History of Darke County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume II, Part 22

Author: Wilson, Frazer Ells, 1871- [from old catalog]; Hobart publishing company. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Milford, Ohio, The Hobart publishing company
Number of Pages: 611


USA > Ohio > Darke County > History of Darke County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume II > Part 22


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53


On June 4, 1885, Mr. Hageman was united in marriage with Miss Mary Elva Bowman, a daughter of George W. and Phoebe Jane (Noggle) Bowman. Mr. and Mrs. Hageman have had three children, namely : Cloda Lorella, who married Warren M. Duffield, a farmer of Harrison township, has one daughter, Mary Elizabeth; Edgar Franklin, who died at the age of nineteen years, was a graduate of the New Madison high school, and having taken a year's course at Oberlin Col- lege, was preparing to return to that institution, when he was stricken with acute Bright's Disease, and died September 12, 1912; and Lucile Idella, who is at home. The death of young Mr. Hageman was not only a sad blow to his family, but it took from New Madison one of its rising young men, who, if he had lived, would doubtless have proven himself worthy of his family and native place. Mr. and Mrs. Hageman and two children belong to the Universalist church. He is a member of Fort Black Lodge No. 546, Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a Democrat; and stanch in his support of party measures and principles.


Mrs. Hageman was born in Harrison township. Her par- ents were natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio. The paternal grandfather, Abraham Bowman, married Mary Bowman, both being natives of Pennsylvania. A history of the Bowman family is given under the name of D. W. Bowman, which will be found elsewhere in this work. The maternal grandfather of


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Mrs. Hageman was Michael Noggle and he married Mary Mote. He was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, while she was born in Harrison township, Darke county, Ohio. George Noggle, the maternal great-grandfather, came to Darke county in 1812.


JAMES FINLEY STOUT HAGEMAN.


True greatness does not always consist in the taking of cities or the conquest of new lands. By far is it greater for a man to make a place in his community for him and his family ; to uphold by precept and example, law and order; to give of his strength and ability toward a betterment of civic con- ditions, and to endeavor at all times to live up to his convic- tions, than to try and command the applause of the multitudes by spectacular achievements. Fame may be gained in an hour ; the confidence and respect of life-long association is of long growth, but it lives, while the hero of today may be forgotten tomorrow. J. F. S. Hageman of New Madison, Ohio, is one of the best examples of a solid, reliable, steadfast man Darke county has known. His life has been filled with earnest efforts and quiet accomplishments, and now in his declining years he is crowned, not with the laurel leaves of victory, but with the true friendship of those who know that in him his community has a good citizen, a solid business man and honorable gen- tleman. He was born December 15, 1834, at Sharonville, Hamilton county, Ohio, a son of Adron and Elizabeth (Pitt- man) Hageman, natives of Ohio.


But little is known of the paternal grandfather of J. F. S. Hageman, although it is known that he was born of German parentage in the State of Pennsylvania, and followed farming as a calling. Among his children were: Simon, George, Will- iam, Jonathan, Squire and several daughters. The sons moved to Miami county, Ohio, settling on adjoining farming prop- erties. The maternal grandfather was Joshua Pittman, who became an early settler of Hamilton county, Ohio, and there farmed and died. He had three children, namely: Elizabeth, Rebecca and William.


Adron Hageman grew to manhood in Hamilton county, Ohio, and learned the chairmaking trade, but only lived to be thirty-five years old, dying at that age at Sharonville, Ohio, in 1839. His widow survived him many years, aged seventy-


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five years. After his death she married William Biddle. By her first marriage there were five children : Julia, who married Daniel Wilt of New Madison, is now a widow; Priscilla, who is the wife of William Ulm, was formerly married to Isaac Ault, and she is now residing with her second husband at New Madison; James F. S., Randolph Foster, who is deceased, and one who died in childhood. By her second marriage, Mrs. Biddle had two children, namely : Rebecca, who lives at New Madison, and Cecelia, who is the widow of Wilson Broderick, who died in 1913. Adron Hageman was a Methodist in re- ligious faith, but his wife belonged to- the United Brethren church.


J. F. S. Hageman came to Darke county, Ohio, in 1839, immediately following his father's death, being then but five years old, and for the next ten years lived on a farm two and one-half miles southeast of New Madison in Butler township. During this period he attended the schools of his district. Teachers were allowed to qualify in those days at a much earlier age than now, and Hr. Hageman was a mere lad when he began teaching, but after presiding over a school for two terms, he began learning the carpenter trade, and followed it for about a quarter of a century. In 1856 he came to New Madison, and for the past thirty-seven years has been a drug- gist of this city, and has the distinction of being the oldest living merchant of New Madison. During the Civil war he belonged to the Home Guards, and although he could not go into the field himself, he provided a substitute.


In the fall of 1855, Mr. Hageman married Miss Anna Pearce, a daughter of Greenbrier and Elizabeth (Curtis) Pearce, and they became the parents of nine children, namely : William R., who is one of the leading merchants of New Madison; Thomas O., who died unmarried, was a druggist; Sarah Elizabeth, who married Thomas Banks, lives at Mun- cie, Ind., and has two children, Ethel and Inez; Ida, who died in girlhood; Charles, who is railroad agent at Cambridge City, Ind., married Ida McClair, and has one child, Ganelle; Adron, who is employed on the Big Four railroad at Delaware, Ohio, married May Thuyer, and has one child by that marriage, but none by his second marriage with Fanny Darwood; Mabel, who married George Young, died, leaving six children, Bea- trice, Edna, Jasper, George, John and William (twins) ; Harry, who is a railroad man of Chicago, Ill., married and has five children, Edgert, Edna, Frances, Marion and one un-


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named; and Richard, who is agent for the Panhandle railroad at Milford Center, Ohio, married Ella Coates, and has four children, Ralph, Goldie, Harry and Hazel. Mrs. Hageman died September 20, 1911, aged nearly seventy-five years. At one time she was a member of the United Brethren church. Her parents were natives of Maryland, where she was also born, but became early settlers of Darke county, Ohio, where they died, having had nine children as follows: William, Mary, Charles, Elizabeth, Thomas, Wilson, Marion, Jane and one who died in childhood.


Mr. Hageman is a Democrat in his political views, and was mayor of New Madison, but resigned. For nine years he served on the school board of New Madison, and was a mem- ber of the city council for six years. For two terms he ad- ministered the finances of the city as treasurer; was a justice of the peace for fifteen years, and is now serving in his thirty- second year as a notary public.


JOHN C. COBLENTZ.


The best men for public office are those who have made a success of their private affairs, for a municipality is only a huge commercial concern of divergent interests. So many fail to get the proper perspective of civic duties, and imagine that they can be performed without any special fitness for the job. That this is not true, many disastrous administra- tions prove conclusively. However, John C. Coblentz of New Madison is a man who understands the business of conduct- ing public offices, and in him his community has had the best kind of a mayor, councilman and clerk, and Darke county is now profiting from his sage advice, and keen judgment, as he is a member of its county board. As a private citizen he conducts a livery and deals in agricultural implements, and as business man and public official he lives up to his ideas of what is right. He was born in Butler township, Darke county, Ohio, October 15, 1862, a son of Harrison and Caroline (Hit- tle) Coblentz, natives of Darke county, Ohio.


George and Eva (Fouts) Coblentz, the paternal grand- parents of John C. Coblentz, were early settlers of Darke county, Ohio, although he was born in Frederick county, Maryland, in 1812, and she in North Carolina. Locating in


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Butler township upon their migration, these grandparents cleared and improved a farm near Otterbim church, and died upon it at the age of eighty-one years. His wife died at New Madison, Ohio, aged sixty-five years. They had ten children as follows: Kate, Mary, Ezra, Harrison, Susan, Elizabeth, George, John, Jane and Ellen. Nicholas and Elizabeth (Ter- ischman) Hittle, the maternal grandparents, were natives of Wurtenburg, Germany, who came to Dayton, Ohio, in either 1820 or 1822, becoming later early settlers of Darke county. They had two children-Caroline and Celia A. Mrs. Hittle was the widow of a Mr. Schmidt when she married Mr. Hittle, and had had three children by her first marriage, namely: William, Jesse and Elizabeth. After the death of Mr. Hittle, she married a third time, being united with William Miller.


Harrison Coblentz was reared within half a mile of his pres- ent farm, and has been a farmer and stockman all his life. In addition to making a success of his agricultural ventures, he found time to hold the majority of the township offices, having been township treasurer for twenty-seven years; a member of the school board for many years, and for twenty years was a member of Darke County Agricultural Society. For a num- ber of years he was one of the pillars of the old Otterbein United Brethren church, of which he and his wife have been members since childhood. They have had four children, namely : John C., Elizabeth, who is the wife of A. H. Judy of Fredericksburg, Va .; Kate, who is the wife of C. C. Brawley of Greenville, Ohio, and Frank, who resides at Dogue, Va.


John C. Coblentz grew up on his father's farm and attended the old school No. 5. Until he was married, he remained at home, but upon that occasion, he moved on a farm of his own comprising one hundred and five acres in Butler township, one- half of which was given him by his father, and conducted it from 1884 until 1899, a period of fifteen years. In the latter year he moved to New Madison and purchased the business of C. C. Brawley, at which time he formed a partnership with Albert Harter for the purpose of handling agricultural imple- ments and stock. This association continued until 1906, when Mr. Coblentz took sole charge of the implement and livery business and his partner assumed charge of the stock business, the firm having been heavy shippers of live stock, and they are conducting separate concerns.


On January 17, 1884, Mr. Coblentz was married to Miss Isalinea E. Wilt, a daughter of Daniel M. and Julia A. (Hage-


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man) Wilt, and they became the parents of three children: Estella P., who married Walter Thomas, lives at New Madi- son, and has one son, Dyer C .; J. Warren, who works for his father in the implement business, married Grace Welbaum, and has two children, Maxine and John, and Edgar, who con- ducts the livery department, married Merlie Shumaker, and has one child, Clay. Mrs. Coblentz is a member of the Uni- versalist church. Fraternally, Mr. Coblentz belongs to the Fort Black Lodge No. 413, F. & A. M .; Fort Black Lodge No. 546, Knights of Pythias, and to Big Foot Lodge No. 14, Im- proved Order of Red Men. In political faith he is a Democrat and is the present acting mayor of New Madison, having served previously during two terms in the same office. He is in his third term as a member of the village council, being its president, and was clerk of Butler township for four years. In November, 1912, he was elected commissioner of Darke county.


Mrs. Coblentz was born in Butler township, Darke county, Ohio, where her father was born in 1822, and died in 1909. Her mother was born at Darrtown, Ohio, in 1829, and is still living, making her home with Mr. and Mrs. Coblentz. The children born to Daniel M. and Julia A. Wilt were: Elizabeth, Mary, Lafayette, Theodore, Weller J., Adrian H., Irvin, Isalina E. and Elmer. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Cob- lentz was John Wilt, who married Margaret Manier, natives of Pennsylvania and Ireland, respectively. They became early settlers of Darke county, Ohio, coming here and making their home in the midst of dense woods. The maternal grandfather was Adrian Hageman, and he married Elizabeth Pittman, both being natives of Ohio.


THOMAS JEFFERSON HOSTETTER.


Honored and respected by all, there is no man in Ansonia who occupies a more enviable position than Thomas Jefferson Hostetter in financial and business circles, not alone on ac- count of the brilliant success which he has achieved, but also because of the honorable, straightforward policy he has ever followed. Mr. Hostetter possesses untiring energy, is quick of perception, forms his plans readily and is determined in their execution, and his close application to business and his excel-


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lent management have brought to him the high degree of prosperity which is today his. For more than a quarter of a century he was connected with one of the leading business establishments of the city, an enterprise which he assisted to organize and build up, and his financial affairs have also been extensive, he being at this time vice-president of the Citizens' Bank. Aside from his personal interests, he is a man who constantly has the welfare of his community at heart, and whose signal services have aided materially in progress and advancement. Mr. Hostetter was born in Richland township, Darke county, Ohio, November 14, 1849, and is a son of Isaac and Hannah (Hager) .Hostetter.


The paternal grandparents of Thomas J. Hostetter were natives of Switzerland, who, on emigrating to the United States, settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where they engaged in agricultural operations until they died at advanced ages. The Hager family was intimately associated with the early history of Maryland, and Hagerstown, in that State de- rives its name from one of the early progenitors. The ma- ternal grandparents were farming people and passed away in Maryland, when well advanced in years, having been the par- ents of a number of children, among whom were Hiram, Sam- uel, Michael, Hannah and Caroline. Isaac Hostetter was reared in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and in young manhood adopted the profession of medicine. He came to Ohio and settled in Darke county among the pioneers, being one of the first physicians in the county, and practiced while living on his farm, two and one-half miles east of Beamsville, and later in Beamsville during the latter years of his life. He died in the spring of 1861, aged fifty years, while his wife survived him some time and died in 1866, when she was fifty-one year old. They belonged to the German Reformed church and were kindly Christian people. In 1845 Doctor Hostetter was made a major general in the State militia, and also about that time was a member of the State Legislature. There were six children in the family : Hiram H., who is deceased; Selinda A., deceased, who was the wife of William H. Stahl; Elizabeth, the wife of Harry Alton of Monegaw Springs, Mo .; Samuel A. of Greenville, Ohio; Thomas J., Franklin P. of Osceola, Mo., and one who died in infancy.


Thomas Jefferson Hostetter was reared in Darke county, and this has always been his home. He was about two years old when his parents left the farm and moved to Beamsville,


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and here he grew to manhood, attending the public schools there and also spending one winter in the schools of Green- ville. Securing a teacher's certificate, he taught school for one term, but gave up educational work when he and his brother, Samuel A. Hostetter, formed a partnership and engaged in the drug business at Ansonia, this connection lasting for upwards of twenty-five years. At the end of that period his brother retired from the business to accept the cashiership of the Second National Bank of Greenville. Mr. Hostetter continued to conduct the business alone until 1903, when he turned it over to his sons, Roy E. and Earl, the latter of whom still carries on the establishment. In 1898 Mr. Hostetter was one of the organizers of the Citizens' Bank of Ansonia, and was its first president. It was organized as a private bank with a capital of $10,000, but in 1905 was reorganized under the State banking laws and with a capital stock of $25,000. Its present officers are: C. W. Wolf, president; T. J. Hostetter, vice- president, and F. S. Kiser, cashier. The well established and unassailable reputation of the vice-president for integrity, sound judgment and financiering ability have brought deposits from all sources. He is familiar with the theory and practice of banking, a broad-minded, far-seeing financier with great mental grasp and remarkable penetration.


On December 5, 1874, Mr. Hostetter was married to Miss Juliette Baughman, who was born in Brown township, Darke county, Ohio, daughter of Henry and Mary (Studebaker) Baughman, and granddaughter of William Baughman. Her father was a native of Germany and her mother of Darke county, Ohio, and both are now deceased. Their children were as follows: Emeline, Caroline, Juliette, Mary A., C. Franklin, Ida Irene, May and Lawrence E. To Mr. and Mrs. Hostetter there have been born four children: Estella, who married H. E. Rall and has two children, Estelle LeVon and Harland E .; Roy, who served in the United States army dur- ing the war with Spain and also participated in the Boer war, now physical director in the schools of Pasadena, Cal., was married in August, 1913, to Miss Hilda Hanson; Earl, still engaged in the drug business at Ansonia, married Bertha Bryson, and U. G., a traveling salesman who makes his home in Chicago.


Mr. Hostetter belongs to the German Reformed church and his wife to the Christian church, and both have been active and liberal in supporting religious and charitable movements.


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A sociable, genial man, Mr. Hostetter enjoys the compan- ionship of his fellows, and is popular among his fellow mem- bers in Ansonia Lodge No. 488, F. & A. M., of which he served for two terms as master. In political matters a Demo- crat, he has been township treasurer on several occasions, has served also as corporation treasurer, was a member of the school board for a long period and for more than six years has been a member of the county board of visitors. His official, service has been characterized by a consistent adherence to high ideals of public service and a conscientious effort to give to his services the same attention which has made him so successful in the business and financial world. Few men have done more for their community; none hold greater respect and confidence.


EDWIN ELLMORE MEYERS, M. D.


The services of professional men are being enlisted in cicvic matters all over the country, for the people are beginning to realize that the trained mind is better capable of properly solving municipal problems than those who have never had to bring to bear upon their work concentrated effort. None of the learned professions, however, have contributed so many earnest and public-spirited men as that of medicine, and in Dr. Edwin Ellmore Meyers of New Madison, Ohio, Darke county finds one of its most useful and efficient citizens. As a physician and as a man Doctor Meyers measures up well according to the standards of wholesome living and high think- ing, and his practice shows that he has not been found want- ing when weighed in the balance of public opinion with regard to his professional skill and capability. Doctor Meyers was born in Neave township, Darke county, Ohio, March 27, 1866, a son of William and Lydia (Tillman) Meyers, natives of Butler county and Darke county, Ohio, respectively.


Joseph and Lavina (Shafer) Meyers, the paternal grand- parents of Doctor Meyers, were born in Pennsylvania, but became early settlers of Twin township, Darke county, Ohio, where they located on a farm in the immediate vicinity of Arcanum, and there they rounded out useful lives, dying in old age. They had the following children: William, Mary, Maria, Louisa, David, Susan, Joseph and Hannah. Henry Tillman was the maternal grandfather, and he married Rachel


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Townsend. The Tillman family came from North Carolina, but Rachel Townsend was born in Ohio. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Tillman located in Preble county, but later went to Darke county, where he became a heavy landowner, de- voting his active life to farming, although in his declining years he moved to Greenville, Ohio, and there died a few years ago when nearly ninety years old. His wife passed away in young womanhood, having borne him two children, Noah and Lydia.


Darke county, Ohio, was the home of William Meyers, the father of Doctor Meyers, from the time he was eight years old, and here he grew to manhood, devoting himself to at- tendance upon the district school and acquisition of the rudi- ments of farming. The latter calling appealed to him, and he devoted his life to it, becoming the owner of eighty-seven acres of land in Neave township. This property he improved until it was very valuable, and he died upon it in 1877, aged thirty-three years. His widow survives him, being now sixty- nine years old. She is a member of the Methodist church which he attended in company with her. While not a poli- tician in any sense of the word, William Meyers held a number of township offices and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He and his wife were the parents of two children, namely Doctor Meyers, and his brother, Sylvester A., who is operating the homestead in Neave township.


Doctor Meyers was not content with attending the schools of his district in Neave township, but took the high school course at Greenville, the normal course at Lebanon, Ohio, and then entered the University of Illinois at Champaign, Ill. Having thus made ample provision for competent work, he taught school for four years, when he decided to expand still further, and taking up the study of medicine, was graduated from the Electic Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1889, beginning his practice at Painter Creek, Ohio. In 1895, he left there for New Madison, and has been in an active practice here since 1896.


On May 1, 1889, Doctor Meyers was united in marriage with Olive Opdyke, a daughter of Francis and Elizabeth (Hagar) Opdyke, and they have one daughter, Hazel. Mrs. Meyers belongs to the United Brethren church. Doctor Meyers is a member of Fort Black Lodge, F. & A. M., and to Laura Lodge No. 594, Knights of Pythias. Professionally


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he is a member of the Ohio State Electic Medical Association, and the Electic Medical Association.


Mrs. Meyers was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, which State also gave her parents birth. Her mother died in 1911, but her father resides on a farm in Montgomery county, Ohio. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Opdyke were: Anna, Olive, Albert, William, Clara, Edith, Sylvia, Elmer and Ethel.


MILTON R. MILLETTE.


Recognizing the fact that on the journalistic field there is plenty of room for men with brains and vim, the young man whoes name appears at the beginning of this review has chosen for his vocation the newspaper profession, with what degree of success is shown in his present well-kept establish- ment and the large business which he has built up. The editor and publisher of a newspaper occupies a vantage ground from which he may make or mar reputations or build up or tear down causes worthy of public approval and support. Not only the city of Ansonia, but the surrounding country in Darke county has reason for congratulation that the Ansonia Herald is in such safe, clean and thoroughly reliable hands. Mr. Millette is a native son of Ansonia, and was born January 16, 1890, a son of William K. and Frances (Arbaugh) Millette.


The paternal great-grandparents of Milton R. Millette were John and Sybil (Potter) Millette, the former born in Connecti- cut and the latter a native of New York, where they were mar- ried. They came to Darke county, Ohio. among the earliest settlers, when Indians still frequented the community. This John Millette named the village of Ithaca, Darke county, Ohio. Later they moved to the vicinity of Portland, Ind., where Mr. Millette purchased a farm, in the cultivation of which he spent the remainder of his life. While still a resident of Darke county, Mr. Millette served as justice of the peace and post- master at Ithaca. Wesley Millette, the grandfather of Milton R. Millette, was born September 29, 1836, at Ithaca, Darke county, Ohio, and was married to Sarah Wilson, who was born south of Greenville, in this State. He was a wagon maker by trade, and worked at that occupation at Greenville, Rose Hill and Ansonia, and still resides at the last-named place. He and his wife were the parents of four children:




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