L. Frank Heinlen

As printed in 1912

L. FRANK HEINLEN, a prosperous merchant of Bucyrus, O., who conducts a large grocery store at No. 812 North Sandusky Avenue, established the same in February, 1908, for four years previously having been a farmer. He virus born in Wyandot county, O., Nov. 3, 1859, and is a son of Samuel and Margaret (Keiss) Heinlen.

Samuel Heinlen was born in Crawford county, O., in 1836, a son of Louis Heinlen, who was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, and came to America when aged twenty years, locating in Whetstone township, Crawford county, O., southeast of Bucyrus. He worked at his trade of tailoring among the early settlers, according to the practice of the times going with shears and goose to one house after another and fitting the: male members of the family with garments. He had married in Pickaway county before reaching Crawford, a Miss Starger,. also a native of Germany. Their old farm in Whetstone township still belongs to the family and there they spent their lives into old age, dying when about eighty years old. They were members of the Mennonite church. Of their children, two sons and one daughter survive: John, who lives with his family at Des Moines, la.; David, who lives on his farm near Bucyrus; and Mrs. Sarah Wise, who lives in Marion county, O. Samuel Heinlen followed farming, locating in Whetstone township after marriage and a few years before the birth of their son, L. Frank, moved to Wyandot county, where they lived several years and then returned to Crawford county. He married Margaret Keiss, who was born in Pennsylvania and was thirteen years old when she accompanied her parents to Crawford county. Five children were born to them, namely: WiHiam A., who is a dealer in sewing machines at Bucyrus and has two daughters, Ruth and Gladys; L. Frank; Reuben, who is a railroad agent and lives at Great Bend, Kans.; Mary E., who is the wife of William Stump, a farmer in Dallas township, and has one daughter, Vella; and Edward, who was accidentally killed in an explosion in a saw mill at Bucyrus. In 1887 Samuel Heinlen and wife retired to Bucyrus and here his death occurred in January, 191 1. His wife survives, well and active in mind and body, at the age of 75 years.

L. Frank Heinlen was small when his parents returned to Crawford county and he was reared to manhood here and obtained his education in the local schools and the university at Ada, O. He was connected with several business houses in a clerical capacity before he engaged in farming, after which, as stated above, he embarked in his present business at Bucyrus. Like his late father he is a Democrat in politics and prior to coming to Bucyrus was clerk of Whetstone township for six years. He is a good citizen and as a business man is wide awake to honorable opportunities.

Mr. Heinlen was married in Jefferson township, Crawford county, O., to Miss Eliza Shumaker, who was born there, a daughter of Jacob Shumaker, of German ancestry. Her parents came to Ohio from Pennsylvania. They were members of the German Reformed church. Mrs. Heinlen is one of a family of eight children. Mr. and Mrs. Heinlen have-three children: Clinton, who not only has been well educated in a literary sense but has a technical education in wireless telegraphy and is an operator on the vessels in the Great Lakes during a part of the year and is with his father as an assistant during the other months, a very capable and reliable young man for his twenty-two years; Hazel, who was creditably graduated from the Bucyrus high school in the class of 1910; and Grace, who is a student in the city schools, and is now nine years old. Mr. Heinlen and family are members of the Evangelical Association, to which organization his parents also belonged from his childhood.

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.