A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 148

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612

USA > Ohio > Scioto County > A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record > Part 148

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He has had the following children: Anna, John Gordon, George Washing- ton, William Edward, and Lizzie Richardson.

In 1889, Mr. Neill changed his business into a corporation, with a capital stock of $20,000. He was president until his death. After his death George Neill became the president and John Neill the secretary and treasurer. Mr. Neill's wife died September 13, 1897, and he died August 13, 1899. He was not a member of any church. His wife and daughters were members of the First Presbyterian church of Portsmouth. In his political views, he was a republican. He was never a member of any fraternity, and always preferred to stand on his own merits. It will be fifty years the coming spring, since he started business in Portsmouth. Mr. Neill was a man who undertook to fulfill every duty before him, and he was a fair and typical representative of the north of Ireland Scotch-Irishman.

Charles J. Nelson

was born in Jackson county, Ohio, March 22, 1847. He is the son of Oliver J. and Martha B. (Kinnison) Nelson. His father Oliver J. Nelson was a soldier in Company B, 67 O. V. I. and died in the service, September, 1865, and was buried in the National Cemetery, at Stantan, Va. He took part in the battles fought near Petersburg, Virginia. The boyhood of Charles was spent on the farm. He received his education in the public schools of Jackson county. He came to Scioto county in 1877 and located in the north-western part of Madison township. He is a republican and a member of the Christian church. He was married September 9, 1875 to Mary J. Horton, of Jackson county. They have a large family of children. Arthur and Earl, the oldest sons, are two of the bright- est young teachers in the county. Mr. Nelson is regarded as an industrious farmer, a kind and considerate neighbor and a most valuable citizen.

Andrew Jackson Newell, M. D.,

of South Webster. Ohio, was born in Jackson county, Ohio, May 4, 1839. His father was George Newell and his mother's maiden name was Margaret Stephen- son, descended from the Stephensons of Virginia. Doctor Newell was reared on a farm till sixteen years of age; attended common schools till eighteen and afterwards attended the Jackson High School. He taught school for six years holding the highest grade certificate issued. His services were always in demand and he commanded the highest wages. In 1864 after six years teaching, he turned his attention to the study of medicine. He attended Ohio Medical College. He located at Mabee in Jackson county, in 1866, and practiced there for twenty- two years. He came to South Webster, April 16, 1888. He was elected Justice of the Peace in Hamilton township, Jackson county, in 1872 and held the office for seventeen years. He was township Clerk from 1878 to 1888. He was also a township Trustee and held other township offices. He has been a member of the village Council of South Webster for six years and is now holding that office. In politics, Doctor Newell is a republican.

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He was married twice. His first marriage was to Frances Buckley, Decem- ber 31, 1862. To this union four children were born: Warren, a physician in Idaho City, Idaho, and Treasurer of Boise county; Mrs. Bell Ankrom, now in Manila, Philippine Islands; Mrs. Jessie Heisel of Cincinnati and Wilbur, clerk for the South Webster Hardware Company. His first wife died January 26, 1881. His second marriage was to Miss Jennie McCoy, September 29, 1881. They have one son, Guy, who is yet at home.

Doctor Newell began the practice of medicine without capital in 1866, and is now, not only a very prominent physician with a good practice, but is very well endowed with this world's goods. As a man, Doctor Newell, is an excellent example of the self-made type. His honesty, industry and pleasing manners have made him hosts of true friends and have won him the respect and esteem of the country for miles around. There is no favor he would withhold from a friend. He is a member of Western Sun Lodge, F. and A. M. No. 91 at Wheel- ersburg and of Oak Hill Lodge Knights of Pythias.

John Bennett Nichols

was born at Port Isaac, Cornwall county, England, in February, 1822. His father's name was Thomas Nichols, and his mother's maiden name was Mary Ivey. His father was a merchant. There were six children in the family: Wil- liam, Thomas, John B., Samuel, Elijah, James, all sons, and all have lived in Portsmouth. Thomas Nichols the father brought his family to the United States in 1832 and located in Honesdale, Pa., where he tried farming. Our subject came to Portsmouth in 1844, before his father. He went into the furniture business as a maker of furniture. Riggs & Wilcox furnished the lumber and helped him. He learned to make furniture in Honesdale. He was in the business of making furniture forty years. Wm. E. Williams went in with him soon after he opened out in Portsmouth. Mr, Williams made chairs, and Mr. Nichols made furniture. He began undertaking at the same time; but all coffins were made by hand, and were never made until some one was dead and needed one. They were made chiefly of walnut boards. Ready made coffins and caskets were not used until about 1856. Our subject was in the undertaking business until he sold out to the Fullers, but afterwards continued the furniture business.

In 1871, he was elected Cemetery Trustee for a period of three years. Jan- uary 31, 1871, the Presbyterian church presented Mr. Nichols with a silver scr- vice and a family Bible in consequence of his having been chorister for twenty- eight years previous. The Bible cost $22, and the silver service $500. Mr. Nichols was the leader of the choir of the First Presbyterian church for forty years.

He was married February 13, 1851 to Maria Merrill, only daughter of John Merrill. The following are the children: Charles M., engaged in the lithograph business in Columbus; John Belden, a farmer in Scioto county, Ohio, married Charlie Davis, who is deceased, and left one child, Charlie; Louis Moore is in business with his brother, Charles M., at Columbus. Mr. Nichols retired from business about 1898, and since then has lived a life of retirement and leisure.

Isaac H. Noel

was born April 6, 1840, a short distance north of the present city limits in Clay township, on the farm on which he still resides. His father, Solomon Noel, was a son of Philip Noel, who with Jacob Noel and Gabriel Feurt in 1816 pur- chased from the government a section of land about four miles north of this city. In the division of the section among themselves, Philip was allotted the southern portion which now comprises the farm of John Hogan and Michael J. Noel. Isaac grew to manhood on the farm, performing the arduous duties which such a life involves, and participating with enthusiastic vigor in such sports as the times afforded. These sports were chiefly hunting and fishing, and few if any of the residents, even the pioneers themselves, can claim a more varied or successful experience in these sports.

When the call to arms in the defence of the government came, he enlisted in Captain Jacob Caldwell's Company C of the 91st O. V. I. Upon the muster of the regiment at Camp Ironton, July 7, 1862, he was made a Sergeant which rank he maintained until February, 1864, when he was promoted to First Sergeant.

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On December 2, 1864, he was made Second- Lieutenant, and on May 31, 1865, he became First Lieutenant, and was assigned to duty in Company D of the same regiment. On October 29, 1864, he was stricken with typhoid fever and was sent to the hospital at Winchester, Virginia; later he was removed to the general hospital at Clairesville, Maryland, where he remained until January, 1865, when he rejoined his regiment at Martinsburg, Virginia. He was mustered out of the service at Cumberland, Maryland, June 24, 1865. From the time of his enlist- ment in the service until his muster out he was never off duty, excepting for the brief period of illness in the hospital mentioned. He participated in every skirmish and battle of his regiment, the most important being Cloyd Mountain, Lynchburg, Winchester and Cedar Creek. The numerous marches through Vir- ginia and West Virginia on which he accompanied his regiment aggregate a grand total of 1,300 miles. He was always in the heat of battle, but was never wounded, although at the battle of Winchester his hat cord was shot away. On another occasion at the battle of Lynchburg, the hard-tack was shot from his haversack. At the close of the war, he was recommended by Generals Hayes, Coates and Lightborn for appointment to the Regular Army with rank of First Lieutenant, but he declined the service and returned to his home upon the farm where he has since lived the life of a frugal, industrious tiller of the soil.

On April 23, 1872 he was married to Mary Ellen Jones. He is the father of two children: Charles, who was a member of Company H, 4th O. V. I. of the Spanish-American War, residing with his parents, and Irma D. wife of J. K. Nolder, residing in Portsmouth. Mr. Noel is a man of firm, but kindly tempera- ment, modest, unassuming, and commands the respect of all his neighbors.

Michael J. Noel

was born in Scioto county, Ohio, about one-fourth mile southeast of his present home on the Chillicothe pike, February 22, 1842. His parents were David and Nancy (Morgan) Noel. His mother was a native of Virginia. His boyhood and youth were spent in Scioto county. He received such instructions as was af- forded by the country schools of that time and graduated in book-keeping from a commercial school of Portsmouth about 1862. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He was for years superintendent of the Sunday school and church trustee. About 1876, he was associated with Doctor Beard in the drug business in Portsmouth. March 16, 1879 he married Alice Crain of Campbell county, Kentucky. She was the granddaughter of Ora Crain, a soldier in the war of 1812. His father, Leonard Crain, served in the Civil war in the 22d O. V. I. Mr. Noel resides on his farm where he has conducted a dairy for the past eight years. He has two children, David and Clarence F. He is a good citizen, esteemed by all who know him. In his disposition he nearer resembles his kins- man, Jacob P. Noel, to whose sketch the reader is referred.

Solomon David Noel

was born January 5, 1838, in a log cabin near where P. W. Noel now resides. He was a son of Solomon Noel and Mary Huston his wife. Her father was Jo- seph Huston, a pioneer of Scioto county. His grandfather was Philip Noel, a native of Virginia. Our subject had a common school education but he made the most of it and studied by firelight. He has been a farmer since he was nine years of age. He is not a member of any church but claims to be the best christian on the turnpike in his vicinity. As a boy he attended Sunday school for three years without losing a Sunday and won a prize for committing the greater part of the New Testament to memory. Mr. Noel's religious ideas are based on the Golden Rule, which he tries to live up to and his neighbors think he has succeeded. Mr. Noel has always been a liberal contributor to the churches and has uniformly favored public improvements. He has always been a public spirited citizen.

Mr. Noel ws a republican until 1896, when he became a "free-silver" dem- ocrat, and at this writing adheres to it. He voted for William J. Bryan for President in 1896 and 1900. He never was a candidate for any office and never held any. He never served on a jury till April, 1901, when he was called on the grand jury. His fee for such service was the first public money he ever drew. Mr. Noel was not a soldier but his heart was with the Union cause. He volun-

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teered in Captain A. B. Cole's Company in the Heavy Artillery in 1863, but was rejected on physical examination. He was told he would never see the age of thirty and would soon die of consumption, but the Doctor was mistaken for he is sixty-four past with as good a pair of lungs as anyone ever had.

Mr. Noel believes in honesty, not as a policy; but as a principle and lives it every day, He is highly esteemed by all who know him, if he is a bachelor. He has made his home with his brother Philip W. Noel, on the Chillicothe turn- pike for many years. He is an example of a man who has lived at his birth- place all his life and maintained the esteem of his neighbors. He has never traveled, but is a great reader and well informed on current events. He is a good example of the American Citizen,- what he ought to be and what he is.

James Carris Nolder

was born in Buena Vista, March 1, 1859. His father's name was Samuel Nolder, and his mother's maiden name was Martha McCall, daughter of David McCall. Our subject was the oldest of a family of four children. He attended the com- mon schools of Buena Vista until he was twelve years of age, and then he started to work on the farm. He worked as a farmer until he was sixteen years of age, and then he learned the cooper's trade with Jake Willey at Buena Vista. He worked with him for a year, and then went to work for himself. In 1877, he went to Blue Creek and remained five years with John Newman in his store as a clerk. In 1882, he came back to Buena Vista again and worked for John Miller in the quarry. He began to run stone a while, and in 1885 took up the carpenter's and blacksmith's trades and learned both at once. In 1893 he started a blacksmith shop of his own in Buena Vista, which he has conducted ever since. He is also a wagon maker and paints buggies.

He was married October 24, 1883. to Anna Catharine Sonne, a daughter of Catharine Sonne, a widow of Buena Vista. They have four children: Willie, aged eleven years, Anna, nine years, Ralph, seven years, Carl, five years. He lost two children at nine and eleven, respectively, and three died in infancy. He is a democrat in his political views, and always has been. He has been a member of the school board of Buena Vista for eight years. Mr. Nolder has the faculty of being able to take up any manual occupation and learn it. He is a good neighbor, a good citizen and is liked by all who know him.

Alfred Locklin Norton, M. D.,

was born at Bennington, Genesee county, New York. August 9, 1824, the son of Charles and Amy (Knapp) Norton. Dr. Norton was of French and English ex- traction. and belongs to the Norton family that appears in the New England states and New York. His genealogy is traced to the French family De Nor- ville. This, during the centuries, becomes anglicised and shortened to Norville, Northtown and Norton. He was educated in his native state, attending school until he was eighteen years of age. At the age of twenty he was a district school teacher. In 1843 he entered the Cleveland Medical College and graduated in 1847, and became a successful practioner in his profession. He endured for eighteen years, that hardest of all lives, that of a country doctor, through the districts of Gallia and Jackson counties, and twelve years of that was spent at Oak Hill, Jackson county, Ohio.

Ill health compelled him to retire from his profession; and he entered in- to a partnership with Mr. John Campbell, of Ironton, Ohio, for the manufacture of charcoal pig-iron, the firm being Norton, Campbell & Company. The other members of the firm were: Simon Drouillard and Joseph Stafford. Dr. Norton was engaged in this business at the time of his death. He was a staunch re- publican in politics, showing a keen interest in all affairs of state. He was a faithful member of the Bigelow Methodist Episcopal church. Dr. Norton was married to Miss Emily Drouillard, of Gallipolis, Ohio, May 10, 1855, and was the father of three children: Charles Joseph; Florence, who married Henry W. Ver- ner, of Pittsburg, Pa., and Alfred Francis. Dr. Norton died November 27, 1882. He was a man of fine personality and all men of generous and lofty natures, who knew him, loved and honored him. His body rests in Greenlawn cemetery, Portsmouth, Ohio.

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Winfield Scott Nye,

druggist of Portsmouth, Ohio, is the architect of his own fortunes and has every reason to be proud of the structure he has created. At the age of thirteen he started out for himself as an errand boy in a drugstore in Portsmouth, and he has stayed by the city, and it by him, until he is now the proprietor of two of the most attractive drug stores in the town. He was born at Pomeroy, Meigs county, Ohio, the son of Nial R. Nye and Sarah (Bower) Nye. His grand- father Othello Radogney Nye came to Ohio, from Pennsylvania, but was a native of Scotland. This statement accounts for our subject's skill in piling up the "bawbees." The ideas of the first five years of his life were obtained in Pom- eroy. Then his father removed to Racine, where our subject resided until he came to Portsmouth.

When he struck the town he began working for J. I. Mercer, doing what- ever a boy could do in a drug store. He then formed a friendship for Mr. Mer- cer, which has continued to this time, but their positions are reversed. Now Nye is the proprietor and Mercer the clerk. He remained the first eighteen months of his life in Portsmouth with J. I. Mercer, and was then with Enos Reed for a few months. He tried Columbus, Ohio for six months, but came back to Portsmouth, and went in with Harry Greene. He remained with him about one year and then on August 14, 1889, opened up a drug store on the corner of Fourth and Chillicothe streets, which he has kept ever since. Ten years later he opened a drug store on the corner of Gallia and Gay, and in July, 1901, he opened a third drug store on the southwest corner of Sixth and Chillicothe. He is a good illustration of what one man can do by applying himself to a single business. Mr. Nye has one vanity which the conscientious historian, cannot overlook or conceal. He has a weakness or fondness for Secret Soci- eties, and Fraternal Organizatins. In other words, he is a "joiner." He is a Mason of all the degrees to Knight Templar. He is an Elk, a Knight of Py- thias, a Woodman and a member of the Royal Arcanum.

Mr. Nye was married November 30, 1899 to Miss Floy Mildred Batey, daughter of Harry E. Batey of Racine, Ohio. He has two children, Rustin Win Nye, a son and Helen Floy Nye, a daughter.

He has advertised and is known by the name of Win Nye, and he has made it good to this date, and his friends believe he will to the end of the Chapter. He is one of the most active, energetic and industrious of the young business men of Portsmouth.

George S. Oldfield

was born April 17, 1830, on a farm about four miles north of Portsmouth, Ohio, on the Chillicothe pike. His father, William Oldfield, was born December 30, 1790, and was a native of New York. His mother's maiden name was Marie Hemstead. She was born September 2, 1794, in the state of Connecticut. George S. Oldfield received a common school education. He lived on the farm until about sixteen yars of age. In 1850, he went to California, where he worked in the gold fields and remained five years, returning to Portsmouth in 1855. He engaged in the retail grocery business which he conducted success- fully until his death, August 21, 1891. He was an active member of All Saints church, and a member of Aurora Lodge, F. and A. M. In politics he was a staunch republican. November 15, 1864, he was married to Eliza J. Baker, a native of England. She died October 9, 1898. They had six children, four of whom are living: William S., of Portsmouth, Ohio; Frank C., of Denver, Col- orado; Robert B., of Portsmouth, Ohio; and George G., of Denver, Colorado.

George William Osborne, M. D.,

was born at Locust Grove, Adams county, Ohio, October 3, 1853. His grand- father Enoch Osborne, was a native of Loudon county, Virginia, and emigrated from there to Highland county, Ohio. He was a soldier of the war of 1812. His father, George P. Osborne, was a private in Company B, Fourth Battalion, Ohio Infantry, enrolled May 13, 1864, to serve three years. He was discharged July 12, 1865. By occupation, he was a farmer. His mother was Elizabeth Early. His parents were married at Locust Grove, in 1850. There were but

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two children of this marriage, our subject and a daughter Emily, who married Peter Carter. but is now deceased.

Dr. Osborne attended the common schools of the county and the High School at Hillsboro frm 1873 to 1875. He began the study of medicine with Dr. James S. Berry, at Locust Grove. in 1870, and continued it from time to time until 1878, teaching school and attending school in the meantime. He at- tended lectures at the Cincinnati College of Medicine in 1877, and in the sum- mer of that year began the practice of medicine with his preceptor, Dr. J. S. Berry, at Locust Grove, and continued with him for one year.

On April 18, 1878, he was married to Margaret E. Briggs, daughter of John K. Briggs, of Dry Run, Scioto county, Ohio. They. have the following children: Edith Fern, Arthur Flint, and Arleigh B.

In February, 1879, he located at Cedar Mills in the practice of medicine. In the winter of 1882-3 he attended lectures at Columbus, Ohio, and graduated March 1, 1883. In May, 1889, he was appointed one of the three Pension Ex- amining Surgeons of Adams county, and served as such till July, 1893. Dr. Os- borne has always been a republican. In the fall of 1893, he was nominated by his party unanimously for Auditor of Adams county, and made the race against Dr. J. M. Wittenmyer. It was a campaign of money on both sides, and he was beaten by sixty-eight votes On January 1, 1896, the doctor re- moved to Dry Run, in Scioto county, where he has resided ever since and has devoted himself exclusively to the practice of his profession. He is a member of the Adams County Medical Society and of the Hempstead Academy of Med- icine of Scioto county. He is an Odd Fellow and a Red Man. Dr. Osborne is highly esteemed as an excellent physician and a good citizen.

John W. Overturf,

son of Conrad and Rachel Overturf, was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, June 12. 1839. After finishing his course of study in the public schools of that city, he taught a school in Union, now Rush township, when but seventeen years of age. In 1857, he entered the banking house of Thomas Dugan and remained until the summer of 1862, when he entered the army as First Lieutenant in Company F, 91st O. V. I., and served until the close of the war. In the winter of 1862, he was detailed as Aide-de-Camp on the staff of Colonel John T. Toland, commanding a brigade in the Kanawha valley, and afterwards served on the staff of Colonel Carr B. White, Generals Isaac H. Duval and R. B. Hayes, being continuously on staff duty during the remainder of his army service. He re- fused promotion, but was breveted Captain and afterwards Major for gallant and meritorious services. General R. B. Hayes in sending the last brevet says, "Enclosed I send you your commission as Brevet Major. I secured it by sim- ply telling the truth about you." General George Crook offered him an ap- pointment as a Captain in the Regular Army and a position on his staff, but he refused it. Had he accepted the appointment then and received the or- dinary promotions since, he would be a Major General now. He was in the battles of Fayetteville, Cloyd Mountain, Stephenson's Depot, Opequan Creek, Fisher Hill, Cedar Creek and others. At the battle of Cedar Creek his horse was shot from under him, but he himself was not captured or wounded.

After the war he was a farmer with his father in Rush township, for about one year. In 1866, he went into the banking business with Thomas Du- gan, and remained until 1873, when Mr. Dugan died and the bank was closed. In 1875, he with a number of others established the Citizen's Savings Bank Com- pany, which did business until the panic of June, 1893, when it closed business. He was president of the bank at the time of its failure, and was the largest creditor it had. He and his family represented between one-sixth and one- seventh of its total indebtedness when it closed.

In 1866, he married Ella Kendall, daughter of Jefferson and Elizabeth Kendall, both now deceased, to whom were born one daughter, who died at the age of eight years. One son, Alva Kendall Overturf, now seventeen, is attending the Ohio State University, at Columbus, Ohio. In 1899, he removed with his family to Columbus, Ohio, where he now resides.

He was always a republican and active in politics. He represented his ward, the Sixth, in Portsmouth, for seven years in Council, and as a member

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of the Board of Education fourteen years. He was an active member of the Board of Trade and at one time its president. He was interested in many manufacturing plants in Scioto county, which are now each doing a prosperous business. As a book-keeper he had no superior. As a business man he was always courageous and hopeful. He was always ready to take a business risk which looked well. While the Citizens Bank went down under his management, it was due to causes he could not anticipate or control. He has never lost his industry, energy or courage, and today is as actively engaged in business as he ever was. If any one can retrieve his fortunes, he will do so.

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A history of Scioto County, Ohio, together with a pioneer record, Part 148

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913 Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans Number of Pages: 1612

Author: Evans, Nelson W. (Nelson Wiley), 1842-1913
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Portsmouth, O. N. W. Evans
Number of Pages: 1612