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BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
1795
History of
Clermont County, Ohio
with
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
of its
Prominent Men and Pioneers
Philadelphia:
Louis H. Everts
Press of J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia
1880
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Jesse L. Teal
Residence of
Jesse L. Teal,
Union Tp.,
Clermont Co., OH |
Union Twp. -
JESSE L. TEAL. Among the
first and most worthy pioneers of Clermont were Jacob
Teal and his wife, Elizabeth, of German
descent, who, in the year 1796, emigrated from Queen
Anne Co., Md., to Kentucky, where they resided until the
spring of 1798, when they located in this county near
the East Fork of the Little Miami River. This
couple of early settlers had three daughters and four
sons, viz., Sarah, married to Joseph
Jean; Elizabeth, married to William Y.
Potter; and Ann, first married to William
Voorhis, and the second time to John
Blair; Philip (who died young), Samuel,
Jesse, and Jacob Lingen. The
latter was married on Dec. 16, 1819, by Rev.
Philip Gatch, to Elizabeth Lane,
daughter of Shadrach Lane, by whom he had
three children, Jesse Lane, Sarah
Elizabeth Strange, and Burroughs
Westlake; and was married the second time, on Jan.
28, 1830, by Rev. Burroughs Westlake,
to Lydia
Dimmitt, daughter of Ezekiel Dimmitt,
by whom he had twelve children.
Jacob Lingen Teal died Feb. 16,
1869, and was universally known and esteemed in the
county. He served many years as magistrate, and
was over twenty years superintendent of the Providence
Sunday-school in the Teal neighborhood, so noted
in days of yore for its "camp-meeting" associations and
memories.
Jesse Lane Teal, a grandson of
Jacob Teal and Shadrach Lane, was born
Jan. 26, 1821, and part of his boyhood days were spent
in Batavia. On Oct. 23, 1843, he was married, by
Rev. George W. Walker, to Mary
Gallagher, of Cincinnati, by whom he has had five
children, viz.: Olive V., married to B. P.
Hill; Sarah Elizabeth; Henry Clay;
Emma Lane, married to Lewis
Beagle; and Pliny A. He received a good
common-school education, and under John Hill,
the old surveyor and famous pedagogue of half a century
ago, was instructed in the rudiments of higher
mathematics. He taught school six or seven
seasons, and received his certificates for teaching
first from the board composed of Thomas L. Shields,
William Howard, and John Hill,
and afterwards from George L. Swing. For
the past twenty-two years he has resided on his fine
fruit-farm of one hundred and forty-six acres in Union
township. For sixteen years he was secretary of
the Sunday-school of Providence church, which edifice he
helped to erect and to the building of which he
liberally contributed. He has been for several
years a member of Batavia Lodge, No. 109, of Free and
Accepted Masons. For eight years he was one of the
managers of the Clermont County Agricultural Society,
and in that period was most of the time superintendent
of its Floral Hall. No one in Clermont has
excelled him in the number of premiums for fruit taken
in that society. For a quarter of a century
belonging to the State Horticultural Society, he has
annually contributed largely to its exhibitions, and at
the Cincinnati Exposition took the largest premium on
fine fruits ever given in Ohio. He is a frequent
attendant at the Cincinnati Horticultural Society, and
at the Ohio State Fair has been one of its leading
exhibitors, receiving there many and valuable premiums
on his celebrated fruits. He has a choice library
of standard agricultural and horticultural works, and us
a practical producer of noted and popular fruits is
hardly surpassed in Southern Ohio. His taste and
judgment in flowers and fruits are only equaled by his
hospitality, which he dispenses in a style worthy of a
true descendant of the old Lane and Teal
pioneers of over fourscore years ago.
Source: 1795 History of Clermont County, Ohio, Publ.
Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts - Press of J. B.
Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia - 1880 - Page 458 |
Col. William Thomas |
COL.
WILLIAM THOMAS. Col. William Thomas
was born Aug. 16, 1801, in Redstone Fort, Washington
Co., Pa. His father, James Thomas,
was born near Annapolis, on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland, in 1779, and his mother, whose maiden name was
Rebecca Lyons Clark, and of Holland Dutch
descent, was born in 1775, in Monmouth County, N. J.,
and was a little girl when Washington fought the
battle of Trenton. The grandfather of the subject
of this sketch was William Thomas, born on
the Eastern Shore of Maryland; while his
great-grandfather was John Thomas, who
came to America from Wales about the year 1680, was a
very large planter, and served for years as high sheriff
in the Maryland Colony. James Thomas,
in the year 1805, accompanied by Joseph Smith,
moved with their families to Ohio and landed at
Columbia. He located in Hamilton County, where
Madisonville now stands, and where he purchased fifty
acres of land. There he lived ten years, and there
his wife died. In 1815 he removed to Clermont County in
the Witham settlement, where he had bought
a farm in 1807. Col. Thomas was the
eldest of his parents' eighteen children,-nine boys and
nine girls. James Thomas had six children
by his first wife, of whom five are yet living, and
twelve by his second wife, Levina Walworth.
William
was raised on a farm, attended the district school in a
log cabin two or three months of winters, and was eight
years old before he ever wore a hat. His father
died in 1859, in his eightieth year. Col.
Thomas was married in November, 1825, to Eliza
Doan, sister of Dr. William Doan, of
Withamsville, a Congressman from this district from 1839
to 1843. To them were born the following children:
Rebecca, married to William Iden;
William D.; Harriet, married to Samuel
Atchley; Eliza; and De Witt Clinton.
The second time he was married to Lucinda Doan,
a sister of his first wife (deceased). His third
marriage was to Mrs. Electra S. Bragdon, widow of
Dr. George B. Bragdon, and daughter of Rev.
John Collins, the famous and eloquent
pioneer preacher who led and established the noted
Jersey settlement in Clermont by locating himself, in
1803, on the East Fork at the historic "Horse-Shoe
Bottom," afterwards the well-known residence of his
distinguished son, Gen. Richard Collins.
Col. Thomas lived at Withamsville until
1833, when he was elected sheriff of the county and
moved to Batavia. He was re-elected to this office
in 1835 with no opposition, so great was his efficiency
and popularity. Upon the expiration of his two
terms as sheriff he began merchandising in the building
or on the site in Batavia where Sutton's store
now is, and in this trade continued for several years.
During this time, Hon. James Ferguson
having retired from the publication of the Clermont Sun,
the Democratic organ, Col. Thomas
controlled and operated the paper for two or three
weeks, employing for a time a Mr. Gobright,
from Washington City, as its editor. After the
disastrous defeat of 1837 to the Democratic party in the
county the paper was kept alive, mainly by the colonel's
efforts, and the party, largely by his labors, was in a
few years enabled to gain the ascendancy again. In
1839 he was elected county treasurer, and re-elected in
1841, serving in all four years, and making, as he had
when sheriff, a faithful and popular officer. He
then moved to Elk Lick Mills, where for several years he
was in business keeping store and running the mills.
In 1866 he moved to the fine farm near Bantam, in Tate
township, where he has ever since resided. While
living at Withamsville he was a trustee of Union
township. He held the office of lieutenant in the
Ohio militia before he was eighteen years of age, was
afterwards captain, and from 1825 to 1833 colonel of his
regiment, which used to drill and muster at 'Squire
Chapman Archer's place. When he was
sheriff he used to take his prisoners sentenced to the
penitentiary by horseback to Columbus, and it required a
week to make the round trip. The colonel is now in his
eightieth year, but is very hale and hearty, and comes
of an old Revolutionary stock long lived and famous in
the early annals of the country. His grandfather,
William Thomas, of Bladensburg, District
of Columbia, was captain of a troop of horse Minute-Men
in the Revolution, and served under "Light-Horse
Hurry Lee." In after-years the celebrated
Thomas family divided on the slavery
question, and some members of it, large planters and
slaveholders, sold or emancipated their slaves, mostly
the latter. The colonel's father's uncle, James
Thomas, settled in Butler Co., Ohio, but
afterwards in Greene Co., Ky., in which State also
located Evan Thomas. William,
a cousin of the colonel, settled at "Waverly, Mo., was
an old bachelor, owned fifteen thousand acres of land,
and vast personal property of which the Rebellion
stripped him. Col. Thomas' only son,
William Doan Thomas, lives in Nebraska, where he
is one of the wealthiest men in that young State.
But few men in this county have been better or more
favorably known than Col. Thomas, who for
a third of a century was a controlling man in its
affairs, political, military, and financial, and in his
advanced age, surrounded with a pleasant home, he can
with honor and satisfaction look over his long life
spent in usefulness to the public and his fellow-men.
Source: 1795 History of Clermont County, Ohio, Publ.
Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts - Press of J. B.
Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia - 1880 - Page (bet. 330,
331) |
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DANIEL
TURNER. In the year 1808,
Michael Turner and his wife, Elizabeth (Beltz)
Turner, with their four little children, emigrated
from Bedford Co., Pa., to Ohio. They came down the
Ohio River in a flat-boat, accompanied by John Burns
and his family, and landed at Columbia, then the most
noted place for eastern emigrants to disembark.
Michael Turner was a thrifty farmer, and a
plain, matter-of-fact, honest man. His wife,
Elizabeth (Beltz), an excellent woman, died
Sept. 1, 1824, in her forty-third year, and he Jan. 16,
1856, aged seventy-five years, having been born in 1781.
They had twelve children: Sarah, married to
Uriah Baldwin, and afterwards to Henry
Leaf; John (deceased); Elizabeth,
married to William Dumford; Daniel
(all four born in Pennsylvania); Polly, married
to Henry Leaf; Anna, married to
Samuel Perry; Lewis, who died in his
eighth year; Rev. Isaac Turner,
Baptist clergyman, and who died in Illinois; Andrew
J.; William; Julia Ann, who died at
about twelve years of age; and Amanda, married to
Harrison Carpenter. Daniel
Turner was the youngest of the four children born in
Pennsylvania, and was born Mar. 25, 1806. In 1821,
when about fifteen years of age, he removed to Clermont
County, and Oct. 10, 1827, married Susan
Malott, daughter of Peter and Martha Malott,
born Jan. 27, 1811. Their children have been:
Michael, born Sept. 20, 1828,und married to M. A.
Philhour, Oct. 24, 1854; Andrew J., born Mar.
3, 1830, and married to Saraphina Potter, Oct.
12, 1853; Martha J., born Mar. 9, 1832, and died
Feb. 23, 1833; Elizabeth, born Mar. 15, 1834, and
married to E. J. Jones, Nov, 21, 1859; William,
born Jan. 13, 1836, and married to Nancy McCan,
June 9, 1859; John, born Sept. 25, 1837, and
married to Amanda Michaels, Mar. 1,1860; Henry
L., born Apr. 9, 1839, married to Alvira Kidd,
Sept. 8, 1863, and died July 23, 1865; Isaac,
born Jan. 27, 1841, and married to Amanda R. Teal,
Mar. 17, 1870; Peter, born Feb. 14, 1843, and
married to Julia Baker, Jan. 24, 1867;
Hannah M., born Dec. 14, 1844, and married to
Friend P. Spence, Mar. 6, 1873; Benjamin C.,
born July 26, 1847; Wyatt S., born June 15, 1850,
and married to Kate Davis, Oct. 14, 1877;
Susan M. Melissa, born Nov. 7, 1853, and married
to John Raglin. Daniel Turner
received the ordinary education the district schools so
poorly afforded when he was a boy, and worked on a farm.
He started in life with no capital but his strong
muscles, untiring energy, an honest heart, and resolute
will, and his wife, like him, had no patrimony with
which to begin life. When married all their.
property was one horse. About 1831 he purchased
twelve acres of land, and from time to time has added
until to-day he owns eight hundred and fifty acres of
the best bottom-lands on the East Fork, in Clermont
County, and eleven hundred and sixty acres of choice
lands in the southern part of Clinton County, and two
hundred and thirty-three in Highland County, in all two
thousand two hundred and forty-three acres. His
residence, an elegant two-story brick dwelling, is at
Perin's Mills, on the Milford and Chillicothe pike, in
Miami township. At the commencement of his
business life he traded largely in horses, and in 1836,
on one drove which he took to South Carolina, he made
eight hundred dollars clear. For over fifty years
he has been a noted raiser of and dealer in hogs, and in
them has speculated as well as packed thousands.
He has made. his large fortune by trading in horses,
hogs, and lands, and from a poor boy has risen to be the
largest land-owner residing in Clermont County.
About 1850 he bought six hundred and sixty acres in
Clinton County, at thirty-three and a third dollars per
acre, on eight years' time without interest, and
subsequently five hundred more at fifty dollars per acre
and two or three successive fine wheat crops enabled him
to pay for all those lands long before his paper became
due. He was at the zenith of his speculations and
trading in hogs when Matthias Kugler was
operating the East Liberty Mills, and Samuel
Perin those at Perintown; but he has continued in
that line of business to this day, and every year or so
is able to buy a large farm from the profits derived the
year previous from his dealings in hogs, etc.
While a member of no denomination, he with his family
are attendants upon the Baptist Church. For a
third of a century he has been a member of the
Independent Order of Odd-Fellows, belonging to Clermont
Lodge, No. 49, at Milford. A strict and positive
Democrat in politics, he has always refused office,
having twice declined that of justice of the peace, and
once a captaincy in the militia. His first vote
for President was cast for Gen. Jackson,
in 1828. He has frequently served as school
director, for, having a large family, he has ever taken
a great interest in the district schools. For two
and a half years he was a director in the Cincinnati and
Eastern Railway, in which he is an extensive
stockholder, and the construction of the route down the
valley of the East Fork was largely due to his
influence.
Daniel Turner is one of those honest,
self-made men of our country, who by his industry, aided
by judgment, has overcome all difficulties, and risen
from a poor boy to fortune and eminence. A good
citizen, a most prompt and honorable business man, an
affectionate husband and kind father, he has reached a
ripe old age of honor and usefulness, possessing
the respect and esteem of the community to the fullest
degree. He has been greatly assisted by his
excellent wife, to whom in part he lovingly attributes
his remarkable financial success.
Source: 1795 History of Clermont County, Ohio, Publ.
Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts - Press of J. B.
Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia - 1880 - Between Pages
476 & 477 |
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