History of Seneca County, Ohio, containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, school, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc, Part 100

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1088

USA > Ohio > Seneca County > History of Seneca County, Ohio, containing a history of the county, its townships, towns, villages, school, churches, industries, etc., portraits of early settlers and prominent men; biographies; history of the Northwest territory; history of Ohio; statistical and miscellaneous matter, etc., etc > Part 100

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JACOB SCHMUCKER, proprietor of the beer bottling works. Tiffin, Ohio. born in Kirch Bierlingen, Oberamt Ehingen, Wurtemberg, Germany, August 2. 1845, son of Anton Schmucker and Magdalena Seitz, came to America in 1866. He followed his trade (brewer) in Cincinnati, and afterward in San- dusky, and in 1872 located in Tiffin, where he has accumulated a competence and does a thriving business. Mr. Schmucker married Sophia, daughter of Charles Fleischhauer and Caroline Keiffer, of Sandusky. She was born in Utweiler, Prussia. the former home of her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Schmucker have a family of two sons and three daughters: Caroline, Otto. Lena, Charles and Norma.

PHILIP SCHWEICKHARD. saloon keeper, Tiffin, born in Wingen, Alsace. France. July 7, 1838, is a son of Balthasar and Magdalena (Woerner) Schweickhard, who came to America in 1846, and settled in New York State, where they passed from this life, the former in 1881, and the latter February 20, 1883. leaving a large family. The subject of this sketch learned the cooper's trade in New York State, and followed it through the West. April 6, 1865, he came to Tiffin, and has been prominently identified with the inter- ests of the city since that date. He married, in Yates County, N. Y., Magdalena, daughter of Philip and Elizabeth (Harmon) Faulstich, of that State, natives of Alsace, France, and by her has had eight children: Charles Philip, Emma Elizabeth, Louisa Magdalena. George Benjamin (drowned at the age of six years). Catharine Caroline. Anna Christina, Samuel Frederick and Richard Allen. The family belong to the German Lutheran Church. Mr. Schweickhard is a member of the A. O. U. D., and has been the honored treasurer of the Alert Hose Company for nearly six years. He has been an active and enterprising citizen of Tiffin since coming here, and has accumu- lated a competence.

HEZEKIAH SEARLES. retired farmer, P. O. Tiffin, was born in Fair- field County, Ohio, December 4. 1810, son of John and Jane (Dunken) Searles. the former born in Maryland. and the latter in Pennsylvania; they were mar ried in Fairfield County, Ohio, and in 1820 came to this county. settling at Fort Ball, and living in one of the block-houses during the winter of 1820-21. They then moved to Eden Township, and there remained until the death of John Searles. which occurred May 14. 1844. His widow died in 1870. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom seven are living. Hezekiah Searles, the subject of this sketch, was united in marriage, October 23. 1838, with Eliza A. Lambertson, born in Northampton County, Penn., June 12. 1$17, daughter of Daniel and Susanna Lambertson, natives of Pennsylvania. where they were married and remained until 1824, at which time they moved to Huron County, Ohio. and after a short time came to this county. where they remained until their death, Mrs. Lambertson dying December 14. 1844. and

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Mr. Lambertson December 5, 1852. They were the parents of four children, only one of whom survives. To our subject and wife have been born six chil- dren, two now living: Irving W. and Charles F., the latter of whom married Allie B. Nyman, and they are the parents of four children. Our subject owns 157 acres of good land. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Epis- copal Church.

PETER SEEVER. lumber dealer, Tiffin, was born July 21, 1819, in Fair- field County. Ohio. son of Peter and Elizabeth (Keller) Seever, the former born in Frederick County, Va .. of French parentage, the latter a native of York County, Penn. They were married in Fairfield County, Ohio, in 1810. Peter Seever. Sr .. came to Ohio in 1804, and settled in Fairfield County, where he and his family lived for fifty years. The Kellers came to Ohio in 1808, and to Seneca County in 1835. Peter and Elizabeth (Keller) Seever had a family of fourteen children, of whom seven survive. The subject of this sketch, unmarried. has been engaged in the lumber trade for years. He is a well-read man. delights in arguments, and has taken a prominent part in pub- lic debates. He 'has boarded at the "Myers House" for years.

REV. ISAAC SEITZ. minister of the Free Baptist Church. P. O. Tiffin, was born in Bloom Township. this county. August 2, 1828, son of John and Magdalena (Spitler) Seitz, the former a son of the Rev. Lewis Seitz, who set- tled in Fairfield County, Ohio. in 1802, coming from Rockingham County, Va., his father having emigrated to this country from Bavaria: the Spitlers were of Swiss ancestry and pioneers in Virginia. Rev. Isaac Seitz was the youngest of a family of five sons and three daughters, of whom but four sons survive: Abraham, residing in Sacramento, Cal .; Lewis, a minister in the Regular Baptist Church; Daniel. a farmer in Bloom Township, this county, and our subject, who obtained a good common school education in Bloom Township, this county. and attended two courses of lectures at the academy at Republic. and two terms at Heidelberg. He read law under Judge Pillars, of Tiffin, and was admitted to the bar in 1854. In 1855 he married Caroline, daughter of Jacob and Fanny Abt Sheidley, of Pennsylvania, former of whom came from Gioppengen. Germany. when a young man, crossing the ocean in company with John Jacob Astor. of New York. This union has been blessed with four sons: John De Alton. engaged in real estate business in Kansas City, Mo. ; Benjamin A .. doing business for the C. L. R. R. Company, Kansas City, Mo. ; Charles Sumner, a stock-raiser of Cowley County, Kas., and Earl William, a student in commercial school, at Oberlin. Ohio. Our subject had for some years felt a complete conversion to the cause of Christ, and in 1875 he entered the ministry and began work on a manuscript relative to his conversion, which after four years he completed. It is a handsome 400 page octavo, entitled "Christian Experience of Isaac Seitz. with his Views on the Ministry, Justifi- cation. Sanctification. Future Rewards and Punishments. Ingersol is wrong in saying that Infidels are the Intellectual Discoverers." It is a volume of thrilling interest to Christian minds, and a guide in the service of the disciples of the Christian religion.

GEORGE EBBERT SENEY, Tiffin, was born May 29, 1832, at Union- town, Fayette Co., Penn. The late Joshua Seney, of Tiffin, father of our subject. was born, reared and educated in New York City, where he graduated at Columbia College and the University Law School. He was a nephew of the distinguished statesman, Albert Gallatin, and was the private secretary of that gentleman when he was Secretary of the United States Treasury. Mr. Gallatin had a country seat at Uniontown, Penn., and it was there that Joshua Seney met Ann Ebbert, who afterward became his wife. After his marriage Mr.

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Seney established himself at Uniontown as a lawyer and soon won distinction at the bar. While still a resident of that city he declined the appointment of United States Judge for the western district of Pennsylvania, which was tendered him by President Jackson. Removing to Ohio in 1832, he settled at Tiffin, and there lived until his death in 1854. Of his four daughters one died early; one, the wife of the late George W. Howell. of Columbus, Ohio, died in 1883; two, Mrs. Frances M. Crum and Mrs. Harvey Redick. reside in Toledo. Ohio. His three sons are George E .. in Tiffin; Joshua R .. in Toledo. and Henry W., in Kenton, Ohio. Joshua R. and Henry W. are lawyers. The former has served with distinction upon the bench, and the latter is now one of three judges who compose the circuit court for the Third Judicial Circuit of Ohio. Upon his removal to Tiffin, Mr. Seney did not engage in the practice of law. Judge Lang, of Tiffin, who knew Mr. Seney intimately and well. thus speaks of him, in his history of Seneca County published in ISSO: " If Mr. Seney's industry had been equal to his capacity he would have been very suc- cessful as a lawyer. He had a natural aversion to anything that looked like labor. He was all politician, however, and a more shrewd, more calculating and far-seeing politician than Mr. Seney Seneca County never had in any party. He was not selfish nor sought office for himself. When he liked a person that aspired to office, he would do all in his power to aid him. Raised in the lap of wealth and luxury. he knew nothing about labor, nor the value of money. He had very little taste for, or appreciation of. the practical part of life. His language was chaste and polished, and his manners peculiarly his own. He was perfectly at home in an office and discharged every trust with ability and fidelity. He was treasurer of Seneca County for two terms. and clerk of the supreme court for many years. He wrote a fine hand and his records were spotless. Mr. Seney had a large well developed head. an expressive countenance, a piercing black eye. a pleasant voice, and his hands were so small as to attract universal attention." To all of this may be added that Mr. Seney had a fine education and scholarly tastes. He knew well the theory of the law. but had no ambition to practice it. He was a great student and read everything that he could lay his hands on. Few men were better posted than he in history and general literature. and few understood as well as he whatever pertained to the affairs of church or State. He was not a good public speaker, but as a forcible writer and entertaining talker he excelled.

The grandfather of George Ebbert Seney was Joshua Seney, of Maryland. He was a distinguished citizen of that State, and took a prominent part in the public affairs of that colony during the Revolutionary struggle. He represented Maryland in the last session of the Continental Congress, and in the first Con- gress under the Constitution of the United States. He resigned his seat in Congress to accept a seat upon the judicial bench of Maryland. He was chosen one of the presidential electors for the State of Maryland and voted for George Washington when he was first elected president. No less distinguished were

the other ancestors of George Ebbert Seney. His grandmother. upon his father's side, was a daughter of James Nicholson, a distinguished commodore in the United States Navy, in 1775. Com. Nicholson was in command of the United States Frigate "Trumbull." when she fought the British man-of-war "Wyatt." The engagement was one of the most desperate naval battles of the Revolutionary war. One of the daughters of Com. Nicholson married Albert Gal- latin, then Secretary of the Treasury, and afterward United States senator from Pennsylvania; another became the wife of Col. William Few, who was a mem- ber, from the State of Georgia. of the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States, and afterward a senator in Congress from that State; the

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third married John Montgomery, of Maryland. then mayor of the city of Bal- timore and afterward a member of Congress from that State: the fourth. Frances, married Joshua Seney. Upon the mother's side the grandparents of the subject of this sketch were George Ebbert and Sarah Wood, born in Phil- adelphia, where they were married. Removing to Uniontown, Penn .. George Ebbert there established a mercantile business, which he conducted with marked success for forty years. The older people of that busy little city speak of him as a model man. He was, they say, "the soul of honor, a man of fine business capacity and energetic and successful in whatever he undertook. Ho had a sound judgment and expressed his views in a few words, but with great clearness. He had a kind heart and a generous hand. He was without malice and with him charity was a great virtue. He was a well informed man and reading was his favorite pastime." Sarah Ebbert is said to have been more than an ordinary woman; domestic in her tastes she lived a quiet life. She was a pious woman and took an active part in promoting the good of her

church. The fathers of George Ebbert and Sarah Wood were merchants in Philadelphia. In that city they accumulated wealth and held high social posi- tions. Their lives were full of good deeds and their memories are greatly revered by their descendants, and by the descendants of those who knew them a hundred years ago. To Mr. and Mrs. George Ebbert children were born, number unknown, five the writer of this sketch knew- three sons and two daughters; two of the sons, Henry and John H., were men of high character. both had ability, and their lives were conspicuously useful. One of the daugh- ters, Elizabeth Dorsey, wife of the late Dr. Caleb Dorsey. of Virginia, was a lady well accomplished in mind. The other daughter, Ann. the mother of (George Ebbert Seney, is said to have been a beautiful girl. She received a liberal education at Brownsville (Penn. ) Female Seminary. She was a lady of great practical sense and had strong religious convictions. Before her mar- riage she was an active Christian worker in her native town. At Tiffin, where she lived twenty-two years a wife and twenty-six a widow, she was highly es- teemed. In her the poor had a friend. She was a frequent and welcome visitor to the bedside of the sick and dying. A leading member in the Method- ist Episcopal Church, she took an active part in promoting the interests of that denomination. One of the handsome memorial windows in the Methodist Episcopal Church, at Tiffin, was placed there by Judge Seney, in honor of the memory of his mother. Mrs. Ann Seney died May 5. 1879, aged seventy-five years.

George Ebbert Seney was brought to Tiffin (then a village of 400 inhabi- tants) an infant in his mother's arms. Judge Seney (for by this name George E. is universally called) was educated at Norwalk (Ohio) Seminary, then under the charge of Dr. Edward Thomson, subsequently a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church. After four years spent at that institution Judge Seney returned to Tiffin, and for a year or more was clerk in a dry goods store. In 1848, perhaps, and while a mere boy, he and his uncle. George Ebbert, opened a book store in Tiffin. The stock with which the firm of Ebbert & Seney com- menced business was purchased in New York City by the boy partner, who went there for that purpose. Judge Seney remained in this store for less than a year. The business being small and unprofitable for two, Judge Seney retired and Mr. Ebbert remained. Upon leaving the book store, Judge Seney deter- mined that St. Louis should be his future home, and through a family relative in the East had secured a position in a wholesale dry goods store in that city. This was opposed by his mother and opposed as well by his father, who had his heart set upon making a lawyer out of his son. Judge Seney's ambition

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was to be a merchant. To being a lawyer he was stoutly opposed. Simply to please his father, and to show his filial respect to his wishes he entered the office of Luther A. Hall. Esq., in Tiffin, to read law. but with an understand- ing that, if at the end of three months he preferred the place open for him at St. Louis, neither father nor mother would further object. Years after, when Judge Seney was strong in his profession, Mr. Hall said: "the first day George was in my office he and the law fell in love, and they have been loving each other ever since." Neither he, his family, nor his friends have cause to regret that he became a lawyer instead of a merchant. Two years of close and attentive study of the law books prepared Judge Seney for admission to the bar. He was admitted in 1853, and immediately commenced practice in com- pany with his preceptor, Mr. Hall. This partnership lasted about two years. The Judge, preferring to be alone, opened an office close by the one he now occupies, and alone, until his election to Congress. has he practiced his pro- fession, except when on the bench and in the army. At the time Judge Seney left the office of Mr. Hall there were eighteen practicing lawyers in Seneca County, several of them being gentlemen of large experience and acknowledged ability. Judge Seney had clients and cases from the beginning; they grew in number, and when at the end of four years he left the bar for the bench his business favorably compared with the best done by either of the older attorneys. The reputation Judge Seney acquired during these six years of practice was that of a studious, methodical and reliable lawyer, and an able, effective and eloquent jury advocate. After his election as judge, and before his term of office commenced. President Buchanan tendered him the appointment of the United States district attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, which he de- clined, preferring the place on the bench to which he had just been elected; Judge Seney was on the bench five years. He was elected when he was twenty-six years of age, and is perhaps the youngest man who ever held a com- mon pleas court in Ohio. That he was not over anxious for the place is to be inferred from the fact that he refused to take his party's nomination unless it was tendered unanimously. At a convention held at Carey, largely composed of lawyers from Seneca. Crawford. Wyandot. Hancock and Wood Counties, he was nominated by acclamation as the Democratic candidate for common pleas judge of the third subdivision of the Third Judicial District. The politics of the district at that time were doubtful; Judge Seney carried it by a majority of 1.006 over his opponent, Gen. John C. Lee.

The first court held by Judge Seney was at Perrysburg. in Wood County. and the first lawyer who addressed

him in the argument of a case was Hon. M. R. Waite, then a practicing attor- ney at Toledo, and now the chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. During his term of five years on the bench Judge Seney held three terms of court each year at Tiffin, Bucyrus, Upper Sandusky, Findlay and Perrysburg, and frequently a term, or a part of a term, in other counties in the first and second subdivisions of his district. In addition to this he and the

judges of these two subdivisions, with one of the judges of the supreme court of the State, held a term of the district court, once a year, in each of the twenty counties comprising the judicial district. Upon the bench Judge Seney met the expectations of his friends. Youthful as he was, he presided with marked dignity, impartiality and courtesy, and by his decisions added to his reputation as a sound lawyer, a dispassionate reasoner and an honest, discreet and just judge. It was while Judge Seney was on the bench that he published what is known to the profession as "'Seney's Ohio Code," and this volume he republished in 1874. Among lawyers this work is highly valued, and is in constant and extensive use in Ohio and several of the Western States. Judge

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Seney's term upon the bench closed during the second year of the war. Our subject was an ardent Democrat. a stanch friend of the Union and uncom- promising in his opposition to secession. Upon the close of the last term of court he enlisted in the One Hundred and First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, he and three others being the first to enlist in that regiment. Judge Seney was commissioned a first lieutenant. and immediately he and his three fellow sol- diers commenced recruiting for the regiment. In thirty-eight days the regi- ment. over 1,000 strong, was upon the Covington (Kentucky) Hills, defending Cincinnati against attack from rebel forces, led by Gen. Kirby Smith. He was appointed quartermaster of the regiment, serving with it in the field for two years and a half under Buell. Rosecrans, Thomas and Sherman. He was with the regiment in its encounters at Perryville, at Lancaster and Nashville. He was present at the engagement at Knob Gap, and was within sound of the guns at Stone River. He saw service at Chickamauga and at Liberty Gap, and wit- nessed the heroic valor of the One Hundred and First in the battles of Chatta- nooga and Franklin. He was with the One Hundred and First in its five months' campaign of almost continuous marching and fighting. under Sher-

man, from Mission Ridge to Atlanta. Resigning his army commission he re- turned to Tiffin in December, 1864, reopened his law office. and in a short time was in the enjoyment of a large and lucrative practice. For the next eighteen years few lawyers labored harder in his profession than Judge Seney. Early and late, day after day, and night after night, he could be found at his office, or in court, or if elsewhere, always full of legal business. In 1879 a biographer speaks of Judge Seney in these words: "As a lawyer he is highly esteemed by his brethren of the profession. His papers are thoroughly pre- pared, the witnesses are sifted to the bottom, and the case is effectively pre- sented to the court and jury. While he excels as an advocate, being a fine speaker, and possessing naturally oratorical gifts and graces, as an attorney and counsellor he is no less excellent, being well read upon points of law. From the fact that he is usually assigned the closing of a case, one can judge of the esteem in which he is held by those who are with him in it. As a man he is genial, and possessed of the native delicacy and refinement of the educated gentleman."

With politics he had little to do, unless to attend a convention to help a friend make a few speeches during a campaign, and regularly, spring and fall, vote the Democratic ticket. When elected to Congress in 1882 he was fifty- years of age and yet the only office he had held was that of judge, twenty- one years before. He was a candidate for presidential elector on the Buchan- an ticket in 1856. With these two exceptions his party had never been troubled with him in a convention or at an election, as a candidate for office. With the exception of judge and member of Congress he never held an office. ward, township, city, county, district or State; never was a candidate for one before a convention or the people. In 1874 he was nominated to make the race for Congress against ex-Gov. Foster. There were other able Democrats who sought the place and in the convention were put in nomination. With- out his knowledge his name was presented. Judge Seney declined to be a candidate, saying that he would not accept the nomination if it was made. In spite of this refusal he was nominated upon the first ballot, receiving nearly all the votes. He again arose to decline, but the convention was unwilling to hear him, and in the noise and confusion that prevailed he was declared the nominee, and immediately the convention adjourned. It was thought that Judge Seney could carry the district against Foster, who had twice before been elected, but Foster beat him by 139 votes. There is no remark respecting that

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election more common than that Judge Seney did not want the place and con- sequently made no effort to be elected. It is the opinion of those supposed to know that the Judge was pleased at his defeat. That he had no desire to be in Congress was satisfactorily demonstrated at Upper Sandusky four years later. The district had been changed, and was then Democratic by 5,000 majority. An election was certain, he was about to be nominated, and would have been had he not arisen and appealed to the delegates not to vote for him, stating that under no circumstances would he accept of the nomination. In 1876 he was made a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at St. Louis, and assisted in nominating Samuel J. Tilden for President. He was an active member of that body, and, in the campaign which followed, he eloquent- ly and ably advocated before the people the justness of his party's cause. In 1882 he was made the Democratic candidate for Congress in the Fifth District. Soon after his nomination he made a thorough canvass of the district. speaking at fifty or more places. He was elected by a majority of 5,613. In Seneca County he received many Republican votes. His majority in this county was 1,472; in Tiffin, 776, and in the First Ward of Tiffin, where he lived, 173. In 1883 his district was changed by taking off Putnam County with 1,417 Democratic majority and adding in Wood County with 496 Repub- lican majority. This change reduced the Democratic majority in his district, on the vote of 1882, to 3,644. Judge Seney was nominated in the new district in 1884. This was a presidential year. He made a thorough canvass, address- ing over seventy public meetings within his district. He was elected by 4,006 majority. The majority for Cleveland and Hendricks in the district was 3,216.

The reputation of Judge Seney as a lawyer followed him to Congress; he was appointed a member of the Judiciary Committee upon which were the ablest lawyers in the House. During the session he was always in his seat in the committee or in the House, giving faithful attention to every duty; modest and unassuming, he talked little, but listened much. His speeches in the Chio contested election case of Campbell rs. Morey, against the repeal of the tax on tobacco and spirits not used as a beverage, and against allowing Nation- al banks to increase their circulating notes, are exceedingly able efforts. and attracted, as they deserved, public attention. Judge Seney is known far and near as the friend of the soldiers. To their interest before Congress and in the departments he gives especial attention. All the letters he receives from sol- diers about their pension claims, and they number thousands, he promptly answers, and as promptly attends to all their requests. In 1884 the Ohio Legislature was Democratic in both branches; Judge Seney was prominently named for United States senator to succeed Senator Pendleton. He refused to be a candidate, and wrote to those who were urging his candidacy that he would neither seek nor decline the place. He was known to be the first choice of a few members, and the second choice of several others. Several of his party newspapers advocated his election, and not a few of the public men, in and out of the State, favored his election. It was thought that neither of the lead- ing aspirants-Payne or Pendleton-would be chosen, and in that event, Judge Seney, better than any other Democrat, would be acceptable to the two fac- tions, Pendleton and anti-Pendleton, into which the Democratic members appeared to be divided. Mr. Payne. to the surprise of everybody, was chosen in the caucus upon the first ballot. Among those prominently named as the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, in 1885, is the distinguished con- gressman from the Tiffin district. He positively refused to be a candidate or allow his name to be used in connection with the gubernatorial office.

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Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1088

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1088