Butler County, Ohio - The whole text, 1882 (part 32 of 39)

Benjamin Bassett Davis, mayor of Oxford, is a native of Edgartown, on the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, and was born on the 4th of April, 1816. His parents were Zadock and Elizabeth Bassett Davis. He was the third born of a family of nine children, five sons and four daughters, only three of whom are now living. When Benjamin was three years of age the parents, with their family, emigrated to the State of Ohio, and settled on a farm, near the present hamlet of Warsaw, some five miles west of Cincinnati. Here the elder Davis for a few years carried on a small tannery, but relinquished this calling and gave his attention more fully to the cultivation of his farm. In early life Mayor Davis had little, if any, advantages of school education, but was of an active temperament and a quick, discriminating mind. As he came to manhood, while busy assisting his father in the care of the farm, the latter was removed by death, which event occurred in August, 1834. The son remained on the farm with the mother and the rest of the family for several years thereafter. On attaining his majority, he espoused the politics of the Whigs, and for many years was active in the local interests of that party. He was for some nine years made one of the justices of the peace in the township where he resided. August 6, 1836, he was married to Miss Rhoda Cullom, who bore him seven sons and one daughter. In 1861 Mr. Davis took up his residence in the city of Cincinnati, and having early espoused the cause of the Republican party when it was organized, he was favored by an appointment to the position of chief local agent in the post-office blank department of the West, which was then located at Cincinnati. This position he held with honor to himself and to the interests of the department. for over a year, when, the office being transferred to Buffalo, New York, he resigned his position and accepted an appointment as superintendent of the local city mail distribution, a position he held for nearly three years. While residing in Cincinnati, January 23, 1865, he lost his wife by death. On the 21st of February, 1867, he was married to Mrs. Sarah (Gath) Horsefall, then of the city.

In March, 1868, Mr. Davis moved with his family to Oxford, Ohio, which place has continued to be his residence since that date. Not long after becoming a resident the community saw fit to elect him to the highest honor which, as a municipality, it was in their power to bestow, and with so great an acceptance have the responsible and often arduous and unpleasant duties of the office of mayor been administered, that he has been repeatedly re-elected, usually by large majorities, marking no special party distinctions nor lines, so that his continued term of service in this capacity is now some thirteen years, marked by only one interim of about three months, Mr. Davis was not permitted for many years to enjoy the companionship of his wife, Sarah, as she died on the 14th of May, 1871. On February 21, 1872, he was again married, choosing for his third and present wife, Mrs. Elizabeth (Wright) Douglass. Of the children born to the first Mrs. Davis four sons and a daughter are still living. One of the deceased, Carlos, served as a volunteer in the late war with much honor and credit, being mustered out of the service at Columbus at the close, after some three years' enlistment. Mr. Davis has for many years been a firm believer in the doctrines of the Universalists, and is warmly identified with this organization in Oxford. He is of a naturally quiet, Sectixe turn of mind and has those qualities which are needful to make him a good magistrate and officer of justice. In addition to his official duties, Mayor Davis is now the proprietor of the 'Girard House," on the corner of High and Poplar Streets, which has recently been remodeled and the entire house refurnished, making it now one of the most desirable tarrying-places for the traveler or pleasant home for the regular boarder, the

Wilson S., the oldest son, is now teaching in Albert G. is in the Times-Star office of Cincinnati. Merrill B., Alexis B., and Darwin F. are residents of Cincinnati also. Elizabeth, the daughter, now Mrs. I. F. Williams, is a skilled music teacher

Died at his home in Oxford, July 25, 1881, John Douglass, in the 60th year of his age. He was born in Chester District, South Carolina. In 1834, with his parents, five brothers, and five sisters, he removed to the neighborhood three miles north of Oxford, where he remained on thé farm until about fifteen years ago, when he removed to the town. He at first engaged in the grocery business with Mr. Higgins; afterward he went into the boot and shoe business, and about five years ago retired from active life. Mr. Douglass was for two terms (six years) president of the board of education, and had just been elected to another term. He was an efficient officer and a true friend of education. When

Reformed Church at Hopewell, then under the pastorate of the Rev. S. McCracken. For the past twelve years he had been an elder of the United Presbyterian Church, Oxford congregation. For many years he was superintendent of the Sabbath-school, and during the seven years preceding his death was actively engaged in religious work. He left behind him a record worthy of careful and earnest study.

Isaiah Douglass, farmer, is a son of John and Martha Douglass, who were among the early residents of Oxford Township. They emigrated from South Carolina in 1834, and moved on the farm where Isaiah now lives in 1835, and where his parents continued to reside until their decease. Isaiah Douglass was the youngest of a family of eleven children, six sons and five daughters. He was born in South Carolina in 1829, and was therefore about six years old when his parents moved on the farm in the corner of Section 2, where he has resided ever since, having purchased and received quit-claim deeds from the other heirs about 1856. He has added to his original farm, and now has 240 acres in one body and 132 acres in Section 11. He married, in 1863, Anna Patterson. They have five childrén living and one who died in infancy - Albert J., Martha E., William C., Samuel L., and Zaidie Maggie.

Israel Dewitt, farmer, was born in Kentucky in 1805. He is the son of Zachariah Price Dewitt and Elizabeth Dewitt. The father served in the Indian wars at the close of the Revolution, and Israel Fowler, one of his grandsons, was in the Mexican War. Zachariah P. Dewitt emigrated from Kentucky to Butler County in 1805, and entered three hundred and twenty acres of land, situated on Section 24. Here he lived until his death, at the age of eighty-two. His wife died in 1840, at the age of sixty-seven.

was born in Hamilton County, March 30, 1856. He graduated in 1872, at the Oxford High School, and was married October 10, 1876, to Ella S., daughter of William and Mary (Carr) Rumple, who was born in Hanover Township, July 18, 1856. They have one child, William R. Davis. Mr. Davis formerly kept a livery stable, but in the Spring of 1878 moved on his present farm.

Joshua Davis, Sen., of Oxford, is a native of New Jersey, where he was born May 28, 1803. His father emigrated to Ohio in 1805, bringing his family and household goods all the way to Middletown in wagons. He engaged in merchandising and milling at Middletown, but not being suited with the country after a stay of less than two years, he went back to his old home in New Jersey, but again returned to Butler County soon after the close of the War of 1812. The subject of this sketch was the ninth of a family of ten children, of whom himself and a sister, Mrs. Phoebe Laboyteaux, are the only survivors. Mr. Davis had but little opportunity for education. He learned the cooper's trade, and after his marriage in 1828 purchased his father's farm, near Bevis P. O., where he also carried on the cooper business, in connection with his farm, for a number of years. In 1864, having sold his farm, he removed to Oxford, where he had purchased property, and where he has since lived a retired life, supported by the accumulations of years of toil. He built, in 1872, and now owns, the edifice known as Davis's Hall. "Mrs. Davis's maiden name was Elizabeth Bevis. She also comes of a pioneer family. Mr. and Mrs. Davis began married life more than fifty years ago with but little means in the days of limited facilities, and by industry and economy have accumulated a considerable property. They have had twelve children, eleven of whom grew to maturity, and ten of whom are now living. ~ All are respectably and comfortably started in life. Mr. Davis, though beyond age, volunteered in the late war with the forces regularly mustered during Kirby Smith's raid. One son, Joshua, served three years, and two other sons short terms. Mr. Davis's father, whose name was also Joshua, served in the Revolutionary War, and a brother was a volunteer in the War of 1812. Mr. Davis has been an industrious and useful citizen, and has contributed his full share to the general good.

John Ferguson is a native of Scotland, being born in Campbelltown, Argyleshire, April 8, 1810. He learned the tinner's trade in Scotland, and came to the United States in 1832. After a stay of a few months in Cincinnati, during which he was employed at his trade, he came to Oxford in the Spring of 1853, and there being no tinner's establishment in the village at that time, he opened a shop and began business for himself. Though unpretentious in the beginning, he gradually developed, and as the general commercial facilities improved, he was shrewd and thoughtful enough to keep abreast of In the Fall of 1833, Mr. P. D. Matson bethe times.

came a partner, and so continued until 1868, when he retired, and Mr. Ferguson continued the business alone until 1880, then selling out and withdrawing from active life. His residence is one of the handsomest in the village. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a trustee of Oxford Female College, and has been thoroughly identified with the growth and general interest of Oxford for almost half a century.

He married in Scotland just previous to embarking for the United States, Catherine McGregor, by whom he had these children: William, Charles, Duncan, David,

-Tsabella, and one infant, deceased. Christina married John B. Morris, who died about 1873. She now resides in Oxford. James S. is a physician of Camden. His first wife dying in 1868, he married in 1869 Miss Isabella MeMillan, also a native of Scotland. They have one infant child - Edward Bruce - living, and one deceased.

John Fisher, a native of Ireland, emigrated to America and located in Pennsylvania, where he married, in 1789, Ruth Mathers. About the year 1796 he removed to Cincinnati, where he followed his trade, that of shoemaker. About 1798 he moved to what is now Lemon Township, and entered a quarter section of land on the north fork of Dick's Creek. On this farm he lived and died, and the remains of himself and wife rest on that place. Of their children there were seven, five boys and two girls. Two remained in Butler County - Robert and Nancy Phares. Robert was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1794, and learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed most of his life. He was married in 1816 to Sallie Ball, daughter of Ezekiel Ball. Of their family there were six who grew to maturity. These were John, Mary B., Elizabeth R., Almira, Sarah J., and Ezekiel Ball. Robert Fisher died in Middletown, June 4, 1874, aged eighty years. Mrs. Sallie Fisher died September - 9, 1831, and is buried in the cemetery at Middletown. John Fisher was born January 6, 1818, in Middletown. By occupation during life he is a farmer. He has been twice married. The first time was to Ruth Mallory, December 25, 1844, the daughter of William and Mary Mallory, of this county. They had two children, Mary

Indiana, where he was born, in Franklin County, in 1852. He resided there until the Spring of 1870, when he removed to Oxford. Mr. Fry began trading in stock when a young man, and continued that business in connection with farming, increasing the magnitude of his operations as his means increased. When he came to Oxford he established the Oxford Bank, with which he and stock dealing. He now has two farms, containing upwards of three hundred acres, which he keeps well stocked, and is buying and selling constantly. He married January 1, 1857, Miss Sarah J., daughter of James Murphy. They have three children: William L., James G., and Philip O. Fry. Thus it will be seen, Mr. Fry is a native of this vicinity, and he has been more or less identified from boyhood with Oxford and its commercial interests; for the last ten years he has been the head of one of its most important financial enterprises.

William J. Finch, son of Edward and Elizabeth (Wickard) Finch, was born May 28, 1831, in Hanover Township. Edward Finch was born May 5, 1800, in Orange County, New York, and in 1814 came to Butler County with his parents. Elizabeth Wickard was born February 5, 1806, in Pennsylvania, and came West with her parents. She was united to Mr. Finch November 4, 1824. They had five children: Andrew, Sarah Ann, Jacob W., William J., and Ellen J., now Mrs. Lewis Wool. The three oldest are dead. Mr. Finch was treasurer of Hanover Township for three or four years, and in 1852 moved on the farm where William now lives. He died there on the 17th of July, 1853, but his wife still survives. He was a generous, kind-hearted man, and was liberal towards all benevolent and charitable enterprises. He and his wife were members of the United Brethren Church. Mr. William J. Finch has followed farming all his life. He was married March 1, 1859, to Abigail, daughter of Gideon and Mary Wilkinson, who was born March 9, 1838. They have seven children: Orlando B., William E., Gideon W., Elmer B., Charles L., Mary E., and Ella L. Mr. Finch is one of the trustees of Oxford Township, being on his fourth year, and has served as school director some twenty years, off and on. He is a member of Oxford Lodge No. 74, of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. At the death of his father Mr. Finch bought the farm of seventy acres, and has added to it until now he owns one hundred and eighty-five, which he has made through his own industry and good management.

Thomas Fitzgerald, farmer, of Oxford, is a native of Ireland, born in County Antrim in 1817. He married, in 1847, Maria S. Orr, coming to America in 1849. They lived in Orange County, New York, about fourteen years, then went West, having land in Iowa, but after a stay of a few months, removed to Oxford, having traded for the farm he now owns. They removed here in 1871, and have since resided there. His farm contains about one hundred acres, and bears the marks of his industry and thrift, he having lately completed a handsome barn, and contemplating further improvement. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzgerald have a family of nine children, three sons and six daughters. His oldest son, Thomas, Jr., is a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and is now pastor at Branchville, New Jersey. One daughter, Margaret, married George Riggs, and they now reside in Franklin County, Ohio. The other five daughters, Lizzie, Hannah, Kate, Agnes, and Ella, and two sons, John and Elmer E., are young people at home. Mrs. Fitzgerald is a member of the United Presbyterian Church, at Oxford, and has given her children ood, religious training, and several of them are already identified with the Church.

Mr. Fitzgerald was one of five children; his mother died when he was about fourteen years old, and he shortly after found a home wherever he could. He is, therefore, a self-made man. Having begun life for himself when a boy, among strangers, and with all disadyantages to contend with, he succeeded in gaining sufficient to bring him to the United States, where, by continued industry and economy, he, with the help of an excellent wife and children, trained to habits of industry and self-reliance, now lives in a comfortable home, and has become one of the substantial men of the vicinity of Oxford, identified with all the progress and interests of his neighborhood.

Samuel Gath, of Oxford, Ohio, was born in Yorkshire, England, April 5, 1807, taking the name of his father, his mother's maiden name being Sarah Bradley. She was of a Yorkshire family, and her ancestors had traditions indicating some connection with the historic border feuds and Scottish wars. In boyhood Samuel Gath spent portions of three years as a pupil in one of the schools of the Dissenters conducted on the Lancasterian plan, or that by which knowledge was imparted by text cards and diagrams on the wall and orally by the teacher, for which the lad paid one penny per week, one person holding the position of teacher for some 400) pupils. After this the lad worked at ''card sticking" for some time, and at thirteen years of age was indentured to Benjamin Wood, of Halifax, as an apprentice at cabinet making, remaining with his employer for some twelve years. In all that time he had but one misunderstanding or unpleasant word from Mr. Wood. He then spent five years in the employment of Samuel Taylor, after which he started in business for himself with a younger brother, Daniel, as his partner, and with such sagacity and thrift that in a few years the elder brother's portion of the profits amounted to some $3,500, and with this he proposed to emigrate to America. In 1843 Mr. Gath married Miss Mary Fetley, of Yorkshire, and in April, 1844, with his family, and in company with some seventy others, mostly from his native town, he took passage on the ship Patrick Henry, Captain Delano, for New York, which port they made after a voyage of nearly five weeks. Many of his companions soon became homesick or dissatisfied and returned to England, but Mr. Gath had come intending to stay and make the United States his future home; and so, with his family and some six hundred pounds of personal effects, he pushed westward by the Erie Canal to Buffalo, crossing the lake to Toledo, and thence following the canal to Hamilton. With his household he was set down on the morning of the 3d of July, in Oxford, which Mr. Gath describes as being constituted of a motley array of wooden buildings set mostly with their gables on the streets, and the plat of ground which now constitutes the public park was completely overgrown with ''dog-fennel," through which a narrow foot-path led diagonally from the south-west to the north-east corner.

Mr. Gath first settled as a farmer some three miles north of the village, on a farm now occupied by Mr. Booth, where he remained for a little time, when Mr. Merrill, a cabinet maker in the village, whose store and shop combined stood on the west side of the public square, offered him a partnership in his business. This offer Mr. Gath at once accepted, and some eight months afterwards bought out his partner's interest and succeeded to the entire business, continuing it most successfully for many years, on the old site, the old shop haying given way in the meantime to a fine and substantial brick structure, well designed for the accommodation of the greatly increased demands of its proprietor, who, in his riper and advancing years, has transferred its cares and responsibilities to his son Harry.

Mr. and Mrs. Gath have had eleven children born to them, ten of whom--five sons and five daughters - are now living. Two of the sons, the eldest, Samuel, Jr., and the youngest, are following the calling of the father as manufacturers and dealers in the village of Oxford, the latter at the old stand, and the former but a few rods east, his store fronting on the north side of the park. Mr. Gath is a man of a peculiarly genial, even jovial temperament, upon whom the pressure and anxieties of business and the natural cares of life incident to an active calling seem to have made no very serious impression; his physique and general health give promise of many years of probable life. Enjoying the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens, he has never sought political preferment from them; yet, at their solicitation, he has held the office of city marshal for one or more terms, in which capacity, as he says, his greatest emoluments have usually been derived from the fun he has had in some of the official skirmishes into which he has found himself drawn by the young fellows in attendance upon Miami University, as they have been caught when out on their "'larks." Mr. Gath has for over fifty years been an active and consistent member of the Methodist Church, haying, in the mother country, affiliated with that portion of this general body.of Christians called 'the New Connection Methodists," who had been striving for lay representation. Ever since his settlement in this country he has been a warm sympathizer with the tenets and politics of the Democratic party, and usually votes with it.

Among the business men of Oxford who deserve mention is Samuel Gath, Jr. He is a native of Oxford Township, born on January 1, 1847. His parents came to

- gaged in the furniture and undertaking business, and the son began his attendance at funerals and assisting in the store and shop at about fourteen years of age.

During the war, though under age, he was a member of the ''Squirrel Hunters" organization, in 1862, and was out with the hundred day men, being;.a sergeant of Company A, One Hundred and Sixty-seventh Ohio National Guards, and soon after the expiration of that term volunteered and became a member of Company D, Forty-seventh Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which he served until the close of the war, his discharge dating Washington, D. C., May 31, 1865. In January, 1868, he became a partner with his father, and so continued until August, 1871, when he purchased his father's interest and continued business alone, discontinuing the furniture trade after a few years and turning his attention more exclusively to undertaking, for which he seems to be specially adapted and in which he has been enterprising and very successful. Mr. Gath married, February 20, 1870, Miss Mary, daughter of Smith J. Dancier, who was then a resident of Oxford, but now resides at Camden. Mr. and Mrs. Gath have a family of three children, two daughters and a son - Mary Etta, Jay Dancier, and Jeannetta.

Edward L. Hill, M. D., was born in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, January 23, 1827. His parents were Russel and Lucretia (Bodman) Hill, of the same place. The father was a son of Ephraim, and grandson of Samson Hill, who traced his descent back to an English origin, while the mother, who is still living in Williamsburg, isa daughter of Dr. Joseph Bodman, of a family of German-English extraction. Dr. Hill pursued his preparatory education at Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Massachusetts, and passed thence into Amherst College. He took his professional course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York City, receiving his diploma early in 1852. Soon after this he located in the practice of his profession at Chester Factories, in Western Massachusetts. While residing here he warmly espoused the cause of temperance, and while diligent and successful in his calling, he was bold and fearless in the expression of his convictions of the right and of principle, as he held it. It was during his residence here that the organization of a lodge of the Carson League in the place caused open and signal opposition to" be raised by the friends of the liquor traffic, which took the desperate form of personal injury and the destruction of the property of many who had identified themselves with the workings of the league, which spirit culminated in 1855. Dr. Hill was among the foremost in the happily successful efforts then made to ferret out the lawless miscreants and to bring them to light and justice, and to establish peace and safety among the community, he being personally instrumental in the arrest, identifica-

In 1856 Dr. Hill removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he practiced his profession for the three years following, but in the Spring of 1859 he changed his residence to Oxford, Ohio, succeeding to the practice of Dr. Robert L. Rhea, who had removed to Chicago. On the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion, and upon the call for the first one hundred thousand volunteer troops, Dr. Hill enlisted for three months, and was made surgeon of the Twentieth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was among the first to depart for the seat of war, his term of enlistment being from April 9 to August 26, 1861. Returning from this enlistment, he soon after re-entered the army, and was again made surgeon of the reorganized Twentieth Regiment, his commission bearing date of September 18, 1861. He was made senior surgeon on the operating board of the Third Division Seventeenth Army Corps in the Vicksburg campaign; then surgeon in charge of General Hospital No. 2, at Vicksburg. Afterwards he acted as superintendent of the Seventeenth Army Corps' hospital at Marietta, Georgia, in the Atlanta campaign, returning home in November, 1864. Since that time Dr. Hill has been in the active practice of his profession.

Dr. Hill was married April 24, 1850, to Hope Lucinda, daughter of Cotton Hayden, of Williamsburg, Massachusetts, a family whose name is not unknown to eminence and distinction, and among whom we find the late ex-Governor Joel Hayden, of Haydensville, Massachusetts, and Mr. Peter Hayden, of Columbus, Ohio. Dr. and Mrs. Hill have had five children born to them, four sons now living, and a daughter, who died while the father was in the army. The youngest of the sons was the subject of a severe attack of acute diphtheria in November, 1881, and, while lying at the point of death, all other remedies and treatment having failed, the anxious father decided to venture upon the operation of tracheotomy, as a last resort to save the life of his boy. And this he did, ably and intelligently assisted by Dr. H. D. Hinckley, Dr. G. W. Keely, a skilled dental practitioner and neighbor of Dr. Hill, administering the anzsthetic. The operation (one of the most delicate and uncertain known to modern surgery) proved eminently successful, and although the life of the little patient hung trembling in the balance for days, he soon rallied and made a perfect recovery.

Karly in 1865 Dr. Hill made a public profession of religion, and united with the (then) Second Presbyterian Church of Oxford. In April, 1866, he was made a ruling elder of the same Church. Dr. Hill was also clerk of the session for some ten years. He is a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon Society of Amherst College, Massachusetts; a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1853; was made an honorary member of the Ohio Medical Society, June 3, 1856; and a member of the

American Medical Association in 1867; he is a member of the Union District Medical Association, and also of the Butler County Medical Society; in 1869 he was Worthy Master of Oxford Lodge, No. 67, F. & A.M. Dr. Hill has ever been a warm and earnest Republican in his political preferences, and, although not active in political strifes, he is of a firm and uncompromising nature, standing fearlessly for his cherished principles. Of an affable and kindly disposition, he easily wins and usually retains the friendship and confidence of the community among whom he moves.

Volney L. Hills was the daughter of Joseph and Margaret Hills, and was born February 6, 1815. She came to Cincinnati with her parents in 1817, from Massachusetts, where she was born. At the time of her death she was in the sixty-sixth year of her age. In the year 1829 she removed with her parents to Oxford, and on the 5th of May, 1833, was married to James D. Ringwood, at the home of her parents. There were born to this couple five children, one of whom died in infancy, and the remainder, three daughters and one son, still survive. Her husband died two years and two months previous to her death, since which time her life seemed to be on the wane.

James H. Howe is descended from an English family of this name, which, on coming to this country, early settled in Massachusetts in the vicinity of Boston. A son by the name of Ebenezer was born July 13, 1765. A Connecticut family named Sears, who afterwards made their home in New York State, had a daughter, Sarah, and to her Ebenezer was married November 9, 1793. The two remained with the father-in-law and had three children born to them. Somewhere in 1800 or 1801 Mr. Sears and his family (with the Howes) emigrated to the valley of the Little Miami and settled near Loveland, where the elder Sears purchased each of his children farms. The good man was spared to be over one hundred years of age. The Howe family remained here till about 1813 or 1814, and then moved to the wilds of Indiana and took up some land upon Hannas Creek. In that neighborhood in 1815, August 7th, James H. Howe was born, and grew to manhood, taking up his residence at the age of eighteen at College Corner. January 2, 1856, he was married to Mrs. Jerusha (King) White, formerly of Massachusetts, but born in Cazenovia, New York, July, 1815, who had been a resident of Ohio since 1834. His father came to Oxford in 1822, and resided on a farm until 1830, the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs. Howe are now residing in a pleasant home in the village of College Corner, enjoying the quiet and serenity of their advancing years. They have no children.

Robert C. Huston, M. D., is a native of Pennsylvania, and was born in Greene County in 1818. In 1818 his parents, John and Sarah (Morrison) Huston, emigrated to Indiana. When Robert was about eleven years of age an old neighbor and friend, who was visiting the family, and at that time residing near Venice, persuaded Mr. Huston to allow the son to return with him for the purpose of securing some school advantages, and he remained there, having his home with this old neighbor about two years, after which he returned to his parents at Connersville, where he remained enjoying the benefit of the common schools of that day. In 1834 he entered the preparatory school of Miami University, and continued his studies, literary and professional, up to 1840, and the same year commenced practice in connection with Dr. Erasmus Rose, then at Liberty, Union County, Indiana. One year later he opened an office at College Corner, where he practiced his profession ten years. In 1852 he removed to Oxford, where he has since resided, enjoying a practice which requires his full time. He married twice, the first time in 1842, his -wife being Jane, daughter of Major James Montgomery, who was originally from the same county in Pennsylvania from which the Huston family came. He obtained his military title by service in the War of 1812, and was an early resident of Oxford. The issue of this marriage was four children, three sons and one daughter. The latter is now the wife of Dr. J. N. Bradley. The sons are all residents of Butler County. The eldest, James W.., resides on his father's farm, the old Moretz estate ; R. W. L. is a resident of Oxford, and the youngest, John C., is now in the drug trade at College Corner, and is also the postmaster. His second marriage occurred in 1872, his wife being Sarah W., daughter of Sylvester and Jerusia Lyons, and therefore sister of Mrs. Professor Bishop. His residence on the north side of High, and at the west corporation line, is a handsome property, and has been his home for the past twenty - years. The doctor is a Republican in politics, and takes an honorable part in all matters of public interest. His affiliation and special interest religiously is with the Presbyterians. He has been an active and successful practitioner for forty years, and is a member of the State Medical Society, and also an active and prominent member of the Butler County Medical Society.

Hiram King, farmer, is a native of Butler County, and was born in Oxford Township, in 1832. His parents, Thomas and Nancy King, came from the State of New York about 1819, and lived a number of years in Cincinnati. Mr. King was a carpenter, but when work at his trade was scarce took his ax, in the use of which he was expert, and helped clear a considerable part of the ground now occupied by the city. He had many offers of house-building with town-lots for pay; but not foreseeing that it was destined to be so great a city, he came to the interior to secure a home, and located in the southern part of Oxford Township, about 1880. A few years later he removed to the farm upon which Hiram Mr. King had a family of eight children, only two of whom are now living - William 5., now a resident of Pettis County, Missouri, and Hiram, who has lived since he was one year old. Although Mr. King had a very limited education he has taken an active interest in education, and has been of great use in promoting the interests of the schools in his district, in which he has been a director a number of years and until after the building of their present substantial brick house. Mr, King has been an authorized exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal Church for over twenty years past. He has gained his knowledge of books by improving his spare hours and at great disadvantage, and has accumulated a good rural library. He is known as a man of good general information, able to hold his own in ordinary debate, either secular or religious, and has been the leader in maintaining a Sunday-school in the district school-house.

He married, in 1859, Ann E. Booth, by whom he had one child, a daughter, Anna E., who is now a young lady. She graduated at the Oxford High School. His first wife dying, he married, in 1861, Martha E., her sister, by whom he had two children - Thomas L. and Laura B. Mr. King's wife is a daughter of William Booth, who is a native of England, and an old resident of Oxford Township, his farm adjoining Mr. King's. Mr. King comes from a hardy stock, who were noted for longevity. His grandfather, Samuel. King, was a soldier of the Revolution, and served during seven years of that memorable struggle. His great-grandfather King and his wife lived to pass more than eighty years of wedded life.

George Washington Keely, D. D.S., is the grandson of John Keely, a German by nativity, born in 1753. He came to this country in 1762 with his parents and settled in Pennsylvania, afterwards becoming a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and being wounded in the battle _of Brandywine. His son, John second, was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, January 16, 1779, and died in Oxford, Ohio, May 7, 1848. He married Miss Ann Iddings, a native of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, who was born August 7, 1787. Mr. and Mrs. Keely came to Oxford, Ohio, in 1818, and in 1822, on the 22d of October, George W. Keely was born. The residence of the family was but a short distance south of the university buildings, and the boy had the privileges of the schools of the town, and when but a mere lad of some fourteen entered Miami University. Three years later, the president, Dr. Bishop, retired. Mr. Keely was warmly attached to the doctor, and feeling that the trustees of the institution were dealing unjustly by him, manifested his own sympathy by refusing longer to be numbered with the students of the school, although it had been his expectation to have pursued a full graduating course.

Not long after this he spent a little time with Dr. J. D. White, then a practicing dentist in the city of Hamilton; but in the Fall of 1839 entered the office of

Dr. John Allen, then a noted dental practitioner of the city of Cincinnati (now of New York), with whom he spent the two following years. Returning to Oxford in 1841, Dr. Keely established himself in the practice of his chosen profession by opening an office in a building at the corner of High and Beach Streets, where he remained for a year and a half, then moving to and occupying an office on Main Street. Afterwards, in 1867, he rented the rooms corner of High and Main Streets, where he has continued his practice ever since. Agreeable to the customs of the day and the practice of many dentists in the early history of the profession, Dr. Keely sustained for some years a series of periodic visits to neighboring towns in the States of Ohio and Indiana, which extended over the years of his early practice.

On the 13th of March, 1851, Dr. Keely was married to Miss Susanna Wells, in the city of Cincinnati, who bore to him three children, only one of whom, a son, Charles I. Keely, D. D. S., is now living, and is a practicing dentist as partner of his father, located in Hamilton. The married life of Doctor and Mrs. Keely was of short duration, as she was taken away by death May 25, 1856. April 21, 1861, Dr. Keely was again married, to Miss Cornelia Cone, of Oxford, who has borne him eight children, three of whom only are now living, two daughters and a son. After having been in active practice for some twelve years he graduated at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, in March, 1853.

Being of an ingenious and scholarly nature, Doctor Keely has ever been among the foremost in all movements which look toward the elevation and advancement of the interests of the profession of his choice, and has been ready to aid by his presence, councils, and means every organized effort upon the part of his brother practitioners for the advancement of its standards. He was present at the meeting of dentists, first held at Niagara Falls, where the foundations were first laid for the organization of. the American Dental Association, in 1859; has been an almost constant attendant upon its annual sessions; was elected its president in Philadelphia, in 1876, and presided as such in Chicago, in 1877. He was an active mover in the organization of the Ohio State Dental Society; was once its president, and has for the last ten years been re-elected to its treasurership. He has been, and now is, either an active or honorary member of the following: Mississippi Valley Dental Society, Mad River Valley Dental Society, and of the Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin State Dental Societies respectively, and was elected a member of the New York Odontological Society.

He has been a trustee of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery for the past twenty years, and often president of the board of trustees, and for the past fifteen years has lectured to the students on the ''Cause and Management of Irregularities of the Teeth," which he has made a labor of love,for the past twenty-five years.

The first house in Lesourdsville was the Red Buck tavern kept by John Freeman, and the first house other than this was one built by Thomas Ward. William Ward, a brother of Thomas, lived a little distance below, and after the town was laid out William Hedding purchased some of the lots, and to hurry up matters bought log houses and moved them in town. One of these log houses bought of Peter Shepherd is still standing. Benjamin Lesourd afterwards owned the tavern. There isa frame building still standing one-half mile below this tavern, that was built by Colonel Ayers, just after John Freeman built his, and was used as a hotel also. We see by a deed of Abram Freeman, made March 19, 1814, H. Hageman came into possession of fifty acres of the original tract, and that he deeded the same to Thomas Ward, May 25, 1816. The town was not laid out until about the time the canal was built.

Lesourdsville never had but one church building, which was erected just previous to the war. It was intended for any and all denominations, but the Rev., Mr. Maple, the first pastor, coming into the place during the war, produced a great excitement on the political questions of the time, and the organization broke up. In 1876 the Presbyterian Church came into possession of the property, established a society, and have had preaching in the place ever since. The Rey. S. C. Palmer occupied the pulpit from 1876 to 1878, since which time the Rev. S..F. Sharpless, of Monroe, has been the Spit The membership consists of twenty-four persons.

One of the earliest mills in this county on the river was known as the pin-mill, about two miles above Lesourdsville. It consisted of a saw-mill and a woolen- 'mill originally, the saw mill being built first. The boards were sawed and pinned on, there being over two thousand wooden pins used to fasten on the weatherboarding. It was very early put into use, but the building of the canal ended its day of usefulness. Adam Dickey also had a\mill built very early. It was on Dick's Creek, and was used until the canal was built. He also had a still-house above Amanda, where the old house of John Dickey now stands.

Amanda

The Shafors, Dickeys, Balls, Reeds, and others were the early settlers of this part of the township. The town was duly laid off by Robert Coddington and Samuel Dickey in 1827. John Dickey afterwards added. to it. It was formerly a very important grain center, owing probably to the energy of A. E. Johnston, who established this business, and gave the trade an impetus by successful management. He was succeeded by Curtis & Boyd, who operated many years. J. B. Jacoby, grocer of this place, now buys the grain. Amanda was built in this place by Ebenezer Johnston, in 1844. He also helped to build the church. The first blacksmith shop was built by Maranda Shafor. He sold out to Ellison Harkrader in 1840, who sold to William Bailey. Robert Maginety bought out Bailey in July, 1847.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Amanda was built about 1840. It was a good, substantial frame building and still stands. The leading members of the society who contributed to the Church in its infancy were A. Longstreet, John Shepherd, Charles Starr, John Waldo, William Bailey, and John Fleming. John Dickey donated the lot. The pastors have been the Rev. Messrs. Maley, Swain, Kemper, White, Wheat, and Elsworth. The Rev. William Shultz is the present pastor, and preaching is had every other Sabbath. The trustees of the Church are William Bailey, John Kyle, Luman Whitesell, Robert Maginety, and Henry Fisher. Robert Maginety has been an official member in various capacities since its organization.

William Shafor was one of the first settlers in this part of the township, and at his death one of the oldest citizens in the county. He was born in Somerset County, New Jersey, in 1783. He died in Middletown in October, 1880, in the ninety-eighth year of his age. When six years of age he came with his father to Lexington, Kentucky, and in 1803 with him to Ohio. He resided in Lemon Township seventy-eight years. He settled on a farm near Amanda, and lived on it during the entire portion of his active life. In 1859 he removed to Middletown, where he resided up to the time of his death. In the twenty-eighth year of his age he married Miss Jane Ryerson, who died in 1859. In 1860 he married Mrs. Elizabeth Hill. When ninety-one years of age he joined the Presbyterian Church. He was remarkable in longevity of life, in being a useful member of society, and in retaining the sprightliness and activity of his youth up to nearly the time of his death.

Among the veteran pioneers who settled near Amanda was Adam Dickey. His family became numerous and children very prosperous. Adam Dickey came from Ireland when sixteen years of age, and in 1801 went to Cincinnati, where he manufactured the first brick used in that place. He then came to Lemon Township, where he died in 1828, at sixty-two years of age. The oldest son of Adam Dickey was Samuel, who assisted his father in one of the first mills on the Miami River, near Amanda, which his father had built. His father also owned a distillery, which consumed the corn raised on about four hundred acres of their land. In 1827 he built the large flouring-mill now owned by Archibald Jewell. This mill has been in the hands of the family since its erection, and has a capacity of seventy-five barrels a day.

Had its origin in the building of the Excello Paper-mill by Harding, Erwin & Co. in 1865. The village is small and the inhabitants are largely employed at the paper- brother, and sister in turn tenderly nursed him during the last weary months of his life. His disease was laryngitis. He died on the eighteenth day of August, 1857, lacking six days of being forty-eight years of age. The following is from the pen of one who knew him long and intimately :

'* A man has recently fallen in our midst whose brief career and sudden demise should prove a profitable lesson, calling our thoughts to the solemn warning, ' Be ye also ready.' Isaac I. Keely, who departed this life on the evening of the 18th inst., of laryngitis, lacking a few days of being forty-eight years old, was a man of peculiar character. His ambition and energy were as unbounded as his benevolence, neither failing till means and health failed. We knew him from his youth up - from the time he entered college and delivered the first speech ever made in old Miami University, and recited his algebra lessons, till the day the solemn tones of its bell announced his journey to the tomb - and of him we have had but one opinion, and that is, a noble soul imprisoned in a feeble casket. We have often known him to perform deeds of charity to the sick widow and orphan that would have astonished Bishop Heber or the monks of St. Bernard, not letting his right hand know what the left was doing. He was ardently devoted to parents, brothers, and sisters, and all who were allied by consanguinity. Being the oldest of the boys, much devolved on him in educating and settling in life the younger members, and he met this responsibility with a liberality surprising his neighbors.

'' A more unselfish man never lived. He gave to his friends beyond endurance. This trait of character caused him to go out as he came into this world - but a few feet different. Nor was his charity confined to those only. _He had a heart to feel for human woe and a hand to help in time of need.

'"' His enterprise was not confined to one State; he built houses in different States for posterity to enjoy. This community will bear us witness when we say that I. I. Keely did more to make this town what it is than any other one man that ever lived in Oxford. As a religionist he was doubtless misunderstood by many. He was no sectarian - liberal and ardent, but sincere in his opinions.

'Asa defender of the science of animal magnetism or mental electricity as a curative agent, he was often denounced by ministers and other good men as a charlatan, a mountebank, an infidel in collusion with Beelzebub. This had a natural tendency to sour his mind against all sects. He reverenced the Deity, believed in Jesus Christ as the only Savior of sinners, and trusted in his merits for salvation. He believed in the efficacy of prayer; and when he could only whisper he said to an old friend, 'When you pray remember me.' He gratefully received the daily visits of the Rev. Mr. Spencer during his last hours. He had many friends to follow

Glover Laird, Jr., lives near College Corner, Ohio. He is a native of Ireland, being born in the city of Dublin, March 16, 1827. The father, Glover Laird, came to this country, with his wife and four children, in 1830, and located on the farm now occupied by his son. The family afterwards was increased by the birth of six other children, all of whom are still living, but scattered abroad in neighboring townships in Ohio and Indiana. Mr. Laird was married March, 1852, to Miss Caroline Shaffer, a native of Lancaster, Ohio, born September, 1836. To these have been born three sons, of whom one still resides with the parents, one is at Camden, Ohio, and another is in Indiana. Mr. Laird holds his Church connection with the Methodist society, and in his political associations is a Republican. The farm upon which he was reared, and now makes his home, is about half a mile south-east of College Corner, in the extreme northwest section of the township.

William L. Lane, a native of Butler County, was born in Hanover Township, April 26, 1832. He is a son of Harmon J. and Isabella (Long) Lane, the former being a native of New Jersey, and the latter a native of Hamilton County. Mr. Lane, Sen., was a mason by trade, and came to Cincinnati when a young man, and prosecuted his craft a number of years. After his marriage, in 1818, he settled on the farm in Hanover Township, now owned by Charles Beck, which he improved,

1842. His wife survived him a few years, and died in 1848. They had a family of eight children, five of whom are now living: Ella married Jackson James, now a resident of Missouri; Sallie married Dr. C. P. Dennis; Susan married William McCoy, the latter two now reside at Portsmouth, Ohio; William L., of Oxford, and Cornelius W., of Hanover Township.

William L. Lane was raised on the farm in Hanover Township and continued actively engaged in farming a number of years. He conducted the Darrtown Mills ten or twelve years in connection with farming. He married, in 1864, Miss Louise, daughter of James 8. and Mary (Stackpole) Smiley, who came from Pennsylvania and settled in Hanover Township in 1826, where they continued to reside until 1867, when they removed to the village of Oxford. Mr. Smiley engaged in banking, which he continued until his decease, which occurred in 1878. His wife died in 1873. Three children survived him - Mrs. Lane, Mary J., and Anna M. Mr. Smiley was an active and respected citizen of his day and left a valuable estate. The Smiley residence is a handsome property, located at the south-west corner of

Horace M. Logee, M. D., was born in Douglass, Massachusetts, SSptember 10, 1834. He is descended from the Huguenots who left their native country during the thirty years' His ancestor fled to England, and after a little time made his way to the United States, in company with others, and settled in the northern part of the new State of Rhode Island. From this head descended Joseph H. Logee, the father of Dr. Logee, who was born in January, 1804. The mother, Prudence F. Paine, was of English ancestry. It is a family tradition that her grandfather was one of a family which numbered twenty-eight children, all of one parentage. She was born in January, 1804, and died in February, 1857, her native place being in Cumberland Township, Rhode Island. Dr. Logee, after obtaining a common-school education, entered and passed through the curriculum of Lawrence Academy. Not long after this he came West and spent several years in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, first as a book-keeper, then as a student in medicine in the office of Professor T. P. Wilson, and afterwards as matriculant of the Homeopathic Medical College of that city, from which he graduated in the Spring of 1862. Shortly after he commenced practice in Linesville, Crawford County, Pennsylvania. In November, 1855, he was married to Miss Harriet E. Martin, of Worcester, Massachusetts, and to them were born one son and a daughter, both of whom are living. Mrs. Logee died January 15, 1861. While resident at Linesville the doctor was once or twice elected mayor of the city. In November, 1866, he was married to Miss Charlotte A. Hamilton, a native of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, who was born December, 1842.

About 1874 Dr. Logee removed from Linesville to Oxford, Ohio, and here established himself in the practice of his profession, in which he has continued with great success from that time until the present, taking a front rank among the practitioners of the town. Since residing here he has often taken active part in the local politics of the day as a Republican, and has twice been made a member of the council. While living in Pennsylvania he was an active member in professional organizatiops, and was in 1870 vice-president of the State Homeopathic Medical Society, and since coming to Ohio he has manifested the same earnest zeal in the advancing of his chosen profession and encouragement of organized effort among its members. As a member of the Ohio State Homeopathic Society he was made its secretary in 1878, and its president in 1880 and 1881. The doctor is also a member of Oxford Lodge, No. 108, I. O. O. F., and of Encampment No. 119; also of Oxford Lodge A. O. U. W., No. 74. Of medium stature and well knit frame, he is a person of great activity and nerve force, doing with his might what may be the present work in hand. Of quick adaptation and ready in rewar.

sources, scholarly judgment and skilled professional attainments, he has the make up of one who should be, and evidently is, a successful physician and esteemed citizen in the village of his adoption. Mrs. Logee displays in her studies and efforts in art manifest native genius and talent. Her sketches and crayons, as also her work in colors, evince decided merit, and serve to beautify and adorn their pleasant home.

Richard Martindell was born in New Jersey, May 10, 1791, and about the year 1816 came to Ohio, arriving in Cincinnati without a dollar. He soon found work, however, and became acquainted with and married Nancy Wallace, March 17, 1817. She was born in Hamilton County, October 5, 1798, and was the daughter of James Wallace and Charity Bevis. He then rented a farm in Butler County, in Stillwell's Corners, remaining there for eight years. At the end of this time he traded two horses and a wagon for fifty acres of land, known now as the Dr. Roll farm. On this he lived three years, and then sold it for five hundred dollars, and purchased one hundred and seventy-two acres for a thousand dollars. On this farm he lived some thirty years, when he sold out and moved to Oxford Township, where he died November 8, 1862. His widow removed to Hamilton and afterwards to Oxford, where she now resides at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Of their family there were fifteen children. Their names were Mahlon, Charlotte, Mary Ann, Harriet, John, Miranda, Martha Ann, Franklin M., David W., Nancy, Richard, Elizabeth F., Louisa M., Alice, and James K. P. Mahlon, Louisa M., Alice, and Martha Ann are dead. Charlotte is now Mrs. John Thompson, Mary Ann is the widow of James Adams, Harriet is Mrs. Adam Miller, Miranda is Mrs. Charles Miller, Nancy is Mrs. James Harter, and Frances is Mrs, George H. Ringwood. John Martindell was born October 14, 1824, and lived at home till the Spring of 1848, when he went to California and mined two years. He went by the overland route, but returned by water. He was married February 19, 1851, to Sarah J. McChesney, daughter of John and Flora (Patterson) McChesney. She was born in Warren County, September 26, 1829. There are now living, descended from John Martindell, Sen., eleven children, thirty-two grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren.

Some time about the year 1800 Aaron Matson, whose birth and former home had been in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, came to Ohio, and located in Milford, Clermont County. He married for his wife Miss Elizabeth Gatch (who came from Virginia), about 1808 or 1809, and to them two sons and three daughters were born, among them Philip D. Matson. He was born in that town October 2, 1814. In boyhood he was a pupil in the common school of the place until about twelve years old, afterwards for several Summers working either upon his father's farm or with his uncle, Thomas Gatch, attending school in the Winters. When about seventeen years old he went to the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, whither his parents afterwards removed, and there apprenticed himself in the tinsmith's trade to Sykes & Robeson, with whom he remained for nearly three years. Leaving Cincinnati in the Spring of 1834, he came to Oxford and entered the employment of Mr. J. Ferguson, then engaged in the tinsmith and hardware business. Not long after, however, the two formed a copartnership in trade, and continued the business until November, 1868, some thirty-four years of a harmonious and very successful career, at which time Mr. Matson retired from the firm to private life.

May 5, 1835, shortly after coming to Oxford, Mr. Matson was married to Miss Catharine H. McGhee, whose parents came from Ireland, Mrs. Matson herself being a native of Pennsylvania, but a resident of Oxford at the time of her marriage. 'To these were born one son, who lived only eight years, and five daughters, all of whom are married. The mother dying in October, 1866, it has been the privilege of these daughters successively to act as housekeepers for their father, and at the present writing he is finding a pleasant home in his advancing years with the son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Shera.

When but ten years of age Mr. Matson united with the Methodist Church of his native place, changing his relations from that to other Churches of the same faith as his home was changed, his last membership being with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Oxford, with whom he united in 1854. It being Mr. Matson's nature to do whatever his hands found to do with his might, his connection with that Church has proved a life of earnest Christian activity in every department of Church work where his counsel, co-operation, or effort could assist in the advancement of the work. He has held the office of

Sunday-school superintendent for over forty consecutive years, a most unparalleled instance of faithful continuance in well-doing. Especially has Mr. Matson's influence been felt and usefulness shown in his position 4s chairman of the committee of his Church to whom was committed the task of the raising of funds and superintending the erection of the fine and commodious church in which the society has been permitted, for the last seven or eight years, to worship. The burden of the undertaking was upon his shoulders and heart, and most nobly has it been performed.

Not alone in his business relations and Christian work has Mr. Matson been honored. He has been called upon to occupy many offices of trust, among them having been repeatedly elected to the council and trustee of the township. He has also been a school trustee and member of the board of education. He was one of the first committee on building of the Oxford Female Institute.

The family of David M. Magie is of Scotch origin, the grandfather coming over and settling in New Jersey. Here Benjamin was born in 1760, and was married to Miss Sarah Brown, who was born in New J ersey, 1762.

To these were born three sons: Josiah, Benjamin, Jr., and David M. When the latter was about two years of age the family emigrated to the Ohio Valley, and first settled on a farm at Walnut Hills, near Cincinnati. There they stayed but a short time, and removed to Lebanon, Warren County, remaining a few years, and then took up their home on a farm near Monroe. The family consisted of six sons and two daughters, of whom three only are still living: David, Mrs. Rhoda Elliott, of Paris, Illinois, and William, residing at Middletown, Ohio. The father, Benjamin, died January, 1842. David M., in boyhood, enjoyed similar advantages to other youth in his day and locality, but while thus obtaining the rudiments of an education in the schools he was an apt scholar in the practical education of his farm life. February 22, 1842, he was united in marriage to Miss Hannah Maria Young, who was born July 22, 1821. The newly married couple for the first three years made their home with Mrs. Magie, then in recent widowhood, and David took the oversight of the farm; then they changed to the farm of Mrs. Magie's father for a couple of years. From here, in the Spring of 1847, Mr. Magie removed with his wife and daughter, Laura Belle, born December 4, 1845, to and occupied a farm about one mile north of Oxford.

As early as 1837 Mr. Magie had turned his attention to the raising of hogs as a special branch of husbandry, and then began the careful study of the animal, and experiments in the improvement of the. several breeds in the introduction and crossing of foreign strains with the native variety, which resulted in the origin and propagation of what has become the famous '' Magie breed" of hogs, and which are now in such great demand for breeding purposes that from the stock which the firm of Magie & Kumler carry they sell from 500 to 700 head annually, and these are sent not only all over the States and Territories, but many go to fill orders from foreign countries, some even as far as Australia. Some years of attention have been given by Mr. Magie to the raising of choice breeds of cattle, particularly short-horn Durhams, and with much success, as also the breeding and raising of fine horse stock, yet his main reliance has been in the specialty of a first-class breed of hogs.

Mr. and Mrs. Magie have two daughters, Laura Belle, who was married to Mr. Theophilus R. Kumler, of Oxford, May 15, 1866, and Sallie Maria, born July 26, 1847. The son-in-law is Mr. Maggie's partner in conducting the stock farm, both residing in the village of Oxford, to which place Mr. Magie removed in October, 1859, with his family, and in which place the firm have their office. Mr. Magie has for many years been an active and earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Oxford, and a thorough and ardent Republi- 'an in his political preferences. Naturally a man of fine physical powers, constant and earnest application to the duties of his calling have made some inroads upon his general health, and for the past year he has been a sufferer from a complication of bodily diseases. He still has the care and oversight of his extensive business, assisted by his son-in-law, Mr. Kumler.

John C. McCracken, lumber dealer, is a native of Oxford, and a son of the Rev. 8. W. McCracken, who was a native of Kentucky, and a graduate of Miami University, and also occupied the chair of mathematics a number of years subsequently. He was ordained a minister of the United Presbyterian Church, and spent a number of the later years of his life in pastoral work. His decease occurred at Hopewell in 1859. John C. McCracken was born in Oxford in 1838, and attended the university in his youth, but on account of feeble health, did not graduate. He taught at various points, and followed teaching a number of years. In 1856 he engaged in merchandising, and continued in that business at different points until 1863, when being advised that his health depended on out-door exercise, he purchased a farm near Oxford, and continued farming until about three years since, when he became interested in the lumber trade of Oxford, and is now the principal operator in that line of business. He married, in 1860, Miss Jane E. Wilson, of Shelby County. They have two children, George H. and Frank S. Mr. McCracken's office and yard are convenieritly located on Beach Street near High. He is an active, successful business man, an active member of the Presbyterian Church, and has been for fifteen years past one of Oxford's most substantial and useful citizens, identified with public. activities.

Joseph S. McCord, deceased, though a latter-day resident of Oxford, was so thoroughly identified with public affairs as to have left a lasting influence. He was a native of Pennsylvania, being born there August 9, 1813, and was the son of a farmer. He enjoyed but limited advantages in his youth. He learned the cabinet-maker's trade in Landisburg, in his native State, and subsequently worked at this occupation in Pittsburg, where he became connected with boat-building, which led to a river life for a number of years, and finally to his locating at Cincinnati, where he subsequently, in connection with his brother David, became prominent as contractor and builder, a business 'he followed a number of years, and until, having acquired a considerable property and _ his health then being broken, he relinquished business, and, having purchased a handsome residence near the Miami University, he removed with his family to Oxford the Spring of 1866, with a view of rest and recuperation, where his family would have good educational and social privileges.

His business ability and interest in religious and educational affairs made his council desirable, and he was soon a member of the board of trustees of the Presbyterian Church, and gave no little time and effort in remodeling and fitting up the present place of worship, and continued one of most active and useful members of that

Chureh until his decease, which occurred November 5, 1879. In 1870 he became a member of the board of the Western Female Seminary, and being the only resident member of the board, a large draft was made on his time, especially during the rebuilding of that institution after the fire of 1871, and his name will be found prominently mentioned in connection with all the prominent . public enterprises of his day. In 1872 he was chosen a member of the board of trustees for Miami University, and was actively identified with the building of the east wing, which position he also occupied at the time of his decease. He was twice married. His first wife was Miss Assenath Brown, their marriage dating October 12, 1842. She died in 1847, leaving no children. February 21, 1854, he was united in marriage with Miss C. A. Morehead, of Erie, Pennsylvania, who, with three grown children, Frank, Jennie, and Lizzie, survived him, and now resides at the residence, which fronts the university campus, near the center of the southern boundary. Mrs. McCord, son, and daughters are members of the Presbyterian Church.

Professor Byron F. Marsh was born December 14, 1845, at Dudley, Massachusetts. He prepared for college, intending to enter Harvard, but the war coming on his father was numbered among those whose life was sacrificed in defending the government. This prevented the son from carrying out his aspirations for a college diploma. He resorted to teaching, and has continued that occupation ever since. He was at one time an instructor in Brooklyn, and also taught five years in a private school at Poughkeepsie, and at different academic institutions in Massachusetts, and elsewhere in the East. In 1877 he came to Oxford, associating himself with Professor P. Trufant in building up a classical school for boys, in the buildings of the Miami University. It was to be a training school after the plan of the New England academies, thoroughly preparing a young man for college.

Professor Karl Merz is a native of Germany, where he was born near Frankfort-on-the-Main, in the town of Bensheim, the 10th of September, 1834. The father was a teacher, also being organist in the principal church of the place; and quite early in his boyhood young Karl became an apt scholar upon the violin and piano. At the age of eleven he sought for and found occasion to try his proficiency in his studies in music in an attempt at performing upon the great organ of which his father had care. This was so finely accomplished, to the wonderment and gratification of the father, that for several years almost daily was young Karl intrusted with the instrumental portions of the Church service, the performance of which seemed to take deep hold upon his soul's emotions. Being also a skilled performer upon the violin, he was connected with two or three orchestral clubs, and was early thrown into the company and made the acquaintance of many prominent in musical circles in the vicinity. Of Romanist parents, his scholastic education was attained in the preparatory and higher schools of this Church, and from these he graduated in 1852, teaching for a year thereafter in a Catholic school at Appenheim, near Bingen-on-the-Rhine.

About this time, while on a visit home, he made the acquaintance of a gentleman from America, who proposed to him that he should return with him to his country. This idea was finally acted upon by Mr. Merz, and after visiting the birth-place of Beethoven, at Bonn, and also Cologne, Brussels, Paris, and London, on the way, he landed in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the September when he was just turned of his twentieth year. Here for a little time he was employed as a clerk in a music store, but afterwards joined a company of musicians, who had a nightly engagement to play at an establishment on Third Street. This employment gave Mr. Merz much time for study, and he made the best use of it in his practice; also venturing upon some compositions, several of which in later days have found their way to an appreciative public, and many yet lie in the portfolio of the artist.

Some time in 1855 he was, all unsolicited by himself, engaged as organist for the Sixth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and his first service in a Protestant Church is spoken of by the professor as one of the marked events in his history. Nor was his keenly sensitive nature unsusceptible to the new form of worship and the teachings to which he was thus introduced, as afterevents will show. '

In 1856 the position of instructor in the musical department of Dr. Killikelly's school, Eden Hall Seminary, at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, being vacant, Professor Merz was invited to take it, which he willingly did, his labors in this place being both pleasant and very satisfactory. While here he made the acquaintance of and married Miss Mary, daughter of Mr. J. Riddle. Shortly after the couple took up their residence for a short time in Salem, Virginia, but not liking the location he entered a seminary under the charge of Mr. Wilson, in Harrisburg, in the same State, as teacher, where he was employed for one year, after which he accepted a professorship in Hollis Institute, near his recent home, at Salem, Virginia. At the outbreak of the war in 1861 Mr. and Mrs. Merz, feeling hearty loyalty to the cause of the Union, decided it to be unwise to attempt to remain at the institution, and went northward, making sacrifice of nearly all that they then were possessed of in their adherence to the principles of their country. The following August Professor Merz had the position of professor of music in the Ohio Female College of Oxford, then under the presidency of the Rev. Dr. R. D. Morris, offered him, and most gladly accepted it, entering at once upon the duties of the position with all the earnest ardor and enthusiasm of his nature, and this position Professor Merz has continued to hold and adorn until this Summer. 'This year he has been elected professor of music in another institution.

Shortly after coming to America Mr. Merz became an intelligent and thorough convert to the Protestant faith, and ever since has been a firm and outspoken friend to the new truth which he warmly espoused.

In addition to his college duties he has had charge, as musical editor, for many years of Brainard's Musical World, issued in Cleveland, and has a world-wide reputation for the variety and genuine worth of his many musical compositions and publications. He is genial in his companionship, a fluent and interesting conversationalist, and a laborious student in his chosen profession.

The Rev. Robert Desha Morris was born in Washington, Mason County, Kentucky, August 22, 1814. He is the eldest son of Colonel Joseph Morris, who removed from New Jersey to Kentucky in 1794. The Morris family trace their descent from a chieftain in Wales who flourished in 933. In later times they had important commands, and fought in the battles of Parliament against Charles I., but after the death of Cromwell they were obliged to flee from Monmouthshire to escape the vengeance of the royalists, taking refuge on the Island of Barbadoes. From this island, the grandfather, Lewis Morris, sailed for New Jersey, and settled in that part now called Monmouth County, where he was one of the first judges. Another branch of the family settled in and gave the name to Morrisania, New York, and became famous in the history of that colony. Dr. Morris's paternal grandfather was in the Revolutionary War, and having been taken prisoner, was, with many other patriots, confined in the old sugar-house prison in Liberty Street, New York, where they endured untold sufferings.

Dr. Morris's maternal ancestors, the Deshas, fled from La Rochelle on the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV., in 1685, and came to the shores of Long Island Sound, to a place which they called New Rochelle, - in honor of the home they had left. They subsequently settled on the Delaware near the Water Gap. In 1784 the Deshas and Overfields emigrated to Kentucky and were associated with the Kentons in the struggles, privations, and dangers incident to pioneer life in Kentucky. Dr. Morris's mother was descended from Huguenot stock, and held tenaciously to her Calvinistic faith, and her son, having early imbibed the tenets, adhered steadfastly to them.

Having been prepared at Bracken Academy, he entered Augusta College, and after a four years' course graduated August 7, 1834. After this he completed a four years' course at Princeton Theological Seminary, attending lectures at Yale, and traveling extensively during vacations. He was licensed to preach by the Synod of Philadelphia, in that city, April 18, 1838. His first pastorate was with the Second Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, where he remained eighteen years. From that Church he came to Oxford, Ohio, in 1859, and has since been at the head of the Oxford Female College,

He received the honorary degree of doctor of divinity from Center College, Kentucky, in 1870. He married, May 3, 1842, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Matthew L. Bevan, an eminent merchant of Philadelphia. Dr. Morris has been an active man, laboring zealously for what he believed to be right, and filled with arduous and self-sacrificing efforts for the cause of religion and education. As a pastor he was diligent in labor, and planted many new Churches by his persistent efforts. He was uniformly prompt and active in attending on the judicatories of his denomination, and often represented his presbytery in the highest court of the Church. He was a member of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Louisville in 1844, at Cincinnati in 1850, at New Orleans in 1858, and at Philadelphia in 1870. He was also active in general improvements and in temperance and educational work. He was president of the Pennsylvania State Temperance _ Convention at Harrisburg in 1846. He served as director in the common schools, and established a superior parochial school and classical academy, now in successful operation, at Newtown, Pennsylvania, and was for years an active trustee of Lafayette College. He helped to raise the endowment and secured many young men as students. In Oxford he has been principally devoted to the Oxford Female College, which, under his management, won a high reputation.

The Rev. James W. McGregor, M. A., was born in Richmond, Jefferson County, Ohio, September 14, 1837. In his youth he attended Richmond College, then a prosperous institute of learning, and graduated at Miami University in 1863. He entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the Pittsburg Conference in 1865, and subsequently was transferred to the Cincinnati Conference, having charge of the Mount Auburn Church, and afterwards of the one at Oxford. He was then transferred to the Minnesota Conference, and was stationed at Minneapolis. He returned to Oxford in 1874, and located at the east side of the village, near the Oxford Female College, where he has sought to regain his health, previously impaired, by out-door occupation. Though looking after a farm of upwards of one hundred acres, on the Sabbath he is nearly always found in one of the pulpits of the vicinity. He ministered at the Western Female Seminary chapel regularly every Sunday afternoon for two years after his return. He married in 1865 Miss Emily Lane, daughter of Ebenezer Lane, who was the founder of Lane Seminary. She is a native of Oxford, having been born where she with her husband and family still live. dren, Lane and Celeste.

Dr. David Oliver was born at Harmon, Ohio, in 1792, eleven years previous to the admission of the State into the Union. It falls to the lot of but few men to lead such varied and stirring lives as was his in the early part of his career. He was in the War of 1812, and served two years on a privateer, acting under letters of marque from the republic of Columbia, South America, being severely wounded in a naval engagement with a Spanish man-ofwar. Afterwards, as a practicing physician at Brookville, Indiana, and Lebanon, Ohio, he spent many active years in doing good, and finally removed to Oxford, where, as a public spirited and generous citizen and a ruling elder in the Church, his loss was severely felt.

Among the many movements looking toward the elevation and better education of the women of America, perhaps none of the special ideas or departures from the old routine, which have assumed form in effort, has attracted more attention or proved more thoroughly practical than that of which Miss Mary Lyon became the exponent. Her ideas took tangible form in the opening of a school at South Hadley, Massachusetts, known as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, from which hundreds of finely educated and accomplished young women have gone forth to take rank among the foremost educators, philanthropists, and practical women in all stations in life. Among the early pupils of this school was Miss Helen Peabody, now the head of the Oxford Female Seminary.

Some time in 1635 Francis Peabody, of Hertfordshire, England, came to America in the ship Planter, and settled in Massachusetts. As a descendant from this stock, Ammi Peabody is recorded as having beén born July 4, 1769, in Boxford, Essex County, in that State. He was married to Miss Sarah Johnson, then a resident of Newport, New Hampshire, to which place the Peabody family had but a short time before removed. To Mr. and Mrs. Peabody were born a family of fourteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters are now living. The father died at Newport, New Hampshire, in 1845, while the mother was spared till March, 1859.

Helen Peabody, the youngest member of their large family, was born May 6, 1826. Her girlhood was passed in no manner dissimilar to that of other children of her day, her school advantages being those common to the villagers of New England. When fourteen or fifteen years of age she spent about a year at the Concord Literary Institute, at Concord, New Hampshire, of which school another brother, the Rev. Charles 'Peabody, was then the honored and successful principal. After this Miss Helen was engaged for some two years in teaching in district schools in the vicinity of her Newport home. She then accepted a position in Kimball Union Academy, in Meriden, New Hampshire, where she remained about a year.

In 1845 she entered Mt. Holyoke Seminary as a pupil under Miss Lyon, and pursued the full curriculum of the graduating course, taking her diploma in the Summer of 1848. For the four following years Miss Peabody was connected with her alma mater as one of the faculty, and her relations to the school were of the pleasantest character, she proving herself very efficient in the duties and responsibilities here placed upon her. But in her earnestness and zeal in her work she found her health becoming undermined, and was compelled to relinquish her position, and the following year she took for rest and visitation among her relatives and friends. In the Summer of 1854 she engaged as a teacher in a private seminary for young ladies, in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, making her home with her brother Charles, who, at the time, was a resident of that city, and district secretary for the American Tract Society.

The corporators of the Western Female Seminary, which had been located at Oxford about this time, had their seminary buildings nearly completed, and the trustees were on the outlook for just the right person in whose hands they might, with confidence, place the affairs of the new educational venture, as its head and principal. It had been at the outset decided that the plan, both of the edifice and the school itself, should be modeled on the Mt. Holyoke pattern at South Hadley, and with the faculty of that institution the trustees had frequent correspondence, and it was upon their hearty recommendation that the board first had their attention turned toward Miss Peabody. In the Summer of 1855 a delegation from this body, consisting of the Rev. Mr. Babb, of Cincinnati, and the Rev. Mr. Bonham, of Oxford, went to St. Louis and had a personal conference with this lady, laying their project before her, and in the name of the trustees pressing the position upon her. Miss Peabody asked for a little time in which to consider the matter, and the following morning, although strongly drawn toward and attached to the family of her brother Charles, who at this time were in deep sorrow from the recent demise of the wife and mother, and feeling it a duty and privilege to remain, and, in so far as her noble womanly heart and effort could try and supply the ~ Joss, especially in the care of a sweet, motherless infant, yet urged by the brother to look upon the opening as a providential one, pointing to duty, she decided to give the committee a favorable answer, accepting the position.

Soon after she came to Oxford, and at once entered with zeal and enthusiasm upon the work which was thus committed to her care, and with such success that about the middle of September following the school was thrown open to the public, equipped with a fine corps of teachers and starting off with an introductory class of about one hundred and fifty pupils.

The entire machinery could hardly be expected to work perfectly smooth, and the first few weeks of a new school, conducted as this was proposed to be, naturally was subject to some unpleasant friction. The immediate wants of this large family were pressing, but the requisite conveniences were not all just in place. The cooking range was not finished, nor had all its furniture yet arrived, when the one hundred and fifty young ladies, some with their parents, came swooping down upon the faculty. The young ladies were at onee assigned posi- tions in the culinary department as well as elsewhere in the curriculum of the institution, and strange and unexpected perplexities suddenly arose. One of these nymphs of the kitchen, referring to these early experiences, gives the following as one of the first problems which confronted her as ''freshman" in the first class in the Western Female Seminary: '' Given two dripping pans and a brass kettle, it is required to cook meats and vegetables for over one hundred and fifty persons ;" and in addition facetiously remarks, '' Never before did we appreciate the capabilities of dripping pans." Of the perplexities and annoyances consequent upon the opening of the new school, Miss Peabody received and bore her full share, and by the effort thus demanded and nobly performed, she was enabled to send the enterprise prosperously along on its course toward the grand success to which it has attained.

Karly in life, probably when about fourteen years of age, Miss Peabody became interested in the subject of personal religion, and about this time made a publie profession of her faith in Christ, uniting with the Congregational Church of her native place. But as with every thing else in her life, the profession of a hope in the Savior meant earnest zealous work for the Master whose cause she had thus early in life espoused, and through all of her subsequent career we easily discover a grand Christian substratum underlying her whole educational work, and constantly coming to the surface in her every-day life and intercourse either with the world outside or the hundreds of loving pupils upon whom, in the providence of God, it has been her gracious privilege to exert her personal influence. While the great work of her life thus far has been that of an educator in the popular acceptation of the term, yet to those to whom Miss Peabody is best known, it is acknowledged that it has ever been her great aim to let the thought, which found expression in the class motto of 1878, " Omnia ad Dei Gloriam" (All to the glory of God), be the ruling principle and motive of her lifework. When she came to reside at Oxford she sought for and found a spiritual home in the Second Presbyterian Church, continuing her membership with it when the two interests were united as the First Presbyterian Church of Oxford.

Probably two of the most trying experiences in her life were the repeated destruction of the seminary buildings by fire, first on the 14th of January, 1860, and again on the 6th of April, 1871. But the friends of the institution stood nobly by their heroic and devoted principal, and since the last rebuilding the school has to pride itself upon haying one of the finest and most commodious edifices of which the West can boast, seemingly complete in all its appointments, and over which it is the heartfelt, earnest prayer of every alumna and friend of the school Miss Helen Peabody may long be spared to preside.

James Brook Pugh has been a resident of Oxford Township about thirteen years, during which time by his energy, intelligence, and enterprise he has won the confidence and respect of the people, and is now serving his second term as a member of the board of trustees of his township. Mr. Pugh is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Montgomery County in 1825. His early life was spent on a farm. His parents came to Warren County, Ohio, in 1835, making the trip in wagons. In 1869 Mr. Pugh came to Oxford and purchased what was then known as the Austin mill property, and without previous experience has, by industry and intelligence, succeeded in building up a large and growing business. He is somewhat original in his methods, grinding merchant flour according to the '' patent process," but running the product with his '' family flour," which makes his milling very popular with his custom patrons. His mill is run by water-power, and he also has a custom saw-mill in connection, but run by a separate wheel. Mr. Pugh has been twice married, and is now a widower, his second wife, who was a daughter of W. H. Smith, deceased, having died in July, 1881. His first wife was a native of Pennsylvania. He has a family of four children, two of whom are married. He has recently completed a neat, commodious dwelling, which is a substantial addition to the mill property, and which is occupied by H. 8. Chamberlain, who is a son-in-law and '' head miller." Mr. Pugh's oldest son, James B., Jr., is also engaged in the mill.

Robert H. Riggs, a native of Butler County, was born in 1821, his birth-place being on the Miami, near the mouth of Indian Creek. His father, Matthew Riggs, a native of New York, came to Butler County in pioneer days, and was a school-teacher and honored with public duties. The mother of Robert was a native of Virginia, and had been previously married to a Mr. Andrews, by whom she had four children, and some time after his death she became the wife of Mr. Riggs. They continued to live in Butler County until their decease, which occurred in Oxford Township, whence they had removed from Reily in 1833. Their remains lie in the old Baptist burying-ground in Reily Township. Robert H. Riges was raised on the farm and has followed farming all his life. He now owns his father's old homestead, and resides on the tract formerly known as the Dr. Anderson farm, and has one hundred and seventy-two acres near, which he has under good improvement. He also conducts a meat-shop in Oxford, which is attended by one of his sons. He married, in 1847, Sophronia Wing, who is also a native of Butler County. Her parents, Silas and Lucy Wing, were Massachusetts people, and early

Muncie, Indiana), William, Edward E., Robert M., and Mary Agnes. Mr. and Mrs. Riggs are direct descendants of the pioneer families and worthy representatives

Among those who have been identified with Oxford Township is the Sadler family. Elijah and Cordelia Sadler-were natives of Massachusetts, and were married at Williamsburg in 1828. He was a carpenter, and not being satisfied with his routine work in the employ of Isaac Gere, as foreman of a box factory, he decided to come West, and in the Winter of 1834, putting his worldly goods into a sleigh, came with his family to Oxford. After a few years residence in the village, he purchased and removed to what is known as the Sadler farm, where he resided at the time of his death, in 1850. His wife and nine children survived him. Mrs. Sadler was a woman of more than ordinary force of character, and she kept her family together, and with the help of her children carried on farming. She was of a family of Kings, and he was related to the Dwights, of colonial fame in Massachusetts. She was a woman whose excellence of character and life is vindicated in her children, every one of whom grew to adult age. Her two daughters, Sarah R. and Cordelia A., are still living. The former is the wife of G. W. Adams, a merchant of Oxford, and the latter is the wife of C. M. Douglass, of Fowler, Indiana. Of her seven sons five are living, and all have made a worthy record in life. The oldest, George W., is a resident of Peoria, Illinois, where he with three of his brothers have arrangements for feeding stock in large numbers, of which George has immediate supervision. William K., deceased, was a physician and entered the army as regimental surgeon, and at the time of his death, December, 1864, was in charge of the medical department of Baton Rouge Post. Elijah D, is still a resident of Oxford, having entire charge of the Sadler estate. He has been treasurer of Oxford Township for the past six years. Jerome F. is a resident and stockbroker of New York City, and interested in the extensive stock-feeding and dealings of the Edward W., deceased in 1872, being about thirty years of age, was the most extensive resident stock-dealer known to Oxford. Lewis L. is a resident of Cincinnati, and has been for some time president of the city council. He is also one of the firm of Sadler Brothers, and looks after their extensive interests in Cincinnati. The youngest son, Silas P., resides in Pittsburg, where he does a brokerage business, and attends. to the interests of the '' Brothers," of which firm he is also a member. Mrs. Sadler's decease occurred in Oxford, February 1, 1881. A memorial pamphlet, containing a short sketch of her life and an account of the funeral services, was published by the children and distributed to all the friends.