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ADAMS COUNTY, OHIO
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BIOGRAPHIES

Source: 
History of Adams County, Ohio
from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time
by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers
West Union, Ohio
Published by E. B. Stivers
1900


Please note:  STRIKETHROUGHS
are errors with corrections next to them.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M
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  JEREMIAN KENDALL - See GENERAL WILLIAM KENDALL

Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 285

  GENERAL WILLIAM KENDALL

Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 285
NOTE:  CORRECTIONS - Pg. 285.  For "Central Park" in fifth line from bottom read "central part."

 

CAPTAIN GEORGE S. KIRKER, the youngest son of Gov. Thomas Kirker, was born on the old Kirker homestead in Liberty Township, Adams Co., Ohio, Feb. 7, 1813.  He was married in 1840 to Mary M. Cunningham, daughter of William and Ellen Doak Cunningham, of Virginia descent.  Their children living are Sarah Ellen, unmarried and residing at the old home; Charles E., Mary F., wife of A. P. McIntire; William C., who resides on the old homestead; Ora, wife of Edwin Morrison, of Pawnee City, Neb., and India A., residing at Axtell, Kansas.  Mr. and Mrs. Kirker lost six children in infancy.  Mary M. Kirker was born Mar. 17, 1817, and died at Manchester, Ohio, Apr. 13, 1887.  George S. Kirker lived his entire life on the farm in Liberty Township except the last four years, in which he made his residence in Manchester.  He died Sept. 15, 1879.  He was highly respected wherever he was known.  HE was a man of great public spirit.  If any measure was proposed or projected for the public benefit, he was always favorable to it and always supported it with great enthusiasm.  He was a manly man.  Whatever was just, whatever was upright, whatever was for good, he was for.  He was the means of having the pike from cherry Fork to Bentonville built, and but for his influence, its construction would have been delayed for years.     From 1863 to 1871, he, Crockett McGovney and Dr. D. M. McConaugh engaged in the pork packing business at Manchester.  It required a great deal of nerve and capital to go into that business and carry it on, but Kirker had both.  It was the largest and most important business carried on in Adams County while it lasted, and its being carried on was a great public benefit to the county.  True, the partners lost money, but the people who dealt with them did not.
     George S. Kirker was a prosperous and successful farmer and stock raiser.  No man in the county took more pride in fine stock than he did and those who knew him in his prime knew that he never was happier than when riding a fine horse.  He was always fond of horseback riding and usually had a saddle horse with a fancy gait.  At fifty years, he was a large man, with very black hair and a full black beard.  He had a fine presence and impressed strangers as a man of importance.  In his business dealings, he was direct and straight to the point and was the soul of integrity and fair dealing.  His industry and energy were untiring.
     When there was any business to be done, Mr. Kirker never rested until it was done.  He was a most jovial, agreeable companion.  He was full of humor and liked to give it play.  He was fond of a good story.  He was one of those whom others like to ask to take the lead and when his judgment approved, he never hesitated to take it.  When he did take it, the business went forward to a conclusion and usually to a successful one.  He was always in good spirits and his presence and manner put those about him in good spirits.  He was always inclined to take a cheerful view of things and to believe that a poor or bad condition of affairs could be bettered.  He was plain in his dress, in his speech and in his manners, but he believed in getting at the substance of things.  He was a man of strong will power and great tenacity of purpose.  He would not undertake any matter or enterprise unless it was within reason that it could be carried through and that he could bring it to a successful issue.  He had excellent judgment, and if it ever failed him, it was because of the influence of matters upon which he had not calculated.
     In the period of his business activity, he was a most valuable element in the community.  If any one was to lead in any project, he was usually selected as the one, and he never failed, when called upon, either to undertake the work placed upon him or to bring it to a fortunate conclusion.  He was a natural leader in the circle of his acquaintances.  It was this fact which made him a Captain in the 141st O. V. I.  He was a strong Republican in his political views and could not have been anything else.  He, however, unlike his distinguished father, had no taste for political office, and he never held any but that of Infirmary Director from 1863 to 1866.  He accepted this because his name added strength to the ticket on which he was and because he lived in the same township in which the infirmary was located.  His known sympathy for the poor and needy urged his candidacy and induced him to accept the office.  Then again, his contest was made in the middle of the war when patriots were discouraged and when strong men needed to come forward and encourage the war.  There is no man risen up in Mr. Kirker’s place with all his sterling qualities.  He set the world an example of life and character which ought to be remembered and perpetuated, and an example which, if followed, would increase the sum total of pleasure and contentment here, and happiness and hope for the future.

Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 774


Gov. Thomas Kirker
Second Governor of Ohio
1807-8
GOV. THOMAS KIRKER was a native of Ireland.  His father lived in Tyrone County, and was a man of small means, but good standing.  Thomas was one of a large family, and was born in 1760.  Until he was nineteen years old, he lived with his parents in Ireland and endeavored with them to make a living out of the poor soil and against the exactions of oppressive landlords.  His father concluded that was too much of an undertaking, and moved to America, settling in Lancaster County, Penn.  After a few years of hard work in that county, the father died, leaving behind him a fragrant memory and a wife and five or six children.  By constant toil and good management the family made a living and the children acquired some education.  From the death of his father in Lancaster County, until 1790 Thomas Kirker left no account of himself.  At that time, being thirty years of age and having acquired some little money and seeing a hope for the future, he was married to Sarah Smith, a young woman of excellent family and great worth, eleven years his junior.  They remained in Pennsylvania for a short time when stories of great wealth to be made in Kentucky came to them across the mountains, and the perilous journey of moving to the Blue Grass State was undertaken.  Indians were on the way, and they kept the small company in constant fear by occasional arrow practice with them as targets.  Kentucky proved a failure so far as they were concerned, and in 1794, Mr. Kirker and his wife crossed the Ohio and settled in Manchester, this county.  This marked the beginning of his public career, and of his financial success.
     In 1796, our subject changed his residence from Manchester to Liberty township in the same county, and settled on a farm, which has ever since been known as the Kirker farm, and on which he died in 1837, and in the cemetery there the ashes of him and his wife now repose.  When he moved to Liberty township, his family consisted of himself, wife and two children.  They were the first settlers to locate in the county outside the stockade in Manchester, but the county was speedily covered with settlements.  The site selected proved a happy choice and soon blossomed with crops that yielded an abundant harvest.  Within the next few years, Liberty township was dotted with cabins and the s turdy settlers were tilling the soil.  He was a member of the first Court of Quarter Sessions held in the county under the Territorial Government at Manchester, in September, 1797.  He was also a county commissioner under the Territorial Government, but the record of his service is lost.  Mr. Kirker was the leading man in that settlement, and was usually the foremost in all public matters.  By common consent he settled quarrels among his neighbors and acted in the capacity of judge and jury.  All his neighbors respected him and looked to him for counsel.  His reputation for good judgment in his township spread throughout the county, and when delegates were elected to the first Constitutional Convention in 1802, he was sent as one of them, and at, once, on the opening of the convention, Mr. Kirker took a prominent part in its deliberations.
     Thomas Kirker
was a member of the lower house of the Legislature from Adams County at the first legislative session Mar. 1, 1803, to Apr. 16, 1803.  He entered the Ohio senate at the second legislative session, Dec. 5, 1803, and served in that body continuously until the thirteenth legislative session, closing Feb. 16, 1815.  In that time he was Speaker in that Senate in the fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, tenth, eleventh and thirteenth sessions.  From Nov. 4, 1807, to Dec. 12, 1808, he was acting Governor of the State by reason of a vacancy of the office of governor and his then being speaker of the senate.  At the fifteenth legislative session, Dec. 15, 1816, to Jan. 28, 1817, he was a member of the House and its speaker.  Then he took a rest from legislative honors for four years.  At the twentieth legislative session beginning Dec. 3, 1821, he was again in the senate from Adams and served in it continuously until Feb. 8, 1825.  On Jan. 17, 1821, he was appointed an associate judge from Adams county, and served until Oct. 30, 1821, when he resigned.  In 1824, he was presidential elector, and voted for Clay.  From 1808 until his death, he was a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church at West Union, and his son William was also an elder in the same church from 1826, during his father's lifetime.
     Mr. Kirker was not a brilliant man, but he was honest, conscientious and possessed of sound judgment and integrity that was unselfish and incorruptible.  He was respected, esteemed, and exerted an influence that was felt in the entire circle  of his acquaintance.  No man served his state better or with more credit than he.  Called to high places, he filled them well and went out of office carrying with him the respect of all who knew him.  His wife died Aug. 20, 1824.  He died Feb. 20, 1837.  He reared a family of thirteen children, and has a host of descendants, who are scattered in different parts of the United States.  A number of them are residing in Adams County, but most of them are in other localities.
     He succeeded Gov. Tiffin, Mar. 4, 1807, when he resigned to enter the U. S. Senate and served to the end of his term.   In December, 1807, the election of governor having failed by reason of Return J. Meigs not being qualified and N. Massie declining, he served as Governor one yar or to Dec. 12, 1808, when Samuel Huntington succeeded him.  The vote stood Huntington 7,293; Worthington, 5,601; Kirker, 3,397.
Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 256 - Chapter XVI
  COL. WILLIAM KIRKER was born Jan. 24, 1791, in the vicinity of Pittsburg, Penn., the son of Governor Thomas Kirker and Sarah Smith, his wife.  He was the eldest son and child of a family of thirteen.  He married Esther Williamson and died Feb. 10, 1857.  His father moved to Manchester in 1792 and lived there until 1794 when the located on the well known Kirker farm in Liberty Township.  In the War of 1812, he was a First Lieutenant and after the war, he was made a Colonel of the Militia, which position he held until near the time of his death.  He was a First Lieutenant and after the war, he was made a Colonel of the Militia, which position he held until near the time of his death.  He was County Commissioner in 1825 and again in 1832.  He was made an elder in the Presbyterian Church at West Union in 1826, his father being an elder in the same church.  He was a delegate to the Presbytery from his church from Sept. 19, 1826, many times, until Apr. 5, 1854.  He was always courteous and kind to everyone and was noted for his philanthropy.  Judge J. C. Coryell said of him that he was the most useful man in his community, and that the poor, the widow and the orphan lost their best friend when he died.
     His wife, Esther Williamson, was born on June 4, 1797, and died Jan. 4, 1880.  He was a large family of children whose descendants are scattered throughout the United States.
Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 577
  FREDERICK KNAUFF, of Blue Creek, was born May 14, 1848.  His ancestors were among the first of the pioneers of Blue Creek Valley, settling there when the region abounded with bear and deer, and when bands of marauding Indians paid occasional visits to the settlements along Scioto Brush Creek.  The parents of Mr. Knauff, Michael and Mary Wolfe Knauff, came from Germany to Butler County, Pa., where Frederick was born, and thence to Adams County.  Mary Knauff died April 7, 1892, and is buried at Liberty cemetery.  Michael Knauff is yet living at the age of eighty-three years.
     Our subject was educated in the country schools in which he has always taken much interest, being at present a member of the Board of Education of Jefferson Township.
     He was married March 30, 1869, to Elizabeth Lamb, a daughter of John and Elizabeth Boehm Lamb, by whom he has had eight children: John H., Luella A., William D., Wylie C., Anna R., Mary A., Harry J., and Roy A.  He is a Republican in his political opinions but very tolerant in his views.  He was raised in the Lutheran Church, but is not a member of any denomination at present.
Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 776
  PHILIP KRATZER of Blue Creek, was born near Arnheim, Brown County, Ohio, Oct. 7, 1839.  His father was Simon Kratzer, whose ancestors came from Pennsylvania, and his mother was Elizabeth Lindsey, a descendant of an old and respectable family of Brown County.  Our subject was reared on a farm and had the advantages of the country schools.  He enlisted from Georgetown, Ohio, August 128, 1862, and was mustered into the service of the United States at Camp Dennison as a Private, Company D, Captain Higgins, 59th Regiment, O. V. I., Colonel Fyfe, for three years.  Joined regiment at Cave City, Ky., and there promoted to Corporal.  Served in Nelson's Brigade, Wood's Division, Fourth Corps, Army of the Cumberland, and took part in all the battles in which his regiment participated including Stone River, Lookout Mountain, Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, Siege of Atlanta, and was wounded at Mission Ridge.  He was transferred to Company K, Oct. 24, 1864, and served balance of time, and was honorably discharged June 28, 1865.
     Our subject was first married Jan. 18, 1865, to Miss Mahala Stayton, of Brown County, by whom he had four sons and four daughters: Robert, Rosetta, Jesse Lee, Stella, John F., George E., Emma and Nellie.  Mr. Kratzer's second wife was Matilda J. daughter of LEvi and Cynthia Lafara.
     Philip Kratzer
is one of the substantial citizens of Churn Creek Valley.  He is a faithful member of the Christian Union Church, and in politics an old-fashioned Democrat, and is an ardent admirer of that leader of Democracy,
William J. Bryan.
Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page  776

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