USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 24
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Robert Jackson, third child of David and Elizabeth (Reed) Jackson, was born at Newton, Limavady, County Derry, Ireland, in 1758, and was there- fore but four years of age when he came with his parents to this country in 1762 and was eighteen years of age when the American colonists announced their immortal Declaration of Independence. He took an active part in the resultant War of the Revolution and in one battle, in which the company to which he was attached was engaged, had a narrow escape from British bullets which splintered the rail fence behind which he and his comrades were answering the fire of their opponents. In the spring of 1786 Robert Jackson married Elizabeth McCorkle, an orphan, whose father had been killed while serving as a soldier of the Revolution and whose mother had died not long afterward, she later being cared for by a Quaker family in Lancaster county, where she grew to womanhood and married. In 1789, three years after their marriage, Robert Jackson and his wife moved from Lancaster county, going with what is said to have been the first wagon train drawn by oxen that ever crossed the mountains westward, and located on a
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farm at the forks of the Yough in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where they put in their lot with the congregation of the Associate Reformed faith that had effected a settlement at Yough. There they remained until 1799, in which year they sold their farm there and came over into the Terri- tory of Ohio, settling on a farm about two miles southeast of Mt. Pleasant in Jefferson county, where they remained until they came to Greene county in 1814, the object of the move being to seek better church privileges and a better farm. They also were tired of the hills. Robert Jackson and his wife and daughters came down in a boat with the household goods to Cincinnati and thence up here by wagon train, while the two sons, David and Robert, drove a six-horse team through loaded with farming utensils and the like, the distance from Mt. Pleasant to Clarks run being at least two hundred miles, and it was thus that the Jackson family came to Greene county and became a continuing force for good in the Cedarville neighborhood. Elizabeth (McCorkle) Jackson died there on September 28, 1822, and was buried in the Massiescreek (Stevenson) burying ground. Robert Jackson survived his wife for more than six years, his death occurring at the home of his son David, one mile west of Cedarville, September 26, 1828, he then being seventy years of age, and he was laid beside his wife in the Massiescreek graveyard. Before coming to this county he had served as a ruling elder in the Associate Reformed congregation of "Short Creek," in the log church two miles south- east of Mt. Pleasant, and after coming here was made an elder in the con- gregation of the Associate Reform church, now the First United Presbyterian church, at Xenia. He and his wife were the parents of ten children, namely : Margaret, who died in infancy; Jane, who married Thomas Henderson (to which union thirteen children were born), and in 1840 moved to Iowa; Eliza- beth, who died unmarried at the age of twenty years; Mary, who was twice married, her first husband having been Joseph Caldwell and her second, John Pollock, and who was the mother of fifteen children, eight by her first mar- riage and seven by the second; David, who was the father of the immediate subject of this sketch and of whom more anon; Rachel, who became the wife of Judge Samuel Kyle, for thirty years associate judge of the court of Greene county, to which union there were born fifteen children; Gen. Robert Jackson, who became one of Greene county's foremost public men and who married Minerva Eddy and had twelve children; Eleanor, who married Will- iam Kendall and had six children; Martha, who married William Lawhead, who moved to Logan county, and had seven children, and Nancy, who mar- ried William Bull and moved West, her last days being spent in Texas. She was the mother of eight children. Of the eighty-four grandchildren of Robert and Elizabeth "( McCorkle) Jackson, the majority, of course, in the normal course of well-ordered families, married and had children of
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their own, hence it is apparent that the Jackson connection in the present gene- ration is one of the most numerous of any of the old families of Greene county. In 1890 the Rev. Hugh Parks Jackson worked out a quite compre- hensive genealogical narrative relating to this family, the same making a book of one hundred and twenty-five pages, and an amplification of that volume to cover the numbers that have been added to the great family since that time truly would make an interesting volume.
David Jackson, fifth in order of birth of the ten children born to Robert and Elizabeth (McCorkle) Jackson, was born in Westmoreland county, Penn- sylvania, March 3, 1794, and grew to be a stalwart man of a height of six feet two inches and of a weight of two hundred pounds. Though but eigh- teen years of age when the War of 1812 broke out, he rendered service as a soldier and for three months served as adjutant of his company in northern Ohio. He was twenty years of age when he came with the family to Greene county and was nearly twenty-five years of age, when, on Febru- ary 25, 1819, he was united in marriage to Nancy Niehol, a daughter of John and Ann (Woodburn) Nichol, residents of the Bridgeport neighbor- hood in Belmont county, this state. Following their marriage David Jackson and his wife went to housekeeping in a house just south of the Jackson home on Clarks run and there lived for nine years, at the end of which time Mr. Jackson bought a farm of one hundred and seventy-two acres one mile west of the village of Cedarville, paying for the same three dollars an acre, and in March, 1828, moved onto that farm, which in time he .developed into an excellent piece of property and on which he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there on July 17, 1863. His widow survived him for more than thirteen years, her death occurring on September 12, 1876, she then being past seventy-seven years of age, and she was buried beside the body of her husband in the Massies creek grave- yard .. They were among the charter members. of. the Associate Reformed (now United Presbyterian) church at Cedarville and their house was one of the chief stopping places of the preachers who came to supply the pulpit of that church. It has been written of this earnest couple that "meals were not more regular in their home than family worship morning and evening, and their children were early indoctrinated in the principles of Christianity and sound morality." There were eight of these children, four sons and four daughters, of whom the subject of this biographical review was the last-born, the others being the following: Eliza Ann, born on December 24, 1819, who married Jolin F. Wright and had one child, a son, Andrew J., who died in childhood; Martha, December II, 1820, who died unmar- ried in 1841; George, March 19, 1823, who married Minerva Townsley and had two daughters, Martha Joanna, who married Judge James P.
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Rodgers, and Frances Ladora, who married R. Finley Kerr; Ruth L., Janu- ary 3, 1826, who married Samuel N. Tarbox and had seven children, John J., Thomas F., Theodore H., Harry L., David N., Lida, O. and C. Waldo; John Ross, February 3, 1828, who in 1859 started on a tour of exploration in the Southwest and died in the fall of that year in New Mexico; Mary, October 22, 1830, who married David S. Barber and had seven children, Martha D., Estella Mary, Robert Benton, Lydia L., David Wallace, George Hall and one who died in infancy; and Robert McCorkle, June II, 1834, who married Kate Ann Williamson and made his home on a farm two miles west of Cedarville. Robert McCorkle Jackson was a music teacher and a violinist of skill and for years was chorister of the United Presbyterian church at Cedarville. During the Civil War he served as a member of the local militia company and was thus one of the "squirrel hunters" who were called to Cincinnati in 1862 to repel Kirby Smith's threatened invasion.
Hugh Parks Jackson, the last-born and now the only survivor of the eight children born to David and Nancy (Nichol) Jackson, was born on the home farm west of Cedarville on April 18, 1836, and like his father and his grand- father, grew to be a stalwart man, six feet and four inches in height and of a weight of two hundred pounds. He grew up on the farm and when six- teen years of age entered Cedarville Academy, in which he was prepared for college, and later entered Miami University at Oxford, Ohio, from which institution he was graduated in June, 1859. He then taught a couple of terms of school and in the fall of 1860 entered the Theological Seminary at Xenia, with a view to preparation for the ministry of the United Presbyte- rian church. His studies at the seminary were interrupted by the breaking" out of the. Civil War, his service with the "squirrel hunters" taking him to Cincinnati in 1862. During the spring of 1864 he served for three months in the Christian Commission and had charge of the office of that commis- sion at Huntsville, Alabama, rendering also other service at Nashville, Columbia and Chattanooga, Tennessee. In the meantime he had continued his studies in the Xenia Theological Seminary, in which he got three years of study, taught another term of school in his old home district and in the winter of 1864-65 attended the Theological Seminary at Allegheny City. On March 28, 1865, he was licensed to preach by Xenia presbytery and in the sunmer of that year was engaged in preaching in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, presently accepting a call extended to him by the congregation of the United Presbyterian church at Waterford, in Erie county, Penn- sylvania, being installed there, his first pastorate, December 19, 1865. Two months later he married and established his home at Waterford, continuing his pastorate there until his resignation in September, 1869, on account of failing health. Upon leaving Waterford Mr. Jackson returned to his home
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county and the following winter was spent at Xenia. In the spring he returned to his home farm near Cedarville and there resumed his residence with his widowed mother, in the afterward happily realized belief that the life of the farm would restore him to his normal physical state. For four years thereafter Mr. Jackson supplied vacancies in pulpits not too remote from his home, taught school and for some time served as superintendent of the Cedar- ville schools. In the spring of 1875, finding his health restored, he accepted a call from the congregation of the Carmel United Presbyterian church at Hanover, overlooking the Ohio river, in Jefferson county, Indiana, and with his family moved to that place, remaining there until the fall of 1889, when he demitted his charge of Carmel and moved with his family to Greenfield, in Highland county, this state, where he took charge of the United Presby- terian church in that town, and there remained until his return in 1914 to Cedarville, his old home, where he has since lived retired from the active ministry. As noted in the introduction to this sketch, the Rev. Hugh Parks Jackson has for years been recognized as one of the leading figures in the communion which he has so faithfully served since the days of his boyhood. For thirteen years he was stated clerk of the Indiana United Presbyterian presbytery and in 1881 was moderator of the second synod of the West. Mr. Jackson has for many years been deeply interested in the history of this section of Ohio, has written voluminously for the local press on subjects of a historical character relating to the development of this region and on the occasion of Cedarville's centennial celebration wrote a most illuminating monograph on the history of that fine old village.
On February 14, 1866, the Rev. Hugh Parks Jackson was united in marriage to Mrs. Margaret J. (Frazier) Dunlap, widow of William M. Dunlap, of Cincinnati, and daughter of J. F. Frazier, a Cedarville dry- goods merchant, and who by her first marriage was the mother of one child, a son, William M. Dunlap, born on February 17, 1862, who was educated at Hanover. College, became editor of the Western World at Sea Haven, Washington, and died on November 26, 1902. To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson five children were born, namely: Lilla Corinne, born on December 23, 1866. who was educated at Hanover College, married Hugh P. Morrow, of Hills- boro, Ohio, in 1893, and died on August 15, 1895; Robert Stuart, July 5, 1868, who also was educated at Hanover and who is now living at Columbus, Ohio; George Whitney, March 28, 1870, who was graduated from Mon- mouth College in 1891 and died on August 14, 1904; Mabel Snow, March 29, 1872, who was graduated from the high school at Greenfield in 1892 and in 1894 married Walter R. Whiteman, now auditor in the New York office of Swift & Company, and has two children, Margaret and Walter Hugh; and Bertha Rogers, December 24, 1873, who also completed her schooling at Greenfield.
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JOHN ALEXANDER HARBISON.
The late John Alexander Harbison, for years one of Cedarville town- ship's farmers and dairymen, who died at his farm home on Clarks run in the fall of 1914 and whose widow is now living at Cedarville, was born on that farm and there spent all his life with the exception of a period of four years spent at Findlay, where he was engaged during that time in the lime and crushed-stone business. He was born on March 31, 1857, son and only child of James and Margaret (King) Harbison, the latter of whom also was born in this county, daughter of John and Helen (Aird) King, and both of whom spent their last days on their place on Clarks run.
James Harbison was born in the Chester district of South Carolina and was thirteen years of age when his parents, John and Jane ( Bingham) Harbi- son, earnest Covenanters, came out here in the fall of 1826 and established their home on Clarks run, having been attracted to this settlement, as were numerous others of the Chester district folk, on account of the congenial church fellowship assured them here. John Harbison, the pioneer, also was born in South Carolina, February 27, 1782, a son of James and Elizabeth (McElroy) Harbison, the former of whom was born in Ireland, of Scottish descent, and the latter, in the colony of Virginia. Both spent their last days in South Carolina. John Harbison became a substantial farmer on Clarks run and there spent his last days, his death occurring in April, 1861, he then being in the eightieth year of his age. His widow survived him for more than three years, her death occurring on August 17, 1864. Her father was a soldier of the Revolution and was wounded during service. James Harbison grew to manhood on that pioneer farm on Clarks run and in turn became a farmer on his own account, becoming the owner of a farm of one hundred and fifty-six acres, on which he erected a dwelling house facing the Clifton and Xenia pike and there lived the rest of his life. James Harbison was twice married. His first wife, Sarah Miller, died leaving one child who died a few months later. In 1852 he married Margaret King, who was born in this county, daughter of John and Helen (Aird) King, the former of whom was a son of Mark King, of Jedbury, Scotland, and to that union was born one son, the subject of this memorial sketch. They also reared to woman- hood, Maud Imboden, whom they had taken into their household when she was five years of age.
John Alexander Harbison grew to manhood on the farm on Clarks run on which he was born, eventually inherited the same and there spent his last days. He received his schooling in the local schools and from the days of his boyhood was a valued aid to his father, the management of the home farm long before his father's -death being turned over to him. After his mar-
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riage he established his home there and with the exception of four years which, as noted above, were spent in the lime and crushed-stone business at Findlay, he spent all his life there, his death occurring on September 5, 1914. In addition to his general farming Mr. Harbison also for some years was engaged in the dairy business, keeping a herd of Guernseys. Though reared a Democrat, Mr. Harbison early espoused the principles of the Republican party and served for two terms as township trustee. In his views on religion he ever maintained the faith of his fathers, was a member of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) church at Cedarville and for years served as a member of its board of trustees. The old family Bible, brought from Ireland . by his great-grandfather, came down to him and is still sacredly cherished in the family.
Mr. Harbison was twice married. His first wife died on December 8, 1887, without issue. She was Ella Reid, daughter of John and Hanna Reid, the former of whom lost his life while serving as a soldier of the Union dur- ing the Civil War. On November 18, 1890, Mr. Harbison was united in marriage to Mary Elizabeth Cooper, who also was born in this county, daughter of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Weir) Cooper, both of whom also were born in this county, the former in Cedarville township and the latter in Xenia township, and who established their home on a farm on the lower Bellbrook pike in Xenia township, where Mary Elizabeth (Cooper) Harbison was born.
Both the Coopers and the Weirs are old families in Greene county, the progenitors of the respective families here having been among the Chester district folk who came over here from South Carolina in the early days of the settlement and helped establish that sterling old Covenanter community that has for a century and more been the dominant social factor in the Cedarville neighborhood. Ebenezer Cooper was a son of John A. and Agnes (King) Cooper, Covenanters, who settled in the Stormont neighborhood in Cedarville township. There Ebenezer Cooper grew to manhood. He married Elizabeth Weir, daughter of Alexander Weir and wife, also Chester district folk and Covenanters, who had settled in Xenia township, and after his marriage made his home on the Weir place on the lower Bellbrook pike. To that union were born two children, Mrs. Harbison and her brother, John Cooper, the latter of whom lives just on the western edge of Xenia on the Dayton pike. The mother of these children died in 1861 and Ebenezer Cooper later married Sarah Polen and moved to Crawford county, Illinois, and there spent his last days, but he was brought back and buried in Massies creek cemetery at Cedar- ville. By his second marriage he was the father of three children, namely : Harry L. Cooper, who is living at Jeffersonville," Illinois ; Mrs. Irene McCon- nell, of Indianapolis, and Albert Cooper, of Robinson, Illinois.
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To John A. and Mary Elizabeth (Cooper) Harbison were born two daughters, Reba Irene, now a student in Cedarville College and living with her widowed mother in Cedarville, and Pauline, who died in 1903, she then being seven years of age. For some time after her husband's death Mrs. Harbison continued to make her home on the home farm and then gave up that place of residence, rented her farm and moved to Cedarville, where she and her daughter have since made their home.
PERRY M. STEWART.
Perry M. Stewart, president of the Miami Deposit Bank of Yellow Springs, this county, and former treasurer of Clark county, is a native son of the Buckeye state and has lived here all his life. He was born on a farm in the vicinity of the village of Selma, in Greene township, in the neighbor- ing county of Clark, July 6, 1866, son of the Hon. Perry and Rhoda (Wheeler) Stewart, both of whom also were born in that county, the former on June 6, 1818, and the latter, December 30, 1824, and whose last days were spent at Springfield, county seat of their home county.
The Hon. Perry Stewart, a veteran of the Civil War, a former member of the board of county commissioners of his home county and a one-time representative in the state Legislature from that district, spent all his life in his home county. He was born on a pioneer farm in Greene township and there grew to manhood, becoming in time a substantial farmer on his own account. On October 15, 1844, he was united in marriage to Rhoda Wheeler, who also was born in that county, and after his marriage estab- lished his home on the old home farm, where he was living when the Civil War broke out. He helped to raise a company and went to the front in 1862 as captain of Company A, Ninety-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with that company served until the close of the war in 1865. Upon the completion of his military service Captain Stewart returned home and resumed his farming operations, in which he became quite successful. He was an active Republican and took an interested part in local public affairs, for six years representing his district as a member of the board of county commissioners. He later was elected to represent his legislative district in the lower house of the Ohio General Assembly and so satisfactory was his service in that connection that he was re-elected and thus served for two terms in that important office. Upon his retirement from the active duties of the farm Captain Stewart moved to Springfield, where both he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, her death occurring there in July.
Fra Zy & G Williams & BreNY
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1904, and his, in 1907. They were the parents of ten children, namely : Henrietta E., wife of James Hatfield, of Greene township, Clark county; julia A., now living in California, widow of Robert N. Elder; David W., who married Amanda McClintock and is living in Clark county; John T., who married Anna M. Keifer and is now living in Houston, Texas ; Mary E., who married Samuel H. Kerr and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased; Charles F., a member of the present board of county commis- sioners of Clark county, who married Clara Garlough and is living at Spring- field; Jane, who married George Nicholson and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased; Jessie, who died at the age of four years; Perry M., the subject of this biographical sketch, and E. Wheeler, who married Nettie Shobe and is living on a farm in the neighborhood of the old home in Greene township.
Perry M. Stewart was reared on the home farm in Clark county and upon completing the course in the local common school entered Antioch Col- lege and there studied for two years. For a few years thereafter he con- tinued his place on the farm, taking the active management of the same for his father and then gave up farming and became engaged in the mercan- tile business in the neighboring village of Selma, employed there in a grocery and general merchandise store, and was thus engaged there for two years, at the end of which time he accepted a position as deputy in the office of the county auditor at Springfield, where he remained for two years, 1893-95, later accept- ing a position as deputy county treasurer and thus continued in the court house for another four years. In 1900 Mr. Stewart was elected county treasurer, his term of office beginning in 1901, and this gave him another four-years tenure in the court house at Springfield. Upon the completion of that term of service, in 1905, he moved to Yellow Springs, helped to organize there the Miami Deposit Bank and has ever since been engaged in the banking business at that place. The Miami Deposit Bank was organized with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars and has done well, as will be noted in a review of that sound financial institution presented in the historical section of this work. Mr. Stewart is a thirty-second-degree ( Scot- tish Rite) Mason, affiliated with the consistory at Dayton, and is also a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias. Politically, he is a Republican.
On October 16, 1901, Perry M. Stewart was united in marriage to Irene B. Black, daughter of Charles R. and Mary A. Black, of Linden, Ross county, Ohio, and to this union have been born three children, Mildred, born in 1903 ;. Russell B., 1905, and Mary E., 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are members of the Presbyterian church.
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ANDREW WINTER, M. D.
Andrew Winter was a practicing physician in the town of Cedarville from 1864 until his death in 1891, a period of thirty-seven years. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on August 18, 1820, he grew to manhood in his native state, practiced medicine in Columbia, South Carolina, until 1861, but on the breaking out of the Civil War he immediately left the state and went to Tennessee where he joined the Union army and served until 1864, coming in the latter year to Cedarville where he made his home until his death. Such, in brief, is the main thread of the life history of Dr. Andrew Winter.
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