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 90
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On December 1, 1864, he was made a Captain and assigned to Com- pany B. On April 9, 1865, he was detailed as Aid-decamp on the staff of Major General William B. Hazen and served as such until August 14, 1865. Any soldier reading this record will understand from it that Captain Edgington made an excellent soldier and was a most efficient officer. A history of his service would be a history of the 70th O. V. I., which is found elsewhere. He was in no less than fifteen battles, was in the March to the Sea, and in the assault on Fort McCallister, and was in the Great Review at Washington, D. C., May 24, 1865.
From 1865 to 1867, he was in the mercantile business at Bentonville, Ohio. From 1867 to 1883, he was employed as a traveling salesman for mercantile houses in Portsmouth and in Cincinnati, Ohio. He located in West Union in 1883 in the grocery and hardware business and has been engaged in it ever since.
He was married April 17, 1867, to Miss Eliza Jane Hook and has two sons and a daughter. His sons, Sherman R., and Eustace B., are engaged in business with him. His daughter Elizabeth is the wife of James O. McMannis, late Probate Judge of Adams County. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Ohio Commandery of Manchester Lodge of Free and Ac- cepted Masons of Manchester Chapter of Royal Arch Masons. He is a Republican in politics but never has taken any active part in political work.
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Mr. Edgington is a man who has made no mistakes in life. He is capable and enterprising in business, a valuable and valued citizen. He is always ready to contribute of his means and influence toward any object calculated for the good of the community. His record as a teacher, a soldier, an officer and a citizen is without reproach.
Sylvanus V. Edgington,
of West Union, Ohio, was born at Aberdeen, Ohio, October 16, 1853. He was the son of William and Mary A. (Gaffin) Edgington. His grand- father, Absalom Edgington, was a native of Sprigg Township, Adams County. He spent his boyhood at Bentonville attending the public schools at that place, receiving a limited education. He learned the shoemaker's trade with his father and worked at that until 1876. In 1878, he removed to West Union and engaged in the barber business, in which he is still engaged.
He married Retta Clark, daughter of William Clark, of Fayette County, Ohio, in 1874. The children of this marriage are Bertha, de- ceased; Francis, wife of Sherman Daulton; Kilby Blaine, seventeen years of age; Blanche, fourteen years of age; Albert, eleven years of age; Myrtle, three years of age.
He is a Republican and takes an active part in local politics. He is a member of West Union Council and School Board, a member of Crystal Lodge, No. 114, Knights of Phythias, and of No. 43, Free and Accepted Masons, of West Union.
Mr. Edgington is an honest and upright citizen. He takes a very active interest in the fraternal orders of which he is a member. He is a zealous and earnest worker in his party.
Robert Hamilton Ellison
was born in Manchester, April 21, 1845, the son of William and Mary Ellison. He received his education in the public schools at Manchester and has resided there all his life. He was married October 7, 1868, to Isabella Harris, of Greene County, Ohio, and has two children, a son and a daughter. He has given most of his attention to farming and stock raising. In May, 1872, he became cashier of the Manchester National Bank and continued such for four years.
In 1879, he was elected Auditor of Adams County and held the office one term, three years. Then he went into the banking business on his own account, and to dealing in leaf tobacco. In 1889, he closed out his banking business and since then he has been exclusively engaged in farm- ing. He is a member of the Odd Fellows and Knights of Phythias. He has been a Republican all his life.
John Ellison,
son of John Ellison, Jr., Sheriff of Adams County, 1806-10, and grandson of Andrew Ellison, of "stone house" celebrity, whose father was John Ellison, the emigrant, was born at old Buckeye Station, March 24. 1821, and died in Manchester, April 5, 1872. His mother was Ann Barr, a native of Adams County, and his grandmother was Mary McFarland, a native of the Emerald Isle, who was married to Andrew Ellison previous
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to his coming to America. John Ellison, the subject of this sketch, re- ceived the rudiments of an English education in the schools such as were afforded in Adams County in his early youth. He afterwards spent some time at old Marietta College, one of the early educational institutions of Ohio. He early engaged in mercantile pursuits in which he was actively and successfully engaged until the time of his demise. While never robust, yet he undertook and carried forward enterprises of business which required the greatest mental and physical exertion. He was an alert, public spirited citizen, ever ready to lend assistance to promote and ad- vance the interests of the community in which he made his home and the county of his birth. He was one of the first advocates of the free turn- pike road system of the State. He established the first bank in Man- chester in the building which Thomas O'Neill now occupies on Water Street.
In 1866, he, in connection with Peter Shiras and Robert H. Ellison, organized the banking house of John Ellison & Company. And just pre- vious to his decease, established the First National Bank of Manchester in the building now occupied by the Manchester Bank. At the time of Morgan's Raid in 1863, he, assisted by his wife, sealed up the bonds and species of the bank amounting to $100,000, in fruit jars, and buried them in Keith's hollow back of Manchester, where they remained undisturbed until after all danger from Morgan's marauders had passed.
Mr. Ellison was a consistent and honored member of the Presby- terian Church during his lifetime, serving for many years as one of its elders and Sunday School Superintendent. In politics he adhered to the principles of the Republican party after its organization, although his grandfather and father were supporters of the doctrines of Jefferson and Jackson. In early manhood he wedded Miss Helena Baldwin, a daughter of Elijah Baldwin, a wealthy werchant and trader of Manchester, of whom is is said that he sent more keel-boats loaded with bacon and flour from Manchester to New Orleans than any other merchant of his day. On one occasion, when delayed at New Orleans for means of transportation home by water, he set out on foot and walked the entire distance across the country home, at a time when it was worth a man's life to undertake such a journey through a sparsely settled region infested with bandits of the most daring class. After the death of his first wife, he married Miss Car- oline, her sister, with whom he resided until his decease. The fruits of the first marriage were Andrew, Anna, and John Prescott, the latter of whom yet survive. Of the second marriage. the children are Helena, who died in infancy; Esther, who married Stewart Alexander, a prominent business man of Adams County, and Louvica, a bright and interesting woman, recognized as a leader in social, church, and charitable affairs in her native community, now married to J. G. Nicholson, of Manchester.
David Shafer Eylar.
He was born July 10, 1831, in Manchester, Adams County, the ninth of ten children of the first marriage of Judge Joseph Eylar. He was taught what the District school could give him. His father was a tanner and he learned the trade under him. In 1832 to 1857, he conducted a
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tannery in Locust Grove. In the Fall of 1857, he was elected Sheriff on the Democratic ticket and re-elected in 1859.
On May 30, 1858, he was married to Miss Martha Cannon and began housekeeping in West Union. He moved to Locust Grove from West Union in 1860 and has resided there ever since. From 1860 to 1865, he kept hotel in the property formerly occupied by Mrs. Jeremiah Cannon. In 1865, he took the present Eylar Hotel and conducted it until his death. For some time after returning to Locust Grove he carried on farming.
He was Justice of the Peace of Franklin Township from 1875 to 1878 and from 1881 to 1896. He was the father of nine children, as fol- lows: Jennie. married James C. Copeland and resides in Locust Grove; Oliver Rodney, physician, located at Cynthiana, Pike County, Ohio. He graduated as M. D., April 12. 1900, from Starling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio. He was married to Miss Lilly B. Newland in 1885. The second daughter, Hettie, married R. D. McClure and died in 1890, leaving one child. Elizabeth married Jacob Randolph Zile, Ex-Commis- sioner of Adams County, and a prosperous farmer. Oscar Coleman mar- ried Laura Rearick and is a farmer near Locust Grove. Ella and Ruth reside with their mother. Alverda died at the age of four years. John Randolph, the youngest. resides with his mother in the old home.
In politics, Mr. Eylar was always a Democrat. He took an active part in all the contests in which his party was engaged. He usually at- tended all the conventions and was active in the caucuses and at the polls. He had a fascination and love for political contests. He was not religious in the sense of church membership. but aimed to deal fairly with all men. He was a heavy set man, over the medium height, of a dark complexion, dark hair and broad. with a saturnine expression. While he could laugh and enjoy humor, his usual mood was serious and earnest to an unusual degree. He was kind to his family and loyal to his friends. For his enemies he cared but little. He aimed to do the best he could for those dependent on him and that is the best any one can do. He died March 11, 1897.
Thomas William Ellison
was born at West U'nion, Ohio, August 11, 1859. the son of Thomas and Mary McNeilan Ellison. His grandfather, James Ellison, was born near Dublin, Ireland, December 25, 1776. and died September 5. 1865. He was a member of the royal bodyguard of the king of England for sixteen years. He was married to Mary Stewart in 1806.
Thomas Ellison, father of our subject, was born in Adams County in 1822. He followed farming in his early life, eventually engaged in mer- chandising. He was a man of fine appearance, pleasing address, and very much liked by his acquaintances and friends. He was very popular, was a Democrat, and as such was elected Treasurer of Adams County, and served from to When the war broke out, he went with the 70th O. V. I. as sutler. Later he located in Tunica County, Mississippi, where he engaged in cotton raising. He was also interested in the steamer Natonia, which plied on the Mississippi River. He died July 16, 1868, at West Union, Ohio.
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Mary McNeilan Ellison was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, March 6, 1820. She was married to Thomas Ellison, May 29, 1843, at West Union, Ohio. They had five children, Arthur Stewart, who died August 22, 1867 ; Jennie, deceased wife of Isaac Boatman, of Gallia County, Ohio; Annie, widow of H. R. Bradbury, of Gallipolis, Ohio; Thomas W., the subject of this sketch, and Sarah Matilda, who died September 24, 1882. Mrs. Mary Ellison died September 16, 1898.
Our subject was reared in West Union, and received his education in the village schools. He began business life as a clerk, having charge of the dry goods store of Mauck & Bradbury, at Cheshire, Ohio, for two years. After that firm closed out, he returned to West Union and clerked for R. W. Treber for three years. In April, 1882, in company with J. W. Hook, he engaged in the real estate and insurance business at West Union under the firm name of Ellison & Hook. Some time after, he disposed of his interest in that firm to John W. McClung, and accepted the super- intendency of the Wilson Children's Home, March 8, 1889, and still holds that position.
He was married at Bloomington, August 30, 1882, to Elizabeth Kir- ker, a native of Hamilton, Hancock County, Illinios, and a member of the well known Kirker family of Adams County. She is a daughter of George and Mary Elizabeth Baird Kirker, and a grandniece of the Hon. Thomas Kirker, once Governor of Ohio. Mrs. Ellison's parents were born, reared, and married in Adams County, but moved to Hamilton County, Illinois, and then to Kendall County, in the same State. Mrs. Ellison has served as Matron of the Wilson Children's Home since her husband's employment as Superintendent, and it is greatly due to her labors that the institution has reached the high standard it has among the children's homes in the country. She is a member of the West Union Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Ellison has served as a member of the West Union Council and School Board, and always has taken an active interest in public affairs. In his political views, he is a Democrat. In 1888, he took a prominent part in the organization of the Adams County Agricultural Society. He was elected its Secretary, and has held that position since its organization. It is due to his labors that the society has been so well managed and suc- cessful. He is a member of the Masonic Lodge at West Union, and the Masonic Chapter at Manchester. He is a member of the Calvary Com- mandery. Knights Templar, at Portsmouth, Ohio. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias at West Union. He is not a member of any church, but is a believer in the Presbyterian doctrines. Mr. Ellison is a public spirited citizen, and is highly esteemed in his entire circle of ac- quaintances.
John A. Eylar.
One of the prominent members of the bar of Waverly, Ohio, is a native of Adams County, having been born at Youngsville, February 16, 1855. He was the fourth son of John Eylar and Ann A. Wilkins, his wife. His paternal grandfather, Joseph Eylar, of Winchester, was an Associate Judge of Adams County from 1835 to 1842. His maternal grandfather, Daniel Putnam Wilkins, was a lawyer of West Union, Ohio, but was born and reared in New Hampshire, the bluest of New England
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blue blood Yankees. Our subject graduated from the West Union schools, and afterwards took a course in the Adams County Normal schools. He taught for a time in the West Union schools and read law under the late John K. Billings. He was admitted to practice law at Portsmouth, April 20, 1876. He located in Waverly for the practice of the law and ever since has resided there.
In politics, he has always been a Democrat. In 1880, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Pike County, and was re-elected in 1883, serving six years in that office, in which he acquired a reputation for industry, zeal and ability in his profession. In the time he held the office, he drew no less than four hundred indictments, only one of which was ever held defective. In the same time,he collected and paid into the county treasury more forfeited recognizances than any of his predecessors. Since he re- tired from the Prosecutor's office, he has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession and is retained in all the important litigation of his county. He was one of the attorneys for the defense in the famous case of the State against Isaac Smith, indicted for murder in the first degree, of Stephen Skidmore, and distinguished himself in the conduct of that case. He was married February 16, 1887 to Lucy, daughter of John R. Douglas, and has three children.
In his practice, he first obtains a full knowledge of the facts of the case, both from his client's and his opponents' standpoints. He then in- vestigates the law applicable to each and all theories the court might as- sume. He goes into court with all his cases thoroughly prepared as to law and facts, and will not file a case for a client unless he believes the chances for success are largely in his favor. Like the famous Luther Martin, of Maryland, he is "always sure of his evidence." He is naturally eloquent and one of his cotemporaries says he is the most eloquent member of the Waverly bar. In his arguments to the jury, he is magnetic. In his arguments to the court, no point escapes him. He brings them all out. He always understands his case fully before bringing it to trial. He is as zealous for a poor client as a rich one. He is of a benevolent dis- position and very charitable. He is a brilliant cross-examiner. He con- ducts a cross-examination rapidly and pleasantly, but always with a de- nouement in view. Following these principles, he has already established a reputation as a lawyer and bids fair in the course of a ripe experience to be as able as any in the State.
Sherman Richard Edgington,
of West Union, son of L. L. Edgington and Eliza J. Hook, was born at Bentonville, Adams County, June 24, 1869. In his boyhood he clerked during school vacation in the general grocery store of Edgington & Mc- Govney, in West Union. After the dissolution of that firm he became a partner with his father, succeeding to the business of the old firm, where he is yet successfully engaged. June 15, 1898, he married Miss Hattie, the estimable daughter of J. W. Hedrick, of Russellville, Ohio, Our subject is one of the substantial young business men of Adams County and stands high in the community in which he resides. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and Treasurer and Secretary of the
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Presbyterian Sabbath School. He is a member of West Union Lodge, No. 43, F. & A. M., and holds the responsible position of Treasurer of the Lodge.
Dr. Charles W. Edgington,
of Blue Creek, is one of the prominent physicians and surgeons of Adams County. He is a son of Dr. T. C. Edgington and Levina Stewart, daughter of Joseph Stewart, of Sprigg Township, a soldier of the War of 1812, who died at the ripe old age of ninety-two years.
The subject of this sketch attended the public schools of Winchester, where he was born November 16, 1867. and the public schools of Benton- ville. He attended the North Liberty Academy when in charge of Prof. E. B. Stivers, and afterwards the Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio. He was a successful teacher in Adams County for several years. He took a course in Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, graduating in 1895. He opened an office in Rome. Adams County, that year, where he remained until 1898. After graduating in the New York Polyclinic, he located at Blue Creek, where he has a large and lucrative practice.
He is a Democrat. and served from 1880 to 1891 as Clerk of Jef- ferson Township, and as Coronor of Adams County from 1896 to 1898.
March 15, 1893, he married Miss Anna Case, the estimable daughter of Martin Case and Christiana Heizer. To this union have been born Claude B., August 28, 1894, who died in infancy : Harry W. December 2, 1895, died December 4. 1896: Paul J., April 29. 1898.
Rev. L. G. Evans, of Blue Creek,
The ancestors of Rev. Evans. Thomas Evans and Elizabeth Greene. came from North Carolina to Virginia, and thence to Fleming County, Kentucky, where he was born June 18. 1838. His ancestors all lived to a ripe old age, his great-grandmother Hunt dying at the extreme age of 112 years. In 1846, he came to Adams County and remained until 1858. when he returned to Kentucky, and at the breaking out of the Rebellion he enlisted from Rowan County. November 20, 1861, and was mustered into the service at Lexington in the following December for three years as a private in Company F. Capt. Blue. 24th K. V. I., Col. Hurt. He was at Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Knoxville. Buzzard Roost, Resaca, Peach- tree Creek, Atlanta and Jonesboro, and was made Third Sergeant at Shiloh. Was honorably discharged at Covington, Ky .. January 31. 1865. April 1, 1860. he married Miss Nancy E. Markwell, daughter of Joel and Esther Rice Markwell, of Rowan County, Kentucky. Two daughters were the fruit of that union, Rozella and Sallie.
Rev. Evans is a regularly ordained minister of the regular Baptist Church, but from throat trouble has not had a regular charge for some years. He is Chaplain of Bailey Post, G. A. R., No. 610, at Blue Creek.
Andrew Henry Ellison,
of West Union, is one of the best known men in Adams County. He has been in public life since his majority and enjoys a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. He is the son of Andrew Ellison, of Brush Creek. who married Harriet Collier, a daughter of Colonel Daniel Collier, a pio- neer of Adams County. Our subject was born May 3, 1843, on the old
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Collier farm settled by Col. Daniel Collier in 1795, and selected by him as one of the prettiest situations .on Ohio Brush Creek. He obtained a good education in the common schools, and worked on his father's farm until the breaking out of the Civil War. When Company D of the 24th Regiment was forming he attempted to enlist but was rejected on account of age and size. He then drove team in the service until he attained his majority, when he enlisted in Company D, 121st Ohio, and served till the close of the war. After the close of the war, he became a merchant, first at Dunkinsville and afterwards at Russellville, Brown County. He sold his store, and became Deputy Sheriff under Henry McGovney, which position he held for four years. He then clerked for Connor, Boyles and Pollard at West Union until appointed postmaster there in 1887, which position he creditably filled for four years. He then took charge of the new Palace Hotel, where he yet presides, and no landlord has more warm personal friends among the Knights of the grip, than Andy Ellison. "Once his guest, always his friend," they say.
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In January, 1872, he married Lydia Truitt, by whom he has had two daughters, Kate, a beautiful and lovely child who died in 1887, and Roena, wife of Michael J. Thomas, son of Hon. H. J. Thomas of Manchester. In politics, Mr. Ellison is a Democrat of the old school, and one of the very staunchest supporters of William Jennings Bryan. He takes a humanitarian view of life and no man will go further to relieve the dis- tressed than he. He is a member of the U. R. K. of P. at West Union.
Daniel P. W. Eylar,
of West Union, son of John Eylar and Ann Wilkins, was born at Youngs- ville, Adams County, July 2, 1858. His father was a son of Joseph Eylar, Associate Judge of Adams County, and his mother was a daughter of Daniel P. Wilkins, once a prominent lawyer at the West Union Bar. The parents of our subject moved to West Union when he was a mere lad and there has been his home ever since. He was educated in the West Union public schools, and in his seventeenth year took up the profession of teacher in the common schools. Like many boys in a town where there is a newspaper office, he early learned the printer's art, and after teaching several years, he with E. B. Stivers and W. F. Trotter began the pub- lication of The Index. afterwards The Democrat Inde.r. at West Union, in 1889. He became the editor and proprietor of the last named news- paper in 1891. and continued its publication until 1806, when it was disposed of to the publishers of The Defender.
In politics, Mr. Eylar is as he puts it "independently Democratic with- out any aspirations for official preferment." He does his own thinking on matters of religion as well as in politics. He was reared strictly or- thodox, but after reading and careful investigation along historical and scientific lines, he became inclined to infidelity in his religious opinions, and finally agnostic with very materialistic inclinations. He was one of the "pioneers" in the world of free thought in Adams County. He is an active worker and one of the best informed members of Crystal Lodge, No. 114, K. of P., West Union.
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D. C. Eylar
was born at Locust Grove, Adams County, September 26, 1846. His father's name was Alfred A. Eylar, a son of Judge Eylar, one of the Associate Judges of Adams County. His mother's maiden name was Rebecca A. Cockerill, daughter of Gen. Daniel Cockerill, who formerly resided at what is now Seaman Station, on the C. P. & V. Railroad. She was a sister of Col. Joseph Randolph Cockerill, whose portrait and sketch appears in this work. His parents removed to Illinois in the Fall of 1856, and settled on a farm near Pontiac. Our subject had the advantages of a common school education until he was about twenty years of age, when he attended a commercial college at Peoria, Illinois, and graduated from there. On his return to Pontiac, he was employed by Duff & Cowen, bankers, and remained in their employ about a year. He was then tend- ered the position of Deputy County Clerk of Livingstone County, which position he accepted and served for about two years, when he again re- turned to the employment of Duff & Cowen, bankers, and remained with them until the Fall of 1870. In 1871, the Livingstone County National Bank was organized, and he remained with that institution for over seven- teen years. His health becoming poor, he resigned as cashier of the Bank in October, 1878, and went to the Pacific coast, locating at Fair Haven, about one hundred miles north of Seattle on Puget Sound. While there he was engaged in the mortgage loan business. He remained there three years and returned to Pontiac, his old position as cashier of the bank having been previously tendered him, and he at once assumed it on his return. The former president of the bank, J. M. Greenbaum, having died in February, 1887, he was soon afterwards elected president, which posi- tion he has continued to hold. This bank has been very successful. It has weathered all financial storms in times of depression. It has at all times enjoyed the confidence of the people of the community in which it is located.
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