USA > Ohio > Wayne County > Commemorative biographical record of Wayne County, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families > Part 28
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JOHN DURSTINE, farmer, is a rep- resentative of one of the old German families of America. Jacob Dur- stine, the pioneer of the family in this country, settled in Pennsylvania, and in that State, in Westmoreland County, his son Abraham was born. Abraham mar- ried Catherine Sherrick, and in 1826 moved to Holmes County, Ohio, and set- tled on a quarter section of wild land, on which he lived until 1857, when he came to Wayne County, and bought 155 aeres of land in Wayne Township, where he lived until 1565, when he moved to Smith- ville, making that his home until his death : he died in ISTS, at the age of sev- enty-eight years. His family consisted of six children, John being the second.
John Durstine was born in IS25, and was but three months old when his parents moved to Holmes County, Ohio. His ed- neation was limited to that obtainable in the old log school house. Like his father. he has followed agricultural pursuits, and is now one of the prosperous farmers of
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the township. His home farm contains IS acres of land, 1981 acres in Paint and 2293 acres in Wayne Township, and it has been secured mainly by his own efforts. He was married February 25, 1847, to Elizabeth Freed, daughter of John and Elizabeth ( Newcomer) Freed, of Holmes County. Mr. and Mrs. Dur- stine have had eight children, viz. : Mary, an infant (deceased), Adaline, Cyrus, Lyman, Ellen, Clark and Catherine. Their son Cyrus lives on the portion of the farm lying in Paint Township, and Mr. Dur- stine and the rest of his family live in Wayne Township. Mr. Durstine casts his suffrage with the Prohibition party.
his family to Wayne County, settling on a farm in Greene Township. This was then a wild, unsettled place, and the farm had to be cleared from the forest. They had to endure all the discomforts and hardships of early pioneer life, but as the farm grew in beauty and value as the result of their toil, the hardy pio- neer and his wife felt themselves amply rewarded by having a good home in which to rear the children rapidly growing up within their cabin walls. Mrs. Grady was the first to hear the summons of the angel of death, passing away at the age of sixty-five years. Her husband survived her until 1864, when he died at the ripe age of nearly four score. Both were sincere members of the Baptist Church of Wooster.
SRAEL GRADY. This gentleman is a well-known native citizen of Wayne County, Ohio, having been born in ! Greene Township April 25, 1525. His paternal grandfather was a native of En- gland, and immigrated to America at any early day, settling in Pennsylvania, in which State he died. John Grady, father of Israel, was born in that State, and there learned the trade of coopering. In carly manhood he married Elizabeth Odenkirk, a native of the Keystone State, of German ancestry. They were the par- ents of eight children, three of whom are ! now living. In 1818 John Grady brought | the finest in the township. The first work
Israel Grady lived with his father until ¡he was twenty-seven years of age, and in his youth took his share of the labors of the pioneer. At the age of twenty-four he was married to Miss Sophronia, daugh- ter of Josiah and Enniee (Pratt) Mil- bourn, and born in East Union Township May 18, 1828. In IS55 Mr. Grady bought a farm in East Union Township, on which were but a few improvements, and here he and his faithful wife toiled to make for themselves and Family a comfortable home, and so industriously and intelligently did they labor that their farm became known as
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on their farm was the planting of eight- stocked with carp, which are in a thriving condition, and on its surface a graceful swan floats. To-day this place is one of the most attractive homes in, Wooster, and many visitors are drawn thither by its beanty and the attraction of a boat ride on the glassy surface of the lake. In the summer as many as 1,500 persons have visited it in a month. een acres of fruit trees. Mrs. Grady's father was also one of Wayne County's pioneers, coming here from Virginia with his mother at an early day, and settling in East Union Township. In 1819 he was married to Miss Eunice, a daughter of Oliver Pratt, who came to this county in 1514. Her father died in December, 1850, aged eighty-one years; the mother Mr. and Mrs. Grady have two children : the eldest, Huldah ( Mrs. Isaac H. Oden- kirk), lives with her parents; Josiah M. lives on the home farm, in East Union died in 1889, at the age of eighty-five years. Mrs. Grady was brought up as pioneer's children were in those early days. She learned to spin and weave, ; Township. The life of Mr. Grady bas was instructed in household work, and been one of labor, and the honorable po- sition he has attained is altogether dne to the industry of himself and his capable " wife. He has always been in favor of often worked in the fields, at such labor as she was equal to. She remained at home until her marriage. She and her children are members of the Baptist , all projects whose object was to benefit Church. In 1881 Mr. Grady and his ' the county, and he will long be remem- wife left the farm which had for so many bered 'as one of its public-spirited and enterprising citizens. years been their home and came to Woos- ter, settling on a piece of land in the edge of the city, forty and a half acres of it being within the corporation limits. To get possession of this tract he had to pur- JAMES MARTIN, son of John and Ruth ( Moore) Martin, was born on Martin's Creek, Holmes Co., Ohio, October 20, 15244. His grandfather. Edward Martin, was a native American, born in Essex County, N. Y., near the New Jersey line. He removed to Beaver County, Penn., where he married Cather- chase from seventeen different owners. The place was wild and barren, but he set to work to improve it with the same nntir- ing industry which had hitherto charac- terized his labors. One of the attractive features of the place is a fish pond, in the excavating and preparing of which two years were spent. This, when finished, he , ine MeCready (also nntive born, but of
Pas Martin M.D
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Scotch descont ), and after some years moved to New Lisbon, Columbian Co., Ohio, and in 1810 to what is now Holmes County, Ohio, where he was a farmer, and owner of one of the important industries of that time -- a saw-mill-which supplied the surrounding county with lumber. There they both died, leaving six children: Catherine, John, Abigail, Joseph, Naomi and Elizabeth, all of whom are deceased except Joseph, who is now a resident of Keokuk County, Iowa. John, first-born son of Edward and Catherine Martin, was born in Beaver County, Penn., in 1795, and with his parents moved to Ohio. In 1823 he married Ruth, daughter of John Moore, of Salt Creek Township, Holmes County, and they located in Wayne County, near Shreve, in what is now Clinton Township, where they carried on farming until the fall of 1837, when they removed to Middletown, Holmes County, and later to Salt Creek Township, same county, where they remained until their decease. Their children were James, Joseph W., John IL., Mary, Susan, Sarah, Nancy J. and Edward. Of these, Joseph W. married Sarah J. Hayes, and occupies the old homestead in Salt Creek Town- ship, Holmes County: John H. married Mary Hayes, and resides in Salt Creek Township, Wayne County; Mary died in 1849; Susan is now Mrs. William Moore, of Salt Creek Township, Wayne County;
Sarah died in 1819; Nabey J. is now Mrs. 8. 1. Caseveer, of Auburn, Ind., and has a family of four sons; Edward died when three years of age.
James, the oldest of this family, with the exception of six months, lived in Wayne County until he was thirteen years old, attending the common schools of both counties, also an academical institution in Fredericksburgh. He taught during win- ters and worked in summer time until his education was completed. Having chosen a professional life, he read medicine with Dr. Abbott and Dr. Bowen, both of Mas- sillon, Ohio, and attended a course of anatomical and physiological lectures, as well as dissections, under Dr. Sheldon, at the medical college at Cleveland, entering Jefferson Medical College, from which he graduated in 1561. During the war he was manager of the aid society, and con- tributed largely to the support and care of soldiers' Families. In 1852 the Doctor married Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Craig, of Columbiana County, Ohio, and located at East Rochester, in that county, where he first began the prac- tiee of medicine. He removed to Freder- icksburgh in the fall of 1554, where he has since practiced medicine, and is now the oldest practitioner in that portion of Wayne County- a prominent and able man. Dr. and Mrs. Martin are the par- ents of seven children : Florence Virginia,
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who died when a child; Orra, wife of John M. Kyle (they are now missionaries at Rio, Brazil, and have one child-Jessie) ; Jessie Fremont, now Mrs. William HI. Redett, of Fredericksburgh ( has had two children: Alice (deceased ) and Orra) ; Frank H., now of Washington Territory, married to Rose Tanner (they have two children: Derwood and Frank Roderick) ; Mary Josephine, at home with her par- ents; an infant, deceased, and James Sher- man, now in Cincinnati, one of the edito- rial staff of the Post of that city.
The Doctor, realizing that "knowledge is power," gave to all his children the most reliable inheritance a parent can bestow-a thorough, to some a collegiate, education. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, in the Sab- bath-school of which he is an earnest worker, and for the better part of thirty years has been a teacher. He is an active Republican and a Prohibitionist, but not a third party man.
JAMES A. HAMILTON, editor of the Crescent, Orrville, Ohio, is a native of the State, born at New Lisbon, Colombiana County, September 10, 1841. Like so many of the descendants of the early settlers of the State, he is of Bonn-
sylvania stock. His father, William M. Hamilton, who for almost half a century was a well-known resident of this part of the State, was born in Juniata County. Pen., in 1817, and died in Wooster, this county, March 8, 1875. In the vigor of young manhood he went to New Lisbon, where he learned the trade of wagon- making, at which he worked a number of years. Giving up his trade, he en- tered the hotel business, which he carried on at New Lisbon for many years. Here he became a leading member of the Dem- ocratic party, and for a long time was justice of the peace. In 1562 he removed to Wooster, Wayne County, and became proprietor of the United States Hotel. In this county he was also elected justice of the peace, and filled that office for nine years. He was also elected county audi- tor; was renominated, but defeated, again renominated and again elected. He served bat four months of his last term, dying at the age of fifty-eight. A man of un- doubted integrity, highly respected in his community, and of great decision of char- acter, he was possessed of much influence, and had his life been spared he would have been one of the foremost citizens of the county. His wife, Isabella MeKnight. came of a family well known among the early settlers of Columbiana County. Sho was born in New Lisbon September 10, Ist3, the day on which Perry won his
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great victory on Lake Erie, and is now living in Seville, Ohio.
James A. Hamilton, the subject of this sketch, was one of a family of nine chil- dren. At the age of fourteen he began learning the trade of a printer, at which he soon became an expert. He has worked at his trade in various cities. In 1859 he was employed in Cleveland, then in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, again in Pitts- burgh, in Chicago, Memphis, and again in Chicago, whence he went to St. Louis, where he was employed on the Missouri Republican at the time of the strike of the printers of that city, in 1864. This caused him to return home, and in Febru- ary, 1865, he enlisted in the Fifth Ohio Cavalry, and joined his regiment at Dur- ham's Station, N. C., just before the sur- render of Johnston. He was subsequent- ly detailed as clerk at Gen. Schofield's headquarters at Raleigh, and served several months, and was mustered out at Columbus, Ohio, in November, 1865. The following yearshe was employed in the county anditor's office at Wooster, and in the spring of 1867 resumed his trade on the Wayne County Democral. Going to Cleveland, for nearly a year he worked on the Leader, and on the estab- lishment of the News in that city accept- ed the position of foreman, filling it un- til the paper was purchased by the Leader. After that he worked on the
Cleveland Herald until his father was elected auditor of Wayne County. His previous experience in the office here be- came valuable, and he was appointed deputy auditor, serving two years and eight months. His experience was next brought into use in the office of W. D. Morgan, auditor of Licking County, where he served two years, and upon the re-election of his father as auditor he again became the latter's assistant until his death. Having acquired a valuable knowledge of the business of the county auditor's office, he was offered and ac- cepted for a short time a position in the office of J. J. Sullivan, auditor of Holmes County, and upon the election of Thomas J. MeElhenie as auditor of Wayne Connty, returned to his Wooster home, and was that gentleman's deputy for two years. Like most men brought up in the newspaper office, he again returned to his first love, and for a year and a half Mr. Hamilton became a partner in the Lec- tonia Reporter office; where ho acquired a flattering reputation as an editor. Selling out his interest, he was for about two years employed in the office of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, whence he re- tired to purchase, in October, 1579, his present paper, the Orrville Crescent, which he has since condneted with ability and success.
Mr. Hamilton is the present treasurer
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of Greene Township, and has frequently represented his party as a delegate in conventions, and while in Leetonia was nominated for auditor of Columbiana County by both Democrats and Green- backers. Though defeated by a small majority, he ran considerably ahead of his ticket. From the inception of the Knights of Labor movement Mr. Hamilton has taken a warm interest in its affairs, and upon the issuing of a call by Local As- sembly No. 1. of Philadelphia, in the fall of 1877, to all assemblies in the country to send delegates to a convention to be held at Reading, Penn., on January 1. 1878, for the purpose of uniting all local assemblies in one national body and ere- ating a national head, he was selected as their representative by the local assembly of Leetonia, and had the honor of being the second presiding officer of the first national assembly of K. of L., and was likewise selected a member of its official board for the first year. He has also for years been a member of the L. O. O. F., K. of P. and G. A. R., and is a past ofli- cer in all these orders.
Mr. Hamilton has been twice married, first to Hattie, danghter of Alanson Ney, of Perrysburgh, Ohio, who died, leaving one child, Harry Given. In October, 1878, Mr. Hamilton was married to his present wife, Uney, daughter of Christian Silver, of near Wooster, Ohio, who has
borne him three children: Gail, Georgia and Jimmie, Jr. In all the relations of life Mr. Hamilton has ever maintained an honorable reputation, and for his upright- ness and manly character, and many fine social qualities, is justly held in esteem by the people of Wayne County.
MI RS. ANNA JACKSON, widow of the late Robert R. Jackson, of Wooster Township, now resides in the city of Wooster. She was born in Westmoreland County, Pen., April 10, 1815, on the farm where her father, John Gourley, was born, and where his entire life had been passed. Her grandfather was of Irish birth. and on coming to this country settled in the county named, and at the time of the Revolution owned 300 acres of Inud there. He was married to Ann Rowlson, a na- tive of Scotland. John Gonrley, father of Mrs. Jackson, was married to Margaret Stevensou, who bore him twelve children, of whom seven are now living, Mrs. Jack- son, who was the eldest of the Family, being the only one in Wayne County. In 1516 the father died, the mother in 1885, at the extreme old age of ninety- six years. The mother of Robert R. Jnek- son also lived to an old age, being ninety - nine years old at the time of her death.
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William Stevenson, an uncle of Mrs. Jackson, was a major in the Continental army during the Revolution, and another uncle, David Gourley, was also a Revo- lutionary soldier.
Mrs. Jackson, the subject of this sketch, grew to womanhood on the farm where she was born, and in 1840 was united in marriage with Robert R., son of Richard Jackson, who died when his son Robert was but ten years old. All were of Pen- sylvania birth. The young couple re- mained in Pennsylvania until 1860, when the Family came to Wayne County, set- tling on a farm in Wooster Township, where the husband died, July 25, 1875, aged sixty years. Of their union ten children were born, viz. : Richard, living in Canton, Ohio; John, in Toledo, Ohio; William Riley, in Van Wert, Ohio; Rob- ert Wright, in Pittsburgh, Pen. ; George, in Washington, Ohio, and Anna E., in Wooster; Sammel. Obadiah, James and Margaret are deceased. Of these, Samuel removed to Clinton, Henry County, Mo., where he purchased 800 acres of land. In September, 1884, while taking home a load of lime, which was required in an elegant new house he was building, he fell and was instantly killed, leaving a wife and three children. Obadiah died of quick consumption, at Denver, Col., August 7, 1887, having been confined to his bed but four days; his remains were
interred in the cemetery at Wooster. Anna E. was born in 1859, and on April 2, 1882, was united in marriage with Robert S., son of Hugh M. Culbertson, who was born in Wooster Township in December, 1860. Since their marriage they have lived with her mother, in Woos- ter. They are the parents of three chil- dren: Hugh Jackson, Right Gourley and Elizabeth Ama. Mr. Culbertson is employed as letter carrier in Wooster.
Robert R. Jackson was a stanch Repub- lican, and for three years was township trustee. He was an older in the Presby- terian Church of Apple Creek. He was a man of sterling integrity of character and blameless lite, and he and his wife and all of the family were hell in high esteem by all who knew them. Mrs. Jackson was formerly a member of the Presbyterian Church at Apple Creek, and since her removal to Wooster has become a member of the Presbyterian Church at that place.
R OBERT S. MAJOR, farmer. Ches- tor Township, is a native of Ire- land, born in County Pown in 1819. His parents, John and Sarah ( Black ) Major, had a family of eleven children, Robert S. being next to the youngest. In 1556 the Family left their
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native country and moved to the United States, coming direct to Wayne County, Ohio. The father was a day laborer, but bought ten acres of land, which he culti- vated and made his home until his death ; he died in 1882, at the age of eiglity-four years. The mother is still living, and is eighty-one years of age.
Robert S. Major was reared and edu- cated in Wayne County, attending the common schools as he had opportunity. He learned the cooper's trade in his youth, at which he worked five years. In 1883 he bought the farm where he now lives, which contains 100 acres of choice land, finely located, and he is making of it one of the best farms in the township. Mr. Major was married in 1873 to Susau MeAfee, daughter of Samuel MeAfce. They have a family of four children: Rosa, John, Walter and Frank. In pol- ities Mr. Major is a Republican, but of late has affiliated with the Prohibition party. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. .
A BRAHAM HERSHEY was born in Milton, Wayne Co., Ohio, Novem- ber 21, 1842, and is a son of Ben- jamin and Susannah ( Wellhouse) Hershey. His paternal grandfather, Abra- ham Hershey, was a native of Lebanon
County, Penn., and an early settler of Baughman Township, Wayne Co., Ohio, where he cleared and improved a farm, on which he resided for many years; in later life he removed to Richfield, Summit Co .. Ohio, and died there. He had ten chil- dren, named as follows: Jacob, Lydia (Mrs. David Errick), John, Rebecca (Mrs. Hoover), Benjamin, Polly (Mrs. Isaac Wenger), Henry, Sarah (Mrs. Abram Young), Abram and Samuel. The paternal great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch was Benjamin Hershey, a native of Lebanon County, Penn., and a son of Benjamin Hershey, who was born in Switzerland in 1704, and who on ac- count of persecutions innnigrated to Amer- iea in 1734, settling in Lebanon County, Penn., three brothers coming with him, one of whom settled in Canada, and the others in Pennsylvania. His son Benja- min was the father of four sons and two daughters, viz .: Barbara, Eliza, John, Christian, Jacob and Abraham.
Benjamin Hershey, father of our sub- ject, was born in Lebanon County, Penn., October 15, 1820, and came with his par- ents to Baughman Township, Wayne Co., Ohio, in 1880. He was respectively a farmer, drover and miller, and during his lifetime resided in Banghman, Milton and Chippewa Townships, Wayne County. He died in Chippewa Township, January 10, 1575, aged fifty-five years. In 1841
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he married Susannah, daughter of George F. and Elizabeth ( Neiswanger) Well- house, of Chippewa Township, Wayne County, and by her he has had seven children who grew to maturity, as fol- lows: Abraham, George W., Simon B., William O., Mary C. ( Mrs. Wesley Hen- neberger), Edward A. and Ella S. ( Mrs. D. C. Leonard). Our subject's maternal grandfather, George F. Wellhouse, a na- tive of Germany, born April 17, 1759, was reared in Washington County, Md., and became an early settler of Wayne County, Ohio. He was elected commissioner of Wayne County in 1829, and served six years; was in the State Senate from 1836 to 1538, and in 1838 was elected by the Legislature one of the associate judges of Wayne County. He died August 9, 1860.
Abraham Hershey, whose name heads this memoir, was reared in Wayne Coun- ty, Ohio, and received a common-school education ; has always been a farmer, and has resided on his present farm in Chip- pewa Township, Wayne County, since 1866. Ho was in the late War of the Rebellion, enlisting August 13, 1862, in Company G. One Hundred and Twentieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He participat- ed in the battles of Chickasaw Bluffs, Miss., Arkansas Post, Ark., Magnolia Hill, Miss., Suaggy Point, La., the sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson, Miss., and Fort Blakely, Ala., and was honorably
discharged from the service October 13, 1865. He married, December 31, 1865, Clara E., daughter of John F., and Cath- erine (Schrantz) Sheets, of Chippewa Township, Wayne Co., Ohio. Mr. Her- shey is a member of the United Brethren Church. In politics he has always been a stanch Republican.
K games DMIN BURNS (deceased ) was born in Allegheny County. Penn., in 1805. His father, William Burns, came to Wayne County, Ohio, in 1837, where he entered one tract of land, and purchased two others in Canaan Township. Edmin was reared in Alle- gheny County, Pen., and March 30, 1537, married Martha Jane MeCreary, who was born in New York City in 1810. and reared in Washington County. Pen. They accompanied William Burns to Wayne County, and settled on the farm entered by him in Canaan Township, where they lived and died. Mr. Burns was a member first of the Whig and after- ward of the Republican party, and served as justice of the peace for over twenty years. He was a man whose judgment was considered first class, being often called upon to act as administrator, and to transaet various other business for his neighbors. He and his wife were among
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the first seven members who organized the Jackson Presbyterian Church, and he served the same as elder for twenty-four years. He departed this life October 20. 1880, and his widow April 25, 1884, having reared six children ( five of whom are still living), viz .: William, married to Sarah A. Norton, of Canaan Township; Jolm Harvy, married to Florence C. Houghton, of Medina County, Ohio; Mary Jane, married to Hiram Falter, of Medina County; Martha Ann: Adaline, deceased in 1870; Harriet, married to John A. Cover, of Westmoreland County, Pon.
N ICHOLAS SCHULTZ was born in Lentershausen, Baden, Germany, Angust 2, 1828, and in 1849 immi- grated to America, first locating in East Union Township. Wayne Co .. Ohio. Hle learned the blacksmith's trade in his yonth, at which he worked thirty years, and in 1866 bought the farm where he how lives, which contains eighty-two acres of valuable Jand. Mr. Schultz was married, in 1853. to Miss Catherine Schaffer, a native of Wurtemberg, Heimer- dingen. Germany, born March 9, 1831. They have a family of six children: Sarah, wife of George beiner, of Woos- ter Township (they have four chil- dren, Charles, John. Edward and Anna) ;
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