History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio, Part 16

Author: H. J. Eckley, William T. Perry
Publication date: 1921
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 678

USA > Ohio > Harrison County > History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio > Part 16
USA > Ohio > Carroll County > History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio > Part 16

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In June, 1910, Mr. Rankin wedded Miss Wi- nona Cravin, who was born at Harlem Springs, Carroll County, and who died in February, 1916, no children having been born of this union. In May, 1918, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Rankin to Miss Eleanor Miller, who was born in Lee Township, Carroll County, a daughter of John J. and Mary (Lee) Miller. Mrs. Rankin was graduated from the Carrollton High School, and prior to her marriage had been for eight years a popular teacher in the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Rankin have a fine little son, George Erwin, who was born November 6, 1919.

GEORGE H. COLLINS has been long and promi- nently associated with important business and industrial interests in his native county and is the efficient and popular cashier of the Jewett State Bank, a position of which he has been the incumbent from the time of the incorporation of this substantial Harrison County institution. He is one of the liberal and progressive citizens of the thriving village of Jewett, and is entitled to special recognition in this publication-not only by reason of his personal achievement but also on account of his being a representative of an honored pioneer family in Harrison County.

Mr. Collins was born in Moorefield Township, Harrison County, on the 2d of September, 1850, and is a son of Zachariah and Rachel ( Wil- loughby) Collins, whose marriage was solem- nized on the 16th of August, 1849. Zachariah Collins was born at Fredericktown, Maryland, on the 7th of April. 1829, and his wife was born in Knox County, Ohio, on the 14th of October, 1831, a daughter of Henry and Maria (Furnice) Willoughby. Henry Willoughby was born in England in the year 1800, and was a son of William Willoughby. When a lad of fourteen years he ran away from home and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to America. He settled in Can-

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ada, and there entered the Canadian forces of the English army, in which he continued to serve seven years and six months. After his retirement from military service he made two visits to his native land, and finally he came from Canada to the United States and settled in Knox County, Ohio, whence he later removed with his family to Morrow County, though the closing years of his life were passed near Mount Vernon, Knox County, where he died in 18S2. He was a life long communicant of the church representing the established Anglican faith, his membership in the United States having been maintained in the Protestant Episcopal Church, and his wife held membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church. His wife preceded him to the life eternal. Their children were ten in number. Mr. Willoughby was a mason by trade and did a large amount of important construc- tion service at his trade during the period of his residence in Knox County, Ohio, he having been the master mason in the construction of that enduring stone structure, Kenyon College, at Gambier, Ohio.

Zachariah Collins was a son of George and Eliza (Bear) Collins, both of whom were born at Fredericktown, Maryland, in which state they remained until 1832, when with wagon and a four-horse team they made the long overland journey to Ohio and settled in Moorefield Town- ship, Harrison County. In the village of Moore- field Mr. Collins engaged in the work of his trade, that of shoemaker, and later he turned his attention to farm enterprise in Moorefield Township, where he remained on his homestead farm until his death in 1870, at the age of seventy-four years, his wife likewise having been well advanced in years at the time of her death and both having been devout members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he gave earnest service in the office of classleader. They became the parents of a fine family of fourteen children, and the names of the eleven who attained to years of maturity are here designated : William, Amanda, Catherine. Mary, Zachariah, George P., Nicholas, John W., Cy- rena, Eliza A. and Thomas.

Zachariah Collins was about four years of age at the time of the family migration to Har- rison County, where he was reared to manhood and received the advantages of the pioneer schools in Moorefield Township. As a youth he learned the shoemaker's trade under the direc- tion of his father, and he had the satisfaction of personally manufacturing the first pair of boots that he himself used. In 1850. within a few months after his marriage, Mr. Collins pur- chased about three acres of land in Moorefield Township, and on this miniature farm he and his young wife established their home in a pio- neer log house. Eventually Mr. Collins became the owner of an excellent farm of 163 acres in Moorefield Township, and on his land he platted a portion of the village of Piedmont. He re- mained on his farm, upon which he had erected good buildings, until his death, which occurred on the 12th of November, 1884, his widow re- maining on the old homestead until May, 1901, when she purchased a residence in Jewett, Ohio, where she resided about three years. She passed away on March 18, 1904. Her remains were laid

beside her husband in the Belmont Ridge Ceme- tery in Flushing Township, Belmont County, Ohio. She was a devoted member of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church. The religious faith of Mr. Collins was that of the Protestant Meth- odist Church. Of the children George H., of this review, is the eldest; Nicholas B. is a law- yer by profession and is now a representative member of the bar of Ohio's capital city, Colum- bus; Elizabeth died July 5, 1864; Ann Eliza be- came the wife of David N. Reynolds, and they resided in Belmont County, but both died in Piedmont. Ohio; Parley A. is the wife of Frank J. Mead, of St. Clairsville, Belmont County ; and William W., who remained with his mother on the old home farm, is now a resident of the city of Detroit, Michigan.

In the Belmont Ridge district school, on the line between Harrison and Belmont counties, George H. Collins obtained his preliminary edu- cation, which was supplemented by a two years' course in the McNealy Normal School at Hope- dale, where he was a student in 1869-70. There- after he devoted about six years to successful service as a teacher in the district schools, and in 1878 attended the celebrated Eastman Busi- ness College in the city of Poughkeepsie, New York. In the autumn of the following year he erected a store and dwelling house in the vil- lage of Piedmont, and in April, 1880, he in- stalled in his store a stock of general merchan- dise. the same having represented a valuation of $2.800. He developed a substantial and pros- perous mercantile business, to the management of which he continued to give his attention until 1893, when he sold the stock and business. In the meanwhile he had served two terms as post- master of the village. After his retirement from business Mr. Collins passed one year on the old home farm in Moorefield Township, and for eighteen months thereafter he was engaged in farming in German Township. On the 1st of April, 1896, he established his home in the vil- lage of Jewett, where he has since resided. On the 5th of September, 1898, he here became associated with Dr. William L. England and Robert W. Read in establishing the Jewett Bank. They continued the enterprise successfully as a private bank until 1909, when the business was reorganized and incorporated under the present title, the Jewett State Bank, operations being based upon a capital stock of $25,000 and Mr. Collins having continuously served as cashier of the institution, the success of which has been in large measure due to his careful and con- servative management and progressive policies .. Mr. Collins is a republican in his political alle- glance, has given effective service as a member of the village council of Jewett and also as a member of the municipal board of control. His wife is an earnest communicant of the local Lutheran Church, to which he gives liberal support.

On the 11th of May. 1880. was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Collins to Miss Elizabeth A. Hilbert, who was born in German Township, Harrison County, on the 6th of February. 1854. and who is a daughter of the late Henry and Margaret (Finnicum) Hilbert. Mr. and Mrs. Collins became the parents of two children. Earl H. was born April 9, 1881, and has served

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since 1905 as assistant cashier of the Jewett State Bank. He married Miss Mary Hauck, and they have three children: Edwin H., born February 9, 1910; Hilbert S., born March 2, 1912, and Eleanor E., born May 12, 1914. Clara M. Collins was born June 22, 1883, and her death occurred on the 25th of August, 1897.

NELSON B. SIMPSON is one of the progressive farmers of Washington Township, Harrison County, where he stages his productive enter- prise on the fine old homestead farm which was the place of his birth. He is a popular repre- sentative of one of the oldest and most honored pioneer families of Harrison County, with whose civic and industrial development the fam- ily name has been closely associated for more than a century. The' progenitor of this well- known Harrison County family was John Simp- son, who was born in Ireland and who came to America in 1798, his marriage to Miss Mary McElroy having been solemnized in Washington County, Pennsylvania. About the opening of the nineteenth century John Simpson came with his family from Pennsylvania to Ohio and num- bered himself as one of the sturdy, self-reliant and ambitious pioneers of Harrison County. He reclaimed from the virgin forest a productive farm in Stock Township, and with his noble wife he endured the manifold hardships and struggles which fell to the lot of the early settlers in this now favored section of the Buckeye State. Here these worthy pioneers reared their large family of children, who in turn took up the labors and responsibilities incidental to continued develop- ment and progress in the county, and the names of these sterling founders merit a place of honor in the history of the county.

John Simpson, Jr., son of John and Mary (McElroy) Simpson, was born on the old pio- neer homestead in Stock Township in the year 1814, and it was here that his father died in 1836. He was reared under pioneer conditions and influences, early gained fellowship with the arduous work of the pioneer farm, and in the meanwhile profited by the advantages of the primitive schools of the locality and period. At the age of twenty-five years he married Miss Margaret Law, of Monroe Township. Of this union were born the following children: Mary Ann (Mrs. Joseph Patterson), Martha (Mrs. Robert Birney), Margaret (Mrs. Frank Welch), Matthew W., William, Frank and Ella. The parents were earnest members and supporters of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in poli- tics Mr. Simpson became a staunch advocate of the principles of the republican party. Mr. Simpson's death occurred in the year 1877, and his wife survived him by several years.

Matthew W. Simpson, of the third generation of the family in Harrison County, was born on his father's farm in Stock Township on the 20th of August, 1846, and here he was reared to man- hood, with educational privileges such as the common schools of the day afforded. September 16, 1869, recorded his marriage to Miss Rebecca Birney, who likewise was born and reared in this county and who is a daughter of the late John Birney. In the spring of 1871 Mr. and Mrs. Simpson established their residence on their present fine homestead farm in the eastern

part of Washington Township, and here they have remained during the long intervening years which have compassed the development of their farm into one of the finest in the township. Mr. Simpson achieved unqualified success in his ef- fective enterprise as an agriculturist and stock- grower, and on the place he erected in 1887 one of the most substantial, commodious and attrac- tive farm houses in the county. This fine brick structure, designed by Mr. Simpson himself, is in the form of a Greek cross, with large bow windows extending from the ground floor to the roof projection. The building has a slate roof, and the interior finishing, in chestnut, black- walnut and oak, marks the house further as one of the most attractive in Harrison County. The farm estate of Mr. Simpson comprises 240 acres, and in the gracious evening of their long and useful lives he and his wife occupy their beautiful home and enjoy to the full the re- wards of former years of earnest endeavor- secure in the high esteem of all who know them and honored as worthy representative of pio- neer families of this section of the state. In connection with his extensive farm enterprise Mr. Simpson for many years conducted a sub- stantial business in the buying and shipping of live stock.

At the inception of the Civil war Mr. Simpson was too young to be eligible for military service, but on the 10th of May, 1864, at the age of seventeen years, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Seventieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he participated in a number of skirmishes and other minor engagements, his regiment hav- ing been assigned to the Army of the Potomac and his service having continued until Septem- ber 10, 1864, when he received his honorable dis- charge. Mr. Simpson has ever been a stalwart in the local camp of the republican party, and he and his wife are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has served in various official positions. Of their three children Vincent, the youngest son, re- mains with the parents on the old homestead; John died in infancy; and Nelson B. is the sub- ject of this sketch.

Nelson B. Simpson has been continuously as- sociated with the varied operations of the fine old homestead farm from his early youth, and his present farm, a part of the family estate, adjoins the homestead place of his father. He gained his youthful education in the public schools of his native county, and here he has proved a worthy successor of his honored father in the active prosecution of well ordered agri- cultural and live-stock enterprise. He is a staunch supporter of the cause of the repub- lican party, is loyal and progressive as a citizen and takes deep interest in all things touching the wellbeing of his native county.

He and his wife hold membership in the Meth- odist Episcopal Church at Freeport, as do also his parents.

October 25, 1894, recorded the marriage of Mr. Simpson to Miss Margaret Hamilton, who likewise was born and reared in Harrison County and is a representative of an honored pioneer family. She is a daughter of Adam and Margaret (Mehollin) Hamilton, whose marriage was solemnized in 1856, the father having been

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born in Moorefield Township and the latter in Cadiz Township, this county. Mrs. Hamilton was a daughter of Joseph and Margaret (Mc- Fadden) Mehollin. Adam Hamilton became a substantial farmer in Moorefield Township, but about the year 1858 he removed to Nottingham Township, where he passed the remainder of his life and where in connection with his farm en- terprise he operated a saw mill for a number of years. His death occurred May 11, 1872, and his widow passed to the life eternal on the 20th of March, 1914, both having been earnest mem- bers of the United Presbyterian Church. They became the parents of five children : Sarah died at the age of eleven years; Joseph died on the 8th of February, 1918; John died in early child- hood : Margaret, wife of the subject of this sketch, was the next in order of birth and is now the only surviving member of the immedi- ate family ; and Andrew died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson have four children, Francis Clyde. Ralph Hamilton, Ernest Dorris, and Dwight Birney. Francis Clyde is at the home of his parents and is associated with his father in the farm work. Ralph Hamilton taught school three years in his home district and one year at Friendly Ridge, and is now a student at Elliott's Business College, Wheeling, West Vir- ginia. Ernest Dorris is in the employ of the McLaughlin Steel Plant at Martins Ferry, Ohio. Dwight Birney is attending the Freeport High School.

FRANK W. ADAMS, who is conducting a finely appointed clothing store at Cadiz, the judicial center of Harrison County, was born at George- town, this county, April 29, 1877, and is a son of Joseph W. Adams, of whom specific mention is made on other pages of this volume, so that further review of the family record is not de- manded in the sketch here presented. Frank W. Adams acquired his early education in the public schools of his native village, and while still a boy he began clerking in his father's general merchandise store at that place. In 1910 he be- came associated with the large department store of the Scott-Wright Company at Cadiz, and after having remained with this concern three years he and his brother Halfred J. in 1913 engaged in the retail clothing business at Cadiz, under the firm name of Adams Brothers, which con- tinued until October, 1919. when H. J. retired from the firm. The business has been devel- oped into a substantial and representative enter- prise and the establishment is essentially mod- ern in its equipment and service. In the store are to be found the best grades of men's cloth- ing, in quantity and variety adequate to meet- ing the demands of the large and discriminating patronage, and the stocks of furnishing goods and men's shoes are also of the most approved type.

Mr. Adams is liberal and progressive both as a business man and a citizen. his political al- legiance being given to the republican party, and he has been a member of the republican executive committee of Harrison County for a number of years and is now its treasurer. In 1915 he was appointed a member of the city council to fill a vacancy and has been twice elected to that body. He is also a member of

the County Board of Education. He is a mem- ber of the Presbyterian Church and is affiliated with the Blue Lodge, Chapter and Commandery of the Masonic order, and with the lodge of the Knights of Pythias.

In 1901 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Adams to Miss Leora P. Lewis, daughter of Isaac P. and Nancy V. Lewis, well known citi- zens of Harrison County. Mrs. Adams passed to the life eternal in September, 1918, and is survived by three children. Virginia, William L., and Helen Leora. Mr. Adams was married on July 6, 1920, to Mrs. Hazel (Hunt) Tollinger, the daughter of Mrs. Mary E. Hunt. of Spring- field, Ohio. Mrs. Adams has a son. Edward, by her former marriage.

HALFRED J. ADAMS, a clerk in the Fourth Na- tional Bank of Cadiz, was born at Georgetown, Harrison County, February 15, 1879. He was afforded the advantages of the excellent public schools, and as a mere boy began to assist in the work of his father's general store. In 1905 he took the position of shipping clerk in the wholesale grocery establishment of the Speidel Grocery Company at Uhrichsville, Tuscarawas County, and with this house he continued until 1909. Thereafter he continued to be associated with his father's mercantile business at George- town until 1912, when he took a position in the department store of the Scott-Wright Company at Cadiz. In the following year he and his brother formed a co-partnership and established a retail clothing business at Cadiz, which they successfully conducted under the firm name of Adams Brothers, until October, 1919, when he withdrew from the firm and entered the employ of the Fourth National Bank of Cadiz.

In March, 1913, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Adams to Miss Clara Robinson, daughter of Willis and Emma Robinson, of Dennison, Ohio, and of this union has been born one son, John Willis.

JOSEPH W. ADAMS has for more than thirty years been successfully engaged in the general merchandise business at Georgetown, Harrison County, and is a representative of one of the well-known families of Short Creek Township, within whose borders he has maintained his home from the time of his birth to the present. He was born in the village of Georgetown. his present place of residence, and the date of his nativity was August 4, 1851.

Joseph William Adams is a son of Joshua and Jane ( Brown) Adams. both of whom were born in Ireland and both of whom were young at the time of the immigration of the respective fami- lies to America. John Adams, father of Joshua, came to the United States within a few years after his marriage and established his home in Harrison County, where he followed the work of his trade, that of cabinetmaker. and where he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives, Georgetown having been their place of residence during the greater portion of the time. Their children were five in number, John, James, Joshua, Hannah and Samuel. Joshua Adams learned the cabinetmaker's trade under the careful direction of his father, and this trade he followed at Georgetown during the major

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part of his active career. He and his first wife became the parents of five children, George, John, James, Henry and Joseph William. The death of Mrs. Jane (Brown) Adams occurred in 1865, and Mr. Adams later married Miss Ella Turner, the one child of this union being Ella, who is now the wife of Otto Jorne. Joshua Adams was venerable in years at the time of his death, and his second wife survived him by sev- eral years.

Joseph W. Adams is indebted to the public schools of Georgetown for his early education, and as a young man he gained practical experi- ence as a clerk in a mercantile establishment in his native village. In October, 1889, he opened his present general store, in which he has built up a substantial and prosperous business as one of the leading merchants and representative citi- zens of Georgetown. His political support is given to the republican party, and he is an ac- tive member of the Methodist Church, as was also his wife, whose maiden name was Mary Watson. Their marriage was solemnized in 1875, and her death occurred in 1907. They be- came the parents of five children: Georgia is the wife of Charles Giesey, of Harrison County ; Frank W. and Halfred J. are both individually mentioned elsewhere in this publication; and Lillian and Fay remain at the paternal bome.

SAM F. DICKERSON, one of the old and honored families of Harrison County, dedicated his time and energies to the printing trade in early youth, and has been either a printer or a news- paper man for over a quarter of a century. He is owner, editor and publisher of the Cadiz Democrat-Sentinel, which of itself sufficiently identifies him in Harrison County citizenship.

He was born at Dickerson Mill, Athens Town- ship, Harrison County, December 7, 1875. Some members of the old Dickerson family were among the first actual settlers of Harrison County. He is a direct descendant of Joshua Dickerson, who was born in 1634 in Monmouth County, New Jersey, being the second male child to be born in that county. Descendants of Joshua Dickerson came from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, to Harrison County, Ohio, in 1800. The grandparents of Sam F. Dickerson were John C. and Eliza (McFadden) Dickerson. The former was a native of Fayette County, Penn- sylvania, and was a small boy when his parents settled in Harrison County and Athens Town- ship.

Samuel C. Dickerson, father of the Cadiz newspaper man, was born in Athens Township May 19, 1840, and succeeded to the ownership of the old Dickerson mill established by his uncle Adam. He converted this into a steam power grist and saw mill and successfully oper- ated it many years. During that time he also carried on farming and stock dealing and was widely known as a stock buyer all over this part of Ohio. He moved to the city of Cadiz in 1900 and thereafter lived retired until his death on August 27, 1918. His wife, the mother of Sam F. Dickerson, was Mary Elizabeth McCoy, who was born in Moorefield Township, Harrison County, March 7. 1843, daughter of Frank and Abigail (Lantz) McCoy. Frank McCoy was born in Cecil County, Maryland, in

1812. Abigail Lantz was born in Moorefield Township, daughter of Peter Lantz, who mar- ried Mary Patterson, a sister of Rev. Samuel Patterson. Reverend Patterson was distin- guished among the early ministers of Harrison County and for over forty years was pastor of Deersville and Feed Springs Presbyterian churches. Mrs. Samuel C. Dickerson is still living, and has her home with her son Sam at Cadiz.

Sam F. Dickerson grew up on the farm, at- tended district school and the Cadiz High School. At the age of seventeen, on leaving high school, he began an apprenticeship at the printer's trade in the office of the Cadidz Re- publican, then published by the late W. B. Hearn. He continued with the Republican for eight years. For several years he held situa- tions as a printer in different cities, including Kokomo, Indiana; Saint Louis, Missouri : Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh. At Pittsburgh for a time he was on the reportorial staff of the Pittsburgh Times.

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History of Carroll and Harrison Counties, Ohio, Part 16

Author: H. J. Eckley, William T. Perry Publication date: 1921 Publisher: Number of Pages: 678

Author: H. J. Eckley, William T. Perry
Publication date: 1921
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 678