USA > Ohio > Madison County > History of Madison County, Ohio : its people, industries and institution with biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 79
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Caroline, daughter of Elza and Jane (Thomas) Rowland, was born on November 26. 1848, and was educated in the public schools and the Zenia Seminary. She had a decided talent for music, and while her opportunity for study was not great, her taste and appreciation have ever been a source of pleasure to herself and her friends. Her life is the not uncommon one filled with domestic routine and her devotion to her aged father is a beautiful feature of her daily concern. It may be truly written of her, "she was her mother's daughter." On July 23, 1868, Caroline Rowland was married, at the family home on the Chillicothe road, near Mt. Sterling, to J. Wesley Beale, and lives in Mt. Sterling.
A gracious Providence was generous in her gifts to Perry C. Rowland. the eldest son of Elza and Jane ( Thomas) Rowland. A man of commanding presence, of quiet reserve and dignity, he lived a life of activity amid exciting events. While claiming Ohio as his native state, the greater part of his business career was lived in Pitts- burgh, that city of eternal hurry. To have lived in those stirring times when panics and industrial strikes were the rule rather than the exception, and to have weathered
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the storm in a business fraught with many interests, required alertness, a well-balanced mind and keen insight into business conditions. Kindly and generous to a fault, Perry C. Rowland viewed life and success by what use was made of it, and many times his was the helpful hand which intervened when misfortune threatened some friend or associate. Especially was he interested in the boys and young men in the office, coun- seling them in matters relating to the value of education, in more than one instance giving them opportunity for college study when some special talent seemed to justify it. Mr. Rowland had a sincere interest and kindly supervision over the young men from "back home." who sought him in the city in pursuit of education or employment. Perry C. Rowland's business career covered a period of thirty years, in which he was engaged as a commission merchant in Ft. Wayne and in Indianapolis, Indiana, and for twenty years in the Pittsburgh-Central stockyards. It was during this latter period that he acquired lands in Ohio and became actively engaged in farming.
Perry Rowland's boyhood was spent in and around Mt. Sterling, this county, where he attended the district school, getting whatever education the opportunity offered. He entered college at Merom, Indiana, and completed the college course at Lebanon, Ohio. For a time he studied law, but financial reverses occurring in his father's affairs, he abandoned this chosen profession for a business career. He was born on June 3, 1851, near Five Points, Pickaway county, this state, and was married to May Morgridge, at Indianapolis, Indiana, on October 16, 1880. He died on October 14, 1901, at the Hotel Rider, Cambrdige Springs, Pennsylvania, and is buried in the Morgridge burial ground at Plain City, this county. His widow and two children, a daughter, Jane, and a son, Hoyt, survive him, living at "Homewood," London, this county.
Mrs. May (Morgridge) Rowland, widow of Perry C. Rowland, is the fourth daugh- ter and fourth child of J. Bailey and Harriet Hoyt (Tuttle) Morgridge, a family whose history has been closely identified with that of Madison county for a hundred years. She was born and reared at "Hickory Grove Farm." the Morgridge homestead, and her childhood days were filled to overflowing with small pleasures, derived from an outdoor life. To that life she attributes her splendid health, she never having been ill for a day in more than half a century. It is with a feeling of gratitude and fervent prayer that this is recorded.
May Morgridge received the usual benefits from attending the country school, and at the age of ten entered the public school at Marysville, Ohio. She later became a pupil at Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, this state, and still later, a student at Buchtel College. Akron, entering there the second year after the founding of that institution. Referring again to her country school days. a word should be written regarding two school districts on the Darby Plains, one known as the Lombard school, and the adjoining district known as the Worthington school. For several years these little local schools were examples of higher education through the efforts of the efficient student-teachers from the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. A Mr. Ward, who married Miss Alden, of Mechanicsburg. should be mentioned as the first university student-teacher in the Lombard district. It is more than forty years since then, but his "story-telling hour" still lives in the memory of a generation that has passed the meridian of life. A Mr. Carpenter, who married Miss Boyd, of London, was another university student-teacher, who is remembered as a pioneer in tree-planting; the school yard in the Worthington district being today a beautiful example of his work. He put enthusiasm into his advocacy of the ontdoor life and was the idol of the school boys.
After her marriage, though going directly from the country to the city. Mrs. Row- land, in a measure. continued the ontdoor life. Life there was exceedingly pleasant. As a concession to Madison county antecedents, a spirited horse was always at the beck
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of her pleasure, with which more fully to enjoy the beautiful parks and miles of splendid boulevards in Pittsburgh. The city offered many attractions, notably the Carnegie library, built of white marble and stone and erected, far from the heart of the city, in that fine park which is the gift of the beneficent Mrs. Schenley and a monument forever to the generosity of woman. The library building, with its great collection of books, contains also a museum, a notable art gallery, a music hall, with a wonderful organ played by an equally wonderful organist, all "Free to the People." Then there were the great plays and players, not quite so free, perhaps, but one does not count the cost to hear Adelina Patti or Christine Nilsson or to see Edwin Booth, Jolm Mccullough, Irving, Miss Terry, Madame Bernhardt and many others equally entertaining. With the passing of the fleeting years, interest in former things lessens; domestic duties are less exacting ; there are new interests and new work. Mrs. Rowland is a member of the various progressive organizations in the community-a member of the Madison County Farmers' Club, a charter member of the Mt. Sterling chapter, Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution, and a charter member of the London chapter of the same patriotic society, having served as regent and as a member of the state regents' council for the year 1912-13. She is a member of and has served as president of the Woman's Club of London, an organization which has her heartiest co-operation in the splendid work it is doing. Through the initiative and energy of these representative women, a Carnegie library was brought to London, and the public school grounds were permanently beauti- fied and made the peer of any in Ohio. The inspiration for the first municipal Christ- mas celebration emanated from the Woman's Club, and the tree itself came from the grounds of "Homewood." In times of public calamity and of private misfortune, the Woman's Club has ever been one of the many channels through which the prosperity and good will of this garden spot, Madison county. flow to less favored communities.
Underlying all and dominating a busy life, Mrs. Rowland finds her deepest satis- faction and benefit in her lifelong membership in the Episcopal church. She and her daughter, Jane, and son, Hoyt, are communicants of Trinity church, London, and are deeply interested in the various beneficences of that parish.
W. E. LUKENS.
The important advances made in the undertaking business in recent years have completely revolutionized many of the basic details of that business, and the equipment required to be carried in stock by the modern funeral director is far different from that of a generation ago. In the well-equipped and up-to-date undertaking establish- ment of W. E. Lukens, at London, this county, there is carried not only an auto funeral car, the only one in London and the first of the kind brought to Madison county, but an auto ambulance, which also is the only one of the kind in the county. In every other respect Mr. Lukens is up-to-date in his manner of conducting his business, and in connection with his place there is an admirably-fitted funeral chapel, while his horse equipment leaves nothing to be desired for the proper conduct of funerals. Mr. Lukens is a first-class undertaker and is an active and influential member of the Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association of Ohio.
W. E. Lukens was born on a farm in Franklin county, Ohio, on November 16, 1883. the only son of G. K. and Mary (Moore) Lukens, both natives of that county, who moved to Madison county when their son was six years of age, buying a farm in the Lilly Chapel neighborhood, where they now live. They have one other child, a daugh- ter, Elta, who is with them on the home farm.
After finishing the course in the schools at Big Plain, in this county. W. E. Luken spent two years on the home farm, assisting his father in the operation of the
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same. and then went to Columbus, this state, where he entered the undertaking estab- lishment of Pletcher-Brown' Company, where he remained for one year. at the end of which time he went to Springfield, this state, where he acquired further valuable exper- ience in the undertaking business in the establishment of C. F. Jackson, in which he owned one-half interest. After which he returned to this county and located at London, where he bought the undertaking parlors of G. W. Lewis and has since been very successfully engaged in this business, having one of the best-equipped establish- ments of this kind in central Ohio.
On November 7, 1907. W. E. Lukens was united in marriage to May Van Horn, of Big Plain, this county, and to this union one child has been born, a daughter. Mar- garet. Mr. and Mrs. Lukens are members of the Methodist church, Mr. Lukens being connected with the official board of the same. for two years being financial secretary, and are earnestly interested in various movements for the advancement of all good cases hereabout. their many friends holding them in the very highest regard.
W. E. Lukens is a Republican and takes a prominent part in the political affairs of the county. He is now serving his second term as coroner of Madison county. Ile is an active member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. being treasurer of Madison Lodge No. 70, of that order, and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen and the Junior Order of United Mechanics, in all of which orders he is very popular, enjoying the fullest confidence and respect of his associates. Public spirited, enterprising and energetic, Mr. Lukens is held in high regard in London's business circles, while throughout the whole community his excellent service during hours of bereavement has the indorsement of the very best people in the county.
HARRY C. HAMES.
The Thomas & Armstrong Company, of which Harry C. Hames is superintendent, is one of the thriving young industrial enterprises of London and Madison county.
Harry C. Hames was born on May 25, 1857. at Columbus. He learned the sheet metal trade at Delaware. Ohio, where he remained for six years, mastering every detail of the trade. During the first six months of his apprenticeship at this trade, he received nothing; during the second six months. only two dollars a month. For a number of years thereafter, his wages were doubled every six months. After he had thoroughly learned his trade. Mr. Hames worked for the Keighley Company. of Pittsburgh, Pennsyl- vania ; the Berger Manufacturing Company, of Canton. Ohio, and for F. O. Schoedinger, of Columbus, Ohio. At the plant of the Berger Manufacturing Company, Mr. Hames worked as a pattern-cutter and as superintendent. After having served as superintendent of the plant owned by F. O. Schoedinger for twenty years, Mr. Hames moved to London, this county. in 1911 and helped to organize the Ohio Specialty Company. which originally had a plant at Columbus, which was moved to London. After the plant at London had been opened, Mr. Hames became secretary of the company. For twenty years. Mr. Hames had known Mr. Armstrong of the Thomas & Armstrong Company and when Mr. Armstrong sought to reorganize his concern, then a mere tin shop, housed in a building twenty-one by twenty-six feet and confined to the manufacture of roofing. sponting, etc., Mr. Hames was brought into the concern. The company was reorganized and recapital- ized and Mr. Hames took stock in the plant. After starting in a room, 'twenty-one by twenty-six feet. sixteen hundred and thirty-eight square feet were added and then another room, eighty-nine by seventy-four and one-half feet, two stories high, with a total of eight thousand seven hundred and ninety square feet. About this time the plant was put on a real manufacturing basis and some twenty men employed. In two years the company was compelled to enlarge its plant and since that time, has added a two-
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story building, sixty by sixty feet, with a total floor space of seventy-two hundred square feet and a one-story shed for a paint shop with a floor space of thirty-five hundred square feet. Altogether the company now occupies fifty-eight thousand, five hundred square feet of floor space and about forty men are employed. The Thomas & Armstrong Company has taken a lease on other lands for exhibition purposes. It now requires a working capital of seventy-five thousand dollars. In 1914 the company did a business of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, twice that of its capital stock. Mr. Hames, personally, has taken out a patent on three devices manufactured by the company.
Among the well-known "Buckeye" products of the Thomas & Armstrong Company, of London, are the round-steel tanks, round-end oblong tronghs, square-end tanks, galvan- ized cookers and water heaters, heavy steel cookers and water heaters, sheep-dipping tanks, hog scalders, cast-iron tank heaters, galvanized tank heaters, gasoline and oil buckets, feed or water troughs, mortar boxes, oil and gasoline tanks, hog-dipping tanks, poultry fountains, poultry troughs, rural free-delivery mail boxes, ash and garbage cans, chimney tops, galvanized round brood-coops and square brood-coops.
In an announcement issued by the company, the following statements are made : "We have been actively engaged in the sheet-metal-working trades for over twenty-five years. Extending over such a great length of time, few concerns can boast of a broader or more thorough experience than we have had. It has always been our policy, as our customers will testify, to handle only goods of best quality and to give full value for the money, always realizing that this is the only basis upon which a substantial business can be built. We have tried to make our products of honest materials and in an honest way, the very best we knew how. With this policy continually before us, we have gradually built up a large trade, extending from one end of the country to the other. Our new shops are equipped with the most modern machinery and we have adopted every modern method of approved value, so that we may be able to give the very best of service to our customers. This also serves as an assurance that our prices are the lowest possible, consistent with good workmanship and materials."
One of the leading products of the Thomas & Armstrong Company is silo equip- ments, which are shipped to silo manufacturers and to jobbers in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and the far West.
Harry C. Hames, superintendent of this plant, was married to Mrs. Abbie Perie, of Columbus, whose son, Clarence Knull, is employed by the Thomas & Armstrong Com- pany. Mr. and Mrs. Hames have no children.
HENRY D. FOLMER.
Alfalfa, a farm product to which the subject of this sketch has devoted his special attention, and on which he has published a book, has been claiming the interest of northern and western agriculturists for many years, and is now coming into its own in the eastern states. although it is still in its infancy there. It is to the man who makes a study of the business in which he is engaged, who is entitled to praise as being progressive, and being satisfied with nothing but the best in return for his efforts and labor.
Henry D. Folmer, farmer, West Jefferson, Madison county, was born on June 18 .. 1852. at Janesville, Wisconsin, and is a son of George and Sophronia ( Thrasher) Folmer. Ilis education was obtained in the district schools, and he began teaching at the age of twenty-three years in Franklin and Madison counties, after which he decided to fol- low agriculture, and settled down to the care of a farm. His attention was attracted to the subject of alfalfa, of which he made a special study. and became such an authority on the production that he wrote a book on the subject, which has been well received.
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Mr. Folmer is the proprietor of the "Wildwood Farm," one hundred and forty acres located abont four and one-half miles northeast of West Jefferson, on the East pike. Politically."he is not bound to any particular party, casting his' vote according to the man who best pleases his views. His church membership is with the Universalist church, and he takes a great interest in the grange, of which he is a member.
George Folmer, father of Henry D. Folmer, was a pioneer settler on a farm at Janesville, Rock county, Wisconsin, but was a native of Pennsylvania and of German lineage, his parents having emigrated from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania. His wife was Sophronia (Thrasher) Folmer. Henry D. Folmer, at the age of three years, came with his parents to Madison county and settled on his present farm, though just previously they had traveled through several states before locating in Madison county.
George and Sophronia ( Thrasher) Folmer were the parents of two children, Henry D. and Salmon Paul, the latter of whom was born on May 9, 1855, and died on Febru- ary 21. 1900. He lived in West Jefferson until twenty-one years of age, and then began teaching school, after which he took a course in medicine and was graduated from the Cincinnati Medical College. Ile practiced medicine at West Jefferson, this county, and died at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Ilenry D. Folmer was united in marriage, October 16, 1884, with Alvira Jones, daughter of Richard Jones. Franklin county, Ohio. Mrs. Folmer was born on July 15, 1849 in Licking county, Ohio. No children have been born to this union.
Mr. and Mrs. Folmer are extremely agreeable people, extending their kindness and courtesy to all. and are well liked throughout the community in which they reside. Mrs. Folmer is a member of the Baptist church.
II. M. CHANEY. D. D. S.
Few men in public life in Madison county have been more active in the civic affairs of the county seat and in the affairs of the county generally than Doctor Chaney, present auditor of the county. For nine years Doctor Chaney was treasurer of the corporation of London. the county seat. He then was elected mayor of the city and before his term of office as chief executive of the city had expired he was elected to the office of county auditor, administering the duties of that important office so satis- factorily to the public at large that he was re-elected and is now serving his second term. Doctor Chaney also has given much attention to the business affairs of the city and was the first secretary of the London Board of Trade, filling that position for three successive terms. He is interested in numerous enterprises of considerable impor- tance in the commercial and industrial life of the community and ranks very high as a public-spirited, enterprising and energetic citizen, who holds the best interests of his home city and county very dearly at heart. In whatever station the public has called Doctor Chaney to service he has done well his part. and it is not too much to say that no man in the community commands in a higher measure the confidence and esteem of all the people than he.
H. M. Chaney was born on a farm in Ilighland county, Ohio. on January 2, 1872, son of John and Mary ( Holmes) Chaney. both natives of the state of New Jersey, who were the parents of five children, those surviving, besides the subject of this sketch, being N. H. Chaney, superintendent of schools at Youngstown. Ohio; Jacob H. Chaney, a farmer living near York, Nebraska. and Mrs. Cora Chaney, of Ashland, Kansas. John Chaney left New Jersey when a young man and came West, locating in Highland county, this state, where he spent the rest of his life engaged in farming, his death occurring ahont thirty-four years ago. His widow survived him many years, her death not occurring until 1912.
Reared on the paternal farm in Highland county, H. M. Chaney received his ele-
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mentary education in the district schools of his home neighborhood and in the public schools of Washington C. H., in Fayette county, his brother having at that time been superintendent of the city schools at the latter place. Upon completing his common- school education, he entered Ohio Dental College, at Cincinnati, from which institution he was graduated in 1892. For two years after receiving his degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery, Doctor Chaney maintained an office for the practice of his profession in Cincinnati and at the end of that time, in 1894, moved to London, this county, and formed a partnership for the practice of dentistry with Dr. Joseph Chance. This partnership continued for five or six years, at the end of which time Doctor Chaney opened an office of his own and continued thus to practice alone until about eight years ago, when he formed his present mutually agreeable partnership with Dr. F. E. Noland.
From the time of his entrance upon the stage of action in London, Doctor Chaney has given of the very best of himself to the advancement of the best interests of the city and early began to make the force of his engaging personality manifest in the affairs of the county seat. In 1897, three years after his arrival in the city, he was elected treasurer of London corporation and served in that capacity until 1906, a period of nine years. In 1909. he was elected mayor of the city and was making one of the best and most popular chief executives London ever had when he was elected, in the fall of 1910, to the office of county auditor and resigned his position of mayor, after a service of one year and nine months, to enter upon the duties of the auditor's office. So satisfactorily did he discharge the duties of this important office that he was re-elected in 1912 and is now serving on his second term.
On June 19, 1895, Dr. H. M. Chaney was united in marriage to Jeanette Squires, daughter of W. S. and Ellen (Smith) Squires, of London, this county, and to this union three children have been born, Katherine, Robert Lee and Amelia. Dr. and Mrs. Chaney are devoted members of the Methodist church and take a warm interest in the various departments of that church's good works, their children being reared in that faith.
Doctor Chaney is a Republican and ever since his arrival in Madison county has taken an active part in the political affairs of this section. His intelligent grasp of public questions and comprehensive knowledge of local affairs early commanded the attention of the party managers and his counsels proved valuable in their deliberations, he soon being given a seat in their councils which he ever since has retained, and is at present serving very effectively as secretary of the executive committee of the party in this county. Doctor Chaney is a Mason, a member of the Knights of Pythias and a member of the Ohio State Dental Association. He has given close study to local busi- ness conditions and has taken an active part in all measures designed to advance the best interests of the community. Upon the organization of the London Board of Trade he was elected secretary of the same and served in that capacity for three consecutive years, or until that new and useful agency for the promotion of the city's business interests was well on its feet. He is a director of the Citizens Loan and Savings Asso- ciation and for several years has been vice-president of that well-established institu- tion. Doctor Chaney also is a director of the London Grave . Vault Company ; secretary- treasurer of the Buckeye Dryer Company and a director of the Trimble Paving Brick Company, of Dayton, Ohio.
Diligent in his own business. Doctor Chaney also has been faithful in the discharge of the numerous duties which the public has imposed upon him and enjoys the con- fidence and esteem of the entire community, there being few persons in public life here- about who are held in higher regard than he, even though he has been a resident of the county but a little more than a bare decade.
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