A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio, Part 10

Author: Lyle S. Evans
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 549

USA > Ohio > Ross County > A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio > Part 10

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lican and is the father of seven living children : Flora S., now Mrs. H. V. Hopkins; William M., now superintendent of the Union Shoe Manufac- turing Company; Pretley, assistant superintendent of The Carbondale Coal Company ; Anna Welch, now Mrs. Daniel Friend; Rowena L., living at home; Carl H., secretary of the Union Coal Company ; Nell, Mrs. Frank Ferguson.

Colonel Enderlin's career in the past half century has been one of progressive effort, and he is now at the head of and actively identified with several of the leading enterprises of Chillicothe. At the same time he has been foremost in nearly all public movements for the real better- ment of Chillicothe. It was his sincere and deeply grounded interest in humanity that gave him the idea, while his business capacity and means enabled him to carry out the plan which bore fruitage in 1914 in the Richard Enderlin Welfare House, an institution appropriately described in other paragraphs. It should be noted that this welfare house is in some features of its equipment and service a first model of the kind in the United States.

For his charitable deeds and his extensive contributions to all worthy causes, Colonel Enderlin is known not only in Ross County but pretty well over the State of Ohio. It is an old saying with him that when you find a fellow in good health in distress, give him something to do. That idea being always present in his mind, he is even at the date of this writing a very large employer of labor in the several industries of which he is the head.

It might not be out of place to add that Colonel Enderlin has been the direct means of a number of young men getting started in honorable business careers. In his time he has given in proportion to his means as liberally to public charities as anyone in Chillicothe, and he has been equally generous to those in whom he felt interested and those who needed real charity. Few of his personal friends have any idea of the pleasure it seems to give him and the amount in dollars as well as spirit that he has and is still dispensing in these worthy causes.

JACOB OVERLY. One of the most successful farm managers in Ross County is Jacob Overly, who now directs the operations of a large place of 200 acres located on the Cincinnati Pike three miles east of Bain- bridge on Rural Route No. 1 out of that town, and known as "Maples Farm." Farm management is now a matter of science as well as routine application of industry, and if any one knows how to get the most out of land and stock in this section of Ohio it is Jacob Overly.

This is a family that has been identified with Ross County for a great many years. Jacob Overly was born in Springfield Township of this county on January 19, 1866, a son of John H. and Rebecca (Arthurs) Overly. His father was born in Springfield Township in 1830. The grandfather, Frederick Overly, arrived in Ross County as a boy with his parents, and thus the family was established here early in the last cen- tury when the country was all new and undeveloped. The Overlys bore.

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their share of the hardships and difficulties connected with the improve- ment of Springfield Township and they selected as their first home loca- tion a site on the high ground in preference to the swampy and unwhole- some bottom lands. It was in that locality that John H. Overly grew to manhood. Rebecca Arthurs was born near McArthur in Vinton County in 1838. She came with her parents to Ross County, her people settling on a rented farm close to the old home place which Jacob Overly now owns. In that way the destinies of the two families were thrown together and John H. and Rebecca were married not long afterward. They spent the rest of their years on their farm and John H. died in 1896 and his widow in 1910. There were eight children in their family: William H., who lives on his brother Jacob's farm in Springfield Township; Ellen, who died as the wife of Clinton Tripp; Jacob; Catherine, wife of John Ramley ; Mattie and Charles, both living in Springfield Township; Oscar, of Dayton, Ohio; and Samantha, of Springfield Township.

The father of these children was a very ardent democrat, seldom missed a vote, and was ever ready to work for his friends and for the benefit of the community. He also belonged to the Hopetown Methodist Church in Springfield Township.

Jacob Overly attended district school at Bunker Hill. When he was about twenty years of age he started out to make his own way in the world. He had no capital at the time and his main dependence was upon his industry and perseverance. He rented a farm and also farmed on the share. In that way he gradually accumulated the capital which enabled him to buy the old home place of thirty-three acres. He kept adding to that until he had it 100 acres, and that property now represents the steady accumulation of years of industry and well directed effort.

Most of his success in the way of accumlation of land has come from farming both his own property and other land. For four years he had charge as overseer of the Dunn farm of 600 acres.

On April 16, 1903, he married Miss Josephine Smith, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Perry) Smith. Soon after his marriage Mr. Overly moved to the Smith farm, and has since managed its broad acres, and that is the home of himself and his worthy wife. He is one of the republican voters of the county. Mr. and Mrs. Overly's home is one of the attractive places along the Cincinnati Pike.

JOHN C. FOSTER. Of the families which have contributed to the agricultural welfare and development of Ross County, one of the best known and most highly regarded is that bearing the name of Foster, of whom a worthy representative is found in the person of John C. Foster. Mr. Foster, who is now nearly seventy years of age, has spent practically his entire life in one community, and by constant devotion to one line of business, farming, has prospered beyond the ordinary. His home place of 260 acres is on rural route No. 1 from Higby and in Franklin Town- ship. He also owns another farm of 260 acres and a three-fourths in- terest in one of 110 acres, one being located in Franklin Township of Ross County, and the other in Jackson Township of Pike County.

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A substantial quality of human character is persistence and perma- nence. This is well illustrated in the fact that two successive generations of the Foster family were born in the same house on the same farm. John C. Foster was born on the farm where he now resides January 4, 1847, and his father Thomas C. Foster was born in the same house and on the same farm in 1813. This latter date indicates how early the Foster family came to Ohio. The grandfather John Foster was born and spent his early life on the line between Maryland and Virginia. He married there, and soon afterward came west to Ohio. Ohio was not a state then and was part of the great Northwest Territory. John Foster arrived about the year 1795, soon after Gen. Anthony Wayne had com- pletely subdued the Indians of the Northwest and had opened the way for white settlement. John Foster the pioneer was accompanied by his brothers Thomas and Joseph, each of whom took up a quarter section of land in Ross County. John Foster lived in this county the rest of his useful years, but he died while visiting his sons in Madison County, Ohio. He was a man of much prominence in his day, and besides the heavy work of farming he was also a local Methodist minister.

Thomas C. Foster married Jane E. Davis, and he subsequently bought out the heirs of the old homestead and lived there until he was killed in a railroad accident in 1882. His wife was the daughter of John Davis, one of the early settlers of Ross County. They had six children, and the three now living are Martha, widow of J. P. Foster of Franklin Township; James and John C., both of Franklin Township.

Reared on the old farm, John C. Foster found abundant oppor- tunities for work and improvement of mind and body from an early age. His district school education was continued by a course in the National Normal College at Lebanon during the years 1866-67. With the exception of six years spent in Scioto County, he has lived on the old homestead in Franklin Township since his birth.

On August 14, 1867, he married Mary E. Foster, daughter of Joseph Foster of Pike County, Ohio. Eleven children were born to their union, and the six now living are Jennie, wife of Joe Higby; William, at home; Emma, at home; John, living in Liberty Township; Joseph, in Pike County ; Charles, of Marietta, Ohio. The other children died young with the exception of Herbert W. In politics Mr. Foster is a republican.

WILLIAM A. WALLACE. A lawyer by profession, a farmer by avoca- tion, a public leader since boyhood, William A. Wallace, of Chillicothe, has played a very interesting and useful part during his course through life, and he is still only in his prime.

He was born in Chillicothe September 24, 1867, a son of Augustus and Ann Elizabeth (McGinnis) Wallace. An interesting fact of his ancestry is that he is a grandnephew of Governor Edward Tiffin, the first governor of Ohio. Augustus Wallace was born in Chillicothe in 1833. The grandfather was Cadwallader Wallace, who came from Cul- peper Court House, Virginia, in 1807, being a single man at the time.

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and in the capacity of a government land surveyor. His work is a part of nearly all the land records of this section of the state. He laid out many of the township lines and many of the parcels of land included in family estates. He made his home at Chillicothe until his death in 1860, and was active in business affairs until some ten or fifteen years before his death. He acquired large holdings of land and was considered a man of considerable wealth for his time. .

Augustus Wallace was one of his parents' eleven children, six of whom survived their father. For many years he employed his time in managing and overseeing the Wallace estate. His wife, Ann Eliza- beth McGinnis, was born in Chillicothe in August, 1837, a daughter of James S. McGinnis, who came to Chillicothe from Massachusetts. By trade he was a furrier and hatter, and through those lines acquired a very substantial place in Chillicothe business affairs. Augustus Wal- lace and wife had five children, and the three now living are: Eliza- beth, wife of John J. Frazer, of Los Angeles, California; William A .; and Adah, wife of Dennis McConnell, of Chicago.

As his parents were very well-to-do people, William A. Wallace had every advantage he desired in the way of a good home and opportuni- ties for education. He grew up in Chillicothe, where he attended school, and he took up the study of law with Hon. Lawrence T. Neal of the Chillicothe bar. For a number of years he was engaged in office practice, but has had comparatively little part in the legal profession for the past fifteen years. Most of his time is now given to the management of his various farming and other business interests, and particularly to the control of his estate of 300 acres known as the Mountain View Farm and located four miles east of Bainbridge, on the Chillicothe- Milford Turnpike Road. He is also one of the owners of the noted Rocky Fork Caves at Bainbridge.

For many years he has been an influential factor in republican poli- tics in this section of Ohio. When twenty years of age he was nicknamed the "young eagle of Ross," and possessing unusual eloquence and the strong convictions that make a political leader, he was a forceful cam- paigner and stumped the state with such celebrated figures as John Sherman, William McKinley, J. B. Foraker and Marcus A. Hanna. He has always been interested in politics, but never as a seeker of office for himself.

On January 5, 1899, William Wallace married Anna M. Jones, daughter of William A. and Jane (Storms) Jones. The Storms family in Ross County dates back to John Storms, who came from Virginia in 1810, spent the rest of his life in this county and became an extensive land owner. William A. Jones, father of Mrs. Wallace, acquired much wealth in land and other property and died in Ross County in December, 1901. His widow is still living on the old homestead here.

Mr. Wallace is very active in fraternal circles, being affiliated with Scioto Lodge, No. 6, Free and Accepted Masons; Chillicothe Chapter, No. 4, Royal Arch Masons; Chillicothe Council, No. 4, Royal and Select Masters; Chillicothe Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar; Scioto Con-

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sistory of the Scottish Rite at Columbus, and Alladin Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Columbus. He and his wife are both members of Chapter No. 183 of the Eastern Star at Bainbridge. He also belongs to Chillicothe Lodge, No. 52, of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he is past exalted ruler. Mr. and Mrs. Wallace are mem- bers of the First Presbyterian Church in Chillicothe.

E. E. ROCKHOLD. Historically one of the most interesting estates in Ross County is the old Nathaniel Massie homestead, a mile west of Bainbridge. This is now the home of Mr. Rockhold, a progressive citizen of Ross County, whose business affairs are of a 'varied nature and who is especially well known for the successful manner in which he conducts his farm as a stock raising proposition. The farm comprises 450 acres.

Mr. Rockhold was born in Bainbridge November 19, 1873. He belongs to one of the old families of Southern Ohio, and it was his great-grand- father, Joseph Rockhold, who came to Ross County from Pennsylvania in the early days. His first settlement was along the river bottoms, but on account of the sickness which prevailed there, he soon afterward moved back to the hills and spent the rest of his life as an industrious pioneer farmer. Elijah Rockhold, a son of the pioneer Joseph, was born on the High Banks of Ross County. When a young man of eighteen years of age he started out for himself. At that time railroads had not yet penetrated this section of Ohio and he was employed as driver of a stage on the line between Marietta and Chillicothe, his route extend- ing between Chillicothe and Hillsboro. From that he took a position as clerk for a merchant named Adams, and progressed so rapidly that Mr. Adams soon made him active manager and in time he bought the entire business and was long known as one of Ross County's successful and well-to-do merchants.

E. C. Rockhold, father of E. E. Rockhold, was born in Bainbridge, one of eight children and the only one who reached mature years. His wife, Cidna M. Jones, was born at McArthur, in Vinton County, Ohio, where her father was an extensive farmer and became widely known as one of the early importers of Merino sheep. E. C. Rockhold and wife had three children: E. E .; Georgiana B., living at home; and Cyrus K., who is a graduate in the mining course from the Ohio State University and is now located at Castle Gate, Utah.

Mr. E. E. Rockhold has had a various business experience. His early training was directed largely to preparation for a business career. He attended the Bainbridge schools, the old Salem Academy, the New York Military Academy, and the University of Pennsylvania. For six months he was employed at a bank in Philadelphia. He then returned home for two years, following which he spent four years in New York City. His father had served three years in the Union army during the Civil war, going out with Company H of the Eighty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was captured and spent fifteen months in the Andersonville and Libbey prisons, and the suffering of prison life undermined his health and he was never entirely strong after the war. It was to take charge of his

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father's business that E. E. Rockhold resigned his position in New York City and returned home. After that he had complete charge of the business. As a farmer, Mr. Rockhold specializes in registered hogs of the Duroc strain, and he keeps all his livestock up to a high grade. Besides his interest as a farmer and stock raiser, he owns stock in banks and is one of the prominent business men of Ross County.

During the Spanish-American war Mr. Rockhold enlisted in the First Naval Battalion and was assigned to the signal corps.

On September 24, 1906, he married Nelle H. Elliott, of a family from Waverly, Ohio. They are the parents of two daughters: Helen D. and Pauline E. Mr. Rockhold is affiliated with Bainbridge Lodge, No. 196, Free and Accepted Masons; Greenfield Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Chillicothe Council, No. 4, Royal and Select Masters, and Chillicothe Commandery, No. 8, Knights Templar. His politics is republican. In his home community he has served as member of the town council, also on the board of public affairs and the school board.

JOHN M. WILTSHIRE, M. D. Among its prominent medical men Ross County has in the person of Doctor Wiltshire one who did his first pro- fessional service before the Civil war. He was a soldier of the Union army, and for more than half a century has been a kindly, helpful and skillful practitioner of medicine and a friend to hosts of people who admire his character and personality in Ross County.

His home is now at Richmond Dale in this county. He was born at Waller, in Ross County, October 8, 1834, and has nearly reached his eighty-second birthday. His parents were William and Lydia (Stinson) Wiltshire. A native of Virginia, his father came when very young with his parents to Ross County. That was early in the last century, and here he grew up on a farm practically on the frontier, with such educa- tion as the schools of that time afforded, and became a successful farmer near Waller. He owned a place of about 150 acres, and it was by farming that he provided for himself and his family. After the formation of that party, he was a republican, and was also a member of the Sweden- borgian faith, though his wife was a Methodist. They had eleven children : Dr. John M .; James and Jacob, who died in infancy ; Gaines, who became a member of Company K in the Seventy-third Ohio Volun- teer Infantry and was killed in the battle of Kenesaw Mountain ; William, now deceased; Benjamin F., deceased ; Henry C., who lives in London- derry ; Horace, a resident of Macey, Wells County, Indiana; Mary, wife of Scott Finley of Massieville; Margaret, wife of Gibson Recob, of Dayton, Ohio; and Grace, wife of John Wood, of Dayton, Ohio.

Dr. John M. Wiltshire grew up on his father's farm, attended the district schools when they were still conducted on the subscription plan, and in early manhood he began the study of medicine. He read books at home, also had Doctor Lander, of Chillicothe, as a preceptor. He began practice and also had his military experience before he entered the Starling Medical College of Columbus, from which he graduated M. D. in 1865. For one year Doctor Wiltshire was in the army, a mem-

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ber of Company E of the Sixty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry.' He practiced at Chillicothe and afterwards was at Mooresville, until he entered the army. Later, for a year, he was at Londonderry, then com- pleted his university education and returned there and started on an extensive practice over a wide surrounding territory until 1910. Since that year he has lived at Richmond Dale, and though an old man, is still practicing. Doctor Wiltshire practically has a better knowledge of con- ditions under which the medical men of Ross County have practiced than any other living physician. He did a large practice in the years before the good roads movement had begun, before telephones and automobiles were thought of, and he had his share of that arduous toil connected with medical practice forty or fifty years ago.

In 1856 Doctor Wiltshire married Mary Sutherland, a daughter of James Sutherland. Doctor Wiltshire may well take pride in the worthy sons and daughters who follow him in life's generation. These sons are Dr. J. S. Wiltshire, W. H. Wiltshire and J. E. Wiltshire, and the daughter is Mary F. Counts.

W. A. ACTON. For many years Mr. W. A. Acton was in the service of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway Company, but his inclinations were largely settled in the direction of farming as a youth, and for the past six years he has enjoyed the fruits and comforts of a fine farm of 138 acres a mile from Richmond Dale on the Richmond Dale and Vigo road. This is a place long known as the Heath farm, and is on rural route No. 2 out of Chillicothe.

The Acton family has been identified with Ross County for fully a century. Mr. Acton was born on a farm at Musselman, in this county, June 11, 1858. His parents were Lott and Isabelle (Kellenbarger) Acton. His grandfather, William Acton, was a Virginian. He enlisted from that state for service in the War of 1812, and after leaving the army he married in Virginia and at once brought his bride to Ross County, locating in Union Township. A century ago nearly all of Ross County was a wilderness, and the Actons were among those who laid the foundations for the civilization which the people of the present generation enjoy. William Acton acquired a farm, and in his time was one of the substantial citizens of the county.

· Lott Acton was born in South Union Township, grew up on a farm, and for his first wife married Miss Houser. She became the mother of two children, one of whom died in infancy, and the other is Alfred Acton, of Chillicothe. For his second wife Lott Acton married Isabelle Kellen- barger, and they then settled on a farm close to Musselman, in Ross County. In 1863 Lott Acton left his farm and his family to give his services to the preservation of the Union. He died at Camp Dennison from illness contracted while in the service. He and his second wife became the parents of five children: Joseph, of Chillicothe; W. A. Acton; Mary Elizabeth, now deceased; John, a resident of Concord Township; and Lott Albert, of Chillicothe.

Mr. W. A. Acton was only a child when his father died. He grew

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up on the home farm, made the best of his advantages in the district schools, but early in life determined to make his own way and do what he could to support himself and contribute to the support of the house- hold. He helped to conduct the farm, worked out by the month, spend- ing two years in that way in Pickaway County, and for twenty-seven years was employed on the different branches of the Cincinnati, Hamil- ton and Dayton Railway in the section service. He was made foreman, and in that capacity spent nineteen years, with headquarters at Rich- mond Dale. In 1910 Mr. Acton, leaving the railroad service, bought his present farm and is giving all his time and energies to its profitable management.

On November 15, 1893, Mr. Acton married Miss Margaret B. Wood- ring, who was born in Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio, and came as a girl with her parents to Ross County. She is a daughter of John and Jennie Woodring. While growing up in Ross County she met Mr. Acton, and to their marriage have been born six children. William Herman, who graduated from the public schools of Richmond Dale, furthered his education in Dennison University, has been a successful teacher and is now in a business college at Columbus. Ruth Juanita is the wife of D. D. Weinrich, a telegraph operator. Clarence Franklin lives in Chilli- cothe and married Mary Drummond. Floyd Edward is still at home and in the eighth grade of the public school. Herbert died in infancy. Louise is still at home and a schoolgirl.

Mr. Acton is a past noble grand of Garfield Lodge, No. 710, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. While always a busy man, he has found time to serve the interests of his community, and for the past seven years has administered the duties of trustee of Jefferson Town- ship. Politically he is a democrat.

JACOB E. DUBOIS. For upwards of eighty years members of the DuBois family have been factors in the agricultural improvement of . Ross County. The old DuBois homestead, particularly known as the Far View Farm, is situated on the Richmond Dale and Londonderry roads, half a mile south of Vigo. The active manager of this farm at present is Jacob E. DuBois, grandson of the original settler, and a very capable and progressive young man.

His birth occurred on this farm August 21, 1871, and his personal industry has been concerned with its cultivation and management since early manhood.

This branch of the DuBois family is a very old one. For a number of generations during the colonial period they lived in Ulster County, New York. All of them are descendants of Louis DuBois, who was of French Huguenot stock, and emigrated from Holland to the State of New York in early colonial times. The family had its original seat, in France, and on account of religious persecution moved from there to Protestant Holland, and then some of its members crossed the Atlantic and found homes in the New World.

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A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio, Part 10

Author: Lyle S. Evans Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 549

Author: Lyle S. Evans
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 549