History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 36

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559

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"Oh steal not my faith away, Nor tempt to doubt the trusting mind; Let all that earth can yield decay, But leave this heavenly gift behind.

Our life is but a meteor gleam, Lit up amid surrounding gloom; A fitful lamp, a dying beam, Quenched in the cold and silent tomb.

But oh, if as holy men have said, There lies beyond this dreary bourne, Some region where the faithful dead Eternally forget to mourn,

Welcome the sword, the scoff, the chain, The burning wild, the black abyss; I shrink not from the path of pain, That endeth in a world like this."

Judge Campbell married in 1842 Ann E., daughter of Robert Martin, then one of the judges of the court of common pleas in Preble county. The offspring of this union were three sons and eight daughters, of whom four of the latter are living, viz: Francis A., Eva Belle,

Mary S. and Birdie Gertrude. The names of the chil- dren deceased are William H., Robert E., John B., Belle Maria, Anna, Emma, and Sarah M.

THE REV. JAMES B. FINLEY.

The life of Finley, the pioneer of Methodism, had a breadth and a far reaching influence which entitles it as fully to a place in State as in any county history. But if any county has a claim upon Finley as a citizen, which exceeds all others, that county is Preble. It was in Eaton that he spent the last years of his life, and all that was mortal of this sturdy and strange character re- poses in the village cemetery. His life was one full of activity and adventure, and his characteristics essentially those of the pioneer.

His ancestors were Europeans, and his father, Robert W. Finley, a Presbyterian minister, who became a famous pioneer in Kentucky and Ohio, was born in Pennsylvania. He married, in 1780, Rebecca Bradley, and in the following year, in the month of July, the subject of this biography was born. In the fall of 1788 the family settled in Kentucky. Here the elder Finley became a popular religious leader, and figured promi- nently in the history of the Cane Ridge (Bourbon county) settlement. From this locality he led, in 1796, a colony to Chillicothe, upon the Scioto, one of the earliest es- tablished towns in Ohio. He first set all of his slaves free, and they accompanied him, by their own choice to the Northwestern Territory. Young Finley had studied while in Kentucky, and had become quite familiar with Latin and Greek, though, strange to say, he had never achieved any more than the merest elementary knowl- edge of the English branches. On coming to Ohio he concluded a course of medical study began in Ken- tucky, and in the fall of 1800 was admitted to practice. The profession being unattractive to him, he did not fol- low it with any diligence or regularity, and soon after be- coming entitled to practice he made an expedition to Detroit with a drove of cattle. After returning he spent the greater part of the winter in hunting and roaming through the woods, and it was about this time that the serious thoughts of how to employ the life that lay be- fore him began to occupy the young man's mind. It seems that he thought over the advantages and disad- vantages of many modes of life, and finally resolved to follow none of the ordinary occupations, but to become a denizen of the woods, a hunter. He married in 1801 a young woman named Hannah Strane, and soon after settled in the midst of the forest, in what is now High- land county. Here he resided, following the life of a hunter and pioneer farmer, until 1809. In 1801 he had been converted at a huge camp-meeting which he visited at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, and from that time until 1809 he felt, says he, "an almost constant calling to the service of God." After much consideration as to his duty and his ability, upon the solicitation of some of his friends and the urgent request of the Rev. John Sale, the presiding elder, he consented to go into the

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field as a travelling preacher in Scioto circuit. And so the backwoodsman and bear slayer became a Methodist itinerant.

He was not regularly licensed until August, 1809, when the quarterly meeting conference was held in con- nection with a camp meeting on the farm of one Ben- jamin Turner, in the picturesque valley of Paint creek, not far from Chillicothe. He was first assigned to what was known then as the Will's Creek circuit, which was computed to be four hundred and seventy-five miles around. Its route was as follows :

"Beginning at Zanesville, and running east, it embraced all of the settlements on each side of the Wheeling road, on to Salt creek and the Buffalo forks of Will's creek, thence down to Cambridge and Leather- wood, on Stillwater, thence to Barnesville and Morristown, thence down Stillwater, including all of the branches on which there were set- tlements, thence up the Tuscarawas, through New Philadelphia, to One-leg Nimishilling, thence up Sandy and on to Carters, thence to Sugar creek and down said creek to the mouth, thence down the Tus- carawas to William Butts, and thence down to the mouth of White Woman, thence, after crossing the river including all of the settle- ments of the Wapotomica, down to Zanesville the place of beginning."

After laboring for a year in this circuit, Mr. Finley was transferred to Knox circuit, and after that, until 1816 his field of labor was in the several circuits of eastern Ohio. After that, Finley had charge of the Ohio district, includ- ing eight circuits, and embracing the whole State of Ohio and portions of New York and Pennsylvania.

In 1819 he was appointed to the Lebanon district, which extended from the Ohio river to the lakes, and in- cluded the whole of Michigan. Soon after the Wyandot mission became Mr. Finley's peculiar field of labor, and he remained there until 1827. He succeeded so far in Christianizing the Indians as to build up from a small church organization a society which numbered nearly three hundred members.

Upon leaving the mission of Upper Sandusky, Finley again was appointed to the Lebanon district, and after that served at Cincinnati station, and upon the Chilli- cothe and Dayton circuits, and finally (in 1842) to the Zanesville circuit, which was the one where he had first served. He remained there two years, and then at the request of the directors of the Ohio penitentiary was ap- pointed chaplain of that institution, a position which he retained three years and a half. In 1850 his health be- coming feeble he took a superannuated relation, but a year later was made effective, and appointed to Yellow Springs. After that he had charge, in his seventy-second year, of the Clinton street church in Cincinnati.

Soon after he came to Eaton, and in this place he died, September 6, 1856, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His only daughter, Eliza H., was the wife of the Rev. John C. Brooke, who at that time was living in Eaton.

Finley was eight times elected a delegate to the gen- eral conference. To his labors as a pastor and presiding elder he added the preparation of his "Autobiography," "An Account of the Wyandot Mission," " A Volume of Sketches of Western Methodism," "Life Among the In- dians," and "Memorials of Prison Life." He was a man of brusque, rough manners, but of great energy of char- acter, of the most fervent piety. He was a powerful

preacher, a popular manager of camp meetings, and other great assemblies "at which," says a Methodist writer, "by the power of his eloquence, as well as his tact and knowledge of human nature, he swayed the masses like trees swept by the winds, calmed the rage of mobs of ruffians, and moved along the path of his duty through that great and growing region of country (Ohio) as a prince and master in Israel."

CHARLES F. BROOKE.

The father of the subject of the sketch, the Rev. John C. Brooke, was for many years a resident of Eaton, and is buried in Mound Hill cemetery. He was a native of Virginia, and came from that State to Warren county, Ohio, as early as 1820. For a number of years he was engaged with the Rev. James Finley in teaching and car- ing for the Wyandot Indians at the mission in their reser- vation. Finley labored among them as a missionary and Brooke, who was also a minister, was under Government appointment most of the time that he was with them, and acted as agent, and assistant in all temporal affairs. Mr. Brooke came to Eaton in 1835, and was a resident of the place all the rest of his life. He died at the home of his son in Cincinnati, during the cholera epidemic of 1866. His wife was Eliza H., the daughter and only child of the pioneer of Methodism, James B. Finley. She died in 1863, aged about sixty-five years.

Mr. and Mrs. Brooke were the parents of eleven chil- dren, viz .: James B., deceased; Charles F .; Catharine .R. (Taylor), now in New York ; Eliza Jane, deceased; Han- nah M. (Clawson), a resident of Indianapolis; Sarah Ann (Roberts), in Wisconsin ; Clifford N. (Fleming), resident at Walnut Hills, Cincinnati; William M., in Denver; John C., in Cincinnati; Thomas M., who was killed in the army; and Ashbury Y., deceased.

Charles F. Brooke, the subject of this brief biography and the representative of the family with whom the peo- ple of Preble county are best acquainted, was born No- vember 17, 1826, in Warren county, Ohio. Nine years later he came to Eaton with his parents, and in this place resumed his education, and afterwards taught school, as he did also at Castine. In 1851 he went to Cincinnati and took charge of the mailing department of the Meth- odist Book Concern. Two or three years later he went into the employ of J. M. Bradstreet & Sons, commercial agents, and helped to build up their business, succeeding signally, and ultimately having entire charge of the firm's Cincinnati branch, a position which he held from 1855 to 1867.

He was a member of the Cincinnati city council for six terms, and resigned one year before his last term was to expire. He was also a member for a number of years of the board of health, and was in that position during one of the cholera seasons which proved so disas- trous to the Queen city. As a member of the council he led the opposition against the Gas company, which resulted in the lowering of the price of gas from the ex- horbitant figure of three dollars per thousand feet to

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something like one dollar and seventy-five cents; a result which saved to the municipality, and to individuals, millions of dollars. From 1864 to 1874 Mr. Brooke was engaged in the business of carrying on a private banking house, being associated with W. M. and John C. Brooke, under the style of Brooke Brothers, and oc- cupying the rooms now occupied by the Fourth National bank, on the corner of Walnut and Third streets. After dissolving partnership, Mr. Brooke, in 1867, came to Eaton, and soon after took charge of the First National bank, in which he and his brothers became largely inter- ested, buying out the interest of Valentine Winters and others. Mr. Brooke acted as cashier for a number of years but of late has been the president of the bank. Mr. Brooke, and his brothers, W. M., and J. C., in 1873, bought out Joseph Walters & Company, and organized as a joint stock concern, the Excelsior School Seat Man- ufacturing company, which for several years conducted, an immense business in Eaton. Our subject was also the president of this company.

Mr. Brooke is a Republican in politics, and though he never has been a place seeker in any sense of the term, was much talked of in connection with, and came within two votes of being nominated for Congressional candi- date in the Fourth district. He has been for many years connected with the Methodist church, and the society in Eaton, through his liberality, was aided materially in erecting the handsome church which it now occupies

Mr. Brooke has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1849, was Susan A. Matthews, and his present wife, to whom he was joined in 1872, Mary E. Martin. Mr. Brooke has eight children living, four as the offspring of each union.

HENRY C. HEISTAND

was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, on the twenty- second day of September, 1832, and was the son of John and Barbara (Cochran) Heistand. Mr. Heistand's grandfather was a native of Germany, and came to this country when a very young man. His father and mother were both born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, the latter being of Scotch descent, and came to Ohio in 1818, locating near Dayton, where they carried on farming. The subject of this biography obtained a very fair educa- tion in the common schools, and there gained some prac- tical ideas of business as a clerk in the store of his brother Jacob, in Dayton, and as teller in the Dayton bank. When of age, in 1853, Mr. Heistand came to Eaton, and took the position of cashier in the Preble county branch of the State bank of Ohio, which he retained until the institution passed out of existence in 1864. While con- nected with this bank he was also the agent of the United States in the sale of its "seven and three-tenths" bonds. When the old State bank wound up its affairs, Mr. Hei- stand became one of the organizers of the First Nation- al bank of Eaton. He was made cashier, and served in that capacity four years, when he was relieved from busi- ness cares by a vacation of five years, which he improved

principally in travelling. During this period he visited among other interesting localities, the famous scenes of California and the West in general. In October 1873 he opened the Preble County bank, under the firm name of H. C. Heistand & Company, which he is still conduct- ing. Mr. Heistand is one of the best known business men in Preble county. As is shown by the statements we have here made he has been activly engaged in Eaton for a period of twenty-seven years, with the exception of five years intermission. During these years he has gained the universal respect and confidence of the people, and is highly regarded as a solid, quiet, and conservative cit- izen and man of affairs.

Mr. Heistand was married in September 1869 to Nan- cy Margaret, daughter of John P. Acton.

JOSEPH A. DU SANG.

John Du Sang, the father of the subject of this notice, was a native of Bordeaux, France, born about the year 1755. When about nine years of age, he came to America with his parents who settled near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1798 John Du Sang removed to Washington county, Maryland, where he died in May, 1838. His wife was Elizabeth Moyier, of the same county. She died near Hagerstown in 1837, in her forty- eighth year, having been the mother of nine children. Joseph A. Du Sang was born in Hagerstown, Washing- ton county, Maryland, October 31, 1817. His educa- tion was obtained in the common schools, and at an academy of his native town. At the age of thirteen he left home, and made his way to Dayton, Ohio, where for something over a year he found employment as a clerk in a dry goods store. For two years subsequently he filled a position as clerk in the old Dayton bank. He then severed his connection with the bank, and went to New Orleans, and after a brief clerkship in a commis- sion house, entered the State bank of Louisiana as teller He remained in the employment of that institution until' 1851, when he went to Jackson, Mississippi, where he purchased a plantation, the management of which en- gaged his attention for the next two or three years. During his residence there, in 1853, Jackson was stricken with the yellow fever scourge, which was terribly fatal in its effects. Nurses were in great demand, and almost impossible to procure. Mr. Du Sang was one of four- teen gentlemen of Jackson, who formed themselves into an association to attend the sick so long as iheir services should be needed. Out of their number eleven took the fever and died. Mr. Du Sang, although stricken with the disease, was one of the survivors. Of his connec- tion with this event, the Mississippi State Gazette of September 23, 1853, said:

"We desire particularly to return the heartfelt thanks of the com- munity to Mr. Du Sang, paymaster of the New Orleans railroad. He is a stranger in our midst, scarcely known by sight to a score of our people. No persuasion could induce him to leave on the appearance of the epidemic, but although from the up-country and unacclimated here, he was one of the first to volunteer to nurse the sick, and has done so assiduously every night since. A more noble-hearted, gener-

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ous man does not breathe, and so unostentatious is his goodness that we know we offend him by giving publicity to his name."

After assiduous attention to the sick and dying for thirty-five days and nights, Mr. Du Sang was taken down with the dreadful scourge, but after much suffering, finally recovered. In the summer of 1854 he returned to Ohio; located in Eaton, and became teller in the Preble county branch of the State bank of Ohio. In November following, he became a stockholder in the bank, and in 1864, was one of the organizers of the First National bank of Eaton, which supplanted the State bank. In 1868 he sold his interest in the bank, and for nearly a year afterwards, was engaged in the settlement of a Dayton estate. In the fall of 1869 he returned to Eaton, and again entered the bank as bookkeeper and assistant cashier. In March, 1879, he was elected its cashier, which position he still holds. He owns a fine plantation of two thousand five hundred acres in Pike county, Mississippi. Mr. Du Sang is a man of superior business ability; is exceptionally careful and exact in all of his transactions, and possesses the entire con- fidence of every one who knows him. He is unmarried.

THE REV. ALEXANDER MEHARRY, D. D.

Although only a resident of Eaton a few years, the citizens of the place feel themselves largely indebted to the minister of the Gospel whose name stands at the head of this article. They have a high regard for his character and cherish lovingly his memory.

It was principally through the energy and zeal of the Rev. Alexander Meharry that the Methodist Episcopal society of Eaton secured their beautiful house of wor- ship, unrivaled by any in the State or in the western country, except a very few in the large cities, and one of the chief, if not the leading architectural ornament of the village. As the agent who brought about the exist- ence of this superb church, and no less from the fact that the last years of Mr. Meharry's life were spent in Eaton, and that he was laid away to his final rest in Mound cemetery, the people of Eaton have a peculiar in- terest in the "good old preacher," and it is fitting that there should be preserved for them the record of the life which came to the close of its earthly chapter in their midst.

Alexander Meharry was born in Adams county, Ohio, October 17, 1813, and died in Eaton, November 10, 1878, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and the thirty- seventh of his ministry. His father, Alexander Meharry, was born in Ireland, August 5, 1763; married Jane Frances, May 7, 1794, and soon afterward came to America; tarried four years in Pennsylvania, and in 1798 emigrated to Adams county, Ohio. He possessed remarkable energy and industry, and was a zealous Meth- odist. He was instantly killed by the fall of a tree while returning from a camp meeting in 1813, and his wife was left with a family of seven sons and one daughter to care for unaided. The youngest of the children, the subject of this sketch, joined the Methodist church at

the age of fourteen. He was reared on a farm, with only pioneer school advantages.

The first eight years of his majority were spent in a store at Ripley, Ohio, where he made such a reputation for integrity that he obtained the loan of one thousand five hundred dollars on no other security than his individual note. In September, 1841, he joined the Ohio conference as an itinerant preacher, and subse- quently rode the circuits of Blendon, Bainbridge, Dun- barton, Deer Creek, and Frankfort, in Ohio, and Mays- ville in Kentucky. In September, 1848, he became the first Methodist city missionary in Cincinnati, and stood heroically at his post during the ravages of cholera in 1849-50. In September, 1850, he was appointed finan- cial agent of the Ohio Wesleyan university at Delaware, and with the exception of one year gratuitously given as agent to the Springfield Female college, served six years. In September, 1857, he became pastor at Franklin, Ohio, where in two years he built a church edifice, besides liquidating some debts. In 1859 he took charge of the church in Middletown, and in 1861 became pastor of Finley chapel in Cincinnati, and was among the first of the clergymen who advocated the employment of colored troops in the Union war.

From 1863 to 1866 he was stationed at Wilmington, where he erected a church edifice. He then became agent of the Wesleyan Female college at Cincinnati. The old building on Vine street had been sold for debt, and a new structure would be erected. He succeeded, although many obstacles opposed, in securing the erec- tion of the present building, which is an ornament to the city and a monument to Methodism. In the fall of 1868 he became pastor at Eaton, and remained three years, within which time the present house of worship was built. In 1871 he was appointed presiding elder of the Ripley district, and in 1872 transferred to the Springfield dis- trict. In 1875 he settled in Eaton. In 1877 the Athens Wesleyan university, of Tennessee, conferred upon him the degree of doctor of divinity. In 1878 he was ap- pointed financial agent of the Delaware Wesleyan uni- versity. During a service of thirty-seven years he travelled nearly forty-five thousand miles, received into church connection over three thousand persons, and raised as agent for colleges and churches over one hundred thou- sand dollars. Since 1874 he had held superannuated relations to his conference. His long and active service had given him a warm place in the hearts of the multi- · tudes for whom he had labored.

He was twice married. August 14, 1844, he married Ann Ransom, a niece of Governor Worthington, of Ohio. She died June 22, 1847. On May 1, 1856, he married Eliza Ann Ogden, of Clark county, Ohio.

THE .DEEM FAMILY.

Joseph Deem, the father of the well-known family in this township, was for many years a resident of Preble county and one of the best known and most universally respected citizens, and a man of true worth and the

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most exemplary character. He was born on the twen- tieth day of September, 1801, in Campbell county, Vir- ginia, and removed to Ohio with his parents in 1810. They settled near Middletown, Butler county, and there Joseph Deem continued to reside until 1836, when he was led to make his home in Preble county. Pre- vious to his coming into this locality, December 18, 1823, he was married to Frances (commonly called Fanny) Torr, who was born in Shelby county, Ken- tucky, November 1, 1800. On coming into this county Mr. and Mrs. Deem took up their residence on the farm about two miles northwest of Eaton, where James Deem now lives. Here Joseph Deem remained and labored all of the rest of his life. He died February 14, 1873, and his wife January 15, 1874. Both were consistent and zealous members of the Methodist Epis- copal church. Mr. Deem was converted August 12, 1821, at a camp-meeting held on Indian creek, Butler county, and joined the church three days thereafter. His wife became a church member in 1823, and was therefore connected with the denomination almost as long as her husband. Both were communicants for one half a century, and during that time were always to be found among the active and earnest supporters of the several organizations with which they were identified, and especially of the church at Eaton, in which they en- joyed fellowship over thirty-five years.

Mr. Deem was, politically, a Democrat, during his whole life time, and it may be remarked in this connec- tion that all of his sons are adherents of the same party to which the father belonged.

Joseph Deem and wife were the parents of nine chil- dren, and it is a noteworthy fact that of this large family, the youngest of whom is thirty-six years of age, not a single death has occurred. The oldest of the family, William, who was born September 26, 1824, has been twice married, the first time to a Miss Kenzie, and after her death to his present wife, Sarah Harshman. Buck- ner Deem, born August 19, 1826, married Mary Kesling; Mary Ann (Fall) was born April 28, 1828; Maria (Sur- face) was born April 2, 1831; John Deem, born June 6, 1833, married Malinda Risinger; Jane (Spacht) was born November 13, 1835; Francis M. Deem, born May 26, 1838, married Flora Dunlap; George Deem, born June 13, 1841, married Fanny Bruce; James Deem, born August 2, 1844, married Mary Elizabeth Bruce, born No- vember 25, 1849, sister of the wife of George Deem, and daughter of Hardin and Susannah (Swigart) Bruce. They were married on Christmas evening, 1868, and have one child, Charles Hardin Deem, born February 14, 1870. The residence of Mr. and Mrs. James Deem, which is upon the old homestead of the Deem family, is the subject of an illustration in this volume.

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History of Preble County, Ohio, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches, Part 36

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages: 559

Author: H. Z. Williams & Brothers
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 559