John S. Ingram.— On the first of September, 1919, John Sherman Ingram entered upon the discharge of his official duties as county recorder of Williams County, his election to this responsible post having taken place on the fifth of November of the preceding year, and the majority which he received in this election having emphatically attested to the high esteem in which he is held in his native county.
Mr. Ingram was born on his father’s farm, in Florence Township, near the village of Edon, this county, and the date of his nativity was February 6, 1865. He is a son of James and Mary (Sheridan) Ingram, the former a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and the latter of the State of Pennsylvania. James Ingram was five years old at the time of the family immigration to the United States, and after remaining for a brief time in Wayne County, Ohio, his parents came to Williams County, where his father engaged in farming and where both parents passed the remainder of their lives. James Ingram received his youthful education in the schools of this county and after his marriage he settled on a farm in Florence Township, where he long continued as a successful exponent of agricultural industry in the county and where he died when about seventy years of age, his wife also having passed away when seventy years of age. He was a republican in politics and was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. Of the five children three are living in 1920: James W., of Montpelier, this county; Harriet M., the wife of William Eddy, of Eaton Rapids, Michigan; and John S., of this review.
On the old farm of his father, in Florence Township, John S. Ingram early gained a full quota of practical experience in connection with productive industry, and in the public schools he received his youthful education He continued to be associated in the work and management of the home farm until he had attained to his legal majority, when he entered upon an apprenticeship to the trade of telegrapher. He became a skilled operator, and as such was employed for varying intervals at different stations on the line of the Wabash Railroad. He continued his active service as a telegrapher until 1912, when he engaged in the restaurant business at Edon, one of the attractive villages of his native county. There he continued in this line of enterprise until his election to the office of county recorder, as noted in the opening paragraph of this sketch. He and his wife still maintain membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Edon, though his official duties involved his establishing his home at Bryan, the county seat. At Edon Mr. Ingram is affiliated with the lodge of the Knights of Pythias, of which he is past chancellor, and in politics lie is a stalwart in the local ranks of the republican party.
November 21, 1890, recorded the marriage of Mr. Ingram to Miss Laura A. Gonser, and of their five children four are living: Ethel, •who was graduated in the high school at Edon, is the wife of Monte Dewier; Leona, likewise a graduate of the Edon High School, is a talented musician, a former director of an orchestra in the City of Lexington, Kentucky, and now directing an orchestra in Richmond, Virginia; Adaline is a teacher, and Isabelle, a high school student.
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.