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 38
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Willis C. MeFarland received his early education in the pub- lic schools of his home township and of Iberia. When eighteen
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years of age he entered the Ohio Central College, at the latter place, where he pursued a course of study and then taught faith- fully and well for a period of ten years; during this chapter of his career he also took special advanced studies at Ada College.
After his marriage in 1885, Mr. MeFarland purehased a small farm in Tully township, Marion county, which he worked during his summer vaeations, but eventually sold the property, located in Iberia and beeame interested in the auetioneering business. This has been his chief business line sinee 1890 and of late years it has expanded to such dimensions that practically his entire time is now devoted to its management and promotion. In politics he is actively and firmly Republican, as he has always been since he was qualified to vote the regular tieket. In the fall of 1901 he was elected, by a plurality of two hundred and fifty-one votes, to the office of county auditor, and at the expiration of his first term he was returned to offiee with a plurality of four hundred and fifty- one; and speaking facts these are to his official faithfulness and ability. Mr. McFarland served altogether for seven years in the capacity named; one term of three years and (by a change in the law) another, of four years. In October, 1909, his second term as county auditor having expired, he returned to his private interests, which were pressing him for attention. As stated, most of his time is now devoted to his duties as an auctioneer, a portion of his attention being also direeted toward the management of a fine farm in Gilead township. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, and he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church at Mount Gilead.
On January 8, 1885, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Mc- Farland to Miss Florence M. Crane, who is a daughter of the late E. J. Crane, of Morrow county, but a native of Muskingum county. Mrs. McFarland was also born in the latter county, but was reared and educated in the former. After completing the curriculum of the district schools she attended Iberia College for some years and prepared herself to assume her place in the com- munity as an educated and gracious woman. The only child, Ray L. McFarland, is now serving as deputy auditor of Morrow county, and as an able and coming citizen is accorded a review in other pages of this work.
JOHN W. Cook, superintendent of the Buekeye Milling Company, is a representative business man and one of the most popular and highly respected of the citizens of Mount Gilead and Morrow county. The industrial activities of any community form one of its chief sources of material prosperity and the fair capital of Morrow county is particularly fortunate in having at the head of an enterprise of such broad scope and importance a man as pro- gressive, independent and upright as he. He has won the success Vol. II-21
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which ever crowns well directed labor, sound judgment and untir- ing perseverance and at the same time he has concerned himself with the affairs of his native county in a loyal, publie-spirited way. The concern of which he is the head was incorporated as the Buck- cve Milling Company, and since 1888, the date of said incorpora- tion, it has undergone many changes. Further mention of the company is made in the historical part of this work.
Mr. Cook is a native of Morrow county, his birth having oc- curred some two and one-half miles southeast of Mount Gilead September 6, 1873, his parents being John W. and Matilda (Mateer) Cook. The family is one well known in this part of the Buckeye state, his father being one of the highly esteemcd repre sentatives of the great basic industry in this locality. The head of the house is a native of Gloucester. England, his birth having occurred in April, 1834. He was reared in his native land until the age of twenty-two and he was a baker by trade. John Cook is a self-educated, as well as a self-made man. He came to America in 1856 in a sailing vessel, embarking at Liverpool and being six weeks en voyage. When he landed in New York he awakened to the fact that he was a stranger in a strange land and with very little capital. For a while he worked at his trade at Staten Island, becoming associated with an, uncle, and in 1858 he came on to Galion, Ohio. As he had no money with which to start in business he secured work on a farm, and it proved so thoroughly congenial that he made it his life work. He is now living east of Iberia on a farm of one hundred and sixty acres.
The subject's mother was born in Morrow county, Ohio, in 1833, and her maiden name was Matilda Mateer. She was edu- cated in the common schools and she, as well as her husband, was a devout Presbyterian. She was called to her eternal rest Novem- ber 15, 1889. The union of this worthy couple was celebrated in 1862 and somewhere near that time the father enlisted as a mem- ber of Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, receiving his honorable discharge after a term of service. John W. is the youngest member of the family of five children. Alice became the wife of J. W. Walker, of Toledo; Hariette M. is the wife of J. C. Brown, of Harmony township; Charlotte E. is single; and James M. resides at Mount Gilead, where he is en- gaged with the Hydraulic Press Company.
When Mr. Cook was about eighteen months old his parents moved from Gilead township, which had been the scene of his nativity, and took up their residence upon a farm in Harmony township. This valuable tract of seventy-three acres was one of the most valuable and advantageously situated in the county and here were passed the boyhood and youth of the subject. At the proper age he entered the district cshool, which he attended in the winter, in the summer assisting in the various forms of em- ployment to be found upon a farm. When he was seventeen
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years of age he had some idea of taking up the work of telegraphy, and to that end went to Columbus, where he attended for some time a school of telegraphy. Upon his return to Morrow county he resumed farming for a time, his previous training in that line having given him an up-to-date knowledge of this department of activity. However, he was inclined rather toward commercial and industrial affairs, and about the year 1902 he entered the hard- ware store of A. L. Pipes, at Fulton, Ohio, where he gave efficient service for about a year. His identification with the town of Mount Gilead dates from September 13, 1903, upon which date he accepted a position with the Buckeye Milling Company, as super- intendent of the same .. Judging by subsequent events the step was a fortunate and most judicious one, and probably permanently directed the course of Mr. Cook's usefulness. This enterprise, as previously mentioned, was incorporated in the year 1888 by Thomas E. Duncan and others. In 1906 he purchased an interest in the Buckeye Milling Company and still retains the important position of superintendent. The concern, which owes much of its constant expansion to his fine executive force, has gained recog- nition as one of the finest milling industries in the state.
Mr. Cook became a recruit to the ranks of the Benedicts when on April 9, 1908, he was united in marriage to Miss Bertha A. Blyth, daughter of John and Louise (Wittibbslager) Blyth. She was born December 15, 1876, in Galion, Ohio, and received her education in the graded and high schools of that place. In 1892 she, with the rest of the household, removed to Bucyrus, her father having been elected to the office of county treasurer of Crawford county, in which important incumbeney he served two terms. He was a stalwart Democrat and was well known throughout this part of the state. In 1898 the Blyth family removed to Fulton, Ohio, where the father was engaged in the stone quarry business under the firm name of Rumer & Blyth. John Blyth was a member of the English Lutheran church of Bucyrus and was also a high Mason, being past grand patron of the Grand Chapter of Ohio, and he was probably more widely known and universally beloved and respected than any other member of the order in the state. He was a thirty- third degree Mason, having taken the last degree in Boston. Massa- chusetts He was a veteran of the Civil war, his service extending over two years as a member of Company B, of the Thirty-second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was wounded at Atlanta, Georgia, July 22, 1864, and received his honorable discharge March 14, 1865. He was a native Scotchman, born at Kirkcaldy, county of Fife, August 22, 1841. At the age of fourteen he went to Cornwall, Canada, and his identification with Galion, Ohio, dates from the spring of 1863. IIe was a mechanic by occupation. This honored and public-spirited citizen was summoned to the life eternal in February, 1906, upon which regrettable occurrence Mrs. Blyth, with her family, removed from Fulton to Mount Gilead,
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where she now resides. She and her husband were the parents of six children. L. W. Blyth resides in Cleveland, Ohio; T. O. Blyth is in business in Ft. Wayne, Indiana; Edith became the wife of T. J. Wiseman, of Joliet, Illinois; Ruth L. and Raymond J. still reside at home.
Mr. Cook is a very prominent and popular member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Mount Gilead Lodge, No. 169. He has had honors showered upon him in fraternal circles, being past grand and past chief patriarch, and he is also a member of Morrow Encampment, No. 59. Mrs. Cook is a member of Bucy- rus Chapter, No. 3, of the Eastern Star, and she is a prominent member of the Fulton Rebekah Lodge, in which she has passed all the chairs.
The subject gives his heart and hand to the men and measures of what its admirers term "The Grand Old Party." He is, in short, liberal and progressive in his attitude as a citizen and takes a deep interest in all that touches the advancement and prosperity of his native country. Genial and companionable, his circle of friends is circumscribed only by that of his acquaintanceship and he stands as a popular representative of the best type of business man. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church of Mount Gilead and assist with their sympathy and support all the good measures of the church body. Their home is one of the attractive and hospitable ones of the place.
HUGH G. ROGERS .- As the years relentlessly mark the mile- stones on the pathway of time the older generation slowly gives - way to the new and gradually there passes from our midst the men who made our country what it is and who built up this great empire of the middle west for the men of today. In every genera- tion and in every community some few men leave an indelible im- print upon the history of that community and upon the memories of those who have known them by their ability to fight and win even against great odds, and by that kind of character which wins last- ing friends because of that innate quality which people know as loyalty. Hugh G. Rogers, who passed into the Great Beyond on the 31st of December, 1899, was one of these. He was a gallant and faithful soldier in the Union ranks of the Civil war, represented his home district in the State Legislature and during the major portion of his life resided in Chester township, Morrow county, Ohio. By reason of his admirable character and exemplary life he is well deserving of representation in this historical compilation.
Hugh G. Rogers was born in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, on the 15th of August, 1831, and was a son of George and Catherine (Russ) Rogers, both of whom were born and reared in Wales, whence they immigrated to the United States in an early day. Mr. Rogers, of this review, was reared to adult age and educated in the old Keystone state of the Union and at the age of eighteen
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years began to learn the carpenter's trade, later going to Phila- delphia to learn stair-making. His great industry and thrift made him an exceedingly good workman. After his first marriage, in 1858, he came to Ohio, settling on a farm in Harmony township, in Morrow county. When the dark cloud of Civil war east its pall over the national horizon Mr. Rogers responded to President Lincoln's call for volunteers and with a number of other brave young men enlisted as a member of Company C., Ninety-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He entered the United States army at Card- ington and proceeded thence to Camp Chase at Columbus. He was sent on with the soldiers to meet General Kirby Smith on his ir vasion of Kentucky and later he was with General Sherman at Vicksburg, where he was disabled. He received his honorable discharge and was mustered out of service at Jefferson Barraeks, in St. Louis, Missouri, as fourth sergeant.
After his military service had been ended Mr. Rogers returned home and subsequently established the family home in Chester township, Morrow county, where he purchased the old Trowbridge estate, the same consisting of some one hundred and twelve acres of land, on which is located a beautiful little lake. Rogers Lake, as this body of water is called, was improved and beautified by Mr. Rogers, who made it an exceedingly popular summer resort, his kind, genial manner winning for him many friends who loved to come here to camp during the warm summer seasons. In his political allegiance Mr. Rogers was aligned as a stalwart supporter of the cause for which the Republican party stands sponsor. In the year 1894 he was honored by his fellow citizens with election to the office of representative from the Marion and Morrow county district in the State Legislature. He served in that capacity dur- ing the session of 1894-5 and during his incumbency served with all of efficiency on a number of important committees. He ever mani- fested a deep and sincere interest in educational matters in this section of the state and served most creditably for a number of years as a member of the local school board. He retained a deep and abiding interest in his old comrades in arms and signified the same by membership in Crayton Orr Post, No. 405, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he was commander for a time. He devoted a large portion of his time and attention to agricultural pursuits during the latter part of his life and in connection with that occu- pation was a valued and appreciative member of the Grange.
Mr. Rogers was twice married, his first union having been to Miss Rachel Hayden Evans, the ceremony having taken place in the year 1858. This union was prolific of four children : Thomas and Lewis, both deceased; and George W. and Olive. Mrs. Rogers was summoned to eternal rest in 1870 and subsequently he married Miss Eliza Bruce, who was born and reared in Morrow county, Ohio, and who is a daughter of Joel Bruec, of Chester township. There were no children born of this marriage. Mr. and Mrs.
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Rogers continued to reside on the old homestead farm in Chester township until his death, which occurred on the 31st of Deeember, 1899. A peculiar thing connected with Mr. Rogers' demise is that he died in one century and was buried in the next.
There is no perfection in human nature, yet Mr. Rogers eame as near to the most attractive ideal of such perfection as any man who has gathered about him the affection and admiration of his fellow men. Ile was free from a censorious spirit and he never uttered an unkind criticism of any one. His convictions were as solid as adamant and neither fear nor favor eould shake them from him, yet he tried to estimate human conduct in the light of that charity which "hopeth all things, which beareth all things, which is not easily provoked, which thinketh no evil." He was a man swayed by a conscience enlightened by the truth and spirit of God. His ambition to be right and do right was the paramount incen- tive and he counted not the cost in the attainment of so noble an end. But his most sterling and shining quality was his religious character. He was a devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he was a member of the board of trustees at the time of his demise. He was a careful student of the history of the great denomination to which he belonged and tried as best he could to glorify Christ through the love and devotion of his individual life.
George W. Rogers, the only surviving child of Hugh G. Rogers, was born in Morrow county, Ohio, on the 17th of December, 1858. He was educated in the public schools of his native place and was reared under the invigorating infinence of the old homestead farm, in the work and management of which he early began to assist his father. On January 19, 1887, was celebrated his marriage to Miss Blanche Bulyer, of Fredericktown. She is a daughter of
David and Amanda (Reep) Bulyer, both natives of Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Rogers beeame the parents of five children, namely : Hoy G., Dorothea M., Dewey D., Pauline and Hugh. All the children have been afforded excellent educational advantages. After being grad- uated in the high school at Chesterville, Ohio, Hoy G. was matricu- lated as a student in the Ohio Wesleyan College, at Delaware, Ohio, in the theological department of which splendid institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1910. He is an ordained minister in the Methodist Episcopal church and his first charge was at Belleville. He is now a resident of Butler, Ohio, where he has charge of the Methodist Episcopal parish, and where he has just closed a successful revival, in which were num- bered sixty-five converts. Dorothea M. is a member of the class of 1911 in the high school at Chesterville, and Dewey and Pauline are attending the graded school ..
Mr. Rogers is engaged in farming on a splendid estate of one hundred and fifty acres, the same being located on a pleasant eminence overlooking the town of Chesterville. On one occasion,
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on being asked what his business was, Mr. Rogers replied : "My business is rearing and educating boys and girls. My work is farming to pay expenses." The Rogers family is certainly well deserving of the high place they hold in popular confidence and esteem in this community, where their efforts to promote progress and improvement have ever been of the most insistent order. In politics Mr. Rogers endorses the cause of the Republican party and while he has never manifested aught of ambition for the honors or emoluments of public office of any description he is ever on the alert and enthusiastically in sympathy with all projects advanced for the general welfare. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in religious matters is with his family a valued and appreciative member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
HUGH A. MCKINNON .- As a member of the firm of MeKinnon & Jago, photographers at Mount Gilead, Morrow county, Ohio, Hugh A. Mckinnon has gained an influential place in the business world of this city. He was born at Atkins, Iowa, on the 2nd of June, 1881, and is a son of Hugh and Elizabeth Mckinnon, the former of whom was born on the Isle of Man and the latter at Irvington, Scotland.
Hugh Mckinnon, Sr., was born on the Isle of Man but was reared and educated in Scotland. He received a good practical education and was a skilled mechanic, being a fine smithy. He worked on the first steel ship which ever was built and launched on the river Clyde. The people were very skeptical as to the floating qualities of steel vessels, claiming they would sink; but when the day of launching the vessel came, hundreds of people gathered on the wharfs and were nonplussed when it dipped six inches less than a wooden vessel. Mr. Mckinnon and wife sailed from Glasgow, Scotland, and landed in Quebec in 1865, the voyage being of six weeks' duration. He came to Montreal to pursue his trade, and went thence to several points in Canada, later to Detroit and Chicago, and worked there some years, trying each time to better his fortune. From Chicago he went to Iowa and thence to Nebraska. He was a great student and reader. Politically he was a Populist, but a great admirer of Mckinley. Formerly he and his wife were Presbyterians, but in later years they joined the Methodists. There were ten children, seven sons and three daugh- ters in the family, and all are living but one daughter. All the children except Hugh A., the subject of this sketch, are residing west of the Mississippi river. The senior Mr. Mckinnon died June 19, 1904. Mrs. McKinnon was a Scotch lassie and was edn- cated in her native land. She resides in Parker, Nebraska.
When seven years of age Hugh A. MeKinnon accompanied his parents on their removal from Iowa to western Nebraska, to whose publie schools he is indebted for his early educational train-
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ing. In 1904 he was graduated in the commercial course in the Western Normal Business Institute at Shenandoah, Iowa, and immediately thereafter he became principal of the Federal Business College at Bucyrus, Ohio, continuing incumbent of that position for one year, at the expiration of which he took up bookkeeping and became cashier of the Hydraulie Press Manufactuirng .Com- pany, at Mount Gilead. He was thus employed from September, 1905, until May 1, 1908. In the latter year he organized the firm of MeKinnon & Jago and engaged in the photography business. In this line of enterprise his success has been on a parity with his well directed endeavors and the firm of MeKinnon & Jago now controls a large and flourishing business.
In 1907 Mr. MeKinnon was united in marriage to Miss Jane Jago, who was born at Mount Gilead, on the 9th of June, 1881, a daughter of George and Ellen (Cooper) Jago, of Mount Gilead. Mrs. MeKinnon was graduated in the Mount Gilead High School as a member of the elass of 1898, and she was engaged in the work of bookkeeping from 1901 to 1907.
Mr. McKinnon is a stalwart Republican in his politieal pro- clivities and he is affiliated with the time-honored Masonie fra- ternity. He and his wife are devout members of the Presbyterian church, in which he is secretary of the board of trustees.
JOSEPH CRIDER .- In Canaan township, Morrow county, alt many enterprising agriculturists who bring to their calling good business methods and excellent judgment and whose labors are crowned with suceess. Noteworthy among this number is Joseph Crider, who for nearly a quarter of a century has been diligently improving his property, continually adding to its value, his present homestead, with its substantial buildings, giving ample evidenee to the passer-by of his skill and good taste as a practical farmer and rural householder .. A son of the late Daniel Crider, he was born August 1, 1852, in Crawford county, Ohio, where his early life was spent.
Daniel Crider was born, in 1803, in Pennsylvania, and died November 3, 1880, in Crawford county, Ohio, whither he removed soon after his marriage. His wife, Mary Horn, was born in Franklin, Pennsylvania, and died in Ohio April 21, 1895. Eleven children were born of this union, namely: Ann, born March 22, 1830; Catherine, born August 14, 1831; Barbara, born November 7, 1832; Lydia, born April 29, 1834; Elizabeth, born March 16, 1836; John born March 1, 1838; Mary, born September 16, 1840; Louisa, born June 16, 1843; Daniel, born July 11, 1845; Adam, born May 9, 1849; and Joseph, with whom this sketeh is chiefly concerned.
Brought up on a farm, Joseph Crider attended the district school as a boy, gleaning a good knowledge of the common branches of study. At the age of sixteen years he began life for himself, poor in poeket but rich in energy and ambition ; with sturdy indus-
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try and judicial frugality he laboriously toiled onward and upward, rising by slow degrees from poverty to a condition of comparative affluence, since his marriage having had the cooperation of his wife, a woman of ability and judgment. In 1887 Mr. Crider purchased one hundred acres of land in section twenty-one, Canaan town- ship, and in its cultivation and improvement his efforts have been amply rewarded, his farm being one of the most attractive and valuable in the vicinity ..
On December 30, 1875, Mr. Crider was united in marriage with Elizabeth Russell, who was born March 1, 1853, in Crawford county, Ohio, on the farm of her parents, Perry R. and May (Gladhill) Russell. Mr. and Mrs. Crider are the parents of five children, namely : Mary, born November 18, 1876, is the wife of John Hard- man, of Canaan township; Bessie, born April 29, 1884, married Glenn Bolinger; Amanda, deceased ; Florence, born February 10, 1894; and Paul, born November 29, 1896, died in infancy.
Politically Mr. Crider is a sound Republican and genuinely interested in local and national affairs. Both he and his wife are faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church of Den- mark, Ohio.
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