USA > Ohio > Ross County > A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio > Part 46
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Mr. and Mrs. Coover had eight children, one of whom died in infancy, and the seven now living are: Myrtle O., who was born September 21, 1867, was educated in the common schools and also the South Salem Academy, has taught for a number of years and also took the training course in the Red Cross Training School at Philadelphia; Adah M., the wife of J. L. Sonner, of Delaware, Ohio: Alice M., wife of Frank S. Mckenzie, of Bourneville; Jessie R., wife of Fred E. Vore, of Bourneville; Nannie H., wife of F. E. Crites, of Barberton, Ohio; Samuel A., who married Cora Beard and they live at Amarillo, Texas; and Mckenzie C., who married Mary Shultz and lives at Delaware, Ohio.
Mr. Coover has spent most of his life as a farmer, but for thirty years was an auctioneer, selling real and personal property on farms and at stock sales. His services were in large demand, and he presided over many important sales at Chillicothe, Bainbridge, South Salem and Bourneville. On July 1, 1903, he was appointed mail carrier from Storms, which was transferred to Bourneville after eight years, and has since given an efficient and competent service in this capacity. For a number of years he served as township trustee, also as assessor in Buckskin and Twin townships, and is a man in whom public spirit is always uppermost as a guiding principle. He is one of the prominent
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members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in his locality, and for many years was superintendent of the Sunday school and now is a trustee and treasurer of Bourneville Church. Mr. Coover has thirteen grandchildren.
DAVID SUMMERS. In David Summers, Ross County has an able con- servator of its agricultural interests, as well as a faithful promoter of those important adjuncts to community life, good schools and good roads. He is one of the substantial land holders of Twin Township, where he owns the Baum farm of 197 acres, lying off the Cynthiana Pike, three miles from Bourneville, on which he makes his residence, as well as 500 acres of land elsewhere in the township. Mr. Summers was born in this township, on the Upper Twin Road, August 20, 1866, and is a son of Samuel and Jane (Purdum) Summers.
Samuel Summers was born in Virginia, and was still a small lad when brought to Ross County, Ohio, by his parents. He received his education in the early subscription schools and grew to manhood as a farmer, and, when he entered upon his own career started with nothing but his energy, industry and ambition to assist him, as his father was not in circumstances in which he could afford to give his son a start in a financial way. Mr. Summers was a day laborer in the fields for several years, next became a renter, and finally was able to purchase a small farm of his own. As the years passed he added from time to time to his holdings, and through the medium of his own efforts became the owner of nearly 600 acres of land. He was a quiet, unassuming man, who attended strictly to his own affairs, but was looked upon as a good and progressive citizen and as a kind and generous neighbor. He and his wife were the parents of three children: Maggie, who died in young womanhood; Sallie, deceased, who was the wife of the late Jacob Baum; and David.
David Summers received his education in the Bourneville schools and was reared to manhood on his father's farm. When ready to choose his life's vocation, he readily adopted agricultural work, in which he had been trained from earliest boyhood, and for which he had a natural predilection. While he has always been engaged in general farming and has made a success of his enterprises in that direction, he is inclined to make a specialty of feeding cattle, and in this field is accounted one of the leading men of the county, shipping two or three carloads every season. Ever since arriving at the responsible age, Mr. Summers has been an apostle of industry, and has practiced economy, temperance and thrift. He is well posted on current events, and one of the public- spirited, far-seeing and dependable men of the community. In political matters he is a republican, and his religious faith is that of the Presby- terian Church. He has built and rebuilt, fenced, ditched and improved generally, and has a delightful home and profitable property.
Mr. Summers was married January 30, 1886, to Miss Fannie Kerns, daughter of William and Jane Kerns, of South Salem, Ross County, Ohio, Mr. Kerns being a retired farmer and Union veteran of the Civil
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war, in which he fought as a volunteer. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Summers: Mabel, who died in infancy ; Nellie, a grad- uate of the Bourneville schools, and now residing at home; and William S., of Bourneville, who married Malinda Stoults.
SAMPSON SHOEMAKER. It is the ambition of nearly every man when he is arrived at the age of three score and ten to point out some worthy accomplishment and to look over a lifetime well and worthily lived. All that and more is the form of satisfaction granted to Sampson Shoe- maker, of Twin Township. Mr. Shoemaker when a youth was one of the valiant fighters for the cause of the Union during the Civil war. He has spent the greater part of his life as a practical farmer and good citizen in Ross County, and is still living on his fine homestead of 242 acres in Twin Township. His farm is one of the conspicuous landmarks along the old Limestone Road, one of the oldest roads in the state. He is successfully engaged, and has been engaged for many years, not only in the raising of crops but in the producing of high grades of live- stock. He has some fine hogs, cattle and sheep, and owns two of the best bulls in the county.
Mr. Shomaker was born near Sinking Springs, in Highland County, Ohio, February 28, 1843, a son of Martin and Annie (Purgett) Shoe- maker. Martin Shoemaker was born in Virginia and came to Highland County, Ohio, as a lad with his parents. After reaching manhood he bought the home place from his parents near Sinking Springs and lived a useful and industrious life there until his death in 1853. His widow survived him until the age of seventy-six. Martin Shoemaker and wife had nine children, eight of whom reached maturity, and two are now living: Frederick, who died in 1916; Amy, deceased; Lydia Ann, who died at Council Bluffs, Iowa, wife of Eli Runyons; Sampson; William, deceased ; Priscilla Ann, who died at Belfast, Ohio; Allen, who operates the home farm in Highland County; and Amanda, deceased wife of James Robey, a miller in Highland County.
Sampson Shoemaker spent the first twenty years of his life with his parents in Highland County. In the meantime he had attended the common schools, and heavy responsibilities were carly thrust upon his youthful shoulders. At the age of sixteen he took charge of the home farm. In 1863 Mr. Shoemaker volunteered for service in the Union army. He went out with Company E of the Eleventh Ohio Cavalry, under Colonel Collins, and spent more than three years in the war. Part of the time he was corporal, and he also served in Company L of the Eleventh Regiment.
He was mustered out of service in 1866. Returning home, he lived in Highland County until his marriage to Miss Esther Angeline Smith. During their twenty-five years of married companionship, terminated by the death of Mrs. Sheomaker, thirteen children were born, six sons and seven daughters. Ten of them are still living: D. A., who is an extensive farmer in the State of Washington; Alvin H., in the grocery business in California; Harvey A., who lives in Newark, Ohio; F. M.,
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connected with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and living at Washing- ton Court House; Frank L., who lives in Jackson, Ohio; Martin M., of Gooding, Idaho; Etta, wife of Leo Fels, of Belfast, Highland County ; Louisa, wife of Fred Fels, of Twin Township, Ross County; Mettie, wife of Charles Shoults, of Gooding, Idaho; and Lena, wife of Floyd Long, of Twin Township.
For the first year after his marriage Mr. Shoemaker lived on the home farm as a renter, and a year after that he came to the place he has ever since occupied in Twin Township. His has been a steadily prosperous career. His first land holdings in Ross County comprised 100 acres, and he has added to that until he has a fine farm with all the improvements, including 242 acres.
After the death of his first wife, Mr. Shoemaker married Miss Viola Belle Seaman, a daughter of Sylvester Seaman, of Adams County, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Shoemaker have one child, Anna Grace, now three years of age. Mr. Shoemaker is a past noble grand of Paint Valley Lodge, No. 808, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Bourneville. For the past eight years he has served as commander of the Silas D. Prater Post, No. 530, Grand Army of the Republic, at Bourneville. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for a num- ber of years he has served as trustee and financial elder. Politically he is a democrat, and for one year held the office of township constable.
JOHN M. ROTROFF is one of the old and honored residents of Twin Township of Ross County, and for many years has successfully con- ducted a general mercantile establishment at Nipgen. He is also former postmaster of that place, and is spending the closing years of a long and fruitful life still engaged in a useful service to his community.
He was born in Highland County, Ohio, near Sugar Tree Ridge, on March 6, 1839, but represents one of the pioneer Ross County families. His parents were John and Nancy (Naylor) Rotroff, his father a native of Pennsylvania and his mother of Ohio. The paternal grandfather, Jonas Rotroff, came to Ross County as early as 1803. He lived in that section only a short time and, after moving to Chillicothe, went on to Highland County, where he died. John Rotroff was a resident of High- land County during all his active years and was well known in that section of the state. IIe was a republican in politics, and an active mem- ber of the Christian Church. He was the father of ten children, and the three now living are: John M .; Hannah J., wife of Ethan A. Walker, of Highland County; and Nancy, wife of Edward Carr.
John M. Rotroff grew up on his father's farm in Highland County. He made the best possible use of the advantages in the local schools, and in early life he himself became a teacher and spent four years in that work in Highland, Brown and Adams counties.
Mr. Rotroff married Ernestine Carr. Of the ten children born to their union, only three are now living: William, of Lima, Ohio; Lewis, of Springfield; and Rosa, wife of Harry Yowler. The mother of these children died June 1, 1888. On June 9, 1889, Mr. Rotroff married Cath-
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erine Waldren. She was born at Carpenter Station in Meigs County, Ohio, October 18, 1855, a daughter of Henry and Rebecca Jones. She was reared in Pike County, Ohio, attended the common schools and married for her first husband James D. Waldren, on December 24, 1882. The only child of their marriage died young. Mr. Waldren died June 22, 1888.
Mr. and Mrs. Rotroff are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is one of the trustees of his home society. Politically he has always been identified with the republican party, and is a citizen whose name means a great deal in Ross County. For seventeen years he has conducted a successful store in Twin Township, and he served as postmaster until the office was abolished.
JOHN T. DOWLER has been well known in Ross County for a great many years. He owns a large amount of the fine farming land in this and adjoining counties, and is also a successful merchant at Nipgen.
He was born in Athens County, Ohio, January 2, 1850. His parents were Richard and Elizabeth (Jordan) Dowler, his father a native of Pennsylvania and his mother of Morgan County, Ohio. His mother grew up in that section of Ohio and lived there until her marriage. After their marriage, Richard Dowler and wife located on a farm in Athens County. There he successfully followed farming and became the owner of 130 acres. In 1867 he moved to Ross County, locating in Twin Township, and finally traded his farm of 360 acres for a store at Good Hope. That place was his home until the death of his wife, when he returned to Athens County and remained a resident there until he passed away. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and for over thirty years he was one of the class leaders. There were six children born to Richard Dowler and wife, and the four now living are : Isaac, a retired farmer living at Lawrence, Kansas; Almeda, wife of John Young, living in Athens County; Alice, widow of Joseph Moore, living near New Holland, in Pickaway County; and John T. The son Lorenzo gave his life for his country while a soldier of the Union army during the Civil war.
John T. Dowler was seventeen years of age when his father moved to Ross County. He had previously attended the public schools of Athens County, and completed his education in Ross. He has lived in this county nearly half a century and has accomplished a great deal worthy of the notice and recognition of mankind. He lived at home . until he was twenty-one, and on starting out for himself had neither capital nor any special experience except in farm work. He accepted any employment that offered, and for two years dug coal in the mines. Later he took an interest in a store and has been more or less actively engaged in the mercantile business for a great many years. At the present time Mr. Dowler owns more than 400 acres of land in Ross and Pike counties. He also owns property in Washington Court House, and his activities as a business man were formerly quite widely dispersed over this section of Ohio. He was in the grain business at Williamsport
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and Good Hope, and also at one time manufactured drain tile on a large scale.
Mr. Dowler married Emma Pennisten, who was born in Pike County, Ohio, in 1847. She was the daughter of Joseph Pennisten, a pioneer of Ross County. Mrs. Dowler's mother, Sarah Ann Hill, was a native of Highland County, Ohio. She lived to be eighty-nine years old. Mrs. Dowler is the granddaughter of two revolutionary soldiers. Of the four children born to them, Mr. and Mrs. Dowler have only one still living, Edwin E. Edwin graduated from the Washington Court House High School and from the State University, and is now actively engaged in business with his father. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Washington Court House, while Mr. Dowler belongs to Heber Lodge, No. 501, Free and Accepted Masons, and politically is a republican, though he has never sought nor cared for office.
FRED M. OGLE. The elements of character depicted in the best type of American manhood are energy, enterprise, integrity and a loyal spirit manifested by devotion to the general good along lines pertaining to public progress and improvement. Among the citizens of Ross County who exhibit these qualities in a marked degree is Fred M. Ogle, a suc- cessful farmer living on route No. 2 out of Bainbridge, in Paxton Township.
In the house where he now resides he was born March 8, 1879, a son of John W. and Rosa L. (Collins) Ogle. His father was born in Paxton Township of Ross County, March 14, 1859, and died July 20, 1886. The mother, who was born in Kentucky, February 3, 1861, came in girlhood to Bainbridge, Ohio, was married there, and she died August 11, 1881, when her son Fred was less than three years of age. There was one other son, Harry Ogle, who is a farmer in Highland County, Ohio.
After the death of his mother, Fred M. Ogle lived with his Grand- mother Ogle, who took excellent care of him and gave him a good home training and an education in the local schools. His Grandmother Ogle was born January 10, 1825, and died February 3, 1908. At one time she owned more than 500 acres of land in Ross County.
Fred Ogle bought 135 acres of his grandmother's estate, and has since enjoyed much success in its cultivation, and he is also a man of great public spirit in his locality. For nine years he served as a mem- ber of the Paxton County School Board. Politically he is a republican.
On February 23, 1908, he married Grace Mercer, who was born in Pike County, Ohio, April 5, 1888, and was reared in this state. Mr. and Mrs. Ogle have three children: Collins M., born August 29, 1909; Faith, born July 14, 1911; and Rosalie, born November 2, 1913.
J. B. F. MORGAN, M. D. A genial old-time physician who did his first professional work more than half a century ago and for many years has lived retired at Clarksburg, Doctor Morgan is now in the eightieth year of his age, and his life has been one of signal usefulness and honor in his community. He is a native of Ross County, and has spent most of his active career within its limits.
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As a native son he has been more than ordinarily interested and active in preserving the early history of this county. Many articles from the pen of Doctor Morgan have appeared in various publications and have served to enrich the historical literature of this section of Ohio. His sketch of the life of Col. John McDonald is prominent among his productions. Doctor Morgan has in manuscript the history of the Methodist Church of Southern Ohio. For many years he has been one of the leading advocates of the temperance cause. His influence and energies have gone to benefit his community in many directions.
His birth occurred in Concord Township of Ross County May 26, 1837. He comes of old and notable American ancestry. The first of the name concerning whom there is accurate information was Thomas Morgan, who was born in Virginia in 1670, and spent his life in that old commonwealth. His son, Lewis Morgan, great-grandfather of Doc- tor Morgan, was born in Bedford County, Virginia, in 1728. He married Christina White, who was born in Virginia in 1730.
Lewis Morgan founded the family name west of the Alleghenies in Tennessee. He, with his wife, moved to East Tennessee previous to 1786, and lated moved to Pulaski County, Kentucky, where he died in 1814 and his wife in 1816. They became the parents of three children, Thomas, Amaziah and Adonijah. Amaziah was captured by the Indians in Virginia when he was five years of age and carried into the wilder- ness to Paint Valley, which is located in what is now Ross County, Ohio. Ten years later he was discovered by some Indian traders. His father was notified of his discovery, and soon an attempt was made to recover him. The father made various offers for his release, but without avail. By his own will he remained with his captors, married an Indian woman and reared three daughters. He was killed as a chief fighting with the Indians in St. Clair's defeat.
Adonijah Morgan was born May 6, 1765, in Virginia, and was quite young when his parents moved to Tennessee. In Green County of that state he married Isabell Jane McMahon. She was born July 21, 1765. In 1800 they moved to Pulaski County, Kentucky, and in 1818 to Fayette County, Indiana, where Adonijah died December 27, 1827, and his wife, July 20, 1829. These parents reared six sons and five daughters. One son, Amaziah, located in Ross County, Ohio, at Paint Valley, in 1810. He was married to Mary Ford in 1814. He served as a mounted ranger in the War of 1812, volunteering from Ross County. At the close of that struggle he was elected colonel of the State Militia. In 1818 he became one of the first settlers of Rush County, Indiana, and assisted in the organization of that county, being a member of the first board of county commissioners and the first state senator elected' from that county. He was repeatedly elected to the State Senate, serving fifteen years with credit and distinction. He also continued his activities in the State Militia, being elected a brigadier-general and finally major- general. At the time of his death he was the candidate for governor of Indiana on the whig ticket, 1839.
Another son of Adonijah Morgan was Lewis Morgan, who settled in
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the wilds of what is now Shelby County, Indiana, and lived there when his nearest neighbor was fifty miles away. Erecting a commodious log house, he operated a tavern to accommodate the hunters and explorers, and when Shelby County was organized was elected a member of the Legislature. He was a preacher of the United Baptist Church. In 1834 he was appointed by the Missionary Baptists of New York as a traveling missionary to establish Sunday schools. Subsequently he moved to Illinois and from there to Iowa, and died in the latter state.
Col. White Morgan, father of Doctor Morgan, was born in Eastern Tennessee April 11, 1794, and was six years of age when his parents moved to Kentucky. He lived in that state until 1818, in which year he came to Ross County. On the 20th of March of that year he married Mariah Louisa McDonald, daughter of Col. John McDonald, the pioneer author of Ross County. White Morgan had learned the trade of stone mason and followed it for a number of years in connection with farm- ing. On March 21, 1820, he settled on a farm two miles north of Bloom- ingburg in Fayette County, but in February, 1826, moved to the McDonald farm in Twin Township of Ross County. In 1829 he bought a farm in Concord Township. Concord Church now stands upon that land. That was his home until his death, February 20, 1869. His wife was born December 14, 1802, and died September 20, 1887.
White Morgan had a strong and active mind. He possessed a memory that was equalled by few and excelled by none. He never would accept public office other than military. For that he had a liking. During the days of the militia muster he served in the capacity of major and of lieutenant-colonel. He was six feet high, straight as an Indian and possessed a magnificent voice. He had the credit of being one of the best regimental commanders in Ohio. He and his wife reared ten children : John M., Adonijah, Amaziah, Henrietta, William Lewis, Louisa Jane, Enos White, Dr. J. B. Finley, Catherine and Oscar White. Of these children William Lewis learned the trade of carpenter, subse- quently became a farmer and still later a merchant in South Salem and Williamsport, was one of the ardent prohibitionists of his time, and died at the age of eighty years. Another son, Oscar White Morgan, was born December 9, 1846, was educated in the district schools and at the preparatory school at Lebanon conducted by Professor IIolbrook, and spent twenty-eight years as a teacher in the schools of Ross and Pickaway counties. He is now living at Clarksburg.
Within the personal recollection of Doctor Morgan nearly all the important developments in Ross County have taken place. He was a boy when the first railroads were built through Ohio. He was born the same year that the telegraph became general as an instrument for rapid transmission of news (1837). He cast his first vote in a presi- dential campaign when the whig party was still in existence. In the meantime he had attended the district school and the high school at Frankfort in Ross County, and began the study of medicine under Dr. William Latta at Frankfort. Doctor Morgan began the practice of medicine at Jasper in Pike County, Ohio, in 1863. For the preceding Vol. II-24
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three years he had taught school. When General Morgan's Confederate raiders came through Pike County they invaded his home and office and appropriated practically all his possessions. He then moved to Pan- coastburg in Fayette County, and was in active practice there until 1868. In 1863 he had attended his first course of lectures in the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, and in 1868 returned to that institution, where he was graduated M. D. in 1869. Following that he located in Clarksburg, soon had built up an extensive practice which kept him almost constantly riding and driving about the country, and he con- tinued to look after the bodily and mental health of his patients for many years. In 1900 Doctor Morgan retired from active practice, and has since found employment for his many cultivated tastes in his home at Clarksburg.
On October 25, 1869, Doctor Morgan married Mrs. Amnette (Loaf- burrow) Parker. She is a daughter of Lemuel P. Loafburrow and the widow of Lieut. Joseph Parker, who served with that rank in Company G of the One Hundred and Thirteenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and he was killed while leading his company in a charge at the battle of Kenesaw Mountain, Georgia, June 27, 1864. By her first marriage Mrs. Morgan has one son, Albert Ross Parker, who married Theodosia Brown and they have a daughter, Ursula.
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