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 47
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WOODSON T. CAMPBELL. Although he has extensive theatrical interests elsewhere, Woodson T. Campbell maintains his residence at Wauseon, and this city would be loath to have him depart from its midst, for he is recognized as one of its leading and most pro- gressive men. He was born in Rush county, Indiana, in 1851, a son of Rev. George W. Campbell, a minster of the Christian Church, and a member of a family founded in this country by William Campbell, who came here from Scotland and located at Bangor, Maine. His son, Reverend Campbell, came as far west as Indiana when a young man and remained a resident of that state until his death.
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Woodson T. Campbell attended the village schools until he was sixteen years of age, when he had the misfortune to lose his father, so he had to become self-supporting, which he did by working in a printing office for two years at Rushville, Indiana. Seeking ex- perience, Mr. Campbell became a sewing machine agent, and can- vassed the territory about Cincinnati, Ohio, for a year, then going to Connersville, Indiana, where he was clerk for the Sheridan House, owned by his uncle, and for two years he attended to the office of that hostelry and made friends with the traveling public.
His is not a nature to be content with the ordinary routine of life, and his love of adventure led him to join Cooper & Bailey's circus, with whom he secured show privileges and remained with this firm for a time, when he left to engage with a variety show. Still later he was with other circus owners, traveling all over the country and gaining an intimate knowledge of the demands on the part of the public for entertainment as he could have secured in no other manner, and which has been very valuable to him in his after life. His experience brought him positions of added responsi- bility, and he was with several circus firms as master of transporta- tion, going as far west as California several times. At last after a number of years with this branch of the amusement industry Mr. Campbell rented the old Woods Museum at Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, fitted it up and conducted it for three years, when he sold his interest and returned to circus life, engaging with P. T. Bar- num in 1884, but, marrying not long afterward, to please his bride he left the circus and bought eighty acres of land and began breed- ing trotting horses. Overcoming his wife's objections, he returned in about five years to Barnum's circus and for a season had the feeding contract. Receiving a good offer for his stock farm, he sold it, and then in partnership with Frank M. Drew, bought the Star Theatre at Cleveland, Ohio, and they operated it for three years. They then secured the lease of the Colonial Theatre of Cleveland, Ohio, and own the building in which it is located and were interested in a number of theatrical enterprises throughout the country, and also operated in Canada, but disposed of his hold- ings in them some time ago. He still is interested in agricultural matters and owns a fine farm of 1371% acres in Clinton Township.
In 1884 Mr. Campbell was married to Lura Hollister, a daughter of David and Pamelia (Lamb) Hollister, of Wauseon. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell have no children. Mr. Campbell is a Mason, be- longing to Rushville Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and Cleveland Commandery, Knights Templar. He also belongs to the Elks of Cleveland. In his politics Mr. Campbell is a strong republican and is not backward in expressing his opinions. His ca- reer has been varied but eminently successful, and he never allows his interest to flag but is constantly looking for new ideas in con- nection with his business. Genial in a marked degree, he has friends from Maine to California, and from Winnipeg, Canada, to the Panama Canal, all of wliom recognize his many excellent traits of character and the warm sympathy which makes him so responsive to the calls upon his purse and his time. Regarding Wauseon as his home, Mr. Campbell is very generous in his support of its im- provements, and can be depended upon to subscribe liberally when- ever a movement is started looking toward a change which prom- ises to be of benefit to the community.
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GEORGE ELIAS ARNOLD. Visitors in Swan Creek Township have occasion to comment upon and admire the productive farm and the improvements created by George Elias Arnold. Those who understand his career appreciate even more what he has accom- plished in this community as a farmer. He came face to face with the serious responsibilities of life at the age of twelve years, and for half a century he has given his time to an uninterrupted program of work and the utilization of such opportunities as have come. He is a good farmer and an equally good citizen of his community.
Mr. Arnold was born in Copley Township of Summit county, Ohio, December 18, 1857. He has an interesting ancestry, and on both sides of the family it has been American for several gen- erations. His paternal great-grandparents were Daniel and Chris- tina (Plum) Arnold, natives of England. Daniel Arnold came with two brothers to this country, and was one of the very early settlers in Summit county, Ohio, where he entered and improved a tract of government land. The paternal grandparents were Samuel and Maria (Oswalt) Arnold, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Pennsylvania.
George E. Arnold is a son of Daniel and Ellen (Durthick) Ar- nold, the former a native of Summit county and the latter of Wayne county, Ohio. In the maternal line his great-grandfather was a native of Scotland, but came to the American colonies in time to participate as a Continental soldier in the Revolutionary war. The Durthicks were early settlers in Medina county, Ohio, where they acquired large tracts of government land. The maternal grandparents were Cordon and Fannie (Huckelbone) Durthick. Cordon Durthick about the time of the War of 1812 was pressed into the English service, but soon found opportunity to desert and join the American forces.
Daniel and Ellen Arnold after their marriage lived in Summit county, and from that locality Daniel enlisted in the Union Army and gave a gallant service from 1863 until the end of the war. Soon afterward he came to Clinton Township, Fulton county, and thus the Arnold family has been identified with this section of Ohio for over half a century. After a year of residence here he moved to Newaygo county, Michigan, spending three years in that state, and then returned to Fulton county and settled in Swan Creek Township, where he lived an honored citizen and substantial farmer until his death on March 1, 1909. His wife had died in 1876. George E. is the oldest of their children and a brief record of the others is as follows: Fannie, Mrs. George Stacy, of Sand Lake, Michigan; Flora, wife of Dr. Arthur Cooley, of Cleveland; Samuel, who was born in Clinton Township, Fulton county, June 22, 1866, and died in Kalamazoo county, Michigan, March 1, 1919; Clara, wife of George Wheatley, living in Colorado; Etta, deceased, wife of Earnest Andrews; and Alma, Mrs. Edward Rowe, of Swan Creek Township.
George Elias Arnold was eight or nine years of age when he came to Fulton county, and after he was twelve years old had no opportunity to attend school until he put in one more winter term at the age of seventeen. In spite of lack of early advantages he has used his opportunities for observation and reading and has learned many lessons in the school of experience. As a boy he did farm work, and also followed the strenuous occupation of a woods-
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man in the lumber districts, working in sawmills in winter and cultivating fields in summer.
In this way he solved some of the early problems of life and in September, 1881, married Lovina Null, a native of Summit county, Ohio, and daughter of George and Christiann Null. Her father was a native of Germany and her mother of Pennsylvania.
For one summer after his marriage Mr. Arnold was employed as a farm hand in York Township, and soon afterward invested his very modest capital in a tract of five acres of woodland in Swan Creek Township. This purchase presented little more than an op- portunity for a great deal of hard work in clearing it up. He built his first home on that tract, and has lived there for over thirty-five years, and each year has brought added proof of his industry and good management. By subsequent purchases he has increased his farm to eighty acres, and of this only six acres are now in timber, all the rest being well cultivated. Mr. Arnold also operates a dairy of eight or nine Holstein cows, and is one of the successful farmers of that locality. In politics he is a democrat, and for many years rendered a valuable service to the community as road supervisor.
Mr. and Mrs. Arnold had three children, their twin daughters dying in infancy. The only surviving child is their son Ralph, a well known young resident of Swan Creek Township. He married Blanch Bowers, and their four children, the grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Arnold, are named Ruth, George, Clara and Ethel.
HENRY JACOB SCHLATTER is regarded as one of the keenest and most resourceful business men and merchants of Wauseon, being senior partner in Schlatter & Howard, owning and managing the largest general hardware house in Fulton county.
Mr. Schlatter is a son of Rudolph and Luisa (Gugerlie) Schlatter. His grandfather, Jacob Schlatter, came from Switzerland and was an early settler in Franklin Township of Fulton county. He lo- cated there when a young man and in addition to clearing up and managing his eighty-acre farm he practiced his profession as a veterinary surgeon. He reared a family of three sons and three daughters. Rudolph Schlatter was the youngest child and spent his life on the homestead farm, where Henry Jacob Schlatter was born in 1876. The latter was five years old when his father died, three years later his mother died, and nine days previously the only daughter in the family passed away. When Henry J. was eleven years old he lost the other member of the household, his only brother. That left him alone in the world and under the guardian- ship of his uncle, John W. Meister. Under such conditions he had to face the test of unusual responsibilities at an early age. He attended country schools in winter, worked on the farm in summer, and at the age of seventeen made a regular contract with his uncle for farm services at fifty dollars a year. At nineteen he went into a factory making buggy bodies at Auburn, Indiana, and worked a year as a driller. Returning to Fulton county, he resumed farm work in Dover Township at sixteen dollars a month, and then farmed forty-two acres which he personally owned in Franklin Township. Selling out, he bought sixty acres elsewhere in the same township and remained on it, farming, for four years.
In 1901 he became a clerk in the well known Wauseon mer- cantile firm of Eager, Standish & Company, and was with them almost continuously until 1911. During six months of that time
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he was on the road selling farm implements. January 1, 1911, he engaged in the hardware business with I. W. Douat at Wauseon under the name Douat & Schlatter. They took in G. W. Howard, and the firm became Douat, Schlatter & Company. November 11, 1911, occurred a disastrous fire, after which the business was re- sumed and Mr. Schlatter and Mr. Howard soon bought the half in- terest of Mr. Douat and since then the firm has been under its present title. They handle general hardware, furnaces, roofing and do a large business both in city and country.
In 1896 Mr. Schlatter married Bertha Clark, daughter of E. H. and Matilda (Bennett) Clark of Dover Township. They have one daughter, Olive Estlier, who is a graduate of the Wauseon High School, spent one year in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware,, is a graduate of the Davis Business College at Toledo, and is now employed in the county superintendent's office.
Mr. Schlatter is a republican, a member of the Methodist Church and is affiliated with the Lodge of Masons, Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America, all at Wauseon. Dur- ing his many years in business Mr. Schlatter has worked out a system of keeping stock records that is thoroughly practical and admirable, since it enables him to know at an instant just what is on hand and what has been sold, and the purchase of new supplies is therefore quickly and promptly adjusted to the changing de- mands.
LEWIS E. CONNELL is proprietor of the Maple Avenue Stock Farm in Gorham Township. This farm is widely known in Michi- gan, Indiana and Ohio as the home of one of the best herds of Holstein cattle in the country. Mr. Connell is a noted breeder of this dairy stock, and is president of the Holstein Association in Ful- ton county and a director of the Ohio State Holstein Breeders Asso- ciation.
His farm is part of the old Coffin estate, his wife's people, and was taken up by Mrs. Connell's grandfather in pioneer times, more than eighty years ago. Lewis Connell was born in Williams county, Ohio, at West Unity, in 1860, a son of William James and Martha L. (Shepardson) Connell. His father was a native of Columbiana county, Ohio, and his mother of Lenawee county, Michigan. His grandfather, Dr. Aaron Connell, a New Englander, moved west to Columbiana county and for years was a hard working country physi- cian in that locality. The maternal grandparents, Lewis and Emily (Gunn) Shepardson, were natives of Massachusetts, and were early settlers in Lenawee county, Michigan. William J. Connell was one of seven brothers, and all of them except one, who at the time was an editor in a southern state, enlisted and served in the Union Army during the Civil war. William J. Connell was in Company C of the One Hundredth Ohio Infantry and made a gallant and faithful record throughout the struggle. All these brothers are now de- ceased except D. C. Connell, who was born in 1833 and is now liv- ing in his eighty-seventh year at Findlay, Ohio. He is well pre- served for his years, is strong and active, and is now a magazine agent. William J. Connell and wife after their marriage settled at West Unity, and on his return to that county from the war he developed his talent as a vocalist by special instruction in Xenia College, and for many years was a teacher of vocal music. Later he moved to Fayette and in 1873 to a farm in Gorham Township
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of Fulton county. He was elected sheriff of Fulton county about 1888 and served two consecutive terms of two years each. Follow- ing the war for many years he was in the lumber business, operating sawmills in different localities of northern Ohio. William J. Con- nell was born in 1839 and died in January, 1913. His wife was born in 1838 and died in 1901. Lewis E. is the oldest of their chil- dren. Edwin J. resides at Monroe, Michigan, and Dr. C. V. is a veterinary surgeon at Decatur, Indiana.
Lewis E. Connell acquired his early education in the public schools of Fayette, later attended Valparaiso College in Indiana, and at the age of twenty-three began farming in Gorham Township on his father's place. He remained there about twelve years, and dur- ing that time specialized in pure-bred Berkshire hogs. Since then his home has been on the Coffin place, formerly owned by his wife's father, in section 21 of Gorham Township. The Maple Avenue Stock Farm comprises 120 acres, and the big feature is the herd of registered Holstein cattle. Mr. Connell keeps about fifty head of pure bred-bred stock and ships large quantities of milk to the con- denseries. He was one of the organizers of the Fayette Elevator Company and is president of that institution.
In 1884 Mr. Connell married Dora E. Coffin. She was born on the farm where she now resides, a daughter of George W. and Emily (Hill) Coffin. Her father was born at Williamsburg, Massa- chusetts, and her mother near Detroit, Michigan. Her grandparents were Freeman and Hannah (Whitmarsh) Coffin, natives of Massa- chusetts, who 'in 1835 came west and entered a tract of 320 acres from the government in Fulton county. All this land was then covered with dense timber and Freeman Coffin cleared up and de- veloped about 160 acres, selling the remainder. His farm was trans- ferred to his son George W. Coffin and 120 acres of it eventually came to Mr. and Mrs. Connell. Much of its splendid fertility and up-to-date improvements belong to the period of ownership by Mr. and Mrs. Connell.
The two daughters of Mr. and Mrs. Connell are, Laura L. and Elsie L. The family are members of the Methodist Church. Mr. Connell is now serving his second term as township trustee of Gorham Township. He is a republican, is affiliated with Tent No. 1186, Knights of the Maccabees, at Fayette, and also with the Gleaners.
LELAND D. WESTBROOK. The agricultural interests of Fulton county are among the most valuable assets of this region, and the men who are engaged in promoting them are to be accounted the supporters of the county's prestige. One of these men who is mak- ing a success as a farmer, stockraiser and dairyman is Leland D. Westbrook of Swan Creek Township. He was born in section 8 of this same township on May 23, 1877, a son of George and Phebe (Williams) Westbrook, and grandson of John and Elizabeth Williams.
George Westbrook was born in New York state, but was brought to Swan Creek Township, Fulton county, Ohio, by his mother, then a widow, and was here reared and married. Following his marriage George Westbrook and his wife located on eighty acres of land in Swan Creek Township, which was covered with heavy timber, and worked hard to get it cleared and developed. His death occurred in March, 1912. His widow survives him and lives at Kendallville,
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Indiana. Their children were as follows: Addie, who is Mrs. John Griesinger, of Pike Township; Elsic, who is Mrs. Elmer Deck, of Franklin, Pennsylvania; Ina, who is Mrs. John Green, of Swan Creek Township; Celia, who is Mrs. Roy Woodring, of Fulton Township; Leland D., whose name heads this review; William, who resides at Knoxville, Tennessee; and Gertrude, who is Mrs. Charles Miller, of Kendallville, Indiana.
Leland D. Westbrook attended the local country schools, and learned how to be a practical farmer from his father. Until 1916 he conducted rented land, but then bought forty acres of the old homestead, and has since devoted it to general farming, stockraising and dairying, having always been occupied with these lines of en- deavor. The year following his purchase his house was destroyed by fire, and he replaced with the present modern residence, and he has built the barns and other structures on his farm. This property is well improved and shows that the owner takes a pride in keeping things in good order.
In December, 1898, Mr. Westbrook was united in marriage with Carrie Woodring, born at Ida, Michigan, a daughter of David and Jeanette (Shide) Woodring, natives of Pennsylvania and Germany, respectively. Mr. and Mrs. Westbrook have two children, namely : Nellie and Harold, both of whom are at home. In his political con- victions Mr. Westbrook is a republican. He has long been a con- sistent member of the Union Church of his neighborhood, and for seven years served as superintendent of its Sunday School. He is a man who lives up to his creed in his everyday life and sets an example for others to follow of right living and stalwart honesty, and few men stand any higher in public esteem than he. While he has not cared for public honors, he is always willing to do a good citizen's part in maintaining the proper amount of development in his township, and is thoroughly representative of the best type of Ohio farmers.
DANIEL PETER CHRISTMAN, of Swan Crcek, was born at Water- ville, Lucas county, December 5, 1872, in the same house in which his father, Daniel Christman, Sr., was born and where the Christ- man family had lived from pioneer days until 1895, when they re- moved to Brownhelm, Lorain county. The mother, Elizabeth, (Hartzing) Christman, was born at Perrysburg, Wood county. The grandparents, who were early residents of Lucas county, died carly. They were farmers and helped clear up the timber country.
When Daniel Christman removed to Lorain county he had a saw- mill and operated it four years, when he sold it and removed to North Olmstead. In 1917 he came to Fulton county to visit his son, Daniel Peter Christman, and died there. Mr. Christman's mother now resides in Cleveland. On December 23, 1894, he mar- ried Minnie Heckerman. She is a daughter of August and Mary Heckerman, and was born at Kelley's Island, Ohio. The father was born in Germany and the mother in Ireland.
After Mr. Christman's marriage he worked his father's home farm for eight years, then came to Fulton county and bought " fifty-acre farm in Pike Township, one mile north of Delta. He remained seven years on this farm, improving it, and when he sold it he doubled his money on it. He then bought eighty acres 21/2 miles south of Delta in Swan Creek. Six weeks later he went to Toledo by buy clover seed, and met with a serious misfortune.
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It was April 16, 1910, that Mr. Christman went by the Toledo & Indiana Electric Line to Toledo, and on his return he left the car at the Lincoln Hotel in Delta. There was a severe electric storm, and as he was making his way to the home of a friend that night he became entangled in live wires, the traction wire having been blown down and lodged across some high tension wires, and he was struck by a telephone wire with 18,000 volts. In order to protect his face he grasped the wire with his hands and could not let loose of it again.
It was after night and storming and no one was out to hear his cries for assistance, and Mr. Christman stood holding that live wire one hour and ten minutes, every minute filled with agony. Finally, between eleven and twelve o'clock, some one heard the call of dis- tress and notified the town marshal, who came to his relief. He was carried into a nearby house and doctors were called and the in- jured hands were dressed, although he was so badly burned they assured him he would not live until morning.
Next day Mr. Christman was taken to the Wauseon Hospital, and three days later the hands were amputated as the only possible relief. He was in the hospital three weeks and under the care of the doctor for seven weeks. The damage case was settled out of court, the Toledo & Indiana Traction Company paying him some- thing like $21,000 in money. In the following December Mr. Christ- man left the farm and settled on a smaller place suburban to Delta. He still owns the farm in Swan Creek Township.
Mr. Christman has invented an artificial hand with which he can accomplish almost anything he undertakes. It is patented and he receives a royalty on the sales, thus benefiting from it finan- cially as well as physically, and he is able to do the work on his smaller farm adjoining Delta. Mr. Christman is a trustee in the Christian Church and also trustee in the Modern Woodmen of America. In a political way he votes the democratic ticket. His children are: Floyd M. Christman, manager of the United States Express Company's business at Rochester, Indiana; Beatrice, who is now teaching school; and Ruth and Roland Frederick, who live at the home of their father.
The Fulton county record of the Christman family is through- out one of honorable industry and public spirit, and it is a sig- nificant illustration of the character of the family stock that Mr. Christman when handicapped by physical energies has been able to continue a life of usefulness and "by using his head" is able to do more than many otherwise able-bodied men are competent to accomplish.
HARRY B. MACK. The Fairmont Farm, known as the Mack family homestead near Delta, was entered from the government in the territorial days of Fulton county history. Although of Scotch parentage, Eliza Brooks Mack was born May 3, 1804, in Donegal, Ireland. She boarded a ship, June 18, 1823, at Londonderry, Ire- land, and sailed for the United States. It was August 15 that she landed in New York City. She was almost two months crossing the Atlantic.
This young Irish woman remained in New York until Decem- ber 1, 1829, when she married William Mack, who had also come from Ireland. They located in Jefferson county, New York, where they remained four years before coming to Perrysburg, Wood
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county, Ohio. They lived in Wood county from 1834 until 1840, when they moved to the tiniber land they had entered in the wilds of what is now Fulton county. There were twelve children born in the family, and the father died April 30, 1872, and the mother lived until May 7, 1899. She was a charter member of the Presby- terian Church which was organized in John King's barn one mile south of Delta.
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