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 65
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William Perkins removed from Wayne to Fulton county in 1870, locating in Swan Creek Township. He bought eighty acres in the brush, and some of it heavily timbered, and he cleared twenty- four acres, residing there until the time of his death in 1894, and the wife lived there until 1905, when her death occurred. While thirteen children were born to them only five reached manhood and womanhood. Anna is the wife of Levi Swartz, of Hastings, Ne- braska; Mary is the widow of Jacob Hodgebone, of Toledo; Julia is the wife of Charles Wilford, of Toledo; Joseph lives in Swanton ; and Jacob F. lives on the farm in Swan Creek. In March, 1899, he married Ocie E. Peterson, of Swan Creek. She is a daughter of John and Sarah (Williams) Peterson. Her father came from Long Island, while her mother had always lived in Swan Creek. One daughter, Grace, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Perkins.
Mr. Perkins has served as school director for many years. He has served two terms as township trustee, and he was instrumental in building eight miles of hard road in that time. He is a democrat in politics, and is a member of Brailey Grange and a stockholder in the Brailey Grange Hall Company.
While he has put in many industrious years on the farm that was his boyhood environment, Jacob F. Perkins has evidently ac- knowledged the call of public spirit and has freely enlisted his serv- ices in every community project for the general welfare. He is one of the thinking men found in agricultural circles today who are
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doing so much to increase the attractiveness of farm life and also improve the general cconomic conditions of those who till the soil.
JAMES B. TEMPLETON, educator, state official, attorney, and latterly a successful agriculturist also, is one of the leading residents of Swan Creek Township, Fulton county. Now in his sixty-second year, lie has lived an active, useful, and consequential life since he graduated from Wooster University. He has successively and successfully been a school teacher, a justice of the peace, a clerk of the state house of representatives, and an attorney ; and concurrently with his practice of law has served as mayor of Swanton, besides many other local offices, as well as attending to the affairs of a farm of moderate size. And it may be stated that he has entered into the labors upon his farm with as much enthusiasm and pleasure as he manifested in a much discussed legal prosecution when he was at the height of his career as an attorney. He has shown much ca- pability in public affairs, and, withal, possesses a commendably sin- cere public spirit.
James B. Templeton was born in Delta, York Township, Ohio, on September 11, 1858, the son of John S. and Lydia A. (Fessler) Templeton, the former having been born in Wayne county, Ohio, and his mother in Union county, Pennsylvania. The Templeton family is of Scottish origin, but has for many generations been resi- dent in the United States. Evidently the family can be placed among the early pioneer families of Ohio, for John Templeton, grand- father of James B., and also his wife, Susan Watkins, were born in Ohio, and is of record in Swan Creek Township, Fulton county, as early as 1852, while the maternal grandparents of James B. Tem- pleton, Joseph B. and Catherine (Fox) Fessler, were on the wild land of Swan Creek Township in 1835, when practically the whole district was wilderness. Grandfather John Templeton was a man of enormous stature. He was six feet, seven inches in height, and is stated to have at one time weighed 502 pounds. His chest meas- urement was seventy-two inches, and his other measurements were proportionate. He had a farm of 120 acres in Swan Creek Town- ship, and lived the life of a sturdy pioneer. John S. Templeton, son of John and Susan (Watkins) Templeton, spent some of his early life in Fulton county, and there met Lydia A. Fessler, who became his wife. Soon after marriage they moved to Gratiot county, Michigan, but two years later returned to Fulton county, and lived in Delta Village, York Township. For many years John S. Tem- pleton was a railway employe, a conductor, but he also entered ex- tensively into farming operations. He owned 182 acres of land in Swan Creek Township, Fulton county, Ohio, and also 320 acres in Buenavista county, Iowa, having homesteaded 1/2 of the latter hold- ing and purchased the other portion. He was a man of worthy spirit, and notwithstanding his marital responsibilities, and his farming interests, he could not resist the desire to take personal part in the cause of the Union during the Civil war. He enlisted as a private in Company I of the Thirty-eighth Regiment of Ohio Vol- untecr Infantry, and went through the severe campaigning of three years, rising to the rank of first lieutenant and receiving honorable discharge at the termination of hostilities. It was soon after his discharge from military service that he returned to Fulton county and acquired the Swan Creek land; and for the next twenty-one
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years, until his death in 1886, he resided on that property, apply- ing himself steadily to agricultural operations. His wife, however, lived a widowhood of fourteen years, her death not occurring until 1910, she being then seventy-seven years old. The children of John S. and Lydia (Fessler) Templeton were: Frank who entered the legal profession and is in law practice in Toledo, Ohio; James B., of further reference; David D., who died in infancy; John W., now of San Hoquin, Cuba.
James B., second child of John S. and Lydia A. (Fessler) Tem- pleton, was only three years old when his father left his wife and two children to the care of the nation and himself took up arms for the emancipation of the southern slaves. Fortune favored the family, and the father eventually returned safely and sound of limb after three years of severe campaigning; and from that time until the children had grown to manhood and had acquired good educa- tions the father provided amply for the needs of the family. James B. graduated eventually from Wooster University, and when twenty- seven years old married, soon after which he and his wife took up their residence in Swanton, Fulton county, and in that place he entered the teaching profession. He also served for twelve years as justice of the peace in Swanton. He took a leading part in the pub- lic life of the community, and was actively interested in political affairs. He served as clerk of the State House of Representatives for the seventy-fourth and seventy-fifth session of the State General Assembly, and he appears to have resolved to forsake his former professional work, that of teaching, and to qualify for admittance to the practice of law. He was admitted to practice law at the state bar on December 6, 1901, and opened a law office in the City of Toledo, Ohio, in 1902, continuing to practice in that city until 1909, when he purchased the farm of seventy-five acres he has since owned and managed in section 11 of Swan Creek Township, Fulton county. He had served as mayor of Swanton, Ohio, for one term, and the year following that of his purchase of the Swan Creek estate and taking up residence in that township he was appointed prosecu- ting attorney, was re-elected in 1912, and served until 1915, when he gave up the office and entered more actively into farming. Dur- ing the last five years Attorney Templeton has raised upon his farm more than two thousand bushels of wheat, entering zealously into the plans of the Department of Agriculture, which sought to get American farmers during the years of stress, 1917-18, to bring about an abnormal yield of food-stuffs, to circumvent the ravages ot war among the famished people of European countries. He has also raised other farm products and maintains a moderate sized dairy ; in fact, five milch cows yield him a greater return than he received in salary for his professional labors as prosecuting attorney. Mr. Templeton has a rich farm, which is now known as Wheatland Farm, and although he still practices law he gives much of his time to the direction of his farm. Among the minor public offices he has held have been that of clerk of Swanton Village Board and clerk of Swan Creek Township. During the war he was prominent in local activities connected with the various war funds raised by the government and by governmental agencies, and in other ways de- monstrated his patriotic feeling and interest.
He has been identified with the functioning of local branches of some of the leading fraternal orders. He is a Mason, belonging to Swanton Lodge No. 555, and to the Fulton Chapter of Wauseon,
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Ohio. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge No. 588 of Swanton, through most of the chairs of which he has passed, and has held most of the offices of Viking Lodge No. 892 of Toledo. He also is a member of the Tribe of Ben Hur order, while his college fraternity is Phi Delta Theta. Politically he has always been a republican, and his church is the Methodist Episcopal, in support of which he is consistent as one would expect from a man of his high moral character.
On November 1, 1885, he married Amanda J. Bayes, who was born in Wauseon, Ohio, daughter of Benjamin W. and Margaret (Garmon) Bayes, her father a native of Tusearawas county, Ohio, and her mother of Fulton county birth. In the paternal line her ancestry is Scottish, but her genealogy in the maternal line con- neets with a German family, her grandparents being Thomas and Elizabeth (Wallick) Bayes, who were born in Pennsylvania, of Scottish antecedents, and Philip and Elizabeth (Koos) Garmon, who were of German birth. All, however, are of record in the early annals of Fulton county, Ohio, and are placed among the early settlers of the region. James B. and Amanda J. (Bayes) Templeton are the parents of two children. Mildred B. married Clare D. Pettin- gill, who is in the International truek business in Jacksonville, Florida, and is a successful business man. They have three chil- dren, James T., Patricia A. and William C. Georgia H. married Elmer F. Pelton, of Erie, Pennsylvania. They have two children, John R. and Althea Nan.
Since early manhood Mr. Templeton has been placed among the capable men of Fulton county, and as a citizen and professional man has been among the leaders of York and Swan Creek Town- ships.
ISAAC V. WILLIAMS, who died August 4, 1919, had spent nearly half a century in the Delta community of Fulton county. His capable wife, Mrs. Williams, is still living at Delta, where for many years she has conducted the leading millinery establishment.
The late Mr. Williams was born at Reedtown, Seneca county, Ohio, September 3, 1840, son of James and Vanluah (Whitten) Williams, the former a native of Richland and the latter of Coshoc- ton county. They spent their married lives in Seneca county as farmers, and James Williams was also a minister of the Protestant Methodist Church.
Isaac V. Williams in April, 1864, enlisted in Company G of the One Hundred and Sixty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. There were four brothers in the war, in three different regiments. Isaac Williams was sent first to Johnson's Island and then did garrison duty in Washington, District of Columbia. In about a hundred days he was discharged for physical defect and returned to Seneca county.
Mr. Williams came to Delta April 6, 1869, and followed his trade as a carpenter and also clerked in a hardware store. For sev- eral years he was a hardware and dry goods salesman and also lived in South Dakota to benefit his health. While in the northwest he clerked in a bank and in a merchandise establishment four sum- mers. always returning to Delta for the winter.
May 12, 1863, Mr. Williams married Sarah Elizabeth Smith, of Norwalk. She is a daughter of Lemuel and Mary (Rogers) Smith,
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both of whom were born in Wayne county, Ohio. Her grandparents were Elisha and Sarah (Ames) Smith and Joel and Elizabeth (Eles) Rogers. Both families acquired government land in Ohio in early days. The story is told by her great-grandfather, Elisha Ames, illustrating his remarkable vigor, how when he was ninety-two years of age he drove with a horse and buggy from Syracuse, New York, to Norwalk, Ohio, and returned the same way, showing no ill effects from the experience. Mrs. Williams' father, Lemuel Smith, en- listed in the Union Army but died February 7, 1861, on the day he was to leave with his regiment, the Fifty-fifth Ohio Infantry.
While a young woman Mrs. Williams learned the millinery trade in Cleveland, and the week after her arrival she opened a millinery shop in Delta. She owns a two-story business room, the oldest and best patronized establishment in the town, Mr. and Mrs. Williams had a foster daughter, Lula Clancy, whom they reared as their own child, and she is the wife of William Nach- triebs, of Elkhart, Indiana. Their son, George Nachtriebs, is in Detroit. Mr. Williams filled various offices in the Methodist Epis- copal Church, being chorister and in charge of the musical service for thirty-five years. He also filled the chairs of the Masonic Lodge, and was a member and for many years chaplain of McQuillan Post of the Grand Army of the Republic.
SYLVANUS WALTER STEVENS. The Stevens family history from which Sylvanus Walter Stevens of Spring Hill is descended begins in Ohio February 5, 1851, when William H. Stevens married Effie Foster, of Morrow county. The record in the family Bible shows that he was born June 4, 1809, in Pennsylvania, and this is known to be his second marriage, Effie Foster not being the mother of the children. While it is known that Armenia Morrison, to whom he was first married, was born November 24, 1812, there is no record of the time or the place of the marriage cercmony. He was the second in line to bear the name of William H. Stevens, being a son of William H. and Sarah (Crowley) Stevens. It is understood that the Stevens family is originally from Kentucky and the Crow- ley family from New Jersey. While it is known there were brothers and sisters in the Stevens family nothing at all is known of the Crowleys.
The children born to William H. and Armenia (Morrison) Stevens, were Royal Crowley, Charles Leonitus, Daniel Leander, Sylvanus Monroe, William Henry, John Sylvester and Sarah Cath- arine. They were born in Morrow, Richland and Knox counties as the parents migrated from one place to another. The six brothers, and the record is unique, were all soldiers in the Civil war, enlist- ing from Fulton county. Sylvanus M., the invalid father of Syl- vanus Walter was for ten months a prisoner in Andersonville. At the end of the war he was released from that vile place a living skeleton. It had been reported to his relatives that he was dead, and the war records show that a tombstone bearing his name and the number of his grave had been provided by the United States Government in Washington.
Mr. Stevens was removed from Andersonville to Annapolis, Maryland, where he was held in camp until he recovered sufficient strength to return to his home in Fulton county. Mr. Stevens was born June 18, 1839, while the family lived in Richland county, and
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he came with his father and step-mother to Fulton county when he was ten years old-one year before the organization of the county. In 1849 his father came to the new country and let the contract for cutting the timber off of five acres of land already entered in what was later Franklin Township, and in the following spring the family took up its permanent residence in Fulton county. There are two survivors, John S., who lives in Missouri, and the sister who lives in California. Sylvanus Monroe died December 27, 1919.
September 8, 1868, S. M. Stevens married Sarah Estella Gil- bert. They have lived on a farm in Franklin and later in Spring Hill. Mrs. Stevens is a daugliter of Daniel Clark and Emily (Mur- ray) Gilbert, the father an Indiana man and the mother an Iowa woman. They were married in Steuben county, Indiana, and there they lived when three of their children, DeVillo, Sarah Estella, and Seth were born, two others, Anna and Leota, being born after the family removed to Fulton county.
Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Stevens: Daniel La- mont, born May 25, 1873, married Louise Hintz. His children are William H. and Fremont. Effie Blanche, born February 22, 1875, was the wife of Melvin Ernst. She had one son, Mural. She died April 27, 1903. Iva Leota, born October 14, 1877, died at the age of four years. Sylvanus Walter Stevens, born July 25, 1882, mar- ried Annette Jane Moore, March 2, 1914, and after an absence his place of residence is again Spring Hill. It is he who hands down the family story. His wife was born in Chillicothe. She was one of ten children born to Aaron Black and Sarah Jane (Moore) Moore. While her parents had the same surname they were not re- lated to each other. Six of their children, Mary Elizabeth, Annette Jane, Ida Alice, Emma Charlotte, Walter O'Connell and Albert Myers, reached mature life, but Annette Jane (Mrs. Stevens) is the only one living in Fulton county.
While S. M. Stevens has an Andersonville experience, A. B. Moore, who was also a Civil war soldier was confined for six months in Libby prison, an old tobacco house in Richmond, Virginia, while the Andersonville prison was little more than an open field in Georgia. In January, 1918, Mr. Stevens revisited the site of this famous old Confederate prison as he and Mrs. Stevens were en route to Florida.
The Stevens children all had common school advantages, and while his brother is a real estate dealer in Iowa, S. W. Stevens en- gaged in business as a jeweler, but later he graduated from the Pennsylvania Orthopedic Institute and School of Mechano-Therapy, and for a time he practiced in the Fair Oak Sanitarium, Summit, New Jersey. He now lives in Spring Hill in order to be near his father and mother in their declining years. When a nurse is re- quired he and his wife are at hand, and they both understand the requirements.
In its entire history the Stevens family has been whig and re- publican, the one merging into the other. For sixteen years S. M. Stevens was treasurer of Dover, and he was trustee for six years while living in Franklin. The family affiliates with the Baptist Church, and while the Stevens family contributed so much to the Civil war, its six stalwart sons, one grandson, William S. Stevens and a nephew, Irving Stevens, did the honors of the family in the World war.
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Since the beginning of the twentieth century the Stevens family home has been in Spring Hill. The children were home on the golden wedding anniversary, September 8, 1918, and while they are living on borrowed time the father and mother are surrounded with every eomfort, their son and his wife always at their service. The son in Iowa is a frequent visitor, and he also looks after their welfare.
JOHN HENRY HOMAN. The true spirit of progress and enter- prise is strikingly exemplified in the lives of such men as John H. Homan, one of Fulton county's successful farmers, whose energetic nature and laudable ambition have enabled him to conquer many adverse circumstances and advance steadily. He has met and over- come obstacles that would have discouraged men of less determina- tion and won for himself not only a comfortable living, but also a prominent place among the enterprising men of his section of the county. Such a man is a credit to any community, and his life foreibly illustrates what energy and consecutive effort can accom- plish when directed and controlled by correct principles and high moral resolves, and no man is more worthy of specific mention in a volume of the character of the one in hand.
John Henry Homan was born in Hanover, Germany, in 1869, and is the son of Fred C. and Margaret (Lange) Homan, who were farming folk in their native land. In 1884, when the subject was about fifteen years of age, the family, comprising the parents and four children, came to the United States and located in Freedom Township, Henry county, Ohio. The subject began early in life to work on his own account, his first venture being a tract of five acres, which he cultivated when but fourteen years old for one season. Dur- ing the following two years he operated a tract of forty acres, and then an eight-acre farm adjoining for four years. The following five years he had an eighty-acre farm, but at the end of that time, his older brother having bought a farm of his own, the subject returned home and assisted his father for two years. During the following twelve years he was employed as a farm hand by his neighbors, and then, after his marriage, he worked a year for his father-in-law. In 1899 he bought forty-five acres of land in Clin- ton Township, Fulton county, and operated it for two years, when he sold it and for another year again worked for his father-in-law. He then bought sixty acres of land in Clinton Township, to which in 1909 he added forty acres, so that today he is the owner of a fine farm of as good land as can be found in that section of the county, and to the operation of this land he is giving intelligent direction, with the result that prosperity is attending his efforts and he is numbered among the best farmers in his community. He carries on general farming and his place is well improved with substantial and attractive buildings. He is methodical and up-to-date, not hesitating to adopt new methods when their superiority over former methods is proven.
Mr. Homan is independent in his politieal views and his reli- gious affiliation is with the Evangelical Lutheran Church. He takes a proper interest in local public affairs.
In 1898 Mr. Homan was married to Mary Behnfeldt, the daugh- ter of Henry and Mary (Kruse) Behnfeldt, of Henry county, and they have become the parents of six ehildren, three sons and three daughters, namely: Ernest, Martha, Hilda, Ervin, Edwin and
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Laura. Mr. Homan has aeted well his part in life, having lived a life consistent in principle and sound in action, and beeause of his sucecssful career and his cxeellent personal qualities he is eminently deserving of the enviable standing which he enjoys in the commu- nity.
WILLIAM C. DOMITIO, was until recently the senior partner of the firm of Domitio and Ruppert, elothiers, tailors and gentlemen's furnishings dealers of Wauscon, Ohio. The firm was a continuation of the business established by his uncle, Christopher Domitio, almost fifty years ago had an extensive trade, especially in custom tailor- ing, and was extensively developed by Mr. William C. Domitio, after he purchased his unele's interest in 1907. And he had the gratifieation of secing his son among the first young patriots to leave Wauseon for military service after the nation beeame in a state of war with Germany; and he had the still greater satisfaction in secing his son return from the war cheerful in spirit and sound in limb after a service of about two years in the war zone.
William C. Domitio is the son of Joseph and Mary (Durnwald) Domitio. His genealogy in the parental line traces baek to an old French family, latterly domieiled in Alsace, while in the maternal line the origin is Teutonie. Joseph Domitio was a cabinet maker in his home land, and when he immigrated to Ameriea he found no difficulty in following his trade. At first he settled at Norwalk, Ohio. and there married. He and his wife were the parents of seven ehildren, of whom their son William C. was the third born. Wil- liam C. was born at Wauseon in 1862, and there he received the main part of his education, attending the public sehools there until the family removed to Toledo, where William C. attended the paro- ehial school of St. Peter's. He began to work when thirteen years old, his first work being in a brush factory. Then for a while he worked in a trunk factory, but about two years after leaving sehool he returned to Wauseon, on May 15, 1876, so that he might learn the trade of tailor in the establishment of his uncle, Christopher Domitio. In Wauseon, and with his uncle, he remained for five years, during which time he became a competent tailor. Then fol- lowed a service of three years as tailor to Clark and Krike of To- ledo, and another Toledo tailor, Thomas Vanaarle. Eventually, however, he returned to Wauseon, and again worked for his unele, with whom he remained until his uncle retired from business, which event was made possible by the purchase of the business by the nephew in partnership with another Wauseon man, Samuel Rup- pert. The change of ownership occurred on July 26, 1907, after which time the business was known under the firm name of Do- mitio and Ruppert. The partners, being younger and more aggres- sive men, expanded the business considerably, until it beeame one of mueh volume. In the eustom tailoring department especially they had a very wide conncetion, supplying elothes even to Toledo people. while within a radius of fifteen miles of Wauseon they had a good portion of the business in that line. In February, 1920, Mr. Domitio disposed of his interest in the business to his partner, Mr. Ruppert. He has sinee aceepted a position with the Willys- Overland Company, Toledo.
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