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 39
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Walter E. Disbrow graduated from the Wauseon High School and from the International Business College at Fort Wayne, In- diana. He has been keeper of records and seal for the Knights of Pythias Lodge for five years. He is the record keeper of the Order of the Maccabees, and he belongs to the following Masonic orders: Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council and Knights Templar. He is financial secretary of Wauseon Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a mem- ber of the firm Campbell & Disbrow, Insurance.
On July 19, 1916, Walter E. Disbrow married Rosella R. Crew, and their daughter is Geraldine Eleanor. The Crews and Disbrows live as one family. Mrs. Disbrow is the only daughter of Alva and Mary (Bond) Crew. The mother died and Sadie De Witt came into the family circle, the daughter knowing nothing of another mother. Mary Bond was a daughter of Reuben and Sarah (Bollander) Bond, who were numbered among the pioneers of Fulton county. Alva Crew is a son of Micajah Crew, who was a native of Columbiana county. When he came to Fulton county he married Ellen Jane Lillich, thus connecting the Crew-Lillich families, who meet in annual reunions.
While the early Fulton county Disbrow family history began in Chesterfield, there are now Disbrow relatives in many different communities. "Gene" Disbrow was agent of the Dayton, Toledo & Ironton Railway at Oak Shade for many years, and it was through his efforts that the postoffice and general store were located there. Mr. Disbrow was at once railway agent, postmaster and merchant in the Oak Shade community. The family homestead today is a farmhouse overlooking the village, and Mr. Disbrow devotes his attention to agriculture and its kindred industry, livestock. The family furnished several Revolutionary soldiers, the head of the house of Briggs was a colonel in the second war with England, and the family also furnished its quota of Civil war soldiers. If there were any first families in Ohio, then the name Disbrow would be among them.
EDWIN JAMES BOWERMAN. Among the good influences which have brought about the improvement of farming conditions may be mentioned the opening up at different times of vast areas of new land; the inventive genius of those who created labor-saving ma-
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chinery; the development of transportation by land and water and the consequent drawing together of the farm and markets; the estab- lishment of government experimental stations and other agencies for the promulgation of agricultural information; co-operation among the farmers, and the ready adoption of such important aids as irri- gation, dry farming, selective plant and animal breeding, special- ization in crops, fertilizers and cold storage, all of these have played an important part in the transition from crude beginnings to methods and appliances of the present day. Among the farmers of Fulton county who is living up to the conception of the modern agricultur- ist and doing his part to bring about further improvement of exist- ing conditions in this region is Edwin James Bowerman of York Township.
Edwin James Bowerman was born on the farm he now occupies in section 36, York Township, December 25, 1866, and he has spent his life here. He is a son of Edwin R. and Maria J. (Smith) Bowerman, he born on June 1, 1835, in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and she born in Seneca county, Ohio. The grandparents were James and Phoebe (Tollman) Bowerman, of New York state, and Henry and Martha (Bergstresser) Smith. The great-grandfather Tollman was a soldier in the American Revolution. It was while the paternal grandparents were on their way from New York to Ohio that Edwin R. Bowerman was born in Erie county, Pennsylvania, they being attracted to Ohio by the promise of work on the Maumee Canal, which James Bowerman helped to construct, and he was also a captain of one of the canalboats. The family settled on the Maumee River, but he later bought a farm in what is now York Township, Fulton county, owning at one time 480 acres of timber and prairie land, and being at the time of his death in 1854 a man of considerable means. After their marriage his son, Edwin R. Bowerman, and his wife settled on the old farm and became the owners of 320 acres of land. For some years he was engaged in further improving it, but spent his last days at Delta, Ohio, where he died in 1907, his widow surviving him until 1916. Their children were as follows: Eva, who is the widow of Charles Gross, of Wauseon; Martha, who is the widow of Adam D. Mann, of Wauseon; and Edwin James, who was the youngest.
After the death of his father Edwin James Bowerman secured 120 acres of his father's farm, which includes the homestead, and on it he is carrying on general farming and dairying, his herd number- ing from six to ten cows of the Holstein strain. In his farming he has been successful and takes a pride in keeping everything in first class order.
April 22, 1888, Mr. Bowerman united in marriage with Orpha Cameron, a native of Fulton county, Ohio, and a daughter of Alex- ander and Jane (King) Cameron. She is a member of that distin- guished pioneer family of King, whose story is briefly told on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Bowerman became the parents of the following children: Frank, a farmer in York Township; Clarence; Louise, Mrs. Marvin Greisinger, of York Township ; and Florence, at home. Politically Mr. Bowerman is a democrat.
KING FAMILY. Hardly any of the pioneers of Fulton county came earlier and none were people of more substantial character than the King family, who settled in the woods near where the Village of Delta now stands in the year 1834. Many years ago the history
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of this family was compiled by one of its members and a portion of the account is given here as an historic record that properly belongs in any history of Fulton county.
The Kings went to Ireland in the seventeenth century as part of the English and Scotch Protestant occupation of the Ulster planta- tions. For many generations they lived in the County of London- derry. About the close of the eighteenth century some of the orig- inal land was owned by William King. William King married Elizabeth Torrence, whose ancestry was Scotch, while William King's family came from England. Their children, three sons and four daughters, were born on the farm near Newton-Lamavady. These children were named James, John, Elizabeth, Jane, Mary, Catherine and William. The sons James and William were given a liberal education, while John received the farm. John found the home- stead too small for his family, and in 1824 moved to a large farm he rented, and lived there until 1833. At that time the rented farm was disposed of and the homestead sold. His brothers James and Wil- liam also came to America at the same time. While the other mem- bers of the family remained in New York, William had come west to Ohio. He met the other members of the family at Cleveland in the spring of 1834, and they proceeded by boat to Manhattan at the mouth of the Maumee, where two lumber wagons were obtained to take the party and their baggage to Providence at the head of the Rapids, intending to go on to Fort Defiance, where William had dis- covered a place he thought would be suitable for settlement. While waiting at Providence John King examined a tract of land in the "six mile woods." He was so well pleased with the land and the loca- tion that he determined to go no further and bought a section of Government land densely covered with timber. That formed the original homestead on which the family settled in June, 1834.
The country was all new with only a few families who had settled there that spring. The following week after the family came into the woods a tornado swept through where they had settled and laid the timber flat. It took a whole week to cut their way out to the oak openings. The family were mercifully preserved, a few trees having been cut where the shanty was erected, which saved them.
Three of the daughters of the family, Elizabeth, Mary and Cath- erine, had married in Ireland. The other two families remained be- hind, but they all came out afterward and settled near the homestead in Fulton county. The parents lived after settling in the woods to a ripe old age and were buried in the family burying ground on the farm. James and William remained on the farm one year after they settled. They then went south and lived in Louisiana.
The present sketch is chiefly concerned with John King, who was born in County Londonderry June 20, 1796. He had a peculiar talent for farming, and, as noted above, soon found the homestead too small and carried on extensive operations with rented land. He was also a road contractor in Ireland. The first year he spent in the woods of Ohio he cultivated little more than a garden, but after that the area of cultivation was steadily extended.
.In 1840 John King married Miss Barbara Shoemaker, of Muncy, Pennsylvania. She died October 14, 1846, the mother of two sons. In 1847 John King married Miss Elizabeth Shoemaker, a sister of his first wife. By this marriage there were five children: John, born April 2, 1848; Mary Jane, born February 16, 1850; Elizabeth, born December 4, 1851; Martha A., born July 9, 1853; and Thomas
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W., born March 4, 1855. The only one of these children to remain on the old Fulton county homestead was Thomas W. King, who married Elizabeth Goodwin.
During the first thirteen years in the woods the Kings had no Presbyterian preacher visit them. The Sabbaths were spent in read- ing the Bible and other religious books. John got up a subscription to build a Presbyterian Church at Delta and a petition to the Pres- bytery of Findlay to send them a missionary. A missionary was appointed in 1847 and a congregation was soon formed at Delta. John King had the first Presbyterian Church erected there and was ordained one of the elders of the church. He held that office con- tinuously until his death on September 27, 1865.
Mary Jane King, the oldest daughter of John King, the pioneer, was married January 1, 1867, to Alexander Cameron, born October 17, 1845. Alexander Cameron spent most of his life in Fulton county, and served three years as a Union soldier in the One Hundredth Ohio Infantry. He and his wife had eight children : James K., born October 9, 1867; Orpha A., born November 21, 1869, now the wife of Mr. E. J. Bowerman, of York Township, Fulton county ; Arthur D., born August 31, 1872; Nelly M., born November 13, 1874; Charles L., born September 23, 1877; Frank S., born May 25, 1880; John T., born July 24, 1882; and William F., born November 3, 1884.
WILLIAM ELSWORTH NUTT. An old and honored resident of Fulton county, owner of a valuable and well improved farm in Swan Creek Township, located on rural route No. 25 from Delta, William Elsworth Nutt has received many appreciative tokens of community esteem, and for twenty-seven years altogether has had some participa- tion in the official affairs of his county or township.
Mr. Nutt was born in York Township October 27, 1862, son of John and Sophrona Adeline (Kelley) Nutt. His father was born near Kingbolton, Huntingshire, England, and married for his first wife Susanna Hankins on May 14, 1837. She died in England, and two of her children came with the father to Fulton county, Ohio. On November 24, 1859, John Nutt married Sophrona Adeline Kel- ley, who was born at Norwalk, Ohio, and moved to York Township about 1850. John Nutt by his first marriage had the following chil- dren: Rebecca, who married Gilbert Carver and both are now de- ceased; John, who enlisted as a Union soldier and was killed in battle in 1864; and William, who died in England September 18, 1839. By his second marriage John Nutt has two living children, William E. and Charles Emory, the latter a resident of Monroe, Michigan.
William Elsworth Nutt while a boy on his father's farm attended the district schools and was not yet twenty-one years of age when on December 7, 1882, he married Miss Alice Fouty. Mrs. Nutt was born in York Township March 4, 1865, a daughter of Cyrus and Elizabeth (Visher) Fouty. Her father was born in Columbiana county and her mother at Sylvania, Ohio.
Mr. and Mrs. Nutt lived for a time with his parents, and then took forty acres of the home farm, all woodland, put up a small house, cleared away the timber, and did nearly all the work of improve- ment. In the course of years that forty acres has become a very productive and valuable tract. The buildings now there are the sec- ond set erected by Mr. Nutt. Subsequently he added another forty acres, partly cleared that, and later sold twenty acres, so that his
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present farm contains sixty acres, practically all in cultivation. He now has three sets of buildings. He has made a judicious combina- tion of dairying and general farming.
His two children are Lulu and Clement. Lulu is the wife of Rolland Gawdern of Swan Creek Township, and they have one child, Leta, born March 5, 1916. Clement married Pansy Clace.
The family are member of Shiloh Union Church and Mr. Nutt served as the first elder and trustee. For eight years he occupied the office of justice of the peace, and has always been a school director and road supervisor, and his fellow citizens have always regarded him as completely worthy of their confidence and trust. Politically he is identified with the republican party.
GEORGE W. BERKEBILE. One of the best improved farms in York Township is that known as the Grove Fruit Farm, which has been brought to its present fine state through the efforts of the owner, George W. Berkebile, one of the representative farmers and fruit- growers of Fulton county. He was born in Cambria county, Pennsyl- vania, on April 12, 1857, a son of Jonathan and Catherine (Stutz- man) Berkebile, natives of the same county as their son.
In 1870 the family moved from Pennsylvania to Fulton county, Ohio, where Jonathan Berkebile bought 150 acres in section 21, York Township, and here he was engaged in farming until his death which occurred in 1901. His widow survived him until 1903. Their children were as follows: Abram, who died in November, 1914, aged sixty-two years; George W., who was the second in order of birth; Nathaniel, who died at the age of four years; Samuel, who lives in York Township; Sarah, who died at the age of five years; Jacob, who lives at Delta, Ohio; Amanda, who is Mrs. William Dailey of Delta, Ohio.
George W. Berkebile grew up under the parental roof and at- tended the district schools. He continued to live on his father's farm until in March, 1894, when he moved to an eighty-acre tract in sec- tion 22, York Township, which was cleared but not improved. Since then Mr. Berkebile has erected the necessary buildings, making them modern in every respect. There are electric lights in the house and other buildings, water is pumped from a reservoir in the basement to all of the buildings where it is needed, and the house is provided with a tiled bathroom and hot and cold water. In fact it would be difficult to find any city residence more comfortable than that of Mr. Berkebile. Owing to the fact that Mr. Berkebile is a practical carpenter and was engaged in contracting and building for a number of years in part accounts for the superior plans and execution of these buildings. He also owns sixty acres of land in Pike Township, and is a man of ample means. The distinguishing feature of his farm is its magnificent fruit, he having set out an apple orchard of 100 trees, a peach orchard of 140 trees, and a plum orchard of 100 trees, and also has about fifty cherry trees, some pear trees, and all kinds of small fruit and berries. Of late years he has specialized in fruit growing, and his produce is recognized as being of superior quality.
In 1878 Mr. Berkebile was united in marriage with Sarah Har- mon, born in Pike Township on September 11, 1858, a daughter of David and Barbara (Steele) Harmon, natives of Tuscarawas and Ashland counties, Ohio, respectively. Mr. and Mrs. Berkebile be- came the parents of the following children: Franklin, who died at
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the age of 21/2 years; Edward, who is a resident of Toledo, Ohio; Florence, who is Mrs. Ira Seymour, of California; Nora, who was Mrs. Carl Savage, died in 1909, aged twenty-three years; Lawrence, who lives at Toledo, Ohio; Floyd, who died at the age of 21% years; Roy, who is a resident of Toledo, Ohio; and Orpha and Laverne, wlio are both at home. In politics Mr. Berkebile is a republican. Al- though he has never cared for public preferment, Mr. Berkebile, like all intelligent men, recognizes the necessity for careful supervision of local affairs and a broad-minded support of genuine improvements, and can be depended upon to do his duty by his neighborhood when- ever the occasion arises.
CHARLES L. SHREVES. One of the men who is prominently identi- fied with the best agricultural interests of Fulton county is Charles L. Shreves of York Township, a practical farmer and good business man, whose fine rural property shows the results of his enterprise and industry. He was born in Huron county, Ohio, May 17, 1863, a son of Charles R. and Thankful (Stone) Shreves, natives of New Jersey and Connecticut, respectively. The paternal grandparents, William and Elizabeth (Reeves) Shreves, were natives of New Jer- sey, and they and the maternal grandfather, Oramil Stone, were early settlers in Mahoning county, Ohio, in which the parents of Charles L. Shreves met and were married.
Soon after their marriage the parents moved to Huron county, Ohio, where they lived until 1864 and then went to Hancock county, Ohio. In 1867 they settled in York Township, Fulton county, first renting land, and then in 1890 buying a small tract on which he died in 1906, she having passed away in 1904. Their children were as follows: Oramil, who began preaching at the age of twenty-one years and was sent as a missionary from the Toledo district to India, where he spent six years and while there was married to the widow of Mel- ville Birdsel, they had two children born in India, and he is now deceased; William L., who died in 1908; Alice, who is Mrs. Elmer WV. Struble, of York Township; Clarinda, who is Mrs. William Fred- erick, of Liberty Center, Henry county, Ohio; Maria, who is Mrs. William Bartlett, of York Township; Charles L., whose name heads this review; and Lodema, who is Mrs. Henry Hall, of Defiance, Ohio.
On January 1, 1888, Charles L. Shreves was united in marriage with Mina E. Wise, born in York Township, a daughter of John S. and Angeline (Struble) Wise, natives of Pennsylvania and Fulton county, Ohio, respectively. For four years following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Shreves lived with Mr. Wise, and then bought seventy- eight acres of land which was in those days considered as improved, but since he has owned it he has spent considerable money upon it, among other things tiling the whole farm. This property is in sec- tion 5 and he now owns forty acres additional in section 8, operating both and doing general farming and dairying with very gratifying results.
Mr. and Mrs. Shreves became the parents of the following chil- dren : Blanche, who is Mrs. O. W. Spiess, of York Township; Opal, who is Mrs. J. R. Lemon, of York Township; and Clive, who is at home. Mr. Shreves is a member of the Taylor Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was steward for many years and has been a trustee for thirty years. A republican, he has been elected on his party ticket as a school director a number of times. Believing in the value of the Grange to farmers, Mr. Shreves has been very active in
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it and is now master of the local organization, having been elected to that office three successive times. Enterprising and practical, Mr. Shreves has forged steadily ahead and his present standing has been honorably earned through his industry and foresight.
JOHN CLARENCE GEESEY. Not only does John Clarence Geesey operate his father's valuable farm of 100 acres in German Township, but his own 100 acres additional, and he is recognized as one of the most progressive agriculturists in his neighborhood. He was born on his father's homestead in German Township on May 3, 1867, a son of William H. and Eliza Jane (Wolverton) Geesey. The grand- father, a native of Germany, came to the United States in middle age and bought 113 acres of land in German Township, Fulton county, being one of the pioneers of this region. He and his wife had twelve children born to them, of whom William H. Geesey was the third in order of birth. When a young man twenty-one years of age he took a trip to the western coast in search of gold, during the excitement occasioned by the discovery of gold in California. He was one of the first to leave Fulton county for California, remaining there six years, and returning to the States during the year of 1864. The fol- lowing year he purchased the farm of 100 acres located in German Township of Fulton county, Ohio. July 15, 1866, he was united in marriage to Eliza Jane Wolverton and resided on this farm until the year 1896, when they retired and moved to West Unity, Ohio, leaving his farm under the management of his son John Clarence Geesey, who still operates it.
John Clarence Geesey attended the Edinburg School and the West Unity High School, acquiring an excellent public school education. When he reached his majority he moved on his father's farm. At the age of twenty-seven years he was married to Minnie Irene Misel, a graduate of West Unity High School, and a daughter of John and Sarah (Fisher) Misel, of West Unity, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Geesey have the following children: Mildred, who is Mrs. Frederick Salter, and has one child, John William, born on October 2, 1919; Donald D., who is twenty-one years old; Ralph M., who is nineteen years old; Frieda Gertrude, who is seventeen years old; Charles Albert, who is fifteen years old; and Helen Marie, twelve years old.
With the exception of four years spent at West Unity when he operated a bakery, Mr. Geesey has been on this farm and is engaged in general farming. In national matters it is his practice to vote the republican ticket, but in local matters he prefers to exercise his judg- ment and support the man he deems best fitted for the office in ques- tion. He belongs to West Unity Lodge No. 637, Knights of Pythias, and to Brady Grange No. 2164. At present he is trustee of German Township, and he is the only republican who ever acted as presiding judge of election in this township. Understanding farming as he does, Mr. Geesey has been enabled to make his work and his land pay him a fair profit, and he is proud of the fact that he, his father and his grandfather have all been producers of foodstuffs from land which belonged to them.
GEORGE J. HALLAUER, manager of the Northwestern Ohio Tele- phone Company at Wauseon, is an expert in many branches of the electrical business, and for many years was a valued worker with the telephone company at Wauseon, where he learned his trade and profession.
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Mr. Hallauer was born at Wauseon in 1883, a son of Martin and Bena (Greser) Hallauer. He attended the public schools at Wauseon and one year in high school, and then went to work for the Home Telephone Company. Hc advanced rapidly in its service and for many years was night manager. He is now a stockholder in the telephone company. In 1919 lie resigned his position to invest his savings and experience in association with Charles E. Mattison, under the firm name of Battery Service Company, and they had complete facilities for recharging, rebuilding electric batteries and had the agency in Fulton county for the Willard Battery Service of Cleve- land. January 1, 1920, Mr. Hallauer sold his interest in the busi- ness to G. Scott Roos, and he then accepted the position of manager at Wauseon of the Northwestern Ohio Telephone Company.
In 1917 Mr. Hallauer married Mina Miller, daughter of Dr. Jay and Lilly (Adams) Miller, of Wauseon. They have one son, John William, born in 1918. Mr. Hallauer is independent in politics and is affiliated with Wauseon Lodge No. 347 of the Masons and with the Knights of Pythias.
GOTTLIEB ECKERT. It was in 1884 that Gottlieb Eckert came to Ottawa county, Ohio. He was born in Germany May 15, 1865, and had not yet attained to his majority when he immigrated to America. He was a son of William and Rebecca Eckert, both of whom died in Germany.
Mr. Eckert always worked at farming in Ottawa county, and sometimes he would run an engine in a saw mill. In fact he was a man of all trades. In November, 1892, he married Margaret Schug, who was also a German. She was a daughter of Peter and Cathar- ine (Morh) Schug, who were immigrants, although she was born in Amboy. The parents met and were married in Fulton county. The wife died in 1914, and Mr. Schug, who survives, is eighty-five years old.
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