A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 74

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1156

USA > Ohio > Franklin County > Columbus > A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio > Part 74

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Mr. Grant has been twice married. In 1871, he wedded Miss Isabel Stranahan, by whom he had four children, but Adelbert and Lillie May are both deceased. Those living are Nellie, wife of Dr. F. C. Wright, a practic- ing physician of Grove City ; and Elizabeth at home. In 1887 he married his present wife, who was in her maidenhood Miss Caroline Rowles.

Mr. Grant is five feet, four inches and a half in height, and now weighs three hundred and fifty pounds, while at one time he weighed three hundred ninety-eight and a half. Socially he is an honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Grove City, and politically is identified with the Republican party. For eleven years he was the efficient and popular postmaster of Grove City, and has been a member of the school board twelve years. By his untiring industry and sound judgment Mr. Grant has won merited success in business affairs, and is in all respects worthy the high regard in which he is held by his fellow men.

GEORGE A. NICHOLS.

George A. Nichols, one of the younger engineers in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, on the 28th of January, 1866, a son of Daniel and Caroline Nichols, who were mar- ried April 16, 1851. His grandfather was a native of New Jersey and removed to Ohio at an early day, while his original American ancestors were of Holland birth. His father, who was born in Fairfield county, on the 4th of November, 1829, has devoted his entire life to agricultural pursuits. Mrs. Caroline Nichols was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, February 2, 1831. Their children are: Ellen, Eliza, Kate and George A. The last named was married October 2, 1871, in Avondale, Ohio, to Miss Carrie Nelson and. they have since resided in Columbus. Her parents, Samuel and Sarah Nel- son, were born in Coshocton county, Ohio, and now reside in Evansburg, this state. Their children are: Jacob, who is now a fireman on the Atchison, Topeka & St. Louis Railroad; John, an express messenger on the Pan Handle

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Railroad; Robert, who is engaged in clerking; Clarence, who is also in the railway employ; Agnes, wife of James Drafton; and Carrie, the wife of our subject.

Mr. Nichols entered the railway service February 2, 1889, as an employ of the Pennsylvania road. He has acted as fireman on both passenger and freight engines, and after ten years spent in that way he was made an engineer, in which position he has since served. On the 2d of July, 1898, he met with an accident. The train was going at the rate of forty-five or fifty miles an hour, and Mr. Nichols jumped from his engine and escaped with a broken nose and a bruised head, while his fireman had an arm broken .. He is a member of Division No. 445 of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen of Columbus. He has a wide acquaintance among train men and also has many friends in other walks of life.

JOHN WARNER.

On one of the fine farms of Hamilton township resides John Warner, who is classified among the leading agriculturists of his community. For forty-nine years he has been a resident of Franklin county. To-day he owns and operates two hundred and ninety acres of land, and his progressive business methods have made his property very valuable.

Mr. Warner was born in Hanover, Germany, August 22, 1835, his parents being John and Elizabeth Warner. The mother died during his infancy, while his father died when he was a small boy, so that he was early left an orphan and was reared by his brothers and sisters. When about seventeen years of age he came to America with his brother Henry, making his way direct to Columbus, Ohio. This was in 1852. He began working by the day or month at anything he could get to do in or near Columbus, and was employed in that manner until his enlistment in the Union army, as a member of Company B, One Hundred Thirteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He joined the service as a private, was promoted to corporal, , afterward to sergeant and later became color bearer of his regiment, which position he filled until the close of the war, in 1865. He was at the front for almost three years, and at Chickamauga was slightly wounded, but did not leave his post of duty. He was never in a hospital or in a southern prison, and with loyal spirit he followed the stars and stripes on many a southern battlefield, participating in the engagements at Chickamauga, Look- out Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, the siege of Atlanta and the battle of Jonesboro, together with many other engagements' of less importance. He was with Sherman on his famous march to the sea and was at the battles of Evansburg and Bentonville. He also participated in the grand review at Washington, and was mustered out at Louisville, Ken- tucky, receiving an honorable discharge at Columbus, Ohio.

Again Mr. Warner began work by the day or month in and near Col- umbus, being thus occupied for about a year. He was in the employ of Wash-

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ington Rees for a year and then began operating land for him on the shares, Mr. Rees furnishing all supplies and implements and giving to Mr. Warner his board and one-third of the crops. The succeeding year he operated Mr. Rees' land for one-half the crops, our subject furnishing the supplies, and boarded with Mr. Rees until 1872. He thus followed farming on the shares until about 1890, when he purchased of Mr. Rees the farm upon which he is now residing, comprising one hundred twenty-five and a half acres. How- ever, he had previously purchased the McLish farm of eighty acres, but never lived upon the place and afterward sold it. He has purchased one hundred and sixty-five acres of the Kelly farm, on the Chillicothe or High street pike, and that land is now operated by his son.

Mr. Warner was married May 16, 1871, to Elizabeth Franck, a native of Franklin county and a daughter of Samuel and Jane Franck, who were early settlers of this locality. Her father came to Ohio from Pennsylvania, but her mother, who bore the maiden name of Jane Adams, was born on the farm where Mr. Warner now resides, the Adams family being among the first to locate in Franklin county. Unto our subject and his wife have been born five children, two sons and three daughters: Nellie, now the wife of Henry Constant, by whom she has three children, Clark, John P. and William Ray, their homes being near Columbus; Henry, who married Ida Fisher, by whom he has a son, Horton, and resides on his father's farm on the High street pike; Clara, the wife of Charles Hann, a farmer of Hamilton township, by whom she has a son, Raymond Clayton; John, at home; and Effie, who is attending school. All were born in Hamilton township. The family is one of prom- inence in the community and the members of the household enjoy the high regard of many friends. Mr. Warner belongs to Johnson Watson Post, G. A. R., of Groveport. In politics he is a stanch Republican, and is now serving in his third year as trustee of Hamilton township. He is also school director, and is a citizen who takes a deep interest in everything pertaining to the wel- fare of the community, its progress and upbuilding. Coming to this country empty-handed, he owes all that he possesses to his own efforts and his success is creditable and well deserved.

DAIWALT MACHLIN.

Daiwalt Machlin, a retired farmer of Pleasant township, is numbered among the native citizens of Pennsylvania, his birth having occurred in York county, that state, on the 18th of August, 1834. His grandfather, George Machlin, was also born in the same county and was a farmer by occupation. His ancestors came to America from the Netherlands, in 1727, and located in Philadelphia, thus founding the family in the new world. George Machlin married Elizabeth Achenbach. He is a native of York county, where they spent their entire lives. Daiwalt Machlin, a brother of the grandfather, left Pennsylvania for Ohio and died near Lancaster, this state. Another brother became a resident of Perry county, while a third took up his abode near

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Cleveland, and among the early settlers of the state they were numbered. Daniel Machlin, the father of our subject, was born in York county, Penn- sylvania, in 1813. His educational privileges were limited, but his training at farm labor was not meager. He married Mary Linebaugh, who was born in York county, Pennsylvania, about 1813, and was a daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Wikle) Linebaugh. The latter's father came to America from Germany before the war of the Revolution. After his marriage Daniel Mach- lin rented land for a time and then purchased a farm from the Furnace Com- pany, which cut timber from the place and used it for charcoal for fuel. Throughout his active business career he carried on agricultural .pursuits, but died in early manhood, passing away in 1846. His wife, long surviving him, died in York county, Pennsylvania, in 1894. She had again married, becoming the wife of Genesis Glassick. Both the parents of our subject held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church, and in his political affiliations the father was a Whig. Their children were five in number, namely: Dai- walt; Silana, who bcame the wife of Howard Linebaugh, of York county, Pennsylvania; Mary, the wife of John Fishel, also of York county; Sarah, wife of Solomon Wire, of the same county ; and Susan, who married Henry Kochenaur, who died in York county soon after her marriage. By her second marriage the mother had two children: John H. and William D., both of York county, the latter a practicing physician.

Mr. Machlin, whose name introduces this record, began work early in life as an assistant upon the home farm. He attended school for about three months during the year, but the teachers were often incompetent and the studies were of a limited character. He remained under the parental roof until eighteen years of age, when he spent one summer on a farm twenty- five miles from his home. In the following spring he came to Ohio, having twenty-five dollars above the expenses of the journey. He worked his way to the home of an uncle, John Linebaugh, of Columbus, with whom he learned the carpenter's trade, remaining with him as an apprentice and journeyman for ten years. Mr. Machlin was then married in Jackson township, on the 24th of August, 1864, to Miss Catherine Gantz, who was born in Jackson town- ship, October 24, 1836. Her girlhood days were here spent, amid the wild scenes of the frontier life and her education was acquired in a log schoolhouse, seated with slab benches and supplied with a slab writing desk, which rested upon pins driven into the wall, and there were windows along three sides of the building. Her first teacher was Miss Christina Yates and the school was upon his father's farm, about a mile from her home. The way lay through the woods and as the land was swampy she often had to jump from log to log to keep out of the wet. Her father, Adam Gantz, was born in Washing- ton county, Pennsylvania, in 1812, and was married there to Miss Catherine Pinix, a native of the same county. They removed to Jackson township, Franklin county, taking up his abode in a log school building, the teacher dismissing the scholars in order to allow them to move in. Mr. Gantz pur- chased two hundred acres of wild land and later became the owner of an

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additional tract of three hundred acres. He died upon the home farm which he developed in 1878, and his wife passed away in 1876. The paternal grand- parents of Mrs. Machlin were John and Mary (Horn) Gantz and both died in Pennsylvania.

Mr. and Mrs. Machlin became the parents of twins, who died in infancy. They now have an adopted daughter, Alice Machlin, the wife of Dr. G. W. Helmick, of Harrisburg. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Machlin took up their abode upon a rented farm on the Harrisburg pike, south of Grove City, and in 1864 he purchased his present farm, but could not obtain posses- sion of the same until the following year. His home place comprises seventy- two acres and he also owns another tract of thirty-eight acres in Pleasant township and a farm of one hundred acres in. Pickaway county. He has done very little carpentering since his marriage, but from 1886 to 1894 he was agent for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company at Pleasant Corners. His careful management and his energetic industry in the active affairs of life brought to him a very desirable competence so that he is now enabled to live retired. Both he and his wife hold membership in the Presbyterian church at Grove City, in which he is serving as elder. He has frequently visited his old home in York county since coming to Ohio, but is well content to make the Buckeye state the place of his abode, and he has long been classed among the representative citizens of his adopted county.

IRVIN BUTTERWORTH.

Honored and respected by all, there is no man in Columbus who occupies a more enviable position in commercial and financial circles than Irvin Butter- worth, who until recently resided in Columbus but is now living in Denver. He was born on a farm near Loveland, Ohio, July 7, 1860, of Quaker an- cestry, and when he was but two years old his father removed to a farm near Wilmington, where his son remained until he had attained his majority, at- tending school through the winter and working upon the farm in the summer months. While pursuing his education he daily walked to and from school -a distance of three miles. He was nineteen years of age at the time of his graduation.

In 1881 Mr. Butterworth came to Columbus where he entered upon what has been a brilliant business career. He filled successively the following positions : stenographer for the Hon. George K. Nash, then attorney-general of the state and chairman of the Republican state executive committee and since governor of Ohio. In the fall of 1881 he became private secretary to Colonel Orland Smith, then general manager of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad Company, leaving his employ in 1883 to accept a similar position with M. M. Greene, then president of the same company. In 1887 he was offered and accepted the position of bookkeeper and cashier in the office of the Columbus Gas Company and was promoted to the superintendency of the works in 1886. In the previous year he was chosen secretary of the

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Ohio Gas Light Association, in which capacity he served for nine years, acting as president of the association in 1894. In 1889 he was chosen general man- ager and a director of the Columbus Gas Company, acting as such until 1900. In 1893 he was elected vice president of the company and in 1898 was elected its president, to which office was added that of treasurer in 1900. He con- tinued to discharge the duties of both positions until the Ist of June, 1901, when he was elected president and general manager of the Denver Gas & Electric Company, of Denver, Colorado, whither he removed with his family.

His attention and efforts, however, have been by no means confined to one line and his discriminating judgment has proved an important factor in man- aging successfully many enterprises. During the past decade he has served a term of years as director of the Western Gas Association and a member of the council of the American Gas Light Association, having also been vice-presi- dent of the latter. In January, 1901, he was elected president of the Columbus board of trade, of which he had previously been a director for two years. He was also one of the organizers of the Engineers' Club, of Columbus, and served as its president in the year 1900. To the various gas associations of which Mr. Butterworth is a member he has from time to time contributed papers on technical subjects pertaining to the gas business, as fol- lows : Natural Gas; A Regenerative Furnace Adapted to Small Works; Does Ohio Want a Gas Commission ; Governor Burners ; Gas Franchises and Other Topics; Street Main Pressures; Ventilation of Gas-lighted Rooms; A Curious Gas Explosion ; A New Purifying Box; and Vitrified Clay Pipes Instead of Iron for Gas Mains. These papers have been of great value to those connected with the gas business, setting forth new ideas and improvements, and Mr. Butterworth has contributed in no small measure to the advancement of the enterprise which he represents.

In 1887 Mr. Butterworth was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Adelaide McMillin, a daughter of Emerson McMillin, of New York city. Unto them have been born three children: Paul, Corwin and Emerson, aged respec- tively thirteen, eleven and six years. Mr. and Mrs. Butterworth were very prominent in the social circles of Columbus, where their very extended ac- quaintances gained for them the hospitality of the best homes of the city.

FRANK L. FALLOON.

Frank L. Falloon, who is one of the popular passenger conductors on the western division of the Pennsylvania railroad and resides at No. 753 Leonard avenue, Columbus, was born in Athens, Ohio, November 1, 1860. His father, James H. Falloon, was a native of Canada, born in Ottawa, and his mother was born in Montreal. In the public schools of his native county Mr. Falloon of this review began his education. He continued his studies in the high school at Athens, and afterward was graduated in the High University of that place. In 1880 he began his railroad career by working as a brakeman on the Ohio Central Railroad and was afterward baggage master and served

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in those two capacities for five years. In 1885 he was made brakeman on the Panhandle Railroad and on the western division, running through Colum- bus, in 1887, he was promoted to freight conductor. After eight years of faithful service, in 1895, he was promoted to passenger conductor and in that way has since been continuously connected with the road. He has a very exceptional record, having never been even slightly injured, never been in a wreck or collision and never had a man injured on his train.

In 1895 Mr. Falloon was married, in Columbus, to Miss Margaret Lauber, whose parents are now both deceased. Unto our subject and his wife has been born one child, Margaret L., whose birth occurred February 15, 1898, the very day the battleship Maine was blown up. Mr. Falloon is a member of the Order of Railway Conductors and of the Knights of Pythias fraternity. He has resided in Columbus since 1882 and has a wide acquaintance among railroad men and in other walks of life.

JAMES H. HESS.

Among the prominent and influential citizens of Clinton township no man in his day was more popular than James H. Hess, who as a teacher and officer was actively identified with public affairs for many years. He was born August 21, 1839, at the old homestead in that township, where his widow and daughter still reside, and was the second son of Moses Hess by his third wife, Elizabeth Grayless, and grandson of Balser Hess, who came to this county from Bedford county, Pennsylvania, in 1802, and in the midst of the unbroken forest purchased four hundred acres of land. He fought for American independence in the war of the Revolution, and during the battle of Staten Island was captured by the Hessians and imprisoned in the old sugar house in New York city for seven days without anything to eat. Out of the seven hundred prisoners incarcerated there only fifty survived! Balser Hess was in the service seven years, and took part in many important engage- ments, among which was the battle of Brandywine. He was with Wash- ington at the crossing of the Delaware, and remembered hearing the general say, "God will build us a bridge before morning."

James H. Hess was the eldest child in his father's family, and before he attained his seventeenth year lost both parents. His early education, acquired in the common schools, was supplemented by a full course at Otter- bein University, at Westerville, Ohio. While a student there he paid his own way by teaching in that institution. After completing his education he was the principal of the Westerville public schools for a short time, and then accepted the superintendency of the Shelbyville (Illinois) Seminary, which position he retained for about two years. On returning to his home in this county, he was appointed a deputy clerk of the common-pleas court, and when he retired from that office engaged in farming on his father's old homestead, the pioneer farm of Clinton township. For several years he

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served as county school examiner, and at the time of his death was justice of the peace, succeeding Justice John Starrett, who had succeeded Thomas Jeffries, all three of whom, strange as it may appear, died during the last six months of their respective terms of office. Mr. Hess was also deputy dis- trict commander of the Grange, in the prosperity of which he evinced great interest, as well as in that of the Central Ohio Farmers' Association, of which he was vice-president and a frequent lecturer. Politically he was an uncompromising Democrat. He was a man of sterling integrity, and was identified with all the leading public enterprises of his neighborhood. He died from blood poisoning, February 13, 1889, at the age of forty-nine years, five months and seventeen days, leaving a brother, John Moses Hess, and an only sister, Mrs. William P. Brown, of New York city, and many friends and his immediate family to mourn their loss.

On the 26th of October, 1871, Mr. Hess was united in marriage with Miss Eliza Jane Kenny, and to them was born one child, Mary Eve, who lives with her mother at the old home.

John Kenny, the grandfather of Mrs. Hess, and one of the honored pioneers of Franklin county, was a native of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, where he was married, April 11, 1815, to Miss Nancy Criswell, and where . he continued to make his home until after the birth of two of his children,- Benjamin C. and James. In 1819 he brought his family to this county, and in Perry township purchased three hundred and thirty-seven acres of heavily wooded land, for which he paid five dollars per acre. During the construc- tion of their cabin home they lived in a covered wagon. In this wagon they made the journey from Pennsylvania, it containing their entire worldly pos- sessions. After living for twenty years in the log house it was replaced by the commodious brick residence which now stands upon the farm, it being constructed of brick burned upon the place and lumber from the trees stand- ing there. The highest-priced workman at that time-the boss carpenter- received but fifty cents per day for his labor, while everything was done by hand. When completed Mr. Kenny said to his men, "Well, boys, I guess I shall have to pay you off in castings." Then was heard muttering enough to create a strike at the present time. He was as good as his word, however, and paid them in castings,-from the mint,-gold and silver!

He was a successful farmer and acquired a large acreage, which he placed under cultivation and improved with good buildings, becoming one of the wealthy land-owners of Perry township. He died on the old homestead February 7, 1873, at the age of eighty-two years, and his wife departed this life in March, 1866, past seventy years old. Both were devoutly religious and attended divine worship at Worthington, being communicants of the Presbyterian church at that time. In early years they became members of the Union church, which was erected by the Episcopal and Reformed denom- inations, which alternated in holding services. In the construction of the house of worship Mr. Kenny bore a prominent part, giving both of his time and means to its erection, and was afterward one of its principal supporters.

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For a good many years he was officially connected with the church in the capacity of deacon and elder, and in the discharge of his Christian duty bore himself in a manner becoming a Christian gentleman.

To Mr. and Mrs. Kenny were born the following children: Hannah, born January 12, 1823, married William Fairfield, of this county, and died December 6, 1847, leaving two children: Adelman, and Hannah, wife of John M. Hess. Eliza Jane, born November 30, 1825, died unmarried April 20, 1847. Benjamin C., born March 8, 1817, died unmarried September 4, 1866. He was a well-educated man who followed teaching in the schools of this county for some time, and was later one of the successful farmers and representative citizens of Perry township. James, born in Pennsyl- vania, January 26, 1819, was only nine months old when brought by his parents to this county, and was educated in its common schools. On the 13th of June, 1848, he married Miss Elizabeth Holly Legg, daughter of Thomas and Amelia ( Holly) Legg, and they began their domestic life on the old homestead with his parents, where they continued to reside through- out life. He, too, was a successful farmer and one of the highly respected citizens of his native township. During the greater part of their lives he and his wife were members of the Reformed church, and as an energetic worker he took his father's place in church affairs, serving as deacon, elder and superintendent of the Sabbath-school. He died February 24, 1895, and his wife departed this life on the seventy-second anniversary of her birth, October 2, 1895. Their children were Eliza Jane, now the widow of James H. Hess, of this review; Nancy Amelia, who died unmarried in 1872; a son who died in infancy; Rachel Flora, wife of Oliver Orr, who resides on East Eighth avenue, Columbus; and Hannah Minerva, wife of Harry D. Kennedy, who lives on the old Kenny homestead.

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A Centennial biographical history of the city of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, Part 74

Author: Lewis Publishing Company Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1156

Author: Lewis Publishing Company
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Chicago : Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1156