USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 9
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Xenia. For years he has been a member of the board of directors of the Xenia National Bank, for the past fifteen years vice-president of the same. Mr. Stewart is a Republican and for twelve years served as a member of the Xenia city council. He is a member of the United Presbyterian church and for the past thirty years has been a member of the board of trustees of the Xenia Theological Seminary. Mr. Stewart is a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic.
On January 1, 1877, Daniel M. Stewart was united in marriage to Har- riet Bonner, who was born on a farm on the lower Bellbrook pike, in Xenia township, this county, and who died in April, 1908, at her home in Xenia. Mrs. Stewart was a daughter of the Rev. James R. and Martha (Gowdy) Bonner, the former of whom at the time of her birth was pastor of the First Reformed Presbyterian church at Xenia and the latter of whom was a mem- ber of the numerous Gowdy family which came up here from Kentucky in 1806. To Mr. and Mrs. Stewart one child was born, a daughter, Lunette Belle, who was graduated from the seminary at Washington, Pennsylvania, and who on December 24, 1906, was united in marriage to Charles Murdock Kelso, a consulting engineer and contractor, of Dayton. Mr. and Mrs. Kelso have one child, a daughter, Mary Stewart Kelso, born on September 5, 1909, whom Mr. Stewart regards as "the apple of his eye."
IDA CLERKE WOOLSEY, M. D.
Dr. Ida Clerke Woolsey, who has been engaged in the practice of medi- cine in Xenia since the completion of her college work in 1893, is a native of the neighboring Hoosier state, but has been a resident of Ohio since she was five years of age, her parents having moved from Indiana to Cincinnati when she was a child, and in the Queen City she grew to womanhood. The Wool- seys have been identified with Xenia for many years, Doctor Woolsey's grand- father, Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey, of notable memory, having been one of the first real physicians to locate in that city and during his long residence there was one of the most conspicuous and influential figures in the professional life of the city. Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey had his office at the corner of Main and Detroit streets and was the first physician to give prominence to the fallacy of the old practice of "starving a fever." When he began to treat his fever patients by the reverse method it is recalled that there was no little local apprehension regarding the probable outcome of such a distinct de- parture from tradition, but his "feed a fever" theory soon proved its efficacy and the medical profession was advanced by so much. Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey also was one of the leaders in the labors of promoting the material interests of Xenia and was the chief promoter of the construction of the Springfield
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branch of the Pennsylvania railroad, the line that runs through Xenia in Detroit street. In other ways he contributed of his services and his ener- gies to the upbuilding and betterment of the community and at his passing left a good memory.
Dr. William Montgomery Woolsey, a son of Dr. Jeremiah Woolsey and father of Dr. Ida C. Woolsey, was born at Trenton, New Jersey, where the Woolseys had been established since colonial days, one of the well-to-do families of that city and of the city of Baltimore, and in Trenton he received his schooling, supplementing a thorough classical education by the study of medicine and in due time was licensed to practice medicine. For a time he maintained an office in Trenton and then came West, locating at Hamilton, in this state, where he for a time conducted a drug store in connection with his practice. He married in Cincinnati and later moved to Evansville, In- diana, but after a few years of practice there returned to Cincinnati, re- entered the drug business in that city and there spent the rest of his life, quite successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits, his death occurring in 1883. His widow survived him about four years. She was born in Cincinnati, Hannah Clerke Hall, a daughter of Ezekiel and Elizabeth Hall, early and influential residents of that city, the latter of whom was one of the seven founders of the Cincinnati Orphans Asylum. The Halls came to Ohio from Baltimore and when they located in Cincinnati there was but one brick house in the place. The Hon. James C. Hall, a son of Ezekiel Hall and for two terms United States senator from Ohio, was one of the most prominent resi- dents of Toledo during his day and, in association with Major James Oliver, bought and laid out one of the chief additions to that now thriving city.
To Dr. William Montgomery and Hannah Clerke (Hall) Woolsey were born eleven children, those besides the subject of this biographical review being as follow: Thompson, who died at Cincinnati when sixteen years of age; Montgomery Hall, who also died in youth; Samuel Parker, who went to the Northwest and married and established his home in Washington Terri- tory ; Mrs. Mary Robinson, who is living at Peru, Illinois, and who has two children, Ora and Eva; Martha Elizabeth, who died in Xenia in 1906; Clara Marie, who died in Cincinnati in 1875; Frances Virginia, who died during the days of her girlhood; James Hall, who married Therese Beatty, of St. Louis, and spent his last days in that city ; William Hall, who died in youth, and George Walker, who married Mary Berger, of Connersville, Indiana, and moved from that city in 1886 to Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he died in I888.
Ida Clerke Woolsey was but five years of age when her parents moved from Evansville, Indiana, to Cincinnati and in the latter city she grew to womanhood, receiving her early schooling in the public schools of that city.
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In 1870 she entered Vassar College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and fol- lowed a three-years course in that institution. In 1889 she entered the medi- cal department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and was gradu- ated from that institution in 1892, having qualified as a practitioner in both the Regular and in the Homeopathic schools of medicine. She then for a year pursued a further and special course at Ann Arbor and in 1893 opened an office in Xenia and has ever since been engaged in practice in that city, making a specialty of the diseases of women and children. Doctor Woolsey is a member of the Second Presbyterian church.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN THOMAS.
· Benjamin Franklin Thomas, who for nearly ten years has been serving the people of Greene county as county recorder, is a native son of Greene county, born on a farm in Silvercreek township on April 9, 1871, son of Joshua B. and Martha J. (Lucas) Thomas, also natives of this county and members of old families hereabout, and both of whom are now deceased.
Joshua B. Thomas was a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Bayliff) Thomas, the former of whom was born in 1800 and who was about ten years of age when he came to this county with his parents, the family settling in Silvercreek township about 1810, pioneers of that community, where the Thomases ever since have been represented, the family connection in this generation now being a quite numerous one throughout this part of the state. Benjamin Thomas and wife were members of the old Mt. Carmel Methodist Protestant church. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom Joshua B., born on the home farm in Silvercreek township on June 27, 1827, was the third in order of birth. Joshua B. Thomas grew to man- hood on the home farm and after his marriage bought his father's home place of one hundred and twenty acres in Silvercreek and Jefferson townships and there established his home. He later bought additional land, sixty-seven acres, in New Jasper and Caesarscreek townships. He and his wife were members of the Mt. Carmel Methodist Episcopal church. Joshua B. Thomas died at his farm home in 1881, he then being fifty-six years of age. His widow survived him about sixteen years, her death occurring in 1907, she then being sixty-seven years of age.
On May 19, 1859, Joshua B. Thomas was united in marriage to Martha J. Lucas, who was born in Jefferson township, this county, a daughter of John and Nancy (Harness) Lucas, both of whom also were born in this county, members of pioneer families, and one of whose children, Mrs. Elizabeth Hite. is still living in this county, a venerable resident of the Bowersville neighbor- hood. To Joshua B. and Martha J. (Lucas) Thomas were born ten children,
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namely : Mary Elizabeth, who married J. L. Fawcett and lives in Caesarscreek township; Jacob A., who died in infancy; Nancy Margaret, now deceased, who was the wife of Louis A. Gerard; Sarah Ellen, wife of Granville Gultice, of Xenia; Anna Lucretia, wife of H. E. Powers, of Jefferson township: Hannah L., who died in childhood: Benjamin Franklin, the subject of this sketch; Joshua Sanford, who is still living on the old home farm in Silver- creek township; Hattie J., wife of Alvin E. Stingley, a resident of the neigh- boring county of Clinton, and John Lewis, who married Blanche McGath and lives at Alpha, this county.
Reared on the home farm in Silvercreek township, Benjamin F. Thomas received his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood. He was but ten years of age when his father died and he remained at home until his marriage at the age of twenty-three years, when he bought and continued to operate a part of the home place. In 1905 he disposed of his interests there and with his wife moved to Xenia, where he became engaged as a clerk in a hardware store, a sarcomatous development on his right leg having incapacitated him for the labors of the farm. Two years later he was compelled to go to the hospital, where his leg was amputated, and for nearly two years thereafter he was laid up. During the campaign of 1908 Mr. Thomas received the Republican nomination for the office of recorder of Greene county and was elected to that office. By successive re-elections he has been continuously since retained in that office, now serving his ninth year as recorder. Mr. Thomas is a Republican. He and his wife are members of Trinity Methodist Episcopal church at Xenia. Mr. Thomas is a member of the local lodges of the Knights of Pythias and of the Benevolent and Fraternal Order of Elks. He and his wife have their home at 32 East Third street.
On October II, 1894, Benjamin F. Thomas was united in marriage to Anna Belle Curry, who was born at Oskaloosa, Iowa, September 27, 1872, a daughter of James L. and Abigail (Smith) Curry, both of whom were born and reared in Greene county, members of old families in Jefferson town- ship, and whose last days were spent in Iowa. James L. Curry was reared as a farmer in Jefferson township and after his marriage began farming there on his own account, but his health presently failing he moved to Oska- loosa, Iowa, where he began clerking in a hardware store and where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on September 21, 1880, he then being but thirty-one years of age. His widow survived him less than a year, her death occurring on April 21, 1881, she then being but twenty-eight years of age. By the death of these parents four small children were left orphaned. Of these Mrs. Thomas was the eldest, the others being Ira Astor, who lives at Jamestown, this county; Cary, who lives on a farm in the Paintersville neighborhood in this county, and Melissa, wife of Guy L. Harner, of Xenia.
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After the death of Mr. and Mrs. Curry their children were taken in charge · by kinsfolk in this county and Mrs. Thomas was reared in the home of her mother's brother, Levi H. Smith, where she was living at the time of her marriage to Mr. Thomas.
SILAS OPDYKE HALE.
Silas Opdyke Hale, former clerk of the common pleas court and for the past four years or more deputy county auditor, one of the most agreeable and accommodating officials that ever served in the Greene county court house, is a native son of Greene county and has lived here practically all his life, a member of two of the oldest families in the county, both the Hales and the Opdykes having been among the earliest settlers hereabout, the Hales, indeed, having been here even before Greene county was created a civic unit, thus being accounted among the real pioneer families of this sec- tion of the state of Ohio.
The Hales are of English stock and are a far-flung family, the present descendants of the various immigrants of that name who settled in this country in colonial days now being a numerous and widely scattered con- nection throughout the United States. The progenitor of the Greene county branch of the family was James Hale, who was born in England in the year 1737 and who with his wife, Catherine Baird, born in 1741, of Welsh stock, came to the American colonies in order to enjoy a religious freedom denied to them in their own country. James Hale was a follower of George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, and upon his arrival on this side he estab- lished his home in what he thought was a part of the Penn grant, but when the disputed boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland was settled by the establishment of the Mason and Dixon line in 1767, he found that he was in the Baltimore tract in what is now Baltimore county, Maryland. In order therefore to be in actual geographic connection with his Quaker friends he moved over the line and took up his abode at the foot of Tushey mountain on the Juniata river, in what is now Blair county, Pennsylvania, As that settlement began to fill up, with true pioneer instinct he moved with his family down into Kentucky and settled in Mason county, where he spent his last days, his death occurring there in 1801 at his home on Clarks run, in the Bryant Station neighborhood, nine miles from Maysville. In the fol- lowing year, 1802, his widow came up into this part of Ohio with her son John, who had previously bought a tract of land here, and here she spent her last days. James and Catherine (Baird) Hale were the parents of eight children, Rebecca, Joseph, Lydia, John, Hannah, James, Thomas and Silas. As most of these children married and reared families of their own, it is
SILAS O. HALE.
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readily realized that the Hale connection in this generation is a numerous one.
John Hale, the second son and fourth child of the earnest Quaker couple whose coming to this country is above set forth, was born on November 25, 1775, and was well grown when his parents moved with their family from Pennsylvania to Kentucky. He married Sarah Bowen, who was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, and in 1801, the year of their father's death, came up into the then Territory of Ohio and bought a tract of government land in what later came to be organized as Sugarcreek township, Greene county, and in 1802 moved up and established his home there, on the west half of the southeast quarter of section 3, township 2, range 6, thus becom- ing one of the real pioneers of Greene county. When John Hale and his wife came here they were accompanied by their two small sons, James and Bowen, and in the following year another son, Silas, was born to them. The mother of these children died in 1814 and on June 29, 1815, John Hale married Sarah Lewis. To this second union were born ten children, Har- mon, Rhoda, Nancy, Lewis, Rachel, John, Riley, Sarah, David and Martha. After he had made a clearing on his place John Hale established there a tan- nery, but in 1838 he sold his place and moved to Kosciusko county, Indiana, where he spent his last days, his death occurring there on September 25, 1845, he then being sixty-nine years and ten months of age. When he left Greene county he sold his place in the Bellbrook neighborhood to William Husten, who later sold it to David John, from whom it was bought by Silas Hale, son of the original owner, and thus came back into the possession of the Hale family. During the War of 1812 John Hale, the pioneer, rendered service as a member of Capt. Ammi Maltbie's company of Ohio militia, serving for three months following the news of the surrender of Hull at Detroit.
Silas Hale, son of John and Sarah (Bowen) Hale, the pioneers, was born on the home place in the neighborhood of where Bellbrook later came to be established, August 26, 1803, and there grew up amid typical pioneer conditions, helpful as a boy in his father's tanyard. When seventeen years of age he went to Wilmington, where he learned the cabinet-making trade, and three years later returned to Bellbrook and there set up a cabinet-making shop of his own, making a general line of furniture and also making the coffins needful in the community. Ten years later, in 1833, in association with his father, he started a general store at Bellbrook and when five years later his father moved to Indiana he became sole proprietor of the store and thus continued in business at that place practically all the rest of his life, his death occurring there, June 20, 1889, not long after his retirement from business. Silas Hale had served his community in various official
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capacities. In 1839 he was elected treasurer of Sugarcreek township and for more than forty years held that office, finally resigning the same. In 1855, during the administration of Franklin Pierce, he was appointed post- master of Bellbrook and held that commission for thirty-one years and two months, or until retired during the first Cleveland administration. In 1854 he was elected justice of the peace in and for his home township and for some years served in that important magisterial capacity. In 1840 he united with the Methodist Protestant communion and was for years a member of the board of trustees and also a member of the board of stewards of his local congregation at Bellbrook. Fraternally, he was a Mason and an Odd Fellow and in these relations took the same earnest and serviceable interest that marked all his relations with his fellow men, and when he died at the ripe old age of eighty-six years there were many warm tributes paid to his memory in the community in which he had so long and so faithfully labored.
On July 20, 1830, in his home township, Silas Hale was united in mar- riage to Miriam Opdyke, who was born on February 5, 1814, sixth in order of birth of the ten children born to Henry and Catherine (Cummings) Opdyke, natives of New Jersey and pioneers of Greene county, the other children of that pioneer family having been Electa, Mary Ann, Peninah, Clarissa, Martha, George, Louisa, Emily Jane and Oliver Perry. The Opdykes are of Dutch descent, the first of this branch of the family to come to America from Holland having settled in New Jersey, where Henry Opdyke was born on November 16, 1774. Some time after his marriage Henry Opdyke came to Ohio and established his home in Sugarcreek township, this county, where on January 23, 1825, he accidentally met his death, being struck on the head by a mattock which fell into a well on the bottom of which he was working. The brick house erected by him on his farm just northwest of the village of Bellbrook is still standing. His widow survived him for nearly thirty years, her death occurring on November 1, 1854. Silas Hale's widow also sur- vived him for years, her death occurring at the home of her son, Francis G. Hale, in Dayton, Ohio, May 30, 1910. To Silas and Miriam (Opdyke) Hale were born ten children, of whom the subject of this biographical sketch was the last born, the others being as follows: Dorinda, who married Dr. J. R. Brelsford; John C., who moved to Indiana and made his home on a farm in Adams county, that state; Mary Jane, who married James Hart- sook, of Cæsarscreek township; Henry H., a veteran of the Civil War and formerly engaged in the mercantile business at Bellbrook, now living retired at Xenia; Bowen, who went to the front as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, a member of Company D. Seventy-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died at Camp Chase, while in service, April 22, 1862; Angeline, who died in 1848, at the age of three years; James R.,
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formerly editor of the Spring Valley Blade, and now document clerk in the state library at Columbus, Ohio, and Melancthon, who died in the fall of 1872, he than being twenty-two years of age.
Silas Opdyke Hale, last born of the children of Silas and Miriam (Opdyke) Hale, was born at Bellbrook on March 9, 1858, and received his early schooling in the excellent schools of his home village, after supplement- ing the same by a course in the National Normal University at Lebanon, this state, meanwhie occupying his summers for a few years by working at the carpenter trade and his winters by teaching school in the schools of his home township. When the Sugarcreek high school was established Mr. Hale was made first principal of the same, at the same time being made superin- tendent of the township school. While thus serving Mr. Hale became one of the most active promoters in the work of organizing the Ohio State Township Superintendents Association and was elected first president of the same, afterward serving successively as secretary and as treasurer of the association. He also served for one year as a member of the executive com- mittee of the Greene County Teachers Association and was chosen to preside over the Teachers' Summer Institute. He then was elected president of the teachers' association and as such again conducted the Teachers' Summer In- stitute, which was declared one of the most popular ever held in Xenia. In 1900 Mr. Hale resigned his position as superintendent of his home township schools in order to enter upon the duties of the office of clerk of the court of common pleas for Greene county, to which office he had been elected in that year as the nominee of the Republican party, and by successive re- elections he served in that office until 1909, after which he resumed his edu- cational labors. In August, 1911, Mr. Hale went to California and was there engaged for two years as principal of the South San Diego school. He later returned to Xenia and in October, 1913, was appointed deputy county auditor, a position he ever since has occupied.
Mr. Hale has been twice married. On November 29, 1881, at Bell- brook, he was united in marriage to Anna M. Gibbons, who also was born in that village, daughter of Thomas Gibbons and wife, and to that union was born one child, a daughter, Minnie Miriam, who on June II, 1913, mar- ried Harvey A. Wegener and now lives at Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, her husband being there engaged as head of the porcelain department of the great Westinghouse works. Mr. and Mrs. Wegener have two children, Silas Hale Wegener, born on June 24, 1914, and Anna Elizabeth, January 1, 1917. Mrs. Anna Hale died at South San Diego, California, on June 4, 1913, and on October 19, 1914, at Xenia, Mr. Hale married Mabel Graham, daughter of Prof. George J. Graham and wife, the former of whom was for twenty- five years principal of the high school at Xenia and later superintendent of
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the city schools and a biographical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Hale have a very pleasant home at Xenia. Mr. Hale was formerly an Odd Fellow and an Elk and is now a member of the Masonic order at Xenia. Ever since the days of his boyhood he has taken an active part in local political affairs and has rendered service as a member of the Republican county central committee. During his residence at Bell- brook he was for ten years treasurer of Sugarcreek township and was also for several terms treasurer of the village of Bellbrook, as well as a member of the village council. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Epis- copal church. Mrs. Hale was graduated from the Xenia high school and from Antioch College, for some time taught school in Xenia and vicinity and was a member of the high school faculty at Washington Court House at the time of her marriage to Mr. Hale.
CHARLES L. SPENCER.
The biographer knows of no better epitome of the life work and of the services to this community of the late Charles L. Spencer than that contained in the closing paragraphs of the memorial resolutions adopted by the Greene County Bar Association and presented to Mr. Spencer's widow and daughter following the death of that lamented gentleman in the spring of 1917. The members of the committee which prepared these resolutions, M. J. Hartley, H. L. Smith and W. F. Trader, were fellow attorneys of the departed member of the Bar Association and the words which they framed to meet the call of the association bear the stamp of sincerity and loving fellow feel- ing that cannot be mistaken. After reviewing Mr. Spencer's busy life from the days of his boyish struggles to obtain an education which would fit him for that position in life to which he felt he was entitled and for which he felt he was innately qualified, these resolutions continue :
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