The Hare Families of Wyandot County, Ohio

JOHN K. HARE, County Commissioner, was born in Center County. Penn., July 18, 1819. His parents, Conrad and Anna M. (Spangler) Hare, were both natives of Pennsylvania, as were also several previous generations of the Hare family. Conrad Hare, wife and five children came from Pennsylvania to "Wayne County, Ohio, in 1823, and ten years later moved to Crawford Township, this county. Seven more children were born to them in this State; ten grew to maturity — Solomon, Susanna, Mary A.. John K., Levi, Lucetta, Margaret, Jonathan S., Rebecca, Samuel S. and Christopher S. The father died in 1847, aged fifty-six years; his wife lived to an advanced age. At twenty-one years of age, Mr. John K. Hare began work at monthly wages. At twenty-three he took contracts on the I., B. & W. R. R., and continued in this kind of work at intervals for about ten years. After four years in dry goods and grocery store at Patterson, Hardin County, he returned to farming. In 1867, he removed to Southwestern Missouri, where he cleared up a fine farm, and eight years later he returned to Ohio and resumed work on the old homestead in this township. Four years after this Mr. Hare moved to Carey and in 1881, was elected Commissioner of the county on the Democratic ticket. He owns forty acres of land in this township, and is discharging his official duties with credit. March 2, 1848, Mr. Hare was married to Mary Warner, who was born in Allegany County, N. Y., August 30, 1826. Her parents, David and Elmira Robins, were both of New York, and with them she came to Hardin County, Ohio, in 1836. Mr. and Mrs. Hare have had nine children, six of whom are still living: Almon W., Wilfred C, Sarepta A., Etta M. and Ella M. (twins) and Anna B. The deceased are John A., David O. and Celestia, twin to Sarepta. The whole family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1853 and 1854, Mr. Hare had a contract for grading twenty-one miles on the Eel River & Detroit Railroad west from Auburn, Ind., and was employing 150 workmen, when the company failed, causing him a loss of 15,000, being unable to obtain even a settlement.

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

HON. DARIUS D. HARE, one of the leading lawyers of this county, was born in Seneca County, Ohio, January 9, 1843. His parents, Levi and Jane (Berry) Hare, were natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio respectively. Mr. Hare was a pupil in the district schools during the period of his youth, and completed his studies at the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1863, being then twenty years of age. In the same year he taught a four months' term of school, enlisting March 20, 1864, in the Signal Corps of the United States Army, in which service he continued till the close of the war. He was then detailed on special duty as clerk in the same service at the headquarters of Gen. Sheridan, at New Orleans, where he remained till discharged by special orders of the War Department, February 16, 1866. Returning home, Mr. Hare, in the following September, entered the law department of the University of Michigan, being admitted to the bar by the District

Court of this county in September, 1867. He immediately entered upon his practice at Carey, but removed to Upper Sandusky in May, 1808. In January, 1869, Mr. Hare formed a partnership with John and Curtis Berry, doing business under the firm name of Berry, Berry & Hare, till 1871, when he retired from that firm and entered into a partnership with Henry Maddux, this connection being dissolved by mutual consent two years later, since which time he has conducted his professional business independently, excepting that for a little over three years he was a partner of Hon. R. Mc- Kelly. In 1872, he was elected Mayor of Upper Sandusky, and was reelected in 1874. In 1876, he was appointed City Solicitor, serving in that capacity two years. In 1878, he was again elected Mayor, and re-elected in 1880 and 1882. He served thirteen successive years as a member of the Board of School Examiners of this county, tendering his resignation in 1881. Mr. Hare has established an extensive and lucrative practice in his chosen profession, and is recognized as one of its leading exponents. He is alive to every interest of his resident city, and has done, perhaps, as much as any other citizen for its general improvement. He is a thorough, energetic business man, and for these qualities, as well as for those of social nature, he is highly esteemed. Mr. Hare was married October 28, 1868, to Miss Elise Liddelle, daughter of William and Aldanah (Fisher) Liddelle, of Rochester, N. Y. She was born in Rochester, November 23, 1845, and was educated at the St. Mary's Seminary, Raleigh, N. C, where she graduated in 1865. Her parents both died during her childhood.

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

CURTIS B. HARE.

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

By occupation Conrad Hare was a farmer; he continued to follow agricultural pursuits in Pennsylvania until 1828, when he migrated to Wyandot county. Ohio, and purchased a tract of government land near the present site of Carey. Here he spent the remainder of his life as a miller of the soil, dying when fifty-six years old: his widow survived him some years, departing this life at the age of seventy-six.

Among the children of Conrad and Anna Hare was a son by the name of Levi, whose birth occurred in Center county. Penn. He was a small boy when the family settled in Wyandot, and. like his father before him, grew to maturity on a farm and selected agriculture for a vocation. He became successful in his chosen calling, and by industry and judicious management acquired a comfortable competence, including two hundred acres of valuable land, the greater part of which was cleared and developed by his own labor. When a young man he married Miss Jane Berry, a native of Ross county, Ohio, who was brought to the county of Wyandot by her parents as early as 1823: she died here at the age of thirty-nine years. Mrs. Hare bore her husband eight children, seven sons and one daughter, namely: Darius D., a prominent citizen of this county whose 1 biography appears elsewhere; Curtis B.. of this review; Celestia S.. who lives in Upper Sandtixky; Cyrus D., engaged in the insurance business in the same city; Albert J., editor of the Union County Journal, a paper published at Marysville, this state; Adrian A., a merchant of Detroit. Mich., and Wellington R., a sketch of whom will be found in another part of this volume

Politically Levi Hare was a Democrat, and as such wielded an influence for his party in the community where he lived. In: religion he subscribed to the Methodist creed, as did also his wife, both being for a number of years devout members of the church, the teachings of which they early impressed upon the minds and hearts of their children. Mr. Hare met with an accident which resulted in his death when he was forty-nine years old, his loss being greatly deplored throughout the county in which he was so well and favorably known. Mrs. Hare's parents were Curtis and Sallie ( Cavite) Berry, the father a native of Virginia and the mother of Ross county. Ohio. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Berry settled in Crawford township, Wyandot county and continued to reside there until their deaths, which occurred at the ages of seventy and fifty-six. respectively Curtis Berry served in the war of 1812 as a noncommissioned officer in a Virginia regiment, and made a creditable record as a soldier; he was of English descent, his wife's ancestors being originally Irish.

Reverting to the personal history of Curtis B. Hare, it may be stated that he received his first practical training in life on the family homestead near the town of Carey. During the summer months his employments were such as are common to the majority of country lads, and after the crops were gathered he attended the common-schools in the neighborhood. To those early years, under the tutelage of parents whose earnest desire was to graft upon the minds of their children such principles as would insure lives of usefulness and honor, Mr. Hare is largely indebted for the integrity of character and laudable ambition that have since distinguished him. The world is full of similar examples, and the student of biography will have no difficulty in recalling instances in which farm life left its impress upon some of the most noted characters known to history. In early years, when the mind is taking its bent, and when youthful ambitions are shaping themselves for manhood's achievements, no influence has ever been found more potent for good than that which the farm affords. As a student young Hare was diligent. He continued the pursuit of knowledge in connection with farm labor until his nineteenth year when, like thousands of other patriotic men throughout the North, he laid aside his books and the implements of husbandry and tendered his services to the government to assist in putting down the Rebellion. In March,

1864, he entered the signal corps service at Columbus, Ohio, and served in that capacity in Washington, D. C.. until September,

1865. Subsequently he saw considerable active service on the Mississippi river under Commodore Porter and participated in the operations against Mobile with Farragut, besides taking part in other important movements on land and water. He discharged his duties creditably to himself and satisfactorily to his superior and at the expiration of his period of enlistment was discharged at the city of New Orleans.

Actuated by a desire to add to his scholastic knowledge Mr. Hare on leaving the army entered an academy, where he spent one year studying the higher branches of learning, after which he secured a situation as clerk with a mercantile firm. In this capacity lie continued two and a half years and then affected a co-partnership in the grocery business with M. B. Smith, a relationship which was dissolved at the end of one year by reason of the death of the subject's father.. The better to look after the latter’s business affairs, Mr. Hare disposed of his interests in the store and assumed the management of the home farm, which he conducted about one year, selling the place at the end of that time and engaging in the grocery trade at Upper Sandusky. Pie continued to sell groceries successfully for a period of five years, when he changed his line of business by engaging in the hardware trade in association with R. A. Mc- Kelly, a partnership which still exists.

Mr. Hare's commercial career presents a series of successes anti as long as he was actively engaged in merchandising his business grew in magnitude until he became a leader in the various lines which he represented. On the ist day of June, 1895, he retired from active participation in the affairs of the firm, for the purpose of accepting the presidency of the First National Bank, of Upper Sandusky, a position he has since filled to the satisfaction of every one. officially or otherwise, connected with this old and reliable financial institution.

Mr. Hare's life has been exceedingly busy and not without events of striking interest and his record as a business man is without a stain. As a financier he ranks with the successful men of his city and county and by reason of a long experience in commercial and monetary affairs his opinions have great weight and his ideas always receive due consideration. He is regarded as sound and reliable in matters involving large and important interests, careful in the management of all affairs intrusted to him, laying his plans with wise forethought and forming his opinions only on mature reflection. In the discharge of his official functions as executive head of the First National Bank, he has demonstrated sound judgment, attending to his duties with fidelity to the interests of stockholders and depositors in such a way as to win the confidence of the business public.

Of Mr. Hare, personally, those who know him best assert that he is a man of strong attachments for friends and entertains the trust and deepest regard for all who have kindred with or claims of friendship or gratitude on him. His nature is firm and positive, but kind, and while in the course of a long business career he may at times have produced antagonisms, they have always been without malice. In all, he has been a. just man. and his deeds, which are so well known to the people of Upper Sandusky and Wyandot county, are the best standard by which to measure his life.

Politically Mr. Hare is a stanch supporter of the Democratic party, but has never had any ambition to gratify in the way of public office. He was married on the 23d of October, 1872, Co-Miss Nettie J. Brown, of New York. This union resulted in the birth of five children, two of whom grew to maturity. Adelaide, a cultured and refined young lady, who is still under the parental roof, and Levi Broun, also at home and who has charge of his father’s hardware store at Upper Sandusky; die other three children died in youth. Mrs. Hare is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church:

she and her husband are esteemed members of a large social circle, a position which they have merited by their characters and genuine personal worth.

As printed in the source³. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

CURTIS B. HARE, second son of Levi and Jane (Berry) Hare, was born in Seneca County, Ohio, October 13, 1844. He removed to Crawford Township, this county, with his parents, and resided with them on the farm till his father's death, December 14, 1869. His mother's decease occurred ten years previous. He obtained a common education in the district school, and engaged in farm labor till March 17, 1864, when he enlisted in the Signal Corps, United States Army service, continuing in the same till August 25, 1865. Being honorably discharged at New Orleans, ho returned, to his farm in Crawford Township, finished his education, and engaged in a mercantile establishment at Carey, Ohio, continuing in this occupation two and one-half years. He then purchased Mr. Jackson's interest in the grocery store controlled by Smith & Jackson, and engaged in business with the leading partner, under the firm name of Smith & Hare. He remained in this connection one year, and removed to Upper Sandusky in 1870, remaining in the grocery trade until 1878. He then formed a partnership with R. A. McKelly, and embarked in the hardware business, this firm still existing and known as the firm of Hare & McKelly. They carry a full line of hardware and agricultural implements, and are doing a lively business. Mr. Hare was married October 23, 1872, to Miss Nettie J. Brown, daughter of Moses and Sabina (Farwell) Brown, natives of Jefferson County, N. Y. They have but two children living, namely, Ada C, born August 29, 1874, and Levi B., September 18, 1877. The deceased are Helen E. (died aged fourteen months), and two infants. Mr. Hare is a member of the Knights of Honor, and a stanch Democrat.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected.

CURTIS B. HARE.

While the record of a business man may be less spectacular than that of a statesman or military leader, it is none the less essential and none the less valuable. In fact the stable prosperity and substantial growth of every community depend upon its enterprising and reliable business men who day by day perform their daily duties, advancing slowly yet steadily and utilizing every means that come to hand, not only to enhance their own interests but also to promote the public welfare. To this class belongs Curtis B. Hare, president of the First National Bank of Upper Sandusky. Honored and respected by all, no man of the city occupies a more enviable position in its financial circles, not alone by reason of the success he has achieved but also owing to the straightforward business policy he has ever followed.

Mr. Hare was born in Seneca county, Ohio, October 13, 1844, and is a son of Levi and Jane (Berry) Hare. The father, a native of Pennsylvania, was born in 1819, made farming his life work, and died in the year 1869. His wife, a native of Ross county, Ohio, came to Wyandot county as early as 1823 with her parents and here passed away at the age of thirty-nine years. Their children were Darius D., Curtis B., Celestia S., Cyrus D., Albert J., Adrian A. and Wellington R.

Curtis B. Hare pursued his education in the district schools of Crawford township and by three terms' study in the Carey Academy of Carey, Ohio. He then entered upon his business

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected.

WELLINGTON R. HARE.

In its lawyers Wyandot county, Ohio, has a bulwark of strength against oppression by the unjust and in the protection of its citizens in their guaranteed constitutional rights — a strength that is supplemented by, some of the brightest intellects of Upper Sandusky, the home of a number of brilliant members of the bar, but none of whom is more worthy of special mention in this work than the eminent gentleman whose name stands at the head of this condensed biographical sketch, condensed it must needs be, as a full account of his active life, young as he still is, would require more space than can be spared by the publisher and justice done to all, but the facts here given are plain and truthful, without loss or guile, and unembellished with overstrained rhetoric. being, like himself, plain and sincere.

Wellington R. Hare was born in Crawford township, Wyandot county, Ohio. August 13, 1857, and a full record of his paternity will be found in the sketch of the life of his brother, Curtis B. Hare, to be found on another page of this volume. The boyhood days of Mr. Hare were passed on the farm where he was born until he was thirteenyears of age, when he came with the fami ily to Upper Sandusky. Here he was afforded the privileges of attending school un-: til November, 1875, after which time he taught a district school until the spring of 1876. when he entered the Universitv of Delaware, which he attended until June,

1878. He then taught a district school in Wyandot county for two years, occupying his spare time in reading law under his brother, the Hon. D. D. Hare, and in June.

, 1885, was admitted to the bar. He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession and has been fortunate in securing a long list of substantial patrons, from whom he nets a comfortable income.

February 2. 1887, Mr. Hare was joined in matrimony with Miss Emilie Robbins, of Lima, Ohio, and this genial union has been crowned with the birth of one daughter, Jane. The family attend the Presbyterian church. In politics Mr. Hare is a Democrat and for this party works with all the vim by which he is characterized, but has never expressed any desire for election to public office.

As printed in the source³. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.