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Welcome to
Clinton County, Ohio
History & Genealogy

BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of Clinton County, Ohio
Its People, Industries and Institutions
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Albert J. Brown, A.M.
Supervising Editor
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With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and
Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families
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ILLUSTRATED
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B.F. Bowen & Co., Inc.
Indianapolis, Indiana
1915
Contrib. by Sharon Wick
 
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

< CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO 1915 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX >

  PETER D. LEAMING.  No product of agriculture has ever come from Clinton county which has had more to do with the revolution in corn growing in the state of Ohio and, in fact, in the Middle West, then Leaming's corn, which was originated by the late Jacob Spicer Leaming, father of Peter D. Leaming, the subject of this sketch.  The tremendous influence of this splendid variety is realized when the claim is considered that practically all of the yellow corn grown in the United States today has been developed from the variety known as Leaming.  Whether this is true or not, it is a fact that the corn bearing this name is more widely distributed than any other variety.  Careful inquiry through agricultural colleges and experiment stations and through farmers, warrants the statement that from twenty to thirty per cent, of the yellow corn grown in the corn belt is of the Leaming variety, while if that grown under local names, but which is undoubtedly of Leaming origin is considered, the per cent. would be even larger.
     The history of the origin of this variety is an interesting story.  One autumn in 1855 the father of Peter D. Leaming was driving in his wagon along Bullskin run, in Hamilton county, and, having neglected to bring feed with him for his horses, stopped at a wayside corn field and asked the men husking in the field to sell sufficient corn for this purpose.  He was so much impressed with the beautiful yellow color of the corn and also with the maturity, as indicated by its sound, hard condition, that when leaving he took with him a bushel of this corn for seed.  The following year he moved with his family to Clinton county, purchasing a farm two miles from Wilmington, where he lived until his retirement in 1884.  The corn which he had brought with him from Hamilton county was planted in the spring of 1856.  As the consequence of a favorable season and painstaking cultivation it yielded an excess of one hundred bushels to the acre.  This was a phenomenal yield for that day and the fame of "Leaming's corn" was spread broadcast.
     In a large measure Peter D. Leaming, who was born on Nov. 18, 1856, on the farm where he now lives, on the Martinsville pike, in Union township, has inherited the fame which his father richly earned as a corn grower.  His father was born on Apr. 2, 1815, and died on May 12, 1885.  His mother, who, before her marriage, was Lydia Ann Van Middlesworth, was a native of New Jersey, born on Nov. 1, 1817.  She died on Mar. 21, 1890.
     The parents of Jacob Spicer Leaming were Christopher and Margaret Leaming, who came to Ohio from Cape May county, New Jersey, early in the last century.  The family is of English origin.  The first of the name to arrive in America was a Christopher Leaming, who came to Boston in 1670.  Later the family moved to Long Island and still later to New Jersey, where it became prominent in provincial history.  Christopher Leaming, II, the father of Christopher Leaming, who immigrated to Ohio, and grandfather of J. S. Leaming, served for twenty years as a member of the provincial assembly.  Christopher Leaming, III, was much more than an average farmer, and as early as 1825 his son, Jacob, a lad of ten years, was acquiring corn inspiration through the medium of a noe handle in the Langdon bottoms along the Little Miami river in Hamilton county.
     The parents of Jacob Spicer Leaming's wife were Tunis and Ellen Van Middlesworth, both natives of New Jersey, and of Dutch descent.  About 1825 they removed by wagon to Hamilton county, Ohio, purchasing a farm at the edge of Cincinnati.  Tunis Van Middlesworth owned a large farm between what is now East Norwood and Oakley, suburbs of Cincinnati.  They had ten children.
     Jacob Spicer Leaming attended the district schools and obtained a good education, after which he taught school for a time.  He became a great reader and an able writer.  At the beginning of his active career he rented a farm and operated a bus line between Madison and Cincinnati.  In the spring of 1856, as heretofore noted, he removed to Clinton county and rented a farm from his elder half-brother, Christopher Leaming, in Union township.  Later he purchased the farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres from his brother and still later added to the farm until he owned one hundred and sixty-five acres.  Subsequently, he purchased fifty-three acres additional on the edge of Wilmington, and there spent the last years of his life.  He was prominent in the politics of his day and generation and served as township trustee for some time.  Both he and his wife were members of the Methodist church.
     The name of Jacob Spicer Leaming will go down in the history of Clinton county as the most noted corn producer in the United States.  He soon began shipping seed corn to all parts of the United States.  His son, Peter D., and the latter's brother, J. S. Leaming, Jr., still continue this industry.  In 1884 Jacob S. Leaming received a large silver medal as first prize for seed corn awarded at the Paris corn show.  In 1900 Peter D. Leaming received a fine bronze medal at the Paris Exposition for his seed corn.
     Peter D. Leaming, early in life, learned the principles of the proper selection of seed corn from his father, and has been able to carry on the industry successfully since his father's death.  James S. built the second pike ever constructed in Clinton county.  In 1869 he contracted for and built three miles of the Martinsville pike and in 1870 he built five miles of the Cuban pike.  He was considered an excellent road builder.
     Jacob and Lydia Ann (Van Middlesworth) Leaming had nine children, namely: Tunis, lives in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where he is a farmer; Christopher, lives in East Norwood, Ohio, and is also a farmer; Eli, is a resident of Columbus, Ohio, and is a carpenter; Ella, married Thomas M. Babb, and is deceased; Jacob, now lives in Denison, Texas, where he is a gardener and truck farmer; Joseph, lives at New Burlington, Ohio; Jennie, lives in Dayton, Ohio; Peter D., was the eighth child; George S., is a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he is in the dairy business and engaged in truck gardening.
     Peter D. Leaming attended the Burtonville district school and grew up on the farm.  After his father moved to Wilmington he worked the farm on the shares and after his  father's death, he purchased the home place, going heavily into debt, but he has paid the indebtedness off and is now financially independent.  He is a genial, businesslike, up-to-date farmer.
     In 1899 Mr. Leaming built his present splendid home.  It is an attractive place and one of which he has every reason to be very proud.  He set out the pretty trees that decorate the place.  He carries on general farming, but still makes a specialty of raising and selling Leaming seed corn.
     On Dec. 2, 1890, Peter D. Leaming was married to Emma Skimming, who was born near Burtonville, in Union township, Clinton county, and who is the daughter of Robert and Mary E. Skimming, whose complete family history is contained in the sketch of S. H. Skimming, a brother of Mrs. Leaming, presented elsewhere in this volume.  Mr. and Mrs. Leaming have had two children, Grace Anna and Robert Russell.
     Mr. and Mrs. Leaming
are members of the Baptist church of Wilmington.  Mr. Leaming is a Republican.  In a very large measure Peter D. Leaming has carried forward the work of his worthy father, whose name was presented "as the first candidate for Ohio Farmers' Hall of Fame."
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 724
  HENRY L. LEWELLEN, a pleasant, prosperous and public-spirited business man of Sabina, Ohio, has stamped his individuality in now uncertain manner upon the locality where he resides.  He is an excellent representative of that type of the much heralded American business man - the type that does things - Mr. Lewellen having, by his own exertion, established at Sabina, a flourishing trade in furniture.
     Henry L. Lewellen was born on Jan. 17, 1870, near Sugar Tree ridge in Adams county, Ohio.  He is the son of Morgan and Mary J. (Hunter) Lewellen, the farmer of whom was a native of Pennsylvania, who was accidentally killed in October, 1875, and the latter of whom was a daughter of John Hunter, who married a Miss Sloan.  The grandparents on the paternal side were John and Nancy (Stantz) Lewellen.  He was a blacksmith and farmer of Adams county and reared a family of six children as follows:  Lydia, Catherine, Alfred, Abbie, William and Morgan.
     The late Morgan Lewellen began farming early in life in Adams county, Ohio, and later branched out and engaged in the live-stock business.  He was killed by the falling of a derrick pole at the building of the court house at West Union, Ohio, in the fall of 1875.  During his life he was actively identified with the Democratic party.  His wife was a member of the Baptist church.  Morgan and Mary J. Lewellen had eight children, of whom Henry L., the subject of this sketch, was the sixth.  The others were: Anna, who never married; Frances, who married S. C. Spears; John, who is unmarried; Lewis, who married Nettie Roberts; Thomas, who married Margaret Thompson; Edgar and George, neither of whom ever married.
     Henry L. Lewellen was educated in the public schools of Greene and Clinton counties, Ohio, and was graduated from the Sabina high school with the class of 1903.  When he was a very young man, he worked with his brother in the vehicle business.  In 1895 he entered this vocation as a clerk and later became identified with his father-in-law in the furniture business and in 1915 took complete charge of the business.  Mr. Llewellyn has been in the business for more than fifteen years and it was started with a capital of two hundred and seventy-five dollars.  He has increased from year to year until now it is one of the most flourishing enterprises in this section.  The firm owns the building it occupies.
     In February, 1895, Henry L. Lewellen was married to Esa E. Gaskins, who was born on July 8, 1874, the daughter of Dr. Aaron J. Gaskins.  Three children has been born to this union: Mary L., who was born on Mar. 11, 1900; Doris, Dec. 4, 1904; and Aaron, Aug. 18, 1911.
     It was during the years that Mr. Lewellen managed the furniture business from his father-in-law that it grew and prospered to its present condition.  Mr. Lewellen keeps only a high grade of furniture and has a large business for a town of only fifteen hundred people.
     Mr. and Mrs. Lewellen are members of the Friends church and he is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America.  Elected as a Democrat, he has served nearly six years as city treasurer of Sabina, a position he has filled with credit as his long tenure will well prove.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 509

E. A. Lewis
ELLIS A. LEWIS

 

Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 504


Edwin C. Linton
EDWIN C. LINTON

Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  524

  LOGAN S. LORISH, a well-known real estate dealer of Blanchester, Ohio, was born on Aug. 21, 1867, a son of Henry and Esther (Lacey) Lorish.  Henry Lorish was born on Oct. 26, 1826, in Fairfield county, Ohio, the son of Nicholas Lorish, a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.  He was a farmer and followed that vocation until his death in 1846.  Nicholas Lorish married Magdaline Apt, a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, who died at Columbus, Ohio, in 1863.  Henry Lorish was reared as a farmer lad, and in 1842, when sixteen years old, began to learn the trade of harness making at Baltimore, in Fairfield county, Ohio.  Some years later he moved to Wilmington, in Clinton county, and followed his trade there until his death.  He was married on February, 1856, to Martha G. Miller, a native of Warren county, Ohio, but a resident of Clinton county.  The one child born to this marriage died early in the life, and Mrs. Lorish herself died in 1863.  About two years later, on Sept. 20, 1865, Henry Lorish married Esther A. Lacey, a native of Clinton county, and to this union two sons were born, Sherman T. and Logan S.  Henry Lorish was prominently identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for many years, and was a member of Star of Hope Lodge No. 127, and Hiawatha Encampment No. 7.  Although born and bred in a hotbed of Democracy, he always voted the Republican ticket.  His first wife was a member of the Baptist church, and he and his second wife were members of the Christian church.  Both are now deceased.
     Logan S. Lorish was graduated from the Wilmington high school in 1884, and during the next twelve years was salesman in a general store in Blanchester.  On three different occasions he purchased grocery stores, built up a good trade and then sold them.  In 1909 he engaged in the real-estate business, and here in Clinton county enjoys a large patronage.
     In 1897 Logan S. Lorish is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a Republican in politics, and active in the councils of his party locally.  He served as councilman of Blanchester for eight years, and as a member of the school board for seven years, during which time he was clerk of the board.  He was one of the organizers of the Business Men’s Club, of Blanchester, and is now its president.

Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 846

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