Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, Part 34

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 34
USA > Ohio > Ottawa County > Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 34

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Daniel I. Garn grew to manhood in the State of Pennsylvania, and at the age of twenty years was drafted into the mili- tary service of the United States, in the war of the Rebellion, serving in Company G, Ninety-first Pennsylvania Infantry, Army of the Potomac. He went to Cham- bersburg, then on to Richmond, Va. He was in the Weldon Railroad raid, and helped destroy the track, so as to cut off connection with Nashville, Tenn. Being taken sick there with fever, he was sent to City Point Hospital, and later to Wash- ington, D. C., where he lay from Febru- ary 28 until May 10, when he returned home. He was in Washington City at the time President Lincoln was shot, April 14, 1865. After his return from the war, Mr. Garn worked at the cooper trade twelve years, carried on farming for his father seven years, then came to Ohio and settled in Scott township, where he

remained five years, thence moving to Jackson township, where he resided five years. He is now a resident of Fremont, Ohio. He is a Republican in politics, and is identified with the Reformed Church. In 1892 he was elected justice of the peace, and has held other offices in his township.

On July 29, 1866, Mr. Garn married Miss Virginia Griffith, who was born April 23, 1842, a daughter of William and Sarah Griffith, natives of Pennsylvania, and their children are: (1) Lilian Grace, born May 9, 1867, married Henry Ickes, a black- smith in Cambria county, Penn .; he is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Lutheran Church; they have three children-Charles, Bruce and Ralph. (2) Charles H., born August 27, 1869, living at home; in politics he is a Republican. (3) Harry E., born March 9, is a law student, and affiliates with the Republican party. (4) Lizzie, born November 20, 1874, is a graduate of Heidelberg Acad- emy, at Tiffin, Ohio, and a teacher in Jackson township. (5) Susan, born March 27, 1877, is a student at the Fre- mont High School. (6) William Arthur, born September 13, 1879.

J ASON GIBBS, one of the most sub- stantial and well-to-do citizen of Riley township, Sandusky county, was born August 31, 1825, and is a son of Jonas and Rachel (Daniel) Gibbs.

Jonas Gibbs was born in 1762; he was married, in Vermont, to Rachel Daniels, who was born in 1794, and in 1808 they located at the mouth of Pipe creek, in Huron county, Ohio, bought 300 acres of land, and lived there twelve years. They then removed to Riley township, San- dusky county, here purchasing a thousand acres of land, and two years later five hundred acres more. Here they passed the remainder of their lives, Mr. Gibbs dying in 1834, Mrs. Gibbs in 1848. They had seven children, a brief record of

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whom is as follows: Isaac died at the early age of eighteen, unmarried. Cynthia married Joseph H. Curtis, by whom she had three children, and they lived in Riley township; subsequently she married William Pierson, by whom she had eight children. Boa married Mr. Dean, and they had eight children; they live in Riley township. Jonas married Rosina Linsey, and they had two children; he died in 1852, she in 1876. Jeremiah married Jane Conrad, and they live in Riley town- ship. Jason is the subject of these lines. Luther married Emma Buskirk, and they had four children; they live in Riley town- ship. Rachel married Lewis Barkheimer, and to their union has come one child; they are also residents of Riley township.

After his father's death, Jason Gibbs remained with his mother on the farm until his twenty-first year. On March 28, 1846, he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Conrad, who was born in San- dusky county, where she has always lived, daughter of John and Sarah (Tuttle) Con- rad, who were the parents of eleven chil- dren. John Conrad was born in Ohio in 1795, and died in Sandusky county, February 3, 1869; his wife died June 11, 1883, aged eighty-four years, nine months, sixteen days. Mrs. Gibbs' paternal grandmother was born in 1784; her ma- ternal grandfather, Van Rensselaer Tut- tle, was born in 1772. After this mar- riage Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs moved to Riley township, where he bought a thousand acres of land. They became the parents of four children, as follows: Albert mar- ried Amelia Wright, and they have two children-Charles and Burton P .- one of whom, Charles, died young. Luther married Almira Beebe, and they have had ten children; they live in Riley township. Burton married Jane Beebe, and they also live in Riley township; they have had two children-Charles A. and William J. John inarried Laura Botsford, and they have had six children; they make their home in Riley township.

Mr. Gibbs has been very successful in his dealings, and is well liked. He cleared 300 acres of his land himself, which took him nearly five years, and has been engaged in general farming, the raising of fine hogs, and for several years has also oper- ated two sawmills. Besides his property here he has 847 acres of valuable land in Tennessee, on which his oldest son re- sides. In 1893 Mr. Gibbs retired. He attends the Lutheran Church, is a Repub- lican in politics, and has been honored with public office, having been supervisor for twenty years. One of Mr. Gibbs' uncles, Luther, was killed at Huron, Ohio, by the falling of a block from a ship's mast; another, Jerry, was killed by In- dians at Sandusky (the night before his murder he dreamed that the Indians came to his home and killed him).

H INTZ FAMILY. Instances of fam- ilies who rise to affluence and in- fluence under the most untoward circumstances are sufficiently rare to excite comment, and lead the uninitiated to inquire what the faculty, or combina- tion of faculties, might be that would pro- duce a result so fortunate to the people most closely interested. It can be said of the Hintz family that they came of good stock, but it so happened that misfortune swept away father and provider and left mother and two helpless young sons ab- solutely penniless in a strange land. They did not remain in that condition, thanks to the irrepressible qualities that lay dor- mant in their young natures. But the ascent was for a time painfully slow. The story of their rise is most interesting, and the lesson of their lives instructive.

John J. Hintz, the grandfather of Christian and William Hintz, was a pros- perous stock raiser of Mecklenburg, Ger- many. No one in the neighboring dis- tricts bore a more excellent reputation than he. In wordly affairs he was pros- perous, in character above reproach, in

William Hist

le gling

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religion a sturdy defender of the Lutheran. faith, and in influence powerful. He died at the age of sixty-four years. He had married a Miss Hintz, and to them were born seven children. But by the inequal- ities of the feudal system which then held undisputed sway in Germany the goodly heritage fell solely to the eldest son, John, while the younger children where left to scramble for their bread as best they could. John, thus left independent, subsequently emigrated to America and settled in Wis- consin. The other children were as fol- lows: Christopher, who remained a farmer in Germany: Joseph J., who died in Ger- many: Fred, who remained a laborer in Germany; Christian, the father of Chris- tian and William Hintz, subjects of this sketch; William, who worked in a distill- ery in Germany, and died in that country; and Mary, who died young.

Christian, the only son except John who emigrated to America, was born in Mecklenburg in 1812. He was educated in the parochial schools of the Lutheran Church, and confirmed in the Church. Thus started aright, he had to look out for himself. He herded cattle and worked on a farm for about $20 a year until his twenty-sixth year, when he married. He afterward entered the royal service as a sawyer, having charge of an upright saw, and followed that vocation until 1848, when he went to the "free cities" and became a laborer on the public works at better wages. Four years later, at the age of forty years, he determined to emi- grate to America. He had been twice married in Germany. By his first wife he had one child, Dora. His second wife was Dora Harbra, by whom he had four children living when he came to America-Christian, William, John and Sophia. Leaving his native land March 31, 1852, he crossed the ocean with his family in a little two-masted sailing ves- sel, landing at Sandusky City May 10. Locating here, he first worked in a brick- yard, and soon after went on the railroad 15

then under construction between Sandus- ky and Cleveland, and was so engaged when he fell a victim to cholera, then raging. He died at Sandusky City Au- gust 7, 1852, before he had been there three months. Two of his children, John and Sophia, were carried away by the same plague. William was seized with the same dread disease, but withstood the attack. The father had owed for a por- tion of the passage money, and the pay- ment of that debt had consumed all his earnings when he died. The mother and her two children, Christian and William, and her step-daughter, Dora, were left utterly destitute. The two boys, aged twelve and ten years, were put out among strangers to work for their board and clothes. Christian, ten months later, be- gan to earn $3 per month for a year, then $4 per month. William worked two years for only his board and clothes, but in several years the scant earnings of the boys, together with the savings of the mother, enabled her to buy a horse. She rented a few acres of land, and began the struggle of life at gardening near Sandus- ky City. Soon by magical thrift she was able to buy another horse and rent a few more acres. Then the home-wrecked family was reunited, and the mother had her sons once more under the same roof with herself. Among the enlarging circle of their acquaintances the Hintzes were noted for their industry, honesty and in- telligence, though the two young repre- sentatives of the family were yet in their "teens," with characters that should have been considered unformed. Gradually renting more of the rich land around San- dusky City they began to accumulate money and to think of owning a home of their own. Dora, the step-daughter, had married Godfrey Gockstetter, and now lives near Huron, Erie county; her hus- band died December 25, 1894, leaving a large family, consisting of Simeon, George, Henry, William, John, Freder- ick, Louie, Adam, Mary, Anna, Louisa,

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Emma and Lena: one child died young. The family is one of remarkably robust strength, the members averaging about 200 pounds.

In 1864 Mrs. Hintz and her two sons, Christian and William, came to Sandusky county and purchased 114 acres of land for $4,500. They had saved $1, 500, which was their cash payment, and went into debt for the remaining $3,000. Only fourteen acres of the land were broken, and wiseacres said they could never pay for it; but they reckoned without their host. They knew not the stern stuff, the unflagging zeal, the intelligence, and the thrift which entered into the composition of this rising family. The boys had a good team, a couple of colts and a few hogs, and manfully they faced the problem before them. Their opportunities were now broader, their actions freer, and they never doubted or questioned their ability to win. There was but one thing to do- clear off the indebtedness, and clear it they did, despite the nods and winks of the wiseacres. In a few years prosperity was assured, and the mother and her sons, to the astonishment of their neighbors, were already buying more land. The $3,000 indebtedness on the old farm was completely lifted in two years, and it was not long before the brothers ranked in wealth and position among the foremost men of Green Creek township.

CHRISTIAN HINTZ is now one of the leading breeders of Short-horn cattle and Chester-white swine in Sandusky county. He was born November 23, 1839. His mar- riage to Anna Powells, a native of Meck- lenburg, Germany, born April 19, 1844, was the signal for a division of the prop- erty The brothers were attached to each other, and the partition was made in peace and brotherly love. The mother was generously provided for, and each brother began farming for himself. Christian for a time engaged in inixed or general farm- ing, but for fifteen years he has been rais- ing thoroughbred stock-cattle, hogs and

sheep-selling chiefly for breeding pur- poses. He has exhibited at the fairs at Fremont, Sandusky, Bellevue, Norwalk, Clyde, Fostoria, Toledo, Attica and Findlay, besides many other localities too numerous to mention, and in 1895 he had a large show. Each year he has taken many premiums, and at Fremont he has taken more than any other man in the county; one season his premiums aggre- gated about $600. He sells blooded stock all over the United States. He had one cow in the dairy department of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chi- cago, in 1893, which made 135 pounds and some ounces of butter in ninety days. . Both he and his brother paid two long visits to the World's Fair. Mr. Hintz now owns 246 acres of land. To Chris- tian and Anna Hintz have been born eight children, as follows: Christian, Jr., Will- iam, Anna, Dora, Henry, August, Jacob and Martin. In politics he is somewhat independent, but usually votes the Dem- ocratic ticket. He has been for many years a prominent member of the Lu- theran Church, and for fourteen years he was elder of the old St. John's Church, at Fremont. In no sense is he an office- seeker, but in the interest of education he has served as a school director of his dis- trict.

WILLIAM HINTZ was born September IS, 1841. He was married in 1871, to Miss Anna K. Bauer, who was born in Green Creek township, September 27, 1854. Prior to his marriage his mother kept house for him, and through the pro- vision made for her by the two grateful sons the noble mother enjoyed a compe- tence, and lived in an establishment of her own in the parlor of William's home, remaining there as long as she lived; she passed away in January, 1876. The chil- dren of William and Anna Hintz were as follows: John (who was accidentally drowned in a well at the age of three and a half years), Joseph W., Sophia L., Louisa D., Peter W., Esther A., Hannah

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· H., Sarah R. (who died at the age of one year, eleven months and twenty-eight days), and Mary M. In the division of the property William surrendered all the thorough-bred stock to Christian, but he raises and ships cattle, hogs and sheep for meat. William Hintz believes that money is more easily handled than land. Much of his property now consists of in- vestments, and he is placing all his spare means on interest. He still owns 155 acres of land. He is a leading member of the Lutheran Church, was for ten years deacon of St. John's Church at Fremont, and is an elder in Grace Lutheran Church at Fremont; he has also acted as a delegate to the Lutheran Church Synod. For four years he has served as a member of the board of direct- ors of the Sandusky County Agricultural Society .- "Thanks be to God for His merciful blessings."

J OSEPH NOGGLE, one of the most reliable and industrious farmers of Green Creek township, Sandusky county, is a man of unassuming man- ners, without ostentation, or craving for place and preferment. He is content to fill his mission in life as a worthy repre- sentative of the first and most important vocation-that of farming-leaving to others the strife and turmoil and the un- certainities of a more problematic career. It is to such types as he, hard-working and thrifty, yet restful and contented, that the nation must look for its great reserve force to act as a balance-wheel against the en- croachments and vagaries of the flightier element in society.

Mr. Noggle was born in Franklin county, Penn., June 4, 1811, son of Will- iam and Katie (Hurtman) Noggle, both natives of Pennsylvania, who reared a large family of children, and passed peace- fully away on the home farm at a good old age. Only two of the children- Jacob and Joseph-now survive. Jacob

lives on a farm in Fulton county, Penn., at the age of eighty-one years. Joseph was reared in the Keystone State, and there married Elizabeth Marshall, who was born in Huntingdon county, Penn., February 11, 1811, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (Simmons) Marshall; they were the parents of seven children, named as follows: James, Nancy, Lydia, Jane, Sarah, Rachel and Elizabeth. The father died on his farm in Pennsylvania when Elizabeth was a child; the mother sur- vived until 1855. Soon after his mar- riage Mr. Noggle migrated to Sandusky county, locating in Jackson township, and there engaged in pioneer farming. Twen- ty-two years later he moved to Green Creek township, and has lived here some thirty-seven years. He now owns a well- cultivated farm of eighty-four acres. Mr. Noggle cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson in 1832; in religious faith he is a member of the Universalist Church. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Noggle are as follows: Sarah, born November 4, 1841, married December 10, 1875, to Charles Clapp, and is the mother of two children -Jessie (deceased) and Della; William, born October 19, 1843, died November 24, 1874; Madison, born August 5, 1846, died September 6, 1872; Joseph, born November 10, 1857, died June 28, 1858. William H. Noggle, a nephew of Joseph Noggle, now lives with him. He was born in Pennsylvania March 21, 1850, and is the son of Jacob Noggle; he was married in November, 1893, to Hattie E. Mummert, who was born in Franklin county, Penn., January 26, 1860.

W ILLIAM A. MUGG, the leading landowner and farmer of York township, Sandusky county, and vice-president of the First Na- tional Bank of Clyde, is of the third gen- eration from the earliest settlement and development of northwestern Ohio. And as he stands to-day, a leader of the men

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about him, so, too, in the two preceding gen- erations, were his father and grandfather men of renown and note in their respective spheres, though perhaps in a somewhat different way. William A. Mugg has in- herited the pioneer strength of character. His mind is keen and he appreciates a witticism. His good-natured retort is sharp, and stranger or friend is welcomed at his home and treated with that old- time jovial hospitality that is becoming rare in these so-called degenerate days.

Mr. Mugg was born in Milo, Yates Co., N. Y., December 13, 1827, son of John B. and Susan ( Wheeler) Mugg, and grand- son of Elder John Mugg. But years be- fore his birth his father and his grand- father had already become identified with the interests of York township, Sandusky Co., Ohio. It was in 1822 that Elder John Mugg, a native of Maryland, came with his family from New York State to the vast solitudes of northwestern Ohio. His parents had died when he was a child, and he was bound out and reared among strangers. However, he obtained the rudiments of an education, and became a preacher of the Baptist Church. When he came to Ohio he purchased 400 acres of government land; but as soon as the cabins for himself and family were built, and the rude houses made comfortable, he began his labors as a pioneer preacher, a task then quite different from the minis- terial duties of to-day. Elder Mugg was a man of small stature, and his weight was less than one hundred pounds, but he was filled with nervous force, and with a love for his fellow men. He was an en- thusiastic churchman. On horseback, with saddlebags supplied with medicines, he wended his way along Indian trails through the forested swamps from settle- inent to settlement, bringing to the lonely pioneer the refreshing and cheering words of the Gospel. His value to the mental, inoral and physical welfare of the early settler, iminersed in solitude, can scarcely be appreciated at the present day. He

brought words of cheer and comfort wher- ever he went. and the pleasant memories of his visits lingered long after he had de- parted. He carried the current news of the day from cabin to cabin, and to the sufferers from the malignant fevers that were then so common he brought both medicinal and spiritual good. Once to a neighbor who had stolen corn from him he remarked: " I feel sorry for you, neigh- bor. I don't care for the corn. If you had asked me for it, the corn would have been yours." His gentle, forgiving, Christian spirit made Elder Mugg a man who was widely beloved. He organized the Freewill Baptist Church, the pioneer religious organization of York township, and lived to the good old age of ninety- six years, amidst the people to whom he had ministered for many years. His re- mains were interred in Wales Corners Cemetery, in York township, where many of his fellow pioneers also rest. He was the father of seven children, as follows: Thomas, who moved to Indiana; John B., father of William A. ; Marcus, who became a minister and moved to Michigan, where he died; Jesse, who died in Indiana; William, who died in early manhood; Mary (afterward Mrs. Bennett), of Indi- ana; and Harriet (Mrs. Colvin), who died in York township.

John B. Mugg was born in 1801. He came with his father to York township in 1822, and here, in 1823, he married for his second wife, Susan Wheeler, having been previously married to Susan Wheeler, of Penn Yan, Yates Co., N. Y. A year later, after the birth of his eldest child, Charles, he returned with his family to Yates county, N. Y., and remained there twelve years. In 1836 he again came west, and lived in York township until his death, which occurred December 31, 1880, when he was aged seventy-nine years, four months and twenty-seven days. His wife, who was born in 1807, died March 3, 1880. Nine children were born to John B. and Susan Mugg: Charles, who died

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in Missouri; Wheeler, who died in York township; William A., subject of this sketch; John, who died in New York; a child who died in infancy; Elizabeth, who died in young womanhood; Marietta, who died in girlhood; George, a resident of Dundee, Mich .; Alice, who died in child- hood.

William A. Mugg was a child when his father returned from New York to the pioneer Ohio home. He remembers well the trip on the lakes, and the journey over- land to the old farmstead near Wales Corners, which still forms a part of the extensive estate of Mr. Mugg. In those days the driftwood had not yet been cleared from the swamps. The pools were full of water and fish were abundant on every hand. Mr. Mugg remembers that many times in his boyhood he has skated in winter all the way from the old homestead to Sandusky Bay. The young men of fifty years ago propelled skiffs over lands that are now some of the most fertile fields in Ohio. Indians were nu- merous in those days, and game abounded. But educational facilities were few. While Mr. Mugg did not receive a finished liter- ary education, he learned what was better still-the value of thrift and economy. After he was of age he worked five years for his father, at $200 per year. Then in 1854 he married Miss Phebe S. Russell, who was born April 2, 1833. Her father, Norton Russell, was born in Hopewell, Ontario Co., N. Y., June 15, 1801, of parents who had shortly before moved to the New York wilderness from Massachu- setts. Young Russell was bound out, and was diligently engaged during his youth in clearing the pioneer land of western New York. In October, 1821, he came to Ohio with three other young men, William McPherson, James Birdseye and Lyman Babcock, all of whom became prominent pioneers of Sandusky county. They walked almost the entire distance from New York-400 miles. Mr. Russell was the eldest of five children, and his

sisters and brother were as follows: Rowena, who married George Swarthout, and settled near Penn Yan, N. Y .; Cyn- thia, who married William McPherson, and became the mother of the martyred Gen. James B. McPherson; William, who married Elizabeth Beach; and Lydia, wife of Lester Beach. Norton Russell entered the S. E. Quarter of Section 7, York township, and was married April 13, 1825, to Sibyl S. McMillen, daughter of Samuel and Polly McMillen, who migrated Irom their old home near the White Mountains, N. H., to Ohio, and became early pio- neers of Green Creek township, Sandusky county. Samuel and Polly McMillen had the following seven children: Sibyl (Mrs. Russell); Samuel; Henry; Rachel, who married Isaac May; Sally, who married Joseph George; Nancy, who married Isaac May, and Luther. Norton and Sibyl Russell were the parents of seven chil- dren, as follows: John N. and William M., of Clyde; Charles P., of York; Phebe S .; Sarah R. (Mrs. Bell), of Clyde; Mary M. (Mrs. J. W. Taylor), of Sabine Parish, La., and Belle R. (Mrs. Collver), of Cleve- land. Norton Russell is still, at this writing, living with his daughter, Mrs. Mugg, the oldest living pioneer of this section. His wife, who shared with him the toil and privation of a long and event- ful life, died December 18, 1887, aged eighty years.

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Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, Part 34

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