USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 28
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109
-
المهدي
253
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
were the parents of ten children, hence the Nash connection in this par- ticular branch became a numerous one in the succeeding generation. Hugh Nash, the fourth in order of birth of the six sons of Nathan and Polly Nash, there having been four daughters in the family, grew up in this county and married Rebecca Graham. He died in Xenia at the age of sixty-five years and his widow survived him to the age of eighty-three. Originally mem- bers of the Associate Reformed church, they became affiliated with the United Presbyterian church after the "union." Their two children are still living, John R. Nash, now past ninety years of age, having a sister, Mrs. Mary Miller, of Chicago, Illinois. As noted elsewhere, John R. Nash established himself on the farm on which he is now living, in Xenia township, in 1859, about nine years after his marriage to Mary Jackson, who died September 3, 1904, she then being past seventy-two years of age. To that union two sons were born, the subject of this memorial sketch having had a brother, Hugh Leander Nash, who is still farming the old home place east of Xenia, his father continuing to make his home there. John R. Nash has been an elder in the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia for more than forty years and his sons were reared in that faith.
Robert H. Nash, elder of the two sons of John R. and Mary (Jackson) Nash, was reared on the home farm, completed his schooling in the Xenia high school and in the old Xenia College and remained at home until his marriage in 1876. Shortly before his marriage he bought a farm on the Nash road in Xenia township adjoining his father's farm. He built a new house on that place and there continued to reside until 1898, when he purchased the farm formerly owned by his father-in-law on the James- town pike, where he resided until the spring of 1910, when he sold that place and bought the Lauman farm of two hundred acres, on the Hoop road in Xenia township, a mile and a half east of Xenia, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on November 25, 1917. Upon taking possession of that place Mr. Nash made numerous substantial improvements on the same and the work he inaugurated there is now being successfully carried on by his sons, Walter L., who bought eighty acres of his father's place, and William H. Nash, who remains with his mother on the remainder of the farm. Robert H. Nash was a Republican and served two terms as a member of the board of county commissioners from his district, elected for the first term in the fall of 1900. He was an earnest member of the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia, as is his widow, and the family has ever taken an interested part in church work, as well as in the general good works of the community. As was written of Mr. Nash during the time of his service as a county commissioner : "As a public official he is true to his promises and is most active and earnest in supporting every
254
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
movement and measure which he believes will contribute to the general good," and he continued thus to the end, faithful and true in every relation of life.
On November 28, 1876, Robert H. Nash was united in marriage to Agnes Gordon Watt, who also was born in Xenia township, on a farm on the Federal pike, daughter of William and Sarah G. (Carruthers) Watt, whose last days were spent in Xenia, the former dying at his home there on June 12, 1894, he then being in the eightieth year of his age, and the latter, June 13, 1898, she then being in her eighthieth year. Both William Watt and his wife were natives of Scotland, but were married in this country. William Watt came to the United States upon attaining his majority and was for a time thereafter engaged at working at his trade, that of a car- penter, in New York City. He then came to Ohio and worked at Bain- bridge until 1849, when he came to Greene county and established his home on a farm of one hundred acres in Xenia township. Some years later he disposed of his interests there and moved to a farm in Cedarville town- ship, where he remained for twenty-three years, or until his retirement in 1884 and removal to Xenia, were he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. William Watt was a Republican and for some time served as a member of the board of county commissioners from his district. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church and were ever active in good works. They were the parents of ten children, of whom Mrs. Nash was the sixth in order of birth, the others being the following: Mary E., wife of D. H. Cherry, of Xenia township; Sarah J., wife of Warren Johnson, of Wichita, Kansas; Margaret E., who died at the age of eighteen years; James B., who became engaged in the wholesale clothing business at Chi- cago; the Rev. John C. Watt, a minister of the Presbyterian church, sta- tioned at Moss Point, Mississippi; David B., a substantial farmer in Xenia township: Robert C., a Cedarville township farmer; Emily H., who died at the age of four years, and Rosetta, who died at the age of six months.
To Robert H. and Agnes G. (Watt) Nash were born five children, four sons and one daughter, all of whom are still living save the latter, Sarah May, born on April 22, 1888, who died on April 6, 1889. The first- born son, Herbert Watt Nash, born on March 1, 1878, completed his schooling in the Xenia high school and is now living at Xenia, engaged as general foreman for the Wilson Engineering and Construction Company. He married Pearl Edwards, daughter of Frank Edwards, and has one child, a son, Roger Herbert. The second son, Walter Leigh Nash, born on April 5, 1883, also had his schooling in the Xenia high school and in Cedarville College and is farming the eighty acres bought from his father. He married Nellie Ireland, daughter of Frank and Jane (Padgett) Ireland.
255
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
and has two children, daughters both, Pauline Augusta and Esther Marie. The Rev. Charles Elmer Nash, the third son, born on February 20, 1886, a minister of the United Presbyterian church, now at Shushan, New York, was educated at Cedarville College and at Muskingum College, took theology at the Xenia Theological Seminary and after his ordination was for some time in charge of a church in Wisconsin, later in Ohio, then in Pennsylvania, and is now at Shushan, pastor of one of the oldest United Presbyterian congregations in the United States. He married Florence Smith and has two children, Robert Lewis and Elizabeth Lucile. The youngest son, William Harvey Nash, born on January 19, 1892, completed his schooling at the Xenia high school and is still at home operating the farm for his mother. The Nashes have a delightful home and are very pleasantly situated.
HARRY R. KENDIG.
Harry R. Kendig, proprietor of a dry-goods store at Osborn, former town clerk, town treasurer and member of the village council, was born on a farm in the vicinity of Byron, in this county, January 27, 1875, son of John and Sarah (Mitman) Kendig, both now deceased. John Kendig was born in Pennsylvania and was but a small boy when he came to Ohio with his parents, the family locating in Montgomery county. He became a fariner and after his marriage established his home on a farm in the neighborhood of Byron, in this county, where he resided for a number of years. They moved to Osborn where they spent the remainder of their lives, his death occurring in 1898 and hers, in 1913. They were the parents of nine chil- dren, six of whom are still living.
Upon completing his schooling in the Byron schools, Harry R. Kendig took a commercial course in a business college and then became engaged as a clerk in the store of J. C. Smith at Osborn and was thus engaged for twelve years, at the end of which time, in 1907. he bought the F. E. Glenn store in that village and has since been there engaged in business on his own account. His store is stocked with a general line of dry-goods and shoes, his present stock appraising twelve thousand dollars and upwards, and it is hardly necessary to say that he regards with deep concern the flood-prevention project which seems likely soon to relegate Osborn to that unhappy limbo of things that are done. Mr. Kendig is a Democrat and for six years served as town clerk, two years as village treasurer and four years as a member of the village council, in addition to which he also served for two years as treasurer of Bath township.
On October 7, 1903, Harry R. Kendig was united in marriage to Julia
256
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
H. Sweeney, daughter of Z. T. and Rebecca (Cosler) Sweeney, the former of whom formerly was a carpenter, but is now living on a farm in Bath township, and to this union has been born one child, a son, John W., born on October 4. 1904. Mr. Kendig is a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
JOHN HARVEY ADAMS.
The late John Harvey Adams, who died at his home in Caesarscreek township in the spring of 1908 and whose widow and children are still living there, was born in that same township and had lived there all his life. He was born on the old Adams farm just north of Paintersville on April 29, 1853, son of Jackson and Sarah (Kildow) Adams, the former of whom also was born there, son of Nimrod and Susan (Linkhart) Adams, pioneers of that community, who had settled there upon coming here from Virginia many years ago, and a further and more extended account of whom, together with other interesting details of the history of the Adams family in this county, is set out elsewhere in this volume.
Jackson Adams was reared in Caesarcreek township and became a practical farmer, which vocation he followed all his life, becoming quite successful in his operations. He was twice married. His first wife died in 1860, leaving one child, a son, the subject of this memorial sketch. He then married Mrs. Mary Ary, a widow, also now deceased, and to that union were born four children, namely: Dora, wife of Charles Ellis, living east of Paintersville; Joseph, who is living in Jefferson township, this county ; Sarah, wife of George Babb, of Caesarcreek township, and Samuel, deceased. Jackson Adams lived to be sixty-seven years of age.
John Harvey Adams was reared on the old home place north of Pain- tersville and received his schooling in the local schools. After his marriage he established his home on a portion of the old home place and proceeded to develop and improve the same. He was the owner of sixty-nine acres and had an excellent farm plant. Politically, Mr. Adams was a Republican ; fraternally, was a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias and by religious persuasion was a member of the Methodist Protestant church at Paintersville. He died at his home on March 22, 1908, and was buried in beautiful Woodland cemetery at Xenia.
John Harvey Adamıs was twice married. In 1875 he was united in marriage to Rebecca Ann Cline, also of this county, who died on June 17, 1896. On September 23, 1897, Mr. Adams married Martha L. Barton, who was born in the neighboring county of Clinton, daughter of Henry and Mary Barton, both of whom were born in that same county, the for-
MR. AND MRS. JOHN H. ADAMS.
257
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
mer in 1825 and the latter in 1828. Henry Barton was a well-to-do farmer in Clinton county. His wife died in 1899 and he survived her for four years. his death occurring in 1903. They were the parents of the follow- ing children: Mary E., Elsie Ann (deceased), John, Ella, Frank, Rennie, Henry, Martha and Lucretia. To John H. and Martha L. (Barton) Adams were born three sons, Samuel J., born on June 22, 1898, a machinist, who is living at home; Clarence H., July 8, 1899, who is farming the home place, and Robert B., September 24, 1903. Mrs. Adams is a member of the Ladies Aid Society of the Methodist Protestant church at Painters- ville and takes a warm interest in the general work of the church. Since the death of her husband she has continued to make her home on the home farm and she and her sons are very pleasantly situated there.
REV. JAMES S. E. McMICHAEL.
The late Rev. J. B. McMichael, D. D., was a native son of Ohio, born at Poland, in Mahoning county, July 22, 1833, son of Squire McMichael and wife, who about the year 1840 moved from that place to Mercer county, Pennsylvania, where they spent the remainder of their lives in the vicinity of the town of Greenville. Squire McMichael and his wife were members of the Associate Reformed church and their children were reared in accord- ance with the rigid tenets of that faith. J. B. McMichael's attention was turned to thoughts of the gospel ministry during his college days and his studies, thereafter, were directed with that end in view. After his graduation from Westminster College at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, in 1859. he entered the Theological Seminary at Xenia and was graduated from that insti- tution in 1862 and in the fall of that same year was married to Mary Hanna, whom he had met first at the commencement at Westminster in 1859. She had been teaching in the old Female Seminary that was then being con- ducted in the building now occupied as a dormitory for the Theological Seminary. Following his ordination Doctor McMichael accepted a call to the pastorate of the Sugar Creek United Presbyterian church in the town- ship of that name in this county and at once entered upon the duties of that pastorate, continuing hus engaged for sixteen years or until his elec- tion in 1878 to the presidency of Monmouth College at Monmouth, Illi- nois. In the meantime, since 1873, he had been serving as a professor in the Xenia Theological Seminary. Doctor McMichael continued to serve as president of Monmouth until 1897, in which year he resigned and later accepted a call to his old congregation on Sugar Creek in Greene county. For five years after his return Doctor McMichael continued his pastoral en- gagements with his old congregation on Sugar Creek and then he was called
(16)
258
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
to his reward, his death occurring on December 31, 1902. Two years later his widow moved back to Xenia, the home of her young womanhood, and there she spent the remainder of her life, her death occurring on August 31, 1913.
Mary (Hanna) McMichael was born at Cadiz, Ohio, February 2, 1836, daughter of the Rev. Thomas and Jemima (Patterson) Hanna, both of whom were born in that same vicinity and the latter of whom died when her daughter Mary was but a child. The Rev. Thomas Hanna, who for years was pastor of the Associate Reformed church at Cadiz, married, secondly, Sarah Foster, that great woman of whom President John Quincy Adams said after visiting her school that she was the only woman whom he feared intellectually. Sarah Foster Hanna was one of the real pioneers in what now is commonly regarded as the "feminist" movement, which has grown to proportions that would have been startling in thought no doubt even to her in the days when she started her female seminary at Washing- ton. Pennsylvania, the first institution of the kind inaugurated west of the Alleghanies. She later established similar institutions at Wheeling, West Virginia, and at Xenia. To Doctor McMichael and wife were born six children, namely : the Rev. Thomas Hanna McMichael, D. D., who was graduated from Monmouth College and who since 1903 has been president of that institution; Dr. John Charles McMichael, also a graduate of Mon- mouth, who is now practicing medicine at Cleveland, Ohio; Rev. William Jackson McMichael, D. D., who also was graduated from Monmouth, suc- ceeded his father as pastor of the Sugar Creek United Presbyterian church in 1902 and is now pastor of the United Presbyterian church at Greens- burg, Pennsylvania, where he has been stationed since 1907; George Harold, who died at the age of fourteen months and was buried in the cemetery at Bellbrook; Mary Grace, who died at Monmouth in 1892, she then being seventeen years of age, and the Rev. James S. E. McMichael, the immediate subject of this biographical review.
James S. E. McMichael, last-born of the six children to the Rev. J. B. and Mary ( Hanna) McMichael, was born at Monmouth, Illinois, September 29, 1880, and his boyhood was spent in that city. He completed his pre- paratory course in Monmouth College, of which his father at that time was president, and upon the return of his father to his old home in this county he entered Westminster College at New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and was graduated from that institution, his father's alma mater, in 1902. He had early consecrated his talents to the church and upon his return from college entered the Xenia Theological Seminary, of which his father had formerly been a professor and on the site of which his mother also had been a teacher in the old Female Seminary, and was graduated from that
259
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
institution in 1905. Following his ordination the Rev. James S. E. McMichael accepted a call to the pastorate of the United Presbyterian church at Piqua, Ohio, and was there thus engaged for two years and nine months, at the end of which time he resigned in order to accept a call to the pastorate of Graham's United Presbyterian church at Pine Bush, New York, entering upon that pastorate in April, 1908. For two years and seven months Mr. McMichael continued his ministerial labors at Pine Buslı and then, on November 1, 1910, accepted a call from the congregation of the United Presbyterian church at Cedarville, was in due time installed as pastor of that flourishing old church and has since been thus engaged.
On May 16, 1907, the Rev. James S. E. McMichael was united in mar- riage to Katherine Prugh, who was born in the neighboring county of Mont- gomery, daughter of J. Mason and Anna (Kemp) Prugh, the latter of whom died in 1914. J. Mason Prugh, a substantial farmer, is one of the ruling elders in the Sugar Creek United Presbyterian church. Mrs. McMichael , completed her schooling at Monmouth College, having entered that institu- tion after completing her studies in the Steele high school at Dayton, and is a competent helpmate to her husband in the latter's ministerial labors. Mr. and Mrs. McMichael have two children, sons both, Jackson Prugh, born on June 27, 1908, and James Lester, February 6, 1910.
PHILIP DIEHL.
Philip Diehl, the proprietor of a retail meat establishment at Osborn, where he has been engaged in business since 1911, was born in this county and has lived here the greater part of his life, although he was for some time a resident of Dayton and of the neighboring county of Clark. He was born in Fairfield on November 11, 1885, son of Jacob and Louise Diehl, the former of whom was born in Germany and the latter in this county, both now living at Yellow Springs.
Jacob Diehl was seventeen years of age when he came to this country and proceeded on out to Ohio, locating at Fairfield, where he presently began working for Peter Long in the butcher trade. For twelve years he was thus engaged and he then started in business for himself, opening a butcher shop at Beattytown. A year later he gave up butchering and became engaged in farming and was thus engaged until 1906, in which year he moved to Yellow Springs and there resumed his former vocation as a butcher and is still thus engaged in that town. To him and his wife have been born eight children, of whom Philip and Jacob are the only ones living at Osborn.
Philip Diehl received his schooling in the schools of Greene and Clark counties and after leaving school became engaged as a farm hand and was
260
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
thus employed until his father moved to Yellow Springs in 1906, when he became an assistant to his father in the latter's butcher shop. Not long afterward he went to Springfield and was there engaged in the packing houses for several years, at the end of which time he went to Dayton. A year later he returned to Yellow Springs and was there engaged in the butcher busi- ness for himself for a couple of years, or until 1911, when he moved to Osborn, bought the butcher shop he is now conducting and has been thus engaged in business at that place ever since.
In 1911 Philip Diehl was united in marriage to Anna Funderburg, daughter of Lincoln Funderburg, of Bath township, and to this union has been born one child, a son, Carl. Mr. Diehl is a Republican and, fraternally, is a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias.
ARCHIBALD C. GRIEVE.
Among the numerous' stockmen who have done much to give to Greene county the fine reputation it enjoys all over the country as a live stock region there are few who have done more to help establish that enviable reputa- tion than has Archibald C. Grieve, holder of the Ohio state grand champion Poland China boar stake. Mr. Grieve has a fine farm on the west edge of New Jasper township, about four and one-half miles from Xenia, and has there for years given his most thoughtful attention to the breeding of fine horses, fine sheep and fine hogs, a vocation to which his elder sons, Ray- mond D. and Carlin C. Grieve, also have for some years applied them- selves quite successfully, the products of the Grieve stock farm having been exhibited with gratifying results at fairs and stock shows from coast to coast, while a demand for these products has been created that has opened a market for them not only among discriminating breeders in the United States but in Canada and in South America and Europe. Formerly and for years Mr. Grieve gave his attention to the breeding of road horses and the products of his stables were exhibited with success at state fairs throughout the Central states, but with the gradual decline of the demand for road horses he has of late devoted his attention in the way of equine products to Percherons. Twenty years or more ago he began to give more atten- tion to the raising of pure-bred Poland China hogs and has since then made that line his specialty, his success in that line making him possessor of prize ribbons representing successful exhibits of the products of his stock farm at state fairs from New York state to Iowa. For the past three years Mr. Grieve has held the grand champion Poland China boar record and in 1917 won the grand championship Poland China boar and sow stake at the Ohio state fair. He is a member of the National Swine Breed-
ARCHIBALD C. GRIEVE.
261
GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
ers Association and of the American Poland China Record Company of Chicago. With the constantly growing demand being made upon the prod- ucts of his farm Mr. Grieve is preparing to extend his operations and in this enterprise is aided by his sons, Raymond and Carlin, the former of whom is making a specialty of pure-bred Cheviot sheep, an exhibitor at stock shows from the New England states to the Pacific, and the latter of whom gives his chief attention to the Poland China hogs. During the time he was giving his chief attention to road and race horses Mr. Grieve also became widely known as a breeder of Cottswold sheep and back in the '80s won numerous prizes by his exhibits of that line of stock.
Archibald C. Grieve was born on the farm on which he now lives on December 25, 1854, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Crawford) Grieve, the former of whom was born on that same farm, July 27, 1829, son of Archibald and Agnes (Stephenson) Grieve, natives of Scotland, the former born in Selkirk and the latter in Roxboroughshire. Archibald Grieve was born in 1775 and grew to manhood in his native Scotland, becoming a farmer. On March 11, 1811, he married Agnes Stephenson, daughter of John and Isabella Stephenson, and in the following year, 1812, came with his wife to the United States and proceeded on out to Ohio, settling on the farm about four and one-half miles from Xenia now owned and occupied by his grandson, Archibald C. Grieve. The elder Archibald Grieve de- veloped that place from its primitive wilderness state and became one of the substantial pioneers of that section. He and his wife were members of the Associated Reformed church and their children were reared in the rigid tenets of that faith. They were the parents of nine children, two sons and seven daughters. The eldest son, John Grieve, died of cholera at Xenia in 1847. Robert Grieve, the other son, grew up on the home farm and after his marriage bought the interests of the other heirs in the home place and there established his home, remaining there until in September, 1887, when he bought a farm in Xenia township and moved to the latter place. His wife died a year later and he then retired from the farm and moved to Xenia, where he presently married again and established his home in that city, spending the rest of his life there, his death occurring in September, 1903.
As just noted, Robert Grieve was twice married. His first wife and the mother of his children was Elizabeth Crawford, who was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, of Scottish ancestry, and who grew to young wom- anhood in that country and then came to the United States with some ac- quaintances who were coming over and proceeded on out to Ohio to rejoin her brothers and sisters who previously had come over and settled in Greene county. The widowed mother of these children later came from Ireland
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.