History of Pickaway County

(Source:  History of Franklin & Pickaway Counties, Ohio
with Illustrations & Biographical Sketches of Some of the Prominent Men & Pioneers>
Published by William Bros. - 1880)
 

CIRCLEVILLE
 

* CIRCLEVILLE   
       * ORIGIN OF NAME & DESCRIPTION OF ANCIENT MOUNDS
       * CHURCHES
       * SCHOOLS  - in process
       * CEMETERIES
       * MERCANTILE INTERESTS
       * SOCIETIES
       * TOWNSHIP
            *ORIGINAL PROPRIETORSHIP
            * SETTLEMENTS
            * INCORPORATION OF THE TOWNSHIP OF CIRCLEVILLE
            * INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS IN THE TOWNSHIP.
            * THE MEDICAL PROFESSION OF CIRCLEVILLE
       * BIOGRAPHIES

BIOGRAPHIES
 

ATWATER, Caleb (227) BROWN, Marcus, Dr. (239) CRADLEBAUGH, John, Colonel (228) DARST, Elizabeth C. DREISBACH, John, The Rev. (229) GROCE, John (233) GROCE, John H., Capt. (234) HITLER, George KEFFER, Valentine, Colonel (228) LUDWIG, Jacob (232) MARFIELD Family (186) MARTIN, William (232) McCOY, James

McCULLOCH, Samuel W., Capt. (240) McCREA, Adam McCREA, Matthew RAY, Kingsley, Dr. (236) RAY, Mary M., Mrs. (238) RENICK, William (231) SMITH, Edward (235) SMITH, Joseph P. (235) SMITH, T. C. (234) TURNEY, Nelson J. (241) TURNEY, Samuel D., M.D. VanCLEAF, Aaron R. ZIEGLER Family (228)

THE MARFIELD FAMILY.
     John Marfield was a resident of the mining town of Bardenburg, on the lower Rhine, Germany, and was probably in some way connected with mining interests.  He was married to Elizabeth Spies, and at the latter end of the last century emigrated to America with his family, consisting of his wife and two daughters - Penelope and Hannah.  He located, soon after reaching this country, in Baltimore, Maryland, and successfully engaged in merchandising.  In Baltimore were born five more children - William, Catharine, Samuel, John, Henry, and Elizabeth.  All were reared in the school of domestic discipline and economy and simplicity of character.  The wife was a kind, warm-hearted, gentle, christian woman.  The father ruled with the rod - the mother with love.  Before the children grew to maturity their father died, but they enjoyed the love and affection of their mother until, ripe with a good old age, she passed away, in 1851.  the boys, as they grew to manhood.
     The regiment was largely recruited in Pickaway county, and contained the flower of the youth of the community.  It was organized in August, 1862, and soon after being mustered in, was ordered to the front to join the army which was being massed to operate against Vicksburg, Mississippi.  On Dec. 28th, General W. T. Sherman, in command, embarked his forces on the Yazoo river above and in the rear of the rebel army protecting that strongly entrenched citadel, and on the twenty-ninth charged their lines.  It was a day of slaughter and defeat.  Lieutenant Marfield fell, and was buried by his comrades near the battlefield.  The army retreated; but six months after, when General Grant captured Vicksburg, the same faithful comrades sought out and recovered the remains of their friend and officer, and they now rest in the beautiful Forest cemetery.  The name of Lieutenant James T. Marfield is held in dear remembrance, for he was, in every true sense a man.
     Samuel, Jr., the youngest son, whose portrait heads this sketch, after the completion of his collegiate course spent some time in foreign travel, visiting France, Switzerland, Germany, and the British Isles.  From 1866 to 1875 he was engaged in commercial pursuits as a wholesale grocer and produce merchant.  Dec. 18, 1867, he was married to Florence L., daughter of Dr. A. W. Thompson, of Circleville.  To them have been born five children: Dwight S., born Dec. 11, 1868; William T., born Aug. 30, 1870; George R., born Aug. 2, 1872; James T., born Mar. 24, 1874; Elizabeth Spies, born Feb. 28, 1875.  James T. died in infancy, Sep. 13, 1874.
     Dec. 1, 1875, Samuel Marfield, jr., assumed editorial direction and general management of the Circleville Herald and Union, shortly afterward changed to The Union-Herald, and April 1st, following, was appointed, by President Grant, postmaster of Circleville, both of which positions he occupies at this time.
.

GEORGE HITLER, son of George and Susannah (Gay) Hitler, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, September 27, 1798.  His father was a native of Maryland, but removed with his parents to Franklin county, Pennsylvania, when young; and in 1793, having then a family of wife and two children, settled in Somerset county, in the same State, where the subject of our sketch was born, as already stated.  In April, 1799, Mr. Hitler sr.,  emigrated to Ohio.  His family made the journey down the Ohio river, to the mouth of the Scioto, on a flat-boat, Mr. Hitler himself brining through a number of horses for himself and others.  From the mouth of the Scioto the journey was with team and wagon, the wagon being said to have been the second that ever came up the Scioto valley.
     At this time there were but two log homes in Chillicothe, and the country was almost a complete wilderness.
     Mr. Hitler, sr., settled on the lower plains, in Pickaway township, but subsequently located on Scippo creek, on land then owned by Benjamin Duncan.  In 1804 he bought and settled in Wshington township, section thirty-three, where he died, April 2, 1818, and his wife, September 16, 1848.
     In 1819 George Hitler, in connection with his brother Jacob purchased a quarter section of land in the south part of Washington township, which land is now owned by his son, Thomas L. Hitler.  Upon this farm they raised wheat, which they manufactured into flour and shipped on flat-boats to New Orleans.  This they found far more remunerative than to sell the grain at home, which brought at one time only twenty-five cents per bushel.  The first trip was made by Jacob, in 1819, and each of the brothers subsequently made five separate trips, covering a period of ten years.  George Hitler, on one occasion, was fifty days in going from Boggsville to New Orleans.  He returned on a steamer, and was about three months in making the round trip.
     Mr. Hitler was married June 14, 1829, to Hannah Ludwig, daughter of Thomas and Catharine Ludwig.  He settled on his first purchase, and resided there until 1838, when he located where he now lives.
      Mr. Hitler's occupation has been that of a farmer, and his career has been a very successful one, owning at this time about one thousand acres of land.  While practicing a wise economy in the expenditure of his means, he has always been liberal in his support of every object which he considered worthy of it.    
     Mr. Hitler has reached the good old age of eighty-one, and few, if any, of the inhabitants of Pickaway county can date, as he can, their first residence here back to 1799.  Save a little rheumatism, his health is almost as good as it ever was.  He is a man of energy, of character, and of strict integrity.
     His wife died July 3, 1863.  They had seven children, as follows:  Eliza, born July 4, 1830 - died Aug. 21, 1831; Mary, born Oct. 30, 1831 - married Daniel Hosler, and is now deceased; Catharine, born Dec. 16, 1835 - became the wife of Amos Hoffman and died Nov. 25, 1858; Eleanor, born Nov. 22, 1833 - died Jan. 21, 1837; Susannah, born Mar. 29, 1840, is the wife of Alexander Ross, and resides in Indiana; Thomas L., born Apr. 4, 1842 - married, Dec. 14, 1876, Martha A. Lindsey, and in Washington township; George W. married, Feb. 21, 1878, Ida Lutz,  and occupies the home farm.

ELIZABETH C. DARST, Editress of the Circleville Herald, and a sketch of whose ancestry appears elsewhere, was born and educated in Circleville, being valedictorians of the high school, class of 1865.  From that time until she assumed the editorial and financial charge of the Herald, Miss Darst was a constant contributor to the press of Circleville, and her poems, over the signature of "Kenneth," have been copied from their columns, and from the Standard of the Cross, The Modern Argo, and other papers into the leading literary journals of New York, Philadelphia, and cities of Canada.  The Record of the Year, a magazine devoted to gathering the brightest articles from the newspapers to give them a permanent form, has included many of Miss Darst's productions in its pages.
     As a journalist Miss Darst has endeavored to do her work thoroughly, to make a newspaper which should be interesting and reliable, and to ask no favors or concessions simply because it was the work of a lady.  She was the special correspondent of, and not an infrequent writer of longer letters to, the Cincinnati Enquirer for a couple of years, and is at present employed by the Cincinnati Herald, and other papers of the capital of Columbus Herald, and other papers of the capital city.  Editorial paragraphs from the Circleville Herald have been copied frequently by the press of the larger cities, and the financial plank of the Herald's platform - "there is no honest way to get a dollar but to earn one, and the dollar so earned should be good a dollar that it buys a dollar's worth the world over" - went the rounds of the New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati dailies.
     Pages might be filled with the always cordial, but sometimes amusing, allusions of the editors of the State to the novel claimant for fraternal honors, but the sum of them may be given in the appreciative words of the Springfield Republic: I "  If any one questions a woman's ability to run a newspaper, the answer is, Miss Lillie Darst."
 

JAMES LUDWIG.  Daniel Ludwig, the father of Jacob, was born in Berks county, Pennsylvania, June 4, 1748.  His parents, Daniel and Mary Ludwig, were natives of Germany.  He was associated with Governor Joseph Heister in a store at Reading, Pennsylvania, for a number of years.  In the fall of 1806 he emigrated to Ohio, with two-horse teams, bringing his family, consisting of his wife and nine children, and a small stock of goods, with which he intended to open a store here.  With this object in view, he erected the large brick house which is now the residence of  Jacob Ludwig, in one portion of which the store was to be kept.  But three of his sons, on whose aid he depended, died, and the store was never established, the goods being disposed of to the neighbors.  The house alluded to - a view of which is elsewhere given - was built in 1809, and is, without doubt, the oldest brick house in Pickaway county.  Mr. Ludwig, on his arrival here, purchased, a half section of land, a portion of which is now owned by Jacob Ludwig, and subsequently entered lands in this and adjoining counties.  He was the original owner of the land on which the town of Logan, Hocking county, now stands.
     He was married three times: first, in 1778, to Appelona, daughter of Michael and Susannah Miller, who was born March 14, 1760.  By this marriage were born the following named children:  John born January 29, 1779; Christena, born November 27, 1781; Daniel, born October 11, 1783 - died January 28, 1790; George, born September 3, 1785 - died February 8, 1810.  The mother died May 14, 1787.  March 11, 1788, Mr. Ludwig married Eve, daughter of Casper and Rebecca Grissmer, who was born November 12, 1766.  By her he had two children:  Thomas, born Jan. 15, 1789 - died Feb. 15, 1810;  and Joseph, born Oct. 1, 1790 - died Sept. 10, 1807.  Mrs. Eve Ludwig died October 21, 1800.  His third wife was Elizabeth, daughter of John and Elizabeth Shupert, whom he married in 1802.  She was born March 3, 1776.  To them were born the following children:  Catharine, born July, 1803; Mary born Nov. 30, 1804; Jacob, born Apr. 17, 1806; Elizabeth, born March 13, 1808; Rachel, born Nov. 25, 1810; Susannah, born August 9, 1812.  Daniel Ludwig died June 9, 1825; and his wife, Elizabeth, May 3, 1816.
     Jacob Ludwig, the subject of this sketch, was the third child and only son by the third marriage and was six months of age at the time of the removal of his parents to Ohio.  His education was obtained at the schools of the neighborhood in which he resided, with the exception of two years' attendance at a school in Circleville, of which Dr. Brown, now president of the First National bank, was the teacher.
     November 18, 1830, he was united in marriage to Evelina Morris, daughter of Henry and Charity Morris, who was born July 12, 1812.  She died Feb. 23, 1848.  Seven sons and one daughter were born to them, as follows:  Daniel, born Nov. 23, 1831 - married Julia Steeley, and has three children; Henry O., born Dec. 16, 1832 - married Amelia Galler;  Isaac, was born Sept. 21, 1834, is unmarried; George, born Jan. 14, 1836, married Eliza Young, and has two children; John born December 17, 1837 - died April 7, 1848, from the result of an accident; Mary Elizabeth, born April 28, 1839 - married John P. Steeley, and has seven children; David S., born June 16, 1842 - married Rosalie H., daughter of Isaac E. Dreisbach, Dec. 26, 1872 - they have three children; Jacob, Jr., born Jan. 27, 1848 - died July 10, of the same year.
     Mr. Ludwig has resided in the house which he now occupies ever since it was built, in 1809 - a period seventy years.  He enjoys a hale and hearty old age, and possesses the respect and esteem of all who know him.

JAMES McCOY.  William McCoy, father of the subject of this sketch, and the portals of whom appears elsewhere, was born in what is now the State of Delaware, Dec. 23, 1752.  His wife, Drusilla Browning, was a native of Pennsylvania, and they were married in Huntingdon county, of that State, June 12, 1794.  William McCoy followed the old time popular occupation of wagoning for twenty years, and it was while thus engaged that he met Drusilla Browning.  After their marriage they emigrated to Kentucky, and in 1797 removed to the Northwest territory, and located on Kinnickinnick, which is now in Greene township, Ross county.  At that time there was not a family between his location and Cleveland, and only two white families between him and Chillicothe, which was six miles south,  He built upon Kinnickinnick the first mill in the Scioto valley.  He moved from his first location, in 1803, to the farm in Greene township, Ross county, now occupied by D. Crouse.
     During the war of 1812 he was lieutenant in the Irish Gray company, and though he awaited the call of duty, his company was not called into active service.
     He was a man of moral and pious character, had been for a number of years a church member in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and was the leading spirit in the organization of the Mt. Union Presbyterian church, of which he was for a long time subsequently one of the ruling elders.
     William McCoy's first wife died, September 2, 1805.  She was the mother of seven children: William, born Nov. 26, 1795 - deceased Oct. 2, 1820; Alexander, born Jun. 16, 1797 - deceased 1877; James, born Feb. 2, 1799; Martha, born May 9, 1800 - deceased Oct. 2, 1814; Nancy, born Jan. 26, 1802 - now deceased; John, born Apr. 30, 1803,  and Joshua, born Apr. 2, 1805, now in Iowa.
     Mr. McCoy married, in 1818, as his second wife, Rebecca Wilson, and had by her three children:  Joseph, born Nov. 10, 1819; Martha, born Nov. 15, 1822; Harriet Ann, born Dec. 24, 1823.
     William McCoy, the pioneer, parent of these ten children, died August 27, 1823.
     It is our purpose to give of his son, James, a further account than the mere mention made of other descendants, for the reason that his long life has been prominently identified with the history of Pickaway county.  As we have said, he was born February 2, 1799.  He grew to manhood upon his father's farm, and lived there until after his marriage.  In his early life, he engaged in boating, and took several loads of flour and other provisions down the Scioto to the Ohio, and thence down the Mississippi to New Orleans.  He thus obtained, at the same time, his first knowledge of business and of the great world outside of the quiet farm home.  His first trip was made in 1819.  He took one hundred and seventy-eight barrels of flour and a considerable quantity of other goods; arrived safely at New Orleans, and sold them at a fair price, but to men who were dishonest, and from whom he was never able to secure the whole of the pay.  He started home June 8th, and arrived July 11th, having walked all the way from the mouth of the Mississippi, and passed through the trials of sickness, the danger of attack from Indians in the Indian Nation (now Mississippi), and the no less imminent danger of being robbed by lawless characters not of the red race.
     In 1821 he built a boat for his father, and in company with a man named John Grant, took the second trip to New Orleans.  They returned upon the steamboat; made what was called a quick trip, and were fourteen days and ten hours coming up the river from their starting point to Louisville.  In 1823 Mr. McCoy made his third commercial venture, this time going down the river upon a boat of his own, and carrying wheat and flour, on which he made a reasonable profit.
     Just after his return from this trip his father died, and the care of the family was, to a large extent, thrown upon him.  He devoted most of his time, after that, to farming, and was a hard worker and good manager.
     In 1825, on the eighth of November, he married Elizabeth, daughter of John and Nancy Entrekin, who was the sharer of his joys and sorrows, his failures and successes, until 1872.  She died, August 23d of that year.  James and Elizabeth McCoy were the parents of four children, two of whom are still living.  Martha Jane, born Aug. 22, 1826, died Sep. 4, 1829; John E., born July 30, 1830, married Phillip Anna Ferguson, and is now living in Lawrence, Kansas; Milton, born Dec. 9, 1838, married Catharine Crouse, and is living at Kinnickinnick, Ross county; Burton, born Nov. 24, 1842, was a musician of great natural genius.  He enlisted in the army, served as leader of the Second regiment band, and died in the service, from disease, July 8, 1864.
     After his marriage, James McCoy continued his occupation of farming.  He moved in 1826, on to the south half of section six, in Salt Creek township, and took up his home on a farm owned by his father-in-law.  There he remained, without intermission, until 1837, when he prepared to go west.  This project was defeated by money difficulties, brought about by the suspension of the banks.  He resumed work on the Salt Creek farm, and continued to reside there until 1839, when he removed to Circleville, and started, in company with Dr. Olds, in the business of pork-packing.  He remained in that business for two years, and then went into the mercantile business with Messrs. Olds and Baker, under the firm name of Olds, Baker & McCoy.  Seven years of his life were spent, with varying degrees of success, in this enterprise, and at the expiration of that period he retired, and purchased a farm on the Pickaway plains.  He followed farming, stock raising and dealing, acted as agent for land-owners, and engaged in several other employments, from which he realized, in the aggregate, a considerable sum of money.  Although Mr. McCoy has been an active, industrious man of business, and a good farmer, he has not, in his old age, a large accumulation of property or moneys, and this is rather creditable than not, for the cause is to be found in the many generous acts of the last half of his life.  He has the reputation of having done, quietly, a great number of substantial kindnesses, and has been, in every sense, a generous and liberal man to those persons and causes which have been in need and were worthy.  His life has been without reproach, admirable in its earnestness and simplicity.  He is a member of the old school Presbyterian church, and the house upon east Main street, where he has, these many years, taken part in worship, stands upon a lot which he donated for the purpose of its erection.  In politics, Mr. McCoy is a Republican, of Whig antecedents.

ADAM McCREA.

MATTHEW McCREA, one of the old time residents of Circleville, and one of the most active of its early business men, was born in the year 1792, in the county of Down, Ireland.  He was of Scotch ancestry, and the son of Adam and Martha McCrea, who were also the parents of nine other children, six sons and three daughters.  Matthew came to America with his brother Joseph, stopping first at Hagerstown, Maryland, where he remained two years.  In 1817 he removed to the village of Jefferson, Pickaway Co., Ohio, where his brother had previously gone, and was at that time clerking for Henry Neville.  Thomas Bell, of Circleville, hearing of Matthew's arrival, sent for him and gave him a place in his store, in which he was doing a large and prosperous business in general merchandise.  It was in Circleville that he met his future wife, Agnes, daughter of Hugh and Ruth Foresman.  She was of Scotch origin, and her mother was of the Slocum family, famous in connection with the Wyoming massacre and wholesale abduction.  She was born June 6, 1797, and married Matthew McCrea, September 16, 1819, four years after his arrival in this country, and two years after his coming to Circleville.
     Matthew McCrea established himself in business upon his own account in the fall of 1820, at the village of Jefferson.  He traveled all the way to Philadelphia on horseback to buy goods, which were loaded on the heavy, old-fashioned wagons, on Market street, and transported in that manner to their place of destination.  Not being satisfied with his location in Jefferson, Mr. McCrea purchased property in, and removed his building to, Circleville, in 1821, locating himself on the east side of the old circle, where he continued to prosecute a very successful business until 1828.  Being the owner of a considerable quantity of land, he then sold out his goods an devoted himself to farming for the remainder of his life, excepting a period of one year, in 1834 and 8135, when he was in partnership with S. S. Denny, in the dry goods business.
     Mr. McCrea was probably the first successful adventurer in transporting pork, lard and flour from Circleville, by the Scioto, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans.  His first trip, in 1819, was made for his brother-in-law, Thomas Bell.  He continued this profitable, although somewhat risky enterprise, until his retirement from the mercantile business, making annual trips, and carrying pork, lard, flour, and other provisions to the great southern mart.  It was his custom after disposing of his stock in New Orleans, to sail for Philadelphia, where he purchased goods, before returning home, to sell during the ensuing year in his Circleville store.
     Mr. McCrea was a man of broad and generous nature, and of much dignity and perfect probity of character.  His hospitality seemed to have no bound.  His house was always open, and his friends, or for that matter, strangers, always welcome.  Ministers, and especially those of his own denomination, were guests whom he took an especial pleasure in providing for; and if the number of those who accepted his kindness, and the frequency of their visits afford any means by which to judge, we may be sure that they fully appreciated his entertainment.  He was a man in whom the people generally reposed the highest degree of confidence, and when he died, one attestation of this fact was shown in his having a considerable sum of money which he had been given to hold in trust.  As one of the founders of the first Circleville academy, he exhibited his interest in education, and gave the cause the practical assistance of his influence and pecuniary support.  He was for many years one of the trustees of this institution, and throughout its existence took great interest in its welfare and usefulness as he did of other institutions in their time.  Always upon the side of good morals and improvement, he became at an early day a strong and consistent advocate of temperance.  He was one of the very first to take the unpopular step of dispensing with liquor in the harvest field.  A man of strong and fine religious feeling, a quality, perhaps, in his Scotch blood - he was an active member of the Presbyterian church, and for twenty years or more a ruling elder.
     Politically, Mr. McCrea was strong Whig of the Henry Clay School.  He was, in 1845, elected by the legislature as associate judge of Pickaway county - a position which he held until his death.
     His life closed Sep. 4, 1874.  His widow is still living.
     The children of Matthew and Agnes McCrea were eight in number.  Three died in infancy.  The others were Adam, born Aug. 19, 1821; Joseph, born December 14, 1827; Evelline Amanda, born Mar. 24, 1829; William, born March 22, 1831; and George, born Dec. 9, 1834.  Of these Joseph and Eveline Amanda, are deceased; William is living in Illinois, George in St. Louis, and Adam in Circleville.

WILLIAM RENICK.  The genealogy of the Renick Family is only traditional.  We learn from it that the progenitors emigrated from Germany, with many other families, to Scotland, to escape the religious persecution that then prevailed in the former country, and after a time, a part of them at least, removed to Colevain county, Ireland.  In the meantime, the name had undergone a change from Rienwich to Renwich, probably to suit the dialect of the country.  In the process of time, one of them was created a peer, and he purchasing all the property of his two brothers, they, with their father, emigrated to America.  But a peer not being able to pay the purchase money at the time, engaged to send it to them within a specified period, which proved a fortunate arrangement for the brothers, as the vessel in which they embarked was robbed by the pirate, "Black Beard," but the money came safe to hand at the stated time.
     We here narrate an incident, said to have occurred on the passage.  When the pirates boarded the vessel the old man Renick was asleep.  The noise awakening him, he started to find out the cause of the confusion.  He encountered the robbers in the act of opening a box of candies, and he exclaimed "Hoot toot; what is all this fuss about."  The pirates said they would stop his mouth, so they thrust a candle down his throat.
     The brothers, with their father, first settled in eastern Pennsylvania - at least, until their money came.  Afterwards they removed to Hardy county, Virginia, on the south branch of the Potomac river, and from that point their descendants scattered in various directions - some south to the James river, others to Gambier county, Virginia, and others still to the States of Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio.  In the meantime the name had undergone two more changes: from Renwich to Rennick; and then later, one of the 4's was dropped, making the name spell, as at present, Renick.
     There are traits of character in this large family which with propriety, may be termed characteristic.  Although the family has been in the country more than two hundred years, and scattered over many different and widely distant localities, in all of which, it is believed, could be found men of wealth and large influence, yet there appears to have existed among them from the first a singular unanimity of sentiment in eschewing a political life.  It is apparent that they have uniformly been well nigh devoid of political aspirations, but seemed rather to have preferred a mote retired, unpresuming and independent life, whilst of many of them it can be said with more assurance, that they have been, for the past two or three generations at least, very active, enterprising and highly public-spirited citizens, taking an active, if not a leading part in every scheme or enterprise that presented a fair promise of resulting beneficially, either to their respective localities or communities in which they resided, or to the country at large.
     William Renick, who was a direct descendant of the emigrants, was born and raised in Hardy county, Virginia, and was for a time deputy surveyor under Lord Fairfax, in surveying the southeastern counties of Virginia.  By some accident he had his compass broken, and had to cease work until another compass could be ordered from London, England, which consumed some five or six months.  His grandson, William Renick, of Circleville, Ohio, now has the latter compass in his possession.  It is probably one hundred and twenty-five years old.  William Renick had four sons and four daughters.  The sons, Felix, George, Thomas, and William, came to the Scioto valley, from 1797 to 1803.  All of them, previous to their final settlement, secured large and valuable tracts of land.  The daughters all married, but remained in Virginia.
     Thomas Renick and his wife both died the same day, in August, 1804.  William died in 1845, aged sixty-four years; Felix died in 1848, aged seventy-eight; and George died in 1863, aged eighty-seven years.  George had three sons and three daughters.  The sons, William, Josiah, and Harness, finally settled in Pickaway county, respectively, in 1826, 1828, and 1832; but all had done business in the county for years before, and have all been residents of the city of Circleville for many years.  Mrs. N. J. Turney one of the daughters, has also been a resident of the county and city for over thirty years.  The other two daughters, Mrs. J. M. Terry, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Hugh Bell, of Chillicothe, were at least one time also residents of this county.  All the above mentioned sons and daughters of George Renick are still living.
     William Renick, the oldest son of George Renick, and subject of this sketch, was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, November 12, 1804.  He commenced doing an extensive business at the early age of fifteen and a half years, on account of his father's delicate health at the time, imperatively requiring the assistance of his son.  This circumstance necessitated an abrupt relinquishment of the son's further attendance at school, before his education, as had been originally designed by his father, had been completed, which was to have been a full classical education.  At his majority he entered into active business life on his own account.  His occupation was that of a farmer, including that of raising, grazing, and feeding of cattle on rather an extensive scale for those days, feeding some seasons as high as three hundred head of cattle in one year, on corn grown on his own land.  Besides this he has driven and whipped to an eastern market a very large number of fat cattle in his time, and is now the oldest living drover west of the mountains, if not in the United States, having begun that occupation as early as the year 1802.
     He purchased and brought from Texas twelve hundred head of cattle, in 1854, the first lot of Texas cattle ever brought north, at least, in large numbers, and was considered the pioneer drover in that trade, that has now grown to such enormous proportions.
     He was also the inventor of the present mode of constructing turnpike roads.  For nearly three years he constantly importuned the directors of the Columbus and Portsmouth company, and finally succeeded in inducing them to adopt his plan, which from its cheapness and usefulness, ahs long since been the only plan of construction of all turnpikes now built in the west.  Hitherto they had been too costly for private enterprise.  This was the first road built of the kind, and it was only because the means could not be raised to build any other kind of graveled road, that the plan was adopted, not that the directors approved the plan.
     William Renick is a staunch Republican, and his articles to the press on the "Currency of the Country,"  "The Dollar of the Daddies,"  "Revenue Tariff,"  "Free Trade", Banks and Banking System," etc. have done much to mold popular opinion.  HE is a ready writer, and his communications on "Blue Brass," "Shorthorns," "Thoroughbred Cattle in Ohio," "Early Cattle Trade in Ohio," etc., have been widely circulated and read throughout the country.  Altogether, hsi life has been a very active, enterprising and highly public spirited one, although he has labored all the time from early age under the dire misfortune of a partial, and for the last twenty-five years, a total want of hearing.  Mr. Renick has been three times married, but has no living children.  His only son died in 1855, at the age of twenty-eight years, but unmarried.

SAMUEL D. TURNEY, M. D. [This biography is in part a condensation from, and in part the words of, a memoir of the late Dr. Turney, prepared by his friend, and professional brother, J. H. Pooley, of Columbus - EDS.]
     The subject of this sketch, the late Dr. Samuel Denny Turney, was born in Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 26, 1824.  He belonged to a family of French Huguenot extractions, and which has proved by the men it has produced for successive generations, that it was no mean race.  We, as Americans, care little at heart, notwithstanding occasional foolish outbreaks of adulation that seem to speak otherwise, for the vain distinctions of rank and title; and yet we are not without our proper pride in good family connections, and freely endorse the sentiment, "other things being equal, give me blood."  Any many a fine strain of family, seeking freer outlook and fairer chance in the west world, ahs left its impress, indelibly and for good, upon our composite American race.  Of all of these, none have produced worthier sons, or deserved better of the adopted country, than the French Huguenots.
     Dr. Turney's father was a physician, who was born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, in 1786, and removed to Ross county, Ohio, in 1800.  He commenced the practice of medicine in Jefferson, Pickaway county.  He removed to Circleville about the time the town was first laid out, in 1810; removed from Circleville to Columbus in 1823, where he practiced until his death, in 1827.
     "The deceased was an eminent physician and surgeon, and for many years on arduous and successful practitioner in both departments.  The distinguishing characteristics of his mind were firmness, and energy, and ardor in the practice of his profession.  Confident in the resources of the healing art, and in his own mind, he never remitted exertions while life remained.  His intimate acquaintance with the diseases peculiar to our climate, arising from a sound medical education, and long extensive practice; his energy, and promptitude, and resources, in alarming and complicated cases, as well as his great personal success, render his death a public calamity, which has caused the deepest sensibility.  As a skillful and successful practitioner, Dr. Turney has left few, if any, superiors in the State.  He was of plain, unaffected manners, generous and liberal as a main, and without the least tincture of avarice in his composition."
     This sketch, meager as it is, is not without interest, as it shows whence came some of the traits of his son, which made him so eminently successful in the same arduous profession.
     Youngest of a family of four, left an orphan when thus a mere infant, he grew up under his mother's fostering care without the paternal restraint, so wholesome in its influence, and without those means for a thorough education which he would probably have enjoyed had his father lived.  Well for him he had a good mother; one of the many whom the world knows not, save as the results of their lives are seen in noble and worthy sons who rise up in the after time to call them blessed.  Her name was Janet Stirling Denny, daughter of General James Denny, an officer of the war of 1812, and one of the pioneer settlers of Ohio.
     Even as a child - almost as an infant - the young Samuel showed strong indications of a character of his own.  He was distinguished in the earliest days of his boyhood by his love for books and study, and showed the rudiments of that love for art and the beauty of nature, which was a strong characteristic in his mature years.  He attended the common schools and the high school, and, after finishing the course at the latter, he went, through the kindness of M. J. Gilbert, esq., who owned a scholarship there , to Milner Hall, at Kenyon College, Gambier, for two years; at the expiration of this short course, being thrown upon his own resources, he became clerk in the drug store of Sumner Clark, in Columbus, working faithfully by day, and studying by night, being his own principal teacher - now, as always, laboring for the much coveted knowledge that comes so easily to some, and is so little prized.
     In 1840, the family moved back to Circleville, where he spent the rest of his life.  He now entered, as a clerk, in the store of Ruggles & Finley, and, having determined upon his future profession, he read medicine assiduously, in all his spare time, at first without anybody knowing what he was about, latterly under the direction of Dr. P. K. Hull.  He attended lectures at Starling medical college, during the session of 1849, and 1830, and at the University of Pennsylvania during 1850-51, graduating from the latter college in April, 1851.  He immediately entered into practice in Circleville, where he continued to exercise his profession to the end of his life, with the exception of the time spent in the army during the civil war, and a short vacation of a few months, spent in Europe.  He was married, June 17, 1851, to Miss Evalina McCrea, who died in 1870 by whom he had two children, a daughter, who died in childhood, and a son, Harry, who lives to mourn his father's loss and emulate his virtues.
     However popular he became afterwards, and no man could be more so, he found a young physician's life, at first, a hard struggle.  He had refused a partnership with an older practitioner, proudly desirous of winning a partnership with an older practitioner, proudly desirous of winning his own way.  He won his own way, professionally, by a hard and long struggle, and became one of the most trusted guides and advisers.  HE was in partnership before the war, first with P. K. Hull, and subsequently with Dr. A. W. Thompson.
     Dr. Turney was never a politition, but he always had opinions, and the people among whom he lived always knew what those opinions, and the people among whom he lived always knew what those opinions were.  He was an Abolitionist before the war, even a violent one.  His ardent temperament and inborn love of liberty, could not tolerate even the thought of human slavery; and, though these sentiments were by no means popular then and there, he was not the man to flinch from them on that account, but rather the one to die for them, should occasion demand, and this his neighbors and fellow-citizens knew right well.
     At the opening of the war he was the first surgeon to tender his services to the State, and, until it ended, he was in continuous and active service.  He was first attached as surgeon to the Thirteenth regiment of Ohio volunteers, June, 1861; commissioned assistant surgeon of volunteers by the United States, Feb., 1863; surgeon of volunteers, Mar., 1863; and lieutenant-colonel by brevet, for faithful and meritorious services, in 1865; and he was medical director on the staff of General H. P. Van Cleve, division and post medical director of hospitals at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and held other high and honorable positions which bore the amplest testimony to his patriotism, devotion to duty, and professional efficiency.  The surgical history of the war, that noble monument of life and limb saving surgery, bears ample testimony, among that of others, to the labor and skill of Dr. Turney.  Had he been so disposed, he might have recorded many more cases, as treated by him, in that treasury of American military surgery; but he was ever reticent of trumpeting his own fame, either by tongue or pen.  The cases given in the "Surgical Volume," so, called, parts I and II, sufficiently established his skill as a surgeon and physician.
     At the close of the war he returned to Circleville, and, in partnership with Dr. A. W. Thompson, resumed his practice, which in a few years became the largest and most lucrative ever enjoyed by any member of the profession in Pickaway county.  It was particularly in the department of surgery his services were, during this period, demanded, so much so that nearly, if not quite, all of this business passed into his hands, and the important operations of lithotomy, tracheotomy, ovariotomy and amputation, necessary within the circuit of his practice, were all performed by him.  An intense student, keeping pace with all the reforms in diagnosis and practice, his ideal of resources of the medical art, was never attained; and yet when baffled, such was his infinity of resource, that, instead of ever surrendering to his enemy, disease, he nobly sustained the strife, and yielded only in the presence of the conqueror, Death himself.
     Dr. Turney was made surgeon-general of the State of Ohio, in 1868, by Governor Hayes, and again, in 1872, by Governor Noyes - compliments well deserved by his eminent ability and public services during the war.  He was appointed professor of physiology and pathology in Starling medical college, Columbus, Ohio, in 1867, but only lectured during one season - that of 1867-68 - his large practice precluding the possibility to further devotion to this department of duty.  He was very diffident, too, and seemed to have but little confidence in himself as a speaker, but, at a later period, he resumed professorial functions with great success.  His partnership with Dr. Thompson was dissolved by mutual consent, Jan. 1, 1874.  Retaining a large practice, a devoting himself actively to it, his incessant labor began to tell upon his health. In June, 1875, warned that he must either take a vacation or soon desist altogether, he went to Europe.  He remained abroad until 1876 - not a sufficient length of time to thoroughly recuperate - and, on his return, immediately entered practice.  He was first in partnership with Dr. C. A. Foster, but, in 1877, went into partnership with Dr. A. P. Courtright, with whom he was associated until his death.  In the fall of 1876 he was appointed professor of diseases of women and children, in Starling medical college, which chair he filled with great and increasing acceptance to the close of his life.  He was only spared to give one completed course of lectures, and a part of another.
     Dr. Turney was, in every sense, a cultured physician - diligent, conscientious, generous; and many kind professional charities endear him to the memory of that class of patients unable to pay for their doctor's services.  As an operator he was fearless, quick, and characteristically nervous and impatient of delay or negligence on the part of an assistant.  He was extremely modest, and had a repugnance to professional or other display.  In person Dr. Turney was of medium size, rather slender, but of symmetrical proportions, and endowed with great muscular strength and agility.  As the portrait which accompanies this sketch well shows, his face was handsome and expressive, and yet, so constantly and quickly did it change that no picture could show it at its best.
     Dr. Turney was not a member of any church, but that he was of a deeply religious nature, none who knew him thoroughly could doubt.  In this connection, and as a fitting conclusion to this sketch, we reproduce the following extract from a letter of Rev. James T. Franklin, Episcopal rector of St. Stephen's church, Middlebury, Vermont, formerly of St. Phillip's, Circleville:
      "Having just learned, and that with great sorrow and grief, of the death of Dr. S. D. Turney, I ask the privilege of expressing my sense of his worth and of our loss.  It was with joy and pride that I called him friend, and it is with a deep sense of bereavement that I write.  The fast-falling tears of many who loved him are a tribute to his worth.  It was my happy lot to know him intimately, and I loved him dearly.  His was not a cold, impassive nature - sparks of righteous anger and indignation were showered upon the objects of his scorn and wrath; but I can testify to an amiability, a tenderness, a sweetness, a love of all things beautiful, rare amongst men.  His wide charity many will witness to, and his marked skill and usefulness all will acknowledge.
     "He talked often and freely with me of those subjects which are of the first importance to thoughtful men, and I can declare that, whilst his mental clearness and power, and his thorough learning, forced him to abandon the superstitions imbedded in much that passes for Christian doctrine, nevertheless he recognized and bowed down his soul before the great Father of spirits, 'in whom we move and have our being.'  He served and praised his God in acts of tenderness and love to his creatures.  He did justice, loved mercy, and walked humbly with his God.  Who requires more?"

AARON R. VAN CLEAF was born at Arneystown, Burlington county, New Jersey, March 20, 1838.  When he was about three years old his parents removed to Monmouth county, New Jersey, where they now reside.  His ancestors were of the pioneer settles of New Jersey, on the paternal side, of the early Holland emigration, and among the first settlers of Monmouth county.  On the maternal side he is connected with the Reeves family, one of the oldest and most respected families in Burlington and other counties of south Jersey.  Several of the Van Cleafs served in Jersey regiments during the war for American independence, and are specially mentioned among the patriots of that day.  His paternal great-grandfather owned an extensive body of land in Monmouth county, New Jersey, which was divided among his large family of children.
     Aaron Van Cleaf was educated in the common schools near Freehold, New Jersey, until he was fourteen years of age, when he entered the Monmouth Democrat office, at Freehold, as an apprentice to the printing business, remaining there, as apprentice and journeyman, until April, 1859, when he emigrated to Georgetown, Brown county, Ohio, and for a few months was connected with the Democratic Standard, which paper was soon after merged in what is now the Brown county News. In November, 1859, he became editor and publisher of the Democratic Citizen, At Lebanon, Ohio, which was published in the face of many difficulties.  On the twelfth of August, 1862, the office was destroyed by a mob of political opponents, but he re-established the paper and continued its publication until May, 1863.  In November, of the same year, he purchased the Circleville Democrat and Watchman, and has sine conducted that paper. 
     In 1871 he was nominated for representative in the general assembly by the Democratic party of Pickaway county, and was elected by four hundred and seventy-seven majority over James Langhry, Republican, who was then extensively known and popular.  He declined a re-election. In 1877 he was again nominated for representative by acclamation, being the first Democratic candidate for that place in Pickaway county, nominated without opposition, for many years.  He was elected by nine hundred and forty-six majority over Frederick Thorn, Republican, and in the house was chairman of the committee on reform schools, and a member of the finance and printing committees.  On the third of June, 1879, he was nominated by acclamation, in the Democratic senatorial convention, to represent the counties of Franklin and Pickaway in the State senate, and at the October election following, the elected by one thousand six hundred and thirty-four majority.
     He has taken an active part in the politics of Pickaway county for fifteen years past, and has been chairman of the Democratic central committee of the county for thirteen years.

THE "ZIEGER FAMILY."  Jacob Zieger, sr., emigrated from Pennsylvania (near Berlin) to this vicinity, about the year 1805, and located section nineteen - the identical tract of land now partially occupied by the city of Circleville.  He was born in 1840, and married Judith, the widow of J. Sauer (or Sowers), of Brownsville, Pennsylvania.  Of this marriage there were eight children, as follows:  Philip Jacob, born 1767, married Mary Easter; Catharina, born 1768, married Colonel Valentine Keffer; Barbara, born 1771, married George Zimmer; Judith, born 1774, married Samuel Watt; Jacob, Jr., born 1776, married Susanna Easter; Philip, born 1778; Frederick, born 1784; Margaret, born 1787, married John Valentine.  These sons and daughters occupied different portions of the land, and cleared and improved it.
     Jacob Zieger, sr., donated, to "the director of the town" (whose office was one of importance for many years, but has now become obsolete) a considerable portion of the land on which the city is located, for public purposes.  He (Zeiger) caused the court of common pleas of Pickaway county to pass an order to the director of the town (at their session, held in the second story of his son, Jacob's, house, in Circleville), which reads as follows:
August, 1811,
     "Ordered, That the director reserve all the southeast bank, or fortification - elevation of the square on the circle - for county uses, and sell no lots including the same.  And, further ordered, that he reserve lots number 115 and 116, for the use of the Lutheran and Calvanistic German congregations, for a church and burial." (See court records for 1810 and '11, page 120).
     These lots are the ones on which the Trinity Lutheran church now stands.