History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 20

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

USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 20

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Reared on the farm, John R. Nash received but limited schooling in the days of his boyhood and the most of that was received during the period of two years the family lived in Illinois, he retaining distinct recollections of the little old log school house with its puncheon floor and with its greased paper for window "lights." Being the only son, he was from early boyhood a valued assistant to his father in the labors of the farm and he remained at home until his marriage when twenty-one years of age, after which he located on a farm on the Columbus pike in Xenia township, in the immedi- ate vicinity of the present site of Wilberforce, and there lived for eight years, or until 1859, in which year he bought and entered upon possession of the farm of ninety-four and a half acres in that same township, on what is now rural mail route No. 8 out of Xenia, where he now lives and where he ever since has made his home. When he took possession of that farm there was standing on the same a house that was erected in 1840. He remodeled the house and made other improvements to the place and has for many years had a well-kept place. In addition to his general farming Mr. Nash gave considerable attention to the raising of live stock and did well. He con- tinued actively engaged in farming until 1912, since which time he has been

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content to "take things easy." Mr. Nash is a Republican and for three years served as supervisor in his district, was land appraiser in his town- ship during the year 1900 and in that same year served as one of the local census enumerators for the federal census. He is a member of the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia and has been a member of the session of the same for the past forty years.

It was in 1850 that John R. Nash was united in marriage to Mary Jack- son, who was born in the neighborhood of Yellow Springs, this county, January 28, 1832, daughter of Gen. Robert and Minerva (Eddy) Jackson, the former of whom was born in Belmont county, this state, and the latter in the South. Gen. Robert Jackson, who gained his title by right of his con1- mission in the old Ohio state militia, and further and extended references to whom is made elsewhere, was a farmer and miller who moved from the Yellow Springs neighborhood to Xenia, where he operated a mill for some time and later bought a farm two miles east of that city, where he spent his. last days. His widow died in Yellow Springs. Mrs. Mary Nash died on September 28, 1904, survived by her husband and two sons, Robert Harvey and Hugh Leander, the latter of whom is still living. Robert H. Nash, who died on November 25, 1917, was a former member of the board of county commissioners of Greene county and a well-to-do farmer who lived two miles east of Xenia. He married on November 28, 1876, Agnes G. Watt, a daughter of William Watt, a former member of the board of county commis- sioners, and had four sons, Herbert W., Walter L., Charles E. and William H., further reference to which family is made elsewhere. Hugh L. Nash is farming the old home place east of Xenia, his father continuing to make his home with him there. He married Mary Ellsworth Frazier and has one child, a son, John F. John R. Nash has seven great-grandchildren, in whose companionship he takes great delight.

WILLIAM HENRY BRETNEY.

The late William Henry Bretney, a veteran of the Civil War, who died at his farm home in Cedarville township on November 5, 1912, and whose widow is now living at Xenia, occupant of the house in North Detroit street built by her father, Alexander McWhirk, many years ago, was a native son of Ohio, born in the city of Springfield, in the neighboring county of Clark, October 23, 1846, son of Tobias and Emma (Gant) Bretney, the former of whom also was born at Springfield and the latter in the state of New Jersey, whose last days were spent in Springfield, both dying there on the same day during the cholera scourge of 1849.

Tobias Bretney was a son of Henry Bretney, whose father was one of

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the earliest settlers in Springfield. Henry Bretney was a tanner at Spring- field and Tobias Bretney grew up familiar with the details of the tanning business and in turn became proprietor of a tannery of his own in Spring- field and was in business there when stricken with cholera in 1849, both he and his wife dying on the same day. They were the parents of two sons, the subject of this memorial sketch having had a brother, Foster Bretney, who died at Dayton in 1893.

William Henry Bretney was but three years of age when his parents died and he was reared in the household of his paternal grandfather, Henry Bretney. He received his schooling in the Springfield schools and it was his youthful desire to enter one of the newspaper offices with a view to be- coming qualified for the journalistic profession, but this ambition was dis- couraged by his grandfather, who, instead, required him to learn the details of the tanning business and he was working in his grandfather's tannery at Springfield when the Civil War broke out. Though then not fifteen years of age, young "Billie" Bretney not long after the President's first call for volunteers was able to get into the service of the Union army as a bugler and in that capacity was attached to the Seventeenth Army Corps, with which command he served until the close of the war, being present with Sherman on the march to the sea and in the later Grand Review at Washington. The young bugler was much of the time right close to General Sherman. During one of the numerous desperate engagements in which he participated his horse was shot from under him. While he was standing disconsolate beside the body of his fallen steed, he was approached by the General, who said: "Never mind, Billie: let it go-here is another horse," and the boy bugler was quickly remounted and again in action.

Upon the completion of his military service, William H. Bretney re- turned to Springfield, but instead of resuming his place in the tannery began working in a drug store and was thus engaged in his home town for a few years, at the end of which time he went West "to see the country." During this "prospecting" period he secured intermittent employment in drug stores in various towns and cities along the lines of his travels and while thus em- ployed got as far south as the Indian Territory. There he became employed in a government clerkship and was thus employed until 1884, when he re- turned to Ohio and for a time made his home on the farm of an uncle in Xenia township, this county. He was married the next year, 1885, and after his marriage became associated with his wife's brother, William Henry McWhirk, in the operation of the affairs of the Xenia Twine and Cordage Company, and was thus engaged until they sold the mill several years later. Upon retiring from the cordage business Mr. Bretney bought a farm of two hundred and fifty-five acres on the Kyle road in Cedarville township and

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there established his home, continuing engaged in farming until his death in '1912. Mr. Bretney was a Republican and was a member of the Second United Presbyterian church at Xenia, as is his widow.

On March 16, 1885, William H. Bretney was united in marriage, at Xenia, to Lilla McWhirk, daughter of Alexander and Matilda (Mitchell) McWhirk, then living retired in Xenia, where Mr. McWhirk had erected a handsome residence at 212 North Detroit street. Both Alexander McWhirk and his wife were natives of Scotland, the former born in the city of Glas- gow and the latter in the city of Edinburgh. They first met on the vessel which was bringing them to the shores of America and upon their arrival here were married in Boston. Alexander McWhirk had been trained as a tailor and cloth-finisher and for some time after his arrival in this country was employed at his trade in Boston and at Dedham, Massachusetts. He then moved to Cincinnati, where he became engaged in the grocery business, continuing thus engaged in that city until his retirement and removal to Xenia, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. Alexander McWhirk and his wife were the parents of nine children, of whom Mrs. Bretney alone survives. Her last surviving brother, Alexander McWhirk, a retired banker of Kansas City, Missouri, died on February 20, 1918. After the death of her husband Mrs. Bretney left the old home farm in Cedarville township and returned to Xenia, where she has since made her home in the house formerly occupied by her parents in North Detroit street.

JOHN THORBURN CHARTERS.

John Thorburn Charters, president of the Xenia city commission and for years one of the leading jewelers in this part of Ohio, was born at Xenia and has lived there all his life. He was born on March 4, 1873, son of George- and Janet' (Moodie) Charters, the former of whom also was born at Xenia and there spent all his life, establishing in that city in 1854 the business which is now being carried on by his son, whose connection with the same began in 1891 and who has been the sole proprietor of the establish- ment since his father's death in 1910. For thirty years the Charters jewelry store was conducted in the room at 114 East Main street, but in March, 1915, Mr. Charters moved to his present location at 44 East Main street, where the business has expanded and increased steadily.

George Charters, the veteran jeweler, who died at his home in Xenia on April 17, 1910, was born in that city, then a mere village, July 12, 1835, son of John and Margaret (Monroe) Charters, the latter of whom was a native of Scotland, born in the parish of Arisdale, Annandale county, and who was but a child when she came to this country with her parents. John

GEORGE CHARTERS.

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Charters was born in the city of New York, the son of a piano-maker, who later came to Ohio and who, in association with his son John, made the first pianos manufactured in the state of Ohio, one of these quaint instruments still being in possession of the pioneer manufacturer's great-grandson, the subject of this biographical review. It was in 1825 that John Charters came to Ohio from New York and it was on April 15, 1829, that he married Mar- garet Monroe, who had come here with her parents from Scotland in 1816. To that union were born ten children, four sons and six daughters, who were reared in the faith of the Associate (Seceder) church, the family becoming one of the influential families in and about Xenia. John Charters died on January 6, 1870, aged sixty-eight, and was buried in Woodlawn cemetery. George Charters, one of the ten children here referred to, grew up at Xenia and early became skilled as a jeweler and watchmaker, presently engaging in business in that line in his home town and so continued the rest of his life, one of the best-established merchants in the city of Xenia, his death occurring, as noted above, in the spring of 1910. he then being in the seventy-fifth year of his age. In 1864 George Charters married Janet Moodie, who was born at Jackson Center, in Shelby county, this state, Jan- uary 21, 1842, daughter of Robert Moodie, a member of one of Ohio's pioneer families, and to this union were born three children, the subject of this sketch having a brother, Robert Moodie Charters, now a resident of Cleveland, this state, and a sister, Margaret Isabella, wife of A. R. Collins, of Kenaston, Saskatchewan, Canada. The mother of these children died at Xenia on August 25, 1905, she then being in the sixty-fourth year of her age.

John Thorburn Charters was reared at Xenia, the place of his birth, received his schooling in the schools of that city, and in 1891, he then being but eighteen years of age, became associated with his father in the jewelry business .in Xenia,-a business he had followed ever since, sole proprietor of the old-established concern since the death of his father in 1910. Upon the adoption of the new city charter in 1917, the same providing for a change of local administration from the old common-council system of government to a commission form of government, Mr. Charters permitted the use of his name as a candidate for membership in the first city commission and in the ensuing election received the highest number of votes cast in that behalf, this very gratifying honor making him, under the provisions of the charter, presi- dent of the commission when the same in due time came to be organized, and he is now serving in that capacity, the only public office he has ever held. Mr. Charters is a 32° Mason, affiliated with the consistory, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Valley of Dayton; is past master of Xenia Lodge No. 49, Free and Accepted Masons ; past high priest of Xenia Chapter, Royal Arch Masons,

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and past thrice illustrious master of Wright Council, Royal and Select Masters. He and his family are connected with the Methodist Episcopal church.

On January I, 1896, at Xenia, John Thorburn Charters was united in marriage to Harriet Pearl Stull, who also was born in this county, May 22, 1877, daughter of John and Harriet (Fries) Stull, the latter of whom also was born at Xenia. John Stull was born at Fredericksburg, Maryland. He and his wife were the parents of three sons, Charles, residing near Waynes- ville, Ohio; Ralph, a farmer near Xenia, and Edward, of Dayton, and four daughters, Mrs. Charters, Carrie B. (deceased), Mabel (deceased), and Alice May. Mr. and Mrs. Charters have two daughters, Anna Marguerite, born on October 18, 1896, and Ruth Janet, August 5, 1905. They have a very pleasant home at 126 East Second street.

LEROY TATE MARSHALL.

Leroy Tate Marshall, former clerk of courts for Greene county and a practicing lawyer at Xenia, is a member of one of Greene county's pioneer families, the Marshalls having been here since the year in which this county was erected as a separate civic unit of the then new state of Ohio. His great-grandfather John Marshall, who was born in the neighborhood of what is now the city of Lexington, in Kentucky, in 1784, was nineteen years of age when he came up into the valley of the little Miami and settled here in 1803. He became the owner of a considerable tract of land in Sugar- creek township and after his marriage established his home there, all of which is set out at length elsewhere in this volume, together with further details of the history of the Marshall family in this county. John Marshall, the pioneer, was the father of six children, the youngest of whom, Jesse Marshall, married and continued farming in Sugarcreek township. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom three sons and two daughters are still living. Willis Marshall, the eldest of these sons and the father of the subject of this sketch, is now living on a farm over the line in Clinton county, not far from the village of New Burlington. He has been twice married, his first wife, who was Emma Tate and who also was born in this county, a member of one of the pioneer families, the Tates having been here since the second decade of the past century, having died in 1884, leaving two sons, J. Carl and Leroy Tate, the former of whom is now judge of probate for Greene county and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume. Willis Marshall later married Laura Holland, of Spring Valley.

Leroy Tate Marshall was born on the old Marshall home farm in Sugarcreek township on November 8, 1883, and was but an infant when his

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mother died. He supplemented the schooling he received in the neighbor- hood district school by attendance at a normal training school at Dayton and by a course in the township high school at Bellbrook and then began to teach school, being thus engaged for two years, at the end of which time he entered Cedarville College and was graduated from that institution in 1907. Upon leaving college he was selected as principal of the Cedarville high school and was thus engaged when in the fall he was elected county clerk, having been made the nominee of the Republican party for that office in the preceding campaign. Mr. Marshall entered upon the duties of the office of county clerk in 1909 and served in that capacity for four years. In the meantime he had been devoting such leisure as he could command to the study of law and in December, 1911, passed the examination and was admitted to the bar. Upon the expiration of his term of public office in 1913 Mr. Marshall opened an office for the practice of his profession and for the sale of securities in Xenia and has since been thus engaged. Mr. Marshall is a Republican and for four years, 1912-16, rendered service in behalf of his party as chairman of the Greene county Republican executive committee.

On June 4, 1908, at Cedarville, Leroy Tate Marshall was united in marriage to Nelle Catherine Turnbull, daughter of Edward and Jennie (Smithi) Turnbull, both of whom are still living at Cedarville, and to this union have been born two children, Maxwell Edward, born on March IO, 1909, and Emma Jean, August 21, 1912. The Turnbulls also are an old family in Greene county, having been represented here for more than a hundred years. Edward Turnbull and his wife have three children, Mrs. Marshall having two brothers, Howard Edward Turnbull, a farmer living in the immediate vicinity of Cedarville, who married Letta Baumgartner and has one child, a daughter, Wanda, and Paul Beveridge Turnbull, who married Miriam Fudge and is now (1918) a member of the National Army, in camp at Camp Sherman, in preparation for service in the war against Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall are members of the First United Presby- terian church at Xenia.

WILLIAM SCOTT CHALMERS.

William Scott Chalmers, a farmer of Xenia township, living on rural mail route No. 9 out of Xenia, where he and his two sisters are pleasantly situated, was born on a farm in New Jasper township this county, June 2, 1862, son of William D. and Jane (Crawford) Chalmers, the former of whom was born in South Carolina and the latter in Ireland, she having been six years of age when she came to this country with her parents, the family settling in this county.

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William D. Chalmers was but a lad when his parents, James Chal- mers and wife, came to this state from South Caroline and settled in Greene county, making their home on the place upon which their grandson, the subject of this sketch, now makes his home, in Xenia township. When James Chalmers bought the place it was partly cleared and there was a log cabin on it. He proceeded to clear and improve the place and he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives there. They were the parents of four children, Joseph, Jane, Charlotte and William D., the latter of whom grew up cn that farm and after his marriage to Jane Crawford for a time made his home in New Jasper township, but later returned to the home farm, where he died at the age of seventy-one years. His wife had long prede- ceased him, her death having occurred when she was fifty-one years of age. They were members of the United Presbyterian church and their children were reared in that faith. There were nine of these children, three of whom died in early youth, the others being James, who is now living at Indianapolis, where he is engaged as foreman in a lumber yard; William Scott, whose name forms the caption for this biographical sketch; John, who died at the age of eighteen years; David, who died at the age of sixteen years; Jane, unmarried, who is making her home on the old home place with her brother William and her younger sister, and Margaret E., also unmarried, who is making her home with her brother and sister on the home place.

William Scott Chalmers grew up on the farm and the schooling he received in the neighborhood schools was supplemented by two years of attendance at school in Xenia. He and his sisters have always remained on the home farm and were in charge of the same when their father died. Their old house was destroyed by fire in 1902, but they rebuilt in the same year and now have a very comfortable home. They are members of the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia. In addition to his general farming Mr. Chalmers gives considerable attention to the raising of Short- horn cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs. He and his sisters own the home farm of one hundred and three acres.

WALTER M. LAURENS.

Walter M. Laurens, who is operating the David S. Harner farm in Xenia township and residing on the place, rural mail route No. 10 out of Xenia, was born in that township, on a place two and a half miles north of the city of Xenia, February 27, 1872, son of A. P. F. and Josephine (Grisel) Laurens, the latter of whom also was born in this county, in the southern part of Xenia township, in April, 1851, and who is still living here, a resi- dent of Xenia. Her widowed mother was for years the keeper of the toll

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gate on the Cincinnati pike south of Xenia. Mrs. Laurens was the youngest of the three children of this widow.

A. P. F. Laurens was born in the Shenandoah valley in Virginia on January 6, 1846, a son of Martin Laurens and wife, and was about twelve years of age when his parents came to Greene county. Martin Laurens was born in France and was but a boy when he came to this country with his parents, the family locating in Virginia, where he grew up and was trained to the trade of miller. After his marriage he continued working as a miller in Virginia for some time and then came with his family to Ohio to take charge of a mill in Clermont county, later coming up here to take charge of the Jacoby mill on the Little Miami river in the vicinity of Goes Station. That was in the late '50s and he continued in charge of that mill during the Civil War period, later taking charge of a mill on Buck creek at Springfield. He and his wife were Methodists and were the parents of twelve children, all of whom are now deceased. A. P. F. Laurens was about twelve years of age when he came with his parents to Greene county and when he was six- teen he enlisted for service as a soldier of the Union and went to the front as a member of the Eighth Ohio Cavalry, with which command he served until the close of the Civil War. Upon the completion of his military service he took up farming, after his marriage establishing his home on a farm, and continued thus engaged the rest of his life, his death occurring on October 19, 1898. He and his wife were the parents of twelve children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first-born, the others being the following : Alice, who married John Skelly and died at the age of thirty years; William, a resident of Xenia township; Etta, wife of William Betts, of Miami county, this state; Margaret, wife of William Lackey, of the Cedar- ville neighborhood; James, of Caesarscreek township; Clara, wife of John Turner, of Cedarville township; Jessie, wife of Harry Bausman, of Miami county ; Lee, now living in the neighboring county of Clinton ; Edward, also a resident of Clinton county; Clifford, who is engaged in the service of the Big Four Railroad, making his home at Miamisburg, and Olive, unmarried, who is making her home with her mother at Xenia.

Walter M. Laurens was reared on a farm and received his schooling in the neighborhood schools. When twenty years of age he rented a farm and has ever since been actively engaged in farming. After his marriage in 1890 he rented a farm in the vicinity of Selma, later renting the J. B. Stevenson farm and on this latter place remained until 1901, when he took charge of the farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres belonging to his father-in-law, David S. Harner, in Xenia township, and has since made his home there. Mr. Laurens is a Democrat, as was his father. His wife is

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a member of the First Reformed church at Xenia and his mother is a member of the Friends church.

On December 3, 1890, Walter M. Laurens was united in marriage to Emma Harner, who was born on the farm on which she is now living, daugh- ter of David S. and Lavina (Wall) Harner, now living at Xenia, and to this union two children have been born, namely: Gussa, born on June 8, 1892, who was killed in a grade-crossing accident on the Springfield pike in 1908, and Freda, born on September 13. 1905.

David S. Harner, father of Mrs. Laurens, was born in Beavercreek township, this county, June 27, 1838, son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Snyder ) Harner, both of whom were born in that same township, members of pioneer families. Daniel Harner was a son of John and Sarah (Koogler) Harner, both of whom were born in Germany, but who had come to this country with their respective parents when mere children, both the Harner and Koogler families settling in Pennsylvania, where John and Sarah grew up and were married. It was in 1805 that John Harner and his wife came to Ohio and located in Beavercreek township, this county, settling on a timber tract which they proceeded to develop. John Harner and his brothers for some time operated a distillery there, marketing their product in Cincinnati. He and his wife were the parents of eight children, Jacob, Simon, John, Daniel, George, Mrs. Kate Showers, Mrs. Rebecca Augwell and Mrs. Sarah Miller. Daniel Harner grew up on the farm on which he was born and after his marriage to Elizabeth Snyder established his home on that portion of the place that had come to him and later added to the same until he had an ex- cellent farm of one hundred and forty-five acres. He and his wife were members of the Reformed church at Byron and he was a Republican. They had four children, of whom David S. was the first-born, the others being Margaret, wife of Mathias Routzong, of Xenia township; Jonathan, a vet- eran of the Civil War, now deceased, who spent all his life on the home place, and Sarah who married Warren Steele and is living on a farm in Beaver- creek township.

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History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 20

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