USA > Ohio > Allen County > A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 2 > Part 33
USA > Ohio > Van Wert County > A portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert counties, Ohio, v. 2 > Part 33
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F REDERICK MARKLEY, a substan- tial farnier of Jackson township, Van Wert county, Ohio, was born March II, 1835, in York county, Pa., of German stock. Samuel Markley, his father, was also a native of York county, was left an orphan in childhood, was a wheelwright by trade, and married, in York county, Marillas Bowers, the union resulting in the birth of five children-John, Frederick, Henry, Samuel and
Elizabeth, all of whom reached inaturity. The father, after marriage, lived on the Bowers farm until his demise in the faith of the Lu- theran church, and in politics was a republi- can. Two of his sons, Frederick and Samuel, served in a Pennsylvania regiment during the Civil war, and both were honorably discharged -but this glorious record the father never lived to be cognizant of, as his death occur- red in 1861, at the age of about fifty-six years.
Frederick Markley, whose name introduces this biography, was taught the house-carpen- tering trade, but, inspired by the patriotic sentiment prevalent in his early day manhood, enlisted in defense of the flag of his native land. and was enrolled at Carlisle, Pa., October 16, 1-862 to serve nine months, receiving an hon- orable discharge at Gettysburg, July 28. 1863, and after a short sojourn on the home farm he re-enlisted-this time in company C, One Hundred and First Pennsylvania volunteer in- fantry -- was enrolled in March, 1864, and was again honorably discharged at New Berne, N. C., June 25, 1865 --- the war having closed. Following is a list of the chief engagements in which he took an active part: January 30, 1863, Deserted House, near Suffolk, Va .; April 14, 1863, skirmishes on Jonestown road, near Suffolk; May 14, 1863, Beaver Dam, near Franklin, Va .; May 16, 1863 Carsville, and afterward, in skirmishes, winding up in North Carolina and Roanoke, Va.
Directly after the war Mr. Markley located in Putnam county, Ohio, and engaged in wagon-making in Kalida, for a short time, where his marriage took place, February 10. 1867, to Albigail Goodman, a native of Frank- lin county, Ohio, and a daughter of Jesse Goodman, of English descent. Mr. Goodman was a substantial farmer of Union township, owned 120 acres of land, and died at about seventy years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Markley. after marriage, lived a year in Kalida and then
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two years in Van Wert city, then traded his town property for forty acres south of Van Wert, and in 1878 came to his present farm, then comprising eighty acres, all in the woods. In the interval, February 27, 1872, his wife died on the first farm, the mother of three children: Aaron C., who resides in Lima, Ohio; Albert, on the home farm, and Flora, who died at the age of three years.
January 30, 1873, Mr. Markley married, at Middlepoint, Van Wert county, Mrs. Eliza- beth Mullen, who was born in Delaware county, Ohio, September 26, 1843, and was a widow of Thomas Mullen. This lady bore the maiden name of Longwell-daughter of George and Mary A. (Sheets) Longwell. George Longwell was born in Ohio, of Irish parentage, was married in Delaware county, Ohio, and became the father of ten children, viz .: Hen- rietta, Lecretia, Elizabeth, Kate, Henry, Catherine, Martha, Albert, Mary E., and Charles and Lucy, twins. Mr. Longwell came to Van Wert county in 1851 and settled on Dog creek, Jackson township, in the wild woods, with his nearest neighbors two miles distant to the south, and no settlement at the north except in the extreme edge of the town- ship. This old pioneer had one son, Henry, who served three years in an Ohio regiment during the late Civil war, and his own death took place on the farm at the age of about seventy-eight years. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Markley have been born four children, viz .: Samuel H., Mary E., Louise J. and Isom. Mr. Markley, aided by his faithful wife and children, cleared up as comfortable a home as there is in the township, and, being a thoroughly practical farmer, is now reaping a golden harvest that compensates him for his past years of toil and hardships. In politics Mr. Markley is a republican; Mr. Markley is a consistent member of the Lutheran church, and his wife of the Methodist congregation.
As a soldier our subject has done his share for his country bravely and faithfully, and as a citizen and neighbor he performs his duty in- telligently and well, winning the respect of all with whom he comes in contact.
ICHARD H. MARTIN, a successful and progressive farmer of Union town- ship, Van Wert county, Ohio, and a son of Robert and Nancy (Dowell) Martin, was born in West Virginia, September 14, 1844. Robert Martin, the father, was a native of old Virginia, born October 17, 1807, of Irish parents, who were early settlers in the Shenandoah valley. In the year 1828 he helped build the Delaware & Hudson canal; then later rafted down the Potomac and Shen- andoah rivers; then helped to lay the first railroad track (it being of wood) for a steam engine running from Harper's Ferry to Win- chester, a distance of thirty-three miles, it being among the first railroad enterprises of this country, under J. Q. Adams' administration, and yet he has lived to see the time of near 150,000 miles of railroad under President Cleveland's administration. In 1844 the family removed from the valley to Pleasant county, W. Va., where Robert was employed as a flat- boatman, making trips to New Orleans with produce, but later retiring to a farm. In 1855 he moved to Guyandotte, Va., and the follow- ing year to Gallatin county, Ill., where he lived on a farm until 1861, when he came to Ohio. He had floated his family down the river to Shawneetown, Ill., in 1855, but his re- turn trip, in 1861, was in a wagon drawn by oxen. The family now camped out at night by the roadside, often sleeping on the ground, and in thirty-two days reached Highland county. Ohio, when Robert worked for nine months as a farm hand; he next rented a farm in Greenc county and cultivated it until 1866, when he
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
went back by wagon to Gallatin county, Ill., but returned the following year to Ohio and settled in Van Wert county, where he has since lived, with the exception of three years spent in Paulding county. He has long since passed the allotted three score and ten, and now makes his home with his son. Mrs. Nancy Martin was born in Virginia in 1818, a daughter of Samuel and Sarah Dowell, of old South Caro- lina descent. She was married to Mr. Martin in 1837 and became the mother of the follow- ing children; Robert, deceased; Charles L., of Kansas; Richard H., our subject; Daniel J., of Hoaglin township, Van Wert county; John H., of Union township; Sarah L., deceased, and an infant that died unnamed. The mother of this family died in the autumn of 1859 in Gal- latin county, Ill., where her remains now rest.
Richard H. Martin, the subject of this brief biography, from the time of his birth until six- teen years of age, accompanied his father in his varied and transitory migrations, and was thus deprived of the advantage of a systematic education, but was nevertheless supplied with a fund of practical knowledge by the impact of nomadic incidents. He worked as a farm hand until 1872 when he was united in mar- riage with Miss Maggie E. Rittenhouse, born December 3, 1850, a daughter of M. M. and Christena (Meely) Rittenhouse, whose bi- ography appears on another page. To this marriage of Mr. and Martin have been born six children, viz: Dora B., wife of Asa Grist, of Iowa; Burt L., Oscar E., S. Stella; Curtis M. and Zanna Z. P. Mr. Martin and his wife are members of the Lutheran church, and in politics he is a democrat. In 1871 he pur- chased a farm of twenty acres in Union town- ship, and to this he soon added another twenty-acre tract, and in 1894 purchased his present home. He is a self-made man in all respects, and is highly esteemed by his neigh- bors and friends.
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LEXANDER R. McCOY is a native of Madison county, Ohio, born Oc- tober 8, 1835. His parents were Alexander and Eliza ( Gillispie ) Mc- Coy. Alexander McCoy, Sr., was bornin Green- brier county, Va. (now W. Va.), July 27, 1800. His father, Joseph McCoy, was a sol- dier in the war of 1812. When twelve years of age Alexander, the father of Alexander R .. emigrated, with his parents, westward and lo- cated in Ohio, living in the counties of Ross, Fayette, Madison and Van Wert in succession. When fifteen years of age he apprenticed him- self to the blacksmith's trade, which he fol- lowed eleven years. At this time, his health failing him, he purchased a farm and lived the remainder of his life a tiller of the soil. In 1825 he was married to Eliza Gillispie, a na- tive of New York, whose parents were John and Margaret ( Gunning) Gillispie, both of whom were born in Ireland and emigrated to this country with their parents when quite young. To the union of Alexander and Eliza McCoy were born eleven children, nine sons and two daughters (see sketch of Moses H. McCoy).
When four years of age Alexander McCoy, with his parents, moved to Van Wert county, and was reared to manhood on the farm, work- ing for his father and attending the common schools; he was a good student, and so assid- uously did he pursue his studies that he became qualified to teach while still a youth. He followed pedagogy and farm labor until twenty- . six years of age, when he laid aside the plow and ferrule at his nation's call and enlisted, August 5, 1862; was elected corporal in com- pany A, Ninety-ninth Ohio volunteer infantry. Col. Langworthy commanding, later Col. P. T. Swain. He received an honorable dis- charge in July, 1865. and returned home, wearing a sergeant's stripes. Early in the service he contracted a malady known as vari-
A. R. M.leoy
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MRS. A. R. MCCOY
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OF VAN WERT COUNTY.
·cose veins, superinduced by excessive march- ing, and which confined him in the hospital at McMinnville six months. He was thereby prevented from engaging in the many battles of his regiment. Still, he saw active service, chiefly in the army of the Cumberland, under Gen. Sherman. He was in the whole of the Atlanta campaign, which, historical students will remember, was a protracted battle of three months' duration; also, the battle of Nashville -two days. Notwithstanding his defect in walking, caused by above-mentioned disease, he has a good record as a fighting soldier. This patriotism seems to have been a family heritage, as four other brothers defended the Union during that darkest of hours when the "Dogs of war" were let loose.
On his return to Van Wert county, in 1865, after the war, Mr. McCoy resumed his profession of teaching, with which he com- bined carpenter work, having also learned that trade at odd times, and stave joining with the Eagle Stave factory, of which he was a part owner. In 1874 he opened a grocery store in east Van Wert, which he operated eleven years, and sold to William Collett in 1885. After two years of farm life he re- entered the grocery business in Van Wert in the room opposite the Pioneer drug store, and which he now occupies.
October 1, 1868, the marriage of Mr. Mc- Coy to Mary Ann Anderson was celebrated. She was born near Findlay, Ohio, December 25, 1848. Her parents were John and Eliza- beth Anderson and paternal grandparents were John, Sr. and Louise (Cross) Anderson; her maternal grandparents were Sanford and Cynthia (McClimans) Dorman. When one EORGE H. MARSH, manufacturer and capitalist of Van Wert, Ohio, was born December 23, 1833, in Farmington, Conn., a son of George year old Mary A. Anderson moved with her parents to Wayne county, Ohio. When eight years of age her parents died and she made her home with William Anderson, in Van Wert. | and Caroline (Gilbert) Marsh. The grand- up to the time of her marriage, in 1868. To | father, James Marsh, was born in the aforesaid
the union of Alexander R. and Mary A. Mc- Coy were born six children-four boys and two girls, all of whom are living: Nettie I., born October 2, 1869, educated in Van Wert, un- married; Charles, born April 3, 1873, a clerk in his father's store; Minnie C., born August S, 1875, graduated in 1895 in music at Angola, and has taken up professional music teaching, in which she is acknowledged by all to be a fine instructress; Horace A., born in 1878; Estella, born in 1881, and Clara, born in 1884. The last three are attending the public schools of Van Wert.
In religion Mr. McCoy has a leaning to- ward Methodism, but is not a member of any denomination. He is a stanch republican, having voted for the first candidate of that party for the presidency -- John C. Fremont -- and also for all succeeding candidates up to the present time. He has never sought nor held office except that of justice of the peace of Ridge township, which office he resigned soon after qualifying. As a pioneer, Mr. McCoy is a typical one, as he has been a resident of Van Wert county since 1839-fifty six years. He has seen the county develop from a howling and uninviting wilderness into one of the most beautiful and productive agricultural districts extant, studded with mumerous bustling and thriving municipalities; he has seen Van Wert city in all its successive stages of hamlet, vil- lage, town and city; forsooth, he has grown up and kept pace with the county, never snr- rendering the integrity and honesty of purpose that has characterized his whole life.
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state, of Scotch-English parentage, and lived to the advanced age of ninety-nine years. George Marsh, father of the subject, was reared on a farm in Connecticut and in early life learned the trade of clock-making, and for a number of years peddled clocks in a pannier throughout the New England States and Canada; he is said to have made the first brass clock in the United States, and after following the business for some time in partnership with an uncle, William L. Gilbert, disposed of his interest to that gentleman, who afterwards be- came the largest manufacturer of clocks in New England.
George Marsh remained in Connecticut un- til 1833, in the spring of which year he came to Ohio, and engaged in land speculating, in the southern part of the state, but returned to his native state the same year, remaining there until the spring of 1835, at which time he again came to the Buckeye state, locating at Athens, where he resumed speculating of vari- ous kinds, principally in real estate. He next went to Dayton and engaged in the manufac- ture of clocks, but after the destruction of his establishment by fire, in 1841, removed to Illinois, locating in Bond county, where, until 1843, he followed stock farming, then returned to New England. His next move was to Van Wert county, Ohio, where in connection with other parties he had previously purchased large tracts of real estate; also had become interest- ed in lands in the counties of Mercer and Paulding, and in partnership with James W. Riley and Mr. Anghenbaugh, located in the cities of Van Wert, Paulding and Celina. Mir. Marsh removed his family to the town of Van Wert in 1847, and resided on the site now oc- cupied by the Marsh House on Main street. Here he lived until 1848, when he moved to southern Ohio, where he had large landed in- terests, and his death occurred in the city of Marshfield in the year 1862. Mr. Marsh mar-
ried, in Litchfield, Conn., Caroline Gilbert, by whom he had five children : James, de- ceased; a second son of the name of James, also deceased; Henriette, wife of Robert Gilliland of Van Wert; George H., subject of this biog- raphy, and Benjamin F. at this time deputy in the state treasurer's office of Connecticut. The mother of these children departed this life in I848.
George H. Marsh, the immediate subject of this sketch, was twelve years old when his parents moved to Van Wert county, where he received his elementary education in the com- mon schools. Subsequently he attended school in Connecticut, and spent some time in college at Athens, Ohio, and at the early age of six- teen became assistant to the corps of engineers which had in charge the surveying of the Marietta & Cincinnati railroad, which position he had for several months. Later he worked for some time in the clock manufactory estab- lishment of his uncle in Connecticut, thence went to Athens, Ohio, where he attended col- lege, and then came to Van Wert, where, until his twentieth year, he was engaged as clerk with a mercantile firm.
On attaining his majority Mr. Marsh be- came clerk to the master mechanic of what is now the P., Ft. W. & C. R. R., at Crestline, and in 1855 entered the railroad shops as machinist, and was thus engaged until the re- moval of the shops to Fort Wayne, where he continued in the same capacity about one year. For a limited period thereafter he was em- ployed in a cotton warehouse in Louisiana, but, returning to Van Wert, engaged in the livery business, which he carried on in con- nection with farming, stock-dealing and vari- ous kinds of speculation until 1871, in January of which year he became manager of the Eagle Stave works. Mr. Marsh here acted as gen- eral manager about two years, and then be- came proprietor, after which he enlarged the
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capacity of the factory and within a few years became the largest producer of staves in the United States, a distinction which he still enjoys. In addition to his manufacturing establishment at Van Wert he is interested in stave works in Belmore, Latta and Geneva, and in the Leeson Cooperage works at Scott, Ohio, all of which are more or less operated under his personal direction, the yearly output exceeding 50,000,000 staves, besides a vast amount of cooperage and other material.
Mr. Marsh succeeded Col. Marble, of Van Wert, in the banking business, and at this time is interested in fifteen national banks in various parts of Ohio and other states, besides being prominently identified with the Lima Locomo- tive & Machine Co., of which he is president; the Lima Steel works; the wholesale boot and shoe house of Ainsworth, Wickenheiser & Co., Toledo, Ohio, and other enterprises, all of which have proved financially successful. He is also largely interested in real estate, owning several thousand acres of valuable land in Van Wert, Paulding and other counties of northern Ohio, besides large tracts in the southern part of the state and in Illinois.
With all his eminent ability as a business man and financier, Mr. Marsh is entirely free from ostentation. He is a man of very decided convictions, with the courage and ability to maintain them, and though of strong char- acter is distinguished for his cordiality and has many warm personal friends in both business and social circles. Mr. Marsh is a remarkably well-preserved man, possessed of splendid physique and pleasing address, in fact is one of those well-rounded, symmetrically developed characters who, in the course of a long and successful life, leave their mark upon the times and the communities in which they dwell. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and his name appears upon the charter of the Blue lodge of Van Wert.
Mr. Marsh was married November 26, 1862, to Miss Hilinda Vance, who was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, June 13, 1844. To this marriage one child has been born, Katie, wife of Arthur I. Clymer, of Van Wert. Mrs. Marsh is a member of the First Presbyterian church, also a member for six years of the county board of visitors (charity) for the Eastern Star, of which she is secretary.
Elias Vance, deceased, father of Mrs. George H. (Vance) Marsh, was born in Sparta, Sussex county, N. J., April 12; 1805, and was the son of Josiah and Elizabeth (Morrow) Vance, natives respectively of Scotland and Ireland. Josiah and Elizabeth Vance reared a family of six children, viz: Charles R., Phoebe, Elias, Mary, Hilinda and Nancy, all deceased. After the father's death Mrs. Vance entered into the marriage relation with Enoch Miller by whom she had one son, Daniel S., deceased; the mother departed this life about the year 1830.
Elias Vance was reared to manhood in Geneseo, N. Y., and began life for himself as a merchant, carrying on a dry-goods trade in the aforesaid town until 1825, at which tine he became a resident of Ohio, Jocating in the city of Columbus. Subsequently he removed to Millersport and Salem, Ohio; at Millersport, on the 20th of November, 1839, he was united in marriage to Caroline Miller, daughter of Matthias and Amy (Crittenden) Miller, both parents natives of Virginia. Mrs. Vance was born in Millersport in the year 1821, and bore her husband the following children: Charles, a well-known druggist of Rockford, Ohio; Hi- linda, wife of George H. Marsh, of Van Wert; John, deceased; and Sophia, who for seventeen years has been one of the most popular and successful teachers in the Van Wert city schools.
Mr. Vance became a resident of Van Wert county in 1852, from which year until his death
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BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
he was prominently identified with the com- mercial interests of the city of Van Wert. He was in every respect a representative business man, and his success was the result of superior intelligence, directed and controlled by wise forethought, and was such as to gain him a handsome estate, consisting of 850 acres of valuable land in one body, and valuable property adjacent to and within the city limits of Van Wert. With affairs of business and every-day life, Mr. Vance's actions were governed by a high sense of honor and in his death the county of Van Wert lost one of its most highly respected citizens. Mrs. Vance subsequently married William S. Ainsworth, by whom she had one child -- a son, Dr. H. S. Ainsworth, a well-known dental surgeon of Van Wert. Since the death of her second husband, Mrs Ainsworth has made her home with her son, who now looks after her interests in her declining years.
LI D. MATHEW, who is conspicu- ous among the successful agricultur- ists of Pleasant township, Van Wert county, was born in Clinton county, Ohio, July 19, 1830. His grandfather was John Mathew, a native of Virginia and a de- scendant of an old English-German family of that state, whose ancestors came to America early in the present century.
Jonah Mathew, the subject's father, also a native of Virginia, was born in 1802 and was brought to Ohio when quite young, his parents having been among the pioneers of Clinton county. He grew to manhood amid the rugged scenes of pioneer life, assisted his father in the work of the farm, and when he could be spared attended the indifferent schools of those days, acquiring thereby a fair education. He resided in Clinton county until 1847, and in the meantime, about ths year 1825, was
united in marrage with Sarah Stokesberry, daughter of David Stokesberry, and to this union were born ten children, viz: John, Mrs. Elizabeth Rogers, Rachel, Eli D., Mrs. Eliza J. Lawhead, Mrs. Emily Wilson, Mrs. Mary Young, James, Martha and Will- iam. The mother of the above children was born in Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1803, and came to Ohio with her parents in early childhood. She was an active member of the Christian church, and died in the county of her adoption at the advanced age of eighty- eight years. Jonah Mathew was for many years a leading citizen and greatly aided in the early development of the counties where he lived. In 1847 he emigrated to Illinois, locating in Jefferson county, where he purchased a farm, upon which he lived until his death in the year I866. He was zealous in church matters, supported the principles of the democratic party, and left the impress of his character upon the people with whom he commingled.
Eli D. Mathew laid the foundation of his education in a little log school-house in Clin- ton county and assisted his father on the farm during the major part of his minority. When a young man he learned the miller's trade, at which he became quite proficient, and fol- lowed the calling as proprietor for a period of fifteen years, at the end of which time, in 1866, he disposed of his mill and purchased a tarm in Van Wert county. He at once moved to his place and proceeded to improve the same, making additions from time to time. until now he has one of the best cultivated farms in Pleasant township. He owns good buildings and other improvements in keeping therewith, and by excellent management has miade agriculture a marked success, and is now classed with the substantial and well-to-do citizens of the township of which he has been for so many years a resident.
In 1854 Mr. Mathew and Martha Rogers, of
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Clinton county, were united in the bonds of wedlock, a union blessed with the birth of the following children: Sanford, who lives on the home place; Tabitha, deceased; Sarah, wife of Clarence Balyeat; Frank and Jonah. Mrs. Mathew was born in 1832, belonged to the Friends' church, and in her domestic relations was a faithful wife, loving mother, and kind and considerate neighbor; the death of this excellent woman occurred in May, 1894.
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