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 49
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Thomas Fitzgerald, farmer, of Oxford, is a native of Ireland, born in County Antrim in 1817. He married, in 1847, Maria S. Orr, eeming to America in 1849. They lived in Orange County, New York, about fourteen years, then went West, having land in Iowa, but after a stay of a few months, removed to Oxford, having traded for the farm he now owns. They removed here in 1871, and have since resided there. His farm con- tains about one hundred aeres, and bears the marks of his industry and thrift, be having lately completed a handsome barn, and contemplating further improvement. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgeraldl have a family of nive children, three sons and six daughters. His oldest son, Thomas. Jr., is a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and is now pastor at Branchville, New Jersey. One daugh- ter, Margaret, married George Riggs, and they now
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reside in Franklin County, Ohio. The other five daugh- ters, Lizzie, Hannah, Kate, Agnes, and Ella, and two sons, John and Elmer E., are young people at · home. Mrs. Fitzgerald is a member of the United Presbyterian Church, at Oxford, and has given her chil- dren good, religious training, and several of them are already identified with the Church.
Mr. Fitzgerald was one of five children; his mother died when he was about fourteen years old, and he shortly after found a home wherever he could. He is, therefore, a self-made man. Having begun life for him- self when a boy, among strangers, and with all dis- advantages to contend with, he succeeded in gaining sufficient to bring him to the United States, where, by continued industry and economy, he, with the help of an excellent wife and children, trained to habits of industry and self-reliance, now lives in a comfortable home, and has become one of the substantial men of the vicinity of Oxford, identified with all the progress and interests of his neighborhood.
Samuel Gath, of Oxford, Ohio, was born in York- shire, England, April 5, 1807, taking the name of his father, his mother's maiden name being Sarah Bradley. She was of a Yorkshire family, and her ancestors had traditions indicating some connection with the historic border feuds and Scottish wars. In boyhood Samuel Gath spent portions of three years as a pupil in one of the schools of the Dissenters conducted on the Laneas- terian plan, or that by which knowledge was imparted by text cards and diagrams on the wall and orally by the teacher, for which the lad paid one penny per week, one person holding the position of teacher for some 400 pupils. After this the lad worked at "eard sticking" for some time, and at thirteen years of age was indentured to Benjamin Wood, of Halifax, as an apprentice at cabinet making, remaining with his employer for some twelve years. In all that time he had but one mis- understanding or unpleasant word from Mr. Wood. He then spent five years in the employmen of Samuel Taylor, after which he started in business for himself with a younger brother, Daniel, as his partner, and with such sagacity and thrift that in a few years the elder brother's portion of the profits amounted to some $3,500, and with this he proposed to emigrate to America. In 1843 Mr. Gath married Miss Mary Fetley, of Yorkshire, and in April, 1844, with his family, and in company with some seventy others, mostly from his native town, he took passage on the ship Patrick Henry, Captain Delano, for New York, which port they made after a voyage of nearly five weeks. Many of his companions soon became homesick or dissatisfied and returned to England, but Mr. Gath had come intending to stay and make the United States his future home; and so, with his family and some six hundred pounds of personal effects, he pushed westward by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, crossing the lake to Toledo, and thence following the
canal to Hamilton. With his household he was set down on the morning of the 3d of July, in Oxford, which Mr. Gath describes as being constituted of a motley array of wooden buildings set mostly with their gables on the streets, and the plat of ground which now constitutes the publie park was completely overgrown with "dog-fennel," through which a narrow foot-path led diagonally from the south-west to the north-east corner.
Mr. Gath first settled as a farmer some three miles north of the village, on a farm now occupied by Mr. Booth, where he remained for a little time, when Mr. Merrill, a cabinet maker in the village, whose store and shop combined stood on the west side of the public square, offered him a partnership in his business. This offer Mr. Gath at once accepted, and some eight months after- wards bought out his partner's interest and suececded to the' entire business, continuing it most successfully for many years, on the old site, the old shop having given way in the meantime to a fine and substantial brick structure, well designed for the accommodation of the greatly increased demands of its proprietor, who, in his riper and advancing years, has transferred its cares and responsibilities to his son Harry.
Mr. and Mrs. Gath have had eleven children born to them, ten of whom-five sons and five daughters-are now living. Two of the sons, the eldest, Samuel, Jr., and the youngest, are following the calling of the father as manufacturers and dealers in the village of Oxford, the latter at the old stand, and the former but a few rods east, his store fronting on the north side of the park. Mr. Gath is a man of a peculiarly genial, even jovial temperament, upon whom the pressure and anxieties of business and the natural cares of life incident to an ac- tive calling seem to have made no very serious impres- sion ; his physique and general health give promise of many years of probable life. Enjoying the respect and confidence of his fellow-eitizens, he has never sought political preferment from them ; yet, at their solicitation, he has held the office of eity marshal for one or more terms, in which capacity, as he says, his greatest emolu- ments have usually been derived from the fun he has had in some of the official skirmishes into which he has found himself drawn by the young fellows in attendance upon Miami University, as they have been caught when ont on their "larks." Mr. Gath has for over fifty years been an active and consistent member of the Methodist Church, having, in the mother country, affiliated with that portion of this general body of Christians called " the New Connection Methodists," who had been striving for lay representation. Ever since his settlement in this country he has been a warm sympathizer with the tenets and politics of the Democratie party, and usually votes with it.
Among the business meu of Oxford who deserve men- tion is Samuel Gath, JI. He is a native of Oxford Town- ship, born on January 1, 1847. His parents come to
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the village when he was a boy, and he has been a resi- dent of the village ever since. His father became en- guged in the furniture and undertaking business, and the son began his attendance at funerals and assisting in the store and shop at about fourteen years of age.
During the war, though under age, he was a member of the "Squirrel Hunters" organization, in 1862, and was out with the hundred day men, being a sergeant of Company A, One Hundred and Sixty-seventh Ohio Na- tional Guards, and soon after the expiration of that term volunteered and became a member of Company D, Forty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, his discharge dating Washington, D. C., May 31, 1865. In January, 1868, he became a partner with his father, and so continued until August, 1871, when he purchased his father's inter- est and continued business alone, discontinuing the furni- ture trade after a few years and turning his attention more exclusively to undertaking, for which he seems to be specially adapted and in which he has been enterpris- ing and very successful. Mr. Gath married, February 20, 1870, Miss Mary, daughter of Smith J. Dancier, who was then a resident of Oxford, but now resides at Cam- den. Mr. and Mrs. Gath have a family of three chil- dren, two daughters and a son-Mary Etta, Jay Dancier, and Jeannetta.
Edward L. Hill, M. D., was born in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, January 23, 1827. His parents were Russel and Lucretia (Bodman) Hill, of the same place. The father was a son of Ephraim, and grandson of Samson Hill, who traced his descent back to an English origin, while the mother, who is still living in Williams- burg, is a daughter of Dr. Joseph Bodman, of a family of German-English extraction. Dr. Hill pursued his pre- paratory education at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, and passed thence into Amherst College. He took his professional course in the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, in New York City, receiving his dipl ma early in 1852. Soon after this he located in the practice of his profession at Chester Factories, in West- ern Massachusetts. While residing here he warmly espoused the cause of temperance, and while diligent and successful in his calling, he was bold and fearless in the expression of his convictions of the right and of prin- ciple, as he held it. It was during his residence here that the organization of a lodge of the Carson League in the place caused open and signal opposition to be raised by the friends of the liquor traffic, which took the desperate form of personal injury and the destruction of the property of many who had identified themselves with the workings of the league, which spirit culminated in 1855. Dr. Hill was among the foremost in the happily successful efforts then made to ferret out the lawless mis- creaats and to bring them to light and justice, and to establish peace and safety among the community, he being personally instrumental in the arrest, identifica-
tion and conviction of several of the more prominent of the evil doers.
In 1856 Dr. Hill removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he practiced his profession for the three years following, but in the Spring of 1859 he changed his residence to Oxford, Ohio, succeeding to the practice of Dr. Robert L. Rhea, who had removed to Chicago. On the break- ing out of the War of the Rebellion, and upon the call for the first one hundred thousand volunteer troops, Dr. Hill enlisted for three months, and was made surgeon of the Twentieth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was among the first to depart for the seat of war, his term of enlistment being from April 9 to August 26, 1861. Returning from this enlistment, he soon after re-entered the army, and was again made surgeon of the reorgan- ized Twentieth Regiment, his commission bearing date of September 18, 1861. He was made senior surgeon on the operating board of the Third Division Seventeenth Army Corps in the Vicksburg campaign ; then surgeon in charge of General Hespital No. 2, at Vicksburg. Afterwards he acted as superintendent of the Seventeenth Army Corps' hospital at Marietta, Georgia, in the Atlanta campaign, returning home in November, 1864. Since that time Dr. Hill has been in the active practice of his profession.
Dr. Hill was married April 24, 1850, to Hope Lu- cinda, daughter of Cotton Hayden, of Williamsburg, Massachusetts, a family whose name is not unknown to eminence and distinction, and among whom we find the late ex-Governor Joel Hayden, of Haydensville, Massa- chusetts, and Mr. Peter Hayden, of Columbus, Ohio. Dr. and Mrs. Hill have had five children born to them, four sons now living, and a daughter, who died while the father was in the army. The youngest of the sons was the subject of a severe attack of acute diphtheria in No- vember, 1881, and, while lying at the point of death, all other remedies and treatment having failed, the anxious father decided to venture upon the operation of trache- otomy, as a last resort to save the life of his boy. And this he did, ably and intelligently assisted by Dr. H. D. Hinckley, Dr. G. W. Keely, a skilled dental practi- tioner and neighbor of Dr. Hill, administering the anses- thetic. The operation (one of the most delicate and un- certain known to modern surgery) proved eminently successful, and although the life of the little patient hung trembling in the balance for days, he soon rallied and made a perfect recovery.
Early in 1865 Dr. Hill made a public profession of religion, and united with the (then) Second Presbyterian Church of Oxford. In April, 1866, he was made a ruling elder of the same Church. Dr. Hill was also clerk of the session for some ten years. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Society of Amherst College, Massachusetts; a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1853; was made an honorary member of the Ohio Medical Society, June 3, 1856; and a member of the
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American Medical Association in 1867; he is a member of the Union District Medical Association, and also of the Butler County Medical Society; in 1869 he was Worthy Master of Oxford Lodge, No. 67, F. & A. M. Dr. Hill has ever been a warm and earnest Republican in his political preferences, and, although not active in political strifes, he is of a firm and uncompromising nature, stand- ing fearlessly for his cherished principles. Of an affable and kindly disposition, he easily wins and usually retains the friendship and confidence of the community among whom he moves.
Volney L. Hills was the daughter of Joseph and Mar- garet Hills, and was born February 6, 1815. She came to Cincinnati with her parents in 1817, from Massachu- setts, where she was born. At the time of her death she was in the sixty-sixth year of her age. In the year 1829 she removed with her parents to Oxford, and on the 5th of May, 1833, was married to James D. Ring- wood, at the home of her parents. There were born to this couple five children, one of whom died in infancy, and the remainder, three daughters and one son, still survive. Her husband died two years and two months previous to her death, since which time her life seemed to be on the wane.
James II. Howe is descended from an English family of this name, which, on coming to this country, early set- tled in Massachusetts in the vicinity of Boston. A son by the name of Ebenezer was born July 13, 1765. A Connecticut family named Sears, who afterwards made their home in New York State, had a daughter, Sarah, and to her Ebenczer was married November 9, 1793. The two remained with the father-in-law and had three children born to them. Somewhere in 1800 or 1801 Mr. Sears and his family (with the Howes) emigrated to the valley of the Little Miami and settled near Love- land, where the elder Sears purchased each of his chil- dren farms. The good man was spared to be over one hundred years of age. The Howe family remained here till about 1813 or 1814, and then moved to the wilds of Indiana and took up some land upon Hannas Creek. In that neighborhood in 1815, August 7th, James H. Howe was born, and grew to manhood, taking up his resideuce at the age of eighteen at College Corner. Jannary 2, 1856, he was married to Mrs. Jerusha (King) White, formerly of Massachusetts, but born in Cazenovia, New York, July, 1815, who had been a resident of Ohio since 1834. Ilis father came to Oxford in 1822, and resided on a farm until 1830, the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Howe are now residiug in a pleasant home in the village of College Corner, enjoying the quiet aud serenity of their advancing years. They have no children.
Robert C. Huston, M. D., is a native of Pennsylvania, aud. was born in Greene County in 1813. In 1818 his parents, John and Sarah (Morrison) Huston, emigrated to Indiana. When Robert was about eleven years of age an old neighbor and friend, who was visiting the
family, and at that time residiug near Venice, persuaded Mr. Huston to allow the son to return with him for the purpose of securing some school advantages, and he re- mained there, having his home with this old neighbor about two years, after which he returned to his parents at Connersville, where he remained enjoying the benefit of the common schools of that day. . In 1834 he entered the preparatory school of Miami University, and con- tinued his studies, literary and professional, up to 18-10, and the same year commenced practice in connection with Dr. Erasmus Rose, then at Liberty, Union County, Indiana. One year later he opened an office at College Corner, where he practiced his profession ten years. In 1852 he removed to Oxford, where he has since resided, enjoying a practice which requires his full time. He married twice, the first time in 1842, his wife being Jane, daughter of Major James Montgomery, who was originally from the same county in Pennsylvania from which the Huston family came. He obtained his military title by service in the War of 1812, and was an early resident of Oxford. The issue of this- marriage was four children, three sons and one daughter. The latter is now the wife of Dr. J. N. Bradley. The sons are all residents of Butler County. The eldest, James W., resides on his father's farm, the old Moretz estate; R. W. L. is a resident of Oxford, and the youngest. John C., is now in the drug trade at College Corner, and is also the postmaster. His second marriage oc- curred in 1872, his wife being Sarah W., daughter of Sylvester and Jerusia Lyons, and therefore sister of Mrs. Professor Bishop. His residence on the north side of High, and at the west corporation line, is a handsome property, and has been his home for the past twenty years. The doctor is a Republican in politics, and takes an honorable part in all matters of public interest. His affiliation and special interest religiously is with the Presbyterians. He has been an active and successful practitioner for forty years, and is a member of the State Medical Society, and also an active and prominent mem- ber of the Butler County Medical Society.
Hiram King, farmer, is a native of Butler County, and was born in Oxford Township, in 1832. His par- ents, Thomas and Nancy King, came from the State of New York about 1819, and lived a number of years in Cincinnati. Mr. King was a carpenter, but when work at his trade was scarce took his ax, in the use of which he was expert, and helped clear a considerable part of the ground now occupied by the city. He had many offers of house-building with town-lots for pay ; but not forcsecing that it was destined to be so great a city. he cume to the interior to secure a home, and located in the southern part of Oxford Township, about 1830. A few years later he removed to the farm upon which Hirant now resides. Mr. King had a family of eight children, only two of whom are now living -- William S., now a resident of Pettis County, Missouri, and Hiram, who
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now owns a part of the old homestead, upon which he bas lived since he was one year old. Although Mr. King had a very limited education he has taken an active interest in education, and has been of great use in pro- moting the interests of the schools in his distriet, in which he has been a director a number of years and until after the building of their present substantial brick house. Mr. King has been an authorized exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church for over twenty years past. He has gained his knowledge of books by im- proving Lis spare hours and at great disadvantage, and has accumulated a good rural library. He is known as a man of good general information, able to hold his own in ordinary debate, either scenlar or religious, and has been the leader in maintaining a Sunday-school in the district school-house.
He married, in 1859, Ann E. Booth, by whom he had one child, a daughter, Anna E., who is now a young lady. She graduated at the Oxford High School. His first wife dying, he married, in 1861, Martha E., her sister, by whom he had two children-Thomas L. and Laura B. Mr. King's wife is a daughter of William Booth, who is a native of England, and an old resident of Oxford Township, his farm adjoining Mr. King's. Mr. King comes from a hardy stock, who were noted for longevity. His grandfather, Samuel King, was a soldier of the Revolution, and served during seven years of that memorable struggle. His great-grand- father King and his wife lived to pass more than eighty years of wedded life.
George Washington Keely, D. D. S., is the grandson of John Keely, a German by nativity, born in 1753. He came to this country in 1762 with his parents and settled in Pennsylvania, afterwards becoming a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and being wounded in the battle of Brandywine. His son, John sceond, was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, January 16, 1779, and died in Oxford, Ohio, May 7, 1848. He married Miss Ain Iddings, a native of Northumberland County, Penn- sylvania, who was born Angust 7, 1787. Mr. and Mrs. Kecly crumne to Oxford, Ohio, in 1818, and in 1822, on the 2211 of October, George W. Keely was born. The residence of the family was but a short distance south of the university buildings, and the boy had the privileges of the schools of the town, and when but a mere lad of some fourteen entered Miami University. Three years later, the president, Dr. Bishop, retired. Mr. Keely was warmly attached to the doctor, and feeling that the trustees of the institution were dealing unjustly by him, manifested his own sympathy by refusing longer to be numbered with the students of the school, although it had been his expectation to have pursued a full gradu- ating course.
Not long after this he spent a little time with Dr. J. D. White, then a practicing dentist in the city of Ham- ilton; but in the Fall of 1839 entered the office of
Dr. John Allen, then a noted dental practitioner of the eity of Cincinnati (now of New York), with whom he spent the two following years. Returning to Oxford in 1841, Dr. Keely established himself in the practice of his chosen profession by opening an office in a building at the corner of High and Beach Streets, where he remained for a year and a half, then moving to and occupying an office on Main Street. Afterwards, in 1867, he rented the rooms corner of High and Main Streets, where he has continued his practice ever since. Agree- able to the customs of the day and the practice of many dentists in the early history of the profession, Dr. Keely snstained for some years a series of periodic visits to neighboring towns in the States of Ohio and Indiana, which extended over the years of his early practice.
On the 13th of March, 1851, Dr. Keely was married to Miss Susanna Wells, in the city of Cincinnati, who bore to him three children, only one of whom, a son, Charles I. Keely, D. D. S., is now living, and is a practicing dentist as partner of his father, located in Hamilton. The married life of Doctor and Mrs. Keely was of short duration, as she was taken away by death May 25, 1856. April 21, 1861, Dr. Keely was again married, to Miss Cornelia Cone, of Oxford, who has borne him eight children, three of whom ouly are now living, two daughters and a son. After having been in active practice for some twelve years he graduated at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, in Maren, 1853.
Being of an ingenious and scholarly nature, Doctor Keely has ever been among the foremost in all move- ments which look toward the elevation and advancement of the interests of the profession of his choice, and has been ready to aid by his presence, councils, and means every organized effort upon the part of his brother prae- titioners for the advancement of its standards. He was present at the meeting of dentists, first held at Niagara Falls, where the foundations were first laid for the or- ganization of the American Dental Association, in 1859; has been an almost constant attendant upon its anmust sessions; was elected its president in Philadelphia. in 1876, and presided as such in Chicago, in 1877. He was an active mover in the organization of the Ohio State Den- tal Society; was once its president, and has for the last ten years been re-elected to its treasurership. He has been, and now is, either an active or honorary member of the following : Mississippi Valley Dental Society, Mind River Valley Dental Society, and of the Kentucky. Indi- ana. Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin State Dental Soci- eties respectively, and was elected a member of the New York Odontological Society.
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He has been a trustee of the Ohio College ot Dental Surgery for the past twenty years, and often president of the board of trustees, and for the past fifteen years Las lectured to the students on the " Cause and Management of Irregularities of the Teeth," which he has made a Libor of love for the past twenty-five years.
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He has been a liberal contributor to the literature and periodicals of his profession. From his reports on Dental Education, made in 1874 and 1875 before the American Dental Association, copious extracts were reproduced in the " History of Dentistry in the United States." He has often accepted invitations to lecture on some of the spe- cialities pertaining to the practice of dentistry, one being " Causes and Prevention of Irregularities of the Teeth."
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