|
BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of Defiance County, Ohio
containing a History of the County; Its Townships,
Towns, Etc.;
Military Record; Portraits of Early Settlers and
Prominent Men; Farm Views; Personal
Reminiscences, Etc.
Published at Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co.
1883
|
|
Defiance Twp. -
JOSEPH J. KAHLO
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 246 |
|
|
Defiance Twp. -
PETER KETTENRING
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 214 |
|
|
Defiance Twp. -
DANIEL H. KILLEY
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 223 |
|
|
Delaware Twp. -
GEORGE KINTNER was born Nov. 30, 1822, in
Columbiana County, Ohio; removed to Crawford County with his
parents in 1831, and came to Delaware Township in 1851. He
married Miss Susannah Hockert, July 4, 1847, in Crawford
County. Their family consists of Rebecca A., Catharine
Anne, Jonas, Lovina, Lewis and George A. These
all survive but Jonas, George A. and Samuel, who
died young. When Mr. K. first arrived, his
neighbors were James Ordon, Jonathan Peffly, Peter Blair,
Frederick Slough, Peter Krughton, Nicholas Huffborn, C. B.
Mulligan and Montgomery Evans. The old orchard,
he thinks, was planted by M. Evans, from seed obtained of
Johnny Appleseed. There were plenty of game at the
time of his arrival.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at Chicago:
Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 262 |
|
|
Defiance Twp. -
MRS. JULIA A. KISER
was born of American parents May 24, 1815, in Paint Township,
Ross Co., Ohio, near Chillicothe, and immigrated to this county
in the fall of 1834. The father's name was John P.
Downs, a native of Maryland. He followed the trade of
shoemaker for some years, but being possessed of a venturesome
spirit, he went to sea before the mast; unfortunately for him,
the vessel was seized by the English and the crew thrown into a
London prison; part of the crew took the oath of allegiance to
British Government and were immediately placed upon a man of
war; he and his comrade, being good Americans, refused to take
the oath. They languished in prison nine long months; the
authorities at last becoming tired of keeping them, released
them by kicking them out destitute of money, clothes or friends;
the comrade disappearing, leaving him to fight the battle of
life alone, he sought and found work in a cobbler's stall, until
he obtained money to buy clothes, meantime watching an
opportunity of escape, which soon occurred by the death of a
sailor, and he secured his berth on board a vessel, following
the sea seven years before his return to his native land.
He afterward enlisted as a soldier in the war of 1812, came home
on furlough in 1813, and was married to Elizabeth
Vandervort, of Virginia. He served until the close of
the war. During his wanderings as a soldier, he visited
Ft, Defiance, and being highly pleased with the appearance of
the country, was never satisfied until he located here in the
fall of 1834, where he remained until his death, which occurred
August, 1866, aged ninety-three. They had three children -
Julia A., Oliver P. (who died Sept. 8, 1830) and
Angus L., who learned the saddler business, which he
followed successfully for many years, accumulating quite a
property. He married Sophia C.
Graper, a native of Hanover, Germany,
in 1843. He was very fond of hunting and fishing, and had
many interesting adventures incident to frontier life.
Died Aug. 15, 1857. After the death of Jehu P. Downs,
his widow married Thomas Warren, who was also, one
of the pioneers of the country. She died May, 1878, at the
age of eighty-five years. Mr. Downs and
family came to this place from Palestine, Pickaway Co., Ohio,
situated about twenty miles from Circleville, moving the whole
way by wagon, the trip consuming about fourteen days. On
their journey they passed through New London, Wapakoneta and
other towns; between the latter place and the mouth of the
Little Auglaize, the roads were almost impassable, the teams
stalling as often as four times a day, making it necessary for
them to unload and wade out to higher ground, obliging the men
to carry goods. Upon their arrival here, they could find
no unoccupied rooms, and were compelled to take shelter in an
old French cabin, dingy with age and smoke situated on the lands
where the upper ends of East Defiance now stands. The
first visit Mrs. Kiser made, at a distance from this
place, after locating here, was to Steubenville, in the summer
of 1837, performing the whole journey on horseback, a distance
of more than three hundred miles, passing in the route through
Maumee, Findlay, Upper Sandusky, Fremont, Mansfield, Wooster,
New Philadelphia, Sandyville, Harrison and a number of smaller
towns and villages. Returning by the same route as far as
Mansfield, thence to Maderia and across the black swamp, where
the mud and water was midside to a common horse, compelling the
riders to sit with their feet drawn up on the saddle to keep
them dry. They stopped at Ottaway on Sunday, July 3, for
dinner, at a house of private entertainment. The
proprietor at first refused his guests anything to east, or to
provide anything for their horses; but finally gave them some
bread without butter, tea without sugar and onion without salt,
also sent his man to the field a half mile away from green oats
to feed their horses, declaring this was the best he could
supply them, but was expecting fresh supplies by wagon hourly
which owing to the condition of the roads, was several days
behind. The party feeling refreshed for this bill of fare,
and the assurance of the host of fresh supplies in a few days,
started on their journey. In 1838, Mrs. Kiser,
then Julia A. Downs, was married to John H. Kiser,
of Wayne County, Ohio, Mr. Kiser was born in Jefferson
County, Ohio. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania;
his grandparents of German descent. He was one of a large
family of children, now all dead, save one who resides in Noble
County, Ind. In July, he moved to this place, bringing
with him a large stock of goods, his being the first saddle and
harness shop in the county. He afterward entered into the
mercantile business; was also Treasurer of Defiances County, and
held offices of trust on the canal. He took the census of
Defiance County in 1860; died Mar. 19, 1861. They had five
children - John H., born May 16, 1839, resides in
Defiance County, Ohio; married Mary E. Bridenbaugh July
21, 1870, has three children living, Victoria A., born
Nov. 16, 1841, married S. A. Shields May 21, 1873, has
one child, resides in San Francisco, Cal.; Mary E., born
Dec. 25, 1844, married Dr. T. H. Ashton July 20, 1865,
has two children, resides in Defiance; James P., born
Feb. 16, 1847, died Aug. 25, 1855; Callie E., born Apr.
6, 1849, married S. H. Cave Feb. 7, 1874 has one child,
resides in Terrace, Utah. Victoria and Callie
were engaged in mission teaching among the Mormon's (for some
time previous to their marriage), Mary, the second
daughter, has in her possession the old clock which grandfather
Downs brought to this county. It is a tall
coffin-shaped affair, after the old Dutch style, and a great
curiosity in these days of style and novelty. Mrs.
Kiser resides with her son John H. at the old
homestead at the corner of Wayne and First streets. Is in
the enjoyment of good health, having lived to witness the
progress of Defiance from an almost howling wilderness to a city
of 7,000 inhabitants.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 210 |
|
|
Mark Twp. -
SAMUEL KLECKNER was born Mar. 18, 1814, in
Jefferson County, Ohio, remained in the county until seven years
of age, and then moved with his parents to Carroll County, Ohio.
His father entered a farm of Government land there, and
Samuel remained helping to clear up the farm until twenty
years of age, receiving but a limited education in the log-cabin
school. At the age of twenty, he went to Harrison, Ohio,
learned the plastering trade, remaining there about two years.
He was there married to Miss Mary Ann Hilbert Oct. 8,
1835; from there removed to Stark County, Ohio, where he took u
his trade, remaining about four years. From there to
Tuscarawas County, and from there to Deviance County in the
summer of 1845 or 1846, living here some time before the
organization of the township, and has been a resident of Mark
Township ever since that time, residing with his family, who
were small on his farm in Section 6, which was then a dense
forest, but by hard labor Mr. Kleckner has succeeded in
making a fine farm, with good comfortable buildings.
Mr. Kleckner's family consists of ten children, the first a
boy, not named, Franklin, Daniel, David, William, James,
Addison, Rebecca, Samantha Jane, Benjamin Burton and Mary
Matilda. Six are living, five boys and one girl, who
married Joseph Conley. They live in Hicksville
Township. The first school for his children to attend was
in Farmer Township at a place called Lost Creek. Mr.
Kleckner's trade has been a source of benefit in his pioneer
struggle.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio -
Published at Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 320 |
Richard Knight &
Harriet Knight |
Farmer Twp. -
RICHARD KNIGHT was born in Beaver County,
Penn., Jan. 26, 1816, and came to Wayne County with his parents,
when twelve years old, in 1828. That year he settled eight
miles east of Wooster, and came to Farmer Township in 1850, and
built a saw mill in Farmer Center, and ran it four years, and
sold it to Mr. R. J. Gibblen, and he to Mr. Perkius
in whose possession it was accidentally burned in 1858.
Mr. Knight purchased what is now the John Rice farm,
and improved it by putting up a barn and finishing the house,
and sold to G. T. Hughes, and then removed to his farm of
sixty-seven acres and the 200 acres south of the Center.
He married Sep. 12, 1839, Miss Harriet Firestone, of
Wayne County. His family is Ellenor F., married to
N. O. Foot, Eugenie, wife of K. V. Haymaker
married in 1881; Eliza Jane, dead; Eugenie M.,
dead; all girls. He formerly went to Brunersburg to mill.
Great changes have taken place since he arrived in Farmer
Township. Since the township has been drained, land has
become rich and valuable. Mr. Knight is a carpenter
by trade, and does a good deal of work in the township. He
learned his trade in Wayne County. Mr. Knight was
one of the first Infirmary Directors, a position he held nearly
one year, when he resigned on account of failing health.
He is a member of the order of Free and Accepted Masons, Bryan
Lodge, and also of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of the
same place. Has been a Director of the Farmers' National
Bank at Bryan. Mrs. Knight was born in Wayne
County, Ohio, Sept. 2, 1820, and is a daughter of George and
Rebecca (Carle) firestone; he died in 1851 and she in 1868.
Jacob and Martha (Dickson) Knight, parents of the subject
of this sketch, were natives of Pennsylvania; he died in 1857,
and she in 1868.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at Chicago:
Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 271
Portrait facing page 264. |
|
|
Mark Twp. -
WILLIAM J. KNIGHT, a merchant, now of
Minnesota, deserves a place in the history of the brave boys of
Defiance who enlisted in the late war. He is about
forty-five years of age, a native of Wayne County. His
mother died when he was an infant, and his father also died when
he was but three years old, so that his grandparents raised him.
His father was a farmer who came to this county in 1853.
Mr. Knight married at Bryan, about 1868, Miss Emma
Oldfield. He was one of the Mitchell railroad
raiders, whose adventures form one of the most thrilling
episodes of the rebellion. Was a resident of Defiance
County at the time of his enlistment in Company E, Twenty-first
Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Aug. 27, 1861. The raiders
consisted of twenty-four men from Gen. Mitchell's
division, encamped about Shelbyville, Tenn. Their scheme,
a most daring one, was to penetrate the rebel lines as far as
Marietta, Ga., there secure a train of cars by fair means or
force, and then run northward to the Union lines, burning all
the bridges and otherwise destroying the road so effectually as
to break all rebel rail communications over it. Four days
were given them to reach Marietta. They left Shelbyville,
Apr. 7, 1862, in small squads, all dressed in citizens' clothes,
but did not reach their destination until the 12th, and the one
day's delay frustrated the success of the well-laid plan.
Only twenty of the men boarded the express northward the next
morning, and at Big Shanty, a small station a few miles north of
Marietta, the train was captured by the daring spies while the
train men and passengers were taking refreshments. Then
began one of the wildest and most intensely exciting races
imaginable. Mr. Knight, the subject, took charge of
the engine, and away it went, thundering toward the Union lines.
Passing each station, the rails were torn up and telegraph wire
cut. But great delay was caused by waiting at stations for
an unusual number of trains going south. The chase
commenced in a hand car, but the first engine met was turned in
pursuit, a gang of track-layers were secured, and at last the
pursuer succeeded in getting a message ahead of the flying
train, and its doom was sealed. The raiders took to the
woods, but they were near a rebel encampment, and a large force
of cavalry was organized to capture them. One by one the
fleeing men were run down, though some eluded their pursuers for
days. Twenty-two in all, they were incarcerated in a
loathsome den at Chattanooga, thirteen feet square and thirteen
feet deep, where they suffered untold torments. They were
afterward transferred to the jail at Atlanta. The brave
leader, Andrews, was condemned as a spy and executed.
Seven more of the unfortunate prisoners were soon after hanged.
At last desperate effort for freedom was planned and carried
into execution. The guards were overpowered, and then each
prisoner took flight as best he could. Mr. Knight
gave the following account of his escape: "We broke jail
Oct. 16, 1862, and scattered and scampered for the woods.
W. W. Brown, E. H. Mason and myself, all of the
Twenty-first Ohio Infantry, were together. The first night
out Mason took sick, and we did not get far, but kept
well hidden. We were three days within nine miles of
Atlanta. On the third night Mason was so bad that we were
compelled to go to a house with him, and began to despair of
making good our escapee, but he told us to leave him and save
ourselves. Just as we had finished a hearty meal in the
kitchen, three men came in at the front door to arrest us.
They asked if we were not some of the prisoners who broke jail
at Atlanta. We told them we were. They said they had
come to take us back, and that there was no use trying to
escape, as all the roads and bridges were guarded.
"Brown was mad in an instant, and ripped out a
very blunt reply. We sprang out of the back door and ran
around the end of the house and down a fence in the direction of
some woods. They run out of the front door with their
shotguns and bawled out, 'Halt! halt!' as we were leaving
them at a 2:40 run. They straddled their horses and
galloped out on a by road from the house to the main road, while
the man where we had stayed unloosed his hounds, and they were
soon on our trail in full cry. We had changed our course
to baffle the horsemen, for there was a hill to go down and
another to ascend before we got across the plantation and to the
woods beyond. The men could not see us, but the dogs told
our course, and before we had reached the woods the whole pack
were closing on us. The field was full of loose stones,
and we hastily chose the best place we could and engaged in a
savage combat with the dogs, in which we were victorious,
crippling and driving away the whole pack in short order, after
which we started again on full run.
"We could by this time see the horsemen coming round to
head us off. We changed our course and threw them off
again. The hounds followed at a long distance and by their
howling indicated our course, but did not come near enough to
molest us. We kept see-sawing and taking in order to avoid
the horsemen, who were doing their best to head us off, until at
last we came to a little creek in which we waded for a couple of
hours, and in this way caused the dogs to lose us. That
day we reached Stone Mountain, eighteen miles east of Atlanta.
After that, we traveled nights, going due northward, with the
north star for our guide. From our hiding places in the
day time we frequently saw scouting parties, patrolling the
county, now doubt, for the jail fugitives. We crossed the
Chattahoochee, Oct. 26, on rails tied together with bark.
From the house where we left Mason we were six days
without food, except nuts and brush. On the seventh day we
caught a goose and ate it raw, and on the same day found a few
ears of corn left in the field by the huskers. A day or so
later we found a tree of apples and filled up on them and
carried away all we could.
Fortunately the same day we discovered a drove of young
hogs in the woods. I hid behind a tree and Brown
coaxed a confiding pig up near me by biting off bits of apple
and tossing them to it, backing up meanwhile, until the young
porker came within reach of my stick, when I murdered it.
That night we found where some men had been clearing and
burning, and we had a feast of cooked pork without seasoning,
but we enjoyed it without complaint, for, except the goose and
corn, we had eaten only five meals in twenty-one days. The
pig lasted till we reached the Hiawasse River, near the corner
of North Carolina.
"We traveled hard for four days over an intolerably
rough country, and only gained eight miles. We were
crossing a little old clearing which had a deserted appearance,
when we came unexpectedly and suddenly out in front of a log
house, where two men stood on the porch. They saw us and
it was too late to dodge, so we tried to appear indifferent and
asked if we could get dinner. We told them we were rebel
soldiers who had been on the sick list and were trying to get
back to our regiments. They said we could have dinner, and
as we sat down to eat the woman of the house eyed us closely and
soon accused us of being "Yanks." We soon found out each
other, and they were loyal, true people, who sent us to friends
and they to other friends, until we reached Somerset, Ky., about
November 25, from which place we reached Louisville, and from
there by railroad to Nashville, near which place our old
comrades and regiment lay, and where our boys received us with
three times three and a tiger."
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at Chicago:
Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 322 |
|
|
Defiance Twp. -
JOHN KNISS
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio - Published at
Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 249 |
|
|
Mark Twp. -
JOSIAH KYLE was born Mar. 15, 1841, in
Stark County, Ohio, removing from there to Hancock County, where
he grew up, having only the advantages of a common school
education. In 1860, he came to Defiance County, Ohio, and
in 1861, Aug. 27, enlisted in the cause of his country in the
Twenty-first Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in Company E.
On account of disability, he was discharged Nov. 22, 1863.
About a year thereafter, he enlisted again in the One Hundred
and Eighty-second Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in
Company B, and served till the close of the war, receiving an
honorable discharge July 5, 1865. On July 19, 1866, Mr.
Kyle married Martha Ellen Knight, who was born in
Wayne County, Ohio, Dec. 25, 1843. Their children are as
follows: Dollie, Jennie M. , born Feb. 9, 1873;
and Howard, born Feb. 1, 1881. The parents of
Mr. Kyle were Peter and Elizabeth (Metz) Kyle, the
former born in Pennsylvania, Nov. 30, 1810, the latter in Stark
County, Ohio, Apr. 25, 1817. They wore married in Stark
County, Ohio, May 15, 1836. Their children were as
follows: Anna, Cornelius W., Josiah, Reuben
(deceased), Hiram (deceased), George W., an infant
not named. Milton and Emma. They (the
parents) came to Defiance County in 1860, settling in Milford
Township. They are both living there at the present time.
Josiah, subject of this sketch, was elected Justice of the Peace
of Mark Township, Apr. 10, 1875, and was re-elected in 1878, and
resigned at the close of the second term, as he could not be
troubled with it. He was Township Treasurer from the
spring of 1873 to the present time. He is also the leading
merchant of the place, keeping a general assortment of
everything found in a country store, engaging in this business
at the Center about the year 1875. Mr. Kyle
claims no notoriety for war record, but wishes space given to
his friend and comrade in arms, William J. Knight, who
enlisted in this county at same time in same company and
regiment. As to the capture of engine at Big Shanty, he was the
man who ran it on its perilous expedition.
Source: History of Defiance County, Ohio -
Published at Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co. - 1883 - Page 321 |
|
...
|
