PORTAGE COUNTY OHIO
******************************************************************************
File contributed to the Ohio Biographies Project by:
Betty Ralph
bralph@HiWAAY.net
December 1, 1999
******************************************************************************

Copyright © 1999 by  Betty Ralph. This copy contributed for use in
the OH Biographies Project.  bralph@hiwaay.net


from "History of Portage County, Ohio" published by Warner, Beers & Co., 
Chicago, 1885

HENRY BOSZOR, son of Henry and Polly (Boosinger) Boszor, P.O. Kent, was born
August 1, 1818, one mile west of Brimfield Center.  He lived with his
parents until twenty-six years of age, in the meantime having received a
fair common school education.  November 20, 1844, he was married to Miss
Sarah Neff, daughter of Conrad and Catharine (Kline) Neff, natives of
Pennsylvania, and on April 16 following they commenced housekeeping in a
little log-house on a farm of ninety-seven acres which they purchased that
spring, located on Lot 17, Brimfield Township.  On this farm they have ever
since resided.  Except the log-house mentioned and some twenty-five acres
upon which the trees had been girdled and the land in part cultivated
sufficient to raise enough to afford a bare subsistence to the former
owners, this farms was in a wild state, and as the purchase was made nearly
all on credit, the young couple not only saw before them the prospect of
many years of patient industry in order to improve the land and build up a
home, but also to create the wherewithal to pay for the same; but they set
themselves to the task with a right good will.  The log-house has long since
disappeared, and in its place, a short distance west of the spot, stands a
neat and commodious frame residence and out-buildings, surrounded by
well-kept fences and attractive grounds, while the twenty-five acres of
girdled trees and land covered with bush and briers have given place to over
seventy acres of cultivated and highly productive land, and the homestead
has grown to 110 acres, while a short distance away Mr. Bosnor owns another
farm of 100 acres, nearly as valuable as the homestead, which at a
reasonable valuation would be worth $100 per acre.  A very attractive
feature of Mr. Henry Boszor’s home is a green-house, built on the east end
of his residence, to which Mrs. Boszor devotes much care.  A curiosity in
this climate is a lemon tree that Mrs. Boszor set out thirty years ago,
which for the past twenty years has borne excellent fruit, much better than
can ordinarily be bought, as the lemons thoroughly ripen and drop from the
branch.  No two people in the county are held in greater respect for their
many excellent qualities.  They have ever been ready, in a quiet way, to do
their full part toward promoting all those enterprises which are calculated
to benefit society.  Mr. Boszpr has served his township three terms as
Trustee, and Assessor one term.  He was for some time a Director of the bank
at Kent, and for the past ten years has been a Trustee of Bouthel College,
an institution to which he has donated nearly $2,000.  Mr. Boszor ascribes
his success in life to the fact that he made punctuality in all business
transactions his motto.  Mr. and Mrs. Boszor are members of the Universalist
Church. Politically he is a Democrat.  The grandfather of Mrs. Sarah (Neff)
Boszor was Conrad Neff, a native of Sweden, who came from Pennsylvania to
Ohio with his wife and seven children in 1805, and settled in Canfield
Township, Mahoning Co., Ohio, in 1830.  He died in Canfield, that county,
and his wife followed a few years later.  They lie buried side by side.
Conrad and Mary Catharine Neff had a family of eleven children:  Rebecca,
born April 15, 1815; Henry and John (twins), born November 20, 1816, and
died respectively February 15, 1832, and April 20, 1817; Mary A., born
November 21, 1818; Sarah, born May 24, 1820; Samuel, born June 25, 1821, and
died December 18, 1825; Caroline, born December 27, 1823, and died April 11,
1853; La Fayette, born in November, 1826, died August 2, 1828; Juliette,
born February 3, 1829; John, born January 22, 1831, and died February 13,
1885, in Osceola, Iowa; and Lucy Ann, born October 20, 1834.  The father of
this family was reared in the Presbyterian faith, though in later years of
his life he became more of a Universalist in thought.  He died December 5,
1866, aged seventy-two years, ten months and nineteen days; his wife died
July 15, 1865, aged seventy-two years, seven months and five days.  She was
reared in the Lutheran faith.  Both are buried in Brimfield.