GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 725 in the Xenia high school has been employed in the office of the Hooven & Allison Company at Xenia. Hal P. Humston was an Odd Fellow, affiliated With Xenia Lodge No. 52, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and with Shawnee Encampment No. 20, of that order, and had "passed the chairs" in both o f these bodies. Harvey Humston also is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has been affiliated with that order for more than forty years. Politically, he votes "independent." ELI BURRELL. Eli Burrell, a carpenter at Xenia, in which city he has been making his home for the past fifteen years or more, is a native son of Greene county, born on a farm in Caesarscreek township on March 3, 1858, son of Marshall and Rebecca (Powers) Burrell, both of whom also were born in this county and whose last days were spent here, residents of Caesarscreek township. Marshall Burrell was born in Caesarcreek township on February 22, 1828, a son of John D. and Eleanor (Marshall) Burrell, the former of whom came to this county from Virginia in 1811 and settled in Caesarscreek township. John D. Burrell was a soldier of the War of 1812 and was for many years a justice of the peace in and for his home township. He was a shoemaker and in addition to his labors as a farmer followed the vocation of shoemaking "between times." He also was a carpenter and helped to erect quite a number of the old buildings put up in this county. He was a Methodist and his family were reared as Methodists. He lived to the age of eighty-one years, his death occurring on May 16, 1864. The late Marshall Burrell was reared on the home farm in Caesarscreek township, received his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood and became a farmer on his own account, also taking up the trade of wagon-making. He married Rebecca Powers, who also was born in this county, about the year 1835, and to that union were born five children, two of whom died in infancy, the others besides the subject of this sketch being Albert Burrell, who was born in 1846, now living on a farm on the Clifton pike, in this county, and who is married and has had ten children, eight of whom are still living, and Mary Ellen, wife of Frank P. Smith, also living on the Clifton pike, and who has four children. Eli Burrell was reared on the home farm in Caesarscreek township and received his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood. He continued farming until he was about twenty-five years of age, when he took up blacksmithing, a vocation which he followed for some time, later taking up carpentering. About fifteen years ago he moved to Xenia and has since made 726 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO his home in that city. In his political belief Mr. Burrell is an ardent Prohibitionist. On August 16, 1883, at Cedarville, this county, Eli Burrell was united in marriage to Lizzie Irvin, daughter of Alexander and Martha (McGinnis) Irvin, the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter in Ohio. To this union have been born three children, namely : Wilbur M. L. Burrell, born on October 2, 1885, who in 1914 was united in marriage to May Gayton ; Lester Bernell Burrell, August 11, 1889, now living at Kalamazoo, Michigan, who married Olga Pickford and has one child, a son, Robert Burrell, and Mamie Lucile, June 26, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Burrell and their family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. JOSEPH A. HACKETT. Joseph. A. Hackett, proprietor of a farm just south of Clifton, was born in that neighborhood and has lived thereabout all his life. He was born on the old R. H. Harbison farm on April 19, 1876, son of James and Ellen (Cavenaugh) Hackett, natives of Ireland, who were married in Springfield, this state, and who later located on a farm in Miami township, this county, where the former died in October, 1916, and where the latter is still living. James Hackett and wife were the parents of ten children, further mention of whom, together with additional details of the history of the Hackett family in this county, is made in a biographical sketch relating to Charles H. Hackett, postmaster at Yellow Springs, the fourth son and sixth child of James Hackett, presented elsewhere in this volume. Reared on the home farm, Joseph A. Hackett received his schooling in the Clifton schools, attending up to the second year in high school, and not long afterward began farming on his own account and has ever since been thus engaged. In addition to his general farming operations he has given considerable attention to the raising of hogs. After his marriage in 1904 Mr. Hackett and his wife began housekeeping on the old Harbison farm, the place where he was born, and later moved to the McCotton farm, where they are now living. Mr. Hackett is a Democrat. On February 16, 1904, Joseph A. Hackett was united in marriage to Winifred Donley, further mention of whose family is made in a biographical sketch relating to her brother, Thomas A. Donley, mayor of Yellow Springs, presented elsewhere in this volume, and to this union have been born eight children, Nellie, an infant (deceased), Anna, Margaret (deceased), Catherine (deceased), Dorothy, James Edward and John J. Mr. and Mrs. Hackett are members of the Catholic church at Clifton. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 727 JOHN S. TURNER. For nearly forty years John S. Turner has been engaged in the mercantile business at Bellbrook and during that time has also taken part in local public affairs, for thirty years serving as township clerk and for nearly thirty-two years as village clerk, besides having for some years served as treasurer of the local school district. Mr. Turner was born in Bellbrook on November 5, 1850, son of James and Nancy (Snodgrass) Turner, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Virginia, who established their home at Bellbrook after their marriage and there spent their last days, the latter dying on February 25, 1869. She was born in 1820 and was but a child when her parents came to Ohio and settled in Greene county. James Turner was born in 1813 and his youth was spent in Maryland, his native state. During the days of his young manhood he came to Ohio and took up his residence in Greene county. Re was married in Sugarcreek township and after his marriage established his home in Bellbrook, where he became engaged in the real-estate business. He died there on October 4, 1886. He and his wife were the parents of four children, the subject of this sketch having had three sisters, Elizabeth, who died in infancy ; Josephine, who married Thomas E. Stake, of Bellbrook, and spent her last days in that village, her death occurring there in 1913, and Mary M., who died in 1898. John S. Turner was reared at Bellbrook and upon leaving school became engaged as a clerk in a local store. In the summer of 1874 he married and established his home in Bellbrook, continuing his employment as a clerk until in 1881, when he opened a grocery store there and has ever since been thus engaged. Since 1902 he has had associated with him in business his son, Harry M. Turner. In addition to his commercial activities Mr. Turner served for years as township and village clerk and as treasurer of the school district. Politically, he is a Democrat. On June 9, 1873, in Sugarcreek township, John S. Turner was united in marriage to Martha J. Cunningham, who also was born at Bellbrook, January 24, 1853, daughter of James and Sarah (Stratton) Cunningham, the latter of whom was born in Dover, New Jersey, August 19, 1826, and was but a child when she came to Ohio with her parents, the family locating two miles south of Bellbrook in this county. James Cunningham was born at Bellbrook, September 15, 1818. He grew up to the cooper's trade and for some time carried on a cooperage business at Bellbrook, but when that business became commercially unprofitable on account of the scarcity of material in the neighborhood he moved to a farm and thereafter followed farming. He died on January 24, 1884. On April 18, 1844, James Cunning- 728 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO ham had married Sarah Stratton, who died on the home farm a half mile east of the village on December 9, 1867. To that union were born ten children, of whom Mrs. Turner was the fifth in order of birth, the others being the following: F. P., born on April 6, 1845, who became a lawyer ;.Mary Angeline, November 25, 1846, who became a resident of Dayton; Robert A., July 28, 1848, who died in infancy; Charles E., September 27, 185o, who became a musician in the regular army; Elizabeth, May 18, 1858, who died at the age of fourteen years; James C., December 19, 1859, who established his home in Sugarcreek township; William, September 17, 186o, who also established his home in Sugarcreek township; Nellie M., June 3, 1863, who married Victor Taylor, and Minnie L., November 22, 1865, who married William Stephenson. To John S. and Martha J. (Cunningham) Turner have been born four children, three sons and one daughter, namely : James, who was graduated from Wittenberg College, later became employed in one of the manufacturing industries in Springfield, this state, there married Maude Butt, of that city, established his home there and has four children, John A., Robert, Frances and Nancy Jane; John, a farmer of Sugatcreek township, residing a mile and a half west of Bellbrook, who married Helen Pease, of Bellbrook, and has six children, Marjorie, Gladys, Roger, James, Richard, and Paul; Harry M., who since 1902 has been associated with his father in business at Bellbrook and who married Ethel Barnett, of Spring Valley, and has three children, Harry, Wade and John ; and Grace, who married Dr. W. S. Ritenour, of Xenia, and has one child, a son, Scott Turner. ED. S. FOUST. Ed S. Foust, proprietor of "Miami Valley Farms" in Xenia township, this county, is the breeder and owner of "Orion Cherry King, Jr.," 58113, which at the National Swine Show at Omaha in October, 1916, was crowned the world's champion Duroc boar and which is still conceded to be the greatest Duroc living. Long previous to that date, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, Mr. Foust's Duroc boar, "Tip-Top Notcher," had also been proclaimed the grand champion and at the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915 his "Tax-Payer XIII" also had carried off grand-championship honors, while at state fairs throughout the country Mr. Foust has for years been one of the leading exhibitors and winners of first prizes and championships, his "Miami Valley" herd of Duroc Jersey swine thus having for years been famous throughout the country. As a breeder of pure-bred Cheviot sheep Mr. Foust also has gained a wide reputation, not only in this country, but in GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 729 Canada, South America and Europe and the shipments of stock animals from "Miami Valley Farms" form a no inconsiderable portion of the annual shipments out of Xenia. Mr. Foust also has given considerable attention to the raising of pure-bred Barred Plymouth Rock chickens, in which latter department of the activities of "Miami Valley Farms" he has been ably assisted by his wife, who is an ardent poultry fancier. It was in 1890 that Mr. Foust began systematically the breeding of Duroc Jerseys, starting his now famous herd with three pigs he had bought in Illinois, and he was the first farmer. in Greene county to introduce this strain of swine here. He found conditions particularly favorable to the development of the enterprise and it was not long before his Durocs began to attract general attention hereabout. As his herd increased and as the demand for his products grew he gradually extended his operations, giving particular attention to the breeding of stock animals, until he came to be one of the most successful swine breeders in the country. In 1902 he formed a partnership with R. C. Watt and the business was carried on under the firm name of Watt & Foust from that time until the fall of 1915, when the partnership was dissolved and since that time Mr. Foust has been carrying on his operations alone. Though he carries on a general farming business at "Miami Valley Farms," the old William Bickett homestead, where he has lived all his life, he makes his, chief business the breeding of fine swine. His world's champion Duroc boar, "Orion Cherry King, Jr.," carries a weight of one .thousand and thirty pounds. Mr. Foust has at "Miami Valley Farms" a fine supply of water and the convenient waterworks system he has created there is operated through a series of more than three thousand feet of pipes. In 1903 Mr. Foust erected a modern eleven-room house on his place. Ed. S. Foust was born on the farm on which he is now living, and where he has lived all his life, January 7, 1868, son of Solomon and Mary Jane (Bickett) Foust, the former of whom was born in Pennsylvania and the latter in this county, she also having been born on the place where her son now lives and known as "Miami Valley Farms." Solomon Foust had come to Greene county from Pennsylvania in the days of his young manhood and became a farmer and stockman, making his home in Xenia. He was twice married and by his first wife, who was a Stewart, was the father of one child, Harriet, who married George Graham and died in 1904. leaving two children, George and Reese. Following the death of his first wife, Solomon Foust married Mary Jane Bickett, daughter of William R. and Isabella (Alexander) Bickett and a member of one of the old families of Xenia township, and by that union was the father of one child, a son, the subject of this sketch. Solomon Foust was a Republican and a member 730 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO of the United Presbyterian church. He died in 1868, at the age of fifty-seven years, and his widow survived him for many years, after his death making her home on the old Bickett place, where she was born and where her son now lives, her death occurring there in 1904, she then being seventy-nine years of age. She was the third in order of birth of the six children born to her parents, the others having been Adam R., Matthew A., Elizabeth Isabella, Lydia Ann and Harvey A. William R. Bickett, father of these children, was born in the Coaquilla Valley, in Pennsylvania, about the year 1796, a son of Adam and Elizabeth (Reed) Bickett, natives of Ireland, who were married there and all of whose children save the two younger were born there, these latter, of whom William R. was the last-born, having been born after they came to the United States and settled in Pennsylvania, where Adam Bickett died. Not long after the death of Adam Bickett, his widow and her children came to Ohio, driving through with a six-horse team, in 1818, and passed their first winter here with the household of Robert Hamill, Mrs. Bickett's brother-in-law, who had come to Ohio during the previous year as a school teacher. In the spring of 1819 the Bicketts bought a tract of one hundred and fifty acres in the neighborhood of Xenia and there established, their home. After his marriage in 1827 to Isabella Alexander, William R. Bickett established his home on that same place and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1865. His widow survived him for many years, her death occurring in April, 1885, she then being eighty-three years of age. They were members of the Second United Presbyterian church , at Xenia and their family have continued active factors in that congregation. Reared on the old Bickett farm, his father having died when he was but an infant in arms, Ed. S. Foust received his schooling in the common schools and early became a practical farmer and stockman. To his 'original holdings at "Miami Valley Farms" he has added until now he is the owner of three hundred acres. Mr. Foust is vice-president and a .member of the board of directors of the Commercial Bank of Xenia, is connected with the Huston-Bickett Hardware Company at that place and is otherwise interested in the general business affairs of the city. He is a Republican and he and his wife are members of the Second United Presbyterian church at Xenia. Mrs. Foust was a teacher in the schools of Greene county for some years before her marriage to Mr. Foust on December 28, 1905. She was born, Aletha Ray, in Xenia township, a daughter of Joseph and Emily (Whiteman) Ray, the latter of whom also was born in Xenia township, a member of one of Greene county's best known families. Joseph Ray was a native of England, who came to this country in 1851 and after a sometime residence in Boston and at other points in the East came to Ohio and GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 731 located in Greene county, taking up farming in Xenia township. where he spent the rest of his life, having established his home on a farm there after his marriage to Emily Whiteman. He died in 1901 and his widow still survives him, continuing to reside on the home farm in Xenia township. They were the parents of eight children, of whom Mrs. Foust was the fifth in order of birth, the others being John, Carrie, Levi, Anna, Elizabeth, Robert and Emily. THOMAS GHEEN. Thomas Gheen, proprietor of a farm situated about three miles east of the village of Fairfield, in Bath township, was born in that township on April 9, 1865, son of Nathan R. and Harriet (Dipple) Gheen, the latter of whom was born in Germany about 1838, and who spent their last days in this county. Nathan R. Gheen was born on a farm in the northern suburbs of Dayton, in the neighboring county of Montgomery, in 1828, son of Nathan and Sarah (Bowers) Gheen, Pennsylvanians, who had come to Ohio and settled on a tract of land which the elder Nathan Gheen had bought just north of the then village of Dayton. There these pioneers reared a large family and later moved to a place not far north of Osborn. They spent their last days near Fairfield. Nathan R. Gheen grew up in the Dayton neighborhood and remained there until after his marriage when, in 1862, he came over into Greene county and established his home on a farm in the vicinity of Fairfield, in Bath township, where he became engaged in farming and where he died in 1885. His wife had preceded him to the grave fifteen years, her death having occurred in 187o. Of the four children born to them but two lived to maturity, the subject of this sketch having had a sister, Mina May, born on October 19, 1863, who married Lewis Maxton, of Dayton, and died in that city in June, 1915. Thomas Gheen was reared on the home farm in the vicinity of Fairfield and received his schooling in the schools of that village. He married in 1887 and continued farming the home place until 1896, when he left the farm and moved into Fairfield, where he remained until 191o, in which year he bought the farm on which he is now living, about three miles east of Fairfield, and has since made his home there. Mr. Gheen has a farm of one hundred acres. He is a Republican, present member of the township central committee of that party, and during his residence in Fairfield served for four years as a member of the village council and for eight years as a member of the school board. On February 3, 1887, Thomas Gheen was united in marriage to Ida 732 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO Camzie Dell Parsons, who also was born in this county, daughter of David and Anna (Routzong) Parsons, both of whom also were born in this county, and the latter of whom is still living, now a resident of Osborn. David Parsons was a farmer in this county and died in 1882. He and his wife were the parents of three children, Mrs. Gheen, the second in order of birth, having a sister, Minnie May, who married Elmer Kline and is now living at Osborn, and a brother, William Henry Parsons, who married Mary A. Gheen and is living at Fairfield. To Mr. and Mrs. Gheen four children have been born, namely : William Nathan Gheen, born on February 15, 1888, now living at Dayton, where he is connected with the Dayton Computing Scale Works, and who married Daisy Turner and has two children, Earl. William and Anna May ; Grace Anna, born on July 26, 1889, who is at home with her parents ; a son who died in infancy, and Hazel Isabel, born in 1893, who also died in infancy. WILLIAM HENRY BULL. William Henry gull, now living retired from the active labors of the farm on his place in the Oldtown neighborhood in Xenia township, has resided on that place ever since his marriage in 1877. Both he and his wife were born in that same township and have lived there all their lives, members, respectively, of two of the oldest families in Greene county, the Bulls and the Stevensons having settled here upon coming up from Kentucky in the days when this region was a "howling wilderness," as is set out elsewhere in this volume. Both families have a wide connection hereabout. William Henry Bull was born on. October 5, 1845, son of James Richard and Amelia (Moudy) Bull, the former of whom was born, on the same farm, the old Bull homestead in Xenia township, and the latter in the state of Maryland, who spent their last days on that farm. James Richard Bull was a son of Richard and Rachel (Hunter) Bull, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and was but a child when his parents, William Bull and wife, Virginians, who had settled in Kentucky after their marriage, came up into the then Territory of Ohio in 1797 and located in this valley, settling on a tract of one thousand acres which William Bull had bought on what later came to be known as the Clarks Run road. That was five or six years before the organization of Greene county and an equal period before there was any thought of such a place as Xenia and the land was just about as destitute of white settlement as any time during the Indian occupancy. William Bull spent the rest of his life on that place and was laid away in the Stevenson graveyard, he being about seventy years of age at the .time of his death. Richard Bull grew up on that pioneer farm and married Rachel GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 733 hunter, who was born in what later came to be organized as the neighboring county of Clark. He added to his land holdings until he became the owner of more than two hundred acres in Xenia township, and there he and his wife spent their last days, he having been seventy-two years of age at the time of his death. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, James Richard. George, Bentley, William, Julia, Sarah and Maria. James Richard. Bull grew up on the old Bull homestead and received his schooling in a little log school house on Charles run, which was conducted as a subscription school and which had been built on the Bull farm, land having been donated to the community for that purpose. After his marriage he settled down on the home place and there spent the rest of his life, his death occurring at the age of seventy-two years. His widow survived him for some years, she being eighty years of age at the time of her death, her last days being spent in the home of her youngest son Richard, who is still living on the old home place. She was born, Amelia Moudy, in Maryland and was nine years of age when her parents, Peter and Nancy (McClain) Moudy, also natives of that state, came to Ohio with their family and settled in Beavercreek township, this county. A year after coming here Peter Moudy moved to Cedarville and in 1837 erected a grist-mill, which long was known as the Moudy mill, though he died not long after' getting it in operation. His widow survived him for four years, her death occurring in 186o. They were the parents of four daughters, Mrs. Bull having had three sisters, Lucretia, Matilda and Sophia. James R. Bull and his wife were members of the Oldtown Methodist church and their children were reared in the Methodist faith. There were five of these children,, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first-born, the others being Lewis M., of Xenia, who for twenty years was engaged in the grocery business in that city, but later became a traveling man; James Ambrose, who became a school teacher and who died at the age of twenty-six years; Anna Sophia, who died at the age of six months, and Richard E., who is still living on the old home place in Xenia township, which has been in the possession of the family for more than a century and a quarter. William H. Bull grew up on the home farm, received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and remained at home until his marriage in the spring of 1877, shortly afterward purchasing his present farm of one hundred and thirteen acres on the Clifton pike, a part of the old Stevenson estate, in the vicinity of his old home in the Oldtown neighborhood in Xenia township, and has ever since resided there. Mr. Bull is a Republican, but has not been an aspirant for public office. He and his wife are members of the Methodist church at Xenia. On March 28, 1877, William H. Bull was united in marriage to Anna 734 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO L. Stevenson, who was born in that same township, daughter of Samuel N. and Sarah O. (Keenan) Stevenson, and to this union three children were born, the first of whom died unnamed in 1889 and the last-born of whom, W. Leroy, died at the age of seventeen months, thus leaving but one survivor, a daughter, Anna Mae, who completed her schooling in the Xenia high school, married Walter Watkins, of Xenia township, and has three children, Dena L., Martha V. and Dorris M. As noted in the opening paragraph of this review, Mrs. Bull is a member of one of the oldest families in Greene county, the Stevensons having been located here since 1797, in which year Samuel Stevenson came up here into this beautiful valley from Kentucky with his family and established his home in the then wilderness. His son, James Stevenson, who was born on April 21, 1772, married Ann Galloway, who was born on December 4, 1786, and who was a sister of Squire George Galloway, who came with his family from Kentucky about the same time and located along the Little Miami, about five miles north of where Xenia later came to be located. Not long after settling there Squire Galloway erected a housesto take the place of his first humble log cabin, just north of the river bridge on the Yellow Springs pike, which house is still standing, being carefully preserved by the Miami Power Company, which now owns the site, and upon it there is a tablet bearing the inscription : "Erected in 1801." James Stevenson became the owner of a tract of six hundred acres of land, including the present site of Wilberforce University. He died on March 31, 1864, and his widow 'survived him for more than ten years, her death occurring on March 26, 1875. They were the parents of the following children : James Gay, William Dunlap, Rebecca Ann, Samuel N., Mary Elizabeth, Catherine, Martha M. and James Gay. Samuel N. Stevenson was born on April 4, 1816, and all his life was spelt on the old Stevenson homestead, two hundred acres of which he came to own. On March 4, 1846, he married Sarah Olive Keenan, who was born at Perry, in Somerset county, this state, July 30, 1821, and to this union were born eight children, of whom Mrs. Bull was the fourth in order of birth, the others being Mary Elizabeth, who married Philander Mayne and is living at Mt. Carmel, Illinois; Rachel S., who married N. B. Smaltz and died at her home in Warrensboro, Missouri, February 3, 1905 ; Ellen L., who married Wallace Freeman, of Mt. Carmel, Illinois, and died in 1914 ; James William, who lives at Yellow Springs, this county ; .Aletha J., wife of Robert Bird, of Cedarville ; Sarah Louise, who died at the age of twelve years on December I, 1877, and Susanna, who died in infancy. All of the living children of Samuel N. Stevenson and wife were home upon the occasion of the celebration of the golden wedding anniversary of their parents on. March 4, 1896. Samuel N. Stevenson died five years later, March 23, GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 735 1901, and his widow survived him for nearly five years, her death occurring on January 24, 1906. They were members of the Oldtown Methodist church and for more than a half century Mr. Stevenson was class leader in his home church. GEORGE F. BRICKEL. George F. Brickel, proprietor of the Ross township farm on which he lives, on rural mail route No. 4 out of Jamestown, was born in this county and has been a resident of the farm on which he is now living since his marriage in 1880. He was born on a farm in Silvercreek township on May 21, 1855, son of Jacob and Mary (Phillips) Brickel, whose last days were spent in the village of Jamestown, to which place they had retired-upon leaving the farm, the latter dying there in 1884 and the former in 1887. Jacob Brickel was born in Pennsylvania on February 25, 1815, and there remained until he was nineteen years of age, when he came over into Ohio and located in Wood county, where three years later he married Mary Phillips and where he remained until 1845, when he moved with his family to Greene county and settled on a farm in Ross township. Eight years later he moved to Silvercreek township and in 1857 moved from that township to New Jasper township, where he continued farming until his retirement and removal in 1882 to Jamestown, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. Of the ten children born to them all grew to maturity save Harvey, who died in infancy, and their first-born, a son, who also died in infancy, the others, besides the subject of this sketch being Daniel, Margaret, Amanda, Louisa, John, Catherine, Emma and Frank. George F. Brickel was reared on the farm and has followed farming all his life. He received his schooling in the district schools and after leaving school continued making his home on the home place until his marriage in 1880, when he established his home on the place on which he is still living in Ross township and has thus been the occupant of that farm for nearly forty years.. Mr. Brickel is now the owner of four farms, comprising four hundred and seventeen acres of land. He has served as a member of the school board, as president of the Oak Grove School Association, as a' member of the local election boards and in other capacities. Politically, he is inclined to independence of party ties and his years of labor in behalf of temperance and the abolition of the liquor traffic incline him to the cause of Prohibition. Mr. Bickel has been twice married. On November 26, 1880, he was united in marriage to Mary A. Smith, who also was born in this county, and to that union were born three children, namely : Mary Dorcas, who married 736 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO Harry Townsley, of the Cedarville neighborhood, and has two children, Mary and Alfred ; Florance Grover, who is assisting in the management of the home farm and who married Ora Dill and has two children, Marion and Charles ; and Herman, who married Bernice Briggs and is operating one of his father's farms adjoining the home place. The mother of these children died on January 19, 1893, and on December 9, 1897, Mr. Brickel married Margaret J. Ferguson, of Sabina, in the neighboring county of Clinton, a daughter of Kaleb Ferguson, and to this union one child has been born, a son, Paul F., born on September 20, 1900, who died on April 6, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Brickel are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Jamestown and Mr. Brickel has been a member of the official board of the same for years. CHARLES S. DEAN. Elsewhere in this volume there is set out at considerable length something of the history of the Dean family in this county, one of the oldest and most numerously represented families in this part of Ohio, and it is hardly necessary in this connection to repeat those details, further than to say that the Deans had their beginning here in the year 1812 with the coming up from Kentucky of the pioneer Daniel Dean, a native of Ireland, son of Roger and Mary Dean, who had come to this country in the days of his young manhood and after some years of "looking about" in the East had settled in the Mt. Sterling neighborhood in Kentucky, had there married Janet Steele and there lived until, with growing repugnance to the system of human slavery that had fastened itself upon Kentucky, he disposed of his interests there and came with his family up into this section of Ohio and established his home on a tract of land he had bought in what later came to be organized as New Jasper township, spending the rest of his life there, the place on which he settled now being owned by his great-grandson, Charles S. Dean, the subject of this biographical sketch, and occupied by the 1.tter's son, Herbert S. Dean, whose children are of the sixth generation of Deans who have lived on that place. Robert Dean, the eldest of Daniel Dean's five sons and the grandfather of Charles S. Dean, was born in 1793 and was about nineteen years of age when he came with his parents to Greene county from Kentucky in 1812. Not long afterward he enlisted his services in behalf of America's second struggle for independence and served as a soldier of the War of 1812, under Capt. Robert McClellan, on a tour of duty to Ft. Wayne. He inherited a portion of his father's land in New Jasper township and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on May 8, 1856. Robert GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 737 Dean was twice married. By his first wife, who was a ,Campbell, he was the father of thirteen children, those besides William. Campbell Dean, father of the subject of this sketch, having been Daniel A., Samuel D., James Henry, Joseph A., Mrs. Jennie Hopping, Mrs. Janet Cooley, Mrs. Elizabeth Hardie, John, Addison, Robert Harvey, Andrew H. and Mary, two of whom, Robert H. and Andrew H., are still living. After the death of the mother of these children Robert Dean married Margaret Orr and to that union were born five children, Albert, Eli, Calvin, Cyrus and Martha. William Campbell Dean was born on the old Dean farm in New Jasper township on July 4, 1822, and there grew to manhood, receiving his schooling in the neighborhood schools. As a young man he went South and was for eighteen months employed as a guard in the Tennessee state penitentiary at Nashville. Upon his return home he married and became engaged, in association with his brother Daniel, in the grocery business at Xenia, the store of the Dean brothers being conducted on the corner now occupied by the Steele building, at the northwest corner of Main and Detroit streets. Four years later he sold his interest in that store to his brother and moved to Clinton county, where he was engaged in farming for three years, at the end of which time he returned to this county and bought the interests of the other heirs in the old home place and there spent the remainder of his life. Reared in the old Associate Reform church, William C. Dean became a member of the United Presbyterian church following the "union" of 1858. Originally a Whig, he became a Republican upon the formation of the latter party and served for some time as township trustee. He died in September, 1888, and his widow survived him for more than eight years, her death occurring in February, 1897. Susan Janney was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, in 1820, daughter of Stephen and Letitia (Taylor) Janney, Quakers, both of whom also were born in Virginia and who came to Ohio in 1832 and settled on a farm in the Springboro neighborhood in the neighboring county of Warren. To William C. and Susan (Janney) Dean were born five children, namely : Letitia, unmarried, who is still living on the old home place; Anna, now living at Indianapolis and who has been twice married, her first husband having been William Hazel-rig and her second, William Baldock ; William A., now living retired at Columbus, Indiana, and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume ; Charles S., the subject of this biographical sketch, and Susan, who married Edgar Ballard and is still living on the old Dean home place. Charles S. Dean was born on the old Dean home place in New Jasper township on December 9, 1859, and there grew to manhood. He completed his schooling at Antioch College at Yellow Springs and after his marriage (46) 738 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO in 1883 began farming the place on which his great-grandfather, Daniel Dean, had settled in 1812 and which had come into the possession of his father. He later bought the place of one hundred and fifty-six acres, and still owns the same. He made improvements on the farm and continued to make that place his home until 1910, when he turned the operation of the farm over to his son, Herbert S. Dean, who with his family now lives there, and moved to his wife's old home place, the old Spencer homestead place on the Jasper pike on the outskirts of Xenia, where he has since resided. By political persuasion Mr. Dean is a Republican. Mr. Dean has been twice married. In 1883 he was united in marriage to Ida Smith, daughter of the Rev. William Smith, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. She died on September 5, 1886. without issue, and on September 18, 1889, Mr. Dean married Deborah L. Spencer, who was born in the neighboring ,county of Clinton, daughter of John B. and Hannah (Hackney) Spencer, the latter of whom was born in Wayne township in that same county, the Hackneys having settled there upon coming to this state from Virginia. Mrs. Hannah Spencer's mother was a Morgan, of the Winchester (Virginia) Morgans of Revolutionary fame. John B. Spencer was born in Greene county, a son of the Rev. George E. and Mary Ann (Faulkner) Spencer, and was here prepared for college, entering Delaware College when he was seventeen years of age. Before he had reached his eighteenth year the call for hundred-day volunteers for service during the closing period of the Civil War was made and he left college and went to the front as a member of Company H, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with that command participated in one battle and in several skirmishes with the enemy. He later became engaged in the mercantile business at Lumberton and in 1879 moved from that place to Xenia and there became proprietor of the old Commercial Hotel, which then occupied the site of the present office of the Daily Gazette on Detroit street. Three years later he bought the farm at the edge of town, on the Jasper pike, now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Dean, and there spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on March7, 1907. His widow died on March 3o, 1918. John B. Spencer was a Republican and he and his wife were members of Trinity Methodist Episcopal church at Xenia. He was for some years a member of the board of trustees of Xenia township and for years was commissioner of the insolvency court. Fraternally, he was a Mason. He and his wife were the parents of three children, Mrs. Dean having two brothers, George E. Spencer, of Xenia township, and Harry E. Spencer, of Xenia. Mrs. Dean has for years taken an interested part in the work of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and of the Woman's Relief Corps and has served as secretary and GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 739 as superintendent of various departments of the work of those two organizations. Mr. and Mrs. Dean are members of Trinity Methodist Episcopal church at Xenia. They have one child, a son, Herbert S. Dean, born on June 27, 1890, who is now operating his father's old home farm in New Jasper township and who married Edith Miller and has two children, Russell and Lorena, who, as noted above, are representatives of the sixth generation of Deans who have lived on that farm. THOMAS S. HARPER. Among those citizens of a past generation who did much to add to the general stability of the Jamestown neighborhood few were better known thereabout than was Thomas S. Harper, who died at his home in that village in the spring of 1896 and whose daughter, Miss Ezza May Harper, has for more than thirty-six years been a teacher in the Jamestown schools. Thomas S. Harper was a Virginian, born in Rockbridge county, in the Old Dominion, June 2, 1819, and was eighteen years of age when he came to Ohio and settled in Greene county, where he spent the remainder of his life. His mother, Mrs. Agnes Harper, died in Virginia in 18,46 and Hugh Harper, his father, in 1864, in Greene county. Hugh Harper and wife were the parents of ten children, of whom the subject of this memorial sketch was . the seventh in order of birth, the others having been James, born in 1809; Robert, 1810; Ellen, 1811; Elizabeth, 1813; Parker, 1814 ; Andrew, 1817; Mary, 1821; Julia, 1823, and Sophia, 1826. Having completed his schooling in the schools of his native state before coming to Greene county in 1837, Thomas S. Harper devoted himself after his arrival here to farming and after his marriage in 1844 began farming on his own account on a farm in Silvercreek township. He presently moved from there to a farm west of Xenia, where he remained until 1879, in which year he moved with his family to Jamestown, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on March 4, 1896. His wife had preceded him to the grave a little less than five years, her death having occurred on December io, 1891. Thomas S. Harper was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was his wife, and for years was class leader in the local church at Jamestown. By political persuasion he was a Republican. On January 11, 1844, Thomas S. Harper was united in marriage to Mary Ginn, a member of one of Greene county's old families, who was the seventh in order of birth of the eight children born to her parents, the others having been Margaret, Sallie, William, John H., James, Martha and Thomas. To Mr. and Mrs. Harper were born seven children, namely : Rachel Agnes, deceased; Bingadella, deceased ; Martha Ellen, wife of James Barnett, living 740 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO west of Xenia; Ezza May, referred to above as having been for years a teacher in the public schools of Jamestown ; Samuel W., deceased; John William, of Yellow Springs, and Sarah, of Jamestown. Miss Ezza May Harper began her teaching career at Jamestown in the fall of 1882, as an instructor in the intermediate department of the public schools. Two years later she took up the work in the primary department and has ever since been thus engaged. During the long period in which Miss Harper has been teaching the primary pupils of the Jamestown schools hundreds of youngsters have come under her gentle ministrations and her helpful influence on the plastic minds of the youth of that village has endeared her to the whole community. HENRY DARST. The late Henry Darst, who died at his farm home in Beavercreek township in 1914, was born at Dayton in the neighboring county of Montgomery on November 16, 1830, and was but eighteen months of age when his father, Jacob Darst, came over into Greene county with his family and settled in Beavercreek township, where he established his home and where he eventually became the owner of several hundred acres of land. Jacob Darst was twice married and by his first marriage was the father of eight children, Polly, Sallie, Susan, Betsy, John, Jacob and two who died in infancy. His second wife was Mrs. Ruhamah Licklighter and by that union he was the father of four children, Rollo, Abraham, Martha and Henry. The latter, as noted above, was but an infant when he was brought to this county and here he spent the remainder of his life, the proprietor of the farm now owned and occupied by his daughter Mary and the latter's husband, James E. Andrew. Henry Darst married Margaret Glotfelter, who was born on September 23, 1835, and who died on May 11, 1910. He survived his wife four years and was eighty-four years of age at the time of his death in 1914. He and his wife were the parents of five children, namely : Edward W., deceased ; William H., who is now living at Omar Park, a suburb of Dayton; Martha, who died when three years of age; Mary, born in 1864, who married James E. Andrew and is still living on the home farm of one hundred and ninety-five acres in Beavercreek township, and Emma Ruhamah. Mary Darst and James E. Andrew were married on November 12, 1891. Mr. Andrew was born in the neighboring county of Montgomery in 1863 and has been a farmer practically all his life. His father, J. W. Andrew, was born in Greene county and for a time farmed here, but later moved to Montgomery county. He was one of six children, five sons and one daughter. born to his parents, who were pioneers of Greene county. Mr. Andrew is GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 741 a member of the United Presbyterian church and Mrs. Andrew is a member of the Church of Christ at Dayton. They have five children, namely : Herbert L., who married Esta Batdorf and is now engaged as county agent of Vanwert county ; Alma, wife of Lester Gerhard, of Montgomery county; Ralph H., who is assisting his father in the operation of the home farm, and Emma C. and Margaret, who are still in school. ABRAHAM L. BIGLER. Abraham L. Bigler, a Beavercreek township farmer and proprietor of a farm in the Alpha neighborhood, on which he has made his home since 1907, was born in York county, Pennsylvania, October 13, 1861, and has been a resident of Ohio since he was twenty years of age. His parents, Abraham and Elizabeth (Overholser) Bigler, were both also born in Pennsylvania and there spent all their lives. They were married in York county in 186o and were the parents of three sons, the subject of this sketch, the firstborn, having two brothers, William Henry Bigler, a farmer, now living in Texas, and John Andrew Bigler, who is unmarried and who is making his home with his brother Abraham. Reared in his native county, Abraham L. Bigler there received his schooling and early took up practical farming, beginning to make his own way when he was twelve years of age. In 1881 he came to Ohio and took employment on the Albert Ankeney farm in Beavercreek township, this county, remaining there for six years, in the meantime, on December 23, 1886, being united in marriage. to Elizabeth Wingerter, daughter of Theodore Wingerter, of this county. After leaving the Ankeney farm Mr. Bigler began farming on his own account on the Harbine farm and continued making his home in this county, renting various farms, until 1901, when he went over into Montgomery county, where he was for six years engaged in farming. In 1905 he bought the farm of twenty acres on which he is now living in Beavercreek township and two years later moved onto the same and has ever since made his home there. Mr. Bigler is a Republican, is the present party committeeman from his precinct and has served 'for two terms as road supervisor in his district. He is a member of the local Grange and he and his family are members of the Reformed church. Mr. and Mrs. Bigler have six children, namely : Carl Edgar, a Beavercreek township farmer, who married Naomi Shellebarger and has one child, Glena ; Mary Catherine, who married Grover Wolf and has two children, Clifford Alton and Carrie Elizabeth; Martha Elizabeth, who married Arthur Wead and has a son, Franklin; John Theodore, a farmer, unmarried ; William Albert, also an unmarried farmer, and Mabel Clara. 742 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO DAVID E. SPAHR, M. D. Dr. David E. Spahr, of Xenia, editor in charge of the health department of Farm and Fireside, a journal published in the neighboring city of Springfield, is one of Greene county's native sons, born on what is known as the Stewart farm on the Stringtown road in New Jasper township, April 16, 1862, son of the Rev. Gideon and Elizabeth (Kyle) Spahr, both members of pioneer families in Greene county and the latter of whom also was born here, a member of the Kyle family: that came up here from Kentucky in the early days of the settlement of Greene county. The Rev. Gideon Spahr, affectionately. remembered hereabout as "Uncle Gid" Spahr, was a native of the Old Dominion, born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, in 1812, a son of Edward and Elizabeth (Bishop) Spahr, and was five years of age when he came with his parents and the other members of their family from Virginia to Ohio, the family settling in the woods wilderness east of. Xenia in 1817. Edward Spahr there bought a farm of about one hundred, acres and established his home. He and his wife were members of the Methodist church and their children were reared in that faith. There were twelve of these children and the Spahr connection thus became a numerous one hereabout in succeeding generations. Gideon Spahr grew to manhood on that pioneer farm and married Elizabeth Kyle, who was born in this county, daughter of John Kyle and wife, both of whom died in middle age. John Kyle was the father of four children, those besides Mrs. Spahr having been Seth and John, who went to Missouri, and Mrs. Pollock. Gideon Spahr became a "local" preacher for the Methodists and during his many years of service in that capacity probably preached more funeral sermons than any other minister that ever served in this part of the state. "Uncle Gid" was a plain, blunt man and a friend of the whole countryside. For years he resided in this county, living on various rented farms in New Jasper township and in the eastern part of the county, and then bought a home n at Lumberton, in the neighboring county of Clinton, where he spent his last days, his death occurring there in 1896. His widow survived him for nine years, her death occurring in 1905. They were the parents of twelve children, of whom Doctor Spahr was the tenth in order of birth, the others being John, who died in infancy ; Madison, who went to the front as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, a member of the Nineteenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and who died at Bowling Greene, Kentucky, while thus engaged in service; the late Rev. Albert N. Spahr, who was a presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal church and had filled many important charges throughout Ohio ; Cornelia, who married Silas Smith and who lived for many years at VanWert, but whose last days were spent at GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 743 Hicksville, this state; Robert, a veteran of the Civil War, having served as a member of the Fortieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and who is now living at Xenia ; Sally, unmarried, who is also living at Xenia ; the Rev. Samuel K. Sparh, a minister of the Methodist Protestant church, who now has a charge in the city of Pittsburgh ; Julia, now deceased, who was the wife of I. T. Cummins, of Xenia; twins, who died in infancy ; and James Clinton, now living at Skidmore, Missouri, where he is engaged in the coal and grain business. David E. Spahr was reared to the life of the farm and his early schooling was received in the district schools of New Jasper township. When eighteen years of age he went to Van Wert, where he entered the high school and then for two years worked at the printing trade there. He married in that city in December, 1873, and for two years thereafter was engaged working in a factory there, afterward taking up farming, in which he was engaged for a year. In the meantime he had been giving attention to the study of medicine and after a course of reading under the preceptorship of Doctor Stewart, of Cedarville, matriculated at Dr. C. M. Seaman's Medical College at Ft. Wayne, and was graduated from that institution in 1879. Thus qualified for the practice of his profession, Doctor Spahr opened an office at Gilbert Mills, in Paulding county, this state, and remained there until 1881, in which year he returned to his old home neighborhood in this county and opened an office at New Jasper, where he was engaged in practice for eight years, at the end of which time he moved to Clifton, where he continued in practice for twenty-one years, or until his removal in 1910 to Xenia, where he has since been located. Doctor Spahr is a member of the Greene County . Medical Society, of the Ohio State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association. For some time he has been health officer for Xenia township. In 1893 he took a post-graduate course in New York City and in 1910, a similar course in Chicago. During the many years of his practice Doctor Spahr has been a contributor to medical journals and in 1915 there came to him wholly unsolicitedly a proffer from the editors of . Farm and Fireside, at Springfield, this state, to take editorial charge of the health department of that journal and he since has devoted much of his time to the duties of that position, his department being conducted with a view to securing the widest possible variety of inquiry along medical and public-health lines. The Doctor also has contributed stories and sketches of a miscellaneous character to other magazines and newspapers. He for some years has been spending his winters in Florida. Politically, the Doctor is a Republican. He has from the days of his boyhood taken a warm interest in local geological and archaeological research and it is believed that there is no one now living in. Greene county who is better informed along those 744 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO lines than he. During his long residence at Clifton the Doctor unearthed many valuable specimens both of a geological and archeological character, particularly of the latter, and thus collected a wide variety of relics of the Indian and Mound Builder occupancy of this region. Most of these specimens he has in recent years distributed to museums and libraries, the state museum at Columbus and the public library at Xenia being special beneficiaries of his thoughtfulness, though he still has at his office in Xenia some very valuable specimens. The Doctor is affiliated with the Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. He and his family are members of Trinity Methodist Episcopal church at Xenia, the Doctor being a member of the board of stewards of the congregation with which he is connected and for years a teacher in the Sunday school. In December, 1873, at Van Wert, Ohio, Dr. David E. Spahr was united in marriage to Emma Highwood, daughter of William and Caroline Highwood, both now deceased, the former of whom was for some years a merchant at New Jasper, this county, but whose last days were spent at Anderson, Indiana, and to this union were born five children, namely : Lillian, who married Edward Bush, a machinist, now living at Springfield, this state; James H., a farmer and miner, now living at Star, Oregon ; Gertrude C., deceased ; Jessie, who died at the age of seven years, and Elmer G., who is now the teacher of manual training in the high school at Paulding, this state. Prof. Elmer G. Spahr attended Cedarville College and Dayton Business College after his graduation from the Clifton high school and later received two degrees from the Ohio State University. He received a life license as a high-school teacher and was for some time superintendent of schools at Ansonia, this state, before entering upon the duties of his present position at Paulding. He married Mabel Hadley, of Springboro, and has one child, a son, Hadley Gideon. GUY M. WILLIAMS. Guy M. Williams, grocer at Osborn, was born in the neighboring county of Clark on September 11, 1883, a son of Frank and Maria (Musser) Williams, both of whom are still living, residents of Clark county. Frank Williams also was born in Clark county and there grew to manhood. He has been a farmer all his life and for some time lived in the neighboring county of Montgomery, but is now living in Clark county. To him and his wife nine children were born, six of whom are still living, but the subject of this sketch is the only one of these who is a resident of Greene county. Reared on the farm, Guy M. Williams received most of his schooling in Montgomery county and after leaving school became a clerk in the Stephen GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 745 store at Osborn, where he remained for five years, at the end of which time he went to Springfield and was there engaged working in a wholesale grocery store until 1912, in which year he returned to Osborn and bought the Buhrman store, the same store under a different management in which he had formerly been a clerk, and has ever since been engaged in business in that village. In December, 1914, Guy M. Williams was united in marriage to Marie Hunter, daughter of Emily Hunter. Politically, Mr. Williams is a Republican and, fraternally, is affiliated with the local lodge of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics. D. WALKER WILLIAMSON. D. Walker Williamson, a veteran of the Civil War, now living retired on his farm east of Xenia, in Xenia township, where he has resided ever since the close of the war, was born in that township on August 26, 1839, a son of Andrew Duncan and Isabel (Collins) Williamson, both of whom were born in York county, Pennsylvania, but who were married in Greene county, where their last days were spent. Andrew Duncan Williamson was born on January 3o, 1815, a son of David and Catherine (Duncan) Williamson, who in 1836 came to Greene county and settled on a farm of three hundred acres on the Jamestown pike six miles east of Xenia, as set out elsewhere in this volume in a comprehensive history of 'the Williamson family in this county. Upon coming to Greene county with his parents in 1836 Andrew D. Williamson became engaged in farming and on April 8, 1838, was married in this county to Isabel Collins, who also was born in York county, Pennsylvania, in March, 1815, a daughter of William and Lydia (Luttly) Collins, both of whom also were born in Pennsylvania, and who had come to Ohio with their family and settled on a farm in this county. After his marriage Andrew D. Williamson located on a farm five miles north of Xenia and later moved to a farm south of that city, where he spent the rest of his life, for thirty years a member of the school board in Spring Valley township and for forty years president of the board of trustees of that township. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church. Andrew D. Williamson was twice married, his first wife having died in September, 187o, after which he married Elizabeth S. Barr, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1828, a daughter of William Barr and wife, the latter of whom was a Dickey, who had come to this country from Ireland in 1810 and had located in Washington county, Pennsylvania, becoming members of the United Presbyterian church there. This latter union was without 746 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO issue. By his marriage to Isabel Collins, Andrew D. Williamson was the father of six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first-born, the others being the Rev. William C. Williamson, a veteran of the Civil War and a minister of the United Presbyterian church, now located at Clarinda, Iowa ; Henrietta, who married the Rev. James W. McNary, a minister of the United Presbyterian church, and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased ; the Rev. L. W. Williamson, a minister of the United Presbyterian church, now located at Topeka, Kansas; Rollo D., a retired farmer of this county, now living at Xenia, and Clarkson, who died at the age of two years. Dr. Walker Williamson grew to manhood on the home farm, receiving. his schooling in the neighborhood schools and was living at home when the Civil War broke out. On August 12, 1862, at Xenia, he enlisted for service in behalf of the cause of the Union, going out with Company H, Ninety-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served with that command until April 9, 1863 ; re-enlisting in May, 1864, and going to the front as first lieutenant of Company G, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until mustered out at Camp Dennison on September 1, 1864, his service having been mainly rendered with the Army of the Potomac, during which service he was mostly stationed at Greenland Gap, West Virginia, on guard duty, but participated in a number of brisk skirmishes with the enemy. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Williamson returned home and after his marriage in the fall of 1865 located on the farm on which he is now living, four miles east of Xenia, and where he has ever since made his home, a place of seventy-six acres known as "Park Point Farm." Mr. Williamson erected a brick house there in 1882 and the park-like effect he has secured by the landscape gardening he has done adds to the attractiveness of his place. There he continued engaged in general farming and stock raising until his retirement from the active labors of the farm in 1906. On October 3, 1865, D. Walker Williamson was united in marriage to Ada McClung, of Xenia township, a. daughter of John S. McClung and wife, who had come to this county from Virginia, and to that union were born two children, daughters both, Echo Belle and Grace. Mr. Williamson died on October 29, 1906. Echo Williamson married George Gordon, an attorney, now located at Atlanta, Georgia, and has five children, Grace, Louis, Helen, Janet and George G. Grace Williamson is the wife of the Rev. David R. Gordon, a missionary of India, and has had four children, but two of whom are now living, Walker and David. Mr. Williamson is a Republican and has served as a member of his local school board. He is a member of the Second United Presbyterian church at Xenia. GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 747 OSCAR L. SMITH. Oscar L. Smith, cashier of the Exchange Bank of Cedarville, this county, was born near Selma, in the neighboring county of Clark, and has lived in this part of the state all his life. He was born on August 23, 1877, son of Seth W. and Hannah L. (Lewis) Smith, both of whom also were born in Ohio, the former in the vicinity of Selma and the latter at New Vienna, in Clinton county, and who are now living at Whittier, California. Seth W. Smith was born on a farm in Green township, Clark county, near the village of Selma, January 24, 1843, son of Seth and Deborah (Wildman) Smith, earnest Quakers and pioneers of the Selma neighborhood, both of whom are buried in the Selma cemetery. Seth Smith was born in eastern Tennessee and his father's name also was Seth, born in Pennsylvania, a son of Joseph and Rachel (Bales) Smith, Quakers, the former of whom also was born in Pennsylvania, where his father and two brothers had settled upon coming to this country from England to join William Penn's colony of Friends. After his marriage Joseph Smith located in the vicinity of Bladensburg, Maryland, and there for some time was a farmer and miller, later disposing of his interests there with a view to returning to Pennsylvania. While driving across to what he had designated as his new place of residence at the point where Brownsville, Pennsylvania, is now located, he was attacked by highwaymen, an experience which caused him to change his course. He settled on a farm in the .vicinity of Winchester, Virginia, and there spent the rest of his life. Among the sons of this couple was Seth Smith, who married and moved to eastern Tennessee, where he lived for fourteen years, or until the year 1800, when he moved into Ohio Territory and settled in Ross county. Here he remained until 1811, in which year he moved into Clark county and settled on the farm in Green township mentioned above as the birthplace of Seth W. Smith. Upon settling in Clark county the pioneer Seth Smith purchased the Fitzhugh survey, a tract supposed to contain one thousand acres, but which on later survey turned out to contain eleven hundred and twenty acres. On that place he built a log house and in that primitive abode made his home until 1817, when lie erected a substantial two-story brick house which stood until torn down by Seth W. Smith in 1899, and there he and his wife spent their last days. They were the parents of six children, the youngest, Seth, being the grandfather of the subject of this biographical sketch. Seth Smith II was born in 1798 and was thus about thirteen years of age when the family settled in Clark county in 1811. There he grew to manhood and as a young man became a farmer and stockman on his own account. 748 - GREENE COUNTY, OHIO He inherited from his pioneer father two hundred and sixty acres of land and to this made additions from time to time until he became the owner of no less than two thousand acres of land. He was a birthright Quaker, an active Abolitionist and an ardent worker in the cause of temperance, exerting much influence in those directions in his community. He died in 1876, being then seventy-eight years of age, and was buried in the Selma cemetery. His wife, Deborah (Wildman) Smith, died in 1857. To that union were born three sons and one daughter. Reared on the home farm in the Selma neighborhood, Seth W. Smith, son of Seth and Deborah (Wildman) Smith, received his early schooling in the village schools and supplemented the same by a two-years course in Earlham College and a year at the Michigan State Agricultural College at Lansing. He inherited some or his father's lands and bought more until he became the owner of about five hundred acres in Clark county, and in addition to his general farming became a breeder of pure-bred livestock. In 1905 Seth W. Smith and his son Oscar bought out the Wildman interest in the Exchange Bank. He became president and his son, cashier, the latter being practical manager of the bank. In 1916 Seth W. Smith retired from active participation in the affairs of the bank and moved to Whittier, California, where he and his wife are now living. Seth W. Smith, in 1877, at New Vienna, in Clinton county, married Hannah Lewis, who was born in that village, daughter of Isaac and Mary (Hoskins) Lewis, also Quakers. Isaac Lewis was a landowner and also operated a tannery at New Vienna. lie later moved to Sabina, in that same county, and there became president of the Sabina Bank, a position he was holding at the time of his death, he then being past eighty-five years of age. Seth W. Smith and wife are both birthright members of the Friends church and their children were reared in the faith of that communion. There are three of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the eldest, the others being Lewis H., who is owner of the old. home farm in the vicinity of Selma, which has been in the possession of the family for more than one hundred years, and Mary Emma, wife of Dr. Herbert Tebbetts, a physician and surgeon, of Whittier, California. Oscar L. Smith was reared near Selma and upon completing the course in the high school there took a course at Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana. In 1898 he became bookkeeper in the Exchange Bank at Cedarville, W. J. Wildman at that time being cashier, and was thus engaged until 1905, when he and his father bought the Wildman interest in the bank, he became cashier of the bank, which position he still occupies. In July, 1914, the Exchange Bank of Cedarville secured a new charter and - has since been operated as a state bank. Mr. Smith is the secretary and treasurer of the Cedarville Lime Company, one of the leading industries in the village, and GREENE COUNTY, OHIO - 749 also looks after his farming interests, having a farm of more than two hundred acres, located in the Rife neighborhood along the Little Miami river. In 1912, Mr. Smith erected on West Main street a buff-colored brick house and he and his familly are now residing there. On October 1, 1903, Oscar L. Smith was united in marriage to Jean Blanche Ervin, who was born at Cedarville, daughter of David S. and Belle (Murdock) Ervin. The former formerly operated the D. S. Ervin Lime Company's plant at Cedarville, but has now retired from active business. To this union have been born two children, Isabelle, born in 1908, and Elizabeth, 1911. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are members of the United Presbyterian church at Cedarville. AARON D. SNIVELY. Aaron D. Snively, a Xenia township farmer and formerly and for years a school teacher, is a native son of Ohio, born on a farm in Perry township, Starke county, July 21, 1848, son of John A. and Eliza (Bordner) Snively, whose last days were spent there. John A. Snively was a son of Joseph and Catherine (Sherman) Snively, the latter of whom was born in Germany and was but an infant when her parents, John Sherman and wife, came to this country and settled in Starke county, this state. Joseph Snively was born on a farm in southern Pennsylvania, in the vicinity of Hagerstown, a son of Christian Snively, a native of Switzerland, who had settled in southern Pennsylvania about 1755, the first of his family to come to this country. Two of Christian Snively's sons, Henry and Joseph, came to Ohio, the former settling in Butler county and the latter in Starke county. It was in 1805 that Joseph Snively entered his land in Starke county and that pioneer tract is still in the possession of his descendants. He and his wife were the parents of ten children, of whom John A., father of the subject of this sketch, was the sixth in order of birth, the others having been the following : Anna, who married Joseph Yant ; Jacob, who married Mary Ann Shrefler ; Martha, who married Andrew Yoder;- Elizabeth, who married John Troxler; Katie, who died unmarried ; Peter, Levi and Joseph, who became residents of Starke county, and Henry, who died in youth. Reared on the home farm in Perry township, Stark county, John A. Snively in time became a farmer on his own account, spending all his life on the old homestead farm, where he died in 1891, he then being sixty-eight years of age. His wife had predeceased him about five years, her death having occurred in 1886, she then being sixty-three years of age. John A. Snively was a Democrat and had served as a school officer. He and his wife were members of the United Brethren church and their children were reared