USA > Ohio > Ross County > A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio > Part 54
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The children of Mr. and Mrs. Hickle are four in number. Mary G., William, Herman and Rose. Mr. and Mrs. Hickle are active members of Estell Methodist Episcopal Church and fraternally he is affiliated with Frankfort Lodge of the Knights of Pythias.
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ROBERT W. NEWMAN. A number of the younger generation of agri- culturists of Ross County are engaged in carrying on operations on the farms on which they were born, and upon which they have passed their entire lives. Here they are continuing the work started by their fathers and grandfathers and perpetuating the names and reputations of those who settled early in the various communities and who laid the foundations for the prosperity of today. In the class just mentioned is Robert W. Newman, who resides on his farm of 500 acres in Twin Township, Lyndon Rural Route No. 2, and who was born on this farm December 20, 1887, a son of Oscar W. and Nettie (Core) Newman.
Oscar W. Newman was born at Bainbridge, Paxton Township, Ross County, Ohio, October 11, 1851, and died April 17, 1914. He was a son of Harvard and America (Robertson) Newman, and was eleven years of age when taken to Fayette County, where the family lived for four years. They then returned to Ross County, settling in Twin Township, where the grandfather purchased the farm now owned by Robert W. Newman and the one adjoining it. Here Oscar W. Newman grew to manhood, and here he spent his entire life as a farmer. He was a man of substance and general worth in his community, where he held the respect of his fellows, with whom he associated himself in the forwarding of public-spirited movements. His political support was always given to the men and measures of the democratic party and fully believed that the policies of this organization were the best for his community, the state and the nation. Mr. Newman was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the work of which he took a prominent and leading part. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom six are now living, and Robert W. was the sixth in order of birth.
Robert W. Newman secured an ordinary educational training in the district school known as the Newman schoolhouse, following which he took a high school course in Twin Township. With the close of his studies, he began to give his entire attention to farming, and at the time of his father's death came into a handsome inheritance. To this he has since added through industry and good management, and he now has one of the best cultivated farms in the township. He has also done much enlarging, ditching, fencing, etc., thus adding to the value of the property and at the same time contributing to his material comfort and convenience. General farming has been his strongest forte, but he has also met with well-merited success in raising and feeding a good grade of cattle and hogs for the market. .
Mr. Newman was married July 18, 1914, to Miss Sarah Margaret Shotts, daughter of Samuel and Margaret (Corcoran) Shotts, and a graduate of the Twin Township High School. They are the parents of one son : Robert Edward, born May 7, 1915. Mr. Newman is a member of Frankfort Lodge No. 318, F. & A. M., in which he has numerous friends, as he has also in business and farming circles. He and Mrs. Newman belong to the Presbyterian Church at Bourneville, and in politics he is a democrat.
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JOHN F. PERRY. The business relations by which Mr. Perry has become most widely known in Ross County have been conducted as a building contractor. He has a long and varied experience in business affairs and has been an independent worker in the world since he was a small boy. Consequently his success is all the more praiseworthy.
Born October 26, 1855, at Greenfield in Highland County, Ohio, he is the only one of the three children still surviving of James Perry, who was also a native of Highland County. The Perry family ancestry goes back to England and members came at an early date to American shores.
After a brief education in the public schools of Greenfield, John F. Perry at the early age of eleven years started to work and earn his living. For six months he was a boy helper in a dry goods store, and all the compensation he received was a suit of clothes and board. After that he clerked in another dry goods store at Greenfield for ten years, and he showed such industry and ability that his wages were gradually increased until at the age of twenty-one he was getting a salary of $100 a month, which considering not only his age but also the time and other conditions was a splendid testimonial to his usefulness. In the meantime his father had moved out to Sedalia, Missouri, and was living in that city at the time of his death. John F. Perry spent two years at Sedalia and after his father's death settled up the estate.
On returning to Ohio he located at Hopetown in Ross County, where he subsequently married Miss Emma H. Gartner. To their union have been born six children : Nellie M .; Georgie; Glenn; Walter; Lottie and Harold.
After his marriage Mr. Perry spent five years on a farm. He then embarked in the contracting business in Chillicothe, and continued it successfully for a period of twenty-eight years. He was also in the hay and livery business three years and the transfer business fifteen years. For seven years he was proprietor of what was known as the Lewis Coal Company. In 1913 Mr. Perry turned all his energy once more to the contracting business, especially in the construction of streets and roads, and he now has a very efficient organization and all the facilities and equipment for the construction of concrete pavement and other forms of modern highway. In this line he has constructed many miles of improved roads in different townships of Ross County and has con- structed many of the permanent streets in the city of Chillicothe.
Mr. Perry is a Democrat and spent six years as a member of the Chillicothe City Council. In the Masonic fraternity he is affiliated with the York Rite and is a Knights Templar and is also a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
FRANK A. HANAWALT, who is now enjoying the comforts of his fine farm in Concord Township, has had a long and active career, chiefly' spent as a contractor and builder of roads and bridges. Mr. Hanawalt is widely known over this section of Ohio and his career is one that will be read with interest by his many friends in Ross County.
He was born in Concord Township October 15, 1857. His father,
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Christopher Hanawalt, was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, August 20, 1821. The grandfather, George Hanawalt, was also born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and he as well as two brothers, Henry and John, came to Ross County in the early days. John settled in Bourneville, and Henry in Concord Township. George Hanawalt arrived in Ohio in 1823. He was accompanied by his family, and after some years in Union Town- ship he moved to Concord, where he followed farming until his death. George Hanawalt married Margaret Parchel, and their four children were Caleb, Christopher, Elizabeth and Sarah.
Christopher Hanawalt was the father of Frank A. As a young man in Ross County he served an apprenticeship at the blacksmith's trade in Frankfort. After completing his apprenticeship he opened a shop there, and was steadily in business, meeting the demands of his patrons for shop work for almost half a century. After giving up active business he continued to live in Frankfort until his death in 1910. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Speaks, a daughter of Frank and Mary (Goldsberry) Speaks, natives of Virginia and early settlers of Ross County, also died in the year 1910 at the age of eighty years. Christopher Hanawalt and wife reared ten children: Joseph; Mary, who married William Beard; George; Benton L .; Ollie K., who married Noah Coyner; Samuel; Frank; Elizabeth; Pearl; and Raymond.
Frank A. Hanawalt gained his early education in the rural schools of Ross County. He has been a hard worker all his life and as early as fourteen years of age went out to work on the farm of Rheasa McNeill. He continued employment at monthly wages until he had saved enough money to buy a team, and he then started out as a renter. After farming for some years, he used his equipment during the construction of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway, and that experience intro- duced him into the broad field of contracting for the building of roads and bridges. He has continued that business ever since and has con- structed many miles of improved highways both in Ross and other counties of Ohio. Since 1909 he has lived on his beautiful farm in Concord Township, and operates that both as a home and for profit.
Mr. Hanawalt has been twice married. At the age of twenty he married Nina A. Ware, who was born in Frankfort, a daughter of Thomas Ware and a granddaughter of Thomas Ware, Sr. She died after sixteen years of married life. Mr. Hanawalt married, for his present wife, Renie B. Young, who was born in Fayette County, a daughter of Nelson and Martha (Bush) Young. Mr. and Mrs. Hanawalt have two sons, Fred C. and William Howard.
Ever since he became a voter, Mr. Hanawalt has steadfastly sup- ported the republican party. He has served as a member of the Concord Township Republican Committee and as a delegate to various conven- tions. He is now serving his fifth consecutive term as a member of the township board of trustees. Fraternally, he is a member of Frankfort Lodge of the Knights of Pythias.
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MILTON P. JONES. To the community of Twin Township Milton P. Jones is known not only as a practical and successful farmer, but as a public-spirited citizen and a man whose service on more than one occasion and in various capacities has been useful to the public. First and fore- most he is a farmer, and has the supervision of a very large estate con- sisting of 800 acres in Twin Township, located seven miles from Bain- bridge and fourteen miles from Chillicothe. He is served by Rural Route No. 1 out of Bourneville.
In Ross County since pioneer days the Jones family has distinguished itself by constructive labors and the accumulation of a large amount of land and also by striking qualities of personal character and citizenship.
The farm where Milton P. Jones was born, February 4, 1872, is part of the old Jones estate in Twin Township, and is now occupied by David Jones. His parents were William A. and James (Storms) Jones. William A. Jones was born in Louisa County, Virginia, and when a small boy, accompanied his parents, Mr. and Mrs. David Jones, to Ohio. David Jones died a short time after his arrival in this state. The family first located near Waverly in Pike County. William A. Jones possessed in a striking degree the qualities which enable a man to get along in the world. Through the early death of his family he was thrown upon his own resources, and was about sixteen or seventeen years of age when he came to Ross County. He worked out by the month, being employed for considerable time by Enos Prater. He was thrifty as well as industrious, and in a few years was safely on the road to success. At the age of twenty-five he married Jane Storms. Her father, John Storms, was one of the pioneer settlers in Hetherby's Bottoms, and later established a home at what has been known for many years as a landmark in Ross County, Storms' Station. In that community he spent the rest of his days and was one of the leading characters in that section of the county.
After his marriage, William A. Jones bought 200 acres of land, where his son, Milton, now resides. During his residence there, three children were born, and he then bought the farm where his son David lives, and that was his home until his death, about 1900. Mrs. William A. Jones is still living, and makes her home with her son, David, in Twin Town- ship. In spite of his unpromising start, William A. Jones made a fortune and was long rated as one of the largest landholders in Ross County. At one time his possessions aggregated over 2,500 acres. He and his wife became the parents of eight children, of whom seven grew to maturity, and the four now living are: William F., a retired farmer of Francis- ville, Illinois; David G .; Anna, wife of William A. Wallace; and Milton P.
Milton P. Jones grew up in a home of substantial comforts and was given the equivalent of a liberal education. He attended the public schools and the high school at Bourneville, spent one year in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, and another year in the Ohio Northern University, at Ada.
On December 10, 1896, he married Miss Emma Corcoran, a daughter of Dennis and Sarah Corcoran, of Irish descent. Mrs. Jones was born in Twin Township, and has spent practically all her life there.
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After his marriage, Mr. Jones lived in the old house on his father's farm for three years, then spent a brief season in Norfolk, Virginia, and on returning to Ross County resumed farming on the same place but in another house for two years. He and his wife then returned to the home which they had first occupied after their marriage, but in 1906 put up the modern dwelling which they now call their home.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones are the parents of two children : S. Albert, born October 8, 1897, took three years in the Bourneville High School and was graduated in 1915 from the Chillicothe High School, and is now a student in the Ohio State University. Milton C., born February 8, 1899, is in the third year of the course of the high school in Bourneville.
Mr. Jones is well known in fraternal circles, is a republican, he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church at Bourneville, and his affiliations with secret orders are with Bainbridge Lodge No. 196, Free and Accepted Masons; Chillicothe Chapter No. 4, Royal Arch Masons; Chillicothe Council No. 4, Royal and Select Masons; Chillicothe Com- mandery No. 8, Knights Templar; Scioto Commandery of the thirty- second degree Scottish Rite at Columbus. He is also affiliated with Bourneville Lodge No. 108 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with Chillicothe Lodge of the Elks.
DUDLEY F. BRIGGS has spent his active career managing one of the oldest estates in Ross County continuously in the possession of one family. The Briggs homestead out in Concord Township has for more than a century been the property of members of this one family. It is a splen- did old home, sanctified to its occupants by many associations and tradi- tions, and altogether the family is one that has contributed materially to the growth and development of Ross County from almost the very beginning of civilization in this part of Ohio.
Mr. Briggs, the present owner of the Briggs homestead, is a great- grandson of Joseph Briggs, who was a Virginian and came into the Northwest territory in 1798. He was accompanied by his brother Sam- uel. Joseph Briggs settled near the mouth of Herrod's Creek and not far from the home of Captain Herrod, who about five years later was murdered by the Indians. So far as known Joseph Briggs remained a resident of Concord Township from the time of his settlement until his death.
A son of this pioneer was Charles Briggs, who was born in Concord Township in 1806. He grew up on the pioneer farm and found ample employment in cultivating its acres, in the duties imposed upon him as a householder and neighbor, and was a highly respected resident of Ross County in the early years of the last century. He married Catherine Mallow. The grandmother of Dudley F. Briggs also represented one of the prominent early families of Ross County. She was born in Concord Township, a daughter of Major Adam Mallow, Jr., who was born in Pendleton County, Virginia, in 1778. Major Mallow was a son of Adam Mallow, Sr., who was born in Pendleton County, Virginia, in 1715. At the age of six years Adam and his mother were captured by the Indians
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and taken to Louisiana. About six years later he was released, and then returned to his father's home in Virginia. He afterwards fought with the Virginia troops in the Revolutionary war, and in 1806 brought his family to Ohio locating in Concord Township of Ross County. Adam, Sr., and his wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Bush, spent the rest of their days in Ross County, where he died in 1840 and his wife at the age of ninety-seven. Major Mallow on coming to Ross County was a married man and bought a tract of land in Concord Township and was there actively engaged in its clearing and improvement when the War of 1812 broke out. He entered the service of the United States and rose to the rank of major. After the war he continued farming until his death. He married Mary Dice, and they both died in August, 1834.
Allison Briggs, a son of Charles Briggs, was also born in Concord Township. He grew up as a farmer and subsequently moved to Wayne Township in Fayette County, where he lived for a few years. He then returned to Concord Township, and bought the interests of the other heirs in the old homestead. He became an extensive farmer, improved his place with a substantial residence, and lived there until his death in 1890. Allison Briggs married, for his first wife, Jane Snyder, who was born in Fayette County, Ohio, a daughter of William and Malinda Snyder. She died in 1860, leaving two sons, William and Dudley F. Allison Briggs married, for his second wife, Mary DeWitt of Fayette County.
Dudley F. Briggs was born while his parents resided in Wayne Township of Fayette County on March 31, 1860. His mother died soon afterwards, and he was reared chiefly in the home of his grandparents in Concord Township, of Ross County. His occupation from early youth has been farming, and many years ago he bought the old Briggs home- stead, and is still engaged in its operation. Mr. Briggs besides farming has been an extensive dealer and shipper of livestock, and has a wide acquaintance in Ross and adjoining counties.
On October 26, 1881, he married Eva Rowe, daughter of Abraham Rowe. Mr. and Mrs. Briggs have reared four children : Donnie, Emma, Jesse and Farrell. Donnie is the wife of Lee Putnam, and their five children are Hazel Virginia, Madeline, Bernice, Mary Evelyn and Wal- lace Alfred. The daughter Emma married Ira Metzgar, and their two children are Eva Catherine and Dennie Virginia. The sons, Jesse and Farrell, both graduated from the Frankfort High School and are now students of the Ohio Wesleyan University, of Delaware, Jesse taking the literary and Farrell the scientific course.
NATHANIEL WILSON was born in Aberdeenshire, in the Highlands of Scotland, in 1815. He was carefully educated in his youth, his parents wishing him to enter the ministry of the Scotch Presbyterian Church. After his graduation from Marshall College in Aberdeen, he came to America with the purpose of visiting his uncle, William Ross, one of the early dry goods merchants of Chillicothe, and further broadening his education.
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A long and stormy trip on the ocean and a like trip on Lake Erie, on his way to Chillicothe, had made travel on water so repugnant to him, that he decided to remain in this country. He accordingly entered the mercantile establishment of his uncle.
After acquiring a knowledge of the business, he, in company with two other clerks in the store, Charles J. Miller and Thomas Woodrow, the patronymic uncle of our present President Woodrow Wilson, formed a partnership under the firm name of Wilson, Miller & Woodrow, and for several years thereafter conducted a successful business dealing in dry goods. This partnership was dissolved, Thomas Woodrow continuing the business and Nathaniel Wilson entering the boot and shoe business alone. He remained in this business until 1862, when he retired from active pursuits, devoting his time to his private interests until his death, in 1892.
Nathaniel Wilson was a student during his entire life, devoting much of his time to Latin and mathematics. He was one of a coterie of men in Ohio who were in the habit of passing difficult and abstruse problems among their number for solution.
He was the inventor and patentee of a mathematical instrument, being intended for surveyors' use, a combination in the one instrument of the protractor, parallel ruler and scale.
For many years he served as a member of the Chillicothe Board of Education, before the board became a political body, and was likewise president and director of the old Chillicothe Bank.
In 1849 he married Margaret King, of Philadelphia, Pa., a daughter of Thomas King, and to them five children were born, as follows : William Ross, deceased; Belle W. Ide, living in Columbus, Ohio; Thomas King, of Chillicothe; Annie S. Barrere, living in Hamilton, Montana; and Alexander Ross, deceased.
Thomas King Wilson, the only surviving male member of the family, is also the only member of the family now residing in Chillicothe. Grad- uating from the high school, he attended the college preparatory school at Marietta, Ohio, and was afterwards graduated from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. He engaged in the tanning business with George Elsass, but afterwards associated himself with Martin Hamen in the manu- facture of fertilizers, developing the business now carried on at Wash- ington Court House, Ohio, under the corporate name of The M. Hamen Company.
He served as a member of the Chillicothe Board of Education. He is the inventor and patentee of a spike and nail puller, also of an automatic closing railway switch.
In 1887, Mr. Wilson married Elizabeth Renick Smith, who was born in Chillicothe, a daughter of Amos and Henrietta Renick Smith. She died in early womanhood, in 1889.
MILEY E. DRUMMOND is a life-long resident of Ross County, well known over the county at large and in the City of Chillicothe, where he resides, and is now one of the active rural mail carriers of the county. Vol II-28
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Mr. Drummond is a quiet unassuming man, believes in doing all things well, and is a highly respected and honored citizen.
He was born on a farm near Londonderry in Ross County November 16, 1856. His father, William Drummond, was born in Ross County, and his grandfather, Benjamin Drummond, was born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was one of the early settlers in Ross County. William Drummond married Ruth Cox, a native of Ross County, and also of a pioneer family.
Mr. Miley Drummond was reared and educated in Liberty Township of this county. He attended the public schools as a boy, and with the conclusion of his schooling he remained on the old homestead and em- ployed some of the best years of his life in general farming pursuits. In 1901 he entered the service of the United States Postal Department, and was one of the first rural mail carriers in Ohio. He has been steadily at the work now for upwards of seventeen years, and has since removed to Chillicothe. He has never married, and makes his home with a wid- owed sister in Chillicothe. He is an active member of the Trinity Meth- odist Episcopal Church, of the Rural Mail Carriers Association, and he spends his best energies in rendering an adequate service to his patrons along the rural mail route.
Mr. Drummond was the youngest in a family of seven children. Ben- jamin is now deceased. Wesley Drummond is referred to on other pages of this work. William is also deceased. Martha is the wife of S. Graves, of Beatrice, Nebraska. Mary A. is the widow of Joseph Randall, and now resides in Chillicothe with her brother, Miley. David J. is a resident of Independence, Missouri. Mrs. Mary A. Randall is the mother of six children, Alma Archer, James E., Minnie Headley, Martha Dillie, and Ernest and Mary, who are now deceased. Mrs. Mary A. Randall is a member of the Friends Church, at Londonderry, Ohio. Mr. Joseph Randall died in 1889.
HARRISON SHASTEEN is one of the oldest living sons of Union Town- ship, where he was born three quarters of a century ago, and after a long and active and honorable business career is now enjoying peaceful retirement at his home in his native township.
Born March 10, 1841, he is a son of James S. R. Shasteen, a native of Virginia, and a grandson of Robert Shasteen, a native of the same com- monwealth. Robert Shasteen brought his family to Ohio in 1814, when his son James was seven years of age. They settled in Ross County, and thus established a family that has had a continuous relationship with this country for more than a century. James Shasteen grew up in the county, and after reaching manhood engaged in farming. He was a resident of Union Township until his death, at the age of sixty years, while his wife passed away at the age of fifty-nine. They were the parents of two sons. One of the these, Marion, was a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil war, was captured by the Confederates and died while a prisoner in Andersonville.
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