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 52
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Mr. Brindley has had his share in public life, having been Swanton town treasurer four terms. He has also been township treasurer and for twenty-one years he has been a member of the Swanton School Board. He was a member of the board when the
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high school was built in Swanton. For eight years he has served as township clerk-elected by the republicans, but serving the whole community.
Mr. Brindley was active in the organization of the Farmers and Merchants Deposit Company of Swanton. He was a director and has since served as its president. He is a stockholder in the Swanton Milling and Elevator Company, and closely identified with all busi- ress movements in the community.
While in his early life Mr. Brindley belonged to the Baptist Church, in Swanton he belongs to the Methodist and is chairman of the board of trustees. For many years he was superintendent of the Sunday school. He is a member of the Free and Accepted Ma- sons No. 555, of Swanton, and the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows No. 528, and has been through all of the chairs. With his wife he is a member of the Eastern Star in Swanton.
GIDEON REUBEN SHAFER. One of the substantial farmers of Fulton county who is successfully engaged in operating his fine 140-acre farm in German Township is Gideon Reuben Shafer, a na- tive son of the county. He was born in Franklin Township, Ful- ton county, in 1855, his parents, John B. and Mary Catherine (Huke) Shafer, having come to the United States from Germany and settled in Franklin Township, where they bought fifty acres of land. They continued to live on this farm until claimed by death, she passing away in 1907 and he in 1910.
Growing up in his native township, Gideon Reuben Shafer at- tended the Fisher and Masters schools during a few months each winter until he was seventeen years old, after which he had to spend all his time working hard, first assisting his father and later as a hired man. In those days wages were small and the hours long, and a man certainly earned all he received, and generally a good deal more.
When he was twenty-three years old Mr. Shafer was married to Mary Shetler, a daughter of George and Sarah Ellen (Collins) Shet- ler, of Franklin Township. Of the three children born to them, only one survives, he being Jesse Dale, who married Rody Bemo. Following his marriage Mr. Shafer bought seventy-five acres, to which he later added land until he now has 140 acres, and on it has since engaged in general farming. He is an experienced and practical man and understands every phase of his work. Having spent his life in this line, he feels that he is able to conduct his farm in his own manner, and is somewhat conservative about making experiments. However, when he is convinced that a new method is good and can be adopted without serious inconvenience, or that the outlay will pay him, he gives it a trial.
He is a republican and has always given the candidates of his party the support of his vote. For six years he served as a justice of the peace of German Township, and his decisions were so just and equitable that they were seldom reversed by the higher courts. Mr. Shafer has held a number of other offices, having been on the township School Board for six years, township trustee for two years, and county commissioner for four years. Since 1914 he has been manager and one of the directors of the Northwestern Mutual Tele- phone Company, and he is a stockholder and director of the Farmers Commercial Bank at West Unity, Ohio. Recognition of his integ-
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rity and ability has been shown by his having been made ad- ministrator of three different estates, and it is but just to him to. state that he settled all of them in a highly satisfactory manner. There are few men in his neighborhood who stand as high in public confidence as he, and he is a credit to his community.
HENRY DOMINIQUE has deserved well of his community through the energy with which he has prosecuted every undertaking, whether growing crops on his farm, or some matter affecting the welfare of his friends and neighbors. While Mr. Dominique owns seventy- eight acres constituting a good farm in German Township, through most of his active life he has been a renter and still rents and ope- rates more land than he owns.
He was born at the old Dominique farmstead in Fulton county in 1865, son of Xavier and Mary (Flory) Dominique. His people were French Catholics. His father when a young man came from Alsace-Lorraine and located in German Township, where he bought 160 acres of scarcely improved land.
Henry Dominique was one in a large family of twelve children. For a few months each year he attended the Stutzman district school No. 7, and kept that up until he reached his majority. In 1889, at the age of twenty-four, he married Clara Bender, daughter of Benjamin and Marian (McManus) Bender, of Elmira, Fulton county. Mr. and Mrs. Dominique also had a family of twelve chil- dren, and all are living except Hal Leo, who died in 1901, at the age of six months.
After his marriage Mr. Dominique rented 160 acres, and has farmed that place steadily, producing one crop after another for over thirty years. He still has it rented, while his own place is a farm of seventy-eight acres.
Mr. Dominique and family are members of St. Peter's Catholic Church. He votes as a democrat and is a member of the Knights of. Columbus.
: FRANK S. FLORY. In early pioneer times the Flory family came into Fulton county, entered land from the government, and made their first home in the woods. As a family they have been noted for a continuation of the pioneer spirit, and their faithful- ness and energy under all conditions have produced a number of ele- ments of value in the progress of Fulton county.
Frank S. Flory represents the third generation of the family, and has spent his active life as a farmer in German Township, where he was born in 1861. He is a son of Frank and Josephine (Rich- ard) Flory. His father was eight years of age when brought to this country from Alsace-Lorraine. The grandfather, John Peter Flory, acquired eighty acres of woodland from the government in German Township and spent the rest of his life there. Frank Flory, Sr., and his brother Fred cleared a tract of land a mile east of Almira, constituting the old Flory homestead. Frank Flory was given eighty acres of this land, and continued to live there, doing his work as a farmer and earning the esteem of the community until his death on October 28, 1915.
Frank S. Flory while a boy attended the Stutzman school in district No. 7. His education was completed by the time he was thirteen, and after that he worked both summer and winter help-
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ing his father. After his father's death the old homestead was divided, Frank S. taking part, his brother George fifty acres and his brother Henry thirty acres. Frank S. Flory is a bachelor. He is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, St. Peter's Catholic Church and is a democratic voter.
His brother George A. Flory was born and has always lived on the old Flory homestead. He also attended district No. 7 of the country schools, and later spent one term in the Fayette Normal School. Practically all his life has been given to agriculture. In 1906 he married Emma Pauline Miller, of Wauseon, a daughter of Anthony and Mary (Martin) Miller. They have three children, Ada Josephine, Clarence George and Christine Marie.
George Flory is also a demoerat, a member of St. Peter's Catholic Church, and has always endeavored to sustain the duties and respon- sibilities of good citizenship.
WILLIAM. H. MILLER. Apart from the substantial qualities of character exemplified in the acquisition and capable management of a large farmi of 200 acres, William H. Miller is also known in Fulton county as a thoroughly public-spirited citizen, a man always ready to do his share in behalf of community improvements and the upholding of the principles of American government.
Mr. Miller, whose farm of 200 acres is in German Township, was born in that township in 1868, on the original homestead of his par- ents, John and Catherine (Knapp) Miller. His father was a native of Canton Schauffhausen, Switzerland, and was brought to this country when a child by his parents. The Millers are an old and prominent family of Fulton county and have long been identified with the lands and farming interests of German Township. John Miller after a long and active career died there in 1903.
William H. Miller spent his early life after the manner of most farm boys, attending school in winter to the age of seventeen, and having a regular routine of duties at home. After completing his education he lived at home to the age of twenty-four, working for his father. He then worked for himself, and in 1897 he married Mary Elizabeth Winzeler and established a home of his own. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have nine children, all living.
After his marriage he bought a farm, and has been steadily advancing the area of his land holdings, eventually taking in his father's old place and now has 200 aeres, well improved and well farmed.
Mr. Miller has been active in local affairs. He was twice a ean- didate for township trustee. He acts independently in eleetions, casting his vote for the man best qualified. He served on the School Board of German Township nine years, and is a member of the Reformed Church.
HARMON KLECK. By his self-reliance, hard work and intelli- gent management Harmon Kleek has earned the right to be consid- ered one of the leading farmers and citizens of German Township, Fulton county, where he has a model place of eighty acres, devoted to the standard erops of Fulton county.
Mr. Kleck was born at Archbold in Fulton county May 24, 1872. Just two years previously his parents, Henry and Anna (Beuhrer) Kleck, had come from Canton Sehaffhausen, Switzer-
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land. Henry Kleck was a shoemaker by trade, followed that occu- pation for a time in this country, and then bought a farm in Rich- ville Township, Henry county, Ohio. He owned and cultivated sixty acres there, but later sold out and is now living retired.
Harmon Kleck was the fourth in a family of six children. While he attended schools at intervals at Richville to the age of seventeen, he always had a regular assignment of duties on the home farm and from the age of thirteen he hired out his services to other farmers, his wages going into the home exchequer. At the age of twenty-one, without capital, but with a good knowledge of farm methods, he began the slow process of acquiring his own property. He worked as a farm hand in German Township, and at the age of twenty-five he had made such progress that he was justified in get- ting married. Mrs. Kleck before her marriage was Emma Burk- holder, a daughter of D. D. and Catherine (Kiefer) Burkholder of Henry county. Mr. and Mrs. Kleck have four children : Inez Ruth, Harold D., Ilva L. and Wilbur Herman.
At the age of twenty-nine, four years after his marriage, Mr. Kleck with his father-in-law bought a farm in German Town- ship. Six years later he became sole owner of this place, and he is now owner of a substantial property, and at the same time has given good home advantages to his family.
Mr. Kleck is an independent voter, considering the qualifica- tions of the man rather than the party.
SAMUEL A. SCHLATTER, who is a successful representative Ful- ton county agriculturist, and owns a rich farm of eighty-four acres in German Township, is a native of the county, and has lived his whose life within its borders. His father, now in his eighty-fifth year, has lived in the county since he was twenty-eight years old, and was associated with many of the pioneer settlers of German Township.
Samuel A. was born in the village of Archbold, German Town- ship, Fulton county, Ohio, January 24, 1866, the son of John and Mary Magdalen (Buehrer) Schlatter. The family is of Swiss origin, John Schlatter having been born in the village of Buttenhardt, Canton of Schauffhausen, Switzerland, in 1835. He learned the trade of blacksmith in this native place, and married there, and one of his children, Lydia, now deceased, was born in Switzerland. In 1863, when he was twenty-eight years old, John Schlatter brought his wife and child to America, in that year coming direct to Ger- man Township, where others of Swiss origin, and from the Canton of Schauffhausen, had settled. Soon after he had arrived in the township he established himself in business in the village of Arch- bold, maintaining a smithy and wagon shop in that place until 1876, when he bought the farm of sixty-six acres he still owns. He farmed the property from 1876 until 1900, his industry and skillful farming bringing him into comfortable circumstances financially. In 1900, being then sixty-five years old, and having worked hard for practically fifty years, he decided to retire. He and his wife moved into Archbold, where until the latter's death in 1913 they lived a quiet and comfortable life of retirement. In 1917 he re- turned to the home farm, which he had sold to his son Samuel in 1904, and which Samuel had tilled for very many years prior to that. For the remainder of his days John Schlatter will probably
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live quietly with his son upon the farm that has been in the posses- sion of the family for so many years. John and Mary Magdalen (Buehrer) Schlatter were the parents of seven children, five of whom were sons. Only two of their children, however, now sur- vive, Hannah, who married John M. Kaehr, of Bluffton, Indiana, and Samuel A.
Samuel A. Schlatter received his early education in the public school of Arelibold, attending that sehool until he was ten years old, by which time the family had moved out of Archbold onto the farm his father had bought in German Township. The boy thereafter . attended distriet school No. 15, that being the nearest to his father's farm. When he was fifteen years old he left sehool altogether, and from that time until he was twenty-six years old he worked stead- ily at farming tasks upon his father's farm. Then followed one year of earpentering in the neighborhood, and a further year or so at farming with his father, which brought him to the year of his marriage, 1894. Soon after marriage he went into Arehbold to live, and work as a earpenter. So employed, he passed five years in Archbold, after which he again took up farming, renting a farm of 104 aeres in German Township. Two years later he again moved onto the home farm, his father having decided to retire altogether. His parents moved in Archbold, and he rented the family prop- erty until 1904, when he purchased it from his father. He has had mueh sueeess in general farming and in the raising of cattle. He maintains a somewhat large dairy, pays thoughtful attention to his stoek, and generally does not shirk the labor that the proper opera- tion of his aereage brings. He is known in the township as a man of marked energy, and in his farming he has also shown good busi- ness enterprise.
He is independent in polities, placing more importance upon the character of the candidate for offiee than upon the platform of the party. He is an earnest Christian, member of the Missionary Church of Arehbold. He has for many years interested himself in church work and in personal and financial support has been a valued mem- ber of his church, of which at present he is deaeon and trustee.
In 1894 Samuel A. Schlatter married Eliza Nofziger, daughter of Peter and Elizabeth (Sauter) Nofziger, of Arehbold. To them have been born seven ehildren, four sons and three daughters. The children in order of birth are: Floyd Monroe, who is now twenty- four years old, and in good business in Toledo, eonneeted with an oil company of that place. He is a veteran of the World war, serving for three months in Camp Gordon, Georgia, and then being trans- ferred to the Machine Gun Officers Training School at Camp Han- coek, Georgia, where he went through the course which gained him in graduating the rank of second-lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve on November 25, 1918, being soon afterward mus- tered out of the serviee because of the signing of the Armistice; Or- mond Edward, now twenty-two years old in is business in Delta, Fulton county ; Olin Guy, now twenty years old, is in his second term at the Bible Training School at Fort Wayne, where he expects to qualify for entry to the ministry. The four younger children of Mr. and Mrs. Sehlatter are: Florenee Fay, Ada May, Nolo Nell, and Miles Wave.
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PETER REBO, an esteemed and prosperous farmer of German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, now lives on the homestead upon which he was born in 1851. His father, associated with the early settlers of the county, did much pioneer work and cleared a very good farm for himself. And, like his father, Peter also did much development work, his energy and enterprise being responsible for the conversion of many acres of wild land to good rich agricultural properties. He has a worthy repute in the township, the reward that comes by a life well lived, by a sincerity of interest in one's fel- lows, and a helpful co-operation with one's neighbors. Peter Rebo has for the greater part of his life lived by hard toil, prospering well by industrious and well-directed farming in his later days, and in earlier years by the more rigorous labors of a woodsman.
He was born in the Rebo homestead in German Township, Ful- ton county, Ohio, on May 1, 1851, the son of Joseph and Frances (Short) Rebo. His father was born in France, and married in that country, coming soon afterward with his wife to America and set- tling in Elmira, Fulton county. For five years after coming into the territory, which was then in almost a wild state, with nothing of greater importance for the settlers to do than to clear the forest, Joseph Rebo lived the life of a woodsman, working as wood chopper for settlers in the vicinity. At the end of that time he bought the eighty acre tract now owned and occupied by his son Peter. When he acquired it the land was an undeveloped tract, but he lived on it for more than forty years, and for the greater part of that time worked steadily, first in clearing the acreage of timber, and latterly in bringing it into good fertility, Peter, as he grew, taking increas- ing share in the burdens of the farm operation. Joseph Rebo died in 1890, his wife surviving him for four years, her death not occur- ring until 1894.
Peter, born in 1851, and reared in the somewhat primitive sur- roundings of the township of that day, gained what schooling was possible in the country school nearest to his father's farm. He at- tended district school No. 15 during the winters, or rather for as long each year as the school was open, which meant practically only during the winter months, the summer vacation being planned to extend over the greater part of the growing season, when the sons of farmers would be of use to their parents on the home farms. So Peter grew to manhood. He continued to attend school until he was sixteen years old, and for seven years thereafter assisted his father in the clearing of the parental acreage. He did much work as a woodsman, he and his father clearing 160 acres altogether. He was twenty-two years old when he married, which to some ex- tent affected his future plans. In the following year he rented a farm of eighty acres for himself, and fifteen years later was able to buy the home farm of eighty acres, where he has since lived. It has long since ceased to be necesary for him to rely upon the product of the farm for his sustenance, and he does not now work as stren- uously as formerly ; still, having lived so active a life, he even yet undertakes quite a lot of work upon the farm.
Politically he is an independent democrat, religiously he is a Catholic, a devout member of the St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church of Archbold, and throughout his life he has been closely interested in all matters that pertain to his native township.
He was married in 1873 to Anna, daughter of Joseph and Mary
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Ann (Jean-Marie) Socie, whose parents were respected residents in German Township. Mr. and Mrs. Rebo became the parents of thirteen children, of whom eight survive, four sons and four daugh- ters: Mary Alice, who married Enoch Rupp, of Archbold, and is the mother of three children, Stella Cecilia, Wilma Maryann and Viola Margaret; Laura, who married Max Scanlon, of Toledo, but is without issue; Anna Myrtle, who is at home; Irvin Sereno, now thirty-five years old; Edward Peter, now thirty-three years old; Laurence Louis, who was born in 1888, has married, and is a suc- cessful farmer in Clinton Township, Fulton county; Blanche May, who is at home; Hilary Sylvester; and Florence Arville, who died in 1913, had married, and had borne to her husband five children, who survived her. The other children of Mr. and Mrs. Peter Rebo died in infancy.
KORES THIERRY, one of the intelligent farmers of Fulton county, works a fine farm of 105 acres in Franklin Township, and is en- gaged in conducting it in a profitable manner. He is a son of Charles and Anna (Roth) Thierry, the former of whom came to the United States from France when nine years old, at which time his family located in German Township, Fulton county, and reared three sons and one daughter. Charles Thierry died October 15, 1900. After his death his wife, Anna, purchased 105 acres in Franklin Township, where she still resides and her son Kores works the place.
Kores Thierry was born January 18, 1895, and was only a little boy when he lost his father. He attended the country schools until he was sixteen years of age during the winter months, and helped his mother with the farm in the summer. He has spent his life on this farm and is a very good agriculturist and much interested in operating his land in a modern way so as to make it yield banner crops. Mr. Thierry is unmarried. He is an independent democrat in his political views, and as yet has not become before the public for office, having been too much occupied with his private affairs to be active in politics. Believing strongly in the value of the Farm Bureau to the farmer, he has been a member of the local organiza- tion. In connection with the Bureau Mr. Thierry is studying the structure, composition and physiology of farm crops and their environment; that is, climate, fertilizers, soil and similar influences. He has taken advantage of the promulgation of agricultural infor- mation by the governmental and other institutions, and is active in urging co-operation among the farmers so as to investigate into the value of such important aids as irrigation, dry farming, selective plant and animal breeding, specialization in crops, fertilizers and cold storage. It is men like Mr. Thierry who have during the past, as they still do at present, made the advancements in agriculture and brought about the transition from crude beginnings to methods and appliances of the present day. Mr. Thierry and his family, unlike the majority of French extraction, are Protestants. It would be difficult to find anyone who is more alert to the possibilities of an honorable calling than he, and although he is yet a young man he has proven his worth to his community and given promise of much greater progress in the future.
WILLIAM A. BIDDLE, a well-known and prosperous farmer of York Township, Fulton county, Ohio, has lived practically all his
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life on the farm upon which he was born, and which his father, who was one of the pioneer settlers of the township, won from the wilderness.
His paternal descent is English, but the family has long been resident in the United States. His paternal grandparents, George and Nancy Jane (Lawrence) Biddle, were both born in Pennsyl- vania. Their son Henry L., father of William A., was born in Pennsylvania, but in early manhood came into Ohio, and for a while lived in Wayne county. There he married Agatha Green- welt, who was born in Russia, but who since her fourteenth year had been living in the United States, her parents having settled in Wayne county, Ohio. In about 1855 Henry L. Biddle and his wife put their few belongings into a wagon and drove through the wilderness from Wayne county to Fulton county, settling in York Township upon wild land Henry L. Biddle had purchased. There they lived the rigorous life of the pioneer, and in course of time, by dint of hard and persistent labor; Henry L. Biddle found himself the owner of a good agricultural property, 127 acres in extent, all cleared and tillable with the exception of twenty acres. He died in the township on December 5, 1888, aged fifty-five years, having been born on June 4, 1833. His wife, however, lived a widowhood of twenty-six years, her demise not occurring until March 25, 1915, she being then seventy-eight years old, having been born on Jan- uary 12, 1837. They had many sincere friends among the older people of York Township. Their children were: Nannie, who was born on March 11, 1857, and died on June 9, 1886, married Brainard Fleming; William A., regarding whose life more fol- lows; George F., who was born on October 4, 1871, and now lives in Los Angeles, California; Mary A., who was born on March 27, 1874, and eventually married John Sinkes of Muskogee, Oklahoma.
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