USA > Ohio > Guernsey County > History of Guernsey County, Ohio, Volume II > Part 13
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Mr. Joyce is a splendid example of an intelligent, successful business colored man. A citizen whom all respect and whose judgment upon real estate values in the city of Cambridge is good, he is a man of high standing in the community. He and his family are lovers of good books and a well stocked library of standard works and the best current literature are found on the shelves of his private library. His children are all given the ad- vantages of the entire course offered by the public schools in Cambridge and the oldest son is now a student at Oberlin University, Oberlin, Ohio. The daughters are also given musical advantages.
ISAAC W. KEENAN, M. D.
An enumeration of the representative professional men of Guernsey county would be incomplete without specific mention of the well-known and popular physician whose name introduces this biographical sketch. A mem- ber of one of the old and highly esteemed families of the eastern part of the state and for many years a public-spirited citizen, Dr. Isaac W. Keenan has stamped the impress of his individuality upon the community and added luster to the honorable name which he bears, standing second to none in his professional brethren in this locality.
Isaac W. Keenan was born September 20, 1868, on a farm near Quaker City, Guernsey county, Ohio, the son of Hugh and Phoebe T. (Hall) Keenan. The father came to the Quaker City locality as a mere lad, and the mother, Phoebe T. Hall, was the daughter of Isaac A. Hall, who was of the early pioneers and members of one of the most prominent and prosperous families in southeastern Ohio. The father was a farmer and became a large land owner and very prosperous. He was an extensive fruit grower, such as apples, pears and berries. The Halls were Quakers, and Mr. Keenan also became a Quaker and lived and died in that faith. Hugh Keenan was highly respected and a man of integrity. He died in February, 1907, his wife dying in the fall of 1905, and both are buried in the cemetery near the Quaker church. Mr. and Mrs. Keenan had a family of five sons and six daughters, all of whom are living: Ida, now Mrs. Joel Carter, of Quaker
KEENAN HOSPITAL, CAMBRIDGE.
Isaac
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City ; John T., of East Liverpool, Ohio : Ella E., single, of Coshocton, Ohio ; Eva, now Mrs. Curtis Merriman, of Oxford, Ohio; Isaac W., the subject of this sketch; Lucretia, now Mrs. Frank Stone, of Cambridge, Ohio; Eli E., of Columbus, Ohio ; Hattie M., a trained nurse of Coshocton, Ohio; Anna L., of Coshocton; Dr. Willis H., of Coshocton ; Charles E., who is on the home farm at Quaker City.
Isaac W. Keenan spent his childhood and youth on the farm at home and attended the public schools of Quaker City. Having a desire to enter the medical profession, he read medicine at spare moments and for a time read with Dr. J. S. Ely, of Barnesville, and in the fall of 1892 he entered Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, graduating in 1895. On August 17, 1895, he opened an office in Piedmont, Harrison county, Ohio, for the practice of medicine, and remained until the fall of 1899, when he came to Quaker City. Having given considerable study and attention to surgery, he established a hospital while located in Quaker City and established a prac- tice, attracting patients from all parts of southeastern Ohio, mostly a surgical practice as far as hospital patients were concerned. In 1905 he took a special course in surgery at the Chicago Post-Graduate School, graduating in October. 1905. In the fall of 1906 he moved his hospital from Quaker City to Cambridge and located at the corner of Ninth street and Gomber avenue, where he treats surgical cases wholly, devoting all his time to this work, giving up the regular practice. He has won an enviable reputation, is a skillful surgeon in all kinds of surgical work, and besides his large hospital practice is called in consultation to many places in southeastern Ohio. His hospital will accommodate as many as twenty patients and is usually well filled. He has patients from all parts of Ohio, West Virginia and fre- quently from Pittsburg and western Pennsylvania. He is a man of skill and courage and very successful.
Doctor Keenan was married June II, 1895, to Marietta H. Ridgway, daughter of Oldham and Martha (Heade) Ridgway, of Quaker City. To them have been born three sons. Carleton, Harry and Paul. The family resi- dence is the old Doctor Clark home on Clark street, an old-time large brick house standing in spacious grounds, an admirable location for a pleasant and happy home, and for many years the home of Doctor Clark, one of Cam- bridge's early and prominent physicians.
Doctor Keenan gives his profession his entire attention and is greatly wrapped up in his work. He is an agreeable and intellectual gentleman, of broad and charitable views. He was brought up a Republican in politics, but
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is now an independent voter, always giving an intelligent interest to all public matters, but not participating more than to vote.
Doctor Keenan and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and their home is all that the name implies. Mrs. Keenan assists the Doctor in his hospital work, and renders a proficient service in this con- nection.
Doctor Keenan stands high in the community, and few men are more favorably known, both in his profession and as a man and a citizen. In connection with the hospital, he has established a regular training school for training nurses in hospital work. This school is in charge of Miss Mary Callahan, a trained nurse from Columbus, Ohio, and is the first school of its kind established in Guernsey county. The Keenan hospital is also the first hospital established in Guernsey county and, while it is a private hos- pital, it is open to the medical profession, where patients of any physician can le brought and cared for. In this respect it has a public feature.
MICHAEL SHERBY.
The name of Michael Sherby has long stood for progress in Jackson township, Guernsey county, and his reputation has been that of a high- minded, sincere gentleman, anxious to see his community develop along all lines. He is an American by adoption only, his birth having occurred in Zempelan county, Hungary, on October 21, 1853, of Slav parentage, he being the son of Michael and Katharina ( Kachmarik) Sherby. He there grew to maturity and was educated, and served three years in the army, then came to America in 1880, locating at Streator, Illinois, where he worked in the coal mines. Being seized with a fever there in 1883, he was advised to emigrate to Ohio, so he was soon at work in the old Akron mine in Guernsey county, this state, where he remained about eighteen months, boarding in Byesville; then he went to Trail Run and helped sink a shaft. In 1886 he became naturalized as an American citizen, and in 1887 went back to his old home in Hungary and settled up an estate he had there, his father having left a little land, and Michael himself had made and saved some money there as a baggage master on a railroad. Although he had about one thousand dollars and eight years' interest on the same, while there government officials arrested him for leaving the country to escape further military duty, but he showed his citizenship papers of the United States and he was thereupon released, but
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was told that he could not ride on their railroads, that he would have to walk back to America. He was suspected of being there for the purpose of assist- ing a labor party to plot against the government, but this was not the case. He procured a ticket on the railroad and returned to this country without further molestation. He took up his work at Trail Run, Guernsey county, and in 1888 sent back to the old country for Josephine Workum, and she came unaccompanied to Cambridge, Ohio, where they were married. she having come over six thousand miles to join him. For another year he worked in the mines. Their first child, Alvin, was born in January, 1890. In 1891 Mr. Sherby bought forty acres in the southeastern part of Jackson township and began farming for himself, having had some experience in agriculture in Illi- nois. His second child, Emma, was born in 1896. He then bought sixty acres adjoining his forty acres, thus making him an excellent farm, which he tilled advantageously, and established a very comfortable home. In 1898 Helen and Emil (twins) were born, the latter dying when three months old, but the former is living. His oldest child, Alvin, took up the study of telegraphy at home with a neighbor, and later Mr. Sherby sent him to a school of teleg- raphy at Cincinnati, from which he was graduated in 1909 and is now in the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in that capacity.
Mr. Sherby's land has greatly increased in value and he has leased valu- able water privileges on his farm to the Cambridge Colliery Company, also made good deals regarding his coal lands. He and his family belong to the Roman Catholic church, and in politics he is a Republican and has taken an active part in party affairs. He is a school director, now serving his third term. He was twice candidate for township trustee, but was unable to secure election because he was not an American-born citizen, although his qualifica- tions for the office were known to all concerned. He is a member of the Nationality Slavish Society, of which he is secretary.
Mr. Sherby is the first one of the Slavish people to settle in Guernsey county. While employed by the Akron Coal Company he was requested by the same to procure ten good practical miners, of his own nationality, to come to this place, and he secured them at Streator, Illinois. He was then sent to Pittsburg to get more men, so he brought sixty-five Slavs here, thus marking the beginning of the Slavish settlement here, some of these men working in the old Akron and the Farmer mines. Now there are between three and four thousand of these people in Guernsey county, and they have proven to be very desirable citizens. They have three large churches, one Greek Catholic, one Lutheran, in Pleasant City, and one Roman Catholic, in Byesville, and there is not a mine in this county that does not employ Slav
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miners ; many of them are in business at Pleasant City, Byesville, Blue Bell, Trail Run and other places.
Michael Sherby is a man of good standing wherever he is known, and is regarded as a splendid citizen in every respect.
DAVID W. NOSSET.
Jackson township, Guernsey county, can boast of no better citizen than David W. Nosset, who was born five miles west of Bridgeport, Belmont coun- ty. Ohio, June 24, 1837. He is the son of Samuel H. and Ruth Ann (Bailey) Nosset. This family is of French origin. In 1839 Samuel H. Nosset and wife brought the subject to Guernsey county and located about four miles from Cambridge on the Ridge road to Claysville, the father having previously purchased forty acres there from James Duke. There were only about four acres of his farm cleared and the country was, in the main, undeveloped ; there was a rude cabin on his little farm, but he went to work with a will and was soon very comfortably established. He helped open up roads and did other work of a pioneer nature and became a man of usefulness in the development of the community. That remained the family home until 1877, in which year they sold out and moved to Kansas and lived there thirteen years. Then the father went on to Oregon with his daughter and died there. The mother died in Kansas in 1871.
The subject spent much of his early life in the Sunflower state and was there during two of the never-to-be forgotten plagues of grasshoppers. David W. Nosset received a good education in the common schools and was reared to farming pursuits. In March, 1864, he married Samantha Jane Wires, daughter of John Wires, whose record is to be found in this work. The subject and wife remained in Kansas until about 1882, when they came back to Ohio; he had followed farming and had a very satisfactory start. They moved on Mrs. Nosset's father's farm, which they managed about a year, then moved to Cambridge, where they lived about two years. Then they moved to Byesville and opened a hotel and remained there eleven years. The hotel was burned down in 1898, being a total loss. They ran the Arcade hotel four years at Cambridge and after that Mr. Nosset operated a hotel about five years in the Stoner block. He was very successful in this line of en- (leavor, not only understanding ever phase of this business but was an oblig- ing and courteous host to all his patrons and his trade with the traveling public
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was always large. He bought a home and continued to reside in Cambridge until in April, 1910, when he moved out onto the farm of John Wires. father of Mrs. Nosset, which he bought. Notwithstanding misfortunes, Mr. Nosset has been very successful as a business man and has accumulated a compe- tency, owning several rental properties in Cambridge.
Five children have been born to this union, namely: Albert S. died when fourteen years of age in Kansas, of scarlet fever, and four days later Myrtle O., the fourth child in order of birth, also died of the same disease. Charles W., second in order of birth, lives at Marietta, Ohio, where he is engaged in the painting and paper hanging business. He married Love Peters, but she died about three months later, and he afterwards married Katie Meisenhelder, and they have two sons, Donald F. and Ralph Ray- mond. Carrie M., the third child, is at home with her parents. S. Grace, the fifth child. died when five years old.
Politically, Mr. Nosset is a Republican. He has been loyal to his party and the government, having enlisted in the Union army, during the Civil war, in Company E. One Hundred and Seventy-second Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, under Captain Nicholson. It was only six weeks after his marriage that he was mustered into service. He proved to be a very faithful and gal- lant soldier, according to his comrades. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Post No. 343, at Cambridge. he being quartermaster of the post. He, his wife and daughter all belong to the Baptist church at Cam- bridge, and all stand high in church and social circles.
ALFRED J. TRUE.
A member of an old and highly honored family and a man of sterling worth and many praiseworthy characteristics is Alfred J. True, of Byesville, Guernsey county, having been one of the leading citizens of that locality for some time. The True family originally came from England, having been well established in Lincolnshire. The first one of the name in America, of which we have any record, was Henry True, a captain in the British army, who emigrated to our shores two years after the landing of the "Mayflower." and became a member of the Plymouth colony, and it is believed that all the Trues in America are descended from him.
Alfred J. True was born at Lower Salem, Washington county, Ohio, July 19, 1868, and he is the son of Wilbur L. and Sarah ( White ) True, the
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former a native of Ohio and the mother of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The subject spent his boyhood in the village of Lower Salem, where the father was engaged in the lumber business. Wilbur L. True was a private in Com- pany H, Ninety-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was seriously injured in West Virginia, which finally caused his death on February 16, 1894, having survived his wife some twenty-two years, her death having occurred in 1872. His great-grandfather, Ephraim True, was born and reared at Roxbury, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. When the American Revolution came on he enlisted and held a commission as ensign in a Massachusetts regiment. For his services in the war he was granted two sections of land near Marietta, Ohio. In 1790 he emigrated to Ohio and established his home near Marietta. About 1800 he moved to a farm near Lower Salem, where his death occurred. The land he owned there descended to one of his sons, Moses, who was the grandfather of the subject. Moses True was a prosperous farmer and he kept adding to his place until it was one of the largest farms in that county. At his death Wilbur L. True, father of the subject, inherited the old homestead, and upon his death the place descended to his sons, Alfred J. and Otis A., and they now own the same. It has never passed out of the possession of the family since the old Revolutionary soldier owned it, and it has been well kept, very carefully tilled and is today a valuable and desirable farm.
The paternal grandmother, whose maiden name was Mehetabel Alden, was a descendant of John Alden, the noted Puritan. She came from West Virginia to Cumberland, this county, in 1829, when thirteen years of age, having accompanied her parents here. After living at Cumberland about five years, they moved into Washington county.
The record of Ensign True in the Revolutionary war was a most praise- worthy one. He took part in burying the dead at the battle of Bunker Hill. He told his descendants many interesting anecdotes of war and the early times. He was a picturesque character. He assisted in building the old "Two Horned Church" at Marietta, an ancient landmark there. An old hand-made rule he used is now in possession of the subject, who has also the tax receipts of the two sections of land, twelve hundred and eighty acres, on which the total tax was less than one dollar. One of the sons of Ensign True was a justice of the peace in the early days at Lower Salem, having been commissioned by Gov. Ethan Allen Brown.
When Alfred J. True, of this review, grew to maturity he worked in the lumber business and at contracting. In 1890 he went into business for him- self at Lower Salem, in partnership with his father's brother, M. C. True, taking the place of his father, who retired from business at that time. He
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continued there until 1901 when he came to Byesville. The firm of Laner, True & Company was organized, composed of George Laner, of Lower Salem; M. C. True, of Lower Salem, and A. J. True, of this sketch. The latter has entire charge of the business at Byesville and he is managing the same in a manner that reflects much credit upon his ability and to the satisfaction of all concerned. At Byesville the firm has a planing mill, and an extensive business is carried on in lumber, builders" hardware and all kinds of builders' supplies.
Alfred J. True and all the True family are Republicans, and the family has always been patriotic, nearly all who were old enough having taken part in the Civil war. Mr. True is very active in the ranks of the Republican party, but he is not an office seeker. He was once elected to an office, but resigned as quickly as he could get to the proper authority to tender his resignation.
Mr. True was married to Jennette Hardy in 1891. She was born and reared in the vicinity of Lower Salem, and is the daughter of Andrew and Clara E. (Athey) Hardy. Her father was a merchant near Lower Salem. He served as a commissioned officer in the Seventh Ohio Cavalry all through the Civil war and was assistant provost marshal of Atlanta during the stirring times at the close of the war.
Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. True, Claire I. and Fred- erica. Mr. True is a member of the Masonic order, and he and his wife belong to the Easter Star. They are popular in all circles at Byesville.
GEORGE SALLADAY.
One of the oldest residents of Valley township, in the activities of which he has taken part for many years, is George Salladay, who was born on March 27, 1829, in what was then a part of Guernsey county, but is now in the north part of Noble county. He was the son of George, Sr., and Ann (Secrest) Salladay. George Salladay, Sr., was the son of Jacob Salladay, and came from Washington county, Pennsylvania. The Salladay family is of German origin. Ann Secrest was born at Capon Springs, Virginia. George Salladay, Sr., was one of three brothers, the others being Elias and John, who settled in what was then the southern part of Guernsey county, on adjoining farms of three hundred acres each. George, Sr., died in 1831, at the age of forty-eight years.
After his father's death, George Salladay, Jr., was bound out until he
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was sixteen years old, and had a hard time in life during his early boyhood. At the age of sixteen he went to work at about six dollars a month, and worked up to ten dollars a month, being employed on the farm and in a sawmill. For eight years he worked out, and lost only three days out of the eight years, except while attending school in the winter. While in the saw-mill he worked all day and half the night.
In 1851 George Salladay married Mary Spaid, who was born in March, 1831, near Pleasant City, Valley township, the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Secrest) Spaid. William Spaid was born in Virginia in 1800, and came to Guernsey county before his marriage to Elizabeth Secrest, who was the daughter of Jacob and Mary Secrest, of Virginia. Mrs. Mary Sal- laday is the sister of Michael Luther Spaid, of Richland township.
After his marriage George Salladay, Jr., bought eighty acres in the north part of Valley township, for one thousand one hundred dollars. He followed farming, but at the same time made wool buying and the dealing in all kinds of stock his main business, riding horseback all over Guernsey, Noble and Muskingum counties. He was a fine judge of stock, did a large amount of business, and never had any trouble with any one with whom he had dealings, while he amassed a fair amount of property by his operations. Since purchasing his first eighty acres he has bought and sold several tracts, and at one time owned more than two hundred acres, but has sold off all but one hundred and sixty-five acres. For fifteen years, including the period of the Civil war, he was trustee of Valley township, and the last time he was elected he declined to serve. During the war he gave his services in recruiting soldiers for the Union army.
George Salladay, Jr., is the father of four children: Lewis Frederick, whose sketch see: Amanda Catherine, who married William E. Heaume, of Cambridge, whose sketch see: Jacob William, who lives near Derwent, see sketch ; and Elmer Luther, who died in infancy. Since 1896 Mr. Salladay has been a Republican, but is independent enough to vote for a better man on the other ticket. He and his wife are members of the Evangelical Lutheran church at Pleasant City, and are earnest workers in the church. Though past four score years of age. Mr. Salladay is physically well preserved, and his mental faculties are not in the least impaired. During his life he has wit- nessed many changes in the character of the country in which he has lived, and an almost total revolution in the methods of living. He has made many friends, the most of whom have gone before him to the after life, but he now possesses the esteem of all who know him.
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REV. WILLIAM HENRY WILSON.
The writer of biography, dealing with the personal history of men en- gaged in the various affairs of every-day life, occasionally finds a subject whose record commands exceptional interest and admiration, and especially is this true when he has achieved more than ordinary success or made his in- fluence felt as a leader of thought and a benefactor of his kind. Rev. Wil- liam Henry Wilson, of Byesville, Guernsey county, is eminently one of that class who earn the indisputable right to rank in the van of the army of progressive men and by reason of a long and strenuous career, devoted to the good of his fellows and to the dissemination of the Gospel, he occupies a position of wide influence and has made a name which will long live in the hearts and affections of the people, although he cares little for the plaudits of men, merely seeking to do his duty in following in the footsteps of the Nazarene.
William H. Wilson was born near Milnersville, Monroe township. Guernsey county, Ohio, November 27, 1867, and he is the son of John Neal Wilson and Christian ( Morrow) Wilson. Both parents were born and reared in this county and are still living near Milnersville, a highly respected couple, now advanced in years. William H. grew to maturity on the farm and after receiving a common school education and attending various normal schools, his early life was devoted to the profession of teaching. After four years of successful work as a teacher, he entered Dennison University and took select work in view of the ministry. He was licensed to preach on May 27. 1893, by the Baptist church at Milnersville, and he was ordained to the ministry on March 22, 1894, by the Pleasant View Baptist church at Newcomerstown. During the years of his pastoral labor he has very ably and acceptably served the following churches, building them up and strengthening them in a man- ner that has proven him. to be a conscientious and untiring worker: Union Valley, Piedmont, Pleasant View, Bridgeville, White Eyes Plains, Adams- ville, Dresden and Byesville. On December 7, 1903, he came to Byesville in response to a call from the Baptist church, which was then only a mission of the old Cambridge Baptist church. Shortly after he came it was organized as an independent church, and he has been pastor of this church to the present time, his work in this place having been wonderfully blessed. This church now has a membership of two hundred and thirty and is constantly growing, and it has a remarkable Sunday school, consisting of about two hundred and fifty members. The church is full of life and vigor and their meetings are like one continuous revival. Their pastor has implicit confidence in the
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