GUY CARLTON VANHORN, one of
the thriving farmers of Tully township, Van Wert county, Ohio,
descends from an old Holland-Dutch family of New York state.
His father, JOHN VANHORN, was a native
of the Empire state, and there married Mary Burton, who bore
five children - William, James, Sarah, Ellen and Guy C..
From New York Mr. and Mrs. Vanhorn moved to Bradford county,
Pa., and thence came to Ohio, in 1852, and settled in Franklin
county, where he lived to be eighty-seven years of age. He was
a republican in politics, and two of his sons, James and William,
faithfully served in the Union army during the late Civil war.
Guy Carlton Vanhorn, our subject was born in
Bradford county, Pa., Sept. 20, 1847, and was consequently but five
years of age when brought ot Ohio. He was reared to farming
and carpentering in Franklin county, and in 1867 married Mrs.
Susan J. Leap, a daughter of Isaac Wooley; this lady bore
Mr. Van horn four children - Alice, Isaac, Francis and
Zeneth G. - and then passed away in 1871. Mr.
Vanhorn came to Van Wert county after the death of his first
wife, having married, Mar. 6, 1878, Mrs. Eliza Roberts, a
widow, and daughter of Thomas Johnson. To this marriage
three children have been born, viz: One that died in infancy, Ida
M. and Cora E. When Mr. Van horn bought his
present homestead of eighty acres it was deep in the woods, but by
hard labor he has cleared it up, and it is now as neat and well
cultivated a place as can be found in the township. He is
entirely a self-made man, but has been ably aided by his faithful
wife to secure his present competency. His daughter Alice
is married to S. Sponseller, a farmer of Tully township, and
has one child; Isaac Vanhorn married Ida Zinn, and is
a farmer of Harrison township; Fannie is married to Frank
Zinn, a farmer of Tully township, and has one son, born July 4,
1895. The mother of these children sickened shortly after her
arrival in Tully township, and an expenditure of $500 for doctors'
bills, through a period of eighteen months, failed to save her, and
when she died her eldest daughter was but six years of age; and so
Mr. Vanhorn struggled on for nearly three years before he
again married and again became happy in the aid and comfort afforded
by woman's presence, through his marriage with Elsie Johnson.
Thomas J. Johnson, the father of the present
Mrs. Vanhorn, was born in Loudoun county, Va., but when a young
man came to Clinton county, Ohio, and married Hannah Frey,
who became the mother of Mrs. Vanhorn. Mr. Johnson,
after marriage, returned to Loudoun county, Va., resided there seven
years, came back to Ohio, and in 1880 settled in Convoy, where he
worked at his trade of wagon making until his death, in 1886, at the
age of sixty-nine years. He and his wife were members of the
Friends' church, and were the parents of eleven children, viz.:
John H., Sarah C., Jane, Michael, Cyrus, Elsie, Nicholas, Mahala,
Harriet, Elizabeth and America. In politics Mr.
Johnson was a republican, but yet had a son who was forced into
the Confederate army, and who died six months later. Mr.
Johnson, being a Union man, was obliged to leave Virginia in
1862 and seek refuge in Maryland, and thence flee to Ohio.
Mr. Vanhorn is also a stanch republican.
-Source: A Portrait and biographical record of Allen and Van Wert
Counties, Ohio - Publ. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., 1896 - Page 828 |
