USA > Ohio > Darke County > History of Darke County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume II > Part 4
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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 the maternal side, the subject's grandparents were Michael and Mary (Mote) Noggle, both of whom were na- tives of Darke county, Ohio, where, in Harrison township, the father followed agricultural pursuits, having cleared and im- proved a fine farm. He had lived there practically all his life from the age of six years until his death, which occurred when almost eighty years old. His wife, who was born in 1821, died in 1891, aged seventy years. They reared a family of six children, namely : Phoebe Jane, mother of the subject of this sketch; Alfred, who was born in 1843 and died in 1896; Ephriam, born in 1845 and still living; George M., born in 1847, still living, as is David, who was born in 1849; Susan, the wife of Noah Brown, of Harrison township, this county; Jonathan died in young manhood. The subject's ma- ternal great-grandfather, George Noggle, was bound out in boyhood, his father having been killed while fighting on the side of the colonists in the Revolutionary war. He had a severe master, from whom he ran away, coming from Penn- sylvania to Ohio, and locating in Darke county in 1816. He was a very powerful man physically and it is said of him that he was the strongest man who ever lived in Darke county. He died in 1852, aged about seventy-five years, and his wife, who was born in 1777, died in 1865.
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David W. Bowman spent his boyhood days on his father's farm in Harrison township, and received his preliminary edu- cation in the district schools and the Greenville high school. He then attended the Greenville Normal School, teaching during the winters for three years. On the 4th of April, 1881, he began the study of law in the office and under the direction of Judge William Allen, who died on the 6th of July fol- lowing. Mr. Bowman then entered the office of Judge Sater, under whom he acquired a knowledge of Kent, Blackstone and other standard legal authorities and on May 1, 1883, he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio. From that time to the present he has been continuously en- gaged in the practice of his profession and has won a reputa- tion second to none in this section of the state as a sound and safe practitioner. On the 1st of July, 1888, Mr. Bowman formed a partnership with Charles M. Anderson, who was formerly a partner with the subject's uncle, David P. Bowman. The latter, who died in 1878, was a brilliant lawyer and a man of marked ability in many ways. Prior to the partner- ship mentioned, the subject had been for four and a half years associated in the practice with Judge D. L. Meeker. As a law- yer Mr. Bowman has been connected with much of the most important litigation tried in the Darke county courts and for many years he has enjoyed a large and lucrative legal business. In the trial of cases he is uniformly courteous to court and opposing counsel, caring little for display, never losing a point for the purpose of creating a favorable im- pression, but seeking to impress the jury rather by weight of facts in his favor and by clear, logical argument than by appeal to passion or prejudice. In discussions of the princi- ples of law he is noted for clearness of statement and candor; he seeks faithfully for firm ground and having once found it nothing can drive him from his position. His zeal for a client never leads him to argue an argument which in his judgment is not in harmony with the law, and in all the im- portant litigation with which he has been connected no one has ever charged him with anything calculated to bring dis- credit upon himself or cast a reflection upon his profession.
On April 20, 1887, David W. Bowman married Mary Belle Kerlin, the daughter of William K. and Hannah (Jeffries) Kerlin, and they have become the parents of four children, namely : Helen, David W., Robert A. and George William. Mrs. Bowman was born in Wayne county, Ind., of which
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county and State her parents were natives. In 1865 they came to Darke county, Ohio, and settled in Harrison town- ship, where they spent the remainder of their days, the father dying there on May 28, 1903, at the age of seventy-one years, and the mother dying on April 9, 1909, aged eighty years. They were the parents of eleven children, namely: Mrs. Anna Sites, Emma, Ella (deceased), Oscar, Mary Belle, John D., Edward, William, Mrs. Carrie Hunt, James and Leo.
Politically a Democrat, Mr. Bowman has ever since attain- ing maturity taken an intelligent interest in public affairs and has been an active factor in the progress and development of the community. For seven years he rendered efficient service as a member of the board of education, being president of that body during the erection of the St. Clair Memorial Hall. Religiously, Mr. and Mrs. Bowman are members of the Protes- tant Episcopal Church, of which Mr. Bowman is a vestryman. He has for a number of years been prominent in the councils of the church and at the present time is a member of the com- mittee on church canons of the diocese of Southern Ohio. In the midst of the thronging demands of a busy life he is always approachable, being gracious in his association with his fellow men and enjoying a personal popularity which is a natural re- sult of his characteristics, while his professional ability has given him marked prestige throughout this locality.
GEORGE W. MACE.
As a native son of Darke county and a representative of one of the earliest pioneer families in this section of the Buckeye State, George W. Mace is eminently entitled to representation in a compilation which has to do with those who have been the founders and builders of this commonwealth, while such is his personal honor and integrity of character and such his standing as one of the successful and progressive business men of his community that this consideration is all the more compatible.
George W. Mace, senior member of the firm of Mace & Mansfield, seed merchants at Greenville, was born in German township, this county, on November 27, 1852. He is the son of Rufus and Martha (Brooks) Mace, natives, respectively, of North Carolina and Virginia. They were the parents of
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six children, of which number two lived to mature years, the subject of this sketch and John F., now deceased. Rufus Mace was, when but a boy, brought to Ohio by his parents, who located on a farm in Harrison township, this county. On this farm he was reared and attended the district schools. He afterwards learned the trade of a cooper, which he fol- lowed until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he enlisted in Company E, Sixty-ninth regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, with which command he served about two years, returning home an invalid and dying from the effects of his army life in 1869, aged thirty-eight years. His wife died ten years later at the age of forty-nine years. Both were Methodists in their religious belief.
The subject is descended on the paternal side from Nathan R. and Dorcas (Fodrea) Mace, who came from North Caro- ilna, about 1818, taking up a tract of government land in Hamilton county, Indiana. The father died soon after locating there, and his widow and children went to that land in Hamilton county, Indiana, locating near Sheridan, where she spent the remainder of her life. Their children
were James, John, Jesse, Jonathan, Caroline and Rufus, father of the subject. The maternal grandparents of the subject were natives of England, who became early settlers in Darke county, their home being in German township, where they died in old age. Their children, five in number, were Polly, Susan, Martha, John and George.
George W. Mace was reared in the village of Palestine, German township, and received his education in the public schools there. After taking a course in a business college in Dayton, Ohio, he began clerking in the dry goods store of Augustus Wilson in Greenville, where he remained from 1875 to 1895, with the exception of about six years, which he spent on a farm in German township. In 1895 Mr. Mace embarked in the seed business, in which he met with success from the outstart and in which he has continued to the present time. In 1904 he took Albert Mansfield into the business as a part- ner, under the firm name of Mace & Mansfield, and they are now numbered among the substantial and successful business houses of Greenville. They handle all kinds of seeds, bulbs, and kindred lines, and they have, by courteous treatment and high quality of their goods, built up an enormous trade, com- manding the major part of the local business in their line.
On August 29, 1875, Mr. Mace was married to Malinda
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Mikesell, the daughter of Samuel and Fanny (Kunkle) Mike- sell, both of whom were natives of Darke county, and both are now deceased. Mrs. Mace was born and reared in Har- rison township, this county.
Politically, Mr. Mace is a Prohibitionist, believing that the temperance question is the most important issue before the American people. He has been interested in local public af- fairs and served as clerk of German township one term. Fraternally, he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, while, religiously, he and his wife are earnest and faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which Mr. Mace is a member of the offi- cial board. He has lived in this community during his entire life and has gained a wide acquaintance, among whom he is held in the highest esteem because of his estimable personal qualities and his splendid business record. Modest and re- fined, he seeks no notoriety, but honestly endeavors to live as a man among men and to earn their approval and appro- bation.
CHARLES FREMONT McKHANN, M. D.
Dr. Charles Fremont McKhann is a prominent resident of Greenville, born at the corner of Main and Vine streets, in that city, July 12, 1856, a member of an old Ohio family. He is a son of James and Margaret E. (Carnahan) McKhann, the former born in Greenville March 3, 1828, died at Chattanooga, Tenn., April 29, 1907, and was buried in Forest Hill cemetery there. The mother was born March 10, 1836, and died July 2, 1858. She was buried in Sharpeye, Darke county, Ohio. The Carnahan family were very early settlers of Darke county, and William T. Carnahan located two miles east of Greenville (coming from Pennsylvania) in 1811. He served in the Second regiment, Ohio volunteers, from April 27, 1812, until April 26, 1813, being one of the three ancestors of Dr. Charles F. Mc- Khann who served in that war and served in the battle of Tip- pecanoe and Falling Timbers.
Doctor McKhann's ancestry has been traced back for many generations of several lines, one of them to the year 1632, and did space permit we would deal at length with this interesting topic; however, we will give some of the leading facts which are of general interest. His great-grandfather, Azor Scribner, came from New York to Darke county in 1805, and for many
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years carried on an extensive business with the Indians as a fur trader. One of his eight daughters was the first white child born at Middletown, where he first settled. He spent three years trading with the Indians in Darke county while his family remained in Middletown, and in 1808, as above stated, located permanently. His youngest daughter, Rhoda. was stolen by the Indians, but subsequently restored to her family. His granddaughter, Mrs. Avery, of Greenville, recalls that when a child she heard her grandmother relate that it was her grandfather and Colonel Johnson who shot and killed the Indian chief, Tecumseh, but fear that he might be killed by the Indians led Azor Scribner to tell only his wife of the cir- cumstance. This story is further borne out by the possession of the gun with which Tecumseh was shot, which was owned by the subject of this sketch until quite recently. Azor Scrib- ner served in the War of 1812, under Captain Joseph Ewing, from August 9, 1812, until February 8, 1814.
Another ancestor of Doctor McKhann, on the maternal side, his great-grandfather, Joseph Adams, was a soldier in the Revolution, enlisting in 1782, at the age of thirteen years. He also served in the War of 1812 from September 26, 1812, until March of the following year. Nathaniel Adams was the father of Joseph Adams, and was born at Braintree, Mass., January 19, 1745. He enlisted for service in the Revolution September 9, 1778. He was first cousin to John Adams and second cousin of John Quincy Adams, presidents of the United States. The Adams family is presumably the oldest in the history of the world, and the branch here mentioned dates known ancestry back over six hundred years to Sir John Ap Adam (the letter "s" being then omitted), who was summoned to Parliament as Baron of the Realm, 1296 to 1307. The fifth generation after this added the letter "s" to the name and it has since been re- tained. An early member of this family, Henry Adams, mar- ried Mary Alexander, daughter of Lord Sterling, came to America in 1632 and located at Braintree. Samuel Adams, brother of Rev. Joseph Adams (father of President John Adams), was the father of Nathaniel Adams, who married Rachael Chambers, of Trenton, N. J., They settled at Fred- erick, Maryland, and in 1780 removed to Harrison county, Vir- ginia (now West Virginia), where they became owners of a large plantation. Doctor McKhann has in his possession a copy of Nathaniel Adams's will and original of contract and bill of sale of personal property, slaves, etc., dated January 28, 1824.
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Rev. John Carnahan was a farmer and Christian minister and in 1830 built a beautiful Christian church, chopping and hewing the logs with his own hands. This building, seven miles west of Greenville, on Winchester pike, was most sub- stantially built and remained standing until 1867, when the present building, known as the Carnahan church, was erected. It was built on his farm where he had six hundred acres for which he paid $800.
The only child born to James and Margaret McKhann was Dr. Charles F. James McKhann married as his second wife, Elnora Moore of Greenville, November 14, 1859. She died at Chattanooga September 27, 1876, and was buried in Forest Hill cemetery there. Two daughters were born of this union, namely : Lizzie, wife of J. Hamilton Cady, of Chattanooga, who has four children, and Ella, wife of William E. Mongar, of Chattanooga, who has six children.
Doctor McKhann was but two years of age when his mother died, and he was reared by his Grandmother Carnahan. When he was three years of age they visited Clarke county, Iowa, and he was so pleased with the location that he felt a very strong desire to return. It was when six years of age he first attended school in Iowa, running away from home to get to go. It was conducted in a log building, with slab seats, puncheon floors and no windows. After remaining six months in Iowa he returned to Darke county and there attended school in the Carnahan school house about seven miles from Greenville. He assisted in the farm work and attended school until he was ten years old, when he and his grandmother returned to Clarke county, Iowa, and there he remained until he attained his ma- jority, attending school through the winter months. When twenty-one years of age he was graduated from high school at Osceola, Iowa, and at that time had been studying medicine for two years. He worked part of the time as cowboy and read medical books while in the saddle. He was very fond of study and reading and used every opportunity to do so.
Upon his return to Greenville, about 1877, he read medical books under the direction of Dr. John E. Matchett, which course he continued two years. In 1877 he entered Ohio Med- ical College in Cincinnati, graduating two years later with the degree of M. D. He began practice at Norwood, Lucas county, Iowa, and one year later located in New Madison, Darke county, Ohio, where he became very successful in his profes- sion, remaining ten years. Then, after remaining two years in Greenville, he became much interested in country then be-
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ing opened up in Florida, and invested in timber land and the turpentine industry. He owned 33,000 acres of land in one piece located in a single county. He now owns several tracts, aggregating several thousand acres of land and scattered in different counties. Since 1884 he has made annual trips to Florida, and sometimes spends as long a time as nine months there, but his permanent home is in Greenville. He owns some of the best business property in the city, including the Weaver block, the finest building of the kind in the city. He is held in high esteem by all and is one of the leading citizens. He is justly proud of his ancestry and is interested in the early his- tory of Darke county, in which his forbears took so worthy a part. He is a Republican in politics and much interested in public affairs. He belongs to no clubs or societies.
Doctor McKhann has been twice married, first, August 29, 1878, to Ida May, daughter of John Fox, a prominent farmer and miller of Darke county, who resided at Fox Mills, three miles west of Greenville, and two children blessed their union : Maude Ethel, born July 8, 1879, who was married July 4, 1900, to Rollin F. Cohee, of Frankfort, Ind., and they have a son, ยท Rollin F., born July 26, 1910; and another daughter, Leslie May, born December 25, 1881, who married George O. Palmer, August 14, 1907, and they have a daughter, Mary Frances Palmer, born July 28, 1908, and live at Lake City, Fla. Mrs. McKhann, mother of these children, died May 15, 1885, and is buried at New Madison. Doctor McKhann married (second) June 28, 1887, at Des Moines, Iowa, Mary, daughter of Philip and Lizzie Grassel, of Osceola, Iowa. To this union three chil- dren were born: George G., January 23, 1893, attending the University at Oxford; Zerelda Elizabeth, born February 27, 1897, is in the third year of high school, and Charles Fremont, Jr., born December 21, 1898, is in the second year of high school. Dr. McKhann is a supporter of the Christian church and his wife is a Seventh Day Adventist.
OSCAR R. KRICKENBERGER.
The success of men in business or any professional voca- tion depends upon character as well as upon knowledge, it being a self-evident proposition that honesty is the best policy. Business and professional life demand confidence and where that is lacking business ceases. In every community some
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men are known for their upright lives, strong common sense and persistent energy rather than for their wealth or political standing. Their neighbors and acquaintances respect them, the younger generations heed their example and when. "they wrap the drapery of their couches about them and lie down to pleasant dreams" posterity will listen with reverence to the story of their useful lives. Among such men in Darke county is he whose name appears at the head of this paragraph, who is not only an eminently successful lawyer and a progressive man of affairs, but a man of modest and unassuming demeanor, a fine type of the reliable, self-made American, a friend to the poor, charitable to the faults of his neighbors, and who has always stood ready to unite with them in every good work and active in the support of laudable public enterprises. He is proud of Greenville and the grand State of Ohio and zealous of their progress and prosperity. He in every respect merits the high esteem in which he is universally held, because of his intellectual attainments, professional success and public spirit.
Oscar R. Krickenberger is descended from good old German stock, an element which has contributed so materially to the growth and development of this country. His paternal grand- parents were Carl and Wilhelmina (Endorff) Kruckenberg, which was the original spelling of the family name. Leaving their native land in 1852, they came to the United States, settling two and a half miles northeast of Greenville, Darke county, Ohio, where they cleared and improved a farm of forty acres. There they spent the rest of their days, he dying in 1880, at the age of seventy-nine years, and she in 1884, aged about eighty-two years. They were the parents of four children, namely: Charles; Henry A., father of the subject of this sketch; Caroline W., who became the wife of John Mohr, and Frederick F.
Carl Henry Augustus Krickenberger was born and reared in Germany and received a good practical education in the splendid schools of that country. In 1855, at the age of nine- teen years, he bought his time from his uncle, Ferdinand, to whom he had been apprenticed, and came to America, com- ing direct to Darke county, Ohio, and locating in Greenville township, where he obtained work on a farm. Soon after- wards he went to Missouri, and on the outbreak of the Civil war he joined one of the Union guerilla bands operating in that State. In 1861 he returned to Darke county, and on July 22, 1862, he enlisted as a private in the Ninety-fourth
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regiment, Ohio volunteer infantry, with which he served faith- fully until January, 1863, when he was discharged because of physical disability. His command had been assigned to the Army of the Tennessee and he took part in all the battles and campaigns in which that army was engaged up to the time of his discharge, his last battle having been the important one at Murfreesboro. Upon his return from the army, Mr. Krickenberger engaged in farming in German township, this county, where he had acquired a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and there he died on March 20, 1877, at the com- paratively early age of thirty-nine years. He had married Lydia A. Drew, a native of Darke county, and who is still living, at the age of about seventy-four years. She is a daughter of Robert and Lydia (Bliss) Drew, the former of whom was a native of New Jersey and the latter of Darke county, Ohio. In an early day Robert Drew walked the entire distance from New Jersey to Arcanum, this county, and from here walked to below Covington, Ky., where he put out a crop of wheat. He then walked back to Darke county, and the following summer walked back to Kentucky and harvested his wheat. That was in the early twenties. He made his permanent home in Darke county, where he had homesteaded a small piece of land, and he afterwards ac- cumulated much other land, leaving to each of his children a farm. He died in 1879, aged seventy-three years, and his wife died in 1896, at the age of eighty-eight years. They were the parents of the following children: John, deceased; William, who is still living; Joseph, who died in Iowa; James, who lives near Castine, this county; Lydia A., mother of the subject of this sketch; Mollie, wife of John B. Hans; Julia A., wife of Louis P. Newbauer; Martha, wife of Peter Brown; Amanda, wife of William Folkerth; Mary Jane, de- ceased wife of F. F. Krickenberger, and two who died in infancy. To Carl Henry A. and Lydia A. (Drew) Kricken- berger were born six children, as follows: Henry F., of Greenville, Ohio; Charles F., of Iditarod, Alaska; Caroline Wilhelmina, wife of Frank Brown, of Greenville; Oscar R., the immediate subject of this review; Carl A., of Greenville; and George, the first born, who died in infancy.
Oscar R. Krickenberger was but six years old when death deprived him of a father's guidance and protection and at the early age of eleven years he began life's battle on his own account, his first employment being at farm work. He had
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been deprived of the opportunities for an education for which he yearned and something of the character of the man was revealed in the boy when, with nineteen other boys, each put twenty dollars into a common fund and employed a tutor, Clement L. Brumbaugh, now Congressman from the Twelfth Ohio District. Under the latter, the subject attended school for five months in the years 1886 and 1887, and he made such rapid progress in his studies that he was deemed qualified to teach school, which vocation he followed durmg the winter months for several years, farming during the sum- mer vacations. The young man was ambitious to become a lawyer, and in 1891, about the time he attained his majority, he entered the law offices of Allread & Bickel, under whose di- rections he pursued his studies, and on June 8, 1893, he was admitted to the bar of Darke county. He at once entered upon the active practice of his profession and has been suc- cessful to a notable degree, having been for several years one of the conspicuous members of the local bar. Exactness and thoroughness have characterized all his labors, for early in life he absorbed the truth of that old and time-tried maxim, that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. As a lawyer he has been a credit to his profession, while as a citizen he has been of that sterling type who have added to the stability of our government and its institutions. There is in him a weight of character, a native sagacity, a far-seeing judgment and a fidelity of purpose that has commanded the respect of all and made him an influential factor in the public and civic life of the community. Mr. Krickenberger has been very successful in his material affairs and in 1911 he erected the fine office and business block, located at Nos. 112 and 114 West Fourth street, Greenville, in which he has his law offices.
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