History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 23

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 23

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John Fawcett grew up to farming in his home county and in 1845 mar- ried there Roseann Crozier and established his home on a farm on the out- skirts of Carrollton, spending there the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1905. He was twice married and by his first wife was the father of four children, namely: Robert C., deceased; Charles G., who is still living in Carroll county and who is now a member of the board of commissioners of that county; Margery, who married Frederick Brandt and is now living at Kilgore, Carroll county, and Joseph M., the subject of this biographical review. The mother of these children died in 1860 and in 1861 John Fawcett married Jane Patterson, of Harrison county. To that union were born four children, James.A., who is living at Carrollton ; Henry Ross, who died in 1892; John F., who died in 1902, and Roseann, who died in infancy.

Joseph M. Fawcett grew up on the home farm in the vicinity of Car-

JOSEPH M. FAWCETT.

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rollton and after completing the course in the Union school there began teaching school. He presently entered the Ohio State University and after a four-years course in civil engineering there took a year of further study in the same line at the University of Iowa at Iowa City, leaving there in 1886 to become engaged in practical work in connection with the construc- tion of the .Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley railroad (now the North- western) in Nebraska. In the fall of that same year Mr. Fawcett transferred his services to the Santa Fe railroad and was engaged in railway construc- tion work for that company in Kansas, a year later going to Oklahoma Terri- tory, in that same employ, where he worked in and about Guthrie and Oklahoma City until the fall of 1887, when he returned to Ohio and became connected with the construction department of the Wheeling & Lake Erie railroad. In the fall of 1889 he went from that employ to the Clarksburg, Western & Midland (now the Baltimore & Ohio) and was engaged with that company at Clarksburg until in May of 1890, when he accepted the position of assistant chief in the construction department of the Kansas City, Watkins & Gulf railroad and in that capacity was engaged, with head- quarters at Lake Charles, Louisiana, for eighteen months, at the end of which time he took service with a railway construction company in Florida. Not long afterward, however, the conditions of employment there not prov- ing satisfactory, he returned to Ohio, in 1892, and for a year thereafter was engaged in railway construction work in this state. In 1893 he returned to West Virginia and was there engaged in service for the United States Coal and Iron Manufacturing Company until 1895, when he resumed his service with the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, remaining in that state in this employ until 1896, when he returned to Louisiana and became there engaged in construction work for the Kansas City Southern railroad, later return- ing to West Virginia to accept the position of superintendent of the engi- neering department of the Clark Coal and Coke Company. In 1897 Mr. Fawcett became connected with the surveying department of the Boone Black Diamond Railroad Company, making surveys from Ripley to Columbus, and in 1899 became connected with the Short Line's engineering depart- ment, continuing in that service for about a year, at the end of which time he became engaged with the National Transit Company in making pipe- line surveys for the Standard Oil Company, and two years later, in 1901, was made assistant engineer of a small railroad in eastern Tennessee. In the fall of 1901 Mr. Fawcett married and established his permanent home at Yellow Springs, this county. In the winter of 1902 he accepted service with the Burmah Oil Company and in behalf of that company's operations made a trip to Burmah, where he remained for several months, at the end of which time he returned home and resumed his service with the Standard Oil Com-

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pany, making surveys for oil and pipe lines, but shortly afterward went over to the Wabash Railroad Company and was for a year thereafter engaged in construction work for that company in West Virginia. In 1904 Mr. Fawcett was engaged in street-improvement work in Xenia and in 1905 took part in the construction of the Virginia railroad built by H. H. Rogers, of the Standard Oil Company, in West Virginia. In 1907 he became employed by the federal government on public works in Alabama and went thence to Evansville, Indiana, where he was for a time employed at working out a railroad proposition. In 1908 Mr. Fawcett was appointed deputy surveyor of Greene county and occupied that position until 1912, in which year he was appointed to fill an unexpired term in the office of the county surveyor. In the fall of that year he was elected, as the nominee of the Republican party, to succeed himself in that office and in 1914 was re-elected. He was re-elected again in 1916 and is still holding the office.

It was on October 8, 1901, that Joseph M. Fawcett was united in mar- riage to Linna Belle Musselman, of Yellow Springs, daughter and only child of Michael and Catherine (Kolp) Musselman, natives of Pennsylvania and both of whom are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Fawcett have a pleasant home at Yellow Springs. Mr. Fawcett is past master of the local lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons at Yellow Springs. During his college day's he was an active member of the Greek-letter fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi, and continues to take an interest in the affairs of that organization. Politically, he is a Republican. During his long period of incumbency in the surveyor's office Mr. Fawcett has done much to increase the efficiency of the county's engineering department and is widely recognized throughout this part of the state as a painstaking officer.

SAMUEL NORTON ADAMS.

The late Samuel Norton Adams, veteran of the Civil War and for many years recorder of Greene county, who died at his home in Xenia in November, 1907, and whose widow is still living in that city, was a native of the old Key- stone state, but had been a resident of Ohio and of Greene county since the days of his boyhood, his parents having settled here in 1847. He was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania. December 15, 1836, son of Samuel and Nancy Ann (Burnston) Adams, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Maryland, who became residents of Greene county in 1847 and here spent the remainder of their lives.

Samuel Adams was born at Leesburg, in Loudoun county, Virginia, and as a young man went to Maryland, where he married Nancy Ann Burnston, of Baltimore. He was a finisher in a woolen factory and in following his

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vocation resided at various places in Maryland and in Pennsylvania until 1847, when he came to Ohio with his family and located at Spring Valley, becoming a farmer in Greene county, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on October 14, 1871. His widow died in 1882. They were the parents of eight children, of whom the subject of this memorial sketch was the fourth in order of birth, and of whom out one, James E. Adams, the seventh in order of birth, is now living, he now making his home in Oregon, the others having been Mrs. Amelia Kirkpatrick, Mrs. Kate Kauffman, Mrs. Eliza Bunting, Mrs. Virginia Hepford, William and Nelson G.

Samuel N. Adams was but ten years of age when his parents came to this county and located at Spring Valley and there he grew to manliood, early learning the carpenter trade, at which he worked in various towns hereabout, and was thus engaged when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted for service and went to the front as a member of Company D, One Hundred and Tenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Keifer's regiment, and with that command served for three years and five months, being mus- tered out in September, 1865. The last five months of that period were spent by Mr. Adams in a hospital recovering from a wound received at the assault on Petersburg, Virginia, April 2, 1865, from the effects of which he suffered the loss of his right leg and the crippling injury of his left leg. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Adams returned to Spring Valley hopelessly crippled and not long afterward was appointed to the position of United States storekeeper at Beaver Station, now Trebeins, and served there in that capacity for one year, at the end of which time he was transferred to a like post at Mt. Holly, remaining thus in the government employ until 1871, in which year he became engaged in the grocery business at Spring Valley. He received the appointment of postmaster while thus engaged, serving dur- ing the second Grant administration, and at the same time for two years held the post of government storekeeper at Osborn. In September, 1881, Mr. Adams was elected to fill an unexpired term in the office of county recorder and moved to Xenia. He was retained in this office, by successive re-elec- tions, for more than ten years. Upon the conclusion of this long period of public service Mr. Adams continued to make his home in Xenia and there spent the rest of his life. He was a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic.

On March II, 1867, at Spring Valley, Samuel N. Adams was united in marriage to Amanda A. Riddell, who was born at that place on July 6, 1842, daughter of Silas and Jane ( Wilson) Riddell, Pennsylvanians, who had located at Columbus, this state, after their marriage and after a sometime residence in that city had come over into Greene county and settled at Spring Valley, where they spent the remainder of their lives, Silas Riddell being

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there engaged at his trade of shoemaker. Though birthright Quakers, Silas Riddell and his wife became members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Spring Valley. They were the parents of five children, of whom Mrs. Adams was the fourth in order of birth, the others being Levi, now deceased, who married Mary Bechtol and was for many years surveyor of Greene county; Robert, a shoemaker, who married Lydia Spear and died on January 8, 1918, at Alma, Arkansas; Humphrey, who died in the days of his youth, and Letitia, deceased, who was the wife of Daniel Gust, of Spring Valley. To Mr. and Mrs. Adams were born two daughters, Rilla, who died at the age of forty-eight years, and Gertrude, wife of Thornton A. Zill, of Xenia, and the mother of two children, Dorothy and Charles Daniel. Since the death of her bushand Mrs. Adams has continued to make her home at Xenia.

HOWARD C. BROWN.

Howard C. Brown, landscape architect at Yellow Springs and proprietor of a greenhouse there, one of the most successful florists in this part of the state, and who also is now serving his second term as clerk of his home town, was born on a farm in Miami township, this county, July 3, 1882, son of Capt. William H. and Jennie (Mitchell) Brown, both of whom also were born in this state, the former at Dayton and the latter at Montezuma.

Capt. William H. Brown, who died at his home in Miami township in January, 1914, had spent all his life in this county and in the neighboring county of Montgomery, his young manhood having been spent at Dayton, where his father was engaged in the manufacture of hats. He was early trained to the hat business and was a traveling salesman for his father's factory when the Civil War broke out. He at once enlisted his services in behalf of the Union cause, helped recruit the Ninety-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and went to the front as captain of Company B, of that regiment. During the battle at Chattanooga Captain Brown's company was in the thick of the engagement that raged about Missionary Ridge and there he was severely wounded, being laid up for some time as a result of his wound. Upon regaining his strength he rejoined his command and was later captured and confined in Libby Prison, from which he made two ineffectual attempts to escape. Nothing daunted by the failure of these attempts the Captain persisted and finally was successful in eluding his captors and mak- ing his way back to the Union lines, in due time joining his regiment, with which command he served until the close of the war.

Upon the completion of his military service Captain Brown returned to Dayton and presently became engaged there in the dairy business, his

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dairy farm occupying the site now covered by the plant of the National Cash Register Company. He later came over to the Yellow Springs neigh- borhood, in this county, and bought a farm in Miami township and after his marriage established his home on the latter place and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there, as noted above, in January, 1914. His widow is still living, continuing to make her home on the old home place. To Captain Brown and his wife were born six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first-born, the others being George W., now local manager of the Standard Oil Company's interests at Portland, Oregon, who is married and has one child, a son, Howard William; Thomas P., who is engaged in the barber business at Yellow Springs and who is married and has three children, George, Thomas and Lynn; Bernard, representative of the Delco company at the Buick factory at Flint, Michigan, who is married and has one child, a daughter, Helen; Mabel, who formerly was engaged as physical director in the schools of Tippecanoe City and who married Carl Hirtzinger, superintendent of schools in Clark county; and Edgar, unmarried, who is managing the home place in Miami township.

Howard C. Brown was reared on the home farm in Miami township and received his schooling in the schools of Yellow Springs, being gradu- ated front the high school there in 1901. He then took a two-years course in Nelson's Commercial College at Springfield and not long afterward became engaged as order clerk for the George H. Mellon Floral Company at Spring- field, later becoming bookkeeper for the Springfield Floral Company, which latter position he occupied for four years, at the end of which time he was installed as manager of the Gustav Schneider Floral Company in that same city. A year later Mr. Brown determined to engage in the florist business on his own account and with that end in view, in 1912, etsablished a green house at Yellow Springs, where he ever since has made his home. Mr. Brown's business has had a most encouraging growth from the very start and the products of his green house are in wide demand, he having created a ready market in Dayton, Cincinnati and other cities within easy shipping distance. Mr. Brown also for years has given special attention to the subject of landscape gardening and there is a wide demand for his services as a landscape architect, his specialty being the laying out of the grounds surrounding private homes, and he has done some admirable work in this connection in Cincinnati, Dayton and others of the larger cities of the state. Mr. Brown is now serving his second term as city clerk of Yellow Springs, having been elected to that office in 1915 and re-elected in 1917 for a two- year term. Politically, he is a Republican, with independent leanings.

Mr. Brown has been twice married. In 1905, while living at Springfield, he was united in marriage to Addie Phillips, who died at her home in Yellow

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Springs in 1910, without issue. On August 26, -1914, Mr. Brown married. Mary Metzner, of Mechanicsburg, this state, and to this union has been one child, a daughter, Virginia, born in June, 1915. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the Presbyterian church.

WILLIAM JOHN TARBOX.

William John Tarbox, secretary-treasurer and general manager of the Tarbox Lumber Company at Cedarville, this county, and secretary-treasurer and general manager of the Cedarville Realty Company, was born in Cedar- ville and has lived there all his life with the exception of three years during the days of his young manhood, when he was engaged working at the car- penter trade at Chicago. He was born on November 25, 1860, son of John M. and Rachel (Nichol) Tarbox, the latter of whom died in 1905 and the former of whom is still living at Cedarville, being now past eighty-eight years of age.

John M. Tarbox was born at Buxton, Maine, December 3, 1829, a son of John and Lucy ( Merrill) Tarbox, both of whom were born and spent all their lives in that same vicinity, and who were the parents of six children, two sons and four daughters, of whom John M. Tarbox is now the only survivor. The latter grew up in his home town of Buxton and there learned the carpenter trade. In 1849 his brother, Samuel Tarbox, a surveyor and stonemason, came to Ohio and located at Cedarville, in this county. A year later, in 1850, John M. Tarbox joined his brother here and the two became engaged in business together, general building contractors and stonemasons, during that period of their activities building several of the stone-arch bridges that are still in use along the line of the Pennsylvania railroad through this section of the state. The Tarbox brothers bought the old Nichol saw-mill on Massies creek and for years successfully operated the same. Not long after coming to Ohio John M. Tarbox had married and he established his home at Cedarville, where he was living when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted for service in behalf of the cause of the Union and went to the front as first sergeant of Piat's Zouaves, attached to the Thirty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with that command served for three years, most of the time in West Virginia, and during that service was shot through the wrist. Upon the completion of his military service he resumed his operations in Cedarville and in 1885 he and his elder son, the subject of this sketch, aban- doned the old water-power mill and erected at Cedarville a steam saw- and planing-mill and established the present lumber yards there. John M. Tarbox continued actively connected with the affairs of that concern until his retire- ment in 1915, he then 'being eighty-six years of age, and is still living at

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Cedarville. His wife died in 1905. She was born, Rachel Nichol, in Bel- mont county, this state, in 1823, daughter of John Nichol and wife, the latter of whom was a McMechan, and was twelve years of age when her parents settled in Cedarville township in 1835. John Nichol was born in Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania, not long after his parents, who were of Scottish descent, had settled there following their immigration from Ireland. They later moved to Belmont county, Ohio. Upon coming to Greene county in 1835 John Nichol bought about five hundred acres of unimproved land west of the village of Cedarville and proceeded to develop the same. He was a practical miller and soon after locating there erected on Massies creek an "up-and-down" water-power saw-mill, which he continued to operate until it was taken over by the Tarbox brothers in the '50s. John Nichol and his wife were members of the old Associate Reformed church on Massies creek, and upon the "union" in 1858 they and their family became members of the United Presbyterian church at that time organized at Cedarville and remained con- nected with that congregation ever afterward, Mrs. Tarbox at the time of her death in 1905 being the last surviving charter member of that congre- gation. John Nichol and his wife were the parents of three sons and two daughters, all of whom save Mrs. Tarbox went West. To John M. and Rachel (Nichol) Tarbox were born six children, two of whom died in infancy, the others being Lucy, wife of W. H. Barber, of the Tarbox Lumber Company at Cedarville: Maria, wife of S. K. Williamson, of Cedarville township, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; William J., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Thomas, who also is connected with the Tarbox Lumber Company at Cedar- ville.

William J. Tarbox grew up at Cedarville and upon completing his studies in the high school there took a supplemental course in the Miami Business College. From the days of his boyhood he was an assistant in the labors connected with his father's mill and lumber business. Upon leaving school he went to Chicago and was for three years engaged there, working as a carpenter. He then returned home and in 1885 was made a partner in his father's milling and lumber business at Cedarville and has since been con- nected with that concern. In 1903 this concern was reorganized and incor- porated under the laws of the state and has since been doing business as the Tarbox Lumber Company, the present officiary being as follows : President, W. H. Barber; vice-president, B. W. Anderson, and secretary-treasurer and general manager, W. J. Tarbox. William J. Tarbox, general manager of the company, is also the secretary-treasurer and general manager of the Cedar- ville Realty Company, owners of an important subdivision of the village of Cedarville.

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On March 19, 1885, William J. Tarbox was united in marriage to Mary A. Harbison, who was born in the neighborhood of Clifton, in Miami town- ship, this county, and who is now the only survivor of the family of six chil- dren born to her parents, Robert B. and Janet Harbison, both also deceased, and to this union have been born four children : Janet, wife of H. A. Waddele, of Springfield, Ohio; Robert Merrell, who died at the age of five; Rachel, who is teaching in the Ross township high school, and Ellen, who is now a student in Cedarville College. Mr. and Mrs. Tarbox and their daughters are mem- bers of the United Presbyterian church and Mr. Tarbox is a ruling elder in the local congregation of that communion at Cedarville. Politically, he is a Republican.

REV. HUGH PARKS JACKSON.

In the reading of this work relating to the history of Greene county the reader cannot fail to notice the repeated references to the Jackson family, which has been represented in this county for more than a hundred years and the present dean of which is the venerable Rev. Hugh Parks Jackson, for many years one of the best-known figures in the United Presbyterian com- munion in the United States, now living retired at his pleasant home in Cedarville.

The Jacksons had their beginning in this county in the year 1814 with the coming of Robert and Elizabeth (McCorkle) Jackson and their family and the settlement of this family on a farm along Clarks run, where their licme was established. Robert Jackson was a native of Ireland, of Scottish descent and of Presbyterian stock, a son of David and Elizabeth (Reed) Jackson, the former of whom was a son by a second marriage of Dr. Joseph Jackson, a physician of Newtown, Limavady, county Derry. Dr. Joseph Jackson was the grandfather of Andrew Jackson, "Old Hickory," and Rob- ert Jackson, the Greene county pioneer, was thus a full cousin of the seventh President of the United States and it is a matter of tradition in the family that there existed a striking physical resemblance between the two. Dr. Joseph Jackson had three brothers who also were physicians in the north of Ireland. He first located at Carrickfergus and afterward at Limavady. He was thrice married and his last wife was the Lady Mary Carr, a sister of Lord James Carr. By his first wife Dr. Joseph Jackson had a son, Andrew, who took part in the revolutionary movement directed by the "United Men" and was compelled to flee the country in 1765. With his wife and two small sons, Hugh and Robert, he came to the American colonies and located in the Wax- haw settlement in North Carolina. There on March 15, 1767, was born another son, Andrew, who became the seventh President of the United States.

REV. HUGH P. JACKSON.

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Andrew Jackson, the political refugee, died a few days before the birth of the son who was destined to attain such illustrious distinction, and the widow was left with her three small children in dire poverty, the refugee father having been compelled to flee in secret and unable to realize on his property, which the government confiscated after his flight.

By his second wife, Dr. Joseph Jackson had three sons, Hugh, Robert and David, all three of whom also came to the American colonies, but voluntarily and not perforce as did their elder brother Andrew. The last- born of these sons, David Jackson, was born about the year 1730 and about the year 1753 married Elizabeth Reed. To that union were born four children, Mary, Hugh, Robert and James. With this little family David Jackson came to the American colonies in 1762, landing at the port of Philadelphia in the autumn of that year. He settled on a farm in the Eden- ton neighborhood in Chester county, Pennsylvania, but later moved to a farm in Colraine township, Lancaster county, where his last days were spent. During the progress of the Revolutionary War David Jackson served as a soldier in the patriot army and lost a hand at the battle of Trenton when a cannon ball came along, killed one of his comrades with whom he was talk- ing at the time and struck the gun which he was holding, cutting his hand nearly off. He wrapped his lacerated wrist with his handkerchief, walked to an ox-cart loaded with wounded men, mounted it and with one hand drove it three miles to a place of safety. This circumstance ended his soldier career, but he often in later life held up the stump wrist to his grandsons with the injunction : "Boys, never disgrace the flag of your country!" David and Elizabeth (Reed) Jackson were both buried at Oxford, Pennsylvania.

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History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 23

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