Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page 542

Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page 548

GESSNER FAMILY - LOUIS GESSNER, M. D., for many years of a long and useful life, was honored and esteemed through Sandusky County, and in many households his name is revered as a beloved member of the family.  He was eminent in his profession and by Nature was endowed with those qualities which endear human beings to each other.  He was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, Apr. 6, 1804, and was a child of but five years when his father died.
     Although deprived of the protection and assistance of a father, Dr. Gessner had a noble devoted mother, and after she had exerted every effort to advance her son, she unselfishly sent him, when fifteen years of age, to relatives in Vienna, who were willing to further him in his ambition to become a physician.  In the great schools of that city he completed his studies and determined to enter upon practice in Switzerland.  His fortune he had yet to earn and therefore it was as a student on foot, with his knapsack on his shoulder, that the young doctor entered the Canton of Berne, in1828.  In the same year he married and in 1833, he came to America with his family and they lived mainly at Buffalo, New York, until 1837.  In that year, with his family settled at Williamsville, he visited his old home in Switzerland, attending to some necessary business, and on his return in the following year, located in Lower Sandusky, Ohio.  Thence forward Dr. Gessner remained identified in his activities to Sandusky County, building up a large practice, acquiring property, rearing a most estimable family and finally passing away, leaving an honored name behind.  His death took place Nov. 25, 1884.
     Dr. Gessner was associated as partner with the following named German physicians, who were located here for various periods at different times, viz.: Dr. Andrew Gross, a cousin of Dr. Gessner, came to Lower Sandusky in 1838 and died in less than a year after his arrival.  In 1839, after the death of Dr. Gross, Dr. John N. Beutler came to Lower Sandusky and entered into partnership with Dr. Gessner.  Dr. Beutler removed to Kolida, Paulding County. Ohio, in 1841.  Then came Dr. Christopher Castelhun, who formed a partnership with Dr. Gessner in 1846 and continued in practice here until 1848, when he removed to St. Louis, Missouri.  Dr. Otto Knause next located in Lower Sandusky and became a partner of Dr. Gessner in 1850 and continued until 1852.  He married Louisa, the oldest daughter of Dr. Gessner, and in 1852 moved to Napoleon, Ohio.  Then came Dr. F. Wilmer in 1852, who became a partner of Dr. Gessner and remained such until 1855.
    In 1828, Dr. Gessner was married in Switzerland to Miss Elizabeth F. Schwartz, who was a daughter of a prominent physician of Thun.  Her maternal grandfather was Dr. Samuel Rubin, and his father was Dr. Johann Rubin, a physician of note, whose work on materia medica, issued in 1688, is still extant.  In the wall of one of the oldest churches in Thun is a granite tablet erected to the memory of Dr. Samuel Rubin, born 1648, and died 1720.  She was a lady of education, refinement and culture and her family still recall her gift of music.  She died in 1864.  To Dr. Louis Gessner and wife eleven children were born - Karl, Frederick, Louisa M., Emily, Matilda, Caroline, Gustavus A., Rudolph, and three that died in infancy.  Of the eight that reached maturity, three have since passed away, Louisa M., Matilda, and Caroline.
    Louisa M., born at Thun, Switzerland, Jan. 16, 1832, was twice married - first, to Dr. Otto Knause, who died young, leaving two little daughters.  After the death of her husband, Mrs. Knause took her children to Germany to live with their grandfather Knause.  After an absence of about two years, Mrs. Knause returned to Fremont and married Henry Dorr of Riley Township.  Six children were born to the second union, none surviving.  She died Nov. 26, 1906.
     Matilda, born Mar. 1, 1839, married Henry Rousch in 1860, died Jan. 17, 1875, survived by her husband and three children.
     Caroline born Mar. 22, 1841, died Jan. 6, 1883.  Of four sons born to her only two are living - Robert Beeler of Holgate, Ohio, and George Dorr of Fremont, Ohio.
     Of the above family, Dr. Gustavus A. Gessner is a survivor.  Dr. Gessner is serving as postmaster of the city of Fremont, Ohio, having retired from medical practice, after a long period in the profession.  He has taken a very active part in political life and in 1899 was appointed postmaster, a public office which he has filled in the most efficient manner.  Dr. Gessner resides at No. 803 Garrison Street, Fremont.
     By a second marriage, to the widow of August Lahr, Dr. Louis Gessner had four children born to him, viz; Ida, wife of William Nickel; Laura (deceased), who was married to Louis Balsizer; Minnie who married Charles Mierke, and Moritz, who lives on the old homestead in Riley Township.
Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page 850

FREDERICK B. GESSNER, born at Buffalo, N. Y., Aug. 20, 1834, was apprenticed at an early age to Isaac Sharp, a boss carpenter.  He went to California in 1855, and has not been heard from directly since 1868, but is said to be living in the southeastern part of Washington or northwestern part of Idaho.
Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page 854

GUSTAVUS A. GESSNER was born Mar. 11, 1844, in the house then owned and occupied by Dr. Louis Gessner on Arch Street, opposite the present residence of C. M. Fouke.  He attended the public schools, was clerk in the drug store owned by Dr. Wilmer and afterwards by Dr. Gessner.  He worked in "Courier" printing office with George Homan and Paul Knerr.  He was appointed clerk in the postoffice while S. M. Ellenwood was postmaster.  He took position in drug store of J. B. Van Doren at Fostoria, Ohio, and remained there until the outbreak of the Civil war.  He then enlisted Apr. 21, 1861, in Captain Blackman's Company H, of the 21st O. Vol. Inf., under Lincoln's first call for volunteers.  He participated in the campaign under Cox in the Kanawha Valley, during the summer of 1861; was mustered out of three months' service Apr. 25, 1861; re-enlisted in Company H, 72nd O. Vol. Inf. (Buckland's Regiment), served as sergeant, color-bearer and hospital steward of the 72nd Regiment from Dec. 9, 1861, to Sept. 10, 1865; was captured at Shiloh and severely wounded in a successful attempt to escape; was again captured in the unfortunate Guntown raid; and was held prisoner at Andersonville, Georgia, Charleston and Florence, South Carolina.  After the close of the war he went to the Medical Department, University of Michigan, and practiced medicine for a short time with his brother, Dr. Louis S. J. Gessner.  He was engaged in drug business with Dr.William Caldwell at Elmore for a short time, but returned to Fremont in 1869 and entered the employ of S. Buckland & Son, as pharmacist.  With Drs. John B. and Robert H. Rice and Stephen and Ralph Buckland he founded the Trommer extract of malt business in 1875; was connected with the American Carbon Company of Noblesville, Indiana, for several years.  He was appointed postmaster at Fremont, Ohio, by President McKinley, Mar. 19, 1899, and reappointed by President Roosevelt in 1904 and again in 1909.
     He was married in 1867 to Corolin E. Lawton, daughter of William H. and Betsey Ryder Lawton, born at Cape Vincent, Jefferson County, New York.  Mrs. Gessner was a teacher in the public schools in Toledo, Genoa and Elmore.
     Four children resulted from this union: Two sons - Dorr Lawton and Gustavus A., Jr. - and two daughters - Gertrude Lisette (married Dan A. Brown), and Bessie Hope (deceased).  The eldest son, Dorr Lawton Gessner, is assistant postmaster at Fremont, Ohio, and the younger son, G. A. Gessner, Jr., is a civil engineer and resides in Toledo, Ohio. 
Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page 853

LOUIS S. J. GESSNER was born Sept. 25, 1830.  He came to Lower Sandusky July 16, 1838, entered the common schools there and remained until 1846.  He was then employed by George Brown until Dec. 17, 1867, and later was sent to F. Runge, pharmacist, located on Hester Street corner Eldrige, New York City.  He left New York May 21, 1848, and taught school in the Mawry settlement for three months.  In the spring of 1849 he worked on his father's farm until the summer of 1852, then entered the printing office of C. J? (or I.) Orton and worked as a compositor until July 31, 1854, when he left for Europe.  He studied medicine at Heidelberg and in Prague, Bohemia, and returned to Fremont on Jan. 7, 1859, and commenced the practice of medicine.
     He was commissioned assistant surgeon 37 Regt., O. Vol. Inf., July 8, 1862; served in West Virginia until Dec. 29, 1862, when he resigned his commission and returned home, but could not long remain at home, while the war lasted.  He served one month of Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio.  In the fall of 1863, he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he applied for a position as contract surgeon, and was assigned to Brown Hospital, Louisville, Kentucky, for duty, and on December 13, was assigned for duty to Hospital No. 11, Nashville, Tennessee, and was discharged apr. 25, 1865.
     He married Catherine Rust Nov. 17, 1859.  Two children were born of this union - Haidee, wife of Edward R. Young of Toledo, Ohio, and Mame, wife of George W. Lesher of Fremont, Ohio.
Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page 853 

RODOLPHUS C. GESSNER was born at Lower Sandusky (now Fremont, Ohio,) Dec. 5, 1845.  He was educated in the public schools; worked on the farm for some years, and also followed carpentering.  He was married at Genoa, Ohio, to Mary Phillips, by whom he had one child, a daughter Vadnor, born at Genoa, Ohio, Aug. 28, 1872, who is now the wife of Wm. Kingdon, a well-to-do merchant of Edmunds, Washington.  Mr. Gessner's first, wife died May 28, 1873, and shortly afterwards he returned to Fremont, Ohio, where he married his present wife, Lena (Dunning).  The children of the second marriage are Corinne D., born Dec. 17, 1877, married Feb. 14, 1904, to Henry Glass, now engaged in farming at Fort Angeles, Washington; May M., born Dec. 31, 1880, married June 30, 1900, to J. C. Farrell, a prosperous merchant of Anacortes, Washington.
Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page 855

JOHN L. GREEN, Sr.  Mr. Green was born in St. Lawrence County, New York, July 16, 1806.  In August, 1815, he moved with his father's family to Newbury, in the Western Reserve; he soon thereafter went to Plattsburg, New York, where he spent some years and there began the study of law with his uncle, John Lynde.  He attended the University of Burlington, Vermont.  Returning to Ohio he was employed as a teacher in an academy at Cleveland, and here spent his spare time in pursuing his law studies with Leonard Case.
     July 16, 1828, he was married to Julia L. Castle of Cleveland.  In 1840 he came to Lower Sandusky and commenced the practice of law, in which he was successful.  He was associated with Brice J. Bartlett and also with Chester Edgerton in the law practice in the forties and later with Thomas P. Finefrock.  He was prosecuting attorney in 1850-52.  In 1855 he was elected to the State Legislature; was mayor of Fremont in 1858.  In 1861 he was elected judge of the Common Pleas Court to fill the unexpired term of Judge Worcester.  In 1864 his term having expired, he resumed the practice of law.  Later he and his son John L. Greene, Jr., formed a law partnership, which continued until his death, which occurred Nov. 8, 1870.
     Judge Green left to survive him eleven adult children, all occupying honorable positions as worthy, useful men and women in life - a noble work for society and a monument which will long preserve his name among men.
Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page  184

JOHN H. GROSS, whose valuable farm of sixty-rive acres is situated in Green Creek Township, on the Maumee Turnpike Road, about five miles east of Fremont, was born on the old Gross homestead in Rice Township, Sandusky County, Ohio, Nov. 10, 1862, and is a son of John and Katherine (Wolf) Gross.
     The elder John Gross was born in Germany, in March, 1833, and came to America when twenty years of age, a few years afterward sending to the old country for his parents, George and Katherine Gross.  He settled in Rice Township and there his father, George Gross, died in 1889 and his mother in 1896.  For some years, John Gross, Sr., worked by the day and in that way accumulated enough capital to enable him to buy eighty acres of his present farm, to which he subsequently added and on which he still lives, now aged seventy-six years.  He cleared this land and resided in a log house for a long period, but now has fine, substantial buildings.  He married Katherine Wolf, who was brought from Germany while young, the Wolf family settling in Rice Township across the road from the Gross family.  She died in 1896, aged seventy-five years.  They had eight children, namely: Emma, who is the wife of Josiah Overmeyer; Rose, who is the wife of Conrad Overmeyer; Charles, who died in 1897, aged thirty-five years; John H.; Herman; Louisa, who is the wife of F. F. Hurt; and William and Moses.
     John H. Gross spent his boyhood on the home farm and until he was sixteen years of age he divided his time between attending the district schools and helping his father.  Then he was hired out to neighboring fanners for several years by his father, after which he went to Michigan and worked on a farm near Lansing for two years.  When he returned to Sandusky County he lived with his sister in Riley Township for two years.  After he was married he rented a farm from Fred Martin, in Green Creek Township and in 1904 he bought his present farm from the King estate and has successfully followed general farming here ever since.  Mr. Gross, through his own industry and with the assistance of an estimable wife, has gained independence, having worked hard for all he owns.  On Apr. 3, 1897, Mr. Gross was married to Mrs. Ella King Packard, daughter of George W. and Elizabeth King, of an old and prominent county family.  Mr. and Mrs. Gross have one child, Augusta, who was born May 28, 1903.  In politics he is a Democrat and he has served as school director since 1906.  He is a member of the order of Modern Woodmen of America, being connected with the lodge at Vickery.
     Mrs. Gross's parents were born in Ohio —her father in Fairfield County and her mother in Sandusky County.  They have eleven children, two sons and nine daughters: Mrs. Mary Boggs, Mrs. Ella Gross, Mrs. Louisa Kappus, Sam King, Kentucky, Mrs. Almeda Fetterman, Mrs. Minnie Hetrick, John King, Mrs. Ida Rover, Mrs. Nettie Monroe, Miss Carrie King of Lansing, Mich., and Mrs. Daisy Kiser.
     Mrs. Gross was married Sept. 22, 1886, to Daniel Packard, who died Feb. 10, 1890.
After being a widow seven years she married Mr. Gross.
Source:  Twentieth Century History of Sandusky County, Ohio & Representative Citizens - Publ. Richmond - Arnold Publishing Co. - Chicago - 1909 - Page  850