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. II > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
Mr. James II. Allen married, June 15, 1887, Hattie C. Gray, a daugh- ter of Richard and Mary Gray of Geneseo, New York, and they are the parents of two children, James II. Allen, Jr., and Howard Gray Allen. who is now associated with his father as paying teller at the Kentor National Bank. Mr. James HI. Allen stands high in the Masonic fra- ternity, being a thirty-second degree Mason and a Shriner. He has filled the office of high priest in the Chapter, thrice illustrious master in the Council and eminent commander of Kenton Commandery No. 58, Knights Templar. In the year 1906 he was very active in the building of the new Masonic Temple, and was one of the first trustees of the Masonic Temple Association and was a member of that board for several years. He is also a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, in which he is a past exalted ruler. Religiously Mr. Allen is a member of the First Presbyterian church.
JOHN H. SMICK .- One of the prominent lawyers of Kenton, John H. Smiek, has been actively employed in the practice of his profession for thirty-four consecutive years in Hardin county, for two terms sery- ing as its prosecuting attorney. A son of the late Solomon S. Smick, he was born, Jannary 29. 1848. in Canton, Stark county. Ohio.
Solomon S. Smiek was born, reared and educated in Stark county. for many years being a resident of Canton. IIe moved to Fort Wayne. Indiana, in 1864, and was there prosperously employed in the agricul- tural implement business until his death in 1894, at the age of sixty- eight years. Ile married Margaret Petcher, who was born at Emmits- burg, Maryland, and came with her parents to Stark county, Ohio, about 1832. She is now a venerable and highly respected woman of eighty nine years, living at her home in Fort Wayne. Indiana. Three children were born to her and her husband, as follows: John H., the special subject of this brief biographical sketch ; Manford M., of Fort Wayne. Indiana ; and William P., of the same eity.
Receiving his early education in the union schools of Canton, John II. Smiek when a boy of sixteen years enlisted. in 1864, in the Second Ohio Cavalry, which was assigned to Custer's Division of Sheridan's Army, and served until the close of the war. In 1867 he located in Ada.
666
HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
Hardin county, becoming the manager of his father's saw mill. Taking up the study of law he acquired a good knowledge of legal matters, and in 1875 was admitted to the Ohio bar. Opening a law office in Ada, he met with well merited success, and in 1879 was elected proseenting attorney for Hardin county, and served with such ability that in 1881 he was reelected to the same position, and filled the office a second term of three years, during the entire time residing in Kenton, where he removed on his election as prosecuting attorney in 1879. Continuing his resi- denee in this city. Mr. Smiek has since continued in his professional labors, and. by means of his acknowledged skill, close attention to the interests of his clients, and his unblemished character, has built up a large and remunerative practice. On January 1. 1895, Mr. Smick formed a partnerhip with Mr. Hamilton E. Hoge in the practice of law. which partnership still continues. The office of this firm is and has been for many years located over the First National Bank of Kenton.
Mr. Smiek married, January 8. 1869. Hannah Eckenrode, and they are the parents of four children, namely: Stanton, of Chicago, Illinois; Mary E., living at home; Anna Lawrence, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts; and Bessie, living with her sister Anna in Fitchburg. Fraternally Mr. Smick is a member of Latham Lodge No. 154. F. & A. M., of Kenton and of Cantwell Post. No. 97. G. A. R. Politically he is a valued member of the Republican party, and while in Ada served as mayor of the city. As a member of the Ada school board he was prominent in the erection of the second school building for the college at that place.
JOHN B. SEYMOUR .- A man of pronounced financial and executive ability and tact. John B. Seymour has long been an important factor in advancing the mercantile interests of Hardin county, being the leading grain buyer and shipper of both Foraker and Kenton, his residence being in Kenton. A son of the late William Henry Seymour, he was born, January 2, 1849, in IIuron county, Ohio, where his paternal grandparents were pioneer settlers.
A native of Pennsylvania. William Henry Seymour was a child when his parents settled in Huron county. Ohio, where he was bred and educated. Coming from there to Hardin connty in 1850, he was here employed in mercantile pursuits until 1876, when, in partnership with his son, John B., he embarked in the grain business in Kenton. He built up a substantial trade as a buyer and seller, continuing it until his retirement from active business affairs in 1893. Ile still resides in Kenton, a venerable man of eighty-eight years, enjoying a well deserved leisure. Fraternally he belongs to the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, and religiously he is a prominent and valned member of the Presbyterian church, in which he has for many years been an elder. For upwards of forty years he was in active business in Hardin county, throughout which he had an extensive acquaintance. He married Eliza Bemis, who was born in Ohio, in Erie county, where her father Elijah Bemis, settled on coming to this state from New York state. She died in 1891, at the age of sixty-six years, leaving four children, namely : Eliza M., widow of the late O. E. Lewis, of Boston, Massachusetts; John
RACHEL S. DEMPSTER ALEXANDER DEMPSTER
⑈
667
HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
B., the special subject of this sketch ; Hattie, wife of Joseph Timmons. of Kenton ; and William G .. a resident of Boston.
But a year old when his parents settled in Hardin county. John B. Seymour was educated in the public schools of Patterson, living there until eighteen years of age. Going then to Illinois, he spent seven years in Chicago, employed as a clerk in a hardware establishment, from there going to Arcola, where for two years he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. Returning to Hardin county in 1876, Mr. Seymour. in company with his father, established himself in the grain and produce business at Kenton, and in the time that has since elapsed has built up a substantial trade, which he has managed alone since the retirement of his father from active pursuits. He has two large elevators, one at Kenton having a capacity of forty thousand bushels, and one at Foraker holding about fifteen thousand bushels. He has large warehouses and other necessary equipments, his Foraker plant alone being valued at twenty thousand dollars. Ile also has a large onion business at Foraker. being among the heaviest buyers and shippers of that erop in the state, handling annually from one hundred and fifty thousand to two hundred thousand bushels.
Mr. Seymour married, August 18. 1872, Pauline Heym, who was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a daughter of J. Adam Heym, a soldier in the Civil war, and of his wife, Jane Heym, neither of whom are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Seymour have no children of their own, but have an adopted son, Leslie George, with Mr. Seymour. Fraternally Mr. Seymour is very prominent in the Masonic order, which he joined in 1875, belonging to lodge, chapter, conneil and commandery, and has taken the thirty-second degree in Masonry, the highest excepting the thirty-third degree. which is honorary. Politically he is a stanch sup- porter of the principles of the Republican party.
MRS. RACHEL S. DEMPSTER .- One of the most highly respected resi- dents of Roundhead township, Hardin county, Ohio, is Mrs. Rachel S. Dempster, widow of Alexander Dempster, who passed away at the home where she now resides, December 27, 1888, in the prime of life. Mrs. Dempster was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, in March, 1844. and is a daughter of John and Susanna (Mulholland) Dunlap. Her parents are given further mention in connection with the sketch of her brother. James R. Dunlap, found elsewhere in this work. Mr. Dunlap and his family came to Hardin county in the fall of 1846, and the daughter was reared on a farm, attending the public school and learning to assist in household duties. She grew to womanhood in the county. and was married, September 8. 1868, to Alexander Dempster, a son of John W. and a brother of Robert A. and W. P. Dempster. Mr. Dempster and his wife moved on a farm after their marriage, and there the family have lived since. IIe became a successful farmer and gained an influential place in the neighborhood, being a man of high character and good busi- ness principles, but was ent off in the flower of his manhood, leaving a widow and several children. Mr. Dempster was a prominent member of the Pleasant Hill Methodist Episcopal church, where his widow is now a member. He was born in 1841.
668
HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
After the death of her husband Mrs. Dempster took the management of the farm into her hands and reared her children, keeping up the home and giving her little ones the best education within her power. She owns eighty acres of land in Roundhead township. She is an energetie, intelligent, able business woman, and has done her duty in all things.
Mr. Dempster and his wife became the parents of children as follows : John, who lives in Lima; Joe, who is with his mother on the home place ; and Thorne, who also lives in Lima, Ohio.
DR. IRVIN A. WYNN .- Among the prominent professional men of Hardin county, Ohio, is Irvin A. Wynn, D. V. S., living in Kenton. Dr. Wynn was born in Campbelford, Northumberland county, Canada, December 30, 1863, and is a son of George S. and Matilda (Cryderman) Wynn, both natives of Canada, who were pioneers of Northumberland county. Mr. Wynn was a blacksmith by trade and an enterprising, ambitions business man. In 1863 he moved to Union county, Ohio, where he filled a contract for getting out ties for a broad gange railroad then being constructed, which later became a part of the Baltimore & Ohio system. A few years later he removed with his family to Logan county, where he now resides, at the age of seventy-three years. ITis wife died in 1890, aged fifty-two. Dr. Wynn has one sister living, Rosa, wife of Clarence Crucher, of Logan county. Dr. Wynn is the only one of the family now residing in Hardin county.
The boyhood days of Dr. Wynn were spent in Logan county, Ohio, and there he received his early education. He learned the blacksmith trade with his father and followed the same thirteen years, during which time he spent one year in the grocery business. In 1890 he began the study of veterinary surgery at Toronto, Canada, graduated from the course, and also graduated from the Ohio Veterinary College at Cinein- nati, and located in Kenton in 1895. In 1897 Dr. Wynn established a veterinary hospital, and for five years he condueted a livery business. Dr. Wynn's is the leading institution of the kind in the county, and he has many calls for his skill. He is a thorough master of his profession, and is one of the enterprising citizens of Kenton. Dr. Wynn is es- tablishing the Win-ner Chemical Company at Kenton, its object being to manufacture a number of different preparations for the use of veterinary surgeons, which he confidently believes will meet with success. He is one of the most progressive men among his profession and keeps thor- oughly abreast of the times. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. the K. of P. and Lodge No. 157, B. P. O. E.
In 1886 Dr. Wynn married Jennie L. MeCurdy, daughter of James and Sarah MeCurdy, of Huntsville, Logan county. This union has been blessed by one son, Homer C.
JOHN A. BAIRD .- Among the prominent business men of Kenton, Ohio, is John A. Baird, president and general manager of the Kenton Creamery. Mr. Baird was born in Kane county, Illinois, August 23, 1861, a son of Hugh and Mary (Petes) Baird, both natives of Ireland.
669
HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
The father came to America when a young man, and by ocenpation was a farmer. He carried on farming first in Kane county, Illinois, and later in Tonia county, Michigan, where he cleared a farm, and died there when about seventy-five years of age. Mrs. Baird came to the United States as a young girl ; she is still living in Michigan. They were the parents of three sons and one daughter, of whom John A. is the oklest.
John A. Baird was a baby when his parents took him to Michigan, where he spent his boyhood. He received his education in the public schools and remained at home until he reached his majority. Ile then
removed to Kane county, Illinois, where he learned the buttermaking industry, working near Elgin for a time; later he became manager of a creamery at Kokomo. Indiana, where he remained some time, proceeding from there to Ovid, Michigan. He located in Kenton, Ohio, in 1886. working two months, and then purchasing a half interest in the business. In the spring of 1888 he purchased the entire business, and when the concern became incorporated. in 1903 Mr. Baird assumed his present position at the head of the business. B. F. Deneston is secretary and William Lawrence, vice president, and the firm is established on a good foundation and doing a splendid business. They manufacture butter of a superior quality, which is disposed of in wholesale lots. Their out- put is some five hundred thousand pounds a year ; they have a fine cold storage plant, and their machinery is the most modern and complete, the factory being one of the best in the state of Ohio. Mr. Baird is thor- oughly acquainted with every detail of the business, and besides being an efficient buttermaker, has great executive ability and business aenmen being able to carry on the affairs of the concern with a degree of snecess that is very gratifying to himself and the other stockholders.
In 1885 Mr. Baird married Mary E. Holdridge of Ovid, Michigan. Mr. Baird is a member of the Masonic order, being affiliated with the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council, Commandery and Aladdin Temple, of Columbus, and the U. C. T., also Lodge No. 157. Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks. He is a publie-spirited. useful citizen, and has been for abont fifteen years a member of the county election board. Politically he is a supporter of the Democratic party. Ile is well known in the vicinity of Kenton, and universally esteemed.
COLONEL LUTHER FURNEY .- With a life prolonged to the patriarchal age of nearly ninety years. Colonel Luther Furney, one of the most honored pioneers and revered citizens of Ilardin county, conld peer down the dim vista of years and find his memory an indissoluble line in the chain that links the remote pioneer past with the twentieth century of opulent prosperity and progress. At the time of his death, which or- eurred in the city of Kenton on the 17th of February, 1910, he was the most venerable eitizen of Hardin county, and the family name has been identified with the annals of the state of Ohio for fully a century. Colonel Furney was a man of broad mental ken. of exalted integrity of character and of distinctive business ability. Ile long played an im- portant part in connection with the eivie and business affairs of Hardin county and especially of his home city of Kenton; he served with dis-
Vol. II-15
670
HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
tinction as one of the gallant defenders of our national integrity in the Civil war; and when, in the fulness of years and well earned honors, he was summoned to the life eternal, he left the heritage of worthy thoughts and worthy deeds. His memory will long remain in reverent esteem on the part of those who knew him within any period of his prolonged and useful life, and in this history of Hardin county it is most fitting that there be incorporated a tribute to one whose life counted for good in all its relations.
Colonel Luther Furney was born at Petersburg, Mahoning county, Ohio, on the 6th of October, 1822, at which time Mahoning county was still an integral part of Columbiana county. He was a son of William and Christina (Lepley) Furney, the former of whom was a native of Winchester. Virginia, and the latter of the state of Pennsylvania. William Furney came to Ohio soon after the admission of the state to the federal Union, having taken up his residence in Columbiana county about the year 1810. in the locality now known as Mahoning county, and there he remained until 1833, when he removed with his family to Hardin county, arriving at his destination on the 20th of June, at which time the subject of this memoir was a lad of about ten years. At that early date there were only three families permanently settled in this entire vicinity, and William Furney erected the very first house on the site of the present thriving little city of Kenton. A gunsmith by trade, the father established a little shop, and he merits recognition as having been the first business man of Kenton, even as was he one of its most honored and influential citizens until the time of his death. He was one of the first hotel men of Hardin county, having erected the Mansion House, for many years one of the landmarks of the county, and having conducted the same for a number of years. This was the first hotel building in Kenton. William Furney was sixty years of age at the time of his death. The original orthography of the name was Forney, and he changed the same to the present form after taking up his resi- dence in Hardin county. Ilis father. Lewis Forney, was a native of Virginia, where the family was founded in the colonial days, and became one of the sterling pioneers of Ohio. The wife of William Furney was eighty-four years of age when she was summoned to the life eternal, and of their five children only two attained to years of maturity. Colonel Furney having been the youngest of the number and having long survived all other members of the immediate family.
Colonel Furney was reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer era, and lived up to the full tension of its strenuous labors and its vicssitudes. His early educational training was limited, owing to the exigencies of time and place, and the major part of his scholastic training was secured in the primitive schools of the little hamlet of Kenton. Concerning his early experiences the following pertinent statements have been made. Ile chopped trees and cleared a considera- ble portion of the land on which the city of Kenton now stands, including the site of the present postoffice. as well as those of the Weaver House and several other of the principal buildings in the business center. He finally returned to Mahoning county, where he attended school for an
671
HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
interval, and later he made his way down the Mississippi river to Island No. Forty, where he chopped cordwood for steamboats, receiving as his compensation thirty-seven cents a cord. From that place he went further down the river and purchased a fishing outfit, paying for the same with the fish he secured. In later years he reverted with much satisfaction to his experience in this connection and recalled to his listeners that he incidentally captured one catfish that weighed one hundred and sixty-five pounds.
In April 1844, Colonel Furney proceeded to New Orleans, where he invested a considearble portion of his earnings in a finer suit of clothes than he had ever before been able to indulge. With his treas- ured habiliments he then set forth for his home in Ohio. After arriving in Columbiana county he was detained four weeks by illness, and he later passed one week in Trumbull county, whence he proceeded by canal to Cleveland and on to Sandusky. The Mad River & Erie Rail- road had been completed to Tiffin and by means of this line he was transported to the latter point, from which he made his way to Kenton, walking a considerable portion of the distance. Upon his return to his home town he became associated with his father in the hotel business, and he also conducted a general store in one of the rooms of the hotel building. After the retirement of his father Colonel Furney individ- ually continned the hotel business for a number of years.
At the inception of the Civil war Colonel Furney was one of the first to respond to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers, and he was the first to write his name on the volunteer list of the first company organized in Kenton. He was virtually the organizer of this company, with which he proceeded to Columbus, and after drilling one week at Camp Denison the company proceeded to the front. Colonel Furney returned to Kenton and here succeeded in raising another company, which was mustered in as Company D, Thirty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and of which he was chosen captain. Colonel Sanders Piatt had command of this regiment. The regiment went into service in West Virginia, being stationed the major part of the time at Charleston. In 1863 Captain Furney received commission as major of his regiment, and one year later he was raised to the rank of lieutenant colonel, in which office he continned his gallant service until the close of the war. Ile participated in many of the most important battles marking the progress of the great internecine conflict, and was in the thick of the fight. especial- ly in the famous battles of Winchester, Cedar Creek. Fisher Hill and Cloud Mountain. From an appreciative article published in a Kenton paper at the time of the death of Colonel Furney are taken the following statements relevant to his military career: "An interesting account is given relative to the day preceding the battle of Cedar Creek. Colonel Furney was officer of the day and late in the afternoon preceding the battle he was covering the camp in his inspection of the various posts. He rode ont beyond the line and came upon a Confederate soldier boy. As he talked with the boy he looked in the direction of a distant moun- tain, and across a path he saw a file of rebel soldiers passing. le realized in an instant what it meant. He hastened to the tent of General
672
HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY
Wright and found him in a slumbrous condition in his bunk. He told him of the approach; the general muttered that he would look after it, but he neglected to send a scouting party of cavalry, as Colonel Furney had suggested. As a result of this failure the Union men were sur- prised next morning by the Confederate forces. The battle of Cedar Creek followed, and fifteen hundred Union men were taken prisoner, among them Colonel Furney." It may further be stated that the Colonel ever maintained a lively interest in his old comrades in arms, signifying the same by his membership in the U. V. U. S.
After the close of his long and valiant service as a soldier of the Union, Colonel Furney returned to Kenton, where he purchased a plan- ing mill, which he therafter operated in connection with a general lumber business, in company with Bogardis Brothers, until about 1870, when he sold. Later he erected another planing mill, on the site of the present Callam mill, and after operating the same for seven years he sold it to John Callam in 1875. Colonel Furney engaged in the retail grocery business, with which he continued to be identified until 1895, when he retired from all active business pursuits. The Furney grocery was located on the present site of the handsome brick Furney block. In a reminiscent way it may be stated that Colonel Furney was in the early days a carrier on the star mail route from Upper Sandusky to St. Mary's via Kenton, long before the Lewistown reservoir was built, and was a chain hoy of the surveying corps when the Lima pike was con- structed.
Colonel Furney passed the closing years of his long and beneficent life in the beautiful home he had erected on west Franklin street, the house having been planned by himself and his devoted wife and afforded to him a place of comfort and gracious surroundings during the grate- ful evening of his life. At the time of his death he was the most venerable citizen in Hardin county and had lived in Kenton for a longer period than any other citizen. He was one of the oldest members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in this section of Ohio, having joined the Kenton lodge on the 12th of April, 1847, and having continued his affiliation until his death. He became past grand of his lodge on the 6th of January, 1850, and for four years he represented his distriet in the grand lodge of the state. He was a charter member of Scioto Encampment No. 179, and also of Canton Kenton, No. 83, Patriarchs Militant. In point of continuous membership in one lodge he was the oldest Odd Fellow in Ohio, having been a member of the local organi- zation in Kenton for sixty-three years. He was also identified with the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member for thirty-six years prior to his demise.
In politics Colonel Furney was originally a Whig, and he identified himself with the Republican party at the time of its inception, having been one of its organizers in Hardin county and having ever thereafter continued a stalwart and intelligent advocate of its principles and poli- cies. IFe voted for every Republican presidential candidate, ineluding President Taft. He was a zealous and consistent member of the First Presbyterian church of Kenton, as is also his venerable widow, and
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.