The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county, Part 122

Author: W.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1214

USA > Ohio > Montgomery County > The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county > Part 122

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W. W. WOLF, physician, Dayton, was born in New Haven, Conn., September 3, 810. He is the son of James and Betsey Wolf, the former of German descent and he latter a pure Yankee. They had fifteen children, eight boys and seven girls, of ghom our subject was next to the oldest. They moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, from Con- ecticut, and our subject here served an apprenticeship to a druggist from 1822 to 1826. Ie then commenced learning the baking business. In 1841, he located in Dayton and ommenced reading medicine with Dr. Widard, of that city, at the same time keeping bakery, which he still operates. On the 5th of November, 1868, he received a com- limentary certificate from the Homoeopathic Medical Society of Montgomery County, nder which he has since been practicing with deserving success. He was married uly 11, 1830, to Miss C. Richardson, of Cincinnati, daughter of James Richardson, who as Drum Major in Gen. Wayne's army. The issue of this marriage was ten children, our boys and six girls, of whom two boys and two girls survive. One of his daughters Harried Samuel Ambrose, of Dayton, and the other is the wife of James C. Hill, of anada. The Doctor is still in the prime of life and takes great delight in using the lents intrusted to him for the benefit of sick and suffering humanity.

HIRAM WYATT, baker, Dayton, was born in Marietta, Washington Co., Ohio, ugust 11, 1810. In 1812, he was taken with his father's family to Pennsylvania, here they moved from fear of the Indians. In 1816, they returned to Ohio and set- ed in Zanesville; from there they went to a farm on Meigs' Creek, thence to Cam- idge, Ohio, thence back to Zanesville, and from there to Gallipolis, Ohio, then to resden, where they farmed for several years on land belonging to a brother of General d son of Maj. Cass, of 1812 fame. They next returned to Zanesville, where Hiram Is apprenticed to a tobacconist, while the family went to Cincinnati. After serving t three years of his apprenticeship, Hiram ran off on account of his master's cruelty, d joined his folk in the Queen City, where he served three years and six months as

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an apprentice in the baking business. In 1830, having acquired his trade, he com- menced working as a journeyman in Cincinnati and afterward in Marietta. From the latter place, he returned to Cincinnati to pay the expenses attending the burial of his father and mother, which left him penniless. On the 29th of April, 1834, he came to Dayton to work during the races, and, two months later, he and Walter Smith, Esq., bought the bakery of Tilden & Smith, of which Mr. Wyatt became sole proprietor one year thereafter. In 1859, he took his son-in-law into partnership under the firni name of H. & T. Wyatt, as it now exists. On January 22, 1835, he married Elizabeth Elder, daughter of Jonathan Elder, of Honey Creek, by whom he had a son and a. daughter. His wife. died April 22, 1838, and he was again married, February 21, 1839, to Mary C. Davis, daughter of John Davis, of Zanesville, and had by her four daughters and one son. The father of our subject was born in Providence, R. I., where he mar- ried a Miss Blake, and reared a family of six boys and six girls, of whom our subject was the youngest. The father died in 1833, and the mother one week after him. Of the family of twelve children our subject is the only one now living. He is in his seventy-second year, but is yet full of life and vigor. He possesses a strong constitu- tion and looks much younger than he really is; a man of affable, courteous manners, and of the strictest integrity and moral worth, he has won hosts of friends, who look upon him as a fitting representative of the business growth and prosperity of the Miami Valley. Politically a Republican, he was in an early day a member of the City Council. and has ever taken a deep interest in the development of his adopted county.

E. S. YOUNG, attorney, Dayton, was born in Lyme, N. H., February 28, 1827 He is the grandson of Dr. Hugh Murray Young, an early Irish emigrant to Connecticut who was born in 1742 and died in 1815. The father of our subject, George Murray Young, was born in Litchfield County, Conn., April 1, 1802, and died in Dayton, Ohio August 30, 1878. He was educated at Exeter and Poughkeepsie Acadamies. He learned printing, and married, in 1826, Sibel Green, of Lyme, N. H .; she died in Day. ton, Ohio, in 1865. In 1835, he located in Newark, Ohio, where for ten years he engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1840, he was Whig candidate for Senator fron Licking County, but was defeated in the face of a strong Democractic vote, by only forty-five majority. For six years succceding 1845, he was in business in Cincinnati Ohio. In 1851, he moved to Dayton, and was Justice of the Peace and Mayor, and at the time of his death was United States Commissioner. He was Grand Worth Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance when that society numbered 30,000 in Ohio an one of the editors and publishers of the Ohio Organ and Messenger, the organ of th Sons of Temperance of Ohio and Kentucky, published in Cincinnati. His oldest son our subject, completed his Sophomore year at Granville College in 1845, and graduate at Farmers' College, near Cincinnati, in 1847. He read law with W. J. Mckinney, ( Dayton, and in 1853 graduated from the Cincinnati Law School. During a profe sional practice of twenty-five years, he has been associated, first with George W Brown, then A. Houk, and from 1866 to 1878, Oscar M. Gottschall. In June, 187: Mr. Young's eldest son, George R., became a partner. Mr. Young married in Septen ber, 1856, in Philadelphia, Sarah B. Dechert, daughter of Elijah P. Dechert, ar grand-daughter of Judge Robert Porter. He was a strong Union man and an earne supporter of Lincoln's administration. He was Commissioner of the Draft in Mon gomery County, and made the largest draft of any in the State. He was also large! instrumental in the organization of all the companies that left Dayton for the war.

MAXIMIN ZEHLER, Dayton. Brother Maximin Zehler was born in Bergheil Alsace, August 19, 1826. From the age of six to fourteen, he received instruction the parochial schools, and from fourteen to sixteen went to a private or select schor He left his home December 27, 1842, to join the Brothers of the Society of Mar whose mother house for Alsace was Ebersminster, where he studied and prepar himself for teaching and began his career as a teacher November 1, 1844. He pr sented himself for and obtained the teacher's diploma for life, March 3, 1845, Colma, capital of the Department of the Upper Rhine. He taught at Ammerschit from 1844 to 1847, and at St. Marie and Mines from 1847 to 1849. In 1849, the Socie

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of Mary sent the first colony of Brothers (four) to the United States to take charge of some schools in Cincinnati, Ohio ; Brother Maximin Zehler was of the number. Arrange- ments were not quite ready to take charge of the intended school, so he assisted his fellow-brothers to teach. Meanwhile, Rev. A. Meyer bought the Dewberry farm near Dayton, which was formerly the property of Hon. Charles Anderson, who sold it to John Stuart. Brother Maximin Zehler arrived by stage (there was no railroad yet from Cincinnati to Dayton) March 10, 1850 ; two brothers had arrived two days before him. They lived together in a smail cottage built by Mr. Stuart for a tenant. Maxi- min Zehler was neither afraid nor ashamed to put his arms to the plow and to other works. The brothers being too poor to keep a hired man, they performed all the agricultural labor themselves, of course, sometimes in a very awkward manner. Col. Jefferson Paterson, their next neighbor, spent many an hour with them to show them how to perform the work on the farm, and his memory is still held in grateful remem- brance by the first inmates of the Dewberry place, now called Nazareth. Mr. Stewart having left the premises May 1, 1850, Brother Maximin Zehler opened the school in June, 1850, in the house built by Hon. Charles Anderson. He had a few pupils from Dayton, and some from Van Buren Township. Everything was very imperfect, all was in harmony with the great poverty of the brothers. He taught school for six hours daily ; the rest of the time he was employed in working on the farm. During August, 1850, some candidates for the brotherhood arrived, who took charge of the farm work, and Brother Maximin Zehler could then devote more time to his school and to the study of the adopted mother tongue. In September, 1850, the boarding school opened. The first boarder was Joseph Grenlich, of Dayton ; he was afterward joined by some more pupils from Dayton, viz., Lawrence Butz, Jr., C. Baumann, Joseph and Charles Murray, Salvator Schafer, etc., and some from Cincinnati and other towns of the vicinity. The number of boarders and day scholars increased, so that in 1852, at the end of the scholastic year, they numbered some seventy. In 1852, Mr. Maximin Zehler was sent by his superiors to Cincinnati to take charge of the St. Mary's school on Thirteenth street, where he found about 140 pupils for two teachers. He remained there until 1860, when the number of his pupils approached 300, and he was recalled to Nazareth again to take charge of the boarding school, numbering some forty pupils. When he returned he found some buildings erected but not finished. The lower story of the south wing was not even excavated ; there was again room to practice patience and resignation. By and by the buildings were finished, accommoda- tions for more pupils was gained ; the number increased so that it became a necessity to build an addition of 40x80, three stories high, in 1865. Shortly after, a house 40x60 was erected as a dwelling house for the Brothers and candidates. In 1867 and 1868, the church was erected, and, as soon as finished, was paid for, so that the most Rev. Arch- Bishop John B. Purcell could consecrate it on the 24th of June, 1868. The number of pupils had now reached 170 to 180, and many were refused admittance for want of room, so that Brother Zehler, with the advice of his superiors, began the construction of the actual St. Mary's Institute. The funds were very limited, but trusting in God's providence, the plans were made and approved. The work began in 1870, and was brought to such a completion that, in May, 1871, the pupils could occupy the upper story of the building as a dormitory. The course of studies opened September, 1871, n the new building of four stories and a mansard roof. The number of boarders was how 227, and about from eighty to ninety day scholars from Dayton. After Brother Zehler had liquidated the debt of the construction of the institute, he conceived the blan of a playhouse or amusement hall, to provide a place for the pupils in bad weather for their recreation. The building is 180x60, with an entertainment hall of 40x110, ind twelve small bath rooms provided with warm and cold water attached to the ast side. Mr. Zehler, after having seen the institute in a flourishing condition, the necessary buildings crected and paid for, obtained from his first superior the favor he was sking for several years, viz., to lay down his charge of great responsibility, to withdraw rom the directorship and to spend the remainder of his life in another line of useful- ess, for the society to which he belonged since 1842, having spent thirty-two years in

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the education of children. He has charge of the temporal affairs and directs the manual labors at Nazareth.

ABIA ZELLER, druggist, Dayton. Abia Zeller was born June 2, 1819, near Germantown, Montgomery County, Ohio. He is a son of Michael and Maria ( Brauer) Zeller, and a grandson of Andrew Zeller.

Andrew entered into the service of God about the year 1790. In 1805, he settled near Germantown, Montgomery County, Ohio, where he immediately began to build up the kingdom of Christ. Hc assisted in organizing the first conference in Ohio (of the United Brethren denomination) ; was a delegate to the first general conference in 1815, where he was elected bishop, which office he filled with entire acceptability for a period of six years. His good sense, deep picty and liberality contributed greatly to the prosperity of the cause of Christ, especially in the Miami Valley, where his influence will be perpetuated to the end of time. This venerable bishop and pioneer evangelist died on the 25th of May, 1839, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Michael was born in Pennsylvania August 13, 1788, and Maria, his wife, was born in Virginia, October 3, 1794. They were married in Montgomery County. Ohio, in 1811. They each came with their parents to Ohio about the same year and settled near each other, where they became acquainted. In 1825, Michael opened a drug store in Germantown, which was the first drug store of that place, and among the first in the county. Michael continued in the drug trade until his death. He died in 1838, a highly respected Christian man. His good wife followed him the next year, 1839. But before their death they had instilled into the minds of their children (of whom there are five still living) such true Christian prin- ciples that have enabled them to be not only an honor to their parents but useful citi- Zens in the communities in which they live. At the death of Michael, Abia, who had learned the drug business of his father, took charge of the store, and in 1860 moved to Dayton, where he still continues the same. Abia was married Sep- tember 15, 1839, to Caroline Negley, daughter of John C. and Mary (Shuey) Negley. They are the parents of five children-Martha E. (now Mrs. John H. Recd), Laura V. (now Mrs. A. C. Marshall ), Anna V., Carrie N. (now Mrs. Joseph Udell) and Willie A. Mr. and Mrs. Zeller have been consistent and worthy members of the United Brethren Church for forty-three years. Abia was one of the first pupils of the Sunday school in Germantown, and after he grew to manhood became its Super- intendent. He is one of the trustees of the First United Brethren Church of Dayton, Ohio, which position he has held for the past six years.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.

JOHN ALLEN, farmer, P. O. Centerville, son of Jeremiah and Rebecca Allen. was born July 15, 1816, in Washington Township, Montgomery Co., Ohio, on the farm on which he now resides and is the owner thereof. Received his education in' the pioneer schoolhouse, furnished with pioneer furniture, viz. : Saplings, one side flattened : pins driven in for feet ; puncheons put up in the same rude manner for the writing desk. Then in one end of the building was the large fire-place, into which large quantities of good wood could be placed, and when fairly ablaze would make & boy pull his shins back or crisp his buckskin breeches. Then the teacher attended to setting copies for all that were learning to write, making and mending their pens the scholar did the ruling in his copy-book ; the branches most generally taught thei were reading, writing and arithmetic; schools were then made up by subscription, and each patron boarded the teacher so much of the time during the school term.

Mr. Allen says the wearing apparel in his boyhood days was almost entirely o home manufacture-linen, linsey, jeans and fulled cloth ; of thesc articles, the seeon( and last named have pretty much disappeared from use. Shirt buttons were mad from thread by the women of the house, and they were nearly the only ones in use Boys were limited to one pair of shoes per year, a good wool hat for winter, and sum

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mer hats were of home manufacture, and were made from either rye or oat straw, platted and then sewed together. Going to mill was principally done on horseback. When a surplus of marketing was on hand it was loaded on a wagon and taken to Cincinnati and there sold or bartered for groceries or other articles the family needed. The first church privileges were at the Methodist log meeting-house, called Hope- vell, located on Sugar Creek. There the pioneers listened to the circuit riders, com - bosed of such men as Sparks, Hardy, Parsons, Dixon, Elliott, Goddard, Brook, Mc- Juire, Strain, Maly, Manly and Sullivan. Mr. Allen married, August 2, 1841, Miss Susan Lawson, of Adams County, Ohio. From this union there were ten children, only our of whom are now (July, 1881) living. Mr. Allen's mother was a native of Penn- ylvania. His father was born in Culpeper County, Va., and moved from there to Iason County, Ky .; from there to the Miami Valley about 1803; purchased his arm for $2.50 per acre, second hand. On this farm are six acres which have been armed for eighty years, and will now make an average yield with any land in the ownship.

JOHN E. ALLEN, farmer, P. O. Centerville, son of Lawson and Frances M. Allen, as born September 15, 1828, in Washington Township, Montgomery Co., Ohio. chool privileges, some improvement on pioneer times. He never had any political spirations, and, raised a farmer, he has continued to make that his principal occupation far in life. He is the occupant and owner of the farm upon which he was born, eing the one owned by his great-grandfather, John Edwards, who emigrated here om North Carolina in 1805. He purchased the above farm and, being a widower, ad two of his sons-in-law at one time living with him. While he was engaged in elling goods and trading in real estate, being a man of means, he had the reputation f being a very precise man in all his dealings. In religion, he was an Orthodox uaker. He died in the winter of 1828-29, upward of eighty years of age. His pot-jack, brought from North Carolina, is still doing duty in John E. Allen's family. rances M. Silvers, daughter of Nathan and Mary Silvers and grand-daughter of John idwards, was born August 1, 1808, and married December 2, 1825, to Lawson Alle a. fter their marriage they moved to the above-named farm, and Grandfather Edwards ent the remainder of his life with them. Lawson Allen then became the owner of e farm, partly by legacy and the remainder by purchase. Lawson Allen was the son Jeremiah and Rebecca Allen, born in Kentucky September 2, 1800, and emigrated ith his parents to this township in 1803. He was trained to farming and, after arriage, coming into possession of the above-named farm, which is considered one of e very best in the township, he made money and purchased the well-known farm of idge Amos Irwin, where he moved, giving up his old farm to his son, John E., the esent occupant. Early in life, Lawson Allen and wife became members of the ethodist Episcopal Church, and both died members of the same. Their house was ways a welcome home to the circuit rider and visiting members attending the arterly and protracted meetings. They were the parents of ten children, three only w living. Lawson Allen died July 16, 1859, aged fifty-eight years ten months and urteen days. Frances M. Allen died July 10, 1879, aged seventy years eleven months d nine days. After Lawson's death, his widow lived with their children, dividing r time with them. She died at their daughter's, Mrs. Mary Davis, in Greene County, io. John E. Allen was married November 6, 1850, to Miss Sarah Jane Whitset, 10 was born December 13, 1827. From this union seven children were born, five of tom are living. The parents are both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, d their house is a welcome home to visiting members attending quaterly and pro- acted meetings. One year ago, Mr. Allen would have taken $100 per acre for his m. Now, since the construction of the Cincinnati Northern Railroad, Mr. Allen 's made the following lease of five acres with the privilege of working forty for a i'm of five years. The lessee quarries the stone on above tracts and pays Mr. Allen · cents per perch for them in the ground. Each acre will yield not less than 6,800 rch. The ground is also to be leveled down after quarrying, suitable for farming hin. Not less than eighty acres of this farm is underlaid with lime and sand stone.

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Arrangements for taking out 400 perch daily, if wanted, are made. The quarry is two-thirds of a mile from the railroad. Yards at the following places will be opened for the sale of the stone: Cincinnati, Lebanon, Xenia and Dayton.

JOSEPH P. BENHAM, merchant, Centerville. Joseph P. Benham, son of John and Albina Benham was born in Washington Township, Montgomery County, Ohio, December 17, 1838. His father, born October 17, 1811. in Greene County, Ohio, came with his parents to Montgomery County, Ohio, when about two years old. The larger part of his life was spent in Montgomery County. Died in Centerville April 28, 1862. Albina Benham, born October 17, 1815, in Pennsylvania, eame with her parents to Greene County, Ohio, March, 1820; moved from Greene to Warren County, Ohio, Mareh, 1825 ; then from Warren to Montgomery County, Ohio, in March, 1827. Married, March 9, 1837, to John Benham, Jr. ; from this union were six children, three sons and three daughters, five of whom are now residents of Montgomery County, Ohio. The eldest child, Augustus, resides in Wabash, Ind. ; is a merchant of that plaee. During the war of the rebellion, all three of the sons were in the army at one time, 1864. While they were in the tented field, the mother was at home in the agri- cultural field. That year, she raised five acres corn, one hundred bushels of Irish potatoes and ninc bushels of sweet potatoes. Of the above farming, she hired out, but one and one half days plowing in the erop ; the balance of the work she did with the hoe. Of the potato crop, a neighbor farmer said he had out a much larger patch and only raised ten bushels. Augustus was in the First Regiment Ohio Volunteers, Sec. ond Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Army Corps; was in the following battles : Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing, Chickamauga, Orchard Knob, Mission Ridge, Snake Creek Gap Buzzard Roost Gap, Resaca and Pumpkin Vine Creek; was wounded three times during the war, in eonsequense of which he missed some of the battles in which his regiment was engaged ; he served his time of enlistment, and was mustered out of the serviee about August, 1864. Andrew was in the Ninety-third Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, Seeond Brigade, Third Division, Fourth Army Corps. The regiment was com manded by Col. Charles Anderson and Lieut. Col. Hiram Strong, who was a native o this township. The regiment left Dayton toward the latter part of August, 1862, and marehed direct to Kentucky, where Andrew was taken prisoner and paroled on the second day of September, 1862. Was duly exchanged in January, 1863; returned to hi regiment, and went through the following battles : Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, Tunne Hill, Rocky Faee Ridge, Pine Mountain, Burnt Hiekory, Chattahoochie River, Atlanta Jonesboro, Columbia, Franklin and Nashville ; mustered out of the service Jun 15, 1865. Joseph's principal occupation was farming up to the time he went into th army ; was a member of the One Hundred and Thity-first Regiment National Guards served his entire time at Fort Federal Hill, Baltimore, Md .; mustered out of service latte part of the summer of 1864 ; discharge papers signed by Edward Stanton, Secretary ( War, December 15, 1864. Again engaged in farming until the fall of 1870 ; then tak ing a Western trip, spending the winter of 1870 and 1871 with a traveling One Dollar Store in Illinois ; also paid a visit to relatives in Missouri, and returned home i the spring of 1871. His mother was then Postmistress, as she is now, of Centervill Joseph rented a suitable room up-town for the office, and added a small stock of groce ries; made that his business, his aetual eapital being $32. Prosperity has attende him, and business increased until he is now the owner of the best business property i town, with several smaller pieces of less value. Sinee the death of his father, he ha been looked upon as the head of the family, which at that time was mother and thre sisters. Since then two sisters have married ; family now mother, one sister, niece al himself.

JAMES BRADFORD, farmer, P. O. Centerville. James Bradford, son Robert and Elizabeth Bradford, was born April 5, 1838. Robert Bradford was bo in Ireland, in the County Down, August 22, 1788, and came to America in 181 stopping three months in Pennsylvania, thenee to Cincinnati, Ohio, in April of tl same year. His first work was tending to a brieklayer, earrying briek in a hod up the third story for $6 per month. His next job of work was tending a flouring mill

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Cincinnati at $1 per day ; next he went to farming near Cummingsville on the shares, his being two-thirds of the crop. While farming here he was married to Elizabeth Myers, in 1813. From this union were ten children, of which three sons and six daughters are now living. He moved into Montgomery County, Washington Township, Ohio, in 1816, into a log cabin baving a stick chimney, and lived in that until 1838, when he built a commodious brick residence, in which he and his wife lived until their deaths. Mrs. Bradford died July 14, 1844, and Mr. Bradford, December 11, 1877. They were both members of the United Presbyterian Church, he being an elder in the church about thirty-three years. Politically, he was a Democrat, and never missing an election unless caused by sickness. James Bradford, the subject of this sketch, was born on the homestead of which he is the owner and occupant, three sisters living with im, he being an unmarried man. This farm was bought in 1816 at $8 per acre.

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The history of Montgomery county, Ohio, containing a history of the county, Part 122

Author: W.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1214

Author: W.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Chicago, W. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1214