USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 53
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Bonnie Lance, daughter of Andrew Jackson Lance, was born in Milton township in 1880, and later moved to Creston, where she has since resided. She was married in 1897 to Lee H. Grunder, son of Henry Grunder. To this union were born four children: Ona Kathryn, born October 8, 1898; Reba Louise, born March 3, 1901 ; Henry Dale, born September 22, 1903, and Dorothy Fay, born June 21, 1906, all living at home at the present time.
MAHLON ROUCH.
An enumeration of the representative citizens of Wayne county who have won recognition and success for themselves and at the same time conferred honor upon the community dignified by their citizenship, would be decided- ly incomplete were there failure to make specific mention of the popular at- torney whose name initiates this review, who has long held worthy prestige in legal, business, political and social circles, and has always been distinctively a man of affairs. He wields a wide influence among those with whom his lot has been cost. ever having the affairs of his county and state at heart and doing what he could to aid the general development of his native locality, thereby deserving the applause which is today accorded him by all classes.
Mahlon Rouch may consistently be ranked as one of Wayne county's most prominent and popular products, for his birth occurred in Plain town- ship, June 2, 1841, and the major part of his useful life has been spent within the borders of this county. He descended from an excellent ancestry, the type that laid the foundations for succeeding generations to prosper and enjoy. His father was Jacob Rouch, a man of sound judgment, excellent traits and much influence in his community, some of his worthy attributes descending to the subject, those worthy of enumeration being, powers of extempore
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speaking, acute, alert and argumentative debating powers, for the elder Rouch was a natural orator, who, on the political rostrum, spoke convincingly, and who, withal, possessed an anomalous memory. He was a prosperous farmer and on his father's broad acres Mahlon spent his earlier years, becoming inured to manual toil, which resulted in laying the foundation for a sturdy manhood. He attended the neighboring schools during the winter months, and when nineteen years of age he gratified an ambition of long standing by beginning a college course at Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio, in the autumn of 1860, in which institution he remained two years. Then feeling that it was his duty to give up all and do what he could toward saving the national Union from disruption, he laid aside his books and entered the Federal army, enlisting on August 16, 1862, in Company A, One Hundred and Twentieth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, under Capt. Joseph H. Downing, and after a most faithful and gallant service in many a trying cam- paign and hard-fought field in the Southland, received his honorable dis- charge from the military service on July 22, 1865. A criterion of his ability. and patriotism as a soldier is gained by a study of his record while in the service, which shows a series of promotions which none but the deserving could have received. Enlisting as a private, he was successively promoted to sergeant and sergeant major; to second lieutenant and first lieutenant ; the last promotion coming to him when held as a prisoner.
The military record of Mr. Rouch is one of which any loyal supporter of the honor of the stars and stripes might well be proud and feel a justifi- able satisfaction of duty modestly but faithfully performed. He was never off duty, and was in every engagement in which his regiment participated. except when he was a captive within the Confederate lines. His soldier fortunes were identified with those of his regiment at Chickasaw Bayou, Mississippi, December 28, 1862, to January 1, 1863, and Arkansas Post, January IIth following, and he passed through that terrible scourge of sick- ness and death among the troops at Young's Point. Louisiana, withstanding and performing all the duties of the well soldier among the sick and dying, and he also worked many days on the Grant Canal. He was in the march from Miliken's Bend to the rear of Vicksburg, and in the siege of that city until it fell; the final taking of Jackson, and in the disastrous engagement on board the boat "City Belle," which was captured by the enemy near Shaggy Point, Red river, Louisiana, May 3, 1864, when he was made a prisoner, and was held as such for thirteen months, in Camp Ford, near Tyler. Texas. He finally received his discharge July 22, 1865, over three and one-half months after the fall of Richmond, April 9, 1865.
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Returning from the army, Mr. Rouch taught school the following win- ter, then engaged in farming for a season, and in the campaign of 1866 he was a candidate for auditor of Wayne county, on what was known that year as the Soldier's ticket, but failed of election, going down in defeat with the balance of the ticket, by a small majority. In order to further equip him- self for what the poets are pleased to call "the battle of life," he entered the law department of Michigan University, at Ann Arbor. graduating there- from in the spring of 1868, having made a splendid record. During this year he was admitted to the bar in Ohio by the district court of Wayne county. He began practice in the spring of 1870 in Orrville, remaining there for a period of four years and gaining an excellent foothold in the legal profession, but, observing a wider field for the exercise of his talents, he moved to Wooster in the spring of 1874, immediately opening an office here and he very successfully prosecuted his legal duties without an asso- ciate in practice until the formation of partnership relations with C. M. Yocum, in 1896. He was a candidate in 1898 on the Prohibition ticket for supreme judge of the state of Ohio.
Mr. Rouch was originally a Republican, but for the past twenty-seven years has not been in co-operation with that party. As stated above, in 1898 he was candidate for supreme judge of Ohio on the Prohibition ticket. but failed of election, however making an excellent race. . He first turned his attention to the Prohibition party in 1882 and thus for more than a quarter of a century he has been loyal, consistent and true to his convictions, not- withstanding the fact that his allegiance to the same has, perhaps, deprived him of public offices which, had he remained a Republican, he doubtless could have easily procured ; but principle means everything to him and he is of the type of men of Henry Clay, who said: "I had rather be right than to be President." Mr. Rouch is a consistent Christian gentleman, hon- ored and trusted by all with whom he has come into contact. Since 1874 he has been an active member of the United Presbyterian church, of which he is a liberal supporter.
By strict attention to his professional duties, by careful investigation of the legal questions that are brought before him for consideration, in com- bination with his sound judgment and natural legal sense, he has come to be recognized as- one of the safe and reliable legal counselors at the Wayne county bar. Not only is he highly regarded in this capacity, but as an ad- vocate he maintains the standard of successful trial lawyers. He talks easily, freely and with directness to the subject under consideration. There is little
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circumlocution, no surplusage or ambiguity in his arguments. In his manipu- lation of evidence he is methodical and discriminating, cool, calm, unshaken and is not easily foiled by an adversary or flung from his poise. His nerves lie deep under the cuticle and do not hastily vibrate under exciting environ- ments, his adversaries in court usually failing to draw him from his equilib- rium. In his professional and private relations he is circumspect and honor- able and as a man and citizen is progressive and enterprising.
In 1870 Mr. Rouch was married to Margaret McQuigg, daughter of John McQuigg, now deceased, a native of Ireland.
HARRY E. BAKER.
Harry E. Baker, of Orrville, comes of a family of German extraction who have for several generations been citizens of America. His great- grandfather Baker ( the name being then spelled Becker) came to this country before the Revolutionary war. He was a Dunkard. He entered the army and served faithfully until the close of the war. His son Frederick, great- grandfather of Harry E., was born in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, and about 1832 came to Wayne county with his family, locating in Canaan town- ship. but later removed to Seneca county, Ohio, where he and his wife both died. They had a numerous family : Frederick, a resident of Seneca county, Ohio; Jacob Baker, of Wooster, Ohio; Peter, of Germantown, Ohio, who was formerly a Methodist preacher; Julia Ann, widow of Charles Betts, of Mar- shalltown, Iowa. Abraham, grandfather of Harry E., was born in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, December 25, 1800. In his youth he began study of medicine, but gave it up to enter the ministry, becoming a preacher of the Evangelical Association. For a number of years he labored in that cause, but on account of defective hearing gave up preaching and united with the Methodist Episcopal church. He adopted the profession of veterinary sur- geon, and in June. 1834, he came to Wayne county, where he lived until his death, in 1891, at Wooster. This was then a new country and Mr. Baker saw it transformed from a wilderness to one of the richest agricultural counties of the great state of Ohio. For three years he kept a hotel in Wooster and then removed to Jefferson, four and one-half miles west, where he remained until the death of his wife. He was married in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, to Mrs. Hannah (Spangler) Zinn, a native of that county, who had been previously married to William Zinn, by whom she
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had four children, two of them yet living, George and Elizabeth. She was born in 1797 and died May 9, 1878. Her father when quite young came to America from Zweibruecken, Germany, about one hundred and fifty years ago. He had learned surveying in his native land and on arriving in America his entire property consisted of his instruments. In order to reach the New World he was compelled to sell his services for a certain period to a transportation company, and by hard labor paid for his passage. At the time of his death he was the owner of four fine farms, two in Lancaster county and two in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania.
Abraham Baker was all his life a religious man and for fifty years was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, there being no Evangelical society when he came to Ohio. He was an honest, straightforward man, esteemed by all who knew him. He and his wife had four children, William Bartman, Samuel Hunter, Catherine Amanda, Yost Spangler, all deceased except Yost S., father of Harry E., who was born in Wooster, September 7, 1834.
Yost S. Baker learned the trade of shoemaking, at which he worked until July 24, 1862, on which day he entered the Union army in Company I, One Hundred and Second Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The regi- ment was ordered from the rendezvous at Camp Mansfield, before being armed or equipped. to the defense of Cincinnati, then threatened by the rebel Gen. Kirby Smith. They were mustered into the United States service in Cov- ington, Kentucky, and then sent to Newport, that state, where they were kept in line of battle for several days. The regiment afterward saw con- siderable service in the Southwest, in which Mr. Baker participated, serving faithfully until the close of the war; he was discharged May 23, 1865, hav- ing served three years. Though never wounded, the hardships endured in the army somewhat impaired Mr. Baker's health and he yet feels their effects. Returning to the pursuits of peace, he opened a shoe shop in Smith- ville, where for six months he carried on his trade. Then sold out and for several years worked as a journeyman. In 1877, he again opened a shop in Smithville, to which in 1885 he added a line of ready-made goods. Yost S. Baker was married August 2, 1860, to Fannie Drabenstot, who was born Sep- tember 23, 1840, near Smithville, her parents having come from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. They have two children, Harry Ellsworth and Edna May. The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Baker's grandfather, Frederick Drabenstot, was married to Peggy Nicholas and they had ten children. Frederick, the grandfather of the subject, was
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born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1806 and in 1829 married Mary Croft, she being one of four children, two boys and two girls. They came to Wayne county in 1830 and had three children, Jacob, Mary and Fanny, all living. Mary Croft Drabenstot died at the age of forty-eight and Frederick Draben- stot married Mary Williams. They had four children, Emma, Ida, Della and Hugh, of whom the youngest three are living. In 1865 he sold his farm in Wayne county and removed to Huntington county, Indiana, where he pur- chased two farms, and where he died in 1900, at the age of ninety-six years.
Harry Ellsworth Baker was born April 26, 1861, while the family was living at Smithville, but his birthplace was Jefferson. His district school education was supplemented with two years' tuition in Professor Eberly's high school, in Smithville, later the Northern Ohio Normal School. Leaving there he learned the trade of a barber at Wooster and returning to Smith- ville in 1880, opened a shop. On November 22, 1881, Mr. Baker was mar- ried to Emma Loretta, only child of John H. and Mary E. (Salmons) Myers, of Orrville. Her father was a teacher and had been principal of the high schools at Upper Sandusky, Kenton, Wadsworth, Ohio, and for two years preceding his death, of the high school at Orrville, also holding the position of county examiner. He died September 8, 1875, aged thirty-eight, and his widow subsequently became the wife of John H. Harter. She is still a resident of Orrville and has one child, Mary Alverda Harter. About fifty- five years ago the Myers family came to Wayne county, from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. Tobias Myers, grandfather of Mrs. Baker, was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and when eighteen years of age came to America. In 1836 he was married to Catherine Zimmerman, to which union ten chil- dren were born: John H., father of Mrs. Baker; Jacob, Mary (Rife), Sam- uel, Elizabeth ( Bechtel), Reuben, Tobias, Daniel, Abraham and Elam. Four still survive, three of them living in Wayne county. Harry E. Baker moved to Orrville in 1894 where he conducts one of the leading barber shops and takes an active interest in local affairs. He also owns a fine farm adjoining the town, where he is interested quite extensively in preparing Western draft houses for the Eastern markets, and also owns several valuable prop- erties in Orrville. Mr. and Mrs. Baker have one child, Ellis Myers, born August 29, 1882, who resides in Orrville and is engaged in business with his father. He was married February 21, 1904, to M. Gertrude Seas, daugh- ter of the late J. T. Seas, to which union one child was born, Mary Eleanor, July 12, 1906. Mrs. Baker was born in Smithville, Ohio, December 21,
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1862, and was three years old when her father accepted the position of prin- cipal of the schools at Upper Sandusky, where he lived three years. She lived with her parents until her father's death and then made her home with her mother until her marriage. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Emma Baker's great-grandfather, Jesse Mckinley, was born in 1794 in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and in 1815 married Mary Dugan, who was born at the same place in 1792. They moved to Wayne county in 1817, where they lived till their deaths. Jesse Mckinley was a squire and a school teacher and owned a quarter section of land at his death. They had a family of nine children. Catherine (Mckinley) Gearard, the eldest of the family and grandmother of Emma Baker, was married to Charles Salmons December 13, 1838, and they had two children, Mary Etta, mother of Emma Baker, and Elizabeth Ann, both living in Wayne county. Mrs. Salmons afterward married J. P. Gearard. She died in 1898 on the old Mckinley homestead at the age of eighty-two years. Jesse Mckinley died at the age of thirty-nine years and his widow survived him twenty years, dying at the age of fifty-nine. Emma Baker's great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother Mckinley were natives of Ireland, as were also her great-great-grandparents Dugan.
WILLIAM MORGANROTH.
Standing for upright manhood and progressive citizenship, William Mor- ganroth, the well known and popular hotel man of Wooster, has long repre- sented that class of residents of Wayne county who may be depended upon to support such measures as tend toward the general upbuilding of the community along material, civic and moral lines. The prosperity and substantial welfare of any vicinity in a large measure are due to the enterprise and wise foresight of the class of business men which he represents-progressive, wide-awake men of affairs. These make the real history of a community, and their in- fluence in shaping and directing its varied interests is difficult to estimate.
Mr. Morganroth was born April 17, 1861, in Massillon, Stark county, Ohio, and he is the son of Henry and Anna (Guenter) Morganroth. Both parents were born in Germany, from which country they came to America in youth. The father learned the weaver's trade. and he worked in the factories at Akron and Massillon, Ohio, for some time. He subsequently entered the
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hotel business at Massillon and Doylestown. The father died in May, 1895. and the mother died in August of that year, and both are buried in the cemetery at Doylestown. They were highly respected and well known in their com- munity.
William Morganroth received a good education in the public schools at Doylestown and after passing through the high school he learned the butcher business and for many years he was successfully engaged in business for him- self, also bought cattle on an extensive scale in connection with his regular vocation. In 1895 he entered the hotel business at Greenwich, Ohio, and from there to New London, Ohio, and he enjoyed a very satisfactory patron- age and became widely known to the traveling public as a genial and obliging host. He subsequently went to Akron and engaged in the same business with equal success, later came to Wooster where he is now managing one of the most popular and best hotels-the Archer-in this part of the state. It is first-class in every respect, always well kept, neatly furnished and under his able management has become a favorite with the traveling public.
In December, 1891, Mr. Morganroth married Minnie Siever, of Summit county, Ohio, the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth ( Yacky) Siever, an ex- cellent old family of that county. To Mr. and Mrs. Morganroth was born one child, Della, now a young lady of rare refinement and much promise, and popular with the young society people of Wooster. Mr. and Mrs. Morganroth are people of sterling worth and of praiseworthy characteristics. Mr. Morgan- roth is deserving of a great deal of credit for what he has accomplished, having started in life a poor boy and compelled to work his own way to success.
LAKE F. JONES.
Lake F. Jones was born on the IIth day of August, 1844, at Fredericks- burg, Wayne county, Ohio, and died on the 9th day of September, 1907. at Wooster, Ohio. He was a son of David K. and Elizabeth ( Rayl) Jones, and a grandson of Benjamin and Hannah (Van Nimmon) Jones.
David K. Jones, the father of Lake F. Jones, was born in Wooster on the 21st day of July, 1815. He engaged in the dry goods business in Wooster and later moved to Shreve, where he conducted a general store for many years. He was a man of fine appearance, kind and generous, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. He served as postmaster of Shreye and
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held other offices of trust in that village, where he resided for many years, and where he died at the advanced age of ninety-four years.
Benjamin Jones, the grandfather of Lake F. Jones, was born in Win- chester, Frederick county, Virginia, the 13th day of April, 1787, and when but a child was taken by his parents to Washington county, Pennsylvania. In 18II he first visited Wooster on a tour of inspection on horseback. In the winter of 1812-13 he returned to Wooster, where he afterwards resided and where he spent an active and useful life. In 1815 he was elected justice of the peace of Wooster township, and subsequently filled the office of trustee of that township. In 1818 he was elected commissioner of Wayne county and served in that capacity for three years. In 1821 he was elected a representa- tive for the county of Wayne in the General Assembly of Ohio. In 1824 he was placed on the Jackson electorial ticket as one of the district electors. He represented Wayne county in the Ohio Senate from December 7, 1829, to December 3, 1832, having been re-elected in 1830. In 1832 he was elected a member of Congress and re-elected in 1834. March 17, 1836, he retired to his farm, west of Wooster, where he lived until his death, which occurred on the 24th of April, 1861.
Lake F. Jones at an early age engaged in business on his own account. buying and selling sheep and cattle, and operated this business successfully in Wayne, Holmes and Knox counties. In 1868 he was married to Jennie Rathall, at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, where he was then located in business. They had four children, as follows: Mary E., married to John Johnson, of Woos- ter ; Jessie K., married to Judge John C. McClaran, of Wooster; Charles C. Jones, of Wooster, and Lena F. Jones, who died in Wooster, aged eight years, in 1883. In 1881 Mr. Jones, with his family, moved from Mt. Vernon, Ohio, to Wooster and afterwards engaged in the real estate business, and in later years devoted his time and attention to prospecting for oil and gas in different parts of northern Ohio. He was kind hearted and generous to a fault, and always willing to help those in distress. He was widely known and had many friends. Like his father and grandfather, he was an ardent Demo- crat in politics, and was, for many years prior to his death, prominent in the councils of that party in Wayne county. As a Democrat he was nominated and elected several terms as a member of the Wooster city council. In 1896 he received the Democratic nomination for state senator from Wayne county by a large majority, and was elected and served as a member of the Ohio Senate in the seventy-third General Assembly, representing the counties of Wayne, Holmes, Knox and Morrow.
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EZEKIEL B. ZIMMERMAN.
It is a rare privilege, not enjoyed by many of us, to spend our lives on the old home place, which, after all, is the best place, no matter what other localities may have to offer, but this E. B. Zimmerman, a well-known farmer of Chippewa township, Wayne county, has been able to do, having been born on the place where he now resides, on September 30, 1848. His paternal grandparents were Nathan and Mary (Morton) Zimmerman. The father of Mary Morton had the distinction of being a soldier in the Revolutionary war under General Greene, and the Hessian army camped at one time on the Morton farm, near Trenton, New Jersey, killing all their stock ; the farm was overrun and considerably damaged by the soldiers, but Greene's army helped run the foreign enemy off the place. Mary Morton was of English descent, while her husband was born in Germany. He lived for many years in Center county, Pennsylvania, and was finally killed there about 1811 or 1812 by a tree falling on him. The maternal grandparents of the subject. Samuel and Mary (Likens) McClelland, were natives of Pennsylvania also, the McClellands having been of Scotch-Irish descent and the Likens family of Irish descent. Samuel and Mary McClelland moved to Ohio in a very early day and lived near Dalton, where Mr. McClelland died: later his widow moved to Indiana and married a Mr. Brown, and she lived to be past ninety- one years of age, dying in Indiana.
Ezekiel Zimmerman, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in 1808 in Pennsylvania and with his mother came to Ohio in 1812 and located near Marshallville, Wayne county, in Chippewa township. There he grew , up and worked on the farm, attending such primitive schools as the times afforded, receiving only a very meager education. The mother of the sub- ject. Rachael Ann McClelland, was born near Dalton, Ohio, in 1821. She was the second wife of Mr. Zimmerman. The latter was always a farmer and at his death owned considerable land, about three hundred and forty acres, in Chippewa township; he traded a great deal in land and was very successful, though he lived a quiet, retired life for the most part. He was a Republican during most of his life, though he voted for Andrew Jackson. His death occurred in 1876, when he was over sixty-eight years of age, while his wife survived until in March, 1908, dying when eighty-six years old. They were the parents of eight children, four of whom are still living.
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