USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, and representative citizens > Part 85
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Barbara Johnston, of Franklin county. Mr. and Mrs. Wright live in the eastern part of Jackson township. He owns two valuable farms, one of 160 and the other of 116 acres, both improved, and both rented to good tenants. Since the age of fourteen years Mr. Wright has been a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church.
To Mr. and Mrs. Sherer the following children have been born: Ralph, Wright, Roy Thomas, Leo Harry, Ray William, Opal Mildred and John Franklin, all of whom survive except two. Ralph and Wright. Mr. Sherer and family belong to the Methodist Episcopal church. Politically he has always been identified with the democratic party but outside of agricultural positions, has accepted no office of a public nature. He is a member of the Grange, is a thirty-second degree Mason, and from 1902 until 1912 was a member of the Shelby county fair board. He is one of the well balanced business men and reliable and useful citizens of the county.
ELMER SHROYER, whose excellent farm of 104 acres is situated in Salem township. Shelby county. O., has spent his life here and is numbered with the representative men of Salem township. He was born in this town- ship. May 15. 1876, and is a son of Henry and Mary ( Strohlm) Shroyer.
Henry Shroyer was born in Miami county, O., a son of Joseph Shroyer, who was also born in Ohio, of German parentage. For many years Henry Shroyer was one of the heaviest tax payers in Shelby county, owning over 500 acres of land, and after dividing his large estate with his children, still owns a farm of 160 acres in Salem township and a pleasant and comfortable residence in Maplewood, where he and wife now live retired. To Henry and Mary Shroyer the following children were born: Clara, wife of William Rubert : Ellen, wife of John C. Wones; Hattie, wife of George W. Rose : and Elmer, Nelson and Harry.
Elmer Shroyer obtained his education in the public schools and afterward remained at home assisting his father until his marriage. For fourteen years afterward he rented his present farm from his father and then bought it and ever since coming here has carried on general farming and stock raising. meeting with excellent success. In 1895 he married Miss Clementine C. Faulder, who was born in Shelby county. O., and is a daughter of George and Caroline ( Fergus) Faulder. Mr. and Mrs. Shroyer attend the German Reformed church. Mr. Shroyer is a democrat, all the male members of his family being identified also with this political organization.
S. H. ROGERS,* D. V. S., who is established at Jackson Center, O., is an experienced and thoroughly trained practitioner in his line of medicine and surgery, and is, probably, one of the best known professional men of Shelby county. He was born December 20, 1876, in Logan county. O., two miles southeast of Bloom Center.
After completing his public school education at Lewistown. Doctor Rogers became connected with the firm of Harper Bros., implement dealers at Pemberton, and afterward was with the L. G. Shunberg Company, following
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which he entered the Cincinnati Veterinary College, from which he was creditably graduated March 30, 1909, and secured his state license in the following July. Since January, 1911, he has been a member of the Ohio State Veterinary Medical Association, and in February of that year he came to Jackson Center. Perhaps in no profession has science made such rapid strides as in the one to which Doctor Rogers has dedicated his life work. He has an extensive practice which extends over a radius of ten miles from the city.
Doctor Rogers was married to Miss Elzana Clayton, a daughter of Henry and Lucy Clayton. They enjoy a very attractive home, its location being on the corner of North Main and Jackson streets, Jackson Center. Doctor Rogers is identified politically with the republican party but has never had any taste for political office, and the only fraternal body with which he is connected, outside professional societies, is the Modern Woodmen of America.
LOUIS F. WAGNER, who has been identified with the John Wagner Sons Brewing Company at Sidney, O., all his business life, and is its collector and one of its directors, belongs to a very prominent family of Shelby county. He was born at Sidney, on the site of the present office of the company, AAugust 13, 1866, and is a son of John and Mary A. Wagner.
Mr. Wagner was educated in the parochial school at Sidney and at St. Mary's Institute at Dayton, O., and afterward went into the meat trade. learning the business from the bottom up. He then entered into partnership with John Young in the meat business, but within one year his brother desired him to close out his meat interests in order to assist in the greatly increasing brewery business and he has been so connected ever since and has proven himself an able and effective business man.
Mr. Wagner was married first to Miss Nellie Dorsey, of Shelby county, and they had two sons : J. C. and C. O. Both sons are veterinary surgeons. the former being located at Fostoria, O., and the latter being now connected with McKillip's Veterinary College, at Chicago. The mother of these sons died in 1900. Mr. Wagner's present wife was formerly Miss Sarah Boydston. of Wooster, O. He is identified with the Elks, the Eagles and the United Commercial Travelers.
GEORGE HEMM, capitalist, and for many years identified with the nursery business in Shelby county, O., belongs to one of the old and substan- tial families of the county and is the only surviving son of the late George Hemm, who was one of the most highly respected and worthy men of this section for many years. George Hemm, the younger, was born at Sidney, O., March 31, 1865, a son of George and Bernadina (Dickas) Hemm.
The mother of Mr. Hemm were born in Bavaria, Germany, and still survives. The father was a native of Baden but was reared in Bavaria and from there entered the German army and was attached to a cavalry regiment during his allotted term of service. He learned the butcher's trade but when he came to America, probably in 1852, he found himself more interested in
WILLIAM D. DAVIES
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other lines open to him in America, and after a year spent at Buffalo, N. Y., he made his way to Toledo, O., where he engaged in the nursery business, and one year later came to Sidney. Here, in partnership with Mr. Moore and Mr. Mccullough, he established the Sidney Nurseries, in 1885, in which he continued to be interested until his death, in 1893. He was a devoted Catholic and a worthy and well known man. He married Bernadina Dickas and three children were born to them: A babe that died in infancy; George; and Nettie E., who is the wife of Milton M. Wagner.
George Hemm was reared at Sidney and was educated in the parochial schools and afterward assisted his father in the nursery business, in which he is still interested. He and mother still own the old nursery farin of 135 acres, situated in Clinton township. They occupy the handsome residence on South Main avenue, which the older George Hemin erected in 1875, during a part of the year, but Mr. Hemm passes the winters in Florida and Houston county, Alabama, near Dothan, where he has property and banking interests. Mr. Hemm and his mother are members of the Catholic church. He is identified with the Elks and with several social organizations.
WILLIAM D. DAVIES, who, for twenty-seven years was a representa- tive member of the bar at Sidney, O., was born at Iowa City, Iowa, January 20, 1848, came to Sidney in 1875, and died in March, 1902. He was a son of David and Mary Davies, and a grandson of Thomas Davies, both natives of Wales. David Davies and wife had three children: Thomas; Sarah, who married Thomas Davies; and William D.
William D. Davies passed his early youth on his father's prairie farm. Later he attended the Iowa State University, read law for three years and in 1870 was admitted to the bar in Iowa City. Afterward, until 1875, he traveled for different railroads, then came to Sidney and purchased the office and business of Judge Thompson and continued in the active practice of the law in this city until his death. He made an honorable record and at different times was professionally identified with much important litigation.
Mr. Davies married Miss Isabelle Mathers, who was born at Mifflintown, Pa., a daughter of James and Amelia ( Evans) Mathers, and a granddaughter of Gen. Lewis Evans, who was prominent both in military and professional life in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Davies had one sister and two brothers, namely : Margaret, who is the wife of Dr. L. E. Atkinson, of Mifflintown; Lewis E., who died in 1873 was cashier of the Citizens Bank at Sidney ; and Orlando Owen, now deceased, who was auditor of Shelby county for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Davies had one daughter, Amelia, whose young life closed in her twentieth year, having survived her father but two years. Mr. Davies was a consistent member of the Congregational church all his life. He was an open- hearted, broad minded man and had a wide circle of attached and admiring friends. He was a Knight Templar Mason.
A. W. DAVIS, postmaster at Jackson Center, O., to which office he was appointed in 1907 and has served with the greatest efficiency, was born at
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Jackson Center, Shelby county, O., July 22, 1876, and is a son of I. L. and Mary L. Davis and a grandson of Luther and Jane Davis.
After completing the public school course at Jackson Center. A. W. Davis became a student at Alfred University, near Hornell, N. Y., but left college with the Third N. Y. Vol. Inf., to serve in the Spanish-American war and after his military service was over attended Bond Institute in New York City, graduating in 1904. He possesses a natural artistic taste and this led to his learning window trimming and he traveled over several states in professional work, but, owing to a fall received while so engaged, was obliged to give up that line of business. He then was in the employ of the Buckeye Clothing Company until he received his appointment as postmaster. He has always been a republican but has never accepted any other public position than the one he so acceptably fills. He has made many improvements both in the service and in his office equipments and Mrs. Davis is his very capable assistant.
Mr. Davis married Miss Florence Darnell, of Adrian, Mich., a daughter of William Darnell and a granddaughter of David Darnell, a pioneer of Jackson township. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have one daughter, Evelyn. He is identified with the Odd Fellows and the Masons, belonging to the blue lodge at Littleton, N. H., and the Royal Arch at Lisbon, N. H., this being the first state he became a citizen of after becoming of age. He also belongs to the Sons of Veterans at Atlantic City, N. J.
EDD McVAY .* a leading citizen of Sidney, O., where he is engaged in the contracting business, has spent the larger part of his life in Shelby county and was born in Perry township, in the old log house in which his mother was also born, on his maternal grandfather's farm, March 14, 1864, and is a son of Lewis B. and Marian B. (Redinbough) McVay.
The McVay family is of Scotch-Irish extraction and from its earliest records has been a sturdy and long-lived one. At the time of death the ages of the paternal grandfather and his four brothers aggregated over 400 years. His name was James McVay and he came early to Shelby county and lived here into extreme old age, being within two years of the century mark at the time of decease. He probably was a native of Pickaway county, O., and his occupation was farming. The name of his wife was Hannah Lamasters and she was of Welsh extraction. They had the following children : Rachel, who was the wife of A. A. Dunson: Jesse R., who has been a resident of Cass county, Neb., since the Civil war ; Louis B. ; Martha, who is the widow of John Cargill, resides at Port Jefferson, O .; James, who died in Salem township, was a farmer; and Jane, who is the wife of Lewis Wills, a farmer in Salem township, Shelby county, near Maplewood.
Lewis B. McVay was born in Shelby county in 1839, on the old family homestead in Salem township. In his earlier years he was a butcher by trade but from 1868 until he retired he was engaged in building and has been a resident of Sidney for the past twenty-one years. He married Marian B. Redinbough, a daughter of David and Peggy (Lucas) Redinbough. Her father was of German parentage but was born in Pennsylvania. Three of
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his children died early and of those who grew to maturity, Mrs. McVay is the only survivor. One brother, Solomon D., died at Piqua, O. One sister, Mary Ann, who was the wife of Thomas Eltington, died at Port Jefferson. To Louis B. McVay and wife seven children were born, the eldest of the family being Edd McVay, of Sidney. The next in order of birth, Frank Miller, is a molder by trade and a resident of Sidney. He married Catherine Dunn, who died in the fall of 1910. Anna Mary, the eldest daughter, is Mrs. Stiles, of Evansville, Ind. The four children next born all died in infancy : Kilty, James, Burney and Burley, the two last named being twins.
Edd McVay attended the country schools in Perry township and also had school advantages at Port Jefferson up to the age of fifteen years, at which time his father considered him old enough to learn a self-supporting trade and he became a butcher and followed that trade for many years. Since 1890, however, he has been engaged in a general contracting business. In politics he is a republican and is influential in local matters, a wide-awake and intelligent citizen, interested in all movements that tend to improve general conditions in this section. In January, 1910, he entered upon his duties as a member of the board of public service, at Sidney, and continued until January, 1912. Mr. McVay has some other business interests and represents Shelby county for the Indiana & Ohio Livestock Insurance Company.
On May 2, 1889, Mr. McVay was married to Miss Lillian L. Cargill, who was born in Shelby county, a daughter of Oliver and Rosanna Cargill, residents of Jackson Center, O. Mr. and Mrs. McVay have had four chil- dren, two of whom are now deceased: Jessie, who lived but one year, and Willis C., who died in infancy. The two survivors are: Bessie, who gradu- ated from the Sidney high school bearing off the highest honors of the class of 1911, and is now a student at the Miami University; and Louis O., who is a student in the Sidney high school. Mr. McVay is quite prominent in fra- ternal circles and belongs to a number of the leading organizations. He is a member of Summit Lodge No. 50, Knights of Pythias, at Sidney; Sidney Lodge No. 60, Odd Fellows; Osceola Encampment No. 63, Sidney; Sidney Lodge of Elks No. 786; Helsherf Temple, D. O. K. K., No. 32, Sidney, and others.
JOHN F. AILES, who is one of the well known and representative men of Shelby county, owns and oversees his well improved farm of eighty acres situated in Jackson township, of which he has been a resident since he was three years of age. He was born in Franklin township, Shelby county, May 19, 1858, and is a son of Alfred and Melissa Jane (Young) Ailes, and a grandson of Moses H. Ailes. The father of Mr. Ailes is deceased and the mother resides with her son.
John F. Ailes was reared in Jackson township and received his education in the public schools and in the Southern Ohio University, Lebanon, O. For thirty-two years Mr. Ailes taught school, for thirty-one years in Jackson township and one year in Dinsmore township, devoting his energies entirely to his native county, but not confining himself exclusively to his educational
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work. Mr. Ailes has very often been called into public life and to every position has devoted his best effort. For three years he served as deputy county auditor, for one year was deputy probate judge assisting Judge Hos- kins, for eight years was clerk of Jackson township and for the same number of years has served as a member of the board of county school examiners, his last appointment being in September, 1912. In politics he is a democrat, of that school which prefers the doctrines of the fathers, based on the experi- ence of the ages, to the untried theories of innovators. Mr. Ailes traces his family back to the founding of Philadelphia, through the following ancestry : Alfred Ailes, Moses H. Ailes, William Underwood Ailes, Stephen Ailes, and Stephen Ailes who came from Wales.
Mr. Ailes was married to Miss Lovina Drumm, who was born in Hardin county, O., a daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Drumm, both of whom are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Ailes have four children : Melville, who is a physician and surgeon practicing at Garrettsville, O .; Arlington, who is a physican at Jackson Center: Sidney, who is a school teacher in Jackson township; and Helen, who lives at home. For twenty years Mr. Ailes has been identified with the order of Odd Fellows at Jackson Center and Sidney, for four years representing the thirty-seventh district of Ohio in the grand lodge.
JAMES W. CLANCEY, who is one of the well-known and highly respected retired residents of Shelby county, O., has long been one of the heavy tax payers of Franklin township, where he still resides and owns land in the county aggregating 344 acres. Mr. Clancey was born March 4, 1836, in Green county, O., and was brought to Shelby county when a babe of one year by his parents who were William and Rachel (Steele) Clancey.
William Clancey was born in Kentucky. He was a cooper by trade and a good workman but when the business was no longer profitable after factories began to make barrels and casks that formerly were entirely fashioned by hand, he turned his attention to farming and so spent the remainder of his life. He married Rachel Steele, who was born in Virginia and both died in Shelby county, James W. being their only child. They were members of the United Presbyterian church.
James W. Clancey attended the country schools and later the Union school at Sidney, and following his school days engaged in agricultural pursuits continuously until he retired from active labor, with the exception of two years during which period he was in the grocery business at Sidney. He inherited eighty acres of his land and with that as a nucleus added tract after tract until he became one of the largest land owners in Franklin township. The main industry of his farm has always been the raising of crops, largely grain, there always being, however, enough good stock every year to fully supply the home demand. Since he has retired, his son-in-law, S. W. Mead, operates the large farm and resides with Mr. Clancey.
In 1862, Mr. Clancey was married to Miss Malvina Shaw, who was born in Montgomery county, O. and died in 1905, her burial being in Graceland cemetery, Sidney. Her parents were Thomas and Nancy ( McDonald) Shaw,
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and they had children as follows: Malvina; Margaret, who died young; Elizabeth, who is the wife of George McVay; Eliza, who is the wife of David Hume; and John C. To Mr. and Mrs. Clancey three children were born, namely : Capitola, who is the wife of J. A. Parker and they have two children --- Clancey and Metta Marie; Nannie, who is the wife of S. M. Wead; and William S., who married Glenna Wead. In politics Mr. Clancey is a Repub- lican.
WILLIAM T. McLEAN of the Slusser-McLean Scraper Company, was born in Sidney, March 16, 1852, and is the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth S. Taylor-McLean. His father was born in Shippensburg, Pa., March 9. 1821, and settled in Dayton, O., when it was a small village. His mother was born in Sidney. O., October 4, 1826, and was the daughter of Jason and Sarah J. Skillen-Taylor. The first business experience of our subject was with Taylor Brothers, hardware merchants, with whom he remained four years. From 1874 to 1880 he was a traveling salesman for Crawford & Zellers, cracker manufacturers of Mansfield, O. In the early part of 1880, he returned to Sidney and formed a partnership with Benjamin Slusser in the manufacture of wheeled and drag scrapers. From 1882 to 1884 he was manager and one-third owner of the Forest City Cracker Company, Cleveland, O., alternating his time between the two cities.
Since May, 1891, he has been secretary of the state board of public works, and was recently appointed for the tenth time. He married Mary A. Slusser, daughter of Benjamin and Anne (Korns) Slusser, on May 21, 1874. Ben- jamin Slusser was born in Franklin township on June 6, 1828, and was the son of Jacob and Mary Woodsing-Slusser. Jacob Slusser was born in Pennsyl- vania, and was the fifteenth pioneer family in Shelby county. Anne Korns was born in Sidney, and was the daughter of Silas and Mary Austin-Korns. Anne Korns-Slusser died in 1868. Benjamin Slusser married for his second wife, Martha L. Armstrong. Mr. and Mrs. McLean have four children : Ben F. C .; Taylor T .; Bertha J. and Frederick A.
Mr. McLean is high in the councils of Masonry, having received all the degrees to the thirty-second inclusive. He has been honored by promotion to the highest office in all the Masonic bodies of Sidney, and is at present the grand captain general of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Ohio, and grand master of the Most Illustrious Grand Council of Royal and Select Masters of Ohio. Mr. Slusser was also a member of Temperance Lodge. No. 73. Benjamin Slusser was the original inventor and patentee and manufacturer of road scrapers made from sheet steel, the pattern now so universally used by all manufacturers. The first scraper was made in Cincinnati in 1876. The following year he moved to Sidney. These scrapers are household words with contractors, railroad graders, etc.
WILSON CAROTHERS, one of the proprietors of the Buckeye Churn Company is a native of Wyandot county. O., where he was born, July 20. 1855. His father, William Carothers, was born in 1814. and his mother, 46
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Mary Jackson-Carothers, was born in 1818. His education was received in the schools of his native country, where he remained on the farm till the age of nineteen when he began clerking in a drug store at Carey, O. In November, 1874, and in September, 1876, he bought the store where he was clerking, and continued to conduct the drug business until 1891, when he sold out and moved to Sidney, O., and since that time has given his entire time to the busi- ness of the Buckeye Churn Company, of which he and James Anderson are the sole proprietors. This company was organized in 1887, at Carey, O., by Messrs. Anderson, Carothers and E. S. Denham, the latter selling out to the present proprietors. This company has been highly successful from the start, which is due to the present proprietors and their able management. On November 25, 1877, Mr. Carothers was married to Miss Emma J. Keller, who was born in Wyandot county, April 27, 1854. She received her education in the schools of that county. To this union have been born four boys, all of whom are living. Mr. Carothers is a supporter of the principles of the repub- lican party, and fraternally he belongs to the Masonic lodge. As a citizen and business man he ranks among the best in Sidney.
GEORGE M. BAKER,* who owns and operates the old Baker home- stead of eighty-eight acres, situated in Washington township, Shelby county, O., was born on this farm in 1875 and is a son of Ephraim and Nancy (Cain) Baker.
Ephraim Baker was born also in Shelby county and spent forty-four years of his life on the above mentioned farm, doing the larger part of the clearing. In addition to farming and stock-raising, he also worked at the ice business for a time. His death occurred here in his seventy-fourth year. He married Nancy Cain, who came from West Virginia and they had the following chil- dren; Junie, Mrs. Flora Saunders, Albert, Leo, Franklin, George M., Mrs. Peter Higgins and M. L., the last named being a resident of North Dakota. The four survivors of the family include George M., M. L., Mrs. Saunders and Mrs. Higgins.
After his school days were over Mr. Baker was engaged in a grocery busi- ness for some ten years. In 1908 he decided to turn his attention to farming and with this end in view bought the interests of the other heirs in the home- stead and since then has been successfully carrying on general farming and stock-raising, cultivating his own land and an adjoining eighty acres.
Mr. Baker married Miss Adelle Filler and they have two children : William and Alfred. Mr. Baker and family are members of the United Brethren church at Lockington, O. Politically he is a republican and fraternally is identified with the Odd Fellows at Kirkwood and belongs to the encampment at Sidney.
JOSEPH KAISER, one of the representative men of Cynthian township, Shelby county, O., resides two and a half miles south and one-half mile west of Fort Loramie, where he owns 136 acres of well improved, valuable land.
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