USA > Ohio > Clinton County > History of Clinton County, Ohio Its People, Industries, and Institutions, with Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families > Part 110
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FRANK HUNNIOUTT.
Frank Hunnicutt, a well-known business man of Wilmington and an extensive dealer In horses, is a native of Liberty township, this county, born near Port William. April 28, 1872, the son of Wilson and Mary M. (Gallimore) Hunnicutt, both of whom are still living. Wilson Hunnicutt was born on August 18, 1847, in Port William, in Liberty township, this county, and his wife was born on November 8, 1850, in Wilson township.
Frank Hunnicutt's paternal grandparents were Thomas and Susanna ( Bailey ) Hun- nicutt, the former of whom, born on July 10, 1811, in Prince George's county, Virginia, died on April 10, 1876, and the latter, born on February 9, 1810, died on October 15. 1896. Thomas Hunnicutt was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Hunnicutt, both of Scotch- Irish descent, who were born in Prince George's county, Virginia. He was a planter and farmer in Virginia and died there on February 15, 1823. His widow lived a few years longer, passing away in 1845. They were members of the Friends church and were ardently opposed to slavery. Susanna Hunnicutt was the daughter of Daniel and Mary ( Haworth) Bailey, the former of whom was born in Prince George's county, Virginia, and the latter, in Union township, this county. Daniel Bailey came to Clinton county in 1804, when a young man, and purchased a farm four miles north of Wilmington. He and his wife were stanch Quakers. He died in 1844.
Thomas Hunnicutt, grandfather of Frank Hunnicutt, had little chance to obtain an education. He arrived in Clinton county at the age of sixteen years, June 10, 1827, with his mother, brother and sisters and a small colony of settlers, his mother purchasing a farm of one hundred acres in Liberty township. After he was grown, he purchased what was then a swamp, one mile north of his mother's farm and became a wealthy man, owning about one thousand acres of land, in his later years retaining four hundred acres for himself, after giving farms to his elder children. He served as township trustee and was a Republican in politics. He and his wife were active members of the Friends church and he was an elder of the Dover monthly meetings. He was a success- ful hog breeder and was so well known for his ability that be became a judge at exhibi- tions and fairs.
Wilson Hunnicutt grew up in Liberty township and when a young man purchased a farm of one hundred and fifty-two acres adjoining that of his father. He lived on this farm until 1903 when he retired and moved to Wilmington, where he is living on South street. All of the members of the family are identified with the Friends church. To Wilson Huunnicutt and his wife three children were born, of whom Frank is the eldest. the other two being Nora, who married Dennis Stephens and lives on the old Hunnicutt farm in Liberty township, and Bertha, who married Alton Haworth and lived on a farm in Liberty township until her death in 1912.
Frank Hunnicutt attended the public schools of Liberty township and was a pupil
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at the Hunnicutt school house for years. Later he became a student at Wilmington College and upon leaving college, worked on his father's farms for twelve years, at the end of which time he purchased the Starbuck farm of ninety-four acres In Union town- ship, where he lived for four years. After that he lived in Sabina for one year. In 1911 Mr. Hunnicutt located at Wilmington, this county, and three years later, in 1914, built a magnificent new home at the corner of Spring and Locust streets, Since locating at Wilmington he has been engaged in buying and selling horses by the carload.
On August 3. 1893, Frank Hunnicutt was married to Lura Turner, who was born in Greene county, Ohio, daughter of John and Margaret Turner, both of whom are living near Lumberton, Ohio, and granddaughter of Eber and Mary Haines. Mr. and Mrs. Hunnicutt have three children : Mary Pauline, born on June 4, 1898, who is a student in the Wilmington high school; Leslie Thomas, January 9, 1901, and Priscilla M., June 15. 1906.
Mr. and Mrs. Hunnicutt and their family are members of the Friends church. Mr. Hunnieutt is Identified with the Republican party. He is a man of genial personniity and one in whom the public is accustomed to confide and upon whom they are accustomed to depend, since his word is known to be as good as bis bond. The Hunnicutt family have many friends in Wilmington and It may be truly said that they are popular in that city.
WILLIAM I. STEWART.
Among the prominent and influential citizens of Wilmington, the county seat of Clinton county, perhaps none has a wider acquaintance in that city or throughout the county than William I. Stewart, one of the leading real-estate agents and attorneys of this section of the state, and former mayor of the city of Wilmington.
William I. Stewart was born on a farm near the village of Bowersville. In Jefferson township. Greene county. this state. on January 17. 1555. son of Robert and Lucinda (Oxley) Stewart, both natives of the same county, the former born in 1828 and the Intter in 1×35. Robert Stewart was the son of Christopher Stewart, whose father was n native of Scotland. one of the earliest settlers in Greene county, this state. He learned the blacksmith's trade, which he followed at Bowersville until his marriage, at which time he bought a farm in Greene county, on which he lived for some years, at the end of which time. in 1875. he sold that farm and bought a farm In this county, on which he lived until his wife's death, after which he made his home with his several children until the time of his death. in 1908. Robert Stewart was a man of large influence in his community and bad served the public very acceptably as township trustee. He was an unusually well-informed man, having been a constant reader of standard books and well versed in history. He was a Republican and gave bis intelligent and thoughtful attention to the political affairs of the community, his counsels having much weight in the deliberations of the party managers, both In this county and in Greene county. Mr. Stewart was a man of strong religions feeling, an earnest Methodist, and helped to build several churches during hts long residence at Bowersville.
On January 25. 1849, In Bowersville, Robert Stewart wax united in marriage to Lucinda Oxley, daughter of the Rev. William Oxley, a well-known Baptist minister of that place, and to this union eight children were born. Nancy Elizabeth, Arminta Jane, Sarah Alice. William I., Charles Oscar, Aifred Franklin, Francis Marion and John M. The mother of these children died In March, 1sos, and the father died on December 31. THIS, Both were devoted members of the Methodist church and their children were reared in that faith.
William I. Stewart received his early education in the public schools of Bowers- ville and in the Storey high school. At the age of twenty-one, he began farming "on his own hook," and for three years was thus engaged, cultivating a rented farm, at the
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end of which time he engaged in the mercantile business, operating a country store for about one year. He then returned to the farm, but after one more year of agricultural experience decided to take up the study of law, and with this end in view. moved to Wilmington, where. on Thanksgiving Day, 1886. he began his law studies in the office of Hon. R. E. Doan and pursued these studies with such diligence that In June, 1888. he was admitted to practice at the bar of the Clinton circuit court and at once entered actively upon the practice of his profession in Wilmington, where he ever since has been located, in this time having gained a name as a practitioner which is known far outside the limits of this county. In addition to his general practice as an attorney-at- law, Mr. Stewart for years has been engaged in the real-estate business and has been quite successful. He owns a pleasant home in Wilmington, besides land in the east end of that town and has laid off lots In the new addition. He is also largely interested in the Geiger-Jones Stock Security Company and takes an active interest in the affairs of the city generally. Mr. Stewart for years has taken an active and Intelligent interest in the political affairs of Wilmington and Clinton county. In 1800 he was elected mayor of Wilmington, and in this important capacity performed excellent public service. For fifteen years he has been a justice of the pence and bears a high reputation as a just judge in such matters as come before him for adjudiention.
In 1852 William 1. Stewart was united in marriage to Emma Diffenbaugh, daughter of Adam and Ann ( Gallimore) Diffenbaugh, members of old and honorable familles in this county, and to this union one child In's been born. M. Peart. who is living at home. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have my friends in Wilmington and throughout Clinton county, all of whom hold them in the highest esteem.
JOHN L RANNELLS.
When the successful farmer is spoken of, the inclination is to view his success simply from the standpoint of finance and accomplishment; but aside from this, there are many farmers who have accomplished good in a community by improvement. by careful selection and by the study of farm products and Improved stock. These men are not alone a success In themselves, but they are a real benetit to a community. Of such as these is John L. Rannells, the subject of this sketch.
John I .. Rannells was born on March 24. 1857, on the farm on which he now lives. In Union township. this county, the son of Thomas G. and Massje Jane ( Wiley) Rannells. Thomas G. Rannells was born at Uniontown, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on November 1. 1-10, and died on September 11. 1886. He was the son of William and Leah (Gaddis) Rammells, both of whom were born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. In 1814 they came by wagon and horseback to Clinton county and located near New Vienna. There they purchased a tract of one hundred and twenty acres of what is now the W. D. Moorman farm, in I'nion township. Later they bought one hundred aeres on the Prairie road in Union township, where they both died. They were members of the Christian church.
Maxsie Jane ( Wiley) Rannells was born in 1821 and died In 1800. She was the daughter of Allen and Sarah Wiley, who came from Belmont county, Ohio, about 1825 and settled on what is now the Conrad farm. on the Prairie road, in I'nion township. where they died. They were members of the Friends church.
Thomas G. Rannells was only four years old when he settled with his parents In Clinton county, He attended the primary schools of that day and was always a faithful as well as a helpful attendant at all old-fashioned "log-rollings" in bis neigh- borhood. After his marriage he bought an eighty-eight-acre tract of land, which is a part of the farm which John L. Rannells now owns, and there he went to housekeeping in a log cabin. In 1849 he built the comfortable brick house in which John 14. Rannells now lives and lived there until his death, In 1886. He was a Republican. His
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wife, who was reared a Quaker, joined the Christian church and they became active members. Thomas G. Ranneils was a great stock raiser and had the best improved breeds of Shorthorn cattle, Merino sheep and Poland China hogs. He has seven children, six of whom are still living, as follow : William H., who is in the insurance business and who lives in Wilmington; Sarah E., who married Henry Hilderbrant, and who died in 1907; Mary E., Leah L. and L. Etta, who live in Wilmington; John L., the subject of this sketch, and C. A., whose history will be found elsewhere in this volume.
John L. Rannells attended the "Dutch" district school in Union township. During his youth and early manhood he stayed with his father on the farm and helped in the cultivation and management of the same. After his marriage he continued to live on the farm and after his father's death acquired all the interests of the estate and now has an excellent farm of two hundred and thirty-eight acres.
John L .. Rannells was married on February 24, 1887, to Leulla Bentley, who was born in Wilson township, this county, on September 21, 1860, the daughter of E. V. and Nancy (Custis) Bentley, retired farming people now living at Wilmington, this county, and to this union the following children have been born : Thomas E., born on January 1, 1888, and who helps his father run the farm, married Dalsy D. Wright and has one child, John Elwood, who was born on April 6, 1915; William Bentley, September 20, 1890, A student of osteopathy at Kirksville, Missouri, married Mae George, and has one child, Matilda Jane, born on July 18, 1912; and Louise, October 19, 1800, who is attending high school at Wilmington.
John L. Rannells as a Republican and he and his wife are active members of the Walnut Street Christian church. Aside from the exemplary farmer and stock raiser that he is, he was one of the promoters of the Clinton County Mutual Insurance A880- ciation, which has proved a great benefit to the county. He was for years one of the most active workers in that association and was a director in this association for years.
JUNIUS A. HENRY.
It matters much less where a man comes into the world than how he comes into life, as a living force and what he does and becomes in it. Heredity and environment have much to do In conditioning character and power, and fortunate indeed is the man who has been well born and whose surroundings have made possible his very best development. Junius A. Henry, a successful farmer of Union township, now in the prime of life, is peculiariy blessed not only by heredity, but by environment as well. He comes from a distinguished family of Clinton county and was renred under excellent home influences. Naturally he is a fine sperimen of manhood and citizenship. well balanced, well polsed, brond-minded and liberal. Junius A. Henry was born on December 20, 1871, In Greene county, Ohio, and is the son of the Inte William and Julla (Pidgeon) Henry. The former was born near Harveysburg, In Warren county, Ohio, January 31, 1838, and died on September 10, 1906, while the latter was born on May 7, 1838, in Guilford county, North Carolina, near High Point, and fifteen miles from Greensboro, and is still living in this county.
Of the more remote ancestry of Mr. Henry it may be said that his grandparents on his paternal side were John and Catherine (Stump) Henry, the former of whom was born in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia in 1798 and died in 1870, and the latter of whom was born in Frederick county, Virginia, In 1505, and died in 1887. John Henry came from Virginia to Ohio when a young man. His father having been killed when he was a baby he was reared by his aunt. He settled in Warren county and finally owned a good farm near Harveysburg, but in 15544 sold out and purchased land in Union town- ship. where he lived until his death. He and his wife were devout members of the Christian church. They had ten children, of whom seven are deceased. as follow : Daniel, lives in Wilmington; Willam, was the father of Junius A .: Jonas and John are
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deceased ; Matilda, married William Fisher, of near Port William; Retta, deceased, married Quincy Harris; Lydia, died unmarried; Frances, married James Fisher, of Wilmington; Reese, died unmarried; and Joshua, who was twice married, is deceased. Mrs. William Henry had a birthright in the Friends church. Fifteen years after their marriage, Mr. Henry joined the church. He was a Democrat early in life and later years voted the Prohibition ticket.
On his maternal side, Junius A. Henry is descended from Charles and Catherine ( Horney) Pidgeon, his maternal grandparents, the former of whom was born on March 1, 1806, and died on July 26, 1898, and the latter of whom was born on September 23, 1810, and died on December 27, 1886. They were natives of Stokes county, North Caro- lina. Isanc Pidgeon, the paternal great-great-grandfather of Juulus A. Henry, was a strict Quaker, who emigrated from Ireland to Chowan county, North Carolina, about 1740, and who, although he lived in America, during the Revolutionary War, was not called upon to serve, since he was a member of the Quaker church. His son, Charles Pidgeon, Sr., a blacksmith. mechanic, carpenter and home physician, married Elizabeth Crews on November 11, 1789. She was a native of Virginia, and died in the early forties, after giving birth to a family of twelve children. The father died in 1854. Charles Pidgeon, Jr., who grew up in Stokes county, North Carolina. later, located In Guilford county, and at the breaking out of the Civil War, being a northern sympathizer, emigrated to Ohio. He had married Catherine Horney on October 8, 1829. They had twelve children : Emily, married John Briggs, and died at the age of thirty-nine; Mary, married Wallace Mack, and they live in Virginia; Jobn, married Caroline Thompson, and is a Quaker minister at Orchard Grove. Oblo; Hannah, married William Charles, and they are both deceased ; Julia A., is the widow of William Henry and the mother of Junius A .: Samuel, Is a school teacher and farmer at Jamestown, Oblo: David, is a resident of California; Jeffrey, died In infancy ; Charles Addison, a school teacher, died unmarried, at the age of twenty-six; Henry, is a farmer in Union township; Cornella, married Bruce Sprague, of Union township, and Louisa, married Aden Star- buck.
Junius A. Henry Is one of three children born to his parents. His elder brother, Charles Addison, was born on January 22. 1870, and is a farmer of Union township. He married Margaret Vandervort. Junius Avery was the second born. William A., born on November 9. 1876, died on September 20, 1900.
Junius A. Henry attended the district schools of Clinton county, in I'nion township, and assisted his father on the home farm until his marriage, after which he located on a part of his father's hone farm. I'pon his father's death he inherited one hundred and twenty acres of land and in 1911 added sixty acres from the Wade farm adjoining the home farm. In 1909 he bought a residence on West Locust street, Wilmington, which he still owns. For several years he has kept thoroughbred trotting horses of the Wilkes and Electioneer strains. He raises all the cattle and hogs necessary to consume the grain raised on the farm and, in fact, buys grain for his stock. In 1900 Mr. Henry bullt a comfortable country home, where he and his wife and family now live.
On August 10. 1892. Junius A. Henry was married to Augusta Estell Fisher, a native of Green township. Clinton county, and the daughter of James and Eliza Fisher, the former of whom was born on April 30, 1820, in Clinton county, and the latter of whom was born on March 16. 1853, in Tennessee.
Of the paternal ancestry of Mrs. Henry, It may be said that her grandparents, David and Hannah Fisher, were natives of Virginia. David and Hannab Fisher had thirteen children : Samuel, John, Andrew J .. William. George W., James, Thomas, Eliza Ann. Maria and Elizabeth were ten of these children. The father lived in Clinton county until 1858, when he removed to Illinois and died of cholera In 1863, at the age of
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sixty-seven. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and one of the troops surrendered by General Hull at Detroit.
George W. Fisher, an uncle of Mrs. Henry's, after working at various places as a brickmaker, began farming in 1857 and before his death came to own two hundred and thirty-tive acres of land. His wife, before her marriage, was Martha Fife, who was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, August 20, 1828, and who came with her parents, David and Nancy Fife, to Philadelphia, in 1840, and a few years later to Clinton county, Oblo, where her mother died. Her father removed to the state of Illinois and died there. George W. Fisher and Martha Fife were married on February 15, 1850. They had eight children, as follow: Jennie, born on June 21, 1852; David F., July 18, 1854; John, September 11, 1856; George IL, November 8, 1858; Thomas, December 29, 1860; Matthew, January 17, 1865, and died on December 29, 1881; Maggie I .. , April 23, 1800; and James, July 25, 1873. Mr. Fisher was a member of Company K, One Hundred and Forty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, during the Civil War.
Mr. and Mrs. Junius Avery Henry are the parents of three children: Eva Catherine, born on January 11, 1893, married Earl West, and they live on the farm owned by Mrs. William Henry, Mrs. West's grandmother; Ray, March 1, 1894; and Fay, April 20, 1896, are at home.
Mr. Henry is a Democrat. He has a birthright membership in the Quaker church at Wilmington. Mrs. Henry Is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. They are well-known and highly-respected citizens and farmers of I'nion township, popular in the community where they reside aud where they have a host of friends.
HENRY STIERITZ'S SONS.
Coming to Clinton county as a German Immigrant when twenty-seven years of age. working for the first few years of his life here under conditions that would have proved disheartening to one of less plucky disposition, surmounting obstacles that to others might have seemed well nigh Insuperable, Henry Stieritz came to be a man of large substance, well circumstanced and prosperous and at the time of his death left to his sons. Jacob, Godfrey and David. not merely a legacy of world's goods that provided handsomely for their material state, but the far more enduring and valuable legacy of a good name, the name of a man who had done well his part in life, who had cherished his family and bad walked uprightly before his fellowmen. These three sons well have taken care of the legacy thus left them. not only having increased the considerable land holdings bequeathed them by their father, but have cherished the greater legacy of his good name, and in their own lives have so conducted themselves before men as to leave unsullied the fine trust their father reposed in them.
Henry Stieritz was born in the kingdom of Wurttemberg. in southwestern Germany. the son of Jobn Stleritz and wife, peasant farmers, and remained in his native land until he was twenty-seven years of age, at which time he decided to try his fortune in the great land of fuller opportunities across the water. With this end in view he came to America, almost immediately locating in this county, where he engaged to work for n Clark township farmer for two years at the wage rate of eight dollars the month. Desiring to save his earnings in order that he early might accumulate a fund by which te start himself as a farmer in his own right, Henry Stieritz allowed all but a mere pittance of his earnings during this period to remain in the hands of his employer, thinking to draw the whole amount at the end of his service. Just about the time of the termination of his two years of faithful service, his employer failed and he lost almost the whole of his accumulated wages. Not a whit discouraged. however. he started over again and presently found himself able to purchase thirty acres of land. This small tract was situated just over the county line in Highland county, and there Henry Stieritz laid the foundation of his fortune. Industry and perseverance found their Just
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reward, and in due time, with the diligent and faithful aid of his growing sons, Mr. Stieritz became the owner of a fine, well-cultivated farm of three hundred and eighty- one acres on the dividing line between Clinton and Highland counties, one hundred and twenty-five acres of which was situated in the latter county.
I'pon seeing his way clear to assume the responsibilities of married life, Henry Stieritz was united in marriage to Sophia Trautwein, also a native of Wurttemberg, who came to Clinton county with her parents, Barnhart and Mary (Gates) Trautwein, when she was thirteen years of age, and grew to womanbood on the farm which her father cleared from the forest wilderness in the southern part of Clark township. The Trautweins came to this county about the year 1841. locating on a farm of thirty-five acres in the deep woods, where they built a log cabin and proceeded to make a new home. Barnhart Trautwein gradually added to his original tract until he became a quite substantial farmer and was able to give his two sons considerable material ald when they later moved to Illinois to establish homes of their own. He and his wife also were the parents of one other daughter, besides Mrs. Stierltz, who married and remained in Clark township.
To Henry and Sophia (Trautwein) Stieritz were born three sons, Jacob. Godfrey and David, who grew up side by side and have remained close neighbors all their lives, cultivating and enlarging the home farm and creating valuable and comfortable homes of their own. Henry Stieritz and his wife were faithful adherents of the Lutheran church and their sons were reared in that faith and have not departed therefrom, being valuable supporters of the faith of their fathers in this community. Henry Stieritz died in the year 1853 and his wife died in 1907. Both were highly regarded in the community In which they had risen from humble conditions to positions of influence in their neigh- berhood and they were sincerely mourned by many friends.
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