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BIOGRAPHIES
A Standard History
of
Erie County, Ohio
An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with Particular
Attention
to the Modern Era in the Commercial, Industrial,
Civic and Social Development. A Chronicle of the People, with Family
Lineage and Memoirs.
By
HEWSON L. PEEKE
Assisted by the Board of Advisory Editors
Volume I.
ILLUSTRATED
The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New York
1916
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JAMES S. HANSON, M. D.
For the past twenty-two years Dr. James S. Hanson
has enjoyed rank with the most capable physicians and
surgeons of Erie County. His home during this time
has been in Sandusky, and he came to this city with a
splendid equipment and training for the profession to
which he has given the best years of his life.
A native of Canada, Dr. James S. Hanson was born
June 19, 1868, in London, a son of Dr. Henry Hanson,
who was a very prominent physician and surgeon of
London, Canada. Dr. James S. was educated
in the Wesleyan College of London, Canada. Dr.
James S. was educated in the Wesleyan College in
London, Canada, and took his degree in medicine from
Detroit College of Medicine at Detroit, and pursued post
graduate studies in the St. Thomas Hospital in London,
England.
His first two years in practice were spent in London,
Canada, and from there, in 1903, he moved to Sandusky,
where he has since built up a large and profitable
practice. Doctor Hansonis well known in
social as well as in professional circles, and belongs
to many of the leading clubs and organizations. He
is a member of the American Medical Association, of the
Pediatric Society, and is a director in the Columbus
Mutual Life Insurance Company. His church is the
Episcopal, and in politics he is a republican. In
1906-08 Doctor Hanson was interested in a circuit
of theaters known as the Hanson & Albaugh
Circuit, having nine located from Youngstown to Tiffin,
Ohio.
In 1904, at Sandusky,
Doctor Hanson married Miss Bessie Arnold.
They have one on, James Stephen Hanson,
born Jan. 13, 1912.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County, Ohio
- Published 1916 - Page 1169 |
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EPHRAIM J.
HASTINGS. During an active career of nearly
twenty years Mr. Hastings has been known for his
capable work as a grain thresherman, as a road
contractor, and more recently as the popular and genial
merchant at Parkerstown in Groton Township.
Most of his life has been spent in Groton Township,
where he was born Sept. 20, 1876, a son of James H.
and Martha (Kershner) Hastings, his father now
deceased and his mother a resident of Groton Township in
her sixty-eighth year.
Mr. Hastings grew
up in his native township, attended the public schools,
and soon embarked on a life of practical
accomplishments. For about twenty years he
was engaged in the operation of a threshing outfit among
the grain raisers of this county, and in that way
acquired a large acquaintance and at the same time
furnished an excellent service. For a number of
years he also combined this with his business as a
contractor for road construction and has built many
miles of improved highways in this section of Ohio.
In November, 1914, he bought the old established
mercantile house at Parkertown formerly owned by M.
L. Starr, and has shown a great deal of enterprise
in extending and building up the trade which has long
been concentrated at this point. He carries a
large stock of general merchandise and has made his
store a popular trading point in the community.
On May 1, 1900, Mr. Hastings married Miss
Theresa Swabley. She was born in Erie County,
a daughter of Fabian Swabley who now lives in
Milan, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Hastings have two
children: Catherine G. and Helen R.
In a public way Mr. Hastings has served as
constable of Groton Township for a number of years, and
his attitude has always been that of a public spirited
and liberal citizen.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County, Ohio
- Published 1916 - Page 1134 |
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HUGH HASTINGS.
Of the many fine characters that sailed the Great Lakes
it is doubtful if there was one who represented a better
type of physical manhood and thorough manliness than the
late Capt. Hugh Hastings, who is deserving of
long memory in Erie County, particularly Milan, where he
lived for more than in Erie County, particularly at
Milan, where he lived for more than half a century and
where his widow and daughter still have their beautiful
home. Captain Hastings was a true sailor,
and life on the water was to him a delight as well as a
profession. He lived past eighty years, and to the
last retained the splendid physical proportions which
were an excellent environment for his sterling
character. He made a most imposing figure on the
bridge of the vessels which he commanded on Lake Erie
for many years, and while he was a strict disciplinarian
and a prompt and vigorous executive, he was also noted
for his essential kindliness in his relations with
subordinates.
His life began in County Down, Ireland, Oct. 6, 1834,
and came to a close in the beautiful home at Milan, Jan.
6, 1915. His father, Robert Hastings, was
of an old Protestant Scotch-Irish family of County Down.
The splendid physical attributes which Captain
Hastings exemplified were more or less
characteristic of the entire family, since exemplified
were more or less characteristic of the entire family,
since most of them were large in build and proportions,
and distinguished for strength of body and mind.
Robert Hastings married a native of his own
county and in 1840 the little family set out for the
United States. The voyage was made on a slow
sailing vessel, and from New York they came on west by
the Hudson River, Erie Canal route to Buffalo, and
thence in a small boat to Huron and Milan. At that
time Milan was the center of traffic in Northern Ohio
for the gain products raised in the surrounding
agricultural neighborhood, and was also one of the
prominent ship building centers around the lake.
Besides the parents there were the following children
who came to Milan fully seventy-five years ago: Jane,
Hugh, James, Robert, Jr., and Maria.
Two others were born in Milan, William and
Maggie. All these are now living except
Jane and the late Captain Hugh and all of
them married and had families except Robert, Jr.
Robert Hastings, the father, after coming to Milan
acquired a few acres of land, and following farming.
His wife died when about three score years of age at
Huron. The father later worked on the lake on
boats captained by his son, and at his death was quite
an old man. Robert and his wife were
members of the Presbyterian Church and in politics he
was a republican.
Capt. Hugh Hastings grew up in Milan, acquired
his education there, and from early childhood all his
desires and thoughts were of a seafaring life.
While a child back in his Irish home, which was close to
the sea, he would stand for hours watching the vessels
that sailed by, and this early longing and imagination
proved the dominating influence in his life. When
still a boy he gained his first practical experience on
lake boats and when hardly past twenty-one was a master
of a vessel, and the Darian. Later he became
captain of the Jura, the Hyphen, the Amaranth and the
others, and for ten years was in command of several
vessels operated by the Valentine Fries Company.
After more than forty years in the lake service he
retired in 1900, and there was no veteran mariner on the
lake who had a better record for efficiency, for safe
conduct of his vessel and cargoes, and for all round
ability as a seaman that Captain Hastings.
In lake marine circles he was one of the most familiar
figures and had a host of friends and acquaintances at
every port around Lake Erie, and it is of record that he
made the fastest run of any master between the ports of
Toledo and Buffalo.
In the meantime his home for a great many years had
been at Milan and there he spent the months when lake
navigation was closed, and lived there in quiet
retirement for the fifteen years before his death.
His wife, while he was away engaged in his duties, put
up the beautiful home in which she now resides.
This is a twelve-room modern residence on Center Street,
and is located on the same lot where they occupied a
small cottage after their marriage more than fifty years
ago. For ten years Captain Hastings was a
member of the cemetery board at Milan and held that
position at the time of his death. He was a strong
republican, a Blue Lodge Mason with Milan Lodge 239, F.
& A. M., and had maintained that affiliation since he
was twenty-five years of age.
At the Village of Milan Sept. 23, 1864, Capt. Hugh
Hastings married Miss Elizabeth E. Edridge.
She was born in Norwalk, Ohio, seventy-four years
ago, but was reared and educated at Milan, and had
taught school before her marriage. She is a woman
of thorough culture, and for a long period of years has
been devoted to home and family and to kindly service
among her friends and the community. For more than
half a century her home has been on one lot in Milan,
where she and Captain Hastings started
housekeeping in a small cottage and she still owns that
cottage. She has other valuable property interests
in the village. Her parents were Charles and
Nancy J. (Latham) Edridge. Her father was born
in Gloucestershire, England, about the year 1810, and
was a young man when he imigrated to the United States
and located at Norwalk in Huron County, Ohio, and a
little later met and married his wife there. She
was a native of New London, Connecticut, and had been
brought when an infant to Norwalk, where her father died
not long afterwards, and the widow then returned to
Connecticut and spent the rest of her years there.
Mrs. Eldridge and her twin sister subsequently
returned to Norwalk, and she lived there until her
marriage to Mr. Edridge, after which they lived
in Huron County for several years and then made their
home in Milan. Mr. Edridge was a grocery
merchant at Milan for a number of years and died in that
village when nearly fourscore years of age. His
widow passed away some years later and was ninety-three
years six months old. She was a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Hastings had a
brother and sister, Nelson and Mary, who
were twins. Nelson is married and lives in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, while Mary, who is
deceased, was the widow of Capt. John Coulter
another old Lake Erie captain. Of the Coulter
children there are two living daughters, Fannie
and Libby, the latter now married.
Captain Hastings and wife had only one daughter,
Carrie E., who grew up in Milan, received good
advantages in the schools, and is now living with her
mother in their beautiful and attractive home.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County, Ohio
- Published 1916 - Page 1021 |
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FREDERICK HILDEBRANDT.
Among the men who have gained success as farmers and
fruit growers in Berlin Township should be numbered
Frederick Hildebrandt, who came to America from
Germany more than forty years ago, for several years
earned his livelihood as a common laborer on the
railroad, and from the surplus of his earnings invested
in small tracts of land in Erie County, which he has
since increased both in quantity and improvement and is
now one of the substantial members of the community, and
is furnishing good service to the township as road
trustee, the duties of which position require much of
his time.
Born in Brandenburg, Prussia, Feb. 13, 1842, he was of
an old line family of that kingdom, a son of John and
Fredericka (Hauck) Hildebrandt. He and his
family were members of the Lutheran Church.
Frederick Hildebrandt was the only son and child of
that union. The mother married again, wedding
Ludwig Budzin, who died in Ottawa County, Ohio.
She died in the old country in 1858. The son of
the second marriage, William, is also in the
United States and is a bachelor farmer, making his home
with the subject of this review.
Frederick Hildebrandt grew up in his native
country, and from early years was trained to hard labor
with little remuneration. He was married in his
native state to Christiana Schutt who was a
native of the same section as her husband, born there in
1840 and reared and educated in the same locality.
After one child had been born to their union, Reca,
Mr. and Mrs. Hildebrandt left Germany in 1872 on
the sailing ship Gauch from Bremen, and after voyage of
seven weeks landed in Baltimore. When the vessel
was one week out Mr. Hildebrandt was stricken
with the smallpox, suffered much from the disease but
recovered, and after landing in Baltimore spent three
weeks in the hosiptal helping to care for the other
sufferers from that disease. He later came on west
to Ottawa County, Ohio, and there found employment on
the Lake Shore Railway, working himself up from the
position of a common laborer until he was made watchman
and had to do with the maintenance of signals. He
was with the railroad company in this capacity for two
years, and was then appointed baggage agent at Martin,
Ohio, for another two years. In the meantime he
had invested in twenty acres of land and established a
comfortable home. These facts are substantial
evidence of his thrift and progressive character.
He had to earn every dollar that went to the support of
his family and to the slowly growing surplus.
Later he became foreman of a section gang and was in
that work with the railroad until 1900. In that
year Mr. Hildebrandt moved to Berlin Township,
Erie County, and bought forty acres of land on the Ridge
Road. It was already well improved and in 1904 he
added ten acres more. He has a large and
well furnished house, a substantial set of farm
buildings, and grows several varieties of fruit and has
two acres of vineyard.
In 1875 he lost his first wife, and she was survived by
two children, Franz and Rica both of whom
are now married and have families of their own.
For his second wife, Mr. Hildebrandt married
Caroline Kratzer, who was also born in Germany, Feb.
16, 1851. She died Apr. 7, 1910. The
children of the second marriage are Lena, John,
Charles, Ida, Anna, Arthur and Freda, all of
them married except the last three, and those married
all have children. Mr. and Mrs. Hildebrandt
are members of the Lutheran Church and in politics he is
a democrat.
Source: The Standard History of Erie County,
Ohio - Published 1916 - Page 757 |
NOTES:
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