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HENRY COUNTY,
OHIO
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BIOGRAPHIES
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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GEORGE W. EDWARDS. As
one of the representative business men of Holgate, Mr.
Edwards our subject, holds prominent position. For
almost half a century he has resided in Henry County, and
his name is inseparably connected with its agricultural and
commercial interests. His thoroughly American spirit
and great energy have enabled him to mount from a lowly
position to one of affluence. One of his leading
characteristics in business affairs is his fine sense of
order and complete system, and the habit of giving careful
attention to details without which success in any
undertaking is never an assured fact.
Mr. Edwards was born near Circleville, Pickaway
county, Ohio, June 22, 1835, a son of Samuel and Mary (Aultman)
Edwards. His father was the well-known author of
"The Ohio Hunter," and "The Western Pioneer." In 1850
our subject accompanied his parents on their removal from
Hancock county to Henry county, locating in Monroe township
near the present site of Malinta, and remaining with them
for six years. In that township he was married May 4,
1855, to Miss Epsey Hill, who was born in Perry
county, Ohio, in 1836, a daughter of Michael and Sarah (Bost)
Hill, early settlers of Monroe township, Henry county,
where their deaths occurred. Mr. Edwards'
mother died in Hancock county, Ohio, aged thirty-six years,
his father in Marion township, Henry county, in September,
1895, at the age of eighty-six years. Of their eight
children our subject was the eldest.
George W. Edwards and his wife have four
children living, namely: Mary F., now the wife
of Doctor C. M. Overhula; Michael L. Edwards, who
married Mertie MErchant, of Green Springs, Ohio (she
is now deceased); Rosetta, wife of Joseph Keith;
and U. F. Edwards, who married Clara Burr, of
Malinta, Ohio. They have lost two: Sarah E.,
who died at the age of three and one-half years; and
Lavina R., who married Herbert Hall, and died at
the age of thirty-four.
For five years after his marriage, Mr. Edwards
remained upon the old homestead in Monroe township, and then
rented a farm on the Maumee river in Harrison township,
which he operated for three years. At the end of that
time he purchased a place in Marion township, Henry county
and to its cultivation and improvement devoted his time and
attention some twelve years. In the meantime he laid
out the village of Edwardsville, and engaged in
merchandising in connection with farming until 1877, when he
sold both his farm and business and removed to Holgate.
Here he has since carried on operations as a dealer in
lumber, hay and straw, in which undertaking he has also met
with a well-deserved success. Sine the organization of
the Republican party he has been one of its stanch
supporters, and he always takes a deep and commendable
interest in public affairs. Both he and his wife are
prominent members of the Seventh Day Adventist Church,
and take an active part in its work. Today he is not
more honored on account of the enviable position which he
occupies in business circles than on account of the many
kindly deeds of his life, which have ever been quietly and
unostentatiously performed.
In earlier life Mr. Edwards was an expert
marksman, and spent much enjoyable time in hunting bears and
other wild game, then quite plentiful in that region, and he
can tell, in his own graphic language, many a thrilling tale
of the hunt, and of the trials and experiences of pioneer
days. In 1844, then nine years old, he aided his
father (who took his hounds along) in capturing a live coon
in the woods, put him in a strong sack and carried him to
Findlay, a distance of four miles, where they made his "coonship"
climb the great liberty pole (raised in honor of Tyler) amid
the shouts and cheers of the great crowd assembled.
This was during the memorable campaign of Polk and Tyler,
and the coon was known as the "Whig coon." In
October, 1849, he and his father, accompanied by a couple of
great hounds trained for coon hunting, set out on foot for
the Maumee Valley (known at that time as the Black Swamp on
a prospecting tour. On the journey they caught a coon
at night, and did but little hunting in daytime except
securing deer and wild turkeys for their own and the dog's
maintenance. On the third day they arrived at the first
dwelling they had seen since starting a small cabin
inhabited by an elderly couple and several children, one of
whom was a girl of some fourteen summers - rather shy, not
being accustomed to see strangers - who was grinding corn in
a hand mill. That young girl in after days became
Mr. Edwards' wife. In this tramp through the dense
forest they continually, at night time, would hear the
howlings of voracious wolves, and one morning the father
shot and killed a great wild voracious wolves, and one
morning the father shot and killed a great wild cat that had
been perched up on a tree beneath which they had been
resting all night. It had been driven there by the
hounds the evening before. Mr. Edwards also
mentions a celebrated bear hunt, on which occasion he and
other hunters had six-days' chase after what they called the
"residenter bear of four counties." Before they
succeeded in finally capturing this noted bear the brute had
killed or crippled fourteen of the hunters' dogs.
Mr. Edwards is a fine exemplification of the
rugged pioneer woodsman, and is as hale and hearty a
specimen of healthy manhood as can be found in the county.
"I am now," says he, "in my sixty-fourth year, have never
chewed tobacco, was never under the influence of drink, and
can to-day do as much work as most any man, and enjoy a hunt
frequently in the wilds of Michigan." These few words
are sufficient in themselves to "Point a moral and adorn a
tale."
Source: Commemorative Biographical Records of Northwestern Ohio including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams & Fulton.
Published at Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co. 1899 - Page 316 |
THOMAS B. EMERY.
This prominent merchant and postmaster of Grelton, Henry
county, is entitled to distinction as one of the most
progressive and enterprising men of the community.
Upon the commercial activity of a community depends is
prosperity, and the men who are now recognized as leading
citizens are those who are at the head of important business
interests. He is a man of broad capabilities, one who
carries forward to successful completion whatever he
undertakes.
In Montville, Waldo county, Maine, Mr. Emery was
born February 26, 1838, a son of Levi and Lois (Keene)
Emery, who were also natives of the Pine Tree State, and
died in Montville, the former on August 21, 1873, the latter
on June 13, 1866. Our subject is next to the youngest
of their eleven children - seven sons and four daughters -
and under the parental roof he remained until he
attained his majority, going at that time to North Chelsea,
Massachusetts, where he spent one summer. Returning to
Maine, he worked on the home farm for a few months, and in
February, 1860, he came to Henry county, Ohio, where for two
years he was in the employ of his brother, Judson Emery,
in Damascus township. The following eight years were
passed with his father upon the old home farm in Montville,
Maine, but in February, 1870, he returned to Henry county,
with whose commercial and agricultural interests he has
since been identified. For the first ten years he
engaged in merchandising at Emery's Corners, and then
removed his stock of goods at Grelton, where he has since
successfully carried on operations as a general merchant.
Besides his village property he now owns two hundred and
forty-two acres in Monroe and Damascus townships, Henry
county, and the success that he has achieved is due entirely
to his own unaided efforts.
Near Bowling Green, Wood county, Ohio, Mr. Emery
was married April 9, 1862, to Miss Cynthia Shively, a
native of that county, and daughter of Henry and Margaret
Shively. They were natives of Columbia county,
Pennsylvania, were pioneers of Akron, Ohio, and as early as
1833 became residents of Wood county. Both are now
deceased, the mother having died May 5, 1879, the father on
March 5, 1885. Mr. and Mrs. Emery have one
daughter, Eva M.
Under President Arthur's administration,
Mr. Emery was appointed postmaster of Grelton, which
office he had then held for almost five years, and was
re-appointing during President Cleveland's second
administration, being the present incumbent. His
public service is most exemplary, and his private life has
been marked by the utmost fidelity to duty. He is a
public-spirited, progressive citizen, who has given support
to all measures for the public good, and over his life
record there falls no shadow of wrong. Socially he is
a member of the Masonic fraternity.
Source: Commemorative Biographical Records of Northwestern Ohio including the counties of Defiance, Henry, Williams & Fulton.
Published at Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co. 1899. |
CHARLES EVERS. This
leading resident of Napoleon, Henry county, is the editor
and proprietor of that popular paper, "Der Deutsche
Dernokrat," or "The German Democrat," and is also well-known
in political life, having held numerous positions of trust
in his locality. For some time he served as auditor of
Henry county, and he also held the office of postmaster at
Napoleon, his appointment dating back to 1894.
Mr. Evers was born January
4, 1841, at Mengerhausen, Germany, formerly a part of the
Kingdom of Hanover, and received his education under the
instruction of his father and a private tutor until he was
fifteen years of age. Three hears and a half he spent
in learning the mercantile business in Kassel, in Kurhessen,
and he then continued in the employ of the firm for three
years more. Later he went to Berlin, where he was
engaged in the same line of business until his emigration to
America in 1870. For some time after his arrival he
taught German school in Henry county, and later he found
employment as a clerk in a mercantile establishment in
Napoleon, where he located in April, 1870. This
position he held for several years, and for two years he was
engaged in the saloon business on his own account, but
afterward became interested in the fire-insurance business,
and in a grocery, which he conducted for about a year.
Soon after settling at
Napoleon, he began taking an active part in local politics,
and in 1875 he was elected to the office of township clerk,
which he held for six years. Early in the "80's" he
was elected county auditor, and after serving two full terms
he was appointed by the county commissioners to serve for
ten months longer, owing to a change in the law. He
was also elected twice to the office of justice of the
peace, and in all these positions he has displayed ability
combined with a keen sense of his duty to the public.
In 1893 he was appointed to examine the books of the auditor
and treasurer of Putnam county, which covered a period of
ten years, and in 1894 he assisted in making a similar
examination in Fulton county. In 1896 he was employed,
by the commissioners of Paulding county, to examine the
books in the office of the auditor and treasurer of that
county, and his labors in all these examinations resulted in
such substantial benefit to each of the counties interested
as to beyond doubt establish his reputation as a thorough
accountant, and it is but just and well-merited praise to
add that as such he ranks second to none in this county.
Source: 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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