USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 51
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MR. AND MRS. GEORGE H. CRESWELL.
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Reared on the home farm, George H. Creswell completed his schooling in the Cedarville high school. As the elder children of the family of ten born to his parents moved away to make places of their own he remained on the farm and during the later years of his father's life managed the place, and after his marriage established his home there. After the death of his father he bought the interests of the other heirs in the home place and has since continued to live there, the house which his father built there many years ago still serving as a place of residence. One room of this house is a part of the house erected there by his grandfather when the. latter settled on the place in 1812. In 1832 his father, then a lad of twelve years, planted a syca- more sprout in the front dooryard and that tree, now grown to noble pro- portions, is one of the distinctive features of the place and is thought much of by the fainily. Since taking possession of the old home place Mr. Cres- well has added to thé same by the purchase of an adjoining tract of twenty- two acres and now has a farm of one hundred and ninety-eight acres. In his political affiliation Mr. Creswell isa Republican and has served for eight years as a member of the Cedarville township school board. He also is vice- president of the W. L. Clemens Real Estate Company at Cedarville.
On December 28, 1892, George R. Creswell was united in marriage to Amanda Blair, who was born at Sparta, Illinois, March 25, 1867, daughter of J. Franklin and Elizabeth (Marvin) Blair, the latter of whom is still liv- ing, now a resident of Cedarville, where she has made her home since 1912, and further mention of whom is made in the biographical sketch of Mr. Cres- well's elder brother, James H. Creswell, referred to above, the latter's wife being a sister of Mrs. Amanda Creswell. To George H. and Amanda ( Blair) Creswell have been born four children, Irma, born on August 4, 1894; Eula, July 30, 1896; Samuel Morton, September 19, 1899, and Elizabeth, October 21, 1905, the two latter of whom are still in school, the son attending Cedar- ville College. The' Creswells are members of the Reformed Presbyterian church at Cedarville, and Mr. Creswell has been a member of the board of trustees of the same for ten years, a member of the choir since 1880 and leader of the same for many years, having ever since the days of his boyhood given his attention to the affairs of the church with which the Creswell family have been connected ever since its establishment more than a century ago.
WILLIAM M. HARDMAN.
William M. Hardman, former president of the Ohio State Corn Improve- ment Association and proprietor of a farm in the neighborhood of Yellow Springs, was born on a farm in Bath township on June 22, 1861, son of William R. and Rebecca (Miller) Hardman, both now deceased.
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William R. Hardman also was born in Bath township, a son of pioneer parents, his father, Peter Hardman, having settled in this county in 1808 upon his arrival here from Virginia. Peter Hardman was born on July 23, 1776, a son of German parents, who had located in Hardy county, in that portion of the Old Dominion now comprised within the bounds of West Virginia, upon coming to this country in 1764 and had there established their home. Upon coming to Greene county he established his home on a tract of land in Bath township, and there spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on July 30, 1859, he then being eighty-three years of age, and was buried in the Mitman cemetery near Fairfield. William R. Hardman grew to manhood on the pioneer farm on which he was born and in turn became a farmer on his own account. He married Rebecca Miller, who was born in Pennsylvania and who was but a girl when her parents came to this county in pioneer days, and to that union were born four children, namely : Charles L., now living in Dayton, who married Carrie Mentel and had one child, a son, Walter M., who died at the age of twenty-one years; Lee A., who died at the age of eight years; William M., the immediate sub- ject of this biographical sketch, and Harriet, who makes her home at Yellow Springs, but who is employed in the office of the Hooven-Allison Company at Xenia. In 1876, William R. Hardman moved to the farm now owned and occupied by his son William M., and there spent his last days, his death occurring on December 26, 1907. His widow died on March 30, 1918.
Mrs. Rebecca Hardman was a member of the first band of crusaders in Osborn in the early '7os and often told of a circumstance of those trying times. A saloon keeper poured a ring of powder around the group of pray- ing women, then setting it afire, hoping thus to frighten them away from his place of business.
There is another member of the family, Delia Burr Hardman, who, while not born into it, yet has held the place of a sister since her adoption at the age of four years. She took care of Mrs. William R. Hardman during the several years of the latter's invalidism, and now makes her home with Harriet Hardman in Yellow Springs.
William M. Hardman spent his early boyhood on the farm on which he was born in Bath township and was fifteen years of age when his parents moved to the farm on which he is now living. After a four-years course at Antioch College he entered upon a definite career as a farmer, giving par- ticular attention to corn growing. Twenty-five years ago Mr. Hardman began the development of a variety of corn which he ever since has stuck to and which he brought to such a high standard that it commanded the recog- nition of corn experts over the state and became officially designated as
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"Hardman's Favorite," and as such has secured wide cultivation through- out the state. During this time Mr. Hardman was taking an active part in the affairs of the farmers associations hereabout and in the affairs of the Ohio State Corn Improvement Association and in 1907 was elected presi- dent of the latter body, an office in which he was continued for three years.
On November 12, 1912, William M. Hardman was united in marriage to Bertha Currier, of Dayton, a daughter of the Rev. Charles W. and Fannie (Parker) Currier, the latter of whom is now living at Dayton. Mrs. Cur- rier is a daughter of Prof. James K. Parker, who is well remembered in Greene county by reason of his activities in connection with Wilberforce in the early days of the establishment of that university. When the Metho- dist Episcopal church in 1856 laid the foundations for the creation of Wil- berforce University, Prof. James K. Parker was put in charge of the school and for eighteen months during the formative period of that institution did there a remarkable work. His intense hatred of the institution of slavery and his devotion to the cause of the enslaved negroes and such freedmen as were able to make their way into the free state of Ohio seeking light and leading through the sources made available by the beneficent operations of the movement which led to the establishment of Wilberforce, caused him to throw his whole soul into the work that there unfolded before him. In consequence of these activities Professor Parker met with a degree of oppo- sition and a persistence of persecution that is difficult to understand in this generation, but he would not be daunted, even when his barns were burned, and fought it out, his services in that connection giving his name an unalter- able place in the hearts of all who have in the years since those trying and troublous days been connected with Wilberforce.
The Rev. Charles W. Currier, father of Mrs. Hardman, was a native of Massachusetts, born in the city of Lowell, December 22, 1842. When the Civil War broke out he enlisted his services in behalf of the Union and served for five years, finally coming to be an officer in command of colored troops at Louisville. Upon the completion of his military service he took a course in a business college at Chicago and later became engaged in farm- ing in Tennessee. Meanwhile he had been turning his attention to studies with a view of fitting himself for the gospel ministry and presently entered Denison University at Granville, this state. Upon completing the course there he entered the theological seminary at Newton Center, Massachusetts, and in due time was ordained as a minister of the Baptist church, his first charge as a minister being as pastor of the First Baptist church at Xenia. He later became financial secretary of Denison University at Granville, and after a year spent there moved to Winfield, Kansas, on account of his health,
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where he continued engaged in the ministry until his death, April 17, 1889. The Rev. Charles W. Currier and his wife were the parents of three daugh- ters, Mrs. Hardman having two sisters, Edith, now living at Dayton, who married Walter Crebs and has two children, Frederick and Harriet, and Helen Currier, who is employed in the office of the Miami Loan Associa- tion at Dayton.
ORVILLE B. ARMSTRONG.
Orville B. Armstrong, who is engaged in the milling business at Fair- field, manager of the Fairfield Feed Mills, of which his father, George H. Armstrong, who is engaged in the milling business at West Alexandria, is the proprietor, is a representative in the third generation of the continuous milling operations of the Armstrongs in this county, his grandfather, Samuel Armstrong, having been the builder of the mills at Clifton. He also has an uncle, J. E. Armstrong, who is engaged in the milling business at Belle- fontaine.
Mr. Armstrong was born at Springfield, in the neighboring county of Clark, April II, 1891, son and only child of George H. and Otilla (Hause) Armstrong, the latter of whom was born in that same county and the former, in Shelby county, this state. George H. Armstrong, who, as above set out, is now engaged in the milling business at West Alexandria, is a son of Samuel Armstrong, a veteran miller of this section of the state, who erected the Clifton mills and was long engaged in the milling business in that village. he and his son, G. H. Armstrong, operating the mill there in partnership. Mrs. Otilla Armstrong, mother of the subject of this sketch, died in 1898 and G. H. Armstrong afterward married Emma Fennimore. Orville B. Armstrong was but an infant when his father moved to Clifton to take charge of the mill there and he was reared in that village, receiving his schooling there. From the days of his early boyhood he was instructed in the details of the milling business, under the direction of his father and his grandfather, and in 1916 when his father bought the mill at West Alexandria he was put in charge of the Fairfield mill and has ever since been thus engaged.
On June 24, 1915. Orville B. Armstrong was united in marriage to Inez Lovette, of Yellow Springs, and to this union has been born one child, a son, George Wendell, born on May 13, 1916. Mrs. Armstrong was born in this county, and had lived at Clifton and at Yellow Springs, in which latter place she was engaged in teaching at the time of her marriage. SI- was graduated from the Clifton schools, as was her husband. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong are members of the Reformed church.
ORVILLE B. ARMSTRONG AND FAMILY.
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THOMAS S. STEVENSON.
In the historical section of this work considerable attention is paid to the moot point as to first actual permanent white settler in the territory that in 1803 came to be organized as Greene county, and there perhaps always will remain some doubt relating to this point, but of the very early settle- ment of the Stevenson family here there is no doubt, for the coming of the three brothers, Thomas, John and Samuel Stevenson, up here from Ver- sailles, Kentucky, in 1797, to take possession of a grant of one thousand acres of land that had been awarded to their father in the Military Tract here is well established. That tract covered the present location of Wilber- force. When the Rev. Robert Armstrong came up here from Kentucky and organized the Seceder colony into a congregation the Stevensons donated a, plot of three acres on which to erect a church and establish a cemetery there on Massies creek and Stevenson's cemetery to this day perpetuates the mem- ory of the thoughtful generosity of the donors. The old Stevenson school house was built on Stevenson land and the highway that was cut through the forest that then covered the tract is still known as the Stevenson road. In a home facing that ancient highway, his farm in Xenia township being a part of the original Stevenson tract, resides the subject of this sketch.
Thomas S. Stevenson was born on the farm on which he now lives. on the Stevenson road in Xenia township, rural mail route No. 5 out of Xenia, September 20, 1852, a son of James and Jane (Knox) Stevenson, the latter of whom was born in the Clifton neighborhood in 1807, a daughter of Robert and Jane Knox, natives of Scotland, who had come to this country with their respective parents in the days of their youth, were married here and became early pioneers of the Clifton settlement. Robert Knox had a farm up over the line in Clark county, a mile north of Clifton. He was a skilled cabinet- maker and varied his farming operations by making much of the household furniture used in that neighborhood in those days, as well as by making the coffins that were needed in the settlement. He and his wife were Seceders and their children were reared in that faith, later becoming United Presby- terians. There were five of these children, two sons and three daughters, and of these Jane was the youngest.
James Stevenson was born on the farm on which his son Thomas is now living, in 1806, son of Thomas and Mary (Kirkpatrick) Stevenson, the latter of whom was born in Kentucky. Thomas Stevenson was a Virginian by birth, but had come up here from Kentucky with his brothers, John and Samuel, to take over the tract of land their father, a Virginian and a soldier of the Revolution, had been granted in the Military Tract here, as noted (29)
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above, the Stevensons having some time earlier gone from Virginia to Ken- tucky and become pioneers of the Versailles settlement. The Stevensons were of the old Virginia colonial stock and the paternal grandmother of the elder Thomas Stevenson was a Warrick. She was slain by Indians in the Virginia colony. John Stevenson, one of the brothers mentioned above, served for two years as a soldier during the War of 1812 and was made a major. James Stevenson inherited one hundred and sixty acres of his father's estate and there established his home. To this tract he added by purchase five hundred and fifty acres adjoining on the west and thus had a farm of more than seven hundred acres. Reared a Whig, he became a Republican upon the organization of the latter party and for nine years (three terms) served as a member of the board of county commissioners. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church at Xenia. She died in 1877, being then seventy years of age, and his death occurred in 1882, he then being seventy-six years of age. They were the parents of four children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being Robert K., who was given a part of the home farm and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1911; John B., who also was given a part of the home farm, erected there the house in which his brother Thomas is now living, later sold that place to the latter, bought a large farm in the Yellow Springs neighborhood and there spent his last days, his death occurring in 1915, and Mary Jane, who married R. R. Knowles and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased, the subject of this sketch being now therefore the only survivor of the family. Robert R. Knowles, who formerly and for years was engaged in the drug business at Xenia, was educated for the law and for some years practiced that pro- fession, but later engaged in business. He was a onetime chairman of the Greene county Republican central committee.
Thomas S. Stevenson was reared on the home farm in Xenia township and received his early schooling in the Stevenson school nearby his home, supplementing the course there by attendance for three years at Morton's Select School at Xenia. In the division of the home acres he received one hundred and thirty acres and after his marriage in 1877 established his home on that tract. Ten years later, in 1887, he traded his farm for that of his brother John on the Stevenson road and on this latter place of ninety-five acres has since made his home. His wife also was born in this county, .Lillie B. Wolf, a member of one of the old families in the county, daughter of Joshua Wolf and wife, of Byron. Her mother died when she was an infant. Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson have no children.
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
AARON COY.
Aaron Coy, proprietor of a farm on the Dayton-Xenia pike in Beaver- creek township, rural mail route No. 8 out of Dayton, and a minister of the Brethren church at Zimmermans, was born on that farm, which is situated ahout four miles east of Dayton, December 19, 1846, a son of Nicholas and Charlotta (Shoup) Coy, both of whom were born in that same township, the former in the vicinity of Alpha and the latter just north of Mt. Zion church. Nicholas Coy was born on January 21, 1811, a son of Adam Coy and wife, the latter of whom was a Martin. Charlotta Shoup was born about 1820, a daughter of Moses Shoup, a pioneer minister of the Brethren church, both the Coys and the Shoups having been among the earliest settlers of Beaver- creek township, as will be noted by reference to the history of these families presented elsewhere in this volume. Nicholas Coy inherited forty acres of . his father's place on the Shakeston pike. After his marriage in the latter '3os he made his home on the farm on which his son, Aaron, is now living, a tract of one hundred and sixty-three acres, of which but nine acres then had been cleared, and set himself to the task of clearing the place. In 1863 he bought a tract of ninety-six acres a mile and a half east of there and in 1868 moved to the latter place and there spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in April, 1897. His wife had long preceded him to the grave, her death having occurred on January 25, 1874. They were the parents of eight children, whom they reared in the faith of the Brethren church, the family being connected with the church at Zimmermans. Of these children Aaron was the fourth in order of birth, the others being Elizabeth, who married John Engle; Benjamin, who spent all his life in Beavercreek township; Jane. who married William Nisley; Catherine, now living at Zimmermans, widow of Franklin M. Haverstick; Martin, who was drowned while fishing: Ella, who died at the age of twelve years, and Oren, who died at the age of fifteen.
Reared on the home farm, Aaron Coy received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and from boyhood gave his attention to farming. When his father moved from the home place in 1868 he and his brother Benjamin took charge of the place and farmed it together until after Aaron Coy's mar- riage in 1871, when he and his wife bought the place and there established their home. . Mrs. Coy died on October 11, 1910, and Mr. Coy is still living on the old place. For thirty-five years or more he has been serving as a minister of the Brethren church at Zimmermans, an elder duly elected by the congregation. He still takes part in the operation of the farm, though he some time ago sold a part of the place to his son, I. N. Coy. He is a Republican.
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It was on February 23, 1871, that Aaron Coy was united in marriage to Diana Funderburg, who was born in the neighboring county of Clark on May 17, 1847, a daughter of Daniel Funderburg and wife, the latter of whom was a Kepplinger, and who later became residents of Bath township, this county, and to this union five children were born, namely: Daniel, who made his home in Beavercreek township and died on March 4, 1917; Jesse, who is now living near Vandalia, Ohio; Ira and Irvin, twins, both continuing to inake their home on the home place and the latter of whom married Grace Bear; and Carrie, wife of A. D. Wenrick, who occupies the farm adjoining Mr. Coy's farm on the west, the latter having nine and one-half acres of Aaron Coy's farm on which they have their home.
JOHN COY.
Elsewhere in this work there is set out at considerable length the story of the coming of Jacob Coy and his family from Maryland to the then Northwest Territory and of the interesting personal history of Jacob Coy and of the establishment of himself and family here in 1800, two or three years before Ohio's admission to statehood and Greene county's formal organ- ization. Jacob Coy was thus one of the first settlers of what later came to be organized as Beavercreek township. I It is said that the first school conducted in that township was opened in a little log building erected on the Jacob Coy farm and that in that same place there was conducted the first formal religious services held thereabout, the present congregation of the Reformed church in that neighborhood being the outgrowth of those humble pioneer meetings. Jacob Coy lived to be ninety-three years of age, his death occurring in 1836. His widow, Susanna, survived him about four years and was eighty-three years of age at the time of her death. They were the par- ents of twelve children and as most of these lived to rear families of their own the Coy connection thus became one of the most numerous in this part of the state, as will be noted elsewhere in the reading of this volume.
The late John Coy, who died at his farm home in Beavercreek town- ship in the fall of 1892 and three of whose children are still living there, was one of the numerous grandsons of the pioneer couple above referred to. He was born in Beavercreek township on September 3, 1811, a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Ritter) Coy, the former of whom was one of the sons of Jacob and Susanna Coy. Peter Coy was well grown when he came with his parents to this section of the then Territory of Ohio in 1800. He had re- ceived good schooling in his native state of. Maryland and became one of the early school teachers in Greene county. After his marriage to Elizabeth
JOHN COY.
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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO
Ritter, who was a member of one of the pioneer families in that neighbor- hood, he established his home on a farm in Beavercreek township and there he and his wife spent their last days. They were the parents of seven chil- dren, of whom the subject of this memorial sketch was the first-born, the others being the following: Jacob, born on February 25, 1813; Anna Maria, June 5, 1814, who died unmarried ; Tobias R., September 2, 1816, who died in infancy; Sarah, August 2, 1819, who married Thomas Young, of Miami county, and spent her last days in that county ; Emanuel, August 10, 1822, who died in infancy, and Susanna, August 12, 1825, who married Jacob Romspert, of Beavercreek township.
John Coy was reared on the farm on which he was born and in his youth was given good schooling, his school-teacher father supplementing the in- structions he received in the local schools. He married Catherine Cosler, who was born in the neighboring county of Montgomery, daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth ( Durnbaugh) Cosler, the former of whom was born in that same county and the latter in Greene county, and after his marriage established his home on the farm on which he spent the rest of his life. His wife died there on May 24, 1883, and he survived her for nearly ten years, his death occur- ring on October 7, 1892. They were members of the Reformed church, with which the Coys have been connected ever since the organization of the same in this county, and their children were reared in that faith. There were eight of these children, namely : Jacob Henry, who married Eliza D. Boroff, became a farmer in Beavercreek township and died in Wayne township, Montgomery county, at the age of fifty-seven years; Sarah Elizabeth, now living in Mont- gomery county, widow of Jacob Hawker, a farmer of that county, who died on December 20, 1907, leaving one son, Harrison C. Hawker, who married Clara C. Bullock and is living in Montgomery county ; Valentine P., who married Sevilla Folkerth and is farming in Beavercreek township; Rebecca, who is still living on the home place in Beavercreek township, rural mail route No. 16 out of Dayton; John A., who also still lives there and is carrying on the operations of the farm; David E., who married Helen V. Weeks and is farming in Montgomery county; Mary C., who is living on the home place with her brother and sister; and Effie, who died at the age of two years. The Coys are members of the Reformed church and John A. Coy is a Re- publican, as was his father. The Coslers also have a numerous connection throughout this part of the state, the family of which Mrs. Catherine Coy was a member having been one of the pioneer families in this section. She was the seventh in order of birth of the children born to her parents, the others having been Lewis, Henry, John, Daniel, Valentine, David, Elizabeth, Martha and Barbara.
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