My Genealogy Hound

HARRY B. MOUK, a young and enterprising business man of Medway, Clark County, has in the few years that have passed since he attained his majority, exhibited a degree of energy and business tact that promises to give him an advanced position among the capitalists of the county ere many years. He is engaged in a general mercantile business, being the principal member of the firm of Mouk & Schatz, and he also superintends a farm of sixty-two acres which he owns on the Valley Pike. His mercantile business was begun in January, 1889, when a new stock of goods was put in, and the firm is already doing a large trade, their location being a good one and their position the leading one among the merchants of the town.

The natal day of our subject was June 16, 1862, and his birthplace in Bethel Township. His father dying when he was about six months old, his mother removed to her father’s home where the child was reared, learned farming and was well educated at the Helmer Schools. When twenty-one years of age he came into possession of his present estate where he engaged in farming, attending the Dayton markets, and dealing in provisions. He became very successful at his first business as he did in raising tobacco, which enterprise he began in 1878, raising from four to five acres per year. His farm has been improved in first-class style, a barn 40x60 feet, a tobacco barn 30x72 feet, and a large, residence having been built, all substantial and well designed. In addition to these business enterprises, Mr. Mouk is a shareholder in the Osborn Bank. He has belonged to the Democrat County Central Committee three years, and has been a delegate to county conventions. He is very popular, moves in the best society, and is a worthy representative of a respectable family.

The Mouk family is of Swiss extraction, and the home of former generations in this country was Pennsylvania. Near Marietta, Lancaster County, Harry Mouk was born and reared, carrying on his father’s farm, which after his marriage he purchased. In 1851 he came to Ohio to find a location and the next year brought his family to Clark County, purchasing two hundred and forty acres of land for $40 per acre. It was located on Mad River, the residence being built on the Valley Pike about one and a half miles from Osborn. The place was well improved and successfully operated by the owner, who was also the possessor of one hundred and sixty acres a mile and a half north of his home farm. He passed away February 13, 1875. His wife was Esther Hershey, like himself a native of Lancaster County, Pa., and of Swiss ancestry. Her father, Andrew Hershey, was a successful farmer in that county, in which he spent his entire life. He was a descendant in the third generation of Andrew Hershey, who was born in Switzerland about 1702 and came to America with his father in 1719, buying land from William Penn, and settling where the family was represented for several generations. The last-named, Andrew Hershey, and three brothers were Mennonite ministers, and the family left their native land on account of religious persecutions against the sect to which they belonged.

Among the children born to Harry and Esther (Hershey) Mouk was Henry, who accompanied them to this county in 1852. Having been reared to farm pursuits, he engaged in that occupation on his father’s place, but was cut off early in life, dying at the age of about thirty years. He was the father of two sons — Benjamin who died when twenty-two years old, and the subject of this biographical sketch. Their mother, formerly Miss Catherine Baker, is yet living, making her home with our subject. She was born in Franklin County, Pa., but from her girlhood resided in this county, obtaining her education in Bethel Township. She is a member of the Mennonite Church. Her father, Peter Baker, was born in Lancaster County, Pa., where he engaged in farming until 1840, when he came to Ohio and made a settlement. He bought the farm which our subject now owns and lived upon it until his death in 1875. He was one of the most active members of the Mennonite Church, in which he held the office of Deacon, and gave a building site on his farm upon which a church edifice was erected.