ELIZABETH C. DARST, Editress of the Circleville Herald, and a sketch of whose ancestry appears elsewhere, was born and educated in Circleville, being valedictorians of the high school, class of 1865.  From that time until she assumed the editorial and financial charge of the Herald, Miss Darst was a constant contributor to the press of Circleville, and her poems, over the signature of "Kenneth," have been copied from their columns, and from the Standard of the Cross, The Modern Argo, and other papers into the leading literary journals of New York, Philadelphia, and cities of Canada.  The Record of the Year, a magazine devoted to gathering the brightest articles from the newspapers to give them a permanent form, has included many of Miss Darst's productions in its pages.
     As a journalist Miss Darst has endeavored to do her work thoroughly, to make a newspaper which should be interesting and reliable, and to ask no favors or concessions simply because it was the work of a lady.  She was the special correspondent of, and not an infrequent writer of longer letters to, the Cincinnati Enquirer for a couple of years, and is at present employed by the Cincinnati Herald, and other papers of the capital of Columbus Herald, and other papers of the capital city.  Editorial paragraphs from the Circleville Herald have been copied frequently by the press of the larger cities, and the financial plank of the Herald's platform - "there is no honest way to get a dollar but to earn one, and the dollar so earned should be good a dollar that it buys a dollar's worth the world over" - went the rounds of the New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati dailies.
     Pages might be filled with the always cordial, but sometimes amusing, allusions of the editors of the State to the novel claimant for fraternal honors, but the sum of them may be given in the appreciative words of the Springfield Republic: I "  If any one questions a woman's ability to run a newspaper, the answer is, Miss Lillie Darst."

  JOHN GROCE was born in Frederick county, Maryland, and emigrated, when a young man, to the west, settling in Jefferson, of this county, before Circleville was laid out or was known as a town.  In the year 1811, he returned to his native county, and on April 25, was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Jacobs, of Louden county, Virginia, and immediately thereafter again came west with his wife, and settled in Circleville, where he lived until his death.
     There were born to them seven children, as follows:  Charles (who died in his twenty-second year), Lydia, Bentley, Caroline (who died in infancy), John, Mahlon (who died at the age of twenty-two), and Elizabeth Ann.
     His wife died Aug. 8, 1824, leaving him with a family of young children to care for.  In 1827 he married Mrs. Margaret Wolfley.  He died Mar. 18, 1834, in his fifty-fifth year.
     John, the third son, subject of this sketch, was born Jan. 18, 1818, at Circleville, this county.  At the time of his father's death he was in his seventeenth Year.  Thus left dependent upon his own resources, it became necessary for him to do for himself.  He sought, as council, his father's most intimate friend, the late Matthew McCrea, and the advice was given as follows: 
     "John, go to a trade.  It will learn you habits of industry, and if you don't want to follow it when you become a man, you need not."
     Taking this sound advice, he immediately went to learn the saddling business with the late John W. Wolfley, commencing the same year, in April.  He continued at his trade, as apprentice and journeyman, until the spring of 1839, when, on the thirteenth day of June, he commenced the business for himself, at Kingston, Ross county, Ohio, on a capital of eighty-five dollars.  The same year, December 19th, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Ellen Graham, who was born Sept. 25, 1820.  There have been born to them five children: infant daughter, born Mar. 31, 1841; Mary Elizabeth, born July 26, 1842; Ellen Gillett, Apr. 24, 1845; Jennie, Sept. 27, 1847; Charles Erastus, born July 26, 1851.
     Mary Elizabeth married Bennett Foresman, Oct. 20, 1864.  They have had two children:  John Philip born Oct. 3, 1866, and William Bennett, born Aug. 3, 1873.  Ellen Gillett married Frank M. Shulse, Oct. 22, 1868.  They have two children: Charles Groce, born July 22, 1869, and Emanuel Edgar, Jan. 13, 1879.  Jennie married Lemuel Boggs, Oct. 20, 1870.  They have two children: Nellie Groce, born Jan. 12, 1872, and Margaret Cook, Apr. 5, 1876.
     Mr. Groce continued in his business at Kingston for nine years, meeting with fair success.  But having become strongly impressed with the idea that he could do better at other business, and feeling that Kingston was not the place to make the venture, he, with his little family, moved to Circleville, in August, 1848, immediately going into the grain and pork business in connection with the late R. D. Atwater.  In July, 1852, he also took an interest with Mr. Atwater in the dry goods business.  In the fall of that year he went to Milton, Indiana, to pack pork, while Mr. Atwater attended to the business in Circleville, the interests at both points being the same.
     Mr. Atwater dying in December, of the same year, and the business proving largely losing, it left him without capital.  But being energetic and hopeful, with nothing to lose and all to gain, he proposed to Mr. Atwater's executor to take the stock of goods on five years' time, which was readily assented to, and taking Mr. Jacob Helman, also without capital, as a partner, went vigorously to work to retrieve losses.
     In the fall and winter of 1853-54 he again went into the pork trade alone, and, profiting by his past experience, he was fortunate in his venture, so that he was enabled to protect his dry goods notes as they matured from year to year.  He continued in the dry goods and pork business until the year 1860, when he exchanged his dry goods to the late E. B. Olds for a block of buildings, and has since carried on the pork trade with great success.  November 12, 1872, he associated with himself his only son, Charles E., and the firm has since been known as John Groce & Son.  One who has been his companion from boyhood, and is well qualified to judge of his many virtues and sterling qualities, says of him:
     "Mr. Groce is eminently a self-made man.  Left at an early age without the example and counsel of a father, and possessed of but an ordinary common-school education, he started out in the battle of life.  But whilst he lacked those advantages, which are generally so necessary to success, he did possess qualities of mind which were gradually developed and made the groundwork of a successful business life, and that was a determination to study out and become master of any business he might undertake to prosecute.  That has been fully demonstrated in the almost national reputation he has attained for his manner of curing meats and particularly hams.  Mr. Groce is a man of very positive convictions, and when once an opinion is formed, it is held with firmness, and yet not without being willing always to give a reason for his opinion.  He has always been identified with every public enterprise, and has contributed as much as any citizen to build up our city, as his large and well-appointed pork house and fine residence demonstrate.  He took an active part in securing subscriptions for the purchase of the grounds of our beautiful Forest Cemetery, and has been one of its directors from the beginning until the present time.  He was a member of the national convention that nominated R. B. Hayes for president of the United States, and is now chairman of the Republican central committee of this county."
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GEORGE HITLER, son of George and Susannah (Gay) Hitler, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, September 27, 1798.  His father was a native of Maryland, but removed with his parents to Franklin county, Pennsylvania, when young; and in 1793, having then a family of wife and two children, settled in Somerset county, in the same State, where the subject of our sketch was born, as already stated.  In April, 1799, Mr. Hitler sr.,  emigrated to Ohio.  His family made the journey down the Ohio river, to the mouth of the Scioto, on a flat-boat, Mr. Hitler himself brining through a number of horses for himself and others.  From the mouth of the Scioto the journey was with team and wagon, the wagon being said to have been the second that ever came up the Scioto valley.
     At this time there were but two log homes in Chillicothe, and the country was almost a complete wilderness.
     Mr. Hitler, sr., settled on the lower plains, in Pickaway township, but subsequently located on Scippo creek, on land then owned by Benjamin Duncan.  In 1804 he bought and settled in Washington township, section thirty-three, where he died, April 2, 1818, and his wife, September 16, 1848.
     In 1819 George Hitler, in connection with his brother Jacob purchased a quarter section of land in the south part of Washington township, which land is now owned by his son, Thomas L. Hitler.  Upon this farm they raised wheat, which they manufactured into flour and shipped on flat-boats to New Orleans.  This they found far more remunerative than to sell the grain at home, which brought at one time only twenty-five cents per bushel.  The first trip was made by Jacob, in 1819, and each of the brothers subsequently made five separate trips, covering a period of ten years.  George Hitler, on one occasion, was fifty days in going from Boggsville to New Orleans.  He returned on a steamer, and was about three months in making the round trip.
     Mr. Hitler was married June 14, 1829, to Hannah Ludwig, daughter of Thomas and Catharine Ludwig.  He settled on his first purchase, and resided there until 1838, when he located where he now lives.
      Mr. Hitler's occupation has been that of a farmer, and his career has been a very successful one, owning at this time about one thousand acres of land.  While practicing a wise economy in the expenditure of his means, he has always been liberal in his support of every object which he considered worthy of it.    
     Mr. Hitler has reached the good old age of eighty-one, and few, if any, of the inhabitants of Pickaway county can date, as he can, their first residence here back to 1799.  Save a little rheumatism, his health is almost as good as it ever was.  He is a man of energy, of character, and of strict integrity.
     His wife died July 3, 1863.  They had seven children, as follows:  Eliza, born July 4, 1830 - died Aug. 21, 1831; Mary, born Oct. 30, 1831 - married Daniel Hosler, and is now deceased; Catharine, born Dec. 16, 1835 - became the wife of Amos Hoffman and died Nov. 25, 1858; Eleanor, born Nov. 22, 1833 - died Jan. 21, 1837; Susannah, born Mar. 29, 1840, is the wife of Alexander Ross, and resides in Indiana; Thomas L., born Apr. 4, 1842 - married, Dec. 14, 1876, Martha A. Lindsey, and in Washington township; George W. married, Feb. 21, 1878, Ida Lutz,  and occupies the home farm.

COL. VALENTINE KEFFER, a prominent business man and politician in Pickaway county for many years, emigrated from Pennsylvania in 1805, several years before the county was organized, or the first strokes of the axe had marked the rudest outlines of the ground now included in the town of Circleville.  He purchased the fractional section adjoining section nineteen, and lying between it and the Scioto river; on which he resided till 1838, when he moved into town.  Some years before leaving Pennsylvania he had married Catharina, the second child and eldest daughter of Jacob Zieger.
     On the breaking out of the war of 1812, being identified with the militia of the county, he was appointed major, and accompanied General James Renick on an expedition to the northern part of the State.  After his return to the settlement he was promoted to the rank of colonel, and, in 1813, he was elected to the State legislature, in which he served ten years - the last being in 1828.  During all this time his popularity was so great that it was deemed little better than folly for any one to run against him.
     When the seat of government was first established at Columbus, there was not a stage coach running in Ohio; and, as we know roll along in a palace railroad car on the smooth track, or in an easy-going spring carriage on a good turnpike, and view, on either side of us the cheerful homesteads, the wide fields of corn and wheat, and the fat cattle grazing in the green pastures, it is difficult to imagine our early representative, bestride a horse, treading his way among the brush toward the capital, armed and equipped with pistols and provender, and catching every sound with apprehension of danger.
     Colonel Keffer was also twice chosen presidential elector, casting his vote, the first time, for Jackson, and afterward for Van Buren.  He was one of the original proprietors of the Circleville Watchman, the Democratic organ of the county, established in 1835, and had editorial charge of it for two or three years.
     He died Mar. 9, 1852, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.
     A daughter of his married Mr. G. F. Wittich, one of the old residents of Circleville, to whom we are indebted for the substance of the above sketch, as also that of the Zieger family, on another page of this work.  

  JAMES LUDWIG.  Daniel Ludwig, the father of Jacob, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, June 4, 1748.  His parents, Daniel and Mary Ludwig, were natives of Germany.  He was associated with Governor Joseph Heister in a store at Reading, Pennsylvania, for a number of years.  In the fall of 1806 he emigrated to Ohio, with two-horse teams, bringing his family, consisting of his wife and nine children, and a small stock of goods, with which he intended to open a store here.  With this object in view, he erected the large brick house which is now the residence of  Jacob Ludwig, in one portion of which the store was to be kept.  But three of his sons, on whose aid he depended, died, and the store was never established, the goods being disposed of to the neighbors.  The house alluded to - a view of which is elsewhere given - was built in 1809, and is, without doubt, the oldest brick house in Pickaway county.  Mr. Ludwig, on his arrival here, purchased, a half section of land, a portion of which is now owned by Jacob Ludwig, and subsequently entered lands in this and adjoining counties.  He was the original owner of the land on which the town of Logan, Hocking county, now stands.
     He was married three times: first, in 1778, to Appelona, daughter of Michael and Susannah Miller, who was born March 14, 1760.  By this marriage were born the following named children:  John born January 29, 1779; Christena, born November 27, 1781; Daniel, born October 11, 1783 - died January 28, 1790; George, born September 3, 1785 - died February 8, 1810.  The mother died May 14, 1787.  March 11, 1788, Mr. Ludwig married Eve, daughter of Casper and Rebecca Grissmer, who was born November 12, 1766.  By her he had two children:  Thomas, born Jan. 15, 1789 - died Feb. 15, 1810;  and Joseph, born Oct. 1, 1790 - died Sept. 10, 1807.  Mrs. Eve Ludwig died October 21, 1800.  His third wife was Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth Shupert, whom he married in 1802.  She was born March 3, 1776.  To them were born the following children:  Catharine, born July, 1803; Mary born Nov. 30, 1804; Jacob, born Apr. 17, 1806; Elizabeth, born March 13, 1808; Rachel, born Nov. 25, 1810; Susannah, born August 9, 1812.  Daniel Ludwig died June 9, 1825; and his wife, Elizabeth, May 3, 1816.
     Jacob Ludwig, the subject of this sketch, was the third child and only son by the third marriage and was six months of age at the time of the removal of his parents to Ohio.  His education was obtained at the schools of the neighborhood in which he resided, with the exception of two years' attendance at a school in Circleville, of which Dr. Brown, now president of the First National bank, was the teacher.
     November 18, 1830, he was united in marriage to Evelina Morris, daughter of Henry and Charity Morris, who was born July 12, 1812.  She died Feb. 23, 1848.  Seven sons and one daughter were born to them, as follows:  Daniel, born Nov. 23, 1831 - married Julia Steeley, and has three children; Henry O., born Dec. 16, 1832 - married Amelia Galler;  Isaac, was born Sept. 21, 1834, is unmarried; George, born Jan. 14, 1836, married Eliza Young, and has two children; John born December 17, 1837 - died April 7, 1848, from the result of an accident; Mary Elizabeth, born April 28, 1839 - married John P. Steeley, and has seven children; David S., born June 16, 1842 - married Rosalie H., daughter of Isaac E. Dreisbach, Dec. 26, 1872 - they have three children; Jacob, Jr., born Jan. 27, 1848 - died July 10, of the same year.
     Mr. Ludwig has resided in the house which he now occupies ever since it was built, in 1809 - a period seventy years.  He enjoys a hale and hearty old age, and possesses the respect and esteem of all who know him.

JAMES McCOY.  William McCoy, father of the subject of this sketch, and the portals of whom appears elsewhere, was born in what is now the State of Delaware, Dec. 23, 1752.  His wife, Drusilla Browning, was a native of Pennsylvania, and they were married in Huntingdon county, of that State, June 12, 1794.  William McCoy followed the old time popular occupation of wagoning for twenty years, and it was while thus engaged that he met Drusilla Browning.  After their marriage they emigrated to Kentucky, and in 1797 removed to the Northwest territory, and located on Kinnickinnick, which is now in Greene township, Ross county.  At that time there was not a family between his location and Cleveland, and only two white families between him and Chillicothe, which was six miles south,  He built upon Kinnickinnick the first mill in the Scioto valley.  He moved from his first location, in 1803, to the farm in Greene township, Ross county, now occupied by D. Crouse.
     During the war of 1812 he was lieutenant in the Irish Gray company, and though he awaited the call of duty, his company was not called into active service.
     He was a man of moral and pious character, had been for a number of years a church member in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and was the leading spirit in the organization of the Mt. Union Presbyterian church, of which he was for a long time subsequently one of the ruling elders.
     William McCoy's first wife died, September 2, 1805.  She was the mother of seven children: William, born Nov. 26, 1795 - deceased Oct. 2, 1820; Alexander, born Jun. 16, 1797 - deceased 1877; James, born Feb. 2, 1799; Martha, born May 9, 1800 - deceased Oct. 2, 1814; Nancy, born Jan. 26, 1802 - now deceased; John, born Apr. 30, 1803,  and Joshua, born Apr. 2, 1805, now in Iowa.
     Mr. McCoy married, in 1818, as his second wife, Rebecca Wilson, and had by her three children:  Joseph, born Nov. 10, 1819; Martha, born Nov. 15, 1822; Harriet Ann, born Dec. 24, 1823.
     William McCoy, the pioneer, parent of these ten children, died August 27, 1823.
     It is our purpose to give of his son, James, a further account than the mere mention made of other descendants, for the reason that his long life has been prominently identified with the history of Pickaway county.  As we have said, he was born February 2, 1799.  He grew to manhood upon his father's farm, and lived there until after his marriage.  In his early life, he engaged in boating, and took several loads of flour and other provisions down the Scioto to the Ohio, and thence down the Mississippi to New Orleans.  He thus obtained, at the same time, his first knowledge of business and of the great world outside of the quiet farm home.  His first trip was made in 1819.  He took one hundred and seventy-eight barrels of flour and a considerable quantity of other goods; arrived safely at New Orleans, and sold them at a fair price, but to men who were dishonest, and from whom he was never able to secure the whole of the pay.  He started home June 8th, and arrived July 11th, having walked all the way from the mouth of the Mississippi, and passed through the trials of sickness, the danger of attack from Indians in the Indian Nation (now Mississippi), and the no less imminent danger of being robbed by lawless characters not of the red race.
     In 1821 he built a boat for his father, and in company with a man named John Grant, took the second trip to New Orleans.  They returned upon the steamboat; made what was called a quick trip, and were fourteen days and ten hours coming up the river from their starting point to Louisville.  In 1823 Mr. McCoy made his third commercial venture, this time going down the river upon a boat of his own, and carrying wheat and flour, on which he made a reasonable profit.
     Just after his return from this trip his father died, and the care of the family was, to a large extent, thrown upon him.  He devoted most of his time, after that, to farming, and was a hard worker and good manager.
     In 1825, on the eighth of November, he married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Nancy Entrekin, who was the sharer of his joys and sorrows, his failures and successes, until 1872.  She died, August 23d of that year.  James and Elizabeth McCoy were the parents of four children, two of whom are still living.  Martha Jane, born Aug. 22, 1826, died Sep. 4, 1829; John E., born July 30, 1830, married Phillip Anna Ferguson, and is now living in Lawrence, Kansas; Milton, born Dec. 9, 1838, married Catharine Crouse, and is living at Kinnickinnick, Ross county; Burton, born Nov. 24, 1842, was a musician of great natural genius.  He enlisted in the army, served as leader of the Second regiment band, and died in the service, from disease, July 8, 1864.
     After his marriage, James McCoy continued his occupation of farming.  He moved in 1826, on to the south half of section six, in Salt Creek township, and took up his home on a farm owned by his father-in-law.  There he remained, without intermission, until 1837, when he prepared to go west.  This project was defeated by money difficulties, brought about by the suspension of the banks.  He resumed work on the Salt Creek farm, and continued to reside there until 1839, when he removed to Circleville, and started, in company with Dr. Olds, in the business of pork-packing.  He remained in that business for two years, and then went into the mercantile business with Messrs. Olds and Baker, under the firm name of Olds, Baker & McCoy.  Seven years of his life were spent, with varying degrees of success, in this enterprise, and at the expiration of that period he retired, and purchased a farm on the Pickaway plains.  He followed farming, stock raising and dealing, acted as agent for land-owners, and engaged in several other employments, from which he realized, in the aggregate, a considerable sum of money.  Although Mr. McCoy has been an active, industrious man of business, and a good farmer, he has not, in his old age, a large accumulation of property or moneys, and this is rather creditable than not, for the cause is to be found in the many generous acts of the last half of his life.  He has the reputation of having done, quietly, a great number of substantial kindnesses, and has been, in every sense, a generous and liberal man to those persons and causes which have been in need and were worthy.  His life has been without reproach, admirable in its earnestness and simplicity.  He is a member of the old school Presbyterian church, and the house upon east Main street, where he has, these many years, taken part in worship, stands upon a lot which he donated for the purpose of its erection.  In politics, Mr. McCoy is a Republican, of Whig antecedents.

ADAM McCREA.

MATTHEW McCREA, one of the old time residents of Circleville, and one of the most active of its early business men, was born in the year 1792, in the county of Down, Ireland.  He was of Scotch ancestry, and the son of Adam and Martha McCrea, who were also the parents of nine other children, six sons and three daughters.  Matthew came to America with his brother Joseph, stopping first at Hagerstown, Maryland, where he remained two years.  In 1817 he removed to the village of Jefferson, Pickaway Co., Ohio, where his brother had previously gone, and was at that time clerking for Henry Neville.  Thomas Bell, of Circleville, hearing of Matthew's arrival, sent for him and gave him a place in his store, in which he was doing a large and prosperous business in general merchandise.  It was in Circleville that he met his future wife, Agnes, daughter of Hugh and Ruth Foresman.  She was of Scotch origin, and her mother was of the Slocum family, famous in connection with the Wyoming massacre and wholesale abduction.  She was born June 6, 1797, and married Matthew McCrea, September 16, 1819, four years after his arrival in this country, and two years after his coming to Circleville.
     Matthew McCrea established himself in business upon his own account in the fall of 1820, at the village of Jefferson.  He traveled all the way to Philadelphia on horseback to buy goods, which were loaded on the heavy, old-fashioned wagons, on Market street, and transported in that manner to their place of destination.  Not being satisfied with his location in Jefferson, Mr. McCrea purchased property in, and removed his building to, Circleville, in 1821, locating himself on the east side of the old circle, where he continued to prosecute a very successful business until 1828.  Being the owner of a considerable quantity of land, he then sold out his goods an devoted himself to farming for the remainder of his life, excepting a period of one year, in 1834 and 8135, when he was in partnership with S. S. Denny, in the dry goods business.
     Mr. McCrea was probably the first successful adventurer in transporting pork, lard and flour from Circleville, by the Scioto, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.  His first trip, in 1819, was made for his brother-in-law, Thomas Bell.  He continued this profitable, although somewhat risky enterprise, until his retirement from the mercantile business, making annual trips, and carrying pork, lard, flour, and other provisions to the great southern mart.  It was his custom after disposing of his stock in New Orleans, to sail for Philadelphia, where he purchased goods, before returning home, to sell during the ensuing year in his Circleville store.
     Mr. McCrea was a man of broad and generous nature, and of much dignity and perfect probity of character.  His hospitality seemed to have no bound.  His house was always open, and his friends, or for that matter, strangers, always welcome.  Ministers, and especially those of his own denomination, were guests whom he took an especial pleasure in providing for; and if the number of those who accepted his kindness, and the frequency of their visits afford any means by which to judge, we may be sure that they fully appreciated his entertainment.  He was a man in whom the people generally reposed the highest degree of confidence, and when he died, one attestation of this fact was shown in his having a considerable sum of money which he had been given to hold in trust.  As one of the founders of the first Circleville academy, he exhibited his interest in education, and gave the cause the practical assistance of his influence and pecuniary support.  He was for many years one of the trustees of this institution, and throughout its existence took great interest in its welfare and usefulness as he did of other institutions in their time.  Always upon the side of good morals and improvement, he became at an early day a strong and consistent advocate of temperance.  He was one of the very first to take the unpopular step of dispensing with liquor in the harvest field.  A man of strong and fine religious feeling, a quality, perhaps, in his Scotch blood - he was an active member of the Presbyterian church, and for twenty years or more a ruling elder.
     Politically, Mr. McCrea was strong Whig of the Henry Clay School.  He was, in 1845, elected by the legislature as associate judge of Pickaway county - a position which he held until his death.
     His life closed Sep. 4, 1874.  His widow is still living.
     The children of Matthew and Agnes McCrea were eight in number.  Three died in infancy.  The others were Adam, born Aug. 19, 1821; Joseph, born December 14, 1827; Evelline Amanda, born Mar. 24, 1829; William, born March 22, 1831; and George, born Dec. 9, 1834.  Of these Joseph and Eveline Amanda, are deceased; William is living in Illinois, George in St. Louis, and Adam in Circleville.

CAPTAIN SAMUEL W. McCULLOCH.  One of the bravest, most gallant and promising of that great arms of young men who fell in defense of their country in the war of the rebellion, was born in Circleville, Ohio, Feb. 17, 1835.  He entered the service as a private in Captain Sage's company, Forty-third regiment Ohio volunteer infantry, in October, 1861, and joined the encampment at Mount Vernon.  He was subsequently transferred, and promoted to a second lieutenantcy in Company D, Thirteenth Ohio volunteer infantry and followed that gallant regiment through all of its fortunes and misfortunes, participating in the great battles of Shiloh, Stone River, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge and , under Sherman, in all the engagements up to the time of his death.  While leading a charge, on the twenty-seventh day of May, 1864, Captain McCulloch was struck by a ball which shattered both of his jaws and lodged in his right shoulder, causing his death the following day.
     Captain McCulloch was regarded by his superiors in rank as an officer of great courage and skill, and the most important movements were entrusted to his execution.  His courage never failed him at the critical point, and had he lived till the close of the war, would have attained high rank and distinction as a military man.  He possessed great decision and energy of character; was intelligent and social, and his moral qualities were above reproach.
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THE MARFIELD FAMILY.
     John Marfield was a resident of the mining town of Bardenburg, on the lower Rhine, Germany, and was probably in some way connected with mining interests.  He was married to Elizabeth Spies, and at the latter end of the last century emigrated to America with his family, consisting of his wife and two daughters - Penelope and Hannah.  He located, soon after reaching this country, in Baltimore, Maryland, and successfully engaged in merchandising.  In Baltimore were born five more children - William, Catharine, Samuel, John, Henry, and Elizabeth.  All were reared in the school of domestic discipline and economy and simplicity of character.  The wife was a kind, warm-hearted, gentle, christian woman.  The father ruled with the rod - the mother with love.  Before the children grew to maturity their father died, but they enjoyed the love and affection of their mother until, ripe with a good old age, she passed away, in 1851.  the boys, as they grew to manhood.
     The regiment was largely recruited in Pickaway county, and contained the flower of the youth of the community.  It was organized in August, 1862, and soon after being mustered in, was ordered to the front to join the army which was being massed to operate against Vicksburg, Mississippi.  On Dec. 28th, General W. T. Sherman, in command, embarked his forces on the Yazoo river above and in the rear of the rebel army protecting that strongly entrenched citadel, and on the twenty-ninth charged their lines.  It was a day of slaughter and defeat.  Lieutenant Marfield fell, and was buried by his comrades near the battlefield.  The army retreated; but six months after, when General Grant captured Vicksburg, the same faithful comrades sought out and recovered the remains of their friend and officer, and they now rest in the beautiful Forest cemetery.  The name of Lieutenant James T. Marfield is held in dear remembrance, for he was, in every true sense a man.
     Samuel, Jr., the youngest son, whose portrait heads this sketch, after the completion of his collegiate course spent some time in foreign travel, visiting France, Switzerland, Germany, and the British Isles.  From 1866 to 1875 he was engaged in commercial pursuits as a wholesale grocer and produce merchant.  Dec. 18, 1867, he was married to Florence L., daughter of Dr. A. W. Thompson, of Circleville.  To them have been born five children: Dwight S., born Dec. 11, 1868; William T., born Aug. 30, 1870; George R., born Aug. 2, 1872; James T., born Mar. 24, 1874; Elizabeth Spies, born Feb. 28, 1875.  James T. died in infancy, Sep. 13, 1874.
     Dec. 1, 1875, Samuel Marfield, jr., assumed editorial direction and general management of the Circleville Herald and Union, shortly afterward changed to The Union-Herald, and April 1st, following, was appointed, by President Grant, postmaster of Circleville, both of which positions he occupies at this time.

WILLIAM MARTIN.  The subject of this sketch was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, May 6, 1800.  When quite small, his parents emigrated to Ohio and settled near Hillsborough.  Before many years elapsed, his father died, and before he was twelve years of age came the added misfortune own way to work out a living in a new country.  Perhaps this fact sharpened his mental capacity and taught him early to depend on his own efforts more than would have otherwise been the case, making him an exceptionally successful business man in after life.
     Soon after becoming twenty-one years of age he invested his savings in a trading venture to New Orleans by means of a flat-boat, which, at that early date, was the only manner of carrying the produce of the new country to a market.  His venture proved successful, and he went forward in business form this small beginning until, in a few years, while still a young man, he took a leading place among the great produce dealers and pork packers of Ohio.  He made Circleville his headquarters, and was an extensive shipper of pork and grain to New Orleans and the South.  He was well and favorably known on every steamboat and at every business point on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, between Portsmouth and New Orleans.
     About 1830 he formed a partnership with Samuel Rogers in the day goods, grocery, and produce business at Circleville, with whom he was connected until 1846.  In 1845 they engaged in the commission business in New Orleans, and at the end of that year Mr. Rogers retired from the business.  Mr. Martin then associated with himself Dr. Stockwell, formerly of Lafayette, Indiana, and continued the commission business at New Orleans, Cincinnati, and New York.  In 1850 he removed to Decatur, Illinois, where he died in April, 1879, aged nearly seventy-nine years.
     He was married, about 1825, to Miss Comfort Hopkins, of Pickaway county, from whom he derived some property, which assisted him in his early business enterprises.  They had six or seven children, nearly all of whom died in infancy.
     Mr. Martin was a shrewd, careful, methodical business man, and was very successful in his business ventures.  Besides this, he found time to store his mind with history, poetry, science, and politics.  He was well informed on the current events of the day, and had a vigorous mind, and a memory that retained what he read, so that he was able to converse intelligently upon any subject.  His convictions were strong, and he had a reason ready for the faith that was in him.  He was always ready to aid and assist the needy and unfortunate, and especially so when he saw a person making energetic efforts to help himself.  He has assisted many poor and deserving men to obtain a start in business life, sometimes losing money in the effort to advance the interests of others; but though this frequently happened, he did not lose faith in mankind, and ever stood ready to assist, with his means, a worthy man.
     Mr. Martin was of a class that is rapidly becoming extinct.  He was truly an "old fashioned gentleman," and was the personification of politeness.  He retained the old-time ideas of business integrity and honesty, which are now-a-days too frequently laid aside in the haste men make in the effort to become rich.  His obligations were always promptly paid, and his creditors satisfied in full of all their demands.  It would be well if the lessons taught by the lives of such men in everyday life were more fully heeded and patterned after by the men of the present day.
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  DR. KINGSLEY RAY.  The subject of this sketch was born in Munroe county, New York, Oct. 20, 1879.  He was the first of the children of Dr. John Ray, who settled in western new York about the year 1795, having emigrated from Massachusetts, when the country was an almost unbroken wilderness from Albany to Buffalo.  The first wife of Dr. John Ray was Betsey Kingsley.  In Ontario county he acquired a very good reputation as a physician, and died  at Pittsford, New York, at the age of forty-seven years.
     Kingsley Ray received his medical education at Dartmouth college, New Hampshire.  He was a pupil of Prof. R. D. Mussey, and graduated in August, 1821.  After spending two years in his native county, in the practice of his profession, he removed to Franklin county, Ohio, where he had a very successful practice for fifteen years.  From this county he went to Delaware, in the same State, remaining eight years, and thence, in the year 1845, to Circleville, where he now resides.
     For several years after he came to Ohio, there was not a bridge across a stream in Delaware and Franklin counties.  The roads were in such a condition as to make it necessary to travel on horseback eight months in the year.  The month of September was known as the "sickly month."  The summer of 1823 was attended with an unusual amount of sickness throughout the state.  Violent remittent and intermittent fevers prevailed.  On the first day of September, 1823, which was one of the hottest of the season, he got on an doff his horse twenty-three times - several of his patients living miles apart.  But though the fevers, during that year were prevalent and so severe, yet the proportion of fatal cases was, by no means, as great as in the following year.
     In the early part of the doctor's practice, intermittent fevers were treated with various remedies, the crude Peruvian bark, which had then long been in use, being one of them.  But in April, 1842, there was brought to Columbus an ounce of quinine, of which Dr. Ray was so fortunate as to procure one-eighth part, for trial.  The introduction of this alkaloid, which contains, in its most condensed form, the medicinal principle of Peruvian bark, soon revolutionized the practice, not only of Dr. Ray was so fortunate as to procure one-eighth part, for trial.  The introduction of this alkaloid, which contains, in its most condensed form, the medicinal principle of Peruvian bark, soon revolutionized the practice not only of Dr. Ray, but of the entire medical fraternity.
     In the spring of 1826, having become thoroughly established in his professional practice at Worthington, Franklin county, our young practitioner returned to western New York, for the sake of bringing back a bride to his home in the then "far west."  This "chosen one" was Miss Mary Mason Lathrop, to whom he was married on the twelfth of March, at Lima, in Livingston county.  An account of the ancestry of this beautiful and accomplished woman may be found in her biography, recorded in another place.  At present we must confine ourselves to the history of the Ray family.
     The married life of Dr. and Mrs. Ray has been identified with the State of Ohio (that part of it which constitutes the Scioto valley) for more than fifty years; twelve years having been spent at Worthington, Franklin county; eight years at Delaware, and thirty-three years at Circleville.  While they have had their part in the hardships and discomforts incident to a professional life in a half-settled country, they have both seen, and participated in, the development and steady growth of the State, in the building up of churches, schools, libraries, and whatever else tends to the promotion and diffusion of truth.
     They have had eight children, only three of whom survive.  We give a necessarily brief notice of each:
     1. Elizabeth L., born in April, 1828.  She was a young lady of unusual talent, especially in music.  She married Mr. Handy; died July 20, 1861, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
     2. Frances Jane, born in June, 1830 - died in early childhood.
     3. Janette Miller, born in March, 1832; married Mr. Long in 1852.  She was of a sweet, domestic, christian character.  She died in New York city, Feb. 4, 1854.
     4. John Eleazer, born Feb. 16, 1834.  He was possessed of fine qualities of mind and heart.  Having a natural aptitude for finance, he was placed, at sixteen years of age with General Hoel Lawrence to learn the business of banking.  But, on the breaking out of the rebellion, he could not remain deaf to the call of his country, and entered the army in 1861.  He was made captain in the Thirteenth Ohio infantry; was wounded and taken prisoner at Stone River; fought through those terrible days at Chickamauga.  After the battle of Chickamauga, he resigned his commission as captain in the Thirteenth Ohio volunteer infantry at Jonesboro, Georgia, and returned to his chosen profession, in which he had no superior.  He had a finely cultivated mind, and a kind an sympathetic heart.  He was a churchman from principle, and at Winona, Minnesota, where he last lived, he contributed much, both in time and money, toward the completion of the beautiful Episcopal church in that city of which he was elected junior warden.  He died in New York City, Mar. 8, 1876. 
     5. David Brainard, born Mar. 25, 1836.  He was graduated with fair scholarship from Kenyon college, when nineteen years old.  Then, with boyish enthusiasm  he went west, where he had a rather trying experience in locating land as a "squatter."  Concluding that that was not his fort, he taught for a while at Galena, Illinois, doing church work with and for Dr. Benedict, rector of the Episcopal church in that city.  Then he accepted a professorship in the military institute at Frankfort, Kentucky, but resigned on account of the civil troubles in 1861.  He then settled down to the study of divinity in the "Divinity School" at Phiadelphia, and for ten years has been the devoted and successful rector of Grace (Episcopal) church, at Harlem, New York city.
     6. Leigh Richmond, born in October, 1839.  He is a man of integrity and christian principle, leading an unmarked but useful life, at Zanesville, Ohio.
     7. Louisa, born in January, 1842.  She married the Rev. J. F. Ohl, in 1862, who is now rector of the Episcopal church, in Zanesville.
     8. Edward Mason, the youngest, born in January, 1846; a lovely child who died at the age of seven years.
     Mr. and Mrs. Ohl have five children, named, in the order of their birth, as follows:  Josiah K., Frank McK., Louisa R., Frederick Robertson, and an infant, to be named Mary, after her maternal grandmother.  At the late commencement at Gambier his alma mater conferred upon Mr. Ohl the honorary degree of doctor in divinity.  Mrs. Ohl is an energetic woman and a good and prudent mother.  Possessing as she does, large executive ability, there will be no lack, in her life-work, of a comprehensive activity.  She will be known most in the rearing of a christian family, in planning for the relief of the poor, and in the various benevolent works of the present day.
     Mr. Ray, the patriarch of the goodly family so hastily sketched above, is still, though in the eighty-second year of his age, in good health, and in the full possession of all his mental and physical faculties.  Since the close of the war he has not practiced in his profession; but the pleasant competence by which his old age is surrounded, and the grateful affection with which his many patients continue to speak of him (some of them alive to-day humanly speaking, through the exercise of his care and skill), bear ample testimony to the success of his professional career.  In his deportment toward his patients he was attentive and sympathetic.  From principle he always responded to the calls of all classes alike, and he was never known to oppress those who were in straitened circumstances.  The money on his uncollected bills would have made him a richer man in this world, but he is quite content that it should be added to the treasures laid up for him in the world to come.
     During the last thirty years he has been a member (active, consistent, and liberal) of the Episcopal church, and he is looking forward, with the calm assurance of a christian hope, to the time, now in the course of nature not far distant, when he and the loved companion of his youth shall rejoin their children and their pious ancestors and friends, who have preceded them to the blissful repose of paradise.
Source:  History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Published by Williams Bros. 1880 - Page 236

MRS. MARY M. RAY.  Mrs. Mary Mason (Lathrop) Ray is descended from a long line of Puritanic ancestry, reaching back seven generations, on the maternal side, to Major John Mason (1630) who, besides holding many public offices of trust, successfully subdued the Pequot Indians, and secured peace to the colony of Connecticut.  Succeeding generations of the Mason family have furnished honorable names to New England history - such as the late Hon. Jeremiah Mason, of Boston; the late Hon. Theodore Sedgwick, also of Massachusetts; the late Mrs. Elijah Boardman, of Milford, Connecticut; the Hon. George P. Marsh, of Vermont, author, and resident minister to Florence, besides many others.
     On the paternal side, the first ancestor known was (five generations back) named Hopestill Lathrop (or Lathrop), who, with his wife, Elizabeth, lived in Tolland, Connecticut, during the first years of the last century.  Their son Melatiah, and his wife, Mary Hatch, with a family numbering nine sons and seven daughters, moved to Duchess county, New York..  The unique, and almost ludicrous adherence of those old Puritans, with large families, to the practice of giving Scripture names to their children, is seen in this family - the nine sons alluded to being named as follows:  Simon, Walter, Meletiah, Ezra, Ichahod, Josiah, Ebenezer, John and Eleazer.  Of these, Simon was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch.  They all, as well as their seven sisters, lived to old age, and of their posterity it may truly be said, "their name is legion."  Successful men, as tillers of the soil, this hardy brotherhood has left a rich legacy to the succeeding generations now spread over all the land.  Strong christian principle, intellectual strength, patriotism, temperance, and more than ordinary domestic virtues are the distinguishing characteristics of this race.  Among the have been many scholars, and literary men, college professors, etc., for whose names, even, we can not find space.
     Philander Lathrop, one of the fourth generation from Hopestill Lathrop, and father of "our heroine," was born in New Canaan; State of New York, in 1776.  He emigrated, when a youth, to Hartford, Washington county, where he was employed as merchant's clerk by his brother-in-law, Daniel Mason, esq., and afterward became a partner with him in business.  In 1798 he married Elizabeth Mason, of Franklin, Connecticut, the venerable Samuel Nott, D. D., officiating.  They had four children, of whom only the youngest, now Mrs. Dr. Ray, survives.  We have room for no more than a very brief sketch of this family as follows:
     1. Horace, born in January, 1880; he is well remembered in Columbus, the scene of his business life, as Dr. Horace Lathrop, a man learned in his profession, endowed with rare mental gifts, especially with that of an engaging and graceful conversation.  He died of cholera in 1849, leaving a daughter, Mrs. J. D. Osborn, of Columbus, and a son, Martin D. Lathrop, of Chicago. 
     2. Eliza Maria, born April 16, 1801.  In early womanhood she married the Rev. Eleazer Lathrop, a distant cousin, of the same original stock.  She was a woman of rich endowments of mind, and the associations of her married life were favorable to a large christian development.  She and her husband both died in 1834, leaving an only son, Henry D., five years of age, who (being a natural scholar), by dint of hard labor, in teaching others, and hard study in teaching himself, secured his baccalaureate degree at Gambier, about the year 1848.  Some years later he studied theology in that same well-known "school of the prophets," which also, subsequently made him a doctor of divinity.  After filing various important and useful situations (for the enumeration of which we have neither time nor space) he accepted a call to the rectorship of the Church of the Advent, San Francisco, where he spent eleven successful years as a faithful laborer in the sacred ministry.  Now, his fifty-first year finds him at the head of a flourishing school for girls at Eureka, Humboldt county, California, where he is also rector of the parish.
     3. John Mason, born in September, 1804, a promising youth, who died at the age of twenty-one years, leaving no other record than that of an amiable and good life.
     4. Mary Mason (now Mrs. Ray), born in Hartford, Washington county, New York, in 1806.  In 1815, her father moved to Lima, Livingston county, where they continued to live until she married Dr. Kingsley ray in 1826, and emigrated to Ohio.
     The early years of Mrs. Ray were spent in a country home, where her time was divided between attendance at the common district school, and the duties of home-life on a farm.  This part of her history serves to show that the intellectual and social graces flourish as well when grafted upon the native stock of a country training, as when reared exclusively in a city atmosphere, which has been thought to be best adapted, if not, indeed, absolutely essential to their germination and growth.  At the age of fourteen she was sent to a select school in the town of Lima, where the advantages previously enjoyed were enlarged by the addition of history, rhetoric, chemistry, etc.  At seventeen she went to Geneva, New York, to attend a classical school (which has since grown into Hobart college), under the very able management of the Rev. Dr. McDonald, the Rev. John Alonzo Clark (author of "Walks about Zion"), and others."  Being always inclined both to study and observe, these opportunities were not misimproved - one and a half years closing the period of her school life.
     And the age of fifteen Mrs. Ray connected herself with the Presbyterian church; but, in later life, she found, along with her husband, what has proved to them a more congenial home, in the church known as Protestant Episcopal.
     In May, 1872, she visisted Washington city, Baltimore, and various localities in Virginia; and in December, of the same year, she left the Atlantic seaboard for a trip across the continent, and a visit to San Francisco, in company with her nephew, the Rev. Dr. H. D. Lathrop.  The novel scenes, incidents, and experiences of that trip, and of her seven months' residence on the Pacific slope, were to her a source of almost youthful enjoyment, and added largely to the intellectual treasures which render her conversation so charming and instructive.  For, like her gifted brother, the late Dr. Horace Lathrop, she excels in that enviable talent, which makes her society a source of perennial delight to her friends.  During her residence in California she became deeply interested in the "Chinese problem," taking active part in a mission Sunday-school, organized for the benefit of young Chinamen.  She takes a more hopeful view of their future in this country, than is usually entertained.
     Mrs. Ray devotes herself, with active zeal, to every benevolent enterprise which commends itself to her judgment and conscience; and even those who disagree with her as to questions of policy, cannot but express their admiration for the heroic courage which often characterizes her zeal.
     We close this imperfect sketch with the following tribute to Mrs. Ray, by one of her devoted friends:
     "A good and useful woman, with most remarkable endowments of mind and character, improved by high christian culture, producing those graces that adorn society, the church, and the world - such is our friend to those who know her well.  We who thus know her feel the power of her single, earnest faith - the calm might which it inspires - the beauty and reward of a life 'hid with Christ in God.'
     "She is a tower of strength to the friendless and sorrowing; wise and prudent in counsel, ready for every good word and work.  We might speak of her noble ancestry - their noble deeds - the chivalry and valor of the men nurtured by mothers fit to inspire sons with the spirit of a noble life - a life that makes 'the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.'
     "We feel more than the words can express, while drawing this brief sketch of one who has made us welcome at her ingleside, and infused into her hospitality so much sweetness and christian courtesy.
     "May she live long to bless her husband, children and friends.  And when the last Saturday night comes, that brings her in from life's week of toil and care, may it usher in for her the eternal Sabbath of rest, in those celestial gardens where angels walk and seraphs are the wardens.
Source:  History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio - Illustrations and Biographical Sketches - Published by Williams Bros. 1880 - Page 238

  WILLIAM RENICK.  The genealogy of the Renick Family is only traditional.  We learn from it that the progenitors emigrated from Germany, with many other families, to Scotland, to escape the religious persecution that then prevailed in the former country, and after a time, a part of them at least, removed to Colevain county, Ireland.  In the meantime, the name had undergone a change from Rienwich to Renwich, probably to suit the dialect of the country.  In the process of time, one of them was created a peer, and he purchasing all the property of his two brothers, they, with their father, emigrated to America.  But a peer not being able to pay the purchase money at the time, engaged to send it to them within a specified period, which proved a fortunate arrangement for the brothers, as the vessel in which they embarked was robbed by the pirate, "Black Beard," but the money came safe to hand at the stated time.
     We here narrate an incident, said to have occurred on the passage.  When the pirates boarded the vessel the old man Renick was asleep.  The noise awakening him, he started to find out the cause of the confusion.  He encountered the robbers in the act of opening a box of candies, and he exclaimed "Hoot toot; what is all this fuss about."  The pirates said they would stop his mouth, so they thrust a candle down his throat.
     The brothers, with their father, first settled in eastern Pennsylvania - at least, until their money came.  Afterwards they removed to Hardy county, Virginia, on the south branch of the Potomac river, and from that point their descendants scattered in various directions - some south to the James river, others to Gambier county, Virginia, and others still to the States of Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio.  In the meantime the name had undergone two more changes: from Renwich to Rennick; and then later, one of the 4's was dropped, making the name spell, as at present, Renick.
     There are traits of character in this large family which with propriety, may be termed characteristic.  Although the family has been in the country more than two hundred years, and scattered over many different and widely distant localities, in all of which, it is believed, could be found men of wealth and large influence, yet there appears to have existed among them from the first a singular unanimity of sentiment in eschewing a political life.  It is apparent that they have uniformly been well nigh devoid of political aspirations, but seemed rather to have preferred a mote retired, unpresuming and independent life, whilst of many of them it can be said with more assurance, that they have been, for the past two or three generations at least, very active, enterprising and highly public-spirited citizens, taking an active, if not a leading part in every scheme or enterprise that presented a fair promise of resulting beneficially, either to their respective localities or communities in which they resided, or to the country at large.
     William Renick, who was a direct descendant of the emigrants, was born and raised in Hardy county, Virginia, and was for a time deputy surveyor under Lord Fairfax, in surveying the southeastern counties of Virginia.  By some accident he had his compass broken, and had to cease work until another compass could be ordered from London, England, which consumed some five or six months.  His grandson, William Renick, of Circleville, Ohio, now has the latter compass in his possession.  It is probably one hundred and twenty-five years old.  William Renick had four sons and four daughters.  The sons, Felix, George, Thomas, and William, came to the Scioto valley, from 1797 to 1803.  All of them, previous to their final settlement, secured large and valuable tracts of land.  The daughters all married, but remained in Virginia.
     Thomas Renick and his wife both died the same day, in August, 1804.  William died in 1845, aged sixty-four years; Felix died in 1848, aged seventy-eight; and George died in 1863, aged eighty-seven years.  George had three sons and three daughters.  The sons, William, Josiah, and Harness, finally settled in Pickaway county, respectively, in 1826, 1828, and 1832; but all had done business in the county for years before, and have all been residents of the city of Circleville for many years.  Mrs. N. J. Turney one of the daughters, has also been a resident of the county and city for over thirty years.  The other two daughters, Mrs. J. M. Terry, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Hugh Bell, of Chillicothe, were at least one time also residents of this county.  All the above mentioned sons and daughters of George Renick are still living.
     William Renick, the oldest son of George Renick, and subject of this sketch, was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, November 12, 1804.  He commenced doing an extensive business at the early age of fifteen and a half years, on account of his father's delicate health at the time, imperatively requiring the assistance of his son.  This circumstance necessitated an abrupt relinquishment of the son's further attendance at school, before his education, as had been originally designed by his father, had been completed, which was to have been a full classical education.  At his majority he entered into active business life on his own account.  His occupation was that of a farmer, including that of raising, grazing, and feeding of cattle on rather an extensive scale for those days, feeding some seasons as high as three hundred head of cattle in one year, on corn grown on his own land.  Besides this he has driven and whipped to an eastern market a very large number of fat cattle in his time, and is now the oldest living drover west of the mountains, if not in the United States, having begun that occupation as early as the year 1802.
     He purchased and brought from Texas twelve hundred head of cattle, in 1854, the first lot of Texas cattle ever brought north, at least, in large numbers, and was considered the pioneer drover in that trade, that has now grown to such enormous proportions.
     He was also the inventor of the present mode of constructing turnpike roads.  For nearly three years he constantly importuned the directors of the Columbus and Portsmouth company, and finally succeeded in inducing them to adopt his plan, which from its cheapness and usefulness, ahs long since been the only plan of construction of all turnpikes now built in the west.  Hitherto they had been too costly for private enterprise.  This was the first road built of the kind, and it was only because the means could not be raised to build any other kind of graveled road, that the plan was adopted, not that the directors approved the plan.
     William Renick is a staunch Republican, and his articles to the press on the "Currency of the Country,"  "The Dollar of the Daddies,"  "Revenue Tariff,"  "Free Trade", Banks and Banking System," etc. have done much to mold popular opinion.  HE is a ready writer, and his communications on "Blue Brass," "Shorthorns," "Thoroughbred Cattle in Ohio," "Early Cattle Trade in Ohio," etc., have been widely circulated and read throughout the country.  Altogether, his life has been a very active, enterprising and highly public spirited one, although he has labored all the time from early age under the dire misfortune of a partial, and for the last twenty-five years, a total want of hearing.  Mr. Renick has been three times married, but has no living children.  His only son died in 1855, at the age of twenty-eight years, but unmarried.

SAMUEL ROGERS.  During the closing quarter of the last century, a considerable body of Germans, from Pennsylvania, attracted by the beautiful and fertile lands on the tributaries of the Shenandoah river, settled near Winchester, in Frederick county, Virginia.  In that settlement, about the year 1798, Samuel Rogers, the subject of this sketch, was born.  He was a German ancestry on his mother's side, and the prominent traits of his character were an inheritance from his mother's stock.
    Although occupying a region highly favored by nature, and rich in agriculture resources, a number of these settlers, early in the present century, imbued with the restlessness so characteristic of the pioneers of this country, resolved to seek new homes in the young State of Ohio, and accordingly emigrated thither about the year 1806, locating in the neighborhood of the town, then in Fairfield, but now in Franklin county, known as Canal Winchester; the word "canal" being added to the name of this place many years subsequent to its foundation, to distinguish it from another Winchester in Guernsey county, Ohio.
     The father of Samuel Rogers had died, and he accompanied his mother, who had married again, and his step-father, among the Virginia emigrants, to Ohio, and, although then but eight years of age, endured his full share of the severe trials of pioneer life.  The energy, intelligence, and skill with which he performed the duties of his first employment - a hired hand upon a farm - secured for him, a few years later, the friendly interest of William and Christian King, then leading merchants of Lancaster, Ohio.
     His father, not needing his services himself, hired him to a neighboring farmer when he was, probably, about ten yeas of age, by whom he was set to hauling logs for firewood, from the forest, with a team; having no assistance in the work, but required, by his own skill, to load the logs upon a sled, upon which they were drawn to the wood-pile.  While engaged in this occupation, one of the Kings, in passing along the road, was attracted by the success with which a task so difficult and unusual for so young a lad, was performed; and, stopping to speak to him, was so much pleased with his intelligent deportment, that he became at once very much interested in him, and during this or some subsequent interview, asked him if he would not like to be a store-keeper - a question which he promptly answered in the affirmative.
     In 1810, when about twelve years of age, he entered the store of a Mr. Crockett, of Lancaster.  How long he remained there is not definitely known, or what agency, if any, Mr. King had in securing him the situation.  Within a few years afterward, however, and while he was still a mere lad, he was taken into the employment of the firm of King & Bro.  Here he devoted himself closely and faithfully to the discharge of his duties, gaining the entire confidence of his employers immediately.
     The following incident will show the extent of responsibility, remarkable for one so young,  with which he was unhesitatingly trusted, and will also illustrate the sagacity, and the energy and decision of character he already evinced:
     In the early history of Ohio, commerce yet retained a great deal of its primitive character.  Merchants were, to a considerable extent, compelled to barter their goods for the products of the country, instead of selling them for ready money.  In the usual course of business the wheat received in exchange for goods was ground into flour at the country mills, and then shipped on flat-boats to New Orleans to be marketed. In the spring of 1817, the firm of King & Bro. had accumulated a quantity of flour which they proposed to send to market in this way, transporting it on wagons from Lancaster to Circleville, where flat-boats were constructed to carry it to New Orleans.  Before the preparations for shipping the flour were completed, the supercargo was disabled, by an accident, and it became necessary to select one to take his place.  The Kings offered the responsible position to their young clerk, who, with promptness, accepted the trust.  He made the long voyage successfully, arriving at New Orleans to find the yellow fever raging there.  The panic-stricken population had almost entirely abandoned the city; business was utterly prostrated, and there was no market for the flour.  No magnetic telegraph or rail roads then existed, and communication by mail was slow and uncertain. It was impossible to delay action until the owners of the flour could be heard from.  Some of the hands who had accompanied Mr. Rogers were attacked by the fever, and others deserted him.  The emergency was one which called for prompt and decisive action, in order to prevent a ruinous, if not a complete loss; and having learned, through a commission house in New Orleans, that flour commanded a good price in England, he at once resolved to ship his cargo to Liverpool, and to make the voyage himself, keeping charge of the property committed to his personal care.  He chartered a vessel, accordingly, and ordered the flour to be put on board, but was stricken down by the prevailing disease,
while superintending the work.  He did not, however, abandon the voyage, but notified the captain that he would come on board as soon as the vessel was ready to sail.  The captain was not willing to permit him to do so, and sent him word to that effect.  Upon receipt of this reply, learning that the vessel was loaded, although greatly prostrated by the fever, Mr. Rogers hired some colored men to carry him on board the vessel, on a blanket, which they did, and dropped him on the upper deck.  He then said to the captain, in his characteristic quiet, but determined way, “Sir, I want you to sail at once for Liverpool, in accordance with the terms of the charter party which I hold.  If you do not comply I will discharge you, and hire a captain and crew who will do so; for the purpose of this voyage I own this vessel."  The captain, overawed by the firm bearing and decided language of the young supercargo, hastened to obey his orders, expecting nothing else, however, than that he would shortly have to throw his dead body overboard.
     The captain and crew kept aloff while the vessel was passing down the Mississippi to the gulf, rendering him no assistance, except to hand him, every morning, on the end of a knife, a dose of calomel, and push a pitcher of lemonade with his reach.  Upon entering the gulf, finding him still alive, the captain subjected him to the following heroic treatment:  Passing a rope from a yard-arm of the ship under his arms, he caused him to be drawn up until his body was erect, and then had the seamen pour buckets of water over his head until he fainted.  He was then laid down on the deck of the vessel, where he slept long and soundly, and when he awoke the fever had left him.  He now rapidly recovered his health, and in due time arrived at Liverpool, with his cargo fo flour, which he disposed of at a price which made a handsome profit for his principals.
     The fact that an American merchant was in Liverpool, from the distant wilderness of Ohio, at a time when less was known of the geography and our western frontier, by even the most intelligent Europeans, than is now known of the interior of Africa, or the jungles of India, excited great interest in that city, and the mayor paid him the high compliment of inviting him to dine with the leading merchants of Liverpool, a circumstance which speaks well for the impression which he must have made by his personal bearing and intelligence, upon the business men of that great emporium.  It will be remembered that he was then only nineteen years of age.  Unfortunately, the sale of his cargo upon profitable terms did not end the difficulties which attended his venture.  Upon applying to his consignees for the money due upon the balance of account, he was informed, to his astonishment, that the entire proceeds had been drawn for by his commission merchant, at New Orleans, his signature having been obtained, under some pretence, during his illness, leaving him without even the means for returning home.  He determined at once to return to New Orleans to recover the money, if possible; and the merchants to whom he had sold the flour, had formed so favorable an opinion of him that they voluntarily loaned him three hundred dollars for his traveling expenses.  Fortunately, the captain of the vessel, in which he had gone to England, was just ready to sail for New Orleans, and Mr. Rogers embarked with him.  The captain had formed a warm friendship for him, which was destined to be of great service to him in this emergency.  He received, upon arrival in New Orleans, nothing but evasive replies from the commission merchant, whose shameless dishonesty had given so unexpected a turn to his venture; and it seemed probably that a settlement could be effected only by a protracted litigation.  His friend, Captain McGregor a bluff and resolute Scotchman, took a very earnest interest in the result, and determined to render all the assistance in his power in bringing the matter to an immediate close, by some satisfactory adjustment.  He was an older man, and although, perhaps of no more bold and decided character or capacity to meet difficulties than his young friend, was a man of wider experience in life.  He accompanied Mr. Rogers to the hotel where the commission merchant was living, and finding him in his room, locked the door, putting the key in his pocket, and pointing a loaded pistol at the scoundrel, said to him, "Sir, you understand what we are here for."  Refusal to comply was evidently dangerous, and payment of the amount of the claim was promptly offered, by a draft on New York.  The draft was, conditionally, accepted, and learning by enquiry of bankers in New Orleans that the draft was considered good by them, Mr. Rogers sailed for  New York to collect it.  Upon his arrival the draft was duly honored, and he set out upon the journey homeward, having purchased a horse to carry him back to Ohio.
     Meanwhile, the Kings had heard nothing of his bold undertaking.  Owning the fact that he was prostrated by yellow fever, while preparing to embark for Liverpool, he had been unable to write before leaving New Orleans.  Persons who had been with him at New Orleans, reported that he had been attacked by the fever, and that both he and the flour had disappeared, and, receiving this report, the Kings did not doubt but that he was dead and the flour lost.  It happened that about the time Mr. Rogers was leaving the east for Ohio, Christian King set out from Lancaster for Philadelphia, also on horseback, to purchase a stock of goods for his store.  Although a very intelligent man, Christian King had been reared in the prevailing superstition of the Pennsylvania Germans in those days - a belief in ghosts.  When, therefore, one day, as he was riding along the lonely road across the Alleghenies, late in the evening, he met his young clerk, riding towards him on horseback, he did not for a moment doubt that he saw an apparition.
     His further astonishment, when he heard the familiar voice in which he was addressed, can be imagined.  Convinced of his mistake, and becoming satisfied that the man he saw was actually in the flesh, he dismounted, embraced him with wild delight, covering him with kisses, in the good old German fashion, and almost crushing him in his brawny arms, being a man of large frame and great physical strength.  The story of the shipment of the flour to Liverpool, its sale, the attempted swindle of New Orleans, and the ultimate and fortunate outcome of the operation, the proceeds of which Mr. Rogers had with him, was soon told, and he accompanied his grateful employer back to Philadelphia, where the latter introduced him to his mercantile acquaintances, recounting, with great satisfaction, his adventure, and where, with this unexpected increase of means (some four thousand dollars - a sum of much more importance at that day than at the present time), a large stock of goods was purchased.
     The first exclamation of Christine King, as he listened to the narration of this adventure, was: "Sammy, by the heavenly God, I will set you up in business!"  He was as good as his word, and, upon their return to Lancaster, Samuel Rogers, though not yet of age, was admitted as a member of the firm he had served so faithfully.
     He remained for some years at Lancaster, a partner of the Kings, when he resolved to enter into business on his own account, elsewhere.  For the purpose of obtaining information which would enable him to select a desirable business location, he made an extensive tour through the west, proceeding to Cincinnati, by way of Circleville and Wilmington, and thence to St. Louis, by way of Lawrenceburg, Evansville, and other towns.  During his trip which was made throughout the entire distance on horseback, he saw much of what was then our extreme western frontier, and made many observations which were of great value to him in his subsequent business career.
     Upon his return, he determined to locate at Circleville, regarding the place as one of the most desirable business points he had seen.  This choice was influenced by the fact that the Ohio canal was about to be constructed, a circumstance which he saw would give him a profitable trade at this point, with those employed in the construction of the work, and foreseeing that after that great internal improvement was completed, Circleville would continue to be an excellent point for mercantile business.  The fact of its proximity to Lancaster, where his business standing and credit, the friendship of the Kings and other acquaintances, would be a continued support, was also an important consideration.  The permanent prosperity of the place, its present wealth, and the fact that he was there able to accumulate a large fortune, by straightforward application and industry, is sufficient proof of the sagacity displayed in this selection of a business location.
     Having removed to Circleville, he was, on the fourth of April, 1826, united in marriage to Miss Juliet M. Hollister, of Chillicothe, Ohio, by the Rev. Mr. Claybaugh, of that place.  His wife was a lady of unusual intelligence, and possessed of many amiable traits of character and womanly virtues.  Her christian character is spoken of as having been one of singular beauty and consistency, and the proofs abound that the sincerity of her profession was practically and thoroughly manifested in her life by deeds of charity and a tender sympathy for all in her neighborhood who were suffering from sickness, sorrow, or any other adversity.  Her comparatively early death was sincerely mourned by the entire community, and her memory is warmly cherished by all who knew her.
     The subsequent incidents in Mr. Rogers' life are chiefly those common to the careers of enterprising and prosperous merchants in western towns.  He soon became, and was, for many years, one of the wealthiest citizens of Circleville, and, incidentally and directly, did much to promote the prosperity of the town and county in which he resided.  At an early day he engaged in the business of shipping grain and packing pork.  The firm of Rogers & Gregg was established,, at Circleville, immediately upon his removal from Lancaster, Mr. Noah H. Gregg his partner, having also resided at Lancaster.  The partnership lasted four years, when Mr. Gregg sold out to Mr. Rogers.  William Martin was subsequently, and for many years, until his removal to Decatur, Illinois, in partnership with Mr. Rogers at Circleville, and in New Orleans, where he established a commission and forwarding house, which did a very extensive business with shippers in the valleys of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries.  James H. Finley now of Chicago, Samuel H. Ruggles, R. D. Atwater, and others, were also, at later periods of his life, connected with him in business.
     Mr. Rogers was one of the first stockholders and directors of the old Circleville bank, and subsequently sustained the same relations to the Pickaway County and Exchange banks and the First and Second National banks, peforming his duties as a bank director with the same fidelity and diligence with which he discharged every trust imposed upon him.  He constantly kept in mind the fiduciary character of the position, and always remembered that he was the guardian, not only of his own interests, but of those of all the stockholders of the institution.
     He was not exempt from misfortune.  After a long and prosperous business career, in consequence of endorsements in transaction for the benefit of others, he was overtaken by reverses, such as, unfortunately, befall the great majority of all who engage in mercantile pursuits.  In these trying emergencies, his conduct was worthy of his character, and of his honorable name.  He at once surrendered, for the benefit of his creditors, all of his accumulated fortune, the result of so many years of laborious enterprise, without any reservation whatever, beyond the small exemption allowed by the strictest construction of the law, and his great misfortune was sustained with fortitude and a remarkable cheerfulness, such as could only result from conscious integrity.
     A marked trait in the character of Samuel Rogers, which is deserving of special notice, is that kindness of heart, which induced him to adopt the practice, early in his business career, of assisting young men, with whom he became acquainted, to begin business, by means of money and such recommendations as secured them the credit needed in making a start in business.  He adhered to this custom until the financial embarrassments, which came upon him near the close of his life, put it out of his power any longer to do good in that way.  There are still living many of those who experienced the benefit of his unselfish and generous aid, in beginning business for themselves.
     One of the first obstacles with which persons are apt to meet in making inquiries into the family history of the self-made men who have been, and are still, so numerous in America, is the difficulty of obtaining genealogical information.  It is not an infrequent occurrence for men who have attained eminence as business men or statesmen, to be unable to tell the precise time of their birth.  In such cases, too, knowledge of ancestry is also generally wanting.  These considerations must account for the absence of such facts from this sketch.
     Thrown upon the world when a mere child, the first lesson which Samuel Rogers learned, was that of self-reliance.  In those days, industrious habits were highly valued, and at a very early age children were called upon to share in the labors of their elders, to an extent now rarely known.  Owing to this condition of the society in which he was reared, the subject of this sketch had, in his youthful days, but few educational advantages; yet he, nevertheless, through his own exertions, became a man of very thorough mental culture.
     When a mere boy, Samuel Rogers attended a country school, in Virginia, for three months, during which time he learned to read.  Small as was his stock of school learning, it served as a key to unlock for him very extensive stores of knowledge.  When he was only twelve years of age, he took his place behind a counter; his circumstances being such that he was obliged to educate himself during the leasure moments he could snatch from the strict demands of his daily business.  He acquired a handwriting of that fine old style known as record hand.  Specimens of his writing, in books of account, and in letters, seen by the writer of this sketch, have almost the accuracy and beauty of engraving.  At an early age, he became, also, a thorough arithmetician, and an accomplished and scientific book-keeper.  He did not, however, limit himself to the acquisition of such knowledge, merely, as his occupation as a merchant demanded.  He had a taste for books, and, in the course of time, made himself familiar with many of the best classical writers in English and German.  He studied the history of our mother country in the pages of Hume, and upon the shelves of his quite extensive private library, he accumulated a valuable collection of standard author is, as the result of his longing to gratify a cultivated taste for literature.  He was a systematic reader of the best periodicals and public journals of the country; was a subscriber for De Bow's Southern Review, and Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, from the beginning of these publications, and also for many years, of the Eclectic Magazine, and thus, by means of a memory unusually retentive, he acquired a stock of knowledge in regard of topics of financial, commercial, and general interest, which rendered him a very interesting and instructive companion for such persons of culture as his extensive business transactions brought him in contact with, and it was only his singular modesty which kept his acquirements in this respect from being more widely known.
     Only his most intimate friends were privileged to know the full wealth of his mind.  His conversational powers were of a high order.  He was always listened to with interest, and what he said instructed as well as pleased.
     In his youth, he was carefully instructed in the principles of christianity, as taught in the Lutheran church, and was confirmed in that church in boyhood.  Upon removing to Circleville, he became a member of the congregation of St. Philips' church.  He was, from time to time, a member of the vestry, and frequently took an active part in the management of the parish.  The very modesty and purity of his character seem to have caused him to be reserved in the matter of participating actively in the spiritual work of the church, although he was always a regular attendant upon the services, and devoutly engaged in the worship of the congregation.  He often expressed his admiration of the beautiful liturgy of the Episcopal church, and of its wise and thorough adaptation to all the requirements of religious worship.
     In the spring of 1868 he removed to Chicago, to make his home with his son, William K. Rogers.  He suffered, however, a sudden attack of sickness, in the summer following, and died on the thirtieth of July, of that year.
     In his domestic life, Samuel Rogers displayed the best qualities of a husband, and a father.  His affectionate, devoted and noble traits of character in these relations were conspicuous.  The remembrance of his tender devotion to the members of his family, often inexpressibly touching to those who witnessed it, deserves to be cherished in the hearts of his friends, but properly forms no part of his public memorial.
     He was, by nature, a gentleman in his best sense of the word.  The grace and dignity of his manners resulted from an inborn grace of character, and the earnest desire, by which he was always animated, to deal justly, honestly, generously, and kindly, with his fellow-men.
     The memory of such a life should not quickly perish form among men, and this brief record is made by one who knew him well during the latter portion of his  life, with the hope of perpetuating some of its well-known incidents.  It is a story which belongs to the early history of our country; one which the altered circumstances of later times, changed as our social condition is in every material respect, will render less and less familiar - the story of the persevering toil and sterling merit by which one born to no advantages; without the aid and benefit of education at school; self-taught with respect to even the simplest rudiments of learning; with no resources, save his own innate force of character; no assistance, beyond that which his native worth secured, and for which he rendered always a full equivalent, advanced steadily and surely, step by step, through a long honorable and useful career, to all the substantial attainments that are of essential value in human life; leaving to his children the priceless heritage of his good name, and for all, to whom the memory of his life is, for any reason, of interest, an example worthy of regard.
- Pg. 244

SAMUEL H. RUGGLES of Circleville, Ohio, was born at Brownville, Jefferson county, New York, June 8, 1821.  His father, Samuel, and his mother, Anna H. Ruggles, are natives of Boston, Massachusetts.  In early and middle life, his father was largely engaged in foreign commerce, but in the war of 1812 he suffered severe losses by the capture of his vessels by the public enemy; and, soon after the close of that war, he removed to the northern part of the State of New York, where he engaged, in a reduced manner, in agricultural and mercantile pursuits, and died at Lowville, New York, in 1834, leaving his widow with a family of five children to support and educate, with very limited means.  Mr. Ruggles was, however, a woman of much force of character, and displayed her good judgment by maintaining her son, our subject, at the Lowville academy until he had obtained a good English education.  Then, and after her husband's death, she resolved to have that son seek, in this then comparatively new State, his fortune.  In 1835, with his uncle, General H. Lawrence, she therefore sent him to Circleville, Ohio, where he was engaged as a junior clerk in the mercantile house of Rogers & Martin, with no promise of compensation beyond his living.  Having, as the time went by, the natural longing of a lad who never before had been away from it, to return to his mother's home, he asked her consent to his doing so; but this she resolutely refused, and it is to this refusal ("the greatest trial of her life," as she subsequently characterized it on her death bed), that our subject attributes the 'beginning of his success in life; for, at the end of two years' faithful service in his business, his employers placed one hundred dollars to his credit, promised him promotion, as he deserved it, and one hundred and fifty dollars for the third year, with his board, lodging, etc.  Then it was that his ambition to excel was stirred, and he resolved to accumulate, by saving at least two-thirds of his salary, and by investment, carefully directed, have his little surplus fund afford him some revenue.  The result exceeded his expectations.  The firm noticed his attention to business, and earnest effort to accumulate by the saving of his salary, and the means be took to increase it; and, after serving them eight years in all, they took him into partnership, with one-fourth interest in their wholesale grocery, grain, and pork-packing establishment, and in 1845, following the engagement of the firm in the commission business in New Orleans, with an increased interest in it, he was placed at the head of the house in Circleville, and in a few years afterwards, purchased the entire interest of his partners there.  After 1852, retiring from the grocery and grain branches of his business, he devoted his attention almost exclusively to pork-packing until 1863, when, in the interest of his children, he began investing in farms and farm land lying in the vicinity, but remaining engaged in the pork trade, and so continuing during the subject fifteen years.  While not refusing minor civil and local office, Mr. Ruggles has invariably declined that which would interfere with his regular business.  Having shunned all speculative operations, indorsing the ventures of others, investments in fancy stocks, and joint stock companies, as, to use his own expression in speaking of these things, he would have shunned rattlesnakes, he has never sustained any of those losses which usually result from such engagements. 
     When Fort Sumter became the initial target for the guns of rebellion against constituted authority, he has among the first to assist in the fitting out of a company; and before the Federal armies had gained a single victory, he invested largely in government bonds.  Subsequently he assisted in the organization of the First and Second National banks of Circleville, in 1863, and was at once elected a director, and subsequently continued to be re-elected annually to such office.
     In 1859 Mr. Ruggles married Miss Catharine, daughter of the late Ralph Osborn, of Columbus, Ohio, a pioneer of distinction, and four children, Samuel Turney, Lizzie J., Nelson J., and Fannie M. Ruggles, have been the issue of this union.
     Though not a member of any church organization, Mr. Ruggles habitually contributes to religious and charitable objects, and also earestly interests himself in every public enterprise that promises to benefit the community in which he resides.
- Pg. 247

EDWARD SMITH.  The beneficent tendency of our free American institutions finds no more striking exemplification than in the successful career of Mr. Edward Smith and his younger brother, Joseph P., with whom he has been in partnership almost ever since he attained his majority.
     He was born in county Down, Ireland, September, 1826; his parents, Patrick and Rose Anna (Quinn) Smith, belonging to the honest and hardy yeomanry of that prolific isle.  While he was yet in infancy, his father emigrated with his family to Toronto, Canada, where the father died in the latter part of 1832.  For six years the heroic mother supported the family by her own exertions, thus, by her example, as well as by her careful training, cherishing in her boys those habits of industry and self-reliance which became the basis of their good fortune in after life.  In 1836 she married Bernard Riley, who was also from Ireland.  He seems not only to have been a good husband to her but also a true father to his step-sons, since they remained with him until his death, which occurred in 1850 - nearly three years after Edward became of age.
     In 1837, about a year after the mother's second marriage, they removed to Lockport, New York, where they remained a little over two years; and from that place, in June, 1840, they came to Circleville, which was to be the scene of their future labors and successes.
     Mr. Riley was a farmer, and accumulated considerable personal property by laboring for others, renting land or working it on shares, but never purchasing.  Previous to his death the two Smiths - Edward and Joseph had become familiar with the broom-corn business (in which they have since acquired both wealth and fame) by working for the Eaton brothers, the pioneers  in this branch of business in Pickaway county.  (For the details of this business the reader is referred to what is said of it under the head of "Manufacturing Interests," in another place.
     Immediately after their step-father's death, the two brothers purchased all his personal property at public sale, on a credit of nine months, John Boyer being the administrator.  They then rented land of Thomas Huston, which they cultivated one season on shares.  In November, of the same year (1850), Edward went with the Eaton brothers, who had left the broom-corn business and gone into iron mining n northern Michigan - to assist them in their operations, taking with him four horses and harness.  There he stayed till February, 1, 1851, when, having become satisfied that mining was not his "best hold," he sold out his horses and harness to the Eatons, and took their note in payment.  Then he and two other young men started, on snowshoes, for the lower part of Green bay, over eighty miles, camping out every night for a week, the snow being some five feet deep on an average.  From there he walked on the ice to Green Bay city, which occupied another week; thence by couch to Milwaukee, where he stayed over night, and the next morning started on foot for Chicago, where he arrived in about three days.  There he stayed over night and then took stage to Michigan City, which, at that time, was the farthest point west reached by rail.  There he took the cars to Columbus, and thence to Circleville by coach, arriving the latter part of February, having been three weeks making the trip.
     He immediately made arrangements to go to farming with his brother, working land one season for Mr. Huston partly on shares, and partly by the acre for three dollars per acre.  In the fall of that year (1851) Mr. George Chrysler, of Lockport, New York, came west to engage parties well acquainted with the business, to raise broom-corn for him.  He was referred to the Smith brothers, who entered into a contract to supply him with the corn from two hundred acres of ground.  In the following spring they rented this amount of land of Mr. Huston, which they cultivated in broom-corn that season, according to their contract.  The crop amounted to over seventy tons, which they baled and shipped to Mr. Chrysler, at Lockport, New York.
     This may be considered as the beginning of their remarkable career in the broom business, which has not only swept wealth into their own coffers, but has also swept want from the door of many poor and industrious families.
     An enumeration of the parcels of ground purchased by Mr. Smith at different times, and constituting his present landed estate, will not be uninteresting: the nine acres, in the center of which stands his fine suburban vilia, was purchased of John Cadlebaugh, Mar. 17, 1860, for one thousand six hundred dollars; Dec. 9, 1859, he bought of Governor Morgan, of New York, one hundred and ninety-seven acres, for thirteen thousand dollars; five acres, lying contiguous, in the corporation of Circleville, being added in 18652 bought of John Fleming, for five hundred and fifty dollars; June 2, 1862, he purchased of William Hughes thirty-eight acres, for two thousand five hundred and nineteen dollars; May 24, 1867, of the C. & M. V. R. R., eleven acres, for nine hundred and fifteen dollars and sixty cents; Nov. 14, 1867, of Dr. A. W. Thompson, fifty-six acres, for seven thousand eight hundred and forty dollars.  The land owned by the two brothers, in partnership, consists of one farm of five hundred and twenty acres, lying in Jackson and Wayne townships; the other, of three hundred and thirty-three and one-half acres, known as "The Robert Foresman farm," bought Oct. 9, 1869, belongs to E. Smith.
     Mr. Smith received his education in private schools in Canada and New York; also, for two winters, in the old public school of Circleville, and finished with one month's tuition under old Mr. Brittan, who, in 1847, had a private school over Samuel Rogers' store.
     He has never hand any political aspirations, but he has been, for many years, a member of the Circleville city council, and is now, for the second term, president of the corporation.
     He was married in February, 1855, to Sarah A. Lynch, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth (Sharkey) Lynch, who came to this part of Ohio about the year 1841.  Her father was a native of Ireland, and her mother of Pennsylvania..  Mr. and Mrs. Smith have had seven children, named) in the order of their birth) as follows:  Elizabeth and Rosa (twins), Mary, Joseph S., Anna, Edward E., and James I.  Of these, Rosa, Mary and Anna died in infancy.  The rest are still living.
     Mr. Smith is an active member and a most liberal supporter of the Roman Catholic church, as may be seen in the history of St. Joseph's church, Circleville, related on another page of this volume.
- Page 235

JOSEPH P. SMITH.  The reflections made in regard to the business character and career of Edward Smith, apply with equal force to his younger brother and partner, named above.  Though quite unlike, personally (Joseph having considerable the advantage of his brother in physical proportions), the brothers, nevertheless, strongly resemble each other in their sterling qualities of mind and heart.
     J. P. Smith was born in Toronto, Canada, in the month of March, 1831.  He followed the fortunes of his family, which have been briefly related in the biography of his brother Edward; and, at the age of nine yeas, found himself in Circleville, which was to be his home for nearly the whole of his subsequent life.  There he lived and labored with his step-father (attending school part of the time, during the winters) till the latter died, in 1850, and afterwards in partnership with his brother, till the early part of 1856 - when he removed to Berne township, Fairfield county, where he had rented "the old Thomas Ewing farm" for three years.  Here he devoted himself mainly to the raising of broom-corn, to which business it would almost seem he was predestinated by a sort of fatality which he could not escape.  But his devotion to his business, assiduous as it was, did not prevent him from giving due attention to another still more important the one, in fact, to which every business avocation in life should be held as merely subsidiary - viz.:  the formation of a home and the support of a wife and children.
     It was during these three memorable years on "the old Ewing place," that is to say, in the month of November, 1856, that he was married to Miss Susan P. Bish, in Lancaster, her native town.  Her parents, Martin and Magdelene Bish, were the good old Teutonic stock, having emigrated from Germany and settled in this part of Ohio, at an early day.
     The results of this marriage are shown by the following goodly list of children:  1. Edward S., born Aug. 31, 1857; 2. Mary M., born Aug. 16, 1850, died Sept. 24, 1860;  3. Francis C., born Jan. 27, 1862; 4. Cecelia C., born Feb. 13, 1864; 5. Charles, born Mar. 14, 1866;  6. William, born Mar. 27, 1868; 7. Susan, born Aug. 17, 1870; 8. Anna F., born Nov. 11, 1872; 9. Joseph, born Mar. 2, 1875; 10. Rose, born July 3, 1877.
     After his three years on "the Ewing farm," Mr. Smith came back to Pickaway county and carried on the same business, by himself, for one year, in Harrison township; after which, in 1860, he returned to Circleville and renewed, with his brother, the partnership which has continued ever since.
     It was in the spring of this year 1860 that he met with an exciting  and tragic adventure, which is well worthy of being put on record, and which shows that the ordinarily uneventful life of a farmer may sometimes become as perilous as that of those "who go down to the sea in ships, and occupy their business in great waters."
     Those who have seen the Scioto only in its placid moods, can have but a faint conception of what it is capable of becoming when swollen with rage by the torrents of rain which sometimes deluge the whole length and breadth of its fertile valley.  The freshet of April, 1860, will long be remembered by many of our readers who lost valuable property, or still more valuable friends, in its angry flood.  The land owned or cultivated by the Smths, west of the river, was nearly all inundated, and the whole country around had the appearance of a vast lake.  At a distance from the river the water had surrounded some barns and other out-buildings where was stored a large quantity of farm implements and property of various kinds.  Mr. Smith and three other men Joseph Levering, Wm. Monahan, and Daniel Carroll set out to see what they would do to prevent this property from being carried away.  They started from the aqueduct in a skiff.  Near this point the river had broken through the levee built along its western side to protect the low lands from inundation, but affording no protection against a flood like this, and the water, rushing through the crevasse made a stiff current away from the river for a long distance.  The boat, in getting out of the river into the lake beyond, fell into this rushing current, struck against the bank, was swamped, filled with water, and sunk.  Mr. Smith, who, one might think, would have, like Falstaff,  "a sort of alacrity in sinking." struck out boldly for a box-elder tree which stood some distance off, reached it, clambered up into it, and was saved.  Levering, trying to follow him, was swept away by the current and drowned.  Monahan first tried to save himself by climbing upon the levee, but the water washed him off and carried him past the tree in which Mr. Smith had saved himself, to the neighborhood of one a little farther down.  This he made a desperate effort to reach, but failed, and he, too, was drowned.  Carrol managed to cling to the boat, which had not sunk beyond his depth, and there maintained himself till help arrived and rescued both the survivors from their perilous situation.
     The estimation in which Mr. Smith is held by his fellow-citizens is seen in the fact that he has been elected several terms member of the city council.  He has also been township trustee, and is at present a member o the board of trustees of the State asylum for the insane at Columbus.  Like his brother, he is a devoted and liberal member of hte Roman Catholic church; is president of the St. Joseph's total abstinence society, and also of St. Joseph's benevolent society, in said church. 
     Besides the property held in partnership with his brother, Mr. Smith owns the beautiful private residence in Circleville, of which a fine lithographic view is given on another page of this volume.
     We should consider this family history incomplete if we neglected to state, in conclusion, that the excellent mother of these two remarkable men survived to a good old age to witness and enjoy their prosperity, being tenderly cherished in her declining years by her two grateful sons, who inherited largely from her those rare endowments which have made them not only successful business men, but also honored and useful citizens.  She died Oct. 13, 1877, aged about seventy-five years.  Her loss was not only deeply lamented by her sons, but by a large circle of friends.
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  P. C. SMITH

T. C. SMITH.  Talmer Cone Smith was born in Whitestown, Oneida county, New York, July 31, 1823.  His parents, Joseph Otis Smith and Harriet, nee Cone, Smith, were descended from the best New England stock - his father being named for his grandfather, Joseph Otis, who was a brother of the celebrated James Otis, of Boston.  Joseph Otis was descended from John Otis, who, with his family, came from Hingham, in Norfolk, England, in June, 1635, and Edward Doten, who came over in the Mayflower.  His great-grandfather, Ignatius Smith, emigrated from Wales to Massachusetts early in the eighteenth century.  His mother's family was of English descent, leaving England and settling in Connecticut, in the latter part of the seventeenth century.
     The subject of this sketch received a good academic education, working on the farm during the summer, where his father was born, and on which his brother, Mark H. Smith, now lives and owns, until he arrived at Majority, when he emigrated to Ohio.
     He studied law with the Hon. Henry W. Smith, of London; was admitted to the bar in December, 1846, by the old supreme court of Ohio.  He opened a law office in Circleville, Ohio, in April, 1847, where he has practiced ever since.  From 1849 to 1856 he was in partnership with Judge Thomas C. Jones, now of Delaware, Ohio.
     He was elected city solicitor in the spring of 1855, and re-elected in the spring of 1857, holding the office four years.  He was elected prosecuting attorney in the fall of 1855, and held the office one term.  He never sought for office but his great desire and aim was to wholly devote his time and energy to the labors of his profession.  He practiced in all the courts of Ohio and in the circuit and supreme court of the United States, meeting successfully the best lawyers in the State.  He has one of the largest and best selected law libraries in Ohio.
     In December, 1858, he married Miss Sarah Osborn, a daughter of Ralph Osborn, who was auditor of State from 1815 to 1823, and of Jennett, the eldest daughter of General James Denny, a gallant officer of the war of 1812.  Miss Denny's first husband was Dr. Daniel Turney.  The fruits of this union are three daughters - Jeannett S., Mary O., and Harriet O.
     During the war of the Rebellion T. C. Smith was a member of the military committee of Pickaway county, giving freely of his time and money to sustain the government in its time of need.
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  WILLIAM BARLOW THRALL

NELSON J. TURNEY of Circleville, was born in Circleville, Nov. 7, 1820.  Mr. Turney is a direct lineal descendant of a French Huguenot family, who were driven from France in the latter part of the fifteenth century by papal persecution, a short time prior to the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV.  Three brothers - Daniel, Peter, and Adam Turney - leaving a considerable property behind them, fled their native country, and landed in Philadelphia in 1668.  Nelson J. is a great grandson of Daniel Turney, the French refugee.
     Henry Turney, son of Daniel and grandfather of Nelson, removed to Shepherdstown, Jefferson county, Virginia, where he married a lady named Endley, of German descent.  The fruit of this marriage - six children - all died young, excepting Daniel, the father of Nelson, who was born at Shepherdstown, Aug. 16, 1786.  Henry removed from Shepherdstown to Chillicothe, Ohio, about the year 1800, where he followed the occupation of potter, and died in 1812.
     Daniel Turney, the father of Nelson, studied medicine at Philadelphia, and graduated there, and began the practice of his profession in the village of Jefferson, Pickaway county, in 1806.  Dr. Daniel Turney was married to Miss Janet Stirling Denny, a daughter of Major-General James Denny, Nov. 5, 1816.  The fruit of this marriage was four children - Henry, Nelson, Isabella, and Samuel - but two of whom, Nelson and Isabella (now Mrs. McCrea), are living.
     Nelson's maternal grandfather, General Denny, was one of the most prominent of the pioneers of the northwestern territory and of Ohio, and served with distinction in the war of 1812 with Great Britain.  He was of Scotch or Scotch-Irish descent, and was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, Sept. 11, 1767.  He was married to Miss Isabella Barr, of Wheeling, Virginia, in May, 1797, and removed thence to Marietta, in a Keelboat on the Ohio river, long before the era of steam navigation.  Mr. Turney's mother was born at Marietta, Apr. 11, 1798.  General Denny removed to Chillicothe in 1799, and to Pickaway county in 1807.  General Denny was a government surveyor and locator of government lands.  He owned the Fredonia newspaper, the first paper published in Pickaway county, in 1811 and 1812, the paper being edited by a Mr. Richardson.  In 1813 he was clerk of the courts in Pickaway county.  He entered the United States service in the war with Great Britain as a major, and rose, by promotion, through the several grades to the rank of major-general.  He was present, and was surrendered by Hull, at Detroit.  He died in Philadelphia, Nov. 23, 1815.  Few men of his time filled a larger or more honorable position in the history of the new State then did General Denny.
     The Huguenot emigrants to America contributed as much, if not more, in proportion to their number, to the culture and prosperity of their adopted country, as any other nationality.  They gave an impetus to the cause of independence during the long struggle of the infant colonies, and no less than three of the seven presidents of the Ppiladelphia convention during the revolutionary war were of Huguenot parentage; to wit, Henry Laurens, John Jay, and Elias Bondinot.  Wherever they settled, they and their descendants speedily became men of mark in some way in their respective occupations and professions.  In this respect Dr. Daniel Turney, the father of Nelson, fully vindicated the purity of his descent, and the superiority of the race, in the skill, intelligence, and energy with which he practiced his profession.  He was a surgeon in the United States army in 1812, and he rapidly attained eminence, both as a physician and surgeon, in the army and in his subsequent civil practice, where he was an arduous and successful practitioner.  His distinguishing characteristics were firmness and courage - qualifications indispensable to the successful surgeon.  To these qualities he added remarkable energy and zeal, and he followed his profession, as all successful men must - from an intense love of, and devotion to it.  A firm believer in the almost unlimited resources of medical science, he never relinquished his efforts to save while life remained.
     His thorough educational training and his ste4ady pursuit of the study of the diseases peculiar to the climate of southeastern Ohio, gave him a mastery over them, which was shown by his unusually successful practice; while his promptness and energy in alarming cases gave him a prestige in his profession which rendered his untimely death, which occurred in 1827, an almost irreparable loss, no less to the community than to his family.
     In manner Dr. Turney was unaffected, earnest and generous, having in his nature no taint of selfishness.  But on the contrary, he was liberal and considerate to all, ever regarding himself as the minister of the afflicted, whom he served often without the slightest prospect of compensation.  At the time of his death he left a widow and four children, the oldest but ten years of age.
     Nelson's brother, the late Dr. Samuel D. Turney who died in 1878, was an eminent man in his profession, having served with distinction during the war of the rebellion as surgeon of volunteers, and as medical director.  He was brevetted for meritorious and distinguished services.  He was also surgeon general of Ohio, under Governors Hayes and Noyes, and was also a prominent and popular member of the faculty of the Starling medical college, at Columbus, Ohio.
     Nelson was educated at the public schools and at the academy of Dr. Washburn, in Blendon, Franklin county.  By the death of his father, Nelson was thrown upon his own resources, and when fifteen year of age he was employed as a clerk in the Columbus post office, under Belah Latham, an intimate friend of his father, and the father of Hon. Milton S. Latham, one of the California millionaires of the present day.  In 1837 he entered the millionaires of the present day.  In 1837 he entered the long established house of Fay, Kilbourne & Co., of Columbus, of which firm the late Dr. Lincoln Goodale was a member, and the original founder.  Here he remained until 1840, when with his mother and her family he returned to his native town and entered the establishment of H. W. W. Bell, where he remained until appointed by the board of public works as collector of tolls for the Ohio and Erie canal at Circleville, and in that position he remained until a change of political management resulted in his being rotated out of office.  In 1843 he entered the employ of the celebrated firm of Neil, Moore & Co., the extensive and widely known stage coach proprietors.  In those days that firm wielded a power in the State and nation scarcely inferior to that now exercised by the larger lines of railway, as all the mails and passengers were transported from the seacoast to the Mississippi valley by these and similar lines of coaches; and, at the time of which we write, there were but two unimportant lines of railway in the State.  The reader, whose memory extends back to the days of stage coaches, cannot have yet forgotten the thrill of awe with which he gazed upon the huge swinging vehicle with its living load drawn by four shining, prancing steeds, as it whirled through the village streets, nor the stirring tones of the driver's bugle, which was wont to waken the echoes of the quiet night, with its note of warning to the drowsy hostler, or the still drowsier postmaster, warning them to be quick about changing horses and mails, under pain of the driver's severest displeasure, expressed in language more forcible than polished.  The drivers of those days, the only heroes of that time who remain bright in memory, have long been stranded in quiet church-yards, or forced to the far west by the over flowing tide of emigration and railway travel, where they may be occasionally found scaling the giddy grades of the Rockys and the Sierras, or dashing through the teeming California valleys.  Here, in Ohio, they exist only in the memory of the middle-aged citizen, whose boyish heart was wont to swell with pride, if he were in the enjoyment of a nod from the royal knight of the whip, and who would give a thousand miles of travel in a palace car to have one more swing at the tail of a flying coach, hanging to the streaming straps of the loaded "boot."
     While Mr. Turney was in the employ of the stage company a difficulty occurred with a Missouri company, and he was forthwith dispatched to Missouri with a full equipment of coaches and horses, to run an opposition line in that State, and bring the western company to a realizing sense of their temerity in assuming to run counter to the will of the more powerful Ohio corporation.  This prompt action of the Ohio company brought the Missouri company to terms when Mr. Turney had only reached Indianapolis, and he was at once ordered north with his outfit, and distributed the horses and coaches along the lake shore, between Sandusky and Detroit, where he established a line, with headquarters at Toledo, where he remained in charge of the business until the spring of 1844.  He then returned to Columbus, remaining in the employ of the stage company until the following year, when he removed to Philadelphia and entered the wholesale dry-goods house of Messrs. Miller, Cooper & Co., where he continued until the following year, when he returned to Ohio.  He was then married to Miss Dorothea Renick, daughter of George Renick, esq., of Chillicothe, and engaged in the mercantile business on his own account at Circleville, where he remained until he sold out his business and removed to Chillicothe.  In 1850 he returned to Pickaway county, where he engaged in farming on an extensive scale, giving his attention more particularly to stock-feeding.  Twenty years after, with the intention of retiring from all active business, he sold his farm and removed to Circleville, where he built the beautiful and commodious house in which he now resides.
     Mr. Turney still owns a farm of five hundred and twenty-five acres, lying a short distance west of Circleville, which is one of the model farms of central Ohio.  He has taken a deep interest in agriculture for many years, and has striven, by all proper means, to encourage a higher standard of excellence in farm management.  He was an active member of the county agricultural society from its first organization, and for many years its president.  He was also one of the most active and energetic members of the State board of agriculture from 1862 to 1870, and as president of the board during the years 1863 and 1864.
     Mr. Turney was largely instrumental in developing the turnpike system of Pickaway county, and built the Circleville, Darbyville and London turnpike.  He also superintended the building of the beautiful Masonic temple at Circleville, and was chairman of the committee of arrangements, June 2, 1879, on the occasion of its dedication, an event long to be remembered by the thousands of citizens of central Ohio who witnessed the imposing ceremonies and partook of the bountiful hospitalities of the Circleville Free Masons.
     Few of the citizens of Ohio enjoy in a higher degree the respect, esteem and confidence of hte people of Ohio than does Mr. Turney, and few are more deserving of confidence.  His life has been well filled with positions of honor and trust, the duties of all of which he has discharged with remarkable fidelity and rare good judgment; and, singularly, all of his more important positions have been without compensation.
     By appointment of Governor Brough, in 1864, he has a member of the military committee of his county during the most trying period of the war, when treason reared its horrid form at home to threaten and alarm.  In that position he was most devoted and self-sacrificing.  Whitelaw Reid, in his "Ohio in the War," fully realized the importance of that valuable adjunct to the State military force when he said:
     "The services of the military committees throughout the war were the valuable, as during all the years of the war there were enemies at home as well as at the front, who had to be met and overcome.
     As a member of his county commttee, Mr. Turney was actively engaged in providing for the raising and equipment of the various contingents of troops which Pickaway county was called upon to supply and otherwise aiding and sustaining the State executive in the darkest days of the civil war; and all this without other faithfully performed.  He was ever ready to respond to the calls of the governor to go to the front, where our stricken soldiers were languishing in hospitals, no matter at what sacrifice of time, or comfort, or pleasure.  He was also actively engaged in the field during the memorable "Morgan raid."
     In 1859 Mr. Turney declined the nomination to the Ohio house of representatives, and, in 1868, he was the Republican candidate for congress, but his district being overwhelmingly democratic, he was defeated by a strict party vote.  In his early youth and manhood he was a Whig in politics, and connected himself with the Republican party on its organization.  In 1872 he was a delegate to the Republican national convention which met in Philadelphia and nominated Grant the second time.
     In 1871 Mr. Turney was selection by Hon. Columbus Delano, secretary of the interior, to go as a special commissioner to investigate the business of the Indian agencies of the upper Missouri river, including the Yankton, Santee, Cheyenne, and Grand River Sioux, and subsequently the agency at Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the so-called "pine contracts" with the Menomonee Indians of Michigan.  In the fall of the same year, in company with Hon. B. R. Cowen, assistant secretary of the interior, and Colonel J. J. Woods, of Kansas, he appraised the Cherokee lands in the Indian Territory west of 96° west longitude.  In 1872, with Assistant Secretary Cowen and Major J. W. Wham, of Illinois, under appointment of the secretary of the interior, he visited the Teton Sioux, then under the leadership of the notorious Sitting Bull, and after spending three months near the upper Missouri river in Montana, with the wildest of the wild tribes, three hundred miles from any military force or station, and without escort or protection of any kind, led away three thousand of Sitting Bull's forces, and brought thirty of his most influential chiefs to Washington.  In 1873, he served as chairman of the special commission appointed by Secretary Delano to investigate the lumber contracts made between Hon. E. P. Smith, commissioner of Indian affairs (then agent of the Leech Lake Indians.), and A. H. Wilder, esq., of St. Paul, Minnesota.
     In 1871 Mr. Turney was appointed, by President Grant, a member of the celebrated board of Indian commissioners.  This board was provided for by an act of congress, and was to be filled only by men eminent for their philanthropy, who were to serve without compensation.  They exercised a great influence in the conduct of the business of the Indian office, and ably seconded the efforts of the president and Secretary Delano to introduce reforms in the Indian service.  The following named gentleman constituted the commission:  Felix R. Brunot, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, chairman; Robert Campbell, St. Louis; William E. Dodge, Nathaniel Bishop, New York; John V. Farwell, Chicago; George H. Stuart, Philadelphia; E. S. Tobey, Boston; John D. Lang, Maine; Nelson J. Turney, Ohio, and Vincent Collyer, of New York, secretary.  Mr. Turney served on this board until failing health compelled him to retire, in 1875.
     He was appointed by Governor Hayes as trustee of the Central Ohio asylum for the insane, and served until the Democratic legislature of 1874 legislated the board out of existence.
     On account of his well recognized business capacity and integrity, Mr. Turney was chosen assignee in bankruptcy of the estate of r. Lemuel Steeley, one of the largest estates in the Scioto valley.  His management of the large interests thus committed to his charge in the very midst of the severest financial depression the country ever experienced, is one among the many evidences of his ability.  To the satisfactory settlement of that estate his friends can always point with commendable pride. 
     Mr. Turney is unassuming in his manner, and somewhat undemonstrative in the expression of his opinions, but he is none the less firm in his convictions and unswerving in their support and advocacy.  He is brave and generous to a fault, and neither danger, threats, nor ridicule can swerve him from what he thinks the path of right; but he is, at the same time, considerate of the opinions and feelings of others.  In him the deserving young man, struggling for a foothold in the crowded occupations of life, has always found a friend, and while he has ever been liberal in his gifts and charities, few of his most intimate friends are aware of his charitable efforts.  Neither bigoted nor puritanic in his creed or in his life, he has yet so demeaned himself as that his work will be able to stand the test of hte Grand Overseer's square when it is presented for inspection.  In all the positions he has filled, no one has, even for a single moment, had reason to doubt his integrity, and the sobriquet, "Old Honesty," which was, years ago, conferred upon him by his associate members of he Ohio State board of agriculture, is the very best evidence of his character in that respect.
     The writer has seen him placed in positions where men of ordinary courage and integrity would have hesitated as to their duty, but his clear sense of right and justice was never clouded by fear, nor in the slightest degree disturbed by threats.  Regardless of mere personal danger, he always goes straight forward in the line of duty.  IN short, he fully demonstrates, in his own clearly defined and positive character, the purity of his descent from those sturdy French Calvinists who could leave home, and country, and fortune, under the bloody persecution of papal despotism, but could not surrender their freedom of conscience and the liberty to worship God in their own way.
- Page 241

SAMUEL D. TURNEY, M. D. [This biography is in part a condensation from, and in part the words of, a memoir of the late Dr. Turney, prepared by his friend, and professional brother, J. H. Pooley, of Columbus - EDS.]
     The subject of this sketch, the late Dr. Samuel Denny Turney, was born in Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 26, 1824.  He belonged to a family of French Huguenot extractions, and which has proved by the men it has produced for successive generations, that it was no mean race.  We, as Americans, care little at heart, notwithstanding occasional foolish outbreaks of adulation that seem to speak otherwise, for the vain distinctions of rank and title; and yet we are not without our proper pride in good family connections, and freely endorse the sentiment, "other things being equal, give me blood."  Any many a fine strain of family, seeking freer outlook and fairer chance in the west world, ahs left its impress, indelibly and for good, upon our composite American race.  Of all of these, none have produced worthier sons, or deserved better of the adopted country, than the French Huguenots.
     Dr. Turney's father was a physician, who was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, in 1786, and removed to Ross county, Ohio, in 1800.  He commenced the practice of medicine in Jefferson, Pickaway county.  He removed to Circleville about the time the town was first laid out, in 1810; removed from Circleville to Columbus in 1823, where he practiced until his death, in 1827.
     "The deceased was an eminent physician and surgeon, and for many years on arduous and successful practitioner in both departments.  The distinguishing characteristics of his mind were firmness, and energy, and ardor in the practice of his profession.  Confident in the resources of the healing art, and in his own mind, he never remitted exertions while life remained.  His intimate acquaintance with the diseases peculiar to our climate, arising from a sound medical education, and long extensive practice; his energy, and promptitude, and resources, in alarming and complicated cases, as well as his great personal success, render his death a public calamity, which has caused the deepest sensibility.  As a skillful and successful practitioner, Dr. Turney has left few, if any, superiors in the State.  He was of plain, unaffected manners, generous and liberal as a main, and without the least tincture of avarice in his composition."
     This sketch, meager as it is, is not without interest, as it shows whence came some of the traits of his son, which made him so eminently successful in the same arduous profession.
     Youngest of a family of four, left an orphan when thus a mere infant, he grew up under his mother's fostering care without the paternal restraint, so wholesome in its influence, and without those means for a thorough education which he would probably have enjoyed had his father lived.  Well for him he had a good mother; one of the many whom the world knows not, save as the results of their lives are seen in noble and worthy sons who rise up in the after time to call them blessed.  Her name was Janet Stirling Denny, daughter of General James Denny, an officer of the war of 1812, and one of the pioneer settlers of Ohio.
     Even as a child - almost as an infant - the young Samuel showed strong indications of a character of his own.  He was distinguished in the earliest days of his boyhood by his love for books and study, and showed the rudiments of that love for art and the beauty of nature, which was a strong characteristic in his mature years.  He attended the common schools and the high school, and, after finishing the course at the latter, he went, through the kindness of M. J. Gilbert, esq., who owned a scholarship there , to Milner Hall, at Kenyon College, Gambier, for two years; at the expiration of this short course, being thrown upon his own resources, he became clerk in the drug store of Sumner Clark, in Columbus, working faithfully by day, and studying by night, being his own principal teacher - now, as always, laboring for the much coveted knowledge that comes so easily to some, and is so little prized.
     In 1840, the family moved back to Circleville, where he spent the rest of his life.  He now entered, as a clerk, in the store of Ruggles & Finley, and, having determined upon his future profession, he read medicine assiduously, in all his spare time, at first without anybody knowing what he was about, latterly under the direction of Dr. P. K. Hull.  He attended lectures at Starling medical college, during the session of 1849, and 1830, and at the University of Pennsylvania during 1850-51, graduating from the latter college in April, 1851.  He immediately entered into practice in Circleville, where he continued to exercise his profession to the end of his life, with the exception of the time spent in the army during the civil war, and a short vacation of a few months, spent in Europe.  He was married, June 17, 1851, to Miss Evalina McCrea, who died in 1870 by whom he had two children, a daughter, who died in childhood, and a son, Harry, who lives to mourn his father's loss and emulate his virtues.
     However popular he became afterwards, and no man could be more so, he found a young physician's life, at first, a hard struggle.  He had refused a partnership with an older practitioner, proudly desirous of winning a partnership with an older practitioner, proudly desirous of winning his own way.  He won his own way, professionally, by a hard and long struggle, and became one of the most trusted guides and advisers.  HE was in partnership before the war, first with P. K. Hull, and subsequently with Dr. A. W. Thompson.
     Dr. Turney was never a politician, but he always had opinions, and the people among whom he lived always knew what those opinions, and the people among whom he lived always knew what those opinions were.  He was an Abolitionist before the war, even a violent one.  His ardent temperament and inborn love of liberty, could not tolerate even the thought of human slavery; and, though these sentiments were by no means popular then and there, he was not the man to flinch from them on that account, but rather the one to die for them, should occasion demand, and this his neighbors and fellow-citizens knew right well.
     At the opening of the war he was the first surgeon to tender his services to the State, and, until it ended, he was in continuous and active service.  He was first attached as surgeon to the Thirteenth regiment of Ohio volunteers, June, 1861; commissioned assistant surgeon of volunteers by the United States, Feb., 1863; surgeon of volunteers, Mar., 1863; and lieutenant-colonel by brevet, for faithful and meritorious services, in 1865; and he was medical director on the staff of General H. P. Van Cleve, division and post medical director of hospitals at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and held other high and honorable positions which bore the amplest testimony to his patriotism, devotion to duty, and professional efficiency.  The surgical history of the war, that noble monument of life and limb saving surgery, bears ample testimony, among that of others, to the labor and skill of Dr. Turney.  Had he been so disposed, he might have recorded many more cases, as treated by him, in that treasury of American military surgery; but he was ever reticent of trumpeting his own fame, either by tongue or pen.  The cases given in the "Surgical Volume," so, called, parts I and II, sufficiently established his skill as a surgeon and physician.
     At the close of the war he returned to Circleville, and, in partnership with Dr. A. W. Thompson, resumed his practice, which in a few years became the largest and most lucrative ever enjoyed by any member of the profession in Pickaway county.  It was particularly in the department of surgery his services were, during this period, demanded, so much so that nearly, if not quite, all of this business passed into his hands, and the important operations of lithotomy, tracheotomy, ovariotomy and amputation, necessary within the circuit of his practice, were all performed by him.  An intense student, keeping pace with all the reforms in diagnosis and practice, his ideal of resources of the medical art, was never attained; and yet when baffled, such was his infinity of resource, that, instead of ever surrendering to his enemy, disease, he nobly sustained the strife, and yielded only in the presence of the conqueror, Death himself.
     Dr. Turney was made surgeon-general of the State of Ohio, in 1868, by Governor Hayes, and again, in 1872, by Governor Noyes - compliments well deserved by his eminent ability and public services during the war.  He was appointed professor of physiology and pathology in Starling medical college, Columbus, Ohio, in 1867, but only lectured during one season - that of 1867-68 - his large practice precluding the possibility to further devotion to this department of duty.  He was very diffident, too, and seemed to have but little confidence in himself as a speaker, but, at a later period, he resumed professorial functions with great success.  His partnership with Dr. Thompson was dissolved by mutual consent, Jan. 1, 1874.  Retaining a large practice, a devoting himself actively to it, his incessant labor began to tell upon his health. In June, 1875, warned that he must either take a vacation or soon desist altogether, he went to Europe.  He remained abroad until 1876 - not a sufficient length of time to thoroughly recuperate - and, on his return, immediately entered practice.  He was first in partnership with Dr. C. A. Foster, but, in 1877, went into partnership with Dr. A. P. Courtright, with whom he was associated until his death.  In the fall of 1876 he was appointed professor of diseases of women and children, in Starling medical college, which chair he filled with great and increasing acceptance to the close of his life.  He was only spared to give one completed course of lectures, and a part of another.
     Dr. Turney was, in every sense, a cultured physician - diligent, conscientious, generous; and many kind professional charities endear him to the memory of that class of patients unable to pay for their doctor's services.  As an operator he was fearless, quick, and characteristically nervous and impatient of delay or negligence on the part of an assistant.  He was extremely modest, and had a repugnance to professional or other display.  In person Dr. Turney was of medium size, rather slender, but of symmetrical proportions, and endowed with great muscular strength and agility.  As the portrait which accompanies this sketch well shows, his face was handsome and expressive, and yet, so constantly and quickly did it change that no picture could show it at its best.
     Dr. Turney was not a member of any church, but that he was of a deeply religious nature, none who knew him thoroughly could doubt.  In this connection, and as a fitting conclusion to this sketch, we reproduce the following extract from a letter of Rev. James T. Franklin, Episcopal rector of St. Stephen's church, Middlebury, Vermont, formerly of St. Phillip's, Circleville:
      "Having just learned, and that with great sorrow and grief, of the death of Dr. S. D. Turney, I ask the privilege of expressing my sense of his worth and of our loss.  It was with joy and pride that I called him friend, and it is with a deep sense of bereavement that I write.  The fast-falling tears of many who loved him are a tribute to his worth.  It was my happy lot to know him intimately, and I loved him dearly.  His was not a cold, impassive nature - sparks of righteous anger and indignation were showered upon the objects of his scorn and wrath; but I can testify to an amiability, a tenderness, a sweetness, a love of all things beautiful, rare amongst men.  His wide charity many will witness to, and his marked skill and usefulness all will acknowledge.
     "He talked often and freely with me of those subjects which are of the first importance to thoughtful men, and I can declare that, whilst his mental clearness and power, and his thorough learning, forced him to abandon the superstitions imbedded in much that passes for Christian doctrine, nevertheless he recognized and bowed down his soul before the great Father of spirits, 'in whom we move and have our being.'  He served and praised his God in acts of tenderness and love to his creatures.  He did justice, loved mercy, and walked humbly with his God.  Who requires more?"

AARON R. VAN CLEAF was born at Arneystown, Burlington county, New Jersey, March 20, 1838.  When he was about three years old his parents removed to Monmouth county, New Jersey, where they now reside.  His ancestors were of the pioneer settles of New Jersey, on the paternal side, of the early Holland emigration, and among the first settlers of Monmouth county.  On the maternal side he is connected with the Reeves family, one of the oldest and most respected families in Burlington and other counties of south Jersey.  Several of the Van Cleafs served in Jersey regiments during the war for American independence, and are specially mentioned among the patriots of that day.  His paternal great-grandfather owned an extensive body of land in Monmouth county, New Jersey, which was divided among his large family of children.
     Aaron Van Cleaf was educated in the common schools near Freehold, New Jersey, until he was fourteen years of age, when he entered the Monmouth Democrat office, at Freehold, as an apprentice to the printing business, remaining there, as apprentice and journeyman, until April, 1859, when he emigrated to Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio, and for a few months was connected with the Democratic Standard, which paper was soon after merged in what is now the Brown county News. In November, 1859, he became editor and publisher of the Democratic Citizen, At Lebanon, Ohio, which was published in the face of many difficulties.  On the twelfth of August, 1862, the office was destroyed by a mob of political opponents, but he re-established the paper and continued its publication until May, 1863.  In November, of the same year, he purchased the Circleville Democrat and Watchman, and has sine conducted that paper. 
     In 1871 he was nominated for representative in the general assembly by the Democratic party of Pickaway county, and was elected by four hundred and seventy-seven majority over James Langhry, Republican, who was then extensively known and popular.  He declined a re-election. In 1877 he was again nominated for representative by acclamation, being the first Democratic candidate for that place in Pickaway county, nominated without opposition, for many years.  He was elected by nine hundred and forty-six majority over Frederick Thorn, Republican, and in the house was chairman of the committee on reform schools, and a member of the finance and printing committees.  On the third of June, 1879, he was nominated by acclamation, in the Democratic senatorial convention, to represent the counties of Franklin and Pickaway in the State senate, and at the October election following, the elected by one thousand six hundred and thirty-four majority.
     He has taken an active part in the politics of Pickaway county for fifteen years past, and has been chairman of the Democratic central committee of the county for thirteen years.

THE "ZIEGER FAMILY."  Jacob Zieger, sr., emigrated from Pennsylvania (near Berlin) to this vicinity, about the year 1805, and located section nineteen - the identical tract of land now partially occupied by the city of Circleville.  He was born in 1840, and married Judith, the widow of J. Sauer (or Sowers), of Brownsville, Pennsylvania.  Of this marriage there were eight children, as follows:  Philip Jacob, born 1767, married Mary Easter; Catharina, born 1768, married Colonel Valentine Keffer; Barbara, born 1771, married George Zimmer; Judith, born 1774, married Samuel Watt; Jacob, Jr., born 1776, married Susanna Easter; Philip, born 1778; Frederick, born 1784; Margaret, born 1787, married John Valentine.  These sons and daughters occupied different portions of the land, and cleared and improved it.
     Jacob Zieger, sr., donated, to "the director of the town" (whose office was one of importance for many years, but has now become obsolete) a considerable portion of the land on which the city is located, for public purposes.  He (Zeiger) caused the court of common pleas of Pickaway county to pass an order to the director of the town (at their session, held in the second story of his son, Jacob's, house, in Circleville), which reads as follows:
August, 1811,
     "Ordered, That the director reserve all the southeast bank, or fortification - elevation of the square on the circle - for county uses, and sell no lots including the same.  And, further ordered, that he reserve lots number 115 and 116, for the use of the Lutheran and Calvanistic German congregations, for a church and burial." (See court records for 1810 and '11, page 120).
     These lots are the ones on which the Trinity Lutheran church now stands.