USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 59
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the people were intelligent, pious, kind and every way agreeable. However, after my settlement, my experience here was like that of my journey home- my anticipations of comfort in such a pastoral charge were too high and had too much influence on my mind. * The years of my pastoral labors here were attended with more discomfort than any other years of my life.
"The call to the congregation of Xenia and Sugar Creek was made out February 28, 1820, and forwarded to the meeting of the Associate Synod at Huntingdon the following May, but not being present at the meeting I had not an opportunity of accepting it till August 2nd. * As the mem- bers of the Kentucky Presbytery, as it was then called, were so distant from each other that meetings were almost impracticable, it had been arranged that I should undergo trials for ordination in the Presbytery of Cambridge. The Presbytery of Kentucky consisted of only three ministerial members, Messrs. Armstrong, Hume and Kennedy, yet extended over the southern part of Ohio and all the states of Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. I accordingly remained at home and gave my trials for ordination during August and on September 4, 1820, set out to take charge of my congregation, which I reached October 5, thirty-one days after leaving home. The first. or nearly the first, letter received from home contained an account of the death of my mother, which took place November 8, 1820. Her last message to me was, 'Tell him I am entering into the joy of my Lord.'
"The state of things when I arrived at Xenia was very uncomfortable. There had been strange doings about the house of the Rev. Robert Arm- strong; who was the pastor of Massies Creek, a short distance from Xenia. Stones were thrown upon the house, threatening letters dropped near it, and some outbuildings set on fire. Many began to blame the family as engaged in this mischief for the purpose of frightening Mr. A. and inducing him to remove from the farm to Xenia. Mr. A., as was very natural, regarded these insinuations as slanderous. The excitement at last became so great that he had desisted from the exercise of his ministry in the congregation. This was only one or two Sabbaths before my arrival. The excitement also extended to my pastoral charge and made my entrance among them unpleas- ant. Perhaps I had not patience enough to bear with the clamors against the family, and especially Mr. Armstrong, against whom nothing could be alleged but his discrediting what was charged against his wife and children. I reached Xenia in October, but was not ordained till the following January. Mr. Hume came all the way from Nashville, and I was ordained by him and Mr. Armstrong Jan. 9th. 1821, Mr. Hume preaching and Mr. Arm- strong giving the charge to me and the congregation. I believe it was the
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last time they met together, and the last time either of them sat in the pres- bytery. Mr. Hume soon afterward united with the Presbyterian church and Mr. Armstrong died the next fall. At the time of my settlement the two branches of the charge numbered 138 communicants. During my ministry 60 were received by examination, 31 by certificate, 17 removed, 16 died, 10 adults were baptized. I kept no record of the baptism of infants. In the spring of 1822 I attended the meeting of the Associate Synod at Philadelphia and was appointed, together with Mr. Hanna, to go as a missionary to Upper Canada. I accepted this appointment the more willingly in the hope that it might benefit my health. In this, however, I was disappointed. * My health still declining, by the advice of some members of the congregation, I resorted once more to a journey, with a view to its recovery. In the fall of the next year ( 1823) I set out on horseback for Blount county, in eastern Tennessee. * After spending two months with this people I returned to my charge, but not with any sensible improvement in health. I preached a few Sabbaths after returning from Tennessee, but soon felt compelled to desist, and, having become altogether discouraged in respect to the recovery of my health, concluded to resign my charge and return to my sisters to end my days with them. Having called a meeting of the congregation and preached to them a sermon on Phil. 1:27, I gave them notice of my intention and a few days afterwards set out for what I still called my home. This was in the month of February, 1824. *
The young minister found benefit in the return to the home farm and there being vacancies in the Cambridge Presbytery there were still, as his autobiography states, "opportunities for exercising my ministry without being confined to the labors of a pastoral charge." Two or three years later he accepted a call to the Associate church at Philadelphia and for nearly ten years continued as pastor of that church, being thus engaged when in October, 1835, Synod elected him professor of the Theological Seminary at Canonsburg, and in the following November he and his family took up their residence at Canonsburg, there remaining until the Associate Synod removed the seminary to Xenia in 1855, when Doctor Beveridge found himself thus restored to the scene of his first pastorate, and here he spent the rest of his life. His autobiography, written in 1866, concludes as follows: “Here I have had no pastoral charge, but have preached most of the time in vacancies until within about a year past. There has been of late little or no call to supply in vacancies, and the infirmities of age admonished me that my time for active service in the church is nearly ended. I have done but little, yet . not without the hope that this little has been accepted of the Master, and not wholly without fruit in his Vineyard."
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DANIEL H. HARTMAN.
Daniel H. Hartman, of Beavercreek township, is a native of the Key- stone state, but has been a resident of Ohio and of Greene county since he was eighteen years of age. He was born on a farm in York county, Penn- sylvania, May 8, 1859, son of Jacob and Mary Ann (Walker) Hartman, both of whom were born in that same county and there spent all their lives.
Jacob Hartman was a farmer, a Republican and he and his family were members of the Church of God. In his younger days he made a trip over into Ohio on a visit to kinsfolk in the vicinity of Wooster, in Wayne county, walking there and back. After his marriage he bought the old Hartman home place in York county and there lived until 1863, when he sold that farm and bought another, five miles south, and on this latter place spent the re- mainder of his life, his death occurring there in April, 1883, he then being sixty-four years of age. After his death his widow and her only daughter and a son, Jerry Jacob, moved to Harrisburg, the state capital, and in that city the widow spent her last days, her death occurring in 1892, she then being sixty-three years of age. Jacob Hartman and wife were the parents of five children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth, the others being the following: William, deceased; Lydia A., who married James Nesbit and died at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania : Samuel W., a farmer, now living at Alpha, this county, and Capt. Jerry Jacob Hartman, a master painter, living at Harrisburg.
Daniel H. Hartman was reared on the home farm in York county, Penn- sylvania, received his schooling in the neighborhood schools, and remained at home until he was eighteen years of age, when he came to Greene county to join his brother Samuel, who some time previously had come out here and was working for Horace Ankeny in Beavercreek township. His brother secured for him a place on the farm of Capt. William H. Glotfelter and on that place he worked for eleven months, at the end of which time he was given a place on the Ankeny farm, where he remained for two years and ten months. He then married and began farming on his own account, renting the Cline farm south of Alpha. Three years later he moved from there to the Harbine farm and thence, some time later, to the Puterbaugh farm, where he remained until he bought the farm of forty-two and one-half acres on which he now lives, rural mail route No. 2 out of Spring Valley. Since taking possession of that farm Mr. Hartman has made numerous im- provements on the same. He is a Republican with a very friendly feeling for the Prohibition movement and for six years has served as school director in his home district.
On December 22, 1881, Daniel H. Hartman was united in marriage to
MR. AND MRS. DANIEL H. HARTMAN.
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Lucinda Jane Ward, who was born on a farm twelve miles from Wooster in Wayne county, this state, daughter of John and Caroline Ward, and to this union have been born three children, Ward, Charles and Mary, the latter of whom is at home with her parents. Charles Hartman is farming in Beavercreek township and his older brother, the Rev. Ward Hartman, is now in China where for seven years he has been rendering service as an evangelist in behalf of the mission field of the Reformed church, his station being at Shuchow, Hunan. The Rev. Ward Hartman was educated at Heidelberg College at Tiffin and in the Central Theological Seminary at Dayton and early devoted himself to labor in the mission field. The Hartmans are mem- bers of the Mt. Zion Reformed church and for the past twelve years Mr. Hartman has been an elder in the same.
JAMES R. FUDGE.
From "Pencilings From the Senate" (Ohio), published in 1852, the following is taken: "John. Fudge represents the counties of Fayette, Clinton and Greene in the Senate of Ohio. He is a Whig, and physically the largest man in the Senate, weighing 250 pounds. He is a hale man, looking young, and not yet gray, although 55 years old. He has filled a seat in the Legis- lature several times, and as a Senator is something of a model."
The Hon. John Fudge, thus mentioned, was the great-grandfather of the gentleman whose name fornis the caption of this biographical sketch. He was a Virginian, born in Botetourt county, in the Old Dominion, April 13, 1796, and was one of the early settlers in this section of Ohio, locating at a point on Caesars creek six miles southeast of Xenia, in this county, where he purchased a considerable tract of land and where he erected a tannery, carrying on the operations of the latter industry in addition to farming. For many years he served as justice of the peace in and for his home township, was a member of the board of county commissioners for years and in 1852 was appointed by Governor Bebb an associate judge for this judicial district. As noted in the above "Pencilings From the Senate," he served several terms in the Ohio General Assembly, both in the House and in the Senate. He served as administrator for something like three hundred estates and was for many years an office bearer in the Methodist church. Judge Fudge died suddenly, death coming from a paralytic stroke on September 15, 1868. He had been three times married. His first wife was Catherine Sellers, of the neighboring county of Warren, who bore him five children. His second wife was Temperance Spahr, who died two years after her marriage, leaving one child, a son, Morgan Fudge, who became
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editor of the Bellbrook Moon. On February 25, 1846, Judge Fudge mar- ried Susan Barnett. This last marriage was without issue.
One of the children born to Judge John and Catherine (Sellers) Fudge was Joseph H. Fudge, who was born on February 15, 1824, in this county, and who married Cinderella Sutton, who also was born in this county, August 17, 1826, a daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth Sutton. Joseph H. Fudge spent his life in agricultural pursuits in New Jasper township, dying at his home there on April 26, 1888. His widow survived him for nearly three years, her death occurring on February 16, 1891. Of the children born to their union, John W. Fudge was born on the old paternal farm on March 23, 1846, and there grew to manhood, and continued actively en- gaged in agricultural pursuits until his retirement and removal to Xenia, where he is now living. John W. Fudge is a Republican and in 1895 was elected a member of the board of county commissioners. He was re-elected and became president of the board which erected the new court house at Xenia, tearing down the old edifice which his grandfather, Judge Fudge, had aided in building while on the board of commissioners more than a half century before. The new structure was erected at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars and Mr. Fudge made several trips to New York City and other places in search of information that would prove beneficial in the erection of the new temple of justice. Mr. Fudge also served as trustee of New Jasper township for fourteen years, in 1890 was elected real-estate appraiser and in 1895 was elected infirmary director, an office in which he served for three years. On June 26, 1866, in New Jasper township, John W. Fudge was united in marriage to Amanda J. Smith, who also was born in that township, daughter of Nelson Smith and wife, and to that union were born five children, four of whom are still living, namely: William, a farmer, of New Jasper township; James R., the subject of this biographical sketch; Charles N., who is operating the old home place one mile south of Jasper, and Ray S., who is also living on a farm in New Jasper township. The mother of these children died on October 31, 1915. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. as is her husband, and their sons were reared in that faith.
James R. Fudge was born on the old home place in New Jasper town- ship on December 10, 1869. He supplemented the schooling lie received in the local schools by a course at Valparaiso University in Indiana, and at the age of nineteen years began teaching school, in the meanwhile giving his attention to the farm during the summers. For eleven years Mr. Fudge continued teaching school, during all but one year of this period being thus engaged in his home township. In 1892 he married and established his home on the farm, where he continued to make his residence until 1907.
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in which year he bought the William Anderson farm of one hundred and six acres on the Jamestown pike, in his home township, and there has since made his home. Mr. Fudge is a member of the Grange. Politically, he is a Republican and for ten years served as a member of the New Jasper town- ship board of education.
On May 25, 1892, James R. Fudge was united in marriage to Mary L. Brown, who also was born in New Jasper township, daughter of Cyrus and Mary E. (Smith) Brown, both of whom are still living on their farm in that township, and to this union has been born one child, a daughter, Miriam, who was born on July 3, 1896, and who on August 1, 1917, mar- ried Paul Turnbull, who had been a teacher in the schools at St. Marys, West Virginia, and who is now serving in the National Army, first sergeant of Company F, Three Hundred and Thirtieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in camp at Camp Sherman. Mr. and Mrs. Fudge are members of the New Jasper Methodist Episcopal church, of which Mr. Fudge is one of the stewards. He also has served as assistant superintendent of the Sun- day school and is now serving as recording steward for the New Jasper circuit of the local conference of the Methodist Episcopal church, following in that office his father, who served in that capacity for more than thirty years.
EDWIN KNEISLY.
Edwin Kneisly, blacksmith at Fairfield, is a native of this county, born on a farm in Bath township, June 20, 1859, the eldest in a family of six chil- dren born to Daniel and Eliza (Dice) Kneisly, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania.
Daniel Kneisly was born on September 26, 1823, and came as a boy from Pennsylvania to Greene county. After leaving school he engaged in farming, which occupation he followed for some years, after which he went into the milling business at Huffersville, this county, where he continued in this business for four years. He then resumed farming, in which occu- pation he continued until 1911, when he moved to Hampton, but later he again removed to the farm,. where his death occurred in 1916. In the latter '5os he married Eliza Dice, who was also a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1835, who came with her parents to Greene county in an early day. Her death occurred on December 23, 1907. Both had been previously married. To their union there were born six children, those besides the subject of this sketch being Aaron S., a farmer living near Dowden, in Clark county, this state; John F., a molder living in Springfield, Ohio; Mrs. Jennie Trout,
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a widow living at Enon, Clark county; Mrs. Lulu B. Smith, a resident of Dayton, and Clyde, who died in infancy.
Edwin Kneisly received his education in the public schools of his home township, assisting his father with the work on the farm, and after leaving school, decided to take up the trade of a blacksmith, which occupation he has followed the greater part of his life. He lived eight years at Sulphur Grove, in Montgomery county, and also for some time in Springfield, in both of which places he carried on his business of blacksmithing. While living in Clark county, he owned and operated a farm for about four years, and moved from there to Fairfield about three years ago, since which time he has con- tinued at his trade.
On September 14, 1882, Mr. Kneisly was married to Mary A. Shrodes, who is a native of this county, born i a farm south of Fairfield. To this union four children have been born. Floyd D., Ralph, Wayne W., still living at home with his parents, and Ethel, who died in childhood.
Mr. Kneisly and his family are members of the Reformed church and Mr. Kneisly served as elder in the local congregation for some years. Fra- ternally, he is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
EDWARD WILLIAM HAYSLETT.
The late Edward William Hayslett, a veteran of the Civil War, who for years was engaged in wagon-making at Clifton and who died at his home in that village on January 17, 1916, was a native of the Old Dominion, but had been a resident of this county practically all the time since the days of " his young manhood. He was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia. April 12, 1827, and there resided until he was past twenty-one years of age, when, in 1848 or 1849, he came to Ohio and became engaged in farming in the vicinity of Jamestown, in this county. He was married in 1850 and not long afterward went to Springfield and there became engaged in wagon- making. When the Civil War broke out his patriotic impulses were stirred and on December 25, 1861, he enlisted, at Xenia, for service in behalf of the Union and while thus serving was so seriously disabled that on June 16, 1862, he received his honorable discharge. Upon the completion of his mil- itary service Mr. Hayslett resumed his trade, setting up an establishment at Clifton, but presently disposed of his interest there and moved to Illinois, where he remained but a short time, however. After coming back to Greene county he made one more trip to Illinois and remained there until 1877. when he again located at Clifton. resuming there his wagon-making indus-
MR. AND MRS. EDWARD W. HAYSLETT.
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try and there spent the rest of his life, dying there in his eighty-ninth year. Mr. Hayslett was a member of the Me.hodist Episcopal church and by polit- ical persuasion was a Republican.
Mr. Hayslett was twice married. In 1850, not long after coming to this county, he was united in marriage to Elizabeth Morris, of the Clitton neighborhood, who died in 1867. To that union were born six children, two of whom died in early youth, the others being Margaret, who died in the 'gos; William A. and Henry H., now residents of Germantown, this state, and Madison, deceased. On April 17, 1877, Mr. Hayslett married Mrs. Cynthia A. (House) Wagner, widow of George Wagner, her first marriage having been solemnized in April, 1864. and to this second union four children were born, namely: Francis Marion, who has been twice mar- ried, after the death of his first wife, Millie Rankin, having married Mamie Baldman; Robert Elder, now living at Dayton, who married Lucy House and has three children, Clarence Leroy. Ruth Merle and Ethel May; Ole Bull, who married Myrtle Bolman and is engaged in farming in this county, and Jennie Lind, who married John Franklin Cultice, of Clifton, and has four children, Dulcie, Dorothy, Gertrude and Leonard. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Hayslett has continued to make her home in Clifton. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
JOSEPH T. HUTCHISON.
Joseph T. Hutchison, proprietor of a Beavercreek township farm on rural mail route No. 3 out of Xenia, is a native son of Greene county, and has lived here all his life, occupant of the farm on which he now lives since 1896. He was born on a farm in Xenia township on May 20. 1871, son of Joseph Andrew and Isabella ( Harner) Hutchison, both of whom also were born in this county and the latter of whom is still living, now a resident of the city of Xenia.
Joseph Andrew Hutchison, who was a veteran of the Civil War, was born on a farm in Miami township, not far from the border of Xenia town- ship. March 12, 1837, son of Joseph B. and Ann (Tenbroek) Hutchison, who had come to this county from Chester county, Pennsylvania, where both were born, and whose last days were spent here. Joseph B. Hutchison was born in 1802 and grew up in Chester county, Pennsylvania, remaining there until after his marriage, when, in 1826. he came to Greene county, he and his wife driving through in a small covered wagon with their belong- ings, and settled on a plot of ground now owned by Frank Corry on the Clifton pike in Miami township. He was a blacksmith by trade and for a
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while after coming here followed that trade, but presently bought a farm on the Clifton pike in Xenia township, where he remained until his retirement, when he moved to Yellow Springs, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on October 29, 1877. He and his wife were the parents of thirteen children, of whom eleven grew to maturity, namely: Eleanor, who became the wife of J. G. G. Adams, of Miami township; John K., who married Catherine Townsley and moved to Garnet, Kansas; Nancy T., who married Isaac Shearer and moved to Indiana; Elizabeth M., who married Frederick Shoemaker, of Goes Station; Sarah Ann, who died unmarried in 1897; Joseph A., father of the subject of this sketch; Margaret, who married James M. Stevenson and moved to Kansas; Mary Jane, who mar- ried Frank Crapp and moved to Indiana; Matthew, who married Ella Gos- sett and is now living at Xenia; William H., who married Jennie Bull and established his home in Xenia township, and James Elder, who married Hester P. Baker and established his home at Yellow Springs, where his last days were spent.
Reared'on the home farm, Joseph Andrew Hutchison remained there until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he entered the service of the Union and for three years and nine months served as a soldier, being mus- tered out as a member of Company L. Third New York Cavalry. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Hutchison returned home and after "his marriage went to Sedalia, Missouri, where he remained for three years, at the end of which time he returned to Greene county and bought a farm of one hundred and twelve acres across the' pike from his father's place in Xenia township, where he remained until 1880, in which year he sold that farm and bought a farm of one hundred and eighty eight acres in Beaver- creek township, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on July 29, 1901. His widow is now living at Xenia. She was born in Xenia township, this county, May 16. 1848, daughter of Charles and Mary (Morgan) Harner, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Hutchison is a member of the Presbyterian church, as was her husband, he having been an elder in the church. By political persua- sion he was a Republican, but was not an office seeker. To Joseph Andrew and Isabella (Harner) Hutchison were born seven children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth, the others being the following: Charles H., born on December 29, 1868. who married Alice Dilts and lives on a farm in the vicinity of Logansport, Indiana; Frank R., who married Margaret Phillips and is engaged in the hardware business at Xenia; Leigh A., born on February 1, 1877, who married Jennie Moore and is living on a farm on the Bellbrook pike in Spring Valley township; Ralph W., September 23, 1880, who married Anna Fierstein and lives in
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Xenia township; Carrie, March 4, 1884, who is now (1918) attending the College of Osteopathy at Kirksville, Missouri, and Dr. Elder Hutchison, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, who married Ann Kincade and who upon the declaration of war against Germany in 1917 volunteered his serv- ices in the National Army and was stationed at Camp Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky, preparatory to service abroad.
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