BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio
edited by
Hon. Bert S. Bartlow, W. H. Todhunter, Stephen D. Cone, Joseph J. Pater,
Frederick Schneider and Others To which is appended
A Comprehensive Compendium of Local Biography and Memoirs of Representative
Men and Women of the County.
Illustrated
Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers
1905
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TAYLOR WEBSTER
was born in Pennsylvania, and when a child immigrated with his father
and mother to Butler county, Ohio, in 1806. He received a limited
education in the schools of that early day, and for a time pursued his
studies at the Miami University, when that institution was in its
infancy.
Mr. Webster was identified with the press of
Butler county for a long time. From about the year 1828 until the
year 1836 he edited and published the Western Telegraph, which was the
organ of the old Jackson Democracy. Subsequently the Telegraph was
carried on by John B. Weller. During the first part of this
period the Hamilton Intelligencer, the opposition paper, was edited by
John Woods, and subsequently it was edited, printed and published
by Lewis D. Campbell. These four Hamilton editors all
represented the district in congress - Mr. Woods four years,
Mr. Webster six years, Mr. Weller six years, and Mr.
Campbell, the only survivor, eleven years.
In 1829 Mr. Webster was elected clerk of the
house of representatives of the Ohio legislature. In 1830 he was
the representative of Butler in the Ohio legislature, and was elected
speaker. In 1832,. 1834 and 1836 he was elected representative to
congress from the district composed of the counties of Butler, Preble and
Drake. In 1838 he was succeeded by John B. Weller.
Subsequently he was the successor of John Reily, deceased, as
clerk of the court of common pleas, and of the supreme court of the
state of Ohio for Butler county.
During the administration of Jackson and Van Buren,
when he was actively in the field of Ohio politics, he was not such a
leader as were William Allen, John Brough, or John B. Weller.
He was not an orator, but in a less ostentatious way he performed more
telling service than either of them. Their great powers were
displayed in haranguing the multitude and exciting their friends to
action without, perhaps, making very many converts from the opposition.
Mr. Webster's great strength lay in his indefatigable industry,
and his principal strength was in what was called the buttonhole and
fence corner system of electioneering. He had no superior in the
Miami valley in organizing political forces in detail during a campaign,
and bringing them into fought. He was naturally of a mild and
unassuming disposition - calm, discreet, and considerate in action.
He was always temperate, industrious and persevering, and he discharged
with honesty and fidelity the functions of the various official
positions with which he was intrusted. He died on the 27th of
April, 1876, at the residence of his son, in New Orleans.
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ.
B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 936 |
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EVERT E. WILLIAMS
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen
& Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 359 |
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ISRAEL WILLIAMS
Source: Centennial History of Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen
& Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 955 |
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JOHN R.
WILLIAMSON. The family of which
the subject of this review is a representative is well known in Butler
and the adjoining county of Hamilton and for many years its members have
been honored and respected in their various spheres of life.
John Williamson, the subject's grandfather, a native of New Jersey,
came to Ohio a number of years ago and settled in Hamilton county, where
he purchased land on which he spent the remainder of his days as a
fairly prosperous farmer, and he also enjoyed excellent standing as an
enterprising, public spirited citizen. Among his eight children
was a son by the name of Benjamin, who grew to manhood on the
family estate and a little later came to Butler county and engaged in
the manufacture of flour, purchasing a mill on Seven-Mile creek not far
fro where his son John R. now lives, which he operated for some
time in partnership with one of his brothers, meeting with gratifying
success in the business. He also devoted considerable attention to
agriculture in the course of years became the owner of several valuable
farms in Butler county. He now lives in Collinsville with one of
his family. Benjamin Williamson has always been a man of
sterling worth and his family is one of the most highly esteemed in
Milford township. He is a Democrat in politics, and a devout
member of the Presbyterian church, being an elder in the congregation at
Collinsville, which position he has held for many years. When a
young man he married Miss Rebekkah Scott, who is still living and
who has borne him three children, namely: Jennie, an inmate of
the parental home; Charles, who departed this life in 1891, and
John R., whose name introduces this sketch.
John R. Williamson was born in Milford township,
Nov. 2, 1864, and spent his early years on the family homestead,
attending at intervals during his childhood and youth the district
schools of the neighborhood. He subsequently entered the National
Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, where he prosecuted his studies until
obtaining a good education, after which he resumed farming and has since
devoted his attention to the same.
In October, 1888, Mr. Williamson entered the
marriage relation with Miss Carrie Somoyer, of this county,
daughter of one of the leading farmer and prominent citizens of Milford
and for a number of years a trustee of the township. Mrs.
Williamson was educated in the public schools and in the higher
institutions of learning at Lebanon and Oxford, and possesses a bright,
Cultivated mind being highly esteemed by all who know her and a favorite
in the social circles in which she moves. She is the mother of one
son, Charles, whose birth occurred in 1892.
Since his marriage Mr. Williamson has lived on a
farm of one hundred and eighty acres. He is progressive in all the
term implies, and believes in modern improvements. Since his
twenty-first year he has been a pronounced supporter of the Democratic
party.
Source: Centennial History of
Butler County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page
671 |
Arthur T. Wilson |
ARTHUR T.
WILSON. Conspicuous among the leading business
men and representative citizens of Middletown is Arthur T. Wilson,
whose long residence in the city has given him an honorable reputation
and a prestige which is strong and far-reaching. The Wilson
family is of English origin and the subject belongs to the fourth
generation on this side of the water, his great-grandfather having been
the first of his ancestors to find a home in the new world.
Thomas Wilson, father of Arthur T., was born near Trenton,
Ohio, in the year 1818, and grew to maturity on a farm, receiving a fair
education in such schools as the country afforded during the days of his
youth. When a young man he learned cabinetmaking at Jacksonburg
and Hamilton, and after finishing his apprenticeship and working one
year at the latter place, came to Middletown, where he established a
shop in 1839, from which year until 1879 he carried on a successful
trade and became one of the city's most prosperous and substantial
business men. Thomas Wilson achieved considerable
prominence in political circles and municipal affairs, served on the
school board and as assessor and was one of the influential Whigs of
Butler county, later casting his fortunes with the Republican party, of
which he continued an earnest and uncompromising supporter to the day of
his death. He was a stanch Presbyterian in religion, a leader in
the church at Middletown and for many years served as ruling elder of
the congregation, besides taking an active interest in general religious
and benevolent work, regardless of name or order. To him belongs
the credit of introducing Odd Fellowship into Middletown and the present
lodge in this city is largely the result of his earnest and
self-sacrificing efforts in an early day.
Elizabeth Lefferson, wife of Thomas
Wilson, was a native of Middletown, Ohio and bore her husband ten
children, of which large family the following members survive:
Arthur T. whose name introduces this sketch; Mrs. John S. Butler,
Mrs. W. H. Todhunter, Homer P. Wilson and Mrs. William Shotwell,
all living in Middletown, except Homer, who is a resident of
Cincinnati, and Mrs. Shotwell, who resides in West
Virginia.
Arthur T. Wilson, was born in Middletown, Ohio,
Feb. 1, 1844, and spent his childhood and youth at the old family home
on Main street, his early experience being about the same as that of the
majority of lads reared under city influences. When old enough he
became a pupil of the public schools and continued to attend the same
until of an age to be of service to his father, at which time he entered
the latter's furniture establishment, where he attained his first
training in practical life. Being a natural mechanic, he soon
became a thorough workman and continued cabinetmaking, under his
father's direction, until 1864, when he laid aside his tools for the
death-dealing implements of warfare, enlisting May 2d of that year in
Company G, One Hundred and Sixty-seventh Ohio Infantry, for the
one-hundred-day service. After being honorably discharged, on the
8th of September following, he returned to Middletown and effected a
co-partnership with his father in the furniture business, the relation
thus constituted lasting until the latter's death. Mr. Wilson
then took in as partner Frank Potter, a firm which continued
until 1883, when the subject purchased the entire interest and conducted
the business with marked success during the ten years following.
In 1893 he disposed of his stock of furniture, the better to devote his
entire attention to undertaking, which business he had previously
carried on and the magnitude of which had become so great as to demand
his entire time. Since the latter year Mr. Wilson
has made undertaking a specialty and in order to fit himself thoroughly
for the exacting duties of the same he took a full course of embalming
in the Clark Embalming School, at Cincinnati, one of the leading
institutions of the kind in the United States, graduating in due time
with a creditable record. As a skillful embalmer and accomplished
and obliging undertaker, it is not too much to say for Mr. Wilson
that he has few equals and no superiors. He is familiar with every
detail of the profession, keeps abreast with the times in all the latest
scientific discoveries and improvements relating thereto and his
business has steadily increased.
Mr. Wilson has literally grown up with
Middleton and during a sixty-years residence therein has not only
witnessed the steady and substantial growth of the city along its various
lines of industrial, commercial and general activity, but, with
practical intelligence, sound judgment and keen foresight, has
contributed to the advancement of its prosperity and borne his part in
bringing about the high state of morals for which the community has so
long been noted. He manifests a pardonable pride in the place of
his birth, is zealous of its reputation, and, having faith in its
future, encourages to the extent of his ability all worthy enterprises
and measures to make that future realize as nearly as possible his high
ideal of what it should be. While not an active politician,
Mr. Wilson
is nevertheless well grounded in his political convictions,
being a Republican on state and national issues, but in municipal and
county matters he frequently votes for the man, regardless of party
ties. His fraternal relations include membership with the Grand
Army of the Republic; the Masonic order, Lodge No. 90; Lodge No. 37,
Knights of Pythias, and the Royal Arcanum; and in religious affairs he
is a zealous member of the First Presbyterian church of Middletown,
which body of worshipers his wife is also identified.
The marriage of Mr. Wilson dates
from 1870, on June 2d of which year he contracted a matrimonial alliance
with Miss Jennie M. Hill, who was born in Rockville, Connecticut,
but who came to Butler county with her parents in childhood and grew to
maturity and received her education in Middletown. Mrs. Wilson's
father was a paper manufacturer and one of the leader of that industry
in this part of Ohio. He achieved wide reputation as a skillful
workman and is said to have established at Middletown the first manilla
paper mill in the United States west of the Alleghany mountains. Mrs.
Wilson is the only surviving member of the Hill family. She
has presented her husband with two children, the older of whom, a
daughter by the name of Anna H., was born Sept. 19, 1872, and
departed this life in the year 1888. This daughter was an
intelligent and highly esteemed young lady, having been well educated in
private schools and Oxford Female College, and her untimely taking
off was profoundly lamented not only by her immediate family but also by
the large circle of admiring friends with whom she was wont to mingle
and associate. Howard A., whose birth occurred on the 22d
of December, 1875, was educated in the public schools of Middletown and
under private instruction and he also spent one year at Oxford and the
same length of time in a high-grade institution at Bridgeport,
Connecticut. After receiving a thorough literary discipline, he
entered the Clark Embalming School, Cincinnati, and in due season was
graduated therefrom, since which time he has been associated with his
father in the undertaking business.
Source: Centennial History of Butler
County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 520 |
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POLLOCK
WILSON first saw the light of day in Wayne
township, Butler county, Ohio, Feb 9, 1804. His parents were
natives of England, and emigrated to America about the year 1787.
In his father's family, consisting of seven children, the subject was
the youngest. Their names were Thomas, Elizabeth, Ann, John,
Joseph, Matthew and Pollock. The youthful days of
Mr. Wilson were spent upon the farm, which proved the stepping stone
to his future extensive business acquirements. About this time
(1818) his father left him in Rossville, now West Hamilton, to learn the
dry goods business acquirements. About this time (1818) his father
left him in Rossville, now West Hamilton, to learn the dry goods
business. The father of Mr. Wilson, in 1820, was obliged to
proceed to Kingston, in the Island of Jamaica, to settle an estate
belonging to two deceased brothers. When he bade his son farewell,
it was for the last time He never returned. This old
gentleman, Mr. Wilson, Sr., settled in Wayne township under
rather peculiar circumstances. An Indian trader, by the name of
Banfield, who made pack-saddles and traded them with the Indians for
furs, induced Mr. Wilson, the elder, to make him Banfield,
a visit. He did so was pleased with his trip, and favorably
impressed with the appearance and character of the country and the
result was he, to use a pioneer term, "squatted" there.
Pollock Wilson
remained in Rossville until 1822, when he went to Cincinnati and
apprenticed himself to a saddler for a period of four years. At
the termination of his apprenticeship period he commenced business for
himself. On the 14th of May, 1831, Mr. Wilson was united in
marriage to Miss Miria Morton, of Cincinnati. The union was
an exceedingly happy one. Each one toiled to build up their mutual
prosperity. Mr. Wilson changed his manner of business from
that of manufacturing to vending goods, and about the year 1835, he
entered into co-partnership with P. Hayden of Columbus, Ohio, in
the saddlery-hardware" business. They continued until Jan. 1,
1874, when owing to advanced age, each well pleased and satisfied with
their business career, separated amicably and without one unpleasant
word to mar their former friendship and reciprocal respect. During
the Rebellion Mr. Wilson lost a fortune in business; and the care
and anxiety attending this difficulty somewhat impaired his health.
By the advice of his physician he gave up city life, and purchased a
magnificent "country seat" to the southwest of the city of Hamilton,
overlooking the city, and from whence he obtained a splendid view of the
beautiful Miami valley. Here Mr. Wilson resided for many
years, and enjoyed the uncontaminated air of rural life. The
closing years of his life he spent with his children at Cincinnati,
where he died a few years ago loved and revered by all who knew him.
Source: Centennial History of Butler
County, Ohio - Publ. B. F. Bowen & Co., Publishers - 1905 - Page 886 |
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