History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 8

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 8

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GREENE COUNTY, OHIO

ber of the Xenia city school board. He is a Republican. The Doctor is a Royal Arch Mason, affiliated with the blue lodge, the chapter and the council, Royal and Select Masters, at Xenia, and is also affiliated with the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the local camp of the Sons of Veterans. Not long after entering upon his regular practice at Xenia, Doctor Messenger bought the house at the northeast corner of Second and Detroit streets and still resides there, with offices in the building. For the past year or more the Doctor has had associated with him in practice his son, Dr. Harold C. Messenger, a graduate of the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, who became associated with his father in prac- tice at Xenia after a year as interne in the Miami Valley Hospital at Dayton, and is now the secretary of the Greene County Medical Society.

On October 8, 1889, in his old home county of Jackson, Dr. A. C. Mes- senger was united in marriage to Amanda. L. Long, who also was born in that county, daughter of Elias and Emily (Carrick) Long, who are still living on their farm in Jackson county. the former the oldest native-born resident of the city of Jackson. Elias Long is a son of Elias Long and wife, who set- tled in Jackson county in 1804 and the former of whom became a pioneer merchant at Jackson. The junior Elias Long has for many years been a retired farmer in the neighborhood of Jackson. Mrs. Messenger was gradu- ated from the Jackson (Ohio) high school in 1886 and attended Ohio Wes- leyan University, at Delaware, Ohio. Mrs. Messenger is an active member of the Junior Woman's Club, also of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution of which latter organization she was regent for four years ..

Doctor and Mrs. Messenger have three children, Harold C., Lois and Emily, all of whom are at home. Dr. Harold C. Messenger was born on January 10, 1891, and after his graduation from the Xenia high school took a literary course at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, and at Dennison Uni- versity at Granville and then entered the medical department of the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1914. For a year thereafter he was stationed as an interne in the Miami Valley Hospital at Dayton and then entered general practice, in association with his father, at Xenia. In 1917 Doctor H. C. Messenger married Nelle Fairbanks, of Spring- field, Ohio. Lois Messenger was born on December 9, 1895, and was grad- uated from the Xenia high school in 1914. Emily Messenger, born on March 15, 1898, was graduated from the Xenia high school, in 1915. The following fall she began her collegiate work at Denison University and later entered the National School of Domestic Art and Science at Washington, D. C., from which she was graduated in 1917. The Messengers are members of the First Presbyterian church and the elder Doctor has been a member of the session of that church for the past twenty-five years.

GREENE COUNTY, OHIO

CAPT. ANDREW S. FRAZER.

Capt. Andrew S. Frazer, a veteran of the Civil War, former county auditor, former president of the Xenia National Bank, with the directorate of which institution he still is connected, as well as retaining connection with various others of the most important commercial and industrial concerns of Xenia, is a native son of Ohio and has lived in this state all his life, a resi- dent of Greene county since he was twelve years of age. The Captain was born at Russellville, down in Brown county, October 15, 1836, a son of John F. and Sarah (Kelly) Frazer, the former of whom was born in the state of Pennsylvania and the latter in Kentucky, who later became residents of Greene county, John F. Frazer for years being one of the leading merchants in the village of Cedarville.

The Frazers are of Scottish origin, originally hailing from the High- lands, but were transplanted into Ireland, whence, from County Down, came John F. Frazer's father, a weaver, who settled in Fayette county, Pennsyl- vania, where he established his home and pursued his vocation, later moving to Brown county, this state, where he spent his last days. John F. Frazer was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, and there learned the trade of a tanner, afterward locating at Russellville, in Brown county, this state, and continuing thus engaged at that place until the spring of 1837, when he moved with his family to Decatur, this state, where he made his home until in December, 1848, when he came to Greene county and located at Cedarville, where he bought a half interest in a general store and went into business there, the establishment operating under the firm name. of Mitchell & Frazer. He presently bought his partner's interest in the store and continued active in business there until his retirement in 1885, having thus been in business at Cedarville for a period of nearly forty years. John F. Frazer was an ardent Abolitionist and during the days preceding the Civil War was one of the most active "conductors" on the "underground railroad" operating through- out this part of the state, in that capacity having helped on his way many a negro seeking freedom. He took an active part in local and state politics and was a delegate from this district to the first convention of the Repub- lican party, held at Pittsburgh in February, 1856. During the progress of the Civil War he was enrolled among Ohio's famous "Squirrel Hunters," and while acting in that relation helped repel Morgan's invaders. He 'was an active member of the United Presbyterian church and a leader in local good works. John F. Frazer died at his home in Cedarville in August, 1890. He had been four times married and was the father of eight children, three of whom, the late James K. Frazer, of Sandusky, this state; Margaret, wife of H. P. Jackson, of Cedarville, and Captain Frazer, were born of his union with Sarah Kelly, his first wife, who died at her home in Brown county in

CAPT. ANDREW S. FRAZER.

77.

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1846. Of the others there now survive: Mrs. Flora Utter, of Crawfords- ville, Indiana; Nettie, wife of Lee Nash, of Xenia township, this county ; W. S. Frazer, of Springfield, this state, and John H. Frazer, cashier of a bank at Newcastle, Pennsylvania.

Andrew S. Frazer was but six months of age when his parents moved from Russellville to Decatur and in the latter place his childhood was spent. He was ten years of age when his mother died and for two years thereafter he made his home with an uncle, Samuel Mehaffy, at Ripley, rejoining his father at Cedarville in 1848, he then being twelve years of age. In the mean- time he had been receiving instruction at Grove Academy and upon his ar- rival at Cedarville pursued his studies in that village, completing his schooling in the academy at that time conducted there by Turnbull & Amyx. During the winters of 1855-6-7 he taught school in Cedarville township and was there an intimate friend and chum of Whitelaw Reid, afterwards editor of the New York Tribune and at the time of his death United States ambassador to England. In the meantime he had been acquiring a detailed knowledge of business forms in his father's store and in 1859 engaged in business for himself, in association with Jolin Gibney opening a merchant-tailoring estab- lishment and general clothing store at Cedarville, and was thus engaged at the time of the breaking out of the Civil War. In April, 1861, following President Lincoln's first call for volunteers to put down the armed rebellion against the Union, he enlisted his services as a private in Company F, Thirty- fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and when that company pres- ently was merged with a company from Clermont county was elected second lieutenant of the same, the company reporting to Camp Dennison in August. In September the command went into camp at Charleston, Virginia (110W West Virginia), and a few days later, in that vicinity, had its first contact with arined rebels. On September 25th the command moved to Chapmansville and in October moved thence to Barboursville, where it spent the winter in camp; in the spring of 1862 moving camp to Kanawha Falls and thence to Fayetteville, all this time being in almost constant touch with bushwhackers. During that spring the command participated in the battle of Princeton and in the fall of that year, September 25, 1862, Lieutenant Frazer received a wound which came near causing his death and from the effects of which he has suffered ever since. That was at the battle of Fayetteville, where his men were attacking a band of rebels five times their number, and he received a ball through the hip. The jail at that town was being used as a temporary hospital and he was removed there for first-aid treatment, that night being put in a wagon and hauled over Cotton mountain to the river, where he was put into a bateau and taken down to Galli- polis, where he remained in the hospital for eight weeks, at the end of

GREENE COUNTY, OHIO

which time his father was permitted to bring him home on a hospital cot. The Captain was very severely wounded and he was not able to arise from bed until in March, 1863, and it was not until in June that he was able to walk with the assistance of a cane which has been his constant aid ever since. Incapacitated for active service Captain Frazer resigned his commis- sion and received his honorable discharge. In the meantime his business affairs had been neglected during his absence and it became necessary to close out his interest in the store at Cedarville. In the fall of 1864 the Captain was the nominee of his party for county auditor, but was defeated. In 1866, however, he was renominated and was elected, entering the court house as auditor of Greene county on March 4, 1867. By successive re-elections he occupied the position of county auditor for sixteen years and eight months and during that long incumbency inaugurated a system of audits that is still observed there. In November, 1883, Captain Frazer became engaged in closing up the affairs of the First National Bank of Xenia, then in liquida- tion, and in September, 1885, entered the Xenia National Bank, which had reorganized the affairs of the former bank, and in January, 1886, was made cashier of that institution. Captain Frazer continued as cashier of the Xenia National Bank for nearly twenty-five years, or until the annual meeting of the board of directors in January, 1910, when he declined re-election, though still retaining his stock in the bank and a place on the directorate. He was then made vice-president of the bank and in the next year, 1911, was elected president of the same, a position he occupied for three years, since which time he has still continued to serve as a member of the board of directors, declining further more active office. It is not too much to say that much of the present strength of the Xenia National Bank is due to Captain Frazer's long and active connection with the same, a statement which the Captain modestly might deprecate but which his friends and the business community in gen- eral freely concede. Captain Frazer also has for years had other important business connections in Xenia and is at present vice-president and a member of the board of directors of the Hooven-Allison Company, cordage manu- facturers, and a member of the board of directors of the Home Building and Saving Company, one of the wealthiest institutions in the county. To other affairs along helpful lines the Captain also has for years given his atten- tion and he thus has been one of the strongest and most influential factors in the community life of this region since the Civil War. For the past six years he has been a member of the board of trustees of the Greene County Children's Home and is the present president of the board. He also served for two years as a member of the board of trustees of the Ohio State Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home at Xenia, in the affairs of which insti- tution he has for many years taken a warm interest. The Captain is a mem-

GREENE COUNTY, OHIO

ber of the First United Presbyterian church and for the past six years or more has been a member of the board of trustees of the Theological Sem- inary at Xenia, of which for years he has been an enthusiastic supporter. When the church congregation with which he is affiliated decided to erect a new house of worship in 1910 the Captain was made chairman of the build- ing committee and in that capacity had practical charge of the erection of the church edifice, one of the handsomest and most completely appointed in this part of the state. Captain Frazer is a charter member of the Ohio State Bankers Association, which was founded in 1891, and in the affairs of which he has ever taken a warm interest. Since 1886 he has been a member of the board of directors of the Dayton & Western branch of the Pennsylvania Lines and is also a director of the Little Miami Railroad. He is an ardent Republican and has for many years been recognized as one of the leaders in that party in this part of the state, but since his service in the county auditor's office has not been an aspirant for public office. During the time of the active existence of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Cedarville, the Captain was one of the chief promoters of the same, retaining his mem- bership there at his old home, though a resident of Xenia, and for some time served as commander of the post. He also is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

Captain Frazer has been twice married. On November 2, 1870, he was united in marriage to Jennie Mitchell, of Attica, Indiana, who died in October, 1885, leaving two children, Clarence S. and Katie, the latter of whom married William A. Cork and is now living at Toronto, Canada, where her husband is engaged in government service. Clarence S. Frazer, a bio- graphical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume, is one of Xenia's best-known merchants, having for years been successfully engaged there in the shoe business. In October, 1887, Captain Frazer married Ruby H. Sexton, of Rushville, Indiana, who is still living. In 1867 the Captain erected at 118 West Third street a comfortable brick house and there he and his wife are very pleasantly situated. It is not generally known in the com- munity, or perhaps forgotten by all save his old Cedarville neighbors, that Captain Frazer came near becoming a Kansan, which would have been a loss to Greene county, indeed. During the troublous days preceding the Civil War when Kansas was "debatable ground" and the scene of numerous fierce encounters between the Jayhawkers and border ruffians who were determined to fasten the institution of slavery upon the new territory and the opponents of that institution, who were just as determined that when Kansas did come into the sisterhood of states it should be as a free state, he accompanied a party of young men from Greene county to Kansas Territory to help swell the forces of human freedom there and remained there from April to Sep-

GREENE COUNTY, OHIO

tember, 1857, during that time helping to lay out the town of Emporia. In that party of Greene county young men was P. B. Plum, who put in his lot definitely with that of bleeding Kansas and who became a United States sen- ator from that state.

DANIEL McMILLAN STEWART.

Daniel McMillan Stewart, veteran of the Civil War, banker, former member of the city council and for many years actively identified with the various interests of his home town and of Greene county in general, and who is now living practically retired from the more active affairs of life in his pleasant home at Xenia, is one of Greene county's native sons and has maintained his home here all his life, though formerly and for some years his business interests required that he spend much of his time in the West. He was born on a farm on the Jamestown pike, just one mile east of the court house in Xenia, March 17, 1840, son of William H. and Esther (McMillan) Stewart, both of whom were born in South Carolina, members of families that became pioneers in Greene county.

William H. Stewart was born at York, South Carolina, in 1809, and was nine years of age when his parents, Samuel and Elizabeth (Hart) Stew- art, left that section, where they also had been born, and came over into this section of Ohio in 1818, settling on what is now known as the Collins farm on the Jamestown pike in this county. Samuel Stewart and his wife were members of the old Associate Reformed church, which after the "union" of 1858 became merged with the Associate church, the two forming the United Presbyterian church, and were bitterly opposed to the institution of slavery which had become fastened upon their native state and thus they disposed of their interests in South Carolina and came out into a free state. Upon his arrival here Samuel Stewart became the owner of two hundred acres of wood tract and with the assistance of his four elder sons cleared and devel- oped the same. He was an ardent Abolitionist and took an active part in the anti-slavery agitation of his day. The few slaves which had come to him in his native state he brought out here with him and gave them their freedoms. He lived for more than twenty-five years after coming to Greene county, his death occurring in 1846. He and his wife were active in the work of the Associated Reformed church and their children were reared in that faith. There were twelve of these children, all of whom lived to rear families of their own, except one, who died unmarried.

William H. Stewart grew up here a tall, raw-boned man of sinewy frame and of great muscular strength. He received but limited schooling in his youth, but by self-study in after years became a very well-informed man.

GREENE COUNTY, OHIO

Much of the tinie during his youth was spent with his ax in the woods. At that time the nearest real market was at Cincinnati, sixty-five miles away, and occasional trips would have to be made there for supplies. When about twenty-five years of age he married and located on a farm of one hundred acres on the Jamestown pike, one mile east of the court house in Xenia, estab- lished his home there and on that place all his children were born. When the Pennsylvania railroad came along and cut through his farm he left the place and bought a tract of one hundred and seventeen acres, the old Adans place, in the neighborhood of Cedarville, where he remained until 1870, in which year he retired from the farm and moved to Xenia, establishing his home in King street, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on April 23, 1889, he then being past seventy-eight years of age. Will- iam H. Stewart had become a Republican upon the formation of that party. Reared as an adherent of the Associate Reformed church, he later became a member of the Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter ) church.

William H. Stewart was twice married, his first wife, Esther McMillan, having died in 1856, after which he married Eliza Bradford, who survived him many years, her death occurring in 1912. That second union was with- out issue. Esther McMillan was born at Chester, South Carolina, September 14, 1814, daughter of Daniel and Jeannette B. (Chestnut) McMillan, who became residents of Greene county in 1832 and here spent the remainder of their lives. Daniel McMillan was born in County Antrim, Ireland, on August I, 1776, son of Hugh and Jane (Harvey) McMillan, natives of that same county, the former born in 1750, who were married there in 1775 and who came to this country in 1786, settling in South Carolina. Hugh McMillan and his wife were members of the Covenanter (Reformed Presbyterian) church and with four other families of that same faith decided to emigrate to the newly established United States of America. After an ocean voyage of nine weeks they landed at Charleston and shortly afterward located in the Chester district, in South Carolina, where they purchased land and estab- lished a church of their faith. Hugh McMillan died there on January 5, 1818, at the age of sixty-six years. His widow survived him until 1825, she being seventy-five years of age at the time of her death. They were the parents of seven children, Daniel, John, Mary, Gavin, David, James and Hugh.

Daniel McMillan was ten years of age when he came with his parents to this country and his youth was spent on the farm on Rocky creek, in the Chester district of South Carolina, remaining on that farm until 1794, when the family moved to a farm which the father had bought on Bull run, in the same neighborhood. When twelve years of age Daniel McMillan fell and suffered a fracture of the thigh bone, the accident rendering him a cripple. When eighteen years of age he suffered a second fracture of the same bone

(5)

GREENE COUNTY, OHIO

and thereafter was compelled to use both a crutch and a staff. He began teaching school and for eight years thereafter was engaged in teaching. In the meantime, in the spring of 1806, he married and, having saved the sum of five hundred dollars, engaged in the mercantile business in partnership with his wife's brother, James Chestnut. In 1830 Hugh and Gavin McMillan, his brothers, came over into Ohio on a mission in behalf of the Reformed Pres- byterian church and while visiting the church of that faith in Greene county became greatly impressed by the outlook in this region. Upon their return home so enthusiastic were their praises concerning the settlement here that the whole family decided to come out here, and in 1832 the sons of the elder Hugh McMillan, with their respective families, came to Greene county. Daniel McMillan bought an improved farm a mile and half east of Xenia and there spent the rest of his life. He was an elder in the Reformed Pres- byterian church and enthusiastic in its service, riding horseback to Pittsburghı to attend the presbyterial meetings of the same. An ardent Abolitionist, he had freed the slaves his wife had inherited, to the number of one hundred, and upon coming here became one of the active "conductors" on the "under- ground railroad," furnishing teams and other means to aid in the transporta- tion of runaway slaves to free soil.

It was on March 1I, 1806 that Daniel McMillan was united in marriage to Jeannette B. Chestnut, who was then not sixteen years of age. She was a daughter of Col. James and Esther (Stormont) Chestnut, who lived eight miles north of Rocky Creek, in the Chester district of South Carolina. Col. James Chestnut, who was an officer of the patriot army during the Revolu- tionary War, was at one time captured and was sentenced by the Tories to be hanged. The place of execution was fixed, but before the hour for the same came around a party of General Washington's soldiers appeared on the scene and rescued him. To Daniel and Jeannette B. (Chestnut) McMillan were born twelve children, of whom ten lived to maturity, namely: Jane, who mar- ried the Rev. Ebenezer Cooper, a minister of the Reformed Presbyterian church, and died in 1888; James C., born in 1810, who also became an active church worker and who was thrice married, his first wife having been Mar- garet Millen, his second, Christiana Moody, and his third, Mary Reece; Mary, who married the Rev. Robert McCoy, a minister of the Reformed Presbyte- rian church, and died without issue; Esther, mother of the subject of this biographical review; Martha, born in 1817, who married Samuel Dallas and died on February 27, 1898; Margaret, who married David Millen, of Xenia, and died without issue; Nancy S., born in 1822, who married Joseph Ken- dall, a farmer of Greene county; the Rev. John McMillan, born in 1826, who married Elizabeth Walton, was for years the pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian church at the corner of Fifteenth and Lombard streets, Phila-

GREENE COUNTY, OHIO

delphia, and who died on August 30, 1882; Jeannette, born in 1829, who married James D. Liggett, a Xenia lawyer and onetime editor of the Xenia Torchlight, and Daniel, born on May 6, 1832, who married Elizabeth Ben- nett and became a farmer and stockman in this county. William H. Stewart and Esther McMillan were united in marriage on May 6, 1837, and to that union were born eight children, of whom Daniel M. Stewart is now the only survivor. Four of these children died in infancy, one died at the age of twenty years, another died at the age of twenty-one, and the other, James R. Stewart, who married Rachel Dallas, spent his last days at Springfield, Mis- souri, his death occurring there on April 24, 1912.

Daniel McMillan Stewart spent his early youth on the home farm on the Cedarville pike and was fourteen years of age when his father moved to the Cedarville neighborliood in 1854, after which he attended the Cedarville schools, there coming under the instruction of Professor Orr and James Turn- bull. He later attended a couple of terms at the Urbana Institute and in 1860 matriculated at Monmouth College, but was taken ill with diphtheria at the outset of his college career and was compelled to return home, where for some time afterward he was in a poor state of health. When the Civil War broke out he desired to enlist, but was unable to do so on account of the state of his health. He was able, however, later to enter the service with the hundred- day men and thus served as a member of Company F, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Stewart returned home and became engaged in farming, his father giving him the old home place east of Xenia. He later became engaged in the real-estate and insurance business at Xenia, buying his grandfather's farms of three hundred and sixty-five acres, disposed of them and bought a farm in Champaign county and has ever since been more or less engaged in the real-estate business in and about Xenia. After his marriage in 1877 he established his home in Xenia, where his wife planned the erection of the brick house at 114 West Third street, where he still lives, and that has ever since been his established home, though for some years afterward much of his time was spent in the West. It was about the time of his marriage that Mr. Stewart became engaged as an agent for the sale of railroad lands along the line of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad and he was thus engaged for seven years, or until the lands were closed out. He then became engaged in the lead-mining business at Joplin, Missouri, and after operating with more or less success in that section for fifteen years "struck it rich" when he opened the "Get There" mine at Webb City, Mis- souri, which he developed and operated for three years, at the end of which time he leased the mine and later, in 1896, sold it. Since that time Mr. Stewart has devoted his time to his real-estate and other interests in and about

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History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 8

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