USA > Ohio > Delaware County > Memorial record of the counties of Delaware, Union and Morrow, Ohio > Part 40
USA > Ohio > Morrow County > Memorial record of the counties of Delaware, Union and Morrow, Ohio > Part 40
USA > Ohio > Union County > Memorial record of the counties of Delaware, Union and Morrow, Ohio > Part 40
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Commander several terms. He is now Col- onel of Encampment No. 107, U. V. L., of Delaware, Ohio.
February 17, 1869, Captain Wiles was married in Cortland, New York, to Miss Anna Bates, and they have two children, - Nellie and Arthur. The family are mem- bers of the Baptist Church.
J OHN FINCH, one of the represent- ative business men of the county, was born in Delaware county, Ohio, June 7, 1821, a son of Isaac and Elizabeth (Kirkendall) Finch, natives re- spectively of New York and New Jer- sey. The great-grandfather of our subject was killed by Indians, and the grand- father was also taken captive by the red- skins and held in custody for six years. Isaac Finch, a life-long farmer, came to Delaware county about the year 1814, with his two children, Jesse and Sally. He en- tered 150 acres of land, about the center of Kingston township, which he afterward sold, but purchased lands in the same township. He was the father of nine sons and three daughters, namely: Sally, deceased; Jesse, of Cherokee county, Iowa; Chanch, of Wichita, Kansas; John, our subject; Mar- tin, deceased; Eunice Catherine, deceased; Harmon, of Delaware county; Isaac D., superintendent of the Studebaker Wagon Works at South Bend; Derwin, deceased; Sayre, deceased; Harriet, wife of George Bowers, of Sunbury, Delaware county; and Alfred, deceased. Both Mr. and Mrs. Finch died at the age of seventy-four years.
John Finch, the subject of this sketch, worked at farm labor until seventeen years of age, and was then apprenticed to the blacksmith's trade at Berkshire, receiving
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$30 per year, and followed the trade twelve years. He then purchased sixty acres of land, ten acres of which was cleared and contained a rude log cabin. Selling that land, he bought 100 acres in Kingston township, fifty acres in Berlin township; and forty acres in the southeast corner of Brown township, to which he afterward added eighty-five acres, owning at one time near- ly 800 acres. In the spring of 1859 Mr. Finch located on his present farm, where he has been extensively engaged in the stock business for twenty-six years. In addition to his other interests he has also spent fif- teen years in the mercantile business, and during the entire time served as Postmaster of Berkshire.
August 14, 1846, he was united in marri- age with Lucy Ann Alford, a daughter of John and Catherine A. Alford. To that union were born three children: Henry, Luellen and Thacker Webb, who is a mem- ber of Sunbury Lodge, K. of P., No. 231. The daughter married Daniel S. Potter, of Berlin township, who is a charter member of Cheshire Lodge, No. 613, Knights of Pythias. The wife and mother departed this life in 1852. Mr. Finch afterward married Cinderella S., daughter of John P. and Diadamia Slack. They are the par- ents of four children: Diadamia Elizabeth, wife of George Buckingham, of Kingston township, also a charter member of Cheshire Lodge, Knights of Pythias; Eva Jane, wife of Joseph Irwin, of Berkshire town- ship and a charter member of that lodge; Mary Emma married Wilmer Neilson, of. Berlin township; and John E., a charter member of Cheshire Lodge. Mr. Finch is a member of the F. & A. M., Sparr Lodge, No. 400, at Sunbury, and in political mat- ters is an ardent Republican. Both he and 19
his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
John P. Slack, father of Mrs. Finch, was born in Berkshire township, Delaware county, Ohio, in 1805. In his twenty-fourth year he was united in marriage to Diadamia Pierce, who died in 1864, at the age of seventy. To that union were born four children: Cinderella S., the eldest; Charles C., who lives in Kansas; Jane S., wife of Lewis Carpenter, of Oxford township, Dela- ware county, Ohio, and George A., a phy- sician residing in Cleveland, Ohio.
EORGE B. HAMILTON, one of the most successful and prosperous farmers of Union county, resides just north of the town of Rich- mond, on the place purchased and settled upon by his father in 1838. It now em- braces 300 acres, a part of which is within the corporate limits of Richmond. Mr. Hamilton was born February 12, 1833, in Muskingum county, Ohio, a son of Rev. William Hamilton and his second wife, Lydia (Springer) Hamilton.
When five years of age our subject came with his parents to Claiborne town- ship, Union county, settling on the place where he now resides. His education was acquired in the country schools, as far as what is known as "book-learning " is con- cerned, but the training which fitted him for the practical duties of every-day life was acquired in doing the work that fell to the lot of a farmer boy. He laid the founda- tion of his future success in doing this work well, and in taking advantage of every op- portunity to improve his mind and enable him to take his place among the intelligent and progressive men of the day.
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MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF
November 19, 1857. being then in his twenty-fifth year, Mr. Hamilton married Miss Marion Hamilton, daughter of Rev. William and Marion Hamilton. She was born near Glasgow, Scotland, May 9, 1835, her parents coming to America when she was three years of age and settling near the town of Gratiot, Muskingum county. There are a number of coincidences connected with the history of Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton. Though of the same name, their families were not united. Both, however, were of Scotch ancestry. Their fathers were each named William, and were both ministers of the Methodist Protestant Church, and each had a grandfather named William Hamilton. Two of Mr. Hamilton's brothers were named John and William, as were also two of Mrs. Hamilton's. Rev. William Hamilton, father of Mrs. Hamilton, after coming to Ohio, settled on a farm near Gratiot, on which he resided until his death, in the fall of 1865, at the age of sixty-five years. His widow is still living with her son, John B. Hamilton, in Columbus, aged eighty-five years. She was the mother of eight children. Two died in infancy. Will- iam D., the eldest son, is now a resi- dent of Tennessee, where he is largely inter- ested in the development of State mines. He is a veteran of the late war, having served first as Captain in the Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and later as Colonel of the Ninth Ohio Cavalry, which he recruited. Near the close of the war he was brevetted Brigadier-General for meritorious conduct. He is married and has a family. John B., with whom his aged mother makes her home, is married and resides in Columbus. He is a large coal-mine operator in the Hocking Valley. Robert, the third son, entered the army as
a private in the Twenty-first Ohio Volun- teer Infantry, served under General Milroy, and was wounded at the battle of Cheat Moun- tain, West Virginia, September 12, 1861, from the effects of which he died in Zanes- ville in 1861. He was unmarried. Anna, the eldest daughter, married James Richey, a prosperous farmer near Tonica, Illinois. Isabel married Joseph Cratty. She died at her home in Prospect, Ohio, in February, 1882, leaving two children. Ella died in Shawnee, Ohio, at the age of twenty-two years. Marion, the wife of our subject, died October 18, 1882, after a happy mar- ried life of twenty-five years. She left three children, -Clara A., Marion G. and George H. Clara A. graduated at the Ohio Wes- leyan University, at Delaware, in 1886. She married S. A. Haskins, a prominent lawyer of Wapakoneta, Ohio, and they have one child. Marion G. and George H. have both been given the benefit of collegiate educations, and the latter is now attending school at Adrian, Michigan.
After his marriage, the subject of this sketch settled on a farm adjoining the home place, a part of which he acquired by pur- chase and a part was given him by his father. It was the ambition of his early manhood to become a large landowner. With this prospect in view he purchased the home place in 1877. A failure of his health afterward, however, compelled him to fore- go the realization of his early ambition, and he found it necessary to limit his efforts to a smaller estate. He therefore sold all of the home place but 300 acres. The sale of the land giving him considerable ready money, he began loaning money to his friends and neighbors, from which he has derived a cer- tain income each year. Besides his home place, which is one of the finest farms in
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DELAWARE, UNION AND MORROW COUNTIES, OHIO.
Central Ohio, Mr. Hamilton owns 200 acres of land in Claiborne and Taylor townships.
He has been a Republican ever since the organization of the party, having cast his first Presidential vote for General John C. Fremont. Preferring the life of a farmer to that of a politician, he has never been an office seeker, the only public office held by him being that of Justice of the Peace, which he filled from 1874 to 1877. In 1847, when fourteen years of age, Mr. Hamilton united with the Methodist Protestant Church, of which he is still an active and consistent member. His wife was also a member of the same church during her lifetime. In 1886 Mr. Hamilton erected the handsome residence which is now his home. It is of modern architecture, pleasantly located and tastefully furnished. Being a lover of books, he has gathered a large and well se- lected library. His household at present consists of his children, Marion G. and George H., and his niece, Mrs. E. Hamilton Miller, the daughter of Samuel Hamilton.
Mr. Hamilton, having grown from child- hood on the place where he now lives, can justly claim, after a residence of fifty-six years, to be one of the pioneers of Claiborne township. A useful, industrious and up- right life has won for him the respect and esteem of his friends and neighbors. The intelligent direction and cultivation of his farm, and an adherence to careful and pru- dent business methods, have been rewarded by prosperity, and he is enabled to look back on an honorable and successful career, with the feeling that, all things considered, his life has been a useful and a well-ordered one, and that he merits the rest and repose that belong to the declining years of those who have by the discharge of each day's du- ties "learned to labor and to wait."
DWARD W. PORTER, who has been prominenly identified with the political affairs of Union county, resides in Marysville. He was born on the Ioth of March, 1855, in the city which is still his home, and his boyhood days were passed midst play and work and in atten- dance on the public schools. On attaining his majority he entered upon his business career, and the profession to which he de- voted his energies was that of school teaching. While thus engaged he spent his leisure hours for three years reading law under the tuition of his father, who at that time was a Judge on the bench, and on the expiration of that period was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Ohio, by the Supreme Court, on the Ist of December, 1881.
Immediately after, Mr. Porter joined his father in business, under the firm name of Porter & Porter, and the connection has since continued uninterruptedly. With the experience and the mature judgment of the older man is combined the energy and en- terprise of the younger, and the well-known law firm of Porter & Porter has gained a wide and most excellent reputation for skill and ability.
Almost simultaneously with his law practice Edward W. Porter also entered the political field and has since been prom- inent in the ranks of the Republican party. In 1886 he was nominated and elected a member of the City Council of Marysville, - one of the youngest persons ever chosen to that office in the county seat. The follow- ing year he was elected Prosecuting Attor- ney for the county and creditably served in that capacity for a term of six years. Dur- ing the time spent in that office he convicted a man by the name of Miller for murder in the first degree and succeeded in getting
.
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MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF
him hung, -- the first case of that kind on record in Union county. For the past ten years he has been a member of the Board of Health and still fills that office. He has frequently represented his party in conven- tion and has served on the Executive Com- mittee of Union county, and for three years on the Executive Committee of the Ohio Republican League. In 1883 he was sent as a delegate from the Eighth Congression- al District of Ohio, to the national conven- tion of the Republican League, which as- sembled in Louisville, Kentucky. He has repeatedly served as delegate in the State and district conventions, where his opinions are received with marked respect, for he is recognized as one of the leading politicians of this locality.
Mr. Porter has been twice married. On the 12th of November, 1884, in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, he led to the marriage altar Miss Della E. Miller, who died in 1887, at the age of thirty-one years. Their only child, Dana M., a bright little lad, passed away at the age of four years. On the 23d of April, 1890, Mr. Porter was again married, his second union being with Miss Agnes H. Davis, of Washington, Dis- trict of Columbia. They now have two sons, -John L., born November 19, 1891; and Robert E., born January 11, 1894. The parents are members of the Congrega- tional Church, in which Mr. Porter has served as clerk since 1883. They reside on South Maple street, where they have a pleasant home and the household is noted for its hospitality.
Mr. Porter has served for two terms as president of the Union County Teachers' Association. Socially he is a member of B. W. Keyes Camp, No. 156, Sons of Vet- erans, and was elected alternate delegate-
at-large to the national convention which assembled in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1889. He has served as a member of the staff of the Commander-in-Chief, Charles F. Griffin, having been appointed to the position January 1, 1890, with the rank of Colonel. He is a member of Marysville Lodge, No. 100, K. P., and in 1883 was made an honorary member of the Phi Gamina Delta of the Ohio Wesleyan University, with which he is still connected. Mr. Porter is a inan of more than ordinary ability, with a clear, keen mind and quick perceptive powers. He has the happy faculty of adapt- ing himself readily to a situation, and this characteristic, added to his mental qualifica- tions, has made him a leader in legal and political circles.
J G. KEHRWECKER .- Among the representative farmers of Westfield township, Morrow county, Ohio, the subject of this review is clearly entitled to be classified. He is a native of Wurtemburg, Germany, where he was born July 20, 1808, and where he remained until he had attained his majority. He was twenty-two years of age when he left the fatherland and set sail for the alluring shores of the New World. After a voyage of seventy-two days he landed in New York city and with his few personal effects tied in a handkerchief, and without money, pro- ceeded thence to Pennsylvania, where he re- mained for a time, coming to that part of Delaware county that is now comprised in Morrow county, Ohio, in 1835. Arriving here he found occupation in working by the month on a farm, receiving the minimum wages of $6 per month.
In 1837 he took unto himself a wife, in
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DELAWARE, UNION AND MORROW COUNTIES, OHIO.
person of Miss Anna Mary Hack, who was also born in Wurtemburg, Germany, and who came to America when sixteen years of .age, her parents taking up their abode in Franklin county, Ohio. Shortly after his marriage Mr. Kehrwecker located on his present farm, which at that time was al- most entirely unreclaimed. Here he built a primitive log house and therein establish- ed his home, while he gave his attention to clearing up the farm and bringing the same into cultivation.
Our subject and his wife became the parents of thirteen children, of whom we offer the following brief record: John was a soldier in the late war of the Rebellion, being a member of Company C, Ninety- sixth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and yielded up his life while in the ser- vice; J. G .; Jacob and Henry died while young; Frederick also died while in the service of his country during the late civil war, he being a member of Company I, Thirty-first Regiment Ohio Volunteer In- fantry; George is a resident of Westfield township, this county ; Christina is deceased; Mary A. is the wife of H. C. Hartsook, of Cardington, this county; Caroline is the wife of George Karn, of Kansas; Frederica is deceased; and Sarah, Anna and Ella still remain at the paternal home. The devoted wife and mother was called into eternal rest in 1886, having attained the age of sixty-nine years, She was a woman of noble attributes and a devout member of the Lutheran Church.
At the present time Mr. Kehrwecker has, as representing the results of his own well-directed efforts, a landed estate in this township of 380 acres, and though he is now an octogenarian he still maintains the supervision of the cultivation of his wide
acres, the place being recognized as one of the finest farms in this section of the State.
In politics our subject lends his influence and support to the Republican party. Re- ligiously he is identified in an intimate way with the Lutheran Church, of which he is a consistent and devoted member. Dis- tinctively a self-made man, he has at- tained his success by honorable methods and has not been narrowed in his sympa- thies, nor has he ever disregarded the rights of others. He stands as one of the honored pioneer residents of the county, and in the community is held in the highest esteem as an upright citizen and an honest, true-heart- ed man.
J D. WHITE .- One of the well- known and popular officials of Allen township, Union county, Ohio, is the subject of this review, who holds the prefernient as Justice of the Peace. He has been a resident of the township for the past seventeen years, and his place of na- tivity was not far distant from his present home, as he was born in Brown township, Delaware county, near the little old hamlet of Eden, November 15, 1846, the son of Samuel White, a prominent and honored pioneer of Delaware county. The maiden name of our subject's mother was Rosanna Devore. Her death occurred in July, 1877, at which time she had attained the age of sixty-three years.
Samuel and Rosanna White became the parents of six children, of whom we are enabled to offer the following record: Mary E. is the wife of Henry Fegley, of Allen township; Catherine is the wife of John McWilliams, of Buchanan county, Iowa; Sylvanus W. is a veterinary surgeon in
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MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF
Virginia: Leah R. is the wife of E. P. Black, of Champaign county, Ohio; J. De- vore, subject of this review; and William W., who resides on the old homestead in Delaware county. A complete sketch touch- ing the life of our subject's venerable father, who is now nearly ninety years of age, ap- pears elsewhere in this volume, in the sketch of W. W. White.
J. Devore White was reared to farm life and work on the old homestead in Dela- ware county, completing his education in the Ohio Wesleyan University, in the city of Delaware, he having been a member of the same class as was ex-Governor J. B. Foraker. Leaving college in his junior year, he engaged in teaching, and has de- voted his attention to pedagogic work for fully thirty years, having a natural penchant for the vocation, and having proved a suc- cessful and popular instructor, -one whose interest in educational matters has ever kept pace with the advances made.
In 1880 Mr. White took up his residence on his present fine farm of sixty-three acres, the place being situated five miles west of the county's official center, Marysville. The family residence is an attractive frame struc- ture, and is most eligibly located, while the other permanent improvements about the place are of excellent order.
Mr. White was married, April 7, 1880, in this township, to Miss Josephine Hurd, daughter of Thomas and Ruth (Turner) Hurd, who now reside in Ellsworth county, Kansas. The issue of this marriage has been three children, namely: Charles E., born May 30, 1881; Luamy, born March 3, 1883; and Ivolee, born November 30, 1889.
The greatest loss and bereavement of our subject's life was that which he was called upon to bear November 8, 1892, when his
beloved and devoted wife was summoned into eternal rest. She was a woman of beautiful character, and was beloved by all who knew her.
Mr. White votes with the Republican party, and has held public offices of trust and responsibility, having at one time served for several years as Township Clerk in Dela- ware county, and having been elected to the office of Justice of the Peace in April, 1890. Fraternally he is identified with the Grange and with the Masonic order, being a mem- ber of Blazing Star Lodge, F. & A. M., of North Lewisburg, Ohio. He is a man hon- ored alike for his ability and his earnest de- votion to the clearly defined ethics of life.
W. WHITE, proprietor of the Oak Hill farm, in Brown town- ship, Delaware county, was born where he now lives, September 5, 1 849, a son of Samuel White. The latter was born in Washington connty, Pennsylvania, October 14, 1808, and came to this State in 1833. His father, Fisher White, was a na- tive of Delaware, and the latter's father was born in England. Fisher White married Leah Walton, also a native of Delaware, and they had nine children, namely: George, Walton, James, Ben, Samuel, Fisher, John, Wesley, Mary, and William. Fisher White was accidentally killed at the age of eighty years. He was a Class Leader in the Method- ist Episcopal Church. Samuel White came to Ohio in 1833, built a log cabin, and im- mediately began clearing the forests. In 1835 he married Rosanna De Vore, a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Jacob and Catherine (Ely) De Vore. To that union were born six chil- dren: Mary, Catherine, Sylvanus, Leah,
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DELAWARE, UNION AND MORROW COUNTIES, OHIO.
Jacob and W. W. The mother died in July, 1878, at the age of sixty-two years. The father has been identified with the Democratic, Republican and Prohibition parties. He has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for sixty-four years, and is honored and respected by all who know him.
W. W. White, the subject of this sketch, was reared and received his education in this county. His farm, known as Oak Hill farm, consists of 120 acres of well-improved land. He is extensively engaged in the rais- ing of fine stock, making a specialty of Jersey cattle. In his political relations Mr. White affiliates with the Democratic party. He has served his township as Treasurer for three years. Socially he is a member of the Knights of Pythias.
Mr. White was married at the age of twenty-five years to Helen, a daughter of Shubael and Mary (Thompson) Knapp, na- tives of New England, but both now de- ceased. To that union were born two chil- dren, -Lulu A. and Effie L. The wife and mother died in 1887. In 1890 Mr. White was united in marriage with Emma Wheeler, a daughter of Alvin and Lydia Wheeler.
LBERT E. WESTBROOK, physi- cian and surgeon, and one of the most prominent and highly re- spected citizens of the town of Ashley, Ohio, was born in Woodbury, Del- aware county (now Morrow), Ohio, Decem- ber 17, 1840. Of his life and ancestry a record is as follows:
The Westbrooks are of German de- scent, the Doctor's grandfather having been born in Germany. Solomon and Mathena (Edmonds) Westbrook, the parents of our
subject, were natives of Canandaigua, New York. Both are deceased. The latter was a descendant of old New England ancestors. Solomon Westbrook was a man of great versatility and strong individuality. He was reared on a farm, and in early life learned the carpenter's trade, at which trade, how- ever, he spent but little time. He then read medicine, and for a few years prac- ticed at different points. In 1840 he took charge of the hotel at South Wood- bury, where he remained some time, and did a successful business. The California gold fever that swept over the country in 1849 made a victim of him, and, in com- pany with a party of twenty, he started for the Pacific coast. He drove an ox team from St. Joseph, Missouri, to San Fran- cisco, the whole company enduring many hardships on the journey. After his arrival in San Francisco he worked at his trade, and built some of the first houses in the city. Then he turned his attention to min- ing, and for two years he worked in the mines, with varied success, returning to Ohio at the end of that time with his finan- cial condition not improved. He was nat- urally of a roving disposition. During his early life he traveled afoot and on horse- back from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf to the Lakes. Upon his return from California, however, he decided to settle down, and accordingly bought a farm near Woodbury, Ohio, where he spent the rest of his days. He was born in 1798, and died in 1872. In his political views he was a Republican. For thirty years he served as a Justice of the Peace. He was twice married, his second marriage being in 1822 to Mrs. Mathena (Edmonds) Craw- ford. She was the mother of thirteen chil- dren, six by her first marriage and seven by
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