370                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

synonym for enterprise and reliability. He whose name introduces this
review is now successfully conducting the business under the old firm
style of J. M. Gonter & Company. Born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on
the 30th of July, 1851, he is a son of Jacob M. and Mary (Sommers)
Gonter. The paternal grandfather, Jacob Gonter, was a native of Penn-
sylvania and removed to Tuscarawas county, Ohio, at a very early period
in the development of that section of the state, casting in his lot with the
pioneer settlers who were extending the frontier and reclaiming a wild
region for the purposes of civilization. He cleared and developed a farm,
devoting his life to general agricultural pursuits and while thus engaged
shared in all of the hardships and privations incident to pioneer life.
At an early day he traveled through the woods for ninety miles, blazing
his way to Zanesville, Ohio, to get salt. There were still many evidences
of Indian occupancy in that locality and it required a brave, determined
and courageous spirit to face the conditions that existed and to undergo
the hardships entailed by reason of the remoteness from centers of civili-
zation where the necessaries and comforts of life could be easily secured.
He bore his full share in the improvement of his locality and lived to the
ripe old age of seventy-five years.
    The father, Jacob M. Gonter, a native of Ohio, born in 1822, spent
his younger years in the state of his nativity and followed carpentering
and farming. In the spring of 1857 he removed to Indiana, settling in
Brazil, where he became a contractor and farmer. He built the Clay
Hotel for Dr. Lebo and also the residence now occupied by W. A. Knight.
He also erected many other prominent buildings of the city and the sur-
rounding district and was a leading representative of industrial interests
in Brazil. His political allegiance was given to the Whig party and in
early life he was a member of the Lutheran church but a change in his
religious views led him to identify himself later with the Methodist Epis-
copal church. At all times he was an earnest Christian man, actuated by
stalwart devotion to whatever he believed to be right. His death occurred
in 1894. He had long survived his first wife, the mother of our subject,
who died in 1857. They were married in Ohio and unto them were born
four children, of whom three are now living: Eliza, the widow of Martin
Raididon; Simon F.; and Angie, the wife of Jesse A. Decker, who is
mentioned elsewhere in this volume. For his second wife Mr. Gonter
chose Rebecca Raididon and unto them were born two children: Mary,
now the wife of Joseph H. Sampson; and Edward S., who is living at
Centerpoint, Indiana., For his third wife Mr. Gonter chose Mrs. Mary
Moterman, who has also passed away. In his early boyhood days Simon
F. Gonter attended the public schools of Tuscarawas county, Ohio, but
his educational privileges were very limited, for from the age of eleven
years his entire time and attention were given to the work of the home
farm and to carpentering, which trade he followed in connection with his
father, save that in the winter months he had the opportunity of attend-
ing school. In the school of experience, however, he learned many val-
uable lessons, becoming a man of broad general knowledge and of prac-
tical business ideas. In 1881 he engaged in the grocery business with his
father and J. H. Sampson in the city of Brazil, and from the beginning
the enterprise has been conducted tinder the firm style of S. F. Gonter &
Company. They carry an extensive and well selected line of staple and
fancy groceries and are justly accounted one of the representative firms of
the city.