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BIOGRAPHIES
The following biographies are extracted from:
Source:
The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
By Henry Holcomb Bennett
Published by S. A. Brant, Madison, Wis.,
1902
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JOSEPH B. NELSON,
one of the most prominent farmers in Huntington township
and for many years officially connected with its public
business as incubent of various offices, is descended
from a man who came into Ohio with the pioneer vanguard.
It is not definitely ascertained where Ross
Nelson originated, but it is known that he came west
at a very early day, and became domiciled in Jackson
county, Ohio. His main business was farming, but
he also conducted a salt mill for the benefit of the
settlers when that article of prime necessity was hard
to get and very costly. Ross Nelson
ended his days in Jackson county, but his widow survived
for some years and eventually died while visiting her
son in Ross county. Their family, which has long
since passed away, consisted of the following named
children: John, Oliver, Samuel,
David and Sarah. For the purposes of
this sketch only the fortunes of David, the
fourth son, will be followed. He was born in
Jackson county, Ohio, in 1804, and about the time he
reached twenty-one years of age settled in Colerain
township, Ross county. He there met and married
Hannah Bunn, a native of Pennsylvania, with
whom he spent three more years in Colerain and then
removed to Huntington township for permanent residence
on a farm of 104 acres which he had recently purchased.
He conducted his operations with success, dealt
extensively in stock and became widely known both in
Ross and adjoining counties. He added to his real
estate holdings by several subsequent purchases, but in
1875 abandoned farming to engage in the hotel business
at Chillicothe, which he followed twelve years and
retired, his death occurring no great while afterward.
His first wife had died during his residence in the
country and he contracted a second marriage with Mary
Ann Whitcombe, a native of Ross county,
who is now a resident of Chillicothe. By the first
marriage there were two children, William G., of
Clark county, and Joseph B. The latter’s
birth occurred Dec. 28, 1834, in Ross county, during his
father’s residence in Colerain township. He grew
up in Huntington township and about the time he reached
manhood was married to Sarah E. Thompson, a
native of Ireland. This lady died about two years
after marriage and several years subsequently Mr.
Nelson married Jane E., daughter of
Samuel and Elizabeth Trego, old residents of Scioto
township. He then located in the farm on which he
has since lived continuously and cultivated with such
success as to give him rank among the leading
agriculturists in the county. May 2, 1864, he
enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Forty-ninth
regiment, Ohio National Guard, which was organized at
Camp Dennison, ordered to Baltimore, May 11, and on its
arrival assigned to duty at different points. The
principal service of the regiment during its absence was
the part it took in the battle of July 9th at Monocacy
Junction, where it acquitted itself most creditably.
After considerable marching in Maryland and Virginia,
the regiment was returned to Ohio and mustered out in
August. Immediately thereafter Mr.
Nelson came directly home and resumed operations on
his farm. For five years Mr. Nelson
was assessor of his township, member of the school board
for a long period, township trustee for three years,
clerk two years and road supervisor for long periods
continuously. In fact, a few of its citizens have
had so much to do with the township's affairs, and
Mr. Nelson discharged all his duties with a fidelity
and business sense that commended his work to every
tax-payer. By his first wife Mr. Nelson had
one child named Florence, who died. By his
second marriage there are three children: Anna,
wife of H. Darlington of Catlettsburg, Ky.;
Mary A., wife of William Acord of Huntington
township; Elizabeth, wife of A. Hinckleman,
of Scioto township. Mrs. Nelson is a member
of the Baptist church.
Source: The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison,
Wis., 1902 - Page 619 |
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W. GUY NELSON,
postmaster of South Salem, was born near Hillsbor
in Highland county, Mar. 3, 1863. His grandfather,
John Nelson, who founded the family in
Ross county, came there from Virginia in the early part
of the nineteenth century. Marshall T. Nelson,
father of the subject of this sketch, was born at
Hillsboro in 1824, graduated at the Marietta (Ohio)
college, studied law in early life and was admitted to
the bar, but abandoned the legal profession to engage in
the hardware business. After ten years in
mercantile pursuits he retired from that business and
followed farming as an occupation until his death in
1883. W. Guy Nelson was educated mainly in
Kansas as a dealer in hay. Returning to Ohio he
farmed for a while in Highland county and in 1888
settled at South Salem. He was elected clerk of
Buckskin township in 1894 and appointed post master of
South Salem in 1897, both of which positions he has
since retained. Mr. Nelson is a member of
the Knights of Pythias, Modern Woodmen of America and
the Presbyterian church. In South Salem, who is a
meber of one of the oldest families in Ross county.
His father, John Pricer, came from Pennsylvania
to Ross county and settled on what afterward became
known as Pricer Ridge, in Paint township.
There Levi Pricer was born in the year 1829.
After receiving his education in the common schools and
at the South Salem academy, he followed various
pursuits, including the management of a flour mill,
teaching school and clerking in a store. In 1856,
he engaged in general merchandising at South Salem, and
has continued that business up to the present time,
being also interested in agriculture. Mr.
Pricer was postmaster at South Sale for more than
thirty years, being first appointed by President
Pierce. In 1849, he was married to Melvina
M. Robertson, a native of Virginia, who died in
1892. Mr. Pricer has three living children.
Robert A., the eldest, holds a position in a
railroad office at Cincinnati. The second son,
Dr. W E. Pricer, a practicing physician in Ironton,
O., is a graduate of Starling Medical college at
Columbus and the noted medical college of Philadelphia.
Emily V., the only daughter, is the wife of W.
Guy Nelson, as previously stated. Mr.
Pricer is a member of the Presbyterian church at
South Salem, of which he has been an elder for
twenty-five years.
Source: The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison,
Wis., 1902 - Page 620 |
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WILLIAM C. NEWELL,
postmaster and mayor of Bainbridge, is a native of
Highland county, born in 1841. His father,
Samuel Newell, was a native of Belmont county, Ohio,
and for many years was proprietor of the old Foraker
mills in Highland county. He died in Bainbridge in
1895. William Q. Newell, the only son, was
educated in Highland county and had not reached his
majority when the civil war broke out. He enlisted
in the Sixtieth Ohio infantry, with which he served
several months, and then obtained a transfer to the
Twenty-fourth Ohio battery, of which he was sergeant,
continuing with that organization until the close of the
war. His whole service with the two commands
footed up a period of twenty-seven months.
Returning from the army, Mr. Newell
engaged in the milling business with his father and so
continued for a number of years. In 1876, he was
elected sheriff of Highland county, and served in that
capacity until 1880. In the spring of 1889 he
disposed of his milling interests, removed to
Bainbridge, Ross county, and there resumed the same
occupation. After a continuance in the milling
business for three or four years, Mr. Newell
was in 1897 appointed postmaster at Bainbridge,
which office he has since continuously held. He
has also been honored by election as justice of the
peace and mayor of Bainbridge and is serving his fourth
term as mayor and second term as justice of the peace.
In 1882, Mr. Newell was married to
Margaret R. Foraker, sister of Ohio’s eloquent son
and distinguished United States senator, Hon.
Joseph B. Foraker. They have two sons, whom
they have named Frank Foraker and
Joseph Benson Newell, respectively.
The religious affiliations of the family are with the
Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Newell
is a Knight Templar and for some years served as
commander of the Grand Army Post at Bainbridge.
Source: The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison,
Wis., 1902 - Page 621 |
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NEWS
ADVERTISER: - The first number of the Chillicothe
Advertiser was issued on June 11, 1831, a copy of which
is now on file in the office. It is a four page
paper with six columns to the page, and was owned and
edited by John Hough. In 1840 Dr.
C. W. Pine was taken into partnership. From
that time the paper had various editors. Samuel
W. Halsey succeeded Hough & Pine; Eshelman
& Ballmyer came next, the latter firm conducted
the paper during the war between the states, after which
Mr. Eshelman moved to Wooster, Ohio, where he
purchased the Wayne County Democrat, and the Advertiser
passed into the hands of Hon. James Emmitt, then
a candidate for congress. Under Mr.
Emmitt’s ownership it was first edited by Sam
Pike and later by Hon. John Putnam, who came to
Chillicothe upon retiring from the state legislature,
where he represented Licking county. Mr. Putnam
soon after purchased the plant and under his ownership
the Advertiser enjoyed more prosperity and wielded a
greater influence than under any previous regime.
In 1873 Mr. Putnam leased the Advertiser to
become the private secretary of Gov. Wm. Allen.
In his absence the paper was edited first by S. L.
Everet and later by Sam Kilvert and Hon. Brownlee,
who was succeeded in 1877 by John Wiseman.
Mr. Wiseman conducted the paper with average
success until 1882, when it was purchased by Frank
Harper and Geo. F. Hunter, both young men
from Eastern Ohio. Since the ownership of John
Putnam the paper had gradually gone from bad to
worse, and when Messrs. Harper & Hunter took
possession there were less than 400 paying subscribers
on the books. From that day, however, the
Advertiser began to prosper, and the old name of
Chillicothe Advertiser agani commanded respect. In
1894 Mr. Harper retired to take charge of the Mt.
Vernon Banner, which had been left him on the death of
his father. Mr. Hunter, who had then been
connected with the Advertiser longer than any other
editor since its founding, continued the business alone,
and in December, 1896, added a daily edition. This
made three daily papers in Chillicothe, and after a
fierce competition for three years a proposition to
consolidate, made on behalf of the New-Register Co., was
accepted, and in October, 1899, the Advertiser, daily
and weekly, and the Daily News and the Ross County
Weekly Register, then owned by C. C. Waddle,
doing business as the News-Register Co., were combined.
The two interests George F. Hunter, was president
and C. C. Waddle secretary. In 1900, Mr.
Waddle's interest was purchased by Mr. Hunter's
brother, W. H. Hunter, formerly of the
Steubenville (O) Gazette, a gentleman of considerable
ability as an editor and historian. The
consolidation proved to be a wise move not only for the
interests involved, but also for the city. The
advertising patrons were enabled to reach double the
number of people for the same cost, while the increased
number of subscribers enabled the management to add
every modern facility for getting out a first class,
up-to-date daily, far ahead of any other paper published
in Ohio, in cities the size of Chillicothe. It now
enjoys a circulation and advertising patronage never
before attained by a Chillicothe newspaper. The
force is now organized as follows: Manager,
George F. Hunter; editor, H. H. Hunter; city
editor, A. R. Wolfe; society reporter, Anna
Socin; reporter, Miels Townsend; proof
reader, Phill Hunter; artist, Dard Hunter;
booker, Margaret Scheehan; collectors, George
Ulmaier and John M. Dawley; forman, Chas
S. Vogel; machine operators, Margaret Rupel
and HErbert Gardner; machinist and pressman,
Wm. Teigart; devil*, Lewis Henn.
Source: The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison,
Wis., 1902 - Page 621
*Sharon Wick's
note:
A printer's
devil was
an apprentice in
a printing establishment
who performed a number of tasks, such as mixing tubs of
ink and fetching type. Notable writers including Ambrose
Bierce, Benjamin
Franklin, Walt
Whitman,
and Mark
Twain served
as printer's devils in their youth. |
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JAMES
D. NICHOLS was born in Ross County, Ohio, July 8,
1830. His father, James Nichols, was a
native of Maryland, who came to Ohio in 1800 and settled
in Ross county. He was a miller by trade and
worked at that occupation for about thirty years.
Before he left Maryland he married Martha Beard,
by whom he had twelve children, of whom only two
survive, James D., who is the subject of this
sketch, and John T., who is living in
Texas. The names of the others are as follows:
Addison, Lucretia, William, Elizabeth, Margery, Effie
J., Charlotte, William R., Miranda and Victoria.
Besides the milling business, which was his
specialty, the father also carried on farming in a
general way, being regarded as an industrious and
upright citizen. His death occurred in 1863, his
wife only surviving him about one year and dying in
1864. James D., who was the eighth of the
twelve children, attended the schools of his district
and obtained the kind of education common to the youth
of those days. He remained at home until he
reached twenty-three, after which he taught school for
five years. Nov. 19, 1859, he was married to
Susan Augusta, by whom he had two children,
Melvin and Philena, both of whom are living
at home. After marriage Mr. Nichols settled
down to farming, which he has since followed, having
lived on the same place for sixty-eight years. In
politics, Mr. Nichols is Democratic and his
religious affiliations are with the Methodist Episcopal
church.
Source: The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison,
Wis., 1902 - Page 623 |
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JOSEPH
NICHOLS was born in Scioto township, Ross county,
Ohio, July 17, 1831. His father, Joseph Nichols,
a native of Washington county, Md., born May 10, 1797,
was married May 30, 1822, to Elizabeth Ann Mossburgh,
who was born in Maryland on Feb. 8, 1800. In the
year 1827 they came to Ohio and settled near
Chillicothe, where Mr. Nichols worked at his
trade as a cooper for some time. Eventually,
however, he abandoned that line of work and having
purchased land, devoted himself to farming until his
death on April 1, 1858. Before leaving Maryland,
there children had been born, of whom Henry and
James are dead and Mahala is living in
Illinois. During the residence of Ohio, the family
was increased by the birth of four more children, of
whom Charlotte was born in Scioto and
Elizabeth and Matilda in Union township.
Joseph Nichols, the fifth in order of birth,
received the ordinary common school education of that
day, and remained at home and assisted his father until
his marriage to Alice Mary Bateman, which
occurred on Nov. 10, 1853. He first started out on
a rented farm, but as prosperity visited him he from
time to time bought land until he owned the 169 acres
which constitute his present homestead. Mr.
Nichols has greatly improved the surroundings, since
his first occupancy in 1858, and has a very pretty home
overlooking the adjacent valley. He carries on
general farming and raises stock, and pays considerable
attention to fruit, among his possessions being a fine
peach orchard of 1,200 trees. By his first
marriage Mr. Nichols had four children:
Legrand B. and William F., of Van Wert
county; Alice E., who married Levi Rose of
Union county; and Myrtie B., who is the wife of
Thomas J. Good of Clermont county. The
mother of these children died in1863, and on Nov. 13,
1870, Mr. Nichols remarried, his second
wife being Nancy O. Huhn. Only one child,
Joseph Howard, was born to this union, and he
lives on his father's place. His mother died in
1887 and his father's third matrimonial union was with
Mary C. Flesher, on Dec. 29, 1889. Mr.
Nichols in politics is Democratic and he has held
the offices of to township trustee, township assessor,
and justice of the peace. His religious
affiliations are with the Christian Union, of which he
has been a preacher for thirty-six years.
Source: The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison,
Wis., 1902 - Page 623 |
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CHARLES H. NOBLE,
a representative farmer of Deerfield township, belongs
to the generation who have grown up in Ross county since
the civil war and carried on agricultural operations by
modern methods. He is a son of Joshua Noble,
who was born Nov. 18, 1822, in Ross county, and here
received his education and training for the pursuit
which was to constitute his life-long business.
Joshua Noble embarked in farming at an early age and
obtained success in that line, besides achieving a
position of prominence and influence in his community.
The public regard was shown by his frequent summons to
hold various township offices and he was generally at
the front when movements were on foot to introduce
improvements of any kind. In 1844 he was married
to Lavina Wright, with whom he lived most
affectionately until her death in 1888, he surviving her
three years and passing away in 1891. They became
the parents of eight children, seven of whom are living:
John, Peter (deceased), George, Milton, Lafayette,
of Deerfield township, Nannie, Dora, and
Charles H. Charles H. Noble was born in
Deerfield township, Ross county, Mar. 29, 1865; was
educated in the district schools and trained to farm
work from boyhood to maturity. In due time he had
a farm of his own and has devoted all of his working
life to agricultural pursuits. Jan. 15, 1891, he
was married to Allie, daughter of David
Speakman, an old resident of Deerfield township.
The union has resulted in the birth of four children:
Roy, Dora, John and George.
Source: The County of Ross: a history of Ross County, Ohio
by Henry Holcomb Bennett - Published by S. A. Brant, Madison,
Wis., 1902 - Page |
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