Winchester Township (part 18 of 30)

was born November 18, 1793, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and died November 8, 1881, in Winchester, Adams County, Ohio, while on a temporary visit there and had therefore, reached the grand old age of eightyeight years. He belonged to a family of remarkable longevity. His father, General Joseph Darlinton, died at eighty-seven, one brother at ninety, another at ninety-one, and his sister, Mrs. Sarah Van Deman, of Delaware, at eiglity-six years. He was the second son of Gen. Joseph Darlinton. Not long after his birth, his father removed to the Northwest Territory, settling in 1797 near the present town of West Union. Here George remained with liis father until he grew^ to manhood, gathering such an education as could be found in that pioneer life, and being thoroughly drilled in the strictest tenets of the Presbyterian faitli, which never departed from him, for he lived and died in it. The General was never so busy in his struggles for livelihood, or in the discharge of his important official duties, but he could give his personal attention to the instruction of his children in all moral and religious doctrine. He was a finn believer in the shorter catechism, the Westminster confession and the Decalogue, particularly the fourth commandment. Many are .the stories told, - <loubtless problematical, - of the manner he required the observance of the Sabbath, such as fastening the bees in their hives, or tyin<; the dog's month on that day, but George thoroughly remembered his drillinj^ on that subject, and all through his life he ''remembered the Sahbaih day to keep it holy." Through the superior abilities of his father, supplemented by the instnictions of a mother of more than ordinary wisdom and literary tastes, he enjoyed many more than the usual educational opportunities for that day. He was inclined to mercantile pursuits, and about 1825 located at Newark, Ohio, and formed a partnership with his brother Carey in the dry-goods business. They were both gentlemen of fine personal appearance, of stately deportment, and of exemplary habits. During the life of this partnership, George secured a contract and constructed a portion of the Ohio Canal through Licking County. In a few years they dissolved partnership, Carey ultimately locating in Montana Territory, and George settling in Greenup County,. Kentucky, where he continued to reside until his death. He enjoyed the utmost confidence of the people of Eastern Kentucky, serving for many years as SheriflF and Collector of Revenues of Greenup County. He was also engaged in the manufacture of iron, and at one time constructed an extensive manufactory for extracting oil from coal, but the great discovery of petroleum in the oil fields of Pennsylvania and elsewhere closed his new enterprise at a heavy loss.

At an early day, he was the owner of a few slaves* but an enlightened conscience told him it was not right to hold human flesh in bondage, so he took them across the Ohio River and purchased them a comfortable home, leaving them with the warning "that if they did not behave themselves, he would take them back to Kentucky."

He was a most uncompromising supporter of the administration of President Lincoln in the war for the preservation of the Union. He endorsed the proclamation freeing the slaves, not only as a war measure but because he thought it was right, and as an old Henry Clay Whig, he believed in the highest protection to American industries.

During his life of eighty-eight years, he saw the pioneers sweeping down the western slope of the Alleghanies, spread themselves over the whole of the Northwestern Territory, converting it all into new states in the Confederacy, and extending westward across the Mississippi to the extremest verge of the continent. The marvelous growth of the country in agriculture, in manufactories and in the sciences, as also in the improvement in the condition of all classes from the inventions and discoveries in his day, was the subject of frequent comment by him. He was universally beloved by old and young, and no one ever received intentional unkindness from "Uncle George.*' Many a young man was indebted to him for his unostentatious aid in some critical time in his life. He was a genial gentleman of the "old school," a good conversationalist, a pleasant companion, a warm friend and an honest man. There was a quiet humor about him that Vv^as at times refreshing. He was a man of most abstemious habits, so that he enjoyed exceptional health to the last. He believed in temperance in eating as well as in drinking. The strength of a constitution built up by a life of such temperance was well illustrated towards the close of his life. About six years before his death, he had the misfortune to fall and break his leg, but such was the healthfulness of his constitution that he was out walking with a cane in less than six weeks after the accident. He accumulated a handsome property, which he divided with most rigid impartiality among his relatives. He was never married. He died in the communion of the Presbyterian Church and was buried in the cemetery at West Union, where his father, mother and other relatives sleep.

son of Israel Hyman and Judith DeBruin, was bom December 24, 1796, in Amsterdam, Holland. His parents were Hebrews and, by tradition, of the tribe of Levi. They gave this, their eldest child, a thorough education, of which he made good use, and which proved a ^'aluable legacy to him in a long and active business life.

His parents died when he was young. After attaining his majority he had a great desire to come to America, but with limited means could not see his way clear. Just then he found a good friend coming to this country, who offered to advance his passage. He accepted the passage money, as a loan, and in October, 1819, he sailed for America. After a long and stormy voyage he landed at Philadelphia early in January, 1820. His and his friend's destination being farther west, they made the trip over the mountains on foot and in an emigrant wagon, which they had procured that they might ride when tired of walking. The trip was a hard one, but they reached Pittsburg after many days. There they took passage on an Ohio River boat and after a tedious trip landed at Maysville.

A stranger in a strange land. Mr. DeBruin, with business intent, at once started out to find emplo\Tnent, and was soon rewarded in securing a position as bookkeeper in a large commission house owned by Mr. Andrew M. January, who accepted the obligation, which had been assumed by this kind friend from Amsterdam.

Mr. DeBruin had the contract made in legal form and entered upon his work, in his characteristic and systematic way. He was a fine penman and a model clerk. He remained with his new employer several years until he had cancelled the obligation for his passage and saved enough to go into business for himself. The friendship thus formed with Mr. January was never broken.

On March 14, 1832, Mr. DeBruin was married to Miss Rebecca Easton, daughter of Rev. Edward and Mary Easton, of Linconshire, England, who came to this country in 1820.

In July, 1833 when the terrible epidemic of cholera was raging in Maysville, Mr. DeBruin removed his family to Winchester, Adams County, Ohio, where he continued in the mercantile business until about 1854. Having gathered togetlier quite a little sum, about sixty or seventy thousand dollars, he retired from business and lived a quiet life.

He became a member of the Methodist Church in Januar}', 1844. He was class leader and superintendent of the Sabbath School for many years and was never absent from church or Sunday school unless out of town or sick.

There were born to these parents twelve children, eight sons and four daughters. Four died in infancy and two at the ages of thirtyfour and thirty-two. On February 12, 1898, the first bom, Rev. Israel Hyman DeBruin of Columbus, Ohio, passed away in the seventy-fifth year of his age. There are still five children living, three sons and two daughters. The youngest, a son, aged thirty-three, and the oldest about seven tv-t wo.

Our subject's political affiliations were with the Whig and Republican parties. His first vote cast, on becoming a legalized citizen of the United States, was for James Monroe, for President. He was an ardent admirer of Mr. Clav and voted for him three times for President. He voted the last Whig ticket in 1852 for General Scott. After that he voted the Republican ticket. His last vote for President was for General Grant, in 1868.

Mr. DeBruin died at his home in Winchester, September 9, 1871, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. His wife died on February 25th, in her seventieth year.

was born in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, February 2, 1767. His father moved to the County of Cumberland, in the same State, where he received his education. While too young to take any part in the Revolutionary War, he remembered much of it. It seemed he obtained a fair education prior to his twentieth year. In 1787, he left his home in New Jersey for the West, traveling alone and unaided. He first located in Ohio County, Virginia, where he remained until the Spring of 1790. In this time, he farmed, taught school and acted as Indian ranger and scout. In May, 1790, he went down the river on a flat-boat accompanied by a fleet of the same kind, and reached Maysville on June 1st. During that summer, he taught school at Maysville. That winter he formed the acquaintance of General Nathaniel Massie and in the Spring of 1791, went to reside in the Stockade at Manchester. In April, 1791, he, Nathaniel Massie and James Tittle went up the river in a canoe with a surveyor's chain and compass to do some surveying. They got ashore just below Wrightsville, near a large mound which stood on the river bank, but is now washed away by the river. There they discovered two canoe loads of Indians, almost in shore. The Indians discovered them at the same time. Donalson and his two companions started to run. He was in the rear, and as he went to jump a branch his foot caught in a root and he fell forward. Before he could rise, three Indians were upon him, and he was a captive. The Indians started on a march with him, and marched all day and for two or three days when they reached the camp of their tribe. Here they began to make an Indian of him, by training his hair Indian fashion, with turkey feathers and putting an Indian jewel in his nose. After he had been with them several days, he determined to escape, come what would. He slept between two Indians, securely tied, but he gnawed his thongs loose and crawled away one morning about daybreak. The Indians discovered his escape almost immediately, and pursued, but he escaped without arms of any kind. He reached Fort Washington about May ist. He first met Mr. Wm. Woodward, for whom the Woodward High School is named, who took him to the Fort. Here he remained several weeks when he returned to Limestone and' afterwards to Manchester.

Mr. Donalson was well qualified for a school teacher before leaving New Jersey. He took up this occupation at Manchester as soon as there was a call for a teacher, and he followed that with surveying, which he had also studied in the East, more or less all his life. He was in Wayne's Campaign against the Indians in 1794.

He married Miss Annie Pennyweight on Nevember 15, 1798, and had to go to Kentucky for that purpose, as there were no legal authorities to solenniize marriages in that part of the Northwest Territory at that time.

In 1802, Mr. Donalson was elected one of three delegates from Adams County to the first Constitutional Convention of Ohio. His as- :sociates were Joseph Darlinton and Thomas Kirker. The Convention met in Chillicothe on November i, 1802, and was in session until November 29th, when it completed its work. The journal of the Convention is very meagre, as nearly all the work was done in committee of the whole and no record kept. On the question of inviting Governor St. Clair to address the Convention, he and his two associates voted "no," but the affirmative carried it nineteen to fourteen. He usually voted with his colleagues on all questions. On the question of a poll-tax, he voted "no," as did his colleagues. On the question of allowing negroes and mulattoes to vote, he, Kirker and Massie voted "no," while Byrd and Darlinton voted "yes." He, also, with Kirker, Byrd and Darlinton voted "no" to the proposition of forbidding negroes and mulattoes to hold office in the State, or to testify against a white man. On the last day, sixty copies of the journal of the Convention and eighty-eight copies of the Constitution were ordered delivered to Israel Donalson for Adams County. We would like to know what became of the seven hundred copies of the journal ordered printed. Only four are now known to be in existence out of that number. Of those delivered to Mr. Donalson for distribution, none are now known to be in existence.

Israel Donalson was appointed postmaster at Manchester in 1801, and served until September 27, 1813. In 1808, he started a carding-mill in Manchester, but it does not appear how long he operated it. In the War of 1812, he went out in the general call for troops.

He was a resident of Manchester all his life, and was a devout member of and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church of that place. He was Clerk of the Session for many years, and the records appear in his very clear hand. He was also frequently a delegate to the Presbytery of Chillicothe, which he first attended at Red Oak in 1825, and on September 4 and 5. 1849, he was last present at Eckmansville. Altogether he attended the Presbytery some nineteen times.

In 1847, there were but five survivors of the Constitutional Convention of r8o2 living. Ephriam Cutler, of Washington County: Jeremiah Morrow, of Hamilton: John Reiley, nf Butler: General Darlinton and Israel Donalson, of Adams. Cutler wrote a letter to each of the other frnir, and received an answer from each. Donalson's letter is dated May 20, 1847. He condemned the Mexican War then in progress. He wrote lo Judge Cutler again on August i, 1848. He spoke of his captivity among the Indians lasting a week and says from that day to this "my life has been one of turmoil." He says he has met with pecuniar\' losses but is thankful to Go<l who sustained him. John Reilev died lune 7. 1850: Cieneral Darlinton died August 2, 1851 : Jeremiah Morrow died in 1852: Judqie Cutler survived until July 8. 1853, and from that time until the ninth of February. 1860. Israel Donalson was the last survivor of the Convention. His picture in this book was taken at the age of ninety-one, but he survived until ninety-three. He was a man of the strictest integrity, honorable in all his dealings and highly respected by every one. Tn his ])o]itical views he was a Democrat and later a Whig.

Pioneer Character Sketches 661

Andrew Dunbar, father of the subject of our sketch, was born in Winchester, Virginia. His wife was Deborah Mitchell, of the same place. They were married in Winchester, Virginia, about 1779, and several of their children were born there. They emigrated to Lewis County, Kentucky, in 1794, when their son, Hamilton, born August 28, 1782, was twelve years old. Here Andrew Dunbar adopted the business of trading along the river with a large canoe between Alexandria, Ohio, and Maysville. Kentucky. One night his boat capsized, and he was lost, leaving a widow, four sons and three daughters. At the time of his father's death, Hamilton was living on the home farm near Concord, Kentucky. Not long after the family moved to Adams County, Ohio. As it was a custom in those days that every boy should learn a trade, Hamilton selected that of a carpenter and followed it in Adams and adjoining counties. He entered the land east of West Union, on the Portsmouth road, where John Spohn formerly resided. He was married January 14, 1808, at West Union, Ohio, to Delilah Sparks, born January I,. 1792, in western Pennsylvania, a daughter of Salathiel Sparks. Mrs. Dunbar died at West Union, Ohio, August 14, 1828, and is interred in Lovejoy Cemetery. They were married at the residence of the bride's father in the property east of West Union where Thomas Huston formerly resided and afterwards owned by Hon. J. W.Eylar. Soon after their marriage, Hamilton Dunbar purchased the lot just opposite and west of the stone Presbyterian Church and built the residence thereon in which he continued to reside until his death. The house is now occupied by Vene Edgington. Mrs. Dunbar's brother, John Sparks, was a banker in West Union, and died there in July, 1847. His wife was a sister of David Sinton, of Cincinnati, Ohio, the well known philanthropist.

George Sparks, her brother, died in West Union in 1842, leaving two sons, Salathiel and George. The children of Hamilton Dunbar are as follows: John Collins, bom December 2, 1808, and died the following year; Ann, born November 21, 1809, and became the wife of Peter Bryant, of Kentucky, July 16, 1837, ^^^ ^^^^ J^^Y ^9* 1894; Grace, bom December 6, 1812, became the wife of David Murray, April 22, 1829, and died in Georg^etown, Ky., April 18, 1833; Agnes, born August 27, 1815, married April 3, 1838, John L. Cox, and is now living in Abilene, Kansas; L. William Willson, bom November 16, 1817, and now resides at Locust Grove, Ohio; David Dunbar, born February 4, 1820; George Franklin, born August 3, 1822, and died at Ripley, Ohio, June 13, 1872; Johanna, born July 4, 1824, married Jesse Fristoe in 1843, ^"^ ^^^^ ^^ Manchester, Ohio. May 10, 1866; John Sparks, born December 6, 1827, died at Sigonney, Iowa, June 14, 1866. In those days people believed in the old scripture command to multiply and replenish the earth and practiced it.

Mrs. Hamilton Dunbar married at the age of sixteen and became the mother of nine children in the succeeding twenty years. She was a pattern of all domestic virtues known at that time, and died at the age of thirtv-six. Her husband survived her seven vears, but did not remarry. Hamilton Dunbar did work for Judge Ryrd, while the latter was a resident at West Union. He built the manager's house at Union Furnace in Lawrence County. He built a dwelling house at Union Landing for

Thomas W. Cleans, and another dwelling house at Hanging Rock for Andrew EUisfjn, In West Union, he built a house for Peter Sdiuitz, beinj^ the hf/mc where Auditor Shinn died in 185 1. of cholera, and afterwards, used by J. \\\ Lafferty for a carding mill. He also built the house now occupied by \V. V. Lafferty on l^Iain Street, opposite the old Bradford Tavern, At the time he worked in West Union, carpenters went into the wrxjds, cut down the timbers for cross-beams, sills and upright posts and hewed them with broad axes, got out the studding and rafters and uxAcd with lap shingles. As to all of the houses built by him, the work was done in this manner.

He also built the forge house for Sparks and Means, at Brush Creek - I*orge Furnace. He also did the carpenter work on the home for Col. John Means, below Bentonville, and now owned by A. V. Hutson. But every carpenter has his last contract and Mr. Dunbar had his in the Hollingsworth House on Main Street in West Union, Ohio. He l>cgan work on that in June, 1835, and had begun on the excavation, John Seaman had taken the contract iFor the excavation and had worked all day on Saturday, June 2y, 1835. He lived east of the village some two miles and had gone home that evening. He was in the prime of life and vigor. He had made all arrangements to go forward with the work on the following Monday, but that night he was taken with the cholera and died on Sunday, the 28th. He was the father of Franklin Seaman. Hamilton Dunbar had overseen the work on the Hollingsworth contract on Saturday, as usual, and had attended the Methodist Quarterly meeting on that day. He retired to bed in good health. Later in the evening, he was attacked f)y the dread Asiatic cholera and died Sunday morning at four o'clock. He went out with the rising sun. At that time it was customary to bury a cholera patient in a few hours after death. He was buried that afternoon at the Lovejoy graveyard. In those days there were no hearses, and the bo^lv of the deceased was taken out in a road waj^on. Tlic few mourners who attended the interment followed the waj^oii afoot. Xelson Barrere, of Hillsboro, was in West Union at that time and attended the funeral.

Hamilton Dunbar was tlie first victim of the scourge that year. He died ill the house built ])y him directly opposite the old stone Presbyterian Ciuircli.

He was six feet high, of a large frame, weighed 180 pounds, had hhic eyes and a <fair complexion. He joined the Methodist Church a few years before his decease and was zealously attached to it. He was a man of groat firmness of character and his family loved and respected him. With them his word was la^y. He was a Whig in pKDlitics and devotedly attached to his party, as earnest in politics as he was in all other thinj^s. His political g-nide was the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette,

His sudden taking off was a great blow and loss to the young community then (Mily thirty-one years old, which has not been entirely forgotten after a lapse of sixty-three years.

a j)ioiieer of Adams County, was born in Northampton County. Pa.^ Aj)ril JO, i7(>8. His father was William Dobbins, a native of Ireland. Yoimg R(^l)ert was reared among the Friends in Pennsylvania, but in

Pioneer Character Sketches 663

1793 he united with the M. E. Church in which organization he became a noted divine. In his early manhood he worked on a farm and flatboated on the Ohio River. In 1791, he married Miss Jane Boyce, a native of Cannonsburg, Washington* County, Pa., and in 1804 he removed with his family to the East Fork of Eagle Creek in Adams County, Ohio, where he purchased a farm now known as the Early farm. There he reared a family of ten children among whom was a son, William Dobbins, who was a noted school teacher in early days in Adams County. During his residence in Adams County, our subject rode the old Scioto Circuit and preached to the pioneer Methodist Societies in Brown, Adams, Scioto and Highland Counties. He was an associate of the Rev. James Quinn and Henry Bascom under Bishops Asbury and McKendree. It was Rev. Dobbins who successfully prevailed upon David Beckett to make a full confession at West Union on the morning of the day of his execution for the murder of Lightfoot, after Lorenzo Dow had exhausted his pursuasive powers on the condemned and had failed to elicit from him a confession of the crime with which he was charged.

Rev. Dobbins was a preacher of great force, and his magnetic powers in the pulpit were most wonderful. In the pioneer days of Methodism in Adams County, he and the Rev. John Meek conducted camp meetings on East Fork of Eagle Creek on the Richard Noleman farm where thousands gathered to drink in the word of God from the lips of those eminent divines.

In the year 1818, the wife of Rev. Dobbins died at Horse Shoe Bottoms on White Oak Creek in what is now Brown County, where he had removed after disposing of his farm on Eagle Creek, and on June 24, 1819, he married Miss Jennie Creed, a daughter of Mathew Creed, of Rocky Fork, Highland County, and soon thereafter removed to Greene County, Ohio. While a resident of that county he represented it in the legislature from 1826 to 1829. In 1830, Rev. Dobbins associated himself with the Methodist Protestant Church because the office of Bishop in the M. E. Church had become repulsive to his democratic ideas of government.

in 1844 he was elected by the Whigs in the Fayette- CI in ton district to a seat in the General Assembly of Ohio where he served with great distinction in those troublesome times in Ohio State affairs. He was then in his seventy-seventh year.

He is described as being of a stocky, heavy build, head very large, with blue eyes, a prominent nose, and pleasing countenance. He died January 13, i860.

was born in Manchester, December 19, 1808, the son of John Ellison, Jr., then Sheriff of Adams County, and Anna Barr, his wife. He was the eldest of a numerous family, and grew up and was trained as boys usually were at that time. From accounts we have, we believe that he, as a boy, and his boy companions had more enjoyment than boys now do. At any rate, he had more sport in hunting. When he was about sixteen or seventeen years of age, he clerked in two different stores in West Union tor Thomas McCague & Company, and for Wesley Lee. At that time, it was customary to set out a bottle of good old corn whisky and treat each customer. Young Ellison set out the bottles and glasses many a time, but did not drink himself. His father died a few months before he became of age, and in 1830 he went to Cincinnati and into the employment of Harr & Lodwick, who had a store there and one in Portsmouth. In 1832, he was engaged for a short time in their employment in Portsmouth, and while there witnessed the great flood of 1832. Those of 1847, ^833 and 1884 he witnessed in Manchester. October 20, 1833, he was married to Miss Rachael A. M. Ennes, daughter of Judge Ennes, of Cincinnati.

In 1834, he took up his residence at Lawrence Furnace in Lawrence County and was store-keeper and manager until 1840, when he removed to Manchester, where he resided thereafter during his life. In Manchester he bought out the merchandising business of Henry Coppd and continued it until he went out of business in 1880, forty years. His store in Manchester, during its continuance, was one of the institutions of the county. It was known far and wide. Mr. Ellison kept all kinds of merchandise. If one could think of any article he wanted and could not find it in any other store in Adams County, he was almost certain to find it at A. R. Ellison's. He was the principal merchant in the county, and while in his time department stores were unthought of and unheard of. yet he practically kept a department store. During the early period of his merchandising in Manchester, he and Thomas W. Means wenit East together to buy their goods every year. During his business career no one ever visited Manchester without having his attention called to A. B. Ellison's store and without visiting it. People went from all parts of the county to deal with him. His store stood on Front Street facing the river, and to all passing boats he and his store were familiar figures.

One of his most notable characteristics was his rugged integrity. Ho was plain and frank in manner even to brusqueness^ yet he had an unlierlying vein of great kindness. His generosity was large, but without (lisi)lay.

His dress was always of the same style, black in color, low^ crowmed soft hat. low cut vest and small pleated bosom shirt. His marked individuality caused him to he regarded as eccentric. He had but one price for his goods. If he could not sell any article at the price he marked on it, it remained unsold.

\o one acquainted with his character ever attempted to jew him down, hut if a strapper tried it, he was at once told, "This is my price, if y(ni do not want the article, let it alone.'' After this lesson, the same ])erson never tried it a second time. He had a great flow of spirits and a keen sense of humor. The anecdotes floating about Manchester, illnstrativo of his peculiarities, are legion, but one which will illustrate him well, is given: A customer owed him a note for merchandise long ])ast due and which he had failed to pay after repeated duns. One day when tills ])ers(Mi was in the store, Mr. Ellison took him to one side and said t(» him in his peculiar brusque way, **If you don't settle wnth me, I swear 1 will tear that note of yours up. T won't have it." The manner in wliicli this was done so impressed the customer with its awfulness that he actually paid the notx? at once.

Pioneer Character Sketches 666

Mr. Ellison was a prominent Mason and took a g^eat interest in the order. In sentiment, he was a Presbyterian, but was not connected with the church. He was always one of its most liberal supporters.

No sketch of Mr. Ellison would be complete without mention of his loyalty to the Union during the Civil War. He never missed an opportunity to show a kindness to a Union soldier going to or returning from the war to their families at home. He watched the struggle with the most intense sympathy for the Union cause and with an unfaltering faith in the result. He had three daughters, Ann Eliza Herron, wife of Rev. R. B. Herron, a Presbyterian minister, but both now deceased ; Mrs. Susan Barr Drennan, wife of Samuel Drennan, Esq., residing in Manchester, and Mrs. Rachael Shiras, wife of Peter Shiras, banker, of Ottawa, Kansas. Mrs. Herron left a son and daughter grown and the latter married. Mrs. Shiras has six children grown up, and some of them married. Mr. Ellison's wife died March lo, 1875, and thereafter he made his home with his daughter, Mrs. Drennan. in Manchester. He retired from business in 1880, and from that until his death on the fifteenth of April, 1888, he enjoyed the society of his daughter's family and his old friends, without any cares, till the end came, with peace.

He was a unique character, noted and talked of everywhere in Adams County, but highly respected by everyone for the most excellent qualities in his rugged character. He had the business qualities of his grandfather, Andrew, with the sterling virtues of his mother. All of Anna Barr's children were noted men and women, as a careful perusal of this book will show.

was born in Adams County, August 16, 1816, the son of Robert Ellison, the third son of John Ellison, who emigrated from Ireland in 1785. Robert Ellison was married to Rebecca Lockhart. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. He had a family of tetn children, his son Cyrus being the fourth son and the youngest child but one. The children were reared as all children of pioneer families were, and our subject had only such advantages as the schools of that day offered. He was, however, a great reader and student, so far as he could obtain books. His ideas of wisdom were those of the illustrious King Solomon. He believed "that out of wisdom came the issues of life." He begran the world for himself at the age of seventeen years as a clerk in West Union, where he remained until the age of twenty- four at a salary of five dollars a month and his board. He saved his money which he invested in Indiana Scrip, which was then known as "wild-cat money." The failure of the banks which issued the scrip depreciated his capital and gave him a severe blow, but his brother, John Ellison, loaned him $1,100 and he invested it in the mercantile business at Manchester, and he managed to make and save a considerable amount of money.

On September it, 184.S, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Stevenson, daughter of Charles Stevenson, one of the prominent pioneers of Adams County, who had emigrated from County Donegal, Ireland. He maintained his home in Adams County until 1853 when he removed to Ironton, in Lawrence County, and became associated with the firm of Dempsey, Rocrcrs & Ellison, the latter being John Ellison, his brother. This partnership owned Aetna and Vesuvius Furnaces and he became their general agent until 1857, when he became a partner, the name of the firm feeing Ellison, Dempsey & Ellison. When the Lawrence Iron Works O/mpany began business in 1832, Mr. Ellison was its manager, and when that ccxnpany was incorporated in 1862, he became its president, and remained such until he retired from active business.

In 1857, he was one of the stockholders in the Ohio Iron & Coal Oimpany, by which the town of Ironton was laid out. In 1872, he was one of the organizers of the famous Aetna Iron Works, at that time, the largest inm furnaces in the United States. Mr. Ellison was a director in this cr>mpany, and, at one time, its president. It purchased from the Ellis^^n, Demf>sey & Ellison Company, the old Aetna and \'esuvius furnaces and seventeen thousand acres of valuable timber and mineral land in Lawrence County. Mr. Ellison was one of the original stockholders of the Irr/nton Gas Company, and its president from January 25, 1876, to January 25, 1881. He was also at one time a stockholder in the First National Bank at Ironton, Ohio. With his brother, John Ellison, he was one of the builders of the Iron Railroad which ccmnected the rich mineral fields of Lawrence County w^ith the Ohio River, at Ironton. He was president of this road from 1859 to 1879.

In 1872, ten gentlemen, including Mr. Ellison and his brother John Ellison, met in the former's home and organized the First Congregational Church of Ironton, and built the present handsome structure. This church was dedicated without debt, owing to the liberalit}' of the men who organized it.

Mr. Ellison, from the habit of extensive reading, kept up during his entire life, was a well-read man. He was a most entertaining conversatif;nalist, and always, even in his last days, interested in current events. lie was fond of traveling, and until the infirmities of age disabled him, he traveled a great deal.

From the time he came of age until the organization of the Republican ])arty, he was a Whig. While he was never ambitious for, or sought office, he tcK)k a great interest in political matters. He was a leader in all enterprises which were for the benefit or development of his city and county, and was prominently indentified with all the iron inten'sts of Lawrence County. Plis superior executive ability, excellent judgment and natural discernment were the conditions of his success. In all the positions of trust which he occupied, and they were many, he discharged his duties with great ability and to the satisfaction of all those who had business connections with him.

lie was a man of fine personal presence, about six feet, two inches tall, and well ])roportioned. He had fine regular features, light hair and flowing heard, ruddy comi)lexion and deep blue eyes. In his associations with his fellow men, he evinced great natural dignity, and his presence impressed strangers on sight that he was a man of importance, which was strictly true. Socially, he was much liked by all who knew him, of genial manners and a gentleman of the old school.

J^Voni his first marriage, there were three daughters, Frances, w^ho died in infancy; Mary Adelaide, who married John Thornton Scott, son of RoluMt Scott. She has two sons, young men', who distinguished themselves in tlu' late vSpanish War. His third daughter, Rosa, is the wife of Charles I'runell McQuigg, son of the late Colonel McQuigg, of Ironton.

Pioneer Character Sketches 567

Mr. Ellison was, at one time, the possessor of great wealth, but owing to the shrinkage of iron, his investments were lost, and at the time of his death, only his life insurance was left of all he had accumulated. He died on the sixteenth of Eebniary, 1897, at the ripe age of eighty years. He left behind him the memory of a life full of wonderful energy, a long vista of useful, happy years, and his bright and cheerful old age was crowned with his good work fully completed. His last years were cheered by the presence and companionship of his greatful and devoted daughters. He was interred at Woodlawn, near Ironton, but his memory will remain green, sweet and precious in the hearts of all those who knew him and who resepcted and loved him for his virtues.

was born in Manchester, Ohio, June 19, 1796. His father, John Ellison, was bom in Ireland in 1752, the son of John Ellison, borh in Ireland in 1730. John Ellison, father of our subject, located at Manchester and purchased land extensively. His wife was Mary Bratton, bom in Ireland, September 28, 1767 and died in Manchester in her one hundreth year.

John Ellison and Mary Bratton were married in Ireland. They had eight children who grew to maturity and eight who died in infancy. He died February 21, 1826, at the age of seventy-four years. He made a will drawn by a clergyman, and after he was dead thiry years there was extensive and expensive litigation to construe it and determine its meaning. Moral : Never have a will drawn by any other than a lawyer. From the time he came of age until 1831, our subject was engaged in the commission, shipping and forwarding business at Manchester, Ohio, in connection with his brother, David Ellison. At that time he went to Lawrence County as the manager of Mt. Vernon Furnace and became a member of the firm of Campbell, Ellison & Company, known all over southern Ohio. He retained his interest in that firm until his death. He returned to Manchester in 1835 ^"^ from that time was practically retired from business. He was married to Mary Patton, of Ross County, in 1827. She died in 1828, leaving no surviving child.

Mr. Ellison was married to Mary Keys Ellison, whose father, John Ellison, Junior, was a full cousin to William Ellison, on June 19, 1833. She was born January 25, 1812. They had the following children: Mary Ann, who married Rev. D. M. Moore; Sarah Jane, married Archibald Means; j^bert Hamilton, who has a separate sketch herein, and Julia, who marned John A. Murray. William Ellison died November i, 1865, and his wife, May 14, 1888.

William Ellison was six feet, three inches in height, thin and spare. He possessed great natural dignity and equipose of character. He thought much and said little. He was a man of the strongest convictions. Nothing could swerve him from a course he believed to be right. In politics, he was first a Whig, and then an Abolitionist. He was a Republican from the organization of that party and from that time, until 1S64, took an active interest in politics. In 1855, he and E. P. Evans were the delegates from Adams County to the State Republican Convention. He attended the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia in 1856. He also attended the Republican State Convention in 1857 and was a member of the Committee on Resolutions. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Baltimore in 1864. He kept up all the activities of life as long as his health permitted. He joined the Presbyterian Church at the age of twenty and lived up to its teachings faithfully and conscientiously all his life. He was a superintendent of the Sabbath school for over thirty years and a ruling elder in the church for over forty years. He was never absent from Sabbath school, the church or the weekly prayer meeting unless he was sick or absent from home. It was a fixed principle of his life never to allow any secular business to interfere with his social or private Christian duties. He often contributed one-third of the minister's salary in cash and donated food, etc., equal to one-half more. The incidental expenses of the church, when not paid in full, were made up by him. For many years prior to his death, he was regarded as the wealthiest man in Adams County, and he devoted much time to public and private charity. He was constantly looking after the poor and contributing to benevolent objects, but it was all done quietly and unostentatiously. He daily visited the poor, the sick and the afflicted and administered to their wants, temporal and spiritual. He was much given to hospitality and was a most kind and generous friend. He had some grave financial troubles and some of the most harrassing social troubles, but he bore them all with the greatest equanimity and fortitude. In them all, he was like Job - he sinned not nor charged God foolishly.

On his death-bed, his religion stood him well. He knew he was to die. He disposed of all his worldly business days before his death and would not refer to it afterward. When he felt the near approach of the last enemy, he sent for all his family and bade them a calm farewell. Among them was his mother in her nnety-eighth year. He was as calm and self-p>ossesscd as though death were nothing but the passing from one room to another. After giving a suitable message to each, he took his right hand and felt the pulse of his left wrist. After watching it for a moment, he said "Almost gone," replaced his right hand by his side and vSoon after died, most calmly. His faith in the religion he h^d lived was most complete. His dying hours were the most sublime of any Christian's death in Manchester before or since. At his funeral all the people turned out and all the poor were there and wept at his grave. Then and not until then were his benefactions to the poor known and they were told by recipients themselves. The writer was at his funeral and the grief of those whom he had befriended seemed as great as those of the members of his family. Till the people stood by his open grave, the exIRit of his g(»(l works in Manchester was not known. Thirty-four years have passed since that memorable funeral and the place of William Ellison in the church and community of Manchester have not been refilled. No one who has come after him has been able to do the good he did. To say tliat William Ellison was the best citizen in Adams County in his time would offend ncMie who were cotemporary with him, for all would con- cede it. It is to be hoped that the memory of his pure and upright life and his kind and good deeds may long remain fresh and green with the people of Adams County.

His great-grandfather, Hugh Evans, was a Quaker, came over with William Penn in 1682, and located near Philadelphia. He had a son, Edward, who located in Chester County. His son, Hugh, became a school teacher in Chester County, and Mad Anthony Wayne, when a boy of twelve years, was one of his pupils, and a very mischievous and unruly one. Hugh Evans also had a trade, as that was thought necessary in those days. He was a weaver as well as a school teacher.

Hugh Evans, the father of our subject, removed to what was then Cumberland, but is now Bedford County, Pennsylvania, about ten miles above Bedford borough on the Juniata River.

Edward Evans was bom April 27, 1760, an only son. He had two sisters older than himself who died in young womanhood, but not before they had made themselves some reputation for attainments in vocal music. The family attended the commencements of Princeton College, and they sang in the commencement exercises.

Edward Evans spent his boyhood as the boys of his time did, ,He was fond of fishing in the Juniata River, and from the time he was twelve years of age, often made trips alone to Hagerstown, Maryland, to obtain salt. In these trips, he usually took a train of twelve pack horses. He would carry the horese' feed in the packs in going over and leave it at stopping places where it would be used on his return. The salt, when brought to Bedford, was sold for as high as twelve dollars per bushel. In his sixteenth year, the Revolution began. Till that time, the family had been Quakers, but King George did away with that, and father and son abandoned that faith. Hugh Evans went into the war in 1776, and served two months, but he was lame and had to g^ve it up. Then Edward determined to go and did go, and became a member of Captain Samuel Dawson's Company of Col. Richard Humpton's Regiment, nth Pennsylvania. He spent that dreadful winter in the cantonments of Valley Forge. There he saw Mrs. Washington, where she visited the camp, knitting and sewing for the soldiers. He was at the Battle of the Brandywine, September II, 1777. At Brandywine, the British had retired over a bridge across the creek. They did not have time to destroy tHe bridge, but filled it full of wagons, carts and debris to prevents immediate pursuit. Edward Evans was one of twelve detailed to clear the bridge under muskety fire of the enemy. The bridge was cleared, and not one of the twelve were struck, though the splinters flew all about them. The Continentals immediately charged across the bridge. He was at the affair of Paoli, September nth, and at Germantown, October 4, 1777. Here his colonel had his horse shot from under him, but he took off the saddle, put it on another horse, and went on with the fight. In this battle, ho was in the left wing, and claimed that the troops he was with were compellel to fall back, when it was not necessary because the officer in command was intoxicated. He was near the battle of Monmouth on that hot Sunday, June 28, 1778, but having been on the sick list, his Captain ordered him to remain with the baggage, which he did, but he was in sight and hearing of the battle. He left the service for a time soon after the battle of Monmouth, and settled in

Rostaver Township, Westmoreland County, Virginia, called the Neck, lying between the two rivers, the Youghiougheny and the Monongahela. He lived near Devore's Ferry on the latter river. There he married Jemima Applegate, daughter of William Applegate, recently located there from the State of New Jersey. The wedding was a grand affair for the time and one hundred persons sat down to the dinner.

Directly after his marriage, he and his wife went to housekeeping" in the house of John Right, a Scotchman and a bachelor. Wright liked the young couple and made them many household utensils on his anviL Among them was a fire shovel, now in the possession of the writer hereof.

Edward Evans, in 1785, emigrated to Kentucky, descending the Ohio River on a flat-boat with his wife, two children and household goods. He landed at Limestone, now Maysville, but went back to Washington, where he rented land of a Presbyterian minister. WTiile residing there, he acted as an Indian scout and spy. from time to time, until the treaty of Greenville. In 1799, he removed to Adams County, near its western line. He lived near Red Oak and rented land until he could be suited in a purchase. In 1803, he bought 109 acres of land all in the unbroken wilderness, in what is now Jefferson Township in Bro\aTi County. He paid for this land in horses. WTien he went over the land« after purchasing, he was imable to find any springs on it. He then went to his wife and wanted her consent to rescind the trade. She said, ""No. it would make them a home and thev must hold on to it," which thev did. Afterward, seven good springs were discovered on the tract. Ed^^-ard Evans built him a pole cabin and w^ent to housekeeping, and as soon as he could, he built him a two-stor\^ hewed double log house and moved into it. He made all the chimneys he thought necessary and hauled a hundred loads of stone to do it. He resided on this farm until his death, Novenilv?r 3, 1843. He at one time weighed three hundred pounds, but his ordi]iar>* weight was one hundred and eighty-five pKHinds. He was five feet, ten and a half inches tall, and in vouth. had black curlv hair. He had high cheek Ixines. broad forehead and regular features. He always carried himself ver}* erect. In his youth, he had learned the art of distilling liquors, and at times, operated a stillhouse. He was the father of twelve children, six sons and six daughters. His wife had four sisters, all of whom married. Two of their husbands were Revolutionary soldiers. John Dye and Robert Wright, and they two and Edward Evans used often to sit together and recount their cxp>eiences in the Revohiti<^nar\- War. Each had served in different places during the war. one cit sea and two on land.

Wlien Edward Evans was about to die, he requested to be buried in the old-fashioned shroud, to be laid on a flat-topped cherrx- coffin and br.rioil on his farm. All his wishes were complied with. In his family frm iS(S2 to the pesent time, there were in alternate generations, a Hv.irl^ 3nd an Edward. Hugh came over with William Penn. He had a son Eli w aril His son Hugh was in the Revolution. His son Edward was tb.e sv.buvt h.ereof. He had a son. Hugh, who was a Mississippi Ri\^er ]v'..^: TluTc was^ an Edward among his grandsons and a Hugh among hi> cTinT-i:TaTvN~^.riS. His wife. Jemima Applegate. died January 7. 1844. Her f.-Ltl.er. Applegate, emigrated from New Jersey to F*ennsylvaTvia. and fr.>m there to Cor^'don. Indiana, where he died at the ripe age of one hundred and five years. WTien one hundred years old, he walked into the woods with his rifle, and, without glasses, shot a squirrel in a tree. The descendants of Edward Evans were once numerous in Brown County, but are now scattered in many States of the Union. A great-grandson is one of the editors of this work.

the pioneer, was born in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, September 22, 1759. He was a son of George and Catherine Eyler who lived and died in that country-. In 1777 he ran away from home to escape service in the army, and after walking 800 miles to the coast, shipped for the United States, arriving at Baltimore in the autumn of that year. From that time until the period of his marriage little is known of him except that he was engaged as a wagoner, and accumulated enough to own a four-horse team anrl a "Cannestoga'* of his own. In 1787 he married Mary Ann Rosemiller, a daughter of John George Rosemiller, living in the vicinity of Philadelphia. The Rosemillers were wealthy Tories, and objected to their daughter's marn'ing the unknown and poor wagoner; an elopement followed, and Mary Ann Rosemiller became Mary Ann Eyler. However, John George Rosemiller had other daughters *'Ann" to cheer his declining years. They were Ann, Rose Ann, Catherine Ann, Barbara Ann, Elizabeth Ann, Julia Ann, Mary Ann, who eloped with Eyler, and a son named John George Lewis.

The breach in the domestic life of the Rosemillers made by the clandestine marriage of Mary Ann remained until her death. Her sisters had married well, and they never lost the opportunity to remind her of the fact, so that she and her husband shortly after the birth of their first child, the late Judge Joseph Eyler, of Adams County, removed to Bedford, l^ennsylvania, then a frontier town from which goods were distributed to the settlements in western Virginia and Kentucky. It was a point where the young wagoner found ready employment.

In 1795, Joseph Eyler and his little family, in company with others, came down the Ohio River by keel-boat and landed at the "Three Islands" where Nathaniel Massie had founded the town of Manchester. Eyler tended a patch of corn on the lower island that summer, and the following winter built a cabin on a tract of three hundred acres purchased near Killinstown. The next year, James B. Finley passed over Tod*s old trace to the new settlement at Chillicothe and noted the fact that there was a "cabin near the presait site of West Union, built by Mr. Oiler, but no one was living in it." Eyler's original tract is now owned by Sandy Craigmile, John Crawford, and Samuel McFeeters.

Joseph Eyler moved into his cabin in the year 1796. He then had four small children, Joseph, Mary, Sarah and Catherine, and there were born here John, Samuel, Martin, Henry, David, Lewis, George, and Elizabeth. Of these. Samuel, Martin, David, Lewis, and George died in childhood and are buried at Killinstown. He cleared away the forest and soon possessed one of the best farms in that portion of the country. He was industrious and economical and accumulated considerable wealth for those times. Tie was frequently called on to serve in local official positions such as ^Mister" of property, being a man of good judgment and a great deal of common sense. From Killinstown he moved to a farm near Winchester, on what is now known as the **Massie Farm." He resided there a few years and then bought a farm near Berryville, in Highland Comity, where he conducted a distillery. He remained tiiere until 1834, when he disposed of his property and removed to Brown County, on a farm now owned by his grandson, Carey C. Eyler, north of the village of Fincastle. Here he died July 29, 1839, and was buried in the Wilson cemetery about one mile east of the village of Fincastle. His wife survived until March 13, 1841.

In personal appearance Joseph Eyler was strikingly peculiar. He was five feet, five inches in height and weighed over three hundred potmds. His complexion was very fair, hair dark, and eyes steel blue. He spoke English tolerably vvell, but preferred to use his native language when possible to do so. His household language, until his family was g^own, was the Carman, and he always read and prayed in that tongue. It was the rule in his household to read a portion of God's Holy Word every evening, followed with a simple family worship in the way of prayer.

A strong trait of Joseph Eyler was his love of good horses, of which he always kept a number of the "largest and fattest." In pleasant weather he would turn them out to pasture, and as they galloped over the fields they fairly shook the earth. It was a common remark among his neighlK>rs when it thundered, that **Joe Eyler's horses were having a romp."

was l>om in Mason County, Kentucky. Januar>- 2 7;, 1787, the second 5-:n of Edward Evans and Jemima Applegate. his wife. His father had cmi.qjatod from Westmoreland County. Pennsylvania, 1781, and had Itxated near Washington. Mason County. Kentucky. There uniil the oloso of the Indian War. ho had beeii a farmer and acted as an Indian >c:«i:i. Ill i8ix\ ho movod into what was then the western part of Adams C-ur.Ty, aibi TTsitiovl until his death in 1843. William Evans was reared c-n his tatb.or's farm. W'non tho War oi 1812 l>egan he went into ihe ser^-icc. and whilo tl^oro. lonrod a crroat friendship for Charles Kirkpatrick. who I'.ar. lxx?n K^ri": in \"iririnia in 1777. and moved to Ohio in iSoo. C*r. ihe first issue until his death. He never had a lawsuit, either as plaintiff or defendant. He was a meanber of the Presbyterian Church at Russellville, fifty years or more, and a ruling elder for forty years. He scarcely ever went away from home, and when he did, would always walk in preference to riding. He was a law-abiding citizen, who discharged his duties to his God and to his fellow men, and was content to live the life of a farmer all his days.

His children are as follows: Edward Patton, May 31, 1814, died April 17, 1883; Samuel Jackson, born March 15, 1816, died February 27, 1842; Martha Ann, bom March 15, 1818, died; William Harvey, born January 6, 1820, now living at Thorntown, Indiana; Mary Juline, born December 12, 1821, married Scott Miller, of near Ripley, and was the mother of a large family. She died in 1876; heir husband survives. James Kirkpatrick, bom February 10, 1824, died unmarried March 21, 1875; Nathan Evans, born January 27, 1826; Elijah Applegate, born May 7, 1828, died unmarried in 1851 near Spring Hill, Indiana; Lucinda and Louisa, twins, born December 29, 1829; Lucinda married James Martin. He and she are both deceased. They left a large family residing near Lawrence. Kansas. Louisa married twice and is living near Stanwood, Iowa.

Of his second marriage, there were three daughters and one son : John Taylor, deceased, who was a soldier in the Civil War of 1861 ; Martha, who married John Pittenger, both of whom are deceased ; Mrs. Jemima McGregor, who resides near Russellville, Ohio, and Mrs. Thomas Logan, who lives in Russellville, Ohio.

was born in Mason County, Ky., April 2, 1796, the son of Edward Evans and Jemima Applegate, his wife, both of whom are fully noticed in the sketch of Edward Evans herein. At the age of four years his parents removed to Adams County, Ohio, and located in what is now the central part of Jefferson Township. Brown County. They located in the primeval forest, and Josepli, one of a large family of brothers and sisters, was brought up as boys of his time.

When Joseph Evans became a youth, there were three courses open to a young man in his situation. He could become a hunter, he could become a keel-boatman, or he could learn to still whisky. Joseph Evans chose the first of the three, and became a skilled hunter. This was in accordance with his natural tastes. He loved the solitude of the forest and the companionship of the inaminate objects of nature. Farming there was none. There was a contest with the wilderness, and all had to engage in it whether he would or not. He early developed his taste for hunting and kept up the habit all his life. He w'as very successful in the pursuit of game and an excellent marksman with the rifle. Like most of the early hunters he had a favorite rifle which he kept his entire life. He named it "Old l)etsey.'' and it did him good service so long as he was able to use it. Once returning alone through the forest, at night, from a hunt, he was followed by a panther. He had just crossed a large log. and when he heard the panther mount the log, he turned and gave the wild beast the contents of "Old Betsey," and its final quietus. His wife, Matilda Driskell, was born November 16, 1802, in Mason Countv, and died August. i8()3. Her people removed to Ohio, near his. when she was a child. Thev were married lanuarv 21, 182 v in Brown Couniv. Ohio, and cxMitinued to reside there until 1829. In Brown Count>-. four of their seven children were bom, and the other three in Indiana. Three of these are still living. Mrs. India Ann JollifFe. of Xineveah. Ind. : Dr. John T. Evans and Tames Edward Evans, at Clav Citv. Clav Countv. III.

At fifty years of age Joseph Evans was six feet tall, weighed two hundred poumls, was of full habit, with dark hair, ruddy complexion and gray e\'es. He always had perfect health. He never folIowe»i any occupation but that of farming. He was of a retiring and quiet disp?s:- tion: never sought publicity of any kind. In 1828. he \-isited Indiana an»l ttx^k up land from the Govenmient in Johnson County. In 1820- he ^rA his family moved on to this land, where he resiiled until his death iitr>- eight years later. He obtained a patent for his land November t», eS^o. sii^rned bv "President Andrew Tackson and no transfer of it oi an\ kir. : was maile until after his death, among his heirs. He lived a quiet an! m :<?t uni>stentatious life, owing no one an\-thing. He was never a rr.tm'r^r of any church, anil politically he was a Whig and a Republican, xh^z'i-z^. ho took bin sliglu interest in politics. He died tVtober 9, 1S87. aire*! nineiy-one years. It cannot be said that he dieil of any particular o:rr.- plaini. Tlie machiner)* of his body was simply worn out and sto-pce':.

His son. John T. Evans, studied medicine bin has nvX pracrloe': :t for many years. He is a successful merchant and business man at <?':!;- City. 111. He stands high in the church of the Christian Disciples ar : takes a great interest in church work. He is als-.^ ver\- prominer.: :- :*-r MaSi>nic Order. In his political views he is a Republican. S'.irr.-ur'f'r-: by an interesting family of children and grandchildren, he is arrninc - fuliill the duties and obligations of a g^xxi citizen and a g«»i Chrisri^ir.. an«l those A\h»"> know fiim say he has succeeiled well.

the discourse did not meet his approval. He is buried in the family burial place on his old homestead on Ohio Brush Creek. His grandson, Simon M. Fields, erected a monument to mark his resting place on which is the following inscription: ''Simon Fields, born November 9, 1757; died November 9, 1832, *0, that men would pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting.' A faithful soldier of the Revolutionary War."

Simon Fields had a son, Wesley, who died under peculiar circumstances. He had enlisted as a soldier in the War of 1812, and was ready to go to the front. His horse was saddled and hitched in front of his home while he was bidding farewell to the family. He took suddenly ill and expired in a short time.

John Hannah, the father of William Hannah, lived in V'irginia. He \vas the maternal grandfather of John H. Kincaid, who was a prominent citizen of Adams County. Little is known concerning the early history of John Hannah except that he was a soldier of the Revolution, and the story is told of his having swam the Brandy wine. As the incident has been mentioned in history, it must have occurred at a critical time and was to his credit.

William Hannah, one of three sons of John Hannah, was born September 13, 1770. He came from \'irginia into Kentucky where he remained a short time, finally coming to Ohio and settling in Liberty Township at Hannah's Run. During a recent visit to the place, all that was found to remain of the old home was a small heap of stones w^hich marks the place where the chimnev stood. He then went to Cabin Creek where he conducted a ferry. After twelve years, he returned to Liberty Township and at Hill's Fork purchased 400 acres of land, all in woods. Here he remained and made his home. Part of the old homestead is still owned by the family, having been in the Hannah name eighty-seven years. Mr. David A. Hannah, of Hill's Fork, is the present owner of 134 acres, all in a good state of cultivation.

Captain Hannah was a soldier of the War of 1812; was made a Captain and served with distinction. The following anecdote concerning him has often been related by the members of the Hannah family. The incident occurred while the troops were in camp and mustering at Manchester, Ohio. One day while at dinner, on the banks of the Ohio, a deer was seen to come out of the woods on the Kentucky shore to get a drink. Seeing such a sight, the idea uppermost in the minds of the men was to gain the prize. It was next to an impossibility as it was not thought any one would be able to shoot the deer for the distance intervening was too great. However, Captain Hannah being a marksman of note was challenged to do so and he accepted the challenge with alacrity. He aimed at a mark across the river at about ten feet above where the deer was standing, the ball falling, broke the deer's back. The deer was then brought across the ri\Tr in a canoe and it is needless to state that Captain Hannah remembered his friends. Tt is not known what became of the gim with which he shot the deer. The sword carried by Captain Hannah is in the possession of David A. Hannah, his great-grandson.

Captain Hannah was twice married. His first wife was Martha Moore, by whom he was the father of eleven children. Of these children, none are surviving, but their descendants are numerous in Adams County. Joseph and David M. Hannah, of Hill's Fork, and Aaron Moore, of Winchester, are gjandsons of Captain Hannah. In this family in each generation, there has been a William and a John.

One of Captain Hannah's sons, Aaron Hannah, was bom in 1803. He was a man generous to a fault, dispensing his means with great magnanimity. He married Mary Ann Aerl, by whom he was the father of ten children. Of these children, five are surviving. William Patterson Hannah, residing at Boulder, Col.; Isaac Aerl Hannah, at Seaman, Ohio; Mrs. Rebecca E. Kepperling, at Detroit, Mich.; Dudley A, Kepperling, a prominent business man, Chicago. 111., and Miss Edna Inez Kepperling, Principal of Custer School, Detroit, Mich., are grandchildren of Aaron Hannah.

Aaron Hannah died December 11, 1890, and is buried at Mt. Leigh, Adams County, Ohio. His father. Captain William Hannah, died September 10, 1849, ^"^ is buried at Kirker's cemetery, where several of his children are buried.

His father, James Holmes, was born in 1790, in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania. He was married to Xancy Shaw, une 2S, 1791. He came to the Northwest Territory in 1800 and located in Adams County as a farmer. He died in 1833. He had fourteen children, all of whom grew to maturity, and all of whom married and bad families except one son. Silas, who died a young man. His son, William, lived on the hill west of West Union and died there many years ago, leaving two sons, William and Xathan, and a daughter. James Holmes' daughter. Xancy. married Salathiel Coryell and slic was the mother of ludjc^c James L. Coryell.

Thomas was the eldest son and chiKl and was born in Lancaster County. Pennsylvania. August 7. 1792. He was set to learn the cabinetmaker's trade as a hoy and youth, and did learn it, hut never followed it, having:: taken up fanning and followed that all his life. He went into the War of 181 2. On his way home, his party was waylaid and ambushed by a party of Indians at a spring where they had stopped to drink, and his I'ncle Shaw and another of the party were killed. The Indians escaped after the first fire. He celebrated his safe return from the war by marr\ini2: Margaret McClanahan. December 23. 1813. She was born April 8, 1705. There were ten children of this marriage, as follows: James. h<irn December 31, 1814. married Morella McGovney, November 5. 1840, died December 31, 1885. Eliza, bom November 17. 1816, married James McGovney, February 20, 1840, died July 20, 1807. Nancy, b<»rn October 27, 1818. married Richard W. Ramsey, 1838. John Holmes, born November 30, 1820, married July 22, 1846. to Elizabeth Treber. die<l December 20, 1895. Rebecca, born Ociober T3, 1822. married John McCiovney. 1843, died February 2^. 1870. Sarah, bom X'^ovember 28. 1824, married Crockett McGovney, December 20. 184^. She is the only one of TlK-nias Holmes' children survivin^r. She is now a widow residiujCf at Manchester. Caroline, born December 14. 1826, married Andrew Alexander. October 12, 1848, died Au^crnst 18. 1807. Margaret, b<-^rn March 14. 1830. married James Clark. March. 1850. died in August. t88c>.

Harriet, bom August 2, 1832, died at the age of seven years. Thomas F. Holmes, born April 28, 1835, married Margaret Compton, 1857, died October 10, 1886.

Thomas Holmes, the subject of our sketch, died October 25, 1866, on the premises just west of West Union, built by Rev. John P. Van Dyke, and now occupied by the Stewart family. His wife survived him until January 22, 1879. He lived an honorable, upright life. He was just in all his dealings. He was strongly attached to the Baptist Church and brought all his children up in that faith.

He was respected by all who knew him, and his death, like his life, was peace. The best commentary on his life are his children and grandchildren surviving him, all of whom are honorable men and women, striving to do the best for themselves and those dependent on them. While his life was uneventful, it was a record of every duty well done and a family well trained in their duties toward God. toward their neighbors and toward their country.

The Hood family is among the oldest families in Adams County, having come to the county when it was yet a dense forest and when the present county seat consisted of not more than a dozen houses. John Hood, the pioneer of this family, was born in Ireland in the year of 1769, of Scotch parentage. After coming to the United States, he located at Connellsville, Pa. Here in October/ 1801, he married Hannah Page, daughter of Joseph and Ann Page, who was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, November 24. 1779. In 1806, John Hood, with his family, moved from Connellsville, Pa., to Adams County, landing at Manchester, May 5, having floated down the Ohio River in a flat-boat, then the only method of river navigation. At Manchester a misfortune befell them in the loss of their daughter, Hannah, who was a little more than a year old. leaving them with their eldest child, James. They located at West Union, where Mr. Hood engaged in the mercantile business. At this time he bought his goods in Philadelphia and they were hauled across the mountains in wagons. He built a two-story stone house on the corner now occupied by the drug store and dwelling of C. W. Sutterfield, where he lived and carried on his business. Four more children were born here, Maria, Joseph, Angel ine and John Page, all of whom are now dead. Angeline became the wife of Andrew McClaren, of Brush Creek, Ohio ; John Hood died in West Union, April 17, 18 14, and was buried in Manchester. His wife died in West Union, November 19, 1863, at which place she was buried.

Perhaps no one has been more intimately associated with the history and the people of Adams County than James Hood. He was bom at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, December 27, 1802, and moved with his parents to Adams County, Ohio, in the spring of 1806. Ever since that time, with the exception of about fifteen months in Clermont County, Ohio, two years in Indiana and one year in Kansas, Mr. Hood resided in West Union. He learned the tanner's trade with Mr. Peter Schultz, and worked a number of years at that business in the yards now occupied by Jacob Plummer's flour mills. He then went to Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, where he worked nearly two years, at the end of which time he turned over the business to Jesse Grant, father of ex-President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1826. Mr. Hood opened up a general store in West I'nioii, in which business he continued until his retirement from active business hfe in 1868.

In 1831, James Hood was elected County Treasurer, defeating David Bradford, who had acted as Treasurer for more than thirtv vears. It was the l>oast of Mr. Hood that he was the first man to defeat David Bradford for Treasurer. He served for ten years and was succeeded by his son-in-law. Andrew Smallev. Mr. Hood was elected Treasurer as an Andrew Jackson Democrat, but fell out with the President because he vetcx*d the bill to make a national road of the Maysville and Zanesville turnpike. Had the bill become a law, it might have made a different town of West I'nion. He collected the taxes and kept the Treasurer's office in his store. His campaign expenses were, on an average, one dollar a year for printer's fees.

In 1857, Mr. Hood built the flour mills now owned by Mr. Pflaummer. He also built the house on Main Street, opposite the courthouse, for a family residence, which is now occupied by William Wamsley, and the large building just west of it, for his store rooms, now owned by G. X. Crawford, Bv careful attention to business, Mr. Hood accumulated a large sum of money, and was known as one of the wealthy men of the countv.

Tames Hood was twice married. His first wife was Marv EHison. daughter of Robert and Rebecca Ellison, to whom he was married December 2, 1828. She died May 9, 1838. The result of this union was John and Rebecca Ann, twins, Isabella Burgess, James and Hannah.

On January 9, 1840, Mr. Hood married Isal)ella Ellison, sister of his first wife, to whom were born the following children : Mary, Sarah, Caroline, Minerva and Samuel. She died lanuarv 8. i8(')2. and Mr. HochI never remarried.

When a young man, working at the tanner's trade. Mr. Hood while wrestlini^ with a young man. dislocated his ankle, which made him a crij^ple all ihe rest oi his life. Politically, he was a \\ hig. an AK"»liti(;»nisi and a i\e]nihlican. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church, uf which he was the main pillar. His purse was always open when money wa> needed ti>r the support of the church. He was a close Bible student and a writer o{ great strength. His writings were mostly oi a religious nature and were ]>rinied in the West Vnlon Soon and read with great appreciation by its readers. Mr. HiMtl wa^ a modest man and all his writing> were anouMiious under the c^^giionien. "Ahiezer." If he ha«i had the opportunity, he wouhl have made his mark as a ptxn, as he possessed the faculty k^\ rhyming to an uncommon degree and often used it acair.st his enemies to their no small discomfiture.

Mr. H»mk1 had a common schix^l education and was quite efficient in niailu-matics. F^-r several years he served cs »me ox the County- Sch«»o! K\.-:i:v.iKr> . -! A/iams County. Pie was the first man to introduce the sale «-! patt!-:: nie<!icines in Adams County, from which fact he derived the :i!\- .'! Dvt- r. Mr. Hi^mI departed this lite January o. iSiX). and was ]ail I - res: i:: :iu !nri:e vault he had erected i'"^r this punx^se in his private ceiiHtiVN -r \\\-! I'lii.-n. ( >hi<\ It may truly be said o\ him that he lived \\\ an'.>:neT- a^e an-l with other peciple. for in his biographv he savs : "I can look back to the tin^ when West Union, Adams County, and even the State of Ohio, was a dense forest. I can recollect the stately oaks, tall poplars, lofty walnuts and sugar trees and the thick undergrowth of pawpaws that covered the ground over which West Union is now built. At that time, we could hear the wolves howling around our cabins at night and see droves of deer passing through our town by day."

John Page Hood, the youngest child of John and Hannah Hood, was bom at West Union, Adams County, Ohio, December 6, 1813. His father dying when he was less than one year old, it became necessary for him to look out for himself as soon as possible. When about ten years old, he became connected with the Village Register, edited by Ralph M. Voorhees, where he learned the printing trade. He afterwards learned the cabinet making trade, at which he worked for several years. Later he clerked in the store of his brother, James. Then he engaged in the mercantile business for himself. He was postmaster of West Union during Lincoln's administration, 1861 to 1865. ^ ^^^ years after the close of the Civil War, he sold his store and was employed as book-keeper of the West Union woolen factory, which was then in a flourishing condition. He was cashier of the bank of G. B. Grimes & Company, when death overtook him. After a short illness, he died from heart failure, October 8, 1879, aged sixty-six years, leaving a widow and nine children, all of whom except the youngest were grown to manhood and womanhood, and all are still living.

On December 5, 1837, John P. Hood was married to Sarah Jane Mc- Farland, at the home of Rev. Dyer Burgess in West Union, Ohio, where, being a relative of Mrs. Burgess, she had been making her home for several years for the purpose of receiving the best educational advantages of the times. She was the eldest daughter of Duncan and Nancy McFarland, whose maiden name was Nancy J. Forsythe. Duncan McFarland, when eighteen years old, came from Ireland to this country with his uncle, Andrew Ellison of the Stone House, and settled in Meigs Township. The issue of the union of John P. Hoo<l and Sarah J. McFarland was eleven children. Martha, the eldest, died at the age of thirteen years ; Angeline married Andrew Kohler; Nancy J. married William H. Wright; JEllen married George N. Crawford; Anna E. married Dr. J. W. Bunn and Sarah B. married John M. Willson. There were five boys, John A., William, Albert C, and Oscar F. All except two of the children taught school. In Mrs. Hood's young days, the teachers of the county were mostly from the New England States, and it was her ambition to make teachers of her daughters.

In politics, Mr. Hood in his younger days, was a Whig. At the organization of the Republican party, he became a member of it, and so remained until his death. He was an active member of the United Presbyterian Church, in which he held the most important offices.

John ]\ Hood received a good education for the times in which he lived. He was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, possessing strong force of character and much native ability, and was known far and wide for his upright dealings and honesty. He was a kind husband and an indulgent father and found more pleasure in his home than anyft70 where oIhc. Rorn of Puritan stock and trained under the rigid discipline of tht* ;i(lv(K'alos of this dcKtrinc, he became very methodical in all his nianiUTs and customs, and had the complete confidence of his fellow men.

was horn April 7, 1784. in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. His father, John Jones, cmif^^ratod from Maryland in 1768, and settled near Brownsville, Kayette County. Pennsylvania. Our subject was brought up in the I'huroh of ICngland, but had never given any serious attention to religion until he listened to the preaching of Rev. Robert Wooster, who preached near Unionlown. There young Jones became a convert to Methodism, lie had received a ginxl education, and as a youth, he evinced a great ileal i>f seUvSihility. and had a very equable disposition. He was the favorite of the family of children to which he belonged. He married Miss ReJHvca C\>imell. daughter of Zachariah Connell.

He was licensed as a IcKal preacher in the Methodist Church in 1810, i\\\i\ preached in the vicinity of his lu^me until 181 5, when he removed to Adams <.\>ui\ty. C^hio, and settled near West Union. He was admitted as a travelling minister in 1818, and removed to Hillsboro. He preached on the Salt CVeek Circuit for i\\'6 x-vars. For two vears after that, he was ap|H>intetl on the Scioto Circuit, .\fter four years' service as an itinerant n\iuister» he was made a Presiding Elder. He had a strong. liveh\ and discriminating judgment. He cann? to the quarterly meetings wlh everx thing ti> loam and nothing to im|>art. He possessed a strong mind, and was lv>ld and enteq^rising. He never stopped to calculate conseijtienccs,

I'Vmu the Soiv>ti> Coimiy Circuit, he wont to the Wliiie Oak Circuit t\\i> years as a minister. In i8j8. he was made a Presiding Elder in the Munu PistrioT i\^r tour years. Cincinnati was in his district. He was

Pioneer Character Sketches 571

Union and of those who have visited the cemetery or passed by have observed the stone, but do not know the story of him who reposes beneath, but we propose now to tell it so that hereafter so long as this History is preserved, the head-stone will suggest its own history.

Major Joseph L. Finley was bom on the date already given, near Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of Princeton College in the class of 1775. He entered the Revolutionary War on the first day of April, 1776, as a Second Lieutenant in Captain Moorehead's Company, of Miles' Pennsylvania Rifle Regiment, organized under a resolution of Congress on July 15, 1776. He was made a Captain on the twentieth day of October, 1777, and his regiment was designated as the 13th Pennsylvania. He was transferred to the 8th Pennsylvania, July I, 1778, and was made a Major July 20, 1780. He served until November, 1783, more than two years after the surrender of Comwallis, and he was seven years and seven months in service in defense of his country. He was in the battle of Long Island on the twenty-seventh of August, 1776, and that of White Plains, the September following. He was at the battle of Brandy wine in September, 1777; at Germantown, in October of the same year, and he was in the battle of Monmouth on that memorable hot Sunday, June 28, 1778. After that, he was sent with Gen. Broadhead to the western part of Pennsylvania in his expedition against the Indians. He subsequently saw much hard fighting. He lost his left eye in the service and was otherwise much disabled.

He emigrated to Adams County in 1815 and settled, first on Gift Ridge, and afterwards moved to the foot of the hill west of West Union, and died there. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Samuel Blair, a noted Presbyterian minister in the early part of the history of that church in this country. She was a woman of much beauty of person and nobility of character, and their daughters were likewise well educated and handsome. She was an aunt of Francis P. Blair, the famous editor of the Globe, of Washington, D. C. She was a sprightly woman, full of energy, and while small, was considered very handsome. She had the blackest of black eyes ; she wrote poetry for the newspapers, and wrote several touching tributes to the memory of deceased friends. She has been particularly described to me and if I were to choose one of her descendants who resembled her as a young woman, I would choose Mrs. Dudley B. Hutchins, of Portsmouth, Ohio, her great-granddaughter.

Major Finley and his wife were both members of the Presbyterian Church of West Union. He was a man of small stature, and in his old age his hair was silvery white. When he and his wife attended church at West Union, during the sermon he always sat on the pulpit steps, as he was somewhat deaf.

He had three daughters and two sons. His daughter, Hannah Finley, was the second wife of Col. John Lodwick, and the mother of a numerous family. Among her sons were Captain John N., Joseph, Pressley and Lyle Lodwick, and among her daughters were Mrs. Nancy McCabe, Mrs. Eli Kinney and Mrs. J. Scott Peebles. She died in 1827, twelve years before her father.

Another daughter, Mary Finley, married John Patterson, once United States Marshal of Ohio, and the father of Mrs. Benjamin F. Coates, of Portsmouth, Ohio. She was the mother of seven children.

Margaret Finley married John Chipps and died young. She left a son, John Chipps, who died before his manhood and is buried in the West Union cemeter}-.

James Finley married a Rothwell. He died young and left several children. His wife contracted a second marriage with Samuel Clark, formerly a well known farmer south of West Union on the old Man- Chester Road.

John Finley, another son, married down South. Xo further account of him is known. A daughter of Mr. James Finley, Mrs. John Kincaid. resides at Hamersville, in Brown County, and another daughter resides in Davton, Ohio.

The ashes of this eminent servant of God repose in the \'illage ceraeter}' south of West Union on a hilltop which overlooks a wide expanse of plain in Liberty Township to the southwest, the rough hills of Jefferson Township to the east and the Kentucky hills to the southeast. To the north lies the village overshadowed by the Willson home to the northeast. Xo lovelier s^>ot in the world for the respose of God's chosen ones and their ashes are all about him.

John Graham was boni in Dauphin Q»unty. Pennsylvania, :r. :7jS. His [xirents were Scotch-Irish. He was educated a: the Phf.a^:eI^-h'la Academy under I\>:tors Wylie and Gray. He studied thec-Iog^- ir: ibe L*. P. Thei^Kxrioa': Seminary in Xew York Citv. and one of his rnstmrrc-rs in the seminary was tiie Rev. John K. Mas<^n. D. D. His training^ in the there, Jeremiah Morrow, a former Governor of Ohio, was one of his elders. Mrs. Ellen J. Gowdy, his eldest daughter, who furnished many of the facts for this sketch, speaks of the many pleasant hours she and her brothers and sisters spent in the comfortable and cheerful home of the Governor. Mrs. Gowdy's parents, when the children were at the Governor's, would sometimes seek to curb their festivities, but he always insisted on their being permitted to enjoy themselves.

From 1834 to 1837, the Rev. Graham vvas in charge of the Greenfield and Fall Creek Churches and lived in G/eenfield, Ohio. From 1837 to 1841, he resided in Chillicothe, Ohio, and was in charge of a boys* academy there.

In 1840, he accepted a call to the churches of West Union and West Fork, in Adams County. Here he made his home in the dwelling now occupied by Salathiel Sparks. It was an attractive place on the hill north of the village and adjoining his church. His family circle here was unbroken until 1845 when his son John, aged nine, died. They called their home "Pleasant Hill," and it was an ideal home, as all their former neighbors and friends remember.

The home of the Rev. Graham, with his two sons grown to manhood, and three daughters, attractive young women, and all fond of society, was one of the places where the young people of West Union of that day met most frequently and enjoyed each other's society. Henry Graham, a son, was at that time studying for the ministry, and his brother, David Graham, was a law student. His eldest daught^^r, Ellen J., afterwards married Rev. Gowdy of the same church, and now has a son a minister. But the home of the Rev. Graham had other visitors than the young people of the village. It was a station on the Underground Railroad and Black Joe Logan was one of the conductors. Rtv. Graham kept horses and carriages and they were ever at the disposal of Joe Logan to carry fugitives further north. The writer remembers on one occasion when the horses of the Rev. Graham were taken out of his stable and turned loose and his carriage thrown over the cliff near his home by negro hunters, because they knew to what uses the horses and carriages had often been put.

Mrs. Gowdy speaks of her father's family occupying a part of the house of the Rev. Dyer Burgess (now the Palace Hotel) soon after they came to West Union. Rev. Dyer Burgess and Rev. John Graham were kindred spirits on the question of slavery. Mrs. Gowdy says that while in Mr. Burgess' house the younger children were in fear and trembling, for the house had been treated to unsavory eggs and heavy missiles by the friends of human slavery. The children all stoovl in awe of the Rev. Burgess.

One would think, naturally, that a minister's home would be a solemn place, but his daughter Ellen says of her father's home, "It was a jolly place, if it was a minister's house." The young men and women of West Union all thought so, for they spent a great deal of time there. One young lawyer in the town was there so often that one night some of the mischievous boys took down his sign and put it up on the Rev. Graham's premises. The daughters, however, were agreeable and attractive and the young men were perfectly justifiable in their partiality for the minister's home. Mr. Graham was fond of vocal and instrumental music and often

If there is any point in the character of Mr. Graham on which more emphasis could he laid than another, it was conscience. He preferred to obey the law of (kkI, shield and rescue the fugitive slave, even if thereby ho violated tlw law of man and was compelled to suffer for it. He never failed to kwp an ap|K)intment.

On July I, 1849, he was in good health and in the full enjoyment of all his physical powers. Apparently, he had many years of usefulness before him. Rut the Dread Destrover, the Asiatic cholera, was abroad in the land. On the fourth day of July, he had officiated at the funeral of Robert Wilson, who died of the cholera, and when he came home, he remarked that he had a singular dread of the disease. On the morning of July 13, both he and his son David wxre attacked with the disease. At that time, there was no particular fear of it and the neighbors came in mimhors and tendered their ministrations. David, the son, though very near dcalh*s door, recovered, but the disease was too powerful for his father and on the fifteenth of July he passed away. He left two sons and throe daughters.

Mrs. Ellon J. Gowdv, widow of Rev. G. W. Gowdv. resides at Des Moinos, Iowa. She has one son living, a minister, and three daughters, one a teacher at Dos Moinos, one w^th her ond one Mrs. D. B. Baker, whoso hnsKind is in tho shoe business in Now York Q\\\\ This daughter is an artist as well as tho one residing with her mother.

Mrs. Klizabeth F, Stewart, widow of R. E. Stewart, resides at Alhan\ . Now York. She has four sons, all in the ministry-, and two de- 00a soil.

Mrs. Sallio M. Gordon, tho vounirost clauq-htor of Rev. Graham, is al.M» a widow. She has one daughter and tv.o sons, both ministers. All throe iM" Kov. Graham's danchtors' husbands wore ministers, and of their sr«nv, St \on are ministers.

Pioneer Character Sketches 576

Here on the twentieth of August, A. D. 1782, the subject of our sketch was born. His father's name was Robert, born in 1744, and died in 1799. His mother was Susanna Rice, born August 24, 1751, and died in 1833. Abraham was the seventh child of his parents; he had eight brothers and five sisters. The eldest son and child was bom December 25, 1770, and the youngest December 13, 1796. These were the days when people believed in large families and had them.

The family to which Abraham Hollingsworth belonged, originated in the county of Cheshire in England, in the eltventh century. The name was originally Holly'sworth. There were abundance of holly trees grown on the original Hollingsworth manor, in Cheshire, England, and "worth" in original Saxon meant farm or fief, and "Hollyworth" meant Holly manor or farm, and the family took its name from the manor. The family had and has a coat of arms in the Herald's College; the shield contains three holly leaves vert, and the crest a stag's head. The motto is ''Disce Ferindi Patientef - Learn to endure patiently.

The stone house was started to be built by Abraham Hollingsworth, the great-grandfather of our Abraham. He made his will in September, and died in November. He must have owned an immense quantity of land, for he gave one son 250 acres, part of a tract of 1,050 acres which he owned on Opequan Creek. He willed to his son Isaac the stone house then unfinished, with the materials to finish it, and the lands which were with it. Isaac's son Robert was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. In England the family can be traced back to 1022, and in this country to 1682, when Valentine Hollingsworth, in England, came over with William Penn. There was a John Hollingsworth in England in 1559, who was a gentleman and occupied Hollingsworth Hall. He was an officer of the Herald's College. The Valentine Hollingsworth who came over with William Penn was the founder of the family in America. He was a Quaker as most of the Hollingsworths have since been. It seems he had a son Thomas married in 1692 in the form the Quakers used, and a certificate of the marriage, with the names of the subscribing witnesses, has been preserved and the following is a copy of it:

Whereas, That Thomas HoHingsworth, of ye county of New Castle and manor of Rockland, and Grace Cook of ye county of Chester, township of Concord, having declared their intentions of marriage before several monthly meetings of ye people called Quakers, held 12, 8, and 1, 14, 1691-2, at Concord in ye county of Chester, whose proceedings were allowed by said meetings.

Now these are to certify, all whom it may concern for ye full accomplishment of their said intentions, this 31 day of the first month, one thousand six hundred and ninety two.