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 51
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Joseph S. MeCord, deceased, though a latter-day res- ident of Oxford, was so thoroughly identified with public affairs as to have left a lasting influence. He was a native of Pennsylvania, being born there August 9, 1813, and was the son of a farmer. He enjoyed but limited advan- tages in his youth. He learned the cabinet-maker's trade in Landisburg, in his native State, and subsequently worked at this occupation in Pittsburg, where he became connected with boat-building, which led to a river life for a number of years, and finally to his locating at Cinein- nati, where he subsequently, in connection with his brother David, became prominent as contractor and builder, a business he followed a number of years, and until, baving acquired a considerable property and his health then being broken, he relinquished business, and, having purchased a handsome residence near the Miami University, le removed with his family to Oxford the Spring of 1866, with a view of rest and recuperation, where his family would have good educational and social privileges.
Ilis business ability and interest in religious and edn- cational affairs made his council desirable, and he was soon a member of the board of trustees of the Presby- terian Church, and gave vo little time and effort in re- modeling and fitting up the present place of worship, and continued one of most active and useful members of that
Church until his decease, which occurred November 5, 1879. In 1870 he became a member of the board of the Western Female Seminary, and being the only resident member of the board, a large draft was made on his time, especially during the rebuilding of that institution after the fire of 1871, and his name will be found pront- inently mentioned in connection with all the prominent public enterprises of his day. In 1872 he was chosen a member of the board of trustees for Miami University, and was actively identified with the building of the cast wing, which position he also occupied at the time of his decease. He was twice married. His first wife was Miss Assenath Brown, their marriage dating October 12, 1842. She died in 1847, leaving no children. Febru- ary 21, 1854, he was united in marriage with Miss C. A. Morehead, of Erie, Pennsylvania, who, with three grown children, Frank, Jennio, and Lizzie, survived him, and now resides at the residence, which fronts the uni- versity campus, near the center of the southern bound- ary. Mrs. McCord, son, and daughters are members of the Presbyterian Church.
Professor Byron F. Marsh was born December 14, 1845, at Dudley, Massachusetts. He prepared for col- lege, intending to enter Harvard, but the war coming en his father was numbered among those whose life was sac- rificed in defending the government. This prevented the son from carrying out his aspirations for a college diploma. He resorted to teaching, and has continued that occupa- tion ever since. He was at one time an instructor in Brooklyn, and also taught five years in a private school at Poughkeepsie, and at different academic institutions in Massachusetts, and elsewhere in the East. In 1877 he came to Oxford, associating himself with Professor P. Trufant in building up a classical school for boys, in the buildings of the Miami University. It was to be a train- ing school after the plan of the New England academics, thoroughly preparing a young man for college.
Professor Karl Merz is a native of Gernmuy, where he was born near Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the town of Bensheim, the 10th of September, 1834. The father was a teacher, also being organist in the principal church of the place; and quite early in his boyhood young Karl became an apt scholar upon the violin and piano. At the age of eleven he sought for and found occasion to try his proficiency in his studies in music in an attempt at performing upon the great organ of which his father had care. This was so finely accomplished, to the won- derment and gratification of the father, that for several years almost daily was young Karl intrusted with the instrumental portions of the Church service, the perform- ance of which seemed to take deep hold upou his soul's emotions. Being also a skilled performer upon the vio- lin, he was connected with two or three orchestral clubs, and was carly throwo into the company and made the acquaintance of many prominent in musical circles in the vicinity. Of Romamist parents, his scholastic education
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was attained in the preparatory and higher schools of this Church, and from these he graduated in 1852, teach- ing for a year thereafter in a Catholic school at Appen- heim, near Bingen-on-the-Rhine.
About this time, while on a visit home, he made the ac- quaintance of a gentlenian from America, who proposed to him that he should return with him to his country. This idea was finally acted upon by Mr. Merz, and after visiting the birth-place of Beethoven, at Bonn, and also Cologne, Brussels, Paris, and London, on the way, he landed in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the September when he was just turned of his twentieth year. Here for a little time he was employed as a clerk in a music store, but afterwards joined a company of musicians, who had a nightly engagement to play at an establishment on Third Street. This employment gave Mr. Merz much time for study, and he made the best use of it in his practice; also venturing upon some compositions, several of which in later days have found their way to an appre- ciative public, and many yet lie in the portfolio of the artist.
Some time in 1855 he was, all unsolicited by himself, engaged as organist for the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and his first service in a Protestant Church is spoken of by the professor as one of the marked events in his history. Nor was his keenly sensitive na- ture unsusceptible to the new form of worship and the teachings to which he was thus introduced, as after- events will show.
In 1856 the position of instructor in the musical de- partment of Dr. Killikelly's school, Eden Hall Seminary, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, being vacant, Professor Merz was invited to take it, which he willingly did, his labors in this place being both pleasant and very satisfactory. While here he made the acquaintance of and married Miss Mary, daughter of Mr. J. Riddle. Shortly after the couple took up their residence for a short time in Salem, Virginia, but not liking the location he entered a semi- nary under the charge of Mr. Wilson, in Harrisburg, in the same State, as teacher, where he was employed for one year, after which he accepted a professorship in Hollis Institute, near his recent home, at Salem, Virginia. At the outbreak of the war in 1861 Mr. and Mrs. Merz, feeling hearty loyalty to the cause of the Union, decided it to be unwise to attempt to remain at the institution, and went northward, making sacrifice of nearly all that they then were possessed of in their adherence to the principles of their country. The following August Professor Merz had the position of professor of music in the Ohio Female College of Oxford, then under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. R. D. Morris, offered him, and most gladly accepted it, entering at ouce upon the duties of the position with all the earnest ardor and enthusiasm of his nature, and this position Professor Merz has continued to hold and adorn until this Summer. This year he has been elected professor of music in another institution.
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Shortly after coming to America Mr. Merz became an intelligent and thorough convert to the Protestant faith, and ever since has been a firm and outspoken friend to the new truth which he warmly espoused.
In addition to his college duties he has had charge, as musical editor, for many years of Brainard's Musical World, issued in Cleveland, and has a world-wide reputation for the variety and genuine worth of his many musical com- positions and publications. He is genial in his compan- ionship, a fluent and interesting conversationalist, and a laborious student in his chosen profession.
The Rev. Robert Desha Morris was born in Washing- ton, Mason County, Kentucky, August 22, 1814. He is the eldest son of Colonel Joseph Morris, who removed from New Jersey to Kentucky in 1794. The Morris family trace their descent from a chieftain in Wales who flourished in 933. In later times they had important commands, and fought in the battles of Parliament against Charles I., but after the death of Cromwell they were obliged to flee from Monmouthshire to escape the vengeance of the royalists, taking refuge on the Island of Barbadoes. From this island, the grandfather, Lewis Morris, sailed for New Jersey, and settled in that part now called Monmouth County, where he was one of the first judges." Another branch of the family settled in and gave the name to Morrisania, New York, and became famous in the history of that colony. Dr. Mor- ris's paternal grandfather was in the Revolutionary War, and having been taken prisoner, was, with many other patriots, confined in the old sugar-house prison in Lib- erty Street, New York, where they endured untold suf- ferings.
Dr. Morris's maternal ancestors, the Deshas, fled from La Rochelle on the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV:, in 1685, and came to the shores of Long Island Sound, to a place which they called New Rochelle, in honor of' the home they had left. They subsequently settled on the Delaware near the Water Gap. In 1784 the Deshas and Overfields em grated to Kentucky and were associated with the Kentons in the struggles, priva- tions, and dangers incident to pioneer life in Kentucky. Dr. Morris's mother was descended from Huguenot stock, and held tenaciously to her Calvinistic faith, and her son, having early imbibed the tenets, adhered steadfastly to them.
Having been prepared at Brackeu Academy, he entered Augusta College, and after a four years' course graduated August 7, 1834. After this he completed a four years' course at Princeton Theological Seminary, at- tending lectures at Yale, and traveling extensively dur- ing vacations. He was licensed to preach by the Synod of Philadelphia, in that city, April 18, 1838. His first pastoorate was with the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where he remained eighteen years. From that Church he came to Oxford, Ohio, in 1859, and has since been at the head of the Oxford Female College. -
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Ile received the honorary degree of doctor of divinity from Center College, Kentucky, in 1870. He married, May 3, 1842, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Matthew L. Bevan, an eminent merchant of Philadelphia. Dr. Morris has been an active man, laboring zealoudly for what he believed to be right, and filled with arduous and self-sacrificing efforts for the cause of religion and education. As a pastor he was diligent in labor, and planted many new Churches by his persistent efforts. He was uniformly prompt and active in attending on the judicatories of his denomination, and often repre- sented his presbytery in the highest court of the Church. He was a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Louisville in 1844, at Cincin- naii in 1850, at New Orleans in 1858, and at Phila- delphia in 1870. He was also active in general improve- ments and int temperance and educational work. He was president of the Pennsylvania State Temperance Convention at Harrisburg in 1846. He served as di- rector in the common schools, and established a superior parochial school and classical academy, now in successful operation, at Newtown, Pennsylvania, and was for years an active trustec of Lafayette College. He helped to raise the endowment and secured many young men as students. In Oxford he has been principally devoted to the Oxford Female College, which, under his manage- ment, won a high reputation.
The Rev. James W. McGregor, M. A., was born in Richmond, Jefferson County, Ohio, September 14, 1837. In his youth he attended Richmond College, then a pros- perous institute of learning, and graduated at Miami Uni- versity in 1863. He entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Pittsburg Conference in 1865, and subsequently was transferred to the Cincinnati Con- ference, having charge of the Mount Auburn Church, and afterwards of the one at Oxford. He was then transferred to the Minnesota Conference, and was sta- tioned at Minneapolis. He returned to Oxford in 1874, and located at the cast side of the village, near the Ox- ford Female College, where he has sought to regain his health, previously impaired, by out-door occupation. Though looking after a farm of upwards of one hundred acres, on the Sabbath he is nearly always found in one of the pulpits of the vicinity. He ministered at the Western Female Seminary chapel regularly every Suu- day afternoon for two years after his return. He mar- ried in 1865 Miss Emily Lane, daughter of Ebenezer Lane, who was the founder of Lane Seminary. She is a native of Oxford, having been born where she with her husband and family still live. They have two chil- - dren, Lane and Celeste.
Dr. David Oliver was born at Harmon, Ohio, in 1792, eleven years previous to the admission of the State into the Union. It falls to the lot of but few men to lead such varied and stirring lives as was his in the early part of his career. He was in the War of 1812, and served two
years on a privateer, acting under letters of marque from the republic of Columbia, South America, being severely wounded in a naval engagement with a Spanish man-of- war. Afterwards, as a practicing physician at Brookville, Indiana, and Lebanon, Ohio, he spent many active - years in doing good, and finally removed to Oxford, where, as a public spirited and generous citizen and a ruling elder in the Church, his loss was severely felt. His death, which was unexpected, was in June, 1869.
Among the many movements looking toward the elevation and better education of the women of America, perhaps none of the special ideas or departures from the old routine, which have assumed form in effort, has attracted. more attention or proved more thoroughly prac- tical than that of which Miss Mary Lyon became the exponent. Her ideas took tangible form in the opening of a school at South Hadley, Massachusetts, kaown as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, from which hundreds of finely educated and accomplished young women have gone forth to take rank among the foremost edueators, philanthropists, and practical women in all stations in life. Among the early pupils of this school was Miss Helen Peabody, now the head of the Oxford Female Seminary.
Some time in 1635 Francis Peabody, of Hertford- shire, England, came to America in the ship Planter, and settled in Massachusetts. As a descendant from this stock, Anni Peabody is recorded as having been born July 4, 1769, in Boxford, Essex County, in that State. He was married to Miss Sarah Johnson, then a resident of Newport, New Hampshire, to which place the Pea- body family had but a short time before removed. To Mr. and Mrs. Peabody were born a family of fourteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters are now living. The father died at Newport, New Hampshire, in 1845, while the mother was spared till March, 1859.
Helen Peabody, the youngest member of their large family, was born May 6, 1826. Her girlhood was passed in no manner dissimilar to that of other children of her day, her school advantages weing those common to the villagers of New England. When fourteen or fifteen years of age she spent about a year at the Coneord Lit- erary Institute, at Concord, New Hampshire, of which school another brother, the Rev. Charles Peabody, was then the honored and successful principal. After this Miss Helen was engaged for some two years in teaching in distriet schools in the vicinity of her Newport home. She then accepted a position in Kimball Union Arad- emy, in Meriden, Now Hampshire, where she remained about a year.
In 1845 she entered Mt. Holyoke Seminary as a pupil under Miss Lyon, and pursued the full curriculum of the graduating course, taking her diploma in the Summer of 1848. For the four following years Miss Peabody was evinceted with her alma mater as one of the faculty, and her relations to the school were of the pleasantest char- acter, she proving herself very efficient in the duties and
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responsibilities here placed upon her. But in her earn- estness and zeal in her work sbe found her health becom- ing undermined, and was compelled to relinquish her position, and the following year she took for rest and vis- itation among hier relatives and friends. In the Summer : of 1854 she engaged as a teacher in a private seminary for young ladies, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, making her home with her brother Charles, who, at the time, was a resident of that city, and district secretary for the American Tract Society.
The corporators of the Western Female Seminary, which had been located at Oxford about this time, had their seminary buildings nearly completed, and the trust- ees were on the outlook for just the right person in whose hands they might, with confidence, place the affairs of the new educational venture, as its head and principal. It -hall been at the outset decided that the plan, both of the edifice and the school itself, should be modeled on the Mt. Holyoke pattern at Southi Hadley, and with the faculty of that institution the trustees had frequent correspondence, and it was upon their hearty recommendation that the board first had their attention turned toward Miss Peabody. In the Summer of 1855 a delegation from this body, consisting of the Rev. Mr. Babb, of Cincinnati, and the Rev. Mr. Bonham, of Oxford, went to St. Louis and had a personal conference with this lady, laying their project before her, and in the name of the trustecs pressing the position upon her. Miss Peabody asked for a little time in which to consider the matter, and the following morning, although strongly drawn toward and attached to the family of her brother Charles, who at this time were in deep sorrow from the recent demise of the wife and mother, and feeling it a duty and privilege to remain, and, in so far as her noble womanly heart and effort could try and supply the loss, especially in the care of a sweet, motherless infant, yet urged by the brother to look upon the opening as a providential one, pointing to duty, she decided to give the committee a favorable auswer, accepting the position.
. Soon after she came to Oxford, and at once entered with zeal and enthusiasm upon the work which was thus committed to her care, and with such success that about the middle of September following the school was thrown open to the public, equipped with a fine corps of teachers and starting off with an introductory class of about one hundred and fifty pupilss.
The entire machinery could hardly be expected to work perfectly smooth, and the first few weeks of a new school, conducted as this was proposed to be, naturally was subject to some unpleasant friction. The immediate wants of this large family were pressing, but the requi- site conveniences were not all just in place. The cook- ing range was not finished, nor had all its furniture yet arrived, when the one hundred and fifty young ladies, some with their parents, came swooping down-upon the faculty. The young ladies were at once assigned posi-
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Probably two of the most trying experiences in her life were the repeated destruction of the seminary build- ings by fire, first on the 14th of January, 1860, and again on the 6th of April, 1871. But the friends of the institution stood nobly by their heroic and devoted principal, and since the last rebuilding the school has to pride itself upon having one of the finest and most com- modions edifices of which the West can boast, seemingly complete in all its appointments, and over which it is the heartfelt, earnest prayer of every alumna and friend of the school Miss Helen Peabody may long be spared to preside.
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tions in the culinary department as well as elsewhere in the curriculum of the institution. and strange and unex- pected perplexities suddenly arosc. One of these nymphs of the kitchen, referring to these early experiences, gives the following as one of the first problems which con- fronted her as "freshman" in the first class in the Western Female Seminary : "Given two dripping paus and a brass kettle, it is required to cook meats and veg- etables for over one hundred and fifty persons ;" and in addition faectiously remarks, " Never before did we ap- preciate the capabilities of dripping pans." Of the per- plexities and annoyances consequent upon the opening of the new sebool, Miss Peabody received and bore her full share, and by the effort thus demanded and nobly performed, she was enabled to send the enterprise pros- perously along on its course toward the grand success to which it has attained.
Early in life, probably when about fourteen years of age, Miss Peabody became interested in the subject of personal religion, and about this time made a publie pro- fession of her faith iu Christ, uniting with the Congre- gational Church of her native place. But as with every thing else in her life, the profession of a hope in the Savior meant earnest zealous work for the Master whose cause she had thus early in life espoused, and through all of her subsequent career we easily discover a grand Christiau substratum underlying her whole educational work, and constantly coming to the surface in her every-day life and intercourse either with the world outside or the hundreds of loving pupils upon whom, in the providence of God, it has been her gra- cious privilege to exert her personal influence. While the great work of her life thus far has been that of an educator in the popular acceptation of the term, yet to those to whom Miss Peabody is best known, it is ac- knowledged that it has ever been her great aim to let the thought, which found expression in the class motto of 1878, " Omnia ad Dei Gloriam" (All to the glory of God), be the ruling principl and motive of her life- work. When she came to reside at Oxford she sought for and found a spiritual home in the Second Presby- terian Church, continuing her membership with it when the two interests were united as the First Presbyterian Church of Oxford.
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
James Brook Pugh has been a resident of Oxford Township about thirteen years, during which time by his energy, intelligence, and enterprise he has won the con- fidence and respect of the people, and is now serving his second term as a member of the board of trustees of his township. Mr. Pugh is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Montgomery County in 1825. His early life was spent on a farm. His parents came to Warren County, Ohio, in 1835, making the trip in wagons. In 1869 Mr. Pugh came to Oxford and purchased what was then known as the Austin inill property, and without previ- ous experience has, by industry and intelligence, suc- ceeded in building up a large and growing business. He is somewhat original in his methods, grinding merchant flour according to the " patent process," but running the product with his " family flour," which makes his milling very popular with his custom patrons. His mill is run by water-power, and he also has a custom saw-mill in connection, but run by a separate wheel. Mr. Pngh has been twice married, and is now a widower, his second wife, who was a daughter of W. H. Smith, deceased, having died in July, 1881. His first wife was a native of Pennsylvania. He has a family of four children, two of whom are married. He bas recently completed a neat, commodious dwelling, which is a substantial addition to the mill property, and which is occupied by H. S. Cham- berlain, who is a son-in-law and "head miller." Mr. Pugh's oldest son, James B., Jr., is also engaged in the mill.
Robert H. Riggs, a native of Butler County, was born in 1821, his birth-place being on the Miami, near the mouth of Indian Creek. His father, Matthew Riggs, a native of New York, came to Butler County in pioneer days, and was a school-teacher and honored with public duties. The mother of Robert was a native of Virginia, and had been previously married to a Mr. Andrews, by whom she had four children, and some time after his death she became the wife of Mr. Riggs. They con- tinued to live in Butler County until their decease, which occurred in Oxford Township, whence they had removed from Reily in 1833. Their remains lie in the old Bap- tist burying-ground in Reily Township. Robert H. Riggs was raised on the farm and has followed farming all his life. He now owns his father's old homestead, and re- sides on the tract formerly known as the Dr. Anderson farm, and has one hundred and seventy-two acres near, which he has under good improvement. He also con- ducts a meat-shop in Oxford, which is attended by one of his sous. He married, in 1847, Sophronia Wing, who is also a native of Butler County. Her parents, Silas and Lucy Wing, were Massachusetts people, and early residents of Reily Township. They have six children living: Matthew, Lucy (now Mrs. Dr. G. D. Leach, of Muneie, Indiana), William, Edward E., Robert M., and Mary Agnes. Mr. and Mrs. Riggs are direct descend- ants of the pioneer families and worthy representatives
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