History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 87

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

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WALLACE FRANCIS ANDREWS.

Wallace Francis Andrews, the owner of eight hundred and twenty-five acres of land in this county and now living retired in Xenia, was born on a farm in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, April 5. 1859, son of Samuel and Susan (Bryson) Andrews, who spent their last days in that county. Samuel Andrews also was born in Westmoreland county and his wife was born in Fayette county, in that same state. She died in 1892 at the age of seventy years, and he died in 1897, aged seventy-five. They were the parents of five children, three of whom are still living, the subject of this sketch having two sisters, Anna, wife of Charles Cunningham, of Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and Margaret, wife of John Stoner, a farmer, of Silvercreek township, this county. Samuel Andrews was the owner of a farm of one hundred and twenty acres in Westmoreland county, the coal rights to which he sold for one hundred dollars an acre. He was a Democrat and he and his wife were members of the United Presbyterian church.

Reared on the home farm in Pennsylvania, Wallace F. Andrews com- pleted his schooling in the Mt. Pleasant Institute and when a young man went to Kansas, to "grow up with the country." From Kansas he went up · into Nebraska and for a time was employed in the latter state on a big ranch. He later bought a tract of railroad land in that state and held on to it for ten years, occupying it, however, for but five years, at the end of which time he returned to Pennsylvania, married there in 1892 and took care of his father's farm until 1896, when he came to Ohio and bought a farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Fayette county. There he lived for five years, or until 1901, when he came over into Greene county and bought a farm of two hundred and thirty acres in New Jasper township, on which he inade his home. When Mr. Andrews came to this county he still held on to his Fayette county farm, but later sold the same, that transaction being the first one in which Fayette county farm land was sold for one hundred dollars an acre. Upon selling that farm he bought a tract of four hundred and twenty-five acres in Ross township, this county, which latter place his son is now operating. Since entering upon possession of his place in New Jasper township he has added more in Cedarville township, adjoining the same, and now has there four hundred acres on the Jamestown pike. In 1911 he remodeled the house, the same standing on that part of his farm formerly known as the old Watt place. In April, 1918, Mr. Andrews and wife moved to Xenia to live and now reside at 436 North Galloway street. Mr. Andrews is a Democrat.

On January 29, 1891, Wallace F. Andrews was united in marriage in Pennsylvania to Anna Junk, who was born in the vicinity of Dunbar, in Fayette county, that state, daughter of Robert Junk and wife, the latter of

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whom lived to the great age of ninety-six years, his death occurring in 1916, and to this union five children have been born, namely: Elbert, who is now managing his father's Ross township farm; Alice, who is at home with her parents; Samuel, who died at the age of seventeen years of typhoid fever ; Howard, who died of the same disease at the same time, he being fifteen years of age at the time, and Mary, who was born in 1906. Mr. and Mrs. Andrews are members of the United Presbyterian church.

JAMES C. CUNNINGHAM.

James C. Cunningham, a farmer of the Bellbrook neighborhood, a member of the board of the Greene County Fair Association and for years a member of the school board of Sugarcreek township, was born at Bellbrook and has lived in and about that village all his life, owner and occupant of the farm on which he is now living, a half mile out of Bellbrook, for the past eleven or twelve years. He was born on December 19, 1848, son of James and Sarah E. (Stratton) Cunningham, the former of whom came to Greene county from Shelby county, this state, when twenty years of age and located at Bellbrook. James Cunningham was a cooper by trade and upon locating at Bellbrook engaged in that business there, continuing thus engaged until 1858, when he located on the farm on which his son James is now living and there was engaged in farming until his retirement and return to his old home in Bellbrook, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there in 1896. He and his wife were the parents of eleven children, Robert, Frank P., Angeline, Charles, Martha, Elizabeth, Amanda, James C., Will- iam, Margaret and Minnie.

James C. Cunningham was ten years of age when his parents moved from Bellbrook to the farm just east of the village. He received his school- ing in the Bellbrook schools and for some time thereafter remained on the home farm, later going to the farm of his uncle, Matthew Berryhill, where he remained, engaged in farming that place, until his marriage in 1880, when he began housekeeping on a farm in the neighboring township of Spring Valley and there remained for seventeen years, at the end of which time he sold that place and bought the old home farm where his father formerly had lived just on the edge of Bellbrook. established his home there and has since made that his place of residence. Mr. Cunningham is a Republican and for nearly thirty years has been a member of the Sugarcreek township school board. He also is a member of the official board of the Greene County Fair Association, while as a member of the Grange he has for years done what he could in that connection to promote the general agricultural interests of his home neighborhood. He was reared a Presbyterian and his wife is

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a Methodist. Mrs. Cunningham, who before her marriage was Grace Jeffries, was living at Xenia at the time of her marriage to Mr. Cunningham in 1880. her parents, Francis H. and Sarah C. (Needham) Jeffries, having moved to that city from Lewisburg, this state.

PROF. JAMES HERBERT FORTNEY, M. A.

Prof. James Herbert Fortney, supervisor of schools in District No. 2 of Greene county, is a native son of Greene county and has resided in this county most of his life, now a resident of Cedarville, though for some time during the early part of his educational career he was engaged in school work in neighboring counties. He was born in the village of Osborn, a son of David and Alta (Fuller) Fortney, both now deceased, who were born on adjoining farms in Pike township, four miles north of the village of New Carlisle, in the neighboring county of Clark, the latter on February 7, 1847, daughter of James and Mary Jane (Verdier) Fuller, who were born in Virginia and who had come to this state with their respective parents in the days of their youth, marrying and establishing their home in Clark county, where James Fuller became a farmer and stock buyer.

David Fortney was born on February 9, 1842, son of Jacob Fortney and wife, natives of Pennsylvania and both of Pennsylvania-Dutch ancestry, who were married in Ohio and here spent their last days. On the home farm in the northwestern part of Clark county David Fortney grew to man- hood and early became a school teacher, farming during the summers and teaching during the winters. He married in Clark county and in 1875 came down into Greene county and located at Osborn, where he became engaged in the coal and lumber business and where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on December 30, 1913. In addition to his coal and lumber business at Osborn Mr. Fortney also was a stockholder in the Osborn Bank and in the Ohio Whip Company. He and his wife were mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church and for forty years he was an office bearer in the church and long a class leader and Sunday school worker. His wife had preceded him to the grave for more than fifteen years, her death having occurred in 1897, she then having been fifty years of age. They were the parents of four children, those besides Professor Fortney being Ann, wife of Harvey E. Snyder, of Osborn; Mary, unmarried, who is also living at Osborn, where she has continued in charge of the business there built up by her father, and Carleton E. Fortney, a mining engineer, now following that vocation in southern Illinois.

James H. Fortney completed his schooling at Ohio Wesleyan University, from which institution he was graduated in 1902. Upon leaving college he

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was engaged as a teacher in the public schools of Clinton county and pres- ently became employed as an instructor in the high school at Williamsburg. While there he was chosen by the school board of St. Paris to take the superintendency of the St. Paris high school and accepted the call. During his service at New Paris. Professor Fortney attended college during the summers and thus became qualified for his Master degree. When the new state school law became operative in 1912 the Professor was elected super- * visor of District No. 2 in Greene county and has since then made his home at Cedarville, that point being rather centrally 'situated with respect to the territory comprised in his district, which includes the schools of the town- ship of New Jasper, Ross and Cedarville and the Clifton consolidated school.

In 1904 Prof. James H. Fortney was united in marriage to Carrie Ryan, who also was born at Osborn, daughter of William H. and Ellen (Folkerth) Ryan, both of whom were born in this county, and to this union one child has been born, a son, James Herbert, Jr. Professor and Mrs. Fortney are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and the Professor is a teacher in the Sunday school. Fraternally, he is a Scottish Rite (32º) Mason, affili- ated with the blue lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, at Williamsburg; with the commandery (Knights Templar) at Urbana and with the consistory (Scottish Rite) at Dayton.

CHARLES THOMPSON.

Charles Thompson, a veteran of the Civil War, formerly and for years engaged in the retail meat business at Xenia and later a rural mail carrier, now living retired in the city which has been his home for many years, is a native of the great Empire state, but has been a resident of Ohio since the days of his boyhood and of Xenia since the year 1867, having located there not long after his return from service in the army at the close of the war. He was born in Onondaga county, New York, October 6, 1839, a son of John Thompson and wife, the latter of whom was a Gail, both natives of the state of Massachusetts, whose last days were spent in Ohio. John Thomp- son was a ship carpenter. He was married in Massachusetts and after a sometime residence there moved to Onondaga county, New York, whence, in 1845, he came with his family to Ohio and located at Piqua, where he resumed work at his trade and where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of ten children, Eliza, Deborah, John. Martha, Emma, Jane, James, Charles and two who died in early youth.

Having been but about six years of age when his parents moved from New York state to Piqua, Charles Thompson grew to manhood in that city. receiving his schooling in the public schools there, and was living there when

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the Civil War broke out. On April 18, 1861, three days after President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers to put down the armed assault against the Union, Mr. Thompson enlisted for service and went to the front as a member of Company F, Eleventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, serving with that command until the end of his period of enlistment, four months. He later re-enlisted and was attached to Company A, One Hun- dred and Tenth Ohio, attached to the Eighth Army Corps, and with that command was sent into Virginia and with the Army of the Potomac partici- pated in all the battles from the Wilderness to Spottsylvania Court House. Mr. Thompson served as a soldier of the Union for three years, two months and thirteen days and received his discharge at Washington, D. C., June 25, 1865, the war then being over. During this period of service he served with the Third Brigade, Army of West Virginia, to December, 1862; Eighth Corps, Middle Department, to March, 1863; First Brigade, Second Division, Eighth Army Corps, Middle Department, to July, 1863; Second Brigade. Third Division, Third Corps, Army of the Potomac, to March, 1864, and Second Brigade, Third Division, Sixth Army Corps, to the time of his dis- charge, the only period of disability he suffered during that time being a period of eight weeks when he was laid up with typhoid fever.

Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Thompson returned to Ohio and was employed in the neighboring county of Miami until 1867, when he moved to Xenia and there engaged in the retail meat business, continuing thus engaged in that business in that city for twenty-four years, during more than twenty-two years of which time he had his store on Main street. When the system of rural mail delivery was inaugurated in the Xenia postoffice Mr. Thompson was made the carrier on the first route thus established out of that office and continued to carry the mail on that route for seventeen years. or until his retirement in March, 1913, since which time he has been "taking things easy." Mr. Thompson has been quite a traveler in his time and has at one time and another visited most of the chief points of interest to travelers in the United States. He is a Republican and a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic.

On December 31, 1867, the year in which he took up his residence in Xenia, Charles Thompson was united in marriage to Ada P. Harner, who was born in Greene county, daughter of Jacob and Lydia (Kirshner ) Harner, both of Pennsylvania-Dutch stock, their respective parents having come to this county from Pennsylvania in pioneer days, and whose last days were spent in Xenia. Jacob Harner was a Republican and had served for some time as deputy sheriff of Greene county, as well as having served in township offices. He was a farmer and landowner. He was a member of the Lutheran church and his wife was a member of the Reformed church. They were the parents

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of five children, of whom Mrs. Thompson is now the only survivor. Two of these children died in early youth and Solomon and Caroline, the two others who reached maturity, are also now dead. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

JACOB I. WOLF.

Jacob I. Wolf, who died at his home in Xenia in the spring of 1898 and whose widow is still living in that city, was for years one of Xenia's best- known business men. For thirty years or more he was engaged there in the grocery business, was for years a member of the board of directors of the Citizens National Bank and was an elder in the First Reformed church. Mr. Wolf was a native son of Greene county, born at Byron, a member of one of the pioneer families here, and nearly all his life was spent in this county, the exception having been a brief period in the early days of his business career when he was engaged in merchandising at Kenton. He grew up on a farm in the Byron neighborhood and was engaged in farming. occupying his winters by teaching school, until after his marriage, after which he became engaged in the mercantile business at Fairfield. Not long afterward he moved to Kenton and was there engaged in business for one year, at the end of which time he moved to Xenia and there became engaged in the grocery business, a member of the firm of Harner & Wolf, 48 East Main street, and thus continued to his death, which occurred on May 7, 1898. He was born on November 14, 1833, and was thus in the sixty-fifth year of his age at the time of his death. In addition to his mercantile business at Xenia, Mr. Wolf was for years a member of the board of directors of the Citizens National Bank of that city. He was a zealous worker in the First Reformed church and was an elder of the congregation of the same at the time of his death. Mr. Wolf took a particularly earnest interest in the work of the church and it has been rightly said of him that "his church was his home," for to it he gave the sincere devotion of his heart. For some years he was a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, but was not an active member of that organization at the time of his death. During the Civil War Mr. Wolf responded to the call for hundred-day volunteers and thus rendered service as a soldier of the Union.

Mr. Wolf was the sixth in order of birth of the seven children born to Jacob and Elizabeth (Kershner) Wolf, the others, all now deceased, having been Abraham, Joshua, Daniel, John Lewis, Sarah and Christina. The Wolfs are one of the pioneer families in this county, as are the Kershners, and elsewhere in this volume there is further mention of these families. Jacob Wolf was born in Pennsylvania and his parents were born in Mary-

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land. They were early settlers in the Byron neighborhood in this county. Elizabeth Kershner's mother, Christina Philipina (Itenire) Kershner, was of European birth, a native of the grand duchy of Baden.

On January 31, 1859, at Dayton, this state, Jacob I. Wolf was united in marriage to Julia Ann Folkereth, who was born in the vicinity of that city on September 4, 1838, and who is still living, continuing to make her home at 225 East Church street, Xenia, her home for many years. Her parents were Christopher and Hannah Folkereth and she had two sisters, Mrs. Kit Carson and Mrs. Jennie Serface, the latter of whom is still living, and one brother, Pierce. To Mr. and Mrs. Wolf were born five children. May, the first-born, died in childhood and the others are Mrs. D. K. Prugh, . Mrs. Charles B. Gowdy, Marshall L. Wolf, cashier of the Citizens National Bank of Xenia, and Edna G. Wolf, special agent at Xenia for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company. Mrs. Prugh has two children, Mildred W., now a junior at Wellesley College, and Philip W. Prugh, an artist at Chicago. Mrs. Gowdy has one son, Richard W. Gowdy, who is attending the University of Pennsylvania, and Mr. Wolf has two daughters, Julia and Josephine, both students in Xenia.

IVILSON COMPTON.

The late Wilson Compton, who died at his home in Spring Valley in November, 1912, and whose widow is still living there, was born on a farm about a mile and a quarter northeast of the village of Spring Valley on Sep- tember 7, 1841, son of Henry and Catherine (Mock) Compton, both mem- bers of pioneer families in this county.

Henry Compton was born in North Carolina in 1798 and was but seven years of age when he came to Ohio with his parents, Stephen and Dinalı (Millhouse) Compton, Quakers, who drove through and settled on a tract of land about where now stands the mill at New Burlington, where they established their home. It was amid that pioneer environment that Henry Compton grew to manhood. He received his schooling in the neighborhood schools and for some years after his marriage continued to make his home on his father's land and then bought a tract of one hundred acres a half mile west of that place, to which he later added until he became the owner there of more than two hundred acres. He had other farm holdings in this county, his land here aggregating about four hundred and seventy-five acres, besides which he was the owner of six hundred acres in the neighboring county of Fayette. He spent his last days on his farm, his death occurring there on November 20, 1880, he then being eighty-two years of age. Henry Compton was twice married. His first wife was Mary Horner, member of

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one of the pioneer families of this county. To that union were born three sons, Stephen and Ezra, who established theniselves over in Fayette county, and Martin, who moved to Iowa. Following the death of the mother of these sons Henry Compton married Catherine Mock, who was born on the farm adjoining that on which her husband lived, December 29, 1810, daugh- ter of John and Mary (Horney) Mock, and to that union were born three sons and one daughter, Eber, Amos M. and Wilson, who became Greene county farmers, and Cynthia, who married James Dougherty, a Xenia manu- facturer. The mother of these children survived her husband about ten years, her death occurring on April 6, 1890. Her father, John Mock, came to this county from North Carolina in 1804, served as a soldier of the War of 1812, moved over into Fayette county in 1853 and there died in 1862.

Wilson Compton was reared on the home farm in the vicinity of Spring Valley and in the schools of that village received his schooling. As the youngest son he remained at home and gradually assumed the management of his father's farming interests on the home place, making his home there after his marriage in 1867. After his father's death he inherited the home- stead place of something more than two hundred acres and continued to reside there until in 1889, in the fall of which year he bought "Oakhill," the highest point of land in Spring Valley township, and there resided until his retirement and removal to the village of Spring Valley, where he built a house and spent his last days and where his widow continues to make her home. In addition to his farm "Oakhill," a little more than a mile east of Spring Valley, Mr. Compton retained possession of the old home place in the neighborhood. He was a Republican and in 1890 served as real-estate appraiser for the township of Spring Valley.

On January 10, 1867, Wilson Compton was united in marriage to Rachel A. Gaddis, who was born in the vicinity of the village of Harveysburg, in the neighboring county of Warren, July 8, 1844, daughter of Allan and Rachel Ann (Mershon) Gaddis, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Kentucky, who had come to this state with their respective par- ents in the days of their youth and who were married at Kenton. Allan Gaddis was a farmer in Warren county. His first wife died in 1845, leaving two sons and a daughter, George, William and Rachel, and he later married and moved to Decatur, Illinois, where he died on November 8, 1865. To Mr. and Mrs. Compton were born two children, daughters, Rosa G. and Birdie, both of whom are still living. Rosa G. Compton married F. B. Smith, of Spring Valley, and has one child, a daughter, Rachel Smith, born 011 July 27, 1893, who married Lindley Marlett, of Springfield, this state, and has a daughter, Rose Marie. Birdie Compton married William Alexander, a member of the old Alexander family of this county, further mention of

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which is made elsewhere in this volume, and lives on the old Compton home place in Spring Valley township. She and her husband have three children, Mildred, Robert E. and Virginia. Mrs. Compton is a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church, as was her husband.

JOHN HIGGINS.

John Higgins, Sugarcreek township, proprietor of a farm of a fraction under one hundred and twelve acres, situated on rural mail route No. 12 out of Dayton, is a native of England, but has been a resident of this county since he was but an infant and therefore feels quite as much a "Buckeye" as though born here. He was born in 1854,' son of Anthony and Winifred (Stanton) Higgins, both of whom were born in Ireland, who came to the United States with their family in 1855 and proceeded on out to Ohio and located at Bellbrook, in this county. Anthony Higgins was a stonemason and for some time after coming here followed that vocation at Bellbrook, but later took up farming in that neighborhood and died on the farm about twenty-five years ago. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, Thomas, John, Mary, Winifred (deceased), Anthony, Elleni and Gertrude.

Reared at Bellbrook, John Higgins received his schooling in the schools of that village and when his parents moved to the farm he became a practical farmer, a vocation he ever since has followed and is now the owner of a farm of nearly one hundred and twelve acres. Mr. Higgins became the pos- sessor of that farm before he was thirty years of age and has lived there continuously since his marriage. He and his family are members of the Holy Angels Catholic church. Mr. Higgins is a Democrat and fraternally, he is affiliated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

On June 18, 1896, John Higgins was united in marriage to Margaret Volkenand and to this union two children have been born, Winifred, born on April 23, 1898, and Herman, January 30, 1901. Mrs. Higgins was born in Beavercreek township, this county, daughter of Herman and Elizabeth (Brod) Volkenand, who were married in this county in 1852 and who were the parents of the following children : Leonard, Anna, Elizabeth (deceased), George, Herman, John (deceased) and Margaret. The elder Herman Volke- nand and his wife were both of European birth, born in what then was the state of Hesse-Cassel, but now and since 1866 a part of the Prussian prov- ince of Hesse-Nassau, the former in 1826 and the latter in 1828. Herman Volkenand was a son of George and Elizabeth (Hayes) Volkenand, who were the parents of five children, of whom only Herman came to America. The latter received his education in his native land and when twenty-five years of age came to the United States, sailing on March 1, 1851, and arriv-

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History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II, Part 87

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