HISTORY OF HOCKING VALLEY
CHAPTER XIV.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES IN THE CITY OF ATHENS AND ATHENS
TOWNSHIP. John Ackley, civil engineer and ex-County Surveyor of Athens County, was born in Washington County, Pa., May 31, 1825, He is the second of the five sons of Jehu and Elizabeth (Eaton) Ack- ley, who came to Ohio in 1836 and settled in Lodi Township, Ath- ens County. His mother died when he was eleven years old. He lived with his father till he was twenty years old, working on a farm and attending the common schools. In 1846 he entered the Ohio University at Athens, taking an irregular course study- ing and teaching till 1849, when he was elected Surveyor of Athens County, holding the position six years, and since then at intervals till January, 1883, although the most of his time has been spent in surveying and civil engineering. He has also been engaged in farming in the vicinity of Athens since 1868. Dec. 31, 1849, he married Jerusha Haning, of Lodi Township. They have five children---Lavinia, wife of W. F. Lewis, of Waxahachie, Ellis Co., Tex.; Ida; Hattie, wife of H. A. Brown, of Scioto County, Ohio; Eber G., and Eliakim H. Mr. Ackley is Master of Grange No. 422, Athens, and County Deputy. Josiah Benton Allen, late Recording Clerk in the office of the Sec- retary of State at Columbus, Ohio, was born near Cadiz, Harrison Co., Ohio, July 14, 1842. He is the son of David and Mary (Wilkin) Allen.. He lived with his parents until he was seventeen, receiving his education in the common schools and the DeCamp Institute at Pagetown, Ohio. July 4, 1861, he enlisted in Company C, Thirtieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry as a private. In April, 1862, he was promoted to First Orderly Sergeant. He participated in a number of battles and skirmishes, the most important being Giles Court-House, Carnifax Ferry, Second Bull Bun, Centerville, South Mountain, Antietam, Haines's Bluff, Jackson, Champion Hill, Black River and Vicksburg. At the last, May 22, 1863, while storming Fort Gregg, he being in command of his company at the time, all but fourteen of his men were killed, he himself losing his left arm. After submitting to two amputations of the same arm, and being308
unfitted for service thereby, he was discharged for disability in 1864. He returned to Athens and attended the Ohio University until the close of the college year in 1866, then went to Missouri and that fall was engaged in the insurance business. During the winter he taught school in the village of Maysville, of that State; returned to Athens in April, 1867, and the following fall was, without opposi- tion, elected Recorder of Athens County on the Republican ticket. He held that office by being re-elected, for twelve years. From Jan- uary to June 1880 he held the stewardship of the Athens Asylum for the Insane. Losing that position through a change in the admin- istration he was appointed Recording Clerk in the office of the Sec- retary of State at Columbus, in December, 1880, remaining there until January 1883. April 14, 1871, he was married to Miss Sue E. Racer of Marietta, Ohio. He is a member of J. C. McCoy Post, No. 1, G. A. R., and holds a membership in the council of admin- istration of that order, of the State of Ohio. Benjamin Thomas Addleman, photographer, Athens, Ohio, was born near Richmond, Wayne Co., Ohio, Jan. 28, 1827. At the age of nineteen he went to Richmond and worked as an apprentice eighteen months to learn the gunsmith's trade. He then worked as a journeyman until 1849, when he opened a gunsmith shop in Rich- mond, remaining there until 1852, when he went to California and mined successfully in Canyon Creek until 1859. He then returned to Ohio and purchased a farm in Preble County near New Paris, and farmed nearly two years, when, selling his farm, he returned to Richmond and dealt in iron with his brother, J. P. Addleman, until 1861. He then purchased another farm in Wayne County and pursued farming until 1864, when he again returned to Rich- mond and engaged in photography until 1869. He removed to Hagerstown, Ohio, and engaged in photography until 1873 when he came to Athens and established his present gallery. In April, 1860, he married Miss Margaret Tenney, of Montgomery County, Ohio. They have six children---Charles L., bookkeeper for the Singer Sewing Machine Company of Athens; Adell; Clara Belle, wife of Clement H. Hooper, of Athens County; Lula, William A. and Frank George Washington Baker, general insurance agent, Athens, was born near Athens, O., May 2, 1829, where he was reared, re- ceiving only a common-school education. His father, Nicholas Baker, was one of the pioneers of Athens County, and came with his parents from Massachusetts in 1814. His mother, Clara309
(White) Baker, was born in Washington County, O. The subject of this sketch came to Athens when twenty years of age and employed as a clerk in the drug store of John Perkins for two years. He then went to California where he worked in the gold mines in Placer and Butte counties about two years, returning home in February, 1854, making his adventure a success. In March of the same year he became associated with his former em- ployer, John Perkins, in the drug business, under the firm name of Perkins & Baker, they doing business until 1859. He then engaged in the clothing and merchant tailoring business with F. L. Ballard under the firm name of Baker& Ballard, they discontinu- ing in 1861. In July of that year he entered the Union army as Captain of Company C, Thirty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served as such until November, 1862, when he was commissioned Commissary of Subsistence by President Lincoln, and served under General Sherman until the fall of Vicksburg in July, 1863, when, broken down in health, he was sent home on a leave of absence. In the following November he was ordered to report to General Stephen A. Hulburt at Memphis, Tenn., and was by him ordered on duty at La Grange, Tenn., where he re- mained until March, 1864, when he served as Commissary of Gen- eral A. J. Smith's command during the Red River expedition, until May, 1864. Having returned with that command to Memphis his health again became impaired and he was ordered by the General War Department to report to General Pope at Milwaukee, Wis., and by him to report to General Sibley at St. Paul, Minn., who ordered him on duty as Commissary of the Post at Fort Snelling, where he remained until Nov. 22, 1864, when he was ordered to report to General A. J. Smith at Nashville, Tenn., and remained with that command during the battle of Nashville, and the pursuit of the enemy to Eastport, Miss. Soon after the command was ordered to New Orleans where it was organized into the Sixteenth Army Corps, and our subject was commissioned Chief Commissary with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and was with that corps at the siege and capture of Mobile and Montgomery, Ala., until April, 1865. At Montgomery he served as Chief Commissary of that de- partment until December, 1865, when he was ordered to report at St. Louis, Mo., and from there home to Athens to await further orders; was mustered out of the service there Jan. 16, 1866. Dur- ing that summer he went to West Virginia, and engaged in the oil business until the spring of 1867, when he returned to Athens
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and was elected Mayor and Justice of the Peace, and served as such until September, 1869, when he was elected Treasurer of Athens County and held that office by re-election for two terms. In 1872 he was elected Clerk of the Courts of Athens County and filled that position for nine consecutive years. For six months in 1881 he owned a half interest in the Athens County Republican, when he sold and then established his present business. May 2, 1854, he married Amanda Mahon, of Blairsville, Pa. They have four children---Edward H., attorney at law, Cincinnati, O.; Anna B., Clara A., and Rollins M., at home. He is a prominent Mason and member of the lodge, chapter and commandery of Athens. Himself, wife and three of his children are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Francis M. Barker, farmer, of Athens Township, eldest son of Jo- seph and Ruth (Griffith) Barker, was born in Athens Township, Athens Co., Ohio, April 23, 1836. At the age of twenty-one years he began working for himself. In 1858 he began farming for himself on his father's and other farms. Nov. 4, 1861, he enlisted in Com- pany D, Seventy-Fifth-Ohio Volunteer Infantry, for three years, as a private, and was appointed Corporal of his company. He was with his company on duty until March 26, 1862. While at Huttonville, W. Va., he was accidentally wounded, and returned home on fur- lough, and remained until June following, when he returned to his command at Middletown, Va. From there he was sent to Balti- more, Md., to the hospital, and there discharged for disability, Aug. 9, 1862. He then returned to his home in Athens County. In 1863 he purchased eighty acres joining his father's farm, and lived there until 1865. He then sold his farm and purchased the one on which he now resides. Nov. 11, 1858, he married Amanda, daughter of Derick and Eliza (Saring) Byrd, of York Township. They have five children---Charles, Thaddeus W., Bertha B. (wife of Clarence Winget, of Lee Township), Rutha E. and Michael L. He is a Master Mason, and a member of Constitution Lodge, No. 426, Marshfield, Ohio; is Senior Warden of the lodge. He is also a member of Columbus Golden Post, No. 89, G. A. R., Athens, Ohio. His wife is a member of the Protestant Methodist church. Judge Isaac Barker, Jr., came to Athens when a young man, in 1798, where he lived continuously until the time of his death, March 30, 1873, at the age of ninety-four years. It is not, though, by virtue of his long residence here or the fact that he was a pion-311
eer, that we give him a place in this chapter, but because he was a man of ability and accomplishments, a public man of model character and habits. Judge Barker was born at Long Plains, near Bedford, Mass., Feb. 17, 1779, the son of Isaac and Rhoda (Cook) Barker. Isaac Barker, Sr., was a lineal descendant of Robert Barker, a Welshman, who emigrated to Plymouth Colony prior to 1630, and afterward became a colonial official. In 1789 he came with his father's family to Ohio, where they settled on a farm near the present site of Belpre, a mile above the garrison soon afterward built and known in pioneer history as "Farmer's Castle." At the outbreak of the Indian war of 1790-'94, the savages commenced war- fare on the settlement, killing and harrassing the field laborers and capturing prisoners, compelling a part of each family to stand on guard while the remainder worked and slept, destroying their stock and scanty crops until the entire settlement was compelled to take ref- uge in the garrison, where they suffered from disease and privation for two or three years, and were only relieved by the final treaty of peace concluded by General Wayne. Here in Belpre our subject spent the nine years of his pioneer life, having as companions the Putnams, Devols, Smiths, Danas, Rouses, Stones, Cookes, Bents, Brownings and many other families of more or less prominence in pioneer annals. In 1798 the family removed to Athens, then a village of half a dozen cabins, and settled on a farm. Judge Bar- ker's education was acquired principally by private study. His first business on his own account after coming to Athens was that of hotel keeping. His hotel was on the site of the old Brown House, just in front of the college. After remaining here three years he removed to his long residence on the corner of College and State streets in 1818. During his residence in Athens, Judge Barker served ten years as Associate Judge of Common Pleas Court, and held the offices of County Sheriff, County Treasurer, and Collector of rents for the University, each a number of years. James Ashton Benson, Superintendent of the Hamley Run coal mines, was born in the city of Buffalo, N.Y., Jan. 7, 1837. When he was five years of age his parents, Michael and Harriet (Ashton) Benson, removed to Sheboygan, Wis. He was educated in the public schools of Sheboygan and at the Lawrence University, at Appleton, Wis. When becoming of age he followed teaching school in Manitowoc and Sheboygan counties until 1862, when he came to Ohio and located in Nelsonville, Athens County, where he was employed to take charge of a store for his uncle, Charles Ash-312
ton. In 1865 his uncle died, and he and A.B. Walker were ap- pointed administrators of the estate, requiring a years or more to settle it up. In February, 1865, he removed to Athens and en- gaged in the mercantile business until September, 1868, when he removed his business to Nelsonville. In 1873 he gave up mer- chandising and was employed as weigh-master at the coal mine of W. B. Brooks until 1878. He then went to Shawnee, O., where he carried on the mercantile business until 1882, when he returned to Athens and took charge of the Hamley Run coal mines as Su- perintendent for H.C. Wells & Co., of Columbus, O. While re- siding in Nelsonville, in 1873, he was elected City Clerk and during 1873 and 1874 served as a member of the Board of Education of that city. May 29, 1865, he was married to Aggie, daughter of Cornelius Steinrod, of Nelsonville. They had three children--- George Edwin, Hattie and Abbie. Mr. Benson is a member of Para- muthia Lodge, No. 25, A. F.& A. M., of Athens. James Crawford Bower was born January 30, 1835, near Pittsburg, Pa., where he was reared and received a common-school education. He was the third of seven sons of Alexander and Martha (Couch) Bower, with whom he lived till fifteen years of age when he was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith’s trade, serving three years and seven months. After working as a journeyman about a year, he, in March, 1855, came to Athens County, Ohio, and established him- self in a shop at Pleasanton, where he remained till 1862, being at the same time engaged in farming. In 1862 he was commissioned a recruiting officer with the rank of First Lieutenant, and recruited Company I, Ninety-second Ohio Infantry, going into the service with them as First Lieutenant. He served about nine months when he resigned an account of sickness. In April, 1864, he went to Montana; worked at his trade there till October, 1866, and then returned to Athens County, locating in Albany, where he opened a shop. In 1877 he moved on to a farm in the vicinity of Albany and carried on the farm in connection with blacksmithing. In 1880 he came to Athens, where he is now engaged in the dairy business. Aug. 15, 1855, he married Louisa Cooley, of Pleasan- ton. They have five children---Loduska, Emma, William, Charles, and Hattie. Mr. Bower has been Coroner of Athens County since the fall of 1878. He is a Master, Royal Arch, Council and Knight Templar Mason, and a member of lodge, chapter, council and commandery at Athens. He has served as Junior Warden of313
his lodge. He is also a member of Athenian Lodge, No. 497, K. of P., and Columbus Golden Post, No. 89 G. A. R. Daniel Boyd, deceased, was born in the county of Donegal, in the Northern part of Ireland, in September, 1794. His ancestors came from Scotland. His opportunities for obtaining an education were limited, but by improving his spare hours while learning the weaver’s trade he acquired a good education. He had a natural love of books, and was a constant reader, and in after life whatever luxuries his circumstances might compel him to forego, newspapers and periodicals were always to be found in his home. In boyhood he had become familiar with the wrongs and hardships of the Irish people. His father Robert Boyd, possessed a small leasehold estate, which he intended to divide among his four sons. But Daniel, having read of the rich land and free air of the western world set his heart on seeking a new home free from exacting titles and odious rents. Succeeding in obtaining sufficient money with which to pay his passage he came to America, landing at Philadelphia in 1819. He walked over the mountains to Steuben- ville, Ohio, where he found employment as a teacher and after- ward as a weaver. In 1827 he removed to Keene, Coshocton County where he engaged in the mercantile business, near which place he located his parents and younger brothers and sisters who followed him to America in 1822. His business proving a failure he became deeply involved in debt. In 1838 he removed to Athens County, Ohio and settled on a farm in Carthage Town- ship, where he died in 1867, and where for nearly thirty years he was a highly respected as a man of the strictest integrity, warm sympathy, and generous impulses. Here after many years of hard labor, he succeeded in paying off his indebtedness with its heavily accrued interest. He was a member of the Methodist Epis- copal church, and gave liberally of his means for its support, and at his house the “itinerant” was always a welcome guest. He took a deep interest in educational institutions, especially the com- mon schools of the vicinity. In 1825 he was married to Jane Elliott, a sister of Rev. Charles Elliott, widely known in the Methodist Episcopal denomination as a minister, editor and author. They were blessed with nine children---John Elliott, a physician, who died in Columbia in 1855; Mary Ann, who died in 1867; Jane a prominent teacher of Athens County; Kate, Prin- cipal of the Athens High School; Hugh a graduate of Ohio University in the class of 1859, afterward a member of the Ohio Con-314
ference of the Methodist Episcopal church, and since 1871 Pro- fessor of the Greek an Latin Languages in Cornell College, Iowa; Lucy, formerly a teacher in the Nelsonville school, but now teach- ing in the Orphan’s Home of Xenia; William Fletcher, a graduate of the Ohio University in the class of 1866, now attorney at law at Cincinnati; Fanny Blair, wife of Charles Lawrence, Esq., of Carthage Township; and Margaret, who taught for several years in the Cincinnati Wesleyan College and is now Principal of the High School in Martinsville, Ind. She is the first lady gradu- ate of the Ohio University. After the death of their father, in 1867, the family sold the farm and removed to Athens where they procured a pleasant home and where those remaining at home still live, and with them their mother, happily and contented at the age of eighty years. Hon. Archibald Green Brown, was born at Waterford, Washing- ton Co., Ohio, April 16, 1798, is of Puritan stock. His father was Captain Benjamin Brown of Revolutionary fame, who came from Massachusetts in 1776, and settled in Washington County, Ohio. Our subject was educated in the Ohio University at Athens, gradu- ating in the close of 1822, and is now the oldest living graduate of that institution. In the latter part of 1822 he went to Columbus, Ohio, where he taught in an academy until the following year, when he returned to Athens and taught in the preparatory depart- ment of his alma mater from September of that year until the spring of 1825. In the summer of 1825 he established the Athens Mirror, the first paper published in Athens County, the publica- tion of which he continued until 1830. In July 1825, he was appointed, by the Court of Common Pleas, Recorder of Athens County, which he subsequently held, by election, for a period of thirteen years. Prior to 1826 he was elected Justice of the Peace of Athens, and held that office continuously until about 1850. In 1834, while filling the office of Justice of the Peace and County Recorder, he taught a private school in Athens, and, having in the meantime privately studied law, was admitted to the bar at Athens, during the same year. In April 1850, he was elected member of the Constitutional Convention that framed the present Constitution of Ohio, and in July of the same year was appointed Presiding Judge of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, to fill a vacancy, and held that office until February, 1852. Since then he has devoted his life to his profession and has built up an enviable reputation as a real-estate lawyer. In 1841 he became a Trustee of the Ohio315
University and still holds that position. Jan. 8, 1824, he married Priscilla K. Crippen, by whom he had five children---Henry T., attorney at Law; Athens; Louis W. late of Athens, who was for some fifteen years Clerk of the Court of Athens County, and who died Sept. 29, 1873, at the age of forty-two; the others died in in- fancy. He has been a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Athens since 1819 and a ruling Elder since 1833. Charles Henry Brown, born Nov. 26, 1846, in Athens, Ohio is the youngest of three children of Charles Pitt and Angeline Eliz- abeth (Crippen) Brown, and grandson of the late General W. Brown, an old Pioneer of Athens County. He was educated in the Athens High School and the Ohio University, it being his in- tention to graduate from the later in the class of 1865. He was suspended for a minor offense, and afterward reinstated, but con- sidering the suspension unjust he withdrew from the class, and spent the next two years in teaching. April 7, 1867, he married Ann Eliza, daughter of Harvey and Abbie (Calvert) Carpenter, of Canaan Township, who died October 23, 1867. After his marriage he settled on a farm in Cannan Township, which he still owns and carries on in connection with other business. In 1874 he was employed by the Adams Express Company and worked for them in different capacities for five years. In 1879 he received his present situation as bill clerk for the M. & C. R. R. In 1877 he married Ada Earhart, from whom he was divorced in 1880. Feb. 7, 1881, he married Ada J., daughter of Hiram Hill, of Marietta, Ohio316
Granville Currier Brown, of the firm of G. C. Brown & Co., proprietors of the “Warren House,” Athens, was born in Athens, May 16, 1853, where he was reared and educated in the public schools. He is the son of Oscar W. and Adaline S. (Cur- rier) Brown. At the age of seventeen he began to clerk in the store of W. W. Love & Co., at Athens, remaining with them three years. He was then variously employed for one year, and in 1874 began to clerk in the Brown Hotel, for Major Elmer Golden, remaining with him in that and the Warren House until November, 1882, when he became associated with W. H. Brown, under the firm name of G. C. Brown & Co., proprietors of the Warren House, Athens, he having the full charge of the house. He is a Master Mason, and member of Parmuthia Lodge, No. 25, Athens. Henry Thomas Brown, attorney, Athens, was born in Ath- ens, Nov. 11, 1825. He is the oldest of two sons of Hon. Archi- bald Green Brown, a pioneer lawyer, and a native of Ohio. His mother, Priscilla King Crippen, was a native of New York. He was educated in Ohio University, at Athens. He chose his father’s profession, and at the age of nineteen began the study of law in his office. He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court at Pomeroy, Ohio, in 1846, and at once began to practice at Athens. In 1852 he became associated with his father, under the firm name of A. G. & H. T. Brown. In 1860 L. A. Koons became associated with them, changing the firm name to Brown & Koons. In 1864 Mr. Brown entered the Union Army as a First Lieutenant and Quartermaster of the One Hundred and Forty First Regiment, Ohio National Guards, and served five months. Dec. 16, 1847, he married Charlotte M. Fuller, of Athens, by whom he has five children---Charlotte E., wife of Henry D. Mirick, of Athens; Herbert H., of Parsons, Kan.; Mabel King and Bertha B., living at home; and Harold of Nebraska. They lost one son, Carlos Louis, who died at Athens, June 30, 1878, at the age of twenty two. He's317
an Odd Fellow, a member of Sereno Lodge, No. 479, and of Athens Encampment, No 175, and has held all the positions in both bodies. He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Athens. James Dickey Brown, a banker of Athens, son of John and Susan (Green) Brown, was born at Albany, Athens Co., Ohio, Aug. 27, 1845. He was educated in the High School of his native town. In the spring of 1865, at the age of nineteen, he became associated with his father in the mercantile business at Albany, under the firm name of John Brown & Son. They discontinued the mercan- tile business in the fall of 1867, and engaged in private banking at Albany, under the same firm name. In the fall of 1868 they removed to Athens, and established the Bank of Athens, carrying on private banking together there, until the death of the senior member of the firm, Oct. 18, 1875. Since then our subject has carried on the business alone. In 1867 he enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Forty-First Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as a private, and served on guard duty 100 days, at Barboursville, W. Va. May 23, 1867, he married Lizzie, daughter of Elmer Armstrong, Esq., of Athens County. They have two children, John and Jennie Jaynes. Mr. Brown and wife are members of the First Presbyterian Church of Athens, of which church he has been a ruling elder since April, 1875. Our subject is a Mason, a member of Paramuthia Lodge, No. 25, A. F. & A. M., of Athens.318
Eli Cushman Crippen, an old resident of Athens, was born Dec. 28, 1814, in that city, where he was reared and has lived all his life. His parents were Amos and Amelia (Steadman) Crippen. His father was a man of some prominence, being at one time As- sociate Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Athens County,328
and having served as Treasurer of the same county for eight years. He was also Postmaster of Athens a number of years. He was by trade a blacksmith, Eli learning the trade of him when a boy. After attaining his majority our subject became associated with his father in the business, under the firm name of Amos Crippen & Son. The firm existed until the death of the senior member, in Feb- ruary, 1856. Since then our subject has carried on the business alone. In 1865, he was appointed Postmaster of Athens by Presi- dent Lincoln, and served as such three years, when, not meeting with approbation during President Johnson's administration, he was removed from office. Dec. 2, 1841, he married Kate C. Whip- ple, daughter of Jeremiah Whipple, residing near Athens. Mr. and Mrs. Crippen have three children living---Henry C., mail agent on the M. & C. R. R.; Carrie, wife of Rev. Silas Pruden, of Brownsville, Cal., and Celia A., wife of Rev. David Morgan, of St. Paul, Minn. They have lost two children---Willie C., who died in infancy, and Frank M., who died Feb. 4, 1875, at the age of seventeen. Mr. Crippen is a member of the Universalist church at Rutland, Meigs Co., Ohio; his wife, of the First Presby- terian Church at Athens.
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employed until 1849, when he removed to Wheeling, W. Va.; thence to Athens County, Ohio, in 1857, where he settled on a farm in Lodi Township, and pursued farming for twenty-tive years. In 1882 he sold his farm and came to Athens and became associated with A. Laird, and his son, Conrad Josten, in manufacturing wag- gons and carriages; and dealing in farming implements. Feb. 17, 1848, he married Elizabeth Bricker, of Armstrong, Pa. They have four children---Conrad, Peter, Mary and Lizzie. Mr. and Mrs. Josten are members of St. Paul's Catholic Church of Athens. Frederick Lewis Junod was born in Canaan Township, Athens Co., Ohio, Jan. 30,1832. When he was an infant his parents, Frederick Lewis and Ursula (Stalder) Junod, removed to Ames Township, where he was reared. His father died June, 1852, and he remained on the homestead farm with his mother till 1867, when he bought the farm in Dover Township, where he now resides. Mr. Junod was Trustee and Justice of the Peace in Ames Town- ship several years. He has been a member of the Board of Edu- cation in Ames and Dover townships the most of the time since 1854, and has also been a Trustee in Dover Township. In 1880 he was elected one of the Directors of the Athens County Infirmary. Nov.30, 1852, he married Lydia Ann Stephenson. They have ten children, seven sons and three daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Junod are members of the Sugar Creek Methodist Episcopal church. Herbert Augustus Junod, son of Frederick L. and Lydia (Stephenson) Junod, was born in Ames Township, Athens Co., Ohio, Sept. 17, 1854. When he was thirteen years old his parents removed to Dover Township. He was educated in the district schools of the county and at the Ohio University, Athens, after which he taught school two years. He then was a salesman for the Singer Manu- facturing Company a year, and then was employed by F. M. Koone, lumber dealer, two years. In 1883 he accepted the situation as salesman for O. D. Jackson, proprietor of the coal mines at Jackson- ville, Athens County. He is a member of the Methodist Episco- pal church at Sugar Creek, and of Sereno Lodge, No.479, I. O. O. F., Athens. Peter Kern, dealer in and manufactnrer of boots and shoes, was born near Chambersburg. Pa., Oct. 10, 1837. When two and one- half years old his parents removed to Ohio and settled at Logan, Hocking County, where his father died when he was about four years old. He lived with his mother at Logan until he was nineteen. At the age of sixteen he began to learn the trade of a shoe maker,356
Richard Phillips, a native of Hunterdon County, N. J., born Jan. 11, 1807, was a son of Thomas and Mary (Angell) Phillips, natives of England. He lived on a farm till seventeen years of age and then went to learn the boot and shoe maker’s trade, an occupation he followed many years. In December, 1831, he mar- ried Leah Bishop. They had ten children---John B., Mary, Thomas, Wilson, Kate, Elizabeth, David, W. H. L., Jane and Belle. In May 1842, Mr. Phillips started for Athens County, with his family and household goods. He was on the road a month, arriving in Athens, June 4. He settled in Lodi Township on the farm now owned by Thomas Angell. Here, with the assistance of his sons, he cleared 160 acres of timbered land. In 1856 he sold the farm and removed to Cannan Township. He lived there till 1870 and then bought his present home, where he has fifty acres of good land and is surrounded with all the comforts of life. His wife died in October, 1868, and June 6, 1870, he married Jane Robinson, a native of England. Mr. Phillips is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and has been a Steward and Class- Leader. He started in life poor, and by his own exertions has acquired the property he now has. Belford Wood Pickering , M. D., assistant physician in the Athens Asylum for the Insane, a son of Samuel and Cather- ine (Wood) Pickering, was born at Athens, July 26, 1853. He was ed- ucated in the Union schools of Athens and the Ohio University. In the fall of 1873 he began the study of Medicine in the office of Dr. A. B. Frame, and was under his preceptorship three years. He graduated from the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati, in the spring of 1875, after taking two courses of lectures. In 1878 he began to practice at Stewart, O., and in the fall of 1880 he was ap-371
pointed assistant physician of the Athens Asylum for the Insane. April 23, 1879, he married Miss Susie D. Foster, of Washington County, O. They have one child---Julia D. Dr. Pickering is a Master, Royal Arch, and Knight Templar Mason, and a member of the lodge, chapter and commandery at Athens. Francis O. Pickering, born near St. Clairsville, Belmont Co., O., Dec. 26, 1837, is the eldest of eight sons of Levi and Susannah (Spiller) Pickering. He was given a common-school education, living with his parents till he was of age, and coming with them to Athens Township in 1854. In 1858 he went to Wheeling, Va., and purchased a stock of notions and stationary, which he sold by running a peddler’s wagon through Athens, Meigs, Washington and Morgan counties. He followed that business till August, 1862, when he enlisted in Company I, One Hundred and Sixteenth Ohio Infantry, and serving till the close of the war. He enlisted as a private and after serving as such a year was promoted to Commis- sary Sergeant. The most important battles in which he partici- pated were Moorefield, Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, Cedar Creek, Lynchburg, siege and capture of Petersburg, and Richmond; was present at the surrender of Lee’s army at Appomattox Court-House. He was discharged in June 1865, and returned to Athens, where he has followed farming together with dealing extensively in coal. He has been twice married. His first wife was Hannah E. Tedrow, whom he married March 9, 1860. She died December, 1861, leaving one son---William F. , who was drowned in the Hocking River, in July, 1867, aged six years. June 7, 1866, he married Mary Jane, daughter of Robert C. Clark of Athens Township. They have had six children, only five now living---Francis C., War- rington Addison, Thomas O., Charles G., and Sarah May. Clar- ence Edward died March 26, 1873, aged six years. Mr. Pickering was a member of the City Council from 1880 to 1881. He is a member of Columbus Golden Post, No. 89, G.A. R., of which he has been Vice-Commander.372
William Hull Potter, grocer, Athens, was born at Providence, R. I., Feb. 9, 1818, where he was reared and educated in the pri- vate schools. At the age of sixteen he went to Edwardsville, Ill., and clerked in the store of S. Kidmore & Hall for a short time, when he returned to Providence and entered his father's store as a clerk, and was so employed until his fathers death in 1839, when he became his successor. He discontinued the business in 1843, and in 1844 he removed to Pittsburg, Pa., and engaged in manu- factured cigars until 1845. He enlisted in Company K, First Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, called the De Quense Greys, Colonel Wyncoop, and served during the Mexican war. He par- ticipated in the besiegement and capture of Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Huamanta and the investment of the city of Mexico. After be- ing mustered out of the service at Pittsburg, Aug., 22, 1847, he resumed manufacturing cigars. The following year he came to Athens and engaged in the same business until 1852, when he discontinued it and since then has been in the grocery business. June 24, 1839, he married Eliza, daughter of Jeremiah Whipple, of Providence, R. I., who died at Athens, Feb 5, 1855. They had six children, two of whom are living---Lizzie, wife of C. D. Norris, Superintendent of the Ohio & West Virginia Railroad, at Cincinnati; and Charles W., insurance agent of Athens. He is an ancient Odd Fellow, and one of the charter members of Sereno Lodge, at Athens.377
Frank C. Steadman, junior member of the firm W. H. Brown & Co., wholesale grocers, Athens, was born in this city March 13, 1853, where he was reared and educated. He is a son of Frederick and Lonisa (Golden) Steadman. When sixteen years of age he commenced to clerk for W. H. Brown, and in 1873 be- came associated with his employer, under the firm name of Brown & Steadman. In 1876 he withdrew his interest and went to Phila- delphia and carried on a hotel for the National Surgical Institute till 1880, when he returned to Athens and again became associated with W. H. Brown in the wholesale grocery business, under the firm name of W. H. Brown & Co. Aug. 1, 1880, he married Etta Crouse, of Philadelphia. Mr. Steadman is a member of Paramu- thia Lodge, No. 25, A. F. & A. M., of Athens383
Alexander Bothwell Scott, deceased, was born at Putnam, Ohio, in October, 1808, of Scotch-Irish parents, they both emigrating from Ireland when very young. When he was quite young his parents removed from Putnam to Harmar, thence to Belpre, Ohio, and later to McConnelsville, where he lived until 1858, and was variously employed. At one time he ran a general store, and during that time carried on the mercantile business one year(1840) at Chauncey. In 1842 he took charge of the flouring mill of Doster & Cassel at McConnelsville, and was so employed for thirteen years. He was again variously employed until the spring of 1858 when he took charge of the Herrold Mills, of Athens, removing his family to that city in the spring of 1859. He remained in that po- sition until the spring of 1864 when he took charge of Stewart's Mill near Athens. He died Jan. 3, 1866, at his home in Athens, having been in failing health for two years. Dec. 29, 1839, he was mar- to Miss Susan Rutledge, of McConnelsville. They had four children---William H., President of Ohio University; John R., Winfield, freight and ticket agent for the Washington and Baltimore R. R., at Athens: Anna M., who died in infancy, and Wilber F., express agent at Athens. Mr. Scott was a member of the M. E. church the greater part of his life. He was well informed, being a great reader, and above the average in intelligence. He was de- voted to his family and took great pains to educate his sons, placing in their hands the best literature.384