USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 65
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JOHN ALEXANDER.
John Alexander, proprietor of a farm on rural route No. 2 out of Yel- low Springs, in Miami township, was born in the neighboring township of Bath and has lived in that neighborhood and in the adjoining county of Clark all his life. He was born on February 13, 1866, son of Samuel and Lydia (Hess) Alexander, who were married in Pennsylvania and later came to Ohio, the rest of their lives being spent in Greene county and in the neigh- boring county of Clark.
It was in the year 1851 that Samuel Alexander and his wife came to Ohio and settled in Clark county. Two years later, in 1853, they came down into Greene county and located on a farm in Bath township, where they remained until 1870, in which year they returned to Clark county, established their home on a farm there and there spent the remainder of their lives. Samuel Alexander died in 1892 and his widow survived him for about seven years, her death occurring in 1899. They were the parents of six children. of whom four are still living, the subject of this sketch, the sixth in order of birth, having a sister, Mary, widow of Joseph Flatter, of Clark county, and two brothers, William Alexander, who lives in the West, and Samuel S. Alexander, who is engaged in the meat-packing business at Denver, Colo- rado.
John Alexander was four years of age when his parents moved from Bath township, this county, up into Clark county and in the latter county he was reared and had his schooling, remaining at home, engaged in farming, until he was twenty-one years of age. A year later he married and estab- lished his home on the farm on which he is now living in Miami township,
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this county, and ever since has made his home there. Mr. Alexander has given considerable attention to the raising of live stock in connection with his general farming operations. He has served his district as supervisor of highways and is now serving as a member of the board of complaint under the new Warren taxing law.
On February 27, 1888, John Alexander was united in marriage to Emma Oster, daughter of Martin and Eva (Slate) Oster, of this county, and to that union five children were born, namely: Margaret, who died in infancy; George, also deceased; Lena, who is at home with her father; Charles M .. who is assisting his father in the management of the home farm, and Arthur, who is now engaged as the official tester of the Clark County Dairy Asso- ciation. The mother of these children died on January 23, 1918.
DAVID H. MCFARLAND.
David H. McFarland, mayor of Cedarville, justice of the peace in and for Cedarville township, a former member of the town council and for years a building contractor at Cedarville, was born in that village and has lived there all his life. He was born on December 16, 1850, son of Robert Patterson and Emily (Booth) McFarland, both of whom were members of pioneer families in that part of the county.
Robert Patterson McFarland was born on a farm two and one-half miles east of Cedarville, a son of Robert McFarland and wife, the latter of whom was a White and both of whom were born in the vicinity of Lexing- ton, Kentucky. . Robert McFarland was a son of Arthur McFarland, who came to this country from Scotland, the land of his birth, and after a sometime residence in Kentucky came up into Ohio with his family and settled on a track of land south of Cedarville, in this county, where he spent the rest of his life. Arthur McFarland and wife were members of the Christian church and were the parents of eleven children, Clark, Joseph, Lewis, Robert, William, James, Priscilla, Ann, Lavina, Emily and Cyn- thia. Robert McFarland established his home on a farm two and one- half miles east of Cedarville and there he and his wife reared their family and spent the rest of their lives, he living to be eighty-three years of age. Their son, Robert P. McFarland, grew up on that farm and afterward became a wagon-maker, establishing a shop at Cedarville, where for many years he was thus engaged. He was a Republican and held various public offices of a local character. By religious persuasion he was a Methodist. Robert P. McFarland married Emily Booth, who also was born in Cedar- ville township, a daughter of Caleb Booth, who died at his home five miles
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east of Cedarville when forty-five years of age. Caleb Booth was twice married. By his first marriage he had one child, a daughter, Mrs. Rainey. After the death of his first wife he married her sister and to that union were born six children, Belle, Emily, Ann, David, John and Alfonso. To Robert B. and Emily (Booth) McFarland were born five children, namely : Calvin, deceased: David Henry, the immediate subject of this biographical sketch; Mary, wife of Charles W. Harris, a retired farmer living at Cedar- ville : Charles B., who died at his farm home in the neighboring county of Clark in February, 1911, and William Edgar, who is now farming in the vicinity of Everson, Montana.
David H. McFarland was reared at Cedarville and received his school- ing in the village schools. He learned the trade of wagon-making under the direction of his father and for some years was engaged in working in his father's shop. In 1873 he married and began working on his own account as a building contractor and has ever since been engaged in that vocation, many of the principal buildings in and about Cedarville having been built under his direction, among these works having been the recon- struction of the Whitelaw Reid home. Mr. McFarland is a Republican, and for the past six years has been serving as mayor of his home town and for an equal length of time has been justice of the peace in and for Cedar- ville township. He also has served as a member of the common council, as a member of the school board and for fifteen years as local health officer.
In 1873 David H. McFarland was united in marriage to Eleanor J. Owen, who also was born in Cedarville, daughter of John S. and Jane (Butler) Owen, who came to this county from Butler county, Virginia, and located at Cedarville, where they spent the remainder of their lives, John S. Owen there following the blacksmith trade and the practice of veterinary surgery. John S. Owen and wife had six children, those besides Mrs. McFarland, the last in order of birth, being James (deceased), John (deceased), Alexander, Catherine and Susan. To David H. and Eleanor J. (Owen) McFarland have been born six children, namely: Berton E .. who married Daisy Ford and is living at Cedarville, where he is engaged as foreman for the Cedarville Lime Company, having formerly and for years been the assistant agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at that place ; Arthur B., a painter, now living at Dayton, this state; Aletha J., who married William Parkman and is also living at Dayton; Merle, who is at home; Albert Raymond, who is now living at Columbus, this state, where he is engaged as auditor in the office of the State Savings and Trust Bank, and William Leroy, a cartoonist, who was killed in an elevator accident at Columbus in 1909, he then being twenty-four years of age. Miss Merle McFarland completed her schooling at Oxford and began teaching
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in Clark county, but for the past six or seven years has been engaged as a teacher in the Cedarville schools. The McFarlands are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
DANIEL OLIVER JONES.
Daniel Oliver Jones, secretary-treasurer of the Alpha Seed and Grain Company, former trustee of Beavercreek township, a member of the Greene county board of elections and proprietor of a farm on rural mail route No. Io out of Xenia, is a native son of Greene county and has lived here all his life. He was born at Trebeins on February 10, 1873, son of David and Rachel (Davis) Jones, the latter of whom also was born in Beavercreek township and is still living there, continuing to make her home on the farm now owned and operated by her only son Daniel, this being the old Andrew farm, on which she has lived since her marriage to the late Samuel G. Andrew in 1890.
David Jones was born in the vicinity of the city of Hagerstown in Mary- land, March 17. 1849, and was about fifteen years of age when he came to Ohio with his parents, Edward and Minerva (Cook) Jones, the family.locating at Trebeins, in this county. Edward Jones was a mill man and after ten years spent at Trebeins he moved to Stillwater, in the neighboring county of Montgomery, where he became engaged in the saw-mill business and where he spent the rest of his life. He and his wife were the parents of five children, of whom David was the eldest. David Jones grew up at Trebeins and was there instructed by his father in the details of the milling business, a vocation he followed until his death at the age of thirty-one years, June 8, 1880, leaving a widow and a son, Daniel O., the latter at that time being but seven years of age. The widow was born, Rachel Davis, in Beaver- creek township, this county, August 19. 1850, daughter of Daniel and Rebecca (Gerhard) Davis, the former of whom also was born in that town- ship, in the Alpha neighborhood, August 19, 1810, a son of Daniel and Elizabeth Davis, pioneers of that section and both of whom died when their son Daniel was a small boy. Daniel Davis, Jr., was early put to the cooper's trade and as a young man followed that vocation. He married Rebecca Gerhard, who was born at Liberty, in Frederick county, Maryland, March 1, 1818, and who was but two years of age when her parents, John and Elizabeth Gerhard, came to Ohio with their family and settled in the neigh- borhood of David's church, over in Montgomery county, where they estab- lished their home and spent the remainder of their lives. After his marriage Daniel Davis bought a farm north of Alpha and thereafter followed farming
SAMUEL G. ANDREW
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DANIEL O. JONES.
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as a vocation until his retirement and removal to Alpha, where he died on September 12, 1877. His widow survived him for many years, her death occurring on July 21, 1911, she then being past ninety-three years of age. They were members of the Beaver Reformed church and both are buried in Beaver cemetery. They were the parents of eight children. of whom Mrs. Andrew, mother of the subject of this sketch, was the fourth in order of birth, the others being the following: John, who is still living at Trebeins : William K., who died at his home in Xenia in 1917; Harriet C., now deceased, who was the wife of Samuel Puterbaugh, also now deceased; Rebecca, unmarried, who is living at Trebeins; D. W., who is living at Xenia; Ada M., wife of Samuel Huston, of Dayton, and Augustus H., now a resident of Pasadena. California.
In 1890 Mrs. Rachel Davis Jones, widow of David Jones and mother of the subject of this biographical review, married Samuel G. Andrew, of Beavercreek township, whose first wife had died not long before, and she has ever since made her home on the old Andrew place, occupying the brick house which was erected there in 1840 and which was in those days regarded as one of the best farm residences in the county. The late Samuel G. Andrew, who died at his home on that place on December 10, 1912, was born in Xenia township, this county, August 23, 1840, son of George and Jane (Goe) Quinn Andrew, the latter of whom was a daughter of Samuel Goe, after whom Goes Station in this county was given its name, and widow of the Hon. Amos Quinn, who was representing this county in the state Legislature at the time of his death in 1837 and further mention of whom is made in connection with a biographical reference to his daughter, Mrs. John B. Lucas, made elsewhere in this volume. George Andrew was born in South Carolina in 1791 and was but a boy when he came with his parents to this county, the Andrew family becoming pioneers in Xenia township. In 1817 George Andrew married Elizabeth Ann Foster and to that union were born nine children. William, Alexander, Martha, who married James Turner, Robert, William, John, Elizabeth, Hugh and George. Following the death of the mother of these children George Andrew married, Decem- ber 22, 1839, Jane, widow of Amos Quinn, and to that union were born two sons, Samuel G. and John Calvin, the latter of whom is still living, a resident of Xenia. Samuel G. Andrew in time became the owner of the farm of two hundred and fifty acres in Beavercreek township which his father had bought in 1854. During the Civil War he served as a member of the National Guard company at Xenia and later as a member of Company F, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. In the summer of 1866 he married Keziah Luse, who died without issue, and in 1890 he mar-
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ried Mrs. Rachel Jones, who survives him, as noted above. Mr. Andrew was a Republican and in 1890 was elected to the office of justice of the peace in and for his home township. He was a member of the United Presbyte- rian church and his widow is a member of the Reformed church, with which latter communion her son and his family are also connected.
Daniel Oliver Jones was seven years of age when his father died and was sixteen when his mother married Mr. Andrew, his home thereafter being made on the Andrew place, which he now owns, in Beavercreek town- ship. He was graduated from the Beavercreek township high school in 1892, a member of the second class graduated from that school. after it received its commission, and for nine years thereafter was engaged as a teacher in the schools of this county, teaching for seven years in Beavercreek township and for two years in Xenia township, it being a matter of distinct recollection on the part of Mr. Jones that it always seemed to him that he was given schools in which the teachers previously had had trouble due to refractory and unruly pupils, he apparently being put in charge for the purpose of restoring order and maintaining discipline. During this period he took a course of normal training at Antioch College and during the summers con- tinued engaged on his stepfather's farm. In 1901 he gave up work in the school room and became engaged in the agricultural-implement business at Trebeins, continuing thus engaged for two years, at the end of which time the failing health of Mr. Andrew required that he return to the home farm and take charge of the operation of the same. In the summer of 1908 he married and established his home there and in 1911 erected on the place a new house for himself and family adjoining the old brick house, the latter of which his mother still maintains as her home. Following the death of Mr. Andrew in 1912 Mr. Jones bought from the other heirs the home farin, except his mother's interest, and is now the owner of the same, a place of one hundred and forty acres. In addition to his farming operations Mr. Jones gives considerable attention to the general business affairs of his com- munity and is secretary-treasurer and a member of the board of directors of the Alpha Grain and Seed Company. He is Republican and for ten years served as trustee of Beavercreek township and is now and for the past four years has been a member of the Greene county board of elections. For six years he served as party committeeman for his precinct and for fifteen years has been serving as a member of county central committee, for much of that time a member of the executive committee of the same.
On June 16. 1908, Daniel O. Jones was united in marriage to Gertrude Kable. daughter of John and Jennie (Ferguson) Kable, of the Bellbrook neighborhood, both members of old families in this county, and to this union
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two children have been born, Miriam Kable, born on August 10, 1909, and Helen Louise, December 6, 1913. Mr. and Mrs. Jones are members of the Beaver Reformed church and for more than thirteen years Mr. Jones has been the superintendent of the Sunday school of the same. He also has served on the consistory and as treasurer of the congregation.
JASPER S. BEAL.
Jasper S. Beal, former marshal of the city of Yellow Springs and a retired farmer now living in that city, was born on a farm in Beavercreek township, this county, February 9, 1847, son of Thomas and Priscilla ( Hop- ping) Beal, both of whom also were born in this county and whose last days were spent here.
Thomas Beal was born on October 26, 1821, son of Thomas Beal, and on May 27, 1845, married Priscilla Hopping, who was born on August 13, 1825, a daughter of John and Patsy Hopping, also pioneers of Greene county. After his marriage he established his home on a farm in Beaver- creek township and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, her death occurring on February 18, 1847, when her son, the subject of this sketch, was nine days old, and less than two years after her marriage. She left also a baby daughter, Martha J. Florence, born on March 3, 1846, who married Martin Harner and died in 1897. Thomas Beal survived his wife but seven years, his death occurring on April 12, 1854, his son Jasper being then but seven years of age.
Thus early bereaved of his parents, Jasper S. Beal was reared by Jane Holland, of Beavercreek township, and received his schooling in the local public schools. In due time he took charge of the farm on which he was born and which he still owns, a place of one hundred and thirty acres, and after his marriage in the spring of 1872 established his home on that farm and there resided practically all the time until his retirement from the farm and removal in 1891 to Yellow Springs, where he has resided ever since, a period of twenty-six years. About 1887 Mr. Beal left the farm for a while and went to Kankakee, Illinois, where he became engaged in the confectionery business, but after two years of that sort of experience returned to the farm. Mr .. Beal is a Republican and for two terms served as marshal of Yellow Springs.
Mr. Beal has been twice married. On March 27, 1872, he was unite 1 in marriage to Martha Jane Watson, who died on June 27. 1879, leaving on April 3, 1884. On October 12, 1881, Mr. Beal married Margaret J. one child, a daughter, Bessie Jane, born on November 1, 1877, and who died
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Hume, who was born in New York state and who was but an infant when her parents, Robert and Phoebe (Sines) Hume, came to Ohio and located on a farm in Miami township, this county. To this second union one child was born, a son, Jasper L. Beal, born on December 30, 1885, who mar- ried Amy Booth, who died in October, 1913, leaving three children, Mary Frances, Jasper A. N. and Robert Leon. Mr. and Mrs. Beal are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and-Mr. Beal is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
REV. WILLIAM A. CONROY.
The Rev. William A. Conroy, pastor of St. Augustine Catholic church at Jamestown, this county, is a native of the Blue Grass state but has been a resident of Ohio since he was six years of age and of Greene county since he entered upon the duties of his pastorate at Jamestown in the summer of 1915. He was born at Covington, Kentucky, August 4, 1882, first in order of birth of the four children born to his parents, Charles and Catherine (O'Rourke) Conroy, the other members of the family being the Rev. James Conroy, now assistant pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic church at London, in the neighboring county of Madison; Charles Conroy, Jr., who is engaged in the retail shoe business at Piqua, this state, and Nora, wife of Anthony Hemm, also of Piqua. The elder Charles Conroy also was born in Kentucky, as was his wife, both of Irish descent, and is an iron moulder by trade. Years ago he moved with his family from Covington to Ohio and located at Piqua, where his wife died in 1913, she then being fifty-two years of age, and where he is still living. He is a member of the Catholic church, as was his wife, and their children were reared in that faith, two of their sons early entering holy orders.
As noted above, William A. Conroy was but six years of age when his parents moved from Covington to Piqua and in the latter city he grew to manhood, receiving his early schooling in St. Mary's parochial school. Early evincing unusual aptitude for study and a thoughtful concern for the affairs of the church he was placed in St. Gregory's Preparatory Seminary at Cedar Point, in Hamilton county, as a means of preliminary preparation for the priesthood, and was graduated from that institution in 1904. In that same year the preparatory school was discontinued at Cedar Point and the bishop established Mt. St. Mary's Seminary at that place for theological instruc- tion and it was in this latter seminary that Father Conroy finished his theo- logical course, being graduated from the seminary in 1909. On June 16 of that same year he was ordained to the priesthood and was straightway
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REV. WILLIAM A. CONROY.
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appointed assistant pastor at St. Peter's cathedral at Cincinnati, where he remained until in June, 1915, when he was appointed to succeed Father John Malone as the pastor of St. Augustine Parish at Jamestown, which office he since has been filling.
Father Conroy is an earnest and energetic young clergyman and during his pastorate at Jamestown has done much to build up his parish and to create a livelier interest in the affairs of the church. Since his arrival in James- town several new Catholic families have located there, with a resultant addi- tion to the membership of the church, there now being thirty-four families in the parisli, and admirable progress is reported along all lines of parish work. Father Conroy is a member of the Knights of Columbus, affiliated with the council of that order at Xenia, and takes a warm interest in the affairs of the same. His general manner has rendered it easy for him to enter into the life of the community in which he has been stationed and during his residence of but little more than two years at Jamestown he has made many friends there and throughout the county.
JOHN FRANKLIN PUTERBAUGH.
John Franklin Puterbaugh, proprietor of a Beavercreek township farm of two hundred and fifty acres situated on the Swigart road, rural mail route No. 2 out of Spring Valley, in that township, was born on that farm, was reared in Xenia and has been a resident of the farm, which he inherited, since his marriage in 1899. He was born on December 4, 1878, son and only surviving child of Samuel and Harriet (Davis) Puterbaugh, the former of whom was born on that same farm, a part of the old original Puterbaugh entry, and the latter on a farm adjoining, both in Beavercreek township.
Samuel Puterbaugh, who was a veteran of the Civil War, a member of Company E, Seventy-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was born on January 13, 1844, son of Samuel Puterbaugh and wife, the latter of whom was a Hower. The senior Samuel Puterbaugh was a son of George Puterbaugh, who was a son of Samuel Puterbaugh, who was one of the early settlers of Greene county and the owner of an original patent, signed by James Madison, to land in Beavercreek township, where he established his home and where the Puterbaughs have thus been represented since pio- neer days. Samuel Puterbaugh, Sr., grandfather of the subject of this sketch, became the owner of about seven hundred acres of land in Beaver- creek township. He was a charter member of Mt. Zion Reformed church and gave to the congregation the ground on which the church was erected. His wife was a Lutheran. They were the parents of three children, of whom but one now survives, Elizabeth, wife of George Moore, of Xenia.
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the only son, Samuel, having had another sister, Eliza J., now deceased, who was the wife of the Rev. J. F. Shaeffer, a Lutheran minister at Dela- ware, this state.
Reared on the home farm in Beavercreek township, Samuel Puter- baugh received his schooling in the local schools and was living there when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted for service and upon the completion of that service returned to the home farm and on November II, 1869, was united in marriage to Harriet Davis, who was born on the adjoining farm on April 30, 1848. After his marriage he continued to make his home on a part of his father's farm, the two-hundred-and-fifty-acre tract of which, now owned and occupied by his son, he inherited, and on that place spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on March 19, 1880. On October 25, 1882, his widow married John G. Ernst and her last days were spent at Dayton, her death occurring there on June 23, 1886. . To Samuel and Harriet (Davis) Puterbaugh were born three children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the last-born, the others having been Samuel, born on December 28, 1870, who died on January 5, 1871, and Ida May, June 20, 1872, who died on October 16, 1881.
John F. Puterbaugh was but two years of age when his father died and was but seven when bereft of his mother, after which he was taken in charge by his paternal aunt, Mrs. George Moore, of Xenia, with whom he remained until he was eighteen years of age, thus securing his early schooling in the Xenia schools. He supplemented this schooling by a business course in Scio College, in Harrison county, and in December, 1899, was married. Following his marriage Mr. Puterbaugh established his home on the farm in Beavercreek township, which he had inherited from his father, and has there ever since made his residence. Since taking up his residence there Mr. Puterbaugh has made numerous improvements on the place and has intro- duced the use of tractors into his agricultural operations. Politically, he is a Prohibitionist. He is a member of the Sugar Creek United Presby- terian church and, fraternally, is affiliated with the local camp of the Sons of Veterans at Xenia, with the Junior Order of United American Mechanics at Dayton and with the Daughters of America at Bellbrook.
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