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 84
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1890-1891
S. P. Robuck
Emma Watson.
Lulu Ashenhurst.
1891-1892
J. D. Darling
Laura Mefford
Lulu Ashenhurst.
1892-1893.
John Slye.
Laura Mefford
Emma Watson.
1893-1894 ..
Thomas P. Foster
Maggie DeCamp. Pearl Mefford.
1895-1896.
John W. Mehaffey
Maggie DeCamp.
Sallie Stivers.
1896-1897
A. O. Bowman
Maggie DeCamp.
Pearl Mefford.
1897-1898.
A. O. Bowman
Pearl Mefford ..
Hattie Vane.
1898-1899.
A. O. Bowman.
.....
May Vane.
1899
W. S. Campbell.
Laura Mefford
May Vane.
The present Board of Directors is composed of J. H. Waldron, Isaiah Shipley and J. A. Hahn. The course of study adopted in 1896 includes three years' work in the Primary department, three years in the Inter- mediate, and the Principal doing the two years' in the Grammar grades and one year of High School work.
Charles H. Bratton
. was born in Newcastle County, Delaware, on the bank of Brandywine Creek, near the Dupont mills, on the seventeenth of April, 1833. His father was Robert Bratten, whose grandparents came from the North of
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1873-1874 ..
...
W. H. Vane.
J. P. Leedom
John Compton
I. N. Tolle.
Mary Carl. Mary Carl.
1894-1895.
W. H. Vane.
Cornelia Hoagland.
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Ireland. His mother was Hannah Maria Carr, a descendant of the early Irish and Swedish settlers in Delaware. Some of her near relatives in the ancestral line fought in the Revolutionary War. His parents removed to Philadelphia when he was but two years old, and at the age of eight years, he went to work in the woolen mills and worked there until he was fifteen. At that time, his parents moved to a farm on the Schuylkill, which is now a part of the city of Philadelphia. . The son accepted a position as toll-gate tender near the city limits where he worked for a year. During the time from his eighth to his sixteenth year, the only schooling he received was when the mills in which he was engaged had to close for repairs, and during this time he attended school. He was taught to read by his mother before he attended school. His father, at this time, took the Western fever, and emigrated to Highland County, Ohio, in 1850, locating near Sugar Tree Ridge.
Our subject located in Adams County in 1854 in Locust Grove and served a four years' apprenticeship at the blacksmith trade, at which he has worked ever since at the same place.
In 1859, he married Caroline Leedom, daughter of Thomas Leedom, who at that time kept the old tavern which stood in the north end of Locust Grove. They have four sons and three daughters, all of whom are living and have reached maturity.
When the Civil War began, our subject joined the home guard, and on September 15, 1861, he enlisted in Battery F, First Ohio Volunteer Light Artillery. He remained with the battery until July 22, 1865. This battery was engaged in the battles of Corinth, Stone River, Perry- ville and Chickamauga and Shiloh. After the war, he returned to Locust Grove, which has been his home ever since.
Mr. Bratten is a voluminous reader, and in that way has acquired a great deal of information. He is a radical Republican, and has been since the founding of the party, but never sought office. He is an ex- cellent mechanic and possesses no small amount of inventive genius Three or four years before the Civil War, he and James McCrum, the old gunsmith of Locust Grove, conceived the idea of putting rifles in cannons to increase their effectiveness. Having some doubt as to the success of their proposed invention, Mr. McCrum suggested that they write to Gen. Scott for his opinion of its probable success. They did this and Gen. Scott expressed the opinion that it would not work, so they dropped it. But to their surprise, they learned that in a short time that Hotchkiss had patented the very thing they were at work on. They sometimes thought that General Scott had given the idea to Hotchkiss. They claim that the idea was original with them, though an European had in- vented a cast iron breech-loading rifled cannon in 1846.
Mr. Bratten is noted for his integrity and is adverse to going into debt. It has been his aim to give his children what was denied to him in his childhood, a common school education. In his early manhood, he was a giant in strength, being five feet ten and a half inches high, and weighing over two hundred pounds, with a symmetrical build. He has no tolerance for dishonesty. He is a man highly respected for his ster- ling qualities.
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William Baker Brown
was born March 21, 1824, in Wayne Township. His father was James Brown, who came from Pennsylvania, as well as his grandfather of the same name. The latter was the second person interred in the Cherry Fork U. P. Cemetery. Our subject had two brothers and one sister. Jacob N. Brown was his brother. His other brother, James Reed Brown, died in Illinois at the age of thirty. His sister, Jane, married Samuel Mc- Clanahan, a nephew of the Judge. Our subject's mother's maiden name was Baker. Her father, Frederick Baker, came from Germany.
Mr. Brown obtained his education in the Public schools. As a boy, he was apprenticed to Samuel Clark to learn the tannery trade, and he worked at it for three years. He completed his apprenticeship and worked four years at the trade, between West Union and Unity, on the Samuel Clark place.
He was married on the twelfth of April, 1848, to Ellen Ralston, the adopted daughter of Thomas Huston. Mr. and Mrs. Brown have had seven children, of which six grew to maturity. Hermas C., the youngest, died in infancy. His children are as follows: James W. Brown, hard- ware merchant, residing at Washington C. H .; Henry H., a traveling salesman of the same place; Louis R., who resides in Starkville, Miss .; Newton Monroe, who resides at Unity; Margaret, who resides with her father, and Carey H., who resides in Kansas City, Mo. Mrs. Ellen Brown died January 29, 1883.
Mr. Brown went to Unity and started a store in 1850, also operated a grist and saw mill. In 1870, he left the store to his sons, James and Henry. He operated the mill till 1880, when he removed to West Union. His son, Carey H., is interested in a gold mine in New Mexico, but resides in Kansas City, Mo. Mr. Brown was elected Treasurer of Adams County in 1879, defeating Lily Robbins. In 1881, he was elected to the same office, defeating John Cluxton. In 1887, he was elected to the same office, defeating Stewart Alexander. He was renominated in 1889, but withdrew and P. N. Wickerham was elected. Mr. Wickerham, though of opposite politics, had Mr. Brown appointed Deputy Treasurer and he served as such under him from 1890 to 1894. From 1894 to 1897, he served as Deputy Treasurer under John Fristoe. In 1898, he was em- ployed in the Auditor's office, and in September, 1899, he became Deputy Treasurer under H. B. Gaffin. He was Treasurer of Oliver Township from 1853 to 1876, continuously. He was a member of the United Presbyterian Church at Unity from 1850 and was made an elder in 1880, He has always been a Democrat. Mr. Brown is a man of the very highest integrity and enjoys the confidence, esteem and respect of all who know him.
James W. Brown,
son of William Baker Brown, was born October 6, 1849, near Unity. He obtained his education in the District schools and at the North Lib- erty Academy. He was raised in the store at Unity. He and his brother Henry took the store in 1870, under the firm name of J. W. and H. H. Brown, and continued it until 1881. At that time he went to Georgetown
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and engaged in the hardware business for three years with his brother Henry. They went to Washington C. H., in 1884, the day of the cyclone. They were in partnership there in the hardware business until 1899, when Henry retired from that business.
James W. Brown was married to Mary Dill, whose home was near Bainbridge. They have one daughter, Mabel, twelve years of age. Mr. Brown is a Democrat politically, and a Presbyterian in his religious faith. He is one of the very best business men of Washington C. H. As a boy, he was honest and straightforward and upright in all his dealings, and the same qualities are intensified in him as a man. There is no man who stands higher in the business community.where he is known than he.
Dr. James W. Bunn,
physician and pharmacist, West Union, was born at Sugar Tree Ridge, Ohio, February 11, 1842. His father, John Bunn, who married Miss Jane Thompson, a native of Ireland, came from the State of Pennsylvania to Concord Township, Highland County, Ohio, in 1829, where he purchased 220 acres of land and laid out the town of Sugar Tree Ridge, naming it from its elevated position and the forest growth upon the plat. Our subject in youth was a diligent student. He attended the country schools, and later the old North Liberty Academy and the High Schools at Georgetown and Winchester, Ohio. He taught school from his seven- teenth year until after his majority, when he began the study of medicine with his brother-in-law, Dr. F. J. Miller, of West Union. He attended Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in 1865-6, and in the latter year located at Rard'en, Scioto County, where he practiced his profession until 1868, when he removed to Latham in Pike County, at which place he remained until 1870, when he formed a partnership with his brother, Dr. John Bunn, at Jacksonville, Adams County. In 1872-3, he again attended Starling College, where he graduated with high honors, after which he came to West Union and entered into a partnership with Dr. Miller, where he is now actively engaged in practice.
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He enlisted in the 182d O. V. I. during the Civil War, and served as Hospital Steward of the regiment with much credit. He had full control of the Medical Dispensary, and looked after the wounded and sick. His brothers Joseph and Dr. John were also members of that regiment. His youngest brother, Lewis, died at Bowling Green, Ky., while a member of the Second Ohio Battery.
Dr. Bunn married Miss Annie Hood, a daughter of John P. Hood, of West Union, September 19, 1877. They have two children living: Miss Irene, an intelligent young lady, a graduate of the West Union High School, and at present a Sophomore at Oxford College, and Eugene H., a lad now a member of the West Union High School. A son died in infancy.
Dr. Bunn is one of the most prominent physicians of Adams County. He served with marked ability as a member of the United States Pension Board, at West Union, for a period of ten years, being Secretary of the Board. He recently resigned, with the respect and confidence of all with whom he came in contact.
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RESIDENCE OF JAMES W. BUNN, M. D., WEST UNION, OHIO
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In politics, Dr. Bunn is a staunch Democrat of the Jacksonian type, although he has never sought political honors. He is a prominent member of the Christian Union Church at West Union.
Jacob F. Bissinger,
merchant, Hills Fork, was born in Neiderhofen, Germany, July 4, 1824. His father, Jacob F. Bissinger, and his ancestors had resided on the same place, and followed farming back in "time when the memory of man run- neth not to the contrary." The subject of this sketch attended the public schools from the age of six to fourteen years, completing the regular common school course. A Mr. Hull, the schoolmaster, had been the teacher of his father and mother before him. From fourteen to six- teen years of age, he was free from obligations of the Government; but upon arriving at the age of sixteen, he, as was the law, took the oath of allegiance. At the age of twenty-one, he luckily drew a number that freed him from entering the army, and he immediately embarked for the United States of America. He was accompanied by Christian Helmley, John Wagner and Christian Stahl, each of whom brought his family and set- `tled in Adams County, Ohio. They were forty-five days on the ocean, a passage that is now made in less than six days. When Mr. Bissinger embarked for America, he had forty-five five-franc pieces in money in a belt in a chest. When he arrived in New York thirty of those had been stolen. His destination was West Union, where his cousin, Conrad Pflaumer, then resided. He came to Philadelphia by water, and to Pitts- burgh by rail and the Harrisburg Canal. While boarding the canal boat at Johnstown, Pa., he discovered something in the water between the wharf and the boat, which on investigation proved to be a little girl about ten years of age, apparently drowned. "She was a daughter of a member of his party, and was resuscitated and made the voyage to Adams County. At Pittsburg, he took steamboat for Manchester. He was told that there was no such town on the Ohio between there and Cincinnati. That if there was any such town it was below Cincinnati. So he took passage for the latter place. The river was low, it being in the month of July, and near Maysville the boat grounded on a bar. The emigrants were ordered to carry the coal on the boat to a barge to lighten the craft so it could be floated off the bar. Some refused, and the crew tied ropes about their bodies and threw them into the river. Mr. Bissinger concluded to carry coal in preference to being ducked, when a well dressed young woman remonstrated with the officers of the boat and the emigrants were relieved of the duty imposed upon them, and at Cincinnati the officers and crew were put under arrest. Upon arrival at Cincinnati, Mr. Bissinger and his companions, while going up street, heard some persons singing songs with which he was familiar, and on entering the place found some of his country people who directed him to West Union. He and his fellow emigrants again took a boat for Manchester, and arriving there in the night, they were put off on the bar, and when morning came, they looked about for the town.
This was August 1, 1846. All there was of Manchester was Andrew Ellison's little frame store, and about a dozen log houses. When Mr. Bissinger and his party landed at Manchester they were without a cent
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of money and very hungry. He, Helmley, and Schuster started afoot to see if they could find the way to West Union. They met an old man who they afterwards learned was William Ellison, who, when they spoke the words "West Union," pointed the way which put them on the Island Creek road. About two miles from West Union, on the old Manchester road, a man gave them a crock of milk and some early apples, the first food they had tasted since they left Cincinnati, a period of thirty-six hours. Mr. Bissinger's uncle had left word with Marlatt, the tavern keeper at West Union, to be on the lookout for him and his companions, and he took them to Frederick Pflaummer's, on the farm now owned by Jacob Brodt, on the Unity road.
Since then Mr. Bissinger has become one of the prominent citizens of Adams County. He has been engaged in the general merchandising business at Hills Fork for a great many years, where he has accumulated a competency for himself and family. He is the postmaster there, which position he has held for many years.
Jacob Barr,
farmer, of West Union, was born February 6, 1856, on the old Burr homestead near Cedar Mills in Jefferson Township. He is a son of Frederick Burr and Caroline Bieber. Frederick Burr was a native of Alsace-Lorraine, France, and was born in .1816. He emigrated to Pennsylvania when a young man, where he married Caroline Bieber, a native of Germany. In 1850, he came to Adams County and settled on the farm above mentioned, where he reared a family of six sons and one daughter. Jacob, the subject of this sketch, married Jennie M. Piatt, daughter of James Piatt, of near the Stone Chapel, in Tiffin Township. One son, Stanley, was born to them. After her death, he married Mrs. Lizzie Mckenzie, widow of Peter Mckenzie and daughter of John Crummie and Hannah Collier, his wife, of Cedar Mills. Peter Mckenzie was killed in West Union by his horse running away with him. He left four interesting children: Susie, a bright and talented Miss of fifteen years; Henry D., twelve years; Mary. E., nine, and Frank P., six. Peter Mckenzie was a son of Peter Mckenzie, Sr., who married Susan Bayless, and whose father was Duncan Mckenzie, a native of Scotland and a pioneer of Adams County contemporaneous with Massie, Donalson and Leedom. He married Jane Ellison, a daughter of John Ellison, Sr. He died on the farm selected by him as his future home while the Indians yet laid claim to the country on September 19, 1832, in his seventy-eighth year. His wife died February 10, 1855, in her eighty-third year. Their son, Peter Mckenzie, was born January 14, 1811, and died May 4, 1881. Susan, his wife, was born January 11, 1815, and died in July, 1895. Peter Mckenzie, son of Peter Mckenzie, Sr., was born August 16, 1849, and died December 31, 1896.
The subject of this sketch, Jacob Burr, is a prominent farmer and stock raiser. He resided on the old Duncan Mckenzie farm. He is a member of the Independent Order of Red Men, of West Union.
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Samuel Burwell,
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the veteran editor and publisher of the West Union Scion, was born in West Union, November 20, 1822, the son of Nicholas Burwell and Sarah Fenton, his wife. His father has a separate sketch, and no notice of his ancestry will be given herein. Samuel Burwell was born with a good constitution, the best capital which can be given a boy for a start in this life. He attended the schools of his district and was just as mischievous and devilish as most boys are, only a little more so. His boyhood was under Leonard Cole and Ralph McClure as teachers. They were firm believers in the doctrine of King Solomon as to the use of the rod, and they practiced their belief with emphasis, and Sam and the other boys of his time got the full benefit of it. Sam was one of the early sufferers from that custom instituted by Leonard Cole, of whipping every boy in school whenever one or more (always more) were detected in any mis- chief. The writer was one of the later sufferers from that same custom, though under different teachers from those who administered the birch to Sam. Both Sam and the writer attribute the regularity of their lives to their early discipline in the West Union schools.
Sam Burwell was a boy left much to his own devices. He was very inquisitive and very fond of the society of those older than himself. He very naturally drifted into a printing office as early as the age of thirteen, and the year of 1835 found him at work in the Free Press office in West Union. When the Free Press suspended, he went to Hillsboro and worked in the News office, and while there attended the Hillsboro Acad- emy, but his real work in learning the trade of a printer was with Robert Jackman in the office of the Intelligencer, from 1844 to 1846.
In 1848, Sam, while working for Judge John M. Smith, committed the very rash act of marriage. His bride was Miss Margaret Mitchell, daughter of Alexander Mitchell, who had died of cholera in 1835. How- ever, much of a risk it was for the young printer to get married, (and the risk was entirely on the wife's part, for Sam was a Mark Tapley kind of a young man who could have gotten on anywhere,) the marriage turned out happily.
On the seventeenth of February, 1853, the Scion was born. The writer remembers one evening shortly before that date, when he was a boy of ten, Samuel Burwell, a young man of thirty, came to his father's house to consult about starting a newspaper. In the same evening, the enterprise was determined on and it was named. E. P. Evans suggested the name, the Scion of Temperance. It was thought best to start it as a Temper- ance paper, and hence its name. The "of Temperance" was dropped after two years, and it became a purely political newspaper. From its first issue, February 17, 1853, until the present time, the history of the paper and that of Sam Burwell have been identical. From that date the history of the Scion is a sketch of Mr. Burwell, and a sketch of Mr. Burwell is the history of the Scion. Not only that, but from 1853, the history of the Scion is an account of Sam Burwell's family. When he first began, he was full of enthusiasm, and he made the Scion a success from the start. Even his wife helped him on the paper in the early years of the enterprise. But he brought his family up on the paper and he brought others up. On the Scion he taught Henry Shupert and made him a printer. He died
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in Cincinnati six years ago and left a handsome estate. Sam Burwell taught Col. John A. Cockerill the printer's art and the latter became the most distinguished journalist in the United States. Orlando Burwell, Mr. Burwell's eldest son, was brought up a printer in the Scion office. He has been employed on the Times Star, as one of the best workmen, for twenty-seven years, and is one of the best printers in Cincinnati. Clay, his fourth son, has been employed on the New York World for nine years. He learned his trade in the Scion office. His son, Bickham Bur- well, was employed in the same New York office for four years and might have continued, but became tired of the work and secured an appoint- ment in Washington. His son, Samuel Burwell, who died in 1891, aged thirty-six years, learned the trade in the Scion office and did his father good service for many years before his untimely death. His son, Cas- sius M., is with him in the business. He too was brought up and reared in the Scion office and has been a partner since 1887. When friend Sam "shuffles off this mortal coil" and takes up his residence in the old South Cemetery, doubtless "Cash," as he is best known, will continue the busi- ness. But the boys of the Burwell family are not the only ones who have been brought up in the Scion. Mr. Burwell's daughter, Ella, is the mail- ing clerk of the office and keeps the books. His daughter, Mararget, is an expert compositor and has worked in the office for fourteen years. Bickman Burwell, his son, is also a compositor in the office and foreman. So that the Scion is strictly a family newspaper edited and published by the Burwell family. The Scion never published less than 720 copies and its cir- culation is now 1,104. From the time the paper started, until the present time, it has been true blue Republican, and will so continue so long as the Republican party and the Burwell family survive.
The writer proposes to tell the truth about Sam Burwell. This article is not written for the present generation in Adams County. They have not taken much interest in this book, but this article and this book is written for posterity. In fifty or seventy-five years from now, the people living in Adams County will prize this work as a precious relic, and they will want to know all about the man who could publish the same news- paper for forty-six years. Sam Burwell's career will be a wonder in a hundred years from now, and hence it is important that the truth be now told and recorded for the benefit of unborn posterity. So here goes. Sam Burwell is a born exaggerator. Some uncharitable people have accused him of plain lying, but as that charge has been laid to every editor from King Solomon to the present time, we shall not notice it, and the most remarkable thing is that Mr. Burwell is not conscious of the fault. He will know it for the first time when he reads this book. But under- stand, Sam Burwell never told a lie in his life, either in the Scion or out of it, but he can no more help exaggeration than water can help running down hill. It was born in him, inherited, and could not be eradicated. With him, everything is the very best or the very worst. The village statesmen whom he admires are all Websters and Clays. His enemies are the worst people in the world. The Devil himself, with his cloven feet, his dart tail and spouting brimstone, is a saint compared to them. The writer has fully tested Sam Burwell on this and knows whereof he speaks. Once he rode twelve miles with him and Sam began telling him
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what a wonderful young man his brother, then living, but since deceased, was. The writer undertook to disparage his brother and tell what an ordinary young man he was, but it was of no use. Mr. Burwell had fixed his standards and no argument could avail. The young man, in his estimation, was the brightest and most talented who had ever lived, and no disparagements affected Mr. Burwell in the least. But, after all, this habit of thought and expression is valuable in a newspaper man. People like condiments in the columns of a newspaper as well as in their food. It may be Mr. Burwell's peculiar traits have made the Scion what it is and kept it up.
Mr. Burwell is not a religious man, nor is he irreligious. From his father's standpoint, he is not religious, but, in sentiment, he respects religion, and has as much of it as is safe for a newspaper man to have. The writer has always held the view that a newspaper man is not capable of being religious to any extent, and Mr. Burwell is much better than the average of them. Mr. Burwell has always made money but never saved it to any great extent. He has kept the Scion going as a newspaper for forty-six years. He has kept it to a high standard of journalism. He has kept his political faith all the time. He has reared a large family and has done it creditably. He has always paid his debts. There are people who say of him that if he had a million dollars income each year, he would spend a little more, but at the same time, there is no one who. would do more good with the money than he. He has lived so long in Adams County that he has become one of its institutions and we do not know of another newspaper in the State which has remained for forty-six years under one management, nor do we know of an editor in the State who has conducted the same newspaper over forty-six years. He stands as a remarkable instance of a man who has followed the printer's trade for sixty-three years and yet is hale and hearty ; who has written editorials for forty-six years and yet can tell the truth, and does it once every week.
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