USA > Ohio > Morgan County > History of Morgan County, Ohio, with portraits and biographical sketches of some of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 46
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who is still living. Of the first mar- riage eight children were born, three of whom are dead -James, William, Rachel (deceased), Joseph (deceased), Thomas, Louisa (deceased), Frank B. and Sarah M. The children of the second marriage were Mary (deceased) and Anna. Mr. Manly was a Whig and afterward a Republican ; a man of decided views and of unblemished char- acter.
James Manly, the oldest son of Will- iam II. and Sarah D. Manly, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Jan- uary 22, 1829. He came to Ohio with his parents, and until sixteen years of age worked at farming, grubbing, clear- ing, etc., having the usual experience of farmers' sons in a new country. His school education was limited, his attend- ance being confined to two or three months in the winter season at the inferior schools of that time. At the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to George Williams, of Morganville, a manufacturer of wagons and threshing- machines, to learn the trade. His ap- prenticeship being completed in three years, in 1848, at the age of nineteen, in partnership with his uncle, James Walter, he opened a shop at Chaney- ville. At the end of four years Mr. Manly purchased his uncle's interest. From 1852 to 1860 he carried on the business alone, making wagons, thresh- ing-machines, etc., employing five or six hands and doing a prosperous busi- ness. In 1860 he formed a partnership with his brother, Frank B. Manly, who had learned the trade in his shop. They continued the business at Chaneyville until 1864, when they removed to Malta, and with W. P. and J. Brown formed a partnership under the style of Brown, Manly & Co. This was the beginning
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of the important establishment known as the Brown-Manly Plow Works, the history of which appears on another page. The business, successful from the first, increased rapidly, and in 1870 a joint stock company was formed under the name of the Brown-Manly Plow Company. In 1882, upon the retire- ment of Joshua Davis, Mr. Manly suc- ceeded him as president of the company, which position he still holds.
As will be seen from the foregoing, Mr. Manly is a self-made man, his suc- cess in life being wholly the result of his own labors and his excellent busi- ness qualifications. He is a gentleman of modest disposition, but of sterling worth of character. As a citizen he is public-spirited and liberal, and at all times zealous in encouraging every worthy object. He is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Masonic order, in which he has taken the Knight Templar degree. He was married in 1850 to Lydia Naylor, daughter of Samuel and Abigail Naylor. Mrs. Manly was born in Jefferson County and came to Penn Township, Morgan County, when an infant. This union has been blessed with five children- Mary A. (Brown), Sarah D. (Pickett), Samuel N., Elizabeth E. (Scott) and Capitola S .- all living in Malta.
SAMUEL MELLOR.
Samuel Mellor, one of the pioneers of Ohio, was born in Liverpool, Eng- land, in 1794. In 1802 the family immi- grated to Washington County where they resided until 1833, when they removed to Morgan County and settled on a farm in the southern part of Malta Township where he followed farming, and also worked at his trade -coopering. Hle died in 1880, in the
eighty-sixth year of his age. He was a prominent citizen and served several years as infirmary director. His first wife, nee Margaret Young, of Wash- ington County, bore six children- George W. (deceased), Almira (Keyser), John Benjamin (deceased), William E. (deceased), and Samuel W. For his second wife he married Joanna Bacon, of Washington County, by whom lie had one child, Henry L. John Mellor, tinsmith of Malta, is among the old residents of that place. Ile learned trade in McConnelsville and opened a shop in Malta in 1845. With the ex- ception of seven years he has been there ever since.
WILLIAM V. MELLOR
Was born in Washington County, July 10, 1824, son of Samuel and Margaret (Young) Mellor. In 1832 the family removed to Morgan County, settling in Malta township. W. V. Mellor re- ceived a common school education and acted as a teacher for several winters. In 1849 in company with his brother
Benjamin, and Washington McConnel, son of General Alexander McConnel, he doubled Cape Horn-which was considered more of a feat in those days than at present. After three years in the mining region of the West, dur- ing which he accumulated some means, he returned to his old home. In 1854 they bought the place now owned by his widow and family. Mr. Mellor was married in 1857 to Mrs. Jane Mellor, nee Massey. Her father, Matthew Massey, a native of Ireland, settled near Triadelphia in this county in 1816, and died in 1820. There were born of this union Annie, George S., Perley B. and Clara. Mr. Mellor was a promi- nent citizen and a very useful onc. Ile
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was active in raising bounties during the war, and was always charitable and kind. He was always called Billy Mellor, and was on good terms with everybody. He held some local offices, and was a member of Webb Lodge (Masonic). He died in August, 1885. His oldest son, George S., is a graduate of Dennison University, Granville, Ohio, and the other children have taken regular courses at good schools.
JOHN MILLER.
Edward Miller, Sen., a native of Eng- land, came to America at the age of nineteen and with his parents, settled on Wolf Creek about three miles north of Beverly. Thence, about 1806, he came to what is now the Sherwood farm in Malta Township in Morgan County, which he purchased and began improving. A small clearing, consist- ing of about sixteen acres, had previ- ously been made upon the place by John Lockhart. Mr. Miller was among the earliest of the pioneers of Morgan County and encountered all the hard- ships and difficulties incident to life in the new and unsettled country. In 1816 he sold out and moved to Wolf Creek in the present township of Union where he resided the remainder of his life. He was a successful farmer and a worthy citizen. He died June 23, 1838, in the sixty-third year of his age. His wife, whose maiden name was Catherine Nulton, he married in Wash- ington County. They reared a family of ten children : Mary, the oldest, was the wife of Thomas Byers, and is now deceased ; Edward is now living in Malta, at an advanced age; John re- sides in Malta Township; Samuel is dead ; William and George live in Iowa ; Elizabeth (deceased), married William
Spurrier; Melissa, the widow of William Graham, resides in Tuscarawas County ; Matilda (deceased) married Isaac Dye ; Sally married William Spurrier and lives in Union Township. John Miller, the immediate subject of this sketch, was born on the present Sherwood farm in Morgan County, June 13, 1810, and is therefore among the oldest resi- dents of the county. He passed his earlier years at home upon the farm, having but limited opportunities for ob- taining an education. When about twenty-one years of age, he began work for himself, following farming for a short time. He next engaged for about nine years in building salt-boats upon the Muskingum River, and freighiting salt and other products to Cincinnati and other Southern points. In 1840 he married Elizabeth McComas, daughter of Nicholas McComas, of this county, and soon afterward settled upon a farm. He has since been en- gaged very successfully in farming, and is now considered one of the best farmers in the county. He has resided on his present farm since 1847. His home farm consists of 430 acres of good and finely improved land, pleas- antly situated upon the river a short distance above the village of Malta. Mr. Miller has dealt considerably in real estate, and has always been an active business man. He was one of the incorporators of the Malta National Bank, and has been one of the directors since its organization. He was also a director of the McConnelsville National Bank for several years. Mr. Miller was formerly a whig and is now a re- publican. He was an anti-slavery man ; is a friend of temperance and other good work. His character and standing are two well known to the people of
John miller
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Morgan County to require commenda- tion here ; in all his dealings he has been honorable and just.
Mr. Miller's first wife died in 1855, having borne two children, Kate M. (Stanbery) and Hicl D. The latter is now cashier of the Malta National Bank. In 1857 Mr. Miller married Nancy A. Wright, daughter of John Wright, of this county. Their children are Harry E., J. Emmet and Blanche.
HIEL DUNSMOOR.
Hiel Dunsmoor-the immediate sub- ject of this sketch-was, like all the Dunsmoors, Dinsmoors, Dinsmores and Densmores, in Europe and America, so far as is known, decended from the " Laird of Achenwead," through his youngest son. This "Laird," whose name it is understood was - Duns- moor, lived at Achenwead, on the river Tweed, in Scotland, about the time the Pilgrims landed in America. The laws in Scotland at that remote period, decended from feudal times, made the eldest son of a family of quality the sole heir to titles and estates, on which ac- count and the feeling of degradation engendered by the deference enforced from him by his father toward his eld- est brother, in recognition of said laws, and the accompanying prevailing cus- toms relating thereto, this youngest son, when seventeen years of age, left home withont his father's permission, went to Ireland, married, and settled in the Connty of Antrim. The Dunsmoor coat-of-arms is described as " a farmi on a plate of green, with three sheaves of wheat standing in the center." This son who settled in Ireland had four sons, the eldest of whom, named John, with his wife, children and grand- children, were of the original party of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who emi-
grated to New England from the north of Ireland, in 1719, and formed the set- tlement of Londonderry, New Hamp- shire, so named after their native place. To this same party we are indebted for the introduction into North America of the culture and manufacture of flax, and the culture of the potato, which vegetable "their neighbors for a long time regarded as a pernicious root, alto- gether unfit for a christian stomach." This opinion of those remote times, con- trasted with the present, reminds us that in the affairs of the stomach, as well as in the realms of mind, morals and theology, " the world moves." Of these last named children, one-a phy- sician-named John, was the great- grandfather, his son John, who it is understood was his eldest, was the grandfather, and Phineas-a son of the latter-was the father of IFiel Duns- moor. The grandfather-John Duns- moor-married Mary Kimball and re- sided for an extended period in Town- send, Mass., where eight children were born to them-five boys and three girls. John, the eldest son, married, but his wife's maiden name is not known; he resided in Charlestown, N. H. Joseph married a Miss McNeal of New York state, resided for some years in Charles- town, then removed to New York, it is understood, some place on the Susque- hanna, where he remained the balance of his life, so far as is known. Of Wil- liam it is not known whether he married or not; he resided in Charlestown. Samnel, the youngest son, married Miss Anna Powers and settled in Vermont. Of the girls, the names of two, Miriam and Hannah only are known. Miriam married Rufus Leland; they resided in Charlestown. Hannah married Ben- jamin Pierce, a cousin of President
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Pierce. They also resided in Charles- town many years, afterwards removing to Amherst, N. H., where they were when last heard from. The remaining sister married a Mr. Saunders. They settled in Boston, where, as a merchant, he became quite wealthy. The grand- mother, for a second husband, married a Mr. Lovell ; no children however were born to them. Her son Phineas, the father of Hiel, was born at Townsend, Mass., as has been previously indicated, Decem- ber 29, 1771. He was married April 10, 1798, to Polly Gage, who was born in Pelham, N. H., July 16, 1782. She was a daughter of Abner Gage-a pa- triot soldier of the revolution-who, in the battle of Bunker Hill, had a portion of one foot taken off by a cannon ball ; her mother's maiden name was Susan Ober, and the latter had a sister whose first husband-a Mr. Hull-died in the Revolutionary army; her second husband was a Mr. Mclaughlin. Besides Polly, they had four children -- three boys and one girl ; of the boys, Abner married a Miss Hesalton, of Salem, N. H., Daniel married Miss Polly, a daughter of Dr. Shaw, of Unity, N. H., Joseph married a Miss Sprague, of Claremont, N. H., the remaining daughter, Susan, the eldest child, married Phineas Hull, her cousin. The mother died at Ackworth, N. H., in 1789, and after a time Abner, the father, married a Miss Rodgers, for his second wife. They had four sons and one daughter born to them. Of the sons, John married Ruth Woodbury. Of the other sons, Joshua, Eliphalet and Stephen, nothing besides their names is known save that they married and Eli- phalet had two sons; the daughter, Ruth, married Samuel Strong.
Phincas Dunsmoor, after having mar- ried Miss Gage as before stated resided,
it is understood, as a farmer, at Charles- town, Sullivan County, N. H., about eighteen years, where, October 20, 1807, their son Hiel was born. The even tenor of the father's life, like that of many others, was rudely broken in upon by the war of 1812. He was then a captain of cavalry but did not perform any active service. He was, however, ordered to " hold his company in readi- ness to march to Portsmouth at an hour's notice," where several British ships, laden with soldiers, were in the offing several days with seeming inten- tions to land them, which action it was desired to prevent if attempted, but it was not. From Charlestown he removed to Goshen, same county, in 1816, trad- ing for a hotel stand and a large farm adjoining. Here he kept hotel until the spring of 1822, doing an excellent business, that then being an important or favorite stopping point for a large wagon-road travel on the principal route between Vermont and Boston, this be- ing before the days of railroads. There is now, however, but an occasional traveler, and the place, as a village, is sinking in decay. In the spring of 1822, when Hiel was fifteen years of age the family, consisting of the father and mother and their children, four boys and two girls (of which more anon) left New Hampshire in wagons for Ohio-in that day deemed in " the far west." They came through the State of New York, along the Shore of Lake Erie, and down to Ashtabula County, Ohio. Thence, after, tarrying a short time at Mrs. Dunsmoor's father's, who with his family had removed and settled there in about 1810, they pro- ceeded to what is now Fairfield (was then Wesley) Township, Washington County, Ohio, arriving in July, 1822,
A
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and settled on a tract of 905 acres of land for which Mr. Dunsmoor had traded his Goshen, N. H., hotel stand and adjacent farm with J. Brick, one of the original "Ohio company." They lived temporarily in a log schoolhouse of the settlement, soon erecting and moving into a log house of the prevail- ing primitive type, the roof being se- cured by weight poles, nails not then being purchasable in that part of the country. This house, as has been chron- icled of those of many other pioneers, was at first, however, shadowed by the "forest primeval," and the howling of wolves formed the common refrain of the night time with which the ears of the family were regaled. Here the father quite suddenly died in the fol- ing May. In his illness he was attended, but perhaps ineffectually, on account of the distance he had to be summoned and come from, by Dr. S. P. Hildreth, the talented pioneer physician and historian of Marietta. His death was a paralyz- ing blow to the family, as the children were all comparatively young and the heavy work of clearing the forest was yet mainly before them; but the mother was an energetic intelligent woman, and her sons werc scions of a father, self- contained, intelligent, of great energy and firmness of purpose to which was added a high sense of and honor for right and duty, who, had he lived, would have been a power for the advancement of the community with which he had newly cast his lot. They therefore set bravely to work, and in due time much of the forest was laid low and smiling fields of rustling corn and waving grain grected the eye in its stcad. Though, as it may interest some to know, wheat then sold for 372 cents per bushel at Marietta, their market, twenty miles away.
The original homestead was about one mile northwest of the present Layman, Ohio, postoffice; its site and the main portion of the original tract is yet in the hands of Lucius and his and Hor- ace's children. Besides Hiel, Mr. and Mrs. Dunsmoor had been blessed with seven children, as follows : Horace, born October 11, 1799 ; Hiram, born Decem- ber 21, 1802; Abner, born March 17, 1804; Mary K., born August 13, 1805 ; Lucius P., born January 25, 1810; Ataline G., born September 18, 1812; Daniel N., born November 26, 1817. Of these children, all save Daniel N., were born at Charleston, N. H., Daniel being born at Goshen, same state. Hiram died at Charlestown, January 22, 1804, the others save Abner, Horace and Hiel, are yet (1886) living. Horace married Jane Bishop, a neighbor's daughter, of Wesley township, and lived a farmer. They had children as follows: Marian, Syl- vester L., Gilbert,Susan, Caroline, Emily, Alson, Euphama, Carini, George and Harriet. The father died in 1878, his wife having preceded him a short time. Abner married Miss Emily E. Topliff, of Quincy, Ill. She, however, died soon after without issue, a few years after which he married a Miss Miller, of same place, by whom he had a son-Augustus M .- and, about two years after, a daughter, which latter, however, died in infancy, accompanying her mother. The father died in 1853, having been a merchant most of his life. Mary K. married Ephriam Palmer, of what is now Palmer township, Washington County, Ohio. He was a farmer and at one time a colonel in the State militia. They had children as follows: Phineas, Lydia, Polly, Ruth, Abner and Ermina. The father died many yearsago. Lucius P. married Mahala Williams, of Wesley
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township, and has always lived a farmer; they had children as follows: Albina, Polly, Jane, Josephine, Laura, Jasper and Lodema. The mother died in 1876. Ataline G. married Hiram Gard, of what is now Palmer township, Washington County, Ohio, whose long life has been occupied in the main by farming and merchandising - about equally. He has also followed old-time milling and droving, and was a lieu- tenant-colonel in the old State militia when that of his county disbanded. They had children as follows : Edward, Charles, Mary, Martha, Helen, Hosmer and Hiel; Daniel N. married Julia Goddard, of what is now Fairfield Township, Washington County, Ohio. They had one son, name not known. The father afterward married Mrs. Isabel Harvey, of Barlow Township, Washington County, Ohio. They had three children, Pearly, Harvey and Alonzo. The son Hiel, who and his immediate family will exclusively be the subject of the remainder of this sketch, always having been of a very social nature-both his parents also being of a social temperament-early sought a companion to share his joys and sorrows at a fireside of their own, and his choice fell on Miss Susannah Mellor, whom he married in 1827, when he was about nineteen and a half years of age. She was a daughter of Samuel Mellor, who came from England when about nineteen years of age and lived - a farmer - near Waterford,
Washington County, Ohio.
" His
domestic comforts in this marriage was all that could be desired." They had five children, all of whom lived to marry. The eldest-Susannah H .- married Smith Daniels, of Milan, Erie County, Ohio, to which place they
removed, and where she died, May 3, 1853, of consumption, leaving no issue. The second daughter-Polly G .- married George S. Brownell, of Situate, R. I .; she, also, died, May 3, 1853, leav- ing three children-Mary, Susan and George Hiel. The father volunteered into the 63d regiment, O. V. I., in the war of the rebellion, and-as a first lieutenant-was one who led the night attack on Fort Wagner, near Charles- town, S. C., on July 18, 1863, in which attack he was killed by a shot in the breast. The third daughter-Jane Miranda-married Jesse D. Thomas, of Putnam, Washington County, Ohio, who then removed to Windsor, Morgan County, same state, and engaged in mercantile business; the mother died of consumption, January 28, 1848, leaving two children, both girls, the eldest- Marcella I .; the youngest, Florence M .- who have since resided principally with their grandfather Thomas, in Put- nam, Ohio. The next child-Ephraim P .-- was born May 5, 1833; he married Miss Sarah F. Fouts, daughter of Lemon Fouts, 3d, of Malta, Morgan County, Ohio. They had seven children respect- ively as follows: Alice Mabel, Ella Maria, May Cordilla, two sons who lived but one month and thirteen days each, Florence, and a son who, in the fall of 1878 or 9, when of not more than a few fleeting moments or hours in this bright world, departed with his mother for the brighter. The father was engaged for an extended period with his father in the manufacture of furniture at Malta, afterward was in the livery business at Zanesville, and at present is house-building in Belton, Mo. The youngest child-Marian Josephine Elmira-was born March 27, 1836. She married Gardner D. Newcomb, a
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machinist, of Bernham, Me., when they removed to Portsmouth, Ohio, where, after a residence of eleven months, Charles T .- their only child-was born. They very soon afterward removed sue- eessively to Malta and Zanesville, Ohio, remaining a comparatively brief period at each, when the mother went into a deeline and-like innumerable others who had gone before and still others who will follow her-came to the parental roof to die, which she soon after did, of consumption. Their son re- mained with his grandfather (Duns- moor) until his majority, at whose home his children and grandchildren ever found without stint a haven of rest and that open-handed and unremitting hos- pitality for which he was widely noted ; the "father followed the example of thousands of others and, at his country's call for volunteers, enrolled his name in the 62d O. V. I., in 1861, and was one of those brave boys who made the night attack on Fort Wagner, was wounded in the shoulder by a Minnie ball but recovered." The remorseless hand of consumption was also lain on Susannah -- Mr. Dunsmoor's wife - and she died, November 1st, 1853. In the contemplation of the aggregate of his bereavement eaused by consump- tion, Mr. Dunsmoor was led to exclaim (I give his own words, as I have twice before in this sketch since the record of his marriage, and will once or twice again after the present quotation), "thus in a few years' time, with that fell disease consumption, have I been de- prived of a dear wife and four children, leaving me none except my son Ephra- im of all my family. Could the fact have been made known to me that in so short a time death was to deprive me so nearly of all my family, it seems to
me that it would have dethroned my reason ; still 'the back is prepared for the burden' and man submits to the Divine will; these oft dispensations of Providence convince us that this is not our abiding place. I feel that I have treasures in heaven and will shortly be there with them." On June 26, 1854, Mr. Dunsmoor was again married to Miss Luey Atwood, of Union Village, Broome County, N. Y., " daughter of a farmer named Stephen Atwood, who was a descendent, in a-direct line, of the Pilgrims who came to Plymouth, Mass., in the Mayflower." When about twenty-one years of age he walked from Massachusetts to his pre- viously-mentioned home, carrying with him all of this world's goods he then possessed, being preceded, however, by what he doubtless valued more than pulseless mammon-a comely young woman with whom he had previously formed an acquaintance which had evi- dently been mutually pleasing, for they were married soon after his arrival at what was ever afterward his home. The house he built-or had built-for himself about sixty years ago to take the place of his first rude log one, is yet standing and in good preservation, being occupied by one of his several children yet living-and prosperously- in the same neighborhood. The house is somewhat peenliar in appearance, being shingled on the sides (the original shingles) as well as on the roof. "This- like Mr. Dunsmoor's first marriage- was one of domestic happiness." Nobly has the second Mrs. Dunsmoor filled the office of wife, mother and grand- mother, for her husband, his children (what were left) and grandelnldren; in faet the latter have almost-perhaps entirely-known no other in her place.
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