Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 59

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Ohio > Summit County > Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens > Part 59

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY

account of ill health, Mr. Jones has been forced to take up his residence in Arizona, which causes Mr. Kuhlke to have sole charge of the shops. Work is furnished for eleven skilled employes and the capacity of the plant is taxed to its fullest extent.

In 1897 Mr. Kuhlke was married to Augusta Zintel, who was born at Akron and is a daughter of Casper Zintel, of this city. They have one child, Barbara Eleanor. Mr. and Mrs. Kuhlke are members of the Ger- man Reformed Church. The former belongs to Granite Lodge of Odd Fellows.

MARK A. REPLOGLE, secretary of the Lombard and Replogle Engineering Com- pany, of Akron, an hydraulic engineer of wide reputation, has been a resident of this city since 1895. He was born in Martins- burg, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1861. . When a child he accompanied his parents to Mifflin County, that state, where he was reared, attending the district schools until nineteen years of age. He then went to Franklin County, lowa, where he worked one year on a farm. The following year was spent in an agricultural machine shop, after which he made a short sojourn in Hardin County, Iowa, in a second country shop. His next move was to Fayette County, where he found employment in running a saw-mill and was also otherwise occupied. Then re- turning to Franklin, he devoted another year to agriculture. Although married and with a family to support, he resolved to complete his education and accordingly went to Cedar Falls. łowa, where he became a student at the Towa State Normal School, taking a spe- cial Normal course of three years. During summer vacations he worked in the harvest field for Aultman, Miller & Co. While at this place he became interested in electrical water-wheel governors, built by H. E. OI- brich and H. II. Clay. After completing his college course he taught school for two terms at Mt. Pleasant and Mattawana, Pennsyl- vania. Then returning to Cedar Falls, he engaged in the manufacture and sale of water- wheel governors, and was so occupied until

1895, when the manufacturing rights were bought by the Selle Gear Company of Ak-' ron, with whom Mr. Replogle then became associated. He continued with them until 1899, when he became hydraulic engineer for the Webster, Camp & Lane Company, and was with them for nearly four years. He then turned his attention once more to the water-wheel governor manufacture, organiz- ing the Lombard and Replogle Engineer- ing Company, under which style he has since continued in the manufacture of water-wheel governors and automobile transmissions. While he was with the Webster, Camp & Lane Company, they constructed the equipment for the largest water-power plant (in the num- ber of turbines used) ever erected in Amer- ica-at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, the work being under his supervision. He also has the credit of inventing a method and govern- ing the first water-power plant driving an electrical railway by water power that was automatically governed, in America. Ile also turned on the water and started the first turbines in the plant of the Niagara Falls Paper Company, and furnished the gov- ernors. These were the first turbines to de- velop power from the great tunnel tail race. The United States Patent Office and foreign office records show that Mr. Replogle has been active as an inventor, not only in his chosen line of turbine governors, but in kin- dred lines. He is inventor of many devices in other fields that have been found useful in this Electric Age. As an author it can be said that the first book ever published treating on "Electricity and Water-Power," bears his name. Also, at the request of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, he pre- pared a paper on "Speed Regulation in Water-Power Plants," that has been the foun- dation of American literature on that subject. A number of mechanical essays and engineer- ing papers have appeared from time to time in our own country as well as articles for European and Japanese publications.

Mr. Replogle is a member of the Ameri- can Society of Mechanical Engineers of New York. He also belongs to the Masonic Or-

JOHN MOTZ

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der, being a member of the local Blue Lodge and Chapter, to the Ancient Order of United Workmen in Iowa, and to the Modern Wood- men of America. He belongs to the German Baptist church, with which he became af- filiated when a young man.

JOHN MOTZ, an esteemed citizen of Ak- ron, who has been a resident of this city for the past thirty-nine years, was born in 1846, in Pennsylvania, and was reared and educated in his native state.

Coming to Akron in 1868, Mr. Motz con- ducted a restaurant here for some years, and then embarked in a real estate and insurance business under the firm name of Motz & Brother, which in 1883 became Motz & Myers. This firm is one of the oldest real estate and insurance firms in the city. It

represents such companies as the following : the Phoenix, of England; Pennsylvania Fire, of Philadelphia; Union, of Philadelphia; Richland Mutual; Western Mutual, Ohio Mu- tual, and Lloyds' Plate Glass. Mr. Motz has numerous other business interests, being a stockholder in the Indiana Rubber Company; vice-president of the Akron Provision Com- pany; and a director in the Peoples' Savings Bank, and in the Masonic Temple Company. He is a man of forceful business qualities, but, while careful of his own interests, scrup- ulously upright in his dealings with others. He is interested in the general development of the city. and has done his full share in promoting it through his business enterprise and public spirit.

Politically a Democrat, he was his party's candidate for city treasurer in the fall of 1907, and was elected by a handsome majority. For three years he was assessor for the Third Ward, and for one term was councilman for the First Ward: and in all the conventions of his party he is a prominent factor, usually attending as a delegate.

Fraternally Mr. Motz is a Mason, belong- ing to the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commandery, at Akron, and to Alkoran Shrine at Cleveland. For twelve years he has been treasurer of the Akron Commandery,

and has frequently served as an official in the lower divisions of the order. For the past twenty-nine years Mr. Motz has been a mem- ber of the board of deacons and treasurer of Trinity Lutheran Church, and for twelve years he has been treasurer of the East Ohio Synod. At the meeting of the General Synod of the Lutheran Church of the United States, held at Sunbury, Pennsylvania, to which he was a delegate, a movement of the lay mem- bers to raise the synodical funds by lay in- stead of ministerial effort, was started. and a committee of five was appointed, of which Mr. Motz was a member, to lay out a feasible plan for this purpose. The members of this committee are: J. L. Clark, of Ashland, Ohio, chairman; Hon. J. L. Zimmerman. of Springfield, Ohio; attorney, George E. Neff, of York, Pennsylvania; Mr. Jesse Schwartz, of St. Joseph, Missouri; and Mr. John Motz.

In 1868 Mr. Motz was married to Martha Dotts, who died in 1885. There are three surviving children of this union, namely : John A .. who resides in Akron; Harley J., who is connected with the Diamond Rubber Company, of Akron; and Ruth, who is the wife of Harry Kirwin, of Akron. Mr. Motz was married, second, in 1886, to Emma K. Hilbish, who died in 1899, having borne her husband three children: Guy W., a law student in the Western Reserve University; Paul, who is a student in the Akron High School, and Helen Leotta, who is attending school in Akron.

HOMER G. LONG, M. D., the only rep- resentative of the medical profession at Cop- ley Center, Copley Township, is one of the leading men of this township. having served as clerk since 1901 and having been promi- nent in almost all public matters. Dr. Long was born November 29, 1871, in Wayne Township, Noble County, Ohio, and is a son of John T. and Amanda E. (Stoneburner) Long. He grew up on his father's farm in Noble County, where he attended the district schools until sixteen years of age. He then entered the High School at Quaker City, from which he was subsequently graduated.

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HISTORY OF SUMMIT COUNTY

He afterwards taught school for two years in Noble County, and in 1893 entered the Uni- versity of Michigan, from which he was grad- uated in 1897 with the degree of M. D. He immediately settled for practice in Portage County, Ohio, where he remained for one winter. He then came to Copley, remaining here for over a year, and subsequently re- moving to Piedmont, Harrison County, Ohio. In 1901 he returned to Copley Center, where he has since been located. Ilis present resi- dence was purchased in 1899 from Dr. George Huntly.

On August 31, 1899, Dr. Long was mar- ried to Bessie Hammond, who is a daughter of James and Celia (Heustis) Hammond, of Summit County, Ohio. Of this union there have been born two children-Lucille and Stanley. Dr. Long is a member of the Na- tional Protective Legion.

CHARLES T. INMAN, business man and capitalist of Akron, has been a resident of this city since 1870, coming here at the age of eleven years. Born in Trumbull County, Ohio, he was educated in the district schools of Cuyahoga County, subsequently entering the Akron High School, where he was grad- uated in 1877. Deciding to make the drug business his main sphere of activity, he en- tered the Cleveland College of Pharmacy, from which he was graduated in 1880. His experience as a druggist covered a period of thirty five years. He did not confine him- self entirely to this line of trade, however, as his store included four departments-drugs, groceries, hardware and pottery supplies, being located in fine business blocks on East Mar- ket Street, which he had erected. For a nun- ber of years he was counted among the lead- ing men of Akron engaged in active business life. AAbout three years ago, however, Mr. Inman, feeling the need of rest, retired from the active conduct of his business, closing out his large interests in the store, though retaining his ownership of the building. Mr. Inman is president of the Harmony Coal Company, of Harmony, Utah; director of the Lake Erie Terminal and Southern Rail-

way, and a stockholder in many other con- cerns, both in Akron and elsewhere. He also owns a large amount of Akron and Sum- mit County real estate. He was formerly president for a number of years of the Ak- ron school board. He is a member of Akron Lodge, F. & A. M., also of the Masonic Club and the German Club. Mr. Inman is a mem- ber of the Christian church, and was for many years a member of the official board of the Disciples' church in Akron.

Mr. Inman was married in 1881 to Miss Lillian Jewett, a daughter of the late Dr. Jewett, who was one of Akron's most promi- nent physicians. Into their houshold were born four children, namely: Hilda, who is now the wife of Dr. J. H. Hulse, a leading medical man of Akron; Hesper, who has been a student at Lake Erie College; Eleanor, who is attending the public schools, and Richard Mendal, who is the youngest member of the family.

URIAH A. MILLER, a prosperous agri- culturist of Copley Township, where he is cultivating a fine farm of fifty-two acres, was born on his grandfather's farm in Norton Township, Summit County, Ohio, and is a son of Jonas Franklin and Marietta (Slaugh- baek) Miller.

John Miller, his grandfather, was the first of the family to come to Ohio, making the trip from Pennsylvania in wagons, with about sixty other pioneers, and settling on the partly cleared lands of Norton Township. His home was one of the first frame houses in that section, and he became the owner of two farms, of eighty and 175 acres respect- ively, which are still in the family name. He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. F. Seiberling. John Miller and his wife had a family of eleven children, eight daugh- ters and three sons, of whom three survive: Catherine, who married J. F. Seiberling; Pollie, who is the widow of John Lahr; and S. H. Miller, of Doylestown.

Jonas Franklin Miller was a boy of eight or ten years when he made the trip from Pennsylvania with his parents, and he was

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reared on his father's farm, experiencing all the hardships of pioneer life. Throughout his entire active period, Mr. Miller was a hard- working, industrious citizen, and at the time of his death had accumulated a fortune esti- mated at $20,000, most of which was in- vested in land in Norton Township, Barber- ton and Loyal Oak. His death occurred at Loyal Oak, Ohio, February 1, 1907. Mr. Miller married Marietta Slaughback, who was born at Northampton County, Pennsylvania, and who still survives, her home being at Loyal Oak. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Miller, namely: Uriah Augustus; Alice, who became the wife of H. F. Myres : Milton H .; Ida, who is deceased: Harry E .; John G .; Ella, who married James Harter; Ellsworth, deceased; and Elizabeth, who mar- ried Charles Gable.

Uriah Augustus Miller, the direct subject of this sketch, lived on his grandfather's farm in Norton Township until he was eight years old, at which time the family removed to his grandfather's 170-acre property in the same township, where he resided until attaining his majority. He then spent seventeen years and a half on his father's property. On February 14, 1894, he purchased his present farm from Frank Seiberling and Frank Wil- cox of Akron, it being known as the Cali- fornia property, Mr. California having been the original owner. The farm has been im- proved to a high state of cultivation, and under Mr. Miller's able management yields large crops.

In June, 1877, Mr. Miller was married to Adaline Amelia Koplin, who was born in Wadsworth Township, Medina County, Ohio, a daughter of David and Mary 1. (Moser) Koplin. Her parents were natives of Sun- mit County, to which Mrs. Miller's grand- father, Christian Koplin, eame from Hunt- ingdon County, Pennsylvania. He died in Wadsworth Township when his son David was a child of four years. Mrs. Miller died April 23, 1891, aged thirty-three years, hav- ing been the mother of four children, namely : Morris E., who died in infancy: Inez, who lives in Akron; Nellie, who resides at home :

and Raymond, who is an employe of the Barberton Rubber Company, at Barberton, Ohio.

On February 22, 1899, Mr. Miller mar- ried for a second wife, Sarah Jane Stocker, who was born in Norton Township, Summit County, Ohio, and is a daughter of Phillip and Mary (Acre) Stocker, both of whom are living. Phillip Stocker came from Pennsyl- vania, and was married to Mary Ann Acre, who had come to Summit County at the age of fourteen years with her parents, who were pioneers of Summit and Medina Counties.

Mr. Miller is a Republican in politics, to which party his father also belonged, his grandfather having been a stanch Whig. He served his township as ditch commissioner the only year that the office was in existenee. With his wife he attends the Lutheran Church of Loyal Oak.

STACY G. CARKHUFF, secretary of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, of Ak- ron, has been identified with large and success- ful houses in different cities ever since he com- pleted his education. He was born January 12, 1872, on a farm east of Jerseyville, Jer- sey County, Illinois.

Mr. Carkhuff was ten years old when his parents left the farm and moved to Rood- house, Greene County, Illinois, where he at- tended school until he completed the course. Ile then went to Chicago for the completion of his education, after which he entered the publishing house of Rand, McNally Com- pany, from which he went to the Washburn, Crosby Company, where he remained for eight years, a part of the time having charge of their branch agency at Peoria, Illinois. May 1st, 1901, Mr. Carkhuff came to Akron and associated himself with the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, less than one year after its organization, when the industry was still in its infancy; he has contributed of his en- ergy and ability, with others, until this con- cern has become the largest exclusive tire manufacturing one in the United States. while its goods are sold all over the civilized world.

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December 16, 1896, Mr. Carkhuff was mar- ried to Jessie L. Johnson, of New Castle, Indiana. Their one child, a daughter, is deceased. Mr. Carkhuff is a member of the Congregational Church, and his social con- nection is with the Portage Country Club.

W. WALLACE WARNER is the sixth son and eighth child of John Warner, who was born in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1798, and of Marietta (Woodard) Warner, born in Glenmore, New York, in 1805. His parents moved to the "New Connecticut" in 1834.

Mr. Warner was born in Springfield Town- ship, Summit County, Ohio, February 28, 1848. When he was four years old his par- ents moved to Cuyahoga Falls, where he re- ceived the most of his schooling, finishing at the Quaker City Business College of Phila- delphia in 1866. He was married in Phila- delphia to Annie E. Yeamans, daughter of Robert and Mary (Greer) Yeamans in 1869. By this union two children were born, Jan- uary 14, 1870. Arthur Lee, who died in 1881, and Harry Albert, who married Miss Josie James. His wife died in 1871. He was again married to Miss Alice Grace, daughter of George and Susanna (Dodson) Littleton, October 25, 1877. By this union three chil- dren were born-George Littleton Warner, now married to Miss Martha Burton of Okla- homa; Wallace Vincent, who died April 23, 1907; and Mabel Marietta. There are two grandsons, Irvin Shelley, aged nine, son of Harry A. and Josie; and George Burton, one year old, son of George L. and Martha.

Mr. Warner's business life has been mostly spent in Akron, in the real estate business. He is known as the pioneer abstract man. Commencing in 1870, when abstracts were comparatively unknown in business transac- tions, he compiled the first abstract books of the county, and established the business now conducted by The Bruner Goodhue Cooke Company, with whom he is now associated. He has made several maps of the city, county and other places. His most notable work in this connection is an atlas, known as "Illus-

trated Summit County, Ohio," published in 1891-2, and, which, though out of date, is a standard authority in its line. His business life of forty years has been an active one; inter- spersed with its pleasures, anxieties and dis- appointments. He is hale and hearty and at sixty is actively engaged in abstract work.

He became deputy recorder in 1868, and does not believe that anyone then a county officer is now living, and but four attorneys, only one of whom is practicing. He does not recall a business house or factory now do- ing business in the same name. Two hundred thousand real estate papers have been re- corded. Barberton, South Akron and nearly all the present industries have come into ac- tivity since that time.

ERNEST A. PFLUEGER, president of The E. A. Pflueger Company, manufacturers of all kinds of fishing tackle, is one of Ak- ron's busy men and prominent citizens. He was born in 1866 at Erie, Pennsylvania, but has been a resident of this city since he was four years old.

Mr. Pflueger was reared and educated at Akron and started to work in boyhood in the factory of his father, E. F. Pflueger, who founded the Enterprise Works, for the manu- facture of fishing tackle. After learning the necessary details of this business, Mr. Pflueger became secretary and treasurer of The Enter- prise Company, with which he continued for almost twenty-five years, resigning this posi- tion in September, 1906, and establishing The E. A. Pflueger Company. This com- pany carries on the manufacture of every kind of fishing appliance and also manu- factures a large line of saddlery specialties. The company is incorporated with a capital stock of $100,000, with E. A. Pflueger as president ; George D. Bates as vice-president ; C. I. Bruner as treasurer and L. W. Griffiths as secretary. Mr. Pflueger retains his interest in the Enterprise Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated in 1886, and is also a stockholder in other concerns of this sec- tion.

In 1896 Mr. Pflueger was married to Ruth

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Seiberling, who is the youngest daughter of J. F. Seiberling, and they have four children ; John S., Theodore S., William S. and Robert S. Mr. Pflueger and family belong to the Lutheran Church. Only as a good citizen, anxious to promote the general welfare, is Mr. Pflueger interested in politics. He is prominent in Masonry, having attained the Thirty-second Degree, and belongs to the Blue Lodge, Chapter, Council and Commandery of Akron, and Alkoran Shrine and Lake Erie Consistory, of Cleveland.

PHILIP STOCKER, who is one of the best-known and most highly esteemed among the older residents of Norton Township, re- sides on his valuable farm, five acres of which lies in Copley Township and seventy-three and one-half acres in Norton Township. This property is beautifully situated on what is known as the East and West road, about eight and one-half miles west of Akron. Mr. Stocker was born in Northampton County, Pennsyl- vania, August 29, 1829, and is a son of Jona- than and Christina (Stecker) Stocker. His father worked as a carpenter in early man- hood but later became a farmer.

Philip Stocker assisted his father on the home place until he was twenty years of age, when he came to Summit County, and worked for Peter Lerch for one year. IIe then went with his brother Eli Stocker, who rented a farm for three years. The brother then bought a farm in Norton Township and he remained with him for one year and after- wards worked for other farmers. In 1864 he bought his present farm, settling on it in March of that year, and he has made all the improvements, which consist of a fine residence and substantial barns and other buildings. It is not too much to assert that Mr. Stocker has one of the best improved farms in Norton Township, and its condition has been brought about by his own industry and good management. He no longer under- takes the active operation of the farm, dele- gating this work to a son-in-law, who is a practical and successful farmer.

On October 21, 1855, Mr. Stocker was mar-

ried to Mary Acker, who is a daughter of Henry and Sarah (Hartman) Acker. Mrs. Stocker was born in Pennsylvania, her father being a weaver in Union County, from which place he moved to Sharon, Medina County, Ohio, when she was sixteen years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Stocker have had four children, the three now living being, William, resid- ing at Akron, who has two children, Harry and Grace; Sarah Jane, who married U. Mil- ler, and resides in Copley Township; and Viola, who married F. O. Moser, who farms for Mr. Stocker and who has one child- Hilda Belle.

For fifty-one years Mr. and Mrs. Stocker have been members of the Evangelical Lu- theran Church at Loyal Oak-the oldest members in continued attendance. Mr. Stocker is a trustee of this church and he and his estimable wife have been active in promoting its good influence for a half cen- tury. Their lives have been quiet, temperate and useful and they have journeyed through life and reached old age together, surrounded by comforts of their own securing. They take great pleasure in their three bright grand- children.

CHARLES W. SEIBERLING, treasurer of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, at Akron, and a business man who is largely interested in many successful manufacturing enterprises of this city and vicinity, was born in Norton Township, Summit County, Ohio, not far from Western Star, January 26, 1861, and is a son of John F. and Catherine L. (Miller) Seiberling.

John F. Seiberling was born at Norton, Ohio, March 10, 1834. In the spring of 1861 he moved with his family to Doyles- town and thence in 1865 to Akron, with the business interests of which city he was promi- nently identified until the close of his long and fruitful life. From operating a sawmill at Norton, where he pursued the studies and experiments which resulted in the invention of the agricultural machinery with which his name is still connected, he removed to Doyles- town, where better conditions prevailed for

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the erection of works and manufacture of the inventions which had sprung from his fer- tile brain. Later for like business reasons, he came to Akron, soon after calling his eldest son, Frank A., who is now president and gen- eral manager of the Goodyear Tire and Rub- ber Company, from college to assist in fur- ther developing his plans. In 1871 he or- ganized the Akron Strawboard Company, in 1883 he founded the Seiberling Milling Com- pany and in 1889 he gained a controlling interest in the Akron Electric Street Railway. His death took place at Akron, September 3, 1903.

In 1878 Charles W. Seiberling, the second son of the late Jolin F. Seiberling, completed the public school course at Akron, and then entered Oberlin College. At that institution he pursued a two-year eclectic course, and then returned to Akron in order to assume the duties of foreman of his father's extensive works where the Empire Reaper and Mowers were manufactured. On the incorporation of the J. F. Seiberling Company, in 1884, Charles W. was elected a director and subse- quently became superintendent of the works. In 1896, in association with his father, Mr. Seiberling became interested in the organi- zation of the India Rubber Company, of which his father was elected president, and he became its secretary. He continued with this company for two years in this capacity, and then resigned in order to accept a similar position with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. This company, with which Mr. Seiberling has been identified since 1898, was organized in that year. It is engaged in the manufacture of rubber goods, especially solid and pneumatic carriage and automobile tires, bicycle tires, rubber horseshoes, rubber tiling, golf balls, moulded rubber and rubber spe- cialties. The officers of the company are as follows: F. A. Seiberling, president and general manager; L. C. Miles, vice-president; G. M. Stadleman, secretary; C. W. Seiber- ling, treasurer; and P. W. Litchfield, super- intendent. The goods of this company find a market all over the world. Mr. Seiberling has not confined his attentions to the enter-

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Centennial history of Summit County, Ohio and representative citizens, Part 59

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868 Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Doyle, William B., b. 1868
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : Biographical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1150