History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 2, Part 38

Author: Byron Williams
Publication date: 1913
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 925

USA > Ohio > Brown County > History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 2 > Part 38
USA > Ohio > Clermont County > History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 2 > Part 38

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).

Albert, second son of I. N. and Lavanchia Smith McAdams, learned the carpenter's trade, but fortunately, on November 20, 1877, ventured into the carriage trade as a traveling sales- man for the once noted Davis, Gould & Co., of Cincinnati, with whom he continued thirteen years, or during the life of their business. In their employ he went to every important place in the United States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from northern to southern extremes. That business is still continued on broad lines and with a success that has made him the owner of several fine homes in choice places. Quite in accordance with his grandfather and father's teaching, he became a Mason, April 15, 1870, when just twenty-one years and one day old.

On August 12, 1885, he was married to Mary Gray Jones at Hillsboro, Ohio, where she had been raised and educated. But she was born in 1852 at Norfolk, Va., where her mother, whose maiden name was Mary Ann Gray, was born, in 1824. Her father, Loren Jones, was born in New York, in 1818, and died there, in 1905. Mrs. Mary Ann Jones had two brothers in Norfolk who were each lost at sea with the ships they owned. but she died August 9, 1889, in Williamsburg. The only child of Albert and Mary Gray McAdams was born February 20, 1894, in Williamsburg, and named Joseph Loren, who is now a student in St. Xavier's College. Joseph's mother died Jan- uary 15, 1905, in Norwood, where the family had moved five years before. On November 28, 1906, Albert McAdams mar- ried Katherine Friend O'Connor, one of the eight children of John and Margaret Dunn O'Connor, of Portsmouth, Ohio. They have a pleasant home on Clarion avenue in Cincinnati. Of the other children of I. N. and Lavanchia McAdams, Ephraim is not married; Riley married Ella Mckibben and has Harry and Lavanchia ; and Harvey, living in Nevada, has one daughter, Augusta.

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INCREASE SUMNER MORSE.

Anthony Morse and his brother, William, from Marlbor- ough, Wiltshire, England, sailed on April 5, 1635, on the ship "James" from London, and settled in Newburyport, Mass., where he built a house on a slight eminence in a field that is still called Morse's Field. Traces of that old house are still visible. Since then, six generations with large families from that source have helped to civilize the wilderness, to build New England, to shape the fortunes of America, and to give the Nation brave men for great wars.

Benjamin, the fifth son of Anthony Morse, was born March 28, 1640, married Ruth Sawyer and became deacon of the First Church of Newbury. To his son, Philip, he made a deed of gift of his estate with the stipulation that certain sums should be paid to the brothers and sisters of Philip, who was born October 19, 1677, in that part of Newbury incorporated as Newburyport. Philip Morse married Sarah Brown, of Salisbury, and after her death he married Sarah Pillsbury, He died intestate, and his estate was administered by his sons- in-law, Col. Jonathan Buck, of Haverhill, Solomon Springer and Richard Emerson; all to be famous names in New Eng- land.

Isaac, the second son of Philip Morse, born November 5, 1714, married Jane, a daughter of Skipper and Elizabeth Lunt. Skipper (or Sea Captain) Lunt built the first Episcopal church in Newbury, of which Isaac became a member. He died Sep- tember 27, 1754.

Ephraim, the fourth son of Isaac and Jane Morse, was born April 10, 1751, in Amesbury, Mass. He enlisted with his cousins, James and Samuel, and, on August 1, 1778, he was mustered in the Revolutionary army. He married Sarah Clapp, of Salem, and lived at Amesbury, where three children were born : John married Nancy Pillsbury; Sarah married Mr. Bennett, and Hannah married Mr. Hidden. The family then moved to New Hampshire, where other children born were: Henry, who served in the war of 1812 and died at Bristol ; Supply, also a soldier in the war of 1812, who lived to die in 1833 at Bayou Sara, La .; Waity, who married Roswell Mans- field and lived in Amelia, her son, William Mansfield, being clerk of the Clermont county courts from 1870 to 1876; Cyn- thia married William Rollins, of New York; Christina; In- crease Sumner and Constantine.

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Increase Sumner Morse, a son of Ephraim and Sarah Morse, was born August 25, 1806, in Raymond, N. H. The standards of intelligence in New England. then as ever, were high and stimulating, and his aspirations were thrilled with the accu- mulating achievement of his own kindred, which numbered Whittier, the Poet of Freedom, and Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, with long lists of otherwise useful and notable people of the name and blood. His inclination was scholarly and his association refined. Much that others sought with painstaking care he seemed to have by nature. In 1827. on reaching his majority, he left New England for Ohio, in com- . pany with his dearest friend. Dana Dudley, who was one of the notable Dana family. The cherished ideal of the two was to visit the best of the world together, but their mutual hope was suddenly closed by the death of Dudley, in 1829, at Bayou Sara from an acute attack of yellow fever. The loss of his chosen friend was a lifelong sorrow for Increase Morse, who spent much of his earlier manhood in travel. The years passed in Europe in the midst of old buildings and historical mem- ories still further developed his innate love of beauty and lit- erature. A perception of the beautiful and the spirit of a rarely poetic nature pervade his letters that have been gath- ered and are treasured by the family. Among many memen- tos of that travel is a little case of fragments of stone from noted places and ruins that have special historic interest.

After returning from Europe to Cincinnati he was active and prospered in the Ohio and Mississippi river trade. In 1850 he married Caroline, a daughter of James and Nancy Harrison Whittaker, and a sister of the eminent physician, the late Dr. James T. Whittaker, all of Cincinnati. In 1855, on account of his wife's health, Mr. Morse moved to the high- lands of Clermont, where he bought the store of W. W. Sut- ton in Amelia, and continued the business until his death, June 16, 1875; and Mrs. Morse died there December 27, 1892. They had four children : Caroline Louise, John Henry, Anna and Jessie. Caroline, born in Cincinnati, married William T. Carley, of that city, and they live at Mt. Holly. Jessie married Clarence Eckles Shipp, of Walton county, Georgia, and they live in Chattanooga.

John, born, September 15, 1856, was instantly killed, Jan- uary 25, 1872, by the accidental discharge of a gun in his own hands. The untimely fate of the happy, handsome, studious, finely mannered and rarely talented boy was a misfortune

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from which there was no recovery for his father, whose ruling sentiment was a cherishing memory of kindred and friends. A lasting evidence of that sentiment is a monument in the cemetery at Amelia carved with the names he loved to hear, though buried far away. Among that inscription is a tablet with a touching tribute to the youthful Dana Dudley, who had been thrust in a nameless grave by Bayou Sara. Another in- scription commemorates the Revolutionary service of his fa- ther.

In appearance, Increase Morse was a full sized man, rather broad than tall, with a typical blonde complexion. His man- ner was urbane, so that those not acquainted often thought him foreign born. He lived much among long remembered scenes that he wished to revisit. His son, John, was being trained in the scenic and historic interest of New England, which they were to visit during the summer that followed his death. Among the choicest memories of his daughter, Anna, is a visit with him to his native town and through New Eng- land, in which they went to the home of his cousin, John G. Whittier, who honored her, then a girl of twelve, with the duty of bearing a flower from his hand to his poetical friend, John Mellen, in Amelia.

Anna, the second daughter of Increase Sumner, and Caro- line Morse, was married, January 11, 1885, to James Reuben Hicks, who was born November 24, 1850, at Newport, Ky., and is a son of James and Caroline Whetstone Hicks. James Hicks, a native of Clermont county, went to Newport in 1845, where he died just before the birth of his son, James R., leav- ing a widow with four girls and two boys, with whom she moved to Amelia seven years later. After his schooling in Amelia, James R. Hicks took a course at the National Normal at Lebanon, Ohio. Then, with a trend for commercial affairs rather than teaching, he returned home and started as a clerk in a general store. With some savings and experience, in 1876, he started a small store of his own that has grown to be one of the largest stocks of general merchandise in the county.

In 1876 he was appointed postmaster for the office at Ame- lia and continued so to act until automatically retired during President Cleveland's administration. With the return of his party to control he was re-appointed for a long succession of duty. His interest in political affairs began before the age for voting had been reached, and in his twenty-second year he was the committeeman for the Republican party in his pre-

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cinct, from which he was advanced to larger service that has had many terms as chairman of the county executive com- mittee, besides being a prominent factor of the county, dis- trict and State conventions of the last generation. In addition to these interests he has held a half interest in the Colter Canning Company, with canneries located at Amelia and Mt. Washington. He is now president and treasurer of that com- pany. He is connected as a director with several corporations in Clermont and Hamilton counties, where he also has fine real estate holdings.

This gratifying success is due to a combination of business instinct with pleasant manners, good habits and tireless en- ergy. Desiring some relief from such a variety of often per- plexing cares he sold his store and resigned the office of post- master in Amelia, in September, 1912, and has spent much of the time since in travel with his family, which includes two sons, W. Morse and Gordon Benneville. W. Morse Hicks, after taking an academic course at the Ohio Military Institute at College Hill, and a scientific course at Miami University, is a student in the Jefferson Medical College. Gordon Benne- ville Hicks is at home and helpful in his father's affairs.

WILLIAM HAYS REINERT.

One of Ripley's most enterprising and progressive citizens is Mr. William Hays Reinert, whose entire active business career has been spent at Ripley, and he is widely known throughout Brown county. He is successfully engaged in conducting a general store and handles lime, plaster, cement, tile and roofing. He has occupied his present store on Front street for the past thirty years, and established the business in 1876. Mr. Reinert was born near Philadelphia, Pa., Septem- ber 8. 1850, and is a son of Louis F. and Mary Jane (Hays) Reinert.

Mr. Louis F. Reinert was a native of Knithling, Wittenburg, Germany, and his birth occurred August 1, 1825. He was a son of Gottlieb Reinert, a native of Germany who brought his family to America early in the Nineteenth century and set- tled near Philadelphia. He was for many years a manufacturer of rope, which in those days was made by hand. He reared a large family of children, and after a useful and successful life, passed away at Cooperville, near Philadelphia.

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Louis F. Reinert came to America with an older sister, in 1840, some years before his father and mother left the Father- land. He and his sister located at New York, where he learned the baker's trade, which he followed in the various suburbs of Philadelphia. Louis Reinert was united in marriage at Vince- town, N. J., to Mary Jane Hays, a native of New Jersey, and shortly after this event they removed to Cincinnati, where she passed from this life in 1855, at the age of twenty-five years, leaving beside her husband, two children, the oldest of whom is the subject of this review. A daughter died in early child- hood.

The second union of Louis F. Reinert was with Fredricka Fredrich, a native of Germany, and of that union there were five children; a son and daughter died in infancy, and the others are : L. F., a druggist of Columbus, Ohio; Dr. Edward, of Columbus ; and J. J., of Walnut Hills, engaged as watchman at the Schacht Automobile Works, Cincinnati.

Mr. Louis F. Reinert was a man of versatile talent, and was a liberal contributor to all worthy enterprises. He was for many years engaged in the bakery and confectionary business ; was one of the largest stockholders of the piano factory at Rip- ley ; was extensively interested in a shoe factory at Ripley, and built a large brewery in Brown county. He was one of the most substantial and highly respected citizens, being con- sulted in all important affairs. He was a Republican and helped extensively in the support of the home guards and served as a councilman' and township trustee. Mr. L. F. Reinert and his wife were members of the German Lutheran church, and his large contributions to religious organizations were not confined to his own church. He departed this life at Ripley, in 1894, and left a large amount of property and money. His widow resides at Columbus, Ohio.

The original building of the Reinert Hotel, of Ripley, since remodeled, was erected by Mr. Louis F. Reinert and was con- ducted by him for many years-a noted and popular eating house. It is now owned by Mrs. J. J. Reinert, and is operated as the Reinert Hotel by Mr. William Tweed.

William Hays Reinert was reared at Ripley and enjoyed the educational privileges of Parker's Academy at Clermontville, which has since been made into a home for the working girls of Cincinnati. Mr. Reinert had for a chum and companion dur- ing his school days, Mr. William Carnes, a noted elocutionist.

For some years, Mr. W. H. Reinert was associated with his

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father in the piano factory and was "German boy" at the Snedeker & Wiles-now the Kirker & Wiles-store at Ripley. In 1876, he entered upon his business career for himself, and has continued the same business to the present time.

Mr. Reinert was married in 1874, his union being with Miss Lucy Theresa Paratonia, of German descent, and to them have been born five children :

Bertha, wife of John Sholl, of Mankato, Minn., who travels for the Milwaukee Corrugating Company. They have one daughter.

Louis, a pharmacist, died at the age of thirty years.

Oscar, a druggist of Ripley.

Miss Lucy, is associated with her father in the store and resides at home.

William Hays, Jr., is in the restaurant and confectionary busines on Main, near Front street, Ripley.

The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Reinert is in the old Thomas McCague property on Front street, between Mulberry and Locust streets, and was probably the first station of the Un- derground Railroad.

Mr. Reinert is a staunch Republican, and is now serving as a member of the village council. He is a member of the Elks lodge of Maysville, Ky., and of the Knights of Pythias of Rip- ley. Of the last named he has filled all the chairs, and is . past chancellor.

Mr. Reinert and his family are members of the German Protestant church, although they attend the Presbyterian church, to both of which he gives generous support.

CHARLES G. SEDERBERG.

One of the most prominent of the younger business men of Clermont county is Charles G. Sederberg, who by his in- domitable energy and fearless spirit has risen from a most modest beginning in the business world to one of importance.

He conducts a prosperous jewelry and optical business in the historic Kugler building, of Civil war fame, at the corner of Main and Elm streets, Milford, Ohio.

Charles G. Sederberg was born at Red Wing, Minn., April 4, 1872, his parents being Alfred and Hilda (Kempe) Seder- berg, the former of whom was an artist of great ability.

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Chass Sederberg

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The early education of Charles G. Sederberg was received in the schools of Red Wing, and in 1887 he began learning the jeweler's trade. While learning, he received two dollars per week for the first year, but as an inducement to continue the trade was given an extra twenty-five dollars at the end of the year, and his salary was increased to twenty-five dollars per month.

He served his apprenticeship with M. Q. Lindquist and Byron Chapman, of Red Wing, for about three years, resign- ing July 13, 1890, when he accepted a position with Weld & Sons, of Minneapolis. While at the latter city he became a member of Company A. Minnesota National Guard, and at- tended the dedication of the World's Fair, November, 1892, with the National Guard of that State.

Mr. Sederberg came with his people to Terrace Park the following year, where a brother had made a reputation as an instructor in music in Clermont county, also being an in- structor in the Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati.

It was in the fall of 1893 that Dr. R. C. Belt, of Milford, J. L. Galloway, florist, and John F. Robinson, circus owner, of Terrace Park, saw in Mr. Sederberg mechanical genius and helped him to establish his present business by telling him to work on a number of clocks at the great showman's winter quarters. Later he embarked in the jewelry business in S. R. S. West's Building & Loan Building in Milford. Here he worked on a bench which he constructed with a hatchet and saw out of a dry goods box. This he keeps as a souvenir.

The competitor of this enterprising young man intimated that he would last perhaps one month, but instead Mr. Seder- berg finally acquired the store of the former. It was in 1898 that he purchased the stock of Mr. A. C. Norton and has been advancing toward the front since. In 1901 the first telephone exchange was established in Milford in his store, he being the first manager. His salary for the first month on a commission basis was considerably less than the cost of maintenance, but it increased to nine hundred dollars per year. His own busi- ness was increasing so rapidly that he gave up the telephone so he might devote his entire time to the jewelry business.

In 1904 Mr. Sederberg went into the agricultural business on a farm near Urbana, Ohio, but in the fall of the same year he decided that he was better fitted for the jeweler's business than he was for a farmer, and he again returned to Milford and embarked in that line.

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On May 15, 1902, at Urbana, Ohio, Mr. Sederberg was united in marriage to Miss Ella Bishop Dickinson, a great- granddaughter of Governor R. M. Bishop, of Ohio, and a daughter of William and Kate (Blaise) Dickinson, her birth occurring at Cincinnati. To Mr. and Mrs. Sederberg have been born three children: William Alfred, Charles Bishop, and Hilda Catherine.

Mr. Sederberg is a stanch Democrat in his political views and his first ballot was cast for Grover Cleveland. He has served as a delegate to various conventions, and in Novem- ber, 1911, he was elected alderman to the city council of Mil- ford, and in 1913 became the first treasurer of the Milford fire department, organized in December, 1912.

Mr. Sederberg took an active part in the campaign of 1912, which resulted in the election of Woodrow Wilson as Presi- dent and of James M. Cox as Governor of Ohio, and on Jan- uary 13, 1913, had the pleasure of attending the inauguration of Governor Cox at Columbus.

In 1905 he became a member of the Knights of Pythias. He served five years as secretary of his lodge, and in 1911 was appointed county deputy grand chancellor. He was sent as representative to the Ohio grand lodge at Lima in 1910, and at Hamilton in 1911.

He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity at Milford, and has served as their historian for a number of years. Mrs. Sederberg is a member of the Order of Eastern Star.

In their religious faith both Mr. and Mrs. Sederberg are members of the Episcopal church, of which for the last fifteen years he has served as vestryman. In 1911 and 1913 he was chosen as their representative to the State convention at Columbus.

For the past twelve years Mr. Sederberg has been a men- ber of the Men's Club of Christ's Church at Cincinnati, and special correspondent for the "Cincinnati Enquirer."

For a number of years he has been correspondent at Milford for the "Clermont Sun." He assisted in starting the "Milford Record," securing the very first subscription.

In 1912 he was given a special trip with all expenses paid by the Carnegie Steel Company, on the steamer "Thomas Lynch." to Duluth, Minn., and return, through former mayor of Milford. William Magee.

Mr. and Mrs. Sederberg are charter members of the Miami Grange, organized at Milford, in March. 1913. with one hun-

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dred and eighteen members, and is one of the largest ever chartered in Ohio.

The career of Mr. Sederberg should prove an inspiration to the young men starting out in life with very little capital. He has certainly proved that by capable management and close application to business a young man of ambition may make a business record that is as creditable as it is honorable, and in the healthful growth of trade win the success that constitutes the goal of all business endeavor.

AMOS F. ELLIS.

James and Mary Veatch Ellis came from Wales to Mary- land, where they raised a family of six sons in the Quaker faith. No tradition has any mention of a daughter. A family register, lost in a fire, was not restored, but a few dates have been kept that help in fixing the localities. The accepted order of the sons is Nathan, Jeremiah, Samuel, Hezekiah. James and Jesse. Nathan was born November 10, 1749, and, in 1770, married Mary Walker, who was born August 31, 1752. They had ten children, the last being born in 1795. Samuel Ellis, Sr., was born October 25, 1754, in Frederick county, Maryland, which at that time-just before Braddock's defeat-was the frontier. In pushing westward they crossed the eastern ridges and no doubt were among those who were repressed by the odious Act of Quebec. For. in the Revolution, Samuel Ellis, Sr., was in Col. John Stevenson's command of Pennsylvanians, who built Fort McIntosh at the mouth of Beaver on the Ohio, and Fort Laurens, where the Big Trail crossed the Tuscarawas river. all as a part of the plan to capture Detroit. For that service, he was placed on the pension roll, April 17, 1834. He married Mary Fry and several of their children were born in the East.

James, the father, died some time after the Revolution. Then the six brothers gathered their families and substance with their mother into a boat at Fort Red Stone, and floated down the Monongahela and the Ohio to Limestone Point or Maysville, which was reached April 27. 1795. The writer of an excellent sketch of the Nathan Ellis Family in Evans and Stiver's History of Adams County gives that date and claims that five hundred Indians were encamped right across the river. It must have been not a war band, but a peace conven-

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tion for considering Wayne's recent victory. We cannot ad- mit that the Ellis settlements in Ohio were made until 1796. Then, five brothers started homes within the present limits of Brown county. Nathan chose the site where twenty years later he instituted the town of Aberdeen; and the mother of all, whose maiden name was Mary Veatch, died in 1819, and is buried in Aberdeen cemetery. Jeremiah and Hezekiah stopped by Eagle Creek. The other two went farther down. James located near and above White Oak, where he started a still, but eventually went farther west. The James Ellis who set- tled near Georgetown was a nephew of Nathan, and a son of Samuel, Sr.

The story of Samuel Ellis, Sr., affords much pleasant inci- dent. After the Revolution, he crossed the Potomac and be- came a neighbor of Col. Robert V. Higgins, who gradually came to owe him twelve hundred dollars. When the Virginia military district became available, Colonel Higgins came west and personally selected the site and laid his warrant for a thou- sand acres on the Ohio, including the mouth of White Oak creek. On returning to Virginia with glowing description of his land, Colonel Higgins proposed to pay his debt to Samuel with any two hundred acres that might be selected in a body from his tract. On coming west the land was found to equal the Colonel's praise and the part chosen was a rectangular tract one hundred and sixty-five rods wide by two hundred rods long, slightly rolling and situated so that the waters of the west end flow to White Oak and the waters of the east end flow to Straight creek. The bounding foothill runs parallel with the river bank, with scarcely a break or show of ravine at either end of the scene, which forms one of the most beau- tiful and intrinsically valuable farms of its size, even in the far famed beauty of Ohio. The high price for the time was wisely paid. This farm, besides the distinction of being the first settlement made in Pleasant township by the white race, also has the rare distinction in this region of being owned and occupied by the same family through a hundred and fifteen years.

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History of Clermont and Brown Counties, Ohio, from the earliest historical times down to the present, V. 2, Part 38

Author: Byron Williams Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Number of Pages: 925

Author: Byron Williams
Publication date: 1913
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 925