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Brown, who died in Milan, Erie county, in 1884. They had six children: Mary, the widow of the late Volney Beverstock, of Milan, Ohio; Edwin, a resident of Toledo, Ohio; Norton, our subject; Helen Jane, the wife of Thomas J. Butman, of Milan; Harriet, Mrs. Thomas Bradley, of Milan, Ohio, and Samuel, who lives at Carthage, Missouri.

Our subject first saw the light in Erie county, Ohio, January 18, 1821, and received his early education in the district schools there, and in Huron county. He was married in 1845 to Miss Ellen R. Wells, who was born September 4, 1823, in New York. Their three daughters are all married: Julia, born October 14, 1848, is the wife of W. C. Martin, of Bowling Green, and the mother of four children-Martia, deceased, Norton, Jo., and Frank. Helen, W., born May 18, 185o, married George Wooster, of Bowling Green, and has one daughter-Carrie. Luella G., born September 6, 1851, married M. P. Brewer, editor of the Sentinel, of Bowling Green, and has four children-Charles R., John, Harry, and Dixie.

Mr. Reed followed farming as an occupation for some time after his marriage, first in Ridgefield township, Huron county, and then in Oxford township, Erie county. Since 1865 he has had his home in Bowling Green (with the exception of two years spent in Fulton county) and his fine brick residence is an ornament to the city. Mr. Reed takes a philosophic view of life, and enjoys the privileges which his wealth bestows. He spends a portion of each year in travel, and, of the last nineteen winters, one has been spent in California and the rest in Florida, where he owns a large tract of wild land. His first vote was cast for James K. Polk, and he has remained a Democrat to the present time.

JOHN S. MAHONY. This gentleman, who spent his early manhood 'in active labor, and mainly in agricultural pursuits, is now living retired in Fostoria, Ohio, but still owns some valuable oil land in Montgomery township. A man of great energy and more than ordinary business capacity, his success has been largely due to his own efforts and sound judgment, by which he has been enabled to make wise investments and take good advantage of his resources.

Mr. Mahony was born at Liverpool, England, December 31, 1828, and is one of the four children-two sons and two daughters-of Thomas and Ellen Mahony. His father, who was a successful grain merchant, died when our subject was only four years old, leaving his family in comfortable circumstances, and they continued to carry on the business. In the common schools John S. Mahony received a fair education, but at the age of thirteen years he formed the acquaintance of a sea captain who took a liking to him, and despite the pleadings of his mother, he shipped on the " Mary Gray," where he was chore-boy. They sailed for Brazil, but the voyage ended with a shipwreck on the Falkland Islands, while en route for Valparaiso, Chili, where they lived for a month on a desert island, but were finally taken by a schooner to Port Egmont, and later we're taken on board a New Zealand vessel, the "Bolena," which came to that port for water. He and another boy appealed to the governor of the Falkland Islands for passage home, but were refused. Finally, however, by working his passage, he got back to London, and then, after an eighteen-months' absence, to his home in Liverpool, where he found the family mourning for his supposed death. Mr. Mahony then clerked in the American wholesale house in Liverpool of James McHenry & Co. until the hard times caused him to lose his position, and then he went as a sailor to New Orleans, whence he went to Havre, France, and on that trip returned to New York with immigrants. For a time he sailed along the Atlantic coast and to the West Indies, but, on January 26, 1849, he left New York for San Francisco, having been taken with the gold fever, and arrived there the following August. He became part owner of a small boat engaged in rafting on San Francisco bay, and remained in California until June, 1854, engaged in rafting and mining. He returned to New York by way of the Panama route.

Before leaving the Golden State, Mr. Mahony had been told, by a fellow-worker, of the "Black Swamp" in Wood county, Ohio, where he proceeded after his arrival in New York, and purchased 120 acres of partially improved land in Sections 3 and 10, Montgomery township ; but before hr- located thereon he made a visit to his mother in England, who died the following year. Farming was entirely a new business to our subject, who, under many difficulties, secured a knowledge of the business, and his first attempts at plowing will never be forgotten. He also made several runs on the lakes in the fall after the farm work was done.

On February 21, 1855, in Montgomery township, Mr. Mahoney was married to Miss Lorinda F. McFerren, a native of Wood county, and a daughter of Ezekial and Hannah McFerren, and they have become the parents of five children --

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Ellen A., now Mrs. R. C. Canfield, of Washington; Kate E., wife of E. D. Tandy, of Colorado; Clara E., wife of Charles A. Whaley, of Washington; Mattie G., at home; and John F., a hardware merchant of Fostoria, Ohio.

Resolving to aid his adopted country in her struggle to preserve the Union, Mr. Mahony enlisted in 1861, leaving his plow standing in the field, and became a member of Company K, 21st O. V. I. He was in all the battles in which his regiment participated until September, 1863, when, after the battle of Chickamauga, Ga., he with his regiment was taken prisoner, and for seventeen months he was confined at Richmond, and in other Confederate prisons. Was mustered out May 15, 1865. He has never regained his former health. From private he received one promotion after another until after the battle of Stone River, when he was given a commissioned office, and later received a first lieutenant's and captain's commission. He was mustered out May 15, 1865, when his services were no longer needed, and returned to his home with an honorable war record.

Until 1893 Mr. Mahony continued the cultivation and improvement of his excellent farm, and then moved to Fostoria, where two years later he built his elegant residence on West Fremont street. He comes from a good English family, and he has given to his children excellent advantages. In religious belief he is a Congregationalist, while his estimable wife belongs to the Presbyterian Church. He is a charter member of Hamilton Post, G. A. R., of Bradner, Ohio, in which he served as its first adjutant. He is a stanch Republican, a firm believer in high protection, and is one of the most progressive and enterprising men of the county, who has here secured a comfortable competence and the regard of all with whom he comes in contact.

W. M. TULLER, M. D. Among the physicians of Bowling Green none bears a higher position in the respect and esteem of the community than does the subject of this sketch, who well merits the confidence the public reposes in him, and who has attained to success in his professional career by his force of character and devotion to his work.

Dr. Tuller was born in Delaware county, Ohio, July 7, 1848. On the paternal side he is of Dutch descent, John Tuller, the original American ancestor, having come from Holland some two hundred years ago. Roswell Tuller, the grandfather of our subject, was born in 1794 in Connecticut, was a lifelong farmer, and died in February, 1866, in Delaware county, Ohio.

He married Nancy Thompson, who was born in 1797 in New York State, and died in 1876. Roswell Tuller was a soldier in the war of 1812, in which his father, also named Roswell, served as captain.

Alvin Tuller, the Doctor's father, was a native of Delaware county, Ohio, born August 5, 1817, was married, and engaged in farming there until after the birth of all his children, who were five in number, viz.: Adelbert D., a farmer in Wood county; Mary A., the widow of Isaac W. Yoakam, who was killed in Franklin county; one who died in infancy; W. M., and Milo A., living in Wood county, Ohio. Mr. Tuller subsequently removed to Franklin county, and in 1893 to Bowling Green, where the family still reside. His wife, whose maiden name was Elvira Maynard, was born in Franklin county October 30, 1819, and was there married. Her parents, Stephen and Mary (Phillips) Maynard, were both natives of Massachusetts, the father coming to Franklin county, Ohio, when he was nineteen years old. He was a farmer by occupation, and lived to be eighty-three years old. The mother died at the age of thirty-nine years. They had four children -- Matilda, Elvira, Darwin and Augustus. The Maynard family is of English and Scotch descent.

Until sixteen years of age our subject remained at home, attending the common school, and assisting his father on the farm. He then entered Central College, in Franklin county, Ohio, and after completing the course taught school for six years, after which he began reading medicine with Dr. H. Henrickson, of Columbus, Ohio. He subsequently took a course in the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, from which he was graduated in 1876, coming immediately thereafter to Bowling Green and beginning the practice of his profession, in which he has ever since been engaged. When Dr. Tuller first took up his residence in the place the town was composed of small wooden buildings, and was primitive in all its surroundings. He has been a witness of its growth and prosperity, and his practice has grown and prospered with it. For the past eight years he has been the physician and surgeon for both railroads passing through Bowling Green-the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton and the Toledo & Ohio Central. Of late years Dr. Tuller has confined his practice more especially to consultation and office business, in which he has a large clientage, being known far and near as a man of deep learning and great skill. He is a member of the

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Northwestern Ohio Medical Association, the American Medical Association, and also of the National Association of Railroad Physicians and Surgeons. Socially he affiliates with the Subordinate Lodge and Encampment, I. O. O. F., with the K. O. T. M. and the Woodmen of the World, and although prevented by his arduous professional duties from attending as much as he would like to, he is an enthusiastic supporter of these fraternal organizations.

Financially Dr. Tuller has been very successful. He was one of the number who drilled the first gas well in this locality, and has ever since been connected with the company as an organizer, it proving a very profitable business. He is a stockholder in the First National Bank at Dunkirk, Ind. In politics he is a Republican, has held the offices of mayor and member of the city council, and has also been one of the board of city examiners of schools. In every relation of life he has borne his part well, and he is one of the representative men of the county.

On July 4, 1871, Dr. Tuller was married to Josephine Mott, who was born July 24, 1846, at Rockaway Beach, L. I., daughter of Henry Mott, who was a sea captain. Their union has been blessed with five children: Willis Ray and Lillie May, living, and Jessie, who died when five and a half years of age; Bertha, who died when two and a half years old, and one that died in infancy.

CARLES J. SAGE. The subject of this sketch was born in Washington county, Va., April 11, 1836, and was one year old when his parents moved to Erie county, Ohio. He attended the common schools of his time, but his opportunities were limited and much inferior to those of the present day. The death of our subject's father, when the former was a little over four years old, lost to him a valuable friend. Fortunately he had a good mother and older brothers-the latter, though young, seemed competent to discharge the duties thus thrown upon them. When our subject was eleven years old, his widowed mother and her family came to Wood county, and located a short distance west of Prairie Depot, where Charles attended school. In the summer of his sixteenth year he left home, and was employed as driver on the Wabash canal at a salary of $12 per month. The following summer he again worked at that business, and received $15 per month. When eighteen years old he began to learn the trade of a carpenter under his eldest brother, William, of Huron. He spent some time with him, and then went to Coldwater, Mich., where he worked with his brother-in-law, M. H. Parker.'

In the summer of 1856 Mr. Sage went to Chicago, where he worked awhile, and then returned to Michigan, and Ohio, until 1859 when a desire to go west possessed him, and he went to Atchison, Kans., hired out as a teamster, and drove an ox-team of six yoke through to Salt Lake City, Utah, from which place he went on to Sacramento, Cal., which he reached after a journey of four months. He hired out to a rancher, and later worked at his trade. In the spring of 1861 he went to Nevada, in the vicinity of Virginia City, where new mines had been discovered. Here he followed his trade and bought a blacksmith shop in the mountains; not being a blacksmith himself, he hired a smith, and he did the wood work. This proved to be a good business, and Mr. Sage stayed in the Far West until the fall of 1865, when he returned to Ohio and spent the winter of 1865-66, and in the spring of the latter year returned to his business in the mountains, which he subsequently sold out, and went to work for the government at Fort Churchill, Nev., as wheelwright, until the fall of 1867, when he again went back to Ohio.

Mr. Sage was married in Perrysburg November 17, 1868, to Miss Marian C. Benjamin, of Montgomery township, a native of Summit county, Ohio, where she was born February 3, 1845. Her parents were Aaron and Laura (Markham) Benjamin, the former of whom was born in New York State, and the latter in Massachusetts. They were married in New York, and went to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, losing their money on the way by robbery. Mr. Benjamin bought a farm in Tuscarawas county, and from there moved to Summit county, and, when Marian was nine years old, they went to Scott township, Sandusky county, and finally to Montgomery township, where Aaron died February 4, 1883, nearly eighty-four years old. His wife died March 22, 1895, over eighty-seven. Their family consisted of six children: Nelson lives in Florida; Aaron was a blacksmith and shoemaker by trade, but followed farming much of his later life; and all living but one.

At the time of our subject's marriage his finances were reduced very low; but being a good mechanic, he could always find something to do, and eventually got a start. In 1872 he located on the lot where he now lives, and where, in 1889, he completed an elegant house, arranged after his own ideas and under his personal direction. To him and his wife two children have been born, namely: Celia, an educated young lady,

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is a teacher in the Prairie Depot schools; Charles B. is at home. Mr. Sage is a stanch Republican, and has served four years as township clerk, six years as justice of the peace, councilman for one term, and mayor of Prairie Depot for one term. Mr. Sage is a well-known mechanic of considerable skill, he has a comfortable home, an excellent family, and is highly respected and one of Prairie Depot's best citizens.

J. C. EBERLY. The subject of this sketch is a farmer of Portage township, and has the distinction of being the first white child born in that locality, his birth taking place March 18, 1834.

Jacob Eberly, the father, was born in Huntingdon county, Penn., July 14, 1804, and moved to Franklin county when but a child. He learned the blacksmith's trade, and when a young man came to Northern Ohio and worked at his trade in Upper Sandusky, Fremont and Toledo. He was married in Waterville, Lucas county, to Miss Elizabeth Cox, daughter of Benjamin Cox, who was born September 20, 1806. Mr. Eberly began life as a poor boy, and early in the '30s he came to Portage township and took up eighty acres along the Portage river, in Section 6, which was then in a wild state, the forests being full of game, large and small. Mr. Eberly made a clearing, in which he built a cabin 16x20 feet, and a blacksmith shop. It was strictly a pioneer settlement, and the earliest in the township. The farmers would come from a distance of eight and ten miles to have work done for them, which they would engage to be done for days ahead. In this way he became well known by the farmers for miles around. He was a Whig and later a Republican, and served a longer term as treasurer of Portage township than any other incumbent of the office. He died October 31, 1894, at the advanced age of ninety years, his wife following him to the better land November 17, of the same year, and they both rest in 'the Portage cemetery. They were the parents of the following children: Jane, born October 6, 1828, died August 14, 1830; John, born June 3, 1830, died December 17, 1850; Mary, born June 2, 1832, married Elisha Prescott, and died November 24, 1858 ; Martha married Allen Hampton, and is deceased; J. C. is our subject; Matilda, born April 2, 1835, married John Johnson, of Toledo; William, December 19, 1836, is a merchant of Bowling Green; Elliott, September 10, 1838, lives in Center township; Harriet B., March 17, 1841, became the wife of L. L. Dowd, of Norwalk, Ohio; Benjamin C., January 11, 1843, is a resident of Bowling Green; Lucy, January 8, 1845, married John Sargent, and later wedded Albert Goumont. She is now deceased.

Mr. Eberly was a great hunter, and had but one superior, and he was "'Squire" McMahan, in hunting deer in his section of the county. He was compelled to give up his trade when forty years old, and spent the remainder of his life upon the farm. His death had been predicted forty years before it occurred.

Our subject was reared as a farmer's boy, and attended the district schools in Portage township, and for one term he went to the graded schools at Waterville. He began to learn the carpenter trade, but gave it up and returned home where he remained until August 7, 1862, when he enlisted at Portage in Company A, 100th O. V. I., under Capt. John A. Shannon. They camped for a while at Toledo, and then went to Covington, Ky., where our subject was confined in the hospital for a time, and then rejoined his regiment at Lexington. During an engagement at Resaca he was struck by a fragment of a shell, and was sent to the hospital at Chattanooga, where he remained for several weeks. After the fall of Atlanta, he went there and again joined his regiment, with which he remained until it reached Newbern, N. C., when he was taken with typhoid fever and confined in the hospital, at that place, and later was removed to Fort Schuyler, N. Y., where he recovered, and was finally discharged from the service there.

Mr. Eberly returned to Portage after the war, and went to work on a farm. December 2. 1866, he was married to Miss Martha L. McFerren, who was born in Montgomery township, March 21, 1842, and who was the daughter of Ezekiel and Hannah (Lloyd) McFerren, both of whom were born in New York. Mrs. Eberly was a school teacher in her younger days. Our subject located in Section 7, on eighty acres of land which was owned jointly by himself and his brother William, and only a few acres of which was cleared at that time. Our subject later bought out his brother's interest, and became sole owner. He now has ninety-five acres. Mr. and Mrs. Eberly had two children, Grace, born August 20, 1880, died November 20, 1883; and Hazel, born November 3, 1883, now living at home. Mr. Eberly is a stanch member of the Republican party, and in former years was one of Portage's greatest workers in the cause. He never held office, being in politics not from selfish motives but to assist in the success of his party. In 1894, he built a fine home where he dispenses hospitality to all his friends, of whom he has a large number. His wife is a member

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of the United Brethren Church, and they contribute freely to its support.

HIRAM ADDISON CRAW is one of the early pioneers of Wood county, and for many years one of its prominent agriculturists. He is now, after many years of active labor, spending the evening of his life in quiet and ease at his home in Bowling Green. He was born in Fairfield, Franklin Co., Vt., March 9, 1829.

His parents, John and Laura (Boardman) Craw, the former of whom was born in Suffield, Suffield Co., Conn., October 25, 1787, and the latter in West Corinth, Orange Co., Vt., November 14, 1789, were married December 14, 1809, in West Corinth, and lived in Fairfield, Franklin Co., Vt. In the fall of 1835 they carne to Ohio, settling in Ridgefield township, Huron county, where they bought a farm and lived until 1851, then removing to Wood county and locating in Plain township, four miles north of Bowling Green. The father died in that city July 7, 1883, the mother having passed away March 13, 1871, while living on the farm. The mother early in life was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but in February, 1858, with her husband and one of her daughters, Almira Gregory, and her husband and the subject of this sketch and his wife, all fully believed and indorsed the Seventh-Day Adventist faith, and commenced to observe the Sabbath of the Lord according to the Scripture and Bible plan, and have observed it ever since. But the organization of the Church did not take place until October 6, 1861, at Battle Creek, Mich., by a conference, by the vote of which it was recommended that the Churches enter into organization, adopting the following as a Church covenant: "We, the-undersigned, hereby associate ourselves together as a Church, taking the name Seventh-Day Adventists, covenanting to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ." All of the above-named family united with this body, and are still connected with it, except the father of the subject of this sketch. He was as firm a believer in the truth and practice of it as any one of the family to the day of his death, and felt assured that he would have a part in the first resurrection at the second coming and appearing of the Blessed Master. In accordance with the views of this sect the Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday evening, and ends at the same hour on Saturday evening. Mr. Craw, Sr., while a religious man and an earnest Bible student and believer in its doctrines, never united with any Church. He was originally an Old-line Whig, subsequently becoming a Republican, was a man of much intelligence, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him.

This worthy couple were the parents of six children, of whom the following record is given: Matilda, born October 14, 1810, married Addison Fay, January 19, 1832. They settled in Fairfield township, Franklin Co., Vt.; in 1834 came to Ohio, and for a number of years lived in Huron county, and in 1850 came to Plain township, Wood county, adjoining Bowling Green, where Mrs. Fay died October 27, 1864, and her husband in 1892; Prudence D., born May 20, 1814, was married May 21, 1834, to Peter Hathaway (they lived in Milan township, Huron county, but after some years the county was divided, and Milan and where Mr. Hathaway lived on the Huron river became a part of Erie county, and they continued to live there until he died, when she sold out and moved to Adrian, Mich.) ; Almira, born June 26, 1817, was married in Fairfield township, Franklin Co., Vt., December 29, 1834, to Levi S. Gregory, and they now reside in Bowling Green; Horace B., born October 7, 1820, died in infancy; Boardman, born June 29, 1826, also died in infancy; Hiram A. is our subject.

The paternal grandfather of the latter was Reuben Craw, one of the early settlers of New England, who died in Vermont. His maternal grandfather, Amos Boardman, was born in England, November 17, 1764, and was married February 4, 1789, to Prudence Chapman, who was born March 3, 1768, in Corinth, Vt. They were farmers, and lived in West Corinth, Orange Co., Vt., where he died July 31, 1854, and his wife July 21, 1851. Their family comprised the following children: Laura, the mother of our subject, born November 14, 1789; Betsy, born October 16, 1792, died August 15, 1802; Erastus, born August 3, 1795, died January 25, 1842; Almira, born December 5, 1797, died July 4, 1876; Edna, born December 10, 1799, died November 3, 1827; Direxa, born September 19, 1801, died October 5, 1802; Electa, born March 17, 1803, died in West Corinth, Vt., in 1892; Hiram, born October 3, 1805, 805, died April 14, 1871; Direxa (2), born March 20, 1808, died January 6, 1812; Hatsel, born January 2, 1811, died April 13, 1851 .

Hiram A. Craw lived in Huron county, Ohio, where he attended school, and assisted his father upon the farm until the removal of the family in 1851 to Wood county. He was married June 2, 1853, to Miss Ann Hall, who was born in Olivesburg, Richland Co.., Ohio, June 19, 1833, and is

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the daughter of James and Jane (Ralstin) Hall. Mrs. Craw's grandfather Hall was a hatter by trade, and on one of his expeditions after furs it is presumed he was killed by the Indians, as he never returned. After his death the mother bound out her two children, of whom one was the father of Mrs? Craw, to families in Pennsylvania. The people who took the sister moved away from, the State, and the two were separated for the remainder of their lives. Mrs. Craw's father was married in Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio, settling first in Richland county, afterward living in Hancock county, two and one-half miles north of Findlay, and finally, in the fall of 1843, taking up his residence in Wood county. He was a wheelwright by trade, but later in life turned his attention to farming. He died in Bowling Green, February 3, 1883, when about eighty years of age. His wife died in Plain township, in 1863. Their family consisted of four children, namely: Olivia, who was married December 12, 1850, to F. E. Meagley, and lives in Middleton township, Wood county; John R. was married April 26, 1853, to L. R. Gregory, and lives in Bowling Green; Ann, wife of our subject, and her twin sister, Jane, the latter of whom died at Findlay when seven years old; Juliett, born July 9, 1836, was married August 16, 1851r, to John T: Sweet (deceased), and lives in Bowling Green.

Our subject first settled on a farm in Plain township, where he owned 120, acres of land,. This he cleared up and improved, adding to it at various times until he had three hundred acres in one tract. Here he carried on general farming until his removal, on Thanksgiving day, 1882, to Bowling Green. He still owns 160 acres of this land, which he rents out, and is also the owner of four city lots. When Mr. Craw first settled in this county everything was in a primitive state, and he has been a witness of, and an important factor in, its growth and development. Among his early recollections are those of the school he attended inn his boyhood days, which was in an old log school house in the Webb settlement, Ridgefield township, Huron .county. He still has in his possession, and in a good state of preservation, the old Elementary Speller and English Reader, which were the text books in those days, the latter of which was given to him April 5, 1836. These antiquated volumes, with their coarse paper and coarse wood cuts, are a real curiosity in these days of handsome printing and illustrations.

When Mr. and Mrs. Craw returned from their wedding tour in Huron county, Ohio, all he had was fifty cents in cash; but, as they both say, they were willing to work. The following children have blessed their union: Laura Jane, born February 25, 1854, died March 15, 1861; Prudence D., born October 4, 1855, married Herbert L. Denman, and has one child, Blanche; John B., born May 1, 1857, married Miss Ada Boardman, and lives on his father's farm (they have four children, Lorin, Iva, Howard and Cressa); George S., born May 23, 1860, married Anna Loomis, and has one child, Roland; Hiram O., born February 3, 1862, died January 6, 1885; Ira Lemon, born . December 1, 1863, married Mazie Whetstone, and has two children, Eva and Hazel A.; and two, younger children who died in infancy. Our subject and his wife have been members of the Adventist Church for some thirty-eight years, and have taken an active part in Church work. He is a man of high moral character, and holds an honored place in the community. Mr. Craw has been a leader in local affairs, and has held some responsible offices. He was supervisor of his township for six years, was constable for two years, and assistant postmaster at Lovett's Grove for fifteen years, afterward being appointed postmaster and serving two years, when the post office was discontinued. Progressive in his ideas, he saw at an early day the advantage of draining the soil, and has used tiling on his farm for a number of years.

The great-aunt of Mr. Craw, Jemima Mitchell, had fourteen children, and each of these had fourteen (making one hundred and ninety-six grandchildren), who, with their children, brought the number of her immediate descendants to two hundred and twenty-six.

ROBERT S. PARKER. If history teaches by example, the lessons inculcated by biography must be still more impressive. We see exhibited in the varieties of human character, under different circumstances, something to instruct us in our duty, and to encourage our efforts, under every emergency. As an illustration of the results of youthful enterprise and earnest effort, the life of this prominent attorney and successful man of Bowling Green cannot fail to be of interest, especially to the ambitious young man still struggling on the lower rounds of the ladder.

The Parker family, to which the subject of this sketch belongs, is of English origin. In the history of Westford, Massachusetts, by Rev. Edward R. Hodgman, A. M.; Cutler's history of Jaffrey, New Hampshire; the Genealogy of John Parker, of Lexington, and his descendants, by Theodore Parker, and other authorities, his ancestors may be traced by clear and unbroken

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records as far back as 1470, and by less perfect records to a much earlier date. In these records we find many divines, the most notable being Matthew Parker, seventy-first Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England (1559-1575). The Thirty-nine Articles were passed by convocation under his presidency in 1562. There were also many lawyers in the family in England. and it is a somewhat curious and striking fact that among the lawyers were several bearing the name of Robert.

Mr. Parker is thoroughly American and democratic in his tastes and sentiments, and therefore lays no store by the titles, knightings, coats of arms and the like, which are noted in these records; but he respects and reveres his ancestors because they proved themselves God-fearing, law-abiding, self-respecting and honorable men and women-having the solid virtues of the substantial yeomanry of the country. He is especially and pardonably proud of the honorable record made by his family as patriots in the Revolutionary war. Of this family was Jonas Parker, a typical "minute man," who, after being wounded at the battle of Lexington, disdained to retreat from the " Red-coats," though cautioned to fall back by his commanding officer, but kept his ground, and was bayoneted by the British soldiers; he being the first Revolutionary soldier thus slain. In the celebrated painting, " The Battle of Lexington," which hangs in the Lexington town hall, he appears as the central figure. Of him Edward Everett said: " History, Roman History, does not furnish an example of bravery that outshines that of Jonas Parker. " His is one of the names of the eight martyrs for American independence cut in the granite monument erected on the Common, or Green, at Lexington by a grateful people to their memory.

Capt. John Parker, also of Lexington, who was in command of the "minute men" on that occasion, and who fired the first shot that was fired at the British soldiers, was a full cousin of said Jonas Parker ; and there were in the company, and in the fight, Corp. Ebenezer Parker, nephew of Jonas; and Thaddeus Parker, a brother of the Captain. Later in the day, on the march to Concord to intercept the British, Capt. Parker's company was reinforced by troops from Woburn, with which were two of his nephews-Edmund and Josiah Parker; and from Reading came seventeen more who bore the name of Parker, under the command of Capt. Brooke, and they also took part in the hot fire which was poured in upon the enemy's column during the remainder of that eventful day.

In the rosters of the Continental troops enlisted in Middlesex county, Mass., in the Revolutionary war, are found a great many Parkers who served as officers and privates, more of that name than any other, unless the Fletchers and Proctors may equal them in number. These three families were related by many intermarriages; representatives of all these families removed to Windsor county, Vt., soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, and their descendants are quite numerous in that State at the present time, as well as in Middlesex county, Massachusetts.

Theodore Parker, the famous Unitarian divine, was of the same family. In the war of 1812, and in the war of the Rebellion, this family displayed the same spirit of patriotism as in the Revolutionary war.

At the time of the war of the Rebellion, the subject of this sketch and his only brother were mere boys, too young to enter the military service; but his half-brother, Edwin, enlisted at an early period of the war, and served until near its close, when his left leg was shattered by a shot, and he was compelled to retire from the service. Three of his half-brothers, of the family name of Robinson (his mother's children by her first husband), were also in the Union army. When Cincinnati, Ohio, was threatened by Morgan's raid, and volunteers were called for, Abel F. Parker, the father of Robert S., though verging on threescore-and-ten, enlisted to assist in the defense of that city, and his children keep and prize the Squirrel Hunter's Discharge," which he received at the termination of that service.

The first ancestor of Mr. Parker in America was Abraham Parker, who was born in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in 1612. The exact date of his coming to America is not known, but it was about 1634. He first settled in the town of Woburn, Middlesex Co., Mass., where he married Rose Whitlock in 1644. He removed to the town of Clemsford, same county, upon its incorporation in 1653. His son Moses was born in Clemsford about the year 1657; he married Abigail Hildreth, daughter of Richard Hildreth, and removed to Westford, same county, where his son Aaron was born in 1689. Samuel, second child of Aaron, was born in 1717; he was married in 1739 to Sarah Fletcher, daughter of Deacon Joshua Fletcher.

Leonard, the fifth child of Samuel, was born at Westford in 1745; he married Mary Foster in 1768. Early in this century he removed with most of his family to the Holland Land Purchase, in the vicinity of Arcade, Wyoming, Co.,

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N. Y., and the large tracts of land which they there took up and improved are still owned and occupied by some of his descendants. His son Abel was born in Westford in 1773, was married to Catherine Edgar, and removed with. her to Cavendish, Vt., where in the year 1800 their eldest child, Abel Foster Parker, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born.

About 1818 Abel Parker also removed with his family to the vicinity of Arcade, N. Y., at which place Abel Foster was married, in the year 1824,, to Maria Strong. The children of this marriage were Edwin (mentioned above), who died at Findlay in 1883; Julia Ann, unmarried, residing at Findlay, Ohio; Lucy, married to John Martin, and residing at Lima, Ohio; and Albert, who died in infancy. In 1836 Abel F. Parker removed with his family to Findlay (then called Fort Findlay), Hancock county, Ohio, where he spent substantially all the remainder of his lifetime, and where he died in 1881. His wife Maria died in the year 1849, and in 1852 Mr. Parker married Mrs. Sallie Ann (Gail) Robinson, who was born in Wyoming county, N. Y. She was a daughter of Rev. Samuel Gail, a pioneer of western New York, many of whose descendants are living in Erie county, N. Y., where he died. The children of this union are Frederick Foster, a business man of Conneaut, Ohio; Robert S.; and Dora Alice (unmarried), who lives at Findlay, Ohio. By her marriage with Mr. Robinson, her first husband, Mrs. Parker had seven children, all but one of whom are still living, namely: Samuel G., a farmer in Hancock county, Ohio; Benjamin Oscar, a farmer, and manufacturer of brick and tile in Putnam county, Ohio; John Edgar, formerly a locomotive engineer, and now employed at the Hamilton County (Ohio) Court House; Henry Harrison, a market gardener of Findlay, Ohio; William Franklin, a locomotive engineer of Bellaire, Ohio; Mrs. Eleanor Woodruff, of Findlay, Ohio; and Elizabeth,. who died in infancy. Mrs. Sallie Ann Parker died at Findlay, Ohio, in 1864.

While a resident of New York, Abel F. Parker was agent for the Wadsworths and other owners of the Holland Land Purchase; upon his removal to Findlay, Ohio, he was for a time principal of the Findlay schools, but, applying himself to the study of law, he was soon thereafter admitted to the bar, and, until his health gave way, devoted most of the remainder of his life to the practice of that profession in Hancock and adjoining counties. He ranked with the leading members of the bar in that part of the State, in his day. He was a public-spirited man, taking a prominent part in politics, and in all enterprises that tend to promote the interest of the people of his section. In political sentiment he was originally a Democrat, and held high rank in the councils of his party; served as postmaster under President Pierce, and for three terms held the office of prosecuting attorney of Hancock county, Ohio. In 1860 he severed his connection with the Democratic party, and supported Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency, and thereafter ardently and loyally championed the principles of the Republican party. He was a gentleman of the old school, courtly and deferential in his manner, faithful in his friendships, and universally esteemed for his personal worth and integrity. He was a charter member of the Masonic Lodge at Findlay, and a member of the I. O. O. F., He was a great reader of good books, also a close observer of events, and consequently was possessed of extensive general information, which, united with a cheerful and vivacious disposition, fluency of speech and forcible style of discourse, enlivened by wit and humor, made him an entertaining and instructive companion.

Robert S. Parker, whose name introduces this biography, was born March 8, 1855, in Findlay, Ohio, where he attended the public school until he was twelve years old. In early youth he learned the cigar-maker's trade, which he followed seven years, during part of which time he also attended school, and when not attending' school he pursued his studies at home. In 1874 he commenced the study of law in Findlay with Shaffer Brothers, with whom he continued one year, and the following year read law under his father, meanwhile supporting himself by working at his trade, his father and sister reading to him while he made cigars. The mother having died, our subject and his father kept " bachelor's hall," the son doing the cooking and other housework. In April, 1876, just after attaining his majority, Mr. Parker was admitted to the bar, and immediately thereafter opened an office in North Baltimore, Ohio, where he remained several months, practicing in partnership with William H. Anderson. In September of the same year he came to Bowling Green, where he has ever since been engaged in the active duties of his profession. The first year he practiced alone, and then became associated with Col. John A. Shannon, under the firm name of Shannon & Parker, this connection lasting for about two years, when it was dissolved. Mr. Parker practiced alone from that time until 1890, when h e and R. B. Moore established the firm of Parker & Moore, which continued some five years, since the end of which

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time Mr. Parker has practiced with E. M. Fries under the style of Parker & Fries.

Our subject has been eminently successful in his profession, and holds a leading rank among the lawyers of Wood county and vicinity. During his twenty years of active professional life he has never missed a term of court in Wood county, and has a large and lucrative practice, principally in the northwestern counties of the State. For two terms he served as prosecuting attorney of Wood county, and he was nominated by the Republican party for judge of the Court of Common Pleas, but shared the fate of others of his political faith in the Foraker landslide;" in three of the four counties of the judicial district, however, he ran ahead of his ticket. In the fall of 1894 he was indorsed by the Wood county delegation for representative in Congress, but was defeated in the convention by James H. Southard, of Toledo, at present representing that District in Congress.

On May 1, 1879, Mr. Parker was married to Miss Susan Thomas, who was born November 5, 1859, in Bowling Green, Ohio, daughter of George H. Thomas, who was a native of New York State. He was a carpenter by trade, but in his later years was proprietor of the "Thomas House" (now the "Russell House "), and was widely known in Wood county; he died in 1890; Mrs. Thomas is still living. Mrs. Parker had two sisters: Emma, deceased wife of William H. Rudulph (also deceased), and Flora, widow of Edward Fryberger, of Bowling Green. Two children came to Mr. and Mrs. Parker: Edward Foster, born January 31, 1880, and Julia Alice, born June 8, 1887. In religious connection the family are Presbyterians. Mr. Parker is a member of the I. O. O. F., being connected with Centennial Lodge No. 626; also of Green Encampment, Bowling Green, and is colonel of the 4th Regiment, Department of Ohio, of the Patriarchs Militant. He is a director of the First National Bank of Bowling Green. Highly popular, and held in much esteem by his neighbors and fellow-citizens, he occupies an enviable social as well as professional position.

JONATHAN W. MYERS, who was called from earth September 21, 1892, is remembered by the people of Wood county as one of its most worthy and useful citizens. His birth occurred in Trumbull county, Ohio, December 11, 1810, a son of John and Rachel (Wolfecale) Myers, the former born August 8, 1783, and the latter October 28, 1787. The names and dates of birth of the brothers and sisters of our subject are as follows: Mary Ann, March 30, 1809; Robert C., October 30, 1812; John, October 2, 1814; Reason, September 16, 1816; Pleasant, December 21, 1819; Elizabeth, February 25, 1822; Jacob B., September 2, 1,824; Rachel M., May 2, 1827; Agnes J., August 3, 1829; Margaret, May 11, 1833; Robert C. died November 9, 1834, John, July 12, 1842, and Rachel M., October 11, 1844.

On April 3, 1834, Mr. Myers, of this review, led to the marriage altar Charlotte Hull, who was born February 5, 1812, and they became the parents of four children, namely: Henry B., born January 7, 1835, making his home in St, Louis, Mo.; Mary Ann. born September 24, 1836, is the wife of G. M. Barnd, of Bloomdale; Caroline, born November 27, 1838, is the wife of Benson Clayton, of Van Buren, Hancock Co., Ohio; and John A., born January 5, 1847, makes his home in Hancock county. The mother of this family died in 1849, and was buried in Hancock county.

In Bloom township, on December 30, 1849, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Myers and Miss Elmira Robbins, a daughter of Daniel and Rhoda, (McCarty) Robbins, and a native of Franklin county, Ohio, born October 23, 1827. To this union three children were born-Rachel L., who died in infancy; Ella E., widow of L. D. Hatfield, of Bloomdale; and Jonathan E., of Campbell county, Tennessee.

Daniel Robbins, the father of Mrs. Myers, was one of the first settlers of Bloom township, Wood county, locating near Bloomdale, when it was still a wilderness. He was born September 5, 1795, in Fishing Creek township, Columbia Co., Penn., and was a son of Thomas, and a grandson of William Robbins, a resident of New Jersey. Thomas Robbins lived and died in Fishing Creek township, and by his marriage with Elizabeth Kline, became the father of nine children-William, Abraham, Thomas, Daniel, John, Mathias, Isaac, Charity and Mercy. In eastern Pennsylvania, the parents of Mrs. Myers were married, and the mother, who was born October 17, 1802, was a daughter of John and Sarah (Thomas) McCarty, the former born November 8, 1773, and the latter in May, 1776. In their family were the following childrenMary, Rhoda, Margaret, Phoebe, James, Martha, Samuel, Sarah, and Elida. After his marriage Daniel Robbins lived in eastern Pennsylvania until 1825, when' he removed to Franklin county, Ohio, but in October, 1833, came to Wood county, locating on what is now the northeast corner of Main and Vine streets, but was then an unbroken forest. His was the third family to find a home in Bloom township, and their first

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dwelling was a rude log shanty with a blanket hung up for a door. There they lived for six weeks when a more substantial log house was erected. Mr. Robbins died January 7, 1879. His wife had passed away in the fall of 1874, and they now sleep side by side in the cemetery at Fostoria. In 1834 Mr. Robbins and wife assisted in forming a Religious Society at the Vicker's home, and taught singing at private houses. Mr. Robbins held the office of justice of the peace for several years. He was formerly a stanch Whig, and on the organization of the Republican party he joined its ranks. In the family were seven children-Ellinda, born in Columbia county, Penn., married Joseph Urie, and died in Bloomdale in 1892; Jackson died in the same city, July 27, 1892; Elmira is next in order of birth; Rhoda A. married John Bolan, and died in Indiana; Margaret is the wife of G. W. Locke, of South Bend, Ind.; Russell B. died in Iowa; and Minerva is now Mrs. Peter Bussey, of Fostoria, Ohio.

In the fall of 1844, Mr. Myers located in Bloom township, and his first purchase made him the owner of 160 acres, now comprised within the corporate limits of Bloomdale. To that tract he later added 10o acres, all of which was an unbroken forest, but he cleared his land, making it one of the best farms of the county. He was entirely self-made, having started out in life at the tender age of ten years, and assisted his widowed mother in paying for the home place. By good management and close attention to the details of his business, he left at his death a good property, and Mrs. Myers still resides on the home farm. For forty years she has been a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which her husband always belonged. He now rests in the cemetery at Fostoria, and an acquaintance of forty years thus writes of him: "He was industrious, always busy-not a lazy drop of blood coursed in his veins. He was honest. This was one of his peculiar traits of character. He deigned to stoop to nothing groveling or low. He was generous, as the unfortunate always found in time of need. "

Jackson Robbins (a brother of Mrs. Elmira Myers) was born in Franklin county, Ohio, March 17, 1826, and was but a small boy when his parents removed to Wood county where he grew to manhood, and November 9, 1848, was married to Miss Mary A. Beam. To this marriage were born eight children, namely: Emma, Jacob, William, Mary, Richard, Clement, and two who died in infancy.

Mr. Robbins owned forty acres of land in this county, on which he erected a dwelling, but soon after the Civil war sold the place to W. H. Redfern (now deceased), and purchased eighty acres north of Findlay, Ohio, where his wife died June 18, 1884, and on July 9, 1887, he was married to Clara May, and to them was born a daughter. During the Findlay boom Mr. Robbins sold his farm to some capitalists of that place for a goodly sum, and moved to Bloomdale, where he purchased a home, which was within several hundred feet of the place where his first days in Wood county were passed, under a shanty made by driving some forks into the ground, the covering of which consisted of bark and blankets. His death occurred July 27, 1892. His pastor, Jason Young, officiated at his funeral. His remains rest in the cemetery at Findlay. He was greatly endeared to his sister (who wrote this brief sketch) and to all who knew him. He was a good citizen and an excellent neighbor. He was a Methodist, and in politics an unwavering Democrat.

CAPTAIN OMAR P. NORRIS, a leading agriculturist of Perry township, with residence near "Norris " Station, T. & O. C. R. R., post office Longley, was born in Wayne county, Ohio, November 18, 1838, and comes of English and Scotch ancestry.

Hon. John Norris, father of our subject, was born April 22, 1813, in Fort "Findlay," Wayne county, Ohio, and became one-of the most prominent and influential citizens of Perry township, Wood county. Amos Norris, his father (grandfather of our subject), was born October j6, 17i9, in Huntingdon county, Penn., and was married to Mary Shaver, of the same nativity, born February 16, 1788, of English descent, a daughter of Maj. John Shaver, who served in that rank during the war of the Revolution. Amos Norris and his wife moved from their native county to Ohio in 1802, making their home in Wayne county until 1814, when they removed to Ashland county, being the first white settlers in the neighborhood, at which time the Indians were troublesome, some of them, after Hull's surrender, murdering three families in Wayne county, so that the pioneers had to build a fort in which they and their families could take refuge. This fort was named "Findlay," and in it was born Hon. John Norris. Amos Norris and his wife both died in Orange township, Ashland county, he at the age of sixty-five, and she, when seventy-six years old. He assisted in the organization of that township, and was one of the rugged old pioneers well adapted by nature for the work of pioneer days. A brief record of their family of five sons and three

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daughters is as follows: John (deceased) was the eldest; Vachel was drowned at the age of twenty-one, near Orange, Ohio; Nancy married Marsham Bowman, and died in Ashland county, Ohio; Temperance wedded W. J. Rigby, of Fostoria, Ohio; William, a farmer, died in Orange, Ohio; Amos was a lawyer and State Senator of Minnesota sometime in the " fifties," and afterward in the "seventies " judge of courts in Florida, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health, and died there; Andrew, who was a Doctor, died in Farmer City, Ill.; Sarah, the youngest of the family, was twice married, and died in Ashland county, Ohio.

Hon. John Norris was reared in Wayne county, Ohio, attending school '' off and on " in what is now Orange township, Ashland county, until he was fourteen years of age. Having accidentally cut his foot, so badly that he was unable to move about, he took that opportunity to learn the trade of a shoemaker, which he picked up so readily, and was so industrious at, that he made a pair of shoes the first day he worked. After he learned his trade he taught several terms of school, during the winter months only, receiving for his services eight dollars per month, meanwhile "boarding round " at the homes of his scholars. With this exception, he remained under the parental roof until his marriage, March 19, 1834, in Wayne county, Ohio, to Miss Rebecca Cuthbertson, who was born May 28, 1815, in Washington county, Penn., a daughter of Thomas and Margaret (Brownlee) Cuthbertson, both natives of Scotland, the mother born in Glasgow, the father a stocking weaver by trade. After marriage the young couple commenced house-keeping in Orange, Ashland county, Ohio, but soon afterward they took charge of his mother-in-law's farm in Wayne county, and continued thereon until 1843, in the fall of which year they came to Wood county, settling on 160 acres of unimproved land in Perry township, no clearing having been done until after they moved on the place. Mr. Norris had previously visited the locality, and built a common log cabin on the premises, which originally comprised 240 acres. In 1845 he sold eighty acres, with the proceeds of which he paid off some of the indebtedness he had incurred in the purchase. In April, 1880, retiring from the labors of the farm, and also on account of the burning of his home in Perry township, he moved to Fostoria, and here passed his declining years. The family born to John and Rebecca Norris were as follows: Omar, who died in infancy, in Wayne county, Ohio; Thomas C., who entered the service as captain of Company B, 111th Regiment, O. V. I., was promoted to major and commissioned lieutenant-colonel, mustered out with the regiment as major, and died in Fostoria, Ohio, in 1867, from injuries received in 1865, near Salisbury, N. C., in jumping from a flat-car that was off the rails, in a train carrying the regiment of which he was then in command; Amos was killed by the premature discharge of a cannon while celebrating July 4, 1863, at West Millgrove, Ohio; Omar P., the subject proper of this sketch; Mary, married to W. H. Kiger, of Prairie Depot (P. O. ), or Freeport, Wood county; William B., who was a fine scholar in his younger days, and died at the age of forty-two; James H., who served in Company H, 49th O. V. I., was promoted three times for bravery-twice in the company, and promoted to sergeant while in the signal corps, which he voluntarily left to please his captain-and was killed in the battle of Pickett's Mills, or Dallas, Ga., May 27, 1864, while leading his company as sergeant; Jane, who married Capt. Thomas H. Chance, of Fostoria; Fanny, married to Andrew G. Yates, of Perry township; Annie, wife of C. H. Stewart, of Fostoria; Emma, who was the wife of Dr. J. C. Lincoln, and died at Bowling Green; John H., a prominent physician of Fostoria; and Frank M., a farmer of Perry township.

The mother of this family was a daughter of Scotch parents who were born and reared in the land of Wallace, Bruce and Burns, coming to this country at an early day. After a wedded life of half a century she passed from earth March 17, 1884, at Fostoria, Ohio, aged sixty-nine years, and was buried on the anniversary of her wedding. She and her husband joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, at their marriage, and remained consistent members of the same. She died in the triumph of a living faith in Christ, her Redeemer. She wanted and took Him for her all-in-all, in Time and Eternity. She was a very conscientious woman, and when her sons enlisted to go to the war, she stood up in a large audience and exclaimed: - Boys! It almost breaks my heart to see you go; but do your duty. Your country demands your help; be brave, and die with your face to the foe, and be men." She and her husband commenced in the woods twice during their married life-once in Wayne . county, where they cleared up heavily-timbered land, some fifty-seven acres, then after ten years moved to Wood county, and here also cleared up. heavily-timbered land, about Z00 acres.

In 1885 Hon. John Norris married his second wife, Lydia A. Crum, of Columbiana county, Ohio, who survives him, living in a fine home he

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deeded her. Here he passed the declining years of his life, dying May 23, 1896, of blood poisoning, aged eighty-three years and one month, a useful member of society all his life. In his political preferences he was originally a Whig, later a Republican, and was one of the stanchest supporters of the party in Wood county. In 1843 he was appointed township clerk, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of U. M. Corey; was then elected to the same office two terms; then as treasurer two consecutive terms; then as trustee two terms; then as justice of the peace two terms of three years each; then as assessor three terms. In 1872, when the county was for the first time entitled to a representative the people selected Mr. Norris to represent the county in the Sixtieth General Assembly, as a Republican. This was the first of the three-years' fight between Bowling Green and Perrysburg, as to which should be the county seat, Bowling Green in the end winning the prize. He was renominated for a second term as representative, but was defeated at the polls, on account of the county-seat fight; but he did not sour, or leave the party, or its principles. In religious faith he was for over sixty years a member of the M. E. Church, toward which he contributed liberally, and held office in the same. As a farmer he was systematic and progressive; as a public official he was straightforward and honorable; as a man no one was better known or more highly honored. He was hale and hearty up to the illness that caused his death, and not long before the final summons came, he said: " I wonder why it is that I am living, and so many former friends and acquaintances gone forever from this world! But I bide my time."

Capt. Omar P. Norris during boyhood attended the district schools near his home, and after studying for a term in an academy at Republic, taught for three winter terms. He then entered Prof. Turner's school at Fostoria; but the war breaking out before his term was finished, he joined the army, as did every other male student in that school. Our subject enlisted, in April, 1861, in Company H, 21st O. V. I., three months' regiment, and was rejected at Camp Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio. In June, same year, he re-enlisted, this time in Company G, 25th O. V. I., soon rose to the rank of sergeant, and was in all the marches and engagements of that regiment up to and including the battle of Greenbrier, W. Va., was honorably discharged for disability November 21, 1861, and returned home. In August, 1862, he entered Company B, 111th O. V. I., and served until the end of the war, coming out with the rank of captain, having served in every intermediate rank except that of corporal. He and fifty-two men of Company B, of whom he was in command as first lieutenant, were sacrificed, while on picket duty, to let a division get " out of a hole, " on midnight of November 15, 1863, near Lenoir Station, East Tenn., when the Rebel general, Longstreet, crossed the Tennessee river with his army, en, route for Knoxville. Lieut. Norris and his men were surrounded and taken prisoners early on the morning of November 16, 1863. They were all stripped of their hats, overcoats and shoes, by the Rebels, and sent to Atlanta, Ga., thence to' Richmond, Va., where he and his men were separated, Lieut. Norris being sent to Libby Prison, and his men to Belle Isle. Of those fifty-two men, thirty-six died in Rebel prisons. [See ' Ohio in the War."] Lieut. Norris was in Libby Prison until May, 1864, when he was sent with all other officers, confined in Libby at that time, to Salisbury, N. C., from there to Augusta, from there to Macon, and from there to Savannah, Ga., where he lay at the point of death for several days, and was reported as dead in the New York papers, by chaplains who were exchanged at Savannah, and mourned as dead by his parents and friends at home. From Savannah he was sent to Charleston, S. C., where, for twenty-nine days, the Federal prisoners were under fire of the Union guns at Morris Island, and where, too, the yellow fever was raging among the prisoners confined in the city jail yard, among whom was Lieut. Norris. From Charleston he was sent to Columbia, S. C., where many of the officers died of yellow fever, among them being Capt. William Bender, 123d O. V. I., of Fostoria, Ohio, and Lieut. Asa Spafford, 21st O. V. I., of Perrysburg, Ohio. Lent. Norris escaped from Columbia, traveled over a hundred miles, and was then tracked up by blood-hounds and recaptured, taken back to Columbia and out to Prison Camp, where he soon afterward escaped again, at a great risk of his life. After traveling thirty-four nights, he reached the Union lines at Sweet Water, E. Tenn., December 27, 1864, having passed through many hardships and privations, and experiencing narrow escapes. He rejoined his regiment at Washington, D. C., February 8, 1865, and returned to the seat of war by the old ship °Prometheus," that narrowly escaped foundering off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. His regiment landed near Fort Fisher, N. C., and engaged in the North Carolina campaign. Here Lieut. Norris was promoted to captain of Company I, to date November 17, 1864. Capt. Norris was in all the marches and

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engagements of the North Carolina campaign, and received his final discharge July 12, 1865, at Salisbury, N. C. [See History of the Regiment, by Capt. W. S. Thurstin, 111 th O. V. I., Toledo, Ohio.]

After his return home he sold goods for ex-Gov. Foster, of Fostoria, for two years, then traveled a year selling a patent-right of his own invention, and then settled upon his farm in Perry township, where he has since carried on the business of stock raising, giving special attention to sheep. He has been twice married, first time, in 1869, to Miss Frona Patton, a school teacher, a daughter of Lieut. Col. John J. Patton, O. V. I. She was born January 1, 1850, in Quincy, Logan Co., Ohio, and died December 9, 1876, leaving three children: Ida, a school teacher, who married George E. Reed, enrolling clerk of the 72d General Assembly, and now editor and proprietor of the Prairie Depot Observer (they have two children-Frona and Mary); Emma, a school teacher, who now lives at home; and Belle, a successful teacher of the county. For his second wife Capt. Norris married Miss Libbie Yates, daughter of John W. Yates, first sergeant Company H, 49th Regiment, O. V. I., of Crawford county, Ohio, who was killed December 16, 1864, in the engagement at Nashville. Mrs. Libbie Norris was born September 9, 1857, and was a teacher in Wood county for some time. Three children were born of this union: Omar, Fannie and Thomas.

A man of broad views and liberal judgment, Capt. Norris wields great influence in the community, and so fully does he enjoy the confidence of the public that he has been elected to the office of chairman of the board of education of Perry township. He has served two terms as treasurer of Perry township, also two terms as justice of the peace (refusing to serve longer), and was also a candidate before the county convention for commissioner. In 1895 he was elected to represent Wood county in the State Legislature (Seventy-second General Assembly). He was the author of two general Bills, which passed the House; one Bill was defeated in the Senate; the other, the "Anti-treat Bill," was smothered in the Senate committee. He also introduced three local Bills, all of which became laws. Capt. Norris took an active part in the Presidential campaign just closed. He delivered eight speeches in favor of the election of McKinley, protection to American industries, reciprocity and a l00-cent dollar, and is now happy over the election of Major McKinley as ' ° President of our greatest nation on earth. "

D. A. HAYLOR, the efficient and popular superintendent of the public schools of Bowling Green, and one of the prominent educators of this State, was born February 14, 1851, in Yorkshire, England.

His father, John Haylor, and his mother, Ann (Marshall) Haylor, were both natives of the same locality. As a mechanic and merchant, the father was successful and well-to-do, but came to America with his family in 1866 for the better opportunities it afforded. The family lived for two years in Oberlin, Ohio, and then removed to a farm in Henrietta township, Lorain county, afterward moved to one in Russia township, where they remained until the father's death in 1891. They were leading members of the M. E. Church, with which they united in early life. Of their nine children all are living, and five have settled in or near Oberlin, where their mother now resides. Sarah married Jacob Hales, of Ridgeville, Ohio; Henry is a dry-goods employe at Canton, Ohio; D. A., is the subject of this sketch; John is a farmer near Oberlin; William is in business in that city; Herbert, merchant and farmer, living at Irving, Kansas; and Anna, Mrs. Fred Papworth; Clara, Mrs. John Papworth; and Walter, all reside in or near Oberlin.

Our subject attended an excellent private school in England until the age of thirteen. After coming to America he continued his studies in the district schools of Lorain county, working at the same time with his father on the farm, and at the shoemaker's trade. So well did he improve his opportunities that he received the position of teacher in the same place where he had been a pupil, and there and elsewhere he taught during the winter terms until the age of twenty-three, when he entered Oberlin College to fit himself for a professional teacher. He supported himself during five years of study, earning over one thousand dollars and completed a seven-years' classical course. He took the degree of B. A., and has also finished a professional course for teachers. He ranked among the first in a class of fifty-five, and- received the president's recommendation for the first place among their applications for teachers. During his senior year he was engaged as a tutor in mathematics. Since graduation he has been continuously and successfully engaged in educational work; one year in Seville, Medina county; two years in Perrysburg, Wood county; six years in Bryan, Williams county, and from 1889 to the present time he has been superintendent of schools in Bowling Green, and is a member of the city board of ex-

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aminers. He has been an active institute instructor and lecturer. In each of the above places the schools secured under his management a reputation for thorough work and judicious control that has never been questioned, but has brought to him and the communities both honor and permanent good.

He was married in 1882 to Miss Netta G. Lawrence, of Perrysburg, and has three children, Ruth, Vida and Janet. His high scholastic attainments and fine natural abilities give him an influential place in intellectual circles. He and his wife are leading members of the Presbyterian Church, and generous supporters of all educational and philanthropical movements in the community. In politics he is a Republican.

EDWIN R. SAGE, M. D. No man in Wood county is better known or has a larger circle of warm friends than this popular physician, who for over thirty years has ministered to the sick and suffering of Montgomery township. He was born at Windham, Conn., January 18, 1825, and is a son of George and Lucy (Davis) Sage,

The early education of our subject was obtained in the district schools of Erie county, Ohio, whither his parents moved when he was eleven years of age. The father dying when Edwin was fifteen years old, he was thrown upon his own resources, and at eighteen began learning the trade of a shoemaker at Berlin Heights, Ohio. At this he worked for three years, being paid at the rate of $30, $35, and $46 per year, out of this paying for his board and clothing. When twenty-one years of age he was sent on horseback to Prairie Depot for a yoke of oxen, and while there was urged to start a shoe-shop, as there was none in the village at that time. He returned to Berlin Heights, and soon afterward took the stage to Lower Sandusky (now Fremont), from which place he walked, carrying his kit of tools, to Prairie Depot. This was in 1846. In the office of Dr. Hutchins he found the only available space for his bench, the use of this place being tendered him by the Doctor, who took a great liking to him.- This was a fortunate crisis in his life, for he had a craving for scientific study, and, being surrounded by medical books and appliances, he took up the study of medicine.

Six months later Dr. Sage returned to Berlin Heights, where he spent the winter of 1846 and 1847. In the latter year his widowed mother, with his brothers and sisters, removed to Wood county, where he had procured a lot of land, he himself remaining in Berlin Heights until 1848, in which year he cast his first Presidential vote for Martin Van Buren, the Free-soil candidate. In 1850 he went to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where he worked at his trade until the summer of 1857, at which time he took up his permanent residence in Wood county, at Prairie Depot, and the following year " hung out his shingle " as an M. D. During his stay at Chagrin Falls Dr. Sage had read medicine with Dr. H. W. Curtis, and had seen some practice, answering calls for his tutor, which the latter was unable to personally attend. On October 8, 1858, Dr. Sage was married at Perrysburg, Ohio, to Miss Sarah M. Pant, who was born in Bethlehem, Ohio, December 12, 1835, a daughter of John and Dorothea (Usher). Yant, the former a hotel-keeper, whose death took place in Crawford county. Three children have been born to the Doctor and his wife, namely: Rose D., the wife of F. B. Hill, of Chicago Junction, Ohio; Eddie, who died when two years old; and Edward R., who is in the United States railway mail service (on January 20, 1896, he married Evelyn Wingar). At the time of his marriage Dr. Sage was a poor man, and for many years had a "hard row to hoe. " His patients were also poor, as they were mostly people coming in and settling on new farms, who had little or no money for doctors' bills. He, however, was energetic and hopeful, and struggled on until times were better, and his practice became lucrative. Dr. Sage has thousands of dollars in fees that many physicians would have collected, but his kindness of heart would not allow him to insist upon payment from people he knew were unable to spare the money. In all his thirty-one years of practice, he has never refused to answer a call because his patient waspoor. Dr. Sage is to-day one of the most successful practitioners in Wood county, is Jell known for miles around, and his many acts of benevolence and liberality have endeared him to the hearts of the people. No man ever doubts his word, and his patients have the most im-plicit confidence in his ability as a physician.

Politically Dr. Sage was formerly a Democrat and a Free-soiler, and voted for Gov. Wood, the Democratic candidate for that office. After the formation of the Republican party, however, he adopted its principles, and has ever since been one of its stanchest adherents. He served as clerk of Montgomery township for one term, and in 1875 was elected to the State Legislature, at the close of his term being re-elected. Socially he is a member of the Masonic order. Dr. Sage has i08 acres of excellent land near Prairie Depot, from which he derives a comfortable income. When the call on the Ohio National Guards was.

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made, Dr. Sage was a member of Company K, 144th regiment, Col. Miller commanding. At Berryville, Va., thirty-one of the company were taken prisoners, two killed, and two wounded, Dr. Sage being one of those taken prisoner. He was in the Lynchburg, Va., prison, and also in Libby, at Richmond, Va. He served as second lieutenant, and experienced some severe hardships, as he was on the march most of the time. No man stands higher in the community, or is entitled to higher respect from his fellow citizens than Dr. E. R. Sage.

JOHN MEILY HOFFA, editor of the Wood County Tribune, was born December 9, 1854, at Myerstown, Lebanon Co., Penn., a son of Levi and Susan (Meily) Hoffa. Mrs. Susan (Meily) Hoffa, mother of our subject, was born July 21, 1831, a daughter of Henry and Margaretha (Vogt) Meily, the latter of whom was born October 24, 1992, and died November 29, 1847. She was a daughter of Mathias Vogt, who was born February 24, 1756, and died March 2, 1839; his wife Sophia, was born December 12, 1767, and died October 9, 1855. This long-lived couple had three sons and two daughters, our subject's grandmother, Margaretha, being one of them. To Mr. and Mrs. Henry Meily were born children as follows: Two sons died in infancy; John married Kate Zinn, and died in Lebanon county, Penn. ; Catherine, now deceased, was the second wife of Thomas Bassler, and had one child; Rebecca is the wife of Isaac Stoner, and they reside in Franklin county, Penn; Mollie is the wife of Christian Strack, who resides near Myerstown, Penn. ; Eliza is the widow of Jacob Bixler; Fanny is the deceased wife of Henry Glick; Mary is the wife of Henry Seltzer, and makes her home in Dauphin county, Penn. ; Sallie is the wife of Samuel Noll, she resides in St. Joseph, Mo.; Susan, the mother of our subject, comes next; she has her home in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania.

Levi Hoffa was born at Myerstown, March 9, 1827, and was a son of Philip and Elizabeth (Blecher) Hoffa, also natives of Lebanon county, the former of whom was a tailor by trade, which occupation he followed up to the time of his death To them were born children as follows: (r) Levi, father of our subject. (2) Cyrus Samuel, a graduate of Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Penn., and who was a German Evangelical Lutheran minister; shortly after the breaking out of the Civil war, in 1861, he enlisted in the 90-days service, and after his term of enlistment had expired, re-enlisted, this time in Company F, 4^th Penn. Cav., was taken prisoner, and died in Andersonville. (3) Sarah, wife of Henry Wagner, resides at Lebanon, Lebanon Co., Penn. (4) Mary M. is deceased; (5) Catherine; (6) Melinda, born June 25, 1836, died May 27, 1857; by occupation she was a school teacher. (7) Leah Amelia, born February 6, 1839, married Henry Wise, and died March 27, 1860; she was also a school teacher. (8) Maurice J. (now deceased) was the youngest of this family. Levi died May 8, 1856, the father of two children: Mary Alice, born October 14, 1853, is now the wife of George W. Umberger, by whom she has one son, Herbert (they reside in Lebanon county, Penn.); and John M., our subject. There is also another son in the family, William Gurten Hoffa (a child of Mrs. Levi Hoffa by her second husband, Cyrus Samuel Hoffa), born August 24, 1864, and now a wholesale dealer in barbers' supplies at Philadelphia.

John Meily Hoffa, whose name introduces this sketch, received his education in Pennsylvania, in part at the district schools and an academy, in part at the "College Palatinate," at Myerstown, which institution had been organized out of the academy. On leaving college he, in 1872, commenced to learn the trade of a printer in a job office at Myerstown, and in 1874 opened a job office in the same town, which he carried on until 1876, in that year moving to Palmyra, Penn., where he continued in the same line of business until 1878, when, in connection therewith, he established the Londonderry Weekly Gazette. In the course of about a year he sold out, and in 1880 removed to La Rue, Marion Co., Ohio, and bought the News of that place, the publication of which he continued until 1882, when he disposed of his interest therein. In 1883 he moved to New Carlisle, Clark Co., Ohio, and bought the Sun, publishing the same until 18g0, in which year he disposed of his property there took up his residence in Ottawa, Putnam Co., Ohio, and bought the Ottawa Gazette. In 1893 he sold this out, and purchased a one-fourth interest in the Wood County Sentinel (Daily and Weekly), at Bowling Green, which interest he still owns. In the fall of 1895 he also purchased stock in the Daily and Weekly Tribune, at the same place, consisting of 92' shares, and in March, 1896, he assumed the editorial management of that paper, his present incumbency. Later he purchased more stock, and now owns nearly half of that plant. These papers are a success, having few, if any, equals.

In 1875, John M. Hoffa was married at Palmyra, Penn., to Miss Ida J. Zimmerman, who

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was born January 3, 1859, at that town, a daughter of Abram and Maria (Kieffer) Zimmerman, the former of whom, a stonemason by trade, was born May 13, 1831, a son of John Peter, a farmer, and Sarah Zimmerman. The latter couple were the parents of children as follows: Henry; Abram; Daniel; Elizabeth, wife of Henry Miller of Annville, Lebanon Co., Penn. (they have three children-John, Joseph and Catherine) ; Sarah, wife of Mr. Farling, of Lebanon county, Penn. ; and Kate. Mrs. Maria (Kieffer) Zimmerman was a daughter of John Kieffer, who was also born in Lebanon county, Penn., and who married Sarah Horstick, born August 10, 1817, and by her had two children, viz.: Maria (Mrs. Abram Zimmerman), born April 24, 1840; and Reuben, a coal dealer at Annville, Lebanon Co., Pennsylvania.

To Abram and Maria Zimmerman were born children as follows: Ida J. (Mrs. Hoffa), born January 3, 1859; Lizzie Loretta, born in 1861, married Joseph Horstick, and they reside at Palmyra, Lebanon Co., Penn., and have no children; and Anna Lenora, married Albert Detwiler, and they reside at Harrisburg, Penn. (have two children). The fat, her of this family died November 2, 1886; the mother is now living at Hummelstown, Dauphin Co., Pennsylvania.

To our subject and wife have come four children, to wit: (1) Mary J., born May 6, 1876, married to Clarence W. Griswold, at Ottawa, Ohio, where he is agent for the Findlay, Ft. Wayne & Western railroad and the American and National Express companies; they have two children-Ella Meily and Linn. (2) Meily Valentine, born February 14, 1878, died of typhoid fever October 29, 1891, at Ottawa, Ohio; (3) Harry Levi Marcellus, born April 6, 1881; (4) Abram Zimmerman, born September 21, 1886, at Ottawa. Mr. and Mrs. John M. Hoffa are members of the Lutheran Evangelical Church. Socially he has been affiliated with the P. O. S. of A. since he was eighteen years of age, joining Camp No. 192 thereof at Palmyra, Penn.; he held the position of State master of forms and ceremonies, and for one year was State trustee in Ohio; also was district president at large. At La Rue, Ohio, he organized a camp of the P. O. S. of A. and also united with Day Lodge No. 28, I. O. O. F., at La Rue, and is a past noble grand, and still retains membership in that society. At Richland he joined the Encampment, there being none at La Rue. He became a member of La Rue Lodge No. 463, F. & A. M., and affiliated with New Carlisle Chapter No. 57 and New Carlisle Council No. 30, both at New Carlisle. While residing at Ottawa, Ohio, being within the jurisdiction of Lima, he became a member of Shawnee Commandery No. 14, Knights Templar, and on moving to Bowling Green he associated with the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of the Valley of Toledo, being a member of Miami Lodge of Perfection, Fort Industry Chapter Rose Croix, at Toledo, and Northern Light Council, Princes of Jerusalem. He also belongs to Lake Erie Consistory, at Cleveland, Ohio, which includes the 32nd degree in Masonry. At Palmyra he became a member of Castle No. 7, Knights of the Mystic Chain; at New Carlisle he joined the Knights of Pythias Lodge; while at Ottawa he united with the K. O. T. M. and the National Union. A Republican in politics, Mr. Hoffa served as corporation clerk at New Carlisle, and on the board of health until he removed from that place. He was a member of the Building and Loan Association there, a director for two terms, also vice-president until he removed, and at the present time is vice-president of the Building and Loan Association at Bowling Green, which is a branch of the Cleveland Indemnity and Loan Association.

F. T. HEDGE, the senior member of the well-nown firm of F. T. Hedge & Co., is at the head of the largest tile factory in Wood county, and is one of its most successful and enterprising business men. He is a native of Ohio, born in York township, Medina county, May 5, 1853, and is the second son and third child in the family of George B. and Kate (Crawfoot) Hedge. He was quite small when brought to Wood county, where he acquired his education in the district schools, and previous to his seventeenth year worked upon the home farm and in his father's mill. At that time Mr. Hedge began learning the saddler's trade with Andrew Emerine, at Fostoria, Ohio, where he worked for two years, when failing health caused him to abandon that trade for a time, though he later followed it for several years, in fact, until 1885. In the early eighties " he began brick and tile making in Montgomery township with his brother G. W., buying an interest in 'he business of Russel Morgan. His father afterward became a partner in the enterprise, but later sold his share to another brother, H. W., and the firm assumed the present title, that of F. T. Hedge & Co. They are now extensively engaged in the manufacture of tile, having a large plant erected in 1892, the main building being 40 x 98 feet, four stories in height, with a wing 36 x 82 feet. Our subject thoroughly understands the business in all its

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departments, the arrangement for drying being originated by him, and very economical.

At the home of Harlow Hill, in Montgomery township, on February 13, 1887, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Hedge and Miss Martha Caskie, who was born near Carey, Ohio, May 3, 1858, and is the daughter of James and Matilda (Smith) Caskie. They began housekeeping in Montgomery township, on Section 18, and in 1892 remodeled their residence, and now have a comfortable and pleasant dwelling. The home has been brightened by the birth of two children -Jay C., born January 19, 1889; and George B., born October 9, 1892. Mr. Hedge uses his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democratic party, but takes no active part in political affairs; socially he is a worthy member of Petroleum Lodge No. 499, K. of P., of Prairie Depot; of Prairie Depot Lodge No. 646, I. O. O. F.; and Crystal Encampment No. 271. Like all of the members .of the well-known Hedge family, of Montgomery township, he is prosperous and well-to-do, his success being mainly due to his own ability, enterprise and industry, and as the result of his efforts he has secured a comfortable competence, which is justly merited.

B. L. ABBOTT, a prominent attorney at law of Bowling Green, was born in Townsend township, Huron county, July 5, 1850. His grandfather Abbott came at an early date with his family to Huron county, from Trumansburg, Yates county, New York.

Our subject's father, James R. Abbott, was about seventeen years old at the time of this removal, and he at once devoted his energies to serving the best interests of the people among whom his lot was cast. He united with the Baptist Church before he had attained his majority, and supplying the deficiencies in his education by private study, he prepared for the ministry. His first charge was in Huron county, where he remained many years. He then preached at Reading, Mich., for seven years, after which he moved to Grand Rapids where his active usefulness was cut short by a stroke of paralysis, caused by overwork. The last twelve years of his life were spent in the home of our subject at Bowling Green. He was married in 1842 to Miss Caroline Smith, who was born in 1824, and is now residing with her son, Fred E. Abbott, at Bowling Green, the youngest of her five children. The others were Amanda (deceased), who married Daniel Howe, of Crawford county, Ohio; James R., a resident of Montcalm county, Mich.; B. L., our subject; and Ida, the wife of Frank S. Joels, of Fredonia, New York.

Our subject's early life was spent in Michigan, where he acquired a knowledge of vocal music which afterward served him well. In 1871 he came to Bowling Green and studied law with an uncle, Philander S. Abbott, a well-known lawyer. He had intended to take a course in literature and law at Michigan, but the illness of his father compelled him to become the " bread winner " for the family, and in the emergency he resorted to the teaching of vocal music. His professional studies were postponed for several years, but after his marriage, in 1876, to Miss Mary L. Marshall, he resumed them, and August 13, 1878, was admitted to the bar. His wife is a native of the Buckeye State, born September 20, 1854, and she is an admirable helpmeet, cultured and sympathetic. They have five children: Floyd L., Henry L., Emergene L., Lilah Belle, and Lorene.

Mr. Abbott began to practice law with a former preceptor, Edson Goit, and the, partnership lasted until the death of Mr. Goit. He has a good civil practice, and has been unusually successful in the conduct of business entrusted to him. Recently he engaged in oil producing, has sunk three paying wells and has others under way. Politically he is a Republican, and he has held several important official positions. In 1886 he was elected mayor, and for more than thirteen consecutive years has been a justice of the peace. About two years ago his friends were surprised at a new departure, seemingly out of his line, when he announced his discovery of a cure for baldness, which he christened "Baldoline. " His well-tried integrity lent credit to his claims for the new remedy, however, and the test of experience has abundantly confirmed them in every case where the treatment has been properly given.

HON. ROBERT J. COLLIN, mayor of Tontogany, and a leading druggist of that town, was born July 21, 1849, in Medina, Ohio. His parents Ephraim and Matilda (Hall) Collin, were both born near Ely, Cambridgeshire, England, his father in 1825, and his mother in 1828. They were married there, and in 1848 came to the United States making their home near Medina, Ohio, until 1853, when they came to Wood county; but in the following year, owing to the breaking out of cholera in that section, they returned to Medina county, and bought a farm at Chatham Center. They sold this in the fall of 1860, and in the spring of 1861 they came to

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Wood county, where they purchased wild land near Perrysburg, which they cleared and improved, converting it into a fine farm. Here they remained until the fall of 1874, at that time selling out their possessions in Wood county, and once more returning to Medina county, where they now reside. Mrs. Collin is a faithful adherent of the M. E. Church. Mr. Collin was an early Abolitionist, and one of the first in his locality to unite with the Republican party. They are the parents of four children: Robert J., our subject; Sophia, wife of Joseph Carpenter, of Perrysburg; Charles, a farmer in Medina county; and Wilson, deceased at the age of sixteen years.

Robert J. Collin, the subject proper. of this sketch, received his education in part at the country district schools of Medina and Wood counties, three years at the high school of Perrysburg, and one year at Berea, graduating in 1875, at Valparaiso, where he had been studying two years. When he came to Wood county, in 1853, bears and wolves abounded, and around on his father's farms near Perrysburg, in 1861, deer were frequently seen in droves. He taught- five terms in district schools and two years in Miami schools, and then began to read medicine in Perrysburg, in 1876, a year later coming to Tontogany, where he bought an interest in a drug store since carried on under the firm name of Davis & Collin. This is one of the most substantial business enterprises in the vicinity. In addition to his drug business he is interested in farm land, owning property in Washington township, also in Kansas.

On June 24, 1879, Mr. Collin married Miss Alice Hannah, a native of Ottawa county, Ohio, born August 28, 1854, and they have two children: Arthur, born September 16, 1880, and Harry, born December 4, 1885,, who have already given their allegiance to the church of their ancestors, the Methodist, of which Mr. Collin has been a prominent member for years, . For the past eighteen years he has been superintendent of the M. E. Sunday-school. The same sterling characteristics which have led to Mr. Collin's success in other lines of effort, have made him a favorite candidate for official position, as he is now serving his third term as township clerk, and was in April, 1895, elected to the office of mayor of his town. Socially he is a member of the F. & A. M., Tontogany Lodge No. 451.

EDWARD R. SAGE, one of the most highly respected citizens of Montgomery township, is descended from an old New England family, and is a representative of the seventh generation from David Sage, who was born in Wales, in 1639, and came to Middleton, Conn., in 1652. The grandfather of our subject, George Sage, was born in 1772, and his wife, Harriet, in 1774. The father of our subject, also named George, was born July 4, 180i, in Middleton, Conn., and was married in Chatham, Conn., June 26, 1821, to Miss Lucy Davis, also a native of Connecticut, born November 4, 1799.

The father of our subject was a manufacturer and dresser of cloth, and followed that business for a time in Connecticut. In 1838 he removed with his family to Washington county, Va., where he settled near Glade Springs. He rented a fulling-mill and carding-machine, which he operated some ten years. He then came to Ohio, traveling all the way in wagons, camping out most of the time at night, and occupying four weeks on the road. He settled in Vermilion township, Erie county, where he remained one winter, then going to Hartsgrove, Ashtabula county, where he bought 160 acres of land in partnership with another man. On this farm was a fulling-mill and carding-machine, which was run by waterpower, and they subsequently built a gristmill on the same stream. Mr. Sage's partner proved to be dishonest, and two years later the firm failed. Mr. Sage had nothing left but a team of horses and eighty acres of land in Cook county, Ill., which latter^-proved upon examination, by a person sent for that purpose, to be of so little value that it was not worth the taxes. Mr. Sage was obliged to return to Erie county, where he died of bilious fever, July 22, 1840. He was naturally a robust, hearty man, and his early death was a great blow to his wife who was left with nine children to care for. Mr. Sage had but a limited schooling, but was a man of much natural ability, honest and industrious, a member of the Episcopal Church, and an old-time Democrat. His wife was a Methodist. She lived t o be seventy-five years of age, and died in Huron, Ohio, and both are buried at Berlin Heights.

The children of this worthy couple were as follows: William G., born in Windham, Conn., October 26, 1822, lives in Huron, Ohio; Edward R. and Edwin R. were born in Windham, Conn., January 18, 1825; Harriet M., born in Windham, February 10, 1827, is the wife of M. H. Parker, of Coldwater, Mich.; Orrin W., born in Washington county, Va., September 1, 1829, enlisted, in 1864, in Company K, 144th O. V. I., and was taken prisoner with his entire company (only nine of whom escaped) at Berryville, Va. (he died in the Rebel prison at Salisbury, N. C.); Elizabeth

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J., born in Washington, Va., December-26, 1831, is the widow of Timothy Gould, of Prairie Depot; Louise, born in Washington county, Va., March 9, 1834, is the wife of Byron Case, of West Toledo, Ohio; Charles J. was born April 11, 1836, in Washington,, Va.; James M., born in Hartsgrove, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, April 21, 1838, died in childhood.

Edward R. Sage, the subject of this sketch, had a limited education in the common schools of his day, whose curriculum seldom extended beyond the 'three R's." His father's early death left the family dependent upon their own exertions for a livelihood, but they managed to keep together, the boys learning various trades and the mother working at weaving. When sixteen years old Edward began learning the shoemaker's trade under Isaac Fowler, who had a country shop between Vermilion and Huron. For four years the lad worked in this place at a salary of $4 a month, out of which he kept himself and had money left to give his mother. After his uncle was elected sheriff of Erie county, Mr. Sage started a shop of his own, which he carried on for a time. In the meantime his twin brother, Edwin R., had come to Wood county and bargained for i08 acres of land, and the family decided to follow him and locate on the property. Accordingly, in 1847, the mother, with six of her children-Edward R., Orrin, Elizabeth, Lucy, Charles, and James came by team and settled in Montgomery township, making their home temporarily near the land mentioned. About a month afterward they were given possession, and a log cabin was their first home. This property was school land, and was bought in the name of William, the eldest son, it being intended as a home for the family, and that all the sons should aid in paying for it. The mother lived there for a short time, and then returned to Erie county, where she died. The three brothers-William, Edward, and Edwin worked the farm together until it was paid for; about 1860 our subject purchased the property from his brothers, and has lived there ever since. Since that time he has sold a portion of it for town lots, and has now about ninety-five acres remaining. Most of the improvements on the place have been made by him, he having, in 1858, built the house which he now occupies.

On October 2, 1851, Mr. Sage was married at Freeport, Ohio, to Miss Caroline Yant, who was born in Stark county, Ohio, June 30, 1828. Her parents were John and Dorothea (Usher) Yant, and her father was a hotel-keeper. Of this union five children have been born, namely: Roswell E., who died in childhood; Lucy D., now Mrs. Frank King, of Prairie Depot; John, residing with his parents; Charles, living at Prairie Depot; and William E., who is farming with his father. Mr. Sage, who is a self-made man, with the assistance of his good wife has prospered in the world, and is one of the substantial farmers of the township. He was in former days an Abolitionist, but has for many years been a stanch Republican. He has held a number of important local offices, being for eight years treasurer of the township, for six years justice of the peace, and also township assessor. He has served two terms as mayor of Prairie Depot, and has been a member of the city council. He and his wife are members of the Congregational Church. A man of genial disposition, who preserves the vigor and enterprise of youth, he is exceedingly popular with all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance. No citizen stands higher in the community or is more deserving of the esteem and respect in which he is held.

H. A. LEASE, a well known and leading citizen of Bowling Green, was born in Seneca county, Ohio, July 16, 1835. His parents were Joseph and Delilah (Olmstead) Lease, the former of whom was born in Frederick county, Md., in 1806. He followed farming until coming to Bowling Green, when he took up gardening as an occupation. He was a man of unusual mental powers, a great student of the Bible, which he knew by heart, although a free-thinker in his religious views, and looked upon life through the eyes of a philosopher. In politics he was a Democrat. He was a Scotchman by descent, and was a thrifty and industrious man. His death took place in Bowling Green, November 12, 1884. His wife was born in Frederick county, Md., in 1812, and died April 28, 1891. Their two children were H. A., and Mary E., the wife of R. Gust, a capitalist of Fostoria, Ohio.

Our subject was reared to manhood in his native county, where he attended college for seven months, afterward teaching school and reading law at the same time. In September, 1858, he went to California where he taught school and mined until 1860. In 1861 he was admitted to the bar in the Supreme Court of California; was appointed district attorney of Colusa county, by the county commissioners, and served in that incumbency one term; was made assistant sergeant-at-arms of the Legislature of that State, in 1861, and served as copying clerk for the same body in 1863-64. He then went to Eldorado county, where he was employed as clerk in the office of the Placerville route of the Pacific

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railway until 1866, when be returned to his home in Ohio. In 1867 he was admitted to the bar in Ohio. In 1869 be located in Bowling Green, and in the winter of 1870 was made enrolling clerk of the Ohio Senate, which position he filled for two sessions of the Legislature (1872-73), being at the same time engaged in the practice of law. Owing to ill health Mr. Lease bas been obliged to give up active work, and now devotes much of his time to literary pursuits, a most congenial occupation, as be is a man of remarkably bright intellect, keen observation, and retentive memory. Upon the organization of the Bowling Green & Toledo Railroad Co., Mr. Lease was elected attorney for the same, and continued an official of the company as either attorney, director, auditor or general manager until the road was sold to the C., H. & D. R. R. Co. In politics be is a Prohibitionist, and uses his influence in promoting the interests of that party, believing it to be the best means by which our country can be free from the curse of intemperance. He is an active member of the Presbyterian Church, and in all public enterprises does-his part as a loyal citizen. He bas been quite successful in business, owning considerable property in Bowling Green, among which is that known as the Lease Building. Mr. Lease is unmarried, " and for free silver. "

REV. HENRY DOTY, one of the leading ministers of the United Brethren Church, now the pastor of the congregation at Bowling Green, has shown in the twelve years since his ordination a rare combination of practical business talent, with spiritual power as a preacher. Although well fitted to make his way to financial success in worldly lines, be abandoned a prosperous business in early manhood (the management of a mill belonging to his father-in-law), in order to devote his energies to the Church, and while his earnest exhortations and convincing logic have turned the thoughts of many to the truths of religion, some trace of the natural financier is to be found also in churches built or repaired, or old debts paid, in every place where be bas been stationed.

Mr. Doty was born October 30, 1851, near Findlay, Ohio. His parents, John and Margaret (Walters) Doty, were both born in Fairfield county, Ohio, his father on October 20, 1816, and his mother in November, 1823. On the maternal side be is descended from an old Virginia family. His parents still occupy the same farm upon which they located fifty-two years ago, and attend the same Church with which they then united. Their eight children are all living: (1) Margaret J., the wife of Thomas Cole, of Hancock county; (2) W. C., a resident of the same county; ( 3 ) Elijah, a lumber dealer at Leipsic, Ohio; (4) Henry, our subject; ( 5) Edward, a farmer in Hancock county; (6) John L., who lives at the old homestead; (7) H. Walter, a prominent young attorney at Findlay; and( 8) Flora Emma, the wife of Rev. W. R. Arnold, the pastor of the U. B. Church at Bascom, Ohio. Our subject improved the educational opportunities afforded by the public schools of Hancock county, and then entered the Union Biblical Seminary at Dayton, graduating in 1888. He bad previously been ordained at Helena, Ohio, September 21, 1883. His first charge was on Hoytville circuit, where during a two-years pastorate be bad 175 accessions, and built a church. At North Baltimore be spent two years, received 195 new members, built one church at a cost of $4,000, and repaired two others. He then came to Bowling Green, where be found the Church in a discouraging state; but with the help of the faithful and energetic women of the Society he raised between five and six hundred dollars, and purchased a bell and other needed supplies.. During his one-year's stay at that time eighty-five new members were received. In the two years following, on Sycamore circuit, be received 200 new members, and built a brick church costing $5,000, repaired two others and contracted for a parsonage. He then went to Dayton. where for three years be pursued a course of study in the Union Biblical Seminary, having charge during the last two years of his stay there of Miami Chapel (the old Mother Church of his denomination in Dayton), and taking into fellowship 200 new members. Here $1, B00 was raised for repairs, and sundry debts to former preachers and presiding elders were paid, among them some of ten years' standing. His next charge was at Chicago junction, where some debts were settled, and a parsonage built and paid for and 175 new members enrolled. In September, 1891, be returned to Bowling Green, where be bas well sustained his reputation as an earnest worker. About 350 members have been added, and the church bas been repaired at a cost of $4, 000, all of which, except the amount raised by Bishop Cassel at the rededication, was solicited and collected by the pastor. On September 23, 1895, at the Sandusky Annual Conference, be was elected presiding elder of the Fostoria District, and is now serving his second term as P. E. of the same District.

In all his arduous efforts our subject bas been ably seconded by his wife, who was formerly Miss

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Sarah E. Bishop, a native of Hancock county, born January 27, 1856. They were married May 30, 1872, and have two children: Eva B., born January 13, 1874, who is a student in Otterbein (Ind.) University, and John D., born October 11, 1878, who is at home, and is now attending the high school. Our subject is independent in politics. Fraternally he is a member of the I. O. O. F. Lodge at Bowling Green.

EDWARD BEVERSTOCK, the junior member of the well-known law firm of James & Beverstock, Bowling Green, was born in Tontogany May 8, 1862. As one of the brightest of Wood county's sons, the people of this locality look upon his success in his chosen profession with pride, and regard his future as assured. Reared upon a farm, his educational advantages were limited to an attendance at the neighboring district school until January, 1883, when he entered Oberlin College, where he completed the classical course and graduated in 1889, with the degree of A. B. Having determined to enter the legal profession, he took the course offered by the Cincinnati Law School, defraying his expenses while there by acting as librarian of the School and secretary of the Faculty. The degree of LL. B. was conferred upon him May 27, 1891, and he was admitted to the bar a few days later.

In August of the same year Mr. Beverstock entered the office of Hon. Benjamin F. James, and in November they formed a partnership which still continues, with an office also at Toledo, Ohio. This firm has become better known, and acquired a larger practice, than any other has done in an equally short time in this county. Mr. Beverstock is a close student and is remarkable for his well-balanced abilities. With a clear insight into legal principles, and the power of ready application, he possesses also a high order of practical talent. In politics as well as in legal affairs his advice is valued, and he was chairman of the Wood County Republican Central Committee for the year 1894.

Mr. Beverstock was married July 7, 1891, to Miss Elizabeth Ferguson, who was born in Oakland county, Mich., February 1, 1866. They have two daughters, Mary V. and Helena I. Mr. Beverstock and his wife are prominent members of the Presbyterian Church.

A. M. RUSSELL, the deputy auditor of Wood county, and a prominent resident of Bowling Green, is an official whose worth has been proven in various positions of public trust. He comes of sturdy Scotch-Irish ancestry, and possesses many of the admirable traits of character which distinguished that race.

His father, James W. Russell, was born in Washington county, Penn., in 1784, and came to the Western Reserve in early life, locating upon a farm in what is now Mahoning (then a part of Trumbull) county, where he married Miss Jane A. Wolfcale, a native of Virginia, born near Harper's Ferry, in 1792. She died in 1847; her husband lived at his old farm to an advanced age, and died in 1870 at the home of a son in Paulding county. They reared a family of ten children, as follows: Nancy, born in 1812, married John Cushman, and lives in Michigan; John, born in 1814, died in Wood county in 1884; Robert, born in 1816, died in Bowling Green in 1860; Caroline, born in 1818, married Davis Randolph, and lives in Mahoning county; James M., born in 1821, died in Paulding county, in September, 1879; Jonathan W., born in 1824, died in Trumbull county in 1855; Betsey, born in 1826, married John Williams, of Trumbull county; Abraham W., born in 1829, lives at Ithaca, Mich. ; Martha Jane, born in 1832, is the widow of John Moore of Mahoning county; and our subject, the youngest.

A. M. Russell was born March 7, 1835, and remained at home until the age of fifteen. He attended Antioch and Oberlin Colleges for some time, and later engaged in teaching and clerking in a dry-goods store. On the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted at the first call to arms, and went to the front as first lieutenant of Company G. 14th O. V. I. At the end of his three months' term of service he returned home, and being injured on the way, at Columbus, did not re-enlist until 1863, when he went as a private in Company C, 68th O. V. I., and served until the end of the war, receiving by well-earned promotion the rank of sergeant-major. His regiment was attached to the army of the West, and took part in the battles at Atlanta and Bentonville, besides many other lighter engagements. After being mustered out, July 10, 1866, he came to Bowling Green as deputy treasurer, and later clerked in a hardware store at Perrysburg until his appointment as county treasurer in September, 1868, to serve out an unexpired term. So well did he perform the duties of the office that he was elected on the Republican ticket for the succeeding term, serving until 1871. For the next four years he was in the drug business at Perrysburg, but sold out in 1875, and a year later began clerking in different offices in the county court house. In 1879 he was again elected county treasurer, and since his term ex-

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pired, in 1881, he has served as deputy auditor under three administrations.

Mr. Russell has been twice married, first time in 1861, to Miss Rachel A. Carey of Paulding county, who died in less than a year afterward. His second wife was Miss Alta Sullivan, who was born in Defiance county, July 7, 1843. They have two children living: (1) Charles H., born June 21, 1867, is a druggist's clerk at Bowling Green (he is married to Miss Charlotte Morrison), (2) Maude, born September 23, 1875, a young lady of fine social gifts, lives at home. Mr. Russell is a member of the G. A. R., and of the Masonic fraternity.

HON. ELIJAH P. EMERSON, of Bloomdale, is one of the representative citizens of Wood county, a business man and farmer, having won a distinguished success in every line of effort which he has entered. He is a self-made man, who as a boy walked into Ohio, accompanying the slowly-moving wagons which conveyed his parents and their household goods to their new home on the frontier.

Mr. Emerson was born January 23, 1834, in Berkeley county, Va. (now W. Va.), which had been for many years the home of his father's family. His grandfather Emerson was a slaveholder, but his father, Noble Emerson, being opposed to this, in early manhood determined to seek a home in a free State. He had been employed in boyhood as a boatman on the Potomac, and as a steersman on the Chesapeake & Ohio canal, but later he learned the cooper's trade, which he followed throughout life. He married Miss Mary Keesecker, and had ten children, of whom three were born in Ohio. In 1833 the family removed to Beaver county, Penn., and in May, 1848, they came to Mexico, Wyandot Co., Ohio, traveling in a small two-horse wagon, our subject with others walking most of the way, a tedious journey for even a healthy lad of fourteen. One day his feet became sore, and mounting one of the horses he rode for a few miles; becoming weary, he fell asleep, tumbled off the horse without waking up, and narrowly escaped being run over. The father had but limited means, and on reaching Mexico found employment at his trade, later buying the shop, the trade in potash and in pork barrels furnishing him a good business. In 1859 he moved to Sycamore, where our subject's mother died December 7, 1862. The father survived her thirty years, dying September 10, 1892, at the age of eighty-three, and their remains now rest in the cemetery at Sycamore. Two years after his' wife's death he moved to Pike county, Mo., and bought a farm, which he sold later. He worked at his trade for some time, and in 1871 came to Eagleville to live in the home of our subject. He was a man of industrious habits, was over six feet two inches tall, and was spare in flesh. While he was no politician he took an intelligent interest in all the questions of his time and was a regular voter, being a Whig in his early years and later a Republican.

Our subject is one of six surviving children of the following family: Samuel B. died in Ohio, a wealthy man, after many years spent in the practice of medicine at Eagleville; Elijah P. comes next; John M. enlisted in Company G, 123d O. V. I., and it is believed is one of the many who perished in Andersonville prison; Rachel A. died in Virginia; William W. lives in Bloomdale; Enoch died in Virginia; Mary J. is the wife of Rufus W. Lundy, a hardware merchant of Myrtle Point, Ore.; Milton L. is a prosperous resident of Sycamore, Ohio, a blacksmith by occupation; Frank N. lives in San Francisco; Rufus A. is a merchant at Bloonldale.

Elijah P. Emerson attended the subscription schools of his time until he was fourteen years old, and after coming to Ohio availed himself of the privileges afforded by the district schools. Later he studied for three terms at Heidelberg College, Tiffin, and one term in the Seneca County Academy. At the age of twenty he began teaching, and was very successful; he taught thirteen terms in Wyandot and Seneca counties, and spent his vacations making shingles, owning a complete outfit, shaving-horse, drawknife, froe and brake. He received twenty-five cents per hundred when the timber was prepared, and $3.75 per thousand when the wood was taken from the stump, white and red oak being used principally. In March, 1865, he went to Pike county, Mo., and taught there for a short time. On April 17, 1866, he was married at Crawfordsville, Ohio, to Miss Catherine Smalley, and they began housekeeping at Eagleville, where Mr. Emerson previously fitted up a home. His brother, Dr. Emerson, who was then practicing there, had pointed out an opening for a mercantile business, and, as our subject had several hundred dollars saved, he made the venture. The cost of goods was high after the war, and his stock was small, but trade increased year by year, bringing him prosperity.

In 1874, when Bloomdale was only a crossroad, he built a store there, which was conducted by his brother R. A., and in April, 1877, he sold it to him and another brother. In the spring of

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1878 he sold his Eagleville store. In 1882 he opened a dry-goods store in Bloomdale, but sold it after a few months; in 1889 he bought a hardware store in Bloomdale for a son, but subsequently sold it. He has been engaged in farming since 1876. He was then the owner of eighty acres in Bloom township, but had not given much attention to it, and one day, at a sale of the "French farm" of 232 acres, he made a bid merely to enliven the proceedings, and the farm was "knocked down" to him. The business was new to Mr. Emerson, but that could be said of all his other enterprises, and, despite the predictions that his uniform good fortune would desert him if he tried farming, he ventured, and succeeded. He now owns 352 acres in Bloom township, and fifty-eight and one-half acres in Hancock county, which he works in a thoroughly systematic and progressive manner.

Politically Mr. Emerson has been identified with the Republican party nearly all his life. He cast his first Presidential vote for John C. Fremont, and continued to vote regularly with that party until 1890, when, feeling fully convinced that nothing would be done by the Republican party to seriously interfere with the whiskey traffic, he began to enter his protest to the manufacture and sale of intoxicants by voting with the only party that makes public declaration of its intention, if clothed with power, to close the saloon by stopping the manufacture and removing the national sanction of partnership in the business, viz.: the Prohibition party. He has never aspired to office, but has been chosen to different positions. At one time he was clerk of Bloom township, declining a second term; from January 1, 1867, to 1875, he was postmaster at Bloom_. (now Ted), and when the office was transferred to Bloomdale he became the first postmaster there, serving until 1877. In 1883 he was elected to the Legislature as Wood county's representative, and filled the place four years.

He served four months in the Civil war, enlisting April 22, 1861, in Company G, 15th O. V. I. -, with Capt. Tyler, in the l00-days' service, being sent to West Virginia. On his return home he prepared to go again, helped to raise a company for the 123rd Regiment, and was one of the three men whose activity in recruiting was to be rewarded by positions of honor in the company. Mr. Emerson was elected by the men to the office of second lieutenant, but through some manipulation of the County Central Committee he was not appointed.

A prominent feature of Mr. Emerson's charming home is his library, filled with well selected books which he finds pleasure in perusing. He and his wife are leading members of the Church of Christ, in which he has been an elder, and for many years he was superintendent of the Sunday-school. He contributes also to the support of other Churches in the locality. Their nine children were as follows: John J. died in infancy; Scott S. is a farmer in Bloom township; Olive L. married Benton Leathers, of Bloom township; Horace W. is at home; Dow P. died in infancy; Howard H. is at home; Elijah P., Jr., died in childhood; Lola E. and Florence E. are at home. Socially, Mr. Emerson was for some years a member of the I. O. O. F., but on moving to a distance from a lodge he "dropped out," and for the same reason he has withdrawn from active membership in Urie Post No. 110, G. A. R., of Bloomdale.

Mrs. Kate (Smalley) Emerson was born August 20, 1844, near Rowsburg, Ashland Co., Ohio. She was the sixth child born to Isaac and Elizabeth (Smith) Smalley, whose family was subsequently augmented to the number of seventeen-eleven sons and six daughters--of which number but seven grew to manhood and womanhood. At the age of nine years Mrs. Emerson was brought by her parents to Wyandot county, Ohio, and settled on a farm adjoining the village of Crawfordsville, near the site of the memorable spot where Col. Crawford was burned by the Indians. Her father was classed among the progressive farmers of his day. He was strongly imbued with the belief that a well-raised child-one to whom the parents had faithfully discharged their duty-should be sent out to combat the realities of life, fully panoplied in head, heart and hands for whatever position fate held in store or whatever condition circumstances might develop. Hence Mrs. Emerson was early sent to the district school, and during the intervals between terms was schooled by the mother in the duties pertaining to housekeeping. Not infrequently she was also found in the field with her father, dropping corn--at which she was an adept--digging potatoes, and aiding in gathering corn and storing fruit, etc. Early in her 'teens she commenced teaching in the district schools, at which time she assumed all charges for clothing, and also managed by economy to pay her expenses at a select school in Carey for three terms. Mrs. Emerson was during the war of the Rebellion an active sympathizer in the cause of the Union, and spent much time in soliciting and forwarding supplies for the sanitary and commissary departments of the army. She is nat-

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urally inclined to faith in the teachings of Christianity, and early in life united with the Methodist Church, of Carey, Ohio. When she removed to Wood county with her husband, not finding near her home a Church of her first connection, she united with the membership of the Church of Christ, at Eagleville, and has remained a consistent Christian and constant attendant at the various services, and a helper in the many labors of the Church up to the present. She served as superintendent of the Sunday-school several years, and in the Church diligently labored to unite the congregation with the missionary wing of the Church.

During the period of her teaching she met Mr. Emerson-her subsequent husband-at a teachers' examination. An attachment-mutual-was formed, that afterward culminated in their union for life, which was sealed April .17, 1866. Together their life barque has floated down the stream of time for over thirty years. Of the nine children born to Mrs. Emerson, six remain to bless her life--three having passed to the silent beyond. Like nearly all mothers she is devotedly attached to her children, and no sacrifice of time or labor is withheld when duty calls. Her father and mother are dead. Her brothers and sisters have all been married, and are living in their own homes. The elder brother, Allen, is known as Judge Smalley, and M. A. has recently been appointed and confirmed as U. S. marshal of northern Ohio. The distinguishing characteristics of Mrs. Emerson's life are patient industry, devotion to home, family, kindred and friends, and a conscientious regard for the rights and feelings of others.

FRANK A. BALDWIN, a leading attorney of Bowling Green, whose abilities and attainments won for him at an early age a high standing among the legal fraternity, was born near Geneva, N. Y., July 30, 1854.

His parents, Sanford and Juliette (Smith) Baldwin, were also born in New York State, the father December 7, 1825, at Saratoga Springs, and the mother October 12, 1827, at Seneca Falls. Soon after their marriage they came west, in 1846 settling at Perrysburg, Wood county, where Mr. Baldwin soon became a prominent and influential worker in municipal affairs, holding various official positions during his residence there. In I860 he moved to Weston and opened a hotel, which he conducted some twelve years. He then transferred the active management to other hands, and he and his wife settled down in Weston to spend their declining years free from business cares; there he died August 1, 1895. They had twelve children, five of whom grew to maturity: Mary, the wife of W. R. Worth, who manages the hotel at Weston; Hattie, the wife of judge Young, of Bowling Green; Frank A., our subject; Nellie, the widow of Dr. G. W. Pennington, of Weston; and Lulu, a bookkeeper for J. W. Long & Co., of Weston, who lives at home with her parents.

Our subject attended the public schools at his home during his boyhood, and later studied in the high school at Toledo, and the Eastman Business College, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Under the direction of J. R. Tyler, of Perrysburg, and McCauley & Pennington, of Tiffin, he prepared for the bar, and was admitted April 12, 1877. In June of the same year he began the practice of his profession at Weston, and a few months later he received an extraordinary evidence of the esteem of his fellow citizens in an election to the responsible office of prosecuting attorney of Wood county; as he was the Democratic-candidate this is the more remarkable, Wood county having been a Republican stronghold ever since the Civil war. Retiring from this office at the end of two years, he engaged in practice at Bowling Green. An able advocate, his professional efforts have been attended with uniform success, and at the -present there are but few cases of importance in which he is not retained on one side or the other, this being especially true of those which involve questions of criminal law. Mr.. Baldwin is at present a member of the building committee for the Wood county court house. In 1879 he was married to Miss Clara Foote, who was born April 22, 1855, in Washington township, where her father, Joel Foote, was a prominent resident for many years. He died February 22, 1896.

D. H. HILL, the deputy recorder of Wood county, and one of the most able and hard-working officials in the service of the county, was born in Milton Center, June 30, 1841.

His father, William Hill, was born in eastern Ohio, and in 1836 came to Wood county, locating in Milton Center upon wild land which he cleared and cultivated. He was prominent among the pioneers of his neighborhood, and was a Whig in politics. He raised a family of twelve children- two girls and ten boysthe subject of this sketch being the youngest. Only three of the twelve are now living, viz.: Mrs. Eliza Stewart, wife of Robert Stewart, of Bowling Green, Ohio; Joseph B. Hill, of Piqua, Ohio; and the subject of this sketch.

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Our subject attended the district school in boyhood, and afterward learned the carpenter's trade. In May, 1862, he enlisted for three months in Company K, 84th O. V. I., and went to the front. He returned home October 1, of that year, and three weeks later joined Company G, 10th O. V. Cav. for three years; was appointed sergeant January 18, 1863, and first sergeant in September, 1864. His regiment was assigned to the army of the West, and did gallant service under Kilpatrick. In May, 1865, our subject was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant of Company C, but was wounded during a skirmish at Ringgold, Ga., was sent to the the hospital, and was mustered out with his company, July 24, 1865. After his return he followed farming at Milton Center, and for some years was postmaster there. Since September 2, 1895, he has held the office of deputy recorder, giving faithful and efficient service. In 1889 he was married to Miss Susan Masks, a native of Wood county, and they have one child-E. A. Hill, of Custar. Ohio. Politically our subject is a Republican; socially he is a member of the G. A. R.

G. W. HELFRICH, the efficient manager and secretary of the Wood County Tribune Company, was born in Tiffin, Ohio, February 14, 1854. His grandparents, John and Barbara Helfrich, came from Germany to America in 1832, and died in Pennsylvania at an advanced age.

His father, Adam Helfrich, was a native of Darmstadt, Germany, born May 4, 1828, and when four years old came with his parents to Franklin county, Penn. In early manhood, in company with some other young men, he walked to Tiffin, Ohio, where he secured work in a gristmill at ten dollars a month. He was married there to Miss Margaret Ruch, and not long after he bought eighty acres of school land near McComb, Ohio, to which he removed. Not being a skilled chopper of trees, and lacking money to hire help, he was obliged to resort to primitive methods of preparing logs for his new dwelling, burning them into proper lengths, after "pacing them off " for want of a better way of measuring them. However, he built the house. After a year he sold that property and bought twenty acres in the same county, six miles east, lived there ten years, then bought 116 acres within one-half mile of the first eighty acres, where he made his permanent home. During the Civil war he enlisted in Company G, 21st O. V. I., assigned to Gen. Rosecrans army, 14th Army Corps, commanded by Gen. Thomas, 2d Division, commanded by Gen. James S. Neegly, 2d Brigade, Col. John F. Miller. At the battle of Murfreesboro he was captured and taken to Libby prison; but was released on parole eleven days after, having had nothing to eat in the meantime but some "hard tack." Taken to Annapolis he there contracted the smallpox, and lay for seven weeks in the hospital. Returning home, with his health ruined, he never received a pension because, having never been ill for a day before entering the army, he had no " family physician" who could certify to his physical condition previous to that time, as required by the pension office. Politically, he was a Jacksonian Democrat, and in religious faith was a member of the U. B. Church. His death occurred September 29, 1892. His wife who was born in Canton, Stark county, Ohio, September 2, 1831, died December 11, 1895, at her home at Deweyville, Ohio. Our subject is the eldest of their nine children; the others being B. F., a butcher and stock buyer at North Baltimore, Ohio; Mary L., the widow of E. L. Ward, Findlay, Ohio; Jacob R., who is engaged in the real-estate business at Eldon, Mo.; Amanda Cordelia, who died when sixteen months old; Permilla J., the wife of E. O. Dexter, of Chicago, Ill.; Calista A., who married John Arnold, of Findlay, Ohio; Charlotte Elizabeth, the wife of M. Brooks, of Shawtown, Ohio; and Caroline May, the wife of Byron Powell, of Benton, Ohio.

G. W. Helfrich was educated in the district schools near McComb, also in the high school at Findlay, and at the age of eighteen began to teach. After two terms he secured employment in a drug-store, and shortly afterward bought a half-interest in a harness shop, investing his entire capital, thirty-five dollars. This concern was closed by the sheriff two weeks later for old debts contracted prior to his entering the business. With most men this would have ended the matter, but a certain indomitable perseverance which is characteristic of our subject revealed itself, and he determined to go on, with no money, no tools, no stock, no custom, and no knowledge of the business. He borrowed a few tools, and as he was opening the shop a tanner called to collect an old bill for leather. After discussing the situation Mr. Helfrich obtained credit for forty-eight pounds of leather, which he brought on his back from the tannery, ten miles distant. He had never watched any one make a set of harness, but he was not to be daunted by a trifle like that, and he proceeded to manufacture one according to his own ideas. As trade came in he gradually learned the business, being assisted

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