USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 58
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Hussey and his wife were Virginians who had established their home in Tennessee, where they resided for some years before coming up here into Ohio, where they acquired a large. tract of land. The elder Christopher Hussey died in 1874. He was a soldier of the War of 1812.
The junior Christopher Hussey, for many years known throughout the community as Squire Hussey, for he served for forty years as justice of the peace in and for his home township, was born on June 12, 1794, and died at his home in Jefferson township on March 8, 1874, and was buried in the Hussey graveyard. As noted above he was but a lad when he came up here from Tennessee with his parents and he and his brothers continued the work of developing the home tract in the immediate vicinity of where the village of Bowersville presently came to be established. The old log house, circular in form, built by the Husseys upon taking up their residence there, remained one of the familiar landmarks of that section for many years and served as a place of residence until in good time a brick house was built on the place. In the family of the pioneers, Christopher and Mary Hussey, there were seven children, who grew to maturity, hence the Hussey connection in the present generation is one of the most numerous hereabout. The original homestead tract of the Husseys contained twenty-seven hun- dred acres of land. bought for one dollar an acre, and the junior Christophier Hussey, or Squire Hussey, as he was better known, in time came to be the owner of eleven hundred and twenty-five acres of his own. Reared a Whig, he became a Republican upon the formation of the latter party. He was a member of the Church of Christ.
Following the death of his first wife, Squire Hussey married Catherine Lockhart, who was born in Silvercreek township, daughter of Samuel Lock- hart, a Virginian and a soldier of the War of 1812, and to that union were born the following children: Henry M., who married Polly Ann Reeves and is now living in the vicinity of Bridgeport. Indiana; Narcissa, who mar- ried James Compton, and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased; Lydia Ann, now living at Ellsworth, Michigan, widow of Gilbert Bentley; Eveline, now living at Mt. Vernon, this state, widow of Joseph H. Huffaker; James W., who has been twice married, his first wife having been Christina Walthall and his second, Narcissus Bass, and who is now a ranchman and a dealer in lumber and brick at Starr, Idaho; Albert M., who married Rosa Green and who, as well as his wife, is now deceased: Flora B., wife of Mr. Burr; Joseph, who married Anna Hall (deceased) and is now living in western Colorado, and Catherine, who is now living in Pauld- ing county, this state, widow of Frank Huston. The mother of these chil- dren survived her husband for many years, her death occurring on October .18, 1889, she then being eighty-two years of age.
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CHARLES E. REAM, M. D.
Dr. Charles E. Ream, who for nearly twenty-five years has been engaged in the practice of medicine at Bowersville, is a native "Buckeye" and has lived in this state all his life. He was born at Centerfield, in Highland county, September 22, 1866, son of John and Christiana (Collins) Ream, the latter of whom was born in that same county, November 10, 1830. John Ream was born in the neighboring county of Ross, March 9, 1824, a son of John Ream, who had come to Ohio from Reamtown, Pennsylvania, and had settled in Ross county. After his marriage the younger John Ream located at Centerfield, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, her death occurring on July 1, 1889, and his, April 21, 1901. They were the parents of five children, of whom Doctor Ream was the fourth in order of birth, the others being the following: William Layton, born on August 9, 1855, who died on June 21, 1857; Effie Alice, April 21, 1859, who died on July 3, 1872; Addie, December 22, 1862, who is now living in Highland county, this state, wife of Clarence Baldwin, and Myrtle, June II, 1870, who is unmarried and makes her home at Greenfield, Ohio.
Reared at Centerfield, Charles E. Ream received his early schooling there and at Hillsboro, later took a course in the college at Lebanon and then entered the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical Institute, from which institu- tion he was graduated in 1894 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. Upon receiving his diploma Doctor Ream came to Greene county and opened an office at Bowersville, where he has ever since been engaged in the practice of his profession. He is a member of the Greene County Medical Society, of the Ohio State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association. The Doctor is a Mason, affiliated with the lodge of that order at James- town, and is also affiliated with the Royal Arcanum, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics and the Modern Woodmen of America. His wife is a member of the Methodist Protestant church at Bowersville. The Doctor owns town property and a farm of eighty acres a mile and a half southwest of Bowersville.
On June 24, 1897, Dr. Charles E. Ream was united in marriage to Carrie E. Conklin, who was born in Caesarscreek township, this county, daughter of James Gilbert and Catherine (Hussey) Conklin, both of whom were born in the neighboring county of Clinton, the former at Lumberton and the latter in the Port William neighborhood. James Gilbert Conklin came to this county after his marriage to Catherine Hussey and located on a farm in Caesarscreek township, later moving to a farm a little more than a mile south of Bowersville. where he is still living. His first wife died in 1880 and he later married Alice E. Elliott. To the first union three'
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children were born, those besides Mrs. Ream being a son, now deceased, and May, now Mrs. H. C. Wilson, of Cleveland. To the second union were born four children, namely: Zora, wife of Clyde Sutton, of Dayton; Guy, who married Ruth Sheley and is farming in New Jasper township, and Dorothy and Robert, at home. Doctor and Mrs. Ream have two children, sons both, Charles Gilbert, born on March 14, 1900, who was graduated from the Bowersville high school with the class of 1918 and is now handling the local agency for an automobile concern, and Arthur Bailey, March 5, 1903.
THEODORE PAULLIN.
Theodore Paullin, a former grain dealer at Jamestown, now living retired in that village, was born on a farm in Ross township, this county, Noveni- ber 27, 1864, son of Enos and Sarah (Round) Paullin, the latter of whom died when her son Theodore was but an infant. Enos Paullin also was born in this county, a son of David and Susan (Smith) Paullin, who were among the pioneers of Ross township, the former having been a resident of that township since the year 1813. Enos Paullin was twice married. By his union with Sarah Round he was the father of three children, Minnie O., wife of E. N. Shigley, who lives on the Cedarville pike about midway between Cedarville and Jamestown; Otis, who died in the days of his youth, and Theodore. After the death of the mother of these children Enos Paulin married Malinda Moorman, of Silvercreek township, and to that union were born three children, namely: C. Oscar, who is living at Washington, D. C .; Matilda, who married George Little, of Xenia, and is now deceased, and Flora, who married F. M. Harper and continues to live on the old home farm in Ross township.
Reared on the home farm in Ross township, Theodore Paullin received his early schooling in the schools of Jamestown and after completing the course in the high school there entered Ohio Wesleyan University. Upon leaving college he resumed his place on the farm and after his marriage in 1884 began farming on his own account. continuing thus engaged in Ross township for fourteen years, at the end of which time he became engaged in the grain business at Jamestown, moving to that village, and there con- tinued thus engaged until 1903, when failing health compelled his retire- ment. During the period of his activity Mr. Paullin served as a public officer in several capacities, among the offices held by him having been that of township treasurer. He also was for several years a member of the school board.
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On December 24. 1884, Theodore Paullin was united in marriage to Bessie Bozarth, who was born in McLean county, Illinois, daughter of Alfred and Harriet (Brooks) Bozarth, both now deceased. Alfred Bozarth died in 1872. He was the father of six children, of whom Mrs. Paullin and her sister, Mrs. Dora Rusmissell, are the only ones now living, the others having been Charles and William and twins, the latter of whom died in infancy. Alfred Bozarth's widow married J. D. Ritenour, of this county, but continued to make her home in Illinois. By her second marriage she was the mother of three children, Frank (deceased), Effie and Frederick (deceased). Mr. and Mrs. Paullin have two children, Fern and Carl, both of whom were born in Ross township. Fern Paullin married Charles Reeder, of South Charleston, in the neighboring county of Clark, and has three children, Brooks, Louise and Harriet. Carl Paullin completed his school- ing at Cornell University, from which institution he was graduated. Fol- lowing the government's declaration of war against Germany in the spring of 1917 he enlisted his services and was assigned to the officers' training camp at Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indianapolis, and in due time received a commission as lieutenant, afterward being stationed at Camp Dodge (Iowa), in preparation for service abroad. The Paullins are members of the Metho- dist Episcopal church.
JOSEPH C. HUNTER.
Joseph C. Hunter, proprietor of a farm of nearly two hundred acres in Bath township, this county, residing on rural mail route No 2 out of Yellow Springs, is a native of Tennessee, born in Williamson county, that state, October 10, 1860, son of Jerome Lilly, a Cherokee Indian, and Dorcas Hunter, a slave of Henry Hunter. The mother died in 1897 and the father is 110w living in Toronto, Canada. Reared on a farm in Tennessee, Joseph Hunter was schooled in the district schools and upon reaching manhood's estate began farming. He married in 1883 and for twenty-one years thereafter continued farming in Tennessee, sixteen years of that period also being engaged in the threshing business during seasons. In 1904 he came to Ohio and settled in Greene county, the next year buying the farm on which he now lives, and on which he has since been engaged in general farming and stock raising. He is a Republican and he and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Yellow Springs.
On December 27, 1883, at Union City, Tennessee, Joseph Hunter was united in marriage to Ellen Johnson, of that place, daughter of Lee Eddings and Sarah N. Johnson, both of whom are still living, and to this union have
JOSEPH C. HUNTER.
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been born ten children, namely: Savannah, who married William Edwards, now farming in Miami township, this county; Robert, who is assisting his father in the management of the home farm and who married Winnie Petti- ford; Queen Esther, who married Clayton G. Mills, now living at Clifton; Herman, who was pursuing his studies with the design of entering the medi- cal profession at Nashville, Tennessee, and is now connected with the medi- cal corps of the United States army; Clay Evans, who was graduated from Wilberforce University in 1917 and is now (1918) a second lieutenant in the National Army of the United States, stationed at Camp Funston ; Joseph, who is assisting on the farm; Cecil, who is now a student in Wilberforce University; Ruby, a student in the high school at Fairfield, and Lester and Waudell, also in school. Joseph Hunter has one hundred and ninety-seven and six-tenths acres in his farm, makes a specialty of raising Holstein cattle and lias a fine herd of thirty head on his place.
REV. THOMAS BEVERIDGE, D. D.
The General Assembly of the United Presbyterian church in the United States was in session at the time of the death of Doctor Beveridge in the spring of 1873 and upon receipt of the news of his death adjourned as a mark of respect for his memory and later adopted resolutions expressive of the church's profound esteem for this venerable leader. Xenia Presbytery at its next meeting following the death of Doctor Beveridge also adopted resolutions, declaring "that in his lovely Christian character and life, as a man and minister of the gospel, he has left behind him a shining testimony to the beauty and excellence of that gospel which he so long professed and preached, and an example worthy of admiration and imitation by all." The Christian Instructor carried a biographical reference to Doctor Beveridge fol- lowing his death, the general tone of which is indicated by the conclud- ing paragraph: "Dr. Beveridge had lived long. Not one of the ministers that took part in his licensure or ordination, and not one of the signers of his call to the church in Xenia, are now living. All his associates in study are gone, and nearly all with whom he took part in his early ministry ; and no one has ever been more identified with almost all the great movements of the church in the last fifty years. Most emphatically is it the feeling of all who knew him, Dr. Beveridge was a good man, and most faithfully and usefully filled his day and place. All honor to his memory." In the same strain the Xenia Gasette said: "Dr. Beveridge died without an enemy. We hazard little in saying he never had an enemy. We cannot conceive that he could even give an offense or do a wrong to any one. He was pre- (33)
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eminently a good man and went about doing good. Unassuming, unpre- tentious, none knew him but to respect and love him. As a minister, Dr. Beveridge had nothing of the sensational about him. He was not a pulpit orator of the modern style. He preached the gospel-the gospel oniy, simply and plainly, but with power. He fed his hearers with meat and not with milk. From a well-cultivated and richly stored mind and a heart overflowing with love to God and man, he brought forth things new and old, and gave each and all a portion in good season. In his death the church loses one of its brightest ornaments, and the community a most exemplary citizen."
The Rev. Thomas Beveridge, D. D., whose ministerial labors at Xenia began in 1820 and who later became head of the old Associate Theological Seminary at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, returning to Xenia when that insti- tution was removed from Canonsburg to Xenia in 1855, the rest of his life being spent here, was a son of one of the fathers of the church and from: the days of his boyhood his life was devoted to the service of the church. He was born at Cambridge, New York, son of the Rev. Thomas Beveridge and Janet Fotheringham Beveridge, both of whom were born in Scotland, the former at Eastside, in the parish of Fossoway, Fifeshire, in 1749. The elder Thomas Beveridge was ordained by the Associate presbytery of Edin- burgh, Scotland, September 23, 1783; arrived in America in the spring of 1784; went to Cambridge, New York, that fall; settled there on Septem- ber 10, 1789, and died at Barnet, Vermont, July 23, 1798, in his forty-ninth year.
Some years before his death Doctor Beveridge had written a quite com- prehensive review of his life and after his death this autobiography was printed by his son, John A. Beveridge, for private circulation, and it is on those memoirs that the following narrative is based. "Both my parents were emigrants from Scotland," wrote Doctor Beveridge. "My mother cam: over when about eleven years of age. She was from Fifeshire, and born about the year 1763. Her mother (Janet Lourie, daughter of John and Ann Gilmore Lourie) was one of the first Seceders from the Church of Scot- land. . She united with them at the age of sixteen, in opposition to the views of the rest of the family, though after some time they all followed her example. She was first married to a Mr. [George] Beveridge. by who- she had several children. After the death of her first husband, my grandmother was married to a Mr. George Fotheringame or Fothering- ham (I find the name spelled both ways). My mother, Jennet Fotheringame, was the only issue of this second marriage. After the death of my grand- mother's second husband, one of her sons, Andrew Beveridge, resolved to
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emigrate to America, and as he had probably been a favorite son, his mother concluded to accompany him and took with her two daughters, Ann Bever- idge, afterwards married to James Small, who was for many years an elder of the Associate congregation of Cambridge, and her youngest child, Jen- net, my mother. My grandmother, with her three children, made their way to New York state. Andrew finally settled in Hebron, where he became the father of eight sons and two daughters. [It may be noted by way of parenthesis that the late Gen. John Lourie Beveridge, former gov- ernor of Illinois, who died at his home in Hollywood, California, in 1910, was a grandson of this Andrew Beveridge.] Ann, as has been stated, mar- ried James Small, of Cambridge, and became the mother of two sons, Edward and George, and two daughters-the elder of them was married to William McGeoch, the younger to Robert Law. [By way of further parenthesis, it may be noted that the late Rev. Gilbert Small, who died at his home in Idaville, Indiana, in 1904, and who for eight years was a member of the board of managers of the Theological Seminary at Xenia, was a great-grand- son of the James Small here referred to.]
** * As I was not quite two years of age when my father died, I have no recollection of him, but hope that his prayers for me have not been altogether in vain. My mother inherited a small amount of property from her father and after her marriage insisted on investing it in a farm. I was sent to school at an early age and learned the common branches of English education with, I suppose, tolerable readiness. From my earliest recollection of things my friends always spoke of me as one who must be a minister of the gospel. My father's library had always been kept in the hope that one of his sons might succeed him in his office, and my brothers having died in their youth, it seemed as if I must be the one. The first actual moverrent in this direction was made by, my pastor, Doctor Bullions. Soon after his settlement in Cambridge, he took some notice of me at a public examination, and was urgent for my engaging in study with a view to the ministry. He persuaded mne to recite to him in the Latin Grammar, but after making some progress in it I became discouraged, and signified to him that I would prefer to labor on the farm. Ope reason of my abandon- ing the Latin was that I did not comprehend or relish it. Another was th .- situation of the family ; my brothers being dead, there was no one but myself left to attend to the farm and the support of the family. Our farm was managed by hired hands, and I had seen enough of the management of most of them to know that it was an unprofitable business. My mother also was not in circumstances to meet the expenses of my education. Ah ---- a year after this, Mr. (now Rev. Dr.) Andrew Heron came into the neigh-
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borhood and engaged in teaching the common school at which I attended. As he was acquainted with the Latin and Greek languages, my friends agan: urged me to engage in the study of the Latin. My uncle, Mr. James Small, who had always been a kind friend to the family, called one day and urged me to embrace the present opportunity of obtaining a classical education. I told him what he already knew very well, that my mother needed my services on the farm and could not at all meet the expenses of my educa- tion. When I add that his reply was the turning point in my life, it is not to be wondered at that I have a distinct recollection of it. 'Tammy,' said he, 'if ye'll only go to the learning, ye shall ne'er want sae lang as I hae a cent.' Knowing him to be quite able to fulfill his promise, my hesitation was overcome, and I immediately commenced the Latin a second time, being, I suppose, about thirteen years of age. By the time the school closed I had attained a pretty thorough knowledge of the Latin, and made a com- mencement in the Greek. * After the closing of the school I spent a winter with Doctor Bullions, chiefly engaged in the study of Greek, and in company with him, my uncle, Mr. Small, and my room-mate, Mr, Peter Dunlap, I went to Union College, Schenectady. This was in September, 1811, when a little less than fifteen years of age. It has since been a source of regret to me that I entered college so young. Still, when graduated. August, 1814, in a class of more than forty, and many of them fully-grown young men, my standing was next to the twelfth in the list of honors."
Doctor Beveridge's autobiography then recounts how upon leaving college he was admitted by Cambridge Presbytery to the study of theology and how during the succeeding winter he taught in the Cambridge Academy in order to obtain means to prosecute those studies. "The school was small," he writes, "the labor excessive, and the remuneration inconsiderable. During the succeeding summer my studies were prosecuted under the Pres- bytery of Cambridge, and in the autumn of that year I set out for the Theo- logical Hall at Service, Beaver county, Pennsylvania." Doctor Beveridge's description of that journey, which required twenty-four days of arduous travel, is a most interesting recountal of the difficulties of travel in those days. Upon his arrival at Service he took board with Dr. John Anderson, the sole professor of the institution. At the close of the session, in March, 1816. he found an opening for teaching a school in a neighboring congregation and thus occupied his summer. "The next summer." he writes, "I was induced by the promise of much better wages to undertake the teaching of a classical school at New Athens, Ohio: but both the school and the compensation provedl to le quite small. I was again induced by the hore of a large increase
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of both to remain during the winter and the succeeding summer, but still very little of this hope was realized. This school formed the commencement of what became Franklin College. In the spring of 1819 the Associate Synod appointed me to be taken on trial for license by the Presby- tery of Chartiers. My first trial discourses were delivered in the church of Mt. Pleasant. My remaining trials were given at a subsequent meeting of the Presbytery, in Chartiers, August 18, 1819, at which time I was licensed. My first appointments were in the Presbytery of Chartiers, which at that time included not only the congregations in Wash- ington county, but in Pittsburgh and beyond it in the East to the Alleghany mountains. It reached over into Ohio as far as Wooster and was without limit in that direction."
Following his licensure the young minister started out on his long circuit, traveling horseback, and his description of his travels and of his experiences while preaching to the widely separated congregations of Seceders included . in the circuit which embraced western Pennsylvania, eastern and southern Ohio, Kentucky and southern Indiana, provide a most interesting narrative regarding certain phases of pioneer living at that time, but must be passed as lacking local application, the personal narrative being taken up again fol- lowing the writer's recountal of his experiences at "a place near Columbus, called Truro, now Reynoldsburg, where I spent two Sabbaths. The people were, with hardly an exception, emigrants from my father's congregation in Cambridge. From this place I proceeded to Xenia, where I preached on the first Sabbath of November. Here I remained, for the first time, about four weeks in the same congregation, i. e., in the Xenia and Sugar Creek, at that time a united charge. * From Kentucky I returned to Xenia and spent there the third and fourth Sabbaths of January." The young minister then started East, preaching on his way, and late in the spring reached his home in Cambridge quite ill after an absence of four years, and the succeeding summer, following his recuperation, was spent by him in filling vacancies in his home state.
"Whether any of these vacancies would have given me a call," Doctor Beveridge's autobiography continues, "I cannot tell, for I still told any .per- son who spoke to me on the subject that my mind was made up, and that I wished them to receive me the same as if I were a settled minister.
It is true the congregation of Xenia and Sugar Creek had not given me a call at the time I left them, but they had petitioned for the moderation of a call and had no other candidate before them, and I had concluded, unless something not forseen or anticipated should occur, that this was to be the field of my ministerial labor. This region of country had many attractions:
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