History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 113

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728

USA > Ohio > Jefferson County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 113
USA > Ohio > Belmont County > History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley > Part 113

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

325

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES

with Mrs. Nace for one year. Store, opposite Kelley's saddlery shop, Main street, Barnesville, Ohio.

A, B. CREW & CO.

A. B. Crow started a meat market on south Chestnut street, July, 1878, and soon after bought a stock of groceries, provisions, grain, &e., and run this in connection. On Jannary 9, 1879, he took W. M. Giffin in as partner. Both of these young gentle- men are natives of Belmont county, Ohio. The former was born February 14, 1856, and the latter, Angust 23, 1849.

ABRAHAM KELLEY,

Harness and saddle manufacturer, began business at his present location on Main street, three doors west of Chestnut, in 1868. His room is sixty by eighteen feet. He usually employs from four to six men and does an extensive business. He keeps on hand a full line of mannfactured articles in his trade, such as harness, saddles, trunks, valises, whips, &c.

JOHN COLPITT-Proprietor of meat market and provision store, also dealer in grain. produce, &c., Sonth Chestnut street.

G. W. HANCE-Boot and shoe dealer. Also dealer in tobacco, cigars, &c. He employs from two to three men in the mannfac- ture of boots, shoes, &c. Store on Main street.

BARNESVILLE AT PRESENT.

Barnesville has within its corporate limits at this time, June 1, 1879, four hundred and thirty dwelling houses and bonses used in part as dwellings, and sixty-eight houses nsed exclusive- ly for business purposes. Her population now is abont twenty- five hundred, and will not exceed or fall below that number to the amount of twenty persons. and of that number there are one hundred and sixty persons of African descent, or colored persons, She has seven doctors, eight lawyers, two dentists, one steam flonring mill, one woolen factory, one coal shaft, one railroad depot, one railroad carpenter shop, two hardware stores, one liquor store, five saloons, one hatter's shop, two undertakers and furniture stores, two machine shops, three barber shops, one national bank, four drug stores, three boot and shoe stores, one wholesale leather and findings store, five blacksmith shops, one bakery, five butcher shops, four cigar factories, twenty-four grocery stores, one gas house, one Friends' church, one white M. E. church, one A. M. E. church, one Presbyterian church, one Disciples church, one school house, four hotels, two livery stables, one foundry, nine tobacco packing houses, tive dry goods stores, one clothing store, two wagon-makers' shops, one ornamental painter's shop, five milliner shops, two saddle and harness makers' shops, two monumental marble shops, one steam saw mill, one gunsmith's shop, eight shoemakers' shops, two music teachers, one sewing machine depot, one organ depot, one music store, one tannery, three tailor shops, one picture framer's shop, one stoneware dealer, two photograph galleries. four tinners' shops, one warehouse, three billiard rooms, one newspaper with two printing presses, one paper sack manufac- tory with one printing press, one cooper's shop, one green house, one wholesale grocery, one force pump maifactory.

There are five merchants and firms, which deal in leaf tobacco at Barnesville. They will pack this year abont eighteen hun- dred tubs of tobacco, and will give employment to one hundred and forty persons, men and women, to tie, qualify and pack them.

The fire department of Barnesville consists of a fire company, hose company and a hook and ladder company. The fire appa- ratus comprises fire engine and hose, with a large number of hooks, ladders and leather buckets. The fire company has forty members, with Moses Edgar as captain ; hose company twenty members-Henry W. Barnes, captain ; book and ladder com- pany thirty members-E. T. Hanlon, captain. Those compa- nies are well uniformed and do capital service. The firo appa- ratus is in good condition and works well.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

ROBERT MILLS .- Robert, a sou of Benjamin Mills, deceased. came to Barnesville in 1809. He was a saddler, the first in the place, and in later years purchased the Philip Allen tannery,

managing for many years both trades, and connecting also farm- ing and hotel-keeping with them. He married in 1812 Patience Short, a member of the family of James M. Round. Her pa- rents died in Delaware when she was a small child, and she ac- companied Mr. Round's family on their journey to Barnesville. This marriage is said to have been the first in Barnesville. She died in 1860, in her sixty-fourth year. He died in 1867, aged eighty-three.

The Barnesville Enterprise of that date contained the follow- ing obituary concerning him :

"Death of an Old Citizen .-- On Thursday last Barnesville lost one of her oldest and most respected citizens-Robert Mills, Esq .- who died at his residence, in this place, at the ripe old age of eighty-three.

Robert Mills was born in Lancaster county, Pa., came to Ohio in 1809, and settled at Barnesville one year after the town had been laid out. At that time two or three cabins' marked the spot where now stands a flourishing town. and the bears and wolves frequently came to what are now the most prominent streets.

" For fifty-eight years Mr. Mills resided in the town he chose in his early manhood, and witnessed all the changes that were wrought in that time. The men with whom he first worked and associated have long since passed away, and others were born and grew old while he remained. For many years he has been a landmark of the past, to whom every one paid rever- ence dne to honorable men. Everybody who has lived in Barnesville remembers Robert Mills, and all will bear testimony to his honesty and integrity. He was positive in his opinions and positive in expressing these opinions, yet no one doubted the honesty or sincerity of the man.

"From his habits he admired the enstoms of the past, and thought the "good old days" were better for honor, truth and virtne than the latter years of his life. He died as he had lived, respected by all, and beloved by those who knew him well.

"Time nor space will not permit us to treat the subject as it deserves, and we hope some one better acquainted with the life and character of Mr. Mills will furnish an obituary for publi- cation."

WILLIAM TIDBALL, son of John and Sarah Tidball, nee Me- Gowen, was born in Allegheny county, Pa., about nine miles from Pittsburgh, in 1796. The former came with his parents to that county when a boy ; subsequently he entered two hun- dred acres of land covered with a dense growth of timber, and commenced a clearing that increased slowly from year to year. Much of the early history of the Tidballs is lost. In common with the pioneers of that period, they were more engaged in making than in recording history. He died in 1847, and his wife some years later.

The children were-Margaret, deceased : Jane, deceased : William, at one time a Presbyterian minister and an attorney at St. Clairsville; John and James (twins), deceased: and David, for some years a resident physician of Kirkwood town- ship.

William Tidball has been twice married; first in 1822 to Maria, a daughter of John Caldwell, a pioneer of Wheeling. Mrs. Tidball died in her twenty- sixth year in 1834. Their chil- dren were: Sarah, deceased : Maria Jane, deceased ; and John C,, so well known as Major-General Tidball. of the Union army in the late war. Mr. Tidbali's second marriage was in 1838, to Rebecca MeKinney, daughter of James and Ann MeKinney, nce Fletcher. Their children are: Ann Z. and Chalmers MI.

Our subjeet farmed in the vicinity of Wheeling for six years, and in 1858 removed to Kirkwood township, Belmont county. Here he was engaged in merchandizing and farming from 1831 to 1861. During these years he served three terms as Justice of the Peace, as well as several years as school director and township trustee. For two years he has been a resident of Barnesville.

JAMES MCKINNEY, the father of Mrs. Tidball, was a major in the Revolutionary army. He came from Bedford county, Pa .. to Belmont county, Ohio, in 1805, and on the 13th of JJnne of the same year, married Ann, a daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Fletcher. The latter, a widow with three children, came to Union township, Belmont county, with Duncan Morrison, a son-in-law, in 1803. James MeKinney and bride returned to Bedford county, Pa., and in 1814 again removed to Belmont connty. locating in Kirkwood township. He died in 1826, near- ly seventy-eight years of age : his wife in 1859 nearly eighty- nine years of nge.

326

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

ISAAC R. LANE,-His great-grandfather, Thomas Lane, died December 10, 1819, in his one hundred and seventh year. His grandfather, Richard Lane, died in the same year, about forty- two years of age. His father. Harrison Lane, born July 14, 1812, deceased October 1, 1875, was a native of Maryland. He migrated to Belmont county in the fall of 1833, and like most of the pioneers, possessed no capital but a pair of strong handsand an earnest purpose. He was married on the 25th of September. 1834, to Miss Rebecca Cox, then in her seventeenth year. Her mother's family consisted of one son and four daughters, her father having died in January, 1833. The family removed to Barnesville in the spring of 1834 and stopped for the first night in an unfinished brick house west of town, then occupied by Thomas Tanueyhill, lately removed to give place to a new one. Isaac, the only son, for whom our subject was named, arising in the night, accidentally fell down stairs and was killed. Mrs. Cox with four daughters were left to fight the battle of lite in the then almost wilderness.

Isaac R. Lane was born October 20. 1842. in the little frame near the west end of Main street. Ile first went to school in the little old brick which was sitnated near the site now occu- pied by the union school house. At the age of sixteen he en- tered the office of the Intelligencer to learn the printer's trade. There worked in the office at this time Samnel Craft. John Q. Judkins and George Williams.

He entered the army as private in company H, 94th Ohio In- fantry, August 5, 1862. and was in active service until the close ofthe war. The regiment was almost immediately put into the field, and within one month one-third of the 94th were prisoners in the hands of General Scott's Confederate cavalry. They, in- cluding Mr. Lane, were paroled near Lexington, Kentucky, were exchanged and started for the front at Murfreesboro, Ten- nessee, Christmas morning, 1862. The regiment was part of General Thomas' famous " 14th army corps," and were in Rose- crans Tennessee campaign and Chickamauga battle, September 19 and 20. 1863. Afterward they were nearly starved at Chat- tanooga, until Bragg's siege was raised. The "94th" took part in Hooker's " Battle above the Clouds," " Mission Ridge," and during the summer of 1864, was under Sherman in the siege and capture of Atlanta, after which they joined in his famous " march to the sea." In the early part of 1865, the " 94th" campaigned through the Carolinas, arriving finally at Washington in time for the " grand review." Our subject was mustered out of ser- sice June 5, 1865, having served two years and ten months.

He was married February 18, 1868, to Miss Mary A. Warfield. daughter of Dr. J. W. Warfield, who was well known in this section of Ohio as a leading surgeon and citizen, Since the war our subject has been a railroad clerk at Bellaire, book-keeper in a wholesale house at Columbus, secretary and treasurer of a large iron company at Portsmouth, Ohio, and now the agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company at Barnesville.

COL. BENJAMIN MACKALL .- He was born in Calvert county, Maryland, in 1801, and was the son of Benjamin H. and Mary Wheeler Mackall, nee Bond. The latter was the daughter of Dr. John T. Bond, who served as surgeon in a Pennsylvania regiment in Braddock's army.

The Mackalls were among the old families of Maryland. On the chimney of the old homestead, the date 1745 was plainly visible. The house, thongh a frame structure, we understand still survives the ravages of time. Many years ago, while mak -- ing an excavation, a stone wall was found about a foot below the surface and completely surrounding the house.

Benjamin H. was a member of the Maryland legislature and a deputy United States marshal. He was officiating in the lat- ter capacity on the 1st of August, 1814, when the marines from the British fleet landed on the shore and commenced plundering the country. They seized thiry-two hundred bogsheads of tobac- co on the Mackall place, and carried away all the movables they could find in the residence and out-buildings.

In 1817, Mr. Mackall disposed of his property, and after a te- dious journey of twenty days, arrived on the 20th of October at their new home in Belmont county. His farm was situated about half way on the road from Barnesville to Fairview, and is vet in possession of the family. After remaining on the place abont eleven years, the family removed to Barnesville.

He died on the 16th of May. 1835, abont sixty-five years of age ; his wife, on the 13th of July, 1871, aged ninety . three years, eleven months and fifteen days.

Col. Mackall was engaged in mercantile pursuits abont twen- three years, either singly or as partner of his father and Thomas Shannon, a brother of Governor Sbannon.

He served as postmaster for twenty years. From 1839 to 1845, and from 1854 to the present date he has acted as Justice of the Peace, and for twelve years of this period as notary pub- lic. In 1845 he was elected to the State Senate, representing the counties of Monroe and Belmont, and served two years. During these years he participated in the militia movements, and was an active officer for many years. He passed through all the grades from lientenant to colonel of the 2d Regiment, Ohio Militia, resigning the latter position to act as inspector.

Since 1825, he has been a member of the A. F. & A. M. and has passed through all the chairs of the Lodge. He has been the secretary of the Lodge with less than twelve years excep- tion since 1827. He is also a member of the Chapter, the Com- mandery and the Council. He has been the efficient secretary of the Chapter since 1855. He was also identified with the Sons of Temperance.

He was married in 1823 to Mary, daughter of Robert Pearce, of Ohio county, Virginia. She died in 1848, at the age of forty- tive. Ten children were born to them, of whom eight are liv- ing. He was married in 1850 to Clarissa Carroll, a daughter of Michael Carroll, of Belmont county, Ohio.

DR. NICHOLAS JUDKINS .- Our subject is the son of Carolus Judkins, M. D., who located in Barnesville in 1809 and was the first medical practitioner in this portion of Belmont county. His history is given under the caption of the notable men of Barnes- ville, in another portion of this work.

Nicholas was born in Barnesville in 1815. He read medicine with his father for three years and commenced to practice at the age of twenty-one, In 1845, in connection with his brother Jesse, he opened a dry goods, grocery, drug and variety store, the drug department being the first drug store in the city. This firm con- continued in operation for ten years. Since that period he has not been engaged in active business.

Dr. Judkins has been thrice married ; first in 1847, to Marga- ret White, danghter of William White, of Belmont county, who died in 1849, leaving one child, John William ; second in 1851, Rhoda, daughter of Asa Craft, of Guernsey county, who died in 1851; third, on the 2d of January, 1862, to Jnlia, daughter of Leven and Juliet Fowler, nee Harrison.

G. S. WELLONS, M. D .- A son of Asa and Asenath Wellons, nee Davis, was born September 22, 1834, in Somerton, Belmont coun- ty, where he remained till his father bought and moved upon a small farm a mile and a half north of that place. He taught school from 1853 to 1856, after which he read medicine for two years with Dr. Wm. Schooley, of Somerton, and also continued teaching as a means of support. In 1858, he entered the office of Dr. J. W. Warfield, of Barnesville, with whom he remained five five years, one and a half years as a student and the remainder of the time as an assistant in the practice, In the spring of 1863, he became a matriculant at the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, from which he graduated in July, 1863, and imme- diately afterward passed examination before the military board at Columbus.

In August, 1863, he received a commission as first assistant surgeon of the 91st Ohio volunteers, and remained in active ser- vice with the medical branch of the army till June 31, 1865, at which date the regiment was mustered out of service. He was associated with the management of the hospitals at Cloyd, Cedar Creek, Winchester, the Sheridan field hospital, the Cumberland general hospital, the post hospital at Martinsburg, and other points,

Since his return to Barnesville his practice has been largely in the line of surgery, as well as in general practice. He has been for several years the surgeon, for this section. of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. He was married on the 8th of September, 1859, to Anna, daughter of Jesse Griffin.

M. W. O'BRIEN, M. D., sou of Matthew and Hannah Caroline O'Brien, noe Harrison, was born in Baltimore, Md. in 1855. Matthew O'Brien was an early storekeeper at Fairview, being for some time a partner of one of the Bradshaws. He removed to Baltimore and subsequently was engaged in the wholesale dry goods business. He died in May, 1878, in Alexandria, Va., sixty-four years of age. He married Miss Harrison in Alexan- dria, Va. She is yet living in Washington. D. C. Our subject's grandfather was banished from Ireland, came to Virginia in 1799, and died in 1811 at an advanced age.

Our subject acquired his academic education at St. John's Academy, Alexandria, Va., came to Barnesville in September, 1872, and for nearly four years read medicine with Dr. G. S.

327

HISTORY OF BELMONT AND JEFFERSON COUNTIES.

Wellons. He attended two sessions of the Medical College of Ohio, Cincinnati, from which institution he graduated with dis- tinction on the 2d of March, 1876. He then formed a partner- ship with his preceptor, and has been engaged in the active practice of his profession ever since. He is at present health officer of Barnesville.

DR. AARON PLUMLEY was born in Philadelphia, Pa., August 24, 1818. He is a son of William Plumley, who emigrated to Mt. Pleasant township, Jefferson county, O., in the spring of 1819; then removed to Wayne township, Belmont county, O., and from thence to Somerset township in 1834, where he prac- ticed medicine for many years, and passed the remainder of his life, dying in 1862 at the age of eighty-four years. In his re- ligious belief he was a Friend or "Quaker." His wife departed this life in 1870 in the eighty-third year of her age. They were the parents of twelve children, seven sons and five daughters. Our subject is the sixth son, and was reared a farmer. He obtained an academical education, and began the practice of medicine in 1844, which he continued till 1851, when he attended Starling Medical College at Columbus, O., of which he is a graduate. After this he again resumed his practice, and continned the same for sixteen years. On the 25th of Septem- ber, 1845, he married Rebecca Tribby, of Washington county, Ohio. Her death occurred September 27, 1851. He chose for a second wife Elizabeth A. Devitt, of Morgan county, O., August 6, 1853, who died September 2, 1859. He then married Eliza- beth V. Cox, of Greene county, O., June 24, 1862. On Novem- ber 1, 1865, Dr. Plumley removed to Barnesville, O., and em- barked in the drug trade, which he still continues on Main street.

JOHN T. MACKALL, M. D .- He was a brother of Col. Benja- min Mackall, and was born in 1818, in Warren township. He read medicine with Dr. Isaac Hoover, and till within a brief time of his death on the 24th of March, 1877, was in the active duties of his profession. He was W. M. of Friendship Lodge A. F. and A. M. for seven years, and was intimately connected with all the philanthropic movements of his generation. His widow, Mrs. Sarah A. Mackall, survives him. The children are: B. H. Mackall, M. D., Mary F., (married to W. A. Talbot, Jr.), John W., Anna M., (married to John W. Hingely.)

Dr. B. H. Mackall studied medicine with his father, and grad- uated at the age of twenty-six at the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati in the spring of 1870. He has passed through the various chairs of the A. F. and A. M. Chapter, Red Men, Knights of Pythias and Good Templars, and was a charter member of the last three.

W. J. McCALVIN, M. D .- His father, John McCalvin, was born on a farm near Inverness, Scotland, and died at St. Johns, New Brunswick, while en ronte for the United States, in 1836, at the age of forty. His widow (Elizabeth McCalvin, nee Rob- inson, a daughter of Alexander, who died in 1844 at the age of one hundred and four in Ireland, and Elizabeth Robinson.) re- moved with her son, W. J., born in 1836, in St. Johns, N. B., to Philadelphia. In 1844 she removed to Cambridge, Guernsey county, O, where she now resides, over eighty-three years of age. As an item for our farmer friends we give the following: Alexander Robinson had a farm containing twenty acres. His children numbered eight sons and a daughter. All but one came to America. They each received from their father five hundred pounds ($2,500) as an ontfit. What must have been the income from the land ?

Our subject became a cabinet-maker by trade. Finding this unsuitable to his taste, he road medicine with Dr. G. L. Arnold, of Cambridge, and practiced for some years in Cam- bridge and Wellsville, O. He attended a term of lectures at Starling Medical College of Columbus, O., and graduated in 1872. In the same year he removed to Barnesville, from which time dates his permanent location.

He was married in 1866 to Emma W., daughter of Samnel and Margaret Swayne, nee Brown (Friends). Their only child is deceased.

EPHRAIM WILLIAMS, M. D., a son of Daniel Williams, who came to Belmont county in 1818, was born in Berks county, Pa., in 1810. Wm. Williams, the grandfather of Ephraim, was of Welsh birth, and an infant at the time his parents arrived in America. Jane Jackson was Daniel Williams' second wife, and was the daughter of David and Elizabeth Jackson, nee Morris, of Berks county, Pa. She died in 1813. There were six chil-

dren by the first union, and an equal number by the second. He married to 1815, Martha, daughter of Joshua and Lydia Mendenhall, of Chester county, Pa. She was familiar with many scenes of the revolution, especially those connected with Valley Forge. She died in 1868, nearly ninety-five years of age.

The Williams settlement in Belmont county was in Warren township, on the Morristown road, abont three miles northeast of Barnesville. Here the early years of our subject were passed, graduating with honor at the log cabin school. He read medi- cine for three years with Dr. Daniel Williams, of Salem, Colum- biana county, Ohio, and commenced practice at the age of twen- ty-four. His first location was, in 1834, at Millwood, since known as Quaker City. After remaining five years at this point, he removed to Barnesville, his permanent residence for over forty years.

He was married in 1839 to Anna, daughter of Jeptha and Sarah Sharp, of Belmont county. . Mr. Sharp was an early sur veyor of the county, who died while a young man.

His children are Sarah T. and three sons, deceased.

G. H. KEMP, M. D .- He was born at Bendforth Church, Bel- mont county, in 1838, and was the son of Dennis and Isabella Kemp, nee Wilson. Dennis Kemp was born in Frederick. Maryland, in 1812, and came with his parents to the headwa- ters of Stillwater creek in 1818. He was a merchant and farm- er. He was a county commissioner at the time the first pikes were built. He was one of the early abolitionists, and through evil and good report boldly urged the claims of the enslaved. He died in 1875. His wife to whom he was married in 1837, is still living.

Our subject read medicine without professional instruction till near the close of his studies, when he was under the tuition of Dr. J. K. Thomas, of Beallsville, Monroe county. He grad- uated in 1868 at the University of Philadelphia. He com- menced practice in Beallsville and remained there until 1867, when he located in Barnesville. He was married in 1863 to Minerva, daughter of Madison Thornberry. Their children are Kate, Reta and Stella.

JAMES SYKES ELY, M. D., was born near Darlington, Hartford county, Md., August 22d 1832. Hisparents were Jacob Ely and Sarah (Brown) Ely, who moved to Morristown, Belmont conn- ty, Ohio, when he was three months old. Began the study of medicine when seventeen years of age with Dr. C. Schooley, then of Martin's Ferry, Belmont connty, finishing the standard course of three years reading. He found employment as a teach - er until the year 1856, when he began the practice of medicine in Somerton, Belmout county, and in the early part of the year 1862, attended lectures at the medical college of Ohio in Cincin- nati, gradnating the following June.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Belmont and Jefferson Counties, Ohio, and incidentially historical collection pertaining to border warfare and the early settlement of the adjacent portion of the Ohio Valley, Part 113

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 728

Author: Caldwell, J. A. (John Alexander) 1n; Newton, J. H., ed; Ohio Genealogical Society. 1n
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Wheeling, W. Va. : Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 728