USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 2 > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
-
.
-------
------------------------------------------------------------------
374
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
of December, 1881. Since_ being in this city, he has acquired an excellent knowledge of the politics and social matters of the place, and has made his journal a neces- sity in every family.
Jonathan Crowley was born in Alleghany Conuty, Pennsylvania, about seven miles from Pittsburg, April 26, 1812. His parents were Jeremiah and Johanna (Thomas) Crowley. They were both natives of Pennsyl- vania and of Irish extraction. When Jonathan was three years old the family removed to Pittsburg, where he attended school. In 1827 he removed to Cincinnati, and began learning the cabinet business. Two years later his father died, and six years subsequent to his death his mother also departed this life. Mr. Crowley remained in Cincinnati until the Fall of 1831, when he went to St. Louis, returning in 1832, during the cholera year. He remained in that city until July, 1833, when he removed to Milford Township, in this county.
In 1838 he purchased the establishment owned by his employer, and in connection with cabinet-making made undertaking a special feature. In 1865 he sold his property and came to this city. He has followed under- taking all this time, forty-eight years. He became a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church in 1832, and for twenty years, while living in Union Township, was a ruling elder. He is a member of the Biue Lodge of Masons, and has taken all the subordinate degrees in the Odd Fellows. He was married July 3, 1834, to Miss Marilla Perry, who was born in Somerville, and was the daugh- ter of Daniel Perry. Thirteen children have been born to them, eight of whom survive. Lorella is the wife of Martin Seward; Emma is married to George W. Dye; and Ella is the wife of Abram Allen; Marietta, Clara A., Laura, George T., and Charles L. are still ummarried, and live at home.
George Hoffinan, who was born in Bavaria, Ger- many, in 1313, was married in 1841, in Pennsylvania, te Mary Barbara Dingfeller, who was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1819. He had nine children, of whom six are living. Elizabeth is the wife of George Hack; George L. is married, Barbara is the wife of Joseph Mal- son, and the others are Louisa, Mary A., and Anna E.
He emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1837, and his wife came in 1840. Both settled in Pena- sylvania, where they were married in Pittsburg, and came to Ohio iu 1843, settling in Fairfield Township. He purchased one hundred aeres from John Lindover, and went to farming, which he has followed ever since. At present he owns three hundred acres and farms about one hundred, renting the rest. One of his sons was drafted in the late war and seut a substitute. He and his wife are members of the German Lutheran Church ..
Abraham Huston was born in Greene County, Ohio, in 1804, and was married the first time in 1829 to Eliz- abeth Hall, born in Butler County in 1810, who died in 1845, leaving six children. Mary Ann is the wife of
Thomas K. Vinnedge; Sarah Jane is at home; William H. is married, and lives in Champaign County; Susan F. is at home; David B. is married; Luther P. is mar- ried and lives in Hamilton. He married in 1854 the second time. His wife was Jane Beil, widow of James Smith, born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1828. They have five children : Abraham H., Maggie B., Edwin M., and Cora I. Mr. Huston came to Butier County in 1832 and settled in Fairfield Township, on the William Hull farm. His mother's uncle, James Flyun, had command of a company of rangers in the War of 1812, and two of his brothers, Abraham and James Barnet, were alzo in the War of 1812. His son, Luther P., was in the late war, in the Sixty-ninth Regiment. He culisted in 1861, and was discharged at Nasbville on account of sickness. . He afterwards re-enlisted for a hundred days. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is an elder. Mrs. Huston had by her first marriage two chil- dren, James E. Smith and Mrs. Jones.
David Shepherd was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, September 25, 1802, and died October 12, 1876, in Union Township. He was married in Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1835, to Elizabeth Ely, daugh- ter of William Ely and Rebecca (Baird) Ely, who was born in Monmouth County, July 28, 1810. They had four children. James was born September 7, 1836, in Monmouth: County, and is married, living in Liberty Township; William E. was born December 29, 1838; Mary Ellen, who was born May 1, 1844, died when an infant; and Charles H. was born July 16, 1846. Mr. Shepherd came to Ohio in 1830 overland from Now Jersey, bringing his sister and her husband, and his own wife and one child, in a wagon, occupying a month ou the trip. He settled in Liberty Township, where he re- mained a mouth with his brother Peter, then moving in Union, and purchasing fifty acres, which was his first start. He increased his land until he finally owned six hundred and fifty-six aeres, aud considerable personal property. His son James was brought here when ivo years old. He married, June 20, 1807, Laura Ellen Brown, daughter of Nicholas Brown and Mary Aun Waller. She was born April 16, 1845, in Liberty Township. They have one child, Cora, born August 25, 1868. Mr. Shepherd has been a school director in Union Township. He owns and farms one hundred and twenty aeres in Liberty, and also has eighty aeres in Union, which he rents out.
Alexander Getz, the county recorder, was born on the ship Havre, at sea, December 21, 1846. He is the son of January Getz, an influential citizen of this town, who was born in Baden, Germany, and Rosina Getz, from the same place. The mother died October 16. 1881. The son received his education at St. Stephen's Catholic School, in Hamilton, and became a clerk in a dry goods and grocery store, at the age of fourteen. He went into business for himself at the age of nineteen, at which he
-
375
HAMILTON.
remained for eight years. He then sold out, and again beetmme a salesman. He was elected recorder in October, 1878, and was re-elected in 1881. He is a member of the St. Antonius Orphan Society, the St. Paul Benev- elent Society, and the Catholic Knights of America, Branch 106. He is a Democrat in politics, and is a member of St. Stephen's Catholic Church. He was mar- ried April 13, 1869. His wife's name was Catherine Beck. She was the daughter of Charles Beck, Sen. Mr. and Mrs. Getz have had five children -- Charles Alex- ander, January John, Lorenz Jacob, Catherine Theresa, and Henry Edward.
William S. Giffen was born in Hamilton, April 8, 1851, and is the son of Stephen E. and Rachel (Crane) Giffen. He attended the public schools in this city, and graduated in 1867, when he entered the Miami Univer- sity. He remained there for four years, and was gradu- ated in 1871. He read law in the office of James E. Campbell for two years, during which period he was a student at the Cincinnati Law School. He graduated there in 1880, and was admitted to the bar the same year, immediately beginning the practice of law in Ham- ilton.
Jacob Galloway, one of the old residents of the west side of town, is the son of Enoch Galloway and Rachel Morris, who came to this county in 1807. He was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on the 2d of October, 1800. His father served in the War of 1812, as did also his brother William. At an early day Mr. Galloway learned the trade of blacksmith and gun- smith, and followed this trade from 1815 to 1830, when he purchased a farm, since having been a farmer. He was married, December 30, 1824, in Hanover Town-hip, to Sarah Brosius, daughter of George Daniel Brosins and Elizabeth Yager, who was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, March 31, 1804. They had nine children. Preston R. was born December 29, 1825; Daniel, on the 21st of May, 1827; Jackson, November 15, 1828; William, March 7, 1831 ; John, December 11, 1832; Elizabeth, March 7. 1836; Henry, March 23, 1838; Catherine, April 2, 1840; and Wilson S., December 21, 1842. Jackson died May 11, 1875; William, September 10, 1841; Heury, June 30, 1841; and Wilson S., Feb- ruary 21, 1877. The oldest son, Preston R., was a cap- tain in the late war. Mr. Galloway has seven great- grandchildren.
John Gilmore was born in Springdale, Hamilton County, February 17, 1833. His parents were W. S. and Jane (Braden) Gilmore. He came to Butler County with his parents about 1840; and completed his education in Fair- field Township. He was at home till his marriage, No- vember 5, 1853, to Jennie H., daughter of James Hardin. They are the parents of seven children, of whom six are living, four daughters and two sons. They are as foi- lows: Anna, Ida, Clifford, Charles W., Estella, and Nellie. Clifford is a resident of Iowa, engaged in cabi-
net making and undertaking, and Charles W. is a clerk in Captain Travis's grocery. After marriage he conducted a farm in Fairfield Township some years, engaging in the nursery and fruit business in a successful manner. He came to Hamilton soon after, and has been settled here ever since, with the exception of one year, when he re. sided in Indiana. He deals extensively in real estate, buying, selling, and exchanging farms and city property. He now owns several farms. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church since luis marriage. He is a stockholder in the Hamilton and Tylersville Pike, of which he was treasurer for many years, aud owning one- third of the stock. His second danghter, Ida, has been a teacher in the schools of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mr. Gilmore resides on Ludlow Street, adjoining the Methodist Episcopal parsonage, where he has a pleasant home. He has had the advantages of foreign travel, as he has made a trip to the Old World, and seen many strange things in Paris and Edinburgh. He went across the ocean with Elbert Marshall, and on returning, took charge of his father's business. On his way over he made the acquaint- ance of a genial Scotchman, James Brown, who bought some property at his suggestion.
Frank Hammerle was born in Bavaria, on Good Fri- day, 1838, being the son of Johannes and Elizabeth Ham- merle, who both died in Germany. Frank came to this county iu 1862, and was married October 15, 1863, to Kathrina Meyer, daughter of Henry Michael and Eva Meyer, who came to this county about 1836. She was born in Hamilton, October 7, 1842. They have had four children. Henry was born December 25, 1865; Frank, in 1868; Louisa, in April, 1874; and Fred, in September, 1878. Mr. Hammerle was township trustee from 1872 to 1876, in St. Clair Township, and has been a member of the board of education since 1878, and the treasurer since 1880. He is a gunsmith by trade. Be- sides his town lots, he owns a farm in Morgan Township.
William R. Eiber was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, February 28, 1852, and was educated in the common schools. When fourteen he began an apprenticeship at shoemaking, in Cleveland, where he worked as a jour- neyman some ten or twelve years, and came to Hamilton November 25, 1872. Here he worked for John Weilen- borner some five years, but in the Spring of 1878 organ- ized the Miami Boot and Shoe Manufacturing Company, composed of Mr. Eiber, W. II. Hurm, and Henry Breide. It now employs from twenty-five to thirty hands, making ladies' fine work a specialty. Mr. Eiber was mar- ried, in 1874, to Miss L. Janser, and is the father of one daughter and one son, Hattie and Charles H. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the Odd Fellows.
Ira Rensselaer Edwards, of Jones's Station, was born in Warren County, October 17, 1820. His parents were Uzel Edwards and Mary Crane, the former of whom died January 13, 1832, and the latter January 11, 1874.
--
1
.
370
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
They came to this county in May, 1805, from New Jer- | Ann (Bruner) Fromm. The former was born in Wir- sey. He was married May 30, 1847, near Princeton, to Margaret Davisou, daughter of George Davison and Elizabeth Beadle. Mr. Davison died in December, 1858, and his wife in March, 1850. They came to this county in March, 1841, from Warren County. Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have three children. Florctia was born July 13, 1848; Mary E. Kirk, February 1, 1859; and Phebe Jane, March 26, 1861. Mr. Edwards has been a mem- ber of the board of education for about twenty years; two years he was township clerk ; and two years town- ship treasurer. His grandfather, Moses Edwards, was in the Revolutionary War.
Michael F. Eisle was born in the year 1808, and came to this county in the year 1839. He was the son of George and Mary Eisle. He was married to Mary Brook in the year 1838. She was the daughter of Heury Brook, and had one son, Charles Y. Eisle. The son was drafted into the army, but procured a substitute on account of pressure of business. Mr. Eisle has been a contractor and builder.
Granville M. Flenner was born in Liberty Township, June 29, 1843. HIe is the son of John Flenner and Mary Jane Peake, who were natives of this county. He was married on the 20th of November, 1865, in Hamil- ton, to Anna P. Rust, who was born June 10. 1844, at West Cornwall, Vermont, and who was the daughter of Horatio S. Rust and Caroline D. Long, of Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Flenner have had five children-Edith M., John R., Granville M., Carrie, and Merle D'A. Mr. Flenner is now in the ice business, but was for eighteen years engaged in hardware. He and his wife are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was superintendent of its Sunday-school for seven years. He was out in the Ninety-third Ohio in the war, for two years and a half. He was wounded at Chickamauga, and was in the batties of Stone River, Liberty Gap, and Asheville.
.
William Christian Frechtling was born in Hanover, Germany, May 19, 1837. He came to this county in 1855. His parents were Christian and Dorothea (Gahre) Frechtling. He was married August 12, 1865, in Louis- ville, Kentucky, to Mary M. Freis, daughter of Louis Freis and Margaret Freis. They have four children. Cora was born in 1870, Edward in 1873, Camilla in 1875, and Wilhelm in 1878. Mr. Frechtling went into business in May, 1858, on the northi-cast corner of High and Second Streets, where he still continues. The be- ginning was in one room, sixty by twenty, but the busi- ness has been enlarged from time to time, until now two rooms, fronting on High Street, are occupied. One, twenty by eighty, is for dry goods, and one, twenty by ninety-two, is for groceries. There is also an L room, eighteen by forty, fronting on Second Street, used for groceries. He is a member of the Lutheran Church.
Joseph A. Fromm was born in this city, November 16, 1840, and is the oklest living sou of Sebastian and Mary
temberg, Germany, in 1782, and was a cabinet-maker by trade. He came to America in 1817, first loeating in Lan- caster, Pennsylvania, where he remained some ten years. In 1827 he came to Hamilton, and engaged in selling Ger- man clocks through this county. His two sons, Joseph A. and John A., are the only survivors of his family. He was active in raising funds to build the original St. Stephen's Catholic Church. His son, Austin S., with his wife and children, were blown up on the Moselle, losing their lives. Sebastian From died December 22, 1850, and his wife died August 16, 1878, in her seventy- seventh year. Joseph A. Fromm was educated in the Catholic and public schools in Hamilton, and was em- ployed in various mercantile houses, till beginning busi- ness in April, 1865, as a butcher. He soon after took his brother, John E., as partuer, the firm being J. A. Fromm & Brother. They are doing an extensive busi- ness at 115 Main Street, First Ward.
Mr. Fromm married Miss Emma J. Metealf. They are the parents of three children, whose names are Aus- tin S., Dora Josephine, and Gertrude Iona. He was an appraiser of real estate one year. In 1881 he was elected to the city council from the First Ward. He is a Knight of Pythias. John A. Fromm, his brother, enlisted in April, 1861, in the Third Ohio, and was discharged for disability after nine months. He then re-enlisted in the Ninety-third, and was at Murfreesboro and Perrysville, and took part in all the battles of the regiment. He was placed on detached duty, and served till the end of the war. He was mustered out at Plattsburg, New York, in the Summer of 1865. Sebastian Fromm, the father, was the first Catholic who resided regularly in Hamilton, and the first member of the Church here.
Dr. Anderson Nelson Ellis is of the well-known foi- ily of that name, of Adams and Brown Counties, Ohio, and Mason and Lewis Connties, Kentucky. He is the son of the inte Washington Ellis of Sprigg Township, Adams County, and was born at the old family home- stead at Ellis Landing, on the Ohio River, four miles above Maysville, Kentucky, on the 19th of December, 1840. Washington Ellis was the son of Jeremiah Ellis, who was the son of Nathan Ellis, who was the son of Colonel James Ellis, of the Continental army. The fam- ily is of Welsh extraction, and has been in America about one hundred and fifty years. In 1730 three of the Ellis brothers emigrated from the monotains of their native land and sought homes in the English colonics ou the western side of the Atlantic, one of whom settled in Boston, Massachusetts, one in Richmond, Virginia, and one in Eastern Pennsylvania. Religiously the Ellises were Quakers of the strictest kind, and were associated with the colonial history of Pennsylvania in the Frenel: and Indian Wars, and later in the Revolutionary strug- gle, several of the name holding important commands in the Continental army.
------------ 1
377
HAMILTON.
In the Spring of 1795 Captain Nathan Ellis, together with his four brothers, embarked on flat-boats at Browns- ville, on the Monongahela, and floated down past Pittsburg into the Ohio, looking for homes in the mighty forests and fertile lands of the almost unexplored Northwestern Territory. The Ohio was the great highway over which came much of the tide of emigration which has peopled this section of the Union-a mighty stream hemmed in by a continent of gloomy shade and weird solitude, rolling its unbroken length for a thousand miles-a beau- tiful stretch of restless, heaving water, that realized to the voyager the "Ocean river" of Homerie song. Land- ing at Limestone (now Maysville), the Ellis brothers were so eharmed with the beauty of the region and the productiveness of the soil that they determined to go no further. At that time, with the exception of a few iso- lated settlements at Marietta, Gallipolis, and Cincinnati, there were but few settlers on the north bank of the river, while upon the south side the country was swarm- ing with emigrants seeking out and appropriating the best lands and most eligible town sites. Like the Jordan of old, the Ohio was a great boundary line. It stayed the incursions of the Indians, and beyond it the wave of emigration had not yet rolled. The very day -- April 27, 1795-that Captain Nathan Ellis landed at Limestone, Kentucky, five hundred red men were encamped on the river bottom just across the river. Finding that the most valuable lands had been taken up, the Ellis broth- ers determined to push over into the Northwestern Ter- ritory. Captain Nathan Ellis laid out Aberdeen, direetly opposite Maysville, and his brother Sam the town of Higginsport, cighteen miles below. Each of the five brothers took up large traets of land, and such has been the staying qualities of the pame, that many of the orig- inal entries still remain in the possession of the family. As a connection, they have ever been blessed with an abundance of the good things of life, and inherit many of the sterling qualities which distinguished their Quaker ancestors.
Nathan Ellis and Mary Walker his wife. had teu children, all of whom have passed away with the excep- tion of their youngest daughter, Mrs. Elender Higgins -- nowy in her eighty-eighth year-of Johnson County, Missouri. Jeremiah Ellis was born in 1779, and in 1803 was married to Miss Anna Underwood-a daughter of one of the best known and wealthiest families in Virginia. Ten children blessed their union, seven of whom still survive. Washington Ellis was born in 1804, and in 1852 married Miss Aris Parker, of Ma- son County, Kentucky. Jesse Ellis was born in 1792, and married Sabina, a daughter of Captain Willian Burks, of Mason County, Kentucky, a contemporary and warm personal friend of both Boone and -Kenton. Ile and his brother Thomas were captured at Blue Licks, and were prisoners among the Indians for five years. Major John Ellis, of an Ohio infantry regiment in the
War of 1812, married Keziah, a daughter of Thomas Burks. Jesse Ellis died in 1877, in his ninety-fifth year. His wife died May 14, 1882, in her ninetieth year. Nathan Ellis died in 1819, and is buried on the hill overlooking Aberdeen. His mother (dicd in 1799) rests in the Aberdeen cemetery. . John died in 1829, Jere- miah in 1858, and Washington in 1873. The last three lie in the family cemetery at Ellis Landing, four miles above Maysville.
The subject of this sketeh entered the public schools at Ripley in his twelfth year, where he remained six years. He then entered the freshman class at the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, where he stayed until the breaking out of the Rebellion. Shortly after- wards he went to the front as a volunteer aid de- eamp upon the staff of the late Major-general Will- iam Nelson, and remained with him until his death. Subsequently he was for a time attached to the staff of Brigadier-general Jacob Annen, commanding the Fourth Division, army of the Ohio. On the 18th of March, 1862, he was commissioned a lieutenant in the Forty- ninth Ohio Imaotry, which commission he resigned on the 28th of September, 1863, ou account of failing health. Returning home he at onee entered Miami University, where he remained one year. In the Spring of 1865 he became a student of medieine in the office cf Dr. C. G. Goodrich, of Oxford, and afterwards hc attended medical lectures in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Fitts- field, Massachusetts, and Cincinnati. At the Berkshire Medical College he was assistant to the chair of chemistry, and graduated with the valedictory. Subsequently the board of trustees of that institution eleeted him dem- onstrator of anatomy. In March, 1868, the Ohio Medi- ical College gave him au ad eundum degree.
After some little private practice in Ohio and Kansas, Dr. Ellis entered the United States regular army as a medieal offieer, and spent a number of years on the plains and mountains of the South-west. To one who had hitlerto known nothing beyond the haunts of civiliza- tion the nomadic life of an army officer on the frontier presented many attractions. While in New Mexico the doctor became much interested in the history of the Pueblo Indians --- that last remmant of the Aztee populsi- tion of the days of the Spanish conquest, who present the pathetic spectacle of a civilization perishing without a historian to recount its sufferings, a repetition of the silent death of the Mound Builders. He spent much of his time while off duty in exploring many of those ancient ruins which lic all over that interesting land. After leaving the service he delivered a number of lectures and published several articles on " The Land of the Aztec."
The day of his graduation in medicine the doctor bo- gan to cast longing eyes to the superior clinical advan- tages afforled by the great European hospitals. In 1878 an opportunity was afforded him of realizing this bright day-dream of his life. He went abroad, and spent one
48
1
:
378
HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
year in Heidelberg, Vienua, and London, and besides that made a journey through France and Italy. While absent from the United States he published many letters of his travels and observations. Upon his return home he received the appointment of assistant physician to Longview Asylum, a position which soon proved exceed- ingly irksome. In February, 1881, Dr. Ellis came to Hamilton, and already enjoys a fine and growing practice.
Ezekiel B. Fisher was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 12, 1829, and is the son of Robert and Sarah (Ball) Fisher. Robert Fisher was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, and came to Ohio in the carly years of the present century, with his parents. He settled near Middletown, clearing up a large tract, now known as the Abraham Simpson place. Robert Fisher's wife was the danghter of Judge Ball. She raised a large family of children, thirteen in number, of whom nine are living. By trade Mr. Fisher was a carpenter. He died about 1872. Ezekiel B. Fisher attended the com- mon schools, and was brought up to farming. He was reared by an aunt, Mrs. Mary Squiers, near Trenton, and was with her until he was eighteen, when he came to Hamilton. He began an apprenticeship with George WV. McAdams at the trade of tailoring, and continued with hun as a journeyman some two years. He was in Middletown some five years, and in Franklin, Warren County, for fifteen years, as cutter, and in conducting business. He was also at Tiffin, Ohio, as cutter in one house for nine years, coming to Hamilton city in Feb- ruary, 1882, and purchasing the business so long carried on by George W. McAdams. He has an extensive trade in fine enstom clothing. Mr. Fisher was married about 1853 to Miss Lydia, daughter of John Webster, of Liberty Township. They are the parents of eight chil- dren, of whom four sons are living. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.