BIOGRAPHIES

‡ Source:
Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio
Publ. by The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago & New York
1920
Transcribed by Sharon Wick

< CLICK HERE to RETURN to 1920 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >
< CLICK HERE to GO to LIST of BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES >
 

	THEOPHILUS AESCHLIMAN, a well-to-do retired farmer, now living in York Township, and well-known in German Township, comes of one of the old families of the county.      He is a son of Christian and Fannie (Fry_ Aeschliman who were pioneer residents in German Township.  Christian Aeschliman was born in Switzerland, but his wife was of French birth and ancestry.  They came to America, and for a while lived in Wayne county, Ohio, and eventually entered a tract of government land in German Township, Fulton county.  It was all in timber, and the surroundings were wild.  There was an old log cabin upon the place, and it had evidently been used as a stable, but in that hut Christian Aeschliman and his wife had to make their abode for a while.  He was a typical pioneer, and resolutely applied himself to the great task of clearing his property of timber.  Eventually he owned 160 acres, most of which he cleared, and upon which he erected adequate out=buildings, and a commodious, comfortable residence.  He died in about 1886, but his wife lived a widowhood of more than twenty years, her death not coming until the fall of 1909.  They were the parents of twelve children: Pollie, now deceased; Katie, deceased; Joel, deceased; Leah, who married David Krepf, and now lives in Schuyler county, Missouri; Jonathan, deceased; Rebecca, now living in Clinton Township, Fulton county; Nathaniel, also of Clinton Township; Levina, who married Andrew Vonier, of Jasper county, Missouri; Theophilus, regarding whom more follows; Emmaline, who now lives in Schuyler county, Missouri; Eli, now a resident in Wauseon, Ohio; and Eliza were twins.      Theophilus, ninth child of Christian and Fannie (Fry) Aeschliman, was born in German Township, Fulton county, Ohio, on Apr. 17, 1861, and was reared under somewhat primitive conditions that obtained in the township at that time.  He attended the district school, and after leaving school took good part in the work of the home farm.  He was almost twenty-two years old when he married, and for two years thereafter he and his wife lived in the log cabin on his father's property.  During that time he worked for wages, but at the end of two years, he joined his brother Eli in purchasing a farm of eighty acres to the southward of Archbold Village, Fulton county.  The brothers jointly farmed the acreage for four years, and then sold the property to advantage, Theophilus soon afterward going with his wife Schuyler county, of that state.  They were only there for a few weeks, however, and did not purchase a property.  Instead, they returned to Ohio an to Fulton county, taking up residence on the old Aeschliman homestead, in German Township.  Theophilus farmed the property for seven years, and then went to Chesterfield, Ohio, where he purchased a partly improved farm of one hundred acres.  He greatly improved the property during his occupancy of it, bringing all excepting twelve acres under cultivation.  In the fall of 1906 he sold the farm to good advantage, and returned to his native county, buying an improved farm of eighty two situated in section 19 of York Township, upon which property he has since lived.  During the last decade he has made extensive improvements, remodeling the barns and outbuildings.  The dwelling is of brick.  He experienced good success in general farming, and maintained a high degree of productivity, holding steadily to the farm management until 1917, when he decided to take things somewhat less strenuously than he formally had.  He rented the farm to his son, which condition has held to the present, to mutual satisfaction, but he has continued to live on the farm.      Theophilus Aeschliman on Apr. 10, 1883, married Fannie Vonier, who was born in France, the daughter of Andrew and Catherine (Guyman) Vonier, who settled in German Township, Fulton county, in about 1872, and continuing to reside there until their deaths.  Mrs. Vonier died Sept. 15, 1884, but Andrew Vonier lived to reach the venerable age of ninety-two years, death not coming to him until 1914.  To Theophilus and Fannie (Vonier) Aeschliman were born five children: Jemima, who married Aaron Klepfonstine of Clinton Township, Fulton county; Mary, who married Henry Richer, of the same township; Enos, a successful farmer, also of Clinton Township; Lucinda, who married Samuel Richer, of York Township, and is cultivating it with good success.      The Aeschliman family in its three generations of Fulton county residence has appreciably aided in the development of the agricultural land in the county. Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 206
Rev. Benjamin F. Aldrich	REV. BENJAMIN F. ALDRICH.  As noted elsewhere in the sketch of the Aldrich family of Fulton county, Rev. Benjamin F. Aldrich at the time of his death was pastor of the First Congregational Church of Chicago.  In an official publication of that church devoted to the history of the church and its successive pastorates, his successor in the ministry published a tribute to the character of Dr. Aldrich and particularly his influences and work in the ministry of Chicago, a brief sketch that may appropriately been entered as a part of the records of this history of Fulton County.      The late Benjamin F. Aldrich, D. D., was born at Wauseon, Ohio, Jan. 29, 1863, and passed to his eternal rest on Sunday evening, Nov. 5, 1916.      If Dr. Moses Smith (one of the earlier ministers of the First Congregational Church of Chicago) had many of the qualities of St. Peter, and if Doctor Noble (also a predecessor of Doctor Aldrich) reminded one of the apostle Paul, Doctor Aldrich's character and disposition were finely suggestive of the beloved disciple, John, or rather, perhaps, some would say both of John and of his Divine Master.  The foundations of his sturdy and gentle character were laid amid the hardships and simplicities of the old farm life of Ohio, where his mother prayerfully moulded him towards the holy ministry.  Though he studied law and was admitted to the bar, the essential quality of his life was that of a pastor and he gladly resigned the emoluments of the lucrative profession of law in order that the whole tendency of his life might be heavenward and that making the complete oblation he might render a whole-hearted, undivided service to men in the Spirit of Christ.      Having diligently served in other churches at Ironton, Sault Ste. Marie, Lancing, Pontiac, Ypsilanti, Aurora and Wellington avenue, he brought the fruit of his large natural endowment, varied experience and whole-hearted consecration to the service of "New First" in the heart of the great west side.  He had a genius for friendship, and the time had come when consecrated and unselfish friendship was a gift most needed in this parish.  In some ways he stood in strong contrast to the two men of whom we have been speaking.  While Doctor Smiths preaching had a dogmatic and prophetic flavor, and Doctor Noble's preaching was highly intellectual and strongly individualistic, the heart of Doctor Aldrich ached for this needy wayward and suffering community.  So in its utter simplicity and great practical helpfulness his preaching was a veritable breaking of the Bread of Life to hungry hearers.      He had a large and sure vision of the place this church should occupy in the midst of a great unchurched community, and with an ardor greater than his strength he threw himself into the splendid task of adjusting this historic and influential congregation to the needs of a modern and sinful city.  Like Timothy he "naturally cared" for men's state.  He well knew the needs of the hungry soul and the perils and pitfalls of the great city.  So in regard to the summer services on the lawn, and in the development of the Union Theological College, which was born in the vestry of this church in the brain of Professor Jernberg and in the heart of Doctor Aldrich also in regard to the potentialities of Carpenter Chapel and Hooker Hall, in the development of our Sunday School work and summer camps, in the whole social life of the church and especially in the intense and practical pastoral work, he caught the vision, followed the gleam, lived on a high plane and at a high tension until he had prematurely worn himself out with unselfish abandonment in the service of Christ, of this church and this community, but not before he had proven himself an efficient, wise, foresighted and great-hearted leader, and had widened and deepened the scope of the ministry of New First Church.      Slowly he had become an epitome and practical interpreter of that democracy men hear so much about and understand so little because its keynote in service - unselfish service even until death.  He laid down the pathways of service in this community which New First will probably follow for many years to come.      He touched all sorts and conditions of men.  While developing loyal and loving contact with rescue and reclamation agencies, he stood between men and the prison walls, stood between the hungry and want, and was looked up to by hundreds for guidance in their hour of trouble and was beloved by hundreds more who seldom entered the church but were the better for this church and his ministry in it.      His house was known to all the vagrant train:      He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain.      He loved unselfishly, sympathized with and suffered vicariously with and for those lives he touched and touching lifted toward the crystal purity of his own trustful, hopeful soul.      And he gave so unstintedly so he grew into mastery and in the subtle power of his appeal to men.  Honors sought him, but he sought them out.           For other aims his heart had learned to prize.           More skilled to raise the wretched than to rise.      He looked out at this multitude scattered abroad and going astray because they had no Shepherd, so he made the pastorate the crown of all his work.  He could not rest while these multitudes were away on the wild mountains of sin.  He longed to see them safe in the fold of the Good Shepherd.  So he went out after them, carried them on his strong shoulders, literally bore their burdens, shared their sorrows and poured out his life's strength for them until one Sunday two short years ago, about the time of the evening sacrifice, God said: "It is enough, come up higher."  Then "God's finger touched him and he slept."      But the scene in this church when thousands passed his bier with eyes blinded by tears was eloquent of the people's love for the beloved pastor and will never fade from the memories of those who were privileged to be present.  The tablet unveiled now by his son Baldwin bears the legend Psa. 78:22: "So he was their Shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands. Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 329
	MRS. JULIA CARTER ALDRICH.  (JOSEPH D. ALDRICH)  In the history of the Aldrich family of Fulton county is the same old story of three brothers who came from England many years ago.  In writing of Mrs. Julia Carter Aldrich, who is one of the most widely known women in the county, a relative says:  "It often seems unfortunate that we cannot see how important is our task.  To the youth of Fulton county the cultivated fields, the traffic on the network of roads, the great web of telegraph and telephone wires, the steel rails and so many minor things which are so commonplace that in hasty retrospection I do not think of them, are necessities.      "Seldom do they think of a civilization without them, and when they do, because such life seems quite impossible, they conceive of it as a very hazy past, and yet the generation that built these roads and wrested the fields from a trackless wilderness has but recently completed its task, and there are still many of these runners before of our civilization, their part in the herculean task complete, sitting quietly silent  not knowing that a recital of their labors would hold us in a thrilled attention as absolute as the telling of an Iliad.  Among those early comers was Mrs. Aldrich, who was with her brother, Jabez William Carter, when he was one of the owners of that first Fulton county paper which changed hands so often in its brief existence."      Mrs. Aldrich says: "In July, 1853, J. W. Carter, of Medina county, Ohio, came to Ottokee and bought the printery but recently established there, and commenced the publication of the Fulton County Union, a business he very much enjoyed, having been connected with a printing office since his boyhood.  He was then twenty-six years old.  He wrote his mother, a widow, his father having died in 1852, to shut up the house and come with the family, Charles, Julia, Julius and Margaret, to Ottokee for the winter.  We arrived early in November and were taken to the Henry Taylor Hotel until our goods arrived (no trains then from Toledo came farther than Whitehouse.).  Our coming happened at the same time as Mr. Aldrich's arrival from New York.  Mrs. Taylor was a very genial, motherly sort of a landlady - made her guest room like a family gathering place.      "The schoolmaster and editor readily formed acquaintance which soon ripened into friendship, thus bringing Mr. Aldrich to the county seat to spend the week-ends at that home-like hotel.  The courthouse, with its genial, intellectual officials, and the editorial sanctum had an attraction for him,"  and thus began another acquaintance - Joseph D. Aldrich with Julia Carter.      In the spring of 1854 Joseph Aldrich was engaged to teach in Spring Hill and Julia Carter in Ottokee.  Her brothers, Charles and Julius Carter, assisted J. W. Carter in the printing office.  John Youngs, still pleasantly remembered by many in Wauseon, was efficient help on the Fulton County Union.  He came from Medina with J. W. Carter when he was seventeen.  His daughter, Nora Youngs, became the wife of Willis, son of Edwin Patterson, of Dover.  "We all liked Ottokee, and as we all had employment none cared to go back to Medina."  The mother went back and sold the place, and returning to Ottokee she bought a home there.      On October 3, 1854, Joseph D. Aldrich married Julia E. Carter, and they went into a cozy little home of their own in Ottokee.  In 1858 they sold the Ottokee property and bought the Quaker Wright Farm on the north line of Clinton Township.  The Aldrich family still own and love the place where three sons: Amos Eugene, Fred Hampson and Benjamin F. Aldrich, were born, and their father Joseph D. Aldrich, died in 1889, aged sixty-two years.      The Fulton county Aldrich family is descended from Abel Aldrich, one of the three brothers who came from England.  He married a Miss Tilson and they lived in Providence, Rhode Island.  They had the following children: Tilson, Orrin, Abel, Amos, James, Dorcas, Prudence and Hannah.  The son Amos is the one to whom the Fulton county family owes its existence, and again it is Amos who perpetuates the name in Fulton county.  His son Joseph linked his fortune with Julia Carter, the woman who January 28, 1920, passed her eighty-sixth earthly milestone.  On that day her only son, Fred Hampson Aldrich at Detroit, visited her.      The files of the Fulton County Union have long ago disappeared, and it is doubtful if a single issue is still in existence.  From a time in the history of Fulton county it was the only voice from the outside world other than the stage driver and the transient guest.  The Fulton County Union was the voice of the community expressing ambitions, its hopes and disappointments.  In every frontier press room there is the nucleus for innumerable romantic tales.  Fulton county was then a frontier, and within the memory of Mrs. Aldrich its farms were small clearings in the primeval forests.  The deer would often come out of the woods and destroy the corn unless speedily driven from the fields; there were few beaten roads and unless one went a-foot he must depend upon his horse; the furniture was med, as was the cabin itself, by the owner , and in all the primitive life Mrs. Aldrich had an active party.      Mrs. Aldrich was one of the first contributors to the press in Fulton county.  Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich were among the first schoolteachers; they were always interested in working for better schools, better farming and better conditions.  While Mrs. Aldrich has been an occasional contributor to various publications, she also had a volume of verse from her earlier writings, entitled "Hazel Bloom."  She was the Ohio vice president, of the Western Writers' Association, and one of the editors of the National Grange, a paper connecting her with readers all over the place.      Mrs. Aldrich has survived her husband by so many years that she is the one best known in the community of today.  Her son Amos Eugene married Mary Siebold, who is of German parentage, her ancestry leaving the Fatherland in the exodus of the 'r0s as a protest against despotism.  He died in Wauseon, leaving his wife and the following children:   Ione, Julia Margaret (Madge), John Paul, Joseph Eugene and Donald.  The second son, Hon. Fred H. Aldrich, has lived in Michigan since beginning the practice of law, being circuit judge for many years.  He married Corine Isbell, daughter of Henry and Jane Lemmon Isbell.  Mr. Isbell was born in Connecticut, and was descended from Robert, one of the early settlers in Salem.  The Lemmons originally lived near Baltimore.  The Aldrich children are:  Fred, Compton, May and Corine.  Rev. Benjamin Frank Aldrich, D. D. Ph. D., married Bertha Yerkes after he left Fulton County.  At the time of his death he was pastor of old First Congregational Church in Chicago.  He had made of this church an unusual center of influence.  His wife survives him, and their children are Benjamin, Margaret, Baldwin, and Julian.  Five grandsons of Mrs. Aldrich, above enumerated, were in the World war, and all returned in safety.      In a poem entitled " Freedom," Mrs. Aldrich answers the question why she was never a church member, and there is no creed or dogma in her conception of Christianity.  While she gave one son to mechanical pursuits, one to law and one to the ministry, she has found all church work molds itself to her idea of life.  She holds her own judgment unbiased and recognizes good in all things.  All over Fulton county Mrs. Aldrich is regarded as one oracle - a bulwark in the community. Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 327
	ARTHUR ALLEN is a retired business man of Fayette, has lived there continuously for over a half century and is a brothers of Mr. Charles L. Allen, also of Fayette, whose individual record will also be found in this publication.      Arthur Allen was born in Monroe county, New York, Feb. 8, 1842, and was the youngest of the large family of Isaac and Mary (Terry) Allen  He was well educated, attending district schools, the Brockport Collegiate Institute and by a commercial course at Poughkeepsie.  At the age of twenty Mr. Allen left home and went out to Bloomington, Illinois, where he became an employe of the United States Express Company, and part of the time was also located at Springfield and Peoria.  About 1865 Mr. Allen engaged in the merchandise business at Fayette, Ohio, but soon returned to Illinois, and since 1867 has made Fayette his permanent home.  He was in the grist and sawmill business here for thirty-one years, finally selling out his interests, and has since lived retired in a beautiful modern house at Fayette.      Mr. Allen also served as mayor of Fayette several terms, ahs held the offices of township clerk, justice of the peace, member of the School Board, and has always acted with that groups of citizens working for the best interests of the community.  He is a democrat in politics.      In June, 1869, he married Francis H. DuBois, who was born at Orange in Ashland county, Ohio, a daughter of George and Amelia (Hoadley) DuBois, the former a native of New York and the latter of Connecticut.  Her parents settled in Gorham Township of Fulton county in 1847, living on a farm there.  Mrs. Allen's mother died in 1904, having been born in 1803, and her father died in 1908, having been born in 1814.  Both parents therefore lived to extreme age.  Mr. Allen has four sons, all of whom have made places for themselves in modern industry.  George, the oldest, is a mechanical engineer at Cleveland and is district manager for the Heffenstall Forge Company of Pittsburg.  Harry L., also a mechanical engineer, is with the Bruce- McBeth Engine Works at Cleveland.  Edwin, a graduate civil engineer, is now district manager at Chicago for the Lakewood Engineering Company of Cleveland.  Terry Joe is purchasing agent for the Firestone Steel Products Company of Akron, Ohio. Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 325
	CHARLES L. ALLEN, who served as a member of the advisory board for this History of Fulton County, has been identified with the business and community life of Fayette since prior to the Civil war, in which he took an honorable part as a soldier and Union officer.      Mr. Allen was born at Clarkson in Monroe county, New York, Nov. 16, 1838, son of Isaac and Mary (Terry) Allen  His father was born at Enfield, Connecticut, Apr. 26, 1794, where also his mother was born Apr. 27, 1800.  His father died in December, 1885, and his mother in 1876.  Isaac Allen was a soldier of the War of 1812.  In 1816 he located at Clarkson, New York.  He was a hatter by trade, but seven years after his marriage, which was celebrated Sept. 10, 1817, he became a farmer.  He enjoyed the confidence of his fellow citizens and held many offices of trust and honor.  The names of the children of Isaac and Mary Allen were:  Chauncey, Isaac, Harriet, who married John Little, Mary, who became the wife of James S. Hobbie, Julia who was Mrs. Gilbert Aldridge, Joseph O., Emily, who married Nathaniel Phillips, Henry, who served as captain of Company A of the One Hundred and Fortieth New York Infantry, Charles L. and Arthur.  The only ones now living are Charles and Arthur, both residents of Fayette, Ohio.      Charles L. Allen acquired a very good education for his time.  After the common schools he attended normal school at Brookport, New York, also an academy at Hawley, New York, and a business college at Rochester.  He came to Fayette, Ohio, in 1859, at the age of twenty-one, and after one term as a teacher found a job clerking in a general store at eight dollars a month and board.  The proprietor of that store was G. W. Thompson.  He had not been enjoying this compensation and experience very long when the stern call of patriotic duty sounded, and in August, 1861, he left the counter to enlist in Company K of the Thirty-eighth Ohio Infantry.  He was elected and mustered in as second lieutenant, and went with the Army of the Cumberland, participating in many campaigns through Kentucky, Tennessee and other states of the middle South.  He was promoted to first lieutenant and quartermaster and finally to adjutant, serving as such until December, 1864, when he resigned his commission on account of disability and soon after his return to Fayette was commissioned captain and raised a company, but the war came to an end before it was ready for service.  The war over, Captain Allen settled down at Fayette as a general merchant, and continued that business fifteen years.  After that he bought and sold produce, but in 1880 closed out that business.  In 1885 he became one of the associates in the organization of the Bank of Fayette, his partners being Col. E. L. Barber, Arthur Allen and Judson Trobridge.  Captain Allen was manager and cashier of the institution, and continued at that post of duty until the bank went into voluntary liquidation in 1913.      Captain Allen has long enjoyed the complete confidence of his community not only for his business ability but for his personal integrity.  He served nine years as justice of the peace, as school examiner nine years, and was a member of the Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth General Assemblies, and again was elected to the Seventy-fourth and Seventy-fifth General Assemblies, serving the second time without opposition.  He is a stanch republican, and is a charter member of Fayette Lodge No. 387 of the Masons, acting as secretary of the lodge many years.  Only two charter members are now living, James Grisut and C. L. Allen.  He is also a member of the Loyal Legion, and is a past commander and present quartermaster of Stout Post No. 108, Grand Army of the Republic.      In October, 1865, Captain Allen married Susan C. Gamber.  She was born in Seneca county, New York, daughter of Henry and Mary (Hartrenuft) Gamber.  Her parents, natives of Pennsylvania, were settlers in Fulton county in 1847.  Her father bought 160 acres of timbered land and set off part of this tract and founded the town of Fayette, which he named in honor of Fayette, New York.  Captain Allen has two children:  Carrie B., at home; and Elsie M., wife of Dr. Clair S. Campbell a well known Wauseon physician.  Dr. and Mrs. Campbell have one son, Charles Allen. Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 249
	RELMON D. AMSBAUGH ‡ Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 150
	DAVID M. ANTON ‡ Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 245
	GEORGE ELIAS ARNOLD ‡ Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 338
	LEWIS G. ATON ‡ Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 285
	ARTIE G. AUNGST ‡ Source: Standard History of Fulton County, Ohio - by The Lewis Publishing Company - Chicago & New York - 1920 - Page 160

.