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Biographies
Source:
History of Preble County, Ohio
H. Z.
Williams & Bro, Publishers
1881
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John P. Acton |
ok - JOHN P. ACTON.
The first representatives of the Acton Family in Eaton
were John Acton and his wife, Nancy Buchanan Acton.
The former was born in Maryland, Oct. 23, 1781. He married
his wife in Rockbridge county, Virginia, where she was born Oct.
31, 1773. This couple, with their three children, located
in Eaton in the year 1816, and the husband and father of the
family immediately opened a little shop and began making hats -
a trade which was much in vogue in early years, and considered
one of the best a man could engage in. John Acton
was, undoubtedly, a very good hatter, for he was successful in a
pecuniary point of view and continued the business many years,
in fact until a short time before his business many years, in
fact until a short time before his death. His shop, a
small frame structure, stood precisely upon the spot now covered
by the parlor of John P. Acton's home, and the house in
which he lived is still in existence, incorporated with his
son-in-law's substantial residence which, by the way, improved
this site and the general appearance of West Main street as long
ago as 1840. Mr. Acton was a very hard working,
active man, and saved by the frugality much of that which his
industry earned. The whole object and purpose of his life,
however, was by no means saving a fortune, or even accumulating
an independence. He was one of the most liberal men in the
community, and liberal alike with his time and money.
There was no measure of public good undertaken which did not
receive the support of his labors and influence and means.
He aided every church society which erected a house of worship
in Eaton, during his citizenship, and it was very largely
through his generosity that the "old public church" on the banks
of Seven Mile, was brought into existence. He was not a
member of any church, but a very moral man, one who by good
works made manifest the possession of a noble theory of life's
responsibilities and duties. His wife was a communicant of
the Presbyterian church, and that society received from the
family a very liberal support. It was one of Mr. Acton's
deepest grounded beliefs that the highest good, morally, and
therefore materially, was to be secured through education, and
he therefore took an interest in school matters which was so
constant and so intense as almost to become a noticeable
eccentricity in his nature.
No pains that he could take to improve the condition of
the schools, or indirectly aid education, seemed too much for
him, and no outlay of time or money too great. He was
always active in looking out for the advancement of educational
interests. For many years he was a school director, and
during several terms was president of the board. In early
years he was a lieutenant colonel in the militia, and not long
before the close of his useful life was honored with the
appointment by the governor of the office of associate judge of
the Preble county court of common pleas. He was never an
aspirant for public place; had he been he could, doubtless have
held almost any position within the gift of the county, for he
was personally very popular and held in high esteem for his
strict integrity of character, as well as his devotion to the
public good. Politically he was a Democrat.
He died July 26, 1849, of cholera - one among the many
of Eaton's worthy men who were cut down that year by the
terrible epidemic. His wife died Jan. 31, 1855.
This estimable pair of pioneers were the parents of
three children, all of whom were born prior to the Acton's
immigration to Ohio. Mary R., widow of Samuel
Robinson, is the oldest. She was born Oct. 14, 1809,
and is still living, and located near Eaton. Her sister,
Isabella Hall, wife of S. H. Hubbell, was born
Sept. 4, 1815, and is now a resident of Eaton. John P.
Acton was born Sept. 4, 1812, and is, consequently, in his
sixty-ninth year. As boy and youth he had but very little
schooling, a result caused in part by his eyes failing him, and
in part by his rapid development to a condition of usefulness in
his father's shop. Learning the hatter's trade at the age
of fifteen he was soon placed in charge of the shop, his father
stepping aside from the management to attend to other affairs,
but retaining his interest. Young Acton only
followed hat making for four or five years and then went into
the grocery business, which he followed for seven years - from
1836 to 1843 - a portion of the time alone, but the greater part
in association with his brother-in-law, S. H. Hubbell.
His store was where Andrew Coffman now conducts business.
Soon after discontinuing the grocery business Mr. Acton
engaged in the line which now occupies his attention. He
began the business of buying and selling and manufacturing
lumber. In 1849 he built a steam saw mill just west of
Seven Mile lumber. In 1849 he built a steam saw mill just
west of seven Mile Creek. He ahs been generally prosperous
in conducting business at this mill, and quite uniformly so from
year to year, with the exception that the property was burned
out in 1864. The mill was soon re-built, however, and the
business has since been carried on uninterruptedly. Of
late years Mr. Acton has made a specialty of
manufacturing hard lumber, walnut and poplar, and has conducted
this enterprise on a large scale. His mill does but very
little custom work. Speculation has not engaged Mr.
Acton's attention. The independence to which he has
attained, financially, has been reached by the slow, sure,
laborious processes of legitimate business. Many other
enterprises than his extensive lumber manufacturing have
received a share of his energy and activity. In 1872 he
was one of four men who established the Preble County bank, a
deservedly successful institution. He has been for many
years a very influential promoter of public improvements, and
has done much toward giving Preble county its railroad and
turnpike advantages. He was a director of the Eaton &
Hamilton railroad in the early years of its existence, and is
now one of the leading movers in the project of securing the
construction of the Lake Erie & Southwestern railroad.
John P. Acton's name has become, during his long
career in business almost a synonym for industry and integrity.
He possesses the most substantial kind of ability and thoroughly
practical business sagacity. His energy and enterprise
have been something quite remarkable. His life has been
characterized, too, by those qualities of kindness and
benevolence which ought always to be found in connection with
ability and successfulness. Politically Mr. Acton
is a Democrat. He has never sought political preferment,
and we believe that with the exception of being deputy to the
county auditor, and adjutant to the militia, during his early
years he has not held public office. His taste has not
been in that direction and he has been too busily engaged with
other affairs to take any further interest in politics than is
the absolute duty of the citizen.
Mr. Acton was married May 16, 1841, to
Burthenia M. Stephens, his present helpmeet. Six
children were the fruit of this union, viz: John Thomas,
deceased; Nancy Margaret, wife of H. C. Heistand;
Harvey H., deceased; Joseph W., Mary Isabella, and
Elizabeth Ann, deceased.
Mrs. Acton was the daughter of John and
Margaret Stephens, who came to Preble county in 1817, from
Bourbon county, Kentucky, and located near Eaton. They
were people very highly regarged among the early
settlers. Both were members of the Eaton Methodist
Episcopal church when it had only half a dozen communicants.
Mr. Stephens was clerk of Gasper township at the time of
his death in 1827. He was born Oct. 29, 1792, in Kentucky,
and his wife, who is still living, was born in Maryland, Feb.
12, 1794. They were the parents of nine children, of whom
five are living: Margaret (Honey), Lucy A. (Ware),
Joseph L., and William D., are deceased. Those
living are: Thomas F., in Gasper township; John W.,
in Eaton; Burthenia M. (Mrs. Acton), and Nathaniel B.,
in Eaton, and Martin F., in Greenville, Ohio.
Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams &
Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 155 |
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WILLIAM F. ALBRIGHT is of
German ancestry. He was born in Preble county, Mar. 20,
1823. He was married in 1844 to Elizabeth Riner, of
this county. Five children were born of this marriage,
four of whom survive. His first wife died in January,
1854. In December, 1856, Mr. Albright married S.
Virginia Stroud, daughter of Rev. Asa and Mary E. Stroud,
of Eaton. She was the mother of four children, three of
whom are living. Mrs. Albright died Jan. 31, 1683.
Mr. Albright has always been a printer, having begun his
apprenticeship when he was sixteen years of age His
career as a publisher began in 1854, when he entered into
partnership with W. B. Tizzard, with whom he had served
the most of his apprenticeship. He has had a share in the
Eaton Register since 1854, and became sole proprietor of
that paper Jan. 1, 1874.
Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams &
Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page 154 |
Stephen Allbaugh, Sr. |
STEPHEN ALLBAUGH, SR. This
venerable gentleman, now aged nearly ninety years, is one of the
oldest citizens and pioneers of the county. He was born in
the town of Liberty, Frederick county, Maryland, on the tenth
day of March, 1791. He was the third child and second son
in a family of thirteen children. When about fourteen
years of age he removed with his parents to Blair county,
Pennsylvania. He enjoyed but meagre educational
advantages, attending but a few weeks in the winter such schools
as existed in those early days. In the spring of 1812,
accompanied by another young man, he started out to seek his
fortune in the "far west," as Ohio was then regarded. He
came on foot to Pittsburgh, thence down the Ohio on a flat-boat
to the mouth of the Scioto, thence on foot to Dayton. Soon
after his arrival there he found his way to an uncle near
Winchester, Preble county, where for some time he made his home.
While living there he erected for Henry Young the first
two story log house in that vicinity. In the spring of
1814 he was engaged by Gasper Potterf, of Gasper
township, to build him a barn. This was a large log
structure, requiring the entire summer to complete it. He
received for this job two hundred dollars, making day's wages of
about one dollar per day. While employed at this work he
formed the acquaintance of his employer's daughter, Nancy
Jane, to whom he was married in September, 1814. He
built him a log cabin on one hundred and sixty acres, just east
of where he now lives, and moved into it on Christmas day.
He resided there until 1827, when he erected the brick dwelling
in which he now lives. Mr. Allbaught has lived a
quiet, uneventful but industrious life. He experienced the
various hardships which fell to the lot of the pioneers, but his
memory, which is uncommonly clear, reverts to those times with a
lively interest, and even pleasure. He is a man of large
frame and remarkable vital power. Although nearly four
score and ten years his faculties, mental and physical, are in a
good state of preservation. He is descended on both sides
from an ancestry remarkable for longevity. His maternal
grandfather lived to be one hundred and one years old, and his
maternal great-grandfather was one hundred and six or seven at
the time of his death. His paternal grandfather died at
ninety years of age, and a brother of his father, Samuel
Allbaugh, died some years since near Springfield, Ohio, at
the great age of one hundred and nine years; he was a school
teacher and continued in his profession until one hundred years
old. The wife of the subject of this sketch died
September, 1874, at the age of nearly eighty years, having been
born Nov. 9, 1794. He has raised a family of eight
children, two having died when young, as follows:
Mrs. Polly McLean, born July 30, 1816; Allery, born
Feb. 20, 1818; Samuel, born Sept. 20, 1819; Mrs. Julia
Ann Bloom, born June 21, 1824; Stephen, born Mar. 9,
1827; Mrs. Susannah Smiley, born Feb. 21, 1829; Nancy
Jane, born May 6, 1834; Mrs. Sarah Ann Glunt, born
Mar. 18, 1837.
In March, 1880, Mr. Allbaugh became a member of
the Dunker church. His wife was a member of the Christian
denomination. Mr. Allbaugh lives with his grandson,
Frederick A. Bloom, whom he has raised since he was eight
years of age. Mr. Bloom received from his
grandfather forty acres of land in consideration of remaining
with him until twenty-one years of age. Some four years
ago he assumed charge of the home place. He was born Apr.
10, 1853; married Jan. 11, 1877, to Miss Margaret M. King
of Indiana, who was born in 1859. They have two children -
Charles S. and Lawrence.
Source: History of Preble County, Ohio - H. Z. Williams &
Bro, Publishers - 1881 - Page (btwn 180 & 181) |
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