Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, Part 20

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1040

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 20
USA > Ohio > Ottawa County > Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 20

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).

Charles, Ira, Louisa and Levi-of whom Louisa died while young. Albert, the second son, married and had four chil- dren-Minnie, George, Alice and Mabel- the last named dying young. Alonzo married, and had seven children-Waller, Roly, Elmer, Clarence, Abbie, Nora and Lena, of whom Abbie died young. On February 2, 1853, our subject mar- ried his present wife. Henrietta Clark. Mr. Streeter in politics has been a Whig and a Republican, and cast his first Presi- dential vote for William H. Harrison. In religious faith he has been a promi- nent member of the Advent Church. He has been an eminently successful farmer, and accumulated 300 acres of well-im- proved land. This farm he divided among his three son-one hundred acres each- and there they reside with their families. In 1882 Mr. Streeter erected a fine brick residence in Clyde, where he now lives a retired life, with the respect and esteem of the entire community in which he dwells.

D AVID A. C. SHERRARD. This prosperous farmer of Sandusky county, Ohio, near Fremont, was born January 10, 1820, at Rush Run, Jefferson Co., Ohio, a son of Robert Andrew and Mary (Kithcart) Sherrard.

Robert Andrew Sherrard is a descend- ant of Huguenot ancestors who, having been driven out of the north of France, fled to the Lowlands of Scotland and afterward removed to Ireland. A coat of arms, and a pedigree in tabular form, were in ex- istence in 1872, tracing the lineage of the Sherrard family back to Robert, whose father emigrated with the Duke of Nor- mandy. There were two brothers, Hugh and William Sherrard, whose father came over from Scotland about 1710, and set- tled in Limavady, County Londonderry, Ireland. Here Hugh and William were born, and when the former arrived at manhood he married and settled across the Bann Water, near Coleraine. He

MRS. NARCISSA T. SHERRARD.

D.A. Serrand.

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had a son, Hugh Sherrard, who emi- grated to America in 1770, and settled on Miller's run, in Washington county, Pennsylvania.

William Sherrard, from whom are descended the Sherrard families in San- dusky county, Ohio, was born in 1720 in Limavady, where he carried on the busi- ness of farming and linen weaving. He died wealthy in 1781. In 1750 he mar- ried Margaret Johnston, by whom he had five children-John, Elizabeth, Margaret, James and Mary. John Sherrard was born about 1750, immigrated to America in 1772, and on May 5, 1784, married Mary Cathcart, by whom he had chil- dren as follows: William J., David Alexander, John James, Robert Andrew, Ann and Thomas G. The last named was one of the pioneers of Sandusky county, and was found dead in Sandusky river April 21, 1824, supposed to have been murdered by parties who had rented his brother John's sugar camp, of which he was manager at the time. John Sherrard was with Col. Crawford's expe- dition against the Indians at Upper San- dusky, during which he had many nar- row escapes. Robert Andrew Sherrard was born May 4, 1789, and married Mary Kithcart, by whom he had five children: Mary Ann, Joseph K., David A. C., Elizabeth and Robert. For his second wife Robert A. Sherrard married Miss Jane Hindman, by whom he had seven children: Nancy, who for the past twenty-one years has been principal of the Female Seminary of Washington, Penn .; J. H., a Presbyterian minister at Rockville, Ind .; June; Susan; Sarah, de- ceased; William, deceased; and Thomas J., who is also a Presbyterian minister, now preaching in Chambersburg, Penn. During the winter of 1894-95 three of the sons of Robert A. Sherrard paid a visit to Europe, visiting, among other places, England, Scotland, Ireland, Ger- many, France and Italy, in which latter country they trod the streets of old 9

Rome; thence they journeyed to Egypt and Palestine; near Limavady, Ireland, they found some of their cousins living. Robert Andrew Sherrard was the author of a genealogy of the Sherrard family of Steubenville, which was edited by his son, Thomas Johnston Sherrard, in 1890.

David A. C. Sherrard, our subject, grew to manhood on his father's farm, two miles southwest of Steubenville, Ohio. On June 1, 1844, he came to Sandusky county on horseback, and immediately began to improve the forest land which he had bought of his father. For about three weeks he made his home in a hewed- log house which he had rented of his uncle Thomas, and which was said to be the first hewed-log house erected in Ball- ville township, having been put up in 1823. He then returned to Jefferson county, and, on the 4th of September following, set out from there with his wife and seven-weeks-old child, in a covered two-horse wagon, arriving at Lower San- dusky September 12. He finished clear- ing up nine acres, fenced it, plowed it and sowed it to wheat, and then commenced the struggle of clearing up a home in the Black Swamp. His timber was chopped into cordwood, and sold in Lower San- dusky. In October, 1851, Mr. Sherrard took the job of clearing off the timber on Sections 24, 25, 26 and half of 27, for the T., N. & C. railroad (now the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern), and graded half a mile of the road-bed east and west of Lit- tle Mud creek. In May and June, 1852, he furnished and delivered timber for bridges over the Muskalounge and over Little Mud creek, and hauled and deliv- ered timber for Big Mud creek and Nine- Mile creek bridges. On September 20, 1852, he left home with men, teams and tools for Hardin county, Ohio, where he had a contract on the Pittsburgh & Fort Wayne railroad, spending thirteen months at grading Sections 43 and 45 of that road. In August, 1853, he contracted to clear and grade Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the

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Fremont & Indiana railroad (now the Lake Erie & Western); he also sent part of his men and teams to work upon the Pittsburg & Fort Wayne railroad, grading the road-bed. In the summer of 1854 the finances of the Lake Erie & Western Company failed, and the work stopped. In March and April, 1854, he bought wild land in various places, at second hand, giving as part pay some horses and oxen which he had been using on public works; he bought forty acres in Barry county, Mich., 320 acres in Ottawa county, Ohio, and eighty acres in Sandusky county, Ohio. These lands he kept from ten to twenty years, and sold them at a profit. In January, 1858, he bought of his father, R. A. Sherrard, the east half of the northwest quarter of Section 5. Ballville township, which is now half of his home farm. He dealt in real estate in Kansas, and in Putnam and Fulton counties, Ohio, and he and his son, J. F. Sherrard, bought a farm in the oil and gas region west of Fremont, which they have leased to the Carbon Company of Fremont for a term of years. Mr. Sherrard was the first man to ship lime in barrels from Fremont, Ohio, to the glass works at Wheeling, W. Va., in 1864, and he continued this for eighteen years, also shipping largely to other points for the manufacture of glass and paper, and for plastering purposes. During the Civil war Mr. Sherrard bought horses for the Ohio cavalry. Since 1875 he has rented his farms and bought up live stock, cows and sheep for Eastern men, who sold them principally in New Jersey. He has now 125 acres under cultivation on each of his two farms. In 1891 he bought a farm of 190 acres in Alabama, ten miles north of Huntsville, on which his two daughters, with their husbands and families, reside. This land is very productive, yielding large crops of clover, corn, wheat, oats and garden vege- tables. In politics Mr. Sherrard has acted with the Whig and Republican parties.

On July 4, 1843, our subject married

Catharine M. Welday, by whom he had three children-Laura A., Keziah W. and Elizabeth C. The mother of these died September 29, 1847, and on Febru- ary 24, 1848, he wedded Narcissa T. Grant, by whom he had children, as follows: Harriet B., Robert W., John F., Emma V., Mary J., Rose T., and Ida M. Of this large family, Laura A. married Benjamin Mooney, and their children are Lottie S., Emma, Mary A. and Nettie. Keziah W. married Homer Overmyer, and their daughter, Dora, is the wife of Clifton Hunn. Eliz- abeth C. married J. S. Brust, and they have a daughter-Ida. Harriet B. mar- ried Charles E. Tindall, and died Sep- tember 16, 1873; they had a daughter, Hattie, who married William, son of A. J. Wolfe, a farmer west of Fremont, Ohio. Robert W. is fully mentioned farther on. John F. married Jennie E. Bowlus, by whom he had five children-Harry, Ida, Robert, Zelpha and Don. Emma V. married Josiah Smith, and to them were born the following named children: Mi- lan, Robert, Jesse, Howard, Orie, Lulu and Granville. Mary J. married David W. Cookson, and they have a son-Clar- ence. Rose T. married John R. Tindall, and they have had three children-Mabel, Louis and Etta. Ida M. is the wife of J. U. Bodenman, a druggist, of St. Louis.

R OBERT W. SHERRARD, of the firm of Plagman & Sherrard, deal- ers in groceries, provisions and queensware, East State street, Fremont, Sandusky county, was born December 21, 1849, in Ballville town- ship, Sandusky county, Ohio, a son of D. A. C. Sherrard.

Our subject grew to manhood on a farm in the vicinity of Fremont, and at- tended the country and city schools. He remained with his parents until he was twenty-one years of age, and while yet in his " teens " began to alternate each year

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between teaching country school in the winter season and farming the rest of the time. In the spring of 1872 he attended the State Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, and in the fall of the same year and the spring of the next he attended the Seneca County Academy at Republic, Ohio, then in charge of Prof. J. Fraise Richards. He then taught four more terms of winter school, alternating with farming. In 1885 he bought out the in- terest of John Ulsh, in the firm of Plag- man & Ulsh, grocers, and has since con- tinued in the same place with his brother-in-law, C. H. Plagman. By en- terprise, fair dealing and good manage- ment this firm have built up a prosperous trade. Our subject is a Republican in politics, and has held various local offices. He and Mrs. Sherrard are members of the Presbyterian Church, and socially he belongs to McPherson Lodge, I. O. O. F., to the Order of the Red Cross and the Equitable Aid Union.

Robert W. Sherrard married, on May 18, 1875, Miss Clara A. Karshner, who was born November 23, 1855, daughter of Daniel and Lydia (Robinson) Karsh- ner, of Riley township, Sandusky Co., Ohio. Daniel Karshner, born September 9, 1822, was a son of John and Christena (Drum) Karshner, both of whom died at an advanced age in Riley township. The children of Daniel Karshner were: Frank, who married Louisa Niester; Charles, who died in childhood; Alfred L., unmar- ried; Clara A., wife of Robert W. Sherrard; Ella L., who died when aged seven; Sarah L., wife of H. C. Plagman; Anna N., wife of John N. Smith; Edwin U., who married Mary Bardus; and Willis C., who died at the age of fifteen.

Mrs. Clara A. (Karshner) Sherrard grew to womanhood in Riley township, attended the country schools and the Fremont High School, and taught three terms of school in the vicinity of her home in Riley and Sandusky townships. She now presides over a

neat family residence on East State street, honored by its historic connection with Gen. Bell, one of the earliest pio- neers of Lower Sandusky. The children of Robert W. and Clara A. Sherrard are Blanche Mae, born March 10, 1876, and Zella Gertrude, born January 18, 1884; the former is a graduate of the Fremont High School, and the latter is a student of the same.

S ALES A. JUNE was born in Tompkins county, N. Y., August 2, 1829, son of Peter June. In 1833 he came with his father's family to Ohio, locating in Sandusky city, where he remained until 1849, when, at the age of twenty years, he went to Cleveland to learn the trade of machinist.

During the period from 1849 to 1856 Mr. June alternated between sailing on the lakes as an engineer in the summer time, and working in the Cuyahoga shops in the winter time. About the year 1857 he went to Brantford, Canada, where he became connected with sawmilling, and took a contract for furnishing lumber for a branch of the Grand Trunk railroad. He had a partner in the business, and the enterprise was successful, they furnishing lumber for the western end of the Buf- falo & Lake Erie, then known as the Buffalo & Lake Huron Branch, Grand Trunk railroad. Mr. June next took a contract to build a plank road into the oil regions of Canada, 'at Ennisskillen, which he completed just before the Civil war broke out in the United States. He then returned to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1862 he went to Buffalo and assisted in building and finishing out the United States steamer "Commodore Perry," and became engaged as an engineer on the vessel, in the employ of the United States Government, continuing thus until the latter part of 1865. After this he superintended the building of a propellor for the Fremont Steam Navigation Com-

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pany, and ran her on the lakes until about 1867, at which time he started a boiler works in Fremont, Ohio. After opera- ting these works about eight years he sold out to D. June & Co., remaining in the employ of said company, and being a partner in the same until 1890. In the year 1891 he received an appointment from the United States Lighthouse Board at Washington, D. C., to go to Cleve- land, Ohio, and superintend the build- ing of engines and boilers of two light- house boats, the "Columbia " and the "Lilac;" the latter boat is now on the coast of Maine, and the former on the coast of Oregon. In the fall of 1892 Mr. June returned to Fremont and engaged in the manufacture of the boiler-scale solvent, which has been introduced into all the leading boiler shops of Ohio, and is presumed to be a great success.

Sales A. June was married to Miss Jane J. Campbell, who was born in Cuya- hoga county, Ohio, December 29, 1827, daughter of John N. and Jane (Quiggin) Campbell, and three children were born to them, of whom (1) Adelaide J., born May IO, 1857, was married in 1880 to William Waugh, a Scotchman, who is a whole- sale fur dealer at Montreal, P. Q .; their children are Florence, Oliver S., Marion and William.

(2) Peter J. June, born September 6, 1858, grew to manhood and received his education in Fremont, where he learned the trade of mechanical engineer in the shops of D. June & Co., subsequently going to Cleveland, where he worked in the Cuy- ahoga shops and for the Globe Shipbuild- ing Co. several years. After this he fol- lowed steamboating, as engineer, on the lakes from 1878 until 1892, during the sum- mer seasons, for several lines, running the " Conestoga," "Gordon Campbell," and "Lehigh," of the Anchor Line; the " Wocoken," "Egyptian " and " Cormo- raht, "of the Winslow Fleet; the " North- ern Light," of the Northern Steamship Co., and the "City of Toledo," of the

Toledo & Island Steam Navigation Co. In the season of 1890 he had charge of the Mckinnon Iron Works at Ashtabula, Ohio. He is now a partner in the Fre- mont Boiler-Scale Solvent Co., Fremont, Ohio. Mr. June was married at Tyler, Texas, to Miss Jennie, daughter of J. C. and Agnes (Boyd) Jones, who were from Beaver county, Penn., and of Welsh de- scent. They have one child, Robert F., born October 24, 1887.

(3) Elmer Ellsworth, youngest in the family of Sales A. June, was born in 1861, and died when nine months old.

In politics Sales A. June and his son are Republicans. They are members of the Masonic Fraternity, the former hav- ing attained the seventh and the latter the third degree.

G EORGE JUNE, retired farmer and horse dealer, Fremont, Sandusky county, was born in the town of Dryden, Tompkins Co., N. Y., December 26, 1822, son of Peter June. He came with his father's family, in 1833, to Sandusky city, where he attended school a few terms, as he could be spared from work.

At the age of fifteen George June left home to work on his own account, going with his brother Daniel to serve as team- ster, in the construction of mason work in Maumee (Lucas county) and vicinity, and helped build the first poor house in Lucas county. In 1838 he went south to Springfield, Cincinnati and other cities in quest of work. He drove a stage for the Ohio Stage Company, on the National road, about eleven years, and also drove stage for some time at Bellefontaine, his wages being usually about $14 per month and board. After this he went to Cincin- nati, and engaged first as a common hand to assist a stock company in shipping live stock down the Mississippi river; but his natural tact and his long experience in handling horses soon caused him to be put

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in charge of large consignments of horses on vessels, as foreman. For about ten years he went south in the fall, and re- turned in the spring. Having accumu- lated some money, he invested it in a large farm in Sandusky county, whereon he afterward settled. During the Civil war Mr. June furnished cavalry horses for the Ohio troops, at the rate of nearly 2,000 per year. He shipped the first car- load of horses that ever was shipped from Fremont to Boston, and has shipped many a carload since. By his long and active out-door life, and his temperate habits, he has retained robust health in a green old age.

J OHN GEIGER, farmer, of Fremont, Sandusky county, was born in Baden, Germany, March 12, 1819, a son of John and Josephine (Cramer) Geiger. His father was born in the same place, and was by occupation a glass-cutter and window-grainer. He died at the age of forty-eight years. His widow came to America, and died at the advanced age of ninety years, in Reed township, Huron Co., Ohio. Their children were: Law- rence, who died at the age of forty-eight years in Shannon township (he was a farmer and wagon-maker by trade); Rosa, who married a Mr. Nesser, and died in Huron county; Mary Ann, a widow, liv- ing in Huron county; Frances, who died young in Germany; John, the subject of this sketch, and Rudolph, who lives in Sherman township, Huron county.

Our subject worked by the month and by the year until he came to America, and continued thus for some time after coming here. On March 14, 1840, he landed in New York City after a voyage of forty-eight days, and shortly after came to Huron county, Ohio, where he settled. He borrowed $8.00 in Buffalo from an old schoolmate with which to come to Ohio, where he worked for $8 per month at harvesting. After working

for a while on a farm he commenced wagon-making, but in about two weeks he was taken sick with a fever which did not leave him until cold weather-in fact, it was the ague. He left Huron county to get rid of it, coming to Fremont in the fall of 1840, and remaining in the region of the Black Swamp about three months, after which he went to where Toledo now is, but failing to get any busi- ness he returned to Bellevue. When he left Huron county he owed a doctor bill, to pay which he had to sell his clothes. He had had the ague every other day, and the rest of the time was employed driving a team, but he only received two dollars of his wages in money, the rest in trade to the amount of six dollars. In the latter part of February he had a fall- ing out with his employer, and would not stay with him over night. He concluded to go away ten or twelve miles, to Green- field township, and on the way he went through a wilderness and found himself on a prairie. Here he fell into a ditch where the water was up to his waist, but he managed to get out, and proceeding on his way fell into another ditch in try- ing to jump it, this time losing his bundle of goods. He now was soaking wet, but he had saved his money. He went on until he saw a light, which he followed. The light went out, but he found a house, and when the door opened he dodged in without invitation among a Yankee fam- ily, with whom he could not talk a word of English. He was not slow, however, in making his wants known by gestures, at which the Germans are so apt, and was at once provided for; but he shool with the ague, which was worse than the wet. He got to Greenfield township. and then started for Huron. On the way he took a chill, and lay down till it was over. On reaching Huron he got on a boat, but he was too sick to sit up, so he lay down in a bunk and waited till the boat should get ready to go, saying to himself, " Let the boat go where it will,"

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and fell asleep. The boat started, and on the voyage he got seasick, but the ague left him, and the next morning he was in Cleveland, where he found work. When he was getting off the boat they stopped him to get his passage money. He said, "No monish." He got a kind Dutchman to help him out, whom he paid later. Subsequently going to Buffalo, he was employed there as a hostler, earning $25. He then took passage to Canada, where wages were good, and worked there two years for a Dutchman at twelve dol- lars per month. His employer was a kind man, and paid him $200 in good money. After working for others and earning some more money Mr. Geiger re- turned to Huron county, Ohio, and bought forty acres of land in Sherman township. Here at Milan he started a brick-yard, and continued to run it about six years. He hauled lumber sixteen miles with one horse to build his house, paying out every dollar he had for it, and gave a chattel mortgage for a barrel of flour. He sold these forty-two acres and bought seventy- two acres between Norwalk and Milan, which he fitted up for a home, and after- ward traded it off for one hundred acres in Sherman township, upon which he moved and went to farming during the Civil war. He was drafted on the first draft, and hired a substitute, but he was loyal to the Government. From Sher- man township he moved to Peru town- ship, where he was again drafted, and here he put in a substitute for three years, or during the war. When he was to be drafted a third time he was exempted by this last substitute. In Peru he cleared up a farm of 160 acres. Mr. Geiger is a Republican and a Catholic.

On June 11, 1847, John Geiger mar- ried Miss Catharine Grabner, who was born January 30, 1823, in Bavaria, and the children born to this union were: John J .; Laura, who married Louis Bours and had children as follows-Fan- nie, Metz, Alpha, Arthur and two others;

Mary, who married Albert Smith and had children-Rosa, Alta, Charles and Frank; Frank, who married Mary Hipple, and had six children, and Mathias, who mar- ried Ann Bitzer, and whose children were Herod, Alice, Theresa, and Ada May. Mr. Geiger moved to his present resi- dence May 8, 1891. Mrs. Geiger was a daughter of Lawrence and Katharine (Ohl) Grabner, who landed in America after a passage of eight weeks on the ocean, and settled in Huron county, Ohio, in 1839. Mr. Grabner died at fifty-three years of age. His children were: Mary, who married John Suter; Margaret, who married Casper Kirgner; Catharine, now Mrs. Geiger; John, who married Rebecca Bigler (now deceased), and Peter, who is also deceased.

- OHN B. LOVELAND, of Fremont, Sandusky county, was born Feb- ruary 20, 1827, in New Haven town- ship, Huron Co., Ohio, of English descent, his great ancestor having settled in the Connecticut Valley in the year 1635.

At the age of nineteen Mr. Loveland left his father's home and farm for Ober- lin College, which was then a manual la- bor institution, and here for four years he paid his way with manual labor dur- ing term time, and by teaching district schools during the winter vacations. In 1854 he took a position as teacher in the Fremont Union Schools, which he held for ten years with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. He next served as superintendent of schools at Bellevue, Green Spring and Woodville, adjoining towns in the same county, and during his connection with these schools he was a member of the Sandusky County Board of school examiners, faithfully dis- charging the duties of his office for the term of fourteen years. He was also an officer of the Sandusky County Teachers' Institute some twenty-five years. Having found leisure time for the study of law, Mr.

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Loveland was admitted to the bar March 20, 1876, by the district court at Fre- mont, but he does not make the practice of law a specialty, preferring the retire- ment of his farm just outside the city limits. He is the author of " The Love- land Genealogy," in three large octavo volumes, published in 1892-95. Mr. Loveland is a stanch Republican, and be- lieves that the mission of the Republican party is not yet ended. He cast his first vote in 1848 for the nominee of the Free- Soil party, in 1852 voted for John P. Hale, candidate of the new party, in 1856 for John C. Fremont, and in 1860 for Abraham Lincoln. From first to last he was opposed to slavery. He is a de- cided advocate of temperance and prohi- bition, uses no tobacco, and despises the use of alcohol in all its forms as a bever- age. He believes the use of the one is the stepping-stone to the use of the other.

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Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, Part 20

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1040

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1040