USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historic progress, its people, and its principal interests, Volume II > Part 36
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The Knapp family is traced back to a very early period in Saxony, a province of Germany. and with the natural tide and flow of human life the family entered Wales and England and is found among the records of the seventh year of the reign of Edward I, in 1279-80. The coat of arms was granted Roger de Knapp in 1540 during the reign of Henry VIII. The family motto is: "Spes Nostra Deus." Two of the Knapps, William and Nicholas, came to this country in 1630 with the (Gov.) Winthrop and Saltonstall emigrant expedition. Uzal Knapp who was born in 1753, and died in 1856, was the last survivor of Washington's Life Guard, and his monument is beside "Washington's Headquarters" at Newburgh, New York. The Knapp house at Danbury, Connecticut, is the only house in that part of Danbury that escaped the fire when the British burned Danbury.
Completing his early education in the Union schools of Jamestown, New York, W. Ed. Marsh began his professional career as a teacher at the age of seventeen years, and taught in Warren county until 1875. While there he began reading law in the office of Johnson and Lindsey at Warren, Pennsylvania, completing his studies with Crosby and Brown
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at Corry, Pennsylvania, remaining with that firm until his admission to the bar, in 1879. For a short time thereafter, Mr. Marsh was located in Smethport, from there returning to Corry, where he has since been actively and successfully engaged in the practice of his profession, win- ning a place of distinction among the leading lawyers of this part of Erie county. He has also devoted a part of his time to other lines of business and to both fire and fraternal insurance, at the present time being secre- tary and treasurer of the Corry Mutual Fire Insurance Company. Polit- ically, Mr. Marsh is a stanch Republican, and has served with acceptance to all concerned in various positions of prominence, including those of city attorney, police justice, and mayor of the city. Fraternally he is a member of the Jonathan Lodge. No. 685, I. O. O. F., and of Corry Lodge, No. 470, K. P. He was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge I. O. O. F. 1891-2. For two years he was secreary, also, of the Equitable Aid Union. Religiously he and his wife are faithful members of the Presby- terian church.
Mr. Marsh married first, October 1, 1874, Mary L. Brown, daughter of Dr. S. W. and Louisa Brown, of Farmington township. After her death, Mr. Marsh married, October 1, 1890, Pearl E. Hoffman, who was born in Corry, a daughter of Philip and Mary S., (Wells) Hoffman. Her grandfather, Paul Hoffman, was born in Germany, a son of Philip Hoffman, who emigrated to this country with his wife and eight children, locating in Youngsville, Warren county, Pennsylvania, where he bought land. improved a farm, and resided until his death. Ten years old when he came with his parents to Pennsylvania. Paul Hoffman assisted in the pioneer labor of clearing a homestead, and subsequently bought a tract of wild land near Pittsfield, Warren county, where he pursued the peace- ful occupation of a farmer until his death, at the age of sixty-six years, in 1856. His wife, whose maiden name was Dorcas Andrews, was a life long resident of Pittsfield, her death occurring on the home farm in 1854. She reared nine children. as follows : Ross A., John W., Matthias. Philip. Mary Ann, Martha, Robert, James and Franklin W. Of this family Mary Ann, wife of Asahel Davis, is the only survivor. Philip Hoffman. Mrs. Marsh's father, learned the trade of a shoemaker when young. but in 1849, abandoned the bench to go with the gold hunters to California. where he spent two years in mining being fairly successful, and with the gold thus obtained he returned to Pittsfield. purchased his father's home- stead. intending to return to California, but yielding to his mother's wishes, remained at home tilling the soil until after the breaking out of the Civil war. Enlisting in 1863, in the Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, he served until the close of the war, when he received his honorable dis- charge from the army. He was commissary sergeant of Company C. Fourteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry. Selling his farm soon after, he removed his family to Corry, where for awhile he was engaged in the drug business. To be with old comrades, he entered the Soldiers' Home. in Dayton, and there remained until his death, January 1, 1904. His first wife, whose maiden name was Samantha Bills, was born near Pitts- field. a daughter of Chester Bills, a pioneer settler of that town, and died on the farm, near Pittsfield. He married for his second wife Mary S. Wells. Mr. and Mrs. W. Ed. Marsh have two children, namely: W. Lloyd and Barrett Hugh.
GEORGE F. RANKIN is a well known and successful agriculturist in Venango township, where he owns a valuable and well improved home-
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stead of one hundred and twenty acres of dairy land. He was born at Goshen in Orange county, New York, February 22, 1851, a son of Wil- liam H. and Deborah A. (Lockwood) Rankin. William H. Rankin was born in Goshen in 1822, where he was brought up on the parental farm, his parents being George and Amelia (Etsel) Rankin, who ended their days there. Their son William attended the district schools and also pursued a three years' course in an educational institution in New York City, and afterward was for three years in the mercantile house of a Mr. Bonar there. When twenty-two years of age, after his father's death, he returned home to manage the farm, and on the 28th of February, 1850, he was married to Miss Deborah A. Lockwood and came to Erie county two years later. Of their five children three are now living, George F., Charles W. and Judson G. William H. Rankin enlisted with the One Hundred and Sixtieth Pennsylvania Regiment in November, 1862, and after serving his time was honorably discharged in 1863 and returned to farming. He was a stanch Democrat all his life, was a member of the Patrons of Husbandry and was captain of the State Police force, known as the "Independent Order of Home Guards." He died on the 4th of October, 1890, and his wife Deborah died in February, 1900.
George F. Rankin was reared and educated in Venango township, whither his parents had moved when he was but a year old. He pur- chased his first farm in 1883 and his second in 1902, and he is now one of the large land owners and successful agriculturists of Venango town- ship. February 22, 1883 he was happily married to Miss May, a daughter of Leonard L. and Almeda M. (Chadwick) Howard, and two children have been born of their union, but the only one living is Howard W., a graduate of the Edinboro Normal with the class of 1908, and who is now engaged in teaching in Erie county. Mrs. Rankin was born in Venango township, July 22, 1865, and her father, Leonard L. Howard, was born in Columbus, New York, August 11, 1835. Soon after the completion of his education, received at Kingsville, Ohio, he began teaching school, and in 1852 he became a resident of Erie county. On the ed of May, 1857, he was married to Almeda M. Chadwick, and their four children are Charles L., Lelia A., Curtis (deceased) and May. Mrs. Howard was born in Columbus, Warren county, Pennsylvania, November 26, 1837. and in her younger days she taught school for several terms. Leonard L. Howard served as a justice of the peace, as a township clerk, as a school director and in other minor offices. He became the owner of the Ellis place in 1811. and it has since been divided between his daughter, Mrs. Rankin, and her brother. The Howard and Rankin families are equally well known and honored in Erie county, and they have long been prominently identified with its agricultural history.
JOHN BLACKMAN. The wealth and support of our great nation depends largely upon its agricultural development and promotion, which is carried on by men of energy and enterprise, many of whom come to this country from the other side of the broad Atlantic. Noteworthy among this number is John Blackman, a prosperous farmer and dairyman in Venango township, Erie county. He was born in 1854, in England, and immigrated to this country in 1872. His father, Benjamin Blackman, was born in Canbridgeshire, England, and remained in his native land until after the death of his wife. in 1895. He subsequently came to Pennsylvania, and spent his last years in Erie county, dying at the home of his son John, May 4, 1905. To him and his wife six children were
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born, as follows: Ruth; Eliza; Amy, living in Canada; Ann; John; and Joseph, a resident of Erie county.
Soon after his arrival in Erie county, John Blackman located in Venango township as a farmer, and now owns and occupies a valuable farm of one hundred acres, which he devotes largely to dairying, keeping fifteen cows, in the prosecution of this branch of industry meeting with satisfactory results. Mr. Blackman was united in marriage in 1885, with Martha Daggett, who was born October 9, 1860, and died March 30, 1893, leaving three children namely : Benjamin, Blanche and Annie. Mr. Blackman married second, in August, 1895, Amanda Fritz. She was born in Venango township, in 1864, a daughter of Franklin Fritz. She comes of German ancestry on the paternal side, her Grandfather Fritz having been a native of Germany. He was the father of eight children, namely : Minerva, Daniel, Rebecca, Mary, John, Christian, Jacob, and Franklin.
Franklin Fritz, the youngest son of Christian Fritz, was born in Danville, New York, and his wife, whose maiden name was Vashti Aus- tin, was born in Canada, being a daughter of Morris and Electa (Rob- bins) Austin, who were the parents of eight children, as follows: Weal- thy, Almeda, Vashti, Morris, Stephen, Lindsor, Selah, and Charles. Franklin Fritz carried on general farming in Venango township for many years, residing here until his death, July 16, 1900. His wife Vashti sur- vived him, passing away February 4, 1905. His children, five in number, were born on the home farm, being as follows : Rebecca, William S., Deli- lah, Christian, and Amanda. Mr. and Mrs. Blackman have two children, Frank and Ethel. Mr. Blackman is a sound Republican.
ELMER E. BEMIS is one of the representative agriculturists of Ven- ango township and a worthy representative of one of the county's early families. Jonathan and Fannie ( Billings) Bemis, his paternal grandpar- ents, were natives respectively of Massachusetts and of Chenango county, New York, and the wife dying in the spring of 1828 the husband subse- quently married Martha Kingsley, and in 1837 they located in the north- western part of Venango township, Erie county, Pennsylvania, where they cleared a farm. In 1853 they moved west, spending four years in Iowa and twenty years in Kansas, and they finally settled in Richardson county, Nebraska, where Mr. Bemis died in 1881.
I. Sumner Bemis, a son of Jonathan, was born in Chenango county, New York, March 20, 1823, and coming with his father to Erie county he became one of the influential residents of his community. He served in various township offices, and was a stanch supporter of all movements for the public good. He in time settled on the old homestead taken up by his father in Venango township, and this land has never since been out of the family name. On the 29th of June, 1848, I. Sumner Bemis wedded Eleanor Hinton, who was born in Wales, a daughter of Griffith Hinton. He was born in that country in 1785, but coming to the United States he served his adopted land in the war of 1812, and he died on the 15th of March, 1881, when aged ninety-six years. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Bemis were: Fannie, who was born February 13, 1870, and is deceased ; Sethi, who was born in 1855 and married Lida Fritts : I. Sumner, a resident of this township and a prosperous farmer ; Ella, deceased; Elmer E., born in 1862; Henry, in 1864; and Geary, in 1866. I. Sumner Bemis, the father, was a worthy and acceptable men-
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
VALENTINE SCHULTZ
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ber of the Presbyterian church, and in its faith he died on the 20th of April, 1902, while his wife died on the 8th of November, 1886.
Elmer E. Bemis, one of the sons of I. Sumner and Eleanor Bemis, was born at the family homestead in Venango township January 12, 1862, and here he grew to an honorable and useful manhood and received a good education in its schools. Farming has been his life's work, and he has achieved success in the calling. On the 2d of January, 1887, he was happily married to Miss Sarah Thornton, who was born January 26, 1868, a daughter of Isaac Thornton, and the four children of this union are : Glenn, born in 1888; Reid S., in 1891; Fay, in 1892; and Ruth, in 1896. Mr. Bemis was elected to serve as a school director, and he and his family are members of the Grange. Politically he is a Republican. Their pretty country residence is known as "Hillside Cottage."
FRANK D. SCHULTZ. A native son of the city of Erie who has well upheld the prestige of a name honored in the history of this county and who has marked by personal accomplishment a place of his own in con- nection with economic, social and industrial affairs in the city of his birth, is Frank D. Schultz to whom this brief sketch is dedicated. He has held positions of distinctive public trust, and is known as one of the city's progressive and influential business men and loyal and public- spirited citizens.
Frank D. Schultz was born in the city of Erie on the 21st of De- cember, 1861, and is a scion of one of the oldest and most honored Ger- inan families of this favored section of the old Keystone state. The name which he bears has been prominently identified with the city of Erie and its civic and business interests for more than half a century, and he is a son of Valentine and Mary (Bootz) Schultz. The former was a son of Valentine and Margaretta (Adams) Schultz, both natives of Germany. Valentine Schultz, Jr., who bore the full patronymic of his father, was born in Germany, November 11, 1822, and was reared and educated in his native land. He was about nineteen years of age at the time of his parents' immigration to America, in 1846. The family first located in the state of Connecticut, but in 1847 removal was made to Erie, Pennsylvania, where soon afterward Valentine, Jr .. en- tered upon an apprenticeship at the moulder's trade, in which he became a skilled artisan. He continued in the work of his trade as a journey- man until 1857, in which year he engaged in the retail grocery business, at the corner of Twenty-sixth and Peach streets. His ambition was one of definite action and well placed confidence, and his advancement came as the normal result of his own well directed efforts. With the passing of years he gained prestige as one of the leading business men and in- fluential citizens of Erie, and he was the founder of an enterprise which became one of the most representative of its kind in the city. He took a lively and intelligent interest in public affairs, was a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, and he served as township treasurer from 1862 until 1863. He was also one of the first members of the city . council from South Erie, and was a valued member of that body for a period of three years. His parents continued their residence in Erie until their death, and his own life came to its termination on the 21st of August. 1889, in Landau, Germany, and he was buried at Erie, Pennsyl- vania, September ?1st. He was a mån of sterling character and to him was ever accorded the unqualified confidence and esteem of the com- munity in which he so long maintained his home. His religious faith
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was that of the Catholic church, of which his wife also was a devout communicant. Their marriage was solemnized in 1852, and the devoted wife and mother passed to the life eternal in 1895. Concerning their children is the following brief data: Mary died in childhood, in 1858; F. William is proprietor of the successful enterprise conducted under the title of the South Erie Tea Company, and is individually mentioned on other pages of this work; Frank D., of this review, was the next in order of birth: George and Jacob are interested principals in the F. D. Schultz Company, of which Frank D. is president; and Joseph died in: 1871.
Frank D. Schultz gained his preliminary educational training in public schools of Erie, and supplemented this discipline by a course in the Canisius College, in Buffalo, New York. As a youth he became a clerk in the grocery establishment of his father, and after the latter's death, in 1889, he and his brothers succeeded to the business. With this enterprise he continued to be actively identified until 1899, when he became president of the Erie Pepsin Gum and Candy Company, to the expansion of whose important enterprise he has contributed most sig- nificantly, through the application of splendid initiative power and ex- ecutive ability. In 1907 the title of the concern was changed to its present form,-the F. D. Schultz Company,-and he has since served as president of the corporation, which now conducts the largest manu- factory of candies to be found in northern Pennsylvania and which thus represents one of the important industrial concerns which are lending to the commercial prestige of the city of Erie. Mr. Schultz has lent his co-operation in the promotion and substantial upbuilding of other representative corporations in his home city, where he has been a mem- ber of the directorate of the Erie Trust Companyy from the time of its reorganization and where he has served as president of the Mutual Building & Loan Society since 1890. The fine building occupied by the F. D. Schultz Company was erected by the company in 1907, is three stories in height above the basement and is regarded as one of the most modern and attractive of the business blocks of the city, besides which the offices of the company, in spaciousness and appointments, are un- excelled by any others in Erie.
In the progress and material welfare of his home city Mr. Schultz maintains a loyal and abiding interest, and every worthy enterprise or measure tending to conserve the prosperity of Erie enlists his earnest support. He is a member of the board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce, and holds membership also in the Board of Trade and the Erie Business Men's Exchange. His popularity in the community is of the most unequivocal order, and in a social way he is found identified with the Erie Club, the Country Club, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Columbus. He and his wife are communicants of St. Mary's Catholic church and are liberal in the support of the various departments of parish and parochial work.
In his political adherency Mr. Schultz is found arrayed as a stanch supporter of the cause of the Democratic party, and in 190? he was elected a member of the board of park commissioners of Erie, of which body he later became president. In the same year he was elected to represent his native county in the state legislature, where he made an admirable record, but he declined renomination after the expiration of his first term.
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In 1884 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Schultz to Miss Grace C. Herrmann, who was born in Mill Creek township, this county, and who is a daughter of Christian and Agnes (Dick) Hermann, both natives of Germany and long numbered among the honored residents of Erie county. Mr. and Mrs. Schultz have four children, all of whom remain at the parental home,-Herbert J., Valentina, Gertrude, and Frank M. Herbert J. is treasurer of the F. D. Schultz Company and is recognized as one of the representative business men of the younger generation in Erie.
MATTHEW H. SMITH. Prominent among the agriculturists of Ven- ango township is numbered Matthew H. Smith, grandson of the founder of the family in Erie county, Thomas Smith and his wife Sarah Harvey Smith. They came to America in 1784 in a sailing packet, this having been in the days when it took three months to cross the Atlantic, and landing in the harbor of New York they made their way to. Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania, where some of their children were born. In 1796, with his wife and family, Thomas Smith came to Lowville in Ven- ango township, Erie county, where he took up four hundred acres of the virgin forest land, and from out this primeval wilderness in time evolved a beautiful and well cultivated farm and also served his adopted country as a valiant soldier in the war of 1812. There were born to him and his wife Sarah the following children : Samuel, John, Mary, Hannah, Sallie, James, David, Thomas, Robert, Harvey, Jane and Mary.
John, the second born son, who became the father of Matthew H. Smith, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, February 27, 1786, and he too served the country as a soldier in the war of 1812. He became a true citizen, a good neighbor and an honorable business man. He married on the 25th of September, 1810, Elizabeth Taylor, and they became the parents of the following children : Thomas H., Ann S., John, Sarah, Robert, Jane, Elizabeth, George D. and Matthew H. George D. served with the Eighteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil war, and he died from disease at Cumberland, Maryland, June 27. 1865. The father was called from this life on the 3d of March, 1877, and his wife Elizabeth died July 1, 1873.
Matthew H. Smith was born in Venango township May 10, 1832, and agriculture has been his life's work. He now owns and occupies the part of the homestead entered by his grandfather Thomas Smith, and his farm contains one hundred and fifty acres of well improved land. He is a practical farmer, a worthy citizen and a brave defender of the stars and stripes, for he enlisted as a private in the One Hundred and Second Regi- ment, Pennsylvania troops, and served as a Civil war soldier until his honorable discharge June 23, 1865. He has served his township as a road commissioner, as a tax collector and in other offices, and is a stanch and true friend to all commendable enterprises for the betterment of his community.
Mr. Smith has been twice married, wedding first, on the 14th of October, 1858, Miss Sophia Williams, and they had one son, Willis H., a resident of North East. Erie county. For his second wife he married Mrs. Almira Jones, from Greenfield township and the widow of Edwin T. Showerman. They were married on October 26, 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are devout members of the Presbyterian church. He has member- ship relations with the Grand Army of the Republic at Wattsburg, and
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Mrs. Smith is a member of the W. R. C. Mr. Smith is a true blue Republican.
MARVIN E. JANES is a native born son of Erie county, and he de- scends from a line of Puritans who gave to the world Bishop Janes of the Methodist Episcopal church. Of a later generation from this illus- trious ancestor was James Janes, the grandfather of Marvin E., and he was born at Grand Isle, Vermont. August 2. 1789. Moving in early man- hood to Oxford in Upper Canada, he there on the 25th of July, 1809. wedded Miss Lucena Sage, a native of Bloomfield, New York. Mr. Janes later refused to take up arms against his country during the war of 1812. and moving to North East in Erie county, Pennsylvania, in 1815, he soon afterward sent for his family and in 1818 settled in Ven- ango township. He was found to be the first follower of Methodist doc- trine in that township. The children of James and Lucena Janes were Lucina, Reuben, Mary, Allen S., Rebecca, Happylona, Heman, Sallie and Abigail. James Janes died January 16, 1831, and his wife passed away February 27, 1866.
James Janes, Jr., a son in the above family, was born March 19, 1815, and the death of his father left him at the age of fifteen with the care and responsibility of the family of six children. He also in time paid off all of his father's debts, and kept the family together, becoming a hard working but prosperous farmer. Of his own children James H. died in infancy, and James L., a Union soldier with the One Hundred and Ninety-ninth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, died in the hospital at Point of Rocks, Virginia. December 17, 1864. James, the father, was a worthy member of the Presbyterian church, and a man held in the highest esteem by all who knew him.
Marvin E. Janes was born June 15, 1836, and was reared and re- ceived his education in his native county of Erie, but like most of the farmers' children of those pioneer days his training was somewhat limited but sufficient to fit him for the high position he now holds in his com- munity. In 1862 he offered his services to the Union cause and was enrolled with the One Hundred and Eleventh Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and after serving one year with the Army of the Potomac he was transferred to Sherman's army and participated in the celebrated march to the sea. After his honorable discharge from the army he again took up the work of the farm which he has owned since 1859 and which he has transformed from a wilderness to one of the finest homesteads of the community. In 1858 he was married to Miss Geraldine Stafford, and the two children of the union are Annie and James H. On the 25th of August, 1868, he wedded Miss Maria Louisa Shipman, who died on the 22d of June, 1869, and in 1871 he wedded Alice D. Allen, and two children have been born to them, Heman L. and Maria L., deceased. Mr. Janes has membership relations with the Grand Army of the Republic, and he is a stanch supporter of Republican principles.
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