History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 75

Author: Broadstone, Michael A., 1852- comp
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1440

USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 75

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James McKillip was born in Jefferson township, Fayette county, a son of John and Elizabeth (Whicker) McKillip, who had come to Ohio from North Carolina in pioneer days and had settled on a tract of land north of Jeffersonville, in Fayette county. John McKillip had been drafted for service during the Revolutionary War, but sent his brother-in-law in his stead. Before his death he was given a land warrant, but the same was lost. He became a pioneer of the Jeffersonville neighborhood, the owner of four hundred acres of land, and both he and his wife lived to the age of eighty years. Their children were Bettie, John, James, Sallie, Jane, Martha, Polly, Nancy and Thomas, and the McKillip family thus became a numerous one in this part of the state in succeeding generations. James McKillip married Rachel Mills when twenty-two years of age and established his home in the neighborhood of the place on which he was born. Upon his retirement from the farm he came over into Greene county and located at Jamestown, where he and his wife spent their last days, both living to be seventy-one years of age. They were the parents of ten children, those besides the subject of this sketch being the following: Thomas, who died in the days of his youth ; Nancy, who also died young; Clarissa, who died in the days of her girlhood; Sallie, who mar- ried Robert Walton and is now living in Iowa; William, deceased; Geneva,

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wife of Sanford Browder, a veteran of the Civil War, living in Fayette county ; Riley, who married Mollie Spahr and went to Kansas, where he spent his last days, and Harlan and Octavia, who died in the days of their child- hood.

Reared on the home farm in Fayette county, John L. McKillip received his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood and remained at home until his marriage in 1860, he then being not quite twenty years of age, after which he established his home on the place on which he is still living, in Silvercreek township, this county, securing there a tract of eighty-seven acres and starting his farming operations with a cash balance of twenty-six dollars. As time passed he gradually added to his land holdings until he became the owner of more than twelve hundred acres of land, five hundred and fifty-five acres of which he still owns, having given more than seven hundred acres to his chil- dren as they began to do for themselves. In addition to his general farming Mr. McKillip was for years engaged in the live-stock business. For the past . eight years he has been living practically retired from the active labors of the farnı. Mr. McKillip is a Republican and he and his wife are Baptists, in which faith they reared their children. When Mr. and Mrs. McKillip fifty- eight years ago entered upon possession of the place on which they are now living the only buildings on the place were a little old log cabin and a ram- shackle stable, but it was not long until they began to see their way clear to the substantial improvements of the place and in 1871 built the brick house which has ever since served them as a place of residence and in which their children were reared.

It was on January 8, 1860, that John L. McKillip was united in mar- riage to Mary Webb, who was born on a farm south of the village of James- town in this county, daughter of Thomas B. and Martha (Bryan) Webb, the former of whom also was born in this county and the latter in Dinwiddie county, Virginia, daughter of Thomas and Mary Bryan, who had settled south of Jamestown upon coming to this county in pioneer days. Thomas Bryan and his wife were the parents of nine children, those besides Mrs. Webb having been Morrison, Joseph, Reese. Thomas, Mary J., Sidney, Catherine and Betsy Ann. Thomas B. Webb was born in Silvercreek township, this county, son of Samuel and Mary ( Bull) Webb, Virginians, who had become pioneers of Greene county. Samuel Webb was a soldier of the Revolution and upon coming to this county settled on land south of Jamestown, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They had four children. Maria, Harriet. Asaph and Thomas B. The last-named was born in 1816 and grew up on the farm on which his parents had settled upon coming to this county. After his marriage to Martha Bryan he continued farming south of Jamestown. He died at the age of seventy years and his wife lived to be

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seventy-four. They were the parents of five children, those besides Mrs. McKillip having been Mary, who married George Weymer, of the James- town neighborhood; John L., who is living in the vicinity of Cedarville .; James, now a resident of Dayton, and Samuel, deceased.

To John L. and Mary ( Webb) McKillip eight children have been born and six are living. Amy S., their first-born, is the wife of William Shiflett, of Jamestown. Lester, their only son, is now farming in the vicinity of Jef- fersonville, over in Fayette county. He has been twice married, his first wife having been Ivy Armstrong and his second, Catherine Matthews, and has two children, Ray and John. Irene C., the second daughter, married Walter Adsit. of Dayton, and has six children, Harry, who is employed at Dayton ; Warren, who is now connected with the aviation corps of the National Army; Mary, who is employed as a stenographer in the service of the government at the aviation field at Fairfield, and Elmer, Roscoe and Roy. Flora, the next daugh- ter, is the wife of William Johnson, a sergeant of the Dayton police force, with which force he has been continuously connected for twenty-three years. Mollie, the next daughter, married Frank Gordon, a farmer, of Silvercreek township, and has one child, a son, Guy H., and Lena, the last-born, is the wife of Foster Jenks, a farmer of Fayette county. In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. McKillip celebrated the golden anniversary of their marriage and the occasion was made one of much felicitation on the part of their many friends.

WILLIAM GILMORE TAYLOR.

Not only was the late William Gilmore Taylor, who died at his home in Sugarcreek township on April 19, 1918, one of the oldest continuous resi- dents of Greene county, but he had the distinction of being a grandson of a man who in the days of his boyhood, long before this section became the habitation of white men, was for seven years an enforced resident of this region, a captive of the Indians who then had their village or "chillicothe" overlooking the river at the point now known as Oldtown, north of Xenia. That captive lad was John Gilmore, who was captured, together with . his mother, at the time of the Indian massacre at Kerrs Creek, in Rockbridge county, Virginia. His father and the other children of the family were slain by the Indians and their bodies burned in the ruins of their home, the chil- dren's brains being dashed out by the savages in the presence of their mother and their bodies thrown into the burning house. The savages retained the mother and the seven-year-old son John as camp servants and brought them back to the headquarters of the tribe at the then considerable Shawnee vil- lage now marked by the picturesque hamlet of Oldtown. For seven years the widow Gilmore and her son John were kept captive here and then one

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of the white men also held captive there effected his escape and made his way back East, in due time getting word to the friends of Mrs. Gilmore of the plight of the widow and her son. In Rockbridge county it had all the time been supposed that Mrs. Gilmore and the lad John had perished with the other members of the family. A rescue party of fifteen determined men was raised and this party proceeded on out here into the then wilderness, reaching the chillicothe at a time when the "braves" of the camp were away on a hunt- ing expedition. Keeping themselves concealed until they presently saw Mrs. Gilmore making her way to the spring for water, they there apprised her of the object of their mission. She returned to the village and without creating suspicion in the minds of the squaws told her son to help her get water from the spring, the two thus returning to the clump of bushes which con- cealed the rescue party and all quickly made their way out of sight of the village. Four days later they were overtaken by a party of Indians sent to recapture the escaping captives, but the redskins were repulsed and the widow Gilmore and her son John were presently restored to their old home and friends in Rockbridge county. William Gilmore Taylor's mother was a granddaughter of this plucky widow and a daughter of John Gilmore, the lad whose youth had been spent doing repulsive chores for his savage cap- tors in the region now comprised within Greene county. Jolin Gilmore became a valley farmer in Rockbridge county, a stanch Presbyterian and the father of twelve children. He lived to be ninety-six years of age and until within a year of his death walked the sides of his native mountains with vigor practically unimpaired. One of his daughters, Frances Gilmore, mar- ried Isaac Taylor, a resident of Rockbridge county, and the two came to Ohio, presently locating in Ross township, this county, where they spent the remainder of their lives.

Isaac Taylor was born on a vessel crossing the Atlantic Ocean in the year 1800, while his parents were making their way from Belfast, Ireland, to this country. The Taylors located in Rockbridge county, Virginia, and there reared their family. They were the parents of four children, two sons, Isaac and Andrew, and two daughters, one of the latter of whom mar- ried a Botkins and settled in Kentucky. There in Rockbridge county Isaac Taylor grew to manhood, being trained to the trade of a tanner, and mar- ried Frances Gilmore, who was born in that county in 1803, daughter of the John Gilmore mentioned above. After their marriage Isaac Taylor and his wife, accompanied by one slave given them by Mrs. Taylor's father, came to Ohio, in 1829, and settled in Preble county, where Mr. Taylor promptly freed his slave. Not finding conditions there to their liking, Isaac Taylor and his wife the next year, in 1830, came over into Greene county and bought a farm of one hundred and fifty acres in Ross township, the same adjoining the

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farm of Isaac Lackey, north of Jamestown, and later became the owners of eight hundred acres and there spent the remainder of their lives, the latter dying about 1880 and the former, in June, 1884. For some time after com- ing to Ohio Isaac Taylor was engaged in teaching school, supplemental to his work of developing his farm. He also was one of the pioneer singing- school teachers in that part of the county. He was a Democrat and at one time and another held various township offices. He was reared a Presbyte- rian, but later gave his mental allegiance to the doctrines of the Campbellites, though he did not formally unite with that communion. Isaac and Frances (Gilmore) Taylor were the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this memorial sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being Mary Jane, who became the wife of Ira Adair, of this county; Magdaline, who married Jackson Ballard, also of this county; John, who made his home at Xenia, where his last days were spent; Daniel, who made his home at James- town, where he died, and whose son, Jesse Taylor, attained more than local fame as an advocate of the good-roads movement, and Isaac, who made his home in the neighboring county of Warren, where his last days were spent.

The late William Gilmore Taylor, last survivor of the six children born to Isaac and Frances (Gilmore) Taylor, was born on March 19, 1832, on the farm on which his parents had settled upon taking up their residence in Ross township and there grew to manhood. He received his schooling in the local schools and after his marriage in 1859 established his home on a portion of his father's eight-hundred-acre tract and there made his home for ten years, or until 1869, when he sold the place on which he had been living and bought a farm of one hundred and seventy acres in Sugarcreek town- ship, moved onto the same and there spent his last days. For some years past Mr. Taylor had been living practically retired from the active labors of the farm, having long ago turned over the management of the place to his eldest son, Eldorus G. Taylor, who is now operating the farm. Though reared a Democrat, Mr. Taylor became a Republican under the Lincoln ad- ministration and ever after espoused the principles of that party. He was a member of the First Methodist Episcopal church at Xenia, as is his widow, and was for years a member of the board of trustees of that congregation, and also for some time served as class leader, while Mrs. Taylor ever has taken an interested part in the work of the Ladies' Aid Society. During the Civil War Mr. Taylor served as a member of Ohio's locally noted "squirrel hunters" and with that organization went out to help repel Mor- gan's invasion of the state.

On December 29, 1859, William G. Taylor was united in marriage to Mary Long, who also was born in Ohio, daughter of Thomas and Margaret (McMillan) Long, of Lost Creek township in the nearby county of Miami,

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and to this union five children were born, namely: Eldorus Gilmore, born on January II, 1861, who, as noted above, is now managing the home farm; William Vincent, January 22, 1865, a farmer, now living at Bellbrook, who married Nellie Cunningham and has four children. Ethel A., Hazel L., W. Virgil and Ocy; James Harvey, March 30, 1867, a carpenter, now living at Xenia, who married Ida Seiber and has twin children, Erman and Elsie; Ocy Lenore, who married James Sanders and died in Tennessee, leaving two children. Jessie and Dena; and Dessie, who married Clinton Beal, of Sugar- creek township, and has three children, Frances, Gladys and Velda.

JOHN MELVIN JACOBY.

Elsewhere in this work there is mention of the Jacoby family, one of the first families to settle in the Oldtown neighborhood in Greene county. The Gowdy family, with which the subject of this sketch is connected on "the distaff side," is also one of the real old families of the county, so that wherever the Jacoby's or the Gowdys are found hereabout it may very prop- erly be taken for granted that they are descendants of the old pioneer stock which has been represented here for more than a hundred years.

John Melvin Gowdy, owner of a farm northwest of Goes Station, in Xenia township, was born on a farm in that same township on January 15, 1867, a son of James Henry and Mary (Harner) Jacoby, both of whom were also born in Xenia township, in the neighborhood of Oldtown, and the latter of whom is still living, making her home at Oldtown. James Henry Jacoby was born on a farm on the Brush road, three miles north of Xenia, June 10, 1839, son of Peter and Sarah (Gowdy) Jacoby, the former of whom was also born in this county and the latter in Kentucky. Peter Jacoby, born on September 3, 1801, was a son of John and Mary Jacoby, who came here from Pennsylvania in the early days of the settlement of this part of Ohio and located on a tract of land on the old Brush road in the , vicinity of Oldtown, the old Shawnee Indian village or "chillicothe," where John Jacoby erected and operated a pioneer mill. There Peter Jacoby grew to manhood and in 1826 married Sarah Gowdy, who was born on March 6, 1803. daughter of John and Abigail (Ryan) Gowdy, and who was but a child when the Gowdy family, headed by her grandfather, John Gowdy, came up here from Kentucky, her parents locating in Xenia in 1809. On the gravestone of the patriarch John Gowdy, in the old Asssociate graveyard, the name is spelled Goudy. Just when he settled in Sugarcreek township is not known, but he was there previous to 1803. as his name appears on the first enumeration of that township taken in that year, the year in which Greene county was organized as a civic unit. He died in 1814, at the age of

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seventy-two years, and his widow survived him until May 6, 1838. John and Abigail (Ryan) Gowdy were the parents of eleven children, of whom Sarah, the maternal grandmother of Mr. Jacoby, was the last-born, the others having been : Mary, born on April 13, 1775; Joseph, May 20, 1777; Samuel, June 9, 1780; Robert, April 4, 1782, who had a tanyard in Xenia at an early day; Martin, January 27, 1785; Jane, May 31, 1787; John, August 3, 1789; Alexander, April 2, 1792; Ryan, February, 1795, who was one of the first merchants in Xenia, and Abigail, July 17, 1797. To Peter and Sarah (Gowdy) Jacoby, the latter of whom died on March 2, 1869, were born eleven children, one of these having been James Henry Jacoby, father of the subject of this biographical sketch.

James Henry Jacoby grew to manhood on the home place in the vicinity of Oldtown and on January 31, 1861, was married to Mary E. Harner, who was born at Oldtown, a daughter of Charles and Mary (Morgan) Harner, also members of old families in this county, further mention of whom is made elsewhere in this volume. After his marriage James H. Jacoby con- tinued farming and was thus engaged until his retirement in 1899. He died on May 28, 1907, and was buried in the cemetery at Xenia. As noted above, his widow is still living at Oldtown. To James H. and Mary E. (Harner) Jacoby were born eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth in order of birth, the others being the following: Sarah, wife of Frank Carlisle, of Springfield, this state; Charles Martin, who died at the age of three years; David W., who married Mary Carl and is living at Springfield, where he is engaged in the contracting business; Mary H., who died at the age of four years; Martha Isabel, wife of Herbert Keenan, of Oldtown; James Henry, a motorman on the traction line, who is unmarried and continues to make his home with his mother, and Morgan Franklin, who married Maude Harner and is engaged in farming in Xenia township.

John Melvin Jacoby grew up on the home farm, received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and in time began working as a farmer on his own account. After his marriage he rented a farm and continued farming the same until 1902, in which year he bought the place northwest of Goes Station, in Xenia township, rural mail route No. 2 out of Yellow Springs, where he ever since has made his home. The original tract he bought there had in but forty-five acres, but he has since enlarged his holdings to eighty- four acres. Mr. Jacoby is a Democrat and is a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias at Alpha.

On February 22, 1897, John M. Jacoby was united in marriage to Florence Settler, who was born in Beavercreek township, this county, daughter of Michael and Ella (Ditman) Settler, the latter of whom is still living, and to this union two children have been born, Hallie, born in 1900, and Ralph, 1910.

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CORNELIUS ZIMMERMAN.

Cornelius Zimmerman, a soldier of the Civil War and a farmer of Beavercreek township, now living practically retired on his farm on rural mail route No. 7 out of Xenia, was born in that township on October 9. 1844, son of Jacob and Mary (Shoup) Zimmerman, both of whom also were born in that township, members of pioneer families, as will be noted in references made elsewhere in this volume to the Zimmerman and Shoup families in this county. Jacob Zimmerman was born in 1806 and died on June 14, 1867. In addition to his farming operations he also kept a grocery and the hamlet that sprang up around his store was given the name of Zim- mermans, which it bears to this day. He and his wife were members of the Church of the Brethren and their children were reared in that faith. They had six children, two of whom died in infancy, the others besides the sub- ject of this sketch being Catherine, who married Abraham Coy and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased; Caroline, also deceased, who was the wife of Cyrus Roup, and Martha J., wife of George F. Ferguson, a biograph- ical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere.

Reared on the home place, Cornelius Zimmerman received his schooling in the local schools. During the progress of the Civil War he enlisted in the hundred-days service and upon the completion of that service resumed his place on the farm, also engaging in the threshing business, which latter he kept up during seasons for about thirty-five years. He married in the summer of 1866 and thereafter farmed on his own account, occupying various farms in the neighborhood until about eighteen years ago, when he bought the farm of sixty-seven acres on which he is now living and has since made his home there. Mr. Zimmerman is a Republican. For more than forty years he has been a member of the Church of the Brethren and for thirty-eight years has served as treasurer of the local congregaton of that church. He is an ardent friend of prohibition.

Mr. Zimmerman has been twice married. On June 21, 1866, he was united in marriage to Ada Crawford and to that union were born seven children, namely : Frank, now living at Dayton, who married Lena Leonard and has two daughters, Sarah and Lydia; Nettie, widow of Charles Moler, who has two sons, Floyd E., of Springfield, who is married and has a son, Charles A., and Ralph E .: William T., now living at Oakwood, a suburb of Dayton, who married Susan Wolf and has seven children, Martin, Mary, Robert, Caleb, George, Thomas and Martha: Cora M., who married Newton J. Coy and has three children, Roy, Crawford and Dorothy; John H., now living at Springfield, who has been twice married, his first wife having been Elizabeth Anderson and his second, Bessie Willard; Nellie, who married

CORNELIUS ZIMMERMAN.

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Charles Wright, of Beavertown, and has three children, Harold, Fred and Louise ; and J. Garfield, now living at Piqua, who married Elsie Stine and has a son, Loren. The mother of these children died on July 2, 1880, and in December, 1882, Mr. Zimmerman married Mary C. Trubee, of Zinimer- man, and to that union two children have been born, Russell, who is at home, and Lester I., who married Bonnie Moore and is now living at St. Louis, Missouri, a teacher in the high school of that city.

EDWARD N. RICHMAN.

Edward N. Richman, of Fairfield, was born on September 4, 1875, in Montgomery county, Ohio, the son of William and Caroline ( Newcom) Rich- man, both of whom were natives of Ohio.

William Richman was born in Madison county on September 22, 1834, and was reared on a farm in that county, receiving his education in the dis- trict schools. In his young manhood he was a dealer in horses and other live stock, but later took up farming and made a specialty of stock raising. He moved to Montgomery county about 1872, the year of his marriage to Caroline Newcom, who was a native of that county, and there he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1910. His widow still survives him, living on the old homestead near Dayton. William Richman and wife were the parents of six children, of whom Edward N. is the eldest, the others being Laura, wife of B. E. Barney, living on the old home farm in Mont- gomery county; Dora, wife of Herbert Seitner, a farmer living near Center- ville, Montgomery county; William E., who married Amber Selby and lives in Dayton; Ruth, wife of L. Horlecher, living in Belmont, and Carrie, unmar- ried, living at home with her mother.

Edward N. Richman received his elementary education in the Belmont school and later became a student at the Normal College at Lebanon, from which institution he was graduated on June 8, 1893. After leaving college, he worked as a bookkeeper in Buffalo, New York, remaining in that city for five years. In 1898 he returned to the home farm in Montgomery county, and engaged in farming, remaining there until 1901, when he moved to Madison county, where he continued his farming operations on a farm for his father. He remained there until after his father's death in 1910, when he purchased a farmi near Fairfield, on which he and his family lived until the fall of 1917, when he disposed of his farm and moved to Fairfield. purchasing there a tract of nine acres close to the village, which he has platted and is selling out in lots.

In 1905 Edward N. Richman was united in marriage to Nellie Young, (43)

.: :

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daughter of Ransom Young, who was a native of Greene county, born Feb- ruary 19, 1844, and whose death occurred in 1898. Mrs. Richman was born and reared in Fairfield, receiving her education in the village schools. Ransom Young and wife (Alice Helmer) were the parents of three children: Mrs. Jessie Whitson, who died January 27, 1893: Nellie, the wife of Mr. Rich- man, and Paul, who married Birdie Wider, and lives in Fairfield. Mr. and Mrs. Richman are members of the Reformed church and Mr. Richman is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a member of Mad River lodge at Fairfield.

GEORGE K. SCHAUER.

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History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 75

Author: Broadstone, Michael A., 1852- comp Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 1440

Author: Broadstone, Michael A., 1852- comp
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Indianapolis, B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 1440