USA > Ohio > Putnam County > History of Putnam County, Ohio : its peoples, industries, and institutions > Part 107
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Ludwig Stuber and his family are loyal members of the Lutheran church and deeply interested in its welfare.
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PUTNAM COUNTY, OHIO.
CHARLES T. HENRY.
A man of unusual energy and ability who has lived practically his whole life in Putnam county, Ohio, is Charles T. Henry, a substantial farmer of Liberty township. Born in Fairfield county, Ohio, he located in this county before he was three years of age with his parents, and here has since made his home. As a young man, he taught school for a few years and since that time has engaged in general farming. About twelve years ago he lost one of his arms in a corn shredder, nevertheless, still feeds a corn shredder with his one remaining hand. Such a disaster would dishearten many men, but Mr. Henry has probably been more successful since the accident than before because he draws on the resources of a sound intelligence to aid him in his daily labors. He has been active in the affairs of his county and held vari- ous official positions, in all of which he has given eminent satisfaction.
Charles T. Henry, the son of Levi P. and Jennie M. (McCandlish) Henry, was born on September 15, 1871, in Fairfield county, Ohio. For history of subject's parents, reader is referred to sketch of Levi Henry, which appears elsewhere in this volume.
Charles T. Henry was about eighteen months old when his parents moved to their present home in this county northwest of Leipsic, and on that farm he grew to manhood. He received a good common school education, and later, taught two years in the public school of this county, one year each in Blanchard and Van Buren township. After his marriage, Mr. Henry took charge of his father's farm and, in 1900, bought a farm adjoining his father's on the north. He has erected a fine country home and an excellent barn and various outbuildings on this farm, and now operates it together with the old home place.
Charles T. Henry was married on September 24, 1896, to Mary Mahala Neeland, who was born near Rick's Mills in Muskingum county, Ohio, and is a daughter of Andrew and Amelia (Ledman) Neeland, and to this union three children have been born, Gladys Edith, Robert P. and Jennie Amelia. The eldest daughter is attending high school and the other two children are still in the grades.
Mrs. Charles T. Henry's father was born at Clayville, Guernsey county, Ohio, and was a son of James Neeland and wife, an old and prominent family of Irish descent. The family, for two or three generations, were blacksmiths in Guernsey county. Amelia Ledman, the mother of Mrs. Henry, was a daughter of James and Massy Mahala (Cassidy ) Ledman, and
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was reared near Rick's Mills in Muskingum county, Ohio. Andrew Neeland was a blacksmith in early life and, after his marriage, farmed in Muskingum county. The Neeland family located three miles east of Leipsic along the Nickel Plate railroad about 1879, this railroad being built through the county during that year. Mrs. Henry has a distinct recollection of seeing the first engine run by her father's farm. Mr. Neeland continued farming near Leip- sic until two or three years ago, when he retired from active work on account of old age and is now making his home with Charles T. Henry and wife. Mrs. Neeland died in March, 1906. He died on December 6, 1914.
Charles T. Henry takes an active interest in the Democratic party, and has served as clerk of Liberty township for five years, and for the past four years has served as a member of the county fair board. He is now serving his second term as a member of the school board of his township. In the spring of 1912, he was a candidate for recorder of Putnam county, but as- he was a strong temperance man and votes "dry" whenever occasion offers, he lost the support of the liquor interests and, consequently, the election. Mr. Henry is a member of the Patrons of Husbandry, and he and his family are loyal members of the Presbyterian church, formerly holding their mem- bership in the United Presbyterian church, which is now discontinued in Leipsic. Mr. Henry is a man of excellent character and is regarded as one. of the leaders in all public-spirited movements in his township.
HENRY WARD.
The United States is the most cosmopolitan nation of the earth. Her citizens are drawn from every country and every clime. A residence of a. few years in this country so imbues these people with the American spirit that they become our best citizens. No country has furnished better or more substantial citizens to the United States than the Emerald Isle. From this . island have come many families who have won prominent places in the com- munities where they settled. Among the many immigrants of Irish descent, who have come to Ohio, there is none who are more loyal to their adopted country than the Ward family of Putnam county.
Henry Ward, one of the well-known farmers of Liberty township, was born in Hancock county, Ohio, on June 8, 1872, the son of Francis and Sarah E. (Bibler) Ward.
Francis Ward was born on November 17, 1831, in Glenest, in the dis-
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trict of Kildare, near King's county, Ireland. He came to America when a lad of fifteen, in 1847, and the family were on a sailing vessel seven weeks on the voyage to America. At New York, both parents and one daughter died of typhoid fever within two or three weeks after landing. The seven orphans had an uncle in Licking county, Ohio, sixteen miles east of Columbus, who wired the authorities to send them to Cleveland. He met them in Cleveland and the children were divided among his married sons and daughters.
Francis Ward came to Ohio in September, 1847, and settled first in Licking county. Soon after the close of the Civil War, he settled in Han- cock county, southwest of Findlay. In that county, he married Sarah E. Bibler and settled along the county line north of Bluffton. His wife was born ten miles southeast of Findlay and was the daughter of David and Elizabeth (Orvick) Bibler. Elizabeth Orvick was born in York county, Pennsylvania, on July 14, 1818, and came to Hancock county with her par- ents in October, 1835. She married David Bibler, August 27, 1840, and began housekeeping on the farm where she and her husband reared their family and spent all of their days. She died on April 7, 1900, at the age of eighty-one.
Sarah E. Bibler lived nearly all the remainder of her life, after her mar- riage, in Hancock county. She was the mother of three children by her marriage to Francis Ward, Lillie Belle, who married Clem Ward and lives in Lincoln, Michigan; Rhoda Jane, who married Robert Semler and lives between Findlay and Arcade, and Henry, who is the subject of this sketch.
The family moved to Putnam county in 1873 and located in Liberty township. On September 2, 1874, Mrs. Ward died, and after her death, Mr. Ward returned to Hancock county. He married Mrs. Catherine Payne (nee Treece) in 1876, and the year following this marriage, returned to Putnam county, where he resided until his death, August 13, 1902. He left two children by his second marriage, Mrs. Sarah E. Swihart and Mrs. Luella Wagner. The mother of these children died in March, 1909.
Henry Ward came to Putnam county with his father and after the death of his mother, lived with his maternal grandfather until his father married again, when he came back to Putnam county and lived on the home farm until his marriage.
Henry Ward was married on December 27, 1894, to Virdie Casteel, who was born in the northeastern part of Liberty township and who is the daugh- ter of Andrew and Margaret (Sterret) Casteel. Mrs. Henry Ward lived upon the farm with her parents until her marriage.
Andrew Casteel was born on April 22, 1834, in Licking county, Ohio.
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He is the son of Thomas and Salome (Livingstone) Casteel. Andrew Casteel was reared on a farm and, at the outbreak of the Civil War, enlisted in the First Ohio Cavalry, in Company D, and served until the end of the war. He was with Sherman's army, in Tennessee, and in the battles of Stone's River, Lookout Mountain, Shiloh, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge, as well as a number of other important battles fought by the western army. He was never wounded or captured. At the end of the war, Andrew Casteel came to Putnam county and purchased land in Liberty township. He now owns about four hundred and seventy-six acres, sixty of which are in Michigan, and has farmed all of his life. He was married, in 1865, to Margaret Sterret, a native of Licking county and a daughter of Robert and Nancy (Mclaughlin) Sterret. Andrew and Margaret (Sterret) Casteel have been the parents of three sons and five daughters, Della, who lives at home and keeps house for her father ; Nancy Alice, who is the wife of Joseph Bishop, of Henry county, and has six children; Minnie Virginia, who is the wife of Mr. Ward; Wesley, who lives in Henry county, married Belle Leary, and has three children; Andrew Smith, who died in April, 1905, married Cora Bishop and had five children; Laura Ellen, the wife of Orville Lazenby, who lives on the east line of Liberty township and has three children; Leroy Gibson, who lives at Quincy, Michigan, married Rhoda Newell and has five children; Salome Elizabeth, who died in February, 1911, was the wife of Charles Lazenby, of Henry county, and had two daughters. Mrs. Andrew Casteel died on November 6, 1906. She was a member of the Disciples church, which she joined in Licking county when a young woman. Here she belonged to the West Bellmore church. Mr. Casteel is one of the oldest liv- ing residents of Putnam county, now being past eighty years of age, but still does his own work. His sight is still very good and he often reads by lamp light until ten or eleven o'clock at night. He has kept up with the times in every particular and is a well-informed man.
After the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ward, he farmed in Henry county two years and then came to the Casteel farm where he lived for eight years. In the fall of 1905, he bought eighty acres in Liberty township, south of Prentiss, where he now resides.
To Henry and Virdie (Casteel) Ward, seven children have been born, Francis, who is now attending the high school at Leipsic; Byron; Leroy; Clyde; Lloyd; Burl and Irven. Francis took part in the corn contest in the fall of 1914, and raised one hundred and twelve bushels to the acre and fifty- six pounds to the bushel. One hundred pounds of this corn was shelled and produced eighty-four pounds of shelled corn and only sixteen pounds of cobs,
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a remarkable record. As a reward, he was given a trip to Washington,. D. C. He stood highest in Liberty. Van Buren and Blanchard townships.
Henry Ward is a leading member of the Odd Fellow lodge and is also one of the leading citizens of Liberty township and Putnam county, a man. who is highly respected where he resides.
JACOB FREDERICK MOEHRING.
When Jacob Frederick Moehring came to Putnam county, Ohio, with his wife, in 1868, he had no money to invest in land and started in to work for seventy-five cents a day, and within a couple of years he was able to buy a farm of forty acres and it was indeed a desolate looking place. Ponds alternated with knolls of dry land, and old stumps had floated down and scat- tered themselves promiscuously over the farm. Under such conditions, Mr. Moehring began farming for himself, and as the years went by, he had the satisfaction of seeing his farm under cultivation. Since 1870, he has doubled his acreage and this same swampy land on which he located forty-five years ago, is now worth at least two hundred dollars an acre. The story of the reclamation of this swampy farm from its primitive condition to one of the most productive farms of the county, covers the active period of Mr. Moeh- ring's life.
Jacob Frederick Moehring, the son of Christopher and Mary (Wolfinger ) Moehring, was born in 1840, in Fairfield county, Ohio. Both of his parents were born in Germany, his father coming to America when a young man and locating in Fairfield county, Ohio. In that county he mar- ried and spent the remainder of his life on a farm.
Jacob F. Moehring was reared on his father's farm in Fairfield county and received the limited education which was provided by the district schools. of his home township. He remained at home until his marriage in 1862, and then spent the first two years of his married life in Fairfield county, when he came to Putnam county and located in Liberty township, where he worked on a farm by the day for the first two years. He saved his money and was able to make a payment on a forty-acre tract of land which cost him forty dollars an acre. He gradually brought this under cultivation and, a few years later, bought another forty acres, paying fifty dollars an acre for his. second purchase. Each succeeding year has found him more prosperous and his farm more productive. Every improvement which is now on the farm
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has been placed there by him and today there is not a better farm in the town- ship. Good management and ceaseless industry have been the keynotes to his success while thriftiness has enabled him to prosper to an unusual degree. For nearly fifty years he and his good wife have labored together, shared each other's trials and sorrows and lived such a life as has endeared them to everyone with whom they have come in contact.
Jacob F. Moehring was married on January 28, 1856, to Mrs. Rebecca L. (Miller) Miller. She was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, near Lan- caster, and is a daughter of John C. and Rebecca (Ridenour) Miller. Her father came from Germany when he was three years of age with his parents and located in Fairfield county, Ohio, where he lived the remainder of his life.
Mrs. Jacob F. Moehring had one son by her first marriage, Harvey, who now lives in Liepsic. He married first Ada Foltz, and to this union were born three children, Myrtle, Harry and May. Myrtle is the widow of Charles White and has two children, Henry and Josephine. Harry married Myrtle Heindlein and lives on a farm near Mr. Moehring, and has one daugh- ter, Evelyn Ireta. May, the youngest child of Harvey Miller, by his first marriage, is the wife of Judson Blakeley. After the death of his first wife Harvey Miller married Rosa Ward, and to his second marriage have been born three children, Oliver, Roy and Refina McCleta.
Jacob F. Moehring and his family are loyal members of the Lutheran church. They have traveled life's pathway side by side for nearly half a century, and are one of the most highly-respected couples in the township, where they have made their home so many years.
JOHN HERMAN MEYER.
The best history of a community or state is that which deals most with the lives and activities of its people, especially of those who, by their own endeavors and indomitable energy, have forged to the front and placed themselves where they deserve the title of progressive men. In this brief review will be found the record of one who has outstripped the less active plodders on the highway of life, and achieved a career of marked success in agricultural affairs, and a name which all men who know him, delight to honor, because of his upright life and his habits of thrift and industry.
John Herman Meyer was born on April 7, 1866, a short distance south- west of Ottawa, near where he now lives. He is a son of George B. and Anna Mary (Moening) Meyer, who are referred to elsewhere in this volume.
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John Herman Meyer was reared on the home farm, attending the dis- trict schools of his home township, remaining on the farm assisting his father until his marriage, which took place in 1890, when he was united to Eliza- beth Gertrude Kleman. She was born in the north part of Pleasant town- ship, and is a daughter of Henry and Mary Gertrude (Kottenbrock) Kle- man, born in Putnam county, of German parents who came here about 1835.
Mrs. Meyer was reared south of Ottawa, in Pleasant township, coming to Glandorf, at the age of thirteen, with her parents. Henry Kleman made his home on a farm in Pleasant township, after his marriage, and lived there the remainder of his life. He was killed by lightning when Mrs. Meyer was only three months old. Her mother afterwards married Anton Unverferth, in 1880, and they made their home in Greensburg township. By her first marriage, Mrs. Meyer's mother had eight children, of whom six are still living. No children were born to the second marriage. The six children now living, who were born to her first marriage, are John, Henry, George, Ben, Anna, now Mrs. Unverferth, and Mrs. Elizabeth Meyer. The mother of these children died in Greensburg township in 1890.
After Mr. Meyer's marriage, he continued farming on land near the old home place, on what is known as the old Ellerbrock farm, and here has lived ever since. His father purchased the place when John H. Meyer was six years old. At that time the old house has been moved off and the old barn was practically worthless. Herman Meyer tore it down and has erected a nice, large and modern house, and has also put up a commodious barn. The latter was erected in 1894, and he has other numerous outbuildings in a good state of repair. Like his two brothers, Mr. Meyer has owned and operated a thrashing machine outfit for many years, his father before him having also conducted the same business. All the members of the family are interested in machinery. Mr. Meyer is well-known in Putnam county. He has a good farm of ninety-nine acres, and is a thrifty and enterprising farmer.
John H. and Elizabeth Gertrude (Kleman) Meyer are the parents of nine children, three of whom are deceased. Charles C., who married Margaret Koerner, lives in the house next to his father, and has one son. Urban, while Emma, Philomena, Loretta, Lucy and Marcella are living at home with their parents. The three deceased children are Anna, Herman and Edward.
John H. Meyer and family are all devout members of the Catholic church at Glandorf and he of the St. John's Society. The Meyer family is not only well known, but highly respected in Ottawa township, where they have lived for so many years.
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JOHN MILTON SMITH.
One of the successful farmers of Liberty township, Putnam county, Ohio, is John Milton Smith, who was born on December 27, 1852, in Pleas- ant township, the son of William and Barbara ( Mclaughlin) Smith.
William Smith was born and reared in Licking county, Ohio, and there- married. He came to Putnam county, about 1846, and located in Pleasant township where he entered government land and made his permanent home. Later, he bought more land. His wife died, leaving one daughter, Elizabeth, the wife of Edward Mack of Leipsic.
After the death of his wife, William Smith went back to Licking county and was there a few years when he married Barbara Mclaughlin, a native of Licking county. He returned to his old pioneer home in Pleasant township and lived there until 1866, when he moved to Liberty township and located in the northeast quarter of section 27, where he bought one hundred and twenty acres and farmed it the remainder of his life. He took an active interest in public affairs and died in 1880, at the age of fifty-seven. His wife died in 1893.
There were six children born to this second union, Charles, John, Martha, Lawrence, Elmer and Laura.
John Milton Smith was married in 1881 to Mary E. Henry. She was. born on the farm where she now lives, in the southeast quarter of section 3, Liberty township, the daughter of John and Rebecca (Knop) Henry. Her father was born in Pennsylvania and came to Putnam county when a boy with his parents, Samuel and Elizabeth Henry, who located first in Wyan- dot county, during the Civil War, and afterward in Putnam county in Liberty township. Rebecca Knop was the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Knop, who came from Pennsylvania, settling in Liberty township.
John Henry farmed in Liberty township all of his life. He died in 1887, and Mrs. Henry died during the early seventies, while Mrs. Smith was a. little child.
When Mr. and Mrs. Smith were married, he began farming for himself on the farm where he now lives, in Liberty township, and has farmed there ever since. He is now the owner of two hundred and forty acres of land consisting of two well-improved farms with good houses, barns and fences.
John Milton and Mary E. (Henry) Smith are the parents of three chil- dren living and one dead, Mark W., Clyde H., Clarence and Everett. Mark WV. married Gertha White and is farming on one of his father's farms. They have three children, Marie, Dale and Forest; Clyde H. married Eva.
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Miller and lives on his own farm near Prentiss. They have two children, Domer and Ray; Clarence died at the age of seventeen, and Everett is unmar- ried and at home.
During the last ten years, Mr. Smith has been a member of the school board and is also a trustee of Liberty township. He has given entire satis- faction in performing the duties of these offices. He is a member of the Republican party. Mr. Smith and his wife are members of the Evangelical church, earnest and active in their religious life. Mr. Smith is a progressive man of excellent standing in the community. He is quiet and unpretentious but, nevertheless, one of the substantial citizens of Liberty township.
JOHN F. SHAFER.
The best title one can establish to the high and generous esteem of an intelligent community, is a protracted and honorable residence therein. John F. Shafer has resided in this locality all his life, having been born in Perry township, on the Layton farm, known as the Wilcox farm at that time, on June 4, 1846. His career has been a commendable one and well deserving of being perpetuated on the pages of a historical work of the nature of the one in hand. Knowing that the county was destined to take a high rank in the productive and rich locality of the North, Mr. Shafer applied himself very closely to his work and waited for the future to bring its reward, and today he is numbered among the substantial men of the county.
John F. Shafer is a son of John and Susan (Dickey) Shafer, the former of whom was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, but who removed to Allen county, where he farmed for a number of years. Here he was married, and subsequently moved to Putnam county, to what is known as the Layton farm. When John F. Shafer was about two years old his father moved to Paulding county, and here John F. Shafer grew up and was educated. His father died in Paulding county, and John F. returned to Putnam county, and was married here at the age of twenty-seven years.
John F. Shafer was married in 1873 to Ruth Varner, the daughter of Jacob and Eliza (Guyten) Varner, who was born in Greensburg township, Putnam county. After his marriage Mr. Shafer rented a farm in Perry township of his father, and here he lived for seven years. At the end of this time he removed to his present farm of one hundred and sixty-eight acres, where he now lives. He first located on this farm in 1881, and has since added to it until he is now the owner of three hundred and twenty-two acres.
MR. AND MRS. JJOHN F. SHAFER.
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Just after attaining his majority Mr. Shafer worked out by the month for a short time. He also spent three months in the West, but did not like that country and returned to Putnam county, where he has since been engaged in general farming and stock raising. The second money he ever earned he in- vested in Shorthorn cattle, and for the past forty-seven years has made a specialty of this kind of live stock, and has met with commendable success in this line. He has always made it a rule to breed only thoroughbreds. He keeps very fine horses, cattle, hogs and sheep, and raises all kinds of live stock in considerable number. All of the forage produced on Mr. Shafer's land is fed to his stock. He ships his products throughout the entire country, but the greater part of it has been sold in the nearby markets. Mr. Shafer has made all of the improvements upon his land, including house and barns, with the exception of an old house on the farm, which was there when Mr. Shafer acquired it. The land was mostly cleared when Mr. Shafer purchased it, but he has added ditches and fences and improved it in many ways, mak- ing it one of the finest and most productive in this section of the county.
John F. and Ruth (Varner) Shafer are the parents of five children, the first-born dying in infancy. The others are as follow: Mrs. Carrie Simon, of Greensburg township, is the mother of six children, Paul, Helen, Mary, George, Margery and Ruth Anna; Maud, now living at home, was formerly engaged in the teaching profession; Ralph, living on the home farm, married Blanche Simons, and they have two children, Geraldine and Howard; Dot, who died at the age of fourteen years.
John F. Shafer is not a member of any lodge. He is a Republican in politics, and served his fellow citizens for three years as township trustee; has also served as a member of the school board for sixteen years, although not active at the present time. For two years he was ditch supervisor, but is no longer active in this work. Mrs. Shafer is a member of the Mt. Zion United Brethren church, as are the rest of the family.
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