USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 41
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I want not gains begot by pelf, But what I honest earn myself; I crave not piles and hoards of wealth, But I do wish for strength and health, My family good and true and pure, Endowed with virtues that endure.
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No honest debts unliquidater
No reputation overrated;
Uncursed amidst the harpy tribe,
Untainted by the guilty bribe;
A faith in God, who doeth right,
Unmoved by wrong, though backed by might;
No orphan's cry to wound my ear,
My conscience and my honor clear.
Thus may I calmly meet my end,
Thus to the grave in peace descend;
And when I'm gone, I'd have it said
"We're sory that our neighbor's dead."
It will comfort me in dying, to feel that it is true,
That the world is someway better for my having traveled through.
On January 24, 1875, while living at Washington Court House, Will- iam A. Paxson was united in marriage to Rebecca C. Rankin, daughter of William C. and Jemima (Doan) Rankin, of Fayette county, and to this union were born five children, two of whom died in infancy, the others being Rankin, born on December 25, 1875, who died at the age of five years; Frostie, wife of F. H. Moyer, chief engineer of the Cambria Steel Works at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and William Stanley, born on January 17, 1890. William Stanley Paxson was graduated from the Jamestown high school when fifteen years of age, the youngest member of a graduating class in the history of that school, and was awarded a scholarship in Ohio Wesleyan University on account of the excellence of his grades. In his sophomore year in this latter institution he was made president of his class. He left there in his junior year and took up the study of law under the preceptorship of his father, later entering the Cincinnati Law School, from which he was graduated with honors after a three-years course, receiving a prize of one hundred dollars for having attained the highest grades in the class during the entire three years. In January, 1913, he began the practice of law at Cincinnati and is still located in that city, a member of the firm of Long & Paxson. In May, 1916, William S. Paxson was united in marriage to Amanda Maul, of Kentucky, and to this union one child has been born, a son, William Stanley, born on June 22, 1917.
EDWARD HACKETT.
In a biographical sketch relating to Charles H. Hackett, postmaster at Yellow Springs, there is set out at considerable length something of the history of the Hackett family in Greene county and of the coming of James Hackett and family to this county and their settlement in Miami township when the subject of this sketch was but a boy. James Hackett and his wife,
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Ellen Cavanaugh, were born in Ireland, but were married at Springfield, Ohio, where for some time James Hackett was engaged in railroading. He then came down into Greene county with his family and after a while settled on the old R. B. Harvison farm, where he spent several years. He then moved to the Turner farm, later to the Harper farm, then to the Joseph Humphrey farm, then bought the old King farm south of Clifton and lived there twenty years His health failed and he went to make his home with his daughter, Mrs. John Downey, where he died in 1916. His wife died in 1914.
Of the ten children born to James Hackett and wife and whose names are set out in the narrative above referred to, Edward Hackett, the well- known blacksmith at Yellow Springs, was the fourth in order of birth. He was born at Defiance, Ohio, February 20, 1870, and was but a child when his parents located in Greene county. He received his schooling in the Turner school and at Clifton and remained on the farm until he was twenty- two years of age, when he took up blacksmithing in the shop of M. M. Murray at Yellow Springs. Not long afterward he resumed farming, but four years later returned to blacksmithing and for two years was engaged in that business at Yellow Springs in association with S. W. Cox. Two years later Mr. Hackett bought S. W. Cox out in the place and has since been engaged in business there alone, continuing to occupy the same old stand on Walnut street where he began business many years ago. Mr. Hackett is a Democrat and a Catholic. On November 21, 1917, Mr. Hackett was married to Katherine Quinn, of Clark county, Ohio. She was born on March 3, 1872.
JOHN GRAHAM BUICK.
John Graham Buick, a farmer of the Yellow Springs neighborhood, is one of those fortunate individuals who have never been disturbed by a change of residence, he still residing in the house in which he was born on November 1, 1855, the house in which his parents spent their last days. These parents were William and Janet (Syme) Buick, natives of Scot- land, the former born in 1810 and the latter, January 20, 1811, who were married in August, 1848, and who came to this country in 1853.
William Buick was a stonemason and the first work he performed in his line upon coming here was in helping to build Antioch College at Yellow Spring. He bought a tract of land in the neighborhood of the village, the place now owned by his son, John G., and there established his home, carrying on farming operations in addition to his labors as a stonemason, and he was thus engaged the rest of his life, his death occurring there on
JOHN G. BUICK AND DAUGHTER, JANET BLANCHE. Apple Tree in Background was Planted in 1854 by William Buick.
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February 3, 1861. His widow survived him for many years, her death occurring in that same house on October 15, 1892. They were the parents of four children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the last born, the others being: Margaret S., who was born in 1849 in the village of Dun- fermline, in Fifeshire, Scotland, the same village in which Andrew Car- negie was born; James, who was born in the city of Glasgow, September 2, 1850, and who died in 1883, and William, born at Yellow Springs, who died in childhood.
Reared on the home place in the neighborhood of Yellow Springs, John G. Buick completed his local schooling at Antioch College and then took a course in the Normal School at Lebanon, after which he resumed his place on the home farm and has ever since been operating the same, continuing there to make his residence in the house in which he was born. Mr. Buick is a Republican, as was his father, the latter having voted for Abraham Lincoln for President of the United States, but the only public office he has held has been as a member of the school board. He is a mem- ber of the United Presbyterian church at Clifton.
On October 12, 1915, John Graham Buick was united in marriage to Mrs. Etta Blanche (Callison) Campbell, of Yellow Springs, and to this union one child has been born, a daughter, Janet Blanche, born on May 8, 1917. By her previous marriage Mrs. Buick is the mother of one child, a son, Horace A. Campbell, who was born on August 24, 19II. Mrs. Buick was born in the neighboring county of Clark, daughter of Willard E. and Jennie (Dudley) Callison, who are living in the vicinity of Hustead, in that county, where Mr. Callison is engaged in market gardening. Mrs. Buick has one brother, Arges Carl Callison, who married Mabel Weaver and lives at Springfield, and two sisters, Ethel May, who married Albert Beeler, a Clark county farmer, and has three children, Harold, Ruth and Louise; and Leva Margaret Callison, who is living at Springfield.
FRANCIS MARION THOMAS.
For more than a hundred years, or ever since the days of the early settlement of the Painters Run region in this county, the Thomases, the Beesons and the Bayliffs have been represented in that neighborhood. It was in 1802 that Joshua and Margaret (Fry) Bayliff left their home in the vicinity of Winchester, Virginia, and came down the Ohio river, having fitted out a flatboat at Wheeling, and stopped at the then mere river hamlet of Cincinnati, where they remained for about a year, at the end of which time they came on up here into the valley of the Little Miami and settled
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on a tract of land along Painters Run, in the vicinity of Paintersville, in Caesarscreek township, this county. These pioneers had eight children, Joshua, Margaret, Sarah, Elizabeth, Susanna, Anna, Polly Ann and Daniel. About the time that the Bayliffs settled there Jacob and Ellen Thomas, with their four sons, Benjamin, Henry, Arthur and Francis, and their daughter, Hannah, arrived in the settlement and located on a tract nearby the Bayliff home, the two families quickly becoming fast friends and neighbors. Ben- jamin Thomas married Elizabeth Bayliff and Henry Thomas married Sus- anna Bayliff and thus there early created something more than a mere neighborly bond between the two families. The tract on which the family of Jacob Thomas settled upon their arrival in this county is now owned by Mrs. Joshua Devoe. After his marriage to Elizabeth Bayliff. Benjamin Thomas established his home on that part of his father's original tract now owned by Raper Bales, and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of seven children, namely : Polly, who mar- ried Simon Harness; Hannah, who married Lewis Bales: Ellen, who mar- ried Steele Dean; Joshua, who married Martha Lucas; Margaret, who mar- ried William Cottrell; Catherine, who married John Underwood, and Jacob, who married Eliza Beeson, the latter of whom, born in 1837, was one of the fourteen children born to Thomas and Keziah Beeson, well-known pioneers along the Paintersville road about three miles south of the village of New Jasper, in that part of the county that in the summer of. 1853 was set off as the township of New Jasper.
Jacob Thomas was born in that part of the county that in 1858 was set off as Jefferson township, January 30. 1831, and grew up on the home farm. He married Eliza Beeson and established his home close by the old home farm and a few years later settled on a farm of one hundred and forty-five acres in New Jasper township, where he died on January 13, 1871, he then lacking but seventeen days of being forty years of age. He was a Republican and he and his wife were members of the Mt. Carmel Methodist Protestant church, not far from their home. Mr. Thomas's widow did not remarry and survived her husband until September, 1893. Jacob and Eliza (Beeson) Thomas were the parents of eight children, namely : Keziah, now living at Xenia, widow of William Albert Smith; Joshua, who died on Noveniber 18, 1863, at the age of four years; Benja- min, who died on November 30, 1863, at the age of three years; Lydia, born on June 7, 1862, who on September 18, 1879, married Jacob R. Jones and is now living at Mt. Tabor, this county; Alice, born on August 7, 1864. who married J. C. Bales and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased, her death having occurred on January 4, 1892; Loretta, born on April 10, 1866, who married Frank M. Spahr and who, as well as her husband, also
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is deceased, her death having occurred on June 1, 1915; Francis Marion, the subject of this biographical review, and Jacob Lewis, born on May 8, 1870, now a resident of Logan county, this state, who married Ida Hite and has two children.
Francis Marion Thomas, seventh in the order of birth of the eight children born to Jacob and Eliza (Beeson) Thomas, was born on the home farm a mile and a quarter south of New Jasper on February 1, 1868. He was but three years of age when his father died and he thus early became an active factor in the labors of the home farm, the operations of which were maintained by his mother, leaving school at a somewhat earlier age than was the custom. A couple of months after his mother's death he mar- ried and took charge of the farm of his father-in-law, Cyrus Brown, in New Jasper township, making his home there for seven years, at the end of which time he and Mr. Brown bought a farm of one hundred and seven- ty-one acres, the place on which he is now living in that same township, and there he since has made his home. A few years after forming that land partnership with his father-in-law, Mr. Thomas bought Mr. Brown's inter- est in the place and in 1913 bought an adjoining tract of fifty-three acres and now has a farm of two hundred and twenty-four acres. In 1909 he erected on that place a fine new farm house. In addition to his general farming Mr. Thomas has given considerable attention to the raising of Poland China hogs. He is a Republican, and has served as a member of the local school board.
On November 2. 1893, Francis M. Thomas was united in marriage to Alice L. Brown, who also was born in New Jasper township, daughter of Cyrus and Mary Elizabeth Brown, further mention of whom is made else- where in this volume, and to this union one child has been born, a daughter, Grace E. Thomas, now (1918) a senior in Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas and their daughter are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at New Jasper and Mr. Thomas is a member of the board of trustees of the church.
CHARLES J. MELLINGER.
One of the young farmers of Miami township is Charles J. Mellinger, who was born in Clarke county, Ohio, July 16, 1882, the son of B. F. and Emma L. (Johnson) Mellinger, the former of whom was a native of Clark county, Ohio, and the latter of Greene county.
B. F. Mellinger comes of Pennsylvania stock, his parents being natives of that state, who came to Clark county in an early day. In 1876 he mar- ried Emma L. Johnson, the daughter of Asahel B. and Mary A.
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(Gilmore) Johnson, the former of whom was a native of Kentucky, who came to Greene county, Ohio, in an early day, settling at first at Clifton, where he engaged in the general merchandise business with his brother. Later he moved to Yellow Springs. A. B. Johnson and wife were the parents of three children: Frank W., a farmer living near Yellow Springs; Charles S., now in the wall paper business at Xenia, formerly county coroner and deputy probate judge, and Emma L., who became the wife of B. F. Mel- linger, and who died February 4, 1917. Mr. Mellinger was a farmer in Clark county for many years, but is now retired from active farm work and lives in Yellow Springs.
Charles J. Mellinger is the only child of his parents, and was reared on the home farm in Clark county, attending the common schools of his township, and later becoming a student of the high school at Springfield for two years. After leaving high school he took a commercial course in Wilt's Business College at Dayton, after which he was engaged as bookkeeper for the Springfield Meat Company for two years. He then took a short course in agriculture in Ohio University, at Columbus, Ohio, after which he en- gaged in farming in Clark county where he remained `until 1910, when he moved to his present farm near Yellow Springs. This farm was owned by his mother for many years before her death, after which it was inherited by him. Mr. Mellinger is engaged in general farming and stock raising, making a specialty of Jersey cattle, having among his herd many show cattle.
In May, 1901, Mr. Mellinger was married to Geraldine Hathaway, daughter of Lewis P. and Amanda (Brown) Hathaway, the former of whom was a farmer ot Warren county, Ohio, and is now deceased, his death hav- ing occurred in June, 1917. To this union have been born three daughters : Janet E., Emma A. and Mary Gretchen. Mr. Mellinger is independent in politics.
WILLIAM HENRY HILT.
William Henry Hilt, manager of his father's farm in Miami town- ship, rural route No. 3 out of Yellow Springs, is a native of the neighbor- ing county of Clark, born on a farm three miles north of the city of Spring- field, but has been a resident of Greene county since 1895, in which year his parents moved down here and became landowners in Miami township. He was born on January 29, 1874, son of David and Nancy Ann (Hum- barger ) Hilt, the former of whom was born in the kingdom of Wurtem- burg, and the latter in Clark county, this state, who are now living retired in the village of Yellow Springs and further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume.
Om. Henry Hill. Bertha Estella Stilt.
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In 1878 David Hilt bought a farm of fifty-two acres in Greene town- ship, Clark county, just across the border from Greene county, in the Yellow Springs neighborhood, and moved onto the same, remaining there until he came over the line into this county in 1895 and bought the farm which he now owns in Miami township. Henry Hilt was therefore but four years of age when he became a resident of the Yellow Springs neigh- borhood. He finished his schooling at Antioch College and after his mar- riage in 1898 began farming on his own account on his father's farm and since the retirement of his father in 1904 has been in charge of the oper- ations of the same, carrying on general farming and stock raising. Mr. Hilt has a well-furnished home and excellent farm buildings.
On February 28, 1898, Henry Hilt was united in marriage to Bertha Estella Pentoney, who was born on August 14, 1876, daughter of Nicholas M. and Harriet M. (Collier) Pentoney, of Clark county, the latter of whom was born in that same county and the former (now deceased) in the state of West Virginia. Nicholas M. Pentoney and wife had three children, Mrs. Hilt having a brother, Thomas E., and a sister, Ida Lorena. Mr. and Mrs. Hilt are members of Bethel Lutheran church. They have an adopted daughter, Alma Eleanor, who was born on March 21, 1907.
ALVA HUSTON SMITH.
Alva Huston Smith, former treasurer of New Jasper township and proprietor of a farm of about two hundred acres on the New Jasper pike a mile and a half east of the village of that name, situated on rural mail route No. I out of Jamestown, was born on the old Smith farm a mile northeast of New Jasper on August 16. 1868, son of James Marion and Eliza (Huston) Smith, both of whom also were born in New Jasper town- ship and the latter of whom is still living, now a resident of the village of New Jasper.
The late James Marion Smith, a veteran of the Civil War, who died at his home in New Jasper township on December 10, 1911, was born in that township on February 14, 1839, son of Daniel and Lucinda (Spahr) Smith, the latter of whom also was born in this county, in the vicinity of Xenia, a daughter of Mathias and Susanna (Hagler) Spahr, both members of pioneer families in this section of Ohio, who were married on August 8, 1818. Daniel Smith was born in Virginia and was but a babe in arms when his parents, Jacob and Elizabeth (Kimble) Smith, drove through to Ohio in 1814, in company with : Philip. Spahr and family, and settled in Greene county, locating in what is now New Jasper township, the Smiths and the
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Spahrs establishing their respective homes on adjoining tracts of land. Jacob Smith became the owner of three hundred acres of land and his chil- dren in due time were given a good start in life. He was a cooper by trade and for years operated a cooper shop on his farm, his sons looking after the farm affairs. He and his wife were members of the Methodist church and their children were reared in that faith. There were ten of these children of whom Daniel was the third in order of birth, the others being as follow : Sarah, who married William Spahr; Susan, who married David Paullin and lived in Silvercreek township; Phœbe, who married Evan Harris, of Caesarscreek township; Elizabeth, who married James Spahr; William, who became a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church and made his home in Silvercreek township; James, who also became a Methodist min- ister and lived in Silvercreek township; Nelson, who made his home in New Jasper township; Catherine, who married Peter Tressler, and Amanda, who married Stephen Beal, of Cedarville. Daniel Smith grew up on the pioneer farm on which his father had settled upon coming to this county and after his marriage established his home on a farm east of New Jasper, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there in 1884, he then being seventy years of age. In addition to his home farm, Daniel Smith was the owner of two other farms in that part of the county. He was for years a class leader in the old Mt. Tabor Methodist Episcopal church. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, seven sons and two daughters, all of whom lived to maturity, married and reared families of their own.
Reared on the farm on which he was born, James Marion Smith grew up there and in due time his father helped him get a farm. James M. Smith and his brother David bought a tract of fifty acres in partnership and for some time operated the same under that arrangement, but later James M. Smith bought his brother's interest in the tract. By that time he had acquired other land and was thus the owner of a tract of one hundred and fifty acres northeast of New Jasper, where he had established his home after his marriage. He added to his land holdings until he became the owner of five farms and nearly five hundred acres of excellent land. In August, 1862, James M. Smith enlisted his services as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War and went to the front as a member of Company D, One Hundred and Tenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which command he served for two years and six months, or until he received his honorable dis- charge following an accident which befell him during the campaign in the Wilderness, an ax which flew off its helve while soldiers were constructing a breastwork nearly cutting off one of his feet and incapacitating him for further service. For some time he was confined in a hospital at Washing-
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ton and when he was in a condition to be removed his father went East and brought him home. James M. Smith was a Republican. In addition to his general farming he was engaged in cattle raising. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at New Jasper and was a class leader, even as his father had been.
On October 17, 1866, James Marion Smith was united in marriage to Eliza Huston, who also was born in New Jasper township, on a farm a miles northwest of the village of New Jasper, in 1845, and who is still living, now a resident of the village of New Jasper, to which place she moved in 1916. Mrs. Smith is a daughter of William Smith and Sarah (Smith) Huston, the latter of whom also was born in New Jasper township, in 1822, and who died when thirty-three years of age. William Smith Huston was born in Knox county, Ohio, January 28, 1821, and was fourteen years of age when his parents, Robert and Ann (Lyon) Huston, moved from that county to Greene county in 1835 and located on a tract of land now occu- pied by the station of New Jasper, Robert Huston there becoming the pos- sessor of three hundred acres of land. Originally a Whig, Robert Huston became a Republican upon the organization of the latter party. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church and their children were reared in that faith. There were eleven of these children, of whom William Smith Huston was the first-born and all of whom save Robert N., the sixth in order of birth, grew to maturity, the others having been George, James, Josiah, Mary L., Eliza Ann, John, Deborah Jane, Margaret and Robert Harvey. All these save Mary L., who married and moved to Mt. Vernon, Ohio, continued to make their homes in Greene county and here reared their families.
William Smith Huston grew to manhood on the farm on which his father had settled upon coming to this county and after his marriage bought the old Moore farm of one hundred and fifty acres, nearby his father's place, and there established his home. He later bought two other farms. Politically. he was a Republican and by religious persuasion was a Metho- dist. His last days were spent on the farm which he had brought to a high state of development and there he died on April 29, 1896, he then being past seventy-five years of age. William Smith Huston was twice married. His first wife, Sarah (Smith) Huston, died in 1855 and he later married Mrs. Emily (Howell) Fawcett, a widow, who survived him for seven years, her death occurring in 1903. By his first marriage Mr. Huston was the father of three children, namely: Eliza, widow of James Marion Smith ; Sarah Jane, now deceased, who was the wife of Isaac Files, of Xenia, and Milton, deceased, who lived on the old home farm in New Jasper township
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By his second marriage he had two sons, Addison J., a farmer in New Jasper township, and John C., a hardware merchant at Xenia. To James M. and Eliza (Huston) Smith were born three children, namely: Alva H., the im- mediate subject of this biographical sketch; Addison D .. who is now living on the old home farm of his grandfather Huston in New Jasper township and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume, and Jennie, wife of Dr. George Davis, of Xenia, a biographical sketch of whom also appears elsewhere in this volume.
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