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* Source:
Commemorative Biographical Records of Northwestern Ohio
including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams & Fulton.
Published at Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co.
1899.
Transcribed by
Sharon Wick
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HON. WILLIAM GEYSER.
In our cosmopolitan population we have no more valuable
citizens than those who owe their origin to the Fatherland.
The steady, industrious habits of the Germans, combined with
their strict sense of duty and honor, tend to make them useful
citizens, loyal and patriotic to their new country, wherein
they earn their daily bread. Such a one is the Hon. William
Geyser, who was born October 3, 1841, in Wittenberg, Germany,
a son of Jacob Geyser, who died in his native land.
Our subject was educated in the common schools of that
country until at the age of eleven he accompanied his widowed
mother to America. They came to Lucas county, Ohio, and there
two years later his mother died. Left an orphan at the age of
thirteen, young William found himself thus early compelled, to
face the responsibilities of existence. He found work on a
farm, later clearing land and leveling a forest for himself.
Hardly had the echo of the guns of Fort Sumter died
away, when, in response to the startled country's call for
aid, William Geyser left his plow and enlisted in Company I,
Fourteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In January, 1863, he veteranized, and received an honorable discharge at the close
of the war in September, 1865. He served as a private during
the entire war, and participated in all of the skirmishes and
battles, including that of Wild Cat Mountain, in which his
company took part. They were with Sherman in the march through
Georgia, and were on picket duty when General Thomas
aid-de-camp was killed at Peach Orchard. When peace had been
declared Mr. Geyser went quietly home and assumed his
agricultural duties, in connection with a sawmill, until 1870,
when he came to Swanton, and for a year and a half clerked in
a store. He then went to Delta, Ohio, but after a year spent
there returned to Swanton and engaged in the grocery and
general merchandise business, which he yet conducts. His
strict attention to business and his courteous treatment to
customers have brought their own reward in a constantly
increasing trade, and he now occupies two rooms, the first of
which he built in 1872; six years later he was compelled to
add the other, so extensive had his trade become.
In his political faith Mr. Geyser is a firm supporter
of the doctrines promulgated by the Republican party. He has
always been actively interested in the welfare of his chosen
party, and in 1888 was selected a delegate to the Senatorial
Convention held at Toledo. This district was strongly
Democratic, and included the six counties of Lucas, Fulton,
Wood, Henry, Hancock, and Putnam. Mr. Geyser attended the
convention without any intention of accepting office, and was
very much astonished to find himself the unanimous choice of
the convention for State senator. His loyalty to his party
induced him to make what seemed to be a hopeless race, but his
indomitable will, his untiring energy, and, above all, his
undoubted integrity and untarnished reputation, won the fight,
and he was elected by a majority of eighteen hundred! During
his term in the Senate his duties were performed with that
same care of detail and honorable methods that had
characterized his commercial career. He was an earnest
advocate of the Owen Sunday Law and all the measures that
would in any way tend to the bettering of the moral nature of
the people. Placed unexpectedly in a position of such great
responsibility and trust, he rose to the occasion and
completed his term with honor to himself and with glory to his
constituents.
Mr. Geyser has been three times married. His first
wife, to whom he was wedded in 1863, was Miss Elizabeth
Brown,
and of this union were born two children: (1) Maude, who
married Charles Marsh, a business man of Toledo, by whom she
had one child, named Guy; and (2) Lizzie, who married
Louis Isbell, and they have one child, Emma. After the death of
Mrs.
Elizabeth Geyser, Mr. Geyser was married to
Miss Catherine Schrock, by whom, he had a daughter, named
Minnie. In 1880 he
married his present wife, formerly Miss Amy Haubiel, and they
are the parents of two children: Dorothy, and William, now a
student of Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. Fraternally, the
Hon. William Geyser is prominent as a member of the I. O. O.
F., which he has repeatedly represented in the Grand Lodge
during the twenty-seven years of his active membership; for
eight years he has affiliated with the Elks, and was made a K.
P. in Toledo, but is now a member of the Lodge in Swanton.
The Hon. William Geyser is a fine example of the
self-made man, one who is capable of leading and directing the
affairs of the community with greater facility than most men
can direct their own. He has attained fortune, friends and
honored position by a life devoted to high ambition and lofty
purposes, and it would require no "ancient seer in star lit
tower" to cast his horoscope to find him still higher up on
the ladder of fame before his part is played.
Source 1 :
Commemorative Biographical Records of Northwestern Ohio,
including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams & Fulton.
Published at Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co. 1899 - |
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