USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 70
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
On the 9th of December, 1884. Mr. Worst wedded Belvia Cline, who was born in Jackson township, Ashland county, Ohio. September 16, 1861. the daughter of John and Jane Cline. early settlers in that section. There was born to this union one son, Guy, born January 17, 1886, and whose death occurred on October 3. 1886.
In politics Mr. Worst is a stanch Democrat. and has served his fellow citizens in several official capacities, having been trustee of Congress town- ship for six years, a member of the school board for five years and a notary public for seven years. Socially, he is a member of the Independent Order
(41)
642
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
of Odd Fellows and the Knights of the Maccabees. He belongs to that public-spirited, useful type of men whose ambitions and desires are directed in those channels through which flow the greatest and most permanent good to the greatest number, and it is therefore consistent with the purpose and plan of this work that his record be given among those of other representative citizens of Wayne county.
HORACE NELSON MATEER.
Holding worthy prestige as a scholar, scientist and physician, the sub- ject of this review has achieved distinction in the various lines of effort to which he has devoted his talents and as a citizen alive to all that makes for the progress of his county and state he commands the same high degree of con- fidence and esteem which characterize his professional status.
Dr. Horace Nelson Mateer is a native of Adams county, Pennsylvania, and was born December 12, 1855, about eleven miles from Gettysburg. the scene of one of the greatest and most sanguinary battles of the late Civil war and one of the few decisive engagements of modern times. The Mateer family is of Scotch-Irish origin, and the present patronymic is a modification of the name McTeer, by which the ancestors of the American branch were originally known. When the Doctor's antecedents first came to America can not be ascertained, but it is supposed to have been some time during the colonial period, as the name was familiar in various parts of the Cumberland valley as early as the Revolutionary struggle. William Mateer, the Doctor's grandfather, was a native of the above valley and a farmer by occupation. Among his children was a son by the name of John Mateer, whose birth oc- curred in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1807, and who also became a tiller of the soil, first in his native valley and later in the county of Mercer ; thence he removed to Illinois, where he spent the remainder of his days, dying in Monmouth, Illinois, January 29, 1875, at the age of sixty- seven years.
Mary Nelson Diven, wife of John Mateer and mother of the subject of this sketch, was also born and reared in southeastern Pennsylvania, and be- longed to one of the old and well-known Scotch-Irish families that settled in the Cumberland valley at a very early period. She survived her husband about twenty-three years, departing this life in 1898 at the age of seventy- nine.
John and Mary N. Mateer were the parents of seven children, of whom
-
643
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
the late Calvin Wilson Mateer, D. D., LL.D., a distinguished minister of the Presbyterian church and for forty-five years a missionary to the Chinese, was the oldest. He was born in Pennsylvania, received a collegiate and the- ological training and after a few years of ministerial labor in his native state and elsewhere was sent in 1863 as a missionary to China, where he not only inaugurated important religious work, but founded the Tung Chow College, one of the principal educational institutions of the Flowery kingdom, which he served as president, and the success of which was due very largely to his efforts and judicious management. He became one of the most noted men of his church in the foreign field and in addition to locating a number of mission stations and publishing many valuable books on various subjects, served as chairman of the committee which translated the Bible into the Chinese tongue, one of the greatest and most important works of the kind ever accomplished in the domain of scholarship. Doctor Mateer was first married to Julia Brown, of Delaware county, Ohio, who proved a worthy helpmeet to her dis- tinguished husband, sharing his labors in the missionary field, encouraging him in all his efforts to improve the condition of the Chinese and teach them the way of life and demonstrating her worth in a special manner in looking after the interests of hundreds of Chinese children, who learned to prize her as something more than a mother.
Some time after the death of this excellent woman, the Doctor con- tracted a matrimonial alliance with Ada Haven, of Pekin, China, who sur- vives him and at present lives in the city of Weishein, where she is engaged in missionary work. During his forty-five years as a missionary Doctor Ma- teer revisited his native land but three times, his interest in his labor being such that he found it difficult to turn it over to others, even for a brief period. He lived a very active and eminently useful life, accomplished great results for civilization and the Christian religion and was planning for still more ex- tensive operations when death called him from his labors in the year 1908.
William Diven Mateer, the second son, after a long and useful career as a business man in the state of Illinois, is now living in retirement at Santa Ana, California. Mrs. Jane Henderson Kirkwood, the third of the family. is the widow of the late Dr. Samuel J. Kirkwood, for many years professor of mathematics in the University of Wooster and a most highly esteemed scholar and accomplished gentleman. John Lourie Mateer, the next in order of birth, went to China a number of years ago as superintendent of the print- ing establishment of the American board of commissioners for foreign mis- sions in the city of Pekin. He died there the year before the Boxer uprising and his loss was greatly deplored by all the foreign contingent in that capital.
.
644
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Rev. Robert McCheyne Mateer, a learned Presbyterian divine, located at Wieshein, China, is the fifth in succession. Since going to the present field of labor in 1882, he has done much important educational and evangelical work and is esteemed one of the most successful and judicious missionaries in the province where he is located. Dr. Horace Nelson Mateer, of this review, is the sixth in order of birth. The youngest of the family, Mrs. Lillian Mateer Walker, wife of Rev. William Stokes Walker, is deceased. Both Rev. and Mrs. Walker went to the Flowery kingdom as missionaries of the Presbyterian church, but after several years of strenuous work they were obliged to return home on account of the husband's failing health, arriving in this country in 1885. Later Mrs. Walker fell a victim to disease con- tracted while abroad and departed this life in the year 1900, lamented by all who knew her.
When Horace N. Mateer was about one year old his parents moved from Cumberland valley to Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and seven years later they changed their place of abode to Henry, Illinois, where the future physi- cian and scientist received his preliminary educational discipline. Later he ac- companied his parents upon their removal to Monmouth, in the same state, and in due time entered the college in that city, which he attended from 1872 to 1875 inclusive. Shortly after his father's death he entered the junior class of Princeton University, New Jersey, completing the prescribed course of study in that institution and graduating in 1877, his brother Robert receiving his degree the same year. During the two years following he was principal of the Laird Institute, a preparatory school at Murraysville, Pennsylvania, which position he resigned in 1879, to spend a year in post-graduate work at Princeton.
In the fall of 1880 Doctor Mateer entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, where he spent the three years ensuing in close study and research, making an honorable record as a student and standing high in the confidence and esteem of his professors and class- mates. On the completion of his course, in June, 1883, he was graduated with first honors of his class, in addition to which he also received the Henry C. Lea prize for the best graduating thesis, both rewards coming to him as a result of painstaking study and investigation and a laudable ambition to excel in all of his work. The year following his graduation he was made resident physician and surgeon of the University Hospital in Philadelphia, but after holding the position for a short time resigned and in April, 1884, located at Wooster, where he has since been engaged in the practice of his profession with most signal success.
645
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
In September of the above year Doctor Mateer formed a co-partnership with Dr. James D. Robison, which lasted very agreeably for three years. when it was discontinued by reason of Dr. Mateer's appointment, in the fall of 1887, to the chair of biology in Wooster University. He accepted the lat- ter position with the understanding that he continue the practice of medicine in connection with his duties as professor. Doctor Mateer founded the de- partment, of which he is still the head, equipped it for effective work and it is now one of the largest and most popular departments of the university. He has devoted a number of years to the study of scientific subjects, has made many original investigations in fields but little explored and is now recognized as an authority on all chemical, microscopic and bacteriological methods which have come into prominence of recent years in connection with the treatment of disease. He has a fine private laboratory for diagnosing his own cases, in addition to which his services are frequently utilized in special work for other physicians and in the treatment of chronic and obstinate diseases.
Doctor Mateer is not only the master of his profession, but as a scientist holds an important place in the world of thought and scholarship. His labors have been eminently creditable and successful and by reason of his superior methods of treatment and the original discoveries which he has made from time to time he may be considered a true benefactor of suffering humanity. Availing himself of every opportunity to add to his professional and scien- tific knowledge and skill, he keeps in close touch with the trend of current thought and abreast of the times in all the latest discoveries. He belongs to the Wayne County Medical Society, Northeastern Ohio Medical Society, the American Medical Association, and is an influential member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was one of the founders of the Wooster Hospital and has ever manifested a commendable interest in the institution, laboring constantly for its success and sparing no reasonable efforts to make it meet the high purposes which the originators had in view.
The domestic life of Doctor Mateer dates from October 25, 1888, when he was united in marriage with Elizabeth Gaston, of East Liverpool, Ohio, daughter of George and Rachael ( Montgomery) Gaston, a union blessed with four children, viz: John Gaston, born February 14, 1890, a junior in the Wooster University ; Mary Nelson, born September 2, 1891 ; Elizabeth Mont- gomery, born July 31, 1894, and Dorothy, who first saw the light of day on November 1, 1901.
Doctor and Mrs. Mateer are members of the Westminster Presbyterian church, and take an active interest in all lines of good work under the auspices of the same. In politics he is independent in all the term implies, refusing
646
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
to acknowledge the behests of parties or partisans and casting his ballot for the candidates best qualified for the offices to which they aspire. A ripe scholar, a noted scientist, a distinguished physician and withal a courteous and polished gentleman, Doctor Mateer wields a wide influence for good and has made the world wiser and better by his presence. He comes of a family of culture and refinement and of strong religious convictions, six of the seven children born to his parents offering themselves for missionaries and four of them being accepted. The Doctor at one time had an ambition to enter this important field, but was rejected on account of a slight physical defect from which he suffered when quite young. That he failed to carry out his original intentions of going to foreign parts is a matter of congratulation on the part of thousands of his fellowmen who have profited by his eminent abilities as a healer of human ills and his services as a leader in important fields of scien- tific research.
DAVID H. BRADEN, M. D.
Fortified by careful and extended professional training and a natural predilection, the subject of this sketch holds prestige as one of the able and popular members of the medical fraternity of Wooster, where he is engaged in the general practice as a physician and surgeon with office headquarters on North Sixth street. A resident of the city since 1903, he has come rapidly to the front among the enterprising and progressive men of his calling and as a representative of the homeopathic school of medicine he has secured a large and lucrative patronage and is continually adding to his fame as a suc- cessful healer.
Dr. David H. Braden is a representative of an old and well-known Ohio family that came to the state when the country was a wilderness and the feet of the red men still pressed the soil. His grandfather, a true type of the brave and daring pioneer of the early days, at intervals was obliged to defend his backwoods home from the attacks of the savages and from time to time par- ticipated in forays against the wily foes until the latter were finally driven from the country. He figured prominently in the early history of the state and not only founded a large and eminently respectable family, but left the impress of his individuality so indelibly impressed upon the community in which he settled that his memory is there cherished as a leader of men and a benefactor of his kind.
Daniel Braden, the Doctor's father, was born in Ashland county in the
647
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
year 1845 and is still living near the place of his birth. He was reared to agricultural pursuits and for a number of years has been one of the leading farmers and prosperous men of Milton township in the above county, where he owns large landed interests and stands high in the esteem and confidence of his neighbors and fellow citizens. At the breaking out of the late Civil war he enlisted in an Ohio regiment and gave three years and three months to the service of his country, during which time he took part in a number of noted campaigns and bloody battles and earned an honorable record as a brave and gallant defender of the union. In his young manhood Daniel Braden married Mary Daniels, who also was born in the county of Ashland and who departed this life at the early age of twenty-five years, after bearing her husband two children, the older of whom being Mrs. William Dravenstodd. of Wayne county, and the younger the subject of this review.
David H. Braden is a native of Ashland county, and dates his birth from February 7, 1868. He was reared on the family homestead in Milton town- ship and when old enough to be of service bore his share in the cultivation of the farm where, in close touch with nature, he grew up a strong and rugged lad and in due time was well fitted for his part in the affairs of life. Mean- while he attended the public schools of his native county and such was his progress that at the early age of seventeen he was able to secure a license and take charge of a school, which he taught with credit to himself and to the sat- isfaction of pupils and patrons. He began educational wark in the year 1887 and continued the same until 1894, during which time he earned an honorable reputation as an able and judicious instructor and had he seen fit to devote his life to this line of effort he doubtless would have risen to a place of distinc- tion among the leading educators of the state. Not caring to continue any longer in a calling which promised so little emolument, the Doctor, while teach- ing, yielded to a desire of long standing by taking up the study of medicine and in 1891 entered the Cleveland Medical College, which he attended during the greater part of that and the ensuing year. Later. 1893. he became a stu- dent of medicine and surgery in the same city where he prosecuted his studies and researches until 1895, on March 27th of which year he was graduated with a creditable record as an industrious and enterprising student, standing among the first of his class and enjoying to a marked degree the confidence of the professors of the institution as well as the students.
Immediately after receiving his degree Doctor Braden located at the town of New Pittsburg, in his native county, where he initiated the practice of his profession and where during the four years ensuing he built up a repre- sentative business and earned more than local repute as an enterprising, wide-
648
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
awake and successful physician. At the expiration of the period indicated he transferred his practice to Shelby, in the same county, whither his reputation had preceded him, but after three years in that town he sought a wider field for the exercise of his talents by removing to Wooster, where since 1903 he has devoted his attention very closely to his chosen calling with the result that he now commands an extensive and very lucrative professional business which from the year indicated has steadily grown in magnitude and im- portance.
Doctor Braden has made commendable progress in the noble profession to which he is devoting his energies and talents and, as already stated, is recog- nized as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of the beautiful city which he proposes to make his permanent home, being held in high esteem by his professional contemporaries and by the general public. His financial success has been commensurate with the ability displayed in his chosen field of en- deavor and he is now well situated to enjoy the many material comforts which have come to him as the reward of duty faithfully performed. He keeps in the front rank in following out the advances made in the science of medicine and surgery and in addition to his high professional attainments manifests a commendable interest in all that makes for the general good of the community along other lines and is in sympathy with all laudable enterprises and measures for the welfare of his fellow men. He is a member of the Masonic, Odd Fel- lows and Woodmen orders, and while well informed on the leading questions of the day takes little interest in party politics and has no ambition to gratify in the way of public position. He is first of all a physician, making his pro- fession paramount to every other consideration, which accounts in a large measure for the eminent position to which he has attained and the success by which his professional career has ever been characterized.
Doctor Braden was married in the year 1888 to Minnie Reed, of Ashland county, who died in 1898 after bearing her husband three children, namely : Carl. Lloyd and Vera, aged eighteen, sixteen and twelve years, respectively. In 1899 the Doctor contracted a marriage with his present wife, who bore the maiden name of Lucy Piper, of New Pittsburg, Wayne county, daughter of the late Henry Piper, a well known citizen of that town, the union being with- out issue.
SAMUEL HARRISON MILLER.
The biographer can see nothing but good results flowing from the life work of the ancestors of the gentleman whose name forms the introduction to this sketch, for they were persons of the highest respectability and of
+
Eng by ? & Williams & Bra NY
Ella L. Miller
St Willer
-
649
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
unusual intelligence, therefore were leaders in their respective communities and useful citizens, their influence having always been strong for upright liv- ing and steady industry. Many of these traits seem to be possessed by Samuel H. Miller, a well-known business man of Doylestown. Wayne county. He is the son of John and Susan ( Bauer) Miller and was born in Nazareth. Northampton county, Pennsylvania, May 28, 1839, and in May. 1843. he came with his parents to Norton township, Summit county, Ohio. He was educated in the district schools, also attended the high school at Akron, and. being a close student, he received a very serviceable education. He left the home farm when twelve years of age, and. having very early in life shown an inclination to the mercantile life, he began clerking in the store of Milton W. Henry, of Akron, Ohio, where he remained for a period of six years, rendering that gentleman very efficient service. In December. 1863, he came to Doylestown and engaged as bookkeeper for Cline, Seiber- ling & Hower, manufacturers of mowers and reapers. So faithful and efficient were his services that on September 1, 1865. he was admitted to the firm and the name was changed to Cline, Seiberling & Company, and it was again changed on December 31, 1878, to Seiberling. Miller & Company. composed of John F. Seiberling, of Akron ; James H. Seiberling and Samuel H. Miller, of Doylestown. In March, 1896, the firm was changed to Seiber- ling & Miller, John F. Seiberling having withdrawn. This firm continued with usual success until March, 1901, when the firm was incorporated under the laws of Ohio under the name of Seiberling & Miller Company, and they have thus continued in business to this date, manufacturing mowers, reap- ers and binders of a very high grade and which find a ready market owing to their excellent qualities, the business rapidly growing and invading new territory from year to year. Their plant is well equipped with modern machinery and a large force of the most skilled artisans is kept constantly employed.
Samuel H. Miller was married on August 29, 1867, to Ella L. Schneider, daughter of Alfred and Clarissa ( Clewell) Schneider, who was born in Han- over, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on January 27, 1847. In 1852 the family removed to Norton township, Summit county, Ohio. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Miller, four of whom are living, namely : Fred J., born December 8, 1868, is living at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio ; William R., born March 6. 1875, a mechanical engineer at Akron: Sydney I .. , born April 5, 1885, is living at Doylestown, Ohio: Lucile M. (Shimer). born November 3, 1886, is residing at Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
650
WAYNE COUNTY, OHIO.
Mr. Miller is treasurer and director of the Indiana Rubber and Insu- lated Wire Company, of Jonesboro, Indiana, and he is also interested in farming. He has been very successful as a business man owing to his close application to individual affairs and his genteel demeanor in his relations with his fellowmen.
Mr. Miller has always been a Republican, having voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1860. He has never held public office, except having served on the local board of education and as village treasurer. He is a member of the lodge and encampment. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Masonic lodge, chapter, council and commandery, and Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Cleveland, also Alkoran Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Cleveland, Ohio.
WILLIAM C. MYERS.
On the roster of Wayne county's solid and influential business men the name of William C. Myers stands out clear and prominent as the head of the largest insurance agencies of Wooster and one of the most successful in the state. He has achieved a wide and honorable reputation among the progres- sive men of his adopted county and no one commands a greater influence or stands higher in the esteem and confidence of the public.
The Myers family, which is of German origin and originally pronounced Moyer, came to the United States in a very early day and settled near Phil- adelphia, Pennsylvania, where in due time the name became identified with a number of important interests and figured for a number of years in local an- nals. Contemporaneous with this family were the Funcks, who also emi- grated from Germany and were among the early comers to eastern Pennsyl- vania, where in the course of a few years their descendants became not only quite numerous but prominent in building up their respective communities and developing the resources of the country. From the most reliable data obtain- able, the antecedents of the latter family in the country appear to have been one Bishop Henry Funck, who came from Germany some time in the sev- enteenth century and settled not far from Philadelphia, from whence his descendants, as above indicated, moved to other counties and localities, some of them in after years moving to Ohio and still farther west.
Capt. Ralph Funck, a native of Pennsylvania, moved in an early day to Wayne county, and here spent the remainder of his days, dying a number of
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.