History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 84

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

USA > Ohio > Sandusky County > History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 84

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FRANCIS JOSEPH GIEBEL, JR. was born in Fremont, Ohio, March 14, 1851. His parents were Francis J. Giebel, and Maria S. (Duerr) Giebel. The father was a native of Hesse Cassel, and the mother of Bavaria, Germany. Mr. Giebel sr., emigrated in 1847; Mrs. Giebel, in 1839.

The subject of this sketch was educated in Fremont, having attended both the paro- chial and common schools of the city. He married Miss Clara Ochs, at Fremont, on the 27th of January, 1874. He learned the shoemaker's trade with his father. In December, 1868, at the age of seventeen years and a half, he, with several other citizens of Fremont, caught the gold fever, and started from home to seek gold in Montana. In the month of October, 186), he left Montana on his return, and reached home in the month of November following. He immediately went into the treasurer's office as clerk, under J. P. Elderkin, then county treasurer. Here he continued working through the collec- tion of the December instalment of taxes for 1869. He was then employed as clerk in the county auditor's office, under George W. Gurst. In this employment Mr. Giebel continued until his election to that office in the fall of 1874. At this time Mr. Giebel was found to be the youngest county auditor in the State of Ohio, being then only twenty-three years old. He was re-elected in 1876, and served until 1878, when Adam Hodes, present incumbent, was elected to succeed him. But for the custom of his party to let no county of- ficer remain more than two terms, Mr. Giebel would no doubt have been retained in that office. Upon the election of Mr. Hodes, he retained Mr. Giebel as his clerk and deputy, on account of his thor- ough knowledge of the office and its duties, which position he still holds, and is by all acknowledged to be a man fit for the place. Meantime, Mr. Giebel has been clerk of the city of Fremont, a mem- ber of the city council, in which he is now sitting a second term, and was for one year president of that body. He is also a member and stockholder in the Fremont Brick and Tile Company. As a business man in general, and as a county auditor,

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HISTORY OF SANDUSKY COUNTY.

he stands high in the estimation of the people of the county. As a citizen of correct walk and deportment, he is highly esteemed. His career thus far promises well for the future, and demonstrates what German emigrants may gain for their children by emigrating to free America.

JESSE S. OLMSTED.

In writing the biographies of pioneers and prominent men of Sandusky county, a link would be missing and the chain in- complete should we omit a sketch of the life and services of the gentleman whose family and personal history we give in the following narrative: Jesse S. Olmsted was born in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Decem- ber 24, 1792. When he was quite young his father removed to Albany, New York, where young Olmsted was placed for awhile under the instruction of Dr. Knott. When quite a young man he was employed as bookkeeper in a large mercantile establishment. Here he be- came a thorough accountant, and took his first. lessons in mercantile transactions. In the fall of 1817 Mr. Olmsted, in company with his brother George G., brought from Albany, New York, to Lower Sandusky, the first stock of goods that rose to the dignity of a mercantile transaction. It consisted of a general assortment of dry goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, liquors, and wines, and amounted, upon the invoices at Albany, to the handsome sum of twenty-seven thousand dollars. This firm of brothers also brought with them carpenters to build a store, and coopers to make barrels to be used at the fisheries here, which trade was then, and has since been, very considerable. The workmen, eleven in all, together with the nails, glass, and the hardware necessary for their intended building, were trans-

ported from Albany to Buffalo by land, thence by water to this place. The pine lumber was brought from Buffalo by water. The amount paid for transportation on this stock of merchandise was four thousand four hundred dollars. Immediately upon their arrival they commenced the erection of their store. It was the second frame structure built here. It was located near Doncyson's brewery. Its dimensions were sixty by thirty feet, two stories high, with dormer-windows and projecting beams, with pulley blocks attached in front for raising goods. It presented a front of sixty feet towards the river, and the lower story was divided into two apartments -- one a salesroom or store, and the other a warehouse.

This was considered a mammoth build- ing, and for many years it was a kind of commercial emporium, the stock of goods in it being greater than in any other be- tween Detroit and Cleveland, and Urbana and the lake. Mr. Olmsted's first trade was chiefly with the Indians of the Wyandot, Seneca, and Ottawa tribes. Soon after Mr. Olmsted and his brother opened busi- ness, they received in trade and shipped in one season twenty thousand muskrat skins, worth twenty-five cents each; eight thou- sand coon skins, worth fifty cents each ; two thousand deer skins, at fifty cents ; one hundred and fifty otter skins, at five dollars each; and two hundred bear skins, at five dollars each. In 1820 the Olmsted Brothers sent the first pork from this place eastward. It consisted of one hundred and fifty barrels, and was marketed at Montreal. The cost here was two thou- sand dollars for the lot, but it was sold for considerable less.

About the year 1825 the firm dissolved, and Mr. Jesse S. Olmsted went into busi- ness at Tymochtee; but in two or three years he returned to Lower Sandusky, where he remained the rest of his life.

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The first wheat shipped East from this point -- a lot of six hundred bushels-was sent by Mr. Olmsted in the year 1830. It cost him forty cents per bushel in Lower Sandusky, and sold in Buffalo for sixty cents. Transportation was then so high that this advance of twenty cents per bushel was consumed in expenses. He made nothing, therefore, by the operation. On the Ist of January, 1821, he was mar- ried to Miss Azuba Forgerson, of Lower Sandusky, though a native of Orange county, New York. The marriage license on this occasion was the second issued after the organization of the county. The family comprised three children-Dorcas Ann, the first daughter, born September 12, 1824, died August 25, 1826; Ann M., now Mrs. Charles Foster, of Fostoria, Ohio, and Charles, now partner in the large mercantile firm of Foster, Olmsted & Co., of the same place. Mr. Olmsted died in Fremont on the 9th of November, 1860, at the age of sixty-eight. He was always held in high esteem for his integrity and discernment, and he held for a time the position of county treasurer ; also that of associate judge of the court of common pleas; all the duties of which offices, as well as those of other official stations, he performed to the entire satisfaction of the people. Humbug found no victim, hol- low, heartless formality no advocate in him. For the unfortunate he always had an open and helping hand, and in early times here many in distress were relieved by his generous donations. As an officer, he was prompt and reliable; as a business man, he was ever strictly honest. His goods had only one price, and his book entries told the truth. Fair profits and unflinching frankness and honesty in all transactions were the cardinal principles of his life, and when newly-arrived merchants came into the place and adopted the usual tactics of cheapening some leading articles

of merchandise, with the price of which . the people were familiar, to attract custom, and then make up the loss on articles of which the customer was ignorant of the value, Judge Olmsted's indignation knew no bounds. He denounced such a system of merchandising as knavery and robbery.

The fact that Judge Olmsted was the pioneer merchant of the place, that he came to Lower Sandusky when the whole country was a sickly wilderness, that he was an eye-witness to the birth of the town and of every step of progress in its early history-that he had seen the coun- try a wilderness inhabited by wild beasts and still wilder men transformed into a peaceful garden of civilization and beauty, -all conspire to rank him as the leading pioneer man and merchant of Lower San- dusky, alias Fremont.

In a lecture at Birchard Hall delivered in February, 1860, Homer Everett, esq., who had been many years a clerk for Judge Olmsted, and a member of his family, the judge being then alive and present at the meeting, thus alluded to his marriage :

Forty years a faithful, loving, married pair! For forty years the same familiar step upon the threshold of a happy home to meet warm comforts and a loving welcome; forty years' hand in hand along life's road, eye to eye reading the inmost thoughts, and loving more and more; faithful, true, confiding, with heart to heart through all the trials and changes of mortal life from youth to age. I have been an inmate of that home, and claim the right to say there is not in our town a more interesting and beautiful social spectacle than the every day life of this aged pair! Surely such are blest.

Judge Olmsted departed this life on the 9th of November, 1860. Mrs. Olm- sted still survives, and is now in her eighty- seventh year, is still vigorous, and retains her mental faculties in a remarkable de- gree.

Azuba Olmsted was born in Orange county, State of New York, March, 1795. Her parents were Richard Forgerson and Julia (Davis) Forgerson. .

They came. to

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Lower Sandusky with Aaron Forgerson in the year 1817.

ELISHA W. HOWLAND.

Elisha W. Howland has been dead many years. He was never married and left no relative in this State, and it is now im- practicable to obtain facts concerning his early life. It is known that he came to Lower Sandusky as early as 1821. He resided there continually from that date until the time of his death, about the year 1854. He worked at the carpenter busi- ness and framed and finished most of the frame houses in the place built previous to that time. At the time of his death he owned considerable property, including the hotel on the northeast corner of Front and State streets. He was for a term one of the associate judges of the county, and was afterwards called Judge Howland. In the early days of Lower Sandusky he opened a cabinet-making shop, and for many years his shop furnished all the cof- fins used in Lower Sandusky and vicinity. He also made bureaus, bedsteads, chests, and tables for the settlers, and his work was both tasteful and substantial.

In a lecture delivered by Homer Ever- ett at Birchard Hall in 1860, in tracing characteristics of the early settlers at Lower Sandusky, he gave the following sketch of Judge Howland:

He was a man of good sense, sound judgment, independent, skeptical, of strong intellect and pithy expression. Many of his center-shot witticisms and eccentric speeches are well remembered, one or two of which will give an idea of the man.

About the year 1838 our town contained two young and aspiring politicians by the names of Bishop Eddy and Homer Everett. They were Democrats, and for some time had been very active in every canvass, organizing the party, controlling the nominations, and advocating the necessity of voting the regular unscratched ticket. Their efforts were attended with some success, and they became quite conspicuous, and got some offices filled by men who were not fit

for the place. "Judge" Howland, as he was called, hated the Democratic party and all belonging to it. About this time a young man named Harmon, also a Democrat, purchased and brought to our town one of those long-eared animals known as cousin of the horse and father of the mules-such an animal as Frank Leslie would have us believe is the high priest of the Sons of Malta. Harmon considered this ani- mal a speculation, and being the first in our town, it attracted considerable attention. One morning he went to the stable. The halter was in the stall, but the jack had stepped out. The door was open, and Harmon supposed his favorite was stolen. The news of the loss soon spread over the town; scouts were sent out in every direction, and everybody was in- quiring and narrating these events, and speculation was rife as to where the chattel had gone.

About II o'clock A. M. a loud braying in the loft of the stable announced that the missing property had been raised to an elevation above that commonly assigned to it. Harmon heard the musical note and hastened with eagerness to assure himself that the sound had not deceived him. Upon approaching the stable the head and ears projecting from an upper opening of the stable assured him that all was safe. But how did he get there? That was the question. There was no stairs nor ladder, and how could such a creature climb on pegs driven into the wall? He must have been elevated to the haymow by human aid, and who had done it became the great question. Whoever had perpetrated this sell on Harmon might expect to suffer. Just then Howland and some others had been discussing politics in a bar-room, and Eddy and Everett had undergone some of the Judge's hand- ling, especially in regard to the bad officers they had been instrumental in hoisting into place, when in came Harmon saying, excitedly, that he would give twenty dollars to know who put his jack up into the loft and left his stable door open. Howland quietly replied, "I can tell who it was."

" Well, who was it ?"

"Homer Everett and Bish. Eddy."

"Why, Judge, what makes you think so?"

" Because it's their trade, and has been since they took hold of the Democratic party. They have been engaged in elevating jackasses for the past three years ! "

During his sickness and while confined to his room he sent his landlord, Ira Smith, esq., one evening about 7 o'clock, for a bottle of medicine, with directions to hurry. Smith was detained until about Io o'clock, when he arrived at the door of the Judge's room and found it fastened. He had been a little alarmed for fear the Judge might die suddenly and alone. He rapped and no reply came; rapped again, louder and longer; waited a moment or so, and no sound. He was troubled, and he began to think the Judge had locked himself in and become speechless, perhaps dead. He took hold of the

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door handle and rapped and shook it as if he would tear it down. As quick as the rattle of the door subsided, a well-known powerful voice, hot with anger, roared out: "I've been dead these two hours; go way and don't bother me ! "

There was some contention about the location of the Cleveland and Toledo Railroad through our town. Judge Howland's opinion was that it should cross the river north of town; others contended that it should go through on the south side, and the latter was finally chosen as the route. This line through Bellevue ran near a distillery, and at this place, excepting the curve at the west side of the river, ran pretty direct towards the old cemetery. After the location and line had been fixed the Judge was asked if he did not think it was the best, after all. His reply was: "Well, may be 'tis; they have made two points in the road which will ensure a lasting business. It runs from distillery to our grave-yard. I suppose the road can carry off the dead as fast as he can kill."

One Anderson, by cunning management, was ap- pointed collector of customs in our town, by the proper authorities at Washington city, and the ap- pointment was not satisfactory to the faithful. How- land disliked Anderson. In course of time, at the solicitation of the people, John R. Pease obtained the removal of Anderson, and secured the office in his stead. On hearing of this change, Howland would say to his friends: "It is a fine sight to see a wicked man repent and do penance for his sins. Anderson is going about with a face as long as your arm, and has peas (Pease) in his shoes."

JACOB MILLIOUS.

This pioneer of the county was born in Rensselaer county, New York, in 1794. At an early age he learned the trade of painting, and in 1818 started westward. After living in various places in Ohio, painting and doing odd jobs, in 1821, with a load of whiskey and flour, drawn by two yoke of oxen, he started from Cincinnati for Lower Sandusky, where he opened a grocery store and bakery. He suffered for several months after arriving from malarial fever, which greatly discouraged hin). As soon as he had sufficiently recovered strength he packed his gripsack and started for Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and did not return until 1822. He was for many years employed in trade, and be-

longed to that coterie of friends who did so much to enliven village life.

Jacob Millious, a small, wiry man in stature, was three times married, and left a number of children to perpetuate his honorable name, several of whom, and his worthy widow, reside at Fremont, Ohio.

Mr. Millious died at Fremont in 1880, at the age of nearly eighty-seven years. As a citizen he was enterprising, and in busi- ness no man questioned the integrity of Jacob Millious.

JAMES JUSTICE AND FAMILY.

Among the pioneers of Fremont who deserve a notice in this history, few are more deserving a place than the subject of this sketch and his family. James Jus- tice was born in Bedford county, Penn- sylvania, on the 18th day of August, 1794. His father was William Justice and his mother was Eleanor Umsted. The father of Mr. Justice was of English and his mother of German ancestry. At about the age of nine years he re- moved with his parents from Bedford county to Ross county, Ohio, about six miles from the old State capital, Chilli- cothe. There he received a rudimentary education, such as that early date in the history of Ohio afforded, which was in- deed limited compared with the grand system of education now to be found in every part of the State. In early life he manifested an uncommon inclination to activity, a good share of which was wasted in the prosecution of innocent mischief and resistance to authority. However, as he grew to manhood, business activity took the place of mischief, and he en- gaged at about the date of 1817 or 1818 in the flat-boat trade with New Orleans. The early settlers along the Ohio river and navigable tributaries all looked to this trade as a market for the bacon, flour and

JESSE S. VAN NESS.

This popular citizen of Fremont was a descend- ant of the Van Ness family once so noted for wealth and influence in the State of New York. He was a son of Simon and Julia Van Ness, and was born in Orange county, State of New York, on the 25th day of October, 1819. There he learned with his father the trade of tanning and currying. He was married to Miss Jane A. Blakeslee, in Orange county, on the 29th day of August, 1850, and emigrated from there to Fremont, Ohio, in the month of April, 1852. After locating in Fremont Mr. Van Ness worked about two years in what was known as the old Van Doren tannery. He then bought a lot not far away and built a new tannery for himself, not far from the Van Doren tannery, on the side hill, on the east side of the river.

In the year 1862 or thereabouts, finding the busi- ness not remunerative, he sold out, and spent several years in putting up and supplying the city with ice. His ice house was on the premises of Isaac Sharp, next above the river bridge of the Lake Shore Rail- road.

While thus engaged .he was elected Mayor of the city of Fremont, and although a Republican, the people liked him so well, and had so much confi- dence in his integrity, ability and good judgment

that although the city was really a Democratic city, Mr. Van Ness drew largely from the Democratic party, and was elected by a handsome majority at the spring election of 1873, and again elected in the spring of 1877, and again for a third term in the spring of 1881, and engaged in discharging the du- ties of the office in a very satisfactory manner, and to the great approval of the people of the city until a short time before his death, when his last sickness disabled him, and his death occurred on the 14th day of June, 1881. Mr. Van Ness was a warm and faith- ful friend of the public schools of Fremont, and was a valued member of the Board of Education for fif- teen years, and held that office also at the time of his death. He was also for a number of years one of the township trustees of Sandusky county.

He was a member of long and good standing of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, having been a member of Brainard Lodge of Fremont, Ohio, many years.

He was also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, perhaps older in Odd Fellowship than any person in Fremont, he having joined Goshen Lodge in Orange county, New York, before he came to Fremont.

Though not a member of any church, his wife had

joined the Methodist Episcopal church when twelve years old, and has all her life been a consistent mem- ber and regular attendant on divine service accord- ing to the forms of that church, and Mr. Van Ness, out of regard for religion generally, and especially out of regard for his wife's deep and settled pietv, did much for the cause of religion according to the forms of the church which she adopted and revered.

Although Mr. and Mrs. Van Ness were not blest with children of their own, they adopted and edu- cated two daughters, whose education and culture became their chief desire. The first adopted child was Elsie Jane Karshner, a relative by blood, whom they reared with the most affectionate and tender regard, and who was ready to graduate in the Fremont high school in the class of 1866, when she died shortly before the commencement-day, to which she and her parents by adoption looked forward with such pleasing anticipations, at the age of sixteen.

On the death of Elsie there was dark loneliness in the home of Mr. Van Ness, and they soon brought a light to supply the place of the beautiful and loved one which death had extinguished. This light for

their home Mr. and Mrs. Van Ness found in the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home `at Xenia, Ohio. Her name is May Bell. The parentage of this child her foster mother, Mrs. Van Ness, is not now ready to disclose, and the secret remains with her for disclosure when circumstances may require. She is a bright young woman now, engaged in teaching one of the primary schools of Fremont, and is at once the companion and comfort of Mrs. Van Ness in her widowhood.

.it the funeral of Mr. Van Ness an impressive sermon was delivered by the Rev. T. H. Wilson, of the Methodist Episcopal church. The Odd Fellows then took el arge of the remains, and the closing of business houses, the large attendance of citizens, the attendance in a body of all the remaining city officials, the long line of carriages which fol- lowed the remains to the cemetery, and the impres- sive burial services by the large attendance of Odd Fellows, all testified that Mr. Van Ness was held in high esteem as a citizen, an officer, and a man. He rests now in Oakwood cemetery among the honored ones who sleep there.

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whiskey, so easily and abundantly pro- duced in Southern Ohio at that time, and from thence drew supplies by exchange, of sugars and all those goods which we now term groceries. Often, however, the flat- boatman would sell his cargo and boat at New Orleans for cash and work his way up the river to his home the best way he . could. In this trade young Justice dis- played first-class financial talents and ac- cumulated considerable cash. He main- tained regular correspondence with the merchants of New Orleans, and was at all times well informed of the prices of goods there as well as the price of the products which were designed for sale or exchange in the South.

Before engaging in the New Orleans trade he had taken some interest in and understanding of the business of tanning at Chillicothe, but discontinued this to vol- unteer under General William H. Harrison in the War of 1812. He was with Harri- son at Fort Seneca at the time of the bat- tle of Fort Stephenson, August 2, 1813. After the war he resided at Chillicothe, and for a time gave attention to the tan- ning business. On the 12th of October, 1820, he married Miss Eliza Moore, daugh- ter of David Moore and sister to John and James, deceased, two well-known citi- zens of Ballville, and both millers and manufacturers, and both wealthy and en- terprising men.

In the month of September, 1822, Mr. Justice removed from Ross to Sandusky county, and first located in Ballville town- ship, and in what is now known as Ballville village. The manner of his moving from Ross county is quite in contrast with the mode of travel at the present day. He placed his wife and child on horseback, while he started with them on foot. For a time after his arrival at Ballville, Mr. Justice assisted his father-in-law, David Moore, in running his grist- and saw-mill

at that place. After spending probably two years in this manner, he removed to Lower Sandusky and erected a tannery on the north side of State street, at the foot of the hill, on the west side of the river. With the tannery he connected the busi- ness of harness and shoemaking. Here, again, his financial talent was displayed, and he accumulated money in his business quite rapidly, and made large savings after supporting a family. In this business Mr. Justice simply managed the financial de- partment, leaving the manual labor to ex- pert workmen, whom he employed in the different shops. About 1847 he turned the business over to his son, Milton J. Justice, and gave his attention to investing and managing his capital. He made large gains by buying and selling lands, some- times on his own account, and sometimes in partnership with Rodolphus Dickinson and Sardis Birchard. Mr. Justice was prominent in the part he took in construct- ing the Tiffin and Fostoria plank roads, which for a time contributed so much to the trade and prosperity of Fremont. When the Wyandot Reservation at Upper Sandusky was sold, and the Indians re- moved to the Far West, Mr. Justice was selected by the Government as appraiser of the land on account of his soundness of judgment in matters of value.

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History of Sandusky County, Ohio : with portraits and biographies of prominent citizens and pioneers, Part 84

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