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 60
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JOHN J. SPIESS is a son of one of the early Swiss settlers of Ful- ton county, and has exemplified the sturdy characteristics of his race during an active career of over thirty years, has developed a fine farm and distinguished himself by his public-spirited relation- ship to all the community interests of German Township, where he has spent all his life.
He was born in that township in 1868, son of Jacob J. and Caroline (Knapp) Spiess. His father was born in one of the Can- tons of Switzerland and came to this country at the age of fifteen. He made settlement in German Townsliip, acquired and developed a tract of land there, was prospered by his thrift and enterprise, and reared a family of eleven children, John J. being the oldest of the sons.
The latter attended the country school in District No. 13 until he was fourteen years of age. His education was acquired with a term of a few months each year and the rest of the season was given to the labors and responsibilities of the home farm. He was taught the art of successful farming by his father, and remained at home and worked for his father to the age of twenty-six. He then rented 611% acres a half mile south of Archbold, and later bought that property and has since acquired adjoining land until he now has a well proportioned farm of 110 acres, well adapted to general farming purposes.
Mr. Spiess married Elizabeth Nofziger, the youngest daughter of Christian and Barbara (Rupp) Nofziger, on December 27, 1900. Seven daughters were born into their home: Virgie Walila, Alta Carolena, Nellie May, Charlotte Celesta, Wilma Belle, Violet Eliza- beth and Lodema Jane. All are still living, constituting a bright and happy family, the daughters all being taught the lessons and principles which are at the foundation of our national life. Mr. Spiess . and family are members of the Reformed Church and politically he is a republican.
WALTER PERRY CLARK. While the family story connected with the early life of Walter Perry Clark of Spring Hill (Tedrow) be- longs properly to the City of Detroit, since April 27, 1915, his per- manent residence has been in Fulton county. Mr. Clark is the youngest in a family of three children born to Alvin S. and IIelen (Hawley) Clark. He has a sister, Mrs. Maie (Clark) Bennett, of Detroit, and he had a brother, Frank Clark, who died in young manhood.
Mr. Clark's father, A. S. Clark, deceased, was the third in a family of seven children born to John P. Clark. They are: Avis, Alice, Alvin, Florence, Norman, Arthur and Walter. The history of John P. Clark and his family is closely interwoven with the history of the City of Detroit. The name Clark lias been perpetu- ated there by the name of Clark avenue and the John P. Clark Park, Clark avenue bordering the farm once owned by him, and the park being named by the citizens of Detroit in recognition of the donor. Clark Park was the forest reservation on the Clark home- stead, now in the heart of the city.
The Alice Clark Clipper ship, built at the foot of Clark avenue, was the first Great Lakes vessel designed as an ocean going craft,
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MR. AND MRS. JOIIN J. SPIESS
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
and it was later sold in Glasgow, Scotland. None of the children of John P. Clark survive, and in the next generation, the grand- children, there are six, and one of them is Walter P. Clark. His sister, Mrs. Bennett, and a cousin, Norman Atcheson, are all who live in Detroit today. The only grandson bearing the time honored name of Clark now lives in Spring Hill, W. P. Clark.
Mr. Clark married Ida May Oden, May 10, 1900, in Toledo, and together they have visited many places of interest. He has been a traveling salesman and they have lived on the road together. They have traveled by land and by water, Mr. Clark serving as passenger clerk on many of the largest lake steamers. He has benefited, how- ever, from the family investments in Detroit, and while he now lives in retirement, his income is from steamboat investments in Detroit and real estate both in Detroit and Los Angeles. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have visited the principal cities together from Duluth to New Orleans, and from New York to San Francisco.
After all Mr. and Mrs. Clark find more pleasure and real com- fort in their quiet home and garden plot in Spring Hill than any- where else in the whole country. The lure of the world is as nothing to them after living for a time in quiet enjoyment-home the most restful spot of all. "'Mid pleasures and palaces," well, their "Home, Sweet Home," holds them as permanent citizens of Fulton county. They are content with the little world in which they live, and when absent they are always glad to return to their own "vine and fig tree."
JEREMIAH (JERRY) JONES. When the immediate family history of Jeremiah, always called "Jerry" Jones, began in this "neck o' the woods," what is now Fulton was then part of Lucas county. A government deed in possession of Mr. Jones, signed by President James K. Polk June 1, 1845, shows that William Jones, Jr., father of Jeremiah Jones, came into the ownership of the family home- stead, section No. 1 in Dover Township, on that date, and since then it has been in the one family name. This was five years before the organization of Fulton county.
The family tradition is that William Jones, Sr., lived in York Township, but there is no record extant of the time when he lo- cated there. It is known, however, that Jeremiah Jones, born July 17, 1846, is in the third generation of this pioneer family in Fulton county. While he does not remember his grandfather, Wil- liam Jones, Sr., the grandmother lived many years in' the family of his father, William Jones, Jr., and he remembers her distinctly. She lived many years after the death of his own father, which oc- curred February 25, 1857 ..
Jeremiah Jones well remembers that his mother, Rachel (Ted- row) Jones, reared the family alone. She died November 23, 1876, and like Dorcas of old, she had done her part in the world. She was a daughter of Isaac Tedrow, who was a farmer and the first postmaster at Tedrow, the postoffice later being removed from the Tedrow farm to Spring Hill, and since then Spring Hill is fre- quently called Tedrow. The Jones and Tedrow families of that gen- eration are all gone the way of the world. However, their family story is properly part of the History of Fulton County.
In the Jones family there were uncles: Jolin and Daniel, and there were aunts: Katy, Polly, Elizabeth, Sallie and Melinda, and in the Tedrow family were Jeremiah and Isaiah, who were twins,
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
and William, and the aunts were: Elizabeth, Mary, Katy Ann, Rachel, Delilah and Jane. So much for the preceding generation in both families, Jones and Tedrow.
The children born to William Jones, Jr., and Rachel Tedrow were : Newton, Isaiah, Elizabeth, Jeremiah, Louisa, William, Emery and Cornelius. Only two, Jeremiah and Elizabeth, are liv- ing today, and the day of the interview she was his guest.
On April 14, 1878, Jeremiah Jones married Emma Herreman. She is a daughter of Dr. Henry and Salvina (Loomis) Herreman. They came from Ashtabula county in 1844 to western Ohio. Her father, Doetor Herreman, was an active man in community affairs, and he praetiecd medieine for many years in the frontier commu- nity. Mrs. Jones had two brothers: Warren S., who now occupies the old family homestead in Dover, and Charles, who died in boy- hood. Her sisters are Elsie M. and Anastasia.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones are: Elton W., born June 20, 1879, who married Ruby Dunbar; Bayard F., born Decem- ber 2, 1880, who married Edna Hunt; Merton C., born August 18, 1882, who married Bessie Guilford, has one son, Claire; Bessie R., born November 5, 1884, is the wife of Charles F. Gype, and their children are Donald and Doris; Vida G., born July 26, 1886, is the wife of Clarence Van Dyke Worley; Maysel A., born August 31, 1889, is the wife of Clarence Hollister, and their children are Hilon and Rollin; Ernest A., born August 22, 1891, married Maud Smith, and they have one son, Alva Bay; Herma A., born May 23, 1896, is the wife of Rollo Frazier, and their children are Arlene and Leon; Floy E., born March 27, 1898, is the wife of Orville Markley, and they have two children, Evelyn and Russell Dean. There has never been a vacant chair, and all the family circle lives within the bounds of Fulton county.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones gave all of their children common school educations, and they taught them industry along with mental ac- quirements. The vote of the family has always been cast with the republican party. While they have always attended the Ottokee Methodist Church, they have never joined it. Mr. Jones is a mem- ber of Wauscon Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge No. 362, and the sons and daughters all sustain about the same relation to their respective communities. The family homestead bears evi- dence of careful husbandry, and while Mr. Jones is no longer in the active management there is a double set of farm buildings, and they continue their residence there even to the fourth generation- grandchildren living on the same farmstead with them.
There are few farms in Fulton county which in the course of three score and ten years have never been transferred from the origi- nal family nanie, the deed to this one having been signed by a United States president. The farm buildings are substantial and modern, the house having a basement story with furnace heat and sanitary plumbing, the water system being extended to both houses and all of the farm buildings. From the standpoint of modern comforts there is no reason why the family should quit the farm where they have lived so many years. Isolation is no longer a hardship with the rural community.
ARTHUR LORENZO BADGLEY AND MRS. ADELIA A. BADGLEY. In October, 1919, there were four generations sheltered under one roof-
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
tree in the Badgley-Beecher homestead near Ottokee. It is the home of Arthur L. Badgley, his mother, Mrs. Adelia A. Badgley, his grandfather, Myron Augustus Beecher, and his four children, Robert Augustus, Mary Adelia, Myron Mills and Dale Lorenzo Badgley.
Since April 4, 1872, this family has lived in Fulton county, locating first in Clinton, lived for a time in York and finally settled in Dover, where they have had continuous residence. Mr. Beecher, born June 21, 1823, is among the oldest citizens of the county. At the age of ninety-seven years he reads the daily newspapers without the use of spectacles. He has had his second sight for many years, and when his general health is unimpaired his hearing is excellent. Very little in ordinary conversation escapes his notice.
Since he was a voter Mr. Beecher has never missed an election except in 1872, when he lost his vote through moving from Michi- gan to Ohio. His first presidential vote was for James K. Polk, and that is the only time he ever voted with the democratic party.
Arthur L. Badgley and his brother Myron Ransom Badgley of Los Angeles are the two sons born to Theodore Mills and Adelia A. (Beecher) Badgley. Mrs. Badgley is the only daughter of her father, M. A. Beecher. Mr: and Mrs. Badgley were married October 7, 1866, in Dover Township, Lenawee county, Michigan. The Badg- leys were a New Jersey family, who in 1847 had located in Lenawee county. The father was George W. and the mother, Elizabeth (Earl) Badgley. They had four children born in New Jersey and five after they lived in Michigan. They were: Joseph H., Theo- dore M., George W., William A., Elijah H., Samantha, Eliza, Frank and Laura.
There is little known of the history of the Earls except that they lived in New Jersey. The mother was a woman who never said anything about her relatives. Some of the Badgley relatives still live in Michigan. Theodore M. Badgley died at the family home in Dover, May 25, 1918, and that leaves Arthur L. Badgley at the head of the family in Fulton county. His mother, the only child of Myron Augustus and Martha Louisa (Ludlum) Beecher, is the homemaker for all of them.
Mr. Beecher and his wife each belonged to a family of nine children, and each was the fifth child and each survived all of the others. The wife died July 13, 1909, leaving him in the home where they had lived so long, and which was destroyed by fire May 10, 1916, and since then Mr. Beecher has lived in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Badgley. In the old Beecher home were many old time household articles that would now be 'highly valued by the younger relatives. There were old land grants from England signed by King George conveying wild lands in America to Abraham Beecher, the grandfather of Myron A. Beecher, now nearing the century mark in human history.
It is known that four Beecher brothers were immigrants from England-one of them Abraham Beecher. His son, Robert Beecher, was the father of Myron A. Beecher. Robert Beecher married Adelia Denning, and thus Mrs. Adelia A. Badgley carries the name of her grandmother. Mr. Beecher remained in Connecticut until after the death of his father and mother, when, accompanied by one sister, Frances Adelia Beeeher, he removed to Michigan. An older brother, Robert R. Beecher, had already. located there, where he was an attorney-at-law. They reached Adrian August 26, 1846,
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
remaining there until 1872, when Mr. Beecher came to Fulton county.
The Ludlums were a New York family, but all records were burned and little is known today about them. It is known that Dr. Lyman Beecher was a cousin to Robert Beecher, and thus the descent of M. A. Beecher is related to Henry Ward Beecher and his sister, Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Outside the immediate household there are no Badgley-Beecher relatives in the community.
Arthur L. Badgley married Mary Stutzman, June 25, 1898, and to them were born four children, already mentioned-the fourth generation. She was a daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Wyse) Stutzman, of German Township. She was one of thirteen chil- dren: Sarah, Elizabeth, Louise, Lavina, Fanny, Sarah, Eva and Mary, and Daniel, Samuel, Albert, John and Stephen. She was the fifth child and she died December 27, 1916, just when Mr. Badg- ley was building a splendid new house for her. Since that time the four generations in the family have lived under one roof in the home of Mrs. Adelia A. Badgley.
Myron R. Badgley married Sadie Oden, who died in a short time. He later married Amelia Hasert, and their five children are: Clarence, Howard (deceased), Catharine, Elsie and Rose Amelia. The mother died, and he married Iva Hunt. Since 1904 he has lived in Los Angeles. The Badgley brothers had common school education at Ottokee, and with the father and grandfather they have always voted the republican ticket. While the family is not enrolled as members of church they believe in Sabbath observance and high standards of living. Mrs. Badgley works with the local church societies, and they all attend church services at times.
A. L. Badgley belongs to the Ancient Order of Gleaners, Otto- kee Arbor, and today his children are in the district school at Ottokee. The family burial plot, the Ottokee Cemetery, adjoins the farm where the Badgley-Beecher family has lived for many years. They plan to complete the new house begun before the death of Mrs. A. L. Badgley, and all will move into it. Because of his years Mr. Beecher is shown great deference in the Ottokee community.
BAYARD FLOYD JONES. Since February 1, 1916, Bayard F. Jones-they call him "Bay" in the community, has been superin- tendent and his wife has been matron of the Fulton County Farm and Home for Indigents, those unfortunates who know no other enchanted spot by the sacred name of home, sweet home. Will Carlton's poem : "Over The Hills To The Poor House," loses its significance, however, when Mr. and Mrs. Jones have to do with the institutional life of Fulton county. While discipline in an in- stitution is absolutely necessary, they are humane in their dealings with the community's unforunates.
While Mr. Jones serves Fulton county, and his business rela- tion to the community is with the county commissioners, he simply applies the business methods of any other good farmer and husband- man and makes .the county farm sustain itself. He is the second son of Jeremiah Jones, and having been reared on a nearby farm- stead, he is familiar with the land production and the market con- ditions. He is thereby able to manage the business of Fulton county on a paying basis-business methods in county agriculture and in- stitutional affairs. While there is a shifting, uncertain population at the Fulton County Home adjoining the ancient town of Ottokee,
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
once the county seat of Fulton, and in winter there are always more dependents than in summer, in September, 1919, there were twenty men and eight women sheltered there.
As superintendent and matron Mr. and Mrs. Jones are able to secure valuable assistance in the farm and household duties from some of the wards of Fulton county. They realize their own moral responsibility, and if the wards were competent helpers they would not be sheltered in an institution. Under the management of a former superintendent and matron Mr. and Mrs. Jones both had employment there, and thus they gained valuable knowledge of the work of the Associated Charities in Fulton county and Ohio in gen- cral. In that way they were peculiarly fitted for their present re- quirements as superintendent and matron of the institution. Mr. Jones always attends the meetings of the State Board of Charities.
Mr. Jones married Edna Hunt, September 22, 1908. She is a daughter of Aubigne A. and Alice (Page) Hunt. While her birth place was Braintree, Massachusetts, the family later removed to Michigan and now live in Hudson, in which place her father died February 7, 1920. Her sister, Lillian, is the wife of Dwight Heacock, and she has one child, Pauline A. Heacock. A brother, Vinton A., died in young manhood. Another brother, Carroll P., married Florence Huff. Another brother, James, was in the United States Navy in the war of the nations.
Mrs. Jones graduated from high school in Morenci, Michigan. Later she studied in the Tri-State College, Angola, Indiana, and she was a teacher in rural schools in both Lenawee county, Michi- gan, and Fulton county, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Jones affiliate with the Methodist Episcopal Church in Ottokee, and while he is republi- can in politics his position as farm superintendent is not a political plum, but it is under the Civil Service branch of the state.
Through their relation to the Fulton County Home, Mr. and Mrs. Jones enjoy a wide acquaintance in the community. In the course of a year many people visit the institution. The environ- ment is splendid, and it is a pleasant retreat for those who need its shelter.
WILLIAM HENRY PIKE. Because he has always lived in one community William Henry Pike, of "Pike's Peak" in Dover, is interested in the historical development of Fulton county, and his wife, at one time a pupil of F. H. Reighard, encouraged him in placing an order for the History of Fulton County. Their young son, Willis Henry Pike, is in the fourth generation of the family on one farmstead, and the elevation on which the house stands is most appropriately known as Pike's Peak-the home for so many years of the Pike family.
W. H. Pike is one of five children born at this homestead in the family of Judson and Sarah Adelia (Wise) Pike, and in time he was more than an elder brother-he was father to the younger ones. They are: Charles Edward, Myra May, Jennie Alice and Glen Romain. When the youngest was three the father died, and the mother died when he was seven, and the oldest son, William H., became at once father and mother to the younger brothers and sisters. All remained with him until they established homes for themselves. However, only one brother, Charles E., lives in Fulton
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
county today. All the others live in Michigan, but they pay fre- quent visits at the old family homestead-Pike's Peak.
Judson Pike and his wife were married February 25, 1872, and both were always residents of Fulton county. They lie buried in Spring ITill Cemetery. He was one of twelve children born to Alanson and Hannah (Link) Pike, who soon after their marriage in New York had located in Gorham Township, but they later lived in Wauseon. In their family were ninc sons and three daughters, but because of the early deaths among them and the death of his father, W. H. Pike has no list of their names. Some of them died in infancy, and he never heard their names at all. Those who reached adult years are: Judson, Chester, Albert, Hiram, James, Homer, Angeline, Myra and Oliver.
Alanson Pike who lies buried in the Wauseon Cemetery, was the founder of the house of, Pike in Fulton county. A brother to Hannah Pike, Elmer Link, was one time a temporary resident of Fulton county. Sarah Adclia (Wise) Pike was one of nine chil- dren born to Daniel and Catharine (Lingle) Wise. They were: Sarah Adelia, William Henry, Charles, James, Oscar, Alice, Clara, Ella and Agnes. All but the two older ones are living today (October, 1919). All but Alice live in Fulton county. The Wise family came from Seneca to Fulton.
William H. Pike, who enrolls his ancestry, married Olga Kesz- ler, March 25, 1908, and to them has been born one son, Willis Henry. Mrs. Pike is the youngest of four children: Elizabeth, Emma, William and Olga, born to Nicklous and Catharine (Miller) Keszler. There is German and French in the family blood, Nick- lous Keszler having been born in Huron county, Ohio, while Catharine Miller was born in Germany. When the mother was a girl of nine she came with her parents, Henry and Susannah (Bush) Miller, to Sandusky, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Keszler each belonged to a family of nine children, and each was the oldest child.
The children in the Keszler family are: Nicklous, Walter, Martin, Henry, Rachel, Barbara, Rosa, Lena and one that died in infancy. The children in the Miller family are: Catharine, An- drew, William, Henry, Jacob, Barbara, Christina, Elizabeth and Caroline. Three are living today in the Keszler family, while in the Miller family there is but one. Although she was born in San- dusky, Mrs. Pike's parents had lived for twenty years in Fulton county. In 1887 they located in Swan Creek, and they lie buried in Centerville Cemetery. Willis Henry, the young son in the Pike family, never saw any of his grandparents. The Keszlers all live in Fulton county except one sister, who lives in Sandusky.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Pike had common school advantages, and they are identified with Ottokee Grange and Ottokee Arbor of the Ancient Order of Gleaners. The family vote has always been re- publican, and the ancestral family belonged to the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and Alanson Pike endowed the church in Wauseon -one of the conditions being the perpetual care of the family graves in the Wauseon Cemetery.
Mrs. Olga Pike was confirmed in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Swan Creek, and the son, Willis Henry, has been bap- tized in Trinity Lutheran Church, Wauseon.
Oliver and Hiram Pike were Civil war soldiers, Oliver dying in the service at Bowling Green, Kentucky. William Nicklous Bix-
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HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY
ler, a nephew to Mrs. Pike, died of influenza at Camp Custer. He was buried in the uniform he would have worn in overseas service had he been spared to go across with his regiment in the war of the nations.
In all its history the Pike family has been identified with the world's oldest occupation-agriculture, and on "Farmers' Pension Day" Mr. and Mrs. Pike are in Wauseon for their dairy money, the sale of milk supplementing the income from the farmstead. When W. H. Pike came to his place of residence he was a "baby in long clothes," and he has no thought of any other habitation in the world.
MORTIMER M. TAYLOR. While there is no early day family story in connection with the ancestry of Mortimer M. Taylor of Echo Farm in Chesterfield, through his marriage to Fannie Mariah Butler, June 4, 1890, he became identified with the history of the first family to locate in the wilderness-later developed into Chester- field Township and namned in honor of an ancestor.
M. M. Taylor is the third child born to Aralza J. and Louisa (Mapes) Taylor, Ella, the first born, having died in childhood, and Alfred is a resident of Michigan. While Mr. Taylor was born near Echo Farm, his early life was spent in Michigan. Five years after his marriage he returned to Fulton county, and the reverberations produced by natural conditions suggested the name Echo Farm, where he devotes his attention to agriculture, although he does some contract work and for several years has had much to do with town- ship affairs in Chesterfield.
The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are: Virgie L., wife of Henry E. Hill. Their children are Marion, Leston and Audrey. Clifford J. married Leota Shaffer. Their children are: Hal A., and Betty Jane. Ruth is the wife of Roy Marks. Their son is David Taylor. The younger children are: Roy A., Jay, Josephine, Evelyn and Chesterfield Clemmons. Jay and Evelyn died in child- hood.
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