USA > Ohio > Champaign County > History of Champaign County, Ohio, its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 90
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Mr. Yocom is a Republican, but he has never been especially active in political affairs, nor aspired to public leadership. However, he has served as township trustee and as a member of the local school board. He has been a member of the local Methodist Episcopal church for the past sixty- eight years, and has been a liberal supporter of the church and active in its general affairs, having served as steward and class leader.
Mr. Yocom is exceptionally well preserved for one of his advanced
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years. He has lived a careful and abstemious life, been watchful of his relations with the world in general and lived an honest, upright and clean life. His hearing and sight are good and he has a remarkable memory; in fact, he has retained all his faculties. He is widely and favorably known throughout the county.
JOHN FRAWLEY.
John Frawley, retired farmer of Wayne township, this county, is the possessor of many of the commendable traits of the people with Celtic blood in their veins. He was born in County Limerick, Ireland, February 28, 1847. He is a son of Edward and Mary (Welsch) Frawley, both natives of Ireland, where they grew up, married and established their home on a farm, where they resided until immigrating to the United States in 1852. first locating in the state of New York, but in a short time they came to Delaware county, Ohio, where the father worked on the section gang of the Big Four railroad for awhile. In 1857 he moved to Cable in this county, and worked on the Pennsylvania railroad for a number of years, then bought ten acres south of Cable. He worked hard and continued to add to his holdings there until he owned eighty acres, on which he carried on general farming until his death in 1893. His wife died later there. They were parents of five children, the subject of this sketch being the only one now living.
John Frawley was five years old when his parents brought him to America. He grew to manhood on the farm in Champaign county and received a common school education. When a young man he began working for the Panhandle Railroad Company, with which he remained ten years. during the winter months, working as fireman and brakeman, farming in the summer time the meanwhile. After leaving the employ of the railroad he took up farming in Logan county, Ohio, as a renter, for a number of years, then moved to Wayne township, this county, renting land until 1893. His father dying at that time he inherited the homestead, which he has operated ever since, keeping the place well tilled and well improved, all of the eighty acres being under cultivation. He is now living practically retired, his son, William, doing the actual work on the place.
John Frawley was married in 1875 to Ellen Powers a daughter of William and Bridget Powers. To their union seven children have been born.
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of whom those, Mollie, Edward and Emmett, are deceased, the survivors being John, who married Anna Billock and has three children, Ellen, Robert and William; Nellie, who married William Dorsey and has three children, Kenneth, Catherine and Margaret; William, who married Sylvia Taylor and has two children, Mildred and Richard, and Edward, who married Nellie Dorsey and has four children, Helen, Mary Louise, Madeline, and Edward The wife of Mr. Frawley and mother of the above named children, died on November 27, 1906. Mr. Frawley is a Democrat. He belongs to the Catholic church at Urbana.
LAWRENCE CRADLER.
Lawrence Cradler, farmer, of Wayne township, this county, was born in Union county, Ohio, March 20, 1872, a son of Christian and Mary (Mutlar) Cradler, both natives of Germany. Christian Cradler immigrated to America when a young man and located near Marysville, Union county, Ohio, where he worked out as a farm hand for some time. He saved his carnings and later bought a small farm, which he operated the rest of his life. His family consisted of nine children, five of whom are living at this writing, namely: John W., Ninna, Frederick, Lawrence and Lewis.
Lawrence Cradler grew to manhood on the home farm in Union county. where he assisted with the general work when he was of proper age, and in the winter time he attended the rural schools in his home district. He was the only member of his family to move to Champaign county.
After leaving school Mr. Cradler began life for himself as a teacher, which profession he followed with success for a period of ten years in the public schools of Union county. His services were in demand and he was one of the popular teachers of his county. He remained a close student himself and kept well abreast of the times in all that pertained to his work. Finally deciding that an outdoor life was more to his, taste than school teaching, Mr. Cradler came to Champaign county and bought the Newton Diltz farm of ninety-one acres in Wayne township, which he has operated successfully ever since. He has kept his land well improved and well cul- tivated and engages in general farming and stock raising. Politically, Mr. Cradler is a Republican.
Mr. Cradler has been twice married. In 1902 he was united to Ethel Carren, a daughter of William Carren, and to that union six children were
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born: Frank, Albert, Lucile, Addie, Vivian and Harold. The mother of these children died on March 20, 1914, and in December, 1914, Mr. Cradle married Hattie B. McFarland. daughter of Thomas S. McFarland.
JOSEPH REID.
The late Joseph Reid, who was for many years a progressive farmer in Wayne, township, this county, was a man whom everybody liked, for he was honest, public-spirited and neighborly. He was born in Ireland and had many of the winning qualities of his Celtic progenitors. He was born in 1845 and spent his childhood in the fair Emerald Isle, immigrating to America, with his parents, when twelve years old, the family coming to Ohio and locating on a farm in Wayne township, this county. Here Joseph Reid grew to manhood. He received a limited education in the public schools. Here he married Bridget Bahan, a native of Rush township, this county, and a daughter of Darby Bahan and wife, both natives of Ireland. where they spent their earlier years, finally coming to America and estab- lishing their home on a farm in Rush township, this county.
Joseph Reid devoted his active life to general farming. After spend- ing many years on a farm in Wayne township he moved to Madison county, where he farmed for fifteen years, then returned to Champaign county, buying the Sylvester Spain farm in Wayne township, on which he spent the rest of his life. His widow now lives in North Lewisburg. He was a successful self-made man. He managed well and was one of the sub- stantial citizens of his locality, at his death leaving quite an estate. He died on July 3, 1915, at the age of seventy years.
To Joseph Reid and wife eleven children were born, namely: Thomas, who lives at Marion, Ohio, and is a conductor on the Erie railroad; Gus, who also left this county; Joseph, who is engaged in farming in this county ; Frank, who lives at Marion, Ohio, and is a conductor on the Erie railroad ; Amos, who is farming on the old homestead in Wayne township; Edward P., who is farming in Wayne township; Mary, who lives in London, Ohio ; Nellie, deceased; Annie, deceased; Emma, who lives in Hamilton, Ohio, and Ruth makes her home with her mother.
Edward P. Reid was reared on the home farm and he received a common school education. He assisted his father with the work on the farm until he took up railroading, working one year as brakeman in the railroad yards
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at Youngstown, Ohio. For the past three years he has engaged in farming on part of the old home place in Wayne township. In. January, 1913, he married Catherine Connor of North Lewisburg, this county. She is a daughter of Michael and Bridget Connor. Two children have been born to Edward P. Reid and wife, namely: William and Bernard Edward. The Reids are members of the Catholic church at North Lewisburg.
MARTIN L. RUSSELL.
There is no more painstaking tiller of the soil in Wayne township. this county, than Martin L. Russell, who was born in Belmont county, Ohio, August 12, 1849. He is a son of Samuel and Edith (Kirk) Russell, both natives of Belmont county, Ohio, where they grew to maturity, were mar- ried and spent most of their lives on a farm there. In 1865 they moved to Iowa, but returned to Belmont county a year later, and in 1867 went to Iowa a second time, spending the rest of their lives in that state, dying there many years ago. They were members of the Baptist church. Their family consisted of twelve children, namely: Simeon L., Rachael Ann, Levi K., Minerva and Sarah A., all now deceased; Martin L., the subject of this sketch; Jeremiah, who lives in Belmont county, Ohio; William A., who is farming in the vicinity of Mingo, this county; Arthur, deceased; Everett, who lives at Bronson, Kansas; Nora, who lives at Iola, Kansas, and one child, who died in infancy.
Martin L. Russell grew to manhood in Belmont county, Ohio, and there attended the common schools. When sixteen years old he started to work out by the month and continued thus for a period of eleven years, at the end of which time he married and located in Salem township, this county, where he farmed two years; then moved to Wayne township, where he con- tinued farming fourteen years on the Johnson place, then farmed in Logan county four years, and then three and one-half years on the Inskeep place. For the past eleven years he has operated four hundred and eight acres of the Johnson farm in Wayne township, carrying on general farming and stock raising extensively, also feeding considerable stock annually. He raises mixed stock, paying considerable attention to draft horses.
Mr. Russell was married in December, 1879, to Elizabeth Hunt, of Logan county, a daughter of John and Phoebe Hunt. Four children have (57a)
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been born to Mr. and Mrs. Russell, namely : Carrie E., who married Morris- Hill and lives in Logan county; John W., who is engaged in farming in Rush township, this county, and who married Clara Newman; William A., who lives at home and farms with his father, and Frank, also living with his parents and helping with the farm work.
Mr. Russell is a Republican and has for years been actively interested in local public affairs, having served as trustee of Wayne township during the past four years. His wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal church at Mount Tabor.
JOEL C. ANDREWS.
The late Joel C. Andrews, for years a well-known farmer in Urbana township, who died in the fall of 1909 and whose widow is still living in her comfortable farm home in that township, was a native son of Cham- paign county and had lived here all his life. He was born on a farm in the Pisgah neighborhood on January 10, 1847, son of John and Anna ( Raw- ley) Andrews, natives of Rockingham county, Virginia, who came to this section of Ohio in 1844 and after a brief residence in the neighborhood of North Hampton located on a farm in the vicinity of Pisgah, where they spent the remainder of their lives. John Andrews was born in 1814 and died in 1867. His widow survived him many years, her death occurring in 1899. She also was born in the year 1814. They were the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this memorial sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being John, Noah, Ezra, Mary and Martha.
Reared on the home farm in the vicinity of Pisgah, Joel C. Andrews received his schooling in the local schools in that neighborhood and from the days of his boyhood was a valued assistant in the labors of developing and improving the home farm. After his marriage in 1874 he began farming on his own account, renting a farm, and in 1881 bought the place of thirty- four acres on which his widow is now living, in Urbana township, and there spent the remainder of his life. In addition to cultivating that tract Mr. Andrews tilled considerable adjoining land, renting the same and con- tinued actively engaged in farming until his retirement about two years before his death, his death occurring on October 3, 1909, he then being in the sixty-third year of his age. Mr. Andrews was an independent Democrat in his political faith and by religious persuasion was a Baptist, a member of the Hickory Grove church, of which his widow also is a member.
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On December 29, 1874, Joel C. Andrews was united in marriage to Sallie Steinbarger, who also was born in this county, daughter of Alfred and Margaret (Myers) Steinbarger. The Steinbargers are an old family in Champaign county, Alfred Steinbarger's father having been the founder of the old Steinbarger mill which for so many years was a familiar land- mark on Mad river, and further and fitting mention of this pioneer family is made elsewhere in this volume. John Andrews, a brother of the subject of this memorial sketch, married Effie Steinbarger, sister of Joel C. Andrews' widow, and to that union were born three children, Flora, Pearl and Mar- garet, the latter of whom married Freeman Snyder. John Andrews died in 1901 and his widow died on June 29, 1914. Their eldest daughter, Flora, is now making her home with Mrs. Joel Andrews at the latter's pleasant home in Urbana township.
W. H. GORDIN.
W. H. Gordin, dealer in grain and live stock, Westville, Ohio, was born in Madison county, Ohio, January II, 1878, a son of R. B. and Amanda (Carr) Gordin. The father and mother are both natives of Ohio, the former born in Madison county and the latter in Fayette county. Both are now living in Springfield, Ohio, where Mr. Gordin is engaged as a dealer in live stock.
W. H. Gordin is the second of three children in his father's family. He was reared on the farm and was educated in the district schools of the township and in the South Solon high school. He remained at home and worked on the farm until he was twenty-one years old. Afterward he operated an elevator at Irwin Station in Union county, for five years. Then he went to Buffalo, New York, where he was employed in the stock vards for two years. Following this he spent one year in Pittsburgh, then came to Westville and purchased the elevator at this place and has continued the business here since December 1, 1910. He added the live stock busi- ness to his other business and has had large dealings in that line. He also deals in wood in season, as a side line. He is married and has two sons, Edwin, a student in the Westville high school, and Dana, in the graded schools.
Mr. Gordin is a member of Mechanicsburg Lodge No. 113, Free and Accepted Masons, and of Magrew Lodge No. 433, Knights of Pythias.
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of Westville. He also is a member of the United Commercial Travelers Association. He is a Republican but does not take an active part in politi- cal matters.
ORAN E. DETWEILER.
Oran E. Detweiler, one of Salem township's best-known young farmers and also widely known throughout the county as a horseman, was born in Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania, but has been a resident of this state since he was six years of age. He was born on April 14, 1880, son of Eli B. and Rachel S. (Greer) Detweiler, both natives of Pennsylvania, who came to Ohio in 1886 and spent their last days here.
Eli B. Detweiler was a son of Jonathan Detweiler and wife, substan- tial farming people of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania. He grew up there and early learned the trade of carpenter and bridge builder, which vocation he followed until after his marriage, when he came to Ohio, in 1886, and located in the neighborhood of West Liberty. For the first year or two after coming to this state he was employed on the farm of Benjamin Harris, near West Liberty, and then he came down into Champaign county and settled on a farm in the vicinity of Kennard, in Salem township, later moving to another farm in that same township, where he established his home and became a substantial farmer, remaining there until his retirement from the farm and removal to Kings Creek. His wife died in that village on June 29, 1909, and he later made a visit back to his old home in Pennsylvania, where his death occurred on October 3, following. Eli B. Detweiler and wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and their children were reared in that faith. They were the parents of fourteen children, of whom nine grew to maturity, those besides the subject of this sketch being as follow: Rufus, a farmer, of Salem township; John, also a Salem township farmer; William, now living at Marysville, in the neighboring county of Union; David, a Salem township farmer; George, who died in 1915; Anna, wife of Harry Cooper, a Salem township farmer; Margaret, wife of Clinton Boyer, also of Salem township, and Ella May, wife of Marion Goul, of that same town- ship.
Reared on the farm, Oran E. Detweiler received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and early began working as a farm hand on his own account, for six years being thus engaged on the farm of J. F. Weidman and for four years on the farm of William Carson. After his marriage
WILLIAM BELL McCREA
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in 1904 he made his home at Kings Creek, where he remained for eight years, at the end of which time he moved to Lippincott, where he remained two years, after which he moved to his present place of residence, known as the Edward Morgan farm, in Salem township, where he and his family are very comfortably situated. In addition to his general farming Mr. Detweiler has long given his especial attention to horses and is widely recognized as one of the most skilful horse trainers in this part of the state. For seven years he has given particular attention to that line and during that time has "broke" more than four hundred horses, the thoroughness of this work in that line bringing him customers from all over this part of the country. Mr. Detweiler gives close attention to local civic affairs and in his political views is inclined to be "independent".
On December 2, 1904. Oran E. Detweiler was united in marriage to Nellie Henrietta Weidman, who was born in this county, a daughter of J. F. and Martha J. (Blair) Weidman, the former of whom also was born in this county, son of pioneer parents living west of King's Creek, and the latter, in Licking county, this state. J. F. Weidman was a substantial farmer of Champaign county. He died in February, 1917, and his widow is now living at King's Creek. Mr. and Mrs. Detweiler have four children, Frank Maskel, Mary Ola, Rachel Elizabeth and Jessie Irene. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and take a proper interest in church affairs, as well as in the general social activities of the community in which they live and are helpful in promoting all good causes thereabout.
HON. WILLIAM BELL McCREA.
In the memorial annals of Champaign county and particularly in the southwestern part of the county, there are few names held in better remem- brance than that of the Hon. William Bell McCrea, a pioneer merchant at Christiansburg, a member of the state Legislature during the forties and for many years one of the most influential factors in the development of the community in which he had settled when little more than a boy, and the summers of whose last years were spent at Christiansburg, his old home there being now occupied by his widowed daughter, Mrs. Belle Mc- Crea Shofstall. He died at Dayton, Ohio.
William Bell McCrea was a native of the state of New York, born in the Kattskills on September 6, 1806, son of John and Elizabeth (Bell)
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McCrea, who later came to this county, by way of Cincinnati, and here spent the remainder of their lives influential and useful pioneers of the Christiansburg community. John McCrea was born in Scotland, a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Montgomery) McCrea, the latter of whom was connected by some affinity of lineage with the Scottish royal family. Being of a somewhat independent nature, John McCrea came to America with his parents at the age of eighteen years to make his own way in the world. For several years after his arrival in this country he remained in New York City and there he married Elizabeth Bell, who had come to this country with her parents when but a babe in arms. After his marriage John McCrea bought land in the Kattskill country and there established his home. His parents later came from Scotland and joined him there, spending the rest of their lives there. John McCrea became a well-to-do landowner in the Kattskills, remaining there until 1812, in which year he disposed of his interests there and with his wife and children came to Ohio and located at Cincinnati, where he engaged in the construction of the first waterworks system built in that city and was made superintendent of the same. He was a fine mason. In that city John McCrea and family remained until 1820, when they came up into this part of the state, seeking a new home on the fine land then attracting settlers in this county. John McCrea pre- viously, in 1817, had entered a tract of land in Jackson township and estab- lished his home there and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, helpful factors in the upbuilding of that community.
When William Bell McCrea came up into this county with his parents in 1820 he was but fourteen years of age and he entered heartily into the pioneer life, but after being here about four years he began to recognize the need of further schooling and to realize the lack of educational facili- ties in this section. He therefore, when eighteen years of age, returned to Cincinnati and while completing his studies there became engaged as a clerk in a general store and was thus engaged for four years, or until 1828, in which year he was sent up here in quest of wood ashes, which at that time were a marketable commodity and of which there was a plentiful supply hereabout, the residue from the huge fireplaces of the pioneers or from the great log-rollings. At that time the then hamlet of Christians- burg consisted of six huts. Mr. McCrea had learned the drug business and his experience in the store at Cincinnati convinced him that the promising hamlet offered an excellent opportunity for one engaging in the mercantile business there and he opened a general store in a log hut there. Later
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erecting for that purpose the first frame building put up in Jackson township and he also erected. nearby the store, the first frame residence there, he and his wife, who was Sarah Hall, establishing their homes there and becoming important factors in the task of creating proper social and economic con- ditions in the formative period of that now prosperous and well-established community. Mr. McCrea was successful in business and took an active part in the civic affairs of the county. In 1840 he was elected a member of the state Legislature from this district and served in that important capacity for three years, declining the re-nomination in 1844. In 1851 he enlarged the sphere of his business activities by entering into a partner- ship in the general merchandise way with a concern in Dayton and moved with his family to that city, remaining there the rest of his life, he being seventy-six years of age at the time of his death. His wife died at the age of seventy-two. He retired from business in 1875 and thereafter lived comfortably retired, spending his winters in Dayton and his summers at Christiansburg. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church and their children were reared in that faith. There were seven of these children, namely: Charles T., who died in 1915, a retired hardware mer- chant, of Cincinnati: Julia Caroline, who died on March 9, 1917; Rollin Hall McCrea, who died at Indianapolis, where for many years he was en- gaged in the wholesale millinery business as a member of the wealthy firm of Fahnley & McCrea; William W. McCrea, of Indianapolis, a retired mem- ber of the firm of Fahnley & McCrea; Belle, now living in the old home at Christiansburg, widow of Silas C. Shofstall, an honored veteran of the Civil War, who was born in Urbana and was a former merchant there; Emma A., wife of Winslow Phelps, a wholesale grocer, of Dayton, this state, and Frank F., who is engaged in the insurance business at Indianapolis.
It was in 1872 at Dayton, that Belle McCrea was united in marriage to Silas C. Shofstall, an Urbana shoe merchant, who died at his home in Wisconsin. Silas C. Shofstall was but seventeen years of age when the Civil War broke out and despite the age limit of eighteen years set for volunteers in the Union service he succeeded in enlisting and starting for the front. He was brought back by his parents, but when he reached the age of eighteen he re-enlisted and went to the front as a member of Com- pany A, Sixty-sixth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, quite a period of that service being spent as a prisoner of war in Libby prison at Richmond. He later was on duty in the inspector-general's office. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Shof-
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