USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 22
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GEORGE W. WHITMER.
George W. Whitmer, assistant trainmaster of the Cincinnati division of the Pennsylvania Lines, with headquarters at Xenia, was born in Preble county, this state, and has lived in Ohio all his life, a resident of Xenia most of the time during the past thirty years or more, he having been train dis- patcher for the Pennsylvania Company for some time before entering upon the duties of his present position with that company.
Mr. Whitmer is a son of the Rev. David and Amanda Catherine (Gard- ner) Whitmer, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Ohio, whose last days were spent in this state. The Rev. David Whitmer was born
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in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, on March 10, 1823, and was but an infant when his parents, Jacob and Eve Whitmer, came to Ohio and settled in the vicinity of Tremont in Clark county. Jacob Whitmer was a tanner by trade and for some time followed that occupation in Ohio, but later en- gaged in farming. Of the children born to him and his wife five grew to maturity, the one son, David, and four daughters, one of whom, Mrs. Cath- erine Stevenson, is still living, a resident of Indianapolis. David Whitmer grew up on the home farm in Clark county and became by self-study a well educated man. For some time he taught school, in the meantime pursuing his studies with a view to entering the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church and in due time was licensed to preach. During his long service in the ministry the Rev. David Whitmer was located at numerous points throughout southwestern Ohio, his itinerary moving him about after the manner of the Methodist system, but the last six years of his active ministry were spent in Greene county, at New Burlington and Spring Valley. In September, 1884, he retired from the ministry and moved to Xenia, where he died on June 23, 1887. He was an active worker in the temperance cause and had a wide acquaintance throughout this section of the state.
The Rev. David Whitmer was twice married. By his first wife, Hannah I. Fox, who was born at Richmond, Indiana, he had two sons, William C., now deceased, who was for years chief train dispatcher and later trainniaster for the New York division of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and Charles W., a lawyer at Xenia, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. His second wife. Amanda Catherine Gardner, was born at Clarks- ville, in the neighboring county of Clinton, October 9, 1833, and died at her home in Xenia on March 28, 1906. She was a daughter of Dr. John and Sarah (Roland) Gardner, both of whom were born in Ohio and the latter of whom died when her daughter Amanda Catherine was a child. The mother of Dr. John Gardner was a sister of Governor Tiffin, the first gover- nor of Ohio, and the name "Tiffin" appears in every generation since as a given name. The Tiffins came from Carlisle, England. Dr. John Gardner was a physician at Clarksville and continued in active practice there to the very hour of his death, his death occurring at the home of a patient while he was making a professional call, he then having been seventy-four years of agc. He had been thrice married, and by his first wife had one child, a son; by his second, three children, Mr. Whitmer's mother having had a brother and a sister, and by his third marriage had one child, a daughter. To the Rev. David and Amanda Catherine (Gardner) Whitmer were born eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first-born, the others being Carrie, wife of E. H. Hart, of Xenia; Clarence, who is quite success- fully engaged in the insurance business at Chicago; Hattie W., who is un-
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married and who makes her home with her brother George at 520 South Detroit street in Xenia, where they have a very pleasant home; Edward Tiffin, now deceased; John Harrison, who is engaged in the undertaking business at Xenia; Mary, wife of Marshall Lupton, of Indianapolis, and Florence, wife of W. B. Fulghum, of Richmond, Indiana.
George W. Whitmer early turned his attention to railroading and in his boyhood became a telegraph operator, working at various stations along the lines that now form a part of the Pennsylvania Railroad System, and finally was made station agent at Wilmington, the county seat of the neighboring county of Clinton. A few years later he was promoted to the position of train dispatcher and for fifteen years was thus engaged, his duties being divided between the offices at Cincinnati and at Xenia. In 1904 he was ap- pointed assistant trainmaster of the Cincinnati division of the Pennsylvania Lines, with headquarters at Xenia, and has ever since been stationed there. Mr. Whitmer is a Scottish Rite Mason, affiliated with the blue lodge at Xenia and with the consistory at Cincinnati, and is a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, affiliated with Syrian Temple at Cin- cinnati.
ISAAC EVANS.
Isaac Evans, now living retired in the city of Xenia, where he has made his home since 1912, was born on a farm in Spring Valley township, this county, on December 8, 1835, son of Robert and Sarah (Coppock ) Evans, who had come over here from South Carolina some years before. and had established their home in Spring Valley township, where they spent the re- mainder of their lives.
Robert Evans was born in the Newberry district of South Carolina, November 9, 1797, a son of Moses Evans and wife, Quakers. Moses Evans died and his widow married Samuel Speer and in 1826 came with him and other members of their family to Ohio and settled in the southern part of Greene county, on the place now owned and long occupied by the subject of this sketch. Robert Evans married Sarah Coppock, who also was born in South Carolina, March 13, 1799, and several years after his mother and his stepfather had settled in Greene county he and his wife also came over liere, arriving on October 24, 1829. During the succeeding winter he and his wife . made their home with the Speers and in the next spring (1830) he bought a farm of four hundred acres lying along the banks of the Miami, in Spring Valley township, and there established his home, erecting a house facing the highway to Cincinnati. Robert Evans had been engaged in the milling busi- ness in South Carolina and upon coming here built a grist- and saw-mill on
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his place, operating the same by water power; which mills continued to be operated until about 1875, when they were abandoned. In addition to carry- ing on his milling industry, Robert Evans also cleared and developed his farm. He died on November 9, 1868, and his widow died on June 17, 1871. Robert Evans had been reared a Whig, but upon the creation of the Repub- lican party aligned himself with that party. He and his wife were birthright · Quakers and their children were reared in that simple faith. They had fif- teen children, of whom nine grew to maturity, namely: Rebecca, who died unmarried; Moses, who died in 1868; Esther P., who married Lewis Hard- sock, of this county, and later went to Kansas, where she and her husband spent the remainder of their lives; Lydia H., who married William Stans- field and also went to Kansas, where she died; Mary, who married Isaac M. Barrett, of Spring Valley, and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased; Sophia, who married Cal Whitney and went to Nebraska, where she and her husband spent their last days; Isaac, the subject of this sketch; Nancy J., who married Martin Peterson and continued to make her home in this county until her death some years ago, and Margaret E., widow of Aaron Crites, who died in 1915. She had made her home on the old Evans farm in Spring Valley township.
Reared on the old home farm in Spring Valley township, Isaac Evans received his early schooling in the schools of that neighborhood and supple- mented the same by attendance at Bacon's Commercial College at Cincinnati, from which institution he was graduated in 1857. He then became a partner in his father's milling operations and continued thus engaged in the milling business until they sold the mills in 1864, after which he became the owner of the old Speer farm, which had been settled by his stepgrandfather, Samuel Speer, in 1829, and there he continued to make his home for forty-eight years, or until liis retirement from the farm and removal to Xenia in 1912. Mr. Evans still owns his home farm of one hundred and seventy acres and has added to that one hundred and sixty acres adjoining, and enjoys an occa- sional trip to the same. He also owns property in the city. Mr. Evans is a Republican and for some years served the people of Spring Valley township as trustee. He is a member of the Friends church, as have been the members of his family for generations. He was made a Mason at Waynesville many years ago, is a charter member of the Masonic lodge at New Burlington and · is also a member of Xenia Chapter No. 36, Royal Arch Masons, and of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite (32°) at Dayton.
Isaac Evans has been twice married. On January 31, 1860, when twen- ty-four years of age, he was united in marriage to Matilda C. Stump, who also was born in this county, a daughter of Jonas and Prudence (Smalley) Stump, pioneers of Greene county, and of the children born to this union six
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are now living, namely: Frank S., who married Catherine Eberley and is living on a part of the old home farm; Minnie B., of Columbus, Ohio, widow of Joseph G. Gest; Lou, wife of Robert J. Lacey, of Wilmington, this state; Alta M., wife of John L. Shipp, of Columbus, Ohio; William J., who is en- gaged in the livery business at Xenia, and Charles R., who married Stella Lucas and is also engaged in the livery business at Xenia, in association with his brother. The mother of these children died on September 17, 1897, she then being at the age of sixty-one years, and on May 16, 1900, Mr. Evans married Frances Adams, of the neighboring county of Montgomery. She was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, the daughter of E. B. and Priscilla Adams, both of whom are deceased. In 1878 the Adams family left Pennsylvania and located in Dayton, Ohio. E. B. Adams was a miller by trade. There Mrs. Evans attended public school as a girl and grew up.
PROF. CHARLES A. NOSKER, A. M.
Prof. Charles A. Nosker, A. M., member of the faculty of Antioch Col- lege and since 1907 occupant of the chair of biology and geology in that insti- tution, is a native son of Ohio and has lived in this state all his life. He was born on a farm in Coshocton county on January 3, 1876, son of Benjamin F. and Clarinda (Talmage) Nosker, both of whom also were born in this state. the former at Canal Dover, in Tuscarawas county, in 1835, and the latter in Coshocton county.
Benjamin F. Nosker, who died in 1897, was twice married and by his marriage to Clarinda Talmage was the father of eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the last born, the others being as follow: Evalyn, deceased; George, who is married and is living at Columbus, this state. where he is engaged as a traveling salesman; Sherman, who is living in northern Ohio; Ida Jane, wife of Henry Veigel, a farmer of Coshocton county ; Frances, deceased; Benjamin F., who is living in Coshocton county, and William Henry, who also continues to make his home in that county. The mother of these children died in 1884 and Benjamin F. Nosker later married Mary J. Hummer, to which union two daughters were born, Hazel and Ber- nice, who are living with their mother at Coshocton.
Reared on the home farm in Coshocton county, Charles A. Nosker received his elementary schooling in the neighborhood district schools and then took a course in the Roscoe high school, going thence to the Roscoe Normal School and in 1901 to Poland Seminary. In January, 1902, he en- tered Antioch College at Yellow Springs and in 1907 was graduated from that institution with the degree of Bachelor of Science. During the summer of that year he pursued a special course in the Ohio State School at Cedar
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Point and in the fall of that year entered upon his duties as instructor in biology and geology at Antioch College and has since been thus connected with that institution, which in 1912 conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. Professor Nosker is a close student and in the summer of 1910 pur- sued a special course in the branches in which he is particularly interested under Doctor Coulter at Chicago University.
On June 19, 1908, at Yellow Springs, Professor Nosker was united in marriage to Carrie E. Zehner, who was born in Hardin county, this state, daughter of William Zehner and wife, the latter of whom, now deceased, was Lucretia Dixon. For some time previous to her marriage Mrs. Nosker had been making her home in the household of President Fess at Yellow Springs and was living there when married to Professor Nosker. To this union two sons have been born, Paul William, born on June 1, 1911, and Charles Robert, August 26, 1914. Professor and Mrs. Nosker are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. The Professor is a member of the local lodge of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows at Yellow Springs.
REED MADDEN, M. D.
Dr. Reed Madden, a Xenia physician and a specialist in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, is a native of the state of Missouri, but has been a resident of Ohio and of Greene county since the days of boy- hood. He was born on a farm in Adair county, Missouri, August 11, 1870, son of Dr. William P. and Zeruiah J. (Laybourne) Madden, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of Ohio, whose last days were spent in this county, the elder Doctor Madden having for years before his death been engaged in the practice of medicine and in the drug business at Xenia.
The late Dr. William P. Madden, a veteran of the Civil War, was born in County Galway, Ireland, March 14, 1842, a son of Michael and Joanna (Flemming) Madden, both of whom were born in that same county. In 1844 Michael Madden, who had been engaged in the distillery business in Galway. decided to make a change of base and to try his fortunes over on this side of the water. Leaving his family in Ireland he came to the United States, landing at the port of New Orleans. After a short stop there he pro- ceeded on up the rivers to Cincinnati and after prospecting there a bit came on up into this part of Ohio and bought a farm in the vicinity of Springfield. He there made preparations for the reception of his family and in the fall of 1847 sent for his wife and two small sons, who in due time joined him and the family home became established on the farm near Springfield, where two more children were born. The mother of these children died in 1859. Of these children, the late Dr. William P. Madden was the first-born. Thomas.
REED MADDEN, M. D.
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the next in order of birth, died in childhood. Michael, the third son, grew up in Clark county and later made his home at Marion, this state. Anna, the only daughter, married William Laybourne, of Springfield.
Reared on the home farm in the vicinity of Springfield, William P. Mad- den, who was but six years of age when he was brought to this country by his mother. was living there when the Civil War broke out. On October 9, 1861, he then being nineteen years of age, he enlisted his services in behalf of the Union cause and went to the front as a member of Company I, Forty- fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Upon the completion of his orig- inal term of service he re-enlisted in that same regiment, but was transferred to the Eighth Ohio Cavalry and was serving with that command when on June 18, 1864, at the battle of Lynchburg, Virginia, he was captured by the enemy and was confined in Andersonville prison, where he remained nearly a year, suffering all the horrors and deprivations common to the sufferings of the men thus confined.
William P. Madden first saw the smoke of battle during service at Floyd Mountain, West Virginia. He later took part in the battles of Lewis- burg, Somerset and Knoxville, under General Burnside, and at Strawberry Plains, Stanton and Lynchburg, Virginia, it being during the latter engage- ment, as noted above, that he was taken prisoner and sent to Andersonville. On April 1, 1865, he was exchanged and with many others who were thus released from the cruel stockade later became one of the two thousand three hundred and thirty-four exchanged prisoners who boarded the ill-fated steamer "Sultana" bound for Cairo, Illinois, and when that vessel enroute was sunk by reason of the explosion of its boiler was one of the six hundred and thirty- four who were able to make their escape and reach shore, he having been on deck and able to leap into the water free from the wreckage at the tinie of the explosion. In due time he was able to report to his command and on May 30, 1865, was mustered out by special order of the war department, as one of the survivors of the "Sultana." Upon receiving his discharge he resumed his work on the home farm in Clark county and in that neighborhood early in 1868 was married, later establishing his home on a farm in Adair county, Missouri. In 1873, at Kirksville, Missouri, he took up the study of medicine, under the preceptorship of Dr. J. H. Wesher, and later entered the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati, from which he was graduated in 1875. Upon receiving his diploma, Doctor Madden opened an office at Cedar- ville, in this county, and there continued in practice until 1885, when he moved to Xenia, where he was engaged in practice the rest of his life, his death occurring there in 1908. For two years after taking up his residence in Xenia he also conducted a drug store there.
Dr. William P. Madden was twice married. On January 28, 1868, near
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Springfield, he was united in marriage to Zeruiah J. Laybourne, daughter of Reed and Mary (Skillens) Laybourne, and to that union were born three children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth, the others having been Anna B., born on January 28, 1869, who died on August 17 following, and Whitelaw L., May 21, 1877, who died on Jan- uary 29, 1878. The mother of these children died on January 28, 1883, and on May 6, 1885, Doctor Madden married Hattie Brown, daughter of Nixon G. and Hannah (Wilson) Brown, which union was without issue.
Having been but a small child when his parents moved from Missouri to Cedarville, Reed Madden received his early schooling in the schools of that village and after the removal of the family to Xenia attended and was graduated from the Xenia high school. He then took a year of further instruc- tion at the Ohio State University at Columbus and then entered the Eclectic Institute at Cincinnati, from which he was graduated in 1894, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Upon receiving his diploma Doctor Madden returned to Xenia and became engaged in the practice of his profession there in association with his father. In 1895 he took a special post-graduate course in the study of diseases of the ear, eye, nose and throat and has ever since then devoted his practice to those particular lines. In 1912 he went to Europe and at Paris, Berlin and Vienna took a further course of instruction in his specialty. The Doctor is a member of the Greene County Medical Society, of the Ohio State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association, and is a member of the medical staff of the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home at Xenia. He is a member of the board of directors of the Shawnee Refrigerator Company of Xenia. His offices are in the Allen building.
In 1898 Dr. Reed Madden was united in marriage to Grace Wolf, who was born in this county, daughter of D. K. and Margaret Ann Wolf, now botlı deceased. The Doctor and Mrs. Madden are members of the Presbyterian church. Politically, the Doctor is a Republican, with "independent" lean- ings. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a member of the local council, Royal and Select Masters.
HUGH M. MURDOCK.
On another page in this volume, in a personal sketch relating to Silas M. Murdock, brother of the subject of this sketch, there is set out at consid- erable length something of the history and the genealogy of the Murdock family in this county and of the coming to Ohio in 1835 of Robert Murdock and his wife, who settled in Clinton county and later came up into Greene county and established their home in Cedarville township. Robert Murdock
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was born in County Antrim, Ireland, son of John Murdock and wife, who were the parents of eight children, all of whom came to the United States save two. As a young man Robert Murdock came to this country and located in Philadelphia, where in 1835 he married Elizabeth Richards, who had come to this country the year previous with her parents from Ireland, she also having been born in County Antrim. After their marriage Robert Murdock and his wife came to Ohio and settled in Wayne township, Clinton county, where he bought a tract of two hundred and forty acres of land and where he made his home until 1857. He then sold out and moved into Greene county, buying a tract of one hundred and seventeen acres south of Cedar- ville, where he lived until his retirement from the farm and removal to Ce- darville, where he spent his last days, his death occurring there in 1876, he then being past seventy-five years of age. His widow survived him for nearly twenty years, her death occurring in January, 1895, she then being eighty-two years of age. Robert Murdock and his wife were members of the Reformed Presbyterian church and their children were reared in that faith. There were six of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fifth in order of birth, the others being as follows: John, now deceased, who was for years the owner of the old Judge Kyle homestead farm south of Cedarville, now owned by Silas M. Murdock; the Rev. David Murdock, a minister of the Reformed Presbyterian church, now living retired at Howard Lake, Min- nesota; Mary Murdock, of Cedarville: Martha, now deceased. who was the wife of James McMillan, of Cedarville township, and Silas M., who is re- ferred to above.
Hugh M. Murdock was born on a farm in the vicinity of Centerville, in Clinton county, this state, January 17, 1846, and was eleven years of age when his parents moved with their family up into Greene county and located in Cedarville township, his schooling thus having been completed in the schools of this county. From the days of his boyhood he has taken a great interest in the raising of sheep and when he reached his majority he left home and went to Champaign county, Illinois, where for two years he was engaged in herding sheep on the open prairie. With the money thus earned he re- turned to Ohio and in Crawford county invested in a flock of sheep which he drove through to Arkansas, the trip requiring five months. He was there engaged for more than two years in pasturing this flock, hopeful of profitable , returns on the venture, but a series of "hard luck" circumstances intervened and at the end of that time he returned to Cedarville without having realized his expectations. He still, however, pinned his faith to sheep and kept at the business, buying flocks successively in Madison, Delaware and Marion coun- ties, renting pasture lands, feeding and disposing of his products with varying degrees of success, and was thus engaged, traveling about, boarding, hiring
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pasture and buying feed for the flock, for nineteen years, in several different states. In 1902 Mr. Murdock returned to Greene county and bought a tract of ninety-three acres two miles north of Cedarville, in the township of that name, built a house on the same, and has since made his home there, now living practically retired, though still keeping a flock of two hundred or more sheep and expecting to start his son in the sheep business on a somewhat more adequate scale presently. Reared a Republican, he later became a Dem- ocrat and is now a Prohibitionist.
On April 27, 1887, Hugh M. Murdock was united in marriage to Mar- garet Starr, who was born in Ritchie county, West Virginia, daughter of James and Hannah Eliza (Ayers) Starr, both of whom spent all their lives in that state, and to this union two children have been born, a son and a daughter, James Howard and Mabel Ruth, both of whom are at home.
Mr. Murdock is now planning to engage in the sheep business on a larger scale in the southern part of Mississippi, Alabama or Georgia in the near future, and if he settles in either Mississippi or Georgia it will make the sev- enth state in which he has lived and raised sheep.
JOSEPH MITCHELL FAWCETT, C. E.
Joseph Mitchell Fawcett, official surveyor for Greene county and a resident of the pleasant village of Yellow Springs since 1901, is a native son of Ohio and has spent the greater part of his life in this state, although his duties as an engineer have taken him pretty much all over this country and even into faraway Burmah. He was born on a farm in the immediate vicinity of Carrollton, in Carroll county, February 21, 1860, son of John and Roseann (Crozier) Fawcett, both of whom were born in that same county, of Irish descent.
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