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 79
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and gratify them. In Ironton, when the good men of the city were named, Dr. Willson's name was always first. Everyone felt that he was a sincere and fine Christian gentleman. The world is better that he lived. His life was a most excellent sermon, preached every day, and felt by those with whom he associated.
His old friends in Adams County have all passed over to the majority, but his memory among the younger is like a blessed halo, pictured about the Saints, of which he is undoubtedly one.
Jerusha Adaline Willson.
It is seldom we have biographies of women in works of this character. It is certainly not because they are not deserving of them, as what is said of them is usually said in sketches of their husbands, but the subject of this sketch is deserving of an entire volume, and had her recollections of Adams County been written down, they would make a more interesting volume than this.
She was born December 20, 1820. Her father died when she was but seven years of age and she was taken by Gen. Joseph Darlinton. of West Union, Ohio, her great-uncle, and was reared by him. Her home was with the General and his family from her seventh year until her mar- riage. The General, whose sketch and portrait appear elsewhere in this book, was a most devout Presbyterian, and as our subject has expressed it herself. she was reared on the Bible and the Missionary Herald. If her life is to be deemed a success, she attributed it to the careful training she received in her uncle's home. From her seventh to her ninth year, she listened to the Gospel expounded by the Rev. Dyer Burgess in the stone church at West Union. From her ninth year until she left West Union, in 1851, she was taught in the same church by the Rev. J. P. Vandyke. As his great efforts were always in preaching doctrines, she was well grounded in the Presbyterian faith.
The General's house in West Union was the visiting place of all prom- inent persons who visited the village. In this way she met and associated with the best people of her time. When she was a girl, educational ad- vantages were limited, but she had wonderful natural ability, and she took advantage of all opportunities for information and intellectual improve- ment. ()n ()ctober 28, 1840, she was married in her uncle's home to Wil- liam B. Willson, a young physician, who, in the May before, had located in West Union, and there she went to housekeeping, and resided till the fall of 1851, when she removed to Ironton, Ohio. In West Union, she was the center of a delightful circle of friends of her own sex, who, in their old-fashioned way, took turn in spending the day at each other's houses. She read much, traveled much, and she was delighted in visiting the most noted historical places in our own country and never tired of telling of them. She had fine conversational powers, and that, with her wonderful memory, made her a most desirable companion or guest.
In the church was her great and chosen work, and she took great in- terest in the Women's Missionary Societies. In 1897, she wrote a fine paper for the Presbyterian Society, giving an account of the organization of the Women's Board of Foreign Missions, which she attended in 1870 at Philadelphia, and of five subsequent meetings at which she was present. She often dwelt on the advantages the young people had in the present day.
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In her day, she said it was just a privilege for the young to live; that then the young people had nothing to do but to look on and listen to their elders ; that in her youth, nothing but obedience and industry was expected of the young.
This tribute is from the pen of Editor Willson of the Ironton Register: "Mrs. Willson was a woman of strong character. Her mind was bright and aggressive. She studied the thoughts of today and kept informed on those subjects which are of real progress. She was a great reader and ap- preciated the best literature. Her interests lay deeply in religious themes, and on them she was entertaining and instructive. Her great delight was in the deep and solid orthodoxy of the Presbyterian Church, whose great doctrines were a part of her life and thought. This gave her a serenity that was always beautiful and a seriousness that was always helpful, but through it all, her joys shone like an evening star through the twilight."
In the last five years of her life, she was afflicted, but not a great suf- ferer. July 29, 1897, she had a stroke of paralysis which thereafter confined her to her bed. She survived till February 11, 1898, when the end came. In all her sickness, she exemplified her religious belief and died with all its comforts sustaining her soul.
Captain Samuel R. Wood
was born September 6, 1788. He died September 23, 1867. Ruth Shoe- maker, whom he married as the widow of Samuel Bradford, was born August 18, 1793. She died August 25, 1879. The following children were born to them: James Hervey, born April 7, 1816; died March 18, 1844; Angeline, now the wife of George Sample, was born January 2, 1818; Car- oline, now Mrs. S. P. Kirkpatrick, was born December 26, 1819; John Nelson was born May 11, 1822; David, born December 27, 1824; Matilda, born April 20, 1829, afterward married a Mr. Locke, and is now deceased ; Ann Elizabeth, born March 25, 1830, married a Henderson; George W., born February 24, 1833, deceased ; Joseph William, born December 12. 1834, now deceased ; and Francis Marion, born June 27, 1840.
Ruth Shoemaker is said to have been stolen by the Indians in 1796 while residing on Ohio Brush Creek at Shoemaker's Crossing, in the vicin- ity of the mouth of Lick Fork. See history of Meigs Township and also biography of Samuel Grimes Bradford in this volume.
Joseph Allen Wilson
was born September 16, 1816. in Logan County, Ohio. His father, John Wilson, was born December 17, 1776, in Kentucky, and died October 5, 1824, in Logan County. His wife, Margaret Darlinton, was born in Win- chester, Virginia. She was married to John Wilson, in Adams County, August 6, 1810. by Rev. William Williamson. She survived until March 8. 1869. Her father was born March 24, 1754, and died May 20, 1814, at Newark, Ohio. Her mother was born April 10, 1700, and died December 14. 1832. John Wilson, grandfather of our subject, moved to Maysville, Ky., about 1781, and bought land on the Kentucky side of the river for twelve or fifteen miles along its course. This land is all divided up, and a part of it, opposite Manchester, is known as Wilson's Bottoms.
The father of our subject had fifteen children. all of whom lived to maturity, married and had families. Our subject went to reside with his
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uncle, General Joseph Darlinton, in Adams County, in 1823. He was brought up in the Presbyterian Church and had such education as the local schools afforded. At the age of sixteen, in 1832, he became an assistant to his uncle in the Clerk's office of the Court of Common Pleas and Supreme Court. In 1837, when he had attained his majority, he started out for himself, with a certificate from J. Winston Price, Presiding Judge of the Common Pleas, that he was of correct and most unexceptionable moral character and habits. Gen. Darlinton also gave him a certificate that he was perfectly honest and of strict integrity ; that he was familiar with the duties of the Clerk's office, and that he had had some experience in retail- ing goods from behind the counter and in keeping merchant's books. Be- tween 1837 and 1840, he was a clerk in the Ohio Legislature at its annual sessions. In September, 1838, he was employed in the County Clerk's office in Greenup County, Kentucky. In November, 1838, he obtained a certificate from Peter Hitchcock, Frederick Grinke and Ebenezer Lane, Supreme Judges, that he was well qualified to discharge the duties of Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Adams County, or any other Court of equal dignity in the State. In November, 1840, he obtained em- ployment in the office of Daniel Gano, Clerk of the Courts of Hamilton County, as an assistant for four years, at $380.00 per year. He was mar- ried to Harriet Lafferty, sister of Joseph West Lafferty, of West Union, April 14, 1839, by Rev. Dyer Burgess. He formed a great friendship with Nelson Barrere, a young lawyer who had located in West Union in 1834, and several of Barrere's letters to him are in existence. To Barrere, he disclosed his inmost soul, as to a father confessor, and Barrere held the trust most sacredly. He seemed also to have had the friendship of Samuel Brush, an eminent lawyer of that time, who practiced in Adams County. In 1846, he was an applicant for the Clerkship of Adams Court of Com- mon Pleas, when General Darlinton's term expired. He was recommended by. George Collings, Nelson Barrere, William M. Meek, Chambers Baird, John A. Smith, James H. Thompson and Hanson L. Penn, but Joseph Randolph Cockerill was appointed. However, on September 18, 1846, he entered into a written contract with Joseph R. Cockerill, the Clerk, to work in the office at $30.00 per month until the next spring and in that period to be Deputy Clerk. In April, 1848, he was admitted to the bar at a term of the Supreme Court held in Adams County, but it is not now known that he ever practiced. He always had a delicate constitution and died of pulmonary consumption, December 16, 1848. His wife died August 12, 1850. They had two children, a daughter, who died in infancy, and a son, John O., who has a separate sketch herein.
Andrew Woodrow
was born in 1757, in Pennsylvania. He was married to Mary Stevenson, March 8, 1791. She was born March 5, 1765. In 1796, he went to Lime- stone, now Maysville, Kentucky. In 1803, he moved to Aberdeen, Ohio, then in Adams County. In 1805, he removed to West Union. His wife died there August 19, 1825, in her sixty-second year, and he died there April 2, 1834, in his seventy-seventh year. He was appointed County Surveyor by the Court of Common Pleas, at the April term, 1810, and as such laid off the town plat of Aberdeen, Ohio, and laid out Darlinton's Addition to West Union. He was also a school teacher. His sons were
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Alexander and John. Alexander learned the trade of a cabinet maker and John learned that of a printer first and afterward the trade of a cabinet maker. John Woodrow was born October 5, 1805, and married Jane Crawford in 1831, and removed to Lynchburg, Ohio, in 1832. He died in 1873. Andrew Woodrow's daughter, Milly Ann, married and is the mother of Mrs. Caroline Worstell, of West Union. James Woodrow, a son, died at the age of nineteen and is buried in the Harper cemetery, on Salathiel Sparks' place.
Andrew Woodrow's wife related to Mrs. Caroline Wortsell that when they went to West Union, it was almost all forest and the wolves often went howling through the town at night.
Andrew Woodrow was very fond of music. He had a violin and could draw a crowd at any time and sing and play his hearers into tears or laughter. One of his favorite pieces was the "Battle of Boyne Water."
Robert S. Wilson
was born in Virginia, November 20, 1788. He removed to Adams County in 1811. He was a farmer. He first resided near North Liberty, after- ward near West Union. He had a good common school education. He was married in the fall of 1810 to Hester Keyes Wasson, an aunt of Thomas Campbell Wasson.
Robert Wilson died in West Union July 4, 1849, in the Naylor House, opposite the brick schoolhouse, of the Asiatic cholera. His wife died in 1867 of paralysis, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Crawford, near West Union. Their children were Nathaniel, born July 12, 1812; John H., born November 22, 1813; Robert A., born August 17, 1816; Aquilla Jane, born November 22, 1821 ; Thomas W., born July 12, 1818; Hetty Ann, born September 22, 1822; Patton, born July 23, 1828; David Finley, born June 5, 1827. He learned to be a shoemaker under Abraham Lafferty and afterwards taught school. He married Eva Campbell, October 19, 1854; William McVey, born October 10, 1823; Nathaniel Steele, who was married three times, first to Margaret Chipps, second to Miss Mary Smith and third, to Miss Bromfield. No children by either marriage. John H. Wilson married Rebecca Bayless ; Robert A. married Margaret Markland; Thomas Wasson married Margaret Schultz; Aquilla Jane married Harper Crawford; Hettie Ann married Edward Lawler; William McVey mar- ried Rebecca Lovejoy; Patton married Susannah Newman; David Fin- ley married Eva Campbell.
Robert Wilson belonged to the United Brethren Church and his wife to the Methodist. Both are buried in the old cemetery at West Union. He was taken violently ill about nine o'clock in the morning and died at eight in the evening. He suffered intensely and was conscious throughout. He had attended the funeral of Adam McCormick and it was thought he got the disease from that. In politics he was an old time Whig.
Rev. John P. Vandyke
was born in Adams County, Pennsylvania, October 18, 1803, and grad- uated at Miami University in the class of 1826, which was the first class to graduate from that institution. For a time after his graduation he was master of the grammar school in that institution. We are not advised when or where he studied theology. October 1, 1829, he was taken in the
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Presbytery of Chillicothe in a session at West Union, moderated at that time by the Rev. Dyer Burgess. The Presbytery gave him a text to preach from at his ordination on call from the church at West Union. St. John, 6: 37-40.
At a meeting of Presbytery at West Union on April 6 and 8, 1830, Rev. Vandyke was installed. Rev. John Rankin preached on this occasion. At this meeting, Israel Donalson, Abraham Shepherd, Thomas Kirker and Moses Baird were present. In 1836, he had a call to Georgetown, but de- clined it. On September 8, 1856, Presbytery dissolved the relation of pastor and people between him and the West Union Church and he became stated supply at Red Oak.
At a Presbytery held at Greenfield, April 5 and 6, 1853, he accepted a call from Red Oak Church, and on the third Sabbath of May following, he was installed. His pastoral relation to that church was dissolved April 5, 1854, at Hillsboro, Ohio. On September 5 and 6, 1854, he was dis- missed to the Presbytery at Crawfordsville, Ind.
After leaving Chillicothe Phesbytery, he labored as stated supply at Frankfort, Ind., until 1856, when he accepted a call from the Pleasant Ridge Church, in the Prebytery of Cincinnati. There he preached as often as his health would permit him, until the summer of 1862, when he removed to Reading. He labored faithfully until his last sickness. Here he died August 13, 1862, of pulmonary consumption.
Soon after his location at West Union, he married Nancy, the daughter of Gov. Thomas Kirker and had a family of children, one son, Lyman B., and several daughters. He was an active, useful minister, distinguished for preaching doctrinal sermons, and dwelling much on the decrees of God. He was very tall and slender. He was always delighted to have an argu- ment and would stop on the street with friends and acquaintances and talk any length of time. He was very fond of conversing on scientific questions. Mrs. Sarah Bradford said of him he was a stronger Calvinist than John Calvin himself. He was always pleased to present the doctrine of election in his sermons. He was noted for his profound scholarship and his willingness to impart his knowledge.
He preached 3,893 sermons in his lifetime of which 2.990 were preached in West Union. I tremble when I think of the accounts the members of his West Union Church and congregation will have to give at the Judgment Day of the manner in which they listened to those ser- mons.
In his last illness, Rev. Vandyke enjoyed to a high degree, the hopes and consolations of the religion he so long preached. He bore his suffer- ings patiently and spoke of his future prospects with unwavering confi- dence.
Rev. Burroughs Westlake
was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, February 13, 1792. He connected with the Methodist Church in 1812, and commenced as a minister in 1814 in the Baltimore Conference. He was transferred to the Pitts- burg Conference, and thence to the Ohio Conference, and afterwards to the Indiana Conference. During his membership of the Ohio Conference. he was stationed at West Union, in Adams County. and while there lost his wife, Hannah Westlake, who died in 1826, and is the first interment in the West Union Cemetery which had a monument.
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He is well remembered by a few of the oldest surviving citizens of Adams County as a strong minister. He served some nine years in the Conference of Indiana, and while stationed at Logansport fell a victim to an epidemic of erysipelas. He was taken in the morning with a swelling of the throat. His breathing was protracted a few hours by an incision in his throat and the use of a tube. He died at six o'clock in the evening. He was speechless for some time before his death ; but arose, and knelt by his bedside and prayed. He was a rigid disciplinarian and a strong theo- logian. He was deeply pious. His wife, Ruth Westlake, survived him but seven days, and died of the same disease.
Alexander Woodrow,
son of Andrew Woodrow, was born in Maysville, Kentucky, October 22, 1798. When about seven years of age, he came to West Union with his father and lived there until his death, March 2, 1872, aged seventy-three years. He learned the trade of a cabinet maker. He was married three times, first to Mary Wallace, on June 12, 1823. She died on June 19. 1825, in the twenty-ninth year of her age, leaving a son, James, who grew to manhood. His second marriage was to Prudence Stevenson, in Mason County, Kentucky, on January 25, 1827. She was a daughter of Nathan Stevenson, an early settler in Mason County, Kentucky, having emigrated from the State of Maryland, and was her husband's full cousin. She was born May 1, 1800, and died of cholera in West Union, June 28, 1835, aged thirty-five years. His third marriage was to Mrs. Sarah Wood, of West Union, widow of Robert Wood. Mrs. Wood was a daughter of Col. John Lodwick, one of the pioneers of Adams County.
The children of Alexander Woodrow's second marriage were Henry B., Edgar, Nathan, Andrew and Mary Prudence, all of whom are de- ceased but Henry B., the second son, who resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Alexander Woodrow was originally a Methodist Episcopal He afterward joined the Methodist Prostestant Church with his second wife. After his marriage to Mrs. Sarah Wood, he became a Presbyterian and re- mained such during the remainder of his life. He was an elder in the Pres- byterian Church at West Union for many years. He was elected Auditor of the County in 1843, on the Whig ticket, and served one term.
The Wamsley Family.
Isaac Wamsley, the great-grandfather of the present race of Wams- leys, was born in North Germany sometime in the seventeenth century. He was a seafaring man, the captain of a vessel whose appearance in American waters, about the year 1770, is the beginning of the Wamsley history in this country.
His vessel seemed to be of a warlike character and took part in the early struggle of America upon the high seas. It is not definitely known under which flag he sailed, whether English or American, and the tradition is that he was a kind of free lance, sailing upon his own hook and doubt- less exacting tribute from any and all the parties engaged in those early days, when privateers and bucaneers sailed the seas, some with, but more without, letters of marque from organized forms of government.
After the loss of his vessel by wreck or capture, Isaac Wamsley settled in Maryland or Delaware. After the close of the War of the
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Revolution he removed with his family to what was then known as the Northwest Territory, and located on Ohio Brush Creek, at Forge Dam in Jefferson Township. His family consisted of wife and four stalwart boys, Isaac, Jr., Jonathan, Christopher and William. The three last named set- tled within the present boundaries of Adams County. Isaac, however, went farther west and became a "wild man," as he was called by the rest of the family, because of his roving disposition, and his fondness for hunt- ing and the wild sports of the trackless forest. His descendants have been traced to California and the isles of the sea.
William Wamsley was the youngest son of Isaac Wamsley and the grandfather of the extensive family of that name scattered over the State of Ohio. He settled upon the fertile banks of Scioto Brush Creek, right at the Mouth of Scioto Turkey Creek, and purchased all the bottom land upon both sides of this creek from its mouth five miles up the stream, being care- ful to follow, in his line of survey. the base of the mighty hills which en- close this valley upon both sides of this stream.
This land was entered for him by William Bayless. William Wams- ley was married to Sarah Wikoff about the year 1798. Of this union nine children were born, eight boys and one girl. Leah, the daughter, died at an early age. In the naming of their children the strong religious sentiment seemed to prevail, for all were given Bible names save two, as follows: Peter, Isaac, William, John, Samuel and Christopher (twins). Leah, Amos and Jesse. All these men were devoutly religious and members of the M. E. Church, and every one of them uncompromising Democrats of the "Old Hickory" stripe.
William .Wamsley and his sons built the M. E. Church which was called "Wamsley Chapel." This church was the third meeting house erected within the boundaries of Adams County. It was erected as a matter of convenience for these God-loving men and women who were thus saved a weary journey of seven miles to Moore's Chapel, which was the first meeting house in the county.
How little do the present generation understand how precious the Word of Life was to these toil-worn sons and daughters of men, who, in the almost unbroken forest, with ax, plow, and gun, were laying the foundation to a mighty superstructure whose towering proportions would afford shelter and safety to the weary and oppressed of every land.
William Wamsley died September 26, 1845, in the seventieth year of his age, and was followed by his wife, April 27, 1850, in her seventy- ninth year. They are sleeping side by side in the Wamsley graveyard.
Isaac and Jesse Wamsley were ordained ministers of the Methodist Church. John and Samuel were exhorters in the same church, and all the rest were class leaders and earnest, devout workers in the interest of that church.
It would be interesting to follow the history of each member of this family of eight boys ; we must, however, content ourselves with but two of the fathers of the present living race of Wamsleys residing in Adams County.
Rev. Jesse Wamsley was the youngest son in this family. He was born July 11, 1813, and was married to Mary McCormack, December 15. 1831. Of this union two children were born, James Pilcher, who is still living upon the old homestead where he was born, and William Finley,
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WILLIAM M. WAMSLEY
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who crossed the silent river but a few years ago. Pilcher Wamsley was born March 30, 1833, and was married October 23, 1856, to Miss Eliza- beth A. Graham. Jesse Wamsley, Jr., the only child living of this family, is a young man of fine personal appearance, cultured and refined, a pleasant gentleman, and an honest man.
Jesse, the father of Pilcher and. Finley Wamsley, spent his life in the Christian ministry, being converted and licensed to preach in his four- teenth year. He was admitted to the Conference and ordained as a preacher at Chillicothe, Ohio, when about twenty-eight years of age. His first circuit was on the home work which extended hundreds of miles, taking him two weeks of constant travel to get around. After years of travel upon horseback, Rev. Wamsley concluded that it would rest him in his work to ride in a buggy, so he bought one costing him $110.00. This purchase came very near destroying his career as a Methodist preacher, the people seeing in this buggy the symbol of pride, and a worldly spirit refused to hear him preach; and when he was compelled to buy a set of false teeth, in order to talk plainly, the climax was reached and his best friends withdrew their support. But as the years went by, and buggies and false teeth became common, his friends returned and enjoyed many a hearty laugh at their own expense over the foolish prejudice of those early years. Rev. Wamsley was compelled to travel to Cincinnati for his teeth, which cost, at that time, one hundred and thirty-five dollars. In 1864, Rev. Jesse Wamsley's name was dropped from the Conference roll of the M. E. Church, the charges brought against him being that he had sub- scribed for and was reading the Christian Witness, a paper published in the city of Columbus by one Rev. J. F. Givens, the founder and leader of the Christian Union of Ohio.
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