Biographies
(Source: See Biographical Index for sources)

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FRANCIS L. RAIKES Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 194

JONAS RANDALL came to Preble county and settled in Gratis township in 1805.  He was born in South Carolina Dec., 1766.  He married Sarah Roberts, who was a native of the same State, born May, 1766.  They had nine children, all of whom grew up and raised families, but none are now living.  Jonas Randall died in Gratis in 1852, and his wife in 1855.  He was a prosperous farmer, owning one thousand acres of land.  He gave each of his children a farm.      He was a member of Friends' church, and was a useful citizen.  John Randall, his son, was married in 1811, to Elizabeth Conarroe, who was born in Philadelphia, in 1795.  They have had nine children, of whom six are living, viz:  William C., in Monroe township; Mrs. John Lee in Jefferson; Mrs. Isaac Julian, in Illinois; Mrs. Isaac Wright, in Indiana; Andrew C., in Illinois, and Mrs. John Small, in Kansas.  William C. was born in 1816, and has been married four times.  He was appointed, in 1837, ensign in the State militia, under Governor Vance, and was afterward made lieutenant, which commission he held four years. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 187

ANDREW JACKSON REYNOLDS was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 14, 1831.  His parents were Sacket and Mary Ann Reynolds. he graduated at Woodward college, Cincinnati, in 1851, and at the Theological seminary of Princeton, New Jersey, in 1855.  He was ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian church in 1856, was at Pleasant Run, Ohio, from 1856 to 1861; at Lithopolis, Ohio, from 1870 to 1873; at Eaton, Ohio, from 1875 to the present.      He married Miss Charity P. Hunter, December 16, 1857, at Pleasant Run, Ohio.  Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds have six children, of whom four survive - Clarence G., Mary E., Walter H., and Grace A., born respectively in 1859, 1861, 1864 and 1868.  Clarence G. is a member of the senior class at the University of Wooster, Ohio.      Mr. Reynolds' ancestors, on his maternal grandmother's side, whose maiden name was Dumont, were French Huguenots, who were persecuted by the State church for their religious opinions, and some of whom fled to America.  Mr. Reynolds still possesses two French Bibles, which belonged to their ancestors, and which are not only treasures to the antiquarian, but are mute witnesses to the nobility of soul which will not sin against conscience at the command of tyrants.  Mr. Reynolds' maternal grandfather was Captain Moses Guest, who served in the Revolutionary war, and was a man of great purity of character, and some poetic talent.  He formerly lived in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and came to Ohio with his family in 1817.  He died universally lamented in Cincinnati, in 1828, aged seventy-two.      Mr. Reynolds' father, Sacket Reynolds, was one of the earliest printers in Cincinnati, coming to that city in 1806.  He was long connected with the newspaper press in Cincinnati, respectively in the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette, the National Republican, the Cincinnati Commercial, and the Cincinnati Press.  He died in Cincinnati, aged seventy-one, in 1867. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 ~Page 156

JACOB FRANKLIN RIDENOUR was born in Union County, Indiana, in 1841, and in 1842 came to Preble county with his parents, who located near College corner.  In 1861 he enlisted in the Eighty-first Ohio volunteer infantry and served until 1864, at which time he was discharged, on account of a wound in the left arm, received while in Georgia in 1864.  His arm was amputated, and he left for home.  In 1866 he was married to Miss Mary Ann Cotterman, who was born in this county in 1847.  Elmer Ellsworth and Franklin Otto are their children's names.  Mr. Ridenour owns sixty-six acres of land in section twenty-one. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881

JOHN RINER was born near Martinsburgh, Virginia, about 1780.  From Virginia he moved to Ohio, and settled in Gratis in the year 1805.  He died in Gratis on section fourteen, in 1840.  His first wife was a Huffman, of Virginia, by whom he had two children:  Sarah  and Catherine.  His second wife was Mary Osborn, of Sheppardsburg, Virginia.  She died in the year 1873, at teh age of eighty-three.  John and Mary Riner had seven children, four of whom are now living: Julia Ann, Henry, J. Wesley and Rebecca.  Henry Riner married Elizabeth, daughter of John Chrisman.  They have three children of their own:  Susan, John and Charles, and two adopted ones - Thomas and Mattie. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 188

MATTHEW W. ROBERTSON, a native of Virginia, moved to Ohio in 1866, and settled at College Corner.  His wife was Mary E. J. Coffee.  They have three children:  Dr. William C., Maggie J., and Amanda.  Dr. William C. married Clara J. Sparks, and has one child, Howard E.  He is a graduate of the Ohio Medical college, at Cincinnati.  After a year's practice in Indiana, he removed to West Elkton, Ohio, where he now has the leading practice of that part of the county. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 194

GEORGE RUFF was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  While there he married Annie Reahfus, born in Germany, in 1823.  He moved to Preble county in 1855, and commenced business as a tanner in Harrison township.  His building is the distillery built by Bolin, and which is discontinued.  Mr. Ruff's business is the manufacture of shoe and harness leather.  He has had seven children, three of whom are still living. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 210

MICHAEL RUNYON entered a quarter section in the southeastern part of the township, where the Congers now reside.  He afterwards sold out and went to Illinois. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 ~Page 163

ROBERT RUNYON, born in Kentucky in the year 1786, emigrated from that State to Preble county in 1810, and settled in thsi township where he died in 1873.  He was twice married, first to Elizabeth Burns, second to Mary Slayback who was born in 1791, and died in 1867.  Wilson, the only surviving child of the first marriage, lives in Eaton.  Three children of the second marriage are living.  A son, Harvey, resides in Richmond, Indiana, and two daughters live in this county - Mary Runyon in Eaton, and Sarah, widow of William N. Duggins, in Dixon township.  Mrs. Duggins was born in 1829, and was married at the age of twenty, to her husband (now deceased), who was born in 1824.  He died in the year 1875.  She is the mother of six children, who are all living.      The next in order of the pioneers is Stephen Allbaugh, who is a native of Maryland, and who came to Gasper township in 1812, and has resided here continuously ever since.  He is now in the ninetieth year of his age, although he has been somewhat afflicted more or less for several years; but is, at this writing, enjoying good health.  In 1814 he married Nancy Potterf, daughter of Gasper Potterf.  They have had eight children - three sons and five daughters, all living but one son, who died in Iowa.  One son and two daughters are living in Gasper township, two daughters in Eaton, and one son in Indiana.  Mr. Allbaugh has been engaged in farming, and in former years carried on the distilling business.  He often speaks of the superior quality of whiskey made in an early day when the practice of its adulteration was unknown, and when delirium tremens were never heard of.  He is sincerely of the opinion that copper distilled whiskey is not injurious to health, and can refer to men who for many years made a daily use of whiskey without mental or physical injury, but thinks persons had better abstain from using the drugged whiskey thrown upon the market now.      Last spring, when the weather was yet disagreeable and he had been confined to a sick bed and under medical treatment for a long time, troubled with a cough and heart disease, he had the conviction that it was his duty to have the ordinance of baptism administered by immersion.  So he sent for the ministers of the Dunker church with a view of discharging that duty.  The preachers came t and the time for immersion arrived.  The water of the creek being chilly Mr. Allbaugh's neighbors held a council, believing that in his feeble condition immersion would prove fatal; they there upon procured a large bath box and filled it with water, intending to take the chill off by putting in some warm water.  Finally the preacher came and council was called, and it was finally agreed to submit the whole matter to him.  He quickly decided to go to the creek.  So he has placed in a large arm chair, surrounded by bedding and placed in a spring wagon, taken to the creek and immersed, and taken to his home, and improved more rapidly than he had done at any other time.  This, perhaps, may be taken as an evidence that a determined will has a great influence on our physical organization.      The subject of this sketch ahs resided in the township was rapidly settled, among whom may be named the Jones family, the Kincaid family, the Peters and Wilkinson families in the western part of the township, also the Baily family.  In the central part may be named the Huffman family, the Stephens family, and the Shideler family.  In the eastern part of the township may be made the Sayler family, who came in 1814 (Abraham Sayler now lives on the tract of land upon which his father settled in 1814), the Burns family, the Shewman family, the Barnhart family, the Brower family, the Young family, and the Yost family.  Some of them are further mentioned.      The principal part of these families settled ion government land, and are properly classed among the original settlers.  There might be many other families named of original settlers, who, with their posterity, left the township many years since, who sold their lands to a second class of settlers, among whom may be named the Campbells, the Manns, the Floras, and the Webbs. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 ~Page 178

ROBERT RUNYON.  Robert, son of Barfoot and Nancy Runyon, born in Rowan county, North Carolina, Aug. 1, 1787.  When nine years of age he moved to Madison county, Kentucky, with his parents, and two years later to Barren county, where he lived until he reached his twenty-first year, at which time he married Elizabeth Burns.  In 1806 he moved to Somers township, and built a cabin below the iron bridge.  He remained here until 1808, and then settled on the farm now owned by Robert Harris, near Sugar valley, Dixon township.  While here he losthis first wife, who died in 1823.  In the following year, 1824, he married his second wife, Mary, widow of James McAuley, with whom he lived until her death, which occurred in the year 1868.  During the year 1812, Mr. Runyan took part in the war.  After living near Sugar valley for twenty year, he purchased the farm on which he afterwards died. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 ~Page 163

JAMES RUSSELL was born in Pennsylvania in 1771, and settled in Montgomery county in 1802, where he died in 1843.  John Russell, his son, was born in 1797.  He is the father of ten children, seven of whom are living.  James M., the fifth child, married Eliza Neff, the daughter of Abram Neff.  They have seven children.  Mr. Russell is engaged in the lightning rod business in this county. Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams & Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 193

 

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