My Genealogy Hound

ENOCH G. ARBOGAST, a native-born citizen of Clark County, now residing in Springfield, has for many years been closely connected with its industrial interests, and is at present doing a prosperous business as a blacksmith, having opened a wagon and blacksmith shop in this city in 1876. He is well known as a man of honorable reputation, and during his long residence here he has won the high esteem and confidence of all. He was born in Moorefield Township, December 23, 1825, the eldest son of John and Elizabeth Arbogast. For parental history see sketch of Eli Arbogast on another page of this volume. His early education was acquired in the pioneer rchools of this region, which were conducted on the subscription plan in a rude log house, provided with rough, home-made furniture, slabs with wooden pins for legs serving for seats. In the winter season the boys used these benches for sleds, when there was snow on the ground sliding down hill on them, thus utilizing them for two purposes. There were no desks in the schoolhouse, but holes were bored in the logs, into which wooden pegs were inserted, and the board laid on the top of these was used by the larger scholars to write on.

Our subject assisted his father in the farm work until he was seventeen years old, when he commenced to learn the trade of a wheelwright, at which he served about two years, and then was employed as a journeyman in that capacity a few years. After that he engaged in the lumber business, buying the timber standing and manufacturing it into lumber. He built up quite an extensive and paying business in that line, which he carried on successfully until 1873. In 1876, as before mentioned, he turned his attention to his present business. He has considerable mechanical skill and ingenuity, re-enforced by a thorough knowledge of his calling in all its details, so that he has attracted a great deal of custom and controls quite a large trade.

Mr. Arbogast was united in marriage to Miss Lavina J. Harmon, in 1851. She is also a native of Ohio, born in Bcllbrook, Greene County, and a daughter of Henry and Mary Harmon. Mr. and Mrs. Arbogast have eight children living — J. Oscar, Schuyler C., Emma J., William E., Nettie C., Charles H., Walter H. and Mary C. Annie, the fourth child, died at the age of twenty-two years.

Mr. and Mrs. Arbogast are valued members of this community, where so many years of their lives have been passed. They are quietly and unostentatiously liberal, never withholding their hands in cases of need, and showing in their everyday lives that their religion is not a mere form, but is deeply seated within their hearts. They are faithful and zealous members of the St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church. In his political views, Mr. Arbogast is a stanch Republican.