USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 45
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Isaac M. Smith, the father of Dr. Smith, was born in 1830 and came to Mont- gomery county, Ohio, in 1854. He was a carpenter by trade and was identified with building operations in this locality until after the inauguration of the Civil war when, constrained by a spirit of patriotism, he responded to the country's call for aid, enlisting as a private in Company G, Sixty-six Illinois Sharp Shooters, with which he served for three years. In the early part of the war he was taken prisoner by the Confederate troops and was held by them for about two months. He married Phoebe Wellbaum, the wedding being celebrated in Montgomery county, Ohio, in 1855. Two children were born unto them, the younger being Harry M. Smith, now of New York city. The father died April 25, 1907.
Dr. Smith was reared in Dayton and is indebted to its public-school system for the educational privileges he enjoyed prior to taking up preparation for a professionnal career. In 1877 he entered the Ohio Medical College and was graduated in 1880 on the completion of a three years' course. He then located for practice in Salem, Montgomery county, Ohio, where he remained for two years when he removed to West Milton, Miami county, Ohio, where he con- tinued for thirteen years. During that period his constantly increasing practice was promoting his efficiency as he learned the lessons which one may always gain from experience in any walk in life. In 1895 he sought the broader field of labor offered by the city and came to Dayton, where he has continued in active
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practice. His ability is recognized by many patrons and in his daily round of professional duties he has demonstrated his skill in coping with the complex problems which continually confront the physician in his efforts to check the ravages of disease and restore health.
Dr. Smith was married in Dayton in 1881 to Miss Margaret E. Shriver, a daughter of the late Dr. John W. Shriver, and they now have two sons, Howard S. and Charles S. Dr. Smith belongs to the Masonic fraternity, to the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and the Sons of Veterans and in his fraternal re- lations has gained many warm friends. He is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and he gives his political allegiance to the republican party. He is known, moreover, as a valued member of several professional organiza- tions. He is now visiting physician to the Miami Valley Hospital and he belongs to the American Medical Association, the Ohio State Medical Association and the Montgomery County Medical Society, of which he has served as secretary and censor. while at the present time he is filling the position of president. He enjoys the warm regard of his brethren of the medical fraternity by reason of the fact that he holds to a high standard in practice and closely conforms to professional ethics.
DAVID W. KLEPINGER.
David W. Klepinger, one of the farmers near Dayton, is well known through his activity in local affairs. His farm embraces thirty acres of excellent land about five miles north of this city, on the Covington pike. It is a well cultivated tract, in this giving evidence of the character of the man who owns it. The subject of the sketch was born January 2, 1859, on the old Miller farm on Wolf creek, the son of Henry and Elizabeth (Miller) Klepinger, of whom mention is made in the sketch of Alfred Klepinger in another part of this volume. At home on the farm and in the schools of the county David Klepinger received his preparation for life, for work at home and at school were not dissociated, but went side by side, each supplementing and enhancing the value of the other. In comparatively recent years he sold about sixty acres of the old estate, in- cluding the homestead, and but a short distance from it built his present house, a fine modern building of eleven rooms fully equipped with all the conveniences provided for the householder today.
In 1882 Mr. Klepinger was married to Miss Laura Wampler, a daughter of Jesse and Susan (Peterbaugh) Wampler. One daughter. Gertrude, was born to the union, but did not long survive life's struggle. When he married a second time, Mr. Klepinger chose as his bride Miss Ida Slonaker, a daughter of George and Belle (Myers) Slonaker. The parents came from West Virginia to Ohio and are still living the useful lives of farmers in Miami county. this state.
The people of Harrison township have given more than one indication of their confidence in Mr. Klepinger as a man interested in promoting the welfare of the community. During the past eight years he has served at their behest as a trustee of the township, and at the sitting of the national republican convention-
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he was the delegate elected by the voters of Harrison township. He has also for years been a factor in advancing the cause of education in this locality, and for seven years has been a member of the school board, of which body he was for four years president. By his life he has given evidence that his adherence to the Christian church is not a matter of form. He takes an efficient interest in both the religious and social work of this body, which in appreciation of his services has elected him deacon and clerk. Mr. Klepinger is a man not slightly to be put aside, one whose views are not to be held in small regard.
GEORGE BANCROFT SMITH.
Commercial and industrial activity are the foundation upon which rests the upbuilding and prosperity of every city. Dayton finds in George Bancroft Smith a prominent and well known representative of its business life, for he is the president of The Kinnard Manufacturing Company, his executive ability and keen discrimination proving vital elements in the successful control of this im- portant enterprise. Mr. Smith was born in Phillipsburg, Montgomery county, Ohio, November 16, 1867, and is a representative of one of the old pioneer families of the state. His father, Lewis R. Smith, was born near Canton, Ohio, October 24, 1827, and served for a time with the Eighteenth United States Regulars and also in a regiment of Ohio volunteer infantry. His military serv- ice covered four years during the period of the Civil war and he took part in the hotly contested battles of Shiloh, Stone River, Perryville, Chickamauga and others of almost equal prominence.
Reared at the place of his nativity to the age of twelve years, George Ban- croft Smith then accompanied his parents on their removal to Brookville, an- other town of Montgomery county, where he continued until 1888. In the meantime he had acquired his preliminary education in the public schools and was graduated in 1887 from the Miami Commercial College. On attaining his majority he came to Dayton to secure the broader business opportunities afforded in that city and here entered the Tiger Hat Store as salesman and bookkeeper, remaining in that position for eight months. He next became bookkeeper for The Smith & Vaile Company, continuing with that house for seventeen years through the different changes in partnership, it being now conducted under the name of The Platt Iron Works Company. He gradually rose as his ability was recognized and as his powers in this specific line increased they brought Mr. Smith to the position of assistant secretary and treasurer, but at length he re- signed to accept the position of confidential secretary to Eugene J. Barney, in which capacity he still continues. Since that time, however, he has extended his labors into other fields and in April, 1896, was made secretary and treasurer of The Craig-Reynolds Foundry Company in which Mr. Barney is largely interested. In January, 1907, he was elected a director of The Kinnard Manu- facturing Company and in January, 1908, was chosen its secretary. On the death of the president, W. M. Kinnard, in February, 1908, Mr. Smith was placed in temporary charge and in May of the same year was chosen president and
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general manager. He is thus in a position of executive control and his under- standing of the business in its various phases well enables him to carefully man- age its interests.
Mr. Smith is equally active and influential along lines of moral development and progress, and in these connections occupies various official positions, being at the present time a trustee of the Young Men's Christian Association ; secre- tary of the Door of Hope Association ; secretary of the First Reformed church and superintendent of its Sunday school. He was at one time a member of the board of education and is a member of the executive committee of the Dayton branch of the University Extension. He is the first vice president of the Cham- ber of Commerce and is an interested cooperant in all of the movements which the organization puts forth for municipal progress. He is a member of the Montgomery County Horticultural Society, belongs to the Sons of Veterans and in all of these different relations labors for advancement where progress is proving a factor in the world's work. His political allegiance is given to the republican party where state and national questions are involved but at local elections he votes independently.
In 1900 Mr. Smith was married in West Alexandria to Miss Holly Denny and they have one daughter, Martha Catharine Smith. The life history of our subject is another illustration of the fact that ability and worth will come to the front and that intelligently directed effort and fidelity will eventually win its merited reward. He possesses many substantial qualities, is respected wherever known and most honored by his immediate associates who have best opportunity to judge of his worth.
HOLLIS A. WILBUR.
There is perhaps no single agency to which in later years is more directly at- tributable substantial moral advancement than the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion. Broad in its scope and wide in its influence, it has wrought for the higher physical, intellectual and moral development among the young, receiving the endorsement of all who desire progress and improvement. It is to such a work that Hollis A. Wilbur is giving his time and energies as general secretary of the local organization of the Young Men's Christian Association in Dayton.
He was born at Honeoye, New York, April 19, 1873, and there spent his youthful days, entering the public schools at the usual age and mastering the branches in successive grades until he was graduated from the high school with the class of 1891. He afterward took up the profession of teaching in Egypt, a little school district in Ontario county, and subsequently came to Ohio, continu- ing his own education as a pupil of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. There he was graduated with the class of 1896, and, making deliberate choice be- tween the influences which are malevolent and the influences which are helpful and uplifting, he entered upon the work of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion as traveling secretary, filling the position for four years. He was afterward occupied in a different capacity for three years as a general supervisor and in
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1903 came to his present position in Dayton as general secretary. Here he is working along the most progressive lines, seeking to bring into the lives of the young those helpful, healthful and beneficial influences which work for man's best development in the wise use of one's physical, mental and moral forces.
In 1901 in Seville, Ohio, Mr. Wilbur was married to Miss Mary I. Matteson and they have two children, Elizabeth Grimball and Clarence Martin. Mr. Wil- bur belongs to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon, a college fraternity. His church re- lations are with the Baptist denomination and he is now serving as deacon in the church in Dayton in which he has his membership.
REV. W. A. HALE, D. D.
For almost a third of a century the labors of Dr. W. A. Hale have been a most potent element in the religious work and moral progress of Dayton, for throughout this period he has been pastor of the First Reformed church -- loved by the people of his own denomination and honored and respected through- out the city. He was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, June 29, 1847, and com- pleted his education in Harlem Springs College, from which he was graduated with the class of 1868. Immediately thereafter he entered the ministry and has devoted his entire life to this holy calling, his consecrated zeal and unfaltering interest in all the branches of church work constituting a constantly expanding power for good in the localities where he has labored. For three years he was pastor of a church in Tuscarawas and had charge of four different congregations in Stark county, Ohio. He was pastor of Grace Reformed church at Lancaster, Ohio, for five years and from there came to Dayton.
It was on the Ist of October, 1876 that Rev. Hale was called to Dayton as the pastor of the First Reformed church and here for almost a third of a cen- tury his sermons have been a theme of wide comment and commendation. As an able and learned minister he has presented the purposes and principles of the Christian religion in a way that has called forth wide attention, while in his pastoral labors and daily ministries, as Browning expresses it, he "awakens the little seeds of good asleep throughout the world." Indeed his influence has been of no restricted order and he has not been denied the full harvest and the after- math.
The history of the First Reformed church is in reality the history of the Reformed denomination in Dayton and the history of that church is practically the history of the life work of Dr. Hale. It was in 1833 that the church was organized by the Rev. Daniel Winters, D. D., and the work of the parish grew and strengthened as the years passed until when Dr. Hale came to Dayton as the tenth pastor of the First Reformed church its membership numbered one hundred and eighty-four. He came here to take charge in the full vigor of manhood, determined to make his presence felt and fired with the determination to succeed in his great task that the cause of Christianity might be advanced in this community. He had been in Dayton but a brief time when the church edi- fice became so crowded at the services which he held that it was necessary for
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him to form other congregations, the result being that four additional Reformed churches are now instruments for good in the life of the city, the Second, the Trinity, the Fourth and the Memorial all being outshoots of the First Reformed. Notwithstanding that all of these branches have been set off from the parent church, its membership is many times what it was when he took charge and its influence is constantly expanding as his parishioners carry away with them the words of wisdom and encouragement which he utters and which in time bear fruit in their lives. While his pastoral work takes up the greater part of his time he has gained, during his residence in Dayton, the reputation of being not only one of the most popular and thoroughly advised ministers of his own de- nomination but also in the entire city. He has probably officiated at more funeral services and marriages than any other minister in Dayton, being called upon so often because of his large personal acquaintance and his constantly growing popularity. For six years he served on the Ohio state board of charities under Governors Bushnell and Nash.
While it would be tautological in this connection to enter into any series of statements as showing Dr. Hale to be a man of superior attainments and broad general information, for these have been shadowed forth between the lines of this review, it is but justice to add that he is, moreover, a man of deep and abiding sympathy and charity, whose words are rather those of encouragement than of criticism, of inspiration rather than of reproof. The young and old, rich and poor of his congregation recognize him not only as pastor but as friend.
On the 22d of July, 1868, in Harrison county, Ohio, Dr. Hale was married to Miss Anna C. Duffield, a daughter of Dr. George W. Duffield, of that county, and to them were born two children: Mrs. Grace W. Charch, living in Dayton, who has two children, William Hale Charch, aged eleven years, and Anna Eliza- beth Charch, eight years old; and George Finley Hale, who married Miss May Morey, daughter of Dr. C. W. Morey, of Port Huron, Michigan.
CHARLES JOSEPH HOCHWALT.
Charies Joseph Hochwalt, a truck gardener of Dayton, owns fifteen acres of fine land on College street just at the edge of town. He was born November 4, 1862, where the St. Elizabeth Hospital now stands and is the son of Fred and Catherine (Schmidt) Hochwalt, both of whom are living in Dayton. The pa- ternal grandfather, Henry Hochwalt, with his wife Eva, was the first of this large family to settle in this country. He was a comparatively young man when he left Germany, his native land, where he had received his education and train- ing for life. On coming to America he settled first in Baltimore, Maryland, later coming to Montgomery county, Ohio. He was very well known in German cir- cles in this part of the country, for he took an active part in all that concerned his fellow countrymen. His son, Fred Hochwalt, was born on the Atlantic ocean when his parents were on their way to their new home. He obtained all his schooling in this land and is a thorough American in his ideas and sympathies. His youth was passed in Baltimore, but he was still young when he came to Mont-
قديم
CHARLES J. HOCHWALT
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gomery county, settling in that section of Dayton which is now known as Edgemont. For a few years of his life he worked at the shoemaker's trade, but he gave this up to engage in truck gardening, to which he devoted all his time and attention with good results, for he was one of the largest gardeners in his sec- tion of the county and was accounted a man of means. About four years ago he retired from active participation in the work of the farm and is now enjoying a life of comfort in Dayton.
Charles Joseph Hochwalt received all his education in the schools of Dayton. In fact Harrison township has always been his home and the scene of his labors. During his school life he worked for his father on the farm, but though he was thus ready early to assume the charge of a piece of land for himself circumstances did not so shape themselves to this end until he was about thirty years of age. Then he was able to purchase land and has since made a success of the work which he chose as a vocation. His long period of preparation stood him in good stead, and he has made the best use of his opportunities, so that it is but a matter of course that success has attended his efforts.
On the 9th of November, 1886, Mr. Hochwalt was united in marriage to Miss Maggie Kuntz, a daughter of Joseph and Magdalena (Wolfe) Kuntz, of North Dayton. Of this union there have been born eight children. Harry F., the eld- est, assists the father on the farm. He completed the course of study prescribed by the local schools but is continuing his education by means of some correspon- dence courses. Stella is also at home, as are the remaining children, Lorette, Victor, Irene, Marcella and Helen. Walter, the fourth child, has passed away.
Mr. Hochwalt takes an active interest in all public affairs, though he has not aspired to any office within the gift of the people. He always throws his in- fluence on the side of good government and progressive citizenship. Of St. John's Catholic church, which the family attend, he is one of the guiding mem- bers, being upon the official board. He is also one of the directors of the cemetery. But it is as a gardener that he is best known, and to the people of the city of Dayton, for he has a stand at No. 45 Central Market, and also one on Wayne street, where he offers to discriminating buyers the results of his diligent culture of his garden tract. Here in his business dealings he exhibits those qualities that make possible his rise in his work and he holds the good will of those who know him.
J. SPRIGG McMAHON.
J. Sprigg McMahon, practicing law at the Dayton bar, has in his native city won a creditable position as a representative of the legal fraternity. He was born in February, 1868, and at the usual age entered the public schools, also receiving instruction in private schools ere his matriculation in Yale University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1889. Well qualified by collegiate training for the responsible duties of life, he returned to Dayton and entered the law office of his father, the Hon. John A. McMahon, continuing his legal studies and assist- ing in the work of the office until December, 1891, when he was admitted to the bar. In January, 1892, he formed a partnership with his father and has since
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been engaged in practice in this city, devoting his attention to a profession in which parental influence or standing availeth little or naught. In no profession does advancement depend more entirely upon individual merit and, recognizing this fact, J. Sprigg McMahon has by discriminating study, careful analysis and thorough preparation of cases won notable successes at the bar that numbers many prominent representatives.
In 1894 occurred the marriage of Mr. McMahon and Miss Mary D. Schenck, a daughter of the late Robert C. Schenck. They have two children: Julia D., and Mary S. His political views are that of the democratic party and he has served for one term on the library board but prefers to give his undivided atten- tion to his professional duties, which are constantly increasing in volume and importance.
HOWARD H. HERMAN, M. D.
Dr. Howard H. Herman, who throughout his entire life has manifested a habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities, while in his professional career he has held to high standards, was born in West Alexandria, Preble county, Ohio, May 1, 1872. His father, H. M. Herman, D. D., has been a minister of the Reformed church in Ohio for forty-nine years, and now at the age of seventy-five is still actively engaged in ministerial work at Miamisburg.
Dr. Herman was a lad of nine years when his parents removed from the place of his nativity to Miamisburg, where he was reared and obtained his early edu- cation. He attended Heidelberg University in 1890-91, and in 1894 he was grad- uated from Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, having there completed the classical course. Desiring to enter professional circles, his mental review of the situation led him to the conclusion that he would find the practice of medicine most congenial, to which end he entered the Cleve- land University of Medicine & Surgery,. completing the full course. Following his graduation in 1897, he came to Dayton as house physician of the Miami Val- ley Hospital, thus serving for a year. His broad experience in this connection well qualified him for the duties of general practice. Since 1898 he has thus engaged in Dayton and has been accorded a very liberal patronage, his office and residence being at III North Jefferson street. His reading is comprehen- sive, his study thorough and his ready adaptability enables him to soon make his own that with which he becomes conversant through his investigations. He follows the most advanced ideas of practice and yet is not quick to discard the old and time-tried methods, the value of which has long been proven. He be- longs to the State Homeopathic Medical Association, the Miami Medical Society and the Dayton Medical Society. He has been a member of the medical staff of Miami Valley Hospital since 1900 and is also a member of its board of trustees.
On the 30th of April, 1902, Dr. Herman was married in Dayton to Miss Daisy Alice Johnson, a daughter of the late William Johnson, and they have two children, Ruth Howard and Susanne Marian. The parents hold member- ship in the Memorial Presbyterian church and Dr. Herman belongs also to the Ma- sonic fraternity, the Knights of Pythias lodge and to the Dayton Country Club
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-associations which indicate much of the nature of his interests. His political views endorse the principles of the republican party and his influence is always on the side of practical reform and substantial progress. His professional worth is manifest in the large practice accorded him and in the high regard entertained for him by his professional brethren.
PERLE L. SAGEBIEL.
Perle L. Sagebiel, an optometrist of Dayton, whose qualifications well entitle him to the success which he is now enjoying, was born in Kenton, Ohio, in 1873. His youthful days were there passed and he attained his education as a public- school student, continuing his studies to the age of seventeen. With life and its responsibilities yet before him, he went to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he learned the optical business, feeling that in that pursuit he would find a congenial as well as a profitable field. He continued in Wheeling for two years and in 1893 came to Dayton. A year later he began business on his own account as an opti- cian and has since continued in this line. His thoroughness in his work, his knowledge of the scientific as well as the practical side of his business and the conscientious obligation with which he discharges his professional duties have been the salient features in his growing success. He now occupies an enviable position among Dayton's optometrists with a volume of business that gives to him a substantial annual income. He is also a director in the Union Building & Loan Association, and secretary of the Dayton Astronomical Society, of which he is one of the founders.
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