USA > Ohio > Wood County > Commemorative historical and biographical record of Wood County, Ohio : its past and present : early settlement and development biographies and portraits of early settlers and representative citizens, etc. V. 1 > Part 96
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Mr. Eberly and his son. Joseph F., under the firm name of Eberly & Son, are carrying on a leading retail boot and shoe business at Bowling Green, in a valuable brick block, of which our subject is the owner. He resides in a pleasant. commodious home, embracing eleven acres, and situated in the outskirts of the thrifty and pro- gressive town of Bowling Green. A lover of reading, Mr. Eberly devotes much time to his ex- tensive library of well-selected books, embracing history, biography, science, and all the subjects that interest modern thinkers.
Early in the summer of 1866 Mi. Eberly met and made the acquaintance of Miss Hattie .A. Chubb, of Perrysburg, Ohio, upon her return from Delaware, where she had been attending
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college. On the 30th of July, in the following year, they were joined in marriage at the home of her father, Rev. R. H. Chubb, then in Perrys- burg. Educated, intelligent, graceful in move- ment, charming in conversation, refined by in- stinct and by discipline, beloved and venerated by her family, Mrs. Eberly lived her life of forty- seven years, when, after a long sickness, on August 5, 1893, she passed away. The children of this union all survive, viz .: Charles B., Lora O., Joseph F., Ralph J., and W. Neil.
ANDREW J. GARDNER, M. D., of Grand Rapids, was born July 19, 1827, in Hubbard, Ohio, which has been the home of his family since the year 1801, when his grandfather, John Gardner, a native of North Ireland, settled upon a farm in the then frontier region of Trumbull county. He married Elizabeth Pothour, a native of Pennsyl- vania, and their son Andrew, our subject's father, was born in Hubbard, in 1805. He married Emeline Roberts in 1826, also a native of Hub- bard, whose parents came from Connecticut. She was born in 1804. He was an auctioneer, and later in life also followed farming. He (since 1860) was a Republican in politics, and he and wife, from early life, were united with the M. E. Church. He died at Hubbard January 26, 1868, and his widow still resides there at the age of ninety-two years. Of their six children our sub- ject was the eldest; Lydia, next younger, resides with her mother; Harmon G. was a soldier in the artillery service during the Civil war, and died at Memphis, Tenn .; Caroline married Rev. N. G. Luke, and died in Pennsylvania; Mary Ann is the wife of J. F. Corll, of Hubbard; Dillon P. en- listed at Youngstown, in 1861, in Company B, 19th O. V. I., under Col. Beattie, and served four years. He now resides near Martinsville, Indiana.
Dr. A. J. Gardner lived at Hubbard until he was ten years of age, when he accompanied his father to Youngstown, and there attended school for several years. He read medicine for some time with Drs. Woodbridge and Garlick, and then entered the Medical Department of Western Reserve College, graduating in 1848. For a few months he practiced his profession in Sharon, Penn., and five years at Youngstown and Cleve- land, Ohio. In 1853, he came to Grand Rapids, Ohio, where he has since resided, and for thirty- six years has conducted a drug store.
Ou May 5, 1850, the Doctor was married, at Cleveland, Ohio, to Miss Meribah S. Denison, a native of Norwich, Conn., born Jnie 30. 1830. She passed away July 3, 1894, at Grand Rapids,
Ohio. There is one child, Lydia Leanora, now at home. In all measures for local improvement the Doctor has always been a leader. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, as was also his wife. Politically he is a Republican, not particularly active, however, in party affairs in seeking office. He was a delegate to the State convention that nominated John Brough for gov- ernor. He is a Royal and Select Mason, belong- ing to Council No. 33, at Toledo.
MELVIN L. DEVORE is one of the enterprising merchants of Wood county. He was born at Tidioute, Warren Co., Penn., December 1I. 1869, and is of French lineage. His grandfather, however, was a native of the Keystone State, and his father, Luke Devore, was born near Mead- ville, Crawford Co., Penn., where he was reared to manhood. In Warren county, he married Sophia A. Garret, who was born in Pennsylvania, and they have since lived in that county, owning there a farm of 138 acres. They have three children -- Garret, a farmer of Warren county; Melvin L., and Alfred, at home.
Our subject first attended school in his native county, and completed his education by a collegi- ate course in Erie, Penn. Up to his sixteenth year he assisted his father in the work of the home farm, and then engaged in teaching school in Warren county for two terms. Subsequently he engaged in clerking in a grocery store in his native county for about four years, and in the fall of 1893 he came to Wood county, where he pur- chased a half interest in his present business. which is now conducted under the firm style of Devore & Otterback. He is an enterprising mer- chant, progressive in his methods, and keeping fully abreast with the times in all particulars.
Mr. Devore was married in Tidioute, Penn., in 1893, to Miss Eva Henry, who was born in Erie county, in November, 1870. Their only child died in infancy. Mr. Devore is a Democrat in politics, and a member of both the subordinate lodge and encampment of the I. O. O. F. of Tid .. ioute. He and his wife occupy an enviable posi- tion in social circles, and are leading young peo- ple of the community in which they reside, while Mr. Devore occupies a prominent position in com- mercial circles.
ALFRED THURSTIN, who has the honorable distinction of being the oldest living pioneer of Bowling Green, Ohio, was born in Chenango county, N. Y., April 20, 1806, and is the son of Eli and Margaret (Koons) Thurstin.
Eli Thurstin was born in New York City, and
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married in Livingston Manor. He came to Ohio in 1835, and subsequently bought a large tract of land in De Kalb county, Ind., and a portion of his family went there with him. He and his wife remained there awhile, finally returning to Ohio, taking up their residence with our subject and his first wife, near Bowling Green, where they eventually departed this life; he at about the age of sixty-seven years, and she when about eighty.
Alfred Thurstin, our subject, grew up in New York State, and came to the site of what is now Bowling Green, in October, 1833. He secured sune land on which he built a log house, and then returned to New York where he married Miss Emily O. Pike. She accompanied him to his new home, where she died in 1879. To them were born the following children: (I) A. A., born in 1836, married, and lives in Bowling Green. He has one son, Frank, who is also married, and has a son, Myron. (2) Wesley S., born in 1838, and has had six children, all but one of whom are living: Jesse, Wilbur, Alice, Wesley, Ethel, Mattie, who is deceased. (3) Alfred Earl, born October 1, 1847, married Miss Edna Foot, who was born in Vermont October 18, 1855. Their children are: Nellie, wife of Andrew Shulson (their marriage took place February 20, 1875); Dora, died January 16, 1885, when seven years old; Alfred, died in 1887, when four weeks old. (Andrew Shulson is a contractor by occupation, and was in Florida for several years, but has recently returned to Bowling Green). (4) R. S., born in 1852, married Miss Ada Fairchild, and they have three children, Dora, Robbie and Ada. R. S. is with the Snow Flake Lime Co. Dora married W. B. Cornwell, and is deceased.
Our subject's second marriage took place January 11, 1888, his wife being Mrs. Martha Louise Van Tassel, a woman of education and intelligence, and unusual business capacity.
Mr. Thurstin's farm was located on the east side of what is now Main street. He laid out and sold the first lots, and built the first house in the town. The town now occupies the land used by him as a farm, on which he lived twenty-five years before Bowling Green was started. He. together with his sons and others, got up the first Petition to have the county seat moved to Bowl- ing Green. He was originally a Whig and after- ward became a Republican, casting his first vote in New York for Governor De Witt Clinton. He attended the great mass meeting held at Fort Meigs during the "hard cider" and log-cabin campaign.
J. H. WHITEHEAD, M. D. This prominent physician, and well-known citizen of Bowling Green, is a native of Wood county, his birth hav- ing taken place in Plain township, July 20, 1841.
The parents of our subject, John and Eunice (Purden) Whitehead, were natives of New Jersey. the former born in 1806, the latter in 1811. They were married in Brooklyn, N. Y., and had a family of five children, as follows: J. H., our subject; Daniel P., a farmer in Lucas county, Ohio; Theodore D., a carpenter, residing at Storm Lake, Iowa; Ellen F., wife of David Hartman, a farmer of Wood county; and Char- lotte E., widow of John J. Parsons, who was killed at Deep Bottom, Va., in the war of the Rebellion. The mother of this family died in 1867, the father on May 12, 1895, at the age of eighty-four years. He was a carpenter by trade, and came to Wood county in 1833, locating at the old Mission, on the Maumee river. Later he removed to within a mile and a half of Bowling Green, where the subject of this sketch was born. He erected many of the residences and other buildings put up in the county in an early day, and was one of the prominent citizens of this community.
Dr. Whitehead attended the village schools during his early boyhood, and was a student in the high school at Bowling Green at the time of the breaking out of the Civil war. In 1861, at the age of nineteen years, he enlisted in Com- pany H, 67th O. V. I., under Col. A. C. Voris, now Judge Voris, of Akron. The Doctor served throughout the entire war, was with Gen. Shield in the West Virginia campaign, with Gen. Gil- more in South Carolina, and with Gen. Ord at Appomattox. He participated in twenty-two battles and skirmishes, including the first battle of Winchester, siege of Fort Sumter, charge on Fort Wagner, Morris Island, and charge at Fort. Gregg. In front of Petersburg, while under Gen. Butler, May 9, 1865, he was wounded, in conse- quence of which he was sent to Newark, N. J., and after an absence of some five months was promoted to lieutenant and adjutant. At Ap- pomattox he was in command of a company, having risen by inerit from private through all the grades, including corporal, sergeant. orderly- sergeant and first lieutenant. At the close of the war, in which he made an enviable record as a brave and faithful soldier, our subject returned home and resumed his studies in the school at Perrysburg, of which Prof. Ewing was then su- perintendent After completing his course at this school, he engaged in teaching, a vocation he followed several years.
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In 1871 the Doctor began reading medicine with Dr. John Osborne, of Portage, Ohio, sub- sequently entering the Cleveland Homeopathic College, from which he was graduated in 1874, and since that time he has been practicing in Portage and Bowling Green. For four years he was a member of the board of county school ex- amniners, was also a member of the city council four years, and of the board of education three years. He is a member of the Ohio State Home- opathic Society, and local examiner for the Northwestern Life Insurance Company.
On July 2, 1867, Dr. Whitehead was married to Miss Susan Osborne, who was born, in 1842, in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, daughter of Dr. John and Julia (Buchtel) Osborne, the former of whom was born at Harpers Ferry, W. Va., the latter at Bethlehem, Penn. They had a family of six children, as follows: Timothy, a farmer of Wood county; Parsey, wife of J. H. McMahan, a stockman of Wood county; Lavinia, wife of G. F. Munn, a farmer and oil man; Louisa, wife of F. M. Carr, a farmer of Wood county; Susan (Mrs. Dr. Whitehead); and Catherine, deceased. Dr. Osborne died in 1887; his widow is yet living, now at the patriarchal age of ninety-six years. To Dr. and Mrs. Whitehead have been born two children: Kate, now the wife of Bert Case, and John, who was accidentally killed at the age of fif- teen while hunting. The Doctor owns a business block in Bowling Green, besides numerous pri- vate residences, and has invested to some extent in the oil fields of Wood county. In his profes- sion he holds high rank, has an extensive prac- tice, and is highly regarded by his fellow citizens.
I. L. HANKEY, one of the successful oil pro- ducers of Wood county, and a director of the First National Bank of Bowling Green, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, July 7, 1849.
The inembers of the Hankey family living in Bowling Green are descended from Louis Hankey, a native of Germany who emigrated to America at an early day. It is related that he had just enough money to pay his way across the Atlantic, and furnish his own provisions. The ship lost its course at sea, and the passage consumed so much more time than was anticipated that his stock of food gave out, and he became indebted to the ship for board. On reaching New York City he was sold by the ship's company, as was the custom in those days, they getting the money for his time, which he worked out with a farmer. Hle after- ward became a minister of the Evangelical Church, and also carried on farming. He mar- ried a Miss Less, whose father served seven years
in the Revolutionary army, and our subject re- members hearing his grandmother often tell how she could trace the path of the soldiers by the blood left on the ground from their shoeless feet. In later years Lonis Hankey lived in both Stark and Summit counties, Ohio, in the latter of which he and his wife spent their last days. This estimable couple were the parents of seven children, as follows: John, father of our subject; Catherine married John Himmelright, of Summit county; jacob lived in Summit county, near Akron, Ohio; Lydia married Rev. Miller, a minis- ter in the Reformed Church; Sarah married a Mr. Hawk; Louis lives in Wayne county, Ohio; Samuel is a farmer, residing at Copley, Ohio.
John Hankey, father of our subject, was born in Schuylkill county, Penn., in 1814, and was three times married. His first wife was Miss Polly Fostnight, who was born in 1819, and died in 1854. She became the mother of seven chil- dren, viz .: Solomon died in infancy; Saralı mar- ried William Shammo, and is deceased: Lewis WV. is a minister of the Evangelical Church at Tiffin, Ohio; John R. is fully represented else where in this volume; I. L. is the subject of these lines; two died in infancy.
John Hankey followed farming until the death of the mother of these children, when he went into the dry-goods business with another man. He soon after bought out his partner, and a couple of years later sold out his store and pur- chased a stock of clothing with which he opened a store in West Salem, Wayne Co., Ohio, in 1859. In 1861 he removed to Burbank, in the same county, and some years later disposed of his business and went onto a farm in Medina county, Ohio, where he died in 1867. Like his father, he was an ordained minister in the Evan- gelical Church, but did not preach on account of bronchitis. Mr. Hankey's second wife was Miss Margaret Reach, who died fifteen months after marriage; she had one child who died in infancy. Mr. Hankey's third marriage was to Miss Sarah Strouse, of Richland county, Ohio, by whom he has two children: Isaiah S., of Bowling Green. and Sarah Katherine, who married A. L. Sour- wine, a farmer of Crawford county, Ohio.
I. L. Hankey, whose name opens this sketch, is the architect of his own fortunes, and is a fine illustration of what can be accomplished by pluck and energy. His childhood was shadowed by the death of his mother, after which sad event he went to live with an uncle, Jacob Hankey When his father was again married he returned home; but his happiness there was cut short by the death of his step-mother, and the next day
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IL Hankey
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he was taken back to his uncle's. There he re- mained until his father's third marriage, when he spent a short time with the family. After their removal to Medina county. our subject joined the family, and drove a team for his father during the construction of the Broad Guage railway through that county.
When about seventeen years old Mr. Hankey left home with one dollar in his pocket and went to Wooster, Ohio, where he found employment in a brick yard. He was next engaged in driving a wagon for a peddler, working for him some six or eight months, during which time he made a trip to Oi! City, Penn., where for the first time 'he saw oil wells in operation. His next enter- prise was to learn the trade of plumber and gas fitter, and from this he went to work on a farm, and later sold patent medicines through the country. He finally drifted into Bowling Green, where his first employment was as hack driver between Bowling Green and Haskins, and sub- sequently as a clerk in a grocery store.
On December 22, 1870, Mr. Hankey was married in Bowling Green to Miss Sadie Abbott, who was born in Huron county, Ohio, September 28, 1850. He then started a grocery store of his own, but this not proving a success, he began selling sewing and washing machines. In fact, he was a " hustler," and thoroughly tested any- thing at hand which seemed likely to lead to financial success. In 1874, Mr. Hankey estab- lished a clothing business, with his brother, J. R. Hankey, as partner, the firm name being Hankey Brothers. In this he was engaged for ten years, then sold out and went on the road for six years as traveling salesman for A. L. Gans & Co., of Philadelphia. During this time he became in- terested in the oil business in Wood county, his ventures being very successful. Four years ago Mr. Hankey gave up all other business to attend to his growing and valuable interests in this di- rection, and to-day he stands in the front rank of a few most successful oil producers in the Wood county field. He is connected with a series of gas and oil companies, and is also a director in the First National Bank of Bowling Green.
Mr. Hankey has taken an active part in all local affairs, and is a public-spirited citizen, whose worth is appreciated. He is a member from the Third ward in the city council, and has been a member of the school board. In politics he is a Republican, and socially he belongs to the I. O. O. F., Daughters of Rebekah, Royal R. A. C., K. O. T. M. He has always been very patriotic, and, when in his early manhood, was a member of the State Militia for five years. In |
1863 he ran away from home and tried to enlist at Wooster, Ohio, but was rejected on account of his youth.
Mr. and Mrs. Hankey have had four chil- dren, of whom three are living: Minne W., wife of Harry Cook, agent of the T. & O. C. railway, residing at Bowling Green; John W., who is a partner with his father in the oil business (he married Bertha Brown, and they have one child, Don Brown): Ralph Blaine, at home; and Olive Octive, who died when three months old.
Mrs. Hankey's parents, Sylvester B. and Maryette (Caswell) Abbott, were both natives of New York State, the father born in 1812, near the Catskill mountains, the mother in 1813. They were married in Ohio, whither she came with her parents, and seven children were born to them, viz .: Reuben, of Bowling Green; Eliz- abeth (Mrs. Bryan Niles), of Blissfield, Mich. ; Melville, of Bowling Green; George, a farmer in Gratiot county, Mich .; Sadie (Mrs. Hankey): Alice (Mrs. S. Ordway), of Bowling Green: and Louis, a farmer, in Wood county. Sylvester B. Abbott was first married to Abzina Morrey. and their son, John Abbott, is a doctor in Illinois. Mr. Abbott was a lawyer by profession. He came to Wood county in 1853, owned a fine farm here, and died in Bowling Green in January. IS90. His second wife dying in December, 1875, he subsequently wedded Helen Robins, by whom he had two children: Grace (who died when eleven years old), and Jerry (a farmer of Wood county).
B. F. SPILKER. The subject of this sketch is one of the young enterprising farmers of Perrys- burg township. He was born in Perrysburg Oc- tober 28, 1866, and is a son of Christian and Mary Ann ( Budt ) Spilker, the former of whom was born in Germany, and came to Wood county when twelve years old. He married in this county, and began farming in Perrysburg town- ship, which he made his permanent home and died there in 1888. The wife still resides on the old liomestead. Their children were ten in num- ber, as follows: Christian H., resides in Perrys- burg; Mary A., his twin sister, is now Mrs. Lib- bin, of Toledo; Olive married Mr. John Henry. of Perrysburg; Thomas Jefferson is a telegraph operator, and lives with our subject; W. F. is married, and lives in Perrysburg township: B. F .. our subject; Edward resides in Perrysburg: Charles Peter is at home: Carstin is a resident of Toledo; Flora is at home.
Our subject was reared in Perrysburg town- ship, where he received his education. In 1889
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he bought his present farm of forty acres, which he has cultivated and improved, and on which he erected his residence in 1891. He was united in marriage in Perrysburg April 16, 1891, to Miss Anna L. Schaller, who was born in Perrysburg township July 10, 1870, and is the daughter of Daniel Benedict Schaller, an early pioneer of the township. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Spilker, namely: May E., who died August 29, 1892; and Orcel Benedict. Mr. Spilker is affiliated with the Democratic party, and, with his wife, is a member of the United Brethren Church at Dowling.
FRANK KABIG, one of the most enterprising and successful of the self-made meu of Bowling Green, was born in Plymouth, Richland Co., Ohio, October 19, 1852. His father, Anthony Kabig, was a native of Neuberg, Germany, and was married there to Miss Magdalen with whom he not long afterward crossed the Atlantic to find a home in America. He was a butcher by occupation, and carried on that busi- ness in several towns in Ohio -- Wooster, Plymouth, Bettsville, Fort Seneca - before finally locating in Bowling Green, where he died in 1886, at the age of seventy-two. His wife died in 1882. They were consistent members of the Lutheran Church from their youth. Their three children, Edward, Caroline (now Mrs. . Christoph Lehmann) and Frank, are all living in Bowling Green.
Our subject's education was acquired in the public schools of the different towns in which his parents lived during his boyhood, and at the age of seventeen he began to learn the butcher's trade with Christoph Lehmann, then of Tiffin, now of Bowling Green. He worked for hin ten years, and then entered into a partnership with him, which lasted for two years. In 1882 he bought a lot and built a market of his own, and for fifteen years has carried on a constantly grow- ing trade, which has been developed by his own energy and rare business judgment. By careful investments in real-estate and other securities, he has greatly added to his wealth, and now owns 320 acres of land in Wood county, and many valuable pieces of property in the city of Bowling Green, including a half-interest in the Kabig & McKinsie block.
In 1880 he was married to Miss Fannie Mick- lee, a native of Wood county, boru August 19, 1852. They have no children of their own, but are rearing a girl, who is now nine years of age. Mr. Kabig is a Democrat in politics, and takes a prominent part in all progressive local move-
ments, wherein his shrewd practical judgment has been no less effective than in the business lines, in which he has made such a marked success. Socially he is a member of the I. O. O. F. at Bowling Green.
CAPTAIN J. W. KNAGGS, a well-known agri- culturist and oil operator residing near Portage, was born May 22, 1832, at Maumee City, Ohio. His paternal grandfather, Whitmore Knaggs, was a native of England, who came to America in Colonial times and located at Detroit, where he engaged in farming. He gained the conti- dence of the Indians in his vicinity, and at the time of Hull's surrender he was taken to Quebec and kept in close confinement-the British re- fusing to exchange him because they feared his influence over his savage neighbors. His farm near Detroit was stripped of everything portable, and his buildings burned, leaving his family des- titute. In later years he was an Indian Agent under the U. S. Government. He died at his old homestead. He and his wife were Roman Catholics, and all their descendants are followers of the same faith. They had five children: Whitmore, deceased; George, who died at Mau- mee City, in October, 1866; James, now a resident of College Hill, Ohio; Elizabeth, deceased, who married a merchant at Detroit; and John W .. our subject's father, who was born near Detroit in 1800, and in early manhood engaged in trad- ing with the Indians of northwestern Ohio. and later locating near Toledo, where he owned four farms.
. Our subject's father married Miss Melinda Gunn, who was born in ISIo, at Salem, Mass .. and died in Toledo, in 1889. Seven children were born to them: Mortimer, who died at three years of age; Eliza, who married Tim O'Connell, of Toledo, and died in 1842; Ada- line, the wife of Dr. W. W. Jones, of Toledo: James W., our subject; Henry, a resident of Springfield, Mass .; Sophia, the wife of Henry Hitchcock, of Toledo; and Maria, who married Mr. Valentine, the editor of a paper in New York City.
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