Diadatus Keeler House

New York, and with his parents came to Ohio, locating in Franklin Co., May 1, 1832. He was married to Helen Bishop ; they had seven children, of whom the subject was the oldest, and was born Feb. 8, 1833 ; the father died when Edwin was 14 years of age. He remained with his mother until he was 22, when, on that birthday, or Feb. 8, 1855, he was married to Corintha Williams, and with his bride located in Central College. In 1863, Mrs. Phillips died, leaving three sons - William, Frank and Charles. Feb. 14, 1874, he was married to his present wife, who was Mrs. Jane E. Knox. She had, before marriage with Mr. Phillips, five Children - Minnie, Kate, William V., Lucinda, Orren A. - and since their marriage, two - Lamata and Lena. Mr. Phillips has made several trips West, but has not been able to suit himself in a home better than in his present one, which is situated one-half mile south of Galena. Besides running his farm, he devotes considerable attention to breeding fine stock, with which he has his farm well stocked.

Passage source: History of Delaware County and Ohio. Containing a Brief History of the State of Ohio ... Biographical Sketches ... Etc, published 1880.

Genoa Township is bounded on the north by Berkshire Township: on the east by Harlem; on the south by Franklin County and on the west by Orange Township. It is five miles square, and is in the territory known as United States Military Lands. The western half of the township was included in the original township of Berkshire, and the eastern half was in the township of Sunbury. When Harlem Township was cut out of Sunbury, it included all of what is now Genoa Township. The present bounds of Genoa Township were established June 4, 181 6. Its name was suggested by an early settler who wished to do honor to the birth-place of Christopher Columbus. Running through the western half of the township from north to south, on the line traversed by the Cleveland, Akron and Columbus railroad, is a ridge which forms the water-shed between Big Walnut Creek on the east and Alum Creek in Orange Township. On either side of the ridge, the land is comparatively level, although the surface is broken up considerably along the banks of the Big Walnut, and east of 'the creek is more or less rolling. The highest shale cliffs in the county are to be found in the northern part of the township, on what is known as "Yankee Street," about two miles south of Galena. Here as elsewhere along the banks of Big Walnut, are to be found outcroppings of fine Waverlv sandstone. Here and there in the beds of shale a thin layer of an inferior limestone is to be found. Some of the early builders were tempted to use this because of the ease with which it can be quarried, but they soon had their labor for their pains, as this stone disintegrates when exposed to the air. The Big Walnut Creek, to which reference has alreay been made, is the principal stream. It Hows in a sinuous course from north to south through the eastern half of the township. Originally its banks and the lands adjacent were heavily timbered with black walnut trees. The bottom lands along the creek are especially fertile, but these places are frequently overflowed in seasons of freshet, causing the loss of a crop occasionally. All the older men now living here remember the freshet in September. 1866, when cattle, sheep and hogs were drowned, and haystacks and small sheds and buildings were floated and carried down the stream.

Passage source: 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio and Representative Citizens, published 1908.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Genoa Township - 11,158 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.