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 86
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After his return from the war, our subject attended school at Harveysburg the following winter, and from 1866 to 1869, he was en- gaged in business with his father at Rome. In the latter year he went to Portsmouth, Ohio, where he was employed in the dry goods house of Rumsey, Roads & Reed, and later with . H. Wait & Son, in the furniture business.
In 1874, he was married to Miss Mattie W. Mathews, of Cincinnati. They had two children : William M., who died in 1898, and a daughter now in the High School.
In 1872 and 1873, he was employed as traveling salesman for the Sheboygan Chair Company ; in 1878, he removed to Cincinnati and was employed as bookkeeper, first, with Butterworth & Company, and for twelve years with F. I. Billings & Company, furniture dealers.
He has lived at Dayton, Kentucky, since 1883, and served on the Board of Education and on the Board of Health of that city. He is now Deputy United States Marshal at Covington, Kentucky.
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Adolph Caden.
Adolph Caden was born in the Province of Saxe-Weimar, Germany, April 22, 1844. His father, Carl W. Caden, was a descendant of the family of Von Caden, and the last of that name, which is correctly spelled "Kaden." His father was extensively interested in the iron industry, operating a large mill or "Hammer-werk," but he disposed of a portion of his property and came to the United States in 1849, bringing with him six children. He settled first in Virginia, and afterwards came to Ken- tucky, where he farmed near the headwaters of Kinnikinnick. From there he moved to Buena Vista, Scioto County, Ohio, where he purchased an interest in the stone quarries lying in Adams and Scioto Counties. The subject of this sketch was sixteen years of age when his father moved to Buena Vista. He entered the business college in Cincinnati and assisted in the office of the stone quarry and in the stone mill until 1862, when he enlisted in the United States Navy and was assigned to duty on the gunboat, "Clara Dalton," which then lay at the mouth of the Ohio. During this service, he became disabled permanently.
In 1871, he was married to Miss Josephine Sturm, daughter of Julius Sturm, a prominent professor of music of Philadelphia, and later of Cincinnati. The stone company in which he was interested was quarrying stone in both Adams and Scioto Counties. When the present Buena Vista Freestone Company was organized, he became a stockholder in it and they leased the land of Wm. Flagg, which extended north of Buena Vista in Adams and Scioto Counties, but the principal part of which is in Adams. The quarrying of stone, selecting of sites for quarrying and operation of the same, were under the immediate superintendence of Adolph Caden, who possessed a thorough knowledge of such work.
He was much interested in geology and was a true lover of nature. During this time, he lived at Rockville in Adams County. Afterwards he removed to Buena Vista and later to Portsmouth, where he connected himself with the Otway and Carey's Run quarries. He died at Ports- mouth, Ohio, on the seventh day of January, 1897, after a severe attack of pneumonia. He had been able to obtain but few educational ad- vantages, but was a general reader and kept in touch with the events of his times. He was a great believer in education and an educational quali- fication for the right of the ballot. He was a member of the Republican party, but always studied every view of political questions. As an em- ployer, he had the personal interest of his men at heart and did what he could for their comfort and happiness.
Mr. Caden, if noted for any one trait of character more than another, was noted for his human sympathy. He felt for all those about him who had any claim to his sympathy and he expressed it in a practical way which won the hearts of those who received such expressions. His soul was full of charity for all men, and he was always willing to take his acquaintances at their own estimate of themselves. In judging of his fellows, he always aimed to leave out all selfish views. When he saw a course, which, in his careful judgment, he deemed right, no adverse criticism prevented his following it. While a German by birth, he was an ardent and loyal American in his feelings. He was a valuable and
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useful citizen, and though his life was apparently uneventful, yet in its own course he managed to perform a great number of good deeds.
He was a Master Mason and a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Portsmouth, Ohio. His wife survives him and an only child and daughter, the wife of John H. Jenkins, of Portsmouth, Ohio.
Captain George Collings
was born in Highland County, Ohio, September 28, 1839. He attended school at West Union from his sixth year until the opening of the Civil War. He enlisted in Company D, 24th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, June 13, 1861, and was made Second Sergeant at the organization of the company. He was made Second Lieutenant on October 7, 1862, and First Lieutenant on April 21, 1864, and was transferred to Company D, 18th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, April 27, 1864. He was made Captain, December 21, 1864. He was placed on detached duty as Acting Commissary of Musters, May 13, 1865, and stationed at Chattanooga until October 9, 1865, when he was mustered out. He participated in the following battles : Cheat Mountain, West Virginia: Greenbrier, West Virginia; Shilo,h, Tennessee ; Corinth, Miss. : Peryville, Kentucky ; Stone River, Tennessee ; Woodbury, Tennessee; Tullahoma Campaign; Chickamauga, Georgia ; Lookout Mountain, Tenn. : Mission Ridge, Tennessee ; Ringgold, Georgia ; Buzzard Roost, Georgia : Nashville, Tenn .; and Decatur, Alabama. At the battle of Murfreesboro, he was shot by a musket ball which plowed a groove across the top of his head from front to rear. He fell and was left on the field for dead. His own command was driven back and a burying party found him and was about to bury him. One of the party claimed he was not dead and he was given the benefit of the doubt and sent to the hospital He did not become conscious for three weeks, and in the mean- time, his companions reported him dead and buried. A. C. Smith wrote his obituary and it was published in the West Union Scion. Captain Collings had the pleasure of reading it after he recovered sufficiently, and he is the only man who ever lived in Adams County who has read his own obituary.
After the war, he returned to Adams County and studied law under the tuition of E. P. Evans. He was admitted to the practice in the Fall of 1866. In the same Fall, he was elected Probate Judge of Adams County to fill an unexpired term to February, 1867, and also the Fall Term from February, 1867, to February, 1870.
On February 25, 1867, he was married to Miss Harriet A. Brad- ford (as Probate Judge, issuing the license himself). He remained at West Union in the practice of the law until October, 1871, when he re- moved to Marengo, Iowa. When he reached there, he found the county in the threes of a county seat contest, and as he had just passed through one in Adams County, he fled and located at Indianola, Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his life. At Indianola, he held the office of Justice of the Peace and County Attorney. The hardships of his military life brought on pulmonary consumption of which he died on July 24, 1882. He died while holding the position of County Attorney. He was of a quiet and retiring disposition. While he showed himself fully competent for all the
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offices he ever held, yet he was not a man to push himslf forward. He had a great deal of dry humor and was a very pleasant and agreeable com- panion.
Politically, he was always a Republican. His death was due as much to his army service as if he had died in battle. He had one son who died an infant. Ralph, his second son, resides with his mother in Indianola, Iowa.
George Davis Cole,
a native of Adams County, born August 18, 1834, made a career of which every citizen of the county may be proud. He was born at West Union while his father, James Mitchell Cole, was the Sheriff of the county. His father, who has a sketch elsewhere herein, was a man of strong and sterl- ing character and of wonderful physique. His mother was Nancy Collings, sister of Judge George Collings, a woman of like great force of character. The first fifteen years of his life were spent on the Ohio River farm in Monroe Township, where he attended the District school. He then went to school at Manchester, Ohio, to William McCauley, a famous in- structor of his time. After he left McCauley's school, he assisted his brother, Collings Cole, in the management of a furnace in Kentucky until the age of twenty, when he began the study of law in Portsmouth under the instruction of his kinsman, Col. James W. Davis, then a member of the Portsmouth bar. He was admitted to the bar in 1856 and located in Piketon, then the county seat of Pike County. He remained there until after the removal of the county seat, when he removed to Waverly. The next year after locating in Pike County, he was elected to the office of Prosecuting Attorney, which office he held by successive elections for twelve consecutive years. In the administration of his public duties, he commanded the respect and confidence of all the people of the community.
He soon rose to be the leader of the bar, and his reputation as an able lawyer was well known in the surrounding counties. He had a natural talent for management. His judgment was correct in all matters in which it was exercised. His neighbors, acquaintances and friends sought his advice in business matters, and never in a single instance, did it fail. He never made a losing venture, and never advised any which proved dis- astrous. The same remarkable judgment which he exercised in the affairs of others, he exercised in his own, and never made a mistake in the management of his own business. Going to the county with only his wonderful natural abilities, he accumulated a fortune and never en- countered a disaster.
In 1858, he was married to Miss Finetta Jane Jones, eldest daughter of James Jones, a prominent citizen of the county. Their only child, Adah D., is the wife of Wells S. Jones, Jr., conducting the Hayes, Jones & Com- pany Bank in Waverly. While Mr. Cole loved the association of his fellow citizens, he had no taste for politics. Up to 1872, he was a Demo- crat. In 1873, he indentified himself with the Republican party and the same year was a candidate for the nomination of Common Pleas Judge. From this date, he acted independently in politics, but on financial ques- tions, the Republican party represented his views. In 1873, he became a member of the banking firm of Hayes, Jones & Co., and here his peculiar
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talents found exercise. He had a natural adaptation for the banking busi- ness, and he was a tower of strength in the institution. Every one felt and knew that he would make no mistake in the management of the bank and permit none to be made. His bank enjoyed the confidence of the community, and was estimated as strong and safer than the National banks. Gradually the banking business absorbed all his time and atten- tion, and he gave up the practice of the law little by little until in 1885 he abandoned it altogether. He was a naural born financier. He never made a promise but it was fulfilled with exactitude, and his integrity was of the very highest order.
While he was always prompt to decide on any situation presented to him, his judgment always stood the test of trial and proved the best course. At the time of his death, he had the confidence of the people of his county in financial matters to a greater degree than any other man who ever lived in it. Without exception, they would and did trust him (without limi- tation ).
He was a man of fine and commanding presence, six feet tall and well proportioned. He was positive, emphatic and earnest in all his views, but at the same time an agreeable and pleasant companion. He became so absorbed in business and there were so many demands on his time, that, while naturally a robust man, he neglected those details of recreation and exercise necessary to good health and was stricken with paralysis and died February 9, 1899. It is believed by his friends that had he taken relaxa- tion, recreation and exercise, he might have prolonged his life twenty years, but the cares of business were so exacting and his constitution naturally so good, that he neglected those details which would have saved him many years. He died in the height of his powers, physicial and mental, and in the midst of a busy career, but he left his banking business one of the best and strongest in the country.
His wife was in feeble health at the time of his death and survived him but little over two months.
Of the many sons of Adams County who have located elsewhere and had successful careers, none was more marked than that of our subject, and to his ancestors and to his instruction in his early years, he owed it all.
Mrs. Hannah Amanda Coryell.
Hannah A. Briggs was born December 26, 1839, in Adams County. She was the youngest daughter of George Briggs and Rachael Blake, his wife. Her father was a farmer residing two miles east of West Union. As a girl, she was bright and quick and readily acquired all the education her opportunities offered. Her aunt, Mrs. Harriet A. Grimes, wife of Noble Grimes, resided in West Union, and our subject spent much of her childhood and girlhood at the home of her aunt who bestowed on her that wealth of affection and guiding care which she would have bestowed on her own child had she been blessed with one. Aunt Harriet Grimes was a mother to Hannah Briggs, more to her than her own mother, because she spent most of her time with her aunt. She attended school in West Union and soon qualified herself for a teacher in the Public schools, an avocation which she began as early as the age of sixteen. Her elder sister Mary went to Minnesota in 1852 and became a missionary there.
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George Briggs, his wife and daughter Harriet went to Minnesota in 1858 and afterward made that their home. From that time until her death on February 8, 1874, Aunt Harriet Grimes took the place of Miss Briggs' mother. Miss Briggs was born with a faculty of pleasing those about her. As a young girl, she obtained and held the affection of all who knew her. Placed in any situation, no matter how trying or perplexing, she knew what to do at once and did it without any ostentation or display of any kind. When young, she intinctively knew the best and most pleasing service she could render her women friends of mature age and she always rendered it voluntarily and without ever being requested. Hence, she was always popular with and loved by those of her own sex of mature age. As a young woman, she had all those charms of character, those virtues of ideal womanhood that most attract the other sex. She had admirers and suitors, but she gave her hand and heart to John Wiley McFerran, who had been her teacher in the Public school at West Union, and who was a practicing lawyer at the West Union bar They were married June 27, 1858, while she was on a visit to her parents in Minnesota. They took up their home in West Union where they spent nearly four years of ideal happy married life. In this period there were born to them three children-a boy who died in infancy; Minnie, the wife of Dr. William K. Coleman, and John W., who died at the age of seven years. But the happiness of her early married life was rudely disturbed by the Civil War. In December, 1861, her husband went to the front as Major of the 70th O. V. I., and was destined to lay down his life for his country which he did on the third day of October, 1862. Thus Mrs. McFerran was left alone with two young children to fight the battle of life, and here the noble qualities of her mind and heart came out. Every one sympathized with her and every one respected and loved her She, of course, received her proper pension at once and on the twenty-seventh day of September, 1866, she was appointed postmistress at West Union, and held that office until October 26, 1869, when she resigned.
On the twenty-fourth of November, 1869, she was married to Judge James L. Coryell. He was a widower with three grown children, and to his son, who always resided with them, she was a mother in every sense of the term. She and the Judge lived happily together until his death, January 7, 1892. Thereafter, until her last illness, she and her step-son, William Coryell, resided in the Coryell home. She departed this life, November 3, 1898. She made her home a place of delight for those who belonged in it and a pleasure for those who visited it. Her friends were all those who knew her. If she had an enemy, he or she would be ashamed to own it. No one ever did own to harboring unfriendly or unkindly feelings toward her. She carried sunlight with her wherever she went. But her strong point was the house of affliction and sorrow. There all her great qualities shone to the best advantage. She was a woman of very few words, hardly any words at all, but she did not need words to express her sympathy. Her acts were more expressive, more eloquent and more appreciated by the recipients of them. If she went into a sick room and there was any- thing she saw could be done, she did not ask permission to do it, she simply did it and did it in such a way as to make those about her feel that the doing of it came from her heart. If she went to the house of mourn-
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ing and thought of anything she could do, she did it without words. She had this faculty from a girl. It may be said to have been born with her. All of her good works were done without self-consciousness. They came from the goodness of her own heart and they went to the hearts of those who observed them.
Martin Cox
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was one of the solid men of the Irish Bottoms in Greene Township. He was born August 6, 1811, in Sussex County, New Jersey At the age of four years, his parents brought him to Ohio and settled near Sandy Springs. Here Mr. Cox resided nearly all his life. On April 18, 1834, he married Catherine Murphy, daughter of Recompense Murphy. Our subject raised to manhood and womanhood, eight children, six daughters and two sons. Mary C., the eldest daughter, is the wife of the Rev. J. W. Dillon, Presiding Elder of the M. E. Church in the Portsmouth District. They have a family of sons and daughters, grown up and married. Anna M. married George M. Lafferty, of Rome, and they have three sons and a daughter. She died in August, 1874. Matilda J. married Race Wikoff, of Rome. Rebecca Emily married Jonathan Tracy, son of Noah Tracy, long a resident of Adams County. They reside in Columbus, Ohio. Juliette is the wife of Nelson Fisher, a prominent business man of Vance- burg, Ky. Amy White married Capt. Bruce Redden. They now reside in Columbus. James Alonzo married a daughter of John Elliot. He died in 1889, leaving her with three small children, two daughters and a son. They reside in West Union. John M., the youngest, is a prosperous busi- ness man of Vanceburg, Ky. His wife is a daughter of Captain John Bruce.
Martin Cox was an honest, industrious man. In early life, he fol- lowed the business of boat building and gave employment to a number of men. He owned the farm now occupied by Mr. Dryden in the Irish 'Bottoms. Here he reared his family and spent most of his life. In 1880, he sold his farm and moved to Rome, where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1888. He was gentle and kind to his family, a good neighbor, honorable in all his dealings, loyal to his country, and was a Christian gentleman. He read much and kept himself well informed on public affairs. He was a good and acceptable member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years and died in its communion. His widow survives at the age of eighty-five and is quite active. She resides in Rome, Ohio. Mr. Cox raised a family of sons and daughters, all fine looking and all good men and women.
Among his grandsons and granddaughters are some of the finest specimens of manhood and womanhood. While his life was an uneventful one, yet his family and descendants speak well for their training. All are doing well in the activities of this life.
Samuel Culbertson
was born June 15, 1802. in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, of a long line of honorable and distinguished ancestors, as appears in the genealogy of the Culbertson family, published by a member thereof. His father, Colonel John Culbertson, was Brigade Inspector of Militia in Pennsylvania. His mother's maiden name was Mary Angeer. He had a good common school
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education, and when a youth of seventeen, he became a clerk in the mer- cantile establishment of A. W. Chambers, at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. When of age, he entered into the mercantile business for himself at Green- wood, Pennsylvania, where he remained until 1834.
On September 16, 1834, he was married to Miss Mary Ann Kennedy, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Directly after his marriage, he removed to West Union, Adams County, Ohio, and there engaged in the mercantile business. He remained there but two years, when he went to Knights- town, Indiana, where he engaged in the same business with C. S. Camp- bell and S. Chambers. While there the panic of 1837 struck them and they were financially ruined. They took four thousand dollars of the best of commercial paper to Cincinnati and could raise but fifteen hundred dollars on it. However, Mr. Culbertson was not discouraged. In 1838, he removed to Washington, Washington County, Iowa, and engaged in the mercantile business there, selling goods to the Indians under the pro- tection of the United States troops. He was made a County Judge of that county and served four years. In 1844, he returned with his family to Greenup County, Kentucky, and took charge of the Greenup Furnace. In 1850, feeling that his health was failing, he removed to West Union, Ohio, where he purchased Mount Pleasant, the former home of Rev. John Gra- ham, D. D., and here he spent the remainder of his life. After his removal to West Union, he purchased and held an interest in the Vinton Furnace.
Mr. Culbertson was always of an intensely religious temperament. He was brought up a Presbyterian, and was a member of that church from early manhood. He was an elder in the church at Washington, Iowa, and was ordained an elder in the church at West Union, Ohio, June 17, 1853. He filled the office with great credit, both to himself and to the church.
In his political views, he was a Whig. He was always opposed to the institution of slavery, and was in favor of a protective tariff and of in- ternal improvements. He was a man of judicial temperament, of strict integrity, and of the highest character. He was respected by all who knew him, and in every relation of life he lived up to his ideals. He pos- sessed a great dignity of character which was never at any time lowered or relaxed. As it was, he lived a life which any man might envy, but had he possessed a robust constitution, he would have accomplished much more.
He had a family of four sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Wil- liam Wirt Culbertson, born in 1836, was a Captain of Company F, 27th O. V. I. He entered the service August 1, 1861, and resigned March 28, 1864. He became a resident of Ashland, Kentucky, and married the daughter of Thomas W. Means, Esq., by whom he has a family. He was at one time a member of Congress from the Ashland, Kentucky, district. He is not retired from all business, and is a resident of the State of Florida.
His second son, Kennedy R. Culbertson, born in 1840, was Captain of Company F, 91st O. V. I. He enlisted July 28. 1862, and was dis- charged September 19, 1864. He died soon after the war.
His son, Samuel B. Culbertson, is still living. His youngest son, John Janeway Culbertson, died soon after attaining his majority. His
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daughter, Mary E., also died of consumption in early womanhood. His wife died at West Union.
Mr. Culbertson died in April, 1865, and both he and his wife are buried in the old South Cemetery at West Union, Ohio. 'He was a just man, whose memory is still fragrant among his old neighbors who still survive.
Dr. David Coleman
was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, March 24, 1822. He was the fifth child in a family of six. His ancestors had been in this country prior to the Revolution. His parents removed to Ohio, and at twenty-three years of age, he began the study of medicine. ' In 1849, he graduated at Western Reserve College at Cleveland, Ohio. The same year he located in West Union as a physician. Here he remained all of his life except two years' residence in Ironton, prior to the war, and a short time during the war, he resided in Ironton, exercising the office of Surgeon of the Board of Enrollment. He was married November 5, 1851, to Miss Elizabeth Campbell Kirker, daughter of William Kirker and his wife, Esther Williamson.
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