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 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50
Except for two years Mr. Seitz has lived his life thus far in his native county. He and his wife and children are members of the Primitive Baptist church. He has been elected to the office of supervisor of his township and has performed its respon- sible duties with honor and distinction. He is a man of well developed public spirit who may be depended upon to do all in his power to advance any movement which in his good judgment promises benefit to any considerable number of fellow citizens.
Mrs. Aaron Seitz was born in Bloom township in 1842. Jacob Shock, her father, came to Seneca county among early settlers in 1832, and began his life there in a log cabin which is standing in good preservation on the farm of Mr. Seitz. ITe was a man of worth who exerted a good influence upon the community.
The Rev. Louis Seitz. father of Aaron Seitz, was born in Fair- field county, Ohio. He was pastor of the Honey Creek Primitive Baptist church for fifty-seven years. As a preacher he was power- ful. a fearless exponent of the principles of his religious denomi- Vol. II-13
724
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
nation. Intellectually he was rarely gifted. In thought he was
deep and comprehensive. logical and searching. His flow of language was something remarkable, and he was so persuasive that he brought about many conversions. Besides preaching regularly to his own congregation he traveled beyond his own domain and ministered at times to other churches of his creed. Nor did the work of the preacher exhaust his activities. He was the owner of a large farm .. the operation of which he superintended success- fully. In the building up and maintenance of the Honey Creek Primitive Baptist church he was the chief factor and dependence. He was twice married, first to Barbara Kaga. a native born Virgin- ian who came as a girl with her parents to Fairfield county. Ohio. where she met her future husband. She bore him children as follows: Catharine. Lydia. Elizabeth. John. Barbara. Hannah. Abraham, Louis. Aaron. Levina. Daniel and another who died in infancy. She died in 1848. and in 1851 Mr. Seitz married Mrs. Hershberger, a widow, who had the following named children by her former husband: Samuel G., Jonas M., John. Mattie and George. Mr. Seitz, who was born in 1802, died in 1890. in his eighty-eighth year.
ALBERT THORNTON .- The able and popular superintendent of the Fostoria union stockyards is one of the prominent and in- fluential business men and liberal and public spirited citizens of Seneca county, where his standing is such as to particularly entitle him to representation in this publication. Mr. Thornton claims the "right little. tight little isle" of England as the place of his nativity. He was born at Gunthorpe. England. on the 4th of October, 1866. and is a son of Thomas and Annie Flockton Thorn- ton, the former of whom still resides in England and the latter of whom is deceased. Albert Thornton was educated in the ex- cellent schools of his native land. where he remained until 1881. when at the age of fourteen years he severed his home ties and set forth to seek his fortunes in America. He passed about one year on a farm in St. Joseph county. Michigan. and then removed to Man- celona. Antrim county. that state, where he was identified with a manufacturing enterprise for four years. at the expiration of which, in 1888. he came to Fostoria. Ohio. and secured a position in the freight and baggage department of the Hocking Valley Railroad Company. There his fidelity and effective service won him promotion through the various official positions until he be- came the local ticket and freight agent for the company. He con-
tinued as one of the valned employes of this corporation until 1897, when he accepted his present position as superintendent of the Fostoria union stockyards. He has done much to forward the success of the important enterprise with which he is thus identi- fied, and his personal popularity is of the most unequivocal type. He is a stanch Republican in his political proclivities and he served five years as a member of the board of education of Fostoria. Both he and his wife are zealous members of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Fostoria and he is one of its trustees. He is affiliated with Fostoria Lodge, No. 288, Free and Accepted Masons :
725
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
Garfield Chapter, No. 150. Royal Arch Masons: and Fostoria Com- mandery. No. 62. Knights Templars. At the present time he is president of the city civil service commission. He is a man of able and progressive ideas and has shown a deep interest in all that has touched the welfare of his home city. where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances.
On the 19th of March, 1887. Mr. Thornton was united in mar- riage to Miss Clara E. Vogelsong, who was born and reared in Fostoria, and they became the parents of two children, Arthur R. and Ethel M., both of whom remain at the parental home. Mrs. Thornton was summoned to the life eternal on the 24th of May. 1900. and on the 11th of June. 1902. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Thornton to Miss Ollie Green, of Fostoria. They have one child, Ellen A. Arthur R. Thornton is now in the employ of the Hocking Valley Railroad Company and Ethel M. was graduated in the Fostoria High School as a member of the class of 1910.
EDWARD L. YALE, who is the present superintendent of the Seneca county infirmary. was born in Pennsylvania. October 8. 1859. a son of T. H. and Mary (Peters) Yale. His father was a general business man of ability. Neither of his parents came to Ohio, both of them dying in their native state. The younger Yale was educated in public schools in the Keystone state, where he re- mained until he was about eighteen years of age. He came to Seneca county in 1881 and was for about a year employed on the farm of J. W. Payne in Thompson township. Later he found employment as a clerk in a store. In 1883 he opened a butcher's shop in Lodi., Ohio, and there he remained for twelve years. keeping a butcher's shop, running a hotel and farming. In 1903 he was appointed superintendent of the Seneca county infirmary. filling the position with much credit for one year. From the time that he gave up that responsibility to March 18. 1907. he was superintendent of the Central Delivery at Tiffin. At the date last mentioned. under a new appointment, he again became superin- tendent of the Seneca county infirmary, which position he has held with great success up to this time.
The infirmary farm covers two hundred and fifty-three aeres and in 1910 produced 5.500 bushels of corn. 1.281 bushels of oats and 1.050 bushels of wheat. Sufficient truck and vegetables were raised to supply the institution. At the present writing the in- stitution affords a home for seventy-three people. but the number of inmates always increases as winter comes on. There are all
comforts, such as steam heat and the like. Since Mr. Yale as- sumed the superintendeney of the institution there has been a material change in its management and all of a beneficial character. His brother, William H. Young and his wife, are assistant superin- tendent and matron. while the position of foreman of the farm and the rest are taken by the inmates. In politics Mr. Yale is a Democrat. £ He has been active in politics and was for four years assessor of taxes for Reed township. IIe is one of Seneca county's real estate owners.
Mr. Yale married April 30. 1882. Miss Ida V. Yundt, a native
726
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
of Pennsylvania, who was brought when but four years of age to Seneca county by her parents. To their union has been born a son and a daughter. Lillian H. is a graduate of the high school at Tiffin and is a teacher in the public schools at Kansas, Ohio. Noble B., ten years of age, is in school. Brief as is this story of the busy and useful career of Mr. Yale, there may be read between the lines a deeper, more absorbing story of the struggles and suc- cesses of a self made man. There is another lesson to be drawn from his life. He has prospered because he has deserved pros- perity. He has given generously of himself and his means for the general good and something has been given back to him. Mr. and Mrs. Yale are members of the Evangelical church.
Mrs. Yale's father, William Henry Harrison Yundt, was born in Pennsylvania, attended the common schools of that state, and followed farming, his father, however, being the keeper of a hotel. This was in Lancaster county. Pennsylvania. Mr. Yundt married Elizabeth High, who was a native of the same county. The children born to them are as follows: Ida Virginia, wife of Mr. Yale; Emma L .. deceased; Horace Allen, who married Virgie Ott and resides in Thompson township, Seneca county; Mirah June, who married Jessie Hetrick and resides in Armstrong county. Penn- sylvania ; Barton Damrel. who married Clara Heminger and resides in Scipio township; Eliza N .. deceased. After coming to Ohio Mrs. Yale's father engaged in agriculture.
REV. FRANCIS L. HULTGEN .- St. Joseph's church of Tiffin is indeed fortunate in having for its pastor a clergyman of the high attainments of the Rev. Francis L. Hultgen, his labors here in the past seven years having been of the most enlightened and devoted character and productive of remarkable growth in the church. Rev. Father Hultgen was born in Lorraine, France. April 3, 1864, his father, John Hultgen, who died in 1886. being a member of the body guard of Napoleon III. Father Hultgen studied the classics in the gymnasium at Metz and philosophy at Luxemburg. He
came to America in 1885 and entered St. Mary's Theological Seminary in the city of Cleveland Ohio. He was ordained by Bishop Gilmour on December 19, 1889, and was appointed pastor of St. Mary's church at Kirby, Wyandot county. Soon after tak- ing charge of the parish at Kirby he laid plans for a new church edifice. The corner stone was laid on June 22. 1890. and the dedication took place on November 17, 1891. The successful carry. ing out of this undertaking within two years of the time Father Hultgen took charge of the parish was evidence of the zeal and ability of the young priest as a leader and organizer. In all that he undertook at Kirby for the upbuilding of every interest of relig- ion he had the hearty support of his parishioners and the generous co-operation of the non-Catholic people of the community. Father Hultgen's labors at Kirby covered a period of thirteen years and three months. On March 17, 1903, he was appointed pastor of St. Joseph's church, Tiffin.
Father Hultgen is a profound scholar and a man of many accomplishments. He speaks and writes French and German as
727
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
fluently as he does English, and he also knows Italian, possessing that linguistic ability that is so seldom the heritage of the Ameri- can. He has a thorough knowledge of music and his musical gift and ability is constantly employed in the services and cere- monies of the church.
ANDREW FRANKENFIELD .- Seneca county is noted for its well cultivated farms, its comfortable rural homes and its commodious and sightly farm buildings. Comfort and prosperity, indepen- dence and wealth are everywhere in evidence, and nowhere more conspicuously than on the premises of Andrew Frankenfield, of Bloom township. He owns not only this beautiful homestead but other lands, all in Bloom township, aggregating four hundred and thirty-one aeres. His line of crops is mixed, but of superior yield
and quality. Like many another self made man Mr. Frankenfield began at the very bottom of the ladder, to use a familiar and ex- pressive phrase, and by industry and economy made his way per- manently to the top. He was born in Northampton county, Penn- sylvania, May 18, 1838, was reared on a farm and educated in the common school, that bulwark of American civilization. Before leaving school he had definitely determined to be a farmer. His
parents moved to Crawford county, Ohio, in 1848. They came to Seneca county soon afterward, however, and there, in 1864, Andrew Frankenfield married Miss Mary M. Shock. For two years after that happy event he worked by the month for his uncle at low wages. Later he worked a farm ou shares; still later he rented another ; and in 1864 he moved to his father's farm, where he lived fifteen years. In 1889 he bought his original farm of one hun- dred and thirty acres, to which he has added by other purchases. To say that he is a progressive farmer would not be doing him full justice. He is a thoroughly modern farmer, up-to-date in every sense of the word-the kind of farmer that ents free from old things that retard his progress and goes forward to the success of today by the best and most direct ways.
The writer is enabled to make some brief mention of Mr. Frankenfield's children. £ William married Miss Ella Shock and has two children, Floyd and Ruth Frankenfield. James has not married, John married Emma Bishop and has two children, Karl and Norma Frankenfield. Jacob married Blanche Wax. Ellen is the widow of Charles Heinsicker and has a son. Charles Hein- sicker Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Frankenfield and their children are mem- bers of the Reformed church. He and his brother William are the only members of his father's family living in Seneca county. He is a son of Andrew and Rebecca Frankenfield, natives of Northamp- ton county, Pennsylvania, who came to Seneca county in 1848, after a brief stop in Crawford county. Here they bought and improved a farm of eighty acres, on which they lived out their allotted days and died honored by all who had known them. Their children were named Andrew, William, Thomas, Asher. Polly, Rebecca and Elizabeth. Polly is dead.
1
728
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
CLARENCE E. FRANKLIN .- Numbered among the representative business men and highly esteemed citizens of Fostoria is Mr. Frank- lin, who is here superintendent and manager of the Western Rail- way Signal Company, one of the important industrial concerns of Seneca county and who has served as a member of the city council of Fostoria. He was born in Richmond township, Huron county, Ohio, on the 11th of April. 1849, and is a son of Edmond and Henri- etta (Thomas) Franklin, the latter of whom is now deceased and the former of whom is still living at the age of eighty-four years. Mr. Franklin gave valliant service as a member of an Ohio regiment in the Civil war and is an honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He now resides at Chicago Junction. Ohio.
C. E. Franklin was reared on the home farm in Huron county, and was afforded the advantages of the common schools of the locality. In his native county. in the year, 1885, he was united in marriage to Miss Lou Richards, and they are the parents of five children : Claude. Mande A., Robert. Glenn and Wilber, all of whom remain at the parental home except Claude. Mrs. Lou Franklin was the only child of John and Maggie Richards. She was born October 22, 1867. at Fostoria. Ohio. Her father died in 1869 and later the mother and daughter moved to Huron county, Ohio, and Mrs. Franklin obtained her education in the vicinity. Iler
mother still survives at the age of sixty-five years. living with her
daughter. Mrs. Franklin. Claude married Miss Eva Robinett and is now foreman of the Seneca county plant of the Torpedo Manufacturing Company, of which his father is superintendent.
After retiring from agrienltural pursuits the subject of this sketch was employed as railroad fireman and later he was in the employ of the Harter Milling Company of Fostoria. In 1888 he was appointed manager and superintendent of the Western Rail- way Signal Company, which is engaged in the manufacture of rail- road fusees and torpedoes, and he has since continued incumbent of this responsible position. By reason of his father's service in the Civil war he is an associate member of Norris Post. No. 27, Grand Army of the Republic in Fostoria. £ In politics he is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Republican party and he served one term as representative of the Second ward in the city council. Both he and his wife are most earnest and zealous mem- bers of the United Brethren church and they are actively identi- fied with the various departments of church work in their home city. He is a member of the board of trustees of the local church and also is a valiant and honored teacher in its Sunday school.
GEORGE M. ZELLNER, a prosperous and prominent farmer, owns two hundred and thirty acres of valuable and productive land in Bloom township and sixty acres in Scipio township, Seneca county. He acquired this land not by gift. not by conquest and not by "smart" dealing. but by honest purchase with money dearly earned by hard work. Beginning life as a poor boy, he welcomed any honest task however hard and applied himself to its performance with all his energy and determination, pushing forward on the journey of life unappalled by obstacles. undaunted by temporary defeat, till he won success and a competency.
Ima Lon Franklin.
& Franck lin
733
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
Mr. Zellner was born in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in 1847, was brought up as a farmer's boy of all work and was edu- cated in the common schools of Crawford county, Ohio, where his parents made their home from the year 1854. Ile learned the carpenter's trade and worked at it with success fourteen years. Then he took up farming. His first purchase of land was of thirty acres. To this he added as he was able and as opportunity presented till he is now one of the large land owners of his town ship. He married Miss Catharine Englert, January 13, 1878. She was a daughter of Peter and Elizabeth Englert and was born in Seneca county in 1854. Her parents came over from Germany about 1847. She has borne her husband children as follows: Cyrus, who is dead; Samuel A .. Benjamin F., Philip P., Maggie L., Florence B., William H., Harrison C., Earl R. and Pearl M., twins ; and Hattie M. Samuel A. married Miss Ada Shaefer, to whom two children were born, Vitus A. and Luella C. Florence is the wife of F. Barrick.
Phillip and Catharine (Gross) Zellner were born in Pennsyl- vania, he in Lehigh county, she in Northampton county. They were married in their native state and about 1853 moved to Craw- ford county, Ohio, where they bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, on which they lived till 1890, when Mr. Zellner died. His children were born in the order in which they are here named : Edwin, Benjamin, George M., Alfred, Henry W., William II., Isabel C. and Sarah A. Alfred, Isabel C. and Sarah A. are dead. Edwin was a soldier in the Federal army in the Civil war. George M., the immediate subject of this notice, is the only member of his father's family living in Seneca county. He is a man of public spirit who has at heart the welfare of his township and of the county at large and who may be depended on to do all in his power to promote any measure which in his good judgment promises to advance the interests of any considerable number of his fellow citizens.
E. D. REIDEL .- In this busy and progressive world, it is a man's actions, not his words, that proclaim what manner of man he is. He is judged by deeds, not by talk. We are pleased to put on record something of the busy and useful life of E. D. Reidel, of Bloomville, Seneca county. Ohio, who by the exercise of his energy. enterprise and publie spirit. has done as much as any one for the development and betterment of Bloom township.
Mr. Reidel was born in Crawford county. Ohio, July 11, 1840, a son of Anthony and Harriet Reidel, natives of Columbiana county, Ohio, and he had brothers and sisters named as follows: August, who is a veteran of the Civil war; Caroline; Albert; Augusta; Oscar and Herman. He was reared on a farm and educated in common schools. Practically all his life has been devoted to agricultural pursuits and to the breeding of fine stock. A natural bent for mechanics led him to become interested in machinery, particularly such as is connected with farming, and buying a thresher he devoted much of his time for many years to threshing and became well known as a thresher in all the country round about his home.
734
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
In 1880 he moved to Seneca county, Ohio. There he settled and labored diligently, managing intelligently, and in time was able to buy a farm. Then he retired from threshing, selling his excellent facilities in that line to his son Frank. In 1901 he bought the farm in Bloom township on which he has since lived. Mr. Reidel married Miss Mary Fussle, who bore him two sons, Wilson and Frank Reidel. His present wife was Miss Mary Dove.
JOHN W. WEISENAUER .- The United States ranks today as the foremost nation of the modern civilized world. It has served as the "melting pot" of the best characteristics of all other nations and the outcome is a fine sterling American citizenship consisting of strong, able bodied men, loyal and public spirited in civic life. broad minded and honorable in business, and alert and enthusiasti- cally in sympathy with every measure tending to further the material welfare of the entire country. The empire of Germany has contributed its fair quota to the upbuilding of this great nation and among its representatives in this country are to be found suc- cessful men in every walk of life from the prosperous farmer to the learned professions.
Of sturdy German stock. Mr. John W. Weisenauer was born in Crawford county, Ohio, on the 1st of April, 1873, and he is a son of John and Mary (Gwinner) Weisenauer, the former of whom was a native of Bavaria, Germany, where his birth occurred on the 22nd of May, 1832, and the latter of whom was born in Lykens town- ship, Crawford county, Ohio, on the 5th of January, 1837. John Weisenauer was a son of William Weisenauer, of Bavaria, and he emigrated to the United States in 1853, when a young man of about twenty-one years of age. Hle first settled in Galion, this state, where he followed with success his trade of a shoe maker, which he had learned in the old fatherland. From Galion he moved to Chatfield, whence he later removed to Lykens. Crawford county. where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of valuable farm land, upon which he resided for a period of thirty-eight years. At Chatfield, on the 27th of March, 1856, was solemnized his mar- riage to Miss Mary Gwinner and they became the parents of ten children, namely : Jacob. Susan, Flora, John W ... Della, Otto. Laura, Caroline (deceased), Mary and Emma. In 1876 John and Mary Weisenauer became members of the Freewill Baptist church, in the parish of Rev. J. B. Lash. and they were most earnest and active workers in connection with the charities of the same up to the time of their demise. John Weisenauer may be designated as a worthy Christian in the truest and broadest sense of the term, his motto being the Golden Rule, which he practiced and enforced in all the relations of life. He was a very highly educated man. as a Bible student and otherwise, and in politics he gave an uncom- promising support to the cause of the Democratic party. He was honored and loved by his fellow men, who showed their high appre- ciation of his many fine qualities by bestowing upon him various public offices of trust, which he filled with all of efficiency and ability. Mrs. Mary (Gwinner) Weisenauer was summoned to the.
735
HISTORY OF SENECA COUNTY
life eternal on the 13th of April, 1900, at the age of sixty-three years, and John Weisenauer passed away on the 9th of September, 1908, at the venerable age of seventy-six years. He lived to wel- come into this world thirty-two grandchildren and fifteen great- grandchildren.
John W. Weisenauer, the immediate subject of this review, was the fourth in order of birth of the ten children of John and Mary Weisenauer and he was reared to the sturdy discipline of the old home farm, his early educational advantages being those af- forded in the public schools of his native county, which were supple- mented by private instructions of his father. In 1900 he en-
tered the university at Ada, Ohio. Later he completed a com-
mercial course in this institution. That he put his scholastic at- tainments to good use needs no further voucher when it is stated that he was a most successful and popular teacher in Crawford county for a period of nine years. In 1902, however, he severed his connection with the pedagogic profession and initiated opera- tions as a farmer, becoming the owner of a finely improved estate of eighty acres in Seneca county. He is a stalwart Democrat in his political proclivities and has ever accorded a stanch support of all movements projected for the welfare of the community. Both he and his wife are devout members of the Evangelical church and in a fraternal way he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias.
In 1907 he was united in marriage to Miss Ona Oberlander, who likewise claims the good old Buckeye state as the place of her nativity, her birth having occurred in Crawford county, on the Ist of January, 1877. She is a daughter of Henry J. and Mary J. (Feltic) Oberlander, representative citizens of Tiffin, this state. Mr. and Mrs. Weisenauer are the parents of two children, Alma R. and Mary M.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.