Chester Twp. –
JOHN OGDEN, farmer; P. O. Chesterville; was born Nov. 29, 1817, in what is now Morrow, Co. His father, James, was born in New Jersey, and emigrated to Ohio at an early day; his mother was a daughter of Joseph and Mary (Bowers) Howard, both of whom came to Ohio in 1810, and settled in Mt. Vernon when there were but four houses. Her parents settled on the farm now owned by J. C. Swetland, and here died, leaving Martha, Jesse, James, Joseph, Jeremiah, William John, Henry and Susan; the parents are Old School Baptists. The father and mother of our subject began life in the green woods, having for a dwelling a log cabin 18x 20 feet. Stick chimney, stone back wall, dirt hearth and clapboard roof. One door and one window, greased papers were used for window lights, and at night they would retire to the Block House for protection. The father was in the war of 1812, and at one time stood on the Canadian shore besieging the enemy until the water run from his eyes like rain. He used to drive hogs to Baltimore, Philadelphia and Cleveland, and would return on foot. In his youth he taught singing school at night; his first gun was obtained by clearing timber for an old pioneer. He paid as high as $15.00 per barrel for salt, paying for the same in maple sugar at five cents per pound. John was married Jan. 13, 1848, to Rhoda, daughter of David and Phoebe Dalrymple; they settled on the present farm for two years after marriage, and then moved to Chesterville, where he engaged in the grocery business, under the firm name of Struble & Ogden; in one year Struble withdrew and Ogden continued the business for another year, and then closed out at auction, and bought twenty-five acres of land of Zephaniah Pierson. Afterwards he sold the same and retired for a short time; he then rented of J. E. Rowland in Franklin Tp. for one year; and in 1868 settled where he now resides, and has now 100 acres of finely improved land; $1,000 he inherited and the rest he obtained by his own industry. It is finely adapted to stock raising. He has one child, William, who married Rebecca Bockover, and has two children, Nellie M. and John. Rebecca is a member of the Old School Baptists; they are farming.
Source: History of Morrow County and Ohio – Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1880, pp. 613-614
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist

Gilead Twp. –
JAMES OLDS, attorney at law; Mt. Gilead. One of the oldest practicing attorneys of the Morrow Co. bar is Mr. James Olds; he was born in Westfield Tp., Morrow Co., Ohio, Oct. 4, 1823, and is the son of Benjamin and Abigail (Washburn) Olds; his mother was born in New York, and his father in Pennsylvania; both parents having come to Ohio at an early day, being among the first families of Westfield Tp., then Delaware Co., where they married.  Mr. Olds’ father was a farmer and a local preacher; he filled several offices of public trust in Delaware Co. -- Justice of the Peace, and Commissioner; he was born in 1795, and died in 1862, leaving a wife and family to mourn his loss; Mrs. Olds is now living in Mt. Gilead, at the ripe age of 74 years.  Our subject remained on the farm until he was 18, when he set out seeking an education; he engaged in teaching school for a short time, when he entered the law office of Judge Finch, of Delaware, and began reading law; after remaining there a few years, he was admitted to practice at Delaware; in 1848, he came to Mt. Gilead, and began his chosen profession, where he has been engaged ever since; to-day he enjoys a leading practice at the Morrow Co. Bar, being of the firm of Olds & Dickey, which is one of the leading law firms of central Ohio. During the late civil war Mr. Olds took an active part in recruiting Co. D, 65th O. V. I. of which regiment he was made Major, and served faithfully for one year, when he resigned and returned to Mt. Gilead, where he has since been in the practice, of law.
Source: History of Morrow County and Ohio – Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1880, p. 550
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.

MAJOR JAMES OLDS. ––It is now our privilege to take briefly under review the life history of one who has attained a marked prestige in the line of his profession, that of law; who has rendered to the nation the valiant service of a patriotic and loyal son of the republic, and whose history in an ancestral way touches the early pioneer days when the courageous settlers took up their abode in rude cabins in the midst of the sylvan wilds of the Buckeye State and lent themselves to its reclamation.   What better subject for biographic honors could be asked for in this connection?
     James Olds was born in that portion of Delaware county, Ohio, which was subsequently incorporated in the present county of Morrow, on the 4th of October, 1823, and to-day he is an honored and venerable resident of the county of his nativity, having for many years maintained his home and fields of operation in the official center of the county, Mt. Gilead.   His father was Rev. Benjamin Olds, a native of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, where he was born May 1, 1795.  By occupation he was a farmer and a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church.  His parents, who were Eastern people, located in the Old Keystone State and thence came to Delaware county, Ohio, settling in Oxford township in 1807 or 1808, and being among the very first settlers in the county.  The father of our subject was only fourteen years of age when his parents removed to this State.
     The mother of our subject, whose maiden name was Abigail Washburn, was born in the State of New York, in July, 1805, and came with her parents to Delaware county, Ohio, when but three years of age, ––her parents also having been among the very early settlers in Delaware county.  The marriage of Benjamin Olds and Abigail Washburn was solemnized in Delaware county, in October, 1822, and shortly after this event they settled in the woods of Westfield township, where they built a hewed log house, and there remained, devoting themselves to the reclamation and improvement of the place, until 1862, when the father of our subject was called to enter the life eternal, being sixty-eight years of age at the time of his death.  In politics he was originally a Whig, but united with the Republican party at the time of its organization.  He was Justice of the Peace for many years, and was County Commissioner at the time the organization of Morrow county was effected.  He was a man of broad intelligence and one of much prominence in this section of the State, having been known throughout the length and breadth of the extended circuit which he covered as a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church.  The mother of our subject died, at his home in Mt. Gilead, August 31, 1889, having attained the venerable age of eighty-five years.  They were the parents of eleven children, ––nine sons and two daughters, ––all of whom lived to attain maturity, a brief record of their lives being here incorporated: James, the eldest of the family, is the subject of this review; Henry, who married and reared a family, died in Illinois, November 18, 1856; Luther married, reared a family and died in 1893, at Cleveland, Ohio: Dr. Abner died August 10, 1856, soon after he had begun the practice of his profession; Sanford was a soldier in the late war of the Rebellion, was wounded at the battle of Chickamauga, and died from the effects of his injuries, January 28, 1864; Jane died September 13, 1872; Miles died May 10, 1870, leaving a widow and two children; Lester married and is now a resident of Labette county, Kansas; Chauncey was a soldier in the late civil war, and died November 9, 1862, as a result of wounds received in the battle of Murfreesboro; Mary is the wife of Wilbert Granger, of Delaware county, Ohio; Hon. Walter Olds, who is the youngest of the family, studied law with his brother, our subject, and was duly admitted to the bar, eventually taking up his residence in Whitley county, Indiana, from which he was elected to the Senate of that State: he held preferment as Circuit Judge for four years, and was later elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Indiana, an office which he resigned, and is now engaged in the practice of his profession in Chicago, Illinois, being one of the leading lawyers of the Garden City, and having office headquarters in rooms 1113-14, Tacoma Building.
     Major James Olds, the immediate subject of this review, was born in one of the first log houses erected in Delaware county, this State, and the old farm where he first ope’d wondering eyes is still in his possession.  His first scholastic discipline was received in one of the primitive log school houses, with slab benches, wide fire-places and meagre accessories.  He remained on the old homestead, assisting in its improvement and cultivation, until he had attained the age of eighteen years, when he made his initial effort on his own responsibility by engaging to teach a district school.  Just when budding ambition gave itself a definite aim is difficult to say, but certain it is that our subject looked out and beyond the narrowed mental horizon of the farm home, which was one in which culture and refinement were not absent and one in which aspirations for a wider sphere of usefulness were readily enkindled.
     Accordingly we find that in 1843 James matriculated as a student at Delaware College, in the village of Delaware, Ohio, being one of the first students in that institution, and having as a fellow-student the young man who eventually became the Lieutenant Governor of the State of Ohio, John C. Lee, deceased.  He remained in the college until the fall of 1844, when he went to Indiana and there engaged in school teaching for a time, returning to Delaware within the succeeding year and there entering the office of Judge Sherman Finch, under whose preceptorship he continued the study of law until his admission to the bar in 1848, ––the year which marked the organization of Morrow county.  While pursuing his professional studies he had taught school at intervals, and had thus been enabled to defray his incidental expenses.
     After his admission to the bar, Major Olds located in Mount Gilead and entered upon the active practice of his profession, in which he has since continued consecutively in this place during all the long intervening years, with but one year’s interruption, ––that which called him forth in defense of his country’s honor.
     In 1861 he was commissioned a recruiting officer and organized the first full company (Company D, Sixty-fifth Ohio Volunteer Infantry), known as a part of the Sherman Brigade.  He was commissioned Major of the regiment named, but resigned in 1862, by reason of disability.  Since that time he has been engaged in practice in Mount Gilead, being recognized as one of the representative and most able lawyers of the county, and as one whose honor is above reproach.  He is a stanch Republican, but has never sought or accepted official preferment in the gift of his party, ––a record which is most exceptional when office-seeking has been an almost unvarying concomitant of the legal profession.
     Reverting, in conclusion, to the domestic pages of our honored subject’s life, we find that, on the last day of the year 1863, was consummated his marriage to Miss Anistasie Talmage, who was born in Gilead township, this county, in July, 1842, the daughter of James M. and Louisa (Newson) Talmage, the former of whom was a native of the State of New York, and one of the early settlers in this county; and the latter of whom was born in Maryland.  Mrs. Olds is the oldest of the four living children, and in her early years she was a successful and popular school teacher in this county.
     Major and Mrs. Olds are the parents of three children, namely: Mame, born October 26, 1864, is the wife of W. R. Baxter, a leading lawyer of Canton, this State; Benjamin, born September 27, 1868, has been associated with his father in law practice for the past four years, having completed his literary education at the Ohio Wesleyan University, in Delaware; and W. Floyd, born April 6. 1884.
     In the line of fraternal affiliations our subject is identified with but one organization, the Grand Army of the Republic, retaining a membership in Hurd Post.
Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 185-187

Franklin Twp. –
JONATHAN W. OLIN, farmer; P. O., Chesterville; he is the oldest son of Jonathan and Amy (Johnson) Olin, and was born Jan. 10, 1798, in Bennington Co., Vt.; his father was a native of Rhode Island and came to Vermont about 1782, where he united in marriage with Penelope Harrington, Dec. 14, 1786; by this union five children were born -- John, Anna, Archibald, Mary and Amy; his wife, Penelope, died Aug. 3, 1795, and he married Amy Johnson Feb. 14, 1796, by whom he raised nine children -- Penelope, Jonathan W., Elizabeth, John J., Sarah, Rebecca, Aurelia, Albert and Lydia. In 1836 the father, mother and three children settled in this township; the father died June 25, 1851, and the mother April 29, 1847. Jonathan worked in a tanyard when a boy; at the age of 19 he went to Northern New York to chop in the dense forests on Black River; he weighed 180 pounds when he began, but after working in the snow up to his arm-pits and enduring the hardships incident to the lumbermen, for six months, he only weighed 128 pounds; he received a common school education, and after reaching his majority he worked for his father six years; with the wages he bought land in Vermont; he married Laura Green in July, 1821, by whom four children were born -- Sarah Ann, Jennet, Brytta and Mary; his wife, Laura, died May 12, 1830; he then married Hannah Olin March 8, 1831. Two children -- Dyer and William -- were the fruit of this union. Hannah Olin passed away Aug. 31, 1858, and he married Martha E. Blackford, in Dec., 1858; she was a daughter of Michael and Helah (Powlison) Blackford, born Jan. 30, 1829, in Sussex Co., N. J.; her parents came to Franklin Tp. in 1836, where they raised a family of nine children -- John, Charlotte, Lovina, (who fell from the wagon when on their journey to this country and was crushed beneath the wheels,) Martha E., Isaac, William, Abby J., Phineas and Lovina 2d.  Mr. Olin came in March, 1837, and purchased 60 acres of his present farm, and after putting in some crops upon it, he returned to the “Green Mountain State” for his family, in June; they came in the fall, and settled on the site previously purchased, where he has lived ever since; he now owns 480 acres of land, a monument to his own labor and management. He has represented the interests of the township as Trustee and in other positions; he cast his first vote for Andrew Jackson and sustains the same party principles still; his oldest son, Dyer, served under Grant three years, and was wounded at the battle of Pittsburg Landing.
Source: History of Morrow County and Ohio – Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1880, p. 791
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.

Chester Twp. –
GEORGE ORR, farmer; P. O. Chesterville; is the son of William, who was born Oct. 18, 1799, in West Virginia, and the mother, Sarah Buchanan, born Feb. 27, 1805 -- in the same county. They were married Nov. 13, 1827, and came to Ohio in 1832, and settled on the farm now owned by their children. They bought 190 acres, in the green woods, of Joseph Tagart; here the father farmed and worked for many years at cooperage. He died Jan. 18, 1864; she, June 30, 1870. They had seven children -- Jane, Margaret; William enlisted in Co. B, 44 O. V. I., and was killed at the battle of Corinth. John enlisted in Co. F, 136th, O. N. G; Thomas, Mary A, and George -- Thomas married Mary A., a sister of John A. McNay, mentioned elsewhere – and by her he has two children, Burr and McLeona N. The family now owns 305 acres of well improved lands and are dealing in stock-raising and grain. They are active Republicans. Their parents were members of the Covenanter’s church in Pennsylvania, but since here, of the United Presbyterian. The father started with $400, and, at his death was worth $15,000. The father was Ruling Elder in the U. P. church, and was in the war of 1812.
Source: History of Morrow County and Ohio – Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1880, p. 614
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist

BYRON H. OSBORN. ––Byron H. Osborn, one of the most intelligent and thriving agriculturists of Morrow county, owns and occupies a valuable homestead in South Bloomfield township, which is his native place, his birth having here occurred on Wednesday, February 4, 1846, at half after nine in the morning.  He is a son of the late John H. Osborn, and grandson of Thomas Osborn, who settled in Ohio in pioneer days.
     Thomas Osborn was born and reared in Connecticut, and as a young man followed the sea, being captain of a vessel.  In 1814 he was wrecked and cast on the Isle of Jimairi [sic].  He subsequently landed in New York, and having determined to abandon seafaring pursuits was engaged in farming in Connecticut for a year.  A brother-in-law, a Mr. Manning, who was then surveying land in Knox county, Ohio, induced him to come to this state in search of a home.  He located in the late fall of 1815 in Knox county, and having taken up one hundred and sixty acres of heavily timbered land cleared and improved a homestead, on which he spent the remainder of his years. He married Olive Manning, and to them two children were born, a son and a daughter.
     John H. Osborn was born in October, 1815, in Connecticut, and as an infant was brought by his parents to Ohio.  He remained beneath the parental roof-tree until eighteen years of age, assisting in the farm labors, and then served an apprenticeship of three years at the carpenter’s trade, which he subsequently followed until seventy-five years old, being active in business pursuits until his death.  He married Nancy Severe, whose father was Jesse Severe, who came from his home at Point Pleasant, Virginia, to Knox county, Ohio, in 1805, making the long journey on horseback, and being the second householder to locate in Liberty township.  Seven children were born to their union, as follows: Thomas E. Laduska E.; Byron H., the special subject of this sketch; William D., deceased; Mary J.; Rose L.; and Clarinda, deceased.
     Educated in the district schools and acquiring a practical knowledge of the science of agriculture while young, Byron H. Osborn subsequently assumed the management of his father’s farm, of which he had charge until 1871, three years after his marriage.  Lured then to the fertile fields of the west, he spent a year in Illinois, but not at all satisfied with his prospects in the Sucker state he returned in 1872 to Ohio, and located on his present fine estate in South Bloomfield township.  Mr. Osborn has one hundred and seventy-six acres of highly productive land, which he has placed under excellent tillage and on which he has made substantial improvements.  He makes a specialty of stock growing and raising, breeding Short-Horn Durham cattle from the registered stock of John Lyle.  On October 16, 1861, Byron H. Osborn, then a lad of fourteen years, enlisted as a drummer in the Forty-third Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in which he served until honorably discharged in 1862.  In 1864 he enlisted, in the same capacity, in the One Hundred and Forty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was at the front in the battle of the Wilderness, in the engagement at Coal Run and at the seige [sic] of Petersburg.  For fifteen years he was engaged in the lumber business, but has since confined his attention to farming.  A stanch Republican in politics, he has served on the local school board, and he is a member of Joe Hooker Post, No. 21, G. A. R., at Mount Vernon, Ohio.
     Mr. Osborn married, October 24, 1867, Emma Brokaw, who was born in Knox county, Ohio, November 28, 1847.  Her father, Henry Brokaw, born February 10, 1814, died December 12, 1897, and his wife, whose maiden name was Louisa Coffin, was born August 30, 1816, and died October 13, 1875, her birth having occurred in Pennsylvania, and his in New Jersey.  They became the parents of thirteen children, as follows: Joshua, born May 11, 1836, died April 13, 1870; Johanna, born June 11, 1840, died June 14, 1876; Marie, born December 13, 1841; Mary G., born October 28, 1843; William H., born September 11, 1845; Emma, wife of Mr. Osborn; Jackson C., born August 7, 1849; Jane A., born February 9, 1851; Effie E., born April 13, 1853; Abraham, born March 30, 1855; Charles B., born February 28, 1857; Frank, born June 27, 1858; and Delmar, born January 25, 1863.
     Ten children have blessed the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Osborn, namely: Burton A., born October 9, 1868; Lola G., born January 27, 1870; Laura T., born October 24, 1872; Eugene Alphonse, born March 11, 1875; Maud L., born April 18, 1878, died May 15, 1892; Mary L., born September 26, 1881; William D., born May 7, 1883; Estella L., born September 18, 1886; Ben J. H., born October 18, 1888; and Clarence R., born April 16, 1892.  Mrs. Osborn is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and takes an active interest in its work. 
Source:  History of Morrow County, Ohio by A. J. Baughman - Vol. II - Chicago-New York: The Lewis Publishing Co. - 1911 – pp. 686-688
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.

JOHN H. OSBORN, a farmer of Bloomfield township, Morrow county, was born in New London, Connecticut, October 7, 1816, a son of Thomas Osborn.  His father was supposed to have been killed, and Thomas was bound out to a sea captain and taken on board ship at the age of seven years following the sea until he married and located on a farm in Connecticut.  He came to Knox county in 1816, purchased Government land, erected a log cabin, improved his farm, and died there at the age of sixty-eight years.  The mother of our subject, née Olive Manning, was born and reared in Connecticut, a daughter of Gilcrist Manning, of English descent.  Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Osborn were the parents of eight children, all of whom grew to years of maturity, namely: Abigail (deceased), Amanda (deceased), John H., James M., William N., Sarah Ann, Rilla and George (deceased).
     John H., the third child and eldest son, was brought to Knox, now Morrow county, when an infant.  At the age of sixteen years he left home to work at the cabinetmaker’s trade at Mount Vernon, but six months later returned home and assisted in building a sawmill on a branch of Dry creek.  He was next apprenticed to the carpenter and joiner’s trade, continuing that occupation four years, and erected many of the houses, barns and other buildings throughout Morrow and adjoining counties.  After his marriage, Mr. Osborn located on his present farm, in South Bloomfield township, which he has put under a fine state of cultivation, and erected a good residence.
     October 7, 1838, he was united in marriage with Nancy Sevare, a native of Knox county, Ohio, and a daughter of Jesse Sevare, one of the early pioneers of Knox county.  Mr. and Mrs. Osborn had seven children, viz: Douglas B., deceased; Clarinda, deceased; Thomas E., of Mount Gilead; Laduskey E., widow of Orange Holister and a resident of Mount Vernon; Byron H., of Bloomfield township; Mary J., at home; Rose L., wife of Thomas Scott, of Bloomfield township.  The wife and mother is deceased.  Mr. Osborn is a Deacon in the Christian Church, and is identified with the Republican party. 
Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 220-221

WILLIAM N. OSBORN, Postmaster and farmer of Sparta, Morrow county, was born in a log house in Bloomfield township, June 24, 1824, a son of Thomas and Olive (Manning) Osborn.  William N., the fifth child of his father’s family, received his education in a log school-house, and assisted his father on the farm and in the mill until twenty years of age.  He remained on the homestead for five years after his marriage.  In 1850 he located on an unimproved farm in South Bloomfield township, and lived for two years in a log cabin.  Mr. Osborn now owns 210 acres of well improved land.  In political matters, he affiliates with the Democratic party, and in 1894 was appointed Postmaster of Sparta.  In 1856 he was elected Justice of the Peace, haying held the position most of the time since, was Township Trustee for a time, Constable four years, and also judge of elections.  Socially he is a member of the Masonic order and the I. O. O. F., having been one of the first members of the latter order, No. 208, initiated at Sparta.
     Mr. Osborn was married in 1845, to Harriet Dustin, a native of Ohio.  They had three children: Melinda O., widow of William Jackson; Lucy J., wife of Miller Riley: and Ella, wife of Francis Harris.  The wife and mother departed this life in 1863.  For his second wife Mr. Osborn married Sarah Miller and they have had four children, namely: Delano, of Columbus, Ohio; David G., who resides on the old homestead; Mary, also at home, and Samuel C.
Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 486-487