Adam Neff

As printed in 1912

ADAM NEFF, carpenter, builder and contractor at Crestline, O., has been in this line of business, including the operating of a planing mill, for more than 50 years. He was born near the city of Darmstadt, Germany, March 22, 1844, and is a son of Peter and Barbara (Pfeifer) Nefif.

Peter Nefif was born about 1822, in Germany, was reared there and married and after the birth of several children, he and his wife decided to emigrate to America where better advantages could be secured for their family. Taking passage on a sailing vessel they were safely landed at New York after 49

AXD REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS days on the sea, a storm nearly wrecking their ship on the last day, carrying away the mass. By water and wagon they finally reached Crestline, O., and then secured no acres of virgin land, situated in Hancock county, on which they built a log house and there spent the remainder of their lives, subsequently developing this wild land into one of the finest farms in Hancock county. This property remains a possession of the family. The mother died on that place in 1875, when aged 48 years, the father surviving until 1893, passing away when aged 71 years. They were members of the Lutheran church and were leaders in the same in those early days. By trade the father was a weaver but he was more than a skilled workman at that trade, having some knowledge of medicine and enough dental science to enable him to pull teeth without endangering life. He is recalled as a kind, generous, neighborly man, one who was unusually well qualified to be a member of a pioneer settlement. Of his sixteen children, ten grew to maturity and all married and became heads of families and five of these yet live.

Adam Nefif was the eldest born of his parents' children and was but three years old when they came to America. He assisted on the home farm in boyhood but preferred a trade rather than an agricultural life and learned that of a carpenter. In 1864 he came to Crestline and was engaged here for 12 years and then went to Hardin county, where he became owner of, and foreman in, a planing mill and remained 12 years, going then to Lima, Allen county, where he was engaged as foreman in a planing mill. After an absence of 15 years, Mr. Nefif returned to Crestline where he has become one of the leading men in his line of business and has been identified with a large part of the building operations which, in recent years, have enlarged and beautified Crestline.

On Dec. 20, 1866, at Crestline, Mr. Nefif was married to Miss Catherine Poth, who was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, in 1847, and in the same year came to the United States with her parents, George and Maria (Mathias) Poth. The family landed at New Orleans, La., and came up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to Cincinnati and then to Crestline, locating on a farm near this city. The father of Mrs. Nefif died in 1893, aged 71 years, and the mother passed away at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Nefif, in 1901, at the age of 82 years. They were Lutheran church people, sturdy, honest, industrious and virtuous.

Four sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Adam Nefif, three of whom survive: Henry W., who is connected with the general offices of the Buckeye Pipe Line Company at Lima, O., and who is married and has one daughter, Lelia W.; John Adam, who is married and is manager of the shoe department of the J. L. Hudson Company at Cleveland, O.; and Charles F., a dry goods merchant at Gallon, O., who is married and has three children — Lillian M., Bertha G. and Charles A. One son, Philip E., died in 1909, when aged 32 years.

Mr. Neff and family have always been more or less prominent in the Lutheran chtirch and he has been a church official for many years. In politics 'he has always been a Democrat; for six years he was a township trustee, for seven years was a member of the town council for five years has been on the board of Public Afifairs, and at the present time is serving as president of this civic body. Fraternally he is identified with the Odd Fellows, and belongs also to several insurance organizations.

As printed in History of Crawford County, Ohio, and representative citizens (1912). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.