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 40
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Gottlieb Eckert worked as a farmer in several Ohio counties and in 1905 he bought eighty acres of partly improved farm land in Pike Township and finished making a farm of it. He cleared the brush and stumps, remodeled the buildings and fenced the fields. He put the farm into excellent condition. He died December 29, 1918, and Mrs. Eckert relates the family history. Their children are: William, deceased, who was a soldier in the war of the nations, and died October 25, 1918, at Camp Sheridan; Sherman, a dis- charged soldier from service in France; Lawrence, Fern, Ernest, Paul, Mary and John.
Mr. Eckert was a republican. He held membership in the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 584 of Genoa, Ohio.
The late Mr. Eckert was in his fifty-fourth year when he died. He had come to America a poor boy, with only his ambition and the skill of his hands. He was the type of man that America readily and kindly adopts. He possessed the qualities of good citizenship. Fundamentally he relied upon his hard work and energy to gain the things he desired, and while he realized his modest ambitions, improved and developed a good farm for his family, his life was also an expression of worthy citizenship, and that citizenship is also continued through his children, two of whom earned the lasting honor of their country by service as soldiers.
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Father Schert
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LEWIS G. ATON, of Swan Creek, is a native of Bradford county, Pennsylvania. He was born there January 18, 1842, being a son of Rufus and Usebia (Mead) Aton. The father was born in Pennsyl- vania, but the mother was a native of York state. They married and settled in Pennsylvania, but in 1848 they removed to Erie county, Ohio. In 1852 they moved again, this time locating in Swan Creek, Fulton county.
Mr. and Mrs. Aton came with her grandparents, Amos and Eliza- beth (Garrison) Mead, to Fulton county. They had bought an eighty-acre tract of land and here they lived and died, and Mr. Aton's father also died in a short time, but his mother bought a twenty-acre tract and continued her residence in Swan Creek until 1913, when her death occurred, and Mr. and Mrs. Aton were left in the com- munity.
Mr. Aton has brothers Levi D., of Calhoun county, Iowa, and David M. and Chauncey M., both of Swan Creek Township. In May, 1861, Mr. Aton enlisted in Company I, Thirty-eighth Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, and he served as a private in the Civil war under Gen- erals Grant, Thomas and Sherman. He was in many of the hard- fought battles and he was with General Sherman in the famous march from Atlanta to the sea, having covered the distance from Chattanooga and continued the march from Atlanta. Mr. Aton re- ceived his honorable discharge from the army July 21, 1865, escap- ing without injury and returned then to private citizenship in Fulton county.
On September 9, 1867, Mr. Aton married Adelia D. Nicholas. She was born September 9, 1852, in Huron, Erie county. She was a girl wife, the daughter of Thomas and Roena (Fuller) Nicholas. The parents were from Vermont.
Soon after his marriage Mr. Aton invested in a twenty-acre tract of timber land in Swan Creek, but he farmed other land on the shares, working at odd times clearing his own land, and in 1871 he built the house and moved to his own home, and here he has lived since that time, engaged in general farming. His early education was in common school, and he has given his children the improved advan- tages of the present day. The children are: Thomas Edison, of Toledo, who married Nellie Inman. They have two daughters; Ada May is the wife of W. A. Harp of Toledo; Edna Belle is the youngest in the family. The first born, Millie Leola, died at the age of seven years.
Mr. Aton is republican in political affiliation, and he is an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post No. 228, of Swan- ton.
ROLLA E. MILLER. Born and bred in York Township, Rolla E. Miller is still a resident of this portion of Fulton county and one of its successful farmers and enthusiastic boosters. He was born on Feb- ruary 25, 1872, a son of Warren T. and Henrietta P. (Dumaresq) Miller, natives of York Township and Cuyahoga county, Ohio, re- spectively. The grandparents, John S. and Rebecca (Wright) Mil- ler, natives of Pennsylvania, were very early settlers in York Town- ship. The maternal grandparents, John and Margaret (McKay) Dumaresq, were also among the early settlers of Fulton county.
Following their marriage Warren T. Miller and his wife located in York Township, and there he continued farming until his death, which occurred in February, 1915. His widow survives him and lives
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in Wauseon. Their children were as follows: John, who was drowned at the age of eighteen months; Martha, who was Mrs. Theo- dore Fonty, died in 1897; Rolla E., whose name heads this review; and Octavia, who is Mrs. Ira Free, of York Township.
On August 22, 1893, Rolla E. Miller was married to Lucy C. Seymour, born in York Township, a daughter of Gideon and Rosena B. (Slagel) Seymour, natives of Pennsylvania and Coshocton county, Ohio, respectively. Immediately thereafter he moved to his farm of eighty aercs on section 27, York Township. At that time there were thirty-nine acres of it cleared, the remainder being in the tim- ber. Sinee then Mr. Miller has put his place in fine order, all of it but ten acres being under cultivation, he preferring to keep that in timber, and he has erected a set of modern buildings. Here he earries on general farming according to the most approved methods, and is a man universally respected.
By his first marriage Mr. Miller had three children, namely: Cecil, who lives at Wauseon, married Laura Leitner and they have two children, June Christine and Ruth Arlene; Kenneth and Ford R., who died in infaney. The first Mrs. Miller died on May 1, 1911, and Mr. Miller was married on January 5, 1916, to Minnie A. Tim- bers, born in York Township, a daughter of Eli and Lueinda E. (Wise) Timbers, natives of Van Wert and Fulton counties, Ohio, respectively. Mrs. Miller was the widow of James P. Atwater at the time of her second marriage, and the mother of the following chil- dren : Maurice Burdett, who lives at Toledo, Ohio; Rosco, who died in infaney ; Paul Edmund, who also lives at Toledo, Ohio ; and Adelia May, who married Reville Regenold of Swanton, Ohio. Mr. Atwater died on December 14, 1914, at Milton Center, Wood county, Ohio, having been a harnessmaker by trade. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have one son, Ralph Herman.
While Mr. Miller's attendance at school was limited to the time he went to the Empire District School, his wife had the advantages offered by the Delta High School. In politics Mr. Miller is a repub- lican, and fraternally he belongs to Wauseon Lodge No. 156, Knights of Pythias, and Mrs. Miller belongs to the Eastern Star. A member of the United Brethren Church, Mr. Miller is now serving the local congregation as trustee and treasurer.
Mrs. Miller's son, Paul E. Atwater, spent a year in the United States Navy during the World war, and her son-in-law, Reville Rege- nold, was in a machine gun corps and served in France for fifteen months during the same war. He was in the following offensives : Aisne-Marne, August 1 to 6, 1918; Somme, August 8 to 12, 1918; St. Mihiel, September 12 to 16, 1918; and Meurtha-Moselle, No- vember 10 to 12, 1918.
EZEKIEL U. HOLLAND. When it is remembered that the earliest permanent settlements were made in Fulton county during the '30s and that Ezekiel U. Holland was born here toward the elose of that decade, it is evident that he is a connecting link between the real pioneer period and the present.
Mr. Holland, who lives on his farm in Amboy Township, was born in Fulton county December 18, 1839. He was eleven years of age when Fulton county was created and organized. His parents. Thomas R. and Deborah (Thompson) Holland, were natives of Buckingham, England. They eame over on the same ship, were married after landing in America, and soon after settled in what is
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now Royalton Township of Fulton county. Thomas R. Holland had some unusual experience as a pioneer home maker in this wilder- ness. The land he entered was covered with timber, and there were no roads to connect his farm and home with the few towns in north- ern Ohio. As he could not raise a crop, in order to get the money for his necessary household supplies he secured employment in help- ing build the first dock in the Toledo harbor. It required a courage surpassing that of most modern women for his wife to'remain alone in the wilderness, in the little cabin home, surrounded by wolves and other wild animals, while her husband was away. At midnight on Sunday he would leave his wife at home, walk the entire distance within four miles of Toledo, do a day's work on Monday as well as every other day in the week, and after a full day on Saturday would walk home. He kept this up for two winter seasons. The summers he was busy in clearing and trying to get a modest crop of wheat or oats to grow among the stumps. At times the food supply in the house would get so low that members of the family would go into the fields, husk corn from the stalk, grate it and convert it into mush. Thomas Holland never hired work done on his farm, but by the device of changing work with his neighbors got forty acres cleared and thus did his part in the development of at least one farm in Ful- ton county. The children of Thomas R. Holland and wife were: Anna M., deceased; Ezekiel U .; Louisa, wife of Joseph Southworth, of Weston, Michigan; John P., of Toledo; and Esther Jane, de- ceased.
Ezekiel U. Holland has many memories of the conditions above described and the hardships of the life of the earliest pioneers. In order to get some schooling he walked through the woods from his home to the schoolhouse more than a mile away, but attended school only two or three months each winter, the rest of his time being spent at work, and his education was practically ended by the time he was eighteen years of age. After that he was a working factor in the household, and at the age of twenty he left home and became de- pendent on his own resources. During the Civil war Mr. Holland enlisted, but after one month of training was released from further duty. On January 7, 1862, he married Louisa Jane Driscoll, who was born in Medina county, Ohio, daughter of John and Susan (Myers) Driscoll, natives of the same county. After his marriage Mr. Holland bought fifty-two acres. Five aeres had been cleared and seven acres were in "slashings." This land was in section 18 of Amboy Township. Some years later he had it cleared, and then bought fifty acres more in section 19. At the present time he has a farm with about forty acres in cultivated fields, while the rest is used for timber and pasture. Mr. Holland served one term as constable.
His first wife died May 23, 1890. She was the mother of two sons, Willis Edgar, deceased, and William Emery, of Amboy Town- ship. Mr. Holland married for his second wife Sarah C. Moore, daugh- ter of William Moore.
WALTER A. TAPPAN. The history of the Tappan family in Ohio begins in 1835, when the grandparents of Walter A. Tappan arrived at Toledo. These grandparents were Moses Q. and Hettie (Miller) Tappan, natives of New Jersey. From Hanover, New Jersey, they came west by way of the Erie Canal and Lake Erie to Toledo.
Moses Q. Tappan was a shoemaker by trade, but his ambition was
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to own an Ohio farm, and in 1839 he bought 160 acres of timber in what later became Fulton county. Along with being a shoemaker and farmer Mr. Tappan was a great hunter and provided wild meat for his family. He improved his timber claim and spent his life there, dying June 27, 1858. His widow survived him more than forty years, passing away September 16, 1899.
Their grandson, Walter A. Tappan, was born in Pike Township October 27, 1870, son of Herman M. and Harriet (Wood) Tappan. Herman M. Tappan was born in Fulton county, on the old home- stead, and first saw the light of day and lived and died in a house that is still standing, an historic landmark, being the first frame house built in Pike Township. Herman Tappan died April 23, 1914, and his wife on April 11, 1917. Harriet Wood was born in Medina county, Ohio, a daughter of William H. and Laura (Fuller) Wood, natives of New York. Her parents were married in Cleveland and about 1860 they located in Fulton county.
Walter A. Tappan, the older of the two children of his parents, had a common school education and also attended the Wauseon Normal School one winter. On St. Valentine's Day, February 14, 1897, he married Edna E. Wright. She was born in Pike Township July 17, 1877, a daughter of Charles and Clarissa (Tappan) Wright. Her paternal grandparents, George and Ann (Harrison) Wright, came from England in 1826 and located in Fulton county in 1853. Her maternal grandparents, Whitfield and Amanda (Woodford) Tappan, were also pioneers of Fulton county, reaching here about 1835.
Mr. and Mrs. Tappan began farm activities on an eighty, and they have added to it from time to time until they have a farm of 190 acres under splendid cultivation. They have good farm build- ings and besides general farming Mr. Tappan has thoroughbred Duroc Jersey hogs and a dairy of Holstein cows.
There are two children: Gertrude, born January 3, 1898, and . Herman, born May 13, 1903. Mr. Tappan votes with the republican party. He has served as township treasurer and township clerk for twenty-five years. He believes in the social uplift of the rural com- munity and is active in the Grange.
When the roll of pioneers is called in Fulton county an interest- ing answer can always be made to the name of Tappan, since it repre- sents a family that not only helped to clear the wilderness and estab- lish homes and other evidences of community life, but through suc- cessive generations have maintained the same high standard of citizen- ship, and among those of the present generation Walter A. Tappan, as this brief outline shows, has many things to indicate the value of his material achievements as well as his public spirit and willing serv- ice to the community.
AMOS WOOLACE, who has been a resident of Fulton county most of his life, began his career as an independent farmer nearly forty- five years ago. He converted a comparatively raw tract of land in Gorham Township into a high class farm, built one of the finest country homes in that section, but for the past eighteen years has been a retired resident of Fayette.
Mr. Woolace was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, April 13, 1853, son of William and Mary (Schlotman) Woolace, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of New York. William Woolace was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1816, son of Evan
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and Elizabeth Woolace. Mary Schlotman was born November 13, 1816, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Schlotman. William Woolace and wife were married January 30, 1840, and a year or so later moved to a farm in Fairfield county, Ohio, and after fourteen years of residence there moved to Gorham Township, Fulton county. William Woolace bought eighty acres of partly improved land, added 120 acres more, and eventually had the entire farm completely developed and improved. Late in life he sold this place to his sons, Frank and William, and after that he and his wife spent their last years in Fayette. A record of the children of William and Mary Woolace is as follows: Daniel Franklin, born January 3, 1841, a resident of Gorham Township; Perry, born November 16, 1842; James Jacob, born October 3, 1844, a resident of Fayette; Lovina Elizabeth, born October 8, 1848, died August 16, 1864; William A., born August 22, 1851, deceased; Amos, born April 13, 1853; and John Evan, born September 12, 1855.
Amos Woolace was educated in the district schools of Fulton county and at the age of twenty-three, on December 13, 1876, mar- ried Amanda Gambee. She was born in Seneca county, New York, July 18, 1847, daughter of Jacob and Susanna (Scheaffer) Gambee, the former of Seneca county, New York, and the latter of Northamp- ton county, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Woolace's paternal grandparents were Jacob and Catherine (Gamber) Gambee, of New York State, while her maternal grandparents, George and Elizabeth (Beaver) Scheaffer, came from Pennsylvania. Mrs. Woolace was one of the following children: Valeria, Mrs. George Bodley, of Fayette, Ohio; George, who died in childhood; Mrs. Woolace; Edward, of Fayette; and Frank, of Clayton, Michigan.
Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Woolace moved to eighty acres in section 30 of Gorham Township. Some of the land had been cleared and cropped, and the building improvements were an old house and equally old barn. Through the energy and progressive- ness of Mr. Woolace the farm took on new life, and in the fall of 1889 he began the construction of a splendid fourteen-room modern brick home, his family moving into the new residence in the spring of 1890. After that he continued his work as a general farmer until 1902, when he bought a fine residence at Fayette, and has since thoroughly modernized it. Mr. Woolace is a democrat, has served as senior and junior warden of Fayette Lodge No. 387 of the Masons, is a member of the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias at Fayette, and his wife is a member of the Eastern Star and Rebekahs.
Of their children the older is William Dayton, who was born April 28, 1879, and is now living on the home farm. Earl Ganbee, born May 6, 1881, lives at Fayette. He married Gartha Garland, a native of Gorham Township and daughter of William and Ethel (Scott) Garland, of Lenawee county, Michigan.
JOHN F. WITMER, of Sunnyside Farm in Swan Creek Town- ship, is a son of immigrant parents, although he was born, Septem- ber 25, 1859, in the Swan Creek community. Rudolph and Maria (Kaiser) Witmer were born in Switzerland. The grandfather, John Witmer, came with his family to America, and in 1834 he located in Lucas county, Ohio. He afterward removed to York Township in Fulton county.
Soon after their marriage Rudolph and Maria Witmer bought wild land and located in the timber in Swan Creek. He was born
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in Switzerland in 1815, and was a young man when he began the transformation of this timber country into cultivated farm lands. On June 21, 1834, while this pioneer family was living in a bark shanty in the woods, there was a terrible wind and rain storm, blowing down the forest trees in great numbers all about them, not a limb, however, striking this primitive dwelling, and they regarded their escape as little short of miraculous. There werc two Witmer brothers in the Union Army, one of them being killed at the battle of Pittsburg Landing. Rudolph Witmer died August 3, 1882, while his wife died July 17, twenty years later. She had one daughter by a former marriage, Sophia, who became the wife of John Hall.
The children born to Rudolph and Maria Witmer are: Mary Ann, wife of Amos Raker, of Pike Township; John F .; and Eliza- beth, who died in childhood.
On February 5, 1900, John F. Witmer married Florence Bix- ler. She is a daughter of Balser and Sarah A. (Deck) Bixler, and she is a native of Swan Creek. Her father was born in Stark county and her mother is a native of Tuscarawas county, Ohio. The grandparents on both sides of the house, Samuel and Susan (Mock) Bixler, and Abraham and Sarah (Snyder) Deck, were all Pennsylvanians although early residents of Fulton county.
Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Witmer secured pos- session of Sunnyside Farm. It was partly improved, but they re- modeled the farm buildings and added to them until they have an attractive farmstead today. He has always carried on general farming and specializes in the dairy business. He had a common school education, and has been road superintendent in Swan Creek. He affiliates with the Grange, votes the democratic ticket, and is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Witmer is a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge in Delta.
The two daughters born to Mr. and Mrs. Witmer are: Dorothy Florence and Zelma Marguerite.
Sunnyside Farm is the home of a very interesting family, and some of the names and facts brought out in this brief sketch of the proprietor suggest a wide range of historic circumstances and events in this part of northwest Ohio. The Witmers have lived here for over eighty-five years, and it seems appropriate and just that such a substantial citizen as the owner of Sunnyside Farm should be the grandson of one of the rugged pioneers who helped develop the wilderness.
FRANCIS EDGAR GUILD, superintendent of the light and power department of the Toledo & Indiana Railway Company, is an effi- cient enginecr, and has shown himself to be an executive of definite capability since he has made his headquarters in Wauseon, Ohio.
He was born in Amherst, Ohio, on April 9, 1884, the son of George and Mary (Claus) Guild, of that place. The Guild family is of Scottish origin, but for some generations has been in America, and scions of that family have generally followed merchandising and industrial occupations in this country. Francis E. spent his minority in Amherst, attended the local elementary and high schools, and after leaving school worked for six months in the local railroad station as telegraph operator. Leaving the employ of the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, he went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where for eight months he was in the
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employ of A. J. Thrasher and Company, wholesale groceries. His next business connection was with a Cleveland, Ohio, machinery company, and shortly afterward he entered the employ of the Cleveland Electrical Company as switchboard operator. For three years he served as such, and then finished a course in the switch- board construction department. He had definitely taken up elec- trical work as a profession, and resolved to take all the theoretical training necessary to properly qualify as an expert. He started the electrical course at the Case School of Applied Science, and finished at Indiana State University at Bloomington, Indiana, showing com- mendable characteristics in so doing, as it was necessary for him to work his way through to the junior year. For cighteen months after leaving the university he was in comparatively good employment, traveling as erection engineer for the National Meter Company of Chicago. Then he received a similar but more lucrative appointment with the Southern Indiana Power Company, which appointment he held for 21/2 years, when he resigned so that he might accept the posi- tion of superintendent of the Amherst Municipal Light Company. In that capacity he remained in his native town for five years, after which he was erecting engineer to the George E. Milligan Com- pany at Elyria, Ohio, for nine months. Then followed fifteen months of good work as construction superintendent for the Gibson- burg, Ohio, Electric Light Company, which brings his professional record up to 1915, when he became connected with Wauseon in his capacity of superintendent of the light and power department of the Toledo and Indiana Traction Company, which responsibility he has since held to the general satisfaction. His territory covers a distance of forty-eight miles, from Stryker to Toledo, and he has proved to be a popular and efficient executive.
Politically Mr. Guild is an independent. He is a Mason, a mem- ber of the Blue Lodge of Amherst, and to the Eastern Star, and also belongs to the Amherst branch of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and to the Wauseon Lodge of the Knights of Pythias Order. Religiously he is a Methodist. Mr. Guild, who is unmar- ried, has made very many friends since he has been in Wauseon, and has shown a good and generous public spirit.
WALTER WILLIAM CADDELL. Owing to his long and active connection with the amusement interests of Wauseon, the name of Walter W. Caddell needs no formal introduction to the readers of this work. In a straightforward manner he has sought to perform the duties of a progressive citizen of the community, and while ad- vancing his own interests he has also in a very definite way con- tributed to the entertainment of the people in a wholesome and satis- factory manner, which has won for him the commendation of the people generally. Personally he is public-spirited and enterprising, and gives his support to every movement looking to the advance- ment of the best interests of the locality in which he lives.
Walter W. Gaddell, owner of the popular Princess Theater at Wauseon, was born in Buffalo, New York, on March 8, 1890, and is the son of W. W., Sr., and Ella (Franke) Caddell. On the pa- ternal side he is descended from sterling old Scotch stock, his grand- father having immigrated to America, settling in Toronto, Canada, where he followed the business of contracting. He was married there and became the father of thirteen children, of which number the subject's father was one of the youngest. The latter was reared
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