The biographical encyclopœdia of Ohio of the nineteenth century:

BIOGRAPHICAL ENCYCLOP.LEDIA.
Medical College, where he attended one course of lectures,
and during the following winter entered the Ohio Medical
College at Cincinnati, whence he graduated as Doctor of
Medicine in the spring of I862. Immediately after receiving
his degree he entered the United States service as Assistant
Surgeon of the 0Io2d Regiment Ohio Volunteers. He cointinued in active service in different campaigns until the close
of the war, being twice promoted for valuable services rendered. In I865 he retired from the army and located himself at Mansfield, where he has since resided engaged in an
extensive practice. Having had much surgical experience
during his service in the army, he enjoys the reputation of
being a skilful surgeon. He is one of the Censors of the
medical department of the Wooster University, and also a
Trustee of his Alm4a Ma/er. In the winter of I876 he was
appointed by Governor Hayes one of the Board of Trustees
of the Central Ohio Insane Asylum. He is a member of
the American Medical Association, and also of the Ohio
State Medical Society. lie has at various times contributed
to the literature of the profession. He was married, September, I867, to Mary, daughter of Colonel Barnabas Burns,
an old and prominent legal practitioner of Mansfield.
neigh borhood of the town. H e had ever been a Jackl,son
Democrat, until the firinwg on Fort Sumter, when he became
a firm supporter of the administration, and was ever after aK
staunch Republican. He was married in I826 to Louisa,
daughter of John Snyder, an old resident, and extensive
land owner in Monroe county, Pennsylvania, and was the
father of seven children, of whom but three are now living.
One son, Peter Kessler, was for five years a postal clerk on
the line between Fremont and Buffalo, and served for some
time in the army during the civil war; one daughter, Louisa,
is the wife of E. B. Baldwin; and another daughter, Myra,
remains with her mother. The eldest son, Major John J.
Kessler, of the 49th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry,
came home sick, and died in August, I865, having served
through the entire war. Mrs. Kessler remains the proprietress of the Kessler House in Fremont, which is widely
known as one of the pioneer houses of Ohio, and its founder
will lon, be remembered as one of the oldest and most
popular of hotel-keepers. For some years previous to his
death he had been in declining health, and was much injured by an accident while driving. He died, August I3th,
I866. The family have in their possession the original
passports given, February I5th, I764, to Peter Kessler, in
Saxony, when he was about emigrating to America; he was
the grandfather of William Kessler.
ESSLER, WILLIAM, Farmer, Miller, and Hotel
(. to~ Proprietor, was born in I8OI, near the city of
Easton, Northamptonii county, Pennsylvania, and
was a son of George Peter Kessler, a native of
~P' Saxony, who with his parents emigrated to America
in 1 764, and settled in Northamptoni county, where
they became possessed of extensive tracts of land prior to
the revolutionary war. During the latter struggle, his
father was a participant on the side of his adopted country,
and after the independence of the States was acknowledged,
he owned flouring mills, and carried on farming near
Easton, where he reared a large family. William remained
at home until he had attained his majority, and then engaged
in agricultural pursuits in his native county until I836. The
following year he disposed of his proper y and removed to
Wooster, Ohio, where lie embarked in the hotel business,
which he carried on for a few years. In I840 he engaged
in distilling; and shortly after in the purchase and packing
of pork for the Baltimore market, in which he invested a
large amount of money, which was entirely lost in I842,
owing to the failure of his factor in that city. He then left
for Defiance county, where he purchased an improved farm
six miles from the town of Defiance, and remained there
for three years, engaged in agricultural pursuits. Having
decided to remove to Fremont, he disposed of the farm in
I845, and in his new residence again became engaged in
keeping a hotel, leasing at first the property which he afterwards purchased (I858), and in which he continued until
his death. During his residence in Fremont, he accumulatecl a fine property, including two farms in the immediate
w,ANDEMAN, JOHN L., Merchant, was born, Sep temlber 3oth, I8Io, in Ross county, Ohio, and is
inill 74 the eldest son of Matthias and Margaret (Legore)
W'/gVandeman. His father was a native of Fayette
county, Pennsylvania, a farmer by occupation,
who removed to Ohio in I8oI, locating at first on
Deer creek, in Ross county, where he lived a few years, and
subsequently moved to a site on the little north fork of Paint
creek, and resided there until I8i6, when he finally settled
in Fayette county, which became his permanent home. He
was an active participant in the war of I8I2, his father, John
Vandeman, having been a revolutionary soldier, and was
of German lineage; he died at a very advanced age on his
farm at Washington, Fayette county, in October, I870. Ie
had married Margaret, daughter of John lIegore, of Maryland, for seven years a soldier in the revolutionary wa r.
IIe was of both French and German ancestry. He removed
to Ohio in I8O8, and located at first in Ross county, )tit
finally settled, I 8lI3, in Fayette county. John L. Vandemanl,
while a boy, attended the common school (luring the winter
months, and labored on a farm the balance of the year, until
he was eighteen years old, at which time his father moved
to Washington, in I828, he being a carpenter by trade. In
183'0 he entered the Ohio University at Athenis, where be
pursued a course of literary study for about two years, and
subsequently taught school in Highland and Fayette counties
for a like period of two years. In I834 he effected an en
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