History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 2

Author: Broadstone, Michael A., 1852- comp
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1440

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David Torrence was a son of John Torrence, who was born in County Londonderry, Ireland, in 1758. John Torrence, a son of Aaron Torrence, came to America as a British soldier during the Revolutionary War. At the age of twenty (1778) John Torrence enlisted in a Pennsylvania regi- ment and served until the close of the war in the cause of the revolution he had been brought over to help quell. He had an uncle, a brother of his father-Joseph Torrence by name-who rose to the rank of a colonel in the Revolutionary War and who later settled in Cincinnati and there lived the remainder of his days. One of Joseph Torrence's sons, George Paul Torrence, subsequently became mayor of Cincinnati. This son married one of the daughters of President William Henry Harrison. The Torrence family were Irish Covenanters, and because they desired greater religious freedom than was accorded them in Ireland they came to this country. Aaron, the first of the family to come to America, was accompanied by three of his brothers. After the Revolutionary War the four brothers left Pennsyl- vania and located near Lexington, in Kentucky. Here the family resided for a number of years, John Torrence, the grandfather of Findley David, being the first member of the family to locate in Greene county, Ohio.

John Torrence was married in Kentucky, his wife being Jane Jolly, the widow of Captain Jolly, a soldier of the Revolutionary War. She was noted for her courage and upon one occasion exhibited her bravery in a most striking manner. During the siege of a fort in Kentucky by the Indians, some time before 1800, she and her family and a number of others, were gathered in the fort for protection. The besieged became exhausted for lack of water and it was imperative that water be obtained in some manner. It was at this juncture that Jane Jolly volunteered to get some water out- side of the stockade. She crawled from the stockade to a spring in the im- mediate vicinity one night, with the Indians surrounding the place and on the alert all the time, and returned with a pail of water. John and Jane Torrence were the parents of ten children: Susan, William, Jane, Betsey, Mary, Aaron, Ann, John, David (father of Findley D.), and Clarissa. Of these children it is recorded that William, Aaron, Ann and David were long residents of Greene county. When John and Jane Torrence came to Greene county from Kentucky in 1805 they bought a farm three miles west of Xenia in what was known as the McClellan neighborhood. This farm, now owned by W. G. Taylor, lies in the northern part of Sugarcreek township. After coming to the county he was granted a pension for his services in the Revolutionary War, and continued to draw a pension until his death in 1840. He was buried in the Associate church cemetery, but his

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descendants had his remains removed to Woodland cemetery at Xenia in later years.

David, one of the ten children of John and Jane Torrence, was only about a year old when his parents came to the county from Kentucky. He grew to manhood on his father's farm west of Xenia, and so applied him- self in school that before reaching his majority he was teaching in his home neighborhood. Later in life he located in Xenia, where he engaged in the mercantile business for several years before his death in 1851. David Tor- rence was twice married. His first wife was Sarah Finney, and to this first marriage one son was born, Walker Torrence, who lived most of his life in Marysville, and whose one daughter, Mrs. Emma Torrence Gor- don, is living in Columbus at the date of this writing. His second wife was Ann Ingram Stewart. She was born in Clark county, Ohio, in 1816, and died in 1906 at the age of ninety. To the second marriage were born six children: Elder, who died at the age of twenty; Findley David; Samuel Wilson, who was killed during the Civil War at Beverly, West Virginia ; Jane Eliza, who died unmarried at the age of sixty-five; Sarah Ella, who died in infancy ; Anna Mary, who died in her early girlhood. There was also in this family a half-brother, James Cowan, a son of Ann Ingram Stewart by a former marriage.

Findley David Torrence, as before stated, was born in Xenia on August I, 1842. He received his education in the public schools of Xenia, and at Wittenberg College at Springfield. On August 20, 1861, he enlisted in the Sixteenth Ohio Battery, and served three years; then re-enlisted as a veteran volunteer for the remainder of the war, being mustered out in August, 1865. In this four years and three months he participated in twenty-seven battles, among which was the siege of Vicksburg during the summer of 1863. He was mustered out with the rank of a sergeant. After the close of the war he returned to his home in Xenia and clerked in the Millen dry-goods store for six years. In 1873 he became a partner of Austin McDowell, under the firm name of McDowell & Torrence, in the lumber business. Their yards and office were located at the southeast corner of Detroit and Third streets, and here Mr. Torrence was in business until his death-a period of forty-three years. The firm prospered and became one of the most widely- known retail lumber firms in this section of the state. Mr. Torrence was one of the organizers of the Ohio Association of Retail Lumber Dealers and of the Lumbermen's Mutual Insurance Company. He was interested in other enterprises, but it was to the lumber business that he gave practically all of his attention. He was stockholder and director in the Xenia National Bank, and also in the Home Building and Loan Company of Xenia, being president of the latter institution for about twenty years until the time of

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his death. In politics he was a Republican and was always keenly inter- ested in local political matters. He was a member of the city council and served as its president for several terms.

Mr. Torrence was married on January 29, 1874, to Mary Ridgely, who was born at Clearspring, Washington county, Maryland, the daughter of Richard and Louise (Snyder) Ridgely. She became an orphan when a small girl, and when twelve years of age, came to Xenia to make her home with Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Baughman, Mrs. Baughman being a relative. She remained with the Baughman family until her marriage and now resides in the old Baughman homestead at 220 North King street, the house having been erected in the '40s. Findley D. Torrence and wife were the parents of three children : Frederick Ridgely, Mary Pauline, and Findley McDowell. The daughter makes her home with her mother in Xenia. Frederick Ridgely Torrence married Olivia Howard Dunbar, of Boston. Findley M. Tor- rence married Patricia Broadstone, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. A. Broad- stone, and have one daughter, Jean Broadstone Torrence.

Findley D. Torrence was active in business until a short time before his death on June 24, 1916. He was an active worker in the First United Presbyterian church of Xenia, served as a deacon and also as a trustee of the church for many years, and in every way furthered the interests of the congregation. He was interested in the work of the Xenia Theological Seminary and served as a member of its board of trustees for several years. In his everyday life he exemplified the teachings of the church to which he was so devotedly attached, and thus lived in such a way as to merit the high esteem in which he was universally held by his fellow citizens.

Such in brief was the life of Findley David Torrence, a citizen of Xenia for nearly three-quarters of a century, a man whom to know was to honor. With his passing the city lost one of the men who helped in every way to make the city in which he lived a better city for his having lived in it.

WILLIAM H. DONGES.

William H. Donges, for some years past a member of the school board of the city of Xenia and the proprietor of a drug store at the northwest cor- ner of Detroit and Second streets, is a native son of Ohio and has lived in this state all his life, a resident of Xenia since he was twenty-five years of age. He was born in the city of Hamilton, county seat of Butler county, November 27, 1875, a son of Henry and Marie (Schmaedecke) Donges, the former of whom also was born in that city, of German parentage, in 1842, and the latter, in the city of Berlin, Germany, in 1850, who were married in Hamilton and there established their home, Henry Donges being there

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for years employed in a packing house. Henry Donges and wife were the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being the following : Minnie, wife of J. Rentschlar, now living at Middletown, this state; Susan, who is married and is now living in Michigan; Louis, who married a Miss Neidermann and who was drowned at Hamilton during the great flood of 1913; Phoebe, wife of Edward Knox, of Hamilton, and David, unmarried, who is also living at Hamilton.

Reared at Hamilton, William H. Donges left school at eleven years of age to take a place in a foundry and machine shop. He was engaged at that form of labor for some time, but presently his health began to break under the strain and he turned his attention to the study of chemistry and the drug business in a drug store in Cincinnati, in which city he remained until 1900, in which year, he then being twenty-five years of age, he came up to Xenia and bought out the store of the Cunningham Drug Company at the corner of Detroit and Second streets and has ever since been operating the same. Seven years ago Mr. Donges was elected a member of the city school board, for a term of four years, and three years ago was ie-elected to that position, his term of service having yet a year or two to run.

At Hamilton, Ohio, William H. Donges was united in marriage to Magdaline Mistler, who was born in the town of Kroppen, in Prussian Saxony, and who was but a child when she came to this country with her parents, the family locating at Hamilton. To that union three children have been born, Marie, Eleanor and Ralph. Mr. and Mrs. Donges and their children are identified with the United Presbyterian church at Xenia.

CHARLES L. BABB.

Charles L. Babb, cashier of the Commercial and Savings Bank Company of Xenia, proprietor of a hardware store in that city and formerly and for years treasurer of Xenia township, was born in this county and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm three miles south of Xenia, in Xenia township, a son of James S. and Phoebe (Lucas) Babb, whose last days were spent in this county.

James Babb was a native of the Old Dominion, born in Frederick county, Virginia, but had been a resident of Greene county since the days of his childhood, he having been but a small boy when he came here with his parents, the family settling on a farm on the Burlington pike. On that pio- neer farm James Babb grew to manhood and later got a farm of his own, but later returned to the old home farm. His wife, who was a native of In- diana, died at the age of seventy-nine years and he lived to be eighty-three, both dying in Xenia. They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church

the Ball

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and their children were reared in that faith. There were seven of these children, two sons and five daughters, of whom four are still living, the sub- ject of this sketch having a brother, Horace Babb, an attorney, now living in Chicago, and two sisters, Stella, wife of Harry McDaniel, a farmer, of this county, and Flora, unmarried, who is living at Dayton.

Reared on the home farm in Xenia township, C. L. Babb received his early schooling in the neighborhood district school and supplemented the same by a course in the old Xenia College, which then was flourishing on East Church street. He remained an assistant to his father in the labors of the home farm until January 1, 1885, when he entered into a partnership with John C. Conwell and engaged in the hardware and farm-implement business at Xenia, under the firm name of Conwell & Babb, in the building now occu- pied by the Greene County Hardware Company on Main street ; and he was thus engaged there for thirteen years, or until 1897, when the firm started a second hardware store at No. 16 South Detroit street. In the following year, 1898, the firm was dissolved and Mr. Babb retained possession of the South Detroit street store, which is now operated by his sons, but which he still owns. When the Commercial and Savings Bank Company was organized in 1906 Mr. Babb was elected cashier of the same and has since been serving in that capacity, recognized generally throughout the county as one of the most competent, courteous and obliging bank officials the county has ever had, it being no secret that much of the success attained by this bank is due to the personal popularity of the cashier. The Commercial and Savings Bank, which was organized under the laws of the state on July 7. 1906, with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, is situated at the southwest corner of Main and Detroit streets, the very heart of Xenia's business section, where it has admirably equipped quarters, and has been a success from the day it opened its doors. Mr. Babb is a Republican and for twenty years has served as treasurer of Xenia township. He also takes an active interest in the gen- eral business affairs of the city and the county at large and has long been regarded as one of the most enthusiastic and effectual "boosters" hereabout.

In 1887, Charles L. Babb was united in marriage to Minnie L. Richter, who was born in Cincinnati, and to this union four children have been born, namely : Elbert L., who was graduated from Denison University at Granville and who, in association with his brother Karl R., is in charge of the South Detroit street hardware store; Alma L., who was graduated from Ohio Wes- leyan University and is now a teacher in the Xenia high school; Karl R., a graduate of Denison University, associated with his brother Elbert in the management of their father's hardware store, and who married Dorothy Schwartz and has one child, a daughter, Virginia; and Lois R., who also was graduated from Denison. The Babbs reside at the corner of Market and

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Galloway streets. Mr. Babb is a Royal Arch and Scottish Rite Mason and a member of the local council of Royal and Select Masters, affiliated with the blue lodge, the chapter and the council at Xenia and the consistory, Valley of Dayton, at Dayton, and takes a warm interest in Masonic affairs.

MANSEL J. HARTLEY.

When in the spring of 1917 the people of Xenia began to take kindly to the notion of a commission form of government for that city and a com- mittee of fifteen was elected to draft a tentative charter for submission to the people as a basis for the administration of the city's affairs under such a form of government, the name of Mansel J. Hartley appeared as one of the mem- bers of that committee. Mr. Hartley gave his earnest attention to the duties thus entailed and did much of the actual work performed by the committee in the preparation of the charter which was later adopted by the city and upon which Xenia's present commission form of government is based. Prior to taking up his residence in Xenia in 1878, in which year he arrived there to enter upon the duties of superintendent of instruction in the Ohio State Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home, Mr. Hartley had been engaged in teach- ing school and during that period gave much of his leisure to the study of law with the view eventually to adopting the legal profession as his life work. In 1881 he was admitted to the bar and has ever since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession at Xenia.

During the period 1903-06 he served as a member of the board of public service ; 1907-08, director of public safety, and one year as a member of the city's sinking-fund commission. In 1881 he was elected school examiner for the city of Xenia and for more than twenty years served in that capacity. For two years, 1889-91, he was a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio State Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home, under appointment by Governor Campbell; in 1892 was the nominee of the Democratic party for Presidential elector from this district and was for some years United States commissioner of the circuit court for the southern district of Ohio. Mr. Hartley is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association and has served that body on various occasions in an official capacity, and is likewise a mem- ber of the American Bar Association, for the past three or four years an Ohio officer of the latter organization. He is a member of the board of directors of the Law Library Association of Xenia. Not only does he prac- tice as a trial lawyer, but in a fiduciary capacity he has handled numerous large estates, trusteeships, guardianships and the like. Mr. Hartley is the vice-president and a member of the board of directors of the Peoples Build- ing and Savings Company of Xenia; a member of the board of directors

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of the Shawnee Refrigerating Company, a director of the Willon Engineer- ing and Contracting Company of Xenia; a former director of the Xenia, Cedarville, Jamestown & Wilmington Traction Company and attorney for the same, and likewise attorney for the Dayton, Springfield & Xenia South- ern railroad company. Mr. Hartley is a Democrat. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a member of the grand lodge of that order since 1888 and a former trustee of the same and ex-officio trustee of the Odd Fellows Home at Springfield. He also is a Scottish Rite Mason, past worshipful master of Xenia Lodge No. 49, Free and Accepted Masons, and affiliated with the consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of the valley of Dayton. He still retains his old college affili- tion with the Greek-letter fraternity with which he was connected in college days.

Mansel J. Hartley was horn on a farm at the edge of Quaker City, in Guernsey county, Ohio, August 9, 1853, a son of William P. and Eleanor E. (Johnson) Hartley, the former a native of the state of New Jersey and the latter, of Ohio, whose last days were spent at Quaker City. The Hart- leys are of old Colonial stock and Quakers ever, the first of the name to settle in this country having been a member of William Penn's colony, and the Hartleys are still numerously represented in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, as well as in Ohio. William P. Hartley was but a boy when his parents settled in the Quaker City neighborhood in Ohio in 1837 and there he grew to manhood, married and established his home, becoming a substantial farmer. He and his wife were the parents of three children, two of whom are still living, the subject of this biographical sketch having a sister, Anice H., wife of S. F. McBurney, of Quaker City.

Reared on the home farm, Mansel J. Hartley received his early schooling in the schools of Quaker City and when little more than a boy began teach- ing school, spending his winters thus for four years. He then entered Bethany College (West Virginia) and upon completing the course there was graduated from that institution in 1877 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, a classmate of the late Justice Joseph R. Lamar of the United States supreme court. Upon his return home from college, Mr. Hartley was elected superintendent of the schools of Quaker City and in the next year, 1878, was appointed superintendent of instruction for the Ohio State Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home at Xenia, since which time he has been a resident of Xenia. In 1879 Mr. Hartley received from the state board of examiners a life certificate to teach school in Ohio. During his period of teaching Mr. Hartley had been giving such attention as he could to the study of law and not long after his arrival in Xenia he placed himself under the preceptorship of Charles Darlington and upon the completion of his

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term of service as superintendent of instruction at the Home in 1880 gave himself unreservedly to his law studies and was admitted to practice in April, 1881. Upon his admission to the bar Mr. Hartley engaged in practice in Xenia and some time later formed a partnership with Benoni Nesbit, a mutually agreeable arrangement which continued from 1886 to the time of Mr. Nesbit's retirement from the practice in 1892. With the exception of that period of six years Mr. Hartley has always been alone in practice.

On September 11, 1884, Mansel J. Hartley was united in marriage to Laura H. Coffman, of Dayton. Mrs. Hartley is a member of the Baptist church and Mr. Hartley is a supporter of the same.

AGNEW ELLSWORTH BRYSON.

Elsewhere in this volume, in a biographical sketch relating to the Hon. William B. Bryson, elder brother of the subject of this sketch, there is set out at considerable length something of the history of the Bryson family in this county and of the part that family has taken in the labors of developing the county. It therefore will not be necessary here to repeat the genealogical details relating to the Brysons, the reader being respectfully invited to note the sketch above referred to for such details in connection with the present sketch of Agnew Ellsworth Bryson, who is living on the old home place on the Springfield pike north of Xenia, where his father, the late James Bryson, died in 1912 at the great age of ninety-six years and six months, after having lived there and in that immediate vicinity ever since he came over into Ohio with his parents from Pennsylvania in 1834, he then having been nineteen years of age. James Bryson married in this county, here estab- lished his home, became one of the county's leading landowners and repre- sentative citizens and here reared his family, all of which is set out at length in the sketch above referred to, and the fourth and fifth generations of the family of his parents, Robert Bryson and wife, the pioneers; are now doing well their respective parts in the life of this community.

Agnew Ellsworth Bryson was born on the old home farm north of Xenia on October 28, 1863, last-born of the four children born to his parents, James and Nancy A. (Bradfute) Bryson, three of which children are still living, the subject of this sketch having two brothers, the Hon. William B. Bryson, a biographical sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume, and Robert E. Bryson, a retired farmer now living at Xenia. Reared on the home farm, Agnew E. Bryson received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and always remained with his father, when the latter erected the big brick house on the farm a mile north of Xenia in 1880 moving there with him and ever since continuing to make that place his home. Upon

Eng by f . Wiem & Bro NI:

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his father's death in 1912 he inherited one hundred and twelve acres sur- rounding the home and a hundred-acre tract along the Little Miami in the neighborhood of Trebein and has since been successfully operating the two farms. Mr. Bryson is a Republican and is a member of the Second United Presbyterian church at Xenia.

JUDGE MOSES BARLOW.

In the chapter relating to the Bench and Bar of Greene County mention is made of the official services of Judge Moses Barlow, many years ago judge of the court of common pleas, who died at his home in Xenia in the spring of 1888. Wholly self-educated, Judge Barlow came to be a man of profound learning and of a ripeness of judgment that placed him easily among the leaders of his profession in Olio. The extent of his erudition may be in- ferred by recalling the fact that he was jocularly known among his friends and associates at the bar as "the walking library;" and when it is further recalled that he gained the elements of learning by his own incessant appli- cation to the contents of such books as he could command during the days of his boyhood and that the basic points of his legal learning were acquired by poring over law books while working at the cobbler's bench, the observant reader must give credit to the ambition that fired the heart of this humble student and to the indefatigable industry with which the instinctive scholar pursued his studies in the face of difficulties that would have daunted any but the most persistent lover of learning for learning's sake. Judge Barlow was gifted with a wonderful memory and thus was able to store away in his mind the essential points of the books he read, with the further ability to revert to these points when needed; his associates at the bar often relying upon him to save them an hour of research when seeking a citation that would fit a case in hand. Not all of his time did the Judge give to his books, how- ever : for, even as much as he loved his books, his affection for theni was divided with his devotion to his beloved violin. The Judge was a violinist of rare skill, another accomplishment he acquired untaught of professionals, and his close friends often were entertained by his playing at his own fireside. When Judge Barlow, after having studied his precious law books in such leisure as he could command, by the candle light of an evening or from the open page of the book propped up alongside his knee at the cobbler's bench- for he was a shoemaker before he became a lawyer-went to Columbus to enter the examination for admission to the bar, he carried with him such a fund of elements of the law and of the basic principles of practice that he was given the highest grade that had ever been given to any applicant for admission in this state.

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History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 2

Author: Broadstone, Michael A., 1852- comp Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1440

Author: Broadstone, Michael A., 1852- comp
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1440