Person:Reuben Holl (1)

Biography

From: Portrait and Biographical Record of Stark County, Ohio
Publ: Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1892

REUBEN HOLL. Among the retired planters of Stark County, none have been more thoroughly wide-awake and energetic than Mr. Holl, who has resided here since 1836. Although he started out in life with no capital save that with which Nature had endowed him, pluck and energy were his faithful allies, and by their aid he accumulated a comfortable fortune, and is now in the enjoyment of a hale and vigorous old age.

A native of Lancaster County, Pa., Mr. Holl was born November 15, 1823. His parents, Samuel and Mary (Royer) Holl, were born in Pennsylvania, March 11, 1798, and July 4, 1801, respectively, and in the State of their birth were united in marriage. In the spring of 1836, the father came to Stark County, Ohio and there he was called from life in February, 1866. His [Samuel's] father, Ephraim Holl, was born in Lancaster County, Pa., and died at about the age of thirty-six years, having been a farmer during his short but active life. His father, John Peter Holl, was a Pennsylvanian by birth and of German descent, and by occupation was a farmer and pump-maker. The maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Ephraim Royer, spent his life in Pennsylvania, where he followed the calling of a farmer. His ancestors came to America during the early settlement of the country and the land whereon they located was purchased from Thomas and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn, and the place where they forded the Schuylkill River is to this day called Royer's Ford and is now a station on the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad.

The mother of Reuben Holl lived to be ninety years, six months and twenty-eight days old, dying January 30, 1892. She bore her husband eight sons and six daughters, one of whom died in early infancy, another at the age of two and a half years, one at thirteen and another at fifteen years of age. Ten grew to maturity: Ephraim, who died in 1848 and left two sons; Magdaina [Magdalena ?], a resident of Canton, Ohio, and the widow of Jacob Sprankel; Reuben, the subject of this sketch; Catherine, wife of Samuel Hower, of Sangamon County, Ill.; Dan R., of Mexico, Stark County, Ohio; Manasseh, who lives in this county and has a family of eleven children, all married; Elizabeth (deceased); Sophia, wife of Samuel Walter, of New Berlin, Ohio; Samuel and Henry C., of Canton.

Reuben Holl has been a resident of this county since his thirteenth year. His first schooling was obtained in a village of Pennsylvania; after his removal to Ohio he attended the common schools of New Berlin, and finished his literary education in a select school taught by Archibald McGregor in Canton, after he was twenty-one years of age. He was then sufficiently well qualified to begin teaching and this occupation received his attention for sixteen successive winter terms and two summer terms. As in everything else he undertook, he was successful and was considered one of the popular educators of the county for many years. His marriage, March 9, 1848, united him with Eliza Roush, daughter of Godfrey Roush. The lady was born in Jackson Township, Stark County, December 28, 1826, and died August 18, 1890. She was the mother of eight sons and one daughter. Three of the sons died in infancy, but the others attained manhood; William P. married Alice A. Clay and by her he has three sons and one daughter; John H., a civil engineer of Canton married Clara Essig, by whom he has a daughter and two sons; Daniel W. is unmarried; Oliver W. is the County Surveyor of Stark County, and was married to Alice Essig, by whom he has one daughter; Benjamin F., of Pittsburgh, Pa., is an artist by profession and is married to Ida Van Horn; and Mary, wife of J.J. Zerbe, of Canton, is the mother of two children.

After his marriage, Mr. Holl located in New Berlin, but at the end of two years settled on a farm in Jackson Township, where he at once began devoting his time and energies to agricultural pursuits and stock-raising. Eight years later, he purchased the property on section 23, of which he is still the owner. Here he tilled the soil for thirty-two years and by constant labor converted what was then comparatively wild land into well-tilled fields and made most of the improvements in the way of buildings, etc. After the death of his wife, he kept house until the following spring but now makes his home with his children. He has always been a Democrat in politics and has served nine terms, or twenty-seven years, as Justice of the Peace of Jackson Township and was land appraiser of the same in 1859 and in 1880. He has done a great deal of surveying in the township and for many years was its efficient clerk. He is not a member of any church but is a moral, upright man and his walk through life has been without reproach. He is a member of the Grange and has been Master of his lodge.