USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > Dayton > History of the city of Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 6
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men and which was divided equally, would prove an incentive to the younger men of less capital and advantageous to the business. He lived long enough to see that it paid him to lose."
In 1855 Mr. Rike was united in marriage to Miss Salome C. Kumler, the youngest daughter of Bishop Henry Kumler, Jr., and to them were born five children, two of who are still living. An intimate friend wrote: "The home life of this family was at once beautiful, affectionate, true and good. The two, with their dear children, journeyed together in the purest devotion and love, exhibiting to the world and the church a Christian household of the most in- telligent, refined and exalted type. To Mr. Rike this home was the dearest spot on earth."
Mr. and Mrs. Rike were always closely associated in their church work. In 1855 Mr. Rike was converted in a religious revival, at once joining the United Brethren church. On removing to Dayton he placed his membership in the First United Brethren church, in which he continued a leading spirit and in which he held nearly every office, including that of class leader, Sunday school superintendent, trustee and treasurer.
On his death President L. Bookwalter, D. D., said of him: "Mr. Rike was not only faithful and true to his pastors and to his duties as a member of his home church, but he was faithful and true to everybody and to every relation. He was in advance of many Christian men in his conception of the relation of religion to life-to so-called secular life. He believed that with the true serv- ant of God religion enters everywhere and enters to take the controlling place. With him business and religion went hand in hand, religion leading the way. Mr. Rike's love for business and his marked success in the commercial world are well known. But his love for Christ and his kingdom on earth and his eminent labors for the promotion of Christianity in the world are equally well known. Upon which did he bestow his chief affection? With Mr. Rike his church stood above his business. Notwithstanding his heavy business cares, he was always in attendance at all the services of his church. This was his rule, broken into only by sickness or other unavoidable cause."
Mr. Rike not only took an active part in the work of the church in which he held membership but was deeply interested in all of the important activities. He was a trustee of the Otterbein University for sixteen years and of the Union Bib- lical Seminary for six years, and at the time of his demise was president of the boards of trustees of both institutions. In 1869 he was first elected a trustee of the publishing house, a position he held continuously until his death with the exception of one term of four years. For a time he was president of this board and a member of its executive committee. He was one of the three lay members of the church commission elected by the general conference of 1885, that had given it important responsibilities in connection with the revision and amendment of the constitution and confession of faith of the church. In all these relations his duties were performed with the same ability and conscientiousness that have so marked him throughout life.
As previously indicated, Mr. Rike saw no division between religious and secu- lar life. He felt it to be as much a part of his Christian duty to aid in every possible way in matters of citizenship as to attend the church services. As a
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member of the Dayton city council, of the Board of Trade and an officer in important business he had an honorable and influential career. In all those relations his actions were characterized by the qualities of insight, discretion and integrity, so essential to absolute trustworthiness in places of financial trust and responsibility. His life demonstrated the great value of industry and persever- ance in the achievement of success. For fifty years he was an industrious, per- severing worker and his life was a busy one. His application and his concen- tration of thought and effort upon one branch of business was the secret of his remarkable career in different fields of activity and usefulness. With him, honor as a merchant had the same place as courage in a soldier or as the virtue of charity in the Christian character. In all things he was broad minded and progressive-a diligent student of books and men. He was in the closest sym- pathy with all advance movements in the church, in education, in practical phil- anthropy, in social justice, in political righteousness and with all world-wide efforts for the highest good of mankind. His face was ever set to the future and not to the past. He was a genuine Christian optimist.
Mr. Rike was a liberal man and the institutions of the city depending upon personal contributions for their support knew his generosity. His local church was supported liberally and the general interests of the church were given to largely. Especially to education and to Otterbein University did he give large sums. He was a patron and for years a member of the board of trustees of Miami Valley Hospital. Unlike many men of limited education, Mr. Rike was always progressive. He ever was ready for new ideas and new methods in his business and always took the liberal and progressive side in questions affecting the church or the state. While he had but few advantages as to education, he was an in- veterate reader of the newspaper. He read it all and with a naturally good mind and quick perception and good memory, this newspaper reading gave him a liberal education. He was well informed on all vital questions of the day.
There is another phase in the life record of Mr. Rike, upon which his family and relatives love to dwell. He was that kind of a child lover that made him of one and the same age with the younger members of his family circle and he was, therefore, the most welcome addition to any family party. He took part in all the games with the zest of those a third of his age, even playing charades and dancing in a Virginia reel. He liked a good story and enjoyed a good joke. He had, too, an intense love of the country and when driving over the Miami valley, for which his affection was unbounded, he would continually call attention to a mass of clouds, to a freshly plowed field or to a symmetrical tree. The autumn foliage filled him with joy and only a few days prior to his death he spoke enthusiastically concerning the red maples and the beauty of the entire countryside.
Death came to Mr. Rike on the 23d of October, 1895, when he had reached the age of seventy-one years. The dry-goods houses of the city honored him by closing their places of business at the hour of the funeral and the serv- ices of the church were attended by one hundred or more of the employes of the Rike Dry Goods Company, the directors and officers of the Merchants National Bank and the officers and employes of the United Brethren Publishing House. Interment took place on the family lot in Woodland cemetery. In a review of his
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record one cannot but be impressed with the fact that with all the intensity and direction of effort of the prosperous man, with all the manifold interests which went to make up his life, the most strong and potent force in his entire career was his Christian faith and the religious principles which guided his actions, making him a man among men, notable in his adherence to the right and the truth as he saw and understood them.
FREDERICK H. RIKE.
Prominent among the far-sighted, energetic business men of Dayton is Fred- erick H. Rike, now the president of the Rike-Kumler Company, in which con- nection he is active in the control of one of the most important mercantile en- terprises in the city. He is also identified with various other financial and busi- ness interests and is regarded as a substantial and valued factor in the business circles of Dayton. In this city he was born October 20, 1867, a son of D. L. Rike, long one of the leading and honored residents of Dayton, where he passed away October 23, 1895.
Frederick H. Rike spent his youthful days in his parents' home and supple- mented his public-school course by study in the private school conducted by Professor G. C. Deaver. Later he went to Westerville, Ohio, where he entered Otterbein College, being graduated therefrom with the Bachelor of Arts degree in the class of 1888. His collegiate course completed, he returned to Dayton and further qualified for the onerous and responsible duties of a business career by a course in the Miami Commercial College, from which he was graduated in 1889.
He made his initial step in the business world by entering the mercantile house of D. L. Rike & Company, his father being the senior partner. He started as an employe, but closely applied himself to the mastery of the business and his constantly expanding powers and capabilities led to his selection as a member of the board of directors when the business was incorporated as the Rike Dry Goods Company. Under that name the enterprise was conducted until February, 1908, when the business was reorganized as the Rike-Kumler Company, of which Frederick H. Rike is the president. This company owns and controls one of the important mercantile interests of the city, with a trade commensurate with the progressive business policy and liberal methods for which the house is noted. Extending his efforts into other lines, Mr. Rike is now well known as a director of the Dayton Savings & Trust Company and of the Equitable Build- ing & Loan Association. His opinions in regard to commercial and financial interests are regarded as sound and trustworthy for he has ever manifested keen insight in discriminating between the essential and the non-essential.
In November, 1899, Mr. Rike was married, in Chicago, to Miss Ethel Kuhns Long and they have a daughter and son, Virginia L. and David L. They are prominent socially in the city and enjoy the warm friendship and high regard of many of Dayton's best people.
In his political views Mr. Rike is an earnest republican and at no time is he unmindful of his duties and obligations of citizenship, being interested in
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all those measures and movements which are a matter of civic virtue and civic pride. The cause of education has ever found in him a stalwart champion and he is now president of the board of trustees of Otterbein College. He belongs to the First United Brethren church and his social nature finds expression in his membership in the Dayton Country Club, the Dayton City Club and the Buz Fuz Club. Such, in brief, is the history of one of the best known citizens of Day- ton-a man of keen discernment and sound judgment whose executive ability and excellent management have brought to the concern with which he is con- nected a large degree of success. Moreover, he displays in the conduct of his business interests those traits of character which ever command regard and con- fidence, and he belongs to that class of representative American citizens who promote the general prosperity in advancing individual interests.
ALFRED A. THOMAS.
Alfred A. Thomas, a well known member of the bar of Dayton, was born in Hamilton, Ohio, in 1845. He is a son of Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Thomas, who was born in England in 1812: graduated at Miami University in 1834; removed to Dayton in 1858; and who died when professor in Lane Seminary in 1875. Dr. Thomas was a useful and revered pastor of the First Presbyterian church in Dayton and brought about and completed its fine, stone church edifice, at the corner of Second and Ludlow streets.
Alfred A. Thomas passed through the Dayton district and high schools ; attended Miami University two years; and was graduated at Dartmouth Col- lege, New Hampshire, in 1867. He then taught two years in the Central high school here, studied law with Judge J. A. Jordan, and was admitted to the Dayton bar in 1869.
During the next twenty years, he practiced his profession in this city, was two terms a member of the board of education; three times elected city solici- tor, which position he is said to have filled "with distinction ;" was for ten years active in politics as a member of the local and state democratic committees ; was one of the owners who installed the district telegraph, and the telephone service in this city ; was president of the southern Ohio Coal & Iron Company, which was the main reliance of John H. and Frank J. Patterson in their large coal mining enterprises; and was general solicitor of the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington Railroad Company, now in large part The Toledo, St. Louis & West- ern. Under Mr. Thomas' legal direction the railroad right of way was procured from Dayton to Lebanon, Ohio, from Wellston to Ironton, Ohio, and from cen- tral Indiana through Illinois to East St. Louis, which in some cases involved condemnation by legal proceedings of twenty miles of right of way.
In connection with Colonel D. B. Corwin, Mr. Thomas organized the Fifth Street Railroad Company and built its lines, also including the National Avenue to the Soldiers Home, and the electric railroad thereon, which was the first elec- tric railroad built and operated in Dayton. Mr. Thomas was president of the Fifth Street Railroad Company for eight years and until his removal to Chi-
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cago in 1887. He was active and influential also in bringing about its advan- tageous consolidation with the Third Street Railroad Company into the present City Railway Company.
At Chicago, for ten years, Alfred A. Thomas was general solicitor and legal counsel for The Bell Telephone interests of that city ; and as an avocation de- voted some time and money to developing and operating a large farm in Brown county, Minnesota, and rental residence property on the Chicago north shore, all of which he still owns.
In 1898, Mr. Thomas returned to Dayton and became general counsel and secretary of the National Cash Register Company. During the next seven years he was active in the management of its legal affairs and organizations, both in this country and in Europe. Resigning his connection with this corporation in 1906, he has since been a member of the law firm of Thomas & Bronson.
In 1880, at Kenosha, Wisconsin, Mr. Thomas was married to Miss Jennie L. Head. Their children are: Thomas H., who was graduated at Harvard and then a tutor there; Miss Gertrude ; and Felix, who is a senior at Cornell.
WILLIAM JUDKINS CONKLIN, A. M., M. D.
Dr. William Judkins Conklin was born in Sidney, Ohio, December 1, 1844 His literary education was acquired in the public schools of his native town and in the Ohio Wesleyan University, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1866. In 1861 he began the study of medicine under his father, Dr. H. S. Conklin, a prominent physician of the Miami valley and presi- dent of the Ohio State Medical Society, and received his degree of M. D. from the Ohio Medical College in 1868. In the spring of 1869 he was appointed as- sistant physician to the Dayton Hospital for the Insane, which position he re- signed in December, 1871, to engage in general practice with Dr. J. C. Reeve, Sr., which partnership was continued for four years. Subsequently he was ap- pointed by Governor R. B. Hayes a member of the board of trustees of the above institution and served for two years. He was secretary of the Ohio State Medi- cal Society in 1872 and 1873 and its president in 1890 and 1891. From 1875 to 1876 he was a member of the faculty of Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, first as professor of physiology and afterward as professor of diseases of children. He has been prominent in local medical affairs and has been identi- fied with the medical staffs of St. Elizabeth and Miami Valley Hospitals since their organization. He served several years as a member of the Dayton school board and for the past twenty-five years has been active in the managment of the public library and museum, of which he has long been president. He is a director in various local organizations, among which may be mentioned the Mer- chants National Bank. Dr. Conklin has been a frequent contributor to both medical and literary journals. Perhaps the most important medical contribu- tions were the articles in Wood's Hand Book of the Medical Sciences and Kelly's Encyclopedia Medical Biography.
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DR. W. J. CONKLIN
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In 1875 Dr. Conklin married Miss Catherine Bechel, a daughter of Daniel Bechel, of Dayton, and has two children. The son, Dr. Daniel Bechel Conklin, is associated with him in the practice of medicine, and the daughter is married to Edward T. Weakley, of Dayton, Ohio.
JOHN MARION EBERT.
Prominently known in connection with the system of education in Ohio, Pro- fessor John Marion Ebert is now principal of the Newcom school of Dayton, having occupied that position since 1902. From the age of twenty years he has been continuously connected with educational interests, accepting his first prin- cipalship in 1885 while since 1889 he has been a factor in the intellectual pro- gress of Dayton. A native of the neighboring state of Indiana, he was born in Kosciusko county, March 12, 1852, and is remotely of German ancestry, although the family has been represented in America through several generations. His parents, Charles and Christina (Houser) Ebert, were both natives of Ohio and, following their marriage, removed to Indiana, where Charles Ebert took up the occupation of farming. He was yet but a young man, however, when he passed away in Kosciusko county. His widow then returned to her people in Ohio, with whom she lived until her death at the age of fifty-nine years. There were four children in the family, namely: Mary N., now the widow of Daniel F. Miller and a resident of Gratis, Preble county, Ohio; Elizabeth, who is the widow of John Etter and also lives in Gratis; Thomas William, of Garrett, Indiana, who is now employed by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company ; and John M.
The last named acquired his early education in the schools of Montgomery county, Ohio, whither he had been taken when a mere child. He displayed especial aptitude in his studies and closely applied himself to the mastery of the lessons assigned him so that at the age of about twenty-one years he qualified for teaching and entered upon the work of the profession. For a few years thereafter he taught at intervals and used the remainder of the time in promot- ing his own education. He has, in fact, remained a student throughout his entire life, interested in all things pertaining to intellectual progress while his reading and investigation are continually broadening his knowledge and promot- ing his efficiency as a factor in the world's work. About 1885 he became prin- cipal of the graded schools in Farmersville, Ohio, where his service was most acceptable as is indicated by the fact that he was retained in the position for four years. He then removed to Dayton and for two years taught a school near the city limits. In September, 1894, he was elected principal of the Nineteenth district, a newly organized school whose efficiency and usefulness were greatly promoted through the practical efforts and untiring zeal of Professor Ebert. His excellent work in that connection lead to his transferal to the Newcom school at Brown and Hess streets, of which he has been the principal since 1902. That his work is thoroughly commendable and satisfactory is indicated by his long connection with the educational interests of this city. He is enthusiastic and zealous on behalf of his work and inspires the teachers and pupils under him
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with much of his own interest. He is continually seeking out new plans to broaden the scope and heighten the effectiveness of his work which he performs with a sense of conscientious obligation, knowing that it consists not alone in imparting knowledge but in molding character and in forming habits which will have a life-lasting influence.
On the 16th of September, 1881, Professor Ebert was married in Farmers- ville, Ohio, to Miss Ella N. Riegel, a native of Montgomery county and a daughter of Franklin J. and Catherine Riegel, the former a retired farmer now residing with his wife in Farmersville. The children of Professor and Mrs. Ebert are: Owen Leroy, who was married in Dayton to Miss May Cavender ; Robert Laird, at home; and Wendell Burdette, who was born in 1897.
Professor Ebert is a member of Miamisburg Lodge, No. 44, K. P. and Fraternal Lodge, No. 510, I. O. O. F., in which he has filled all of the chairs. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Fourth Reformed church of Dayton. His political views are in accord with the principles of the democratic party and while he has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking he has yet been called by his fellow townsmen to fill some local offices. He served for one term as mayor of Farmersville but resigned on his appointment as prin- cipal of the schools of that city. In August, 1892, he received a probate court appointment as a member of the county board of examiners of teachers of Montgomery county, serving for three years and acting as president of the board for one-half of that time. In November, 1908, he was elected to the office of county clerk of Montgomery county and is, therefore, the incumbent in that position at the present time. No one doubts the high character of his citizenship or his allegiance to the public welfare and in the performance of his duties he is proving that the faith of his fellow citizens was well grounded.
WARREN McNELLY.
Warren McNelly is a member of the firm of McNelly Brothers, proprietors of a general mercantile store in Brookville. He is one of the native sons of Montgomery county, his birth having occurred in Madison township in 1856. His parents were Daniel H. and Catherine McNelly, the former a farmer by occupation. Reared under the parental roof Warren McNelly, while spending his boyhood days pursued his education in the public schools and afterward attended the Euphemia Normal School. He turned his attention to the occupa- tion to which he had been reared, thinking to make it his life work and bought eighty acres in Clay township, where he lived for seven years. On the expi- ration of that period he came to Brookville and joined his brother Calvin in pur- chasing a general mercantile store of H. F. Albert, of which they have been proprietors since 1891, conducting the enterprise with creditable success for eighteen years. They have a large double store and occupy two floors, carry- ing an extensive stock of goods. The business was reorganized and incorpor- ated under the name of the McNelly Brother Mercantile Company in 1907, with Warren McNelly as president ; Calvin McNelly as vice president ; and J. P. Sey-
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bold as secretary and treasurer. In addition to his mercantile interests Warren McNelly is well known in financial circles as one of the directors of the Citizens Banking Company.
In community affairs Mr. McNelly is actively interested and his cooperation can be counted upon to support and further many measures for the general good. He has been treasurer of the township for four years or for two terms, also filled the office of city councilman for two terms and at one time was a member of the school board. His religious faith is indicated in his membership in the United Brethren church of which he has been a trustee for about ten years, for in various departments of church activity he is interested. His fraternal rela- tions are with the Knights of Pythias and the principles and rules which govern his conduct and shape his action are such as commend one to the regard of all in every land and clime.
Mr. McNelly was married in 1882 to Miss Sarah Cloppert, of Brookville, a daughter of David Cloppert, a farmer by occupation. They now have two children : Mary Alice, the wife of Andrew A. Maysillis, superintendent of the Clay and Miami township schools; and Reatha May, a student.
Mr. McNelly is a representative of old Ohio families. His grandfather first came to this state from Pennsylvania and his father was born in Montgomery county and resided here until his death, which occurred when he was sixty-three years of age. The mother's people were also among the first settlers of the county and the family of Mrs. Warren McNelly arrived in Ohio at an early period in the development of this state. The name of McNelly has long been a synonym for business enterprise, for commercial integrity and for public-spirited citizenship, and the record of our subject is in entire harmony with that of his ancestry. He is now classed with the leading citizens of Brookville and his activity is a factor in its commercial advancement.
FRANK EVERETT CAYLOR.
Frank Everett Caylor, who is successfully identified with educational inter- ests as principal of the schools at Liberty, was born on the 13th of December, 1887. His parents, Jacob Hamilton and Ella (Roher) Caylor, who were mar- ried December 30, 1886, now reside on a farm in Jefferson township which is the property of the paternal grandparents, Uriah and Sarah (Harter) Caylor. The maternal grandparents of our subject are David and Harriet (Runchie) Roher, also residents of Jefferson township. Their daughter Ella was born on the 5th of November, 1866, and by her marriage to Jacob H. Caylor has be- come the mother of two children: Frank Everett. of this review ; and Olive May. whose birth occurred October 30, 1893.
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