Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 62

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189

USA > Ohio > Hancock County > Findlay > Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens > Part 62

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Ozias E. Benington remained at home help- ing his father until he was nineteen years of age. in the meanwhile obtaining a common school education. When he started out for himself, he bought a farm in Indiana on which he lived for a few years and then came to his present property in Big Lick Township. He carries on a general farming line which in- cludes the growing of fruit and the raising of stock for his own use.

In 1886, Mr. Benington was married to Miss

Eliza A. Taylor, who was born in Washington Township, Hancock County, and is a daughter of Robert Taylor, and they have six children : Ralph, Genevria, Grace, Dewey, Harold and Taylor. In politics, Mr. Benington is a Re- publican and keeps well posted on public mat- ters, but he has never sought office. He is a practical man and finds his time well employed in looking after his own business affairs.

SAMUEL. E. RENNINGER*, plumber and gas fitter, at Findlay, Ohio, is the head of the firm of S. E. Renninger & Co., at No. 602 South Main Street, and has been established in this line in this city since October, 1903. Mr. Renninger was born on a farm in Liberty Township, Hancock County, Ohio, October 20, 1876, and is a son of William and Sarah (Em- erson) Renninger. William Renninger was a prosperous farmer in Liberty Township for many years and then retired to Findlay, where his death occurred September 21, 1897. His widow is still living.

Samuel E. Renninger was reared on the home farm and after leaving school worked for eleven years in the oil fields as a pumper for the Ohio Oil Company, after which he learned his trade with a plumber at Findlay and for several months was in partnership with A. E. Powell, and then bought his partner's interest. He has a first class establishment in which he employs from four to eight men and takes con- tracts and separate orders for plumbing, steam, gas and hot water heating and sheet metal working.

Mr. Renninger was married to Miss Anna R. Brady. a daughter of Mathew Brady. She was born in Ross County but was reared in Hancock County. They have two children, Mary Ilene and Margaret Elizabeth. Mr.

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Renninger is a member of the order of Ben Hur and of the Modern Woodmen of America.

WILLIAM W. COLE, who owns 143 acres of fine land, lying in Section 22, Big Lick Township, Hancock County, O., on the New Haven turnpike road, ten miles east of Find- lay, is one of the representative and reliable cit- izens of the township. He was born near Por- tersville, Mich., December 27, 1856, and is a son of John W. and a grandson of James Cole.

John W. Cole was born in Ashland County, O., in 1831, a son of James Cole, who was born in Delaware, where he married. With his wife he came to Ashland County, O., where his chil- dren were born, and then moved to Big Lick Township, Hancock County, where the re- mainder of his life was spent. To James Cole and wife the following children were born: William, John, Dickson, Benjamin, James, Ro- land, Andrew, Raymond, David, Elizabeth, Milla, and Wilminer. John married Sarah McCree, who was born in Scotland and was brought to America when eight years old by some relatives of the name of Allen, and with them she lived until they died, in 1851, when she married John W. Cole. A large family of children were born to them, namely: James, William, Elmer A., Charles W., John J., Dil- man D., Benjamin, Raymond C., Lemuel, Ralph, Irvin, Jennie, Marietta, Minta and Janet and Rosett, twins, and almost the whole fam- ily still survives. The father died in 1905, and the mother in 1879.

For a few years in boyhood, William W. Cole attended the local schools and then went to the West for a few years and after he re- turned, settled on his present farm in Big Lick Township and here has ever since carried on

general farming and stock raising with much success.

In 1881 Mr. Cole was married to Miss Ellen Bright, who was born and reared in Big Lick Township, a daughter of William Bright, and thirteen children have been born to this mar- riage, namely : Cloys, who is in the real estate business in Kansas; Ray C .; Carl M .; Florence, who married Charles Myers, a farmer in Washington Township; and Jessie, Aura, Edna, Mary, Nana, Esther, Glenna, Myrtie and Vertie. The two youngest, Myrtie and Vertie, were twins and they died at the age of 6 weeks from measles. Mr. Cole and family belong to the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a Re- publican in his political views.

HENRY SWINDLER ROLLER, whose valuable farm of eighty-nine acres lies in Sec- tion 31, Washington Township, Hancock Coun- ty, O., is one of the enterprising and represen- tative men of this part of the county. He was born on his father's farm in Big Lick Town- ship, Hancock County, April 20, 1862, and is a son of Michael and Elizabeth (Swindler) Roller.

Michael Roller was born in Ashland County, O., and was twelve years old when he accom- panied his parents to Hancock County. His father, William Roller, was born in Pennsyl- vania and was one of the early land agents in Ashland County and came from there to Big Lick Township, Hancock County, where he had entered large tracts of land. He had eight children: Wilson, Michael, George, Agnes, Mary, Lucinda, Charlotte and Susan. All are now deceased. The daughters married and the larger number of them moved farther west.

When Michael Roller came with his parents to this section, Findlay was a scattered village

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of log houses surrounding the court house. He bered with the successful general farmers of led a busy life from boyhood and for four years this neighborhood. chopped down trees and cleared the farm of brush before he started to cultivate it. Later he introduced many improvements and kept the farm of 160 acres left him by his father intact for his own children and died on it at the age of sixty-five years. He married Elizabeth Swindler, who lived to be seventy-eight years of age. She was born in Jefferson County, O., and was a capable housewife and good mother. In the early days before her husband's means could provide other ways of transportation, she did not hesitate to carry produce to market on horseback and thus do her part in adding to the family income. Eight children were born to Michael and Elizabeth Roller, namely : Wil- liam, who lives in Wood County, O .; Sarah, who is the widow of Allen Spahr; Mary; Phi- lena, who is the wife of Jefferson Huffman; George; Ida, deceased, who was the wife of Samuel Taylor ; Henry S .; and Lorena, who is the wife of Edward Vickers.

Henry S. Roller grew to manhood in Big Lick Township and attended the country schools as opportunity offered, although he be- gan hard work on the farm when compara- tively young. There was always a job of clearing or wood cutting awaiting him when farm work was not pressing and before the days of the oil boom he hauled and sold wood through Findlay. He remained at home for ten years after his marriage and continued to farm and raise stock there until the spring of 1895, when he bought a part of his present farm in Washington Township and later bought forty more acres, the remaining por- tion. He has remodeled the buildings and put everything in fine condition here and is num-

Mr. Roller was married October 1, 1885, to. Miss Margaret Ellen Vickers, a daughter of George and Malissa (Jolley) Vickers, the for- mer of whom was born in Cass Township, Hancock County, a son of James Vickers, of England, who came here as a pioneer. George Vickers died October 27, 1866, aged thirty years. His widow, who survives him, was. born in Columbiana County, O., and lost her parents when she was only nine years old, they dying within two weeks of each other. She was reared by a cousin and came to Hancock County when aged eighteen years and was. married to George Vickers in 1859. Three children were born to that union: Mary E., who is deceased; Sarah Jane, who is the wife of George Roller; and Margaret Ellen, who is. the wife of Henry S. Roller. Mrs. Roller was born on the old Vickers homestead in Cass Township. Mrs. Vickers was married a second time, to the late Mark Taylor, who died in April, 1906, leaving one daughter, Cora Dell, who is the wife of Roy Cook, of Findlay. Mr. and Mrs. Roller are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In politics he is a Democrat.

JEREMIAH FERGUSON*, senior mem- ber of the firm of Ferguson & Son, architects and builders, with offices in the Niles Block, Findlay, has been actively engaged in business here for the past twenty years. He was born. in Franklin County, Ohio, in 1860, his birth- place being within the present limits of the city of Columbus. His parents were Samuel and Catherine (Nazworthy) Ferguson.

Samuel Ferguson was a mechanic. Before- coming to Findlay, in 1864, he, together with his brother, John Ferguson, had served as sol-

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diers in the Civil War. It happened that both a Franklin County and a Hancock County reg- iment was short of men and the two companies were combined in one regiment, the men be- coming well acquainted. The Fergusons were men of sterling character and made friends from Hancock County who urged them to come to Findlay after the expiration of their terms of service. There was still another brother, Joseph Ferguson, in the service at this time, but he did not live to return, being killed at the battle of Perryville, Kentucky. Samuel and John Ferguson acted upon the suggestion of their Hancock County friends and comrades and thus Findlay acquired several more excel- lent citizens. Samuel Ferguson was a wood- worker and John Ferguson was a blacksmith and both were carriage workers and they pur- chased what is now Reimund Brothers carriage shop and conducted it together for some years. Their father, James Ferguson, accompanied his sons to Findlay, where the remainder of his life was passed. Samuel Ferguson is still a resident of Findlay but his wife died in 1900.

From the age of four years Mr. Ferguson has been a resident of Findlay. After his pe- riod of school attendance was over he served an apprenticeship in his father's carriage shop, after which he learned the carpenter's trade and went into building and designing. Few names in this line are better known in Han- cock County than that of Jeremiah Ferguson and when a particularly imposing or pleasing structure is being erected at Findlay, the ad- mirer can be pretty sure to find that the firm of Ferguson & Son are the designers if not also the builders. To Mr. Ferguson is credited : the Kirkbride Block ; the S. L. McKelvy Block : the First Church of God: the United Presbyte- rian and the Central Church of Christ, all at

Findlay; all the buildings at Riverside Park; the Country Club House, together with prob- ably 500 fine private residences. He drew the architectural plans for many of the buildings and blocks, and designed all the three churches mentioned.

Mr. Ferguson was married at Findlay, Ohio, to Miss Mary J. Bryan, a daughter of Joseph Bryan, and they have had five children: Roy, who is in partnership with his father; Ruth; Hazel, who is the wife of John Alesch, of Find- lay; Clark, who died when aged eleven months; and Harold. Mr. Ferguson was bereaved of his estimable wife, July 3, 1909. He has never been active in politics but is numbered with the earnest and useful men of the city, one who may be depended upon to ever give support to law and order.

DR. WILLIAM F. LEHR, who has been engaged in the practice of medicine at Ar- lington, Ohio, since the fall of 1899, was born June 13, 1870, in Hardin County. Ohio, and is a son of Daniel and Susan P. (Rentzer) Lehr. His father was born near Potsville, Schuylkill County, Pa., and came to Delaware, Ohio, to attend the Ohio Wesleyan University. It was here he met the mother of the subject of this sketch and they were married in 1855, and continued living in Delaware, where Mr. Lehr worked at his trade of saddler till about 1868, when they moved to Hardin County, Ohio. Here Mr. Lehr engaged in farming till his death, which was accidental. in 1875.

Dr. William F. Lehr was reared to man- hood in Wyandot County. Ohio, where he attended the district schools. At the age of seventeen he began a course of study at the Ohio Normal school at Ada and after com-

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pleting a four years' course, taught in the country schools of Wyandot County for five terms. He then entered the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, Ohio, from which he graduated with the class of 1899. That same fall he embarked in the practice of medicine at Arlington, Ohio, where he has established an extensive practice and enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fel- low citizens.

Dr. Lehr was married August 5, 1896, to Miss Salena J. Carey, of Marseilles, Ohio, a daughter of Archabald and Ellen (Gorden) Carey. She was also a teacher, having taught in the town and country schools six years. She was born in Demorestville, Canada, and came with her parents to Mar- seilles, Ohio, in 1882. Dr. and Mrs. Lehr are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, of Arlington, Ohio, of which he is at present one of the trustees.

GEORGE C. MONTGOMERY, general farmer, resides on his well cultivated farm of eighty acres which is situated in Section 21, Portage Township, Hancock County, O. He was born in Portage Township, October 10, 1861, and is a son of George W. and Mary (Chase) Montgomery.

George W. Montgomery was well known all over Hancock County as an auctioneer. His first wife, the mother of George C., died when her son was but six weeks old. Mr. Montgomery married for his second wife, Dorothy Culp, who proved a good mother to his children.

George C. Montgomery was reared in Portage Township on his father's farm and attended the country schools. For one year after marriage he made his home in Mc-

Comb but continued to carry on farm op- erations on the homestead, his father's other duties demanding his attention in other directions. For the following five years Mr. Montgomery operated his father- in-law's farm and then bought and moved onto the present place in the spring of 1901 and immediately started to make improve- ments. He has remodeled the house and erected other necessary structures, rebuilt fencing, attended to the orchards-in fact turned it into a model farm.

Mr. Montgomery was married December 25, 1894, to Miss Jennie Wagoner and they have had four children : Wellington ; a babe. that died unnamed; Pearl; and Howard, who lived but five months.

EVERETT H: COATES*, plumber and steam fitter, engaged in business at No. 521 South Main Street, Findlay, Ohio, is a thor- oughly experienced man in his line of bus- iness, with which he has been more or less connected since he was sixteen years of age. He was born on a farm in Blanchard Township, Hancock County, Ohio, June 25, 1878, and is a son of Norman G. and Mary E. (Callison) Coates.

Norman G. Coates was born in Pennsyl- vania and came to Hancock County, Ohio, with his father, Hiram G. Coates, when a boy. Until he was twenty-five years old, Norman G. Coates remained on the farm and then went to St. Louis, Michigan, where he was engaged in a hardware busi- ness for fifteen years and then came to Findlay. In 1883 he started the present plumbing business, in 1894 admitting his young son to a partnership, and the firm of Coates & Son continued until 1907, when

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Mr. Coates sold out his interests to his part- ner and moved to Texas, where he still re- sides. He married Mary E. Callison, who was born in Indiana and died in October, 1908.

Everett H. Coates was one year old when his parents moved to St. Louis, Michigan, where he attended the public schools and after coming to Findlay, he attended Find- lay College for four years. Although col- lege bred, Mr. Coates has had no desire to adopt a professional career, preferring to engage in a business where skill and me- chanical effort is necessary to success. A natural aptness for this line of work has been of assistance to him and he probably is considered one of the most reliable plumb- ers, gas fitters and installers of modern heating systems in the city and controls a large portion of the public's important work.

Mr. Coates married Miss Lillian Camp- field, a daughter of the late William H. Campfield, who was a prominent cement contractor and builder at Findlay. The mother of Mrs. Coates was Henrietta Watts. Mr. and Mrs. Campfield had four children, Mrs. Coates being the third born. Mr. Coates is a member of the Knights of Pythias and also of the Elks.

OSCAR WISE, who conducts a hard- ware business at Mt. Blanchard, O., and is general manager of The People's Telephone Company, having lines in Hancock, Hardin and Wyandot Counties, is one of the repre- sentative men of the place. He was born in Knox County, O. His father, who was a native of Ashland County, died in Richland

County in 1905. His mother was born in Richland County and still resides there.

Oscar Wise was reared at Butler, O., and attended school there. When he was only eleven years old he started to learn the tin- ner's trade, probably having inherited me- chanical skill from his father, who was a carriage maker. Mr. Wise continued to work at his trade until he was thirty-six years of age, eighteen years of that time having charge of the tin shop and hardware store, and in 1892 began to be interested in the telephone business. By 1895 he had completed telephone lines over ten counties and had connected 154 towns. In 1900 he started a telephone system at Arlington, where he remained for three months and then came to Mt. Blanchard and organized a company in 1902 and up to this time there was no telephone system in Hancock County south of the corporation lines of Findlay. He has the management of the telephones at Forest, Kirby, Wharton, Ar- lington, Jenera, New Stark, Mt. Cory and Rawson, his company having over 1,900 tel- ephones in operation. The service is entirely satisfactory. Mr. Wise is recog- nized as a very useful citizen and has been a member of the city council since 1909. He is identified with Lodge No. 519, F. & A. M., at Mt. Blanchard, in which he holds the office of senior warden.

WILLIAM BATTLES, a member of a well known family of Orange Township, Hancock County, O., and the owner of a valuable farm of 120 acres, situated in Sec- tion 20, was born in the center of Orange Township, February 13, 1848, in the old log house his father had erected there. His

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parents were Asa and Catherine (Raimer) Battles.

Asa Battles was born in 1815, in Mercer County, Pa., and came to Ohio with his father, Brier Battles, who settled and died in Trumbull County. When Asa Battles left Trumbull County he had a horse and wagon, a few tools and $200 in money. He came to Hancock County and bought 200 acres of land in the center of Orange Town- ship. It was a wild region at that time, forests stretching in every direction and in order to find space on which to build his first primitive home, Mr. Battles had to fell forest trees. This first 200 acres was pur- chased from Alexander Ewing. Later he added other tracts until he was one of the large land owners of this section, having 680 acres, enough to give each of his living children a farm. He practically cleared and fenced all of this land during his life time. He was a man of considerable importance and in those early days, as his house was centrally located, it was often used for the transaction of township business and as a voting place. In 1867 he replaced the log cabin with the house that still stands on the farm which is occupied by one of his sons. He married Catherine Raimer, who was then a resident of Allen County, O., al- though born in Germany. She accom- panied her parents, Thebault and Sophia Raimer, and they reached America after a voyage of forty days, subsequently settling in Allen County, O.

To Asa Battles and wife the following children were born: John, Alfred, William, George, Edward, Eliza Jane, Asa, Jesse, Freeman, Robert and Harry. The two eldest sons died in the army during the

Civil War. Edward lives on the old home- stead and William resides in Orange Town- ship not far distant. The father of this family died in November, 1904, and the mother in February, 1909. They were worthy and active members of the German Lutheran church and their burial was in the Thompson cemetery.

William Battles, the third member of the above family, attended the district schools in Orange Township, mainly in the winter time, until he was twenty years of age, and then assisted his father until he went to Iowa. Mr. Battles spent four years in that state and during this time he was married and one year later he returned to Hancock County and purchased his present farm in Orange Township, from the Thompson heirs. A large amount of improving had to be done before Mr. Battles was satisfied with the appearance of his home and all the buildings now standing are of his own erecting. He has thoroughly drained his land and has all of it under cultivation with the exception of four acres still in valuable timber. He carries on the usual pursuits of a general farmer, raises grain and hay, fruit and vegetables and enough stock for his own use.

Mr. Battles was married in Iowa, on January 14, 1867, to Miss Cordelia McCon- nell, a daughter of Alexander and Caroline (Raimer) McConnell. A family of seven children has been born to them, as follows : Jennie, who married Howard Schold and they have one son, Leonard; Jesse, who married Hattie Custer, and has one son, Walter; Maude, who married E. K. Chap- man, and they have one daughter, Jennie C .; Minnie, who married Jacob Armstutz,

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and they have three children, Robert, Helen and Wilbur; and Bertie, Grover and Edith, all at home. The family is well known in this section in all its connections and is held in high regard. Mrs. Battles is a member of the Evangelical church, to which Mr. Battles liberally contributes and also attends. In politics he is a Democrat but at present holds no political office. Formerly he served as school director.

JOHN V. HARTMAN, M. D.,* physi- cian and surgeon at Findlay, Ohio, where he has been established since 1904, was born on his father's farm in Allen Town- ship, Hancock County, Ohio, March 10, 1877, and is a son of Jasper N. and Mary Ellen (Skinner) Hartman.

Dr. Hartman had the undeniable advan- tage of a childhood and boyhood on a farm and the family continued to live there until the death of the mother, in 1885, when re- moval was made to Findlay, where John V. was soon enrolled a student in the grammar schools. For seven years after leaving school he engaged in teaching and in the meanwhile did his preparatory medical reading, subsequently entering the Cleve- land Homeopathic College, where he was graduated in the class of 1904. During his last half year he filled the position of resi- dent physician at the Cleveland Maternity Hospital, and from his period of graduation until he embarked in practice, he served as an interne in the Cleveland City Hospital. Dr. Hartman not only possesses the knowl- edge to make him successful in professional work, but also the enthusiasm and the peculiar gifts and personality which belong to every man of medicine who has reached

any degree of eminence. He probably has the largest and most substantial practice of any physician in Hancock County. Every emergency finds him ready and through his knowledge and skill he has effected some remarkable victories over disease. He keeps thoroughly abreast with the times and belongs to the Hancock County and the Northwestern Ohio Medical Societies.

Dr. Hartman was married to Miss Zoe Codding, who was formerly a teacher in the Findlay High School. They have one daughter, Mary Ellen. The father of Dr. Hartman died at Findlay in 1906. His offices are in the Niles Building, where he occupies an elegantly appointed suite of rooms. He is identified with the fraternal order of Knights of Pythias.

WILLIAM E. SNYDER, one of the most prominent and best known men in Hancock County, a retired dry goods merchant and a large stockholder in the Glass Block Depart- ment Store of Findlay, Ohio, resides in a beau- tiful home at No. 321 West Sandusky Street. Mr. Snyder was in the dry goods business in Findlay from 1865 until 1890, conducting a store at the old White Corner, where the Buck- eye Bank building now stands, and until a re- cent date held large interests in the Snyder Brothers Dry Goods Company of Richmond, Indiana, and in the D. D. Snyder Company of Minneapolis, Kansas. He was born at Green- ville, Mercer County, Pa., January 4, 1836, a son of Simon A. and Elizabeth (Couldron) Snyder, who settled in Hancock County in 1848, coming overland in wagons from Penn- sylvania, as there was but one railroad in the State of Ohio at that time. Simon A. Snyder was a carpenter, cabinetmaker and bridge-

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Twentieth Century History of Findlay and Hancock County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens, Part 62

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1189

Author: Jacob Anthony Kimmell
Publication date: 1910
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1189