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 109
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He is a member of Manchester Lodge, No. 254, Knights of Pythias, and also a member of the Hawkeye Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Adams County Agricultural Association, and one of the most prominent Democrats of the county.
He removed to Manchester in 1883, and in 1895 engaged in the grocery business in partnership with I. T. Foster. He is now engaged in the buggy and carriage trade.
Major Truitt is well known and universally respected throughout Adams County, where most of his life has been spent and where he ranks as one of her foremost citizens. By industry and good judgment he has acquired plenty of this world's goods for comfort and he and his good wife contribute liberally of their influence and means to the cause of Christianity and humanity.
James Sheridan Thomas
was born in Meigs Township, Adams County, one of the youngest sons of George A. Thomas and Sarah J. Wittenmeyer, his wife. He has a twin brother, Prof. Stephen S. Thomas, of Bloomfield, Mo. He attended school in the district of his home and labored on his father's farm until he was seventeen years of age, when he attended North Liberty Academy for one year. In 1889 and 1890, he attended the National Normal Uni- versity at Lebanon, Ohio, where he graduated in the Scientific course in 1890. From the Fall of 1890 until Spring of 1892, he taught school at Otway, Ohio. From the Fall of 1892 until the Spring of 1894, he had charge of the schools at Sciotoville. In 1893, he taught a Summer
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JAMES S. THOMAS
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school at Wheelersburg. He began the study of the law with the Hon. Ulric Sloane at Winchester in the Summer of 1892, and kept it up until the Fall of 1894, when he entered the Cincinnati Law School, and at- tended that during the Fall, Winter and Spring of 1894 and 1895. He stood fifth in a class of one hundred and fifteen in his studies. He was admitted to the bar, May 31, 1895, on his twenty-fifth birthday. On July 1, 1895, he began the practice of law in the city of Portsmouth, where he has since resided. In politics, he is and always has been a Democrat, and has taken an active interest in his party. In 1895, he was the candidate of his party for State Senator in the Seventh Senatorial Dis- trict, but was defeated by Elias Crandall, the Republican candidate. He canvassed the district in the interest of his party.
In the Spring of 1899, there was a special election to vote on the adoption of a new charter for the city of Portsmouth. This occurred about three weeks before the regular municipal election. He took strong grounds against the charter, and spoke against it in public meet- ings. The charter was defeated and its defeat resulted in his election to the office of City Solicitor in the strong Republican city of Portsmouth, where a Democratic City Solicitor had not been elected since 1875. He defeated one of the very best young Republicans of the city-Harry W. Miller, who was a candidate for re-election.
As a lawyer, Mr. Thomas is very active and industrious. He is careful and painstaking, and bids fair to make his mark high up in his profession.
George Andrew Thomas
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was born November 25, 1832, at Jacksonville, Ohio. He is the son of William and Margaret Mitchell Thomas. His grandfather, William Thomas, was a native of Pennsylvania. His wife was a Miss Randolph. He settled in Adams County in 1797. He located land where Jackson- ville now stands and laid out the town. He was a great admirer of Gen- eral Jackson and named the town for him. He afterward entertained General Jackson over one Sunday on his way to Washington. When the public highway was laid out on Todd's Trace, he assisted in opening and clearing that part of it between Brush Creek and Locust Grove. The stage route established on this road, about 1820, was continued until 1842. William Thomas, Senior. removed to Marion County, Ohio, where he died. His children were Isaac, Phillip, Samuel, who died of the cholera in 1849, William. George W., and John. The children of William Thomas, father of our subject, were John, George A., Susan, who married William Green; Mary, married to N. Mckinney; Nancy, died in womanhood ; Margaret, married John McMillen ; Samuel married Sarah McCoy, and Josephine. William, father of our subject, was born February, 1803, at Jacksonville, Ohio, and died there in 1894.
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George A., our subject, married Sarah Jane Wittenmeyer, March 27, 1863, the daughter of Isaac and Eliza (Thoroman) Wittenmeyer. Their children are Isaac W., married to .Levica C. Thoroman ; George F., a physician at Peebles, married to Agnes Reynolds ; John R., married to Ellen Mathias ; Daniel B., a farmer residing on the home farm, and married to Ida Jackman ; Perry Odle, residing in California, who was a soldier in the Philippines in the late Spanish War, and who married Lucy
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Hildebrand; Stephen S., a teacher at Bloomfield, Mo., married to Christina Chloe; Tilla B., residing at home, and James S., a lawyer in Portsmouth, Ohio.
George A. Thomas enlisted in Company 1, 182d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, on September 28, 1864, and served until July 7, 1865 He took part in the battles of Franklin and Nashville, Tennessee.
Mr. Thomas is a successful farmer. He owns four hundred acres of land at Old Steam Furnace. He is noted for his sterling honesty and integrity. He has reared seven sons, all of whom are active factors in the world and doing well for themselves. They are all men of the highest integrity.
Mr. Thomas has always adhered to the Democratic party and has taken quite an interest in political affairs, though he has never held office. He has acquired a comptence, and as the burden of years are falling on him, he is taking things easy. He is a thorough patriot, and during the war did all he could for his country, both at home and at the front. He is a member of Frazer Post, G. A. R., near his home, and a charter member of the Lodge of Odd Fellows at Jacksonville. He is a useful and valuable citizen. He has been able to hold his own all his life. and has beside accumulated considerable property. He has al- ways aimed to do the best he could for himself and those dependent on him. at all times, and has succeded far better than most men in the race of life. He has been ambitious for his sons. He educated them to the best of his ability and is proud of their careers. The writer, who has known him all his life, believes that George A. Thomas has accomplished much more than the average citizen and that he is a credit and honor to his community. If all our people were as patriotic and as faithful to their duties as he has been and is, we would have a republic, the model for the whole earth.
John Wesley Thomas, M. D.,
fifth son of James B., and Esther A. Thomas, was born near Winchester, Ohio, September 16, 1850. He was educated in the common schools of Adams County, and in 1871 he entered upon the profession of teaching in the Public schools.
After having been engaged in that business for several years, he began the study of medicine, with his brother, Dr. F. M. Thomas. In 1878. he attended his first course of lectures in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at Keokuk, Iowa. His second course of lectures was taken in the Ketucky School of Medicine, at Louisville, Ky., graduating from the latter institution in the class of 1879.
In March, 1880, he emigrated to the State of Kansas, locating at Clayton, Norton County, where he at once began the practice of med- icine. He was a member of the Board of Pension Examining Surgeons of his county from 1888 to 1892. He belongs to the Masonic faternity, is a member of the 1. O. O. F., and of the Modern Woodmen of America. / In politics, he is a Republican, But has never been a candidate for any political office.
In May, 1895, the Doctor was married to Miss Roberta Butler, daughter of Amon and Phoebe E. Butler. Their children are Irene Eleanor, Francis Marion and James Baldwin. In 1897, he removed to
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Lyle, Kansas, his present location, where he has a large and lucrative practice.
Dr. Thomas is a man who is widely and well known in his profession and one who lends lustre to it. He is a thorough physician, a skillful surgeon, and a superior business man. He is modest and unassuming in his demeanor, has a large and lucrative practice and occupies an enviable position, both professionally and socially, being a gentleman of rare per- sonal qualities and of thorough general culture. He is inflexible, though not dogmatic in his opinions, generous and warmhearted, liberal, the very personification of integrity, and he enjoys, to a marked degree, the respect and confidence of a large circle of acquaintances.
Francis Marion Thomas, M. D.,
is a native of Adams County, born near Winchester July 9, 1838, a son of James Baldwin Thomas and Esther Thomas, his wife, and grandson of Abraham and Margaret Barker Thomas, who emigrated from Buck- ingham County, Virginia, about the close of the eighteenth century. He traces his ancestry to Reese Thomas, born in Pembroke, in the principal- ity of Wales, June 16, 1690, and whose family Bible, printed in the Welsh language in 1717, is now in his possession.
He was educated in the common schools of Adams County at the Ohio Valley Academy, Decatur, and the North Liberty Academy, Cherry Fork. In 1859, he began the career of a teacher in the Public schools and continued this until 1862, when he enlisted in Company B. of the 60th O. V. I. That regiment was captured at Harper's Ferry, Septem- ber 15, 1862, and he was paroled and sent to Camp Douglas, Chicago, Illinois, where he remained until the term of his enlistment expired. He re-enlisted on July 4. 1863, in Company B, Fourth O. V. I. Heavy Artillery, serving as Private, Guard, Regimental Commissary Sergeant, Second Lieutenant, Quartermaster and Commissary of Subsistence at the post of Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, until several months after the close of the war. When discharged from the army, he resumed the profession of school teaching, taking up with it the study of medicine, the latter of which soon after took his entire attention. He attended lectures at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1869. He immediately commenced the practice of medicine at Samantha, Ohio, where he still resides. He was married March 15, 1871, to Miss Annette Holmes, daughter of Gilbert and Ann (Hussey) Holmes.
He is a member of several medical associations. He has served quite a number of years as Secretary of the Ohio Medical Association and was its President in the years 1881 and 1882. He has contributed num- erous articles upon medical subjects to the periodicals published for the profession. He is a Republican and takes an active part in the affairs of his county, but has never been a candidate for office. He is a member of the U. P. Presbyterian Church and has been a ruling elder for about twenty years.
Dr. Thomas is firm in all his opinions, methodical in all his pro- fessional and social duties, and inflexible in his integrity. He is a learned physician and a great lover of books, of which he is a diligent collector.
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He is very fond of the society of children, and delights in entertaining them. He is very much devoted to his church. He is a good financier and has accummulated a competency. He is public-spirited, lives well and is a liberal contributor to charitable objects. He is highly esteemed by all who know him.
George Franklin Thomas, M. D.,
was born January 23, 1857, at Steam Furnace. Meigs Township, Adams County, Ohio, and was reared on the farm where he was born. He at- tended the District school in the Winter and worked on the farm in Sum- mer. During the Civil War. he, with his older brothers, had the entire management of the farm while their father was in the army. At the age of seventeen, he had acquired sufficient education to become a teacher of common schools. His career as teacher began in 1875 and ended 1885, with marked success. While a teacher he took an active part in edu- cational affiairs, serving one term as School Examiner in his county. Shortly after he began teaching, he invested in a farm adjoining his father's, which required several years of hard work to pay for.
In 1883, he was married to Miss Sallie Graham, a most popular and loveable woman, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Graham, of near Dunkinsville. This happy marriage was not to continue long for she died on May 12, 1884. In the following year Mr. Thomas began the study of medicine under the tutelage of Dr. J. M. Wittenmyer, of Peebles, and on March 9, 188S, he received the degree of M. D. from the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati. After his graduation he located at Ot- way, where he remained for four years in the practice of his profession. He then removed to Peebles, where he has since resided, practicing medicine in partnership with Dr. J. S. Berry. In the Winter of 1898 and 1899, he took a post-graduate course at New York. In the year 1894, he was married to Miss Agnes Reynolds, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen J. Reynolds, who resided one mile north of Peebles.
The Doctor and his wife have an elegant home in Peebles. Mrs Thomas is a charming and accomplished woman. She has had a most complete education and has fine literary taste. The Doctor has been remarkably successful in his profession. He might be called a natural born physician. His power to diagnose seems to be intuitive, rather than acquired, and his judgment is unerring.
His prominent characteristics are sterling honesty, fearlessness and frankness. The deception s so often found in men in public positions is a trait that never entered his moral composition. In his dealings he knows no equivocation or compromise. He is loyal to his friends and quick to resent an injury or redress a wrong. In politics, he is a dyed-in-wool Jacksonian Democrat. He has taken much in- terest in his party's welfare, believing that in the Democratic party are to be found the principles that are nearest to the interests of the great mass of the people. In religion he is liberal. He believes that the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule are comprehensive enough to en- able everybody to live a correct life. He is a member of several secret societies.
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By economical habits and good management he has accumulated considerable property and is in easy circumstances financially. He con- serves all his forces moral and physical. As a man and as a physician he is surely obtaining the very highest standing in the community where he resides.
William M. Tugman.
There are many sketched in this work, the incidents of whose careers in the strictest truth are more remakable than romance, but the story of our present subject is the most remarkable of all. How many boys born in the North Carolina Mountains, without any advantages what- ever, would come North amongst strangers and without the slighest aid, except with the encouragement of newly made friends, educate them- selves and gain a high position at the Cincinnati bar, yet this was ac- complished by William M. Tugman. 'He was born in Wilks County, North Carolina, October 21, 1850. His parents were James L. Tugman and Susana (McGrady) Tugman. He was born with a thirst for knowl- edge which has never been quenched. There were no common schools worthy of the name in his native county. For a short time he had a private instructor in a Baptist minister. He was brought up on Weem's "Life of Washington," Benjamin Franklin's Autobigraphy, Baxter's "Saint's Rest," "Pilgrim's Progress," and the Bible. His father was a Confederate soldier, and his mother died about the close of the war. His father was financially ruined and there seemed no ray of hope for the youth, the eldest of five children. He and his brothers and two sisters were distributed among relatives and his father went sixty miles away to work. William did not like the uncle to whom he had been assigned, · and, after three months, ran away and joined his father, who.was engaged in lumbering to rebuild a cotton factory, destroyed by the invading army in the collapse of the Confederacy. He worked with his father in the lumber camps in 1865 and up to the Fall of 1866. In the Winter of 1866, and 1867, he went to school. In the Spring of 1867, he began to work for a farmer who had announced his intention of removing to Missouri and had promised to take our subject with him. Young Tugman had fully resolved to leave his native State and seek his fortune in a better country. He saved up twenty-five dollars, and the self-sacrifice in- volved in that can better be imagined than expressed. His farmer friend having determined to remain in North Carolina, young Tugman concluded to go on his own account. He went as far as Marion, Virginia, with a young friend. There the latter was offered employment as a blacksmith and accepted it. The same work was offered Tugman, but he concluded to go farther on. At Marion, Virginia, he saw the first railroad train. Leaving Marion, he undertook to cross the Clinch Mountains and succeeded in losing himself. When he found a habita- tion, it was occupied by an old man, the first Republican he ever saw and who possessed a remarkable vocabulary of expletives and oaths. This acquaintance assumed the lad was a rebel in sentiment and informed him if he disclosed his sentiments, when he got further North, the Republi- cans would surely kill him. His Republican friend lived on the head- waters of the Big Sandy. At Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky, he stopped three weeks and carried a hod, working on a new courthouse
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there in process of erection. From there he walked to Maysville, Ken- tucky, which he reached September 1, 1867. There he saw, for the first time, street lamps and paved streets, and here he received his first in- troduction to American civilization. He crossed the ferry to Aberdeen and learned of a pike being built from Bentonville to North Liberty, and he went there to get work. This was his first introduction to Adams County. When he reached O'Neill's cabin, near the Kirker place, he had exhausted all his capital but twenty-five cents. He met John Huff, who, looking for angels unawares, took him to his home. Huff recom- mended him to Thomas McGovney, to whom he went and who agreed to board him for his work outside of school hours. He went to school that Fall and Winter at "Jericho School" taught by T. P. Kirkpatrick. At the close of school, he worked six months for McGovney and then went to live with James Alexander, near Cherry Fork, and attended school while residing with him. In the Spring of 1869, he applied for and obtained a teacher's certificate in Adams County. The same Spring he taught in the Buckeye schoolhouse east of North Liberty. That Fall he taught again near Jacksonville. In the Spring of 1870, he attended the North Liberty Academy, and in the Summer, a Normal school at West Union, and that Fall, taught near Manchester, in the Clinger dis- trict.
In the Summer of 1871, he studied Latin and geometry in a school taught by Rev. James McColm. In the Fall of that year, he took charge of the schools at Germantown, Kentucky, and taught there until Febru- ary, 1872, going from that place direct to Athens, entering the Senior Class of the Preparatory Department of the University. In the Fall of 1872, he entered the Freshman Class of the Ohio University, and con- tinued there until June, 1873. From the Fall of 1873 until June, 1874, he taught at Murphysville, Kentucky. In the Fall of 1874, he was elected Superintendent of the Schools at Aberdeen, Ohio. In the Fall of 1875, he returned to the Ohio University and remained there until he graduated in June, 1877. He was re-employed at Aberdeen, as Sup- erintendent, in the Fall of 1877, and taught there until June, 1879. In the meantime, he was reading law with Messrs Barbour & Cochran, of Maysville, Kentucky. In September, 1879, he went to Georgetown, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar. He located in Cincinnati and taught night schools for two years. He attended law school at the same time, and was in the office of the Hon. John W. Herron. In the Spring of 1881, he opened an office for himself, with Charles Bird, corner of Third and Walnut. He has been engaged in the practice of the law ever since, but for a long time has been located at No. 309 Johnson Building, as- sociated with Edward H. Baker, a college classmate.
He was married November 27, 1888, to Miss Alice Cameron, of Boston. They have two children, a boy and a girl, aged respectively nine and six years, and reside at Mt. Washington.
The particluars of Mr. Tugman's career as a boy and a young man have been gone into detail in the hope of encouragement to some other young American, who may conclude to become the architect of his own fortune. How many boys in the country have the ambition, the energy, and perseverance to educate themselves and to step into a profession
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which more and more is becoming the field for the sons of rich and pow- erful men? It is safe to say not many would have undertaken what Mr. Tugman did and succeeed in. As may be surmised, he is a man possessed of a fine physique and by his great industry, is capable of a wonderful amount of work. He is temperate in his habits, prompt in all business matters, and possessed of the highest integrity. He is re- garded by the bench and bar of Cincinnati as a man of ability in his pro- fession, and has frequently been mentioned for a seat on the bench, but being affiliated with the minority party in Hamilton County, his op- portunities for political preferment have been meagre. The writer, who is a personal friend, once in a bantering way suggested that the great mis- take of his life had been his politics. He replied seriously that if a young man longed for political distinction, he ought either choose a community suited to his politics, or politics suited to his community. But after all, he reflected that even under such circumstances, there were perhaps more strangled hopes and shipwrecks of fortune in the flotsam and jetsam of the political sea, than in all the great ocean of other objects in human endeavor. The observation seems just ; and while the above narrative is a stimulus to ambition and perserverance, it is also a reminder that it is the man that dignifies the calling, and not the calling the man. Such is the philosophy of the character herein sketched, one that believes that in- dustry like virtue brings its own reward and that we should find-
" Books in the running brooks Sermons in stones and good in everything."
Albert Given Turnipseed
was born at Rocky Fork, near Hillsboro, December 2, 1865. His father's name was Jacob and his mother's maiden name was Sarah Ellen Williams, daughter of Thomas Williams, one of the pioneers of Highland County. His grandfather emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio in the forties. He originally came from Virginia. near Jamestown. The family name was German, "Ribasame." which, translated, was Turnipseed, and some of his ancestors in Virginia, saw fit to change it and use the name accordingtly. This was done about one hundred years ago. Jacob was his grandfather's name and that of his great-grandfather. He attended the common schools of Highland County until he was eleven years of age, when he removed to West Union and entered the High school there under the instructions of Prof. E. B. Stivers. He qualified himself for a teacher and commenced teaching at the age of sixteen. He taught for three years in Adams County. At the age of nineteen, he was married to Miss Clara V. Holmes, daughter of Thomas F. Holmes. He attended the National University at Lebanon and graduated there in 1885. He was elected Superintendent of the Schools of West Union and held that place from September, 1885. until June, 1887. He was afterward Superintendent of the Moscow Schools until 1801. He attended the Law University of Michigan for three years, graduating in 1803. In 1892, he was admitted to practice law in Michigan, and in 1893 in Ohio. He located in Cincinnati, and has an office at No. 308 Johnson Building. He is the senior member of the firm of Turnipseed & Morgan. His home is on Mt. Auburn. Politically, he is a Democrat. He is a member of the Christian Union Church.
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Senator Foraker says of him: "He is a young man of high character and fine ability. He is in the best sense of the word, a self-made man. By his own efforts, he has secured an education and has attained an en- viable reputation for a man of his age, in the legal profession, in one of the most important cities of the country. His friends predict for him a great success."
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