USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio; a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests, Vo. II > Part 11
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JOHN S. CLUDY .- One of Republic's enterprising young busi- ness men is John S. Cludy. who was born August 29, 1879. and is the son of John J. and Mariah (Groscup) Chidy. The father was a native of Ohio, but the mother came here with her parents from her native state. Pennsylvania, when still of tender years. John J. Cludy, who pursued the vocation of a tailor was born September 20, 1840, and died September 24, 1898. When he was three years of age he was left an orphan. and his uncle. William Rhoades, took the homeless little lad into his household and reared him and there he lived until his marriage at the age of twenty-five years. II
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chose the vocation of an agriculturist and farmed in Seneca county until his death. He was survived by a wife and six children, all of whom were sons, their names being: Emmet, Edward. Charles. John, Jesse and William. Emmet resides in Lansing, Michigan. where he is associated with the Grand Union Traction Company ; Edward lives on a farm near Carey; Charles is a citizen of Tiffin : Jesse is a Clinton township agriculturist : and William. the young- est son. resides with his mother on the homestead, located south of Tiffin.
The subject's paternal grandfather, Samuel Chidy, and his wife were the parents of the following children : Jonas. William. Samuel, Henry, Charles. John Jacob, Marie. Sarah. Rebecca. Eliza- beth and Fannie.
John S. Cludy resided beneath the parental roof until he he- came eighteen years of age. £ He received his education in the schools of Adams township graduating with the class of 1895. In the year 1897 he made a step toward independence and secured em- ployment in the way of assisting various farmers in the locality. When about twenty-six years he took up the trade of a blacksmith and subsequently utilized the knowledge derived in a wagon shop. He later accepted a clerkship in a grocery store, which position he held until the spring of 1910. It was in that year that Mr. Cludy engaged in the general merchandise business in Republic, and the success which has attended his efforts has been evidence that his step was a wise one. He has built up a good trade and enjoys the confidence of all those with whom he has transactions. His success was assured almost from the first. for he transacted five thousand dollars worth of business the first seven months, and the subsequent growth has been commensurate. The political faith of Mr. Cludy is Republican. his sympathy and suffrage having always been given to the men and measures of that party. His lodge affiliations extend to the Knights of the Tented Maccabees.
MARION W. UBERROTH. M. D. has been identified with the medi- cal profession of Seneca county. Ohio. during the past fifteen years. and since he was a year and a half old has resided within its borders.
Dr. Uberroth was born in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. in 1872. and in his youth enjoyed good educational advantages. Being the son of a physician and later the step-son of a physician. it was natural for him to incline toward the medical profession when old enough to select his life work. His education. begun in the com- mon schools, was carried forward at Heidelberg College and fin- ished in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore. Maryland, where in 1893, at the age of twenty-one. the youngest member of his class, he received his degree of M. D. In the meantime his father. Dr. A. S. Uberroth. had died and his mother had become the wife of Dr. William II. Focht who took up the practice left by Dr. A. S. Cherroth. After his graduation young Uberroth settled at New Riegel. Ohio. as a partner of his step- father. Dr. Focht. But after a year Dr. Focht came to Tiffin, and Dr. Uberroth remained there until the death of Dr. Focht. when he
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moved to Tiffin. in 1906. and where he has since been successfully engaged in practice. with office at 7016 East Perry Street.
On November 17. 1898. Dr. Uberroth married Miss Cora La Fountaine, a daughter of Nicholas and Theresa Fountaine and a native of Seneca county. born August 22. 1880. To them have been given three children: Marion W .. born October 8. 1903; Flavius J .. March 11. 1907 : and Marjorie D .. July 9, 1908.
The doctor has associated himself with various medical organ- izations, including the County, State, American and Northwestern Medical Societies. He has membership in Pickwick Lodge. No. 175, K. of P., and. politically. is a Republican.
DR. ADAMS S. UBERROTH, father of Dr. Marion W. Uberroth. was a man of strong personality and brilliant attainments. tempered with kindness and gentleness. Indeed. he possessed a magnetism irresistable. As a talker he was fluent and entertain- ing; his voice was heard on many public occasions. and his words always carried weight. And he possessed the power not only to win but also to hold friends.
He was born in Friedensville. Lehigh county, Pennsylvania, June 7, 1850. from whenee in his youth he removed to Philadelphia. He was a student at Freeland Seminary. now Ursinus College, Collegeville. Pennsylvania, and studied under the late Dr. Levis. celebrated in medical circles. Before he attained his twenty- second year he received the degree of M. D. from Jefferson Medical College, and was tendered the enviable position of assistant demon- strator of anatomy in the college. He felt. however, that a broader field of action awaited him. and visions of a lucrative practice in the west beckoned him on. A few months after his graduation he settled at Sycamore. Wyandotte county. Ohio, but before a year had passed he moved to New Riegel. Seneca county, where, in this village, the surrounding country and adjacent towns, he estab- lished a large and successful practice. And here. by the remorse- less hand of accident. he was cut down in the prime of manhood, before reaching the zenith of his fame. He died February 15. 1883. He was a member of the Seneca county. Northwestern Ohio and Ohio State Medical Societies. and the American Medical Association.
On October 15. 1870. he married Miss Mallie Wollaston, who bore him two children. a son and daughter. Marion W., and Lalla. the latter the wife of William H. Kildow, of Tiffin. Ohio. Mrs. Uberroth subsequently became the wife of Dr. Focht, and is still living.
Mrs. Mallie Wollaston Focht was born at Brandywine Hun- dred. Delaware. on the old Governor Bradford homestead, April 6, 1850, a daughter of Thomas P. and Mary ( Armstrong) Wollaston. At the age of three years she was taken by her parents to Maryland, where, in the eastern part of the state, on the eastern shore, the family home was established, and where she grew to womanhood and received her education. Her father, Thomas Pennock Wollas- ton, was born in Chester county. Pennsylvania. of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and traced his lineage back through an unbroken line to
afaturathe
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Christopher Pennock of Cornwall, England, and Mary Collet, daughter of George Collet of Clonmell, Ireland, who were united in marriage prior to the year 1675.
CLETUS B. RULE .- One of the youngest of Adams township's independent agriculturists is Cletus B. Rule, who owns and operates a farm of seventy-six acres in Adams township. Although still very young in years he has had a previous career of four years as a school teacher, and is the possessor of an exceptionally good edu- cation. He was born February 2, 1889, and is the son of Sydney and Ninnie (MeHenry) Rule, who like him were natives of Adams township. The father was born March 22, 1861, on the old family homestead, and is the son of Jefferson and Eliza (Patterson) Rule, natives of New York and Ohio, respectively. The birth of both of these good people occurred in the year 1820, that of the father being upon March 26. The grandparents of the subject located upon land they had secured in this township in the year 1844 and here they resided until their demise, that of the grandfather being in 1902, and that of the grandmother a good many years previously, in 1879.
Mr. Rule's mother, Ninnie McHenry, was born March 19, 1864, her parents being John and Annie MeHenry, natives of the state, who ultimately located in Adams township. The father enlisted at the time of the call for troops in 1861 and was killed in service, near the close of the conflict, Mrs. Rule being a small babe at the time. She lived with her widowed mother until her marriage in October, 1883. Mr. Rule is one of five children. The eldest, Wade H., born May 2, 1886, married Dorothy King, in June, 1906, and resides in Greenspring. He is a prosperous and highly respected young business man and he and his wife have one child, a daughter, Florence. The three younger children are, Floyd W., born May 8, 1895; John M., born March 18, 1898; and Helen, born November 18, 1905, and of course still reside beneath the home roof. Mr. Rule resided with his parents until his marriage. After taking advantage of the Adams township's public schools, which he finished in 1902, passing the Boxwell examination at the age of twelve years, he entered the Tiffin High School. Following that he attended school at Greenspring for a time and then returned to Tiffin, where he matriculated at Heidelberg College. After this he attended the Ohio Northern University at Ada, Ohio, where he completed a mental discipline of an unusually thorough character. He is a natural student and has made the most of his advantages. He began teaching at the age of eighteen years and taught for four years in the schools of Adams township. Although naturally fitted for an instructor, he did not adopt this as a life work, but. having no small knowledge of a scientific character of the great basic industry of agriculture, in July, 1910, he and his bride moved onto a farmn of seventy-six acres which he had previously purchased.
Mr. Rule laid the foundation of a household of his own by his marriage on June 16, 1910, to Miss Meda E. Parker, daughter of Elmer and Clara (Meyer) Parker, natives of Ohio, whose ancestors came originally from New York and Germany, respectively. Mrs.
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Rule was born March 1, 1889, and attended public school at Old Fort and Greenspring and Heidelberg College at Tiffin. She left that institution in her Sophomore year and took up school teach- ing at the age of seventeen years, having had a career of three and a half years in this vocation at the time of her marriage. She is talented in music and elocution, having prepared at the Conserva- tory of Heidelberg, and she also taught these branches. She is a member of the Evangelical church and her social affiliations ex- tend to the Hesperian Literary Society. Mrs. Rule's grandfather Parker came from England with his parents when he was only a few weeks old, they being the first settlers at Fort Seneca. The uncle was killed by Indians.
Mr. Rule is one of the stanch young adherents of the Demo- cratie party. He attends the Evangelical Sunday school and will shortly unite with the church.
CARL C. ANDERSON .- The present representative of the Thir- teenth district of Ohio in the United States Congress has been a resident of Fostoria since 1904, and the high prestige which he has gained in public life and in connection with productive industries stands as the diametrical result of his own labors and abilities as he initiated his independent career when a mere boy. Carl C. Anderson was born at Bluffton, Allen county, Ohio. on the 2nd of December, 1877. and his early educational training was secured in the public schools of Fremont, this state. His initial endeavors in connection with the practical activities of life were started when he became a newsboy and bootblack. His ambition was one of definite purpose and he was not long destined to remain in oh- security. He pushed himself rapidly forward toward the goal of success and for some time he was agent for the Lake Erie & Western Railroad of this state. After severing his associations with this corporation he was employed as a traveling commercial salesman and later was an interested principal in a company engaged in the manufacturing of underwear at Fostoria. In his home city of Fostoria. Mr. Anderson has gained a secure place in public confi- dence and esteem and this was significantly shown in 1905, when he was elected mayor of the city. as the second Democratie incum- bent of this office within the long period of thirty years. His able and progressive administration led to his re-election as his own successor in 1907. though the city gives a normal Republican majority of from five to seven hundred. No citizen has shown greater public spirit or a more lively interest in the promotion of all enterprises and measures that have tended to conserve the general welfare of the community. At the present time he is serving as president of the Fostoria Board of Trade and is a mem- ber of the Fostoria Trades Council. He is identified with a num- ber of fraternal and social organizations, including the United Commercial Travelers and the Commercial Travelers of America. He has been a most zealous worker in behalf of the cause of the Democratic party and has shown himself a resourceful and well fortified advocate of its principles. In 1908 he was elected to represent the Thirteenth district of Ohio in the United States
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congress and his abilities and sterling attributes of character ad- mirably qualify him for this distinctive office in the gift of the people of his native state, which he has honored by his services as a citizen and as an official.
Mr. Anderson married in 1904 Helen May, daughter of W. II. Ford, of Fremont, Ohio. They have two sons, Carl Ford Ander- son and Ford Richard Anderson, born June 9, 1908 and June 6, 1910, respectively.
MAJOR GEORGE W. CUNNINGHAM is consistently given con- sideration in this volume as one of the progressive, publie spirited and essentially representative citizens of Seneca county. Ile is one of the successful business men of the city of Fostoria, where he formerly served as mayor and he has long been a prominent figure in the Ohio National Guard, as a member of which he tendered his services to the nation at the time of the Spanish-Ameri- can war, in which he served with much distinction. Major Cun- ningham is a native son of the Buckeye state and is a member of one of its sterling pioneer families. He was born at Beaver Dam, Allen county, on the 30th of January, 1863, and is a son of Eli B. and Martha (Church) Cunningham, of Beaver Dam, where the father died and the mother died in Fostoria. The father during the major portion of his active career was a justice of the peace. Ile was also postmaster a number of years, and was conducting a drug store at the time of his death, and was a citizen who ever com- manded unqualified respect and esteem.
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In the public schools of his native town Major Cunningham secured his early educational discipline, which was supplemented by further study in the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware and the National Normal School at Ada, this state. He devoted four years to effective work as a teacher in the public schools and for a time was employed as a clerk in a mercantile establishment in Lima. In 1880 he came to Fostoria, where he was employed as a clerk in a drug store for a time, after which he individually engaged in the same line of enterprise, with which he was identified for a period of more than twenty years. during the greater portion of which he has had as an able coadjutor E. R. Pillars, with whom he is associated at the present time under the firm name of Cunning- ham & Pillars. The well equipped establishment has long con- trolled a large and representative patronage and the success of the enterprise indicates the correct methods brought to bear by the interested principles.
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Major Cunningham's identification with the National Guard of the state dates back to the time of his residence in Lima, where he was a member of Company C, Eleventh Regiment. In 1897 he be- came a member of Company D, Sixteenth Regiment of the Ohio National Guard, in Fostoria, and in this command he was made second lieutenant. At the inception of the Spanish-American war members of this company formally tendered their services to the government and on the 12th of May, 1898, they were mustered into the. United States service as the Sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. At Knoxville, Tennessee, Major Cunningham was promoted to
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first lieutenant and assigned to Company G of his regiment. On the 24th of the following May he was mustered out, with other members of his regiment, at Augusta, Georgia, after having been absent for thirteen months. The regiment was the first of the American soldiers to land at Cenfuegos and passed four months on the island of Cuba, after which it returned to the United States and it remained in the south until it was mustered out. After the close of the war Major Cunningham became prominently con- cerned in the re-organization of Company D of the Sixth Ohio National Guard, of which he was made captain. He retained this office nearly five years. His title of major is given him by reason of his service in this office as a member of the staff of the governor of his native state. He is also prominently identified with the Knights of Pythias, in which fraternity he formerly served on the staff of Brigadier General Minchull with the rank of colonel. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained to the Knight Templar de- gree, in which his affiliation is with Fort Commandery, No. 62, in which he has served as generalissimo. He also holds membership in the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
From the time of attaining his legal majority Mr. Cunning- ham has been arrayed for the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and he has given effective service in behalf of the party cause. He has served as a member of both the Seneca County Republican Committee and the City Committee of Fostoria and in the latter he held the position of chairman. From 1893 to 1897 he was a valued member of the city council and during the last year was its president. In April, 1901. there was accorded him distinctive mark of popular confidence and esteem when he was elected mayor of his home city. In this chief execu- tive office he served two terms and in this connection the following pertinent statements have been made: "His administration. busi- nesslike, practical and progressive, gave excellent satisfaction to the fair minded citizens and furnished additional proof of his loyalty to good government and the welfare of his adopted home. His public career has ever been honorable and straight forward and in his life history there are no esoteric chapters, all being an open book. His life is worthy of emulation, all is above condemnation, and thus it is that Major Cunningham deserves and receives the respect and confidence of his fellow men."
On the 15th of December, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Major Cunningham to Miss Mary Kenower, who was born and reared in Fostoria and who is a daughter of the late Jacob L. Kenower, an honored pioneer and representative business man of this city. Major and Mrs. Cunningham have two children : Harold. who was born on the 25th of July, 1892, and who is now a student in the Fostoria High School, and George K., who was born on the 20th of January, 1898, and who is attending the public school. Major and Mrs. Cunningham are valued and popular factors in connection with the best social activities of their home city and here they are zealous members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
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NEAL SPOONER STORER, M. D .- In no profession is there more constant progress than in that of medicine and surgery, thousands of the finest minds the world has produced making it their one aim and ambition to discover some more effectual method for the alleviation of suffering, some more potent weapon for the con- flict with disease, some clever device for repairing the damaged human mechanism. Ever and anon the world hears with mingled wonder and thanksgiving of a new conquest of disease and disaster which a few years ago would have been placed within the field of the impossible. To keep in touch with these discoveries means constant alertness and while there may be in many quarters great indolence in keeping in touch with modern thought, the best type of physician believes it no less than a crime not to be master of the latest devices of science. Although the professional career of Dr. Neal Spooner Storer has as yet been brief. he has had time to prove that he is of this type, alert, progressive and conscientious.
Dr. Storer was born May 30, 1883, in Republic, and on both the paternal and maternal sides he comes of a family of physicians. He is the son of Benjamin S. and Sophia B. (Spooner) Storer. His father was a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred at Clyde in the year 1850, and the date of the mother's birth was February 26, 1862. Benjamin S. Storer resided with his parents until his marriage and establishment of a home of his own. Ile was edu- cated in the old Republic Academy and at Jefferson Medical Col- lege of Philadelphia, where he took his degree in 1878. He took up his practice here and a very promising career was cut short in 1885 by his death from typhoid fever. He was associated in prac- tice with his father-in-law, H. K. Spooner, one of Seneca county's most prominent citizens. Dr. Benjamin Storer was married April 27, 1882, and the following is a glance at the wife's family.
Mrs. Storer's father. Henry Kuhn Spooner, was born on "Honey Creek," Seneca county, March 21, 1837. He was edu- cated in the town and county schools and took academic work in the old academy at Republic, subsequently teaching for a few years in the Honey Creek schools. He began his preparation for his life work by reading medicine with Dr. William MeHenry in Republic and in the year 1858 was graduated from the Western Reserve Medical College in Cleveland with honors. In 1860 he inaugurated a congenial life companionship by his marriage with Miss Harriet Sprague and became the father of three children : Sophia Berten ; Katherine, now Mrs. JJames F. Barker of Cleveland; and William Rabley Spooner, of Republic.
Dr. Spooner had a Civil war record which for gallantry and adventure was equaled by few in Seneca county. At the begin- ning of the great conflict between the states he enlisted near Nor- walk, Ohio, in the Fifty-fifth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Having already been in practice at Republic he served as assis- tant surgeon in the Fifty-fifth until that regiment was so thinned in rank that it and others in similar condition were made into the Sixty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and of that Dr. Spooner was made surgeon in chief. He served to the end of the war, having to his credit the West Virginia campaign, the battle of Bull Run.
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Gettysburg, Manassas Junction, Knoxville campaign, Lookout Val- ley, and many other minor engagements, and finally accompanying Sherman on the famous march to the sea. Thus he participated in many of the crucial battles of the war and was ever at the scene of the most active operations. After the declaration of peace and the mustering out of the troops Dr. Spooner resumed his practice in Republic and it was his good fortune to be able to give distinguished service to the country in times of peace as well as in times of war. He was actively engaged in practice until the time of his death, which occurred December 19, 1907, and during that time he served as a member of the pension board and as repre- sentative from his district to the state legislature. He was always a public spirited man, ready to support every measure of general benefit and he was a speaker of no small ability.
Dr. N. S. Storer, the immediate subject of this review, received his preliminary education in Republic and resided with his mother until such time as he went away to receive his medical preparation. He took four years' preparatory work in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and four years' collegiate work at the Northwestern University of Chicago, from which institution he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He followed this with a year and a half as interne in the Cook County Hospital of Chicago, and following that valuable experience returned to Republic, where he hung out his shingle, about March 1, 1908. He has won the confidence of the people and has a good sized practice.
On January 7, 1908, Dr. Storer became a recruit to the ranks of the Benedicts by his marriage with Bertha M. Westberg, of Frankfort, Michigan, a trained nurse whose acquaintance he had made in the Cook County Hospital. She was born September 9, 1883, her parents being John and Marie (Ahlberg) Westberg, natives of Sweden. Mrs. Storer was educated in the schools of Frankfort, Michigan, and in Benzonia Academy, Benzonia, Michi- gan, and was graduated as a trained nurse from the Illinois Train- ing School for Nurses, located in Chicago.
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