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	CHARLES E. OSBORN.  The claim of Charles E. Osborn upon the good will and consideration of his fellow townsmen in Flatrock Township of Henry County is based upon many years of progressive and effective work as a practical farmer and stock raiser and by his efforts at all times to promote the welfare of his community by the improvement of roads, the maintenance of good schools, and in the upholding of religion and morality.  His home is in section 15, of Flatrock Township.      Representing an old and prosperous family of Northwest Ohio, Charles E. Osborn was born in Richland Township of Defiance County June 22, 1863.  His people came to Defiance County from Portage County in this state.  His parents were David and Cahterine (Hull) Osborn.  David Osborn was born in Pennsylvania, his people being natives of that state and of Dutch ancestry. From Pennsylvania the Osborns moved to Portage County, Ohio, when David was a small boy.  In that locality he grew up, and married there Miss Hull, who was a native of Portage County but of Pennsylvania parentage.  The Hulls were among the early settlers of Portage County, and Mrs. David Osborn's parents died there when well advanced in years.      After David Osborn had grown to young manhood his parents made still another removal, going from Portage to Richland Township in Defiance County.  They made that removal some time in the decade of the '40s. Defiance County at that time was still an almost uncleared wilderness.  Their home was in the woods and a log cabin gave them shelter until a better residence could be constructed.  In that locality the grandparents spent the rest of their days.  David's mother died first and his father was then married in Defiance County to Miss Catherine Baker.  There were two children of the second marriage, Elijah and Emma, the former now deceased.  Emma is the widow of Andrew Hardy and lives with her family in Defiance County.  The mother of these two children died when nearly eighty years of age, while the father of David Osborn was seventy-six when he passed away.  David Osborn was one of a family of five children, both the sons, David and Sylvester, being still alive.  The three daughters, Jane, Susan and Julia, all married, but are now deceased, though children survive them.      David Osborn was married in Defiance county to Miss Catherine Hull, who had come to his locality after her brother, Emanuel Hull, had married Jane Osborn.  After marriage Mr. and Mrs. David Osborn located on a part of the old Osborn homestead.  They sold that and then went to another farm in the same township, which they also sold, and then bought a partly improved place of 108 acres in Tiffin Township of Defiance County.  Mrs. David Osborn died on that farm, at the home of her son, David Osborn Jr.  David Osborn Sr. is now living at the home of his daughter Catherine, wife of Ambrose Truby in Richland Township of Defiance County, and for a man of his years is still vigorous and active and takes a keen interest in passing events, being a democrat in politics. His wife was a devout Methodist.      Mr. Charles E. Osborn is one of a large family of children.  Brief reference to the others is as follows: Emma, married Eugene Weaver, a retired farmer living at Florida Village.  Calvin is married and lives on a farm in Flatrock Township and has sons and daughters.  Alice died after her marriage.  Catherine is Mrs. Ambrose Truby of Defiance County.  David is married, has two sons, and lives in Flatrock Township.  Oscar, who lives in Defiance County, married Alice Read and has children.  John is a farmer in William County and has four children by his marriage to Miss Rousch.  Emanuel married Louisa Rousch.  Saville is the wife of Abraham Bordner, a farmer in Williams County, and they have a son and a daughter.  Mary is the wife of Andy Sobody of Rome City, Indiana, and they have children.      It was on the old homestead in Defiance County that Charles E. Osborn spent his early life, and his education came from the rural schools and also the schools of Florida Village.  Farming and its attendant activities have engaged his attention since early youth and his prosperity can be largely accounted for by the fact that he has used his intelligence as well as the strength of his body in carrying out a program of farm management and improvement.  In 1896 he bought his present place of eighty acres in Flatrock Township.  All these acres are well cultivated and he has a reputation in that community of growing some of the best crops.  Among improvements should be noted a large barn on a foundation 36 by 60 feet with a basement, and this barn is furnished with a splendid supply of running water for stock purposes.  In 1908 he also erected a garage and a granary with a 1,000-bushel capacity.  The latest improvement was his substantial ten-room house, which was built in 1915 and is furnished and equipped in modern style and with all conveniences.      On the farm where he now lives Mr. Osborn was married to Miss Emma E. Huston.  Mrs. Osborn was born on this farm May 2, 1867.  and was reared and educated in the locality where she has spent her life.  Her parents were Jeremiah and Mary (Rice) Huston, her father a native of Tuscarawas County, Ohio.  Her father married his first wife in his native county, and about sixty years ago came to Henry County and bought the land which through many improvements and changes has been developed and is now the place of Mr. Charles E. Osborn.  Jeremiah Huston's first wife died on this farm, as the mother of nine children, all of whom are deceased except Mahlon, who resides at Florida Village and has a family of children.  In 1864 Jeremiah Huston married Miss Mary Rice, and after some years spent on the old home he moved to Florida Village where he died at the age of seventy-two.  He was born in 1803, and throughout his career was a regular voter of the democratic party.  His second wife died at the home of Mrs. Osborn Dec. 21, 1913. She was born June 27, 1827, in Baden, Germany, and at the age of nineteen came to America with her parents, who died when well advanced in years at Fostoria, Ohio.      Mr. and Mrs. Osborn are the parents of two children.  Their daughter Mabel died when fourteen years of age.  The living daughter.  Alma M., was born Sept. 23, 1899, and is still at home, having received her education in the local schools. Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II - Publ. 1917 - Page 1543
Elmer A. Palmer	ELMER A. PALMER.  A busy and successful career was that of the late Elmer A. Palmer of Napoleon, who at one time served the city as postmaster, and was a well known figure in law, politics, business and civic affairs.      He was born in Fritchville, Heron County, Ohio, Aug. 7, 1853, and died at his home at 837 Scott Street * in Napoleon, Aug. 9, 1913, at the age of sixty years, two months and two days.  His father, Nathan B. Palmer, a native of Connecticut, went to Huron County, Ohio, when a young man and was married there to Sarah Close.  For a time they kept the old Fountain Hotel at Fitchville.  When Elmer A. Palmer was three years old the family came to Harrison Township, and establishing a home in a log cabin.  Nathan Palmer, as a result of hard work, developed a good farm, built a new house and new barn, and spent practically half a century there before he retired and moved to Napoleon in 1905.  On April 7th of that year his good wife and the mother of his children passed away at the age of seventy-five years and one month.  Nathan Palmer himself died Dec. 6, 1912.  He was then past ninety years of age.  Both he and his wife were for many years active members and supporters of the First Presbyterian Church, and he was a strong republican.  In the early days he had been one of hte conductors on the underground railway, and was one of the fearless leaders in the abolition movement.  Elmer Palmer was the oldest of three sons.  His younger brother is Hon. Okee M. Palmer, a prominent Henry County citizen, whose career is sketched on other pages.  The third son, named Aiken, died when five months old.      Elmer A. Palmer attended both the public and city schools, and was also a student in Oberlin College.  In 1879 he graduated from the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and had been admitted to the bar a short time prior to his graduation.  He was a very able lawyer, though he was not in the active practice of his profession many years.  During the administration of Governor Foraker he was appointed to a position under the attorney-general of Ohio, but two years later resigned and returned to the old homestead.  Then after two years he was appointed dairy and food inspector for the state, and filled that office two years.  He devoted himself to farming and the managing of the old homestead until 1894, when he came to Napoleon and became proprietor of the Henry County Signal, a republican paper, which he successfully managed 3½ years.      He was also associated for a few years with the Napoleon Loan Association, and in 1904 was appointed postmaster by President Roosevelt, an office which he filled with credit for 4½ years. After that he retired to private life, and looked after his varied interests both in Henry County and in the South and West.      Mr. Palmer was a very successful business man, and his counsel was highly esteemed by his business associates and friends.  He was a vigorous republican, and was quite active in party councils.  While not a member of any church, he exemplified the best principles of Christianity.      In Liberty Township of Henry County, he married Miss Mary E. Elarton, who was born in Liberty Township, and for seven years prior to her marriage was a successful teacher.  Her parents were Samuel R. and Margaret (Andslow) Elarton, the former a native of Crawford County, Ohio, and the latter of  Pennsylvania.  Their first child, Eliza J., was born in Crawford County, Ohio, and is now the wife of Thomas J. Howell, living in Michigan.  Soon after her birth in 1852 the Elarton family moved to Liberty Township in Henry County, cutting their way through the woods to reach their home, where they built a log cabin in the midst of the woods.  In Henry County three sons and three daughters are still living. Samuel Elarton enlisted in 1862 in the One Hundredth Regiment of Ohio Infantry, and was a corporal.  He went South and in 1864 was captured at Limestone Station in Tennessee and soon afterward was thrown into Libby prison.  Near the close of the war when he was already anticipating release from this notorious prison pen, he died in April, 1865, when only about forty years of age.  His widow a number of years later married Rev. James Fink, a minister of the United Brethren Church.  She died at the age of seventy-one.  She was reared a Methodist, but after her second marriage became a United Brethren.      Mrs. Palmer, who still keeps her home in Napoleon, is an active member of the First Presbyterian Church.  She was also a member of the first literary society of the city, known as the Ladies' Literary Society, and has held all the offices from president down, and is also active in the Ladies' Aid Society of the Presbyterian Church. Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II - Publ. 1917 - Page 1163 * As of 2018 the house is still there in good condition.
	HON. OKEE M. PALMER.  There occasionally rises a man who upsets all political traditions and even though he may be candidate for a very minor office his election becomes a landmark in local politics.  While it constituted a general surprise, it was also a matter of gratulation on the part of all well thinking citizens of Henry County when Okee M. Palmer was elected a member of the State Legislature in the fall of 1914.  The surprising part of it was that he was elected as a republican.  Henry County had not elected a republican.  Henry County had not elected a republican for this office in thirty-five years, and the entire history of the county shows that only one other republican had been sent from this district to the Legislature.  Mr. Palmer will give an excellent account of himself as a legislator, and his popularity as a genial and wholesome citizen has been further increased by his course in representing the interests of the county.      In the early part of his career Mr. Palmer was in the far northwest and exercised more than an individual influence in civic affairs in the Territory of Idaho.  For many years his home has been at Napoleon, where he is associated in the real estate and loan business in the office with Capt. Charles E. Reynolds.     Mr. Palmer is a Henry County man, having been born two miles from Napoleon in the log cabin south of the Maumee River on Feb. 26, 1862.  He grew up on a farm, had a common school education, and after graduating from the Napoleon High School spent several years on the farm in the summer seasons and teaching school in the winters.  Altogether for about fifteen years he pursued this dual vocation.      When still a young man he went out to Idaho and was connected with the public schools of that territory five years.  He also did other work, and took an active hand in politics.  He was a delegate to local and other republican conventions, and cast his vote in favor of the statehood movement in 1890.  Since his return to Ohio in 1893 Mr. Palmer has been active in business affairs, especially in the real estate and loan business.      His grandfather, Rundell Palmer, was born in Stonington, Connecticut, of New England parentage.  His ancestors came to this country before the Revolutionary war, and some of them were represented in that struggle.  Rundall Palmer married Miss Julia Briscoe.  Nearly a hundred years ago they migrated west and settled in the Western Reserve of Ohio in Huron County and in Fitchville Township on the fire lands.  They were a part of the large colony of Connecticut people who settled and began the work of development in that section of the state. Rundall Palmer acquired a tract of Government land and lived the life of a typical pioneer.  His death occurred when he was eighty-nine years of age, his wife having preceded him to the beyond.  Both were active members of the Congregational Church, and in politics he voted the whig ticket.  Rundall Palmer and wife moved to Henry County in 1857 and were also accounted early settlers in this district.      Nathan Palmer, father of the republican representative from Henry County, was one of five sons and a daughter and was born in Huron County, Ohio, Nov. 18, 1822.  He grew up among primitive conditions, and was married in Huron County to Miss Sarah Close, a native of Sullivan, Ashland County, where she was born in 1830.  Her parents had likewise come from Connecticut in the early days, and her father, Deacon Benjamin Close, the first settler on Close road in that county, was killed when about middle aged while trying to handle a team of vicious young horses.  He was deacon in and both he and his wife were active members of the Congregational Church.  They had sixteen children.  Mrs. Palmer was a teacher some years before her marriage.      After the birth of one child, Nathan Palmer and wife moved to Henry County and located in the midst of the woods.  By purchases from time to time he acquired an estate of 380 acres, and was one of the prominent and very successful farmers and land owners of the county.  His death occurred at Napoleon, where he and his wife spent their later years, in 1912, while his wife passed away in 1905.  They had been married more than half a century.  Both were members of the Presbyterian Church, and in politics Nathan Palmer was a republican.      Of the children born to his parents, Okee M. Palmer is the only survivor.  By inheritance he came into possession of the splendid homestead acquired and developed by his father, and still owns that place.      In 1905 at Napoleon, Mr. Palmer married Miss Etta Breeding.  Mrs. Palmer was born June 22, 1876, in Michigan, where he was reared and educated, she completing her education in Van Wert, Ohio.  To their marriage has been born one child, Sarah Esther on Feb. 17, 1907.  This daughter is now attending the public schools.  Mr. and Mrs. Palmer are attendants of the Presbyterian Church, and both are active in the Order of Eastern Star, and his affiliations with Masonry also include membership in Defiance Commandery of Knights Templar, the Napoleon Lodge and Chapter, and he is past master of the lodge, high priest of the chapter and past patron of the Eastern Star. Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. II - Publ. 1917 - Page 1091
	RUNDLE PALMER spent the best years of his life in Henry County.  He was a useful member of his community and his years contained many interests and activities.  What he did, useful though it was, was not more important than the manner of his life and the fulfillment of his ideals and purposes.      He was born in Huron County near Fitchville Oct. 14, 1844.  Nearly seventy years later his death occurred at his home, 312 East Clinton Street*, in Napoleon May 24, 1914.  His parents were Isaac and Samantha (Palmer) Palmer, of the same name but not related.  Both were born in the East and were married in Huron County.  A short time after the birth of their son Rundle they located on a wild farm in the northwest quarter of section 16 of Harrison Township in Henry County.  Thus the Palmer family has been identified with this section of Northwest Ohio for fully three-quarters of a century.  The parents improved a farm of 160 acres in Harrison Township, and among other features they put out one of the early orchards.  The old home at that time as now was located well back from the main road, and it is one of the landmarks betraying the well ordered industry of the family and the silent accomplishment of many years.  At that home Samantha Palmer died at the age of twenty-nine.  She was survived by two children, Rundle and Julia.  Julia is now the wife of Frank B. Bonawell, a wholesale hardware merchant at Kansas City, Missouri.  Mr. and Mrs. Bonawell have three daughters, all of whom are married but none of whom have children.  Isaac Palmer married a second wife and late of life moved to Huron County, where he died when quite old.  His widow subsequently lived with her daughter Samantha.  Samantha was a very well known artist, and one of her paintings is now hanging is the White House at Washington.  Samantha married Mortimer Zigg and now lives in Nebraska.  Her mother died in Huron County.      Rundle Palmer grew up on the old farm in Harrison Township, and received his education there in the country schools and also in Chicago, Illinois.  After the death of his mother and his father's second marriage, the home was not very congenial, since his step-mother exercised a rigid restraint upon all his activities.  Thus at the age of seventeen he quite eagerly accepted the opportunity to go to the front and fight his country's battles.  He enlisted in Company F of the Sixty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was with that regiment in all its campaigns for nearly three years.  He was once slightly wounded by the bursting of a shell.  While in the army he exercised a great deal of thrift and sent practically all his earnings back to his father, who invested it in eighty acres of land.  After coming home from the army Rundle Palmer paid out the balance due on this land, and began its improvement as a substantial home.  He erected a large two-story twelve room brick house, and in every detail of its construction this home showed his handiwork.  He burnt the brick on his own farm, and he also made many thousands of tile for the draining of his land.  In a few years he had purchased an adjoining eighty acres on the east, and improved that thoroughly.  With the passing years he acquired a position as one of the substantial men of Henry County, and in 1901 he and his wife retired from the farm and entered their new home on East Clinton Street in Napoleon, where Mrs. Palmer now lives.  The late Mr. Palmer was a republican.  A man of substantial character and of excellent judgment, he was widely known and respected, and all that he had was the result of hard work and honorable dealings.      In 1874 in Wood County, Ohio, he married Miss Lottie Reed.  Mrs. Palmer was born near Tiffin in Seneca County, Ohio, Dec. 27, 1849, and was taken to Wood County at the age of five years by her parents, John and Henrietta (Reiter) Reed.  Her father was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, of Scotch-Irish stock, and her mother in Pennsylvania, of Germany ancestry in the paternal line and English on her mother's side.  John Reed and wife lived on a farm in Montgomery Township of Wood County until he was elected on the republican ticket to the office of probate judge.  He then moved to Bowling Green, where he filled out two terms as probate judge, declining a re-election.  He continued to reside in Bowling Green, superintending his farm interests from that point, and died there May 5, 1899, at the age of sixty-six.  Judge Reed was a prominent character in Wood County.  In the early days he had done much to assist the pioneer farmers and new comers to that county, and his individual success was only part of the large amount of good he accomplished.  His widow survived him four years, passing away Nov. 27, 1903.  She was a member of the Christian Church, while he was a Methodist.  Mrs. Palmer is the second of three living children.  Her brother.  Rev. Frank M. Reed, now seventy-one years of age. lives in California, is a superannuated minister of the Christian Church, and has one son Ray.  Addie Reed is still unmarried and lives part of the time in Bowling Green and part of the time at Napoleon.      Mrs. Palmer has two children.  Alva S. is forty years of age, was born and reared on the old Palmer farm in Harrison Township, and by his marriage to Goldie Snyder has a son, Sumner Rundle Palmer.  Nellie D. is the wife of Glenn Jennings, a successful farmer of Harrison Township, and they have a son, Marcus Palmer Jennings. Source: History of Northwestern Ohio - Vol. III - Publ. 1917 - Page 1569 * This house appears to be gone now as of  2018
W. H. Peper	WILLIAM H. PEPER  - Pg. 899

 

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