DARKE COUNTY OHIO - BIOS: STRAKER, HENRY (published 1900)
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A Biographical History of Darke County Ohio, published in
Chicago by the Lewis Publishing Company, 1900.  p. 455-457


                    HENRY STRAKER

    The subject of this sketch, whose home is on section 13, Patterson
township, is the possessor of a handsome property which now enables
him spend his days in the pleasurable enjoyment of his accumulations. 
The record of his early life is that of an active, enterprising,
methodical and sagacious business man, who spent his energies to the
honorable acquirement of a comfortable competence for himself and
family. 
     Mr. Straker was born in Hanover, Germany, November 13, 1827, and
is a son of John Straker.  The father, who was a laboring man, died in
1831, at about the age of fifty years, leaving a widow and three sons;
Harmon, who died in Hamilton, Ohio, at the age of twenty-one; Henry,
our subject; and John Henry, who died at the age of four years.  The
mother, who was in limited circumstances, brought her children to the
new world in 1834, with the hope of improving their financial
condition.  Later she married Henry Copperman, who died in Baltimore,
Maryland, in 1861, and she died on a farm a mile and a half west of
our subject's place, in 1860, at about the age of sixty years. 
     Mr. Straker relates a few reminiscences of early life in Darke
county which out to be preserved in print.  When his father and family
first arrived here, and the subject of this sketch was about ten years
of age, the neighbors were Isaac Finkbone, Henry Stotsenbergh, L.
Hutcher and Fred Ludacre, the distances to whose residences were
respectively six miles south, two miles east, two miles west and ten
miles north.  The nearest grist-mill was eight miles distant, but it
was only a "wet-weather"  mill and ran but a small portion of the
year.  At this mill the grain had to be elevated up to the second
story on an incline similar to that which is used at some saw-mills,
while the meal as it was ground was delivered by the machinery in a
bin below on the first floor.  On one occasion the meal ceased to flow
down, and an investigation disclosed the fact that a woodpecker was at
the hopper picking up the grains from the shoe as fast as they ran
down.  This was one of those faithful old mills, as a pioneer once
said., that as soon as they had completed the grinding of one grain of
corn promptly "tackled" the next grain. 
      The most reliable grist-mill in those days was the one at the
falls of Greenville creek, twenty miles distant; and it required
practically two days to make the round trip to it, on horseback at
first and by wagon afterward.  On horseback young Henry would take two
bushels of grain to be ground, besides a sack of feed for the horse
and some provisions for himself.  By wagon, afterward, they had always
to take along an ax, with which to cut new roads around mud-holes and
other obstacles, and for other emergencie. 
      Henry Straker never attended school more than six months during
his life, making his way each morning through the woods a distance of
two miles to a rude school-house built of round logs.  Among his
school-mates was his present wife.  It was in 1837 that he came with
his mother and stepfather to Darke county and located in what was then
a part of Patterson township, for which he paid two hundred and
twenty-seven dollars and a half, by working for fifty cents per day. 
At one time he owned five hundred and fifty-six acres, and though he
has given away some six pieces of this property, he still has two
hundred and eighty acres, which he has placed under a high state of
cultivation and improved with good and substantial buildings.  On the
first of January, 1889, he married his present wife and soon afterward
erected his fine brick residence, while his large barns were built,
one if 1890, the other in 1899. 
      On the first of July, 1852, Mr. Straker married Miss Nancy
Swallow, and to them were born ten children, eight sons and two
daughters, of whom one son died in infancy.  Of them we make the
following observations:  Matilda is now a widow, a resident of
Patterson township; John operates a part of his father's farm; Ellen
is the wife of Harrison Brining; Aaron A. is a resident of Dayton,
Ohio; Harrison makes his home in Versailles;  Isaiah is engaged in the
grain business in Osgood; Grant, born in February, 1865, is at home;
William died in 1891; and Iven and Irvin were twins, and the former is
now a grocer of Yorkshire, while the latter died at the age of four
months.  The mother of these children died in 1871, when the twins
were only fourteen days old.  For his second wife, Mr. Straker married
Mrs. Kate Greer, nee Swallow, who died in 1880, leaving one son by her
former marriage. 
      On the 1st day of January, 1889, Mr. Straker married Mrs. 
Elizabeth (Mendenhall) Woods, who was born November 23, 1836, and has
been three times married.  Her first husband was Jacob Brining, by
whom she had six children, and her second a man named Woods, by whom
she had five.  She has four sons and three daughters still living. 
Mr. Brining died after serving seventeen months as a soldier of the
civil war, and was buried at Ashland, Kentucky.  Her second and third
husbands were also among the defenders of the Union during that
terrible struggle.  Richard Mendenhall, the father of Mrs. Straker,
was born in North Carolina, in 1793, and brought his family to Darke
county, Ohio, in January, 1837, locating in Patterson township, where
the year previously he had entered four hundred and ten acres of
government land, and soon afterward bought two eighty-acre tracts for
four hundred dollars.  Of his ten children, three sons and four
daughters reached years of maturity, and all reared large families,
Joseph having ten children, Robert and Aaron both twelve, Delia
eleven, Rachel six and Mrs. Straker eleven. 
       On the 2d of May 1864, Mr. Straker enlisted in an independent
company and was in the service four months.  He is now a member of the
Grand Army of the Republic and a Republican in politics.  He was the
township treasurer seventeen years, and has also filled the offices of
trustee and supervisor, in a most commendable and satisfactory manner. 
His estimable wife is a member of the Christian church.  Both are
still well preserved, and Mrs. Straker does all her own work, still
finding time for a favorite recreation, that of fishing in the
millpond on their farm.  She can relate many interesting incidents of
pioneer life in this region, and well remembers, when only four years
old, of seeing her husband, then a flaxen-haired boy, who had been
sent to her home for some onions.  Her mother lifted her into a tree
gum to pick up the onions, and as she looked up at the white-haired
boy it made an impression upon her mind that has always been fresh. 
The question that comes to the mind of the writer is, Has Cupid's
arrow been rankling these many years, while the romance of life and
love is still preserved in them?  They are widely and favorably known,
and it is safe to say that no couple in their community has a larger
circle of friends.