Source:-
History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio
By R. S. Dills -
Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio
1881

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Madison Twp. - JAMES ABERNATHY (Madison Twp.) is among the oldest and most substantial farmers of this township.  He is the son of Robert and Mary (Davis) Abernathy, whose biographies appear elsewhere.  The family came from Virginia, in 1815.      He was born Mar. 1, 1819, on Duff's Fork, near where he now resides.  He was married to Letitia Thomas, Jan. 29, 1846.  To their marriage five children have been born:  Mary Josephine, born Oct. 26, 1846, died Dec. 5, 1847; Mary Josephine, born Oct. 26, 1848, died Jul. 15, 1851; Cynthia Alice, born May 15, 1850, died July 24, 1851; Mary Augusta, born Feb. 22, 1854, and married A. C. Mace, of Ross County, Apr. 14, 1874; William, born Oct. 15, 1851, died May 4, 1855.     Mrs. Abernathy was born Jul. 26, 1826.  In the year 1851, he purchased of his brothers and sisters their interest in the homestead of two hundred and seventy acres, to which he has since made some additions.  He and his wife are members of the Christian Church, and have, in their past lives, a record of Christian piety. He is an enthusiastic Granger, and one of the most active members of Madison Grange No. 229. * Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio - By R. S. Dills - Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio - 1881 - Page 935

Madison Twp. - JOHN D. ABERNATHY retired farmer, Mount Sterling, was born in Hampshire County, Virginia, Dec. 10, 1813.  He is the oldest son of Robert and Mary Abernathy, who came to Ohio, bringing their two oldest children, in the years 1815.  The grandfather of this subject was from Scotland; the grandmother from Ireland.      Robert and Mary Abernathy first settled in Pickaway County, near Williamsport.  About the year 1817, he bought a piece of land (one hundred and sixteen acres), where his son James now lives, in this county, on Deer Creek.  Here he reared an honored family.  His children were Mary Ann born in 1809; John, in 1813; Eliza, in 1816; James, in 1819; Cynthia, in 1823; Marion, in 1831.      This subject has been twice married.  His first wife, Nancy Sawyer, was born June 20, 1808, and was the daughter of William and Elizabeth (Smith) Sawyer.  Their union took place Oct. 27, 1836.  She died Apr. 10, 1868.  They had born to them two sons: John C., born Oct. 1, 1837; Smith, born June7, 1840.  For his second wife, he married the widow of W. D. Wood.  Her maiden name was Lucinda Brown.  She was born June 22, 1828, and their marriage took place Apr. 20, 1869.  The Browns were Virginians, and came to Ohio in 1820.      Mr. Abernathy has been a man of great energy and business capacity.  He has dealt largely in live stock, and in the years of his prime manhood, he had an extensive business acquaintance.  He was a resident of this township for thirty-five years, and now owns and keeps oversight of a farm near White Oak.      On account of bodily affliction, he retired from the farm a number of years ago.  He now resides in Mount Sterling.  His father was, at one time, a hotel keeper of this village, but it was very many years ago.  Mr. Abernathy remembers the village of Mount Sterling when there were not more than three houses in it. * Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio - By R. S. Dills - Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio - 1881 - Page 934

Wayne Twp. - JOHN Q. ADAMS (Wayne Twp.), farmer, was born in Perry Township, Dec. 9, 1839, and is a son of Albert and Nancy (Coffey) Adams, natives of Pennsylvania.  The father came with his parents in about 1810, and located in Perry Township.  The mother, a daughter of John and Ruth Coffey, who came to this state in 1797, and lived near Chillicothe, then in 1800, removed to Greenfield, Highland County, and were among the first who settled in that village.  Mr. Coffey was the first tavern keeper, and the first justice of the peace in Greenfield, and a little child of his was the first white person buried in the place.      The family of Albert Adams consisted of ten children: Ruth, Robert, Isabella, John Q., Samuel, Albert, three infants, and Nancy V.; those deceased, are three infants, Albert and Samuel.      The subject of this sketch spent his youth on the farm, received the rudiments of a common school education, and was married Apr. 6, 1865, to Louisa J., daughter of Isaac and Mary Ann (Holliday) Anderson, who were the parents of three children: Louisa J., Sarah E., and Robert C.  Mr. and Mrs. Adams were blessed with the following named children: Minnie R., Harley I., Albert E., Mary B. and Isaac M.; Minnie R., Harley I. and Mary B. have passed to the other shore.      Mr. Adams has about fifty-six acres of land, in a superior state of cultivation, situated on the Greenfield and Good Hope pike, four miles south of the latter place, and also a good farm in Missouri.  He and his wife are exemplary Christians, and members of the First Presbyterian Church, of Greenfield; Mrs. Adams having been a member sixteen years, and associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church prior to her marriage.  He has never aspired to any office, and is a Republican in politics.      Mr. Adams participated in the "late unpleasantness," being a private in Company C, 81st O.V.I.  He was enlisted for three years; his regiment did noble service at the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Atlanta, and his time expired on the morning of the evacuation of Atlanta.  He entered as private and was promoted to color sergeant.  The 81st was made up principally of Highland County men, and was known as one of the most gallant regiments in the field. * Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio - By R. S. Dills - Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio - 1881 - Page 842

ADAM ALLEN, was a native of Pennsylvania, but ran away from home at the age of sixteen, and enlisted in the revolutionary war, where he remained till its close, when he went to Kentucky and engaged in running the Upper and Lower Blue Lick Salt Works. He was passionately fond of hunting, and found a paradise in this state, where game abounded. He was married, it is thought, while in Kentucky, to Miss Kyger. The couple came to near Springfield, Clarke County, Ohio, which at that time consisted of a few scattering cabins. During the war of 1812, he started to Fort Wayne to join the American army. However, the war had closed before he arrived at his destination. He next came to this county with his family, and "squatted" on the site of Allentown, now the junction of the P. & S. E. and C. M. & C. railroads. He retained his hunting propensities, killed much game, and provided venison for the family table and buckskin for the wearing apparel of the young men. Allen afterward removed to the immediate vicinity of the hamlet of Allentown, in which he resided till his death, which occurred in 1851, at the age of ninety-four years. He was a patriotic citizen, and often predicted the war of the rebellion. He had eight children, four of whom survive: Elijah, William, and Ethan, who reside near the old home, and Adam, who resides in Madison County. * Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio - By R. S. Dills - Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio - 1881 - Page  250

Union Twp. - DR. O. A. ALLEN, (Union Twp.) druggist, Washington, was born in New Jersey, July 1, 1825, and is a son of John P. and Jane (Adams) Allen, both natives of New Jersey,  The family, consisting of five sons and three daughters, immigrated to this state in 1831.  Our subject was married in March, 1852, to Jane Jenkins, of this county.  Tow children have been born to them:  Lucy, now Mrs. E. A. Ramsey, and William J.  The doctor is a member of Temple Lodge No. 227, I. O. O. F., and also a member of the Baptist Church, being at present clerk of the organization.  At one time he was a clerk of the village of Washington.  He studied at Granville College, and completed his medical education at the Cleveland Medical College, graduating in 1854, and commencing practice in the spring of that year.  He was continued as a druggist and physician to this day. * Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio - By R. S. Dills - Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio - 1881 - Page 583

Madison Twp. - MAHLON ANDERSON (Madison Twp.), blacksmith and farmer, is the second of three sons born to Levi and Nancy (Brown) Anderson, of Ohio.  His grandparents were from Virginia, but came to Ohio, and settled near Chillicothe, in an early day.      Our subject was born June 13, 1832, and having learned the trade of a blacksmith in the years of his minority, has devoted his life mainly to hard work at the anvil and bellows.  He was married, June 8, 1845, to Helen Fulton, first daughter of John W. and Phoebe (Lyons) Fulton, of Ross County.  To them have been born five children:  Alfred A., born June 20, 1857; Nancy Ann, born May 6, 1859; William H., born May 31, 1861; Charlie, born Sept. 30, 1872; Clara, born Mar. 25, 1875.  All are yet alive and in good health.      He established himself in Waterloo, in the year 1852, and in all these years has attended carefully to business, and, and a consequence, has prospered.  He possesses a nice home in the village, besides some farm lands elsewhere.  Their daughter, Nancy A., married Christopher Hanawalt, in February, 1876.  Alfred married Ella Crabb, in January, 1880. * Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio - By R. S. Dills - Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio - 1881 - Page 936

Perry Twp. - MATHEW ANDERSON, (Perry Twp.) farmer and stock raiser, is a son of Robert Anderson, who was a native of Virginia.  He came to Ohio in 1816, and settled on the waters of Buckskin Creek, in Ross County, where he remained but three years, when he removed to Fayette County, in 1819, soon after which he married Miss Sarah Rowe, daughter of Jesse Rowe, who was one of the pioneers of the county.  They were the parents of four children, three sons and one daughter: Isaac married, and died; Jane married, and lives in the neighborhood; John was unmarried, and died at the age of twenty-two.  The father died Dec. 2, 1878, at the advanced age of more than eighty-four years.  The mother died some six years previous.  They lived together as husband and wife for more than fifty years, and were devoted Christians, both members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.      Mathew, our subject, was born Oct. 23, 1821, and married Miss Mary A. Davids, Oct. 28, 1847, with whom he lived six years, when she died leaving no children.  Mr. Anderson  married for his second wife Mrs. Kaylor, daughter of William Merchant.  One daughter was the fruit of this marriage, now the wife of John Rowe, living in the neighborhood.  Mrs. Anderson lived but four years, when Mr. Anderson was again a widower.  He married for his third wife Miss Sarah D. Adams, daughter of Albert Adams, Esq., residing near Greenfield, Ohio, and sister to Rev. Colonel Adams, of the 81st O. V. I., whose history appears elsewhere in this work.  They have three children, two sons and one daughter.  Isaac Newton, a very promising child, fell into the well and lost his life, when but eighteen months old.  Nancy Ruth, a young woman of seventeen, is absent from home, attending school at Greenfield, Ohio,  Albert Porter  is but fifteen years of age, weighing one hundred and fifty-seven pounds.      Mr. Anderson owns and lives on a most magnificent farm of a thousand acres, located on the Anderson pike, one mile west from the Washington and Martinsburg pike.  He has been, all his life, a man of great energy and industry.  But few men have performed so much hard labor on the farm, in the way of clearing up lands, raising large crops (sometimes five hundred acres of corn in a season), and feeding stock, as has Mr. Anderson  He has done a very large amount of business during the last twenty-vie years, assuming great risks at times, and sometimes sustaining heavy losses; but by great energy and perseverance, and, as he puts it, the "blessing of a kind Providence," his latter days, financially, bid fair to be better than the pat.  He is a straightforward, Christian gentleman, assisted by a most estimable wife. * Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio - By R. S. Dills - Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio - 1881 - Page 794

Jefferson Twp. - ABEL ARMSTRONG, (Jefferson Twp.), farmer, is a son of John and Elizabeth Armstrong, natives of Virginia.  He came to Ohio in 1814; she when a little girl.  They had a family of twelve children, nine of whom reached maturity.  Our subject, the eighth, was born March 11, 1830.  The parents died in this country; the father, Feb. 9, 1865, aged nearly seventy-five years, and the mother Aug. 10, 1842.      Our subject was married to Miss Emily Creamer, daughter of J. B. Creamer, whose biography appears in this work.  They had a family of seven children; Nancy J., Joseph B., George A., Rhoda E., Iva M., Almeda, and Charlie E.  Nancy J., Rhoda E., and Almeda, are deceased.      Mr. Armstrong has a farm of one hundred and forty-four acres, well improved, situated three miles south of Jeffersonville.  Mrs. Armstrong has fifty-eight and three quarter acres two miles south-east of Jeffersonville.  He is a member of the Masonic fraternity of Jeffersonville.  Is also a member of the Methodist Episcopal and his wife of the Methodist Protestant Church.  They are good citizens, and respected neighbors.  Mrs. Armstrong's grandfather, Parot, served in the revolutionary war, and also that of 1812. * Source:  History of Fayette County, Ohio & State of Ohio - By R. S. Dills - Publ. Odell & Meyer Publishers, Dayton, Ohio - 1881 - Page 669

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