History of Madison County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Part 134

Author: Chester E. Bryan
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1207

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The motto of Mr. Wilson became like that of Emperor Constantine-"By this sign ye conquer." Money began to grow. Each year his herds grew larger, and soon he began to add new acres to his first purchase. His first cabin stood over across the

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road from where he died, in a cluster of apple trees that are still standing. About a year before he died he was at the home of Doctor Beach, and on being questioned as to his mode of accumulating so much property, his answer was: "Easy enough, easy enough. No mystery about it. Gather in and spread out. Gather in and spread out." It probably seemed easy enough to him, for he was not a common or ordinary man. But if it was all so easy and simple, how did it happen that he absorbed nearly a half township of improved farms, whose tenant houses, or solitary chimneys, scat- tered for miles across his possessions, looked like a vast and limitless harbor, with fleets lying dreamily at anchor?

The free turnpike leading from London to Plain City passes for nine miles through his farm; and within three years he paid twenty-eight thousand dollars in taxes for free turnpikes alone. His farm begun on the west, adjoined "Dun Glen," the farm of John G. Dun, in Deer Creek township, and stretched continuously to where he was buried on his own farm, in the old Baptist burying ground, on Big Darby.

Mr. Wilson was social and convivial in his habits, fond of good company and plenty of it-upon all of which occasions he was the central figure. He did nothing by halves; it was either all work or all play. He was a natural-born wit, and when in a merry mood kept everybody around him in a roar, excepting himself. He was never boisterous; never off his balance in any direction. His wit was keen, original, and generally practical, with a vein of philosophy running through it. He never indulged in any repartee that was bought second hand. He was original or nothing. He was never profane. On one occasion, while a fiddler was tuning up and resting his arm, "Uncle Bill" reminded him of the prodigal waste of time, by saying, "Mr. Tucker, Mr. Tucker, you must remember that every time a sheep stops to bleat it loses a mouthful." He was never quarrelsome or contentious. Neither he nor his father before him were ever engaged before any court, either as plaintiff or defendant, and he never spoke ill of any man.

Like his father, William D. Wilson had great presence of mind; and like, as it was with him, it stood him in good stead on many occasions. His nearest bank, seventy years ago, was at Columbus, twenty miles away. Sometimes it required a large amount of money to carry on his business, and he was often suspected of having money upon his person or about his house. Once, when traveling at night, not many miles from home, he was halted by highwaymen, and with the muzzles of some old-fashione:l. brass-mounted horse-pistols in unpleasant proximity to his head, was ordered, peremp- torily, to hold up his hands. He suspected the identity of the parties and jocularly called them by name. The question with them then was, either cold-blooded murder or joining in the laugh, as if the whole thing had been intended for a joke. This they did. They wilted, and allowed him to pass on home. .

It was generally his custom to not go out after night without company. One of these protectors, not infrequently, was Ira Kilbury, an infant who kicked the beam at two hundred and forty pounds, and who could "whip his weight in wild cats." Returning from Plain City after night on one occasion, his carriage was flanked by highwaymen, who began to close in on either side; but his coolness saved him then. He spoke very loudly, and in a peremptory tone: "Ira, Ira, my boy, whip up, whip up, or we wont get home before midnight." Visions of the bodyguard who could whip his weight in wild cats struck terror to the heart of the footpads, and they gave a wide berth and a fair field, when Ira, in reality, was snoring away in the quiet and security of his own cabin home, more than five miles away.

William D. Wilson has been spoken of as a "land baron." In 1870, the state of Ohio contained fifty-six cultivated farms of over one thousand acres each. Of these fifty-six, thirty-six were in Madison county. William D. Wilson, in 1870, owned the

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largest improved farm in Ohio. He had twelve hundred acres in one pasture, upon which one could not find a bush large enough for a riding whip. There were giant burr oaks in clusters or groves, but no brush. And in all the fifty or more miles of fence on his farm there was no one rod that did not look like it had been put up for corraling mules or wild deer. His farm had a capacity for more than two thousand head of cattle, but he usually had a variety of stock. Before the Civil War he was in the habit of "turning off" about ten thousand dollars worth of mules of his own raising annually. Once, since the war, in a time of depression in that line, he sent down among the hills of southeastern Ohio, and bought about eighteen thousand head of sheep at about one dollar a head. Times soon changed for this class of stock, and when the boom reached seven or eight dollars a head, he sold out and changed to something else.

Mr. Wilson amassed a great fortune. Is this the story of his life? Not at all. He was a remarkable man aside from his fortune; he could as cardly and would have as surely attained to great responsibilities and honors, had his great genius been early directed in the channels that led that way. He had natural capacity enough to have been a railroad magnate, like Vanderbilt, a financier like Alexander Hamilton or Chase, or a general of an army, for he was naturally a leader, and never a follower of men. But was this fortune accumulated without fraud, misrepresentation, treachery or the oppression of the poor? Every dollar of it was. William D. Wilson was an honorable und an honest man.

James Wilson, the second child born to Valentine and Eleanor (Judy) Wilson, and the grandson of Jacob Wilson, the first known ancestor, was born in Bath town- ship, Greene county, Ohio, December 20, 1808, and came to Madison county with his father in 1816, when eight years of age. He, like his brother, William D. Wilson, remained in service with his father until he was twenty-one years old. In 1832, when he was twenty-five years old, he went to Kentucky and bought, at two dollars an acre, of a man named Morgan, four hundred acres of land out of the Darby Plains, this county, and which is now a part of the Taylor Wilson estate. Of this he kept one hundred and sixty acres, sold fifty acres to his brother, John, and the remainder to his brother, William D.

In June, 1883, James Wilson was married to Lucy Ballon, of Milford Center, Ohio, a daughter of Martin Ballou, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, and. the grandniece of Hosea Ballou, the Boston publisher. In September, 1833, three months after his marriage, his wife died of "milk sickness," just as he had a cabin on his farm on the plains nearly ready to commence housekeeping. The associations connected with his tenantless cabin were unpleasant to him and, in 1835, he sold his Plains farm and bought the John Scott farm, in Somerford township, where Uncle Sammy Prugh later Jived. He boarded with the Scott family, and raised a large crop of corn, which he fed to the hogs, but this class of stock ran so low that year that he lost all his sum- mer's work.

On October 2, 1836, James Wilson was married to Eleanor Smith, who was born on June 20, 1818, near Granville, Ohio, the daughter of John and Sophia (Bond) Smith. Her father than lived two miles east of Lafayette, on the farm later owned by Jonathan Booth. At the time of her marriage she was teaching the distant school in Valentine Wilson's district. They went to housekeeping on the John Scott farm, and there John & .. the first child, was born. To this marriage there were also born three other children, Valentine H., Thomas B. and Lucy F. Mrs. Wilson possessed to a marked degree those homely but enduring traits of character that make ideal womanhood, as wife, as mother, as help-mate, as neighbor, as friend, as a model of industry, as a worker in the church and as a companion in every walk of life. On all occasions she excelled.

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Her intellectual gifts and accomplishments were many as well as entertaining. Her love of reading was great; her memory was remarkable; her knowledge of the bible and her familiarity with its grand, true and great characters made her personality at all times instructive as well as charming. The recollection of her broad charity, her sympathetic quality and her tender impulses for the needy or distressed still survive, and will outlast the marble monument erected to mark her last resting place.

In 1837 James Wilson bought two small parcels of land, one of which was where his brother, Eli, died. In 1838 he sold out in Somerford township; he had lost faith In raising hogs to make a fortune out of and preferred risking in cattle and grass. He went back to the Darby Plains and bought the Charley Arthur farm of four bun- dred acres, which was later a portion of the John Price farm. He moved there and lived on it for five years. Two of his children, Valentine Henry and Thomas Bond, were born there. In 1838 he bought fifty acres of the MacCumber farm; and in the fall of 1841 bought three hundred acres of the Russell Bidwell farm, at an admin- istrator's sale. In the fall of 1842 he left the Darby Plains and moved over to the Christman farm, one mile south of Summerford, and entered into a partnership with his father, as a general trader and business manager. On this farm, on March 28, 1844, his only daughter, Lucy Eleanor, was born.

In 1846, his half-brother, Jackson, being oid enough to take his place as a partner with his father, James Wilson moved back to the Darby Plains, and settled on the Russell Bidwell farm; but in that same year he bought the Paul Adler farm of three hundred and ten acres, where his son, John, later lived, and then moved on it. In this same year he also bought fifty-seven acres of Nathaniel Sawyer. In 1847 he bought the Paul Smith farm of one hundred and seventy-five acres. In 1854 he sold the Arthur farm to his brother, William D., and bought the Stanley Watson farm, of four hundred acres, adjoining the village of Lafayette, where he moved, and where he lived at the time of his death. He paid sixteen thousand dollars for this farm and it is believed that it was the first forty-dollar farm sold in the county. In 1855 he fell heir, by the death of his father, to three hundred and eighty-one acres adjoining the Watson farm, and in 1856 he bought the Carter farm of four hundred acres, where his son-in-law, Dr. William Morrow Beach, later lived. In 1860 he bought bis half- brother, Hamilton's, share of his father's estate, comprising four hundred and sixty- three acres, adjoining his home farm, while Hamilton bought his brother. William D. .Wilson's, share adjoining the village of Lafayette, on which stood the old Anderson la vern.

For more than thirty years James Wilson was a member of the Methodist Epis copal church. The seventy-fourth anniversary of his birth found him a hale and vig- orous old man, in full' possession of all his faculties, and the owner of twenty-three hundred and fifty acres of well-improved land, with accompaniments, a part of which he had passed over to the control of his children. He was then the patriarch of the Wilson family, having attained a greater age, it was believed, than any other one ever born into the family. He was far famed for his charity, honesty and agreeable personality. He died on June 12, 1886. in his seventy-eighth year, full of honors and beloved by all who knew him. His beloved wife survived him many years. After his death she resided with her daughter, Mrs. Lucy E. Beach, until her death, on February 15, 1904.

Washington Wilson, a son of Valentine and Susan (Humble) Wilson was born on September 7, 1821, in Madison county, Ohio. and when twenty-one years old. began working by the month and thus continued for three months, as he wanted to get money enough to get married. At the expiration of the period he had twenty-seven dollars, and was then united in marriage with Linnie West, the daughter of Edmund and

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Margaret (Shaw) West. After their marriage, he began farming as a renter and continued for four years, when he purchased sixty acres of land, to which he added until he owned about eight hundred acres altogether. He was a member of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and served as township trustee of Somerford township for fourteen years. Washington and Linnie (West) Wilson were the parents of eight children, of whom only two, Valentine and Caleb Griffin, survive. Caleb Griffin lives on a part of his grandfather's original estate. Jackson spent his life in Clark county, but died in Summerford, in 1914, at the age of seventy-two. Alexander, a farmer and merchant at Summerford, died in 1900, at the age of sixty. Charles inherited his father's old homestead and spent his whole life on the farm, dying at the age of thirty. Belle married John Potee, the scion of an old family of Madison county. They lived on a part of her father's estate. She died at the age of fifty, in 1911.

Alexander Hamilton Wilson, son of Valentine and Nancy (Roberts) Wilson, mar- ried Isabella Parsons Koogler, the daugher tof Simon Koogler, of Greene county, Ohio. He was a justice of the peace, and an influential citizen of Lafayette. Ohio. He died at Summerford, in 1895, at the age of sixty-five. His wife died in 1900. They had five children : Charles A., Walter A., Lamar P., Laura B. and Alice C.

Valentine C. Wilson, the son of Valentine and Nancy (Roberts) Wilson, was grad- uated from Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, with the class of 1860. the firs tclassical graduate in his father's family. He died on August 23, 1861. of epidemic dysentery.

Jacob W. Wilson. son of Valentine and Nancy ( Roberts) Wilson, resided at Sum- merford, Ohio. He was a man of great inventive genius, his latest invention being a twine grain binder which promises great success.

Of the daughters of Valentine Wilson, only the names have been given, but they must have inherited something of the sagacity and psychological characteristics of their father. They all married poor boys. But the names of such men as Robert Boyd, Hiram W. Richmond and Thomas John Stutson, who all married into the family, offer a sufficient evidence of the soundness of their judgment.

PETER PEARL MCKINLEY.

It would be difficult to estimate the beneficent influence which the infusion of Scottish blood has had ou the social, commercial and political life of this country. Some of the greatest financiers, the most successful farmers, the ablest writers and thinkers of the present generation are descended from stock of Scottish origin. In many cases the people of the beautiful highlands transplanted to homes in our broad and fertile prairies have made magnificent successes of agriculture. Peter Pearl McKin- ley, an enterprising farmer of Union township, is descended from Scotch stock, his grandfather having come to America when a lad of twelve years.

Peter Pearl Mckinley was born near Amesville, Athens county. Ohio, February 28, 1871, the son of James and Rosanna (Hale) Mckinley. They were both born in Athens county. The father of James Mckinley came to the United States when a lad of twelve. and eventually settled in Athens county. James Mckinley was both a mason and blacksmith, and followed these trades during the early part of his life. In later years he was engaged in farming.

James and Rosanna (Hale) Mckinley had fourteen children, ten of whom are living. Mary died in 1914 at Columbus. John lives at Amesville in Athens county. Frederick lives in Poplar Bluff. Missouri. Louisa died at Newcastle, Ohio, in Febru- ary, 1914. Peter Pearl is the subject of this sketch. William lives at Seattle, Wash- ington. Mattie is the wife of Lyle Yocum, of Plain City, Ohio. Bruce lives at Ames- ville, Athens county. Lillie is the wife of John McKee, of Goodland, Kansas Tillie

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is the wife of Earl Hayes, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. Cora is the wife of Wiley Hayes, of Homer, Ohio. Frank lives at Columbus. Two died in infancy. The mother of these children died in June, 1908, and the father less than a year following, January, 1909.

Reared on the farm and educated in the common schools of Madison county, Peter Pearl McKiniey assisted his father on the farm from the time he was thirteen years of age. He was compelled to assist in the caring of the family, and remained at home with his parents until twenty-six years of age.

On March 14, 1897, Peter P. Mckinley was married to Anna Highfield. a daughter of James and Louisa Highfield, born near Waverley in Pike County, Ohio. James Highfield was a laborer who died about 1895. His wife, the mother of Mrs. Mckinley, is still living in Columbus.

Mr. and Mrs. Mckinley have had eight children, seven of whom are living. Ray- inond, the fifth born, died at the age of two. The living children are Helen, Edith, Cecil, Robert, Roy, Howard and Dorothy. Mr. Mckinley farms two hundred acres of land east of London. He does his farming with horses. He is keenly interested in stock raising and has his farm well stocked. He votes the Republican ticket.

BEN EMERY.

The venerable Ben Emery, a retired citizen of London, Madison county, Ohio, is a veteran of the Civil War, who has lived a long and useful life and who has filled many positions of trust and responsibility within the gift of the people of this county. He served two terms, a period of four years, as sheriff of Madison county, and was then elected to the important office of county treasurer, in which he served another period of four years, retiring from the latter office in 1898. During his entire life he has been active in the councils of the Republican party and is known as one of the leaders of the party in this section of the state.

Born near Wheeling, Virginia, October 6, 1839, Ben Emery, at the age of eight years, came with his parents to Warren county, Ohio, where they both died. They were Benjamin and Ellen (Nevitt) Emery, the former of whom was born and reared in Virginia, the son of John Emery, who immigrated to Virginia from Maryland. He was the son of William Emery, a soldier in the Revolutionary army from the state of Maryland. His record as a soldier has been supplied to the Emery family by the United States commissioner of pensions. John Emery, the son of William, was married in Virginia. ' Benjamin Emery was a carpenter by trade and died in Warren county at the age of eighty-three or eighty-four years, leaving three sons, who came to Madi- son county : Perry, who was a farmer in Range township for several years, but who left the county before the Civil War; William, who also lived in Range township, but who left before the war, and Ben, the subject of this sketch ..

Ben Emery came to Madison county to join his brothers when a lad of about twelve years. He lived with I. B. Fisher, in Range township, for ten years and kept himself on wages of ten to fifteen dollars a month. Ever since Mr. Emery was a lad he has saved money. During the time he lived with Mr. Fisher, he completed his edu- cation in the common schools. Remaining in Madison county until his brothers had left the county, Ben Emery enlisted in April, 1861, at the first call of President Lincoln for volunteers for three months, in the Seventeenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and became a private in Company C. He saw scouting service in West Virginia and, at the expiration of his term of service in 1861, re-enlisted in Company D, Fortieth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. This company was recruited in Madison county and was commanded by Capt. James Watson. It was recruited for three years' service. Mr. Emery was with the command during this entire period. He served for one year in Eastern Kentucky and, after the battle of Murfreesboro, the regiment was sent into

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Tennessee and took part in the Chattanooga campaign. Later it participated in Sher- man's campaign against Atlanta. Mr. Emery was discharged after the fall of Atlanta. From the time of his enlistment until his discharge, he was promoted from corporal to sergeant and was constantly with his regiment. During this period he was often in command of scouting squads. Subsequently he was employed by the government as a teamster and sent to Missouri. Here he was crippled, discharged and sent home.

Mr. Emery returned to Madison county, Ohio, and resumed farming near London, in Union township, farming there until his election to the office of county sheriff.

On May 1, 1867, two years after the close of the war, Ben Emery was married to Caroline Chrisman, the daughter of Peyton and Clara (Kenton) Chrisman, and a native of London. Mrs. Emery's father was, at one time, auditor of Madison county. He was the son of Isaac and Martha Caroline (Evans) Chrisman, the latter of whom was born in Rockingham county, Virginia. After giving birth to one son, she passed away early in life. Peyton Chrisman was a farmer near London. He lived on the old Kenton homestead, eight miles south of London, a farm which is still held by his heirs, including Mrs. Emery, who was the eldest of four children. Peyton Chrisman died on April 19, 1878, at the age of fifty-three years. He had spent practically all of his life in the state of Ohio. having come from his old home in Rockingham county, Virginia, with his parents.

Peyton Chrisman's wife, who before her marriage was Clara Kenton, was born in 1829, in Range township, Madison county, on the old Kenton farm and died on October . 16, 1889. Her whole life was spent on the farm where she was born. She was the daughter of Simon and Phoebe (Baker) Kenton, the former of whom was a nephew of the noted Indian fighter and hunter, Simon Kenton, of Kentucky. He was probably born in Kentucky and came to Madison county when a young man. The old Kenton home is a double log house of two stories. Simon Kenton was a well-known cattle drover during his day and generation, and drove cattle over the mountains to Phila- delphia. His home, in fact, was a station for drovers. It is said that even turkeys were driven over the mountains to Philadelphia, and Simon Kenton's house was a stopping place for the drovers. He obtained a tract of four thousand acres of land and here he spent practically all of his life. His wife was accustomed to gather up the stock in his absence and, on his return, he would find a sufficient number gathered for the market.

Mr. and Mrs. Emery have had seven children. namely: Peyton Randolph, who is an attorney at London, and an account of his life history is found elsewhere in this volume; E. Annette, who is the wife of Edwin Baird. of South Charleston, Ohio; Clara Frances, who is the wife of Walter Converse, of London; Helen Louise, who is the wife of J. C., Davidson, of Columbus; Maud H., who is the wife of Angus Bonner, of Madison county ; Angus B., who is a merchant at Lincoln, Nebraska, and Richard Kenton, who is at home. The latter spent two years on a sugar plantation in Cuba and also some time in Santo Domingo.

Mr. Emery is known as one of the most successful citizens of Madison county. Mr. and Mrs. Emery own a considerable part of the old Kenton estate and have a com- fortable competence. Aside from the positions of trust and responsibility which Mr. Emery filled as a Republican, he has been active in the conventions of the Grand Army of the Republic and has served as senior vice-commander. He was one of the com- mittee of veterans to locate the lines of his regiment at Chickamauga for the erection of the monument. He attended the dedication of the monument. The Emery family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In the early days, Mr. Emery enjoyed fox hunting and kept a pack of foxhounds. This was a sport which Mr. Emery thor- oughly enjoyed, but one which he abandoned many years ago.

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HENRY WARNER.

The events of modern life are so absorbing in their interest and so rapid in suc- cession, that it is well, now and then, to pause and consider the labors of preceding generations, and to spread a garland at the feet of those who have made the way more easy, or at least, to hold such in grateful remembrance. Those sturdy, far- seeing ones of other years who sowed and planted and builded for future generations "builded better than they knew," for upon their work and sacrifice has modern civili- zation grown. One of the goodly company who converted the waste places of this county into beauty and usefulness was Henry Warner, a man of great force of char- acter and rugged patriotism. The gentleman whose career is here considered was born in Fairfax county, Virginia, nine miles from Alexandria, in a beautiful place on the Potomac river, the date being June 15, 1705. He came of fine old Southern stock, ·being the son of William and Betsy (Denty) Warner, both natives of the state in which Henry was born.

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History of Madison County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Part 134

Author: Chester E. Bryan Publication date: 1915 Publisher: Number of Pages: 1207

Author: Chester E. Bryan
Publication date: 1915
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 1207