Mrs. Henry Amrin

Henry Amrin Residence

HENRY AMRIN. —It is our privilege at this point to revert to the life history of one whose days have been filled with “ceaseless toil and endeavor,” who has attained to marked success as a result of such effort, and yet who has had the mental scope to determine that the maximum of life is not rounded up in mere temporal possession, and has accordingly given of his hard-earned accumulations to a cause whose benefits he had himself been denied,—a magnificent benefaction whose dignity and worth shall be to him a memorial more lasting than “sculptured urn or animated bust.” Henry Amrin is a plain, true, honest man who has not attained to massive deeds and great, but who has lived a simple life and gained success by the sweat of his brow, but who has had a prescience of the value of endowments which fit one for a wider sphere than that in which he has moved, and whose recognition of this truth has been in his giving far more than a tithe for an object whose rewards shall be reaped when he has been long gathered to his fathers. Such a life is one that offers the most lucid justification for the compilation of a work of this nature.
     The first representative of the Amrin family in Union county, Ohio, was Abraham Amrin, who came hither from Belmont county, this State. He was born in Eastern Pennsylvania, and was the son of a father who bore the same Christian name. The senior Abraham came from Switzerland to America in a very early day, located in Pennsylvania and there reared a large family and there died, having been engaged in agricultural pursuits. The son Abraham grew to maturity in his native State, having been born about 1763, and there was consummated his marriage to Mary Woolford, who also was born in Pennsylvania, and whose death occurred about 1830. Subsequently Mr. Amrin married Nancy Cook, who survived him a number of years, his death having occurred in this county in 1845, at which time he had attained the venerable age of eighty-two years. He reared a family of eight children. He was an active and zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which denomination his grandson, our subject, has given so munificently of his means. When he came to Union county he effected the purchase of a tract of 1,000 acres of land, and this he divided into such parts as to give to each of his seven sons 100 acres, the residue being retained by himself. The entire tract was entirely unreclaimed, was heavily timbered, and was situated in Paris township. The land was improved by the family, but at the present time all has passed out of the possession of either the sons or their descendants, with the exception of ninety acres retained by Monroe Amrin. Holding so large an acreage it was but natural that the Amrin family should ultimately become a prime factor in securing the development and furthering the higher interests of the township, and incidentally of the county and State. They contributed largely toward the establishment and maintenance of churches and schools, and gave their influence and support to all measures conserving the welfare of the community, the work being continued by one generation from the point where the preceding left the same.
     We are able to give but a brief record concerning the history of the children of Abraham Amrin, but even this meagre record can not fail of interest. They were as follows: John; Henry, father of our subject; Susan, who married Joseph Worley, and passed the remainder of her life in Wheeling, West Virginia; Andrew, Frederick, Jeremiah, Abraham, Moses, and one who died in early childhood. All these sons lived and married and reared families in this county, and all save three retained their residence here until called upon to obey death’s inexorable summons. Frederick, Jeremiah and Abraham removed to the far West after they had surrounded themselves with families. All were devoted to the religion of their father, and all were zealous workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Andrew being specially prominent in this work, as was he also in local politics; he held the office of Justice of the Peace for many years, and his counsel was held in high esteem.
     Henry, the second son, was the father of our subject, and he was born in Pennsylvania in 1789, coming with his parents to the Buckeye State at the age of eleven years, and growing to maturity on the farm, with whose manifold duties he became early familiar. After he had commenced operations on his own responsibility he erected a sawmill, and later on a gristmill,—two establishments which proved of inestimable benefit to the community in which he lived, inasmuch as development was slow and improvements made very conservatively. His brothers had taken up their residence in Union county in 1817, but he did not come until three years subsequent to that date. He conducted his farm and his flouring mill consecutively until the time of his death, his sons proving most efficient coadjutors in both lines of enterprise. In his political adherency he was an old-line Whig, and was tenacious of his beliefs, being a man of distinct individuality and strong character. His death occurred in 1864. Henry Amrin married Mary Powers, who was born in Pennsylvania, and who died in this county in 1851, at the age of sixty-five years. They reared a family of nine children, of whom we offer the following record: John was engaged in gardening at Piqua, this State, where he died; Betsy married Elijah Woolford, of this county, and is now deceased; Josiah, deceased, was a farmer in this county; Susan, deceased, was the wife of Samuel Reed, of this county; Abraham was engaged in farming in this county and is now deceased; Mercy married Henry Bell, and died in Logan county, this State; Henry is the immediate subject of this review; Smith M. was a farmer in this county, where he died; Andrew is engaged in farming in this county.
     Henry Amrin, to whom this sketch is mainly devoted, is a native of the county in which he still retains his residence as a prosperous and honored pioneer, the date of his birth having been November 21, 1821. His boyhood days were passed amid the sturdy discipline and plain fare of the parental homestead, and he early became familiar with the arduous duties incidental to clearing and cultivating a farm. His educational advantages were confined to those afforded by the subscription schools of the period, but as maturity approached he found himself ably fortified for fighting the battle of life, and making for himself a place in the world,—honesty, integrity and industry coming to him as a legitimate heritage.
     April 26, 1842, he was united in marriage to Miss Martha Irven, daughter of William and Amelia (Evans) Irven. She was born near London, Madison county, Ohio, April 14, 1820. After their marriage our subject and his wife settled on a tract of 100 acres, which had been given to them by the former’s father, the tract being timber land, upon which practically no improvements had been made. Upon this primitive farmstead in Paris township they erected a modest domicile of hewed logs and began to encroach upon the domain of the forest, whose monarchs fell before the sturdy axe of our subject. The devoted wife contributed of her strength, both physical and mental, toward aiding her husband in his efforts; like his did also her hand become roughened with toil, but mutually sustained and comforted they struggled along with a determination to succeed, and finally success gratefully took up its abode with them. As the years passed by the evidence of their labors became more palpable, for they found themselves the possessors of 700 acres of land, prosperity withheld not its hand and the bountiful harvest, for whose securing they had labored so long and patiently, was not denied them in its due season. They continued to reside on their home farm from 1842 until 1888, their little cottage having been replaced after some twenty years by a substantial and commodious dwelling in keeping with their position and their prosperity. In the latter building they made their home until 1888, when they removed to their present attractive home, one mile and a quarter west of the county seat, Marysville.
     Mr. Amrin is over all and above all a self made man and his success comes as the legitimate recompense of his efforts. He has been a close observer, a keen, shrewd business man, but has never abated by one jot or tittle his sturdy rectitude of character nor swerved from the straight path which justice defines. His life has been devoted to the noble art of husbandry, which he has honored as it has also honored and enriched him. He was for many years extensively engaged in stock-raising and his operations in this line were ably directed as to return him good profits.
     In the fall of 1887 marked that event in his life which showed most clearly the character of the man and his gratitude for the good gifts that had come to his portion. A spirit of genuine philanthropy was that which must have animated him when he determined to award a princely benefaction to the noble work of education, for he arranged his affairs and gave the sum of $25,000 to the Ohio Wesleyan University, which is located at Delaware, the donation being held by the institution as endowment fund.
     Mr. Amrin has been strongly arrayed in the support of the Republican party and its principles from his early manhood, has taken an active interest in local affairs of public nature and has held certain of the township offices. He and his wife have always been prominent workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and that to advance its cause they have done much, none can doubt, for, in addition to his gift to the church institution noted, Mr. Amrin has always contributed liberally to the support of the church, giving “not grudgingly or of necessity,” but with that cheerfulness which is acceptable to the One in whose hands rest the destinies of men.
     Our subject still retains upward of 470 acres of land in the county, and is still actively concerned in supervising its cultivation. Mr. and Mrs. Amrin are the parents of two children: Alfred and Mary A. The former, who resides on the paternal farm, was born February 7, 1843, and grew to manhood at home. In the fall of I861 he enlisted for service in the late war as a member of Company F, Sixty-sixth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and remained in the ranks until the close of the conflict. Within the final year of the war he was taken prisoner and was held in captivity at Andersonville for seven and one-half months, his release coming only when victory had crowned the efforts of the Union forces. He married Miss Lucy Edsam and they have two children, Curtis and Nellie.
     Mary A., daughter of our subject, is the wife of Hilas Whelpley, a resident of Washington Court House, Fayette county, this State, where he is in the employ of the Pan Handle Railroad Company. They have two children, Edward and James H.
     Source: Memorial Record of the Counties of Delaware, Union & Morrow, Ohio; Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1895, pp. 211-214
Contributed by a Generous Genealogist.