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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of Allen County, Ohio
And Representative Citizens
Edited and Compiled by
Charles C. Miller, Ph. D.
Assisted by
Dr. Samuel A. Baxter
Lima, Ohio
Published by Richmond & Arnold
George Richmond; G. R. Arnold
Chicago, Ill
1906
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AARON FISHER,
one of the leading citizens of Delphos, and a member of one of
the pioneer families of this county, was born Jan. 1, 1847, near
La Fayette, Allen County, and is a son of Jacob and Catherine
(Long) Fisher.
The Fisher family originated in Germany, and
the descendants have widely scattered, having been always
distinguished as solid citizens, good home-builders, and
industrious, intelligent and thrifty members of the communities
in which they have lived. The father of our subject was
born in Pennsylvania and accompanied his parents to Perry
County, Ohio, where he was reared and learned the blacksmith's
trade. In 1835 he settled in Allen County, locating on a
tract of 80 acres of wild land which was situated in section 25,
Jackson township, a mile and a quarter from LaFayette. As
illustrative of those primitive days, Mr. Fisher recalls
the stories told by his father of how he lived comfortably, for
a time, under the shelter of an old oak tree, while the building
of the log cabin took place. With an abundance of game of
all kinds, including flocks of wild turkeys, the question of
subsistence was merely a nominal one. The clearing of the
farm followed, the old log house gave way to a modern,
convenient frame residence, where, surrounded by an
affectionate, obedient family, the father's life closed at the
age of 70 years.
It is interesting to recall those days of early
settlement in Jackson township. Considered in the light of
the present, there seems to have been many drawbacks to content
and comfort, but in those days they were taken as matters of
fact and were looked upon with an indifference begotten of
familiarity. The cultivation of the land was carried on
entirely with the sickle, rake, old-fashioned horse plow and
harrow, and the grain was threshed out on the barn floor with
flails. Clothing was almost entirely of home manufacture,
that for summer wear being made from the flax grown on the farm
and that for winter from the wool sheared from the flocks of
sheep which formerly were raised in great numbers. The
wool was taken to Delphos and St. Marys to be carded. In a
reminiscent mood, our subject can recall how, as a little lad,
he had to make a trip to mill, and was so small that he had to
be strapped to the horse’s back with the bag of grain, in order
that both should not come to grief on the way. He recalls
that on a later occasion he took the grain to mill on a vehicle
made of a wagon tongue and two wheels. This journey
sometimes consumed several days, as each customer at the mill
had to wait his turn, and the old-time construction of the
grist-mills was such that expedition was impossible.
Mr. Fisher vividly recalls the boyish
delights hovering around the cooking of the corn pone before the
open fire-place in the old log cabin kitchen, with its pots and
kettles in close proximity, and remembers the toothsome viands
prepared in the old Dutch oven. In those days hospitality
was an accepted virtue, and in no home was it more honored than
in that of Jacob Fisher. His pioneer cabin
was a traveler’s inn, and on its threshold the weary stranger
found the willing hand of brotherly friendship extended.
Especially welcome was the coming of the pioneer preacher, who
brought with him news, not otherwise obtainable, of other
sections of the State, and Mr. Fisher can remember
when he and his brothers climbed on the fence to eagerly watch
for his coming.
Especially welcome on account of the many engaging
qualities which he possessed, with his tried and true Christian
zeal, was a Mr. Doner, who made the home of
Jacob Fisher his headquarters when in Jackson
township. The latter was the real founder of the Lutheran
Church in his district, and assisted in the construction of the
log edifice which was also used as the first schoolhouse.
Jacob Fisher was one of the men who should never
be forgotten in Jackson township. Of his nine children all
reached maturity except one. He gave three sons to the
service of his country during the Civil War—Joseph,
Benjamin and Noah— the last mentioned of whom never
returned to his home, but fills a soldier’s grave at Memphis,
Tennessee. The three surviving daughters are: Susanna,
who is the widow of Simon Foster, of Middlepoint,
Van Wert, County; Nancy (Hallman), a widow, who
resides near La Fayette; and Mary Ann (Ernsberger),
now of Decatur, Indiana, where she has resided for the past
year, but formerly for 35 years a resident of Delphos.
Aaron Fisher was the youngest child in the above
family. He attended school in the near by log schoolhouse,
and learned to write with a quill pen and with ink made from
bark and the berries of the poke weed. The advantages
afforded for an extended education were some what meagre, but a
taste for learning was inspired and, for all practical purposes,
a sufficient familiarity with reading, writing and arithmetic
was acquired by the pupils. At the age of 21 he married
and moved to LaFayette, where he hired out as a carpenter and
during the first year his wife taught the village school.
For the next eight years he worked as a thresher, and also
operated a rented farm. In the spring of 1870 he removed
to Delphos.
After settling at Delphos, Mr. Fisher carried on
a teaming business for a number of years. He began with a
very small capital, but, through good management and industry,
soon increased it, bought a livery stable, later ran an omnibus
line, and started the first street sprinkler in Delphos.
Subsequently he sold the site of his stable to the city, and the
present Town Hall now occupies it. Later, through trading,
he acquired a farm on which was an excellent stone quarry.
This he operated for some years, and then purchased a tract of
land inside the corporate limits of Delphos, which he afterward
sold to his son and son-in-law, and which is still known as the
Fisher stone quarry. In addition to his teaming and
livery enterprise, he embarked in an ice business and all these
lines are continued by his son. His own interests,
however, are still important. He purchased the business
block on the corner of Main and Second streets, first the south
one-half and later the north, and this is known as the Fisher
Block. He also owns and conducts a neat cigar and
tobacco store on the block located on the banks of the canal.
He is a director of the Delphos Foundry Company and has other
considerable interests.
The death of Mr. Fisher’s first wife
occurred in December, 1899. She was a lady much admired
and beloved, a popular teacher and an active church worker.
Of the four children, two sons survive, viz: Arthur, his
father’s business successor, who lives in VanWert County; and
Orville D., of Lima. An adopted daughter, Nellie M.
Fisher, resides with our subject. Mr. Fisher’s
present wife, formerly Mrs. Margaret Ward,
had two children by her first marriage: May, who is a
teacher, and Dana, who is in business with Mr.
Fisher.
Throughout his life Mr. Fisher has been
actively identified with the Democratic party, and in 1894 was
elected sheriff of Allen County, giving four years of active
effort to the honest enforcement of the law. The record of
this period is one of loyal faithful service to his
fellow-citizens. At the close of his term he visited the
West, mainly in the hope of restoring his wife to health. but
these efforts proved unavailing. After his return, he
built a fine livery barn on West Spring street, Lima, which is
50 by 200 feet in dimensions—one of the largest establishments
of its kind in the city.
Mr. Fisher is serving his second term on
the City Council at Delphos. He is chairman of the fire
committee, and a very useful member of the improvement and of
the sanitary and sewer committees. He has been sent as the
representative of his party to many county and congressional
conventions and was honored with the appointment of
sergeant-at-arms at the Democratic National Convention at
Chicago when President Cleveland was nominated the
second time. He is a member of the Masonic bodies from the
Blue Lodge to the Mystic Shrine, attending the lodges of the
higher branches at Dayton, Ohio; he is also connected with the
order of Elks.
Source: History of Allen County, Ohio, Publ. by Richmond &
Arnold, Chicago, IL - 1906 - Page 542 |
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J.
N. FLETCHER, the genial proprietor of one of the most
complete and up-to-date harness and saddle shops in Lima, was
born in Wayne County, Ohio, in 1860 and is a son of John
Fletcher, who was a harness maker and conducted a shop in
Dalton, Wayne County, for more than 40 years. Our subject was
born and reared in Dalton and learned his trade in his father’s
shop. When about 20 years old he struck out for himself by
opening a harness shop in West Salem, Wayne County. He was
reasonably successful and remained there 10 years; but seeing
the advisability of locating in a wide-awake, flourishing city,
he removed in 1890 to Lima where he has since been engaged in
the same line of business, and enjoys a fine trade and the
confidence and good will of his patrons and neighbors.
Mr. Fletcher was married in 1880 to
Miss Luginbuhl, daughter of John L. Luginbuhl, a
prosperous farmer of Wayne County. Five children have been
born to them, viz: Howard, who is bookkeeper for the Lima
Electric Light Company; Clair, a student in the Lima High
School; Ethel; Hazel and Madge. The
family are adherents of the Epworth Methodist Episcopal Church,
of which Mr. Fletcher is a trustee. He is a
modern Woodman of America and an Odd Fellow, being a member of
both lodge and encampment in the latter order. Mr.
Fletcher is now serving his third year in the City
Council of Lima, having been elected to the office by a
flattering majority, the largest given to any man on the ticket.
He takes a deep interest in all that pertains to the welfare of
the city. His home is situated at
No. 415 South
Cole street.
Source: History of Allen
County, Ohio, Publ. by Richmond & Arnold, Chicago, IL - 1906 -
Page 594 |
Samuel Davison French |
SAMUEL
DAVISON FRENCH, whose portrait appears on
the opposite page, is one of the prosperous and influential
farmers of Allen County. He has been an honored and
esteemed resident of Perry township for upwards of 70 years,
having spent almost his entire life upon the 160-acre farm which
is still his home. He was born in Trumbull County, Ohio,
July 10, 1823, and is a son of William and Elizabeth
(Davison) French, and grandson of Alexander French.
The last named was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and
was a soldier in the Revolution before he located in Trumbull
County, Ohio. On Oct. 5, 1784, he was married to
Elizabeth Morrison; a family of five daughters and
one son were reared, namely: Margaret (Mrs.
John Hannah); William; Ann (Mrs.
Robert Russell); Jane (Mrs. John
Sheefleton ); Betsey (Mrs. John
Davison); and Sally (Mrs. William
Moore). The maternal grandparents of our subject were
Benjamin and Ann (Buchanan) Davison. Benjamin
Davison, who was from Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
came to Ohio and located in Trumbull County May 7, 1800, before
Ohio became a State, being then the best known portion of the
Northwest Territory. Very few white men had ventured into
the new country at that time as it took more than an average
amount of pluck to invade the country of the Indians.
Benjamin Davison spent the last years of his life in
Newton Falls.
William French was born in Washington
County, Pennsylvania, Mar. 15, 1787. In 1834 he located in
Allen County, Ohio, where he purchased 160 acres of land.
Of this land 80 acres lay in Bath township, where he made his
home and the other 80 was situated just across the road in Perry
township and upon it is located the buildings of his son, our
subject. On Aug. 11, 1819, he was married to Elizabeth
Davison and a family of eight children were born to them,
as follows: Ann, wife of John Rankin;
Elizabeth, unmarried; Samuel Davison; David;
John; Mary Jane; George; and
Newton. Our subject and his brother George, who
lives in Bath township, are the only survivors. William
French had always been a Democrat until the first
nomination of William H. Harrison for the presidency,
when he decided to give his support to the hero of Tippecanoe in
preference to Martin VanBuren, but died in 1836
before the election at the age of 49 years.
Samuel Davison French came to Allen County with
his parents when he was 11 years of age. It was a
memorable journey, contrasting strongly with the present-day
travel by electric car over the same land, which is crisscrossed
by electric and telephone wires and dotted with every indication
of prosperous civilization. The little company of
emigrants who started with their ox teams to traverse the long
miles which lay between Trumbull and Allen counties numbered 22
people, only three of whom our subject, his brother George
and Hank Agate - are living. It took 13½
days to complete the journey. When they reached Marion
County, on the Hardin County line, their provisions were
exhausted and they were obliged to remain there three days,
unsheltered by a roof while the women of the party were busily
engaged in cooking enough to sustain them on the remainder of
the trip. The trail was followed with great difficulty as
the forest was so dense it was almost impossible to penetrate
its labyrinths and it was necessary to proceed with caution.
They camped one night at Hog Creek marsh, where the wolves were
so numerous it was found necessary to watch the sheep the entire
night to keep them from being killed. The Indian was still
a menace to the white man and one of the relics which Mr.
French prizes as a reminder of those days is a cane made
from a log which formed a part of the historic old Council House
of the Shawnee's in Shawnee township, the old structure having
long since given way to the Allen County Children's Home.
Mr. French was married Apr. 23, 1847, to
Margaret T. Roberts, daughter of William and Hannah
(Morrison) Roberts, and an aunt of Thomas C. Roberts,
whose biography will be found in this volume. They have
four children, namely: Lois A., who died at the age of
one year; William, who was killed while taking a team of
mules to water; Elizabeth, who is unmarried and is
housekeeper for her parents; and Leola, the wife of
Jesse Growdon and the mother of six children -
Lois, S. D. (who is married and has three children),
Walter, Effie, Ross and Eunice.
When Mr. French first came to this farm,
there was a small clearing and a cabin on the 80-acre tract in
Bath township. Shortly after his marriage, he built a
cabin on the 80 in Perry township and continued to live in it
until 1861 when his present residence was built. He has
put all the improvements on this land and has done all the
clearing except the first 20 acres. When he took
possession, the land was covered with a heavy forest and it
required much hard work to convert it into his present
well-cultivated acres. In addition to general farming,
Mr. French is also engaged in stockraising, but has
lately left the active management of the work to his son-in-law.
He is a genial, generous, kindly gentleman who is venerated and
loved by all. He has been identified with the Republican
party since its organization, and before that was a Whig.
He has never sought nor desired public office.
Source: History of Allen
County, Ohio, Publ. by Richmond & Arnold, Chicago, IL - 1906 -
Page 379 |
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L. T. FURNAS, proprietor of the Apex Skirt
Company, of Lima, was born at Pleasant Hill, Miami County, Ohio,
in 1852, and was there reared and educated. His first
commercial venture was in his native village, where he conducted
a dry goods store for about three years. He next went West
and was in the dry goods business in Luzerne, Iowa, about four
years, when he returned to Ohio and for 11 years conducted a
merchant tailoring establishment at Columbus Grove. In
1883 he came to Lima and purchased the business of John
Siegfried, merchant tailor, and for 20 years devoted his
time and attention to working up a large trade. During
recent years he saw the possibilities awaiting the individual
who could supply the ever-growing demand for ladies' tailored
skirts, and in 1903 the Apex Skirt Company was established by
him. The success of the undertaking has shown the
correctness of his theory. He has traveling salesmen in
Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania and the
company employs a large number of workmen to keep up their
orders.
Mr. Furnas was married in 1874 to Anna Tinker,
daughter of Samuel Tinker, of Chester, Massachusetts.
They have two children, Everett C. and Anna.
The son is engaged in business with his father.
Source: History of Allen
County, Ohio, Publ. by Richmond & Arnold, Chicago, IL - 1906 -
Page 453 |
NOTES:
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