USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 67
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 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96
THOMAS ARTHUR GRAVEN, M. D.
Of high academic and professional attainments and holding worthy pres- tige among the successful medical men of Wooster, where he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession since 1904. Dr. Thomas Arthur Graven occupies a large place in the esteem of his fellow citizens and merits specific notice in a work devoted to the representative men of his adopted city and county. He was born January 6, 1871. in Holmes county, Ohio, where his paternal ancestors settled in an early day and figured prominently in the
614
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
development and progress of that part of the state. The Graven family is of German origin and in the old country were originally known by the name of Gravenstein. The first member of the family to emigrate to America ap- pears to have been the Doctor's great-great-grandfather (given name un- known), who settled near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A son, John Graven, born October 5, 1758, in Germany, was four years old when he came to America, locating at Philadelphia. He grew to maturity on the family estate near that place, married Rebecca Randall, who was born in that city in the year 1762, and about the year 1816 migrated to what is now Holmes county, Ohio, where he secured land, developed a farm and in due time became a pub- lic spirited and praiseworthy citizen. He was a conspicuous figure in the pio- neer history of the above county and there spent the remainder of his days, dying on February 22, 1833, on the land he had purchased from the govern- ment. His wife survived him until 1848, on March 6th of which year she, too, was called to her final reward. She and her husband were Quakers. Among the children of John and Rebecca Graven was a son by the name of Thomas, who was born December 2, 1805, in Philadelphia, and who subse- quently became a manufacturer of powder, in connection with which he also had important agricultural interests in Holmes county, Ohio, where he re- moved with his parents when about eleven years of age. Elizabeth McKel- vey, who, on October 11, 1838, became the wife of Thomas Graven, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, September 12, 1818, and belonged to one of the old and highly esteemed families of that part of the Keystone state. She bore her husband nine children, and departed this life September 9, 1893, at Holmesville, Ohio, where her husband, on December 12, 1871, also breathed his last, after a continuous residence of fifty-five years.
Marion Graven, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Graven, was born in Holmes county, Ohio, February 4, 1847, and in his young manhood, Decem- ber 31, 1868, married Sarah Jane McCulloch, whose birth occurred near Holmesville on the 17th day of January, 1851. Mrs. Graven's father, David McCulloch, was born at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, December 20, 1808, and died in Holmes county, Ohio, February 25, 1892. after living on the same farm for a period of eighty years. He filled many important offices of trust and was a member of the school board and a justice of the peace. His parents were Hugh and Elizabeth (Gibson) McCulloch, the former born in Fife county, town of Leven, Scotland, in 1759, and the latter born in county Down, Ire- land, in 1770. Hugh McCulloch came to America in 1780 and taught school in Pennsylvania and later in Ohio, having been a well educated man and a teacher of some note before leaving his native land. His wife came to
615
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
America with her parents in 1788. on account of religious persecution, and married in 1793. She joined him in Pennsylvania in 1788 and on April 14, 18II, he moved to the new settlements in Holmes county, Ohio, where, at various times, the settlers were obliged to take refuge in a block house on ac- count of the hostility of the Indians. Mrs. McCulloch died March 18, 1814. and her husband on the 6th of January, 1836. Hugh McCulloch served in the war of 1812, under Generals Meigs and Shane, participated in a number of battles and minor engagements and earned an honorable record as a brave and gallant soldier. He was a man of wide intelligence and varied attain- ments, did much to popularize and disseminate the cause of education among the settlers of Holmes county, and his memory is still cherished by the people of the community in which he spent so many years of his life.
Marion Graven followed agricultural pursuits all his life, owning nearly four hundred acres of splendid farming land. He was successful in his busi -; ness affairs and stood high in the esteem of all who knew him. He was a prominent and active member of the Presbyterian church, in which he was an elder for twenty-four years, and he was a member of the Presbyterian general assembly which met at Saratoga, New York, in 1894. He was a Republican in politics and took an intelligent interest in public affairs, though not in any sense a seeker after public office. His death occurred January 9, 1903, at his home in Loudonville, Ohio, where he had moved with his family in 1901.
Marion and Sarah Jane Graven reared a family of three children, the oldest of whom is Dr. Thomas Arthur Graven, of this review. David Homer Graven, the second in order of birth, was graduated from the Ohio State University when a young man, having taken the full course in the law depart- ment, and in 1900 he received the degree of Master of Arts from the North- western Ohio University at Ada. For some time he gave his attention to the legal profession, but for some years past he has been cashier of the First Na- tional Bank at Loudonville, where he makes his home. John Elmer Graven, the youngest of the family, was graduated from the University of Wooster with the class of 1899, then went to Harvard Law School and afterwards went to Texas, where his death occurred on April 15, 1900. The mother of these children is still living and resides at Loudonville, where she has many warm friends who have learned to prize her for the sterling qualities of mind and heart which she inherits from a long line of sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestry.
In the year in which Dr. Thomas Arthur Graven was born ( 1871) his parents changed their residence to Perrysville, in the county of Ashland, but in 1883 they returned to Holmes county, where the future physician and surgeon received his early educational training. He made rapid progress in his studies and it was not long until he was qualified to teach, which useful calling he
616
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
followed in connection with agricultural pursuits until taking up the study of medicine, for which he had long manifested a decided preference. In due time he yielded to this predilection by entering Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated May 15, 1900. He immediately thereafter located at the town of Mohican, Ashland county, where he soon built up a lucrative practice and earned an honorable reputa- tion as a capable and progressive physician and surgeon. After four years' successful practice at the above place. Doctor Graven decided to locate in a larger and more inviting field, accordingly, in March. 1904. he opened an office in Wooster, where his abilities soon won recognition, as his continuous ad- vancement and eminent professional success abundantly attests, he being at this time one of the leading physicians of the city with an extensive patronage which is steadily growing in magnitude and far-reaching influence. Doctor Graven is a close and critical student, who keeps in close touch with everything relating to his calling and, although younger than many of his contemporaries, he already stands well to the front among his professional brethren of Wooster and Wayne county, and, judging by his past achievements, his friends and the public in general predict for him a bright and promising future.
Doctor Graven, on September 26. 1895, was happily married to Tamzon Finney, who was born in Holmes county. Ohio. December 13, 1875, the daugh- ter of Thomas D. and Lois (Numbers) Finney. To this union has been born one son, Marion Finney Graven, born November 9, 1901, a bright and intelli- gent boy who gives promise of a brilliant future. Doctor and Mrs. Graven occupy an important place in the social life of their adopted city and have many warm friends and admirers in the society circles to which they belong. They are both members of the First Presbyterian church at Wooster. In politics the Doctor is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and in the election of 1908 he was his party's candidate for coroner of Wayne county. Doctor Graven is a member of the Masonic order, belonging to Ebenezer Lodge, No. 33, at Wooster, and also the chapter of Royal Arch Masons. He also holds membership in Lodge No. 42, Independent Order of Odd Fellow's, and Lodge No. 22, Knights of Pythias, both at Wooster. Dr. Graven owns a beautiful home at North Beechey, corner of Larwell street.
JAMES MEIER.
To a great extent the prosperity of the agricultural sections of our great country is due to the honest industry, the sturdy perseverance and the wise economy which so prominently characterizes the foreign element that has en-
617
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
tered largely into our population. By comparison with their "old country" surroundings, these people have readily recognized the fact that in America lie the greatest opportunities for the man of ambition and energy. And be- cause of this many have broken the ties of home and native land and have entered earnestly into the task of gaining in the New World a home and a competence. Among this class may be mentioned the late James Meier. who, by reason of years of indefatigable labor and honest effort, not only acquired a well-merited material prosperity, but also richly earned the highest esteem of all with whom he was associated.
James Meier was born in Switzerland, that small, rugged country that has sent so many enterprising and valuable citizens to the great Republic of the West, his birth occurring in the year 1836, in Brugg, canton of Aargau. and there he grew to manhood and was educated in the common schools. He was a member of an honored and hard-working family and when a mere lad began learning the shoemaker's trade, at which he soon became an expert and which he successfully followed for a period of thirty-seven years. Being thus skilled, a good judge of leather goods and always honest in his work, his output was eagerly sought after and he was always very busy at his bench.
His brother, John Meier, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this book, came to America, and, finding conditions favorable here, returned home in 1860 and upon coming back to the United States, James Meier and another brother accompanied him, their parents following them later, making their home in Wayne county, Ohio, until their deaths.
James Meier located four and one-half miles south of Wooster, where he became very comfortably established. having a neat home and acquiring a good little farm in Franklin township which he worked to advantage in connection with shoemaking, having made many valuable improvements of his seventy-eight acres there. The farm is now operated by his widow and children and yields them a very comfortable income.
Mr. Meier was loyal to his own flag, and served as a soldier in the Swit- zerland army for a number of years, in which he is said to have discharged every duty faithfully; and after coming to America he was no less loyal to our institutions, thus becoming a very welcome citizen. In his native country he belonged to the Reformed church, and was always noted for his peaceable, honest relations with his neighbors, all of whom liked and re- spected him.
The death of James Meier occurred in September, 1908, and his remains rest in the cemetery at Fredericksburg.
618
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Mr. Meier was a single man when he came to America, and in 1864 he married Eliza Mccullough, of Holmes county, where her people have long been well known. Mr. and Mrs. Meier reared a large family, fifteen children having been born to them, thirteen sons and two daughters, named as fol- lows: Albert, George, William, Lucinda, Hugh, Edward, John (deceased), Victor, Maynard, Cyrene, Jacob, Atena, Joseph, Virgil, and Neal.
JAMES DINSMORE BEER, M. D.
Among the successful physicians and respected citizens of Wayne county, Ohio, is Dr. James Dinsmore Beer, of Wooster, who is a native son of the Buckeye state, having been born at Canton, Stark county, on the 5th of Sep- tember, 1858. He is descended from sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, his great- grandfather, Thomas Beer, having been a native of county Antrim, Ireland, from whence he emigrated to America in 1722. He settled at Easton, Pennsyl- vania, where he followed the pursuit of farming until his death, which occurred in 1811. His wife bore the maiden name of Aura Aten and they became the parents of a large family. Among these children was Thomas, the subject's grandfather, who was born at Eaton, Pennsylvania, and became a Presby- terian minister, in the pulpit of which church he acquired considerable distinc- tion. He temoved to Wayne county, Ohio, in 1827 and was among the first ministers of his church in this county. His first charge here was in Greene township, after which he preached in succession at Wayne church, Congress church, Lattasburg (or Mount Hope) and Jeromeville. After serving many years as a faithful servant of his Master, he retired from active work and re- moved to Ashland, settling on a farm, where he spent his remaining days. His death occurred in 1886, when he was about ninety years old. At Pitts- burg. Pennsylvania, he married Margaret Cameron, and they became the par- ents of twelve children, one of whom was a son, also named Thomas, who was born near the Wayne church, Wayne county, on September 7, 1832. He se- cured a good education and has been for many years a successful lawyer at Bucyrus, Ohio, to which point he moved in 1860 from Canton. He has risen to a position of distinction in his profession and for twenty years he rendered efficient service as a jurist. From 1873 to 1884 he served as judge of the common pleas court of Crawford county and from the latter year until 1893 as judge of the circuit court. He is a man of high attainments, whose sterling
619
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
worth and high ability has been widely recognized. His wife, the subject's mother, bore the maiden name of Tabitha Mary Dinsmore and was born in York county, Pennsylvania. October 14, 1828. Her parents were James A. and Grizzee (Collins) Dinsmore. James Dinsmore was a pioneer settler of his section of Ohio, having entered land in 1814 in what was then Wayne county, but is now in Ashland county. This worthy couple have had born to them the following children : Mary Margaret, who died in 1866; James D., the subject of this sketch; Thomas, a farmer at Bucyrus, this state; William C., a prominent financier at Yonkers, New York ; Dorcas G., who is principal of a public school at Yonkers, New York; Katharine J., of Bucyrus ; Robert L., deputy postmaster at Yonkers, New York; Mary E., a professional singer, also residing at Yonkers, New York; one, a twin of Robert, died in infancy.
James Dinsmore Beer removed with his parents to Bucyrus when two years old and in that city he received his preliminary education. After com- pleting the public school course, he was for two years engaged in teaching school, and then for a number of years he followed various pursuits, including working with a crew of civil engineers, and he was also employed for a time in compiling county histories. During this time his absorbing ambition was to secure funds with which to obtain a higher education. From 1883 to 1886 he was engaged in the retail drug business at Kingston, Tennessee, and in the latter year was enabled to carry out his long-cherished plans. He entered the Starling Medical College, at Columbus, Ohio, and in 1889 he was graduated at that well-known institution, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. On April Ist of that year he entered upon the active practice of his profession at Wooster, Ohio, and has remained continuously in the practice here since, a period of twenty years. He engages in the general practice of medicine only. not caring for the surgical feature of the science. He has had marked suc- cess in the treatment of patients and has always commanded his full share of the public patronage, being regarded as a safe, conservative and careful doctor. He has a well-selected library of technical works and keeps in close touch with the latest advances in the healing art. He is associated with his fellow practitioners through his membership in the Wayne County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical Society and the American Medical Associa- tion.
Fraternally, Dr. Beer is a member of Ebenezer Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, at Wooster, of which he is a past master. He was raised to the degree of a Master Mason in Union Lodge, No. 38, at Kingston, Tennessee, which lodge was instituted in 1796, having been the thirty-eighth Masonic lodge in-
620
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
stituted in America. Dr. Beer is a man of large physique, weighing in the neighborhood of three hundred pounds, and possesses a disposition correspond- ingly generous. He enjoys a large acquaintance and is well liked among all classes.
On the 22d of September, 1884, Dr. Beer was united in marriage with Jeane L. Thoburn. She was a native of Wheeling, West Virginia, and because of the death of her father while she was yet in infancy, she was reared by her grandfather. F Her father, Dr. Joseph Thoburn, was during the Civil war colonel of the First Regiment West Virginia Infantry (Union), and was killed at the battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864. At the time of his death he was in command of the First Division, Army of West Virginia, under Gen- eral Sheridan, and the latter, in his published work on the Civil war, gives Colonel Thoburn conspicuous mention. Colonel Thoburn was of a notable family, his brother, Bishop James Thoburn, being one of the most prominent figures in the Methodist Episcopal church. Going to India as one of the pioneer missionaries to the Mohammedans, he labored there continuously for fifty years, being honored by his church with the rank of missionary bishop of India. He is a man of marked and versatile ability and met with wonderful success in the foreign field. A sister, Isabelle Thoburn, now deceased, was for several years the very successful president of a college at Lucknow, India. Other members of the Thoburn family have been distinguished in various lines. To Dr. and Mrs. Beer have been born the following children : Mary Margaret, born January 10, 1887, is a teacher in the public schools of Wooster ; Thomas, born November 22, 1888, Jeane Lyle, born May 3, 1893, are both at home and are pursuing their education, as is Dorcas A., who was born November 14, 1894.
JOSEPH WELLINGTON LEHR.
J. W. Lehr was first introduced to this planet January 16, 1859, in Chester township. Wayne county, Ohio, and is a son of Abraham and Susan B. (Carl) Lehr. His father was one of the early settlers of Wayne county, removing here from Pennsylvania and first locating in Canaan township, subsequently removing to Wayne township, later to Chester township. He followed the vocation of farming, which seems to have been the pursuit adopted and prose- cuted by his ancestors for generations. The subject of this sketch was a strong and active youth, and performed the boy's and afterward the young man's part
62
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
in assisting his father in the various duties that are associated with and lie within the scope of the plans and processes of farming. He availed himself of the opportunities and advantages made possible at that period to attend the country schools, where he was industrious and studious, making commendable progress and acquiring good grades in his different studies and all assign- ments made by his teachers. He then resolved and executed the resolution to register as a student at Ada, then under the exclusive supervision, manage- ment and control of his cousin, Prof. Henry Lehr, then to Smithville for three years, when he entered upon his career as teacher, acting in this capacity for one year, or from 1875 to 1879. When he was yet in his first teens it was his boyish disposition and determination to become a physician. There being in his present mind a glamour, fascination, an animating and inspiring halo, en- circling the practice and the profession, this seemed to be the predominant thought, the distinctive and separate aspiration, the lode-star of his life, his studies at the district school, at Smithville, at Ada, and his other and co-related pursuits. It must be remembered that if it was a youthful, it was likewise a wise, commendable and honorable ambition, in the fact that he possessed the intelligent independence and judgment to decide for himself, to make the choice for himself, as to his life-work, present and future, upon the wisdom of which selection hinged future destiny.
Personal friends, intimate acquaintances and parental influence and direc- tion played no part, or if so, no important one in dictating or even suggesting the course or pursuit this young man should or might adopt. His inclinations were not to be a farmer, after the manner and example of his father, or a merchant, a man of business, a teacher, lawyer, or preacher-simply and only a physician. It may therefore be logically conjectured, and philosophically deduced, that, by this uniform preparation, invariable expression of purpose. were the keynotes sounded by a strong and flexible determination and will, supported by a young but discreet judgment, which of themselves were fore- shadowing the avaunt couriers of his subsequent success in the profession of his boyhood's selection.
Success was then coming half-way to meet him. His aptitude and genius for his work was congenital; it was born with him. Selftrust in his case proved to be the first secret of success and it was the best test of his capacity and character. There was no doubt or indecision in his composition ; opposi- tion and competition did not dishearten him, for they operate as whetstones by which a well-balanced highly tempered nature are polished and sharpened. His student and college years were a series of self-denials of rest, recreations
622
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
and many of the animating diversions he would not have found it in his heart to have enjoyed. But he studied, pondered, sacrificed and toiled on, and thus we find the predicate and the ultimate deductive and the legitimate result. For as in the planetary system myriads of orbs revolve in resplendent order around one common center, directed in their course by fixed, unalterable laws, so complicated that the slightest variation on the part of any one body must have its climax in a "wreck of matter and crush of worlds," so in human life every cause produces its legitimate effect, every action or series of actions are fol- lowed by their legitimate consequence.
Joseph W. Lehr became a student of medicine in 1879, entering the office of the late Charles J. Warner, of Congress, a physician of wide practice and high professional attainments, with whom he remained for four years, gradu- ating from the medical department of the University of Wooster in 1883. He began practice at once, opening an office March Ist of this year at Overton. Here for eight years he remained where his professional ability was recog- nized in the building up of an encouraging and lucrative practice, but having determined to locate at the county seat, he removed to Wooster, March I, 1891. On January 6, 1903, he was married to May C. Newall, of Wooster township, with whom and in the circle of his home there is serenity and pleas- ure of domestic enjoyment.
The Doctor has reached the top of the hill of life, but instead of it being studded with peaks and spurs and crags, it is a plateau, from which he can sur- vey the vanished eighteen thousand yesterdays and look up, and forward, and on, to that many more useful and compensating tomorrow's.
Doctor Lehr was not born with the imaginative "spoon in his mouth" nor a Sir or Don prefix to his name, nor any hope for peerage. He stands not on what he borrows from his ancestors, but knows that he must work out his own name and honor. He cares nothing for display, pretense, nor osten- tation, but for the solid virtues, the excellence and the genuiness of man and things. Self made, he is responsible for this. He has now attained his zenith, is in the full strong prime of life, the descendant of a stanch and rug- ged German ancestry, with the Teutonic enthusiasm in his blood and the loy- alty to friends and country of the old Prussian and Hohenzollern of the Fatherland. He is five feet ten inches in height, straight as the mast on a frigate, with dark hair and eyes, a firm and well rounded neck, admirably ad- justed to a brace of shoulders after the manner of a veritable modern Ajax, tipping the beam at two hundred thirty pounds, active, muscular,-in short, the picture of health, a model in physical outline, in facial assertiveness, force, will and expression as one who had obeyed the Scriptural command, "Physi-
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.