Ed Piper was a prominent business owner in Stryker, Williams County, specializing in heating and plumbing. Born on February 3, 1877, in New Holstein, Wisconsin to Henry and Mary (Greve) Piper, he grew up on a farm before apprenticing in tinning. After working in different towns, Piper settled in Stryker in 1898, joining the Beucler Manufacturing Company and eventually acquiring the business. He expanded the company to include heating and plumbing, creating a successful venture that drew customers from a wide area. Married to Anna Strong, the couple had five children. Piper, a Republican and Odd Fellows member, was recognized for his integrity, community spirit, and business acumen.
Ed Piper. — One of the leading citizens and representative businessmen of Williams County is Ed Piper, who is engaged in the heating and plumbing business at Stryker. His has been an eminently active and useful life, but the limited space at the disposal of the biographer forbids more than a casual mention of the leading events in his career. He is a man of influence in local affairs and is looked upon as a man thoroughly in sympathy with any movement looking toward the betterment of the community in any way. He has always been regarded as a man of sterling honesty and worthy of the utmost confidence and respect, which his fellow citizens have been free to accord, owing to his upright, public-spirited and industrious life.
Ed Piper was born at New Holstein, Wisconsin, on February 3, 1877, and is the son of Henry and Mary (Greve) Piper, who also were natives of New Holstein, where their respective families had been among the earliest settlers. Both families had their, origin in Germany and in Wisconsin they followed farming and dairying. The subject of this sketch was reared on the paternal farmstead until eighteen years of age and secured his education in the public schools. He then Apprenticed himself to learn the tinning trade, serving three years, and at the end of that period he located in Waterloo, Indiana, where he worked at his trade for a time, later going to Butler, Indiana, where he spent eight months. In 1898 Mr. Piper came to Stryker and entered the employ of the Beucler Manufacturing Company, for whom he worked for two years, being employed in the making of tanks. He then bought the business, to which he has added the departments of heating and plumbing, and has conducted the business to the present time. Thoroughly qualified in every way for his lines of work, Mr. Piper has commanded his full share of the public trade, his patronage covering a wide radius of surrounding country, and he has built up a large and prosperous business. His plant is well equipped and is thoroughly up to date in stock and appliances, so that large or small contracts can be handled with equal facility.
Mr. Piper was married to Anna Strong, and five children have blessed their union, namely: Lawrence, Francis, Eva, Bernice and Pauline. Politically, Mr. Piper gives his support to the republican party, while his fraternal relations are with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has served as noble grand of his subordinate lodge. He is a man of generous nature, congenial among his acquaintances, and by his life of industry, integrity of purpose and public spirit, he has won the unreserved confidence and esteem of the entire community.
Source: Bowersox, Charles A. ed. A standard history of Williams County, Ohio: an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, educational, civic and social development , 2 vols. Publisher Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co. 1920.