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 104
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Dr. W. L. Robinson,
of Blue Creek, was born in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1835. His mother's maiden name was Emaline Whittelsey, of the well-known family of that name in the days of Robert Bruce. In 1840, he came with his parents to the Territory of Michigan, and grew to manhood on a farm in that State. He studied at the University of Michigan, and at the be- ginning of the Civil War entered the Union Army with the Barry Guards of Ann Arbor. He was with Mcclellan in the Peninsular Campaign, and received his first wound at Malvern Hill. He had his horse shot under him at Antietam while bearing dispatches from Gen. Burnside to Griffin's Park of Artillery. He was wounded a second time at the first battle of Fredericksburg, and again under Hooker at the same place. In the Summer of 1863, he was on detached duty at Louisville, Kentucky, being no longer fit for field service on account of wounds. Was discharged in the Fall of 1863, and settled in Kenton County, Kentucky, and resumed the practice of medicine. In 1875, he came to Jefferson Township, Adams County, Ohio, where he still resides and has a large and lucrative practice in his profession. He married Mary J. Taylor, a very intelligent and estimable woman. They have no children.
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Frank B. Roush,
of Bradyville, was born September 11, 1852, and is a son of William Roush and Margaret Edgington, his wife, of Sprigg Township.
He received a good common school education and worked on his father's farm until his marriage with Miss Ella Jackson, in 1876, a daughter of Samuel Jackson and his wife, Catherine Kirker, of Liberty Township. He has, since his marriage, been engaged in farming and stock raising and is one of the wealthy farmers of Sprigg Township, own- ing one of the finest farms in that region.' In 1897, he was nominated as the unanimous choice of his party, on the Democratic ticket for Com- missioner, and was elected in November of that year, which position he is now filling to the satisfaction of his political friends, and the tax payers of the county in general. Mr. Roush is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Bradyville and is trustee and steward of that organ- ization ; and also of Brady Lodge No. 624, Knights of Pythias. He is descended from the Roush family of the old "Dutch Settlement" in Sprigg Township, one of the pioneer families of Adams County.
W. H. R. Rowley,
of Blue Creek, better known as "Buck" Rowley, the "Bard of Blue Creek Valley," is a native Buckeye, having been born at Syracuse, Meigs County, Ohio, May 1, 1858. He spent his boyhood days in Middleport, and when in his teens removed to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he took up the occupation of steamboatman on the Ohio, and later made round trips from Pitts- burg to New Orleans. Here he developed that free and easy manner so characteristic of "Buck" Rowley. Here he learned to take care of himself when men became turbulent, and here he learned to love nature, and to appreciate her grandeur, when all was silent, save the plashing of the wheels, as the boat cut the surface of the mighty Father of Waters. In December, 1877, he came to the beautiful Blue Creek Valley in Adams County to visit a brother residing there, and he was so impressed with the region that he determined to make it his future home. A year later he married Miss O'Ella Waters, who shared his joys and sorrows till her decease in March, 1899. She bore him four children, two boys and two girls.
While not learned in books, nor skilled in art, the stronger natural ability of "Buck" Rowley asserts itself in many ways. He has accumu- lated a competence, is a power in local politics, and has earned some prominence in a literary way.
He is recognized in the volume titled "National Poets of America," by giving space to some of his compositions, and terming him in a biographical sketch, "The Soldier Poet."
Lincoln Johnson Roberts,
of Seaman, Scott Township, Adams County, was born June 1, 1865, in Winchester Township. His great-grandfather, Stephen Roberts, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, August 29, 1762. He moved into Fairfax County, Virginia, when a child. There he married Deborah Williams, who was a member of the Society of Friends. They had eight children, six sons and two daughters, all of whom grew to maturity,
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married and reared families. John Roberts, the third child, was the grand- father of our subject. He was born August 29, 1772. On the thirteenth of April, 1813, he enlisted in Captain Loudon Osborne's Company of the Fifth Regiment, Virginia Militia, and served for six months in the vicinity of Norfolk, Virginia. In the general call of 1814, he was again in the service and saw the British fires in the conflagration of Washington. He staid one month in the vicinity of Baltimore, and was one of the defenders, and had he remained in that vicinity, would, no doubt, have been one of the famous Society Defenders. He came to Adams County in 1835 and died there.
Isaac Roberts, the father of our subject, was born in Loudon County, Virginia, August 16, 1818. He was taught the necessity and dignity of manual labor. As a boy, he was apprenticed to a millwright in Washington County, Maryland, for three years and learned that trade. He afterwards worked at it for years and made money.
On October 18, 1846, he was married to Lucinda E. Wince, of Loudon County, Virginia, the daughter of Philip and Catherine Shaffer Wince. Mr. Roberts came to Adams County in 1850. He had eleven children, but he lost two sons and a daughter in childhood. He died in 1885.
Our subject attended the District schools, and attended the Normal school at Lebanon in 1881, 1884 and 1885. He began his career as a teacher in Adams County, and taught, when not attending school, until 1897. He was a resident of the city of Portsmouth in 1896 and 1897 and engaged in the grocery business in the Kendall Building. The business was not suited to his taste and he gave it up. From 1897 to 1899, he has been a teacher. He owns a farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres on Buck Run in Scott Township, where he resides, and the writer having seen it, wonders why he ever left it for the city of Portsmouth, but does not wonder that he left city life and went back to the farm. He has as fine a farm and well equipped as any one would care to look upon. He owns another farm of one hundred and seventy acres in Winchester Township.
He was married May II, 1887, to Miss Irene Chaney, of Hillsboro, Ohio, daughter of Adam L. Chaney. He has three children, Irving, aged ten years; Ralph W., aged four years, and Virginia, aged two years. His name indicates his politics. He was named for the two Presidents, Lincoln and Johnson. He is a member of the Methodist Church at Seaman, and is surrounded by everything which could make life agreeable and happy, and if he is not happy, it is not on account of outward conditions. He is a man of the highest character and principles. He was and is a successful teacher, a loyal citizen, and a prosperous farmer.
Alexander Roush,
miller, of Manchester, Ohio, was born June 27, 1847, in Sprigg Town- ship, Adams county, Ohio, son of William and Margaret (Edgington) Roush. Michael Roush, great-grandfather of our subject, was a native of Pennsylvania, and came in 1796 with the Pence and Bowman families to established the "Dutch Settlement," in Sprigg Township. Parmenus, son Michael Roush, married Catherine Smith and raised a family of nine
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children : William, Michael, John, Squire, Samuel, Rachel, Cassander, Mary Ann and Elizabeth.
William, the eldest of these, is the father of our subject. He was born April 16, 1824, and was married to Margaret Edgington, in 1849. She was the daughter of Azariah Edgington, of Sprigg Township. William Roush has been a very prosperous farmer, and is noted for his liberality in contributing toward the support of the church. He and his wife are members at Union, near Bentonville. The children of William and Margaret Roush are : Laura Ann, wife of D. C. Beam, of Bentonville, Ohio; Nancy Jane, wife of Hiram E. Pence, of Manchester, Ohio; Mary Catherine, wife of Rev. H. Allen Gaskins, of Manchester, Ohio; Alex- ander, the subject of this sketch; Frank, of Bradyville, Ohio, Commis- sioner, of Adams County ; Pangburn, of Coyville, Kansas; Aaron, of Man- chester, Ohio; Robert, of Bradyville, Ohio; and Sherman, of Manchester, Ohio.
Alexander Roush, subject of this sketch, was reared on a farm, and received a common school education. He was married on November 16. 1871, to Olivine Pence, daughter of David Pence. David Pence was drowned while bathing in the Ohio River at the mouth of Crooked Creek. By this marriage were born two children: Harvey, born September 16, 1872, cashier, of the Burnet House, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Lillie, who married Walter Wilson. Mr. Wilson has charge of the coal office of Mr. Roush. Mrs. Roush died July 15, 1878, and on October 21, 1879, Mr. Roush married Mrs. Caroline Ellison, widow of John Ellison, of Man- chester, Ohio.
Our subject remained on the farm until 1872, when he removed to Manchester, Ohio, and engaged in the grocery business. In 1882, he entered the milling firm of Oliver Ashenhurst & Son, and since 1888 has had the entire control of the mill. Besides the mill, he carries on an ex- tensive business in coal and salt.
Mr. Roush is one of the most enterprising citizens of Manchester, and is always found taking an active part in any project calculated to build up the business interests of the community. He is a member of Hawkeye Tribe 117, Improved Order of Red Men, at Manchester, Ohio. Also a member of 827 I. O. O: F., Encampment, No. 203, at Manchester, Ohio. In his political views he is a Democrat.
Oscar Coleman Robuck
was born April 28, 1860, near West Union, Ohio. His father was Thomas Robuck and his mother Margaret Haines. He was educated in the com- mon schools. He is by occupation a carpenter and undertaker.
He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and a Republican in politics. He was married to Miss Margaret Simeral, October 30, 1884. He has been a member of the Town Council, and is at present a member of the West Union School Board. He is a young man, energetic in business and well thought of by his neighbors. He is at present engaged in the undertaking business with John F. Plummer, and has by careful and up- right business methods established a reputation that reaches far beyond the limits of his native county. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
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Orin Werret Robe, M. D.,
was born at Berea, Kentucky, December 26, 1868. His father, William Robe, was a native of Ohio, born August 10, 1847. He enlisted in Com- pany F, 59th O. V. I., on the sixteenth of September, 1861, and was dis- charged on August 15, 1862, by an order from the War Department. He enlisted again, December 18, 1863, in Battery F, First Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery, and was mustered out July 27, 1865. Our sub- ject's mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Burdette, born in Berea, Ken- tucky, in 1848. He was educated in the common schools and began the study of medicine with Dr. O. B. Kirpatrick, of Cherry Fork, Ohio, at the age of eighteen. He attended the Miami Medical College of Cincin- nati, in the Winters of 1889 and 1890, and at the Starling Medical Col- lege, Columbus, Ohio, in the Winters of 1890 and 1891. He graduated from the latter in the Spring of 1891. He began the practice of medicine with Dr. E. M. Gaston, at Tranquility, on the first of April, 1891. On the first of June, 1891, he located at Youngsville, Ohio, where he remained until the first of April, 1897, and that Spring he took a post-graduate course at the Miami Medical College. He located at Peebles on the first of November, 1897, where he has remained in practice ever since. He was Coroner of Adams County, Ohio, from 1894 to 1897, and was ap- pointed one of the Pension Examining Surgeons of the county in Novem- ber, 1898, which office he still holds.
He is a member of the Baptist Church. He was married May 10, 1893, to Mary Martin. They have one child, Ada E., born May 18; 1895.
As a boy and man he possessed and possesses a love of good horses. This taste was acquired while a resident of Kentucky. He has a high sense of honor and justice. In this he much resembles his grandfather Burdette and his kinsman, Sir Francis Burdette, of England, who preferred rather to go to the Tower than to make any compromise with wrong.
What success Dr. Robe has obtained has been based upon a course of right and duty and not upon diplomacy. His motto has been "not ex- pediency, but right," and he has lived up to it all his life.
John Kelvey Richards,
Solicitor General of the United States, son of Samuel and Sarah Ann (Kelvey) Richards, was born at Ironton, Lawrence County, Ohio, March 15, 1856. His father, Samuel Richards, was born near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, February 6, 1814, and died at Ironton, Ohio, June 30, 1891. He was of Welsh-Quaker descent, being a great-great-grandson of Row- land Richards, who was born February 9, 1660, settled in Fredyffrin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, about 1686, and died in 1720. In 1824, Samuel Richards came overland with his parents to Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson County, Ohio, and in the forties moved to Lawrence County, where he lived the rest of his life. He was one of the founders of Ironton, being for nearly thirty years the Secretary and General Manager of the Ohio Iron and Coal Company and the Iron Railroad Company and the two corporations which laid out and built up that town. Sarah Ann Kel- vey was born in West Union, Adams County, Ohio, October 9, 1827. She married Samuel Richards at Burlington, Ohio, September 15, 1852, and
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died at Ironton, Ohio, September 1, 1863. She was the granddaughter of Thomas Kelvey, who was born October 1, 1763, married (July 18, 1785) Ann Secker, said to be a niece of Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canter- bury, and came to America about 1801. Thomas Kelvey was of Scottish origin, the name being originally McKelvey. Thomas Kelvey was a man of education and means. Coming down the Ohio, he stopped awhile with Blen- nerhasset, then proceeded to Maysville. Afterwards he moved to Highland County, Ohio, then to West Union, Adams County, where his wife died (March 7, 1831,) and was buried, and finally to Burlington, where he died (April 18, 1838,) at the home of his son, John. He was a watch and clock maker. Mr. John Means, of Ashland, Kentucky, has one of Thomas Kelvey's clocks. Some interesting heirlooms are in existence. Among others a miniature painted of him, probably in France, when a young man, in the costume of that day, with powdered hair, lace, ruffles, etc. Also a parchment certificate of his membership in a French Lodge of Masons, "La Lodge de L Epperance," issued May 2, 1791. In this certificate he is described as being twenty-seven years of age and a native of Canterbury, Kent County, England. Thomas Kelvey had four children. John Secker, born January 21, 1796: Johanna, born November 22. 1798; Thomas, born August 1, 1801, and Henry, born October 3, 1805. Johanna Kelvey married John Sparks, December 21, 1820, and died September 15, 1823, at West Union. Thomas Kelvey died June 11, 1831, unmarried, and was buried at Burlington. Henry Kelvey was married, and died May 8, 1834, leaving a son, who is still residing at Granville, Ohio. John Secker Kelvey married Kerenhappuch Hussey, in Highland County, Sep- tember 7, 1825, came to West Union, where he lived for several years and where his daughter Sarah was born and then with many Adams County people, moved to Lawrence County. He was a man of superior attain- ments for those days, was for years the Recorder of the county and died at Burlington, July 27, 1851. His wife, who was born July 28, 1809, sur- vived him many years, finally passing away at Columbus, January 2, 1896. She lies by his side in the Burlington graveyard. Grandmother Kelvey was in many ways a remarkable woman. She was married at sixteen, raised a large family, endured many trials, and died at eighty-six, with mental faculties unimpaired and with scarcely a gray hair in her head. She was a direct descendent of Christopher Hussey ( 1598-1685). one of the early settlers of New England, who with Tristram Coffin and Thomas Macey, were among the original owners of Nantucket Island. Kerren- happuch was also a descendant of the Rev. Stephen Bachiler ( 1561-1600 Whittier's "The wreck of Rivermouth"), who left England for Holland, and after a short residence there, came to America in the year 1632. He went first to Lynn, Massachusetts, where his daughter, Theodate, who married Christopher Hussey, preceded him. From Lynn, he went to Ips- wich, thence to Newbury, where he lived until 1638, when he settled at Hampton, where he was installed first pastor of the Congregational Church there. For an interesting account of this Puritan divine, the reader is referred to the life of John G. Whittier, by Prichard. He men- tions the "Bachiler eyes" as being dark, deep-set and lustrous, with a ten- dency to repeat themselves from generation to generations. Daniel Web- ster and John G. Whittier, who were both descendants of Bachiler, had these eyes.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
The leading events in Solicitor General Richards' life may be thus summarized : Graduated at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, 1875: graduated at Harvard College, 1877; studied law and admitted to the bar, October, 1879; Prosecuting Attorney of Lawrence County, 1880 to 1882; City Solicitor of Ironton, 1885 to 1889: Master Commissioner in the Cin- cinnati and Easter Railway case, 1885; State Senator from the Eighth Ohio District (Lawrence, Gallia. Meigs and Vinton Counties ) from 1890 to 1892; Attorney General of Ohio during Mckinley's administration, 1892 to 1896; member of the Commission to Codify the Insurance Laws of Ohio, 1895 to 1896; of the Second General Assembly of Ohio, 1896; Special Counsel of the State Board of Appraisers and Assessors of Ohio, 1896 to 1898: General Counsel of the State Board of Medical Registra- tions and Examination of Ohio, 1896 to 1898; Solicitor General of the United States from July 1, 1897. to the present time. Mr. Richards was married June 12, 1800, to Anna Williard Steece, of Ironton, Ohio. Two children have blessed this union, John Kelvey, Jr., born at Ironton, April 20, 1891, and Anna Christine, born at Columbus, September 29, 1894.
"Jack" Richards is an ardent Republican and has taken an active part in politics since leaving college. He has been a member of Ward, City, District and State Committees engaged in the active organization and conduct of campaigns. He has been a delegate to City, County, Dis- trict, State and National Conventions. He has spoken for the Republi- can party on the stump throughout Ohio and in other States. On be- coming State Senator. he made a study of taxation in Ohio with special reference to constitutional limitations. The accepted opinion was then that, under the Constitution of Ohio, as it stood, nothing but property could be taxed for general revenue. Accordingly when several unsuc- cessful attempts, at great expense, had been made to amend the Constitu- tion and enlarge the taxing power, he took the position that no amendment was required. that rights, privileges, franchises and occupations could be taxed under the Constitution as it stood. These views have since been embodied in our tax laws, which have added largely to the revenues of the State and have been sustained by the highest courts. Among these are the laws levying taxes upon foreign corporations, upon telegraph. telephone and express companies, upon railroad, street railway, electric light, gas, water, pipe line and similar corporations, upon sleeping car companies, upon freight line and equipment companies, in fact practically upon all corporations, foreign and domestic, of a quasi public nature, en- . joying peculiar franchises. In addition to drafting and sustaining these laws, Mr. Richards drafted the present election law of Ohio, a modifica- tion of the Australian ballot system and sustained it in the court. He drew the present law relating to the practice of medicine in Ohio, and as the counsel of the State Medical Board maintained its validity in the courts. He sustained the constitutionality of the Compulsory Education law of Ohio in the Supreme Court, and subsequently redrafted the law, putting it in its present form. As Solicitor General, he is the representa- tive of the Government before the Supreme Court of the United States and has argued the more important cases which have been submitted to that court during the present administration. In doing this, he has had to meet the leaders of the bar from every section of the country, but has
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been no less fortunate in the results than he was as Attorney General of Ohio. Notable among the cases now are the Joint Traffic Association case (171 U. S., 505) argued for the railroad by Mr. Carter, the leader of the New York bar, Mr. Phelps, Ex-Minister to England, and Ex- Senator Edmunds, of Vermont; the case of Nichol v. Anns (173 U. S., 509), involving the validity of the Federal Tax on sales at exchange and board of trade in which Ex-Secretary Carlisle and Mr. Robbins, of Chicago, presented the opposition to the law and the Addyston pipe case in December, 1899, in which the Sherman anti-trust law was first applied to an industrial combination.
Major William Lewis Shaw,
the subject of this sketch, was born near Lexington, Ky., on the twenty- seventh day of September, 1832. His father, Joseph Russell Shaw, was a native of Berks County, Pennsylvania, and his mother, Rachel Corns, was a native of Pike County, Ohio. They were married in Pike County, June 20, 1830.
His boyhood and youth, to manhood, were spent mainly on a farm in Adams County, and his advantages for an education were limited to the opportunities offered in those days by the Public schools.
By special diligence and good use of the time usually allowed the farmer's boy for attending school, he prepared himself to teach in the Public schools. He received his first certificate from J. M. Wells (after ward a prominent attorney of West Union), and taught his first school in what was known as Gilbert's District, in the northwestern part of the county in the Winter of 1852 and 1853. He followed the occupation of a teacher of Public schools and in attending school until 1861. At the breaking out of the Civil War, he was a member of the junior class of Antioch College, then under the presidency of Horace Mann. He left his studies in the early Spring of 1862 and raised a company in Greene County, Ohio. The company was assigned to the 10th O. V. I., and he was chosen the First Lieutenant of it. On August 7, 1862, he was de- tailed as Aide-de-camp on eGn. Elliot's Staff, Third Division, Third Army Corps, on November 14, 1863 ; he was promoted Captain of Company E, December 9, 1864. On April 2, 1865, he was brevetted Major for gallant and meritorious conduct on the field. This was Gen. J. Warren Keifer's regiment, and it was in no less than twenty-four battles and engagements, beginning with Union Mills, June 13, 1863, and ending with Appomattox, . April 9, 1865. He was discharged June 26, 1865, and returned to Yellow Springs, Ohio, and received his college degree of A. B. From this time until April, 1876, he was engaged in Public school work as a teacher or superintendent till April. 1876, when he was appointed Superintendent of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, at Xenia, Ohio. He remained in this position for two years, until the Summer of 1884, when he was displaced by a change of the State administration. In the Spring of 1885, he was employed by the Commissioners of Adams County to superintend the finishing and opening of the Children's Home, which he did to their entire satisfaction. He is now and has been for some time past the lessee and manager of the Cherry Hotel at Washington C. H., one of the most popular hotels in the State. In all matters for the
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public good, he is one of the foremost of his city, and is most highly esteemed as a successful business man and an enterprising and public spirited citizen. His political views from boyhood were always very positive and unswerving. His father belonged to the anti-slavery wing of the Whig party. This fact, supplemented by personal observation of the evil effect of slavery on the social conditions of both races, the in- justice to the colored man and injury to the material prosperity of the South, confirmed him in his opposition to the institution. At the disrup- tion of the Whig party, he allied himself with the Republican party and has always strenuously advocated its principles. He never sought nor held a political office.
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