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 89
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Mr. Clark and his family are all members of the Presbyterian Church. He is a ruling elder in the Wheat Ridge Chapel. He has always been a Democrat in his political views. He was a Commissioner of Adams County from 1875 to 1878. He began life in very narrow circumstances, but by industry coupled with a firm determination to succeed, he has obtained a position in which he can spend the remainder of his days com- fortably. He is loved, respected, and honored by all who know him.
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Samuel L. Charles,
of Vineyard Hill, is a prominent farmer and stock raiser of Monroe Town- ship. He was born September 3, 1844, near West Union, and is a son of Henry Charles, who married Susannah Cline. Joseph Charles, grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was a native of the Republic of Switzerland, and emigrated to America about the beginning of the Revo- lution, in which he was a soldier. He settled in Lancaster County, Pa., where his son Henry was born August 16, 1803, and who after his marriage to Susannah Cline came to Adams County in 1830, first settling on Eagle Creek. Of his children, Elizabeth married David Potts; Jeffer- son lives in Scioto County ; Catherine married Wayne Mahaffey; Fannie married John Symmonds ; Eliza married G. Edgington; Joseph, a soldier of the 70th O. V. I., lives in Hillsboro; Mary married Leroy Smith; Susannah married Meredith Osman; Martha married Eli Pulliam; Ben- jamin, and Samuel, the subject of this sketch. He was a member of Company D, 19Ist O. V. I., and was mustered into service at Portsmouth, Ohio; served in the Shenandoah Valley, and was discharged August 27, 1865, at Winchester. Va. He has been a member of church since he was seventeen years of age, and at different times has been class leader, Sup- erintendent of Sunday School and Trustee of the church. Holds his mem- bership in the M. E. Church at Manchester. He married Margaret De Atley, daughter of James H. and Sarah Mousar De Atley, November 11, 1869. Mr. Charles has a family of twelve children. He owns 228 acres of land on Donalson Creek and is one of the prominent citizens of the com- munity in which he resides. He is an old-fashioned Democrat of the straightest sect.
Martin L. Coz, of Hills Fork.
Isaac Cox, the paternal grandfather of our subject, was a native of the State of Maryland and came from that State to Adams County in 1801, settling on the farm now occupied by the subject of this sketch. He married a lady by the name of Austin, by whom he had two sons, William and Thomas, the latter father of our subject. Thomas married first a Miss McKnight who bore him two sons, one dying in youth, and the other, Mr. John Cox, who now resides at Washington C. H. He, after the death of his first wife, married Miss Deborah Odell, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Odell, a pioneer Methodist minister of Adams County. Thomas Cox was a soldier of the War of 1812, and served at Sandusky. His second wife, Deborah Odell, bore him nine children, all boys: Isaac N., who died in Missouri; Lewis E., once Clerk of the Court of Adams County ; Frank and Greenleaf, now in Nebraska; George W., of Man- chester ; Jasper, deceased ; Robert M., of Kansas; and our subject, Martin L., who was born in Liberty Township, Adams County, April 25, 1841. He now resides on the old farm and occupies the old stone house built by Henry Young in 1829. It is remarkable that there has never been a death in this house. At the time it was built, Judge Needham Perry resided on the creek just above the Cox residence and the Meharry family, men- tioned elsewhere, just below Abraham Washburn joined on the south and William Mahaffey northeast on the Jacob Bissinger farm. At that time there were sixteen stillhouses within a radius of two miles, one at every good spring. Then the old log church was standing at Briar Ridge where the present M. E. and C. U. Churches stand.
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Captain Samuel E. Clark
entered the 91st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, July 28, 1862, at the age of thirty-eight, for a period of three years. He was killed May 9, 1864, at the battle of Cloyds Mountain. His body was brought home and is in- terred in the village cemetery at West Union. He engaged in the battle with good health, and with zeal and energy. He had worked hard to make himself an efficient officer. He was beloved by his men and respected by his fellow officers, and they regarded him as one of the ablest among them. He lived long enough after struck to learn the result of the battle, and almost with his last breath, he thanked God that victory was soon to be ours.
Hon. Alfred E. Cole,
of Maysville, Ky., was born at West Union, Adams County, Ohio, March 15, 1839. His father, James M. Cole, has a separate sketch herein. His grandfather Ephraim Cole, married Sophia Mitchell, the daughter of a large slave owner in Maryland. His father-in-law offered his son-in-law a gift of slaves which was declined. His grandfather, James Collings, married Miss Christiana Davis, who was an aunt of Hon. Henry Winter Davis, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Both of his grandfathers, Cole and Collings, were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Ephriam Cole located in Mason County, Kentucky, in 1794, and resided there till 1806, when he removed to Adams County, near West Union. James Collings moved to Adams County from Cecil County, Md., in 1794. Our subject is the youngest son and child of his parents. His twin brother, Allaniah B. Cole, resides in Chillicothe, Ohio. His parents had fifteen children, eight boys and seven girls. The sons made honorable careers in their professions and in business, and the daughters were all women of strong character, and married men who were successful in life. Our subject resided on his father's farm and attended the common schools until he was seventeen years of age. He then was sent to the High school at Manchester and afterwards attended the Normal school at Lebanon, Ohio. He followed the profession of teaching for scveral years, and then began reading law with the Hon. R. H. Stanton. 'of Maysville, Ky., and afterwards read with his brother, the late George D. Cole, of Waverly, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar at Waverly, Ohio, at the District Court in April, 1864. The court was then composed of Judge Wilde, of the Supreme Court and Judges John Welch and Phila- delph Van Trump, of the Common Pleas. After his admission, Mr. Cole located at Vanceburg, Ky., to practice law, but remained there only till May, 1865, when he removed to Flemingsburg, Ky. He was elected County Attorney of Fleming County, August, 1866, and re-elected to the same office in 1870.
In 1874, he was elected Commonwealth Attorney for the Sixteenth Judicial District. In 1880, he was elected Circuit Judge of the same dis- trict, defeating the Hon. George M. Thomas, of Vanceburg, after one of the most exciting contests ever made in the district.
In August, 1886, he was re-elected without opposition. After his retirement from the bench in November, 1886, he changed his residence from Flemingsburg to Maysville. In 1892, after his retirement from the
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bench, he began the practice of his profession with his son, A. E. Cole, under the name of A. E. Cole & Son.
Mr. Cole is a Democrat, as were his father and grandfather. It is a family trait that they should be attached to the Democratic party, and they have been firm in that political faith ever since the party was organ- ized. Mr. Cole is a member of the Methodist Church as were his fore- fathers and foremothers ever since the existence of Methodism.
Mr. Cole was married May 26, 1864, to Miss Abbie T. Throop. She was a daughter of Dr. Throop and a niece of Hon. R. H. Stanton. His wife died April 18, 1894, and on the twentieth of November, 1898, he was married to Miss L. B. Newman, of Hardin County, Ky., one of Kentucky's most beautiful and accomplished women. Mr. Cole had six children, three of whom died in infancy and three of whom are now living. His oldest son, Allaniah D. Cole, graduated at the Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1883, at the age of seventeen. He then entered the Harvard Univer- sity, in the Academic Department, and graduated at the age of nineteen. He read law with the Hon. William H. Wadsworth at Maysville, Ky. His secondi son, William T. Cole, resides in Greenupsburg, and is a practic- ing lawyer. He graduated from the Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1888 and then entered the Vanderbilt University Law School and graduated in two years. Mr. Cole's youngest son, Henry W., is now a student of the High school at Maysville, Ky. His two oldest sons, Allaniah and William, are making their mark and stand high in their profession. As a lawyer, Mr. Cole stands high in his profession. As a judge, he made an excellent record. As a citizen, he is most highly esteemed.
Hiram Walter Dickinson
was born in Whitehall, Washington County, New York, October 15, 1851, and was reared there. His father was Hiram Dickinson and his mother, Huldah Merrill. He attended school at the Vermont Episcopal Institute at Burlington, Vermont, from October, 1868, to August, 1870. He then went into the Merchants' National Bank of Whitehall, New York, and served as teller for nine years. In 1882 to 1883, he was a book- keeper in Ithaca, New York.
From 1883 to 1885, he was traveling in the West. On October 16, 1889, he was married to Miss Anna M. Juliand. Her ancestors came from Guilford, Connecticut, and her seventh great- grandfather was one of the founders of Yale College. They have two daughters, Margaret Huldah, agcd eight years, and Dorothy, aged six years.
On June 1, 1890, he located in West Union and opened a private bank, and has lived there ever since. He first located in the G. B. Grimes & Company building, but afterwards removed to the Leach building, where he now is. Coming directly, as he did, after the failure of G. B. Grimes & Company, it took a long time to establish confidence, but that has come. On September 1, 1898, Dr. William K. Coleman took an interest in the business under the name of Coleman & Dickinson. It now has all the patronage it could expect and carries a line of $50,000 deposits, but pays no interest on them.
Mr. Dickinson is a gentleman of excellent taste. He is a man of the highest standard of integrity and morality and is deeply religious. He
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is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is greatly de- voted to its interests. He is a careful business man. Coming to Adams County, a total stranger, his life and course of business has secured the confidence of the entire community.
Alvah Sigler Doah
was born March 15, 1848, on Buck Run in Adams County. His father was David Franklin Doak, born in Bracken County, Kentucky. His grandfather, David Doak, was born in Loudon County, Virginia, and emigrated to Ohio. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, from Virginia, in a troop of horse, in which he furnished his own horse. His grand- father and father located at Mt. Leigh in 1831. They were all Presby- terians. His grandfather owned slaves in Kentucky and set them free be- cause he was an anti-slavery man. He was a Whig during the existence of that party. He was a nephew of Dr. Samuel Doak, the founder of 'Marysville College, in Tennessee, and a cousin of the wife of Rev. John Rankin, the famous Abolitionist.
Our subject has lived in Adams County all his life. He has been County Surveyor for six years, has resided in Winchester for sixteen years, and has followed the occupation of surveyor for twenty-seven years. He attended North Liberty Academy in 1869 and 1870 and the Normal school at Lebanon in 1871 and 1872. He has always been a Re- publican as his father and grandfather were. He is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of Winchester. He has carried on a drug business there for the past sixteen years. He followed the occupation of school teacher from 1869 to 1883. He was in charge of the Russellville schools in 1876, Principal of the North Liberty Academy in 1880 and Superin- tendent of the Winchester schools in 1881.
On May 25, 1875, he was married to Eunice Fox, of Vincennes, In- diana. They have a daughter Ruby. She took a two years' course at the College of Music in Cincinnati and afterward attended Glendale school for two years and graduated there in 1899.
Mr. Doak was elected County Surveyor of Adams County in 1893, when he had forty-two majority, and in 1896, when he had forty-seven majority.
Mr. Doak is a man of high character, and has the respect and con- fidence of all who know him. He is just and upright in every relation of life and is admired for his qualities as a Christian gentleman.
David Dunbar.
The writer of this sketch having been personally acquainted with this subject for forty years, takes great pleasure in this labor. The history of Adams County and of Manchester could not be written without mention of David Dunbar. From 1820, until the present time, he has been identified with the county and has been an important factor in all of its affairs since his majority, and in all that time he has been the same honest, honorable citizen and consistent Christian that we find him to-day. His name dis- closes the country of his ancestors, and he has the good qualities of his Scotch forbearer with all their faults and weaknesses left out.
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DAVID DUNBAR
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Diogenes could have thrown away his latern in looking about for an honest man, if David Dunbar had been around. Over six feet tall, with a patriarchial beard and a commanding appearance, his person would have attracted attention everywhere.
He was born in West Union in the house just west of the old stone church where Vene Edgington now lives, on the fourth of February, 1829, when the village was but sixteen years old. The howling of the wolves in the vicinity of the new town of log houses was among his lullabies.
His father was Hamilton Dunbar, a sketch of whom is given else- where, and his mother, Delilah Sparks, daughter of Salathiel Sparks, one of the pioneers of Adams County. His father was born in Winchester, Virginia, in 1782, and his mother in Pennsylvania in 1792. They were married in West Union in 1808. He was one of the nine children born between 1809 and 1827. His mother died August 14, 1828, and he was left to the care of his older sisters. He had such schooling as the period . afforded and on January 28, 1825, at the age of fifteen, was left a double orphan by the death of his father of the dread pestilence, the Asiatic cholera.
In A. D. 1832, the sentiment in Adams County as to the necessity of a boy learning a trade was about the same as it was in A. D. 32, at Tarsus, when St. Paul as a boy, set out to learn tent making. Accordingly, David Dunbar, the boy of twelve, was sent to Pine Grove Furnace to learn to mould tea-kettles and hollow ware. He commenced work with Solomon Isaminger at a stipulated sum. He only remained with Isaminger but six months, but he followed the business of moulding at Pine Grove, Aetna, Union, Vesuvius, Bloom and Franklin Furnaces for four years, but he did not like the business nor the associations and he determined to leave and learn another business. As everyone rode horseback in those days, and as horses were then equivalent to a legal tender, he concluded to learn the saddlery business and begun at Aberdeen, Ohio, in February, 1837. He worked at this business at various places and under different places until he became of age in 1841 when he located at Clayton, Ohio, and set up in the saddlery business for himself. Here he held his first office, that of Constable, but achieved no particular distinction in it. At this place, he connencted himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church in February, 1842. When he removed to Manchester in 1844, he connected himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church until 1869. In that year he transferred his membership to the Methodist Protestant Church on account of its form of church government, dispensing with Bishops and giving representations in the annual conferences. He has retained his membership in the Methodist Protestant Church ever since, that body having been organized in Manchester, January 23, 1869.
In September, 1844, Mr. Dunbar entered into partnership with his brother, John, in the saddlery business at West Union, Ohio, but not liking it, on December 5, 1844, he dissolved partnership with his brother, and went to Manchester and formed a partnership with John W. Coppell, under the name of Coppell & Dunbar, in the saddlery business, which was continued until February, 1846, when the firm dissolved and our subject retired. At the same time, he formed a partnership with
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Major Vinson Cropper, under the name of Cropper & Dunbar, and the two built and conducted the first wharfboat ever located in Manchester. This formed a new departure in business at Manchester and made it quite a shipping point. The firm received goods for West Union, Jacksonville, Locust Grove, and as far north as Sinking Springs in Highland County. During the time this firm conducted the wharfboat, John Buchannan had the contract to furnish oats for the U. S. Army in Mexico and they did not have room to store away on the wharfboat, the many thousands of sacks of oats which he delivered to them from West Union. Smith and Davis owned and ran a packet line at that time between Portsmouth and Cincinnati. Their boats were the Ashland and Belle Aire, one up, one down each day. In low water, the same company ran the Mingo Chief and the Planet. The same firm built the Scioto and the Scioto No. 2. There was a daily packet line from Cincinnati to Portsmouth at that time, and their boats were the Alleghany, New England, Buckeye State, Cin- cinnati, Brilliant, Messenger, and De Witt Clinton. All of these landed regularly at Cropper & Dunbar's wharf and transacted a great deal of business. In 1849, Mr. Dunbar disposed of his interest in the wharf- ' boat and returned to the saddlery business, which he continued until 1852, when he went into the grocery trade, which he has remained in until the present time.
It will be observed that Mr. Dunbar had a penchant for forming partnerships, but on September 12, 1848, he formed the most important partnership of his life and one that has continued to the present time. On that day he was married to Miss Nancy J. Dougherty. For over fifty years, he and his wife have trod the pathway of life side by side, hand in hand. They have shared many blessings together and have had their portion of sorrows, among which was the loss of a bright son, at the age of seven years, in 1877.
Mr. Dunbar was an ardent and enthusiastic Whig during the exist- ence of that party. When that party dissolved after the Presidential election of 1852, he cast his political fortunes with the Democratic part and from it he received the appointment of Postmaster at Manchester in 1855, which he continued to hold until 1866.
In 1860, Mr. Dunbar became a Republican, and in 1861 there was an election held by the patrons of the Manchester postoffice to determine who should be recommended for the appointment. Mr. Dunbar received the endorsement of a large majority of both Democrats and Republicans and he was reappointed by the Republican administration. In 1866, he re- fused to Johnsonize and was removed, and Wm. L. Vance appointed in his place.
Since 1860, Mr. Dunbar has remained firm in his attachment to the Republican party and has enjoyed the fullest confidence of its leaders in this State.
He has a son, John K. Dunbar, one of the foremost men of Man- chester, and three daughters, Anna, the wife of Marion Crissman, who carries on one of the most extensive businesses in the county, and Misses Minnie and Emma, residing at home.
Mr. Dunbar has a delightful home on the ridge. His son John re- sides in the same yard to the southwest, in a new dwelling just completed,
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and his daughter, Mrs. Crissman, resides just across the street north in one of the most attractive homes in Manchester.
Just in all his dealings, he has acquired a competence to comfort him and sustain him in independence in his old age. A successful business man, an honest and just citizen, a consistent Christian, he has made out of this life all there is in it. Surrounded by his children and gradchildren, re- spected and venerated by all, he is a living epistle, read and known of all men, showing that the practice of the cardinal virtues is the reward of the righteous, a good old age, and when "Finis" is written at the close of his record by the Recording Angel, it will be one he will not be ashamed to .meet on the Judgment Day and it will be one of which his children and grandchildren may be proud.
Israel Hyman De Bruin,
son of Hyman Israel DeBruin and Rebecca Easton DeBruin, was the oldest of a family of twelve children. His father, Hyman Israel DeBruin, was born of Jewish parents in Amsterdam, Holland, December 24, 1796. He came to America in 1816, locating in Maysville, Ky. His mother, Rebecca Easton, was born in Lincolnshire, England, March 28, 1804.
Israel Hyman, the subject of this sketch, was born in Maysville, Kentucky, April 23, 1823. When he was ten years old, in 1833, he, with his parents removed to Winchester, Adams County, Ohio, where after attending school one year, at the age of eleven, he entered his father's store as a clerk in which position he remained seventeen years. He then with his brother-in-law, Judge Wm. M. Meek, purchased the business from his father, and in two years later he bought his brother-in-law's interest and took control of the entire business and conducted it until 1879.
He united with the M. E. Church, January, 1844, and was an earnest, zealous member of the same, exemplifying in his life the faith he pro- fessed, for many years serving as a licensed minister of the church. He served in the army of the rebellion as Quartermaster of the Seventieth Regiment, O. V. I., joining the regiment of Camp Hamer, West Union, October 12, 1861. On account of failing health, he tendered his resigna- tion from the service, which was accepted June 2, 1863.
In 1880, he was appointed Clerk of the Ohio Penitentiary, removing with his family to Columbus, Ohio, and some months later was appointed Chaplain of that institution, under the administration of Gov. Foster, serving four years. He was again appointed Chaplain under Gov. For- aker's administration, and served four years. For about eight years he filled the position of Clerk in the Board of Education in the city of Columbus, which position he occupied at the time of his death.
He was married to Elizabeth Middletown, September 21, 1847. To them were born ten children, five of whom are still living. She died January 23, 1866. He was married to Elizabeth Howard, July 23, 1867, and to this union were born nine children, seven of whom are still living. He was a man of the most noble and generous impulses. His conscience was as tender as that of an innocent child and he always aimed to follow its voice. He was truly and sincerely pious and religious and convinced all who knew him of the fact by his daily life. He aimed to do all the
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good he could and avoid all evil. All who knew him well loved him for his qualities of character. Were the world made up of men of his stamp, the millenium would not have to be looked for, it would be here.
Lemuel Lindsey Edgington
was born in Sprigg Township, Adams County, Ohio, October 10, 1836, son of Richard M. and Margaret (Lytle) Edgingten. His father and his grandfather were both born in Sprigg Township. His grandmother's (Phoebe Edgington) maiden name was Noleman. His great-grand- father, George Edgington, located in Adams County among the first settlers. He was from Virginia. He settled at Bentonville and one of his daughters married William Leedom, who kept a famous tavern on Zane's Trace as early as 1807. The Edgingtons were Baptists from the first settlers. They at first kept their membership in the church at West Union. Afterwards they removed it to the church at Bentonville.
Richard Edgington, father of Captain Edgington, built the first tavern in Bentonville in 1848. It is now occupied by a Mr. Easter.
Lindsey Edgington spent his childhood and boyhood at Bentonville and attended school there. He also attended a select school there from 1848 to 1851, taught by Prof. Miller. In 1855, he took up the profes- sion of school teacher and taught for five years, two years in Coles County, Illinois. In 1857 and 1858, he taught in Ohio, and in 1859, in Missouri. He returned to Ohio in 1860 and October 19, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, 70th O. V. I. He was made Second Sergeant when the company was organized. On March 1, 1862, he was made Sergeant Major of the Regiment, and on October 6, 1864, was made First Lieu- tenant and Adjutant.
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