CHARLES DIRR

A native of Henry County, Charles Dirr has spent practically all his life within the limits of Pleasant Township, and in that time has acquired those things most appreciated by a man of industry and ambition. He has several fine farms, that degree of material prosperity which frees him from worry as to the future, and while nominally classed as a retired farmer, he is really pursuing a very energetic program of action and supervision on his home place at the village of Pleasant Bend.

Mr. Dirr was born March 5, 1853, on the old Ridge Road a mile and a half west of New Bavaria in Pleasant Township. Much might be said concerning the experiences and the character and activities of his parents and other members of the Dirr family in Henry County. However, that story has been partly told at least on other pages. Charles Dirr is a son of Henry and Catherine (Gardner) Dirr. Both were born in Germany. They came to America when practically the only method of crossing the ocean was on vessels propelled by wind and with sails. They came when they were young people with their respective parents. They grew up at Akron and at Cleveland, but finally both the Dirr and Gardner families located as pioneers in Pleasant Township of Henry County. Henry Dirr and Catherine Gardner were hard working people from early youth. Neither was above hard work when it furnished an honorable means of livelihood. They worked on the canal and boarded the men employed on the canal. Thus they made their beginningas homemakers, and having acquired a tract of land, they also applied themselves to its clearing and cultivation. They lived with the comforts of a log cabin, and a very primitive abode it was. The logs were unhewn, laid together by notches at the end, there was a puncheon floor; the roof of clapboards was tied on; and a mud and stick chimney rose at one side of the building. What cooking was not done by the open fireplace was taken care of by the bake oven which stood outside the door. Henry and Catherine Dirr lived long and useful lives, and were among the most honored and respected citizens of their community.

It was in the old home of his parents that Charles Dirr spent his boyhood days. He learned the lessons taught in the district schools, and became proficient in those arts and crafts which were a part of the equipment of all the old time farmers. He began earning money for himself when still young, and finally with some assistance from his father and in partnership with his brother Andrew he bought a hundred twenty acres of land. It was only partly improved, and the brothers worked it for several years. After Charles Dirr married, he sold his interests to his brother Andrew, and then bought eighty acres in Section 29, and twenty acres in Section 28 of Pleasant Township. He went to that farm as his home in September, 1885. A number of years later he bought eighty-eight acres of Section 31 and in 1907 acquired a seventy acre farm in Section 21, known as the old Fred Demland farm, the home of Mrs. Charles Dirr when she was a girl.

About nine years after he had made his first purchase of a hundred forty-four acres in Section 29 close by the limits of the village of Pleasant Bend. That is now his place of residence. He retired from the management of his several farms to this home in November, 1914. It is a profitable and well managed small farm, and gives him all the interests and occupation he desires. Since coming to the place, he has erected a fine barn 34 x 46 feet and he and his wife have a very comfortable seven room cottage home. Mr. Dirr in the meantime put substantial farm buildings on all his different places and his farming methods have shown a high degree of progressiveness at every turn. He has been willing to accept the lessons of experience as learned by others as well as by himself and his prosperity can be credited to this quality perhaps as much as to his solid business ability and judgment.

An incident might be told illustrating his progressiveness. Mr. Dirr had the distinction of purchasing the first automobile in this section of Henry County. It was a Ford car, bearing the company's number 501. It was a one cylinder model of the type which can be remembered, though it is perhaps better to forget it. Mr. Dirr took a great deal of pleasure in this car, though at the same time he aroused the ire of his neighbors, and many of them expressed their opinions rather vigorously and forcefully to the effect they hoped he would break his neck or run into the ditch, and in passing wagons it not infrequently occurred that the drivers would actually force Mr. Dirr and his car very close to the ditch. Mr. Dirr comments upon this experience chiefly because many of those very men who took so much exception to his pioneering as an automobilist have since become devotees of the auto car and have acquired all the manners of the up to date motorist.

Mr. Dirr was married in Pleasant Township at the old home of the bride's father to Miss Cornelia Demland. Mrs. Dirr was born on the old homestead November 29, 1863, a daughter of Fred and Sarah (Stephens) Demland. Her father was born in one of the lowland provinces of Germany and her mother was a native of the Province of Alsace. Her mother when two years of age was brought to America by her parents, who located at Buffalo, New York. Her father was twenty-two when he came to this country and was also accompanied by his parents. The Demlands at once made settlement in Pleasant Township of Henry County, and Sarah Stephens also came to the county when she was seven years of age. Fred and Sarah Demland were married in Henry County and then located on seventy acres in Section 21 of Pleasant Township. There they spent their years profitably and usefully, and the mother died August 1, 1906, and the father on November 4, 1907. The mother was seventy-four and the father seventy-two when they passed away. They were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Inpolitics Fred Demland was a very decided Republican and the same is true of the Dirr family, including Mr. Charles.

Mr. and Mrs. Dirr take a very active interest in the Methodist Episcopal Church and have done so for many years. They have contributed liberally to church movements and causes. Mrs. Dirr has been a worker in the Sunday School and a teacher for six years, and Mr. Dirr has followed the office of trustee in the church for twenty years. They are the parents of three children: Clarence, Roy, and Elsie. Clarence, who was born April 14, 1886, grew up in Pleasant Township, completed his education in the local schools, and is now profitably engaged in farming his mother's old home, the Demland farm. He married Hattie Smith of Defiance County where she was born and reared. Roy was born September 20, 1888, and has also found his niche in the world of usefulness as a farmer and is occupying one of his father's places in Pleasant Township. He married Anna Sauer of Pleasant Township. She is a well educated and cultured young woman, and for three years before her marriage was a successful teacher. The daughter Elsie was born November 12, 1902, and has had the advantages of the country schools.

Charles Dirr passed away February 16, 1922. Cornelia (Demland) Dirr passed away 1932.

Submitted by Russell Dirr