USA > Ohio > Hardin County > A twentieth century history of Hardin County, Ohio : a narrative account of its historical progress its people and principal interests, Vol. I > Part 42
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President Lehr received his A. B. and A. M. degrees from the Mt. Union College, Alliance, Ohio, and his Ph. D. degree from the Univer- sity of Wooster. He possesses a keen brain, a wonderful memory and an absorbing passion to see the fame of the sehool spread and her students multiply. He owns a fine residence in Ada and is enjoying the afternoon of life in the town that owes so much to his energy and knowledge.
LEROY A. BELT D. D., was born in Delaware county, Ohio, January 13. 1836, the son of Alvin T. and Barbara (Mead) Belt. Dr. Belt spent his boyhood days on his father's farm, and at the age of eighteen went to the Ohio Wesleyan University, where he was graduated in 1861, and that year joined the Central Ohio Conference as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal elmreh. From that time until his death he was actively engaged in preaching the Gospel. Beginning in 1861 on the Van Wert, Ohio. circuit, he served at Wapakoneta, Ottawa. Bellefon- taine and Marion. In 1871-5 he was Presiding Elder of the Toledo district leaving it in 1875 to become agent for the O. W. U .. a position which he held until 1879. During the year 1879-80 he was pastor of St. Paul's church, Toledo, and stationed at Marion from 1880 to 1883. Then he became Presiding Elder of the Delaware district until 1887, when he was again ehosen agent for the O. W. U. Afterward he served on the Bellefontaine. Findlay and Delaware districts until 1901. when he became President of the Ohio Northern University at Ada. Dr Belt was president of the O. N. U. for four years, and in 1905 became Field Secretary of American University, a position which he held until his death.
During his long and useful life many honors came to Dr. Belt. He was six times elected a delegate to the General Conference : was a trus- tee of the Ohio Wesleyan University from 1878, until his death, except for the time he was president of the O. N. U .; and was a member of the book committee from 1880 to 1884. He received his degree of D. D. from Diekinson College in 1883.
Dr. Belt was married in 1861, to Miss Rachel Burgett of Piekaway county, Ohio, and to them were born five children, only two of whom survive. The surviving members of the family are Drs. William A. and Harry D. Belt, both of whom live in Kenton. Mrs. Belt died at Delaware, Ohio, in 1888, and some years later Dr. Belt married Mrs. Anna L. Runkle of Kenton, where he resided for many years-the later years of his life. Dr. Belt passed away very peacefully at his home in Kenton, April 22, 1907, and his body was laid to rest in the family lot in Delaware eounty. His funeral drew together the leading men
Vol. I-26
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of the Methodist church, many of whom Dr. Belt had seen start as boys in the ministry, and who owed to him a debt of gratitude they could never pay. He was especially the friend of the young minister, and always had a word of good cheer and encouragement for the timid young soldier of the Cross. While not old in one sense of the word, being only a little past seventy-one, yet his hard work in everything he undertook had weakened his strong frame and shortened his days. Whatever he undertook received his best endeavor, and to the end of his days he was alert, active and progressive, interested in many things, but with an absorbing passion for the church of his choice, and a desire to give to this organization the best of his life and service.
MRS. EFFIE SQUIER BLACK was born at Sulphur Springs, Craw- ford county, March 4, 1866, and was the daughter of Dr. John B. and Mrs. Dorothy Squier. She received her education in the common schools of that place, and almost immediately after leaving school was married to Thomas B. Black of Kenton, eoming to this city to make her home. She was married May 28, 1885, to her former teacher in the schools of her native place.
In her girlhood Miss Squier was regarded as a remarkably bright child, but it was after her marriage and residence in Kenton that her literary work was begun. Though she wrote some articles for mag- azines, her friends will remember her best as a poetess; for most of her work was along this line. Along with the care of her family, her social duties, her church work and her work as a member of several clubs, she found time to compose the music to hymns she wrote, and to get ready for the press a dainty little volume of verse that was printed in 1900 by the F. M. Barton Publishing ompany, of Cleveland, Ohio. These poems are collected under the title, "Heart Whispers," and represent the earliest of Mrs. Black's work. They are sweet and pure and wholesome, with a deep eurrent of religious thought running through the whole. Her hymns were printed in leaflet form at Winona and though never gathered into a formal collection, have been used by leading evangelists in this and foreign countries. Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman has employed them in his revival work, and they have found favor wherever heard. Among those best known are: "He Ransomed You and Me" and "Holy Spirit, Dwell in Me."
Shortly after this, ill health interrupted Mrs. Black's work and for many months before her death she was greatly afflicted. However, she bore her sufferings with patience, and continued to write, finding great consolation in her work. After her death her husband found the unfinished manuscript of another book of poems, "Winds of Destiny," upon which Mrs. Blaek had been working during her illness, but this has never been submitted to any publisher, unfortunately.
On April 18, 1906, Mrs. Black passed peacefully away and her
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body was laid to rest in Grove cemetery. Her brief life is ended. but her memory still lives. At her funeral her own hymns were sung and her own poems read, all of them being appropriate to the sad occasion. Her husband and two grown sons. John and William, survive.
MRS. KATHERINE OLIVER MCCOY. In a little Scotch settlement near Kewanee, Illinois, Katherine Oliver was born, and there she received her first lessons and impressions, surrounded by people from Scotland. Her grandfather had come as a pioneer to this country in 1838, and as a result of his coming families emigrated from both Low- lands and Highlands. so that little Katherine Oliver grew up familiar with the characteristics of both races, and then it was that she laid the foundation for her future successes. This settlement had one of the three Gaelic churches in the United States. where for many years two sermons were preached every Sunday, one in English followed by one in Gaelic.
From the little Scotch country school she went to the Toulon High school, and thence to Monmouth College, where she graduated with the degree B. S. C. Next she studied at the Northwestern University at Evanston. Illinois, and after that took a special course in elocution at the Emmerson School of Oratory. Boston. As soon as she returned from Boston she begun teaching. taking up the work of instructor in oratory at Lennox College. Hopkinton, Iowa, where she remained one year. Then for two years she was one of the faculty of Albert Lea College in Minnesota, and afterward located at Minneapolis, where she taught in three institutions at the same time-McAlister College. Ham- line University and the Minnesota State University-giving certain days to each college. Her next work was at Cornell College. Mt. Vernon. Iowa, where she established the School of Oratory which is still in ex- istence. So successful did this school become that before the first term was finished it had grown beyond the capacity of one teacher, and an assistant was called from Boston. Some of Mrs. McCoy's graduates have become famous, among the number being the eloquent Rev. Merle N. Smith. This was in 1891 and 1892, and was the last place Mrs. McCoy was employed as a regular teacher.
In 1893 she gave up the work as college instructor to go on the platform as an entertainer, and her success was at once assured. As a reader Mrs. McCoy has few equals, and her work in the Scotch dialect immediately placed her in the front rank of entertainers. Her first arrangement of any book for this kind of work was "The Little Minister." and with this she delighted hundreds of audiences before Mr. Barrie had made a play of his popular book. During a trip to England. Mr. Barrie entertained Mrs. MeCov, then Miss Katherine Oliver, at his home in London, and she gave him her sketch of "The Little Minister." as arranged for public readings. She has also been
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entertained by Ralph Conner, Will Carleton, Norman Duncan, Ian Mac- laran, Geo. W. Cable, Marie Corelli, and other great authors, most of whose works she had read from, in her entertainments in the United States and foreign countries. After Miss Oliver's success with "The Sky Pilot," which was brought to the attention of the reading public largely through her dramatization of the play, Fleming H. Revell and Co., book publishers of Chicago, gave her the exclusive right to drama- tize "Dr. Luke of the Labrador," a book that has attracted much atten- tion during the past few years, and while her work in Scotch dialect has not been laid aside, her field has become much broader.
In 1902 the culmination of a romance of college days took place, and Miss Oliver became the wife of Dr. Clem Dennin McCoy of Kenton, Ohio, since which time she has been a resident of Hardin county. Before and since her marriage Mrs. McCoy has made journeys to for- eign countries, the last long voyage being to Honolulu a year ago, where she gave several readings before large audiences. When Pres- ident Mckinley was in the executive mansion she gave an entertainment there, and also gave a reading at the home of the Governor General of Canada while on a Canadian tour. At the time of her marriage her connection with entertainment bureaus ceased, and since then she has not given her chosen work as much attention as before, though she is called upon many times to read to women clubs, chautauquas, institutes, publishers and their friends, and literary gatherings of all kinds. Her favorite entertainment is an original one, "The Confessions of a Lit- erary Pilgrim," being an account of her experiences in meeting authors, interwoven with dramatic bits from their works.
Mrs. McCoy has a charming personality and the rare gift of inter- preting the works of her favorite authors without the least appearance of affectation, and her brief residence in Kenton has greatly endeared her to the people of that progressive city. She is prominent in club, social, church and literary circles, and yet finds tine for an ideal home life, which she considers more important than anything else in spite of her many triumphs at home and abroad.
FRANK S. MONNETT of Columbus, Ohio, was born at Kenton in the vear 1857, his parents being Rev. Thomas J. Monnett and Henrietta Johnston Monnett, of French ancestry. In 1875 he graduated from Bucyrus high school: completed the Greek classical course at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, in 1880, and graduated from the National Law School at Washington, D. C., in 1882; was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio, October, 1882; elected solicitor of the city of Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1892, and re-elected to that office ; elected attorney general, 1895, and served in aforesaid office from 1896 to January 15, 1900.
For two years Mr. Monnett was president of the State Association
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of City Solicitors ; was on the committee on judicial administration and legal reform, in the State Bar Association, for eight years; brought suits as attorney general in quo warranto against the Standard Oil Company, in Ohio, Buckeye Pipe Line Company, Union Tank Line Company, Ohio Oil Company, and other constituent companies of the Standard Oil Company, charging them with violation of the Ohio anti-trust act; and took the testimony, in New York, of John D. Rockefeller personally, and also of John D. Archibold, of Secretary Squires, Borges, and other officials, until they refused to answer on the ground that it tended to incriminate them. Finally, he compelled them to burn twenty-eight boxes of ledgers, books and records of the Standard Oil Company, to conceal the contents from the courts. He sent some of the witnesses to jail for contempt, including newspaper men who sent out paid matter to the newspapers supporting the Standard Oil Company. He also brought suit against the ten fire insurance companies that had entered into a combination to maintain insurance rates in Ohio.
F. S. Monnett was employed by the National Miners Association to prepare a brief on the Pennsylvania constitution on the right of railroads to combine with the coal companies by stock ownership. This was during the Mitchell strike two years ago. He prepared a brief for the New York World on the Ice Trust; represented the state of Kansas in February and March, 1905, against the Standard Oil Company and the Santa Fe Railroad Company, under the Kansas anti-trust act. Mr. Monnett also carried the cases of the Adams Express Company and the Western Union Telephone Company and the Adams Express and Pacific Express through the United States Supreme Court, and won all the state tax cases in the federal court of last resort, recovering back into the treasury many thousands of dollars for Ohio. These decisions affirmed the constitutionality of the tax legislation in Ohio.
Further, he carried through thirteen suits to the United States Supreme Court from Cleveland, against national banks of Cleveland, and recovered back many thousands of dollars for the state while attorney general, as well as many thousands of dollars from convict labor contractors for the state, by litigation. He took testimony in ninety-eight suits, seeking to recover back to the county treasuries from the "bridge trust" in Ohio, over $2,500,000 of money wrongfully taken from the county treasuries by the bridge pool, and sent to jail three witnesses who refused to testify in this "bridge trust." This prosecution compelled the dissolution of the "bridge trust," and saves the counties many thousands annually. He appeared before the Summit county grand jury, in October, 1905, with all his evidence to indict the "bridge trust," which included twenty-one bridge companies. He was the Ohio committeeman on the Lawson National Committee on re- adjusting the Big Three Insurance Companies of New York; represents a large number of policy holders professionally in the courts; has in
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preparation suits in Ohio, and represented the commonwealth in Summit county, in the suit to oust the New York Life and the New York Mutual Life from its right to carry on business in Ohio, on the ground that it has made a false report to the state, of its expenditures and dis- bursements.
F. S. Monnett was associate counsel in the case against the Inter- national Harvester Company, and in the case of the International Harvester Company of America the state won its first victory in the anti-trust fight. He is also the active attorney in taking the testimony in the Harvester Combine litigation in Ohio and Arkansas. To add to his professional honors, he was employed by the United States gov- ernment and made special counsel, under Roosevelt's administration, to collect and present evidence at a series of hearings before the Inter- state Commerce Commission, in its various sittings for Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Texas. Oklahoma and the Southwestern oil fields.
Mr. Monnett has occupied the lecture platform on social and economie questions for the last five years. He made a special investiga- tion of municipal and governmental ownership of public utilities at home and abroad, and wrote a series of articles for newspaper syndicates and magazines from Glasgow, Scotland, Birmingham, England, and other points.
JACOB PARROTT was born in Fairfield county, July 17, 1843. When he was six months old his father died and later his mother married again. At the age of ten his mother died, and the lad was left to make his own way in the world. In 1861, when only seventeen, he enlisted in the Union army, and was assigned to Company K, Thirty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Parrett served all through the war, being mustered out January 3, 1865, and was in many notable battles, but he will always be remembered for liis part in a thrilling adventure that occurred in Georgia, April 12, 1862. He was with Sherman on his march to the sea, and participated in many bloody engagements, yet he lived to the age of sixty-five, in spite of everything which befell him.
A brief description of the Andrews raid, which is a part of national history, and which has been the subject of many magazine articles and books is as follows: The raid was organized at Shelbyville, Kentucky, on April 5, 1862, by General Mitchell, and placed under the supervision of J. J. Andrews, a noted Union spy, for the purpose of burning the bridges on the Western and Atlantic railroad between Richmond and Chattanooga. If these were destroyed, the main line of communication for the Confederates would be cut off, and in spite of all risks twenty- two men participated in the famous raid. Mr. Parrott was chosen because he was an orphan, and, though very young at that time, he con- sidered it an honor to be taken. The captain explained that capture
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meant death as a spy, but the men never faltered. They worked their way in little groups to Chattanooga, without much trouble, and there bought tickets to Marietta. Thence they went on to Big Shanty, where they had planned to steal the locomotive while the officials were at breakfast. When the train crew went to breakfast the engine and two box cars were hastily uncoupled from the rest of the train, the Union men got aboard, and the train whizzed out of the station. At various places the train was stopped and fires built on the bridges, but owing to the fact that it had rained the day before little harm was done. Tele- graph wires were cut, but not cut soon enough, owing to delay in passing a train, and soon the whole country was apprised of the fact that a party of spies had stolen the train. Finally their pursuers were so close that the train had to be abandoned and everyone took to the woods. Within seven days from that morning every man was captured, and a court martial convened to try them as spies. Seven had been sentenced, when the Union army came so close to Knoxville that the court was broken up. Those seven men were hung at Atlanta, and the rest daily expected the same fate, but finally some of them broke jail, of whom Mr. Parrott was one, and others were finally exchanged as prisoners of war. To the day of his death Mr. Parrott bore the marks of the lashes inflicted by the Confederates in their attempt to make him tell who were his comrades in the raid. J. J. Andrews was executed with his six companions June 7, 1862, and walked to the scaffold without fear or trembling.
Congress voted medals to the survivors and to the families of the men who were killed, the first honor medals given in the war to private soldiers, and Mr. Parrott was justly proud of this little token. At Chattanooga in the National cemetery stands a monument erected by the United States government to commemorate the ill fated raid, and on the top of it is a model of the very locomotive stolen that April morning. The names of the heroes are on this monument, though some of them are buried elsewhere and some still survive. At present there are but four survivors: W. W. Brown. W. J. Knight, William Ben- singer, J. R. Porter and D. A. Dorsey.
In 1865 Mr. Parrott became a citizen of Hardin county and con- tinued to live here until death took him. He married, in 1866, Miss Sarah Lawrence, and as long as health permitted was active in business. In 1890 he suffered a stroke of paralysis, from which he never fully recovered. His only child, John Parrott, married the daughter of one of the other survivors of the raid, and they reside in South Kenton, where Mr. Jacob Parrott made his home so many years. He dropped dead on South Main street, Tuesday, December 22, 1908, and his remains rest in Grove cemetery.
JOEL KISHLER GOODIN was born at Somerset, Perry county, Ohio,
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February 24, 1824. He was educated in the common sehools of Kenton, at Norwalk Seminary and the Columbus Academie and Collegiate Institute, afterward studying law. He was admitted to the bar early in 1854, and came to Kansas, arriving June 30th of the same year, locating on the Wakarusa. He shared in all the privations and alarıns of the Kansas pioneer; was a delegate to the Big Springs convention, to the Topeka constitutional convention, and to the Leavenworth eon- stitutional convention. He was chief clerk of the Topeka house of representatives until that legislature was dispersed by Colonel Sumner. IIe was clerk of the free-state territorial council, 1858, and was ap- pointed territorial printer. In 1866 he was elected to the house of representatives, and re-elected in 1867. He helped to organize the State School for the Deaf and Dumb, at Olathe, and was a member of the board of trustees, 1867-69. In 1858 he had begun the practice of law in Douglas county, but shortly moved to Ottawa. He married, January 8, 1846, Elizabeth Christ, at Bucyrus, Ohio; she died at Cincinnati May 21, 1870. For his second wife he married Mrs. Catherine A. Coffin, nee Taylor, of Baldwin, whose father was one of the early presidents of Baker University. Mr. Goodin died Deeember 9, 1894, at Ottawa .--- Kansas Historical Colleetions, Vol. 10, p. 271.
JOHN R. GOODIN, a brother of J. K. Goodin, was born at Tiffin, Seneca county, Ohio, December 14, 1836. ITis father, John Goodin, was a man of ability and had served as county treasurer of Seneca county for several terms; also as state senator; and was agent for the Wyandot Indians at Upper Sandusky. Ile died in Kenton, Hardin county, January 20, 1877. The mother, Elizabeth Kishler Goodin, was of German extraction, and died at Kenton in 1858, leaving a family of seven children. John R. Goodin received his education at Kenton, and was admitted to the bar in 1857. In 1858 he married Miss Naomi Monroe, and in 1859 they settled in Humbolt, Allen county, Kansas. He was elected a member of the legislature in 1866, and in 1867 eleeted judge of the district court for the Seventh district, serving from Jan- uary 13, 1868 to February 1, 1875, when he resigned to take his seat in congress, which he held one term. In 1877 he resumed his law practice in Humbolt, but a few years later (1883) he removed to Wyandotte (now Kansas City) Kansas, where he continued the practice of his profession until his death, which occurred December 18, 1885.
Mr. Goodin was a remarkable man of many gifts; an orator of no mean ability and a brilliant conversationalist; possessed consummate tact, a clear head and sound judgment; was never a student, but was able to assimilate quiekly the best from the researches of others, and was remarkably ready with tongue or pen. He was a Democrat, but was retained in office in an overwhelming Republiean distriet.
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JAMES C. HOWE was born in Kenton, Ohio, October 13, 1854, and was one of a family of eleven children. IIe received his education in the public schools of this city, and at the age of sixteen began learning the printer's trade in the office of the Hardin County Republican. From youth James C. Howe evinced an interest in public life, in military affairs, in politics and in business; so that though he died in the very prime of life, his had been a busy and useful career.
In 1880, when only twenty-six years old, he was elected city clerk, and two years later re-elected. In 1884 he was chosen clerk of the court and held that office two terms. Before this he had been city editor of the Republican, resigning that position to accept a place in the First National Bank as assistant cashier, which he held until made clerk of the court by the votes of the people. He was one of the organizers of the Kenton Hardware Company, and, as superintendent of the plant, labored hard to build up the fortunes of this large manufacturing con- cern. His business ability was marked. and under his administration the plant prospered.
On November 9, 1878, Mr. Howe enlisted in Company K, Seventh Regular, Ohio National Guard and rose rapidly through the different ranks of the service. A month after enlisting (January, 1878) he be came corporal. Following this, promotions came rapidly. July, 1878, saw him first sergeant; May 24. 1879, second lieutenant, and first lieutenant, July 11, 1881. Later he became captain, and on February 11, 1886, was elected colonel of the regiment. About this time the name was changed from Seventh to Second, and by this title it was ever after- wards known.
All this time his interest in politics did not wane, and he was several times county chairman of the executive committee, serving in that capacity for his party when William McKinley first ran for gov- ernor of Ohio. He was also on the state executive committee, and did much efficient work for the man who afterwards rose to the highest office in the United States. When Mckinley became governor he tendered the office of assistant adjutant general to Mr. Howe, and it was accepted. He resigned his place at the Kenton Hardware Company, and had his headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, though still keeping his home in this city. In 1892 Adjutant General Pocock resigned, and Mr. Howe was promoted to his place, a position that he filled with credit to himself and the state as long as William McKinley's two terms as chief executive of the state lasted.
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