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** RETURN TO BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX ** ** RETURN TO HISTORY CONTENTS **   ADAMS, G. W. - Page 528, Oxford Twp.   ETHAN A. ALLEN - Page 528, Oxford Twp.   JOSEPH ALLEN - Page 582, Union Twp.   ISAAC ANDERSON - Page 463, Ross Twp.   JOHN ANDERSON - Page 491, Liberty Twp.   MRS. SUSAN ANDERSON, of Excello, was born in Maryland in 1883.  When but an infant her grandfather, Samuel Hughes, and her father, Vincent Hughes, with their families and a few others, came to Butler County, where she has lived since that time. Mrs. Anderson obtained a good education when young, and spent eleven yeas of her life in teaching in public schools, mostly in Butler County.  Her father was a farmer and died in 1849.  In 1855 she was married to Benjamin F. Harrison, and in 1861 he entered Co. D, Thirty-fifth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and spent three years in the war; afterwards in the government service, but went to Illinois, where he was injured by a fall, and died from its effects, May, 1867.  Mollie Anderson, her daughter, is a teacher also, and at this time has charge of a school in Butler County.   WILLIAM ANDERSON, miller, and vice-president of the Second National Bank of Hamilton, was born in Winchester, Frederick County, Virginia, January 6, 1812. He is the son of Jacob and Jane (Summerville) Anderson, both of whom were natives of that State. William Anderson was sent to the schools of his native county, receiving only a meager education. At the age of twenty-four he came to what was then the far West, and settled in Hamilton. He was first occupied in the saddlery business, but in 1844 engaged in the dry goods and grocery trade with his brother-in-law, George Louthan, which continued till 1847, when he bought out his partner. In 1850, in company with Mr. Snively, he erected and put into operation a tannery, at a cost of $20,000. In connection with the tannery business they also established a boot and shoe factory, employing about thirty hands, which at that time was one of the largest enterprises of the kind in this section of the country. They also opened a retail store, for the sale of their productions.      In 1853 Mr. Anderson, with B. W. Tanquary, engaged in the milling business, in what was known as the old Hamilton River Mill, but their facilities not being large enough for their rapidly increasing business, they erected a new mill soon afterward, at a cost of from eighteen to twenty thousand dollars.  After ten years of very successful business, a disastrous fire in the month of April, 1864, swept it all away, involving a loss Thirty-one thousand dollars, on which there was an insurance of eleven thousand. Nothing daunted, Mr. Anderson purchased another milk then owned by Lewis D. Campbell, having made arrangements for the Campbell Mill the very morning the other was destroyed. In June, 1866, Mr. Tanquary withdrew from the business, and since that time the firm has been known as Anderson & Co.      Mr. Anderson is one of the largest stockholders in the Second National Bank of Hamilton, and occupies the position of vice-president. He became a member of the Presbyterian Church, in the year 1862, and has been a ruling elder in that organization for eight years. He was married, on the 29th of March, 1836, in Millwood, Virginia, to Rachel C, daughter of James Carter, who was proprietor of the Red Bird Paper Mills, of Frederick County, Virginia. Mr. Carter was a prominent and influential man of that county, and belonged to one of the oldest families in Virginia. As a result of his marriage with this lady, Mr. Anderson has had two daughters, only one of whom survives. Alberta J., who became the wife of the Rev. H. M. Richardson, a Baptist clergyman, of Rochester, New York, died in 1864. Virginia C, the daughter now surviving, is the wife of George K. Shaffer, of Hamilton.      John W. Benninghofen, one of the most highly respected citizens of Hamilton, and a prominent woolen manufacturer, was born on the 12th of March, 1812, in Wuelfrath, in Prussia. His parents had six- children, of whom he was the eldest. Their names were John P. Benninghofen and Wilhelmina Riffeltrath, and the occupation they followed was that of weavers of silk. When he had reached fifteen years of age his school education ceased, and he was apprenticed to the dry goods trade. He remained in this till he was twenty-nine years of age, or the year 1841, and came to the United States in 1848, landing in New Orleans. No sooner had he arrived there than he took passage for Cincinnati, coming immediately to Hamilton. Here he peddled for three years, and then acted as clerk for John W. Sohn in his leather and brewery business, staying in this occupation for about seven years. At the expiration of this time he entered into partnership with Asa Shuler as a woolen manufacturer, and remained in that occupation, under the firm name of Shuler & Benninghofen, until his death, which occurred on the 19th of April, 1881. He was then aged sixty-nine years, one month and seven days.      Mr. Benninghofen was twice married. The first mar­riage was to Gertrude Hiss in Germany, in 1832, who bore him two children: Robert, who died in 1872, and William, who died in 1867. His second marriage was to Miss Wilhelmina E. Klein, on the first of October, 1854, at Cincinnati. She was born in Wirtemberg, Germany, December 14, 1832, but came to America when a child with her parents, John U. and Wilhelmina Klein. The father died in Stark County, in November, 1859 aged seventy-three years, and the mother, whose maiden name was Niss, died in March, 1876, aged eighty-two years. Mr. and Mrs. Benninghofen had five children. Christiana was born September 25, 1855; Wilhelmina, March 29, 1858; Peter, September 29, 1860; Pauline, March. 11, 1863, and Caroline, April 8, 1866. In the late war Robert, his son by the first marriage, served three years, and Mrs. Benninghofen had a brother Christian in the hundred days' service.      Mr. Benninghofen was very highly esteemed. He was a Democrat in politics, and voted first for Franklin Pierce. In appearance he was above the medium size, and somewhat inclined to obesity. He had a large head and a very prominent forehead.   ALLEN ANDREWS was born at Muncie, Indiana, on August 11, 1849. He is a son of George L. and Margaret Andrews, and is the fifth child in a. family of five sons and two daughters. His father, George L. Andrews, was a native of Connecticut. He was a graduate of Vale College, and after leaving that institution, came West, and was one of the pioneer educators in this State and Indiana. He married Miss Margaret Rodebauch, of Dayton, Ohio, while teaching in that city. Some time afterward he removed with his family to Muncie, Indiana, and was in charge of the public schools there for .some time, when his health becoming impaired, he removed to his farm in Jay County, Indiana, where he died, May 28, 1854, from the effect of an injury received some months before in a mill.      Margaret Rodebauch, who became the wife of George L. Andrews, was the daughter of Adam Rodebauch. Her great-grandfather, Adam Rodebauch, came from Germany about the middle of the eighteenth century, and' settled in Pennsylvania. She is still living, seventy years old, and resides at Lancaster, Indiana. When the civil war commenced, her two elder sons, John and William, enlisted under President Lincoln's first call for troops, and served the Union cause till the close of the war.      In the early part of 1863, her next two sons, Furman and Allen, tendered their services in answer to the call for volunteers. The former was accepted, went with Sherman's army on its march to the sea, and was discharged after peace was restored ; the latter was rejected on account of his youth, and remained at home to care for his widowed mother and the other members of the broken family. After the close of the war, Allen. Andrews applied himself to study, having already enjoyed the advantages of the very excellent common school system of the State of Indiana. He engaged in teaching in 1867, previously having been a student at the National Normal, at Lebanon, Ohio. He is a graduate of Liber College, Indiana, and was selected by the faculty to deliver the valedictory address to the graduating class. He was superintendent of the public schools of New Madison, Ohio, during the years of 1871 and 1872.      He read law with the Hon. William Allen, late of Greenville, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio, March 16, 1874, and on May 23, 1874, associated himself with J. K. Riffel in. the practice of his profession, in Greenville. He removed from that place to Hamilton on February 29, 1876, and engaged in practice in this county. He was in partnership with J. C. McKemy from January, 1877, to October, 1880, when the firm was dissolved. On October 18,1880, he associated himself with H. L. Morey and J. E. Morey, under the firm name of Morey, Andrews & Morey.      On January 29, 1879, he was united in marriage with Miss Belle Davis, second daughter of John P. Davis, of Hamilton, Ohio, by his first wife, whose maiden name was Blair. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and also a member of the Masonic order. He is the W. M. of Washington Lodge, No. 17, Free and Accepted Masons, in which position he has acted for the last three years.   ISAAC ANDREWS (Madison Twp.) was born in Wayne Township, Butler County, in 1848.  His parents  were Henry Andrews and Eleanor Long.  He was married in 1873 to Emma Hellebrecht, daughter of Henry and Mary Hellebrecht, born at Walnut Hills, and has had two children, Harry and Alfred, the former being dead.  Joseph Rogers,  a member of his family, was in the Mexican War, and his half brother, Samuel Knees, served during the late struggle.   JAMES CAMPBELL ANDREWS - Page 464, Ross Twp.   ROBERT NEWELL ANDREWS, the son of William Andrews and Harriet Newell, was born September 16, 1839, in Ross Township, in this county, and was brought up on a farm. He received a common school education. . His mother died when he was but nine years of age. " In the Spring of 1861, he came to Hamilton, and worked at milling for Tanquary & Anderson, until the Spring of 1862. He spent the year of 1862 and part of 1863 in Preble County, at work in the mill for Barnett & Whiteside. He came back to Hamilton in the Summer of 1863, and worked for John Lamb in the West Hamilton Mills. He went into the sheriff's office as deputy sheriff under A. J. Rees, in May, 1864, and remained with him until his term of office was closed. He was elected sheriff of Butler County in October, 1867, and was reelected in 1869, making a total service of four years.      During his administration occurred the only execution for murder or other crime that has ever happened in this county. John Griffin was tried for the murder of Usile Prickett, and convicted at the January term of court in 1869, and was executed July 29, 1869. Alfred Anderson was born in Wheeling, Virginia, February, 24, 1824. His mother, Mary Clark, was a free woman, reared from early childhood by Mrs. Ralston, the widow of an officer in the American Revolution. His father's name was Shannon, the brother of Governor Shannon, of Ohio and Kansas. When the boy was three or four years old, his mother married Robert G. H. Anderson, who not long after removed to Cincinnati. They remained there until 1832, when the Asiatic cholera compelled a hasty retreat to the small towns in the neighborhood, and the Anderson family were first in Hamilton and afterwards in Richmond. They settled permanently in this place in 1837, where Alfred has ever since lived, with the exception of twelve years spent in the South.      At the period when he first came to this city the State made no provision for the education of colored . children, and he consequently never had but three months' schooling in his life. His constant study at home, with much reading, has, however, made him well acquainted with English literature, and given him a good knowledge of French and Spanish. He married the daughter of a clergyman when still a young man, who bore him nine children, and died in 1863. In 1865 he again married. Both of his unions were fortunate ones. He was enabled to send some of his children to college, and he gave them all as good a training as he could.      He was early identified with the anti-slavery cause. In 1843 he aided in editing the Palladium of Liberty, published in Columbus, the first newspaper attempted by the colored men in Ohio. A few years later he became interested in the Colored Citizen, of Cincinnati, and he was a regular contributor to the North Star, published by Frederick Douglass, and the Liberator, edited by William Lloyd Garrison.  He prosecuted, at his own expense, a case through the courts of Ohio, by which a large portion of the colored citizens were enabled to vote, who previously had not been allowed to exercise that privilege. He has also done much to aid those to reach a place of safety who were escaping from slavery. His name has of late been prominently spoken of for minister to Hayti, a post for which he would be well fitted. He is an agreeable and pleasant companion, an excellent raconteur, a man of keen intellect and biting wit, and impressive and dignified carriage. His memory is excellent, his knowledge of history and politics has been sedulously cultivated, and his reasoning powers are good. He has a fine command of the mother-tongue, both in writing and speaking, and is a man of excellent private character.   ABEL APPLETON, a pioneer of this valley, came from New Jersey to Morgan Township, with his wife and family, about 1807.  His wife's maiden name was Betsey Reeves.  She died about  1860, and her husband about 1832.  This union produced five children, now all dead: Jane, wife of George King; Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Otto; Pearson; Catharine, wife of Enoch Larison, and John.  Pearson Appleton was born in New Jersey about 1803; he married Margaret Mahaffey, of this county.  They had eight children:  Nancy, wife of David Morris, of Hamilton County; John, now a resident of Okeana; Elizabeth Ann, wife of John Morgan, - dead; Isabelle, wife of John Arkenbyer, now of Kansas; Sarah, wife of Josiah Deen, of Marion County, Indiana; Mary, widow of Michael Milholland, of Hamilton County, Ohio; Abel, married and lives in Iowa; Phoebe, wife of Amos Cann, lives in Kansas. . JOHN L. APPLETON was born November 12, 1824, and married Esther Ann McHenry December 16, 1846.  His wife was born in Delhi Township, Hamilton County, Ohio, June 11, 1826.  This marriage resulted in ten children:  Pearson, born November 6, 1847, died July 6, 1848; Lindsay, born July 10, 1849, married and residing in this township; Rhoda, born September 12, 1852, wife of Amos Van Loo, of Preble County, Ohio; Pearson E., born July 31, 1855, married and a citizen of Morganb; Margaret A., born August 7, 1857, and wife of James Freiling, of this township; William W., born April 1, 1859; Wallace W., born May 2, 1862; Charlotte R., born May 22, 1866; Canowels, born September 14, 1868, and Enoch McHenry, born July 23, 1871.  Mr. Appleton is one of the representative men of Butler County.  His family moves in the best circles of society. . . ELBERT ARMSTRONG, M.D. - Page 478, Fairfield Twp.   WILLIAM M. ARMSTRONG was born in this county November 19, 1843, his father being James Martin Armstrong, and his mother Elizabeth Patterson.  They came to this county in 1830.  Mr. Armstrong enlisted in 1862 as a private, remaining until the end of the war.  He was also captain of the Tytus Guards, Company D, Fourth Regiment Ohio National Guards, taking command August 9, 1877.  He has been mayor for a year, councilman two years, captain of the firs department six years under the Holly system, and five years under the old Miami volunteers.  He was married in Middletown Aug. 26, 1878. to Catherine J. Leibee, daughter of Daniel Leibee and Sarah Enyart, who came herein 1820.  She was born in Middletown, Mar. 4, 1840.  They have four children: Harry B., Fred M., Paul and Ada.   AMOS ATHERTON, born in 1793, married Mary Francis, born in 1797, daughter of Davis.  The result of this marriage was a family of ten children, four of whom were twins: David F., born 1817, a resident of Morgan; Phoebe, born 1819, widow of Andrew McCoy Wakefield, of New Haven, Hamilton County, Ohio; Elijah, born 1821 - dead; Abner, born 1823, married and lives in Iowa; Francis, born in 1823 - dead; Mary, born 1827 - dead; Elizabeth, born 1830, wife of David Pottenger, of New Haven, Ohio; Amos W., Born in 1832 - dead; Mary, born in 1835 - dead; Rachel, wife of Joseph McHenry, of New Haven, Ohio.  Amos Atherton came to Hamilton County, Ohio, about 1808, where he acquired a large body of land near the Shaker village, living there at the time of his death.  He was a man of deep religious convictions, and distinguished for his liberality in Church matters. . DAVID F. ATHERTON married for his first wife Jane Gwilym, daughter of Morgan Gwilym, of this township.  Mrs. Atherton was born in 1819, and died February 5, 1867.  This marriage resulted in two children, both of whom are dead.  For his second wife Mr. Atherton married Jane, daughter of Hugh Price, born in Franklin County, Ohio, 1840.  The fruits of this union were two children, one of whom still lives.  Mr. Atherton came to Morgan Township in 1844, and settled on the Morgan-Gwilym estate, in sight of New London, where he still resides, respected by every body.   WILLIAM ATHERTON.  Among the most prominent of the old pioneers was William Atherton, born May 21, 1808, in Boston, Mass., and married in 1830, to Elizabeth Wiley, who was born in Hamilton County, Colerain Township, June 24, 1810.  This marriage brought forth nine children, as follows:  George, born October 30, 1831, married and lives in Terre Haute, Indiana; Henry, born October 21, 1833, and died February 28, 1839; Amos, born December 27, 1835, married, and lives in Missouri; Olive, born September 21, 1837, the wife of B. F. Clark, of Venice; Naomi, born March 1, 1840, unmarried, at home; Mary, Born June 21, 1842, now dead; Belinda, born January 5, 1845, died March 12, 1876; William, born January 5, 1845, died March 12, 1876; William, born May 26, 1847, met his death by an accident November 9, 1861; Jane, born February 22, 1850, wife of Austin Scott, the son of William H. Scott, of Crosby Township, both men of many excellent parts.  These last named live near Harrison, Ohio.  Mr. Atherton was brought when a child ten years of age to Hamilton County, and in 1836 purchased two hundred acres of land in this township, on which he took up his residence.  He met his death from cholera, June 21, 1858.  His widow still resides on the old farm.  William Atherton was a hard-working farmer; and in all his undertakings was a man of probity and intimate success.   JOHN AUER was born in Bavaria, Germany, June 7, 1834, and landed in the United States in 1844.  He went to work in a tobacco factory at the age of twelve, and worked in it till 1864, beginning a manufactory in that year in Cincinnati.  His place of business was moved in 1869 to Middletown, Ohio, where he still remains, conducting a large and extensive business.   In the year 1819 CHRISTIAN AUGSPURGER and family, and his brother JOSEPH AUGSPURGER, and his second cousin, JACOB AUGSPURGER and family, and others, immigrated from near Strasbourg, France, to Butler County, and settled near Collinsville, Milford Township, where Christian Augspurger bought a farm of about three hundred acres of land, of which there was about one hundred acres improved; but as the other Augspurgers were short of means they rented farms.  Tings looked very gloomy then, however, for farmers, and to make money was almost an impossibility, as the prices for produce were very much depressed, and there was no money scarcely to be had for any thing.  Corn was ten cents per bushel; wheat, twenty-five cents; butter three cents per pound, and pork one dollar and a half per hundred pounds, net.  Whisky, however, was fifty cents a gallon, but people did not know how to manufacture it then as well as they do now, and beer was scarcely known in Butler County.  Whisky, however, was the most profitable product, as it could be transported to the market with less expense, as there were no turnpikes, canals, or railroads, to facilitate travel; in fact, there were nothing but mud-roads.  The farm implements, also, were very inferior to those now used, and grain separators, reapers, self-binders, and mowers were not known.  Grain was cut with the sickle, and here and there a cradle was used.      The change for the Augspurgers from Europe to America was very great, and especially for Christian Augspurger, as he lived on one of the finest and best improved farms in France, consisting of about five hundred acres of choice land.  The farm was leased for a number of years, and belonged to Charles Schulmeister, who served as a spy under Napoleon the First, and was considered to be one of his best.  His property was very valuable.  The farm on which Christian Augsburgerlived was so well improved, that princely personages and generals in the army frequently paid their visits there.  Schulmeister also lived on the farm.  It happened, however, that Marshal Bertrand received a large territory from Napoleon the First, on which he wished to introduce farming according to French style, and sought advice or information in regard to it; for which purpose he requested Christian Augspurger to come to Paris, where Bertrand lived.  Christian Augspurger complied with the request, and, in the company with his cousin, Nicholas Augspurger, were there for the purpose, to the satisfaction of the marshal.  They were shown through all the parliamentary buildings and saw the throne.  Later, Christian Augspurger received the medal of the Legion of Honor, which is now in possession of his children as a memento.  The medal consists of a ruby in the form of a star, with gilded points, and a ribbon affixed thereto, with a description, and signed in the name of the emperor.      In 1827, however, Christian Augspurger's family had increased to twelve in number, six sons and six daughters.  The names of his sons were Joseph, Christian, Jacob, John, Samuel, and Frederick; and the names of his daughters were Catherina, Magdelina, Barbara, Mary, Jacobina, and Anna.  In 1829 Christian Augspurger bought another farm, about two and a half miles south of Trenton, in Madison Township where he moved in 1830; and later the other Augspurgers followed him to the vicinity of Trenton also.      In 1846 Christian Augspurger's wife died, and in 1848 he also died.  The property that Christian owned consisted of nineteen hundred and seventy-five acres of choice land in Butler County, besides a large personal estate, which was all divided equally among his children.  The number of the descendants of the Augspurgers now living is about one hundred and eight, of whom about one hundred and fifty are living in Butler County; the others have moved to Illinois and Iowa, and two, C. Kinsinger and F. Kinsinger, are now living in Cincinnati with their families.  The amount of land now owned by the descendants of the Augspurgers, in Butler, Warren, and Preble Counties, is about three thousand six hundred and sixty-three acres.  The Augspurgers nearly all belong to the Mennonite denomination, as their fathers did.   MOSES G. AUGSPURGER was born in Madison Township Feb. 23, 1845, and was married Mar. 19, 1874, to Anna Schlumeger, born the same day as her husband.  His parents were Nicholas Augspurger and Magdalena Gautsche, who were born in 1819, and hers were Peter Schlumeger and Jacobina King.  They have three children.  Albert was born May 23, 1875; Alma Magdalena, May 25, 1877, and Barda, July 10, 1880.  Mr. Augspurger was reared on a farm, working with his father until he was twenty-five years old, when he began to do for himself, renting land of his father.  He remained thus until February, 1879, when he bought the place he now occupies, of one hundred and three acres, which is under a good state of cultivation.  Mr. Augspurger is a Mennonite, as is also his wife, and their parents before them. - Page 600, Madison Twp.         NOTES: