USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 5
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council of the Knights of Columbus there and was for years an active mem- ber of the Brotherhood of Railroad Conductors.
Mr. Carlos was twice married, his first wife having been Julia McDon- ald, of Xenia. To that union were born two children, James, who married Agnes Wade and is living at Dayton, where he is employed as a locomotive engineer on the Pennsylvania railroad, and Gertrude, who is living at Xenia. Following the death of the mother of these children, Mr. Carlos, on August 12, 1903. married Mary Whalen, who was born at Newport, Kentucky, a daughter of John and Julia (Flynn) Whalen, natives of Ireland, who had come to this country in the days of their youth and were married in Ohio, later moving to Newport, Kentucky, where John Whalen became engaged in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, later becoming con- nected with the maintenance department of the road between Cincinnati and Xenia, making his home in Xenia in 1898. He died in that city on December 3, 1903. and his widow is still living there. They were members of the Catholic church and their children were brought up adherents of that faith. Of these children Mrs. Carlos was the eldest, the others being John, James (deceased), Patrick, Arthur, Catherine, Margaret and Anna. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Carlos has continued to make her home at Xenia. She is a member of St. Brigid's Catholic church.
ROBERT DUNCAN WILLIAMSON.
Robert Duncan Williamson, proprietor of the "R. D. Williamson Stock Farm" on the Jamestown pike, five miles east of Xenia, rural mail route No. 2 out of Xenia, in New Jasper township, this county, a member of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, a member of the Greene county board of commissioners, chairman of the Greene county selective draft board and for years recognized as an authority on the breeding of Merino sheep, was born on the farm on which he is still living and has lived there all his life. He was born on February 13, 1862, son of Jonathan Duncan and Martha Anne (McMillan) Williamson and was the fifth in order of birth of the eight children born to that parentage, as is set out in a comprehen- sive narrative relating to the Williamson family in this county presented elsewhere in this volume in a biographical sketch relating to his elder brother, John C. Williamson, of Xenia, wherein the reader is informed of the com- ing of the Williamisons to Greene county in 1836, when David and Catherine (Duncan) Williamson, parents of ten children, of whom Jonathan was the eighth in order of birth, settled on a tract of three hundred acres of land on Caesars creek at a point about equidistant from Xenia and Jamestown.
ROBERT D. WILLIAMSON.
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Jonathan Duncan Williamson not only was an excellent general farmer, but was a expert on the breeding of sheep and it was he who, in 1860, started the great Merino breeding cotes that have made the name Williamson familiar among sheep breeders all over the world. From the days of his boyhood Robert Duncan Williamson took an active interest in the sheep industry that was developed by his father on the home farm and in due time was made a partner of his father in the development of that phase of their farming operations. When the Ohio Merino Record Association was organ- ized in 1876 the elder Williamson was one of the charter members of the same and a continuous register of the Williamson Merinos has ever since been scrupulously maintained. These register marks have been sus- tained by a series of successes in the greatest exhibition rings in the world. When in 1888 the elder Williamson retired and moved to Cedarville, where he spent his last days, he divided his farm between his two sons, John C. and Robert D., and the latter took over the Merino flock and has ever since maintained the same. He made his first exhibition at the Ohio state fair in the following season and has never missed a season as an exhibitor since then, besides showing at the leading state fairs all over the country. At the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904 Mr. Williamson won the prize as the premier champion exhibitor in the sheep department, the products of his flock carrying off more prizes than those of any other individual exhibitor, and he also won the prize awarded for having bred all the sheep he exhibited, his cash prizes at that World's Fair aggregating nearly ·fourteen hundred dollars. At dozens of state fairs Mr. Williamson has won the championship ram prize and in 1911 he brought away from the Ohio state fair the much desired Governor Harris cup, a trophy more hotly contested than any similar trophy ever put up in this state. This handsome silver cup was offered by the governor as a final for one of the most interesting contests ever taken part in by sheep breeders in this coun- try. For three years the cup was held for the exhibitor of the best ram and the three best ewes. Each year the trophy was awarded to a different exhi- bitor, Mr. Williamson being one of the fortunate three. In the fourth year these three winners entered their sheep for the decisive contest and Mr. Wil- liamson won the final. For twelve years prior to the breaking out of the great World War Mr. Williamson was a constant exporter of his breeding stock to South Africa, South America and Australia and the products of his cotes thus attained a wide reputation. At the same time, of course, he was being called on to supply his stock to sheep farms all over this country and Canada and this domestic demand is constantly growing. In 1912 Wr. Williamson started a pure-bred Shorthorn cattle herd on his farm and
(3)
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now has a herd of registered Shorthorns, the increase of which has come to be in wide demand. Though he makes a specialty of Class B Merinos, he raises all types of this strain and is thus able to supply a wide market. Mr. Williamson is a Republican, but had never held an elective office until 19II, when he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners from his district. By successive re-elections he has been retained in that office and in September, 1917, entered upon his fourth term. In 1915 he was appointed by Governor Willis as a member of the State Board of Agri- culture and in 1918 was reappointed to that position by Governor Cox, the only Republican thus retained on the board. Upon the enactment of the selective draft law following this nation's declaration of war against Ger- many in the spring of 1917 Mr. Williamson was appointed chairman of the draft board for Greene county and has given his most thoughtful atten- tion to the duties of that trust. For twenty-five years he has been a mem- ber of the diaconate of the First Presbyterian church at Xenia. Of late years, since the return of his son, Robert C. Williamson, from college, Mr. Williamson has had an opportunity to relax somewhat his direct atten- tion to the affairs of his stock farm, turning much of the management of the place over to his son and partner, who in the third generation is carry- ing on the great sheep-breeding industry started there by his grandfather nearly sixty years ago. The old farm house which stood on that place was destroyed by fire in April. 1897, and Mr. Williamson erected in its place the dwelling in which the family now resides.
On December 6, 1887, at the home of the bride on the Bellbrook pike a few miles south of Xenia, Robert Duncan Williamson was united in mar- riage to Ella Gowdy, who was born on that place on June 30, 1861. a daughter of Robert and Emily (Manor) Gowdy, of the pioneer Gowdy family in this county, further and fitting mention of which family is made elsewhere in this volume. The officiating clergymen at this wedding were two of the bride's brothers, the Rev. George Gowdy and the Rev. William Gowdy. To this union one child was born, a son, Robert Gowdy, born on February 21, 1890, who, as noted above, is now a partner of his father in the operation of the home farm, continuing to make his home there since his marriage. Robert G. Williamson was graduated from Cedarville College and then entered Harvard University, earning his degree there in two years. Upon his return home from college he was given charge of the farm and has since co-operated with his father in the direction of the affairs of the same. In October, 1916, Robert Gowdy Williamson was united in marriage to Ann Dickinson, daughter of the Rev. Edwin H. Dick- inson, a minister of the United Presbyterian church, now stationed at Lig- onier, Pennsylvania.
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CHARLES DARLINGTON.
In the memorial annals of Greene county and of the city of Xenia there are few names held in better remembrance than that of the late Charles Darlington, a practicing attorney at Xenia from the time of his entrance into practice there until his death in 1908. He was born at Zanesville, this state, son of Capt. James and Margaret (Bowman) Darlington, the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter in this state, a member of one of the old families at Zanesville. Capt. James Darlington was a steamboat captain and during the Civil War had charge of a boat in the government service. After the war he located at Zanesville, where he became a coal-mine operator and where he and his wife spent their last days. They were the parents of two children, the subject of this memorial sketch and a daughter, Virginia, widow of Arnold Green, a Cleveland attorney. Mrs. Green is a member of the Cleveland school board.
Upon completing the course in the public schools of Zanesville, Charles Darlington entered Wittenberg College at Springfield and later continued his law studies under the preceptorship of his uncle, Samuel Bowman, one of the leading lawyers of that city and who had three sons, Elden, Borden and Edward Bowman, all of whom became attorneys in that city. Upon qualify- ing for the practice of his profession, Charles Darlington located at Xenia and for a time was associated in practice with Judge Smith, but presently resumed his practice alone and so continued until his death, which occurred at his home in Xenia in July, 1908, he then being sixty-two years of age. Mr. Darlington never aspired to public office. Originally a Democrat, he abandoned the main wing of that party in the campaign of 1896 and affili- ated himself with the "gold" Democrats, later espousing the Republican cause, and voted for Major Mckinley for President, ever afterward con- tinuing in the ranks of the Republican party. He was a Scottish Rite (32º) Mason, a member of the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Knights of Pythias and was a member of the Episcopal church.
On August 31, 1873, Charles Darlington was united in marriage to Lissa Snively, who was born at Ft. Wayne, Indiana, daughter of Dr. David and Olivia (Bushnell) Snively, the former of whom was born in Pennsyl- vania and the latter at Hartford, Connecticut, both long since deceased. Dr. David Snively was for more than thirty years a surgeon in the United States regular army, serving with the rank of major, and during that time was stationed at various stations at widely separated points in the United States. He is buried in the national cemetery at Arlington. He and his wife had two children, Mrs. Darlington having had a brother, Alonzo Snively, a writer of considerable note, who died in California in February, 1913.
To Charles and Lissa (Snively) Darlington one child was born, a son,
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Capt. Charles LeRoy Darlington, who is now ( 1918) serving in the National Army of the United States, having enlisted his services and entered the officers training camp at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, shortly after the declaration of war against Germany in the spring of 1917, receiving a commission as captain. Charles L. Darlington was born at Xenia on May 28, 1877, and at the age of fourteen was placed in the University school at Cleveland, attending the same for four years, at the end of which course he entered Yale College and after a four-years course there was graduated in 1899. He then completed his law studies in the Cincinnati Law School and after a four-years course there was admitted to the bar and opened an office in the Union Trust building at Cincinnati. Upon the death of his father in the summer of 1908 Mr. Darlington returned to his old home at Xenia and reopened his father's office and was there engaged in practice, with offices in the Steele building, until he enlisted his services in behalf of the nation's cause in the spring of 1917. During the time of his residence in Cincinnati, ' Charles L. Darlington was united in marriage to Louise Swing, daughter of Judge Peter Swing, of that city. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Darlington has continued to make her home at Xenia. In her church work she has given special attention to the labors of the Missionary Society. She is one of the active members of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
WILLIAM CAMPBELL DEAN.
In the memorial annals of that part of Greene county comprised in what is now New Jasper township there is no name entitled to more respectful consideration than that of William Campbell Dean, who died at his home in that township in the summer of 1888, and two of whose daughters, Miss Letitia Dean and Mrs. Susan Ballard, are still living there. The house in which they are living on rural mail route No. 2 out of Xenia was erected by their grandfather, Robert Dean, in 1833. It was constructed of brick burnt on the place and finished throughout in walnut cut from the midst of the mag- nificent forest that then marked the place.
It has been noted elsewhere in this volume that the Deans are one of the oldest and most numerous families in this section of Ohio. The family had its beginning here in 1912, when Daniel Dean came up here from Kentucky with his family of eleven children and settled on a tract of eighteen hundred acres of land he had purchased along Caesarscreek. Daniel Dean was born in the village of Tubermore, Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, in 1766, son of Roger and Mary Dean, and was eighteen years of age when he came to this country in 1784. landing at the port of Philadelphia. For about four
WILLIAM CAMPBELL DEAN.
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years after his arrival here he sojourned in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Vir- ginia, "getting his bearings," and then went to Kentucky and bought a tract of land in the vicinity of Mt. Sterling, in Montgomery county. A couple of years later he sent back to Ireland for his mother, his father meanwhile hav- ing died, and a year later, in 1791, he married Janet Steele, who was born in Augusta county, Virginia, but who had moved with her parents into Ken- tucky, and after his marriage established his home on his land in the Mt. Sterling settlement, where he continued to live until 1812, when he disposed of his interests there and moved up here into the valley of the Little Miami and settled on the tract of land he had previously bought with a view to removing his family from the baleful influence of the institution of human slavery that had fastened itself upon the state of Kentucky. By this time his older sons were pretty well grown and it was not long until the Dean tract on Caesars creek began to be claimed from its wilderness state and as the children mar- ried homes also were established for them there. In that pioneer home on Caesars creek Daniel Dean's mother died on July 21, 1825, she then being eighty-six years of age. His wife died on November 28, 1841, and he died on January 24, 1843, all being buried in the burial ground he had established on his land and in which many others of the Deans have since been buried. In Kentucky Daniel Dean and his wife were affiliated with the Associate Re- formed church, but upon coming up here put in their lot with that of the Associate congregation then being ministered to by the Rev. Robert Arm- strong, there being here no congregation of their own communion, and were ever after active workers in the affairs of that congregation, as were their children. As noted above, there were eleven of these children, namely: Robert, the first-born, who was the father of William Campbell Dean, the subject of this memorial sketch ; Mary C., who married James Moore : Janet S., who married Hugh Campbell; Elizabeth, who married James Campbell; Mar- garet, who married John Bickett; William, who married Catherine Shook; James, who married Elizabeth Pendray and moved to Delaware county, Indi- ana; Joseph, who married Hannah Boggs: Ann, who married Walter Perry; Daniel, who married Jane Campbell, and Julia, who married James Hopping. As all of these reared large families of their own, the numerous connection of the Dean family in the present generation is readily accounted for. It is worthy of note that thirty-six of the male descendants of the pioneer Daniel Dean served as soldiers of the Union during the Civil War.
Robert Dean, eldest son of Daniel and Janet (Steele) Dean, was born in the vicinity of Mt. Sterling, in Montgomery county, Kentucky, in 1792, and was about nineteen years of age when he came to Greene county with his father in 1812. Not long after coming here he enlisted his services in behalf of the struggle then going on between this country and England and served
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as a soldier of the War of 1812, under Capt. Robert Mcclellan, on a tour of duty to Ft. Wayne, over in the then Territory of Indiana. On January 8, 1818, he married Elizabeth Campbell, who was born in South Carolina and who had come to this country with her parents, Samuel and Elizabeth (English) Campbell, about the year 1815, the family settling on a tract of land in the wilderness on what is now known as the Jasper pike in New Jasper township. Samuel Campbell and his wife were born in County Antrim, Ire- land, and were there married, not long afterward coming to this country and locating in South Carolina, whence they moved to Tennessee, where one of their sons, William Campbell, remained and established a home. They later moved up into Kentucky and after a sometime residence there moved up here and established their permanent home. After his marriage Robert Dean established his home on a part of his father's land that had been given him and in 1833 erected there the brick house that has been referred to above. His wife, Elizabeth, died there on September 22, 1838, and he presently mar- ried Margaret Orr and continued to make his home there until his death on May 18, 1856. Meanwhile he had added to his land holdings. He was for years an elder in the congregation of the Associate Reformed church on Caesars creek. Robert Dean was the father of eighteen children, eleven of whom were born to his union with Elizabeth Campbell, namely: Daniel A., Samuel D., William C., Janet S., who married William Cooley; John D., Mrs. Elizabeth Harding, Robert Harvey, James Henry, who moved to Illi- nois; Andrew H., Joseph A. and Mary. Of these children, two are still living, Robert H. and Andrew H. By his marriage to Margaret Orr, Robert Dean was the father of seven children, namely: Albert, now deceased, who was a government inspector in the cattle yards at Kansas City; Eli, who is now living in the neighboring county of Warren; Milton, who died in in- fancy ; Isaac, who also died in infancy ; Cyrus, who is now a resident of Gib- bon, Nebraska; Calvin, now a resident of Boulder, Colorado, and Mrs. Mar- tha Ann Lackey, now deceased.
William Campbell Dean, third son of Robert and Elizabeth (Campbell) Dean, was born on the old Dean home place in what is now New Jasper township, but which then was a part of the original township of Caesars- creek, July 24, 1822, and there grew to manhood. He received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and as a young man went to Tennessee, where for eighteen months he was employed as a guard in the state penitentiary at Nashville. Upon his return home he married and became engaged in the grocery business in partnership with his brother Daniel at Xenia, the broth- ers opening at the northeast corner of Main and Detroit streets, now occupied by the Steele building, the first store for the exclusive sale of groceries ever opened in Xenia. For four years Mr. Dean continued thus engaged and then he sold his interest in the store to his brother and moved down into Clinton
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county, where he was engaged in farming for three years, at the end of which time he returned to Greene county and bought the interests of the other heirs in his father's old home place, then comprising one hundred and eighty-four acres, and there established his permanent home, spending the rest of his life there, his death occurring there on August 27, 1888, he then being one month over sixty-six years of age. His widow survived him for more than eight years, her death occurring on February 13, 1897, she then being seventy-six years of age. She was born, Susan Janney, in Loudoun county, Virginia, daughter of Stephen and Letitia (Taylor) Janney, Quakers (the Janneys having become established as a family in this country with the establishment of William Penn's colony), both of whom were born in that same county, where they were married, and who came to Ohio in 1831 and settled in the Springboro neighborhood, in Warren county, where Susan Janney was living at the time of her marriage to William C. Dean on October 23, 1851. To that union were born five children, namely : Letitia E., unmar- ried, who is still living on the old home place, which she owns jointly with her sister, Mrs. Ballard; Anna, now living at Indianapolis and who has been twice married, her first husband having been William Hazelrigg and her second, William Baldock; William A., a retired farmer, now living at Colum- bus, Indiana, and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; Charles S., now living at Xenia, and a biographical sketch of whom also is presented elsewhere in this volume, and Susan, who married Edgar T. Ballard and is still living on the old home place which she owns jointly, as noted above, with her sister, Miss Letitia Dean, Mr. Ballard hav- ing charge of the operation of the farm. Miss Letitia Dean and her sister are members of the Friends church.
William Campbell Dean was reared in the Associate Reformed church, but after the "union" of 1858 became affiliated with the congregation of the United Presbyterian church on the banks of the north branch of Caesars creek, half a mile north of the Jamestown road. Reared a Whig, he became a Republican upon the organization of the latter party and for years served as township trustee.
BERT BLAIR.
Bert Blair, proprietor of a saloon at 16 North Whiteman street, Xenia, was born at New Burlington on March 9, 1873, a son of Joseph and Jose- phine (Smith) Blair, both of whom also were born in Ohio, the latter in Greene county and the former in the neighboring county of Montgomery, and who were married in Greene county. Joseph Blair was born on January 19, 1844, and his wife was born on February 22, 1845. She was one of the nine children born to her parents, the others being Wesley, deceased; Louis,
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a former member of the board of county commissioners of Greene county, who died while serving in that office; Joseph, who is living at New Burling- ton; Mrs. John Holland, deceased; Mrs. Arabella Calvin, deceased; Cath- erine, who is living in Indianapolis; Mrs. Alice Peterson, of Dayton, and Nancy, of New Burlington. Joseph Blair had two brothers and one sister, namely: John, deceased; William, of New Burlington, and Mrs. Arabella Reeves, of New Burlington. The parents of these children were natives of Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish stock. To Joseph Blair and wife were born seven children, those besides the subject of this sketch being James, a widower, who has two sons, Everett and Elmer; Alva, who is married and has two children, Herman and Helen; Frank, of Xenia; Charles, of New Burlington; Lena, who married Berry Kelch and now lives in Chicago, and Dena, deceased.
Reared at New Burlington, Bert Blair received his schooling in the schools of that village and became employed in a blacksmith shop there. Upon completing his trade he started out as a journeyman blacksmith, has travels taking him into every state of the Union. About 1902 he returned to Ohio and after a couple of years spent at Xenia again went West, remain- ing away for about seven years, or until 1911, when he again returned to Xenia and there became engaged in the blacksmith business in association with Nels Beal and so continued until in April, 1915, when he opened his present place of business in Xenia.
On September 27, 1917, Bert Blair was united in marriage to Theresa Brennan, who was born in Xenia. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of the Improved Order of Red Men and of the Loyal Order of Moose. His father's people were Quakers and his mother's people were adherents of the Methodist Episcopal church.
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