Williams County

Benjamin Franklin Neff, senior member of the firm of B. F Neff & Son, manufacturers of drain-tile and brick, at Bryan has been the dominating figure in developing one of the most important industrial enterprises of Williams County, and the high-grade products manufactured at the Neff plant find constant and cumulative demand m connection with material improvements in both town and farm properties in this section of the Buckeye State. Mr. Neff was born in West Moreland County, Pennsylvania November 10, 1855, and is a son of John G. and Mary (Garver) Neff, who were born and reared in the … Read more

Levi B. Kunkle. — Among the native born citizens of Williams County who have spent their lives within its precincts, and have aided in every possible way its growth and development, is Levi B. Kunkle, whose birth occurred, April 26, 1858, on the farm where he now lives, it being located one mile south and one-fourth of a mile west of West Unity, in Brady Township, where his father, John H. Kunkle, located in pioneer days. He comes of distinguished patriotic stock, his grandfather, Henry H. Kunkle, having fought bravely in the War of 1812, while his great-grandfather, Jacob Kunkle, … Read more

Joseph P. Arnold, president of the State Bank of Kunkle, living at Bryan, is one of the prominent and influential representatives of banking enterprise in Williams County, and takes due satisfaction in claiming the judicial center of the county as the place of his nativity. He was born at Bryan, December 20, 1863, and is a son of Charles and Violet A. (Fulton) Arnold. The father was born in the Province of Alsace-Lorraine, France, and was nine years of age when he accompanied his parents on their immigration to America, he having been reared and educated in Ohio, and having … Read more

Ernest E. Culbertson, who holds the position of cashier in the First National Bank of Bryan, was born in this village, the judicial center of Williams County, October 3, 1883, and is a son of William F. and Jennie (McGraw) Culbertson. William F. Culbertson passed his entire life in this county, where his parents settled in the pioneer days, and he was long numbered among the representative business men and honored and influential citizens of his native county. He served five years as treasurer of the county and thereafter was engaged in the lumber business at Bryan until the time … Read more

Wilbur M. Fyke. — The extent and importance of the enterprises with which the late Wilbur M. Fyke was identified during the active period of his career caused him to be accounted justly as one of the prominent men of Williams County, and more particularly of Brady Township, where for many years he carried on operations as a farmer and breeder of stock. While late in life he lived in semi-retirement at West Unity, he maintained his interests in a number of enterprises in the county in which his business ability and good citizenship were factors in developing the natural … Read more

H. F. Planson. — Intimately associated with the agricultural interests of Springfield Township, his finely improved farm lying three-fourths of a mile south and one mile east of Stryker, H. F. Planson holds high rank among the prosperous farmers of Williams County, the record of whose lives fills an important place in this volume. He was born, January 14, 1867, in Lockport, Brady Township, this county, a son of Peter and Frances Planson. Peter Planson was born, bred and educated in Brady Township, near Lockport, and as a young man selected farming as his occupation. Industrious and economical, he saved … Read more