The Beery Families of Wyandot County, Ohio

ISAAC H. BEERY, deceased, was born in Bremen, Fairfield County, Ohio, February 19, 1820. He is a son of George and Catharine (Cradlebaugh) Beery, and resided in the village of his nativity till twelve years of age, when he moved with his parents to a farm in Bern Township, where the family of eight sons and two daughters were reared. He was there employed in agricultural pursuits till his twenty-third year, when he entered into a partnership with his brother-in-law, John Ashbaugh, in the mercantile trade in Bremen in 1843. Here he obtained his first commercial lessons which he utilized to such good advantage in after years, and here he continued his mercantile pursuits till 1850, his brother, Brooks Beery, having been admitted to the firm in 1847. In 1850, the two brothers came to the then new town of Upper Sandusky, and in September of that year erected a frame business room on the site now occupied by the Beery Block, and opened a general store under the firm name of I. H. & B. Beery. The establishment was well founded and managed, and at once grew into a popularity that it has ever since sustained. It soon became one of the most thoroughly-stocked dry goods houses in the county, and for thirty years it stood the test of time with undiminished prosperity. Afterward the frame building gave place to the substantial brick structure which now occupies its site, and besides this, the grain elevator, the handsome residences and many other buildings erected by them in their resident town, mark the steps of their prosperity and the spirit of their enterprise. The partnership of Mr. Beery and his brother continued its existence until 1880, from which time to the date of his death, March 21, 1884, he was not actively engaged. In 1876, he became a stockholder in the Wyandot County Bank, to which his chief business interests at the time of his demise were attached. He was a thorough, energetic business man of the strictest integrity, and has ever been one of the foremost of the citizens of his community in building up its varied interests, amid all his trials and efforts " wearing the white flower of a blameless life." Mr. Beery was married, September, 1852, to Miss Leefe Fowler, daughter of Dr. Stephen Fowler, and four children were born to them — S. Fowler, Leefe, I. Foster and Minnie. All of these are living, but Fowler, whose death occurred October 15, 1883.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

BROOKS BEERY, son of George and Catharine (Cradlebaugh) Beery, was born in Fairfield County. Ohio, February 19, 1820. " His father, George Beery, was born in Rockingham County, Va., in the year 1783, and emigrated to the almost unbroken wilderness of your county in the year 1800. He was the youngest of six brothers of his father's family, in the order here given: John, Isaac, Abraham, Jacob, Henry and George. There were two half brothers, Christopher and Joseph, all of whom were among the first and early settlers of Fairfield County. He came down the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers in a flat-boat, and up the Hock-hocking to the falls, thence through the woods on foot to Lancaster, and remained over winter, clearing land for others by the acre. He returned to Virginia the next spring, and finally returned to Fairfield County, in the fall of the year 1801, and settled on the Raccoon Creek, near Bremen, clearing land and working for others, thus enabling him to enter eighty acres, which he did in the fall of the year, 1807. In 1809, he married and settled on this small tract of land, continuing to live thereon, and in the neighborhood of Bremen, until in the spring of 1832, when he moved to Little Raccoon, five miles east of Lancaster, where he died in the year 1856. John Beery, his oldest brother, came to the county in the year 1805, and the other brothers soon after, all settling upon and near the streams mentioned in Rush Creek and Berne Townships. They were a hardy, stout and industrious set of men, and did their full share of clearing and improving that part of the county. They are all dead, leaving families scattered all over the country. Their education being very limited, and their habits sober and industrious, were content with the occupation of farming, except my father, who was always fur in advance of his neighbors in schools and public improvements. He took an active part in the construction of the canal from Carroll to Lancaster.

Also, in building the Zanesville & Marysville, and Haaner & Lancaster Turnpikes; was one of the Commissioners of the county, I think, in the ar 1828, and assisted in locating and building the County Infirmary. In

'_34:, he laid out the town of Bremen, and, in the next year, in partnership with Mr. Hedges, commenced the business of selling goods, an occupation yet followed by several of his children, who received their first lessons under his supervision. In the war of 1812. he was pressed into the service with his team, and while May. Croghan was defending Fort Stevenson, at Lower Sandusky, with team and provisions he was camped at Fort Ball, now Tiffin, and within hearing of the guns of the fort. He was a personal friend and a great admirer of the Hon. T. Ewing, claiming that he had no superior as a lawyer and a statesman in the Union. Sach was his admiration of this truly great man, that he called his tenth and youngest son Thomas Ewing. As a citizen he was public spirited; as a neighbor, kind and benevolent; as a father, strict in his requirements, yet tenderly devoted to his children. His wife was a Cradlebaugh, a daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. a German Reform minister, and a man of considerable influence in his day. He emigrated to Western Pennsylvania soon after the war closed, and in 1810 or 1811, to Fairfield County, when he soon afterward died. She was born in Washington County, Penn., in the year 1789, emigrated to Fairfield County in 1806 or 1807, and died in 1870. She was a woman of more than ordinary force of character, positive in her opinions, and free to express them; industrious and economical, loving right and having wrong; prompt and practical in every duty, exercising a marked and controlling influence over her husband and family. A mother of the old type in every sense of the word. They had twelve children, nine of whom still survive: four are living here, one near Urbana, Ohio, and the balance in and near the family village of Bremen."* Brooks Beery, the subject proper of this sketch, was employed on the farm with his parents till twenty-seven years of age, obtaining only a common school education. He subsequently engaged three years in mercantile pursuits at Bremen, Ohio, and was attended by fair success. In 1850, he came to Upper Sandusky and established a dry goods store in a frame building on the site now occupied by the Beery

Block, where for thirty years he conducted an extensive and successful business, retiring in 1880. He is the principal owner of the Upper Sandusky Gas Works; owns a half interest in the Beery Block and also in the elevator located by the C. H. V. & T. R. R. For many years Mr. Beery has been regarded as one of the prime factors of the commercial and business interests of Upper Sandusky and is well known as one of its most enterprising and substantial citizens. He is a gentleman of broad and liberal views on all subjects, and is endowed with a large and valuable business experience. Mr. Beery was married September 4, 1856, to Miss Jeannette Sherman, their only child being Frank, who was born October 20, 1857. Mrs. Beeiy was born in New York, August, 1828, and is the daughter of Horace and Luceppa (Harris) Sherman.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

THOMAS EWING BEERY.

There could be no more comprehensive history written of a city, or even of a state and its people, than that which deals with the life-work of those who, by their own endeavor and indomitable energy, have placed themselves where they well deserve the title of "prominent and progressive." and in this sketch will be found the record of one who has outstripped the less active and less able trodders on the highway of life, one who has taught the golden lesson of a career unsurpassed by that of any other in northern Ohio.

The ancestors of Thomas E. Beery, of this sketch, were of German extraction, the paternal branch coming from Switzerland in the latter part of the sixteenth century and settling in Pennsylvania and Virginia. The stanch little republic whence they came was not. nor is it now, altogether German in its constituency, but the German element is largely predominant and constitutes, the ruling moral and political features which give the nation its chief characteristics. — industry, progressiveness and love of liberty.— and these commendable qualities are carried to every part of the world in which the Swiss have a foothold.

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In the war of 1812 Mr. Beerv was in the military service of his country, and was encamped at Fort Ball ( now Tiffin) and there impatiently listened to the guns of Major Crogan, who with his troops was defending P'ort Stevenson at Lower Sandusky, while Mr. Beery was idly whiting away the time and ardently longing to take part in the conflict.

Mr. Beery was a personal friend and sincere admirer of Ohio’s eminent statesman. Hon. Thomas Ewing, claiming that. Both as a statesman and a lawyer, that gentleman never had an equal, let alone a superior, and in his honor Mr. Beery named his son. the subject of this sketch. George Beery died on his beautiful farm, five miles east of Lancaster, Ohio, in 1856, sincerely mounted by a host of warm-hearted friends and to the incontrollable grief of his widow and his large family of surviving children.

Mrs. George Beery, the mother of the subject of this sketch, here the maiden name of Catherine Cradlebaugh. Her father was a native of Germany, was a Revolutionary soldier, and was also a German Reformed clergyman, for the ministry of which church he was educated in Germany. Mrs. Beery was born in Washington county. Penn., in 1789, came to Fairfield county, Ohio, in 1806, and died in 1870. She was a lady of great force of character and the mother of twelve children, of whom three survive and remember her with deep affection as a mother of the good old style.

Thomas E. Beery, the youngest child of this family of twelve, was born in Fairfield Ohio. July 6, 1835. and in youth enjoyed such advantages as the schools of a country < 1’ strict afforded, and these he attended in the winter, but assisted on the home farm during the spring, summer and fall. He afterward attended the high school at Lancaster, and the Otterbein University, and, being an apt student, progressed very rapidly.

In 1855, at the age of twenty years, Mr. Beerv entered into mercantile trade in partnership with his brother, Simon, at Bremen, Fairfield county, a town laid out and named by his father. In 1857 Mr. Beery came to Upper Sandusky, where he has since been engaged in various kinds of business and now stands in the foremost rank of the most successful business men of the city. His successes have been in such lines as dry goods, hardware, grain, wool, banking and manufacturing, in all of which he has decidedly made his mark.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

FRANK BEERY, of the iirm of S. F. Beery & Co., dry goods merchants, was born in Upper Sandusky October 20, 1857. He is the only son of Brooks and Jeannette (Sherman) Beery, and has always resided in his native city, obtaining a good education in its ptiblic schools. He finished his studies at the Wesleyan University of Delaware in 1878, and succeeded his father in the dry goods business, which the former established in 1850. The firm of S. F. Beery & Co. was established inl879,and is composed of enterprising young men with large business capacity and experience. Their spacious room in the Beery Block enables them to display their large stock, valued at $20,000, and comprising a full line of dry goods, carpets, and everything to be found in a city establishment of this kind. The genial manners and fair dealing of the respective members of this firm have won for it an extensive patronage. Mr. Beery is a charter member of the Knights of Pythias of Upper Sandusky, and was initiated in November, 1883.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

SOLOMON A. BEERY.

The general public has ever taken great pleasure in tracing the history of a man who started upon lite's career handicapped in many ways, but who, notwithstanding innumerable obstacles, pushed forward man- fully and finally reached the goal of success set before him. The career of the widelyknown ' and public-spirited citizen whose name appears above affords an impressive ! example of what energy, directed and controlled by correct moral principles, can accomplish in overcoming an unfavorable environment and lifting its possessor from a comparatively humble origin to a position - of usefulness and affluence. Mr. Beery is too well known in Upper Sandusky and throughout yandot county to need an elaborate formal introduction to the people j of either city or county. Eminently a self-made man, having carved his own way in 1 the world, educating himself and honestly earning every dollar in his possession, he ranks with the most enterprising and successful of his compeers and has won a name 1 and reputation which place him among the representative citizens of his native state.

Solomon A. Beerv was born August 7. 1829, in Fairfield county, Ohio, and spent 1 the years of his youth and early manhood amid the routine of labor on his father's farm. His first educational training was received in the common schools of his neighborhood, but by far the greater part of his mental growth and development is the direct result of long and active experience in the business affairs of the world. He remained with his father, assisting in the work of the farm and contributing to the support of the; family until his marriage, after which he I purchased land of his own and turned his attention to agricultural pursuits and the breeding of fine live stock. For the latter he early manifested a decided preference and in the course of a few years his interest in

, tilling the soil began to decline, the stock business gradually absorbing the greater part of his time and attention. As a breeder of high grade cattle and blooded horses he soon acquired much more than local repute and as a dealer he was not long in realizing the results of his sound judgment and superior business tact in liberal financial returns.

Mr. Beery continued raising thoroughbred and running horses in his native county until 1882. when he disposed of his interests in that part of the state and changed his residence to the county of Wyandot. On coming here he purchased a beautiful home within the corporate limits of Upper Sandusky to which was soon after added an adjoining tract of two hundred acres, the whole, under his careful management, being converted into one of the finest and most highly improved stock farms in Ohio. Prior to leaving the county of Fairfield Mr. Beery met with financial success such as few attain. Since becoming a resident of Upper Sandusky Mr. Beery still conducts his farm, and also deals somewhat in stock, but not so extensively as he did before leaving his native county. For two years, while living in Fairfield county, he was under contract to supply the state penitentiary with cattle, aside from which he devoted his attention almost exclusively to the stock business, continuing as formerly to make a specialty of the best grade of thoroughbred horses. His efficiency as a judge of horse flesh and his skill as a breeder have brought his name prominently to the notice of the leading stock men throughout the United States, the result being a great and constantly increasing demand for the animals raised upon his farm.

Though denied the advantages of finished scholastic training in his younger days, Mr. Beery is a man of strong mentality, his active, capable intellect proving equal to every understanding, while quickness to foresee and wisdom to plan and execute have enabled him to win success where many would have retired defeated and abashed. The sterling virtues of his character and the undeviating integrity of his business career have made his name respected, wherever known, while his pleasing personality, combined with an eminently sociable I disposition, have rendered him a popular favorite with the people of his city and county.

Mr. Beery was united in marriage Febi ruary 8. 1855, to Miss Eliza Hammack. of Fairfield county, Ohio, a lady of culture and refinement whose memory is cherished by all who were so fortunate as to form her acquaintance. She presided with quiet but queenly dignity over a home of comfort and elegance and proved a valuable counselor to her husband in his various business transactions and contributed not a little io the remarkable success which has crowned his efforts. A sweet moral nature, united with strong religious convictions, made her ini deed a valued member of society, while among the poor and unfortunate her name will always be revered by reason of many acts of charity unselfishly performed. Mrs. Beery was a devout member of the Metho- 1 dist church, and her whole life was a grand epitome of duty bravely and uncomplainingly done. She ever tried to realize her highest ideal of noble, consecrated womanhood and her death, on the 22(1 of October. 1800.

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' of her residence and elsewhere. Though Mr. Beery's marriage was without issue, he has reared and educated two children and given to each a substantial start in life. They are James Shook and Louisa Hammack, the former now a resident of Chillicothe, Ohio, and the latter now Mrs. James J. Turner, residing in this county. He still looks after their interests with fatherly care and in every way possible contributes to their happiness and success. He is a man of large wealth, but believes in using his means for the advancement of all commendable enterprises. A liberal patron of movements having for their object the material and moral good of the community, he is a model citizen and in many respects a benefactor of his kind. He has added luster to Upper Sandusky, while the city is proud to number him among its most intelligent, enterprising and successful men of affaHs. Mr. Beery is a Republican in politics.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.