USA > Ohio > Putnam County > History of Putnam County, Ohio : its peoples, industries, and institutions > Part 126
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erine; Catherine Elizabeth, subject's wife; John, of Pleasant township, and Amelia, who died at the age of nineteen years.
After John H. Utendorf's marriage, and in the twenty-seventh year of his age, he removed to Pleasant township, where he started farming on his present place, which consists of one hundred and sixty acres. This land was. cleared with the exception of about thirty-five acres still in timber. After doing considerable ditching and draining, fencing and otherwise getting things in shape, Mr. Utendorf has gotten this farm into first-class condition for general farming and he is able to produce the maximum results on a place of this size which is used for growing crops. His concentrated efforts and careful management show everywhere. The buildings have all been built new or remodeled and his residence is an imposing structure, modern in every respect. All in all, he has made a success in agricultural pursuits. To their union have been born five children as follow : Frances, Edward, Mary, John and Anna, all of whom live at home.
Mr. Utendorf is a Democrat, but does not take an active interest in politics. Fraternally, he is a member of the Catholic Knights of Ohio and the Knights of Columbus, both of which orders have lodges in the town of Ottawa, where he belongs. The entire family are members of the Catholic church at Ottawa, to which they contribute according to their means. Mr. Utendorf has the reputation of being a man of genial and kindly disposition, charitable, and always ready to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate who are plodding along life's highway. Personally, Mr. Utendorf is a man of unassuming ways and on account of his sterling qualities, honorable methods, and keen interest in all community affairs, is held in the highest esteem by all. who know him.
WILLIAM J. WISCHMEYER.
William J. Wischmeyer, of Ottawa township, Putnam county, Ohio, is: one of the well-known farmers of Ottawa township and is of an old family. He owns a comfortable home and is possessed of the satisfaction of having reared a family of children to honorable and useful lives.
On May 14, 1860, Mr. Wischmeyer himself was born at New Cleveland, Putnam county, and is the son of Ferdinand Henry and Mary (Schmenk) Wischmeyer, the former of whom was a native of the Province of Hanover, Germany, born on June 24, 1836. A sister, Mary, who had married William Gulker, having come to this country, Ferdinand Henry Wischmeyer arrived
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at Glandorf, Putnam county, where he was twelve years of age, and here as a lad he did any kind of work he was able to find. Educated at Cleveland for the priesthood in the Catholic church, but subsequently abandoning his ambition for the church, he taught school for several years in Greensburg township. Having been able to obtain a good education, he was considered one of the foremost teachers of his time. His wife, Mary Schmenk, to whom he was married in 1858, although born at Glandorf, Putnam county, was the daughter of Herman and Anna Schmenk, the former of whom came from Holland to America about 1840, first settling near New Cleveland, in Put- nam county, and later moving to Avilla, Indiana, where he and his wife lived the remainder of their lives. They were not accompanied to Indiana by their daughter Mary, who remained at New Cleveland after the removal of her parents. After giving birth to four children, William J., the subject of this sketch, Mary, John and Ferdinand, Mrs. Mary (Schmenk) Wischmeyer died in November, 1865, on the farm near New Cleveland where she and her husband had settled after their marriage. Mr. Wischmeyer was married a second time, to Catherine Ballman, about three years after the death of his first wife, and had six children by the second marriage, as follow: Theodore, Henry, Joseph, Benjamin, Frank (deceased) and Bernard. The father of these children is now deceased, having died at New Cleveland, where his wife still survives him.
Born, educated and reared at New Cleveland, Putnam county, William J. Wischmeyer ·worked on his father's farm, in Ottawa township, where his brother now lives, and in 1887 was married, when he removed to Glandorf, where he remained for three years and then removed to Ottawa and lived there for three years. Mr. Wischmeyer bought a farm of sixty-four acres in Ottawa township, which land he has cleared, drained and improved gen- erally. It is his present home and here he has surrounded himself with all the comforts of farm life.
Mr. Wischmeyer's wife, before her marriage, was Mary Hesseling, daughter of Henry and Anna (Hemma) Hesseling, and was born near Ft. Jennings, Putnam county, where her parents had settled on a farm. Sub- sequently, they moved to Delphos, in Allen county, where Mrs. Wischmeyer was educated, and where she grew up with the other children, Frederick, Herman, Charles, John, Joseph (deceased), William, Kate and Bernadina. The parents are both deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Wischmeyer four children have been born, one of whom, an infant, is deceased. The living children are Louis Henry, John Edward and Anna Philomena.
Mr. and Mrs. Wischmeyer and family belong to Sts. Peter and Paul's
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Catholic church at Ottawa. Mr. Wischmeyer is a Democrat. He is not only a capable farmer, but an enterprising citizen, and a man of pleasant and agreeabl personality. He is strongly devoted to his family and to the imme- diate interests of the home. These he has guarded and protected with a zeal of a kind husband and loving father. Mr. Wischmeyer is well and favorably known in this community.
JOSEPH ZINK.
The spirit of a truly good man is almost as wonderful as his work. This spirit usually is characterized by disinterestedness, modesty and absolute fair- ness, qualities not only good in themselves, but which must remain as a proof of the importance of character in whatever labors one's hands find to do, in whatever work one is engaged to perform. Among the men who have ex- erted a large personal influence in the affairs of Putnam county and who have occupied positions of public trust and responsibility, few are better known than former Sheriff Joseph Zink. No history of Putnam county can be com- plete without mention of Joseph Zink and his services to the county, and it is with pleasure the biographer asks the reader's attention to the following brief sketch of his career in this county.
Joseph Zink is a native of Putnam county, having been born in the year 1859 on a farm in Palmer township, the son of William and Elizabeth Zink, both natives of Germany, who were married in Baden before coming to this country in 1849. For a time after their arrival in America, the Zinks lived in Columbus, William Zink being a skilled workman in the building trades, and he was engaged for some time on the construction of the Ohio state cap- itol. During this time he was offered eighty acres of land, a strip lying in what is now the heart of the city of Columbus, for eight hundred dollars, but when he was told he could get twice as much land in Putnam county for the same money, he declined the offer and proceeded to Putnam county, where, in 1850, he bought one hundred and sixty acres in Palmer township for four hundred dollars. IIe found much of this land practically worthless for farm- ing purposes at that time, it being an apparently irreclaimable swamp, there being at that time no facilities at hand for drainage. He gave eighty acres of this land to his brother as an inducement for the latter to come and stay in the neighborhood with him and help him to reclaim his farm. After six months of struggle, with the apparently insuperable obstacles which lay in
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the way of successful. farming there, the brother departed and never came back to Putnam county, apparently having given the whole thing over as a bad job. The swampy condition of the land at that time was productive of much illness and the people thereabout constantly were subjected to fevers and ague, which made life miserable for many. It is interesting to note that the land which at that time was so comparatively worthless now is included among the best lands of the county, farms thereabout being well worth one hundred and fifty dollars an acre.
William Zink was not discouraged, however, by the difficulties which confronted him and set bravely to work to reclaim his place. For some time his chief income from the place was derived from the sale of hoop-poles, which he hauled to Ottawa, where he found a ready market. Unhappily, this plucky pioneer was not destined to see his farm brought to the state of productivity for which he had hoped or to see his family reared as he had hoped to rear them, for not long after he had settled there, William Zink became the victim of one of the cruelest crimes that ever occurred in Put- nam county, and which occurred just after the close of the Civil War. One day, when going to Lima to make a payment on his farm, William Zink was waylaid at a point between Ottawa and Glandorf, and there was murdered and robbed. The murderer was captured and was charged with the deed in the first degree, but before the grand jury convened he broke jail at Kalida and made good his escape, and was never captured, nor seen or heard of in that section afterward. To add to the cruelty of this tragic situation, Mrs. Zink, the widow of the murdered man, died the next year, leaving seven children to the tender mercies of the world. The neighbors, however, were helpful and generous and the orphans quickly were placed in good homes in the neighborhood, several families responding gladly to this humane call.
In the distribution of these orphans it fell to the happy lot of Joseph Zink to be taken into the family of Mr. and Mrs. William Kohls, a generous young couple, who at that time had but one child of their own, and who lived south of Ottawa. In the home of the Kohls young Joseph received as careful rear- ing as though he were of the family born and grew up into strong, vigorous young manhood, tall, broad-shouldered and hardy. Here he remained until he was eighteen years of age, after which for one year he "worked out" in the neighborhood as a farm hand and then went to the state of Missouri, where he remained for a year, at the end of which time he returned to Putnam county and went to work on the farm of Herman Kohls, near Ft. Jennings, receiving for this service one hundred and fifty dollars for the year. While thus engaged, in the year 1882, Joseph Zink was united in marriage to Miss
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Mary Facker, who was born on a farm near Ft. Jennings, the daughter of Caspar and Elizabeth (Ostendorf) Facker, the former of whom was a native of Hanover and the latter a native of Osnabruck, Germany.
Caspar Facker and Elizabeth Ostendorf came to America in their youth, both locating in Ohio. They were married in Dayton, Ohio, about the year 1845, and soon afterward came to Putnam county, settling in the neighbor- hood of Ft. Jennings, buying a farm one and one-half miles from the village, where they spent the rest of their lives and where their son, Caspar Facker, Jr., now lives. Mrs. Zink lived with her parents until she was sixteen years of age, at which time she began to support herself by taking service in the homes of others in the neighborhood, and was thus engaged until her mar- riage with Mr. Zink.
Following his marriage, Joseph Zink started for himself by renting a farm near Ft. Jennings and was thus employed for five years, at the end of which time he bought a farm in the northeast corner of Greensburg township, Putnam county, where he lived until 1906, and where his son now lives. Though this farm is now well improved and productive, at the time Mr. Zink took it over it was a densely wooded swamp and there were little opportuni- ties in those days for adequate soil drainage. In fact, the place was so swampy that it was said Mr. Zink could row a boat around his house. At the time he took the place, however, there was no house on it and it fell to him to provide a home for his bride. The log cabin which he quickly built was at first "daubed" with mud, but later these chinks were filled with mortar. Mr. Zink laughingly says that in the winters, when he was not otherwise en- gaged about the place, he always could find occupation shoveling the snow out of the attic, whither it had drifted in under the clapboard roof. After about eight years of incessant toil, this farm was drained, cleared and brought to a profitable state of cultivation, and is now included among the excellent farms of the county, with its good house, barns and other improvements. During his residence in Greensburg township, Mr. Zink served for seven years as township trustee and did much for the development of that section of the county.
While he was engaged in subduing the forest and the swamp, however, Mr. Zink found time to cultivate the wide acquaintance of his neighbors and became one of the best known men in that part of the county. Indeed, his acquaintance was not limited to his own neighborhood, but extended to all parts of the county, so much so that when, in 1905, Mr. Zink received the nomination for sheriff on the Democratic ticket, he was so well known throughout the county and so deservedly popular that his election was well nigh assured from the beginning of the race. He took office at Ottawa, in
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1906, and gave such general satisfaction in administering the affairs of the sheriff's office that he was renominated and re-elected for another two-year term, at the end of which term, by reason of an amendment to the law relat- ing to tenure, an extra year was added to his term, making five years in all in which he held this office, and it is hardly necessary to say that he proved to be one of the most popular sheriffs the county ever had. Following the expiration of his term of office, Mr. Zink remained in the sheriff's office for two years, serving as deputy under Sheriff Miller, who had been a deputy during the latter's tenure. At the close of this deputyship, Mr. Zink re- tired from public life with the proud satisfaction of well and truly having served the public and having discharged all the duties devolving upon him with fairness and fidelity.
After leaving office, Mr. Zink moved to a farm of one hundred and five acres of well improved land, which he shortly before had bought, about two miles north of Ottawa, and here he is living happily and comfortably, enjoy- ing the confidence, respect and esteem of the whole community.
To Joseph and Mary (Facker) Zink were born five children: William, who married Della Perkey and who now lives on the old home farm in Greensburg township, where Mr. and Mrs. Zink spent the happy days of their early struggles; Laura, who married Arthur Conn and lives at Ottawa, they having three children, Marie, Ellsworth and Helen; Elizabeth, the wife of Grover Phillips, lives at Detroit, Michigan, and has two children, Virginia and William; Edward, unmarried, lives at home, and Cora graduated from the high school at Ottawa.
The Zinks are all members of the Catholic church at Ottawa, and are active in the various beneficences of the parish, at the same time taking their share in all the good works of the community, being very properly regarded as among the leaders in their large circle of friends and acquaintances.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IRWIN.
Among the strong and influential citizens of Putnam county, Ohio, the record of whose lives have become an essential part of the history of this section, Benjamin Franklin Irwin occupies a prominent place. For many years he has exerted a beneficial influence in the locality where he resides. His chief characteristics are keenness of perception, a tireless energy, honesty of purpose and motive and every-day common sense, which have enabled him, not only to advance his own interests, but also largely to contribute to the
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moral and the material advancement of the community where he lives, and especially to the moral advancement of Pleasant township.
Benjamin Franklin Irwin, the subject of this sketch, was born on August 26, 1869, in Pleasant township in Putnam county. . He is the son of. Benjamin Franklin, Sr., and Lydia (Hayden) Irwin, the latter of whom was Mr. Irwin's second wife.
Benjamin Franklin Irwin, Jr., was never married. He spent his boy- hood days on his father's farm, and still resides with his mother on the home- stead in Pleasant township. Mr. Irwin owns one hundred and sixteen acres of land and follows general farming. He makes a specialty of raising live stock, and large quantities of grain. All the buildings on the farm where Mr. Irwin lives were erected by his late father, with the exception, perhaps, of the corn-crib and granary, which were built by the son in 1905.
Benjamin Franklin Irwin, Jr., is the present efficient township trustee of Pleasant township, having assumed that office in 1912. He was elected at that time to a term of two years. In politics, Mr. Irwin is a Democrat. He was always been prominent, locally, in the councils of the Democratic party. While he is not a member of any church, he is a man of strong religious con- victions, and is a power for good in the community where he lives. Mr. Irwin is a member of No. 464, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Colum- bus Grove and is a quiet, unassuming man, and well known in Putnam county. He is considered a very capable farmer and bears a high reputation in this community for his honesty of purpose and sterling character. He is a booster of all progressive movements and, in every respect, a worthy citizen.
Benjamin Franklin Irwin, Sr., was born in Fairfield .county, Ohio, on November 30, 1821, and died, May 22, 1902. His first wife was Sarah J. Lease, who was born on April 26, 1836, and who died on June 28, 1861. By this first marriage there were four children, as follow: Harmon L., born on June 16, 1855; Margaret A., September 5, 1857; Eva, August 1, 1859; and Sarah J., born June 28, 1861.
After the death of Mrs. Sarah J. (Lease) Irwin, Mr. Irwin was married again on March 28, 1864, to Lydia J. Hayden, who was born on May 7, 1839, in Stark county. By this second union nine children were born, Martha Emma on March 9, 1865; Clement L., July 26, 1866, died on September 19, 1866; George Thurman, September 20, 1867, died on January 30, 1897; Benjamin F., the subject of this sketch, as heretofore stated, August 25, 1869; Nathaniel K., January 20, 1871; James A., March 13, 1874; Charles P., December 9, 1876; Kemerer L., May 16, 1879, and Guy, January 14, 1882.
When Benjamin F. Irwin settled in Putnam county, it was a dense forest. There was scarcely a stick of timber missing and but a few residents in the
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neighborhood where Mr. Irwin settled, and it was owing to his indefatigable courage and unswerving purpose, together with hard work that this dense forest was cleared for the plow. Benjamin F. Irwin, Sr., was a Democrat. All in all he was a hard-working farmer and suffered all the privations of pioneer life. The father of Benjamin F. Irwin, Sr., was Josiah Kennedy Irwin, who married Catherine Bartman. Benjamin F. Irwin's second wife was the daughter of Nathaniel and Eliza ( Bothers) Hayden.
All of the members of the Irwin family are well known throughout Put- nam county, and the fact that the progenitors of this family have been pio- neers in the history of this county for several generations, they have been highly respected citizens and have added much to the material prosperity of this county. Benjamin Franklin Irwin, Jr., is no exception to this rule. He is a worthy citizen of Pleasant township, and from any standpoint deserves. the confidence and esteem bestowed upon him by the people of this county.
HENRY KOTTENBROCK.
All progress is continuous, one generation merely gathering the ripe- fruits of the labors of its predecessors, each succeeding generation building on the firm foundation laid by others. In reviewing the history of the suc- cessive generations of Putnam county, Ohio, the historian is compelled to take large note of the influence exerted upon this community by those sturdy settlers of German birth, who in a past generation did so well their part in helping to lay the foundation upon which the noble superstructure of sub- stantial social, moral, civic, commercial and industrial worth has been erected. Among these worthy representatives of the former generation who are still living to give to the present generation in this county the benefit of their ripe experience and judgment, few are better known than the venerable Henry Kottenbrock, a pioneer resident of Ottawa township, who, as he nears the non- agenarian stage of his life, is comfortably and happily situated in the home of his daughter, the good wife of Township Trustee Joseph Klausing, of Ot- tawa township, a home which Mr. Kottenbrock practically wrested from the grasp of the wilderness many years before.
Henry Kottenbrock was born in Oldenburg, Germany, on June 15, 1827, a son of Herman and Katherine ( Scheele) Kottenbrock. He grew up in Germany, learning there the thoroughness of discipline and the value of thrift so much insisted on in the German system of education, and at the age of
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twenty-one decided to come to America, many glowing accounts of the ad- vantages others of his fellow townsmen and some of his kinsfolk had found awaiting them on this side of the Atlantic, having come back to his part of the Fatherland. He landed at New Orleans, where he remained for a time, and afterward joined the Glandorf colony in Putnam county. He had learned the trade of shoe-making at his home in Germany and during the early days of his residence here continued to follow this trade, making his home with an uncle, who some time before had come to America and who owned a farm of forty acres southwest of Ottawa. Encouraged by the good word sent back home by their son, Henry Kottenbrock's parents presently joined him at Glandorf, and entered upon the life of a pioneer farmer, renting the uncle's land. At that time this section of the county was very sparsely set- tled, there being only a few houses in Glandorf. Soon after settling in this county, Mr. Kottenbrock's father died on this farm, where he had lived all his life, and Henry and the other members of the family purchased the uncle's property and continued to make it their home.
At the age of twenty-seven, more than sixty years ago, Mr. Kottenbrock married Elizabeth Feltman, who was born in Glandorf, the daughter of Henry Feltman and wife, who had come from Hanover in pioneer times, having been among the first to join Professor Horstman's historic colony. After his marriage, Mr. Kottenbrock continued to live on the farm which had been taken over from the uncle and on which he still lives. In the early days, in addition to his duties as a manager of the farm, he plied his trade of shoe- making with much industry, and prospered apace, gradually adding to his holdings until eventually he owned three hundred and sixty acres of fine land.
To Henry and Elizabeth ( Feltman) Kottenbrock there were born twelve children : Joseph died when two years old; Elizabeth died in infancy, and. Herman grew up and was killed in a coal mine disaster in North Dakota. The nine children of this family still living are: Henry, who makes his home in North Dakota; Mrs. Mary Rechtine, who lives in Miller City, this county; William, who also lives in North Dakota; John, who resides on the old home place; Annie, the wife of August Kneuve, lives in Missouri; Bar- ney, a successful farmer, who lives in the southwestern part of Ottawa town- ship, this county; Frank, a farmer of Pleasant township, this county; Mrs. Kate Fembert, of Ottawa township, and Amelia, wife of Joseph Klausing, township trustee of Ottawa township. The mother of these children died in 1903, and the aged father continues to make his home in the old home place, where the evening of his life is being made pleasant by the ministrations of his daughter, Mrs. Klausing, and her family, and where he constantly is in
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receipt of the kindest attentions of the entire neighborhood, in which this pioneer is held in the highest regard by all.
Mr. Kottenbrock is one of the oldest inhabitants of Putnam county, and the biographer finds much pleasure in presenting to the readers of this volume this interesting biographical sketch. He has been a considerable traveler in his day and continues to take an active interest in current affairs. He has been to North Dakota and to the World's Fair and other places of interest, and still visits and goes about with as much activity as many men of much fewer years. Mr. Kottenbrock is a genial old gentleman, who is highly esteemed in the community in which he so long has lived and is a most enter- taining host, having in his mind an inexhaustible fund of reminiscences of the days gone by. His hearing still is good and he is keenly alert to all mat- ters of neighborhood interest and concern. He has also visited his daughter, Mrs. Kneuve, in Portageville, Missouri.
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