History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 60

Author: R. Sutton & Co.
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 427

USA > Ohio > Shelby County > History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 60

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RAPER HOLMES was born in Shelby County in 1853. He is a son of Thomas Holmes. In 1873 he married Sarah Lane, a daughter of Wil- liam and Eliza Lane. They have raised a family of four children - Floyd M., Allie G., Fawnce P., and John V. They are located on section 7.

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

HARVEY M. CORNELL,

a son of George N. and Chloe (Hanel) Cornell, was born in Warren County, O., in 1830. His father was born in Canada in 1798, came with his parents to the United States, and located in Warren County, Ohio, where he married and raised a family of sixteen children. Of the six- teen children, six of them were boys. It is said of these six boys-and has never been disputed-that not one of them ever tasted liquor, beer, or wine, or used tobacco in any form, or used any profane language in their lives. Such an example is seldom known, and is worthy of record.

HARVEY M. was the second son ; he lived with his parents till he was twenty-seven years of age. He received a fair common school education. In 1858 he came to Greene Township, Shelby County, and bought 160 acres of land. The same year he married Sarah E. Dorsey, but within five months after their marriage she was burned to death by her clothes taking fire while washing some bedding. In 1859 he married Rosanna Christman. By this union they have six children, viz., Chloe A., born 1863; Leana M., born 1865; Ancil E., born 1867; Ulysses G., born 1×69; Harvey O., born 1871; and Jesse A., born 1874. When Mr. Cornell first came to the county and bought land he had but $500. He gave a mort- gage on this land for $3500. His land was nearly all in the woods. He cleared it and paid off his indebtedness within twelve years, and had saved $3000 beside, which he paid on his present home, for which he agreed to pay $9000. He has since paid off this indebtedness, and has several thousand dollars beside-all made by farming since he came to the county.

JOHN F. KIGGENS

was born in Miami County in 1817. His father was Robert Kiggens, who was born in Maryland in 1789, and came to Miami County when a young man. Here he enlisted in the army and served under Gen. Har- rison in Northwest Ohio. In 1814 he married Mary Boyer and moved to Orange Township in 1818; consequently John F. was but one year of age at the time of their settlement in this county. In 1838 he married Sarah M. McClosky. He has had six children, five of whom are now living, viz., Maggie, William M., Emma T., Laura B., and John C. F. The great-grandmother of Mr. K., - Kerns, died in Orange Township at the age of 113 years.

JOHN MOTT

was born in Germany in 1813. He, with his parents, started to come to the United States in 1832, but Jacob Mott, the father, died on the way and was buried on the coast of France. The widow, with her children, continued their journey and landed in New York. They immediately started for Ohio, and located in Richland County. Mr. Mott while yet in Germany had received a fair education, and had studied civil engi- neering. In 1835, hearing of the building of the Miami Canal, he came to Shelby County and engaged with the engineer corps, and remained with it until the completion of the canal. In 1839 he was married to Susan Sims, with whom he raised six children : Mary, John, Sarah, James, William, and Callie. In 1865 his wife died. In 1870 he married Missouri A. Funk, widow of Wm. Funk, deceased, whose maiden name was Stanley.

WILLIAM MOTT, son of John Mott, was born in Miami County, O., in 1855, and married Eva Platt in 1878. They have one child, Luella F. Mrs. Mott is a daughter of Jonathan and Mary Atterson Platt. She was born in New Jersey in 1854. Her parents came to Shelby County in 1856.

NOAH RHINEHART

was born in Fairfield County in 1821, and was taken by his parents to Seneca County the same year, where they located in the woods without even a cabin. They at first sheltered themselves beside a log, and covered themselves with bark to protect themselves from the weather. The parents of Mr. Rhinehart-Jacob Rhinehart and Susanna Leslie-were married in Fairfield County, O., in 1820. After their removal to Seneca County they had just made a start in the woods, and had only been living there a few months when Mr. Rhinebart went to assist a neighbor to raise a mill. He was instantly killed by the falling of a timber. Mrs. Rhinchart then returned with her son Noah to Fairfield County, where he was put out among strangers, and never learned to know but little about his parents, not having seen his mother but a few times in his life. He was raised on a farm in Fairfield County until 1843, when he went to Seneca County and worked by the month for about one year, then married Rebecca Huddle in 1845, and moved on to a piece of wild land, where he built a cabin and commenced life in the woods without help. He cleared this farm himself and lived there until 1864, when he bought his present place in Shelby County, where he now resides. They have raised three children, viz., Lydia, Amanda, and Jacob.

JACOB, the son of the above, was born in Seneca County in 1852, and came with his parents to Shelby County in 1864. In 1876 he married Frances A. Butler. By this union they have two children, viz., Alvin D. and David F. Mr. R. has received a liberal education, having received the advantage of the common schools and one year at Heidelberg College.

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BENJAMIN HUDDLE,

father of Mrs. Noah Rhinehart, was born in Virginia in 1804. In 1816 he came with his father, Daniel Huddle, to Fairfield County, where he married Anna Sites in 1823. Mrs. Rhinehart was the first child and was born in 1824. She was the first of eighteen children by the same parents. They located in Seneca County in 1828. When Mr. Huddle first located in Seneca he owned eighty acres that he had entered. On this wild land he took his wife and four small children. Afterward there were born to them fourteen others. Of these eighteen children, fourteen lived to be- come men and women. To each of these children he left at his death eighteen hundred dollars, all gotten by industry and economy.

JAMES K. PATTERSON

was born in Seneca County, O., in 1845, and married Lydia Rhinehart, a daughter of Noah Rhinehart, in 1876. They have had born to them two children, viz., Edwin F. and Melvina A.

JAMES CAVEN.

GEORGE CAVEN, with his wife and part of his family, emigrated from Scotland to the United States just at the close of the Revolutionary war, and settled in Rockbridge County, Virginia. It was here, in the year 1790, that John A. Caven was born. When quite young, perhaps early in the present century, he came with his father's family to Miami County, and settled on Spring Creek, close to the Shelby County line. In 1823 he married Elizabeth Scott. The result of this union was nine children. He lived here to raise his family, and make for them a com- fortable home. He died in 1850. Mrs. Caven died in 1869. Of this family seven are still living. James, the sixth of the family, was born in 1836. He lived at home with his father until he died; then remained with his mother until 1855, when he went to Illinois, where he lived until 1864. Then he went to try his luck in the gold mines of Idaho. In 1866 he returned to Miami County, when in 1868 he married Miss Annetta Sayers. They have raised a family of four children, whose names and date of birth are as follows: William, born 1871; James, born 1873 ; Samuel, born 1875; and Harley, born 1877. In 1874 they settled in Shelby County, on land entered by John Morrow in the year 1819. The patent has the signature of James Monroe, President of the United States.

Of the ancestors of Mrs. Caven we know nothing, except of her father and mother. Her father, Samuel Sayers, was born in Miami County in 1810. In his father's family there were seventeen children, and all grew up to man and womanhood, and all married, except one daughter, who died at the age of 17 years. Mr. Sayers was killed in 1877 by the run- ning away of a team of horses. Mrs. Sayers still survives, and is living on the old homestead in Miami County.

JEREMIAH REDENBAUGH

was born in Pennsylvania in 1793. He was a son of John Redenbaugh, the early pioneer of Shelby County. In 1799 they removed to Hamilton County, Ohio. Previous to the War of 1812 the Redenbaughs came to the present limits of Orange Township, but remained but a short time, when, on account of Indian troubles, they returned to Hamilton County, where they remained until the year 1818, when they returned to this county. In 1817 Jeremiah married Margaret Shanklin, whom he brought with him to his backwoods home. They lived to raise a family of thir- teen children. In 1866 Mr. R. returned to Illinois, where he died in 1872. His wife only survived him about ten days.

Aaron Redenbaugh, a son of Jeremiah Redenbaugh, was born in Shelby County in 1829. In 1862 he married Elizabeth Voorhees, a daughter of Reuben Voorhees. She was born in Montgomery County in 1841. They moved to Illinois the same year that his father did. They remained there until 1880, when they returned to Orange Town- ship, and are now located on part of the old homestead of Reuben Voor- hees. They have raised four children, viz., Annie B., Charles O., Saml. R., and Clarinda. The first two only are living.

JOSEPH WEAD.

The father of the above (Robert Wead) was born in York County, Pennsylvania, in the year 1781. His father was born in Ireland. Robert Wead married Mary Gibson in 1814. They raised a family of eight chil- dren, of which Joseph was the youngest. He was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1831. His father having settled there in 1806, and died in the same place in 1×73 at the age of 92 years. His wife died in 1871, aged 84 years. In 1853 Joseph Wead married Mary Wiley, of Miami County, with whom he lived until 1860, when she died. He then, in 1861, married Margaret B. MeKnight. They by this union have eight children, viz., Samuel M., Mary L., Ella J., Wiliam A., Lizzie E., Hattie B., Joseph G., and Harry G. They came to Shelby County in 1-64, and bought the old Minnear farm, on section 1, where they now reside.

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

SAMUEL M. SHAW.

THOMAS SHAW, the grandfather of the above, was born in Ireland in 1741; came to America in 1750, and located in Kentucky, and became a neighbor and intimate acquaintance of Daniel Boone, the noted hunter and Indian scout. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. His son, Alexander Shaw, was born in Kentucky in 1792, and married Martha Culbertson, and came to Green County, Ohio, in 1816, where they lived until 1829, when they came to Shelby County and located in Sidney. He lived in Sidney but a few months when he bought a farm, one mile south of Sidney; moved on to his land, and made his home there until he died in 1849. Mrs. Shaw died in 1871. Samuel M. was born in Green County in 1818; came with his father to Sidney in 1829; was raised on the farm. After the death of his father he still remained at home, and maintained the family and paid off the indebtedness on the farm. In 1853 he married Catharine Burtgess, by whom he has three children-Charles, Belle, and Sarah. Mr. Shaw has given his time and attention to the farm and the burning of lime, with the exception of some ten years that he lived in Sidney to give his children the advantage of schools.

JOSEPH FERGUS.

As early as the middle of the eighteenth century Fergus, with his son Francis, came from Ireland to America, and located in Virginia. Francis remained in Virginia, and married there. When he married, or to whom he was married, or the number of his family, to us is not known ; but we find that he had one son, John Fergus, born in 1794. He remained in Virginia until he grew to manhood, when he was married to Nancy Guthrie, with whom he lived less than a year, when she died. The time of his marriage and death of his wife is not known. In 1819 he came to Miami County, Ohio, where, in 1820, he married Margaret Stafford. Through misfortune Mr. F. lost all his property, and in 1823 he removed to Shelby County, and bought land in Washington Township. Here he stuck some stakes in the ground, put up some poles, and covered it with his wagon cover. This was in July. In August, Joseph Fergus, the subject of this sketch, was born in this cloth tent. He lived at home until the death of his father in 1837, not having the advantage of a single day's schooling. In 1839 he went to learn the carpenter trade, at which he served an apprenticeship of three years. During this appren- ticeship he received five months' schooling, all he ever got in his life. In 1847 he married Barbary Ullery. By this marriage they raised a family of eleven children, viz., Caroline E., Richard H., Sarah C., John S., Win. A., Mary M., Joseph L., Winfield S., Charles E., Wealthy E., and Laura A. Mr. F. worked at his trade until 1855, when he bought a farm and sawmill in Orange Township, where he now lives.

ALEXANDER SNODGRASS.

Thompson Snodgrass, the father of Alexander, was born in Mont- gomery County in 1804. He lived there to marry Margaret Holmes. They remained in Montgomery until they removed to Shelby County in 1836. The family at that time consisted of three children, Alexander, Elizabeth J., and James. Alexander was born in Montgomery County in 1832. They located in Clinton Township, where he made his home until he married. In 1860 he married Clemena Boyer, a daughter of Jacob Boyer, who settled on the place where Mr. Snodgrass now lives in 1810. They have raised a family of five children, viz., Thompson L., Elizabeth F., Laura E., Ledora, and Sevella B.

WILLIAM B. LEFFERSON.

The above was one of five children of Garret Lefferson, who was born in the State of New Jersey about 1795, and came to Ohio in the early part of the present century, and located in Hamilton County. Here in 1816 he married Sarah Barkalow, and remained in Hamilton County until he died in 1828. His widow lived to the age of seventy-seven years, when she died in Butler County, Ohio, in 1875. William Leffer- son, the one of whom we write, was born in Hamilton County in 1823, and was but five years of age at the death of his father. He then went to live with his grandfather Barkalow, with whom he remained until he was twenty-one years of age. In 1848 he came to Shelby County, and bought the land owned by his mother given to her by her father, Wil- liam P. Barkalow. Shortly after coming to the county he formed the acquaintance of Isabel J. Reynolds, to whom he was married in 1850. They have raised five children, as follows: David F., born 1852; James B., born 1853; Sarah B., born 1857; Chas. G., born 1858; and Edward C., born 1862. Mr. Lefferson is now located on the old homestead of William Berry, near the site of the old red mill, built prior to the war of 1812. David Reynolds, father of Mrs. Lefferson, was born in Pennsyl- vania in 1786, married Sarah Stewart in 1813. When they first came to Ohio they located in Warren County, but removed to Shelby County in 1830 when Mrs. Lefferson was four years of age. Mr. Reynolds lived in Orange till he died in 1868.

THE HETZLER FAMILY.

Jacob Hetzler was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and. married there near the close of the eighteenth century, and shortly afterwards started for the West. At Pittsburgh they put their effects on a flat boat, and floated down the Ohio River, and landed at Cincinnati. The city at that time only contained a few houses. When Mr. H. started for the West, he took with him a barrel of apples. From the seeds of these apples some of the first orchards in Ohio were started. Some of the trees grown from these seeds are still standing and bearing fruit. Mr. Hetzler raised a family of nine children, seven boys and two girls. They located on a farm in Hamilton County, where they spent the rest of their days. Mr. and Mrs. Hetzler both died here about the same time, aged ninety-three years, and were buried on the farm on which they first settled.

About the year 1811 or 1812 Mr. Hetzler had come to the territory of Miami and Shelby counties and entered five eighty-acre lots of land ad- joining each other. Three of them were in Shelby and two in Miami. These lands he gave to his five sons, John, Peter, Jacob, George, and Baltzer. Jacob, George, and Baltzer located in Shelby, the other two in Miami. John, the eldest of these boys, served in the war of 1812, and was a soldier under Gen. Harrison. George, the fourth son, was born in Hamilton County in 1800. He lived at home with his parents until 1823, when he married Nancy Freeman. In 1827 he came with his wife and two children to Shelby County. Like all the early settlers they had nothing to commence with, except strong and willing hands, but by de- voting his whole time and attention to the improvement of his land, he soon made of it a model farm, beside adding to it until he had nearly five hundred acres. They raised a family of six children, viz., Moses, Chris- topher, John F., Hannah, Elizabeth, and Sarah. Mr. Hetzler died in 1875. His widow is still living on the old homestead with her daughter, Mrs. Shell.

Robert Packman was born in Canada in 1857, came to Shelby County in 1878, married Margaret B. Hetzler, a daughter of Moses Hetzler, in 1879. They have born to them one child, Charles F. They reside on the home with Mrs. George Hetzler, the grandmother of Mrs. Packman.

WILLIAM GREEN.

The father of the above-Joseph Green-was born in Massachusetts in 1790. In 1814 he married Rebecca A. Cottle, and the same year they moved to Ohio, and settled in Cincinnati, working for several years at the carpenter trade. Afterward he bought land in the western part of Hamilton County, on to which he moved and remained until 1824, when they removed to Warren County, Ohio, where they remained until 1832, then came to Shelby County, and located in Dinsmore Township, or what is now Dinsmore, as the township was not organized at that time. The first election held in the township was held at his house in the spring of 1833. At the time Mr. Green first came to the county, his family con- sisted of his wife and six children. That portion of the county was en- tirely unimproved; their cows had to run in the woods for pasture. It was not long before they discovered that the milk sickness was in the neighborhood. Their cattle and hogs died from the effects of it. Seve- ral persons also died of the same, among them were Mrs. Green and two of their daughters. Mr. Green became discouraged, and determined to leave the country. So he returned with the balance of his family to Hamilton County in 1833, where he died in 1834.

WILLIAM GREEN, a son of the above, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1820, consequently was twelve years of age at the time of their settlement in Shelby County. He returned with his father to Hamilton County, and remained there and in Cincinnati about one year. He then went to Warren County, where he worked by the day and month, get- ting work as best he could, part of the time getting only four dollars per month. In 1842 he married Miss Phebe Elwell, and immediately re- turned to Shelby County, where they landed in the fall of 1842, with just one dollar in cash left to commence life with. With this cash capi- tal they made their start, he working by days' work for provision to live on until they could raise soine corn and potatoes. From this beginning Mr. Green has made for himself and family a comfortable home. Every dollar of it made by their own hands, except forty acres of wild land. They have raised a family of eleven children, viz., Joseph, Martha, John, William, Charley, Emerson, Albert, George, Dora, Clarence, and Justice. In 1874 Mr. Green sold his farm in Dinsmore, and bought one in Orange. where he now lives rather a retired life, in the enjoyment of the fruit of his past labor. Beside this home farm he owns one of one hundred and sixty acres in Franklin.

Malen Elwell and his wife Martha Bevins, the parents of Mrs. Green, came from Pennsylvania to Highland County, Ohio, in 1825. The El- wells are of German descent; the Bevins of Welsh and Swiss extraction. Mrs. Green was born in Pennsylvania in 1822.

REV. JOHN M. LAYMAN.

The Laymans are of German extraction. The first we learn of them was in Hamilton County, Ohio, in 1795, where George Layman, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born, October, 1795. He was

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HISTORY OF SHELBY COUNTY, OHIO.

the eldest of the family. He received a liberal education, and followed teaching for many years. In 1825 he came to Shelby County, and en- tered eighty acres of land in Orange Township; and the same year mar- ried Mary McKnight, who had come to Shelby County in 1823. Mr. Layman raised a family of four children,-John M. was the eldest. He was born in Orange Township in 1826. He was raised on the farm. After arriving at manhood he entered Miami University at Oxford, where he graduated in 1851. He then entered the Cincinnati Theologi- cal Seminary, where he remained two years, when the school was re- moved to Danville, Kentucky. He then went to Princeton Theological Seminary ; completing his studies in 1854. He then entered the regular ministry in northwestern Ohio, where he remained until 1867, when he returned to Shelby County, the place of his nativity, to care for his parents in their old days. Ilis mother died in 1868; his father in 1870. In 1872 Mr. Layman married Mrs. Mary Long, the widow of Rev. Adam Long, a Lutheran minister, who died in India while a missionary in that country. His wife was with him at the time, and was left a widow in that distant country with two children, viz., John D. and Carrie E. Mr. and Mrs. Layman have two children-George M. and Archibald E. The Rev. Mr. Layman at the present time is devoting the most of his time to his farm, but still finds time for his studies and clerical duties.

JOHN BROWN.

The Browns are-as far back as we can learn-natives of Virginia. From there they removed to Kentucky, thence to the territory of Ohio, years before it became a State. They located within the present limits of Clermont County. This pioneer was Joseph Brown and his wife, Mary Parker Brown. They settled here soon after their marriage. They raised a family of twelve children. John was the fourth of the family; he was born in Clermont County in 1>06. He lived to manhood on the farm, and worked with his father at the wheelwright trade. At inter- vals, when not engaged on the farm or otherwise, he would follow boat- ing down the river. They would load a flatboat with grain or provisions, and take it down to Natchez or New Orleans-those being their prin- cipal points of trade. In 1829 he married Miss Mary Fitzwater, and the following year (1830) came to Shelby County, and settled on 160 acres of land that his father had entered several years prior. This land was all in the timber. From this wild, unbroken forest, he made a well- improved farm. Here he lived to raise a family of six children, viz , Mariah, Elizabeth, Mary Ann, Lavina, John P., and F. Ward. Mr. Brown died June 17, 1879.

The Fitzwaters are of English descent. Their first location in America was in Pennsylvania. Thomas Fitzwater, the father of Mrs. Brown, came to Clermont County, Ohio, at the close of the last century. They lived in block-houses, and were among the first settlers of that county. It was here that Mrs. Brown was born in the year 1809.

LEVI COFIELD, EsQ.,

was born in Miami County, Ohio, in 1830. When about two years of age his mother died. His father, just prior to this time, had left home on some business, and had gone to Cincinnati. From this time he was never heard from. It was supposed that he was on board of a steam- boat that was blown up on the river about that time. So he never knew father, mother, brother, or sister. When six years of age he was inden- tured to a man by the name of John Matthews, with whom he learned the tanning trade. At the completion of his indenture he left and en- gaged in the lime trade, which business he has followed since that time. In 1855. he married Miss Almira Crane. In 1859 he moved to Shelby County and burned lime, and shipped the first car of lime on the D. and M. Railroad that went north from Sidney to Wapakoneta. After re- maining here about eighteen months he returned to Montgomery County, and remained until 1865, when he returned to Shelby County and bought part of the old Berry farm, on the river, where he built a limekiln, from which he ships from thirty to sixty ton's each season, beside retailing about one-half that amount. They have raised three children-Susan P., Benjamin F., and William O. Their second child, Benjamin F., was killed by accident in 1877. In 1879 Mr. Cofield was elected justice of the peace, and re-elected in 1882.

FREDERICK LILIENKAMP

was born in Prussia in 1822; lived there to marry Caroline Poppe in 1848. In 1853 they emigrated to the United States, and located in Cincinnati, where they remained one year, then came to Sidney, where he worked at the tailor trade about six years, then removed in 1860 to the place he now lives. They have had six children, only three of whom are now living, viz., Frederick, Emma, and John. The place on which Mr. L. now lives formerly belonged to John Barber, who was born in New Jersey in 1782. He was married to Louisa Bolgus in 1819. She was a native of Germany, and born in 1795, and came to the United States in 1815. Mr. Barber came to Shelby County in 1830, and entered 160 acres of land, and had made partial improvements on it. In 1860 Mr. and Mrs. Barber, becoming enfeebled by age, and having no children

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History of Shelby County, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 60

Author: R. Sutton & Co. Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Number of Pages: 427

Author: R. Sutton & Co.
Publication date: 1883
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 427