History of Putnam County, Ohio : its peoples, industries, and institutions, Part 143

Author: Kinder, George D., 1836-
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1744

USA > Ohio > Putnam County > History of Putnam County, Ohio : its peoples, industries, and institutions > Part 143

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Mr. Kahle was married on November 4, 1875, to Mary A. Miehls. She was born at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a daughter of George and Mary A. (Hegner) Miehls.

Mrs. Kahle's father was born in Rhenish Bavaria, and her mother was a native of Wurttemberg, Germany. When Mrs. Kahle was four years of age, in 1857, the family moved from Pittsburgh, to Carroll county, Ohio, and seven years later the family located in Greensburg township, Putnam county. Her parents resided on a farm here until old age, and then moved to a farm at Ottoville, where Mr. Miehls died on October 3, 1879, three days before his sixty-third birthday. His widow remained on the farm with the children about fifteen years and then married Peter Wannamaker, and moved to Ottoville, where she lived until her death, October 29, 191I, at the advanced age of eighty-six years.

Nine children were born to Ignatius H. and Mary A. (Miehls) Kahle, Frank G., cashier of the Bank of Ottawa Company, who married Gertrude Vocke, and has one son, Robert; Emma B. is the wife of Hubbard C. Gerding, and has two daughters, Mary and Eleanor; Adelia B., the wife of Frank Laibe; Laura M., the wife of George Laibe, and has a daughter, Laura Mae; George W., the assistant cashier of the bank; Harry I., a real estate man, who married Emma Hermiller, and has a daughter, Rosemary; and has a son, Ignatius Henry; Bertha M. and Mary Pauline, who are now attending St. Joseph's Academy at Adrian, Michigan.

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After the death of Doctor Reed, the president of the bank, in the spring of 1913, Mrs. Kahle succeeded him and has the distinction of being the only woman in the state of Ohio, who is a president of a bank. The entire family are loyal members of the Catholic church.

JACOB J. FRAKER.

Jacob J. Fraker is one of the oldest farmers now living in Palmer town- . ship, Putnam county, Ohio. Mr. Fraker has not always been engaged in farming. For eleven years he was engaged in the mercantile business at Pleasant Bend, Ohio, and recalls that he sold provisions to many of the early settlers of Continental, Ohio, and vicinity, while conducting his general store at Pleasant Bend. Mr. Fraker has had many material misfortunes by fire, but he has not only been able to survive all of them, but has, in each case, taken hold of things with a characteristic which bespeaks energy and new deter- mination. Altogether he now owns two hundred and five acres, one hundred and fifteen acres of which is located in section 5, sixty acres in section 3 and thirty acres in section 8. During recent years and while Mr. Fraker has been engaged in farming, he has combined with the raising of grain, the raising of good breeds of live stock. He at present has about one hundred head of Duroc-Jersey hogs on his place and raises a great many Shorthorn cattle. He takes great pride in a splendid Shorthorn bull which he keeps and which is the head of his herd. Jacob J. Fraker is a Swiss by birth and his career is an example of the fortitude, energy and determination which so generally characterizes the people of that world-famed democracy.

Jacob Fraker was born on December 10, 1848, in Altenburg, County of Aargau, Switzerland. His parents were John and Elizabeth ( Miller ) Fraker. Both his paternal and maternal grandparents were natives of Switzerland. The father of Jacob J. Fraker was one of six children. John Fraker had two sisters and three brothers and came to America in 1853 when Jacob J. was five years old. His wife was a native-born Swiss also. They settled in Defi- ance county, Ohio, on forty acres of wild and swampy land and lived there for twenty years. In 1862 John Fraker sold this farm and purchased eighty acres. He traded all of this land, comprising one hundred and sixty acres, for one hundred and sixty acres in Henry county and to this latter farm he moved, and where he lived until his death, in 1888. He had cleared the greater part of the farm and also other farms owned by him at the time

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of his death, and erected the buildings on the farm now owned by his son, John, brother of the subject.

During his life, John Fraker was active in public affairs, having served on the school board and as supervisor in Defiance county. He was a Demo- crat in politics and a member of the German Reform church at Sherwood, in Defiance county. His wife, who before her marriage was Elizabeth Miller, died in 1895, when nearly eighty years of age. She has ably assisted her husband in building up the family fortune and had always been a loyal and faithful helpmeet. She was also a member of the German Reformed church.

As heretofore mentioned, Jacob J. Fraker was five years old when his parents came to America. During his early life, he lived in Defiance county on his father's farm. In fact, he lived with his father and mother until his marriage. Jacob J. Fraker has been married three times.

Mr. Fraker's first marriage took place on December 23, 1869, when he was married to Elizabeth Long, the daughter of Thomas and Mary Long. She was born in Crawford county, Ohio, where her parents had settled, and was married to Mr. Fraker in Defiance county. They had only one child, Mary, who married Charles Easton, of Continental, Ohio, and has five children, Orpha, George, William, Emma and Ralph.

Thomas and Mary Long were natives of different countries, he of Bavaria, Germany, and she of England. He was one of the first school teachers of Pennsylvania, having taught in Allegheny county, where he taught in both the German and English schools.

After Jacob J. Fraker's first marriage, his father assisted him in pur- chasing eighty acres of land in Marks township, Defiance county, where he farmed for three years and, after the death of Mrs. Fraker, in 1873, pur- chased forty acres more, which he farmed for a short time. He then traded his one hundred and twenty acres in Marks township for one hundred and sixty acres in Palmer township, Putnam county. Mr. Fraker moved to this farm in the fall of 1878 and two years later, on September 30, 1880, he was again married, this time to Mary A. Gardener, the daughter of Charles. Gardener and wife. By this second marriage there were three children, the first died in infancy ; Harmon Andrew, who was born on November 20, 1888, died on February 10, 1893, and Emma, who married Howard Converse and lives at the present time with Mr. Fraker. They have one child, Jacob An- drew, who was born on August 29, 1903. He is now attending district No. 2 school. Charles Gardener, the father of the second Mrs. Fraker, was a

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native of Bavaria, Germany, but his wife was a native of Ohio. At the time of the birth of their daughter, Mary, they lived at Delphos, Allen county.

While the Clover Leaf railroad was being built through Putnam county and after Mr. Fraker's second marriage, he entered the general mercantile business at Pleasant Bend in Henry county, where he was appointed post- master at that place and combined his business with this office. It was the first business of any importance in Pleasant Bend, in which he continued for about eleven years and during this time he was not only postmaster, but. express and railroad agent. His store burned and he rebuilt it in 1889. After that he sold the stock, but retained the building, which burned a second time. In the meantime he had moved to his present farm in Palmer town- ship, about October, 1889, and here erected a residence. Mr. Fraker cleared the farm and built many substantial buildings, also drained and fenced the land. When he purchased this farm there was no road in front of it. There were many trying ordeals to be overcome and these required much hard work and patience. Mr. Fraker was visited with a second great misfortune when his wife died in 1890. Three years later, on January 1, 1893, he was mar- ried to Mrs. Harriet Catherine (Elston) Clark, who was born in Grover Hill, Latta township, Paulding county, Ohio. She was the daughter of Levi and Cynthia Ann (Bennett) Elston. Mrs. Fraker was educated at Grover Hill and was married on December 18, 1881, to Harrison Clark, of Paulding county. They lived in Washington township on a farm. He died, June 29,. 1892, and was buried in Paulding county. Mr. Clark served as a school director and was a prominent and influential member of the Christian church at the time of his death.

Levi Elston, the father of Mrs. Fraker, was a native of Dark county, Ohio, being born near Hill Grove on November 17, 1837. He died on September 26, 1901. His father was James Elston, who was also a native- of Dark county. The Elstons were of German descent. Levi Elston was. one of seven children, the others being Anna, Jane, Lydia, Mary, Louisa and John. Levi Elston and his brother both served in the Civil War. John lost an arm in the service and was wounded seven times. He took sick in camp. and during this period was bravely nursed by his wife until he was well enough to join his comrades. James Elston and wife died near Grover Hill, Ohio. Cynthia Ann Bennett, the mother of Mrs. Fraker, was born in Dark county, Ohio, and was the daughter of William Bennett, who came from New Jersey. His wife was a native of Ireland. They settled in Dark county, Ohio, on a farm and had seven children, Mary, Cynthia Ann, Martha.

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E., Katherine, Edward, Jennie and William H. William H. served in the Civil War in an Ohio regiment and died of illness while in the service. About the close of the Civil War, William Bennett and wife, Mrs. Fraker's maternal grandparents, moved to Michigan and settled in Clinton county, where they lived until their death. Levi Elston and wife, the parents of Mrs. Fraker, were married near Grover Hill, Ohio, and settled in Latta township, Paulding county, on a farm at a time when it was a dense wilderness, where the wild animals roamed through the woods. They cleared the land and lived there a short time, but later moved to Washington township, where he died. His widow then made her home with her son, George, until her death. They had nine children, Harriet Catherine, who is now Mrs. Fraker; Mary L .; Samantha C .; John W .; Cora Isabelle; Josephine and George, all of whom live in Paulding county; Sylvia Ann and Amanda E., both of whom are deceased.

After the last marriage of Mr. Fraker, he came to his farm in Palmer township and here he and his wife have lived since that time. Mrs. Fraker has been a loyal and faithful helpmeet and has contributed to the improve- ment of the farm and the family fortune by her thrift and wise co-operation. They have never had any children, but Mrs. Fraker took Joseph S. Cattell to rear immediately after her first marriage. She has educated him and he has remained with her ever since. She has also reared Mary Clark, whom she took when she was five years old. Mary Clark married Al Pinkhaus and they now live in Decatur, Illinois.

Mr. Fraker is engaged in general farming. He sold twenty acres of his land about thirty-years ago and about twenty-five years ago, traded twenty- five acres for sixty acres in section 3, of Palmer township. Some time ago Mr. Fraker's house partly burned, but he has since rebuilt it, in which Mr. Fraker displayed great heroism in putting out the flames. He tore off part of the metal roof with his bare hands and for this feat has been widely admired by his neighbors. Formerly, Mr. Fraker was a member of the Masonic fraternity of Marks township, Defiance county. He served as school director for some years and is identified with the Democratic party. He is a member of the German Reformed church at New Bavaria and has served as trustee of the church. Mr. and Mrs. Fraker are charitable and hospitable people and substantial farmers. They are God-fearing people of the good old type, a type which is not so frequently met with now as formerly. Jacob J. Fraker is an intelligent citizen and has contributed much to the advancement of the community where he has lived so long.

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J. W. SMITH.

J. W. Smith, the son of Manley B. and Abigail ( Pickerill) Smith, was born in Brown county, Ohio, on May 21, 1873. His father was a son of John G. and Keziah (Beveridge) Smith, and was born in Hocking county, Ohio, in 1845. John G. Smith was the son of Harrison Smith, a native of Pennsylvania and an early settler in Hocking county. Abigail Pick- erill was born in Brown county, Ohio, the daughter of Josiah W. and Eleanor (West) Pickerill. Josiah W. Pickerill was born in Brown county, in 1818, a son of Samuel Pickerill, Jr., who was born in Kentucky in 1793, a son of Samuel Pickerill, Sr. Samuel Pickerill, Sr., was born in Charles county, Maryland, in 1757, and served for three years in the Revolution- ary War in Captain Gallahue's company. This company was a part of Colonel Brent's regiment of Virginia troops. In 1792, Samuel Pickerill, Sr., came to Kentucky and in 1809 he moved to Brown county, Ohio, with his family, where he lived until 1850, dying at the age of ninety-three. Twelve children were born to Samuel Pickerill, Sr., and wife. Each one of these twelve children grew to maturity and reared families of their own, and by 1905 Samuel Pickerill, Sr., had over one thousand seven hundred descendants.

Eleanor West, the wife of Josiah W Pickerill, was born in Brown county, Ohio, about 1820, and was the daughter of John and Lovina (Stewart) West. John West was born in 1797 and was the son of John and Eleanor West. John West, Sr., was a soldier in the Revolutionary War, serving in a Virginia regiment.

Manley B. Smith was a teacher in the public schools of Brown county for many years, but is now farming. J. W. Smith grew to maturity in Brown county and after finishing the public school course of his own town- ship, became a student at Lebanon, Ohio, in the National Normal University. Later he was a student at the Northern Ohio Normal at Ada, and graduated from the latter school in 1894. Before he finished his college course, he had taught school a few years and, in fact he paid his way through college by teaching. In 1899 Mr. Smith came to Putnam county as superintendent of schools at Ottawa, and remained in this capacity for three years. In the meantime he studied law and, in 1902, was admitted to the bar. In politics he is a strong Democrat and from 1909 to 1913 held the office of prosecut- ing attorney of Putnam county. He has served on the state central com- mittee of his party for six years.

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J. W. Smith was married, in 1893, to Winifred Beck, a native of Brown county, Ohio, and a daughter of Herman and Sarah Beck. Mrs. Smith died in 1895, leaving two children, Winifred, who died a few months after her mother's death, and Lucile, who is now a student in college. In 1899 Mr. Smith married Mary Klein, a native of Brown county and a daughter of John and Catharine Klein, natives of Germany and now deceased. To this second union one son has been born, Stewart S., who is now eleven years of age.

Mr. Smith is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, is a thirty- second degree Mason and a noble of the Mystic Shrine. He also holds his membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.

H. F. RAUH.

A man of unusual attainments is H. F. Rauh, the editor of the Der Demokrat at Ottawa, Ohio. He spent several years, after leaving college, as a teacher, and is one of the leaders in educational matters in Putnam county for more than a quarter of a century. He is also an accomplished musician, and is one of the finest pipe-organists in the county. Since 1892 he has been associated with the Der Demokrat and has made this one of the ablest German papers in the whole state. Mr. Rauh is the kind of a man whose influence is always in behalf of higher and better things. In educa- tional affairs, in church and in business his ideals are always high, and it: can be safely said that he is one of the ablest men of his county.

H. F Rauh, the son of Ignatius and Mary Anne (Weigelt) Rauh, was. born on October 4, 1860, on a farm in Washington township, Mercer county, Ohio. His father was a millwright and came to this country from Germany when a young man and located in Mercer county. Mary Anne Weigelt also came to this country from Germany when young and located with her par- ents in Mercer county. Ignatius and Mary Anne (Weigelt) Rauh were the parents of six sons, the three eldest brothers becoming farmers, the fourth son a teacher, while the fifth son is H. F. Rauh, the subject of this sketch, and the sixth is a priest of the Catholic church. The father of these six sons. died in May, 1869, and the mother was later deceased.

H. F. Rauh was educated in the district schools of Mercer county, Ohio, and later attended the high school one year at Ft. Recovery, and two

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years in the schools at Celina. At the age of seventeen he began teaching and taught three years in Mercer county, and two years in Auglaize county, Ohio. However, wishing to get a better education, he stopped teaching and entered the Northern Normal School at Ada, Ohio, and also spent a few terms in the National Normal University at Lebanon. Afterward he spent two years in Pio Nono College, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he gradu- ated with honors. It was in this college that he completed his German and musical education, specializing on the pipe-organ.

After graduating from Pio Nono College, in 1885, Mr. Rauh took charge of an academy in Denison, Texas, but after one year of successful work in that state he resigned in order to assume the superintendency of the Glandorf public schools. At the same time he became the organist of the St. John's Catholic church at Glandorf, and retained both positions for a number of years. Under his skillful management, the Glandorf schools were put in excellent shape and, without disparagement to previous instruc- tors, it may be said that he was the best teacher which the schools had up to that time. While living in Glandorf, he helped to organize the Glandorf German Building and Loan Company and served as its first secretary for two years. In 1889 he was appointed school examiner of Putnam county, and was re-appointed in 1895. He has always taken a very active part in educational meetings and was elected president of the Putnam county teachers' institute in 1893. Before this time, however, he had become identified with Der Demokrat, a German newspaper in Ottawa. His connection with this paper began in May, 1892, and since March, 1893, he has been the sole proprietor of the paper, since which time Mr. Rauh has lived in Ottawa, where he has a beautiful home. He has been for a number of years a member of the Ottawa board of public affairs, and is also a direc- tor and stockholder of the Ottawa Building and Savings Association.

Mr. Rauh was married on July 26, 1893, to Mamie Anne Priesen- dorfer, a daughter of John M. and Elizabeth (Wilhelm) Priesendorfer, of Defiance, Ohio, and to this union seven children have been born, John Clarence, on September 18, 1894, died two weeks later; Carl H., November 7, 1895, deceased; Walter Ignatius, January 23, 1897; Agnes Lenore, December 17, 1898; Cornelius Anthony, September 21, 1900; Mary Bloise, February 5, 1905; James Emerson, died at the age of eleven months; Esther Irene, January 7, 1910.

Mr. Rauh and his family are all loyal members of the Catholic church. He is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Knights of Ohio, the Glandorf Aid Society and the Ottawa Aid Society. Mr. Rauh has always

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given his hearty support to the Democratic party, but has never been a seeker after political preferment. Mr. Rauh is a man of genial disposition and a man whose breadth of view makes him an ideal newspaper man.

JAMES WILLIS LOWRY.

In the year 1837 the first member of the Lowry family located in Putnam county, Ohio, and since that year the family have borne an honorable part in the history of the county. The remote ancestors of the Lowry family were French Huguenots, who settled in the valley of the Loire in France in the sixteenth century, and from the name of this river the family name is derived. Originally, the name was spelled "De Loire," but when the family removed to Scotland later the name was anglicized to "Lourie," while the members of the family who located in Ireland gave it its present orthogra- phy, "Lowry."

Driven out of France on account of religious persecution, the family sought a home in England and later removed to Scotland, where they were gentlemen farmers and owned their own estate. Some of them were in Cromwell's army during the civil war, in England, in the middle of the seventeenth century. After the death of Cromwell and the end of the Com- monwealth the family located in Ireland. When they first came to America the branch of the family which ultimately settled in Putnam county, Ohio, went from England to County Down, Ireland, and there Robert Lowry was born in 1749.

Robert Lowry was the first member of the family to come to America, and he located here in 1804 with his wife, Mary Johnston, and three sons, Robert, James and William. Another son, Johnston, came to the United States a year or so before that, and the whole family located on a farm of two hundred acres at Poland Center, Mahoning county, Ohio, for which they re- ceived a deed in 1811. The family were of high character, sober, honest, industrious, and were useful members of the church, and of the com- munity in which they lived. They helped form the Poland Center Seceder church in 1804, of which Robert Lowry was one of the first elders. Their eldest son, Robert Lowry, Jr., born in Ireland in 1776, married Rebecca Stewart, a native of Scottish ancestry and high lineage. She was born in York county, now Adams county, Pennsylvania, in 1786, or the year fol- lowing, and died in 1846, near Leipsic, Putnam county, Ohio.

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Robert and Rebecca (Stewart) Lowry moved to a farm near Leipsic, Putnam county, Ohio, in 1837, having lived previous to their marriage in Mahoning county, where they were married in 1813. Rebecca Stewart was a daughter of Robert Stewart, who was a son of Samuel, a son of Robert, who in turn, was a son of John, a descendant from Walter, the first Stewart of Scotland. Walter Stewart was the second son of Alan, who was a Norman and came to England with William the Conqueror, and his descendants have sat on nearly every throne in Europe.

In May, 1837, Robert and Rebecca (Stewart) Lowry, began their life in Putnam county. He bought a farm on which he resided until his death, August 27, 1848. His wife died on June 9, 1846. Robert Lowry was short in stature, a great reader and probably the best educated member of the family.

Robert Johnstone Lowry, the eldest of their four children, and the father of James Willis, with whom this narrative deals, was born on Septem- ber 10, 1816, at Poland Center, Mahoning county, Ohio. He came to Putnam county, with his parents, and here married Olive S. McConnell. She was. born on January 24, at Windham, Portage county, Ohio, and was a daughter of Nicholas McConnell, who moved with his family to Leipsic in 1836, and bought a farm. The wife of Robert J. Lowry taught the first term of school in Liberty township, in Putnam county. She died on May 20, 1904, and she and her husband are both buried in the McConnell cemetery at Leipsic. Robert J. Lowry was a farmer in early life, but after his health failed he moved to Leipsic and opened a general store in 1850. In 1862 he moved to Urbana, Ohio, where he bought a store, and died on April 30, 1862. After his death, the family moved back to Leipsic, where his widow spent the remainder of her days. Robert J. Lowry was a Republican and served as justice of the peace for eight or ten years. Mr. and Mrs. Lowry and all of the family were members of the United Presbyterian church; he and his wife being among the founders of the Presbyterian church in Leipsic.

James Willis Lowry is the youngest of six children born to his parents. He was born a few months after his father's death and grew to manhood in West Leipsic. After his marriage he began farming on his present farm and has continued to reside there since that time. He and his brother, A. J., have about two hundred acres of land, well improved, and one of the best and most productive farms of the county.

In September, 1884, James W. Lowry was married to Nellie Lenhart, who was born on the farm where Mr. Lowry is now living, and who is a

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daughter of Henry S. and Adeline (Braught) Lenhart. Her parents came from Pennsylvania to Salem, in eastern Ohio. Henry Lenhart was the sixth son of Jacob and Lydia Lenhart, and was born on December 3, 1823. Jacob Lenhart was a minister in the River Brethren church, and a son of Philip Lenhart, who lived near Ephrata, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Henry Lenhart settled west of Leipsic and was a life-long farmer.

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History of Putnam County, Ohio : its peoples, industries, and institutions, Part 143

Author: Kinder, George D., 1836- Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1744

Author: Kinder, George D., 1836-
Publication date: 1915
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1744