USA > Ohio > Fairfield County > Pioneer period and pioneer people of Fairfield County, Ohio > Part 17
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Nancy Holmes, daughter of James Holmes, and the only daughter, married Charles Brown and they moved to Uniontown, Penn., where they spent their lives.
Charles Brown and Nancy Holmes were married September 9, 1819, and moved immediately to Fayette County, Pa. Mr. Brown died on their farm in Fayette September 14, 1835.
Colonel Alexander McLean, who married Sarah Holmes, was a very able and distinguished citizen of Pennsylvania. He was a member of the legislature and filled many important public offices. He was a civil engineer of distinction and represented Pennsyl- vania in the survey of Mason and Dixon's line, which was completed in 1783. He died in Uniontown, Fay- ette county, Pa., December 7, 1834.
Colonel Alex. McLean had six brothers and all were surveyors. Three of the oldest assisted in the
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Mason and Dixon survey prior to 1766. On account of opposition on the part of the Indians of the "Six Nations" and of the Delawares and Shoshones. Mason and Dixon's line was not completed until the year 1783. The finishing work was done by Colonel McLean and his brother John. Colonel McLean was born in York Co., Pa., in 1746, and located in what is now Somerset County, Pa., as a surveyor in 1765. He married Sarah Holmes at or near Storrstown, Pa., in 1775.
This sketch is not so complete as we could wish, but for want of information it is the best we can do. What is known of so large and so remarkable a family is worth preserving.
THE WELLS FAMILY.
The ancestry of Gen. James Wells and Col. Rich- ard Brown :
James Wells, an Englishman, was founder of the family in the United States and lived in or near Bal- timore, Md.
St. Paul's Parish Register of that city gives his wife's name as Ann, and children as James, born 27th January, 1716; Prudence, born March 16, 1720; Rich- ard, second son, born 13th March, 1722; Ann, born 17th February, 1729; Alexander, born 12th March, 1727 (father of Bezaleel Wells, of Steubenville) ; Honor, born in October, 1724 (Brown Bible gives this date December 10, 1724-5).
This last named child, Honor, married, first Wm M. Holmes, founder of the family of that name in Ohio. As his widow, she married Col. Richard Brown, November 17, 1759.
There were three children of this marriage:
-
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Of Fairfield County, Ohio.
Rachel, born December 29, 1760, became the wife of Gen. Jas. Wells, in Pennsylvania, April 24, 1775.
Richard, only son, was a surveyor, member of the Virginia State Legislature, etc. Married, settled and died in the Panhandle, where his descendants live at present.
Margaret, the youngest, married --- Madden and settled in Indiana.
The Brown ancestor, also English, married Nancy Stevenson, in Baltimore County, Md., and settled there. Their family numbered sixteen. Edward, one of these children, was grandfather of Mrs. Eli H. Holmes. Another was Col. Richard Brown. A third Nancy, was mother of Gen. James Wells.
The husband, Richard (James?) Wells was a brother of Honor Wells-Holmes-Brown and son of the founder of the family of James Wells.
Honor was both aunt and mother-in-law to Gen. James Wells and his brother, George, who married Elizabeth Holmes, sister of James Holmes. Sr .- children by her first husband.
Nancy Brown, wife of Richard (or James ?) Wells, (son of the founder) and family probably, resided in Frederick County, Md.
Nancy Stevenson was no doubt related to Daniel Stevenson of Richland.
I. Richard, who was likely their oldest son, mar- ried a Miss Holmes, then Miss Brown, moved to Ken- tucky, thence to Missouri, where he died.
2. Alexander, a volunteer in the army of Gen. St. Clair, was killed by the kick of a horse at Ft. Wash- ington (Cincinnati), Ohio.
3. George, born in 1745, was the father of Wil- liam Wells, the founder of Wellsville, Ohio.
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4. James, born in 1751, married Rachel, daugh- ter of Col. Richard Brown, in Pennsylvania, April 24, 1775, etc.
5. Thomas, born in 1758; farmer, settled near Maysville, Ky .; paid remembered visits to his relatives in Ohio; owned slaves and held those belonging to his brother, Gen. James Wells.
6. John, born in 1764, youngest son, was a man of great prominence in Somerset, Pa., where he died. He laid out the towns of Bedford and Somerset, that State, as surveyor; was justice of the peace, associate judge, etc. His descendants are worthy successors.
Next to nothing is known of the six sisters of these men. Mary, born in. 1748, married John Dodd- ridge. Patience, born in 1758, married a Baptist min- ister, named Kerr, and settled in Kentucky.
The father of this family, Richard (or James?) Wells, married a second wife and had another six sons and six daughters - 24 children in all.
Most, if not all, of both families came West.
The father lived, after leaving Maryland, in Penn- sylvania, in the " Panhandle," in Kentucky, and died in Ohio in 1808, in Ross county.
Gen. Wells settled in Somerset county, Penn., a year or two before the Revolution. He served in that war, as did his father-in-law, Col. Richard Brown, .and his cousins, James and Alexander Holmes.
He was once surprised by the Indians and pur- sued for a long distance, finally securing a horse he made his escape, not, however, until wounded four times by the bullets of the Indians.
He was a prominent man in Somerset county and filled positions of honor and trust. In April, 1795. he
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was made an associate judge of Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
From Somerset County he moved to Holiday's Cove, on the Ohio, where his father-in-law then lived. This must have been in 1798 or 1799. Here his daughter, Sarah, married Samuel Tallman, and they took up their residence in Wellsburg, Va., a town near the old home, and named for the Wells family. The exact date of Gen. Wells's coming to Ohio can not be given, but it must have been in the fall of 1801. He built a cabin on what is now known as the Trimble or Hooker place, in the woods; and when the land sales took place he purchased 1,280 acres in one body. He was a justice of the peace for Greenfield at one time, and gave his attention to farming.
General Wells was a member of a very distin- guished family, and his own reputation was that of an able, upright man. His sister, Mary, married John Doddridge. Their son, Joseph, was a clergyman of the Episcopal church. Philip was a distinguished law- yer and had few equals in the West. He was also a very distinguished Congressman, and died in Wash- ington in 1832. The late Joseph G. Doddridge, of Lancaster, was a grandson of Mary Wells.
Elizabeth Wells, a daughter of Richard Wells, mar- ried George Hammond. They were the parents of Charles Hammond, the most distinguished lawyer and editor in the West of the early days. Upon the death of Judge Sherman he took his son, Lampson, and reared him in his family.
The Hammonds had a family of 16 children. One of the daughters was the wife of the late Judge Hood, of Somerset, Ohio, and the mother of W. C. Hood, once State Librarian of Ohio.
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Bezaleel Wells, the founder of Steubenville, and a distinguished banker and manufacturer, was a cousin of James Wells and George, of Licking County.
Alexander Campbell, a very distinguished preacher and founder of the Campbellite Church, married a Wells. The descendants of Rev. Callahan (Picker- ings, of this town) claim that Rev. George .Callahan married a daughter of Bezaleel Wells. He had but two daughters, who married - one, Katharine, married John McDowell, and Rebecca married Rev. Philander Chase. We have not been able to find the name Callahan in the Wells history.
Mary Brown Wells, daughter of General Wells, was born August 31, 1776, at 12 o'clock M. She married Thomas McCall, a Scotchman. They lived upon a farm in Greenfield. Mrs. McCall died in 1828, aged 52 years. McCall died at Jones Gibbony's, in 1853, aged 84 years. They were buried at Hookers. Priscilla, a daughter of this couple, married William McCleery, in 1829. She died May, 1844, aged 38 years. Their daughter, Maria, married Reason A. DeBolt, who became judge and a member of Con- gress from Missouri. DeBolt was a son of a pioneer Baptist preacher of that name.
Sarah McCleery married George W. Beck, of Hocking township, in 1854.
Rachel Wells McCall married Jones Gibbony in 1837. She died while this sketch was being written, June 7, 1899. Gibbony died in 1883.
Emaletta married W. W. McCrea. Philemon Mc- Call Gibbony married Minerva L. Smith in 1875. John T. Gibbony married Agnes Wineburner. Rich- ard Reeves McCall married Juliet Wells in Jefferson City, Mo., in 1849, a relative of his mother. Sarah,
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daughter of James Wells, married Samuel Tallman at Wellsburg, Va., March 28, 1801, and came to Fair- field county in 1804, and died November 13, 1837, aged 53 years.
Like the McCalls, both were buried at the Hooker graveyard. Benjamin F. Tallman married Nancy C. Tallman, of Virginia, in 1839, and died in Shelby County, Ill., in 1877, aged 73 years. He was a son of Samuel Tallman.
Richard Brown Tallman married Mary Boone Taylor in 1834. James Wells Tallman married Mar- garetta Minter, 1833 ; died in Knox County, Missouri, 1859, aged 57 years.
Cynthia Ann Tallman married Levi White, of Hughsville, Va., in 1859. This lady was a grand- daughter of Samuel Tallman. When a young woman she was pronounced the most handsome visitor to Fairfield County. She was the mother of 12 children.
Mary Tallman, daughter of Samuel and Sarah, married Thomas B. Head in 1827. She died in Stew- art, Iowa, in 1875, aged 69 years.
Rachel Wells Tallman, daughter of Sarah and Samuel, married J. B. Dorsey in 1828, and died at Kirkersville in 1832, aged 22 years.
Nancy Tallman married Reuben Evans, of Zanes- ville, Ohio, in 1830. She is the only daughter of Sam- uel Tallman living.
Cynthia Ann Tallman married Thomas Roe, of Zanesville, Ohio, in 18.17. She died in 1891, aged 77 years. They were the parents of Mary Josephine Roe, a woman of education and culture, and the author of a very good genealogy of the Wells family, to which the author is indebted for names and dates.
18
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[Annie Sophia, her other daughter, married Dr. E. W. Mitchell, of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is an only son of Rev. James Mitchell, a M. E. minister, well known in this county.]
Honor Dianah Tallman married George W. Wilson in 1835. She died in 1840, aged 25 years.
Margaret Elizabeth Tallman married Thomas Coulson, of Rushville, in 1841. She died in 1844, aged 20 years. Coulson subsequently married one of the daughters of Joshua Clarke, and now lives in Trin- idad, Colorado.
Rachel Wells married William Wilson, son of Nathaniel Wilson, Sr., October 14, 1802.
She died in 1842, aged 55 years. Wilson came with his father to this county in 1798, from Cumber- land County, Penn. He died September 26, 1851.
Their daughter, Minerva Wells Wilson, married Joseph Lynn. She died at the age of 36 years. Na- thaniel Wilson died in 1846, aged 38 years. Honora Calista Wilson married James McCleery in 1826. She died in 1890, aged 80 years. Amanda, their daughter, married Aaron Kistler in 1852, and died in one year. Lucretia McCleery married Peter Hay ; they live near Sedalia, Mo.
Samuel McCleery married Mary Levering in 1869. William Wells McCleery married Mary Norton, of Marion, Indiana, in 1877. William is a successful merchant in his new home. He was, in his young days, teacher of the North Grammar School, Lancas- ter, Ohio.
Theodore McCleery moved to the West several years since.
Charles W. McCleery is a rising young lawyer of Lancaster, a man of character and ability. He married Laura Acton in 1884.
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Of Fairfield County, Ohio.
Lizzie Jennetta McCleery married Levi Hengst in 1881. He is a very fine farmer and prospering.
Cynthia Elizabeth Wilson married Rev. Barnett Miller in 1841, and moved to San Antonio, Texas.
Rachel Wilson married Owen Smith in 1839, and moved to Montezuma, Indiana. She died in 1873, aged 57 years. Their daughter, Minerva Louise, mar- ried Philemon McCall Gibbony in 1875.
James Wells Wilson married Rose Ann Wolf, of Pickaway County, Ohio. Mr. Wilson owns the old Wolf farm and other good land beside, in that county. . It is cultivated by his thrifty sons. Mr. Wilson owns a splendid farm in Greenfield, and one in Berne, this county. He is one of the sturdy, industrious old farm- ers, who have come down to us from a former genera- tion, bringing with him the good old habits of the early days - a plain, honest, straightforward man, who attends to his own business and knows very well how to go about it. He has prospered and is independent, but he is the same James W. Wilson that we knew long ago - a plain, unassuming old man. He is an intelligent man, and can tell what he knows in very good English.
His sons are good farmers and good citizens. Wil- liam Harvey Wilson married Mary Skeeters in 1844: they lived at Montezuma. Indiana. He died in 1862. aged 41 years.
Maria Louise Wilson married Henry Pence in 1846, and moved to Bradyville, Iowa. Ambrose Whit- lock Wilson married Elizabeth A. Leach in 1871, and died in Kentucky in 1881, aged 52 years.
James Wells, son of General Wells, was born Octo- ber 11, 1789, " betwixt the break of day and sunrise " (Family Bible). He inherited a good farm. He mar-
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ried Cynthia Ann Reeves in Ross County, Ohio, in 1815. He died May 9, 1834; his widow died in Jeff- erson City, Missouri, July 26, 1874, aged 77 years. It was her daughter who married Richard Reeves Mc- Call.
Nathan Wells, her brother, was the only grand- child of Gen. James Wells, bearing his sir name; there are but three great-grand sons who represent it at present.
Honora B. Wells married Samuel Reeves, June 12, 1812; her second husband was David Rank, of New Salem, Fairfield County, married June 25, 1845. She died November 18, 1874, aged 82 years.
David Rank was one of the best of men, true and lovely in life and character. His first wife was a sis- ter of James McCleery, by whom he had a large family of children.
A granddaughter married Captain John Wiseman, 46th Ohio Infantry. She was named for his second wife, Honora.
He was a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylva- nia. and came at an early day to Fairfield.
John, son of Gen. Wells, at the age of 35 years, was lost on the Mississippi river.
Ann Brown Wells married Aaron Foster, of Ross County, Ohio, May 28, 1834. She died June 4, 1858, aged 59 years. She was buried at Lattaville, Ross County, Ohio.
Margaretta Madden Wells married Benjamin Mackerly, March 7, 1828, and lived near Bainbridge. Ross County, Ohio ; she died September 22, 1873, aged 72 years.
Thomas McCall came from Pennsylvania to Ohio. He served some years as a justice of the peace. His
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Of Fairfield County, Ohio.
large family is now widely scattered. Three of his grandsons, Reeves, McCleery and Gibbony, were sol- diers. Samuel Tallman was the son of Benjamin Tall- man, who moved from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, to Rockingham County, Virginia.
Samuel Tallman and wife came to Fairfield on horseback, bringing two small children. A brother - William - relieved them of the burden and carried one of them. She rode a gray horse, which refused to move a step when it scented a rattlesnake, until it was killed. Samuel was a cabinet maker by trade.
Thomas Head came from Bedford County, Penn- sylvania. He was a farmer and a contractor on the canal.
J. B. Dorsey was a millwright by trade.
Reuben Evans came from Pennsylvania. He was introduced to his future wife, Nancy Tallman, by his uncle, Brumfield. After their marriage the young couple were escorted to their Zanesville home, a dis- tance of forty miles, by a large party on horseback.
Thomas Roe was born in Ireland, and was brought to America when a child. He was a merchant and a farmer. He was introduced to his wife while both were on a visit to Somerset, Ohio. George W. Wilson belonged to the Somerset branch of that family.
Margaret Tallman Coulson, who died at 22 years of age, was pronounced a very handsome woman.
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WELLSVILLE, OHIO.
The honor of founding this town is claimed for Alexander Wells and William Wells, by their friends. It is doubtless true that William laid out the town ; but both men were largely interested in it from its beginning.
William Wells was a son of George Wells, who lived and died in Licking county, Ohio. William was reared by grand parents, and did not follow his father to the West. He was always a prominent man of Wellsville, and acted as magistrate under Governor St. Clair, a position of more importance than that of justice of the peace now. The magistrates met at stated intervals and constituted the Court of Quarter Sessions - now superceded by our County Common Pleas. His son, Alexander, was a prominent man of Wellsville, and the local historian. The man who, in an address, applied Dr. H. Scott's school house anec- dote to Lancaster, instead of Clark County, where it belonged.
The office of Associate Judge was one of import- ance and honor, in the first fifty years of Ohio. The judges settled estates, appointed administrators and granted licenses, performing the duties now pertaining to the office of Probate Judge, and were also members of the Common Pleas Court.
THE WELLS BURYING GROUND.
In the year 1810, Gen. Wells deeded a part of sec- tion 29 to Samuel Hooker, Sr., and in that deed dis- tinctly reserved one half acre for a burying ground, and there he and his wife were buried. It was then known as the Wells' graveyard, where a majority of
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Of Fairfield County, Ohio.
his descendants, who since died in this county, were buried. It became, however, the burial place of all of the old pioneers of the neighborhood, and many of their descendants. It is fairly well cared for, and held as a sacred spot by the people of Greenfield.
Alexander Wells a few years since delivered an address referring to old times. He said :
" In 1828 there was a debating society in Lancas- ter, Ohio; the meetings were held in a school house The subject of railroads was discussed. In a day or two one of the members (Dr. Harvey Scott) received a note signed by a dozen of the solid men of the neigh- borhood, to this effect: 'You are welcome to the use of the school house to debate all proper questions, but such things as railroads are impossibilities, and are impious, and will not be allowed.'"
Mr. Wells is greatly in error and unwittingly slan- ders Lancaster. The occurrence he refers to took place in Clark County, Ohio, and was related by Dr. H. Scott in his history of Fairfield County.
General Wells received his patent from the United States Government, for section 29, August 24, 1809, and for section 28, February 10, 1809. When he came to Greenfield in 1801, the lands were not for sale, and he was a squatter. The lands were sold in 1802 or 1803, at public auction, to the highest bidder, and the best land between the home of the General and Lan- caster sold as high as four dollars per acre. Patents are not always evidence of the date of purchase, as families have been known to occupy land 60 years without the patent.
After the death of General Wells, a portion of his lands, probably one section, became the property of Richard Hooker. Richard and Samuel Hooker lived
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long and honorable lives upon this land, and the sta- tion, the graveyard and the farm are called Hooker.
General James Wells had eleven children, three of whom died early, and it is known that his descendants to this time number 500 souls - six generations.
Nathaniel Wells settled in Union township, Licking County, at an early day, near the point known as Heb- ron. He was nearly related to Gen. Wells. He was a farmer, and lived and died in that neighborhood.
His sons were: John Wells, who was a " 49er," but remained only five years in California, when he re- turned to Baltimore, Ohio, where he died. He was the father of Mrs. Dr. J. H. Goss. Basil died in Cali- fornia. Jesse moved to Illinois and died there. Daniel lived in Newark, Ohio. Samuel lived in Lick- ing County ; George in Kansas City; Franklin moved to Iowa; Narcissa lived in Newark, Ohio.
A Dr. Ferguson, of Hebron, married a Wells. One of his daughters married Mr. Tomlinson, of Indian- apolis, Indiana, who became very prominent there. One daughter is a preacher, another is a doctor.
L. Calvin Sutphen, brother of Captain Sutphen, married Mary, a daughter of Dr. Ferguson. He died early and his widow married Mr. Brush, treasurer of Perry County, and they moved to Zanesville, Ohio.
McCLEERY.
James McCleery and two brothers came from Ire- land to America in 1740: they were, however, born in Scotland. They settled in Lancaster County, Penn- sylvania.
James McCleery died, leaving two sons, James and Joseph. James came to Fairfield County in 1814, and died in 1826. His sons were James and William, who
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Of Fairfield County, Ohio.
married in the Wells family, John and Joseph. The latter married a daughter of an early pioneer of this county, John Shepler. Joseph reared a family of beau- tiful daughters; with but one exception, Mrs. Perry Teal, they are all dead. The daughters of James Mc- Cleery were: Anna, wife of John Morgan, of Green- field; Mrs. David Rank, of Walnut township; and Maria, wife of Abraham Hedges, of Hocking.
Joseph McCleery, son of James, came to Fairfield County in 1820, and died here. He left a son, Jos- eph, who lived many years southwest of Lancaster, three miles.
Mrs. Christian Neibling, a daughter, was born August 1, 1795, and died in Kansas, March, 1885, aged 89 years.
Mrs. Balser Rutter was a daughter of Joseph Mc- Cleery. Both daughters have many descendants in Ohio and Western states.
Samuel Wells Tallman, the fourth son of Samuel Tallman, is a bachelor, living in the West.
TALLMAN SKETCH.
Sarah Wells married Samuel Tallman at Wells- burg, Virginia, March 28, 1801.
At the time she was boarding with her Doddridge relatives attending school, and he one of the support- ers of the Episcopal church there.
They set up housekeeping in that town, and moved thence to Fairfield County, Ohio, 1804. She was given to extend great hospitality, and possessed of wonderful energy and fine business foresight.
Their homestead farm was the one on which Hooker Station is now located.
This point was a favorite camping place with In- dians moving to the West.
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Here too, it is said, the Governor of the State came to lift the first shovelful of earth for the Lateral Canal, and dined under the Tallman roof.
Samuel Tallman was a man " whose word was as good as his bond," and led a most exemplary life.
He was a carpenter and cabinetmaker, and built many of the log houses put up in Greenfield township in his day. He died at the early age of 50 years.
This couple were buried beside her parents, in the Wells' family burying ground, now known as Hooker's.
None of their immediate descendants live in Fair- field County at present.
The ancestry of Samuel Tallman is of interest.
He and his father were born in Berks County, Pennsylvania. His father and grandfather, William Tallman (Born in Rhode Island) moved to Virginia (Rockingham County) during the time of our national struggle for independence. The son was a member of Armand's Corps as part of his military service. It was in Virginia that Samuel Tallman grew to man- hood.
His grandmother was Ann Lincoln, sister of John Lincoln, great-grandfather of the late president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. His mother, Dinah Boone, was cousin to the famous Daniel Boone.
These Boone fathers lived on adjoining farms in Pennsylvania. Their father, George Boone, was a Friend in faith, a friend of William Penn, and one of the earliest, permanent settlers in Berks County.
Benjamin Tallman, father of Samuel Tallman, and Dinah Boone-Tallman, his wife, settled at Canal Win- chester, Ohio, where they died.
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Of Fairfield County, Ohio.
Their youngest son, John, lived and died at the same place. The late Judge Tallman Slough was a grandson of this man.
Their eldest son, William, and daughters Susannah Harrison, and Amrah Scothern, lived in Pickaway County. Phebe, daughter of William Tallman, was the beloved wife of Richard Hooker, of Turkey Run.
Samuel Tallman preceded his family to Ohio to prepare a home for them. His wife, Sarah, came out with her brother-in-law, William Tallman, horseback, each of them carrying a child. The gray horse she rode belonged to her companion, and each time it scented a rattlesnake, refused to proceed until it had been killed.
Sarah, a sister of Samuel Tallman, was ancestor of the Hintons of Highland County.
Three of his sisters married three Harrison brothers.
One of these sisters, Marie, did not come to Ohio, also two brothers. One other of these sisters, Susan- nah, has already been named. The third lived in Fair- field County. Her husband, John Harrison, was killed in the War of 1812, and is buried at Fort Meigs, this state. Her second husband was George Tong, a wid- ower, whom she married in 1818. He was a man of nobility of character, and much loved by the young.
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