USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 54
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became a farmer; Mrs. Mary Faulkner, twin sister of Edward; Allan, who lived at Paintersville ; George, who made his home on a farm; Rebecca, who married Marshall Burrell and lived in Xenia township; Mrs. Emily Devoe, whose last days were spent in the West, and John, who spent his last days in Indiana.
After his marriage in 1842, James Brown rented a farm in what is now Jefferson township and there made his home for four or five years, at the end of which time he bought a little farm just north of where he had been residing and not far from the place owned and occupied by his brother Joshua. The two brothers engaged in a partnership arrangement and for years were engaged in the huckster business, James Brown keeping the supplies of groceries, "Yankee notions," and the like with which they stocked their wagons in his house. James Brown was just a "natural born" specu- lator and trader and would buy or sell anything that came to hand, gener- ally being able afterward to note a margin of profit on his side of the trans- action. In 1866 he disposed of his holdings in Silvercreek township and bought a farm of eighty-four acres in New Jasper township, the place on which his son Cyrus Brown is now living. To that he added adjoining land, engaged also in the live stock business, and continued to make his home there until 1881 when he sold the place to his son Cyrus, invested in farm lands in Clinton county and moved to Paintersville, where he bought a grocery store and where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on August 31, 1886. His widow survived him until May 1, 1892. James Brown was a Republican and served the public in the capacity of township trustee and as assessor. He and his wife were members of the Protestant Methodist church at Paintersville and for years Mr. Brown was a class leader. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, namely : Cyrus, the immediate subject of this biographical sketch; Mary Elizabeth, widow of Lewis Lane, of Allen county, Ohio; Loama, who died at the age of two years; John J., deceased; Marshall, a resident of New Jasper town- ship; Ezra, also a resident of New Jasper township, and Rachel Ann, wife of Charles Harrison, of Allen county.
Cyrus Brown was reared on the old home farm in Silvercreek town- ship and received his schooling in the neighborhood schools of Jefferson township. From the days of his boyhood he was trained in the ways of practical farming and was engaged in farming on the home place when the Civil War broke out. On August 11, 1862, he enlisted as a private in Com- pany E, Ninety-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served until he was mustered out on June 5, 1865. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Brown returned home and after his marriage in the fall of 1866 established his home on a small farm he had bought in New Jasper township, not far from his father's farm. There he continued to make his
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home until 1881, in which vear he hought his father's farm, then consisting of eighty-five acres, moved to that place, his father moving to Paintersville in that year, and has ever since resided there, very comfortably situated. Since taking possession of that farm Mr. Brown has added to his acreage until he now owns one hundred and sixty-five acres. In 1890 he remodeled and enlarged his house. For some years, in addition to his general farming, he gave considerable attention to the raising of pure-bred Berkshire hogs and was a successful exhibitor at county fairs. Mr. Brown is a Republican and for years served as central committeeman of that party from his home township. For six terms he served as trustee of his home township, for eighteen years served as school director in his home district, a part of that time serving as president of the township board of education, and for more than ten years served as treasurer of the township. He also, as set out above, for two weeks served as sheriff of Greene county.
On October 18, 1866, Mr. Brown was united in marriage to Mary Elizabeth Smith, who was born in New Jasper township, daughter of Daniel and Lucinda (Spahr) Smith, who for years made their home on the farm on which Mrs. Brown was born, and to this union were born two daughters, Alice Lovona, born on August 16, 1867, who is the wife of F. M. Thomas, a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume, and Mary Lucinda, May 21, 1872, wife of James R. Fudge, of whom there also is a biographical sketch on another page in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at New Jasper, with which organization Mrs. Brown has been affiliated since she was eleven years of age. For many years Mr. Brown was a member of the board of trustees of that church and was serving on the board when the present church edifice was erected. When the new parsonage was built he was a member of the board having the erection of the same under its direction. For many years he also was a teacher in the Sunday school.
JOHN W. ST. JOHN.
John W. St. John, now living retired at his home in Caesarscreek township, was born in that township and has lived there all his life. He was born on the old St. John farm on December 29, 1831, son of Daniel W. and Eliza ( Bone) St. John, both of whom were born in the vicinity of Lebanon, in the neighboring county of Warren, and who became residents of Greene county after their marriage, settling in Caesarscreek township, where they spent the remainder of their lives.
Elsewhere in this volume there is set out at considerable length some- thing of the history of the St. John family in Greene county and it is
JOHN W. ST. JOHN.
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therefore not necessary to repeat those details in this connection further than to set out that the family had its origin in this country through John and Noah St. John, brothers, of French parentage, who came to the Ameri- can colonies about the middle of the eighteenth century and located in Dutchess county, New York, where John St. John married Anna Lockwood and was living when the colonists declared their independence. He joined the patriot forces and served as a soldier of the Revolution, later, in the last decade of the eighteenth century, coming with his family to the then Territory Northwest of the Ohio, locating in the neighborhood of Ft. Washington (Cincinnati), in Hamilton county, where he remained until 1803, when he came up into this part of the state and settled on a tract of land in the vicinity of Ft. Ancient, in Warren county, where he spent the remainder of his life. He and his wife were the parents of ten children, the fourth in order of birth being John St. John, who was born on November 28, 1778, and who married Rhoda Wood. John St. John established his home in Warren county and there spent his last days. He and his wife were the parents of nine children, of whom Daniel WV. was the first-born. Daniel W. St. John remained in War- ren county until after his marriage to Eliza Bone, when, in 1828, he came up into Greene county and settled in the woods in Caesars- creek township, where he put up a log cabin and · a stable and set about clearing the place. He later put up a good house and substantial farm build- ings, got his place under cultivation and created a good piece of property, which later he sold and then moved to a farm on the Wilmington pike south of Xenia, where his last days were spent, he being sixty-five years of age at the time of his death. His wife was sixty-three years of age at the time of her death. Daniel W. St. John was a Whig in his early political views and later became a Republican. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church and their children were reared in that faith. There were eleven of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being the following : Cyrus Bone, who married Dorothy Hickman and lived in Xenia township until 1856, when he moved to Jay county, Indiana, where he spent the rest of his life ; Joseph, who married Julia McNair and continued to make his home in this county until 1887, when he moved to Kansas and located on a farm in . the vicinity of Coffeyville, where he spent his last days; William Harrison, who died on the home farm at the age of twenty-five years ; Daniel Morgan, who married Eliza Jane Beam and spent his last days on a farm in Caesars- creek township: Sarah Ann, also deceased, who was the wife of James McNair : Charles W., who married Martha Peterson, of Xenia, and for years lived on a farm in Spring Valley township, later moving to Xenia, where
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he died; Jeniah Franklin, also deceased, whose widow, who was Ellen Hook before her marriage, is now living at Xenia; Eliza Jane, who married Frank Peterson and went to Coffeyville, Kansas, where her last days were spent; Isaac Wilson, who married Rilla Hook and went to Dunkirk, Indiana, where he is still living, engaged in the mercantile business, and Lorenzo Raper, who married Alice Smith and who, as well as his wife, is now deceased. It is needless to say that the St. John family, the descendants in the present gene- ration of the Ohio pioneer, John St. John, and of his wife, Anna Lockwood, form a numerous connection. Former Gov. John P. St. John, of Kansas, is a member of this family.
John W. St. John was reared on the old home farm in Caesarscreek township, receiving his schooling in the schools of that place, and remained at home until after his marriage in 1852, when he began farming on his own account on the farm on which his son, Joseph Oscar St. John, is now living, in that same township, buying there a tract of one hundred and eleven acres, then known as the David Murphy place, on which there was a log cabin and a stable and but little else in the way of improvement. He pres- ently erected there a new house and substantial farm buildings, cleared and drained the place, expending more than a thousand dollars in ditch work, and otherwise improved it, and there continued engaged in general farming and stock raising until his retirement from the active labors of the farm in 1907, having thus been continuously engaged in farming on that place for about fifty-five years. Since Mr. St. John's retirement from the management of the farm the work has been carried on under the direction of his son, Joseph Oscar St. John, who makes his home on the place. Mr. St. John is a Republican, but has never been an aspirant for public office. He is a member of Mt. Tabor Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. St. John has been thrice married. On January 15, 1852, he was united in marriage to Phoebe Ann Hiney, who was born in Sandusky county, this state, June 21, 1833, daughter of Jacob and Delilah Hiney, the former of whom was born in Virginia and the latter in Sandusky county, this state, who later came to Greene county and after a sometime residence here moved up into Clark county, where they spent the remainder of their lives. To that union were born twelve children, namely: Thomas W., born on Decem- ber 21, 1852, now living in the vicinity of Cedarville, who married Eliza- beth Harris and has three children, Elmer, Roy and Alice: C. M., March 17, 1856. a stockman doing business at Xenia, who married Harriet Ary and has two children, John A. and Eva; Jacob Daniel and Martha, twins, Janu- ary 16, 1854, both now deceased: Maria L., June 10, 1858, who married Moses Painter, now living in Marion county, Indiana, and has three children, Clifton, Reba and Vernon; John Franklin, October 24, 1859, who married
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Zora Hoffman and moved to North Dakota, where he died in October, 1917, leaving two children, Harry and Roland; Emma Jane, November 3, 1863, who married Lewis R. Jones, a farmer, of Caesarscreek township and a biographical sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume; William Allison, November 18, 1866, now living in Clark county, this state, who married Louise Hiatt and has three children, Harmon, Grant and Goldie: Ulysses Grant, July 3, 1869, now farming in New Jasper township, this county, who married Lola Sutton and has one son, Fred; Alma and Alva L., twins, September 9, 1872, the former of whom died in childhood and the latter of whom, now farming in the Cedarville neighborhood, married Anna Turner and has four children, Myrtle, Otis, Hazel and Donna; and Joseph Oscar, January 16, 1876, now farming the old home place, who married Minnie Harness and has one son, Leo. The mother of these children died on October 30, 1897, and Mr. St. John later married Mrs. Jane (Smith) Devoe, daughter of John Smith and widow of Asa Devoe, of Caesarscreek township, and after her death married, December 13, 1909, Ellen L. Fisher, who was born in the vicinity of Wilmington, in the neighboring county of Clinton, daughter of Jacob W. and Delpha Ann (Smoke) Fisher, who had come to this state from Virginia and whose last days were spent in Clinton county, the former living to the age of eighty-three years and the latter, to the age of seventy-five. Though now past eighty-six years of age, Mr. St. John retains much of his aforetime vigor and continues to take an active interest in current affairs. His recollection of events in this county easily covers a period of more than four score years and he has many interesting tales to tell of the days of the pioneers and of the later procession of events which marked the period of his early activities as an agriculturist. During all these years he has been a witness to many amazing changes in agricultural methods and in the general way of living and can only wonder what another eighty years of progress will bring about in the way of human invention.
ROBERT C. WATT.
Robert C. Watt, of Cedarville, head of the firm of R. C. Watt & Son, breeders of live stock, former president of the American Duroc Association, former president of the American Southdown Sheep Association, a member of the American Polled-Durham Association and of all the local live-stock associations, holder of a string of grand-championship prizes and formerly and for years a member of the firm of Watt & Foust, at the time of the dissolution of that firm in 1916 known as the oldest continuous breeders of Duroc hogs in the United States and holders of world championships in that class, is a native son of Greene county and has lived here all his life.
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He was born on a farm in Xenia township in 1856, a son of William and Sarah Gordon (Carruthers) Watt, both natives of Scotland, the latter, born at Dumfries, having come to this country with her parents in the days of her girlhood to join her brother, Thomas Carruthers, who previously had come over and had located at Chillicothe, in this state, where she was living up to the time she married William Watt.
William Watt was born in Glasgow in 1814 and there grew up trained to the carpenter trade. When twenty-one years of age he came to the United States and proceeded on out to Ohio, locating at Bainbridge, where he con- tinned to make his home for some time after his marriage to Sarah Car- ruthers. He then moved to Bourneville and there resided until 1851, when he came with his family to Greene county and bought a quarter of a section of land on the Federal pike in Xenia township, making his home there until 1866. In that year he sold that farm and bought another on the James- town pike, six miles east of Xenia, where he lived until his retirement from the farm and removal to Xenia, where he died in June. 1894. William Watt began to raise Southdown sheep shortly after he took up farming in this county and from the beginning was singularly successful with his flocks. In 1874 he began exhibiting his registered stock and the Watt Southdowns continued to be exhibited, the son continuing the operations of the father after the latter's death, all over the United States until 1916, when Mr. Watt sold his Southdown flock and took up the breeding of registered Ram- bouillets. During that long period the Watt flock won for its owners thousands of dollars in prize money and thousands of blue ribbons and was for years recognized as the world's champion flock of Southdowns. William Watt was a Republican and for some time served as a member of the board of county commissioners. He was an elder in the Presbyterian church. He and his wife were the parents of ten children. those besides the subject of this sketch being Mary E., now living at Xenia, widow of David H. Cherry : Mrs. Jennie Johnson, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; James, a Chicago merch- ant: the Rev. John A. Watt. a Presbyterian minister, now engaged in the missionary field; Agnes, a resident of Xenia township, widow of Harvey Nash, former county commissioner and a memorial sketch of whom is pre- sented elsewhere in this volume: David, a resident of Xenia ; Margaret Ellen, who died in the days of her young womanhood : Emily Huston, who died at the age of five years, and Etta, who died at the age of six months.
Robert C. Watt was nine years of age when his parents moved to the farm on the Jamestown pike in Cedarville township and there he grew to manhood. He completed his schooling in the Xenia high school and after his marriage in 1882 continued to make his home on the farm, his parents retiring at that time and moving to Xenia. There he remained until 1899.
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in which year he bought a farm of one hundred and fifty acres one mile south of Cedarville, on the Jamestown pike, where he developed a fine place, later adding an adjoining tract of one hundred and six acres, and where he made his home until in April, 1915. He then bought a house on South Main street, Cedarville, and moved to that place, turning the home place over to his son, William R. Watt, who is now operating it. Mr. Watt also owns a farm of one hundred and ten acres a mile northwest of Cedarville. As noted above, Mr. Watt began to give his attention to the raising of registered Southdowns even as a boy and when sixteen years of age became an exhibitor at state fairs. In 1897 he began raising Duroc-Jersey hogs and has since kept the registery of his herd, distribution from which, for stock purposes, has been made wherever the fame of Durocs has pene- trated, for this herd has produced the world's championship boar, this honor being awarded to the great "Tip-top Notch" at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis in 1904, and to the equally great "Taxpayer XIII," another product of this herd, at the Panama-American Exposition at San Francisco in 1915. At the St. Louis exposition in 1904 another product of this herd, "Cedar Vale Queen VIII," was awarded the. junior sow cham- pionship of the world. In 1902 Mr. Watt entered into a partnership with Edward Foust, of Xenia township, for the breeding of Duroc-Jerseys, and this arrangement was continued, under the firm name of Watt & Foust, until 1916, since which time Mr. Watt has carried on his operations with his son, William R., better known as "Billy" Watt, as his partner, doing business under the firm name of R. C. Watt & Son. In 1917 the Watt exhibit of Durocs at the National Hog Show at Omaha was awarded the grand championship, while prizes from the International Stock Show at Chicago and from state fair associations all over the country reveal an unbroken series of successes for the Watt herd, which is recognized as the oldest continuously maintained registered line of Durocs in the United States. Mr. Watt's services have been called on as judge not only at the Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky state fairs, but at the International Live Stock Exhibi- tions. He keeps his herd up to about three hundred head and ships all over the world, in one season having shipped out one hundred and twenty-eight registered boars. For thirty years Mr. Watt maintained his interest in South- down sheep, but sold his championship flock in 1917 and he and his son are now taking up the Rambouillet line. He also for some years has been engaged in raising registered Polled-Durham cattle and has a fine herd. Mr. Watt has served as president of both the American Southdown Sheep Association and for the American Duroc Association, of which latter he afterward was for several years a director; is also a member of the Ameri- can Polled-Durham Association and of local live-stock associations and has
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done much in this time to develop and encourage the live-stock industry in the United States. He and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian church at Cedarville.
Mr. Watt has been twice married. In 1882 he was united in marriage to Martha Beall, who was born in this county, daughter of John and Maria (Mainer) Beall, the former of whom died while serving as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, and to that union were born four children, Margretta, wife of the Rev. W. A. Condon, pastor of the First Presbyterian church at Uhrichsville, this state; William R .; one who died at birth, and John A., who died at the age of ten months. The mother of these children died on June 27, 1915, and on October 18, 1917, Mr. Watt married Lulu Barber, who was born at Cedarville, daughter of Martin and Mary M. Barber. the latter of whom is still living, making her home with her daughter at the age of ninety years. William R. Watt married Charlotta Sagler. He and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian church.
. JAMES HARRY MARSHALL.
James Harry Marshall, proprietor of a farm in Beavercreek township, on the upper Bellbrook pike, three miles west of Xenia, rural mail route No. 7 out of that city, was born on a farm in Sugarcreek township on September 8, 1858, son of James and Ella (Ridenour) Marshall, the former of whom was born in that same township and the latter in the state of Maryland and both of whom spent their last days here.
James Marshall was born on a farm on the east bank of the Little Miami river in what is now Sugarcreek township, but which then was in Silver- creek township, October 22, 1812, a son of John Marshall, one of the pioneers of Greene county and further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. John Marshall had come up here with his father from Kentucky about the year 1803 and had taken a tract of about six hundred acres along the east bank of the river in what is now Sugarcreek township. Not long afterward he married and established his home there, reared his family of three sons and four daughters, served during the '4os as a member of the bench of associate judges, spent his last days on his farm, dying there in 1866. at the age of eighty-two years, and was buried on his farm, the site of his grave overlooking the river. During the War of 1812 he served as a soldier. Of his seven children, James was the sixth in order of birth, the others having been Robert, who died unmarried; Hettie, who married John Kiler; Nancy, who married James McConnell; Sarah, who married John Brock; Jesse, who established his home in Sugarcreek township, and Betsey, who married Will- iam Morgan.
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Reared on the home farm, James Marshall established his home there after his marriage when twenty-four years of age and after his father's death inherited two hundred and forty-five acres of the home place, where he con- tinned to live until he bought the place of a fraction more than one hundred and fourteen acres on which his son James H. is now living, moved to that place and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on February 12, 1889. His widow died on July 3, 1893. She was born, Ella Ridenour, in Maryland, February 5. 1818, and was twelve years of age when she came to Ohio with her widowed mother, Susan (Howard) Ridenour, and the other members of the latter's family, the family consisting of four sons and three daughters, in 1830 and located at Trebeins, in Beavercreek township, this county. The widow Ridenour came through from her old home in the Hagerstown neighborhood in Maryland, driving a one-horse wagon contain- ing her household goods, the children, including twelve-year-old Ella, thus being required to walk the whole distance, as there was no room in the over- laden wagon for them. The widow Ridenour was an adherent of the Luth- eran faith and her children were reared in that faith. Of these children, the daughter Ella, Mrs. Marshall, was the last-born, the others, now all de- ceased, having been David, who moved to Illinois and there spent his last days; Daniel and Samuel, twins, who established their homes in this county ; William, who moved to Indiana, and Cassie and Maria, twins, who re- mained spinsters. Mrs. Susan Ridenour lived to the age of eighty-three years, her death occurring on April 10, 1869. Ella Ridenour grew up at Trebeins and was there married on May 4, 1837, to James Marshall. To that union were born seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the last-born, the others being the following: John, who is now living at Dayton, retired: Saralı, who died at the age of twenty-one; William P., who served as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War and died not long after his return from the army, his death having been due to the exposure incident to army life; Mrs. Nancy Ann Thorp, who died in 1903, and two who died in infancy.
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