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Morrow County,  Ohio
History & Genealogy

BIOGRAPHIES.

Source:
Memorial Record
of the
Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow,
Ohio

- ILLUSTRATED -
Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co
.
1895

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

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ROBERT BELL LEVERING, who is recognized as one of the representative and most progressive business men of Mount Gilead, Morrow county, Ohio, is engaged in an enterprise which has an important bearing on the commercial prosperity of the community, ––that of dealing in grain, ––and in this line his transactions and operations are of extensive scope.  Mr. Levering is a native of Ohio, having been born at Woodview, Richland county, (since 1848, Morrow county), September 21, 1846, the son of Morgan Levering, who was born in Bedford county, Pennsylvania, in 1808, and who came to Knox county, Ohio, when eight years of age.  This was in 1816, when his father, William Levering, who was a native of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, came to Knox county and took up his abode on a tract of Government land to which he had filed claim in 1810.  On this farm he passed the remainder of his life; dying at the advanced age of nearly eighty-five years.  He was the son of Henry Levering, a native of the old Keystone State, and of German and French Huguenot extraction.  Henry Levering’s great-grandfather, Rosier Levering, being a member of the Reformed Church of France, fled to Germany to escape religious persecution.  There he married Elizabeth Van De Wall, who was born in Wesel, province of Westphalia, Germany.  They then moved to Gamen, in the same province, and there they lived, reared their family and died.  In 1685 Henry’s grandfather, Gerhard, came with his older brother, Wigard Levering and family, to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where they lived and where both were naturalized in 1691.  Soon after they moved to Roxborough, Pennsylvania, now a part of Philadelphia, and bought farms.  About the year 1700 Gerhard was married.  He resided at Roxborough until 1730 and there reared his family.  He then moved to Whitpain township, now Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, where he died and was buried.  Henry’s father’s name was Daniel, and Henry was his second child.  Thus briefly is it shown that Robert Bell Levering, the subject of this sketch, is of the seventh generation from Rosier Levering and has a complete lineage back to 1648, when Wigard Levering was born.
     The mother of our subject was Mary (Bell) Levering, who was born in Belmont county, Ohio, in 1813.  Her father, Robert Bell, was a native of New Jersey, and his father, who was also named Robert, was born in Scotland or England in 1755.  Robert Bell, Sr., had two brothers.  One moved to South Carolina about 1790, and the other to the vicinity of Nashville, Tennessee, about the same time.  The latter was the father of Hon. John Bell, of Tennessee, a statesman and, in 1860, a candidate for the Presidency, on the Constitutional Union ticket, being associated with Edward Everett, of Massachusetts, the candidate for the Vice-Presidency.  In 1780 Robert, Sr. was married to Mary Yost, in Sussex county, New Jersey, where they lived until 1796.  He then moved his family to Belmont county, Ohio, and in 1816 to Richland county, Ohio.  Here he laid out, in 1820, the town of Bellville, which was named in his honor, and here he built a block house, which was a place of refuge for the settlers during the dangerous hours in the Indian uprisings.  He was a man of high intelligence and great courage and became one of the leading citizens of Richland county.
     The father of our subject was reared in Knox county, his paternal homestead having been located, in 1848, in that section which subsequently became a part of Morrow county.  She who became his wife was reared within three miles of Bellville.  After their marriage, in 1836, they located at Woodview, in Richland county, where he had the year previous become engaged in the mercantile business as an equal partner of John Rule, which connection continued for sixteen years, when by mutual consent it was dissolved, Mr. Levering continuing the business in the same building until his death, which occurred January 25, 1860, at the age of fifty-two years.  The mother’s demise occurred April 13, 1884, in Mount Gilead, and at the time she had attained the age of seventy-two years.  They were the parents of five children, two of whom died in infancy; Allen is a resident of Mount Gilead; Byron resides at Woodview, this county; and Robert B., subject of this review, is the youngest of the family.
     Robert B. Levering
was reared in his native town, receiving his rudimentary educational discipline in the district schools and supplementing this instruction by a course of study in the public schools of Bellville, after which he taught school for three terms.
     In 1867 he entered into partnership with Dr. Amos Rule for the carrying on of a mercantile business at Woodview in the same store-room that was formerly occupied by his father, and as Mr. Rule was a son of his father’s old partner, they used the same old signs and style of firm name, ––Levering & Rule.  This association was maintained for six years, after which our subject disposed of his interests in the enterprise and assumed charge of his mother’s farm, where he remained until 1879, when he came to Mount Gilead, and here engaged once more in mercantile business, remaining thus concerned for six years, after which he sold out, and, in company with Mr. Upton J. Cover, began operations in that business in which he is still engaged.  The firm now conducts a very extensive business, as may be discerned when it is stated that between July 25 and August 24 of the present year (1894) they shipped thirty carloads of oats alone.  They handle all kinds of grain, ––wheat, corn, oats, barley, flax-seed, etc., ––besides conducting a large business in the buying and selling of hay and farm produce.
     Mr. Levering
has other interests aside from that implied in the enterprise noted.  He is financially concerned in the Mount Gilead Dry Goods Company, and is a stockholder in the Hydraulic Press Company.  At one time he was a stockholder and director and was vice-president in the First National Bank of Mount Gilead, and in 1889 was cashier of the institution.
     Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order, retaining a membership in Mount Gilead Lodge, No. 206, and Gilead Chapter, No. 59.  Religiously he is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is prominently identified with the same, being an Elder and a Trustee of the local organization.  At the time of the building of the short-line railroad from Edison to Mount Gilead, in 1879, he was appointed by the Judge of Court, Moses Dickey, as one of the trustees, and he still holds that position.
     On the 6th of April, 1871, Mr. Levering was united in the bonds of matrimony to Miss Louisa J. Dillon, daughter of Dr. Alexander Dillon, a prominent physician of Woodview, Morrow county, which is the native place of Mrs. Levering.
     Our subject and his wife are the parents of six children, namely: Hibbard B., Ruth K., Morgan Alexander, John Allen, Mary Blanch and Willis Robert.

Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 312-314
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.

 

JOSEPH LEWIS is a son of Morgan Lewis, who was born in Onondaga county, New York, July 15, 1806. His parents were Jonathan and Mabel (Hoyt) Lewis. Jonathan Lewis was born in New York, of English descent, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He removed from New York to Vermont in 1800, and in 1834 located in Morrow county, Ohio. His death occurred June 26, 1860, and his wife departed this life September 27, 1849.
     When seventeen years of age Morgan Lewis built and operated a large sawmill, in New York, which he afterward lost by a flood. He came with his family and parents to Ohio, locating in an old log house just north of Westfield village, Delaware county. He built and for a number of years operated the mill on the Whetstone, north of Westfield, and afterward erected mills for Lester Bartlett and others. He subsequently sold his Westfield property and located in Cardington, where he died in 1889. It is said that Mr. Lewis built and operated more saw and grist mills than any other man in central Ohio.
     He was married in New York State to Miss Cyrene Schofield, and they had eleven children, four of whom are now living, namely: Charlotte, wife of Ralph Perry, of Michigan; Jerome married Elizabeth Shoemaker, and lives in Delaware county; Harriet is the wife of George Mooney, of Delaware, and she has two children by her former husband, William Trindle; and Joseph, the subject of this sketch. Four of the sons served in the civil war. Orson was a member of Company D, Sixty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and died February 19, 1863, at Nashville, Tennessee, while still in service. Jonathan, a member of the same company and regiment, was killed December 16, 1864, in the battle of Nashville. Jerome was a member of the One Hundred and Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Mrs. Lewis died in 1862, and the father afterward married Laura Turner.
     Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which the former was Steward, Trustee and Class-leader, and for a number of years was Superintendent of the Sunday-school. He was identified with the Republican party, and served as Treasurer and Justice of the Peace.
     Joseph Lewis, our subject, was born in Westfield township, Morrow county, December 21, 1839. He learned and followed the miller's trade, owning a steam mill six miles north of Delaware. He has 118 acres of well-improved land, and is engaged in general farming. In August, 1862, he enlisted for service in the late war, entering Company D, One Hundred and Twenty-first Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The regiment was sent into Kentucky, and took part in the battles of Perryville, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Rome (Georgia), Kenesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta campaign, Buzzard's Roost, Resaca, siege of Atlanta, Jonesboro, Georgia, and Bentonville, North Carolina, and went with Sherman on his march to the sea; was present at the surrender of General Joseph E. Johnston, and took part in the grand review at Washington, District of Columbia. Returning to Columbus, he was discharged in June, 1865, never having been absent from his post, Mr. Lewis had a close call from a bullet at the battle of Perryville, and at Atlanta campaign they made three charges, and he was knocked about twenty feet by the explosion of a shell in the last charge.
     Our subject was united in marriage, in 1860, to Phoebe Hinton, a native of Delaware county, and a daughter of William Hinton. She died while her husband was at the front in North Carolina, in 1865, leaving two children, -- Frank and Loretta. The latter is the widow of Ethan Williams, and has two daughters, Pearl and May. For his second wife Mr. Lewis married Augusta Boger, née Martin, a sister of Mrs. A. H. Shaw. After her death our subject married Lucinda Aldrich, a native of Delaware county, and a daughter of Smith Aldrich. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a charter member of James St. John Post, G. A. R., at Cardington. He has served as Trustee, Road Supervisor and School Director of Westfield township, has frequently been a delegate to county conventions, and is an active worker in the Republican party.
Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 306-307
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist

 

D. H. LINCOLN, Clerk of the Courts, Mount Gilead, Ohio, is a native of Grant county, Wisconsin, born April 28, 1855. 
     Thomas Lincoln, his father, is a son of Azariah Lincoln, they being near relatives of the distinguished Abraham LincolnThomas Lincoln was one of the pioneer farmers of Wisconsin.  About 1849 he crossed the plains to California, making the long and tedious journey on foot.  For eighteen months he worked in the gold mines of California, and at the end of that time returned home via the isthmus of Panama and New York city, bringing with him $1,000 and joining his family in Wisconsin.  In 1862 he moved to Boscobel, Wisconsin, and engaged in the hotel business, which he continued for a year and a half.  About this time he traded his farm in Wisconsin for one in Congress township, Morrow county, Ohio, to which he moved in 1863.  In the fall of that same year he traded this farm of 100 acres for one of 135 acres in Franklin township, and from that time until 1880 made his home on it.  In 1880 he again traded, this time for a farm in Gilead township, where he resided until 1889, when he retired from active life and moved to a home he had bought on Cherry street in Mount Gilead.  Here he passed away in June, 1890.  He was a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a Steward in the same, and was honored and respected for his many sterling traits of character.  Politically he is a Republican.
     Of our subject’s mother, we record that her maiden name was Rachel Kay, and that she was born in Ohio and reared near Luddingville, this State.  She is still living and is a resident of Mount Gilead.  Her father, William Kay, was one of the pioneers of Ohio.  Mrs. Lincoln is the mother of seven children: three sons and four daughters, namely: Judge A. W., a graduate of the Ohio Wesleyan University, was a teacher for several years, was admitted to the bar in 1887, and is now Probate Judge of Greene county, Missouri; Joel K., engaged in farming in Morrow county; and D. H., the subject of this sketch, the youngest son and fifth born.  Of the daughters, Mary E. is the widow of Thomas Coles; Sarah A. is the wife of Lee Dakan, a farmer of Harrison county, Iowa; L. Augusta is the wife of John Hull, of Morrow county, Ohio; and Belle is the wife of J. C. Lerch, of Pulaski, this county.
     D. L. Lincoln
was eight years old when he removed with his parents from Boscobel, Wisconsin, to Morrow county, Ohio.  He attended the district schools and also the union school at Mount Gilead, and at the age of seventeen began teaching.  For sixteen years he followed the profession of teaching and all that time was in Congress township.  May 22, 1888, he moved to Mount Gilead and engaged in the livery business, in which, however, he continued only a short time, selling out in February of the following year.  April 23, 1889, he was appointed to a position in the railway mail service between Cleveland and Cincinnati, on the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad, by President Harrison.  This position he resigned July 20, 1894, in order to accept the office he now holds, that of Clerk of the Courts.  In 1891 he received special mention from the Superintendent of Railway Mail Service, and at the close of his service was the recipient of a letter of commendation from that official.
     In 1887 Mr. Lincoln made the canvass for the office of Clerk of Courts, the opposing candidates being J. E. McCracken, Thomas Riddle, John Bunker and a Mr. Lyon.  After a spirited contest of fifteen ballots, J. E. McCracken was nominated.  Mr. Lincoln lacked only three votes of securing the nomination.  In 1893 he was again candidate for the same office and was nominated on the first ballot, and at the ensuing election he received a majority of 730 votes.  He is a member of the I. O. O. F., No. 169, and Encampment No. 69, and he is also identified with the Knights of Pythias and the Royal Arch Masons.
     Mr. Lincoln was married in 1877 to Miss Silva Vanatta, a native of Morrow county, Ohio.  They have two children, Beryl, born in 1878, and Annie, in 1880.

Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 368-369
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.

  W. M. LOWTHER, deceased - He to whom this memoir is dedicated was for many years one of the leading and most prosperous farmers of Westfield township, Morrow county, Ohio, and was such a man as is particularly worthy of biographic honors.
     Mr. Lowther was born in Athens county, Ohio, May 14, 1822, the son of William Lowther, who was one of the pioneers of the Buckeye State.  The maiden name of our subject's mother was Mary Magdelena Foust, and she was a mere child when her father, Jacob Foust, came to Morrow county and settled in the immediate vicinity of Cardington.  By her marriage to Mr. Lowther she had two children: W. M., the immediate subject of this review; and Samuel.  After the death of our subject's father, his mother consummated a second marriage, being united to Jesse Foust, who is now deceased.
     Our subject while still but a mere lad, was compelled to devote himself to consecutive and arduous labor in order to aid in supporting his mother and her family of children by the second marriage.  He remained at home until the time of his marriage, Nov. 5, 1845, when he was united to Lucinda Bowyer.  They became the parents of three children, namely: Henry B., Greenville J., and Madison W.  After the death of his first wife Mr. Lowther married Sarah J. Shaw, who became the mother of two children: Loren S., and Laura E.  Sarah J. Lowther died in January, 1879, and Feb. 12, 1880, our subject consummated a third marriage, being then united to Mary A. Peak, who was born in Westfield township, Morrow county, Ohio, Feb. 21, 1842, the daughter of Ziba Peak, who was a native of the State of Vermont, and the son of John Peak, who was also born in the old Green Mountain State, being of English extraction.  He and two of his sons were active participants in the war of 1812.  The mother of Mrs. Mary A. Lowther was a native of Vermont and was there reared to womanhood, her maiden name having been Amanda Torry.  Her father, Ezra Torry, was born in Vermont and was of English descent.  The parents of Mrs. Lowther were married in Westfield township, before the same had been separated from Delaware county and included in the present county of Morrow.  They both came to the county when young and after their marriage continued their residence in the same township.  The father died in his seventy-ninth year, and the mother still survives at the venerable age of ninety years.  They were the parents of five children, concerning whom we offer the following record:  the eldest died in infancy; Eliza M. is the wife of A. W. Bartlett, of Brown township, Delaware county, Ohio; Julia C. is the wife of J. W. Mosher, of Edison, Morrow county; Mary A., is the widow of the subject of this review; and William T. is a resident of Westfield, Morrow county, Ohio.
     Mrs. Lowther received her preliminary education in the district schools of Westfield township, and later attended the public schools of Ashley and Cardington.  By his last marriage Mr. Lowther had no children.  His death occurred June 15, 1892, and in his passing away the community lost one of its most honored citizens and one of its most conscientious and able men, - one whose life had been true to high ideals and one whose character was above reproach.
     In politics Mr. Lowther originally lent his influence and support to the Democratic party, but in later years he was a stanch advocate of the principles and policies advanced by the Republican party.  He was essentially one of those courageous and indomitable men who achieve success as the result of their own efforts and intelligence, and he left a competency to his heirs.
     In the will of her late husband Mrs. Lowther was named as executrix of the estate, and she now retains control of 284, acres of land, representing the fine farming tract accumulated by the subject of this memoir.  She is a woman of much intellectual force and rare discrimination in regard to affairs of business, and the estate could not have had been placed in control of one who would administer its affairs more carefully and conscientiously.
Source:  Memorial Records of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio - Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co. - 1895 - Page 200
 

DR. E. LUELLEN, one of the representative and popular physicians and surgeons of Morrow county, Ohio, retains his residence and base of professional operations in Westfield township, and controls a large practice throughout this portion of the county.  His father, Philip Luellen, was a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and was a farmer by occupation, being a son of Samuel Luellen, who was born in the same county, as was also his father, Philip.  The family is of pure Welsh descent, and was represented in the early pioneer history of the old Keystone State.  The mother of our subject was Hannah (Chase) Luellen, a native of the State of New York, and a daughter of Lewis Chase, who was born in the same State, being of English extraction, and a descendant of one of three brothers, who simultaneously emigrated to the New World.  The parents of our subject’s mother moved to Meigs county, Ohio, after their marriage, ––this being about eighty years ago.  They were the parents of three sons.  The mother of Dr. Luellen had been previously married to a Mr. Birch, and they had four children, namely: Electa, deceased, was the wife of Jonas Foust, and was the mother of five children; Herman is a resident of Delaware county, this State; Almira, deceased, was the wife of Jacob Van Brimmer, and left four children; Melinda is the wife of Elijah Bishop, of Delaware county, and they are the parents of three sons and three daughters.
     The parents of our subject were married in Meigs county about 1822, and they soon removed to Delaware county, where they remained two years, after which they located in Marlborough township, which was later annexed to Marion county, and which now constitutes Waldo township, Marion county.  There the father died in 1833, his widow passing away, at a venerable age, in 1891.  Our subject was the only child of this marriage.  The parents were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but after the death of her husband, the mother united with the Baptist Church.  When they took up their residence in this section they settled in the woods, their abiding place being one of the little log houses common to the place and period, and their nearest neighbors being a mile distant.
     Dr. E. Luellen, the subject of this sketch, was born in Meigs county, Ohio, February 21, 1824.  He was three years of age when he came to Delaware county, where he was reared to farm life until sixteen years of age, and attended a log schoolhouse.  He then came to Westfield village to learn the tanners’ trade, which he followed for four years.  His health becoming impaired, Mr. Luellen began the study of medicine with Dr. George Granger, of Westfield, and later graduated at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio.  For the following five years he practiced with Dr. Granger in this village, when the latter retired from the firm, and our subject has since continued the practice of medicine alone.  He has been a practitioner here for forty-two years, excepting an interval of four years, during which time he conducted a drug store in Delaware.  In addition to this practice, the Doctor has also operated a farm of 130 acres of well-improved land.
     He was married December 14, 1853, to Nancy Trindle, born April 2, 1824, in Westfield township, Morrow (then Delaware) county, a daughter of James and Anna (Brundage) TrindleDoctor and Mrs. Luellen became the parents of two children: Clara Estella, born April 1, 1857, died August 30, 1880, and James C., born in Westfield, August 11, 1858.  He received his education in this village and at Union Institute, Delaware.  He attends to the farm of 330 acres belonging to him and his father, 250 acres of which is general farming land, and is also extensively engaged in the raising of Aberdeen Angus thoroughbred cattle, which have taken premiums at the Delaware and Morrow county fairs.  He also has registered Jersey cows.  The Doctor and his son are stanch Republicans, and in an early day the former was a member of the Whig party.  Socially he is a member of the State Eclectic Medical Society.  The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which the Doctor is Steward, and the son Trustee.  The latter has also served as secretary and treasurer of the Sunday-school.

Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 238-240
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.

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