Howard H. Rike is one of the industrious and reliable farmers of Newberry township, classed with the rising generation of agriculturists who are acknowledged to be as broad and scientific in their methods and as fruitful in results as the workers in any other branch of modern industry. He was born at Toledo, Ohio, May 13, 1881, a son of J. C. and Anna R. (Weber) Rike, and belongs to one of the oldest families of Newberry township, which was founded here at an early day by his great-grandfather, who came from Maryland and took up government land here, his farm being the first settled in this section. The son of the pioneer built a log cabin near the present site of the Rike home, as early as 1848. J. C. Rike was given good educational advantages and entered the profession of law, which he followed at Toledo for about forty years. During that period he was one of the prominent citizens of the big city, being a justice of the peace for some years, acting for a long period as president of the Toledo Board of Education, and for a time being superintendent of mail carriers at the post office. In 1908 he gave up his varied and extensive interests in the city and returned to the farm in Newberry township, where he met an accidental death, August 21, 1919. He was a man of brilliant attainments and fine intellect and was greatly esteemed and respected by all who knew him in his several communities and his varied capacities. There were four children in the family: Grace, who is unmarried and lives with her brother, Howard H., on the home farm; Camilla, the wife of Ross Whitmer; Leslie, who was in training with an artillery division for nine months during the World war at Camps Taylor and Knox, and is now identified with the Goodyear Rubber Company, at Akron, and Howard H. Howard H. Rike secured his education in the public schools of Toledo, following which he applied himself to the electrician's trade, and after carrying on that line of work for a time at Toledo, went to Detroit and became identified with the Edison Building Light Company, with which he was connected for fourteen years. Returning to the farm in 1917, he has since engaged in the pursuits of the soil and within the short space of three years has secured recognition as a progressive, industrious and capable agriculturist. Modern methods have always appealed to him and the prosperity reflected by his property indicates the good management of its owner. Mr. Rike is unmarried, his home being presided over by his sister Grace.