USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 56
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connection hereabout. The Collinses, as were the Galloways, were Seceders and when the Rev. Robert Armstrong presently came up here from Kentucky and took pastoral charge of the several families of Seceders faith that had meanwhile settled in this region, the land on which the old Massies Creek church was built was donated out of the Collins lands, William Collins long serving as one of the ruling elders of that congregation. .
The younger William Collins grew up on the home farm along. the river and as a young man bought a farm of about four hundred acres in Cedar- ville township, a portion of that tract now forming a part of the farm owned by his grandson, the subject of this sketch. After his marriage to Mary Galloway he established his home there and there spent the remainder of his life. He was a member of the Associate Presbyterian ( Seceder ) church and was for years an elder in the old Massies Creek church. He was a very active anti-slavery man in the days when opposition to the "sacred institu- tion" meant something to the persons who thus dared openly to confront and defy the authority of the slave-holding power and cast his vote against the institution when there was but one other man in the county to join him in thus registering his defiance. His home was one of the much-frequented stations of the "underground railroad" in those days and he was one of the active "conductors" in the humane work of transferring fugitive slaves from station to station along the line of that "road" through this state. In the days before the coming of the railroads he did much hauling between this section and Cincinnati. William Collins was twice married. By his first wife, Mary Galloway, he was the father of four children, those besides the father of the subject of this sketch having been George, deceased, who was a farmer in Cedarville township; Lydia, who is now living at Xenia, widow of Henry Corry, and Martha, who married David Bradfute, a farmer of this county and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased. Following the death of the mother of these children, William Collins married Catherine Dinsmore and to that union were born four children, Dinsmore S., now liv- ing in Colorado; Mitchell W., a resident of Cedarville, this county; Clark- son B., now a resident of California, and one who died in infancy.
James Wallace Collins grew up on the home farm and after his marriage to Mary Gordon established his home there, buying one hundred acres of the place from his father, and later added to the same until he had one hun- dred and fifty acres. In 1871 he left the farm and with his family moved to Xenia, where his son Andrew grew up and attended school, and in 1887 returned to the farm, which his son meanwhile had begun to operate and which the latter presently bought, and there he spent most of the rest of his life, continuing after the death of his wife in 1888 to make his home with his son. His death occurred at the home of Mrs. Corry in Xenia on January
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21, 1915. He and his wife were members of the United Presbyterian church. For years he retained his affiliation with the Republican party, but in the later years of his life put in his lot with the Prohibitionists.
Andrew Gordon Collins was about six years of age when his parents left the farm and moved to Xenia and in that city he received his schooling. Upon leaving the high school he took charge of his father's farm and in due time bought the same and has continued ever since to make his home there, having definitely established his home on the place after his marriage in the fall of 1891. In 1913 he built a handsome new house of the bungalow type on the place. Since taking possession of the old home place Mr. Collins has added to the same by purchase of adjoining land until now he is the owner of two hundred and twenty-seven acres. Though "independent" in his general political views, Mr. Collins's sentiments incline him strongly to the cause of the Prohibition party and he is an earnest champion of the rapidly grow- ing anti-liquor movement. For the past ten years Mr. Collins has been a member of the Cedarville township school board. He was a member of the board at the time of the erection of the consolidated school building at Cedar- ville, a building regarded as the finest of its type in the state, in comparison with the population supporting it, and naturally feels some pride in the action of the board in that matter. He and his family are members of the United. Presbyterian church at Clifton and for the past twelve years or more he has been one of the ruling elders of that congregation.
On November 12, 1891, Andrew G. Collins was united in marriage to Mary M. Rife, who was born in Miami township, this county, daughter of John and Mary (Kitchen) Rife, both now deceased, and to this union eight children have been born, namely : Mary Dorothy, born on October 25. 1894, who was graduated from Cedarville College and is now teaching school in Butler county ; John Wallace, December 1, 1895, who was graduated from Cedarville College in 1917 and is now a sergeant of the national army; William Rife, January 4, 1897, who was graduated from Cedarville College in the spring of 1918; Andrew Roger, November 12, 1898, who is now attending Cedarville College ; Marion Earl, June 22, 1903, a junior in Cedar- ville high school; Margaret Pauline, July 24, 1904, a student in the Cedar- ville high school; Ruth Gordon, June 28, 1907, and James Robert, February 16, 1910.
John Rife, father of Mrs. Collins, was born on September 24, 1832, in Adams county, Pennsylvania, not far from the Maryland line, son of Daniel and Mary ( Foreman) Rife, and there early learned the trade of blacksmith. When eighteen years of age he came to Ohio to join his brother, who some time previously had come out here, and some time later he went to Logans- port, Indiana, and thence to Springfield, Illinois, continuing to work at his
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trade, but after awhile returned to Ohio and located at Pitchin, in the neighboring county of Clark, where he set up a blacksmith shop. While living there, in the fall of 1856, he married. Two years later he moved down to Selma and there continued blacksmithing until 1862, when he leased the Taylor tract of twelve hundred acres in Clark and Greene counties and for five years thereafter operated the same, eventually effecting a sale of the estate in behalf of the heirs. Meanwhile, in the spring of 1866, Mr. Rife had bought a part of the Randolph farm in Miami township, this county, and in 1867 located on that place, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on Christmas Day, 1899. For some years Mr. Rife served as trustee of Miami township and for more than fifteen years was a member of the Clifton school board. Reared a Democrat, he became an Abolitionist and then a Republican, but in 1888 espoused the cause of the Prohibition party. He and his wife were members of the United Presbyterian church at Clifton and he was for years one of the trustees of the congregation and one of the teachers in the Sunday school. In addition to his property inter- ests in this county Mr. Rife owned several hundred acres of farming land in Kansas. During the trial of the Hopkins-Fidelity Bank cases in the fed- eral court at Cincinnati in 1888-89, Mr. Rife was the foreman of the jury which convicted Hopkins.
On September 25, 1856, at the home of the bride in Clark county, John Rife was united in marriage to Mary J. Kitchen, a school teacher, who was born in that county, August 11, 1836, twin sister of Erasmus J. Kitchen, and daughter of Abraham and Martha M. (Jones) Kitchen, the latter of whom was born in the neighboring county of Fayette, but whose parents subse- quently came over into Greene county, where she was living when she mar- ried Abraham Kitchen in 1829. Abraham Kitchen was born in the neigh- boring county of Warren in 1808, his parents, Stephen and Ann (Bacaw) Kitchen, Pennsylvanians, having been among the pioneers of this section of Ohio, and after his marriage located on a farm in section 4 of Greene township, in the neighboring county of Clark, but two years later bought a larger farm in that same neighborhood and on this latter place he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, both dying in 1888, the latter on May 28 and the former on June 28. They were the parents of eight children. of whom five grew to maturity, married and reared families. those besides Mrs. Rife having been Margaret Ann, who married John McCollough; J. S., who made his home in Springfield, Ohio; I. N., who remained a farmer in Greene township, and Erasmus J., twin brother of Mrs. Rife, who served . from September, 1861, to July 30. 1865, as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, and who also remained a farmer in Greene township, Clark county. Mrs. Rife survived her husband for a little more than five years,
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her death occurring in February, 1905. John Rife and his wife were the parents of ten children, those besides Mrs. Collins having been George W., who married Jennie Garlough; Stephen K., who married Ada Stormont and moved to Kansas; John Bruff, of Greene county; Frederick F., who moved to Kansas; Anna, who died at the age of three years; Frank A., who died at the age of eighteen years; William C., who is living on the home place ; Margaret B., also at home, and Lee E., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
LORENZO D. WELCH.
Lorenzo D. Welch, president of the Miami township joint school board, superintendent of roads in his district in that township and owner of a farm one mile south of the village of Yellow Springs, was born in Miami town- ship on March 25, 1871, son of Jasper L. and Barbara A. (Flatter) Welch. both of whom also were born in this county, and who spent practically all their lives here, their last days being spent in Yellow Springs, to which vil- lage they had moved upon their retirement from the farm in 1891.
Jasper I .. Welch was born on July 21, 1833, on a farm in that part of Greene county now comprised in New Jasper township, where his parents had settled upon coming here from Maryland. He grew up in this county and with the exception of two or three years spent in Darke county, this state, continued to make his home here. On March 5, 1857. he married Barbara A. Flatter, who was born in Xenia township on January 15, 1833, and after his marriage established his home on a farm in Miami township and there continued engaged in farming until his retirement in 1891 and removal to Yellow Springs, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. Jasper L. Welch died on October 6, 1906, and his widow died on January 1, 1914. They were the parents of nine children, four of whom died in infancy, the others being as follow: Agnes, born on November 29. 1857, who married Morris Beal, of this county, and died on April 9. 1917: Harriet, July 6, 1867, who is now making her home in California, having interests both in that state and in the state of Nevada: Lorenzo D., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch; Margaret, December 7, 1873, who died on June 5, 1900, and Grace, April 7, 1877, who married Orman Roe and is now living in Chicago.
Lorenzo D. Welch grew up on the home farm in Miami township and received his schooling in the local schools. He was married when twenty- two years of age and he and his bride began housekeeping on a farm in Xenia township. The next year they moved to the Baker place in Miami township and were there for four years, at the end of which time they moved to another rented farm and there made their home for three years.
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They then moved to town and after a residence of about a year there re- sumed farming and for six years thereafter made their home on the Hyde farm. Mr. Welch then, in October, 1903, bought the farm of seventy-five acres on which he is now living, a mile south of Yellow Springs, established his home there and has ever since made that his place of residence. In addition to the home tract he is the owner of a tract of one hundred and thirty-six acres just across the road from his home. Mr. Welch is a Re- publican. Fraternally, he is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Yellow Springs. He and his family are affiliated with the Presbyterian church at Yellow Springs.
On March 23, 1893, at Yellow Springs, Lorenzo D. Welch was united in marriage to Nettie Hutchison, of that place, who also was born in Miami township, daughter of James Elder and Esther (Baker) Hutchison, both of whom also were born in this county, members of pioneer families. James Elder Hutchison met his death in a tragic manner on April 4, 1882, being killed by a premature blast while blowing up stumps along the Xenia pike. He and was wife were the parents of six daughters, Mrs. Welch having five sisters, Stella, Daisy, Fannie, Josephine and Elda. Mr. and Mrs. Welch have six children, namely: Elder Leroy, born on January 20, 1894, who is a farmer; Esther, born on March 10, 1895, who is a teacher in the Yellow Springs schools; Ruth, September 27, 1897, who is at home; Florence, April 19, 1900, who was graduated from the Yellow Springs high school in 1918; Kenneth, March 2, 1903, a member of that same class, and Margaret, September 6, 1914. There also was a child who died in infancy, August 17, 1901.
JOHN STAKE.
John Stake, veteran furniture dealer at Bellbrook, a former member of the common council of that village and formerly and for years engaged there in the business of manufacturing furniture, was born at Bellbrook, ou September 26, 1847, son of John M. and Harriet (Shriver) Stake, both of whom were born in the state of Maryland, the former in 1808, who were married in that state in 1828 and a few years later came to Ohio and located at Bellbrook, in this county, where they spent the remainder of their . lives.
John M. Stake was an undertaker and cabinet-maker and upon locat- ing at Bellbrook opened an establishment of that character there, later ex- tending his cabinet-making business to include a general furniture factory, which was continued by his son, John Stake, up to about fifteen years ago, the old firm name of J. M. Stake & Son being maintained to the end. John M. Stake and wife were the parents of eight children, of whom the sub-
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ject of this sketch was the seventh in order of birth, the others being the following: George, deceased; Catherine, deceased; Mrs. Ellen McGann, de- ceased; Mrs. Caroline Stonebreaker, now living at Hagerstown, Indiana; Thomas, deceased; Mary, deceased, and Henry, a resident of Bellbrook.
John Stake was reared at Bellbrook and in the schools of that village received his schooling. From the days of his boyhood he was trained in the craftsmanship of his father's furniture factory and became a skilled cabinet- maker, taking charge of the factory after his father's death and continuing the same until about fifteen years ago, when the inroads being made on local concerns by the big furniture factories of the country made it no longer commercially profitable to continue the business. In the meantime, how- ever, he had established a furniture store at Bellbrook and has since, con- tinued that business. In earlier days, Mr. Stake also was engaged with lais father and brother in the undertaking business, but long ago dropped that end of the business. He is a Democrat and served for some years as a member of the village council and is now a trustee of the local cemetery association. Mr. Stake is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at Bellbrook.
On February 24, 1885, John Stake was united in marriage to Mary Hower, who also was born in this county, daughter of Eli and Catherine (Baumgartner) Hower, of Beavercreek township, both of whom also were born in Greene county, members of pioneer families, and both of whom are now deceased. Mrs. Stake died in 1890 and was buried in the cemetery at Bellbrook. She left one child, a son, Harry Mason Stake, who turned his attention to music and is still living at Bellbrook.
B. FRANK HAWKINS.
The Hawkins family has been represented in Greene county since the year 1814, when Mounce Hawkins, an adventurous lad of seventeen and a cousin of David Crockett, the famous scout and explorer, left his home in the valley of the Shenandoah, in Virginia, and came out here to put in his lot with the hardy settlers who had preceded him into this fair valley of the Little Miami. Mounce Hawkins was born in 1797. In Virginia he married Mary Allen, who also was born in that state, a daughter of Davis and Elizabeth (Antrim) Allen, who came over here and settled in Xenia township, where Davis Allen bought a tract of one thousand acres of land, paying for the same the sum of five thousand dollars. Mounce Hawkins became interested with his father-in-law in the development of that tract and in time became a well-to-do landowner. He died in 1834 and was buried at Xenia.
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MR. AND MRS. REUBEN HAWKINS.
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Reuben Hawkins, son of Mounce and Mary (Allen) Hawkins grew up on that farm and in turn became a farmer on his own account, after his marriage moving from the old home place to a farm on what had come to be known as the Hawkins road, where he established his home and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on September 15, 1870. He was a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church at Xenia. Reared a Democrat, he later espoused the cause of the Republican party and for some time served as director of schools in his local district. His widow survived him for nearly twenty-five years, her death occurring in 1894 and her body was laid beside that of her husband in Woodland cemetery at Xenia. She was born, Lydia Fallis, in the neighboring county of Clinton, a daughter of Jonathan Fallis, who later became a resident of Greene county. Upon coming up here from Clinton county Jonathan Fallis settled in Xenia town- ship, but later moved to a farm in the East Point neighborhood in Cedarville township. Afterward he purchased a tract of land below Clifton and there erected what for years was known as the Fallis mill, which he operated for some years, at the end of which time he disposed of his interests in this county and moved to Indiana, becoming there engaged in the lumber business and in the flour-milling business at Attica, from which place he moved to Dowagiac, Michigan, where his last days were spent, his death occurring there at the age of eighty-four years.
To Reuben and Lydia (Fallis) Hawkins were born six children, of whom the subject of this biographical sketch is now the only survivor, the others having been Joseph G., Mary E., Hannah L., who died at the age of fifteen years, Sarah E., who died at the age of twenty-three, and James F., who died in infancy. Joseph G. Hawkins enlisted his services as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War and was killed at the battle of the Wilderness; he then being but twenty years of age. Mary E. Hawkins married Preston Machael and continued to make her home on the old home place, where she died in March, 1901. She was the mother of three children, Jessie, who married Earl Butt, a Xenia township farmer ; Harry, unmarried, who makes his home with Mr. and Mrs. Butt, and Robert, deceased.
B. Frank Hawkins, eldest son of Reuben and Lydia (Fallis) Hawkins, was born on December 12, 1841, and is living in the brick house which his uncle erected on the home place. He received his schooling in the school of district No. I, Xenia township, the school house there having been erected on land donated for that purpose by his grandfather, Mounce Hawkins .. In time he assumed the management of the home place, gradually relieving his father of the responsibility of farm management, and still owns an inter- est in the Reuben Hawkins estate, which remains undivided. In addition (32)
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to this interest, Mr. Hawkins is also the owner of several other farms in Xenia township and in Beavercreek township and has long given considerable attention to the raising of live stock, in addition to his general farming opera- tions. Politically, Mr. Hawkins is a Republican. His home is on the old Ankeny Mill road, now the Fair Grounds road, rural mail route No. 10 out of Xcnia.
DAVID HILT.
David Hilt, now living retired at Yellow Springs, is of European birth, but has been a resident of this country and of this section of Ohio ever since he was nineteen years of age and therefore feels as much a citizen of Ohio as though born here. He was born in the kingdom of Wurtemberg on March 5, 1846, a son of Jacob and Regina Barbara (Schaefer) Hilt, also native Wurtembergers, who were the parents of three children, the subject of this sketch having had a sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Swarts, now deceased, and still has a brother, Jacob, living in Wurtemberg.
Reared in his native land, David Hilt received his schooling there, com- pleting the first-year course in the high school, and when past nineteen years of age, in 1865, came to the United States and proceeded on out to Ohio, locating in Clark county, where he began working on a farm in the vicinity of Springfield, and was thus engaged for five years or more, or until after his marriage in 1871, when he rented a farm three miles north of Spring- field, where he and his wife began their housekeeping. Five years later Mr. Hilt bought a farm of fifty-two acres in the southern part of Clark county and farmed there from 1878 to 1895, during all of that period also operating a threshing-machine in season. In 1895 he moved down into Greene county and rented the B. F. Shigley farm of one hundred and seventy- two acres in Miami township, and in 1897 bought that farm. The next year he bought an adjoining tract of thirty-five acres off the Dawson farm and now has there a fraction more than two hundred and seven acres of land, besides the farm he still owns in Clark county. In 1904 Mr. Hilt retired from the active labors of the farm and bought a tract of eleven acres at the edge of the city of Yellow Springs, built a comfortable house there and there he and his wife are now living. His farms are rented to responsible tenants and he is in a position to "take things easy" in the declining years of his life. For twelve years during the time of his resi- dence in Clark county Mr. Hilt was a member of his local school board and for eight years since he has been a resident of this county he served in a similar capacity. He formerly and for years took an active interest in the affairs of the Grange and was a member of the National Grange at
MR. AND MRS. DAVID HILT.
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Washington, D. C. Politically, he is a Democrat. He and his wife are members of the Bethel Lutheran church, on the Yellow Springs and Spring- field pike, and for twenty-four years Mr. Hilt was superintendent of the Sunday school of the same.
On December 6, 1871, David Hilt was united in marriage to Nancy Ann Humberger, who was born on a farm in Mad River township, Clark county, June 27, 1846, daughter of William and Mary (Kinney) Hum- berger, and to this union five children have been born, namely: Elizabeth, who married Milton Craybill, a Clark county farmer, and has one child, a son, Ralph David; Henry, who married Estella Pentoney and lives on his father's farm east of Yellow Springs and has an adopted daughter, Alma B .; Mary, who married Sebastian Gerhart, of Clark county and has three children, Fern, Philip David and Anna; Anna Regina, who married Charles D. Clayton, a farmer of Greene county, and has one child, a son David Wayne; and David Elmer, who died at the age of three years and six months.
GEORGE R. BARGDILL.
The late George R. Bargdill, for years a merchant at Jamestown, who recently died at his home in that village and whose widow is still living there, was a native son of Greene county and had spent the greater part of his life here. He was born on a farm in Silvercreek township on, April 13, 1862, son of Cyrus and Harriet (Spahr) Bargdill, both of whom also were born in this county and who spent all their lives here.
Cyrus Bargdill was born on September 7, 1829, and grew up on a farm, becoming a farmer on his own account in Silvercreek township, where he established his home after his marriage and where he died on December 3, 1865. His widow moved to Jamestown with her children after the death of her husband and there spent the rest of her life, her death occurring on June 28, 1912. She was born, Harriet Spahr, December 5, 1830. To Cyrus Bargdill and wife were born two children, the subject of this memorial sketch having had a sister, Margaret, born on September 3, 1858, who mar- ried William F. McMillan and who died in August, 1885.
George R. Bargdill was but three years of age when his father died and he grew up at Jamestown, to which village his mother moved after the death of her husband. Upon completing the course in the grade schools there he became employed at the postoffice and after a while transferred his services to the dry-goods store of M. O. Adams, where he remained until the early 'gos, when he moved to Ft. Wayne, Indiana, and there became connected with the wholesale millinery establishment of J. A. Armstrong, continuing
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