USA > Ohio > Fulton County > The County of Fulton: A History of Fulton County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on Various Subjects, Including Each of the Different Townships; Also a Biographical Department. > Part 72
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Haynes, early settlers of that locality. Mrs. Thompson was born in Fulton township December 14, 1864, where she was reared and edu- cated. To these parents there have been born two interesting chil- dren. They are: Florence and Fern, both in school. By dint of close application to business and untiring energy Mr. Thompson has won success in life, notwithstanding the fact that he is still a com- paratively young man.
ALEXANDER THOMSON, who is now living essentially retired in the village of Fayette, has been one of the prominent and suc- cessful farmers of Fulton county, and is known as a citizen of sterl- ing character, possessing those dominating traits which ever distin- guish the true Scotsman, though he has been a resident of the United States from his boyhood and is loyally appreciative of the institutions and privileges of our great republic. He was born in Cabrach Braes, Forbes parish, Tullynessel, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, on the Ist of October, 1842, being a son of Alexander and Ann (Dow) Thomson, who were born and reared in that same parish, where the respective families had been established for many generations. In 1854, when Alexander, Jr., subject of this sketch, was twelve years of age, the parents immigrated to America, making Ashland county, Ohio, their destination. They arrived in New London, Huron county, on the 23d of October of that year, and there the father died the next day, as the result of an attack of cholera, which he contracted in Quebec, Canada, while enroute, and he was sixty-three years of age at the time of his death. His devoted wife survived him by many years, passing to the "land o' the leal" in 1871, aged sixty- eight years. They became the parents of three sons, of whom Alexander alone survives. James, who was a soldier in Company A, Sixty-fourth Ohio volunteer infantry, in the Civil war, died at Pitts- burg Landing, while in service, and is buried at Cairo, Ill .; William died in 1862, and his remains were laid to rest in Savannah, Ashland county, Ohio, beside those of his loved mother. Alexander Thom- son, to whom this review is dedicated, passed his youth in Ashland and Richland counties, and such were the exigencies of time and conditions that his educational advantages were somewhat limited, though he had received excellent preliminary training in his native land. He has made good the handicap of his youth, however, and through well-directed reading and studious application, as well as through association with men and affairs, he has become a man of broad information, possessing an alert mentality and having all the canny originality of the stanch race from which he is sprung. He traveled for years in various Western States and territories, and in 1872 he located near Boydton, Mecklenburg county, Va., where he secured seven hundred and seventeen acres of land and engaged in farming. He thus continued until 1877, when he traded his South- ern plantation for one hundred and sixty acres in Chesterfield town- ship, Fulton county, Ohio, paying an additional consideration of two thousand dollars. He took up his residence on his new farm, which he greatly improved, making it one of the model places of the county
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and being successful in his agricultural and stock-growing opera- tions. He continued his residence on the homestead, which he still owns, until 1902, when he located in Fayette, where he has since lived retired. March 26, 1872, Mr. Thomson was united in mar- riage to Miss Mary McCombie Johnston, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Tytler) Johnston, who were born in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, and who came to America on the same ship as did the Thomson family. They also located in Richland county, Ohio, near Savannah, and there Mr. Johnston died May 9, 1881, aged seventy years, and his wife died May 22, 1901, at the venerable age of ninety years. Of their four children all are living. Following is a brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Thomson: They are the parents of three children: Anna is the wife of David Carey, of Decatur, Mich .; Margaret died at the age of two years; Lulu is the wife of Arthur Miller, of Fayette. Mr. Thomson is independent in his political views, supporting the measures and candidates meeting the approval of his judgment and taking an intelligent interest in the issues of the hour. Though never ambitious for office he has rendered effective service as trustee and assessor in Chesterfield township.
LYMAN A. TOMPKINS, M. D., after laboring long and faithfully in his chosen profession, in which he gained precedence as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Fulton county, is now living practi- cally retired in the village of Metamora. The Doctor was born in Reed township, Seneca county, Ohio, on the 5th of February, 1841, a son of John and Julia (Jordan) Tompkins, both natives of Steuben county N. Y., where their marriage was solemnized and whence they removed to Seneca county, Ohio, about 1835, the father becoming one of the pioneer farmers. of Reed township, where he reclaimed 120 acres of wild land, becoming one of the substantial and influential citizens of the county, where both he and his wife died. His father, William Tompkins, also a native of Steuben county, N. Y., removed to Seneca county. Ohio, about the same time, likewise reclaiming a farm, upon which he passed the residue of his life. Thus four generations of the family have been represented in the Buckeye State. Michael Jordan, maternal grandfather of the Doctor, was a farmer by vocation and passed his life in Steuben county, N. Y. The children of John and Julia (Jordan) Tompkins were as follows: Michael, Sally, Emeline, Betsey. Delos, Lois, William, Myron, Lyman A., Alfred, Margaret, and Ardella. Dr. Tompkins was reared to manhood in Seneca county, where he was accorded excellent educational advantages, having entered the Seneca County Academy, at Republic, after leaving the common schools, and having later continued his higher literary studies in Heidelberg Col- lege, at Tiffin, that county. While a student in this institution he also took up the study of medicine, under the direction of General Franklin, M.D., of Tiffin, an able representative of the Eclectic school of practice, and after leaving Heidelberg College Dr. Tomp- kins took a course of lectures in Miami Medical College, in Cincin- nati, this being in the year 1866. In 1867 and 1869 he was a stu-
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dent in the Physio-Medical College, in the same city, this institu- tion representing a new and beneficent system of practice. In the last mentioned year he was exposed to small-pox and compelled to leave the city, but the college gave him an unlimited certificate to practice medicine, this being in every respect equal to a diploma. In 1871 he began the practice of his profession in Ai, Fulton county, where he was located for sixteen years, building up an extensive practice, ramifying through Fulton, Lucas, Wood, Seneca, Williams and Henry counties, Ohio, and extending into Lenawee county, Mich. At one time he was compelled to keep ten horses in order to meet the exigencies of his widely-extended practice, his stable thus having as large a complement of horses as did the average livery of Fulton county at that period. He gained the distinction of hav- ing the largest practice of all country physicians in the State, and his efforts were signally self-abnegating and faithful, no matter what personal discomfort and hardship he was called upon to endure when ministering to those in affliction and distress. In 1887 Dr. Tompkins located in Metamora, where he continued in active practice until 1892, when he felt justified in retiring, his labors having been pro- tracted and arduous, and he has since given his attention principally to the supervision of his farming interests, owning one hundred and forty-seven acres of land, in Amboy township, Fulton county, and Richfield township, Lucas county. During the years of his active professional work the Doctor was a valued factor in the county, State and national conventions of the school of medicine of which he was so prominent and able an exponent, and he has done a large amount of work as examining physician for pensions and insurance. In politics he is an uncompromising Republican, but he has never manifested aught of ambition for public office. In 1869 he mar- ried Miss Rhoda A. Abbott, native of Vermont, who died in 1873, leaving one son, Abbott D. In 1874, the Doctor wedded Miss Lucy J. Merrill, whose death occurred in 1893. Arthur Lyman, the only child of this union, was graduated in the Fayette Normal University when but fifteen years of age, prior to which time he had accumulated $560 through his personal efforts. The faculty of Fayette University pronounced him the brightest student who had ever attended the insti- tution, and his name is still mentioned there with the same mark of approbation. After leaving school he was cashier of a bank in Fay- ette for two years, when death cut short his promising life, his age at the time being seventeen years. In 1884 Dr. Tompkins married his present wife, whose maiden name was Mrs. Elizabeth B. Baker, daughter of Azariah and Harriett (Kennedy) Baker, and who was at the time a resident of Seneca county, Ohio. Mrs. Baker is a member of the Methodist church at Metamora, Ohio.
EDWARD VAUGHAN is one of the prosperous farmers and stock-growers of Fulton township and a member of one of the hon- ored pioneer families of Fulton county, where nearly his entire life has been passed. The family history is entered in adequate detail in the sketch dedicated to his brother, James C. Vaughan, appearing
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immediately following this review, and as ready reference may be made to the same a reincorporation of the data is not required at this juncture. Edward Vaughan was born at Ai, Fulton township, on the 4th of January, 1838, and is the son of Alexander and Re- becca (Jones) Vaughan, whose names are recalled with unqualified honor by all who knew them, for they were numbered among the sterling pioneers of this part of the county. Edward Vaughan was reared and educated in Fulton county, his scholastic advantages hav- ing been those of the pioneer schools, and he has been to a large extent actively identified with agricultural pursuits from his youth to the present, and has resided constantly in his native county ex- cept for a period of about six years, during which he resided in Tus- carawas county, being a boy at the time. November 5, 1861, Mr. Vaughan was united in marriage to Miss Jane Nobbs, a sister of John H. Nobbs, in whose personal sketch, on other pages of this volume, is given a family record. After his marriage Mr. Vaughan lived one year on a rented farm, after which he engaged in the general mer- chandise business in the village of Ai, continuing this enterprise for eight years and meeting with fair success. He then disposed of the store and business and purchased a farm, which now consists of one hundred acres, in the central part of Fulton township, giving his attention to the operation of the same for about thirty years, and he still owns the homestead, which is one of the finely-improved farms of the county. Since the death of his wife, which occurred in 1872, Mr. Vaughan has made his home during the greater portion of the intervening years with his son Ellis. a portion of the time re- siding on the homestead and for the past few years on his son's own farm, one mile west. The following is a brief record concerning the four children of Mr. and Mrs. Vaughan: Harvey, who married Miss Jennie Canfield, is a farmer in Fulton township: Clara is the wife of Howard E. Wilson, son of Matthew Wilson, of this township; Ellis H., who married Basha Anna Shufelt, and has a nice family of six children, is the owner of a good farm in Fulton township and is one of the progressive agriculturists and stock-growers of the county, and as before stated, his father now resides in his home: Edna is the widow of Ralph Herrick and now resides in Delta, this county, where she is educating her son and daughter: she owns a nice home in that village and also a good farm in Fulton township. In poli- tics Mr. Vaughan has always been an active and uncompromising Republican, and he has been called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, including those of treasurer, trustee and assessor of Ful- ton township. He was made a Mason in early manhood, but has not been in active affiliation for many years past. He has never been identified with any religious body, though having a deep reverence for spiritual and ethical verities and ever striving to order his life according to the Golden Rule.
JAMES C. VAUGHAN. a retired farmer now residing at Swan- ton, was born in what is now Fulton township on August 30, 1835. He enjoys the distinction of being the first white child born in the
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"disputed strip," then under the jurisdiction of the State of Michigan. The dispute over this strip of land, about ten miles wide, was peace- ably settled and the territory became a part of Ohio in 1836. In history the threatened trouble is known as the "Ohio and Michigan War." The parents of James C. Vaughan were Alexander, and Re- becca (Jones) Vaughan, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio. James Vaughan, the father of Alexander Vaughan, was a native of Ireland and emigrated to Pennsylvania in an early day. Alexander Vaughan was born in Westmoreland county, of his native State, in 1800, and came to Ohio in 1818, first locating in Tus- carawas county, where he was married in 1827. In April, 1835, with his wife and two children, he removed to Fulton county and there `entered government land, which he at once proceeded to clear and cultivate. At that time the territory now comprising Fulton county was a veritable wilderness, the only trading town being Maumee. He died at the age of forty-seven, and was survived by his widow, born in Stark county in 1812, who died at the age of sixty years. They were the parents of ten children, four of whom are now living. Those living are: Mary, now Mrs. Springer of Wauseon: James C .; Edward, a farmer of Fulton township, and Isabel, the wife of E. Bailey, a resident of Bronson, Mich. Two of the sons, James C. and Caleb J., deceased, were soldiers in the Union army. James C. Vaughan grew to manhood on the home farm and was educated in the common schools of the county and at Maumee, where he was a student for two years. He opened up a farm four miles north of Swanton. In 1864 he enlisted for a term of one hundred days in the One Hundred and Thirtieth Ohio volunteer infantry and served in West Virginia one hundred and forty days before he was mustered out. Upon his election as a member of the board of county commis- sioners, in 1884, he sold his farm and retired from active farming. A part of the homestead is now the property of his eldest son. In politics he has always taken an active part, being recognized as a local leader of the Republican party. In addition to serving six years as commissioner, he has filled various offices in Swanton and Fulton township. He has been a Mason for forty years and has passed the principal chairs of Swanton Lodge, No. 555. While he has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for a number of years, he is not at present affiliated with that order. For twenty-two years he has been actively identified with the Regular Baptist church. In March, 1860, he was united in the bonds of matrimony to Miss Harriet A. Taylor, who died in 1878, leaving six children. five of whom are vet living. They are: Jason W .. a live stock dealer of Buffalo, N. Y .; Burton, who was killed by the cars in March, 1904: Cora, the wife of W. A. Scott. of Thomasville, Ala .; Carey, a meat-dealer of Swanton; Brent, and Harry. In 1880 he married his present wife, who was Miss Julia Tumey, a native of Ohio. To this union there have been born the following children: Bessie, the wife of John Lenehan, assistant cashier in the Bank of Swanton; Florence and Neva, both still at home.
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JAMES H. WADDELL, M. D., is one of the representative physi- cians and surgeons of Fulton county, is established in the practice of his profession in Wauseon, and his ability and personal popularity are best attested by the success and prestige which he enjoys in one of the most exacting and responsible vocations to which a person may turn his attention. He has been the artificer of his own for- tunes, gaining his education through individual effort and thus being the more deeply appreciative of the advantages which he gained. His early' education was secured in the public schools, and was sup- plemented by careful, systematic study and general reading during the years of his minority, and finally he bent all his energies and efforts to the work of preparing himself for the medical profession. In 1869 he was graduated in the Charity Hospital Medical College, Cleveland, Ohio, after a thorough course, marked by the closest application, and from this institution he received his degree of Doc- tor of Medicine. He engaged in practice at Lickton, Wabash county, Ind., immediately after his graduation, remaining there established in successful professional work until 1875, and in 1877 he decided to investigate more thoroughly the Homoeopathic system of medicine, with whose beneficent results he had become deeply impressed. He thus took a course in the Huron Hospital Homoeopathic Medical School, at Cleveland, Ohio, and since that time has been an able and successful exponent of this school of practice. In 1875 Dr. Waddell was united in marriage to Miss Florence A. Van Dorn, who was born in Belleville, Richland county, Ohio, and early in her married life she became deeply interested in her husband's professional work, and rendered most efficient aid in the capacity of nurse and general assistant. Finally she entered the Woman's Medical College, in St. Louis, Mo., in which well-ordered institution she was graduated on the 28th of March, 1880, since which time she has been actively as- sociated with her husband in practice, being one of the leading woman practitioners of her native State. They took up their resi- dence in Wauseon in 1878, and here their professional clientage is widely extended and of representative order. In 1885-6 Drs. James H. and Florence A. Waddell were matriculated in Hahnemann Medi- cal College, in the city of Chicago, from which celebrated institution each received the ad eundum degree. James H. Waddell was born in Jelloway, Knox county, Ohio, Oct. 14, 1842, and is a son of Robert F. and Elizabeth (Critchfield) Waddell, the former of whom died at the age of forty-six years, at which time Dr. Waddell was a child of four years. The family early settled in Marietta, Ohio, coming from Pennsylvania and being numbered among the first pioneers of Washington county, Ohio. Dr. Charles F. Waddell, an uncle of the subject of this sketch, had the distinction of being the first white child born in the State of Ohio. He became one of the most emi- nent clergymen of the Methodist Episcopal church, being widely known throughout this and adjoining States, and also being an able physician, so that his labors among the pioneers were doubly valu- able, since he ministered alike to their spiritual and physical neces- sities. The Critchfield family has been for several generations prom-
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inent in the annals of the Buckeye State, representatives having been specially notable in the learned professions and in military affairs. The greater number of the present generation are residents of Knox county. The Van Dorn family, of which Dr. Florence A. Waddell is a representative, was early founded in Pennsylvania, whence the Ohio progenitors came to Richland county and became early set- tlers of Belleville. Her parents were Nathan and Mary Van Dorn. Dr. James H. Waddell is a stalwart and uncompromising Republi- can, and his father was a strong abolitionist during the climacteric era culminating in the Civil war, and the family home was a promi- nent station on the historic "underground railway." October 14, 1861, Dr. Waddell enlisted in Company E, Twentieth Ohio volun- teer infantry, in which he served three years, taking part in the bat- tles of Fort Donelson, Pittsburg Landing, Iuka, Holly Springs, and Raymond, Miss., in which last named he was wounded, May 12, 1863, and on the 24th of the same month he was taken prisoner, remaining captive under the Confederate authorities until July 8, 1864, when he was paroled and sent to the North, remaining in parole camp, at Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio, until his exchange was effected, in November, 1864. By reason of his wounds he was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, in which he served until the expiration of his term of enlistment, at Indianapolis, Ind., receiving his dis- charge October 17, 1864. Dr. Waddell has been a member of the board of pension examiners of Fulton county since March, 1897, and has continuously served as secretary of the board. He is promi- nently identified with the Masonic fraternity. Drs. James H. and Florence A. Waddell have no children. They are not only promi- nent in the professional circles of the county and State but also in the social life of the community, and their friends are in number equal to their acquaintances.
SYLVANUS WALTER, a retired farmer of Archbold, was born in Marion, Marion county, Ohio, March 23, 1843. He is the son of John and Tama (Stevens) Walter, the former a native of Catawissa, Pa., and the latter of Schenectady, N. Y. John Walter, the grand- father of Sylvanus Walter, spent his life in Marion. John Walter, in 1848, removed with his family to Huron county, O., and, locating on a farm eight miles south of Norwalk, followed general farming. In 1858 he removed to Clinton township, Fulton county, where he died in 1885, aged eighty-three years. His widow, now eighty-five years old, resides in Michigan. To John Walter and wife seven children were born, as follows: Abigail (deceased), the wife of Benjamin F. Milly, who died in Indiana in 1884; Sylvanus, the subject of this sketch; Alexander, of Midland county, Mich .; George, who died in 1899; Mary, the wife of L. A. Baker, of Alma, Mich .; Elva, who died in 1866, and Adaline, who died in infancy in Huron county. Syl- vanus Walter received his education in the public schools of his youth and remained with his father until eighteen years old, when he enlisted at Wauseon, in Company H of the One Hundredth Ohio volunteer infantry. His regiment was assigned to the Army of the
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Tennessee, under the command of General Burnside, taking an ac- tive part in the battle and siege of Knoxville. After having been surrounded for twenty-one days by General Longstreet, his regiment was engaged in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, where on June 17, 1864, he received a gunshot wound in the side and was sent to the hospitals of Chattanooga and Nashville. Returning to his command on November 30, he was present at the battles of Franklin and Nash- ville. Then the regiment joined the army of General Sherman at Wilmington, N. C., and took part in the battle of Greensboro, where Johnston surrendered. On June 22, 1865, Mr. Walter was mustered out of the service at Greensboro and arrived at his home on July 4th. He followed farming in Clinton township until 1874, when he bought a farm of one hundred and ten acres one-half mile south of Archbold and remained there until April 29, 1904, when he retired from active work. In politics he has always been an active Demo- crat, having held the offices of justice of the peace and assessor of German township, each for two terms, that of census enumerator in 1880 and at present that of assessor of Archbold. He is a member of the Wauseon Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. On February 12, 1875, he was unitel in marriage to Miss Emma Yager, a native of Fulton county and the daughter of Henry and Elizabeth (Mountz) Yager, both na- tives of Pennsylvania, who came to Ohio and settled first in Colum- biana county and, in 1860, in Napoleon, where the former died, Oc- tober 1, 1871, aged seventy-one years, and the latter, May 5, 1891, aged fifty-nine years. To Sylvanus Walter and his wife there have been born four children. They are: Alice, the wife of Nevin Hoff- man, of Stryker, O .; Henry, a resident of Norwalk, O .; Owen, of Kokomo, Ind .; and Russell, who is still at home attending the public schools.
ORLANDO O. WALTERS, one of the leading farmers and stock- growers of Fulton township and one of the influential and honored citizens of the county, is specially deserving of consideration in a publication of the province assigned to the one at hand. He was born in Pike township, this county, on the 17th of June, 1849, and is the sixth child and son of Joseph and Susan (Dull) Walters. Joseph Walters was born in Harrison county, Ohio, where his parents lo- cated on their removal from Pennsylvania, and he was there reared and educated. About 1837 he came to Fulton county, first locating in Pike township, where he secured land and engaged in farming. He finally sold this property and removed to York township, where he remained until 1864, when he removed to Dover township. Here both he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives. She died when about sixty-five years of age and he was eighty-two years old when he was called to his eternal rest. They were folk of sterling attributes and never lacked the esteem and confidence of those with whom they came in contact, and their names merit a place of honor on the roll of the worthy pioneers of Fulton county. They became the parents of nine children, only four of whom are living. Melinda,
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