USA > Ohio > Ross County > A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio > Part 31
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Cephus C. Rittenhouse was born at Frankfort, Ross County, Novem- ber 7, 1853. As a boy he attended public schools both in Ross and in Union County. For two years he worked at the carpenter's trade, and then took up farming as his regular vocation in life. For a time he worked at monthly wages until he had saved sufficient to buy a team, and with that equipment he rented some land. From one step to another he has made constant progress, and for the past thirty-two years has occupied one of the good farms in Concord Township and has made a success as a general farmer and stock raiser.
During his twenty-second year Mr. Rittenhouse married Nancy Wornstaff. She was born near the Village of Roxabell in Ross County, a daughter of Richard and Elsie (Carmean) Wornstaff, both natives of Ross County. Her father was a merchant in Ross County when the war broke out and soon afterward left his store to enlist in an Ohio regiment. He died while in service at Acworth, Georgia, and was buried in the South.
Mr. and Mrs. Rittenhouse have reared six children : Myrtle, Arthur, Emma, Faye, Maude and Bly. Myrtle is the wife of Otto Roll. Arthur married Anna Swires, and their two children are Virgil and Curtis. Emma married N. E. Bablet and their three children are Lloyd, Mervin Vol. II-16
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and Marie. Faye is the wife of Charles Milligan, with three children named Pauline, Gladys and Charlotte.
In church affiliation Mr. and Mrs. Rittenhouse are Methodists. He has always been an active democrat. He is now serving his fourth con- secutive term as township trustee. He is a charter member of Frank- fort Camp No. 4065 of the Modern Woodmen of America, and has been its secretary since it was organized in 1896. He is also a member of Frankfort Lodge No. 309, Free and Accepted Masons.
CAPT. JOHN W. JENKINS of Frankfort is one of the surviving veterans of the Civil war. He earned his rank and title by gallant and meritorious service with an Ohio regiment, and rose from a place in the ranks to the leadership of a company. Aside from his military ex- perience his years have been spent largely in farming, though he has given generously of his time and means to the promotion of every worthy local enterprise.
He was born near Shiloh Church in Concord Township, March 20, 1836. His father, John Jenkins, was born in Pennsylvania and as a young man came to Ohio. He made the entire journey on foot. Ross County was then fairly well settled but still a pioneer community, since there were neither railroads nor canals. In Concord Township he bought a tract of timbered land, and there put up the rude log house in which Captain Jenkins first saw the light of day. John Jenkins cleared his land and remained a practical farmer of the county until his death. He married Eliza Pursell, who was a native of Ross County. Their six children were named John, Thomas, Margaret, Roland, Mary and Polk.
When Captain Jenkins was a boy sixty or seventy years ago, there were few good schools anywhere in Ohio. Most of the country schools at least were taught in log buildings. There were rude benches of slabs for the scholars to sit on, and the teacher followed the time honored custom of boarding around among the patrons of the school. However, Captain Jenkins made the best possible use of such advantages, and after leaving the common schools he attended for a time the old South Salem Academy. When he was eighteen years of age he began teach- ing. His first term was taught in the Kline district of Concord Town- ship. After teaching two terms he took up farming, and was thus en- gaged until the outbreak of the Civil war. In 1861, a few months after hostilities were declared, he enlisted in Company K of the Sixty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Two years later in 1863 he veteranized and was with the army in many hard fought battles and campaigns until after the close of the war. Much of his service was in the Mississippi Valley, following the armies of Grant and Sherman, through the East Tennessee campaign, during the hundred days of continuous fighting between Chickamauga and the siege and capture of Atlanta, and after the fall of that city he followed Sherman to the sea, and from Savannah marched up through the Carolinas. After the surrender of the Con- federate forces under Johnston he and his comrades went on to Rich-
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mond and thence to Washington, and there participated in the glorious spectacle of the Grand Review. From private he went steadily upward through the grades until he reached a captaincy.
Receiving his honorable discharge in 1865, he returned home, but the following March went out to Missouri and bought land in Jackson County near Kansas City. He was a farmer there for ten years, at the end of which time he sold and returned to Ross County. Captain Jenkins then settled on the farm which he still owns in Concord Town- ship. He farmed that place until 1916 and in July of that year moved to Frankfort, where he now enjoys a well earned retirement.
On February 22, 1866, Captain Jenkins married Mary Evans. She was born in Clarksburg of Ross County, a daughter of Dr. John Baxter and Lucinda (Wilson) Evans, and a granddaughter of Isaac and Jane (Morton) Evans. Her father was a very successful physician, at first in Clarksburg and afterward in Frankfort, and practiced over that part. of the county until his death. Captain and Mrs. Jenkins have two sons, Marcus and Pursell. Marcus married Nora Stoockey and their three daughters are Ruby, Edith and Clara. Pursell married Lucy Jones, and they have two daughters, Mary and Louise. Captain Jenkins and wife are active members of the Presbyterian Church. He was a charter mem- ber of McNeil Post of the Grand Army of the Republic. Politically he has always been a stanch supporter of the principles of the republican party. Many times his fellow citizens have called him to places of responsibility and trust, and for ten years he filled the place of town- ship trustee and for two terms was a county commissioner.
BENJAMIN A. STAGGS. As a farmer, building contractor, real estate dealer, and public official Benjamin A. Staggs has played a varied and important part in the life of Ross County during the last forty years. His home is in Frankfort though his business dealings extend to various parts of Ross County and to other states. Mr. Staggs is a widely traveled man and has a very accurate knowledge of conditions in various other states.
Though not a native of Ross County, he represents one of the very old family names here, since his grandfather was one of the pioneers of northwest territory. His great-grandparents probably came from Ireland and were of Scotch ancestry. They came to this country before the Revolutionary war, locating in the colony of Virginia. Mr. Staggs' grandfather, William Staggs, was born in Virginia in 1778. He learned the trade of carpenter and went from Virginia to Kentucky, becoming one of the early settlers in Clark County. His home in Kentucky was on the road between Winchester and Mount Sterling, about equi distant from those two points. From there he came across the Ohio River into northwest territory, and acquired land in Concord Township. When the Village of Frankfort was incorporated in 1827, William Staggs was honored by election as its first mayor. He lived there industriously and serviceably until his death on September 13, 1864. William Staggs
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married Elizabeth Clausen, who died in April, 1855, when about seventy years of age.
Alfred Staggs, the only son of William and Elizabeth Staggs, was born in Concord Township of Ross County, February 18, 1802, just about the time Ohio was admitted to the Union. He learned the trades of brickmaker and bricklayer, and in that capacity proved a very valu- able factor in Ross County and elsewhere. He became a contractor and builder of Chillicothe, was in business there several years, and then moved to Clark County, Kentucky, and located in the same community where his father had lived in pioneer times. In 1854 he returned to Ross County, locating in Frankfort, where he continued his business as contractor and builder throughout the remainder of his active years. He died May 5, 1883, an honored and useful citizen. In July, 1828, Alfred Staggs married Eliza Simpson. She was born in Buckskin Township of Ross County, November 10, 1810, and her father, Matthew Simpson, a native of Ireland of Scotch-Irish ancestry, had been one of the pioneers of Buckskin Township, where he improved a farm and lived until his death. Mrs. Alfred Staggs died August 24, 1883, in the same year as her husband. Her four children were: Margaret E., Sarah C., John C., and Benjamin A. The daughter, Sarah, married Henry C. Painter, and lived in Frankfort. Margaret married Richard Elliott, and her daughter was the wife of William Haynes, they have a son named Frank Leslie. John C. Staggs, the other member of the family, enlisted at the age of sixteen in the First Regiment of Ohio Artillery, was in active service a little more than two years, and since his honorable discharge has been prominently identified with Ross County, having served as county clerk, as court bailiff, as secretary of the Soldiers Relief Commission, and as clerk of the Grand Army Post at Chillicothe.
Benjamin A. Staggs was born in Clark County, Kentucky, January 28, 1849, while his father occupied the old home of the grandfather in that state. He was brought back to Ross County when about five years of age, grew up and received his education in the public schools of Frankfort and also attended the National Normal School at Lebanon. Since his early years he has played an active and useful part. At the age of eighteen he began teaching, his first term being in Deerfield Town- ship. Later he taught in Concord and Union townships. In 1879 Mr. Staggs engaged in the mercantile business at Roxabell. While there he was station agent and postmaster for two years. He then returned to Frankfort and conducted a hardware and grocery store for about five years. In the meantime he had become successfully identified with the real estate business. In that capacity he has done much to improve his home town and has also proved a medium for the settlement and development of new districts in western states. He built a number of houses at Frankfort, and for some years owned and operated a farm in Concord Township. In 1881 he spent some months in Kansas, where he invested in real estate, and during 1889-90 was in the real estate business in the new State of Washington. At the present time he is
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interested in real estate in Polk County, Wisconsin, where he has some very large holdings and spends a part of each year there.
In 1873 Mr. Staggs married Alice N. Haynes, who was born in Deer Creek Township of Pickaway County, a daughter of Daniel and Annie Haynes. Mr. and Mrs. Staggs are active members of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is affiliated with Frankfort Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, Greenfield Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and Chillicothe Council, Royal and Select Masters.
Since casting his first presidential vote for General Grant, Mr. Staggs has been faithfully aligned with the republican party. He served ten years as a member of the village council at Frankfort, twelve years as a member of the school board, was township assessor eight years, mayor one year, and Governor Willis appointed him district tax assessor, an office he filled until the post was abolished.
FRED PUTNAM, prominent farmer in Concord Township, continues the activities and influence of a very notable family in Ross County. The Putnams have been identified with this part of Ohio since pioneer times, and the lives and characters of its members have made an in- delible impress upon the farms, good citizenship and the varied institu- tions of the county.
Mr. Putnam was born in Concord Township, November 17, 1885. His father, Marcellus Putnam, was born in the same Township. The Grandfather Alfred Putnam was born also in Concord Township. Peter Putnam, the great-grandfather, was a native of Virginia, as was also his father, Philip Putnam. Philip Putnam emigrated from Virginia to Ohio and was one of the first to develop the lands of Concord Township in Ross County. Peter Putnam bought land in Concord Township, became a very successful farmer and lived to the advanced age of ninety- two years. He married Keziah Hoddy. That introduces another pioneer family of Ross County. Her father, Richard Hoddy, was born in Vir- ginia, served with distinction in the Revolutionary war, and afterward settled among the pioneers of Ross County. Peter Putnam and wife reared a family of twelve children.
Alfred Putnam grew up on a farm in Ross County, and was widely known over this section of Ohio not only as a farmer but as a stock raiser and dealer. He acquired considerable wealth through his varied enterprises, but lived on his farm until about five years before his death. He married Rebecca Day.
Marcellus Putnam grew up on a farm, and made that his vocation until his death. He married Mary Belle James, who was born in Con- cord Township, a daughter of Strawder James and a granddaughter of Reuben James, one of Concord Township's early settlers. Strawder James was a farmer and spent all his life in Ross County. He married Rebecca Bush. She was born on the present site of Austin in Concord Township, a daughter of Jacob Bush, who was a native of the same locality and a son of John Bush, one of the very first settlers of the township. Jacob Bush owned and operated a farm near the present site
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of Austin, and lived there until his death in 1868. His wife was Eve Mallow, of another pioneer family. She was born about three miles north of Austin, and spent her entire life in Concord Township. Mrs. Rebecca (Bush) James died in 1907, having reared six children named Milton, Mary Belle, Vina E., Clara, Charles and Nannie. Fred Putnam was one of five children, the others being named Lee S., Earl, Madge and Russ.
Mr. Fred Putnam spent his early life on his father's farm and after leaving the common schools entered the Clarksburg High School, where he was graduated in 1902. He then took up farming on his grand- father's old homestead, and has remained there successfully identified with agricultural affairs to the present time. He has his farm com- pletely stocked and equipped with all the implements necessary for thorough field and animal husbandry.
On October 29, 1908, he married Etta Jamison. She was born in Deerfield Township of Ross County, a daughter of David and Etta (Peck) Jamison. Mr. and Mrs. Putnam have a son named Frederick Wendell, born May 1, 1911. The family are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Austin, and Mr. Putnam is affiliated with Frankfort Lodge No. 309, Free and Accepted Masons.
WILLIAM C. NEWELL. The records of some of the solid old families of Ross County are exceedingly interesting. Too often much data has been lost, as families in early days changed their abode without preserv- ing valuable papers and dates, and thus their descendants cannot always prove statements that they nevertheless know to be true, but in large measure this has not been the case in the Newell family. Early settlers in Belmont County and pioneers in Highland County, Ohio, the data goes back to the grandparents on one side and to old Virginia on the other. One of the representative members of this well known family is found in William C. Newell, ex-postmaster of Bainbridge, Ohio, ex- sheriff of Highland County, Ohio, a Civil war veteran and a prominent and public spirited citizen of Ross County.
William C. Newell was born August 9, 1841, in Highland County, Ohio, and is a son of Samuel E. and Hannah R. (Glever) Newell. His father was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1810, and his mother at Winchester, Virginia, in 1820. Both came early to Highland County and married there and through many years following remained people of solid worth and examples of domestic happiness and of neighborly kindness. They had two children : Nannie E., who is deceased, was the wife of John W. Hill; and William C. They were members of the Presbyterian Church in which Samuel E. Newell was an elder. In early days he was a whig and later became active in local republican circles. He followed the trade of millwright, a very important and rather lucrative one at that time.
William C. Newell was reared in Highland County and obtained his education in the district schools. He then went into the milling business with his father and continued until his enlistment for service in the Civil
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war, in August, 1862, when he became a member of Company F, Six- tieth Ohio Infantry. During this term of enlistment he suffered capture by the enemy at Harper's Ferry but was exchanged and mustered out but re-enlisted in the Twenty-fourth Battery Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery and served until the close of the war when he was mustered out as quartermaster sergeant. Mr. Newell returned then to Highland County and resumed business with his father. In the meanwhile he became so well and widely known as a man of courage and integrity that in 1876 he was elected sheriff of Highland County and during the two terms that he consented to serve, made a record for official efficiency. Finally disposing of his milling business in his native county, he moved to Bainbridge in Ross County, where he again was in the milling business until 1897, when he was appointed postmaster of Bainbridge and served continuously in that office until August 15, 1913. During his many years in public life Mr. Newell not only kept his old friends who had had faith in him but yearly added others because of his fair treatment of everyone and his known uprightness in every situation. He still con- tinues an active factor in the ranks of the republican party in this section.
On October 12, 1882, Mr. Newell was united in marriage with Margaret R. Foraker, who was born at Rainsboro, Ohio, January 10, 1853, and is a daughter of H. S. and Margaret (Reece) Foraker. Mrs. Newell was educated in the public schools and was graduated from the Hillsboro Female College, after which she taught the pupils in the Hills- boro public schools for six years. With her husband she belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church and takes a very earnest interest in all its agencies for good. Mr. and Mrs. Newell have two sons: Frank F. and Joseph B. The latter is a graduate of the Bainbridge schools and the Cincinnati Law School and is court reporter for the Third Judicial District of New Mexico. He was married to Miss Josephine Campfield and they have one child.
Mr. Newell has long been identified with the Masonic fraternity and belongs to the Chapter at Bainbridge and his wife is a member of Bain- bridge Chapter No. 183, Order of the Eastern Star, of which Mrs. Newell is the present worthy matron and as such she has attended the grand chapter of this order.
DAVID M. BOWER. It is the man of character who can accomplish prosperity in the face of adversity. When David M. Bower, now one of the substantial and well-to-do farmers of Green Township, made his first start in life, it was in a western state, where various conditions and causes combined to reduce him financially about as low as possible. Returning to his native County of Ross, where the family name is an old and honored one, he was not so much a sadder as wiser man. He began all over again. Gradually, step by step, his course has been upward, and the circumstances that now surround him are the visible evidence of his integrity, his industry and his continued good judgment.
Some facts of his family history should be reviewed. His grand-
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father was Johan Bower, a native of Wuertemberg, Germany. There he was reared and there he married a native of the same kingdom, Margaret Ann Schott. That was a time when the star of Napoleon was still in the ascendant, and for five years Johan Bower fought in the armies of the great emperor. A number of years later, in 1832, with his wife and their three children, he set out for America. The old fashioned sailing vessel was forty-seven days in crossing the ocean to New York. It will be remembered that no railroad then led westward across the mountains, and the only means of reaching Ohio was by highway or water routes. This family traveled by water most of the way. Up the Hudson River by boat to Albany, thence through the Erie Canal, opened in 1825, to Buffalo, and thence by combined water and overland ways to Chillicothe, where they spent the first winter. In the spring John bought a tract of land in the western part of Harrison Township. A log house standing there constituted the first home of the Bower family in Ross County, and they managed to get along very well with its inconveniences for several years. On that old homestead John died in 1840, but his widow survived until her eighty-fifth year. Three more children were born to them in America, and the names of the six were John Jacob, Margaret, John Frederick, John Gottlieb, Catherine and Joseph.
John Frederick Bower, father of David M., was born in the old country, and was only 31/2 years old when brought to America. His early life was one of comparatively pioneer surroundings with limited advantages. He grew up strong and sturdy, and found opportunity for abundance of hard work, which gave him the leverage required for the support and rearing of a family. He worked on farms for wages, then rented a time, and finally bought the farm in Green Township, which he conducted until his death at the age of sixty-eight. By his marriage to Martha Ring he reared eight children, named Joseph, Mary, John, Martha Jane, David M., Emarilla, Ella and Love.
Such was the family history of David M. Bower, who was born on a farm in Green Township August 23, 1862. His childhood years were divided between the district schools and the duties of the home farm. Altogether it was a wholesome experience and a training worth while. As soon as possible he was earning his own way, and for a time he rented some land in Green Township. Thus he accumulated a small stock of animals and tools. Seeking a newer and large country, he sold what he had in Ross County and moving out to Missouri he began as a renter in Johnson County. Not only were the crops poor for several successive seasons, but he suffered bad health, and it is not strange that he lost practically all his modest capital.
He was barely even with the world when he returned to Ross County and faced the world anew. He was not discouraged, and pride did not prevent him from starting at the bottom. Employment on a farm at monthly wages enabled him to support his family, and he also saved enough money to buy some stock and tools. Then for twelve years he was the successful operator of rented farms. After that he bought the
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farm in Green Township which he still owns and occupies. Its 194 acres are unusually well improved, with substantial buildings, good live stock, modern machinery.
Early in life Mr. Bower chose wisely a helpmate, who has been a large factor in his success. At the age of twenty-two he married Miss Alice Garrett, who represents a very old American family. She was born in Green Township, a daughter of Richard and Mary (Pixler) Garrett. Richard was the son of Reuben Garrett, who was born in Essex County, Virginia, May 5, 1784, and he in turn was the son of William Garrett, a native of Virginia and believed to have been a direct descend- ant of the Garrett, blacksmith, who came to the Jamestown colony with Capt. John Smith. William Garrett was a soldier of the American Revo- lution, being in the Third Company of the Second Virginia Regiment under Col. Alexander Spottswood. After the war his life was spent as a farmer and fruit grower in Essex County, where he died in 1825. His first wife, the great-grandmother of Mrs. Bower, was Elizabeth Taylor, who spent all her life in the Old Dominion. Reuben Garrett, when a young man, served as apprentice to the tailor's trade. He was already past middle age when, in 1832, he emigrated west to Ross County. His household goods were placed in a wagon, and accompanied by wife and seven children, the journey was slowly made over rough roads until they arrived in Green Township. Here his useful life came to a close on July 28, 1857. He married Sarah Tombs, who was born in Virginia and died in 1878. Richard Garrett, father of Mrs. Bower, was born in Essex County, Virginia, and was young when he came to Ross County. Farming was his regular vocation, and his death occurred at the age of sixty-nine. His wife Mary Pixler's parents came to Ross County in the early days from Pennsylvania, and she is still living, making her home with her children of whom there were eleven in number, as follows : Franklin P., Reuben, John, Alice, Thomas, Charles, Lettie, Harley, Sally, Laura and Daniel.
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