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BIOGRAPHIES

The following biographies are extracted from:
Source: 
A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio
Vol. II.
Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York
1917

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JOSEPH H. NEELY, of South Salem is an interesting personality and a man of varied accomplishments.  In his time he has followed the trades of blacksmith, carriage maker, painter and decorator, and musician.  Everything he has ever undertaken has been well done and he has made himself one of the most useful members of any community where he has had his home.
     Mr. Neely was born in Springfield, Ohio, Nov. 30, 1851, a son of James J. and Elizabeth (Souders) Neely.  His father was born in Newark, New Jersey, grew up there and learned his trade as blacksmith after a a thorough apprenticeship.  He became a skilled workman and as a journeyman he arrived in Springfield, Ohio, where he met and married Elizabeth Sounders.  She was also a native of New Jersey and had come with her parents when a young girl to Dayton, Ohio, making the journey by wagon.   From Dayton she went to Springfield, and after her marriage Mr. and Mrs. James Neely continued to live in that city until about 1666-67.  They then came to Lyndon in Ross County, where the father bought a shop  After two years he sold out and took a wagon trip to Kansas, going by way of Jefferson City, Missouri.  He did not remain there long, and on returning to Ohio again located in Springfield for a year.  About 1870 the family located in Salem of Ross County, where the father rented a shop from Henry Moomaw and followed his trade for several years.  He was considered one of the best blacksmiths in Ross County, and was especially skillful as a worker in steel.   He was a member of the Presbyterian Church and was affiliated with Springfield Post of the Grand Army of the Republic.  He had first enlisted in the Fifth Ohio Cavalry with which organization he received an injury that gave him an honorable discharge.  On recovering he enlisted in the Sixteenth Ohio Battery and served for two years as blacksmith.  James J. Neely and wife had four children, all of whom grew up, but the only one now surviving is Joseph H.    James was a blacksmith and died at Springfield.  Elizabeth died unmarried at Salem.  Peter, also a blacksmith, died in New York City.
     Joseph H. Neely acquired his early education in the common schools of Springfield.  As a boy he studied blacksmithing in his father's shop, and served a complete apprenticeship, acquiring not only the fundamentals of blacksmithing but also carriage trimming.  Painting and everything connected with those trades.
     On Aug. 3, 1871, Mr. Neely married Virginia G. Gregory, a daughter of Aaron Gregory.  After his marriage Mr. Neely followed painting in Greenfield for a year, spent another year at Good Hope, the following year at Springfield,  and then returned to Lyndon in Ross County, where he remained three years.  Changing his location to Salem, his health broke down there, and after a time he was associated with his father in the blacksmith shop.  Since then he has followed his trade successfully for many years at South Salem, and everyone in that community knows his ability as a blacksmith and painter.  For some three or four years he was associated with two of his sons at Greenfield under the name of Neely & Riley Knife and Saw Company.  They built a factory and manufactured cutlery and saws of all kinds.
     Mr. Neely is widely known for his musical talent.  He began the study of music at the age of eighteen, and his specialty is the E flat cornet, which he has played in many organizations and on many occasions through a period of thirty-five years.  He played the alto with the band at Salem, and he organized the band and led it for many years.  Afterwards for ten years he was leader of the Sixth Regiment band at Chillicothe, and was then bandmaster of the Seventeenth Regiment band under Colonel Hamilton for three years.  Since then he has been leader of the Neely Cadet Band at South Salem.  This band was first organized in 1903 and reorganized in 1904.
     Mr. and Mrs. Neely have three talented children: Herbert G., who graduated from the Cincinnati Musical College, is a talented musician who has continued his studies abroad ,and has filled some very responsible positions in the musical field.  Emil G., who is an expert trombone player, is postmaster and general merchant at South Salem.  Maggie G. is a wife of Dr. Marson of Anderson, Indiana, and she is a proficient instrumentalist on the piano.  The family are members of the Presbyterian Church and politically Mr. Neely is a republican.  For some years he has served on the village council at South Salem.
Source: A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio - Vol. II. - Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York 1917 - Page 895
ROBERT W. NEWMAN.  A number of the younger generation of agriculturists of Ross County are engaged in carrying on operations on the farms on which they were born, and upon which they have passed their entire lives.  Here they are continuing the work started by their fathers and grandfathers and perpetuating the names and reputations of those who settled early in the various communities and who laid the foundations for the prosperity of today. In the class just mentioned is Robert W. Newman, who resides on his farm of 500 acres in Twin Township, Lyndon Rural Route No. 2, and who was born on this farm December 20, 1887, a son of Oscar W. and Nettie (Core) Newman.
     Oscar W. Newman was born at Bainbridge, Paxton Township, Ross County, Ohio, October 11, 1851, and died April 17, 1914.  He was a son of Harvard and America (Robertson) Newman, and was eleven years of age when taken to Fayette County, where the family lived for four years.  They then returned to Ross County, settling in Twin Township, where the grandfather purchased the farm now owned by Robert W. Newman and the one adjoining it.  Here Oscar W. Newman grew to manhood, and here he spent his entire life as a farmer.  He was a man of substance and general worth in his community, where he held the respect of his fellows, with whom he associated himself in the forwarding of public-spirited movements. His political support was always given to the men and measures of the democratic party and fully believed that the policies of this organization were the best for his community, the state and the nation. Mr. Newman was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the work of which he took a prominent and leading part.  He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom six are now living, and Robert W. was the sixth in order of birth.
     Robert W. Newman secured an ordinary educational training in the district school known as the Newman schoolhouse, following which he took a high school course in Twin Township.  With the close of his studies, he began to give his entire attention to farming, and at the time of his father's death came into a handsome inheritance.  To this he has since added through industry and good management, and he now has one of the best cultivated farms in the township.  He has also done much enlarging, ditching, fencing, etc., thus adding to the value of the property and at the same time contributing to his material comfort and convenience.  General farming has been his strongest forte, but' he has also met with well-merited success in raising and feeding a good grade of cattle and hogs for the market.
     Mr. Newman was married July 18, 1914, to Miss Sarah Margaret Shotts, daughter of Samuel and Margaret (Corcoran) Shotts, and a graduate of the Twin Township High School.  They are the parents of one son : Robert Edward, born May 7, 1915.  Mr. Newman is a member of Frankfort Lodge No. 318, F. & A. M., in which he has numerous friends, as he has also in business and farming circles.  He and Mrs. Newman belong to the Presbyterian Church at Bourneville, and in politics he is a democrat.
Source: A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio - Vol. II. - Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York 1917 - Page 911
JOSEPH M. NORRIS.  One of the homes that attract special attention by its improvements in Springfield Township is that of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph M. Norris.   Mr. and Mrs. Norris have lived there nearly forty years as active and successful farming people, have reared their children, and enjoy the good will and esteem of all the people in that locality.
     Of old English and American colonial stock, Joseph M. Norris was born on a farm in Cass Township of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, May 14, 1848.  His first American ancestor was a great-great-grandfather, who was born in England and, coming to America, settled in Virginia when it was still a colony.  There he spent the rest of his days.  Joseph Norris, the great-grandfather, was born in Virginia, Jan. 10, 1729, indicating that the Norris family has been American stock almost two centuries.  From Virginia he moved to Maryland, and lived in that state until his death at a very remarkable age.  When he was one hundred and five years old he visited his son in Pennsylvania.  Next in line is the grandfather of John Norris, who was born in Maryland, Mar. 16, 1764, a little more than ten years before the Revolutionary war began.  He moved from Maryland to Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, buying a farm in Cass Township, and was one of the active and progressive farmer citizens of that locality the rest of his life.  He was twice married, and the maiden name of his second wife, the grandmother of Joseph M. Norris, was Nancy Ann Walker.  She died June 9, 1845.
     James Norris, father of Joseph M., was born in Cass Township of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, Mar. 4, 1813, and lived out his active career in his native county, where he was a farmer and where he died in 1901, when upwards of ninety years.  James Norris married Sophia Park, who was born in 1818 and died in 1902.  She was a daughter of Alexander Park.  His children were named:  Alexander, Mary Ann, Thomas Riley, James Wesley, Lydia Ellen, Rachel Emily, Joseph M., Eliza Jane, Phoebe Ann, and Burton DeForest.
     Joseph M. Norris
acquired a very good education while growing up in his native State of Pennsylvania, and when not in school acquired a training by work on the home farm.  In 1867, before he was of age, he went West, and lived a number of years in the states of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Indiana.  In 1878 he started East, but stopped and remained permanently in Ross County.
     Here in 1879 he married Annie Elizabeth Gates, who was born on the farm where she now resides in Springfield Township, a daughter of Henry and Margaret (Day) Gates, prominent pioneers who are mentioned on the other pages.  Mr. and Mrs. Norris have reared three children, named Lillian, Sadie and CatherineMrs. Norris was liberally educated and prior to her marriage taught school in Ross County and also in McLean County, Illinois.  Her daughters are also well qualified as teachers and Lillian and Sadie are now following that vocation.  The daughter, Catherine, is the wife of S. A. Brown, and her four children, grandchildren of Mr. and Mrs. Norris are named Grace, Dorothy, Carl and Ruby Margaret.  Mrs. Norris was reared in the faith of the Society of Friends and has always held to that denomination.
Source: A Standard History of Ross County, Ohio - Vol. II. - Published by The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago & New York 1917 - Page 807

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