USA > Ohio > Adams County > A history of Adams County, Ohio, from its earliest settlement to the present time, including character sketches of the prominent persons identified with the first century of the country's growth > Part 102
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 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115
Solomon Sprinkle, maternal grandfather of our subject, married Elizabeth Snider, daughter of Peter Snider. She was born in 1799, and died in 1895. In religious belief, the Sprinkles were Dunkards.
W. H. Orebaugh, the subject of this sketch, spent his boyhood on the farm, obtaining a common school education. In 1882, at the age of eighteen, he went to Missouri, Kansas and Illinois, where he remained for three years.
He was married March 13, 1889, to Lizzie Plummer, daughter of Levi Plummer, a prominent farmer of Cherry Fork, Ohio. Their children are Blanche Marie, Grace Maude, Anna Ethel, Nellie Rosetta and John Williard.
Mr. and Mrs. Orebaugh are members of the United Presbyterian Church at Cherry Fork. Our subject is a Democrat and has taken some part in local politics. He owns two good farms in Wayne Township, where he is engaged principally in handling stock. He is a heavy buyer and shipper of cattle, buying for the Cincinnati and Northern markets. He is an affable gentleman, and highly esteemed by all who know him.
George William Osborne, M. D.,
was born at Locust Grove, Adams County, Ohio, October 3, 1853. His grandfather Enoch Osborne was a native of Loudon County, Va., and emigrated from there to Adams County. He was a soldier of the War of 1812. His father was George P. Osborne, who served his country faith- fully during the Civil War. His mother was Elizabeth Early. His parents were married at Locust Grove in 1850. There were but two children of this marriage, our subject and a daughter, Emily, who married Peter Carter, but is now deceased. Dr. Osborne attended the common schools of the county and the High school at Hillsboro. He also pursued a special course in the Portsmouth High School from 1873 to 1875. He began the study of medicine with Dr. James S. Berry, at Locust Grove, in 1870, and continued it from time to time until 1878, teaching school and attending school in the meantime. He attended lectures at the Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1877, and in the Summer of that year began the practice of medicine with his preceptor, Dr. J. S. Berry, at Locust Grove, and con- tinued with him one year. On April 14, 1878, he was married to Margaret E. Briggs, daughter of John K. Briggs, of Dry Run, Scioto County, Ohio. In February, 1879, he located at Cedar Mills in the practice of medicine. In May, 1889, he was appointed one of the three Pension Examining Sur- geons of Adams County, and served as such till July, 1893. Dr. Osborne
Digitized by Google
1
830
HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY
has always been a Republican. In the Fall of 1893 he was nominated by his party unaminously for Auditor of Adams County and made the race against Dr. J. M. Wittenmyer. It was a campaign of money on both sides and he was beaten by sixty-eight votes. On January 1, 1896, the Doctor removed to Dry Run, in Scioto County, where he has resided ever since and devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession. He is a member of the Adams County Medical Society and of the Hempstead Academy of Medicine of Scioto County. He is an Odd Fellow and a Red Man. Dr. Osborne is highly esteemed as an excellent physician and a good citizen.
Alfred Pence.
One of the first settlements in Adams County outside of the Stockade at Manchester was made by Michael Pence, his son Peter Pence, and their kinsmen, the Roush family, together with the Bryans and Cooks, in 1796, at the "Dutch Settlement" in what is now Sprigg Township. These families were "Pennsylvania Dutch" and had originally settled in the Shenandoah Valley, and in the year 1795 came to the Three Islands, at Manchester, to make their future homes in the Northwest Territory. The first year of their coming to the Three Islands, they cultivated a crop of corn on the lower island which was then partially cleared.
Michael Pence, the pioneer, was drowned in the Ohio River in 1807 while attempting to cross with his team at the lower ferry. He had pur- chased one thousand four hundred acres of land in the Hopkins Survey in Sprigg Township and was a wealthy farmer for his day in Adams County. He is buried in Hopewell Cemetery. His son, Peter Pence, who married Susan Roush in the Shenandoah Valley previous to his coming to Adams County in 1795, had among other children, a son, Aaron, born in 1798, who married Elizabeth Moore, and who was the father of the following named children: Nathan, David, Daniel, Jacob, Francis S., Peter, Harriet, who married Dyas Gilbert, and our subject. Alfred Pence, the oldest child, who was born May 17, 1823, on the old Michael Pence homestead, which he now owns and where he resides, near Maddox Postoffice. He married Hannah Evans in 1847, and has reared the follow- ing children : Elizabeth, who married Zenous Roush; Ruth, who married Robert Brookover; Dyas, who married Ada Parr; Rufus; Mahala, who married Lafayette Roush; and Ida, married to Rev. A. D. Foster.
Nathaniel C. Patton,
son of John Patton and Phoebe Taylor, his wife, was born February 2, 1826, in Wayne Township, Adams County. He attended the Public schools of his vicinity and was reared a farmer. He was married March 17, 1847, to Mary Ann Thompson, who was born February 28, 1827. Soon after he was married, he moved on the farm where he now resides. It was then a wilderness. It is now one of the most attractive places in the county. Mr. Patton and his wife have had six children: Marion M. Patton, born January 21, 1848. He died in the service of his country in the Civil War at Harper's Ferry, April 23, 1865, while a member of Company D, 191st O. V. I. His remains were brought home, and rest in the Cherry Fork Cemetery. A second son, J. Monroe Patton, was born October 13, 1850. He has a separate sketch herein. A daughter, Mary
Digitized by Google
831
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Alberta, born January 8, 1853, died July 22, 1857; another daughter, Annabel, born December 18, 1855, was married to John J. Cisco, No- vember 2, 1881. They reside at Xenia, Ohio. Another daughter, Eliza- beth P., born July 11, 1858, married J. A. Renwick, January 13, 1883. He was pastor of the United Presbyterian Church at Tranquility, about four years, but is now pastor of a church at Biggsville, Ill., where he has been for eleven years. The youngest daughter, Emma Z., born January 13, 1862, was married to the Rev. J. Knox Montgomery, December 25, 1889. He was pastor of the United Presbyterian Church at Unity, and pastor at Sparta, Ill., for about four years. For several years past he has been pastor of the United Presbyterian Church on Walnut Hills, Cin- cinnati.
Mr. Patton and all his family have their membership in the U. P. Church. He and his sons-in- law are all Republicans except the Rev. Montgomery, who is a Prohibitionist. Mr. Patton has always sought to live an upright life, fulfilling all his duties to God, to man and to his country, and that he has succeeded is testified to by all who know him. He is of the strictest integrity in all his dealings, and he is a model farmer, reading all that relates to his occupation, and putting in practice that which he deems practicable. He has been prosperous and he is prospered. He is alive to all the questions of the day affecting his occupation and the interests of the country, and with all that, has had time to take an interest in this History more than any of his neighbors. While he is related to one of the editors of this work ( Mr. Evans), that has not caused that same editor, who has written this sketch, to overdraw the just public estimate of Mr. Pattons character. He deserves a great deal of credit for remaining in Adams County, and doing what he has done for himself, his family, for the church and for the community, for he might have done like most of the other Pattons, gone West and taken up the rich prairies of Indiana, Illinois and Kansas, and been a much richer man than he is to-day, but then Adams County would have lost a citizen who has done much to elevate the community, and of whom it can be justly proud. All honor is due those men who are content to live in the places of their birth, and who labor to elevate the community and uphold the good in church and state in the homes of their childhood.
Mr. Patton is one of the best illustrations of what a citizen, who fore- goes all public office and employment, may do for himself by industry, economy, diligence, and the strictest attention to agriculture, his chosen occupation, even though it is the commonest of all.
Henry Pennywitt,
third son of John Pennywitt, was born on the old homestead on Gift Ridge, Adams County, Ohio, on December 13, 1851. He attended the common schools and assisted his father on the farm until he was a young man, when he left his home and went to Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio, to learn the trade of printer. In 1872, he went to Washington, D. C., and worked at his trade until the Spring of 1874, when he entered the United States Weather Service, and has remained almost constantly with that service until the present time. He served as observer of the weather at Leavenworth, Kans .; Burlington, Iowa; Pittsburg, Pa .; Buffalo, N. Y .;
Digitized by Google
832
HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY
Norfolk, Va .; Sanford, Fla .; Titusville, Fla .; Jupiter, Fla. (at which place he superintended the construction of an observatory) ; Knoxville, Tenn .; New Orleans, La., and Washington, D. C. He now holds a re- sponsible position in the Climate and Crop Division of the Weather Bureau at Washington, having charge of the statistical work of temperature and rainfall data and the collection of reports pertaining to the condition of the different crops of the country. He has always taken a deep interest in scientific investigations, particularly the study of meteorology and kindred subjects.
On November 12, 1890, in Knoxville, Tenn., he was married to Miss Jennie L. Hessee, of Abingdon, Va. He has one boy, John Edward, six years of age, and one girl, Louise Mary, now nearly three years old.
Wm. Clinton Pennywitt,
the eldest son of John .Pennywitt, was born on the bank of the Ohio River opposite the head of Manchester Island, July 11, 1839. ('He has recently adopted the spelling of the family name here given, having been convinced that such was the original and proper method.) He received all his schooling in a log schoolhouse on the old homestead near the present site of Quinn Chapel. At the age of eighteen, he began teaching in the Public schools. At twenty-one, he "went West." When Fort Sumpter was fired upon and President Lincoln made his first call for defenders of the flag, he was one of the first to respond. He enlisted in April, 1861, at New- ton, Iowa, in Company B, Fifth Infantry Regiment of Iowa Volunteers. His command was in action at New Madrid, Mo., the siege of Corinth, the battle of Corinth, Luka, Jackson, Clinton, Champion's Hill and Vicks- burg, Miss., Missionary Ridge, Tenn., the Atlantic Campaign, and in many minor engagements. During his entire army service he was never in the hospital, never absent from his command, and he never missed a tour of duty. On the battle-field in front of Vicksburg his comrades chose him by an almost unanimous vote to be their company commander. This action of the men was ratified by all the field officers of his regiment, and Governor Kirkwood commissioned him Captain over the heads of both Lieutenants and the First Sergeant of his company. This is the only in- stance of this kind in the history of the war. He remained with his command until it was mustered out.
In civil life he has been at different times bookkeeper for a large manufacturing establishment in Cincinnati and for one of the largest lumber companies in Chicago; clerk in the U. S. Treasury, Interior and Postoffice Departments; Chief of Division of Railroad Statistics of the Tenth Census ; rate clerk of the C. B. and Q. Railroad; statistical clerk of the Chicago Fire Department; editor of the Manchester Gazette, the Maysville (Ky.) Republican and Round's Printers' Cabinet, Chicago; and Washington correspondent of a large number of newspapers. At the present time he is serving as law clerk of the Department of Agriculture.
He was married August 28, 1878, to Anna Rebecca Frow, of Win- chester, youngest daughter of Archibald and Eliza Frow. They have two children and reside in their pleasant home, "Seven Gables," at Glen- carlyn, Va., a beautiful suburb of Washington.
Digitized by Google
833
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
For several years, Captain Pennywitt has been devoting very special attention to the subject of a great national institution of learning to be located in the immediate vicinity of the National capital, a movement originated and earnestly advocated by the immortal Washington. He is the author of a memorial to Congress, presented in the Senate, February 28, 1899, by Senator Cullom, that has attracted much attention. This memorial offers the following suggestions :
(I.) The restoration to National jurisdiction of that portion of the District of Columbia (ten miles square) which lies south of the Potomac River.
(2.) The founding of a city upon this reacquired territory, to be ded- icated to the cause of learning and to be known as the city of Lincoln.
(3.) The establishment within this city of a great National in- stitution of learning to be known as the University of Washington and Lincoln.
He expects to devote the remainder of his life to the development of this great project which has been described as "the fitting climax to all that has been done for education during the Nineteenth Century," and as "an undertaking worthy of the foremost nation on earth, and of the most progressive age of human history."
George W. Pennywitt,
liveryman, of Manchester, was born February 19, 1856, on a farm about three miles above Manchester, and is a son of Reuben .Pennywitt and Jane Cooper, his wife. He was educated in the Public schools of Man- chester, and was engaged in the lumber trade with his father until 1882, when he engaged in the feed and livery business, which he has since followed with success. April 24, 1881, he married Miss Laura Kimble, daughter of Henry Kimble. He has a son, Reuben Roy, born January 19, 1882, a graduate of the Class of '99 of the Manchester High School, and a daughter, Mary Roxana, born December 17, 1895.
In politics, Mr. Pennywitt is a Republican, and is a member of the Methodist Church. He has held many local offices, and is one of the sub- stantial business men of Manchester.
Wiley Daniel Pennywit
was born September 26, 1861, three miles above Manchester, in Adams County. His father was Mark Pennywit, and his mother's maiden name was Sarah Cooper. He was educated in the Public schools of the county. Politically, he has always been a Republican. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Rome. He came with his father, Mark Pennywit, to Rome on September 18, 1880, where he engaged in business with him until the death of the latter on June 18, 1885, after which he conducted the business himself, which was a saw, planing and grist mill. In April, 1888, Mr. Pennywit's mill and all its contents were burned. There was no insurance whatever and the loss was quite heavy. Mr. Pennywit, with characteristic energy, built the same year on a some- what larger scale. He manufactures flour, meal, and dressed and un- dressed lumber of every description.
53a
Digitized by Google
834
HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY
He lives in the parental home with his only unmarried sister, Eugenie Pennywit. His other sisters are Artemesia Godfrey, Mary H. Roberts, and Martha J., the wife of E. A. Crawford, editor of the West Union Defender.
Mr. Pennywit is a gentleman of the highest character and integrity, and scrupulously exact in all his dealings with his fellow men, and has the highest respect and esteem of all with whom he cames in contact. He is one of the foremost business men of the county. He and his sister have a delightful home, surrounded by all the comforts and conveniences of life, where it is a pleasure for their friends to meet them.
Alfred Pennywitt
was born January 8, 1840, on Gift Ridge, Monroe Township, Adams County, Ohio. His father was Reuben Pennywitt, who has a separate sketch herein, and his mother's maiden name was Jane Cooper. His mother was born in September, 1816, and is still living. Reuben Penny- witt and wife had nine children, eight of whom are living. One died in infancy. Our subject is the eldest child of his father's family. He at- tended school on Gift Ridge, and his entire education was obtained in the common schools. His father was a builder of boats and a lumberman. Mr. Pennywitt began steamboating at the age of eighteen. He continued in steamboating for a short time, and was engaged in the lumber business until the fourth of July, 1861, when he enlisted in Company I, 39th O. V. I., for three years. He served until the twenty-fourth of August, 1864, when he was mustered out at the expiration of his term of service. He was never in the hospital and was never disabled while in the service. He was in every battle in which his regiment was engaged and never re- ceived a scratch.
On returning from the army, he folowed the lumber business in Man- chester for two or three years. In 1867, he re-engaged in steamboating, beginning as a watchman on the steamboat Robert Moore. He has con- tinued in the same occupation ever since, and has served as second mate, mate, pilot. and master. He was master on steamboats in the Southern trade, notably the Courier and the Stella Wild, and others, for over ten years. He has resided in Manchester ever since the War. Since 1877, he has been engaged on the Ohio River on the Pomeroy and Pittsburg boats. For the last five years he has been a mate on the Pittsburg and Cincinnati line, on the Hudson and the Virginia. He has been engaged on not fewer that two hundred different steamboats during his career as a steamboatman.
He has always been a Republican, and has been a member of the Methodist Protestant Church at Manchester for the last eight years. He was married June 21, 1869, to Miss Matilda C. Fleming, daughter of Alexander Fleming and granddaughter of James M. Cole. He has had three children: Edith C., born May 31, 1870, the wife of F. A. Mc- Cormick of Manchester ; Rufus C., born June 5, 1872, a physician in the city of Dayton, located at 134 South Ludlow Street, where he has been four years. He had a daughter, Pearl C., born July 8, 1878, who died September 7, 1891. Our subject has but one grandchild, Rufus, son of F. A. and Edith McCormick, born December 9, 1891.
Digitized by Google
835
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Captain Pennywitt is noted for his modesty and his substantial worth. One always knows just where to find him; and when found, he can be de- pended upon. He is as different from the traditional old-time steamboat mate or master, as day is from night. His friend David Dunbar says that one can ascribe all good qualities to him, and then fall short of his real merits. He maintains the high character for honor and integrity set by his ancestors ever since they have been known to Adams County. They would have died for conscience' sake and counted it glory, and our sub- ject is not a whit behind them.
John D. Platter
was born on Brush Creek in Adams County just below Jacksonville, near Fristoe's, April 7, 1846. His father was John Platter, and his mother, Mary Davis, a daughter of John Davis. When he was six years of age, his father moved one and one-fourth miles east of Peebles, where our subject resided until he was twenty-five years of age. He obtained a common school education, and in 1871 he engaged in the mercantile business at Locust Grove. He resided there in the same business until 1881, and then he moved to the location of the town of Peebles. He built the first business house in Peebles, being the warehouse now occu- pied by J. F. Wickerham. After locating in Peebles, he engaged in the grain business for four years, and then took up the hardware business, which he has followed ever since. For several years he was in this busi- ness with his brother-in-law, James C. Copeland, but now Mr. Platter has the business alone. He has one of the largest business houses in Peebles and does very extensive business in hardware, farm machin- ery, wagons, etc. He enlisted in Company I, 14Ist Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, May 2, 1864, and was discharged September 3, 1864. He is a Republican, and as such was a candidate for Auditor on that ticket in 1874, but was defeated. He was a member of the School Board of Franklin Township for several years. He has served as a member of the Peebles Council for three years, and of the village School Board for four terms. He is a member of the United Presbyterian Church at Peebles, and has been an elder in it since its organization.
He was married to Mary Copeland, daughter of Chambers Cope- land, in 1867. Her father emigrated from Ireland, and was among the first settlers in Adams County. His widow, Salome Tener Copeland, is still living. Our subject has five children, two sons and three daughters; Raymond, Winifred, Anna, Susan, and Blanche, all living.
Mr. Platter is a man of the highest character, a Christian gentleman, honorable in all the affairs of life, and successful in his business.
Samuel Pfeifer, (deceased,)
son of Philip and Hermena Pfeifer, was born in Buda-Pesth, Hungary, October 12, 1824, and died February 28, 1899, at Blue Creek, Ohio. In boyhood, he clerked in a dry goods store in his native city, and when the Rebellion of 1847 came on, he enlisted as a soldier in the Army of Free- dom. After this he fled to Germany to save his head, and joined the German army. In 1849, he came to the United States and took out naturalization papers in 1856. He enlisted in the service of the United
-
Digitized by Google
836
HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY
States, October 30, 1861, First Ohio Light Artillery, Sergeant of Battery L, and was honorably discharged October 31, 1864, at Cedar Creek, Va.
He married Laura Jane Freeland, daughter of Edward and Sarah Wales Freeland, January 25, 1859. She was born July 8, 1841, and died March 30, 1887. There were born to this union Edward W., Minnie, James A., Fannie B., Frank, who died in infancy, and Clara F.
James A. Pfeifer, born September 5, 1865, son of Samuel Pfeifer, is now in the general merchandising business with his brother-in-law, Al- bert Jones, at Blue Creek. He is an active, thorough going business man, and the firm is doing a thriving business.
Samuel Pfeifer and wife are buried at Moore's Chapel.
J. Monroe Patton,
of Cherry Fork, is a lineal descendant of John Patton, of Virginia. His father was Nathaniel Patton, of Harshaville, who married Ann Thomp- son, daughter of Daniel Thompson, of Adams County. The subject of this sketch was born on the old Patton homestead at Harshaville, Octo- ber 13, 1850. Being of strong and robust frame during his boyhood days, and for over twenty years after his majority and marriage, he lived the busy and toilsome life of a farmer. He received the rudiments of an English education, the best it afforded, in his home district country school, and later he attended the old academy at Cherry Fork, in its better days, under the tuition of Professors Coleman and Smith.
October 8, 1872, he was united in marriage to Miss Sarah J. Allison, daughter of David Allison, of Spring Mill, Center County, Pa. This marriage was a happy one, uniting as it did two old and respectable families, many of whose descendants are scattered throughout the Ohio Valley, and recognized as active, honorable men and women.
In the Spring of 1893, Mr. Patton purchased the farm implement and hardware business (and drug store) of Morrison Bros., of Cherry Fork, and removed there with his family, where he now conducts the above named business. From his well known integrity and upright dealing with men, he has built up a business interest reaching into the country for miles about him.
His family consists of Mary Maud, who married Frank E. Kirkpat- rick ; Maggie Anna. who married Charles H. Morrison ; Clyde, a prom- ising young man engaged in business with his father; and Lorena and Sarah Helen, yet at home.
In politics, Mr. Patton is a Republican, having held many offices of trust in his native township. He and his family are earnest supporters of the U. P. Congregation at Cherry Fork.
John Frederick Plummer,
liveryman, of West Union, born December 28, 1857, is a son of Fred- erick Pflaumer, as the name was originally written, who was a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, and who came to America at the age of eighteen years. He first worked as a blacksmith and afterwards became a pros- perous farmer near the Mt. Leigh Church in Scott Township, this county.
Digitized by Google
837
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
John F. Plummer is one of the best and most widely known citi- zens of Adams County. He was reared on a farm, where he was taught industry and frugality, and after attaining his manhood, he followed the occupation of farmer till his thirty-fourth year, when he disposed of his farming interest, and removed to Winchester, at which point he con- ducted the well known hostelry-the Plummer House-formerly the old Parker House. In November, 1895, he took up his residence in West Union, where he conducts a large livery and feed stable. In 1898, he also engaged in the undertaking business with O. C. Robuck. He is at present a trustee of the Wilson Children's Home. In politics, he is a Democrat of the old Jefferson school, in accordance with his ideas of simplicity, frugality and honesty. He and his accomplished wife, formerly Miss Nettie E. Custer, a near relative of the gallant Gen. George Custer. are both devout members of the Presbyterian Church of West Union. Mrs. Plummer began teaching school at the remark- ably early age of thirteen, and was one of the first in her profession until her marriage, December 28, 1887. She is one of the brightest mathematicians in the county. Mr. Plummer is a member of Adams Lodge, Knights of Pythias, No. 484, of Winchester. He has one son, Harry C., born September 12, 1897.
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.