family were born there, Frank Buck's birth occurring March 24, 1880, and aside from a few years as a traveling salesman he has always been a resident of Fulton county.


The maternal ancestry, John and Phoebe Ann (Hackett) Clen- denin, were also in Fulton county in territorial days, coming in 1844 to Amboy. He was from Livingston and she was from Roches- ter county, New York. The marriage of Charles S. Buck and Ma- tilda Clendenin was solemnized April 11, 1872, and they imme- diately settled on a farm in Royalton. In 1894 they removed to Fayette, remaining there to educate their son, Frank Buck, and in 1897 they returned to the farm in Royalton.


Charles S. Buck was a Knight Templar and Thirty-second De- gree Mason. He died March 18, 1915, and Mrs. Buck lives in Meta- mora. When he was seventeen Frank Buck graduated from the Fayette Normal School and the family returned to the farm, but in 1908 he became a general salesman through Ohio and part of Penn- sylvania for the Kalamazoo Tank and Silo Company, continuing in this business five years. At this time he bought "Brookmead Stock Farm," and settled down to agriculture again.


Mr. Buck remodeled and added to the farm buildings until "Brookmead" is an attractive homestead. He has thoroughbred livestock and keeps the best of everything. He has registered Hol-


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stein dairy cows, registered Spotted Poland-China hogs, pure bred Ancona and Mottled Java chickens, and carries on diversified farm- ing, observing the proper crop rotation in order to maintain soil fertility.


On April 28, 1914, Mr. Buck married Anna Mary Carpenter. She is a daughter of James L. and Susan (Thompson) Carpenter, of Blissfield, Michigan. The father came from Pottsdam, New York, and the mother from Nashville, Tennessee. Mrs. Buck was educated in Blissfield and Adrian, taking a course in kindergarten at Adrian, and she taught in the Adrian public schools. Her father, James L. Carpenter, was a Civil war soldier, serving in the Seventh Michigan Cavalry. He enlisted as a lieutenant, was promoted to captain and came out of the service a major. The mother died January 27, 1902, and the father, September 29, 1909.


Mrs. Buck is a member of the Presbyterian Church. When she quit teaching she became a stenographer for the Continental Sugar Company of Blissfield. She was with the company four years. She is a member of the Eastern Star and of the Lucy Wolcott Barnum Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Adrian. There are two sons in the family at "Brookmead," Charles Carpenter Buck, born June 28, 1915, and James Clendenin Buck, born March 15, 1918. They are in the fourth generation of the Buck family in Fulton county.


CHARLES BLAINE. The Blaine family history began at Toledo as early as 1830, with the coming of Charles Blaine, Sr., from Onon- dago county, New York. Charles Blaine, Jr., of Amboy, was born November 1, 1847-territorial days in Fulton county, and he has always lived in the same community. His mother, Rachel (Beaulth) Blaine, was born in Sylvania. When they located in Amboy the whole face of the earth in as far as their environment went was in timber and under water.


Mr. Blaine entered a quarter section of land, which he cleared and improved, and he and his wife both died there. The children in this pioneer family are: Robert and Benjamin, deceased; Sarah, wife of George Havens, of Swan Creek; Elmina, wife of William Driscoll, of Royalton; James, of Wichita, Kansas; Charles, of this sketch; Marion, of East Toledo; Esther, deceased wife of William Stillwell; and Emma, wife of Thomas Stedman, of Amboy.


Let the mathematician estimate the age of a young man born November 1, 1847, who enlisted in the Union Army March 1, 1864. Charles Blaine enlisted in Company I, Forty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and his regiment was assigned to duty at Chattanooga. He was in the Army of the Cumberland under Generals Sherman, Logan and Hagen, and he was in some of the hard fought engage- ments. He was at Missionary Ridge and Atlanta, and went with General Sherman "from Atlanta to the Sea while marching through Georgia."


Mr. Blaine was in different engagements in South Carolina and went with his regiment to Raleigh, North Carolina, being there when Johnston surrendered, and he also witnessed General Lee's sur- render. He went to Petersburg, Richmond, and on to Washington. He was in Washington at the time of the Grand Review, as the sol- diers were disbanding and being sent to their homes all about the country. He went from Washington to Parkersburg and down the Ohio River to Louisville. After camping five days in Louisville he went to Little Rock, where he remained four weeks, and from there


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to Camp Denison, where he received his discharge August 11, 1865, and returned to Fulton county.


On February 3, 1867, Mr. Blaine married Esther Roop, a daughter of William and Lauretta (Gilson) Roop, of Amboy. The father was born in Toledo and the mother in Vermont. The pater- nal ancestry, John and Mary (Mills) Roop, came from Buffalo, New York, and Sandusky, Ohio. The maternal grandparents, Al- fred and Jane (Mc Allister) Gilson, came from Vermont.


When Charles Blaine was married he settled on forty acres he had acquired, and remained there ten years clearing and improving it. When he sold it he bought fifty acres of his present farm, when it was all in timber and he had to clear the space for the first house built on it. He now has thirty-five acres under cultivation, the re- mainder in wood land and pasture.


In the way of business enterprise Mr. Blaine owned and operated a cane mill when people lived on sorghum molasses, and as the or- chards came into bearing he added the cider mill. He made sor- ghum molasses and cider for the public until 1902, and he continued in the saw mill business until 1917, when he disposed of it. There was little demand for sorghum and with the destruction of the forest the orchards had more enemies and there were fewer apples for cider. However, the cane mill industry revived in war times in some communities. Sorghum molasses was often substituted for sugar.


Mr. Blaine has added to his landed possessions until he now has 213 acres in three different places, and he personally manages the 120 acres in the farmstead where he lives. He combines livestock production with farming and keeps a dairy. The dairy farmer maintains soil fertility and thereby increases the land production. His children are: Ina, wife of Frank Carter, of Amboy; Charles Ernest, of Delta; Van Harry, of Constantine, Michigan ; and Myrtle, wife of Emmet Wilcox, of Amboy.


For six years Mr. Blaine served as trustee of Amboy Township, and as path master fourteen years. Some of the family ancestry were among the earliest citizens of Fulton county. John Roop, Wil- liam Blaine, Alfred Gilson and Aaron Stedman were pioneers of the community. The Blaines are members of Amboy Grange, and Mr. Blaine is a member of Baxter Post, Grand Army of the Republic, of Lyons. He is vice commander and has held all of the chairs ex- cept treasurer of the Post.


A birthright pioneer of Fulton county, one of the youngest sur- viving veterans of the great Civil war, a farmer and promoter of home industry, these and other services have made Mr. Blaine one of the most interesting and useful citizens of the county, and he well deserves the respect and high esteem in which he is held by the members of his community.


JACOB W. HABLE has a family story in common with others of the same name, being a son of Jacob and Mary Elizabeth (Mohr) Hable, the parents having come from Germany. The father died in 1916, and the mother became the wife of Jacob Leibler. The children of the first family are: Adam, Daniel and Jacob. The Leibler children are Peter and Meda.


In 1888 Jacob W. Hable married Mary Krieger. She died three years later. On November 4, 1915, he married Ermina Knecht, who was born in Switzerland. She had come to America in 1913, and two years later she became the wife of Mr. Hable.


Mr. Hable had bought a farm in Fulton before his first mar-


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riage, and later he bought forty-three acres from the old homestead in Amboy where he was raised, and he has always farmed it. Since 1897 he has bought livestock and poultry, which he has butchered and marketed in Toledo.


Mr. Hable has two children, Walter Emerson and Leslie Paul. Mr. Hable is independent in politics, choosing to vote for the man. He is a member of Zion Reformed Church, and for several years he has been one of its trustees.


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KIMMEL KYPER WATKINS. The Watkins family story embraces several Ohio counties, Kimmel Kyper Watkins, of Fulton Township, having been born June 16, 1859, in Lorain county. He is a son of James Holiday and Nancy (Kimmel) Watkins. The father was born in Wayne county and the mother in Somerset county. They married in Wayne and in 1850 they moved to Lorain, and three vears later they removed to Fulton county, locating in Swan Creek Township. They cleared a farm, and a few years later they bought a timber tract in York Township. He died in 1893 and she died in 1903-ten years later.


There were ten children in the Watkins family: Milton, Oliver, John, Sarah, Mary, William, and Ella, deceased, Kimmel K. of this sketch, George, who lives in Swanton and Frank in Toledo. When Mr. Watkins was thirteen he began working by the month, doing for hiniself. On July 16, 1884, he married Tillie J. Richardson, of Swan Creek. She is a daughter of George H. and Laura (Blake) Richardson. After two years in Fulton Township Mr. Watkins re- moved to Kane county, Illinois, where he worked as a broom maker and by the month on farms for four years.


When Mr. Watkins returned to Fulton county he rented land from 1892 until 1910, when he bought sixty acres where he has since lived, although since 1918 a son works the farm. The chil- dren are : Earl, who works the farm; Ethel, deceased; Opal, wife of George Mason, of Pike; Ross, of Pike, married Fern Sheffield; Orra, who was married February 7, 1920, to Florence Bruner; and Dorr, at home. The family are Methodists. Mr. Watkins is a re- publican, and he is a justice of the peace. He has been school direc- tor and township trustee. He belongs to Berry Grange at Ai.


This is a brief reference to one of the families and one of the in- dividuals who have played an earnest and hard working part in the affairs of Fulton county for many years. It is a well known fact that in America success can be achieved by men who begin life with- out capital, and a case in point is that of Mr. Watkins, who had no other assets than a trade and the qualifications of industry and skill as a farm worker, and raised himself through the successive stages of farm hand and farm tenant to independent ownership of a good country home and a place of influence in his community.


THOMAS JEFFERSON HALSEY. In the days when there was plenty of land that was unoccupied which could be secured from the gov- ernment at a nominal fee, no attention was paid to those portions which were without a good natural drainage, as it was thought they were worthless. As time went on, however, and there were less op- portunities for obtaining cheap land, the more thoughtful turned their attention toward these hitherto neglected portions, and have found that when they are properly drained they are much more fer- tile and, therefore, valuable than the land located higher above the water line. One of the men of Fulton county who now owns a very


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valuable property and has redeemed a good part of it, having the satisfaction of knowing that he owes his present prosperity to his energy and far-sightedness, is Thomas Jefferson Halsey of Delta, owner of a farm in Swan Creek Township.


Thomas Jefferson Halsey was born in Holmes county, Ohio, on June 29, 1851, a son of Isaiah and Rebecca (Wells) Halsey, and grandson of Samuel and Abigail Halsey, natives of New Jersey, and William and Sarah Wells, natives of Holmes county, Ohio. Isaiah Halsey was born in Holmes county, Ohio, in 1808, and by a first marriage he had four children, namely: Jane, Catherine and Jonas, all of whom are deccased; and John, who is a resident of Wood county, Ohio. After the death of his first wife he was married to Rebecca Wells, and they settled in Fulton Township, Fulton county, when Thomas Jefferson was six weeks old. In 1871 they went to York Township, which was their final home, both being seventy- seven years old at the time of death. Their children were as fol- lows: Henrietta, who is Mrs. Henry Gunn, of Toledo, Ohio; Lydia, who was Mrs. Austin Batdorf, is deceased; Thomas Jefferson, who was the third in order of birth; Marion and Harvey, both of whom died in Michigan; Sophronia, who is the widow of Alfred Harrison, of Toledo, Ohio; and Minnie, who was Mrs. William Pennington, is deceased.


Thomas Jefferson Halsey was reared in Fulton county and at- tended its district schools. He grew up on his father's farm, re- maining at home until he attained his majority. He was married on June 28, 1871, to Sarah Norris, born in Hancock county, Ohio. After their marriage he and his wife rented land in York Township, one year farming on shares and the next paying a regular amount of rent. In 1873, Mrs. Halsey died, and Mr. Halsey was subsequently married to Ellen E. Carter, born in Swan Creek Township, a daughter of Solomon and Lucinda (Cass) Carter, he a native of Ravena, Ohio, and she of Canada. Following this second marriage Mr. Halsey bought forty acres of land in Amboy Township, which he cleared and made his home for nineteen years. Selling that farm, he bought 110 acres of land in Swan Creek Township. The greater part of this land was cutover timber, and he cleared it off, improved it, and has always been engaged in farming with the exception of one year when he owned and operated a hotel at Swanton, Ohio, which was in 1889. In 1910 Mr. Halsey bought a residence at Delta, where he is now living. On his farm he has a ditch 114 rods long, 10 feet deep, and from 55 to 60 feet wide at the top, which was originally covered with brush, willows and other marshy growths. To open this channel he and his wife worked 11/2 days at the end of July and seventeen days in August, and then had the assistance of Lee Rich- ards in completing the work. This portion of Swan Creek is now as clean as a city pavement, and by means of it much land otherwise worthless has been brought under cultivation.


The first Mrs. Halsey left one child at her death, George William. but he died in infancy. By his second marriage Mr. Halsey had the following children: Eben B., who died at the age of forty-two years; Lucinda, who was first married to Louis Meeker, and she is now Mrs. John Crow, of Detroit, Michigan; Lewis, who is on the home farm; William E., who is a resident of Delta; Rosa, who is Mrs. Christopher Smith of Delta, Ohio; Isaiah, who lives in Toledo, Ohio; and Esta and Sarah, both deceased. '


While he is a member of the United Brethren Church, Mr. Hal- sey belongs to the more liberal branch of that denomination. He


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is a strong republican, and has served as township trustee and road supervisor. A man of broad vision, Mr. Halsey has long recognized the desirability of having good roads in Fulton county, and has worked hard to secure them for his neighborhood. At first it was somewhat difficult to get some of his associates to agree with his views on the question, but of late years the "goods roads" move- ment has gained a popularity that is nationwide, and Fulton county is not backward in taking up the matter. In many ways Mr. Halsey has proven himself a public-spirited man, and he is recognized as one of the leading citizens of this part of the county.


WILLIAM B. PONTIOUS. The name of Pontious is a well known one in Fulton county, and several of its representatives have devel- oped fine farms in different portions of it, and assisted in establishing the agricultural prestige of this part of the state. William B. Pon- tious, who is the father of Mcclellan Pontious of Pike Township, was born in his present township in 1857 and is now one of its leading farmers and dairymen. He is a son of David and Lucy Ann (Drake) Pontious, natives of Pennsylvania and Belmont county, Ohio, respectively, and grandson of Samuel Pontious, a native of Pennsylvania. Both the Pontious and Drake families came at an early day to Pickaway county, Ohio, where David Pontious and Lucy Ann Drake were married.


Soon after their marriage David Pontious and his wife moved to Fulton Township and bought unimproved land in the timber. There they worked hard to clear off their land and improve it, and there they lived for about thirty-five years, when they retired and spent their last years at Wauseon, where both passed away. During the war between the states David Pontious served as a soldier in the Union Army, belonging to the Sixty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infan- try, and was in it for 31/2 years, after which he received his honor- able discharge, and resumed his peaceful occupation of farming. He and his wife became the parents of the following children: Wil- liam B., who was the eldest; Homer, who lives at Detroit, Michigan; Dillie, who is Mrs. William Orndorf, of Toledo, Ohio; Lydia, who is Mrs. John Taner, of Napoleon, Ohio; Charles, who is a resident of Toledo, Ohio.


On March 25, 1879, William B. Pontious was united in marriage with Patience Snow, born in Holmes county, Ohio, a daughter of John and Cassander (Curtis) Snow. Mr. and Mrs. Pontious be- came the parents of children as follows: McClellan, who is a pros- perous farmer of Pike Township, a sketch of whom appears else- where in this work; Maude, who is the widow of Edward G. Hines, lives with her father; and Ernest, who died at the age of two years.




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