History of Pickaway County
Source:  History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
Published by Williams Bros. 1880
 

PERRY TOWNSHIP
 

* PERRY TOWNSHIP
       * SETTLEMENT
       * EARLY EVENTS
       * ORGANIZATION
       * CHURCHES
       * SCHOOLS
       * NEW HOLLAND
       * SOCIETIES
       * PHYSICIANS
       * INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS 
       * BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
 

BIOGRAPHIES
 

  THE HAYS FAMILY.
     Levi HAYS was born in Maryland, Oct. 1, 1752.  In December, 1778, he was married to Eleanor HARRIS.  In 1805 they emigrated to Ohio, and settled on Rush creek, in Fairfield county, where they remained on years.  In 1806, they removed to Perry township, Mr. HAYS making a purchase of thirteen hundred acres of land of the FITZGERALD survey, in Perry and Monroe townships.   They had five sons and four daughters:  Joseph, Charles Norris, Samuel, Jesse, Nancy, Mary, Rachel, and Ellen.  The land owned by him was divided, in as equitable a manner as possible, among his children.  His death occurred on the tenth of February, 1825.
     Jesse HAYS was born in Montgomery county, Maryland, April 9, 1791, and came to Ohio with his father's family, eventually settling in Perry township, in 1806.  He received from his father one hundred and seventy-seven acres of land in Perry of Monroe townships, on both sides of Deer creek.  July 27, 1820, he married Betsey HURST.  She was born in Dorchester county, Maryland, Nov. 17, 1801.  They had children, as follows:  Ann W., born June 27, 1821.  She has been married several times, and lives a widow in Illinois.  Eleanor R. A., born April 15, 1823, married James CARNEY, and lives in Ross county.  Levi, born Dec. 20, 1824 - died in 1825.  Joseph H. was born June 18, 1857.  They live on a part of his father's farm, in Monroe township.  Miriam W. was born Mar. 1, 1825, and died July 9, 1841.  Sarah was born Feb. 5, 1830.  She married Richard W. BETTS, and now lives in Moultrie county, Illinois.  Elizabeth was born Dec. 13, 1831, and died on the old homestead, about 1847.  Jessie Lee was born Aug. 22, 1835, and died Oct. 2, 1835.  Martha Ann was born Sept. 27, 1836.  She married John E. BRADLEY, and now lives in Moultrie county, Illinois. Wesley H. was born Aug. 4, 1838 and married Mary F. GEPHART.  She died Apr. 16, 1874, and he married Hannah W. HAYS, Jan. 19, 1876.  By his first wife he had three children - Emma Alice, Charles W., and Mary F. - and by his second wife, has Jesse McIlvain and Cynthia KIRK.
     Joseph H. and Mariam H. HAYS have had eleven children: Samuel, Jesse, Lee, Brunette, Charles W., Zilpha Ann, George W., and Cora.  Three died in infancy.
     Jesse HAYS, Sr. , and his wife were both constituent members of the Methodist church from their early life.  Soon after he was twenty-one, he became an exhorter, and continued as such until his death, Sept. 17, 1872.  His wife died Dec. 11, 1841.  HE was a soldier in the war of 1812, and marched to the relief of Fort Meigs.
     Wesley H. HAYS was in the Seventy-third Ohio infantry four wars.  At the expiration of his first term of service, he re-enlisted in the field, and was wounded at the second Bull Run battle, and again at Resaca, Georgia.

THE MOUSER FAMILY.
     Peter MOUSER was born in Virginia, where he married Christine HUFFMAN.   They emigrated to Ohio in 1798, and settled below Chillicothe, where they remained one year.  They then moved to the south part of Deer Creek township, and settled on Deer creek, where they remained two years, when they again moved to Perry township, and located on land now owned by his son, William MOUSER.  Peter MOUSER died in 1872, aged ninety-three years.  He wife died about 1855, aged seventy-five years.
     Their children were:  John, who married Margaret PORTER; she died in Ross county, and he went to Illinois, to live with his children, and died there; Elizabeth, who married Rezon KING, and died in Monroe township; Jacob P., who married Mary Ann BEATTY and moved to Illinois, where he died; William, who married Nancy MACE and lives in Perry township; Catharine, who married Peter CARTER, and lives in Fayette, county, a widow; Mary, who married Owen T. REEVES, and died in Perry township; Eliza, who married Josiah REEVES, and died in Perry township.
     William MOUSER was born Oct. 1, 1807, and was married Oct. 1, 1844, to Nancy MACE, who was born Sept. 26, 1819.  After marriage they lived on his father's place one year, when they moved to the farm they now occupy.  Mr. MOUSER had a start in life from his father's estate, receiving two hundred acres of land.  By yard work and economy he added to it, until he now owns five hundred and fifty acres of land.  In 1875 they built their present substantial and comfortable home, a representation of which, accompanied by portraits of himself and wife, are inserted in connection with this sketch.
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  THE THOMAS FAMILY.  John Thomas was born near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in 1781.  In 1799 he was married to Melinda Smith, of the same place.  The emigrated to Ohio in the fall of 1807, and settled in Ross county, about four miles from Chillicothe, on land at that time owned by Nathaniel Willis.  Here they remained until March, 1810, when they removed to Monroe township, Pickaway county.  He bought one hundred and sixty acres of land on Clark's Run, and built a log cabin before bringing his family.  This log cabin was their home until 1818, when he built a hewed log cabin, which, in 1834, he weather-boarded.  Here they lived and died; he on the May 5, 1855, and his wife in March, 1850.  Their children were Mary Ann, born Aug. 4, 1800.  She married John Hornbeck.  He died, and she married Rev. Mr. Adkinson, who also died.  She died in August, 1866.  Jeremiah was born Dec. 16, 1801.  He married Nancy Leach, and died in Madison county, in the winter of 1862.  Ann was born Oct. 24, 1803.  She died hen about three years of age.  Joseph was born June 17, 1805.  He married Elizabeth Kemp, and died in 1871.  William was born Apr. 7, 1807.  He married Eliza Goddard, and lives in Tippecanoe county, Indiana.  Eliza as born Mar. 1, 1809.  She married Robert Leach, and died in 1877.  Julia Ann was born Apr. 5, 1812.  She married Joseph Young, and died in Illinois.  Samuel P. was born Feb. 14, 1814.  He married Sarah Hays Jan. 19, 1836.  She died Apr. 10, 1839, and he married Elizabeth Dick Nov. 11, 1844.  He lives in Perry township.  Melinda was born Mar. 25, 1816.  She married Oliver Bostwick, and lives in Madison county.  Maria was born May, 18, 1819.  She married Jesse Reeves, and died in Illinois.  Harriet was born Feb. 9, 1823.  She married John Harrison, and lives in Clinton County, Ohio.  Harrison was born Mar. 25, 1826, and married Ann Reeves.  She died in Moultrie county, Illinois, and he moved to Lafayette county, Indiana, and married Mrs. Henderson.   Samuel P. Thomas was first married to Sarah Hays in 1836.  By her he had two children, Miriam H., born Nov. 13, 1836.  She married Joseph Hays, in June, 1857, and now lives in the south part of Monroe Township.  Alexander Gillinwaters, and died in Fayette county, in August, 1870. Mrs. Thomas died Apr. 10, 1839, and Mr. Thomas married Elizabeth Dick on Nov. 11, 1841.  She is the mother of seven children.  Charles Harrison, born Jan. 7, 1843, married Josie Derbyshire, Oct. 1, 1873.  He lives in Perry township, near Conover's mills.  He served in the army three years.  James Austin, born Mar. 8, 1845, is a merchant in New Holland.  William M., born Nov. 11, 1851, married Carrie Bundy in October, 1874, and lives in New Holland.  Samuel Millard, born Sept. 29, 1854, died Apr. 21, 1877.  Elizabeth A., born Dec. 22, 1856, married William A. Welsh, Dec. 25, 1878, who lives in New Holland, where he practices law.  Vienna J., born June 17, 1859, remains at home with her father and mother.  Mrs. Thomas  his present wife, is an invalid. having been prostrated with a stroke of paralysis in January, 1879, since which time she has been confined to the house.  Squire Thomas lived in Monroe township, where he was born, until after the death of his first wife, when he bought property in Darby township, and lived there until 18509.  He then sold and bought property in Perry township, where he has since lived.  He was elected justice of the peace in 1855, and served with perfect satisfaction until 1870, when he was obliged to decline a nomination on account of the sickness of his son.  In 1875 he was again elected to the same office, which he still retains.  He ran on the Republican ticket for probate judge in the fall of 1878, without hope of election, in a strong Democratic county.  His name was presented at the Republican county convention of 1877, as a candidate for State representative, but he refused to allow his name to be used.  He is a prominent man in his township, and of careful business habits.  That he has held the office of justice for nearly twenty years is proof that the people have confidence in him, and are satisfied with his administration of the office.

  JAMES F. WILSON, M. D.  The long, honorable and useful career was that of the late Dr. James F. WILSON, of New Holland, Perry township, Pickaway county, and his name is revered by a wide circle of friends.  His face was familiar to almost every inhabitant of the western part of Pickaway, and the eastern part of Fayette counties, and there are thousands who can testify to his professional thoroughness and ability, and to his intrinsic worth as a man.  His was a character that one universal respect by its simple dignity, earnestness, firmness and unvarying integrity.  Not a member of any church, he was yet strongly imbued with the faith of Christianity, and his daily put in practice those principles which are its teachings.  He was a liberal supporter of the church, too, and noted for the charity he bestowed on other objects in many directions, being a kind friend to the poor and distressed.  One of the most noble of his acts of charity, and one of the strongest indications of his large-hearted patriotism, was during the war.  Many of the men who enlisted in the companies, which were afterward assigned to the Ninetieth and One Hundred and Fourteenth regiments Ohio volunteer infantry, were indebted to him for professional services.  To all such he gave receipted bills, and to all of the members of these two companies, and to other soldiers who went into the war from the vicinity of his home, the doctor made promises which he faith-fully fulfilled - to give their families his services free of charge.
     James F. WILSON was the son of John and Mary WILSON, who emigrated from Kentucky to Ross county, Ohio, about the year 1802.  He was born near Chillicothe, Oct. 5, 1818,and his early years were spent upon the home farm.  At the age of twenty-one years he went to Greenfield, Highland county, and there began the study of medicine, under the direction of Dr. Daniel ROBBINS.  He was finally, after long and careful reading, granted a diploma by the medical society of the district, and upon thus being authorized to practice his profession, immediately removed to New Holland, of which place he was the first resident physician.  Although possessing a fair medical education, he was not satisfied, and so after four years' practice, during which time he saved from his accumulated means the sum necessary to pay his expenses, he entered the Ohio medical college, of Cincinnati.  He graduated from this institution with a good record, and returned to New Holland, resuming his practice, and following it all the rest of his life.  His ride was a large one, and his practice was successful and lucrative as the county could bestow.  His professional reputation became firmly established early in his career, and he took rank with the best physicians in the county, and was frequently called upon to spare time from his professional duties in the immediate neighborhood, to attend councils of physicians in localities at a considerable distance.  Dr. WILSON had an enviable reputation as a surgeon, as well as a physician, being regarded as one of the best in this part of the state.  He was for a time during the war located at camp Chase, and in his capacity as surgeon, his services were of great value.
     He bought, in 1850, a fine farm, just over the line in Fayette county, and in the western part of New Holland village, which was cleared and improved under his direction, and transformed from wild woodland into a beautiful agricultural tract.  In 1868 he removed to the house he had provided upon this farm.  Dr. WILSON was for the last twenty years of his life afflicted with heart disease, and he died of this malady Jan. 21, 1875, leaving a wife and one son.  Mrs. Wilson's maiden name was Letitia DUNLAP, and she was the daughter of James and Elizabeth DUNLAP, of Ross county.  She was born May 24, 1816, and married Aug. 31, 1837.
     The only son and child of James F. and Letitia WILSON is John M., one of Ohio's men of ability and distinction.  He was born Sept. 19, 1838. In his sixteenth year he attended Antioch college, and remained there four years under the instruction of the famous Horace MANN.  After President MANN's death, young WILSON entered Union college, at Schenectady, New York, where he graduated with the class of 1862.  He read law at Columbus with the Hon. Chauncey N. OLDS, and was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of Ohio in 1864, and commenced the practice of his profession the same year at Cincinnati, as the senior member of the firm of WILSON & CHAMPION.  He represented Hamilton county two years - in 1871, and in 1873 - in the legislature, and in the latter year, at the expiration of his term, was appointed by President GRANT as consul to Bremen.
     He remained there, as the representative of the United States, two and one half years, and was then appointed to the consulship at Hamburgh, where he remained until July 1, 1879.  He is at present consul general to the Columbian States of South America, and is located at Panama.
     He married Dec. 25, 1866, Carrie R. TURPIN,  of Newton, Hamilton County, Ohio.
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