Benjamin Slusser
Benjamin Slusser was born June 6, 1828 in Franklin Township, and worked on a farm until sixteen years of age. He then spent five years in Philadelphia and other places studying the principles of applied mechanics. Returning to Sidney he turned his attention to mechanical inventions of a labor-saving nature. His large scraper factory is fitted with various appliances of his own invention. Among these inventions is a steel scraper, a self-loading excavator which will low, load, and unload while in motion, and several devices used in the manufacture of scrapers. He has also invented a reversible water wheel and a sulky plow. He has operated as railroad and street excavator on various roads and in different cities throughout the country. At Sidney he established an extensive scraper works, known as the "American Steel Scraper Co.," which he operated about three yers, and, selling out, started his present works, the machinery being his own inventions. IN 1852 he married, and his wife died in 1868, leaving one child. In 1870 he married again, by which union he has a second child.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883