USA > Ohio > History of the Upper Ohio Valley, with family history and biographical sketches, a statement of its resources, industrial growth and commercial advantages, Vol. II pt 2 > Part 32
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Among the prominent farmers of Richland township, is Elijah McFarland, whose grandparents, William and Margaret MeFarland, natives of Ireland, settled in Belmont county many years ago. When they came to this state, their son William, the father of Elijah. was seven years of age. In early manhood William married Charity Sutton, the mother of the subject of this sketch. Elijah MeFarland was born in the year 1833. He was reared on the farm which he at present occupies, and received his education in the log school-house characteristic of those days of privation. Hisefforts through life have been along the lines of industry and good citizenship, and prosperity has attended him, so that he now has a fine farm of 10 acres, which he has substantially improved. During three terms he has served as
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school director in his community. In 1856 Mr. McFarland was mar- ried to Jane Gable, who was born in 1833, the daughter of Peter and Margaret Gable. To this union twelve children have been born, of whom ten are living: William, Mary, Joseph, Levi, Lucy E., Van- Dorn, James, Albert, Emma and Bertie. Mrs. McFarland is a devoted member of the Presbyterian church.
James McFarland, an old and highly esteemed resident of Richland township, was born in Ireland in 1806, the son of Andrew and Nancy (McFadden) McFarland, both natives of county Tyrone. These parents were members of the Seceder church in Ireland, and in 1812 came to America, settling first in Philadelphia, where the father worked in a factory for four years. He and family then removed to Wheeling township, Belmont county, and made their home upon the farm of sixty-one and a half acres, which they sold fifteen or twenty years later. They then bought a farm of 100 acres near Bel- laire, where the father passed the remainder of his days. James McFarland remained with his parents until he was twenty-one years old, assisting them and attending the pioneer schools. On Jan- uary 8, 1835, he was married to Susan Porterfield, who was born October 3, 1810, and died April 9, 1871. They began life together with little property, but by years of patient industry, became prosper- ous, and Mr. McFarland has now an excellent farm of 115 acres, and is comfortably situated. Ile and his family are members of the United Presbyterian church. To his marriage were born five children, as follows: Nancy, April 21, 1836; John, March 28, 1838; Andrew, November, 1840; George, November 5, 1842, and Margaret, October 3, 1848. George enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth regiment Ohio infantry, under Capt. William Kirk. and served gallantly during three years of the war for the Union. He received a gun-shot wound in the ankle, for which he received a small pension.
A. T. McKelvey, a distinguished citzen of Belmont county, Ohio. was born in 1844, of Scotch-Irish parentage, near Belfast, Ireland. He was brought to America by his parents in 1850, and they made their home at Wheeling, where he grew to manhood, and obtained a com- mon school education. At sixteen years he entered the service of the Western Union Telegraph company, with which he was associated in its military and commercial service for ten years. For a considerable period during the exciting days of civil war he held the responsible position of manager of the Wheeling office, which was for two years the headquarters office of the army of West Virginia. All the im- portant messages relating to the military plans and movements of Mcclellan's first campaign and subsequent campains in West Virginia were either transmitted from or repeated at this office, so that his du- ties were not only responsible and arduous, but in relation to the gov- ernment of a highly confidential character. Mr. McKelvey's health was greatly impaired by the close confinement and long hours of ser- vice which the stress of war entailed, and in 1870, he was obliged to resign his office and seek restoration of health. In that year he pur-
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chased a fruit farm near St. Clairsville, Ohio, where he has since re- sided. Since 1875 Mr. McKelvey has been prominently identified with the agricultural interests of Belmont county, having been for a number of years a member of the board of the county agricultural society, and for two terms president of that organization. lle was one of the original members of the Belmont County Farmers' club, and has served that association both as president and secretary. He has also been active in promoting the cause of agriculture through the instrumentality of farmers' institutes, and like organizations. In the church he is an active worker, also, and for thirteen successive years he has been chosen superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday-school of St. Clairsville. In 1886 Mr. McKelvey was elected to represent Belmont county in the general assembly of Ohio, and upon the expiration of his first term he was nominated and elected a second time. Mr. McKelvey was married, in April, 1869, to Julia S. Irwin, of Wheeling, and they have five sons. Mrs. McKelvey is a granddaughter of Hannah Fawcett, a daughter of Jonathan Zane, one of the heroic defenders of Fort Henry during its memorable siege, and one of the first settlers of the upper Ohio valley.
John McNiece, an aged and respected citizen of Belmont county, was born in Ireland, June 17, 1818, the son of James and Belle ( Boyd) MeNiece. He came to America from his native county of Tyrone, with his parents, starting April 14, 1839, and landed in New York, May 27. The parents, not having enough money to take all their children with them west, left John in New York while they and four children proceeded to Ohio. Ile found employment in a milk stable at Sio per month, and then began hoeing cabbage at S12, and in two months had enough to enable him to join his family. Ile began work on the national pike, and was engaged for three years. In 1843 he was married to Sarah, daughter of John and Mary (Dixon) King. and immediately afterward he rented land, which he worked until 1846, when he became an independent land owner, purchasing sixty- six acres, upon which he settled and which he found but slightly im- proved. In 1858 he traded this land for 130 acres, giving $3.400 ad- ditional consideration, and in 1871 he went to York township and bought 226 acres for $10,225. Selling this, he bought 196 acres in Smith township for $12,000, to which, in 1872, he added ten acres for $1,000. In the following year he lost his house and contents by fire. and subsequently he purchased twenty-four acres of land for $4,500. In 1885 he sold a portion of his land in Smith township, and bought 11215 acres in Richland, where he now lives. His life has been a prosperous and successful one, and he now ranks among the solid men of the county and its influential people. For six years he served as justice of the peace in Smith township, and has acted as school director twenty years. His first wife, Mr. MeNiece lost in 1858, and December 27. 1859, he was married to Caroline Gladden, who was born in 1833, and died July 24, 1867, leaving three children, Mary B., Nancy E. and William Thomas. On April 27, 1860, Mr. MeNiece was married to Belle Bigger, who was born September 17, 1837.
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They have six children, Samuel W., Margaret R., Robert J., Sarah E., John G., and Martha Jane. He and wife are members of the United Presbyterian church.
Jesse B. Magee, a venerable old settler of Richland township, was born November 15, 1819, on the farm where he now lives. He is a son of Jesse Magee, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1780, and came to Wheeling when about sixteen years of age, where he became the first apprentice at the trade of cabinet-maker in that town. In IS02 the elder Jesse came to St. Clairsville, and conducted a cabinet shop until iSOS, when he went upon the land which his son now owns, and cleared him a farm, which he tilled until his death in 1866. He was married to Elizabeth Coleman, a daughter of Jacob and Sallie (Mc- Cullough) Coleman. Jacob Coleman, a native of Virginia, removed in 1777, with his wife and two children, from Kentucky to Short Creek, coming up the river in a pirogue and keeping the center of the stream to avoid the Indians. A short time later they removed to Ohio and lived in Richland township several years, then going to Indiana, and making their home near the site of Terre Haute, where he passed the remainder of his days. He was the first sheriff of Bel- mont county, and was at one time surveyor, engaged in marking out the roads. During the revolution he served through the war, and at one time he was surprised by Indians while out milking in the morn- ing, and received seven bullets in his body, but his remarkable consti- tution enabled him to survive. Jesse Magee, Jr., now a leading citi- zen, was married in 1847, to Catherine B. Lauck, who was born in 1823, the daughter of Simon and Mary (Beck) Lauck, the latter of whom was a daughter of Capt. John Beck. Of their five children born, three are living: Coleman L., Francis A. and Mary E. He and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
John Marshall, a leading farmer and stock-dealer of Belmont county, was born in Monongahela county, W. Va., in 1826, the son of Hezekiah and Athe ( Neal) Marshall. The father was born in Mary- land in 1760, of Irish parents. During the war of the revolution his father's team was pressed into the use of the army, and he accompa- nied it, and at the battle of Trenton, he received a wound in the thigh. for which he afterward received a pension. After the war he settled in West Virginia in the woods, and was engaged in many skirmishes with the Indians. He and his father were hardy frontiersmen and suffered the hardships and experienced the horrors of Indian warfare. On one occasion the red men burned down their house with all its contents and killed his brother-in-law and his sister, leaving an arrow sticking in each breast of the latter. Undaunted, Hezekiah Marshall continued to hold possession of his frontier post, and though suffering many hair-breadth escapes survived the thrilling scenes through which he passed. In this West Virginia home, John Marshall was reared to the age of sixteen years, receiving, meanwhile, nine months of school- ing of the most primitive kind. In 184; he was married to Margaret Cowan, who came to this country at fifteen years of age. She was the daughter of William Cowan, a shepherd, who died in Scotland.
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He and wife then started out for themselves with a capital of just $75. and he hired out for $144 a year, boarding himself, at farm work, and was so engaged for four years, and during this time, he and wife made their start in life. The partner of his carly struggles died June 20, 1866. By her he had four children, two of whom are living: William and Elizabeth. His second marriage was to Elizabeth Huth, who was born in 1842 at Wheeling, daughter of Peter and Caroline ( Flocher) Huth, who kept the William Tell house at Wheel- ing thirteen years. Mr. Marshall now owns a farm of 100 acres, well improved.
Owen Meehan was born in the year 1834. in county Monaghan, Ire- land, and was a son of Owen and Mary Meehan, natives of that county. His early life, until about the age of thirteen, was spent in Ireland, acquiring an education and assisting his father on his farm. The family remained in Ireland, but the son, Owen, removed to America, at the age of thirteen, locating first on a farm in New York, where he remained for two years, when he removed to West Virginia. locating in Rollisburg, where he worked for about two years when he removed to Wheeling, and engaged in the machine shops for the B. & O. railroad company. He was engaged here a short time when his uncle, Patrick Meehan, who had a contract for building some of the bridges for the C. O. division of the B. & O., died, and Owen was obliged to take the work through to completion. On the completion of the C. O. division, he entered service under Col. John A. Sullivan, at that time president of the Central Ohio railroad, having supervision of his private affairs. Leaving his service he entered the B. & O.shops at at Bellaire, taking charge of night force of repair work. During the time Mr. Meehan was employed here he was instrumental in saving the company many dollars worth of property. One night, the shops taking fire when there were many engines and coaches contained by them, Mr. Meehan, with but one engine at command, and at consider- able risk. saved all the property but one yard engine, which was par- tially destroyed and quite seriously burned during the fire. After he had recovered from his injuries he went on the road as a locomotive engineer, running between Bellaire and Columbus, in which capacity he was employed for nine or ten years. Retiring from this, he went into coal mining in 1866, under the firm name of Stewart, Ball & Mechan. In 1868 Ball retired from the firm, and since that time Stewart & Meehan have continued the business, in which they have been successful. Mr. Mechan was married in 1873 to Miss Margaret E. Douglas, a daugh- ter of Andrew Douglas, of Richland township, Belmont county, Ohio. The children of this marriage were six in number, four of whom are living, namely: Minerva D .; William, deceased; Eliza, deceased: John E .; Mary Etta. Mr. Meehan has paid some attention to poli- tics in his home affairs, having been trustee of the township and on the board of county commissioners for some six years. Mr. Mechan is a member of the Catholic church, while Mrs. Meehan belongs to the Presbyterian. Mr. Mechan is also interested in many business enter- prises in Bellaire, and was one of the organizers of the Bellaire Gas
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Light and Coke company, which has since been changed to Bellaire Gas and Electric company, of which Mr. Mechan is president, also one of the organizers of the Etna Glass and Manufacturing com- pany, of Bellaire, of which he has always been a director, and for the last three years has served as president of the organization. He is identified with some minor enterprises and an owner of considerable real estate in different parts of the city. Mr. Meehan's father, Owen Meehan, Sr., died in his native country, Ireland, in 1879, at the ad- vanced age of one hundred and five years.
James W. Mellott, a prominent farmer of Richland township, Bel- mont county, is of French descent, being a great-grandson of Samuel Mellott, a native of France, who settled in Virginia, many years ago. His son, John, came to Belmont county in an early day, and entered a quarter section of land, where he settled in a log cabin, and sub- sisted on the wholesome pioneer fare while he cleared away the forest. Being a cripple, he did not take part in the war of 1812, but had the duty of providing wood for all the women in the neighborhood, whose husbands were in the field. The land which he entered is still in the Mellot family. He married a Miss Workman, and one of their sons, William, born in Pennsylvania in 1799. is the father of the subject of this mention. His mother's maiden name was Mary A. Ault. She was born in Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of Frederick Ault, who took part in the defense of the fort at Wheeling, at the time Elizabeth Zane performed her heroic feat of carrying powder past the enemy's lines, and he often told of how Miss Zane insisted on going, although there were several other volunteers for the hazardous adventure. Mr. Mellott was born in 1834, and reared on the farm of his parents. The education he received in the old log school-house, he supplemented at the Barnesville academy, and he then engaged in teaching, which was his profession for twelve years. Ile now has 150 acres of the old Mellott homestead, to which he has added eighty-six acres adjoining. making a very convenient and valuable farm, which he has very neatly adorned and improved. Mr. Mellott was married in 1860, to Ilan- nah J. Merritt, who was born in 1838, the daughter of Robert and Mary E. (Milligan) Merritt. To this union, two children have been born: Mary E., wife of Dr. John A. Clark, and Robert W. Mr. and Mrs. Mellott are members of the Presbyterian church.
David H. Milligan, one of the proprietors of the St. Clairsville Gazette, was born in Belmont county in 1853, the son of George W. and Margaret (Cunningham) Milligan. Ile was reared in Belmont county, attending the common schools in childhood, and afterward attended Franklin college three years, and Mt. Union college one year. Returning then to Belmont county, he entered the law office of Peter Tallman, where he studied law three years, and was ad- mitted to the bar in 18So. Previous to this he had been engaged in teaching school to a considerable extent and subsequent to 1870 taught during eleven winters. On his admission to the bar, Mr. Milli- gan established an office at Bellaire, and there remained one year. He then returned to St. Clairsville, and continued the practice there
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until iSS5, when he accepted a deputyship in the clerk's office, a posi- tion he held until September 1, 1889, when he embarked in the news- paper business as one of the proprietors of the St. Clairsville Gazette, the leading democratic paper of Belmont county, which shows promise of increased influence under their energetic management.
George E. Steenrod, who is associated with Mr. Milligan in the ownership and management of the St. Clairsville Gasette, was born in 1860, a son of Daniel Steenrod. He was reared on a farm and given the advantages of the common schools, after which he pursued a course of study and became a graduate of Columbus business college. After completing his studies he accepted a position in a wholesale grocery store in Steubenville, where he remained two years, after which he returned to Belmont county, and was engaged upon the farm until the fall of 1889, when in company with Mr. Milligan, he purchased the St. Clairsville Gazette.
Col. Joseph R. Mitchell, cashier of the First National bank of St. Clairsville, was born in York county, Penn., in 1830, the son of David and Martha (Dinsmore) Mitchell. The father was a native of York county, Penn., where he followed the trade of blacksmithing and also was engaged in farming. He was the son of Joseph Mitchell, a na- tive of Ireland, whose wife was of Scotch descent. During the war of 1812 David Mitchell started with other volunteers to the relief of Baltimore, but his services were rendered unnecessary before his ar- rival there. Col. Mitchell was reared and educated at his Pennsyl- vania home, attending an academy there, and in 1849 he came to Ohio, and taught school three years near Cincinnati. He then re- moved to Morristown, where he taught school about two years, and engaged in business, also serving subsequent to 1853, as postmaster at that town, under the administration of President Pierce. In 1856 he removed to St. Clairsville, and was appointed by S. W. Gaston, then clerk of the courts, as his deputy, and this position he filled during the entire term of his principal. In the spring of 1860 he removed to Bridgeport and engaged in the drug business, but the peril of his country soon called him to different scenes. In July, 1862, he re- cruited Company B, of the Ninety-eighth Ohio regiment, which, as captain, he led to the front. During the next year, his bravery and meritorious conduct led to his promotion successively to major and then to lieutenant colonel. Ile was always at his post of duty, ex- cepting three weeks of illness in a hospital, and participated in many severe engagements, among which may be mentioned, Perrysville, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Resaca, Rome, and the battles of Sher- man's march to the sea. After receiving an honorable discharge in Washington, in 1865, he returned home, and in the ensuing fall was elected clerk of the courts of Belmont county. This office he filled with an efficiency that has seldom been equalled, and after his first term he was twice re-elected to the clerkship. Including the period of his service as deputy he was engaged in the duties of this office twelve years. A year after finally retiring from the office he accepted the position of cashier of the First National bank of St. Clairsville,
42-B.
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in which post he has won the favor of the public and contributed in no slight degree to the upbuilding of the extensive business of that institution. Col. Mitchell was married September 21, 1870, to Cecilia A. Grove, daughter of John A. Grove, of this county, and by this union has five children: Carrie, Mary, Rodney, Blanche and Cecilia. Ile and wife are members of the Presbyterian church.
Henry Morgan, a prosperous farmer of Richland township, resid- ing in the suburbs of St. Clairsville, is a native of Wheeling township, where his ancestors settled in 1811. He is a son of Amos Morgan, who was born in Baltimore county, Md., a son of Philip and Susan Morgan, the former of English, and the latter of German, lineage. These latter emigrated to Ohio in the same year as did Henry and Margaret (Hooker) Gittinger, who went from the same county in Maryland, and the two families made their home in Wheeling town- ship in 1811. Catherine, daughter of the Gittingers, became the wife of Amos Morgan, and the mother of the subject of this mention. Henry Morgan was reared in Wheeling township, and after finishing his education in Franklin college, was a teacher for four years. In 1872 he was married to Anna, daughter of Mahlon L. and Adaline (Barnes) Hatcher. Her father, a son of Mahlon and Phoebe | Hager- man) Hatcher, and grandson of Joshua and Jane ( Richerick ) Hatcher, was an attorney of the Belmont county bar from 1852 until 1860, at the time of his death. Mrs. Morgan's mother was born in this county, a daughter of John and Ann ( Thompson) Barnes, the former of whom was a son of David Barnes, a native of England; and the latter a daughter of John and Sarah (Talbott) Thompson, who came from Ireland in the last century. Mr. and Mrs. Morgan have had these children, eight of whom are living: Nina H., Henry St. Clair; Lizzie, deceased; Etta, Edwin D., Clarence, Ray, Adda H., Esther W. and M. L. Mr. Morgan and wife are members of the United Presbyterian church, of which he is the present treasurer. Ile was a member of the building committee for the erection of the church at St. Clairsville.
Louis Murdaugh, proprietor of the St. Clairsville mills, was born in Jefferson county, in 1838, the son of Isaac and Eliza Murdaugh, the former of whom was a miller by occupation, and was so engaged dur- ing the greater part of his life. Lewis was reared in Jefferson county, until his thirteenth year, when he came with his parents to this county. Two years later he found employment in the mill on the Burleigh place, and has ever since been engaged in that business. In 1871 he went to the west and followed his trade as miller for four years, and on his return he took charge of the Morristown mill. AAfter an engagement there of ten years' duration he came to St. Clairs- ville, and bought his present property, which was then a buhr mill. He soon rebuilt the establishment and added all the modern improve- ments, and the roller process, and is now making flour which is in great favor and is the peer of any produced in the state of Ohio. He is an influential citizen, is a member of the town council of St. Clairs- ville, and is highly esteemed by all. He and wife are members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Murdaugh was married in 1862 to Mag-
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gie Bigger, daughter of Shannon Bigger, who is now in his eighty- third year.
About the year 1810 Ilenry Neff, a native of Allegheny county, Md., son of John Neff, of German descent, settled in Belmont county, and began the work of clearing a farm in the wilderness. Soon afterward he was called to the service of his country, and par- ticipated in the war of 1812, being one of the soldiers betrayed by the surrender of Gen. Hull. In 1820 he was married to Elizabeth Blocher, a native of Cumberland, Md., and they had three children: George, John A. and Sarah Jane, of whom the second is the only survivor, the father died in May, 1830, at the age of fifty-one years. John A. Neff, now one of the substantial farmers of Belmont county, was born in Richland township, 1823, and reared in the log cabin home on the farm entered by his grandfather, which is now part of his possessions. He attended school and afterward taught four winters in the pioncer school-houses of his county, and taught one winter also in Bedford county, Penn. Learning the trade of a brickmaker, he bundled up his wardrobe in a cotton handkerchief, in 1842, and walked to Mt. Ver- non, Knox county, where he worked about six months, and then walked home 125 miles with seven dollars cash and the balance, that had not been traded out in a note. Ile had previously worked two days picking brush for an old German, who paid with one fish hook, so that Mr. Neff is well acquainted with the wages of labor in the "golden age" that is past. After returning from Mt. Vernon he and J. S. Anderson hulled clover seed for quite a number of farmers in the surrounding neighborhood. In the spring of 1843 he went to Cum- berland, Md., where he finished his trade of making and burning com- mon and hand-pressed brick. He spent four years in Maryland, after which he made and burned a great many kilns of brick in Belmont county, Ohio and West Virginia. Monuments of his burning of brick number over thirty farm-houses, seven churches and quite a number of school-houses, the school-houses in St. Clairsville and Morristown, the brick to rebuild the burnt block in St. Clairsville that was do- stroyed by fire in 1866, and the brick for the Belmont county infirm- ary. He now has a splendid farm of 320 acres, with a substantial two-story brick house. From 1842 to 1884 he carried on the manu- facture of brick, and the material for the building of the Methodist Episcopal church, school-house and many other structures were sup- plied from his yards. He is a leading member and trustee and stew- ard of the Methodist church, of which his wife is also a member, and he has served on the school board for thirty-five years, and as trustee of his township one term. Mr. Neff was united in marriage, in 1851. to Elizabeth Giffen, who was born April 5, 1830, daughter of Alexan- der and Mary (Hinkle) Giffen, and of the seven children born to them, six are living: Alice, wife of Joseph Frazier, and mother of one child; George A., who married Martha Gerard, and has one child; Emmet M., who married Neva Fozeman, and has two children; Mary. wife of Newton Warnock, and mother of one child; Sarah, wife of
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