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Source:
History of Auglaize Co., Ohio -
Vol. II of 2 Volumes
Edited by William J. McMurray
Wapakoneta, Ohio
Historical Publishing Company
Indianapolis
1923
BIOGRAPHIES
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1923
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
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EPHRAIM CALDWELL
- See
Charles L.
Hunter
Source: History of Auglaize County, Ohio
- Vol. II - Pub. 1923 - Page 523-524 |
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SEABURY
CHILES, known familiarly among his many friends as "Bose"
Chiles, former assessor of Union township, now living in
Clay township, where he owns a well improved farm and is
comfortably situated, was born in Auglaize county and has lived
here all his life, a period of more than sixty-six years.
Mr. Chiles was born on a farm just east of the Wesley
Chapel church in the north half of section 26 of Union township,
Feb. 22, 1857, and is a son of WILLIAM
and Temperance (Richardson) Chiles, both members of pioneer
families in that part of the county, the Richardsons
having settled here in 1834 and the Chiles in 1836.
William Chiles was reared on a pioneer farm in Union
township and after his marriages became engaged in farming
on his own account, the owner of a farm of ninety acres, on
which his last days were spent. He and his wife were the
parents of nine children, five of whom are still living, the
subject of this sketch having two sisters, Rachel and
Alice, and two brothers, Cicero B. and Fernando T.
Chiles. Reared on the farm on which he was born,
'Bose" Chiles received his schooling in the White school
(district No. 7) and from the days of his boyhood has given his
attention to farming. He married at the age of twenty-one
and then began farming on his own account, renting a farm in
that neighborhood, and remained on that place for thirty years,
or until 1908, when he bought the farm of fifty-five acres on
which he is now living in Clay township and has since resided
here. Since taking possession of this place Mr. Chiles
has made numerous improvements and now has an excellent farm
plant. In addition to his general farming he has long
given considerable attention to the raising of life stock,
feeding out about fifty hogs a year, and has done well. He
has ever given a good citizen's attention to local civic
affairs, and for two terms during the time of his residence in
Union township served as assessor of that township. It was
on Aug. 25, 1878, that Seabury Chiles was united
in married to Belle Roney, also of Union township, and to
this union four children were born, namely: Grace, who is
the wife of E. J. Bowsher, express agent at Wapakoneta;
Ruby, who married Harry Spees, who is now employed in the
railway round house at Lima, and has seven children, Paul,
Donald, Ralph, Edward, Koneta, Walter and Jamie;
Monte Daisy, who died on Nov. 11, 1896, aged thirteen years,
and Kittie E., who married Grover C. Oakley, a
building contractor at Maplewood in the neighboring county of
Shelby, and died on Apr. 8, 1918, leaving three children,
Marvin, Juanita and Bernard. Mrs.
Chiles was born on July 29, 1860, and was reared in Union
township receiving her schooling in the Basil school. She
is a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Barr)
Roney, who were the parents of six children, two of whom are
still living, Mrs. Chiles having a sister, Mary.
Joseph Roney was a master mechanic, skilled worker in both
wood and iron, and was at one time the foreman in the old
machine shop at Lima. The Chilies home is very
pleasantly situated on rural mail route No. 1 out of St. Johns.
Source: History of Auglaize County, Ohio - Vol. II -
Pub. 1923 - Page 623 |
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GRANVILLE
H. CLARK, a former teacher in the schools of this county
and one of the well known and substantial farmers and landowners
of Auglaize county, proprietor of a well improved farm and a
beautiful modern home along the St. Marys-Wapakoneta highway
just west of Moulton, his land lying in both Washington and
Moulton townships, was born in the latter township and has been
a resident of this county all his life. Mr. Clark
was born on Apr. 26, 1862, and is a son of JESSE
and Lucy (Rodgers) Clark both of whom were members
of pioneer families in Delaware county, this state, where they
were born and married. Jesse Clark, who was a
veteran of the Civil war, was reared to farming in Delaware
county and after his marriage in 1847 went to Illinois with the
expectation of making his home there. Not satisfied with
conditions that far west he returned to Ohio in 1849 and settled
in this county, entering from the Government a tract of land in
the east half of section 28 and the west half of section 27 of
Moulton township, where he established his home in the then
woods and where he was living when the Civil war broke out,
proprietor of a developing farm of 138 acres. In October,
1864, Jesse Clark entered the service of the Union army
as a private in Company I of the 175th regiment, Ohio Volunteer
Infantry, and with this command was sent to the front where he
not long after ward was taken prisoner by the enemy and was
confined in Libby prison at Richmond, where he remained until
finally exchanged, seriously broken in health, and in June,
1865, the war then being over, received his honorable discharge.
Upon the completion of his military service Jesse Clark
returned home and tried to resume his old operations on the
farm, but his horrid experience in the Rebel pen at Richmond had
so far undermined his constitution that he not long afterward
was compelled to give up and enter the Government hospital at
Columbus, where he died, leaving his widow and nine children,
those besides the subject of this sketch - the seventh in order
of birth - having been Emma, Josephine, Rosa, Alice,
Wellington, Worthington, Jesse and Gay. Granville
H. Clark was but a lad when his father died. His
mother kept the home and family together and he completed his
schooling in the neighborhood school - district No. 8, at the
cross roads just north of the Clark Farm - and as a boy
began clerking in the general store at Moulton, continuing thus
occupied until his married at the age of twenty-one, when he
began farming, establishing his home on the place on which he is
now living, just west of Moulton, and has ever since resided on
that place. For two winters (1892-4) Mr. Clark was
engaged as a teacher in the schools of that neighborhood, but
otherwise has pretty steadily devoted himself to the affairs of
the farm, having gradually increased his land holdings until now
he is the owner of fine farm of 328 acres lying in Washington
and Moulton townships, his home being situated in the latter
township. In 1911 Mr. Clark erected his present
handsome and modern brick resident on that farm, this house
being recognized as one of the best finished structures between
Wapakoneta and St. Marys. Of late years Mr. Clark
has been assisted in the management of the farm by his younger
son, Clinton Clark who is carrying on in accordance with
modern methods of agriculture. Mr. Clark is a
Republican and has ever given good citizen's attention to local
public affairs. During the time of America's participation
in the World war he served as chairman of the first Liberty bond
"drive" in Moulton township and he also served as treasurer of
the Moulton township section of the work of the American Red
Cross Society in this county. It was in 1883 that
Granville H. Clark was united in marriage to Margaret
Miller who also was born in this county, daughter of
Henry and Lena (Rodeheffer) Miller, and to this union two
sons have been born, Hugh and Clinton, both of whom
adopted chemistry as a profession and after their graduation
from the St. Marys high school entered Ohio State University and
were graduated from the department of chemistry of that
institution, each there receiving his Master degree, after
which they entered the University of Pittsburgh and were there
granted there Doctor degrees, afterward doing research work in
the Mellon Institute. Hugh Clark, the elder of
these brothers now engaged on the chemistry staff of the
Aluminum Company of America, manufacturers of "Everwear"
aluminum, married Alma Boehrig and has two children,
Jean and Paul. The younger brother Clinton
Clark, married Norma Herzing and has two children,
Clinton and Nancy Louise Upon completing
his scholastic work, Clinton Clark was for seven years
engaged in laboratory work for the Government, attached to the
department carrying on research in behalf of pure food under the
direction of Dr. Harvey W. Wiley, and was thus engaged
until his father's failing health required his return home to
take over the management of the farm. The Clark home
is situated o rural mail route No. 2 out of Wapakoneta.
Source: History of Auglaize County, Ohio - Vol. II - Pub. 1923 -
Page 633 |
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JESSE W. CLARK,
a charter member of the Northwestern Ohio Teachers' Association,
a veteran school teacher of more than forty years standing in
that profession and thus one of the best known men in Auglaize
county, where his professional activities have been carried on
for the most part, now making his home at St. Marys, where he
has resided for some years past, is a native son of Auglaize
county, a member of one of the pioneer families here, and has
lived in this county all his life with the exception of a period
of three years during which he was teaching in the state of
Oklahoma. Mr. Clark was born on a farm in the
southeast quarter of section 28 of Moulton township, a little
more than a mile northeast of the village of Moulton, Oct. 3,
1864, and is a son and the last born of the nine children - five
sons and four daughters - of Jesse and Lucy (Rogers) Clark,
both of whom also were born in Ohio, in Delaware county, the
latter a daughter of Gay Rogers, a prominent pioneer
farmer of that county. Jesse Clark, an honored
veteran of the Civil war, who gave him life to the cause of the
Union, was born in Delaware county on June 10, 1827, a son of
one of the pioneer farmers and landowners of that county, and
was reared there. Following his marriage in 1841 to
Lucy Rogers he came to this part of the state and entered a
tract of land in the southeast quarter of section 28 of Moulton
township, which then was attached to Allen county, but which, in
1848, became a part of Auglaize county, and there established
his home. To his original entry he presently added until
he became the owner of 137 acres and was getting a good start
toward the making of a fine farm when the civil war broke out.
He presently enlisted his services in behalf of the Union and
went to the front as a member of the 175th regiment, Ohio
Volunteer Infantry, with which he was serving when captured by
the enemy and incarcerated in the infamous Libby prison at
Richmond, Va. There he contracted measles and resulting
complications reduced him to such a physical state that he was
exchanged and was sent to the military hospital at Columbus,
Ohio, where, after a lingering illness, he died. His
widow, who had been keeping the family together and the farm
work going during his absence in the army, continued on make her
home in this county and here spent her last days, her death
occurring in 1903. Jesse W. Clark was born while
his father was serving as a soldier in the army and the father
never saw his last born child. He received his early
schooling in the school house in old district No. 8, which
school house stood on a corner of the Clark farm, and then
entered the Wapakoneta high school, from which he was graduated
in 1880. He early became attracted to the thought of
becoming a teacher and the year before his graduation, when but
fifteen years of age, taught a summer term of three months of
school in his home township. From that time to the present
he has been continuously engaged in teaching school. He
supplemented his high school course by summer courses in the
normal school at Ada, Ohio, and at Valparaiso, Ind., and early
became recognized as one of the thoughtful and efficient
teachers of this county, his service in this connection being
rendered in Moulton, Washington, Salem, Noble, St. Marys and
Logan townships. After teaching in this county for
thirty-nine years Mr. Clark became attracted to a
proposition which came to him from Tulsa, Okla., and he accepted
a position in the grade schools of that city. He remained
there for three years and then returned to this county and to
his old home at St. Marys, where he since has resided, during
the past two winters serving as a teacher in the schools of
Morgan county. In all his service of more than forty years
in the school room Mr. Clark has never missed a day on
account of illness an extraordinary record. He has for
many years taken an active interest in the various
"get-together" movements of the teachers, is a charter member of
the Northwestern Ohio Teachers Association and a member of the
Teachers Reading Circle. He is a member of the local lodge
of the Woodmen of the World at St. Marys and he and his wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal church at that place, and are
Republicans. In 1886 Jesse W. Clark was united in
marriage to Abbie E. Longsworth, who also was born in
this county, and to this union one child has been born, a son,
Albert Leo Clark, who is now living in the neighboring
county of Mercer. Mrs. Clark was born in St. Marys
township and is a daughter of John and Ruth (Hockenberry)
Longsworth, both members of pioneer families in this county
and the former of whom was born in that same township and has
always lived on the farm on which he was born in the
northeastern part of the township, since the death of his wife
having made his home there with the family of his daughter,
Mrs. William Kohlhorst. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have a
pleasant home at 935 East Spring street, St. Marys, and take a
proper part in the social and cultural activities of their home
town.
Source: History of Auglaize
County, Ohio - Vol. II - Pub. 1923 - Page 258 |
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ABNER
COPELAND
Source: History of
Auglaize Co., Ohio - Vol. II - 1923 - Page 96 |
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AMOS
COPELAND - See E. BAKER COPELAND
Source: History of
Auglaize Co., Ohio - Vol. II - 1923 - Page 376 |
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REV.
DON H. COPELAND - See WILBUR T.
COPELAND
Source: History of
Auglaize Co., Ohio - Vol. II - 1923 - Page 314 |
E. Baker Copeland,
E. Baker Copeland, Jr.
Gertrude M. Copeland |
E.
BAKER COPELAND, former justice of the
peace in and for Union township , and a well-known and
substantial farmer and landowner of that township, proprietor of
"Eminence Farm," just north of St. Johns, is a native son of
three score years and ten. Mr. Copeland was born on
a pioneer farm in Clay township on May 15, 1853, and is a son of
Amos and Mary J. (Layton) Copeland, both members of
pioneer families in that part of the county. The late
AMOS COPELAND was born in Greene county,
this state, Aug. 6, 1816, and was twenty years of age when, in
1836, he came up into this part of the state with his parents,
John and Cynthia (Scroggs) Copeland, the family settling
in Clay township of what then was Allen county, but which in
1848 became a part of the newly erected Auglaize county.
John Copeland, the pioneer, entered from the Government
three "eighties" in Clay township and set about clearing and
improving the tracts, and in the home he established there spent
the remainder of his days, one of the useful and influential
pioneers of that section, as is set out elsewhere in this work.
Upon coming here with his father, in 1836, Amos Copeland
entered upon the task of helping to clear and bring under
cultivation the lands taken by the family, and after his
marriage four years later started farming on his own account,
buying a tract of 200 acres in Clay township. With the
improvements he made on that place he exchanged it six years
later for a farm of 181 acres, on which he made his home until
the fall of 1869. Later he bought a tract of 113 acres
just over the line in Union township, the place where his son,
Baker, is now living, in section 32, and increased his
land holdings until at one time he had 517 acres. There he
made his home until in 1875, when he retired from the farm and
moved to St. Johns, where he spent the remainder of his life,
his death occurring on July 25, 1898, he then being just under
eighty-two years of age. To Amos Copeland and wife
were born nine children, of whom six are still living. The
second son, JOHN M. COPELAND,
enlisted his services in behalf of the cause of the Union during
the Civil war, in September, 1862, went to the front as a member
of Company C, 57th regiment, Ohio volunteer Infantry, and was
killed in the battle of Resaca, Ga., May 14, 1864.
George H. Copeland, the eldest son, also served as a soldier
during the Civil war, serving with the 54th Ohio until wounded
and discharged, and after his recuperation as a volunteer in the
37th Ohio. Another of the sons, Enos A. Coopeland,
is deceased, and one of the daughters, Cynthia, died in
childhood, the survivors of this family (besides the subject of
this sketch) being George H., Julia, William N., Miriam
and Winfield S. Copeland. E. Baker Copeland
was sixteen years of age when his parents moved from the Clay
township farm to the farm in Union township, and his schooling
was completed in the little old log school house known as the
Brackney school in this latter township. He remained with
his father on the farm until his marriage at the age of
twenty-three, when he rented a farm and began operations on his
own account. A few years later he bought thirty-five acres
of the home place, his father retiring from the farm at that
time, and has since resided there, adding to his holdings until
now he owns 144 acres, to the operations of which he continues
to give his oversight. Since coming into possession of
this farm Mr. Copeland has made extensive improvements in
the way of new buildings on the place and has an admirably
equipped farm plant. Mr. Copeland is a Republican
and has ever given a good citizen's attention to local civic
affairs, having served for seven years as a justice of the peace
in his home township, and also for some years as a school
director. F. Baker Copeland has been twice married.
On Sept. 19, 1876, he was united in marriage at Anna Marie
Herring, of this county, and to this union two sons were
born, Clyde and Howard, both of whom are married.
Clyde Copeland married Maude Emerson, and
Howard Copeland married Martha Elster and has two
children, Gertrude and Elster. Mrs.
Anna Marie Copeland died on Aug. 17, 1904,
and on Oct. 24, 1907, Mr. Copeland married Emma
(DeLong) Woods, who was born at Omega, in Pike
county, this state, and who was reared at Denver, in the
adjoining county of Ross, a daughter of William P. and Eva
(Richardson) DeLong. The Copeland home is very
pleasantly situated on rural mail route No. 1 out of Wapakoneta.
Source: History of
Auglaize Co., Ohio - Vol. II - 1923 - Page 376 |
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JOHN
M. COPELAND - See E. BAKER COPELAND
Source: History of
Auglaize Co., Ohio - Vol. II - 1923 - Page 376 |
Joseph C. Copland
and Family |
JOSEPH
C. COPELAND, representative in the lower
House of the Ohio General Assembly from this district and for
years an influential factor in educational circles hereabout, as
teacher, supervisor and district superintendent having done much
to advance the interests of the schools in this county, is a
member of one of the real pioneer families of Auglaize county.
He was born on a farm in the northeast quarter of section 27 of
Union township, this county. July 25, 1881, and is a son
of John Abner and Cynthia B. (Lusk) Copeland, both of
whom also were born in this county, the Copelands and the
Lusks having been among the earliest residents of
Union township. The late John Abner Copeland, an
honored veteran of the Civil war, was born in Union township, in
what then was in Allen county but which in 1848 became a part of
Auglaize county, in 1843, and was a son of Joseph P. and Mary
Ann (English) Copeland, who was a son of Joseph P. and Mary
Ann (English) Copeland, who had come here with their respective
parents in the days of the early settlement of this region and
were here married. Joseph P. Copeland was born in Greene
county, this state, Feb. 5, 1818, a son of Abner Copeland and
wife, Virginians, and was seventeen years of age when in 1835
his father came up here and entered from the government a tract
of land in the southeastern part of Union township (then in
Allen county) and established his home there, becoming one of
the most substantial pioneers of that section. Joseph
P. Copeland became a helpful factor in the labors of
developing that pioneer farm and after his marriage at the age
of twenty-two years became farming on his own account and in
time became one of the most substantial landowners in Auglaize
county, the proprietor of more than 900 acres of land. It
wa son Oct. 4, 1840, that he married Mary Ann English,
who was born in New Jersey and who was but a child when she came
to Ohio with her parents, John and Elizabeth (Fennimore)
English, the family at first locating in Franklin county,
whence, in 1833, they moved up here and became pioneers of Union
township, lands there having begun to attract the attention of
settlers following the exodus of the Indians the year before,
the English family settling in section 22 in the immediate
neighborhood of where the Copelands settled two or three
years later and where the Lusks also had settled in 1833,
it thus being clear that the subject of this sketch is of
pioneer descent along all lines. In the Sutton
"Atlas of Auglaize County" (1880) there is a page devoted to the
Copeland family, made up of reproductions of crayon drawings
that now are the priceless value to the family. Here are
set out portraits of ABNER COPELAND
and his wife and of Joseph and Mary Ann (English) Copeland
and their son, John, and their three daughters, Dora,
Jennie and Maggie, together with sketches of the old
Abner Copeland log cabin and of the John English log
cabin of 1833, offset by a large picture of the Joseph
Copeland farm plant representing the period of the picture's
publication, the large barn on the farm bearing date "1870," the
whole presenting a view which now is invaluable for historical
comparison. Joseph Copeland lived to be almost
eighty years of age, his death occurring on June 19, 1902.
John Abner Copeland, father of Representative Copeland,
grew up on that pioneer farm and was eighteen years of age when
the Civil war broke out. He straightway enlisted his
services in behalf of the Union cause, going out with the first
ninety-day men, and upon the completion of that service
re-enlisted for a period of the war's duration and continued in
service until his discharge in 1864 on account of illness.
During this time he participated in considerable strenuous
service, including the battle of Shiloh, and was discharged with
the ran of sergeant. Upon the completion of his military
service he returned home and not long afterward married
Cynthia Lusk, daughter of Joseph and Julia Ann
Lusk, who, as noted above, were among the pioneers of Union
township, and after his marriage began farming on his own
account, becoming the owner of 200 acres of his father's place,
and continued actively engaged in farming until some little time
after the death of his wife in 1918, after which he made his
home with a daughter at Lima, where his death occurred in 1921,
he then being seventy-eight years of age. For many years
John Abner Copeland was one of the firm
supporters of the Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal church,
which stood on the old Copeland farm in section 27
of Union township. He was a Republican and did his part in
the public service, for twelve years serving as a member of the
board of education in Union township and in other ways doing
what he could as a good citizen to advance the common good.
To him and his wife were born eight children, all of whom are
living save one, and thus the Copeland name is being
carried on in the present generation. Joseph C.
Copeland, son of John A. and Cynthia (Lusk) Copeland,
was reared on the farm and his preliminary schooling was
completed in the Union township high school, after which he
entered Ohio Northern University at Ada and in 1904 was
graduated there with the degree of Bachelor of Science. In
the following year he was graduated from the commercial school
of the university and also spent some months in the study of the
fundamentals of law. In the meantime he had been giving
some thought to a commercial career and for eight months was
engaged in carrying on business in a partnership general store
at Uniopolis, under the firm name of Lusk & Copeland, but
after his marriage in 1905 established his home at Dayton, Ohio,
where he was engaged in clerical work for three years, at the
end of which time he returned to Auglaize county and for three
years thereafter was engaged as a teacher and supervisor in the
rural schools of Union township, filling in his vacations in
clerical work. He then was made superintendent of the
Uniopolis schools, a position he occupied for five years, at the
end of which time he was made district superintendent of schools
in this county, with supervision over the schools of the four
townships, Duchouquet, Pusheta, Moulton and Logan, and the
villages of Cridersville and Buckland, and was for three years
thus occupied, or until in August, 1921, when he accepted the
superintendency of the schools of the village of Van Buren, in
Hancock county, one of the largest centralized schools in Ohio,
it requiring thirteen trucks to carry the 412 pupils in
attendance. In the meantime while faithful in school work,
Mr. Copeland had been diligent also in other public
service and in 1918 was elected to represent Auglaize county in
the lower House of the Ohio General Assembly, the first
Republican in the history of this county thus honored. In
the memorable campaign of 1920 he was re-elected and is thus now
(1922) serving his second term in the Legislature. Mr.
Copeland's first public service was rendered as clerk of the
Union township, in which capacity he served for four years
(1913-1917) and he afterward served as justice of the
peace in and for that township. One of the special bits of
service rendered by him as representative from Auglaize county
in the Legislature was to secure an additional appropriation of
$2,850 (now available) for the extension of the park surrounding
the state preserve and monument at old Ft. Amanda, as it set out
elsewhere in this work. Mr. Copeland is a
Freemason, up through the capitular and cryptic degrees,
affiliated with the blue lodge and the chapter and council at
Wapakoneta, is also a member of the local lodge of the Junior
Order of United American Mechanics and he and his wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Wapakoneta.
In 1905 Joseph C. Copeland was united in marriage to
Rowenna B. Wagstaff, daughter of H. V. Wagstaff and
wife, of New Hampshire, this county, the former of whom is a
hardware merchant in that village, having moved there from Upper
Sandusky, this state, and to this union two children have been
born, sons both, Robert, born in 1910, and Emil,
1913. Upon leaving the school room following his election
to the Legislature, Mr. Copeland moved to Wapakoneta,
where he has since resided, and he and his family are very
pleasantly situated at 607 East Bellefontaine street*.
Source: History of
Auglaize Co., Ohio - Vol. II - 1923 - Page 96|
* SHARON WICK'S NOTE: The house appears to still be
standing as of 2023. |
Wilbur T. Copeland |
WILBUR
T. COPELAND, a well-known attorney of
Auglaize county, former vice president of the Auglaize National
Bank of Wapakoneta, former special representative of the Federal
Land Bank, former city solicitor and a former member of the
board of education for Wapakoneta, and for years an active and
influential figure in the general social and political affairs
of this county, is a native son of Auglaize county and has
resided here all his life with the exception of a period of
seventeen years spent in the practice of his profession at Lima.
Mr. Copeland was born on a farm in the immediate vicinity of
the picturesque village of St. Johns, in Clay township, May 5,
1871, and is a son of WILLIAM N.
and Elizabeth E. (Robinson) COPELAND,
both also natives of Ohio, the latter born in Champaign county
on Dec. 25, 1850, and both of whom are still living.
William N. Copeland was born on a pioneer farm in Clay
township on Apr. 22, 1848, the year in which Auglaize county was
erected and is a son of Amos and Mary J. (Layton) Copeland,
both members of real pioneer families in this section of the
state, they having accompanied their respective parents to this
region in the days when that part of what is now Auglaize county
was included within the confines of Allen county. Amos
Copeland was born in Greene county, Ohio, Aug. 10, 1816, and
was twenty years of age when he came up here with his parents in
1836, the family settling on a farm in section 6 of Clay
township, where, until they could get up a cabin of their own,
they occupied the cabin that had been the home of Du Chien, a
son-in-law of the old Shawnee chief, Blackhoof, whose
last days were spent on the most prominent of the picturesque
knolls which lend so much of charm to the valley of Blackhoof
creek in the St. Johns neighborhood. Amos Copeland
helped to get the farm started there in the then wilderness, and
on Nov. 23, 1839, three years after his arrival here, married
Mary Layton and thereafter became engaged in farming on his
own account, locating in the northeast quarter of section 3 of
that same township. Six years later he exchanged the place
which he had improved there for a larger but improved tract in
section 4, and on this latter place carried on his farming
operations for a quarter of a century, in this time not only
clearing and improving more than one hundred acres, but adding
to his holdings 200 acres of adjoining land. In the fall
of 1875 he retired from the farm and moved to St. Johns, where
he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on July
25, 1898. To him and his wife were born nine children, of
whom seven grew to maturity, and two of whom, Miller and
George, served as soldiers of the Union during the Civil
war, the former being killed at the battle of the Resacca.
The others of these children, besides William N., were
Mrs. Julia Brackney, Elza B., Mrs. Miriam Chenowith and
Scott W. Copeland. William N. Copeland grew to manhood
on the home farm in Clay township and during the years of his
young manhood taught school during the winters. The girl
whom he afterward married also taught school in that township,
and in his generation their son, Wilbur, taught school in
the school house in which his father had taught and also in the
school house in which his mother had taught. For some time
after his marriage William N. Copeland continued farming
in Clay township and then moved to the farm of eighty acres
which he now owns in Goshen township, and where he and his wife
are now living, very pleasantly and comfortably situated.
They have two children, the subject of this sketch having a
sister, Mrs. Howard C. Coffin, wife of a merchant in the
village of New Hampshire. Wilbur T. Copeland grew
up to the life of the farm, but his habits of thought early led
him away from the farm. Upon completing the course in the
St. Johns high school he took a two years' course in the Jackson
Center normal school and then for two winters was engaged in
teaching, one term in Goshen township and one in Urban township.
Meanwhile he had been directing his studies in preparation for
the practice of law, and in 1891 became a student in the law
office of Layton & Stueve, at Wapakoneta, Judge
Layton (then a member of Congress) and Judge Stueve
at that time having been partners. For more than two years
Mr. Copeland remained under this preceptorship, and then
on Dec. 7, 1893, following his examination at Columbus, was
admitted to the bar. In the following April (1894) he
opened an office for the practice of his profession at Lima, and
two years later formed there a partnership with W. L. Rogers,
this mutually agreeable arrangement continuing thereafter for
fifteen years, or until dissolved in the spring of 1911, when
Mr. Copeland retired from practice at Lima and returned to
Wapakoneta and assist in the organization of the Auglaize
National Bank, of which he was elected vice president. For
six years Mr. Copeland continued this connection with the
bank, or until the Federal farm loan system was inaugurated in
1917, when he resigned his position in the bank to accept the
position of Federal land appraiser under this system for this
district, the first appraiser thus appointed in Ohio.
Not long afterward he was appointed general counsel for the
Federal Land Bank and served in that capacity until after the
war in 1919, when he resumed his practice at Wapakoneta, where
he also acted as the special representative of the above concern
in this district until July 1, 1922, when he resigned to accept
the position of manager of the Kentucky Joint Stock Land Bank, a
branch of the Federal farm loan system. Mr. Copeland
has made a specialty of farm loans since he was twenty-three
years of age and is recognized as an authority along that line.
While living at Lima he organized the Central Building and Loan
Company of that city, in 1908, and served as solicitor for that
concern until his return to Wapakoneta. Mr. Copeland
is a Democrat and has ever taken an interested part in local
civic affairs, having served as a member of the city board of
education for four years (1916-19), and afterward as city
solicitor under appointment by Mayor Klipfel in 1919.
He is a York Rite Mason and also has taken the cryptic and
capitular degrees in Freemasonry, and is likewise affiliated
with the local lodges of the Benevolent and Fraternal Orders of
Elks, the Loyal Order of Moose and the Modern Woodmen of America
at Wapakoneta, while he and his wife are members of the
Methodist Episcopal church, in the affairs of which congregation
they take an earnest and helpful part. Mrs. Copeland
is president of the Home Missionary Society of the church, and
Mr. Copeland is chairman of the congregation's finance
committee. During the period of his residence in Lima he
was for years a member of the board of directors of the local
branch of the Young Men's Christian Association at that place.
On Apr. 23, 1895, Wilbur T. Copeland was united in
marriage to L. Mabel Herbst, of this county, and to this
union one child has been born, a son, the
Rev. DON HERBST COPELAND. Mrs.
Copeland was born in Clay township, daughter of William
and Anna (Beerlin) Herbst, and her public schooling was
completed at Celina, where for some time she made her home with
her elder sister, Mrs. Miller, wife of Judge Miller,
and prior to her marriage had for some time been engaged as a
teacher in the public schools. The Rev. Don Herbst
Copeland was born at Lima on Jan. 11, 1898. He was
graduated from the Wapakoneta high school in 1916, and after a
course in Western Reserve University at Cleveland entered Ohio
Northern University at Ada, from which in due time he was
graduated, and then he entered the Western Theological Seminary
at Chicago, and upon completing the course there was ordained to
the ministry of the Episcopal church and is now serving as
rector of St. Alban's Episcopal church at Manistique, Mich.
During the time of America's participation in the World war he
served in the Naval Reserve, in the students' camp sixty days
before the signing of the armistice. On June 1, 1920, the
Rev. Don Herbst Copeland was united in marriage to
Irene Haman of Wapakoneta, and to this union one child has
been born, a daughter, Martha Marie, born on Jan. 4,
1922.
Source: History of
Auglaize Co., Ohio - Vol. II - 1923 - Page 312 |
| |
WILLIAM N. COPELAND - See WILBUR T.
COPELAND
Source: History of
Auglaize Co., Ohio - Vol. II - 1923 - Page 312 |
NOTES:
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