History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, Part 40

Author: R. E. Lowry
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 985

USA > Ohio > Preble County > History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions > Part 40

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Samuel C. Richie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 20, 1856, the son of Samuel S. and Anna (Shoemaker ) Richie. Samuel S. Richie was born in Belmont county, Ohio, the son of Robert Richie, a native of Philadelphia. Anna Shoemaker was born and reared near Philadelphia. She was married to Samuel S. Richie, near Philadelphia, and in May, 1858, they came to Preble county, Ohio, locating one mile north of New Paris, where they spent the remainder of their lives, she dying in 1886 and he in 1888. They were quiet, unassuming people and prominent in the community where they lived. Samuel S. Richie was a member of the Masonic fraternity and he and his wife were members of the Friends church. They were the parents of nine children, five of whom are living: John S., of Marion county, Oregon; Sarah, who is unmarried; Grace L., also unmarried; Anna M., the wife of A. H. Coffman, of Denison, Texas, and Samuel C., the subject of this sketch.

Samuel C. Richie was a little more than one year old when he was brought to Preble county with his parents. He was reared on a farm, edu- cated in the public schools of Jefferson township, and, in October, 1880, was married to Mary Hinkley, a native of Zanesville, Ohio, but who was educated in the public schools of New Paris. Mr. and Mrs. Richie have one son, Frank

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E., born in 1888, who was graduated from the New Paris high school, and is now living in Dayton, Ohio.

The Farmers Banking Company, of which Mr. Richie is president, was organized in 1906, Mr. Richie being one of its organizers. The original of- ficers of this bank were Samuel C. Richie, president; W. R. Hageman, vice- president ; E. C. Meksell, cashier. The board of directors included Ella L. Bloom, W. R. Hageman, E. A. Murray, William Max and Samuel C. Richie. The capital stock is ten thousand dollars. This company maintains a mod- ern bank at New Madison, Ohio, with the same officers, except cashier, John D. King filling that position in the New Madison bank. Its capital is fifteen thousand dollars. Mr. Richie also is a director in the New Paris Building and Loan Association.

Mr. Richie is a Republican and has been throughout his life more or less active in township politics. He has held many minor offices and also served six years as commissioner of Preble county, Ohio, a position which he filled with credit to himself and to the people who elected him. Fraternally, Mr. Richie is a member of the Knights of Pythias and a past chancellor of that lodge. He is also a member of the grand lodge of this fraternity. Mr. and Mrs. Richie are members of the Presbyterian church, and Mr. Richie is the treasurer of the congregation to which he is attached.

The reputation of Samuel C. Richie as a financier and public-spirited citizen extends beyond the boundaries of Jefferson township, where he lives. Mr. Richie is well known throughout eastern Ohio and has won and held a host of friends during his honorable and busy life.

EDMOND S. DYE.

Ohio always has been distinguished for the high rank of her bench and bar. Perhaps none of the states in the middle West can boast of more capable jurists or abler attorneys. Many of them have been men of national fame, but there is scarcely a town or city in the state that cannot boast of from one to half a dozen lawyers capable of crossing swords in forensic combat with any of the distinguished legal lights of the country. While the growth and development of the state during the last half century has been marvelous indeed, viewed from any standpoint, yet Ohio has no class of citizens of whom she can be more proud than of her judges and attorneys. In Edmond S. Dye are to be found many of those rare qualities which go

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to make the successful lawyer. He possesses those solid and substantial qualities which shine with constant luster. Since the beginning of his prac- tice at Eaton, Ohio, Mr. Dye has enjoyed a wonderful law practice, especially in probate work, and it is doubtful if he has a peer in western Ohio who is more thoroughly equipped or more readily conversant with this branch of the law.

Edmond S. Dye is a native of Preble county. He was born at Euphemia, in Harrison township, February 14, 1858, the son of Abraham S. and Susannah (Kumler) Dye. Abraham S. is the son of Seth and Margaret (Simpson) Dye. Both Seth Dye and his wife were natives of Trenton, New Jersey. They grew up in that place and there married. After their marriage, they came to Butler county, Ohio, locating near Middletown, where they lived until after the canal was built. They then moved into the beech in the eastern part of Preble county, and there they lived the remainder of their lives.

Abraham S. Dye was reared in Preble county. He was born in Butler county in 1817 and died March 17, 1896. He was educated in the common schools and was a wagon maker by trade. Later he became a farmer. Throughout his life he was active in church work and his home was the stop- ping place for preachers of the United Brethren and Methodist churches. His wife, Susannah Kumler, was the daughter of Bishop Henry Kumler, who was one of the heads of the United Brethren church in the United States, a great minister and organizer and opposed to secret societies of all kinds. His voice was heard in all parts of the country on this question. Mrs. Dye died in 1865. Mr. and Mrs. Dye were the parents of six sons, William T., who is a retired merchant in Dayton, Ohio; C. B., who is mar- shal of West Alexandria, Ohio; Charles, who lives in the state of Wash- ington; Edmond S., the subject of this sketch; Carl D. and Joseph E., both of Alberta, Canada.

Edmond S. Dye was reared on a farm in Preble county, Ohio, and received his early education in the district schools. He attended the high school at Lewisburg and attended two years at Otterbein University, and was graduated from the law school of the University of Cincinnati in the class of 1882, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Immediately after his graduation, Mr. Dye associated himself with Judge John V. Camp- bell, with whom he previously had read law. This partnership continued until the death of Judge Campbell on July 2, 1888. Mr. Dye then practiced alone in the same office until the spring of 1910, when his two sons became associated with him.

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On February 9, 1882, Edmond S. Dye was married to Birdie G. Camp- bell, a daughter of Judge Campbell. She was educated in the public schools of Eaton, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Dye have three sons, Robert Campbell, John Van Ausdal and Edmond Kumler. Robert C. was graduated from the Eaton high school and from the law school of the University of Cincinnati. He is now assistant city solicitor of Long Beach, California. John V. was graduated from the high school and the same law school as his brother. He is now associated with his father in the practice of law. Edmond K. was graduated from the Eaton high school with the class of 1915. Robert C. married Vinnie Royer, of Eaton, Ohio. John V. married Myrtle White, of Lewisburg, Ohio.

Mr. Dye is a member of the Presbyterian church at Eaton, and has served as superintendent of the Sunday school for the past twenty-five years. He also has been an elder and deacon of the church. He is a member of Bolivar Lodge No. 82, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Eaton Lodge No. 30, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which order he is a past grand.

Mr. Dye is the present representative of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Eaton. Aside from Mr. Dye's success as a lawyer, he is what might be called a successful citizen, because he has efficiently and capably discharged his duties as a citizen as well as his responsibilities as a father and husband. He is a representative lawyer of western Ohio, it is true, but he also is a representative citizen of Preble county.

WALDO C. MOORE.

In brief sketch of any living citizen, it is difficult to do him exact and impartial justice. Not so much for a lack of space or words to set forth the familiar and passing events of his history, as for want of the perfect and rounded conception of his whole life which grows, develops and ripens like fruit, disclosing its truest and best flavor only when it is mellowed by time. Daily contact with a man so familiarizes us with his virtues that we ordinarily overlook them and commonly underestimate their progress. It is not ofen that true honor, public and private, which is the tribute of cor- dial respect and esteem-comes to a man without basis of character and deeds. The world may be deceived by fortune, or by ornamental or showy qualities without substantial merit and may render to the undeserving a

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short-lived admiration, but the honor that wise and good men value and that lives beyond the grave must have its foundation in real worth, for, "work maketh the man." Not a few men live unheralded or unknown on the narrow limits of the community or city wherein their lots are cast. Waldo C. Moore, however, is a man well known not only in the state of Ohio, but because of his peculiar interests throughout the whole country as well. During his life of forty years in Preble county, the people have had an opportunity to know what type of man Mr. Moore is. The testimony is ample that he is a good citizen in the fullest sense of the term and is proven by the public trust which has been bestowed upon him. That he has per- formed worthily every trust imposed upon him is an honor worthy of being coveted by any man.

Waldo C. Moore was born in the little village of West Baltimore, now Verona, Preble county, Ohio, July 23, 1874, the eldest son of John W. and Mary E. (Snorf) Moore, and has been a resident of Preble county since his birth. His paternal ancestors were of English-Dutch descent and his maternal ancestors were German. Mr. Moore always has appreciated the fact that he is American born and he is proud to claim Ohio as his native state. Both his father and his grandfather, John Moore, were house wreckers and house builders by occupation. His great-grandfather, Hamilton Moore, came from England. His great-grandfather Wetzel was a soldier in the War of 1812, and his grandfather, Isaac N. Snorf, who was a blacksmith by trade, was a Union soldier and died on the field of battle at Missionary Ridge.

John W. Moore, the father of Waldo C. Moore, was born in Mary- land in the year 1851 and came to Preble county, Ohio, with his parents when seven years of age. After he learned the carpenter and painter trades he became a contractor and built very extensively throughout Preble county. At one time he employed seventeen men. He worked at his trade until his death, which occurred in 1897. He was married to Mary E. Snorf in 1872, and to this union six children were born, Waldo C., Mrs. Bertha Conklin, of Chicago, Illinois; Edward, a carpenter and painter of Verona, Ohio; Chester, deceased; Arlie, deceased, and E. Vernon, a music instructor in the Lewisburg schools.

In early life, Mr. Moore labored on the farm in the summer and at- tended the district schools in the winter. He received a common-school education in the Harrison township schools and had the privilege of attend- ing the Harrison township high school during the winter of 1894 and 1895. While attending the Harrison township high school he had the good fortune

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to meet Imogene Horn, of Lewisburg, who was an occasional visitor at school, and who became Mrs. Moore August 19, 1896.

Mrs. Moore was born February 22, 1873, in Lewisburg, this county, the daughter of Allen T. and Frances (Sloan) Horn, natives of Virginia, both of whom are deceased. Henry Horn, the great-grandfather of Mrs. Waldo C. Moore, came from Germany in 1768. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and some years after the close of the war for inde- pendence came to this part of the state, and, in the year 1818, laid out .the town of Lewisburg, where he followed his trade of blacksmith. Michael Horn, who was Mrs. Moore's grandfather, was a tanner by trade and resided on Horn's Hill. Allen T. Horn, Mrs. Moore's father, was a druggist and during the Civil War was a Union soldier. Henry Horn died in 1839, Michael in 1891 and Allen T. in 1906.

In his school days, Waldo C. Moore passed the Boxwell examination with honors, ranking second in the county class. Before he was eighteen years old he held a certificate to teach in his native county and also cer- tificates from Darke and Montgomery counties. Mr. Moore was graduated ·from the Dayton Normal School and from the Miami Commercial College at Dayton, Ohio, and spent the summer of 1894 at Lebanon, Ohio, taking a special course in the National Normal University.

At an early age, Mr. Moore began teaching. He was a successful in- structor and followed this line of activity for six years. In the summer of 1899 he resigned the principalship of the Ithaca, Ohio, schools and became identified with the Peoples Banking Company of Lewisburg, this county, and is now the cashier and a director of this bank.

In the spring of 1910, a series of United States civil service examina- tions were held in various cities in Ohio. Mr. Moore took advantage of these examinations and passed the test as an expert bookkeeper, ranking sixth in the state in a large class.

Waldo C. Moore is an ardent numismatist and philatelist, and is a col- lector of national repute. Noted collectors of rare issues of coins, currency or stamps acknowledge that Mr. Moore's private collection is one of the largest and finest extant. He is especially interested in Ohio Civil War store cards, Ohio Broken-bank bills, Ohio private "shinplasters," Ohio script issues, Ohio "hard times" tokens, Ohio business coin cards, Ohio Masonic mark pennies, Ohio uncurrent bills, Ohio sutler's checks, stamps and other specimens. It is Mr. Moore's intention to place his entire collection on permanent exhibition at some future date in the museum of the Ohio State Archaelogical and Historical Society, at the Ohio State University at

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Columbus. Mr. Moore is considered an authority on numismatics and is an occasional contributor to The Numismatist, a magazine published in New York City in the interest of medallic art. He is the author of brochures on the following subjects : "Numismatic Opinions," "Rare Ohio War Cards," "Rochester Numismatic," "Money Conditions, 1849-1870," "Vagaries of Col- lectors," "Specialization," "Colonial Numismatic Ships," "Amateurs in Nu- mismatics," "Looking Backward-an 1812 Panorama," "The Making of a Collection," "The Libertas Americana Medal," "A. Loomis and His Store Cards," "Ohio's Private Shinplasters," "A Missouri County Warrant," "The Currency of the Red Man," "The Burnet House," "A Numismatic Portrait Gallery," "New Salem, Ohio, in Numismatics," "The Goddess Minerva in Art Imperial," "Ohio Blasts in Numismatics," "The Kirtland Bank Bills," "The Pony House Checks," "The National Revulsion," and "The Rickey Card."

Mr. Moore owns one of the finest stock farms in Preble county, "Clif- more," a two-hundred-acre tract about two miles north of Lewisburg. "The Clifmore," his modern bungalow residence on North Greenville street in Lewisburg, would be a credit to any city.

The Methodist Episcopal church of Lewisburg counts Mr. Moore as one of its trustees. He was honored with the presidency of the young men's class, better known as the "Friendly Class" of the Methodist Sunday school, the first two years after the organization of this class. For several years he has been the teacher of the class known as "The Boys." He is one of the Sunday school superintendents and is assistant chorister. He is also presi- dent of the literary department of the Epworth League.

Although a Republican, Mr. Moore has thrice been elected clerk of Har- rison township, a Democratic stronghold. He has served a number of terms on the village council of Lewisburg and was chairman of the finance com- mittee for some years. He has been lately chosen president of the council. Mr. Moore was appointed by President Taft as a member of the 1912 United States assay commission, an honor to which many aspire but few attain. Mr. Moore was elected to the directorate of the Lewisburg Commercial Club and has held this position for several terms. He is credited with platting that portion of Lewisburg known as the Moore addition.

Mr. Moore is prominent in the local lodges of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias and is a life member of the National Geographic Society, the Indian Rights Association and the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society. He is the general secretary of the American Numismatic Association and a trus-

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tee of the Ohio State Numismatic Society, and on April 3, 1915, was fur- ther honored by receiving from Governor Willis the appointment as trustee of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society.

ISAAC A. TYLER.

It is maintained superficially that the history of so-called great men only is worthy of preservation and that little merit exists among the masses to call forth the praises of the historian or the appreciation of mankind. A greater mistake never was made, for no man is great in all things. By a lucky stroke many achieve lasting fame, who, before, had no reputation be- yond the limits of their immediate neighborhood. It is not a history of the lucky stroke which benefits humanity most, but the long study and efforts that made the lucky stroke possible. t It is the preliminary work, the methods, that serve as a guide for the success of others. Among those of Preble county, Ohio, who have achieved success by steady efforts is Isaac A. Tyler, a farmer and pioneer citizen of Jackson township, and the proprietor of "Fairview Farm," a well-ordered tract of one hundred and thirty acres, situated nine miles northwest of Eaton, Ohio, on a part of the northeast quarter of section 4.

Isaac A. Tyler was born in Geauga county, Ohio, September 9, 1832, the son of Cutler and Sarah (Fischer) Tyler, both of whom were natives of Massachusetts. Cutler Tyler came to Ohio, locating near the point where later he married Sarah Fischer. Both were well educated and made good records as teachers in the public schools. They lived and died near Cleve- land, Ohio. Mr. Tyler served three months in the War of 1812. His wife was a member of the Congregational church. Mr. Tyler was a public- spirited man and both he and his wife were useful people. They were the parents of six children, who grew to manhood and womanhood, and two of whom are now living. These children are Abel, Isaac A., Ruth, Reuben, John and Sarah Sophia. Ruth is the widow of John Waterton, who was born in England. Reuben served his country as a soldier in the Civil War and was an attorney in Cincinnati, Ohio. John also served in the Civil War and was an attorney in Cleveland, Ohio. Sarah died in her twenty- seventh year just before she was to have been graduated from a medical college.

Isaac A. Tyler was reared on a farm and received his elementary

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education in the public schools, supplementing this with a course in Oberlin College, and from 1852 to 1867 taught in the public schools of Ohio, this service being rendered in the counties of Montgomery, Geauga, Warren and Butler.

Mr. Tyler was married in March, 1859, to Catherine Hetzler, of Ger- man township, Montgomery county, Ohio, and in the year 1860 came to Preble county, locating in Jefferson township, where he bought a farm of eighty-eight and one-half acres, part of which was under improvement. There he lived until 1883, in which year he moved to his present farm of one hundred and thirty acres in Jackson township, where he has carried on a modern system of general farming with much success.

To Isaac and Catherine (Hetzler) Tyler were born two sons, Samuel and John W., both of whom now are deceased. Samuel, whose death oc- curred in 1912, married Maude Riggs and two children were born to this union, Ruth, who is single, and Lyman, who is a student in the agricultural school at Columbus, Ohio. John W. married Olive Murry, of Jefferson township, and died December 4, 1907. The mother of these children died in 1877, and in 1879 Mr. Tyler married, secondly, Louise J. Downey, of Darke county, Ohio, who died in 1895 without issue.

Mr. Tyler is a member of the Congregational church, is active in religious work and has been strictly temperate all his life. He is a Repub- lican and cast his first vote for John C. Fremont for President and has voted for every Republican candidate for President since Fremont was a candidate in 1856. Few men are better known in the community than Isaac A. Tyler, and no one is more highly esteemed than he. It is only fair to say that he well deserves this high regard in which he is held by his fellow citizens.

CHARLES B. UNGER.

Eaton has several successful newspapers, among which is the Eaton Herald, an independent newspaper published by Charles B. Unger.

Charles B. Unger was born in Eaton, Ohio, November 12, 1868, the son of John and Ollitippa (Larsh) Unger, natives of Preble county, who were the parents of two children, the other child, a daughter, being Jessie, who is the wife of Frank A. Wisehart, of Middletown, Indiana.

John Unger was reared in Preble county and was engaged in the drug (28)

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and hardware business in Eaton during the Civil War. He was later en- gaged in the drug business in West Alexandria, Ohio. He then came back to Eaton and for a time operated a tin store and was later in the insurance business. About 1889 he moved to Middletown, Indiana, and engaged in the lumber business. In 1902 he returned to Eaton and looked after the business management of the Eaton Herald. He suffered a stroke of paralysis in 1910 and now resides with his daughter in Middletown, Indiana. His wife died March 21, 1910, at the age of sixty-three. She was a devoted member of the Universalist church. Mr. Unger was a member of the Eaton school board for a number of years.

The paternal grandparents of Charles B. Unger were George B. Unger and wife, natives of Pennsylvania and Preble county, respectively. George B. Unger was a tailor, and lived to be eighty-six years old. His wife died while a young woman. John Unger was the only child born to that mar- riage who grew to maturity. George B. formerly had been married and had a son, Aaron A., by his first marriage.

The maternal grandparents of Charles B. Unger were Thomas Jef- ferson and Margaret (Manning) Larsh, natives of Ohio. Thomas J. Larsh was a lawyer, and served as county surveyor for nineteen years, also county auditor for two terms and deputy county auditor for several terms. He also was clerk in the state treasurer's office for one term. He lived to be seventy-two years of age while his wife died in middle age. They had three children, Bluejacket, who died in Andersonville prison during the Civil War; Ollitippa and Margaret.

Charles B. Unger was reared in Preble county, Ohio, attended the public schools of West Alexandria and was graduated from the Eaton high school in 1886. He then took a business course in Nelson's Business College at Cincinnati, and was with the James Wilde Clothing Company for a short time, after which he worked at the printer's trade in Cincinnati. He then moved to Middletown, Indiana, and in 1892 came to Eaton and worked at his trade in the Register office one year. Following this he went back to- Middletown, Indiana, and, in 1894, bought an interest in the Middletown News. In January, 1902, he bought the Eaton Herald, of which he has. been editor and publisher since that time. This paper was established in 1888 and is independent in politics. Mr. Unger also does general job print- ing.

Charles B. Unger was married February 2, 1893, to Adda Nixon, the- daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cephas Nixon. One son, Nixon Larsh, was born to Mr. and Mrs. Unger, the latter of whom died in 1895, at the age of

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twenty-seven years. She was a member of the Church of Christ at Mid- dletown, Indiana.

Politically, Mr. Unger is a Republican. He is a member of Bolivar Lodge No. 82, Free and Accepted Masons; Eaton Chapter No. 22, Royal Arch Masons; Reese Council No. 9, Royal and Select Masters, of Dayton, Ohio, and Reed Commandery No. 6, of Dayton, Ohio. He also is a mem- ber of Waverly Lodge No. 143, Knights of Pythias.

EARL H. IRVIN.

Earl H. Irvin, the well-known editor and publisher of the Eaton Demo- crat, enjoyed a thorough preparation for newspaper work. Mr. Irvin has made an unusual success in journalism and has been honored politically on several occasions.

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History of Preble County Ohio: Her People, Industries and Institutions, Part 40

Author: R. E. Lowry Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 985

Author: R. E. Lowry
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 985