Henry Sheets

HENRY SHEETS.

Mathias Sheets, who founded the family of that name in America, was a blacksmith by trade in his native country of Germany, and was brought to this country in 1776 with the German allies of the British army. Just after the battle at Monmouth, New Jersey, Mathias and a companion deserted and.started off in search of the American army. On their way they saw a squad of British cavalry in pursuit and to escape them hid in some hay that was. contained in an old building near by.

'hen the troopers, who had not seen the runaways, came near the place of their concealment, they thrust their sabers into the hay through the cracks between the logs, but fortunately did not reach far enough to touch the trembling fugitives. When the latter heard the squad ride away they lost no time in leaving their place of refuge, and eventually arrived within tht lines of the Revolutionar)' forces. After the war Mathias Sheets settled in southeastern Pennsylvania, where he reared a family in which was included a son named Jacob. The latter married Christina, daughter of Nicholas Boher, who served as a private on the American side in the war for independence. Jacob and Christina (Boher) Sheets became the parents of nine children, three sons and six daughters, two of the former and four of the latter still living-. The second son, Joseph, was a member of Company I. Twenty-fourth Regiment. Iowa Volunteer Infantry, with which he served creditably throughout the Civil war. Pie was with General Banks during his expedition up the Red river, and was on board a steamboat with his riment when the part of the army to which he belonged passed the fortifications at Vicksburg under the cover of a dark night. History relates how the forts opened a furious cannonade on the daring fleet as it passed, and one cannon-ball passed through the boat containing the regiment to which Joseph Sheets belonged. Later this regiment was sent around by water to Washington and from there to Shenandoah Valley, where in the battle with Early's army, October 19, 1864, Joseph was captured and sent with others to the prison at Richmond. After being exchanged in January, 1865, he was sent to Maryland and later to Benton Barracks, St. Louis, where he died and was buried.

Henry Sheets, the eldest of the children of Jacob and Christina, and the subject of tffis sketch, was born in Lebanon county, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1824, and when only nine months old was taken by his parents to Center county, in the same state. They lived on a rented farm and there Henry spent most of his boyhood, attending district shot.)l during the three months" term in winter and helping on the farm at other times. In 1842, at the age of seventeen, Henry gained permission of his parents to go to Hancock county, Ohio, where he worked by the month on a farm owned by his uncle near the location of the present village of Arcadia, and in the winter taught the district school of that neighborhood. After spending eighteen months in Ohio Henry Sheets returned to Pennsylvam'a, where he remained until 1847, and then came back to Hancock county, which has ever since been the place of his residence. For about nineteen years his two-fold occupation was carpentering in the building season and teaching school during the inclement weather of winter. In 1859 he engaged in farming and the next year was elected to the office of auditor of Hancock county, in which position he served two terms of two years each. In March, 1861, Mr. Sheets located with his family at Findlay, where he spent five years and returned to the farm near Arcadia, which has been his home from that time to this. After serving two years as examiner of county schools ]\Mr. Sheets was appointed, in 1870, to fill out the unexpired term of the county treasurer, who had left the county. In 1876 he was elected to the lower house of the Ohio Legislature to fill the unexpired term of Hon. A. H. Phillips, who died after serving half his term, and in 1877 he was re-elected to a full term of two years.

December 18. 1851, was solemnized the marriage of Henry Sheets and Miss Martha, daughter of James Campbell, a prominent farmer of Plancock county, residing in Cass township. Of the eight children born of this union two died within less than three weeks after birth and Mathew, one of the sons, died of typhoid fever at the age of twenty-eight years. The five survivors consist of three sons and two daughters, of whom Rufus, the eldest son, is living in Marshall county, Iowa, where he owns a flouring mill on the Iowa river. James H., the second son, is a carpenter by trade and follows that occupation for a living. Homer, the youngest son, attends to the farming on the old homestead and, like his brother, James, is unmarried. Ellen, the eldest daughter, is unmarried and remains at the family homestead. Elizabeth, the youngest daughter, married Albert Kopf, with whom she resides at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where her husband holds the position of blacksmith for the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company, doing all needed repairing in his line for the road from Stony Island, near Chicago, to Bellevue, Ohio. Considering the fact that he had only four dollars when he arrived in Hancock county, the subject of our sketch may truly be said to have achieved a creditable success in life, but he is a modest man, and does not brag either of what he has or what he has done. At the present time "his farm consists of one hundred and fifty acres, after Mr. Sheets gave the right of way to two railroads and to the electric road from Fostoria to Findlay. Since 1849 Sheets and his wife have been members of the Evangelical Lutheran church in Arcadia, to which three other members of the family also belong. In politics Mr. Sheets is now and always has been a number of the Democratic party, but he has never belonged to any of the secret societies. He has aimed always to do his duty as best he could, both in public and private life, — to be just toward his fellow man and to fulfill all the requirements of good citizenship.

As printed in A Centennial biographical history of Hancock County, Ohio : embellished with portraits of many well known people of Hancock County, who have been or are prominent in its history and development (1903). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.