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Source:
History of Hocking Valley, Ohio -
Published Chicago: by Inter-State Publishing Co.
1883 BIOGRAPHIES
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THOMAS
C. FOX. By judicious
efforts as a farmer and general merchant,
Thomas C. Fox has created a liberal
prosperity for himself in the Locust Grove
community of Jackson Township, Vinton County.
This is one of the most select rural
neighborhoods in Vinton County, and his store is
surrounded by a large group of well kept farms
inhabited by thrifty, industrious people who
have always been known as supporters of church,
schools and other beneficent activities.
Mr. Fox has been in business at the
Locust Grove community for the past nineteen
years. He has a fine store in a building
24x42 feet, well stocked with general
merchandise of every kind required by a country
community. Near his store Mr.
Fox erected some years ago a fine modern
home of ten rooms, with complete equipment for
comfort and convenience, including hot and cold
running water, bath room and heated and lighted
by natural gas. Surrounding his store and
home are a plot of eight acres of ground which
he uses partly in his business and partly for
the growing of garden and orchard crops.
The buildings occupy a fine site with a
beautiful outlook over the surrounding country.
Mr. Fox's real farm is 250 acres
in the same township, and from its cultivation
and management he derives large revenues.
Thomas C. Fox was born in Hocking County, Ohio,
Aug. 18, 1869, and was reared and educated
there, which remained his home until his removal
to Locust Grove. He is a son of Thomas
J. and Elizabeth (Grimes) Fox, who were
natives of Ohio and were reared in Belmont
County. His father graduated from high
school and learned the carpenter's trade and
became a skilled mechanic. He was married
in Belmont County, and after two children were
born to them they removed to Hocking County,
where he bought a small farm in Perry Township.
He died there in July, 1875, when only
thirty-two years of age. His widow
afterwards married Henry Spencer,
a farmer in Hocking County, where he died after
the birth of six children at the age of
fifty-five. His widow, Mrs.
Spencer, now lives at Lancaster, and is
still in good health at the age of seventy-two.
She became the mother of nine sons by her two
marriages, and five of them are still living,
and all have children except one.
Next to the youngest in his father's family, Thomas
C. Fox has made his success largely through
his own efforts, since he was early thrown upon
his own resources. He was married in
Hocking County to Miss Stella
Hunter. She was born in Perry Township
of Morgan County, Ohio, May 21, 1873, and was
reared and educated there. Her parents
were Curtis and Susanna (Poling) Hunter,
who were married in Hocking County and spent
their lives on a farm there. Her father
died in 1908 at the age of sixty-four and her
mother in 1914, aged sixty-eight. They
were very strong Methodists, and did much to
support church and moral institutions in their
community. Her father was a republican.
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Fox were born
six children, one of whom died in infancy.
Pearl D., born in August, 1896, received
the education supplied by the local schools and
is still at home. Bessie May, born
Mar, 26, 1898, is still at home. Earl
Stanley, born May 18, 1899, and his
education is also a product of the local
schools. Leona Fern was born
in 1904 and is still in school. Adelbert
Odell was born in February, 1913.
The family are all members of the Locust Grove
Methodist Church. In politics Mr. Fox
is a republican, and is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows Lodge at
McArthur.
Source: A Standard History of The Hanging Rock
Iron Region of Ohio, Vol. II - Illustrated -
Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1916
- Page 1046 |
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JOHN
R. FREINER.
Both as a legislator and as a business man of
distinctive initiative ability and
progressiveness has Hon. John R. Freiner
accounted well to himself and the State of Ohio
during the period of his residence in Vinton
County, and enduring honor shall be his for his
able, loyal and productive service as a member
of the State Legislature, from which he retired
in 1914, after having served seven consecutive
years as representative from Vinton County and
as one of the most efficient and influential
members ever sent from this county to the lower
house of the Legislature. His record was
one of characteristic energy, circumspection and
determined effort to achieve worthy ends, and he
made a definite and commendable impress on the
history of Ohio legislation during the period of
his earnest and well ordered service.
Mr. Freiner was first elected
representative of Vinton County in the
Legislature in the year 1905, and the estimate
placed upon him by his constituency was shown in
his re-election in 1905 and for each term
thereafter until that which terminated in 1914.
While he was active and influential in all
deliberations and work of the House during the
entire period of his membership he took the
initiative in a number of specially important
movements and introduced and championed to
enactment a number of bills whose provisions
have been of incalculable benefit to the people
of the state in general. He is accredited
with being sponsor for bill that resulted in the
establishing of the two-cent a mile passenger
fare on all railroads operating in Ohio, the
bill having been introduced by him in the
legislative session of 1906. Though
measures of similar order had previously met
with defeat in the Legislature Mr.
Freiner presented the case with such vigor
and effectiveness that the justice of the
measure could not be denied and it was mainly
due to his earnest work that the opposition to
the bill was so emasculated as to make possible
its enactment. He was prompted by a
determination to make the passenger rate uniform
and to do away with the special favors and
privileges which enabled persons of influence
and independence to obtain reduced fares or
passes, while the humble laborer, and the woman
in straitened circumstances was compelled to pay
the three-cent rate. The indefatigable
efforts put forth by Mr. Freiner
in connection with this bill gained him special
prominence and large popular commendation early
in his career as a legislator, and it is
sufficient to say that thereafter he not only
upheld his high reputation but also added much
thereto through his further activities in the
promotion of wise and equitable legislation.
He was assigned to various important committees,
including those of banks and banking, taxation,
and mines and mining, of which last mentioned he
was chairman, and he was fully as zealous and
independent in the deliberations of the
committee room as he was active and influential
in the work on the floor of the House of
Representatives.
In connection with industrial and commercial affairs in
Ohio Mr. Freiner likewise has
shown himself specially progressive and
resourceful, and he has achieved wide reputation
through his extensive and successful activities
in connection with fruit culture. On his
farm in Madison Township, Vinton County, he
planted in 1905 40,000 peach trees, and this
became at the time the largest peach orchard in
the entire state. He brought to bear the
most approved and scientific methods in the
development of this great orchard and his
success proved an inspiration to others in
essaying similar enterprises. In 1910
Mr. Freiner garnered and shipped from
his peach orchard 100 car-loads, and a large
part of the orchard is still producing
effectively.
Though he is a native of Ohio Mr. Freiner
was reared and educated in Michigan, and there
he continued his residence until 1885.
when, as a young man of about twenty-five years,
he returned to the Buckeye State and identified
himself with the timber business. In 1892
he established his residence in the Village of
Zaleski, Vinton County, and he has continued one
of the representative citizens of this county
during the intervening years, which have been
marked by large and worthy achievement on his
part. Since 1905 he has maintained his
home at McArthur, the county seat, and he
continued his active and successful operations
as a lumber contractor and manufacturer for a
quarter of a century, considerable attention
still being given by him to this line of
enterprise and the year 1914 having recorded the
initiation of his activities as a railroad
contractor, in which field of enterprise he is
proving a successful operator. The
political allegiance of Mr. Freiner
has always been given unreservedly to the
republican party, he has been a close student of
economic and governmental affairs and has been a
leader in the councils of his party in Southern
Ohio during the major part of his residence in
Vinton County.
Mr. Freiner was born in Knox County,
Ohio, on the 20th of April, 1859, and is a son
of Lewis and Elizabeth (Thompson) Freiner,
the former of whom was born in Germany and the
latter in the State of New York, their marriage
having been solemnized at Newark, Licking
County, Ohio, where Lewis Freiner
located soon after his immigration to the United
States. From Ohio the family eventually
removed to St. Clair County, Michigan, and later
removal was made to a farm near the City of
Pontiac, Oakland County, that state, where the
parents passed the remainder of their lives,
Mr. Freiner having attained to the
age of seventy-one years and his wife having
passed away at the age of sixty-three years, a
devoted member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church. They became the parents of two
sons and two daughters, and both sons are
residents of Ohio, while the sisters still
maintain their home in Michigan.
John R. Freiner was a lad of seven years at the
time of the family removal to St. Clair County,
Michigan, where he was reared to adult age on
the home farm, near the City of Pontiac, and
where he was afforded the advantages of the
public schools. Of his final removal from
the Wolverine State to Ohio adequate mention has
already been made in a preceding paragraph.
In Morgan County, Ohio, was solemnized the marriage of
Mr. Freinerto Miss Elizabeth
Nelson, who was there reared and
educated, her parents having continued their
residence in that county until their death.
Mr. and Mrs. Freiner are members of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and their pleasant
home at McArthur is known for its gracious
hospitality. They have no children.
Source: A Standard History of The Hanging Rock
Iron Region of Ohio, Vol. II - Illustrated -
Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1916
- Page 1116 |
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DAVID E.
FRI. Amid all
the changes and chances of this mortal life he
whose privilege it is to cause the kindly earth
to bring forth its increase may well consider
himself favored, and such a privilege ahs been
granted to Mr. Fri in his native county,
where he stands as one of the progressive and
representative agriculturists and stock-growers,
with a well improved landed estate of large
area. He is one of the well known and
highly esteemed citizens of Vinton County, which
has been his home from the time of his birth,
and he is here the owner of fine farm property,
in Swan and Elk Townships. His well
improved homestead farm is eligibly situated in
Swan Township, near the village of Creola, and
in addition to his prominence as an
agriculturist he has served as mail carrier on
rural route, No. 1, from Creola, for the long
period of thirteen years and from the time this
route was established, in 1903. Mr. Fri
states that in his entire services on this route
there was only one day's duties omitted.
He is one of the vital, enterprising and
public-spirited citizens of Vinton County and on
the maternal side is a scion of one of the old
and influential families of the county.
His father is deceased.
Jacob F. Frick, maternal grandfather, was born
and reared in BadenBaden, Germany, and as a
young man he immigrated to America, the voyage
having been made on a sailing vessel from which
he in due time disembarked in the port of New
York City. He established his residence
near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, a brother who had
accompanied him to America having made his way
to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he married and where
he passed the residue of his life, a number of
his children having survived him. Jacob
Frederick Frick had married
several years prior to coming to the United
States, and was accompanied by his wife and
children. It was in the early '30s that he
thus left his German fatherland and after
remaining a few years in the old Keystone State
he came with his family to Ohio and settled in
that part of Hocking County which was later
organized as Vinton County. Here he became one
of the pioneer settlers of Swan Township, where
he instituted the reclamation of a farm from a
virtual wilderness and where he continued his
activities as an agriculturist until his death,
which occurred a number of years prior to the
Civil war. His widow, Mrs. Christina
Barbara Frick survived him by forty years
and was still a resident of Swan Township at the
time of her death, at a venerable age.
Both were zealous communicants of the German
Lutheran Church and were influential in the
establishing and maintenance of a church of this
denomination in Hocking County. Of their
children Caroline E., mother of the
subject of this, review, is now the only one
living. Two sisters have become residents
of Illinois.
Caroline E. Frick was born on the old homestead
in Swan Township, in 1842, and she maintains her
residence in the Village of Creola, and her
circle of friends being limited only by that of
her acquaintances. She was reared in
the faith of the Lutheran Church, later became a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
for a number of years she has been actively
identified with the Church of The Reorganized
Latter Day Saints. Though she is now
venerable in years she retains fine command of
her mental and physical powers and is one of the
well known pioneer women of Vinton County - 02ie
who has been a devoted mother and who has given
to her children the best possible advantages.
David E. Fri was born in Swan Township, Vinton
County, on the 18th of January, 1862, was here
reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm and
after profiting duly from the advantages
afforded in the public schools he availed
himself of those of the normal school at
Lebanon, Warren County. After leaving this
institution he put his scholastic attainments to
practical use by entering the pedagogic
profession, of which he continued a successful
and popular representative as a teacher in the
schools of Vinton County for a period of
nineteen years, besides which he served for some
time as a member of the County Board of School
Examiners. He has continued to take a deep
interest in educational affairs and has done all
in his power to further the advancement of the
schools of his native county, upon leaving the
work of the school room Mr. Fri was
appointed the first carrier on rural
free-delivery route No. 1, having its base at
Creola, and he has since continued the incumbent
of this position, his salary being that of a
standard route. During a service that has
covered a period of thirteen years he has proved
a most efficient and popular representative of
the rural mail system in Vinton County, and he
daily traverses a route of twenty-five miles.
The homestead farm of Mr. Fri is situated at the
corner of crossroads one mile from the Village
of Creola, and is a place of much local historic
interest. It is on Raccoon Creek and is
the old Hager homestead, which was settled in
the early '30s and on which formerly stood an
old-time tavern or inn, known as the Red House,
this place of entertainment for wayfarers having
long stood as one of the landmarks of Vinton
County. This farm comprises seventy acres,
and Mr. Fri owns in Swan Township another
farm, of fifty-two acres, and still another of
forty acres, besides which he is the owner of
forty-two acres in Elk Township, so that the
total area of his landed estate is in excess of
200 acres. He has shown his
progressiveness and good judgment in the
improving of his farm property, which he has
brought up to a high standard and over which he
continues to maintain a general supervision.
On his homestead place he has a commodious and
substantial residence of eleven rooms, and all
other farm buildings are of excellent order and
kept in the best of repair. Mr. Fri
is known as one of the thrifty and prosperous
farmers and stock-growers of this section of the
state and takes just pride in his achievement as
a farmer, as does he also in having been able to
give to his children the best of advantages.
He is a broad-guaged and public-spirited
citizen, is a democrat in his political
allegiance and he and his family hold membership
in the Church of The Reorganized Latter Day
Saints.
In Swan Township the year 1887 bore record of the
marriage of Mr. Fri to Miss
Emma Rosser, who was born in Hocking
County and her parents removed to Vinton County
when she was five years old. Further data
concerning the Rosser family is
given on other pages of this work, in the sketch
of the career of her brother, Elmer E.
Rosser. In conclusion is given brief
record concerning the children of Mr. and
Mrs. Fri; Olan E., who has been a
successful teacher in the public schools, is
attending, in 1916, the Ohio University, at
Athens. He married Miss Irene Worthman
and they have no children. Ilber E.
is likewise at Athens, in the Ohio University.
J. Lloyd was graduated in the High
School at McArthur and has attended both Ohio
University, at Athens, and the Ohio State
University in the City of Columbus. He is,
in 1916, serving his second year as principal of
the public schools of the Village of Zaleski,
Vinton County. Ethel C. is a
graduate of McArthur High School and is a
student in Ohio University and has also achieved
marked success as a teacher. Ada
Naomi is a graduate of the McArthur High
School and is now teaching in the Fee School
District of Swan Township. Thelma E. E.
is a student in the McArthur High School; and
Elvey C. and Frederick, who remain at the
parental home, are attending the graded schools.
The family is one of special prominence and
popularity in the representative social life of
the community, and it is pleasing to be able to
give the foregoing record in the history of the
Hanging Rock Iron Region of the tine, old
Buckeye State.
Source: A Standard History of The Hanging Rock
Iron Region of Ohio, Vol. II - Illustrated -
Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1916
- Page 1269 |
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