BIOGRAPHIES Source:  History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers West Union, Ohio Published by E. B. Stivers 1900 Please note:  STRIKETHROUGHS are errors with corrections next to them. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z < CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO 1900 BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX > < CLICK HERE to GO to LIST of BIOGRAPHICAL INDEXES >     HENRY SCOTT, West Union, Ohio, was born Mar. 6, 1838, in Green Township, Adams County.  He lived in Jefferson Township from 1840 till 1872, at which latter date he located in West Union.  His education was acquired in the common schools of Jefferson Township, at the old academy at North Liberty, and in the West Union High School.  He taught in Green and Jefferson district schools for about ten years, and was a most careful and successful instructor.  He was elected on the Democratic ticket Treasurer of Adams County, which office he filled to the satisfaction of his party for two terms, from 1872 to 1876, inclusive.  He also as served for nearly twenty years as Justice of the Peace in Jefferson and Tiffin Townships.  He was admitted to practice law in 1878, and is recognized as one of the most careful and painstaking attorneys at the Adams County Bar.  On Marr. 24, 1861, he married Miss Harriet Shively.  They have no family.      The great-grandparents of Henry Scott were James and Cynthia Scott, There son, James Scott, who married Agnes Young, in Washington County, Pa., Jan. 17, 1812, was his grandfather.  They had nine children, of whom John Scott, the oldest, born Dec. 18, 1812, was the father of our subject.  He came with his parents to adams County, in 1813, where he rsided until his death, Aug. 3, 1882.  He married Susanna McGary, a daughter of Henry McGary and Sallie Young, his wife.  Susanna was born in the house now occupied by Mrs. Jese Worstel, in West Union, Jan. 14, 1814.  She and her sister, Elizabeth, who was born in Manchester Apr. 6, 1808, and the widow of George Young, are the oldest living sisters in Adams County.  Henry McGary was a son of William McGary, a Revolutionary soldier and a pioneer of Adams County.  He has a separate sketch in this volume.      Henry Scott had three brothers, Alexander, James and Whitney; and two sisters, Sarah A. and Elizabeth A.  Of these Alexander and Whitney are now deceased. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 231 - Chapter XV   THOMAS SCOTT was born on the thirty-first day of September, 1772, at Old Town or Skipton, at the junction of the north and south branches of the Potomac River.  He came of that sturdy Scotch-Irish stock which has furnished very many remarkable and valuable men to the bar, army, navy and legislature of America.  His grandparents emigrated to the United States very soon after the battle of the Boyne and settled in Berks county, Pennsylvania, from whence the father of Judge Scott removed to and settled in Virginia.      In May, 1796, Mr. Scott married Catherine, daughter of Robert and Catherine Dorsey Wood.  He very early connected himself with the Methodist Episcopal Church throughout his long life.  He was licensed a preacher when only seventeen years of age by Bishop Asbury, and was ordained at eighteen.  At this period of life, Mr. Scott fully intended to devote himself to the ministry, and he prudently learned the tailoring trade so as to be sure of the necessaries of life while in charge of the then very poor and scattered flocks of the Methodist Church.      In 1793, he was placed in charge of the Ohio Circuit, and in 1794, was sent as delegate to a conference held in Lexington, Kentucky.  By this time he had resolved to study law, and he began reading under the auspics of James Brown, of Lexington.  But he was so poor that he was compelled to labor at tailoring much the preater portion of the time.  In this strait, his wife (who, beside possessing in an eminent degree, all the noble attributes of womanhood, was an unusually well educated and intellectual lady) sat beside his work and read to him "Blackstone," "Coke upon Littleton," and the other law books usually put into the hands of law students in those days.  Whether licensed to practice or not, and it does not appear that he was, he certainly appeared as a lawyer in the courts of Flemingsburg, Kentucky, and even prosecuted for the State in 1799 and 1800.  Early in 1801, he came to Chillicothe, Ohio, and there was licensed to practice law in June, 1801.  In the following winter, he was Clerk of the Territorial Legislature.  In November (from the first to the twenty-ninth), he was the Secretary of the Constitutional Convention.  In January, 8103, he was commissioned Prothonotary of Common Pleas, which he held until the reorganization of the Courts, and in April of that year, he was Clerk of the Common Pleas, pro tempore, and candidate for the permanent clerkship, but was defeated for the position by John Dougal.  He was then commissioned the first Justice of the peace of the county and continued in that position for three or four years, although, meanwhile, he practiced in Common Pleas, and was also Prosecuting attorney in 1803 and 1804.      In the Fall of 1805, he was chosen Clerk of the Ohio Senate, and continued such, by successive annual elections until 1809, when he was elected to the Supreme Bench of the State, upon which he remained with good credit, until 1815.  He was then Register of Public Lands from 1829 to 1845.  When, after the "era of good feeling" which existed during Monroe's administration men began to divide up again on political questions, Judge Scott took place with the Republican party.  But President Adams, having made him the promise to appoint him District Judge of the United States of Ohio and this having been prevented by the interference of Clay, who obtained the place for another, Judge Scott immediately became a zealous and active Jackson Democrat.  He continued his affiliation with the Democracy until 1840, when he went over again to his old partisan friends, then called Whigs, and supported General Harrison's candidacy.  He remained a Whig during the remainder of his life, but strongly sympathized with the anti-slavery movement which gave birth to the present Republican party.  We must not forget to mention that in all the viscisitudes of his long and busy life, he continued to fill the pulpit of the Methodist Church whenever called to supply it as a "local preacher."      He died Feb. 13, 1856, at the age of eighty-three, and at that time had been longer in the active practice of law than any other person in Ohio, and probably, longer a preacher of the Gospel than any minister in the United States.  His excellent wife survived him about two years.  As an lawyer, Judge Scott was painstaking, laborious and precise to a remarkable degree.  Some of his briefs are marvels of patient research and also of prolixity.  He had a wide reputation for learning, in the laws of realty especially, and was employed abroad in some very important cases, and for his services, received a few large fees.      It will be noticed that in the foregoing sketch of his life, that, true to the instincts of the Virginian, Judge Scott loved official distinction.  No position was too high for his solicitation, and none too humble for his acceptance.  As a husband and a father, never was mortal man more gentle, affectionate and provident. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 622)   MAJOR WILLIAM LEWIS SHAW, the subject of this sketch, was born near Lexington, Ky., on the twenty-seventh day of September, 1832.  His father, Joseph Russell Shaw, was a native of Berks County, Pennsylvania, and his mother, Rachel Corns, was a native of Pike County, Ohio.  They were married in Pike County, June 20, 1830.      His boyhood and youth, to manhood, were spent mainly on a farm in Adams County, and his advantages for an education were limited to the opportunities offered in those days by the Public schools.      By special diligence and good use of the time usually allowed the farmer's boy for attending school, he prepared himself to teach in the Public schools.  He received his first certificate from J. M. Wells (afterward a prominent attorney of West Union), and taught his first school in what was known as Gilbert's District, in the northwestern part of the county in the Winter of 1852 and 1853.  He followed the occupation of a teacher of Public schools and in attending school until 1861.  At the breaking out of the Civil War, he was a member of the junior class of Antioch College, then under the presidency of Horace Mann.  He left his studies in the early Spring of 1862 and raised a company in Greene County, Ohio.  The company was assigned to the 110th O. V. I., and he was chosen the First Lieutenant of it.  On Aug. 7, 1862, he was detailed as Aide-de-camp on eGn. Elliot's Staff, Third Division, Third Army Corps, on Nov. 14, 1863; he was promoted Captain of Company E, Dec. 9, 1864.  On Apr. 2, 1865, he was brevetted Major for gallant and meritorious conduct on the field.  This was Gen. J. Warren Keifer's regiment, and it was in no less than twenty-four battles and engagements, beginning with Union Mills, June 13, 1863, and ending with Appomattox, Apr. 9, 1865.  He was discharged June 26, 1865, and returned to Yellow Springs, Ohio, and received his college degree of A. B.  From this time until April, 1876, he was engaged in Public school work as a teacher or superintendent till April, 1876, when he was appointed Superintendent of the Ohio Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphans' Home, at Xenia, Ohio.  He remained in this position for two years, until the Summer of 1884, when he was displaced by a change of the State administration.  In the Spring of 1885, he was employed by the Commissioners of Adams County to superintend the finishing and opening of the Children's Home, which he did to their entire satisfaction.  He is now and has been for some time past the lessee and manager of the Cherry Hotel at Washington C. H., one of the most popular hotels in the State.  In all matters for the public good, he is one of the foremost of his city, and is most highly esteemed as a successful business man and an enterprising and public spirited citizen.  His political views from boyhood were always very positive and unswerving.  His father belonged to the anti-slavery wing of the Whig party.  This fact, supplemented by personal observation of the evil effect of slavery on the social conditions of both races, the injustice to the colored man and injury to the material prosperity of the South, confirmed him in his opposition to the institution.  At the disruption of the Whig party, he allied himself with the Republican party and has always strenuously advocated its principles.  He never sought nor held a political office.      The theological and religious views were Unitarian, and formed along the line of the teachings of Theodore Parker, Edward Everett Hale, Horace Mann, Thomas Hill, and others of like views.      On the twelfth day of August, 1852, he was married to Rachel Jane Gutridge, daughter of James Gutridge, a citizen of Concord Township, Highland County, Ohio.      The Hon. John Little, of Greene County, says of him: "There is no better citizen than Major W. L. Shaw.  He served his country faithfully and well in the Civil War.  As a business man, he ranks among the first.      Gen. J. Warren Keifer, with whom he served, says of him:  "He was devoted to his duties as Adjutant General and Inspector General while serving on my staff in the Civil War.  He was efficient, intelligent and tireless.  There was no better officer of his rank in the Volunteer Army." Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 851   ABRAHAM SHEPHERD, as Speaker of the House, signed the articles.  On Jan. 9, 1807, Hough and McArthur were appointed a committee to prepare rules to govern the trial.  Slaughter appeared in person and asked two or three days to prepare for the trial.  He was granted to the following Monday to answer.  In answer he alleged he was not charged with any misdemeanor and cold not, by law, be bound to answer.  To the first three charges he pleaded ill health.  He denied the fourth, and said he did punctually attend.  To the fifth, he said that after attending court in Adams County, he went to Paris, Kentucky, to attend to some business, and expected to reach Scioto in time to attend court, but on returning to the Ohio River, at Brook's Ferry, could not cross.  That he went two miles below to be ferried, and, being impatient, rode into the corn field after the ferryman, and this unexpected delay, against his will, prevented him from attending the court until the second day, and there being little business to be done, court was adjourned.  In answer to the sixth, he said he was well acquainted with the docket, and there was no civil case ready for trial, and not more than one or two being imprisoned in the county for misdemeanors, and the court would  be obliged to pardon those rather than expose the weakness of the laws, since their sentence could not be enforced.  That he had applied for a tract of land, for which he had the deposit money, and was compelled by law to pay the fourth within forty days or forfeit his application, and was compelled to attend to it.  To the seventh, he stated that he had started from Lancaster, his home, but that his horse became foundered at Pickaway Plains, and his funds and his salary were not sufficient to buy another.  He finally borrowed a horse to ride to Adams County.  He answered the ninth charge that he had only borrowed the horse to ride to Adams County, and could not procure another to go to Scioto County. That he is afflicted with ill health in the spring, and had the pleurisy, and did not attend the spring term in Gallia for that reason.  That the rivers were high, and he would be compelled to swim some creeks and ford others, and his health would not permit it.  To the eleventh, he answered that while in Highland County, his horse broke out of pasture, and he could not be found, and he was obliged to return to Chillicothe, supposing his horse had gone that way, but he did not, and he procured a horse of Joseph Kerr, to ride to Scioto County, on conditional purchase, but the horse was not able to carry him on to Gallia County if it were to save him from ruin, and was compelled to trade horses, on which he made the balance of the circuit.  He denied the twelfth charge.  His answer to the thirteenth was that his farm was advertised to sell, and not having the money to save it, was obliged to raise it, which he did in time to save it.  He denied the fourteenth charge.  To the fifteenth, he answered that he attended the Franklin term two days, and then obtained the Associates' consent to be absent the remainder of the term.  He was compelled to return to New Lancaster before going to Ross County in order to take money to complete the payment for his land before the court in Ross County would convene.  He asked for a continuance to the first Monday of December next to secure Joseph Kerr, Doctor Spencer, and George Shoemaker, witnesses.  Four only voted in favor of this.  Mr. Brush was admitted as counsel for respondent.  Henry Brush, Jessup M. Couch, Wm. Creighton, Joseph Foos, James Kilbourn, Wm. Irwin, and Lewis Cass, witnesses for the prosecution.  Respondent read the deposition of Samuel Wilson.  Mr. Beecher was counsel of the State.  The trial began Jan. 26, 1807, and lasted until the twenty-eighth.  On the question of his being guilty of neglect of official duty, the yea vote was: Claypool, Corre, Hempstead, Hough, Jewett, McArthur, McFarland, Sargeant, Smith, Wood, and the Speaker, Thomas Kirker.  Mr. Schofield alone voted he was not guilty.  On January 29, the respondent was called, but made no answer, though three times solemnly called.  The speaker delivered the judgment of the court, that he had been found guilty of neglect of duty and should be removed from office.  His removal did not seem to affect his health or spirits, or his standing among the people of Fairfield County, where he resided.  He served four years as prosecuting attorney.   He was elected to the Senate in 1810, from Fairfield, Knox, and Licking.      He was elected to the House from Fairfield County in 1817, 1819, and 1821.  In 1828 he was elected to the Senate, and re-elected in 1830.  While in the Legislature he voted for the School System and the Canal System.      He was eccentric and absent-minded, and the story is told of him that once when plowing, it became time for him to go to the Legislature.  Leaving the plow in the middle of the field, mounting the horse, with one of his own shoes on and the other off, he rode away.  He was of medium height, dressed plainly, and always wore his hair in a queue.  He was a Democrat of the old school, a man of great strength of character, a bold speaker, and a natural orator, and in speaking was capable of making deep impressions on his audience.  His public record was clear, notwithstanding the Legislature undertook to blacken it.  He once said, "The best rule in politics is to wait until the other party declares itself, then take the opposite side.      He married a Miss Bond, who was devotedly attached to the Methodist Church, but he was not a member of any church.  Their children were William, Terencia, Ann, Fields, and Frances, all deceased, and two surviving, Mrs. Mariah Dennison, of Los Angeles, California, and Thomas S. Slaughter, of Olanthe, Missouri.  The judge survived until Oct. 24, 1846, when he died at the age of 76 years.  He is interred in the country cemetery near his home.      In view of the record of the Ohio Legislature in the matter of impeachments under the first Constitution of the State, we do not consider it any reflection on Judge Slaughter that his impeachment was successful, and had he lived in our day, his answer to the impeachment articles would have been held good, and any Legislature presenting articles of impeachment against him, such as are given above, would be deemed in the wrong. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 173 - Chapter XV   WILLIAM JACOB SHUSTER is the son of Frederick and Jocobina Shuster.  His mother's maiden name was Jacobina Kohler.  They came from Germany in the year 1831.  William Jacob Shuster was born May 5, 1856, and married Anna Mahaffey, Mar. 9, 1881.      He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and a Republican.  He was elected Assessor of Liberty Township three time, and is at present Superintendent of the Adams County Infirmary. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 876   WYLISS SILLIMAN was the first presiding common pleas judge to sit in Adams County after the State was organized.  He occupied the bench from April 15, 1803, to , to June, 1804.  He was born in Stratford, Connecticut, Oct. 8, 1777, and died in Zanesville, Ohio, Nov. 13, 1842.  His wife was Dora Webster Cass, daughter of Major Cass, and sister of Gen. William Lewis Cass.  He was married to her July 14, 802.  When a young man, he removed to western Virginia, and, in 1800, edited a paper there and was a strong Federalist in the contest between Jefferson and Adams.      The struggle was too much for him, and he moved to Washington County, Ohio.  He was a member of the first Legislature of Ohio from Washington County.  In that body he was elected presiding judge of the second circuit, composed of Adams, Scioto, Ross, Franklin, Fairfield, and Gallia.  It was too humdrum a place for him, and he resigned in 1804, and located at Zanesville, and was the first lawyer there, and in the next year, Silliman, Cass, and Herrick were the only resident lawyers  In 1805, he was appointed register of the Zanesville land office, and held that until 1811.  In 1811 he was in the commission to select the State Capital.      In 1824, he was a candidate for United States Senator, and received 44 votes, to 58 for General W. H. Harrison, who was elected.  In 1825 he was in the State Senate, from Muskingum County, and served one term.  In 1826 he was again a candidate for United States Senator, and received 45 votes, to 54 for Benjamin Ruggles, who was elected.  He was a member of the House from Muskingum County in 1828 and 1829.  From 1832 to 1834 he was solicitor of the Treasury, appointed by President Jackson.      He was a great natural orator, but his early education was defective.  His legal attainments were not of a high order.  He was a great reader, and read everything which came in his way.  He was of o use in a case until it came to he argued.  He did not examine witnesses or prepare pleadings, but advocacy was his forte.  He was in different to his personal appearance, and looked as though his clothes had been pitched on him.  He was as sportive and playful as a boy.  In all criminal cases, in breach of promise or seduction cases, he was uniformly retained but it was in the great criminal cases where his power as an advocate was demonstrated.  He was stout and well formed, above medium height.  He had two sons, who came to the bar, and he had a son-in-law, C. C. Gilbert, a lawyer in Zanesville.  He was one of the distinguished figures of his time. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 171 - Chapter XV   ROBERT F. SLAUGHTER was the third presiding judge of Adams County. He was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, in 1770.  Of his childhood nothing is known, but, at the age of seventeen, he came to Kentucky and volunteered as an Indian fighter.  He went to Chillicothe as early as 1796, at the founding of the city, and studied law.  He was admitted to the bar in Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1799, and began practice there.  He seemed to have traded and trafficked about considerable in lands, as everyone did at that time, but was a poor manager.  In 1800 he purchased a farm about one and one-half miles south of Lancaster, and made his home there until his death.  He was a merchant at first, but gave up that business and opened a law office in Chillicothe.      In 1802 he was a candidate from his county for the State Constitutional Convention, but was third in the race.      He was careless about his obligations, and in 1803 and 1804 he was sued for debts many times.  He was elected presiding judge in 1805.  He was elected to the State Senate 1803-1805 from Fairfield County, February 7, in place of Wyliss Silliman, resigned.  His circuit was very large, and his salary very small.  He had the second circuit and had to ride horseback to his appointments.  The salary was only $750, and the creeks were without bridges.  There were no ferries, and the swimming was risky.  The judge would miss his courts, and the Legislature determined to make an object lesson of him.  Legislatures are fond of displaying their power, and the one of 1807 was no exception to the rule.  Jan. 8, 1807, charges were filed against him in impeachment.      1. He failed to attend the March term, 1805, in Adams County.      2. Failing to attend same term in Scioto County.      3. Failing to attend spring term, 1805, in Gallia County.      4. Failing to attend July term, same year, in Franklin County.      5. Failing to attend fall term, 1805, in Scioto County.      6. Failing to attend fall term, 1805, in Athens County.      7. Failing to attend spring term, 1806, in Highland County.      8. Failing to punctually attend spring term, 1806, in Adams County.      9. Failing to attend spring term, 1806, in Scioto County.      10. Failing to attend spring term, 1806, in Gallia County.      11. Failing to attend summer term, 1806, in Athens County.      12. Failing to attend summer term, 1806, in Gallia County.      13. Failing to attend summer term, 1806, in Gallia County.      14. Failing to punctually attend the fall term of Fairfield County in 1806.      15. Failing to attend the fall term, 1806, in Franklin County. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 172 - Chapter XV   HON. ANDREW CLEMMER SMITH was born a musician.  His father was a musician, a trait inherited from generations back.  Our subject was born on the seventeenth day of September, 1836, at Mt. Leigh, in Adams County, Ohio.  His father, Samuel Smith, was a wool carder and an inspector in vocal music and penmanship.  His mother was Barbara Clemmer.  Young Smith grew up in a home of industry, song, and peace, until the age of nine, when his parents removed to North Liberty, where he began to learn the wool carding trade.  He spent his winters in the common schools, and his summers at work at wool carding.  As might be expected, young Smith developed an extraordinary aptitude for instrumental music, and when a band was organized at North Liberty, under the instructions of Dr. L. D. Sheets, an eminent physician and musician from Baltimore, Md., Andrew was given a position as bass drummer, but in less than six months he was promoted to first B flat cornet.  Much of his young manhood was spent in the study and practice of music, arranging music for bands, and instructing them throughout the counties near his home. He went to school, some time at the North Liberty Academy when the Revs. Fisher, Arbuthnot and Andrews presided, successively, over that institution.  At the age of seventeen he became a teacher of common schools, receiving a certificate of qualification to that effect from the county board.  Not being able to obtain a school, at that time, he entered the wool carding mill of M. J. Patterson, of Winchester, and remained until the season closed in 1853, when he entered the dry goods store of George A. Dixon, of Winchester, as salesman.  This place he held until the fall of 1854, when he obtained a school.  As a teacher he was very successful, and held a prominent position among the teachers of Adams County.  For four years prior to the Civil War, he was a teacher in the West Union schools.  Two years of the time he taught under the late James L. Coryell, and two years under Rev. W. W. Williams.  On July 18, 1861, he enlisted in the 24th Regiment, O. V. I., at the age of twenty-six, as leader of the regimental band.  On Sept. 10, 1862, he was discharged.      He spent the time from Sept. .10, 1862, until Mar. 1, 1863, at his home in Winchester, Ohio.  On the latter date he re-entered the military service as a first class musician in the brigade band, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 21st Army Corps.  On Apr. 5, 1863, he left Adams County for Murfreesboro, Tenn., where on Apr. 13, 1863, he was a second time mustered into the U. S. military service.  On Mar. 11, 1864, he was made a leader of the band of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, 4th Army Corps.  He remained with this corps until the first of September, 1865, when he was discharged from the service of the United States at Camp Stanley, Texas.  He, however, remained as leader of the band of the 21st Illinois, until that regiment was mustered out in December, 1865.  He did not reach home until Jan. 25, 1866.  During his service in the Civil War he was present in the following battles:  Cheat Mountain, W. Va., Shiloh, Tenn., Murfreesboro, Tenn., Smithville, Corinth, Dalton, Resaca, Atlanta, Chicamauga, Jonesboro, Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville.  For personal service rendered, Major General Thomas in front of Atlanta, Ga., in September, 1864, Mr. Smith was granted a furlough for thirty days.  While at home in this period, he was married to Miss Mary J. Puntenney, daughter of Mr. James Puntenney.  At the close of the war he took up his residence at his wife's former home at Stout's Run, Greene Township, and, with the exception of three years in West Union, as a teacher, he has lived there ever since.  There have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith five sons and two daughters, of which a daughter and a son died in infancy.  Edgar P., the oldest, is a U. P. minister, and lives in Huntsville, Ohio.  Mary Maude married a Methodist Episcopal minister, Rev. William C. Mitchell, and lives in Lynden, Washington; Samuel James was born Oct. 14, 1873, and died Mar. 20, 1896; George H. C. and Henry E. were born Oct. 22, 1879, and Dec. 28, 1883, respectively, and sill live at home with her parents.  Mrs. Mary J. Smith, his wife, was born Nov. 16, 1842.  In her young womanhood she was a student under Miss Mary E. Urmston, afterwards Mrs. E. P. Pratt, and under Jas. L. Coryell and Rev. W. W. Williams.  She became a teacher and obtained great proficiency in music.  For several years she was a teacher of piano music.  Mr. Smith and his entire family, with the exception of his married daughter, are members of the United Presbyterian Church, living up to, and according to the ethics of all that church teaches man as to his duty, and the reasons for it.  He especially loves to defend, bold and fearless, the sublimity of "the Songs of the Bible."      In politics Mr. Smith is a Republican of the "most straightest sect."  He firmly believes that the principles of the Republican party carried out by the government are necessary to the welfare and continuous prosperity of the nation.      He was elected to the Legislature for the district composed of the counties of Adams and Pike in November, 1895, and re-elected in 1897.  This office came to him unsolicited, and he discharged his duties as he has done everything in life, - on his conscience.      Mr. Smith is a man of the highest character.  With every movement for the betterment and elevation of mankind, he has been identified as an advocate.  He has always been a man of generous and noble impulses.  In musical culture and education he has been a pioneer in southern Ohio.  Many persons owe to him the lifelong pleasures they have found in the enjoyment of musical culture.  His record as a teacher, as a patriot, as a musician, as a citizen, and is one of which he, his friends, and his posterity may feel justly proud. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 876   GEORGE J. SMITH, was president common pleas judge for Adams County, March 16, 1829, to March 17, 1834.  He was born near Newton, Hamilton County, May 22, 1799.  His father came from Powhatton County, Virginia, in 1798, and died in 1800, leaving his mother a widow with nine children of which he was the youngest.  He qualified himself as a school teacher and followed that vocation.  In April, 1818, he began the study of law under Thomas Corwin, and was admitted to the bar June 20, 1820.  He began to practice at Lebanon where he always resided.      On April 9, 1822, he was married to Miss Hannah W. Freeman, widow of Thomas Freeman, at one time a member of the Lebanon bar.  She died March 25, 1866.      In 1825, he was elected to the Legislature from Warren County and re-elected in 1826 and 1827.  In 1827, he was defeated for the Legislature by Col. John Biggers, who sat in that body longer than any other person since the organization of the State, twenty-two years, and Smith was defeated by a scratch.  In 1829, he was elected presiding judge to succeed Joshua Collett.  This honor was unsought and unexpected by him.  He served seven years, though Adams and Highland were detached from his circuit after he had served five years.  He was always a Whig and was defeated for re-election by one vote.  All the senators and representatives from his judicial circuit, irrespective of party, voted for him.      In 1836, he was elected State Senator and re-elected in 1838.  In 1837, he was elected Speaker of the State.  In 1850, he was elected to the Constitutional Convention, and served in that body on the judiciary committee.  He was, however, opposed to the Constitution and voted against its adoption.  In 1850 his son, James M. Smith, who is now one of the circuit judges in the first circuit and has been since 1884, became his partner in the law practice.  In 1858, he was elected a common pleas judge and re-elected in 1863.  He retired at the close of his second term in 1869.  He died in April, 1878. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 177 - Chapter XV   JOHN MITCHELL SMITH.     Among those who were continuous residents of the village of West Union for the greater number of years was Judge John Mitchell Smith, who was born in Columbus, Ohio, June 29, 1819.  He was of Scotch-Irish extraction, his ancestors having emigrated from Argylshire, Scotland, to the north of Ireland, and thence to the new Hampshire County, America, in 1719.  His grandfather, John Smith, was a non-commissioned officer in the Revolutionary War, and was wounded in the service of his country.      His father, Judge David Campbell Smith, a graduate of Dartmouth College in the class of 1813, came to Ohio from Francestown, New Hampshire, where he was born Oct. 2, 1785, and settled in Franklintown, now a part of the city of Columbus, and was one of the first associate judges of the common pleas court for Franklin County having een elected as "David Smith" in 1817.  Almost invariably afterwards he dropped his middle name.  He was a member of the House in the Twenty-first General Assembly and also in the Twenty-fifth General Assembly of the State.  From 1816 to 1836 he was editor and proprietor of the Ohio Monitor (afterwards in the Ohio Statesmen), the third newspaper established in the county.  He was State Printer in 1820 and again in 1822.  From 1836 to 1845 he as chief clerk in the "Dead Letter" office in the Postoffice Department.  On Aug. 17, 1814, David Smith was married to Miss Rhoda S. Mitchell, of Haverhill, Mass., and John M. was their third child  His mother died when he was only six weeks old, and on June 5, 1820, his father again married - a sister of the fist wife, Miss Harriet Mitchell (born in Haverhill), Dec. 23, 1802.  By this latter marriage, there were also three childen.  Mrs. Harriet Smith died of cholera, Aug. 11, 1833.  Judge David Smith remained a citizen of Columbus until 1836, when he went to Manchester, Adams County, Ohio, to reside with his daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth McCormick.  He died at her home Feb. 4, 1865.  His remains, as also those of his wife, repose in Greenlawn Cemetery, at Columbus.      Until seventeen years of age, John Mitchell Smith continued to live with his father in Columbus, receiving such education as the public schools and the severe training of his father's printing office afforded.  He then took three years' course of study in Blendon College.  In the spring of 1840 he removed to West Union.  Here he studied law for two years in the office of Joseph McCormick - afterwards attorney general of the State, and was licensed to practice law by the Ohio Supreme Court in 1843.  In the meanwhile he had served as deputy sheriff under Samuel Foster, and from 1841 to 1846 was recorder of Adams County.  In 1850, greatly to his surprise and against his wishes, he was nominated and elected representative of Adams and Pike Counties in the Fifty-ninth General Assembly, serving but one term.  In 1846 he was clerk of the courts for a short time to succeed General Darlinton, whose term had expired.  In December, 1846, he purchased and for the next twelve years, successfully and ably edited and published and Adams County Democrat.  Though a vigorous organ of the Democratic party, the paper was popular with all patrons, and is yet frequently mentioned as one of the ablest journals ever published in the county.      In 1851, upon the adoption of the present constitution of the State, he was elected probate judge.  In 1854, the year of the famous "Know-Nothing" campaign, Judge Smith was defeated, along with the remainder of the Democratic ticket, as a candidate for re-election.  In 1856 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Cincinnati, and was a firm supporter of Lewis Cass, from first to last, as against James Buchanan and Stephen A. Douglas.  In 1857 he was again nominated and elected probate judge, and, in 1860, was for the fourth time nominated and the third time elected to that office. Owing to the declination of Judge Henry Oursler, in 1865, he continued to perform the duties of the position for a year longer - serving practically for ten years.      In 1866 he was appointed United States deputy internal revenue collector for Adams County, and served for a number of months under Gen. Benjamin F. Coates, of Portsmouth, the collector for the district.  Afterwards, he served as deputy sheriff under Messrs. John Taylor, John K. Pollard, James M. Long, and Greenleaf N. McManis, and at the time of his death was deputy county clerk under wm. R. Mahaffey.      As school director, he actively assisted in establishing the union school in West Union, shortly before the Civil War, and for twenty years prior to his death he was almost constantly clerk of the incorporated village of West Union (generally by unanimous election), and clerk of the school board of the special district, ever taking pride in every movement for the advancement and progress of the people, and especially of the youth of the village.  In 1880 he was United States census enumerator for Tiffin Township, by appointment of Henry A. Towne, of Portsmouth.  For years he was county school examiner and for a long time was the secretary of the old agricultural society of the county.  From the time of the adoption of the Australian ballot system in Ohio until his death, he was president of the county board of elections, and his last official act was in connection with that office.      On the breaking out of the Rebellion, Judge Smith was what was known as a "War Democrat," but, during or about the close of the war, he became a Republican, and was as ardent in support that party as he was in earlier years of the Democratic party.  However, he was always fair and conservative in his political opinions, and independent and conscientious in support of party candidates.      On Nov. 30, 1842, John M. Smith was married to Miss Matilda A. Patterson, third child and oldest daughter of John and Mary Finley Patterson, who were among the early settlers of Adams County.  The acquaintance of the families began in Columbus, where their fathers served together in the Legislature.  They were married in the house on Main street (built by Mr. Patterson), in which they lived from 1848 to 1892, and in which eight of their eleven children were born.  Two of their children (John David and Thomas Edwin) died in infancy; Elizabeth, married to Rev. William Coleman on May 18,1 864, died Apr. 26, 1873, at Pleasant Hill, Mo.; Joseph P. died at Miami, Florida, Feb. 5, 1898.  Those surviving (in the spring of 1899) are Mary Celia (Mrs. Chandler J. Moulton), Lucasville, O.; Virginia Gill (widow of Luther Thompson), West Union; Clarence Mitchell, Columbus; Clifton Campell, Columbus; Frederick Lewis, Cincinnati; Herbert Clark, Hyattsville, Md.; Sarah Lodwick (Mrs. Charles E. Frame) West Union.      John M. Smith was never a church member, but he respected the beliefs of others, and encouraged his children to imitate their mother's example as a humble follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. His religious convictions were in accord with those entertained by those persons who are affiliated with the Universalist church of the present day.  In his last days he said to his wife: "I have always considered religion a matter of personal belief and concern.  I have tried to lead an honorable and useful life, and am content to leave my future in the hands of a merciful God."  He died on Nov. 17, 1892, after a sickness of about a month.      In the "inner circle" - the home life, the wife and children of John M. Smith know him as an affectionate husband and loving father; generous and thoughtful, tender and compassionate, indulgent and self-sacrificing.  what some others saw in his life is expressed in their own language, as follows: - Judge Henry Collings said in part -      "The modesty of his disposition and the great antipathy to anything like display, probably prevented his taking the rank he otherwise might have done at the bar, and certainly obscured his ability, to an extent, among the common people.  But lawyers and courts knew and often attested that we had no profounder legal mind, no man of sounder judgment, no one whose opinion of the law was more deferred to than Judge Smith."      Judge Frank Davis, of Batavia, said:      "I learned to respect and honor him as a just, honest, true, intelligent man; one whom, had he desired to actively engage in the practice of law, had rare ability and thorough knowledge, and, with it all, an intimate insight into the motives of men.      Col. John A. Cockerill wrote from New York that "He was the first man, outside of my own father, whom I learned to esteem and honor *  *  *  *  *  Judge Smith was indeed a very able man, and I think in a wider field than Adams County afforded, would have achieved marked distinction."      Matilda A. Smith, wife of Judge John M. Smith, was born in the house in which she was afterwards married,, in which she made her home for so many years, and in which she died.  Her birthday was Oct. 4, 1823.  Her mother died Feb. 6, 1831, and as the eldest daughter, three younger children were left for her to care for.  Her father married Miss Celia Prather on the ninth of the following November.  Five children were born to this union, previous to the death of the mother at Columbus, O., Feb. 22, 1840.  Never freed from the care of her own brothers and sisters, during the illness and after the death of her step-mother, the additional care of her half-brothers devolved upon Matilda.  She also assisted in caring for the children of her second step-mother.  (Mary Catherine McCrea,) married to John Patterson at Columbus, Nov. 12, 18140, until after her marriage in 1842.      These family cares deprived Matilda A. Smith to a great extent of the educational facilities of her young days, and early privations had their influence on her health.  But while frail of body, she was strong of mind and energetic will.  Her younger brothers and sisters looked up to her as a second mother.  She had a great, loving, sympathetic heart.  In addition to caring for those mentioned, and for her own eleven children, she also took into her family and her affections, treating him all his life as one of her own, John M. Chipps, a distant relative.      In the retrospect of the life of our mother, we the children, stand amazed at the duties assumed and wonder how it was possible for her to accomplish so much.  And yet, despite her own cares, she found time to minister to the sorrowing and afflicted among her neighbors.  Her whole life was a continuous round of unselfish usefulness.  Her highest ambition was the success and happiness of her children; and her greatest earthly joy, as she reached the twilight hours of her life's circumstances.  After the death of her husband, she resided for a time with one of her sons in Columbus, but wanted to return to end her days in the old homestead.  For more than fifty years, she was a devout member of the Presbyterian Church at West Union and died on Aug. 21, 1895, with the blessed hope of a blissful eternity.  Together the remains of Judge John M. and Matilda A. Smith are reposing in the old cemetery south of West Union.  Their children bless God for such a father and such a mother.  The world is better for their having lived in it. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 212 -  Chapter XV Hon. Joseph P. Smith JOSEPH PATTERSON SMITH.     Among the sons of Adams County, Ohio, who attained to position of prominence, perhaps the subject of this sketch was most widely known.      Joseph Patterson Smith, son of John M. and Matilda A. (Patterson) Smith, was born in West Union, Aug. 7, 1856, and received the principal part of his education in the Public schools of his native place.  He had a retentive mind and was especially proficient in mathematics and history.  From his father, he inherited a splendid memory and a love of statistics, and from his mother an energy and ambition that were characteristic of the man in later years.  Like many of his companions, during the Summer months in his youth, he learned the only trade for which an opportunity was offered in West Union - that of a printer.  At about the age of sixteen, he was employed for a few months in a nail mill at Bellaire, Ohio, but his constitution was too delicate for such an occupation, and it was abandoned.  For a time, he attended the University at Greencastle, Ind., supporting himself by labor at the printing case during the evening hours.  Subsequently he taught for a few terms in the District schools of Ohio and Illinois.      From early boyhood, beginning with the "Reconstruction Period," Mr. Smith evinced a strong love for politics, and was noted among his townsmen for his knowledge and understanding of the questions at issue, and for his ardent Republicanism, long before he attained his majority.  As an occasional local correspondent, he attracted the attention of the editor of the Cincinnati Commercial, and was employed by him as a "special" to travel over the State, in 1876, and write up the political outlook in each of the Congressional Districts.  In this manner he became acquainted with the leading Ohio Republicans (of whom Major McKinley was one) and formed lasting friendships with many of those who afterwards became noted in history of the State and Nation.  From that time, until the date of his death, Joseph P. Smith was a prominent factor in Ohio politics.  Almost wholly through his own exertions, Mr. Smith was successful in becoming the Republican caucus nominee and was elected Journal Clerk of the Senate in the Sixty-fifth General Assembly.  He was also for a time a Clerk in the Roster Department of the State Adjutant General's Office.      At different times during the years covering and immediately following these periods, he edited the Western Star at Lebanon, the Clermont Courier at Batavia, and the New Era at West Union.  In 1888, he became part owner and editor of the Daily Citizen, of Urbana, which gained a reputation under his management extending beyond the confines of the State.  The Citizen was the first newspaper to advocate the selection of William McKinley as the Gubernatorial candidate of the Republican party, and his name was kept at the head of its editorial columns from the day following Major McKinley's defeat for congress in the famous gerrymandered district, in 1890, until his triumphant election for Governor of Ohio, in 1891.  A number of the campaign documents used by the Republican State Committee that year (as were a number in subsequent years and also in the National campaign of 1896) were prepared by Joseph P. Smith.  Throughout the period of his control fo the Citizen its editorials were widely quoted.      In 1891, the late John A. Cockeril, then editor-in-chief of the New York World, tendered Mr. Smith a position on the editorial staff of the New York World, tendered Mr. Smith a position on the editorial staff of that paper; but the flattering offer, while appreciated as a gracious compliment, was declined, as he did not want to leave the State.  A tender of the editorship of the Toledo, Ohio, Daily Commercial was accepted in Dec., of that year.  While serving on the latter paper (in 1892), Governor McKinley appointed him State Librarian.  Many use, rare and valuable works were added to the library during his incumbancy of the office.  Especially is this true as to works of reference.  In May, 1896, he resigned the librarianship to take a confidential position with Major McKinley, remaining with him throughout the Presidential campaign and until after the latter\s inaguration as President of the United States, Mar. 4, 1897.      It is a fact, which none acquainted with the circumstances will dispute, that no other individual in the State did more to bring about the nomination of Major McKinley to the Presidency than Joseph P. Smith.  Such was his love and esteem for the man that his every energy was exerted to the end that his friend might become the head of the Nation.  His private papers, covering the years 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1896, now in possession of Mrs. Smith's executor and held as a legacy for his children, show that he was in correspondence and close touch with leading Republicans in every State and Territory in the Union during these years.  No young man had a more extensive acquaintance, and none ever made more strenuous efforts to redeem all political promises.  He was a thorough organizer and could see further into the effects of a political move than almost any other person engaged therein.  And yet no one ever heard him boast of his influence, or personally claim to have done anything superior to that the ordinary party worker.  His mind was a veritable encyclopedia of political information and a magazine of reminiscences of the politics and the politicians of the past and present.      On Mar. 29, 1897, the President tendered Mr. Smith the position of Director of the Bureau of the American Republics, and his action was approved by the Executive Committee of the Bureau.  As the official head of this department, he was making its influence felt throughout the nineteen Republics included in its organization, and, had his life been spared, he undoubtedly would have been instrumental in more firmly uniting them to their mutual commercial benefit, and thus have more effectually carried out the original conception of the late James G. Blaine, as he outlined it at the Pan-American Congress in 1889-1890.      During his brief life, and aside from his other duties, Joseph P. Smith edited several works including "The Speeches of William McKinley," which attained a wide circulation.  He wrote numerous short articles of a political and historical nature, a biography of the President _or Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia for 1897, and a "History of the Republican Party of Ohio."  Several contemplated works in various states of preparation were among his papers at the time of his death.      Never of the most robust health, but kept up for years by a wonderful will power, Mr. Smith was compelled to seek for rest and restoration of health in Octoer, 1897.  After battling bravely against a combination of diseases, and after seemingly having conquered them, death came suddenly on the morning of Feb. 5, 1898, at Miami, Florida, where he had been taken by friends during the previous December.      On Apr. 14, 1886, Joseph P. Smith and Miss Maryneal Hutches, of Galveston, Texas, were married at the home of the bride's parents.  Several children were born to this union, namely, Frank Hutches, at Galveston, Texas; Virginia Patterson, at Batavia, Ohio; Antoinette Barker, Mary Stow, John Michell, William McKinley, and Joseph Patterson, at Urbana.  The last named was but five months old when his father died.      Maryneal Hutches Smith was born at Galveston, Texas, Mar. 1, 1860.  She was educated at Abbott Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in June, 1878.  After her marriage, she resided for a time in Columbus, then in Batavia, and for the last ten years of her life in Urbana.  Under the terms of her husband's will, she was left sole executrix of his estate and guardian of her children.  Being a woman of brilliant mind and attainments, and endowed with a wonderful ambition, she accepted the trust, and planned to make the futures of her children all that was anticipated and contemplated by her deceased husband.  In June, 1898, without solicitation on her part, President McKinley appointed Mrs. Smith to the position of Postmistress of the city of Urbana, Ohio.  She was performing the duties of this office with credit and ability, as was evidenced by the improvements in the office and the increase in its receipts, when the death summons came immediately and almost without warning.  She died at her home in Urbana of apoplexy on the afternoon of Sept. 12, 1898, or but a little more than seven months after the death of her husband.  Thus, within that short space of time, the several children were deprived of the care of the parents who were generous and indulgent to a fault.  Together the earthly forms of their parents are resting in a beautiful plat in lovely Oakdale cemetery at Urbana.      At the time of his death the whole press of Ohio, and all the leading newspapers of the Nation regardless of party, for he was recognized by the Democrats as an honorable opponent, and had warm personal friendships among them, spoke only in praise of Joseph P. Smith. Of the expressions used, no more candid and truthful portrayal of his life and character can be found than is contained in this extract from the Canton, Ohio Repository, of Feb. 5, 1898:      "Supremely faithful and loving to his family, combined with his beautiful qualities of heart and brightest of bright intellects, his greatest virtue was his unfaltering loyalty to the cause of which were enshrined his brightest earthly hopes and ambitions.      "Had his physical body possessed the strength to support his indomitable energy in the assiduous application of his remarkable intellect, few men would have equalled him in possibilities of attainment.      "His fertile head was a vertiable store house.  History, ancient and modern, were constant and living pictures in his always lively memory.  His brain seemed incandescent with the knowledge almost of the world, working ripe occasion made its demands on his resourceful mind.  When working in the cause he loved the most, he knew no night or day.  Sleep could only come when utter physical exhaustion forced tird nature to assert herself. *   *   *   *   *      "He was firm in the faith of Everlasting Peace to come.  In Canton, in his tribute to a friend who had gone from earth, he wrote in paraphrase: "Tears for the living.   Love for the dead."      "And yet, many is the heart that grieves, and myriad are the eyes that glisten today upon receiving the news from Florida at the taking away of an intellect so bright and a character so lovely, just as fame and fortune were at his feet in recognition of eminently patriotic service. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 855 CHARLES S. SPARKS was born in West Union, Ohio, June 10, 1868.  His father was Salathiel Sparks, born Nov. 20, 1829, and his mother was Clara Post, born June 6, 1849.  His grandfather, George Sparks, was born in Virginia, May 16, 1794, and died at West Union, Dec. 30, 1849.  His great-grandfather, Salathiel Sparks was born in 1756, and died at West Union, July 20, 1823.  The latter located at West Union in 1804 and purchased from Robert Wood one hundred acres of land, now known as "Byrd's Addition to West Union."  Salathiel Sparks had a son John, the well known banker of West Union in its early days.  This John, who has a sketch elsewhere, married Sarah Sinton, sister of David Sinton, of Cincinnati.      Our subject was educated in the Public schools in West Union and graduated there in 1888.  In the Summer of that year and of 1889, he attended Normal school at West Union.  In the Summer of 1889, he began the study of law in the office of Captain David Thomas, and in the Winters of 1888 and 1889, attended the law school of Cincinnati and graduated on May 28, 1890.  The next day he was admitted to practice law by the Supreme Court of Ohio.  He located in Cincinnati for the practice of law, June 20, 1890.  He has served as Acting Prosecutor the Police Court and as Acting Judge of the same court.      In politics, Mr. Sparks is a strong and active Republican.  He has been a speaker in the State and National campaigns and has been a delegate to the State Convention of his party for five years in succession.  He is a member of the Blaine Club of Cincinnati and of the Stamina League of the same city, and was at one time President of the Board of Directors in the latter.      On Nov. 21, 1896, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Barclay, of Brooklyn, New York.  She was born Dec. 17, 1879, in the city of Oldham, England.  They have one child, a daughter, Dorothy Grace, born Apr. 15, 1898.  His wife's great-uncles were members of the House of Lords of the British Parliament.      He is a man of high mental capacity, self-educated.  He is studious, generous, and pronounced in his likes and dislikes.  As a citizen, he is broadminded and liberal, ever regardful of the rights of others and prompt in the performance of all duties.  As a lawyer, he is quick, persevering, bold, aggressive, and makes the interest of his clients his own.  He is well read in the law, eloquent, and sometimes sarcastic.  Without friends, influence or social advantages, he attempted to practice law in Cincinnati, and by his own personality has built up a good practice. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 865   JOHN SPARKS, liveryman, of Piketon, Pike County, Ohio, was born August 12, 1870, the son of Salathiel and Clara Sparks, in West Union, Ohio, and resided there until May 4, 1894, when he removed to Peebles, where he resided and was engaged in the livery business until 1899, when he removed to Piketon, where he conducts a first-class livery.      Mr. Sparks was married December 3, 1896, to Elsie Williamson, and they have one child, Salathiel, born February 4, 1898.  He is a member of the Order of Red Men, of Peebles, Ohio, and is also a member of the Volunteer Fire Company at Piketon.  Mr. Sparks is a Republican and as such is a leader in local politics. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 876)   JOHN SPARKS, The Banker, was born in 1790 in Pennsylvania.  He came to Adams County with his parents when a child and they located just east of where West Union was afterwards located.  When a young man, he lived in Hillsboro.  He began the business of merchandising in West Union on the corner now occupied by the present post office building, northeast corner of Main and Market Streets, in about 1820, and continued in that business until 1830, when he went to Union Landing, where he remained until the death of his wife in 1833.  He returned to West Union in that year and went into the banking business and continued his residence in West Union until the thirty-first of July, 1847, when he died, and was buried in Lovejoy Cemetery.  He was twice married.  His first wife was Johanna Kelvey.  She died Sept. 26, 1823, aged twenty-three.  She left a daughter who survived to the age of thirteen years.  He was married to Sarah Sinton, sister of David Sinton, of Cincinnati, Oct. 2, 1828, by the Rev. Dyer Burgess, who signed his name to the marriage record.  "V. D. M."      While in the dry-goods business at West Union, he was in partnership at one time with Thomas W. Menas, under the name of Sparks & Menas.  They were also the owners of Union Furnace.  George Collings, the father of Judge Henry Collings, and John Sparks once owned and conducted a queensware store at Maysville, Kentucky.  Mr. Sparks afterward sold his interest to a Mr. Pemberton.      Mr. Sparks had been a banker in West Union but a short time when he became a merchant.  He was a man of great personal popularity in the county, and although often solicited, he would never consent to run for public office at a time when almost everybody did run for office.  He loaned money and helped a great many men.  John Fisher remarked of him that he was the best friend he ever had.  John Loughry, of Rockville, said the same thing.  Most of his life was spent in merchandising pursuits in Adams County.  There were three children of this second marriage - one died in infancy, another is Mrs. Mary J. McCauslen, widow of Hon. Thomas McCauslen, of Steubenville, who has a separate sketch herein, and the third is George B. Sparks, a farmer, of Clinton, Indiana.      The esteem in which he was held by the citizens of Adams County was expressed at the time of his funeral.  He is said to have had the largest funeral ever held in the county.  Everybody turned out to show respect to his memory. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 626   OLIVER THOROMAN SPROULL, M. D., of Bentonville, Ohio, was born January 5, 1863, near Dunkinsville, Ohio, on the farm now occupied by his parents Robert C. and Sarah (Thoroman) Sproull.      William Sproull, great-grandfather of our subject, was a Scotchman by birth, but emigrated to County Tyrone, Ireland, from whence he embarked for America, August 1, 1793, on the Brig "Cunningham," sailing for North Carolina.  The brig was twice overhauled on the voyage by pirates sailing under the colors of French Men-of-War.  The passengers lost all of their belongings except a few pieces of gold that Mrs. Sproull had concealed in her hat.  One of these "pirate" vessels proved to be an American privateersman from Baltimore, where the Sproulls and their confiscated goods were brought to instead of North Carolina, the destination of the "Cunningham."  Mr. Sproull, being a Free Mason and finding friends in Baltimore, was enabled to recover that part of his property, consisting of Irish linen.  They landed in Baltimore, October 3, 1793, and settled at Elliot's Mills, near Baltimore, where they remained a few years, and then moved to Wythe County, Virginia.  Their family were Hazlet, who married Elizabeth Fergus, and after his death, she married Joseph Montgomery, Jr., brother of Robert's wife; Robert, grandfather of our subject; Rosa, married William Russell; Margaret, married a Hines; Mary, married William Crissman.      Robert Sproull, grandfather of our subject was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, March 17, 1777, and came to America with his parents.  He married Anna Montgomery, Sr. and Rachel (Ramsey) Montgomery, of Wythe County, Virginia.  Rhoda Montgomery, daughter of Joseph Montgomery, Sr., married William Glasgow, and removed to George's Creek, Adams County, Ohio.  Some time prior to 1822, the Sproull family came and settled in the same neighborhood in order to be near their relatives.  Robert Sproull resided there until 1826, when he removed to Brush Creek, on the farm where Robert C. Sproull, his son, and father of our subject, still resides.      Robert C. Sproull was born on George's Creek, in 1824.  He married Sarah Thoroman and both are still living on the old Sproull farm near Dunkinsville, Ohio.      Dr. Sproull, the subject of this sketch, was reared on the farm, receiving a common school education until the age of eighteen.  He attended the Normal school of West Union, Ohio, and the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio.  He began teaching in 1881 and continued for three years.  He began the study of medicine under Dr. Dan Ellison, of Dunkinsville, and attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Baltimore, Maryland, graduating March 15, 1886.  After practicing with Dr. Ellison, at Dunkinsville, until September of the same year, he located at Bentonville, Ohio, where he is still engaged in the practice of his profession.      He was married August 22, 1888, to Agnes B., daughter of William and Melissa (Thoroman) Traber, of the Traber Tavern on Lick Fork.  They have two children living, Clarence Traber, aged seven years, and Hazel, a babe.      The Doctor is a Democrat in politics and wields considerable influence in local political affairs.  He was elected Clerk of Sprigg Township in 1896, and again elected in 1898.  As a physician, he is rapidly rising in his profession, being an earnest student and tireless worker, while his integrity and moral principles make him a valued citizen. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900)   ALEXANDER B. STEEN.    Alexander Boyd Steen, the fourth son and seventh child of Alexander and Agnes Nancy Steen, a twin brother of John W. Steen, was born near Flemingsburg, Ky., May 5, 1813.  He was brought by his parents to Ohio in 1820, and resided in the same locality, three miles northeast of Wincheser, Adams County, Ohio, almost seventy-five years.  He was a child of the Covenant, descended from a long line of staunch Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestors, who had endured persecution and suffered imprisonment for their religious faith.  He was a most saintly man, greatly beloved by all who knew him, and his gentle manner, sweet devotion and absorbing zeal reminded one of the Apostle Saint John.  He occupied comparatively a humble sphere in life, but no man in all that region extended a wider religious influence than he.  In private conversation, his spiritual insight and heavenly-mindedness was elevating to the soul.  His faith in God's Word was unbounded, and the Divine promises were to him living realities.  He was mo mere dreamer, thinking of future glory, but insisted upon the faithful performance of the practical duties of every day.  He was not a learned man, but was more familiar with the English Bible than many professors of theology.  He would quote from memory the verse and chapter of the Bible to substantiate his position upon any subject of conversation.  By a fall, some years before his death, he was severely injured in the hips, which largely confined him to the house.  He spoke of this afterwards as a special blessing, inasmuch as it gave him a better opportunity to study the Scriptures.  He brought up his family of eight children in the fear of the Lord and all became members of the Mt. Leigh Presbyterian Church with which he was connected for more than fifty years.  He died at his home near Winchester, Ohio, Mar. 8, 1895, aged eighty-one years, ten months and three days.  His body rests in the cemetery at Mt. Leigh.  Alexander B. Steen was married by the Rev. Robert Stewart, Mar. 29, 1838, to Miss Nancy Jane McClure, a daughter of Michael and Elizabeth McClure.  She was born in Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio, Sept. 11, 1821, and died Mar. 18, 1893, aged seventy-one years, five months and seven days. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 859 Aaron Steen AARON STEEN.     Aaron Faris Steen was a grandson of Robert Steen, who was born near Coleraine, Ireland, about 1735, removed to the British Colony of Pennsylvania, in America, about 1758; was married to Elizabeth Boyd about 1760, secured a farm and established his home near Chestnut Level, in Lancaster County, Pa., not far from the Susquehanna River, where he brought up in comfortable circumstances a family of five children, three sons and two daughters, whose names were Samuel, Robert, Mary, Elizabeth, and Alexander Steen.  The grandfather, Robert Steen, was a patriotic citizen opposed to British oppression or Toryism, and espoused the cause of American Independence, at the time of the Revolutionary War.  He was a thorough Scotch-Irish Presbyterian, an earnest christian, a successful farmer, especially fond of music and good society, and lived to an old age.      Alexander Steen, the father of Aaron F. Steen, was the youngest child of Robert and Elizabeth Boyd Steen, and was born near Chestnut Level, Pa., Feb. 14, 1773, and brought up on his father's farm.  He early removed to Berkley County, Va., and was married at Martinsburg, Va., Feb. 2, 1803, to Agnes Nancy Faris, she having been born at that place Mar. 2, 1777, and died at the home of her son, Aaron F. Steen, in Adams County, Ohio, Nov. 17, 1852, when she was seventy-six years of age.  In 1805, Alexander Steen removed with his family and located near Flemingsburg, Ky., where he resided nearly fifteen years, and where all his children except the eldest were born.  In 1820, he removed to Adams County, Ohio, and located upon a farm two miles northeast of Winchester, now on the turnpike road to Buck Run.  He afterwards purchased a large farm one mile north of the Mt. Leigh Presbyterian church where he spent the remainder of his life.  He was a man of strong character, a zealous Presbyterian, and an enterprising farmer, a successful music teacher, and maintained a wide influence.  He died at his home near Mt. Leigh, Apr. 30, 1837, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.  He was the father of nine children, all of whom except the eldest were married and brought up families in Adams County, Ohio.      Aaron Faris Steen, the subject of this sketch, was the third children and eldest son of Alexander and Agnes Nancy Faris Steen.  He was born on his father's farm two miles north of Flemingsburg, Ky., Aug. 23, 1807, and died at his home near Xenia, Ohio, Tuesday morning, Feb. 15, 1881, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.  He spent a happy childhood in the "Old Kentucky home, and was brought to Adams County, Ohio, by his parents when a mere lad of thirteen years.  Here he grew up to manhood upon his father's farm, attending school in winter.  When a young man, he taught school.  He devoted most of his time and attention to music and became an efficient and very popular teacher, having classes in various parts of the county.  For many years he was the leader of music in the Mt. Leigh Presbyterian Church.  His social nature and genial disposition made him a general favorite in the society of both old and young.      Aaron F. Steen was married at the residence of Michael Freeman on Scioto Brush Creek, ten miles east of West Union, Mar. 25, 1830, to Miss Mary Freeman, the youngest daughter of Michael and Elizabeth Freeman, she having been born in the same house in which she was married, Oct. 7, 1810, and died at the home of her son in Knoxville, Tenn., July 27, 1895, in the eighty-fifth year of her age.  Soon after his marriage, Aaron F. and Mary Steen located on a farm on Brush Creek two miles east of Winchester, and united with the Mt. Leigh Phesbyterian Church of which they were for many years active and useful members.  In the Fall of 1834, Michael Freeman, now growing old, requested Mr. and Mrs. Steen to come and take charge of his farm and property on Scioto Brush Creek, which they accordingly did, residing there about fourteen years.  But on the thirty-first of August, 1848, they removed again with their family to a farm near Mt. Leigh, three miles east of Winchester, near where he had been brought up.  Here the whole family were regular attendants of the Mt. Leigh Church.  Aaron F. Steen was ordained an elder, Dec. 1, 1849, which office he continued to hold so long as he remained in that locality, and frequently represented that church in the meetings of the Presbytery of Chillicothe.  In the autumn of 1865, he sold his farm near Mt. Leigh and purchased a tract of land adjourning Xenia, Ohio, to which he removed and spent the remaining sixteen years of his life.  Here, himself and wife united with the First Presbyterian Church of which Rev. Wm. T. Findley, D. D., was at that time pastor.  He cultivated his little farm, and with his eldest son kept a provision store in Xenia.  In 1874, a delightful family reunion was held at his home near Xenia, at which all his living descendants were present.  Old associates were revived and many incidents connected with every life recalled.  Before they separated religious services were held in which all joined heartily, every member and descendant of the family over ten years of age being consistent member of the Presbyterian Church.  The fiftieth anniversary, or golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Steen, also duly celebrated at their home Mar. 25, 1880, was largely attended, and all present, concurred in the opinion that it was one of the most delightful occasions of the kind ever witnessed.  Only a few months later Mr. Steen died.      Aaron F. Steen  was a man of sterling character and energy, highly respected and beloved by those who knew him.  He was the father of nine children as follows:  Wilson Freeman, Eli Watson, Samuel Martin, John Freeman, Moses Duncan Alexander, Josiah James, Sarah Catharine, Isaac Brit and William Wirt Steen, only three of whom are now living, Prof. E. Watson Steen, Knoxville, Tenn., Rev. Moses D. A. Steen, D. D., Woodridge, Colo., and Mrs. Kate Steen Coil, Marietta, Ohio. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 627   DR. JOHN ALEXANDER STEEN, the subject of this sketch, was born at Mt. Leigh, Ohio, Mar. 26, 1841.  He was the second chld of Alexander B. Steen and Nancy J. Steen, whose maiden name was Nancy J. McClure.  She was born in Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio, Oct. 16, 1820.  She was born in Hillsboro, Highland County, Ohio, Oct. 16, 1820.  Alexander B. Steen was born at Flemingsburg, Kentucky, May 5, 1813.  Our subject was reared on his father's farm on Brush Creek, Adams County, Ohio, working in the Summer time and attending school in the Winter, where he obtained a common school education.      Aug. 11, 1862, he enlisted in the 91st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company I, and served until June 24, 1865.  At the battle of Winchester, Virginia, Sept. 19, 1864, he was severely wounded through the throat and arm, after which he was transferred to the hospital at Philadelphia, where he remained for ten months.  He subsequently returned to the field at Winchester to look after the remains of his brother, James F. Steen, and his uncle, Ira T. Hayes, who were killed in action Sept. 19, 1864.  He identified their remains and saw their honored bodies laid to rest in the Winchester Cemetery having helped to dig their graves himself.  At the close of the war, he was mustered out with his regiment at Cumberland, Maryland, and returned to Camp Dennison, Ohio, where they were paid off.      On return to peaceful pursuits, he attended school in the Fall and Winter of 1865 in his home district; and in the following Spring entered the dental office of Dr. J. N. McClung, at Cincinnati, Ohio, who afterwards moved to North Liberty, Ohio, and with whom he studied eighteen months.  He formed a partnership with his preceptor which was maintained for some time.  In the Fall of 1868, he removed to Manchester, Adams County, Ohio, where he opened an office for the practice of his profession.  In the Winter of 1869 Dr. McClung giving up the practice of dentistry, he removed back to North Liberty and resumed his former practice.      On Dec. 30, 1969, he was married at Eckmansville, Adams County, to Miss Jane M. Reighley, a native of Lockes Mills, Mifflin County, Pa., and a daughter of Henry and Nancy Reighley, whose family settled in Adams County.  Of this union there were four children.  Minnie  M., the wife of Mr. Howard C. Green, residing at No. 6745 Emerald Avenue, Englewood, Illinois; Lulu E., the wife of Mr. Espy Higgins, residing at No. 3391 Hayward Place, Denver, Colorado; and Harry W. and Merta who are still at home.  Harry W. studied dentistry with his father and attended dental college at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery, at Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating there in 1900.  In 1875, our subject removed to Ripley, Brown County, Ohio, where he still resides and enjoys a lucrative practice in his profession.      His wife died Jan. 13, 1894, and is buried in Maplewood cemetery at Ripley, Ohio.  On Mar. 17, 1896, he was married to Miss Sadie J. Lawwill.  Of this union there is one child, John A., Junior.      Dr. Steen has served on the Board of Education at Ripley, Ohio.  His political views are Republican, and his first vote was for U. S. Grant for President for his first term.  His religious views are Presbyterian, and he joined that denomination when a boy.  He has served as elder of the church.  He is a member of the Masonic Order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Grand Army of the Republic.  He is one of the substantial citizens of Ripley, well known and highly respected for his sterling virtues. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 877 Rev. M. D. H. Steen M. D. A. Steen, D. D. L.L. D.  REV. M. D. A. STEEN, D. D.     Moses Dnncan Alexander Steen, the fifth son of Aaron F. Steen, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere, was born at the homestead of his maternal grandfather, Michael Freeman, ten miles east of West Union, Apr. 24, 1841, where he spent his childhood.  In 1848, his parents moved to Mt. Leigh.  He united with the Mt. Leigh Presbyterian Church, June 8, 1858, and that Fall became a student at the North Liberty Academy, with the ministry in view.  He spent three years at the South Salem Academy under the late Rev. J. A. I. Lowes, D. D., and one year in Hanover College, Indiana.  He graduated at Miami University in 1866.  In the Autumn of the same year, he took up the study of theology at the Seminary of the Northwest at Chicago, until Apr. 8, 1868, when he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Chillicothe, and in the Summer preached at Mt. Sterling and Sharpsburg, Ky.  In the Fall of 1868, he spent one term at the theological seminary at Princeton, J. J. and Apr. 1, 1869, was graduated from the Northwest Seminary at Chicago.      Directly after his graduation, in 1869, he took charge of the Presbyterian Church at Worthington, Ohio, where he was married on June to Mary Foster.  On Sept. 8, 1870, he was ordained by the Presbytery of New Albany, Indiana, having previously accepted a call to Vevay, Indiana.  In 1872, he was called to Solon, near Cleveland; thence to Conneautville and Waterford, Pennsylvania; thence he was called to Ludlow, Kentucky, where he remained seven years; thence to Pleasant Ridge, Ohio.  He was afterwards located at Troy and Edwardsville, Ill., Gunnison and Black Hawk, Col., and Snohomish, Washington.  At Conneautville, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1873, his only child, Lulu Grace, was born, and she died July 3, 1876.  On Sept. 1, 1886, he located at Woodbridge, Cal., where he still remains as pastor.  He made a tour of Europe in 1877 and has travelled in every State and Territory in the United States, in Canada and Mexico.  His degree of Doctor of Divinity was given him by the San Joaquin Valley College, California, in 1888, and in 1889.  Wooster University conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy.  Since 1893, he has been stated Clerk and Treasurer of the Presbytery of Stockton, a district as large as Ohio.  He was a Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1880, 1887 and 1894.  In 1895, the General Assembly sent him as delegate to "The Council of the Reformed Churches throughout the world, holding to the Presbyterian system," which met in Glasgow, Scotland, June, 1896.  He attended this with his wife and made a tour of British and Continental Europe.  He is the author of the following works: "Scriptural Sanctification," "How to be Saved," "The Human Soul," and numerous magazine articles.      His wife is a helpmate in his sacred profession, cultivated, amiable, and devout.  Since 1887, she has been the Presbyterial Secretary of the Woman's Occidental Board of Foreign Missions.  Dr. Steen is a man of fine culture, deep scholarship, and unusual ability.  His Christianity is profound.  In many particulars, he has been like John Elliot or Jonathan Edwards, in that he has lavished upon his congregations, in remote places, an amount of learning that would shame many a metropolitan pulpit.  He has a warmth of religious affection that would satisfy a Baxter.  He cheers the sorrowing, and the poor are helped by his tender consolation.  He has lived a noble and useful life and holds the affection of all his people, men, women and children.  He is true to all obligations.  He believes in, and cultivates in himself and others, those virtues which make true Christian manhood and womanhood.  His life is a true exemplification of his teachings. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 868 NOTE:  CORRECTIONS - p. 868.  The title under portrait opposite page 868 should read, "Rev. M. D. A. Steen.   ROBERT AMASA STEPHENSON, is a prominent and successful physician and surgeon of Manchester.  He was born near Ripley, Brown County, Ohio, Aug. 11, 1838, and comes of a family of Irish origin, which was established in America about 1750, its representatives settling in Sussex County, Delaware.  Captain John Stephenson, the great-grandfather of our subject, commanded a sailing vessel which made trips between the Emerald Isle and Atlantic ports in the United States.  His family lived in this country, and his son William, when a youth of seventeen years, ran away from home to avoid going on a sea voyage with his father.      William Stephenson afterwards settled in Pennsylvania, near the town of York, where he married.  At the breaking our of the Revolution, he joined the Colonial army and served until American independence was achieved, after which he removed with his family to Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he resided for several years.  About 1793, he joined a party of emigrants destined for Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky.  Among the number was a Mr. Kilpatrick with his two motherless little girls.  During the trip Kilpatrick was killed by an attacking party of Indians, and William Stephenson took charge of and cared for the orphans.  One of them afterwards became the wife of his son, Colonel Mills Stephenson.  The party proceeded to the town of Washington, founded by the noted Indian scout of that day, Simon Kenton.  William Stephenson remained in Kentucky until 1798, when he crossed the Creek in Adams, now Brown County, where he erected a cabin and passed the remainder of his eventful career.      On reaching manhood, Colonel Mills Stephenson married Miss Kilpatrick, as above stated, and settled on a farm near his father.  He was in the second war with England served with the rank of Colonel, and built old Fort Stephenson, named in his honor, the post so heroically defended afterwards by young Croghan, where now stands the town of Fremont, Ohio.  Colonel Stephenson was one of the early Sheriffs of Adams County before the formation of Brown County.  He afterwards became interested in the milling business near Ripley, and built and ran flatboats from that point to New Orleans.  On one of these trips he contracted a fever and died at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1823.  Colonel Stephenson and his first wife had born to them the following children; Ephriam, who died in childhood; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Wallace, of Ottawa, Illinois; Charlotte, who died at the age of twenty years; Young, who became a steamboat captain on the Ohio, and who, during the Mexican War, was in the employ of the Government, transporting supplies from New Orleans to Matamoras, Mexico, where he died in 1847; and Lemuel, a steamboat engineer, who followed the river for years.  In 1857, he quit the river and opened a hotel in Catlettsburg, Kentucky, where he died in 1862.      Robert Prettyman Stephenson, the father of our subject, was born in Ripley, Ohio, June 22, 1801, and died February 23, 1884.  His wife (nee Mary Wallace) passed away Aug. 13, 1883.  They were married Sept. 23, 1819, and had seven children.      Robert A. Stephenson, whose name heads this record, spent his childhood days at the old homestead, and in September, 1861, entered the United States Army as a medical cadet.  He was then stationed at Georgetown, D. C., where he remained until September, 1862, when he entered Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, graduating from that institution in 1863.  He soon after was made Assistant Surgeon, and was assigned to duty with the Sixty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, then at Murfreesboro, Tennessee.  He thus served until May, 1865, when he was commissioned Surgeon and almost immediately afterwards appointed Brigadier Surgeon by General George P. Buell.  At the close of the war, he was mustered out at Camp Dennison, Ohio, July 25, 1865.  While in front of Atlanta, on the twelfth of August, 1864, he was severely wounded in the head by a piece of shell, and yet suffers from the injury.  He was present at all engagements in which the Sixty-ninth Regiment participated after Apr. 20, 1863, and did much good service in healing the wounds and allaying the pains of those that rebel lead had injured.  At the close of the war, Dr. Stephenson returned to the private of his profession, locating in Bentonville, Adams County, where he remained until 1873.  In that year he removed to Manchester, where he has resided ever since, engaged in the successful labors of his chosen profession.      In politics the Doctor has always been a Jeffersonian Democrat, and when Cleveland became President, was appointed by him United States Examining Surgeon on the Board of Pension Examiners for Adams County, serving until 1889.  He was again appointed to the position in 1893, during President Cleveland's second administration.  On November 7, 1899, he was elected Auditor of Adams County on the Democratic ticket, and now holds that responsible position.      The Doctor was married Oct. 27, 1867, to Miss Arcada Hopkins, daughter of William E. and Eliza (Brittingham) Hopkins.  They had born to them William Prettyman, July 31, 1868; Mary, Aug. 26, 1872; Robert Ellison, July 17, 1879, who was accidentally killed while duck hinting on Brush Creek Island, Dec. 29, 1897; and Ralph, born May 16, 1884.      The Doctor is a member of the Masonic and Knights of Pythias Lodges, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and of George Collings Post, No. 432, G. A. R.  He is a close student of his profession, an untiring worker, and his abilities, born natural and acquired, have placed him in the front rank among his professional brethren in Adams County.   IN stature, he is above the medium, strongly knit frame, inclined to corpulency, of vital-sanguine temperament, a rather strong face, and withal good personal appearance.  He is sociable and courteous in his daily inter-course with his fellow men, and active and earnest in all matters pertaining to the advancement of the community in which he resides. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 861)   SAMUEL CUMMINGS STEVENSON, of Grimes Postoffice, was born Mar. 11, 1838, in the old double log cabin at the mouth of Bayou Manyoupper, below the mouth of Ohio Brush Creek, the last bayou on the trip from New Orleans to Pittsburgh.  His father was Richard Stevenson, a son of John Stevenson, a native of Donegal, Ireland, who made his escape to America at the time of the Emmett Rebellion, and built the double log cabin on the site of the old stone house at Pleasant Bottoms, at mouth of Ohio Brush Creek.  Richard Stevenson was born Oct. 11, 1798, in the old cabin above mentioned on the old Stevenson farm.  He married Sarah Cummings, a daughter of Captain Samuel Cummings, of Lewis County, Kentucky, opposite the Stevenson home on the Ohio.  He was a boat carpenter, and for years built flatboats at the mouth of Brush Creek and cordelled them to Kenhawah Licks, where they were loaded with salt for New Orleans.  He lived at the mouth of the bayou till 1838, when he built the present brick residence, now the home of the subject of this sketch.  He died July 7, 1855.     Samuel C. Stevenson, the subject of this sketch, followed steamboating on the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and was a captain of vessels for many years.  He first married Miss Maggie Lovell, of Lewis County, Kentucky, Jan. 31, 1866.  She died Sept. 2, 1871, and afterwards, Oct. 15, 1873, he married Miss Joanna B. Shumaker, daughter of the late Captain J. H. Shumaker, of Mason City, W. Va., who was killed by explosion on the steamer Brilliant, at Gallipolis Island, August 22, 1878.  Captain Stevenson his "hove anchor" from Pittsburgh to the Gulf of Mexico, experiencing thrilling adventures that would fill a volume.  He in now retired from the river, and enjoys life at his home on the beautiful Ohio at Pleasant Bottoms.  He is the owner of Wilson's or Brush Creek Island, where persons from the surrounding towns and villages spend the heated season outing and fishing under the direction of the genial Captain.      A few years ago, a party of young men from Winchester camped at Brush Creek Island to spend some time fishing in Brush Creek and the Ohio River.  Nicholas Lockwood, a member of the party, was drowned in the Ohio while bathing, and his companions made futile efforts to recover the body.  Captain Stevenson was called on to assist in the search and he discovered the body of young Lockwood rolling on the bottom of the river in several feet of water - the river being low and the water clear.  He dived and secured a hold on the body and by almost superhuman efforts conveyed it to the shore unassisted.      The Captain is one of the best known citizens of the county and numbers his friends by the score.  In politics, he is a Democrat of the Jefferson type. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 860)   DR. TITUS STEVENSON, of Cherry Fork, is recognized as one of the most accomplished physicians and surgeons of Adams County.  He acquired a good English education including a course in the sciences, a thorough knowledge of which is so necessary to the successful practitioner.  In his seventeenth year, he began the study of medicine under the tutorship of D. L. C. Laycock, then of Decatur, Ohio, and after a preparatory course, entered Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, for the term 1886-7.  In 1887-8, he was a student in the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati, from which he graduated with high honors in March, 1888.  After graduation, he opened an office in Youngsville, this county, and in October of that year married Miss Mary E. Williams, daughter of W. P. Williams, a descendant of an old and respected family of Adams County.      In 1890, Dr. Stevenson removed to Aberdeen, Ohio, where he had a large and lucrative practice till 1893, when at the solicitation of friends and old patrons who recognized his great ability and skill as a physician and surgeon, he was induced to return to Adams County, and located in the beautiful and thriving little village of Cherry Fork.  Here he enjoys not only a lucrative practice, but the esteem and friendship of all who come in contact with him.      Dr. Stevenson comes of good old Scotch ancestry, his paternal great-grandfather, Col. Mills W. Stephenson, being a direct descendant of one of the four "Stinson" or Stevenson brothers, who came to America from Scotland in the Seventeenth Century.  His maternal grandmother was a descendant of Governor General Joseph Waters, of the West Indies, under British rule.      Col. Mills W. Stevenson cleared and improved the farm now known as the W. A. Montgomery farm in Liberty township, Adams County.       Dr. Stevenson is a son of John M. Stevenson, of Decatur, Ohio, who married Mary Jane Geeslin, daughter of Acklass Geeslin, of Brown County.  The Doctor is a member of the Improved Order of Red Men, and of North Liberty Lodge, No. 613, Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  In politics, he is a believer in the teachings of Jefferson, Jackson and Bryan.      The family of Dr. Stevenson consists of Miss L. Grace, Augustus D., Guy A., and L. Preston.  The Doctor and his family are connected with the M. E. Church, he having been reared in that faith. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 875   ANDREW JACKSON STIVERS was the second son of Robert Stivers, and Jane Meharry.  Until his eighteenth year, he lived on his father's farm.  Here under the prayerful guidance of his pious mother, many lessons of patience and economy were learned; and the foundation for his future successful business career was laid.  In 1836, he removed to Ripley, where his faithfulness and uprightness of character soon established for him a permanent place as a business man and a citizen.  In 1847, he began his long and successful career as a banker; at that time the first bank in Ripley was founded, and for almost fifty years he was intimately associated with the Farmers' National Bank and Citizens' National Bank.      Mr. Stivers was married in 1845 to Miss Harriet Newall McClain.  After six years of married life, Mrs. Stivers died in August, 1851.  Mr. Stivers was united in marriage a second time, Dec. 13, 159, to Miss Catherine Maddox, who proved a faithful and loving wife through years of unusual happiness and prosperity, and who still survives him.  The mantle of Mr. Stivers' unselfishness and prosperity has fallen upon his two surviving sons, John Robert and Frank Alexander Stivers, who are substantial business men of Ripley, Ohio, the latter being now President of the Citizens' National Bank, with which his father was connected for so many years.  As a loving and devoted husband, a kind and generous father, a broad and honest business man and a loyal Christian gentleman, no words of eulogy are sufficient to express the nobility of character of Andrew Jackson Stivers, the subject of this sketch.      Andrew Jackson Stivers came from a long line of Virginia patriots and sturdy Irish ancestors.  His grandfather, John Stivers, a native of Virginia, was born in 1764.  He served his country in the Revolutionary War, as a member of the Virginia Militia, before he was sixteen years of age.  Robert Stivers, father of A. J. Stivers, was born Mar. 26, 1789, in Westmoreland County, Pa.  He served as a Volunteer in the war of 1812, as an Ensign of Lieutenant Daniel Coe's Company, First Regiment, Col. Edward's Ohio Militia, on a general call to Sandusky.      At the time of enlistment, he was a resident of Adams County, having come with his parents from Virginia to Brownsville (then Redstone), Fayette County, Pennsylvania, thence to Ohio, and settled near Manchester.  It was here that Robert Stivers met Jane Meharry, and in 1815 they were married in Liberty Township.      Jane Meharry was a native of Ireland, born Feb. 3, 1790, and came to this country  in May, 1794, with her father, Alexander Meharry, and her stepmother, Jane Meharry.  The family settled at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, in July, 1794, and in April, 1799, removed to Kentucky and shortly afterwards to Adams County, Ohio.      To Robert and Jane Stivers were born four sons and four daughters.  Robert Stivers died July 12, 1855, and Jane Stivers died Apr. 10, 1870.  Both are buried in Briar Ridge cemetery, this county. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 858 HON. EMMONS B. STIVERS, a son of Lilley Stivers, and his wife, Barbara Reynolds, was born in Fincastle, Brown County, Ohio, May 6, 1857.  When in his fourth year his parents removed to a farm near Ash Ridge, Jackson Township, Brown County, where he was reared and where he received the rudiments of an English education in the District schools.  In 1876, he began teaching school as a profession and followed it with remarkable success for fifteen years, having in the mean time taken a course in the Normal University, Lebanon, Ohio, then under the control of President Alfred Holbrook.      In 1882-3, he had charge of the academy at North Liberty, Adams County, and in the Autumn of the latter year was elected Superintendent of Schools at West Union, receiving the highest salary ever paid in that position.  On Dec. 27, 1883, he was married to Miss Ida McCormick, a daughter of William McCormick, near Tranquility, Adams County.  Where a resident of West Union, Mr. Stivers edited and published The Index, afterwards merged into The Democratic Index, a newspaper of wide circulation.  He also, in 1885, published his “Outlines of United States History.” And a hand-book for teachers, titled “Recreations in School Studies,” which has reached its tenth edition.      Having undertaken the study of the law in the office of Hon. F. D. Bayless, while residing in West Union, in the Autumn of 1887, Mr. Stivers removed to Cincinnati to complete his course, and in 1888 he was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court at Columbus, Ohio.      In 1890, his health failing, he removed to his farm near his boyhood home in Brown County, where he now resides, looking after his farming interests, his publications, and his legal practice.      In 1895, Mr. Stivers was elected by the Democratic party to represent Brown County in the Ohio Legislature, and he was re-elected to that position in 1897.  In 1899, he was elected to the Ohio Senate from the 2d-4th District, composed of the counties of Brown, Clermont, Butler and Warren, which position he is now holding.  From 1897 to 1899, he represented the Sixth Congressional District as a member of the Democratic State Central Committee.  While a member of the Legislature, Mr. Stivers was placed on the most important committees such as the Judiciary, Railroads and Telegraphs, Insurance, Fees and Salaries, and Municipal Affairs.      He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the K. of P.  His domestic relations are most happy, and he has four bright and interesting children.  His son, Ulric Stivers, was a Page in the 73rd  Session of the Ohio Senate, at the age of nine years, being the youngest lad ever chosen to that position.  He was chosen by the unanimous vote of the Senate regardless of politics, after the customary minority party Page had been appointed by the President of the Senate. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 854)   JOHN STIVERS, a son of William Stivers and Elizabeth King, was born near the city of New York in the year 1765.  He had six brothers, Edward, William, Reuben, Peter, James and Richard, and three sisters, one of whom, Sarah, married Richard Bergin of Bourbon County, Ky., who afterwards settled near Columbus, Ohio.  In 1775, in order to escape the Tory allies of George III, in and about New York, William Stivers moved to Spottsylvania County, Virginia.  There he was comparatively safe from Tory persecutions, and during the Revolution he sent six sons to battle for the cause of Liberty, his seventh son, Richard, being too young to bear arms.  John Stivers, the sixth son, volunteered in May, 1780, in Captain Robert Daniel’s Company of Colonel Spencer’s Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, when but little past fifteen years of age, for a period of service of five months.  At the expiration of the term of his first enlistment, he again volunteered for a term of three months under Captain Robert Harris, of Colonel ___ Regiment.  At the expiration of his second term of enlistment the war was practically over.  Virginia was cleared of marauding bands of Tories and Cornwallis and his British and Hessian forces were shut up in Yorktown to stay until they marched out to the tune of “The World’s Upside Down,” and he surrendered his sword to Washington.      In the year 1786, John Stivers married Miss Martha Neel, a daughter of John Neel, a Scotch emigrant, and settled in the forks of the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela Rivers, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania.  There his family of eight children were born:  Samuel K., Robert, James, John, Matilda, who married Isaac Teachenor; Lydia, who married William Shaw; Washington and Nancy, who married Enoch Moore.  In 1799, he moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky, and soon thereafter came to Sprigg Township, Adams County, Ohio, and settled on Brier Ridge within sight of the old Methodist Church in what is now Liberty Township, where he continued to reside until his death in 1839.  Before coming to Ohio he and his oldest brother, Reuben, who settled in Bourbon County, Kentucky, laid military warrants Nos. 6640, 6642 and 6643 covering 630 acres of land lying on Treber’s Run, and on the East Fork of Eagle Creek in Adams County.  The youngest brother, Richard, afterwards came to Kentucky and settled near Louisville, where he became one of the most prominent planters of that region.  John Stivers as an active, vigorous man, both in body and mind, and took a deep interest in his day in affairs of county and state.  HE was a radical Jeffersonian Democrat in his political opinions, and he was a faithful member of the Baptist Church for nearly fifty years.  In personal appearance he was a little below the medium in height, but very compactly built, and weighed in full and vigorous manhood about 165 pounds.  He had dark hair, steel-blue eyes and regular features, and was of a buoyant disposition and pleasing turn of mind; yet he was not slow to resent wrong or a personal affront.  It is related of him that soon after his first enlistment in the Revolution, that while resting with his company at a spring, a bumptious militia officer rode up and addressing him as “Bud,” requested a drink of water.  This so enraged the youthful soldier that he seized the officer and dragged him from his saddle and gave him a deserved pummeling for his impertinence.  He and his faithful wife are buried in the old cemetery at Decatur, in Brown County, Ohio.  Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 617)   LYMAN P. STIVERS, was born in Bentonville, Adams County, on July 25, 1839.  His father was William Stivers, and his mother’s maiden name was Mary Downey.  She was born at East Liberty, Pennsylvania.  Her father was a soldier in the War of 1812, and killed at Sandusky, Ohio.  She was brought on the Ohio River, in a party with the Rev. John Meek, the celebrated Methodist minister.  The party landed at Manchester, Ohio, and Aaron Pence reared her.  She made her home with him until she was married.  She died in 1878 and her husband in 1884.  Our subject received a common school education.      He was married Sept. 10, 1861, to Mary I. Fitch, daughter of the Hon. E. M. Fitch, of Brown County, who was a member of the Legislature from that county for four years.  Mrs. Fitch was a daughter of Col. Mills Stephenson, of Brown County, Ohio.  He was killed in the War of 1812 at Fort Stephenson, which was named for him.  Our subject is the father of five children, four daughters and one son.  His daughter, Ida B. Stivers, born Sept. 17, 1862, is the widow of Frank Gaffin.  Cora B. Stivers, his third daughter, born Nov. 13, 1866, is the wife of E. W. Erdbrink, formerly of Baltimore, Md., now a resident of Manchester, Ohio.  Our subject’s son, Joseph Randolph Stivers, born July 23, 1874, who received his Christian names in honor of the late Col. Joseph Cockerill, graduated in the Manchester schools, and is now a traveling salesman.      His daughter, Sallie B. Stivers, was born Oct. 6, 1878.  She is married to Samuel A. Walker, formerly of Point Pleasant, W. Va., but now foreman of the Ohio Valley Furniture Company at Manchester.  Our subject was reared at Bentonville, Ohio.  When quite young he engaged in the mercantile business at that place, where he remained till he was elected Sheriff in 1871.  He served as Sheriff one term after which he moved back to Bentonville, where he kept hotel till 1880.  He then removed to Manchester, Ohio, and engaged as agent for buggies and farm implements.  He has been the salesman for the S. P. Tucker Buggy Co., of Manchester, Ohio, for several years and is at present employed by the Piano Manufacturing Company of Pullman, Illinois.  Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 869)   COL. SAMUEL KING STIVERS, eldest son of John Stivers, the pioneer, and Martha Neel, was born near the junction of the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela Rivers, Westmoreland, County, Pennsylvania Feb. 18, 1787.  In 1799, he came with his parents first to Bourbon Co., Ky., and afterwards to Adams Co., Ohio, settling on Brier Ridge.  Here he helped his father to “clear out” a farm, earning some money himself by teaching school.  At the beginning of the War of 1812, he volunteered as a Private in Capt. Josiah Lockhart’s Company of Col. James Trimble’s Regiment under Gen. Duncan McArthur, and was surrendered to the British by Gen. Hull, at Detroit, Aug. 16, 1812.  After his parole, he came home; but learning that his brother, James, had volunteered in a Kentucky regiment, he at once hastened to Maysville and re-enlisted in Captain Simmons’ Company of Col. William E. Roswell’s Regiment.  He served under Gen. Greene Clay in Harrison’s Campaign, and commanded a “Spy Company” in Col. Boswell’s Regiment of Kentucky Militia at the battle of the “Rapids of the Maumee,” May 5, 1813.  He took part in the action under Col. Dudley, and was made a prisoner of the war after the latter’s defeat and death.  Knowing his certain fate should he be recognized by his former captors, he assumed the name of “Samuel Bradford” and was under that name discharged.  He was one of the number that escaped the tomahawks of the Indians through the timely arrival of Tecumseh, while confined in the Blockhouse at Malden.  After his release by the British, he returned to Adams County, and soon afterwards married Miss Mary Creed, a daughter of Mathew Creed, who had come from Monroe Co., Va., to Rocky Fork, Highland Co., Oh., in 1804.  About the time of his marriage he was elected a Justice of the Peace in Sprigg Township, which position he held until his removal from the county in 1818.  He lived for a time on a farm near the residence of his father-in-law, and the removed to Russellville, Brown Co., where he followed surveying and school teaching until 1829, when he settled on a farm of three hundred and fifty acres one mile north of the present village of Fincastle.  Here he resided until his death, Aug. 7, 1864.  His widow survived until Nov., 1867, having been born in 1790.  Samuel K. Stivers was widely known as a surveyor and civil engineer.  He held the rank of Colonel, in the old State Militia, and had a large circle of warm political friends, among whom was Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, the peer of Tom Corwin in the field of political oratory.  He was a Democrat of the old school a Breckenridge Democrat in 1860, and lived and died a member of the “New Light” or Christian Church.      Among his warm personal friends were Gen. Nathaniel Beasley, Judge George Barrere, Col. James Trimble and Dr. Lilly, and he named the four sons of his family, Beasley, Barrere, Trimble and Lilly.  And his wife named the three daughters for her best friends, Amanda Carlisle, her cousin; Elizabeth Brockway, and Mary Creed, herself.  He and his wife are buried in the old Earl Cemetery near Fincastle, Ohio. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers – 1900 – Page 622)   ELISHA PINKNEY STOUT, Vice-President and Acting President of the Cincinnati Savings Society, located at Nos. 43 and 45 East Fifth Street, in the city of Cincinnati, was born in Greene Township, Adams County, Apr. 5, 1834.  His mother was a daughter of Jonathan Wait, and was born on Blue Creek in the same county, in 1811.  His father, William Stout, was born on Stout's Run, in Greene Township, in 1806.  He was the founder of the village of Rome and sold goods there until his death in 1859.  He was the first Postmaster at Stout, the name of the postoffice of the village of Rome.  Our subject received such education as the common schools afforded and in 1865 went West.  He went to Fort Riley, Kansas, but left there when the Border Ruffian troubles began.  He went  to Council Bluffs, Iowa, in October, 1854, and took part in locating and establishing the city of Omaha.  In 1856, he was elected a member of the Territorial Legislature of Nebraska, and took his seat therein January 3, 1857.      One Winter's legislative experience was sufficient and in the Fall of 1858 like Jo, in "Bleak House," he "moved on" with six others to Pike's Peak, on the discovery of gold there, and with them laid out and started the city of Denver.  In 1861, he returned to Ohio.  From the organization of the 91st O. V. I., he was Sutler of that regiment during its service.      In 1865, he entered into the manufacture of fine cut tobacco in Cincinnati, as one of the firm of Barber and Stout, and carried on an extensive business until 1882, when he retired from active business.  In 1887, he became until 1882, when he retired from active business.  In 1887, he became interested in the manufacture of linseed oil, but gave but little personal attention to the business.  He still owns the plant located at Winton Junction.  He was also interested in the manufacture of woodenware in Paulding County, Ohio, with offices in Cincinnati.  The business was conducted under the name of J. P. Gay & Co.  Mr. Stout established a reputation in Cincinnati, and wherever his business relations extended, for integrity and ability.  For this reason he was invited to become a Trustee of the Cincinnati Savings Society in 1892.  For two years, though nominally its Vice-President, on account of the sickness and absence of the President, he has been its head and chief executive officer.  No one could have been found to have managed it with greater ability and success.  Mr. Stout has a high sense of honor and is strictly correct in all his dealings.  He has great administrative and executive ability and has been successful in all his undertakings.  He would succeed in any financial enterprise, because he would not undertake anywhere he could not command the conditions of success.  He is a man of forceful character, and would lead in any vocation he might adopt.  He has sound judgment, is discreet and prudent, and is unswerving in any course his judgment approves.  He investigates any subject he considers, thoroughly, and when his mind is once made up to a course, he is fearless in its execution.  He has no guide in politics or business, but his high sense of duty.  When he has once determined on a course in any matter, no one can turn him from it, and this is true of him in every relation of life, in banking, in commercial business, or in politics.  He was one of the Trustees who built the waterworks of Wyoming, and is a Director of the Electric Lighting Company, which lights Wyoming and several of the surrounding villages.  Whenever anything was required to be one for the public, and he was called upon to do it, his services have been eminently successful and satisfactory to his constituents.  He is respected and honored by all who know him.      In Nov. 22, 1859, he was married to Miss Margaret Kirk, daughter of A. D. Kirk, of North Liberty, Adams County.  He has four daughters, Mrs. Wilson S. Stearns, whose husband is one of the firm of Stearns, Foster & Co., cotton manufactures of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, another daughter, Mrs. E. E. Moore whose husband is a cotton broker in New York City, but who resides in Hackensack, New Jersey.  He has two daughters at home, Misses Edna and Florence.  He lost his only son at the age of fourteen, some six years since.  He resides in the most attractive home in Wyoming, a suburb of Cincinnati, having thirty acres of ground attached to it in which trees and flowers do their best to make it like the original Eden.      In politics, Mr. Stout has always been a Republican, but has never hesitated to be independent when he thought a duty to the public required it.  Enjoying that high position in business life which his talent have commanded, with an interesting family, and surrounded by the most delightful social relations, it is the hearty wish of his friends that his health and life may be spared many years to enjoy these conditions. Source: History of Adams County, Ohio - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers – West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900 - Page 870)   CHARLES LUTHER SWAIN NOTE:  CORRECTIONS - p. 876.  For "Agnes N. C. Heberling," third line, read "Agnes W. C. Herberling."  For "Miss Anna N. Burkett," in next to last line of first paragraph, read "Miss Anna M. Burkett." Subject was admitted to bar on "May 30, 1893," instead of "March 30." NOTES: