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 15
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Albertus B. Smith received his educational discipline in the public schools and became well grounded in the various depart- ments of agriculture under the able tutelage of his father. After his marriage he assumed a more independent footing and removed to the old Abbott estate, where he has ever since engaged in farm- ing. He is a publie spirited citizen and keeps well informed on the
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questions of the day, while in the matter of politics votes the Democratie ticket. He and his wife are consistent members of the Reformed church and Mrs. Smith belongs to the Ladies' Aid Society and is one of the teachers in the Sunday school.
Mr. Smith's marriage occurred April 6. 1904. the young woman to become his bride being Miss Gavetta Abbott. a daughter of Byron and Sarah (Fry) Abbott, born September 17. 1850. Byron Abbott is also a native son of the county. his birth place having been Fort Seneca, and the date of his nativity December 16, 1844. His wife was born November 26. 1851. the daughter of John and Margaret (Ross) Fry, natives of Germany and this respectively. John Fry was one of a family of four children, the other members being Philip. George and Mary Nemier. The broth. ers when young men decided to leave their native country and to come to the "land of promise" across the seas, of which they had heard so many dazzling reports. They made the voyage in a sad boat and were six weeks on board. They landed in New York and later came on to Ohio. After taking upon himself the duties of a husband. John Fry located on a farm near Fort Seneca and becante one of the progressive and successful farmers. This is especially worthy of remark when it is considered that when he came to Ohio he had only fifty cents in his pocket and that he worked out his own salvation from that humble beginning. He was born April 12. 1513. and died June 29. 1879 ; his wife was born September 15. 1826 and died February 18, 1861.
Byron Abbott was a man of good education and was a man of remarkable conversational gifts. He was reared upon the farm and resided upon his father's farm at Fort Seneca until his mar- riage on November 18. 1875. His father knew many of the thrill- ing experiences of the pioneer. among other things assisting in the capture of the Indian Peter Pork. who was a leader of the Senera Indians. Byron Abbott and his wife were the parents of fio children : John Fry, born January 19. 1879. and dying in infancy : Gavetta, wife of the subject of this biography. The latter was afforded good educational advantages. graduating with the class of 1896 at Fort Seneca and afterward gave seven years of efficient service as a teacher in the township schools. beginning upon this career when only seventeen years of age.
Byron Abbott, who was one of Seneca county's estimable citi- zens was independent in politics, voting for whom he believed the best man to fill an office, irrespective of party considerations. He gave a long service as member of the school board and for twelve years was president of this body. He was very young at the be- ginning of the Civil war, but as soon as he became eighteen he joined the minute men or "Squirrel Hunters" as they were called. He died August 24. 1907. his loss being generally mourned. His widow resides on the old homestead with her daughter and son-in- law. the subject of the sketch. The family of Mrs. Abbott's mother. the Rosses. came from New York and located in Seneca. they also being of agricultural stock, and among those progressive people who have made the county what it is. The family are now all deceased with the exception of Samuel. who resides in Pekin.
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Illinois. He and his brother William served throughout the whole Civil war period. Mrs. Smith's grandfather. Lorenzo Abbott. was born January 18. 1802. and died September 19. 1876. His wife. whose maiden name was Jeannette Sherwood. was born November 24. 1809, and died March 15, 1877. She was of distinguished ancestry, being a descendant of Ethan Allen.
JOHN H. HODGE .- Among the substantial and honored citizens and agriculturists of Reed township. Seneca county. is John H. Hodge, who was born across the line in the sister county of Han- cock, February 16. 1842. Having always enjoyed the respect and confidence of his associates Mr. Hodge has held public office and has been city clerk and trustee and he is one of the prominent Civil war veterans of this section. Glancing at his ancestry it is found that Mr. Hodge's father. William Hodge, was born in Pennsyl- vania, and his grandfather. the original Hodge emigrant to America, came from the Emerald Isle. William Hodge was a life long farmer and one of the worthy men of his locality. Ile mar- ried Nancy J. McGill, who like her husband was born in the Key- stone state, and the ensuing is an enumeration of the children born to their union : Mary, married Samuel Arnold and both she and her husband are deceased : Sarah. became the wife of Samuel Eberson ; Isabelle is deceased; Rachael. married Thomas MeElroy and both are deceased ; Angeline. married George Ream and resides in Lima, Ohio; James A. was killed by a falling tree; Lydia Marguerite, married Oscar Shetterly and makes her home at Geneva. Ohio: Eliza J., married John Sherman and has passed to the great be- vond ; Alexander lives in Fulton. Ohio. The subject is the fourth in order of birth.
William Hodge and his family moved from the Keystone state to Hancock county. Ohio, in the early '30s and continued his agri- cultural activities, while at the same time teaching school for twenty years. He served as justice of the peace for a number of years and was one of the most valued members of the Christian church. John H. Hodge passed the usual early life of the farmer's son. at- tending the district school in the winter season and assisting in the manifold duties of the farm in the summer. At the age of sixteen he considered his education completed and being well versed in agricultural pursuits he decided to begin an independent career and hired as a farm hand for three years. Then the long lowering Civil war cloud broke in all its fury and Mr. Hodge with most of the other young men of his acquaintance forgot all selfish interests and offered himself to the defense of the Union. He enlisted in Company A. Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry. and served until March, 1863. being mustered out at that time. owing to ill health. He served under General Rosecrans and participated in the battles of Ivy Mountain. Le Verne and Stone River. After his discharge he returned to the farm and exchanged the musket for the agricultural implement.
On January 1, 1867, Mr. Hodge became a recruit to the ranks of the Benedicts by his marriage with Lodemy Thompkins. daugh- . ter of William Thompkins and a native of Ohio. To their union
Edith yrings.
Just Hodge Mettre Hodge Cal ly
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were born the following children: Aurora, who married William Miller and resides near Chicago Junction, Ohio; Bertha, now the wife of John Bond and residing in Wood county; Clement, of Huron county ; Lida, wife of Harry Wilds, of Toledo, Ohio; Grace, wife of John Fackler, making her home near Chicago Junction, Ohio. The first Mrs. Hodge was summoned to her eternal rest, and in 1896 Mr. Hodge chose for his second wife Mrs. Nettie Young. Mrs. Hodge, whose maiden name was Miss Nettie Riley, is a native of Morgan county and her parents, now deceased, were George and Elizabeth Riley. She is a descendant of one of the oldest and inost honorable pioneer families in Ohio. its founders having come to the Buckeye state from Virginia. She was one of three dangh- ters, Mary being deceased and Ella, who married Jerry Gheen, re- siding in Columbus. By her previous marriage she is the mother of two children. The son, Earl Young, who graduated from the Chicago Junction High School in 1908, resides with his step-father and teaches the district school in District 5, and the daughter, Edith J. Young, also resides with him. Miss Young attended the Tiffin High School and is proficient in music. The Hodge household is the center of refinement, good will and happiness and the most ideal of relations exist between step-father and step-children, the latter having always been devoted to the former. Mrs. Nettie Hodge graduated from the Shawnee public schools of Perry county, Ohio, in the year 1886, in a class of fifteen young ladies and two boys. She read an essay entitled, "Public Schools." She graduated with the honors of the class, and as a reward received free tuition of thir- ty-six months at Adrain, Ohio. Mr. Hodge is an enthusiastic lodge man. Ile belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has occupied all the chairs and to which he has belonged since 1868 and he is also affiliated with the Rebekahs. He served as secretary
of the latter for eighteen years. Both he and his wife are generous and faithful members of the Baptist church. Mrs. Hodge is one of the useful and worthy ladies of Reed township and has member- ship in the Rebekahs and Women's Relief Corp of Attica. Mr. Hodge has resided for thirty-three years on the present homestead. which is located four and one-half miles northeast of Republic. He is vice president of the Lodi Creamery Company, a creamery located in an inland town and which transacts a business of sixteen thousand dollars a year.
HENRY VALE METZGER, a son of Daniel and Sarah (Whiteman) Metzger, was born in Adams township August 22, 1847. His father was born in Pickaway county, Ohio, August 18, 1818, his mother, in Ohio in 1819. She was a daughter of Daniel and Susan (Coleman) Whiteman and came to Ohio with her parents in 1832, locating on a farm in this county owned by Burton Metzger at this time. The land was entered by Daniel Whiteman, and the subject of this notice now holds the original parchment bearing the signature of President Andrew Jackson. Daniel Metzger and Sarah Whiteman were married about 1838 and began farming on grandfather Whiteman's historie purchase. That pioneer was born in Pennsylvania in 1797. His wife was born there in 1794.
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They were married in the Keystone state and soon came to Ohio, locating first in Fairfield county, whence they removed to Piek- away county, a mile south of Circleville. Thence they moved to a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Adams township. They made the trip on horseback, blazing the way in order that others might the more easily come after them. Mr. Metzger's great- grandfather also was a pioneer in Seneca county, entering land just north of Whiteman's, in Adams township, so early that there were then only fourteen voters within the present borders of the township. These worthy pioneers were active in advancing civili- zation in this then new country, especially in the establishment and maintenance of schools and churches.
Mr. Metzger lived with his parents until his marriage. Eliza- beth Petticord became his wife on November 8, 1867. and they located on a farm on the Clyde road inherited by her. It was a comparatively new place of eighty acres. They built a house on the land, cleared it and eventually made of it a good farmn. Mrs. Metzger was a daughter of Daniel and Sarah (Rule) Petticord. natives of Maryland, who came to Seneca county with her grand- parents, John and Mary A. (Guisbert) Petticord, early in the nine- teenth century. It is of record that John Petticord entered about six hundred acres of land in the county. The traditions of the vicinity are to the effect that the Petticords were among the very foremost citizens, active in all that tended to the public weal. Mr. and Mrs. Metzger lived at their first location seven years. They moved thence to a favorable location on Honey creek, thence to Fulton county. After four years residence there they returned to Seneca county and bought their old homestead on which they have since lived, farming industriously and successfully. They have had born to them six children : Homer. is a lawyer at Clyde ; Burton, lives in Adams township ; Charles is dead : Eva lives in Henry coun- ty ; Jacob is a citizen of Adams township ; Leroy lives at Fremont. Ohio. Mr. Metzger is a member of the Union Christian church. He has been a life long friend and advocate of improvement in the public educational system. As a member of the school board for a dozen years, he devoted himself heart and soul to the introduction of the graded system. working. planning, arguing with opponents, smoothing away difficulties, overcoming obstacles, until at length he succeeded in having the system adopted in Adams township, the first township in the county to take that important step and which marks that township in 1893 as a pioneer in a work that is now valued everywhere in all the country round about. Mr. Metzger has given his children excellent educational advantages. sending them to Heidelberg College. Their son. Homer took a four years' course, making up two years in teaching. He was the valedictorian of his class and his valedictory address. in its substance and in its delivery, demonstrated his breadth of view and his dramatic in- tensity as a public speaker. Mr. Metzger himself was a student at the old academy at Republic, under the preceptorship of Prof. Aaron Schuyler, later and until recently the incumbent of the chair of mathematics at Oberlin. Later he pursued his studies at Heidelberg.
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Mr. Metzger is a Democrat in all that honored descriptive implies. It was not as a Democrat, however, but as a citizen whose love of public enlightenment was well known and widely respected that he was repeatedly elected to offices in which he had to do with the public schools of his township and county. For their advanee- ment he has spent much time and money that the legitimate de- mands of these offices did not call for. His children have some of them been efficient teachers in public schools. His career is of sufficient length to cover the cruder experiences of former years as well as the pleasanter ones of these days of public conveniences. He recalls with much interest the fact that when he began his mar- ried life in the township he split basswood logs to make slabs out of which to build his house, the same that was his home for several years, until he was enabled to replace it with a better one.
HERMAN SCHEIBER .- Measuring his own ability and hewing his way straight to the line thus marked out, Herman Scheiber has gained a position of worth among the substantial and respected citizens of Tiffin, as secretary, treasurer and general manager of the Tiffin Manufacturing Company being identified with one of the leading enterprises of this part of Seneca county. A son of John Scheiber, he was born in Warren township, Huntington county, Indiana, March 22, 1852. While a resident of Stark county, Ohio, John Scheiber married Rufina Weiler, and very soon after taking that important step in life he migrated to Indiana, settling, in 1851, in Warren township, Huntington county, where they lived for a number of years, from there moving to Huntington township in the same county.
Living in Warren township, Indiana, until fourteen years of age, Herman Scheiber obtained the rudiments of his education in the old log school house typical of pioneer days. After removing with the family to Huntington township, he assisted his father on the home farm until attaining his majority, when he learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed several years, his natural mechanical skill commanding good wages. Coming to Tiffin, Ohio, January 1, 1887, Mr. Scheiber purchased an interest in the Tiffin Manufacturing Company, a stock company which had been estab- lished in this city in 1875 for the especial purpose of manufacturing all kinds of church furniture. Since becoming a stockholder in the concern he has ably filled the position of secretary, treasurer and general manager, Mr. J. W. Hoffman being president. Under his efficient management the business has been largely increased, the products of the factory being shipped to every part of the union.
Mr. Scheiber married. in 1889. Pauline Wagner, of Tiffin, and into their home four children have made their advent, namely : Richard and Paul, graduates of the Dayton School, are associated with their father in the management of the factory; and Herman Jr. and Mary E. are still in school.
Mr. Scheiber and his family are trust worthy and valued mem- bers of St. Joseph's Catholic church. Politically Mr. Scheiber is a firm supporter of the principles promulgated by the Democratic party. Feeling entitled after his many years of successful labor
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to a brief vacation, he sailed, April 23, 1910, for Europe, while abroad visiting many of the more important cities and towns.
LEDRU R. PARKER .- This well known citizen and influential business man of Fostoria is not only a representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of Ohio, with whose annals the name has been identified for nearly a century, but he is also a scion of a family that was founded in America in the early Colonial epoch. The lineage on the paternal side is traced back to Edward Parker, who came from England and settled in Plymouth colony, in 1643. It is a matter of record that this worthy ancestor was fined six shillings and three pence for not having in his possession a flintlock and proper ammunition. Members of the family were found en- rolled as soldiers in the Continental line in the war of the Revolution.
Ledru R. Parker was born in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania. on the 14th of January, 1850, and is a son of Moses A. and Cathe- rine (Christy) Parker, the former of whom was born in the state of Connecticut and the latter in Kinsman, Ohio. Moses Parker came with his parents from Connecticut to Ohio in 1816 and the long and weary journey was made principally with ox teams. The family located in Kinsman township, Trumbull county, and there Moses Parker continued to maintain his home and to be identified with agricultural pursuits until 1846, when he removed with his family to Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, where he remained for a period of eight years, at the expiration of which he returned to Trumbull county, Ohio, whence he removed a number of years later to Henry county, this state, where he died in 1890. his cherished and devoted wife having passed away in 1880. They became the parents of twelve children. Ledru, the subject of this review, being the eleventh in order of birth. Mary. is the wife of Marvin Trott. of Kearney, Nebraska; Orestes H., resides at Cochranton, Crawford county, Pennsylvania : Caroline, is the wife of Samuel Moffitt, of Warren, Ohio. The other eight are deceased. Andrew. C., who was a resident of Kinsman township, Trumbull county, Ohio, died July 5. 1910. He was a soldier in the Union army at the time of the Civil war. He was a member of the Forty-first Ohio Regiment (Company A). his service for the cause being of nearly five years' duration, in which time he participated in all the engagements with which his regiment was identified. .He was twice married. first to Mary A. Rogers in 1861, and second to her sister, Miss Charlotte Rogers, who survives him and resides in Kinsman, Ohio. Another brother. James A. Parker. was killed in battle on June 14, 1862. He was a member of the One Hun- dreth Pennsylvania Regiment, known as the Roundhead Regiment. A third brother. Albert L. Parker, was a member of Company A. of the Forty-first Ohio and died in a hospital at Victoria, Texas. September 16, 1865.
Ledru R. Parker was reared to the sturdy discipline of the home farm and is indebted to the district schools for his early educational training. At the age of eighteen years he found em- ployment in connection with the lumbering industry in Trumbull
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county, Ohio, where lie secured a job cutting saw logs and where he applied himself with such energy as to secure sufficient funds to enable him to purchase a half interest in a saw mill at Kinsman, Trumbull county, this state. He continued to be successfully identified with the operation of this mill until 1873, but in the financial panic which began in that year he not only lost every dollar he had made from his earnest efforts, but also found himself in debt to the amount of thirty-five hundred dollars. He did not lose courage under these deplorable circumstances and soon se- cured employment as inspector for a lumber company, whose head- quarters were at Conneaut, Ohio. A year later he secured an interest in the business and he was concerned with the lumbering operations of the company in Henry county, this state, where they erected a saw mill and conducted a large and prosperous business. While a resident of that county Mr. Parker affected the incorpora- tion of Hamler and he had the distinction of serving as president of its first board of trustees. There he also served for several years in the office of the justice of the peace and as mayor. In the autumn of 1891 Mr. Parker took up his residence in the city of Fostoria, and at the time of his removal to this place he was the owner of several farms and had somewhat extensive interests in oil wells in this section of the state. He has continued to be prominently identified with lumbering interests and has built up a large export trade, making many shipments of lumber to Aus- tralia. He is one of the progressive and substantial business men and honored citizens of Fostoria. is trustee of the Fostoria Board of Trade and has served as a member and as president of the city council. In politics he is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Republican party. IIe and his wife are zealous members of the Presbyterian church and he is a member of the board of trustees of the church of this denomination in Fostoria. He is identified with Fostoria Lodge, No. 305. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which he is past noble grand. besides which he has served as district deputy of the Grand Lodge of the state.
On the 14th of April. 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Parker to Miss Jane L. MeGranahan, of Greenville, Pennsylvania, in which state she was born and reared. being of Irish lineage. She is a daughter of Colonel L. N. MeGranahan. He was a marr of influence and honor, strong in political affairs. a member of the Pennsylvania state legislature, colonel of state militia and justice of the peace up to the time of his demise in January, 1874. He was born in Greenville. Pennsylvania, and there lived his life. Mr. and Mrs. Parker have one child, Luella, who was born on the 14th of October, 1875. She was graduated in the Fostoria High School and is now the wife of David Houser, residing on a finely improved farm owned by Mr. Parker in Kinsman township, Trumbull county, - this state.
ERNEST J. MILLER was born in Adams township, March 15, 1892, one of the five sons of Daniel L. and Mary C. (Butz) Miller. all of whom are living in the township. The names of the others are Orrin A .. Alton R., Roscoe D. and Wade C. Miller. The parents were also natives of Adams township, the father born May
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1, 1858, the mother February 2, 1862. Ernest J. was a member of his parents' household until his marriage. He married Miss Lillie M. Norris February 23, 1907. and she has borne him two children, Delsie M., born May 18, 1908, and Florine E., March 2, 1910. Mrs. Miller is a daughter of Ephraim and Sarah Norris, natives of Adams township. Her mother was born in the state of New York January 9, 1835, a daughter of Anthony and Catharine (Ritter) Long, her father a Pennsylvanian, her mother a New Yorker by birth. . Mr. and Mrs. Long came to Ohio in 1835, journeying a part of the way by boat on Lake Erie, and located in Crawford county. Thence they came later to Republic, Seneca county, where Mr. Long, a carpenter, worked at his trade. After nine years residence there they lived for a time on their farm, but eventually moved to Illinois, where Mr. Long died about twenty years later. Their daughter became a member of the family of her uncle, Nathaniel Norris, when she was about ten years old, and so remained till December 21. 1865, when, aged about thirty-one, she became the wife of Ephraim Norris. Her husband was the son of Lot and Laurana (Todd) Norris. Marylanders, who made a journey to Ohio in the memorable year of the election of General Jackson to the presidency of the United States. Their birthplace was the his-
toric old town of Frederick. Ephraim Norris was born on his parents' old homestead December 16. 1833. He was educated in district schools, and when he was twenty-one years old went to Michigan. After one year there he removed to Illinois, whence, after five years, he returned to Ohio, where he was soon afterward married. After his marriage he located on a farm of one hundred and eighty acres, a portion of his estate of two hundred and forty acres in Adams township, and gave his attention to farming and stock raising with a success that was very satisfactory. In politics he was Republican. He and his wife were members of the United Brethren church. Of their five children three survive. Eleanora, is the wife of Edward Grover, a farmer in Adams township ; Olive. is a member of her parents' household; Lilli M .. is Mrs. Ernest J. Miller. With her husband she lives on a farm owned by her mother. Ephraim Norris died April 25. 1907. at Greenspring. where his widow, with her daughter Olive, lives. Mrs. Norris being now about seventy-five years old. He was a man of prominence in the community. respected by a wide circle of acquaintances.
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