USA > Ohio > Miami County > Troy > Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio > Part 69
USA > Ohio > Miami County > Piqua > Centennial history. Troy, Piqua and Miami county, Ohio > Part 69
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Lewis F. Wolcott attended the public schools of his home community, after which he worked on his father's farm. In 1873 he purchased his present farm, but did not move on it until 1880, some two years after his marriage. He erected the splendid home which adorns the place, and the other substantial farm buildings, con- verting it into one of the best improved places in the community. He has followed general farming and stoek raising along modern and approved lines, and has been more than ordinarily successful.
Mr. Wolcott was first married in 1878 to Miss Rachael Evans, who died without issue on October 20, 1880. In 1883 he formed a second union with Miss Susan Kinsey of Montgomery County, Ohio. Re- ligiously they are members of the Baptist Church at Lena. Mr. Wolcott is a Repub- lican in politics, and fraternally is affili- ated with the Masonic lodge at Lena.
DAVID B. LANDIS, senior member of the firm of D. B. & W. M. Landis, funeral directors, established his present business in Covington, June 19, 1889, and has fol- lowed same continuously since that time.
He was born August 31, 1850, near West Milton, Miami County, Ohio, and is a son of John and Anna (Bashor) Landis.
John Landis, father of our subject, was born on a farm in West Charleston, near Tippecanoe City, Ohio, a son of David Landis, who was a native of Pennsylvania. He was a farmer by occupation and died in 1866, being survived by his widow, who re- sides four miles west of Tippecanoe City, Miami County. She was born in Pennsyl- vania August 12, 1821, and when a girl came to this county with her parents.
David B. Landis was reared to maturity on his father's farm, remaining at home until about eighteen years of age, and then learned the carpenter's trade at Bradford. After leaving the parental roof, he located for a time near Pleasant Hill, and for the past forty years has followed carpenter- ing and general contracting in connection with his undertaking establishment, tak- ing, in 1907, his cousin, W. M. Landis, as a partner in the undertaking business.
David B. Landis was united in marriage, May 8, 1870, to Frances Kendig, who was born in Pennsylvania and at the age of four years came to Covington with her parents, Reuben and Mary (Lenhart) Ken- dig. Her father was a farmer and butcher by occupation and died on October 21, 1880, the mother's death occurring November 21, 1871. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Landis: Viola, married Oscar John- son and has two children-Oscar M. and Ferrel Amanda ; and Anna Merle, who was first united in marriage with Charles F. Deeter, by whom she has one child, Frances. About two years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Deeter, while attend- ing school at Huntington, Pennsylvania, met Samuel C. Gnagey, who came to Miami
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County in 1906, from Maryland, and whom she later married. They reside at West Milton, Ohio, and have one child, Susan Ruth. Mr. Landis stands high in the esti- mation of his fellow citizens and is one of the leading business men of Covington. He is a member of the Church of the Brethren.
SAMUEL D. ROYER, representative citizen and retired farmer of Newberry Township, residing on his farm of sixty- two acres, which lies just east of the Brethren Church, north of Bradford, was born on a farm in Union County, Pennsyl- vania, June 3, 1840, and is a son of Jacob and Susanna (Myers) Royer, both of whom died in Union County.
Samnel D. Royer was reared in his na- tive place and obtained a good common school education. Both he and his brother, J. G. Royer, a prominent retired citizen of Mt. Morris, Illinois, engaged in teach- ing school after their own school-days were over. Samuel D. taught only four months and then came to Darke County, reaching here in the spring of 1864, since which time until he retired he engaged in farming. J. G. Royer was a teacher for fifty years, fol- lowing that profession in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, and when he finally retired from the educational field he was president of Mt. Morris College at Mt. Morris, Illinois. Samuel D. Royer was married in the year following his settle- ment in Ohio and located first on the old Jerry Katherman farm in Darke County, which he operated for five years, when he moved on the Jacob Senseman farm, south- west of Bradford, and lived there for two and one-half years. In August, 1873, he moved to his farm in Newberry Township that is now owned by his daughter and
husband, and came from there to his pres- ent place, January 31, 1907. This farm he has greatly improved, all the substantial buildings having been erected by himself.
Mr. Royer was married in Darke County, Ohio, in 1865, to Miss Mary Mum- mert, a daughter of Joseph and sister of John Mummert, and they have one child, Catherine. She married D. I. Hoover and they have two children: Mary Etta and Harley, both of whom are graduates of Mt. Morris College of the class of 1909. Mr. Hoover was a native of Darke County. He is a man of considerable prominence in this section, being one of the directors of the Bradford Home Telephone Company, a director in the Bradford National Bank and one of the trustees of the Brethren Cemetery. For twenty-four years Mr. Royer has been a minister in the Brethren Church and few meu are better known or more highly esteemed through Miami and Darke Counties.
DANIEL BOYER, owner of 108 acres of very valuable farming land, which is divided into three tracts, all situated in Newberry Township, Miami County, lives on a five-acre lot which lies about four and one-half miles northwest of Covington. He was born in York County, Pennsylvania, June 11, 1857, and is a son of Mannasse and Lavina (Luckenhangh) Boyer.
When Mr. Boyer was about seven years of age, his parents moved to Ohio and set- tled in Darke County, and lived on differ- ent farms there. The father still resides in Darke County. The mother died in January, 1903. Daniel Boyer attended the country schools as opportunity offered and grew to manhood well acquainted with every detail of farming. After his mar- riage, in 1881, Mr. Boyer rented his
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father's farm of 160 acres in Darke County, for six years. In 1887 he moved to Newberry Township, Miami County, and has resided here ever since. One of his farms, containing forty acres, is the old homestead farm of his wife and it is now operated by his son, Clarence. A sec- ond farm he has under rental, while, al- though practically retired, he manages the home place himself. Here he has done a large amount of improving. His fine frame residence he has equipped with a furnace and a light plant and it is one of the most modern rural residences in this section.
In 1881 Mr. Boyer was married to Miss Mary Ellen Crowel, a daughter of John Crowel, a prominent farmer of Newberry Township. They have had six children, namely: Ira Olonzo, who is in the farm implement business at Gettysburg, Ohio, married Daisy Horner and they have one child, Gertrude : Clarence Homer, who op- erates the old Crowel farm, as mentioned above, married Florence Flory; Eva Venorah, who is the wife of Harry Chris- tian, of Covington, has one child, Harry Gerald; John Lowell and Linus Leonard, both of whom reside at home; and Lova Catherine, who died at the age of one year, seven months and nine days. Mr. Boyer and family belong to the German Baptist Church.
WILLIAM GAHAGAN, soldier hero and pioneer of Montgomery and Miami Counties. Of this historical character we have received the following account through one of his descendants :
Of good Scotch-Irish stock he had been reared under Presbyterian influences in Western Pennsylvania, and when nineteen years old came down the river to join Wayne's army, in which he served with
distinction through the war. In the spring of 1794 we find him with Benjamin Van Cleve in charge of a portion of a fleet of twelve boats under Captain Hugh Wilson, commissary of an expedition under escort of a detachment of troops carrying provi- sions and supplies from Cincinnati to Fort Massac. Young Gahagan, a dashing fel- low, fearless and possessing a level head that carried him through every emergency, was bearer of duplicate despatches from General Wayne to Fort Washington to be forwarded to authorities in Washington City. While passing from Fort Loramie down the Miami, his horse was disabled by a shot from a lurking foe, who, seeing that he had not killed Gahagan, fled pre- cipitately. Gahagan, mindful of his re- sponsibility as a messenger, made the rest of the journey on foot, eighty-five miles, to Cincinnati; for which sorrice he received the highest commendation on his return to the army. With the same rifle that he carried on that lonely, perilous journey, he fought in the ranks to final victory un- der Wayne on the Maumee, and it ever rested in a conspicuous place in his cabin at Dayton, and for forty years was a war relic in his home near Troy.
Upon honorable discharge from the army at the close of the war Mr. Gahagan took service with former comrades Van Cleve and Mercer, as hunter for the corps of sur- veyors under Captain John Dunlap, run- ning township and range lines between the Miami and Mad Rivers, and later in the field work west of the Miami, from Fort Hamilton to Fort Recovery. In the spring of 1796 he came with the Thompson, Van Cleve and McClure families, sharing pri- vations and perils that bound them in close friendship for life.
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Mr. Gahagan was the jolly man of the party of first settlers and his popularity increased with the growth of the settle- ment, he being universally liked for his good natured ways and readiness to lend a helping hand whenever occasion offered in the ten years of his residence here and in the Mad River neighborhood.
One of the conditions named to induce the State commissioner to make Dayton the county seat was that Main Street, from the river to Fifth Street, should be cleared of timber and graded. The trunks of trees hauled from clearing the street were rolled into the mud, then in places three logs high earth was filled in and the road grad- ed. Mr. Gahagan became overseer of the work, at first free of charge, then under pay by contract.
Finding that he could not push his con- tract to completion, Mr. Gahagan and family moved to Miami County, he having entered a section of prairie and timber land which came to be known as "Gaha- gan's Prairie," on the Miami across from the "Dutch Station"-Staunton, and im- mediately east of the site of the present city of Troy. This was the ground where ten years before his faithful horse was shot and from whence he started on his journey to Cincinnati on foot. This prairie had been tilled by the Indians, then begin- ning with the spring of 1799, by John Knoop, Benjamin Knoop, Henry Gerard, Benjamin Hamlet and John Tilden for five years, when Mr. Gahagan and family took possession in 1805. The deed to the land was not issued to him until four years later and was signed December 1, 1809, by James Madison, president of the United States. A few years later he purchased a
large tract of land upon which the busi- ness portion of Troy now stands.
The Gahagan land, being so favorably located. no great effort was required to influence the commissioners to purchase thirty acres at nominal price to establish Troy. in the center of his heavy timber as the seat of justice for Miami County.
Mr. and Mrs. Gahagan decided to unite with others in forming a Methodist class and building a meeting-house in Troy, and they donated a lot on the corner of Main and Clay Streets for the purpose.
They donated to the village for burying grounds the four-acre lot on which now stands the Eastern Schoolhouse, the ground to revert to his heirs when aban- doned as a place of burial. When the time came for establishing a larger cemetery, the heirs of William II., John Gahagan and Polly Clark decided that the old bury- ing ground should remain publie property as donated by their father. The friends of the deceased, who were living, removed all their own dead. and those unclaimed were removed by the city. so that the grounds were cleared ready for the new school building, and a playground for the chil- dren. The beautiful grove of forest trees was left undisturbed, a part of the grounds were filled, graded and other trees planted thereon. It is one of the attractive school grounds in the city and is known as the Forest School Building.
He also assisted in establishing Rose Hill Cemetery. north of town, and in which lie his remains, the grave being marked by a plain limestone slab which bears his name, William Gahagan. Although he had been a member of the Presbyterian con- gregation at Dayton, and of the Methodist
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congregation at Troy, he did not become a member of either church.
In the winter of 1803-04 he married Nancy Hamer, daughter of William Ha- mer, the first Methodist class leader in the Dayton settlement. His first child, Will- iam Hamer Gahagan, was born March 16, 1805, in Dayton, Montgomery County.
Two other sons, John and Solomon, and one daughter, Polly, were born in Miami County. They lived and died on the land inherited from their father, who braved the perils of frontier life to make their home.
William Hamer, the first born, married Hester Culbertson, whom he always called "Hetty Pet;" to them were born five chil- dren : Anna, who married David Cory, of New Carlisle, has two sons living, Thomas Harrison, and Edward Everett. Two other daughters, Mary and Jane, married two Peterson brothers, Alexander, and William. Jane had three children, "Hetty Pet," Harry Gahagan and Clarence Wil- son Peterson. Emma Gahagan married James Moorhead of New Carlisle in 1864, and died in Troy, 1908. The only son who lived to manhood was William Henry Har- rison Gahagan, born November 14, 1835. He married Hannah Smithi of New Car- lisle. Of their three children, the oldest, Walter Hamer, is a civil engineer and con- tractor of New York City, and has twin sons, William Corthell and Frederick Mus- sen, and two daughters, Helen and Lillian. The oldest daughter, Mary Gahagan, mar- ried George Clyde, son of Judge W. J. Clyde of Troy, and Bessie Gahagan mar- ried C. W. Schaible, of Troy. The twin sons of Walter Hamer Gahagan are the only ones to perpetuate the name and memory of their great-great-grandfather,
William Gahagan, pioneer, and one of the founders of the county seat of Miami County-honored hero of General Wayne's army.
John Gahagan left one daughter, Clara Maria Gahagan, who was married to Will- iam Senour, of Kentucky, in 1853, and left one son, John Gahagan Senour, born July 4, 1854, died April 21, 1904. He was for many years a prominent physician in the city of Troy. He left one living child, Laura Beall Senour, direct descendant of William Gahagan, who died in 1845.
Solomon, third son of William and Nancy Hamer Galiagan, went to New Or- leans with a boatload of produce, loading the boat on the Great Miami River on their own ground. He never was heard from afterwards. A diligent search by William failed to find any trace of his movements . after he pushed off from shore at their own landing. It was generally supposed he had been robbed and murdered by some of the numerous pirates who infested the rivers and preyed upon the shippers.
THE PIQUA HANDLE & MANUFAC- TURING COMPANY, of Piqua, Ohio, manufacturers of all kinds of Farming Tool Handles, including Long and D Han- dles - Lawn Mower Handles - Carpet Sweeper Handles-Wood Turnings, etc., is one of the leading industries of Miami County and the largest manufactory of wood turnery and specialties in the world. It has three plants-at Piqua, Ohio, Thompsonville, Mich., and Osceola, Ark., and offices in New York City, the main plant and home office being at Piqua, Ohio.
The business was established in 1880 in a small building on River Street. In 1886 the company removed to its present loca-
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tion, which has been greatly enlarged and improved since then, the buildings and yards covering an entire city block. In 1903 branch plants were established in Thompsonville, Mich., and Osceola, Ark., owing to the scarcity of raw material. Hence their raw material at the present time is drawn from Ohio, Indiana, Michi- gan and Arkansas. In the three plants from 300 to 500 men are employed. Their product is shipped to all parts of the world. "Pigna" Handles are known everywhere; excellent quality and high class workmanship have won for them a place on the market second to none.
The expansion of the factories, the in- creased volume of business, and the results attained each year speak well for the strong and able management of the offi- cers, who are as follows: William Cook Rogers, president and general manager; A. M. Leonard, vice-president; J. F. Stewart, second vice-president; C. H. Bar- nett, secretary; and R. L. Douglas, treas- urer.
DAVID MANSON, an honored and highly esteemed citizen of Spring Creek Township, residing on a fine farm of eighty acres, located four miles east of Piqua, was born June 11, 1823, near Fletcher, Mi- ami County, Ohio, and is a son of Martin and Catherine (Smith) Manson.
Martin Manson was reared about one and a half miles east of Fletcher and was there engaged in agricultural pursuits throughout his entire life. He married Catherine Smith and they reared a family of five sons and three danghters, of whom three sons and one daughter reside in Kansas.
David Manson, the subject of this rec- ord, grew to maturity on his father's farm
near Fletcher, and attended the district schools of the township, also assisting his father with the work on the farm. He then located for a period of five years on a farm in Spring Creek Township, re- turning to the home place after the death of his parents. Later he purchased his present farm of eighty acres in Spring Creek Township, where he has since con- tinued to reside. He has always followed general farming and stock buying, and has one of the best improved farms in the township, his fine brick residence, and that of Mr. Millhouse, being the only two mod- ern briek dwellings in this section of the county.
Mr. Manson was united in marriage with Elizabeth Covault, a daughter of Thomas Covault, of Miami County, and to them were born the following children: James Lewis, deceased; John H .; Harley; Mem- ory; Catherine ; Belle, deceased; Isa; and Rillie. Mrs. Manson died February 5, 1909. Mr. Manson is a Democrat in poli- ties and served for thirteen years as trus- tee of Spring Creek Township.
FRED B. MAGILL, proprietor of the Piqua Egg Farm, is conducting an enter- prise which he has developed from a small beginning to one of very large propor- tions, and now owns the largest poultry plant in Miami County. He was born at Avondale, near Cincinnati.
After graduating from Deveaux College, New York, in 1886, Mr. Magill returned to Cincinnati and became identified with a scientific body for which he traveled for some time, collecting specimens of insects and of large game. In 1890 he went west. living for some time at Omaha and later on a ranch, and for a year and a half lived in a house-boat. This he launched at Des
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HISTORY OF MIAMI COUNTY
Moines, Iowa, and in it traversed the Mis- sissippi and the Missouri Rivers and went as far south as Arkansas, making a great collection of insects, birds and Indian rel- ics. He is a born naturalist and the years he has spent in scientific work have been delightful ones to him and have added very largely to the general knowledge of the country on these subjects. His travels have led him all over the United States, and there are few important scientific bodies in which his name is not held in high esteem. He has a remarkable collee- tion and permits students to visit it, im- parting information which is never found in text books. In 1901 Mr. Magill came to Piqua, buying five aeres of land at that time, on which he started his poultry busi- ness. He breeds the White Wyandotte birds, having a building for the same which is 500 feet long, and here raises from 2.000 to 3,000 broods a year. Mr. Magill is a member of the Episcopal Church and was confirmed by Bishop Cox. of the Western Diocese of New York.
JOHN H. COON, one of Newton Town- ship's most prominent citizens, the owner of a valuable farm of sixty-eight acres situ- ated in Sections 19 and 30, is also proprietor of the famous artesian well, which is on his farm and is located two and one-half miles south of Pleasant Hill and one mile west of the Dayton, Covington and Piqua trae- tion line. Mr. Coon was born October 4, 1851, in Bethel Township, Miami County, Ohio, and is a son of William Harrison and Elizabeth (Hawn) Coon.
William Harrison Coon was born in Vir- ginia. After marriage he moved to Allen County, Ohio, where he worked as a black- smith until he enlisted for service in the
Civil War, going out as a member of Com- pany E, Thirteenth O. Vol. Inf., and con- tinued in the service for four years. He survived all the dangers and hardships of war, meeting with but one injury, in one battle having the point of his ear shot off. He returned to Ohio and settled in Bethel Township, Miami County, near New Car- lisle, following farming to some extent and also working at his trade. He then moved to a place southwest of Troy, where he worked as a blacksmith for three years, moving then to within one mile west of Troy, remaining there for three years, when he sold out and bought the farm lo- cated one and one-half miles east of his son's farm, on which he lived for the seven years preceding his death. In politics he was a Democrat, and fraternally he was a Mason. He belonged also to the local Grange and was a consistent member of the Christian Church. He married Eliza- beth Hawn, a daughter of Jonathan Hawn, and they had five children, John H., Mary, George, William and Rebecca. Both pa- rents were buried in the Riverside Ceme- tery at Troy.
John H. Coon was educated in the coun- try schools. after which, with the help of his brothers, he did a large part of the work on his father's farm, the latter being engaged at his trade. In farming, haul- ing wood and attending to stoek, Mr. Coon worked at home until he was twenty-two years of age, after which he worked as a farm hand for about four years. After his marriage he resided for one year on his father-in-law's farm, three miles west of Troy, moving from there to a rented farm on the edge of Bradford, and one year later moved to a farm in Union Township. Two years afterward he moved on the Harter
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farm, situated one and one-half miles west of Troy, and in 1907 he purchased a sixty- acre farm in Newton Township and oper- ated it for two years. Mr. Coon then moved to Pleasant Hill, and during the two years he lived there was engaged in a plumbing business, and then moved back to his present farm. He cleared about twenty acres and put in 300 rods of tile, which gives the land excellent drainage. Later he purchased eight acres additional, and on this tract is situated the notable artesian spring mentioned above. The im- provements on the farm Mr. Coon has placed here. He is not actively interested in farming, having a tenant who is a prae- tical agriculturist, thins relieving Mr. Coon and giving him time to perfect his plans in connection with the artesian well.
Two miles southwest of Pleasant Hill was once located an Indian fort, and the almost perpendicular bank of the Still- water River on the east and the deep, nar- row gully on the north, made it an ideal spot for such a structure. A few rods above the fort, in the bottom of the gully is a small island, and in the center of this little tract is the medicated spring, now the property of Mr. Coon. The curative effects of this water have long been known in this section, but its value has not been exploited to any extent until recently. In November, 1907, Mr. Coon, with commend- able business enterprise, drilled a well near the spring and later had the water analyzed by a leading chemist. The value of this water in the cure of many of the most distressing diseases was proved by this anaylsis. With this encouragement, Mr. Coon is making preparations to make heavy investments, and if his plans are perfected, all this section will profit by the
presence of visitors who will come from every point. It is confidently believed that those who come sick will return home well, and Mr. Coon intends to provide com- fortable accommodations for these guests. Nature has done much to make such an en- terprise here successful, the well being sit- nated in the picturesque Miami Valley, famed in song and story.
Mr. Coon was married to Miss Rachel Correy, a daughter of Robert and Rebecca Correy, and they have five children: Rob- ert, who is engaged in business at Chicago, Illinois; Jennie, who resides at Piqua; Mary and Goldie, both of whom reside at home; and Lillie, who is a member of the class of 1913, in the High School at Pleas- ant Hill. Mr. Coon and family are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Pleasant Hill, of which he has been a trustee for a number of years. Ile is a Democrat in politics.
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