USA > Ohio > Ross County > A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio > Part 37
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that said corporation is not formed for any object which may embrace the care of dependent, neglected or delinquent children, or the placing of such children in private homes."
Since acquiring the property Colonel Enderlin has expended several thousand dollars in alterations and improvements in order that it may in every way be best adapted to fulfill its purpose. An addition to the main building provides a reception room for patients and other appli- . cants, and also a dispensary which has been furnished with the most modern equipment.
At present the building is occupied by The Ross County Anti-Tuber- culosis Society and the Chillicothe Associated Charities, whose activities are now consolidated. The general work carried on by these societies is described elsewhere.
One of the main rooms of the building is known as "The Recreation Room" which is designed for the use of the girls of the city, and is at their disposal at all times; all furniture and decorations in this room were presented by the ladies of the Century Club.
In addition to the main building, but entirely separate from it, Colonel Enderlin has constructed a building known as "The Detention House," although this does. not fully describe the various uses to which the building is being put. Here are well furnished, clean rooms, where women or children who are detained as witnesses by the court may be comfortably and kindly cared for instead of being held at the county jail where, as was the former custom, they came in contact with convicts and their evil talk. The deserted and homeless wife and children here receive a kindly welcome and temporary care until relatives can be communicated with, or other provision made for their future. Included in the equipment is a commodious modern bath room. In the basement, Colonel Enderlin has installed a heating plant of latest design, the vapor system being employed. The capacity of the heating plant is sufficient not only for the Welfare House and the Detention Home, but also for any buildings that future needs may demand.
One point upon which the donor is most emphatic is that this home is not for mendicants or professional beggars, but that it shall hold out a helping hand to all worthy poor, regardless of creed or race. So wisely is the future provided for that through all time, so long as men may need and men may give, the Richard Enderlin Welfare House will perform the beneficent purpose provided for by the donor.
H. A. BARNHART. When he was seven years of age his father died and H. A. Barnhart at once had to become the mainstay of his widowed mother. Over obstacles and with many vicissitudes of experience he has been steadily working toward success and there are none to begrudge him his well earned prosperity, represented in the Barnhart Granite Com- pany, one of the leading establishments of its kind in the state.
Born in Ross County, July 26, 1865, he is a son of George and Bar- bara Ellen (Hassenpflug) Barnhart. Grandfather John Barnhart came to Ross County from Pennsylvania at a very early day and located in
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A & Seney and Daughter
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Green Township, which was the home of the family for many years. George Barnhart, who was born in Ross County, was a blacksmith by trade, but died at the early age of thirty-seven in 1872. He was a deacon in the German Reformed Church in Green Township, and a citizen highly respected and exemplifying through his career every quality of morality and uprightness. He left his widow with two children, H. A. Barnhart being the younger. The latter's mother still lives with her son, now at the age of eighty-four.
He acquired an education in the district schools, and after the family removed to Adelphi he found employment in the bakery trade. Some- what later he bought out a monument business at Adelphi, and continued it for some seven years in that town. It was a very small business at the beginning and in the first year at Adelphi, Mr. Barnhart recalls, the sales amounted to only about $600.00. In 1893 he moved his establish- ment to Chillicothe and formed a partnership with James Gorsuch, but after three years bought out his partner and has since continued the business under the name of Barnhart Granite Company, located at 248-250 East Main Street near the traction depot. For a number of years the volume of business more than doubled every year, and under Mr. Barnhart's judicious management the concern has now grown until the sales for each year run many thousands of dollars. In 1910 he erected a two-story pressed brick building, 34x198 feet, where he has commodious offices and salesrooms, and keeps a large stock of finished monuments. The firm ships in large quantities of rough and finished granite and marble from the leading quarries in the eastern states and Wisconsin, and such shipments come in carload lots. Mr. Barnhart has a completely equipped plant for the handling and finishing of granite and. marble monuments, including all improved labor saving devices. These facilities, representing a large amount of invested capital, enable him to control a trade over several counties in Southern Ohio.
Mr. Barnhart is a public spirited citizen and his work and influence in any community would be regarded as a valuable asset. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Pro- tective Order of Elks, and several other fraternal organizations. He was reared in the German Reformed Church, and in the absence of any church of that denomination at Chillicothe, his family attend worship at the First Presbyterian. He was married March 21, 1888, in Ross County to Miss Rebecca Haynes, daughter of Jacob and Mary Haynes of Chilli- cothe. To their union have been born three sons: Lee M., Earl H., and Robert A. Barnhart. The eldest son, Lee M., for several years has been with his father in the monument business.
AMASA IVES SENEY. One of the very old and prominent families of Ross County is the Seneys. It is now represented by Amasa Ives Seney, who has spent his active lifetime as a farmer in Springfield Township.
His birth occurred in a house on Second Street in Chillicothe March 17, 1848. His grandfather William Seney was probably a lifelong resident of the State of Delaware, where he died in 1812. He married
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Susan Hurlick, who survived her husband and married Tillman Rawley. Mr. and Mrs. Rawley emigrated to Ohio and settled in Newark, where Mr. Rawley died a few years later. In 1858 his widow came to Chilli- cothe where she spent her last days. By her first marriage she was the mother of four children : Joshua, John, Henry and Mary, John meeting his death by accident when a young man. By the second union there were two children : Thomas and Bathsheba.
Hon. Joshua Seney, father of Amasa I., was born in Kent County, Delaware, November 14, 1808. He was reared and educated in his mative state and there learned the trade of chair maker. In 1834 he came to Ohio, making the journey by way of stages, rivers and canals. In the Village of Chillicothe he established a chair factory, and had the distinction of making the first cane-seat chairs manufactured in the state. As a manufacturer his industry was carried on successfully until 1851. In that year he settled on the farm in Springfield Township which had been presented to his wife by her uncle, Amasa Ives. Amasa Ives had set out a large peach orchard, and Joshua Seney continued the development of the place as a fruit center. He planted a vineyard and was the first man in Ross County to raise strawberries on a commercial scale. His home continued on the old farm until his death in the ninety- sixth year of his life.
Joshua Seney married Martha Ives, who was born in Chillicothe October 23, 1823. Her father Shayler Ives was born in Bristol, Con- necticut, July 4, 1785, a brother of Amasa Ives. The latter was born in 1748 and married Mrs. Barbara Graham, spending practically all their lives in Connecticut. Amasa Ives came to Ohio and located in Chillicothe among the pioneer settlers. For a time he conducted a hotel on the present site of the Warner House. When he came to Ohio he brought with him the first clock with brass works ever carried across the Allegheny Mountains. Shayler Ives died in 1840. On July 29, 1821, he married Eliza Warren Stevens. She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1804 and was a niece of the gallant General Warren who fell while inspiring his troops against the British in the battle of Bunker Hill. Mrs. Shayler Ives married for a second time E. P. Pratt, who for many years was in the jewelry business in Chillicothe. Mrs. Pratt died January 19, 1865.
Mrs. Joshua Seney died in March, 1905. She reared the following children : Mary, Warren, Amasa, Martha and Eliza, twins, Susan, Matilda, Lucy and William J. The daughter Mary died at the age of ten years. Warren learned the jeweler's trade, followed it a short time, then went to farming, and died at the age of thirty-three, leaving two children, Edward and Rose. The daughter Martha married J. L. Cryder, and lives in Hopetown. Eliza is the wife of Russell B. Claypool. Susan married William H. West. Matilda is now deceased. Lucy is the wife of Samuel Blue. The father of these children was an active democrat in politics and widely known over Ross County in the early days. In 1855 he was elected a member of the State Legislature, and was re-elected in 1857. He impressed his ability in many ways upon the legislation of
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that important period and throughout his lifetime he stood for those things which meant most to the welfare of a community.
Amasa Ives Seney, who carries on the honorable traditions of the family in Ross County grew up on his father's farm, attended the public schools and his early training was that of a farmer. He finally suc- ceeded to the ownership of the old homestead and for many years has lived there in prosperity and success. Mr. Seney married Jennie Smith. They have one daughter, Mary Martha.
THE SEARS & NICHOLS COMPANY. It is doubtful if any industry at Chillicothe has a higher and better defined prestige than The Sears & Nichols Canning Company, packers and preservers in tin and glass. It has been appropriately called "a personally conducted business." The men most closely identified with the founding and management of the business are canners by profession, if that term can be used, and from first to last have had one aim, to produce and put on the market goods of the highest quality, not only equalling the best standards of similar products, but measuring up to the most perfect ideals of the canning art. Hence it is not strange that the company stands not only as one of the largest concerns of its kind in Southern and Western Ohio, but has few if any peers in the quality of the well known "Sugar Loaf" products.
A few years ago there was a little convention of the managers and salesmen of The Sears & Nichols Company, and the general manager of the company, Mr. L. A. Sears, made an address which for its pithy business sense and practical idealism deserves quotation in full, though there is not space for that in this article. But there are two paragraphs from the address which should be quoted as indicating the ideas which have governed this business from the start.
"My ambition," said Mr. Sears, "has been to make the best goods on earth. This is a long standing ambition dating from the time that I entered the business. It was also the ambition of the founders of this company, who had a pardonable pride, a deep-founded pride, to make the best goods on the market. It came to me a good many years ago that our product was a little different from the average run of goods. We had a different view of the proposition than a good many competitors in the business. As near as I could get at the facts I conceived the idea that we were making goods for one purpose-to be eaten. That phrase, MADE TO BE EATEN, we have adopted as our motto in this business -MADE TO BE EATEN. It has something to do with the eating qual- ity of the goods; it has something to do with the cleanliness, the care and the general sanitary conditions of our work, and with the way we handle the raw product. If we cannot make good, if we cannot satisfy our consciences that we are making good on this motto, I want to tell you that we are falling short of our proper ambitions and the proper results we wish to secure. MADE TO BE EATEN involves the whole category of excellence in quality, preparation and everything else. I want everyone to take it to heart, that it is not cheap talk, not talk for
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effect, that we use this motto. We want it to be a truth, and every time you see a dirty corner, or a dirty utensil, or anything out of order, this motto should be the only notice you need to go and clean up and put things in order. You do not know what an effect it will have on the general feeling of the whole working force. I know it takes them into a better atmosphere. They will do more sincere work, more honest work, and feel better satisfied with themselves, better satisfied with their work, if they have it done in a clean and wholesome atmosphere."
And further on he concluded his address with the following words : "I think it is not too much for me to say that the ambition of the founders of this business, of this corporation, was higher than the mere moneymaking end of it. In fact, I think if there is any criticism we can make of the management of the business in years gone by, it is that they overlooked to a large extent the actual moneymaking proposition; they lost chances of making profit ; they have frequently given their customers what they could have taken themselves. In other words, it has not been a dominating factor to say what money we could make and what divi- dends we could declare. We have always had an ambition to merit the good will and maintain our prestige among the trade, which I consider has been a drawback, in some respects, to profit making. I do not know that our crown will be any brighter, or the halo any larger, when we get into the happy hunting-grounds; but it is some satisfaction to know that we have treated our customers a little better than we agreed to do and I want this always to be the purpose and policy of this company. After all the value of a good name is better than riches."
There is plenty of evidence to show that the Sugar Loaf products of The Sears & Nichols Company have been recognized as standard the world over for a great many years. At the Paris Exposition of 1889, a bronze medal was awarded the company's brand of vegetables, and at the Louisiana Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, the Sugar Loaf brand of fruits and vegetables in tin and glass was awarded the gold medal.
The senior founder of the flourishing business whose headquarters are now at Chillicothe was the late Charles May Sears, who was one of the pioneer fruit and vegetable packers in the west, and who made the canning business his life work. In 1874 he established in Kansas the first factory west of the Mississippi for the evaporation of sweet corn. In 1882 he came to Ohio and shortly afterward became associated with his first partner, his son-in-law, Francis M. Nichols, and together they founded the firm of Sears & Nichols, which was the predecessor of The Sears & Nichols Canning Company. Charles M. Sears lived a long and useful life, and his leading characteristic was his ambition to pro- duce a line of goods in which he and all of his friends could take pride and satisfaction. When it came time for him to lay down the active management of the business he was succeeded by his sons, all of whom have since given their entire time to the industry.
The junior founder of the business is Francis M. Nichols. He was born in Livingston County, New York, November 30, 1848, and in 1873 entered the canning business with the late C. E. Sears, founder of The
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C. E. Sears & Company, packers and canners, at Circleville, Ohio. He grew up with the business, soon became a partner with Charles M. Sears, and their combined industry was the foundation of the present flour- ishing business.
Mr. L. A. Sears, one of the sons of Charles M. Sears, who served as general manager of The Sears & Nichols Company, for many years retired from active service in 1915. He was succeeded by Mr. W. J. Sears, a younger brother. He too, is a practical canner, having grown up in the business from boyhood.
The officials of the company at present are: Francis M. Nichols, president; W. J. Sears, first vice president; L. A. Sears, second vice president; James Reicheldarfer, third vice president; Charles H. Sears, treasurer ; and J. H. Birnie, secretary.
Clarence H. Sears was born July 25, 1865, being one of the younger sons of the late Charles M. Sears, and his birth occurred in Douglas County, Kansas, where his father was at that time located. He grew up and received his education in the Chillicothe public schools, and in 1893 graduated from the Kansas State University. In 1895 he became actively identified with the canning establishment of The Sears & Nichols Company. He now holds the position of treasurer and manager of farm operations.
W. J. Sears, who was born July 10, 1869, in Douglas County, Kansas, was graduated from the Ohio State University with the Class of 1894, and for several years was in newspaper work at Chillicothe. He entered the canning business and, excepting five years spent in Columbus, he has held some responsible position with the company. He has always been interested in scholastic work. For eight years from 1907 he served as trustee of the Ohio State University. In 1915 he was made general manager of The Sears & Nichols Company. He is affiliated with the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Kit-Kat and Athletic Clubs of Columbus, Ohio, and the Elks, and has membership in the Sunset and County clubs of this city. He also served with Com- pany H, Seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, during the Spanish-American war, and was ordnance sergeant. He served as vice mayor of Chillicothe from 1905 to 1907 and republican presidential elector in 1904. He also has membership in the Ohio Historical Society. He has held the highest office in his college fraternity.
Under his management the company has made further progress, increasing its capital stock and purchasing the properties of the Scioto Canning Co., of Ashville, Ohio, and C. E. Sears & Co., of Circleville, Ohio. The company now owns and operates twelve plants, producing an annual business of $2,000,000. Its new stock issue provides for $300,000 of seven per cent preferred stock which is now being placed in the banks of conservative investors.
J. H. Birnie, who holds the position of sales manager, is the son-in- law of Mr. Nichols, and has had a long and valuable experience in the sales department of the company. He is a graduate of the Ohio State University and member of the Chillicothe Country Club.
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JEREMIAH HENRY MORROW. Of distinguished Scotch-Irish ancestry, Jeremiah H. Morrow, of Chillicothe, comes from a family that has been prominent in the annals of Ohio for far more than a century, many of his ancestors having been active in public affairs, and influential in advancing the business and industrial interests of state and county, and in promoting their religious development and growth. He was born, May 21, 1870, at Cincinnati Furnace, in Vinton County, Ohio, being a lineal descendant in the sixth generation of Jeremiah Murray, the line of descent being as follows: Jeremiah Murray; John Morrow, the name having been changed to Morrow in the second generation; Jeremiah Morrow; Jeremiah Morrow; Jeremiah Morrow; and Jeremiah Henry Morrow. This genealogy of the family has been found in a volume entitled the "History of the Morrow Family," compiled by Josiah Morrow.
Jeremiah Murray was born in Ireland, of Scotch ancestry. A Cove- nanter in religion, he emigrated from Londonderry, Ireland, to America in colonial times, settling in Adams County, Pennsylvania. On April 8, 1753, he was ordained, by Rev. John Cuthbertson, the first Cove- nanter minister sent to America by the Reformed Presbytery of Scot- land, as a ruling elder of the Covenanter Society of Rock Creek. He was a farmer by occupation, his land including a part of what was later the Gettysburg battlefield. He died, September 14, 1758, when but forty-seven years old. His wife, Sarah, survived him a number of years, passing away December 19, 1798, aged seventy-six years. They were the parents of eight children, seven daughters and one. son.
John Morrow, he having been the one to change the family name from Murray to Morrow, was reared to agricultural pursuits, and when ready to begin life for himself settled at Marsh Creek, southwest of Gettysburg, on land deeded to him by John and Richard Penn, his farm containing 222 acres of land. A man of much ability, he became prominent in pub- lic matters, serving not only as county commissioner and justice of the peace, but being a delegate to many township and county conventions, over which he was invariably called upon to preside. He was for many years a valued member of the Rock Creek Church, but later was identi- fied with the Hill Associate Reformed Church, of which he was ruling elder. He died in 1811. He married, November 9, 1768, Miss Mary Lockhart. She died, March 12, 1790, and both are buried in the Marsh Creek Cemetery, west of Gettysburg.
Jeremiah Morrow, one of a family of nine children, was born October 6, 1771, and as a boy and youth took every afforded opportunity for adding to his stock of knowledge, obtaining a very fair education. Brought up on the home farm, he became well acquainted with its work, cutting the grain with a sickle, and threshing it with a flail. In 1794, trying the hazard of new fortunes, he started westward, and after spend- ing the most of the winter in Western Pennsylvania pushed his way onward to the northwest territory, arriving in the Miami country in the spring of 1795, six months after General Wayne had gained his decisive victory over the Indians, who, even then, committed occasional
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depredations. He spent about three years surveying in the Symmes Purchase, which lay between the Miami River and the Virginia Military District. Purchasing a tract of land in what is now Deerfield Township, Warren County, he built a log cabin near the center of section 15, town 3, range 2, of Symmes Purchase, near the Little Miami River, where he established his home.
Activity in public affairs was inevitable in a man possessing the strong traits of character belonging to Jeremiah Morrow, and in 1800 he was elected a member of the Northwest Territory Legislature, and was also elected to the Second Territorial Legislature. On the second Tuesday of January, 1803, when the first election for state officers was held, he was one of the four senators elected from Hamilton County. The Legislature passed an act appointing Jeremiah Morrow, Jacob White and William Ludlow, commissioners to locate the college township, granted by Congress for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Symmes Purchase. The first election for a representative to Congress was held, June 21, 1803, Ohio at that time having been entitled to but one rep- resentative. Jeremiah Morrow proved to be the winning candidate, and soon after, accompanied by his wife and two children, he journeyed on horseback to Washington to attend the extra session of Congress, which convened October 17, 1803. Four times re-elected as a representa- tive, he served five terms in that capacity, about a month before the. expiration of his last term being elected United States senator. After serving one term, he refused a re-election, but in 1822 he became a candidate for governor of the state, and having served with credit to himself, and to the honor of his constituents, for two years, he was honored with a re-election to the same high position. As governor of Ohio, he welcomed Lafayette to Cincinnati on May 10, 1825, then, as on other public occasions, performing the social duties devolving upon him with ease and dignity.
On February 19, 1799, Jeremiah Morrow married, in Pennsylvania, his native state, Mary Parkhill, whose birth occurred in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, July 8, 1776. Returning with his bride to Ohio, they began housekeeping in the log cabin which he had erected on the Little Miami, twenty miles from Cincinnati, the nearest postoffice, and there both spent their remaining days, her death occurring September 19, 1845, and his March 22, 1852, at the venerable age of eighty-one years. They reared seven children, as follows: John; Jeremiah; James M .; Martha, who married George Ramsey; Mary became the wife of David Mitchell ; Rebecca married Dr. Samuel S. Stewart; and Elizabeth Jane, who mar- ried Dr. Andrew C. McDill.
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