WILLIAM B. JOHNSON, a successful and extensive dairy farmer, residing on section 17, Pleasant Township, Hardin County, was born Dec. 22, 1851, within a half-mile of his present home.  He is the son of John and Catherine (Johnson) Johnson, who, though bearing the same name, were not related by blood.  His grandfather, John Johnson, Sr., was probably a Virginian.  During the lat century he came to Ohio and settled in Licking County, but afterwards removed to Ft. McArthur, Hardin County, where he died.  During the war of 1812 he served in an Ohio militia regiment, and was present at the surrender of Hull.
     John Johnson, Jr, was born near Newark, Licking County, Ohio, Sept. 14, 1795.  He was also a soldier in the War of 1812, and drew a pension for his services in that conflict.  On coming to Hardin County, he spent a few, months at Ft. McArthur, later entering an eighty-acre tract constituting the east half of the northwest quarter of section 18, and here he built a house and barn.  Afterward he bought one hundred and sixty-six acres on section 17, which he improved.  His next purchase consisted of eighty acres of timbered land, where our subject now resides.  Of this tract he cleared sixty-five acres, and gave his attention to the cultivation of the place until his death, July 19, 1888.
     Near London, Franklin County, Ohio, Feb. 14 1822, John Johnson, Jr. married Miss Catherine Johnson, who was born Oct. 8, 1797.  She was a daughter of John Johnson, who worked as a boatman on the Ohio River in early days.  They lived to celebrate their golden wedding in 1872, and their happy married life was prolonged for another decade, until the death of the wife, Oct. 11, 1882, at the residence of our subject.
     The twelve children comprising the parental family were named as follows:  Olive, wife of Alexander McGann of Jackson Township, Hardin County; David, deceased; Maria, wife of Robert Devore, who lives in Jackson Township; Mary and Jeremiah, deceased; Mahala widow of John Derry; Martha, Mrs. Sanford Devore; Cornelia, deceased; James K., who was killed in the late war; Eliza A., deceased; William B., of this sketch; and an infant.
     Upon the farm where he now resides our subject was reared, and in youth he attended the neighboring district schools.  He remained with his parents until his marriage, after which they turned the property over to him and made their home with him until they died.  In the winter of 1887-88 he rented his farm and moved to Rhea County, Tenn., making his home near Rhea Springs, a health resort.  There he rented a farm of one hundred and twelve acres, of which eighty were under cultivation.  The following year he leased a larger farm, and this he cultivated for a year.  He had been troubled with asthma for some time before going to Tennessee, but his two years' residence in that state entirely cured him, and he has never had a return of the disease.  In 1890 he came back to his farm in Pleasant Township, and here in the fall of 1894 he embarked in the dairy business, which he has since conducted, having a large trade throughout the township.
     At Ada, Ohio, Aug. 18, 1870, Mr. Johnson married Miss Lydia Major, who was born in Pennsylvania, June 23, 1852.  Her parents, Benjamin and Abigail Major, natives respectively of England and Pennsylvania, came to Ohio early in the '50s and settled in Champaign County, but a few years later came to Cessna Township, Hardin County.  Their family consisted of six children, namely: William who resides in DeGraff, Ohio; Hy, a resident of Dunkirk, Ohio; Elizabeth who is with her brother in DeGraff; Sarah, deceased; Lydia A.; and Louisa, wife of Hy Campbell, of Blue Island, Ill.
     There were born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson fourteen children, the youngest of whom died unnamed.  The others are John D., who was born Mar. 24, 1871; Olive Callum, June 6, 1872; Daisy A., who was born Dec. 11, 1874, and died Feb. 17, 1875; Josephine born July 3, 1876; James, Nov. 23, 1877; Almira, Mar. 6, 1880; Luella M., Jan. 3, 1882; William H., Oct. 16, 1883; Ben F., Apr. 4, 1885; Clara A., born Oct. 14, 1886, who died Jan. 12, 1887; Hy M. born in Tennessee, Oct. 30, 1890; and Cora M. whose birth occurred at the old homestead, May 31, 1891.
     In religious belief Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are members of the Providence Baptist Church of Pleasant Township.  His father was identified with the Liberty Methodist Episcopal Church in Pleasant Township.  His mother, who had been sprinkled in girlhood, became unsatisfied with that mode of baptism, believing it unscriptural, and at the age of seventy-five was immersed.  From that time until her death she was a member of the Baptist Church.  Politically Mr. Johnson is independent, favoring the men and the principles rather than any certain party.  Formerly he was connected with the Patrons of Husbandry, and for two years officiated as Master of his lodge.  He was also prominently connected with the Farmers’ Alliance.  As a citizen he is progressive, as a business man shrewd, as a farmer enterprising, and as a friend thoughtful and accommodating.
Source: Portrait & Biographical Records of Marion & Hardin Counties, Ohio - 1895 - Page 328

ANDREW D. JONES carries on general farming and stock-raising on section 4, Washington Township, Hardin County.  He has been the owner of this tract of land for over forty-five years, and has developed it from the primeval forest.  On various occasions he has held offices of local usefulness, such as Township Trustee and Treasurer, and has ever kept the welfare of his home district close at heart.
     The paternal grandfather of our subject, Andrew Jones, was born in New Jersey.  John Jones, father of A. D. Jones, was also a native of New Jersey, but his wife, who prior to her marriage was Sarah Bradberry, was of Pennsylvania origin.  They had eight children, as follows: Abner, Christopher, George and Charles, who were in the service; Andrew D.; Mary, Mrs. William Chamberlain; John M.; and Margaret, Mrs. William Fleming. George lives in Indiana, and Charles in Pleasant Township.
     John Jones moved from his native state to Pennsylvania in his early manhood, and about 1820 came to Ohio in a wagon.  He purchased one hundred acres of wild land in Knox County and, clearing a place, put up a log cabin.  He was numbered among the pioneers of that region, and there he continued to dwell until 1851.  At that time he took up his abode in Washington Township, where he bought two hundred acres on section 23, living thereon the rest of his life.  He died in 1866 and was buried in Washington Cemetery.  Both he and his good wife were members of the United Brethren Church.
     Andrew D. Jones was born near Mt. Vernon, Knox County, May 22, 1825.  He assisted his father on the farm until he was in his nineteenth year, when he began learning the trade of brickmaking, serving a three-years apprenticeship.  During this time he received his board and clothes and was allowed to attend school in the winter term.  After becoming master of the business, he worked at it for three years more, and the brick for his house he made himself.  In the winters of 1846-47 and 1848-49 he taught school, and in the mean time made his first trip to this county.  He was here a few weeks in the summer of 1846, having made the journey by team.  Again, four years afterward, he returned and rented land for two years.  In 1854 he located on the farm which he now owns, and which he had bought five years before.  At one time he owned two hundred and six acres, but now he has seventy-one.
     Sept. 23, 1850, Mr. Jones married Jane E. Moses, who was born near Hartford, Conn., Jan. 5, 1827, being the daughter of Asa and Almira (Barber) Moses. Three children were born to our subject and wife: John A., Mar. 28, 1852; Sarah A., Apr. 19, 1854; and Moses M., Mar. 27, 1859.  The son married Lena Philies, and had three children, Bessie L., Etta R. and David L.  After the death of his first wife Mr. Jones married Etta Watson, who became the mother of three children, Andrew, Leo and Maude B.  John Jones died June 28, 1894.  Sarah became the wife of Nathan Spaulding, and has four children, Daisy, Lizzie L. , Myrtle and Clay.  Moses died Mar. 27, 1859.
     Mrs. Jones came to this county with her parents in 1848 from Portage County, Ohio, whither they had moved in 1830 from Connecticut.  Mr. Moses was at one time Trustee in this district.  He came from good old Puritan stock, being of English descent, and of the religion of the Plymouth Colony, Congregationalism.
     The primary education of our subject was such as was afforded by the local old-fashioned schools, but he subsequently went to Oberlin three winters.  He is affiliated with the United Brethren Church, in which he is an earnest worker.
Source: Portrait & Biographical Records of Marion & Hardin Counties, Ohio - 1895 - Page 535

BENTON K. JONES, M. D., is one of the most prominent physicians of this section, and is at present living in Kenton.  He was born near Dunkirk in Blanchard Township, this county, Mar. 2, 1858.  His father, John M. Jones, is also a native of this state, his birth occurring in Knox County in the year 1832.  He is now living in comfort on a fine farm located between Dunkirk and Forest.  His father, the grandfather of our subject, bore the name of John Jones, and his birth occurred in Pennsylvania in 1800.  He came to this state with his parents when a boy, and, locating on unimproved farming land, was there reared to man's estate.
     Our suspect had several uncles who served in the late war, one of whom, Abner, was taken captive and died while confined in a rebel prison.  Christopher, who held a commission in his regiment, is now living in this county on a farm several miles north of Kenton.  George, who was also an officer in the Union army, makes his home in Indiana.  Charles is farming on land three miles north of this city.  Andrew was formerly engaged in the hardware business, but at the present time is also following the life of an agriculturist, on property located four miles from Dunkirk.
     The maiden name of our subject's mother was Elizabeth Marinda Gillen, a native of New Jersey and of Irish-Scotch descent.  Her parents made the trip to Ohio in 1852, at once locating in this part of Hardin County, where Mr. Gillen purchased a tract of land and prepared to make his permanent home.  He was a very wealthy man, and as his business affairs were not entirely settled in New Jersey, he returned to that state, after making his family comfortable in their new home, and was never afterward heard from.  The brothers of Mrs. Jones were George W., who fought as a soldier in the Civil War, and is now living in this county; John, residing near Dunkirk; and Charles, formerly one of the Commissioners of Clarke County, this state, who died at Springfield in 1893.
     To John M. and Elizabeth Jones were born six sons and two daughters, of whom our subject was the eldest but one.  Of these, Sarah C. is deceased; Ed E. is a resident of Kenton; Ella J., the twin of Ed E., is the wife of Dr. W. D. Barnhill; Christopher is at home with his father; Odell U. is reading medicine under the instruction of our subject; Adelbert M., the twin of the former, is living in Kenton; and John M., Jr., is living on the home farm.
     The early years of our subject were spent on the home farm in much the same manner as those  of other farmer boys.  After pursuing his studies for several years in the district school, he was sent to Kenton, at the age of seventeen, and for one year was a student in the schools of that city.  Later, however, he entered the Ohio Normal University at Ada, and after leaving that institution taught several terms of school.  It being his desire and ambition to become a physician, he began reading medicine about this time in the office of Dr. Gemmill, of Forest, and when ready to attend lectures became a student in the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, from which he was graduated with the degree of Doctor of Medicine in January, 1889.  The next month he located for practice in Kenton, where he soon became prominent among the skillful physicians, and built up a large and lucrative practice;. In 1891 he was chosen and elected Coroner of Hardin County, and on the expiration of his term was re-elected to the same position on the Republican ticket. The Doctor is a member of the Ohio Medical Society, of which he was Secretary in 1893, and also belongs to the Northwestern Medical Association, which he has served acceptably as President.  He stands very high among the learned and skillful physicians of this section, and has been chosen by several insurance companies as their Medical Examiner.  Socially he is an Odd Fellow, and is also a member of the Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Pythias.
     Dr. B. K. Jones and Miss Alice Frederick were married May 3, 1883.  Mrs. Jones was born in Hardin County, to William and Sarah A. Frederick, prominent farmers of this county.  By her union with our subject there have been born three children: William Clay, a lad of ten years; Maude, eight years old; and Paul, who is three months old.
Source: Portrait & Biographical Records of Marion & Hardin Counties, Ohio - 1895 - Page 477

JOHN MORGAN JONES, who resides on section 10, Blanchard Township, Hardin County, was born in Knox County, Ohio, Nov. 6, 1832.  He is a son of John and Sarah (Bradbury) Jones, the former a native of New Jersey, who removed thence to Pennsylvania, but soon afterward came to Ohio and settled in Knox County.  In 1853, he came to Hardin county, locating in Washington Township, where he died in 1867, aged sixty-seven years.  His wife, who was born in Pennsylvania, was about three years his senior, and survived him a number of years, dying in 1873, at the age of seventy-six.  He was prospered in his undertakings, and accumulated two hundred acres of valuable land in Washington Township.
     The parental family consisted of six sons and two daughters, and John was the next to the youngest of the number.  He remained with his parents until twenty-three years of age, though for some time previous he had engaged in teaching school.  His first term was in Hardin County, being the Beech Grove School in Pleasant Township, where he was paid $12 per month and “boarded round."  His three elder brothers had settled in Washington Township, where Andrew and Christopher still reside.  Abner B., who was captured by the rebels during the late war, was confined in one of their prisons, and became terribly emaciated as a result of his sufferings.  Shortly after his release he died in the hospital at Annapolis, Md.
     In 1852 Mr. Jones taught a three-months term of school in Knox County, and at its close removed to Hardin County, whither his parents had preceded him a few months.  He secured the farm that his brother had originally settled, but a few years later traded the place for land in Iowa, and bought the southwest part of Blanchard Township in 1867.  Upon an eighty-acre tract there he lived for thirteen years, and thence came to his present farm in the northeast part of the same township in 18S0. This tract of one hundred and eighty acres was originally known as the Capt. Cyrus Herrick Farm, much of his life having been spent thereon.  He erected the two story residence that adorns the place, and which is a brick structure, containing twelve rooms and built at a cost of $5,000.
     July 1, 1855, Mr. Jones married Miss Elizabeth Merinda Gillen, a native of New Jersey, but at that time a resident of Washington Township.  Their family consisted of the following children:  Sarah Caroline, who died when in her eighteenth year; Benton K., a physician of Kenton; Eddie E., a dealer in hay and grain at Kenton; Ella (twin of the former), wife of Dr. W. D. Barnhill, of Findlay, Ohio; Christopher F., an invalid; Adelbert M. and Odel Ulysses (twins); and John Morgan, a student in the Normal School at Ada.  All have received excellent educational advantages, and are well informed, and refined.  Politically Mr. Jones is a Republican.  For a long period he has been a Methodist, and his membership is in the Harris Chapel, in Blanchard Township, of which he is a Trustee.
Source: Portrait & Biographical Records of Marion & Hardin Counties, Ohio - 1895 - Page 388

CHARLES C. JORDAN owns and operates a good farm situated on Survey No. 13,938, in Lynn Township, Hardin County.  As a worthy and representative old settler, he has long been identified with the upbuilding of this county, and no one is more respected in this locality than he.  A native of Germany, he was born in the village of Weichersbach, Hesse-Cassel, Oct. 15, 1840, and is a second child born to his parents, John and Catherine (Wertman) Jordan  They were also born in the Fatherland, and there the father died in December, 1840.
     Our subject attended the village school of his birthplace until a lad of twelve years, when he came to America in company with his mother and step-father.  They landed at Baltimore, from which city they made their way to Bakersville, Somerset County, Pa., where George Belz, his step-father, farmed until the spring of 1864.  That year they moved to Hardin County, this state, where Mr. Belz died in the fall of the same year.
     While in the Keystone State, our subject enlisted in Company B, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania Infantry, and the first engagement in which he fought as a Union soldier occurred at Cedar Mountain.  The second battle occurred at Antietam, where he was wounded, being confined in the hospital for three months.  When sufficiently recovered he rejoined his regiment at Harper's Ferry, serving his country faithfully and well until July 20, 1864, when he was mustered out at Chattanooga, Tenn.  His term of service had expired June 21, of that year, but he was retained until after the capture of the rebel forces on Kenesaw Mountain.
     On being mustered out Mr. Jordan came to Hardin County, where he was married, Feb. 25, 1866, to Catherine Baker, daughter of John and Sophia (Weisgerber) Baker.  Their union has resulted in the birth of eight sons and daughters.  Rebecca is now the wife of Franklin Kahler, a farmer of Cessna Township, this county; Sophia married Ora Maddox, a resident of Kenton; and the others are Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret, William Carol and Caroline.
     On his arrival in this county from the seat of war our subject farmed on rented land for two years in Pleasant Township.  He subsequently worked for other people for eighteen months, or until he had accumulated a sufficient sum of money to enable him to buy a small tract of land.  Accordingly, in October, 1868, he bought fifty-nine acres, included in his present farm, on which he first erected a log cabin and then began the work of improvement.  He added to his possessions from time to time, until now he has one hundred and five broad acres.  The land is well improved, and by a proper rotation of crops is made to yield an abundant harvest each year.
     Mr. Jordan has been the incumbent of many positions of trust, among them being the office of Township Trustee, Justice of the Peace and Scool Director.  He is a Democrat in politics, and in religious matters is actively identified with the Evangelical Church.
Source: Portrait & Biographical Records of Marion & Hardin Counties, Ohio - 1895 - Page 519