Harman Kibby, born in Connecticut in 1819, settled in Lima around 1848 and lived here for more than a half century. When he died in April 1902, the Lima Times-Democrat wrote that “his energy and individual efforts did much toward building up the city to the standard it has attained during the many years of his residence here.” Kibby Street, the Kibby Corners neighborhood and the Martin-Kibby block, just south of the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center, were named for him.
Courtesy of Allen County Historical Society
The “long and useful” life of Harman Kibby, described by the Lima Times-Democrat as “one of Lima’s oldest and most prominent pioneer citizens,” ended in its 83rd year on April 9, 1902.
“For more than half a century Mr. Kibby was identified with the leading citizens of Lima and his energy and enterprise and individual efforts did much toward building up the city to the standard it has attained during the many years of his residence here,” the Times-Democrat wrote April 10, 1902.
Today, more than 120 years after his death, Kibby’s name can be found on a street, a neighborhood and a business block just south of Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center that’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
During his life, Kibby was a teacher, contractor, builder, bill collector, tanner, grocer and all-around entrepreneur. Kibby had a hand in many enterprises, including the Lima Iron Fence Company, where in March 1883, “he was unfortunate enough to get his hand entangled in the machinery, by which he lost the end of one finger,” according to a March 31, 1883, story in the Lima Democratic Times.
Kibby even dabbled in town founding, joining with a group of other Lima capitalists in 1855 to have a town known as Eureka platted on land he owned just south of the Ottawa River. Bounded on the north by what is now Eureka Street, the south by Kibby Street, the west by Main Street and the east by Central Avenue, Eureka was short-lived. By 1863, it was absorbed as Lima expanded to the south.
According to the 1885 history of Allen County, Kibby “was a descendant of an old Welsh family, who left their native country during the religious persecutions and settled in Connecticut.” Kibby was born in Simsbury, Connecticut, on Feb. 1, 1819, to Moses and Tamar Knight Kibby. That same year, Moses Kibby moved his family to Ohio, settling in what is now Lake County, although at the time it was part of Geauga County. In 1837, the family moved to a farm in Hardin County. Moses Kibby died in 1877, his wife in 1856.
Kibby “received his early education in the schools of Geauga County and at Painesville,” according to the 1885 history. “He commenced life by teaching school and then followed the business of builder and contractor. He subsequently took contracts on the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad, and in 1848 came to Lima.”
Kibby “then followed the occupation of general collector, having 25 counties in northwestern Ohio, and three in Indiana, doing his traveling on horseback.”
In November 1853, he married Mercy A. Purdy, a native of New York state, and the couple would have seven children, only three of whom survived to adulthood. Late in the summer of 1857, the Kibbys’ not-yet-3-year-old son Clema died and was remembered in a poem published in Lima’s Western Gazette newspaper Oct. 1, 1857: “Dear little Clemie, hast thou left me? And must we look for thee in vain?” the poem begins. “We listen for thy little footsteps, But thou wilt ne’r return again!” Of the three children who survived to adulthood, a son, Laverne, died in 1955, while daughters May and Clara both died in the 1940s.
Along with the times of aching loss came the simple joys of family life. A 1909 history of Perry Township noted, “The Kibbys were happy possessors of an accordion, and Mrs. Kibby (Mercy), being a very sweet singer, often entertained her friends with singing, playing her own accompaniment on the accordion. Her favorite song was ‘O, the Mistletoe Hangs on the Castle Wall,’ and many an evening her neighbors have been highly entertained in the Kibby home.”
Befitting a man who spent many hours on horseback as a “general collector,” Kibby was a member of a riding club. “Everybody rode on horseback in early days, and great cavalcades rode off to the country for a good time,” William Rusler wrote in his 1921 history of Allen County.
“There were a number of riding clubs and the best-known people in Lima were in them. … Sometimes these riding clubs gave exhibitions in the public square and drew large crowds to witness them. They went through figures, riding four abreast, singly, forming a hollow square etc.,” Rusler added.
“Mr. Kibby dealt in livestock for 10 years until the close of the war of the Rebellion (the Civil War), from the West to the East, and came out successfully,” the 1885 history noted.
“He was for a time engaged in the tanning business, in which he also met with success, up to 1872, and then entered the jobbing grocery trade; closing this out at the end of five years, he commenced building the fine residence in which he lives,” according to the history. That home was at 220 S. Main St.
In 1881, Kibby joined in creating the Lima Iron Fence Company.
“The Lima Iron Fence Company has already become famous for the beauty and excellence of their work,” the Allen County Democrat wrote in August 1883. “They have recently shipped to their general agent for the New England states … a sample to be exhibited at the forthcoming exposition in Boston, showing seven different designs of their work, with gate and recess, which we are confident must elicit the attention and admiration of the fastidious people of New England.”
In the late spring of 1884, buildings owned by Kibby, William Hohl and John Martin just south of the Public Square were destroyed by a fire. The Lima Republican-Gazette, in a column titled Do You Remember, wrote in April 1925, “This old wooden building was constructed in the early days of Lima’s history. It was of two stories and faced Main Street. On the first floor were two rooms suitable for business, while the second story was a hall, possibly Lima’s first public place of amusement.”
On June 14, 1884, the Democratic Times announced Kibby, Hohl and Martin would “commence at once the erection of a solid brick block, three stories high. … This enterprising spirit shown by our south end citizens is very commendable and will add much both to the appearance of the street and to the value of the property in that neighborhood.”
Now nearly 140 years old, the Martin-Kibby block is still adding to the appearance of the block just south of Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center.
On the evening of April 9, 1902, Kibby died at his home just south of the business block bearing his name. Within two years, Lima’s newspapers were referring to the area of Kibby and Main streets, where Kibby had owned a large parcel of land, as Kibby Corners.
In September 1910, Mercy Kibby died.
“For more than a half century, Mrs. Kibby made her home in Lima and here her seven children were born, only three of whom lived to maturity. Eight years since her husband died, and after the service tomorrow she will rest beside him in beautiful Woodlawn,” the Times-Democrat wrote Sept. 22, 1910.
SOURCE
This feature is a cooperative effort between the newspaper and the Allen County Museum and Historical Society.
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See past Reminisce stories at limaohio.com/tag/reminisce
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