842 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Prof. Franklin Eugene Reynolds, of Waverly, Ohio, is one of the foremost educators and one of the best teachers in Southern Ohio. He was born on the twenty-fourth of January, 1870, the sixth son and eighth child of Stephen Reynolds and Maria Moore, his wife, near where the town of Peebles is, on the old Dunbar farm. His mother was a daughter of Newton Moore, one of the most successful of the Brush Creek farmers. His father was an extensive farmer and stock raiser and was very successful in each of those occupations. Our subject attended the common schools near his home until 1887, when he attended the school at Lebanon, Ohio, and graduated in the Scientific course in 1889. He began his career as a teacher in the Fall of 1889, and few have accomplished as much as he in ten years. From 1889 until 1892, he taught. District schools in the Pall and Winter in Adams and Scioto Counties. In the Summer of 1890 and 1891, he taught a Normal school at North Liberty, Ohio, in connection with Prof. J. W. Jones. In the Summer of 1892, he read medicine with Dr. George F. Thomas, at Peebles. From the Fall of 1892 until June, 1895, he was principal of the High school in Manchester. In the Summers of 1893, 1894 and 1895, he taught Summer schools at Manchester in connection with Prof. J. W. Jones. In the Fall of 1895, he was elected Superintendent of the schools at Manchester, and served until June, 1899. In the Summer of 1896, he taught A Normal school at Manchester. In the Summer of 1898; he taught a Normal school at West Union in connection with Prof. J. E. Collins. In the Summer of 1899, he attended the Summer postgraduate course at the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio. In the Fall of 1899, he accepted the position of Superintendent of the schools' at Waverly, Ohio. In December, 1895, he was granted by the State Board of School Examiners a Common School Life Certificate. In December, 1898, the same Board granted him a High School Life Certificate.. Eighty per cent. of the teachers who taught in Adams County in the years 1898 1 and 1899 had been pupils of his in the County Normals, or Summer schools. In 1897, he was one of the County School Examiners of Adams County. Mr. Reynolds is a Free Mason. He is a member of 1 the Blue Lodge and Chapter of Manchester, and of the Commandery in Portsmouth. He is also an Odd Fellow and Knight of Pythias and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Prof. Reynolds is a man of strong personality and exceptional attainments in the branches of learning he has studied. His perceptions' are quick and keen. He is a disciplinarian and an organizer of 'rare 1 ability. His influence for good, wherever he has taught, has been remarkable. His administration of the Manchester schools has been the brightest in their history. While the work in the common branches under his supervision was well carried on, he introduced new subjects of study and infused in his pupils a love of them and enthusiasm in the pursuit of them. Since his location at Waverly, he has become largely instrumental in the founding of the Riverside Tri-County Teachers' Association and is its President. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 843 He has tireless zeal and energy in his chosen profession. He puts his whole soul into his work, and makes the tedious pursuit of learning attractive, delightful and interesting. He possesses strong will, wonderful energy and is full of confidence in his plans and projects. He has a fine constitution and excellent health. He has a sound mind in a sound body and conserves all his mental and physical forces. His carrier as a teacher fairly begun will be one of the best and most brilliant. He is a Democrat in his political principles, believing in "government of the people, by the people and for the people." Walter Ellsworth Roberts. "All are architects of fate Working in these walls of time ; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme; For the structure that we raise, Time is with material filled; Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build." It was upon the twenty-fourth day of February, 1870, that Walter Ellsworth Roberts received the first block from Time with which to build the structure of his life. He has not yet built with "massive deeds and great," nor with "ornaments of rhyme." Though fully as well has he  with the high prize of life, that crowning fortune of a man, which to be born with a bias to some pursuit which ever finds him in employment and happiness. He was the youngest son of a family of eleven children, born to Isaac and Lucinda It Roberts. His ancestry will be found in the sketch of Lincoln J. Roberts, his brother. His parents, with two children, came from Virginia to Adams County, Ohio, in 1851. They purchased land the northern part of Winchester Township, where the subject of this sketch was born and where he still resides. His childhood days were spent much the same as those of most boys upon a farm, where many people think that what boys do on a farm is of no consequence. A careful observer would see, as Charles Dudley Warner has so well expressed in his book, "Being a Boy," that "a farm without a boy would very soon come to grief." His education was received in the District school which he attended until seventeen years of age. He then attended the North Liberty Academy and the Garret Biblical Institute of Evanston, Illinois, where his tanding in his classes was always good, having never received a grade under ninety per cent. in any study. He united with the Seaman Methodist Episcopal Church on February 23, 1893, and was licensed a local preacher by the Quarterly Conference of Winchester charge in January, 1894. He has twice been chosen to represent his local church in the Lay Electoral Conferences, the first in 1895, at Hamilton, Ohio, and the next in 1899, at Dayton, Ohio. He has taken an active part in the Farmers' Institutes of the county, having been elected President of one session of the Institute at North Liberty, Ohio. Since 1895, he has been prominently identified with the Sabbath School work of the county, having charge of the 844 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Normal Department, and was the first Normal Secretary elected in the county. In November, 1898, at Russellville, Ohio, he assisted in organizing a Normal Department in the Sabbath School work in Brown county, and enrolled the first student in that county, Mrs. Sallie Webster, a missionary to Santiago, Chili, S. A. Mr. Roberts is actively engaged in farming, having an attractive and delightful home on a farm of two hundred and twenty-six acres. He is a constant reader and a great lover of books. His library is one of the largest and best in the county, and all who call at Greenway Farm will be most hospitably received and entertained and find in Mr. Roberts a gentleman of delightful social qualities. Joseph W. Rothrock, of Washington C. H., Ohio, was born June 7, 1839, at Mt. Leigh, in Adams County. His father was Joseph Rothrock, and his mother, Sarah McKinney. They were from Mifflin County, Pennsylvania. He grew up on his father's farm, and after learning out at the District schools, attended the North Liberty Academy, and afterwards at Lebanon, Ohio. For nine years, while a boy and a youth, he was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and helped two hundred slaves to freedom. He entered the service of his country October 6, 1861, as a Private in Company B, 6oth O. V. I., a year regiment. His brother, Philip, was Captain of the company. He was in the battle of Cross Keys and at Harper's Perry. On June 25, 1863, he enlisted in the Second Ohio Heavy Artillery, Company B, and was made a Sergeant of the company, August 5, 1863. He was promoted Second Lieutenant and assigned to Company I, December 28, 1864. He was mustered out August 23, 1865. He took up his residence at WincheSter, Ohio, and began to trade in cattle. On the seventeenth of August, 1867, he was married to Miss Effie J. Davis. He has a son, Frank, who is married and has one child. He is conducting a steam laundry at Washington C. H. He has a daughter, Anna, who resides with her father. In 1884, he removed from Winchester, Ohio, to Washington C. H., where he has ever since resided. He is a Republican. He was born a Presbyterian and is a member of the church at Washington C. H., and a ruling elder therein. He is genial and cordial in his disposition, ready to make friends and able to hold them. He is always interested in young people and desirous that they shall enjoy themselves. He is a man of strong business integrity and great fairness, honest and reliable in all his dealings. Those who know him best, admire him for his strong Christian character, his devotion to 'religious convictions and to his church. He is wise in counsel, gentle in manner, devoted to duty and lived his faith every day. James Polk Roush, merchant, of Bentonville, was born in Sprigg Township, December 29, 1842, on the farm now occupied by Michael Smith. His grandparents, Michael and Mary Frye Roush, were married in Shenandoah County, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 845 Virginia, in 1794, and removed to Adams County, in 1796, settling on the above mentioned farm. Michael Roush was a millwright and he built and ran a "horse mill," common in early times. It is remarkable that then Mr. Roush came to Adams County that stone was so scarce that he drove all the way down Suck Run without finding a wagon load for pillars for his house and used locust blocks instead, some of which may be seen under the old house to this day. Robert S. Roush, the father Of our subject, was born September 6, 1814, at the old place. He married Mary Ann Hook, in 1837, the fruits of which union were Dobbins, Elizabeth, James Polk, Michael, Thomas H., John H., Franklin P., William W. and George W. Mr. Roush, the subject of this sketch, received a limited education in the common schools of the township, and has given his attention mostly to farming until the last three years since which time he has been engaged in the dry goods and grocery business in Bentonville. He was married October 15, 1863, to Caroline B. McNulty, daughter of Asa McNulty, of Brown County. The children born to them are Ida M. married to Thos. Sinniger, of Bentonville ; Anna, married to James Sinniger, of Aberdeen, Ohio; Eliza Jane, married to W. J. Flaugher, merchant, of Bentonville; George C., married to Bertha Shipley (deceased), daughter of Milton Shipley, and Frank, married to Identie Smith. Mr. Roush is a Democrat of the old school; although he has never taken any active part in politics, preferring to give his whole attention to his business, at which he has been moderately successfully. He was elected Treasurer of Sprigg Township in 1899 without any solicitation on his part. Mr. Roush is known far and wide as a man upright in all his dealings and is rated "good" as a merchant in Bradstreet's. Dr. W. L. Robinson, of Blue Creek, was born in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1835. His mother's maiden name was Emaline Whittelsey, of the well-known family of that name in the days of Robert Bruce. In 1840, he came with his parents to the Territory of Michigan, and grew to manhood on a farm in that State. He studied at the University of Michigan, and at the beginning of the Civil War entered the Union Army with the Barry Guards of Ann Arbor. He was with McClellan in the Peninsular Campaign, and received his first wound at Malvern Hill. He had his horse shot under him at Antietam while bearing dispatches from Gen. Burnside to Griffin's Park of Artillery. He was wounded a second time at the first battle of Fredericksburg, and again under Hooker at the same place. In the Summer of 1863, he was on detached duty at Louisville, Kentucky, being no longer fit for field service on account of wounds. Was discharged in the Fall of 1863, and settled in Kenton County, Kentucky, and resumed the practice of medicine. In 1875, he came to Jefferson Township, Adams County, Ohio, where he still resides and has a large and lucrative practice in his profession. He married Mary J. Taylor, a very intelligent and estimable woman. They have no children. 846 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Frank B. Roush, of Bradyville, was born September 11, 1852, and is a son of William Roush and Margaret Fdgington, his wife, of Sprigg Township. He received a good common school education and worked on his father's farm until his marriage with Miss Ella Jackson, in 1876, a daughter of Samuel Jackson and his wife, Catherine Kirker, of Liberty Township. He has, since his marriage, been engaged in farming and stock raising and is one of the wealthy farmers of Sprigg Township, owning one of the finest farms in that region. In 1897, he was nominated as the unanimous choice of his party, on the Democratic ticket for Commissioner, and was elected in November of that year, which position he is now filling to the satisfaction of his political friends, and the tax payers of the county in general. Mr. Roush is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Bradyville and is trustee and steward of that organization ; and also of Brady Lodge No. 624, Knights of Pythias. He is descended from the Roush family of the old "Dutch Settlement" in Sprigg Township, one of the pioneer families of Adams County. W. H. R. Rowley, of Blue Creek, better known as "Buck" Rowley, the "Bard of Blue Creek Valley," is a native Buckeye, having been born at Syracuse, Meigs County, Ohio, May 1, 1858. He spent his boyhood days in Middleport; and when in his teens removed to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he took up the occupation of steamboatman on the Ohio, and later made round trips from Pittsburg to New Orleans. Here he developed that free and easy manner so characteristic of "Buck" Rowley. Here he learned to take care of himself when men became turbulent, and here he learned to love native, and to appreciate her grandeur, when all was silent, save the plashing of the wheels, as the boat cut the surface of the mighty Father of Waters. In December, 1877, he came to the beautiful Blue Creek Valley in Adams County to visit a brother residing there, and he was so impressed with the region that he determined to make it his future home. A year later he married Miss O'Ella Waters, who shared his joys and sorrows till her decease in March, 1899. She bore him four children, two boys and two girls. While not learned in books, nor skilled in art, the stronger natural ability of "Buck" Rowley asserts itself in many ways. He has accumulated a competence, is a power in local politics, and has earned some prominence in a literary way. He is recognized in the volume titled "National Poets of America," by giving space to some of his compositions, and terming him in a biographical sketch, "The Soldier Poet." Lincoln Johnson Roberts, of Seaman, Scott Township, Adams County, was born June 1, 1865, in Winchester Township. His great-grandfather, Stephen Roberts, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1762. He moved into Fairfax County, Virginia, when a child. There he married Deborah Williams, who was a member of the Society of Friends. They had eight children, six sons and two daughters, all of whom grew to maturity, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 847 married and reared families. John Roberts, the third child, was the grandfather of our subject. He was born August 29, 1772. On the thirteenth of April, 1813, he enlisted in Captain Loudon Osborne's Company of the fth Regiment, Virginia Militia, and served for six months in the vicinity of Norfolk, Virginia. In the general call of 1814, he was again in the service and saw the British fires in the conflagration of Washington. He staid one month in the vicinity of Baltimore, and was one of the defenders, and had he remained in that vicinity, would, no doubt, have been one of the famous Society Defenders. He came to Adams County in 1835 and died there. Isaac Roberts, the father of our subject, was born in Loudon County, Virginia, August 16, 1818. He was taught the necessity and dignity of manual labor. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a millwright in Washington County, Maryland, for three years and learned that trade. He afterwards worked at it for years and made money. On October 18, 1846, he was married to Lucinda F. Wince, of Loudon County, Virginia, the daughter of Philip and Catherine Shaffer Wince. Mr. Roberts came to Adams County in 1850. He had eleven children, but he lost two sons and a daughter in childhood. He died in 1885. Our subject attended the District schools, and attended the Normal school at Lebanon in 1881, 1884 and 1885. He began his career as a teacher in Adams County, and taught, when not attending school, until 1897. He was a resident of the city of Portsmouth in 1896 and 1897 and engaged in the grocery business in the Kendall Building The business was not suited to his taste and he gave it up. From 1897 to 1899, he has been a. teacher. He owns a farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres on Buck Run in Scott Township, where he resides, and the writer having seen it, wonders why he ever left it for the city of Portsmouth, but does not wonder that he left city life and went back to the farm. He has as fine a farm and well equipped as any one would care to look upon. He owns another farm of one hundred and seventy acres in Winchester Township. He was married May 11, 1887, to Miss Irene Chaney, of Hillsboro, Ohio, daughter of Adam L. Chaney. He has three children, Irving, aged ten years; Ralph W., aged four years, and Virginia, aged two years. His name indicates his politics. He was named for the two Presidents, Lincoln and Johnson. He is a member of the Methodist Church at Seaman, and is surrounded by everything which could make life agreeable and happy, and if he is not happy, it is not on account of outward conditions. He is a man of the highest character and principles. He was and is a successful teacher, a loyal citizen, and a prosperous farmer. Alexander Roush, miller, of Manchester, Ohio, was born June 27, 1847, in Sprigg Township, Adams county, Ohio, son of William and Margaret (Fdgington) Roush. Michael Roush, great-grandfather of our subject, was a native of Pennsylvania, and came in 1796 with the Pence and Bowman families fo established the "Dutch Settlement," in Sprigg Township. Parmenus, son Michael Roush, married Catherine Smith and raised a family of nine 848 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY children ; William, Michael, John, Squire, Samuel, Rachel, Cassander, Mary Ann and Elizabeth. ' William, the eldest of these, is the father of our subject. He was born April 16, 1824, and was married to Margaret Edgington, in 1849. She was the daughter of Azariah Edgington, of Sprigg Township. William Roush has been a very prosperous farmer, and is noted for his liberality in contributing toward the support of the church. He and his wife are members at Union, near Bentonville. The children of William and Margaret Roush are: Laura Ann, wife of D. C. Beam, of Bentonville, Ohio; Nancy Jane, wife of Hiram E. Pence, of Manchester, Ohio; Mary Catherine, wife of Rev. H. Allen Gaskins, of Manchester, Ohio; Alexander, the subject of this sketch; Frank, of Bradyville, Ohio, Commissioner, of Adams County ; Pangburn, of Coyville, Kansas ; Aaron, of Manchester, Ohio; Robert, of Bradyville, Ohio; and Sherman, of Manchester, Ohio. Alexander Roush, subject of this sketch, was reared on a farm, and received a common school education. He was married on November 16, 1871, to Olivine Pence, daughter of David Pence. David Pence was drowned while bathing in the Ohio River at the mouth of Crooked Creek. By this marriage were born two children : Harvey, born September 16, 1872, cashier, of the Burnet House, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lillie, who married Walter Wilson. Mr. Wilson has charge of the coal office of Mr. Roush. Mrs. Roush died July 15, 1878, and on October 21, 1879, Mr. Roush married Mrs. Caroline Ellison, widow of John Fllison, of Manchester, Ohio. Our subject remained on the farm until 1872, when he remoyed to Manchester, Ohio, and engaged in the grocery business. In 1882, he entered the milling firm of Oliver Ashenhurst & Son, and since 1888 has had the entire control of the mill. Besides the mill, he carries on an extensive business in coal and salt. Mr. Roush is one of the most enterprising citizens of Manchester, and is always found taking an active part in any project calculated to build up the business interests of the community. He is a member of Hawkeye Tribe 117, Improved Order of Red Men, at Manchester, Ohio. Also a member of 827 I. O. O. F., Encampment, No. 203, at Manchester, Ohio. In his political views he is a Democrat. Oscar Coleman Robuck was born April 28, 1860, near West Union, Ohio. His father was Thomas Robuck and his mother Margaret Haines. He was educated in the common schools. He is by occupation a carpenter and undertaker. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and a Republican in politics. He was married to Miss Margaret Simeral, October 30, 1884. He has been a member of the Town Council, and is at present a member of the West Union School Board. He is a young man, energetic in business and well thought of by his neighbors. He is at present engaged in the undertaking business with John F. Plummer, and has by careful and upright business methods established a reputation that reaches far beyond the limits of his native county. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 1949 Orin Werret Robe, M. D., was born at Berea, Kentucky, December 26, 1868. His father, William was a native of Ohio, born August 10, 1847. He enlisted in Company F, 59th 0. V. I., on the sixteenth of September, 1861, and was discharged on August 5, 1862, by an order from the War Department. He enlisted again, December 18, 1863, in Battery F, First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery, and was mustered out July 27, 1865. Our subject's mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Burdette, born in Berea, Kentucky, in 1848. He was educated in the common schools and began the study of medicine with Dr. O. B. Kirpatrick, of Cherry Fork, Ohio, at the age of eighteen. He attended the Miami Medical College of Cincinnati, in the Winters of 1889 and 189o, and at the Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in the Winters of 1890 and 1891. He graduated from the latter in the Spring of 1891. He began the practice of medicine with Dr. F. M. Gaston, at Tranquility, on the first of April, 1891. On the first of June, 1891, he located at Youngsville, Ohio, where he remained until the first of April, 1897, and that Spring he took a post-graduate course at the Miami Medical College. He located at Peebles on the first of November, 1897, where he has remained in practice ever since. He was Coroner of Adams County, Ohio, from 1894 to 1897, and was appointed one of the Pension Examining Surgeons of the county in November, 1898, which office he still holds. He is a member of the Baptist Church. He was married May 10, 1893, to Mary Martin. They have one child, Ada F., born May 18, 1895. As a boy and man he possessed and possesses a love of good horses. This, taste was acquired while a resident of Kentucky. He has a high sense of honor and justice. In this he much resembles his grandfather Burdette and his kinsman, Sir Francis Burdette, of England, who preferred rather go to the Tower than to make any compromise with wrong. What success Dr. Robe has obtained has been based upon a course of right and duty and not upon diplomacy. His motto has been "not expediency, but right," and he has lived up to it all his life. John Kelvey Richards, Solicitor General of the United States, son of Samuel and Sarah Ann (Kelvey) Richards, was born at Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio, March 15, 1856. His father, Samuel Richards, was born near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1814, and died at Ironton, Ohio, June 30, 1891. He was of Welsh-Quaker descent, being a great-great-grandson of Rowland Richards, who was born February 9, 1660, settled in Fredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, about 1686, and died in 1720. In 1824, Samuel Richards came overland with his parents to Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson County, Ohio, and in the forties moved to Lawrence County, where he lived the rest of his life. He was one of the founders of Ironton, ,being for nearly thirty years the Secretary and General Manager of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company and the Iron Railroad Company and the two corporations which laid out and built up that town. Sarah Ann Kelvey was born in West Union, Adams County, Ohio, October 9; 1827. She married Samuel Richards at Burlington, Ohio, September 15, 1852, and 850 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY died at Ironton, Ohio, September I, 1863. She was the granddaughter of Thomas Kelvey, who was born October 1, 1763, married ( July 18, 1785) Ann Secker, said to be a niece of Thomas Seeker, Archbishop of Canterbury, and came to America about 1801. Thomas Kelvey was of Scottish origin, the name being originally McKelvey. Thomas Kelvey was a man of education and means. Coming down the Ohio, he stopped awhile with Blennerhasset, then proceeded to Maysville. Afterwards he moved to Highland County, Ohio, then to West Union, Adams County, where his wife died (March 7, 1831,) and was buried, and finally to Burlington, where he died (April 18, 1838,) at the home of his son, John. He was a watch and clock maker. Mr. John Means, of Ashland, Kentucky, has one of Thomas Kelvey's clocks. Some interesting heirlooms are in existence. Among others a miniature painted of him, probably in France, when a young man, in the costume of that day, with powdered hair, lace, ruffles, etc. Also a parchment certificate of his membership in a French Lodge of Masons, "La Lodge de L Epperance," issued May 2, 1791. In this certificate he is described as being twenty-seven years of, age and a native of Canterbury, Kent County, England. Thomas Kelvey had four children. John Seeker, born January 21, 1796; Johanna, born November 22, 1798; Thomas, born August I, 1801, and Henry, born October 3, 1805. Johanna Kelvey married John Sparks, December 21, 1820, and died September 15, 1823, at West Union. Thomas Kelvey died June 11, 1831, unmarried, and was buried at Burlington. Henry Kelvey was married, and died May 8, 1834, leaving a son, who is still residing at Granville, Ohio. John Secker Kelvey married Kerenhappuch Hussey, in Highland County, September 7, 1825, came to West Union, where he lived for several years and where his daughter Sarah was born and then with many Adams County people, moved to Lawrence County. He was a man of superior attainments for those days, was for years the. Recorder of the county and died at Burlington, July 27, 1851. His wife, who was born July 28, 1809, survived him many years, finally passing away at Columbus, January 2, 1896. She lies by his side in the Burlington graveyard. Grandmother Kelvey was in many ways a remarkable woman. She was married at sixteen, raised a large family, endured many trials, and died at eighty-six, with mental faculties unimpaired and with scarcely a gray hair in her head. She was a direct descendent of Christopher Hussey (1598-1685), one the early settlers of New England, who with Tristram Coffin and Thomas Macey, were among the original owners of Nantucket Island. Kerrenhappuch was also a descendant of the Rev. Stephen Bachiler (1561-1600) Whittier's "The wreck of Rivermouth"), who left England for Holland, and after a short residence there, came to America in the year 1632. He went first to Lynn, Massachusetts, where his daughter, Theodate, who was married Christopher Hussey, preceded. him. From Lynn, he went to Ipwich, thence to Newbury, where he lived until 1638, when he settled at Hampton, where he was installed first pastor, of the Congregational Church there. For an interesting account of this Puritan divine, the reader is referred to the life of John G. Whittier, by Prichard. He mentions the "Bachiler eves" as being dark, deep-set and lustrous, with a tendency to repeat themselves from generation to generations. Daniel Webster and John G. Whittier, who were both descendants of Bachiler, had these eyes. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 851 The leading events in Solicitor General Richards' life may be thus summarized : Graduated at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, 1875: graduated at Harvard College, 1877; studied law and admitted to the bar, October, 1879; Prosecuting Attorney of Lawrence County, 1880 to 1882; City Solicitor of Ironton, 1885 to 1889; Master Commissioner in the Cincinnati and Easter Railway case, 1885 ; State Senator from the Eighth Ohio District (Lawrence, Gallia, Meigs and Vinton Counties) from 1890 to 1892; Attorney General of Ohio during McKinley's administration, 1892 to 1896; member of the Commission to Codify the Insurance Laws of Ohio, 1895 to 1896 ; of the Second General Assembly of Ohio, 1896; Special Counsel of the State Board of Appraisers and Assessors of Ohio, 1896 to 1898; General Counsel of. the. State Board of Medical Registrations and Examination of Ohio, 1896 to 1898; Solicitor General of the United States from July 1, 1897, to the present time. Mr. Richards was :harried June 12, 1890, to Anna Williard Steece, of Ironton, Ohio. Two children have blessed this union, John Kelvey, Jr., born at Ironton, April 20, 1891, and Anna Christine, born at Columbus, September 29, 1894. "Jack" Richards is an ardent Republican and has taken an active part in politics since leaving college. He has been a member of Ward, City, District and State Committees engaged in the active organization and conduct of campaigns. He has been a delegate to City, County, District, State and National Conventions. He has spoken for the Republican party on the stump throughout Ohio and in other States. On becoming State Senator. he made a study of taxation in Ohio with special reference to constitutional limitations. The accepted opinion was then that, under the Constitution of Ohio, as it stood, nothing but property could be taxed for general revenue. Accordingly when several unsuccessful attempts, at great expense, had been made to amend the Constitution and enlarge the taxing power, he took the position that no amendment was required, that rights, privileges, franchises and occupations could be taxed under the Constitution as it stood. These views have since been embodied in our' tax laws, which have added largely to the revenues of the State and have been sustained by the highest courts. Among these are the laws levying' taxes upon foreign corporations, upon telegraph, telephone and express companies, upon railroad, street railway, electric light, gas, water, pipe line and similar corporations, upon sleeping car companies, upon freight line and equipment companies, in fact practically upon all corporations, foreign and domestic, of a quasi public nature, enjoying peculiar franchises. In addition to drafting and sustaining these laws, Mr. Richards drafted the present election law of Ohio, a modification of the Australian ballot system and sustained it in the court. He drew the present law relating to the practice of medicine in Ohio, and as the counsel of the State Medical Board maintained its validity in the courts. He sustained the constitutionality of the Compulsory Education law of Ohio in the Supreme Court, and subsequently redrafted the law, putting it in its present form. As Solicitor General, he is the representative of the Government before the Supreme Court of the United States and has argued the more important cases which have been submitted to that court during the present administration. In doing this, he has had to meet the leaders of the bar from every section of the country, but has 852 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY been no less fortunate in the results than he was as Attorney General of Ohio. Notable among the cases now are the Joint Traffic Association case (171 U. S., 505) argued for the railroad by Mr. Carter, the leader of the New York bar, Mr. Phelps, Ex-Minister to England, and Ex- Senator Fdmunds, of Vermont; the case of Nichol v. Anns (173 U. S., 509), involving the validity of the Federal Tax on sales at exchange and board ' of trade in which Ex-Secretary Carlisle and Mr. Robbins, of Chicago, presented the opposition to the law and the Addyston pipe case in December, 1899, in which the Sherman anti-trust law was first applied to an industrial combination. Major William Lewis Shaw, the subject of this sketch, was born near Lexington, Ky., on the twenty-seventh day of September, 1832. His father, Joseph Russell Shaw, was a native of Berks County, Pennsylvania, and his mother, Rachel Corns, was a native of Pike County, Ohio. They were married in Pike County, June 20, 1830. His boyhood and youth, to manhood, were spent mainly on a farm in Adams County, and his advantages for an education were limited to the opportunities offered in those days by the Public schools. By special diligence and good use of the time usually allowed the farmer's boy for attending school, he prepared himself to teach in the Public schools. He received his first certificate from J. M. Wells (afterward a prominent attorney of West Union), and taught his first school in what was known as Gilbert's District, in the northwestern part of the county in the Winter of 1852 and 1853. He followed the occupation of a teacher of Public schools and in attending school until 1861. At the breaking out of the Civil War, he was a member of the junior class of Antioch College, then under the presidency of Horace Mann. He left his studies in the early Spring of 1862 and raised a company in Greene County, Ohio. The company was assigned to the I 10th O. V. I., and he was chosen the First Lieutenant of it. On August 7, 1862, he was detailed as Aide-de-camp on Gen. Elliot's Staff, Third Division, Third Army Corps, on November 14, 1863 ; he was promoted Captain of Company E, December 9, 1864. On April 2, 1865, he was brevetted Major for gallant and meritorious conduct on the field. This was Gen. J. Warren Keifer's regiment, and it was in no less than twenty-four battles and engagements, beginning with Union Mills, June 13, 1863, and ending with Appomattox, April 9, 1865. He was discharged June 26, 1865, and returned to Yellow Springs, Ohio, and received his college degree of A. B. From this time until April, 1876, he was engaged in Public school work as a teacher or superintendent till April, 1876, when he was appointed Superintendent of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, at Xenia, Ohio. He remained in this position for two years, until the Summer of 1884, when he was displaced by a change of the State administration. In the Spring of 1885, he was employed by the Commissioners of Adams County to superintend the finishing and opening of the Children's Home, which he did to their entire satisfaction. He is now and has been for some time past the lessee and manager of the Cherry Hotel at Washington C. H., one of the most popular hotels in the State. In all matters for the BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 853 public good, he is one of the foremost of his city, and is most highly esteemed as a successful business man and an enterprising and public spirited citizen. His political views from boyhood were always very positive and unswerving. His father belonged to the anti-slavery wing of the Whig party. This fact, supplemented by personal observation of the evil effect of slavery on the social conditions of both races, the injustice to the colored man and injury to the material prosperity of the South, confirmed him in his opposition to the institution. At the disruption of the Whig party, he allied himself with the Republican party and has always strenuously advocated its principles. He never sought nor held a political office. The theological and religious views were Unitarian, and formed along the line of the teachings of Theodore Parker, Edward Everett Hale, Horace Mann, Thomas Hill, and others of like views, On the twelth day of August, 1852, he was married to Rachel Jane Gutridge, daughter of James Gutridge, a citizen of Concord Township, Highland County, Ohio. The Hon. John Little, of Greene County, says of him : "There is no better citizen than Major W. L. Shaw. He served his country kithfully and well in the Civil War. As a business man, he ranks among the first." Gen. J. Warren Keifer, with whom he served, says of him : "He was devoted to his duties as Adjutant General and Inspector General while serving on my staff in the Civil War. He was efficient, intelligent and tireless. There was no better officer of his rank in the Volunteer Army." Hon. James Sloane was born February 22, 1822, ih Richmond, Virginia. His parents were from near Belfast, in Ireland, and were Presbyterians. They had located in Richmond, Va., but a short time prior to the birth of their son, James. In 1827, they removed to Cincinnati, and in 1828, to a farm near Fayetteville, Brown County, Ohio. James Sloane was raised a typical farmer's son. He worked hard all Summer and attended District school in Winter. At seventeen, he received a severe injury, caused by a log rolling on his side and fracturing his ribs, from which he never fully recovered. In 1839 and 1840, he taught school in Brown and Clinton Counties. In 1840, he began the study of law with Judge Barclay Harlan, in Wilmington, Ohio, and graduated from the Cincinnati Law School in 1844. In 1845, he located in Hillsboro and began practice. In 1845, he was married to Miss Kate White, of Ross County, who bore him two sons, one of whom is Ulric Sloane, the eloquent advocate, now a resident of the city of Columbus, but well known to all the people of Adams County. In 1856, James Sloane was elected a Common Pleas Judge in the Fifth Judicial District on the Democratic ticket, but resigned after one year's service. He felt that he was made for the bar and not for the bench, and while his fellow members of the bar were of the opinion that he made an excellent Judge, he felt that the bar suited him better. He practiced law in Highland, Ross, Fayette, Brown, Clinton and Adams Counties. When the war broke out he organized Company K, 12th 0. V. L, three months service, 854 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY and went out as its Captain. He was wounded April 2o, 1861, and mustered out July 6, 1861, to accept appointment as Captain in Company K, 12th O. V. I., three years' service. He was severely wounded in the West Virginia campaign, at Scary Creek, July 17, 1861. His health broke down and he resigned November 25, 1861. He soon learned, after going into the army, that the injury received at the age of seventeen prevented him from performing the duty of a soldier and hence his enforced retirement. He practiced law in Hillsboro until 1868, when he opened an office in Cincinnati where he remained until 1871, when he returned to Hillsboro. He died September 17, 1873, of congestion of the brain. He possessed high degree of natural talent. His mind was always clear and he possessed great analytic power. He was capable of great and continued mental effort and seemed to take pleasure in it. He had a remarkable memory and a fertile imagination. In his temperament he was warm and impetuous. He was an eloquent and powerful advocate. His success was brilliant, but with it all, he was a misanthrope and given to fits of melancholy. He could be a delightful companion if he chose, but did not often so choose. His last days were clouded by his fits of melancholy and he stood aloof from most of his friends. He is remembered by the bar in the counties before mentioned as a lawyer of wonderful power and application. Hon. Emmons B. Stivers. Emmons Buchanan Stivers, a son of Liffey Stivers and his wife, Barbara Reynolds, was born in Fincastle, Brown County, Ohio, May 6, 1857. When in his fourth year his parents removed to a farm near Ash Ridge, Jackson Township, Brown County, where he was reared and where he received the rudiments of an English education in the District schools. In 1876, he began teaching school as a profession and followed it with remarkable success for fifteen years, having in the mean time taken a course in the Normal University, Lebanon, Ohio, then under the control of President Alfred Holbrook. In 1882-3, he had charge of the academy at North Liberty, Adams County, and in the Autumn of the latter year waS elected Superintendent of Schools at West Union, receiving the highest Salary ever paid in that position. On December 27, 1883, he was married to Miss Ida McCormick, a daughter of William McCormick, near Tranquility, Adams County. While a resident of West Union, Mr. Stivers edited and published The Index, afterwards merged into The Democratic Index, a newspaper of wide circulation. He also, in 1885, published his "Outlines of United States History," and a hand-book for teachers, titled "Recreations in School Studies," which has reached its tenth edition. Having undertaken the study of the law in the office of Hon P. D. Bayless, while residing in West Union, in the Autumn of 1887, Mr. Stivers removed to Cincinnati to complete his course, and in 1888 he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court at Columbus, Ohio. In 1890, his health failing, he removed to his farm near his boyhood home in Brown County, where he now resides, looking after his farming interests, his publications, and his legal practice. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 855 In 1895, Mr. Stivers was elected by the Democratic party to represent Brown County in the Ohio Legislature, and he was re-elected to that position in 1897. In 1899, he was elected to the Ohio Senate from the 2d-4th District, composed of the counties of Brown, Clermont, Butler and Warren, which position he is now holding. From 1897 to 1899, he represented the Sixth Congressional District as a member of the Democratic State Central Committee. While a member of the Legislature, Mr. Stivers was placed on the most important committees such as the judiciary, Railroads and Telegraphs, Insurance, Fees and Salaries, and Municipal Affairs. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the K. of P. His domestic relations are most happy, and he has four bright and interesting children. His son, Ulric Stivers, was a Page in the 73rd Session of the Ohio Senate, at the age of nine years, being the younget lad ever chosen to that position. He was chosen by the unanimous vote of the Senate regardless of politics, after the customary minority party Page had been appointed by the President of the Senate. Joseph Patterson Smith. Among the sons of Adams County, Ohio, who attained to position of prominence, perhaps the subject of this sketch was most widely known. Joseph Patterson Smith, son of John M. and Matilda A. (Patterson) Smith, was born in West Union, August 7, 1856, and received the principal part of his education in the Public schools of his native place. He had a retentive mind and was especially proficient in mathematics and history. From his father, he inherited a splendid memory and a love of statistics, and from his mother an energy and ambition that were characteristic of the man in later years. Like many of his companions, during the Summer months in his youth, he learned the only trade for .which an opportunity was offered in West Union—that of a printer. At about the age of sixteen, he was employed for a few months in a nail mill at Bellaire, Ohio, but his constitution was too delicate for such an occupation, and it was abandoned. For a time, he attended the University at Greencastle, Ind., supporting himself by labor at the printing case during the evening hours. Subsequently he taught for a few terms in the Ditrict schools of Ohio and Illinois. From early boyhood, beginning with the "Reconstruction Period," Mr. Smith evinced a strong love for politics, and was noted among his townsmen for his knowledge and understanding of the questions at issue, and for his ardent Republicanism, long before he attained his majority. As an occasional local correspondent, he attracted the attention of the editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, and was employed by him as a "special" to travel over the State, in 1876, and write up the political outlook in each of the Congressional Districts. In this manner he became acquainted with the leading Ohio Republicans (of whom Major McKinley was one) and formed lasting friendships with many of those who afterwards became noted in history of the State and Nation. From that time, until the date of his death, Joseph P. Smith was a prominent factor in Ohio politics. Almost wholly through his own exertions, Mr. Smith was successful in becoming the Republican caucus nominee and 856 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY was elected Journal Clerk of the Senate in the Sixty-fifth assembly. He was also for a time a Clerk in the Roster D State Adjutant General's Office. At different times during the years covering and immediately following these periods, he edited the Western Star at Lebanon, the want Courier at Batavia, and the New Era at West Union. In 1888; became part owner and editor of the Daily Citizen, of Urbana, gained a reputation under his management extending beyond the fines of the State. The Citizen was the first newspaper to advocate selection of William McKinley as the Gubernatorial candidate of the publican party, and his name was kept at the head of its editorial columns from the day following Major McKinley's defeat for Congress in the famous gerrymandered district, in 1890, until his triumphant election for Governor of Ohio, in 1891. A number of the campaign documents used by the Republican State Committee that year (as were a number in subsequent years and also in the National campaign of 1896) were prepared by Joseph P. Smith. Throughout the period of his con' trol of the Citizen its editorials were widely quoted. In 1891, the late John A. Cockerill, then editor-in-chief of the New York World, tendered Mr. Smith a position on the editorial staff of that paper; but the flattering offer, while appreciated as a gracious compliment, was declined, as he did not want to leave the State. A tender of the editorship of the Toledo, Ohio, Daily Commercial was accepted in Dec. of that year. While serving on the latter paper (in 1892), Governor McKinley appointed him State Librarian. Many useful, rare and valuable works were added to the library during his incumbency of the office. Especially is this true as to works of reference. In May, 1896, he resigned the librarianship to take a confidential position with Major McKinley, remaining with him throughout the Presidential campaign and until after the latter's inauguration as President of the United States, March 4, 1897. It is a fact, which none acquainted with the circumstances will dispute, that no other individual in the State did more to bring about the nomination of Major McKinley to the Presidency than Joseph P. Smith. Such was his love and esteem for the man that his every energy was exerted to the end that his friend might become the head of the Nation. His private papers, covering the years 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1896, now in possession of Mrs.. Smith's executor and held as a legacy for his children, show that he was in correspondence and close touch with leading Republicans in every State and Territory in the Union during these years. No young man had a more extensive acquaintance, and none ever made more strenuous efforts to redeem all political promises. He was a thorough organizer and could see further into the effects of a political move than almost any other person engaged therein. And yet no one ever heard him boast of his influence, or personally claim to have done anything superior to that of the ordinary party worker. His mind was a veritable encyclopedia of political information and a magazine of reminisences of the politics and the politicians of the past and present On March 29, 1897, the President tendered Mr. Smith the position of Director of the Bureau of the American Republics, and his action BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 857 was approved by the Executive Committee of the Bureau. As the official head of this department, he was making its influence felt throughout the nineteen Republics included in. its organization, and, had his life been spared, he undoubtedly would have been instrumental in more firmly uniting them to their mutual commercial benefit, and thus have more effectually carried out the original conception of the late James G. Blaine, as he outlined it at the Pan-American Congress in 1889-1890. During his brief life, and aside from his other duties, Joseph P. Smith edited several works, including "The Speeches of William McKinley," which attained a wide circulation. He wrote numerous short articles of a political and historical nature, a biography of the President :or Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia for 1897, and a "History of the Republican Party of Ohio." Several contemplated works in various states of preparation were among his papers at the time of his death. Never of the most robust health, but kept up for years by a wonderful will power, Mr. Smith was compelled to seek for rest and restoration of health in October, 1897. After battling bravely against a combination of diseases, and after seemingly having conquered them, death came suddenly on the morning of February 5, 1898, at Miami, Florida, where he had been taken by friends during the previous December. On April 14, 1886, Joseph P. Smith and Miss Maryneal Hutches, of Galveston, Texas, were married at the home of the bride's parents. Several children were born to this union, namely, Frank Hutches, at Galveston, Texas ; Virginia Patterson, at Batavia, Ohio ; Antoinette Barker, Mary Stow, John Michell, William McKinley, and Joseph Patterson, at Urbana. The last named was but five months old when his father died. Maryneal Hutches Smith was born at Galveston, Texas, March 1860. She was educated at Abbott Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in June, 1878. After her marriage, she resided for a time in Columbus, then in Batavia, and for the last ten years of her life in Urbana. Under the terms of her husband's will, she was left sole executrix of his estate and guardian of her children. Being a woman of brilliant mind and attainments, and endowed with a wonderful ambition, she accepted the trust, and planned to make the futures of her children all that was anticipated and contemplated by her deceased husband. In June, 1898, without solicitation on her part, President McKinley appointed Mrs. Smith to the position of Postmistress of the city of Urbana, Ohio. She was performing the duties of this office with credit and ability, as was evidenced by the improvements in the office and the increase in its receipts, when the death summons came immediately and, almost without warning. She died at her home in Urbana of apoplexy on the afternoon of September 12, 1898, or but a little more than seven months after the death of her husband. Thus, within that short space of time, the several children were deprived of the care of the parents who were generous and indulgent to a fault. Together the earthly forms of their parents are resting in a beautiful plat in lovely Oakdale cemetery at Urbana. At the time of his death the whole press of Ohio, and all the leading newspapers of the Nation, regardless of party, for he was recognized by the Democrats as an honorable opponent, and had warm personal 858 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY friendships among them, spoke only in praise of Joseph P. Smith. Of the expressions used, no more candid and truthful portrayal of his life and character can be found than is contained in this extract from the Canton, Ohio Repository, of February 5, 1898: "Supremely faithful and loving to his family, combined with his beautiful qualities of heart and brighest of bright intellects, his greatest virtue was his unfaltering loyalty to the cause of which were enshrined his brightest earthly hopes and ambitions. "Had his physical body possessed the strength to support his indomitable energy in the assiduous application of his remarkable intellect, few men would have equalled him in possibilities of attainment. "His fertile head was a vertiable store house. History, ancient and modern, were constant and living pictures in his always lively memory. His brain seemed incandescent with the knowledge almost of the world, when ripe occasion made its demands on his resourceful mind. When working in the cause he loved the most, he knew no night or day. Sleep could only come when utter physical exhaustion forced tired nature to assert herself. * * * * * "He was firm in the faith of Everlasting Peace to come. In Canton, in his tribute to a friend who had gone from earth, he wrote in paraphrase: "Tears for the living. Love for the dead." "And yet, many is the heart that grieves, and myriad are the eyes that glisten today upon receiving the news from Florida at the taking away of an intellect so bright and a character so lovely, just as fame and fortune were at his feet in recognition of eminently patriotic service." Andrew Jackson Stivers was the second son of Robert Stivers, and Jane Meharry. Until his eighteenth year, he lived on his father's farm. Here under the prayerful guidance of his pious mother, many lessons of patience and economy were learned ; and the foundation for his future successful business career was laid. In 1836, he removed to Ripley, where his faithfulness and uprightness of character soon established for him a permanent place as a business man and a citizen. In 1847, he began his long and successful career as a banker ; at that time the first bank in Ripley was founded, and for almost fifty years he was intimately associated with the Farmers' National Bank and Citizens' National Bank. Mr. Stivers was married in 1845 to Miss Harriet Newall McClain. After six years of married life, Mrs. Stivers died in August, 1851. Mr. Stivers was united in marriage a second time, December 13, 1859, to Miss Catherine Maddox, who proved a faithful and loving wife through years of unusual happiness and prosperity, and who still survives him. The mantle of Mr. Stivers' unselfishness and prosperity has fallen upon his two surviving sons, John Robert and Frank Alexander Stivers, who are substantial business men of Ripley, Ohio, the latter being now President of the Citizens' National Bank, with which his father was connected for so many years. As a loving and devoted husband, a kind and generous BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 859 father, a broad and honest business man and a loyal Christian gentleman, no words of eulogy are sufficient to express the nobility of character of Andrew Jackson Stivers, the subject of this sketch. Andrew Jackson Stivers came from a long line of Virginia patriots and sturdy Irish ancestors. His grandfather, John Savers, a native of Virginia, was born in 1764. He served his country in the Revolutionary War, as a member of the Virginia Militia, before he was sixteen years of age. Robert Stivers, father of A. J. Stivers, was born March 26, 1789, in Westmoreland County, Pa. He served as a Volunteer in the War of 1812, as an Ensign of Lieutenant Daniel Coe's Company, First Regiment, Col. Edward's Ohio Militia, on a general call to Sandusky. At the time of enlistment, he was a resident of Adams County, having come with his parents from Virginia to Brownsville (then Redstone), Fayette County, Pennsylvania, thence to Ohio, and settled near Manchester. It was here that Robert Stivers met Jane Meharry, and in 1815 they were married in Liberty Township. Jane Meharry was a native of Ireland, born February 3, 1790, and came to this country in May, 1794, with her father, Alexander Meharry, and her stepmother, Jane Meharry. The family settled at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, in July, 1794, and in April, 1799, removed to Kentucky and shortly afterwards to Adams County, Ohio. To Robert and Jane Stivers were born four sons and four daughters. Robert Stivers died July 12, 1855, and Jane Stivers died April 10, 187o. Both are buried in Briar Ridge cemetery, this county. Isaac Smalley was born August 4, 1825, the youngest son of Willian and Esther Smalley, near Jaybird, in Adams County, on the same farm on which he died, December 21, 1899. He was a farmer all his life and had no ambition for public office. He was a prominent Free Mason. He was married January 24, 1848, to Miss Hannah Parks, who survived him. She was a daughter of John and Fliza Parks, both of Hillsboro, Highland County. He and his wife lived on the same farm for fifty-two years. They had four children, three daughters and a son, Ora, who resides with his mother. As a farmer, Mr. Smalley was very successful and accumulated a competence. He was very fond of rearing live stock and especially horses, He was an excellent judge of horseflesh. He never held any office except that of Trustee of his Township. He was conservative in all his views and actions. He was strong in his feelings of either love or hate, but was highly respected in the entire circle of his acquaintances. He could have had a summer resort and village on his home farm on account of its remarkable medicinal and pure water springs, located on it, but preferred to dispense with those improvements and to be undisturbed on his farm surrounded by some of the finest scenery in Adams County. Alexander B. Steen. Alexander Boyd Steen, the fourth son and seventh child of Alexander and Agnes Nancy Steen, a twin brother of John W. Steen, was born near Flemingsburg, Ky., May 5, 1813. He was brought by his parents to Ohio in 560 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY 1820, and resided in the same locality, three miles northeast of Winchester, Adams County, Ohio, almost seventy-five years. He was a child of the Covenant, descended from a long line of staunch Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestors, who had endured persecution and suffered imprisonment for their religious faith. He was a most saintly man, greatly beloved by all who knew him, and his gentle manner, sweet devotion and absorbing zeal reminded one of the Apostle Saint John. He occupied comparatively a humble sphere in life, but no man in all that region extended a wider religious influence than he. In private conversation, his spiritual insight and heavenly-mindedness was elevating to the soul. His faith in God's Word was unbounded, and the Divine promises were to him, living realities. He was no mere dreamer, thinking of future glory, but insisted upon the faithful performance of the practical duties of every day. He was not a learned man, but was more familiar with the English Bible than many professors of theology. He would quote from memory the verse and chapter of the Bible to substantiate his position upon any subject of conversation. By a fall, some years before his death, he was severely injured in the hips, which largely confined him to the house. He spoke of this afterwards as a special blessing, inasmuch as it gave him a better opportunity to study the Scriptures. He brought up his family of eight children in the fear of the Lord and all became members of the Mt. Leigh Presbyterian Church with which he was connected for more than fifty years. He died at his home near Winchester, Ohio, March 8, 1895, aged eighty-one years, ten months and three days. His body rests in the cemetery at Mt. Leigh. Alexander B. Steen was married by the Rev. Robert Stewart, March 29, 1838, to Miss Nancy Jane McClure, a daughter of Michael and Elizabeth McClure. She was born in Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio, September i1, 1821, and died March 18, 1893, aged seventy-one years, five months and seven days. Samuel Cummings Stevenson, of Grimes Postoffice, was born March 11, 1838, in the old double log cabin at the mouth of Bayou Manyoupper, below the mouth of Ohio Brush Creek, the last bayou on the trip from New Orleans to Pittsburgh. His father was Richard Stevenson, a son of John Stevenson, a native of Donegal, Ireland, who made his escape to America at the time of the Emmett Rebellion, and built the double log cabin on the site of the old stone house at Pleasant Bottoms, at mouth of Ohio Brush Creek. Richard Stevenson was born October II, 1798, in the old cabin above mentioned on the old Stevenson farm. He married Sarah Cummings, a daughter of Captain Samuel Cummings, of Lewis County, Kentucky, opposite the Stevenson home on the Ohio. He was a boat carpenter, and for years built flatboats at the mouth of Brush Creek and cordelled them to Kenhawah Licks, where they were loaded with salt for New Orleans. He lived at the mouth of the bayou till 1838, when he built the present brick residence, now the home of the subject of this sketch. He died July 7, 1855. Samuel C. Stevenson, the subject of this sketch, followed steamboating on the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and was a captain of vessels for many years. He first married MiSs Maggie Lovell, of Lewis County, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 861 Kentucky January 31, 1866. She died September 2, 1871, and afterwards, October 15, 1873, he married Miss Joanna B. Shumaker, daughter of the late Captain J. H. Shumaker, of Mason City, W. Va., who was "killed by an explosion on the steamer Brilliant, at Gallipolis Island, August 1878. Captain Stevenson has "hove anchor" from Pittsburgh to the Gulf of Mexico, experiencing thrilling adventures that would fill a volume. He is now retired from the river, and enjoys life at his home on the beautiful Ohio at Pleasant Bottoms. He is the owner of Wilson's or Brush Creek Island, where persons from the surrounding towns and villages spend the heated season outing and fishing under the direction of the genial Captain. A few years ago, a party of young men from Winchester camped at `Brush Creek island to spend some time fishing in Brush Creek and the Ohio River. Nicholas Lockwood, a member of the party, was drowned in the Ohio while bathing, and his companions made futile efforts to re- 'cover the body. Captain Stevenson was called on to assist in the search and he discovered the body of young Lockwood rolling on the bottom of. the river in several feet of water—the river being low and the water clear. He dived and secured a hold on the body and by almost superhuman efforts conveyed it to the shore unassisted. The Captain is one of the best known citizens of the county and numbers his friends by the score. In politics, he is a Democrat of the Jefferson type. Francis M. Spear, of Manchester, was born August 21, 1843, on Eagle Creek, in Union Township, Brown County, Ohio. When one year of age, his parents, Spencer Spear and Harriet Coburn, moved to Huntington Township in that county, where he was reared to manhood on a farm. He was for years engaged in the white burley leaf tobacco trade and was one of the most prominent dealers in the Ohio white burley district. in 1893, he removed to Manchester, where he purchases and handles white burley leaf. Since residing there he has been elected Trustee of Manchester Township and Mayor of the town of Manchester. While serving as Mayor, he instituted and maintained a rigid warfare against the evil doers of that town with the result of a decided change in favor of morality and good order. Some of his decisions and rulings caused much comment at the time but he was sustained in the higher courts. In politics, Mr. Spear is a Republican, having cast his first vote for Lincoln, in 1864. He served in the 26th O. V. C., and took part in the pursuit and capture of the famous raider, General John Morgan, in his invasion of the North in 1863, an account of which is in this volume. While not a member of any church, Mr. Spear leans toward the Disciples organization, and is a firm supporter of the principles of morality and temperance. Robert Amasa Stephenson is a prominent and successful physician and surgeon of Manchester. He was born near Ripley, Brown County, Ohio, August 11, 1838, and comes of a family of Irish origin, which was established in America about 1750, its representatives settling in Sussex County, Delaware. Captain John Stephenson, the great-grandfather of our subject, commanded a sailing 862 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY vessel which made trips between the Emerald Isle and Atlantic ports in the United States. His family lived in this country, and his son William, when a youth of seventeen, years, ran away from home to avoid going on a sea voyage with his father. William Stephenson afterwards settled in . Pennsylvania, near the town of York, where he married. At the breaking out of the Revolution, he joined the Colonial army and served until American independence was achieved, after which he removed with his family to Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he resided for several years. About 1793, he joined a party of emigrants destined for Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky. Among the number was a Mr. Kilpatrick with his two motherless little girls. During the trip Kilpatrick was killed by an attacking party of Indians, and William Stephenson took charge of and cared for the orphans. One of them afterwards became the wife of his son, Colonel Mills Stephenson. The party proceeded to the town of Washington, founded by the noted Indian scout of that day, Simon Kenton, William Stephenson remained in Kentucky until 1798, when he crossed the Ohio and located his land warrant for services in the Revolution, on Eagle Creek, in Adams, now Brown County, where he erected a cabin and passed the remainder of his eventful career. On reaching manhood, Colonel Mills Stephenson married Miss Kilpatrick, as above stated, and settled on a farm near his father. He was a leading spirit in Southern Ohio in affairs of business and politics, and in the second war with England served with the rank of Colonel, and built old. Fort Stephenson, named in his honor, the post so heroically defended afterwards by young Croghan, where now stands the town of Fremont, Ohio. Colonel Stephenson was one of the early Sheriffs of Adams County before the formation of Brown County. He afterwards became interested in the milling business near Ripley, and built and ran flatboats from that point to New Orleans. On one of these trips he contracted a fever and died at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1823. Colonel Stephenson and his first wife had born to them the following children; Ephriam, who died in childhood; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Wallace, of Ottawa, Illinois ; Charlotte, who died at the age of twenty years ; Young, who became a steamboat captain on the Ohio, and who, during the Mexican War, was in the employ of the Government, transporting supplies from New Orleans to Matamoras, Mexico, where he died in 1847 ; and Lemuel, a steamboat engineer, who followed the river for years. In 1857, he quit the river and opened a hotel in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, where he died in 1862. Robert Prettyman Stephenson, the father of our subject, was born rn Ripley, Ohio, June 22, 1801, and died February 23, 1884. His wife (nee Mary Wallace) passed away August 13, 1883. They were married September 23, 1819, and had seven children. Robert A. Stephenson, whose name heads this record, spent his childhood days at the old homestead, and in September, 1861, entered the United States Army as a medical cadet. He was then stationed at Georgetown, D. C., where he remained until September, 1862, when he entered Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating from that institution in 1863. He soon after was made Assistant Surgeon, and was assigned BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 863 to duty with the Sixty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, then at Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He thus served .until May, 1865, when he. was commissioned Surgeon and almost immediately afterwards appointed Brigadier Surgeon by General George P. Buell. At the close of the war, he was mustered out at Camp Dennison, Ohio, July 25, 1865. While in front of Atlanta, on the twelfth of August, 1864, he was severely wounded in the head by a piece of shell, and yet suffers from the injury. He was present at all the engagements in which the Sixty-ninth Regiment participated after April 20, 1863, and did much good service in healing the pounds and allaying the, pains of those that rebel lead had injured. At the close of the war, Dr.. Stephenson returned to the private practice of his profession, locating in Bentonville, Adams County, where he remained until 1873. in that year he removed to Manchester, where he has resided ever since, engaged in the successful labors of his chosen profession. In politics the Doctor has always been a Jeffersonian Democrat, and when Cleveland becameo President, was appointed by him United States Examining Surgeon on the Board of Pension Examiners for Adams County, serving until 1889. He was again appointed to the position in 1893, during President Cleveland’s second administration. On November 7, 1899, he was elected Auditor of Adams County on the Democratic ticket, and now holds that responsible position. The Doctor was married October 27, 1867, to Miss Arcada Hopkins, daughter of William E. and Eliza (Brittingham) Hopkins. They had born to them William Prettyman, July 31, 1868; Mary, August 26, 1872 ; Robert Ellison, July 17, 1879, who was accidentally killed while duck hunting on Brush Creek Island, December 29, 1897; and Ralph, born May 16, 1884. The Doctor is a member of the Masonic and Knights of Pythias Lodges, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of George Collings Post,- Np. 432, G. A. R. He is a close student of his profession, an untiring worker; and his abilities, both natural and acquired, have placed him in the front rink among his professional brethren in Adams County. In stature; he is above the medium, strongly knit frame, inclined to corpulency, of vital-sanguine temperament, a rather strong face, and withal good personal appearance. He is sociable and courteous in his daily intercourse with his fellow men, and active and earnest in all matters pertaining to the advancement of the community in which he resides. William Jeptha Shelton was born in Brown County, Ohio, August 29, 1842. He is the son of William Shelton. At the age of three years, his father moved into Adams County. He was reared on his father's farm and attended the District school. On the sixteenth of October, 1861, he enlisted in Company F, 70th O. V. I. He was appointed Corporal, October 31, 1862, and Sergeant, April 3o, 1864, He re-enlisted as a veteran, and was mustered out of the service August 14, 1865. He was wounded in the left shoulder at the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862. He was first duty Sergeant after his appointment, and in the last year of the war often had command of the company. He was with Major William B. Brown when he was killed, August 864 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY 3, 1864, before Atlanta, Georgia. For a list of the battles in which he participated see the article on the 70th 0. V. I., in this work. He has always been a Republican. He cast his first vote, while in the service, for John Brough for Governor of Ohio. He connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1865. He was elected Recording Secretary of his Quarterly Conference, and has held that office ever since. He was elected Treasurer of Sprigg Township on the Republican ticket in 1895, and served two years. On October 28, 1865, he was married to Miss Lucinda Lawrence, daughter of Jacob G. Lawrence. He has four children. His eldest daughter, Mary, is at home. His second daughter, Edith, is the wife of Henry Scott. His third daughter, Bertha, is the wife of Charles Little. His son, William L., married a Miss Games, and is a farmer. Both his sons-in-law are farmers. Mr. Shelton is one of the best farmers in the county, stands well in the estimation of all who know him, and is a citizen of the highest standing. Lawrence M Spargur was born at Marshal, Highland County, Ohio, July 19, 1854, the son of Alfred and Catherine (Elliot) Spargur. His grandfather, Henry W. Spargur, was from North Carolina. He came to Ohio in 1833, locating near Spargur's Mills in Highland County. He married Susan Roberts. Alfred Spargur, their third son, is the father of our subject, He had a family of eight children, five sons and three daughters, of whom Lawrence W., above, is the eldest. He was reared on a farm and received a common school education. He labored on the farm and taught school until he was twenty-four years of age. Then he married Miss Ella E. Pulse. There were three children of this marriage, Jane C., Inez and Fred, Inez is deceased. The wife died October 16, 1889. From 1878 to 1889, he was engaged in farming. At the latter date, he sold his farm and located at Seaman, Ohio, when there were but nine dwellings in the place. At Seaman, he entered into partnership in the mercantile business with John I. Rhoads, and this continued until 1893, when he purchased Mr. Rhoad's interest and since has been conducting the business alone. On May 19, 1892, he was married to Miss Nettie Foster, daughter of Robert and Susan Grigg Foster, of Irvington, Since. July 1, 1897, he has been conducting the "Spargur House," hotel and livery stable in connection therewith. In February, 1898, he engaged in the saw-mill and lumber business in partnership with William Crissman under the name of Spargur & Crissman. He was elected a Justice of the Peace in Scott Township in 1898. In politics, he is a Republican. He is connected with the Methodist Episcopal Church at Seaman and is a steward and trustee. He is Superintendent of the Sunday School of the church. He is a man full of industry, energy and pluck. In everything for the good of the community, he is at the front. His traits of character are all the very best. He is a valuable man in the church, in business, and as a citizen, and moreover, every man who knows him, regards him just as we have stated. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 865 Charles S. Sparks was born in West Union, Ohio, June 10, 1868. His father was Salathiel Sparks, born November 20, 1829, and his mother was Clara Post, born June 6, 1849. His grandfather, George Sparks, was born in Virginia, May 16, 1794, and died at Wet Union, December 3o, 1839. His great,. grandfather, Salathiel Sparks, was born in 1756, and died at West Union, July 20, 1823. The latter located at West Union in 1804 and purchased from Robert Wood one hundred acres of land, now known as "Byrd's Addition to West Union." Salathiel Sparks had a Son John, the well known banker of West Union in its early days. This John, who has a sketch elsewhere, married Sarah Sinton, sister of David Sinton, of Cincinnati. Our subject was educated in the Public schools in West Union and graduated there in 1888. In the Summer of that year and of 1889, he attended Normal school at West Union. In the Summer of 1889, he began the study of law in the office of Captain David Thomas, and in the Winters of 1888 and 1889, attended the law school of Cincinnati and graduated on May 28, 1890. The next day he was admitted to practice law by the Supreme Court of Ohio. He located in Cincinnati for the practice of law, June 20, 1890. He has served as Acting Prosecutor in the Police Court and as Acting Judge of the same court. In politics, Mr. Sparks is a strong and active Republican. He has been a speaker in the State and National campaigns and has been a delegate to the State Convention of his party for five years in succession. He is a member of the Blaine Club of Cincinnati and of the Stamina League of the same city, and was at one time President of the Board of Directors in the latter. On November 21, 1896, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Barclay, of Brooklyn, New York. She was born December 17, 1879, in the city of Oldham, England. They have one child, a daughter, Dorothy Grace, born April 15, 1898. His wife's great-uncles were members of the House of Lords of the British Parliament. He is a man of high mental capacity, self-educated. He is studious, generous, and pronounced in his likes and dislikes. As a citizen, he is broadminded and liberal, ever regardful of the rights of others and prompt in the performance of all duties. As a lawyer, he is quick, persevering, bold, aggressive, and makes the interest of his clients his own. He is well read in the law, eloquent, and sometimes sarcastic. Without friends, influence or social advantages, he attempted to practice law in Cincinnati, and by his own personality has built up a good practice. Oliver Thoroman Sproull, M. D., of Bentonville, Ohio, was born January 5, 1863, near Dunkinsville, Ohio, on the farm now occupied by his parents, Robert C. and Sarah (Thoroman) Sprouli. William Sproull, great-grandfather of our subject, was a Scotchman by birth, but emigrated to County Tyrone, Ireland, from whence he embarked for America, August 1, 1793, on the Brig "Cunningham," sailing for North Carolina. The brig was twice overhauled on the voyage by 866 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY pirates sailing under the colors of French Men-of-War. The passengers lost all of their belongings except a few pieces of gold that Mrs. Sproull had-concealed in her hat. One of these "pirate" vessels proved to be an American privateersman from Baltimore, where the Sproulls and their confiscated goods were brought to instead of North Carolina, the destination of the "Cunningham." Mr. Sproull, being a Free Mason and finding friends in Baltimore, was enabled to recover that part of his property, consisting of Irish linen. They landed in Baltimore, October 3, 1793, and settled at Flliot's Mills, near Baltimore, where they remained a few years, and then moved to Wythe County, Virginia. Their family were Hazlet, who married Elizabeth Fergus, and after his death, she married Joseph Montgomery, Jr., brother of Robert's wife ; Robert, grandfather of our subject; Rosa, married William Russell ; Margaret, married a Hines ; Mary, married William Crissman. Robert Sproull, grandfather of our subject, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, March 17, 1777, and came to America with his parents. He married Anna Montgomery, daughter of Joseph Montgomery, Sr.. and Rachel (Ramsey) Montgomery, of Wythe County, Virginia. Rhoda Montgomery, daughter of Joseph Montgomery, Sr., married William Glasgow, and removed to George's Creek, Adams County, Ohio. Some time prior to 1822, the Sproull family came and settled in the same neighborhood in order to be near their relatives. Robert Sproull resided there until r826, when he removed to Brush Creek on the farm where Robert C. Sproull, his son, and father of our subject, still resides. Robert C. Sproull was born on George's Creek, in 1824. He married Sarah Thoroman and both are still living on the old Sproull farm near Dunkinsville, Ohio. Dr. Sproull, the subject of this sketch, was reared on the farm, receiving a common school education until the age of eighteen. He attended the Normal school of West Union, Ohio, and the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. He began teaching in 1881 and continued or three years. He began the study of medicine under Dr. Dan Ellison, of Dunkinsville, and attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, Maryland, graduating March 15, 1886. After practicing with Dr. Ellison, at Dunkinsville, until September of the same year, he located at Bentonville, Ohio, where he is still engaged in the practice of his profession. He was married August 22, 1888, to Agnes B., daughter of William and Melissa (Thoroman) Traber, of the Traber Tavern on Lick Fork. They have two children living, Clarence Traber, aged seven years, and Hazel, a babe. The Doctor is a Democrat in politics and wields considerable influence in local political affairs. He was elected Clerk of Sprigg Township 1896, and again elected in 1898. As a physician, he is rapidly rising in his profession, being an earnest student and tireless worker, while integrity and moral principles make him a valued citizen. Thomas S. Shelton was born July 25, 1840, on Eagle Creek, in Brown County, w Spencer Spears now resides. He is a son of William and B (Cochran) Shelton. His mother was a daughter of Gen. John Cochran, BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 867 whose sketch appears elsewhere. Thomas Shelton, his grandfather, was a native of Maryland, and when a young man, eloped with a neighbor girl, Sarah Kline, whom he married and brought to Charleston Bottom, Kentucky, where there was already a settlement of Maryland .people. The entire journey was made on horseback. After remaining in Kentucky a few years, they removed jut across the river into Ohio, in Adams County. William, their only son and father of our subject, was but five years of age at this time, and as he grew to manhood, he began to develop at once the successful business man he became. He engaged in flatboating on the Ohio River, and in this way getting a start in business and saved enough money to provide his parents a home, buying the Ben Sowers farm above Ripley, and afterward the Spears farm. on Eagle Creek, and in 1845, he purchased the farm in Sprigg Township, where our subject now resides. He died in 1888, at the age of seventy-three. The children of William and Betsy (Cochran) Shelton are Tamer, wife of Samuel Brookover, of Eureka, Kansas; Thomas J. our subject ; William J., of Bradyville, Ohio ; Sarah F., wife of George Dragoo, of Philipsay, Mo.; Margaret, wife of Samuel Evans, of Hiett, Ohio; Joseph W., of Catlin, Ill.; Lillie, wife of Charles Griffith, of Paola, Kansas, and Hettie, wife of Samuel Glaso, of Manchester, Ohio. Thomas J. Shelton, our subject, was reared on the farm and obtained a common school education. He married Mary S. Dragoo, daughter of Samuel Dragoo. Their children are Samuel, married to Fannie Gilbert; William; Cora, wife of Robert Roush ; Grace, wife of Asbury Mains ; Ernst, married Mary Lang; Thomas J., married Icy Gray ; Hanson P., married Mary Powers ; Amenda, married. Charles Lang ; Richard, Chase, Robert and Fay. The latter four are at home. Our subject, like his father, has been a successful business man. He is engaged extensively in farming and gives considerable attention to political and public affairs. He is a Republican and has served as Commissioner of Adams County for two terms, from 1885 to 1888, and from 1891 to 1894. He was a delegate to the Republican State Convention in 1892. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Manchester, and also a member of the Masonic order at the same place. Joseph Arnold Shriver belongs to an old German family which can be traced to 1688 at Altenbom, Germany. The family came to America prior to the Revolution; and David Shriver, an ancestor, before the opening of that war and for a period of thirty years, was a member of the Legislature. As such he rendered distinguished services in behalf of the patriots. Admiral Schley is identified with the family in the female line. Joseph Mitchell Shriver, father of our subject, was born June 18. 1816. His mother, Catherine Cuppel, daughter of Daniel Cuppel, was born April 3o, 185, at Decatur, Ohio. His grandfather, Petter Shriver, was born March 6. 1766, in Pennsylvania. His grandfather, Lading Shriver, was born October 14, 1709, at Altenbom, Germany. There have been many distinguished members of the family in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Our subject was born July 27, 1853, at Manchester, Ohio. He was educated in the common schools of Adams County until he was seventeen 868 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY years of age, when he began to learn the tinner's trade with his father. He followed that until 1898, when he sold out to Charles Prather. Since then he has been a dealer in real estate. On May 9, 1876, he married Miss Mary I. Vandeventer, of Versailles, Ills. He has one child, a daughter Minnie, wife of Granville Boyer, telegraph operator at Manchester. They have one child, Burnace Boyer, a son, aged fifteen months. If there is any one thing Mr. Shriver is noted for, it is for his devotion to the principles and success of the Republican party. For more than twenty years he has been one of the leaders of the county. He has been a Committeeman of his township for many years, and has often been County Committeeman. He has many times been delegate to the County and. District conventions of his party, and in these has. been conspicuous for his work. He conducted the campaign in his county when President McKinley was first elected Governor of Ohio, and his party was successful in the county. In 1896, he was Sergeant-at-arms of the National Republican Convention at St. Louis. On April 18, 1900, Mr. Shriver was nominated by the Republican Congressional Convention of the Tenth Congressional District for presidential elector. In business, Mr. Shriver was noted for his industry, honesty of purpose, and strict integrity. He is regarded as progressive and energetic. He has been President of the Manchester Stove Works and Treasurer of the Manchester Fair Association. He is well esteemed by his neighbors, and is regarded as reliable in all the undertakes. He has done as much for his party as any member of it in the county. Rev. M. D. A. Steen, D. D. Moses Duncan Alexander Steen, the fifth son of Aaron F. Steen, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere, was born at the homestead of his maternal grandfather, Michael Freeman, ten miles east of West Union, April 24, 1841, where he spent his childhood. In 1848, his parents moved to Mt. Leigh. He united with the Mt. Leigh Presbyterian Church, June 8, 1858. and that Fall became a student at the North Liberty Academy, with the ministry in view. He spent three yearS at the South Salem Academy under the late Rev. J. A. I. Lowes, D. D., and one year in Hanover College, Indiana. .He graduated at Miami University in 1866. In the Autumn of the same year, he took up the study of theology at the U. P. Seminary at Xenia, and remained one term. He continued the study of theology at the Seminary of the Northwest at Chicago, until April 8, 1868, when he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Chillicothe, and in the Summer preached at Mt. Sterling and Sharpsburg, Ky. In the Fall of 1868, he spent one term at the theological seminary at Princeton, N. J., and April I, 1869, was graduated from the Northwest Seminary at Chicago. Directly after his graduation, in 1869, he took charge of the Presbyterian Church at Worthington, Ohio, where he was married on June 22, 1870, to Mary Foster. On September 8, 187o, he was ordained by the Presbytery of New Albany, Indiana, having previously accepted a call to Vevay, Indiana. In 1872, he was called to Solon, near Cleveland ; thence to Conneatville and Waterford, Pennsylvania ; thence he BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 869 was called to Ludlow, Kentucky, where he remained seven years ; thence to Pleasant Ridge, Ohio. He was afterwards located at Troy and Edwardsville, Ill., Gunnison and Black Hawk, Col., and Snohomish, Washington. At Conneatville, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1873, his only child, Lulu Grace, was born, and she died July 3, 1876. On September 1, 1886, he located at Woodbridge, Cal., where he till remains as pastor. He made a tour of Europe in 1877 and has travelled in every State and Territory in the United States, in Canada and Mexico. His degree of Doctor of Divinity was given him by the San Joaquin Valley College, California, in 1888, and in 1889, Wooster University conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. Since 1893, he has been stated Clerk and Treasurer of the Presbytery of Stockton, a district as large as Ohio. He was a Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 188o, 1887 and 1894. In 1895, the General Assembly sent him as delegate to "The Council of the Reformed Churches throughout the world, holding to the Presbyterian system," which met in Glasgow, Scotland. June, 1896. He attended this with his wife and made a tour of British and Continental Furope. He is the author of the following works : "Scriptural Sanctification," "How to be Saved," "The Human Soul," and numerous magazine articles. His wife is a true helpmate in his sacred profession, cultivated, amiable, and devout. Since 1887, she has been the Presbyterian Secretary of the Woman's Occidental Board of Foreign Missions. Dr. Steen is a man of fine culture, deep scholarship, and unusual ability. His Christianity is profound. In many particulars, he has been like John Elliot or Jonathan Edwards, in that he has lavished upon his congregations, in remote places, an amount of learning that would shame many a metropolitan pulpit. He has a warmth of religious affection that would satisfy a Baxter. He cheers the sorrowing, and the poor are helped by his tender consolation. He has lived a noble and useful, life and holds the affection of all his people, men, women and children. He is true to all obligations. He believes in, and cultivates in himself and others, those virtues which make true Christian manhood and womanhood. His life is a true exemplification of his teachings. Lyman P. Stivers was born in Bentonville, Adams County, on July 25, 1839. His father was William Stivers, and his mother's maiden name was Mary Downey. She was born at East Liberty, Pennsylvania. Her father was a soldier in the War of 1812, and killed at Sandusky, Ohio. She was brought to Adams County, Ohio, when she was but two years old, in a flatboat on the Ohio River, in a party with the Rev. John Meek, the celebrated Methodist minister. The party landed at Manchester, Ohio, and Aaron Pence reared her. She made her home with him until she was married. She died in 1878 and her husband in 1884. Our subject received a common school education. He was married September 10, 1861, to Mary I. Fitch, daughter of the Hon. E. M. Fitch, of Brown County, who was a member of the Legislature from that county for four years. Mrs. Fitch was a daughter of Col. Mills Stephenson, of Brown County, Ohio. He was killed in the 870 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY War of 1812 at Fort Stephenson, which was named for him. Our subject is the father of five children, four daughters and one son. His daughter, Ida B. Stivers, born September 17, 1862, is the widow of Frank Gaffin. Cora B. Stivers, his second daughter, was born and died in 1868. Icie W. Stivers, his third daughter, born November 13, 1866, is the wife of E. W. Erdbrink, formerly of Baltimore, Md., now a resident of Manchester, Ohio. Our subject's son, Joseph Randolph Stivers, born July 23, 1874, who received his Christian names in honor of the late Col. Joseph Cockerill, graduated in the Manchester schools, and is now a traveling salesman. His daughter, Sallie B. Stivers, was born October 6, 1878. She is married to Samuel A. Walker, formerly of Point Pleasant, W. Va., but now foreman of the Ohio Valley Furniture Company at Manchester. Our subject was reared at Bentonville, Ohio. When quite young he engaged in the mercantile business at that place, where he remained till he waS elected Sheriff in 1871. He served as Sheriff one term after which he moved back to Bentonville, where he kept hotel till 1880. He then removed to Manchester, Ohio, and engaged as agent for buggies and farm implements. He has been the salesman for the S. P. Tucker Buggy Co., of Manchester, Ohio, for several years and is at present employed by the Piano Manufacturing Company of Pullman, Illinois. Elisha Pinkney Stout, Vice-President and Acting President of the Cincinnati Savings Society, located at Nos. 43 and 45 Fast Fifth Street, in the city of Cincinnati, was born in Greene Township, Adams County, April 5, 1834. His mother was a daughter of Jonathan Wait, and was horn on Blue Creek in same county, in 1811. His father, William Stout, was born on Stout's Run, in Greene Township. in 1806. He was the founder of the village of Rome and sold goods there until his death in 1859. He was the first Postmaster at Stout, the name of the postoffice of the village of Rome. Our subject received such education as the common schools afforded and in 1854 went West.. He went to Fort Riley, Kansas, but left there when the Border Ruffian troubles began. He went to Council Bluffs, Iowa, in October, 1854, and took part in locating and establishing the city of Omaha. In 1856, he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature of Nebraska, and took his seat therein January 3, 1857. One Winter's legislative experience was sufficient and in the Fall of 1858, like Jo, in "Bleak House," he "moved on" with six others to Pike's Peak, on the discovery of gold there, and with them laid out and started the city of Denver. In 1861, he returned to Ohio. From the organization of the 91 st O. V. I., he was Sutler of that regiment during service. In 1865, he entered into the manufacture of fine cut tobacco in Cincinnati, as one of the firm of Barber & Stout, and carried on an extensive business until 1882, when he retired from active business. In 1887, he became interested in the manufacture of linseed oil, but gave but little personal attention to the business. He still owns the plant located at Winton Junction. He was also interested in the manufacture of wooden-ware in Paulding County. Ohio, with offices in Cincinnati. The business was conducted under the name of J. P. Gay & Co. Mr. Stout estab- BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 871 fished a reputation in Cincinnati, and wherever his business relations extended, for integrity and ability. For this reason he was invited to become a Trustee of the Cincinnati Savings Society in 1892. For two years, though nominally its Vice-President, on account of the sickness and absence of the President, he has been its head and chief executive officer. No one could have been found to have managed it with greater ability and success. Mr. Stout has a high sense of honor and is strictly correct in all his dealings. He has great administrative and executive ability and has been successful in all his undertakings. He would succeed in any financial enterprise, because he would not undertake anywhere he could not command the conditions of success. He is a man of forceful character, and would lead in any vocation he might adopt. He has sound judgment, is discreet and prudent, and is unswerving in any course his judgment ap¬proves. He investigates any subject he considers, thoroughly, and when his mind is once made up to a course, he is fearless in its execution. He his no guide in politics or business, but his high sense of duty. When he has once determined on a course in any matter, no one can turn him from it, an,d this is true of him in every relation of life, in banking, in commercial business, or in politics. He was one of the Trustees who built the waterworks of Wyoming, and is a Director of the Electric Lighting Company, which lights Wyoming and several of the surrounding villages. Whenever anything was required to be done for the public, and he was called upon to do it, his services have been eminently successful and satisfactory to his constituents. He is respected and honored by all who know him. In November 22, 1859, he was married to Miss Margaret Kirk, daughter of A. D. Kirk, of North Liberty, Adams County; He has four daughters, Mrs. William S. Stearns, whose husband is one of the firm of Stearns, Foster & Co., cotton manufactures of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, another daughter, Mrs. E. F. Moore, whose husband is a cotton broker in New York City, but who resides in Hackensack, New Jersey. He has two daughters at home, Misses Edna and Florence. He lost his only son at the age of fourteen, some six years since. He resides in the most attractive home in Wyoming, a suburb of Cincinnati, having thirty acres of ground attached to it in which trees and flowers do their best to make it like the original Eden. In politics, Mr. Stout has always been a Republican, but has never hesitated to be independent when he thought a duty to the public required it. Fnjoying that high position in business life which his talents have commanded, with an interesting family, and surrounded by the most delightful social relations, it is the hearty wish of his friends that his health and life may be spared many years to enjoy these conditions. Judge I. N. Tolle, of West Union, was born on Elk Run, in what is now Winchester Township, April 2, 1839. His parents, Denton and Nancy Waldron Tolle, were well known residents of Adams County for many years. Stephen Tolle, the grandparent, was a Virginian by birth and was a pioneer of Adams County. He was a miller by trade and built one of the first mills on Elk Run. The Tolle family is of Welsh descent, and 872 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY displays down to the present generation the strong characteristics of that race. Judge Tolle was reared in Adams County, and lived from boyhood until about his fortieth year at Bentonville. Here he attended the Pubic schools and later became a pupil in the select school of Prof. Miller, an Eastern educator, who made Bentonville an educational center for several years. Prof. Burns, the author of Burns' English Grammar, was a teacher in this school. Samuel McKinley, a relative of the ancestors of President McKinley, was one of the eminent tutors of our subject. So that upon attaining his majority, Judge Tolle was equipped with a good common school education supplemented with a knowledge of the sciences, that. enabled him to take a position among the foremost educators of his portion of the State. He was engaged in his chosen profession from 1862 till his election as Probate Judge, in 1881, and during a good deal of that time he was a member of the Board of School Examiners of the county. On the twelfth day of June, 1862, he was united in marriage to Miss Esther A. Edgington, daughter of William L. and Mary A. Payne Edgington. Her grandparents were Virginians and came to Adams County in pioneer days. The grandfather, William Edgington, was a cousin of Asahel and John Edgington, whose biographies appear in this volume, and who were celebrated pioneers of Adams County. While engaged in the profession of teaching, Judge Tolle read law under the guidance of Hon. Thomas J. Mullen, an eminent lawyer of Adams County for many years. But after some experience in the courts, he took an aversion to the practice of law as observed by him, and laid aside his Chitty forever. The Judge has been a prominent factor in Adams County politics for over forty years, never having missed voting at but one election, April, 1863, when very sick, in all that time. He was elected Clerk of Sprigg Township in 1861 and re-elected in 1862. Refused the nomination in 1863, but in 1864 the Democratic party, of which he has always been an active member, took him up and elected him Clerk of the Township the two succeeding years. In 1871, he was appointed School Examiner by Judge Coryell, and he served continuously in that capacity until 1881, when he was elected on the Democratic ticket Probate Judge of Adams County. He was re-elected three times in succession to this office, so that he served in the office a term of twelve years. He was nominated for a fifth term and defeated by a plurality of twenty-nine votes. His defeat was caused mainly from the fact that being Chairman of the Democratic County Executive Committee the first year of President Cleveland's second term, the disappointed applicants for postmaster-ships put the blame on the Judge, while in reality Senator Brice controlled this patronage. The Judge has been a member of the West Union School Board, City Council, Trustee of Wilson Children's Home, County Board of Elections, and of the Democratic State Central Committee. He has always been feared from his safe counsel to his party, more than any Democrat of the county, by Republican politicians. He has but one child, Hallam V., who was his Deputy while Probate Judge, and who BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 873 made most of the records of the office except the journal, which records are not excelled in any Probate office of the State. Hallam married Mary Robuck, a daughter of Thomas Robuck, of West Union, and is now the business associate of his father. Judge Tolle is a member of West Union Lodge, No. 43, F. & A. M., and of Manchester Chapter, No. 129, R. A. M. Also, of West Union Lodge, No. 570, I. 0. 0. F., and of West Union Encampment, No. 219. He and his wife were members of the Disciples Church at Bentonville until it ceased to exist in 1880. Mrs. Tolle is now a consistent member of the Baptist Church, of West Union. Isaac Frederick Tharp was born on the David Stevenson farm in Monroe Township, Adams County, Ohio, on the twenty-fifth day of September, 1875, the son of Isaac Tharp. He showed a taste for learning and books at the age of five years, and acquired knowledge from them as rapidly as his circumstances and surroundings would permit. His mother died when he was eighteen years of age. He determined to qualify himself as a teacher,. and did so at a great sacrifice. He sold his laSt horse in 1898 to obtain money to attend a Normal school at West Union. In 1899, he obtained a certificate to teach in the Public schools in Adams County ; and was so favorably known in the district of his own home that he was employed to teach the Public school there. He began it in the Fall, and continued it until the ninth of January, 1900, when he was taken sick with what proved to be typhoid pneumonia. His disease baffled all medical skill, and he died on the seventeenth of January, 1900. On the day following, he was buried beside his mother in the Nesbit cemetery. He had subscribed for this work at the first opportunity, and looked forward with great pleasure to its forthcoming. He waS one of the eight subscribers to the work who were called away after ordering it and before its publication. He was a model young man in every respect, and it seems a great pity that he could not have been spared to complete what promised to be a most useful life. He left a precious memory to his friends and a bright example to the world. William Treber, of Dunkinsville, was born at the old Treber Tavern, on Lick Fork, in which he now resides, August 10, 1825. He is a son of Jacob Treber, whose father, John Treber, was a pioneer of Adams County, and opened the old tavern on Lick Pork in 1798. Jacob Treber married Jane Thoroman. The subject of this sketch was reared on a farm, and after reaching man's estate, married Miss Melissa Thoroman, daughter of Samuel Thoroman and Rachel Florea, January 10, 1856. His children are Anna; Agnes, married to Doctor 0. T. Sproull; Sallie, Lizzie, Clara, married to Cameron Tucker ; Jacob, who married Margaret Chapman ; Lucy, married to Ola Thoroman; Stella, married to Dr. Treber Crawford, and Lyman, who married Lulu Gaffin. Mr. Treber is one of the most prominent citizens of Adams County, and is honored and respected by all who know him. He is a 874 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY Democrat of the Jackson school and has often been honored by his party with official recognition. He served as a member of the Board of County Commissioners, and was on the Board of Trustees of Tiffin Township for fifteen years. His father was a soldier in the War of 1812, and his grandfather, was a soldier, in the Revolution from the State of New York. William T. Thoroman, of Wheat, was born on Wheat Ridge, February 15, 1844. He is a son of John Thoroman and his wife, Rosanna. Hamilton. He was brought up on his father's farm working in Summer and attending the District school in Winter in which he received a good common school education. He enlisted as a Private in Company G, 182d O. V. I., and was mustered into service at Cincinnati. September 28, 1864, and honorably discharged at Nashville, July 7, 1865. This regiment belonged to the Engineering Corps of the-Army of the Cumberland, and took part in the battle of Nashville, December 15-16, 1864. Returning to Adams County after the war, he married Miss Harriet C. Elliott, February 29, 1872, daughter of John Elliott, who married Mary Collier, a daughter of Colonel Daniel Collier, whose sketch appears elsewhere. The children of William T. Thoroman and wife are : Ola C., Lloyd A., and Laura B., deceased. Mr. Thoroman is a Republican and was Census Enumerator for Oliver Township in 1890. He is a member of the M. F. Church at Dunkinsville. The. Thoromans came originally from Delaware. There were two brothers. Thomas and Samuel, who married sisters. Thomas married Hester Crawford and Samuel her sister Anna, in the State of Pennsylvania. From there they came to Ohio. J. Wesley Thoroman, (deceased,) son of Oliver Thoroman, was born March 21, 1828, on the old homestead farm one mile north of Dunkinsville, Ohio. He was reared on the farm, and followed that occupation through life. He attained a good common school education, and was well qualified to fill any position in the ordinary affairs of life. March 3, 1853, he married Almira Mason, a daughter of Squire Samuel S. Mason, of Tiffin Township, Adams County. To this union there were born Lyman O., Theodore M., Sallie J., Wesley H., Anna, and I. J., the fourth son, now residing on the old home farm. The subject of this sketch was a man very highly esteemed in the community in which he lived. He was a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity in good standing at the time of his decease, November 28, 1890. In politics, he was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian type. Harvey James Thompson, pharmacist, of West Union, was born on Island Creek, Adams County, January 10, 1871. His father was John ThompSon, and his mother, Dorcas Jane Vance. He was educated in the common schools, Manchester High school and the Normal University, Lebannon, Ohio. He taught in the Public schools of Adams County from 1891 to 1893, and then took a course in pharmacy at Ada, Ohio, where he graduated in that science. February 19, 1895, he married Eva Prather, and they have BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 875 one interesting little daughter. Anna Thelma, as fruit of that union. Mr. Thompson is a successful business man and is respected in the community where he resides. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Improved Order of Red Men, and belongs to the uniformed rank of each of these orders. He was left an orphan at the age of nine years and by "Allergy and economy, under the watchful care of his mother, acquired a good education and has now a good business and a pleasant home. Dr. Titus Stevenson, of Cherry Fork, is recognized as one of the most accomplished physicians and surgeons of Adams County. He acquired a good English education including a course in the sciences, a thorough knowledge of which is so necessary to the successful practitioner. In his seventeenth year, he began the study of medicine under the tutorship of Dr. L. C. Laycock, then of Decatur, Ohio, and after a preparatory course, entered Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, for the term 1886-7. In 1887-8, he was a student in the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, from which he graduated with high honors in March, 1888. After graduation, fie opened an office in Youngsville, this county, and in October of that year married Miss. Mary F. Williams, daughter of W. P. Williams, a descendant of an old and respected family of Adams County. In 1890, Dr. Stevenson removed to Aberdeen, Ohio, where he had a large and lucrative practice till 1893, when at the solicitation of friends and old patrons who recognized his great ability and skill as a physician and surgeon, he was induced to return to Adams County, and located in the beautiful and thriving little village of Cherry Fork. Here he enjoys not only a lucrative practice, but the esteem and friendship of all who come in contact with him. Dr. Stevenson comes of good old Scotch ancestry, his paternal great-grandfather, Col. Mills W. Stephenson, being a direct descendant of one of the four "Stinson" or Stevenson brothers, who came to America from Scotland in the Seventeenth Century. His maternal grandmother was a descendant of Governor General Joseph Waters, of the Wet Indies, under British rule. Col. Mills W. Stevenson cleared and improved the farm now known as the W. A. Montgomery farm in Liberty township, Adams County. Dr. Stevenson is a son of John M. Stevenson, of Decatur, Ohio, who married Mary Jane Geeslin, daughter of Acklass Geeslin, of Brown County. The Doctor is a member of the Improved Order of Red Men, and of North Liberty Lodge, No. 613, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In politics, he is a believer in the teachings of Jefferson, Jackson and Bryan. The family of Dr. Stevenson consists of Miss L. Grace, Augustus D., Guy A., and L. Preston. The Doctor and his family are connected with the M. F. Church, he having been reared in that faith. John Shumaker, of West Union, Ohio, was born in Harrisburgh, Pa., September 22, 1837. His father was Jos. H. Shumaker and mother, Susan Shumaker, whose maiden name was Susan Walton. He emigrated to Fairfield 876 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY County, Ohio, with his father's family at the age of eight years, where he attended the common schools, and at the age of seventeen was granted a one year certificate by the Board of School Examiners of Fairfield County, Ohio. At about this time he, with his parents, moved and settled on a farm in Morrow County, Ohio, where his time was occupied on his father's farm during the Summer and teaching during the Winter months. At the breaking out of the Civil War, he enlisted July, 1862, in the 45th O. V. I., but was not mustered into the service on account of being disabled by sickness. On July 2o, 1864, he re-enlisted in the 178th O. V. I., and served as First Sergeant of Company K, until the regiment was mustered out at Charlotte, N. C., July 1, 1865. He then returned to his father's farm and was engaged in farming, teaching, and clerking. He was connected with the Adams Express Company from 1877 to 1880, as Express Messenger between Pittsburgh and Chicago, on the P., F. W. & C. R. R. From 1881 to 1883, he vas engaged in teaching in Scott County, Ills. He returned to Ohio and was engaged in various occupations until May, 1893, when he settled in Wet Union and conducted a restaurant. in the Mullen Building. September 21, 1893, he married Miss Cedora F. Caraway, of Adams County. At the November election, 1894, he was elected a Justice of the Peace of Tiffin Township. At the April election, 1896, he was elected Mayor of the incorporated village of West Union. April, 1897, he was reelected as Justice of the Peace, and in April, 1898, was re-elected Mayor, which offices he now holds. William Jacob Shuster William Jacob Shuster is the son of Frederick and Jacobina Shuster. His mother's maiden name was Jacobina Kohler. They came from Germany in the year 1831. William Jacob Shuster was born May 5, 1856, and married Anna Mahaffey, March 9, 1881. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a Republican. He was elected Assessor of Liberty Township three time, and is at present Superintendent of the Adams County Infirmary. John Sparhs, liveryman, of Piketon, Pike County, Ohio, was born August 12, 1870, the son of Salathiel and Clara Sparks, in West Union, Ohio, and resided there until May 4, 1894, when he removed to Peebles, where he resided and was engaged in the livery business until 1899, when he removed to Piketon, where he conducts a first-class livery. Mr. Sparks was married December 3, 1896, to Elsie Williamson, and they have one child, Salathiel, born February 4, 1898. He is a member of the Order of Red Men, of Peebles, Ohio, and is also a member of the Volunteer Fire Company at Piketon. Mr. Sparks is a Republican, and as such is a leader in local politics. Charles Luther Swain was born August 19. 1866, in Fincastle, Brown County, Ohio. father was Samuel L. Swain, now a resident of West Union. His moth was Agnes N. C. Heberling. He attended the District schools of BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 877 home until he was thirteen years of age, when his father moved to West Union. There he attended the Public schools three years. Then he attended the Normal University at Ada, Ohio, from 1883 to 1886. He begun his career as a teacher of Public schools in 1886, when he taught a Summer school at Harshaville, and in the Fall he taught one term at Island Creek and two terms in the Ellison district in Monroe Township. ,in J889 and 189o, he taught in the Whippoorwill district, east of West Union. From 1890 to 1892, he had charge of the schools at Peebles. ale taught a Summer school at Locust Grove in 1891. He was a County ,School Examiner from 1889 to 1893, when he resigned. He was President of the Teachers' Institute of Adams County from 1890 to 1892, and in that period there was a larger attendance than ever before or since. Mr. Swain distinguished himself and made quite a reputation as an educator in Adams County from 1886 to 1892. He became a law student in 1890 under George W. Pettit, of West Union. In the Fall of 1892, he entered the Cincinnati Law School and attended there that Fall and Winter. On March 30, 1893, he was admitted to the bar. He began practice in West Union and remained there eighteen months. He located in Cincinnati as a practicing lawyer on September 4, 1894, and as been there ever since. His office is No. 57 Atlas Bank Building. In 1897, he was elected a member of the Lower House of the Ohio Legislature. In 1898, he was nominated by the Democrats as their candidate for Congress in the Second District of Ohio and defeated by Jacob B. Bromwell, the Republican candidate, by five thousand majority, the normal Republican majority being twice that number. He was married August 23, 1894, to Miss Anna N. Burkett, of Hartwell, Ohio. He is a member of the Fifth Presbyterian Church. A gentleman who has been acquainted with Mr. Swain for a number of years says that he is remarkable for his sound judgment of men and affairs. He is honest, energetic, enterprising and useful ; he was an excellent teacher. He is quite a reader, a fair talker, and always ready to make a speech. He has a good opinion of himself and one of those men who seem to be destined to gain great distinction. He keeps himself well informed on the current events of the day. He is always a very pleasant and agreeable companion. He has been re-elected to a second term in the Legislature from Hamilton County. Dr. John Alexander Steen, the subject of this sketch, was born at Mt. Leigh, Ohio, March 26, 1841. He was the second child of Alexander B. Steen and Nancy J. Steen, whose maiden name was Nancy J. McClure. She was born in Hillsboro. Highland County. Ohio, October 6, 1820. Alexander B. Steen was born at Flemingsburg, Kentucky, May 5, 1813. Our subject was reared on his father's farm on Brush Creek, Adams County, Ohio, working in the Summer time and attending school in the Winter, where he obtained a common school education. August 11, 1862, he enlisted in the 91st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company I, and served until June 24, 1865. At the battle of Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 1864, he was severely wounded through the throat and arm, after which he was transferred to the hospital at Phil- 878 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY adelphia, where he remained for ten months. He subsequently returned to the field at Winchester to look after the remains of his brother, James F. Steen, and his uncle, Ira T. Hayes, who were killed in action September 19, 1864. He identified their remains and saw their honored bodies laid to rest in the Winchester Cemetery having helped to dig their graves himself. At the close of the war, he was mustered out with his regiment at Cumberland, Maryland, and returned to Camp Dennison, Ohio, where they were paid off. On return to peaceful pursuits, he attended school in the Fall and Winter of 1865 in his home district; and in the following Spring entered the dental office of Dr. J. N. McClung, at Cincinnati, Ohio, who afterwards moved to North Liberty, Ohio, and with whom he studied eighteen months. He formed a partnership with his preceptor which was maintained for some time. In the Fall of 1868, he removed to Manchester, Adams County, Ohio, where he opened an office for the practice of his profession. In the Winter of 1869, Dr. McClung giving up the practice of dentistry, he removed back to North Liberty and resumed his former practice. On December 30, 1869, he was married at Eckmansville, Adams County, to Miss Jane M. Reighley, a native of Lockes Mills, Mifflin County, Pa., and a daughter of Henry and Nancy Reighley, whose family settled in Adams County. Of this union there were four children, Minnie M., the wife of Mr. Howard C. Green, residing at No. 6745 Emerald Avenue, Englewood, Illinois; Lulu F., the wife of Mr. Espy Higgins, residing at No. 3391 Hayward Place, Denver, Colorado ; and Harry W. and Merta, who are still at home. Harry W. studied dentistry with his father and attended dental college at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, at Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating there in 1900. In 1875, our subject removed to Ripley, Brown County, Ohio, where he still resides and enjoys a lucrative practice in his profession. His wife died January 13, 1894, and is buried in Maplewood cemetery at Ripley, Ohio. On March 17, 1896, he was married to Miss Sadie J. Lawwill. Of this union there is one child, John A., Junior. Dr. Steen has served on the Board of Education at Ripley, Ohio. His political views are Republican, and his first vote was for U. S. Grant for President for his first term. His religious views are Presbyterian, and he joined that denomination when a boy. He has served as elder of the church. He is a member of the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Grand Army of the Republic. He is one of the substantial citizens of Ripley, well known and highly respected for his sterling virtues. Sidney R. Stroman was born in the County of Beaver, Pennsylvania, March 27, 1844. The place of his birth is now in Lawrence County, near New Castle. His father, Henry Stroman, was born in Philadelphia, in 1804. His mother's maiden name was Staple. born in Allentown, Lehigh County, Pa., in 1805. His grandfather, John Stroman, was born in Switzerland. His wife, whose maiden name was Snider, was also from Switzerland. On coming to this country, they located in the city of Philadelphia. Henry BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 879 Stroman had four sons and four daughters, all of them living at the writing of this sketch. The eldest is Sarah, now the widow of John Teets, of Douglass County, Kansas; the second daughter is Elizabeth, wife of Philip Teets, of Hebron, Indiana; the third daughter is Mary, wife of David Foreman, of West Union; the fourth daughter is Caroline, widow of Wilson S. Burbage, of West Union. The eldest son is Levi B. Stroman; Joseph A., the second son, Henry C., the third, and the fourth is our subject, all of West Union. Sidney R. Stroman attended school in Butler County, Pennsylvania, until 1856, when his father removed to Venango County, where his father followed his trade, that of a carpenter. In March, 1861, the entire family, excepting Henry C., located in Adams County. The father bought the farm where his widowed daughter, Mrs. Burbage, resides, and remained there until his death in 1886. Sidney R. worked on his father's farm one year. On August 9, 1862, at the age of 'eighteen, he enlisted in Company F, 91st 0. V. I., for the period of three years and served till June 24, 1865. Jr. this same company were his brother, Joseph A., and his brother-in-law, Wilson S. Burbage. He was wounded June 17, 1864, at the battle of Lynchburg, Virginia, in the left groin and thigh, and was laid up a month and three days. With the exception of this period, he was never disabled from duty a single day. Be was in every skirmish, or battle, in which his regiment participated, and was always in the front rank if he could get there. He never missed his rations, or a fight, except while disabled by a wound. Soon after his return from the war in February, 1866, he returned to Venango County, Pennsylvania, and engaged in work as a carpenter. He returned to Adams County in September, 1868, to be married to Miss Elizabeth McColm. They were married September 8, 1868, and he took his bride to Venango County, Pennsylvania. He remained in Pennsylvania till 1874, when he returned to Adams County and purchased one hundred acres of land, part of his present farm. He began north of West Union in the poorest part of Adams County, with a stout heart, good health, an abundance of energy and determination to succeed. By hard work, economy, prudent and careful management, he has now a body of land of three hundred and fifty-two acres, all paid for, has good buildings and barns, has all the implements and tools he needs and has his farm well stocked. His buildings are all in good order and well kept ; his fences are all well built and kept in perfect repair ; no weeds or briars ere allowed to grow, and his entire farm has an appearance of neatness and care. He always has good crops and he knows how to produce them. His hay and corn are just a shade better than the average, and he knows it and is proud of it. The writer knew his farm long before Mr. Stroman purchased it and has seen it just before writing this sketch. The change is but little short of a miracle. The desert of forty years ago has been changed into fertile fields, pleasing to the eye. Most men would starve to death where our subject has prospered. What Aladdin could do with his lamp is not a circumstance to what Sid Stroman has done for the land he purchased. Beginning with nothing, he has a fine, large farm, highly improved, completely stocked, with everything on it in perfect order and repair; with all the horses, cattle and hogs he could 880 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY wish, all well cared for, and money beside. But in addition to this, Sidney R. Stroman has done something more creditable, he has reared six children to be honest and honorable men and women and to occupy important stations in life. His eldest daughter, Mary A., is the wife of M. D. Shoemaker, Principal of the schools of North Liberty ; his second daughter, Flora B., is the wife of F. L. Haggerty, a farmer near Eckmansville ; his third daughter, Anna M., is the wife of Brice McClellan, a farmer residing near Cherry Fork; his son, Wilson C., has charge of the farm of his aunt, Mrs. Burbage ; Charles D., aged twenty years, and his youngest daughter, Nettie F., reside at home. In politics, Mr. Stroman has always been a Republican. In his religious faith and profession, he is a Presbyterian. It is just such men as Mr. Stroman that makes our country great and powerful. When the call to arms came, he went cheerfully and quickly, just as he would have performed the most usual duty. He gave three of the best years of his life to his country and has the spirit to do it again on a moment's notice. When he returned to Adams County, he determined to succeed in farming in the least attractive part of the county. In twenty-six years, he has made his home and his lands a delight to look upon. He has been a public benefactor. The lesson of his life and career has been a most excellent one. He has, of course, had more than ordinary good, common, hard sense, and has had a talent for accumulation: He is a model farmer. He has natural business ability superior to the average ; he has energy and thrift. Our national wealth counts not in dollars and cents, but in just such citizens as Sidney R. Stroman. When we find one like him who has made a success in life, it is, a pleasure to recount the fact and hand him down to posterity with all that immortality a work like this can give him. Histories seldom record failures. It is best we should forget them and remember only those whose activities entitle them to remembrance. Historians have many unpleasant tasks, but of their pleasures, one is the contemplation of a character like our subject and the recording of his life and career. Joseph Arnold Stroman was born in Butler County, Pennsylvania, December 9, 1836. His father and mother are mentioned in the Sketch of Sidney A. Stroman herein and reference to that sketch is hereby made for any information as to them and his remote ancestors. His father removed to Venango County, Pennsylvania, in 1851, and to Adams County in March 1861. As a boy, Joseph A. Stroman was educated in the essentials of reading, writing and arithmetic, but was taught hard work. As a youth, in Summer he worked on his father's farm and in the Winters he drove team from Franklin to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In the Spring of the year he would be engaged in rafting timber on the Allegheny River. Before he came to Adams County, he learned the carpenter trade. On coming to Adams County, he determined to take up the life of a farmer. He worked on his father's farm from that time until the war broke out. He purchased sixty-six acres of land of his brother, Levi Stroman. In 1888, he purchased seventy-two acres of William Greenley north of West Union. He purchased seventy-five acres of Samuel BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 881 Wright in 1875. He purchased twenty-two acres more, in 1897, of William R. Mehaffey. He bought one hundred and ten acres in 1899, known as the James Demint farm. He had but just got to Adams County, when the call to arms came. He did not respond at first, but in the Summer of 1862, when the war had became a serious business and the real condition of the country was understood, he enlisted in Company E, 91st 0. V. I. He went from a sense of duty and from purely patriotic motives. He served as a Private until February 25, 1863, when he was made a Corporal. He was wounded September 19, 1864, in the head, by a piece of shell, at the battle of Opecquan, Va., and was sent to the Brick Hospital at Winchester, Va. This wound has disabled him up to the present time He was mustered out June 25, 1865. The Government had value received in all the service it had from our subject. He served his country with his soul and spirit. He also gave it his bodily strength. Except for the time disabled by his wound, he never missed a ration or a duty. He was with his company all the time, on every march, in every skirmish, and in every battle. He was earnest in every duty as a soldier and when he had laid his arms aside for the quiet walks of peace, he took up life as earnestly as he had begun it before his military service. He has studied economy, frugality and the acquisition of property to a good advantage. Now he is the owner of 330 acres of well improved land in Adams County, all in one body. He was married September 28, 1873, to Miss Sarah McDaniel, daughter of Hiram and Caroline McDaniel, of Brown County, Ohio. His land is all well cultivated and farmed, with suitable buildings, is well stocked with animals and improvements, and it shows that it has been handled so as to produce the best results. His farm is as clean and neat as a well kept garden and is a delight to look upon. It is a pleasure to drive along the road and look at it as it declares that its owner is active and energetic and keeping everything in order. He owes no man anything but good wire Joseph A. Stroman believes that every duty is sacred and should be well done. He believes in continuance in well doing. He became a member of the Oak Grove Christian Church, February 28, 1869, and has continued in its faith and practice ever since. In October, 1898. he attended the Quadrennial Convention of that church at New Market in the District of Ontario as a lay delegate. Rev. John William Spring, of Ridgeway, Hardin County, Ohio, was born August 13, 1842, near Hamilton, in Butler County, Ohio. His father was Charles R. Spring, born in Pennsylvania. His mother, Nancy P., was born in Ohio. They had four sons and two daughters. Our subject was the eldest. When he was about three years of age, his parents moved to Brown County, Ohio, where they resided for five years. When he was eight years of age, his parents moved on a farm near West Union. At the age of ten, he went to work for himself on a carding machine in West Union. He worked there in Summers far nine years, and attended the District schools for a few months each Winter. 882 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   On the Fourth of July, 1861, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted in Company I, 39th O. V. I., as a Private. This was the celebrated Gros- beck Regiment. He was made a Corporal soon after his enlistment, and made a Sergeant November 16, 1861. He was in all the battles in which his regiment participated ; and for further information on that point, reference is had to the article on "Adams County in the Civil War," in this work. It is sufficient to say here that no Ohio regiment saw more active service or participated in. more engagements than the 39th O. V. I. In February, 1864, he re-enlisted and obtained his veteran furlough. At this time, he married Miss Carmillie Kendall. He returned to the war, and on March 8, 1865, was discharged to accept the captaincy of Company D, 191st O. V. I. For this position he was recommended by his Colonel, Edward F. Noyes, afterwards brevetted Brigadier General. This is what Colonel Noyes said of him in recommending him to the Adjutant General of Ohio:   "January 24, 1865.   "Sergeant Spring has been three years and a half in the service, and is one of the bet soldiers in the regiment. He is competent for almost any position in the regiment, and is a, man of spotless character. It was my intention to have him promoted in my command had I remained on the field. I most earnestly and heartily endorse him."   For this position he was also recommended by Edward P. Evans, then Chairman of the Military Committee of Adams County. Here is what Mr. Evans said for the Committee:   "January 28, 1865.   "We concur in the recommendation of Col. Noyes as to his services and capacity. "F. P. Evans, Chairman. "J. N. Hook, Secy."   As Captain of the 191St O. V. I., our subject was Provost Marshal at Winchester, Virginia, in May, June, and July, 1865. He served until August 27, 1865, when he was discharged. The Government never had airy more faithful soldier or officer than he, nor did it ever have any from whom it obtained more service, nor did it have a more patriotic soul in its grand army. John W. Spring served his country on his conscience. He gave it all he had to give, and gave it with all his soul. In the four years, one month, and twenty-three days he was in the service, the Government never lost a day's service from him.   In September, 1865, he became a minister of the Methodist Protestant Church, and has been engaged in that work ever since. From the army of his country he was transferred to the army of the Lord, and has been a faithful soldier all his life. He has been President of his Conference, and has been stationed at Cincinnati, Bainbridge, West Middleburg, Springfield, Sabina, Manchester. Waynesfield, Dayton, Middletown, Richmond, Forest, and Ridgeway. He Served as a missionary in Kansas from September, 1883, to August, 189o. His wife died June 25, 1883 ; and while in Kansas, on June 1, 1893, he was married to Mrs. Harriet Moore, and returned to Ohio. He has one son, Charles Alva Spring.   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 883   James Richard Tillotson   was born November 26, 1877. at Dunbarton, Adams County. His father is John W. Tillotson, and his mother, Lucinda D. Jobe. He attended the District school in Dunbarton. He began teaching at the age of sixteen, and attended the Normal school at Peebles in 1893, conducted by Prof. J. E. Collins, now of Batavia, Ohio, and James S. Thomas of Portsmouth, Ohio. In 1894, he attended Normal school at Manchester, conducted by Prof. J. W. Jones. In the Summer of 1895 and 1896, he attended the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and took a scientific course. His first year of teaching, 1894 and 1895, was at Colon, in Meigs Township. His second school, 1895 and 1896, was at Steam Furnace. In 1896 and 1897, he taught at Sugar Grove, in Washington Township, Scioto County. In 1897 and 1898, he taught at Hygiene in the same township. In 1898 and 1899, he taught at Lower Carey's Run, and at the time of writing this sketch, he is engaged in teaching at the same place. He holds a three years' certificate in Scioto County and a five years' certificate in Adams County..   He has been very successful as a teacher and has always given the most perfect satisfaction to the school boards and patrons of the several schools where he has taught. In politics, he is a Democrat. He has but few canals of his age in scholarship. He is true to every trust confided in him, and thorough in every duty or work he assumes.   He has those elements of character which will secure him success in any profession or business he may undertake.   Samuel B. Truitt   was born in Sprigg Township, Adams County, Ohio, February 21, 1839, a son of Henry P. and Caroline (Bloomhuff) Truitt.   In 1760, three brothers of the name of Truitt emigrated from Fngland to America. Benjamin, the youngest of these and great-grandfather of our subject, located on the eastern shore of Maryland, where he married Margaret Kellum and settled on a farm near Snow Hill, in Worcester County. They were parents of four sons : Benjamin, Samuel, John K., and William. The latter was born in 1778. He married Elizabeth Gootee, of Accomack County, Virginia, on March 17, 1817, and was the grandfather of our subject.   William Truitt, with five other families, left their native State to seek a new home in the West and arrived at Manchester, April 24, 1817. They settled near Clayton, in Sprigg Township, where he lived until his death in 1847. They reared a family of five children, viz., James, Henry P., the father of our subject, Margaret, Mary and Elizabeth. Henry P. Truitt, the father of Samuel B. Truitt, was born November 6, 18o9. He was married to Caroline Bloomhuff, daughter of Abraham Bloomhuff and sister of Rey. John P. Bloomhuff, January 24, 1832. She was born October 26, 1808. Henry P. Truitt died October 18, 1847, and was buried in the Ebenezer cemetery in Brown County, Ohio. Caroline, his wife, died November 9, 1878, and was buried in the Odd Fellows cemetery at New Haven, Ind.   Their children were Eliza Jane, who married George W. Taylor ; Sarah P., who married Samuel Starrett ; John W., Samuel B., subject   884 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   of this sketch: James H., deceased ; Thomas S., and Maria B., deceased, who married Harvey Stoneman.   Samuel B. Truitt was three years of age when his parents removed to Bradyville. At the age of eight, he went to Forth Wayne, Indiana, and lived on the farm of his uncle, Sidney C. Bloomhuff, for six years. He then returned to his native county and worked on the farm till his marriage. Mr. Truitt enlisted in Company F, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, September 8, 1862, and was made Commissary Sergeant of the company. He was promoted to Regimental Commissary Sergeant, May 18, 1865, and mustered out on July 4, 1865: He was with the regiment in all its battles and campaigns. For further information as to his service in Company F, of the Seventh Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, reference is had to the sketch of that company. On returning from the army, he bought a farm in Sprigg Township, on which he lived from 1867 to 1883. He was known as a model farmer and handled fine stock on a large scale.   In 1888, he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the office of Commissioner of Adams County in which he served one term with much honor to himself and credit to his constituents. He was one of the Trustees of Brittingham Camp Meeting, which was conducted for several years. He was married December 16, 1858, to Miss Mary Starrett, a daughter of John and Emily (Hudson) Starrett. Mr. and Mrs. Truitt have been members of the Methodist Fpiscopal Church since their marriage. He has been trustee and steward in the Manchester Church for many years.   He is a member of Manchester Lodge, No. 254, Knights of Pythias, and also a member of the Hawkeye Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Adams County Agricultural Association, and one of the most 'prominent Democrats of the county. He removed to Manchester in 1883, and in 1895 engaged in the grocery business in partnership with I. T. Foster. He is now engaged in the buggy and carriage trade.   Major Truitt is well known and universally respected throughout Adams County, where most of his life has been spent and where he ranks as one of her foremost citizens. By industry and good judgment he has acquired plenty of this world's goods for comfort and he and his good wife contribute liberally of their influence and means to the cause of Christianity and, humanity.   James Sheridan Thomas   was born in Meigs Township, Adams County, one of the youngest sons of George A. Thomas and Sarah J. Wittenmeyer, his wife. He has a twin brother, Prof. Stephen S. Thomas, of Bloomfield, Mo. He attended school in the district of his home and labored on his father's farm until he was seventeen years of age, when he attended North Liberty Academy for one year. In 1889 and 189o, he attended the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, where he graduated in the Scientific course in 189o. From the Fall of 1890 until Spring of 1892, he taught school at Otway, Ohio. From the Fall of 1892 until the Spring of 1894, he had charge of the schools at Sciotoville. In 1893, he taught a Summer   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 835   school at Wheelersburg. He began the study of the law with the Hon. Ulric Sloane at Winchester in the Summer of 1892, and kept it up until the Fall of 1894, when he entered the Cincinnati Law School, and attended that during the Fall, Winter and Spring of 1894 and 1895. He stood fifth in a class of one hundred and fifteen in his studies. He was admitted to the bar, May 31, 1895, on his twenty-fifth birthday. On July I, 1895, he began the practice of law in the city of Portsmouth, where he has since resided. In politics, he is and always has been a Democrat, and has taken an active interest in his party. In 1895, he was the candidate of his party for State Senator in the Seventh Senatorial District, but was defeated by Elias Crandall, the Republican candidate. He canvassed the district in the interest of his party.   In the Spring of 1899, there was a special election to vote on the adoption of a new charter for the city of Portsmouth. This occurred about three weeks before the regular municipal election. He took strong grounds against the charter, and spoke against it in public meetings. The charter was defeated and its defeat resulted in his election to the office of City Solicitor in the strong Republican city of Portsmouth, where a Democratic City Solicitor had not been elected since 1875. He defeated one of the very best young Republicans of the city—Harry W. Miller, who was a candidate for re-election.   As a lawyer, Mr. Thomas is very active and industrious. He is careful and painstaking, and bids fair to make his mark high up in his profession.   George Andrew Thomas   was born, November 25, 1832, at Jacksonville, Ohio. He is the son of William and Margaret Mitchell Thomas. His grandfather, William Thomas, was a native of Pennsylvania. His wife was a Miss Randolph. He settled in Adams County in 1797. He located land where Jacksonville now stands and laid out the town. He was a great admirer of General Jackson and named the town for him. He afterward entertained General Jackson over one Sunday on his way to Washington. When the public highway was laid out on Todd's Trace, he assisted in opening and clearing that part of it between Brush Creek and Locust Grove. The stage route established on this road, about 1820, was continued until 1842. William Thomas, Senior, removed to Marion County, Ohio, where he died. His children were Isaac, Phillip, Samuel, who died of the cholera in 1849, William. George W., and John. The children of William Thomas, father of our subject, were John, George A., Susan, who married William Green ; Mary, married to N. McKinney ; Nancy, died +n womanhood ; Margaret, married John McMillen ; Samuel married Sarah McCoy, and Josephine. William, father of our subject, was born February, 1803, at Jacksonville, Ohio, and died there in 1894.   George A., our subject, married Sarah Jane Wittenmeyer, March 27, 1863, the daughter of Isaac and Fliza (Thoroman) Wittenmeyer. Their children are Isaac W., married to Levica C. Thoroman ; George F., a physician at Peebles, married to Agnes Reynolds ; John R., married to Fllen Mathias ; Daniel B., a farmer residing on the home farm, and married to Ida Jackman ; Perry Odle, residing in California, who was a soldier in the Philippines in the late Spanish War, and who married Lucy   886 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   Hildebrand; Stephen S., a teacher at Bloomfield, Mo., married to Christina Chloe ; Tilla B., residing at home, and James S., a lawyer in Portsmouth, Ohio.   George A. Thomas enlisted in Company 1, 182d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, on September 28, 1864, and served until July 7, 1865. He took part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee.   Mr. Thomas is a successful farmer. He owns four hundred acres of land at Old Steam Furnace. He is noted for his sterling honesty and integrity. He has reared seven sons, all of whom are active factors in the world and doing well for themselves. They are all men of the highest integrity. a Mr. Thomas has always adhered to the Democratic party and has taken quite an interest in political affairs, though he has never held office. He has acquired a competence, and as the burden of years are falling on him, he is taking things easy. He is a thorough patriot, and during the war did all he could for his country, both at home and at the front. He is a member of Frazer Post, G. A. R., near his home, and a charter member of the Lodge of Odd Fellows at Jacksonville. He is a useful and valuable citizen. He has been able to hold his own all his life, and has beside accumulated considerable property. He has always aimed to do the best he could for himself and those dependent on him, at all times, and has succeeded far better than most men in the race of life. He has been ambitious for his sons. He educated them to the best of his ability and is proud of their careers. The writer, who has known him all his life, believes that George A. Thomas has accomplished much more than the average citizen and that he is a credit and honor to his community. If all our people were as patriotic and. as faithful to their duties as he has been and is, we would have a republic, the model for the whole earth.   John Wesley Thomas, M. D.,   fifth son of James B. and Esther A. Thomas, was born near Winchester, Ohio, September 16, 1850. He was educated in the common schools of Adams County, and in 1871 he entered upon the profession of teaching in the Public schools.   After having been engaged in that business for several years, he began the study of medicine, with his brother, Dr. P. M. Thomas. In 1878, he attended his first course of lectures in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, Iowa. His second course of lectures was taken in the Kentucky School of Medicine, at Louisville, Ky., graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1879.   In March, 1880, he emigrated to the State of Kansas, locating at Clayton, Norton County, where he at once began the practice of medicine. He was a member of the Board of Pension Examining Surgeons of his county from 1888 to 1892. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity,   is a member of the I. O. O. P., and of the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics, he is a Republican, but has never been a candidate for any political office.   In May, 1895, the Doctor was married to Miss Roberta Butler, daughter of Amon and Phoebe E. Butler. Their children are Irene Eleanor, Francis Marion and James Baldwin. In 1897, he removed to   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 887   Lyle, Kansas, his present location, where he has a large and lucrative practice.   Dr. Thomas is a man who is widely and well known in his profession and one who lends lustre to it. He is a thorough physician, a skillful surgeon, and a superior business man. He is modet and unassuming in his demeanor, has a large and lucrative practice and occupies an enviable position, both professionally and socially, being a gentleman of rare personal qualities and of thorough general culture. He is inflexible, though not dogmatic in his opinions, generous and warmhearted, liberal, the very personification of integrity, and he enjoys, to a marked degree, the respect and confidence of a large circle of acquaintances.   Francis Marion Thomas, M. D.,   is a native of Adams County, born near Winchester July 9, 1838, a son of James Baldwin Thomas and Esther Thomas, his wife, and grandson of Abraham and Margaret Barker Thomas, who emigrated from Buckingham County, Virginia, about the close of the eighteenth century. He traces his ancestry to Reese Thomas, born in Pembroke, in the principality of Wales, June 6, 1690, and whose family Bible, printed in the Welsh language in 1717, is now in his possession.   He was educated in the common schools of Adams County at the Ohio Valley Academy, Decatur, and the North Liberty Academy, Cherry Pork. In 1859, he began the career of a teacher in the Public schools and continued this until 1862, when he enlisted in Company B, of the both 0. V. I. That regiment was captured at Harper's Ferry, September 5, 1862, and he was paroled and sent to Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois, where he remained until the term of his enlistment expired. He re-enlisted on July 4, 1863, in Company B, Fourth 0. V. I. Heavy Artillery, serving as Private, Guard, Regimental Commissary Sergeant, Second Lieutenant, Quartermaster and Commissary of Subsistence at the post of Strawberry. Plains, Tennessee, until several months after the close of the war. When discharged from the army, he resumed the profession of school teaching, taking up with it the study of medicine, the latter of which soon after took his entire attention. He attended lectures at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1869. He immediately commenced the practice of medicine at Samantha, Ohio, where he still resides. He was married March 5, 1871, to Miss Annette Holmes, daughter of Gilbert and Ann (Hussey) Holmes.   He is a member of several medical associations. He has served quite a number of years as Secretary of the Ohio Medical Association and was its President in the years 1881 and 1882. He has contributed numerous articles upon medical subjects to the periodicals published for the profession. He is a Republican and takes an active part in the affairs of his county, but has never been a candidate for office. He is a member of the U. P. Presbyterian Church and has been a ruling elder for about twenty years.   Dr. Thomas is firm in all his opinions, methodical in all his professional and social duties, and inflexible in his integrity. He is a learned physician and a great lover of books, of which he is a diligent collector.   888 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   He is very fond of the society of children, and delights in entertaining them. He is very much devoted to his church. He is a good financier and has accumulated a competency. He is public-spirited, lives well and is a liberal contributor to charitable objects. He is highly esteemed by all who know him.   George Franklin Thomas, M. D.,   was born January 23, 1857, at Steam Furnace, Meigs Township, Adams County, Ohio, and was reared on the farm where he was born. He attended the District school in the Winter and worked on the farm in Summer. During the Civil War, he, with his older brothers, had the entire management of the farm while their father was in the army. At the age of seventeen, he had acquired sufficient education to become a teacher of common schools. His career as teacher began in 1875 and ended 1885, with marked Success. While a teacher he took an active part in educational affairs, serving one term as School Examiner in his county. Shortly after he began teaching, he invested in a farm adjoining his father's, which required several years of hard work to pay for.   In 1883, he was married to Miss Sallie Graham, a most popular and loveable woman, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Graham, of near Dunkinsville. This happy marriage was not to continue long for she died on May 12, 1884. In the following year Mr. Thomas began the study of medicine under the tutelage of Dr. J. M. Wittenmyer, of Peebles, and on March 9, 1888, he received the degree of M. D. from the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati After his graduation he located at Otway, where he remained for four years in the practice of his profession. He then removed to Peebles, where he has since resided, practicing medicine in partnership with Dr. J. S. Berry. In the Winter of 1898 and 1899, he took a post-graduate course at New York. In the year 1894, he was married to Miss Agnes Reynolds. daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen J. Reynolds. who resided one mile north of Peebles.   The Doctor and his wife have an elegant home in Peebles. Mrs Thomas is a charming and accomplished woman. She has had a most complete education and has fine literary taste. The Doctor has been remarkably successful in his profession. He might be called a natural born physician. His power to diagnose seems to he intuitive, rather than acquired, and his judgment is unerring.   His prominent characteristics are sterling honesty, fearlessness and frankness. The deception so often found in men in public positions is a trait that never entered his moral composition. In his dealings he knows no equivocation or compromise. He is loyal to his friends and quick to resent an injury or redress a wrong. In politics, he is a dyed-in-wool Jacksonian Democrat. He has taken much interest in hiS party's welfare, believing that in the Democratic party are to be found the principles that are nearest to the interests of the great mass of the people. In religion he is liberal. He believes that the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule are comprehensive enough to enable everybody to live a correct life. He is a member of several secret societies.   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 889   By economical habits and good management he has accumulated considerable property and is in easy circumstances financially. He conserves all his forces moral and physical. As a man and as a physician he is surely obtaining the very highest standing in the community where he resides.   William M. Tugman.   There are many sketched in this work, the incidents of whose careers in the strictest truth are more remarkable than romance, but the story of our present subject is the most remarkable of all. How many boys born in the North Carolina Mountains, without any advantages whatever, would come North amongst strangers and without the slightest aid, except with the encouragement of newly made friends, educate themselves and gain a high position at the Cincinnati bar, yet this was accomplished by William M. Tugman. He was born in Wilks County, North Carolina, October 21, 1850. His parents were James L. Tugman and Susana (McGrady) Tugman. He was born with a thirst for knowledge which has never been quenched. There were no common schools worthy of the name in his native county. For a short time he had a private instructor in a Baptist minister. He was brought up on Weem's "Life of Washington," Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, Baxter's "Saint's Rest," "Pilgrim's Progress," and the Bible. His father was a Confederate soldier, and his mother died about the close of the war. His father was financially ruined and there seemed no ray of hope for the youth, the eldest of five children. He and his brothers and two sisters were distributed among relatives and his father went sixty miles away to work. William did not like the uncle to whom he had been assigned, and, after three months, ran away and joined his father, who was engaged in lumbering to rebuild a cotton factory, destroyed by the invading army in the collapse of the Confederacy. He worked with his father in the lumber camps in 1865 and up to the Fall of 1866. In the Winter of 1866, and 1867, he went to school. In the Spring of 1867, he began to work for a farmer who had announced his intention of removing to Missouri and had promised to take our subject with him. Young Tugman had fully resolved to leave his native State and seek his fortune in a better country. He saved up twenty-five dollars, and the self-sacrifice int Dived in that can better be imagined than expressed. His farmer friend having determined to remain in North Carolina, young Tugman concluded to go on his own account. He went as far as Marion, Virginia, with a young friend. There the latter was offered employment as a blacksmith and accepted it. The same work was offered Tugman, but he concluded to go farther on. At Marion, Virginia, he saw the first railroad train. Leaving Marion, he undertook to cross the Clinch Mountains and succeeded in losing himself. When he found a habitation, it was occupied by an old man, the first Republican he ever saw and who possessed a remarkable vocabulary of expletives and oaths. This acquaintance assumed the lad was a rebel in sentiment and informed him if he disclosed his sentiments, when he got further North, the Republicans would surely kill him. His Republican friend lived on the headwaters of the Big Sandy. At Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky, he stopped three weeks and carried a hod, working on a new courthouse   890 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   there in process of erection. From there he walked to Maysville, Kentucky, which he reached September 1, 1867. There he saw, for the first time, street lamps and paved streets, and here he received his first introduction to American civilization. He crossed the ferry to Aberdeen and learned of a pike being built from Bentonville to North Liberty, and he went there to get work. This was his first introduction to Adams County. When he reached O'Neill's cabin, near the Kirker place, he had exhausted all his capital but twenty-five cents. He met John Huff, who, looking for angels unawares, took him to his home. Buff recommended him to Thomas McGovney, to whom he Went and who agreed to board him for his work outside of school hours. He went to school that Fall and Winter at "Jericho School" taught by T. P. Kirkpatrick. At the close of school, he worked six months for McGovney and then went to live with James Alexander, near Cherry Pork, and attended school while residing with him. In the Spring of 1869, he applied for and obtained a teacher's certificate in Adams County. The same Spring he taught in the Buckeye schoolhouse east of North Liberty. That Fall he taught again near Jacksonville. In the Spring of 1870, he attended the North Liberty Academy, and in the Summer, a Normal school at West Union, and that Fall, taught near Manchester, in the Clinger district.   In the Summer of 1871, he studied Latin and geometry in a school taught by Rev. James McColm. In the Pall of that year, he took charge of the schools at Germantown, Kentucky, and taught there until February, 1872, going from that place direct to Athens, entering the Senior Class of the Preparatory Department of the University. In the Fall of 1872, he entered the Freshman Class of the Ohio University, and continued there until June, 1873. From the Fall of 1873 until June, 1874, he taught at Murphysville, Kentucky. In the Fall of 1874, he was elected Superintendent of the Schools at Aberdeen, Ohio. In the Fall of 1875, he returned to the Ohio University and remained there until he graduated in June, 1877. He was re-employed at Aberdeen, as Superintendent, in the Fall of 1877, and taught there until June, 1879. In the meantime, he was reading law with Messrs Barbour & Cochran, of Maysville, Kentucky. In September, 1879, he went to Georgetown, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar. He located in Cincinnati and taught night schools for two years. He attended law school at the same time, and was in the office of the Hon. John W. Herron. In the Spring of 1881, he opened an office for himself, with Charles Bird, corner of Third and Walnut. He has been engaged in the practice of the law ever since, but for a long time has been located at No. 309 Johnson Building, associated with Edward H. Baker, a college classmate.   He was married November 27, 1888, to Miss Alice Cameron, of Boston. They have two children, a boy and a girl, aged respectively nine and six years, and reside at Mt. Washington.   The particulars of Mr. Tugman's career as a boy and a young man have been gone into detail in the hope of encouragement to some other young American, who may conclude to become the architect of his own fortune. How many boys in the country have the ambition, the energy, and perseverance to educate themselves and to step into a profession   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 891   which more and more is becoming the field for the sons of rich and powerful men? It is safe to say not many would have undertaken what Mr. Tugman did and succeed in. As may be surmised, he is a man possessed of a fine physique and by his great industry, is capable of a wonderful amount of work. He is temperate in his habits, prompt in all business matters, and possessed of the highest integrity. He is regarded by the bench and bar of Cincinnati as a man of ability in his profession, and has frequently been mentioned for a seat on the bench, but being affiliated with the minority party in Hamilton County, his opportunities for political preferment have been meagre. The writer, who is a personal friend, once in a bantering way suggested that the great mistake of his life had been his politics. He replied seriously that if a young man longed for political distinction, he ought either choose a community suited to his politics, or politics suited to his community. But after all, he reflected that even under such circumstances, there were perhaps more trangled hopes and shipwrecks of fortune in the flotsam and jetsam of the political sea, than in all the great ocean of other objects in human endeavor. The observation seems just ; and while the above narrative is a stimulus to ambition and perseverance, it is also a reminder that it is the man that dignifies the calling, and not the calling the man. Such is the philosophy of the character herein sketched, one that believes that industry like virtue brings its own reward and that we should find-   " Books in the running brooks Sermons in stones and good in everything,"   Albert Given Turnipseed   was born at Rocky Fork, near Hillsboro, December 2, 1865. His father's name was Jacob and his mother's maiden name was Sarah Ellen Williams. daughter of Thomas Williams, one of the pioneers of Highland County. His grandfather emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio in the forties. He originally came from Virginia, near Jamestown. The family name was German, "Ribasame," which, translated, was Turnipseed, and some of his ancestors in Virginia, saw fit to change it and use the name accordingly. This was dyne about one hundred years ago. Jacob was his grandfather's name and that of his great-grandfather. He attended the common schools of Highland County until he was eleven years of age, when he removed to West Union and entered the High school there under the instructions of Prof. E. B. Stivers. He qualified himself for a teacher and commenced teaching at the age of sixteen. He taught for three years in Adams County. At the age of nineteen, he was married to Miss Clara V. Holmes, daughter of Thomas F. Holmes. He attended the National University at Lebanon and graduated there in 1885. He was elected Superintendent of the Schools of West Union and held that place from September, 1885. until June, 1887. He was afterward Superintendent of the Moscow Schools until 1891. He attended the Law University of Michigan for three years, graduating in 1893. In 1892, he was admitted to practice law in Michigan, and in 1893 in Ohio. He located in Cincinnati, and has an office at No. 308 Johnson Building. He is the senior member of the firm of Turnipseed & Morgan. His home is on Mt. Auburn. Politically, he is a Democrat. He is a member of the Christian Union Church.   892 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   Senator Foraker says of him : "He is a young man of high character and fine ability. He is in the best sense of the word, a self-made man. By his own efforts, he has secured an education and has attained an enviable reputation for a man of his age, in the legal profession, in one of the most important cities of the country. His friends predict for him a great success."   Le Grand Byington Thompson   was born on Blue Creek, m Adams County, September 24. 1846. His father was Thomas W. Thompson and his mother, Elizabeth Wilson Broomfield, both born in 1818. His maternal great-grandfather was John Williams, an Englishman and a carpenter. He located at the mouth of Brush Creek in 1794. He was known as Captain Jack Williams. He built the first house at the mouth of Blue Creek. It was a frame of two stories, celled weather boarded, and filled inside with timber and clay. It was known as the shop. John Williams died in 1853, and is buried at Union Chapel. His wife was Mary Duncan, who died in 1832. Our subject's grandfather, Isaac Thompson, and his wife, Mary Williams, were married in 1816. His father, Thomas W., was born in April. 1818. near the mouth of Blue Creek. His grandfather and grandmother Thompson moved to Indiana in 1821, near the present site of Muncie, and died there within a few days of each other of the fever and ague, leaving two sons, Thomas W. and Duncan. Their nearest white neighbors were forty miles distant. There were Indians near them who were kind to them. Their uncles, Thomas and Jesse Williams, learned of their condrtion and traveled overland from Adams County to take them home. They brought the two boys back to Adams County to their grandfather at the mouth of Blue Creek, where they both remained till they were married. Thomas W. Thompson was a prominent Methodist, and a soldier of the Civil War. He enlisted October 21, 1861, in Company B, 70th O. V. I., at the age of forty-four, for three years, and was discharged for disability on September 22, 1862. He died in 1875.   Our subject was educated in the common schools. On September 23, 1864, he enlisted in Company I, 182d O. V. I., and served until July 7, 1865. He was Trustee of Jefferson Township in 1878 and 1879, and Clerk of the Township in 1880. He is a member of the Methodist Church and a Republican. He is one of the Trustees of Morris Chapel. He was married November 5, 1869, to Miss Margaret E. Thacher, daughter of Elisha and Rebecca A. Thacher.   Mr. Thompson is noted for his truthfulness, honesty and energy. He gives his word and promise carefully and considerately and then is never satisfied till he lives up to it. He never tires in any work he undertakes, and whatever he tries to do he does it with all the strong force of his nature. He is noted for his intelligence and for his strictly moral life. His qualities of character have endeared him to all of his acquaintance.   James M. Thorman   was born May 26, 1844, in Tiffin Township, Adams County, Ohio. His father was Samuel Thoroman and his mother's maiden name was Jane McNeilan. She was born near Omagh, in Ireland. His paternal great-   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 893   grandmother was a sister of Col. William Crawford, who was burned by the Indians at Tymochtee on June 11, 1782. His maternal grandfather was an adventurous Orangeman in Ireland. Our subject received a common school education. Afterwards he took a complete mercantile course at Bacon's Mercantile College in Cincinnati. In the Fall of 1864, he began as school teacher and taught one term. He entered Company D, 191st 0. V. I., February 12, 1865, and was made a Corporal. He served until August 27, 1865, when he was discharged. After his return from the army he taught school, at intervals, for eighteen.   In 1885, he was a Township Trustee of Tiffin Township. In 1866, he was elected Treasurer of the Township and served in that capacity continuously for eleven years. He was a clerk and bookkeeper in the banking house of G. B. Grimes & Co., at West Union, from February 28, 1882, to September 20, 1889. He was retained by the assignees of the bank and held the funds until the bank paid sixty per cent. in settlement.   On September 19, 1889, he was nominated by his party for Clerk of the Courts, but the banking house of Grimes & Co., failed the following day and he declinedsi to stand for the offrce. Since 1868, he has been a member of the Christian Union Church and served as Recording elder and Superintendent of the Sunday School for many years.   He was married to Miss Mary M. McCormick, November 3, 1869. There are two sons of this marriage, William Mc. Thoroman, of West Union, and Floyd F. Thoroman, of Portsmouth, Ohio. The mother of these sons died March 21, 1880. His son, Floyd E. Thoroman, was a member of Company H, Fourth 0. V. I., in the Spanish War.   Our subject was married a second time to Miss Mary Eliza Cunningham, November 14, 1883. She died November 14, 1886. On July 17, 1889, he was married to Miss Emma F. Baird. Of this marriage there were three children. Arthur, a son, deceased, and two daughters, May and Olga. Mr. Thoroman is a man of high character, and of correct life. He possesses the confidence of all who have ever known him and is respected by the entire community.   J. H. Van Daman, A. M., M. D.,   is a native of Ohio, born in Delaware County, October 7, 1829. He is a fair example of a self-made man, of an ambitious young American, who, without inherited wealth, overcame obstacles, conquered difficulties and achieved success. While a student, he worked hard for the means necessary to obtain and complete his education. He graduated in June, 1849, in the classical course of the Ohio. Wesleyan University at Delaware. In the Spring of 1852, he graduated from the Cleveland Medical College. He began the practice of medicine at Delaware under difficulties, being in debt for his medical education and outfit, but he persevered and continued in practice, at Delaware, until 1857, when he was elected Clerk of the Ohio Senate and served at two sessions, from 1857 to 1859. during the term of the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, as Governor   894 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   of Ohio. From the money obtained from this source, he paid his debts and continued to practice at Delaware until 1861. When the Rebellion broke out, he espoused the cause of the Union and became Captain of Company K, 66th O. V. I., which company he raised. He participated in the battles at Winchester, Port Republic and Cedar Mountain, Virginia. In the latter engagement, he was wounded and captured while leading a reconnaissance at night. He was taken to Libby Prison, kept there for five months and was exchanged January 10, 1863, when he resigned his commission as Captain and went into the Medical Department of the Army of the Cumberland. He was assigned to duty as Assistant Surgeon, and joined the 10th O. V. I., May 5, 1863. He remained with that regiment one year, when he was promoted to Chief Surgeon with seven assistants and Medical Purveyor of the United States Military Railroad, Division of the Mississippi, and remained in that capacity at Chattanooga until 1865. In December of that year, he took charge, at Chattanooga, as Surgeon of the Refugee and Freedmen's Department under the United States Government, of which he remained in charge until the following July, when that division of the department was abolished. A short time after this, he was made Post Surgeon in charge of the Regulars, stationed at Chattanooga, and acted as Such mot of the time until 1878, when the post was discontinued.   During his residence in Chattanooga, now over thirty-five years, he passed through three epidemics of smallpox, two of cholera, and one of yellow fever, remaining at his post during the continuance of each. He was elected President of the Tennessee Medical Society in 1873, and presided over that body two years. For twenty-five years, he has been a member of the American Medical Association, and waS for .three years, 1867 to 1869, a member of the Judicial Council of that body. He has been a member of the American Public Health Association since 1874. He was appointed Pension Examining Surgeon in September, 1865, and served as such twelve years. He has frequently contributed to medical literature, notably two articles—one on the cholera of 1873 and one on the yellow fever epidemic in 1878, published in the reports and papers of the American Public Health Association. He retired from active practice in 1883, except as surgeon, which he continued until 1890, when he retired absolutely from the practice of both medicine and surgery. He is of a social disposition, belonging to the Masonic Order, Knights of Pythias, and G. A. R. His first political vote was cast for the Whig ticket in 1852, but when the Whig party was followed by the Republican party, he went with the Democratic party and has remained with it since.   Dr. Van Deman has one of the finest medical libraries in Tennessee. He was married in his native town, May 29, 1855, to Miss Rebecca Norris, a daughter of the Hon. Wm. G. Norris. Dr. Van Deman's father was Rev. H. D. Van Deman, a Presbyterian minister, born and raised in Ohio. Our subject's paternal grandfather, John Van Deman, was a native of Holland. His mother was Sarah Darlinton, a daughter of Gen. Joseph Darlinton, of West Union. She was married to the Rev. Henry Van Deman in West Union in 1824, and soon afterwards moved to Delaware, Ohio, where the remaining portion of her life was spent.   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 895   Dr. Van Deman prides himself on his financial standing, never having a note of his go to protest and being prompt with every obligation. He is a man of considerable property, all made by his own efforts. He is a member of the Ohio Commandery of the Loyal Legion, elected May 6, 1866, insignia number 4744. He enjoys a respected and honored position in the city of his residence and- calmly awaits old age, with a sense of duties well done.   William Nelson Watson   was born July 1, 1849, on the Watson homestead four miles above Manchester on the Ohio River. His great-grandfather, Michael Watson, was born on the eastern shore of Maryland and went to Mason. County, Kentucky, in 1790. His children were Aaron, Michael, Mrs. Simeon Strode, Mrs. Aaron Moore, Mrs. Solomon Shepherd, Mrs. McConaughy, another daughter, and Abraham, grandfather of our subject.   Abraham Watson was born in Maryland, October 25, 1773. In 1804, he removed to Adams County and purchased the present Watson homestead. In 1819, he purchased the brick house which is still standing and occupied by James D. Mott. Abraham Watson's wife was Mary Moore, daughter of Joseph Moore, one of the earliest and most prominent pioneers of Adams County. He was a native of New Jersey, born June 9, 1854. He emigrated to Virginia in 1780, and in 1790 to Kentucky. In 1800, he emigrated to Blue Creek in Adams County, where he organized a congregation among his old New Jersey neighbors and built Moore's Chapel, the first meeting house in Adams County, and it is claimed by old settlers to be the oldest in the State. •He afterward bought the Elijah Kimball farm on the Ohio River, where he resided until his death in 1822. The children of Abraham and Mary (Moore) Watson were twelve in number, six daughters and six sons, the youngest of whom was Enoch Lawson Watson, father of our subject. Abraham Watson died November 7, 1847. His wife died February To, 1864, at the age of eighty-four. Enoch Lawson Watson remained on the home farm until after his fathersis death, buying out the interest of the other heirs. He conducted the farm until 1892, when he removed to Manchester. On November 18, 1846, he married Miss Lucinda Boyles, daughter of Thomas and Anna (Bonner) Boyles. She was born May. 22, 1824. Thomas Boyles resided where Nathan Ellis now resides, near Bentonville. The children of Enoch Lawson and Lucinda (Boyles) Watson are Anna Wiley, wife of the late Hon. John K. Pollard ; William Nelson, subject of this sketch ; Mary, wife of Robert K. Moore, of Buena Vista, Ohio; Eliza Arabella, wife of W. A. Underwood, deceased; Alice Cora, wife of James D. Mott, and Emma Florence, wife of William McNaley, of Orlinda, Tennessee.   Enoch L. Watson was a man of great force of character. He was a lifelong advocate of the temperance cause and when the Prohibition party was organized, he gave it his support and influence, believing it the best means of bringing about a reform for good in the cause he upheld. He died on November 8, 1895. His widow survives.   William Nelson Watson conducted his father's farm for some time, and began teaching in 1873. He continued teaching for three years,   896 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   and took a commercial course in the National Normal. University at Lebanon, Ohio, and on May 3, 1887, entered the Farmers' Bank in Manchester in the capacity of clerk. He was soon promoted to cashier, which position he still occupies. In 1893, he entered the firm of Ruggles, Shumate & Company, a leading dry goods house of Manchester, Ohio, and in 1897, Mr. Shumate retiring from the firm, he became an equal partner with Mr. Ruggles, under the name of Ruggles & Waton.   Mr. Watson was married February 9, 1898, to Hattie Mercer, daughter of James Mercer, of Youngstown, Ohib. They have one child, Eva Mercer, born April 13, 1899.   Mr. and Mrs. Watson are members of the Methodist Protestant Church at Manchester. Mr. Watson is a member of the Masonic Blue Lodge of Manchester. He was reared a Democrat, but cast his lot with the Prohibition party with his father, and at present prefers the platform of the Union Reform party. As a business man, his services in the bank have made that institution many friends, and as a banker, he enjoys the confidence of the entire community. Whilst kind and courteous to all, he has the manhood to do the right at all times regardless of the consequences. He is a gentleman of the highest type and a man who tries to square his life by the "Golden Rule."   Samuel Young Wasson   was born November 5, 1841, at Cherry Fork. the son of Thomas Campbell Wasson and Martha Campbell, his wife. He was reared on his father's farm. He attended the common schools of his district and the North Liberty Academy. He entered Miami University in the Fall of 1861, and graduated in 1866. The same Summer he went to Gallipolis and he and Capt. M. V. B. Kennedy. now of Zanesville, Ohio, purchased the Onderdonk book store and continued the business under the firm name of Wasson & Kennedy. On September 3. 1867, he was married to Miss Jennie Henderson, of Middletown, Butler County. In 1872, he dissolved partnership with Capt. Kennedy and continued the business alone. In the Fall of 1877, he was elected a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from Gallia County, as a Republican and served one term. He declined a renomination and election, as he had changed his residence to near Middletown, Butler County, where he engaged m farming and where he continued to reside there until 1889, when he removed to Hamilton, Ohio, where he has resided ever since.   He has always been a staunch Presbyterian and was an elder in the church at Gallipolis. On his removal to the city of Hamilton, he and his family connected with the United Presbyterian Church in which he is a ruling elder.   Mr. Wasson has a son, Clarence C.. a physician in Hamilton, and a daughter, wife of Joseph L. Blair, purchasing agent of the Niles Tool Works of Hamilton. Mr. Wasson is fond of reading and study, and keeps abreast of the times. While he would not like to be styled a gentleman of leisure, he has the full command of his own tune and devotes himself very largely to work in his church. He is a gentleman of the highest character and enjoys the respect and confidence of all who know him. His wife died   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 897   July 3, 1899. She was a woman of the most estimable character, devoted to her family and goode works. Since that time he has made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Blair.   Napoleon Bonaparte West   was born September 13, 1846, in Highland county, Ohio. His mother's maiden name was Hannah Amanda Crawford and his father's name was Isaac Newton West. His father and mother were married in West Union, September 2$, 1845. His father was born in Highland County, Ohio. His grandfather, James West, was from Virginia: His father died in Buford, Highland County; in 1852, of that "Fell Destroyer," consumption, leaving. his mother with him and a sister, Josephine, born in 1848. His mother took her two children and went to the home of her mother, Mrs. Daniel Matheny, in West Union. Here she fell a victim of the same disease in 1854. James McClanahan was appointed guardian of the two children and he placed them with Thomas Reighley, of North Liberty, who reared them. Our subject enlisted in Company G, 129th 0. V. I., July 14, 1863, and served in that regiment until March 8, 1864. He re-enlisted in Company H, 173d 0, V. I., August 31, 1864, and served until June 26, 1865. At the date of his first enlistment, he was of the right age to make a good soldier and did make an excellent one. He knew what was most important to a soldier—he knew how to take care of himself, and for that quality he survived the service to this day. After his return from the army, he removed to Peoria, Illinois, where he resided until 1868, when he went to Manchester and resided there until 1871. December 31, 1870, he was united in marriage to Louisa A. Little, sister of Capt. W. W. Little, at Manchester., He removed to Portsmouth, -Ohio, in March, 1871, where he has since resided. He worked for his brother-in-law, Capt. Little, until 1877, when he went into the Burgess mill and worked there until 1886, when he went to Braying and carting. In politics, he has always been a Republican. He has had five children : James P. and Claude, electricians ; Anna, George and William. His son Otto died in the Regular Army, a member of the Sixth Infantry.   He prides himself on his honesty and fair dealing, and is highly respected by all his acquaintances. He belongs to no organization but the Grand Army. His wife died suddenly on. December 7, 1888. He tries to do his part according to the best of his information and ability, and when death calls him, he will have no regrets.   West Union Lodgc, No. 43, Free and Accepted Masons.   This lodge was organized January 6, 1817. The charter members were Abraham Hollingsworth, Master; Samuel Treat, Senior Warden; John Kincaid, Junior Warden ; James Roff, John Fisher, George Bryan and Aaron Wilson. The jewels were purchased June 24, 1819, and cost thirty-five dollars. They are Past Master, Master, Senior Warden, Junior Warden, Senior Deacon, Junior Deacon, Treasurer, Secretary and Tyler. They are of silver and engraved, No. 43. The first return to the Grand Lodge was June 24, 1817, to June 24. 1818, shows that Henry Young, Willis Lee, Samuel McClelland, Isaac Foster, James R. Baldridge, James   898 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   Rogers and George R. Fitzgerald were made Masons, and Nicholas Black and Edwin Browning admitted as members. The records show that very many prominent men were members. Gov. Thomas Kirker was a member at one time and was Grand Junior Deacon.   The lodge met from its organization in 1817 until 1835, when it suspended until advised by the Grand Lodge, and elected Abraham Hollingsworth to represent them in the Grand Lodge. The crusade against Masonry caused the lodge to remain suspended until October 22, 1846, when it resumed. That year Mr. Hollingsworth attended the Grand Lodge at Dayton. On June 5, 1846, the members of the old lodge met at their hall and agreed to reorganize. Then it was the grand Lodge issued a dispensation by William Thrall, Grand Master, to A. Hollingsworth, William Allen, E. S. Moore, Adam McGovney, D. W. Stableton, Joseph Sprague, William Records and John C. Scott, empowering them to begin work. The following officers were appointed by the Grand Master: Abraham Hollingsworth, Worshipful Master ; William Allen, Senior Warden ; F. S. Moore, Junior Warden; M. V. Cropper, Senior Deacon ; Isaac Foster, Junior Deacon; Adam McGovney, Treasurer; Joseph Sprague, Secretary; Nicholas Burwell, Tiler. The first meeting was held June 13, 1846. The first candidate for degrees was I. H. DeBruin, October 30, 1846, and he received the first degree, November 27, 1846.    In 1880, the lodge built a Masonic Hall and occupied it until 1889. January 11, 1889, the lodge met there for the last time. Through financial losses, they were compelled to give it up. They moved to the Miller & Bunn Building and remained there until December 18, 1885, when they moved to the Tolle Building. The hall is thirty by sixty feet with two ante rooms, ten by fifteen feet.   In the Ohio Masonic Home, at Springfield, West Union Lodge, No. 43, furnished one room at a cost of seventy-five dollars. The lodge has two old relics worthy of notice. One is the lambskin apron, which belonged to its frrst Master, Abraham Hollingsworth, presented to the lodge in 1898 by the estate of his daughter. The other is the Royal Arch Apron, which belonged to Col. John Kincaid, the first Junior Warden. The latter was presented by W. S. Kincaid. It is a white silk satin with a silk border, worked with blue silk. It is not less than ninety years old. The Masters and Secretaries of the lodge have been as follows :   MASTERS--1817 and 1847, Abraham Hollingsworth ; 1818 and 1822, John Kincaid; 1819, Thornby L. White ; 1820, 1823, 1831, 1833 and 1834, John Fisher ; 1821, George R. Fitzgerald; 1824-1826, 1829, 1830 and 1832, Daniel P. Wilkins ; 1827, John Rodgers ; 1848, H. Y. Copple ; 1849, I. H. DeBruin; 1850-1853, William M, Meek; 1853-1860 and 1864, Andrew Mehaffey ; 1861-1873, James N. Hook ; 1862, J. L. Summers ; 1863, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1874-1877, 1880, Jacob M. Wells ; 1868, 1869, Henry B. Woodrow ; 1870, George Collings ; 1871, Franklin D. Bayless ; 1872, Joseph W. Shinn ; 1878, A. P. Kirkpatrick; 1881, 1882, Henry F. McGovney ; 1883- 1886, 1890-1892, Dr. William K. Coleman ; 1887-1889, William C. Coryell; 1893, J. A. Trotter; 1894, W. S. Kincaid; 1895-1896, F. B. Edgington; 1897-1898, E. A. Crawford. SECRETARIES--1817-1819, John Fisher ; 182o, John Patterson; 1821 and 1825, Edward Browning; 1822, James Patterson; 1823, John Rodgers;   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 899   1824, Thornley White ; 1826-1828, 1832, John Hayslip ; 1829-1830, Andrew Woodrow ; 1831, John Woodrow ; 1833-1834, 1848, William Allen ; 1847, Joseph Sprague; 1849-1855, Abraham Hollingsworth ; 1856, Edward M. DeBruin; 1857-1858, Jacob M. Wells; 1859, Henry B. Woodrow ; 1860, 1866-1872, 1877, 1879-1883, John K. Billings ; 1861, 1863, Reason A. Wells; 1862, Lafayette Foster ; 1864, James N. Hook ; 1865, Frank M. Wells; 1873, 1884-1885, Franklin D. Bayless ; 1874-1876, 1878, Joseph W. Shinn ; 1886-1888, Isaac N. Tolle; 1889, 189o, John M. Boyles; 1891, 1892, Thomas W. Ellison ; 1893, James 0. McMannis ; 1894, Oscar C. Reynolds ; 1895, Robert C. Vance ; 1896-1898, Don C. Mullen.   Orville C. Wills,   proprietor of the Palace Hotel, at Bentonville, was born March 8, 1863, on Eagle Creek, in Brown County, Ohio. He is a son of Richard and Nancy (Edwards) Wills. Thomas Edwards, grandfather of our subject, came from Scotland to Virginia, where he married Sarah Jacobs in 1786. He soon afterwards removed to Ohio. He purchased a thousand acres of land where Aberdeen now stands. His second son, James, grandfather of our subject, was born in January, 1800. In 1806, he removed with his parents to Byrd Township, on Eagle Creek, and settled on the farm now known as the William Edwards farm. In August 1821, he married Nancy Jacobs, and they reared a family of thirteen children, all of whom grew to maturity and married. James Edwards was a Justice of the Peace for a number of years. His wife died February 26, 1848, and in the Spring of 1850, he sold his farm and removed to Russellville, where he engaged in tanning for fifteen years. On December 1, 1859, he was married to Rachel Linton. Nancy A., a daughter by the first marriage, was born January 1837, and married Richard Wills. She died March 26, 1898.   Our subject received but a limited education in the Public schools. He chose the occupation of blacksmith and served for three years in the S. P. Tucker shops at Manchester, at the expiration of which time he engaged in the same business for himself.   On January 15, 1885, he was married to Florence Myrtle Roush, daughter of Michael Roush, of this county. They have two children, Flossie, aged nine years, and Dean. Mr. and Mrs. Wills are members of the Union Church at Bentonville. Mr. Wills moved to Bentonville in 1896 and opened a livery and feed stable in addition to his blacksmith shop, and in 1898 opened the Palace Hotel.   By industry and strict attention to business, he has built up quite a large hotel and livery business at Bentonville. He iS a very excellent citizen and a good business man, enterprising, and an important factor in the community.   Andrew Woods Williamson   was born at Lac Qui Parle, Minnesota, January 31, 1838. He graduated at Monilta College in 1857 and was a resident graduate of Yale University in 1858 and 1859. He served during the Civil War in the Fifth Minnesota, and loth United States Cavalry more than four years. In skirmishing at one time, a bullet drew blood from his forehead, and at other times three bullets passed through his clothes, but he was not wounded. At the close   900 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   of his services, his health was so broken by swamp fever that he was compelled to give up his chosen profession and he followed mercantile pursuits and farming, making several changes in his location. For, the past nineteen years, he has been Professor of Mathematics at Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. He has always been an active church worker and especially Lie Sunday School. He was never married.   George Marion Wikoff   was born December 31, 1837, on Scioto Brush Creek, in Adams County, ten miles north of Rome. His father was James Wikoff and his mother, Rachel Prather, a daughter of John Prather, one of the old citizens of Adams County. Her brother, Henry Prather. is the one who started the West Union and Manchester Hack Line, and maintained it all his life. His parents had ten children and he was the fifth. He was reared near Blue Creek Postoffice and attended school there. He learned the vocation of a farmer, and when of age, purchased a farm in the vicinity of his birthplace. He was married October 8, 1863; at Otway, Ohio, to Miss Sarah Freeman, daughter of Isma Freeman. In 1867, our subject sold his farm and moved to Rarden, Scioto County, Ohio, where he carried on the business of merchandising with the exception of three years, until 1888, since which time he has been engaged in farming and trading. His wife died on October 22, 1887. In 1894 and 1895, he was Mayor of the village of Rarden. He has had four children. His son James, his daughter Minnie, wife of John. R. Davis, and his son John W., all reside in Rarden. His son, William, reached the age of twenty, a young man of the finest health and physique. In the Spring of 1898, he accepted employment in the C. P. & V. R. R., and on July 6, 1898, died of . a blow received while riding on the top of a freight car while passing through the tunnel at Anion. Thus was this most promising young life cut off.   Our subject is a Democrat in his political views and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Wikoff tries to live according to the Golden Rule to the best of his ability, and conies as near to it as the average of humanity.   Gen. Allen T. Wikoff   was born in Adams County, Ohio. on November 15, 1825, the son of John and Nancy ( Jones) Wikoff, and was reared on his father's farm. He received such education as the common schools afforded and afterwards improved himself by private study. He began life as a farmer and continued it until July 25, 1862, when he enlisted in the 91st 0. V. I., as First Lieutenant of Company I. He was promoted Captain of the company, November 20, 1862, and served until the twenty-fourth of June, 1865. After his return from the army, he resided in Columbus and studied law.   In 1867, he was admitted to the bar but never actively engaged in the practice of law. In 1871, he was appointed Chief Clerk in the office of the Secretary of State, which position he held until he was elected Secretary of State in 1872. In 1874, he was renominated for that office by his party, but was defeated with the State ticket. In 1874, he was made Chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee, and served as such until 1876,   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 901   when he was appointed Adjutant General of Ohio by Governor Hayes, and was also elected as the Ohio member of the Republican National Committee. He resigned both last named positions in order to give his entire attention to the duties of Chairman of the Republican State Executive Committee in the campaign of 1876.   In February, 1877, he was appointed United States Pension Agent at Columbus, Ohio, by President Grant. He was reappointed to the same office by President Hayes in 1881, and reappointed by President Arthur in 1885, holding the office until July 1, 1885, when President Cleveland appointed one of his own party in his place.   In December. 1885, he was appointed by the United States Circuit Court at Columbus, Ohio, Receiver of the Cleveland & Marietta Railroad and sold it under order of the Court, July 1, 1886. On the reorganization of the road, he was made President; Director and General Manager, and as such had charge of the road until the close of 1893.   In April, 1896, he was appointed by Governor Bushnell as a member of the Ohio Canal Commission.   In December, 1852, Gen. Wikoff was married to Angeline Collier, daughter of John Collier, of Adams County, Ohio. They have four sons living, Wheeler R., John B., James E., and Charles A. Since 1872, his residence has been in Columbus. He is a man of high character, esteemed by all who know him. His record as a business man, an army officer, and a public official, is without a stain or blemish.   Peter Noah Wickerham,   son of Jacob and Eve (Ammen) Wickerham, and whose grandparents on both sides were pioneers of Adams County, was born January 31, 1832, near Sinking Springs, Highland County, Ohio, and lived in Highland County until the Civil War. He was postmaster at Sinking Springs in the fifties. During the Civil War, he kept a general store at Locust Grove, which was looted by Morgan's raiders in 1863. He afterwards enlisted as a Private in Company I, 141st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served from May 2 to September 3, 1864, trnder Captain George S. Kirker. He served Highland County as its Representative in the Sixtieth General Assembly, 1872-1873, and was in that time admitted to the bar. In 1880, he returned to Adams County and has resided there ever since and is now conducting a general store in Peebles. Mr. Wickerham is a Republican in politics and was the successful candidate of that party for County Treasurer, being elected to that office in 1889 and 1891, and serving four years, from 1890 to 1894.   Mr. Wickerham was married May 15, 1856, to Elvira, daughter of George P. Tener, of Locust Grove, Ohio, and their children are Oliver C.. who owns and resides in the house at Sinking Springs once owned and occupied by Charles Willing Byrd ; Nancy E., wife of Theodore Getchell, Secretary of the R.R. Y. M. C. A., of Philadelphia, Pa.; Sarah Jane, wife of E. F. Neary, a dentist at Delaware, Ohio; Martha J., residing, with her parents ; Peter Ammen, who served in the war with Spain in 1898 with the Second U. S. Engineers and was Clerk in the Quartermaster Department under Col. Guy Howard, at Augusta, Georgia, until the Cuban Volunteers were mustered out. In June, 1899, he accompanied his chief to Manilla,   902 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   where Howard was killed October 21. Ammen remains there on duty. Philip Sheridan is in school at Delaware, Ohio. Mr. Wickerham is a member 'of the G. A. R.; is a Mason and Knight of Pythias and a member of the Peebles Methodist Episcopal Church. Socially, he has few, if arty, equals in the circle in which he moves. He is the soul and life of any assemblage where he is known. To him more than to any one else is due the success of the Annual Pioneers' Reunion of Sinking Springs. He loves to tell humorous stories occurring among his friends, and it Is reported that he occasionally tells them of himself, although the writer had not the time and was not able to make the research necessary to verify this statement. Mr. Wickerham has the happy faculty of being able to make an interesting speech on any occasion. In the forum he is at home and is always able to please, to amuse and instruct an audience. He ridicules the idea of being old or growing old, and claims he will always be young. He never has any tales of woe to tell and is never discouraged. He always looks at the bright side of things and it naturally reflects itself in him. He is of a very happy disposition, and without seeming to do so, is always seeking to make others happy. With such a disposition and such faculties, he is a very remarkable man to the community.   Peter Wickerham, Senior, was a Soldier of the War of the Revolution and settled near Locust Grove about 1799.   James Oscar Wickerham, M. D.,   was born near Locust Grove, Ohio, October 12, 1864. His father was Peter Wickerham and his mother was Martha F. Tener. His grandfather and great-grandfather Wickerham were each named Peter. His great-grandfather, Peter Wickerham, came down the Ohio River in a flatboat in 1800. He settled near the site of the town of Peebles. In 1824, he devised to his son, Peter, the two hundred and seventy-five acres now owned by Jacob and Robert Wickerham. His grandfather, Joshua Tener, came to Locust Grove in 1816 with his father, Jacob Tener. His great-grandfather, Peter Wickerham, emigrated from Germany, and was among the first settlers of Adams County. Jacob Tener, his maternal great-grandfather, emigrated from Baltimore.   Our subject grew up on his father's farm and had the benefit of the District schools until he was nineteen years of age. He spent one year at Lebanon and attended the County Normals. At Lebanon, he took the teacher's course together with special branches. From 1889 to 1894, he taught school. In 1894, he began the study of medicine with Dr. O. W. Robe, of Youngsville. He entered Starling Medical College in 1894 and graduated in 1897. He located at Youngsville, succeeding his preceptor and has practiced his profession there ever since.   In politics, he has always been a Democrat. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Seaman. He was married in 1895 to Miss W. F. Jeffries, a daughter of Thornton F. Jeffries, of West Virginia.   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 903   William H. West   was born August 26, 1866, near Decatur, Ohio, son of George H. and Abigail (Pointer) West. Samuel West, his grandfather, was a native of Bracken County, Kentucky. He married Nancy J. Story, and they removed to Adams County in the forties. They reared a family of seven children. George H., the eldest son, was the father of our subject. He was married August 26, 1865, to Abigail Pointer, daughter of James and Susan Pointer, nee Armstrong, of the eastern shore of Maryland.   George H. West was a member of the 182d O. V. I., m the Civil War. The Pointer family and the Armstrong family emigrated together to Ohio in 1801. Both families settled in the river bottoms below Manchester.   Our subject spent his boyhood in Bentonville and received such education as the Bentonville schools afforded. He attended the Ohio Wesleyan University in the years 1888 and 1889. He also attended Normal schools at North Liberty, West Union and Bentonville. He has been engaged in teaching for several years. He has always been a Democrat, taking an active part in politics. He was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention in 1889, and has served on the Election Board of the county for several years, and on the Central Committee of his party. He was nominated in August, 1899, by the Democratic party of his county for Surveyor.   He united with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Bentonville on November 17, 1887, and was licensed by the Quarterly Conference as a local preacher in June, 1896. He is a graduate in the "Legion of Honor." He is a member of Crystal Lodge, No. 114, West Union Knights of Pythias; a member of the Independent Order of Red Men, No. 133, of Bentonville, and a member of West Union Camp, No. 547, Modern Woodmen of America.   He was married August 27, 1890, to Hattie B. Mefford, daughter of Joseph N. and Minerva (Woodruff) Mefford, of Bentonville. Their children are Nellie P., Talma, Bessie M., and Opal M. Mr. West is always foremost in local politics and educational affairs, and is respected by all for his high standards in morals and religion.   William Marion Wamsley,   the founder and original proprietor of the village of Wamsleyville, was born August 3, 1843, on the site of the village, the son of William Wamsley and Flizabeth Bolton, his wife, both natives of Adams County. His grandfather, William Wamsley, was a great hunter and loved that calling better than any other, though he was both a farmer and a tanner. He was one of three brothers, the original settlers on Scioto Brush Creek, and came from the State of Pennsylvania. The Indians were frequent visitors to the new home of William Wamsley, the first in the wilderness. From them he learned that what is now Jefferson Township, had been a favorite hunting ground with them and that the site of Wamsleyville was one of their camping grounds. William Wamsley, the first, was a lover of nature and there was much to attract him to his location on Scioto Brush Creek. He was a successful hunter of bear and deer all his life, and the vicinity of his home was the last habitat of those animals in Adams County. He   904 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   might have selected a fertile savannah or prairie and made his descendants rich, but the pleasures of the chase governed his selection. The original ancestor of the Wamsley family in this country came from Germany and the industry, energy, honesty and thrift of the German has displayed itself in each generation. Our subject left his father's home at the age of fourteen and set up in business for himself. He bought and sold stock from the age of fourteen, till the age of twenty, when he bought three hundred acres of land, including the town site of Wamsleyville. In that same year he built a grist mill and sawmill and soon after laid out the town. Mr. Warnsley is not and never was a practical miller, but he has conducted the milling business since 1863. He has added to his possessions until now he owns five hundred acres of land at and in the vicinity of Wamsleyville. While Mr. Wamsley does not profess to be a salamander, he has had a remarkable experience in the way of fires. Since originally erected, his mill has been destroyed by fire twice, and his barns twice. In April, 1888, his town was nearly destroyed by fire; but Phoenix-like, has risen from its ashes. He has had fine dwellings on the real estate owned by him, consumed by the flames, and yet notwithstanding all these losses, he has prospered and is prosperous.   Mr. Wamsley was married May 27, 1867, to his full cousin, Sarah W. Wamsley. They have one child, Milton Bina, born May 19, 1870. He resides in the town of Wamsleyville. He married Miss Amanda Thompson in 1896 and has two sons, William Klise and Butler Flack. He assists his. father in his extensive business.   Mr. Wamsley, our subject, is six feet, tall, broad shouldered and of a heavy frame. He weighs two hundred pounds. He has black piercing eyes and wears a full beard, now turned gray. He is a pleasant and agreeable man to meet and enjoys the society of his friends. Like his father and grandfather, he is a Democrat. He has been a member of the Christian Union Church for twenty-two years. He is a local minister in that church and as such exerts a great influence for good. He is a successful farmer and miller and would succeed in anything he would undertake. His energy and force of character So predominate his village, that it is better known as "Bill Town," than the proper name of Wamsleyville. 'He impresses all who meet him as a true man, and a more intimate acquaintance confirms the impression. He has been and is a power for good among his people, and his life has been a great benefit to those about him and dependent on him. Nature gave him the stamp of true manhood, and time and experience have improved those elements of character which are the jewels of American citizenship.   Dr. James M. Wittenmyer,   physician, was born December I, 1848, in the thriving village of Buford, Highland County, Ohio. He iS a son of Daniel G. and Rebecca Murphy Wittenmyer, and a grandson of Daniel W. Mittenmyer, who, with his wife Sarah, came from Pennsylvania m early days and settled m the village of Jacksonville, Adams County, where he was a well-known grocer and storekeeper for a number of years. He died in his seventy-seventh year.   Dr. Wittenmyer attended the Public schools at Buford, and afterwards removed to Jacksonville with his parents in 1867. He taught school   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 905   for a time and read medicine with Drs. John and J. W. Bunn, of Jacksonville, and in 1872-4. attended lectures at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, whereon he graduated in the Spring of 1874. Returning toad home after "graduation, he firmed a partnership with. Dr. John Bunn One as of his preceptors at Jacksonville, and continued with him 1879, men he took an; office to himself. In 1885, he married Lizzie Graham, the accomplished daughter of John Graham, a prosperous farmer near Dunkins and located at the new town of Peebles, near his former home, where he practiced his profession until elected Auditor of Adam County in 1893, when her removed to West Union. He, was reelected in 1896, and is the present Auditor of the county. He is a lifelong Democrat and perhaps min Stands higher in; the estimation of his party adherent than Witternnyer. Hellas been a power in his party councils for years: In the Whiter of 1898, his health failing he was compelled to give up the arduous idea of his office and seek, relief on the coast of Florida, whence he has recently returned much invigorated; to the delight of  family and friends. He has a family of Three bright sons, James G., Daniel I and John E.   Rev. William Finley Wemsley (deceased)   was born May 21; 1839, on Turkey Creek, Adams County, Ohio. He was a son of Rev. Jesse Wamsley, and Mary McCormick. Rev. Jesse Wamsley was a minister hi the Methodist Church for thirty wears but when dissensions arose over questions growing out of the Civil War, he joined the Christian Union, and served as a minister in that church for over thirty years.   Our subject was reared on a farm and also worked at the tanning business when a young man. He also taught school, and at the age of twenty-one years went into the general merchandising business, Which he carted on at Wamsleyville until his death, May 5, 1889.   October 19, 1865, he was united in marriage to Miss Jane daughter of D. S. and Maria Moore       This union was a very happy one, and there were born to them two daughters, Mary Maria, who died March 8, 1868; and Julia Ellen, who married Hiram V. Jones.   Mr. Wamsley became a wealthy and prominent Citizen of Adams County. He was a minister in the Christian Union Church, and a Justice of the Peace for years in Jefferson Township. He was one of the most prominent Democrats Of the region in which he resided.   James Albert Young   is not a native Buckeye, but was caught young and has made as good a citizen as though born in the great State of Ohio He is a native of Mifflin County, Pa., and was born Junee 7, 1844. His parents came to Ohio when he was but eighteen months old and located at Mt. Leigh; the nursery of many distinguished citizens. He has three sisters and One brother. His father was born in 1806. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church at Mt. Leigh and died in 1873. His mother died in Seaman in 1893. He received a common school education and labored oft his father's farm until July 14, 1863, when he enlisted in Company G., 129th O. V. I. He was at the capture of Cumberland Gap. September 9, 1863. He was in the army of Gen. Burnside in the Longstreet campaign in East Tennessee in the Fall of   906 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   1863, and marched, starved, fed graybacks and fought with the rest of them. He was in the noted encounter at Black Fox Ferry on Clinch River, December 2, 1863. He was mustered out March 8; 1864. He concluded to try military life again, and on August 31, 1864, enlisted in Company H, 173d a V. I., and served until June 26, 1865. He was always ready for duty and rations and the Government had no more faithful soldier. After the war, he came back to the farm on which he was reared, and which he now owns, the Jonah Steen farm. He married Dorcas Glasgow, daughter of Andrew Glasgow, June 20, 1873, and has a son Frank, a bright young merchant and Deputy Postmaster' at Seaman, Ohio. His wife died February 23, 1874. From 1873 to 1878, our subject traveled for D. H. Baldwin & Co:, of Cincinnati, 0., in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. While traveling, be became acquainted with Miss Sallie Plauch, of Elizaville, Fleming County, Ky., and as James always had winning ways; he married her January 24, 1878. They have two bright intelligent boys, Lucien Baldwin and Clarence Plauch, aged fifteen and twelve.   Mr. Young farmed from 1878 to 1888, when he moved to Seaman and built a hotel and livery stable, both of which he has conducted ever since. He has been a trustee of his township and was appointed Postmaster at Seaman in 1897. He is a Republican and a member of the Presbyterian Church at Mt. Leigh. He works hard all week, and when. Sunday comes he is always an attendant at the services, and has led the choir since 1865. He owns and manages, with profit, two other farms than the one already mentioned—the Aaron Steen farm and the Joseph Roth- rock farm.   Surrounded by an interesting family, prospered and prosperous, with the esteem and respect of all his neighbors; Mr. Young ought to be contented and happy, and we believe he is. It is a pleasure to meet him and spend some time with him in his pleasant hostelry, and no man more enjoys the company of his old friends than he. When he is called, he will be ready, but we hope he may not be wanted on the other shore for many years, as he is a most valuable citizen here.   He is energetic and enterprising and has made his business a success, and his good wife has largely contributed to the latter.   Newton Wesley Zile   was born near Locust Grove, Adams County, Ohio, December 8, 1863: His father, Lewis Zile, was born in Maryland, August 5, 1821. His father, Jacob Zile, born in Carroll County, Maryland, brought his family to Ohio in 1824. Jacob Zile was a soldier in the War of 1812. Our subject's mother was Caroline Cannon, daughter of Byas N. Cannon, a native of Delaware. His wife, Julia Ann Hern, was also from Delaware.   Our subject attended the common schools until the age of eighteen, when he became a teacher and followed that profession until the Spring of 1833, when he entered the Normal University of Danville, Indiana, and studied Civil Engineering and Surveying. In 1884, he attended the Normal School at Lebanon for two terms. In 1887, he was nominated by the Republicans for Sheriff of Adams County, but was defeated by a small majority. In 1887, he was appointed Deputy Auditor under Prof. J. W. Jones, who had been appointed by the County Commissioners for ten   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 907   months. In 1889, he attended the Normal School at Ada, Ohio, and while there was appointed Postal Clerk in the United States Railway Mail Service. He entered on the duties of that position April 17, 1889, and remained in the mail service ten years. He was promoted rapidly until he was made a clerk in charge of a car in 1896, and served in that capacity until the twentieth of May, 1899, when he resigned on account of the impairment of his health.   In the Spring of 1894., he and J. R. Davis entered into a partnership in general merchandising at Locust Grove, at the stand formerly occupied by L. M. Davis. Since retiring from the Postal Service, Mr. Zile has devoted his time to this business. He owns the farm upon which the town plat of Palestine was made by Peter Wickerham in 1837.   Mr. Zile has always taken a great interest in educational work and is possessed of one of the most extensive and best collection of books in the county. One who knows Mr. Zile best says of him : "He possesses all the terling virtues which make a man respected by his fellows. By industry, economy and temperance, he has acquired a competence. He is always ready to aid and contribute to worthy objects, either charitable or of public benefit. He is uniformly courteous to others, tolerant of their opinions and disposed to give due consideration to all their rights and claims. He is always willing to aid those who are ambitious to do well for themselves. While holding public offrce, Mr. Zile showed a wonderful administrative ability and earned the highest commendations for himself from those who supervised the work. He is one of the most earnest and enthusiastic members of his party, the Republican, and with some others like himself, properly distributed over the county and working as he does, Adams County would uniformly be a Republican county.   Mahlon Tipton,   one of the best known citizens of Adams County, is a native of Loudon County, Va. There he was born August 9, 1824, near Leesburg. His father was William Urton and his mother, Jane Pursel, both natives of Loudon County, Va., His father emigrated to Ohio in 1830, first stopping near Columbus, but soon after he located in Adams County near Youngsville. He brought with him seven children of whom our subject was the second. Our subject attended the common schools and among his teachers were Joseph Randolph Cockerill, afterwards Colonel of the Seventieth 0. V. I. He was brough up to be a farmer and was another of the young men of Adams County who never taught a Public school. He began farming on his own account, in 1848, near Louisville, in Adams County, and continued if for five years. On November 1, 1853, he was married to Miss Susan Frances Summers, a very attractive young woman of great force of character. They were married at Marble Furnace, by the Rev. David McDill, D. D., who has a sketch and portrait in this work. His wife was the daughter of Jacob Summers, a native of Loudon County, Virginia, born June 13, 1791. His wife, Elizabeth Elmore, was born May 11, 1789. They were married February 29, 1816. Elizabeth Elmore was the daughter of John Elmore, a soldier of the Revolution in the Continental line from Virginia, who served in that war seven years. As a lad he was in the French and Indian War throughout the whole of it. He was a native   908 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   of Ireland. He lived to be 103 years old and when he died was buried with honors of War. His wife survived him some two years and died at the age of eighty-three. He received a land warrant for his revolutionary services, and it was located in Kentucky.   Jacob Summers. father of Mrs. Urton, was a farmer from Loudon County, Va. He was also a stave holder, but believed the institution was injurious to the States permitting it. In 1835, he sold his slaves and came to Ohio. He sold most of his personal effects and brought his family out in a two-horse carriage. His goods, such as he brought, followed in a four-horse wagon. He bought twelve hundred acres of land at Marble Furnace, at the time the furnace was abandoned, and owned it until his death. July 19, 1852. His wife died in 1874. He was a Whig all his life Jacob Summers brought to Ohio four daughters and one son. He and Ms wife buried two infant sons in Virginia. Of the five children who grew to maturity, Mahala Elizabeth, born May 2, 1821, married Hector Urton ; the next, Susan F., wife of Mahlon Urton, was born June 23, 1823; Ruhama Ann, born July 27, 1825, married Townshend Enos Reed; James V., the only son, who was born January 15, 1830, and as Captain of Company B, 70th 0. V. I., was killed in battle before Atlanta, July 28, 1864; Mary Ellen, born 'January I9, 1834, married Isaac Hannah.   Returning to our subject, Mahlon Urton, the farm on which he now resides was set apart to Capt. J. F. Summers in the division of Jacob Summers' estate. Mr. Urton purchased it of him and moved on it the fourth of January, 1859. The home, a one-story brick, was built by James and McArthur, proprietors of Marble Furnace. In front of it a long lawn has two rows of locust trees, the bodies of which have attained great proportions, and the surroundings proclaim that the builder of the home was a Virginian.   Mr. and Mrs. Urton have had five children born to them. Thomas Clayton, their only son, was born October 20, 1854, and died at the age of twenty-one, in 1876. Their daughter, Anna Belle, is the wife o William Snedaker, a farmer, residing near Tranquility. Their daughters Frances Lillian and Rosalie Jane are residing with therr parents. Their daughter, Emma Florence, is the wife of Charles E. Miller, of Marble Furnace. Since the creation of Bratton Township from Franklin, Mr. Urton's home is' in Bratton Township. Mr. Urton was a Whig during the existence of the Whig party and since then has been a Republican. As such he was a Commissioner of Adams County from 1888 to 1891, and he has been a Trustee of Franklin Township.   He was a member of Company K. 41st 0. V. I., and served from May 2 to September 3, 1864. Mr. Urton possesses all the cardinal virtues and his life has been an illustrating of them. He is respected and esteemed by all who know him. If any one can get to heaven by living an honorable life, Mr. Urton needs to give himself no further concern on that subject. All who know cannot help liking him, and would not, if that were a matter of will. Mr. Urton's neighbors think that when the books are opened on the "Great Day," his account will be all balanced on the credit side. Such citizens as he are a credit to any community which they honor with their lives.   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 909   Edward. K. Walsh   was born at Comstock, Scioto County, Ohio, on the fourth day of April, 1864. His father was Edward Walsh and his mother's maiden name was Margaret O'Brien. His parents were natives of County Clare, Ireland, and were married there. They immigrated to the United States, in 1848, and settled in Bath, Maine. They came to Ohio in 1852 and located at Portsmouth, where they remained for a few, years. They then removed to Comstock, in Scioto County, near the line of Adams, County. They had frve children, four sons and one daughter.   Our subject was reared as a farmer's son. He attended school at Wamsley, in Adams County; under the instruction of Professor J. W. Jones, now Superintendent of the Ohio State Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. He also attended a Normal school at Mt. Joy, under Professor Aaron Grady. He was a student at Lebanon, Ohio, under Professor William A. Clark, formerly of Adams County. He began the study of law at Lebanon hi 1890, and continued it under the tutorship of the Hon. James W. Bannon, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and afterwards With the Hon. Theodore K. Funk, of the same place. He was admitted to the bar in December, 1894, and located at Otway, Ohio, where he was Mayor of the village for two years. He located at Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1897, for the practice of law, and formed a partnership with the Hon. Noah J. Dever; formerly Common Pleas Judge, who has a separate sketch herein. The style of the firm was Dever & Walsh.   He was elected City Clerk of Portsmouth on April 13, 1899, for two years. and is now holding that office. He was married January 4, 1wo, to Miss Katharine Lehman, daughter of Theodore Lehman, deceased.   In politics, he is a Democrat of the straightest sect. In his religion, he is a communicant of the Church of the Holy Redeemer (Roman Catholic), of Portsmouth. Ohio. Mr. Walsh is a young man fond of social pleasures, and well liked by the general public. He maintains his law offices with the Hon. Noah I. Dever and Harry W. Miller, and practices his profession as well as attends to the duties of City Clerk. He is an industrious, hard-working and painstaking young lawyer who aims to do his full duty to his clients, and is regarded with great favor by the general public. Among his brethren of the bar and those who know him, he is considered as one who is hound to attain distinction in his profession.   John Orlando Wilson   was born in Cincinnati. September 22, 1842, the son of Joseph Allen and Harriet Lafferty Wilson. He was an only son. His father, at the time of his birth, was Deputy Clerk of the Courts of Hamilton County, and resided in Cincinnati until 1844. His father died December 16, 1848, of consumption. His mother died August 12, 1850. He was then taken by his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Wm. F. Willson, and resided with them in West Union until 1851, when they removed to Ironton, Ohio and took him with them. He attended the Public schools in Ironton till about 1861 , when he went to Illinois and engaged in school teaching. On August 15, 1862, at Morton, Illinois, he enlisted in Company G, of the 86th Illinois Regiment and served until June 6. 1865, when   910 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   he was discharged. He returned at once to Ironton, and from there went to West Union, Ohio, where he became a law student under the late Edward P. Evans. He remained here during the Summer and Fall and in the Winter attended the Cincinnati Law School. He was admitted to the bar at Portsmouth, Ohio, April 23, 1866. He then went to Cincinnati, where, on October 9, 1866, he was married to Pauline H. Weber, daughter of Prof. John Weber. There were two sons of this marriage, William F., born September 13, 1867, and Charles 0., born May 26, 1873. They reside with their mother at Cincinnati. John O. Wilson first located at Elizabethtown, Illinois, as a lawyer and remained there one year. He then returned to Cincinnati and engaged in the drug business for eighteen months. He then located at, Greensburg, Ind., but remained only a few months. He then went to St. Louis, Mo., where he took up the practice of law with Judge Powers. He resided at St. Louis during the remainder of his life. In August, 1878, he went to Memphis, Tenn., on legal business. It was during the prevalence of yellow fever. His business required him to remain in Memphis some time. After he had been there eight days, he was attacked with yellow fever. He was sick some five or six days, when he died, alone, among strangers, and without the presence of a single friend. He was buried in the common grave with numerous other victims. His life was a sad one in the loss of his parents and in his own tragic death at the early age of thirty-six. His widow removed to Cincinnati, where she has since resided. Her sons are excellent young men with good positions and are doing their best for themselves and for her.   James P. Wasson.   James P. Wasson was one of those men for whom the world is better for his having lived in it. He was born in Wayne Township, December 18, 1837, the son of Thomas Campbell Wasson and Martha Patton Campbell, his wife. His childhood and youth were spent at Cherry Fork and he received such education as the schools . of his vicinity afforded. His religious training was careful and thorough by his father and mother and he was brought up in the United Presbyterian Church at Cherry Fork. Any one familiar with that denomination knows just what that means, and that training dictated and governed the whole course of his life. He was trained to the Strictest habits of industry and economy and taught the art of farming. His father was one of the most industrious and energetic farmers in Adams County and our Subject was like him. It was always a maxim in the life of James P. Wasson to make the best and the most out of every situation which confronted him, and in this he never failed.   On September I, 1859, he was married to Martha Ann McIntire, his third cousin, daughter of Gen. William McIntire and Martha Patton, his wife, so that both he and his wife were great-grandchildren of John Patton, of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Directly after their marriage. they went to housekeeping on a farm of his father's south of North Liberty. In 1863, July 10, he enlisted in Capt. David Urie's Company G,129th 0. V. I., and here the writer, who served with him, knew him best. He was appointed a Corporal and discharged all his duties as a soldier   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 911   with the utmost fidelity. He marched over five hundred miles in the Summer heat and in the Winter's snow, and after went hungry. He endured all the hardships of a severe campaign and never uttered a word of complaint. He seemed to think that he had enlisted to do and suffer these things for his country and he served the latter as he did his God, faithfully, and upon his conscience. In this service, the writer was his intimate friend and was with him every day. Had he lived in Cromwell's day, he would easily have been one of his "Ironside." With an army made up of soldiers like he, the United States could have subdued the world, if the war had been for a just cause, for he would have fought in no other. When he returned from his service in the army, he resumed his vocation as a farmer and resided on the same farm until 1869, when he took the Gen. William McIntire farm, where he continued to reside until March, 1877. In all of this time he and his wife were faithful members of the Cherry Fork church. Mr. Wasson was one of the mot active and energetic men. This was his heritage, both from his father and mother, and their traits were intensified in him. For a long time he had felt that the rewards for farming in Adams County were inadequate, and he determined to remove to the fertile prairies of Kansas. Therefore, in March, 1877, he located in Douglass County, Kansas. Here he and his wife and family entered the United Presbyterian Church at Edgerton, in which he was made a ruling elder and held the office during his life. He was a faithful teachers in the Sabbath School. In the church, as in the community, he was always consulted and his advice taken and followed. He was of most excellent judgment in things, both temporal and spiritual. He was a wise counsellor and always maintained the highest Christian character. In all things for the good of his church or community, he was foremost. He was taken with his mortal illness on the tenth of January, 1898, and died on the seventeenth, following. His death was a great loss to his family, his church and the community. His wife survives, and he left the following children : Cora Esther, the wife of Frank Wilson ; Nora, the wife of Tweed Patton, formerly of Cherry Fork Albertina, the wife of Clarence Wasson, also from Cherry Fork, and James Ormand, a son. He had a son, William Campbell, born in 1868, and who died in 1885. His daughters, sons-in-law and son all reside near the home in which he died. It is a gratification to the writer that this testimonial is in the History of his native county, where those who knew him for forty years in his childhood, youth and manhood, may recall his correct life and many virtues.   Rev. Nathaniel Massie Urmston   was born at Chillicothe, Ohio, April 12, 1799. He was the first child born there after the founding of the town by Gen. Nathaniel Massie, and was named for him. His father, Benjamin Urmston, was a companion of Gen. Massie in laying out the town. He asked for the privilege of felling the first tree in marking out the town, and the privilege was granted him by Gen. Massie. Benjamin Urmston built a home in the new town, and it had glass windows and a shingle roof. However, he did not reside long in Chillicothe, but soon removed to a farm, and died in a short time after that.   912 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   Nathaniel studied theology at Princeton, New Jersey. He had a school and who treaded in Danbury, Connecticut, and visited him there. He became acquainted with Miss Evaline Comstock there, and married her in 1826. He returned to Ohio and became a missionary for Ohio and Kentucky. His wife's health failed in this work, and he went to Connecticut; and tyre connected with the Congregational Church. In 1844, be located at Bainbridge, Ohio, in the ministry, and remained there until 1833.   He was then called to the Old Stone Church in West Union, Adams County, Ohio, to which he ministered until 1857. While there he taught a select school which the writer of this sketch attended, and he can certify that, Mr. Urmston was a most thorough teacher. What Rev. Urmston to the writer learned and has never forgotten. In this place, in 1855, Rev. Urmston lost his wife. She rests in the Old South Cemetery at West Union. His daughter, Miss Mary F. Urmston, also taught a select school for girls at West Union, and she was regarded as a most excellent teacher. She afterwards taught in the Young Ladies' Seminary at Portsmouth, Ohio; for several years. She married the Rev. F. P. Pratt, D. D., of Portsmouth, Ohio, and is now his widow.   In 1857 our subject went to Missouri and preached there until the breaking out of the war. He then returned to the vicinity of Hillsboro, where he remained until his death on August 27, 1884. He married for a second wife. Miss S. Johnson, of Cornwall, Connecticut. His third wife was Miss. Melissa A. Stover, of Highland County, Ohio, who survived him.   He had seven children of his, first marriage. His son, Lieutenant Thomas A. Urmston, of the Regular Army, was killed in one of the battles in Virginia. His son Comstock died in young manhood. At the time of his death, Rev. Urmston left two surviving children, Mrs. F. P. Pratt and Philander Urmston, of Muscatine, Iowa. Rev. Urmston was a man of strong conscience, and lived up to his belief. He believed in doing thoroughly everything he found to do, and followed that belief both in preaching and teaching.   Robert Hutchinson Wood   was born June 13, 1794. Stephen Wood, an ancestor, came from England and in Hempstead, Queens County, New York. His youngest son, Benjamin, married Leah Robbins, in Hempstead. Joseph, the only son of Benjamin, was born in 1742, and was the father of Seven children. His oldest son was Benjamin, born in July, 1769. Our subject was the third son and Sixth child. He was born in Mason County, Kentucky, where his father had removed. His eldest brother, Benjamin, Moved to West Union in 1804 and resided there until 1815, when he removed to Chillicothe, Ohio, and afterwards to Portsmouth, Ohio, in 1823, where he died in 1824. Benjamin Wood kept a tavern in West Union where Lewis Johnson now resides, and was a Captain in the Militia. The wife of Benjamin. was Sarah Huston, born August 3o, 1774, She died April 2, 1844, at Troy, Indiana.   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHER - 913   Robert Hutchinson Wood was married to Sarah Lodwick, September 29, 1818. She was the eldest child of Col. John Lodwick. Their daughter, Nancy Jane, married Dr. Hiram G. Jones, and was the mother Of two children, a son and a daughter.   Robert H. Wood, our subject, followed the trade of a cabinet maker in West Union for many years. He had a shop in a building recently removed, just south of the residence of Dr. B. F. Slye, and resided in the house now owned by Dr. Slye. Mr. Wood was a highly esteemed citizen of West Union. He believed in advertising, and had a standing advertisement of his business in the Free Press, with a picture of a sideboard as a part of his card. He was prosperous in his business and was the undertaker for the village. Many of the pieces of furniture Made by his own hands are still in existence.   He died of consumption, July 30. 1835, and is buried in the Old South Cemetery at West Union. He was a member of, and an elder in, the Presbyterian Church there. He owned the ground occupied by the Old South Cemetery until 1834, when he conveyed it to parties having friends buried there, to be used for burial purposes.   Robert Hamilton   was born November 28, 1795, at Connellsville, Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He was trained to the strictest belief and observances of the Westminster Confession, and it remained with him as the best part of himself all his life. He came to Adams County in 1817, in a flatboat. He landed at the mouth of Brush Creek and walked up the creek to Brush Creek Furnace, where he engaged as a clerk under Archibald Paul, who was then running the furnace. At that time the furnace only ran on Sundays. On week days the forge ran to make hollowware; pots, kettles, stoves, andirons and all kinds of castings. Then a ton of iron was 2268 pounds and twenty-eight pounds allowed for sandage. The furnace at that time was run by water alone. When the water was low, they had to tramp a wheel to blow off, and the best they could do was to make two or three tons of iron a day. On the twentieth of July, 1825, Mr. Hamilton was married to Nancy Fllison, daughter of John Ellison. She was the sister of the late William Ellison, of Manchester. The marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev. William Williamson, who signed his name to the certificate, V. D. M., (Verbi Dei Minister), which was the fashion at that time, which translated is "Of the Word of God, Minister."   Robert Hamilton was a resident of Adams County until 1828. In that time he laid the foundation of a successful business career. He was diligent in business, and of the highest integrity. At that time it was thought a furnace must run on Sundays or the entire charge would be ruined, but Mr. Hamilton induced Mr. Paul to try the experiment of a change. It was found the iron produced was jut as good. Mr. Hamilton was the first furnaceman in the country who stopped his furnace on Sunday.   The old Brush Creek Furnace was owned by the Ellisons and the Meanses. In 1828, Robert Hamilton and Andrew Ellison, son of the Andrew Ellison who was captured by the Indians in 1793, under the   914 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   name of Ellison & Hamilton, built Pine Grove Furnace in Lawrence County. Robert Hamilton fired it on January 1, 1829. Four tons a day was its capacity at starting.   After he located at Pine Grove Furnace, he became one of the founders of the church at Hanging Rock, and was a ruling elder in it from its organization to his death.   His first wife died June 23, 1838, and on February 20, 1839, he was married to Miss Rachel R. Peebles, a daughter of John Peebles and a sister of John G. Peebles, of Portsmouth.   Our subject's judgment was excellent and he was wonderfully successful in business. He amassed a large fortune of which his widow was largely the almoner. He was respected and esteemed by all who knew him as a man who lived right up to his standard, both in buSiness and in religion.   He died September 11, 1856, in his sixty-first year, of a dysentery. His death was a great loss to the business community and to the church. It was almost a calamity, as his influence and methods were of an incalculable benefit to those about him. His ashes repose in, the beautiful Greenlawn Cemetery, at Portsmouth, Ohio. His widow, Mrs. Rachel Hamilton, survived until August 27, 1883, when she died, aged eighty-seven years and one month. She was noted for her pious life and good deeds. Her gifts to charities were many, large and continuous, during her whole life, but her gifts by will were also many, large and praiseworthy. She stated in her will, she feared she had not given enough for charitable purposes and therefore she gave her executor, her brother, John G. Peebles, $10,000 for charitable objects to be bestowed in his discretion. Her memory is revered in the entire circle of her acquaintance. The Peebles-Hamilton Reading Rooms at Portsmouth, Ohio, are a monument to her memory.   General Daniel Cockerill   was born in Loudon County, Virginia, in 1792. He resided there until 1837, when he removed to near Mt. Leigh, in Adams County, Ohio, where he spent the remainder of his life. In 1713, John Cockerill, of Westmoreland County, Virginia, purchased two hundred acres of land, for which he gave sixty-five hundred pounds of tobacco. At that time he owned other lands in Westmoreland County, Virginia. Thomas Cockerill, his son, removed to Loudon County, Virginia, in 1739. His will was recorded in 1777, and discloses the fact that he had a large family of sons and daughters. One of his sons, Sanford Cockerill, was the father of Daniel Cockerill, our subject.   Daniel Cockerill was in the War of 1812, and was a Sergeant. His services were rendered in the vicinity of Baltimore and Washington. He was brought up to the trade of carpenter. Just before the War of 1812, he built a meeting house for the Quakers, called "Goose Creek." Owing to. the embargo act at the commencement of the war and the rise in prices after he made the contract, he lost one thousand dollars in completing the meeting house. The congregation, on hearing of his loss, made it up to him.   He had four sons and two daughters. His sons were, Joseph Randolph, who has a separate sketch herein, Giles Jackson, Daniel Talmage,   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 915   and John Craven Calhoun. Daniel T. was Captain and Major in the First Ohio Light Artillery, and is now at the State Soldiers' Home at Sandusky. Giles J. was First Lieutenant and Captain in the same regiment, and is now residing at Wynwood, Indian Territory. His wife was Belle Dunbar, daughter of James Dunbar, who formerly owned the Stephen Reynolds place near Peebles, Ohio. He has a son, Ceran D. Cockerill, now a resident of Portsmouth, Ohio.   John C. C. married a daughter of Isaac Martin, of Mt. Leigh. He died about five years since at Metropolis, Ill. A daughter, Rebecca, married Alfred Fylar, and moved to Pontiac, Illinois, where she and her husband died, leaving two sons and one daughter. One son, D. C. Fylar, has a separate sketch herein.   General Daniel Cockerill's daughter, Lydia Jane, married Levin Cannon, and both are deceased. They had five children, Daniel Cannon, of Lovett's Postoffice ; Urban Cannon; Mrs. Anna Hamilton, of Locust Grove; Mrs. Flora Hughes, of Lovett's Postoffice ; and Mrs. J. F. Wickerham, of Peebles.   General Cockerill devoted himself entirely to agricultural pursuits after removing to Adams County. He was not a member of any church. He was an old-time Democrat until Fort Sumter was fired upon. The jar of that firing displaced all the Democracy in him, as he stated, and from that time until his death on May 10, 1864, he was an enthusiastic Republican and a most ardent supporter of the war measures,. He thought the Southern States were not justified in secession, and he wanted to see them thoroughly whipped into submission.   He was a citizen of great public spirit, and believed in doing his full part in public affairs. He represented Adams and Pike Counties in the lower house of the Legislature in 1845 and 1846. In 1848 and 1849 he again represented the same counties in the lower house of the Legislature. At this session, by a joint resolution, he was made a Major- General of the Eighth Division of the Ohio Militia.   From the time of his location in Adams County, he was a man of influence, and was always held in public esteem. Among his virtues, charity and hospitality were the most prominent. In the practical exercise of these virtues he found great delight. He cherished great love for his native state, Virginia, but lost all patience with her when she seceded from the Union. It was his pride and pleasure to maintain hospitality as his Virginia ancestors had done before him. Everything he undertook to do, he endeavored to do with the best of his ability. He was for this reason a model farmer.   If any one characteristic of his should be emphasized, it was his loyalty and patriotism. Three of his sons went into the federal army, and his youngest son would have gone had not his defective eyesight prevented. He would have gone himself had not his age and infirmities prevented. As it was, he was an ardent friend of the Union, and gave its cause all the support possible for his circumstances and condition. His wife survived him until 1873. He and she lie side by side in the Mt. Leigh Cemetery. Of him it may be said that no more loyal heart ever beat in human breast, and he transmitted these qualities to his descendants, as the pages of this work will abundantly testify.   916 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   James Henry McCoy,   farmer was born in Bratton Township, May 17, 1860. His father, William McCoy, was a soldier of the Civil War. He enlisted in Co. B, 175th O. V. I., on August 23, 1864, at the age of thirty-four years, and was mustered out of the service June 27, 1865. He was a native of Pike County. His wife, Elizabeth A. Hamilton, mother of our subject, was a daughter of Henry Hamilton. Our subject's grandfather, James McCoy, was from the Green Isle, beyond the seas.   William A. McCoy married Susannah Jones, from Pike County ; and moved to Sinking Springs, Highland County, in the fall of 1860. Our subject lived in Sinking Springs until 1871, when he moved onto the farm where he now resides. His mother died January 16, 1898. He was the eldest of three children. His brother, George G. McCoy, resides at Bainbridge, in Ross County. He married Ruth A. Summers, daughter of Daniel Summers, of Locust Grove. His sister Anna married William W. Dunbar, who died September 4, 1895. She resides with and makes a home for her brother, our subject, who is unmarried. He is a Democrat in his political views, and a very strong one at that.   He is outspoken in all his views, political or otherwise. He is a Master of the Peebles Masonic Lodge, No. 581; and is also a member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge, No. 203, at Peebles. He has a common school education, but never taught. He was elected a Justice of the Peace of Franklin Township, in 1897, and re-elected in two. He is one of those forceful young men who believe in candor ; and whose views are an open book; and who are not deterred by policy or caution from expressing their well-considered thoughts. He is a man of fine physique and physical presence, which at once impress those who meet him. If he lives and has health, he will be heard from further on.   William Wallace Little   was born December 13, 1825, in Lewis County, Kentucky, opposite the village of Manchester, in Adams County, O. ; but during his childhood, boyhood and young manhood, his home was in Manchester. His father, James Little, one of the pioneers of Adams County, Ohio, was born December 4, 1793, near Johnstown, Pennsylvania ; and he was married to Miss Charlotte Davis, January to, 1825. There were thirteen children of this marriage, of whom our subject was the eldest. His grandfather, Thomas Little, was a native of Ireland. He came to this country in 1774 or 1875. He was a Revolutionary soldier. He enlisted on December 22, 1777, in Captain Fauntleroy's troop, Fourth Regiment of Dragoons, commanded by Col. Stephen Moylan, to serve during the war. His regiment was from New Jersey. His wife, who had been Miss Mary Neiper, came from County Antrim, Ireland, in 1768 or 1769, in the ship "Prosperity." Her parents settled first in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and afterwards moved to Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. She and her husband came to Manchester, Ohio, in 1803 where both died and are buried. They had eight children. Their son, James resided in Manchester until his death, August 11, 1887, at the age of ninety- four years. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was pensioned for his services therein. Our subject's great-grandfather, John Little, was born and lived in Ireland in County Tyrone, four miles from Market   BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES - 917   Hill. He was a farmer. His wife's name was Mary McCully. His son Thomas was the only child of a numerous family who came to the United States.   The education of William W. Little, our subject, though meagre, was obtained at Manchester, Ohio. His childhood, boyhood, and youth were filled with hardships, but he took them good-naturedly and cheerfully, trying to make the best of every condition he was compelled to meet. He went on the river at an early age, and by his energy and sheer force of character soon rose to the position of mate. He served as a boy on Cincinnati, New Orleans, and Memphis packets from deck sweep up. He was on the steamboats United States, two or more of the Sciotos, and the Boston. He was also a pilot and master ; and was known everywhere as Captain Little, the usual title given to steamboat masters. He knew every man connected with the river trade from Portsmouth to Cincinnati, and had an extensive acquaintance on the Southern rivers. He made Portsmouth his home from 1855 to 1882.   On January 29, 1854, he was married to Miss Mary A. J. Timmonds, who was born April 27, 1827, and who died October 20, 1855. Her twin daughters died in infancy. Mr. Little was married a second time to Miss Harriet A. Timmonds, sister of his first wife, who resides at the family homestead with her only surviving child, Miss Mary. J. Both of Mr. Little's wives were granddaughters of Richard Woodworth, a soldier of the Revolutionary War, who enlisted in February, 1777, in Captain William Gray's Company, of Col. William Butler's regiment, Pennsylvania, and served four years. He was in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and was pensioned May 9, 1818.   Mr. Little and his second wife have had seven children. Their eldest son, William H., born in 1857, died in 1888, leaving a wife and child. Their sons Carey F., aged eighteen, and Frank C., aged sixteen, both died of that fell disease consumption. The others died in infancy.   Mr. Little went into the coal business in Portsmouth Ohio, in 1858, and continued in it until 1879. He was first alone and then in partnership with James Hamilton, as Little & Hamilton, in 1862. From that time he continued the business alone until 1866, when he formed a partnership with F. N. Hope, the firm being known as W. W. Little & Company. In advertising this business in 1865, he adopted the motto of Capt. William McLain, "We have come to stay," and placed it at the head of his advertisement and kept it there. While engaged in the coal business, he also had other activities. He owned the steamboats Pike, Boskirk, Viola, Gaylord, Brilliant Fldorado and not fewer than three ferry boats ; and he commanded all of them at times, as he always had master's papers. He operated the ferry between Portsmouth, Ohio, and Springville, Kentucky, for many years. He built the River City Ferry Boat in 1874, and ran her until September 28, 1881, when he sold the ferry to Capt. Samuel Brown for a farm of two hundred acres at Little, in Greenup County, Kentucky, to which he removed in 1882, spending the remainder of his life as a farmer. During the Morgan raid in 1863 he .commanded a fleet of boats in the Ohio River, and thereby acquired the title of "Commodore."   Mr. Little always resided in the Second ward during his life in Portsmouth. He became a Councilman from that ward in 1867, and served as   918 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   such during most of the time thereafter until he removed to Kentucky. He was president of the City Council of Portsmouth from 1870 to 1874, and in 1877 and 1878. He was president pro tern, in 1876. Mr. Little was a most enthusiastic Republican, and a power .in city politics. He knew the second ward thoroughly, and he could always carry it whenever he undertook to do so. It was never any trouble to induce him to do political work.   He was a director of the Farmers' National Bank for several years in its early history, and always took a prominent part in every public measure for the advancement of the city. He took a leading part in in- traducing the Holly waterworks into the city of Portsmouth. He was a member of Rev. E. P. Pratt's church in Portsmouth, and lived up to his professions as closely as any one could who had been a steamboatman.   Mr. Little went through not only many family afflictions, but several financial disasters, but he never lost courage or hope. He always retained his good spirits and his energy. From, 1866 to 1882, he resided on the northeast corner of Front and Court Streets, Portsmouth, Ohio, in what has since been known as the Morton Club property, where he was known to all. As a public spirited citizen, he was a model,—always ready to do his part and more, too ; and was always ready and willing to help every good cause. When he became a farmer, which every steamboatman has an ambition to be, he kept his interest in public affairs as before. He died July 18, 1897, and is interred in Greenlawn Cemetery, in Portsmouth. When called in judgment on the last day he will cheerfully face his record, and will have nothing to explain or apologize for. He did the best he could every day of his life, and who can do more?   Albion Z. Blair.   On pages 226 and 227 of this work, we have given a sketch of the above named gentleman as a member of the bar of Adams County. In that sketch we mentioned Mr. Blair as a power in the Democratic party. Since that sketch was completed and laid aside, about September 1, 1900, Mr. Blair changed his party relations, and has become an active Republican, making many public speeches favoring the re-election of President McKinley. It is due to Mr. Blair that he should go down to posterity as of the political faith he professed when this book was closed. Therefore we have noted the change of political faith made by him, and give him credit for honesty of purpose in the change. Mr. Blair will always be found where his honest convictions take him, and will be a power to any organization to which he attaches himself. We bid him godspeed in his new departure, as we, would had the case been reversed.   The Naming of the West Union Scion.   In February, 1853, Samuel Burwell, the aged publisher of the Scion, was then a young man just starting in life. Mr. Evans, one of the editors of this work, remembers Mr. Burwell's coming to the Evans home to ask about the propriety of starting a newspaper, and a name for it. Mr. Edward P. Fvans, the father of the editor of this work, advised him to start the newspaper, and suggested the name of "The Scion of Tem-   MISCELLANEOUS - 919   perance," which was adopted, as it was determined at the time to start it as a temperance paper. The writer was eleven years old at the time, and was present at the conference when the launching of the Scion was determined upon. He remembers what was said at the conference as distinctly as though it had occurred but yesterday.   West Union Intelligencer.   The publication of this weekly was begun in 1841 by Stephen P. Drake. He continued its publication until the summer of 1845, when he sold out to Robert Jackman, who continued it. until his death in August, 1851. During Mr. Jackman's ownership, the paper was suspended for a few months in the year 1849; and when he resumed its publication, the name was changed to The People's Intelligencer, and it was continued under that name during its existence in West Union. After Mr. Jackman's death in 1851 (see page 378 of this book), Henry B. Woodrow, now living at 421 West Seventh Street, Cincmnati, Ohio, continued the publication of the newspaper for Mr. Jackman's widow, Mrs. Elizabeth Jackman, until February, 1852, when he purchased the plant and took it-to Manchester and continued its publication there about two years.   The paper was Whig in politics during its entire existence. At the time Mr. Drake began the publication of the Intelligencer, West Union had been without a newspaper for a number of years, the Free Press being the last. When Mr. Drake sold out in West Union, he went to Portsmouth, Ohio, and started a paper called the Portsmouth Clipper, which he published several years. He was afterwards engaged in the newspaper business in Ironton. During the Civil War, he was a member of the Second West Virginia Cavalry, and died in the army. He was a brother of the late Samuel P. Drake, of Portsmouth.   Associate Judges of Adams County, 1803 to 1852.   Joseph Darlinton, from April 6, 1803, to February 16, 1804. Needham Perry, from February 16, 1804, to September 20, 1813. Hosea Moore from April 6, 1803, to September 20, 1813. David Edie, from April 6, 1803, to September 20, 1813. Moses Baird, from February 15, 1810, to April , 1821. Andrew Livingston, from February 15, 1810, to August 1, 1831. William Leedom from September 20, 1813, to March 28, 1814. Job Dinning, from February 5, 1814, to March 17, 1828. Thomas Kirker, from February 15, 1821, to October 30, 1821. Robert Morrison from February 14, 1822, to March 21, 1836. John Kincaid from February 4, 1828, to July 28, 1834. Samuel McClanahan, from August 1, 1831, to April 23, 1838. William Robbins, from July 28, 1834, to March 19, 1835. Joseph Eylar, from February 4, 1835, to May 1, 1849. David C. Vance, from March 21, 1836, to July 19, 1843. Robert Morrison, from April 23, 1838, to April 1, 1851. William Robbins, from July 18, 1843, to May 1, 1849. Thomas Foster, from February 28, 1849, to April 1, 1852. Thomas Lockhart, from February 28, 1849, to April 1, 1852.   920 - HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY   List of the Justices of the Peace of Tiffin Township.

Census of 1900.

Population of Adams County - 26,328

Population of Village of Manchester - 2,003