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Welcome to
CRAWFORD COUNTY,  OHIO
History & Genealogy

Source:
A Centennial
Biographical History
of
Crawford County, Ohio

- ILLUSTRATED -
"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote generations."
- MACAULAY
Publ. Chicago:
The Lewis Publishing Company
1902

  JOHN FISHER, an engineer on the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, residing at Crestline, was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, February 9, 1852. His father, Adam Fisher, was a native of the same locality, and in the year 1855 crossed the Atlantic to America, bringing with him his family. He believed that he might better provide for his wife and children in the new world, and accordingly he located upon a farm in Crawford county, Ohio, where he carried on agricultural pursuits until his death, which occurred in the year 1878. His wife, Mrs. Catherine Fisher, was also born in Hesse-Darmstadt, passing away in Crawford county. Their children are Adam, Mrs. Grufstein, Mrs. Elizabeth Clemens, Philip, Lein, George, Eliza, Fred, Jacob, John and Mrs. Mary Fiddler.
     In taking up the personal history of John Fisher we present to our readers the life record of one who is widely known in Crawford county. He was brought to Ohio by his parents when only three years of age, and has here passed his entire life. He pursued his education in the schools of Crestline and in his youth worked upon his father's farm, assisting in the labors of field and meadow from the time of early spring planting until the crops were gathered in the autumn. Not desiring to follow the plow as a life work, however, he left home in 1871 to enter the railroad service as a fireman in the employ of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad. He was thus engaged for five years, on the expiration of which period he was promoted to the position of engineer, in which capacity he has served for a quarter of a century. He has been offered positions on passenger trains, but has refused these, preferring to run on a freight engine. He is most reliable, painstaking and careful, and he enjoys in an unusual degree the confidence of his superiors. In the line of his chosen life work he has social relations with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.
     In 1876 Mr. Fisher was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Metz, who was born in Crawford county, October 12, 1854, her parents having come to Ohio from Germany in an early period of the development of the Buckeye state, Two children grace the union of our subject and his wife,—Amos and Howard. The parents hold membership in the Lutheran church, and in his political affiliations Mr. Fisher is a Democrat, supporting the men and measures of the party and keeping well informed on the issues of the day. He has never been an aspirant for office, preferring to give his entire attention to his work. He has a wide acquaintance in Crawford county and his friends are almost as numerous.
Source: A Centennial Biographical History of Crawford County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: 1902 - Page 845


W. B. FORREST

WALLACE B. FORREST

Source: A Centennial Biographical History of Crawford County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: 1902 - Page 144

  ANDREW FRANKENFIELD.  Reference has been frequently made in this work to the good influence of Pennsylvania blood upon the settlement and development of the great, middle west. Of such ancestry is Andrew Frankenfield, of Texas township, Crawford county, Ohio, who was born in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, April 6, 1820, and was there reared to a practical knowledge of farming and educated in the common schools. In due time he married Rebecca Besulma, who bore him five sons and five daughters, of whom seven are living.
     In 1851 Mr. Frankenfield removed to Crawford county, Ohio, where he bought five acres of land, on which he erected a cabin and a log blacksmith shop. Later he bought fifty acres of heavily timbered land, which he gradually cleared and put under cultivation and on which he lived for twenty-five years, farming and doing carpenter work as there was a demand for his services. At the expiration of that time he located on a farm in Seneca county, Ohio, where he lived until 1868, when he removed to his present farm of one hundred and seventeen acres in Texas township, Crawford county, Ohio, where he has given his attention to general farming with much success.
     Politically Mr. Frankenfield affiliates with the Democratic party and his influence in local public matters is recognized. At the same time he is not in the ordinary sense of the term a practical politician and he has never sought nor accepted office. He is a communicant of the Presbyterian church and has for many years been a liberal contributor toward the support of its various interests. He began life poor and is a self-made man, whose success has been won most worthily and who is highly regarded by all who know him.
Source: A Centennial Biographical History of Crawford County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: 1902 - Page 820
  F. M. FREESE.  The subject of this notice, the senior member of E. M. Freese & Company, manufacturers of clay-working machinery and appliances at Galion, Ohio, was born in Medina county, this state, Sept. 23, 1845, a son of Harlow and Almira (Morton) Freese, the former a native of Lee, Massachusetts and the latter of Pittsfield, that state.  Harlow Freese was a son of W. and Clarrissa (Beaumont) Freese, who removed from Lee, Massachusetts, when Harlow was eight years of age, in 1818, and located in Brunswick Medina county, Ohio, becoming the owner of about one thousand acres of land, then an unbroken wilderness, and engaged extensively in farming.
     Harlow Freese grew to manhood in Brunswick and there married Almira Morton, continuing his residence there during his life and following the occupation of a farmer, and was an exemplary man and an estimable citizen.  To Harlow and Almira (Morton) Freese were born to children (sons),  E. M. and M. L. Freese.  The last mentioned died about twenty years ago.  Harlow Freese died in 1890, at the age of eight years, and Almira, his wife, in 1887, at the age of seventy years.
     E. M. Freese obtained a practical education in the public schools near his home.  Early in life he developed a decided love of mechanics, and following his inclinations he became, at the age of twenty, a machinist's apprentice at the works of Turner Parks & Company, manufacturers of grain-cleaning and sewer-pipe machinery at Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where during the succeeding four years he gained much proficiency in mechanical work.  He then entered the shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Crestline, Ohio, where he was employed until 1881.  Here, by the exercise of industry and economy, he accumulated the means with which to engage in a small way in the manufacture of clay-working machinery at Plymouth, Ohio.  Beginning with two partners, he successively purchased the interests of each and became sole owner of the business in 1890, and has continued the same up to the present time.  By the advantage of natural mechanical genius and persistent and industrious effort, he was able to greatly improve the machinery used for the manufacture of building, street-paving and fire brick, and for terra-cotta, fire-proofing and drain tile, and was largely instrumental in this way in revolutionizing these industries, which have had a wonderful growth in the United States, the value of clay products now (1901) amounting to about one hundred million dollars yearly.  Conservative methods soon placed the venture upon a firm footing and the business was constantly increased in extent and larger facilities became necessary, and in 1891 the works were removed to Galion, Ohio, where they are permanently located, occupying extensive and commodious buildings erected for the purpose and equipped with modern machinery and appliances especially suited to this class of manufacture and with many conveniences not usually found in other works of this kind.  The machinery manufactured here  is sold in all parts of the United States and in some foreign countries, and is noted for originality of design, the economy of its operation and the superiority of the wares it produces.
     Familiarity with all details of the manufacture and sale of the variety of machinery in this class now manufactured, and painstaking and conscientious attention to the demands of the trade, on the part of the subject of this sketch, have developed a large and prosperous business which is destined to continue to flourish.
     In 1882 E. M. Freese was married to Miss Rosina Berger, of Galion.  They have three children, - Herbert H., Arthur J. and Horace E. Freese.
Source: A Centennial Biographical History of Crawford County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: 1902 - Page 417
  SAMUEL S. FREESE.  The family of Freese has long been well known in Pennsylvania, where the name has become identified with success and agricultural and mechanical pursuits, in financial and commercial circles, in the professions and in politics. Wherever representatives of the family have gone, following the westward course of the empire, they have not only planted well, cultivated thoroughly and reaped abundantly, but have been so upright in their dealings with their fellow men and so public-spirited in their relations to their fellow citizens that even-where the name has become a synonym for good citizenship. There may have been men named Frees who have fallen short of realizing this description, but such have never been known in Crawford county, Ohio, where the family has been well represented by Samuel Freese, of Jefferson township, and by others.
     Samuel S. Freese was born at Lancaster. Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1820, one of the five children of John J. and Susan (Eldis) Freese, and he is the only one of them now living. The others were named William, Elizabeth, Susan and Adam. In 1823. when the subject of this sketch was about three years old, he was taken by his parents to Holmes county, Ohio, where the family lived until 1831, when they removed to Crawford county. John J. Freese bought eighty acres of land in Jefferson township, on which some improvements had been made and a one-room log- house had been erected. Mr. Freese died at Galion, Ohio.
     Samuel Freese was brought up to farm work and received a meager education in the subscription school taught in a log school house near his pioneer home. He has a vivid recollection of early days in Crawford county and remembers the now flourishing city of Gallon at a period in its history when it consisted of only a few scattered log cabins. He remained on the farm, assisting his father, until 1848, when, at the age of twenty-eight years, he married Lena Eberly and moved on his present farm, on which there then stood a small log house, which has since given place to a substantial modern residence. He proved himself to be a man of exceptional business capacity and became the owner of more than five hundred acres of land, three hundred acres .of which he has divided among his children. His home farm of two-hundred acres he devotes to general farming and stock-raising.
     Samuel and Lena (Eberly) Freese have children named John, Caroline, Eliza and William.
Source: A Centennial Biographical History of Crawford County, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: 1902 - Page 823

 

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