USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 87
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Mr. Moody was twice married, and by his first wife, who was Jennie Groves, was the father of four children, William, of Springfield, Ohio: Frank, of Hamilton, Ohio; Betty, dead, and Harry, dead. Following the
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death of the mother of these children, Mr. Moody married Margaret ( Hen- dricks) Alexander, widow of Robert Alexander, and to that union were born four children, namely: Don C. Moody, a well-known farmer and former member of the school board of Union township, who married Alice Rupert and has three children, Eletha, Lloyd and Hazel; Arthur Moody. also a farmer in Union township, who is unmarried and makes his home with his brother, Don; Albert, a Mechanicsburg farmer and stock buyer, who married Florence Woodward and has three children, Eva, Christina and James; Mary, wife of James Mumma, of Clark county. To Mr. and Mrs. Mumma four children have been born, Harold, Nancy, Margaret and Roland, all of whom are living save Roland. Don C. Moody is successfully engaged in general farming and stock raising and is one of the substantial residents of Union township. He is a Democrat, but has never aspired to public office. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Me- chanicsburg and of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics at Mutual.
ELIAS P. BLACK.
One of the best remembered citizens of Champaign county of a past generation, whose name is deserving of perpetuation on the pages of local history, was the late Elias P. Black, of Rush township. He was born in the above-named township, September 3, 1839, a son of Peter Black, who was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1786. When he was four years of age, Peter Black's parents, Samuel and Sarah Black, came with their family to this section of Ohio, making the overland trip by ox-team, and settled on a tract of land in what later came to be organized as Rush township, in this county, where Peter Black grew to manhood amid pioneer conditions, the family being one of the first in this part of Ohio, this being still an Indian country at that period. Here he married Marie Ann Hilliard, a native of Vermont, from which state she came to Champaign county with her parents when young. After his marriage Peter Black and wife began farming in Rush township, in partnership with a neighbor. They had but one team between them, this "team" consisting of a bull and a horse, which they worked for two years. His partner, Mr. Coon, then moved to Union county, locating near Byhalia, and there they engaged in making maple sugar which he hauled to Cincinnati, using the proceeds from the sale of the sugar to pay for his farm of one hundred and sixty acres. He was a partner with
& P Blach.
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Samuel Harris and Mr. Coon. After paying for his farm he bought another tract of wild land, containing one hundred acres, which he paid for by mak- ing and selling "black salts", which was made from the ash of the timber which he cut from his land. Later he purchased fifty acres more land. He finally went to Kansas and bought seventeen hundred and sixty acres on the Osage river, in Anderson county, which tract was later owned by Judge F. M. Black, of Kansas City, Missouri. His death occurred at the age of seventy-three years. His wife died at the age of seventy-five. They were parents of seven children, five of whom grew to maturity, namely: Mrs. Lydia A. Archer, Judge Francis F., Delilah, Harriet H. and Elias P. of this memoir. Judge Francis M. Black became a prominent attorney in Kansas City, where he was a judge for eight years. He married Susan Geiger, of Dayton, Ohio, and four children were born to them Helen (deceased), Susan, Francis and Arthur.
Elias P. Black was the sixth child born to his parents. He was reared on the home farm and attended the common schools, then conducted in a log house, and later was a student at the Urbana high school and the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, but owing to his father's failing health he left school before graduation and returned home. After his father's death he took charge of the estate and remained with his mother until her death in 1885. He carried on general farming successfully and added dairy- ing. At one time he had one hundred head of registered Jersey cows. He was the first man in his township to feed ensilage to cattle. He was a stockholder in the Woodstock Bank and was for some time president of the same. He was one of the most progressive men of affairs in his township. Politically, Mr. Black was a Democrat. He served as trustee of Rush town- ship for a number of years and also was judge of elections at various times. He was active and influential in public affairs in Rush township.
In 1872 Elias P. Black married Leah R. White, who was born in Dela- ware county, Ohio. She is a daughter of Samuel and Rosannah (DeVore) White, both natives of Washington county, Pennsylvania. The Whites were early settlers in Delaware county, Ohio, where Mr. White built a log cabin, cleared and developed a farm by hard work, and there he and his wife spent the rest of their lives, engaged in general farming. They were parents of six children, namely: Mary, who married Henry Fegley, of Delaware county ; Catherine, now deceased, who was the wife of John McWilliams, of Independence, Iowa; Sylvanus W., who lives at Charlottesville, Virginia : Leah R., who married Mr. Black, the subject of this sketch; Jacob D., who (55a)
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married Josephine Hurd and lives at North Lewisburg, and William Wes- ley, who lives on the old home place in Delaware county. He first married a Miss Knapp, later Emma Wheeler. The death of Elias P. Black occurred on July 12, 1912, he then being nearly seventy-three years of age.
Mrs. Black is a taxidermist of considerable note, and was formerly an excellent shot with a rifle and shotgun. She has written several songs and composed music. She has written a great deal of poetry .. She is a woman of diversity of talents, well read; not only along current lines, but is acquainted with the world's best literature and science. She is well preserved in body and mind and her friends are numbered only by the limits of her acquaintance.
THOMAS THOMPSON.
Thomas Thompson, of Mechanicsburg, one of Champaign county's honored veterans of the Civil War and who is the bearer of a Medal of Honor voted to him by the Congress for conspicuous service to the Union rendered on the field of battle, is a native son of this county and has lived here all his life with the exception of the time spent in the service of his country during the sixties. He was born on a farm in Wayne township on May 27, 1839, son of Abraham and Susan ( Middleton) Thompson, the former a native of this state and the latter of Kentucky, whose last days were spent in Wayne township, this county.
Abraham Thompson grew to manhood in Brown county, this state, the county of his birth and was there married to Susan Middleton, who had moved with her parents from Kentucky to that county. Some time after their marriage he and his wife came to this county and settled on a farm in Wayne township, where they became useful and influential pioneers and prominent in the work of the Christian (Campbellite) church. Both died in that township. Abraham Thompson is buried in the Roher cemetery and his wife is buried in the cemetery at Jenkins Chapel. They were the parents of twelve children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the seventh in order of birth, the others being as follow: John, Margaret. James, Lettie, Winifred and Tallitha, all now deceased, and William, who is living at Cable, this county; Edward, living near Mingo; Susan, who lives at Lima, in Allen county ; George, deceased, and Abraham, of Wayne town- ship.
Reared on the home farm in Wayne township. Thomas Thompson received
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his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood and remained at home until he was eighteen years of age, when, in 1857, he went to London, in the neighboring county of Madison, where he learned the trade of plasterer, and was there engaged in working at that trade when the Civil War broke out. Responding to President Lincoln's first call for volunteers to aid in the suppression of the rebellion of the Southern states, Mr. Thompson enlisted on April 15, 1861, as a private in Company C, Eagle Guards, and with that gallant command was sent into Virginia. That enlistment was for the three-months service and upon the completion of that term of service Mr. Thompson returned home and at Urbana re-enlisted as a private in Com- pany A, Sixty-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was again sent to Virginia. With the gallant Sixty-sixth Ohio Mr. Thompson served until the close of the war, participating in all the battles and campaigns in which his regiment took part, and thus experienced service in some of the most important engagements of the war. Not long after going to the front. he was promoted to corporal, later to sergeant, and on July 13, 1865, two days before his final discharge, the war then being ended, was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant, with which rank he was mustered out on July 15, 1865. At the battle of Chancellorsville, May 2, 1863, Mr. Thompson was one of four volunteers who brought in a number of wounded Con- federate soldiers under fire. From these prisoners valuable information was obtained and in recognition of that conspicuous service in behalf of the Union the Congress voted to Mr. Thompson on July 11, 1892, the nation's Medal of Honor, a distinction which the brave old soldier prizes beyond the power of words to express. Mr. Thompson served with his command in defense of the upper Potomac and was later on duty for a while in New York City quelling the draft riots. His regiment was in the thickest of the fray in some of the most important engagements of the war and he thus participated in the battles of Port Republic, Middleton, Cedar Mountain, Kettle Run, Antietam, Charleston, Dumphries, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg. Kelly's Ford, Duck River Bridge, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Pea Vine Creek, Ringold, on the expedition down the Tennessee river to Gunnstonville, the Atlanta campaign, including the engagements at Rocky Ford Ridge, Resaca, Dallas. Pumpkinvine Creek, New Hope Church, Burnt Hickory, Kenesaw Mountain, Pine Mountain, Pine Knob. Kulp's Farm, Marietta, Chattahoochie River, Pearl Tree Creek and the siege of Atlanta. He was wounded in the left side at the battle of Chancellorsville, was hit in the left thigh by a fragment of a shell at the battle of Gettysburg, was
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hit in the left knee at the battle of Peach Tree Creek and during the close of the Atlanta campaign was bit by a scorpion and was compelled to lie for some time in a hospital at Atlanta in consequence. During the service Mr. Thompson contracted rheumatism, which has left him badly crippled in his old age. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Thompson returned home and for thirty years thereafter was engaged at his trade as a plasterer, but of late years has not been able to perform active labors and has been living retired. In 1905 he and his wife moved to Mechanicsburg, where they are now living and where they are very pleasantly situated. Mrs. Thompson is the owner of a fine farm of one hundred acres in Goshen township and another farm of seventy acres in the neighborhood of Mutual.
Thomas Thompson has been twice married. His first wife, who was Martha L. Suver, of London, this state, died in 1875, without issue, and in September, 1877, Mr. Thompson married Sarah U. Fudger, who was born in Goshen township, this county, daughter of Peter and Sophia (Perry ) Fudger, the former a native of New Hampshire and the latter of Franklin county, this state. Peter Fudger was but a child when his parents moved from New Hampshire to Ohio and settled on a farm in Goshen township. this county, about two and one-half miles northeast of Mechanicsburg, where he grew to manhood and where he became a substantial and influential farmer in turn. Peter Fudger was twice married and by his first wife, Esther Davis, was the father of three children, Edward, Minerva and Leroy. By his second wife, Sophia Perry, he also was the father of three children, those besides Mrs. Thompson being Alanson, a well-known farmer and former member of the board of county commissioners of Champaign county, who died in July, 1914, and Horace M. Fudger, who is farming the old Fudger farm in Goshen township.
To Thomas and Sarah M. (Fudger ) Thompson three children have been born, Sophia, who died at the age of six years; Frederick Earl, a Goshen township farmer, who married Mattie Tway and has four children, Sarah L., Earl, Pearl and Martha, and Naomi, who married Fay Anderson and is living at Springfield. Mr. Thompson is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mrs. Thompson is a member of the Methodist Protestant church. Mr. Thompson is an active member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic and has for years taken an earnest interest in the affairs of that patriotic organization. He is a Mason and a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in the affairs of these organizations also takes a warm interest.
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WILLIAM R. SHAUL.
William R. Shaul, a well-known retired merchant of Cable, this county, an honored veteran of the Civil War and one of the oldest citizens of Cham- paign county, is a native son of Ohio and has lived in this state all his life. He was born on a farm about twelve miles west of Springfield, in Clark county, February 27, 1836, son of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (McMillan) Shaul, both of whom also were born in this state, the former in Clark county and the latter in Trumbull county, who later became residents of Champaign county and here spent their last days.
Jeremiah Shaul was a son of Mathew Shaul, a Virginian and one of the pioneers of Clark county, this state, who became a substantial farmer in that county and a man of local influence in the early days. Mathew Shaul was twice married, his children by his first marriage having been Solomon, Cyrus, Amos, Jeremiah and Lemuel, and by his second marriage, William, Emma, Amanda and Rosanna .. Jeremiah Shaul displayed unusual proficiency in his studies in his youth and became a school teacher, teaching school during the winters and farming during the summers. While living in Clark county, where he was reared, he married Elizabeth McMillan, daugh- ter of one of the pioneer families of that section, and after his marriage continued to make his home there until 1849, when he came up into Cham- paign county with his family and settled on a farm in Wayne township, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there in 1885, he then being seventy-six years of age. His wife has preceded him to the grave about six years, her death having occurred in 1879. They were the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being as follow: John M., for years a merchant at Urbana, who died in 1894; Joseph, a veteran of the Civil War and a farmer in Wayne township, this county, who died in 1869; Minerva, who married Eli Smith, of Clark county, this state, and who, as well as her hus- band, is now deceased; Mary Jane, who married Joseph Coe, of Wayne township, and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased, and Lucinda, who married John Nitchman and died in Kansas.
William R. Shaul was about thirteen years of age when his parents moved . up from Clark county into Champaign county and he grew to man- hood on the home farm in Wayne township, completing his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood, and remained at home until he was twenty-one years of age, when he began farming on his own account, and was living
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in that township when the Civil War broke out. In July, 1862, at Cable, he enlisted for service in the Union army as a member of Company E, Ninety- fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, joined his regiment at Camp Chase and with that command went South, shortly afterward participating with that command in the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, in which engagement nearly the whole of the Ninety-fifth Ohio was captured or scattered. Mr. Shaul being among those captured by the enemy. He was not exchanged until 1863, and he then, after a furlough of three months, rejoined his regiment, which meantime had been recruited up to fighting strength, at Memphis; later being sent to Grand Gulf, Louisiana, and was with Grant at the battle of Jackson, May 14, 1863, and later at the siege of Vicksburg. At the later battle of Guntown, Mississippi. Mr. Shaul again was captured by the enemy and was confined in Andersonville Prison, where he was com- pelled to remain for nine months and twenty days, or until March 28, 1865, when he was sent to the rear of Vicksburg, still as a prisoner, and after four weeks in camp there was put on board the ill-fated steamer "Sultana," which blew up in the Mississippi on April 27, 1865, with a loss of more than seven- teen hundred lives. When the explosion occurred Mr. Shaul was fortunate in being able to lay his hands on a detached cabin shutter and with this support was able to make his way to the Tennessee shore, where he presently was picked up by the relief boat "Silver Spray" and with other survivors of that dreadful disaster was safely landed at Memphis, which place he left on April 29 and on the steamer "Belle of St. Louis" was transported to Cairo, Illinois, whence, by way of the Illinois Central railroad, he was trans- ported to Mattoon, Illinois, and thence to Indianapolis and from the latter city to Columbus, the capital of his home state, where he arrived on May 6, 1865, and where he received his final discharge from the army on May 20, the war then being over.
Upon the completion of his military service, William R. Shaul returned home and resumed the pursuits of peace, engaging in farming for some time thereafter ; but he presently gave up the farm and moved to Cable, where he engaged in the mercantile business and where he remained thus engaged for thirty years, or until his retirement from business in 1900, since which time he has continued to make his home at Cable, living there in quiet retire- ment. Mr. Shaul was quite successful in business and was also formerly the owner of two excellent farms in this county. One of these farms he sold, but is still the owner of the other, a well-improved place of one hundred and thirty-one and one-half acres in Wayne township. Though he now is well past eighty years of age, Mr. Shaul retains much of his old-time vigor
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and continues to take an active interest in current affairs. He is a great reader, is blessed with a clear recollection of the past events of his long and busy life and keeps well posted on passing events. He formerly was a mem- ber of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Urbana and for years took an active interest in the affairs of that patriotic organization, but of late years has not felt the physical inclination to keep up with some of his former forms of activity.
In November, 1862, William R. Shaul was united in marriage to Anna McMahill, daughter of James McMahill, of Cable, a farmer and carpenter, of that place, and to that union were born four children, namely: William, James Monroe, Jennie and Frank T., all of whom are still living. The mother of these children died on February 12, 1882. William Shaul is now living in the West, where he has been for years. James M. Shaul, postmaster at Cable, has also for years been engaged as a teacher in the public schools of that place. Jennie Shaul, who also is living at Cable, has been twice mar- ried, her first husband, George J. Brown, having died, after which she mar- ried Benjamin Madden, a farmer of Cable. Frank T. Shaul, now a resident of Latonia, Kentucky, is engaged in the railway postal service, his run being between Cincinnati and Indianapolis.
MICHAEL DORSEY.
Michael Dorsey, farmer of Union township, Champaign county, was born in County Wexford, Ireland, December 15, 1850. He is a son of John and Mary (Dawson) Dorsey, both natives of Ireland, where they grew up, married and established their home; in fact, spent their lives in their native land. To these parents three children were born, Michael, Patrick and Sarah. The subject of this sketch was the only member of the family to come to America.
Michael Dorsey grew to manhood in Ireland and there attended the common schools. When a young man he located in the city of Dublin, where he drove a delivery wagon for about seven years. He immigrated to the United States in 1871, locating at Morristown, New Jersey, reaching there on May IIth of that year. After working as a farm hand in that vicinity about a year he went to Scranton. Pennsylvania, where he found employ- ment in one of the large iron works there, remaining in that work for three years; then went to Buffalo, New York, where he resided two years, and
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from there to Youngstown, Ohio, where he followed his trade in the iron works three years. Upon leaving that city he came to Champaign county and turned his attention to farming in Union township, working out as a farm hand the first five years. He then rented a farm near Lippincott and carried on farming as a renter for eleven years. He then moved to Union township and rented the farm he is now living on for five years, then bought it. The place consisted of one hundred and thirty acres, which he later added to until he now has a fine farin of two hundred and thirty acres, which he has brought up to high state of improvement and cultivation and has been very successful as a general farmer and stock raiser. Since 1914 he has been living practically retired from active life.
Mr. Dorsey was married in 1884 to Mary Lawless, a daughter of Michael and Margaret Lawless. To their union nine children have been born, Anna, Sarah, Joseph, Mary, John, Ellen. Catherine, William and Edward. Only two of these children are married. Mary is the wife of Mahlem Fudger. Joseph married Margaret Gardner and they have two children, Margaret and Ruth. John Dorsey volunteered for service in the national army in May, 1917, and was under instruction in the officers training camp at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, in Indiana. Politically, Mr. Dorsey is a Democrat, but he has never been active in public affairs. He and his family belong to the Catholic church.
CLYDE H. HOOLEY.
The present able and popular representative in the Legislature of Ohio from Champaign county, Clyde H. Hooley, whose chief life work has been in connection with agriculture, is deserving of special mention in a work of the nature of the one in hand, partly because of his public spirit and popularity as a citizen and partly because of his excellent personal reputation. He was born on November 24, 1887, in Salem township and here, by his own efforts. he has forged to the front while still a young man. He is a son of Jonas and Elizabeth (Riehl) Hooley, the mother a native of Union county, Pennsyl- vania. Jonas Hooley was born in the same locality as was his son Clyde, and here he grew to manhood, received his education in the common schools of his native township and began life for himself as a farmer, remaining on the home place until his marriage, when he bought the homestead of one hundred and thirty acres, later increasing his holdings to two hundred acres. He is
CLYDE H. HOOLEY
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still successfully engaged in general farming and stock raising, making a specialty of breeding Percheron horses. He is a son of Jacob and Martha Hooley, who came to Champaign county in an early day from Mifflin- county, Pennsylvania, locating in Salem township, on land which now constitutes the farm of their son. It was in the year 1847 that Jacob Hooley established his home here and here he resided until his death in 1898. His wife died in 1897. They were parents of seven children, Jonas being the sixth in order of birth. To Jonas Hooley and wife six children were born, namely: Clar- ence, Clyde, Carrie, Clayton, Chester and Bessie.
Clyde H. Hooley grew to manhood on the home farm and received his early education in the public schools of his district and in the high school at Kings Creek. He continued to work on the farm with his father until 1912. when he attended the Ohio State University, specializing in the agricultural course. Thus well equipped for a life as a scientific farmer he returned home and bought fifty acres in Salem township which he farmed successfully until the spring of 1917, when he sold most of it. In 1913 he took charge of the exhibits for the state at the county fairs throughout the state, demonstrating the work of the state agricultural experiment stations, a work in which he liad been engaged for four years previously, and he has given eminent satis- faction in this connection, having done much to stimulate better scientific farming throughout the state. He has also been instrumental in organizing the Farmers Lecture Course, which was the first attempt along this line ever made in this country, and through his able direction and perseverance he has made it a pronounced success. He has been interested in the state institute work for a number of years, working independently as well as for the state, both as a speaker and as a judge. He was employed as judge of fruits and vegetables at a number of county fairs in 1916. . He keeps well abreast of the times in all that pertains to advanced methods of agriculture and horticulture, being widely read on all subjects pertaining to these lines of endeavor. He is ky nature well equipped for such work and is best content when working with crops along scientific lines.
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