Daniel F. Kline of Hocking and Defiance Counties

Daniel F. Kline

Born March 1, 1871, Daniel was the firstborn son of John Wesley Kline and Dora Tena Myers Kline.  He grew up in Good Hope Township, Hocking County, Ohio and was enumerated in the census there in 1880 with his parents and siblings, Caroline - 6, Mary - 3, Christy (Christopher) - 2, and Maria (Mariah) - 4 months.  

Not much is know of Daniel's childhood, other than he grew up in the hills and rocks of Hocking County, near what is now Hocking County State Park.  John Wesley, his father, farmed and their homestead sat in a rather secluded area near Rockbridge.

Kline homestead, Hocking County, 1992

 One story, printed in The Logan Daily News, (unknown publication date) concerned Daniel as a young man of about 23.

"It was Wednesday, July 24, 1895.  It was about 9 a.m.  At his home in the northwestern part of Laurel Township, near Cantwell Cliffs, Joseph Bigham had been digging a well.  He was preparing to build a new house, having made the excavation for the cellar and starting work on this well.  He was being assisted by his brother-in-law, Oliver Benway.  The evening before, they fired a blast in the well in order to get fire to burn in it, but it didn't do any good.  They left the house about seven o'clock on Wednesday morning to work on the well.

Joseph went down in the well, but was overcome by carbonic acid gas, which at the time was commonly called well damp.  He called to Oliver to pull him up, but was too affected by the gas to hold the rope.  Oliver called out for help.  Mary Yantes, who was staying with the Bighams at the time, and Joseph's wife, Anna, came to assist.  Oliver lowered himself into the well, fanning Joseph for a few minutes in an attempt to revive him, but soon felt himself being overcome by the gas.  He called for the women to pull him up; they were able to get him up about 16 or 17 feet, but he was so overcome by gas, he fell back to the bottom of thewell, which at the time was about 35 feet deep. 

Mary ran to the nearest neighbors about a half mile away, and a group of men came back with her to assist.  Dan Kline went down in the well to retrieve the men, but only got about half way before the gas overcame him and he needed to be pulled out.  They pumped air into the well by means of a windmill and sheet, and a burning sheaf of wheat was lowered into it.  Dan went back down in the bucket, tied a rope around the bodies of Joseph and Oliver, and brought them up.  They had been dead for some time, it having been over an hour since Oliver first called for help.  Oliver's head was badly cut from when he'd fallen back into the well.

The funerals took place at Mt. Pisgah, with the Rev. Mather officiating.  Mather's sermon was delivered outside, as the people who'd come to attend the funerals couldn't fit in the church.  People who were there guessed the attendees numbered around one thousand." 

When Daniel was about 26, he became a father to Carl Guy Kline in May, 1898.  On Carl's records, Nellie Stoughten was named as his mother; she would have been about 20 at the time of his birth.  According to family lore, Nellie took the child to Dora and Wesley and told them to raise Carl.  Daniel and Nellie were not married. So in the 1900 census, Carl was listed with his grandparents and enumerated as a son, but he was really a grandson.  Whereas, Daniel had moved north to Hicksville, Ohio, where he was enumerated in 1900 with a cousin, William Kline, and his wife, Cora, and four children.  Daniel worked as a farm laborer on William's farm.

 While in Hicksville, Daniel met and then married Emily Meek on January 19, 1902.  Emily was about 30 at the time and had taught in several of the one room school houses in the Hicksville area.  They purchased a farm in Indiana, just across the Ohio-Indiana state line, in Dekalb County, and it was there, their first son, Boyd, was born on June 21, 1903.  Emily and Daniel were both 31.

Hocking County newspapers reported in 1906 and 1908 that Daniel took Boyd for a visit to his parents, sometimes with his cousin, William.

Daniel, Boyd and Emily Kline - circa 1903-1904

Emily and Daniel would have seven children in eleven years: Boyd - 1903, Hazel - 1904, Ethel - 1906, Mildred and Marian, twins - 1910, Maurice - 1912, and Woodrow - 1914.  Twin, Marian was stillborn in 1910 and Boyd died when he was only 16 of tuberculosis in 1919.  Ethel died in 1926, also of tuberculosis.

As we consider the deaths of his mother, Dora, in 1914, three of his children, and the loss of his father in 1923, brother Barney in 1927, and brother Christopher in 1928, it must have been overwhelming.  To add to this, the country was thrown into a Depression, and according to one source, one of the banks in Hicksville closed, taking with it all the money there, including the account of Daniel and Emily. Upon the death of his father and brother, Daniel inherited part of the homestead in Hocking County, along with sisters Callie and Eliza and descendants of his deceased siblings, a farm with more than 300 acres.  He desperately wanted to move there, according to his son, but Emily would not move.  Daniel must have been very frustrated as he considered his prospects in southern Ohio, while Emily stayed firm in her desire to stay close to her children and grandchildren in the north.

It is thought that Daniel may have moved in and out of his home with Emily, beginning about 1930.  An interview with someone who knew Daniel as a "bachelor" about that time, stated that Daniel was going back and forth from Hocking County, bringing wagon loads of fence posts to sell in Hicksville. At times, he would also bring up loads of coal, not good coal, but the kind that left "clinkers" after burning that one would use in a driveway for fill.  

Emily's resistance to moving caused a rift in the family that could not be repaired. She stated that the problems had escalated over two years.  Daniel became violent at times, argumentative, threatening, according to the divorce documents, but all to no avail.  In June, 1932, Emily filed for divorce; she and Daniel were both 61 years old and had been married 30 years. 

The Defiance Crescent-News reported on December 2, 1932:

"WINS DIVORCE ALIMONY
Hicksville, Dec. 2 - In the divorce proceedings of Mrs. Emily Kline against her husband, Daniel F. Kline, residents west of Hicksville, in the Dekalb county circuit court, the plaintiff was awarded a divorce and was also given alimony of $1700.  She is also to receive an equal share of a deposit of $18,000 in the Farmers State Bank now in process of liquidation.  This, together, with other property, was divided amicably between the parties.

Mrs. Kline charged cruel and inhuman treatment both to herself and her children.  The couple were married June 19, 1902, and separated June 30, 1932.  They have five children.  Mr. Kline offered no protest in court to the divorce, but resisted his wife's alimony request."
    
Daniel moved permanently back to Hocking County and moved into the homestead with his sister, Eliza, and purchased land from some of the other inheritors so that the three (Daniel, Eliza, Callie) owned the land together.  Eventually, Daniel became ill and Eliza, who never married, cared for him in his last days.  The father of a current Hicksville resident and former renter of a house that Daniel owned in Hicksville, traveled to Hocking County to visit Daniel.  In an interview, he told this story of having trouble finding Daniel in the winding roads of Hocking County:

"...We drove on and on, so I stopped at a house and no one was home, so I went to another house.  There was a big pile of coal there so I thought for sure someone lived there.  I went to the door and knocked and I waited a long time and I finally heard footsteps.  An old lady came to the door.  I asked her if she'd ever heard of Dan Kline.  She said, yes.  Well, I said, 'Do you know where he lives?'  She said, 'Yes, over the ridge a piece.'  She told me how to get there.  The road was so narrow and the trees so close to the road, I had to go pretty slow and finally we went up a lane and found it.  A lady came out, his sister.  She had lived there alone all these years. Dan couldn't talk.  He was very sick...his last sickness."

Daniel died on December 21, 1948 in the hospital in Lancaster, Ohio.  Perhaps it was a surprise to his children back in Indiana that he left his entire estate to his firstborn son, Carl, who was in the Lancaster area.  

In the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette on December 22, 1948:

"DANIEL F. KLINE

Daniel F. Kline, 76, retired farmer of Rockbridge, Route 2, died last night in Lancaster Hospital, where he had been a patient since Sunday.  

Survivors include three sons: Carl G. Kline, Lancaster, and Maurice and Woodrow Kline, both of St. Joe; three daughters: Gladys, of St. Joe, and Mildred and Hazel of Montpelier, O. four sisters: Mrs. Mary Bailey, Rockbridge, Mrs. Minnie Schaffner, Basil; Miss Eliza Kline of the home; and Mrs. Callie Nutter of Gore; and nine grandchildren.

The body was removed to the Frank E. Smith funeral home where friends may call after Thursday noon.

Services are to be held Friday at 2 p.m., at West Pleasant Hill EUB Church, near Rockbridge, with the Revs. H.E. Harwood, Millersport, and Clyde Gibson, Baltimore, officiating.  Burial is to be made in adjoining cemetery." 

Pleasant Hill Cemetery, Hocking County

   

 

The Children at Six Corners School, Hicksville Township

Awhile back, I wrote of the scrapbook of Emily Anna Meek, the grandmother of my husband, who collected and saved Lion Coffee cards, pictures she liked, her Rewards of Merit from school and other miscellaneous items.  Emily attended the one room Six Corners School in Hicksville Township, Defiance County, Ohio, located at the intersections of Buckskin Road, Cicero Road, and State Route 2 which created six corners.

In fact, Emily was both a student and later, a teacher, at the Six Corners School.  As a student, she collected remembrance cards from her contemporaries and pasted them into her scrapbook.  From these, we can determine who lived in her neighborhood and most likely attended that school.

Female students with cards included:

Clarie B. Kleckner
Lizzie Dickerhoof
Edna Grier
Amanda F. Forlow
Ellena B. Grier
Olive Geahant
Cora Ames
Della Hilbert
Sarah A. Gilbert
Rosie Thornburg
Cora B. Forlow
Eunice Jordan
Libbie L. Johnson
Carrie B. Jordan
Nora Doster
Minnie A. Forlow
Cecelia R. Hilbert

 

Male students with cards included:

Joseph Beltz

Louie Place

Milo Callender

Hiram Meek

William O. Meek

David Meek

Charles W. Ginter

Josh W. Balser

Rolla Callender

Willie Lipman

Charley Ginter

Frank Callender

Aaron Dickerhoof

Geo. W. Place

James. M. Place

Samuel A. Thompson

John Meek

George W. Batchelor

Sherman T. Meek

 I'm not sure on the gender of these:

Clarie B. Kleckner

C. A. Forlow

R. Hoffman

M. Sensenbacher

C. F. Elliott

C. Sensenbacher

Emily Anna Meek Kline -

Emily Anna Meek was the only daughter of Samuel and Eliza (Fuller) Meek.  Born on October 25, 1871, she joined a family of five brothers - David, Solomon, William Oscar, Hiram and Sherman T.  She was the youngest child until the sixth and final sibling, another brother - John - was born in 1874. It would seem that Emily was named after both her grandmothers: Emily for her maternal grandmother Emily Camp Fuller and Anna for Anna Cooper Meek, her paternal grandmother.

Emily's father, Samuel was a farmer on a farm in Hicksville Township, Defiance County, Ohio.  Emily attended the Six Corners School, and several newspapers of the time named her as a champion of the spelling bees.  Her scrapbook, featured in this post, also included a number of Rewards of Merit.  Rewards of Merit were popular in the latter part of the 19th century and were awarded by teachers to students who showed outstanding academics, conduct and/ or attendance.

Often called "Emma", Emily Meek received Rewards of Merit that were signed, but not dated, from the following instructors: Rosa Hilbert, Andy Zuber, Etta Sensenbacher, Tildie Bercaw, Samuel Dalrymple, M. M. Hattery, Ella Butler, and M. R. Evritt.  If she went to school just eight years, as was common then, she would have received one every year.  Family lore is that Emily then taught in the Six Corners School for some years, but a recent source also recorded that she once taught at the Crary School in Milford Township.

From teacher's souvenir booklet

In the 1900 census, she was with her elderly parents at home.  But, when she was 30 years old, she married Daniel F. Kline, a newcomer to the area from Hocking County, Ohio.  Daniel was also 30.  The marriage license, dated January 16, 1902, noted that she was a teacher and Daniel was a farmer with his residence in Hocking County.  The couple were married on January 19, 1902, by Rev. Geo. W. Lilly.  Emily's father, Samuel, died the following August at the age of 78.

Emily and Daniel eventually moved to a farm just across the Ohio - Indiana line in Newville Township, Dekalb County, Indiana.  There they welcomed their first son, Boyd, on June 21, 1903.  

Other children soon followed: Hazel in 1904; Ethel in 1906; Gladys in 1908; twins Marian and Mildred in 1909; Maurice in 1912; and Woodrow in 1914. On May 17, 1909, when the twins were born, Marian did not survive the day or could have been stillborn.  Just a few months later, in July 1909, Emily's mother, Eliza, also died at the age of 75.  

The children attended school a mile or so down the road from their farm, at the Newville Center, one room school.  Life was the hard farming life of the Depression days where it was pretty hard scrabble most of the time.

First Row, third girl from left is Mildred Kline and last girl on right is Gladys Kline.  Back Row, fourth girl from left is Ethel Kline  and second girl from right is Hazel Kline.

In 1919, the oldest son, Boyd, died, and in February 1926, daughter Ethel succumbed to tuberculosis. By the 1930 census, some of the children had married and moved out, leaving Gladys, 21; Mildred F. (called "Mid"), 19; Maurice F., 17; and Woodrow (called "Woody",) 15, at home.  Dan and Emily were both 58 at that time and living on the same farm, struggling financially and in their marriage.

On June 30, 1932, Daniel moved back to Hocking County, Ohio, and Emily filed for divorce after thirty years of marriage.  Daniel left the farm to Emily and the children and it is unknown how much contact he had with the family after that. The livestock was sold except for a milk cow and a few chickens and the money split.  Emily wanted $5000 in alimony, but she was awarded $1700 and court costs.  It was not a friendly split.

In the 1940 census, Emily, 68, reported herself as a widow, perhaps a more socially acceptable term than divorced.  But, truly, Daniel Kline was very much alive in Hocking County, Ohio.  Emily was listed as head of the family and with her were only her two surviving sons, Maurice, 27, and Woodrow, 25, both still single.  Maurice noted that he worked on the farm 60 hours a week, and Woodrow had a job as a section hand on the railroad half the year, making $480 in that time.  I would expect that he helped on the farm the rest of the year. 
Emily Meek lived out her life on the farm until she died on May 6, 1942, at the age of 70.
 

 She was buried near her old home grounds at the Six Corners Cemetery.

The Hicksville Tribune, Hicksville, Ohio, carried her obituary on May 7, 1942:

"DEATH COMES AFTER THREE WEEKS ILLNESS
Mrs. Emily Kline Is Taken Unexpectedly at Her Home in Newville Township.

Mrs. Emily Kline, aged 70, died Wednesday morning at her home in Newville township, four miles west of Hicksville.
She had been ill about three weeks, her death being unexpected and somewhat sudden.  Complications and heart trouble are stated to be the cause of the death.
Mrs. Kline was born Oct. 28, 1871, in Hicksville township,near Six Corners, and was a daughter of Samuel and Eliza Fuller Meek.
She grew to womanhood in the local neighborhood, and January 19, 1902, was united in marriage with Daniel Kline of Hocking county.
She had lived in the present home for thirty-five years.
Surviving relatives are three daughters, Mrs. Gladys Impton, near the home; Mrs. Hazel Bennett of Edon, O.; and Mrs. Mildred Cook of Paulding; two sons, Maurice Kline of St. Joe, Ind. and Woodrow Kline at the home; three grandchildren; a brother, John Meek of Bryan.
the body was taken to the Perkins and Reeb funeral home. Complete funeral arrangements had not been completed, as to place and time, but burial will be made in Six Corners Cemetery."

Emily's Scrapbook

Emily Meek was my husband's grandmother who died when he was quite young.  A few of her things have trickled down to us, one of which is a very battered, deteriorating scrapbook filled with what must have been the prized collection of her youth.

Pasted inside are dozens of Lion Coffee collectable cards, carefully saved from the one pound sacks of coffee probably purchased by her parents.  I believe she saved these as a youth because intermingled with the cards are awards of merit from school and classmate's name cards (to be discussed in a future blog).

Lion Coffee was first roasted and bagged in 1864 in Toledo, Ohio by L. B. Shattucck, who also had a spice grinding business, all located on Summit Street. The Lion Brand Company carried on under several different owners until 1882.

After the Civil War, a young man named Alvin Woolson, returned home to Ohio, and after trying his hand working with the railroads in the West, he came back to Wauseon, Ohio, where he started in the grocery business in 1875.  Eventually, he married and moved to Toledo where he formed the Woolson Spice Company, after buying the foreclosed Lion Brand Co.  

He wanted to make Lion Coffee a nationally known brand and he worked hard at advertising. Much money was spent on newspaper advertising and big ad campaigns.  Buyers could save wrappers or cut out lions' heads to turn in for premiums. Giveaways included dolls and sheet music.   Offering these colorful picture cards, some three dimensional, in every pound of coffee was another lure to buyers.

Woolson retired and in 1897, he sold his business for about two million dollars.

But the subsequent owners did not do well, and eventually, the assets of the company were taken over by the Lucas County, Ohio, Common Pleas Court.  Lawsuits had been filed against the new owners for fraud.  And there it was until 1980 when a company from Hawaii obtained the rights to the Lion Coffee name and the assets of the old Woolson Company.  Lion Coffee was born again in Hawaii and can be purchased today under that name.

The cards in the scrapbook are bright in color and beautifully printed.  Sadly, I have not been able to safely remove some of them from their glued existence on the yellowed scrapbook paper.  About half have just fallen off the page and remain in great condition.

Front and back views of some stand-up shadow pictures

 

"The cup that cheers but not inebriates."

"A luxury within the reach of all."

"Lion is the King of Coffees!"

"A beautiful picture card in every package."