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 4
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REUBEN PACE .- Through his own well directed endeavors Mr Pace has become the owner of a well improved farm of eighty acres in Gilead township, and he is numbered among the suecessful agriculturists and stock-growers of the county, where he has main- tained his home for more than thirty years and where he has forged forward from the position of a farm hand, employed by the month, to a secure place as one of the representative agriculturalists of this section of his native state
Mr. Pace was born in Perry county, Ohio, near New Lexing- ton, and the date of his nativity was January 19, 1853. He is a son of Minor and Julia (Drake) Pace, members of sterling pioneer families of this state, where the father continued to be identified with agricultural pursuits until his death. He died in Perry county and his wife died in Marion county, Ohio. Of their children four sons and one daughter are now liv- ing. He whose name introduees this review early began to learn the valuable lessons of practical industry, as he began to assist in the work of the home farm when a mere boy. His educational advantages were those afforded in the district schools of his native county and he continued to be associated with his father in the work of the farm until he had attained to his legal majority. He then began working by the month as a farm hand, and as such he came to Morrow county in 1877, depend- ent entirely upon his own energy and ability for making his way to the goal of independence. He was industrious and frugal and in 1894 he purchased his present farm, which is eligibly located in Gilead township at a point about three miles northeast of Mount Gilead, the county seat .. Ile has shown distinctive thrift and progressiveness in his farming and business operations and his place is devoted to diversified agriculture and stock-growing, in which latter department he has given special attention to the breed- ing of registered Merino sheep. He has been very successful in this line of enterprise and the fine sheep raised by him are in much demand for breeding purposes.
While loyal to all civic duties and responsibilities and ever ready to lend his cooperation in the promotion of measures ad- vanced for the general good of the community, Mr. Pace has no ambition for public office. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and in religion he is a Baptist. His wife holds membership in the Presbyterian church at Mt. Gilead. They are- held in high esteem by all who know them and their pleasant home is noted for its generous hospitality.
As a young man, while employed on a farm in Morrow county, Mr. Pace was united in marriage to Miss Rose F. Nellans, daughter
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of the late John Nellans, a farmer of Canaan township. Mrs. Pace was summoned to the life eternal December 31, 1892, and of the three children only one is living-Dora Maude, who is now and has been for six years, a successful and popular teacher in the schools of Gilead township. The other daughter-Jessie U., died at the age of sixteen years, and the only son, John Sheldon, was but eighteen months old at the time of his death. On the 4th of April, 1895, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Pace to Miss Angenetta Payne, who was born and reared in Morrow county, and who is a daughter of the late Hiram Payne .. No children have been born of the second marriage.
WALTER W. VAUGHAN .- There has been nothing parasitic in the career of Hon. Walter W. Vaughan, who through life and labors has conferred honor upon the county of his nativity. He has not only been an effective and successful exponent of the agricultural and stock-growing industries in Morrow county but has also caused his benignant influence to permeate the sphere of public activity, as is indicated by the faet that he is at the present time representative of his native county in the lower house of the state legislature. He is a man of broad intellectual grasp and well matured opinions as to matters of public polity, so that his value in his present office is of the most definite order, the while his sterling attributes of character have given him an impregnable place in popular confidence and esteem. As one of the essentially representative citizens of Morrow county he is well entitled to consideration in this publication, and he takes pride in being numbered among the sturdy yeoman of the fine old Buekeye com- monwealth, his well improved and attractive homestead being located in Lincoln township, about three miles east of the thriving little city of Cardington.
Walter W. Vaughan was born on the parental farmstead in Lincoln township, Morrow county, and the day of his nativity was February 7, 1866. He is a son of James W. and Rachel Ann (Wood) Vaughan, the former of whom was born in Stark county and the latter in Morrow.
James W. Vaughan was long numbered among representative fariners and stock-growers of Lincoln township and his life was so guided and governed by principles of integrity and honor that he was not denied the fullest measure of popular confidenee and esteem in the community that so long represented his home and in which his career was marked by earnest toil and endeavor. He
contributed his quota to the industrial and social development of Morrow county and was a man of unassuming, sincere and worthy character, well entitled to the uniform esteem accorded him.
Walter W. Vaughan was reared under the strenuous but invigorating disclipine of the farm and through such intimate association with nature in "her visible form" he waxed strong
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W. W. Voughan.
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in independence and self-reliance. After availing himself of the advantages of the district schools he continued his studies in the public schools of the village of Cardington, and that he made good use of these scholastic opportunities is shown by the fact that after a course in the high school he proved himself eligible for peda- gogic honors. When about eighteen years of age he initiated his efforts as a teacher in the district schools of his native county, and for about a decade he thus divided his time between the work of the school-room in the winter terms and that of the farm in the summer seasons, so that there was no possibility of deterioration in either brain or brawn. Through such labors have been developed many of the leaders in thought and action in our great American republie, which affords boundless opportunities for the perpetua- tion of individuality and for individual accomplishment. Mr. Vaughan has ever appreciated the dignity and value of honest forces or the emoluments derived therefrom. About 1888 he entered into partnership with his father in the live-stock business, in which he eventually gave special attention to dealing in horses, in the sale of which he made large ship- ments to eastern markets. In this connection he brought to bear excellent initiative and executive powers, and incidentally laid the foundation for definite prosperity and independence.
The live stock operations of Mr. Vaughan were conducted in connection with the old homestead farm of his father until 1902, when he amplified the scope of his industrial enterprise by the purchase of his present homestead of one hundred and thirty-three acres, eligibly located on the Cardington and Chesterville turn- pike, three miles distant from Cardington. The place had been much neglected, with the result that its fertility had declined and its buildings fallen into poor condition. With characteristic energy and enterprise Mr. Vaughan set to himself the task of improving the farm along all lines, bringing the land under effective cultivation, repairing the existing buildings and erecting new ones demanded in connection with the general operation of the plaec. which he has brought to a high standard, so that it is now one of the well improved and valuable farin properties of the county, with every evidence of thrift and prosperity. In 1906 he erected the large and modern barn on the homestead, and the facilities of the same are of the best type throughout, with special provisions for the care of live stock. The place is devoted to diversified agrienl- ture and to the raising of high grades of live stock, and Mr. Vanghan continued to bny and ship horses to a considerable ex- tent, being an excellent judge of values and showing much diserim- ination in his operations, in which his success has been marked.
A man of high civic ideals and well fortified opinions, Mr. Vanghan has naturally shown a loyal interest in public affairs, and he has gained a position of definite leadership in connection with the manoeuvering of political forces in his native county.
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He accords an unequivocal allegiance to the Republican party and has been one of the leaders in its local councils. In 1901 he became a member of the county committee of his party and he had the distinction of serving as its chairman for three years. In 1905 he was made the Republican nominee for representative of Morrow county in the state legislature, and though his defeat was com- passed by normal political exigencies he made an excellent cam- paign and gained a strong hold upon the confidence of the people of the county, so that when he again appeared as a candidate for the same office, in 1908, he was elected by a gratifying majortiy. The best voncher of the popular appreciation of his efforts as a member of the legislature was that given by his reelection in the autumn of 1910, so that he is now serving his second term, which will expire January 1, 1913. Mr. Vaughan has been a zealous and valued worker in the deliberations of both the floor and the com- mittee-room of the house. Fidelity and earnestness have character- ized his efforts in behalf of wise legislation and he has shown a broad grasp upon matters of public polity and expediency. He has ably championed the various measures that have appealed to his judgment and has been equally uncompromising in his his judgment and has been equally uncompromising in his work against legislation that he has considered ill advised. Within the compass of a sketch of this order it is, of course, impossible to enter into details concerning his effective labors in the popular branch of the legislature, but it is but consistent that reference be made to certain important measures with the furtherance or defeat of which he was prominently identified. He introduced and put
upon its final passage the bill reducing the mileage allowed to members of the legislature from twelve to two cents a mile, the latter being the absolute expenditure demanded for railroad fares. The finance committee of the house recommended an appropriation of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the improvement of the Ohio canals, but mainly through the insistent efforts of Mr. Vanghan this appropriation was reduced to one hundred thousand dollars, which sum appeared, upon close examination, to be entirely adequate for the purpose specified in the bill. An uncompromis- ing advocate of the cause of temperance and the proper control of the liquor traffic, he also exerted much influence in compassing the defeat of the Dean bill, in the lower house, in the session of 1911, said bill having been considered by him and other leading members a matter involving retrogression and the extension of undue privi- leges. Mr. Vaughan is known as a forceful and eloquent speaker, and elegance of diction and clarity of statement invariably char- acterize his utterances. He has been assigned to membership in
important committees of the house and in the deliberation thereof has shown marked business acumen and maturity of judgment. His integrity of purpose is beyond cavil and he never makes any compromise for the sake of personal expediency. In this attitude
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he exemplifies well the principles of the stanch Society of Friends, the noble religious organization with which the Vaughan family be- came identified many generations ago.
On the 17th of March, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Vaughan to Miss Mina Chase, who was born in Westfield township, Morrow county, on the 16th of November, 1865, and who is a daughter of Daniel L. and Victoria (Bailey) Chase, represen- tatives of honored pioneer families of Ohio. The Chase family was early founded in the state of New York and the lineage is traeed back to staunch English origin. Robert Chase, grandfather of Mrs. Vaughan, settled in Morrow county, Ohio, in the pioneer days and was prominent and influential in connection with the affairs of the Christian church in this state. Daniel L. Chase be- came one of the prosperous and representative agriculturists of Morrow county and ever comamnded sure vantage ground in pop- ular confidenee and regard. He was called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, including that of county clerk, of which he was incumbent from 1876 to 1882. Both he and his wife con- tinued to maintain their home in this county until their death, and of the children one son and one daughter are now living. Mrs. Vaughan is a woman of most gracious personality and is the chatelaine of a home that is notable for culture and generous hos- pitality, both she and her daughter being valued factors in con- nection with the leading social activities of the community. She was graduated in the Mount Gilead high school and for several years prior to her marriage she was a successful and popular teacher in the schools of her native county. Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan have one daughter, Ruth M., who was born on the 26th of April, 1896, and who is a member of the class of 1915 in the high school at Cardington.
MARY VIRGINIA FOGLE .- It is most appropriate that when the lifework of one is finished a record should be made of it. It is especially so when that life work was of much usefulness, and the subject promised exalted excellence of character and superior quali- ties of intelleet.
Mary Virginia Fogle was the oldest daughter of Benjamin and Ann C. (Kinsell) Fogle, of a family of four children, and both her father and mother were reared at Chesterville, in Morrow county, and her grandparents on both sides were pioneers of that village and township.
The maternal grandfather, Enoch B. Kinsell, was one of the first three associate judges of Morrow county, from 1848 until the new constitution of the state of Ohio in 1852, and was a man of. high standing in the county. The paternal grandfather, John Fogle, was a substantial farmer of good standing. In religion the families on both sides, father and mother, grandfathers and grandmothers, were Methodists.
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Benjamin Fogle, the father, was a man of superior intellect and force of character, and while he lived in Mt. Gilead, which was from about 1865 until his death, April 5, 1875, he was the leading Methodist in the church. The family continued to reside at Mt. Gilead for several years after Miss Fogle's death.
For several years the family of our subject resided in Cincin- nati, Ohio, where she was born, and where she had exceptional opportunities for culture, which she improved as she grew up, and her intellectual prospects from early childhood were flattering. She had excellent qualities of voice, which were properly trained, and on nearly all public occasions her talents were in demand : both as a singer and player, for she was an accomplished musician. She attended the high school in Mt. Gilead, and later, for several years, became one of the most successful teachers therein. She took a course of study at the State Normal School at Oswego, New York, and was graduated therefrom in the year 1883. Miss Walter, the teacher of the training school said of her: "We rarely had among our students so bright and shining a light as Miss Fogle." Professor Poucher, the president of the Normal School, wrote: "She was a most excellent and progressive student and teacher."
Upon her graduation she became supervisor of teachers in the public schools of Trenton, New Jersey, where she took high rank. She may be classed as teacher with Miss Sarah Arnold, of Boston, and Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, now superintendent of public schools of Chicago.
For many years she was a supervisor of high standing of teachers. While teaching, or supervising, at Trenton, she made an exhibit of educational work at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, for which she was awarded the first prize.
Miss Fogle was noted for unusual strength and clearness of intellect, great self-command and reserve power, keen sympathy, lofty ideals, refined dignity, and the rare ability to inspire in her pupils and associates a desire to attain the same high qualities.
At Trenton she fell seriously ill and was removed to a hospital in Philadelphia, where the best skilled specialists and nurses did all that could be done for her. She died January 21, 1895, in the forty-second year of her age, and her remains were brought to Mt. Gilead and rest in River Cliff cemetery, beside those of her father and mother.
This tribute is dedicated to her memory by a pupil who re- members her with deep affection and gratitude.
GEORGE W. MYERS .- One of the representative and popular residents of Cardington, Morrow county, Ohio, is George W. Myers, who owns and operates one of the best meat markets in this city. His life history displays many elements worthy of emulation, and
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in the city where he has maintained his home since 1870 he has many friends, a fact which indicates that his career has ever been honorable and straightforward.
Mr. Meyers was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on the 14th of April, 1843, and he is a son of George and Mary A. (Huff- man) Myers, both of whom were likewise born in Laneaster county, their ancestry being of German extraction. George W. was a youth of twelve years of age at the time of his parents' removal from Pennsylvania to Ohio, where settlement was made at Spring- field, where the father engaged in the hotel business. He received his educational training in the common sehools of his native county and in those of Springfield. In 1867 he took up his abode in Mor- row county and three years later he established his home in Cardington, where he became interested in the butcher business, in which he has been engaged for fully two score years .. He owns the building in which he maintains his business headquarters and also has a fine residence located on South Marion street. Beginning life with no assets except persistency and a determination to forge ahead, Mr. Myers has wrested prosperity and success from poverty and for that reason his prominent position in the business world to-day is the more gratifying to contemplate. In his political convictions he is aligned as a stanch advocate of the cause of the Democratic party and though he has never been desirous of politi- ยท eal preferment of any deseription he has ever contributed in generous measure to all matters tending to enhance the general welfare of the community. In a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Knights of Maceabees, in which he carries an insurance. He and his wife are devout members of the Methodist Episcopal church and they have been most zealous factors in religious activities.
In the year 1889 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Myers to Miss Lucy Kerwicher, who was born and reared in Ottawa, Ohio, and who is a daughter of John Kerwieher, a representative citizen of Morrow county. Mr. and Mrs. Myers have two children, Fannie, who was born in Morrow county, and who was graduated in the local high school as a member of the class of 1908; and Frank L., who is attending school.
THOMAS E. LONG .- That success is most worthy and most to be valued is won through personal endeavor, and the man who con- tends valiantly with opposing forces, overcomes obstacles and presses steadily and courageously forward toward the goal of inde- pendence and definite prosperity gains an incidental discipline that makes him stronger and better and that gives him a broader comprehension of the realities and responsibilities of life. Among the sterling citizens of Morrow county who have been dependent upon their own resources in fighting the stern battle of life is Thomas E. Long, who is now numbered among the representative
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farmers and stock growers of Cardingtown township, where his finely improved farm of eighty acres stands in tangible evidence of his former years of earnest toil and endeavor. He learned the les- sons of practical industry while he was yet a mere boy, and the spur of necessity quickened the laudable ambition that prompted him to labor with all of earnestness and assiduity until he could realize its fulness, in becoming an independent farmer, a successful expon- ent of the great basic industry of agriculture. With the aid of his cherished and devoted wife he has accomplished this worthy end, and he has so ordered his course as to gain and retain the in- violable confidence and esteem of his fellow men. There have been no dramatic incidents in his carcer, but it has been marked by con- secutive and productive industry and by personal integrity, so that he has contributed his quota to the well being of the world and has not been a parasitic influence, as are many whose early advan- tages and fortuitous circumstances should have enabled them to be- come worthy integers in connection with the activities of life. Mr. Long's standing in the county that has been his home from his boy- hood days is such as to well entitle him to recognition in this publication.
Thomas E. Long claims the old Keystone state of the Union as the place of his nativity. He was born near the village of Maple- ton, Clearfield county, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of March, 1862, and is a son of James and Catherine Long, both of whom were like- wise natives of Pennsylvania, where they were reared to maturity and where they received the advantages of the common schools of the day. James Long devoted his entire active career to agricul- tural pursuits and continued his residence in Clearfield county, Pennsylvania, until his death, in 1865, at which time he was com- paratively a young man. He was a stalwart Republican in his political proclivities and was a man of sterling character.
He whose name initiates this article was a child of two and one-half years at the time of his father's death, and his widowed mother soon afterward removed to Morrow county, Ohio, where certain relatives had previously established their home. She was in straitened financial circumstances, and under these conditions consulted expediency and made the best possible provision for her little son by placing him in the care of a farmer of Canaan town- ship, in whose home he was reared to the age of twelve years. His mother continued to maintain her home in this county until her death, and was summoned to the life eternal when about seventy- three years of age. Thomas E. Long's early educational advan- tages were limited to a somewhat irregular attendance in the dis- trict schools, and his fellowship with honest toil began when he was a mere boy. He was reared to the work of the farm, and he has had the good judgment never to withdraw his allegiance to the great industry of agriculture, through the benignant medium of which he has gained to himself a position of independence and
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marked prosperity. At the age of twelve years he found a home and employment on the farm of Jasper Bradford, of Canaan town- ship, and he continued to be thus engaged until the time of his marriage, at the age of twenty-four years. When twenty-one years of age he was granted wages of sixteen dollars a month, and for a short time after his marriage he worked by the day, for the stipend of one dollar a day.
In the spring of 1887, a few months after he had assumed connubial responsibilities and gained the encouragement of a de- voted wife and helpmeet, Mr. Long rented a farm of one hundred acres, in Canaan township, and thus initiated his independent career, though his tangible assets aside from his stanch personal qualifieations were exceedingly limited. He was at the time the owner of a little driving mare, and this animal he traded for a heavy work horse, for which he paid an extra sum of seventy dol- lars, giving his note for the same and assuming the further obliga- tion of interest at the rate of eight per cent. In further necessary preparation for his new enterprise he negotiated a loan of one hun- dred and thirty dollars, and on this amount likewise he paid interest of eight per cent. He purchased another work horse and set him- self vigorously to the work of conducting active operations on the farm which he had rented of Frederick C. Gillson. A cow which he owned, and which was valued at eighteen dollars, he traded for a second hand wagon, and his landlord kindly supplied him with a plow that had likewise seen former service. In addition to these primitive equipments he purchased a harrow for two and one-half dollars and expended fifteen dollars for a corn plow. It will thus be seen that conditions were none too propitious for the young husbandman, but he had strength and health and determination, and thus faced the situation fearlessly with ambition to make the best of the means at hand. Encumbered with debt and working the farm "on shares," meaning that his landlord was to receive one half of the products of the farm each year, he turned his energies into play and soon began the forward marchi to safe vantage ground of success. The most scrupulous economy on the part of himself and his wife was coupled with their indefatigable industry, and they endured much to gain little in the earlier stages of their married life. But there was an advance, and they never faltered in their efforts or courage. For twenty long years Mr. Long continued to be engaged in farmning on rented land, and at the expiration of this period, in March, 1904, he and his wife decided that they were justified in purchasing a home of their own, as they were now free from indebtedness and had a reserve fund of some- what more than two thousand dollars. After dnc investigation and consideration, they purchased their present farm of eighty acres, in Cardington township, and the same was secured for the sum of fifty-two hundred dollars, of which amount they paid two thousand dollars in cash and assumed a mortgage for the balance.
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