OHIO STATEWIDE FILES  OH-FOOTSTEPS Mailing List
***********************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons.
Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain
the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative
of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof
of this consent.
***********************************************************************

OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest                    Volume 99 : Issue 325

Today's Topics:
  #1 DELAWARE COUNTY - PART 3             [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE]
  #2 HON. JOHN THOMAS FRANCE - DELAWARE   [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE]
  #3 ALBERT C. MILLER - DELAWARE COUNTY   [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE]
  #4 JOHN E. DAVIS - DELAWARE             [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE]

------------------------------

X-Message: #1
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 07:44:00, -0500
From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER)
Subject: DELAWARE COUNTY - PART 3


HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF OHIO By Henry Howe LL.D., 1898

                        DELAWARE COUNTY - PART 3

        BIOGRAPHY. -Col. Moses Byxbe was for several years the most
prominent man in the county, being the owner of some 8,000 acres of
valuable land in Berkshire and Berlin, and joint owner with Judge Baldwin
of about thirty thousand acres more, the sale of which he had the entire
control. These were military lands which he sold on credit, at prices
varying from two and half to ten dollars an acre. He possessed a complete
knowledge of human nature, and was an energetic and prompt business man.
Upon the organization of the county he was elected one of the associate
judges, and continued to hold the office till 1822. He was afflicted with
partial insanity before he died, which occurred in 1827, at the age of 67.
        SOLOMON SMITH, ESQ., was born in New Salem, N.H., and came here
with Col. Byxbe in 1804. He was the first sheriff in the county, and was
the first justice of the peace in the township, which office he led, by
repeated elections, more than twenty years. He was also the first
postmaster, and continued many years in that capacity. The responsible
offices of county treasurer and county auditor he also filled for many
years, and discharged the duties of all these stations with an accuracy
seldom excelled, and a fidelity never questioned. In him was exhibited an
instance of a constant office-holder and an honest man, and for a long time
he possessed more personal popularity than any other man in the county. He
died of congestive fever, at Sandusky City, on his return from New York,
July 10, 1845, in his 58th year, and his remains were brought here for
interment.
        HON. EXEKIEL BROWN was born in Orange county, N.Y., in 1760, and
moved to Northumberland county, Pa., when about ten years old. In 1776, he
volunteered and marched to join Washington's army, which he reached just
after the battle of Trenton. He participated in four different engagements
and in 1778 joined a company of rangers called out against the Indians. On
the 24th of May, when out scouting with two others, they came across a
party of fifteen Indians watching a house, and were themselves discovered
at the same moment. The Indians fired and killed one man, and Brown and his
comrade instantly returned the fire, wounding an Indian, and then fled. The
other escaped, but he was not fleet enough, and was captured. They were
Delawares and Cayugas, and first took him to Chemung, and Indian town on
Tioga river, where he had to run the gauntlet, being badly beaten, and
received a severe wound on his head from a tomahawk, but he succeeded in
reaching the council-house without being knocked down.
        After a few days they resumed their march to the north, and met
Colonel Butler with a large body of British tories and Indians on their way
to attack Wyoming, and he was compelled to run the gauntlet again to
gratify the savages. This time he did not get through, being felled by a
war-club and awfully mangled. He recovered and proceeded on to the main
town of the Cayugas, where Scipio, N.Y., now stands, and having again
passed the gauntlet ordeal successfully he was adopted by a family, in the
place of a son killed at Fort Stanwix. Afterwards he was taken to Canada,
and kept to the close of the war in 1783, when he received a passport from
the British general, M'Clure, and returned, after an absence of five years,
to his friends in Pennsylvania. In 1800 he moved to Ohio, and in 1808 he
settled near Sunbury, and was immediately elected one of the first county
commissioners. Afterwards he was elected associate judge, and served in
several minor offices, and died about five years ago, leaving the
reputation of an upright man.
        CAPT. JOHN MINTER, from Kentucky, one of the early settlers in
Radnor, and brother-in-law of Col. Crawford, who was burnt by the Indians,
was, in his younger days, a great hunter, and became famous for a terrible
bear fight, in which he came very near losing his life. When hunting alone
one day he came across a very large bear and fired at him. The bear fell,
and reloading his gun Minter advanced, supposing him dead, and touched his
nose with the muzzle of the gun, when he instantly reared upon his hind
legs to seize him. Minter fired again, which increased his rage, only
inflicting a flesh wound, and then threw his hatchet at him; and as the
bear sprang forward to grasp him he struck him with the rifle on the head
with all his might, producing no other effect than shivering the gun to
pieces. Too late then to escape he drew his big knife from his sheath and
made a plunge at his heart, but old Bruin, by a stroke of his paw, whirled
the knife into the air, and enfolding its weaponless owner with his huge
arms both rolled to the ground.
        A fearful struggle then ensued between the combatants: one ruled by
unvarying instinct, and the other guided by the dictates of reason. The
former depended wholly upon hugging his adversary to death, while the
latter aimed at presenting his body in such positions as would best enable
him to withstand the vice-like squeeze till he could loosen the grasp. He
was about six feet in height, possessing large bones and well-developed
muscles, and being properly proportioned was very athletic. The woods were
open and clear of underbrush, and in their struggles they rolled in every
direction. Several times he thought the severity of the hug would finish
him; but by choking the bear he would compel him to release his hold to
knock off his hands, when he would recover his breath and gain a better
position. After maintaining the contest in this way several hours they,
happily for him, rolled back near where his knife lay, which inspired him
with buoyant hope, but he had to make many ineffectual efforts before he
could tumble the bear within reach of it. Having finally recovered it he
stabbed him at every chance till he at last bled to death, only relaxing
his hold when life became extinct.
        He attempted to get up, but was too much exhausted, and crawling to
a log, against which he leaned, his heart sickened as he contemplated the
scene. Not a rag was left on him, and over his back, arms and legs his
flesh was lacerated to the bones by the claws of the bear. By crawling and
walking he reached home after night with no other covering than a gore of
blood from head to foot. His friends, who went out next morning to survey
the ground and bring in the trophy said the surface was torn up by them
over a space of at least half an acre. After several weeks he recovered,
but he carried with him the cicatrices and welts, some of which were more
than a quarter of an inch thick, till he died, which occurred about fifteen
years ago. He never desired another bear hug, but gave up hunting, and
turning his attention to agriculture left his children a comfortable
patrimony and a good name.

                Continued in Part 4

------------------------------

X-Message: #2
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 07:44:03, -0500
From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER)
Subject: HON. JOHN THOMAS FRANCE - DELAWARE CO.


BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL RECORD OF ADAMS COUNTY, INDIANA
The Lewis Publishing Company, 1887 - Page 403-404

        HON. JOHN THOMAS FRANCE, senior member of the law firm of France &
Merryman, Decatur, Indiana, is a prominent young attorney of Adams County.
He is a native of Ohio, born in Delaware, Delaware County, Ohio, December
5, 1853. He is the eldest of two sons of Charles M. and Miranda (Thomas)
France. Charles M. France was a native of Vermont, of Scotch and English
parentage. When a child his parents moved to Ohio, where he was reared. In
1851, when a young man, he came to Indiana and located in Adams County,
where he followed farming until 1867, when, having in the meantime read
law, he was admitted to the bar, and in 1868 located at Decatur and began
his practice. In the spring of 1879 he moved to Bluffton, Wells County,
where he still lives. He was married in 1852 to Miranda Thomas, a native of
Whitley County, Indiana, who died in 1857. John Thomas France was reared in
Adams County, and was here educated, graduating from the high school at
Decatur in the class of 1873. In the winter of 1873-'74 he taught his first
and only term of school, in Blue Creek Township. In the spring of 1874 he
began to read law in the office of France & Miller, his father being the
senior partner. He was admitted to the bar at Decatur in 1875, and at once
began to practice, becoming a member of the firm of France & Miller,
changing the name to France, Miller & France. This co-partnership existed a
year, when in 1876, Mr. Miller withdrawing, the firm was changed to France
& Son. In 1879 his father moved to Bluffton, and since that time he has
been associated with different parties, and in January, 1883, with J.T.
Merryman, formed the present firm of France & Merryman. In politics Mr.
France has always been identified with the Democratic party. During 1876
and 1877 he was deputy prosecuting attorney of Adams County, under Joshua
Bishop, of Jay County. In the fall of 1878 he was elected prosecuting
attorney of the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit, comprising the counties of
Adams, Jay and Wells, and was re-elected in 1880, filling the office four
years. During his service as prosecuting attorney he tried several murder
cases, the most important being the Richards-Backester murder. Since 1875
he has taken an active part in politics, and in 1880 was elected chairman
of the Adams County Democratic Central Committee, an office he has held to
the present time. He is a member of Knights of Pythias, Kekionga Lodge, No.
65, and has passed all the chairs and has represented his lodge twice in
the grand lodge of the State. He was married October 19, 1876, to Miss
Isabella Corbin, daughter of Elijah and Phoebe (Ullery) Corbin, natives of
Virginia, who came to Indiana in 1846. Mrs. France was born in Marion
County, Indiana, June 2, 1855, and was educated in the schools of
Winchester, Randolph County. To Mr. and Mrs. France have been born three
children -Carl O., born December 12, 1877; Richard R., April 6, 1879, and
Herbert B., March 6, 1881.

------------------------------

X-Message: #3
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 07:44:05, -0500
From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER)
Subject: ALBERT C. MILLER - DELAWARE COUNTY


HISTORY OF OHIO
The American Historical Society Inc.
Vol. V - Page 37

        ALBERT C. MILLER, president and general manager of the A.C. Miller
Company, has been a resident of Delaware County all his life, and has been
prominently connected for thirty years with the lumber industry. As a
timber man and manufacturer his operations have covered a wide territory.
He has a large mill and yard at Delaware.
        He was born at Delaware, October 5, 1872, son of Nathan and Mary
(Fry) Miller. His grandparents were Jacob and Catherine Miller, of
Pennsylvania, Dutch ancestry. Jacob Miller was a California forty-niner,
and an early settler of Ohio. Both Nathan and Mary Miller were born in
Ohio, and the former was a substantial farmer. He was very active in church
work, being a deacon of the Reformed Church.
        Albert C. Miller attended the public schools of Delaware, and left
school at the age of seventeen to go to work on the farm. In a short time
he was doing logging in the woods, and he found in that an occupation that
appealed to his sturdy nature, and it has been his permanent vocation ever
since. For several years he did logging for others, and in 1892 engaged in
business for himself. He built a saw mill, and at first confined his
operations to the primary work of lumbering, beginning in the standing
timber, logging and manufacturing rough lumber, and from that extended his
business to selling in retail yards. His first mill was built on his
present mill and yard site. At the present time his facilities include a
planing mill and he manufactures large quantities of inside finish both
pine and hardwood. He buys wood lots on the farms in this section of Ohio,
and still has a crew to do his logging. He uses all the up-to-date methods,
and horses have been practically superseded by motor trucks. In connection
with his lumber yard at Delaware he has a coal yard and also has a repair
shop for the repair of all his milling and logging machinery. In the fall
of 1918 the business was incorporated as the A.C. Miller Company, and a
department for the manufacture of handles was added, the output of which
has attained the enormous total of 1,500,000 handles annually.
        November 23, 1897, at Delaware, Mr. Miller married Miss Anna
Bryson. Her parents were Ohio farmers and died when she was very young, and
she was reared in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Wells. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are
members of the Reformed Church.

------------------------------

X-Message: #4
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 07:44:09, -0500
From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER)
Subject: JOHN E. DAVIS - DELAWARE


HISTORY OF OHIO
The American Historical Society, Inc., 195
Volume III - Page 388

        JOHN E. DAVIS is owner of the Zack Davis Seed Company at Delaware.
This company is now one of the largest concerns in Ohio engaged in the
growing and distribution of seed for agricultural purposes. The business
was started more than a quarter of a century ago, and John E. Davis has
been identified with it almost from the beginning.
        The founder of the business was the late Zachariah Davis, who was
born in Wales, and as an infant came with his parents in 1841 to America.
His father had been a Welsh shoemaker. On coming to Ohio he settled on a
farm a mile east of Delaware on the Sunbury pike, and here he engaged in
agriculture. Zachariah Davis was reared on the home farm, educated in the
district schools, and about the time he attained his majority the Civil war
broke out and he served with the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Ohio Volunteer
Infantry. He did his full duty as a soldier, and after the war resumed his
place on the farm. He and a brother also were associated in the business of
brick manufacture. About 1890 their partnership was dissolved and the brick
yard was sold.
        It was in 1896 that Zachariah Davis started a nursery and began
growing and handling seeds. He kept his goods to the mark of highest
quality, and had the satisfaction of seeing this business grow very
rapidly. In 1899 he opened a store on Williams Street in Delaware City, and
from that handled the growing mail order business. He continued the active
head until his death in 1914. One of his sons was also associated with the
business until his death in 1917. Since then the business has come under
the individual ownership of John E. Davis. Zachariah Davis married
Elizabeth Evans, who is now living with her daughters, Jane and Anna, in
Cleveland, Ohio.
        John E. Davis was born at Delaware, June 1, 1879, and acquired a
public school education, followed by two years int he Ohio Wesleyan
University. In 1899, when his father opened the seed store and headquarters
in Delaware, he took charge and has had a continuous association with the
business now for twenty-four years. He has been very successful in building
up trade over several states, and a large warehouse is now required to
handle the products of the Zack Davis Company.
        In October, 1911, at Delaware, Mr. Davis married Grace Elizabeth
Miller, daughter of Henry and Caroline (Neilson) Miller. The Millers and
Nelsons were among Ohio's pioneer families. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have two
daughters and one son, Ruth Elizabeth, Thomas Zachariah and Jane Caroline.
They are members of the Reformed Church. Mr. Davis is affiliated with the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows, United Commercial Travelers, and the
Delaware Chamber of Commerce.

--------------------------------

End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #325
*******************************************