USA > Ohio > Williams County > Commemorative biographical record of northwestern Ohio : including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams and Fulton, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 7
USA > Ohio > Fulton County > Commemorative biographical record of northwestern Ohio : including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams and Fulton, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 7
USA > Ohio > Henry County > Commemorative biographical record of northwestern Ohio : including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams and Fulton, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 7
USA > Ohio > Defiance County > Commemorative biographical record of northwestern Ohio : including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams and Fulton, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 7
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Alviso B. Stevens is a graduate of the School of Pharmacy at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and at that institution holds the chair of pharmacy, to which he was called six years ago. Naomi M. Stevens is a lady of liberal education, and has devoted many years to teaching, possessing an enviable reputation as a suc- cessful instructor. She is at present engaged in the duties of her calling at Moravia, New York.
Merari Bunajah Stevens, the subject proper of this sketch, was born March 14, 1845, and his boyhood and early youth were passed in the Michigan home. At the age of eighteen he accompanied his father to New York, and at Medina, in that State, in December of the same year (1863), both father and son, inspired with the love of country, enlisted in Company L, Eighth New York Heavy Artillery-this action being in the highest sense voluntary, as age in the one case and extreme youth in the other exempted them from subjection to a draft for the increase of the army, as also to other military duty. They soon joined their regiment, which was then located at Baltimore, and while on duty there the son was afflicted with a severe attack of inflam- matory rheumatism. In the spring of 1864 (while he was suffering from it) the regiment was ordered to the front, and as he was so nearly disabled by the swellings attending his malady, his father and others advised him to go to the hospital; but the same spirit that inspired the lad to enlist now asserted itself, and impelled him forward, still persistently on to the front, although suffering excruciating pain. Keeping up with his company and regiment, he
was ready for action, and with them took part in the battle of Spottsylvania, where his regiment acted as infantry. Their next engagement was at North Anna River, and this, in turn, was followed by the desperate conflict of Cold Harbor, where, in the brief space of half an hour, nearly ten thousand Union soldiers fell dead or wounded before the Confederate intrenchments. During a charge on the enemy's fortifications there, his father, alas! was shot down by his side, the fatal bullet passing through the hips and the lower part of the abdomen, and inflicting a wound from which he died twenty-eight hours later,
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and soon for him the scene of the battle's roar and din was transformed to a peaceful, quiet spot-his final resting-place -- his son paying a last sad tribute of affection by placing a handkerchief over the face of the loved one as the body was consigned to the grave. The son secured the deadly, battered bullet, which he still keeps as a sad memento.
In this fearful battle their regiment lost six hundred and seventy-eight in killed and wounded; but, notwithstanding this depletion in numbers, on June 16 and 18 it moved to the position assigned it in the battle of Petersburg, and June 22, while it was charging the Rebel works at that place, the son received a severe wound over the stomach from an exploding shell, which, together with rheumatism and other chronic troubles, kept him in hospital at Wash- ington and the Harwood Hospital at Philadelphia three months, during which time he was reduced to a mere skeleton. At the end of that time, having re- covered to some extent-though still but a mere shadow of his former self -- he, with other wounded soldiers, was ordered before the board of surgeons for examination as to fitness for active duty, and, wholly unfit though he was, was ordered to the front again without even the semblance of a personal examination by the board. Obedient to the command, the youthful soldier's pride and indignation forbidding remonstrance, he rejoined his regiment, then in front of Petersburg, and October 22 took part in the fight at Hatcher's Run. He was subsequently one of a detachment to take charge of a battery before Petersburg, where he served from December 9, 1864, to the fall of Richmond and Petersburg, first as gunner, then as acting orderly, and later as corporal, having been thus promoted. After taking part in the grand review in Wash- ington that followed the final triumph, he was discharged and mustered out of the service June 30, 1865, and though physically almost a wreck, and deprived of the companionship of him by whose side he had marched against the enemy, he returned to the paths of peace with the proud satisfaction of having done his duty to his country in its time of peril, and bearing a noble heritage in the sonship of a martyred hero.
After a short stay in New York, the youth proceeded to Michigan, and wisely resumed his interrupted studies. Locating at Fenton, in that State, he attended school there two years, when he began the study of medicine in the office of Wells B. Fox, M. D., at Parshallville, and later entered the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, graduating in 1869. Immediately after his graduation he began the practice of his chosen profes- sion with his former preceptor, Doctor Fox, then located at Byron, Michigan, and this partnership existed until the reopening of the university in the fall. when he again became a student there, completing the course in pharmacy
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the next year. He then resumed practice at Byron, without a partner, how- ever, remaining there until 1875, which year was made memorable by his appointment as delegate from the State Medical Society of Michigan to the meeting of the American Medical Association in Louisville, Kentucky, and by his matriculation at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, from which institution he graduated in the class of '76. A brief stay at Byron followed; then, in December, 1876, he located in Defiance, Ohio, where he has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession.
Successful from the first, during the twenty years of his residence there, the Doctor has achieved a well-merited reputation as an able general prac- titioner and highly skillful surgeon; indeed, he has attained a degree of eminence that places him at the head of his profession. He is established in an extensive practice, and by reason of his celebrity is frequently called to operate in the most difficult cases of surgery. He held the position of United States examining surgeon for pensions for several years, and is at present a member of the Defiance County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society, the Northwestern Medical Society, and the American Medical Association.
In 1870, at Fenton, Michigan, Doctor Stevens was united in marriage with Miss Irene Boice, who died January 29, 1873, leaving one son, Harry B., born January 19, 1873, at present a student in his father's office. In February, 1878, the Doctor married, for his second wife, Miss Nettie Brower, and to this union a son, Harry B., was born May 22, 1879. The mother passed away on the 25th of the same month. On March 21, 1883, the Doctor was married to his present wife, formerly Miss Ellen Amelia Ames, the only daughter of Rev. Lucius F. Ames (a Baptist minister) and Amelia Bennett Ames, both of New England stock. She had three brothers: Henry Judson, who died in infancy; Edwin L. Ames, of Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Lewis Franklin Ames, of Wauseon, Ohio. The two brothers are enjoying large and lucrative practices as dental surgeons in their respective locations. Mrs. Stevens has been actively engaged in church and charity work. The children of this marriage are Gale A., born August 31, 1885; Edwin Burr, born June 24, 1889; and Frank Bennett, born July 28, 1893. The family resides in a commodious and delightful home on the corner of Fifth and Wayne streets, while adjoining stands the Doctor's office-a substantial and well-equipped building erected by himself.
Doctor Stevens is a member of the G. A. R .; politically he affiliates with the Republican party. He has been a member of the Baptist Church for thirty- nine years. His strict integrity and honor shed a bright luster on his char-
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acter, and, with other noble qualities, strength of intellect, mental culture and professional ability, combine to render him a valued and highly-esteemed citizen of the community.
MAJOR VIRGIL H. MOATS.
Among our country's heroes, who for gallant services in the Federal cause in the Civil war were justly honored by promotion to a higher rank and title, we find the name of the patriot (now deceased) who is the subject of this memoir.
Virgil H. Moats was a native of Licking county, Ohio, born May 5, 1827, in Utica township, where he was reared. He received an education that fitted him for teaching, which vocation he followed to some extent in early manhood. In 1849 he gave up the duties of the schoolroom and turned his attention to farming, locating on a farm in Delaware township, Defiance county, where he resided until his enlistment in the Union army, thus adding another name to the list of intelligent and educated agricul- turists.
In early life he was married at Newark, Ohio, to Miss Sarah McKin- ney, and they had two children, only one of whom is living-Frank, a farmer in Michigan. Mrs. Moats died June 4, 1854, at Brunersburg, Defi- ance county, Ohio, and May 13, 1855, Mr. Moats was married in Farmer township, Defiance county, to Miss Eliza Richardson, born in St. Lawrence county, New York, February 26, 1833. To this union were born the fol- lowing children: William F., Hattie I., Douglas and Charles V. Their only daughter died at the age of three years. The sons are engaged in agricultural pursuits in Delaware township. The parents of Mrs. Moats, John L. Richardson and Delia (née McCulloch), his wife, were originally from Vermont.
About the time of the breaking out of the Mexican war, our subject, in 1847, enlisted as a cavalryman in a company recruited in Newark, Ohio, served as corporal and was mustered out in 1848. In the spring of 1862 Mr. Moats, with undiminished patriotic zeal, enlisted in the Forty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and, receiving a commission as captain of Com- pany F, served in this command until the 21st of the following February, when he was promoted to the rank of major. His regiment had been assigned to the army of the West, and after participating in the battles of Pittsburg Landing and Memphis, it moved forward to join the Union forces advancing upon the enemy in their stronghold of Vicksburg. During an
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assault on that city May 22, 1863, Major Moats received a wound, from the effects of which he died at Cincinnati, Ohio, July 13, 1863, and thus the family were called to mourn an irreparable loss and the community an honored and influential citizen, Major Moats having been identified with its interests and prominent in matters pertaining to local progress for a number of years. During his residence in Delaware township he served several years as justice of the peace, and four years as sheriff of Defiance county. MRS. ELIZA MOATS resides in Delaware township. Her religious connection is with the Baptist Church, of which she is a member.
William F. Moats, the eldest son, and who is a farmer in Delaware township, married Annie Welche, of New York City, and they have three sons: LeRoy, Guy, and Forest H. Douglas, the second son, married Adella Garver, of Washington township, Defiance county, and they have two sons living: Wright and Burton H. (they lost one son named Glen). Charles V., the third son of Major and Mrs. Moats, married Cora McCarty, of Pioneer, Williams county, Ohio (who died August 19, 1891), and one child, Cora Floy, was born to them.
JOHN BERGER.
Mr. Berger, ex-Mayor of Hicksville, Defiance county, is an honored representative of a family whose paternal ancestry have been of American birth for more than a century. The homes of the more remote progenitors were in the land of the Rhine, whence Michael Berger, the great-grand- father of the subject of this sketch, emigrated to the New World several years prior to the Revolutionary war, being led to seek a home here in order to secure freedom of religious belief. His faith was of the reformed type of the Lutheran Church, not wholly in accord with the belief of that body as it existed in Germany at that day. He was then a young man, and alone left country and friends to enter upon the untried life induced by the courage of his convictions. He located in Pennsylvania, near Phila- delphia, and, imbibing the spirit of his adopted country as the Revolution- ary days brought the ferment of those troublous times to a crisis, joined the army and helped the colonies to free themselves from the British yoke.
The home of Michael Berger and his wife was on a farm near Phila- delphia, and we find, as we follow the line of descent, that here their son, Jacob Berger, the grandfather of our subject, was born. He was reared amid the scenes of the farm life of those early days of the Nation's history.
Jacob Berger made his first home after his marriage in Berks county,
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Pennsylvania, but in 1802 moved to Ohio, and located near New Lisbon, Columbiana county, on a farm he had purchased consisting of about one section of land heavily timbered with oak, beech, walnut, poplar and other forest trees. He entered upon the work of clearing and improving it, but in 1810, after a residence of eight years there, death closed his active life. His religious faith was that of the Lutheran Church. The death of his wife occurred three years afterward, and both are buried in the brick church cemetery near New Lisbon. They left a family of three children: Samuel, a sketch of whose life follows; Mary, wife of John Bricker, a farmer; and Eliza- beth, wife of Absalom Bray, who served two terms as probate judge of Van Wert county, Ohio. He died about 1878.
Samuel Berger was reared to farm life, receiving his educational train- ing in the common schools. He married Mary Worman, a descendant of German ancestry, and made his permanent home on the farm near New Lisbon. They had a family of ten children, the eldest two of whom died in infancy. The other children in the order of their birth are as follows: Jacob, a physician, who was in active practice thirty years at Franklin Square, Ohio; David, a talented young man, who became a student for the ministry at Wittenberg College, but died in April, 1853, only a few days before his anticipated graduation; Samuel, a farmer residing in Marshall county, Iowa; Susan, who died in 1854 at the age of eighteen (unmarried); Solomon, who died in Columbiana county in 1894; Joseph, a resident of Hicksville; John, who was mayor of Hicksville for two years; and Emily, living unmarried near Salem, Ohio. The mother of this family died at the homestead in 1854, and after her death Mr. Berger married Lavina Crowl, a daughter of John Crowl, and of this union were born the following children: Mary, wife of Wesley Grover, of New Lisbon; Sarah, wife of Henry Halverstadt, of New Lisbon; and Hiram, a minister of the Methodist Church. He was a student at Mount Union College five years, and after his graduation from that institution completed a four-years' course of study at Boston Uni- versity. His present charge is at Marion, Ohio.
Samuel Berger was a man of fine natural ability, and this, together with his wide knowledge and keen sense of justice, combined with charac- teristic devotion to its maintenance, rendered him a counsellor able and trusted in all emergencies; and his neighboring citizens were wont to make his home the general resort for consultation in all legal matters. He served as administrator of many estates, was county commissioner for six years, and his services were in requisition for many minor offices of trust. He died at the family home on the old farm July 13, 1887, and was buried
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in the cemetery adjoining the Berger Lutheran church, both church and cemetery occupying ground donated by him from his farm, from which he also generously gave land for the Reformed Church and cemetery.
John Berger, son of Samuel and Mary (Worman) Berger, was born and reared at the homestead, near New Lisbon, the ordinary events of his boyhood days being varied. He received his early education in his native place, supplementing it with a year's study at Mount Union College. When not quite eighteen years of age, actuated by that resolute courage and devotion to the sense of right that had characterized his ancestors, and was already manifest in the present generation, two of his brothers having responded to the Nation's call for volunteers, he joined the Union army, enlisting August 14, 1864, in Company I, One Hundred and Seventy-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The regiment belonged to the Third Brigade, First Division, Twenty-third Army Corps, and with it he went forward to active duty, participating in the battle of The Cedars, also the battle of Nashville on December 14 and 15, 1864. After campaigning through Ten- nessee to Eastport, Mississippi, they were transferred to Washington and stationed at Camp Stoneman, near the city, for two weeks, when they were sent on the ocean steamer "Ariel" to Wilmington, North Carolina, thence to Beaufort, and thence to Newbern. Moving on with his division from that point, this young soldier took part in all the battles of the Goldsboro campaign to the end of the war. Soon after the close of the campaign he was sent to the hospital at Beaufort on account of ill health induced by a sunstroke, and shortly afterward was honorably discharged from the service. He was mustered out June 6, 1865. He had passed through sharp fighting and severe service from the time of his enlistment, yet escaped without seri- ous injury, his only wound being a very slight one in the knee, received in his first engagement-the battle of The Cedars. He was an invalid during the summer following the close of his army life. In the following January he went to Marshall county, Iowa, and spent nearly a year with his brother Samuel-one of the brothers before referred to as a soldier in the war of the Rebellion. He and his brother Joseph each served three years, the former in the Second Colorado Cavalry, and the latter in the First Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
John Berger left his brother's home in lowa in December and set out on an overland trip to Oregon, proceeding as far as Fort Kearney, Nebraska, when the Indian war broke out, causing him to turn his course eastward and return to his home in Ohio. A year of study at Mount Union College followed, after which he spent several years at home assisting his father
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on the farm. He came to Hicksville in September, 1871, making but a brief stay, however, and the winter of 1871-72 found him a teacher in Van Wert county. After the close of his school he remained there visiting in the family of his uncle, Judge Bray, until the following July, when he returned to Hicksville, and here spent the winter of 1872-73 as a teacher. In the spring of 1873 he entered the grist and planing mill at this place, where he remained until 1890, and in connection with his business there acted as clerk of the Hicksville corporation from April, 1878, to April, 1890. Being elected mayor that year, he served in that office from April until October, when he resigned and gave his attention to the duties of his new position as postmaster, to which he had been appointed by the President then in office-Benjamin Harrison-continuing therein until the expira- tion of the term, September 1, 1894. A period of rest from active labor followed; then in April, 1896, receiving the compliment of a second elec- tion as mayor of the place, he again entered upon the duties of that office, in which he continued until April 1, 1898. He was also a justice of the peace at the time of his election as mayor for the second term.
On November 6, 1873, he was married to Miss Sarah E. Crowl, daugh- ter of John Crowl, a prominent citizen of Hicksville, and they have one daughter, Adella, born January 7, 1880. Mr. Berger is a member of the Masonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias, and the G. A. R., being Chap- lain of the Post for one year. He has been a member of the M. E. Church for eight years, and his wife and daughter are members of the U. B. Church.
HORACE P. MILLER.
The blood that courses through the veins of the subject of this review derives its source from three of the great peoples of the world, the most power- ful and progressive in all its history. To the argumentative, brave and brainy Scotch is attributed the family name of Miller; while by intermarriages the blood of the Anglo-Saxon and of the studious German is freely intermingled. From these sources Mr. Miller inherited qualities that, combined, reflect credit upon the countries from which sprang his remote ancestry.
On the Miller side, the first of the family to come to America was Jona- than Miller, the grandfather of our subject, who lived in Tompkins county, New York, dying there in 1816, where our subject's father, William Miller, was born in 1808, and therefore was a lad of eight years when his father died. He learned the trade of a blacksmith, and in 1830, being then an unmarried man, migrated west to Ohio, locating in Akron, Summit county. At that
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place, in 1832, he married Miss Phobe Parker, a daughter of Richard Parker. a Revolutionary soldier, and the owner of three thousand acres of land in that vicinity. The Parkers were from an old New England family of English extraction, and prominent in that section of Ohio. After his marriage William Miller kept a hotel at Scipio, same county, for some years, but subsequently removed to Lockport, Ohio. He was an old-school Democrat, and his first Presidential vote was cast, while living in New York, for Andrew Jackson; so warm was his political ardor on that occasion, that he walked six miles barefooted over rough and stony roads to deposit his ballot, arriving home after the twelve-mile walk, with feet bruised, cut and bleeding. In his religious views he was sincere, charitable toward the opinions of others, and a Universa- list in belief; his wife was a devout member of the Methodist Church. He was a substantial and well-to-do citizen, as well as prominent and influential.
For many years he served as a colonel in the State militia, and during the Civil war raised a regiment of men to serve in the Union army, of which he was elected colonel. He proceeded with his regiment as far as Cleveland, Ohio, where he was stricken with a sickness that deprived him of the power of speech, and was obliged to resign and return home. His biographers speak of him as a very humane man, exceptionally kind and generous to the poor and those in trouble. He died at Lockport, Ohio, December 16, 1877, and his funeral sermon was preached from the following appropriate text: "The memory of the just is blessed." His wife passed away in 1894, also at Lock- port, Ohio. They had a family of seven children : Malissa and Richard (both deceased) ; Charity M., who married C. D. Caulkins, and lives at Stryker, Ohio; Horace P., our subject ; Alice J., who married John L. Holton, also of Stryker, Ohio; Martha (deceased) ; and William P., a resident of Los Angeles, California.
Horace P. Miller, the subject proper of this sketch, was born at Lock- port, Ohio, September 24, 1848, and was reared under the watchful care of his parents, and amid the best social surroundings and influences. He studied at the Lockport schools until eighteen years old, his education being supple- mented with a course of one year's study at Leona ( Michigan) College. At the age of twenty years he went to Illinois, and was there given charge of a construction train employed in the building of the railroad from Galva, Illinois, to New Boston, on the Mississippi river. This position he filled nearly a year, when he returned to Lockport and farmed for two seasons. On September 22, 1870, he was married to Miss Jennie S. Beaty, who was born in West Unity, Ohio, October 7, 1850, a daughter of George Beaty, a farmer of that place. In 1873 Mr. Miller accepted a position with O. T. Letcher &
5
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Co., wholesale produce dealers of Bryan, Ohio, as their buyer of wool, seeds, live stock and produce, an occupation that necessitated his traveling exten- sively over the surrounding country. So satisfactory was this connection that he remained with Letcher & Co. until 1878, when Mr. Miller decided to estab- lish a produce business on his own account, and accordingly associated himself with G. Morgan, under the firm name of Morgan & Miller, produce merchants at Defiance. The business was continued until 1884, when he bought out his partner's interests, and successfully and profitably conducted the business until it assumed immense proportions, ten-fold greater than in 1884, and H. P. Miller became an honored and familiar name in almost every household in four surrounding counties, wherein he purchased the bulk of the butter, eggs and poultry produced in their borders. Often, during the busy season, he ships from one to two car-loads a day, while the business is largely augmented by the buying and shipping of hides, tallow, wool, seeds, etc., the aggregate shipments in value being from three hundred thousand dollars to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. In 1895 he organized his business into a stock company known as the H. P. Miller Co., capital stock thirty thousand dollars, with H. P. Miller president, and his son, Frank G. Miller, secretary and treasurer. It is the most extensive concern of the kind in northwestern Ohio, and has business connections with all parts of the country.
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