USA > Ohio > Madison County > History of Madison County, Ohio : its people, industries and institution with biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 84
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A fine grove, consisting of some two hundred native trees, of fifty-four varieties, sur- rounds the McDonald homestead. The farm is well tiled and in a splendid state of cultivation. The oker members of the McDonald family were identified with the Whig and Republican parties, but, in late years, some of the members of the family have become Progressives. Joseph McDonald was a Prohibitionist in later life, but, so far as known, no member of the McDonald family has been a Democrat. They all have been first-class farmers and citizens, but have never sought public office or public honors. Older members of the family, those who are now gone, were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Without any exception. the McDonalds of Madison county have been even-tempered, honest in their dealings and fair-minded. ever possessing the full confidence and the utmost esteem of all their neighbors.
NATHAN FIELDS.
Probably no family in Deer Creek township, this county, is better known than that of Nathan Fields, a prosperous farmer, who is the proprietor of the old Beals farm, of one hundrd twenty-seven and one-half acres, located on the Luke Wright road, connecting the London and West Jefferson pike with the national road in Deer Creek township. It is not extravagant to say that the family of Nathan Fields is one of the leading families in that part of Madison county. The young people are popular and the home has been the center of the social gatherings in the community for many years. The educational and refining influences of this home have been important factors in local society.
Nathan Fields was born in Carroll county, Ohio. June 1, 1854, the son of John and Sarah ( Umphelby) Fields, natives of Pennsylvania and England, respectively, who were married in Carroll county, Ohio. When Nathan was ten years old the family moved to Jackson county, where the father died. His widow was left with a family of eight children. but she kept them together and Nathan remained with his mother until he was twenty-one years old.
At the age of twenty-one years. Nathan Fields was married to Esther Sheridan. of Mishawaka, Indiana, and eight years later. in 1883, moved to Madison county, renting land in Somerford township for several years. In 1891 Mr. Fields purchased the old Beals farm in Deer Creek township. paying about fifty-five dollars an acre for it. There then was an old log house on the farm, but since that time Mr. Fields has built a commodious country home. He has laid about two hundred rods of tile in the meantime and has stocked the farm with cattle and hogs.
To Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Fields eight children have been born, namely : Wealthy, a graduate nurse, who married Earl Woodruff. of Orrville. Ohio; Margaret, a teacher in Madison county, who has taught fourteen years, and at the present time is a student
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at Ohio State University; Bertha, who was a teacher for five years in this county, married Robert Harbage, whose biographical sketch is presented elsewhere in this volume; Amy, who taught school at Lafayette for five years, married Lester Stroup, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio; John, who was a teacher in North Dakota for one year, is now a farmer and carpenter at Bernstad, that state; Clarence, who is in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Washington, Pennsylvania; Alice, who was educated in the London high school, and Gladys, who was graduated from the London high school with the class of 1915.
Mrs. Fields and all of the children are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Upper Glade. Mr. Fields is a Republican and served on the school board for eight years. He also served as trustee for a period of six years and is warmly interested in public affairs generally, being looked upon by all as a public-spirited, energetic and enterprising citizen.
JOHN MINTER.
Specific mention is made in this volume of many worthy citizens of Madison county, citizens who have figured in the growth and development of this favored section and whose interests have been identified with its every phase of progress. Each has contributed, in his sphere of action, to the well-being of the community in which he resides and to the advancement of its normal and legitimate growth. Among this number is John Minter, a well-known farmer of Deer Creek township, and the senior member of the general mercantile firm of Minter & Lamgin, of Lafayette.
John Minter was born on the farm where he now lives, which is a part of the old Col. John Stevenson grant of six thousand six hundred and sixty acrs, one mile north of Lafayette. on November 3, 1863, the son of Lewis and Anna Mary (Snyder) Minter. Lewis Minter was the son of John and Mary (Dulayney) Minter, and John Minter was the son of William and Mary (Stevenson) Minter.
William Minter and Mary Stevenson were married in 1802. The latter was born in Kentucky, July 13, 1781, the daughter of Mark and Mary Stevenson. During the early years of her life, she lived with an uncle, Col. John Stevenson, a soldier in the Revolutionary War and a resident of Berkeley county, Virginia, who received, for his services in the American Revolution, a grant in Madison county, Ohio, comprising six thousand six hundred and sixty acres of land. At his death this tract of land was bequeathed to his niece, Mary Stevenson. In 1829 she and her husband, William Minter, came West to take possession of this grant, and here and at that time estab- lished the Minter family in this section of Ohio. Mary (Stevenson) Minter died on February 13. 1869, in what is now the home of her granddaughter, Mrs. J. B. F. Taylor, at Lafayette. From 1811 to 1848 she was a member of the Methodist church. but in the latter year she joined the Disciples church and was a faithful member of the same until her death.
Lewis and Anna Mary (Snyder) Minter settled on the Minter grant after their marriage, and are still living in the old house on the farm, as are also Jolin Minter's two sisters. Maud and Mary, the former of whom is a teacher in the London schools.
John Minter has spent his entire life on the farm where he now lives. During the Spanish-American War. he served in the Third Ohio Regiment, but got only as far as Tampa, Florida. During the last twelve years he has operated the farm. It contains two hundred and three acres, with sixty acres more nearby. He also operates the Simpson farm of three hundred and seven acres, and has one hundred and fifty acres of pasture. He raises cattle and Duroc-Jersey hogs in great numbers, ordinarily having on hand about one hundred and thirty head of cattle. thirty-five head of horses
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and two hundred head of hogs. Recently Mr. Minter became interested in the third store in the village of Lafayette. He is a Democrat and has served as township trustee for six years, and is a member of the Spanish-American War Society. Mr. Minter is unmarried.
JACOB SIDNER.
The Sidner family of Madison county had its original home in the Old Dominion state, Philip Sidner having lived in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. He had ten sons, all of whom located near Lexington, Kentucky, soon after the time of Daniel Boone. All of them were slaveholders. Philip was the only one of the ten brothers who came to Ohio, although descendants of the other brothers came later. The old Sidner homestead is located on the West Jefferson pike in Deer Creek township, six miles west of London, and it was there that Jacob Sidner, the son of Philip. lived until his death, in 1880, and it is there that his grandson. W. Clark Sidner, lives today.
Jacob Sidner was born in Kentucky in 1799. His father, Philip Sidner, had lived near Columbus, Ohio, but Indians had driven him back to Kentucky, where Jacob was born. The family later returned to Ohio, locating in Madison county in 1802, and built a fort on what is now the site of the Henry Wilson residence at West Jefferson. on the hill. Later, Philip Sidner settled at Little Darby on land now owned by David Siduer, and there he died about 1822. Jacob Sidner obtained the land, now owned and occupied by his son. six miles east of London on the West Jefferson pike, the township line passing through the farm. He acquired altogether more than one thousand acres of land, having started in the wilderness. Ilis old hewed-log house still stands on one part of his old farm, but not a part of the old homestead. The present house was erected about 1852. and was made of heavy frame timbers mortised and tinned, and is finished in walnut and ash, all cut and seasoned on the farm, and all hand-planed. Jacob Sidner managed to put about three hundred acres of land under cultivation. and was an extensive breeder of cattle, but more generally bought young cattle and pastured them on his land. He was also an extensive sheep grower. Jacob Sidner never held any public offices, but he was active in religions affairs. He helped to organize the Glade Methodist Episcopal church and for many years was a class leader in the church. The Sidners were originally Whigs, but at the organization of the Republican party identified themselves with the new party organization.
About 1830 Jacob Sidner was married to Margaret Erwin, the daughter of Joseph Erwin. a pioneer of Madison county, who had come here from Licking county, where Margaret was born. She died within one year of the time of her husband's death, the latter having been eighty-one years old at the time of his death. in 18SO. They had. therefore, lived together for a half century. and their house was well known by the ministers of the community, who made it their headquarters while traveling circuit in this section. Mrs. Jacob Sidner was also active in church work, a veritable "mother in Israel." and both she and her husband were leaders in all good works thereabout.
By a former marriage to a Miss Ewing, there were four children born to Jacob Sidner. one of whom was Philip, of West Jefferson, a prominent stockman and now deceased. Another son. Charles, went West and died there. Jane married Thomas Davidson and removed to Illinois. Barbara died early in life. Jacob Sidner's second family consisted of Irving, Wesley, Angie, Delia. Carmanda. Josephine. W. Clark and O. D. Of these children. Irving served in the One Hundred and Thirteenth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. during the Civil War, and now resides at Des Moines, Iowa. Wesley was a farmer on a part of the old homestead. and died at the age of seventy- two. His family still live on the farm. Angie married George Fifer. and died in
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London, this county. Delia died after "reaching young womanhood. Carmanda died early in life. Josephine died in childhood. W. Clark Sidner is living on the old home place, and O. D. Sidner lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Although a pioneer in this section, Jacob Sidner killed only one deer in all his life. He occupied hinself closely in farming. Although not active politically, he was a strict Republican. In later years he kept buying more and more land and paid as high as sixty dollars an acre for much of it. The original home of one hundred and thirty- three acres was bought for five dollars an acre.
W. Clark Sidner was born in the old hewed-log house on the Sidner homestead January 5, 1845, and has lived all his life on the farm except a few years spent in London and Columbus. Mr. Sidner has one hundred and ninety acres of the farm, having sold over one hundred acres some time ago. He operates the farm himself, and has been quite successful. Before the death of his father, W. Clark Sidner had operated the farm for some years. Lately he has installed a great deal of underground drainage on the farm, something that had been needed for years.
W. Clark Sidner first married Jennie Jones, who died leaving two sons, Ernest and Earl, the latter of whom married Eloise Florence. Both live on the farm with their father. Mr. Sidner married, secondly, Elizabeth Rubert. who died, after which he married Sadie Parker, who is also deceased. Both the second and third marriages were without issue.
W. Clark Sidner was elected township trustee of Deer Creek township as a Repub lican, and he has helped to sustain the local church, although he is not a member of church. In his community. Mr. Sidner is known as a sportsman, and very much enjoys bird shooting. He also keeps good road horses, and enjoys driving them.
WILLIAM STREET.
The science of agriculture, for it is a science, may be exemplified in the career of William Street, the proprietor of "Glade Dale Farm," situated five miles east of London on the Glade road and in Deer Creek township. Mr. Street is a man who began life with very little, but his two sons have remained with him, and with their co-operation he has been able to achieve a large success in his chosen vocation. He is well known in Madison county, where he owns a very productive and desirable farm. Both of Mr. Street's parents were born in Lincolnshire, England. His father came to America as a young man, and his mother as a young girl, and they were married in Knox county, Ohio, in 1836, and there engaged in farming. Mr. Street's father had a brother living in Pennsylvania when he came to the United States in 1830.
William Street was born in Knox county, Ohio, in September, 1845. and when a child his parents removed to Morrow county, Ohio, where the family lived two years, after which they moved to a farm near Richwood, Union county, Ohio, where his mother, Anna ( Robinson) Street, died in September. 1863. His father, John C. Street. came to London five years later and lived with his daughter, Mrs. Preston Adair. and here his death occurred. September 17, 1880, at the age of seventy-eight years. John C. Street and wife had another daughter, Sarah A., who married John J. Melvin; a son. George, is a farmer in Oak Run township.
On May 20, 1862, William Street came to Madison county and located on the farm of his brother-in-law, Preston Adair, which is situated near his present home. For some time he worked for Mr. Adair, and later, in conjunction with another brother-in- law. John J. Melvin, operated the Preston Adair farm. the latter removing to London.
In 1868 William Street was married to Emeline Adair. a daughter of Henry S. and a niece of Preston Adair. She was born on the old Adair farm and was about
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twenty-two years old at the time of her marriage. Henry S. Adair died in London in 1901. Mr. Street and Mr. Melvin operated the Adair farm for seventeen years. In 1885 Mr. Street purchased his present farm of one hundred and eight acres. It is a part of the John McDonald farm and borders the south side of the Pennsylvania railroad. Mr. Street has gradually added to his original purchase until he now owns two hundred and eight :teres. for some of which he paid sixty-two and one-half dollars per acre. A few years ago he bought one hundred and thirty-four acres one mile north of his home farm, a tract known as the Luke Wright farm, for which he paid one hundred dollars an acre.
Mr. Street was almost able to pay for his first farm during 1885. He has been engaged extensively in stock raising and is well known as an extensive grower of registered Shropshire sheep, keeping about seventy-five head, having a large local trade for breeding rams from the "Glade Dale Farm." He has always realized fair prices for his sheep. He also engages extensively in the breeding and fattening of hogs, and sells from one hundred and fifty to two hundred head of hogs each year. All the crops raised on the farm are fed to the live stock. From time to time Mr. Street has erected good buildings on the farm. Water for the stock is supplied by a windmill which pumps it to the barns. Natural gas is used for heating the house, a pipe line passing near his home.
William and Emeline (Adair) Street are the parents of two sons, Howard A. and Chester. Howard married Flora Johnson, and they have one daughter, Dorothy Frances, aged three. Chester married Stella Pierce, a daughter of Thomas Pierce, of Jefferson township. Chester lives on the Wright farm, but both the Wright farm and the home farm are operated together by the two sons and their father.
Mrs. William Street died on December 3, 1914, after nearly forty-seven years of married life. She was at one time a member of the Lower Glade church, bnt later removed her membership to the Upper Glade church. and finally to the London church. Mr. Street is not a church member. but is interested in all measures which have for their object the betterment of the community and the welfare of his fellow citizens.
EDWARD W. JOHNSON.
From the time of the very beginning of the social order in what is now known as Jefferson township, this county, the Johnson family has been prominently identified with affairs thereabout. Michael Johnson. a Virginian, the great-great-grandfather of Edward W. Johnson, the immediate subject of this sketch. a prominent lawyer of this county, was the first white settler in that section of the Northwest Territory now com- prised in Jefferson township, he and his wife and eight children having emigrated to that section from Virginia in the year 1796, establishing a permanent home in what is now the West Jefferson neighborhood of this county, a part of the land which this pioneer entered at that time still being held in the Jolinson family, after a lapse of two decades more than one century. Michael Johnson's children were a sturdy lot, partak- ing of many of the excellent qualities of their vigorous pioneer parents, and their progeny in the sixth generation from the founder of this family in Madison county form a numer- ous connection throughout this part of the state, the various members of this family invariably having been found capable of performing well his or her part in the com- mon life of the several communities in which their respective lines have fallen.
Edward W. Johnson was born on the old home farm in Jefferson township, this county, on October 27. 1876, son of Abner and Emma (Olney) Johnson, both natives of the same county. the former of whom was the son of Abraham Johnson, who was a son of Jacob Johnson, one of the sons of Michael Johnson, the pioneer who came to this section from Virginia in 1796, as mentioned in the foregoing paragraph.
EDWARD W. JOHNSON
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Abraham Johnson was born in Jefferson township, this county, on September 29, 1808, and died in his native township on January 14, 1874. On January 7, 1844, Abrahamı Johnson married Elizabetlı Keen, who was born on August 20, 1825, and who died on July 10, 1861; whereupon he married, secondly, Mrs. Lydia Olney, widow of Judson Olney, born in Franklin county, this state, in 1826.
Abner Johnson, son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Keen) Johnson, was born on November 4, 1845, and on August 8, 1866, was united in marriage to Emma J. Olney, daughter of Judson and Lydia Olney, to which union seven children were born, six of whom are still living, those besides the subject of this sketch being as follow: Mrs. Charles Temple, of Cable, Ohio; Jennie, who is still at the old home; Ethel, also at home; Carrie, who married Charles Shannon, of Jefferson township, this county, and Earl, who manages the home place in Jefferson township. Abner Johnson was a man of large influence in his community, he for many years having been regarded as one of the leaders in the general affairs of that section of the county, having served his home township as trustee and as assessor. He died in 1909 and his widow is still living on the old home place.
Edward W. Johnson received his elementary education in the public schools of Jefferson township and so well did he improve his opportunities in this direction that at the age of sixteen years he successfully passed the examination necessary to secure a license to teach school and for three years thereafter was engaged in teaching in the district schools of this county, thus acquiring a fund which enabled him to enter Ohio Northern University at Ada, from which he was graduated in 1898, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Thus admirably equipped, Mr. Johnson entered seriously upon the study of law, his previous course having been regarded as merely preliminary to the latter course, and was graduated from the law department of the same univer- sity in 1903, and was shortly afterward admitted to practice in the courts of this state. Even while pursuing his studies in law, Mr. Johnson was actively engaged in the bank- ing business as cashier of the Farmers Bank of West Jefferson and is still prominently connected with that bank, though practicing his profession at London, and continues to make his home in West Jefferson. On January 1, 1911, Mr. Johnson formed a part- nership for the practice of law with C. C. Crabbe, under the firm name of Crabbe & Johnson, at London, and has been very successful.
On May 11, 1904, Edward W. Johnson was united in marriage to Odessa High, daughter of Charles High, of Jefferson township, and to this union one child has been born, a daughter, Isabel. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are actively connected with the work of the Methodist church, though not members of the same, and Mr. Johnson is a teacher in the Sunday school. Both are warmly interested in all good works, not only in the West Jefferson neighborhood, but throughout the county, and are held in the highest esteem in their large circle of friends.
E. W. Johnson not only has attained distinction as a banker and lawyer, but is also noted for his advanced ideas on farming. He owns three hundred and forty acres of choice land in Madison county and eleven hundred and twenty acres of land in Jackson county, Arkansas. He also devotes much attention to cattle raising and has a large mixed herd. His tract in Arkansas is timber land, which is rapidly being cleared and he expects to devote this tract to the raising of cotton and corn. He now has a few head of cattle on his Arkansas land, which will form the nucleus of a more extensive herd of Herefords which he expects to raise on the place.
Mr. Johnson is a Democrat and is one of the most active campaigners in this part of the state, his services as a political speaker being in wide demand in connection with his party's campaigns in this section. He received the distinguished honor of being (37)
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elected to represent Madison county in the Ohio constitutional convention of 1911 and in that memorable body acquitted himself in such manner as to reflect not only great credit upon himself, but upon the county which he represented. Mr. Johnson is a Freemason and takes a warm interest in the affairs of that ancient order. Not only is he held in high esteem among his professional associates, of both bench and bar throughout this section of the state, but also among the leaders of financial affairs hereabout, and by his associates in banking circles Mr. Johnson is held in the highest regard, all having the utmost confidence in him, and he very properly is regarded as one of the most substantial and influential men in Madison county.
GEORGE W. PLYMELL.
In this commercial age, when the increase in land values makes the sale of the old home a temptation that few care to resist, it is seldom that the present genera- tion still retain the home founded by the pioneers of the family. Unusual as this habit is among the people of today, the Plymell family have proved the exception to the rule, for the Plymell homestead, founded by the paternal grandfather, in Upper Glade, Deer Creek township, Madison county, Ohio, has been in possession of the family for more than one hundred years and is now the property of William Plymell, brother of George W. Plymell, subject of this sketch.
This farm, cleared and tilled by one of the first settlers in the county, is located five miles east of London, and it was here that on May 3, 1846, G. W. Plymell first saw the light of day. His parents were William and Frances ( Helverson ) Plymnell, the father being a native of Madison county and developing early the good judgment displayed by his father, became a tiller of the soil until his death, which occurred in March. 1855. The mother was born in Lawrence county and died about 1893.
To William and Frances ( Helverson) Plymell were born seven children. five of whom are now living. Imbued with the love of home and the associations which long acquaintance with one locality is sure to make dear, they have found peace and plenty without wandering into unknown lands. Mrs. Nancy Snodgrass, one of the daughters, lives at Plain City, but the other children reside on or near the home place. Mrs. Lloyd Wheeler in Lower Glade, Madison county ; William Plymell in Upper Glade, and Mrs. Leslie Summers, in London, Ohio.
George W. Plymell was reared on the farm of his birth and his education. in the common schools. was supplemented by the home environment. developing a strength of character which proved to be a source of great comfort to his mother during the lonely years following his father's demise. He was only a small boy at the time of his father's death but displayed great efficiency in farming the home place for his mother and in carrying the burdens that devolved upon him.
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