USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 50
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Reared on the home farm in Miami township, Harry L. Hackett received his schooling in the Clifton schools and was graduated from the high school there in 1897. He then took a course in Nelson's Business College at Spring- field and on December 19, 1898, became employed in the grocery store of George H. Drake at Yellow Springs, continuing thus engaged for three years and six months, at the end of which time he transferred his services to the general store of C. C. Stevenson & Company and was connected with that concern for three years. He then spent a year in the grocery and meat market of Jacob Diehl and after that became associated with his elder brother, Charles H. Hackett, now postmaster at Yellow Springs, in the general hardware business, continuing that connection until November 10, 1913, when he became the manager for the John Dewein Company, since April, 1914, the National Feed Mills Company, at Yellow Springs, manufac- turers of poultry and dairy feeds and engaged in the general grain and coal business. For thirteen years Mr. Hackett has been serving as village clerk.
On August 5, 1902, Mr. Hackett was united in marriage to Lottie J. Loe, daughter of Isaac and Minerva (Sutton) Loe, of Yellow Springs, who were the parents of five children, those besides Mrs. Hackett being William Loe, of Yellow Springs; John and Harry Loe, who are engaged in the lum- ber business at Springfield, and Cora, who died when about eleven years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Hackett are members of the Catholic church. They have five sons, Ralph and Harold, twins, born on January 4, 1904: Roger, Janu- ary 22, 1910; Howard, May 23, 1914, and Paul E., January 1, 1918.
WILLIAM BALLARD.
Among the farmers of New Jasper township whose influence, in a gen- eration now past, lent stability to that community, there were few who left better memories at their passing than did the late William Ballard, who died at his home in that township in the fall of 1894 and whose daughter, Miss Luella Ballard, now a resident of the village of Jamestown, still owns the old home place of two hundred and twenty acres in New Jasper township.
William Ballard was a native son of Ohio and all his life was spent in this state. He was born on a pioneer farm in Adams county on March 23, 18II, son of the Rev. Lyman and Sarah (Hanover) Ballard, early settlers in that county, who later became residents of Greene county, where their last day's were spent. The Rev. Lyman Ballard was a native of the state of Massachusetts, born in November, 1783. In the days of his young man- hood he came to the then Territory of Ohio and located in Adams county, where he married Sarah Hanover and where he remained until 1822, in which year he came with his family up into Greene county and bought from Willianı
WILLIAM BALLARD.
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Frazer a tract of land in Ross township, about three miles north of the village of Jamestown, where he established his home and where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, his death occurring in June, 1873. The Rev. Lyman Ballard is said to have been the first man in Ross township to own a wagon and four-horse team and when he used to go to mill, driving up to Clifton with his "grist," his neighbors would utilize this conveyance as a means of getting their "grist" taken to mill, so that his wagon usually was well filled before he had gone far on his journey. As a preacher in the old Bethel church he for years exerted a wholesome influence in the com- munity. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom the subject of this memorial sketch was the second in order of birth, the others having been Joseph, Nathan, John, Elizabeth, Jackson and Martin. Jackson Ballard became the owner of the old homestead place in Ross township after his father's death.
William Ballard was but eleven years of age when his parents settled with their family in this county in 1822, and he grew to manhood on the home place in Ross township. He had begun his schooling in his native county of Adams and completed the same in the schools of Greene county; early became licensed to teach school and for some years spent his winters teaching in the local district schools. After his marriage in the spring of 1842 Mr. Ballard and his wife began housekeeping in a house adjoining that of the former's father in Ross township, but after awhile moved to another farm in that same neighborhood and there resided until 1856, when they moved to the farm in New Jasper township referred to in the opening para- graph of this memorial, where both spent the remainder of their lives. Will- ian Ballard was for many years director of schools in his home district.
On April 21, 1842, in Cedarville township. William Ballard was united in marriage to Margaret Cunningham, who was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, February 14, 1820, and who was but a child when her parents, James and Mary (Leach) Cunningham, came to Greene county with their family and settled in Cedarville township. James Cunningham and wife were the parents of five children, Mrs. Ballard having had two brothers, Nel- son and John, and two sisters. Martha and Sarah. To William and Margaret (Cunningham) Ballard were born four children, namely: Rufus H., who died on September 14. 1914, and is buried in the cemetery at Jamestown; Aniel M., who died on September 22, 1874: Elizabeth, widow of S. F. Evans, and Luella, the latter of whom still retains the old home farm in New Jasper township, though now living at Jamestown, to which village she moved on March 10, 1914, and where she lives with her sister, Mrs. Evans. The mother of these children died on October 9, 1862, about six years after the family moved to the New Jasper township farm, and was buried in the cemetery
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at Jamestown. William Ballard survived her for many years, his death occurring on the old home farm on October 18, 1894, and his body also was laid in the burying ground at Jamestown. He was well past eighty-three years of age at the time of his death and more than seventy years of his life had been spent in Greene county, which he came to know as well as any man in the county. He had been twice married, on March 1, 1865, having married Anna Ellis, of Clinton county, a daughter of Abraham and Sarah (Oglesbee) Ellis. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. While Mr. Ballard never joined any church, he always aided church work with his means and influence.
WILLIAM CONLEY.
William Conley, who for many years has been the occupant and man- ager of the old Robert Charleston Reid farm in Cedarville township, the birthplace of the late Whitelaw Reid, former owner and editor of the New York Tribune and United States ambassador to England, was born in this county and has lived here all his life, a tenant of the Reid place since his marriage in 1889 aud since the death of Whitelaw Reid manager of that portion of the estate, acting in behalf of the latter's widow, who continues to make her home in England and who has given to Mr. Conley full charge of the place. He was born in the vicinity of Cedarville on June 23, 1859, son of Moore and Eliza (Campbell) Conley, both of whom were born in County Antrim, Ireland, and who came to this country as young people, the Conleys and the Campbells both coming on out to Ohio and settling in Xenia, where Moore Conley and Eliza Campbell were married. For some time after coming to this county Moore Conley was engaged at farm labor and then he became a traveling representative of the King Powder Com- pany, traveling out of Xenia, and was thus engaged until his death at the age of fifty years. His widow spent her last days at Cedarville, where she died at the age of eighty-two years. She was a member of the Reformed Presbyterian church. There were five children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth, the others being Thomas, who died in the days of his young manhood; Edwin, who became a hotel chef and died in 1902; Mary, wife of John W. Ross, of Cedarville, and Nancy, who married Isaac M. Deck and is now deceased.
William Conley completed his schooling in the Cedarville high school and upon leaving school became employed on the old Reid place, then owned by the widow of Robert Charleton Reid and mother of Whitelaw Reid and now owned by the latter's widow, and which has been in the Reid family
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ever since it was bought by Robert Charleton Reid at the Virginia Military Tract land sales a hundred years and more ago. After his marriage in 1889 Mr. Conley rented the farm and has since been in charge. The Reid farm is a tract of two hundred acres situated between Massies creek and the Little Miami river, not far from the center of the triangle formed by the three towns of Xenia, Yellow Springs and Cedarville. The old Reid house, erected in 1823, and an excellent picture of which is presented in the historical sec- tion of this work, is one of the real landmarks of Greene county. As left by its builder, Robert Charleton Reid, it consisted of a two-story frame building with a one-story wing, in which were sitting room, dining room and kitchen. Some extensions later were made to the wing and the whole ex- terior was repaired and restored by Whitelaw Reid during his lifetime. The interior finish in the old part of the house was of oiled and polished black walnut, with handsome mantels, oak floors, excellent plastering and windows with eight-by-ten panes of glass, which were then regarded as "a costly ele- gance," according to a description of the house printed in "Howe's. Histori- cal Collections of Ohio." Every room on the first floor had a large fireplace finished in Xenia limestone, but the original framework later was filled in with fireproof concrete blocks and the roof and second story were covered with red tiles. The house contains sixteen rooms, besides bath-rooms, dress- ing-rooms and the like and has attractive piazzas and a porte-cochere. Situ- ated on one of the highest points in the county, the ground gently sloping away, the house gives a view of many miles in every direction. When Robert Charleton Reid was married he immediately took his bride to this house. There he died in the room in which his children were all born and there his widow continued to live after he was gone. The lawn surrounding the house has remained unbroken by the plow and is thus the virgin soil over which the Indians roamed in the days when this region was given over to its aboriginal tenancy. The house was built from the hard-wood timber that was cut away to make a place for it and at first stood in an almost unbroken forest, for years after its completion there having been not more than ten acres of cleared land in sight. This was one of the few pioneer farms that did not start with a log house, the above being the original house.
In May, 1889, William Conley was united in marriage to Belle Mowdy, who also was born in this county, in the neighborhood of Goes Station, in Xenia township, daughter of Ambrose and Amanda (Whittington) Mowdy, the former of whom was a miller. Ambrose Mowdy, who was born in Xenia township, March 7, 1833, and died on August 25, 1872, was a son of Peter Mowdy, who in 1837 built the mill still standing on what is now the Charles A. Bingaman farm in the vicinity of Wilberforce in Xenia township.
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Amanda Whittington was born in October, 1833, at Winchester, Virginia, and died March 24, 1912. She came to Greene county in 1849. her parents then both being deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Conley have two sons, Robert Moore and Wilber, the latter of whom is now a student in the Cedarville high school. Robert Moore Conley, United States Navy, was graduated from the Carnegie Technical Institute at Pittsburgh and is now engaged as an inspector of naval supplies being turned out at Dayton, in the service of the United States naval department. The Conleys are members of the Reformed Presbyterian church at Cedarville and Mr. Conley has served as a member of the board of trustees of that church. He is a Republican and has served as a member of the school board and for seventeen years as super- visor of highways in his home district. Mr. Conley also is a member of the board of directors of the Greene County Mutual Insurance Association. In addition to managing the affairs of the Reid farm Mr. Conley is the owner of a farm of one hundred acres in Miami township which he 1ents out.
WILLIAM THOMAS LACKEY.
The late William Thomas Lackey, who died at his farm home in Spring Valley township on November 30, 1916, and whose widow is still living there, was a native of the Old Dominion, but had been a resident of Ohio since he was twenty-one years of age. He was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, March 2, 1850, son of Isaac and Eliza Ann Lackey, both of whom also were born in that county and who were the parents of thirteen children, three of whom came to Ohio, those besides the subject of this memorial sketch having been Giles Lackey, who made his home at Xenia, and Horatio T. Lackey, of Belmont.
Reared on the home farm in Virginia, William T. Lackey received his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood and remained at home until he reached his majority, when he came to Ohio and located at New Burlington, on the lower edge of this county. Not long after his arrival here he married and located on the old Mcknight farm in Spring Valley township, the place where his widow is now living and where she was born, a farm of one hun- dred and forty-five acres, and there he spent the rest of his life. Mr. Lackey was a Democrat and by religious persuasion was a Presbyterian, a member of the church at Xenia, as is his widow, who since his death has continued to make her home on the home farm, living in the house that was built there by her grandfather McKnight in 1837.
Mrs. Lackey was born, Elizabeth Janet Lyon, in Spring Valley town- ship, on the farm on which she is now living, a daughter of James and Mary
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM T. LACKEY.
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(McKnight) Lyon, the latter of whom was born on that same place, a daugh- ter of Robert and Elizabeth (Fulton) McKnight, who had come to this county from Rockbridge county, Virginia, in 1807, and had settled on that place, which then was a wilderness of deep timber. There Robert Mcknight put up a hewed-log house and established his home, that house, now more than one hundred and ten years old, still standing, used now as a stable. In 1837 that house was supplanted by the substantial dwelling house which has ever since served as a farm house on the place. Robert McKnight got possession of a thousand acres of land surrounding his location there. He served as a soldier during the War of 1812, rendering service in one of the blockhouses. He and his wife were members of the old Associate Reformed congregation. He died on that place in 1856, at the age of seventy-six years. His wife had died in 1854. They were the parents of three children, those besides Mrs. Lyon having been Margaret, who remained a spinster and lived to the age of eighty-nine years, and James, who married Ann Mckay and made his home on a portion of the old home farm.
After his marriage to Mary McKnight, James Lyon, who was born in Rockingham county, Virginia, established his home on the old McKnight place and took charge of the same, continuing to farm there the rest of his life. Reared a Whig, he became a Republican upon the formation of that party. James Lyon and his wife were the parents of three children, Mrs. Lackey having had a sister, Martha C., who married Henry Hopping and died in 1914 at the age of seventy-two years, and a brother.
THOMAS CLARKSON HIRST.
Thomas Clarkson Hirst, veteran of the Civil War, formerly engaged in the drug business at Yellow Springs and later and for a period of thirty years engaged as a traveling passenger agent for the Union Pacific Railroad Company, now living retired in the pleasant village of Yellow Springs, is a Virginian by birth, but has regarded Greene county as his home ever since the days of his boyhood. He was born at Lincoln, in the county of Loudoun, forty miles west of the city of Washington, August 23, 1837, son of Eli Pierpoint and Hannah (Janney) Hirst, both of whom also were natives of the Old Dominion, whose last days were spent in Yellow Springs. They were the parents of four children, two of whom, the subject of this sketch and his sister, Miss Cosmelia Hirst, of Yellow Springs, are living and two, Cornelia and John J. Hirst, deceased.
Eli Pierpoint Hirst was educated at Winchester - Academy, then pre- sided over by Prof. John Marvin, where he received thorough schooling,
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particularly in higher mathematics and in the natural sciences. He devoted his earlier years to teaching, in Virginia and Ohio, and was the possessor of a fine collection of scientific apparatus with which he illustrated his school lectures. At the time of the discovery of gold in California, he went to that territory to engage in business, going via New York City and the Isthmus and then by coastwise steamer up to San Francisco, the .fare from New York to the latter city being then three hundred dollars in gold. Upon reaching the "diggings" Mr. Hirst located at Nevada City, where he re- mained for three years, engaged in the lumber business and in furnishing miners' supplies. Upon his return from California in 1855 he came to this county and located at Yellow Springs, being attracted to that place by reason of the location there of Antioch College, which then was presided over by that great educator, Horace Mann, for whom he entertained profound re- spect, and there he died two years later, in 1857.
Thomas C. Hirst was seventeen years of age when his parents took up their home in Yellow Springs and he straightway entered Antioch College, where he remained in attendance until after his father's death in 1857, after which he became engaged in farming and was thus engaged when the Civil War broke out. Early in 1862 Mr. Hirst enlisted in Company A, Ninety- fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which regiment he served until constant exposure brought on what then was supposed to be a fatal illness and he was discharged on a surgeon's certificate of disability. But after remaining for some time at home he recovered his health to a great measure and determined to return to the army if possible. He re-enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with that command served with such credit that he was recommended for promotion and was commissioned first lieutenant in Company D, One Hundred and Eightieth Ohio, and with this latter command served until disabled by wounds near the close of the war. He was mustered out on June 16. 1865
In 1866 Thomas C. Hirst and his brother, John J. Hirst, engaged in the drug business in Yellow Springs, under the firm name of Hirst Brothers, and continued in partnership until the fall of 1881, when T. C. Hirst was offered the position of traveling passenger agent for the Union Pacific Rail- road Company, with headquarters at Columbus, and had charge of the ter- ritory embraced by the states of Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Vir- ginia, remaining thus connected with the Union Pacific service for a period of more than thirty years. When Mr. Hirst retired at the age of seventy years his name was placed for life on the pension folls of the Union Pacific Railroad Company.
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JOHN W. ROSS.
John W. Ross, foreman of the Cedarville Lime Company, was born in Cedarville, on November 18, 1861, son of James and Honora (Murray) Ross, natives of Ireland, whose last days were spent in Cedarville, of which place they had been residents for years.
Both James Ross and his wife Honora were born in County Down, Ireland, and lived there until after their marriage in 1845, when they came to the United States and proceeded on out to Ohio, locating at Xenia. James Ross was an expert stonemason and upon taking up his residence in Xenia became there engaged working at his trade and so continued until 1858, when he moved to Cedarville and was working at his trade there when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted as a member of Company D. Twelfth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in the first year of the war and with that command served until he was mustered out on June 18, 1865. Mr. Ross participated in forty-seven battles and was twice severely wounded, being shot once through the left shoulder and once through the right foot. Upon the completion of his military service he returned to Cedarville and resumed his work as a stonemason, while thus engaged building bridges all over the county. In July, 1882, he suffered a fatal sunstroke while working on a railroad-bridge job. His widow survived him until 1887. They were members of the Catholic church at Xenia and were the parents of twelve children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the seventh in order of birth, the others being the following: Elizabeth, now deceased, who was the wife of Michael Dailey; James, also now deceased, who was a railway brakeman in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company ; Rose, wife of John Osborn, of Xenia; Mary Ellen, deceased; Daniel, of Xenia; Kate, who is now living in Darke county, Ohio; William, deceased; Charles, who is now living at Peoria, Illinois, where he is employed as a stationary en- gineer ; Harry, deceased; Richard, now a resident of Dayton, Ohio, and Honora. widow of Milton Jones, of Xenia.
John W. Ross was reared at Cedarville and received his schooling in the public schools of that city. As a boy he learned the trade of painter and for some time worked at that trade. He then was made custodian of the public schools and for twenty-two years held that position. On January I, 1918, he was made foreman of the plant of the Cedarville Lime Company. Mr. Ross is a Republican. For thirty-five years he has rendered service as a member of the Cedarville fire department, for fourteen years served as constable and for some time was a member of the common council. He is affiliated with the Cedarville lodges of the Masons, Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias.
On July 15, 1885, John W. Ross was united in marriage to May Con-
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ley, who was born at Clifton, and to this union four children have been born, namely : Effie, who is now a teacher in the Spring Valley schools; Lillie, who is teaching in the Cedarville schools; Bessie, also formerly a teacher, who married Ernest Rulls, of Dayton, and has one child, a daughter, Phyllis; and Cameron, who was graduated from the Cedarville high school in 1915, taught school for two years and following this country's declaration of war against Germany in 1917 enlisted for service. He entered the third officers' training camp, and was commissioned second lieutenant. Mr. and Mrs. Ross are members of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) church at Cedarville, as are their children. The Ross children early began to turn their attention to the teaching profession and for a time all at one time were thus engaged, two of the daughters still continuing their teaching service and the soldier son expecting to resume teaching upon the completion of his military service.
GEORGE H. CRESWELL.
George H. Creswell was born on the farm on which he is now living and which he owns, at the crossing of the Federal pike and the Cedarville and Jamestown road in Cedarville township, and has lived there all his life, even as his father had done before him, the latter also having been born there, a son of James Creswell, who was one of the sons of the Widow Creswell, who had come up into this section of Ohio from Kentucky with her eight children and had established her home in what later came to be developed the Cedar- ville neighborhood in the days before Greene county had been organized, the Creswells having thus become numbered as among the very first permanent settlers of this county. In a biographical sketch relating to James H. Cres- well, elder brother of the subject of this sketch, presented elsewhere in this volume, there is set out at considerable length something of the history and the genealogy of the Creswell family, and it is therefore not necessary to go into those details in this connection further than to say that George H. Cres- well was born on August 30, 1860, son of Samuel and Eliza Jane ( Huffman) Creswell, the former of whom was a son of James and Ann (Junkin) Cres- well, both members of pioneer families here, James Creswell having been the son of James and Catherine ( Creswell) Criswell, the latter of whom came up here with her children after her husband had been murdered by Indians in Kentucky and became one of the members of that old Seceder community on Massies creek to which the Rev. Robert Armstrong ministered in the early days of the settlement of this county. The Widow Criswell preferred the name Creswell, to which she was born, to that of Criswell, her husband's nanie, and after the tragic death of her husband adopted the former spelling of the name and the Creswells have ever since been thus known.
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