USA > Ohio > Morrow County > History of Morrow County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vol. II > Part 32
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spelled Reinhard. Joshua Rinehart was born and reared in York county, Pennsylvania, whence he came to Perry Township, Morrow county, in an early day. He became the father of the following named children: Isaiah, Jemima, William, Ephraim, Benjamin F. and Genius P. The only daughter, Jemima, became the wife of Hiram Craven and they maintained their home at Morrow. The father was summoned to the life eternal in 1897 and the mother passed away in 1892.
Benjamin F. Rinehart was reared to maturity on the old homestead farm in Perry township, this county, and in that place he attended school until he had attained to the age of seventeen years, at which time he went to Pennsylvania, where he was various- ly employed, one of his interests being the nursery business. In 1869 he went west to Kansas, where he remained for two years, at the expiration of which he returned to Morrow county, Ohio. Soon after his return he was married and thereafter he turned his attention to agriculture and the growing of high grade stock. He is a carpenter by trade but is not actively identified with that occupation. In politics he is a Democrat and at the present time, in 1911, is assessor of the southern part of Washington township. Mr. Rinehart is a valued and appreciative member of the Mt. Gilead Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and he and his wife are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Iberia.
On March 9, 1876, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rine- hart to Miss Mary E. Braddock, who was born in Washington town- ship on the 1st of January, 1853, a daughter of Martin C. and Mary A. (Sipes) Braddock, whose ancestory is traced back to General Braddock of Revolutionary war fame. Mr. and Mrs. Martin C. Braddock passed their entire lives in Ohio, where their deaths occurred in 1856 and 1899 respectively. John Braddock, paternal grandfather of Mrs. Rinehart, married Margaret Gray in 1801, and in 1808 came to Ohio, where he entered a tract of government land in Morrow county. Mr. and Mrs. Rinehart have four chil- dren, concerning whom the following brief data are here incor- porated : Starling A., is married and resides in Washington town- ship; Bessie, was graduated in the Iberia High School and is now a student in the business college at Mansfield, Ohio; Enola, was graduated in the Iberia High School as a member of the class of 1905 and for the past three years has been a popular and successful teacher in the public schools of Morrow county ; Lemoine D., was a student in the Iberia and Mt. Gilead High Schools and he now remains at the parental home, where he is associated with his father in the work and management of the home farm. One child, Verna E., who was born March 27, 1880, died July 25, 1893. Mrs. Rinehart being of Revolutionary stock is entitled as well as her children to become members of the great order, sons and daughters of the Revolution, which is a high honor. Mr. Rinehart is well known in Morrow county, where
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occurred his birth and where he has passed much of his life, and here he has gained the warm regard which is ever given in recogni- tion of sterling worth and admirable personal traits of character.
WILLIAM S. LEFEVER .- As one of the representative farmers of the younger generation in his native county and as a citizen whose popularity is of the most unequivocal type, Mr. Lefever well merits consideration in this volume. His well improved farm of eighty-five acres is located one mile north of the village of Edison, in his native township of Canaan, and here he is successfully en- gaged in general farming and stock growing, which are lines of industry with which the family name has here been long identified.
William S. Lefever was born in Cannaan township, this county, on the 29th of October, 1882, and is a son of Frank and Mary (Lyon) Lefever, who are well known and highly esteemed citizens of this township, where the father was actively engaged in agricul- tural pursuits. He is a native of Morrow county, Ohio, born May, 20, 1852. He was educated in the schools of his native county and his whole life has been devoted to agriculture and stock raising. His wife was born in the little state of New Jersey, in October, 1855, and both are still living. Under the vitalizing influences and labors of the home farm William S. Lefever was reared to manhood, and he has had the good judgment not to waver in his allegiance to the great basie industry with which he thus became familiar in his boy- hood days. He is indebted to the excellent public schools of Mor- row county for his early educational training, which was effectively supplemented by a course in a business college in the city of Mans- field, this state. He continued to be associated in the work and management of his father's farm until he had attained to the age of twenty-seven years, and in 1910 he purchased his present farm, whose location is most attractive, as it is situated on the well im- proved thoroughfare known as the Boundary road and is only a mile distant from the thriving village of Edison. Mr. Lefever is enthusiastic and progressive in his chosen vocation and his farm is a model of thrift and prosperity. He raises the various agri- cultural products best suited to this section and also raises live stock of excellent grades. His attitude in connection with civic affairs is marked by liberality and distinctive loyalty, and he is now serving as constable and also as health officer of his township. The principles and policies of the Democratic party enlist his hearty support and he takes a lively interest in public affairs, especially those of local import. Mr. Lefever is a member of the United Brethren church in Climax and his wife holds membership in the Universalist church. In a fraternal way he is identified with Iberia Lodge, No. 64, Knights of Pythias, in the village of Iberia, and he is active in its work.
On the 22nd of June, 1903, Mr. Lefever was united in mar- riage to Miss Lucille Coe, who was born in the village of Edison.
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this county, on the 15th of May, 1886, and who is a daughter of Samuel Allen Coe, a representative business man and sterling citi- zen of that plaee. Mr. and Mrs. Lefever have three children, whose names and respective dates of birth are here indieated: Dorothy E., January 11, 1905; Harold E., November 4, 1906; and Esther L., February 8, 1908. The attractive country homestead of Mr. and Mrs. Lefever is known as "Idlewild Farm," and the doors of the hospitable home are ever open to their friends.
WASHINGTON GARDNER, grandson of John Gardner and sixth and youngest son of John Lewis and Sarah (Goodin) Gardner, was born on a farm two miles due north from South Woodbury February 16, 1845. In his fourth year the mother died leaving a family of nine children, six sons and three daughters. Shortly after his mother's death the subject of this sketeh was taken into the home of his paternal unele, for whom he had been named, and until he entered the army lived in or near the village of Westfield. The young lad early learned the lessons of self denial and self help. In the spring of 1859, when but fourteen years old, his uncle engaged him to work for Mr. Robert Kearney, a most estimable man who owned a farm a little west of Westfield, for six dollars a month and board; the next year for the same party for seven ; and the next for eight dollars a month. Mr. Kearney had a small but well selected library, of which the "hired boy" made good use during his leisure hours and in the long winter evenings after his next day's school lessons had been prepared.
In the spring of 1860, after a winter in the village school, taught by Mr. Joseph B. Breekenridge, who at this writing is still a resident of Westfield and very proud of the career of his former pupil, he attended the Mount Hesper Academy located in the Friends Settlement near South Woodbury then and for many years conducted by the late Jesse and Cynthia Harkness. Many of the sons and daughters of Morrow county were educated at this one time well known and popular sehool.
On the evening of Saturday, October 26, 1861, a largely at- tended war meeting was held in the lecture room of the Methodist Episcopal church, addressed by James Olds, of Mount Gilead. At the close of the address a call was made for volunteers and young Gardner was the first of a considerable number of Westfield boys to go forward to the desk on the platform and write down his name. The boy reeruit who had hitherto scarcely been outside of his native county now entered upon a new and strange life. It was rough and dangerous but valuable school. Its lessons given in the camp, on the march, around the bivouac, on the picket post, during the seige, upon the battlefield and in the hospital were if rightly applied, such as to better fit one for the subsequent duties and responsibilities of life. Mr. Gardner became a member of Company D, Sixty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry Volunteers. The
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history of this company being elsewhere given in detail in this volume, it is enough to say that this, according to the official records. youngest member of the company shared every campaign, march, siege and battle participated in by his regiment until hit in battle on the afternoon of Saturday, May 14, 1864. at Resaea, Georgia, in Sherman's campaign for Atlanta. His clothes were pierced by the bullet of a Confederate sharp shooter in the battle of Stone's river and his bayonet scabbard eut into, and the little finger of the left hand grazed on the second day at Chickamauga, but blood
AS A RAW RECRUIT.
AS A COLLEGE GRADUATE.
was not drawn until the well aimed bullet was fired at Resaca which permanently disabled and made him henceforth a sufferer for life. The wounded soldier was fortunate in the eare he received in the temporary hospital near the battlefield and again in Chattanooga, to which place he was removed from Resaca and later in Nashville, where he was confined for months on a eot in the First Presby- terian church, which was used as a hospital in that city. He was here when Hood's army invaded the Tennessee capital in Deeember, 1864, and on the 14th of that month, the day before the battle of Nashville opened, he was honorably diseharged by reason of expira- tion of term of serviee.
Returning to the home of his unele, Washington Gardner, at Westfield on a Friday evening in Deeember, 1864, a veteran of more than three years of serviee in war though still a youth under twenty years of age, he at once put into execution a resolution formed while in the army, viz, that if he lived to get home he would go to school. On the Monday morning following his arrival home from the war on the preceding Friday night he enrolled as a pupil in the Beach Grove Academy at Ashley, Ohio. After one term here he entered the preparatory department of Baldwin Uni- versity, Berea, Ohio, where he remained four terms and in the fall
MRS. WASHINGTON GARDNER
GAGE =BATTLE CREEK
Truly yours Washington Gardner
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of 1866 matriculated as a freshman in Hillsdale College, Michigan. He remained in this institution for three years having in the meantime among others as fellow students, Will Carleton, the poet ; Albert J. Hopkins, for many years a member of Congress, and later a senator of the United States from Ilinois; John F. Downey, dean of the University of Minnesota and one of the foremost edu- cators in the middle west; and Joseph H. Moore, now and for many years one of the justices of the Michigan Supreme Court. During his senior vacation in the summer of 1869 he visited among his old friends in Morrow county, some of whom prevailed upon him to take his last collegiate year at Delaware. After a suceess- ful examination he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University, from which institution he graduated from the classical course on the 30th day of June, 1870, receiving the degree of A. B. and later that of A. M. in Cursu.
During all his school days Mr. Gardner purposed to study law, with a political career in view, but while at Delaware in- fluences were brought to bear that changed the course he had prev- iously marked out for himself. The fall of 1871 found him a student in the Boston University, School of Theology. In the second year of his course his health gave way after a continuous strain in school and hard work in vacations to earn money with which to meet his expenses in college. In the fall of 1875 he entered the Albany Law School, from which he subsequently grad- uated as valedictorian of his class. In the meantime he had mar- ried Miss Anna Lee Powers, of Abington, Massachusetts. Mrs. Gardner, on the paternal side, is connected with the well known Powers family of New Hampshire, her father being a native of that state, distinguished in sculpture. law and politics. Her mother was a Miss Reed, related to the people of that name both in Massa- chusetts and Maine. Her ancestors on the maternal side have lived in Plymouth county since the landing of the Pilgrims from the Mayflower. To Mr. and Mrs. Gardner have been born seven children-Grace Bartlett, Mary Theodosia, Carleton Frederick, Elton Goldthwaite, Raymond Huntington, Lucy Reed and Helen Louise. All are living except the first named, who died in early infaney. All are married and settled in life, except Miss Helen, who is at this writing a girl of eighteen.
In the fall of 1876 Mr. Gardner removed with his family to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and entered upon the practice of law in partnership with Mr. Samuel A. Kennedy, a former college chum. After one year in the law he entered the Michigan Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church and preached for twelve years, at the end of which time he was tendered and accepted a professorship mn Albion College, Michigan. In March, 1894, while serving in this capacity he was, without solicitation, requested by Governor John T. Rich to accept the position of secretary of state to fill out an unexpired term. Laying the matter before the trustees of the Vol. II-18
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college they advised him to accept. He was subsequently twice nominated by acclamation and elected to the same office. While serving as secretary of state he was nominated and elected to con- gress by the Republicans of the Third Michigan District and was five times elected to succeed himself, serving in the 56th, 57th, 58th, 59th, 60th, and 61st Congresses. Ten of his twelve years in Con- gress he was a member of the Comittee on Appropriations. During his service on this committee estimates aggregating $3,405,927,- 100.10 were considered and bills amounting to $3,185,567,336.69 were framed and carried through Congress, resulting in a saving to the government, below the estimates, of $220,359,763.41. Mr. Gardner also served as chairman of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Commerce and Labor. Through the Commit- tee on Appropriations he was closely associated with the building of the Panama Canal. It was before this committee that the Chief and his assistant engineers annually appeared to explain the pro- gress of the enterprise. Three times at the request of the President of the United States Mr. Gardner with his associate committee mem- bers visited the Canal Zone and inspected the work with great care in order that the committee might have the fullest and most accurate information upon which to base their recommendations to the Congress. IIe also visited Cuba, Porto Rico, Jamaica and other of the tropical countries.
In Congress Mr. Gardner had the reputation of preparing with great care and thoroughness of detail the appropriation bills of which he had charge and of advocating and defending the measures presented by him with such clearness and force that not infrequently bills carrying many millions of dollars passed the critical scrutiny of the House with very little of change. For ten years he was a member and for four years chairman of the sub- committee having in charge the District of Columbia appropria- tion bills. Such was the manner in which he discharged the duties assigned him and so greatly were his services appreciated by the citizens of Washington, that on the eve of his retiremnt from Congress a public dinner was tendered him at which there were present the President of the Uited States, the speaker of the House of Representatives, many members of Congress, and about three hundred of the foremost citizens of the Federal City. President Taft, in speaking for the capital of the nation, said in part: "I came here to join with you in testifying to the gratitude that we all ought to feel toward a member of Congress who has given so effective attention and so much of his time in Congress for the benefit of the District of Columbia." The Hon. John W. Yerkes in behalf of the citizens of Washington, in a personal tribute to Mr. Gardner, said: "This homage, these thanks of the people of Washington-a crown unlike the laurel and the bay will never wither-must, notwithstanding your modesty and simplicity, your abhorrence of show and parade, accompany you back to your home
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in the Lake state, a trophy of war vet of victory; the capture by vou of the high esteem and affection of a great city." Major William V. Judson, engineer commissioner of the District of Colum- bia, in behalf of the commissioners of the district, said: "Mr. Gard- ner has never inserted in an appropriation bill a single item to gratify a friend or to win the applause of the thoughtless. No man in Washington owes him a thank you for a special favor. I bear witness to the sterling qualities of this man. His honesty, infinite patience and intelligent application are too unworthily recognized by any mere public dinner. In giving this slight token of respect we feel that we honor ourselves more than we do him." Admiral C. H. Stockton, the acting president of George Washington Uni- versity said, that "the hand of Representative Gardner is to be seen in every good thing in the district. There is no one more just or better qualified to present our great projects to Congress." Mr. Speaker Cannon said, " have come to give my personal, com- mittee and political friend a sad farewell because his going from us is a real loss to the American Congress." No greater welcome has ever been accorded a guest of honor than when Mr. Gardner was introduced by the toast master, Mr. John Jay Edison, to ac- knowledge the tributes paid him. The entire company arose and cheered him mightily. Handkerchiefs were waved and flowers were tossed toward him.
We insert the above extracts from the Washington Star of February 26, 1911, as showing at the end of a long career in Congress the esteem in which a Morrow county boy is held in the capital city of the nation. Surely it is a faraway distance from the place of an obscure, motherless and self-dependent lad of fourteen years working on a farm at six dollars a month to the cen- tral figure in a great banquet hall in the capital of the nation receiving as a tribute for public services well and faithfully per- formed homage and plaudits from some of the nation's most dis- tinguished citizens. It is but another ilhistration of the possibili- ties of the American boy. The citizens of Morrow county are justly proud of its having been the birth-place of Washington Gardner. They are proud of his useful and honorable career. His home is Albion, Michigan.
WILLIAM F. COOK .- In the prosecution of his independent occupation of a general farmer William F. Cook has met with gratifying results, his land being fertile and well adapted to the production of the cereals comnon to this section of the country, of which he raises good crops each season. A native of Westfield township, his present home, he was born February 11, 1854, a son of the late Jolin Cook.
David Cook, Mr. Cook's paternal grandfather, was born, bred and married in Ireland. In 1801, accompanied by his young wife. he immigrated to the United States, impelled by the spirit that led
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so many men of energy and enterprise to seek new homes in the wilds of America. Making his way to Ohio, he lived first in Upper Sandusky, Wyandot county, from there coming to Morrow county, where he spent the closing years of his life, his body, at his death, being laid to rest in Westfield township. Ile was very loyal to the country of his adoption, and served her valiantly in the war of 1812 and in the Mexican war.
John Cook was born in Upper Sandusky, Wyandot county, but was educated in Morrow county. He spent the greater part of his life in Westfield township, being an honored . and respected citizen, his death occurring here in 1883. In 1861, about seven years after the birth of his youngest son, he became totally blind. an affliction from which he never recovered. To him and his wife, whose maiden name was Louisa Nichols and who died in June, 1883, four children were born. William F., the special subject of this brief sketch, having been the fourth child in order of birth.
Reared on the parental homestead, William F. Cook obtained his elementary education in the rural schools of his native district and subsequently attended the Cardington High School for three years. Then, after teaching school a year, Mr. Cook turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, and has since devoted his ener- gies to the care of his farm. He has forty-three acres of land in his home place, which is advantageously located on the Cardington and Delaware road, but two and one-half miles from Cardington. Here Mr. Cook is carrying on general farming successfully, having all the necessary farm buildings and machinery required by a first-class, modern agriculturist. He is not paticularly active in politics, and belongs to but one fraternal organization, that one being the Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men, of Columbus, Ohio.
Mr. Cook married. September 4, 1884, Mellvonia Watkins, who was born February 28, 1861, in Gilead township, Morrow county, where she lived until nine years old, when her parents, Thonlas J. and Sarah (Henry) Watkins, moved to Cardington township. She was educated in the district and the Cardington schools, living at home until her marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Cook are the parents of six children, namely : Ivah, twenty-four years of age, is the wife of Elmer Bond, of Cardington township, and mother of two child- ren, Florence and Charles; Florence, twenty-two years old ; George, now twenty-one years old; Marion F., a graduate of the Carding- ton High School; Ira, seventeen years old; and Inez, who was born eight years ago. Mrs. Cook is a member of the United Brethren church at Shawtown, Ohio. Mr. Cook on national affairs upholds the Democratic doctrine.
WILLIAM E. MILLER .- A contractor and builder of note in Mount Gilead and a man whose varied business interests are of most prominent order is William E. Miller, who through persistent
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effort and constancy to the work at hand has made his way to the goal of success and gained distinctive prestige as a representative business man.
William E. Miller was born on a farm in Gilead township, Morrow county, Ohio, the date of his nativity being May 17, 1853. He is a son of Nehemiah and Rachel (Straw) Miller, the former of whom was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and the latter of whom claimed Morrow county, at that time Knox county, as the place of her birth. Nehemiah Miller came to Morrow county, Ohio, at an early date and here was solemnized his marriage. He was a cabinet maker by trade and was one of the most prominent citizens in Mount Gilead. He was summoned to the life eternal in 1902, at the age of eighty-nine years, his cherished and devoted wife having passed away in 1863. Mr. and Mrs. Nehemiah Miller were the parents of the following children: John, Martha N., Gil- bert E., Lucinda C., John F., Parker J., William E. and Mellville D.
William E. Miller, who was the next to the youngest in order of birth in the above mentioned family, was reared to the age of nineteen years on the home farm and at that age he entered upon an apprenticeship at the carpenter's trade, under the able precep- torship of his uncle, Wiliam Miller, who was a large contractor. He worked on several large court houses, among them being those of Richland, and Erie, Licking counties, Ohio. After he had learned his trade he continued to be identified with this line of enterprise for a period of twenty-seven years, during which time he remodeled the Morrow county court house two times. He also constructed the Methodist Episcopal church, the Masonic temple and several other fine buildings in Galion, Ohio, and he has been instrumental in the erection of many of the finest residences in Mount Gilead.
Mr. Miller is the owner of considerable real estate in Mount Gilead, including his fine home on North Main street. He erected and organized what is now known as the Mount Gilead Lumber Company, which he operated from 1880 until 1905. He is one of the directors of the Morrow County Bank and in the Hydraulic Press Works. He is general manager, secretary and treasurer of the Mount Gilead Water, Light, Heat and Power Company, in which he is also a director and stockholder; is president of the Mount Gilead Savings and Loan Association ; and is a stockholder in the Marengo Bank. In politics Mr. Miller is a stalwart Republican and for a number of years he was treasurer of Mount Gilead. Fra- ternally, he is affiliated with Mount Gilead Lodge, No. 169, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and in religious matters he is of the Presbyterian church and his wife is a member of the Baptist church, in whose behalf they have ever been most ardent workers.
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