Adams County, Ohio - Chapter 15: The Courts Under the Constitution, 1900 (part 3 of 3)

attorney at law, West Union, was born November 22, 1853, ^^ Liberty Township, Adams County, Ohio, son of Mahlon and Jemima (Melvin) Wikoff. The WikoflF family is of German origin. The ancestor who came to this county was Peter Claeson Wikoff. He emigrated in 1636. Jacob Wikoff, his son, was the father of Peter Wikoff, who, in about 1790, emigrated from Virginia to Washington, Kentucky, where he bought one thousand acres of land. He, however, afterwards lost it by defective title. He removed to Adams County, Ohio, and settled on Scioto Brush Creek in Jefferson Township. Here he bought land in the wilderness, cleared, farmed and lived on it until his death. James Wikoff, the son of Peter Wikoff, was the grandfather of our subject. He was bom February 11, 1782. He resided with his father until 1810, when he married Rachel Ellis. After his marriage, he resided on the Brush Creek farm until his decease, September 18, 1818. He left four children, three sons and one daughter. One of the sons was the father, our subject. He afterwards married a second time and young Wikoff was left to look out for himself. He found a home with his maternal uncle, John Ellis, who kept him until he was of age, when he gave him the customary outfit, horse, saddle, bridle and a new suit of clothes and he thus started out in life. John Ellis died in 1889. Our subject's wife's grandfather was an Englishman, who emigrated to Delaware, where he lived and died. He left seven children, four ot whom were boys. George Andrew Melvin emigrated, at the a^^e of twenty-eight, to Kentucky, and two years after, he married Sarah Huffman, who was a native of Virginia. After thirty-five years of married life, Mr. Melvin died, leaving a family of eleven children, of which Mrs. Wikoff was the tenth. Mrs. Melvin, the mother of Mrs. Wikoff, who was tlie mother of the subject of our sketch, died in 1887, at the advanced age of ninety-seven years. Jemima Melvin, at the time of her marriage, was the owner of a spinning wheel and loom, which she knew how to use. There were eight children of this marriage, - William J., who died from a disease contracted while attending the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio; George M., Cyrus F., subject of this sketch; Sarah A., Lou R., Mary E., Lucir.da M. and Laura L. Mrs. Wikoff died in 1893.

Cyrus F. Wikoff, our subject, spent his boyhood on the farm and received such education as could be obtained in the country schools and in the higher-schools and normals in the county. He began teaching at the age of eighteen and continued until 1880. In 1882, he began the study of law with S. E. Pearson who died, and he completed his studies under Luther Thompson, and was admitted to the bar in 1884. In 1888, he was elected Mayor of West Union. In 1889, he was elected prosecuting attorney of Adams County and was re-elected in

1892, serving two terms. He has served as a member of the school board of West Union, and also in various other offices. He is a Knight Templar, member of Cavalry Commandary No. 13, Knights Templar, Portsmouth; of Chapter No. 129, Manchester; and of Masonic Lodge No. 43, West Union, Ohio. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church at West Union, and served as superintendent of the C. U. Sunday School at that place for twelve years.

He was married on the twenty-fifth of December, 1881, to Jennie E. Wikoff, daughter of H. B. and Eliza Wikoff, and granddaughter of Judge James McColm. Their children are Cecil C, Lida J., and Lester B.

attorney at law, Peebles, Ohio, was bom August 22, 1863, near Marshal. Highland Coumy, Obio. His father's name was Andrew K«-v-l« i and his mother's maiden name was Christina Lewis. He received only a common school education and studied law with the Hon. J. B. Worley, of Hillsboro, Ohio. After being admitted to the bar, he located in Peebles, Ohio, for the practice of his profession, where he still resides. He was elected Mayor of that thriving town three terms and served by appointment for five months in additicm. He is a Democrat in politics, and was a candidate on the Democratic ticket for Representative in the Pike-Adams district in 1899, but was defeated by Joseph A. Wilson, of Cynthiana, by the vote from Pike County.

Mr. Kesler is a gentleman who enjoys the confidence of his political associates and of the people who know him, and is regarded as an able lawyer and a correct busines man.

was born December 5, 1862, at Pond Run, Scioto County, Ohio, where his father, Charles A. McCoy, was then residing. His mother's maiden name was Annette Thomas. They had six children; four died in infancy and two survive. When our subject was two years of age his father moved to near Dunbarton, Ohio, and bought the Moses Buck farm on Brush Creek. Mr. McCoy had a common school education. He spent the winter of 1881 at the Manchester high school, and attended the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware from 1883 to 1886. At the close of the year, he left that institution and engaged in work on his father^s farm, on account of his father's ill health. In the fall of 1887, he went to Bethany College, West Virginia, and graduated there in the classical course in June, 1888. In the fall of 1888, he taught school at Purtce's school house, and two winters at Jacksonville. In 1891 his health ^ave way and he went to farming. He began the study of law in the same year with John W. Hook, and continued it with Chas C. Swain and Wni. C. Coryell. He was admitted to the bar in December, 1894. He located at West Union in March, 1895, and be- gan the practice of law. He was elected prosecuting attorney on the Republican ticket in the fall of 1896, by a majority of 115. He was reelected in 1899 by a majority of 107. In March, 1900, he entered into a partnership with Hon. F. D. Bayless; under the firm of Bayless & McCoy. He has always been a Republican, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On March 9, 1892, he was married to Miss Minnie A. Young, daughter of Leonard Young, a former recorder of Adams County.

A friend gives this statement as to Mr. McCoy : "His moral character is above reproach. He is upright and honest in all his dealings with his fellow men. His habits are correct and pure. He maintains a high degree of character in the church of his choice, the Methodist Episcopal, of which he is a prominent and useful member. As a citizen he looks to the best results for himself and the community. He is enterprising and ever ready and willing to do his full share of labor for the advancement of the community in which he is a good and successful lawyer. As such, he is painstaking and thorough ; and as a prosecuting attorney, he does his duty thoroughly. It is believed he has filled that office with as much credit as any predecessor he ever had. He comes up to the full measure of a good man and citizen."

was born August 17, 1876, in Liberty Township, on the old Cave Hill farm, the son of Johnson and Rachael J. (Mehaffey) Robuck. Aaron Robuck, grandfather of the subject, was one of the pioneers of Liberty Township. His maternal grandmother was Esther Ellison. He came from Kentucky w^hen young and settled on the farm now known as the Evans farm. He married a McGovney.

Our subject was reared on the farm, attended the common schools of Liberty Township until the age of sixteen, when he removed to West Union with his parents. He began teaching in 1892 and taught in Adams County until 1898. He began reading law under C. F. Wikoff in 1894 and was admitted to the bar in March, 1899.

He was married to Miss Clara E. Brodt, daughter of Jacob Brodt, of West Union, Ohio, September 3, 1897. They have one. child, Benjamin Franklin.

Mr. Robuck is a Republican. He is a self-made young man with brilliant prospects. For several years he was one of the most prominent school teachers of Adams County. He has an active and brilliant mind. He is honest and upright in his transactions and bids fair to be a leader in his profession.

was born December 8, 1857, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. His father was George Vance and his mother, Lydia A. Wilson. They removed to Highland County, Ohio, in 1864. His father was a shoemaker. He died in 1893. His mother resides in Hillsboro. Our subject was educated in the common schools,qualified himself as a teacher and taught eight years.

He removed to Adams County, April 2, 1890. He was deputy auditor under Dr. J. M. Wittenmyer from 1894 to 1900. He was a candidate for auditor at the Democratic primary election in 1899, and was defeated by one vote by Dr. R. A. Stephenson, of Manchester. From 1890 till 1895 he practiced law in Adams County, but gave up the practice when he became deputy auditor.

He was married October 23. 1881, to Miss Olive E. Gibler and has six children, Myra M., Shirley S., Ethel E., Joseph, Louis G. and Otto K. Their ages range from seventeen years to eighteen months.

Mr. Vance is a Democrat, a Mason and a Red Man. He is of a generous and genial disposition. He is reliable both as a friend and as an enemy. While poor in earthly goods, he is rich in those qualities which ennoble the soul.

He is well read in his profession, is a gentleman of pleasing presence and address, popular with those who know him well, and whom he attaches to himself by the strongest bonds of friendship.

was born in Monroe Township, Adams County, October 20, 1849. His great-grandfather was a native of England, and emigrated to Lexington, Siassachusetts. It is tradition in the family that he and five sons, of whom the great-grandfather, James Naylor, was one, participated in the Battle of Lexington. At the close of the war, James Naylor located near Cumberland, Maryland, and later located forty miles west of Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania. He moved his wife and four children on two horses over the Alleghanies. The wife and four children were on one horse and he lead the other horse loaded with their goods. In 1792, he and a neighbor named Mehaffey and a boy named David Young, built a flat-boat and with their effects, floated down the Ohio River. They landed at Limestone after a three days* voyage on high water, though it usually took from six to nine days.

James Naylor located at Washington, Kentucky, and remained till 1796, when he removed to Gift Ridge, Adams County. Mrs. Naylor brought with her from Pennsylvania, a number of apple seeds and planted them in Kentucky. When she removed to OhiOr she dug up the young sprouts and took them with her. She replanted them and from them have come the famous "Naylor Apple." The trees grew from twentyfour to thirty inches in diameter, and the apples were large and juicy. James Naylor had two wives, the first was a Miss Brinket. and the second, Margaret Packet. He had four sons and two daughters. Of the sons, Samuel was the grandfather of our subject. He was born in Washington, Kentucky He married Sallie Tucker and lived and died in Monroe Township. The other brothers went west. One daughter of James Naylor married Mark Pennywit, and the other married John Washburn. Samuel Naylor married Sallie Tucker, and they had seven sons and four dauj^^hters. Sanuiel Parker Naylor, father of our subject, was born on the old homestead November 2, 1827. From 1856 to 1858, he conducted a merchandise business at Wrightsville, and later ran a small steamboat between Cincinnati and Manchester. On January i, 1849, h^ ^^^^ married to Elizabeth Jane Taylor. They had nine children, of whom our subject was the oldest. The latter obtained his education in the schools of Monroe Township and at Manchester. At the age of eleven, he began work at the Manchester pottery and worked there for three years. At the age of seventeen, he began teaching school in Jefferson Township. In 1869, he began the study of law with the late Edward P. Evans, and on October 20, 1870, on his twenty-first birthday, he was admitted to the bar in the district court of Hamilton County. In 1873, he formed a partnership with his legal preceptor as Evans & Naylor. On June i. 1875, ^^ ^^^ married to Miss Nannie Irene Coryell, daughter of the late Judge James L. Coryell of West Union, and is the father of two gifted, talented daughters, both of whom graduated at the Manchester High School at the age of sixteen, and each was the valedictorian of her class. Both became teachers. Mary, the eldest, taught school at West Union and Manchester, and was for two years assistant at the High School at the latter place. She afterward married Charles B. Ford, and is living at New Richmond, Ohio. Winona, the youngest, is teaching at Manchester and studying law with her father.

In 1880 and 1881, Mr. Naylor was deputy county auditor of Adams County. From 1882 to 1891, he was cashier of the Manchester Bank, conducted by R. H. Ellison. Since 1891, he has applied himself exclusively to the practice of law. He has always been a Republican and taken an active interest in politics. He is not a member of any church, but prefers the Presbyterian.

was born March 11, 1847, ^^ Manchester. His father was Samuel Anderson, and his mother, Mary Burket. His father was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, and his mother in Adams County, Ohio. Her father kept hotel in west Union where Lewis Johnson now resides, and died there about 1828. His widow afterward married John McDade, while his brother Robert married her daughter, Angeline. now residing in the McDade Hotel in Manchester. Our subject was educated in the schools of Manchester, and began the study of law in 1869 with R. T. Naylor, and finished with Joseph R. Cockerill. He was admitted to the bar at Portsmouth, Ohio, .'\pril 26, 1872, and has practiced law at Manchester ever since. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Adams County twice, serving from 1879 -^ t^»^4» ^"d administered his office with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the public. As a lawyer, Mr. Anderson is careful, thorough and painstaking, and is a successful advocate.

West Union, Ohio, was born March 6, 1838, in Green Township, Adams County. He lived in Jefferson Township from 1840 till 1872. at which latter date he located in West Union. His education was acquired in the common schools of Jefferson Township, at the old academy at North Liberty, and in the West Union Hic^h School. He taught in Green and Jefferson district schools for about ten years, and was a most careful and successful instructor. He was elected on the Democratic ticket Treasurer of Adams County, which office he filled to the satisfaction of his party for two terms, from 1872 to 1876, inclusive. He also has served for nearly twenty years as Justice of the Peace in Jefferson and Tiffin Townships. He was admitted to practice law in 1878, and is recognized as one of the most careful and painstaking attorneys at the Adams County Bar. On March 24, 1861, he married Miss Harriet Shively. They have no family.

The g^eat-grandparents of Henry Scott were James and Cynthia Scott. Their son, James Scott, who married Agnes Young, in Washington County, Pa., January 17, 1812, was his grandfather. They had nine children, of whom John Scott, the oldest, born December 18, 1812, was the father of our subject. He came with his parents to Adams County, in 1813. where he resided until his death, August 3, 1882. He married Susanna McGary, a daughter of Henry McGary and Sallie Young, his wife. Susanna was born in the house now occupied by Mrs. Isaac Worstel, in West Union, January 14, 1814. She and her sister, Elizabeth, who was born in Manchester April 6, 1808, and the widow of George Young, are the oldest living sisters in Adams County. Henry McGary was a son of William McGary, a Revolutionary soldier and a pioneer of Adams County. He has a separate sketch in this volume.

Henry Scott had three brothers, Alexander, James and Whitney: and two sisters, Sarah A. and Elizabeth A. Of these Alexander and Whitnev are now deceased.

West Union, was born on the old Mason farm, four miles east of West Union, September 29. 1845. His father. Samuel S. Mason, was a farmer and shoemaker, and was a prominent character in political circles in Adams County in his time. He ser\*ed for years as a Justice of the Peace in Tiffin Township. Judge Mason worked on the farm in summer and attended the district school in winter until he acquired sufficient education to teach, which occupation he followed with marked success for several years. Many young people were given financial and professional aid by him that enabled them to make a beginning in the world by teaching school. While teaching, he married Miss Addie Moore, a daughter of Newton Moore, a pioneer of Adams County, April 16, 1872. In the meantime he had been reading law under the tuition of Hon. Thomas J. Mullen, of West Union, and on April i, 1873, ^^ ^^'^s admitted to the bar, following the legal profession until 1888, at which time he removed to his farm on East Fork of Ohio Brush Creek, in Bratton Township. While residing there he was nominated and elected on the r)emocratic ticket, Probate Judge of Adams County, in the autumn of 1S06. The legislature had enacted that "buncombe" statute that year, known as the "Garfield Law," or "Corrupt Practice Act," and under its provisions political dyspeptics invoked the aid of the courtsand had tlie Judge removed from office for alleged promises of remuneration for aid in the campaign in which he had so gallantly carried the banner of his party to victory. But the people were in sympathy with the cause of justice, and took up the contest and elected the Judge a

In politics the Judge is a Jeffersonian Democrat, having the largest faith in the people. He is the original silver advocate in Adams County, in the contest since the Civil War, between the money power and the people. He wrote a pamphlet on the subject in 1878, when a candidate for Congress. He led the fight on the minions of the money power, and won the contest in the selection of delegates in Adams County by the Democratic party in 1895 ; and again in 1897, when he delivered before the County Convention of delegates a most remarkable speech on the subject of bi-metallism, in which, with reference to the 16 to I resolution of the Chicago platform, he declared: '*That resolution is the St. Peter of our political faith, and by the blessing of God and the justice of our cause, we will maintain it."

The Judge is one of the most companionable of men, and reckons his friends by the score. As a Judge of the Probate Court, his career has been entirely satisfactory to the people.