USA > Ohio > Knox County > Past and present of Knox County, Ohio, Vol. II > Part 17
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
HENRY A. ALLEN.
Henry A. Allen was born on April 30, 1855, on the farm, one mile southwest of Mt. Vernon, where he has always lived. He is the son of Asahel and Content (Wing) Allen, the father born in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, November 18, 1803. Soon after his birth the family moved to Benson, Vermont, and in the fall of 1833 they came to Knox county. Ohio, and lived a year in Mt. Vernon, then purchased the farm where the subject of this sketch was born and which has ever since remained in possession of the family and on which the father spent the remaining years of his life, hav- ing become very well established and a highly esteemed citizen. His death occurred on April 13, 1887. His wife was born in Glens Falls, New York, November 10. 1812. The Wing family came to Knox county in 1817 when this country was heavily timbered and sparsely settled. The death of Mrs. Allen occurred on December 29, 1898. They are both buried in Mound View cemetery, Mt. Vernon. To these parents five children were born, one dying in infancy ; the four that grew to maturity were : Belinda E., who married John B. Steinmetz, of Clinton township; Alice A. is single and lives with the subject of this sketch ; Charles R. is also living with Mr. Allen of this review.
Henry A. Allen has spent his entire life on the home farm, as above indi- cated, and he was educated in the country district schools. He was married on December 19, 1900, to Clara B. Myers, daughter of Harry and Melinda (Shinnaberry) Myers; the father is still living, the mother having died in 1904. The union of the subject and wife has been without issue.
Mr. Allen has kept the home place of one hundred and sixty-three acres well improved and well cultivated, so that he has kept the land strong and
577
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
productive, and his crops from year to year bounteously attest to his skill as a husbandman. In connection with general farming he carries on stock rais- ing. His sister, Alice A., is one-fourth owner of the home place. He has in addition to that, one hundred acres in a nearby neighborhood.
Politically, Mr. Allen is a Republican, but he has never been an office- seeker, but always interested in public affairs and a voter for the best men and measures. He is an advocate of public improvements, good roads, better schools and public buildings, in short, everything that added to the beauty and benefit of the community. The Allen family has long been conspicuous in the social life of the community, and all its members from the early pio- neer times have borne good reputations. The grandfather, Asahel Allen, who came here with his family in 1833, built on his farm one of the first brick dwellings in this section of the state, at present used as a tenant house, and here he resided until his death, on April 22, 1850. His wife, who was known in her maidenhood as Rhoda Tillson, died on December 1, 1857. The elder Allen possessed a strong and vigorous intellect and his advice and opinion were frequently sought in all matters pertaining to the welfare of the community. The residence of the family at the present time is in the com- modious frame structure erected by Asahel Allen, Jr., in 1843.
WILSON WORKMAN BUTLER.
In examining the life records of self-made men it will inevitably be found that indefatigable industry has constituted the basis of their success. True there are other elements which enter in and conserve the advancement of personal interests,-perseverance, discrimination and mastering of expe- dients,-but the foundation of all achievements is earnest, persistent labor. One of Knox county's citizens, Wilson Workman Butler, realized at the outset of his career that there was no real road to success and that to reach the goal of prosperity and independence one must not permit obstacles to thwart an earnest resolve, consequently he began to work earnestly and dili- gently to advance himself, and the result is that he is one of the wide-awake, enterprising men of the times, fully alive to the dignities and responsibilities of citizenship, and is peer of any of his contemporaries in the business world, all through his individual effort. Courteous, genial, companionable and un- assuming, he commands the respect of all with whom he comes into contact. and his friends are as the number of his acquaintances. He is universally
578
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
esteemed in all the relations of life, and his career has been creditable to him- self and an honor to the locality of which this history treats where most of liis life has been spent. He is a worthy representative of one of our sterling pioneer families, the escutcheon of whose honored name he has been careful to keep untarnished.
Mr. Butler was born on the old homestead two miles east of Danville, Union township, Knox county, Ohio, on December 9, 1862. He is the son of Squire John and Mary Jane ( Workman) Butler, the father born on August 12, 1820, and he died at Oberlin, Ohio, on December 22, 1897. The mother was born February 9, 1824, and her death occurred on March 19. 1870. Their family consisted of one son and two daughters : Wilson W., of this review; Florence, who died when two years of age; and Ida Josephine. who married John R. Payne, of Danville, Ohio; her death occurred about eight years ago.
Wilson W. Butler, of this sketch, was reared on the home farm and when old enough he assisted with the general work about the place and at- tended the district schools until he was twelve years of age, then moved to Danville to reside with his sister, Mrs. Payne, and there attended what was called a select school, conducted by teachers who had only a class of selected pupils. He subsequently attended a business college in Danville for one term. This was all the schooling he was permitted to obtain; however, always re- maining a student and being a keen observer, he has made up for this early lack by miscellaneous home study and by actual contact with the business world.
When sixteen years old Mr. Butler accepted a position in a general merchandise store at Olive Green (Kingston Center), Delaware county, Ohio, and remained there for ten months, then secured employment in Z. L. White's dry goods store at the town of Delaware, Ohio, where he remained eighteen months ; he then went with the John Shillito Dry Goods Company, of Cincinnati, where he remained for approximately a period of three years. He had by this time mastered the ins and outs of the mercantile business, performing his duties in a manner that reflected much credit upon himself and to the entire satisfaction of his employers. He then engaged with his brother-in-law. J. R. Payne, also J. M. Clifton and E. V. Wells, in the gran- ite business at Lima, this state. After spending approximately five years in the granite business, in which he met with a large measure of success, he went to New York and accepted a position as secretary of the Westerly Granite Company there, remaining with them about a year. after which we find him in the employ of the Sterlingworth Railway Supply Company, of
579
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
Easton, Pennsylvania, and he went to Chicago, as their western manager, the duties of which position he filled creditably and acceptably for a year and a half, then went to the American Car & Foundry Company, representing this firm in Chicago as their western sales agent for about eighteen months. He then purchased an interest and accepted a position as second vice-president of the Simplex Railway Appliance Company, of Hammond, Indiana. He went to New York city soon afterwards to take charge of their eastern busi- ness. He remained with this firm for about four years, when the business of the company was sold to the American Steel Foundries, of which company he was elected second vice-president, and remained with this concern in New York for about seven years. For the past two years he has been located in Montreal, Canada, as first vice-president of the Canadian Car & Foundry Company, Limited, and the Canadian Steel Foundries, Limited, and he still spends the major part of his time in that city.
He has been very successful in a business way and has long been re- garded as an expert in the line of endeavor to which his present energies are devoted, having a national reputation in the business world.
Mr. Butler owns the old home place where he was born in Knox county and this he is placing under a high state of modern improvement and cultiva- tion, fitting it up as a gentleman's country residence, where he intends spend- ing considerable time in the future years, as his business affairs will permit. He takes a great pride in this picturesque old home and when his present plans of improvement are carried out this will be one of the "show places" of the county and a most desirable rural estate, equipped with modern, com- modious and attractive buildings and well stocked.
Mr. Butler's daughter, Gladys, a young lady of many estimable attri- butes, was married on June 10, 1910, to Hurlbert C. Phillips, of Carthage, Ohio, and to this union a daughter was born on September 18, 1911.
Mr. Butler is a specimen of well rounded, symmetrically developed. virile manhood, moving among his fellows as one born to leadership, and he has directed his life along lines which could not fail to affect favorably the physical as well as the mental man, having from his youth advocated whole- some living and right thinking. With duties that would crush the ordinary man, he has his affairs so systematized that he experiences little or no incon- venience in disposing of his routine work and in carrying to successful issue large and important undertakings. He is a vigorous and independent thinker, a wide reader, and he has the courage of his convictions upon all subjects which he investigates. He is essentially cosmopolitan in his ideas. and in the best sense of the word a representative type of that strong American
580
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
manhood, which commands and retains respect by reason of inherent merit, sound sense and correct conduct. Measured by the accepted standard of ex- cellence, his career, though strenuous, has been eminently honorable and use- ful, and his life fraught with great good to those with whom he has come in contact and to the world.
ISAAC S. HARMER.
The gentleman to whom the reader's attention is directed in this review, Isaac S. Harmer, has attained prestige by reason of native and acquired abil- ity in agricultural circles and high standing in the domain of private citizen- ship. He is one of the representative men of Hilliar township, Knox county. He takes a deep and abiding interest in everything pertaining to the material advancement of his township and everything intended to promote the ad- vancement of this locality is sure to receive his hearty support. He is rated as one of the progressive citizens of his community and the high respect in which he is held by all classes of people is a deserving compliment to an in- telligent, broad-minded and most worthy man of affairs.
Mr. Harmer was born on July 27, 1855, in Summersville, Somerset county, New Jersey. He is the son of John L. and Mary E. ( Brokow) Har- mer. The parents came to Ohio with their family in 1859 and settled on a farm in Morrow county. After successfully engaging in farming for some time the father finally moved to Centerburg, where he was engaged in the meat business. His death occurred on June 15. 1903. His widow still lives in Centerburg.
Isaac S. Harmer spent most of his youth on the home farm assisting his father with the general work about the place and he received his educa- tion in the country district schools, and after the family moved to Center- burg he attended the public schools here. He was married on October II, 1883. to Joanna Murphey, daughter of William and Julia A. (Smith) Murphey, the father being a substantial and well known farmer of Hilliar township. The mother, a widow, now eighty-seven years of age, and her daughter, Mrs. Harmer, are the only survivors of the Murphey family. To Mr. and Mrs. Harmer three daughters have been born, namely: Marie. Mabel and the oldest, who died in infancy.
Mr. Harmer began his married life on the home farm of the Murpheys, he having purchased all the interests of the heirs, and here he has since re- sided, having brought the place up to a high state of improvement and culti-
581
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
vation and managing it with such skill as to render it one of the choice farms of the township, and here he has been very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser. This excellent place is located one mile west of Centerburg. Mr. Harmer has made a specialty of thoroughbred Delaine sheep. He has been very successful in a business way and besides his farming interests he is a director and stockholder in the First National Bank of Centerburg.
Politically, Mr. Harmer is a Republican and is active in public affairs. He served eight years as township trustee and he was land appraiser for Hilliar township in 1910. He has been a frequent delegate to party con- ventions. He has frequently been urged to become a candidate for county offices, but has always declined. He favors public improvements, good roads, better schools and public buildings. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and he has been a trustee of the church for fully twenty years, and has long been active in church and Sunday school work. He is a man of high character and standing, a genial, broad-minded, charit- able gentleman whom it is a pleasure to know, and he and his family are held in high esteem by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
JOHN R. CLAYPOOL, M. D.
While yet young in years, Dr. John R. Claypool, of Gambier, Knox county, has shown what may be accomplished by the youth who diligently and conscientiously tries to advance himself, whose ideals are high and whose principles are correct. He has laid a broad and deep foundation for his life work and future years must needs accord him abundant success.
Doctor Claypool was born on March 30, 1887, in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and he is the son of Charles S. and Rosa (Redman) Claypool, both born in Muskingum county, this state, and both are still living. The father is a contracting painter and decorator, and, owing to his superior skill, his ser- vices have been in great demand for many years. He is a highly regarded citizen.
The son, John R., was educated in the public schools of Mt. Vernon, being graduated from the high school. He then entered the University of Louisville, where he made a splendid record and received the degree of Doc- tor of Medicine. After his graduation he taught one year in that institu- tion, which is a criterion of his ability and of the high confidence reposed in him by its management.
582
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
He then entered the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and in due time received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Thus exceptionally well equipped for his vocation, he came to Gambier, Knox county, in August, 1910, and began the practice of his profession. He was successful from the first and his practice has constantly grown until he now occupies a conspicuous place among his professional brethren of this section of the state, having met with continued and pronounced success as a general practitioner. He also practices surgery, in which he is very skillful, conse- quently successful. He has a conveniently, modernly and systematically equipped office with a full line of latest designed instruments and electrical appliances.
The Doctor is a young man of fine physical development, engaging presence and affable demeanor, always a student and profound investigator. He is a member of the County Medical Society, the Ohio State Medical So- ciety and the National Medical Association. He is a member of the Masonic order and is medical examiner for the Bankers' Life, the John Hancock, the Midland Mutual and the German Commercial Life insurance companies. Po- litically, he is a Republican, but he has not found time to take a very active part in political affairs or be a candidate for office. He belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church. While in the university he was a member of the Alpha Kappa Kappa and the Theta Nu Epsilon societies.
Doctor Claypool was married November 1, 1911, to Mary Neil Schaad, of Columbus, Ohio, daughter of Oswald and Louise (Neddemier) Schaad.
CLAYTON H. BISHOP.
The history of Knox county is the record of the steady growth of a community planted in the wilderness a century ago and has reached its magni- tude of today without other aids than those of industry. The people who redeemed its wilderness fastnesses were strong-armed, hardy sons of the soil who hesitated at no difficulty and for whom hardships had little to appall. The early pioneers, having blazed the path of civilization to this part of the state. finished their labors and passed from the scene, leaving the country to the possession of their descendants and to others who came at a later period and builded on the foundation which they laid so broad and deep. Among this class of sterling pioneers were the progenitors of Clayton H. Bishop, one of the successful citizens of Centerburg, Ohio. While their arrival was not
1
583
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
so early as some, yet they came in the formative period and each succeeding generation has done much to develop and advertise to the world the wonder- ful resources of a county that now occupies a proud position among the most progressive and enlightened sections of the Buckeye state.
Mr. Bishop was born on June 11, 1860, in Mt. Liberty, Knox county, Ohio. He is the son of Allen S. and Ann Jennette (Wayland) Bishop. both natives of this county, and here they grew up, were educated in the old- fashioned schools and were married, spending their lives on a farm. Grand- father Smith Bishop was a very large land owner, who came with the early pioneers from Providence, Rhode Island, to Knox county about 1820, when the land was covered with a vast forest in which were Indians and wild game, the point of supplies for the people here then being at Zanesville. In such environments the father, Allen S. Bishop, was born and here he grew to manhood and spent his life. He was a man of fine personal character and a hard worker and he became one of the substantial farmers of his com- munity. Politically, he was a Republican and he kept well informed on general topics, being fairly well educated for his day and a loyal party man. He was fond of good literature and had a remarkable memory. He lived to an advanced age, dying on June 17, 1909; his widow survives and is making her home near the town of Mt. Liberty.
Clayton H. Bishop spent his childhood and youth on the home farm and he attended the district schools and the graded schools of Mt. Liberty. His father operated a butcher-shop at Centerburg in connection with his farming and when the son, the subject, was eighteen years of age he was placed in charge of the same and later he engaged in this line of business for himself there. In 1884 he purchased the insurance business of Critchfield & Ashley, and he is now the senior member of Bishop, Bishop & Darling. He has been very successful in this line of endeavor and has built up a large and ever- growing business. The Bishop Insurance Agency was organized many years ago and the subject's son. Ray B. Bishop, and Samuel A. Darling became interested in the same. They carry on a general insurance business, including life insurance ; they also included real estate, in which they do a very large business. Mr. Bishop was the promoter of the Centerburg Building and Loan Association Company, which was organized in 1894, and ever since he has been the secretary and general manager of the same. The company is the largest in a town the size of Centerburg in the state, having assets of more than eight hundred thousand dollars. This is a prosperous and prominent concern, being known all over this section of Ohio, and is a great credit to the community. Mr. Bishop was prominent in the organization of the Cen-
(38)
584
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
terburg Savings Bank Company in 1906, being the successor of the Center- burg Bank, the first institution of this kind in the town. He has been presi- dent of the same since 1908 and has discharged the duties of the same in a most able and praiseworthy manner, giving entire satisfaction to the stock- holders and patrons of the same, and doing much to increase the prestige of this popular. sound and conservative institution. Mr. Bishop is also president of the Farmers Fertilizer Company, of Columbus, Ohio. He is a director in the Capital Limestone Company of Columbus, the Louisa Coal Company of Louisa, Kentucky, and the Johnstown & Croton Telephone Company, the Pataskala & Hebron Telephone Company, the Central Ohio Telephone Com- pany. He is also president of the Centerburg Gas and Oil Company, secre- tary of the Little Sandy Gas and Oil Company, and is active in all these organizations, being by nature a man of keen discernment, sound judgment and a promoter and organizer. He has been very successful in whatever he has turned his attention to and ranks among the virile, progressive, and modern business men of this part of the state, whose influence in the business and commercial world is far-reaching.
Mr. Bishop is prominent in Republican politics and a leader in public matters, but he has never been an office holder, except town councilman. He was appointed postmaster at Centerburg in 1897. It was then a fourth- class office, but is now in the third-class division. The duties of this office were managed in a manner that reflected much credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of the department and the people. It now has four rural routes. He has been a member of the county committee and the central com- mittee of his party and has been a frequent delegate to district, county and state conventions, making- his influence felt in all for the good of his com- munity and the party in general.
Mr. Bishop was married on September 14, 1882, to Elizabeth Benning- ton, daughter of Demas and Margaret (Greenlee) Bennington, a prominent family of Washington county, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Bishop is a lady of cul- ture and refinement and was formerly a successful school teacher. This union has been graced by the birth of two sons, Ray B., who was educated in the Centerburg high school, and Guy C., a student in the Ohio Wesleyan University.
Fraternally, Mr. Bishop is a member of the Knights of Pythias. and a charter member of Hawthorne Lodge No. 228. He also belongs to the Free and Accepted Masons, Bloomfield Lodge, and to the Sons of Veterans, by virtue of the fact that his father was a soldier in Company A, One Hun- dred and Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil war. The
585
KNOX COUNTY, OHIO.
subject and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a trustee and a member of the building committee of the same and a Sunday school worker.
Mr. Bishop is the owner of over five hundred acres of valuable farming land in Milford township, this county, which is well improved and under a fine state of cultivation, and in addition to his many other interests he is an active and successful farmer. He raises much live stock, paying special at- tention to sheep and horses, and employs modern methods in all his farming and stock raising. He has one of the most attractive, commodious and mod- ernly furnished homes in southwestern Knox county, in the midst of beauti- ful surroundings. As a recreation he engages in automobiling. He is a strong advocate of public improvements in every way and he is a leader in all movements looking to the general advancement of his community. He is a large owner of valuable and desirable town property. The Bishop home is the mecca of the social life of the community, being widely known as a place of good cheer and oldtime hospitality and here the many friends of the family frequently gather.
With duties that would crush the average man, Mr. Bishop has his busi- ness so systematized that he carries forward his diversified affairs in an easy manner and with little trouble. Personally, he is unassuming, genial, oblig- ing, charitable and a man of the people in all that the term implies. He has so directed and ordered his course that he has won and retained the universal confidence and esteem of a vast circle of acquaintances. He is a student of the world's best literature, keeping his home well supplied and he is there- fore a man of education and culture, a genteel gentleman whom to meet is to admire and respect.
JOHN M. EWALT.
In placing John M. Ewalt, well known banker of Mt. Vernon, in the front rank of Knox county business men, simple justice is done to a bio- graphical fact, universally recognized throughout this and adjoining coun- ties by those at all familiar with his history. A man of judgment, sound discretion and business ability of a high order, he has managed with tactful success important enterprises and so impressed his individuality and sterling characteristics upon the community as to gain recognition among its leading citizens, judicious financiers and public-spirited men of affairs. ,
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.