HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 775 Green Township, which was the home of the family for many years. George Barnhart, who was born in Ross County, was a blacksmith by trade, but died at the early age of thirty-seven in 1872. He was a deacon in the German Reformed Church in Green Township, and a citizen highly respected and exemplifying through his career every quality of morality and uprightness. He left his widow with two children, H. A. Barnhart being the younger. The latter's mother still lives with her son, now at the age of eighty-four. He acquired an education in the district schools, and after the family removed to Adelphi he found employment in the bakery trade. Somewhat later he bought out a monument business at Adelphi, and continued it for some seven years in that town. It was a very small business at the beginning and in the first year at Adelphi, Mr. Barnhart recalls, the sales amounted to only about $600.00. In 1893 he moved his establishment to Chillicothe and formed a partnership with James Gorsuch, but after three years bought out his partner and has since continued the business under the name of Barnhart Granite Company, located at 248-250 East Main Street near the traction depot. For a number of years the volume of business more than doubled every year, and under Mr. Barnhart's judicious management the concern has now grown until the sales for each year run many thousands of dollars. In 1910 he erected a two-story pressed brick building, 34x198 feet, where he has commodious offices and salesrooms, and keeps a large stock of finished monuments. The firm ships in large quantities of rough and finished granite and marble from the leading quarries in the eastern states and Wisconsin, and such shipments come in carload lots. Mr. Barnhart has a completely equipped plant for the handling and finishing of granite and marble monuments, including all improved labor saving devices. These facilities, representing a large amount of invested capital, enable him to control a trade over several counties in Southern Ohio. Mr. Barnhart is a public spirited citizen and his work and influence in any community would be regarded as a valuable asset. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and several other fraternal organizations. He was reared in the German Reformed Church, and in the absence of any church of that denomination at Chillicothe, his family attend worship at the First Presbyterian. He was married March 21, 1888, in Ross County to Miss Rebecca Haynes, daughter of Jacob and Mary Haynes of Chillicothe. To their union have been 'born three sons : Lee M., Earl H., and Robert A. Barnhart. The eldest son, Lee M., for several years has been with his father in the monument business. AMASA IVES SENEY. One of the very old and prominent families of Ross County is the Seneys. It is now represented by Amasa Ives Seney, who has spent his active lifetime as a farmer in Springfield Township. His birth occurred in a house on Second Street in Chillicothe March 17, 1848. His grandfather William Seney was probably a lifelong resident of the State of Delaware, where he died in 1812. He married 776 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY Susan Hurlick, who survived her husband and married Tillman Rawley. Mr. and Mrs. Rawley emigrated to Ohio and settled in Newark, where Mr. Rawley died a few years later. In 1858 his widow came to Chillicothe where she spent her last days. By her first marriage she was the mother of four children : Joshua, John, Henry and Mary, John meeting his death by accident when a young man. By the second union there were two children : Thomas and Bathsheba. Hon. Joshua Seney, father of Amasa I., was born in Kent County, Delaware, November 14, 1808. He was reared and educated in his native state and there learned the trade of chair maker. In 1834 he came to Ohio, making the journey by way of stages, rivers and canals. In the Village of Chillicothe he established a chair factory, and had the distinction of making the first cane-seat chairs manufactured in the state. As a manufacturer his industry was carried on successfully until 1851. In that year he settled on the farm in Springfield Township which had been presented to his wife by her uncle, Amasa Ives. Amasa Ives had set out a large peach orchard, and Joshua Seney continued the development of the place as a fruit center. He planted a vineyard and was the first man in Ross County to raise strawberries on a commercial scale. His home continued on the old farm until his death in the ninety-sixth year of his life. Joshua Seney married Martha Ives, who was born in Chillicothe October 23, 1823. Her father Shayler Ives was born in Bristol, Connecticut, July 4, 1785, a brother of Amasa Ives. The latter was born in 1748 and married Mrs. Barbara Graham, spending practically all their lives in Connecticut. Amasa Ives came to. Ohio and located in Chillicothe among the pioneer settlers. For a time he conducted a hotel on the present site of the Warner House. When he came to Ohio he brought with him the first clock with brass works ever carried across the Allegheny Mountains. Shayler Ives died in 1840. On July 29, 1821, he married Eliza Warren Stevens. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1804 and was a niece of the gallant General Warren who fell While inspiring his troops against the British in the battle of Bunker Hill. Mrs. Shayler Ives married for a second time E. P. Pratt, who for many years was in the jewelry business in Chillicothe. Mrs. Pratt died January 19, 1865. Mrs. Joshua Seney died in March, 1905. She reared the following children : Mary, Warren; Amasa, Martha and Eliza, twins, Susan, Matilda, Lucy and William J. The daughter Mary died at the age of ten years. Warren learned the jeweler's trade, followed it a short time, then went to farming, and died at the age of thirty-three, leaving two children, Edward and Rose. The daughter Martha married J. L. Cryder, and lives in Hopetown. Eliza is the wife of Russell B. Claypool. Susan married William H. West. Matilda is now deceased. Lucy is the wife of Samuel Blue. The father of these children was an active democrat in politics and widely known over Ross County in the early days. In 1855 he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and was re-elected in 1857. He impressed his ability in many ways upon the legislation of HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 777 that important period and throughout his lifetime he stood for those things which meant most to the welfare of a community. Amasa Ives Seney, who carries on the honorable traditions of the family in Ross County grew up on his father's farm, attended the public schools and his early training was that of a farmer. He finally succeeded to the ownership of the old homestead and for many years has lived there in prosperity and success. Mr. Seney married Jennie Smith. They have one daughter, Mary Martha. THE SEARS & NICHOLS COMPANY. It is doubtful if any industry at Chillicothe has a higher and better defined prestige than The Sears & Nichols Canning Company, packers and preservers in tin and glass. It has been appropriately called "a personally conducted business." The men most closely identified with the founding and management of the business are canners by profession, if that term can be used, and from first to last have had one aim, to produce and put on the market goods of the highest quality, not only equalling the best standards of similar products, but measuring up to the most perfect ideals of the canning art. Hence it is not strange that the company stands not only as one of the largest concerns of its kind in Southern and Western Ohio, but has few if any peers in the quality of the well known "Sugar Loaf" products. A few years ago there was a little convention of the managers and salesmen of The Sears & Nichols Company, and the general manager of the company, Mr. L. A. Sears, made an address which for its pithy business sense and practical idealism deserves quotation in full, though there is not space for that in this article. But there are two paragraphs from the address which should be quoted as indicating the ideas which have governed this business from the start. "My ambition," said Mr. Sears, "has been to make the best goods on earth. This is a long standing ambition dating from the time that I entered the business. It was also the ambition of the founders of this company, who had a pardonable pride, a deep-founded pride, to make the best goods on the market. It came to me a good many years ago that our product was a little different from the average run of goods. We had a different view of the proposition than a good many competitors in the business. As near as I could get at the facts I conceived the idea that we were making goods for one purpose—to be eaten. That phrase, MADE TO BE EATEN, we have adopted as our motto in this business —MADE TO BE EATEN. It has something to do with the eating quality of the goods; it has something to do with the cleanliness, the care and the general sanitary conditions of our work, and with the way we handle the raw product. If we cannot make good, if we cannot satisfy our consciences that we are making good on this motto, I want to tell you that we are falling short of our proper ambitions and the proper results we wish to secure. MADE TO BE EATEN involves the whole category of excellence in quality, preparation and everything else. I want everyone to take it to heart, that it is not cheap talk, not talk for 778 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY effect, that we use this motto. We want it to be a truth, and every time you see a dirty corner, or a dirty utcnsil, or anything out of order, this motto should be the only notice you need to go and clean up and put things in order. You do not know what an effect it will have on the general feeling of the whole working force. I know it takes them into a better atmosphere. They will do more sincere work, more honest work, and feel better satisfied with themselves, better satisfied with their work, if they have it done in a clean and wholesome atmosphere." And further on he concluded his address with the following words : "I think it is not too much for me to say that the ambition of the founders of this business, of this corporation, was higher than the mere moneymaking end of it. In fact, I think if there is any criticism we can make of the management of the business in years gone by, it is that they overlooked to a large extent the actual moneymaking proposition ; they lost chances of making profit ; they have frequently given their customers what they could have taken themselves. In other words, it has not been a dominating factor to say what money we could make and what dividends we could declare. We have always had an ambition to merit the good will and maintain our prestige among the trade, which I consider has been a drawback, in some respects, to profit making. I do not know that our crown will be any brighter, or the halo any larger, when we get into the happy hunting-grounds; but it is some satisfaction to know that we have treated our customers a little better than we agreed to do and I want this always to be the purpose and policy of this company. After all the value of a good name is better than riches." There is plenty of evidence to show that the Sugar Loaf products of The Sears & Nichols Company have been recognized as standard the world over for a great many years. At the Paris Exposition of 1889, a bronze medal was awarded the company's brand of vegetables, and at the Louisiana Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, the Sugar Loaf brand of fruits and vegetables in tin and glass was awarded the gold medal. The senior founder of the flourishing business whose headquarters are now at Chillicothe was the late Charles May Sears, who was one of the pioneer fruit and vegetable packers in the west, and who made the canning business his life work. In 1874 he established in Kansas the first factory west of the Mississippi for the evaporation of sweet corn. In 1882 he came to Ohio and shortly afterward became associated with his first partner, his son-in-law, Francis M. Nichols, and together they founded the firm of Sears & Nichols, which was the predecessor of The Sears & Nichols Canning Company. Charles M. Sears lived a long and useful life, and his leading characteristic was his ambition to produce a line of goods in which he and all of his friends could take pride and satisfaction. When it came time for him to lay down the active management of the business he was succeeded by his sons, all of whom have since given their entire time to the industry. The junior founder of the business is Francis M. Nichols. He was born in Livingston County, New York, November 30, 1848, and in 1873 entered the canning business with the late C. E. Sears, founder of The HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 779 C. E. Sears & Company, packers and canners, at Circleville, Ohio. He grew up with the business, soon became a partner with Charles M. Sears, and their combined industry was the foundation of the present flourishing business. Mr. L. A. Sears, one of the sons of Charles M. Sears, who served as general manager of The Sears & Nichols Company, for many years retired from active service in 1915. He was succeeded by Mr. W. J. Sears, a younger brother. He too, is a practical canner, having grown up in the business from boyhood. The officials of the company at present are: Francis M. Nichols, president ; W. J. Sears, first vice president; L. A. Sears, second vice president; James Reicheldarfer, third vice president; Charles H. Sears, treasurer; and J. H. Birnie, secretary. Clarence H. Sears was born July 25, 1865, being one of the younger sons of the late Charles M. Sears, and his birth occurred in Douglas County, Kansas, where his father was at that time located. He grew up and received his education in the Chillicothe public schools, and in 1893 graduated from the Kansas State University. In 1895 he became actively identified with the canning establishment of The Sears & Nichols Company. He now holds the position of treasurer and manager of farm operations. W. J. Sears, who was born July 10, 1869, in Douglas County, Kansas, was graduated from the Ohio State University with the Class of 1894, and for several years was in newspaper work at Chillicothe. He entered the canning business and, excepting five years spent in Columbus, he has held some responsible position with the company. He has always been interested in scholastic work. For eight years from 1907 he served as trustee of the Ohio State University. In 1915 he was made general manager of The Sears & Nichols Company. Hc is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Kit-Kat and Athletic Clubs of Columbus, Ohio, and the Elks, and has membership in the Sunset and County clubs of this city. He also served with Company H, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, during the Spanish-American war, and was ordnance sergeant. He served as vice mayor of Chillicothe from 1905 to 1907 and republican presidential elector in 1904. He also has membership in the Ohio Historical Society. He has held the highest office in his college fraternity. Under his management the company has made further progress, increasing its capital stock and purchasing the properties of the Scioto Canning Co., of Ashville, Ohio, and C. E. Sears & Co., of Circleville, Ohio. The company now owns and operates twelve plants, producing an annual business of $2,000,000. Its new stock issue provides for $300,000 of seven per 'cent preferred stock which is now being placed in the banks of conservative investors. J. H. Birnie, who holds the position of sales manager, is the son-in-law of Mr. Nichols, and has had a long and valuable experience in the sales department of the company. He is a graduate of the Ohio State University and member of the Chillicothe Country Club. 780 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY JEREMIAH HENRY MORROW. Of distinguished Scotch-Irish ancestry, Jeremiah H. Morrow, of Chillicothe, comes from a family that has been prominent in the annals of Ohio for far more than a century, many of his ancestors having been active in public affairs, and influential in advancing the business and industrial interests of state and county, and in promoting their religious development and growth. He was born, May 21, 1870, at Cincinnati Furnace, in Vinton County, Ohio, being a lineal descendant in the sixth generation of Jeremiah Murray, the line of descent being as follows : Jeremiah Murray ; John Morrow, the name having been changed to Morrow in the second generation ; Jeremiah Morrow ; Jeremiah Morrow ; Jeremiah Morrow ; and Jeremiah Henry Morrow. This genealogy of the family has been found in a volume entitled the "History of the Morrow Family," compiled by Josiah Morrow. Jeremiah Murray was born in Ireland, of Scotch ancestry. A Covenanter in religion, he emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, to America in colonial times, settling in Adams County, Pennsylvania. On April 8, 1753, he was ordained, by Rev. John Cuthbertson, the first Covenanter minister sent to America by the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland, as a ruling elder of the Covenanter Society of Rock Creek. He was a farmer by occupation, his land including a part of what was later the Gettysburg battlefield. He died, September 14, 1758, when but forty-seven years old. His wife, Sarah, survived him a number of years, passing away December 19, 1798, aged seventy-six years. They were the parents of eight children, seven daughters and one son. John Morrow, he having been the one to change the family name from Murray to Morrow, was reared to agricultural pursuits, and when ready to begin life for himself settled at Marsh Creek, southwest of Gettysburg, on land deeded to him by John and Richard Penn, his farm containing 222 acres of land. A man of much ability, he became prominent in public matters, serving not only as county commissioner and justice of the peace, but being a delegate to many township and county conventions, over which he was invariably called upon to preside. He was for many years a valued member of the Rock Creek Church, but later was identified with the Hill Associate Reformed Church, of which he was ruling elder. He died in 1811. He married, November 9, 1768, Miss Mary Lockhart. She died, March 12, 1790, and both are buried in the Marsh Creek Cemetery, west of Gettysburg. Jeremiah Morrow, one of a family of nine children, was born October 6, 1771, and as a boy and youth took every afforded opportunity for adding to his stock of knowledge, obtaining a very fair education. Brought up on the home farm, he became well acquainted with its work, cutting the grain with a sickle, and threshing it with a flail. In 1794, trying the hazard of new fortunes, he started westward, and after spending the most of the winter in Western Pennsylvania pushed his way onward to the northwest territory, arriving in the Miami country in the spring of 1795, six months after General Wayne had gained his decisive victory over the Indians, who, even then, committed occasional HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 781 depredations. He spent about three years surveying in the Symmes Purchase, which lay between the Miami River and the Virginia Military District. Purchasing a tract of land in what is now Deerfield Township, Warren County, he built a log cabin near the center of section 15, town 3, range 2, of Symmes Purchase, near the Little Miami River, where he established his home. Activity in public affairs was inevitable in a man possessing the strong traits of character belonging to Jeremiah Morrow, and in 1800 he was elected a member of the Northwest Territory Legislature, and was also elected to the Second Territorial Legislature. On the second Tuesday of January, 1803, when the first election for state officers was held, he was one of the four senators elected from Hamilton County. The Legislature passed an act appointing Jeremiah Morrow, Jacob White and William Ludlow, commissioners to locate the college township, granted by Congress for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Symmes Purchase. The first election for a representative to Congress was held, June 21, 1803, Ohio at that time having been entitled to but one representative. Jeremiah Morrow proved to be the winning candidate, and soon after, accompanied by his wife and two children, he journeyed on horseback to Washington to attend the extra session of Congress, which convened October 17, 1803. Four times re-elected as a representative, he served five terms in that capacity, about a month before the expiration of his last term being elected United States senator. After serving one term, he refused a re-election, but in 1822 he became a candidate for governor of the state, and having served with credit to himself, and to the honor of his constituents, for two years, he was honored with a re-election to the same high position. As governor of Ohio, he welcomed Lafayette to Cincinnati on May 10, 1825, then, as on other public occasions, performing the social duties devolving upon him with ease and dignity. On February 19, 1799, Jeremiah Morrow married, in Pennsylvania, his native state, Mary Parkhill, whose birth occurred in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1776. Returning with his bride to Ohio, they began housekeeping in the log cabin which he had erected on the Little Miami, twenty miles from Cincinnati, the nearest postoffice, and there both spent their remaining days, her death occurring September 19, 1845, and his March 22, 1852, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. They reared seven children, as follows: John ; Jeremiah ; James M. ; Martha, who married George Ramsey ; Mary became the wife of David Mitchell; Rebecca married Dr. Samuel S. Stewart ; and Elizabeth Jane, who married Dr. Andrew C. McDill. Jeremiah Morrow was born in Warren County, Ohio, December 16, 1809, and being studiously inclined was given excellent educational advantages. Graduated from the Miami University, he was ordained as a minister of the Associate Reformed Church, and having assumed charge of the. church of that denomination at Chillicothe, remained as its pastor until his death, July 26, 1843, while yet in. the prime of life. He married, December 16, 1835, Sarah Johnson, who was born November 782 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY 23, 1812, in Chillicothe, a daughter of Henry Johnson, a pioneer of this city. She subsequently removed to Oxford, Ohio. Her death occurred April 9, 1893. She reared three children, namely : Jennie J., who married John L. Jones; Mary Elizabeth ; and Jeremiah. One daughter, Sarah Ellen, died in infancy. Jeremiah Morrow, the youngest child of his parents, and the only son, was born in Chillicothe, October 18, 1843, but a short time before the death of his father. Acquiring his rudimentary education in the public schools of Oxford, he was graduated from the Miami University with the class of 1861. At the outbreak of the Civil war, with several other of his college mates, he enlisted for three months in Company —, Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and continued with his regiment until receiving his honorable discharge, at the expiration of his term of enlistment. Subsequently enlisting in the United States navy, he served as assistant surgeon steward on Admiral Porter's flag ship, being on the vessel during several engagements. Honorably discharged at the expiration of his term of service, he returned to Oxford. Subsequently going to West Virginia, he was engaged in exploring the oil fields of that vicinity for a time, and then went to Vinton County, Ohio, where he was assistant manager of the Cincinnati Furnace until 1872. Since that year he has been actively engaged in developing, and operating, coal mines for himself and other promoters in Jackson County, at the present writing, in 1915, being a resident of Wellston. The maiden name of his wife was Louesa Treat Ford. She was born near New Haven, Connecticut, a daughter of Stephen T. Ford, and to them six children have been born, namely : Jeremiah, Henry, William Treat, Mary Louesa, Jennie Julia, Frank C., and Charles H. Jeremiah Henry Morrow attended first the public schools of Jackson County, later continuing his studies at normal schools. Accepting a position as clerk in the Ohio Coal Exchange Company, at Columbus, he retained it for two years, and during the ensuing two years was engaged in developing the coal mines and mineral fields of Jackson and Vinton counties. In 1894 Mr. Morrow came to Chillicothe to accept the position of private secretary to the late William Trimble McClintock, with whose estate he is now connected. Mr. Morrow married, June 6, 1899, Nannie May Duddleson, who was born in Vinton County, Ohio, a daughter of Henry and Jean (Apple-man) Duddleson, and into the household thus established two children have made their advent, Wayne and Inez. Politically, Mr. Morrow is affiliated with the republican party, and religiously both Mr. and Mrs. Morrow are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. DOUGLAS R. GRIFFIN. While his activities have at times led him into other fields of endeavor, the stable occupation of farming has enlisted the early as well as later interest of Douglas R. Griffin, whose entire life has been passed in Liberty Township. Through the exercise of inherent ability and good management he has been successful in the accumulation of 500 acres of land, and Kenmore Farm, near Vigo, HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 783 boasts of as fertile soil and as modern improvements as are to be found in the county. Douglas R. Griffin is a descendant of an old and patriotic Virginia family. His paternal grandparents were Samuel and Mary (Wesson) Griffin, whose ancestors fought in the Continental service during the War of the Revolution and subsequently received land grants in the military district of Ohio. Later, in the great war between the states, members of the same family, descendants of the Revolutionary heroes, espoused the cause of the Confederacy, which their state had promised to support. Some of them gave their lives to the "Lost Cause," while others lost their money and lands and were reduced from affluence to poverty. Among the latter was William Wesson, a cousin of Mary Wesson, who devoted a great fortune to the equipment of Confederate troops. Among the brothers of Samuel Griffin, all men of influence, were Sabot, who was a captain of volunteers in the Confederate army: and John, also a Confederate officer, who, after the war, was made county judge of Brunswick County, Virginia. Samuel Griffin and his wife came from Virginia early in their married life, in the year 1832, and, settling in Ross County, passed the rest of their lives there. Their son, Abdallah, the father of Douglas R. Griffin, was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, accompanied his parents to Ross County, and upon reaching manhood was united in marriage with Miss Emza Ratcliff, daughter of Simon and Rachel (Dixon) Ratcliff, both natives of Chatham County, North Carolina. These parents came to Ross County as early as 1804, and Simon Ratcliff became a man of prominence and the owner of 600 acres of land. He was one of the county commissioners when the Chillicothe courthouse was built, and was remunerated, according to the scale of public expenditures of those days, with a salary of $35 per year. Abdallah Griffin and his wife continued to reside on their farm home during the remainder of their active lives, Mr. Griffin being quite extensively engaged in farming until his death in 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Griffin were the parents of four children, of whom two died in infancy, the survivors being: Douglas R., of this review ; and Dolly, of North Carolina, who is the wife of Samuel Bowser and the mother of three children. Douglas R. Griffin was born October 24, 1856, in Liberty Township, Ross County, Ohio, was reared on his father's farm, and was given good educational advantages, attending the public schools of Liberty Township and a commercial college at Dayton, Ohio. After beginning business life he was at different times engaged in the mercantile business and in operating a grist mill and lumber mill, but his principal occupation has always been farming, and, as stated, he is now the owner of Kenmore Farm, which contains 500 acres of as valuable land as can be found in Ross County. On this is located the colonial residence of the family, which was erected by his grandfather, Simon Ratcliff. For some years Mr. Griffin was engaged in breeding stock, but has given up this branch of agricultural work, and now superintends general farming operations on his property. His family is now at Chillicothe, where better educa- 784 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY tional facilities are attainable. Mr. Griffin is a democrat, but has not sought favors at the hands of his party, and his only interest in politics is that taken by every good citizen. On February 5, 1900, Mr. Griffin was married to Mrs. Allie F. Cain, nee Dobbins, whose parents were Mr. and Mrs. William I. Dobbins, formerly of Macksburg, Ohio, but later of Londonderry, at which place they resided at the time of her marriage. Her father was a soldier of the Union during the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Griffin there have been born two sons : Phil Douglas, born March 3, 1902, a sophomore at the Chillicothe High School; and Champ Clark, born June 6, 1910. JOSEPH ROY STITT. Secretary and treasurer of the Jardine Plumbing Company, Joseph Roy Stitt is one of the youngest business men of Chillicothe, but his business experience is much longer and more varied than his years would indicate, since he began when a very young boy to pay his own way and make his advancement in business affairs. Born September 27, 1883, in Madison County, Ohio, he is the youngest child of James H. and Mattie E. (Green) Stitt. Both parents were born in North Carolina, and in 1883 the father brought his family to Ross County and located on Water Street in Chillicothe, where he was engaged in the bakery business for ten years. Later he turned his attention to market gardening, and followed that occupation steadily for a number of years, until he retired from active pursuits in 1911. He then removed to Green County, Ohio, where he still resides. There were four children in the family. Joseph Roy Stitt received his education in the Chillicothe public schools and in the Chillicothe Business College. When fourteen years of age he began work as a retail clerk in a notion store. He remained there a year, and was still a boy in years when he was taken into the Jardine Plumbing Company as bookkeeper. He has continued steadily with that firm, which is the principal one in its line in Chillicothe, and when the business was incorporated in 1913 he was made one of the executive officials. The president is James H. Harps, the vice president is Graham Jardine, while Mr. Stitt has much of the detail management as secretary and treasurer. Mr. Stitt is a member of the Catholic Church and of the Catholic orders of Knights of St. George and St. Ignace. He is independent in politics. On September 16, 1909, in Chillicothe, he married Miss Anna C. Bohn. They are the parents of two sons, Lawrence C., born September 2, 1911, and John Francis, born February 27, 1916. THOMAS I. MURPHY. The City of Chillicothe lost one of its most stable and prosperous citizens in the death of Thomas I. Murphy in 1907, at the age of fifty-two. Mr. Murphy was long identified with business affairs at Chillicothe, and was a native of that city. His parents, Patrick and Catherine (King) Murphy, were early settlers here. They had three sons. The HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 785 son Frank was long actively associated with his brother Thomas in the wholesale liquor business at Chillicothe, and both were also stockholders in the Central National Bank. The other son, John, died in young manhood. The late Thomas I. Murphy during his lifetime in Chillicothe was a representative citizen of the community. He was educated in the local schools, was a member of St, Mary's Catholic Church, a democrat in politics and a member of the Order of Elks. On October 15, 1902, he married Eugenia M. Marzluff. Mrs. Murphy was born in Chillicothe, and is a granddaughter of a member of the prominent Barman family, elsewhere referred to in these pages. Mrs. Murphy was the only child of Ferdinand and Mary (Barman) Marzluff, who were represented among the early settlers of Ross County. Mrs. Murphy has one son, Francis F., now twelve years of age and a student in St. Mary's School and with a bright and promising future under the guidance of his mother. Mrs. Murphy has one of Chillicothe's prettiest homes, located at 28 East Fifth Street, and considerable other real estate. CHARLES E. GOSSETT, whose varied activities as a farmer and business man have made him well known in Ross County, belongs to a very old and prominent family connection in Highland County. Mr. Gossett is now giving his active superintendence to his fine farm of 120 acres, situated in Paxton Township, on the Cincinnati Pike, 31/2 miles west of Bainbridge. His daily mail service comes over route No. 2 out of Bainbridge. Accustomed from youth up to the business of farming, Mr. Gossett has found prosperity in that line, and his home place, known as Cool Springs Farm, is without question one of the best in point of improvement and fertility in Paxton Township. Mr. Gossett was born not far from his present home, but in Highland County, Ohio, on November 29, 1857. His parents were Cary W. and Nancy (Rains) Gossett. The founder of the family in Ohio was Amoriah Gossett, his great-grandfather. Amoriah came into Highland County when it was a total wilderness, and was one of the very first to found a home in that section. He came to Ohio from Kentucky. Amoriah married Miss Lydia Evans. Theirs was the first marriage celebrated in Hillsboro, Highland County, and their son Ambrose, the grandfather of Charles E. Gossett, was the first white child born at Newmarket, Highland County, where the parents settled after their marriage. Amoriah was a potter, a trade he followed in Newmarket for many years, but finally retired to Rainsboro in Highland County, and from there moved to Indiana, where he and his wife, Lydia, died. Ambrose Gossett also learned the trade of potter, and made that the medium of a very useful service to his community during all the active years of his life. His home was at Rainsboro, in Highland County, and he married Miss Sophia Chaney. The oldest son of Ambrose, Cary W. Gossett, was born in Highland County, and became a farmer. After his marriage to Nancy Rains he 786 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY located on a farm, but in 1864 took his family west to Iowa. From that state he enlisted for service in the Union army, and he died while in the South and his body now rests in the National Cemetery at Chattanooga, Tennessee. Nancy Rains, wife of Cary W. Gossett, was born in Highland County, Ohio. Her grandfather, John Rains, in the early days acquired the land on which he platted the Village of Rainsboro, which community has ever since honored his name and activities. Mr. Charles Gossett now has the original plat of the Village of Rainsboro, laid out by his maternal grandfather. Cary W. Gossett and wife had three children : Charles E., Ida., who died at the age of twenty years, and Marian, who died at the age of fifteen. Charles E. Gossett was about seven or eight years of age when his father died. In 1866 his widowed mother returned with her family to Highland County, and occupied the farm they had left only a few years before. It was on that farm that Charles E. Gossett grew to manhood. He received his education in the Village of Rainsboro. At the age of twenty years he left home and started to earn his own way in the world, first being employed at monthly wages. On March 30, 1882, Mr. Gossett married Martha Jane Candill, a daughter of Mark and Annie (Musgrave) Candill. Mrs. Gossett was born in old Virginia, and when four years of age was brought by her parents to Highland County, Ohio. Her parents located on a farm close to Carmel, and her mother is now living at Payton. Her father died in Xenia, Ohio, in 1916. After his marriage Mr. Gossett engaged in farming on the Barrett land, close to Rainsboro for three years. He was a tenant there, and on leaving the farm came to Ross County and continued his career as a tenant in Paint Township. While there he formed a partnership for the threshing and sawmill business, and since the dissolution of that partnership, Mr. Gossett has continued the business alone. At times he has run three separate outfits, and his service in this connection is widely known over Ross and adjoining counties. He was actively engaged in this line of business altogether for thirty-seven years, continuing it until 1915. For five years Mr. and Mrs. Gossett lived in Paint Township, and they then returned to Paxton Township, and on April 13, 1908, bought the Cool Springs Farm, where they still reside. Mr. and Mrs. Gossett are the parents of three children : Harry, who is in the express and draying business at Bainbridge ; Elsie, wife of W. R. Richter, of Roxabell, Ross County, and Fred E., still at home. In politics, Mr. Gossett is a republican, and for a number of years served as a director of the schools. ALFRED MARION IMMELL. To mention the Immell name is to recall one of the earliest families to locate in Ross County. Israel Immell, grandfather of Alfred M. Immell of Green Township, was a native of Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio when it was still a part of the Northwest Territory, locating in what is now Ross County and becoming one of HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 787 the first permanent settlers of that section. He was a fine type of the pioneer, and his qualities of industry, thrift, sobriety, and intelligence have descended to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Israel Immell had five children, Susan and Nancy, David, Israel and Elias. Of this family Elias Immell was the one who established the name in Green Township. He was born in Ross County in the very early days, was reared amid pioneer scenes, and after a number of years in Liberty Township moved in 1843 to Green Township and bought a farm on Columbus Pike. There he engaged in general farming and stockraising, but died at the age of forty years, when still in his early prime. He married Elizabeth Dunn, who was born in Delaware County, Ohio, and was brought to Ross County by her parents. She survived her husband many years, and by good management kept her children together and maintained the old farm, which she occupied until her death at the age of eighty-three. Her seven children, all of whom were young when their father died, were Mary, Alfred M., Sarah Jane, Milton, Emily, Clara and Effie. As one of the older children, Alfred Marion Immell who was born on a farm five miles south of Chillicothe in Liberty Township May 8, 1840, had to share serious responsibilities when a mere child. He worked industriously for his mother in looking after the farm, and at the same time made the best of his opportunities to secure an education in the rural schools, which he attended when the pressing duties of the farm were discharged. However, he did not neglect the call of patriotism in the critical time of the Civil war, which was fought when he was a young man. In 1863 he enlisted in the United States Navy, and served on the ship Avenger until March, 1865, when he received an honorable discharge. In April of the same year he re-enlisted, this time in the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, and was sent to Columbus Barracks. The war was then about over, and he was discharged on May 8, 1865, without leaving Ohio for the front. After the war Mr. Immell operated the home farm on shares until his marriage, and then rented land for several years, paying cash rent. He has a long and creditable record as a farmer and stock raiser, and eventually bought out the old homestead, and has accumulated a splendid farm property. The old homestead is pleasantly located on the Columbus Pike, and comprises eighty acres of the fertile improved land of the Scioto bottom. The improvements on the Immell homestead rank with the very best in that section of Ross County. During his many years of active business management Mr. Immell has built up a large estate. Other purchases bring the total up to 516 acres, including the old homestead. In 1873 Mr. Immell married Miss Margaret Goodman, who was born on the farm where she now resides, a daughter of David and Elizabeth Goodman, a prominent Green Township family referred to on other pages. Mr. and Mrs. Immell have reared six children : Chauncey. Woodford E., Alfred D., George G., Charles H. and Elizabeth Allen. 788 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY Chauncey married Elizabeth Gateman, and their five children are George D., Walter C., Margaret E., Mildred L. and Helen. Alfred D. married Mabel Perry. Charles H. married Gertrude Carmean. Mr. and Mrs. Immell are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. While building up his splendid estate, Mr. Immell has not neglected his civic duties, and has served as a member of the board of trustees of Green Township and two terms as a county infirmary director. Politically he is a republican. WOODFORD E. IMMELL, who has been equally successful as a farmer and stock raiser and as a public official, is a son of Alfred and Margaret (Goodman) Immell, and represents the old established family of that name, reference to whom is made on other pages. He was born in Green Township of Ross County December 6, 1875. Educated in the rural schools and in the Kingston High School, he graduated from the Chillicothe Business College in the class of 1896, and also attended the Ohio State University. Reared on a farm, he took that up as his permanent vocation in life, and began his independent career on rented land. In 1910 he acquired a home of his own by the purchase of 144 acres in the southeast quarter of section 6, Green Township, where he has since employed his energies with excellent results as a general farmer and stock raiser. On December 20, 1903, Mr. Immell married Ida Fry, who was born in Pike County, Ohio, daughter of John Fry. Mr. and Mrs. Immell have five children : Willard F., Ruth G., Robert H., Richard Marion and Mary Margaret. The first presidential vote Mr. Immell cast was for Bryan in 1896. In 1902 he was elected assessor of Green Township, serving three years. In 1914, under the new rules, he passed the Civil Service examination and was appointed assessor, and was confirmed in that office by election in 1915. He has also served three years as road superintendent and has been a member of the school board four years. JEREMIAH M. THOMPSON, a citizen of Jefferson Township, Ross County, Ohio, was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, June 11, 1849. His parents were James M. and Jane (Salyards) Thompson. Jeremiah M. Thompson attended the district schools in boyhood when opportunity offered. He was married to Miss Alice A. Sisson, who was born in Gallia County, Ohio, June 30, 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have had four children : Myelle G., who resides at home ; James V., who looks after the home farm ; John S., who died at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, served during the Spanish-American war as a member of the ambulance corps; and George, who is a resident of Dayton, Ohio, took the civil service examination and received an appointment to a Government position in the Bureau of Accounting. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are members of the Free Will Baptist Church. JOSIAH GRABILL. Since assuming the ownership of a farm of 118 acres in Paxton Township, three miles southwest of Bainbridge, Josiah HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 789 Grabill has secured excellent financial results and has evidenced a broad knowledge of agricultural science. Many years of practical experience contribute to his agricultural equipment, and his entire life has been spent in the free and independent atmosphere of the country. Mr. Grabill was born on a farm in Marshall Township, Highland County, Ohio, September 13, 1861, and is a son of Philip and Sarah (Elliott) Grabill. Peter Grabill, the paternal grandfather of Josiah, was born in Pennsylvania, and was a young man when, about the year 1800, he came to Ohio and settled on a tract of Government land. Among the pioneers of that locality he developed a good farm and established a comfortable home for his family, and there passed the remaining years of his long and useful life. Philip Grabill was born on this homestead, in Marshall Township, in 1832, and was there reared and educated. He was married to Sarah Elliott, who was also born in that township, in 1833, a daughter of William Elliott, an early settler of Highland County. After their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Grabill settled on a farm and there Mr. Grabill continued in the cultivation of the soil until his death, in 1908, at the age of seventy-six years. He was an industrious and energetic farmer and a citizen who contributed in various ways to the upbuilding of the community, so living his life that he gained and retained the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens. Mrs. Grabill still survives him, at the age of eighty-three years, making her home on the old homestead. They were the parents of the following children : E. L., who lives in Marshall Township ; Dorothy, who is deceased; Josiah, of this notice ; Mrs. Sally Adams, of Otway, Ohio; Hamer, who lives with his mother; Nettie, who died as the wife of William Strobel ; Mrs. Rosie Schultz, of New Vienna, Ohio ; Lizzie, a resident of Otway, Ohio ; Thurber, of near Hillsboro, Highland County; and three who died in infancy. Josiah Grabill received his education in the public and district schools of Highland County, and remained at home, assisting his father, until he was twenty-five years of age. On November 24, 1887, he was united in marriage with Miss Iva B. Crum, who was born August 13, 1870, in Brush Creek Township, Highland County, and there educated in the district school, a daughter of J. H. and Phoebe (Lowe) Crum. After their marriage they settled at New Vienna, Ohio, where Mr. Grabill worked by the day on a farm for fifteen months, then returning to Marshall Township and living on the old homestead for about a year. In 1890 Mr. Grabill came to Paxton Township, Ross County, where he entered the employ of M. W. Ferneau, for whom he worked three years, then buying his present property in Paxton Township, a tract of 118 acres lying three miles southwest of Bainbridge. Mr. Grabill has been successful in the development of a valuable farm, and has shown himself an industrious and level-headed landsman, honorable in all of his dealings and thoroughly versed in every department of his chosen vocation. His farming operations are careful, diligent and systematic, and have been rewarded by favorable results. Mr. and Mrs. Grabill became the parents of five children: Nellie, Vol. II-20 790 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY now at the head of her father's household; Bessie, a graduate of Bainbridge School, who is the wife of H. R. Gray, of Columbus, Ohio; Hester Lowe, also a graduate of Bainbridge High School and Greenfield Business College, and was employed as bookkeeper for Worley Brothers Mill, of Bainbridge, Ohio, died November 26, 1915, at the age of nineteen years; and Margaret and Franklin J., at home. The Grabill home was saddened December 27, 1915, by the death of the devoted wife and mother, a woman of gentle character and great patience, who sought to rear her children to the noblest in man and womanhood, a lifelong member of and active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and her husband's wise advisor and help in matters of business. Mr. Grabill is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Bainbridge, as also are his children. He is a republican in his political views. He takes an earnest and unselfish interest in public affairs and at all times fulfills the obligations of a good citizen. E. J. TULLEYS, M. D. A physician and surgeon whose work at South Salem during the past seventeen years has brought him a splendid reputation and a large following in the profession, Doctor Tulleys is a native of Ross County and in his professional career has measured up to the high attainments of the family ever since it became identified with this section of Ohio. Doctor Tulleys was born in Bainbridge, Ross County, October 19, 1874. He is a son of William and Alice (Cork) Tulleys. William Tulleys was born in Bainbridge, a son of Isaac Tulleys, and thus the family has been identified with the county through several generations. Doctor Tulleys' mother, Alice Cork, was also born in Bainbridge, a daughter of Harrison Cork. Both William Tulleys and wife were born and reared in Bainbridge, and he followed his trade as carpenter there for a number of years, but in 1906 moved to South Salem, where he still has his home and where he is still active as a carpenter. He and his wife had two children, and the daughter Elizabeth died at the age of six years. The only son and surviving child of his parents, Doctor Tulleys grew up in Bainbridge, where he attended the common schools. At the age of nineteen, having an ambition to fit himself for a professional career, he entered the University of Chicago, where he pursued a preliminary course, and from there became a student in the Hahnemann Medical College at Chicago, where he was graduated M. D. with the class of 1899. Following this thorough preparation he returned to South Salem, and has since enjoyed a very large practice in that community. On August 12, 1915, Doctor Tulleys married Miss Bess M. Halloway, daughter of Jerome C. and Josie (Bailey) Halloway. They have one daughter, Alace Josephine, born October 7, 1916. Doctor Tulleys is an active member of the Methodist Church at South' Salem, and is serving as a trustee and steward. He is also affiliated with Greenfield Lodge, No. 717, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 791 E. E. TRUITT is now living a quiet retired life in South Salem. His has been the kind of career which deserves the comforts and pleasures of the world, since he gave his share of service as a young man to the country during the War of the Rebellion and put in many earnest and productive years as a farmer in Ross County. A native of this county, he was born in Concord Township June 25, 1840, and has already passed the three-quarter century mark on life's journey. His parents were Gilley and Angeline (Bowen) Truitt. Gilley Truitt was a native of the State of Georgia and when a boy came with his father, Rev. Elijah Truitt, to Ohio, the family locating in Concord Township in the very early days. Later they moved to Union Township, where Gilley Truitt grew to manhood. Elijah Truitt spent his last years in Ross County. Angeline Bowen was born on the Scioto River in Scioto County, Ohio, but came to Ross County when a young woman with her parents. After Gilley Truitt and wife were married they settled on a farm in Concord Township, and spent their years quietly engaged in farming and in the performance of those duties which good neighborliness enjoined. Their children were six in number, all of whom grew up, but E. E. Truitt is the only survivor of the family. By a previous marriage his father had six other children, but none of them are now living. The father was a democratic voter until the war, and afterwards became an equally stanch republican and supported the party the rest of his life. He was a very ardent worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The early youth of E. E. Truitt was spent in Ross County, where he attended the district schools and labored on the home farm. He had reached his majority when on August 1, 1861, lie left home and enlisted in Company A of the Eighteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His service continued for three years, three months and nine days, until his honorable discharge on November 9, 1864, at Chattanooga, Tennessee. His captain was Mr. Miller and his colonel T. R.. Stanley. All his service was in the Army of the Cumberland, at first under the command of General Rosecrans and later under General Thomas. Mr. Truitt received a wound in the great battle of Stone River or Murfreesboro, and was kept in the hospital for a month, recuperating. Later he fought at Chickamauga, was in the Atlanta campaign, and did not leave the army until The rebellion was practically crushed. On returning to his native county, Mr. Truitt took up farming, and on July 6, 1865, he married Eliza Dora Morton, daughter of John and Eliza Morton. Mrs. Truitt was born and reared in Buckskin Township. After their marriage they located on a rented farm in Concord Township, remained there a year and then spent a year in the West, and on returning to Ross County settled in Buckskin Township. They also lived in Paint Township, but most of their active years were spent in Buckskin Township. For the past six years Mr. Truitt has had his home in South Salem, having moved to that village in April, 1910. After many years of happy companionship, his beloved wife was taken from him by death on March 27, 1912. 792 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY Into their household were born eight children, and all of these are still living, namely : John M. and Cora, both living in Salt Lake City, Utah ; Ella, at home in South Salem ; Perlie V., also at home ; Nora, wife of O. B. Bailis, of Buckskin Township ; William, who lives in Buckskin Township ; Elbert Joseph, of Dayton, Kentucky; and Grace, wife of John Rogers of Concord Township. Mr. Truitt is especially well known and esteemed among his old army comrades, and is a popular member of J. C. Irwin Post, No. 669, at South Salem. He belongs to the Presbyterian Church at South Salem, and politically has always been identified with the republican party. FINLEY LAVERY. One of the fine homes and families of Buckskin Township for many years has been the Laverys. Many still living recall with esteem the late Finley Lavery, whose death was one of the tragic events of the county. Mr. Lavery was struck and killed by a fast mail train at Lyndon Station on July 11, 1874. He was at that time fifty-seven years of age and in the prime of his usefulness and activity. He was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, October 24, 1817, and had come to Ross County with his parents. He grew up in Buckskin Township, received a good education in the public schools, and after his marriage he located on the farm which he managed successfully until his death. He was a democrat in politics. On February 10, 1853, Finley Lavery married Miss Mary Murray, who was born January 24, 1827, and died July 28, 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Lavery had eight children, and four of them are still living. The daughter Anna is the wife of William Arnott, of Greenfield Township. The son John, who was educated in the district schools, is now a substantial farmer in Ross County. The old homestead is occupied by the two unmarried daughters, Martha and Fannie Lavery. They were born and reared in Ross County, and besides the advantages of the district schools, they both attended the old South Salem Academy. They are active in the Presbyterian Church at South Salem and are liberal supporters of the Missionary Society and the Sunday school. WILLIAM DUGGLEBY, of South Salem, is one of the honored old soldiers of Ross County, and a man whose distinctive citizenship has been manifest in all the varied relations of a long life. He was born at East Monroe, in Highland County, Ohio, January 23, 1845, a son of Byron and Mahala (Haggart) Duggleby. His father was a native of England, coming to the United States at the age of eighteen. The mother was a native of Ross County. After their marriage they lived in Highland County, then returned to Ross County and spent the rest of their days and died in South Salem. There were two children and William is the only one still living. As a youth he worked on the farm, received a district school education, and at Greenfield learned the shoemaker's trade. His military service began on September 29, 1861, when he enlisted in Company E of the Eighteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 793 with that company one year and was then transferred to Company A of the same regiment under Capt. T. E. Taylor and Col. T. L. Stanley. He was first in the Army of the Ohio, then in 1862 became a part of the Eleventh Army Corps, was with the Army of the Cumberland and took part in many notable battles and campaigns. He was in two battles at Nashville, Tennessee, and in the second was shot in the eye. After recuperating, he went back to his company and regiment and remained until several months after the close of the war. He was finally mustered out at Augusta, Georgia, on October 9, 1865, and was discharged at Columbus, Ohio, October 22, 1865. Mr. Duggleby has lived in Ross County since the close of the war and has made his years as useful in the quiet vocations of peace as they were in the stirring struggles of war. He was formerly a member of Prescott Post, No. 10, Grand Army of the Republic, and now belongs to J. C. Irwin Post, No. 669, Grand Army of the Republic. On July 4, 1866, he married Miss Amanda McCoy. Their three children now living are : Veda, wife of Judson Free, of Buckskin Township ; John W., a business man in South Dakota ; and Sylvester, who lives in Virginia. Politically, Mr. Duggleby is a stanch republican. WESLEY N. DRUMMOND. Since early pioneer times the Drummond family has taken a notable part in the improvement and development of Ross County. Wesley N. Drummond, a grandson of the original settlers, has shown all the best family characteristics in this regard. He has taken an intelligent and purposeful part in the events which have made up the history of Springfield Township during the past half century, and is also an honored veteran of the great war of the rebellion. He is impartial, honest, earnest and has the faculty of getting things done in behalf of the township as well as in his private affairs. His home is on the Chillicothe Road, and his daily mail comes over rural route No. 2 from that city. There Mr. Drummond is proprietor .of a good homestead of 117 acres, only four mHces from the county seat. He was born in Liberty Township of this county 2 1/2 miles west of Londonderry on July 19, 1842. His parents were William K. and Ruth (Cox) Drummond. William K. Drummond was born on the old Drummond farm now owned by Charles Hess in Liberty Township. His birth occurred there in 1818, and his father, Benjamin Drummond, a native of Philadelphia, was the pioneer who acquired 400 acres of land in Ross County and founded the family there. Benjamin Drummond was a stone cutter by trade. The youngest child of his parents, William K. Drummond remained at home and finally bought the old homestead from the heirs, and in time built it up to about 471 acres. He lived out his life there, was an active church worker and a loyal republican in politics. He and his wife became the parents of seven children : Benjamin K., deceased ; Wesley N. ; William, who died at the age of fourteen ; Martha, wife of Sylvester Graves of Beatrice, Nebraska; Mary, widow of Joseph Randalls of Chillicothe ; David, of Kansas City, Missouri ; and Miley, of Chillicothe. 794 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY During his early youth Wesley N. Drummond lived on the home farm, attended the district schools, and was still little more than a boy when the war broke out, in 1861. In 1864, after reaching his majority, he enlisted in Company D of the One Hundred and Forty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was in service until the close of hostilities. He then spent a year in the West and soon after returned to Ross County to take a steady and active part in agricultural affairs. Soon after the war Mr. Drummond married Emma Vail, daughter of John Vail. After their marriage they located on the farm where Mr. Drummond now lives, and he has been identified with its management and operation ever since. He put up a number of substantial buildings, and the farm as it is represents his energy and wisely planned efforts continued through many years. On the old homestead Mrs. Drummond passed to her final reward on December 29, 1907. Seven children were born to their marriage, and they are briefly mentioned as follows: Floyd E., deceased; Violet, wife of William Erskine ; Emma, wife of Charles Eibest; James of Chillicothe; Nellie, widow of Vincent Graves, and living at home with her father; Laura, also at home ; and John, who manages the home farm. Mr. Drummond as an honored old soldier is an active member of the A. L. Brown Post No. 162 of the Grand Army of the Republic. He has been a republican ever since casting his first vote, and one of the loyal citizens of his county. He has served as school director and has always been willing to give his time and energy to the welfare of the locality where he has spent his best years. WILLIAM F. BAILEY. As increasing years separate the present from the years of the Civil war, greater and greater respect is paid to the honored survivors of that struggle. One of the old soldiers of Ross County whose life has otherwise been one filled with activity and worthy accomplishment is William F. Bailey, now living retired at his home in South Salem. He is also serving as justice of the peace of Buckskin Township. Of that old and historic community of Ross County Mr. Bailey is a native. He was born two miles east of Salem May 7, 1849, a son of Martin and Nancy (Fagin) Bailey. Martin Bailey's father was Richard Bailey, who was born in England, came to the United States, but found it very difficult to accommodate himself to American customs and ways and never entirely laid aside British habits. He lived in Buckskin Township, and there acquired what is now known as the Simon Clouser farm. He lived and cultivated that for many years. He was also a man of aristocratic habits and tastes. Martin Bailey was born in 1809, in Hagerstown, Maryland. In Ross County he married Nancy Fagin, who was born in this county in 1814, and was of Irish descent. Of their nine children the four now living are : Catherine, widow of Jackson Nichols, is spending her last days in the Odd Fellows-Rebekah Home in Springfield, Ohio ; William F. is the second ; Nancy J., a resident of South Salem, is the widow of J. C. Holloway, who was a soldier in the HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 795 Civil war and was wounded at Gettysburg; John R. lives in Portland, Oregon. William F. Bailey spent his boyhood days in Illinois chiefly, the family having gone to that state in 1855. At the age of eight years he was bound out to a teamster living in Decatur, Illinois, and remained with him, working hard and securing little opportunity to attend school until he was fourteen. In 1862, at the age of fourteen, he returned to Ross County, worked on a farm for a time and also began learning the saddlery trade. He then went to a farm in Fayette County, and from there, on September 2, 1864, enlisted in Company H of the One Hundred and Seventy-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He remained with his command until the close of the war, and saw at least one of the great battles of that conflict, the battle of Nashville. He was mustered out and given his honorable discharge on June 20, 1865. After being discharged he returned from Columbus to Ross County, and therewith began his practical career as a farmer, which continued for practically half a century. On October 28, 1868, Mr. Bailey married Miss Centrilla L. Kerr. Her father was John H. Kerr and he and William H. Bailey were soldiers together in the Civil war. Mrs. Bailey was born in Buckskin Township January 5, 1849. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey lived on their farm until 1913, when they sold it, then lived on a rented place for a time, and since June, 1916, have occupied their present home in South Salem. Mr. and Mrs. Bailey are the parents of four children : Austin K. of Sioux Falls, South Dakota ; Edgar C., who graduated from the South Salem Academy and now lives in Trinidad, Colorado; Stella, wife of Charles A. Parrett, of Buckskin Township ; and Lena K., who formerly taught school but is now the wife of Eldon Miller of Concord Township. The family are active members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Bailey is a member and is now commander of J. C. Irwin Post, No. 669, of the Grand Army of the Republic. The members of this post hold their regular meetings at Mr. Bailey's home in South Salem. Politically, he is a republican, but is usually for the best man in local politics. For twelve years he served as constable and for three years three months was a United States deputy marshal of the Southern District of Ohio. He served in that capacity under Vivian J. Fagin and W. L. Lewis, both of Cincinnati. Mr. Bailey has also served as mayor, an office he still holds in South Salem, and as justice of the peace is called upon to preside over the minor judicial cases arising in this township. HENRY HICKLE was at the time of this writing, in the spring of 1916, one of the very oldest surviving natives of Ross County. He recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday. This nonagenarian has been a witness of almost every important incident of progress in the remarkable century just passed. The first short line of railroad track was constructed in America about the time he was born. The Erie Canal had been open for traffic about a year before. Thus the barriers which had hitherto restricted population to the narrow fringe of Atlantic colonies were just 796 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY being broken down. His family had already established themselves in Ross County twelve or thirteen years before his birth, and his is one of the few names that have been continuously identified with this section of Southern Ohio more than a century. His long years have had their toil and service and he has lived to a green old age, honored and respected by children, grandchildren, and by hosts of friends. He was born in Colerain Township of Ross County, February 26, 1826. His father, Henry Hickle, was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, and the grandfather was a native of Germany and settled in Virginia on coming to this country. Late in life the grandfather came to Ross County and spent his last days in Colerain Township. Henry Hickle, Sr., grew up and married in Virginia, and started for Ohio in 1813, while the War of 1812 was still in progress. He was accompanied by his wife and four children, and also by his parents. The trip was made with a wagon drawn by four horses and carrying all the simple household goods. The members of the party camped by the wayside at night. For a large part of the distance the road led through an unbroken wilderness, and most of Southern Ohio was then Government land and subject to entry by settlers at a very small price per acre. A hundred acres in Colerain Township constituted the first tract of land owned by the Hickle family. There after a few days of industrious work a log cabin rose among the trees, and later it was replaced by a two-story hewed log house with a stone chimney in the middle and a fireplace in the two lower rooms. With the assistance of his children, the father cleared up this land and later bought other tracts, so that at the time of his death his estate comprised 300 acres. He died on the old home farm in 1841. The maiden name of his wife was Rebecca Reed, and she died in 1826, soon after the birth of her youngest son, Henry. She left nine children : Aaron, Jeremiah, Mary, Christopher, Melinda, John, Jacob, Samuel and Henry. The father married a second time and reared children by that union. Mr. Henry Hinkle grew up among typical pioneer scenes. When he was a boy all cooking was done by open fires, and no stoves had yet been introduced. His father raised flax and kept sheep, and he still has the old spinning wheel and the flax hackle which his mother and sister used in the domestic processes of cloth manufacture. All grain was cut with a sickle, and it was years before the most primitive threshing machinery was introduced, the straw being spread on the barn floor and tramped out by horses or beaten out with a flail. It was one of the early duties of Henry Hickle to ride the horse in its monotonous circle as it tramped out the wheat. He was nearly a grown man before the first railroad came to Ross County, and before the first canal was constructed the surplus grain was taken to market on flatboats down. the Scioto River. Mr. Hickle recalls the custom of the harvesting season, when three or more men, with a leader, went from field to field with sickles to cut the grain. Though there were no public schools, Mr. Hickle made the best of his advantages secured in the subscription schools then maintained, and HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 797 he grew up industrious, thrifty and able to make his own way from an early age. To the vocation in which he was reared, farming, he applied the best years of his life, and won thereby an honorable competence sufficient for his needs and the comforts of his family. In 1854 Mr. Hickle married for his first wife Sarah Reedy. She was born in Green Township' of Ross County, a daughter of Michael and Mary (Davis) Reedy, who were early settlers in that locality. Mrs. Hickle died in 1860. For his second wife he married another Sarah Reedy, who was a cousin of his first wife and a daughter of John Reedy. By his first union there was one daughter, Aitha, who married Chauncey Faust, and is now living in New Mexico; they have two children, May and Miner. By the second marriage there were five children : Mary B., Ursinus, Julia, Arthur and Floyd. The daughter Mary married Robert Overly, living in Columbus, and her four children are Ralph, Earl, Myrtle and Minnie. Julia married Frank Gildersleeve and lives in Denver, Colorado, and they have a daughter, Hazel. Arthur married Nellie Housworth. After nearly fifty years of married companionship, Mrs. Hickle passed away January 2, 1913. She, as well as Mr. Hickle, was an active member of the German Reformed Church, which he has served as a deacon and elder for many years. IRA STEPHENS, who is now living retired in Deerfield Township, has spent his active life in the midst of honorable activities and with the credit which is due to an old soldier of the flag who fought on many battlefields in the South for the preservation of the Union. Though most of his life has been spent in Ross County, where he began farming soon after the war, he was born in a log cabin home in Deer Creek Township of Pickaway County, Ohio. His father, David Stephens, was a native of Ohio. His grandfather, Joseph Stephens, was born, reared and married in Pennsylvania and from there moved to Ohio in the very early days. He located in Deerfield Township, where he resided until after the death of his wife, when he removed to Michigan and spent his last days in that state. There were a number of children in the grandparents' family. David Stephens was born and reared on a farm in Deerfield Township, Ross County, and was surrounded with pioneer environment. For a short time after his marriage he lived in Deer Creek Township of Pickaway County, but then returned to Deerfield Township of Ross County, and there died at the age of sixty-eight years. The maiden name of his wife was Nancy Ator. Jacob Ator, her father, was one of the early settlers in Pickaway County, improving a farm in Deer Creek Township and also for some years keeping a hotel in Clarksburg. Jacob Ator spent his last days on his farm in Deer Creek Township of Pickaway County, and he and his wife are buried in the Baptist Churchyard in Deerfield Township. Mrs. David Stephens died at the age of thirty-six years, being survived by seven children, Ira, John, Aaron, Joseph, Elizabeth, Mary J. and Lorinda. 798 - HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY While Ira Stephens was a boy the public schools were still conducted on the subscription plan. It was in such a school that he acquired his early learning. He was trained to a life of industry, and at the early age of ten began working on the farm to assist his father. Later he spent several years as a farm laborer, his first wages being $10 a month. He afterwards commanded as high wages as was paid to farm workers at that time. He was a young man when the war broke out. Responding to the call of his country for troops, he enlisted in August, 1862, in Company K of the Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. With that regiment he went south and saw many hard-fought campaigns, and ever did his duty faithfully as a soldier. In 1864 his regiment was attached to Sherman's command. He participated in the Atlanta campaign, and Mr. Stephens was with his comrades until, while on the Chattahoochee River, he was taken sick and sent to a hospital in Nashville. He remained there until February, 1865, when with others he was sent to rejoin his command. Sherman was then fighting his way up through the Carolinas, and Mr. Stephens went by railway as far as New York City and thence by steamer to Hilton Head,. in North Carolina. Another boat then took him up the Broad River, and about sixty miles from Charleston he landed and crossed the country to that city. He was present at Fort Sumter when Major Anderson again raised the Stars and Stripes over that fort, where the Confederate flag had floated since the first days of the rebellion. On April 14th, the morning of the day that Lincoln was assassinated, Mr. Stephens and his comrades embarked on a steamboat at Charleston and landed at Moorehead City, in North Carolina, and from there proceeded by train to Raleigh, where he rejoined his regiment. After a short time spent in the Carolinas, he marched with his command to Richmond, and a few days later went on to Washington, where they participated in the grand review of the victorious Union troops. Following the review he and his comrades were camped at Bunker Hill, Washington, for a time and were then sent to Camp Dennison, Ohio, where they received an honorable discharge in June, 1865. In the fall of the year after he returned from the army, Ira Stephens rented a farm in Deerfield Township. From that time forward for forty years he was actively engaged in general farming and made a thorough success of the business. A number of years ago he bought the farm he now owns and occupies on the Clarksburg and Chillicothe Pike. This farm has been improved by the erection of a splendid set of buildings, and the grounds have been beautified by the planting of shade trees. For the past ten years he and his good wife have lived there retired and are enjoying the fruits of the industrious part they played while younger. On October 9, 1860, Mr. Stephens married Caroline Rickards, and she was a bride of less than two years when he left home to help fight the battles of his country. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1910, and their happy marriage companionship is still unbroken, after existing for fully fifty-six years. Mrs. Stephens was born in Maryland, a daughter of Thomas and Annie Rickards. HISTORY OF ROSS COUNTY - 799 To their union have been born seven children : Lorinda, Orpha, Mary. Lyman, Charles, Emma, and Job. There are also grandchildren and at least one great-grandchild. The daughter, Larinda, is the wife of Isaac Adams. Orpha is the wife of Isaac Hickle, and they have a daughter, Bessie, who is the wife of Ralph Whaley. Mary married William. Brown. Lyman married Lizzie Bowers, and they have seven children whose names are Golda, Ralph, Frances, Opal, Maude, Richard and Clarke. The son Charles married Elizabeth Turflinger, and their three children are Minnie, Ira, Jr., and Seymour. Of these last named Minnie, a granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stephens, married Frank Dinkler, and she has a son, Scott Franklin. Emma married Frank Anderson and her four children are Roy, May, Glenn and Robert. Job, the youngest of the family, married Mary McGath, and has a son, Howard. This is a very remarkable family record. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens head four generations. In the fifty-six years since they were married there has never been a death nor a serious case of illness in the family. Both Mr. and Mrs. Stephens are enjoying excellent health at this writing. They are worthy members of Brown's Chapel of the Methodist Church, and Mr. Stephens is an honored charter member of Timmons Price Post No. 321 of the Grand Army of the Republic, and he is also a charter member of Clarksburg Lodge No. 721 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. CHARLES W. STITT. For many years actively identified with farming enterprise in both Ross and Pickaway counties, Charles W. Stitt is one of the prominent residents of Clarksburg, and is now president of the Clarksburg Commercial Bank. Representing some old families of Ross County, he was born on the Stitt homestead in Union Township, July 4, 1856, a son of Moses and Margaret (McCoy) Stitt. As a young man he attended the public schools and his earliest experiences were with the farm. Before reaching manhood he had mastered the details of farming, and took up his independent career in Deerfield Township. He managed the farm there very profitably until 1906, when he removed to Pickaway County, and his principal farm interests are still in that locality. He resided on the farm until the spring of 1916, at which date he removed to Clarksburg. On the organization of the Clarksburg Commercial Bank he was elected president and has successfully directed the affairs of that substantial institution. He became affiliated with Clarksburg Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, September 25, 1901. Mr. Stitt has been twice married. His first wife was Ellen Taylor, who died leaving one son, Elmer. Mr. Stitt married for his present wife, Tillie Peck, who was born in Decrfield Township, a daughter of John J. Peck. They are the parents also of one son, Ralph. CHARLES L. DAILY. The Daily family is one of the oldest in this part of Ohio, and has for a number of years been represented in Springfield Township of Ross County by David R., and Charles L. Daily, and