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 83
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that his grandfather, William Pemberton, was in the War of the Revolu- tion. The latter was born in 1750, in Culpeper County, Virginia, on Stanton River. He served in the Revolutionary War in Captain Thomas Meriwether's Company, First Virginia State Regiment, Colonel George Gibson. He enlisted in September, 1777, for three years, and was at the siege of Yorktown, where he had part of an ear shot away by a shell. He was a successful hunter and farmer. He married Rhoda Luck, born Oc- tober 24, 1755, and had a family of nine children, five sons and four daugh- ters. His sons were William, Nathaniel, Fountain, James, and Ezekiel. His daughters were Anna, married Thomas Murfin; Joyce, married Isaac East; and Kate, born January 10, 1795, married Josephus Arnold.
William Pemberton came to Kentucky just at the time of the Indian massacre at Crab Orchard, and reached Boonesboro the next day after that event. Kate Pemberton was then a small girl, but remembered see- ing the bodies of the victims of the massacre. Her father remained at Boonesboro nearly two years. In that time he was lost in the forest for several days. He shot and wounded a buffalo and it rushed at him. His dog seized it by the nose and saved Pemberton's life, but the dog lost his. Pemberton killed the buffalo and subsisted on its meat for several days. His friends had given him up as killed or captured by Indians. He re- turned to Virginia, but soon came back to Ohio and settled in Adams County, near Locust Grove, in 1808. He died, about 1823, of rheumatism. He is interred on the farm where Miss Indiana Arnold now resides. The spot is known, and will soon have a suitable mark. His wife died Jan- uary 1, 1845, at the age of ninety, and is buried beside her husband. A prominent characteristic of Mr. Arnold is his industry and frugality. He made his start in life by traveling and selling clocks. He is the owner of about eight hundred acres of land, and has acquired a competence. He is noted for his integrity, and for living up to any obligations which he may assume. He is a free thinker of the Robert Ingersoll school. He is a Republican and a good citizen. .
John Bratton Allison
is a native of Meigs Township, in Adams County. He was born March 30, 1837. His father was Samuel Allison, a native of Hancock County, Pennsylvania. He came to Carmel, in Highland County, and located there. His mother was Elizabeth Bratton, a sister of John Bratton, for whom Bratton Township was named. Her father, Jacob Bratton, was one of the first settlers of Adams County. His widow, Elizabeth, died April 19, 1836, in the ninety-fourth year of her age. Samuel Allison had six children : one son, our subject, and five daughters, who lived to ma- turity. Two children died in infancy. R. H. W. Peterson married Eliz- abeth Allison, the youngest one of the daughters. Dick Thompson mar- ried Mary Jane, another daughter; and Susan, the third daughter, mar- ried Joseph Andrews. Angeline, the second daughter, married Jacob Ogle, of Illinois. Evaline, the eldest daughter, married Jeremiah M. Hibbs, and moved to Missouri in 1852.
Our subject received a common school education, and none other. In 1849, he began to learn the tanner's trade with Townshend Enos Reed, and remained with him until March, 1855, at Marble Furnace. In 1855,
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he went upon the farm which he now owns and on which he now lives, and worked for his uncle, John Bratton, who then owned the farm, as a hand at thirteen dollars per month, until 1859. In that year, on November 3, he married Miss Hannah S. Hughes, daughter of Peter Hughes, and continued to reside on the farm of his uncle, John Bratton. In 1876 he pur- chased the farm, 260 acres of the estate of John Bratton, for $6,860, and has resided there ever since. From 1859 to 1876, he had the farm rented.
There have been three sons of this marriage. John F., the eldest, attended the St. Louis University in 1878 and 1879. He afterwards en- gaged in the hardware business at Hillsboro from 1888 to 1892. Since the latter date he has been a farmer in Hardin County, Ohio. He married Miss Lizzie Kennedy, of New York. Charles C., the second son, grad- uated in the college course in St. Mary's school, in Kansas City, in 1884, and taught in the vicinity of his home for two years. 'He read medicine with Dr. Berry, at Locust Grove, who pronounced him one of the best students he had ever known. He graduated from the Louisville Medical College in 1888, with highest honors. He won several medals, notably the gold medal in surgery. He took a post-graduate course at the Belle- vue Medical College. He then took employment on the steamer Obdam, plying between New York and Amsterdam, and made several voyages. He, however, resigned this in a short time, and located as a physician and surgeon at Omaha, and has attained a high position in his profession. He fills two chairs at the Omaha Medical College ; he also has a chair and is a lecturer at Creighton Medical College. He has had charge of the Presbyterian Hospital there; and has been connected with St. Joseph's Hospital, in the same place. He married Miss Catharine Creighton and is now one of the leading physicians and surgeons in Nebraska.
James B., the third son, graduated at St. Mary's School, in Kansas City, in 1888; after that, he was in the clothing business in Hillsboro from 1889 to 1891. In the latter year, he went to Helena, Montana, and en- gaged in the same business. While here, he acted as Deputy United States Marshal part of the time ; and on one occasion took seven Chinese prisoners to California. He settled in the year 1894 at Chinook, Mon- tana, and from there went to St. Paul, Minnesota, where he now resides and is engaged in the mercantile business. He married Miss Mary Ingle- brand, of Hillsboro.
Mr. Allison, our subject, was County Commissioner of Adams County from 1872 to 1875, during the famous county seat contest, and stood for West Union as against Manchester. He has been a township trustee and a school trustee for many years. He has one of the best cared for and most valuable farms in Adams County. It is a delight to look upon. Mr. Allison is a man agreeable to meet. He is very tall, with a large frame and commanding presence. He carries his years lightly, and looks sev- eral years younger that he is.
Samuel Turner Baldridge
was born February 17, 1824, in Wayne Township, Adams County, Ohio, and lived there all his life with the exception of a year and a half in Brown County. His father was born in Westmoreland County, Penn- sylvania, in 1783, and his mother, Mary McGary, was a daughter of Wil-
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liam McGary, a Revolutionary soldier, and one of the first settlers of Adams County.
He was married October 23, 1845, first, to Phobe Patton, a daughter of Thomas Patton, a native of Rockbridge County, Virginia, who settled on the West Fork of Brush Creek. Of this marriage there were three children : Mrs. Mary J. Foutts, of Elsmere, Missouri; Thomas Albert, who died at the age of two years, and an infant. His first wife died August 3, 1850. He married for a second wife, in 1861, Sarah Russel. Her mother was a Puntenney, of Stout's Run. 'His son, Taylor R., is a well known physician and surgeon in Dayton. His second son, by his second marriage, Talma E., after having completed his studies as a phy- sician and married, died suddenly in the year 1896.
Our subject has been an elder in the U. P. Church at Cherry Fork for thirty years and has been Clerk of Wayne Township for twenty-four years. He was a Free Soiler during the existence of that party and after- wards a Republican. He died the eighth of June, A. D. 1899.
Mr. Baldridge had taken quite an interest in this work and had an- ticipated much pleasure in its publication, but he was never to read its pages. Those who knew him best say that his passing was the beautiful completion of a finished work. His hold on this world was greatly loosened by the sorrow on account of the untimely death of his son, Talma. His life was a finished example of purity, fidelity and piety. He was a true friend, a wise counsellor, an unselfish man, and a noble citizen. He left a memory which his family, his church, and his community can re- flect upon with pleasure and pride.
Jacob Newton Brown,
son of James and Maria Brown, was born in Adams County, Ohio, on the banks of the Cherry Fork about two miles eastwardly from the town of North Liberty, on October 19, 1828.
He received a common school education and for a while taught in the county schools. He afterward embarked in the mercantile business in North Liberty in a small building adjoining the site now occupied by Kleinknecht Bros. In 1860 he erected the commodious building now oc- cupied by this firm. He was doing business in this house during the Civil War and at the time when the Confederate General, John Morgan, and his troops passed through on their famous raid. They broke into his store, robbed and despoiled his goods, stole his horses, etc. He formed a partnership with Wm. McVey, and after continuing same for several years, he sold his interest in the store and bought the North Liberty Flour Mills. He successfully operated these mills until 1876, when he exchanged them, together with his handsome brick residence and a farm lying northeast of the town, for a large tract of Arkansas land. He then became connected with the Southern Immigration business and as agent of the Little Rock & Ft. Smith R. R., and afterward as Immigration Agent of the Cincinnati Southern R. R., which place he held at the time of his death. In 1881, in connection with J. Frank, in Cincinnati, he established an office in Chattanooga, Tenn., which he afterward sold to his son C. V. Brown and S. W. Divine, but retained his office in Cincinnati in connection with the Cincinnati Southern R. R. He was one of the pioneers in Southern Im-
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migration work, and hundreds of Northern families now living in the South were located through his influence. He was indefatigable in his efforts to promote Southern immigration.
He retained his residence at North Liberty until about 1883, when he removed his family to Cincinnati and there resided until his death, Jan- uary 27, 1892. He was a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church and a man of strong convictions, always on the side of right, and an up- right and worthy citizen in every way.
In 1852, he married Sarah Mccutcheon of near Manchester in this county and seven children were born to them, to-wit: Nancy J., now the wife of Dr. E. M. Gaston, of Tranquility ; Maria M., wife of S. G. Glas- gow, of North Liberty; Ella, wife of William Kennedy, living near Youngsville; Mary E., deceased; Ida V., wife of William Kleinknecht, of North Liberty, and C. V. and B. G. Brown, of Chattanooga, Tennessee. His widow, Sarah Brown, died in North Liberty on August 3, 1899.
Jacob N. Brown was in many respects a remarkable man, but the world never knew of it from him, and what he had achieved would never have been known except the writer of these lines discovered it in a busi- ness way. When Mr. Brown left North Liberty, he had a mountain of debt which he was carrying and of which the public or the world had no idea. To the world he was and had been a success, but to retrieve his losses, he went away from the home of his lifetime, went into a new and untried business and made large sums of money. He paid off his entire indebtedness with interest and died without the world ever knowing that he had almost been overtaken by financial disaster. There is not one man in a thousand who would have undertaken, and not one man in ten thousand who would have succeeded in paying the immense debt he owed, but he did it and the world never knew and has not known it until the pub- lication of this book, and it would not now be made public but that the lesson of his life was most valuable and might encourage some one over- whelmed with adversity to bear it without murmuring and to conquer it with that power of will and tireless energy which overcomes all difficulties. Mr. Brown never knew that the writer was informed of his financial con- dition, but the writer knew why he left North Liberty and went elsewhere to work with that remarkable application which characterized him and the end he had in view, and therefore takes pleasure in making this tribute to his manly qualities. In all the years in which he was working to dis- charge his great debt, he supported and educated his large family, lived honorably in the world and took prompt care of every current obligation. In all that time, he never complained of or alluded to his burden, and to the world he was the same as if he had not owed a dollar and had thou- sands ahead. How many men can do that? How many men have done that? It is the aggregate of such lives as that of Jacob N. Brown which makes our people the most energetic on the face of the earth.
James W. Baldridge,
merchant tailor, of Manchester, Ohio, and the subject of this sketch, is a descendant of pioneer ancestry in Adams County. The family name on the old records is Boldridge, and its members were here at the time of the organization of the county.
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Oui subject was born August 12, 1857, in the village of Youngsville, Wayne Township. 'He is a son of William S., and a great-grandson of Rev. William Baldridge, the first pastor of the U. P. congregation at Cherry Fork. His mother is Margaret Jane Kane, a member of an old and respected family of the county.
He spent his boyhood days on a farm and attended the District schools until his eighteenth year, when he studied at West Union and in the old academy at Cherry Fork. In 1880, he went to Jackson, Ohio, and there followed coal mining for two years.
In 1882, he began working at his present trade, and in 1883 worked with the well known tailor, A. D. Kirk. He next worked at his trade in Kansas City, and then at Augusta, Ky. Returning to Cherry Fork in 1892, he remained a short time and then located at his present place in Manchester, where he has a flourishing business, his patrons being the best dressers of the town and surrounding country. December 12, 1891, he married Miss Mary Alexander, by whom he has three children, Ada, Roy and William. He is a Methodist and a Prohibitionist.
Moses Roush Brittingham,
proprietor Hotel Britt, Manchester, was born near the old Campmeeting Grounds in Sprigg Township, September 11, 1837. He is a son of Purnel Brittingham and Mary Bryan, whose maiden name was Cartwright, a daughter of Rev. Andrew Cartwright, a celebrated divine in early days in Adams County. Purnel Brittingham was of Scotch descent, born 1782, and died in 1872. He was a soldier in the War of 1812.
The subject of our sketch worked as a farm hand in Ross County, Ohio, in his youth, and in 1862, volunteered in the Seventh Ohio Cavalry, Col. Israel Garrard, and served until the close of the war, taking part in every important battle in which his regiment engaged.
In 1859, he was married to Mary E. Trotter, daughter of James Trotter, of near West Union. After the war, he kept a small store at Killinstown, and in 1868 conducted a general store at Clayton, moving to Manchester in 1870, where for twenty years he has been in the hotel busi- ness. During this time he has handled live stock and produce, and for six seasons sold lightning rods throughout the country. He is at present interested in the buying and shipping of leaf tobacco.
In 1884, he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for the office of Sheriff of Adams County, but was defeated by a few votes through the treachery of some persons who should have been his staunch supporters if fidelity to party and party principles count for aught. By his energy and integrity he has acquired a competency to support himself and wife in their declining years.
George Elmer Bratten, D. D. S.,
of Manchester, Ohio, was born April 18, 1873, at Edgerton, Williams County, Ohio. His father was John A. Bratten, and his mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Shambaugh. His grandfather, John Bratten, came from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He removed to Edgerton and was one of the pioneers of Williams County. His great-grandfather, Robert Bratten, was a native of England. His father, John U. Bratten,
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was a private soldier in Company A, 38th O. V. I. He enlisted August 26, 1861, and served until September 13, 1864.
Our subject attended the District school at Edgerton, and graduated in the High School there in 1892. He taught school for four Winter terms in Williams County, and in the same period attended the Ohio Normal University at Ada for two years. In May, 1894, he began the study of dentistry at the Chicago College of Dental Surgery, and pursued his studies until 1899. In April, 1899, he graduated, and from that time until March, 1900, he was located in Edgerton. He was married on the tenth of March, 1900, to Miss Nina Marshall, daughter of John Marshall, Esq., of Edgerton. He located in Manchester on the twentieth of March, 1900, having purchased the dental practice and business of Dr. R. M. Prather.
Dr. Bratten is a young man of high character. He is a great student in his profession, and is very ambitious to succeed. He has already won the confidence and esteem of the citizens of Manchester and vicinity, and has shown that he has rare skill in his profession. In his political views he is a Republican. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias of Man- chester, Ohio. His wife is an attractive and accomplished woman and is highly esteenred in society. She possesses remarkable talent as a public reader.
James S. Berry, M. D.
'The grandfather of our subject was Thomas Berry, of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. He was married there in 1812 and was one of the famous defenders of Baltimore in the War of 1812. He was in the fight at Bladensburg and about Washington City. After the War of 1812, he went to Rockingham County, Virginia, and from there, in 1818, he re- moved to near Greenfield, in Highland County, Ohio. In 1832, his wife died, and in 1840, he removed to Delaware County, Indiana, and married a second time. He died there at the age of eighty years. By his first wife, he had six children, four sons and two daughters. He had a daughter by his second marriage. John, his eldest son, born in Baltimore in 1816, was the father of our subject. When at the age of sixteen years, he learned the tanner's trade at Leesburg, Ohio. He was married at Lees- burg, Ohio, to Miss Mary E. Stewart, daughter of James and Phoebe Stewart. Soon after this he bought a farm on Sugar Tree Ridge in Highland County, and resided there, carrying on a farm and tanning until his death, April 4, 1888. In his religious faith, he was a Friend.
His son, James S., one of the eight sons and daughters, was born April 26, 1844. He learned the tanner's trade of his father, and worked at it until he was eighteen years of age. Then he taught school five or six years. He began the study of medicine in 1867 at Sugar Tree Ridge under Dr. Henry Whisler. He graduated at Starling Medical College in 1870 and began the practice of medicine at Locust Grove the same year. He practiced there until 1888, when he removed to Peebles, where he has since resided and practiced medicine.
On October 7, 1873, he was married to Miss Sarah A. Murphy, of Locust Grove. He has five children : Charles, born September 25, 1875; Amma, born March 29, 1877; Mary E., Thomas Alfred and Beatrice. In politics, he is a Democrat. He was Township Clerk for seven years and
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Treasurer of Franklin Township four years. He has also been a member of the Town Council and Board of Education in Peebles. He has never sought office, but in 1895, he was the candidate of his party for Represen- tative to the Legislature, but was defeated by the Hon. A. C. Smith. After removing to Peebles, he was associated with Dr. J. M. Wittenmeyer. When the latter was elected Auditor in 1893, he formed a partnership with Dr. George F. Thomas, which still continues.
Dr. Berry perhaps is the most unique character living in Adams County today. As a professional man, busines character and student in almost all branches of learning, he has few equals in this part of the State. Senator Brice once speaking of him declared that he was qualified to fill almost any position involving business transactions. He is a many-sided man. His inquisitive disposition has given him an insight into almost everything. Besides his thorough medical education, he possesses much legal knowledge and is frequently consulted by men in all professions in- volving matters of great importance. His judgment is unerring and is fol- lowed whenever he is called upon to decide. He is modeled somewhat after Benjamin Franklin. When a subject is presented to him, he at once be- comes interested whether in nature or in the affairs of men. As a physician, he stands high. He is temperate in habits, abstaining entirely from the use of intoxicating liquors and tobacco. Possessing a strong mind, in early life, he mastered the science of medicine and from the day that he began to practice in the village of Locust Grove, the people about him have recognized his worth and have trusted him implicitly. Unlike most men, he interests himself in other things besides his profession. He is engaged in the banking business, solicits pensions, oversees a large farm, deals in stock, is interested in the sale of farming inplements, and gives much attention to educational matters. If he has nothing else to do, he will engage his mind in solving some abstruse mathematical prob- lem. A great mind, like a healthy body, requires food. He engages in all these lines of business and study seemingly to satisfy his wonderful active mind. While other men are day-dreaming, he will be found think- ing about several things at the same time. Although a man of dignified bearing, and serious while engaged in business, he possesses the faculty of seeing the humorous side of a situation. He is a good story teller and can make a dying man laugh. He is always found in a good humor and self- possessed. He attracts people to him and has few if any enemies. He has acquired a great deal of property, yet he believes in living well. His home is not exclusive. Guests are always welcome. He has a good wife and an interesting family.
The Bentonville Schools.
In 1870, the people of Bentonville and vicinity, feeling the need of better educational advantages than the township schools afforded, peti- tioned for a special district to be organized from sub-districts No. 13, No. 9 and No. 16. Sprigg Township, No. 13, schoolhouse stood at Union; No. 9, near the northern limit of Bentonville, near where William West now resides, and No. 16 stood on the land of Dr. John Gaskins, east of Bentonville, now the farm of Mrs. N. G. Foster, of Manchester, Ohio. The petition being granted, Dr. John Gaskins, William T. Leedom and
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John V. Adamson were elected directors. These gentlemen remained in office for several years and the success of the school from the first was largely due to their efforts in organizing and conducting it. The con- tractors who erected the building were Rev. B. F. Rapp and Rev. J. F. McColm. The present building, a substantial four-room schoolhouse, was completed in the Winter of 1870, and on January 1, 1871, school began with Rev. J. F. McColm, Principal; I. N. Tolle, Intermediate, and Miss West, Primary, teachers. There were nearly two hundred pupils in attendance at that time. The following is a list of teachers since the organization of the school; the first name for each year being the Prin- cipal, the second the Intermediate, and the last, the primary teachers :
YEAR,
Principal.
Intermediate.
Primary.
1871-1872 .. ...
J. F. McColm
I. N. Tolle.
Mrs. G. W. Pettit.
1872-1873
John M. McColm
A. V. Hutson.
J. P. Leedom. Laura Adamson.
1874-1875 ..
W. H. Vane ..
I. N. Tolle ..
Warren Jones.
1875-1876
I. N. Tolle ..
M. Zercher.
Burnett Howell.
1876-1877
I. N. Tolle
M. Zercher ..
Maggie DeCamp.
1877-1878 1878-1879
John Compton ..
I. N. Tolle.
Maggie DeCamp. Maggie DeCamp.
1879-1880 ..
I. N. Tolle.
A. V. Hutson.
Chas. Lafferty.
1880-1881
I. N. Tolle.
Chas. Lafferty
Thomas Turnipseed.
1881-1882
A. V. Hutson
C. F. Wikoff
Emma DeCamp.
1882-1883
A. V. Hutson
Frank Gaffin
Emma DeCamp.
1883-1884.
John Rea
C. M. Smith
Maggie DeCamp.
1884-1885.
John Rea
A. D. Foster.
Maggie DeCamp.
1885-1886 ..
A. V. Hutson
Dorcas Thomas.
Emma Stewart.
1886-1887
A. C. Hood ..
Dorcas Thomas
1887-1888
J. E. Dodds
Anna Wood.
1888-1889.
John Rea
Emma Stewart.
Mary Carl.
1889-1890 ..
J. D. Darling
Laura Mefford
Lulu Ashenhurst.
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