USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. II > Part 29
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HARLEY H. FATE.
Few men are more prominent or more widely known in the industrial circles of the enterprising little city of Plymouth than Harley H. Fate, now acting as president of the firm of J. D. Fate & Company, manufacturers of brick and tile machinery. The paternal grandfather, John D. Fate, Sr., was of Holland descent and came to Ohio from the Keystone state in 1822, locating in Crawford county. The father of our subject, John D. Fate, Jr., who was born in Crestline in March, 1849, followed farming and school teaching in early life and was married in 1871 to Miss Mary E. Sickman. In 1879 Mr. Fate became associated with E. M. Freese in the organization of the Ohio Brick & Tile Machinery Company, doing business in Crestline. Two years later, or in 1881, they removed to Plymouth and opened a similar enterprise, conducting business under the firm name of Fate & Freese. This enterprise was carried on until 1890, when Mr. Fate sold his interest to his partner, who is now carrying on a similar enterprise in Galion. The following year, in 1891, Mr. Fate organized the Fate & Gunsaulus Company, for the manufacture of brick and tile machinery, conducting the same until 1898, when he admitted his sons to a partnership, under the firm name of J. D. Fate & Company, with J. D. Fate as president ; H. H. Fate, vice president; George B. Drennan, treasurer; and Miss E. K. Drennan, secretary. The death of the president, which occurred September 29, 1902, necessitated a change in the management
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of the firm, at which time Harley H. Fate was elected president ; H. S. Fate, vice president; and George B. Drennan, secretary and treasurer.
Harley H. Fate, whose name introduces this review, was born in Crestline, Ohio, February 19, 1873. At the age of eight years he was brought by his parents to Plymouth and here at the usual age he entered the common schools, acquiring a good education. He began his business career in 1898 when his father admitted him to a partnership in the firm of J. D. Fate & Company, manufacturers of brick and tile machinery, and with this enterprise he has since been connected. Upon the organization of the firm they conducted business in a structure one hundred and fifty by fifty feet, employing two or three men, but the business has now grown to such mammoth proportions that they have enlarged their space, having a structure three hundred and forty by seventy-five feet and they employ seventy-five men, while their products are shipped to all parts of the world. Mr. Fate is a man of keen discrimination, sound judgment and executive ability, and his excellent management has brought to the concern with which he is connected a large degree of success.
Mr. Fate is one of a family of two sons and one daughter, and as above stated, his brother, Harry S. Fate, born in Crestline, February 18, 1875, is now associated with him in business, acting as vice president of the firm. He is also vice president of the Commercial Motor Truck Company and a director of the First National Bank of Plymouth. The sister is Josephine, the wife of John A. Root, the secretary of Root Brothers Manufacturing Company, of Plymouth.
Harley H. Fate was married in December, 1903, to Miss Anna Bell Lawton, of Three Rivers, Michigan, and their union has been blessed with one daughter, Mary Josephine, born November 29, 1905. Mr. Fate is president of the Commercial Motor Truck Company of Plymouth and vice president of the First National Bank. He is a member of the city council. It is true that he became interested in a business already established but in controlling and enlarging such an enterprise many a man of even considerable resolute purpose, courage and industry would have failed, but he has been watchful of all details pointing to prosperity and has demonstrated the truth of the saying that success is not the result of genius but the outcome of clear judgment and experience.
JAMES G. FERGUSON.
James G. Ferguson, who carries on agricultural pursuits in section 8. Washington township, was born in a little log cabin on the place where he still resides, February 11, 1845, his parents being Samuel and Margaret C. (Glasgow) Ferguson, the former born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, August 7, 1816, and the latter in Washington county, Pennsylvania, May 3, 1820. The grandparents of our subject were Samuel and Wilhelmina (Dye) Ferguson, natives of Pennsylvania, who came to Richland county, Ohio, in 1819, purchasing a large tract of land from the government, which the father
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leased to different parties and thus had it cleared. He had participated as a soldier in the war of 1812. Returning to the Keystone state, his death there occurred when he had reached the advanced age of ninety-eight years, while his wife was almost a centenarian at the time of her demise. Their family numbered nine children.
The parents of Mrs. Margaret C. Ferguson came from Pennsylvania to Ohio by wagon in 1832, locating in Knox county, where they remained for a year, after which they took up their abode in Richland county. Their last years, however, were spent in Henry county, this state.
Samuel Ferguson came to Richland county in 1840, here owning one hundred acres of land which he had received from his father. He began his domestic life in a log cabin, but as the years passed he met with a gratifying measure of success in his agricultural interests and at one time owned three hundred and twenty acres of rich and productive land. He was widely recog- nized as one of the honored citizens and prosperous farmers of his community and his demise, which occurred April 6, 1895, was sincerely mourned. By his marriage, which was celebrated May 2, 1844, he had ten children, namely : James Glasgow, of this review; Wilhelmina E., deceased; Samuel, who has also passed away; Jennie, the wife of Ervin Beattie, of Michigan; Lycurgus E., a resident of Colorado; Ella, the wife of Charles Dean, of Kansas City, Mis- souri; Wilda O., the wife of John Longshore, of Ashland county, Ohio; Rilda A., twin sister of Wilda, who is the wife of John Dean, of Mansfield; Nettie, the wife of Frank Brown, of Kansas; and one who died in infancy. The mother of these children is still living and now makes her home with our subject.
James G. Ferguson was reared in the place of his nativity and acquired his education in the district schools. When not busy with his text-books he assisted his father in the work of the home farm and when he had attained the age of twenty-three years he began farming the place on shares for his father. The estate, which comprises two hundred and twenty acres, is not yet divided and he is still successfully engaged in its operation, meeting with a well merited and enviable degree of prosperity in the conduct of his farming interests.
On the 24th of January, 1874, Mr. Ferguson was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Hiskey, whose birth occurred in Perry township, Richland county, February 24, 1853. Her parents, Moses and Amanda (Dye) Hiskey, were both natives of Pennsylvania, the father's birth having occurred March 3, 1830. They came to this county by wagon in an early day, establishing their home in Perry township. Moses Hiskey passed away in 1900, while his wife was called to her final rest October 3, 1880. Mrs. Ferguson, whose demise occurred October 6, 1900, was the mother of nine children : Anna L., the wife of John McIntyre, of Lexington, Ohio; Margaret, deceased; Ethel W., the wife of Frank Garber, of Mansfield, Ohio; John S., who likewise makes his home in Mansfield, Ohio; Mary O., at home; Josephine, deceased; and Nettie M., Alice J. and William Kenneth, all of whom are still under the parental roof.
In his political views Mr. Ferguson is a democrat and has taken an active and helpful interest in the local work of the party, serving as trustee for one year, as justice of the peace for three years and as a member of the school board
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for a number of years. Fraternally he is identified with the Odd Fellows Lodge, No. 446, at Lexington, and also with the Knights of Pythias at that place. Having resided in this county throughout his entire life, he is well and favorably known here and has gained the regard and esteem of all with whom he has come in contact.
DANIEL V. SUMMERS, M. D.
Dr. Daniel V. Summers, who in professional circles stands high in the community, was born in Shelby, February 12, 1863, and has practiced here since completing his preparation for the medical profession. His parents were Rev. Daniel and Louisa (Hine) Summers. The father was born September 8, 1822, near Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. The latter's great-grandfather in the paternal line came from Germany, while his grandfather on the mother's side came from England. His father, Daniel Summers, was a soldier of the Revolutionary war.
Reared in the state of his nativity, Rev. Daniel Summers acquired his education at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and at Springfield, Ohio, and deter- mining to devote his life to the ministry of the Lutheran church he became identified therewith in 1851 and accepted a pastorate in Kentucky. He after- ward served successively the churches at Shelby, Plymouth, Liberty, Vandalia and St. Paris, Ohio. During his long connection with the ministry he was instrumental in building four new houses of worship and in making exten- sive repairs on several others. He was likewise secretary of the Miami Synod for one term, was president of the Wittenberg Synod for four terms and was three times a delegate to the general synod. He was also a director of Witten- berg College for a number of years. His life has been a potent influence for good in the various communities where he has lived. His has been a con- tagious enthusiasm and his zeal for the church and the upbuilding of the cause have constituted strong elements in the growth of the Lutheran denomi- nation in Ohio. His godly life has been an inspiration and encouragement to others and long after he shall have passed away his memory will be sacredly cherished by those who know him. Since retiring from the regular work of the ministry he has supplied pulpits and charges in Colorado, Kansas, Ken- tucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland without compensation. He is now in his eighty-sixth year and is the only survivor of his father's family, making his home with his son, Dr. Summers, of Shelby. His wife, who was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, passed away in Shelby in 1886, at the age of fifty-three years.
Their family numbered nine children: Maggie, the wife of J. F. Kauf- man, of Eaton, California; Judge A. M. Summers, of the supreme court of Ohio, who for the past eight years has been a resident of Springfield, this state; Rev. J. H. Summers, who was a Lutheran minister but is now deceased ; George W., who has also passed away, while his widow resides in Gunnison, Colorado; Dr. D. V. Summers, of this review; Lottie O., who was a teacher in
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the primary schools of Shelby and other places for a number of years and was very popular and is now the wife of Thomas West, of Pueblo, Colorado; Louisa HI., the wife of Thomas Bowman, of Durango, Colorado; Jennie Bloom, who was a teacher in the high school in Shelby for a number of years and then went to Berlin, where she studied for three years, since which time she has resumed her professional labors; and Henry Franklin, who is an attorney of Springfield, Ohio. He is also superintendent of an eight hundred acre farm at Yellow Springs, Ohio, which belongs to his brother, Judge Summers. Of the nine children of the family the five sons were students at Wittenberg College and the father provided all with liberal educational advantages.
Dr. Summers, whose name introduces this record, acquired his early educa- tion in the Shelby schools and was a student in Wittenberg College from 1881 until 1885. Making choice of the medical profession as a life work, he entered Pulte Medical College of Cincinnati in the fall of 1885 and was graduated therefrom in 1888. Well equipped by thorough preliminary training he entered upon active practice in Shelby and now has a patronage which extends over the entire town and a large portion of the surrounding country. As a general practitioner he has been very successful and is generally regarded as a man who keeps fully abreast of medical progress. He is a member of the Ohio State Medical Society and was health officer of the city for a period of four years. He holds to high ideals in his practice and finds in the faithful per- formance of each day's duty inspiration and courage for the labors of the succeeding day. In his work he is prompted by a love of scientific research and by a spirit of broad humanitarianism as well as that laudable desire for financial success which is a stimulus in every honorable business.
DANIEL ROGERS.
A valuable farm property in section 35, Plymouth township, is the home of Daniel Rogers, one of the most venerable and respected citizens of the community. He was born in Heidlersburg, Adams county, Pennsylvania, March 19, 1825, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Moore) Rogers, who were also natives of Adams county, Pennsylvania. The father was a wagonmaker, who followed the trade in Heidlersburg for twenty-five years and then removed to Hampton, Pennsylvania, taking up his abode there when his son Daniel was about five years of age. The family lived at Hampton for eight or ten years and in 1837 arrived in Mansfield, Ohio, at which time the city was a collection of little pioneer cabins. After two weeks spent there the family home was established four miles west of Shelby in the midst of the dense forest. Shelby at that time contained only two or three hundred inhabitants, and the country was largely undeveloped and unimproved. Samuel Rogers took eighty acres of wood land, which he cleared and placed under cultivation. However, he left the work of the farm largely to his sons while he engaged in wagonmaking. He had ten children. The death of the mother occurred when she was sixty-five years of age, while Samuel Rogers
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passed away near Plymouth while making his home with his son. He had followed wagonmaking throughout his active life, and was well known as a representative of the industrial interests in his part of the county. The chil- dren of the family were Jacob, deceased; Mary, the wife of John Duell, who is also deceased; John and Samuel, who have passed away; Elizabeth, the wife of John Hughes, of Kansas; Margaret, the wife of John Slaybaugh, deceased ; Isaac, deceased; Daniel, of this review; Abraham, who has departed this life; and Isabelle, the wife of William Hitchcock, who is living near Grand Lodge, Michigan.
Daniel Rogers resided on the farm with his parents up to the time of his marriage and then started in business on his own account. He has lived con- tinuously in this locality since 1837 and has engaged in the tilling of the soil and in the raising and sale of horses. He has a farm of one hundred and seventeen acres in section 35, Plymouth township, and it has been his home since 1853. He bought his first sixty acres where the house is, and later added forty acres adjoining, and still later seventeen acres additional. When the property came into his possession there was a rude log house upon it, twenty by thirty feet, with a frame kitchen. Today there are modern buildings of substantial construction, and all of the latest improved machinery is used to facilitate the work of the fields. There were about four acres of apples when he took possession and the house was surrounded with peach trees. That year there was a very heavy crop of both peaches and apples, but there was little market for the fruit. The finest kind of peaches lay three inches deep on the ground and he could not sell them, while the apples, hand picked for winter use, brought only twenty-five cents per bushel. He now has all kinds of fruit on his place, and, in fact, his farm is a splendidly developed property, the fields annually bringing forth rich harvests.
For twenty-seven years Mr. Rogers was associated with J. M. Kingsley, of Hartford, Connecticut, in buying horses here; and since the business con- nection between them has been dissolved Mr. Rogers has bought and shipped horses for himself, his market being New York city. He has thus handled both road and draught horses, and while associated with Mr. Kingsley he purchased horses to the value of one hundred and eighty thousand dollars. His attention and energies have largely been given to his stock-dealing interests. while the active work of the fields and the farm has been done by men whom he employs for this purpose.
In 1850 Mr. Rogers was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Leasure, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1830 and in 1847 came to Ohio with her parents, George and Elizabeth Leasure. Mrs. Rogers passed away on the home farm in April, 1905. There were six children of this marriage: Alda I., wife of J. S. McComb; Blanche, the wife of James Funk, who is with her father on the farm; Rilla, the wife of M. J. Stowe, of Hancock county, Ohio; Jennie, the wife of C. S. Melchoir, of Toledo, Ohio; George, who died at the age of twenty-seven, leaving a widow and one child; and Minta who was killed at the age of twenty years while returning from a lecture in Shelby with a young man. They were driving across the tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and both were killed. The death of this daughter occurred
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in January and in June of the same year Mr. Rogers lost a son who was then thirteen years of age. He feels that the death of his children and his wife has been the greatest hardship that has ever come to him.
In business he has prospered, owing to his carnest efforts and unfaltering industry, and he is now most comfortably situated in life. In politics he is a stanch republican, where national questions are involved, but at local elections votes independently. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, and also in his upright life, which has ever been in harmony with his profession. He has now passed the eighty- third milestone on life's journey and receives the high esteem and veneration which should ever be accorded one of his years. He has long lived in the county and is numbered among its pioneer settlers as well as its worthy citizens.
HENRY WENTZ.
Henry Wentz is a prominent business man of Shelby, who is recognized by those who know him well as a man of most kindly heart, of sterling worth and integrity, as well as of keen sagacity and business enterprise. He was born in December, 1839, about two miles from Shelby. The ancestry can be traced back to three brothers who came from Switzerland in the early settle- ment of this country and located at Binghamton, New York.
Henry Wentz, Sr., the father of our subject, married Elizabeth Sheibley and they became the parents of thirteen children, of whom two died in infancy. The eldest daughter of the family, Mary Wentz, was born May 23, 1825, married John Feirorld, a farmer, and died April 24, 1903; Hannah, born December 25, 1826, married Adam Stine, of Crestline, Crawford county, Ohio, and died October 11, 1901; John, born November 11, 1828, is a car- penter by trade and resides in the city of Shelby; David, born June 6, 1830, was a farmer living near Shiloh, this county, and passed away December 3, 1905; Lydia A., born January 13, 1832, became the wife of George Bloom and died in Richland county, October 12, 1889; George, born July 3, 1834, died in 1886; the next was a daughter who died in infancy; Elizabeth, born October 11, 1837, and now living with her brother Levi, was followed by Henry, of this review; then came a son who died in infancy; Sarah Ann. born September 9, 1843, became the wife of Samuel Miller, of Shelby, and died January 1, 1890; Levi S., born September 18, 1845, lives on the old homestead in Cass township; Priscilla Katherine, both November 13, 1847, married David S. Stroup, a farmer living in Cass township, and died April 24, 1901. The parents of these children removed from Perry county, Penn- sylvania, to Cass township, Richland county, Ohio, in April, 1834, and thus the family became identified with the country during the period of its pioneer development.
Henry Wentz was born here when Richland was still a frontier county and was reared amid the scenes and environments of pioneer life. He
MR. AND MRS. HENRY WENTZ.
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remained at home until he was eighteen years of age and during that period assisted in the work of the fields, but on starting out in life on his own account he determined to follow other pursuits than that to which he had been reared and learned the carpenter's trade. He was twenty-one years of age when the Civil war broke out and, putting aside all business and personal considerations, he joined Company E of the Eleventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry under Colonel Lew Wallace and immediately entered upon active service. He proved a brave and loyal soldier whose meritorious conduct on the field of battle won him successive promotions until he became first lieutenant. He had served three and a half years when he resigned in December, 1864, and had participated in the battles of Fort Donelson and Fort Henry and the battle of Shiloh. He was also with his company in Arkansas and Tennessee and was present also at the siege of Vicksburg. He likewise participated in the battle of Port Gibson on the 1st of May, 1863, and of Champion Hill, May 16, 1863, on which occasion forty-three men of his company entered the engagement but only fifteen returned, the other twenty-eight being either killed or wounded. Lieutenant Wentz had his cap pierced by a ball, while another took the heel from his boot. After the Vicksburg campaign had resulted in the capitulation of the city with victory for the Union troops, Mr. Wentz participated in the Sherman expedition to Jackson, Mississippi. He was afterward transferred to the Gulf department and took part in the Teche campaign, while in 1864 he went to the Shenandoah valley and par- ticipated in the engagements at Hall Town, Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek, resigning in the fall.
Mr. Wentz returned to his home and after spending a year working at the carpenter's trade he became a merchant at Crestline, Ohio, carrying a stock of hardware, tinware and stoves, and successfully conducted the business until 1875, when he sold out and the following year came to Shelby.
In the meantime Mr. Wentz had been married on the 8th of June, 1865, to Miss Sarah A. Bushey, of Shelby, who was called to her final rest on the 29th of May, 1907. Unto them were born a daughter and two sons: Henry R., who was born March 21, 1867, and died in November, 1877; Estella Blanche, who was born October 4, 1869; and George Ralph, who was born March 1, 1879, and died in August, 1886. The daughter was married June 7, 1894, to Dr. D. V. Summers, of Shelby. She has two children, Harry Hugh and Helen Wentz.
Following his removal to Shelby, in 1876, Mr. Wentz engaged in the insurance business and was chosen secretary of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company. In 1885 this company reorganized under the name of the Mutual Plate Glass Insurance Association, of Shelby, and Mr. Wentz became its secre- tary. He is also actively interested in the real-estate business, forming a part- nership with Francis Brucker and Hon. J. D. Leighty, of St. Joe, Indiana, and they have laid out an addition to the town of Shelby known as the Boulevard Addition, which has become one of the principal residence sections of the city. It was laid out in 1896 and the sale of lots has been rapid and profitable. Mr. Wentz is also a director of the Citizens Bank, of the Sutter Furniture Company and of the Shelby Electric Company, and is a stock-
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holder in the Ohio Seamless Tube Company and director and treasurer of the Shelby Printing Company. He is likewise director and president of the Shelby Land & Improvement Company. His business interests are thus extensive and he is recognized as one whose keen insight and sagacity make his judgment valuable and constitute him an important factor in business circles.
In community affairs Mr. Wentz has taken an active and helpful interest. He has served as a member of the city council and has cooperated in many movements whereby the interests of Shelby have been enhanced. A most prominent member of Harker Post, No. 146, G. A. R., he served many years as its commander. He also belongs to the Royal Arcanum and the subordi- nate lodge and Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Pythias, in which connec- tion he is now colonel of the Ninth Regiment of the Ohio Brigade. In the Lutheran church he has been an active and helpful member, has been presi- dent of the church joint council and also treasurer of the church. Such in brief is the history of Henry Wentz, whose life record proves the extent of his activity and the value of his services. With the capacity and experience that would enable him to fulfill any trust to which he might be chosen, he has never sought to advance himself in office, but has been contented to do his duty where he could and leave the self-seeking to others. Viewed in a per- sonal light, he is a strong man of excellent judgment, fair in his views but unfaltering in advancing ideas which he believes to be right. He is a man of strong convictions and his integrity stands as an unquestioned fact in his career. He is in full sympathy with the great movements of the world about him and watches the progress of events with the keenest interest.
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