USA > Ohio > Williams County > County of Williams, Ohio, Historical and Biographical > Part 59
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and Emily C. Mrs. Youse died in October, 1866, and November 24, 1867, he married Ann A. Moore, who was born in Henry County, Ohio, January 14, 1829 ; to this marriage one child has been born-Lizzie S. Up to the beginning of the late war Mr. Youse was a Democrat, but since then has been a Republican. He is a Knight Templar, and is a self-made man in the fullest sense of the expression.
PHILIP YUNCK, JR., was born in Alsace, France, July 25, 1840, son of Philip G. and Barbara (Milleman) Yunck, both of whom were natives of Alsace. They had but two children, Philip and his brother Frederick. The father followed weaving in his native country, where he resided until 1854, when they came to this country, and located in Massillon, Ohio, where they remained some two years, and then came to Williams County, and located on a farm in Centre Township. Here they resided a number of years. They now live in Bryan, and are re- spected and useful citizens. Philip Yunck was reared on a farm, and was married to Miss Adaline Gemminger September, 1865. She was born in Alsace, France, in 1846. From this marriage four children were born-Frederick A., Cora C., Ella A. and William P. After his mar- riage he lived for some time in Massillon, where he and his father-in-law ran a tannery. They after some years sold out and went to Tiffin, Ohio, where they built a tannery, which they ran a short time, when the father- in-law died, and Mr. Yunck ran the business some two years after that, and then, on account of his ill health, sold out and came to Bryan, and engaged in the mercantile business with his brother Frederick. After some time, they dissolved partnership, since which the two brothers have been engaged in mercantile pursuits separately. Mr. Yunck is a Demo- crat, though liberal in his political views as well as in religion. He owns a good brick business building and a nicely improved home property. He is a man of good business habits, and has the respect of all who know him.
FRED YUNCK is a native of Alsace, Germany, and was born No- vember 10, 1849, the younger of two sons, Philip and Fred, born to Philip and Barbara (Milleman) Yunck, who were also born in Alsace, and were there reared and married. In April, 1854, the family came to America, remained in New York about three months, then moved to Mas- sillon, Ohio, and thence, in the spring of 1857, to Centre Township, this county, where the father purchased a tract of land, and engaged in farming until 1871, when the family came to Bryan, where they have since resided, the parents living retired. Mr. Yunck has identified him- self here with the Democratic party, and he and wife are adherents of the Lutheran Church. Fred Yunck came with his parents to Centre Township, and was reared on the old homestead until twenty-one years
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of age. He received a fair education, and in December, 1870, he and brother embarked in the grocery and saloon trade in Bryan. They met with good success until the dissolution of the firm in 1877, when Philip continued the business on the old stand, and Fred, in partnership with John Mattox, engaged in the hardware trade. At the end of one year Fred disposed of his interest in the hardware store, and then embarked in the saloon business, at which he has ever since continued. He has been very successful, and besides his fine billiard hall and saloon on the northwest cor- ner of he public square, owns other good town property. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., K. of H., Royal Arch Masons and a Democrat, and was mar- ried April 21, 1871, to Louisa Gollar, and by her has two sons-Edward G. and Charles F. Philip Yunck's birth occurred in Alsace, Germany, July 25, 1840.
ST. JOSEPH TOWNSHIP.
DAVID AUCKER (deceased), was born in Bedford County, Penn., in 1805; at the age of eighteen, he came West; visited several counties in Southern Ohio ; farmed on shares in Pickaway County till 1834, and then came to what is now St. Joseph Township, Williams County ; erected a round-log cabin, and two years later brought on his family, and thus became one of the first permanent settlers of the township. Money was scarce, the market for his produce-Defiance-was twenty-five miles dis- tant, and the food for the family was procured from the game of the forest and the products of the field ; the clothing was spun at home from flax and wool. However, he succeeded in building up a comfortable home of 200 acres, with very fair improvements. He was married, September 2, 1829, to Sarah Hoover, a native of Virginia, born in 1803, and daughter of Jacob and Mary Hoover, also natives of Virginia and of Irish extraction. Mr. Aucker was a Democrat and a man of extended influence. He was present at the organization of the township, and was then elected Trustee, and for a number of terms thereafter re-elected. Mr. and Mrs. Aucker were the parents of six children, and were spared to see them all grow to maturity. Their later days were passed with their eldest son, Jacob, who now owns the old homestead. They took their farewell of earth in the years 1876 and 1881, aged respectively seventy-one and seventy-seven, sincerely mourned by the community which they had seen grow up about them. Jacob Aucker was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, in 1831, and has experienced all the hardships incident to the development of a new country.
W
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A. D. AUSTIN is a son of the Green Mountain State, where he was born in Chittenden County in 1825, emigrating with his parents at a ten- der age to Geauga County, Ohio, and to De Kalb County, Ind., in 1844. In youth, he enjoyed ordinary educational advantages, and when fifteen years of age began for himself, working on the canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth ; here he worked for three seasons ; then at clearing for three years, when he spent two years in the eastern part of Ohio, manufacturing boots and shoes and running a steam-mill. He was married in Indiana, in 1850, to Miss Elizabeth Closson, daughter of Samuel and Mary Closson, formerly of Ashland County, Ohio, and of German descent; seven chil- dren are the result of this union, six now living-three sons and three daughters-of whom one son and two daughters are married, and two are settled in good homes in Michigan. Mr. Austin was for a time in the hotel business in Hamilton, Ind., and, in 1857, took charge of the Arling- ton House in Edgerton for one year. He has also dealt in stock, and was in the mercantile line for seven years ; six years of this time he served as Justice of the Peace, during which he began reading and practicing law, which profession he has since followed, and by attending to business has acquired a competence for himself and family. Mr. Austin is a pub- lic-spirited, active worker in the Democratic cause. His parents are Sol- omon and Clarissa (Irish) Austin, natives respectively of Massachusetts and Vermont, and of English and Scotch descent.
JOHN H. BARR, proprietor of the Arlington Hotel, Edgerton, was born in Greene County, Ohio, in October, 1846, and is the son of Samuel and Margaret Barr, natives of Ohio, and of German and Irish extraction. The elder Mr. Barr was a pioneer farmer of Greene County, and there died in 1846, leaving his widow with one child, our subject, who was after- ward reared at Lima, Ohio, receiving the advantages of the schools of that town. In November, 1864, he enlisted in Company F, Sixty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, took part in a number of hard-fought battles, and November 2, 1865, was honorably discharged. On returning, he clerked for three years in a grocery store, then traveled as salesman, then became proprietor of the railroad restaurant at Lima, and in 1873 opened the Barnet Hotel in partnership with E. V. Brownell. He subsequently sold out and located at St. Mary's, Ohio ; there ran the Decker House awhile, and in the spring of 1877 opened Barr's Hotel. In 1879, he sold out and came to Edgerton, rented the Crosby House, refitted and refurnished it, and christened it the Arlington, where he now entertains the traveling public in the most satisfactory manner. He was married, March 2, 1874, to Emma C., daughter of John and Ann (Readen) Mott, both natives of Ohio, and of French and German extraction.
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JOHN W. BOWERSOX is a native of Frederick County, Md., and was born January 10, 1808. He was reared a shoemaker and farmer till eighteen years of age, when he went out to work for two years as a jour- neyman shoemaker. Returning home, he remained a year, and then moved to near Gettysburg, Penn., where he opened a shop. In 1831, he married Miss Mary J. Breckenridge, a native of Maryland, and born December 4, 1809. Soon after marriage, Mr. Bowersox moved to Stark County, Ohio, located in North Industry, and there followed his trade for seven years; then he moved to this township and located on Section 5, in the fall of 1838 erecting a round-log cabin, which is yet standing. This farm, then in the wilderness, contained but eighty acres ; it now comprises 395 acres, a great part under cultivation and well improved. Mrs. Bowersox died March 1, 1866, aged fifty-eight years, leaving a fami- ly of four out of seven children -- John Wesley, Mary E., Nancy Ellen and Charles A. Mr. Bowersox was formerly a Township Trustee, in which office he served several terms, and he has also served as Supervisor of Roads. Notwithstanding all the hardships and inconveniences of frontier life, Mr. Bowersox still speaks of the days of his first settlement here as the happiest of his existence. The forest then was full of game, and many were the deer and wild turkeys that fell at the crack of his rifle, and his sport was enlivened on one occasion by the slaughter of a bear, and on another by the death of a wild cat. His parents, Christian and Mary A. (Warner) Bowersox, were natives of Maryland, and of Ger- man descent.
WILLIAM H. CARR is a native of Montgomery County, Ohio; was born July 18, 1830, the son of Robert S. and Hannah Karr, and at the age of five years came to this county with his parents. He received about six months' schooling in his youth, and at the age of seventeen started out on foot to see the world. He visited Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, and then, in the spring of 1850, started overland for California; repeated the trip in 1852, and again in 1854, returning home two years later. On one occasion, he found himself at Portland, Ore., with only $50 in his pocket, but with pick and pan went to work, and at one stroke brought out a nugget worth $1,350, besides a number of smaller pieces of gold. Mr. Carr in his wanderings has seen all the States and Terri- tories west of the Mississippi River, beside a number of the Eastern and Middle States ; also Chili in South America, Russian America, Australia, China, Japan, and the island of Cuba. He finally settled in St. Joseph Township, purchasing one of its oldest farms-that entered by Robert and Thomas Stewart July 4, 1834. In February, 1857, he prosecuted the lawsuit, at no small cost of time and money, to compel the establish- ment of a correct and legal survey of St. Joseph Township. He mar-
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ried, December 13, 1867, Anna M. Aucker, daughter of David and Sarah Aucker, and there have been born to him six children-Charles W. (deceased), Minnie J., Julia A., O. E. W., Wilhelmina and Sarah L. Mr. Carr is an active politician in the Democratic ranks, and cast his first vote for Stephen A. Douglas. He owns 240 acres of fine land, improved with good and commodious buildings, and takes much delight in rearing blooded horses and thoroughbred cattle.
VOLNEY CROCKER is a native of New York ; was born February 8, 1818, and is one of the eight children of Samuel and Polly (Fordham) Crocker, natives of Vermont, and of English descent. This family went to live in Upper Canada in 1820, then moved to Lower Canada ; thence came to Stark County, Ohio, where Mr. Crocker worked at his trade of brick and stone mason until 1834, when they came to Williams County, and located on a piece of woodland near Williams Centre. Here they encountered all the hardships of pioneer life, living in their wagon until they could erect a cabin with puncheon floor and stick chimney. This served them as a home until their family was well reared, when they sold their farm, and retired to Williams Centre, where, at the age each of eighty-two years, they died in 1862 and 1865, respectively. Volney Crocker remained on the farm until his father had secured a comfortable home, and then began life on his own responsibility. He followed scoring and hewing timber for a few years, and in the winter of 1839-40 erected the first house in Bryan, which he inhabited while clearing off the public square and many of the streets of the village. The spring following, he began to learn carpentering, and followed this trade until 1842, when he was married to Mary McKean, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1821, the daughter of Joseph and Jane Mckean. Soon after his marriage, Mr. Crocker began farming near Bryan in the woods ; then, in the fall of 1848, joined James Rowley in carriage-making in Bryan for a year ; then pursued the trade alone for six years ; then exchanged his farm near Bryan for the 112-acre farm in this township, on which he now lives, and took possession in June, 1856, having since increased it to 300 acres. In 1859, he made a trip to California, remaining there two years. He has had a family of five children, of whom four are still living -Harriet, Mary J., Sarah A. and Frank. He is a Master Mason, is a Republican in politics, and has served five or six terms as Township Trustee.
J. E. DECKER is the son of Isaiah and Calcine Decker, natives of New York, and of German and English extraction and was born in Hu- ron County, Ohio, February 10, 1850. At the age of twelve, he was brought by his parents to Steuben County, Ind., where he was reared on a farm, attending school at intervals and securing a fair education. At the age of nineteen, he began farming on his own account, and November
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22, 1871, married Miss Margaret Keller, a native of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, and daughter of Jacob and Hannah Keller, natives of the same State. The children born to this marriage were Mary E., Edith Maud, Dora A. and Myrtle. In 1874, Mr. Decker moved to La Grange, Ind., where he conducted a livery stable for about two years ; thence moved to Garrett, Ind., and thence, January 12, 1880, came to Edgerton, where he is en- gaged also in the livery business, owning a first-class establishment, and doing a thriving trade. He votes the Democratic ticket, and is an active and courteous business man.
DANIEL FARNHAM was born in Windham County, Conn., in 1811, the youngest of the seven children of Eli A. and Sally (Dimmick) Farnham, natives of the same State. The parents moved to Delaware County, N. Y., when Daniel was but three years old, and here he re- mained until twenty-four, lumbering on the Suquehanna River, hauling logs in the winter and studying at night to augment the six months' edu- cation he had received at school. In 1835, he wandered West, and finally located in this county. He worked at jobs for four months, and then for four months clerked for P. C. Parker, an Indian trader. In 1836, he returned to Delaware County, N. Y., and in the fall brought back to Williams his mother and sister. The following spring, he began in the forest to clear up a farm, building a pioneer cabin and cultivating the ground until 1840, when he removed to Edgerton and engaged in mer- cantile business, which has occupied his attention ever since. He started in life empty-handed, but, through his sagacity, integrity and general business talent, has acquired a competence, including a fine farm, many acres of other lands, as well as town property, and a controlling interest in the mercantile house at Edgerton, in which his son, Eli A., is his part- ner. Mr. Farnham was married, in 1840, to Miss Caroline Sawyer, daughter of Prescott Sawyer and the mother of eleven children, six of whom are living and all in good circumstances. Mr. F., one of the pioneers of the township, and of whom further may be read in the histor- ical sketch of St. Joseph Township, was a Justice of the Peace for twelve years and County Commissioner nine years ; his early experiences were interesting and varied, game in the beginning being the chief means of the family's subsistence ; his trips to the mill, for his first employer, were made by ox teams, the distance was about seventy miles, and the time consumed in going and coming about eleven days. Mr. F. was formerly a Whig, but is now a Republican.
ELI A. FARNHAM, the second child in the family of eleven of Daniel and Caroline (Sawyer) Farnham, was born in St. Joseph Town- ship, March 28, 1843, and was reared on his father's farm until eighteen years of age, attending school at intervals; he then enlisted in Company
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K, Sixty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served about eight months, when he was taken sick at Shiloh and discharged on account of disability. After his return and his recovery of health, he entered his father's store, and became one of the firm, the copartnership still doing business. In 1877, he married Miss Emma Rathbun, of Lodi, Wis., and daughter of William and Jane Rathbun, natives of New England and of English -ex- traction. Harry R. and Waldo C. Farnham are the offspring of this union.
GEORGE FIX is a native of Alsace, and was born December 31, 1831. His parents, Henry and Sarah Fix, came to this country with their family in 1843, first settling in Wayne County, Ohio, and then moving to Centre Township, this county. Here the mother died in 1874, and then the father moved to Florence Township, and took up his resi- dence with his son Martin. George Fix was reared in a new country, and, being the eldest of a family of eight children, the care of the home farm took up the greater portion of his time, and consequently his oppor- tunities for an education were rather limited. At the age of twenty-three, with a purse of $125, he purchased eighty acres of land in this township -a part of his present farm. By hard work and pertinacious industry, he has increased his land to 130 acres, and replaced his log buildings with comfortable frame structures. January 31, 1862, he married Elizabeth Brown, a daughter of Nicholas and Catharine Brown, natives of Germany, who emigrated to America in 1837. To Mr. and Mrs. Fix have been born four children-Julia (deceased), Charles, Sarah and Nicholas. Mr. Fix has served his township two terins as Trustee, and has the full confi- dence of all his neighbors.
JACOB GEIGER was born in Baden, Germany, November 18. 1808, and was the son of Conrad and Catharine (Defenbach) Geiger, who came to America in 1819, and settled in Stark County, Ohio, and there ended their days. Jacob came over with his parents, and resided with them on their farm of 160 acres in Stark, until the death of his father, when, being seventeen years of age, he began working out on his own account. November 18, 1830, he married Susan Andree, moved to Co- lumbiana County, thence to Richland County, where he purchased eighty acres of land, and thence, in 1846, to this township, where he had entered 160 acres of forest land ten years previously. Here he erected a cabin and began clearing up his farm, on which he has ever since resided, add- ing to it, from time to time, till he now owns about an entire section, a great portion of it well improved. Mr. and Mrs. Geiger had eleven chil- dren born to them, of whom five are still living-Cutharine Halpert, in Missouri ; Elizabeth Miller, in Iowa ; Allen, in Defiance County, Ohio; Sarah A. Dew, in Illinois, and Jonathan A., in this township. Those
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deceased were named-Margaret Oberhauser, Priscilla, Lydia Ann, Jacob C., Henry P. and Conrad. Mrs. Susan Geiger died February 24, 1879, and June 15, 1880, Mr. Geiger married his present wife, Eliza- beth Metzler. He is a leading member of the Disciple Church, and for three years has held the office of Township Trustee.
H. A. GRANBERY, editor of the Edgerton Herald, was born in New York June 21, 1858, and was the eldest of six children of his parents, John G. and Mary A. Granbery, natives of Virginia and New York. John C. Granbery was a Wall Street broker, of the firm of W. T. M. Warner & Co., and was stranded by a business failure in 1867, when he came West to repair his shattered fortunes : located in Edgerton, and there formed a partnership with Webb & Lyman, afterward purchas- ing and managing the entire business, which proved highly successful so that he returned to New York in February, 1880, where he is now en- gaged in business. H. A. Granbery came to Edgerton in 1874, remaining in New York after the departure of his parents, to avail himself of better educational advantages offered in the city, and after coming here attended school for two years, during which time, he in company with another student, published the first issue of his paper, August 14, 1875. With the single exception of six months' vacation, Mr. Granbery remained at his post until the suspension of the journal in the summer of 1882. His marriage to Miss Ada M. Mitchell occurred at Sturgis, Mich., in April, 1879. Mrs. Granbery is a daughter of H. H. Mitchell, of New Philadelphia, Ohio, and the mother of one child, Miriam.
AUGUSTE GUILLAUME is a native of Switzerland, and was born in 1815, the son of Francis L. and Mary Guillaume, who came to Amer- ica in 1834 and located in Holmes County, Ohio, on a piece of woodland. A few years later, Francis died, and the widow, with her children, came to this township in 1851, where she soon after also departed this life. Auguste, on arriving in St. Joseph Township, purchased eighty acres of wild land, which he has long since redeemed from the forest, and he now owns a well-improved farm of 120 acres. He was married in 1842 to Julia Gianque, a native of Switzerland, and daughter of Joseph and Susan M. Gianque, who came to America in 1840, and settled in Holmes County, Ohio, where they reared a family of nine children, besides clearing up a forest farm. Auguste Guillaume learned the blacksmith's trade when young, and for thirty years was actively engaged in that business in con- nection with farming. There have been born to him seven children, of whom three only are still living-Christina, Edward A. and Mary. He is an enterprising and patriotic citizen, and much interested in home improvements. In the fall of 1863, he contributed $55 toward clearing
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his township from the draft for soldiers, and has always been liberal in assisting worthy undertakings.
F. X. HERRMANN was born in Alsace in 1828, and when grown to manhood came to this country with his parents, Joseph and Catharine Herrmann, who located in Seneca County, Ohio. A few years after his arrival, Mr. Herrmann married Catharine Stagmire, and then moved to this township, settling on eighty acres of woodland three miles east of Edgerton. He worked and improved this farm until 1865, when he sold out and purchased his present farm of 145 acres, now highly cultivated and improved, chiefly by his own hands. His wife died in the spring of 1869, and some fourteen months later Mr. Herrmann married Magdalena Miller, who, with himself, is a member of the Catholic Church. By these marriages he became the father of fifteen children, of whom thirteen are yet living-Elizabeth, Louise, Magdalena, Catharine, Frank J., George, Mary, Josephine, Annie, Helene, Clara, Leander and August. Mr. Herrmann is no aspirant for office, and to a great extent shuns politics, although formerly his proclivities were Democratic, which led to his cast- ing his first Presidential vote for Franklin Pierce.
STREPER HINKLE is one of the nine children of Joseph and Magdalene (Streper) Hinkle, and was born in Northampton County, Penn., February 8, 1814. He assisted his father in a flouring-mill and attended school until his sixteenth year, when he was apprenticed to a blacksmith, for whom he worked about four and a half years. In 1836, he came to Hicksville, Ohio, worked at his trade eighteen months, took a trip through some of the Western States, returned to Hicksville, and was there married, January 1, 1840, to Eliza Barker, of De Kalb County, Ind. He followed blacksmithing till about 1850, when he began farming on land purchased in 1838, and seven years later he sold out and came to this township, bought a farm on Section 2, and remained there until April, 1863, when, in company with three of his neighbors, he started overland for California. He returned after an absence of twenty months, sold his farm and bought his present one of 100 acres, which is under a good state of cultivation and well improved. To Mr. Hinkle there have been born eight children, three only of whom are now living-John, Anna M. and Edward. He has served several terms as Township Trustee, and has always been foremost in enterprises tending toward the advancement of home industries.
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