USA > Ohio > Putnam County > A Portrait and biographical record of Allen and Putnam counties, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Ohio, pt 2 > Part 3
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
Pleasant township. This was the family home for many years, and here Joel Norton, the grandfather, died, and it was on the same place that John Norton departed his life in May, 1866. Mrs. Norton's parents were natives of Ireland, , and came to this country at a very carly date. She died at her home in Putnam county, about the year of 1850, aged thirty-eight. The names of the children of John and Elizabeth Norton are as follows: Melissa J., wife of J. W. Fuller; Elizabeth deceased; Rebecca A., wife of our subject; Rosetta and Violette, twins, the former the wife of George 1. Best, of Allen county, Ohio, the latter, wife of John Core. of the county of Putnam; Margaret, the youngest child, is the wife of David T. McCullong!, of Gilboa. By a second marriage Mr. Norton had a family of five children, Sarah, Joel John W., Hiram and an infant daughter, all dead except Hiram, who lives near the town of Kalida. The maiden name of the mother of these children was Elizabeth Frost.
..............
OBERT CAMPBELL, the oldest farm- er of Greensburg township, Putnam county, Ohio, was born in Westmore- land county, Pa., May 1, 1805, a son of Matthew and Elizabeth (Curry) Campbell, of whom the former was born in Pennsylvania about the time of the Revolutionary war, a son of James Campbell, of Scotch-Irish de- scent, who came from Ireland to America when a young married man and settled in Pennsyi- vania, where he entered eighty acres for each of his seven sons, and with their aid cleared up a home, on which he lived the remainder of his days, dying in the faith of the Presby - terian church, of which he had been a life-long member.
Matthew Campbell, although reared a farmer, was taught the blacksmith's trade
١٫٠٠٠
-
78
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
About the year 1800 he was united in mar- riage with Elizabeth, daughter of George and Elizabeth Curry, natives of Scotland. The children born to this union were: Elizabeth, wife of David Beatty; Sarah, wife of Robert Getemey; Mary, wife of Robert Johnson; Rob- ert, the subject of this sketch; Jane, wife of David Smiley: James, George, John and Ellen -- but of this family the subject, Robert, is the only living representative. Matthew, the father, was an old-line whig, was a member of the state militia, and died in Westmoreland county, Pa., in 1836, a consistent member of the Presbyterian church.
Robert Campbell, now venerable in years and an honored citizen of Putnam county, Ohio, was reared to manhood in Mannsville, Pa., and learned blacksmithing under his father, which trade he followed as a journey- man in his early manhood, making three trips from Philadelphia to Ohio. In 1837 he was umted in marriage with Miss Winifred Guy, daughter of Jesse and Jane (Shirtz) Guy, the union resulting in the birth of thirteen chil- dren, viz: Matthew, postmaster of Wisterman, Ohio; Sarah J., wife of Henry Kirkendall, of Greensburg township; Jesse G., who died in childhood; Richard, who fills a soldier's grave at Shiloh; John and George, farmers of Greens- burg township; James, who died in childhood, and Henry (twin brother of James), living on the home farin; Elizabeth E., deceased wife of Henry Dangler; Rachael M., wife of George Smith; Mary, deceased; Almira, wife of David Henry, and Minerva, deceased. Mrs. Wini- fred Campbell was born, in 1816, in Colum- biana county, Ohio. Her father, Jesse Guy, was born in Virginia in 1792, a son of Heze- kiah Guy, a Quaker, and when a boy was taken by his parents to western Pennsylvania, of winch section of the country they were among the earliest settlers. After reaching manhood he came to Ohio and located in Columbiana
county, where, in 1815, he married Jane Shirtz, daughter of Matthias Shirtz, a hero of the American Revolution. To the union of Mr. Guy and wife were born eight children, as follows: Winifred (Mrs. Campbell); Hezekiah and Matthias, of Michigan; Susan, wife of Jacob Dangler, of Greensburg township; Jesse, of Indiana; William, of Greensburg township, and Mary J. and Elizabeth, both deceased.
In 1838 Robert Campbell, our subject, came to Putnam county from Clarkson, Co- lumbiana county, Ohio, where he had worked some months at his trade after his marriage. From Columbiana county to Putnam coanty he made the trip in a covered wagon through an almost unbroken wilderness, and, being well pleased with the country. spent all of fourteen months among the pioneers, when he returned to Columbiana county, whence he sent the necessary funds to pay for a farm in P. tham county, but the messenger to whom the money was intrusted claimed to have been robbo i by a bear. Not discouraged, however, by this act of palpable fraud. Mr. Campbell's Scotch heredity manifested itself, and by 1843 he was again prepared to come to the land of his choice, and by the same means-a wagon. Here he purchased a piece of wild woodls id, on which he built himself a log cabin, cleared off a farm, undergoing, of course, all the bard- ships and excessive privations of the frontiers- man, but coming out triumphantly as one of the successful and most respected agriculturists of the township.
Mr. and Mrs. Campbell are both old-time members of the Disciples' church, having united with that religious body as far back as 1842, over half a century agone, and the up- right life they have since led has given an:ple proof of the sincerity of their religious profes- sion. Mr. Campbell is also a member of the lodge of Freemasons at Kalida, and his good standing in that order i- another evidence of
79
OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
.
the strict morality of his life, as will readily be understood, by all acquainted with the disci- pline of that ancient and honorable sodality. In politics he is a republican, having joined this party on the disintegration of the old whig organization, but he has steadfastly refused proffers of nomination to office. Being now, in point of years, probably the oldest inhabit- ant of Greensburg township, he is a revered and honored gentleman, whose long and useful life may well be emulated by the rising genera- tion of the township and county.
S TEPHEN.CAREY, a farmer, who is among the well known and prosper- ous residents of Jackson township, the son of Stephen and Eliza (Dicus) Carey, was born in Putnam county, October 8, 1846. The father was born in 1814 and married, in 1848, to Eliza Dicus. His death occurred ten months after the marriage, and Stephen, the subject of this sketch, was born
a month later. He had located in Jackson township and his wife continued to live here after his death. In the year 1850 Mrs. Carey was umted in marriage to L. H. Wells, a blacksmith, and in 1853 emigrated to Iowa, where they remained until 1861, at which time they returned to Ohio. Mr. Wells became a soldier in the Union army, enlisting, in 1861, in company A, Fifty-seventh Ohio volunteer infantry, and served nearly two years, and after the war lived in Jackson township on a farm until 1883, when he again went west, where he died in 1884; the wife and mother, surviving him, is now living in Iowa.
Stephen Carey was reared on the farm until after thirteen years of age, and educated in the Putnam county schools, where he made good use of lus advantages. February 13, 1870, he was muted in marriage to Mary Beard, and to this union was born one child, Alonzo, August
25, 1871, who is now living at home engaged in farming. The mother of Mrs. Carey, who bore the maiden name of Matilda Beard, was born April 3, 1818, in Franklin county, Ohio, her parents both being natives of Ohio; her father was born in April, 1830, and died in 1877; and his wife lived until November 18, 1895. She was the mother of the following children, viz: Alonzo, of this township; Mary, wife of Stephen Carey of this sketch; Phebe, wife of William Seigle, a farmer of Dupont; Sarah, wife of Lewis Jeffrey, of Kalida; Jane, wife of H. Hicks, of Monroe township, and Jacob, of Shelby county. The Beard family were early settlers of Putnam county, having come here in the year 1852, Mr. Beard, the father, purchasing large tracts of land, which he cleared and farmed. In politics he was a republican and lived in the faith of his con - viction and choice. He was a prominent and very highly respected man in this county and at the time of his decease was filling the office of township treasurer. He was an active member of the United Brethren church -- the church where he attended having been named for him-and led an exemplary and christian life, full of charitable works and good deeds to the poor and needy.
After the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Carey they located in Jackson township, where they lived four years, and in 1887 purchased their present place and improved it in the way of clearing and draining, and here they have since made their home. In 1894 a very handsome and commodious residence was erected, and in every respect the Carey home- stead is among the most pleasant and desirable in the vicinity. Mr. Carey is an all-around domestic man, and has never sought nor cared for public offices or popular favor, but his best interests are centered in his family and his church, having been a member of the United Brethren society since the early age of
1
T
80
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
nineteen years, and in this church he has been trustee, class leader and Sunday-school super- intendent. In politics he is a republican. The only son, Alonzo, is a member of the same religious society as his parents, having united with it in 1888. He is a prominent church worker and is one of the best and most reliable young men of the township. "Like father, like son," was never truer, and it is in snch men that our country finds its great and peculiar wealth in good citizenship. He was married December 24, 1895, to Miss Mary E. Windle, daughter of John Windle, of Jackson township. A bright and interesting little girl thirteen years of age, Ida May Shirey, an adopted daughter, has made this pleasant household of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen ( arey her home for the past three years, adding the life of young years to the general enjoyment and receiving care and safety in return.
NDREW CASTEEL, one of the most experienced agriculturists of Liberty township, Putnam county, was born in Licking county, Ohio, April 22, 1834, and is a son of Thomas and Salome (Liv- ingston) Casteel, the former a native of the Keystone and the latter of the Buckeye state, and who were married in Licking county. The father came to Ohio at a very early day with Ins parents, who were of German descent. He was a farmer, and after marrying settled on a farm he had already purchased, and on which his children were born. In 1858 he sold out and came to Putnam county, and bought eighty acres of wild land in Liberty township. He soon put up a cabin and in a very short time had fifty acres cleared and un- der cultivation. Later he erected a modern dwelling and made many other substantial im- provements, and on this farm he died Septem- ber 25, 1888, being survived by his widow im-
til August 11, 1892. Their family consisted of eleven children, as follows. Andrew, the eldest, is our subject; Jeremiah is a farmer of Liberty township; Ebenezer is a merchant at Continental; Eleanor, deceased wife of David Dillon, a farmer, died, the mother of three children; Lorenzo is a farmer and a trustee of Van Buren township; Judy A. has been twice married, first to Rudy Winkel ,who died the father of four children), and second, to David Dillon, a farmer; Amanda married James Crosser, a farmer; Thomas is a blacksmith at Belmore; John is a farmer; Almira, deceased wife of Fred Mila, of Miller City, died the mother of two children, and Ade line is married to Fred Mila, of the same place.
Andrew Casteel, om subject, was reared a farmer and received a common-school ceaca- tion. He remained on the home place until 1861, when he enlisted m company D first Ohio cavalry, at Utica, for three years, and and was assigned to the army of the Comber- land, in which he experienced some rough service. His first charge was at Stone Kever, and he took part in all the skirmishes and en- gagements in which his regiment was engaged down to September, 1865, and during all this long service was neither captured nor wounded, and received but two short furlonghis. At the time of Lee's surrender he was at Macon, Ga., on the raid with Gen. Wilson. He was mustered out at Columbus, Ohio, and received an honorable discharge at Camp Chase.
On his return home Mr. Casteel married, the same year, and soon afterward canie to Liberty township, Putnam county, and bought forty acres of land and began the struggi. of life with the aid of his young wife, whose genealogy will shortly be given. There were twenty-five acres of his tract already under cultivation, and there was a cabin on the place, which he utilized as a home. Ile soon cleared up the remainder of the place and began add-
٠٠٠٠ ١٢٠٠٠٠
.
JOHN CLEVENGER.
.
83
OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
ing to his acreage, nntil now he owns four dif- ferent farms, comprising in all about 300 acres, of which over 200 are cleared, he himself hav- ing done most of the work, as well as the ditching and draining-all the cleared land be- ing under a good state of cultivation. On his home place he has now a fine dwelling, roomy barns, and substantial out-buildings, while the other three farms are improved with comfort- able residences, barns and other necessary structures. Mr. Casteel follows the usual line of farming common to the county, raising suffi- cient live stock for home consumption, and is in very comfortable circumstances. When he left the army he had but little or nothing, financially speaking, and all he now possesses has been gained through his own hard work and shrewd financiering. He is, indeed, "the architect of his own fortune."
The lady whom Mr. Casteel was so fortu- nate as to secure for a life partner bore the maiden name of Miss Margaret Sterrett. She is the daughter of Robert and Nancy (McLaulin) Sterrett. The father was of Irish descent, was a farmer and died in Licking county. His widow, who was of Pennsylvania birth, then came with a son to Putnam county, and here died in 1891. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Sterrett consisted of eight children, named as follows: Catherine, Robert, Thomas, Charles, Margaret (Mrs. Casteel), Barbara (married to Jeremiah Castech), Sarah and John (who brought his mother to Putnam county in 1877) The felicitous union of subject and wife has also been blessed with eight children, as fol- lows: Della, at home; Nancy, nmarried to Jo. seph Bishop, farmer, of Henry county; Vir- ginia, married Henry Wood; Wesley, farming in the same county; Smith, at home; Laura, Leroy and Elizabeth, also at home. In poli- tics Mr. Casteel is a democrat, but has never .spired to political position. Certainly no man in Petnam county deserves greater credit 5
than Mr. Casteel for the persevering industry that has characterized his life, his integrity, usefulness and public spirit as a citizen and his gallantry as a soldier.
J OHN CLEVENGER, one of the most respectable agriculturists of Sugar Creek township, Putnam county, Ohio, was born in Franklin county, in the same state, July 12, 1815, and is a son of Benjamin and Susan Clevenger, natives of Virginia, who came to Ohio in 1803, locating in Franklin county on rented land, where Mrs. Susan Clevenger died. There Benjamin re-married and remained until 1833, when he came to Putnam connty, having been preceded hither by his elder children. Here he entered large tracts of land and cleared up a farm, on which he resided until the death of his second wife, when he went to live with one of his sons. He was an enterprising and public-spirited citizen, and in 1834, built on Sroar Creek the first mill that was erected in Putnam coanty. He ever had in view the bettering of the condition of the county and of his neighbors and as a whig served as county commissioner one or two terms. He also served as super- visor of his township and filled several minor offices, and died at the ripe age of seventy- eight years. He reared a family of nine sons and three daughter, as follows: William, with whom our subject, John, made his home on first coming here, and who, at his death, left three children; Jacob, who died the father of fourteen children; Joseph, who left four children; George who left five children, Sam- uel, who died June 11, 1895, and left a wife and three children; Mary, who married Dan- iel Andrick, both of whom are deceased, leav- ing a family; Anna died singh John is our subject, Isaac died leaving ten celdren; Jaunes died, and left four children. Eli died, the
6
84
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
father of two children; Nancy was first married to a Mr. White and secondly to a Mr. Buck- ingham and also died, leaving a family. It will thus be seen that of the family of twelve born to Benjamin and Susan Clevenger, John, our subject, is the sole survivor.
John Clevenger, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the old-fashioned log school- house in Franklin county, and at the age of fifteen years came to Putnam county with his eldest brother, Willian, who entered land in the then wilderness, and proceeded to clear up a farm, in which task our subject greatly as- sisted. In 1833, as related, the father came, and among his other generous and praise- worthy acts, presented our subject with a tract of land. In 1837 he married-of which event further details will be given in another para- graph. He now built a cabin and went to house-keeping, undergoing all the hardships incidental to clearing up a home from the wildwood, and this land is still his home, but a home of very different character from what it was then. In that carly day but little im- provement had been made in the neighbor- hood. The woods were filled with beasts of prey as well as with game, and as Mr. Cley- enger was an expert huntsman his larder was always well supplied, and no small revenue re- sulted from the sale of the pelts of ani- mals which he killed, including beer, wolves, etc. Malarial fever, ague, etc., were for a long time serious drawbacks, but as the country was cleared and drained, these disappeared to . great extent. Mills were difficult to be reached, but occasionaly a load of grain was hanled to Defiance, where the surplus wheat was disposed of at sixty-two cents a bushel, but a great many new comers were also glad to relieve the settlers of their surplus grain. Numbers of Indian stragglers, of the Wyandot and Seneca tribes, were also prow ling around, hunting and sugar making, but were not hos-
tile or unnecessarily troublesome. Eventually the canal was run through, Delphos was built, and new markets were opened, and gradually all hardships were forgotten.
After Mr. Clevenger had nicely opened his farm and the surrounding country had been ditched and drained and had approximated to the beautiful land it now is, and in the trans- formation of which Mr. Clevenger was one of the prime factors, his primitive log house dis- appeared with the other rude structures of the early day, and in their stead were erect. d his present fine two-story, modern brick residence, his commodious and substantial barns, and his numerous other out-buildings, which are a dec- oration to the surrounding landscape, in which any farmer might take an honest pride. While he has given considerable attention to the rais- ing of live stock of the better grades, Mr. Clevenger has been chi fly engaged in the pro- duction of cereals indigenous to the imate and soil, and that he has beer skillful and in- telligent in their culture is evidenced by his present prosperous condition.
To revert to the marriage of Mr. Clevenger, alluded to as having taken place in 1837, it is necessary here to state that his bride was Miss Nancy G. Gander, daughter of John and Eliz- abeth (Kendall) Gander, natives of Virginia. These parents were married in the Old Do- minion, and after coming to Ohio resided in Franklin county for several years, and then, in 1837, settled in Putnam county, where Mr. Gander bought an improved farm for his own purposes and entered other lands for the use of his children. This land the latter subse- quently developed into first-class farms, this adding to the wealth and civilization of their adopted state. Mr. Gander died in Septem- ber, 1858, his widow surviving until i853, and of their progeny of twelve, mme grew to ma- turity as follows: Sammel, who ched ; 18$5, and left six sous and one daughter; Mary was
-
85
..
OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
married to Daniel Gray, the first clerk of the Putnam county court; Elizabeth was married . to Samuel Clevenger; the fourth child, Nancy G., became the wife of our subject; David died in 1880 and left eight children; Maria died single; John died in 1893 and left seven chil- dren; Jacob has a wife and four children; George, a prosperous farmer, has a wife and four children.
The marriage of John Clevenger and wife has resulted in the birth of six children, all of whom, it is sad to relate, died in infancy, one only living to be nine years old. Mr. Cleven- ger and wife are both devoted members of the Primitive Baptist church, to which they con- tribute liberally and show by their daily walk through life the sincerity of their belief in its teachings. In his political affiliations Mr. Clevenger is a democrat, and although as a matter of duty he has felt it incumbent upon himself to fill such offices as township super- visor, he has never sought public office for the sake of emolument, self-aggrandizement or for the empty honor attached to such positions. He has been content in the aiding and build- ing up of the township and county in which he lives; and the esteem in which he is held by his neighbors is an assurance that his more than ordinary labor, and the successful result thereof, are duly appreciated. Of such men as Mr. Clevenger a county is made to be what it should be.
S AMUEL CLEVENGER, the subject of this, sketch, can look back with pride at the trials and hardships which he, as a pioneer, was obliged to pass through, and which, at the time, Seemed almost unsurmountable, but with a set purpose and perservance he was able to over- come, and later to enjoy, the harvest which must come when one's labor is faithfully donc.
Men who could brave such hardships came from a sturdy stock, and this we see well in the ancestry of Samuel Clevenger, whose grand- parents come from the land of Bruce and Wallace and of Burns and Scott.
In 1777, during the stormy and trouble- some times of the Revolutionary war, there was born, in Shenendoah county, situated in the beautiful Shenendoah valley of Virginia, Benjamin Clevenger, whose father, William, and mother were natives of Scotland. Dur- ing these troublesome tines the opportunities for obtaining an education were few, but Ben- jamin was given as good an education as limited means could procure while he was bound out to learn the cabinet-maker's trade, his father having died when he was but five years old. Ile followed, faithfully, the car- penter's and cabinet-maker's trade until he reached his majority, when, in 1798, he mar- ried Susanne Croopenhaver. This union was blessed by nine children: William; Jacob; Joseph; George; Samuel, the subject of this sketch: Mrs. Mary Andrick; Susanne; Jolm, of Sugar Creek township (see sketch), and Isaac, all of whom are now deceased but John.
In 1805 Benjamin moved to Franklin county, Ohio, where he had leased a farm for fifteen years. He remained on this farm until 1815, when his wife died and he sold his lease. In 1821 he married Mrs. Sarah Flemming, to whom was born three children -- James, Eli, and Benjamin, all of whom are dead. Be- tween 1827 and 1833 he made several trips to Putnam county, where he finally entered over 1,440 acres of government land at $1.25 per acre. In 1831 he located h. Sugar Creek township, where he passed the remainder of his life. His second wife ched in 1838. and about 1840 he married the third, who lived but a year. He was an old-'ne whis, and sreved as county commissioner one term, and held many other offices. To him belongs the
86
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
credit of building the first grist-mill in the county in 1832, where Vaughnsville now stands. He was a prominent member of the Baptist church and died in 1853 at the good age of seventy-six years.
wife of Samuel Seitz (see his sketch); Mrs. Sarah Seitz; Mrs. Susan Deffenbaugh, who died in 1860; and Benjamin F. The mother- less children were again blessed with the kindly care of a mother, when, on August 30, 1846, their father married Catherine Krouse, who was born October 30, 1825, in Germany, and had come to America in 1830 with her parents, Henry and Elizabeth (Roeder) Krouse, and had spent her childhood days in Richland comty, Ohio, where her parents resided until 1840, when they removed to Putnam county and settled in Sugar Creek township.
Samuel Clevenger, the fifth son of the above Benjamin and Susanne, was educated in the common schools of Franklin county. His mother had died when he was but seven years old and he was sent away from home to live with a family with whom he worked for his board and a few clothes, and by whom he was not allowed to go to school until he was fourteen years old. With this family he re- mained until his father married again, when This marriage was blessed with two chil- dren, Lucinda and James, both of whom are dead. By hard work and economy is ob- tained enough to warrant him in retiring from an active life and to enjoy the fruits of . well- earned reward, and a: the time this sketch was written he enjoyed the distinction of be- ing the second oldest man in Union township. In early life he was known as an old-line whig, but later as a democrat. He enjoyed the con- fidence of his neighbors, who elected him to the offices of township trustee and land appraiser, and he also served in other offices. He was known as a liberal, public-spirited citizen, and could pride himself on having done his part in making the township what it is. He was not selfish, but was thoughtful of others and will- ing to give a helping hand to those needing it. After rounding out a well spent life, he, on June 11, 1895, died, leaving a wife ant four children to mourn the loss of a kind husband and father. he returned home and remained until 1830, when, on August 30, he married Elizabeth Gander, who was born in Franklin county, Ohio, in March, 1812, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Gander, her parents being natives of Virginia, of German ancestry. Soon after marriage he, with his four elder brothers and their families, migrated, in a large wagon, to the land in Sugar Creek town- ship, Putnam county, which his father had recently purchased from the government. The land was virgin forest never trodden before. except by the Indians on their hunting expedi- tions; no house or cabins were there to receive or protect them from the storms; they lived in tents until they could build a log cabin for shelter. Here he worked hard felling the mammoth. trees of the forest, rolling them into heaps to be burned, in order to clear a space where they could raise a few things for their immediate needs. He worked here for two years, when he located in Unior township, where he renewed the many hardships and privations of a frontiersman. While living J OSEPH CLEVENGER is among the influential farmers of Union township; and of the rative sons of Putnam county, there are none more prisper- here his wife, on August 7, 1845, departed for the long home, and he was left alone in his hle struggle, with five children, named as fol- lows: Mrs. Elizabeth Funk, deceased; Mary, I ons and enterprising than the subject of this
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.