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 45

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 45


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SHERMAN ALFRED JONES, who has to liis credit a record of sub- stantial business service at Fayette, where he is now living retired, is an honored survivor of the Civil war, having been one of the youngest men enlisted in the Union Army.


He was born in Portage county, Ohio, November 17, 1848, son of John and Margaret (Hoobler) Jones. His parents were born and married in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, and some years later settled in Portage county on a farm, and from there in 1856 moved to Chesterfield Township, Fulton county. John Jones acquired forty acres in the dense timber, and applied himself in- dustriously to the clearing and improving, and lived there as a farmer until his death in 1876. He was twice married, and by his first wife had a son, Joseph, now deceased, and also an adopted son, Boyd, who is also deceased. His wife, Margaret Hoobler died in 1872, and was mother of the following children: David, Hulda, Harriet, Timothy, Henry, Amanda, Sherman, Estella and Effie, twins. The only two now living are Sherman and Effie who is the wife of Ed Van Vleet of Detroit.


Sherman A. Jones acquired his early education in the Chester- field Township district schools. He was not yet thirteen years of age when the Civil war broke out, and was a little past fifteen when on February 8, 1864, he enlisted in Company K of the Sixty-seventh Ohio Infantry. This regiment served in Virginia under General Grant in the Army of the James. Mr. Jones took part in the battle of May 10, 1864, and in much other fighting around Richmond and Petersburg, being under constant fire for many days. After the surrender of Lee he was detailed sole guard of government prop- erty at Helltown, Virginia, remaining there six months, and was royally treated by the inhabitants. He was mustered out at City Point, Virginia, December 8, 1865, and was given his final dis- charge at Columbus December 18, 1865.


After his return from the army Mr. Jones worked out by day and month for two years at the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway station. After his marriage he also worked for the rail- road a year and then was employed by a butcher at Delta. He had learned the butcher trade after leaving the army. For four years he was engaged in buying and selling hay and grain for the Ray- mond P. Lipe Company of Toledo, and was commissioned by them to build an elevator at Fayette. After the construction of the ele- vator he remained as the responsible manager in charge, and con- tinued the business for twenty years. Since 1918 Mr. Jones has been practically retired, and his chief work is done in his home garden. He is a thoroughbred American citizen, and loyally de- voted to the upbuilding of the best American traditions. For many years he has been affiliated with Stout Post No. 108 of the Grand Army of the Republic, serving as its adjutant many years and two terms as commander.


December 3, 1872, Mr. Jones married Miss Nettie Kinney, who was born in Pike Township September 17, 1852, daughter of John and Harriet (Gunn) Kinney, her father a native of New York state and her mother of Pike Township, where the Gunns were pio- neer settlers. Mr. Jones had two children: Pearl, wife of John Carpenter, of Albion, Michigan; and Parley, who was born Novem- ber 13, 1884, and died November 28, 1911, survived by his wife.


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JACOB HENRY STONER has been faithful to his responsibilities and opportunities during his active career in Fulton county, by many years of toil acquired a large farm and comfortable prosperity, and in later years has lived retired in Fayette, where he has been' interested in a local bank and the administration of public affairs.


He was born in Gorham Township May 31, 1857, son of George and Lucinda (Rhodes) Stoner. His father was born in Richland county, Ohio, and his mother in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Jacob Stoner, was a Pennsylvanian. George Stoner and wife were married in Richland county and in the spring of 1852 arrived in Fulton county and bought a tract of timber land in Gorham Town- ship. After improving this they sold it and bought another farm in the northwest corner of Gorham Township. They removed from the farm to Fayette about 1884 and George Stoner died there Feb- ruary 25, 1891, survived by his widow until April 1, 1914. They have the following children: David, who died in 1885; William, deceased; George, a resident of Los Angeles; Anna Mary, twin sister of George, wife of Samuel Shane, of Fayette; Jacob Henry ; Lucinda, Mrs. Isaiah Sayers, of Fayette; Daniel, of Toledo; and James, who died in 1890.


Jacob Henry Stoner acquired his early education in the dis- trict schools and the select schools, and at the age of eighteen began earning his own living by working as a farm hand. He continued in that way for about five years, and later secured his first land by the purchase of eighty acres in section 13, Gorham Township. He built a house there, and in that modest residenee on December 14, 1889, he and Elizabeth McCloe were married. Mrs. Stoner was born in Gorham Township, a daughter of William and Berrilla (Lyon) McCloe, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Knox county, Ohio. Her parents were married in Morrow county and in 1852 settled in Gorham Township. Her father died in 1873 and her mother in 1898.


After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Stoner continued to live on the farm, improved it with modern buildings, and exercised the thrift and industry that brought them ample prosperity for all their needs. In 1908 they rented the farm, which in the meantime had been increased to 140 acres, and has since enjoyed the comforts of a fine modern residenee at Fayette. Mr. Stoner is one of the or- ganizers and is still a director of the Farmers State Bank of Fayette. He has been a member of the official board of the Methodist Church since 1909. He served three terms as township trustee of Gorham, and one term as mayor of Fayette. He is a democrat in politics, . and has filled the various chairs in Fayette Lodge No. 689, Knights of Pythias.


JONATHAN WILLIAM BINNS was a youthful soldier in the Union Army during the Civil war, and the greater part of his active life since then has been spent in Fulton county, where he was engaged in farming until he retired and moved to Fayette.


He was born at Leroy in Medina county, Ohio, July 28, 1845, a son of Samuel and Ellen (Taylor) Binns. His parents were born in England in 1816, were married there, and in 1838 came to America, first locating at Harlem, New York, where Samuel Binns, a tailor, followed his trade. In 1840 he moved to Leroy, Medina county, Ohio, and after working at his trade several years was or- dained as a Universalist minister about 1848. In 1854 he took charge of a church at Amity in Knox county, went to New Way,


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Licking county, in 1857, and from 1860 to 1867 was in Richland county. In the latter year he moved to Fayette, where he died at the age of sixty-seven, his widow surviving him to the age of ninety. Their children were: Elizabeth, who died at the age of eighteen years; Eliza, who died in 1872 as the wife of James Murphy ; Jona- than William; Sarah, who was born in 1847 and is Mrs. Otis Ford, at Fayette; Eli T., who lives at Bryan, Ohio, at the age of seventy; Ellen S., who died in 1855, at the age of three years; and Ella Viola, who died in 1906 as the wife of James Vail.


Jonathan William Binns lived with his parents in the several locations above noted, and at the age of seventeen, on July 28, 1863, was enrolled as a soldier in the One Hundred and Sixty-third Ohio Infantry, in Company D. With this regiment he was in the Army of the James, Third Division, Eighteenth Army Corps, and saw some of the hard fighting around Petersburg and Richmond while the defense of the Confederate capital were slowly crumbling before repeated Federal assaults. After his honorable discharge from the army Mr. Binns returned to Richland county, Ohio, and worked on a farm and also attended Belleville College. From there he came to Fayette, and soon afterward met the young lady who consented to be his wife. They were married at Detroit, Michigan, March 22, 1869. Her name was Lois Ford. She was a daughter of one of the oldest families of Fulton county, and was born in Gorham Town- ship. Her parents were Hosea and Jemima (Bates) Ford, natives of Cummington, Massachusetts, who settled in Fulton county about 1836. Her father acquired a large tract of timbered land and was one of the most useful citizens of the county until his death in October, 1867, and her mother died in 1894. The Ford children were: Ansel B., who died in September, 1919; Austin K., who died in 1914; Vesta J., who was Mrs. William Barager and died in 1880; Laura, living at Fayette, widow of Nathaniel Dewey; Mrs. Binns; Deborah T., who married Spencer Westfall and died in 1882; Hor- ace W., a resident of Fayette; Horatio M., who died in 1895; and Lewis H., of Fayette.


After his marriage Mr. Binns lived in Detroit working as a journeyman cigar maker until 1880. He then bought a farm in Defiance county, Ohio, lived on it several years, selling out in 1883 and buying sixty acres of land in Gorham Township. He was ac- tively identified with farming there more than twenty years, and in 1906 rented his farm and moved to Fayette, where he bought the comfortable residence in which he now lives. He sold his farm in the spring of 1919.


Mr. Binns is a republican, has held all the offices in Stout Post No. 108, Grand Army of the Republic, and has filled the various chairs in Fayette Lodge of Masons No. 387. Mrs. Binns, who was educated in district schools and in the Seminary at Medina, Michi- gan, and taught school for two terms, has been active in the East- ern Star since the local chapter was organized by Mr. Binns. She has filled the various chairs in that organization and since 1906 has continuously served as president of the local Women's Relief Corps.


Mr. and Mrs. Binns have three children: Carrie B., Mrs. Wal- ter Hill, of Morenci, Michigan; William C., who lives at Toledo and married Lena de Groff; and Harry S., also of Toledo, married Alta Wintzler and has three children, Gertrude, Lorene and Lucile.


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ARTHUR ALLEN is a retired business man of Fayette, has lived there continuously for over a half century and is a brother of Mr. Charles L. Allen, also of Fayette, whose individual record will also be found in this publication.


Arthur Allen was born in Monroe county, New York, February 8, 1842, and was the youngest of the large family of Isaac and Mary (Terry) Allen. He was well educated, attending district schools, the Brockport Collegiate Institute and by a commercial course at Poughkeepsie. At the age of twenty Mr. Allen left home and went out to Bloomington, Illinois, where he became an employe of the United States Express Company, and part of the time was also located at Springfield and Peoria. About 1865 Mr. Allen engaged in the merchandise business at Fayette, Ohio, but soon returned to Illinois, and since 1867 has made Fayette his permanent home. He was in the grist and sawmill business here for thirty-one years, finally selling out his interests, and has since lived retired in a beautiful modern house at Fayette.


Mr. Allen also served as mayor of Fayette several terms, has- held the offices of township clerk, justice of the peace, member of the School Board, and has always acted with that group of citizens working for the best interests of the community. He is a democrat in politics.


In June, 1869, he married Frances H. DuBois, who was born at Orange in Ashland county, Ohio, a daughter of George and Amelia (Hoadley) DuBois, the former a native of New York and the latter of Connecticut. Her parents settled in Gorham Town- ship of Fulton county in 1847, living on a farm there. Mrs. Allen's mother died in 1904, having been born in 1803, and her father died in 1908, having been born in 1814. Both parents therefore lived to extreme age. Mr. Allen has four sons, all of whom have made places for themselves in modern industry. George, the old- est, is a mechanical engineer at Cleveland and is district manager for the Heffenstall Forge Company of Pittsburg. Harry L., also a mechanical engineer, is with the Bruce-McBeth Engine Works at Cleveland. Edwin, a graduate civil engineer, is now district manager at Chicago for the Lakewood Engineering Company of Cleveland. Terry Joe is purchasing agent for the Firestone Steel Products Company of Akron, Ohio.


HENRY BECHSTEIN. While Henry Bechstein was born in Swan Creek Township in January, 1862, his parents were immigrants from Germany. He is a son of Jacob and Anna (Goodlock) Bech- stein. The father was born in 1833 in Germany, but when he was about twenty years old he immigrated to America. When he first came to the United States he worked in a clay pit in Pennsylvania. Later he worked eight years in Erie county, Ohio, where he married and in 1858 he bought a farm and removed to Swan Creek Town- ship.


In 1888 Henry Bechstein married Ella Biddle, a daughter of Henry and Hannah Biddle. There is one daughter, Florence, the wife of H. T. Krauss, of Swan Creek. Another daughter, Bertha, died in childhood. The wife died in 1897, and Mr. Bechstein mar- ried again in 1899. The second wife was Emma Wilhelm, a daughter of David Wilhelm of Seneca county, Ohio. From this marriage there is one daughter, Carmen.


For two years Mr. Bechstein lived on rented land, then he bought


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thirty acres in the brush and cleared it all but two acres, and from time to time he has added to the farm until he now has 100 acres, thirty-four acres still in timber. Mr. Bechstein has good farm build- ings, making all the improvements himself. For a number of years he worked as a carpenter, and for eight years he did mason and cement work. In politics he is a democrat. He has served the community as road supervisor, and the family is identified with the Christian Union Church.


The outstanding facts in the carecr of Mr. Bechstein are the in- dustry and perseverance that enabled him to perform the heavy work of clearing up new land in Fulton county, making a fine farm, and, nevertheless, finding time to serve his community in behalf of its good roads and other matters connected with the general welfare.


ELMER C. TURPENING, of Swan Creek, secured his education in the district school, and for a number of years he has served the com- munity as a member of the Board of Education. He is a republican in politics, and is a member of the United Brethren Church. He has served the church in the capacity of class leader, and the Sun- day School as its superintendent.


While Mr. Turpening is a native of Fulton county, having been born April 14, 1863, in York Township, his father, Ephraim Tur- pening, was born in New York and his mother, Mary Ann (Croyle) Turpening, was born in Pennsylvania. Since 1854 they have lived in Fulton county. Mrs. Turpening's family ancestors had come in 1845, her grandfather, Samuel Croyle, having come into Swan Creek when there was nothing but a wilderness, and he had his part in reclaiming it.


Ephraim Turpening settled in Swan Creek Township soon after his marriage, and for five years he lived there. He sold his land and bought a farm in York Township, but he soon sold it and bought again in Swan Creek Township. He died there in 1871, while his wife lived at the old home until her death in 1897. E. C. Turpening, who relates the family story, is second from the young- est of their children, the others being: John, of Swan Creek; Al- fred, of Toledo; Jane, of Delta; Rebecca, wife of Amos Keith, of Delta; Elmer C. and Alfred. . Charles, the oldest child, died early, and Cicero died in the Civil war.


On March 4, 1883, Elmer C. Turpening married Mary Delilah Warren, a daughter of Lyman and Sarah (Wilson) Warren, of York Township. Their children are: Charles N .; Loretta, wife of Henry Metzger; Beulah, wife of Watson Lewis, of Swan Creek; Florence, wife of Opher Mckinley. of Cleveland; Maud, wife of Fred Enteman, of Toledo; Jay, Ruth and Cecil.


His well ordered farm, his substantial home, his attractive fam- ily, and the calls that have been made upon him for leadership and service in the community sufficiently establish the place of Elmer C. Turpening among the prominent citizens of Fulton county. He has lived here nearly sixty years, in his mature life has carried for- ward the work begun by the pioneers and probably has many years of usefulness still ahead of him.


JOHN W. EREHART, of Swan Creek, has for many years served as chaplain of Hendricks Grand Army Post of Colton. He enlisted in the Union Army December 17, 1863, in Company H, Eighty- eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, his home then being in De


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Kalb county, Indiana. He was in many of the hard fought battles of the Civil war and marched with General Sherman from Atlanta to the sea. He was mustered out of the service June 1, 1865, and the regiment disbanded the twentieth of the same month. Mr. Ere- hart votes with the republican party.


While Mr. Erehart's army record shows him as a soldier from Indiana, he was born December 6, 1844, in Stark county, Ohio. He is a son of Adam and Maria (Kiner) Erehart. The father came from Germany, but the mother was a native of Pennsylvania. Adam Erehart's parents died when he was fourteen years old, and he came to join some brothers who were already in the United States. He worked at the shoemaker's trade and was married in Pennsyl- vania. Soon after his marriage he came to Stark county, and in 1848 he removed to DeKalb county, Indiana, where he bought a farm of forty acres. He died there in 1887, and his wife died seven years later.


In the Erehart family there was a daughter, Catherine, who died in infancy; John W. was the second child; Daniel, of Steele City, Nebraska; Mary Jane, deceased, was the wife of Lon Hen- ning; Eleanor, wife of Henry St. Clair, of Auburn, Indiana; Eliza, deceased, was the wife of William Pepple, and Adam died at the age of five years.


On October 11, 1868, Mr. Erehart married Elvira Mathews, of DeKalb county, Indiana. She is a daughter of Nathan and Maria (Richmond) Mathews. The father was a native of Vermont while the mother was born in the state of New York. Her paternal grand- parents, John and Chloe (Hatch) Mathews, were early settlers in Portage county, Ohio.


After his marriage Mr. Erehart lived in Newaygo county, Michi- gan, where he followed farming, and in winter he worked in the lumber camps for six years. When he sold the Michigan farm he removed to DeKalb county, Indiana, remaining there three years, when he located in Henry county, Ohio. After living eight years in Henry county Mr. Erehart sold out again and located in Swan Creek Township. He bought a twenty-four acre tract of improved land and selling it he bought forty acres where he lives today. He remained as an active farmer until 1917, when a son assumed charge and he lives there in retirement.


The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Erehart are: Ralph, of Huntington, Indiana; Nellie, wife of William Wagoner, of Toledo; Edward, at home; and Gladys, wife of Joseph Mccullough, of Toledo.


MRS. JULIA CARTER ALDRICH. (JOSEPH D. ALDRICH.) In the history of the Aldrich family of Fulton county is the same old story of three brothers who came from England many years ago. In writing of Mrs. Julia Carter Aldrich, who is one of the most widely known women in the county, a relative says: "It often seems unfortunate that we cannot see how important is our task. To the youth of Fulton county the cultivated fields, the traffic on the network of roads, the great web of telegraph and telephone wires, the steel rails and so many minor things which are so commonplace that in hasty retrospection I do not think of them, are necessities.


"Seldom do they think of a civilization without them, and when they do, because such life seems quite impossible, they conceive of it as a very hazy past, and yet the generation that built these roads


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and wrested the fields from a trackless wilderness has but recently completed its task, and there are still many of these runners before of our civilization, their part in the herculean task complete, sit- ting quietly silent-not knowing that a recital of their labors would hold us in a thrilled attention as absolute as the telling of an Iliad. Among those early comers was Mrs. Aldrich, who was with her brother, Jabez William Carter, when he was one of the owners of that first Fulton county paper which changed hands so often in its brief existence.'


Mrs. Aldrich says: "In July, 1853, J. W. Carter, of Medina county, Ohio, came to Ottokee and bought the printery but recently established there, and commenced the publication of the Fulton County Union, a business he very much enjoyed, having been con- nected with a printing office since his boyhood. He was then twenty- six years old. He wrote his mother, a widow, his father having died in 1852, to shut up the house and come with the family, Charles, Julia, Julius and Margaret, to Ottokee for the winter. We arrived early in November and were taken to the Henry Taylor Hotel until our goods arrived (no trains then from Toledo came farther than Whitehouse.). Our coming happened at the same time as Mr. Al- drich's arrival from New York. Mrs. Taylor was a very genial, motherly sort of a landlady-made her guest room like a family gathering place.


"The schoolmaster and editor readily formed acquaintance which soon ripened into friendship, thus bringing Mr. Aldrich to the county seat to spend the week-ends at that home-like hotel. The courthouse, with its genial, intellectual officials, and the editorial sanctum had an attraction for him," and thus began another ac- quaintance-Joseph D. Aldrich with Julia Carter.


In the spring of 1854 Joseph Aldrich was engaged to teach in Spring Hill and Julia Carter in Ottokee. Her brothers, Charles and Julius Carter, assisted J. W. Carter in the printing office. John Youngs, still pleasantly remembered by many in Wauseon, was effi- cient help on the Fulton County Union. He came from Medina with J. W. Carter when he was seventeen. His daughter, Nora Youngs, became the wife of Willis, son of Edwin Patterson, of Dover. "We all liked Ottokee, and as we all had employment none cared to go back to Medina." The mother went back and sold the place, and returning to Ottokee she bought a home there.


On October 3, 1854, Joseph D. Aldrich married Julia E. Carter, and they went into a cozy little home of their own in Ottokee. In 1858 they sold the Ottokee property and bought the Quaker Wright Farm on the north line of Clinton Township. The Aldrich family still own and love the place where three sons: Amos Eugene, Fred Hampson and Benjamin F. Aldrich, were born, and their father, Joseph D. Aldrich, died in 1889, aged sixty-two years.


The Fulton county Aldrich family is descended from Abel Al- drich. one of the three brothers who came from England. He mar- ried a Miss Tilson and they lived in Providence, Rhode Island. They had the following children: Tilson, Orrin, Abel, Amos, James, Dorcas, Prudence and Hannah. The son Amos is the one to whom the Fulton county family owes its existence, and again it is Amos who perpetuates the name in Fulton county. His son Joseph linked his fortune with Julia Carter, the woman who January 28, 1920, passed her eighty-sixth earthly milestone. On that day her only son, Fred Hampson Aldrich of Detroit, visited her.


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The files of the Fulton County Union have long ago disappeared, and it is doubtful if a single issue is still in existence. For a time in the history of Fulton county it was the only voice from the out- side world other than the stage driver and the transient guest. The Fulton County Union was the voice of the community expressing its ambitions, its hopes and disappointments. In every frontier press room there is the nucleus for innumerable romantic tales. Fulton county was then a frontier, and within the memory of Mrs. Aldrich its farms were small clearings in the primeval forests. The deer would often come out of the woods and destroy the corn unless speedily driven from the fields; there were few beaten roads and unless one went a-foot he must depend upon his horse; the furniture was made, as was the cabin itself, by the owner, and in all this primi- tive life Mrs. Aldrich had an active part.


Mrs. Aldrich was one of the first contributors to the press in Ful- ton county. Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich were among the first school teachers; they were always interested in working for better schools, . better farming and better social conditions. While Mrs. Aldrich has been an occasional contributor to various publications, she also has a volume of verse from her earlier writings, entitled "Hazel Bloom." She was the Ohio vice president of the Western Writers' Association, and one of the editors of the National Grange, a paper connecting her with readers all over the United States.




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