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 39
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Mr. and Mrs. Darst had seven children, but all died in infancy except A. Frank and Otto C. A. Frank Darst, who received a practical education in the public schools of Kenton, is now living in Columbus. being there employed in the transfer department in the Express Com- pany's office. Ile married Gertrude Schrader. Otto C. Darst attended
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the Ohio State University at Columbus, and subsequently made a special study of architecture under the tutorship of Mr. Gilbert in New York, and of Mr. Granger in Chicago, and subsequently studied in Europe. He is now engaged in architectural business in Columbus and is fast forging to the front as a leading architeet of that city. Mr. Darst has always been a Republican in politics, and a stanch supporter of the principles of his party. In his official life he performed his duties with marked ability and fidelity, winning the approval of his constituents. He is a member of Cantwell Post, No. 97, G. A. R., and was in December, 1909, elected commander of his Post, which he helped to organize in 1883 and of which he is a charter member.
ROBERT H. MITCHELL .- The late Robert H. Mitchell, of Kenton, Ohio, was an able and highly respected business man, and was well known in the community. Mr. Mitchell was born in Gloversville, New York, March 24, 1832, and was a son of Peter H. and Catherine (Demarest) Mitchell, both natives of the state of New York. Peter H. Mitchell and his wife moved to Wyandot county, Ohio, where they lived a short time, after which they removed to Missouri. Mrs. Mitchel was taken sick and died about 1862, after which Peter II. Mitchell returned to Ohio, locating in Marseilles, where his son, Robert H., was then living.
Robert II. Mitchell spent much of his eary life working in mills, spending a short time in Kentucky in this occupation. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted for a short time in Company G. One Hundred and Forty-fourth Infantry, Ohio National Guard, under General Lew Wallace. At the close of the war he lived for a time on a farm near Marseilles, Ohio, and about 1868 he moved with his family to Kenton, Hardin county, where he bought a woolen mill, and he conducted the same until the panie of 1872, when he failed in business and began working as commercial traveler. Mr. Mitchell spent a number of years on the road and then worked in the office of the house he had represented, which was located in Columbus, Ohio. He continued in this position until his death, December 11, 1902.
Politically Mr. Mitchell was a Republican, and he was a member of the Masonic order. He was an earnest member of the Presbyterian church, conscientions and honest in his dealings with his fellow men, and highly regarded by his associates. He was a man of high character, who made and retained the friendship of many. Mr. Mitchell married, in 1852, Elizabeth Terry. daughter of Ethan and Barbara (Heckathorn) Terry, the former from North Carolina and the latter a native of Ohio. Ethan Terry was a surveyor and served a number of years as public surveyor of Wyandot county ; after removing to Hardin county he was also elected surveyor of that county, and he surveyed the road from Kenton to Marseilles.
Mr. Mitchell and his wife became the parents of two children, Isabel and Terry, the latter of whom died at the age of thirty-five years. Isabel married James L. Moore, of Kenton, and one child was born to them, Charles. Mrs. Moore died while her child was a mere infant, and her mother, Mrs. Mitchell, took the child and reared him. He was educated
R.H. mitchell.
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by his grandmother, and became a credit to her love and care. He is a young man of good habits and high character, well liked wherever known.
HENRY J. MYERS .- Occupying a prominent position among the more intelligent, enterprising and active agrienlturists of Hardin county is Henry J. Myers, whose well-managed and highly productive farm is finely located in Bnek township. He has the distinction of being a native born citizen, his birth having occurred in Pleasant township September 7, 1853. Ilis father. Henry Myers, Jr., and his grandfather, Henry Myers, Sr., were both born and reared in Brunswick, Germany.
Henry Myers. Sr., followed the trade of a carpenter in the Father- land for a number of years. Emigrating to America about 1846, he settled in Kenton, Ohio. While still a resident of this place he bought a tract of timbered land lying south of the town, and after building a substantial log house on the place moved into it and was there engaged in clearing and improving a homestead during the remainder of his active days, dying there at the good old age of seventy-five years in 1864. He reared four children. Henry. Christian. Andrew and Hannah. Andrew enlisted as a soldier in the Civil war, and lost his life on the field of battle.
Born in Brunswick, Germany, in April, 1819, Henry Myers, Jr., was there brought up and edneated. In 1845, ambitious to try his Inek in a new country, he came across the ocean to the United States, making his way directly to Kenton, Ohio, where he began life for himself even with the world. He labored at any honest employment that he could find, and when the railway was in process of construction worked on that. In the fall of 1854. after his marriage, he took possession of the hewed log honse which his father had built in the wilderness and turned his attention to clearing the land and tilling the soil. He subsequently succeeded to the ownership of the land, and continued the improvements already inangnrated, erecting a frame house and other farm buildings. and was there successfully employed in general farming until his death in 1897 at the age of seventy-nine years. Henry Myers, Jr .. married, in 1850, Mary Kahler, who was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, which was also the birthplace of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Kahler. In 1848 Nicholas Kahler, with his wife and three children. set sail for America, and after battling for nine whole weeks with the turbulent waves landed. in February, in New York city. He came directly to Kenton, Ohio, which was then a small place, and was soon actively en- gaged in the manufacture of brick. continuing the industry a number of
years. He subsequently spent the remainder of his life in or near Kenton, dying at the age of seventy-two years. His wife survived him. attaining the venerable age of eighty-seven years. Ilis son. Conrad Kahler, became a farmer, and spent his last years in Pleasant township, Hardin county. Mrs. Mary ( Kahler) Myers now occupies a pleasant home on South Main street, Kenton, where she is living in comfort and pleasure. She is highly respected for her many virtues, and is a con- scientious member of the Evangelical church, and has reared her family in the same religious beliefs. To her and her husband nine children
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were born, namely : Henry J., William, August, Andrew, Martha, Mary, Elizabeth, Augusta, and Emma, and all are living.
Edneated in the district schools, Henry J. Myers resided beneath the parental roof until ready to start an establishment of his own, when he settled in Buck township, on the farm which he now owns and occu- pies. A log house on the place and a few cleared acres constituted the improvements at the time of his purchase. With the resolute spirit and ambition of a sturdy manhood, he continued the improvements, and has constantly added to its value and to its extent, having now two hundred and twenty aeres of rich and fertile land, with a commodions frame house and a substantial set of farm buildings. His homestead is well stocked with horses, cattle and sheep, and he is here carrying on farming and stock raising after the most approved modern methods, his farm being one of the finest and most desirable in the vicinity.
On October 10, 1878, Mr. Myers was united in marriage with Mary Lintz, who was born in Kenton, where her parents, Nicholas and Amelia Lintz, located as pioneers on coming to this country from Germany, their native land. Mr. and Mrs. Myers have seven children living, namely : Herman, who married Fannie Fulton, has one son, Nelson ; Edith ; Otto; Minnie; Frances; Emma; and Florence. All are at home attending school and helping on the home farm. Mr. and Mrs. Myers belong to the Evangelical church, being among its most faithful members.
WILLIAM RUHLEN .- Some of the most desirable citizens of Kenton, Ohio, are men who have spent most of their lives in hard work and have retired from active life to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Among these useful citizens is William Ruhlen, who was born in Wurtemberg, Ger- many, January 21, 1842, a son of George and Dorothy (Sattler) Ruhlen, both also born in Wurtemberg. About 1853 the family emigrated to the United States and settled on a farm near New California. Here Mr. Ruhlen bought ninety acres of land, of which abont thirty aeres were eleared, and this farm also contained an old log cabin. They put this land into good condition and later added land until they had one hundred and thirty aeres, which they sold after a few years and bought a farm of two hundred and seventy acres, also near New California, where Mr. Ruhlen died about 1878. Later this farm was traded for a farm near Pottersburg, the latter containing one hundred and thirty acres. lIere Mrs. Ruhlen spent her remaining years, passing away in 1888.
When sixteen years of age William Ruhlen began working on a farm near Milford, Ohio, where he spent two years and then enlisted in Company I, Seventeenth Ohio Infantry, being discharged at Zanesville in 1861. He reenlisted in September in Company K of the First Ohio Cavalry, and served with this regiment three years. He served in the battle of Missionary Ridge and took part in a skirmish in the town of Cleveland, Tennessee, when the ammunition factory was blown up by the Union forees. In this disaster many lost their lives, two who were mortally wounded being in the First Cavalry. One of these men was a man named William Johnson, who after receiving his wound was held on his horse by Mr. Ruhlen (who was riding at his side at the time) and
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taken to a place of safety. Among the engagements in which Mr. Ruhlen participated were the following: Booneville, Mississippi ; Rus- sellville and Courtland, Alabama ; Bardstown and Perryville, Kentucky; Stone River (December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863) and Elk River. Tennessee; Alpine and Chickamauga, Georgia; Washington, Tennessee ; Paint Rock, Decatur and Moulton, Alabama ; New Day Creek and Love- joy, Georgia ; and the Atlanta campaign. Mr. Ruhlen was also engaged in the skirmish at Calhoun, Tennessee, in which one hundred and sixty sonthern soldiers were taken prisoners by forty Union soldiers. Mr. Ruhlen was discharged in October, 1864, at Columbia, Tennessee, and returning home, took up his affairs where he had left them. Ile was employed on the same farm where he had worked before the war, and continued there two years.
In April. 1867. Mr. Rohlen married Miss Euphemia Reed, daughter of James Reed, a resident of Union county. In July of the same year they moved to a farm of seventy-seven acres situated in Hardin county, Lynn township, which he had purchased. This was all timber land, so that he had to proceed to clear same for cultivation. HIe erected a small log house and went to work with energy to put his land into a good state of enltivation, adding more land from time to time until he now owns a fine farm of one hundred and eighty acres, with modern improvements and substantial buildings. He is a good business manager and very industrious, so that he made the most of his land and was considered very successful in his operations. Mr. Ruhlen also owned a nice farm in Bedford county, Tennessee, which he recently turned over to his son. He and his wife became the parents of five children, all of whom are living, but Mrs. Ruhlen died September 26, 1879. In the spring of 1908 Mr. Ruhlen retired, renting his farm to a son and son-in-law, and he now lives in the substantial home he has purchased on East Columbus street, Kenton. He married February 16, 1880, Adelia Reed, daughter of Samuel L. and Margaret F. (Boal) Reed, and six children were born of this marriage.
Mr. Ruhlen has always taken an active interest in public affairs and he is a Republican. He served his township three years as trustee. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and is interested in every good cause tending toward the betterment or progress of the city and county.
WILLIAM CAREY, deceased, for years a prominent merchant and banker of Kenton, Ohio, settled in the county just after the town of Kenton was laid out. when it was surrounded by timber. He was a native of New Jersey, and was a son of Lewis Carey, who came to Ohio among the early settlers. Lewis Carey brought one hundred slaves with him from New Jersey, all of them belonging to him. He bought a large tract of land near Bucyrus and gave it to them, but they could not make a living for themselves without some one to take care of them, so they ran away. Hle spent the greater part of his life at Bucyrus, but died in Kenton, Ohio.
The early childhood of William Carey was spent in New Jersey ; he came with his parents to Ohio, and in an carly day came to Hardin
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county, where he spent a year and then removed to Marseilles, where he married Sarah, daughter of Moses and Jane (Patterson) Dudley. Moses Dudley was among the first white settlers of Hardin county, Ohio, and the town of Kenton was not laid out at the time. He helped build the first road through Hardin county and erected the first jail in Kenton. He purchased one hundred acres of land in the vicinity of Kenton and improved it, later selling out. He bought land farther down the river, where he lived for a number of years, then removed to Versailles, Ohio, and after spending a few years there he returned to Kenton and spent his remaining years with his danghter.
About five years after his marriage William Carey returned to Kenton, where he conducted a general store for several years, and also became the pioneer banker of Kenton, establishing the Carey Bank. On account of ill health, however, Mr. Carey retired and lived only about one year afterward. He was a public-spirited citizen, and interested in every movement for the betterment and development of the town. He was a Republican after the establishment of that party, and actively interested in public affairs. He and his wife were parents of ten children, of whom three now survive. He is well remembered in Kenton where he was well known and highly esteemed.
ALBERT DEAN .- One of the pioneer merchants of Kenton was Albert Dean, deceased, who was born in Stamford, Connecticut, March 5, 1805. Mr. Dean was a son of Lebbius and Ruah (Weed) Dean, who came to the state of Ohio before the construction of the Erie eanal and were among the earliest settlers. Lebbius Dean, with his family and possessions, started from Connectieut to Ohio in December, 1821, having a team of horses and a yoke of oxen. Their way was attended by many hardships and dangers; in many places they had literally to cut their road through the woods, and the wild animals and Indians were often annoying. However, by spring they had reached Columbus, where they stopped for a time. Afterward Mr. Dean took up six hundred and forty acres of land from the government in Franklin county. He erected a log house and began clearing and improving his farm, so that by the time a few years had passed the result of his industry was very apparent in the state of his farm. He built a comfortable house and other suitable buildings, and here he and his wife spent the remainder of their days. This farm has passed down to the fourth generation from the original settler.
The boyhood of Albert Dean passed as that of other sons of pioneers. His educational advantages were meager, but he made the most of his opportunities and helped with the work of the farm when he was old enough. About 1844 he moved to Hardin connty and spent a short time on a farm, after which he located in the city of Kenton aud em- barked in the dry goods business. He built up an excellent trade, but later sold his business and engaged in the harness industry with his brother. Their business grew to fair proportions and they remained in business together a number of years. Albert Dean showed his business aeumen by his good investments in real estate, and some of the property
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he purchaed in Kenton is now very valuable. Some time before his death he sold his interest in the harness business and retired from active life. Politically he was a Republican, and he belonged to the Presby- terian church. Mr. Dean became well known and highly respected in Kenton and the surrounding community, and was considered a substantial, representative eitizen.
Abont 1832 Albert Dean married Miss Jane Dalzell. daughter of William and Elizabeth (Laughlin) Dalzell, natives of Ireland. Eight children were born to Mr. Dean and his wife, of whom five still survive.
PHILIP H. HISEY, one of the oldest and most highly respected citizens of Kenton, is a worthy representative of those courageous pioneers who came to Ohio at an early period of its settlement and assisted in the development of its varied resources. During his four score years of residenee in this state he has witnessed wonderful transformations. In his boyhood days neither railways, telegraph or telephone line spanned these broad acres, few, if any, evidences of civilization were then in evidence; while now flourishing towns and cities and magnificent agri- eultural regions have usurped the place of the forest, and the fertile aeres yield abundantly and to spare. A native of Virginia, Mr. Hisey was born, December 31, 1826, in Monroe county, a son of John Ilisey.
John Hisey, born of German parents, spent his last years in Monroe county. Virginia, dying in early life, abont 1827. He married Priscilla IIntchison, who was born, probably, in Virginia, and at his death left her with two small children, a danghter Martha and a son Philip II., who is the subject of this sketch. Ilis widow, Mrs. John Ilisey, came with her two young children to Ohio about 1829 and settled in Lawrence connty. She subsequently there married Daniel S. Vermilion, and in 1834. in November, located in Linn township, Hardin county, on one hundred and sixty acres of land which had been given to Mr. Vermilion by his father. Cutting away trees to make space for a dwelling, Mr. Vermilion erected a cabin of small round logs, with a puncheon floor, a stiek and mud chimney, and a roof covered with split boards. Mrs. Vermilion did all of her cooking by the fireplace, and from the flax and wool raised on the land carded, spun and wove the homespun from which she made the clothes for the family. Mr. Vermilion in the meantime made the shoes, each member of the family having one pair a year. With the assistance of his step-son and his own sons he cleared one hundred acres of the land and made substantial improvements on the place. Ile first replaced the original cabin with one made of hewed logs, and later built a good frame house and two large barns. He set ont fruit and shade trees, starting a fine orchard from apple tree sprouts that he brought with him from Lawrence county when he returned from a visit made to his former home in 1836. Ile died at a ripe old age, and his wife died when seventy-four years old. By her second marriage Mrs. Vermilion reared ten children.
An infant when his father died, Philip II. Hisey was seven years old when he came with his mother and step-father to Lynn township. was reared among pioneer scenes, and remembers well when Cherokee.
Vol. II-20
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Northwood and West Liberty were the only milling points in Logan county, and all grain grown in this locality had to be taken to one of those places to be ground, while the farmers of this vicinity took their surplus produce to Sandusky, where he had his first glimpse of a railroad. The log schoolhouse in which he learned to read and write was furnished with slab seats, with wooden pegs for legs, no desks in front, while a piece of glass inserted in a space cut in a log admitted a dim light. Leaving home at the age of twenty-two, Mr. Hisey borrowed an axe and earned his first money as a wood chopper and a farm hand. Industrious and thrifty, he saved his wages, and subsequently bought a tract of timber land in Lynn township. Building then a nice hewed log house, he there began housekeeping with his bride. Selling out a short time after for five hundred dollars he operated a saw mill in Jackson township for five years. In 1857, in company with Mr. Edward Clark, he embarked in the dry goods business at Patterson, Hardin county, and at the end of a year moved to Yelverton and later bought out his partner and removed to Taylor Creek township, where he continued as a merchant for some time, carrying a good stock of general merchandise. Selling out in 1884, Mr. Hisey has since resided in Kenton. During the time that has since elapsed he has bought and sold several farming estates, and now owns two well improved and valuable farms, one in Lynn township and one in Taylor Creek township, from the rentals of which he receives a handsome annual income.
Mr. Hisey married, in 1851, Mary E. Piper, who was born in New Hampshire, a daughter of Amos and Elizabeth Piper, who migrated from that state to Richland county, Ohio, and from there came, in 1848, to Hardin county, locating in what is now Lynn township. Mrs. Hisey passed to the life beyond in 1907, aged seventy-four years. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hisey, namely: May E., who died in infancy; Ira and Iva Myrtle. Ira married Jane Fuls and they have six children, Hattie, Grace, Esther, Mabel, Ruthie and Phyllis. Iva M. keeps house for her father. Mr. Hisey has one great-grandchild, named for him, Philip H. Ragan, a son of Mrs. Grace Ragan, of Columbus Ohio. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hisey united with the Presbyterian church when young. Politically Mr. Hisey is a Republican and has voted at every presidential election since casting his first vote for General Zachary Taylor.
DANIEL W. ROSE .- Eminently deserving of representation in this volume is Daniel W. Rose, who comes of pioneer stock, is a veteran of the Civil war and is identified with the interests of Kenton as a dealer in real estate. A son of the late James Rose, he was born, July 28, 1844, in Delaware township, Hancock county, Ohio. His grandfather, James Rose, Sr., was born and brought up in England. When a young man he, with his brothers, Jesse and John, emigrated to America, locating first on Long Island, and later one of the brothers settled in the Western Reserve. The grandfather, too, came to Ohio, but located in Hancock county, having, however, first spent a short time in Fairfield, Greene county.
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James Rose, Jr., was born during the residence of his parents in Hancock, Maryland, and with them crossed the country to Fairfield, Ohio, where as a young man he learned the trades of a carpenter and cabinet maker. Early in the '30s he became a pioneer settler of Hancock county, Ohio, where, two miles south of Mount Blanchard, he purchased eighty acres of government land and soon after purchased eighty acres more of a Mr. Harshbarger. Beginning at once the es- tablishment of a home in the wilderness by ereeting a log cabin, he began the elearing of a homestead. Ilis earnest labors were rewarded, and in addition to redeeming a good farm from the wild land he rendered material assistance in the development and advancement of the locality, living there until his death, in May, 1868. He married Sarah Spurgeon. Ten children were born of their union, namely: Keziah, Emily, Thomas J., Caroline, David, Martha, Elias, Eli, Daniel W., and Lorenzo D. W.
The typical pioneer schoolhouse in which Daniel W. Rose obtained his early education was built of logs, with puncheon floors, slab benches with wooden pins inserted for legs, while a plank placed along one side of the room furnished a place upon which the older pupils learned to use the quill pen. When not in school he assisted his father in the daily work of the farm, and at the age of seventeen years joined the State Militia. On April 2, 1864, Mr. Rose was sworn into the United States service for a period of one hundred days as a member of Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Going south he joined General Butler's command, and served with his regiment in all of its marches and campaigns until the expiration of his term, when he received his honorable discharge. On February 6, 1865, Mr. Rose reenlisted, joining Company I, One Hundred and Ninety-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and went with his comrades, and was in the Shenandoah valley at the time of Lee's surrender. He was chosen by the colonel as color guard. the color bearer's right hand man. Honor- ably discharged on September 1, 1865. Mr. Rose returned home, and the ensuing four years was engaged in farming for himself on the parental homestead. Coming to Hardin county in 1869. he purchased eighty aeres of land in Jackson township, and on it raised two erops. Trading that land far a traet lying three miles south of Mount Blan- chard, Mr. Rose resided there two seasons, and then sold out and bought sixty acres of land, the old Shaw place, lying across the river in the same township. A year later, taking advantage of a good offer, he sold that farm, and bought the old Musgrave homestead of one hun- dred aeres in the same township, and was engaged in its management for three years. Again selling at an advance, Mr. Rose purchased eighty acres of land in Madison township, and also bought property in Dunkirk, where he lived for six months. Taking possession then of the Madison township farm, situated one and one-half miles west of Williams- town, he was there engaged in tilling the soil until 1881. when he sold and invested his money in Jay county. Indiana, buying two farms of eighty aeres each. Disposing of both farms in 1886. Mr. Rose, whose health was badly impaired, came to Kenton, where he lived retired a number of years. In 1897, having recovered to some extent his former
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