Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 135

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149

USA > Ohio > Butler County > Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio > Part 135

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daughters. The names of his sons were, Joseph, Christian, Jacob, John, Samuel and Frederic; the names of the daughters were. Catherine, Magdalena, Barbara, Mary, Anna and Jasabene. The number of the descendants of the Augspurgers now living is about two hundred and fifty, of whom there are about two hundred living in But- ler county. The Augspurgers are remark- able for integrity, hospitality and unity, do- mestic, social and religious. In deal their promise is steadfast. The neighbor or stranger is alike greeted with open-hearted cordiality. In their families kindness and affection prevail. As relatives they are a band of brotherhood. Religiously, they are of one church and one belief, that of their fathers,-Mennonites.

JAMES KYLE.

James Kyle, of Kyle Station, Liberty township, was born in Pennsylvania, on the 17th day of September, 1791, and came with his father to Butler county in 1803. where he resided until his death, in the latter seventies, at the advanced age of over eighty-five years. Mr. Kyle married Esther Clark in 1816. This, the first wife of Mr. Kyle, departed this life in 1832. She was the mother of six children,-four boys and two girls. In 1834 Mrs. Elizabeth Conover was united in marriage to Mr. Kyle, and the re- sult of this union were three children,-two sons and one daughter. Mr. Kyle's second wife died in 1865.

Through the many years of continuous residence of this pioneer in the township of Liberty, wonderful changes took place. Great progress in civilization-in the sciences and arts-occurred during the busy and event- ful life of this man. Mr. Kyle resided here

during the time that the wild forests were giving way to settlements, settlements to villages and cities, all the country to the brand of the husbandman; trails to wagon roads, these to pikes, and all to the suprem- acy of railroads and canals.

VINCENT D. ENYART.

Judge Vincent D. Enyart was born in New Jersey in 1799 and came to Ohio with his parents when but a child. He resided in Middletown until his death, on Saturday morning, October 14, 1848, aged forty-nine years. Judge Enyart was one of Butler county's most useful citizens. He had many admirable traits of character. He was a man of sound judgment and of wide infor- mation. In the winter of 1834-5 he repre- sented Butler county in the Ohio legislature with credit and ability. He was afterwards elected associate judge for Butler county, the duties of which office he continued to discharge for the constitutional term of seven years. He took a deep interest in the political events of the county, and advocated warmly the Democratic cause. His op- ponents in politics always admired him for his frankness, and confided in his integrity as a politician. He was a faithful member of the Baptist church. He left a widow, two daughters and a large circle of relatives and friends to mourn his departure.

JEREMIAH MARSTON.

Jeremiah Marston was born in Ken- nebec county, Maine, March 19, 1798. His father was a Methodist preacher and, as is generally the case with the clerical profes- sion, he had but little of this world's goods to bestow upon his children. Jeremiah lived in his native state until 1819, and came to

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Butler county, where he passed the remain- der of his days. June 18, 1821, he was united in marriage with Miss Vail, with whom he lived happily for thirty-five years, when he was called upon to follow her to her tomb. From this marriage eight chil- dren survived them. Mr. Marston was strictly an upright man. Industrious and persevering in business, economical in the management of his affairs, he was enabled to accumulate a comfortable competency. In politics he was a Whig, while that party had a living existence; then he was found acting with the Republican party. He received the appointment of associate judge, at which post of honor he reflected credit to himself and the state. Though connected with no church, he was a firm and consistent believer in the truths of the Christian religion. He died at his home near Miltonville, after a brief illness, November 17, 1857, in the six- tieth year of his age.

SAMUEL YOUNG.

Samuel Young was born in Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, October 9, 1792. About 1800 he moved with his father's fam- ily to Ohio, and settled in Warren county. In 1804 he came to Butler county, where he spent the remainder of his days. In 1819 he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Riarson Baker, who lived but a few years. In 1823 he was again married, this time to Miss Ruhamma McCain, who died June 15, 1851. To them were born eight children.

Mr. Young was intimately connected with the early history of Butler county and took a deep interest in everything that tended to promote its prosperity. When a young man he became a member of the Presbyterian church of Seven-Mile. In 1824 he was or-

dained to the office of ruling elder. This profession he adorned and this office he honorably filled until his death, which oc- curred at his old home near Somerville on June 1, 1875, in the eighty-third year of his age.

LEWIS D. CAMPBELL

was born in Franklin, Warren county, Ohio, August 9, 1811. He attended school in Franklin, in a log school house, with R. C. Schenck until he was fourteen years old, when he was transferred to the farm, on which he labored for three years. From 1828 to 1831 he served an apprenticeship in the office of the Cincinnati Gazette. In the latter year he came to Hamilton, Ohio, where he published a weekly newspaper, writing the editorials and other matter, set- ting it up, printing the issue on an old Washington press, and acting most of the time as his own carrier. In this paper he advocated the election of Henry Clay to the presidency. While editing his journal he studied law and in 1835 was admitted to the bar. He soon acquired a large and profitable practice. In 1848 Mr. Campbell was elected a representative in congress over General Baldwin. In 1850 he was elected to the same position over Judge Vance; in 1852, 1854 and 1856 over Hon. C. L. Val- landigham, and in 1870 over Hon. R. C. Schenck, his old schoolmate. This was his most celebrated campaign, for he had not only the influence and money of the ad- ministration to contend with, but a large Republican majority and the influence and money of eastern monopolies that favored a high tariff. During his first service in con- gress, from 1849 until 1858, slavery was the all-absorbing question. He participated

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prominently in the debates, contending that slavery should be excluded from the terri- tories by congressional enactment. In the thirty-third congress, when the great ques- tion of repealing the Missouri compromise came before the house of representatives, he was selected, in a conference of the op- position members, as their leader on the floor. The debate between him and Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, on the relative advantage of free and slave labor, gave him rank with the ablest debaters of congress.

At the opening of the thirty-third and thirty-fourth congresses Mr. Campbell re- ceived the votes of a large majority of his party for the speakership, and. no doubt, would have been elected had he continued to be a candidate, but in consequence of pledges exacted from him he withdrew his name. After a struggle, prolonged for many weeks, Hon. N. P. Banks was elected. During this congress Mr. Campbell served as chairman of the ways and means com- mittee. The arduous duties thus devolving upon him were discharged with great ability. Among the measures reported by him which became laws was the tariff act of 1857. which levied the lowest average duties on imports of any act passed within the last three-fourths of a century. It was during this congress that Preston H. Brooks made the assault on Charles Sumner in the old sen- ate chamber. Mr. Campbell was the first to reach the senate after he was stricken down. On the following day he introduced the resolution for an investigation, was chairman of the committee appointed for that purpose. and made a report for the expulsion of Brooks. The challenge which the latter subsequently sent Mr. Burlingame

was one of the results of the assault on Mr. Sumner. Upon the pressing request of Mr. Burlingame Mr. Campbell took charge of the affairs as his friend. General Joseph Lane, of Oregon, being the friend of Mr. Brooks. The correspondence on the part of Mr. Burlingame was wholly written by Mr. Campbell, who retained all of the original papers. It was through his skillful management that Mr. Burlingame was car- ried safely through without a stain upon his honor. When the Southern rebellion com- menced Mr. Campbell ardently espoused the cause of the Union. In the spring and sum- mer of 1861 he was assisted in raising several regiments. In the autumn following he organized the Sixty-ninth Ohio Regi- ment, and was commissioned colonel. In the winter of 1861-2 he was in command of Camp Chase, where he received and kept as prisoners of war the officers taken at Fort Donelson and in other battles. In April following he went under orders with his regiment to Tennessee, where he served in the Army of the Cumberland until the fail- ure of his health unfitted him for the serv- ice, when he reluctantly retired.

In 1866 Mr. Campbell was appointed minister to Mexico-the successor of Hon. Thomas Corwin. In November of that year, accompanied by General Sherman, he pro- ceeded on his mission. The French army of occupation and other forces of Maximil- ian were then in Mexico holding the capital and other principal cities. President Juarez and his cabinet officers had been driven to a point on the northwestern border. Fail- ing to reach the government of that republic in its then migratory condition, Mr. Camp- bell was directed by Mr. Seward, secretary of state, to make his official residence tem-

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porarily in New Orleans. He remained there until June following, when, tired of that kind of service, he resigned.

Taking his seat as a member of the forty-second congress in March, 1871, he was at once recognized as possessing com- manding influence which is attained only by a long and honorable public service. Act- ing with the minority, he was not placed in such a position as to take the leading part which had fallen to his lot in previous con- gressional service, yet his influence was very perceptible in the promotion of salutory legislation. In April, 1873, Mr. Campbell was elected a delegate to the convention to revise and amend the constitution of the state of Ohio. After the convention as- sembled at Columbus he was elected, on May 22d, its vice-president by a unanimous vote.

In politics, Mr. Campbell was a Whig until the dissolution of that party. Subse- quently he was a Republican, but after the rebellion closed he left that party and co- operated with the Democratic party. He was in failing health for months before his death, which occurred November 22, 1882. He was survived by an aged wife, who has since died, and three daughters. In his death Butler county sustained a great loss, and the state one of its greatest and most distinguished sons.

JAMES SHIELDS

was a native of the north of Ireland and was born in the year 1763. the son of par- ents who were in moderate circumstances. He received the rudiments of Latin and Greek at a classical school, and completed his education at the University of Glasgow. He had a quick and retentive memory, a

sound, discriminating judgment. He had an extensive acquaintance with every branch of useful knowledge. With natural, civil and ecclesiastical history, and with law, physic and divinity he obtained a very gen- eral acquaintance. Few men possessing knowledge so various and extensive made so . little display of their attainments or so re- luctantly acknowledged the extent of their acquisitions.

Having early imbibed an ardent love of liberty, with an unconquerable aversion to priestly and royal domination, he resolved to leave the land of his birth, and to cast in his lot with the sons of freedom in the United States. He landed in this country in 1791. He spent a short time in the state of Pennsylvania, after which he removed to Virginia. In this state he spent thirteen years in cultivating his own mind, and in the useful and honorable employment of teaching. In 1804 he married Miss Jane Wright, daughter of James Wright, of Berkeley county. Virginia. In 1805 he re- moved to Morgan township, in Butler county, Ohio, where he had previously pur- chased land. He began farming in the midst of a dense forest, surrounded by few settlers, and these entire strangers. It must he confessed that from the natural disposi- tion and former habits of Mr. Shields, he was little qualified for this course of life. But while he was reasonably successful in his undertaking, he speedily rose to com- manding influence among his fellow citizens, that must have recompensed him for the failure to reap great pecuniary success. His immediate neighbors soon discovered his superior acquirements, and they uniformly looked up to him for counsel, but never in vain. He was successful in political life.

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He never took a step, wrote a line, or drop- ped an expression to obtain preferment, yet the public demonstrated its conviction of his superior worth by sending him to the state legislature for a period of nineteen years. . He was chosen a presidential elector, and for the last two years of his life was a member of the national congress. Mr. Shields was a man of the highest moral „ character. His word was, in all cases, his bond, and his declaration in regard to facts which he had witnessed was never disputed. He was uniformly abstemious in eating and drinking. Wherever he was, in his family, on his farm, in a party of friends, or in public company, his conduct strictly con- formed to the rules of moral rectitude. He was an enlightened and firm believer in revealed religion. Few men have studied the subject more diligently. He was warmly attached to the Bible Society, Sabbath schools, missionary societies, the American Colonization Society, and every other in- stitution which had for its object the illumi- nation, liberty and happiness of men. He attended public worship regularly. James Shields died August 13, 1831, after a lin- gering sickness. He had returned home from Washington with extreme difficulty and gradually declined. He left a wife and twelve children to lament their loss.

DANIEL BEAL.

Daniel Beal was born in Virginia, Au- gust 22, 1795. He came to Butler county in 1811, and settled in Hanover township. When he came to this section all kinds of wild game were in abundance and many were the deer that his true rifle brought to the ground. The subject married Miss Amy Morris, of Reily township, daughter of Wil-

liam Morris, who was well and favorably known in the early settling up of Butler county, especially in the Indian Creek val- ley. Mrs. Beal was born in Kentucky, April 2, 1797, and died April 24, 1870. The hus- band-our subject-was not permitted to tarry long after her, and died January 18, 1871, aged seventy-five years, four months and twenty-seven days. The children of those pioneers numbered eleven, all of whom survived their parents. Daniel Beal was a man of true moral character, and those who knew him best esteemed him highest.

COLONEL ABSOLOM DUNN

died very suddenly Friday, November 3. 1854. He was born in New Jersey, where his father died when he was quite a youth. Having thereafter to rely upon his own efforts he apprenticed himself to learn the trade of blacksmith. After acquiring his trade he resolved to try his fortune in the West, and thereupon removed to Butler county about 1809. Without money, with- out the tools of his trade and without the assistance of influential acquaintances, he began his career as a journeyman black- smith. Relying upon his industry. and be- lieving that an intelligent community would properly reward those who deserved their confidence, he determined to be the artificer of his own fortune and his own character. with a limited education, with only respect- able business capacity, guided by honesty of purpose and straight forward integrity in all things, and of industrious and frugal habits, acquired a competency of this world's goods. He was elected repeatedly to a seat in the Ohio legislature; he held many other public trusts, and at the time of his death was president of the agricultural society of the

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county. He was taken ill very suddenly while valuing the property of Asa Emmons, deceased, from the effects of which he died in a few hours.

Colonel Dunn was respectable for his intelligence, was faithful in all his engage- ments, was honest, industrious, temperate and of frugal habits ; was kind and consider- ate as a neighbor; he was in addition, a man of benevolence; amiable and affectionate in his family, and a devoted and liberal friend to the widow and orphan.

JOHN CRANE

was born in the state of New Jersey in 1796, and died on the 16th of March, 1864. He came with his family to Butler county in the early decade of the eighteenth century, and first settled in Jacksonburg, where in 1818 a postoffice was established, he becom- ing the first postmaster. In 1825 he was elected a county commissioner, serving in this capacity for three years. In 1828 he was a member of the Ohio legislature, hav- ing as a fellow member Fergus Anderson. of this county. From 1841 to 1845 he was coroner. Major Crane removed to Hamil- ton in 1825, keeping for several years a hotel in the frame building on the corner fronting the public square. During his residence in Hamilton he was engaged for several years in the grocery and liquor busi- ness, in company with William B. Van Hook, and was at the same time city in- spector. About 1855 he prepared with great labor and expense a useful map of this county, being a loser by it to the amount of five hundred dollars. He was for several years the commandant of a splendid bat- talion of uniformed light infantry. One of these companies, known as the Miami

Guards, was composed of the finest young men in Hamilton. Major Crane had taken the lodge, chapter and commandery degrees of Masonry. He was a Knight Templar, becoming such in the year 1827, in Leba- non. For a few years before his death he resided in Covington, Kentucky, but his re- mains were brought to Hamilton, and were buried in Greenwood cemetery.

SAMUEL W. BEELER.

Samuel W. Beeler was born in Virginia in 1743. He came to Butler county, Ohio, early in 1800. His son, Col. Samuel Beeler, Jr., was one of the first settlers of Oxford township, having purchased section 25 and settled there about 1802. Shortly before Samuel W. Beeler's death, on July 13, 1824. his son in looking over his father's papers found a captain's commission, which read as follows :

To all to whom these presents shall come, greet- ing:

Know ye, that I, John, Lord of Dunmore, Gov- ernor of his Brittanic Majesty's colony of Vir- ginia, in the continent of North America, having full confidence in the valor, patriotism and integ- rity of Samuel Beller, Gent., of the County of Berkley, in his majesty's said colony of Virginia, doth hereby appoint and commission him, the said Samuel Beeler, a captain in the Provincial Militia of his majesty's said colony of Virginia.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the great seal of his majesty to be affixed unto these pres- ents, the 25th day of May, in the year of our Lord, 1768.

John, Lord of Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, Earl of Fincastle, Baron Murry, of Blair.

Captain Beeler stated that Lord Dun- more's plain and proper name was John Murry, a long-nosed old man whose na- tive residence was in the county of Blair in Scotland; and that he had so far gained the good will of George III as to obtain the

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appointment of governor of Virginia. Samuel W. Beeler was among the first thirty or forty persons who died among the early settlers of the College township, and were buried at the base of "Chowraw hill," where once stood a log church, erected for church and school purposes in 1808.

SAMUEL DICKEY.

Samuel Dickey was born in Pennsyl- vania in 1794. His father was Adam Dickey, one of the early settlers of the Miami valley, and who came from Ireland to America soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, and settled in Pennsyl- vania, where he soon after became ac- quainted with and married a Virginia lady. In 1801 he removed his family to Cincin - nati, where he engaged in brickmaking and farming for four years, during which time he made the first brick ever laid in a house in the Queen City. He afterward re- moved to Lemon township, Butler county, where he purchased between four and five hundred acres of the richest and most valu- able land in Butler county. Here he lived until his death, in 1828, at the age of sixty years. The subject of this sketch remained with his father and engaged in the milling business until 1821, when, after arriving at the age of twenty-eight years, he married Miss Jane Greer, with whom he lived seven years, when death separated them, leaving him a widower with one child. In 1831 he married Miss Kerren H. Heath, by whom he had four children. In 1851 his second wife died, leaving him again a widower. In 1864, at the age of seventy years, he con- tracted a third marriage, Mrs. Elizabeth Kinder, an estimable lady of Warren county, this time becoming his companion and with whom he spent his remaining years.

Having learned the milling trade from his father, Samuel Dickey continued the business from boyhood to old age, remaining in one neighborhood for more than sixty- five years. In 1818 he loaded a flat boat with flour and whiskey, which he floated down the Great Miami, Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans, where he sold the boat and cargo to a "good advantage" and returned home through the wilderness on horseback. In politics Mr. Dickey was an earnest and life-long Democrat, and a Protestant in religious sentiment. Though not a communicant, he was a regular at- tendant at the Presbyterian church in Mid- dletown. He died at his home in Amanda, on Friday evening, April 12, 1878, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He was respected and honored by all of his neigh- bors, and was mourned by a wide circle of relatives and friends.

MATTHEW RICHARDSON.

Matthew Richardson was born in 1758 in the state of Maryland. In 1802 he came to Ohio and settled on the farm where he died. He was one of the first county com- missioners of Butler county, and served three terms. Milford township was or- ganized into a civil township in 1805, and in 1810 he was elected a justice of the peace. and continued to serve the people of that township for about twenty years. Mr. Rich- ardson was a member of the Ohio legislature two sessions as a representative from But- ler county. He was a man of good sense and of business habits. The conveyancing and public writing of the township was principally transacted by him for many years. In all stations to which he was called by his fellow citizens, he served them faith- fully and with great honesty of purpose.

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His friends were numerous, and he was of that mild, conciliatory disposition that he had few enemies. He lived beloved and re- spected and died at his residence in Mil- ford township on Tuesday, January 2, 1838, at the advanced age of eighty years.

MARK C. M'MAKEN

was born January 1, 1800, in Union town- ship, Butler county, Ohio. His parents, in 1789, came from Pennsylvania and located at North Bend. In the early fall of 1791 they removed to this section of the country. Joseph McMaken, the subject's father, was well acquainted with General, Wayne, and after the treaty at Greenville he purchased the woods of what is now Union township, this county. He cleared the land and built a cabin, planted his corn, took it to the mill, gun in hand. Divine worship was con- ducted in a little, old log meeting house, and God was worshiped with loaded rifles near at hand, for fear of the Indians. Joseph McMaken and wife met General Wayne on his march to the North near the present northwest corner of section 14, Fairfield township, General Wayne and Mr. Mc- Maken drinking generously together, as was the custom in those days. As twilight be- gan to set in Mrs. McMaken reminded her husband that to get home before dark it was best to begin starting and so they left. Mr. McMaken had "blazed" the way through woods, and it was only by follow- ing this way back that they reached home in safety, through the primitive and com- paratively unbroken wilderness.

M. C. McMaken grew to manhood on the farm and was justice of the peace of his native township for years. He was a member of the lower house of the Ohio legislature during the years 1843-4. In

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Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio, Part 135

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1149

Author: Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater, Frederick Schneider, and others
Publication date: 1905
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1149