USA > Ohio > Richland County > History of Richland County, Ohio, from 1808 to 1908, Vol. II > Part 57
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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
Work on the important Ohio and Erie canal having begun in 1825, Editor Purdy urged the value of a canal improvement for Richland county, and an act was passed directing the survey of a route up the valley of Black- Fork creek. In 1833 he summoned from Detroit an engineer to take charge of some local enterprise, which was afterwards abandoned, so, securing authority from the legislature, he sent this engineer with a corps of assistants to survey the Black Fork canal. The line was laid out but the work of build- ing never undertaken, it being found impracticable in this, the "back-bone" county of the state.
Steam railroads were a recent appearance in the East. The Sandy and Beaver canal was in process of construction in the eastern part of the state. Mr. Purdy thought a good railroad route was to be had from the western terminus of this canal, westward through Mansfield and on to Fort Wayne. His professional calling had made him acquainted with various prominent men at Pittsburg and with others along the line of the contemplated im- provement. He therefore, in the summer of 1834, arranged a meeting at his office in Mansfield, which was attended by representatives of all counties from Stark westward; measures were taken to obtain an act of the legislature, and Dr. A. G. Miller, S. R. Curtis and Mr. Purdy were appointed a committee to forward the work of the proposed railroad. A charter was secured and the state paid the cost of a survey, completed under S. R. Curtis in 1836. Con- struction could not begin without the aid of Pittsburg capital, and for the present this was not forthcoming.
Richland county's earliest outlet for produce was Sandusky City, on the lake. Huron had diverted most of this traffic by building a canal to Nor- walk, and Sandusky had replied by building a horse-power railroad to Mon- roeville. A steam road between Mansfield and Sandusky appeared so desirable that several charters had been granted for such a line, but no work done as yet.
In December, 1839, Judge William Patterson and Mr. Purdy were appointed to go to Columbus and obtain or have amended a charter for a road from Mansfield to New Haven. This was effected, and Mr. Purdy, together with the others interested, spent the rest of the winter among the farmers, holding meetings in the schoolhouses and booming the enterprise. In the spring of 1840 the company was organized and Mr. Purdy appointed president. He took direct charge of the work, employed an engineer and had the line located as far as New Haven. The work was let and a day appointed (in August, 1840) for the ceremony of breaking the first ground. This was performed by John Stewart, first surveyor of the county, and Robert Bentley, an early pioneer settler, in the presence of a large and interested assembly at Mansfield, and a very important step in the development of the town and county had been taken. This was among the very earliest steam roads in the state. The undertaking was, in large part, dependent upon the money subscribed direct by the farmers along the line; later these funds were augmented by well-to-do Mansfield citizens. Work having been retarded by changes of administration and financial disaster, it was not until 1846 that the first train steamed into Mansfield.
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Mr. Purdy had been a stockholder in the Bank of Wooster, organized in 1834. When in 1845 the Ohio State Bank was created by the legislature, he organized a banking company which was approved and accepted as a branch of the State Bank, and as such entered into business in September, 1847. This was known as the Farmers' Branch of the Ohio State Bank (capital $100.000.00), and was the first permanent and substantial institution of the kind in the county. Mr. Purdy was president and John M. Rhodes cashier. Mr. Purdy thereby became a member of the state board of control which financed the early times of Ohio, and in 1883, at ninety years of age, was the oldest member present at the annual reunion of that notable body. About 1848 he established branch banking houses in Mount Gilead, Findlay, Ashland and Millersburg-the last two became national banks when (in 1865) the old state bank system was discontinued. The Farmers' Bank at Mansfield at this date was reorganized as the Farmers' National Bank, Mr. Purdy continuing to be its president until his death.
Soon after the establishment of the Mansfield and New Haven line, at the request of the Pittsburgers who had failed to support the Big Sandy and Fort Wayne project, Mr. Purdy called a meeting of the original promoters of that enterprise at Massillon in 1848. The proposed route was extended to reach Pittsburg and a joint charter was obtained from the Pennsylvania and Ohio legislatures, Mr. Purdy attending to the Ohio end of it, and the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad was built to Crestline. It was afterward extended through Mansfield to Fort Wayne and became the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. In 1855 he joined with a number of eastern capitalists in the organization of the Clinton Railroad & Land Company, which laid out the city of Clinton, Iowa, and proposed building a railroad from that point to Cedar Rapids. For some succeeding years Mr. Purdy, as vice president of this company, spent most of his time in the west, taking active charge of the work of construction, which included a bridge across the Mississippi. He laid the corner-stone of the first house in Clinton.
Mr. Purdy derived a fondness for mills from the homestead at Hopewell, and when in 1828 he acquired a farm in Richland county, including a small mill, he rebuilt and enlarged the plant. In 1836 he purchased a tract of land on the Maumee river, abreast of the rapids (Grand Rapids) and became pro- prietor of an extensive water power, built a sawmill, and later added a grist mill, equipping it extensively with machinery of the period, so soon to become obsolete and worthless.
Mr. Purdy's long life covered the period of three wars. As a young lad he had been an enthusiastic reader of accounts of the Marlborough cam- paigns and Queen Anne wars found among his father's books. He had enlisted in the volunteers' service of New York state and served two calls to the front in 1812; at the third call a substitute took his place and was killed and his command captured. In 1824 he took part in organizing a volunteer gun squad, equipped with a six-pounder howitzer, which was one of Mansfield's crack military organizations, and upon the outbreak of the Civil war was revived and put into service, Captain McMullin commanding. In 1827 Mr. Purdy was appointed assistant adjutant general, and in 1846, at the request
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of the governor, raised four companies for the Mexican war service. In 1862 Governor Tod appointed him commissioner to make a draft, and later, when Cincinnati was threatened, he raised a company of "Squirrel Hunters," one hundred and twenty strong, and started for Columbus within twenty-four hours. His son James enlisted at the age of fifteen years in the Fifteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1861 and served throughout the Civil war.
A man preeminently of business interests and active affairs, Mr. Purdy still found time to gratify an inquiring mind by wide and miscellaneous reading, being informed on a variety of subjects not usually explored except by the student. He had a great reputation among his neighbors as an authority on points of Biblical history. His interest in higher education was shown by a substantial gift to Washington and Jefferson College in 1858 and by his life-long support of Wooster University, the state institution of his religious denomination. In the story of this life we see portrayed a typical pioneer man of affairs. In the development of a new country first there comes the settler who breaks the first roads, clears the forest, drains the swamps and builds himself a rude home; next come the men of affairs, men of brains who practice in the courts, edit the papers and manage the politics of the country; then men of means who establish the stores, build the warehouses, extend traffic and intercourse and supply the money for new enterprises. Successively school teacher, editor, lawyer, banker and capitalist, Mr. Purdy was a fine example of this type.
Late in life (October, 1839) he married Mary Beaufort Hodge, third daughter of William Hodge, one of the early bankers of the city of Buffalo. There were seven children: Mary H., wife of William H. Weldon, of the United States navy, of Mansfield; Jeannette W., of Mansfield, wife of Joseph S. Hedges, United States army ; James Purdy, who married Emma Kennedy ; Helen S., who married Henry M. Weaver, of Columbus; Adelaide W., wife of Frank S. Lahm, of Canton; Kate H., wife of Dr. Frank D. Bain, of Kenton ; and Hamilton Patrick Purdy.
JOHN CHAMBERLIN FISH.
John Chamberlin Fish, controlling in an executive capacity many im- portant business concerns, is a man both forceful and resourceful in the active affairs of life. With marked ability to plan and perform, he stands as one of the conspicuous figures in the business interests of this county, and if his achievements were characterized in a single sentence it could perhaps best be done in the words: The splendid success of an honest man, in whose career marked business ability and genuine public spirit are well balanced forces. He is a native of Sheldon, Vermont, and a son of Cortez F. and Helen (Car- lisle) Fish, the former proprietor of a flour mill. The son pursued his education in the public schools of Akron and Shelby, Ohio, and in a private school at Gambier, Ohio. As he has proceeded in his business career his interests have broadened in extent and importance, and many prominent
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industrial and commercial concerns have felt the stimulus of his energy and have benefited by his keen insight, sound judgment and unfaltering enter- prise. He has manifested much of the spirit of the initiative in his business career in that he has not followed the paths that others have marked out, but has wrought along new lines, possessing the power and ability to shape varied interests into a harmonious whole. He is now the president of the National Electric Lamp Association, the Shelby Electric Company, the Shelby Print- ing Company and the Ohio Seamless Tube Company. He is also the vice president of the Shelby Telephone Company, the president of the Auto Call System Company and a director of the Shelby Water Company and the Citizens Bank. His position in business circles is indicated by the fact that he is now president of the Shelby Business Men's Association, being thus honored as a most prominent representative of the trade interests of his city.
On the 2d of March, 1892, Mr. Fish was married to Miss Anna M. Roberts, and they have three sons, De Forest R., Cortez Carlisle and John C., aged, respectively, fifteen, twelve and ten years. Mr. Fish is an independent republican, usually advocating the principles of that party, yet also allied with that independent movement which is one of the hopeful signs of the times, showing that business men are no longer content to be governed by machine- made politics, but desire a vote that shall be the expression of public opinion and an official service that will further the interests of the people at large. At the present writing he is serving as president of the board of education and is a stalwart champion of progress in intellectual lines. He belongs to both the Knights of Pythias and Elks lodges and is the president of the Colonial Club.
THEODORE L. GARBER.
The agricultural and industrial interests of Richland county find a worthy representative in Theodore L. Garber, who is a native son of Jefferson township, his birth having occurred there August 9, 1845.
He was the eighth in a family of twelve children, nine boys and three girls, and was reared to the occupation of farming, assisting in operating the home farm during boyhood and youth.
His education was acquired in the district and Bellville high schools, which he attended a few winter terms, and he took the four-year Chautauqua course, graduating in the Pansy class of 1878.
He is a great reader and his home is always well supplied with the best literature. He taught five winter terms of school in Jefferson township and worked on the farm in summer.
He taught in 1868-9 in District No. 1, the average attendance being fifty-five in all grades. He chose for his companion and helpmate Martha Celestia Lee, who was born in Wyandot county April 7, 1851, a daughter of Ebenezer and Jane C. (Long) Lee, who moved to Richland county in 1852. Mr. Garber and Miss Lee were married October 4, 1869, and their union has
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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
been blessed with seven children: Lee, who was born April 14, 1871, and died on the 10th of September following; Elbert Glenn, born June 20, 1872; Lloyd M., born April 27, 1876; Harry Zeyn, born November 10, and died November 29, 1882; Mabel C., born July 24, 1879; Louise, born March 24, 1884; and W. Carlton, born December 20, 1887.
E. Glenn, eldest of the family now living, was educated in the district school and Bellville high school, after which he attended and graduated from the Spencerian Business College of Cleveland. He taught two terms of winter school and worked on the farm in summer.
In 1890, in partnership with his father, he established the Valley Farm Creamery on his father's farm. It prospered so well that in 1892 it was moved to its present site in Bellville. In 1896 they bought the Bellville electric light plant and are running it in connection with the creamery. He is the efficient manager and half owner of both plants and has an excellet reputation for fair dealing and quality of creamery products.
He married Miss Grace Swineford in September, 1902, and they now have a son and daughter, Paul S. and Margaret. He is identified with the Universalist church and Grange and supports the prohibition party.
Lloyd M. was educated in the district and Bellville high schools and taught winter terms for several years. He bought a half interest in the hard- ware store of Remy & Kochhciser and is doing a successful business as junior member of the firm of Kochheiser & Garber, Bellville. He married Susie Oberlin, had a son, Ray, who died in September, 1903, in his second year. He is a member of the Universalist church, of the Knights of Pythias and is town treasurer. Mabel C. was educated in district and Bellville high schools; spent one year in Buchtel College, Akron, and at Ashland College. She taught three years in country schools in Ashland county and one each in Bellville and Loudonville Union schools. She married Rev. William H. Beachler, and they have a son, John Russell. They are now located in Meyersdale. Pennsylvania. Louise attended the district school and Bellville high school and is at home.
W. Carlton, who attended the district school and graduated from the Bellville high school at seventeen years of age, is at home engaged in teach- ing and farm work.
Theodore L. Garber has been a member of the Universalist church since 1865 and has served many years as the superintendent of its Sunday school. He is now and has been for many years a trustce and deacon and held the office of treasurer of the Ohio Universalist convention for two years. He was a charter member of Jefferson Grange and has held many of its offices and is a trustee at present. He has been a member of Richland County Pomona Grange ever since it was organized and has held the office of master frequently. He has been president of the Richland County Farmers' Insti- tute for several terms, held the office of treasurer of the Ohio Mutual Cyclone, Tornado and Wind Storm Insurance Association for two years and is treasurer of the Federation of Mutual Insurance Associations of Ohio now. The Fed- eration is composed of one hundred and twenty-one associations, carrying risks amounting to over $200,000,000.00. Hle succeeded his brother, J. L.
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HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY
Garber, as secretary of the Patrons Mutual Relief Association of Bellville January 4, 1892, and holds the office now, and is its treasurer also, having been elected to that office on the 1st of October, 1901. At the time he took charge there were five hundred and eight members, carrying risks to the amount of $1,080,442. On January 1, 1908, there were two thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight members, carrying $6,102,426.00 insurance. His duties in this office occupy all of his time except what is necessary to oversee the farm operations.
He began housekeeping in October, 1870, where he now lives, eighty rods north of Gatton Rock station, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
The house he now occupies was built in the spring of 1870 and rebuilt in 1902. It is a comfortable habitation, arranged with furnace for heating water on both floors, has bath room, and is supplied with natural gas for light and fuel. The main barn was built in 1888, to which there has been several additions, until the farm is unusually well supplied with buildings.
He is a progressive farmer, having built the first silo in the county and he raised the first alfalfa and soy beans. He was the first to make the milk business in Bellville a success; used the first farm cream separator, the first manure spreader, and hitched his gas engine on his horse hay fork in 1906.
His special pride is in the increasing fertility of his farm and in his family.
The Garber-Leedy settlement is situate in the southern part of Jefferson township. The locality was formerly called "Leedy's Swamp," but the swamp is now a thing of the past, for as the country was cleared and drained what was once a swamp is now rich, arable land.
The Leedys, with their kinsmen, the Garbers, are a numerous people, and the Leedy Association, which holds annual reunions, has a membership of over seven hundred. As a people the Leedys and Garbers are agriculturists. Several, however, are ministers, and one-Aaron Leedy Garber-is a pub- lisher and author as well as a minister. A few of their number are politicians, and one-John Leedy-has been governor of the state of Kansas.
As a people the Leedys and their kinsmen are upright, honorable and prosperous and have done much to give tone and character to the township in which they live.
CLAYTON C. WAGNER.
Clayton C. Wagner is the most prominent young business man in Mansfield. He is the son of John W. and Melinda (Cook) Wagner, and was born in Stark county, Ohio, August 21, 1862. Eighteen hundred and sixty-two was the second year of the Civil war, and the day the subject of this sketch was born a big war meeting was held in Massillon. Henry and Mary (Cox) Wagner, grandparents of Clayton C. Wagner, were natives of Pennsylvania, but emigrated to Ohio and settled in Stark county at an early day. Henry Wagner was of German and his wife of Irish descent. Henry Wagner was a potter by trade, but directed his efforts in other directions after
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coming to Ohio. He primarily : located in Columbiana county, where he entered the employ of the Mckinleys, ancestors of the late President Mc- Kinley. Some years later he removd to Canal Fulton, Stark county, where he became general manager of the merchandising, forwarding and commis- sion business of John Robinson. Mr. Wagner was a man of integrity and spotless character and one of devotion to duty and consecutive industry.
John W. Wagner, the father of the subject of this sketch, passed the boyhood days of his life in the village of Canal Fulton, where he was born. His educational privileges being such as were then afforded in the common schools of that section and period. At the early age of fourteen years he became a driver on the Ohio & Lake Erie canal, and the sturdy boy who thus trudged his way along the towpath of that primitive, though then important, "artery of commerce" found that his ambition reached out for higher pur- suits, and at the age of seventeen he secured a position as salesman in a hardware store conducted by his father's employer, and he continued to be thus employed until 1862, when he was enabled to buy the stock and good- will of the business, which he carried on successfully until the fall of 1870, when he disposed of the same to W. G. Myers and removed to Canton, where he engaged in business successfully until 1873, at which time he removed to Mansfield and became associated with E. J. Forney, under the firm name of Wagner & Forney, and bought the hardware stock of John Reed. In 1882 Mr. Wagner purchased his partner's interest in the concern and continued the business successfully until 1891, when he admitted his son Clayton to part- pership, whereupon the firm name of Wagner & Son was adopted. The further growth and expansion of the enterprise rendered expedient the organ- ization of a stock company, and in the year 1896 the Wagner Hardware Com- pany was incorporated, with John W. Wagner president and Clayton C. Wagner vice-president, and the company has become one of the fixed features of Mansfield's business enterprises and one of the largest concerns of the kind in north central Ohio. Being progressive and public-spirited, Mr. Wagner extended his interests in other directions, and in 1884 assisted in the organization of the Mansfield Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of which he became president. He also became a director of the Citizens National Bank of Mansfield and of the Humphreys Manufacturing Company, and also owned fine farms in both Richland and Ashland counties.
Clayton C. Wagner succeeded his father and continued the business very successfully, who, although not seeking the applause of the world, has pursued the even tenor of his way and has attained a social and financial standing and a business record that is alike creditable to himself and the city of his home. Having a thorough, practical and technical training in the hard- ware business, his keen sense, youthful enthusiasm, and ambition, which combined with his fine managerial gifts make him a successful business man.
Clayton C. Wagner came to Mansfield with his parents in 1873, when he was eleven years of age, and this city has ever since been his home. He attended the high school and later graduated from an eastern business col- lego. He was on the road as a commercial traveler for the Wagner firm for several years.
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Mr. Wagner was united in marriage with Miss Mary Jenner, daughter of Judge and Mrs. J. W. Jenner, of Park avenue. His wife died a few years after their marriage, and after having been a widower for about five years Mr. Wagner married Miss Lucy Stine in 1908. The bride is an accomplished lady and the daughter of a prominent Mansfield family.
In politics Mr. Wagner is a Republican. Fraternally Mr. Wagner is con- nected with the Masonic fraternity. The hardware firm of which Mr. Wagner is the head holds a conspicuous position in our city. The business has had a steady growth year after year, which shows the ability and enterprise back of it, and the increasing trade of the establishment is the best indication and. recommendation for the high standing of the firm and its method of doing business.
JOHN J. McPHERN.
John J. McPhern, who is now filling the position of custodian at the courthouse in Mansfield, is numbered among the native sons of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and came to Richland county, Ohio, in 1866. His parents were John and Rosanna (Snyder) McPhern, both of whom were natives of the Keystone state, but in their later years lived in Ohio. They were of Scotch-Irish descent. Their family numbered eight children, four sons and four daughters, of whom one sister is now in Maryland and one brother in Pennsylvania, while the others are residents of Richland county.
John J. McPhern acquired his education in the public schools of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, and came to Richland county in 1866. He had previously served for a time as a soldier in the Civil war, having en- listed as a member of Company E, Seventeenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, in 1864 under Captain William Tice. The company was attached to the com- mand of General Phil Sheridan and participated in the battles of Fisher's Ridge and Cedar Creek. With the other members of the company Mr. Mc- Phern spent much time in guarding supplies and fighting guerillas includ- ing the troops under Mosby. He was discharged at Cloud Mills on the old battle field of Bull Run. He was also at Petersburg and Appomattox and in the Shenandoah Valley campaign and saw active and arduous service but never faltered in his loyalty to the Union as he followed the stars and stripes, through the south.
Upon locating in Mansfield Mr. McPhern began working at the car- penter's trade and later engaged in the lumber business in which he con- tinued until 1894 when he retired from that work and accepted the position of custodian at the courthouse. He is now capably serving in that capacity and his work has the endorsement of all public officials there located.
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