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 96
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HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY
born January 25, 1872, and is married to L. J. Kuntz, a farmer residing near Bentonville, Ohio. They have one child. Julia E., was born Oc- tober 29, 1873, and was married to Will H. Lang, a farmer, in 1893. They have one child. His son, Fred N., born August 16, 1875, is single and lives in Nebraska. His son, Harvey Garfield, born May 10, 1880, and daughters, Cora A., born April 26, 1882, and Louella, born June 11, 1886, are still at home with their parents.
Mr. Kress was raised in the Lutheran Church. He has always been a Republican. While he is always very prompt in the payment of his obligations, unlike the typical German he is not afraid of being in debt. No more honorable citizen lives in the country, nor any more patriotic. While Mr. Kress never obtained any learning, he has a great deal of philosophy, which serves as a substitute for the learning. At the same time, he insists that his children should be educated, and all of them have a good common school education.
Martin Van Buren Kennedy,
farmer, student, teacher, soldier and merchant, was born near Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio, February 24, 1843. His mother, Drusilla Davis Smashea, was born in Maryland. His father, William Kennedy, was born in Pennsylvania, but removed to Brown County when a child and spent the remainder of his life there as a teacher and a farmer. He was a Jus- tice of the Peace for many years and never had a decision appealed from. He died in 1864.
As his name would indicate, Mr. Kennedy is of Scotch-Irish descent on the paternal side; on the maternal side, he traces his ancestry to the Burbage family, a sketch of which is found in this work. His grand- mother, Dolly Smashea, was a Burbage from Maryland. Mr. Kennedy's mother died when he was but two years old, and he was brought up by his aunts, Mrs. Sarah W. Bradford and Mrs. Mary M. Williams, of West Union. He attended the Public schools of West Union and the North Liberty Academy, spent two years as a teacher and about the same period as a student at Miami University. In June, 1863, he assisted in recruit- ing Company G, 129th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and at its organization was appointed its First Sergeant, which office he held during his term of service with the company. In the Summer of 1864, he attended Military school at Philadelphia, and was afterwards commissioned a First Lieuten- ant of colored troops and assigned to the Eighth Regiment, United States Heavy Artillery, then stationed at Paducah, Kentucky. He was given command of Company I, and held that position until the mustering out of his regiment in April, 1866, having seen service in Kentucky, about Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, and lastly in Texas. His regiment was in Washington at the time of President Lincoln's funeral and was at the station as part of an honorary guard at the time the body of the la- mented President left Washington.
After leaving the army, he took a course in Nelson's Commercial Col- lege at Cincinnati, and engaged in the book and stationery business at Gallipolis, Ohio, with the Hon. S. Y. Wasson, now of Hamilton, Ohio. He continued in this partnership for six years, when he removed to Zanes- ville, where he has been engaged in the same business to the present time.
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He was married September 13, 1871, to Miss Emma Caroline Hart- well, of Groton, Massachusetts. They have only one child, a son, Harris Hartwell Kennedy, born September 29, 1873, a graduate of Kenyon Col- lege at Gambier, and is at present a bookkeeper of the American Encaustic Tiling Company, of Zanesville, Ohio.
Mr. Kennedy is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and has been Post Commander at Gallipolis and Zanesville. At the latter place, during his administration, the membership of the Post increased from 140 to 444, and its finances were increased from nothing to over five thousand dollars. He has been a delegate for both State and National Encampments of the order.
He has always been a Republican in his political views. He was brought up in the Methodist Episcopal Church and is a member of it, but is broad and liberal in his views. In personal appearance, he is tall slender, and of elderly bearing, and is courteous and cordial in his man- ners. He is devoted and constant to his friends and charitable and con- siderate for the rights and prejudices of others.
Mr. Kennedy has a remarkable vein of humor, which makes him an entertaining companion to all with whom he associates. He has a fund of humorous stories which would do credit to Artemus Ward, Mark Twain, or any other of our celebrated humorists, and it is to be hoped that his collection will be preserved and published. He takes life easy, and while he has his troubles, as all persons in active business have, he does not let them worry him to any great extent, but takes it for granted that he must endure, suffer, and make the most of them. His career as a student and teacher, soldier and merchant, has been creditable in every way, and when he is called to give an account of the deeds done in the body, he hopes he will not be required to make any apologies, but that his record will com- mend itself.
Nelson B. Lafferty, M. D.
Nelson Barrere Lafferty, M. D., was born in West Union, 'Ohio, Jan- uary 6, 1840. He was the son of Joseph West Lafferty and Elizabeth Burwell Lafferty. Nelson Barrere was at that time a practicing lawyer in West Union and the father of the Doctor was an admirer and friend. Hence the Doctor received the name of the distinguished lawyer, after- wards Congressman, and Whig candidate for Governor of Ohio.
The writer became acquainted with Dr. Lafferty when he was seven years of age, and if he was ever a boy after that date, the writer has no recollection of it. The Doctor always wanted to be with men, to listen to their conversation and to learn all he could. While he enjoyed the sports of boyhood, his consuming ambition, and one which was always gratified, was to be with men and learn of them. He received a common school education prior to 1858, and in that year began to read medicine in the offices of Drs. Coleman and Coates, in West Union, Ohio. He read for two years and a half and attended his first course of lectures at Star- ling Medical College, Columbus, Ohio, in the Winter of 1860 and 1861. When he returned home in the Spring of 1861, the tocsin of war had sounded and he enlisted in Company D, 24th O. V. I., on May 27, 1861, and on the twenty-seventh of June, 1861, was mustered into the U. S. serv- ice for three years. As the result afterward demonstrated, Dr. Lafferty
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could not stand the hardships of the service, but he never stopped to con- sider this. It was a question of patriotism only with him. If the Gov- ernment would take him, he was bound to go, He did go, but was physi- cally unable to stand the strain of the service and was discharged October 13, 1862, on surgeon's certificate of disability. Company D, 24th O. V. I., was the first offering of Adams County in the Civil War, and to have been a member of that company is, in Adams-County, better than a patent of nobility. Of all the heroes of the Civil War, the members of Company D were and are always the foremost. But because he was sent home from the army, Dr. Lafferty did not repine. He resumed his medical studies, took his second course of lectures at Starling Medical College and grad- uated in the Spring of 1863. He at once determined to re-enter the army as a medical officer as soon as his health would admit. In August, 1863, he passed the necessary medical examination required for a Surgeon in the Volunteers. November 10, 1863, he was commissioned Assistant Sur- geon of the First Ohio Heavy Artillery for three years and served as such until January 9, 1865, when he resigned owing to ill health and started for home. On his way home, he stopped at Nashville, Tenn., where he un- expectedly met the Medical Director of the Army of the Cumberland, who insisted on him entering the Hospital Service, and on February 3, 1865, he again entered the service as an Acting Assistant Surgeon of the Army and continued as such to the close of the war. In May, 1865, he returned home and located at North Liberty, Ohio, in the practice of his profession, and here he continued to practice for twenty-one years. On February 4, 1880, he was married to Miss Kate Holmes, of Hillsboro, Ohio. There are three children of this marriage, Louise, Fred and Alice.
During his residence at North Liberty, Ohio, he was U. S. Examining Surgeon for a period of fourteen years. In politics, he has always been a Republican. In 1886, he removed from North Liberty to Hillsboro, Ohio, where he continued the practice of medicine until 1895, when he voluntarily retired on account of physical infirmities.
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As a physician, Dr. Lafferty is thoroughly read and informed and is among the leaders of his profession. In medical ethics, he was the most fully informed, and believed in and maintained the highest standing for his profession. In whatever he undertakes, he is an enthusiast and is bound to his friends by hooks of steel. He is in favor of high standing in every avocation of life; his interest in the affairs of the county and State are as intense now as that May day when as a youth he went into the army, and he still believes in that pure and good manhood to which he so early aspired in childhood.
John Meek Leedom.
His grandfather, William Leedom, emigrated from the State of Vir- ginia in company with Israel Donalson, Isaac, Asahel and John Edgington. who were with the first white men who located at Manchester. They as- sisted in making all the surveys between 1790 and 1795, when they might expect the crack of an Indian rifle at any time. They fought the Indians so long as the Indian war lasted and Asahel Edgington was one of their victims.
In 1795, William Leedom married Tacy Edgington, daughter of George Edgington. When Zane's Trace was marked out in 1797, William
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Icedom left Manchester and located on the Trace just below Bentonville. There he built the Leedom Tavern, which became a celebrated hostelry in its time. The innkeepers were the aristocrats of those days. They ob- tained about all the silver and gold in circulation and the old time taverns were the headquarters for all news and for the consummation of all im- portant trades. William Leedom enjoyed an extensive acquainance up and down the river and throughout the country. He traded on the river with keel-boats much of his time, and made a number of trips to New Or- leans. In his day it was fashionable to have large families and William was in the fashion. His wife died in 1824. He had twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. His sons were: John, Elijah, Joseph, Asa, Aaron, Thomas, William and George Washington. His daughters were: Tacy, Sarah, Nancy and Mary. His first wife died and he married in 1826, a second time, to Mary Rogers. Of this marriage there was a daughter, Telitha, now the wife of John Watson. of Bentonville, and she is the only survivor of the twelve.
William Leedom prospered in his trading and tavern keeping. He gave each one of his children one hundred acres of land, or the equivalent of that in money. He had 275 acres of land left after the distribution among his children and he died seized of this in 1849 at the ripe age of eighty-eight. His second wife died in 1865. He was a man among men, a natural leader, and his characteristics were improved in some of his children.
His son Joseph was born in 1797. When the latter was eighteen years of age, his father put his in charge of the old Andrew Ellison home on Lick Fork to run it as a tavern, and, assisted by his sister, Nancy, con- ducted it until 1817. Joseph and his sister, Nancy, then conducted the Rose Hotel at the foot of the hill, west of West Union, on the old Mays- ville road, for some time. Joseph Leedon was born a politician, but somehow he mistook his calling and became a Methodist minister. He was a circuit rider for five years. Two years of this time he was a preacher .in the State of Virginia and while there his son, John Meek Leedom, was born November 3, 1827, and was named for that famous Methodist min- ister, John Meek. Joseph Leedom was not pleased with Virginia and returned to Ohio to become a farmer. He would preach from time to time as opportunity offered. He was a great traveller. He made twenty- six trips to New Orleans. eight of which were with horses and mules driven through by land. His son, John Meek, went with him in 1840, when only thirteen years of age, and rode all the way on horseback. Joseph Leedom represented Adams, Brown and Scioto Counties in the House of Representatives in the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth General As- semblies, 1838 to 1840. During his first session, Benjamin Tappan was elected United States Senator, and the celebrated Ohio Fugitive Slave Law was enacted and he voted for it.
Joseph Leedom was fond of young men. and he took a fancy to Joseph McCormick and made him Prosecuting Attorney of the county. He formed a friendship for Joseph Randolph Cockerill and made him Surveyor of the county. Col. Cockerill laid out the town of Bentonville for Jesoph Leedom in 1841. In 1847, Joseph Leedom went to Carroll County, Mis- 50a
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souri, and died there in July. 1867. He was married four times. His first wife was Ann, daughter of David Cox. He married her in 1822. She had two children and died. In 1825, he was married to Elizabeth Hopkins, a native of Snow Hill, Maryland. She had four sons and two daughters. The sons were John Meek, William Thompson, Greenbury Jones and Martin Herriford, and the daughters were Elizabeth Ann and Virginia H. His third marriage was in November, 1851, to Nancy Math- eny, daughter of Rev. Charles Matheny. In 1853, he was married to Mary Burgess, in Ray County, Mo., and two children were born of this marriage, Sallie B. and Samuel B. Sallie B. and John Meek are the only ones of Joseph Leedom's family surviving, and she resides in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Joseph Leedom was a man of public spirit. He gave the ground for the Methodist Church in Bentonville and donated the material for the first building in 1841. The home was logs replaced by a frame in 1851 and which stood till 1899. In his later life, in 1852, Joseph Leedom left the Methodist Church and connected with the Cumberland Presbyterians. John Meek Leedom was born in Kanawha County, Va., was reared in Ohio, and resided in the State till 1847. when he accompanied his father to the State of Missouri. He returned to Ohio in 1853 and drove a stage from Maysville to Chillicothe. He went to Kentucky and drove a stage from Maysville to Paris for four years. During the cold Winter of 1856, he drove the round trip from Maysville to Paris every day for two weeks.
He afterwards drove on other routes in Kentucky and then returned to Bentonville and opened up a general store. September 17, 1861, he married Jane L. Francis, and in 1863 he bought a half interest in the Ben- tonville Mill. In 1865, he bought the John D. Francis farm in Liberty Township. His wife died April, 1866, leaving one child, Margaret, now Mrs. James Dunkin. November 15, 1866, he married Mary A. Brook- over, daughter of John Brookover, and of this marriage there is a son, Shilton A. White. In 1885, he bought the flour mill at Manchester and conducted it for a short time. In 1890, he purchased the farm originally located by the Rev. William Williamson and by him named "The Beeches,". and since 1892, he has resided on it. Mr. Leedom is a Democrat in his political faith. He is not a member of any church.
John Cunning Loughry
was the son of John Loughry and Elizabeth (Cunning) Loughry, born at Circleville, on May 2, 1831, When he was nine months of age, his father removed to Rockville, Adams County, where he spent his subsequent life. In the forties, he attended Carey's Academy at Cincinnati. Afterward. he engaged in steamboating, owning and commanding the steamer "Jeffer- son," in 1852. In the Fall of 1855. he assumed his father's business. He was married to Miss Sallie Brown, daughter of Captain Wash Brown, in November, 1857. They took up their residence at the present home- stead in Rockville, where he resided until his death on the ninth of October, 1894. He united with the Sandy Springs Presbyterian Church, Septem- ber 20, 1873. He was a trustee of the church for many years, and was an elder in 1887. From 1891, until his death he was Superintendent of the Sunday School of Sandy Springs Church.
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In his political views, he was a Democrat, but never sought or held any public office or took any part in politics.
He was a good neighbor, an ideal gentleman, generous, gentle, hos- pitable, and refined. He was a constant and generous friend, and in his passing away the community lost a man faithful to every duty.
Robert E. Lockhart,
farmer and President of Manchester Farmers' Bank, was born in Greene Township, Adams County, Ohio, June 23, 1833. His father, Robert E. Lockhart, came to Adams County from Kentucky when a young man and married Sarah Hemphill, a daughter of Edward Hemphill, of Pleasant Bottoms, and settled on Ohio Brush Creek, where Albert G. Lockhart now resides. The children of the family are: Andrew and Elisha, deceased; Elizabeth, who married Samuel Stevenson; Sarah, who married John Campbell; Irene, who married Reuben Mckay; Albert, living on home farm; Ann, who married William McCormick, and Robert E., our subject, who married Alice A. Stevenson. His family consists of Sarah, who mar- ried T. F. Norris, of Irish Bottoms ; Miss Flora, and Albert G., remaining. at home with their parents.
Robert E. Lockhart is one of the leading Democrats of Adams County. He was elected Decennial Appraiser for Greene Township in 1880, and has held the office of Township Treasurer almost continuously from the period of his majority. He is a Past Chancellor of Triangle Lodge, No. 477, Knights of Pythias, at Rome, Adams County.
As a farmer and financier. Mr. Lockhart has been very successful. He owns twelve hundred acres of land in Greene Township, a large part of which lies along the fertile valley of the Ohio River. He has been a stockholder in the Farmers' National Bank at Manchester since its organi- zation, and President of that institution since 1896.
John W. Lightbody,
of Blue Creek, was born July 31, 1842, at Wilmington, Indiana. His parents were Hugh S. and Sarah J. Lightbody, the former having come from Ireland to the United States in 1816. He lived in New York until 1835, when he located in Georgetown, Ohio, where he clerked in a store. Later he peddled clocks throughout the country for Pittinger & Eckman. Then he went to Wilmington, Indiana, where he married Miss Sarah J. Wright, by whom he had thirteen children, John W. being the oldest.
John W. Lightbody enlisted at Manchester, Ohio, where his father then resided as a Private in Company D, Captain Patterson, 24th Regi- ment, O. V. I., Colonel Ammon, for three vears, May 3, 1861, and was mustered into service at Camp Jackson, June 13, 1861. He re-enlisted as a veteran at Whitesides Station, and was transferred to Company D, 18th Regiment, O. V. I., June 12, 1864, to serve balance of term. He was captured twenty miles below Florence, Ala., on the Tennessee River, September 9, 1864, and held a prisoner at Andersonville and Cahaba prisons for ten months and twenty-two days. Was sent North on the steamer Autocrat, just six hours in advance of the ill-fated Sultana. He was at Cheat Mountain, Greenbrier, Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Stone
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River, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, Mission Ridge, Atlanta Cam- paign, Nashville, and Decatur, Ala.
He is a Republican and is at present Postmaster at Blue Creek, where he conducts a good hotel and livery stable. On June 5, 1875, he mar- ried Miss Mary F. Bascom, daughter of G. W. and Elmira Bascom, of Henderson, Kentucky.
George W. Lewis,
of Blue Creek, is a son of William Lewis and Nancy Ann Lanthorn, and was born on Scioto Brush Creek in Adams County, March 22, 1841. His grandfather was Philip Lewis, who came to Scioto Brush Creek Valley in 1795. He was a wagon-master in the Revolutionary War. He first married Betsey Wasson, by whom he had two sons, Philip and Thomas. His second wife was a widow McBride nee Anderson, a native of Ireland. By his second wife, Philip Lewis had four sons : William, born 1804; Lot, in 1806; Elijah, 1811, and Enoch, 1813. Of these, William, the father of our subject, had eleven children, six sons and five daughters, George W., our subject, being the seventh child. He married February 28, 1864, while at home on a furlough, Miss Martha A. Brooks, daughter of Leonard and Jane Ousler Brooks, who has borne him ten children; Rosa B .. Sewell E., Alvie T., Myrta E., Arvada A., William R., Arville, dying in infancy ; G. Blaine, Iva V., and Harriet J. George W. Lewis enlisted in Company D, 24th O. V. I., at West Union, May 27, 1861, and also be- longed afterwards to Company D, 18th O. V. I. He was mustered out at Augusta, Ga., October 9, 1865. He was wounded at Shiloh. and took part in the great battles of the war, such as Cheat Mountain, Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, and others. He is a staunch Republican, while his father was a Whig. He was for many years the leader of his party in Jefferson Township. He is not a member of any church, but leans toward Methodism.
John Gardner Lindsey
was born near Russellville, Brown County, Ohio, December 28, 1852, son of William Johnson Lindsey and Lucinda Eliza (Gardner) Lindsey. The grandfather of our subject came from Scotland in about 1810 and settled in Kentucky near the Virginia line. In a few years afterward he returned to Mason County, Kentucky, where William Johnson, the father of our subject, was born October 14, 1821, William Johnson Lindsey married Lucinda Eliza, daughter of the Rev. Mathew Gardner. She was born at Red Oak in Brown County, March 23, 1823. The children born to them are Barton B., of Portsmouth, Ohio; George, living somewhere in the South ; Charles, deceased; Frank, of Cincinnati, Ohio; Sarah Belle, wife of Nathan Foster, of Clarence, Illinois, and John Gardner, the subject of this sketch.
John G. Lindsey obtained a common school education in Manchester, Ohio, and engaged in farming until 1893, when he engaged in the livery business in Manchester and continued in that business until September, 1899, when he sold out to Messrs. Perry and Swearingen. He now gives his entire attention to the fertilizer business, being employed by the Ohio Farmers' Fertilizer Company, of Columbus, Ohio.
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He was married March 25, 1880, to Dora Amelia, daughter of James and Morello Holmes. James Holmes was born December 22, 1814, and Morello, his wife, was born March 12, 1823, both in Adams County. The children of Mr. and Mrs, Lindsey are Byrdie Pearl, born October 2, 1882, and Bruce Emerson, born May 22, 1886.
Mr. Lindsey is a member of Hawkeye Tribe, Red Men, No. 117, and I. O. O. F., No. 827, of Manchester, Ohio. He is a Republican from principle, but takes no active part in political affairs. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and is Superintendent of the Sabbath School in Manchester. As a member of the Board of Education, he takes an active part in educational affairs. Mr. Lindsey is a successful busi- ness man and renders valuable service to the company which employs him. As a citizen, he stands high in the esteem of his fellow townsmen, and is known for his integrity and his interest in church and educational affairs.
Francis Marion Lang
was born April 25, 1850, in Sprigg Township, on the old Lang homestead, the son of Barton S. and Melinda ( Parks) Lang.
James Lang, grandfather of our subject, came to Manchester in 1793, and joined Massie's colony. He had a land warrant which he placed on Isaac's Creek, the farm still owned by our subject, but owing to the hos- tility of the Indians at that time, he was compelled to remain under the protection of the Stockade at Manchester until peace was declared in 1795, at which time he removed to his farm, where he reared a family of four sons : James, John, Thomas and Barton S.
Barton S. Lang, the father of our subject, was born September 22, 1815 .. Melinda Parks, his wife, was born February 27, 1814. They were married December 15, 1836. Their family record of births is as follows : James M., May 1, 1838; Jeremiah, October 5, 1839; Lucinda, March 14, 1841 ; Margaret Jane, November 23, 1842; Martha Ann, October 8, 1844; M. Lafayette, October 7, 1846; Amanda Melvina, October 29, 1848; Fran- cis Marion, April 25, 1850: Columbus Clay, April 2, 1852, and Walter Corwin, March 26, 1854. Barton S. Lang died August 8, 1879; his wife died in 1855.
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