USA > Ohio > Hardin County > A twentieth century history of Hardin County, Ohio : a narrative account of its historical progress its people and principal interests, Vol. II > Part 6
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Mr. and Mrs. Brown have two children, namely : Ilarry and Stella. Harry married Ella Dysart, and they have two children, Cleora and Dwight. Stella married first Kerr Brooks, and they had one daughter, Clara. She married for her second husband William Clark. Politi- cally Mr. Brown is a stanch advocate of the principles of the Democratic party, and socially he is a member of Silver Creek Grange. Mrs. Brown is a member of the Disciples church of Belle Center.
MRS. NANCY ELLIOTT, who carries on a farm in Hale township, Hardin county. is the widow of Wilkinson Elliott, who was born August 6, 1809, and died August 10, 1894. He followed farming all his life and in 1855 came to the present Elliott farm, which he cleared ; he built a log cabin, which has now disappeared, but the old barn he first erected is still standing. Mr. Elliott was a son of Benjamin and Susanna (Sutley) Elliott, farmers of Stark county, Ohio; he was born in 1778 and died in 1859. and his wife, who was born December 21, 1784, died March 21, 1883. Wilkinson Elliott traveled extensively before his marriage. He was a Quaker and a strong Prohibitionist, and traveled for the purpose of giving lectures in the cause, continuing this good work until his death. Hle met with an accident some years before this, so that he had retired from active life.
Mrs. Elliott is a daughter of John Rollins, a native of Virginia, a farmer all his life. and who died in 1841, at the age of seventy years. He married Rebecca Pyles, who died in 1860. at the age of sixty years. Mrs. Rollins reared a family of eight children after the death of her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Elliott had children as follows: E. L. Elliott, single, a farmer of Colorado; E. A. Elliott and his wife Anna, living on a farm in Hale township, have three children; Abbrilla, wife of Ross Armon, a farmer of Hale township, has two children. Mrs. Elliott was born in Scioto county, Ohio, October 1. 1826, and is one of the oldest residents of Hardin county. She lives alone on the old homestead, her children being all provided for, prosperous, well-to-do and all except one living near her. She endured the hardships incident to pioneer life in her young married life, and now enjoys a peaceful, though useful ex- istence. She is an earnest member of the Quaker church, and is still an active worker. Since her girlhood Mrs. Elliott has spent considerable time weaving carpets and rugs, and still to some extent follows this old fashioned occupation as a pleasant pastime. Mrs. Elliott is well known throughout the community, where she is universally revered and es- teemed. She is a pleasing conversationalist, and her manner and bearing are cheerful and pleasant, the reflection of a beautiful character.
CHARLES R. WILSON, a prosperous farmer of Hale township, Hardin county. was born December 27, 1864, in MeLean county, Illinois, and is a son of Hugh Wilson. The father of Hugh, John Wilson, a native of
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Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, moved to Beaver county, in the same state, where he entered four hundred acres of land. Ile sold two hundred acres and located in Holmes county, Ohio, where he opened a tavern and spent his remaining years. His wife was Mary Post. John Wilson served in the war of 1812, was a Whig, and a member of the Lutheran church.
Hugh Wilson was born in Holmes county, Ohio, March 4, 1818, and died June 5, 1895. Ile carried on farming until 1831 and then began driving an ox team for Cyrns Dille; in 1843 he married Sarah Dille, daughter of his employer, who died in 1866, aged forty-three years. After his marriage he entered a two hundred acre farm in Hardin county near his son, Charles R., and was the first settler in the section. In 1856 he drove a team to MeLean county, Illinois, where he remained until 1870 and then moved to Pyatt county, Illinois, where he lived the remainder of his life. He was an earnest member of the Methodist church, and politically was a strong supporter of the Republican party. Ile served as clerk of Hale township when it contained but thirty-five residents. He was serving on a jury at Bloomington, Illinois, when Abraham Lincoln pleaded a case. Mr. Wilson was an influential citizen and served in the Illinois legislature. llis children were: Mary, deceased; John, a farmer near Mount Vernon, Illinois; William, a farmer at Parkville, Missouri; Jane, wife of William Glass, of Platt county, Missouri; Cyrus D., a farmer of Platt county, Missouri; and Charles R., the youngest.
Mr. Wilson attended school until seventeen years of age and then for two years engaged in farming. For two years he was engaged in buying and shipping stock in Missouri, and then for some time in the real estate business in Kansas City. In 1887 he began farming in Illinois, and in 1896 located in Hale township, and purchased the farm he now ocenpies, one of the largest and finest in the township. He earries on general farming and raises considerable stock, being a pro- gressive farmer, of modern methods and ideas.
Mr. Wilson married, January 16, 1889, Emma Jane McCall, born March 24, 1863, daughter of William E. and Charlotte (Garwood) McCall, of an old pioneer family, and they have children as follows: Carl H., born in 1890, now at the state university; Lucille, born in 1892, in the high school at Mt. Victory, Ohio; Chester M., born in 1893, at school ; Lottie Irene, born in 1895, attending school; and John Il., born in 1897, also at school. Mr. Wilson is a member and trustee in the Methodist church. Ile is a member of the school board, a strong Republican, and one of the most active and prominent workers in the interests of his party to be found in the community. Among the valued possessions of Mr. Wilson is an application for a land patent made by his grandfather in 1792, also a note issued to him payable in pot metal at the rate of eight cents per ton, the amount of the note being forty dollars. The grandfather, John Wilson, had once an exciting encounter with the only Indian who remained in the vicinity after the others had removed westward; the Indian afterward vanished, Mr. Wilson having won out in the contest. Mr. Wilson remembers as a boy being with his
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parents a guest of Governor Cullom, of Illinois, at the time of a state fair, among the fellow guests being President R. B. Hayes and General Sherman.
WILLIAM B. WALLACE, a prominent farmer of Hale township, Hardin county, was born September 30. 1849, in Logan county, Ohio, and is a son of Alexander and Mahala Wallace, early settlers of Hardin county. Mr. Wallace attended school until seventeen years of age and remained with his parents until his marriage, when he settled on the farm he now ocenpies. Ile first bought forty-two aeres, and the log house thereon, which was fashioned in a crude manner, was one of the first in the vicinity. He has acquired his present comfortable home and sur- roundings by his industry, economy and thrift. He has erected a fine residence and has one of the most attractive places in the township, with all modern conveniences.
In September, 1871, Mr. Wallace married Mary D. Rudasill, born January 26, 1850, in Logan county, Ohio, daughter of Winfield and Lydia (Sutton) Rudasill. Winfield Rudasill died in early life, and his wife still lives near Rushsylvania, aged eighty-two years. His father, Lamson Rudasill. and his wife, Mary Doby, were natives of Virginia, who settled in Logan county, Ohio. Winfield Rudasill and his wife had children as follows: John P., a farmer of Rushsylvania ; Jonathan S., deceased, was a farmer living in Kansas; Leah, with her mother; Bessie, wife of J. Day; Florence, wife of E. D. Barber; and Mary D., Mrs. Wallace. Mr. Rudasill was a member of the Christian church, served many years as a justice of the peace of Logan county, Ohio, and was a prominent member of the Masonic order. Mr. Wallace and his wife have children as follows: Ethel, born in 1874, at home; George, born in 1876, a farmer in Logan county, Ohio; Bessie and Blanch, twins, born in 1878; and Earl, born in 1882. George married Nona Morrison and they have three children, Mabel, Ruth and Harold. Bessie married H. Morrison, a hay dealer of Mt. Victory, Ohio, and they have two children, Clara and Helen. Blanch married D. Vasser, a farmer of Hale township, and they have one child, Lela. Earl, a farmer in Hardin county, married Margaret Miller, and they have two children, Opal and Louise.
Mr. Wallace and his wife have been for many years members of the Christian church of Mt. Victory, of which he has served twenty years as trustee, deacon and elder; she also belongs to the Ladies' Aid and Missionary Societies. Mr. Wallace is actively interested in public affairs and is a member of the district school board. Politically he is a Republican.
JOSEPH ALEXANDER KORNS .- Prominent among the business men and citizens of Mt. Victory is numbered Joseph Alexander Korns, the cashier of the Mt. Victory Bank. He was born in Logan county, Ohio, April 9, 1879, a son of Silas Wright Korns, who is living retired at Mt. Victory, now sixty-six years of age. He was born in Holmes county, Ohio, and after leaving the school room he took up the work of the farm
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and followed it until enlisting for the Civil war. Joining Company G, One Hundred and Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry at Millersburg, Ohio, he served throughout the entire conflict, and after returning home from the war he again took up the work of the farm and continued as an agriculturist until his retirement in 1890. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and is one of the church trustees. Mrs. Korns, Anna A., is a daughter of one of the most honored residents of Mt. Victory, William I. Witcraft, a pioneer, business man and banker. His life's span has covered eighty-seven years, years of honorable effort, and he is now living retired. His wife was before marriage Margaret Wallace. Four sons and a daughter were born to Mr. and Mrs. Korns, but only the sons are now living. Charles William Korns is an agricul- turist in Logan county, Ohio, and John Hamilton Korns is a practicing physician at Chicago, Illinois.
Joseph A. Korns after leaving the graded schools at the age of fifteen years attended high school for three years and graduated in 1898. He enlisted in April, 1898. for the Spanish-American war, at Kenton, Ohio, and was made a member of Company G, Second Ohio Infantry, accompanying it to Chickamauga Park, Chattanooga, Tennessee, Knox- ville, Tennessee, and thence to Macon, Georgia, where he was stationed when the war ended. Returning home in February, 1899, Mr. Korns entered the Lima (Ohio) Business College and graduated therefrom in the fall of 1899. Ile entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, Ohio, in the fall of 1899, and graduated from there in June, 1902. He then spent almost two years at Long Beach, California, connected with the First National Bank there, and coming to Mt. Victory in June, 1904, he was made the assistant cashier of the Mt. Victory Bank, and in January of 1906 became its cashier.
He married on October 4, 1903, Ethel Viola Williams, born March 6, 1880, a daughter of the Rev. Charles S. Williams, the pastor of the Winona church. His wife is deceased. Two children. Laverne Emelene and William Theodore Bashford, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Korns, and they are aged respectively five and one years. Mr. Korns is a member and one of the stewards of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is also prominently identified with the Masonic order, affiliated with Latham Lodge No. 154. Scioto Chapter No. 119, with Kenton Council No. 65, with Kenton Commandery No. 58, with the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at Toledo and with Aladdin Temple at Columbus.
JOHN HOBENSACK, has through many years been prominently identified with the public life of Mt. Victory and active in the local councils of the Republican party. During thirteen years he served Mt. Victory as its mayor, and he is now serving his third term as a justice of the peace. Ile was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. September 16, 1833. a son of Isaac and Emily (Fetter) Ilobensack, and a grandson on the paternal side of John Hobensack, who came to this country from Germany in 1771 and located in Montgomery county. Pennsylvania. He was a land owner and farmer there, and he served five years as a Revo-
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lutionary soldier. The Fetter family came to this country at the same time as the IIobensacks. John and Emily Fetter became farming people of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. He affiliated with both the Whig and Republican parties, and he represented his county in the state legis- lature of Pennsylvania for two terms. Both he and his wife were members of the Baptist church. Their danghter, Emily, born in 1801, died in the year 1882. Isaac Hobensack, born in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, April 21, 1798, took up the work of the farm after com- pleting his education, finally purchasing the old Ilobensack homestead, which is yet in the possession of this family, and he died there in 1892. The children born to Isaac and Emily Hobensack are William; Rachel; Casper ; Margaret, the widow of William L. Craven and living in Phila- adelphia ; Isaac C. ; Elizabeth ; John, the subject of this sketch ; and Mary Ellen, the widow of Thomas Mabray and living in Philadelphia.
John Hobensack after leaving the public schools at the age of seven- teen attended the Chester county boarding school for three terms, and during a similar period thereafter taught school. He then turned his attention to farming, condneting the Hobensack homestead until his enlistment on the 8th of Angust, 1861 at Trenton, New Jersey, for the Civil war. Joining Company A, First New Jersey Cavalry, he was commissioned a second lientenant in December, 1861, while in the follow- ing February he was promoted to a first lieutenancy, and in April was commissioned a captain. Ile served in all the principal battles of the Eastern army, and on the 9th of August. 1862, was wounded at Cedar Mountain. Ile was also wounded at the battle of Mine Run and again at Sweetbrier Springs, and rejoining his regiment from the hospital at Georgetown he served until the close of the war. Ile was captured at Brandy Station in Virginia and taken to Gordonsville in the same state, but escaping he rejoined his regiment, and was finally mustered out at Trenton, New Jersey, on the 28th of July, 1865. During his army vareer Mr. Hobensack served as staff aid-de-camp to General Winfield Hancock from December 1, 1864, until his discharge from the Second Corps, and he then held the same office under General Humphrey.
Returning to his home with an honorable military record Mr. Hobensack continued farm work there until March of 1866, when he came to Ohio and settled on a farm near Mt. Victory. He remained there until 1880, and being then elected the sheriff of Union county, Ohio, and re-elected for a second term he moved to Marysville, but returned to the farm in 1886, and in 1889 came to Hardin county and retired from an active business life.
On the 19th of February 1865, he was married to Emma E. Mabrey, who was born on the 12th of March, 1839, a daughter of William Mabrey, a Bucks county, Pennsylvania, farmer, and of Hannah C. (Travis) Mabrey, his wife. The children of this union are: Isaac K., who married Letitia James, by whom he has seven children, and he is farming near Lima ; Henry II. an engineer in Washington county, Ohio, is a widower with five children; John W. who married Alice Taylor and who died leaving a widow and two children; Annetta is deceased; Carrie is the wife of C. Longhenry, of Columbus, the foreman of the Ohio Tube
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Company; Maggie M. is the wife of John Foster, in the mercantile busi- ness at Dayton, and they have two children; William L. married Anna Vance and he is an engineer living in Columbus; Lineoln C. married Eva Rice and is in the railroad employ at Lewisburg, Ohio; Onto T. married F. Koontz and lives in Arkansas ; Jessie is the wife of Ed. Hunt, a dentist at Mt. Vietory ; Elsie married George Miltholser; and Everett, also with the Ohio Tube Company at Columbus, married Eva Vance, and they have one child, Independence, living at home and born on JJuly 4. Mr. HIobensack is a member of the Masonic fraternity at Richwood, of the Knights of Pythias order at Marysville and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in Union county. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a representative citizen of Mt. Victory, and well known in its business, official and social life.
WILLIAM HENRY ROBINSON, who resides on the Robinson homestead carries on the farm, and was born on this homestead November 4, 1854. and is a son of Silas and Rebecca (Paxton) Robinson, both of whom are mentioned at considerable length in the sketch of Mrs. Rebecca Robinson, found elsewhere in this work. He lived at home until fifteen years of age receiving his education in the public schools, and remained at home until his marriage in 1879. In 1881 he moved to Ridgeway. where for two years he operated a meat market. then moved to Logan county, where he farmed two years, and at the end of that time moved to Kansas where by a series of misfortunes he lost all he had and re- turned to Ridgeway, again embarking in business. In 1889 Mr. Robin- son removed to Athens, Tennessee on account of his wife's health, and worked there three years as a clerk, when her health returning. they located in Mt. Victory and for seventeen years conducted a hotel. In 1908 he settled on the old homestead, and is now engaged in its man- aging. He is an enterprising, ambitions farmer, who gives all his time to his work and has been successful. He is a public-spirited citizen, and actively interested in the progress and welfare of the community. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and his wife is active in church work, teaching a class in Sunday school, is a member of the Ladies' Aid Society, and also belongs to the home and foreign missionary societies, being president of the latter. Mr. Robinson is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Mt. Victory, and his wife belongs to the Rebekahs and the Maccabees. Politically he is a Republican and is now serving as distriet union school treasurer and is corporation treasurer.
William II. Robinson married Rosanna Callahan, who was born in Logan county, August 14. 1855, daughter of William Callahan. who died in 1885, having been born in Virginia in 1813. He came with his parents to Ohio at the age of fifteen years, and they settled near West Liberty. Later he moved to Logan county and there engaged in the Iminber business. In 1861 he located in Ridgeway and engaged in milling. operating the first mill built in that town. Previous to this he had built the first saw mill and stave factory at Ridgeway. He also engaged in mercantile business. He died in Ridgeway. He married
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Jeanette MeDonald, who was born in 1818, and died November 19, 1906, a daughter of Ebenezer and Elizabeth McDonald, who came from Vir- ginia and settled in West Liberty. Mr. Callahan's father, Patrick Callahan was a native of Scotland, settled in Champaign county, Ohio, and married Betsey Winsted. Mrs. Robinson's grandmother, Jeanett (Kelley) MeDonald, died in 1881, at the age of eighty-five. She was a daughter of Joseph Kelly, a farmer who came from Virginia to West Liberty.
William Callahan and his wife had several children, those living being James, a farmer on the old homestead; Patrick, a druggist of Columbus, Ohio; Mrs. Robinson, who is the third child; and Moses, in the railway service, living at Kenton. William Callahan was one of the earliest business men of Ridgeway, and through his energy and good management the village was founded. In order to be able to pay for his farm of one hundred acres, he opened a trading store west of Kenton, trading beads, etc., to the Indians in exchange for furs. The union of W. H. Robinson and his wife has been without issue.
GEORGE WILLIAM ANSLEY, a successful farmer of Hale township, Hardin county, Ohio, was born in Logan county, Ohio, February 26, 1843, a son of Charles and Mary (Spencer) Ansley. Charles Ansley, a native of Fleming county, Kentucky, born August 4, 1814, died in 1898, at the age of eighty-four years; he was a son of Charles Ansley, who was a native of Scotland. William Ansley, the grandfather of George W., was one of a family of sailors; he came to the shores of Maryland and, tired of sea life, traveled inland and located in Ken- tucky. He was a shoemaker by trade, and he and his wife came to Kentucky on horse back, settling in Elizaville, Fleming county. In 1835 they came to Logan county, Ohio, where they died. Their son Charles followed farming until 1851, when he became engaged as a contractor in railroad work, first in Kentucky and later in Ashland conn- ty. Ohio. He settled first in Logan county, where he purchased a farm which he later sold. He came to Hardin county in the fall of 1856, and first bought two hundred acres of land. building a log house and begin- ning to clear his farm, by thrift and industry he added to this till he owned three hundred and forty-five acres. Ile remained on this land the remainder of his life, farming and raising stock. Mr. Ansley was a Whig and later a Republican, and was a strong supporter of Fremont for president. His wife, Mary Spencer, born in Kentucky in 1815, died in 1903; she was a daughter of Charles and Eliza Spencer, he being a saddler by trade and the town of Elizaville, Kentucky, was named after Mrs. Spencer or one of her children. Mrs. Ansley was one of fourteen children, the only one still surviving being "Sis" Scott, living on the old family homestead in Kentucky.
Charles Ansley and his wife had six children, of whom George W. is the oldest. The others are: James R., a farmer of Hale township; Mary Jane, widow of J. Cook, of Harbor Springs, Michigan; Lydia, wife of William Allen, a farmer of Logan county, Ohio; Charles T.,; and Johanna, who died at the age of fourteen years.
The boyhood days of George W. Ansley were spent on a farm and
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he received a meager education. Ile began plowing when a small boy, when his head barely reached above the plow handles, and continued to help his father until he was twenty-six years of age, when he was married. Mr. Ansley came to his present farm in 1868, and has four hundred and forty-five acres of the best land in the section of the state, where he lives. He is one of the most extensive farmers of Ifale town- ship, and raises considerable stock, about fifty head of cattle and five hundred head of sheep annually. Ile is an enterprising, progressive citizen, and pays strict attention to his business interests. He is sue- cessful as a farmer, and is considered one of the representative men of the county.
On October 3. 1868, Mr. Ansley married Mary J. Andrews, born in 1850. daughter of James and Mary (Hathaway) Andrews, who came to Ohio from Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1829; they settled on their present home, where he out the first brush, and his wife and child remained with the Dille family while he erected a cabin. Mrs. Ansley has one sister, Anna, wife of O. S. Conklin, of Jonesburg, Missouri. Mr. Ansley and his wife became the parents of children as follows: Henry, living just west of his father; Frank, living at home; Ilattie, wife of Joe Bentley, of Dayton, Ohio; Anna, wife of Charles Reams, and they have three children : Joe, a farmer of Dudley township. married Ruby Stevenson. and they have one child ; and Waldo Glen, living at home.
In May, 1864. Mr. Ansley enlisted in Company H. One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Ohio Infantry, for service under Generals Sigel and Sheridan, being one of the ten thousand tendered to President Lincoln by the Governor of Ohio. He was mustered out at Columbus, Ohio. September 1. 1864. He and Ferd Copp lay under a blanket when Jim Boyd of Mt. Victory, was shot by a stray bullet. Politically Mr. Ansley is a Republican. and is an active worker in the interests of the party ; he served six years as trustee of Hale township. He is a promi- nent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Ridgeway Lodge No. 693. and belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, Ridgeway Post.
CHARLES FRANCIS ABBOTT, one of the prominent farmers of Dudley township. Hardin county. Ohio. is a native of Wood county. Ohio, born October 8. 1859. a son of Charles and Elizabeth (Shanks) Abbott. Charles Abbott was born in Huron county. and became a farmer. At the time of the Civil war he enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty- first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died in a hospital the next year (1863). having been shot through the month. His widow died in 1864. at the age of thirty years. Her father was a native of Ireland. Charles Abbott's father. Bennett Abbott, was born in New York state and was a farmer. He and his wife moved to Wood county. Ohio, where he died in 1870. at the age of sixty-six years. Charles F. Abbott has one brother. William Elwood, a railway employe living in Huron county. His sister Ida died in 1890.
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