USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 69
USA > Ohio > Ottawa County > Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Sandusky and Ottawa, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens > Part 69
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ant postmaster at Woodville; James is a cooper by trade at Findlay, Ohio; and Ralph, who was also a cooper, was so seriously injured on July 2, 1895, in Find- lay, Ohio, that he died on the following day, at the age of twenty-four years.
Mr. Sivalls is a Republican in his political preferences, and during President James A. Garfield's administration, was appointed postmaster at Woodville, con- tinued under President Harrison and President Cleveland, and still occupies the position. In church connection he is a member of the United Brethren Society; in secret society matters he is a member of Elmore Lodge, No. 462, I. O. O. F., and socially no one in the county enjoys more fully the esteem and confidence of the community at large.
C APTAIN CHARLES L. DIRLAM, the efficient and capable post- master at Clyde, Sandusky coun- ty, is a native of Massachusetts, born in Berkshire county, March 2, 1831, and is a son of Sylvenus and Mary (Clark) Dirlam.
The father was born in Massachusetts in 1790, there followed farming and car- pentering until coming west on the Ist of June, 1831, when he located on a farm in Sandusky county, three miles from Clyde. This place he improved and cultivated up to the time of his death, in 1884. His wife, who was born in Berkshire county, Mass., died at the age of fifty-eight years. In their family were nine chil- dren: Hiram, a resident farmer of Berk- shire county, Mass .; James, who makes his home in Indiana; Curtis, who lives in Carroll county, Iowa; Joseph, who died at the age of ten years; Louise, wife of Myron Tuttle, of Indiana; Harriet, wife of L. Craig; Louis, a resident of Sandusky county, Ohio; D. Dirlam, in Mansfield, Ohio; and Charles L. The paternal grandfather was a Hessian soldier, sent to this country to assist the British in
subduing the Colonies during the Revol- utionary war, during which he was wounded. Later he deserted, becoming a resident of Massachusetts, and during the war of 1812 fought against the British troops.
In the usual manner of farmer lads the boyhood and youth of Charles L. Dirlam were passed, aiding his father in clearing and developing the land. Later he learned the brick layer's and mason's trades, at which he worked until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he became a member of Company A, Seventy-second O. V. I., being assigned to the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps under Gen. McPherson. The first battle in which he was engaged was at Shiloh, which was followed by the Vicks- burg campaign, and with his regiment he participated in all the important engage- ments in the Mississippi Valley. At Gun- town, Miss., he was taken prisoner, was sent to Mobile, Ala., thence to Macon, Ga., from there to Charleston and Columbus, S. C .; on reaching Charlotte, N. C., he managed to escape, but was re-captured, after which he was confined in Libby prison. As his term of service had ex- pired at the time of his exchange, he re- turned home. He had entered the army as a private, but at the time of being made prisoner was holding the rank of captain, which he had gained by meritorous con- duct on the field of battle. He has ever been a loyal and patriotic citizen, and in his defense of the Union was a fearless and valiant soldier.
In 1858 Capt. Dirlam married Miss Mary Gale, born in Sandusky county in 1832, and by this union there are three children: Jay C., a miner at Seattle, Wash., married and has one child, Clyde; Staneberry, a house painter of Denver, Col., married and has one son, Charles; and John, the youngest of the family, still with his parents. On his return from the South at the close of the war the Captain resumed work at his trade in
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his vicinity. In I891 he was appointed postmaster at Clyde, which office he is still holding, and has ever given the best of satisfaction. For forty years he has made his home in Clyde, where he is widely known and universally respected. In politics the Captain is a steadfast ad- herent of the principles formulated by the Republican party; socially he is a member of Edon Post, No. 55, G. A. R., in which he takes an active interest.
S AMUEL STORER, farmer and fruit grower, of Green Creek town- ship, Sandusky county, was born at Westbrook, near Portland, Maine, January 22, 1807, son of Joseph and Charlotte (Knight) Storer.
Joseph Storer was also born in the " Pine Tree State," the year of his birth being 1776. His father was a Revolu- tionary soldier, and died of smallpox; his wife was a Miss Graves, who was born at Broad Cove, Maine, about 1720, and died at the age of ninety-nine years. The grandfather of Joseph Storer was sup- posed to be of Irish birth. Joseph Storer was a ship and house carpenter by trade, and he served in the war of 1812. In 1815 his home was burned, and in re- building he became involved in debt. Thinking to better his circumstances in the West, and also wishing to keep his boys from going to sea, he came to Ohio in 1817, and settled in Zanesville. He left Portland in May, that year, accom- panied by his eldest son, George, and Samuel, then a boy of ten years. On reaching Zanesville he found employment at his trade, and in a year saved money enough to send for his family, so, purchasing a wagon and team, he hired a man to drive to Maine for them. The driver went as far as Connecticut, where he appropriated the team to his own use, and, as a conse- quence, the family was obliged to wait another year before coming west. Joseph
Storer remained at Zanesville ten years, and while there he and his partner, John Wilson, built the great wooden bridge across the Muskingum river. In 1827 he moved to Cleveland, and there followed his trade of ship carpenter for many years. He died in Green Creek town- ship, Sandusky Co., in 1867. In poli- tics he was a Whig and a Republican, and in religious belief a Methodist. His wife, Charlotte Knight, was born in Broad Cove, Maine, in about 1777, and died in 1851. The children of Joseph and Char- lotte Storer were as follows: Eliza, who married Joel Chapman, and lived in Cuyahoga county to the age of eighty-five years; George, still living in Cleveland at the age of ninety-three years; Joseph, who died in Brooklyn village January II, 1894, aged eighty-nine years; Samuel, subject of this sketch, now (1895) aged eighty-nine years; Webster, now eighty- six years old; Hester, wife of Harris Brain- ard, of Cuyahoga county.
Samuel Storer attended the schools of Zanesville, served an apprenticeship of six years to the trade of tanner and cur- rier, and followed it for thirty-five years at Brooklyn village. In the fall of 1862 he sold out, and in the spring of 1863 moved to the farm near Clyde, which he still occupies and which he had purchased in 1857. Mr. Storer was married in 1831, to Miss Sarah J. Fish, who was born near Cleveland, October 11, 1811. She was the daughter of James Fish, who, in 1811, migrated from Groton, Conn., to Ohio, with an ox-team, and settled in the woods near Brooklyn village (now Cleveland). His wife was a weaver, and supported the family at the loom while he cleared the farm. Mr. Fish lived to the age of nine- ty-three years. The seven children born to Samuel and Sarah Storer were as fol- lows: (1) Sarah S., born in 1835, was married in 1860 to Ira H. Pool, who in July, 1862, enlisted in the army and died in Nashville hospital in July, 1864; she has two daughters: Bessie, wife of Will-
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ard Perin, of Green Creek township, and mother of four children-Ethel, Cecil and Gaylord and Gladys (twins); and Irene, wife of Ira Comstock and mother of three children-May, Ruth and Clara. (2) Miranda, wife of William Cunningham, of Clyde, has five children: Harry; Edna; Lizzie, wife of A. W. Wilds; Nellie, wife of William Wallace, of Lorain, and May, wife of Harvey Cook, of Fremont, and mother of two children-Iva and Mabel L. (3) James, who served throughout the war in the artillery department, and is now secretary and treasurer of the Geo. Worthington Co., wholesale hard- ware, Cleveland; he married Emma Schneider, of Cleveland, and had three children-May, Winifred, and James (de- ceased). (4) Mary, who wedded Robert Clapp, of Clyde (now deceased), and be- came the mother of one child-Irving; she is now the wife of George Lee. (5)
Charles, of Green Creek township, mar- ried Lucinda Rathbun and has five chil- dren-Allie, Bessie, Mary, James and Carrie. (6) Etta, wife of Morris L. Huss, of Green Creek township, and inother of two children -- Ruth and Dwight. (7) Benjamin is now deceased. Mrs. Storer, the faithful and devoted wife and mother, passed away in 1889. She had been for many years a consistent member of the M. E. Church, and that religious society at Clyde has had no heartier or more in- fluential supporter than Mr. Storer, who subscribes liberally to the Church and its missionary societies. He first joined the church in 1822, and has ever since lived in conformity with its teachings and pre- cepts. He is a man above reproach in his community, and a good citizen. When operations on the Ohio canal were com- menced July 4, 1824, Mr. Storer be- longed to an artillery company at Zanes- ville, which was ordered to Licking Sum- mit to be present at the celebration on that occasion. Gov. Clinton, of New York, and Gov. Trimble, of Ohio, lifted the first spadesful of earth in the construc -
tion of that work. This, Mr. Storer says, was his first and only experience in mili- tary service.
SAAC AIGLER, a retired agricultur- ist of York township, Sandusky coun- ty, is worthy of credit for untiring energy and exemplary character, and to him honor should be rendered. His farm is a model one. The same marked care shown by his wife in the arrange- ment of her house, Mr. Aigler is renowned for in the appointment of his premises.
Amos Aigler, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Pennsylvania, December 11, 1815, and in 1839 was united in marriage with Armina Bobb, who was born in 1819, also in Pennsylva- nia. They had two children: Isaac, the older child, born in Union (now Snyder) county, Penn., August 23, 1840; and Eliza, now the wife of William Hummel, of York township. Mrs. Aigler died in 1844, and two years later Mr. Aigler mar- ried Mrs. Eliza Aigler, widow of his brother, and they had five children, namely: James, late of Bellevue, Huron county, Ohio, now deceased, and Matilda L., wife of J. D. Harpster, a Kansas banker (they were twins); Henry, of York township, deceased; J. F., a real-estate agent, of Kansas; and Clara, wife of Al- len Kern, a farmer of York township. In 1848 the family came to Thompson town- ship, Seneca county, and next year moved to York township, where Mr. Aigler bought eighty acres of land. Here he lived for many years, and then, thinking he had well earned a vacation, moved to Bellevue, where he lives retired.
Isaac Aigler was but eight years old when his father came to Ohio. His school life ended shortly after that, and he had to rise early and work late as, forty years ago, life on the farm was not lightened by .improved machinery as at present. In 1861 he enlisted in Company D, Fiftieth Ohio National Guards, for five years.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHIICAL RECORD.
Again, on May 2, 1864, he enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and Sixty- ninth O. V. I. He served in Maryland and Virginia, defending Washington dur- ing the summer of 1864, and was dis- charged September 4, 1864. On March 5, 1868, Mr. Aigler was united in mar- riage with Susan Close, who was born August 16, 1847.
The parents of Mrs. Aigler, George and Mary (Moyer) Close, came to Ohio in 1856. They had eleven children, as follows: Austin, a Kansas farmer and car- penter; Eliza, widow of LaFayette Han- num. of Perrysburg, Ohio; Marguerite, wife of J. K. Frederick, of Maumee, Ohio: Melinda, who is married to C. P. Deyo, of Bellevue; Henry, who is in the milling business at Venice, and resides in Sandusky City; Joseph W., a Bellevue banker; Susan, Mrs. Aigler; George W., a banker at Berlin Heights; Cloyd, a farmer, of Michigan; Charles C., a livery- man in Fremont; and Jay F., a Kansas lawyer. Mr. Aigler has a fertile farm of 108 acres, on which he grows principally grain, also some fruit. For many years he affiliated with the Republican party; but upon the organization of the People's party he at once embraced that doctrine, being the first man in York township to openly advocate the Omaha platform. He is one of the best known Populists in the country, and for several years has served on various county committees.
W ILLIAM REHBERG. Promi- nent among the old settlers and esteemed residents of Middle Bass Island, Ottawa county, is found the gentleman whose name intro- duces this sketch. He was born in Meck- lenburg-Schwerin, Germany, January 10, 1825, son of John and Christina (Bohn- dorff, Rehberg, who were both born in Germany.
William Rehberg was educated, reared to manhood and learned the trade of ma-
chinist in his native land. On January 7, 1849. in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Ger- many, he was united in marriage with Louisa Stevens, who was born in Mamaro, and they have had seven children, three of whom are now living, namely: Mary, born January 1, 1850, now the wife of John Runkle, of Middle Bass Island; Herinan, born June 2, 1857, and residing on Middle Bass Island; and Ida, born July 3, 1863, wife of A. Smith, Jr., of San- dusky, Erie county.
In 1849 Mr. Rehberg left the Father- land for America, and after his arrival in this country resided at Niagara Falls for a few months, then came to Ohio and located in Wyandot county, where he was engaged in the gunsmith business for two years. He then removed to Sandusky, Erie county, and for two years was occu- pied in fishing, in 1856 removing to Middle Bass Island, of which locality he has since been a continuous resident and one of its most progressive citizens, doing more, perhaps, than any other settler toward the progress that has been made on that beau- tiful island, and the growth of its material interests. Mr. Rehberg was the first pur- chaser of land on the island, and imme- diately after his purchase agreed to im- prove this part of the township by clear- ing and cultivating the land, and erecting substantial houses and other buildings. A few years afterward he began the cultiva- tion of grapes, and later entered upon the business of wine making, in which he has since continued, his vineyard now being one of the largest and best cultivated on the island. In 1869 he built his large wine cellar, in 1879 his spacious Middle Bass Club hall, used for the accommoda- tion of the club. He is owner and master of the fine steamer " Leroy Brooks," part owner of the steamer "Secord," which plies between Port Clinton and the islands during the summer months, and is also a stockholder in the Sandusky Fish Com- pany.
In his political views Mr. Rehberg is
Im Rehberg
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
an active member of the Democratic party. He was the first trustee of Put in Bay township, and has also efficiently filled many other township offices. He is a member of Science Lodge No. 50, F. & A. M., of Sandusky, Erie county, and was a member of Erie Commandery No. 22, Sandusky, Ohio, but resigned in 1895; is a member of Commodore Perry Lodge I. O. O. F., of Put in Bay; and a charter member of Guttenberg-Hin Lodge No. 91, Druids, Sandusky. Few men have come more in contact with the grow- ing interests of Put in Bay township, and none have commanded more completely the respect and confidence of the com- munity than William Rehberg. He has risen by his own individual efforts, and may justly be styled a self-made man. Of gentlemanly demeanor, he always meets his associates, both in social and business circles, with a cordial and friendly bearing; as a public man he has dis- charged with painstaking fidelity the du- ties of every position in which he has been placed, and enjoys the respect and esteem of the people he has so faithfully served.
In 1882, after an absence of forty- three years, Mr. Rehberg paid a visit to his native land and town, and after pleas- antly sojourning there for some six months with relatives and friends, returned to the United States and to Middle Bass in the fall of the same year. At the present time (December, 1895) he is in Florida, building a cottage in an orange grove.
R ICHARD BOYD STEVENSON holds an honored and revered place in the hearts of his fellow- citizens of York township, San- dusky county. He has passed the seventy- fifth milestone of his life, and is thus linked by memory to a past generation. Coming as he did when a lad of tender years to the "Black Swamp," he has witnessed the conversion of a swampy 30
jungle into a region as fair and fertile as the sun has ever shone upon. Gifted with a memory remarkably acute and vivid, he is an unquestioned authority upon the early history of York and neighboring townships. And blessed as he also is with a keen judgment of men and events, and with a kindly feeling for humanity, he ranks as an oracle among all who know him.
Mr. Stevenson was born in Frederick county, Md., January 10, 1820, son of Dr. Matthew and Jane (Gilson) Steven- son. Dr. Stevenson was born in Fred- erick county, Md., in 1777, and his father, James Stevenson, who was of Scotch origin, emigrated from the North of Ire- land to Pennsylvania, married a Miss Buchanan (a relative of President Buchan- an), near Carlisle, Penn., and removed across the Maryland line, buying land on the foot hills between Emmittsburg, Md., and Gettysburg, Penn. Here he lived a farmer, of the old Presbyterian faith, until his death. His children were as fol- lows: Matthew; William, who died near Clyde, Ohio; Martha, who married and lived in Cayuga county, N. Y. ; Jane, after- ward Mrs. Knox; Abigail, who married and lived in New York State; Elizabeth and Mary. Matthew studied medicine and for a time practiced in Gettysburg, where his uncle, Dr. Buchanan, was also a practitioner. Later Dr. Stevenson practiced near Youngstown, Westmore- land Co., Penn. He was a man of thorough classical education, and his son, Richard B., still has many of his books written in the Latin tongue. He also possessed high scientific attainments. The latter he was obliged sometimes to call into requisition. Thus in Westmoreland county the good people saw phosphor- escent lights move slowly to and fro, and in terror believed them to be spirits from the other world until Dr. Stevenson dem- onstrated to them the earthly origin of the lights.
Jane Gilson, the wife of Dr. Steven-
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
son, was born in Pennsylvania in 1789. Her mother was a Miss Boyd, member of a family who settled in an early day among the Indians at Carlisle, Penn. During the French and Indian wars the entire family was captured save the father, who at the time was absent from home. In a neighboring schoolhouse the teacher and all the pupils were massa- cred. Grandmother Boyd was killed by the Indians, because she was too old to be taken into captivity, and also an in- fant. The other Boyds were carried back into the wilderness. One of the boys, the grandfather of Dr. Stevenson's wife, was given to a "good Indian," and it was his duty to wait upon an enfeebled old warrior chief. Three years later he was returned to Carlisle. All the other members of the family, except one boy, were restored after seven years of cap- tivity.
After the death of his father, Dr. Stevenson returned to Frederick county, MId., and remained there until his migra- tion to Ohio. He came with his family in a three-horse wagon to Tiffin, and later to Sandusky county, arriving June 3, 1830, at the farm in York township still owned by the subject of this sketch and other heirs. The land had been entered by Mr. Birdseye in 1822, and from him purchased by Dr. Stevenson. The latter did not practice medicine in Ohio, but followed farming until his death, in 1849. In politics he was a Whig, and in relig- ious faith a Presbyterian early in life, but later a Methodist. His wife, who had nobly braved the toils and privations of pioneer life, survived until 1877. Dr. Matthew and Jane Stevenson had eleven children, as follows: James G. D)., who lived at Buffalo, N. Y .; Thomas W. B., of Fayette county, Iowa; G. H., for some years a resident of California; Nancy Jane, who married W. Gurley; Richard Boyd, subject of this sketch; Lucinda, born September 15, 1822, a maiden lady, who cared for her parents in their declin-
ing years, and who now lives at the old homestead with her brother, Richard B .; John W., of Sandusky City; M. A. and B. W. (twins), the former a resident of Chicago, and the latter a farmer of York township; Joseph F., who died in 1852, aged twenty-two years; Mary E., born August 19, 1832, the only child of the family born in Ohio, unmarried and living with her brother and sister on the old homestead.
The occupants at the old farmhouse, around which cluster many fond memo- ries, are thus Richard Boyd Stevenson and his two unmarried sisters-Mary E. and Lucinda. Like them he has re- mained single. The home is one of the landmarks of the revered past, and in the eyes of the community for many miles about it is doubly revered because of the high standing of its owners. The Misses Stevenson are renowned for their lady- like and reserved manners, and for their liberal culture. They have been reared in the M. E. Church. In politics Mr. Stevenson is a Republican. With his accustomed public spirit and generosity, he has dedicated to public use a spring of remarkable freshness and coldness, which gushes from the earth a short distance in front of the Stevenson home. Around it he has built a stone house, and the passer- by is ever welcome to enter and slake his thirst at "the coldest spring and purest water in northern Ohio."
R OBERT L. RIFE, a leading citi- zen of York township, Sandusky county, has amassed one of the largest landed holdings for many miles around by his superior business sagacity and enterprise. He began his farming career in a small way, and added to his acres gradually from time to time, obeying the cardinal principle of success in life by keeping expenses within his in- come. He is yet a young man, and a na- tive of York township, born April 27,
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
1846, son of Michael and Mary (Long- well) Rife.
It is a family of pioneer stock. Mich- ael Rife was born in Frederick county, Md., February 15, 1814, a son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Zumbrund) Rife. Daniel Rife was the son of a German emigrant who had settled in Maryland. Like his father he was a member of the Lutheran Church. He continued to live in Mary- land many years after his marriage to Elizabeth Zumbrund, but in 1832 he migrated with his wife and ten children- three sons and seven daughters-to San- dusky county. These children were as follows: Susan, who married Chester Kinney, of Green Spring; Michael, father of Robert L .; Daniel, a farmer of Clyde; Julia Ann, who married John Hamlin and moved to Steuben county, Ind .; Eliza- beth, of Bellevue; Mary and Sarah (twins), the former of whom married Aaron Bartlett of Fulton county; Sophia; John, of York township; and Frances. The township was practically uncleared and largely unsettled when Daniel Rife became a resident in 1832, and he en- gaged in the serious work of making a home for himself in the wilderness. He met with success, and his descendants are among the most highly-respected citizens of the county. He died at the age of fifty-seven years, his wife surviving to the age of seventy-six.
Michael Rife, the eldest son, was eighteen when he came to Sandusky coun- ty, just the right age to be of most value to his father in the pioneer life. For seven years he labored at home. Then on New Year's Day, 1839, he married Mary Longwell, a young lady who had been orphaned from infancy, and whose parents were among the first victims of an unhealthy climate in York township in its early days. She was born in Berlin township, Delaware county, November 9, 1821, only daughter of Robert and Lu- cinda (Butler) Longwell. They were married February 2, 1821, and in 1823
journeyed to a new pioneer home. Mr. Longwell brought his goods in an ox- wagon, while his wife carried the child Mary in her arms and rode horseback. After one brief year of married life in the new land the family was destroyed. Mrs. Longwell died September 17, 1824, aged thirty-two years, her husband, who was a native of Kentucky, five days later, aged thirty years. The mother was one of a numerous family; she was born in Lenox township, Berkshire Co., Mass. Her brothers and sisters were: Sarah; Lydia, Rebecca, Persus, Thankful, Jethrone, Daniel, David, Levi, George, Cornelius and Mary. The orphaned child grew up among relatives in Sandusky and Dela- ware counties. After his marriage to her in 1839 Michael Rife began housekeeping in York township. Currency was scarce in those days, and to procure the small amount of money needed to pay taxes was a difficult matter. Mrs. Rife raised chickens and produce of various sorts, but the prices they commanded would in this day discourage any agriculturist. Michael Rife was in politics a Republican. He was industrious and economical, and accumulated a highly-improved farm of 400 acres upon which he lived in comfort during his declining years until his death, which occurred January 2, 1894. His widow is at this writing still living on the old homstead on the North Ridge, York township. Four children were born to Michael and Mary Rife. (1) Eudora Ann, born March 30, 1841, married October 16, 1862, to Robert Zuel, of Townsend township, who was born in New York State October 29, 1831; they have four children: Mary, born October 20, 1863, married to Robert Asher, and living in Kansas, near Kansas City; Sarah, born October 22, 1865, married to William Range, and the mother of five children- Charles, Frank, Fred, Bessie and Harry; Hattie, born August 25, 1869, married to W. Gursuch, and living in Wallace county, Kans .; and George, born March
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