250 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. tober of the same year ; Mary, who was born August 17, 1830, and is the wife of Philip Rodgers, of Washington township ; John, born March 17, 1833 ; Eliza Jane, who was born February 26, 1835, and is the wife of Samuel Van Fleet, of Washington township; a daughter who was born in 1836 and died before being named ; Israel, who was born June 22, 1838, and died in 1889 ; and William, the immediate subject of this review. Jacob Cox, the father of these children, was a stanch supporter of the Baptist church and 'a consistent Christian gentleman. He exercised his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democracy and earnestly advocated its principles, brit was never an aspirant for political honors. He died, April 3, 1842, and his estimable wife, surviving him many years, passed away in 1877. Both were honored and respected by all who knew them, and when they were called to the some beyond their loss was mourned not only by many relatives but throughout the entire neighborhood, for all who knew them were their friends. Upon the farm on which he settled in 1816 Martin Cox, the brother of Jacob, lived up to the time of his death, in 1856. In taking tip the personal history of William Cox we present to our readers the life record of one who is widely and favorably known in Darke county. He was the youngest child in his father's family, and was born in the hewed-log house which is still standing on the farm that is yet his home, his natal day being January 27, 1841. The old log cabin is now used for storage purposes, and stands as a mute reminder of pioneer days, and the habits of life at that time. His school advantages were somewhat limited, but he mastered the elementary branches of the English language in the district schools of the neighborhood, and by experience and observation has added greatly to his knowledge. His training at farm labor was not meager, for as soon as old enough to handle the plow he began work in the fields, and was thus largely engaged from the time of spring planting until crops were garnered in the autumn. Upon attaining his majority he came into possession of a portion of his father's estate. He has always carried on general farming, and for years has made it a practice to manufacture maple syrup and sugar on an extensive scale, disposing of this product to regular customers in Greenville. He has a large sugar camp and the excellence of the product enables him to secure a ready market therefor. In 1892 he erected upon his farm a fine, modern residence, and near by stands good outbuildings. The place is neat and thrifty in appearance, and the owner is recognized as one of the practical and progressive agriculturists of his community. On the 22d of August, 1872, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Cox and Miss Margaret A. Van Fleet, daughter of John D. and Mary (Fradmore) Van Fleet. This family came from New Jersey to Ohio at an early day, locating in Washington township, Darke county. Mrs. Cox is now the only representative of the family living in the county. By her marriage she has become the mother of four children : Ory Newton, who was born January 22, 1873, was married December 20, 1898, to Miss Jennie, daughter of William Young, of Greenville, and they reside upon the 0ld home farm; Harriet A., born November 5, 1874, is with her parents; a son, born in 1876, died the same year unnamed; and John Jacob, born December 18, 1877, also resides at home. In his political views Mr. Cox was a sup- GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 251 porter of Democratic principles for some time, but now votes the Socialist ticket. He holds membership in the Christian church. He has neither time nor inclination for political office, but finds ample time to faithfully discharge every duty of citizenship. He is a man of determined character, of sterling worth and of inflexible integrity, and among the residents of Darke county he has a host of warm friends. He resides upon one of the oldest developed farms in Washington township, and. is a worthy representative of an honored pioneer family, whose connection with the history of Darke county has ever been creditable. CHRISTIAN ERISMAN. Among the pioneer familes. of Darke county, Ohio, were the Erismans. Jacob Eris-man, the father, was a native of Pennsylvania, and at the time of his emigration; from that state to Ohio, 1839, his family consisted of wife and fifteen children. At that time but little of the land in Adams township had been cleared and the only improvements on their claim consisted of a small clearing and a little log cabin containing one room. Not far distant was another log cabin and in these two cabins and the wagons the family slept at night. Another child was born to this pioneer couple shortly after they landed here, this being the eighteenth; two had died in Pennsylvania. The mother died at the age of forty-six years, and the father at the age of sixty-eight, both passing away at the homestead. Of this large family only five sons and one daughter are now living. Christian Erisman, whose name heads this sketch, was the fourth child and second son, his birth occurring in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, December 24, 1820. At the time of their removal to Ohio he was nineteen years of age. Strong and energetic, he was his father's chief assistant in the work of clearing and improving the farm and always resided upon it. This farm Consists of one hundred and sixty acres and is well improved with good buildings and fences, all of which have been placed here by the subject of our sketch. Among the other pioneer families who settled in this same locality was one that the name of Long. Jacob Long and his wife, whose maiden name was Catherine Rinacker, were natives of Pennsylvania, and were the parents of eleven children, the third of whom was Catherine, born in Adams county, Pennsylvania, near Gettysburg, February 16, 1827. Her mother died in Pennsylvania, and when she was. seventeen years of age she came with her father and other members of. the family to Darke county, where on the 6th of February, 1845, she became the wife of Christian Erisman. Their union has been blessed with eleven children, five of whom are living, namely : Lizzie, Frank, Lewis, Cora and Arthur. The youngest, Arthur, now has charge of the farming operations at the old home place. The subject of our sketch was long affiliated with the Republican party and during his earlier years took an active part in local affairs, serving as township trustee, school director and in other positions. For a period of forty-five years he and his good wife were consistent and respected members of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which Mrs. Erisman still belongs. He departed this life August 23, 1900, and the funeral services were held at the residence on Sunday morning, August 26, by the Rev. Jesse Carr, of Bradford, Ohio. His body was placed 252 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. in a most beautiful conch casket. and laid to rest in the old family cemetery on the farm which he had owned and on which he had so long lived. CHARLES E. DUNKLE. Charles E. Dunkle, who is in the United States railway mail service, was born in the city of Dayton, Ohio, December 10, 1866, and is the eldest son of Simon P. and Mary E. (Troutman) Dunkle. The Dunkle family originated in Germany and the first American ancestor, Peter Dunkle, came to this country more than two hundred years ago, locating in Lancaster. county, Pennsylvania, where he remained until his death. The father of our subject was born in Pennsylvania, May 17, 1842, and was a son of David and Anna (Freilich) Dunkle, Who also were born in the Keystone state. With their family they came to Ohio when their son, Simon, was but eight years of age and in this section Of the country he was reared to manhood. After obtaining his majority he „married Miss Mary E. Troutman, who was born in Maryland, March 30, 1844, a daughter of Michael and Rebecca (Holler) Troutman, who were also natives of the same state and came to Ohio at an early period of its development. In 1867 the parents of our subject removed with their family to Gordon, Darke county, and later made a permanent settlement at Greenville. .Charles E. Dunkle spent his boyhood days in Gettysburg and Greenville, where he received the educational advantages afforded by the public schools. His preliminary course was supplemented by study in Gettysburg, Ohio, and later he engaged in teaching school. for one term. He was appointed as railway postal clerk on the 12th of November, 1887, his route being from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to St. Louis, Missouri, over what is the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. Later he was transferred to the Vandalia Road,. which is his present run. He has a force of eight clerks under his control and is now occupying a very important position, to which he has steadily worked his way upward from a humble capacity. On the 4th of May, 1893, Mr. Dunkle was married to Miss Emma Kraus, daughter of John G. and Anna C. (Gensley) Kraus, residents of Covington, Miami county. She was born May 30, 1875, and received her education in the Greenville and Covington schools and is a very cultured lady. They now have one son, a bright boy of six years. They occupy a fine residence on Washington avenue and their pleasant home is celebrated for its gracious hospitality. Mr. Dunkle is a member of Greenville Lodge, No. 195, I. O. O. F. His long connection with the railway mail service well indicates both his fidelity and his ability, and he is certainly one of the most trusted employes in the mail department. ALFRED H. JUDY. Alfred H. Judy, of Butler township, resides at his home farm on section 21, and has his office and store rooms at Castine. One of the successful agriculturists of Darke county, he annually does a thirty-thousanddollar business in farm machinery, vehicles and harness. A. H. Judy was born at Enon, Clark county, Ohio, June 8, 1861. His father, Samuel H. Judy, of Greenville, Ohio, was born near Plattsburg, Clark county; Ohio, December 23, 1821. He is a son of Jesse GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 253 and Nancy Judy, deceased, who were buried in the family graveyard on the old Judy estate near Plattsburg. Nancy Judy's maiden name was Johnson. She was of Irish descent; small and beautiful, and famous as both a horsewoman and a weaver in her day. Jesse Judy, son of John Judy, was born in Germany, in 1753. He came to the United States landing in Virginia, and later went to Kentucky, where he met the famous Daniel Boone. Their. friendship was lasting, but John Judy crossed the Ohio where Cincinnati now stands and took up .eighty acres of land, exchanging a horse for the settler's claim. Later he disposed of the land and settled near Plattsburg, acquiring the. estate referred to. He married Phoebe Lamastrus. She was born in Scotland, in 1760, and they are buried in the grounds referred to above. Samuel H. Judy was married to Miss Lydia Wilson, May 21, 1847. She is the daughter of Isaac and Mary A. (Coffield) Wilson, who are deceased, their remains being interred in the cemetery at Fairfield, Ohio. Isaac Wilson was of English descent, came to Ohio from Kentucky and located on the farm east of Fairfield, Greene county. He was a clear-headed dealer, a fine judge of stock, and one of the successful fianciers of his day. At his death, in 1864, he was one of the wealthiest men in Greene county. J M. Wilson, a grandson of Isaac 'Wilson, and a fine type of the old Wilson stock, owns the old homestead. Mary A. Coffield was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States about 1816. She was famous as a weaver, and was one of the most charming conversationalists and entertaining hostesses of her day. The subject's parents resided in Clark county, Ohio, until 1867, when they purchased of James Knoff what is now known as the old Judy farm, east of Greenville, Ohio, and moved there the same year. This they improved from the forest to a snug home. Eleven children were born to Samuel H. and Lydia Judy. Three died in infancy, while eight grew to man and womanhood, and are known as follows : B. F. Judy, deceased, was a well-known educator of this county. He married Alice Meritt, of Miami county, who with her son, John H. Judy, a fine promising young man, resides at Palestine, Ohio. Swan Judy, deceased, was a member of the Darke county bar, and a graduate of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor. He married Lillie May Birch, of Darke county, who with her son, Hawes Judy, resides in Dayton, Ohio. Martha C. Judy married Henry Worley, of this county, and they have four children : Kittie and Mattie, who are married; also a son, Luan Worley, who is married ; while Clyde, the youngest, lives with his parents. Rev. DeKalb Judy, a minister in. the Christian church, married Miss Mollie Steele, of Camden, Indiana, and they have three sons and one. daughter : B. H., A. H., Paul and Vera Judy. Ada Judy was married to Michael Dwyre, one of the most thorough master builders of Ohio and Indiana, and they reside at Anderson, in the latter state. They have one child, Zola, a very charming young lady. Justine Judy married John Weimer, of the firm of A. Weimer & Sons, millers of Greenville, Ohio. He is one of the rising business men of this county. They have one son. Hattie Judy married Stephen Bard, of this county. The subject's early days were spent as a little spindle-shanked, white-headed boy, running the woods and prairies over, with a passionate fondness for the flowers and beautiful stones or odd specimens of nature. An early comprehensiveness of what he saw 254 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. and read made gateways for pleasure on every hand in the study of things about him, so at his little duties, at fishing, trapping, bathing, and in all the boys' pastimes of his clay, the mixture of acquiring knowledge and work and play has been the means of developing in him a mind broad enough to grasp the great things of the world and complete enough to enter into the joys or sorrows of the smallest child. Ambitious to excel in everything he undertook, he was at the head of his class in the old log schoolhouse at No. 9, Greenville township, and won the honors of graduation in 1880, at the union school, of Greenville, Ohio. After finishing his course in 1880 he. secured a clerkship with Henry St. Clair in his retail house on Broadway, in Greenville. The duties of clerk were not harmonious with his disposition and at the end of four weeks he resigned his position and engaged to teach the school at Concord, east of Greenville ; afterward he accepted the principalship of the schools at Hillgrove, .Ohio, thence went to District No. 5, in Butler township ; next he became principal of the school at Castine, Ohio. His Schools were successes and many of his old. pupils are holding positions of honor and responsibility. For fifteen years he has held the office of magistrate, and so earnest has he been in promoting the ideas of arbitration and compromise that years go by without soiling a page in his docket. He has faithfully represented his party, the Democratic, at county, district and state conventions. In 1899 he made the canvass of the county for nomination to the office of representative. There were five candidates in the field and the best of good will abounded. The Hon. Clem Brumbaugh was the successful man, with Mr. Judy a close second. He is a bi-metalist and an anti-imperialist. While conducting the school in District No. 5 the subject met Miss Jeanetta E. Coblentz, she being one of his pupils at that school, and a daughter of Harrison and Caroline Coblentz, whose biography will be found elsewhere in this volume. Their daughter, Jeanetta E., seems to have inherited from her parents an abundance of their many virtues and the sterling qualities of those old baronial ancestors at Coblentz on the Rhine. As a girl at home her bright and winning ways were the light and sunshine of the parental abode. As a scholar she was ever apt and perceptive ; gifted with a talent for music, and richly endowed in language, she entertained charmingly those about her. Moreover, she has ever been a good counselor and a ready helper. A lady in the fullest sense of the term, it is not strange that she was loved by all who knew her, and quite natural that the teacher and pupil should have a kindly regard for each other and that the association should be kept up after "school was out," and as a result the subject and this charming lady were united in marriage at the home of the latter, by Rev. Chester Briggs, February 16, 1884. The affairs of housekeeping were begun in the old log .house in the center of the farm where they now live. Time has been very good to them. In 1892 they built one of the handsomest residences in the county. The fire fiend consumed this in 1896, the family barely escaping unhurt. Immediately they rebuilt, but on a less pretentious scale, the home they now enjoy.. Mr. and Mrs. Judy have had five children born to them : Eva, a sweet little child born September 14,. 1888, died September 29, 1888. Edith Esther, born October II, 1890, is one of the brightest pupils of her school, and although very young is an expert pianist. She is a lover of the GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 255 beautiful and greatly resembles her mother; Kate Caroline, born February 17, 1894, reads all newspapers, plays the piano, and is a jolly little sprite and a type of her father ; Harrison Coblentz, born February 28, 1897, is a shrewd little man, can read his primer, and is a type of. his father. These little folks are polite and entertaining and favorites with all they chance t0 meet. With the advantages of these times at their hands a bright future surely awaits them. Mr. Judy divides all, honors with his worthy helpmate and their home is one of the most pleasant to be found, both being well-informed people, although their lives, have been crowded with cares and years Of hard work have been theirs, yet they have found time to keep pace with the events of the day and the developments that have gradually put forth, so that their stock of knowledge is such that the caller will find a very pleasing and entertaining host and hostess. They are members of the Otterbein class of the United Brethren in Christ; and to their management is due the fact that their "Class is able to ask to be set off from the circuit to a station. Many donations to different institutions for good have been made by this worthy couple and their names will long be remembered by the recipients of their generosity. The subject is a member of the order of Knights of Pythias and of the Masonic fraternity, and is in high standing with his fellows and brothers. He is quite a fluent speaker and his oratory has frequently been commented upon and complimented. Although reticent, when he does talk, as people say, "it is worth. hearing." For several years he was a writer for the National Stockman, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Many of his articles were copied by the leading agricultural. journals of the land. And now we leave them in their cozy home, one of the happiest, brightest families of this great county. JAMES McCABE, For almost sixty years this gentleman has been a resident of Darke county, Ohio, and during this long period, which covers nearly the whole span of the comity's development from a primitive state to its present flourishing condition, he has been actively interested in its progress. His upright course in life commands the respect and commendation of every one, and he is justly entitled to prominent mention in the history of his adopted county. Mr. McCabe was born near Franklin, Warren county, Ohio, October 14, 1826, and is a son of John McCabe, born August 31, 1798, a native of New Jersey and of Scotch-Irish descent. The father grew to manhood in his native state, and followed the occupations of a carpenter and farmer. About 1817 he removed to Warren county, Ohio, making the journey on foot, and there he remained until 1842, when he came to Darke county; locating in Neave township, where he remained until his death, February 8, 1887, at the ripe old age of eighty-nine years. He was three times married, his . first wife being Anna Vantilburgh, the mother of our subject. She was a native of Warren county, of which her parents were pioneers, and it is supposed. that they were of lowland Dutch descent. James McCabe is the second child and oldest son in a family of five children, three sons and two daughters, and is the only one now living. During his boyhood he pursued his studies in a primitive log school house, and remained in his native county 256 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. until 1842, when he came with his parents to Darke county, locating on a farm in Neave township, which he helped his father to clear and improve. At the age of nineteen he started out for himself, working by the month for nine dollars. Having acquired a good education he commenced teaching school, in 1845, receiving his first certificate from John Briggs, one of the pioneers of the county. As they had no printed forms at that time, the certificate was all written. At that time the school houses were all of logs, and most of them had greased-paper windows and very rude: furnishings. His first school was in the Spring Hill district, but was then called the Ohler district. For eight years Mr. McCabe continued teaching, with good success, and came to German township in 1852, having charge of the school in Palestine, where the Teaford twin boys were among his pupils. In 1854 he turned his attention to farming on what is now known as the Armstrong farm, where he remained two years, and then bought the Weaver farm, now owned by Mr. Philipi, on section 11, German township. In 1863 he sold that place and moved to Palestine, where he bought a half interest in a mill, but sold out in 1871. He next formed a partnership with Mr. Kester and bought a saw-mill, which they conducted together until 1874, since which time Mr. McCabe has operated it alone and has met with good success in this venture. On the 10th of January, 1852, Mr. McCabe was united in marriage with Miss Ebaliah Wagoner, who was born October 26, 1823, a native of Neave township, this county, and a daughter of George and Sarah. (Stephens) Wagoner, who were among its. pioneers. Mr. Wagoner was a pioneer, and was in the war of 1812, being in the surrender of Hull. By this union four children were born, namely : Flora Bell, who died in infancy; Orlando, who married Anna, the daughter of Dr. Stiles, of Greenville, and now lives in Dayton, Ohio; Virgil, who married Jennie Starbuck, of Dayton, and they have five children : Roscoe, Hallie M., Bepo, Emma and Mary; and Tda May, who is the wife of Eli Overman, of Dayton, and they also have five children : Omer, Frank, Mary, and Harry and Terry, twins. Concerning Mrs. McCabe, we should add that she lived with her parents until 1852; coming to German township, she resided there until her death, which took place July 26, 1899, when she had attained the age of seventy-five years and nine months. She died as she had lived, a member of the Universalist church, and a consistent Christian, believing in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. The funeral sermon on the occasion of her death was preached by one of her dearest friends in the blessed faith of her denomination, Rev. Thomas S. Guthrie, now of Muncie, Indiana. In early life Mr. McCabe was a Whig in politics, but he assisted in organizing the Republican party, in 1856, and has since been one of its stanch supporters. He has filled the office of township assessor and township clerk many terms, and has always taken an active and commendable interest in public affairs. In 1864, during the civil war, he enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Fifty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served one hundred days. He is now an honored member of Reed Post, No. 572, G. A. R., in which he has served as commander and is now filling the office of chaplain, and he has also been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for some years, and the Universalist church. GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 257 He is widely and favorably known throughout the county, and well. deserves the high regard in which he is uniformly held. JOHN G. FISCHBACH. John G. Fischbach is now living retired upon his farm of eighty acres on section 27, Allen township, Darke county. He is numbered among the valued residents of this locality that the fatherland has furnished to the, new world. He was born in Prussia, Germany, on the 17th of April, 1829, and is a son of Lawrence and Phillipina ( Metzker) Fischbach. The father was born in 1778, and his wife was about twelve years his junior. They were married about 1808, and became the parents of nine children, all born in Germany. The eldest child, a daughter, was born about 1812. There are now three living children of the family : Henry, who resides in Dayton, at the age of eighty-one years; John George, of this review ; and Christina, the widow of Henry Hass, of Dayton. When but eighteen years of age the father volunteered for service in the German army in the Spanish war. He was a carpenter and builder, and followed that pursuit both in Germany and in the United States. In 1832 he sailed with his family from Bremen for America, but the vessel on which they took passage was shipwrecked on a sand bar by the captain, who wished to get a heavy insurance. This was a most diabolical act, which resulted in the death by freezing of some thirty-nine of the emigrant passengers. Our subject was at that time a little child of only about three years. He, too, was laid with the dead piled upon the deck, but his sister saw the pulsations of his neck and he was thus snatched from the grave. He had, however, been so severely burned that skin and flesh came off, brit life came back to him and he yet lives to tell the wonderful tale. After enduring many hardships, the family finally reached America, and made their way to Dayton, Ohio, where the father followed contracting and building and became well-to-do. He died March 21, 1857, at the age of seventy-nine years, and his widow passed away May 26, 1858, at the age of sixty-seven years, their remains being interred in Woodland cemetery. They were members of the Methodist church, and were respected Christian people. John George Fischbach was reared in Dayton and learned the shoemaker's trade, which he followed to a greater or less extent until 1862. He was drafted for service in the army in 1864, but was not accepted. On the 3d of April, 1850, he was united in marriage to Caroline Kimmel, who was born in Germany, and their union has been blessed with nine children : George, of Dayton, who is married and has two sons and .one daughter ; Louisa, who died at the age of fifteen months ; Emma, who became the wife of Lewis Sink and died at the age of thirty-two years; Edward, a resident of Horatio, Darke county, who has a wife and seven children; Frederick Lawrence, who owns and operates a farm near his father's; Clara, the wife of M. H. Burnhart, a farmer of Al len township, by whom she has two children; Sarah M., who died at the age of three years; William, who operates the home farm and has a wife and three sons; and Arthur, who is still with his father. The mother of these children was called to her final rest January 19, 1892. She was a faithful companion and helpmeet .on life's journey, was a loving wife and tender 258 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. mother, and throughout the community her loss was deeply mourned. In his business Mr. Fischbach has been successful. He started out in life for himself at the age of eighteen years, and all that he possesses has been acquired through his own efforts. His has been an energetic and industrious life, and these qualities have enabled him 'to overcome all difficulties and work his way upward to a position of wealth, and he is living retired. HENRY LEPHART. Henry Lephart is one of the representative German-American citizens of Darke county, and is classified among the prosperous farmers of Brown township. The name Lephart is of German origin, and was spelled Leppharclt or Liephardt. The father of our subject, Augustus Lephart, was born in the little duchy of Hesse-Cassel, on the 27th of December, 1818, and is now living a retired life in the city of Greenville. He was educated in his native land, where he spent the first eighteen years of his life, after which he determined to seek a home and fortune in the new world. He accordingly bade adieu to the fatherland and the friends and home of his youth and sailed for America in the year 1836, taking passage on the sailing vessel Henrietta, bound for Baltimore,. Maryland. Eight weeks and four clays passed ere they sighted land, for contrary winds detained the vessel, but ultimately they reached the Baltimore harbor in safety, and Mr. Lephart landed in America, a stranger among strange people, with whose language he was unfamiliar. He had a capital of only one dollar, but he possessed strong determination and resolute will, and with those essential qualifications of success he started out to make his own way. He soon secured work on a canal along the James river, and was there employed for four years. He is a thrifty and industrious man, qualities which have been inherited by his children. Establishing a home in Pennsylvania, he there resided for four years, and about 1849 came with his family to Darke county, Ohio, locating in German township, where he was employed as a wage worker. He remained for two years in German township, then known as Washington township, after which he purchased eighty acres of land, of which about twelve acres had been cleared and improved. His first home was a log cabin, and a log barn gave shelter to his stock. Mr. Lephart remained upon the old family homestead until 1886, and then became a resident of Greenville. Through-Out the intervening years he had carried on agricultural pursuits, and his untiring industry and enterprise enabled:him to add to his possessions until he was the owner of a valuable farm of one hundred and sixty acres and a comfortable competence, which now supplies him with all. the necessities and many of the luxuries of life. The thrift and frugality which are cardinal characteristics of the German race were ever manifest in his business career, and he is also known as a man of much resolution and decision of character. In politics he has always been a Democrat, save when in 1860 he cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln. He has never held office, preferring to devote his time and attention to his business interests. In his religious views he is a Lutheran and has been very liberal in his contributions to church work, having aided in the erection of five different churches in Darke county. He gave material assistance to. the church in GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 259 Greenville, and has withheld his support from no benevolences worthy of consideration. His life, honorable and upright, has commanded the respect of all. In Pennsylvania he was united in marriage to Miss Katherine Estella Strukoff, who was born near Hanover, Germany. Her birth occurred in 1814, and her death in 1886. Her life was one of spotless Christian purity and her teachings have had marked influence upon the lives of her children, to whom her memory remains as a grateful benediction. In the family of this worthy couple were eight children, four sons and four daughters, but only three are now living, namely : Henry; Sarah, the wife of Peter Blizzard, a prosperous agriculturist of Champaign county, Illinois; and William, who is married and is a successful farmer of Washington township, Darke county. He resides near the old family homestead. Henry Lephart was horn July 15, 1843, in Somerset county. Pennsylvania, and was the second child in his father's family. He was a little lad of six summers when he came with his parents to Darke county, where he was reared and educated. Throughout his life he has been identified with agricultural pursuits, and for nineteen years he also engaged in the manufacture of brick, the products of its kilns being seen, in many of the most beautiful homes in Brown township. Several of the school-houses of the neighborhood have also been erected from brick manufactured by him, as was the Greenville Bank. He had no special advantages to fit him for life, receiving but a limited education in the public schools. The first school he ever attended was held in a log building in Washington township, the dimensions of the structure being 16x20 feet. The building was covered with a board roof, and was furnished with a box stove, and slab benches formed of puncheons with the flat side up, placed upon wooden pins. The writing desk used by the big boys and girls was a wide board resting upon wooden pins driven into auger holes in the wall. The discipline of the school was maintained through fear of the rod and the dunce-cap, and the old adage, "Spare the rod and spoil the child," found exemplification in those primitive institutions of learning. Mr. Lephart remained with his parents until he had attained his majority and gave them his wages during the greater part of the time. He received eighteen dollars per month in compensation for his services, and as one-half of this was turned over to his father he had a small capital of his own when he attained his majority, comprising fifty dollars in money and a young horse. He was, however, industrious and energetic, qualities which form an important element in a prosperous career. On the 19th of November, 1863, Mr, Lephart was united in marriage to Miss Sarah J. Moyer. She was born in Darke county, November 2, 1843, and is the sixth in a family of ten children, three sons and seven daughters, the parents being Michael and Margaret (Etter) Moyer. Of their family four daughters are yet living, three being residents of Darke county, while one sister, Margaret, is the wife of Jackson Stump, an agriculturist of Oklahoma. The parents are both deceased. The father was born in 'Virginia,. in 1812, and died in the fall of 1865. He was of German lineage and was reared as an agriculturist. His parents entered one hundred and twenty acres from the government during Martin Van Buren's administration. His family 260 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. came to Ohio in an early day, when the Indians were still very numerous in this section of the country, and deer and other kind of wild game could be had in abundance. Mr. Moyer was a typical Virginian, displaying old-time courtesy and hospitality so common in that state. He held membership in the German Lutheran church. His wife was born near Germantown, Ohio, about 1817, and died about 1874. She was educated in the common schools, and was a consistent Christian woman, who reared her children in the faith of the church. Mrs. Lephart, a daughter of this worthy couple, has been to her husband a faithful counselor and helpmate. She has a kind disposition and affable manner, and is highly esteemed by a large circle of friends. Mr. and Mrs. Lephart began their domestic life in Washington township upon a rented farm, for they had little of this world's goods to aid them in making a start. They removed to Brown township, where they again rented land, and after spending four years upon property belonging to others Mr. Lephart was able to purchase, in connection with his sister, an eighty-acre tract that had formerly belonged to their father. During the four years in which he rented he had saved four hundred dollars, but in order to make his purchase of land he had t0 incur an indebtedness of four hundred dollars. His first eighty-acre tract was forest land, upon which not a ditch had been dug nor an improvement made, save that there was a little log cabin and a log barn. With characteristic energy he began the further development of the property, and soon transformed the wild land into rich and fertile fields. As his financial resources have increased he has added to his property until he is now, in 1900, the owner of three hun dred acres of valuable land in Brown township. His farm is supplied with all modern improvements and conveniences, including splendid buildings, high-class machinery and everything found upon a model farm. His property stands as a monument to his thrift and enterprise, and to the assistance of his estimable wife. There are two good residences upon the place, and the land is in a good state of cultivation. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Lephart has been blessed with thirteen children, eight sons and five daughters, and of this large family eleven are yet living : Margaret A., who was educated in the common schools and received instructions in music, is now the wife of Henry Foreman, a farmer of Allen township; Sarah Jane is the wife of Finley Riffle, an agriculturist of Brown township ; William H. is married and lives in Greenville, Ohio ; John W., who possesses much natural mechanical ability and is a practical carpenter and joiner, is also a prosperous farmer of Darke county; Charles A. is married and is employed as a mechanic by the Panhandle Railroad Company; Peter I. is married and follows blacksmithing in Arcanum, Ohio ; Catherine Estella, who has been instructed in music, is now the wife of Hugh Westfall, the proprietor of a restaurant in Ansonia, Ohio; Augustus C. is married, and follows farming in Brown town-. ship ; Elizabeth A., who has also been instructed in music, has successfully passed the Boxwell examination and is now at home with her parents; Fred N., who possesses considerable. musical talent, passed the Boxwell examination in 1900; and James M., the youngest living member of the family, is now a student in the eighth grade in the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Lephart have given their chil- GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 261 dren excellent educational privileges, realizing the importance of learning in the practical affairs of life. In his political sentiments our subject is a Democrat, and has loyally supported the party of his choice since casting his first presidential vote for General. George B. McClellan. He has frequently been chosen as a delegate to senatorial and county conventions, and has ever been firm in support of his honest convictions. He is a public-spirited and progressive citizen, giving his aid and influence to all measures calculated to prove of public benefit. For six years he has served as school director, and his efforts in support of the cause of education have been very effective. He and his family are all members of the Christian church—certainly a most creditable record and one well worthy of emulation. They have aided financially in the erection of seven different churches in this vicinity, which indicates their deep interest in all. that pertains to the uplifting of the human race. Socially Mr. Lephart is connected with the Masonic order, Lodge No. 488, at Ansonia, and he is a worthy representative of the craft. He and his family enjoy the high regard of all who know them, and he is truly a self-made man whose advancement in life is creditable, showing what may be accomplished by determined purpose and unflagging industry. CYRUS BIGLER. This well-known and representative citizen of Darke county, Ohio,—Cyrus Bigler, whose home and farm are on section 36, Wayne township—is a native of the county and dates his birth in Adams township, August 13, 1844. Mr. Bigler traces his ancestry along the agnatic line for a hundred years back to Denmark. Three brothers of the name of Bigler came together to America and here they soon separated, one settling in New York, one in Pennsylvania and one in Virginia, and from these three have sprung all the Biglers in this country. Moses Bigler, the father of Cyrus, was a native of Maryland, born in 1818, and his father, David Bigler, was also born in that state. The former came to Ohio at an early day, about 1828, and was one of the first settlers of Darke county. Through his mother Mr. Bigler is related to the Millers, one of the largest and a much respected family of Darke county, they having removed here from Kentucky about the time it was admitted as a slave state. Mrs. Bigler, the mother of our subject, was formerly Miss Mary Miller. She was born in Adams township, this county, a daughter of Jacob Miller, and is still living, at the age of seventy-four. To Moses and Mary Bigler were born five children, two sons and three daughters, Cyrus being the eldest. The others are as follows : Jacob, who is married and living on a farm in Michigan ; Nancy, wife of John Long, of Adams township, Darke county; Mary, wife of David Martin, also of Adams township ; and Lydia, wife of Charles Jackson, of Pleasant Hill, Ohio. In his youth Mr. Bigler had good educational advantages, attending school in his native township, later being a student in the Greenville schools, and still later entering what was then known as Whitewater College, at Centerville, Indiana. It was at the last named institution that Henry U. Johnson was educated, and they were in school at the same time. At the age of seventeen years Mr. Bigler began teaching school, which occupation he followed in his native 262 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. county during the winter season for several years, or up .to the time of his marriage, after which he located on the farm where he now resides, and where he has since been engaged in agricultural pursuits. His home place comprises one hundred acres and he has seventy acres in another tract, all of which he operates. Mr. Bigler married Miss Lydia A. Lowe, a native of Palestine, German township, Darke county, Ohio, who died in 1887 leaving a family of eight children, namely : Lulu, who is now the wife of Noah Grove, and has four children—Mary, Estella, Millard and Carl ; Charles, who married Mary Wade and has one child, Ivan; Earl, who married Ollie Brewer and has one daughter, Bernice; Jacob, who married Ida Farmer ; Clyde, who married Carrie Robinson; Estella Mabel and Bessie, at home. For his second wife Mr. Bigler married Miss Ida Seifert, and by her has one son, Herman. Politically Mr. Bigler has always given his support to the Democratic party, and has at different times filled local office. In 1880 he was assessor. At this writing he is a director in the German Baptist Mutual Fire Insurance Company, of Covington, Miami county, Ohio.. He is a member of the German Baptist church. JOHN L. BAILEY. While memory remains to the American citizens the "boys in blue" who fought for the defense of the Union will ever be held in grateful remembrance, and well do they deserve all the love that can be bestowed upon them. A man does not lightly risk life, but when in the face of great danger he bravely stands for his country and his principles he awakens the highest admira tion of all who know aught of his gallantry. With the splendid army that marched to the south to aid in crushing the rebellion went John L. Bailey, and today he is 'numbered among the veterans of the civil war, and is also regarded as one of the leading and substantial citizens of Darke county, Ohio. It was in Brown township, this county, that he was born, August 26, 1841. His father, Henry Bailey, was also a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred in Perry county, on the 19th of December, 1811. He was reared as a farmer and obtained his education in the primitive subscription schools of the early part of the nineteenth century. During his boyhood he accompanied his parents on their removal to Preble county, Ohio, at which time that section of the state was an unbroken wilderness. He was married in that county to Miss Nancy Runyon, whose birth occurred in Kentucky, on the l0th of February, 1818. In 1833 he came to Darke county and located in Brown township, upon a tract of one hundred and twenty acres of dense forest land. No house had as yet been builded, and his first home was a little log cabin. Bears, wolves and deer were still killed in the neighborhood, and venison was a dish often found upon the board of the early settlers. Everything was wild and gave little promise of the wonderful development and progress which was soon to work a splendid transformation here. Our subject can remember when deer traveled over his father's farm as a drove of sheep passes through a field. In the midst of the forest the father hewed out a homestead. He was a man of strong decision of character, well known for his reliability' and trustworthiness. His fellow townsmen, GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 263 recognizing his ability, called him to office, and he served as trustee and in other local positions, discharging his duties with promptness and fidelity. He was a warm friend of the cause of education and of all measures calculated to contribute toward the general good. In politics he was first an old-line Whig, supporting the party until the organization of the new Republican party, when he joined its ranks, becoming a warm advocate of the "rail-splitter" who was, raised to the presidential chair. He aided in the first Christian church of the locality, known as the Teegarden church, and also contributed toward the building- of two other churches in this vicinity. He was a man of kind and benevolent purpose and made the Golden Rule the motto of his life. On the 6th of July, 1887, he was called to his final rest, and his remains were interred in the Teegarden cemetery. His wife still survives him, at the age of eighty-two years, and her mental faculties are still unimpaired. She makes her home with her children and is a consistent Christian woman, holding membership in the Christian church. In the family were five sons and four daughters, of whom seven are yet living, namely Mary A. ; John L., of this review ; Samuel, a resident of Darke county ; Stephen, who is married and lives in Ansonia, from which place he travels as a commercial agent ; Rebecca, the wife of David Bennett, who is also a veteran of the civil war, and is now living in Woodington, Ohio ; Hannah, the wife of Wesley McKay, who served as a soldier in the Union army, and is now an agriculturist of Brown township; and Adda, the wife of Oscar Strait, also a farmer of Brown township. She is the youngest member of the family. One son, William Bailey, served for three years in the civil war and was wounded at the battle of Lookout Mountain. John L. Bailey, the immediate subject of this sketch, was reared in Darke county and received such educational privileges as the common schools of the neighborhood afforded. His time, however, was largely occupied with the work of clearing and developing the home farm, and thus he early became familiar with the work of field and meadow. He was only twenty-one years of age when, at the president's call for troops, lie enlisted, at Greenville, Ohio, on the 8th of August, 1862, as a member of Company G, Fortieth Ohio Infantry, under Captain Charles Gordon Matchett. They rendezvoused at Columbus, Ohio, and the regiment was ordered to report at Big Sandy river, but Mr. Bailey was taken ill with typhoid fever and forced to remain in the hospital for three months. On the expiration of that period he rejoined his command at Big Sandy, the forces being there encamped under General James A. Garfield. From that place they went up the Ohio and Cumberland rivers to Nashville, Tennessee, by steamer, and at the latter place the Fortieth Ohio was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland. The Union troops proceeded to Franklin, Tennessee, and participated in the hotly-contested engagement against General Hood. Mr. Bailey served as provost-guard in the city of Franklin, and was so close to the rebels that they could easily have shot him, but he managed to make his escape. The next battle in which he took part was the three days' engagement at Chickamauga. He was in the front of the action where the rebel lead fell thick and fast. Many of his company were killed or wounded, and a pine tree near him was cut down by the shot and shell of the enemy 264 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. and fell among the boys who. were there fighting to preserve the Union. At that battle Mr. Bailey was struck by a piece of spent shell., but was not injured. The next engagement in which he participated was at Lookout mountain, known as "the battle above the clouds," and there it was that his brother William was wounded. It was one of the most picturesque engagements of the entire. war, for the field lay upon the mountain crest, and commanded a magnificent view of the surrounding country. Mr. Bailey also took part in the battle of Missionary Ridge, where with his regiment he was on the extreme right of the Union army. The Confederates were there signally defeated and the Union troops were jubilant over the splendid victory. They suffered many hardships, however, often having nothing to eat save the corn which had been dropped by the mules and which they picked tip and parched, eating it with relish. Mr. Bailey also followed the stars and stripes on the battlefields of Chickamauga, Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station and through the celebrated Atlanta campaign from the 3d of May until the 9th of September, during which time the troops were almost daily tinder fire. So constant was the action that they had scarcely any rest, and on more than one occasion he sat leaning against a tree in order to get a few moments' sleep. At other times he and his comrades would lie down between two rails and in the morning would find that their bed was surrounded by water, -so constantly did it rain during that campaign. He was present at the battles of Peach Tree Creek, Kenesaw Mountain and Resaca,—all hotly contested engagements,—Buzzards' Roost and Ringrold. At Kenesaw Mountain while his company was marching toward the rebel works, he narrowly escaped being killed, and a ball struck his comrade next to him. During the first day's battle at Chickamauga he had a narrow escape from capture. He endured all the hardships and trials of war save imprisonment, and loyally followed the old flag where it led. After the Atlanta campaign his division of the army was ordered to pursue General Hood, and at Franklin, Tennessee, they encountered the rebel commander and participated in one of the fiercest battles that raged during the four years of warfare. Later the battle of Nashville occurred, in which General Hood was hopelessly defeated. The Union troops then followed the rebel commander to Huntsville, Alabama, and thence returned to join Grant's army, making repairs on the railroad lines as they were on the march. When in the vicinity of Greenville, Tennessee; the joyful news reached them of the surrender of Lee and his army. The Fourth Corps, to which Mr. Bailey belonged, was sent back to Nashville, Tennessee, and thence to Texas, but as his time had almost expired, he received an honorable discharge on the 27th of June, 1865, and with a happy heart returned to home and friends, having for almost three years faithfully served his country upon the battlefields of the south. Mr. Bailey has been twice married. He first wedded Elizabeth E. Teegarden, a representative of one of the well known pioneer families of the county. Their marriage occurred September 2, 1869, and was blessed with three children, two sons and a daughter, of whom two are living. Harvey, the elder, was educated in the common schools, wedded Miss Catherine Harp, and is a farmer of Greenville township, while Henry A. is a resident of Woodington, Ohio, where he is engaged in merchandising and grain GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 265 dealing in partnership with Bert Teegarden. The firm are doing a large business and enjoy a creditable reputation in commercial circles. Henry A. Bailey married Miss Minnie Cox. One daughter, Nancy Laura, was born April 24, 1874, and was married December 24, 1892; to William H. Slick, and died of consumption May 31, 1896. She was an earnest Christian woman, greatly beloved for her many excellencies. of character, and the memory of an upright life she left to her husband. and her two motherless little children. The mother of these children was born on the old Teegarden farm in Brown township, in 1847, and died August 19, 1875. For his second wife Mr. Bailey chose Sarah M. Strader, the wedding taking place October 19, 1877. She was born in Darke county, December 11, 1854, a daughter of John A. and Margaret L. (Weber). Strader. Her father was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, October II, 1818, and died October 12, 1899, at the age of eighty-one years and one day. He was a farmer and a devoted Christian man, esteemed by all. who knew him. His wife, who is a consistent member of the Christian church, was born October 11, 1823, and is still living in their family were fifteen children, seven sons and eight daughters, eleven of whom yet survive. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Bailey have been born two sons and two daughters, but their son Howard died on the 1st of September, 1884, at the age of seven months. The following stanzas were written by a friend : "We loved him; yes, we loved him ; But angels loved him more, And they have sweetly called him To yonder shining shore. "The golden gates were opened, A gentle voice said Come, And with farewells unspoken He calmly entered home." Ida, the eldest child, is now the wife of George Andrews, a farmer of Union City, Indiana, and they have one child living, a daughter. Their little son, John William, was born April 14, .1897, and died August 24, 1898. He was a sweet, lovable child, and his death was a great blow to the parents; but the Master said, "Suffer little children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven," and the little one passed to the home above. Lemuel H. is living at home with his parents, and assists in the work of the farm. Mattie completes the family and is a student in the public schools, and is also a student of music. At the time of his marriage Mr. Bailey had a capital of about one thousand dollars, which he had accumulated through hard work. Year by year he has added to his property, . and is today the owner of one hundred acres of valuable land, which is in a good state of cultivation. He has a good residence, substantial outbuildings and all the modern accessories and conveniences of a model farm.. He follows progressive and practical methods, and is widely known as a leading agriculturist of his community. He votes with the Republican party, and has been a stanch advocate of its principles since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln. He has served for a number of years as a school director, and his labors have been effective in promoting the cause o f education. Otherwise, however, he has never held office, preferring to -devote his 266 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. time and energies to his business affairs, in which he has met with signal success. Socially he is connected with Fifer Post, G. A. R., of Ansonia, and he and his family are consistent members of the Christian church in Woodington. He has contributed largely toward the erection of the house of worship, and has also given material assistance to other churches and to many benevolences worthy of consideration. He and his wife enjoy the warm regard of many friends and the hospitality of many of the best homes in this section of the state. Their lives have ever been upright and honorable, and their many excellencies of character have endeared them to a large circle of acquaintances. NATHAN S. WARVEL. One of the gallant defenders of the Union during the dark clays of the civil war and now a prominent farmer residing on section 1, Greenville township, Darke county, is Nathan S. Warvel, who was born in Richland township, the same county, April 18, 1839, and is a son of John H. and Mary (Souders) Warvel, natives of Warren and Montgomery counties, Ohio, respectively, and the founders of the family in Darke county, their home being near Beamsville, where they located in 1838. In 1839 the Paternal grandparents, Christopher and Charlotta (Lilly) Warvel, natives of Rockingham, Virginia, also came to Darke county and located on a farm near Beamsville, in Richland township. They were members of the United Brethren church, and the grandfather donated the logs to construct the first church erected in Beamsville. He also gave to the town the land comprising the original cemetery at that place. The first to be buried there was Enos Hathaway, a son of Thomas Hathaway, who died in 1847. The grandfather was a soldier in the war of 1812, under the command of Colonel Methias. He died March 15, 1851, aged fifty-five years, and his wife departed this life March 14, 1855, aged fifty-six. Of their nine children five are still living, namely : George, a United Brethren preacher of Butler county, Ohio ; Daniel, a resident of Richland township, Darke county; Mrs. Elizabeth Beam, of Ansonia, Ohio; Mary, the widow of Daniel Hartzell, of Pikeville, Darke county; and Mrs. Margaret Hathaway, of Washington, D. C. Those deceased were : John H., William, Sarah Ann and Adeline. After residing in this county for three years, John H. Warvel, the father of our subject, returned to Montgomery county, owing to his wife's ill health, and there she died, May 15, 1842. He then located on his father's farm in Richland township, Darke county, where he resided until 1847, when he removed to the farm now owned and occupied by our subject. He died here February 27, 1898, at the age of seventy-nine years, honored and respected by all who knew him. He served as infirmary director of the county two terms. He was a man of good business ability and was particularly well qualified for the settlement of estates and as an executor he settled many during his life time. He was one of the original members of the United Brethren church at Beamsville, and later assisted in organizing the church at Pikeville, being a man of strong religious convictions and an active worker, whose life was in accordance with the teachings of the Golden Rule. In politics he was independent, voting for the man rather than the party. He was four times married, his first wife GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 267 being the mother of our subject, and to them two children were born : Nathan and Mary, the latter of whom died in infancy. His second wife was Barbara Ann Holloway, by whom he had two sons : Allen C., of Bradford, Miami county, Ohio ; and Irvin, deceased.. The third wife was Phoebe Horney, and Phoebe, the only child of this union, died at the age of one year. For his fourth wife he, married Elizabeth Beenblossom, who bore him five children : Charlotte, now the widow of Calvin Garver, of Greenville; Sarah Adaline, wife of Adam Johnson, of Darke county ; Elizabeth, the wife of O. J. Hager, of Muncie, Indiana ; and Emeline, the wife of George Garbig, of Darke county. Our subject lived on the homestead farm in Richland township until eight years of age, and then removed to the farm in Greenville township, which he now owns and occupies. During his youth he assisted his father in the laborious task of clearing and improving the farm, and attended the district schools when his services were not needed at home. He remained with his father until attaining his majority, and then began life upon his own responsibility. For a year after his marriage he lived near Beamsville, and then located upon his present farm, where he owns fifty acres of well improved and highly cultivated land. On the 23d of December, 1860, Mr. Warvel led to the marriage altar Miss Nancy J. Royer, a daughter of David and Sarah (Grafford) Royer, of Logan county, Ohio. By this union five children were born, but two died in infancy unnamed, and Mary E., who became the wife of William H. Huber, is also now deceased. The living are : Martha L., now the widow of Riley Yonker; and Eva, the wife 0f G. H. Mills, of Beamsville. Mr. Warvel joined the "boys in blue" during the civil war, by enlisting on the 2d of May, 1864, in Company G, One Hundred and Fifty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into the service as sergeant of his company. They were with .Hunter on his raid through-the Shenandoah valley, and for more than a month were kept constantly on the march. At Cumberland, Maryland, the company was detached from the regiment and stationed at what was called Fort Cumberland, where they performed garrison duty until their term of enlistment had expired. One engagement occurred between this force and a part of Colonel Mosby's regiment. Company G supported the batteries while under fire, repelling the enemy. Twenty days after his term of enlistment had expired Mr: Warvel was mustered out at Camp Denni son, September 22, 1864. He had left the plow standing in the furrow when he entered the service, and upon his return home resumed farming. He is now a member cf the Grand Army Post at Greenville, and politically is identified with the Democratic party, while he and his wife are active and .consistent members of the Christian church at Beamsville. AMOS P. MILLER. The farming interests of Butler township are well represented by Amos P. Miller, who resides on section 33, where he has a fine farm under a high state of cultivation. He was born near Dayton, Ohio, September 9, 1849. His father, David T. Miller, was a native of Rockingham county, Virginia, born February i 5, 1812, and in 1822, at the age of ten years, he removed to Montgomery county, Ohio, with his parents, David and 268 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Hannah (Foutz) Miller, both of whom were natives of Virginia. The grandparents of our subject had five sons and one daughter, all of whom reached mature years, were married and reared families of their own, namely : Michael, Joel, Solomon, David T., John and Barbara. All are now deceased. The mother of these children survived her husband about twenty years and died in 1863, in her ninety-first year. Her remains were laid by his side in the Hull cemetery in Perry township, Montgomery county. David T. Miller spent the greater part ..of his youth in Ohio, being reared amid the wild scenes of the frontier. After he had attained to man's estate he chose as a com- panion and helpmate on life's journey Miss Eliza Souders, by whom two children were born, one of whom died in infancy, and one; Ephraim, lived until about thirty-five years of age, leaving three children. After the death of his first wife David T. Miller married Miss Anna Shock, who was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, in 1819. They were married about 1838 and ten children graced their union, of whom nine reached mature years, as follows : John, who died in 1866; Susannah, who became. the wife of Noah Comer and died about 1878, leaving five children; Hannah, who became the wife of David Grove and died in the fall of 1898, at the age of fifty-one years, leaving four sons; David .I., who died in 1874, leaving two sons; Amos P. ; Rachel, who first married Noah Ulrey, by whom she had three children, and is now the wife of Cyrus Devilbiss, by whom she has four children; Samuel, who is living on the homestead farm west of Dayton and has seven daughters and one son; Aaron, who removed from Kansas to southern California in 1895 and is there living with his family of seven children; and Kate Ann, wife of Charles Millard, who resides near the home farm in Montgomery county with his wife and four children, three daughters and a son. Mrs. Miller was called to her final rest in December, 1872, and the father was afterward married again. His death occurred in August, 1886. He was a tanner by trade and carried on business along that line on his own account for about twenty years. He owned three hundred acres of land in Montgomery county, also land in Kansas, and liberaly aided all of his children. Both he and his wife were members of the German Baptist church, and their remains were interred in the Hull. cemetery. Mr. Miller, of this review, received an ordinary common-school education and remained at home until his twenty-third year, when he was married, on the 26th of March, 1872, to Barbara E. Garber, whose birth occurred in Montgomery county, in 1851, her parents being Jonathan and Catharine (Rife) Garber. Nine children have been born of this union : Elsie M., wife of Abram Wholsinger, of Preble county; Clement L., a farmer of Butler township, who is married and has one son and one daughter ; Catherine V., wife of William Petry, of Preble county, by whom she has one daughter; Olive I., wife of John Hapner, of Preble county, by whom she has one daughter ; Rachel E., wife of Charles Slusher, of Preble county ; David I., who aids his father in the operation of the home farm; Jonathan O., who died at the age of eight years; and George E. and John D., who are yet under the parental roof. Mr. Miller located upon his present farm in the spring of 1882 and has here eighty acres of land. In addition to the raising of cereals he makes a specialty of the grow- GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 269 ing of tobacco, and for several years has operated a threshing machine. His place is improved with fine buildings, and everything about the farm is neat and thrifty in appearance, indicating the careful supervision of the owner. Mr. Miller is independent in politics and has not voted since casting his ballot for General Hancock, twenty years ago. His time and attention are largely given to his business affairs and in these he has met with creditable success. Activity in the affairs of life, guided by sound judgment, has brought to him a comfortable competence and he is therefore classified among the substantial farmers of his community. MRS. ELIZABETH SHERRY. Mrs. Elizabeth Sherry belongs to one of the pioneer families of Darke county, and within the borders of the Buckeye state she has spent her entire life. She was born in Versailles, August 26, 1840, and is the eldest of a family of nine children, three sons and six daughters, whose parents were David and Mary (Conner) Grissom. Her father came to Darke county during his early boyhood, acquiring his education in the public schools and throughout his active business career carried on agricultural pursuits here. The greater part of his life was passed in York township and he has met with a fair degree of success in his undertakings. He died when about sixty-two years of age, in the faith of the United Brethren church, of which he had long been a consistent member. Of his children seven are yet living, namely : Mrs. Sherry; Alfred, a soldier in the civil war, wh0 is now married and follows farming in Jay county, Indiana ; Hiram, who also was one of the "boys in blue," and is now living with his family on the farm in Jay county; Lucinda, the wife of Samuel Lehman, a farmer of York township; Louisa, who is a twin sister of Lucinda, and is the wife of Cornelius Bertram, of York township; Martha Ellen, the wife of Webster Ward, an agriculturist of Wayne township; and Squire Francis, who is an enterprising merchant of Miami county. Mrs. Sherry was a little girl of three summers when she removed with her parents to the farm, the home of the family being a log cabin situated in the midst of the wild country where the work of progress and improvement had as yet made little transformation. She has seen deer upon her father's premises and remembers the day when wild game furnished many a meal .for the settles. The first schoolhouse in which she pursued her studies was built of round logs and the seats were made of split sapplings, without backs. Upon a broad board resting on wooden pins driven into the wall the larger boys and girls wrote their exercises, and the curriculum was hardly more than the three "R's." After she had reached womanhood she promised her hand in marriage to Lewis Sherry, and the marriage was celebarted on the 4th of November, 1859. He was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, February 13, 1838, and was a lad of five summers when he came to Darke county, which was the place of his abode until he was called to his final rest. Diligence and enterprise were numbered among his chief characteristeics and in his various business pursuits he manifested untiring activity, supplemented by sound judgment. He carried on farming for 'a number of years and for some time conducted an agricultural. implement store in Versailles and in Greenville. He carried forward to successful comple- 270 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. tion whatever he undertook and his business methods were at all times above question. His advice and counsel were often sought by his. friends and neighbors and his opinions were fair and impartial and based upon practical sense. With his family he occupied a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in York township, and his father's Old homestead there is still owned by his brother. Such was his upright character that naught was said against his motives. or his acts and thus he left to his family an untarnished name. Mr. and Mrs. Sherry became the parents of four children, .but one daughter .died in early life. Those .still living are Samuel, merchant of Versailles, who married Minerva J. Wilson ; William, who is represented elsewhere in this volume; Alwilda E., the wife of Frank Oliver, who was born in Darke county, March 11, 1860, and by whom she has one son and one daughter, Ernest and Bertha B. Mr. Sherry exercised his right of franchise in support of the men and measures of the Democratic party from the time he cast his first presidential vote for Stephen A. Douglas. He was repeatedly elected justice of the peace of. York township, a fact which indicates the confidence reposed in him, as well as his fidelity and impartiality in the discharge of his duty. He was also a member of the executive committee of the Versailles Farmers' Institute and took great interest in its meetings. Of the Masonc fraternity he was a valued and exemplary member and was likewise a leading representative of the Evangelical Lutheran church, with which he united May 26, 1855. He died January 20 1898, when almost sixty years' of age, .death coming very unexpectedly. In the early morning of that day he awakened and held some conversation with his wife. A little later it appeared that he had again fallen asleep, and, thinking it time to arise, Mrs. Sherry addressed him. No answer came and noting his regular breathing, she hastily summoned by telephone her son-in-law and his family. Before medical aid came, however, he had passed away ana in. his death the community mourned the loss of one of its valued and worthy citizens. Mrs. Sherry makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Oliver, in one of the pretty frame residences of 'York township. She has been to her family a kind and faithful mother and has long been a consistent member of the Lutheran church, and in her life has exemplified its teachings. For almost sixty years she has resided in Darke county and she has witnessed the greater part of its growth and improvement. She belongs to one of the representative pioneer families of the community, for both the Sherrys and Grissoms were long identified with the substantial growth and upbuilding of this section of the state. Her many 'excellent qualities have gained her friends whose regard is tried and true and those who have known her longest hold her in highest esteem. MRS. SAMUEL WILSON. Mrs. Samuel Wilson has been a witness of almost the entire growth and development of Darke county. She was born in Ohio, August, 21, 1836, and is the second of a family of three daughters, whose parents were Jacob and Ann Rebecca (Stamp) Eyler. Her father was porn in Frederick county, Maryland, August 30, 1814, and died September 26, 1886. He was reared upon the GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 271 farm and acquired a good education in the schools near his home, but at an early age he was left to care for his widowed mother, and his educational advantages were meager. He came. with his family to Ohio in 1836; locating in Montgomery county, where he resided for seven years. He afterward spent three years in Greene county and in 1846 came to Darke county, locating in Van Buren township, and in this county he remained until his death. His political support was given to the Democracy, and in religious belief he was a Lutheran. His wife, who belonged to the same church, was born in Maryland, April 27, 1812. and died on the 10th of November, 1897. She was an affectionate wife and mother and her teachings have had marked influence over her children, for she was an earnest Christian woman and reared her children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Mrs. Wilson, of this review, was a little maiden of ten summers when her parents became residents of Darke county. She remained in Van Buren township until her seventeenth year and pursued her education in the common schools. She was then married, on the l0th of September, 1853, to Samuel Wilson. They had little capital with which to start out in life, but they possessed resolute spirits and determined purpose; and the labors of the wife supplemented the work of the husband, who devoted his energies to the tilling of the soil. The first piece of land which they owned was eighty acres in Van buret) township. Subsequently they sold it and purchased sixty-five acres in Wayne township. Their first home was a little log cabin and for Six years they resided in Wayne township, Mr. Wilson being actively engaged in agricultural pursuits. He also possessed considerable natural mechanical ability and was a practical carpenter and bridge builder. Perhaps no better account of his life can be given than to copy the obit-nary which was published in the Versailles Policy, in June, 1897, five days after his death. It says : "Samuel Wilson was the son of Samuel and Mary Frances Wilson, and was born in Greenville township, February 21, 1829. His grandfather and two aunts were killed by the Indians near Greenville. The two aunts, Patsy and Anna Wilson, were murdered in July, 1812. They had left the stockade to gather berries in the afternoon when they were attacked by the Indians and killed by blows on the head with tomahawks. "The parents of the deceased died when he was young, his father being drowned in Greenville creek and his mother died soon after the sad death of the father. After the death of his parents he was compelled to live among strangers until eighteen years of age when he apprenticed himself to Orrin Culbertson as a carpenter. He remained with him until he was twenty-one, when he became a contractor for "himself. He proved himself to be a good business man. By frugality he had become a well-to-do and prosperous farmer. "In the year 1853 he was joined in holy wedlock with Mary C. Eyler, with whom he lived happily until death separated them. To them eleven children were born, eight of whom are now living, seven girls and one son. He was always kind and true to his wife and children. During his life the deceased proved himself a public-spirited man, serving as the treasurer of Yorktown township for four years, a trustee for one year and commissioner of Darke county for six years. Thus his life of usefulness in the home, in the community and the county is 272 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. ended and he has gone the way of all the earth. In the last solemn obsequies we could but manifest our tender regard for him and tenderly lay the lifeless form to sleep in mother earth, committing- his spirit into the hands of the Great Giver of life. May his rest be sweet! To his companion is due an expression of our deepest sorrow, for she, most of all, feels this sad separation. She will be most lonely. May the infinite Father comfort and abundantly bless her ! May the children profit by the counsels of their father and emulate his virtues! Remember there is one above who has promised to be a friend to the orphan and the widow. May heaven smile upon you and bless you. To the dozen grandchildren we say, mourn not that a loved one is taken away. These experiences you will meet often along life's pathway. " We shall miss thee a thousand times along life's weary track; Not a sorrow or a joy but we shall long to call thee back,— Yearn for thy true and tender heart, long thy bright smile to see, For many dear and true are left, but none quite like thee. Not upon us or ours the solemn angel has wrought; The funeral anthem is a glad evangel: the good die not; God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly what he has given: They live in thought and deed as truly as in heaven." Such is the account of the life and character of Samuel Wilson by one who knew him long and well. He was for many years identified with agricultural pursuits in Darke county. After residing on two different farms in Wayne township, he sold his poperty there and purchased eighty acres of land in Richland township. Two years later he disposed of that tract and bought one hundred and thirty acres in Wayne township, but lived there for only two years, after which he sold cut and bought a quarter-section of land in York township. This was partially covered by timber and brush and the improvements on the place were a little log cabin and log stable. In his business affairs, however, Mr. Wilson prospered and year by year added to his possessions. At one time he was the owner of six hundred acres in Darke county and in Indiana. In 1876 he erected on his home farm in this county a beautiful brick residence and the following year built a large and commodious barn. He also made other substantial improvements which added to the value and attractive appearance of this place. About 1890 he erected on section 15. a tasteful and pleasant house in which their daughter, Mrs. Gilbert, now resides. Mr. Wilson was a very successful farmer and stock-raiser, and his careful management of his business interests brought to him a well deserved success. He was known far and wide as a benevolent gentleman, always just and fair in his dealings. To his family he not only left a handsome estate but also that priceless heritage which is rather to be chosen than great riches. In politics he was a Democrat and filled the office of township treasurer for four years. He was also a township trustee for two years and county commissioner for six years. In all these positions he discharged his duty with marked promptness and fidelity and won the high commendation of all concerned. The poor and needy ever found in Mr. and Mrs. Wilson warm friends who were willing to aid them, and to many public movements and measures which have contributed to the general good they were liberal supporters. GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 273 This worthy couple became the parents of eleven children, two sons and nine daughters, of whom eight are yet living, as follows : Cynthia H., who resides with her mother on the old homestead ; William J., who is represented elsewhere in this volume; Minerva J., the wife of Samuel Sherry, a merchant of Versailles, by whom she had a son and daughter ; Iola Belle, the wife of Charles Ewry, who was formerly a teacher but is now engaged in the hardware business Portland, Indiana, as a member of the firm of Yount & Ewry ; Ida May, the wife of Harry A. Gilbert, formerly a teacher but now a prosperous farmer of York township, by whom she has one son and two daughters; Mary Frances, the wife of William D. Yount, who is a partner of Mr. Ewry in the hardware business, and by whom she has two sons ; Edith G., wife of .S. A. Overholzer, who was formerly a successful teacher and is now a prominent farmer in Richland township, by whom she has one son ; and Minnie, the wife of William C. Hile, an agriculturist of Wayne township. They too have one son. The children were all provided with good educational privileges to fit them for life's practical and responsible duties, and their life records are .a credit to the family name. Mrs. Wilson is now residing in her beautiful home, surrounded by her children and a host of warm friends, among whom she has long resided. Her beautiful Christian character and her upright life have gained to her the love and esteem of many. In the Versailles cemetery stands a beautiful Scotch granite monument sacred to the memory of her husband, who so long traveled life's journey, sharing with his family its joys and sorrows, its adversity and prosperity. She bravely met the hardships and trials of pioneer life in the early days and now well deserves the enjoyment which comes to her through the comforts with which she is surrounded. R. K. BEAM. The name Beam figures conspicuously on the pages of Darke county history. The ancestry can be traced back to the fatherland, and many of his sterling qualities found their origin in the Teutonic race. He was born in Darke county, December 28, 1851, and in a family of ten children,. three sons and seven daughters, was the fourth in order of birth. His parents were Solomon and Elizabeth (Warvel) Beam, and the father was born in Richland township, Darke county, on the 26th of February, 1823. He was one of the oldest native sons in this locality. In his early life he was a sawyer in Brown township, following that pursuit at a time when the county was largely covered with a heavy growth of timber. In later years he carried on agricultural pursuits. At the time of the civil war, prompted by a spirit of patriotism, he responded to the call for aid and joined the "boys in blue" of Company G, One Hundred and Fifty:- second Ohio Infantry. His regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and he participated in a number of important engagements and all of the trying ordeals which make up a soldier's life. He went with Sherman on the celebrated march to the sea, and on one occasion he had his leg broken, which necessitated his discharge. He entered the service as second lieutenant of the company, and was always known as a loyal soldier. 274 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. A man firm in support of his honest convictions and earnest in all things, he commanded genuine regard from all those with whom he came in contact. As his guide through life he followed the precept of the Golden Rule, and it was exemplified in his daily conduct with men. In politics he was an old-line Whig, and in ante &limn. clays advocated abolition principles and became a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln, becoming one of the early supporters of the Republican party, upholding by his ballot its men and measures. He was regarded as one of the substantial farmers of the community, and on coming to township he entered eighty acres of forest land on section II, where he built a log cabin and made his home until his death, which occurred on the II th of January, 1866. He was progressive and public-spirited, and gave his support to many interests which he believed would prove of benefit to the community. He was interested in the construction of the Old Mackinac Railroad, now known as the Cincinnati & Northern Railroad, and his material assistance was given to many other measures. His father, George Beam, came to Ohio from the state of Pennsylvania, and was one of the pioneers of Richland township. He staked out the first lot in Beamsville and the town was named in his honor. The mother of our subject was a daughter of Christopher and Charlotte (Lilly) Warvel, who were early settlers of that county. She was born May 16, 1827, and is still living in the village of Ansonia. For Many years she was a member of the United Brethren church, but now holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, and is an earnest Christian lady, whose belief finds exemplification in her upright life. Her influence has had marked effect on the character of her children, who have every reason to be grateful for the wise teachings of a tender and loving mother. Six of her children yet survive, namely : Daniel C., who was a soldier in the civil war, is married and is now following farming in Allen township; R. K., of this review; Patilina, the wife of John Ketrow, a commercial traveler residing in VanWert, Ohio; Jane, wife of A. J. Lickel, a farmer of Mercer county, Ohio; Leroy S., a farmer who is married and lives in Brown township ; and Mollie A., wife of Dr. De Ford, who is a graduate of the Cincinnati Medical College, and is now a successful practitioner in .Rossville. R. K. Beam, whose name forms the caption of this sketch, is a typical Ohioan. He was reared to farm life, and throughout his active business career has carried on general farming and stock raising. The common schools afforded him his educational privileges, but he is largely self-educated, for when he was fifteen years of age his father died, leaving him to support his widowed mother and the other children of the family, as he was the eldest. His life has been one of industry and earnest toil, but the difficulties which he has met have served to develop in him a strong character. Many obstacles were in his path, and at times -his boyish heart almost failed him, but he would renew his courage and press manfully upward. As the years passed he worked his way steadily upward, and • today he is numbered among the substantial farmers and stock raisers of his native county. He remained with his mother until twenty-five years of age, and at that time he married Miss Sarah C. Rue, the marriage taking place on the 15th of March, 1877. She was born November 4, GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 275 1856, a daughter of William and Lovina (Birman) Rue. In the family were ten children, of whom nine are yet living, all residents of Darke county. The father was born in Hanover, Germany, September 9, 1831, and died April 16, 1896. He was brought to America by his parents when only three years of age, the family locating in Germantown, Ohio. He became a well-to-do citizen of York township, and lived an honorable life. His widow still survives him and is making her home on the old farmstead in York township, at the age of sixty-four years. She has been a life long member of the Lutheran church. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Beam have been born nine children, eight yet living, as follows : Augustus, who was educated in the common schools, is associated with his father in farming and stock raising in Brown township : he is married and in his political views is a Democrat ; Myrtle, who is a most estimable young lady of excellent character and a favorite with her many friends, died June 13, 1897; Willie, who assists his father in the operation of the home farm; Daisy, who is attending school and is also studying music ; Ivy, Thomas, Byrell, Virgie and Thelma complete the family circle. Mrs. Beam is of a genial and affectionate disposition, and thus makes a model wife and mother. She and her husband have traveled life's journey together for a quarter of a century, sharing together its joys and sorrows, its adversity and prosperity. At the time of their marriage they began housekeeping in a little log cabin upon rented land, and Mr. Beam's possessions consisted of two old horses and just money enough to enable him to place his land under cultivation. He continued renting for about five or six years, and then purchased forty acres of land, constituting a part of his present farm. He was materially assisted by James Tynan, who had formed a strong friendship for Mr. Beam, when he was a fatherless boy, endeavoring to support his widowed mother and her children. As the years passed our subject was enabled to add to his property, and is today the owner of a valuable farm of three hundred and thirty-one acres in Brown township, supplied with the best modern improvements, including a beautiful brick residence which was erected in 1890.. Near by are found commodious barns and outbuildings and well fenced fields which are highly cultivated, giving evidence 0f the thrift, enterprise and perseverance of the owner. For some time he has made a specialty of stock raising, and for a number of years has raised fine hogs, having a large drove of registered Poland China hogs. He also makes a specialty of registered shore horn cattle, and is well known throughout the entire country as a stock raiser wh0 has done much to improve the grade of stock Which is raised in this section of the state. He is well informed in all agricultural and stock raising subjects, and the methods which he follows afe progressive. For nine years he was the vice-president and superintendent of the cattle and other departments of the Darke County Fair Association and is also officially connected with the Darke County Agricultural Association, his labors having been very effective in promoting the interests of the farmers of western Ohio. Mr. Beam cast. his first presidential vote for Samuel J. Tilden and has since been a stanch Democrat, who has frequently been selected to serve as a delegate to the county, state and congressional conventions. His 276 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. opinions always carry weight in the councils of his party. He was elected as assessor of Brown township when twenty-two years of age, and has been a trustee of the township for two terms, discharging his duties in a most creditable manner. He is a stanch friend of the little red schoolhouse and his labors have greatly promoted the cause of education through twenty years' service as a member of the school board, of which organization he is now the president. In 1885 he was elected one of the commissioners of Darke county and filled the office with such marked ability that he was reelected in 1888. Although but .a young man, his fellow. townsmen recognize the fact that the community was never better represented on the board, for he gave his support to all progressive measures calculated to prove of public benefit and at the same time was practical in his advocacy of such. He has never failed of election when a candidate for office, and in 1888 received thirty-seven votes in the county more than were given Grover Cleveland. He has always been fearless and faithful in the discharge of his duty, standing by those principles and measures which he believed to be right. Prior to his election the Democrats of Darke county were divided into factions and even county commissioners were displaying. marked dissimilarity of opinion concerning the erection of beautiful modern buildings which constituted the "Children's Home," but Mr. Beam's proposition to the commissioners and the public met the demands that were made by those officers and their constituents. A part of the Manix estate was sold and about fifty-two acres were retained upon which was erected the beautiful home which certainly is highly creditable to Darke county, as well as to the men who were influential in its erection, prominent among whom was Mr. Beam. Although his duties were arduous and difficult to perform he discharged them fully and to the best of his ability—and that ability is of a high grade. He is now serving as one of the present pike board of commissioners. He lent his aid and influence toward the work of repairing and modernizing the county court house and has always been found in favor of progress and advancement. The building was thoroughly overhauled, a complete plumbing system was put in and due regard was given its sanitary arrangements. Socially Mr. Beam is connected with the Masonic lodge of Ansonia and his life exemplifies its noble and benevolent teachings. He is also a member of the Darke County Horse Thief Association, one of the worthy organizations of the county, and acted as its president at one time. This is a chartered institution of the state of Ohio and has done creditable work in apprehending criminals. He has contributed to the support of the churches and schools and has been active in promoting all measures for the general good. He and his wife are numbered among the most respected citizens of Brown township and Darke county, and his close connection with its progress and advancement would render any history of the county incomplete that did Snot contain the record of their lives. He is truly a self-made man, one who has worked his own way upward, and his example is indeed in many respects well worthy of emulation. FRANCIS MARION EIDSON. This gentleman, who is now successfully engaged in farming in Greenville township, has led a life of hone3t toil. Throughout GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 277 his career of continued and far-reaching usefulness his duties have been performed with the greatest care, and business interests have been so managed as to win him the confidence of the public and the prosperity which should always attend honorable effort. A native of Ohio, Mr. Eidson was born in Preble county December 14, 1835, and is a son of Boyce and Rebecca (Griffin) Eidson, natives of Virginia and Delaware, respectively, and a grandson of Henry and Nancy (Bunch) Eidson, the former also a native of Virginia, the latter of Scotland. On the paternal side our subject is descended from an old colonial family of English origin, the first to cross the Atlantic being his great-grandfather. The grandfather, Henry Eidson, was a soldier of the continental army during the Revolutionary war, and was a farmer by occupation. On leaving his native state in 1806 he removed to Preble county, Ohio, accompanied by his wife and three children—Boyce, Shelton and Nancy. In this state the family circle was increased by the birth of two other children,—Margaret and William. The grandfather took up land ill the woods three miles southeast of West Alexandria, where he made his permanent home, devoting his time to the development and improvement of his farm. He and his wife were devout Christians and active members of the Methodist church. Upon his farm he built a log church, which took his name, and his home was always the stopping place for the early itinerant preachers. In politics he was a Whig. He died in 1846, aged seventy-five years, and his wife passed away in 1850 at the age of eighty-two. All of their children are now deceased and their descendants are widely scattered. The father of our subject was born in 1802 and was only four years old when the family removed to Preble county, Ohio, where he grew to manhood. Although the educational privileges of this state were meager at that day, he and two brothers prepared themselves for teaching and successfully taught in the schools of Preble county. One brother, William, became a physician; the other, Harry, became somewhat noted as a local politician and also served his fellow townsmen as a justice of the peace for over twelve years. About 1839 Boyce son married Rebecca Griffin, a daughter of Jacob and Hannah Griffin, who removed from Smyrna, Delaware, to Preble county, Ohio, at a comparatively early day. The Griffin family was founded in America by three brothers, natives of Wales. To Mr. and Mrs. Eidson were born ten children, namely : Griffin, Henry and Charles, all deceased ; Nancy, the widow of Chester Rensman; Frank M.; Priscilla, the widow of James Gable; Willard; Lucy, the wife of H. H. Payne; Olevia, the wife of William Shuman ; and Anna, the deceased wife of Benjamin Smith. After his .marriage the father of our subject engaged in farming in Preble county for a few years and then removed to West Alexandria, where he conducted a hotel until 1884, when he returned to the farm for two years. He next moved to Johnsville, Montgomery county, Ohio, where he died in 1847. He was a man of good business ability and was highly respected by all who knew him. He served as assessor in Preble county, and fraternally was a Mason. His estimable wife died at her home in Preble county in 1898, at the ripe old age of eighty-seven years. In the county of his nativity Francis M. Eidson grew to manhood and obtained a good practical education in the public 278 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. schools which he supplemented by a course of study in a commercial college in Eaton. He remained with his mother until eighteen years of age, and then began life upon his own resp0nsibility. For three years he was engaged in the tanning business with his eldest brother at Eaton, and in 1860 came to Palestine, Darke county, buying the tannery from George Kester at that place and forming a partnership with Jonathan Hardin. The following spring, however, when President Lincoln issued' his call for seventy-five Thousand men to assist in putting down the rebellion, he enlisted for three months in Company K, Eleventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and left his business in the hands of his partner. His term of service was principally spent at Camp Dennison, Ohio, doing picket duty. Upon receiving his discharge in July, 1861; Mr. Eidson returned home and resumed the tanning business. Shortly afterward he .was appointed by the military authorities .to take the poll of German township, preparatory to a draft that was being contemplated and was afterward made. On the 24th of June, 1862, he married Miss Lousetta A., a daughter of George and Eve (Frank) Kester, of Darke county. By this union have been born seven children, namely: Boyce; Clara, the wife of Jacob Schafer, who has a position in the Merchants' National Bank, of Indianapolis; Virginia, the wife of Orla Harrison, an attorney of Greenville ; Harry and Frankie, both deceased ; George McIntyre and Frank Murray. In 1864 Mr. Eidson purchased his partner's interest in the tanning business, and putting all his energy into the same he was soon doing an extensive business. Employing extra help, he accumulated a large stock of finished and unfinished stock, but on the night of February 14, 1865, his plant and the entire contents of the building were destroyed by fire, at a total loss of five thousand dollars, as there was no insurance upon the property. With characteristic energy, however, he rebuilt on the old site and about the same time entered into negotiations with Elisha Dawes, of Greenville, which resulted in selling Mr. Dawes a half interest in the Palestine tannery, and he himself buying a half interest in Mr. Dawes' tanning business in Greenville. Mr. Eidson then moved to Greenville to assume charge of the manufacturing part of the business.: They carried on business together to their mutual profit and satisfaction for three years, when 0ur subject purchased his partner's interest. His next partner was D. M. Stephenson, who had a shoe finding and leather store, to which he gave his personal attention, while Mr. Eidson conducted the tannery. This connection was dissolved in 1876, when the business was divided, Mr. Eidson taking the tannery as his portion, and Mr. Stephenson the store and stock. Our subject was then alone in business .until 1881, when, becoming somewhat weary of that line of trade and the business outlook not being particularly, good, he sold out t0 T. B. Warring. and subsequently purchased Mr. Warring's Fruit Hill farm of two hundred and twenty acres on section 10, Greenville township, upon which he has resided for the most part ever since, carrying on farming and stock raising, and for fourteen years previous to 1899 he conducted the Fruit Hill dairy with good success. As a Republican Mr. Eidson has been prominently identified with local politics for many years. His popularity is attested by his being elected township trustee in a 'township that has an overwhelming Democratic. GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 279 majority, and he filled that office one term. He was a member of the city council of Greenville six years, the school board of that place four years and is now serving his sixth year as a member of the County Agricultural Society, having been re-elected for a two-years term in 1899. In 1890 he took the census in the west precinct of Greenville township, and all of his official duties have been most faithfully and satisfactorily performed. For twenty-eight years he has been a member of Greenville Lodge, No. .195, I. O. O, F., and he also belongs to Jobes Post, No. 157, G. A. R. Mrs. Eidson is a member of Rebekah's Bee Hive Lodge, No. 266, of Greenville. She was the first noble grand of the lodge and delivered the noble grand's charge the first five years of the lodge's existence, since which time she has delivered the past grand's charge. She served as a special deputy of the grand master of Ohio for five years, has been sent as delegate to the state assembly nine years and served as state chaplain one year. In all the public entertainments of the lodge she has always been appointed to deliver the addresses of the Rebekah branch of the order. Mrs. Eidson is a member of Jobes Post Corps, No. 223, W. R. C., and is the assistant patriotic instructor. In religion she is one of the active and prominent members of the Universalist church of Greenville, and Mr. Eidson leans toward the doctrines enunciated by that denomination. He is one of Darke county's representative business men and is widely and favorably known. WILLIAM ALLEN LIVINGSTON. This well-known farmer and stock raiser of Wabash township, Darke county, Ohio, was born in Preble county, Ohio, March 16, 1856, and is a son of John Livingston, a retired farmer living near Greenville, who was born in West Virginia. The paternal grandfather, John Livingston, Sr., was a native of Virginia and a butcher by trade. He married and later emigrated to Preble county, Ohio, where both he and his wife died and were buried, though the grandmother survived her husband several years. They had eight children, five sons and three daughters, all of whom are still living, and with the exception of one son all have families. Throughout his active business life the father of our subject followed farming but now, at the age of seventy years, he is living retired near Greenville. About 185o he married Ann Rebecca Vance, a native of Preble county and a daughter of Michael and Ann Rebecca: (King) Vance, both deceased. Mrs. Livingston died on Christmas day, 1898. By this union were born the. following children : John W., who died in infancy; Elly, the wife of David Heckman ; William A., our subject; Isabelle, who died. at the age of fifteen years; Martha Jane; the wife of Dase Stults and a resident of Piqua ; Lucy Ann, at home with her father; Mary Margaret, the wife of Irvin Earsman; and Charles Elmer, who lives near. Greenville. Our subject was reared to farm life and acquired his education in the district schools. On the 23d of October, 1881, he led to the marriage altar Miss Rebecca Gipe, of Darke county, and t0 them were born seven children : Mary Jane, who died at the age of one year; Gracie. John, Rosa, Murley, Clara and Emma A., the last named aged two years, all at home. In 1898 Mr. Livingston rented Uriah Medford's farm in Wabash township, a place 280 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. of one hundred and fifty-nine acres, which he is now successfully operating. He is engaged in mixed farming, raising mostly corn and wheat, and keeps all kinds of stock, horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. He is a thorough, up-to-date farmer and hard worker, and has made sometimes as much as fifteen hundred dollars per year. Politically he is identified with the Republican party, and religiously is an earnest member of All Saint's church. THOMAS BAKER. This well-known and prosperous farmer of Harrison township has an excellent and finely improved farm in the southwest corner of Darke county, the same being only one-half mile from his birthplace, which was in Preble county, where he was ushered into the world on the 30th of November, 1832. His father, Thomas Baker, Sr., was a native of the state of New Jersey, where he was born November 19, 1795, and died in .Preble county, Ohio, in 1879, on the place where the subject of this sketch was horn. The great-grandfather of our subject also bore the name of Thomas and he was born in the Passaic river valley of New Jersey in 1762, his death occurring near Winchester, Indiana, about 1841. The latter's father, Thomas Baker, of Long Island, New York, was a man of prominence in his clay. The original ancestor, who bore the same Christian name, was an officer in the English army and at one time owned all of Long Island. His sword was owned by the grandfather of our subject and he had it manufactured into butcher knives while he was living in Butler county, Ohio, where he settled in 1801. He married Lydia Hand, of New Jersey, where they were married, and they reared five sons and. four daughters. One daughter, Sarah, the first born, joined the organization of the Shakers before. she was of legal age, so her parents brought her home, but she eventually returned to the Shakers, with whom she passed her life, attaining the great age of ninety-one years. The youngest child, Abner, lived to be eighty-eight. The mother of our subject bore the maiden name of Elizabeth Wesley and she was born in Pennsylvania in 1806, John Wesley, the father of, Methodism, having been her granduncle. Our subject is One of twelve children, and of this number four sons and six daughters were reared to maturity and all except one were married. Those living at the present time are : Ann, wife of Henry Hutton, of New Paris, Preble county ; Martha, wife of Michael Reid, of the same locality ; Thomas, the immediate subject of this review ; Elizabeth, widow of David Roberts, resides near Hollansburg, this county ; Mary Ann, widow of John Benson, resides near New Paris, Preble county. The mother of this large family of children died at the age of about sixty-four years, and the father subsequently consummated a second marriage, his death occurring in the spring of 1879, at the age of eighty-four years. He was an extensive and opulent farmer, owning about six hundred acres of land in this section of the state and in Indiana. The subject of this sketch is the owner of two hundred and seventy acres in three farms, all of which he received from his father's estate, and other tracts are still owned by members of the family. Thomas never left the parental home, but on the 13th of December, 1855, he was united in marriage to Margaret Todd, of Preble county, who GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 281 bore him four children, three of whom grew to maturity : Elma E., widow of Wesley Clark, of Spartansburg, Indiana, has three sons. Thomas O. Baker is principal of the high school at Yonkers, New York; he is a college graduate, having taken the degree of Doctor of Pedagogy, and stands high in his profession; he is married. Lennis W. Baker, a resident of Dayton, Ohio, has one son and one daughter. Mr. Baker, of this sketch, consummated a second marriage October 23, 1870, being then united to Miss Sarah C. McClure, of Harrison township, the daughter 0f Samuel and Rebecca (Roberts) McClure. Of this union seven children were born, and of the number only two are deceased. We offer the following brief record of the children : Lucy L. is the wife of Alvah Hunt of Preble county, and they have one son and one daughter. Fanny May died at the age of six years. William Wesley Baker, who is engaged in the meat business at Hollansburg, has one son. George H. Baker is a farmer in Wayne county, Indiana, and has 0ne daughter. Cora E. still. remains at the parental home, as do also Lester E. and Naydean, who are interesting young folk, lending joy and brightness to the family circle. Mr. Baker gives his support to the Republican party and fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order. He has served several terms as road supervisor and also as school director. He comes of a large and vigorous race, being about five feet and eleven inches in height personally and weighing two hundred ten pounds. He has given careful attention to general farming- upon the most approved methods and has been successful in raising stock, in which line he has carried on quite extensive operations. He has bred many good horses, having owned twenty at one time and having foaled one hundred and ten colts. Mr. Baker's home is in the extreme southwest corner of Darke county, but he is known all over this section of the state and in the adjacent portions 0f Indiana, being recognized as one of our representatives and influential farmers and as a man of sterling character. SAMUEL B. MINNICH. For forty years Mr. Minnich has been the postmaster of Castine and is one of the well-known citizens of his locality, whose sterling worth and upright character have won him the respect and confidence of his fellow men. A native of Pennsylvania, his birth occurred in Dauphin county on the T0th of December, 1824. His father, John Minnich, was born in the same locality February 18, 1790, and his wife, Susannah Minnich, was born February 6, 1793. The parents have both long since passed away, the former having died October 22 1865, at the age of seventy-five years, while the latter was called to the home beyond in 1856, when sixty-three years of age. Our subject, the fourth son, when a little lad of seven summers came with his parents to Ohio, where he enjoyed the usual common- school advantages, pursuing his studies until seventeen years of age. Through the summer Months he worked in the fields and assisted in the cultivation 0f the home farm until twenty-two years of age, when he left the parental roof and worked at the millwright's trade for three years. In 1858, more than half a century ago, he came to Castine and has since been a worthy and honored citizen of this place. On the 14th of December, 1850 Mr. Minnich was married, by Squire Peter V. 282 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. Banta, to Miss Theressa St. Clair, and to them were born the following children : Joseph, born September 19, 1851, is now a resident of West Sonora and is engaged in grain dealing. He has a wife, and a daughter, who is married. John W., born October 31, 1856, is a traveling salesman, representing a Cincinnati house. Bertha is the wife of H. C. Minnich, a resident of Hillsboro. Ohio, and unto them were born two children. Mrs. Theressa Minnich was called to her final rest in 1860, at the age of thirty-nine and a half years, and Mr. Minnich was again married, February 9, 1862, his second union being with Evelina Law, the ceremony being performed by Peter V. Banta, the same worthy justice of the peace who first married him. Her father, Thomas Law, was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, November 17, 1815, and died in 1858, at the age of forty-three years. His wife, Mrs. Catherine Law, passed away October 27, 1870, at the age of fifty-four years and five months. By the second marriage there is one daughter, Bertha, born October 26, 1870. When Mr. Minnich located in Castine, more than a half century ago, he engaged in the manufacture of hardwood lumber, owning and operating a steam sawmill. About ten years later he exchanged that for the general merchantile store, and the firm of Minnich & Hamiel has always held the first place in the business interests of the village, their annual sales amounting to from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. Mr. Minnich purchased his first bill of goods in Dayton, its value being three hundred dollars. He offered to pay cash if they would discount five per cent on the bill, but the wholesale merchant declined this, telling him to bring his money home and loan it. This he did, at six per cent per annum, and the goods were purchased on a year's credit without interest. The firm have had as high. as forty thousand dollars on their books at one time, and the unpaid accounts due the house at this time are over thirty thousand dollars. During the intervening years the firm of Minnich & Hamiel have taken large contracts for the building of pikes, constructing twelve miles of pike which forms an important part of the system in the county. Mr. Minnich has one of the largest and most pleasant homes in the village surrounded by spacious grounds and well kept gardens. All that he has he has acquired through his own efforts and his well directed labors have brought to him very desirable success. For thirty years he has been a Knight Templar Mason and, with a thorough understanding and appreciation of the benevolent principles of the order he has loyally exemplified its teachings. In politics he is a Republican and for forty years has filled the office of postmaster in Castine, accepting the office in 186o and filling it continuously since, with the exception of the period of President Cleveland's administration. He has served as township trustee and also as township clerk. His life has been well spent and his useful, active and honorable career has gained him rank among the leading representative and esteemed citizens of his community. WILLIAM H. REPPETO. Among the public-spirited and progressive citizens of Greenville probably none have done more to advance the welfare and prosperity of the town than the gentleman who is now serving as the president of the city council. He has also been a prominent GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 283 factor in business circles, and is a man whose worth and ability have gained him success, honor and public confidence. Mr. Reppeto was born near the city of Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio, in December, 1845, and is a son of Dabner and Charlotte .(McEowen) Reppeto, in whose family were two children, but the daughter, Martha, died in infancy. His grandfather, Alexander McEowen, was one of the pioneers of Darke county and fought under General Wayne when he was making his raid through this county. The father of our subject was a native of Virginia, but during his youth came to Ohio, where he grew to manhood and married. He and his wife began their domestic life in Butler county, where he followed his trade, that of cooper, for a number of years. but at the time of his death, in 1861, was living in Davenport, Iowa. His wife had died in Miami county, Ohio, in 1848. William H. Reppeto received the greater part of his education in the schools of Davenport, Iowa. Although only fifteen years of age he joined the "boys in blue" at the opening of the civil war, enlisting in 1861 in Company C, Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, as a musician, under Colonel William P. Benton. After being mustered into the United States service he was ordered with his regiment to Missouri and Arkansas, and took part in the battles of Pea Ridge, Wilson's Creek and Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas. He served faithfully until February, 1863, when he was taken ill and sent to the hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, where lie remained some months and was then sent to Belleville, Illinois. On recovering his health he re-enlisted in Company B, Twenty-ninth Illinois. Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war, taking part in the siege of Mobile, the capture of that stronghold and Fort Blakely. He was mustered out October 11, 1865. After the war Mr. Reppeto came to Greenville, Ohio, where he attended school for a time, and then learned the cabinetmaker's trade, which he has made his life work, having followed that occupation in several different states. On the i ith of August, 1890, he married his second wife, Miss Amanda E. Cline, a daughter of F. M. Cline, and to them have been born two children, Virgil and Ester. The latter died at three years of age. Socially Mr. Reppeto is a member of Flora Lodge, No. 526, I. O. O. F., at Flora, and has been D. D. G. M. of that order. Politically he is a pronounced Democrat. He has been a member of the city council of Greenville and has been the president of that body for the last year. He takes an active and influential part in public affairs, and was one of the first to agitate and recommend the construction of sewers and the propriety of paving the streets of Greenville. This was met by the most stubborn opposition on the part of many of the citizens, and they went so far as to get out an injunction against the enterprise, but he car-red his point, and the city now has great reason to be proud of its streets. WILLIAM EWRY. As the name indicates, the Ewry family is of German lineage and probably not many generations have been residents of this country, for the grandfather, John Ewry, could fluently speak the German tongue. During the greater part of this century representatives of the name have been identified with the agricultural interests of Ohio. William Ewry was born near the site of the city 284 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. of Dayton, in Montgomery county, September 14, 1826, the second in a family of six children, three sons and three daughters, whose parents were David and Alice (Tyron) Ewry. Only two of the children are now living, the brother of our subject being Bazil, who is married and resides in Versailles, Ohio. The father was born in Maryland about 1803 and died in 1866. Throughout his life he followed farming and also possessed considerable mechanical ingenuity. During his early boyhood he came with his parents to Ohio, a settlement being made in Montgomery county in the midst of the heavy forest. The beautiful city of Dayton, now containing about one hundred thousand inhabitants, was then a mere hamlet. The family experienced the usual hardships and trials of pioneer life and David Ewry continued his residence in Montgomery county until 1838, when he came to Darke county, entering one hundred and sixty acres of land in York township. The land office was located in Cincinnati and thither he went to establish his claim to the property. The old parchment deed containing a description of the farm and signed by President Van Buren is now in the possession of our subject. The father met with a fair degree of success in his farming operations. Only in memory can one picture the pioneer home in which he lived—a cabin built of round logs, the dimensions of the house being 16x20 feet. There was a mud and stick chimney, a clapboard roof and the second floor, or loft, was so small that nothing but a bed could be placed therein. Not a furrow had been turned or an improvement made upon the farm, and a road had to be cut through the brush and timber from the York farm to their home. The town of Ansonia was not known and Greenville was a mere hamlet, while the leading trading post was at Beamsville. Wolves frequently made the night hideous with their howling, bear was sometimes killed and stately deer stalked through the forests. The traveler of to-day can scarcely realize that such was the condition of the country only about a half century ago and that many who are still living in the community have seen this section of the state when it was in its primitive condition, unchanged by works of civilization. David Ewry voted with the Whig party until the organization of the Republican party, when he joined its ranks. He held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church and aided in the erection of the house of worship which stood on his farm. Of kindly and helpful spirit, his sterling qualities were well worthy of emulation. His remains now rest in the Beamsville cemetery, where a substantial monument has been erected sacred to his memory. His wife, who was born in Greene county, Ohio, died when her son, William, was six years of age. Mr. Ewry, of this review, was a lad of twelve summers when he became a citizen of .Darke county, and for sixty-two years he has witnessed the wonderful progress and development of this section of the state. He was trained to habits of industry upon the home farm, giving his father the benefit of his services until he was eighteen years of age, when he started out to make his own way in the world. He began work in a brick yard for six dollars per month, and his father was to receive half of his salary. Going to Montgomery county he was there employed to cut wood for twenty-five cents per cord. The following year he secured GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 285 work as a farm hand at nine dollars per month, and was thus employed for six months. At the end of that time he had drawn only ninety-five cents of his salary, so that he was the possessor of a capital of fifty-three dollars. It was such an industrious and economical spirit that enabled him to gain a good start in life and steadily work his way upward to a position of affluence. He has been employed at different times and at various kinds of labor in Montgomery, Shelby and Greene counties, having been absent from Darke county for twenty-three years. In Dayton, Montgomery county, Mt. Ewry was united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Prugh, the wedding taking place May 25, 1851. She was born in that county October 12, 1831, a daughter of Peter and Charlotte (Mitchell) Prugh. They have six children, three sons and three daughters, five yet living: Anna C. is the widow of W. D. Anderson and resides with her parents in the Anderson cottage in Ansonia ; Margaret Viola is the wife of D. J. Lyons, a prosperous resident of York township; Charles S. is married and is engaged in the hardware business in Portland, Indiana; David S., who graduated in the United Brethren College in Dayton, Ohio, is now a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, living in Brown county, this state ; and William Franklin, a prosperous young farmer of York township, is serving as justice of the peace. For forty-nine years the parents have traveled life's journey together, their mutual love and confidence increasing as the years have passed by. They have reared a number of children, of which they have every reason to be proud, and have provided them with educational privileges, thus fitting them for life's practical duties. When Mr. and Mrs. Every began their domestic life their possessions were very limited, their cash capital being a five-dollar bill, and in addition they had a span of horses and a wagon and a few farm implements. The first real estate which Mr. Ewry ever owned was a house and lot in Beavertown, Montgomery county. About 1867 he returned to Darke. county to the old home farm, becoming its owner by purchasing the interests of the other heirs. He has here erected an elegant brick residence, substantial barns and outbuildings, and now has a splendidly improved farm. He has paid off all indebtedness, has seventy-five acres of his land under cultivation and is to-day one of the substantial and progressive farmers of his community. His life illustrates what may be accomplished through determined purpose, unfaltering energy and honorable business methods. He makes a specialty of the cultivation of tobacco, corn, wheat and oats, and the crops bring to him annually a good income.. In politics he is a Republican and has served as township trustee for two different terms. Through the passing years he has been an eye witness of the upbuilding and improvement of the county, having located here when few of its roads were builded. Now there are over one thousand miles of pike road and the county is crossed and recrossed by a network of steel tracks. He has been the friend of progress and is regarded as a public spirited citizen who well deserves representation in this volume. WILLIAM P. McGRIFF. Through many decades the name of McGriff has figured in connection with the agricultural annals of Darke county, and of this 286 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. honorable calling William P. McGriff is a representative.. He was born in Twin township, August 3, 1850, and his father is Price McGriff, who is a native of Preble county and is now living retired in Darke county. The grandfather, Patrick McGriff, was also born in Preble county, and thus it will be seen that the family has long been connected with Ohio in its history. Mr. McGriff, of this review, was reared upon the old homestead, where he remained until he was eighteen years of age. He received a meager education, pursuing his studies through the winter season in the district schools of the neighborhood until about sixteen or seventeen years of age. During the summer months he worked in the fields, aiding in the cultivation of the crops. He remained at home until his marriage, which occurred on February 18, 1875, the lady of his choice being Melzoni Braddock, who was born in Preble county, and is a daughter of James and Margaret (Shields) Braddock. Her father was born in Montgomery county in 1833 and her mother in Virginia in 1836. They were married about 1852 and had six children, all. of whom are yet living, with one exception, Jane, who became the wife. of Charles Barnus and died soon after her marriage, leaving one child. The children of Mr. and Mrs. McGriff are Clayton, Flora, Dewitt and Gorman. The family reside in a pleasant home upon a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, which Mr. McGriff purchased in 1888, the purchase price being sixty-five dollars per acre. On the farm is a large barn and other substantial improvements. The owner is engaged in raising corn and hogs and also has eight head of horses. He raises about two thousand bushels of corn annually and feeds much of this to his stock, selling about one hundred head of hogs each year. He is an enterprising farmer, whose diligence results largely in the acquirement of a comfortable competence. In politics he is a Democrat and for two terms has served as justice of the peace, discharging his duties in a prompt, faithful and impartial manner. GENERAL C. M. ANDERSON. Conspicuous among those who have conferred honor upon the legal profession of Ohio is Hon. Charles M. Anderson, of Greenville, who is conceded to be one of the most successful, eloquent and powerful advocates of the Darke county bar. His splendid command of the English language has made him an orator. Exactness and thoroughness characterize all his attainments, and added to these is a broad and comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence in all its departments. Prominent in professional and political circles, he is and has been connected with the public affairs which have borne marked influence upon the progress of the state and nation. A man of scholarly attainments, accurate in his judgment of men and events, he is undoubtedly not without that ambition which is so powerful and useful in public affairs, yet he regards the pursuits of private life as being in themselves abundantly worthy of his best efforts. He is one who subordinates personal ambition to public good and seeks rather the benefit of others than the aggrandizement of self. He was born in Juniata county, Pennsylvania, January 5, 1845, and is a son of James and Ruth ( McCahan) Anderson, the former born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in April, 1792, the latter in January, 1800. His paternal grandparents were Irish GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 287 and lived about twenty miles from Dublin, where all of their children except James were born. They emigrated to the new world in 1791. The maternal grandfather of our subject was Patrick McCahan, also a native of the Emerald Isle, and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Sarah Green, was a relative of General Greene, one of the brilliant commanders of the American forces in the war of the Revolution. The parents of our subject were married in November, 182o, and lived on a farm throughout their lives. Charles M. Anderson was a lad of ten years when, in April, 1855, he came with his parents to Ohio. Upon a farm he spent the days of his boyhood and youth and later he engaged in teaching school. During the war lie served as a private soldier in Company B, Seventy-first Regiment of Ohio Volunteers, and was honorably discharged January 6, 1866, the day after attaining his majority. For some months subsequent to his return from the army he attended the normal school at Lebanon, Ohio, and also engaged in teaching. Having determined to make the practice of law his life work, he took up that study under the direction of Judge D. L. Meeker, of Greenville, and was admitted to the bar on the 21st of May, 1868. At once he engaged in practice, opening an office in Greenville, where he has since risen to a position as a leader of the bar. His success has been enviable, grafifying and creditable. He is noted for the wide research and provident care with which he prepares his cases. In no instance has his reading ever been confined to the limitations of the questions at issue ; it has gone beyond and compassed every contingency and provided not alone for the expected, but for the unexpected. His logical grasp of facts and principles and of the law applicable to them has been another potent ele- ment in his success. Mr. Anderson has always been ,a close and discriminating student of political questions, supporting his position by an intelligent understanding of the issues of the day, and yet for many years he refused all promotion in that line. In 1878, however, he made an effort to secure the nomination for congress. The convention met in Sidney, Ohio, and continued in constant session for three clays and three nights, and Mr. Anderson was defeated for the nomination by only one-fourth of a vote. Again on the 7th of August, 1884, he was a candidate for nomination for congress in the Dayton district, which resulted in his securing the nomination on the first ballot. He was elected in the following October, and while in congress served upon the military committee and the committee of expenditures of the war department. He was also appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives one of the board of visitors at West Point, and served with the board ten days under that appointment. In January, 1884, Mr. Anderson was commissioned judge advocate general of Ohio, by Governor Hoadley, which position he held during the term of that chief executive. During the time of the great riot in Cincinnati, by virtue of his office of brigadier general, Mr. Anderson was on duty most of the time, being second in command of the Ohio troops. He received special complimentary notice from the governor for his splendid service on that occasion. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor James E. Campbell one of Ohio's commissioners at the World's Fair, and was chairman of the committee on entertainment at the Ohio building, 288 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. having charge of that service throughout the continuance of the Fair. In 1894 he was chosen by a joint resolution of the two branches of congress as one of the board of managers for the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, which office he filled for six years, with such credit as to secure a reappointment by congress, by a unanimous vote of both its branches, in April, 'g00. His investments have always been in real estate. In this way he has not only advanced his individual prosperity, but has done more to improve and upbuild the city than any other one man, having erected, up to this time, more business houses than any other resident of Greenville. He withholds his support from no movement or measure which he believes will prove of public benefit, but heartily co-operates in all that he believes will secure advancement along material, social, intellectual or moral lines. Of many fraternal organizations Mr. Anderson is a valued representative. He was a charter member of the Improved Order of Red Men, also the Knights of Pythias fraternity, and the Masonic order, in which he has taken all the degrees of the York and the Scottish rites, with the exception of the thirty-third. He also takes an active part in the Grand Army post at Greenville. He is an officer and the largest stockholder the Greenville Law Library. He has a fine private library of over two thousand volumes, containing many rare and choice works, including the celebrated writings of the most noted authors. With the contents of the library Mr. Anderson is widely familiar. He possesses a very retentive memory and is particularly well versed in history. He has traveled extensively in European countries and is a man of particularly fine descriptive powers and a most entertaining talker, as well as an instructive lecturer. His acquaintance is very extended, embracing many men of prominence in all parts of the country, and wherever known lie is highly esteemed for his social qualities, his intellectual activity, his professional qualifications and his upright character. On the 7th of June, 1870, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Anderson and Miss Ella Hart, the only daughter of Moses Hart, a builder and contractor of this city. Their marriage has been blessed with two sons. The elder, William H., is a graduate of the West Point Military Academy, and Robert T., the younger, is now a student at law. Mr. Anderson and his family are widely and favorably known in this county. His life has been a success. His entire career is illustrative of the fact that certain actions are followed by certain results. As a lawyer he has few peers in this section of the state; as a soldier he displayed bravery and true patriotism ; as a public official his actions have been above reproach or criticism; and as a citizen he is an illustration of our highest type of American manhood. GEORGE EMRICK. George Emrick is an octogenarian, and through the long years he has ever lived so to command the respect and confidence of his fellow men. He has put aside business cares and is now enjoying a well merited rest, while from those who know him he receives the veneration and respect which should ever be accorded one who has traveled thus far on life's journey. His home is on section 34, Butler township, Darke county, and he is numbered among the native sons of GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 289 Montgomery county, Ohio, his birth having occurred in Germantown, on the 25th of November, 1818, and he is a son of Conrad Emrick, who was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1786. At an early period in the development of Ohio he came to this state, establishing his home here in 1810. The journey was made in the usual emigrant style, the destination being reached after five weeks of travel. The parents of our subject were in limited circumstances and never owned a farm, but had a little home in Germantown, where the father engaged in blacksmithing. He married Elizabeth Fie, of Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, and they became the parents of ten children, two of whom were born in Pennsylvania, while eight were natives of Ohio. The father died in Germantown, in 1828, at the age of forty-two years and was survived by his widow for twenty-two years, her death occurring in 1842, when she had attained the age of sixty-two. Mr. Emrick, of this review, learned the blacksmith's trade under the direction of his elder brother, Daniel, who died about 1874, at the age of sixty-six years. He was survived by his .second wife and ten children. Our subject received very limited school privileges, but experience in the practical affairs of life has added greatly to his knowledge and made him a well informed man. He was married in his twenty-third year to Frances Arnold, of Montgomery county. where her birth occurred and their marriage was celebrated. Fourteen children blessed their union, of whom nine sons and three daughters reached mature years : Josiah, who reared two of his three children; Cyrus, who had ten children; Levi, who died at the age of seventeen years ; Barbara, who had six children; Uriah, who had eight children; Matilda, whose family numbered three children; Benjamin, who was the father of six children; George, who had a family of four children : Solomon, who had one child, and Lizzie, who had two children. The mother died in 1885, at the age of sixty-four years, and fifteen months later Mr. Emrick was again married, his second union being with Mrs. Coy, who yvas a widow and by her first marriage had seven children, as follows : William, a farmer of Preble county; Edward, who is living in Indiana and has one daughter; Amila Bechtol, who has five children; Levi, of Cleveland, Ohio; Frederick and Ira, who are enterprising young men and manage the Emrick farm, making a specialty of tobacco ; and Emma Williams, who has one daughter. The farm which Mr. Emrick owns and occupies comprises one hundred and sixty acres of land, upon which he has made his home since 1865. He bought this property for nine thousand dollars, but at that time was enabled 0nly to make a partial payment on it. He has carried on general farming, making a specialty of the raising of wheat and has harvested as high as fourteen hundred bushels in a season, for which crop he received one dollar and five cents per bushel. He has sold wheat as high as three dollars per bushel. In all his farming operations he has manifested a practical, progressive and enterprising spirit and has worked his way steadily upward, becoming the possessor of a handsome competence, which now enables him to live retired. In all his dealings he has been straightforward and honorable, enjoying the respect and confidence of his fellow men in an unusual degree. During his long residence in the county he has become widely known and his circle of friends is extensive. 290 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. PHILIP KESTER. One of the most progressive and successful agriculturists of Greenville township, Darke county, is Philip Kester, who owns a valuable farm of one hundred and thirteen acres pleasantly located a mile and a half west of the city of Greenville. His method of farm management show deep scientific knowledge combined with sound, practical judgment, and the results show that "high-class" farming as an occupation can be made quite profitable. A native of Darke county, Mr. Kester was born near Hill Grove, in Washington township, September I, 1844, and is a son of Christian and Catherine (Burgin) Kester, who were born in Germany, but became acquainted after their emigration to America and were married in this county, the ceremony being performed by Judge Armstrong, in 1838. The father was left an orphan at an early age and had to depend upon his own efforts to secure a livelihood. During his boyhood he came to the United States and first located in Baltimore, Maryland, where lie found employment for a time at railroad building. From that city he came to Darke county, Ohio, in October, 1838, and purchased a farm of forty acres in Washington township, only ten acres of which had been cleared, while a small cabin had been partially erected on the place. Here he and his wife began housekeeping, and it continued to be their home for forty-five years, during which time they were reasonably prosperous, accumulating a handsome competence by years of incessant toil. The father was a man of exceptional character, fully enjoyed life, and was highly respected by all who knew him. He took an active interest in educational affairs, and was officially connected with the schools of his district. In politics he was a Republican. Both he and his wife held membership in the Reformed church, though she was reared a Lutheran. He died February 2, 1882, aged seventy-five years, and she passed away December 13, 1886, aged sixty-six years. In their family were eight children, namely : Catherine, who is now the wife of George Wise, of Darke; Philip, our subject, the next in order of birth; Louisa, who is the wife of W. H. H. Martin, of Darke; Susanna, who is the wife of Eli Cook ; Lavina, who is the wife of S. S. Staudt; and Millie, the wife of Edward Oliver : all these are residents of Darke county; and Lewis and Henry. Lewis enlisted August 11, 1862. in Company K, Ninety-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was in active service until taken prisoner at Lexington, Kentucky, September 1, 1862, by General. Kirby Smith's forces. He was soon paroled and sent home, and .after being exchanged rejoined his regiment at Christmas, 1862, but in April of the following year he was taken with measles and died in a hospital at Mufreesboro, Tennessee, May to, 1863, at about the age of twenty-one years. Henry died in 1860, at the age of six years. Philip Kester's educational advantages were such as the common schools of Washington township afforded during his boyhood. He remained under the parental roof until twenty-three years of age, and then began life for himself as a farmer, purchasing forty-eight acres of land north of Greenville in Greenville township, which he operated four years. On selling that place he bought eighty acres of land in Washington township, where he carried on farming for seven years, and when he disposed of that property he moved to Greenville, where he GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 291 lived four years. In 1887 he located upon his present farm in Greenville township, to the cultivation and further improvement of which he has since devoted his energies with most gratifying results. In 1871 Mr. Kester married Miss Fannie E. Keefawver, daughter of George and Keziah (Rahn) Keefawver, and by this union were born three children : Lewis Ulysses, Elmer E. and Rolla G. The second son, Elmer E., married Effie Finard and has one child, Esther, and they reside in Jackson township, this county. Politically, Mr. Kester is a Republican, and he gives his support to every enterprise which he believes will prove of public benefit, being one of the most progressive and public-spirited citizens of his community. In the summer of 1900 he made a trip to Europe, visiting all the principal cities and points of interest, including the Paris Exposition. HARRISON COBLENTZ. One of the native sons of Butler township, Mr. Coblentz is still residing within its borders, his home being on section 21, where he is actively engaged in, agricultural pursuits. He was born June 2, 1840, and is a representative of an old Maryland family. His grandfather, George Coblentz, was a farmer of that state and became one of the early settlers of Montgomery county, Ohio, where he took up his abode in 1829. He married Catherine Hemp, and they have fourteen children, of whom five sons and seven daughters reached mature years, while three are yet living. The grandfather died about a year previous to the death of his wife. They had both reached the prime of life when called to the home beyond and their remains were interred in the Germantown cemetery. George Coblentz, the father of our subject, was born in Frederick county, Maryland, in November, 1812, and married Eve Foutz, whose birth occurred in Montgomery county, Ohio, in December, 1813. She was a daughter of Frederick Foutz. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Coblentz occurred in March, 1834, and for two years they resided near Germantown, Ohio, but in 1836 came to Butler township, Darke county, locating on eighty acres of timber land. After a year, however, they removed to another farm of fifty-five acres, on which some improvements had been made, and at . other times the father added to his possessions until he was at one time the possessor of six hundred acres of choice land. His success was very creditable, as it came to him in return for his earnest toil, guided by sound judgment. In his family were ten children, of whom three sons and six daughters reached mature years, and one son and five daughters still living. The mother died in February, 1882, at the age of sixty-eight years, and the father 'passed away in May, 1896, in his eighty-second year. Harrison Coblentz, of this review, was reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with the labors of field and meadow. He was thus engaged through the summer months and in the winter season pursued his studies in the district schools. The father gave to each of his children a farm and Mr. Coblentz this secured eighty acres of land, valued at two thousand dollars. He was married, September 18, 1860, to Caroline Hittle, of Butler township, who was born in 1843, a (laughter of Nicholas and Elizabeth (Frishman) Hittle. The mother was twice married, her first husband having been a Mr. Smith. Four children have 292 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. been born to Mr. Coblentz, as follows : John C, who resides in New Madison and has two sons and a daughter; Elizabeth, who is the wife of A. H. Judy, and has three children; Kate, the wife of C. C. Brawley, of New Madison, by whom she has three children; and Frank, a farmer, residing on land adjoining our subject's home. He married Della Crawford. Mr. Coblentz was formerly the owner of three hundred and fifty acres of valuable land, and now has one hundred and two acres, which yields to him a golden tribute in return for the care and labor he bestows upon them. He has carried on general farming on an extensive scale and has also engaged very largely in the purchase and shipment of live stock for many years. He has made the most money through dealing in corn and hogs. In 1860 he moved on the farm he now occupies. He enlarged his home in 1875, making it a very attractive country residence. His business affairs have been carefully directed and his efforts have been crowned with a greatly merited degree of success. In politics he is a Democrat and for twenty years served as the township treasurer—a fact which well indictates his fidelity to duty and the confidence reposed in him by his fellow townsmen. He was also a justice of the peace for six years and has been a member of the board of education for fifteen years. He, his wife and some of their children are members of the United Brethren church, and the family is one of prominence and influence in the community. Mr. Coblentz inherited a strong constitution, and his strength and endurance have been very great, but during the past three years his health has failed him and he leaves the active care of his farm to others, simply giving it his supervision. - His wife is a highly cultivated lady, hospitable and kindly and generous, and few, if any, residents of Butler township are more generally or more highly esteemed than the subject of this review and his wife. They are broadminded people, generous and benevolent, and their many estimable characteristics have gained for them the warm friendship of many. DANIEL BURNS. Daniel Burns is a member of the manufacturing firm of Daniel Burns & Company, of Rossville, and is a progressive, wide-awake business man, whose efforts have contributed in a large measure to the upbuilding and progress of the community with which he is connected. Mr. Burns was born in Mercer county, Pennsylvania, August 26, 1846, and is of Scotch lineage on his father's side, his grandparents .having come from Scotland to America. He was a farmer by occupation and reared a family of two sons, one of whom, C. Burns, died soon after the death of our subject's father. The latter, Thomas Burns, was also a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and was living there when called to his final rest, in 1850. His wife bore the maiden name of Sarah Fry, and was born in Pennsylvania, in 1817. She came of old "Pennsylvania-Dutch" stock. She is still living, at the advanced age of eighty-three years, and makes her home with her children. She was married in 1835 and for a half century has been a widow. Her family numbered five sons and two daughters, but she lost her young; est son, James, who died at the age of two years. The other children reached adult age. Lewis, the eldest, was a farmer, born GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 293 in 1840, and died in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, in 1869, leaving a son and a daughter. Catherine became the wife of Alvah Long, in Erie county, Pennsylvania, and died leaving one son. Abigail is a resident of Jamestown, Pennsylvania. Daniel is the next of the family. Curtis was born in 1848 and is now a farmer in Ashtabula county, Ohio, and has five children, three sons and two daughters. Thomas died at the age of twenty-two years. In taking up the personal history of Daniel Burns we present to our readers the life record of one who is widely and favorably known in Darke county. He was reared to farm life amidst the forest. His father was celebrated as a woodsman arid cleared several farms, one of which he owned at the time of his death. His widow, however, was left with seven children the eldest being but twelve years of age and the youngest a babe. She carefully reared them, instilling into their minds lessons of industry, honesty and perseverance. She gave them the best educational advantages she could afford and her (laughter, Catherine, became a school teacher. Daniel Burns pursued his education through the winter months, between the ages of twelve and eighteen years, but in the summer time his services were needed on the farm and he worked in the fields from early morning until late at night. He remained with his mother until he was twenty-six years of age, and during that time followed the carpenter's trade to a considerable extent. When a young man of nineteen he began making staves, which he split by hand. He purchased timber on the stump and prepared it entirely alone. Possessed of considerable mechanical ingenuity he did his work well and his patronage steadily increased. The first mill which he owned was located in Warren county Pennsylvania. He became interested in the enterprise in 1882, as a member of the firm of Clark, Allen & Company. In April, 1885, the business was established in Rossville under the firm name of Daniel Burns & Company, the firm owning the mill at this place and one at Coldwater until 1893, when the latter was sold out. The business has been a success and is constantly growing, its sales amounting annually to from twenty-five to forty thousand dollars. Employment is furnished to about fifteen workmen in the mill at Ross-Ville, and the carefully conducted enterprise has secured to its owners a good financial return. They manufacture tight barrels, wagon spokes and other cooperage manufactures. He is also engaged in the grain business, embarking in this line in 1894. He owns an elevator, of which his son-in-law has charge, and his business in this direction is extensive and constantly increasing. Some days he takes in as high as two thousand bushels of grain, embracing corn, wheat and oats. In April, 1872, occurred the marriage of Mr. Burns and Miss Mary C.Covey, who was born in Allegany county, New York, in 1855, a daughter of Wilson and Lydia (Sissem) Covey, both of whom were natives of the Empire state and are now deceased. They were the parente of five children, of whom three are now living, namely : Mrs. Burns; William, a resident of Michigan ; and Mrs. Elizabeth Tappan, also of the Wolverine state. Their mother died at the age of thirty-two years, and by the second marriage the father had two children : Arletta, the wife of Dayton Johnson, and Frank, who is living in Michigan. Mrs. Burns and the other children of the first marriage were 294 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. born in New York, and she became the mother of three daughters and one son. Sarah Lottie, the eldest, was formerly a school teacher and is now the wife of Charles Haber, of Rossville, by whom she has one son. Nellie Abigail possesses considerable musical talent. The remaining are Olive May and Lewis Edmund. Mr. Burns is a Master Mason and for the past twenty-seven years he has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His political support is unswervingly given to the Democracy and through the past six years he has served as township treasurer and as a member of the city council, discharging his duties in a most acceptable manner. His wife holds membership in the United Brethren church and he has contributed to the building fund for the erection of two churches and two parsonages in Rossville. As a citizen he is public spirited, and his co-operation is withheld from no movement or measure that he believes calculated to prove of bublic benefit. In business he is most energetic, carefully forms his plans and is determined in their execution, and his capable management and sound judgment have brought to him a creditable and desirable property. WILLIAM REQUARTH. Prominent among the leading farmers of Darke county, Ohio, is found the subject of this sketch, William Requarth, who resides on his farm on section 29, Greenville township. Mr. Requarth was born in Hesse, Germany, in the village of Exten, September 22, 1833, a son of John Henry and Catherine (Rochmeier) Requarth. natives of northern Germany. There is a legend that the Requarths are of French origin, but so far back as the: family history can be traced, which is for many generations, they were residents of Germany. Both the father and grandfather of William Requarth were named John Henry. The younger John Henry Requarth was born January 9, 1796; grew to manhood on his father's farm in Germany and was married in his native land, living there until 1847. In 1847, with his eight children, he emigrated to America, his wife having died in 1842. Their voyage across the Atlantic was made in •a small sailing vessel, the Anne, and occupied nine weeks, during which time there was much suffering on account of the heat, as the vessel drifted into the tropics. Landing in safety in New York, January 8, 1848, Mr. Requarth and his family immediately set out for Dayton, Ohio, their objective point, traveling across the mountains of Pennsylvania by stage, via Philadelphia and Pittsburg, and arriving at their destination that same month. The following March he bought one hundred and sixty-nine acres of land in Clay township, Montgomery county, and into the cabin already erected thereon lie moved his family. On that farm he was engaged in agricultural pursuits the rest of his life and there he died, January 27, 1880, at the age of eighty-four years and eighteen days. He married his second wife in Dayton a few days after their arrival at that place. The second Mrs. Requarth was a Miss Fredericka Stock, a native of Hesse, wh0 accompanied the Requarths and other families from Germany to this country. She died in 1899. Mr. Requarth's children by his first wife were named as follows: Gustena, Charlotte, Henry, Mena, William, August, Mollie and Frederick. By his second wife lie had seven GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 295 children, one of whom died in infancy, the others being, Charles, Caroline, Henry, Sophia, John and Harmon. The senior Mr. Requarth was a man who possessed the sterling characteristics of the successful pioneer. He brought with him to this country about eighteen hundred dollars in cash, and with this for a foundation he accumulated considerable property and at the same time provided for a large family. A member of the Lutheran church, he was an earnest Christian man and made it the aim of his life to follow the Golden Rule. When a young man in the old country he served for a time in the army, but was released from further service on account of his being the only son of his parents. In this country he affiliated with the Democratic party. Having thus briefly referred to the life history of his worthy father, we turn now to a personal mention of the son, William Requarth. At the time the Requarth family emigrated to America, as above stated, William Requarth was fourteen years old, their departure from Germany being made on his birthday. He had attended school from the time he was six years until he was fourteen, according to the custom in Germany, and had acquired a practical .education in his native language. His confirmation took place at St. John's Lutheran church, Dayton, Ohio, tinder Pastor A. Hordorf, soon after their arrival in this state. He attended school in Montgomery county, where he quickly acquired the *English language, and he was soon able to adapt himself to the conditions in this country. He remained on the farm with his father until reaching the age of twenty-three years. Then he went to Dayton and entered the em ploy of Henry Kimes, a plow manufacturer, with whom he remained eleven months. At the end of this time he bought an ax and started out on his own account as a woodchopper, in Greene county, Ohio. Subsequently he engaged with Daniel Beckel, of Dayton, as a hostler, and was with him eight months in that capacity, after which he farmed on one of Mr. Beckel's farms. While thus occupied he was married, in Dayton, May 5, 1859, to Miss Wilhemena Ostermier, of Greenville, but who was a native of the same place where lie was born, she being a daughter of August and Carolina Ostermier, who came to Darke county in 1854. Mr. Requarth remained on the Beckel farm four years, until Mr. Beckel's death, after which he rented an adjoining farm, known as the Abraham Nichols place. He had saved up a little money meantime, which he invested in stock and farming implements, and on this latter farm he lived three years. In 1864 he bought one hundred and sixty-three acres of the farm on which he now lives, which was then uncleared and mostly under water, and was known as the "wet quarter." For this land he paid twenty-six dollars an acre. His purchase was made in .the fall. The following spring he settled on his land, in a small cabin built of logs and containing only one room: Also on the place was a log stable. The work of draining and improving this farm was no small undertaking, and few would have undertaken it. Mr. Requarth, however, set to work with a will. Through rain or shine, heat or cold, lie could be found at his task, and he seemed never to tire. People often remarked that " Requarth was working himself to death." He cut down the forest and hauled his cord-wood to market, receiv- 296 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. ing three dollars per cord for soft wood and four dollars for hard wood, this for some time being his only source of income. Soon he got a piece of land cleared and a crop planted, which he increased each year. He spent much time and means in ditching and draining his land, and was the first man in this locality to plan and carry out a system of drainage. For a time his neighbors were not in sympathy with his plans. Finally, however, he secured the co-operation of the township trustees and the matter of drainage was made a public enterprise. In 1866 Mr. Requarth sold forty acres of his land, receiving thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents an acre. He made his home in the original log cabin already referred to until 1879, when he built his present brick residence, a handsome two-story house, with an L, attractive and home-like and giving every evidence of comfort and refinement. He also from time to time erected other buildings, his barn in 1870, tobacco sheds in 1872. In 1881 Mr. Requarth was bereaved by the death of his devoted wife, her death occurring on the 9th of January. For more than twenty years she had shared the joys and toils of life with him, doing nobly her part toward the making of their new home. She bore him ten children, eight of whom reached adult age, and of that number seven are now living, namely : Henry William, who died August 21, 1897; Henry F. A.; John H. F.; Henry F. ; Louisa W. ; Wilhemena J. C ;. Caroline W. C. ; Mollie A. ; Carl H. W., who died December 17, 1880, at the age of six years, and Frederick W. A., who died January 22, 1878 ,at the age of ten months. The members of the family now living are all well to do financially. Three are in Springfield, Illinois,—John H. F., Henry F. and Louisa W., wife of Henry Miller. Wilhemena is now Mrs. Mohr and resides in Lima, Ohio. Mollie A. makes her home with her sister in Lima. Henry F. A. and Caroline reside in Greenville, the former engaged in the grocery business; the latter is the wife of James Moore. January 20, 1882, Mr. Requarth married Mrs. .Wilhemena Koester, whom he has known from girlhood. By her first husband, Ferdinand, F. Koester, she had four children, all of whom, are living : William, of Springfield, Illinois ; Sophia, now Mrs. Charles Friark, also of Springfield, Illinois; Mena, the wife of Henry, the second son of Mr. Requarth, Greenville, Ohio; and Charlotte, the wife of Frank Stauffer, of Darke county. By her marriage to Mr. Requarth she also has four children, namely: Frederick H., Catherine A., Carl H. E. and Maria R. C. Mr. Requarth has long been known as one of the most enterprising men of the county. Whatever he has taken hold of he has pushed with vim and energy. He is progressive in every line of thought and action ; and that he is appreciated by his fellow citizens is evidenced by the fact that they have frequently called him to places of responsibility. In this connection it may be mentioned that he has held the office of township trustee five terms, and he has been a school director a number of years. He was the nominee of the Democrats of his county for the office of county commissioner in 1887, but was defeated through party defections arising from strife between warring factions in the party, the majority against him, however, being less than any other man on the ticket. He is one of the directors of the Farmers' Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Darke county. For years he has been active in church and Sunday-school GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 297 work, having been prominently identified with St. John's Lutheran church since 1865, all this time serving in some official capacity, at present being a trustee and the treasurer. For many years he was secretary of the Sunday school, recently having relinquished this work on account of failing eyesight and loss of hearing. He is, however, a well preserved man. He is five feet seven inches in height, weighs one hundred and thirty-five pounds, stands perfectly erect and possesses, so far as the eye can see, all the vitality of men in middle life. JOHN F. SPENCER. Upon a farm on section 16, Harrison township, John Francis Spencer resides. He is numbered among the native sons of the Barnhart farm February 6, 1831. His father was Anderson Spencer, who was born in Greene county, Ohio, January 29, 1806, his parents being Francis and Sarah Spencer. The grandfather was born in England, about 1778, and died in Harrison township, Darke county, in 1870, at the age of ninety-two years. His wife prior to her marriage bore the family name of Spencer and was a distant relative of her husband. Both lived to an advanced age and when called to the home beyond their remains were interred on a farm in this township, where they settled at an early pioneer day. They had ten children, namely : Anderson ; Ludlow ; William ; Clark; Jackson ; Mark ; Elizabeth, the wife of Henry Watson ; Delilah; Eliza Ann, who became the wife of David Polly and resides in Indiana, and Sarah, who is a widow living in Iowa. Anderson Spencer was reared to manhood in the Buckeye state and married Emily Hill, of Harrison township, Darke county, a sister of Milton Hill. _Their marriage took place in 1830 and was blessed with the following children : John Francis ; Hugh, who died at the age of sixteen years; Saul, who resides in Rock Island county, Illinois; Sarah Keziah, the wife of William Alexander, of Harrison township; William, who served in the civil war and died soon after his return home ; Lemuel., of La Platte, Missouri ; Anderson, who died in middle life; and George W., a manufacturer of Anderson, Indiana; and there were also two children who died in infancy. The mother of this family passed away in 1880, at the age of seventy-three years, and the father's death occurred in 1892, at the age of eighty-six years. His life was one of industry and honest toil and he was actively connected with business affairs until well advanced in years. He held a number of township offices, including that of township clerk. He possessed more than ordinary ability and had considerable mechanical genius. Mr. Spencer began work when very young, being employed in the fields when he was so small that he could scarcely reach the plow handles. His educational privileges were very limited, but he pursued his studies as opportunity offered in a log school house adorned with a mud and stick chimney. Through the greater part of his youth he remained at home and in 1853 he went to Kansas. He was married oh the 26th of February, 1857, to Miss Mary, a daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth (Brower) Oukerman. the former a native of Preble county, Ohio. and the latter, of Virginia. Her parents were farming people, who reared thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters, Mrs. Spencer being the second in order of birth. The father died at the age of fifty- 298 - GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. two years and the mother when eighty-three. years of age, their remains being interred in the Palestine cemetery. Mrs. Spencer was born in Palestine, in 1832, and by her marriage has become the mother of eight children, as follows : Lewis, who is living in Anderson, Indiana ; Laura Alice, the wife of Calvin Young, of Washington township, by whom she has two children and three children by her former marriage to David 0. Baker, who died in February, 1887; Oliver, of Indiana, who has one son and one daughter; Minerva Jane, wife of Robert Simpson by whom she has one son ; Settie Ann, who married Newton Clapp. and has one son; Minnie, who was born and died in 1871; Charles, who married. Miss Effie White and operates the home farm ; and Phenie Elizabeth, who died at the age of six years. Mr. Spencer located upon his present farm 0f eighty acres in 1867 and has led a busy, useful and active life, but is now living retired. He has relegated to others the care of his land and is enjoying a rest which he has truly earned and abundantly deserves. He holds membership in Snodgrass Post, G. A. R., of New Madison, is a stanch Republican in politics and has served as school director. Both Mr. and Mrs. Spencer are members of the Universalist church and are people whose well spent lives make them worthy of the veneration and esteem which should ever be accorded to those who have accomplished the greater part of life's pilgrimage. ALBERT HARTER. Albert Harter is the senior member of the firm of Harter & Coblentz, dealers in farm machinery, buggies, etc., and also leading shippers of stock of New Madison. Mr. Harter is but a recent acquisition to the goodly array of progressive business men of this thriving town, but his ability, enterprise and upright methods have already established for him an enviable reputation. He was born in Butler township, this county, October 5, 1857, and is a son of Lewis Harter, a farmer of that township, who was born near New Madison about 1825, and is a son of Samuel Harter, a native of Pennsylvania. Our subject was reared on his father's farm near Savona, and was given a liberal common-school education. He remained at home until he was married, April 19, 1879, to Samantha B. Crawford, of Butler township, a daughter of A. J. and Catherine (Lewis) Crawford, now residents 0f Greenville township. Of the seven children born of this union, the first and third, both daughters, died in infancy, and the second, Earl, also died in infancy. Ivy May died July 20, 1896, when nearly sixteen years of age, being taken in the bloom of youth. She was a most promising young lady, of lovely character and beloved by all who knew her. Erta D. has finished school and is now at home. Edna May and Virgil, aged respectively twelve and eleven years, are still in school and are very blight and studious. In July, 1899, Mr. Harter purchased a farm of eighty acres just outside the corporation limits of New Madison, and he located thereon in the spring of 1900. He embarked in his present business on the 19th of January, 1899, and has already succeeded in building up a good trade. The firm deals in all kinds of agricultural implements, carriages, etc., and ships cattle, sheep and hogs to different markets, averaging about seventy-five carloads per year. GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD - 299 They are wide-awake, progressive business men of known reliability, and have the confidence and respect of their fellow citizens in a marked degree. BARTON W. LONG. Among the representative farmers of Darke county distinctive recognition must needs be given to Mr. Long, whose fine homestead is located on section 16, Harrison township, his postoffice address being New Madison. Barton Webster Long was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, six miles distant from the city of Cincinnati, August 21, 1862. His father, Joseph Long, was a native of bonnie Scotland, where he was horn in the year 1830, coming of stanch old Scotch-Irish stock. The latter's father was James Christopher Long, who emigrated from Scotland to the United States about the year 1840, sending for his family to join him-about two years later. After a few years' residence in the east the family. came to Cincinnati, where he did effective service as a clergyman of the Methodist church. He was a victim of the memorable epidemic of cholera in 1849, his wife and one son also succumbing to the dread disease within twenty-four hours. The father of our subject fled from the plague-stricken city, going to Bartholomew county, Indiana, where he remained for some time. He was married in the year 1855, at the age of twenty-five years to Nancy Jessup, who was born near Cincinnati, in 1831, the daughter of Daniel and Nancy (Stewart) Jessup, the former of whom emigrated to Ohio from New Jersey in the early pioneer days, being an inspector of the Indians, many of whom were installed upon the reservation here. He was of a studious nature and through his own ef forts acquired a good education for his day. The parents of Mr. Long owned a small farm near Cincinnati, and to brighten the little home there came to them six children, namely: Virginia, who died in infancy ; Zendora, who is unmarried and who resides at the home of her brother ; Barton W., the immediate subject of this review ; Madallia, who is the wife of the Rev. T. J. Halstead, an itinerant clergyman of the United Brethren church ; Genevra, wife of J. W. Miller, of Newcastle, Indiana ; and Douglass E.. who died at the age of six months. The mother of our subject died in May, 1884, the father surviving her four years, and their mortal remains were laid to rest in Otterbein cemetery, Butler township, this county. Barton W. Long received excellent educational advantages and prepared himself for pedagogic work, having pursued his studies in New Madison and in the New Parison high school, after which he entered the normal school at Danville, Indiana, and thereafter supplemented his already thorough discipline by a course in a commercial college. Circumstances, however, led to his adopting the life of an agriculturist, and his success has been such as to leave him no regret that lie chose this field of endeavor. The place which Mr. Long owns and cultivates was secured by his father about twenty years before his death, the latter having been for many years an itinerant preacher, and the original place comprised one hundred and sixty acres. At his death the father left a good estate, including a life insurance of six thousand dollars, and it became the duty of his son, Barton W., to finally assume the, management of the property, which was somewhat encumbered. By careful management and well, directed efforts he eventually cleared the estate of indebted-