OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS

A Part of Genealogy Express
 

Welcome to
Clinton County, Ohio
History & Genealogy

BIOGRAPHIES
Source:
History of Clinton County, Ohio
Its People, Industries and Institutions
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Albert J. Brown, A.M.
Supervising Editor
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With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and
Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families
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ILLUSTRATED
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B.F. Bowen & Co., Inc.
Indianapolis, Indiana
 1915
Contrib. by Sharon Wick
 
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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Abel Walker

MRS. MARY WALKER.  Among the women of Clinton county who have exerted a wide and beneficent influence upon the community, few are better known or held in higher esteem throughout the county than is Mrs. Mary J. (Patterson) Walker, widow of Abel Walker, in his day one of the best-known men in the county.  Mrs. Walker's life has been full of good works and, in the beautiful evening of a ripe old age, she is living happily and comfortably in her pleasant home in the city of Wilmington, enjoying the confidence and esteem of her large circle of acquaintances, her home being the center of much genial hospitality.
     Mary J. Patterson was born in Greene county, Ohio, in 1844, the daughter of Thomas and Rebecca (Hummer) Patterson, the former of whom was born in Greene county, this state, in 1815, and died in 1874, and the latter, born in Frederick county, Virginia, in 1812, and died in 1898.
     Thomas Patterson was the son of John and Elizabeth (McFarland) Patterson, Pennsylvanians, who emigrated to Ohio shortly after the close of he Revolutionary War, settling near Jamestown, where they bought a farm and spent the remainder of their lives, becoming recognized as among the leading pioneers of that section.  They were members of the United Presbyterian church and were active in promoting all good causes thereabout.  John Patterson was a son of John Patterson, a soldier in the patriot army during the War for Independence and a man of much force of character.  At the close of the war he, with his son, emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, settling on a farm near Jamestown, in Green county, where the rest of his life was spent.
     Thomas Patterson was reared on the paternal farm near Jamestown and upon reaching manhood began the manufacture of brick, using the sun-drying process, and operated  a large brick-yard on the edge of the city of Xenia.  In 1854 he came to this county, locating in Wilmington, where for a year he operated the old hotel, known as the Hale House, after which en engaged in the livery business, also being incidentally engaged in farming.  He married Rebecca Hummer, daughter of John and Eunice (Green) Hummer, pioneers of Greene county, this state, though both were born on Apple Pie ridge, Virginia.  John Hammer was a soldier in the War of 1812.  Thomas Patterson and his wife were members of the Baptist church, Mr. Patterson being one of the trustees of the church at Wilmington, and they were prominent in all good works in that community.
     To Thomas and Rebecca (Hummer) Patterson were born eight children, namely:  Nancy, who married C. P. Stryker and lives in Jamestown, Ohio; Abbie, who married Nathan Wood, and both are now deceased; Susan, deceased; John, deceased; Mary Jane, the immediate subject of this sketch, who married Abel Walker; Sarah, who married John Smith, and lives in Xenia, Ohio; Thomas, now deceased, who for years was a prominent resident of Washington C. H., Ohio; and Rebecca, who died unmarried.
     Mary Jane Patterson spent her girlhood in Xenia, receiving her early education in a select school.  When she was ten years of age, her parents came to this county, locating at Wilmington, where she continued her education in the public schools.  For several years she conducted a private school in Wilmington and during the Civil War period was the teacher of the school in district No. 11, in Union township.
     On Mar. 31, 1869, Mary Jane Patterson was united in marriage to Abel Walker, who was born near Wilmington, Ohio, on July 28, 1819, the son of Azel and Hannah (Jackson) Walker, natives of Frederick county, Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Walker emigrated to Ohio in 1803, first locating in Waynesville, where they remained until 1804 in which year they came to Clinton county, settling on a farm in Union township, on the Port William pike, two miles from Wilmington, where they bought a quarter section of land.  Azel Walker's brother, Mordecai, and two sisters settled in the same neighborhood at the same time, the Walkers becoming reckoned as among the most substantial and influential pioneers of that section of the county.  They were Hicksite Friends and ever were found on the side of moral progress.
     Azel and Hannah (Jackson) Walker were the parents of ten children, of whom Abel was the ninth born, the others being, in order of birth, William, Jackson, Louis, Joseph S., Rachel, Ruth, Elijah, Elizabeth Ann and Samuel.  Abel Walker received his early education in the little log school house near Wilmington and was reared to become a farmer.  When a young man, he bought a small farm of fifty acres and to this he gradually added, as prosperity attended his efforts, until he became the owner of a considerable farm, being recognized as one of the most substantial farmers of that part of the county.  Not only was he an enterprising and progressive farmer, but he took a warm interest in several other enterprises.  He was one of the founders and owners of a private bank, which was later merged into the Clinton County National Bank of Wilmington, which he helped organize and of which he as a director, his stock in that old financial institution still being retained by his widow.  Mr. Walker's death, on February 20, 1897, was widely mourned throughout the county, for he long had been regarded as one of its most able men.  He was a man of stanch integrity, sterling character and exemplary worth as a citizen; a true friend to his fellowmen, whose passing left a vacancy not only in his home, but in the hearts of many, which would not easily be filled.  He was a member of the Hicksite Friends church.  Mrs. Walker, her forefathers and her family were all life-long members of the Baptist church and in the building of their new church at Wilmington, she was one of the largest contributors and has always been an active worker in the church.
     To Abel and Mary Jane (Patterson) Walker were born five children, namely: Hannah Mary, who died at the age of seventeen years; Tacy Patterson, who married Dr. Austin Robinson, of Baltimore, Maryland; Sarah Hummer, who married Frank L. Miller, of Wilmington, this county; Louise Denver, who remains with her mother, and Elizabeth Jackson, who died in 1910.
     Mrs. Walker, though now journeying toward the sunset of her useful life - for she has passed the traditional three-score-and-ten-mark - retains the liveliest interest in current affairs and still is busily engaged in promoting such measures for the general good as may conveniently be given her personal attention.  She is honored and respected by all who know her and occupies a firm lace in the regard of the entire community.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  500

Mr. & Mrs.
Robert D. Wall		 ROBERT D. WALL

 

Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 744
  ALLEN M. WEST.  The great state of Ohio has been honored by the careers of its professional men, its industrial managers, its commercial magnates and especially by its farmers and stockmen.  In every section are to be found men born to leadership, men who have dominated because of their superior intelligence, natural endowment and force of character.  It is always profitable to present the salient facts in the lives of such men, seek out their ancestral origin, weigh their motives and examine their achievements.  These reflections are suggested by the career of Allen M. West, farmer, stockman and public-spirited man of affairs, of Cuba, Clinton county, Ohio.  No citizen in this part of Clinton county has achieved a more honorable position or occupied a more conspicuous place in public affairs than Allen M. West.  He owns and operates a large farm of three hundred acres near Cuba and is perhaps the largest individual live stock dealer in Clinton county, but he has always taken a commendable interest in public affairs, especially in educational development and to him, perhaps more than to any other man, is due the splendid school system which now prevails at Cuba.  He is related collaterally to the great Benjamin West, the artist who gained lasting fame, not only for himself and the West family but for his native land.
     Allen M. West was born on Oct. 1, 1869, in Washington township, near Cuba, and is the son of Allen L. and Martha J. (Maxfield) West, the former of whom was a native of Clark township, Clinton county, and the latter of whom was a native of Clermont county and the daughter of James Maxfield.  The paternal grandparents were James and Elizabeth West.
     About the year 1716 John W. West, who had married Sarah Pearson, came from England and settled in Pitts county, Pennsylvania, where they reared a family of seven children:  Joseph, Mary, William, Sarah, Samuel, Rachel and Benjamin.  Benjamin, the youngest child in this family, was an artist, whose work came to be well-known on two continents.  Joseph, the eldest child in the family, married Jane Owen, the daughter of John Owen.  To them were born nine children:  Isaac, Facy, Owen, John, Sarah, Joseph, Hannah, George and Benjamin.  About 1750 Owen West, the third child of the family, was born.  He married Elizabeth Martin and moved to Virginia from Pennsylvania and later from Virginia to Clinton county, Ohio.  Owen and Elizabeth (Martin) West had thirteen children:  Nancy, James, William, Mary, Susan, Owen, Thomas, James, Plyton, Elizabeth, Emily, Rebecca and John.  Of this family, James, the eighth child, whose wife was Elizabeth West, was the father of Allen L. West and the grandfather of Allen M.  The great-grandfather, Owen West and his wife, Elizabeth (Martin) West, came to Ohio from Virginia and located in the valley of the east fork of the Little Miami river, where they purchased nineteen hundred acres of government land all in Clinton county and nearly all in Clark township, where he and his wife died.  James West was a farmer, who remained on the old estate and added to his inheritance until he owned one thousand acres of the original nineteen hundred.  He and his wife died on the old home estate.  For nine years he was a justice of the peace in Clinton county.
     Allen L. West was educated in the common schools of Clark township and when a young man began farming in the township of his birth.  About 1865 he moved to Washington township, where he farmed the remainder of his life, owning, at the time of his death, three hundred acres of land in that township.  He was an extensive stock breeder.  To Allen L. and Martha J. (Maxfield) West were born nine children, of whom Allen M., the subject of this sketch, was the seventh.  The other children were Silas B., Susannah, Elizabeth, James, George, Jennie, Martha H. and Mary J.  The parents were members of the Methodist church and Allen L. West was a trustee in the church for many years.  He was a brother of Col. Owen West, farmer, manufacturer, inventor and soldier, of Clark township, and a distinguished citizen of this county.
     Born and reared in Washington township near Cuba, Allen M. West was educated in the schools of Cuba, Ohio.  When a young man, he began farming in Washington township.  After farming here for fifteen years or until September, 1903, he moved to Cuba, where he has since lived.  Mr. West owns two farms near Cuba, comprising three hundred acres, and oversees them personally.  For the last fifteen years he has dealt in hay, grain and live stock and is probably the most extensive individual stock buyer in the whole county.
     On Dec. 25, 1890, Allen M. West was married to Rhoda S. Biggs, the daughter of George and Ruth (Wright) Biggs.  She was born on June 4, 1865.  George Biggs, the son of William B. and Rhoda Biggs, was born in Washington township, Dec. 23, 1824, and reared on a farm.  After 1847 he was engaged in lumbering and, at this time, built the first steam saw-mill in Washington township, at Cuba.  He was married in January, 1849, to Ruth Wright, the daughter of Daniel and Teresa Wright, and they had seven children, three of whom died early in life.  At the time of his death, Mr. Biggs owned a farm of one hundred and five acres in Clinton county.
     Mr. and Mrs. Allen M. West are the parents of five children:  Hazel May, who is now a teacher of music and art in Wilmington high school and is a graduate of Miami University; Mabel Edna, who is a student at Miami University; Ruth Ellen, Alma Martha and Allen Biggs, all of whom are at home.
     Mr. and Mrs. West and family are members of the Christian church.  Mr. West is a Democrat and for sixteen years he has been a member of the school board.  He is possessed with a natural interest in education and deserves much credit for the high standard of the schools in this community.  Mr. West was township clerk for twelve years.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  442

Judge Edward J. West		 JUDGE EDWARD J. WEST.  The high standing of the West family in this country began several generations ago, when Thomas West, known as Lord Delaware, governor of Virginia, early in the seventeenth century, probably became the progenitor of the family in America.  Benjamin West, the great painter, is of the same stock.  Peyton West, grandfather of the subject of this review, surveyed the town of Westboro, which was named for him, while his son, the father of the Judge, was elected probate judge on the same ticket which elected Lincoln to the Presidency, and, as a delegate to the Republican national convention at Philadelphia in 1864, helped to renominate the martyred President.  With an ancestry such as this, it is not surprising that Edward J. West has attained a front rank among his fellow citizens.  Lawyer, publicist, judge, politician, lecturer and orator, Judge West's name and fame have extended beyond the confines of the state in which he lives.  As a politician of the higher type, he is known from one end of the state to the other; as a lyceum lecturer, he has addressed audiences in many states of the Union; and as a member of several national organizations, he has been the recipient of signal honors.
     Edward Joseph West, now judge of the common pleas court of Clinton county, was born on Dec. 8, 1851, at Blanchester, Clinton county, the son of Joseph H. and Henrietta (Stroud) West the former of whom was a native of this county, and the latter of whom was born in Williamstown, Grant county, Kentucky.
     The West family came originally from England, and settled on Fall creek, in Pittsylvania county, Virginia.  It was here that Owen West, great-grandfather of Judge West, married Mary Martin.  Of their children, Peyton West, grandfather of the subject, married Sarah Hadley, who was born near Guilford, North Carolina.  They were the parents of six boys and five girls.  Peyton West was among the ambitious men of the East, who migrated westward, settling in 1804 on a farm in Clark township, Clinton county Ohio, before the county was organized.  Here it was that Joseph H. West, the father of Judge West, was born.  Peyton West, besides being a surveyor, held public office, including that of county treasurer.  He died on his farm, three miles southeast of Martinsville, Ohio.
     The life of Joseph H. West, father of the subject, was as varied and full of public honor and service as the life of a man living in that stirring time could well be.  Born on Nov. 22, 1822, he was only twenty-six years of age when the Mexican War broke out.  Enlisting at New Orleans in 1846, he served until the close of that struggle, being mustered out in the same city in which he began service.  The war over, he returned to Cincinnati, Ohio, and from there went to Williamstown, Kentucky, to take charge of a store.  There he was married, on Sept. 19, 1850, to Henrietta Stroud.  Returning to Clinton county about 1851, he continued to live here until his death, which took place on Nov. 25, 1879.  In 1864 Joseph West had a part in national politics, as a delegate to the National convention that renominated Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency.  Four years prior to this, he was elected probated judge of Clinton county, was afterwards re-elected, and served six years.  Being admitted to the bar in 1854, he was in active practice all of the time he did not hold public office.  His widow is still living, making her home with her son, Edward J.
     In the maternal line, Judge West is descended from Southern stock, his mother's mother having been Harriet Vanlandingham who was born in Stafford county, Virginia, a descendant from the French Huguenots.  When she was a young girl, her parents moved to Fairfax county, Virginia, and thence to Grant county, Kentucky.  There she became the wife of Edward Stroud, who was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and their daughter, Henrietta, became the wife of Joseph H. West.  Of the nine children born to this union Edward J., is the eldest, the others being:  Clarence, now living in Los Angeles, California; George, Harriet and William H. are deceased; Benjamin, of Charleston, West Virginia; Mellville of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Alfred, deceased.
     Edward J. West received his education in the common schools of Wilmington and the high school, being compelled, on account of ill health, to leave school before graduation.  He then taught school for two years, his first teacher's certificate being dated Apr. 2, 1870.  During this period he lived at home, one and one-half miles west of town.  Meanwhile he had read law under his father's directions and he was admitted to the bar on Jan. 29, 1873, practicing thereafter with his father.
     With his election as prosecuting attorney in 1875, the official life of Edward J. West began.  When he went out of office, after serving twelve years, or five terms, he again resumed the law practice in January, 1889, which he continued until Apr. 6, 1906, when he was appointed by United States District Judge A. C. Thompson as referee in bankruptcy for Clinton county, resigning this office to assume the duties of judge of common pleas, a place to which he was appointed, on Sept. 4 1908, by Governor A. L. Harris, having been previously endorsed by a primary vote of his county.  Later, he was elected a fill a short term, and in November, 1910 was elected for the full term of six years.
     In 1896 Judge West was elected as delegate to the Republican national convention at St. Louis in 1896.  He is considered one of the best public speakers in the state and has done much effective work in this line for the Republican party.  He was formerly chairman of the Republican county central committee.
     On Jan. 3, 1878, Edward J. West married Katharine E. Bowshier, who has taken a keen interest in the career of her husband and has had her share in his success.  Katharine E. Bowshier is the daughter of Stephen E. Bowshier and was born on a farm in Pickaway county, Ohio.  The children born to Judge and Mrs. West were: Winnifred C., who passed away at the age of twenty-two years; and Kathleen C. wife of William M. Weller, of Cincinnati, Ohio, whose children are Katharine W. and Winnifred C., both born at Lynchburg, Virginia.  One of the interesting phases of the family life of this home is the devotion and tender care lavished on the Judge's mother, now eighty-two years of age.  By her gentle nature and loveable personality, this aged woman has won many friends, who brighten her declining years.
     Judge West is the type of man whose active mind must find many and varied channels of expression.  This he has sought in a number of organizations, some of which are national in their scope.  Among these is the National Geographic Society, of Washington, D. C., an organization which numbers among its members men and woman of the highest scholarship and attainment.  He also belongs to the Luther Burbank Society, another association which is broad in its scope and membership.  For several years the Judge has been actively affiliated with the International Lyceum Association, for which he occasionally lectures.  He is also a member of the Ohio State Bar Association.  He is a well-known speaker on fraternal and patriotic subjects, of which his favorite topic is the Grand Army of the Republic.  When a boy on the farm, Judge West joined the Patrons of Husbandry, or Grangers' Association, an organization in which he has been active ever since. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Junior Order of United American Mechanics, and the Royal Arcanum, being grand orator of the grand council of Ohio of the last-named order; Modern Woodmen of America and Daughters of Rebekah.
     Among the interests of Judge West's early childhood and young manhood was the church, and he is now an elder in the Presbyterian church, of which his wife, daughter and son-in-law are members.  The Judge formerly found time to be active in Sunday school work, having represented his home county in the state and national convention of that body.
     Life has been to Judge West a thing of deep interest and signal value.  Clear in his intuitions, true in his judgments, broad in his sympathies and kindly in his nature, his life has been far-reaching in its influence for good.  With every opportunity for self-aggrandizement, he chose rather to serve the common people and in so doing he has ever had their merited respect and esteem.  Clinton county has been dignified by his life  and achievements, and his influence in the civic and social life as well as in professional circles, has been of a most beneficent order.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  672

Edwin P. West		 PROF. EDWIN P. WEST.  Edwin P. West was born in Martinsville, Clark township, Clinton county, Ohio, Feb. 2, 1851.  He is the second son of James h. and Helena (Jackson) West.
     James H. West was a man of strong intelligence and fair education, first a teacher and then a farmer, distinguished for firmness of conviction and integrity of character.  His father, Peyton West, was a man of affairs in the early history of the county, was county surveyor from 1840 to 1846, county treasurer for a period, and had a large share in the larger land transactions of that period in his part of the county.  Peyton West had learned the surveyor's art from his father, Owen West, a cousin of Benjamin the artist, who had emigrated from eastern  Pennsylvania in to Pittsylvania county, Virginia, and thence to Ohio about 1806 and settled on the East fork of the Miami river a few miles southeast of Martinsville.  James H., when a boy of eighteen, was one of the chain carriers for his father when he surveyed Jefferson township in the winter of 1839.  James H. West died on June 28, 1903.
     Helena Jackson, mother of Professor West, was a daughter of Josiah and Ruth (Hiatt) Jackson, and was born near Martinsville on Oct. 4, 1825, and died on Oct. 19, 1864.  Josiah Jackson was a son of Jacob Jackson the first minister of Clark township, whose brother, John Jackson, was the first settler in Wayne township, this county, in 1802.  Another brother, Samuel Jackson built the first cabin in Jefferson township in 1812.  Samuel was a famous hunter in his day and was characterized as a second Daniel Boone.  He was a typical frontiersman and finally found his way to Cass county, Texas, where he died about a quarter of a century ago, at the age of one hundred years.  These brothers are said by Judge Harlan, in his excellent sketches of Clinton county history, to be probably first cousins and intimate friends of President Andrew Jackson, whose father in 1765 came from the same locality in north Ireland, as did their ancestor, Isaac Jackson, a few years earlier.  These brothers were sons of Samuel Jackson, a son of the aforesaid Isaac Jackson, who was a descendant of Ralph Jackson who was burned at the stake as a martyr at Stratford, England, in 1556.  Isaac's father and uncle, Anthony and Richard Jackson, had gone with Cromwell from England into Ireland, had become followers of George Fox, and founded the first Friends church in Ireland, with which Andrew's progenitors were evidently not affiliated.
     Professor West considers himself fortunate in having an ancestry, a childhood home and community in which education was accorded in supreme value.  Martinsville was noted for its educational spirit and the excellence of its schools before other communities of the county had achieved this distinction.  Milton Hollingsworth, of Richmond, Indiana; Amos Hockett, Professor Adams and his wife, from Oberlin College; Charles and Sattie Oren fresh from Antioch College and the inspiring influence of Horace Mann.  Thomas J. Moon and others established and fostered an educational regime there that made it unintellectual Mecca for able and ambitious young men and women of this and adjoining counties.
     Professor West received all his early education in those schools, and after completing the course there, attended the National Normal University at Lebanon, when its students numbered a thousand and more.  After teaching four terms in the rural schools of the county he entered Wilmington College during the presidency of Benjamin Trueblood, and was graduated in the class of 1878, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.  However, he ascribes his education more to a lifelong habit of reading the books of the world's intellectual masters in the lines of literature, history, science and philosophy.
     Probably no other person in the history of the county has served its educational interests for so long a period or aided more in the development and efficiency of its schools than has Professor West.  He began teaching in September, 1871, in the Nauvoo district, south of Clarksville, and has taught continuously since that time, with the omission of three years spent in Wilmington College.  He taught his second rural school at Beech Grove, two miles east of Martinsville, his third at Hale's Branch, near Westboro, and the fourth at Sharp's, south of Sabina.  In one of those schools the enrollment reached eighty-three, and in none did it fall below forty-eight.  He was superintendent of the Martinsville schools for seven years, including the entire township for one year, and was the first to establish a modern high school there.  He was superintendent at New Vienna for fourteen years, at Dayton, Kentucky, for four years and has had charge of the Wilmington schools for the past eleven years and has just been re-employed for three years more.
     The Wilmington schools now require twenty-eight teachers and enroll nine hundred pupils.  The high school has grown under his administration from about one hundred pupils to more than two hundred and is accredited by the North Central College Association of the United States and recently by Pennsylvania University.  Professor West has graduated more than five hundred young men and women and, so far as he knows, practically all have turned out to be useful and successful citizens.
     For a dozen years Professor West conducted summer schools for teachers, was many times president of the County Teachers' Association, taught and lectured in the annual institutes of Clinton and other counties, made numerous educational and some political addresses and was for some years and six months as a member of the Clinton county board of school examiners and was secretary for one year of the Ohio association of county and city examiners.  He was a member of the first school book board of Ohio, by appointment of Governor Campbell, who was his chairman, and although not a candidate, received the vote of his congressional district for state school commissioner, at one of the state conventions.  He is now a member of the Clinton County Teachers' Association, the Central Ohio Teachers' Association, the state and national associations.
     Professor West is a clear and forcible writer and an efficient public speaker and enjoys the confidence of his constituents and fellow workers in his city, county and state.  Professor West is a Republican.  He is a Mason, an Elk and a Knight of Pythias.  In church affiliation, he is a member of the society of Friends.
     On Apr. 17, 1884, Edwin P. West was married to Josephine Walker, daughter of W. W. and Mary Hackney Walker, of Martinsville, member of old and respected families of the county.  Mrs. West taught for three years before her marriage and two years after.  They have two daughters, Vivien and Mary, both born in New Vienna, Vivien on Aug. 25, 1887, and Mary on Mar. 20, 1890.
     Vivien, after graduating from the Dayton, Kentucky, high school, attended Cincinnati University for a year and is a graduate of the Oxford College for Women in the class of 1907.  In 1911 she was married to Floyd C. Williams, a son of Captain Williams, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and a graduate of Miami University.  They have one son, William West Williams, who was born on Apr. 23, 1913.  They reside in Hyde Park, a beautiful suburb of Cincinnati, in which city Mr. Williams is engaged in the practice of law.
     Mary, the youngest daughter, is a graduate of the Wilmington high school.  Wilmington College and of Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, the largest and one of the best girls' schools in the world, graduating form last named institution in the class of 1910, soon after her twentieth birthday.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  404
  EMERSON B. WEST.  Emerson B. West, a well-known farmer of Green township, this county, was born in Clinton county, June 16, 1861, a son of George and Matilda A. (Radcliffe) West, the former of whom was born in Clinton county on Apr. 10, 1815, and the latter, in Highland county, Aug. 18, 1828.
     The paternal grandparents of Mr. West were Henry and Nancy (Terrell) West, both natives of Virginia, and pioneers in Clinton county, where both spent the most of their lives, their last days having been spent in Clark township.  Mr. West's maternal grandparents were John and Elizabeth (Garner) Radcliffe, early settlers in Highland county, Ohio, who located in that county when Mrs. George West, the mother of Emerson B., was an infant six months old.  Mrs. West's mother had come to Clinton county with her parents.  James Garner and wife, who had previously lived in North Carolina.  In 1811 they left that state and settled near Snow Hill, in this county.
     The late George West was a carpenter by trade, but owned a farm of one hundred and fourteen acres, including that where his son, Emerson B., now lives.  He died on this farm, Oct. 21, 1888, and his widow survived him a few years, her death occurring on Oct. 30, 1892.  He had been an adherent of the Republican party, but during the later years of his life had become independent in his political views.  Of the five children born to George and Matilda West, three - Sarah Elizabeth, Mary Jane and Stella May, are deceased.  The living children are Emerson B. and Florence Emma.  George West had been previously married to Samantha McMain, and to that union there were born three children, two of whom died in infancy, Hortense and an infant son.  The third child was a daughter, Annetta.
     Emerson B. West spent his boyhood days on the old homestead farm.  He attended the farm.  After leaving school he took up farming on the old home place and there he has lived ever since.  Mr. West and his only living sister, Florence, make their home on the old farm.  They opened their home to a twelve year old child from the children's home, Bessie Kidd, whom they have reared to womanhood.
     Mr. West has an excellent farm of ninety-two acres where he lives, and where he carries on a general system of farming and stock raising.  He is a Republican in politics, and while living in Clark township, served as trustee of that township for four years.  Fraternally, he is a member of Martinsville Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  881
  J. FRANK WEST.  Clinton county has been fortunate in the character of her farmers and much of the material prosperity of the county can be attributed to the fact that the farmers have kept abreast of the times.  The farmers are an index to the civilization of any community and if they are progressive and up-to-date, it follows that the standard of living in the community will be high.  The business men of the towns are drawing the men from the country and everywhere it is noticed that men rising to prominence in the various activities of life were born and reared on the farm.  Clinton county has long been known as one of the best farming counties of the state and its excellent farmers have been one of the big factors in the material advancement of the county.  Among the excellence farmers of Clinton county is J. Frank West, the scion of an old and distinguished family of this county.
     J. Frank West was born on Aug. 1, 1852, in Clark township, Clinton county, Ohio, the son of James M. and Amy (Chaney) West, the former a native of Clark township and the latter a native of Highland county, having been born near Dunns chapel.
     The paternal grandparents of Mr. West were James and Elizabeth (Leggett) West, the former of whom was  a native of eastern Virginia, who came to Ohio very early in life.  His maternal grandparents were Joseph and Sarah (Richner) Chaney; the former of whom was a native of Maryland, born near Hagerstown in 1777, who came to Highland county, Ohio, early in life, and died there on Apr. 18, 1862, and the latter was a native of Pennsylvania, born near Philadelphia in Mar. 1785, and died on Oct. 31, 1859, in Highland county, Ohio.
     Among the celebrated men whom the West family of America has given to this country and to the world is the celebrated artist, Benjamin West.  Reverting o the earlier ancestry,  it may be said that about 1716 John W. West, who had married Sarah Pearson, came from England and settled in Pitts county, Pennsylvania.  They had seven children, Joseph, Mary, William, Sarah, Samuel, Rachel and Benjamin.  Benjamin, the youngest child in this family, was the first great American artist and his work came to be known not only in America, but in the fashionable salons of Europe.  Joseph, the eldest child in this family, married Jane Owen, the daughter of John Owen, and they had nine children, Isaac, Facy, Owen, John, Sarah, Joseph, Hannah, George and Benjamin.  Owen West, the third child of the above family, was born about 1750.  He married Elizabeth Martin and they moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia, and later from Virginia to Clinton county, Ohio.  He and his wife had thirteen children, Nancy, Jane, William, Mary, Susan, Owen, Thomas, James, Payton, Elizabeth, Emily, Rebecca and John.  James, is the eighth child in this family, married Elizabeth Leggett and they were the paternal grandparents of J. Frank West.
     James M. West, the father of J. Frank, was educated in an old log cabin school house, the frame of which is now a part of the garage on the farm of J. Frank West.  He became a farmer on land adjoining that now owned by his son and owned altogether about eight hundred acres.  His family were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.  To James M. and Amy West were born nine children, among whom were five sons.
     Educated in the public schools of Clinton county, J. Frank West engaged in farming in Clark township upon attaining his majority.  He owns two hundred acres of land and, for the past twenty-six years, has lived where he now resides.  With the exception of those house, Mr. West has erected all of the buildings now standing on his farm.
     On Oct. 4, 1883, J. Frank West was married to Elva Leaf, who was born on Mar. 6, 1859, a native of Clinton county, and the daughter of John T. and Belinda (Dumford) Leaf.  They have been the parents of three children:  Carl J., who is an instructor in mathematics in Ohio State University; Grace B., who is now a post-graduate student in Ohio State University; and Howard R., who is a student in the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Arts.
     Mr. and Mrs. West and family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Not only are they prominent in the church, but they are prominent in the social life of this township and are highly-respected citizens.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  635

Owen A. West, M.D.		 OWEN A. WEST, M. D.  Clinton county has every reason to be proud of her medical men and on the roll of honored names which indicates the service of distinguished citizens in this profession there should be mentioned Dr. Owen A. West, who is descended from distinguished ancestry and who has long been regarded as one of the leading physicians in this section of Clinton county.  Early in life he realized that there is no honor that is not founded on worth and no respect which is not founded on accomplishment.  His life and labors have been eminently worthy because they have contributed to a proper understanding of life and its problems.
     Owen A. West was born on May 10 1864, in Martinsville, Clinton county, Ohio, and is the son of Col. Owen and Elizabeth (Roberts) West, the former of whom, a farmer, miller, business man and inventor, was born in Clark township, Mar. 4, 1835, the son of James and Elizabeth West.  Col. Owen West was reared on his father's farm, educated in the Martinsville schools and Ohio Wesleyan University.  He was a teacher for twelve years and during the rebellion, aided in organizing the home guards at Cincinnati.  In 1863 he was chosen their major-general and in the early part of 1864 was given the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the One Hundred and Forty-ninth Regimental Battalion of the Ohio National Guards.  He had commanded them while at Fort Federal Hill and Baltimore, Maryland, and in the battle of Monocacy, Sept, 1864, he, with his regiment were honorably discharged for the valuable services they had so efficiently rendered in defense of the flag.  Colonel West was married to Elizabeth Roberts, Sept. 20, 1855.  She was a daughter of James and Hannah E. Roberts and a native of Washington township, born on Dec. 23, 1835.  She died at the age of forty-six years.  They had ten children:  Margaret, James W., Anna M., Owen A., Hannah E., Amos F., Charles H., Laura E., Mary E. and Benjamin.  Mrs. West died on Feb. 1, 1879.  Colonel West is a member of the Methodist church, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Masonic fraternity and the Republican party.
     The West family in America dates from some time before the year 1716.  Before that time John W. West, who had married Sarah Pearson, came from England and settled in Pitts county, Pennsylvania.  They had seven children:  Joseph, Mary, William, Sarah, Samuel, Rachel and Benjamin.  Benjamin West, the youngest of this family, became an artist with international fame and today is considered one of the foremost artists ever produced by this country.  Of this family, Joseph, the eldest, married Jane Owen, the daughter of John Owen, and they had nine children:  Isaac, Facy, Owen, John, Sarah, Joseph, Hannah, George and Benjamin  They moved to Virginia and from Virginia to Clinton county, Ohio.  He and his wife had thirteen children: Nancy, Jane, William, Mary, Susan, Owen, Thomas, James, Plyton, Elizabeth, Emilia, Rebecca and John.  Owen West, the father of these children, brought his family to Ohio and located in the valley of the East fork of the Little Miami, where he purchased nineteen hundred acres of government land, all in Clinton county, and nearly all in Clark township.  There he and his wife died.  James West, who was the eighth child in his family, was a farmer during his life and remained on the old estate, adding to his inheritance until he owned one thousand acres of the original nineteen hundred.  He and his wife died on the old home place.  For nine years he was justice of the peace.  His wife was Elizabeth West and they were the parents of Col. Owen West, the father of Dr. Owen A., of Sabina.
     Owen A. West was educated in the public schools of Blanchester, Ohio, and was graduated from the Blanchester high school.  After finishing his practical education, he engaged in managing a general store at Lynchburg for two years.  In 1888 he sold out the business and entered the Bellevue Medical College at New York City.  After being there two terms, he entered the Eclectic Medical College at Cincinnati and was graduated there in 1891.  After his graduation he located at Leesburg, in Highland county.  After being at Leesburg for two years, he came to Sabina and took up the practice of Dr. A. J. Gaskins.
     Doctor West owns the Clinton Manufacturing Company and was one of the organizers of the National Bank at Sabina and was a director for three years.  The Clinton Manufacturing Company is a thriving business which manufactures barrel pumps.
     Doctor West  was married in September, 1901, to Mabel Sanderson, the daughter of Frank and Frances (West) Sanderson.  Doctor and Mrs. West have had no children.
     The Wests are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Doctor West is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Modern Woodmen of America, and he is also identified with the Republican party.  He is a member of the Ohio State Medical Association and the American Medical Association.  In 1910 he built an office and house combined and has one of the most thoroughly equipped physician's offices and laboratories to be found in Sabina.  His practice has grown from year to year and today he is regarded as one of the most popular men in the community.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  520

Col. Owen West		 COL. OWEN WEST.  Among those men of sterling attributes of character, who have impressed their personality upon the community life of Clinton county and who have borne their full share in the agricultural, industrial, commercial and financial development of this great county, few men have had a larger part than Col. Owen West, of Lynchburg.  He has exerted a strong influence for good on the entire county and is a man of upright principles, one who has always desired the advancement of the community along moral, educational and material lines.  He is the inventor and manufacturer of the West tile ditching machine and in years past has invented useful fences and gates.  In addition to all of his other activities, he has been an extensive contractor and builder and was one of the organizers and is still president of the Lynchburg Exchange Bank.
     Col. Owen West was born on Mar. 4, 1835, in Clark township, the son of James and Elizabeth West.  In the veins of this family flows the warm and ardent blood of artistic temperament which gave to the world the celebrated artist, Benjamin West, who gained an international fame in his day and generation.
     Before the year 1716, John W. West, who had married Sarah Pearson, came from England and settled in Pitts county, Pennsylvania.  They had seven children:  Joseph, Mary, William, Sarah, Samuel, Rachel and Benjamin.  Benjamin, the youngest child of this family, was an artist heretofore referred to, whose work was well known on two continents.  Joseph, the eldest, married Jane Owen, the daughter of John Owen, and they had nine children: Isaac, Tacy, Owen, John, Sarah, Joseph, Hannah, George and Benjamin.  About 1750, Owen West, the third child of this family, and the nephew of the celebrated Benjamin West, was born.  He married Elizabeth Martin and moved from Pennsylvania to Virginia and later from Virginia to Clinton county, Ohio.  He and his wife had thirteen children:  Nancy, Jane, William, Mary, Susan, Owen, Thomas, James, Payton, Elizabeth, Amelia, Rebecca and John.  Of this family, James, the eight child, whose wife was Elizabeth West, was the father of Col. Owen West.  The grandfather, Owen West, came to Ohio from Virginia and located in the valley of the East fork of Little Miami river, where he purchased nineteen hundred acres of government land, all in Clinton county and nearly all in Clark township, where he and his wife died.  James West, their son, was a farmer during his life and remained on the old estate, adding to his inheritance until he owned one thousand acres of the original nineteen hundred.  He and his wife died on the old home estate.  For nine years he was a justice of the peace in this county.
     Col. Owen West, farmer, manufacturer, inventor and soldier, was reared to manhood on his father's farm and educated in the Martinsville schools and at Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware.  For twelve consecutive years, with the exception of two years in which he was engaged in the mercantile business at Morrisville, he was engaged in teaching.  During the War of the Rebellion he assisted in the organization of the Cincinnati Home Guards, and in 1863 he was chosen their major-general.  In the early part of 1864, he was given the rank of lieutenant-colonel of the One Hundred and Forty-ninth Regimental Battalion of Ohio National Guards.  He had commanded them for one year while at Fort Federal Hill and Baltimore, Maryland, and in the battle of Monocacy, in September, 1864, he and his regiment were honorably discharged for valuable services rendered to their country.
     At the close of his military services, Col. West returned home and resumed farming and lumbering.  For some time he owned and operated two saw-mills, each with a capacity of five thousand feet a day.  In 1914, after five years' labor, he placed on the market the West tile ditching machine of his own invention.  He manufactures this machine at his factory on his farm just out of Lynchburg.  The company is incorporated as the West Tile Ditching Machine Company.  Some years ago he also invented a fence and a gate which were successes in their day.  He operates three hundred acres of land which he has reclaimed by dikes and which includes considerable bottom land.  Colonel West has also been a contractor and builder and there are many buildings standing now in Lynchburg and vicinity which he erected.  He has also operated a brick and tile plant on his farm and is the present president of the Lynchburg Exchange Bank.
     On Sept. 20, 1855, Colonel West was married to Elizabeth A. Roberts, the daughter of James and Hannah E. Roberts, a native of Washington township, who was born on Dec. 23, 1835.  Nine children were born to this union: Margaret, James W., Anna M., Owen A., Hannah E., Amos F., Charles H., Laura E. (deceased), and Mary I. (deceased). Margaret married Rev. McLean Simington; Owen A. is a physician at Sabina, Ohio; Laura E. and Mary I. are deceased.  Mrs. West passed away on Feb. 1, 1879.
     Colonel West is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Fraternally, he is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  He is a stalwart adherent of the principles of the Republican party and supports its candidates.
     Colonel West married, secondly, Sept. 19, 1882, Frances Alta Kelly, daughter of Rollin and Sarah Kelly who are natives of Highland county, Ohio.  To this second marriage the following children were born:  Martha, who lives at home; George, who operates the home farm; Sylvia, a teacher at Lynchburg, Highland county, Ohio; Frances, deceased; Manetta, deceased, and Benjamin, who lives at home.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  632

Owen A. West, M.D.		 OWEN A. WEST, M. D.

 

Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 520

 
  ALLEN C. WHINERY.  Allen C. Whinery, farmer and landowner of Liberty township, Clinton county, Ohio, is descended from Joseph Whinery, who was one of the first white children born in Clinton county after its organization.  The county was organized on Feb. 19, 1810, and on Apr. 20, 1810, Joseph Whinery, the father of Allen C., and was the second in the family, was born.  His parents were Thomas and Ruth (Miller) Whinery, both natives of York county, Pennsylvania, the former having been born on Oct. 5, 1779, the latter having been about seven years his junior.  They lived in York county, Pennsylvania, during their early life, and is 1808 emigrated from Pennsylvania to Clinton county, Ohio.  At the time they had one child, Phebe, who had been born in Pennsylvania.  She died at the age of seven years from eating what was supposed to be poison-vine buds.  The family settled within what are ow the present limits of Union township, near the Center meeting house, where in time he owned one hundred and seventy acres of land.  He was one of the hardy pioneers and adventurous settlers of this region, to whose calm endurance must be attributed the progress, growth, development and present prosperity of Clinton county.
     In 1837, Ruth (Miller) Whinery died of consumption.  She was the mother of ten children, of whom eight were living at the time of her death.  Only two, however, remained at home at the time.  Thomas Whinery was married, secondly, to Mrs. Charlotte Hoddie, the widow of John Hoddie.  Thomas Whinery died in 1856.  Mrs. Charlotte Whinery lived to be more than seventy-five years old.
     Joseph Whinery, father of Allen C., was reared in a log cabin amidst the wilds of nature.  He enjoyed the average educational facilities of his day and generation.  His first teacher was Robert Way, who taught a few pupils in a log hut in the neighborhood.  He owned two hundred and seventy acres of land in Liberty township, and was a prominent member of the Quaker church.  He was also prominent in the "underground railway" movement before the Civil War and his house was a station.  In 1827 he was employed in driving a drove off cattle from Clinton county to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  The journey was made on foot and took eleven weeks.
     On May 23, 1833, when Joseph Whinery was twenty-three years old, he was married to Sarah Hiatt, daughter of Hezekiah and Anne (Perkins) Hiatt, who were farmers in Clinton county and prominent members of the Quaker church.  She was born on Apr. 7, 1811, in Union township, and was the eldest child born to her parents.  The others were Isaac, Allen, Mary, Susan, Lydia, Narcessa, Phenia and Amos.
     At one time the late Joseph Whinery served as trustee in this county and occupied other positions of trust and responsibility.  He died in June, 1892, and his wife in December, 1899.  They had five children, Thomas, Ann, Ruth, Allen C. and Susan L. all of whom are deceased except Allen C., the subject of this sketch.  Thomas, the first born, was the only one of the children, except Allen C., that ever married.  He married Lucinda Conklin, and they had four children Susan T., Joseph B., Frank C. and Charles D.
     Allen C. Whinery was born in Liberty township on Dec. 14, 1846, and was educated in the district schools and reared on the farm.  He was married on Nov. 17, 1868, to Louisa Haynes, the daughter of Allen and Amy (Guckley) Haynes, who were farmers in Clinton county and members of the Methodist church.
     Mr. and Mrs. Whinery had one child, Anna, married Charles H. Oren, who died on June 16, 1898, leaving two children, Frank C. and Ruth Amy.  Mrs. Oren, since the  death of her husband, has lived with her parents.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  529
  LEWIS E. WHINERY.  It seems fair to judge the status of an individual in a community by the estimation in which he is held by his neighbors and fellow townsmen.  They see him at his work, in his family circle, in his church at his devotion, hear his views on public questions and witness how he conducts himself in all the relations of life.  They are therefore competent to judge his merits and demerits.  Lewis E. Whinery, the cashier of the National Bank of Sabina, is a life-long resident of Clinton county.  The people have had an opportunity to learn what manner of man he is.  The responsible position which he holds is important evidence with regard to his standing as a business man and citizen.
     Lewis E. Whinery was born at Morrisville, this county, on Oct. 26, 1873, the son of Warren F. and Mary E. (Hunt) Whinery, the former of whom was born in 1837 in Cass county, Michigan, and died in 1863, and the latter of whom was born in this county, the daughter of Jacob Hunt.  Warren F. Whiner' father, John V. Whinery, was married three times.  During the early part of his life he taught school and later he became a merchant at Morrisville, and still later a successful farmer.
     The late Warren F. Whinery had little opportunity to obtain an education, but supplemented the brief period which he spent in the public schools with home study and became a well-informed man.  He came to Clinton county, Ohio, about 1852, when he was only fifteen years old.  A little later he began teaching school and taught school off and on all his life in Clinton county.  He was also a registered pharmacist at Sabina and postmaster of the town at the time of his death.  Warren F. and Mary E. (Hunt) Whinery were the parents of three children, Eva, Lena L., and Lewis E., the subject of this sketch.
     Warren F. Whinery was a valiant solder in the Civil War, having served about a year as a first-lieutenant of Company D, One Hundred and Eighty-eighth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and after the close of the was was a prominent member on the Grand Army of the Republic.  Politically, he was a Republican was served as township assessor for several years.  He was also corporation clerk of Sabina and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
     Lewis E. Whinery was educated in the public schools of Sabina, this county, and was graduated from the high school with the class of 1892, after which he attended a business college at Oswego, New York, for one year, and upon his return from business college and accepted a position with a canning factory at Sabina, later being employed by W. H. Stanage & Company, of Cincinnati.  Upon returning to Sabina from Cincinnati he became a partner of S. W. Doan in the clothing business and did business for three years under the firm name of Doan & Whinery.  Mr. Whinery was assistant postmaster of Sabina, under W. B. Woodmansee, for three or four years, after which he was employed by the Sabina bank for four years.  From the Sabina bank he went to Cedarville, Ohio, as assistant cashier of the Exchange Bank of that place, and upon the organization of the First National Bank of Sabina on Nov. 1, 1906, became its cashier, a position which he has held ever since.  Mr. Whinery is also a director in the Sabina Building and Loan Company.
     On June 6, 1900, Lewis E. Whinery was married to Winona Harris, the daughter of George W. and Rose Harris, to which union one child has been born, a daughter, Rose Elizabeth, born in 1908.
     Fraternally, Mr. Whinery is a member of the blue lodge of Masons at Sabina and of chapter of that order at Wilmington.  He is likewise a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  Mr. and Mrs. Whinery are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and he is a Republican.
     The First National Bank of Sabina has enjoyed a most satisfactory growth since its organization in 1906, and no man has had more to do with its growth than its cashier, Lewis E. Whinery, a man in whom the public places unqualified confidence and who is popular with the other officers, directors, stockholders and patrons of the bank.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  499
  LEWIS P. WHINERY.   Lewis P. Whinery, a native of Clark township, Clinton county, and a farmer by occupation, was born on the farm where he lives, Mar. 1, 18154.  He is a son of John V. and Nancy (Shields) Whinery, the latter of whom was a daughter of George and Ann (McDaniel) Shields.  George and Ann (McDaniel) Shields.  George Shields was a native of Virginia, and he and his wife were the parents of six children, Ann, Jane, Nancy, Harriett, Rebecca and John.
     Mr. Whinery's maternal grandparents, George Shields and wife, came to Clinton county, Ohio, from the Old Dominion among the first families to settle here and located near Clarksville.  They owned land near that village, but subsequently removed to the farm now owned by Lewis P. Whinery, their grandson, near Morrisville.  George Shields was the owner of over five hundred acres of land, all of which was covered with virgin forest.  Much of this land he cleared, and upon this farm he lived until his death.
     John V. Whinery, the father of Lewis P. Whinery, was married three times, the subject of this review being a son of the third marriage.  He was a school teacher, merchant and farmer, and at one time conducted a general store in Morrisville.  He died on the farm where his son, Lewis P., now lives.  He was a director of the Clinton county infirmary, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. By his third marriage there were three children.
     Lewis P. Whinery received his elementary education in the common schools of Clinton county, Ohio, and also attended the high school at Martinsville, under the preceptorship of Prof. Thomas J. Moon.  After finishing school he took up farming on the old home place and has always lived there.  He owns eighty-five acres of land in Clark township.
     On Feb. 22, 1883, Mr. Whinery was married to Clora Peale, a native of Highland county, Ohio, and a daughter of Alexander Peale.  To this union has been born one daughter, Verna.  Mr. Whinery and his daughter are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, while Mrs. Whinery is identified with the Christian church.  Mr. Whinery is a member of the Free and accepted Masons at Martinsville, Ohio.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  447

Dr. Alfred J. Williams		 ALFRED J. WILLIAMS.   In the wonderful progress humanity has been making alone so many scientific lines in recent years, no more significant step has been taken in any direction than that which marks the improvement in the methods of caring for the physical ailments of mankind.  All "schools" of medicine have been effected by the irresistible demand of humanity for something that will actually touch at the roots of disease and provide correctives for the manifold bodily sufferings of humanity.  In all of these "schools" there no doubt has been marked advance, due to this insistent demand, but in the field so rapidly being filled by the progressive school of osteopathy, there has been an advance in the list few years that has been remarkable and which is being taken note of by thoughtful persons everywhere.
     Among the practicing osteopathic physicians of Ohio, there is none who enjoys a better reputation for keeping abreast of all the latest knowledge which the unceasing research of science daily is bringing to light relating to the treatment of humanity's ailments, than Dr. Alfred J. Williams, who, since March, 1900, has been very successfully engaged in practice at Wilmington, this county, where he has well-equipped offices.  During the time Doctor Williams has been located in  Wilmington he has made many warm friends, not only in the county seat, but in all parts of Clinton county, where the practice of his profession has culled him.  He undoubtedly has succeeded in proving to even the most doubting ones, who, not very many years ago, were inclined to look askance at the claims set up by the osteopathic school of treating human ills, the actual and unmistakable benefits growing out of the methods of this school of practice. 
     Alfred J. Williams was born in Gallia county. Ohio, on Jan. 7, 1853, son of William and Lucinda (Allison) Williams, the former of whom was born in Greenbriar county, Virginia, and the latter of whom was born in Gallia county, this state.
     William Williams was the son of William and Mary (Watts) Williams, the former of whom was a Virginian, a native of Fairfax county, Virginia and later moved to Greenbriar county, and the latter of whom was born in Maryland, who emigrated from Virginia to Ohio when William, Jr., was eight years of age, settling in Gallia county.  The elder William Williams was a soldier in the Continental army during the War of Independence serving for a period of eighteen months in that historic struggle, for which service he never received a penny in payment.  He was an earnest Methodist and lived to be seventy-eight years of age.  The younger William Williams, father of the immediate subject of this biographical narrative, was reared on the paternal farm in Gallia county and before a personage of much prominence in his community, being a man of large influence therein.  He was one of the leaders of the Republican party in that neighborhood after the formation of that party and served his community ably as a justice of the peace for many years.  He was united in marriage to Lucinda Allison, daughter of John and Rebecca (Carter) Allison, natives of Ohio, and pioneer farmers of Gallia county, the former of whom was a soldier in the American army during the War of 1812, and to this union were born seven children, namely:  John H., deceased; James K., deceased; William Harvey, deceased; David Y., a prominent fruit grower living at Redlands, California; Dr. Alfred J., the subject of this sketch; Salathiel W. a well-known physician, living in Gallia county, Ohio, and Rebecca Harriet, deceased.
     Alfred J. Williams received his preliminary education in the public schools of his native county, which he supplemented by a course in the National Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio, after which for two years he taught school in Gallia county, at the end of which time he moved to Livonia, Putnam county, Missouri, where for four years he was engaged in teaching.  During this term of service he made many friends in that section and was elected clerk of Putnam county on the Republican ticket, giving such excellent service in that office that he was re-elected for a second term, serving eight years in that capacity, after which, for five years, he served as deputy clerk in the office of his successor.  His mind then turning in the direction of further professional occupation he entered the American School of Osteopathy at Kirksville, Missouri; following a course of instruction at this institution, he practiced for one year at Wellsville, Missouri, and in 1900 came to this county, locating at Wilmington, where he ever since has been successfully engaged in the practice of his chosen profession.
     On Apr. 9, 1876, Dr. Alfred J. Williams was united in marriage to Eliza E. Minier, who was born in Schuyler county, Missouri, daughter of the Rev. Alpheus and Margaret J. (Brown) Minear, the former of whom was a minister of the United Brethren church, and both of whom are now dead.  To this union five children have been born, as follows:  Dr. William E., a practicing osteopathic physician, of Massilon, Ohio; Dove, who married J. A. Campbell and lives at Akron, Ohio; Lucille, who married G. A. Steen and also lives at Akron; Dale, who married Z. Underwood and died at the age of twenty-three years, and Cleta, who remains with her parents.
     Doctor and Mrs. Williams are members of the Methodist church and their children were reared in this faith, to which they also gave their active adherence.  Doctor Williams is a Mason and is a member of the American Osteopathic Association and the Ohio Osteopathic Society, in the deliberations of both of which organizations he takes an active part.  Doctor Williams is entitled to all the commendation which has been bestowed upon him by the people of Wilmington and surrounding country, since taking up his residence in Clinton county's capital.  He has made a fine reputation in the practice of his chosen profession, and his earnestness and painstaking efforts to apply the practical proofs of the osteopath's principles, are doing very much to make that school of treatment really popular in the community in which his influence is being so widely manifested.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  440
  FRANCIS R. WILLIAMS.  Francis R. Williams, an enterprising young farmer of Chester township, Clinton county, Ohio, who was born on Aug. 5, 1884 in this township, is a son of Richard and Hannah (Davis) Williams, the former of whom was a native of Monouthshire, England, born on July 6, 1838, and died on Mar. 20, 1905, and the latter survived her husband and now lives at 421 North High street, Wilmington, Ohio.
     The paternal grandfather of Francis R. Williams was William Williams, a native of Newport, England, born in 1795, and who died in 1877.  He married Sarah Lewis, a native of Monmouthshire, England, and, after immigrating to America, they moved to Ohio in pioneer times and purchased two hundred and twenty-six acres of land near Oakland.  They had seven children, of whom Richard, the father of Francis R., was the sixth.  The others were, John, William Edward (who died in infancy), James Edward, and Thomas.  Mr. Williams spent four years in Hamilton county, Ohio, before coming to Clinton county.  During his life he was a devout member of the Baptist church.
     Richard Williams was a mere lad when his parents emigrated from England, in 1849, and settled at Sharonville, in Hamilton county, Ohio.  In 1853 they moved to Oakland, Clinton county, Ohio, and purchased a farm, where he grew to maturity.  He and his eldest brother, John, remained on the home farm.  He and his brother John owned the entire farm of two hundred and ninety-four acres, where he lived until his death.
     During the Civil War, Richard Williams was a member of the Union navy, and, for about one year, was on one of the monitors and participated in the river campaigns.  He was a Republican and served as school director for a number of years.  No man was fonder of his home than Richard Williams nor more devoted to the interests of his church.  The family were connected with the Jonas Run Baptist church and were regular attendants and substantial contributors to the support of the church.
     On Oct. 29, 1881, Richard Williams was married to Hannah Davis, a native of Monmouthshire, England, born in the town of Pontypool, and the daughter of Francis and Hannah (Roberts) Davis, who came from England to Iowa and settled in Agency City, in Wapello county.  There they operated a flour- and woolen-mill until 1872, when they returned to England.  He died there in 1892.  His wife later returned to the United States on a visit and was living with Mrs. Richard Williams at Oakland, Ohio, where she died, Dec. 31, 1897.  Mr. and Mrs. Richard Williams were married in England where the former had gone for his bride in 1881.  After their marriage they came back to the United States.  Richard and Hannah (Davis) Williams had four children:  An infant, deceased; Francis R., the subject of this sketch; Edith, who lives with her mother in Wilmington, and John W., deceased.  The family built a comfortable home at 421 High street, where the mother and daughter now live.
     Francis R. Williams received his education in the common schools of Chester township and later became a student at Wilmington College, where he spent about two years.  After his father's death, he took up farming and managed the home farm for four years and then moved to Union township, where he remained for three years.  He returned to Oakland and then moved to Union township, where he remained for three years.  He returned to Oakland and now superintends four hundred and thirty acres of land.
     On Aug. 8, 1906, Francis R. Williams was married to Bessie Cummins, the daughter of Jesse L. and Nora (Wright) Cummins.  They are the parents of two children:  Arlene C. and Ernest J., born on Sept. 4, 1910.
     Mr. and Mrs. Williams are members of the First Baptist church at Wilmington.  Mr. Williams is a Republican.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 683
  FRED G. WILLIAMS, D. D. S.  Among the professional men of Wilmington, this county, few occupy a higher position in society, or in the ranks of the professions with which they are connected than the gentleman whose name the reader notes above. Born in this county, Doctor Williams has spent the greater part of his life here and has attained high rank in the difficult profession to which he has applied himself with such conscientious devotion. Of recent years there has been a wonderful advancement in the science of dental surgery, modern research having revealed many things to emphasize the importance of the proper preservation of the teeth, in consequence of which the public has been giving a degree of attention to dentistry that a generation ago hardly would have been thought of. This has meant the most studious attention on the part of the dental surgeons to keep pace with the rapid progress of modern science, and those who thus have kept pace have become the leaders of their profession in their several communities. Without any violation of the strict code of ethics binding the men connected with the healing and restorative professions, it very properly may be. said in this connection that Doctor Williams is included among those who have kept .fully abreast of the wonderful advances recently made in his chosen calling and is thus counted among the leaders in his profession in this part of the state, his extensive practice being regarded as conclusive of this.
     Fred G. Williams was born in Blanchester, in Marion township. Clinton county, Ohio, on August 9, 1870, the only child and son of Judge Ambrose N. and Martha E. (Ball) Williams, the former of whom was born in Perry township, Brown county, Ohio, on October 13, 1842, and died at his home in Wilmington, this county, on July 7, 1896, and the latter of whom was born at Pomeroy, this state, on August 13, 1844, and is still living in Wilmington.
     Ambrose N. Williams was the son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Robinson) Williams, both natives of Harper, Pennsylvania. Samuel Williams was a noted school teacher In his day. In 1837 he came to Ohio, locating in Brown county, where, for seven years, he taught school with much success, his useful career being cut short by death in 1844. His widow married, secondly, John Frazee, who located in Blanchester, this county, where for many years he served as justice of the peace. Both John Frazee and his wife were Baptists and were influential citizens of the Blanchester neighborhood. It was there that Ambrose Williams was reared and received his early education, learning the painting trade in his youth. In 1861, when nineteen years of age, he enlisted in the Union army for service in the Civil War, serving as first sergeant of Company C, Seventy-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was with the army until mustered out at the close of the war, seeing much active service. Sergeant Williams was with Sherman's army on the celebrated march to the sea and participated in many desperate engagements, his regiment having been in the very thick of some of the hardest-fought battles of the war.
     At the close of the war, Sergt. Ambrose N. Williams returned to Blanchester, resuming the peaceful occupation of painting for a time, and in 1867 began the study of law in the office of Judge Doan. Under this admirable old preceptor he made such excellent progress that he presently was admitted to the bar and soon began to attract the attention of other and older lawyers. He rapidly acquired favor with the public and in 1884 was elected to the office of probate judge of Clinton county, a position which he held through successive re-elections to the time of his death, in 1896, and in which he performed a most admirable service to the people of this county.
     It was some little time after returning from the war that Ambrose N. Williams was united in marriage with Martha E. Ball, who was the daughter of Thomas and Lydia (Morris) Ball, natives of Pennsylvania, who, in 1839, came to Ohio, locating in the town of Pomeroy, whence, after a few years, they moved to Warren county, this state, later coming to Clinton county, locating in Blanchester, where the rest of their lives were spent. Thomas Ball was a school teacher in his younger years, but later became a painter and was thus engaged during his long residence in Blanchester, where he became one of the best-known men in that neighborhood. He and his wife were devout members of the Friends church and exerted a wide influence for good in their community. They were the parents of five children, two sons and three daughters. Thomas Ball died at the age of sixty, his widow surviving him many years, she living to the ripe old age of eighty-three. Judge Williams was a member of the Baptist church and took much interest in the affairs of the congregation to which he was attached, having been for many years a trustee of the church. Upon his election to the office of probate judge, he moved to the county seat and the rest of his life was spent in Wilmington, he becoming a man of large influence there. His death, in 1896, was widely mourned, for he was a good man and had done well his part in life.
     Fred G. Williams received his elementary education in the public schools of Blanchester, completing his common school education in the Wilmington schools, after which he took a course in Wilmington College. Following this he entered upon the study of dental surgery in the office of Dr. W. R. Hale, at Wilmington, and after two years of close application there attended the Ohio Dental College for one year, at the end of which time he entered the Cincinnati Dental College, from which he was graduated in 1892. Upon receiving his diploma, Doctor Williams returned to Wilmington and in 1893 opened an office there for the practice of his chosen profession, remaining there until 1904, in which year he went to Jamestown, this state, where he practiced until the year 1910, returning in that year to Wilmington, where he ever since has been very successfully engaged In practice.
     On October 6, 1897, Dr. Fred G. Williams was united in marriage to Genia Walker, who was born in Highland, Highland county, Ohio, daughter of Bruce M. and Catherine (Hickson) Walker, both of whom are still living, Bruce M. Walker being the agent of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Lancaster, Ohio. To the union of Fred G. and Genia (Walker) Williams two children have been born, Kathryn, born on August 23, 1898, and Winifred, January 30, 1901.
     Doctor and Mrs. Williams are members of the Baptist church and their children have been reared in that faith. Doctor Williams gives much and Intelligent attention to Sunday school affairs and is secretary of the Baptist Sunday school. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and takes a prominent part in the local affairs of that popular organization. Doctor and Mrs. Williams are deeply concerned in the welfare of the community and are to be found among the foremost promoters of all movements designed to further the common good hereabout. A leader in his profession, public spirited and enterprising, Doctor Williams occupies a position of importance in the community to which he has for years given his best endeavors and is held in the highest regard by all who know him.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  546

Williams Family		 JOSEPH W. WILLIAMS.  Joseph W. Williams is one of those successful farmers of Green township who has had much to do with the agricultural development of Clinton county.  He was born in Highland county, this state, May 23, 1865, son of Daniel and Mary (Hatcher) Williams, both natives of Highland county, the former born in 1837, and the latter in 1843.  Mary Hatcher was the daughter of Peter and Sophia (Miller) Hatcher, both natives of Virginia, who emigrated to Highland county early in its history.  They were farmers by occupation and members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Peter Hatcher voted the Democratic ticket.  He and his wife both died in Highland county, the former at the age of eight-five years, and the latter at the age of seventy-four.
     Daniel Williams is the son of Thomas Williams and wife, pioneers in Highland county, Ohio, who owned one thousand acres of land which they had entered from the government.  Both died in Highland county.  Daniel Williams is a farmer and still lives in Highland county, where he owns about six hundred acres of land.  Though now living retired, he continues to look after his farm property and is known as rather an extensive cattle raiser, keeping ordinarily from seventy-five to one hundred head during the summer.  He is a Democrat in politics and member of the Presbyterian church, as was his wife, who died on Jan. 19, 1915, at the age of seventy-two years.  They were the parents of seven children, Mary Almeta, Priscilla White, Joseph W., Joshua Sanford (deceased), Olive Bertle, Thomas Elmer and Jennie Florelia.
     Joseph W. Williams was reared on the farm and was educated inthe public schools of Highland county.  In 1904 he came to Clinton county, and purchased one hundred and sixty nine acres land in Green township, where he has since been engaged in general farming, also being known as an extensive cattle feeder.
     On Mar. 5, 1890, Joseph W. Williams was married to Mary Jane Brown, of Highland county, born at Rainsboro in 1866, granddaughter of John Davis, a native of Culpeper county, Virginia, and a pioneer in Highland county, who died at the age of seventy-nine years.  His wife, Jane (Miller) Davis, died in Highland county at the age of eighty-seven years.  His wife, Jane (Miller) Davis, died in Highland county at the age of eighty-seven years.  To Joseph W. and Mary Jane (Brown) Williams have been born two children.  Mary Josephine, born Oct. 24, 1895, and Harry Dann?, Apr. 30, 1900, Mr. and Mrs. Williams are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and, fraternally, he is a member of the grange.  On another page in this volume will be found a portrait of the Williams family.  This was taken from a photograph made in 1910, at the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of Daniel and Mary (Hutcher) Williams, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the marriage of John H. and Priscilla White (Williams) Heistand, and the twentieth anniversary of the marriage of Joseph W. and Mary Jane (Brown) Williams.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Indianapolis, Ind. :: B.F. Bowen & Co., 1915 - Page 904

A. J. Wilson


Mrs. A. J. Wilson
A. J. Wilson


Country home of A. J. Wilson

  

Mr. & Mrs.
Hunnicutt Wilson		  
  WILL B. WOOD.   Union township,  in Clinton county, is rich in history.  Its now valuable lands were opened for settlement by earnest pioneers who wrought well, and the descendants of these pioneer families are now ably carrying on the good work inaugurated by their forefathers.  In all the history of this township the families of the Woods, the Colletts, and the McKays are very definitely associated.  The gentleman whose name is noted above, a scion of a union of the three families above named, is a native of this county, born on the farm which his grandfather wrested from the forest wilderness, and has lived there all his life; having faithfully carried on the noble tasks of diligent husbandry set him by his grandfather and bequeathed to him by his father.  The Wood family had its origin in America with the coming to this new land of freedom of the famous colony of William Penn, the first of the line from which Will B. Wood sprang having been a member of the Penn colony and a devoted adherent of the faith of the Friends; a faith maintained by the family up to the last generation, when their religions affiliations were transferred to the Baptists.  Diligent in business, serving the Lord, the members of the Wood family have performed well their parts in the development of Clinton county, bringing to all their relations in life a faithful exemplification of those fine qualities of integrity of purpose and singleness of mind so sturdily handed down by the founders of the family in this country, and it is a pleasure on the part of the biographer here to set out a few of the salient points in the history of the Wood family in this county.
     Will B. Wood was born on the old Wood homestead, on the Washington pike, in Union township, Clinton county, Ohio, on Dec. 13, 1863, son of Jesse H. and Tamson (Collett) Wood, the former of whom was born on the same farm on July 14, 1835, and died on Apr. 27, 1902, and the latter of whom was born on a farm near the village of New Burlington, in Chester township, this county, on Nov. 30, 1863, and died on Sept. 1, 1911.
      Jesse H. Wood was the son of Robert P. Wood, who was born in Frederick county, Virginia, on Jan. 14, 1812, the youngest of the five children of Isaac and Lydia (Grubb) Wood, the former of whom was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, the eldest of five children born to his parents, the others being John, Nathan, Lydia and Mary, and the latter of whom was born in Jefferson county, Virginia.  The other children of this family were:  Susan who married Benjamin Glass; William, who married Mary Campbell; Hannah, who married Christopher Probosco, and John who married Elizabeth Edmondson.  All these children were married in Virginia except Robert, the youngest, who was not married until after the family had settled in this county.  John Wood emigrated from Virginia to Ohio in 1831, locating in Springfield, whence he sent back such glowing reports to his father that the latter decided to put in his lot with the settlers in this then promising region, and, with his entire family, came here the next year, arriving at Wilmington on the evening of November 12, the day before the presidential election of that year.  There were seventy members of the party which made the toilsome journey by wagon train across the mountains and rivers.  The party was nineteen days on the way, having crossed the Alleghany mountains on the National pike and the Ohio river at Wheeling.  On arriving in Clinton county the Wood family all settled within a radius of two miles east of Wilmington, the two sons-in-law of Isaac Wood, Benjamin Glass and Christopher Probosco, settling in the same colony, much of this land still being retained in the family, in the third and fourth generation, the numerous progeny of the parent stock now forming a no inconsiderable element of the population thereabout.
     Amid these pioneer conditions, Robert P. Wood secured a new start in life.  Taking a farm nearby the central farm located by his father, he entered upon the task of clearing the forest wilderness and quickly prospered.  His original holdings amounted to one hundred and thirteen acres, but, as he prospered, he gradually added to this until he became the owner of about five hundred acres of fine land in Union township and was accounted one of the most substantial farmers in that section of the county.  Reared in the Quaker faith, he adhered to the Friends church during his early manhood, but, as a matter of convenience in securing as nearby house of worship, allied himself with the Baptists and was one of the thirteen charter members of the first Baptist church organized in Wilmington and served the congregation of that church as a deacon the rest of his life, being as faithful in his relations to the church as he was in all his relations in life.
     Robert P. Wood was united in marriage to Mary D. Hughes, who was born in Union township, this county, daughter of Judge Jesse Hughes, and to this union were born six children, namely:  Jessie, father of the immediate subject of this sketch; Nathan, now deceased, a former well-known farmer of Union township, this county; Lydia, who died in her young girlhood; William, a prosperous Union township farmer, now living retired in the city of Wilmington; Isaac, deceased; and Lavenia now deceased, who married J. F. Woods, a well-known farmer of this county, who survives her . The mother of these children died on Mar. 3, 1881, and in 1882 Robert P. Wood married, secondly, Phebe Hildreth.
     Jesse Wood was reared on the home farm in Union township, his brothers and his father all working together on the home place, even after the former were grown and married, their father having promised to each a fine farm if they would stick to the home farm.  This arrangement continued until 1875, in which year Jesse H. retired from the home farm and moved to one of the Custis farms of one hundred and twenty-five acres, which he had received as his share of the estate of his pioneer father, Robert Wood.  Jesse Wood was a quiet, reserved man; a man of the strictest integrity and known far and wide for his careful attention to his own business.  During the Civil War he was enrolled with the famous band of "squirrel hunters" and with this company of zealous volunteers was encamped at Camp Denison.  He was a Republican and gave a good citizen's attention to the political affairs of his home county, but never was an office seeker, his duty to the public being performed in the quiet walks of private life.  He was an earnest member of the Baptist church as was his father before him, and for many years served the congregation of the Baptist church at Wilmington as a deacon, also performing the duties of treasurer of the church.
     In March, 1862, Jesse Wood was united in marriage to Tamson Collett, daughter of Daniel H. and Maria (McKay) Collett, the former of whom was born in Warren county, this state, and the latter of whom was born in Chester township, this county, a daughter of one of the prominent pioneers of Clinton county.  Daniel H. Collett came to Clinton county in his young manhood, married here and became one of the most substantial farmers of Chester township.  He was the owner of more than four hundred acres of land and was a leader in the affairs of his community.  He and his wife were members of the Jonas Run Baptist church and were prominent in all good works thereabout.  Daniel H. Collett and his wife were the parents of seven children who grew to manhood and womanhood and became useful factors in their respective communities.  Daniel H. Collett died at the age of sixty-three, his widow surviving him some years.
     To Jesse and Tamson (Collett) Wood were born three children, namely:  Will B., Mary who married W. Corey and lives in Greenfield, Ohio.
     Will B. Wood was reared on the paternal farm, receiving his elementary education in the district school In that neighborhood, supplementing the same by a course of one year in Wilmington College, after which he entered Dennison University with the purpose of completing the course in that Institution.  At the end of two years of study at Dennison, however, his father became ill and the dutiful son returned home to manage the farm and never returned to the university to receive his diploma.  Upon his father's death, Will B. Wood purchased the interests of the other heirs in the home farm and ever since has made his home there.  He has a fine home, having completely remodeled the old house along the lines of modern requirements; the house being equipped with an acetylene gas lighting system and hot and cold water, bathrooms and all modern conveniences.  Mr. Wood keeps a fine herd of pure bred Jersey cattle, shipping his cream to Cincinnati.  One of his chief sources of revenue is found in his hogs, he having for years made a specialty of Chester Whites, annually marketing large numbers of these profitable animals.
     On Feb. 27, 1895, William B. Wood was united in marriage to Edna McMillan, who was born in Chester township, this county, daughter of Shipley and Sarah (Lacy) McMillan, members of pioneer families of this county, a complete history of the McMillan family in this county being presented elsewhere in this volume.  To this union two children have been born: Myra, born on Apr. 2, 1897, who is a student in Dennison University; and Howard, Jan. 23, 1902.
     Mr. and Mrs. Wood are members of the Baptist church in Wilmington, Mr. Wood having been a deacon of that congregation for years and both are active in the various beneficences of that communion.  Mr. Wood is a Republican and for years has taken an active part in local politics, his sound judgment and thorough acquaintance with conditions in his neighborhood giving much weight to his counsels in the deliberations of the party managers in this county.  For fifteen years he was school director in his district, his ardent interest in educational affairs having given great value to his services in this connection.  He also has served as trustee of Union township, his thorough and public-spirited administration of the affairs of that office having proved very acceptable to the people of the township.  Mr. Wood and his wife take at deep interest in all measures designed to promote the cause of the common good in their community and no couple thereabout is held in higher regard than they.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 598
  HENRY A. WOODS.   Henry A. Woods is a good substantial citizen of Wayne township, this county, a good farmer and an interesting man to know.  Although he is firm in his convictions, yet he is not narrow in his attitude towards the opinions of others and has had no small part in the agricultural development of Wayne township, where he has lived for nearly forty-five years.
     Henry A. Woods was born on Feb. 14, 1858, in Washington township.  Highland county,  Ohio, the son of Joseph and Rachel (Stout) Woods, the former a native of Ireland, and the latter of Highland county, Ohio, the daughter of John Stout.  Joseph Woods, the grandfather, and his wife, Jane, were married in Ireland and came to America about 1833, locating In Highland county, near Sugar Tree Ridge, in Concord township.  The senior Joseph Woods was a school teacher in his native land and after coming to America became a successful farmer, owning a considerable tract of land in Highland county.  He and his wife were the parents of four children, Alexander, John, William and Joseph.
     Joseph Woods. Jr., was educated in the common schools of Highland county, Ohio, and farmed practically all his life In that county.  He owned one hundred and fifty-eight acres of land and he and his wife, who, before her marriage, was Rachel Stout, were the parents of eight children, William, Henry A., Benjamin. James, Frank. Charles, Luvenia and Joseph, Jr.  The Woods family were members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and Mr. Woods was a Republican in politics.
     Henry A. Woods, the second child in his father's family, received his education in the common schools, of Washington township. Highland county, and when a young man began farming in Wayne township.  He removed to Clinton county in 1875, and after coming here worked ten years as a farm hand in Wayne and Green townships.  He then  purchased ninety-two acres of land, to which farm he moved in March, 1887, and has lived there ever since.  Mr. Woods is engaged in general farming and stock raising and all of the improvements on the farm he owns he has made and paid for himself.
     In l886, about the time he purchased the Clinton county farm, Harry A. Woods was married to Sarah Lieurance, the daughter of William and Mary (Hall) Lieurance, who were the parents of four children: Avery P., Hiram. David and Sarah.  William Lieurance was a well-known farmer in Green township, this county.  To Mr. and Mrs. Woods three children have been born, Etta May, who married Oliver Dabe; Eva and Bertha— a splendid family, who were reared to honorable and useful lives and who are well performing their duties as citizens of a great county and state.  Mr. Woods is identified with the Republican party, but he has never been an aspirant for office and has never been especially active in political affairs.  He is well known in Wayne township and is popular with all his neighbors, all of whom hold him and his family in the highest regard.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 828
  ROBERT E. WOODS.   Robert Edward Woods, who has spent his entire life in Clinton county, needs no introduction to the people who live within its boundaries.  His life has been devoted not only to promoting his own interests and welfare, but also to promoting the interests of the public generally.  He is an honorable representative of one of the esteemed families of this section and a gentleman of high charter and worthy ambitions.  He has filled no small place in the public life, as the important official positions which he has capably filled bear witness.  He is a splendid type of the intelligent, up-to-date, self-made American farmer and is regarded as one of the best business men of Clinton county, enjoying the unqualified respect and confidence of all the people.  Robert Edward Woods was born on Jan 11, 1872, in Union township, this county, the son of James F. and Mary Lavinia (Wood) Woods, the former of whom was born in Wilmington, Ohio, on July 2, 1844, the son of Joseph and Rosanna (Fife) Woods, and is still living.  The mother was born in Union township, the daughter of Robert and Mary (Hughes) Wood, in 1850, and died in 1909.  Joseph Woods was born at Lebanon, Ohio, and his wife, Rosanna Fife, in Wilmington.  They were of Irish descent and died when their son, James F., was a mere lad.  They were farmers by occupation and early settlers in Clinton county and were members of the Presbyterian church.  Rosanna Fife was the daughter of James Fife, who immigrated to American from Tyrone, Ireland, at an early date and settled in Clinton county.  He became one of the foremost citizens of the county and founded the first bank in Wilmington, now called the First National Bank.  A large picture of him now hangs in the bank and a more extended mention of his life and work will be found in the chapter of his history relating to banks and banking.
     James F. Woods, the father of Robert Edward Woods, grew up in the home of his uncle, Silas Woods, and at the home of his grandfather, James Fife.  As a boy he did farm work and for several years was a partner with Matt Fife in the dry goods business in Wilmington.  He then taught bookkeeping in Nelson's Business College for a few years, (having been a student in Wilmington College), and subsequently purchased a farm in Union township, which he presently sold and purchased one hundred and seventy acres in Washington township, where he lived until the time of his retirement from the active duties of the farm.  Since the death of his wife in 1909, he has made his home with his children.  He is a Republican and has been a deacon in the Baptist church for many years and has also been treasurer of the same for thirty years, during all of these years having been a regular attendant.  To James F. and Mary L. Woods three children were born, namely:  Mary Rosanna who married O. C. Lacy, of Springfield, Ohio; Robert E., the subject of this sketch, and Joseph S. who is a mechanic and lives at Wilmington.
     The maternal grandparents of Robert E. Woods were Robert and Mary (Hughes) Woods, the former of whom was born in Frederick county, Virginia, June 14, 1812, son of Isaac Wood, a Virginian, born in 1779, who lived to be ninety-three years old, and the latter, in Union township, this county, the daughter of Judge Jesse Hughes, a native of Kentucky, who was one of the first judge of the court in Clinton county.  They were the parents of six children:  Jesse, Nathan S., Lydia (deceased), John William, Isaac and Mary Lavinia.  Robert Wood was a farmer of Union township, who retired late in life and moved to Wilmington, where he died in 1902, at the age of ninety, his wife having preceded him to the grave in 1881, in her sixxty-sixth year.  Both were members of the Baptist church, and for many years were active in good works in the community in which they lived.
     Robert Edward Woods received a good education in the public schools of Union township and in the Wilmington high school, from which he was graduated in 1892.  Upon returning to his father's farm, he was married and took charge of the farm.  In 1908 he purchased his father's Union township farm of one hundred and twelve acres, but four years later sold it to the Buckley brothers and moved to Wilmington, from which place he directed the operations on his father's Washington township farm.  In 1913 he purchased the Anna Sharp farm of fifty-one acres in Union township, situated northwest of Wilmington.  Upon this farm he built a modern house in 1913 and there he now makes his home.  He also farms one hundred and seventy acres for his father in Washington township, and raises large type Poland China hogs and a few cattle, most of his profit coming from raising and feeding hogs.
     On Sept. 9, 1896, Robert E. Woods was married to Ada B. McMillan, who was born in Chester township, this county, on Dec. 10, 1877, the daughter of Shipley and Sarah (Lacy) McMillan.  Shipley McMillan was the son of Newton McMillan, the second son of William and Deborah McMillan, who immigrated from York county, Pennsylvania to Clinton county.  William McMillan was a native of Scotland, and his wife, Deborah, was a native of Wales.  On first coming to Clinton county, Newton McMillan, settled on the sixty-acre farm later owned by Duane D. Smith.  Sarah Lacy was the daughter of Joshua and Ruth C. (Bankson) Lucy, who were married on Mar. 12, 1850.  Joshua Lacy was born on Nov. 24, 1827, in Clinton county, the son of Enos L. and Sarah (Wright) Lacy, the former a native of Virginia and the latter a native of Ohio, both of English descent, who located in Clinton county about 1816.  Ruth C. Bankson was a native of Highland county, Ohio, and the daughter of William Bankson, a native of England.  Shipley McMillan died on Jan. 11, 1914, at the age of sixty-nine years, and his widow is living with her father, Joshua Lacy, in Wilmington.
     To Robert E. and Ada B. (McMillan) Woods three children have been born, Edith, born on May 30, 1900; Harold Edward, May 4, 1905, who died on Feb. 19, 1906, and Mary Ruth, Sept. 9, 1906.
     Robert Edward Woods is a Republican and served as township trustee for one term and as school director for fourteen years.  Mr. and Mrs. Woods belong to the Baptist church at Wilmington, and he is a member of the Masonic fraternity.  Few young men living in Clinton county are more highly respected than Robert E. Woods, and few more thoroughly deserve the confidence of their neighbors and fellow citizens than he.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 786
  GEORGE P. WORRELL,  the proprietor of one hundred and eleven acres of good farming land in Clark township, and a brother of James G. Worrell, of this township, was born on Aug. 10, 1868, in Mason county, West Virginia, the son of Granville and Louisa (Hubbard) Worrell, both natives of the eastern part of West Virginia.
     The paternal grandfather of George P. Worrell was James Worrell, who spent all his life in Virginia.  The maternal grandfather of Mr. Worrell was Samuel Hubbard, who lived and died in Mercer county, West Virginia.
     Granville Worrell was educated in the early subscription schools of Carroll county, West Virginia and after his marriage there moved to Gallia county, Ohio during the Civil War, living there until 1870, when he returned to West Virginia and settled on the Kanawha river.  HE died in Nicholas county, West Virginia, as did also his wife.  During the Civil War, he was drafted in the Confederate army but later deserted and, upon immigrating to Ohio, joined an Ohio regiment of the Union army and served until the close of the war.  He was a drummer in the regiment and during his entire service was not wounded nor taken prisoner.  He and his wife had twelve children.  They were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
     George P. Worrell was educated in the schools of West Virginia and began life on his own responsibility by working by the month in Clinton County, Ohio.  On March 4, 1904, he purchased one hundred and eleven acres of land in Clark township, where he now lives.
     George P. Worrell was married on Dec. 9, 1896, to Magnolia Emma Emery, of Highland county, Ohio, the daughter of John Emery, a farmer of Highland county, John Emery was born near New Market, Highland county, Mar. 27, 1819, a son of Samuel and Sarah (Anderson) Emery, early settlers of Highland county.  They came to Highland county, likely, from Pennsylvania.  The former was a farmer and was educated in the early schools of Highland county.  John Emery became a farmer also and owned fifty acres of land.  He was married on Mar. 25, 1852, to Barbara Emery, the daughter of William and Phoebe Emery, of New Market.  William Emery, who was, for some time, a resident of near New Market, later moved to Missouri, where he and his wife died.  John Emery died in 1910, on the farm.  His wife had died previously, in 1897.  They had eleven children.  During the Civil War he served for one hundred days in the Union army.  He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
     To Mr. and Mrs. George P. Worrell have been born three children, Chester Emery, Lura Evelyn and Raymond Harold.  The Worrell family are all members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page  604

Miss Ellen C. Wright		 MISS ELLEN C. WRIGHT

 

Source: History of Clinton County, Ohio - Publ. 1915 by B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Ind. - Page 480

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