USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 73
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GEORGE H. STILES.
George H. Stiles, who has been engaged in the barber business at Fair- field for the past thirty-five years and is thus accounted to be the oldest barber in point of continuous service in one place in Greene county, was born on a farm a half mile west of the village of Fairfield, on the tract now included in the great Wright aviation field established there by the United States gov - ernment in 1917, December 26, 1853, son of William and Elizabeth (Sen- senbaugh) Stiles, the former of whom was born on that same farm, a son of Benjamin Stiles, who had come here from New York and had opened to cultivation the tract now occupied as a training field for aviators who, beginning in the summer of 1917, have been in training for service against the German army in foreign fields.
William Stiles was born in 1830 and grew to manhood on the home place just west of where the village of Fairfield came to be established . After his marriage in 1852 to Elizabeth Sensenbaugh, who also was born in this county, daughter of pioneer parents, he established his home on that place and there continued to reside until 1866, when he left the farm and moved into Fair- field, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there in 1875. His widow did not long survive him, her death occurring in the following year. They were the parents of five children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first-born, the others being John W., deceased; Mrs. Annora
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L. Newcomer, also deceased; Otis L., deceased, and Adrian T., now living at Akron, this state, where he is engaged in the rubber business and who has been twice married, father of one child, a son, John, by his first wife and of two children, Roy and Naomi, by the second marriage.
Reared on the home farm, George H. Stiles received his schooling in the Fairfield schools and after leaving school was variously engaged until 1883, when he opened a barber shop at Fairfield and has since maintained the same. Mr. Stiles is a Democrat and for the past eight years has been serv- ing as treasurer of the Fairfield corporation. He is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
WILLIAM W. CRESWELL.
William W. Creswell, a retired farmer of Cedarville township, now living in the village of Cedarville, where he has made his home since 1904, was born in that township and has lived there all his life. He was born on a farm one and one-fourth miles east of Cedarville on December 1, 1867, son of Amos Wilson and Rebecca (Ward) Creswell, the former of whom was born on that saine farm, a member of one of the oldest families in Greene county, and the latter, in the state of New York.
Amos Wilson Creswell was born on March 13, 1827, son of Samuel and Letitia (Wilson) Creswell, both of whom had come here with their re- spective parents among the very first settlers of Greene county, Letitia Wilson having been the daughter of Amos Wilson, who in older chronicles is said to have built the first house put up in what later came to be the terri- tory comprised within this county. Samuel Creswell had come here in 1803 with his widowed mother, Mrs. Catherine Creswell, and his brother James and his six sisters, the family having come up from Kentucky with the colony of Seceders that accompanied the Rev. Robert Armstrong in that year and established a new congregation on Massies creek, the settlers having left Kentucky on account of slavery conditions in the latter state, as is set out at length in a more detailed history of the Creswell family presented elsewhere in this volume. Samuel Creswell established his home on the farm in Cedarville township above referred to and there his wife died in 1829, the year after the birth of her last-born son, Benoni, who in time established his home in the Cedarville vicinity and reared a large family. There were five children born to Samuel Creswell and wife, those besides Amos and Benoni having been James, who established his home in Illinois; one daughter, Ann, and Samuel, who died when eighteen years of age. Amos W. Creswell grew up on the home farm and after his father's death in 1855 inherited a portion of the place and afterward added to his holding until he became the
MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM W. CRESWELL.
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owner of three hundred and sixty-five acres, on which he had one of the finest houses in that part of the county, the site of his home being an emi- nence along the line of the railway commanding a view for miles about. During the progress of the Civil War he served as a member of the Home Guards, familiarly known at that time as "Squirrel Hunters." Politically he was a Republican and by religious persuasion was a member of the Re- formed Presbyterian church at Cedarville. After the death of his first wife in 1875 he left the farm and for two years thereafter was engaged in the grocery business at Cedarville, but later moved back to the farm and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on December 23, 1899. Amos W. Creswell's first wife was Rebecca Ward, who was born in the state of New York in 1837 and who was but a child when she came to Greene county with her parents. To that union were born five children, two of whom died in infancy, the others besides the subject of this sketch being Ada C., who married S. T. Baker and is living on her father's old home place in Cedarville township, and Samuel, who died in 1876, at the age of seven years. Following the death of the mother of these children, Amos W. Creswell married Mrs. Margaret (Townsley) Rainey, a widow, daughter of J. N. Townsley, who survived her husband a little more than ten years, her death occurring in 1910. By her first marriage she was the mother of one son, Dr. Ralph B. Rainey, who is now engaged in the practice of his profession at Lafayette, Louisiana.
William W. Creswell grew up on the home farm and received his schooling in the Cedarville schools. In 1894 he left the farm and engaged in the undertaking business at Cedarville in partnership with A. H. Barr, but four years later sold his interest in that establishment and returned to the farm. Upon the division of the home place following his father's death in 1899 he received two hundred and five acres and he continued to live there, managing the place, until a few months after his marriage, when, in 1904, he rented his place and returned to Cedarville, where he since has made his home, he and his family residing on South Main street.
On October 9, 1903, William W. Creswell was united in marriage to Ethel Fields, who was born at Cedarville on November 28, 1879, daughter of William and Fannie (White) Fields, both of whom also were born in this county, in the Cedarville neighborhood, and the former of whom is still living, now a resident of Dayton, where he is engaged in the carpentry busi- ness. Mr. and Mrs. Creswell have two sons, Alfred Ward, born on June 24, 1905, and James Nelson, June 24, 1909. They are members of the Reformed Presbyterian church at Cedarville and Mr. Creswell has been treasurer of the congregation for the past eleven years or more. In his political affiliation he is a Republican.
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GEORGE A. BIRCH.
George A. Birch, proprietor of the old Robert Mitchell farm on the Fairfield pike, rural mail route No. 3 out of Xenia, in Xenia township, this county, is a native of the Sunflower state, but has been a resident of Ohio since the days of his boyhood. He was born on a farm in the vicinity of Hutchinson, in Reno county, Kansas, May 3, 1880, son of George Haviland and Eliza (Kinkaid) Birch, the former a native of the state of New York and the latter, of Missouri, and the former of whom, a veteran of the Civil War, is still living, now making his home in Xenia, where he has resided since 1905, proprietor of the old Eavey homestead place on Columbus street on the eastern edge of the city.
The Birches are one of the oldest families in America, the genealogy being of record in an unbroken line back to Thomas Birch, who died at Dor- chester, Connecticut, on October 3, 1657, and whose children named in his will, dated June 4, 1654, were named as Joseph, Jeremiah, Jonathan and Mary. Jeremiah Birch, second son of Thomas, went to Stonington, Connecti- cut. before 1670 and there had a grant of land east of the present village of Clarks Falls. His children were Thomas, Jeremiah, Joseph and Jonatlian. the latter of whom, Jonathan, born at Stonington, Connecticut, August 22, 1706, married Mary Rathbone and had eight children. Jonathan, Jane, John, Zurviah, Jeremiah, Mary, David and Joshua. John Birch was born at Ston- ington on June 4. 1711, and on June 23, 1737. married Mary Bessey, to which union were born two sons, John and Joshua. This second John, born on December 13, 1738, moved with his father to Dutchess county, New York, settling at Pawlingtown, where both were enrolled in the Dutchess county militia for service during the Revolutionary War. The junior John Birch married Patty Ralph and their son, George Haviland Birch, born at Pawling- town in 1778, married Phebe Fairlie Mitchell, who was born in camp at New- burg during the Revolutionary War, her father at the time being post quar- termaster. This George Haviland Birch, grandfather of the present holder of the name at Xenia and great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. died in Rensselaer county, New York, July 30. 1852. He and his wife were the parents of thirteen children, namely: Maria, Erastus Mitchell, Sally Ann, Emaline, Elmira, Mrs. Harriet Link, Frederick, Phebe, George, James, Alford, Mrs. Caroline Traver and Henrietta. The second of these children, Erastus Mitchell Birch, was born at Pawlingtown, in Dutchess county, New. York. January 19, 1801, and died at Yellow Springs, in this county. July 7, 1885.
Erastus Mitchell Birch grew up at Pawlingtown and on January 13, 1830, married Sallie A. Milligan, who was born at Stockbridge, Massachu-
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setts, in 1812 and died in 1865 at Yellow Springs, this county. Twenty years before this last date, in 1845, he drove west on a prospecting trip, going as far as the then Territory of Wisconsin and liked conditions there so well that he returned to New York for his family and with them drove through to the site he had selected, and settled on a farm twelve miles south of Kenosha, then called Southport, he having bought a quarter of a section of land divided there by the Illinois-Wisconsin line, an "eighty" on either side of the line. Later he disposed of that tract and moved some miles farther south in Illi- nois and after a while disposed of this second tract and moved to a farm sixteen miles from Laporte, in Indiana, where he became engaged in the operation of a water-power mill. While thus engaged he became associated with the local swamp-land commissioner and bought up much swamp land in that and adjacent counties. In 1857 he came with his family to Ohio and located at Yellow Springs, in this county, where he spent the rest of his life. As noted above, his wife died in 1865. He married again and lived until the summer of 1885. He was a member of the Christian church and by political persuasion was a Republican, having originally been a Whig and a free-soiler. By his first wife, Sallie A. Milligan, Erastus M. Birch was the father of six children, namely: William, whose last days were spent in Reno county, Kansas; George Haviland, now living at Xenia, father of the subject of this sketch; John, who died at Dayton, this state, in 1915; Hugh, a lawyer and real-estate dealer at Chicago; Sarah Ann, who married Dr. Walter .D. Stillman and who, as well as her husband, is row dead, and Phebe Jane, who married James Hyde, owner of a four-hundred-acre farm in the vicinity of Yellow Springs, in Miami township, this county, and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased.
George Haviland Birch was born in Cattaraugus county, New York. January 2, 1838, and was about eight years of age when his parents moved to Wisconsin. He later lived with them in Indiana and was nineteen years of age when they came to Greene county and located at Yellow Springs. He completed his schooling at Antioch College and was living at Yellow Springs when the Civil War broke out. On April 17, 1861, two days after Fresi- dent Lincoln's first call for volunteers to put down armed rebellion against the Union, he enlisted as a member of Company F. Second Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with that command went to the front and thus participated in the first battle of Bull Run. Upon the completion of that term of enlistment he re-enlisted and served until long after the close of the war, not being mustered out until in December, 1865. During this long period of service Mr. Birch participated in many of the most important engage- ments of the Western campaign and was severely wounded at the battle of Chickamauga. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Birch
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returned to Yellow Springs and not long afterward went to Indiana and was for some time engaged in farming there with his brother William, who had a farm in Jasper county, that state. As a boy, George H. Birch had been given a tract of seven hundred and twenty-eight acres of swamp land in Starke county, Indiana, a gift from his father, but it later developed that the title was defective and he lost it. In 1875 George H. Haviland accom- panied his brother William and the latter's family to Kansas, each of the brothers taking a homestead in Little River township, Reno county, that state. Two years later, in 1877, in the adjacent county of McPherson, he married Eliza Jane Kinkaid, who was born in Missouri, daughter of William C. Kinkaid and wife, who settled in McPherson county, Kansas, in 1874. He continued farming his homestead tract until 1888, when he disposed of his interests in Kansas and returned to Greene county and for four years thereafter was engaged as manager of the four-hundred-acre farm of his sister, Mrs. Hyde, in Miami township. He then bought the Sellers farm in Xenia township and there made his home until 1905, when he sold that place and bought the forty-acre tract comprising the old Eavey place on the east edge of the city of Xenia, where he since has made his home. Mr. Birch cast his first vote for President for Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and he has ever since been a Republican. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and is affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. He has been twice married. His first wife, Eliza Jane Kinkaid, died on June 25, 1885, in Kan- sas, leaving two children, a son and a daughter, George A., the subject of this sketch, and Ina May, who is living at home in Xenia. Mr. Birch later married Rosa Belle Longshore, of Reno county, Kansas, and to this latter union two children were born, Edna, wife of B. U. Bell, of Xenia township, this county, and Richard, at home.
George A. Birch was but seven years of age when his father returned to Greene county from Kansas and he was reared on the farm. He completed his schooling at Antioch College and some time after his marriage bought a farm of seventy-five acres in Union township, in the neighboring county of Clinton, where he made his home for three years, or until 1906, when he sold that place and returned to Greene county and bought the Robert Mitchell place of one hundred and eighty acres on the Fairfield pike, in Xenia town- ship, where he since has resided. Since taking possession of that place Mr. Birch has sold sixty acres. He has remodeled the brick dwelling house on the place and has made other improvements. Mr. Birch is a Republican and in 1916 was the nominee of his party for county commissioner from his dis- trict. but was defeated in the ensuing election. He is a member of the Xenia Business Men's Association.
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On September II, 1900, George A. Birch was united in marriage to Florence Anderson, who was born at Trebeins, this county, daughter of P. H. and Mary Anderson, who are now living at Springfield, this state, and to this union have been born four children, namely: Helen, born on April 27, 1902, who is now a student in the high school at Xenia; Mary, March 21, 1904; Ruth, June 10, 1906, and Frances, May 21, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Birch are members of the First Presbyterian church at Xenia and Mr. Birch is one of the ruling elders of the same.
WILLIAM H. BARBER.
William H. Barber, president of the Tarbox Lumber Company of Cedar- ville, a former trustee of Cedarville township and the owner of a farm just west of the village of Cedarville, was born on the farm now owned by John Taylor on July 10, 1853, son of John Alexander and Eliza (Galloway) Barber, both of whom also were born in this county, members of pioneer families, and whose last days were spent here.
John Alexander Barber was born on a farm northeast of the village of Cedarville, a son of John and Sarah (Martin) Barber, who came to Ohio from Pennsylvania after their marriage in the latter state and settled in Greene county, establishing their home on a farm in Cedarville township. John Barber spent the rest of his life on that farm and his widow, who sur- vived him for some years, spent her last days in Cedarville. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom John A. was the tenth in order of birth, the others having been Samuel, James, Martin, David, Hester, Sallie, Al G., Robert, Frank and one who died in infancy. The father of these children was a soldier of the War of 1812 and he and his wife were members of the Associate Reformed church, in the faith of which communion their chil- dren were reared, the family becoming connected with the United Presby- terian church after the union of 1858.
Reared on the farm on which he was born, John A. Barber remained there until after his marriage, when he established his home on a farm just west of the village of Cedarville and there he spent practically the rest of his life, his death occurring in Cedarville in 1892. John A. Barber was twice married. His first wife, Eliza Galloway, was born in Xenia township, this county, a daughter of Andrew and Mary (Collins) Galloway, pioneers of that township, the former a native of York county, Pennsylvania, and the latter of Bourbon county, Kentucky, whose respective families were among the earliest settlers in the region that later came to be organized as Greene county. Andrew Galloway and wife were the parents of ten children, Wash-
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1
ington, Rebecca, Lydia, Eliza, Eleanor, William, Samuel, Isabella, Julia and Andrew H. Mrs. Eliza Galloway Barber died on July 16, 1866, leaving one child, a son, William H., the subject of this sketch. John A. Barber married, secondly, Sarah Townsley, of Cedarville township, also a member of one of the first families of Greene county, who survived him for years, her death occurring on March 15, 1915. To that second union were born two children, Eva, wife of Charles Ervin, of Xenia, and Florence, wife of Jesse Townsley, of Cedarville township. John A. Barber was a Democrat. He was a member of the United Presbyterian church.
William H. Barber grew up on the home farm in the vicinity of Cedar- ville and supplemented the schooling he received in the local schools by a course in Monmouth College. After his marriage in 1878 he established his home on the old home place a half mile west of Cedarville, one hundred acres of which he still owns, and there continued engaged in farming and stock raising for twenty-five years, or until his retirement from the farm in 1903 and removal to Cedarville, where he since has made his home. Mr. Barber is president of the Tarbox Lumber Company, of Cedarville. He is a Republican and has served as township trustee, as township treasurer and as a member of the library board.
On January 17, 1878, William H. Barber was united in marriage to Lucy J. Tarbox, who also was born in Cedarville township, February 4, 1854, daughter of John M. and Rachel (Nichol) Tarbox, the latter of whom was born in Belmont county, this state. John M. Tarbox was born at Par- sonsfield, in York county, Maine, December 3, 1829, a son of John and Lucy (Merrill) Tarbox, the former of whom was a soldier of the War of 1812. When John M. Tarbox was eight years of age he was bereft by death of his mother and two years later his father died. Thus orphaned he was early thrown on his own resources and when twenty years of age came West and presently located at Cedarville. this county, where he became engaged work- ing as a carpenter and where in 1852 he married Rache: Nichol. whose par- ents had settled there in 1840. Mr. Tarbox later followed farming for four or five years and then began the operation of a saw-mill on the old McFar- land place in Cedarville township. remaining there for fifteen years, or until the water-power became exhausted, afterward working for a time wit's the Jeffreys cabinet shop and then built a saw-mill at Cedarville. establishing there the business which has ever since been carried on there in the lumber line, now being carried on under the name of the Tarbox Lumber Company. During the progress of the Civil War Mr. Tarbox served as a soldier of the Union, a member of the Thirty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His wife died on February 24, 1901, she then being seventy-seven years of age, and since then Mr. Tarbox has made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Barber.
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He is a Republican and a member of the United Presbyterian church. To John M. Tårbox and wife were born six children, those besides Mrs. Barber being Maria, wife of Samuel K. Williamson, living south of Cedarville; Merrill, who died at the age of eighteen months; Mary Elizabeth, who died at the age of ten months; William J., who early became engaged in the lumber business with his father and is still thus engaged at Cedarville, a member of the Tarbox Lumber Company, and Thomas N., former post- master at Cedarville, who also is a member of the Tarbox Lumber Company. Mr. and Mrs. Barber are members of the United Presbyterian church. .
WILLIAM B. CLARK.
William B. Clark, former postmaster of Clifton and for years a merch- ant in that village, is a native son of Ohio and has lived in this state all his life, a resident of Greene county since the days of his early boyhood. He was born on a farm in Richland county, January 7, 1855, son of Nelson and Alin ( Reagh) Clark, the former a native of Scotland and the latter of Ire- land, who became residents of the Clifton neighborhood along in the latter 50s of the past century and there spent their last day:
Nelson Clark was born in the year 1812 and was but a child when he came to t .. is country with his parents, the family coming 'it out to Ohio and settling in Knox county. He later became a resident of Knox county, where he married, his wife having grown to womanhcod there, she having been but a child when she came with her parents to this country, the family set- tling in that county. For some time after his marriage Nelson Clark made his home in Richland county and then moved to Henry county, where he owned land, moving thence, about 1859, to Greene county, locating on a farm in the vicinity of Clifton, where he died in the spring of 1861, leaving his widow with a large family of children. These children, in the order of birth were James, Jennie, Samuel, William B., Alice and Sallie (twins), Mary, Alexander and Clara, of whom but four are now living, the subject of this sketch, Alice, Mary and Alexander.
William B. Clark was but four or five years of age when he came to this county with his parents and he was but six when his father died. He grew up on the farm and received his schooling in the Clifton schools, going up into the high school. He early became engaged in the tanning business at Clifton and was thus engaged for fifteen years, at the end of which time lie for a time worked on a farm, presently being appointed postmaster of Clifton and in the fall of 1896 became engaged in the mercantile business in Clifton, taking over the old Bennett Lewis stand, and conducted the affairs of the
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postoffice in his store. For nineteen years Mr. Clark was retained as post- master of Clifton and since the termination of that long term of service has continued engaged in the mercantile business. For the past twelve years he has been treasurer of Clifton and he also has held other township and city offices. He is a Republican and is a charter member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias.
In the spring of 1874 William B. Clark was united in marriage to Louise Grindle, daughter of Henry Grindle, of Clifton, and to this union have been born three children, Nelson H., Anna B., who died on May 29, 1907, and Clyde A., now living at Clifton, who married Myrtle Highwood, of Van Wert county, and has three children, Louise, Nelson and Eugene. Mr. and Mrs. Clark's oldest son, Dr. Nelson H. Clark, who married Nellie Lewis, of Clifton, has been for some years a practicing physician at Pittsburgh, Penn- sylvania, and was located there when the United States declared war against Germany in the spring of 1917. Doctor Clark offered his services to the government in behalf of the National Army and was appointed head of a hospital unit which was assembled at Lake Forest, a suburb of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Clark are members of the Presbyterian church.
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