USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume II > Part 90
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On August 19, 1862, on the Clear Spring camp-meeting ground near Spring Valley, Alfred Loy was united in marriage to Mary J. Debarr, daugh- ter of the Rev. Thomas J. and Mary Ann (Talbert) Debarr, of Bellbrook, the former of whom was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. and Mrs. Loy celebrated their golden-wedding anniversary in 1912 and Mrs. Loy died on October 15, 1914. To them two children were born, Elmer Elsworth, born on May 20, 1863, who died on March 7, 1866, and Omar Weston, born on October 10, 1866, who died on June 15, 1882.
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SAMUEL S. JOHNSON.
Samuel S. Johnson, a retired coal dealer living at Yellow Springs. was born on a farm in the vicinity of Plattsburg, in Harmony township. in the neighboring county of Clark, February 23, 1843, son of James and Catherine (Smith) Johnson, the former of whom was born in Kentucky and the latter in Ohio.
James Johnson was born in 1800 and was but a child when his parents came to Ohio from Kentucky and settled in the neighborhood of Cable, in Champaign county, where they established themselves on a farm. There he grew to manhood, becoming a practical farmer, and after his marriage began farming in Harmony township, in Clark county, on a place not far from Plattsburg, and there he remained until 1848, in which year he returned to Champaign county, resumed farming there and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1866. His widow survived him eight years, her death occurring on December 17, 1874. They were the parents of eleven children, Elizabeth, Mary, Ezra, Nancy, Sarah, James, Jefferson, Samuel, Olive, Clay and Arminda, of whom but three are now living, the subject of this sketch and his sisters, Sarah and Arminda.
Samuel S. Johnson was about five years of age when his parents moved from Clark county to Champaign county and in the latter county he grew to manhood, received his schooling and became engaged in farming on his own account, establishing his home on a farm there after his marriage in 1873. During the Civil War he rendered service as a soldier, a member of Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Johnson continued to make his home in Champaign county until his retirement from the farm in 1893 and removal to Yellow Springs. where for a year he liad charge of the college boarding house. He the', in 1894, became engaged in the coal business at Yellow Springs and continued thus engaged until on February 7, 1915. when he sold his coal yards and establishment to P. W. Drake and has since been living retired. Mr. Johnson is a Republican with independent leanings. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and a Royal Arch and York Rite Mason, affiliated with the blue lodge at Yellow Springs and the chapter and commandery at Urbana, and is also a member of the Urbana lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
On November 25, 1873, in Champaign county, Samuel S. Johnson was united in marriage to Amanda Mahan, of that county, born on December 11, 1846. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson have one child, a daughter, Miss Anza John- son, born on April 25, 1875, who is living at home and who is a professional nurse, now giving her special attention to the work of the Red Cross Society. The Johnsons are members of the Christian church.
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B. J. MIDDLETON.
For nearly one hundred years the family of Middleton has been repre- sented in Green county and the old home place at Middletons Corners, in Caesarscreek township, now occupied by B. J. Middleton, has been in the family ever since the tract was settled there by James and Thomas Middleton about the year 1825. These brothers, James and Thomas Middleton, were Virginians, born in Berkeley county, sons of Bethuel and Naomi (Ganoe) Middleton, also natives of that county, who came to Greene county after their sons had effected a settlement here and here spent their last days.
James Middleton grew to manhood on a farm in the vicinity of Martins- burg, in Berkeley county, Virginia, and when a young man he and his brother Thomas rode out here into Ohio and secured possession of the tract surrounding what for many years has been known as Middletons Corners, in Caesarscreek township, a portion of which tract has long been owned and occupied by the subject of this sketch. After thus securing their location the Middleton brothers returned to their home in Virginia, were there married and at once returned to their new possessions, establishing there their homes, Middletons Corners thus coming into being. These brothers were accom- panied back here by their parents and the other members of the family. Bethuel Middleton, the father, died there in 1855, at the age of eighty-three years. He and his wife were the parents of nine children. Upon his return to Virginia after having secured a location in this county, James Midddleton was there united in marriage to Angeline Musetter, also a native of Berkeley county, whose family also later became represented in Greene county, and upon his return here with his bride established his home at the point he and his brother has selected as a location and on that place he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives, his death occurring on January 16, 1888, he then being in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He and his wife were mem- bers of the Reformed church at Maple Corners and were the parents of ten children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth.
B. J. Middleton, son of James and Angeline (Musetter) Middleton, was born on the old Middleton place, where he is still living. September 27. 1834. and has lived there practically all his life, for some time past living retired from the active labors of the farm, the place now being under the manage- ment of his son-in-law, C. B. Hazard, who makes his home there. Mr. Mid- dleton is a Republican and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
On January 8, 1868, Mr. Middleton was united in marriage to Isadora Watts, who was born at Richmond, Indiana, daughter of Dr. J. S. and Mar- garet (Mendenhall) Watts, both of whom were born in the neighborhood of Stillwater, in Tuscarawas county, this state, and who were for some time
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.
residents of Greene county, making their home at Xenia, where Doctor Watts was for some time engaged in the practice of his profession, and to this union were born three daughters, Carrie E., Laura A., and Margaret M. Carrie E. Middleton married J. Albert Davis, a farmer living in the vicinity of the village of New Burlington, and has three children, Leah May, Mary Isadora and Bertha Opal. Laura A. Middleton married W. S. Racer, of Xenia, and died on March 4, 1911. Her husband died on June 30, 1916. Margaret M. Middleton married C. B. Hazard, of the neighboring county of Clinton, and who, as noted above, has for some time been in active management of the Middleton farm.
ORVILLE DEWEY TOBIAS. 5
Orville Dewey Tobias, proprietor of a Beavercreek township farm on rural inail route. No. 10 out of Xenia, was born on a farm in Sugarcreek township, this county, March 8, 1861, son of William and Jane (Miller) Tobias, the former of whom also was born in this county and whose last days were spent here.
William Tobias was born in the village of Zimmerman on March 14, 1821, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Hanney) Tobias, who had come to this county from Schuylkill county, Pennsylvania, and had located in the settlement that early took the name of Zimmerman, in Beavercreek township. There Samuel Tobias bought twenty-five acres of land, built a log cabin and established his home. There he died in 1829, leaving his widow with six children, three sons and three daughters, those besides William, who was eight years of age at the time of his father's death, having been Lydia, who became the wife of William Kirkpatrick; Margaret, who married Noah Enry and moved to Illinois; Daniel, who made his home in the vicinity of Troy, this state; Samuel, who died unmarried, and Catherine, who married Wallace Haines. The widow Tobias married Michael Swigart and lived to be seventy- six years of age, her death occurring in 1871.
Following the death of his father William Tobias was taken into the nome of Peter Swigart, a brother of his stepfather, and there remained until he was past twenty-one years of age. When twenty-five years of age he married and began farming on his own account, for some years renting farms, and in 1869 bought the farm on which his son, the subject of this sketch, is now living and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in January, 1911, he then lacking but three months of being ninety years of age. William Tobias was a Republican. Reared a Lutheran, he later became affiliated with the Reformed church and for many years served as a deacon of the Beavercreek congregation of the latter communion.
William Tobias was twice married. On December 24, 1846, he was
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united in marriage to Sarah Swigart, who died in 1851, at the age of twenty- four years, leaving two sons, Martin Luther and Samuel, both of whom are now deceased, the former of whom became a farmer in Beavercreek town- ship and the latter of whom made his home in Dayton. Martin L. Tobias was twice married. By his first wife, Christine Peeples, he had two children, Edgar and Clara, and by his second wife, Mary Barnhart, he had three chil- dren, Eva, Grace and John. Samuel Tobias married Emma John and had three children, Homer, Harold and Howard. On June 19, 1852, William Tobias married, secondly, Jane Miller, who was born in Bath township, this county, November 25, 1824, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Wheeler) Miller, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter of Maryland, who came to Ohio after their marriage, first locating at Columbus, then at Cincin- nati and then in Greene county, becoming early settlers in Bath township, where the former spent the remainder of his life. James Miller was a soldier of the War of 1812. He died in 1840 and was buried in the Byron cemetery. His widow survived him until 1854, her death occurring at Dayton. To Will- iam and Jane (Miller) Tobias were born eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the sixth in order of birth, the others being the following : William A., who became a farmer in Beavercreek township, where he died in April, 1917, and who had married Jannie Alice Garlough and had one child, a son, Emerson D .; Elizabeth and Catherine, twins, the former of whom is unmarried and both of whom are now living at Dayton, the latter the widow of the late John W. H. Barney, by whom she was the mother of four children, Dora, Bertha, Eugene J. and Ralph; Daniel and Calvin, who died in the days of their young manhood; one who died in infancy, and Newton W., now a druggist living at Ada, who married May Kemp and has one child, Vivian G. Mrs. Jane Miller Tobias survived her husband nearly two years, her death occurring in December, 1912.
Orville D. Tobias was eight years of age when his father bought the farm on which he is now living and there he grew to manhood. He received his schooling in the local schools, and after his marriage in 1890 continued to make his home on the home place, managing the same for his father, and after the latter's death bought the place from the other heirs and has since been the owner of the same, a farm of something more than one hundred acres. Mr. Tobias is a Republican and, fraternally, is affiliated with Silver Star Lodge, Knights of Pythias, at Alpha. He is a member of the Beaver Creek Reformed church, as is his wife, was formerly and for years a deacon of that congregation and is now an elder in the church.
Mr. Tobias has been twice married. On November 12, 1890, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Anna (Koogler) Coffman, a widow, who died cighteen months later, and on March 6, 1898, he married Mrs. Effie ( Miller) Armstrong, a widow and the mother, by her first marriage, of four children,
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Harry, who is now living in Bath township; Mayme, wife of Vernon Ewing. of Dayton; Louise, at home, and Nellie, who died in the days of her child- hood. Mrs. Tobias is a daughter of Israel and Jane Miller, both now deceased, who were residents of Bath township. To Mr. and Mrs. Tobias one child has been born, a son, Raymond, born on December 27, 1900, who is now ('1918), a student in the Beaver Creek high school.
LEE R. FAWLEY.
Lee R. Fawley, manager of the store. of the Koontz Hardware Company at Yellow Springs, was born on a farm in Caesarscreek township, this county, December 25, 1886, son of George and Laura (Kaley) Fawley, both of whom were born in Highland county, this state, the former in 1854 and the latter in 1858, who are now living on their farm in the vicinity of Paintersville, in this county, where they have resided for years.
George Fawley was for years a school teacher in Greene county. He received his schooling in Highland county, where he was born, and when about twenty-one years of age began teaching school in Clinton county. A few years later he moved into Greene county and began farming, meanwhile continuing engaged in teaching during the winters and for twenty years was one of Greene county's teachers. He then bought a farm in the neighborhood of Paintersville and has since then devoted his time to farming, still making his home on that farm. To him and his wife have been born seven children, of whom four are still living, those besides the subject of this sketch being Olive, who married O. E. St. John, a farmer of Caesarscreek township, and has one child : Orville, a farmer, of Jefferson township, who married Myrtle Sturgeon and has three children, and Alonzo, who married Lanna Faulkner and has one child. The deceased children of this family were Clarence, Glenn and Daisy.
Reared on the home farm in Caesarscreek township, Lee R. Fawley received his schooling in the common schools and upon leaving school became employed as a clerk in the general store of A. E. Faulkner at Paintersville and was thus engaged for twelve years, at the end of which time he became a clerk in the hardware store of Howard Applegate at Yellow Springs and when that store was bought by the Koontz Hardware Company about a year ago was made manager of the same, which position he now occupies. Mr. Fawley is a Republican and a member of the local lodge of the Knights of Pythias at Paintersville.
On April 24, 1917, Lee R. Fawley was united in marriage to Clara Diehl, daughter of Jacob Diehl and wife, of Xenia. Mr. and Mrs. Fawley are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church.
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L. MADISON RAHN.
L. Madison Rahn, now living retired at Yellow Springs, was born in this county and has spent the most of his life here, though for some years he was a resident of Dayton and of Columbus, engaged in the buggy business in those cities, and later, for a year he was engaged as a traveling salesman for the Osborn Milling Company. He was born on a farm adjoining what is now the government aviation field in the vicinity of Fairfield, April 19, 1867, son of Adam and Emaline (Feighner) Rahn, both of whom were born in the vicinity of the city of Canton, county seat of the county of Stark, this state, and who became residents of Greene county about the year 1862, locat- ing in Bath township.
Adam Rahn was born on a .farm in the immediate vicinity of Canton on May 12, 1831, and there grew to manhood. On April 7, 1853, he married Emaline Feighner, who was born in that same neighborhood, and in 1859 moved with his family from Canton to Montgomery county, where he remained until about 1862, when he came over into Greene county and located on what then was known as the Wilson farm just at the outskirts of the village of Fairfield and adjoining what is now the great aviation field estab- lished by the United States government there upon the outbreak of hostilities with Germany in the spring of 1917, and it was on that place that the subject of this sketch was born. In 1869 Adam Rahn moved to a farm in the north- east corner of Bath township and there he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring on March 13, 1916. He was one of a family of three sons and six daughters, the others of this family having been William, Samuel, Mary, Catherine, Matilda, Belmina, Emaline and Caroline, the only one of these now living being Emaline, a resident of Columbus, this state. Mrs. Emaline Rahn, who is deceased, was one of a family of nine, she having had three brothers, Samuel, Solomon and William; three sisters, Elizabeth, Catherine and Marie, and two half-brothers, John and Henry. To Adam Rahn and wife were born six sons and one daughter, namely: Clayton, deceased ; Charles, a resident of Dayton, who has been married three times, his. last wife being Elizabeth Blair: Emma, who is living at Yellow Springs; Albert, also a resident of Yellow Springs, who married Abbie May Alexander and has three children, Ralph, who died when sixteen years of age, he then having been a student in the Yellow Springs high school, and Harold and Helen; Madison, the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Adam and Flavius, deceased.
L. Madison Rahn was but two years of age when his parents moved onto the home farm in the northeastern part of Bath township and there he grew to manhood, receiving his schooling in the common schools. He remained on the home farm until 1891, when he went to Dayton and was there engaged
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in the buggy business for three years, at the end of which time, in 1894, he went to Columbus and in the latter city was engaged in the same line until he took employment with the Osborn Milling Company, at Osborn, this county. For a year he continued this latter employment and then returned to the home farm and took charge of the same, continuing thus engaged until his retirement on April 4, 1917, and removal to Yellow Springs, where he since has made his home. Mr. Rahn is a member of the Reformed church, a Democrat and a member of the local lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons.
GEORGE H. DRAKE.
George H. Drake, a former merchant and lumber dealer, now living retired from active business in the city of Yellow Springs, where he has made his home for nearly thirty years, was born on a farm in the neighboring county of Clark on September 8, 1860. He is a son of William W. and Bethany (Caylor) Drake, the former of whom was also born in that county, in 1830, and the latter in the state of Indiana, in 1840. She, however, was reared in Clark county, a member of the household in which Samuel Shallen- barger, former congressman from this district, was reared. William W. Drake was married in 1857 and established his home on a farm in Clark county, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the first- born, the others being Ruthetta, wife of William M. Wilson, a farmer and stockman, now living at Alberta, Canada; Oliver, who established his home on the old home place in Clark county after his marriage and who died there in 1917; Ralph, who is married and living on a farm in Clark county; Elmer, who also is married and living on a farm in Clark county, and Pierre W., who is engaged in the lumber and coal business at Yellow Springs, senior member of the firm of Drake & Van Kirk, and further men- tion of whom is made elsewhere in this volume.
Reared on the home farm in Clark county, George H. Drake received his schooling in the neighborhood schools. He married in 1885 and con- tinued farming in Clark county until 1889, in which year he disposed of his interests there and moved to Yellow Springs, where he became engaged in the furniture and undertaking business. Two years later, in 1891, lie sold that establishment and bought a general-merchandise store, turning the same over to the management of Howard Applegate, while he himself became engaged in the hardwood and lumber business, in partnership with C. A. Lit- tle, an arrangement which continued for about two years, at the end of which time he bought Mr. Little's interest in the business and conducted the same alone until 1913, in which year he sold out to his brother, Pierre \V. Drake.
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and has since been living retired. Mr. Drake is a Republican. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian church and he is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
Mr. Drake has been twice married. In 1885, in Clark county, he was united in marriage to Emma J. Kirkwood, who was born in Greene county, and who died in 1887. In June, 1895, Mr. Drake married Addie L. Sibley, who was born at Clinton, Massachusetts, daughter of Terrant W. and Ada- line F. Sibley, and to this union two children have been born, one of whom died in infancy. The other, Miss Genevieve F. Drake, is now engaged as assistant librarian in the public library at Dayton.
SAMUEL W. COX.
Samuel W. Cox, a veteran of the Civil War and formerly and for many years a blacksmith at Yellow Springs, this county, now living retired in that village, was born there and has lived there all his life. He was born on December 5, 1833, the site of the house in which he was born later being occu- pied by the old Yellow Springs House, the scene of great activity during the days when Yellow Springs enjoyed wide fame as a watering place and which later was destroyed by fire. His parents were Samuel W. and Elizabeth (Jones) Cox, the former a native of Pennsylvania and the latter, of Virginia, who were among the earliest settlers in the village of Yellow Springs and whose last days were spent there.
The elder Samuel W. Cox became early trained to the trade of a black- smith and as a young man went to Georgetown, D. C., where he became employed on the Chesapeake & Ohio canal and where he met and married Elizabeth Jones, who was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, and their first two children were born in Georgetown. Later he came to Ohio and settled at Yellow Springs, in this county, where he set up a blacksmith shop and where he and his wife spent the rest of their lives. During the administration of President Polk in the '40s Samuel W. Cox served as postmaster of Yellow Springs. He and his wife were the parents of ten children, of whom but three are now living, the subject of this sketch having a brother, George Cox, also a resident of Yellow Springs, and a sister, Mrs. Juliette Vose, of Cincin- nati. The others of these children were Chapman, Sarah Ann, who married Doctor E. Thorn; Mrs. Elizabeth Runyan, Horatio, Joseph, Charles and Chauncey.
Reared at Yellow Springs, where he was, born, the younger Samuel W. Cox received his schooling there in a little log house on the hill, what is now known as the Neff place, his first teacher there having been Adam Kedzie. When eleven years of age lie became an assistant to his father in the latter's
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blacksmith shop and thus early became a worker in iron, a business which he continued to follow at Yellow Springs all his active life, or until his retire- ment about fifteen years ago, an injury received about that time having neces- sitated his retirement from active labor. Mr. Cox was working at his trade during the time of the Civil War and upon the call for the hundred-days service enlisted and went to the front as a member of Company A, One Hun- dred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Upon the com- pletion of that term of service he re-enlisted and served until the close of the war as a member of Company K, One Hundred and Eighty-fourth Ohio.
On December 4, 1855, at Yellow Springs, Samuel W. Cox was united in marriage to Mary Jane Rice, who was born at Lincolnville, Maine, and who had come to this county with her parents, and to that union were born four children, Cora, Edward, Mary and Frankie, all of whom are now deceased, the first-named and the last having died in youth. The mother of these children died on March 15, 1907, and on July 30, 1909, Mr. Cox married Susan Ault, of Yellow Springs. Mr. and Mrs. Cox are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is a Republican and a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Good Templars.
SAMUEL FRALICK.
Samuel Fralick, now living retired at Yellow Springs, has been a resi- dent of that village since 1908, in the spring of which year he moved there with his family in order that his daughters might continue their studies in Antioch College. Miss Mary B. Fralick was graduated from that institution in 1910 and afterward became engaged in teaching at Selma and later at Powell, but is now a member of the teaching force of the Yellow Springs high school. Miss Susan G. Fralick was graduated from Antioch in 1912 and later was engaged for some time as a teacher in the schools of Manchester, this state, but is now conducting a private school at Yellow Springs.
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