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OHIO GENEALOGY EXPRESS
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Fairfield County, Ohio
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BIOGRAPHIES
WILLIAM SHARP.
Fortunate is the man who has back of him an ancestry
honorable and distinguished, and happy is he if his lines of
life are cast in harmony therewith. The Sharp family has
through almost an entire century been closely associated
with the history of Fairfield county, its members taking a
very prominent and active part in political and business
affairs, their efforts being of marked value in advancing
general progress. Through four generations the family has
been represented in the Ohio legislature, the paternal
grandfather of our subject, Joseph Sharp,
serving as a member of the first general assembly of this
state. He was born. in Pennsylvania and in 1802 emigrated to
this state, casting in his lot with its pioneer settlers who
were laying broad and deep the foundation for the present
prosperity and progress of the community. He died on a farm
one mile north of St. Qairsville. Joseph Sharp,
Jr., the father of our subject, was born in the Keystone
state, June 4, 1800, and was only two years old when brought
by his parents to Ohio, where amid the wild scenes of the
frontier he was reared, pursuing his education in the
old-time log school house. The family first settled in
Belmont county, where they lived for about twenty-one years.
They then removed to Muskingum county and the father of our
subject purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in
the midst of the dense forest. He continued to make it his
place of abode through the succeeding seventeen years, going
then to Taylorsville, where he built a dam across the
Muskingum river. There he remained until coming to Fairfield
county in 1839. Here he purchased the farm upon which
William Sharp is now living. He made his way to
this county in order to build the dam which is now known as
Sharp's dam, and being pleased with the district he
decided to remove his family to this place. In connection
with the home farm he purchased the mill land, consisting of
three hundred and twenty acres. In 1822 Joseph
Sharp had been married to Miss Anna Lee,
a native of Belmont county, Ohio, and they became the
parents of eleven children, namely: Robert L., James and
Joseph, who have all passed away; William, the
subject of this sketch; Mary, who married Daniel
Stuckey, of Sugar Grove; Agnes, who has also
passed away; George, living about two miles east of
Rushville; John, who resides near Pleasantville; and
three children who died in infancy. Mr. Sharp
exercised his right of franchise in support of the men and
measures of the Democrat party and upon that ticket was
elected to the state legislature in 1843, proving to be an
active working member of the body. He was also justice of
the peace,. school director and trustee, filling the latter
position for a number of years. He and his wife were members
of the United Presbyterian church and he belonged to the
Masonic lodge in Zanesville. He possessed great energy,
determination and activity, and it was his constant desire
to progress. In speech he was frank, in manner genial and
cordial, and all who knew him were counted among his
friends.
William Sharp was born in Muskingum
county, Ohio, November 17, 1831, and obtained his mental
discipline in the schools of Berne township and in
Lancaster, where he remained until about seventeen years of
age. He then gave his entire attention to farm. work upon
the old family homestead and after his marriage he purchased
a farm about one mile from the old place, becoming owner of
a tract of ninety-eight acres, which his well directed
labors transformed into rich and arable fields, returning to
him excellent harvests.
The lady who presides over his home was in her
maidenhood Miss Ellen J. Cutler, a native of
Athens county, Ohio. The wedding was solemnized in 1859 and
eight children have been born unto them: Charles C, a
resident of West Virginia; Joseph, who resides on a
farm adjoining his father's place; Thomas, who is at home
with his father; Jennie, who resides in Nelsonviller
Ohio; Frederick, also at home; William, who
makes his home in California; John, a resident of
Oregon; and Annie, who married R. J. Conrad,
of Lancaster. In his political views Mr. Sharp
endorses the Democracy and has served as township treasurer,
while for a number of years' he has been township trustee.
During one half of his life he has been connected with the
school board, and the cause of education finds in him a warm
friend who does all in his power for its advancement. |
CHARLES ROBERT
SHERMAN
The name of Charles Robert Sherman
figures conspicuously in the early history of Fairfield
county and also in the history of the state. He, of whom we
write, was prominent in civil and military circles and won
distinction as a most eminent member of the early Ohio bar.
His was a strong and upright manhood; the sterling qualities
of his nature were inherited by his two sons, John
and William Sherman, whose names adorn the
pages of American history; the one attaining to the highest
eminence as a statesman, the other winning military
distinction.
Charles Robert Sherman was born in
Norwalk, Connecticut, on the 17th of September, 1788.
He was the eldest son of Judge Taylor
Sherman and Elizabeth Stoddard. Taylor
Sherman, son of Judge Daniel Sherman,
was born in 1758 arid was married in 1787 to Elizabeth
Stoddard. They moved to Norwalk, Connecticut, where
he spent his life, dying May 15, 1815. Elizabeth
Stoddard was born at Woodbury, Connecticut, June 17,
1767. After the death of her husband she came to Ohio with
her children, living first with Charles R.
Sherman in Lancaster. Here her first daughter,
Elizabeth, married the future Judge Parker,
who studied law with Charles R. Sherman, and she went
with them to live in Mansfield, Ohio. She was a
granddaughter of Rev. Anthony Stoddard
of Connecticut. She died in Mansfield, Ohio, August 1, 1848.
Charles R. Sherman received a good
education, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1810.
May 8, 1810, he was married to Mary Hoyt, of
Norwalk, Connecticut, a playmate from childhood. She was the
daughter of Isaac Hoyt, a prominent citizen of
Norwalk, a man in comfortable circumstances. She was
educated at the Poughkeepsie, New York. Female Seminary.
In 1810, some months after he was married, he came to
Ohio to look up a location. He visited Lancaster and decided
to make his home there, and in December of that year or in
the winter of 1811 he returned to Connecticut, where, he
remained until the summer of 1811, when he, in company with
his wife and young child, Charles T. Sherman returned
to Lancaster. The trip was made en horseback, and the babe
was carried the entire distance resting on a pillow. The
trip showed the pluck and spirit of this New-England couple.
Charles R. Sherman immediately became one of the
leading spirits of his new home, and we find him within one
year the major of the First Regiment of Ohio Militia. He was
the brilliant young orator who addressed the militia, called
together by the governor for the purpose of obtaining
volunteers for the war against Great Britain. This
event took place April 16, 1812. His speech was reported by
Sanderson's Independent Press and may be found in
John Sherman's Autobiography. The result of this
meeting was the raising of a company by George
Sanderson, which was soon to be surrendered by
General Hull at Detroit.
November 9, 1813, he was appointed by President
Madison, collector of internal revenue for the Third
District of Ohio, which position he held for many years. In
July, 1817, without previous notice, the government refused
to take any money from collectors, except paper of the Bank
of the United States. This order found large sums in the
hands of his deputies in currency that soon became
worthless. To add to this calamity, some of his deputies
failed; and failure on his part could not be averted.
Sherman went down, and his bondsmen, Judge
Samuel Carpenter and Judge Daniel
Van Metre, went with him. It is well known
that Mr. Sherman subsequently made good their
losses and squared his accounts with the government... In
1823 he was elected one of the judges of the supreme court
of Ohio by the legislature. His associates were Judges
Pease, Hitchcock and Burnett, men of
great ability and wide experience. It is sufficient evidence
of his ability as a lawyer to know that the Ohio legislature
thought him worthy to be the associate of such eminent
jurists. He died at Lebanon, Ohio, June 24, 1829, in his
forty-first year, in the prime of life and in the midst of
usefulness. It is safe to say that at the time of his death
he was the ablest lawyer and most popular citizen of
Lancaster, second to no man.
The first case of Charles R. Sherman as attorney
at the Lancaster bar, that is recorded, is Fanny
Mills against Jacob Boos, the overseer of the
poor, for the restoration of her child Peggy, who had
been taken from her on the plea that she could not support
her. She was an unmarried woman, the child a mulatto. The
petition in this case is dated December 18, 1810. At the
January term, 1812, he was prosecuting attorney. But his
name is not again mentioned in that connection and the
presumption is that R. F. Slaughter was sick or
absent and that he performed the duty of prosecutor that
term by direction of the court.
Judge Sherman is described as a gentle
genial man with a brilliant mind and sound judgment, and
both as judge and man of stainless integrity. He had the
esteem and confidence of his associates upon the bench. and
made friends in every court room and was the idol of the
young lawyers of Ohio.
For many years he was a very prominent and enthusiastic
member of the Masonic fraternity and roaster of the lodge in
Lancaster. Judge Sherman was a hospitable man
and his home was the center of a refined society. He
entertained many distinguished guests. Governor De
Witt Clinton and the Duke of Saxe Weimier were
entertained by him in the year 1825.
He was a trustee of the Ohio University at Athens, and
a member of the committee that examined Thomas
Ewing in grammar, rhetoric, languages, geography,
natural and moral philosophy, logic, astronomy and
mathematics. The committee expressed much gratification at
his proficiency, and May 3, 1815, recommended him for the
degree of Bachelor of Arts and Sciences. The death of
Judge Sherman left his widow with the care and
training of eleven children, none of whom had reached their
majority and with limited means for their support. The
friend's of Judge Sherman came to her relief
and assisted in caring for the children. In the year 1844
she removed to Mansfield, Ohio, where John Sherman and the
two youngest daughters made up the family. The young people
soon married, but she continued to keep house up to the time
of her death, September 23, 1852. Her remains were brought
to Lancaster and interred beside those of her husband in
Elmwood Cemetery. The history of the eleven Orphan children
of Judge Sherman is a very remarkable one. The daughters
were all happily married to men who attained prominence in
the communities in which they live. The sons were all
successful men in business or in professions.
Elizabeth married William J. Reese;
Amelia, Robert McComb, of Mansfield;
Julia, John G. Willock, of Lancaster;
Susan, Thomas W. Bartley, of Mansfield,
who became governor of Ohio and judge of the supreme court;
and Farrie married C. W. Moulton, of
Cincinnati. There are those still living in Lancaster who
witnessed the sorrow and distress of the mother and her
small children on that awful day when the news came that
Judge Sherman was dying in a distant town, but
kind friends and time, with its healing power, soothed their
sorrows and dried their tears. The good mother lived to see
her children well established in the world and her two
favorite boys just entering upon careers as wonderful and as
honorable as any of the century. |
PHILEMON B. STANBERY.
The true measure of individual success is determined by
what one has accomplished, and, as taken in
contradistinction to the old adage that a prophet is not
without honor save in his own country, there is particular
interest attaching to the career of the subject of this
review, since he is a native son of the place where he has
passed his active life, and so directed his ability and
efforts as to gain recognition as one of the representative
citizens of Lancaster. He is actively connected with a
profession which has important bearing upon the progress and
stable prosperity of any section or community and one which
has long been considered as conserving the public welfare by
furthering the ends of justice and maintaining individual
rights. For many years he served on the probate bench and no
more capable officer has ever occupied that position.
An inherited tendency and environment have both
undoubtedly had much to do in shaping the career of Judge
Philemon Beecher Stanbery. His maternal
grandfather was Philemon Beecher, a native of
Virginia Connecticut, who became an eminent member
of the bar of Lancaster, of which Thomas Ewing
was so long the acknowledged leader. His daughter married
Henry Stanbery, who was the second member of that
bar in point of ability and distinction. Among the five
children born of Henry and Frances E. (Beecher)
Stanbery was the subject of this review, and in his
christening was perpetuated the full name of his maternal
grandfather. His parents had become residents of Lancaster,
where his father was practicing law, and it was here that
the Judge was born on the 5th of May, 1832. At the usual age
he entered the public schools and later he spent four years
as a student in the Kinsley Military Academy, situated on
the Hudson river, one mile below West Point, where he
remained between the ages of thirteen and seventeen years.
Like his father he manifested special fondness for books and
a desire to acquire a broad classical education. He mastered
his studies with ease and rapidity and when seventeen years
of age matriculated in Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio,
where he remained two years, that institution being one of
the most reputable for higher education in the west,
numbering among its students men who afterward attained
marked distinction in various walks of life. The Judge,
however, completed his college course in the Ohio University
in Athens, where he was graduated with high honors with the
class of 1853.
At that time he entered upon his business career as a
member of a corps of civil engineers engaged in surveying
the line and establishing the grade of the Ohio Central and
of the Little Miami Railroads. Upon the completion of this
work in 1856 he made his way westward to Fort Des Moines,
which afterward became the capital of Iowa, and at that
place he was admitted to the bar and entered upon the
practice of law, for during his college course and
subsequent thereto he had quietly and persistently pursued a
course of reading and study of the law under the direction
of his father, so that. he was well qualified to become an
active member of the profession. When two years had passed
he removed to Leavenworth, Kansas, where he remained until
1860, but he had a stronger attachment for the state of his
nativity than he did for the west and after four years spent
beyond the Mississippi he returned to Ohio and took up his
abode in Pomeroy, where he entered into a law partnership
with Captain S. A. Burnap, which continued for
several years.
At the opening of the Rebellion Mr. Stanbery
became a patriotic advocate of the Union cause and
manifested his loyalty to the national government by joining
Company E of the Fourth Regiment of West Virginia Infantry,
of which he was made a. first lieutenant in July, 1861.
Immediately afterward he was appointed adjutant of the
regiment and in 1862 was selected by General H. B. Ewing
as chief of staff, in which capacity he served until his
return to his, regiment in 1863. At the siege of
Vicksburg in that year he was severely wounded and in
consequence of his disability occasioned by his injuries he
was granted an honorable discharge from the service on the
10th of September, 1863.
Upon his return home Judge Stanbery
resumed the practice of law and his clientage gradually
increased in volume and importance with the growth of the
town. In public affairs he also took an active part and was
elected mayor of Pomeroy, discharging both the
administrative and judicial duties appertaining to the
office with such popular approval as to command re-election
again and again, and when at length his mayoralty service
was ended he retired from office as he had entered it—with
the confidence and good will of the entire public. In 1870
he was elected probate judge of Meigs county, and twice
afterward was he chosen to that office, holding the position
for nine successive years. A contemporary biographer, in
speaking of this period of his life, has stated: All the
rights and interests of widows and orphans, heirs and
legatees were carefully protected. His official duty was
performed in accordance with the law and his own sense of
justice, without favor or prejudice. His intellectual
integrity and moral honesty n& less than the obligation
imposed by his oath of office impelled not simply a
financial accounting but also painstaking investigation to
ascertain the right and the equity of every claim, whether
of heir or creditor. Through it all he maintained the
judicial acumen, the unswerving impartiality and the
discriminating sense of justice which belong to the legal
mind; the sensitiveness to criticism and the delicate
appreciation of honor which are among the noteworthy
characteristics of the noble and high-spirited man. In
public office and in private life he has proved his fitness
to be designated as the upright judge, the honest man.
On the 20th of November, 1867, Judge Stanbery
was united in marriage to Miss Margaret M. Hart. Five
children were born of this union, Cecilia, Henry,
Philemon B., Hart and Louisa.
All of them are living except the eldest daughter,
Cecilia, who died at the age of twenty-three. She was a
most charming young woman in all the graces of person and
the attributes of mind. Her vivacity, sweetness of temper,
and the loveliness of character lent a distinct
attractiveness to the delightful home, and her early death
brought to the hearts of doting parents the deepest grief.
In remembrance of her inspiring virtues, and as a fitting
memorial, Judge Stanbery erected at Pomeroy a
handsome rectory in connection with Grace Episcopal church,
one of the most artistically beautiful church edifices in
southern Ohio in architecture and adornment.
The Judge is an honored and active member of the Grand
Army of the Republic, belonging to Gamaliel
Bartlett Post, of Pomeroy. He takes great interest in
perpetuating the comradeship and the memory of the great
achievements of the Civil war. In all his business affairs
Judge Stanbery has been known as a man of
sterling worth. and unswerving integrity. He possesses
excellent executive force and keen sagacity and these
elements have enabled him to make judicious investments
which have proven a source of desirable profit and income.
He has never engaged in speculation,. but along legitimate
business lines has won a handsome competence. He has ever
occupied a prominent position in the foremost rank of the
legal practitioners of Lancaster. His life has been one of
untiring activity and has been crowned with a high degree of
success, yet he is not less esteemed as a citizen than as a
lawyer, and his kindly impulses and charming cordiality of
manner have rendered him exceedingly popular among all
classes. The favorable judgment which the world passed upon
him in his early years has never been set aside nor in any
degree modified. It has, on the contrary, been emphasized by
his careful conduct of important litigation, his candor and
fairness in the presentation of cases, his zeal and
earnestness as an advocate, and the generous commendation he
has received from his contemporaries, who unite in bearing
testimony as to his high character and superior mind. |
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