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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS
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HENRY COUNTY,
OHIO
History & Genealogy |
BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
A History of Northwest Ohio
A Narrative Account of Its Historical
Progress and Development
from the First European Exploration of the Maumee and
Sandusky Valleys and the Adjacent Shores of
Lake Erie, down to the Present Time
By Nevin O. Winter, Litt. D.
Assisted by a Board of Advisory and Contributing Editors
ILLUSTRATED
Vol. I & II
The Lewis Publishing Company
Chicago and New York
1917
Transcribed by
Sharon Wick
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JACOB W.
BARNHILL, M. D., is the only homeopathic
physician at Napoleon and in Henry County. He has
practiced in that locality for more than twenty yeas,
and in that time extended practice has come to him and
his services are in demand by many of the very best
families of the county. Doctor Barnhill is
a thorough homeopath, and his long experience has shown
him that people require not so much medicine as proper
nursing and cheerful and comfortable environment and
surroundings. The doctor has a magnetic
personality and this, his patients claim, has been as
much a factor in his success as the medicines which he
administers.
He is a graduate of the Hahnemann Homeopathic Medical
College of Cleveland, completing his course there in
1893, and for a short time practiced at Findlay, Ohio,
before removing to Napoleon Sept. 14, 1893. He has
well equipped offices on Washington Street opposite the
postoffice. Doctor Barnhill has also served
as county coroner two terms, and is interested in all
local affairs. Professionally he is a member of
the Ohio State Homeopathic Institute and also the
Homeopathic organization of Northwest Ohio.
Doctor Barnhill was born in Hancock County six
miles west of Findlay, Ohio, Oct. 28, 1866. As he
grew up on a farm he attended the public schools and
later completed his literary education in the Ohio
Northern University at Ada, where he received a
certificate to teach, but never made use of it. He
is of old Pennsylvania stock. His grandfather,
Gabriel Barnhill, was born in Pennsylvania, but
early came to Ohio and died in this state.
Joseph Barnhill, father of Doctor Barnhill,
was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, during the decade of
the '30s, grew up on a farm, and subsequently located in
Hancock County, where he married Sarah Funkhouser,
also a native of Ohio. They spent most of their
married lives in Hancock County, where the father died
at the age of seventy-three and the mother at
seventy-four. They were Presbyterians and he was a
democrat. Of their four sons and three daughters,
two of the daughters are now deceased, and all those
living are heads of families. Two other sons are
physicians. Dr. Tobias G. is a graduate of
the Homeopathic Medical School at Cleveland, is in
practice at Findlay, and is married and has one son
named Joseph. Dr. William D. graduated in
the same year and same class as his brother Jacob,
and has a successful practice at Fort Wayne, Indiana; he
is the father of three children: Vaithe, Reah
and Freda, the daughter, Reah, being
married. The other son is Daniel Barnhill,
a farmer of Columbia, Indiana, and the father of two
daughters and one son, Coral.
Doctor Barnhill was married at the home of his
bride five miles west of Findlay, Ohio, to Miss Alice
V. Smaltz. She was born near Lancaster,
Fairfield County, Ohio, Jan. 2, 1870,was reared and
educated there and after graduating from a business
college taught bookkeeping in a business school until
her marriage. Her parents were Louis and Martha
Powell Smaltz, both natives of Fairfield County and
her father of German ancestry. Her parents were
married in Fairfield County and most of their children
were born there, but about thirty years ago they located
in Liberty Township of Hancock County, where they have
since enjoyed an excellent farm home. Both are
members of the Christian Union Church and her father is
a democrat who has served as trustee of Liberty Township
and is county commissioner of Hancock County.
Doctor and Mrs. Barnhill had twin daughter who
died at birth, and there are three living children:
J. Walter, now fourteen, and is in the eighth grade
of the public schools. Kenneth S., twelve
years old and in sixth grade of the public schools.
Martha A. was born Feb. 21, 1906, and is in the
fifth grade. Doctor and Mrs. Barnhill are
members of the Presbyterian Church and fraternally he is
affiliated with the subordinate lodge of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows at Napoleon, with Maumee Valley
Encampment of that order, with the Knights of Pythias
and with Napoleon Lodge, No. 929, of the Benevolent and
protective Order of Elks. Politically he is a
democrat.
Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ. 1917 -
Page 1223 |
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AMOS BLANK. With
the coming of Amos Blank to Henry County in 1895
an element of strength and purpose was added to the
upbuilding forces of a prosperous community. For a
number of years Mr. Blank had been engaged in
farming and in the sawmilling business in Sandusky
County, and when he came to his new home he was prepared
to enter activity into the life of the community and to
contribute to its progress and well-being. So
strongly did he impress his personality and ability upon
the agriculturists of his locality that at the
organization of the Henry County Farmers Mutual Fire
Insurance Company they unhesitatingly elected him its
first president, and he remained at the head of the
organization until his retirement, a few months prior to
his death, his soundness of judgment and strong
executive ability placing the company upon a sound and
stable foundation.
Mr. Blank came of good, sturdy Pennsylvania
ancestry and of Dutch stock. His father,
William Blank, was born in the Keystone State in the
latter part of the seventeenth century, and was there
three times married. The name of his first wife is
not known. His second wife was Anna Hess
who became the mother of David, Abraham, Peter, Amos,
Malinda, Matilda, Elizabeth and Mary all of
whom were married except Mary, and all now
deceased except Malinda and Matilda, both
widows. The latter now lives in Toledo and is
Mrs. Crisleb, and the former, Mrs. McChristen,
resides near Saint Johns, Michigan. By his last
marriage, to a Pennsylvania girl, William Blank
had two children: Emmeline deceased, who was the
wife of Daniel Shively; and William, Jr.,
formerly a farmer of Washington State, but now living
with Mrs. Blank, a widow with one daughter,
Lena, who is married and has two children.
The youngest of his parents' children, Amos Blank
was born at Gibsonburg, Sandusky, County, Ohio, Apr. 20,
1841. He was reared in his native county, where he
secured a public school education, and continued to be
engaged in farming on the home place until about the
year 1885 when he left home to go into the sawmilling
business in partnership with his brother, each having a
half interest in the enterprise. After three years
he disposed of his holdings in the mill and resumed
farming, and continued to be so engaged until coming to
Henry County in 1895. Here, in section 19,
Harrison Township, he purchased a tract of 260 acres of
the very best land, which continued to be his home until
the time of his death. He made many improvements
on this property, including barns and outbuildings and a
fine ten-room residence, brick, of modern architecture,
and equipped the farm with every up-to-date appliance in
the way of machinery.
When the Henry County Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance
Company was under organization the founders of this
enterprise had little trouble in agreeing upon the man
to place in the chief executive position. Mr.
Blank's broad experience, his sound judgment, his
conservative views, his absolute integrity in business
affairs and strict probity in private life, and the firm
confidence in which he was held by the people of Henry
County, made him the logical candidate for the position
of president, and in that post he was placed. The
officials had no reason to regret of their choice, nor
had the people. Under his able administration of
affairs, the company followed a policy of absolute
fairness, of conservatism blended with progressiveness,
and of principles founded upon the fundamentals of
honesty, and the affairs of the organization progressed
and prospered to such an extent that it became one of
the soundest organizations of its kind in the state.
If he had done nothing else, the farmers of Henry County
would have reason to remember Mr. Blank
with gratitude for the work he did in building up an
institution which has been of such great benefit to
them. In January, 1911, feeling that he had done
his duty in connection with this company, he refused
re-election, and was succeeded in office by H. S.
Hashbarger, the present incumbent.
As a citizen Mr. Blank did his full share
—and more—in the promotion of public enterprises.
He was never too busy to give of his time, or his
influence, his means or his abilities, to the
advancement of anything that promised to be for the
general welfare. For years he had been a strong
prohibitionist, and had fought valiantly in the cause of
temperance. As a fraternalist, he belonged to
Napoleon Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and Haly
Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. No one ever doubted
his pure motives; he was at all times fair and above
board, and in his death the community of Napoleon lost a
citizen upon whose honor it could absolutely rely.
About a month before his death, Mr. Blank,
accompanied by his wife, went to Bartlesville, Oklahoma,
to visit a son. There Mr. Blank
contracted a severe cold which turned into pneumonia,
and after an illness of but ten days' duration he passed
away Apr. 2, 1911, aged sixty-nine years, eleven months,
twelve days. The remains were brought back to
Napoleon for interment, and the funeral services were
held under the auspices of the Masonic lodge, Rev. W.
A. Mast officiating.
On Aug. 30, 1868, Mr. Blank was united in
marriage with Miss Emma Clifford,
who was born at Wellington, Lorain County, Ohio, Aug.
20, 1848, and was brought as a child to Sandusky County,
Ohio, where she was reared and educated. Mrs.
Blank is a great-granddaughter of John
Clifford, who was born at Providence, Rhode Island,
in 1777, the son of a soldier of the Revolutionary war.
He was one of the men who entered the wilderness of
Lorain County. Ohio, in 1818, and founded the Village of
Wellington. There he became a prosperous farmer,
clearing up a good property on Wellington Creek, where
he passed away Sept. 17, 1869, at the age of ninety-two
years. While John Clifford was a man
of courage and decision, he was mild mannered, quiet,
sympathetic and of loving and lovable character, and
these characteristics have been inherited in large
degree by his descendants. He was a member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, to which the family have
generally belonged.
Among the children of John Clifford was
Daniel Clifford, the grandfather of Mrs.
Blank. He was born in Massachusetts, in
1799, and in 1818 came to Lorain County, Ohio, with his
father, there growing up in the wilds and experiencing
the vicissitudes and hardships of life in an unsettled
community. He married a pioneer girl from
Massachusetts. Sarah P. Hall, their wedding
being after the manner of the times, a log cabin affair
to which the guests traveled by horse and ox-team, Mr.
Clifford using the latter means of conveyance
when he went after his bride. Their honeymoon
journey consisted of a four day trip by ox-team to their
lonely hut in the woods where they began life.
Their entire lives were passed on their farm, where they
built up a comfortable homestead, reared a family that
was a credit to them, and gained the respect and esteem
of the entire community by their straightforward and
honorable lives. Mr. Clifford was
about eighty years of age at the time of his death,
while Mrs. Clifford was several years
younger when she passed away two years later.
Henry Sheldon Clifford, son of Daniel and
Sarah P. Clifford, and father of Mrs.
Blank, was born at Wellington, Lorain County.
Mar. 3, 1827. He grew up on the old home farm, and
worked thereon until he was sixteen years of age. at
which time he started to learn the trade of blacksmith,
a vocation which he followed until within a few years of
his death, Aug. 5, 1899. In 1868 he had changed
his residence to Lemoyne, Wood County, and there he
resided for a period of thirty-one years. Mr.
Clifford was married in Lorain County to Miss
Sophronia Merrill, who was born at
Rochester, Lorain County, in 1824, and who died in that
county Feb. 23, 1851, leaving two daughters: Mrs.
Emma Blank, and Josephine, the wife of
Benjamin Wiee, living at Pemberville, Wood County,
with a family of sons and daughters. For his
second wife, Henry S. Clifford married Sarah
Colburn, who was born January 28, 1823, and died
without issue, June 23, 1908. She was a faithful
wife and Christian woman, and a real mother to her
step-daughters. Henry S. Clifford is
remembered as a man of sturdy honesty and strength of
character, who won friends by his many fine qualities,
and confidence and esteem by his integrity and upright
dealing.
To Mr. and Mrs. Blank there
were born eight children, as follows : Emma J.,
born in 1870, who died in 1871; Amos Byron,
a successful oil operator of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, who
married Bertha Vockman, of Napoleon, and
has one son, Freeman B.; Myrtle M., who is
the wife of Sheldon Osborn, of
Indianapolis, Indiana, and has four children,
Florence who is married and has three children.
May who is married, Emma who is married,
and Franklin who resides with his parents; John
Palmer, who is now carrying on operations on the
home farm as manager for his mother's interests, married
Nettie Long, and has three children,
Frances, Catherine and Helen; Iva
B., the wife of Charles Hagerty, a
successful agriculturist of Liberty Township, Henry
County, has three children, Charles A., Clara
and Clarence, the last two twins; William
H., a well-known horseman of Napoleon, a breeder of
fine draft horses and the owner of three registered
thoroughbreds, is unmarried and makes his home with his
mother; Bertha, who is the wife of William
Hincher, a plumber of Napoleon, and has one son,
Rockwell B.; and Effa J., who is the wife of
Samuel Allerton, a well-known musician of
Napoleon.
Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ.
1917 - Page 1489 |
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CHARLES W.
BRINKMAN. The importance of the Village of
Florida in Henry County as a trading center largely
depends upon a general store which has been conducted in
that village for half a century or more, and for the
past seventeen eyars its proprietor has been Charles
W. Brinkman. The business was originally
established by John Long, Sr., one of the pioneer
merchants of Henry County, and he was succeeded by
John Long, Jr., who conducted the store about
eighteen years. The successor of these merchants,
Charles W. Brinkman, has continued the business
very much along the same lines as his predecessors,
though with such modifications as changing circumstances
demand. He carries in his stock everything
necessary to supply the local market, his trade
extending over a wide radius around Florida.
The enterprising qualities of Mr. Brinkman as a
merchant were well illustrated a few years ago. On
July 28, 1912, his store, its entire stock of goods and
also the postoffice, which was conducted by his clerk,
were destroyed by fire and not a penny's worth of goods
was saved. Without an instant's hesitation Mr.
Brinkman laid plans for rebuilding, and in a few
weeks had a solid cement block building erected on the
original foundation, 30 by 50 feet, the building being
thirteen feet high at the eaves. Here he has
continued to serve the public with a well assorted stock
of merchandise.
Mr. Brinkman was born in Flat Rock
Township, of Henry County, Nov. 27, 1868. He was
reared on a farm on the south side of the Maumee River,
and acquired his education in the local schools.
His early training as a farmer has kept him in close
touch with the agricultural community, and has been an
advantage rather than a handicap in his business work.
His parents were John and Harriet (Schull) Brinkman.
Both were natives of Crawford County, Ohio. His
grandfather, Christopher Brinkman, was of
German parentage, was a farmer and cabinet maker.
Some very substantial chair's which he made as a cabinet
maker are still kept as valued and useful relics in the
family. After the marriage of John
Brinkman and wife in Crawford County they lived
there some years. In that county were born three
children: Mary, Amanda and Louisa.
About the close of the Civil war the family removed to
Henry County, locating on an almost new farm in
Flat Rock Township. The children born in this
township were John A., born in 1865, and
Charles W. John Brinkman was a very
industrious farmer, and besides improving the greater
part of his own 137 acres he erected a substantial house
and barn. His death occurred there Sept. 28, 1886,
when fifty-six years of age. His wife died in
September, 1896, and she, too, was fifty-six. They
were members of the German Reform Church and he took a
very active part in democratic politics, serving his
township as trustee and in other offices. All the
children have had children of their own, and two of the
daughters are now widows and one son has lost his wife.
After reaching his majority Charles W. Brinkman
married Daisy D. Hall. She was born and
reared in Lucas County, Ohio, a daughter of Eugene
and Fannie (Guyer) Hall, both natives of Ohio,
probably of Lucas County. They were married in
Lucas County and afterwards moved to Henry County,
locating at the Village of Florida. Eugene
Hall for a number of years conducted and owned a
canal boat, but finally removed to West Virginia, where
for the past twenty years or more he has been associated
with a prominent company of lumber manufacturers and
dealers. He is now well known to the lumber trade
over that section, and has been greatly prospered.
Mrs. Brinkman's mother now lives in Toledo
with her aged mother, who is ninety-four years of age
and quite feeble. Mrs. Brinkman 's
maternal grandfather Guyer was very prominent in
the early days of Lucas County. He served as
sheriff of that county when the courthouse and county
seat were at Maumee, and he met his death while in the
performance of his duties. He was protecting a
lamb belonging to his daughter from the attack of a
madman and was killed. That tragedy occurred about
three score years ago.
After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Brinkman
lived on a farm until 1898, and he then came to Florida
and bought the Long store. They are the parents of
three children: Eugene, a daughter, is a graduate
of the Mary Hall Kindergarten and Experimental School.
where she had two years of teaching experience, and
completed her work there in 1916. Erma, now
eighteen years of age, was graduated from the Napoleon
High School in the spring of 1916, finished a course in
the Defiance Norman in the summer of the same year and
is now engaged in teaching. Donald, born in
December, 1902, is still attending the grade schools.
Mr. Brinkman and family are active members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church. For ten years he
served as a member of the school board, and also filled
the office of corporation clerk one term.
Politically he is a democrat. He belongs to the
National Union and the Knights of the Maccabees.
Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ.
1917 - Page 1482 |
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CHARLES V.
BRUBAKER. The most successful business man
is usually the one who has not only energy but also a
large fund of experience and a close and accurate
knowledge of the line in which he is engaged. That
accounts for the success of Charles V. Brubaker,
who for the past six yeas has had a fine establishment
at Napoleon as a dealer in pianos, and he also handles
Victrolas and Victrola records. He represents a
number of the best makes of piano and distributes his
goods not only in Napoleon but all over Henry and
a number of adjoining counties in Northwest Ohio.
He has two assistants in the business, and has one of
the most eligible locations in Napoleon, at the corner
of Washington and Scott streets, opposite the new
Postoffice Building.
He is recognized as a merchant of thorough integrity
and his own name and reputation stands for a guarantee
of the products which he sells. He was sixteen
years old when he acquired his first knowledge of the
piano trade. He has the qualifications of the good
salesman, He has the qualifications of the good
salesman, but with that he also unites a thorough
knowledge of pianos, acquired by extensive experience in
some of the largest piano manufacturing concerns in the
country. His first work was with the Anderson
Company at Van Wert, Ohio, in the shop, he was also with
a concern at Marion, Ohio, and latter with the Schaff
Brothers Company at Huntington, Indiana, and the
Packard Piano Company of Fort Wayne, Indiana. His
first experience as an independent business man was a
Monroeville, Indiana, where he was a member of the firm
of Friedline & Brubaker from 1903 to 1906.
During the next two years he was again in a piano
factory, and subsequently he sold pianos on the road
until 1910 when he came to Napoleon..
Charles V. Brubaker was born in Van Wert County,
Ohio, Apr. 10, 1877, and grew up on a farm, acquiring a
practical common school education. His
grandfather, Peter Brubaker, was a native
of Pennsylvania, an early settler in Van
Wert County, Ohio, where he married
Catherine Dull, a native of Ohio and of Pennsylvania
Parents. The grandparents spent their lives on a
farm in Van Wert County, where they died, both of them
about eighty-four years of age. They were members
of the Presbyterian Church. Naman Brubaker,
father of the Napoleon piano merchant, was born in Van
Wert County, grew up on a farm there, and made farming
his life vocation. He married Sophia Ellen
Lintermoot, also a native of Van Wert County.
She died in June, 1911, at the age of fifty-six.
Naman Brubaker, who was born in 1849, is still
living, making his home among his children. Both
parents were members of the United Brethren Church.
Of the large family of ten daughters and six sons, nine
of the daughters and three of the sons are still living,
and all are married except one daughter.
Charles V. Brubaker was married in Henry in
Defiance County, but grew up and received her education
in Henry County. Her father, Joseph J. Lewis,
now lives on a farm in Flat-rock Township of Henry
County at the age of seventy-seven. He was born in
Ohio and married in Henry County Mary Brubaker,
also a native of that county. She died at
her home in Flatrock Township in 1907, when about
sixty-seven years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Brubaker
have three children: Ross W., born Dec. 13, 1908;
Caroline J., and Marion P., twins, born November 24,
1913. Mrs. Brubaker is a member of the Methodist Church.
Fraternally Mr. Brubaker has attained
thirty-two degrees in Scottish Rite Masonry. His
lodge membership is with Lodge No. 293 at Monroeville,
Indiana. He demitted to Haley Chapter No. 136,
Royal Arch Masons, at Napoleon, from Fort Wayne, and is
a member of the Defiance Knight Templar Commandery No.
30, and the Toledo Consistory. Politically Mr.
Brubaker is a republican.
Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ.
1917 - Page 1196 |
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CHRISTIAN
W. BRUBAKER, whose home is in Napoleon Township
on one of the fine farms of that locality, ,represents
some of the true pioneer stock of Northeast Ohio, and
has himself lived more than threescore and ten years and
in early youth experienced some of the primitive
conditions which prevailed in all this region.
His birth occurred on a farm in Sugar Creek Township of
Stark County, Ohio, Sept. 27, 1843, and when he was four
years of age, in September, 1847, his parents moved to
Henry County. His father, John Brubaker.
had come out to Henry County some years previously and
had prospected all over the country. He made this
journey on foot, and at that time he erected the log
cabin in the woods which subsequently became the first
habitation of the Brubaker family in Henry
County. This first home of the Brubakers
was a mile north of Florida Station, and few people in
the present time can imagine the extreme wildness of the
country at that time. There was abundance of wild
game in the woods, very little of the land was broken or
cultivated, and people confined themselves to the barest
necessities of existence. The first home of the
Brubakers was a typical log cabin, with a clapboard
roof, and with a stick and mortar chimney and fireplace.
All the cooking was done at this fireplace, and the
furnishings of the home were extremely simple. It
required many days of hard labor to clear up an acre of
ground and put it into cultivation, and even when a
surplus of crops was produced a little market could be
found. John Brubaker had all the energy and
aggressiveness of the true pioneer. He was
constantly at work, and his enterprise showed itself in
bountiful fruits in later years. He developed a
fine farm, and his first purchase of eighty acres was
increased from time to time until he owned 480 acres.
He lived to see all of this land improved in a general
way and he left it with substantial house and barn,
strong fences, and increased in value many fold over
the figures at which he had acquired it. He not
only raised crops but also did diversified farming with
stock raising. His death occurred in April, 1894,
just fifteen days before his eightieth birthday.
He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and when
a young man went to Wilmot, then Milton, Stark County,
Ohio. When quite young he learned the carpenter
trade and conducted a saw mill for several years in
Stark County. In that county he married Saloma
Wyandt, who was a native of Pennsylvania and a
daughter of Henry Wyandt. The
Wyandt family also joined the early settlers
of Stark County, Ohio, and all the older members of the
Brubaker and Wyandt families died
there. Mrs. John Brubaker
died at the old home in Flatrock Township of Henry
County when past eighty years of age. She and her
husband were highly respected people, were greatly
beloved by a wide circle of friends and should be
remembered among the loyal and thrifty pioneers of this
section. John Brubaker was first a
whig and afterwards a republican, and for many years
filled the office of township trustee. In the
family were five sons and three daughters, all of whom
grew up and all married except one, and all the sons and
one of the daughters are still living.
The second son and fourth child, Christian W.
Brubaker, spent his early life in Henry County, and
was at home with his parents until past his majority.
The first money he ever earned was $70 paid him for
cutting cord wood for the Wabash Railway, which was
built about that time. He was very strong, handy
with the ax and with other tools, and in the process of
time he helped to clear up and develop three different
farms in Henry County.
In 1876 Mr. Brubaker bought the southwest
quarter of section 33 in Napoleon Township, and in 1882
established his family on that home. In the thirty-five
years that have since passed he has developed a farm
equal in improvements and equipment to the best that can
be found in this section of Northwest Ohio.
Besides his own dwelling he has another residence on the
farm, and also two large barns and other buildings.
The farm is well stocked, year after year produces the
staple crops of Northwest Ohio, and in recent years the
growing of sugar beets has been a feature of the farm
productivity. Mr. Brubaker also owns 135
acres comprising a well improved and valuable farm, with
house, barns and other buildings in Flatrock Township.
As an owner of real estate Mr. Brubaker
pays annually $600 in taxes, and is one of the largest
taxpayers among the farming class of this county.
He is a student of the soil and on his own farms owns
what is called burr oak and elm tree land, a soil which
is a black loam, and of almost inexhaustible fertility
when properly cultivated and conserved.
In Flatrock Township Mr. Brubaker married
Miss Martha A. Glore. She was born in Ohio,
was reared and educated in Henry County. Her
parents were John and Catherine (Zeiter) Glore,
both of Pennsylvania, though they were married and spent
most of their lives in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs.
Brubaker became the parents of eleven children.
Two of them died in infancy, one being scalded to death
when three years of age. Eight are still living:
Albert, who lives on his father's farm in
Flatrock Township, is married and has five children
named Daniel, Ola, Ethel, Nora
and Mina. Charles Edward
is a bachelor, and is assisting his father in the
management of the home farm. Irena is the
wife of George Thorn, a Harrison Township farmer,
and their children are Vance, Martha and
Opal. Hattie E. is the wife of
Mahlon Neff, a farmer of Flatrock Township,
and they have two children named Harold and
Howard. Logan is still unmarried and
helps run the home farm. Lawrence E., who
is associated with his brother in conducting the
homestead and lives in the separate residence on the old
farm, married Ada Von Deylen, and
they have a son named Vernon. Helen S., the
youngest, is the wife of Walter C. Box, a
carpenter in Napoleon, and they are the parents of one
daughter, Evelyn.
Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ.
1917 - Page 1525 |
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WILLIAM D.
BRUBAKER. It is now many years since the
Brubaker family was established within the limits of
Henry County; the earlier ones have long since passed
away, but there is record of their worthy work as
pioneers, as developers of the wilderness, and in later
generations the activities and the associations of the
family have always been of One a most prominent useful
character.
One a most prominent useful character. member of the family was the
late William D. Brubaker, whose son Arthur
Brubaker still owns and occupies a part of the
fine old Brubaker homestead in Napoleon
Township. William D. Brubaker was born in
Pennsylvania Jan. 17, 1839, and died at his home in
Napoleon Township Jan. 10, 1887. His father,
Henry Brubaker, was also a native of
Pennsylvania, where he grew up and where he married
Leah Weible, who was also of German ancestry.
During the early '40s Henry Brubaker
brought his family, to Napoleon, Ohio, and soon bought a
tract of wild wooded land on the north side of Maumee
River not far from Napoleon. After he had cleared
this up and put it into cultivation, the growth of the
city encroached upon his agricultural domain and it
became too valuable as lots to continue it for purely
agricultural purposes. Therefore he traded for
another farm in Flatrock Township, just west of the
Village of Florida, and in that locality Henry
and his wife spent their last years. He was past
sixty when he died, while his widow lived to be within
three months of ninety-eight years. They were good
faithful Christian people, of the United Brethren faith,
while he was a whig and re publican. They were the
parents of fourteen children: William D., Jacob,
George, Elizabeth, Hannah, Mary, Harvey, Emma, Minerva,
John, Lincoln, Ada, Edward and Henry.
Of this large family Henry died at the age of
sixteen and Edward at four, while the rest grew
up and all married except Harvey. Four sons
and two daughters are still living, and most all of the
children were born in Henry County.
Wilham D. Brubaker grew up in Henry
County, and soon after his twenty-second birthday he
answered the first call for men to put down the
rebellion in the South. He joined a three months'
regiment in 1861, and when his term expired he
re-enlisted in Company F of the Sixty-eighth Ohio
Volunteer Infantry. He was with that regiment in
all its engagements and campaigns until he was honorably
discharged after two years on account of ill health.
He was never wounded or captured, and made a record as a
soldier which will always redound to his credit and will
be a cherished memory among his descendants. In
his business career he was a practical farmer. He
began with little money, and for three years rented.
He then bought 240 acres in section 28 of Napoleon
Township, and from time to time added improvements and
brought all the land under cultivation. Idleness
had no part in his makeup, and consequently he left a
large estate as the fruit of his earnest plans and
endeavors. He had used good judgment in buying his
land, since it is of the rich alluvial and of almost
inexhaustible fertility. One conspicuous
improvement which he left was a handsome brick house of
twelve rooms, in addition to a number of other
substantial farm buildings. This brick house is
still a most comfortable and attractive residence, and
one feature in its construction was a large basement
divided into five different apartments. This old
residence landmark in Napoleon Township is now owned and
occupied by his son, Arthur Brubaker, who also
has eighty acres of the old homestead estate.
William D. Brubaker was a republican, and while he
belonged to no church he was a Christian in practice and
principle.
In 1863 he married Elizabeth Bales. She is
still living and occupies a pleasant home at 750 West
Washington Street, Napoleon, and is a very active member
of the Methodist Episcopal Church of that city.
She was born Oct. 6, 1847, in Wayne County, Ohio, and
was very young when brought to Napoleon Township by her
parents, Jacob and Saloma (Sidel) Bales, who
settled on the old Bales farm on the Bales Road,
1-1/2 miles west of Napoleon. Her father died in
1886, his death being the result of a runaway accident,
when his team was scared by a clap of thunder.
Jacob Bales was a native of Pennsylvania, where he
grew to manhood, and was married in Wayne County, Ohio,
to the mother of Mrs. Brubaker. Mrs.
Brubaker's mother was born in Pennsylvania and died
in 1877. Jacob Bales married for his second
wife Mrs. Martha (Meeks) Miller,
who is still living. He had seven children by his
first marriage, and there are four by the second wife.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilham D. Brubaker had thirteen
children. Three of them, Elmer, Hester
and Laura, died young. The others are:
George, who is married and lives on a farm near
Hamler in Henry County and has five children; Ida,
who is unmarried and lives with her mother; Lila,
wife of Sanford Durham, living on a farm
in Defiance County and the mother of three children;
Wallace, a farmer near Blissfield, Michigan, and a
widower with seven children; Arthur; Perry,
who is a farmer in Damascus Township, and has a family
of four children; Carl, who lives in Napoleon and
has three children; Nellie, wife of Ray
Shreve of Napoleon and the mother of one son; and
Jennie, wife of Alonzo Durham, a
farmer in Liberty Township; Arthur.
Arthur Brubaker who, as already stated, occupies
the old family residence of the Brubakers in
Napoleon Township, was born on the farm where he still
resides, Sept. 11, 1875. He has spent his active
career in this one locality, and after attending the
schools applied himself industriously to farm management
and is now one of the very progressive agriculturists of
Henry County. He erected the first silos in his
community for the production of beef cattle.
In Ridgeville Township, in 1898, Arthur Brubaker
married Miss Clara Frances Smith, who was born
there Nov. 5, 1876, a daughter of Joseph and Sarah (Labar)
Smith both natives of Ohio and married in Henry
County. Her parents are still living at
Ridgeville, where her father is a carpenter and is still
active at his trade. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
attend the United Brethren Church, fo which she is an
active member, and he was reared in the Catholic faith.
Mr. and Mrs. Brubaker have two children:
Granville D., born June 30, 1899, and now in the
eighth grade of the public schools; and Florence A.,
born Mar. 14, 1909, and recently taking up her work as a
student in the public schools. Mr. and Mrs.
Brubaker are members of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and politically he is a republican.
Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II _ Publ.
1917 - Page 1275 |
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