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BIOGRAPHIES
 Source:
A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio
- Vol. II -
by G. Frederick Wright
1916
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FRANK ZIEGLER.
Of that sturdy stock of Germans who have so
numerously peopled Lorain County, perhaps none has
won a better earned success and represents more of
the thrifty, industrious virtues of the Fatherland
than Frank Ziegler of Brighton
Township. Beginning as a renter, he has
steadily pursued his calling as a farmer and his lot
has been one of steady improvement until he is now
recognized as one of the best established and most
prosperous citizens of his community.
He was born in Weingarten Baden, Germany, Dec. 8,
1862, a son of Frank and Caroline (Langendorfer)
Ziegler. Both parents spent all their
lives in that section of Germany. His father
was born in 1828 and died in 1904 and the mother was
born in 1832 and died in 1892. They were
married in 1857. His parents were members of
the Lutheran Church, and they were thrifty farming
people of Germany. Their seven children were:
Frank; Henry, who lives in Germany on a
farm; John, a farmer in Germany;
Frederick, a farmer in Huron County, Ohio;
Louis, a retired and well-to-do
citizen of Cleveland; Catherine,
wife of Carl Habel, a farmer in
Germany; and Karl, who came to the
United States, but went back to his native land,
served in the army, and is now in the German army in
the European war.
Frank
Ziegler acquired the regular German
training in schools and by practical experience, and
was eighteen years old when in 1880 he came to
America and reached Erie County, Ohio. The
first eight years he worked for other farmers.
In 1883 he returned to Germany for a short visit.
In 1886 Mr. Ziegler married
Caroline Langendorfer, who was also born in
Germany. Their five children are:
Christine, born in January,
1888; Emma, born in September,
1889; William, born in July, 1892;
Louisa, born in September, 1894,
and Berta, born Dec. 10, 1898.
All of them were born in Erie County, Ohio, except
William who was born in Tacoma,
Washington.
After eight
years of experience as a farm tenant Mr.
Ziegler moved out to the State of
Washington in 1890, but after several years returned
to Ohio and in 1895 bought his first farm of sixty
acres in Erie County, Ohio. With
characteristic energy he improved and developed his
place, and sold out at a considerable advance in
1898. He then bought a place of 166 acres in
Huron County, and owned it five years. After
selling his interests there he came to Brighton
Township in 1904, and bought 354 acres of land.
On his establishment in Lorain County Mr.
Ziegler was over ten thousand dollars in
debt. He paid it all in four years, and has
made all his prosperity by his own labor and good
management. He uses his land for general
farming purposes and also runs a dairy and raises
considerable livestock. He is a republican in
politics and he and his wife are members of the
Methodist Church.
 Source:
History of Lorain County, Ohio - Publ. Philadelphia:
William Brothers - 1879 - page 987 |
Conrad Zilch |
CONRAD
ZILCH.
One of the younger business men of Amherst who has
distinguished himself by a remarkable amount of
progressiveness and enterprise is Conrad Zilch,
who is an expert undertaker and embalmer and is
manager of the principal undertaking and furniture
house of the city.
He has reached an independent position in business
affairs when only a little more than thirty yeas of
age. He was born in Brownhelm Township of
Lorain County Feb. 18, 1885, a son of Henry C.
and Mary (Hilderbrand) Zilch. Both parents
were natives of Germany and his grandparents all
died in that country, his grandfather, George
Zilch, reached the venerable age of ninety-two
years. The maternal grandparents both died at
the age of forty-nine from typhoid fever.
Henry C. Zilch was born in 1850 and died Jan.
29, 1899. His wife was born May 4, 1852, and
is still living. They came to the country when
young people and were married in Brownhelm Township.
Henry C. Zilch was a very industrious man and
for a number of years worked as a quarryman and died
from stonecutter's consumption. By hard work
he established a home, provided for his large family
of children, and had a good thirty-acre farm all
paid for before his death. He was a democrat
and he and his wife members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church. Of their nine children eight
are still living: Werner, in the grocery
business at Brownhelm; Anna, wife of E. C.
Waugh, in the transfer business at Lorain;
George J., a farmer in Brownhelm; Conrad;
Rose E., who was deaf and dumb and was
graduated from the Deaf and Dumb Institute, and a
few years ago was killed in an automobile and street
car accident; Marie is the wife of Elmer
Fulmer, a farmer in Eaton Township; Benjamin,
in the automobile business at Lorain; Katie,
wife of William Grobe of Amherst; and
Amelia, who has a clerical position in Elyria.
Mrs. Henry Zilch married for her first
husband John Miller, and their two sons,
Carl and William J. Miller, are
successful farmers in Brownhelm Township.
After his early education, acquired in the district and
high schools of Brownhelm Township, Conrad Zilch
found employment on a farm and then laid the
foundation of his business career by experience in
the furniture business with the Wickens Company at
Lorain. He also studied embalming at Cleveland
under P. A. Hayden. After three years
of work in his profession and in the business at
Lorain, he established the Amherst Furniture Company
on May 1, 1913. He is secretary and manager of
this concern, and has been the mainspring of its
very prosperous career since establishment.
April 19, 1908, Mr. Zilch married Louisa
Bouis. She was born at Lorain, a daughter
of Charles Bouis, a carpenter. To their
union has been born one daughter, Mildred, on
Nov. 23, 1911. The family attend the Methodist
Episcopal Church at Amherst and Mr. Zilch is
affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, the
Tribe of Ben Hur, the Knights and Ladies of
Security, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, in which he
is a trustee, and the Knights of Pythias.
Politically he is a republican.
Source:
History of Lorain County, Ohio - Publ. Philadelphia:
William Brothers - 1879 - page 977 |
 |
LOUIS ZIMMERMAN.
A farmer and dairyman whose enterprise has been a
useful factor in Lorain County's development for
many years, Louis Zimmerman has his home in
Grafton Township. While an unfortunate illness
handicapped him in the matter of an education when
he was a boy, he was made use of his opportunites in
life beyond the average man and has acquired that
material prosperity as well as the esteem of his
fellow citizens which are among the best rewards of
existence.
He was born in the City
of Cleveland, May 8, 1856, a son of Frederick and
Hannah (Hahn) Zimmerman. Both parents were
born, reared and married in Germany and soon after
their marriage they emigrated to America, being two
months in making the passage on a sailing vessel, a
severe storm having dismasted the vessel and having
greatly delayed the progress. For a few years
the parents lived in Cleveland, where Frederick
Zimmerman, who came to this country with a
very thorough training such as is given
to young men in Germany preparing for a trade,
worked as a carpenter and while there he built
himself a house. When Louis Zimmerman
was three years of age his father traded the house
toward the purchase of a farm of seventy acres near
Oberlin. While living on that farm a daughter
Carrie was born, who is now the wife of E. M.
Sheldon and lives in Carlisle Township and is
the mother of five children. On the farm near
Oberlin the father placed many improvements during
his residence there of fourteen years and then sold
out and returned to Cleveland. A year later he
bought a farm of sixty-five acres in LaGrange
Township of Lorain County. He was a worthy and
upright citizen and lived to be about ninety years
of age.
Thus until he was about seventeen years of age Louis
Zimmerman lived on the home place near Oberlin.
He had the advantages of the common schools, and the
plans made for him contemplated his further
education in Oberlin Academy and College. As
these could not be carried out because of the
unfortunate illness which kept him at home and as a
result of which he partially lost his hearing, after
regaining his strength he quickly adapted himself to
the vocation of a farmer and after reaching manhood
he continued to live with his father and finally
bought eighty acres known as the Golden farm.
At the age of twenty-eight, on Mar. 4, 1885, Mr.
Zimmerman married Lois A. Clark.
She was born on a farm in LaGrange Township, a
daughter of Major E. and Mary C. (Bailey) Clark.
Her father was of Scotch ancestry, a native of
Vermont and lived to be about ninety-two years of
age. After reaching manhood he came to Ohio
and was married in LaGrange Township.
Subsequently he enlisted and served during the Civil
war in the One Hundred and Third Ohio Volunteer
Infantry. He was severely wounded at the
battle of Gettysburg, and that ended his field
service, and afterwards he was detailed to assist in
the army hospitals until the close of his term of
enlistment. Mrs. Zimmerman was the
youngest of three children. Her brother
James died unmarried and her brother Joseph
W., who was a railway man and killed while on
duty, married Sarah Obetts and left two
children.
Mr. and Mrs. Zimmerman continued to live in
LaGrange Township until 1910, when they moved to
their present fine home of 150 acres, formerly known
as the Fowler farm. This is one of the
high class farms of Lorain County and Mr.
Zimmerman has improved it in many ways, carries
on general farm husbandry and makes a specialty of
dairying.
He and his wife have two children. Edna Veve,
after graduating from the Grafton High School,
entered Baldwin University at Berea, from which she
graduated and then taught five years, three years as
principal of the high school at Grafton. In
Oct., 1915, she entered Leland Powers School of
Expression at Boston, Massachusetts, and is
continuing a student of a special course.
Lloyd C. Zimmerman, the son, is now about
eighteen years of age and has completed his
education in the local schools. Mr.
Zimmerman and son are both members of the Grange
and in politics he is an independent republican,
without aspirations for office. He and his
wife attend the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
Mrs. Zimmerman is a member of the Ladies of the
Maccabees.
Source: A Standard History of Lorain County, Ohio
- Vol. II
by G. Frederick Wright - Publ. 1916 - Page 943 |
NOTES: |
