History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 82

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY

age, and both were members of the same at the time of their death.

Mrs. Bell possessed an affable, noble nature; and he, a man of generous, genial heart, was a universal favorite with the people, and at the time of his decease probably had not a real enemy living. He was always the same unassuming, cheerful, obliging neighbor and gentleman, and in his death the city of Fremont and county of Sandusky lost a valuable and much- esteemed citizen.

EBENEZER BUSHNELL, D. D.

Rev. E. Bushnell has been pastor of the Presbyterian church of Fremont since 1857. He was born near Granville, Ohio, November 18, 1822. His parents, Thomas H. and Charlotte Bailey Bush- neil, came from Norwich, Connecticut, in 1816, and settled on a farm in Licking county. His father was a surveyor and civil engineer. Mathematical ability is a characteristic of the family. When our subject was eleven years old his parents removed to Newark. There the son was placed under the instruction of tutors preparatory to attending college, but the death of his father necessitated a change in the plans made for him, and he learned the trade of carpenter and joiner as an ex- pedient for earning money to pursue his course in college. Not only the desired end was attained, but a business and me- chanical experience was acquired, which has been valuable to him since entering professional life.

Mr. Bushnell became a student at West- ern Reserve College, in 1842. He grad- uated in 1846, with the third honors of his class, although weak eyes had seriously interfered with his study. After graduat- ing he entered the theological seminary then connected with the college. During

the first two years of the course in theology he acted as instructor in the preparatory school, and the third year was principal of the preparatory department. After grad- uating in theology, Mr. Bushnell, on ac- count of an affection of the throat, was unable to enter the ministry. He accepted the tutorship of mathematics for a period of one year, and then entered upon his first charge, at Burton, Geauga county. He was pastor of the Burton Presbyterian church seven years. Ex-Governor Sebra Ford was a member of his church, as was also Chief Justice Hitchcock and Peter Hichcock, since well known as a member of the Ohio Legislature.

Mr. Bushnell became pastor of the Presbyterian congregation of this city in 1857, since which time his clerical work is set forth in the history of the church elsewhere in this volume.

Mr. Bushnell married, in 1850, Julia E. Baldwin, daughter of Sylvester Baldwin, of Hudson. She died in 1856, leaving four children, all of whom are living, viz. : Mrs. Dr. Byal, of Beardtown, Wood county: George W., Cleveland; Albert B., Wash ington; and Thomas H.

Mr. Bushnell married for his second wife, in 1858, Cornelia K. Woodruff, daughter of Rev. Simeon Woodruff, a pioneer preacher of the Reserve. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke seminary, and at the time of her marriage was en- gaged in educational work. Three chil- dren are the fruit of this marriage-Annie, Charlotte, and Edward.

Mr. Bushnell, in addition to his pastoral work, superintended the city public schools from 1860 to 1863. He has been active in the ecclesiastical affairs of his denomination. He has been secretary of the Synod of Toledo for more than a decade, and a mem- ber of the board of trustees of Western Reserve College for more than twice that length of time.

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

During the war Dr. Bushnell was active in encouraging enlistments and otherwise laboring in the cause of the Union. He was a member of the Christian Commission and was during the year 1865 stationed at Petersburg.

Mr. Bushnell is the most scholarly cler- gyman in the city. In addition to general and professional studies, he has been con- stantly adding to his early attainments in mathematics, for which he has a special aptitude, and the languages, particularly Latin, Greek, and German. In 1871 Marietta College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He has not entirely laid aside his mechanical training. Several buildings in Fremont have been erected under his supervision.

FAULKNER I. NORTON.

The subject of this sketch was promi- nently identified with the business inter- ests of Fremont. He was born in Cam- bridge, Washington county, New York, March 2, 1811. He left home at the age of thirteen years and began clerking in Keysville, New York, and afterwards learned the saddle and harness making trade in Saratoga county. He came to Ohio and settled in Lower Sandusky in 1833. Here he worked at his trade until 1835, and then returned to Claremont, New Hampshire, where he married Harri- etta M. Willard. After returning to Low- er Sandusky Mr. Norton engaged in mer- cantile business. His next enterprise was to build a foundry, which after operating a few years he sold to Mr. June. He next engaged in the manufacture of spokes and hubs. The large brick building on Arch street was erected by him for that purpose. Mr. Norton died November 4, 1878. Mrs. Norton is still living in this city. Mr. Norton pushed his enterprises with com- mendable zeal and enthusisam, and con- .

tributed largely to the growth of the town.

JOHN S. TYLER,

the subject of this sketch, was a native of the State of New York, born in Cayuga county, on the 25th day of December, 1806. In 1816 he came to Lower San- dusky with his father's family, from De- troit, Michigan. His advantages for edu- cation were limited by the meagre facilities of the day. He was, therefore, a self. made man. For a number of years he was clerk in the store of George G. Olm- sted, from whom he gathered much valua- ble information in business matters, and whom he made his model for deportment and social habits, which were those of the true gentleman. He became a man of remarkably quick discernment, and was acknowledged one of the best business managers in the community. He was probably one of the best judges of invest- ments that the city of Fremont ever had.

From his arrival here till his retirement from active life he was intimately con- nected with the business interests of this place. He contributed to the growth of the city in the erection of a substantial brick block on the corner of Front and Croghan streets, and subsequently a two- story brick on Croghan street. The mer- cantile business was his chief employment. His first trade was largely with the Ind- ians, with whom he was a special favorite.

About the year 1832 he married Miss Phebe Ann VanDoren, of Lower San- dusky. By this marriage he had three sons and three daughters. Charleston, his eldest son, served in the Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was wounded at Chickamauga, and died September 28, 1863. Mrs. Tyler having deceased, Mr. Tyler maried Eliza Kridler in 1850. Death again removed his companion in 1861.

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

He married for his third wife Helen S Norton, of Wood county. Mr. Tyler died after a brief illness, January 12, 1873, at the age of sixty-seven years.

ISAAC MARVIN KEELER.

The man whose name is most intimate- ly connected with the history of the Fre- mont Journal is the subject of this sketch. He is of Puritan parentage, on both sides, both his father and mother having been born in Fairfield county, Connecticut, in 1799. His grandfather, Luke Keeler, and his grandmother, and Isaac Marvin, with their families, emigrated to Ohio in wagons in the year 1817. The former settled in Huron county, and, in partnership with Platt Benedict, built the first house in Norwalk. The latter settled in Richmond county. Isaac M. Keeler was born in Sharon township, Richland county, Sep- tember 8, 1823. He lived at Norwalk until September, 1840, when he came to Lower Sandusky and entered the office of the Lower Sandusky Whig, as an apprentice. Between 1843 and 1849 Mr. Keeler was temporarily located in Milan, Norwalk, Sharon, and New York. He was commissioned postmaster at Fre- mont in October, 1850, and served in that capacity two years. In 1854 he purchased the Fremont Journal, which he edited and published until 1865, when he sold the office on account of poor health, and en- tered the insurance and real estate busi- ness, in which he continued until 1877. In December of that year he repurchased the Journal, and, in association with his son, continues to edit the paper.

Mr. Keeler was married to Anna F. Hulburd, of Lower Sandusky, June 23, 1847. She died October 26, 1850, leaving one child. He married for his second wife, May 12, 1859, Jeannette El-

liott, by whom he has two children, a son, S. M., and a daughter. Mrs. Keeler is a highly educated and literary woman.

REV. SERAPHINE BAUER.

Rev. Seraphine Bauer was born in France on the 17th day of October, 1835. His father came from Baden, Germany, but he lived in France for a period of twenty-three years. His mother came from Southern France. In the year 1848, after the death of the mother, which oc- curred in 1846, the father went back to Germany with his son (the only child), whose life up to that time had been quite an agitated one. Within the earliest period of his life this son began to show remarkable talent, and his father was bound to use all his available means to give his son a thorough education. He soon became familiar with the German language and literature. Like most of the students he took an active part in the revolutionary period at that time. From youth up he began to show a great desire to become a priest, and in order to reach this aim he subjected himself to many a sacrifice. The first disharmonious con- flict, which took place in 1851, between the Government and the Archbishop of Freiburg, suddenly put an obstacle in the way of this young man's most ardent wish. After several attempts, first to study medi- cine, then to enter the army, then to be- come a merchant, he finally came back to the profession of his first desire, and, after first consulting with Bishop Rappe, of Cleveland, Ohio, he came to America in the year 1854, having lived six years in Germany.

In Cleveland he finished his studies, and on the 13th day of June, 1858, he was ordained a priest. Soon after he took charge of the church in Maumee City,

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the present South Toledo, where he found a large field for his priestly work. Aside from his own church he had offered and given his services to eight different mis- sion places. At that time a Catholic priest had to battle with the difficulties of pioneer life, especially so in the en- tire district from Toledo to Fort Wayne, .hence in all Northwestern Ohio only two priests were to be found. In this place Rev. Seraphine Bauer remained for four years and three months. The old pioneers of Perrysburg to-day will tell you of their everlasting love for the Rev. Seraphine Bauer, remembering the time when this young priest frequently rode his twenty and thirty miles to come up to their place in cases of sickness or death among their own members. Finally the bishop was pleased to give this meritor- ious priest a position less burdensome, and put him in charge of the St. Joseph's congregation, of Fremont, on the 2 1st day of September, 1862, which position he has since held, now nineteen years.

In order to regain his strength and gen- eral health he went back to the Old World in February, 1872. His longing to see the Holy Land was gratified. He spent Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter in Jerusalem, at the grave of our Savior. On Easter Monday he was favored with a rather unexpected honor. For centuries past there has existed in the Catholic church different orders of knights, especially instituted for benevo- lent purposes. Among these the most principal ones are the order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and Knight Tem- plar. The first-named still exists in the church, but the Knights Templar was dis- solved and cancelled at the Concilium of Vienna in 1311, by Pope Clement V. The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, who, with few exceptions, are only of nobility and rank, are designated to be the custodians

of the Holy Sepulchre. But since it is impossible for the members to be con- stantly in attendance, the church has created the order of the Franciscaner to represent the same. On Easter Monday, 1872, as before stated, three new mem- bers of the order were created by the Patriarch Valerga from Jerusalem, and these three were Rev. Father Bauer, of Fremont; General Vicar, from the Island Burboun, and a gentleman from Lima, Peru.

In two years Father Bauer will cele- brate his twenty-fifth anniversary, and one year later he expects to see the new church completed.

Father Bauer is a man of extraordinary talent. He is gifted with a wonderful memory, and with a sharp and penetrat- ing mind. His character and his socia- bility in general has made him friends, not only among his own church members, but also all other denominations.

WILLIAM CALDWELL

was born near Chillicothe, Ross county, Ohio, December 23, 1808. His parents were William and Mary Park Caldwell, with whom he came to Port Clinton, Ottawa county, in 1828, and four years later, came to Fremont. Mr. Caldwell married in Fremont in 1836, Jane A., daughter of Thomas and Eliza Davis. She was a native of New York city, and was born December 17, 1808.

William Caldwell, sr., was a native of Pennsylvania, and was one of a family of six sons and one daughter, who emigrated to Kentucky in 1787. He removed to Ross county in 1806, and in 1812 enlisted in the army, being in the Northwestern di- vision under Hull at Detroit. Through that commander's cowardice the whole army became British captives. After

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

peace Mr. Caldwell located at Columbus, then just made the State capital. He did the blacksmith work on the Ohio peniten- tiary. He came to Lower Sandusky in 1832, and subsequently removed to El- more, where he died in 1861.

William Caldwell, jr .. has been justice of the peace at Elmore for eighteen con- secutive years. He was in earlier years deputy sheriff of this county, and well known among the early men of this city.

Dr. William Caldwell, son of Willianı Caldwell, jr., is a practicing physician at Fremont.

William and Jane Caldwell have had four children : William. born May 27, 1837: Charles, born February 5, 1839, died in 1852: Robert H .. born June 14, 1841. died February 8. 1863, and Juliet. born January 8, 1844.

William Caldwell, jr .. was elected pro- bate judge of Ottawa county at the Octo- ber election of 1881.

JOHN FABING.

John Fabing was born in Loraine. France (now Germany). in 1797. In 1824 he married Miss Mary Greiner, who still survives. They emigrated to this country in 1834, and located near Syracuse, New York, where they lived ten years. Deceni- ber 24, 1844, they came to Sandusky county from Buffalo, New York. Mr. Fabing died July 25, 1845. He was the father of six children, four of whom are living, viz: Catharine, John, Frederick, and Barbara. John and Frederick both reside in this county, Catharine and Bar- bara in California.

Frederick Fabing, the son of John Fa- bing, was born June 14. 1832, in France, and came with his parents to this country. In 1858 he married Miss Mary J. Webber, of Fremont. She was born in France. January 3, 1833. They have no children.

Mr. Fabing has been a member of the city council two terms. He is at present superintendent of the Fremont gas works.

JOHN NEWMAN.

John Newman, son of John and Eve Newman, was born in York county, Penn- sylvania, in 1809, and came by wagon to Ohio in company with his brother, Mi- chael B., in the fall of 1835. He located at Tiffin, and with his brother engaged in the grocery business for a short time. In the spring of 1836 they came to Fremont and engaged in the same business and continued together until the death of Michael B., in the spring of 1839. John then sold out and returned to Pennsylva- nia. In 1841 he came back to Fremont, and in the spring of the same year was married to Miss Margaretta Livingston, who was born in Canton, Stark county, in 1821. They have had five children, three of whom are now living, viz: Charles, Catharine, wife of Charles Boyer, of Lind- say, and Mary S., wife of William E. For- sythe, of Fremont.

Mr. Newman made his first purchase of land in 1853, buying a farm of eighty acres of General Buckland.

ISAAC B. SHARP

Isaac B. Sharp, an old resident, was born in Delaware in 1809. In 1834 he came to Ohio and settled in Fremont. He is the son of Abraham and Catharine (Gray) Sharp. They were the parents of five children. two of whom are living, Isaac B. and Abraham Sharp, both residents of Fremont.

In 1835 Mr. Sharp was married to Eliz- abeth L. Davis. She was born in Utica, New York. in 1812. Her father, Thomas Davis, came to that place from Ireland in

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

1805. Her mother was Mary Avery, of English descent, born in 'Tarrytown, Wes- chester county, New York, in 1776. Thom- as Davis was born in 1771, died in 1861. They were the parents of eight children, four of whom survive, Jane Ann, Elizabeth L., Mary G., and Thomas Robert.

To Isaac and Elizabeth Sharp have been born five children: Isaac B., born January 3, 1836, resides in Wyandotte, Kansas; Angelica, born September 29, 1837, lives in Bellevue, Kansas; Athenia, Forn Octo- ber 28, 1841, resides in Seneca county, Ohio; Emma, born August 21, 1845, lives at Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania; Estella, the youngest, and the only unmarried daughter, resides at home.

The first work Mr. Sharp engaged in, after coming to Fremont, was to assist in building the second bridge across the Sandusky river, where the iron bridge now stands. In 1834 he built the first Methodist church in Fremont. He also built the first Catholic church in the city. Mr. Sharp worked at carpentry eighteen years, and then took a trip to California. On his return he engaged in the lumber business for fourteen years, retiring from active business at the expiration of that time.

Mr. Sharp has not seen a sick day for more than forty years, nor has his family required the attendance of a physician during all that time.

Mrs. Sharp is a descendant from a wor- thy family, and bears an excellent reputa- tion as a wife and mother.

FRANK CREAGER.

Frank Creager was born in Bellevue, Ohio, July 25, 1849, and is of German descent. He studied dentistry with Dr. B. S. Boswell, of Rochester, New York, and S. M. Cummings, of Elkhart, Indiana,

and has practiced that profession twelve years, four years in Indiana and the re- mainder of the time in Fremont.

In 1875 Mr. Creager married Miss Clara Moore, oldest daughter of John and Eliza Moore, of Ballville, this county. Mrs. Creager was born November 9, 1851. They have had three children, only one of whom is living. Edna died February 19, 1880, aged three years, six months, and twenty-seven days. Volta died February 29, 1880, aged one year, nine months, and six days. Both of these deaths resulted from membranous croup. Grace was born December 7, 1879.

W. B. KRIDLER.

William B. Kridler was born in Fremont July 12, 1848. He was educated in the public schools of this city, and at Cornell University, New York, graduating from the scientific department of that institution in 1872 with the first class that graduated after the university was founded.

Mr. Kridler was engaged in the banking business in Fremont from 1872 until 1878. In the spring of that year he was elected city clerk, which office he holds at pres- ent. In politics he is a Republican.

Mr. Kridler was married in 1878 to Miss Mattie I. Smith, of Hadley, Massa- chusetts. They have two children, Helen Lyman and James Huntington.

AUSTIN B. TAYLOR

was born at New Fayne, Vermont, No- vember 14, 1813. His father was Simon Taylor, M. D). His mother's maiden name was Cynthia Birchard, a sister of Sardis Birchard. Left an orphan he was bound out as a saddler's apprentice ; learned the trade, but did not work at it after attaining his majority. On that day

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

he started for Lower Sandusky to enter the store of his uncle, Sardis Birchard, arriving in Fremont in the fall of 1834. His whole capital at that time consisted of six dollars and an old jack-knife. But he had pluck and business energy, and in course of time became the successor of the firm of Birchard, Dickinson & Grant in the dry goods business, which he car- ried on until 1850, when he sold out to Eisenhour & Coles. In 1851 he was elected justice of the peace and served one term. April 4, 1853 he was elected mayor, defeating Brice J. Bartlett by four votes. The vote stood: A. B. Taylor, 137; B. J. Bartlett, 134 ; total vote, 271. He was married to Delia Pettibone, daughter of Hon. Hiram Pettibone, a former lawyer of this city, April 27, 1840. He died October 28, 1859, and was buried by the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a prominent member, holding the office of treasurer for many years. He left a family of seven children-Mary, died the following spring ; Sardis B., the doctor; Charles, George, Oscar, Austin B., and Delia. He left a large estate, and his whole life was a marvel of business energy.

JEREMIAH EVERETT AND FAMILY.

Jeremiah Everett was a son of John Everett, and was born in the State of Mas- sachusetts in the year 1783. His father moved from Massachusetts to the State of New York, and settled at Schenectady, where he raised his family and died. Jeremiah married Elizabeth Emery, and eft home soon after attaining his majority, and worked at an early day at the Onan- daga salt works. When the war of 1812 broke out he volunteered, and served at Fort Erie for a time. The musket he

carried in that service was preserved in the family, and kept after his death by his oldest son, Lorenzo, and all traces of it are now lost, Lorenzo's family being long since dispersed in various parts of the country, but the writer remembers well using the old musket in boyhood to shoot blackbirds away from the oat and corn fields in and about Lower Sandusky.

In the fall of the year 1812, intending to settle on the Connecticut Western Re- serve, which was then attracting pioneers in search of land, he settled on the Huron River, in Huron county, at the old county seat, sometimes called the Abbott Place, where Mr. Abbott, afterwards known as Judge Abbott, then resided. There was a settlement of several families in the vicinity, and the fear of Indian attacks caused them to construct a block-house of heavy logs, with port-holes, in which the families lodged at night, or fled to in case of alarm in the day time. The settlement planted corn and potatoes, and such vegetables as they could, along the river. But the frequent alarms of Indians, arising from the capture of Mrs. Snow and the Putnam family, on Pipe Creek, not far away, put them in great fear, and during the summer the settlers tended their crops with loaded guns standing near, tp fire in defence of an attack, and give warning of the approach of danger. Here, after the arrival of Jeremiah Everett, and on the 30th of January, 1813, his son Homer was born.

Through the summer of 1813 the in- habitants tended their crops and managed to live without any serious demonstration from the lurking savages. On the 2d of August, 1813, Croghan's victory at. Fort Stephenson rather diminished the danger from the savages, and yet the settlers at the old county seat did not slack their vigilance.

On the 10th of September, 1813, when

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

the writer of this sketch was probably on a blanket, laid upon an earthen floor in a log cabin by the banks of the Huron River, and perhaps trying to put his big toe in his mouth, his anxious parents were listening to the distant roar of the battle on Lake Erie in which the gallant Perry gained such a signal victory over the British fleet. Jeremiah after- wards visited the fleet and saw the evi- dences of the fight in the shattered hulls, broken spars and rigging, and bloody decks of the vessels which had been engaged. This signal victory lifted a load from the hearts of those pioneers. If the British conquered they must flee, or be scalped; if the Americans should win the battle they could stay. There is no doubt some very earnest praying was done by that handful of settlers while the fight was pro- gressing. But the news of the victory soon brought joy of deliverance from peril, and from that time the little band of pioneers felt safer.

In the spring of the year 1815 Jeremiah Everett, with the help of one Aden Breed, started for the new El Dorado, Lower San- dusky. They moved family and goods by team from the old county seat to Ogontz place, afterwards called Portland and now Sandusky City, on the shore of the Sandusky Bay. The household goods and provisions and the family were there transferred to a pirogue or very large canoe, worked by hand with paddles after the aboriginal fashion. When the wind was fair, they hoisted a common blanket on a pole for a sail and thus made the voyage up the Sandusky Bay and the river to Lower Sandusky, arriving about the middle of April in the year 1815. He found shelter with some hospitable pio- neers until he, with the help of generous neighbors and settlers, erected a log house on the ground where the present residence of Isaac E. Amsden stands, then in Lower

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 82

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams Number of Pages: 1040

Author: Everett, Homer, 1813-1887
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Cleveland, Ohio : H.Z. Williams
Number of Pages: 1040