History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 34

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 34

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family in this county, is made in a biographical sketch of her elder brother, John C. Williamson, of Xenia, presented elsewhere in this volume. She grew to womanhood on her father's farm and was there married, October 20, 1885, to Samuel Collins Anderson, the officiating clergymen being her pastor, the Rev. J. F. Morton, the Rev. J. G. Carson and her uncle, the Rev. R. D. Williamson. To her family and friends she has ever been known as "Nettie," a diminutive of Jeanette.

SAMUEL McCULLOCH.

The late Samuel McCulloch, who for years was a funeral director at Yellow Springs, was a native of Ohio, born in the neighboring county of Clark on December 5, 1823, and was ten years of age when his parents, Sam- uel and Agnes (Browne) McCulloch moved down to Yellow Springs and there established their home. He finished his schooling there and when six- teen years of age began to work at the cabinet-making and house-building trade, later, as a young man, giving particular attention to the making of coffins, and when thirty-two years of age, about the time of his marriage. established himself in the undertaking business at Yellow Springs, contin- uing there thus engaged the rest of his life, his death occurring there in April, 1900, he then being in the seventy-sixth year of his age, and was buried in the cemetery at Yellow Springs, the spot in which he had during many years of service performed a similar office in behalf of those who had preceded him there. Mr. McCulloch was a member of the United Presby- terian church.

On October 16, 1855, at Yellow Springs, Samuel McCulloch was united in marriage to Hannah Herrick Blasdell, who was born in the state of Maine in 1833, and who was but a girl when she accompanied her parents, John and Mary (Herrick ) Blasdell, to Ohio, the family settling in Yellow Springs. Hannah Blasdell entered Antioch College after her parents had located at Yellow Springs and afterward became engaged as a school teacher, which profession she was following at the time of her marriage to Mr. McCulloch. To that union were born six children, namely : Samuel H., who is living at Yellow Springs; Mary Agnes, deceased; Anna D., deceased; Archibald, who is now living at Ft. Riley, Kansas; one who died in infancy, and Mary, who married Charles Lucas, now a resident of Atlanta, Georgia, and has two children, Joseph and Ruth. After her husband's death Mrs. McCulloch went to Texas and for six years kept house there for her son Samuel. Upon her return to Ohio she located at Dayton, but four years later returned to her old home at Yellow Springs and has since been living there.

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SAMUEL KYLE WILLIAMSON.

Samuel Kyle Williamson, a soldier of the Civil War and proprietor of "Maple Lawn Stock Farm," a part of the old Judge Samuel Kyle place in Cedarville township, now living retired from the operations of the farm, the same being carried on by his younger son, Collins Williamson, was born on a farm in the vicinity of the village of Jamestown on October 26, 1846, son of John S. and Jane (Kyle) Williamson, the latter of whom was a daughter of Judge Samuel and Rachel (Jackson) Kyle, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. Judge Kyle, who was for thirty years associate judge of the court in Greene county, came here from Ken- tucky in 1805 and bought a tract of thirteen hundred acres of land in the Cedarville neighborhood, and there established his home. He was a member of the session of the old Associate Reformed church at Cedarville and was twice married, becoming, by his first wife, Ruth Mitchell, the father of six children. By his second wife, Rachel Jackson, who was a daughter of Robert and Elizabeth (McCorkle) Jackson, also pioneers of the Cedarville neighbor- hood and further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume, he was the father of fifteen children. Robert Jackson was the father of ten children and thus the Kyles and the Jacksons became two of the most numer- ously connected families in the county.

The Williamsons are hardly any less numerously connected, for David and Catherine (Duncan) Williamson, the founders of this family in Greene county and of whom further and extended mention is made elsewhere in this volume, were the parents of ten children, of whom John Smith, the father of the subject of this sketch, was the fifth in order of birth. John Smith Williamson was born in the vicinity of Frankford, in Washington county, Pennsylvania, April 1, 1817, and was nineteen years of age when he accompanied his parents to Greene county in 1836. After his marriage to Jane Kyle in the spring of 1842 he bought a farm of one hundred and fifty acres in the immediate vicinity of Jamestown and there set up his home. In 1859 he traded that farm for another, but soon afterward sold this latter place and bought a farm on the edge of the village of Cedarville, where he lived until 1865, when he bought a farm of one hundred and thirty-seven acres on the Columbus-Cincinnati pike, a mile west of Cedarville, and moved onto the same. On December 4, 1872, his dwelling house there was destroyed by fire and he moved into Cedarville, where he became engaged in the grocery and so continued for some years, or until his retirement from busi- ness. During the later years of his life Mr. Williamson was an invalid, a sufferer from a paralytic stroke. He died at his home in Cedarville on Novem- ber 18, 1898, he then being in the eighty-second year of his age. For twenty-

SAMUEL K. WILLIAMSON.

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five years he had been a ruling elder in the United Presbyterian church and his children were reared in that faith.

John S. Williamson was twice married. On March 17, 1842, he was united in marriage to Jane Kyle, who was born in the Cedarville neighbor- hood on December 18, 1816, daughter of Judge Samuel and Rachel (Jack- son) Kyle, mentioned above, and to that union were born three children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth, the others being Catherine, born on July 26, 1843, widow of Robert M. Jack- son, and David S., born on December 29, 1851, a retired farmer, now living at Cedarville and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume. The mother of these children died on August 28, 1854, and on December 17, 1855, John S. Williamson married Ellen B. Bryson, a daughter of Robert and Hannah Bryson, and to that union one child was born, a daughter, Flora Jane, born on January 2, 1857, who died on Feb- ruary 6, 1860. Mrs. Ellen B. Williamson died on July 18, 1878, and on February 8, 1883, Mr. Williamson married Mattie Irwin, of Claysville, Pennsylvania, also now deceased. This last union was without issue.

Samuel Kyle Williamson received his schooling in the schools of Cedar- ville, completing the same with a course of two years in the old "select school" conducted there by Professor Fleming. On February 15, 1865, he then being but eighteen years of age, he enlisted as a soldier of the Union for service during the continuance of the Civil War and was sent to the front as a member of Company A, One Hundred and Eighty-fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served with that company until mustered out on September 26, 1865, the most of that service having been rendered at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, and at Cumberland Gap, at which latter point he was for four months stationed with his regiment. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Williamson returned home and in 1868 bought from his father a tract of one hundred acres, a part of the old Judge Samuel Kyle place, and after his marriage in the fall of 1872 established his home there, occupying the house that D. M. Kyle had erected there in 1849. There Mr. Williamson has ever since made his home. He has remodeled and improved the old house and has a very attractive place which bears the name of "Maple Lawn Stock Farm." In addition to his general farm- ing Mr. Williamson has ever given considerable attention to the raising of high-grade live stock, with particular reference to Polled Durham cattle, Delane-Merino sheep and Duroc-Jersey hogs. Of late years he has given over the general direction of the farm to his son, Collins Williamson, who is managing it as well as an adjoining tract of one hundred and sixteen acres, the Joseph Kyle place, which he owns in his own right. Mr. William- son is a member of the United Presbyterian church at Cedarville and has

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been for many years a member of the board of trustees of the same. Poli- tically, he is a Republican.

Mr. Williamson has been twice married. On November 6, 1872, he was united in marriage to Isabella Collins, who also was born in this county, June 14, 1849, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (McClellan) Collins, mem- bers of pioneer families and further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume, and to that union were born six children. namely: George Smith, born on April 17, 1874, who died on May 10 of the same year ; John Clarence, April 19, 1875, who died on August 23 of that same year; Emmet Collins, December 9, 1876, who is unmarried and is now living at Lemar, Mississippi, in the vicinity of which place he owns a cattle ranch, Ellen Rebecca, July 7, 1878, who on November 7, 1900, was united in marriage to the Rev. Alfred Dennison, now stationed at New Concord, in Muskingum county, this state; an infant, August 23, 1882, who died on that same day, and Collins, November II, 1888, who, as mentioned above, is now operating the "Maple Lawn Stock Farm" for his father, as well as farming his own place adjoining, continuing to make his home on the home place. The mother of these children died on October 8, 1899, and on October 14, 1903, Mr. Williamson married Maria Agnes Tarbox, who also was born in this county, daughter of John M. and Rachel (Nichol) Tarbox, the former of whom was for many years engaged in the milling business at Cedarville, he having come here from his native state of Maine in 1849, and further reference to whom is made elsewhere in this volume.

MONT MANOR.

Mont Manor, a farmer of Caesarscreek township, and the proprietor of the old Ford farm on rural mail route No. 6 out of Xenia, was born on what then was known as the Andrew Baughman farm two miles west of Xenia on April 2, 1864, son of John H. and Catherine (Bagford) Manor, the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter, at Hagerstown, Maryland, who had come to this county with their respective parents in the days of their youth, were here married and here spent their last days.

John H. Manor was a son of George Manor and wife and was but a child when he came to Greene county with his parents, the family driving through from Virginia and settling on a farm west of Xenia, where George Manor and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of six children, of whom John H. was the last-born, the others being Emma, who married Robert Gowdy; Elizabeth, who married Joseph Nisonger; Hester, who married Perry Nisonger; Mary, who married Jacob Elwell, and Alfred, who married and moved to Indiana. John H. Manor

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grew to manhood on the home farm west of Xenia and after his marriage located on the Andrew Baughman farm, two miles west of Xenia, where he spent the rest of his life in farming, his death occurring there on March 17, 1883, he then being fifty-four years of age. He was a Republican and he and his wife were members of the Lutheran church. His widow survived him for some years. she being sixty-nine years of age at the time of her death. For some time after the death of her husband she made her home in Delaware county, Indiana, but returned to Greene county on a visit and died at the home of her son Mont, the subject of this sketch. She was born, Catherine Amelia Bagford, at Hagerstown, Maryland, and was but a child when she came with her parents to Greene county. She was the last-born of the six children born to her parents, the others having been Calvin, who moved to Indiana; William, who made his home in the neighboring county of Warren; Mary, who married William McClellan and lived west of Xenia; Comfort, who was twice married, her first husband having been John Hol- lingshead and her second, Jonas Hiney, both of this county, and Julia, who remained unmarried. To John H. and Catherine A. (Bagford) Manor were born six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being as follows: George, who is operating a dray. line in Xenia; William, deceased; Clinton, who is a farmer, living west of Xenia ; Minnie, now a resident of Shideler, in Delaware county, Indiana, who has been twice married, her first husband having been William Brown and her second, Frank Shady; and A. B., also a resident of Shideler, where he is engaged as a stationary engineer.

Mont Manor grew up on the farm on which he was born, received his schooling in the Xenia schools and remained on the home farm until his marriage at the age of twenty-four years, after which, for five years, he lived on his mother's farm at Shideler, Indiana, and managed it. He then returned to Greene county, later moving to Dayton, but a year later returned to his home county and for two years thereafter rented a farm near Cedar- ville, after that becoming engaged in farming on a farm on the Dayton pike, where he remained for something more than three years, at the end of which time he became engaged in teaming in Xenia and was thus engaged for five years. He then resumed farming and was thus engaged in New Jasper township for three years, or until 1911, when he bought the farin of seventy-eight acres on which he is now living, known as the Ford place, in Caesarscreek township. Mr. Manor is a Republican, and Mrs. Manor is a member of the Reformed church, at Maple Corner.

On February 23, 1888, Mont Manor was united in marriage to Mar- garet E. Dean, who was born in the neighboring county of Montgomery, daughter of David and Cornelia (Darner) Dean, both of whom were born

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in the vicinity of Dayton, in that same county, and who were the parents of eight children, of whom Mrs. Manor was the fourth in order of birth, the others being as follow : William, who is a carpenter, living at Dean, in Mont- gomery county; Lottie, who married Edward Derby and is living at Roch- ester, New York; Harry, who died in youth; Daisy, wife of James Hayes, of Dean; Bertha, wife of Samuel Jackson, of Dayton; Gertrude, wife of Thomas Collins, of Dayton, and Charles, a carpenter, also living at Dayton. David Dean, the father of these children, was a building contractor, for years justice of the peace in and for his home township and for three terms a member of the board of county commissioners of Montgomery county. He was a Republican and he and his wife were members of the United Brethren church. He died in August, 1905, at the age of sixty-nine years. His wife's death occurred on July 27, 1901, at the age of sixty-two. To Mr. and Mrs. Manor have been born three children, namely: Harry Dean Manor, an employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, living at Xenia, who married Lila Kildow and has four children, Elizabeth E., Noel Dean, Harry Ronald and Charles; Cornelia Kathryn, who married Orie F. Clem- mer, who is now at Camp Sherman in the National Army, and Charles David Manor, who is at home.

HON. ANDREW JACKSON.

The Hon. Andrew Jackson, former representative from this district in the General Assembly of the state of Ohio and for years one of the forceful figures in the life of Greene county, was born in this county and has resided here most of his life, the exception being a period of about ten years during which he was engaged in railroad service following his completion of nearly three years of service as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War. He was born on the old Jackson homestead place of Clarks run, west of Cedarville, December 25, 1843, a son of Gen. Robert and Minerva (Eddy) Jackson, prominent residents of that community, whose last days were spent in this county.

Gen. Robert Jackson was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, March 3, 1798, and was sixteen years of age when he came to this county in 1814 with his parents, Robert and Elizabeth (McCorkle) Jackson, the family settling on a farm along Clarks run, west of the village of Cedar- ville. The elder Robert Jackson was born in 1758 at Newtown, Limavady, County Derry, Ireland, son of David and Elizabeth (Reed) Jackson, of Scottish descent, who were the parents of four children, three sons and one daughter, and was but four years of age when his parents came with their family to the American colonies in 1762 and settled in Pennsylvania,

Eng by L'i iniams c. Era ich

Andrew Jackson

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as is set out at informative length elsewhere in this volume, together with a comprehensive history of the beginnings of the Jackson family in Greene county. David Jackson also was born at Newtown, about the year 1730, the third son by the second wife of Dr. Joseph Jackson, a physician of that place. By a previous marriage Dr. Joseph Jackson had a son, Andrew, who on account of his participation in a revolutionary movement in his own country was compelled to flee to the American colonies, he and his wife and two small sons settling in 1765 in the Waxhaw settlement in South Carolina. There Andrew Jackson died in the spring of 1767, a few days before the birth of his third son, who in honor of the deceased father was named Andrew and who in the proper fullness of time became the seventh Presi- dent of the United States, it thus being seen that Robert Jackson, the Greene county pioneer, and Andrew Jackson, the hero of the battle of New Orleans and one of the most conspicuous figures in American history, were cousins. When the War of the Revolution came on David Jackson took an active part in the struggle of the colonists and lost a hand at the battle of Trenton. His wife died at Oxford, in Chester county, Pennsyl- vania, October 7, 1767, she then being thirty-four years of age. He sur- vived her many years, his death occurring in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in August, 1811, and he was buried beside the body of his wife in the Oxford burying ground. They were members of the Associate Presby- terian church and in 1782, at the union of the Reformed and Associate Presbyterian churches, he became a member of the Associate Reformed church.

Robert Jackson, third in order of birth of the four children born to David and Elizabeth (Reed) Jackson, grew to manhood in Pennsylvania and during the Revolutionary War served as a soldier of the patriot army. In the spring of 1786 he married Elizabeth McCorkle, who was born in Scotland and who was but a child when she came to this side with her parents. Her father was killed in battle while serving in behalf of the patriot cause during the Revolutionary War and her mother died not long afterward, she thereafter making her home with a Quaker family in Lan- caster county, Pennsylvania, where she was living when married to Robert · Jackson. She has been described as a large woman, five feet ten inches in height and of a weight of one hundred and ninety pounds; blonde, with blue eyes, auburn hair nearly five feet long, portly, with commanding, queenly appearance and straight as an Indian, her commanunng appeal auce always insuring to her the respect due as a lady of the first rank. Robert Jackson has been described as a man six feet in height, of slender form and of a weight of one hundred and seventy-five pounds, of dark complexion, black, curly hair and long lean face, there being a tradition in the family

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that he bore a striking resemblance to his illustrious cousin, Andrew Jack- son, President of the United States. This description, written by the Rev. Hugh Parks Jackson, of Cedarville, dean of the Jackson family in this county, further sets out that Robert Jackson "was of a sedate dispo- sition ; did not engage in foolish fun, but was fond of company of his own kind; a man of pleasant and agreeable manners, but, like 'Old Hickory' Jackson, was full of mettle of the right ring. He was like a bell-touch him and he would sound. He was a wheelwright by trade, but worked on the farm as well, a man of industrious and abstemious habits and a great reaper in the harvest field with the old-fashioned sickle. It was the custom then to have whisky in the harvest field to drink, but it was his habit to

sit on the fence, with his hat off, resting, while others were drinking. He was not a man of many words, but good company on subjects that were profitable to be discussed. He would, in holy indignation, resent and resist the oppression of the weak who were making strenuous and honest efforts to do right. At one time in a harvest field, when sixty years old, he threw his sickle down and cracked his fists together, saying: 'I can whip any man that will impose on a boy!' A dozen harvesters reaping in the field were making sport of a boy who was trying to make a hand in the same field with them."

In 1789, about three years after his marriage, Robert Jackson moved over the mountains from Lancaster county to Westmoreland county, in Penn- sylvania, and settled on a farm in the forks of the Yough, and was living there when what historically is known as the "Whisky Rebellion" broke out in western Pennsylvania in the summer of 1794. He indirectly aided and abetted this rebellion by loaning his gun to one of his neighbors, who was engaged in the rebellion, and was for months thereafter compelled to seek hiding in the bush while the soldiers were scouring the country in search of insurrectionists. But presently the President pardoned and released all engaged in the insurrection and the soldiers were withdrawn. In 1799 Rob- ert Jackson sold his hill farm and moved over into the then Territory of Ohio, buying a farm two miles southeast of Mt. Pleasant, in Jefferson county, where he remained until 1814, when he disposed of his interests there and with his family came to Greene county and settled on Clarks run, west of Cedarville. In this county he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, her death occurring on September 28, 1822, and his, Septent- ber 26, 1828, and both were laid to rest in the Massiescreek burying ground. Robert Jackson was for years a ruling elder in the Associate Reformed church, having thus served his church both in Pennsylvania and after his coming to Greene county, and his children were reared in that faith. There were ten of these children, of whom Robert, father of the subject of this

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sketch, was the seventh in order of birth, and of these ten all save two grew to maturity, married and had families of their own, their children, in turn, numbering eighty-four, the descendants of these, in the present genera- tion, comprising a well-nigh innumerable host and forming connections with most of what are regarded as the "old families" of Greene county.

Partaking the physical characteristics of both of his parents, Gen. Robert Jackson has been described as a man of six feet two inches in height, of a weight of one hundred and ninety pounds, straight as an Indian, of fine physique, dark complexion, dark eyes, black curly hair, "and when dressed in full military costume and mounted on his spirited white charger made a handsome appearance and was indeed a brilliant and popular military officer." From boyhood he was fond of military tactics and parades and when he came to this county with his parents in 1814 at once became a participant in the activities of muster days and the like, going on up in rank in the local militia until on August 22, 1831, he was commissioned by Governor McArthur as brigadier general of the First Brigade, Fifth Division, Ohio State Militia, a commission he held until his resignation on August 6, 1836. The General also took an active part in the general public affairs of the community and was elected to represent this district in the thirty-third General Assembly of the state of Ohio. From 1857 to 1862 he represented his district as a member of the board of county commis- sioners and in 1862 went with the "squirrel hunters" to Cincinnati to help repel the threatened rebel invasion of Ohio. In early life the General was a Democrat, but in 1852 became a Free Soiler and upon the organization of the Republican party threw in his influence with the latter party and remained a firm adherent of the same until his death. It has been written of him that in disposition he was free and jovial, fond of society and of his friends, with whom he was always popular and a welcome guest. On December 25, 1821, Gen. Robert Jackson married Minerva Eddy, of Lebanon, in the neighboring county of Warren, and after his marriage continued to make his home on the old home place on Clarks run until 1856, when he sold that farm, which meantime had been bequeathed to him, and moved to Xenia, where he became engaged in the milling business, several years later moving to a small fruit farm two miles east of Xenia, where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there on April 10, 1877. His widow returned to Xenia, but later moved to Yellow Springs, where she died on January 16, 1882. Both were reared in the Associate Reformed church and after the union in 1858 became connected with the United Presbyterian church.

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History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 34

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