Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/944

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��BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

��principal study for many years ; he united with the United Presbyterian Church early in life, and contin- ued an active and constant member thereof, until the church in his neighborhood ceased to exist, when he united with the Evangelical Association at Salem, Worth- ington Township, of which he is now an honored and efficient member. Mr. Swendal has taken an active part in the affairs of his township, especially in the cause of education, and also the improvement of the public highways ; he served as a member of the Board of Education for many years ; he was also one of the Trustees of his township several terms ; he has administered on several estates, and collected a great deal of money for other parties ; in all his busi- ness transactions he has displayed the characteristics of an honest man.

SHEEHY, EDWARD, farmer; P. 0. Butler ; Edward Sheehy was born in County. Cork, Ireland, in 1809; his father, John Sheehy, was also born there ; by occu- pation, he was a farmer ; he married Mary McCarthy ; they raised five daughters and two sons; the mother died in Ireland in 1821. John Sheehy and ftimily emi- grated to this country, and entered 240 acres in Monroe Township ; he cleared and cultivated it till 1829, when he died. Edward bought 80 acres of this land. He was married to Mary Ann Stout, daughter of James Stout; she became the mother of five sons and four daughters, all of whom are -living except William, who was killed during the rebellion ; Mrs. Sheehy died in 1856. Jan. 30, 1860, he was married to Mary Greer, daughter of Alexander Greer ; by this marriage, he has had one son and two daughters. In the fall of 1860, he sold his farm in Monroe to C. Welty, for |3,000; then bought 110 acres in Sec. 19, Worthington Township, for |3,000, where he has since lived. His son William died of small-pox, at Knoxville ; during the war, he was under A. McLaughlin, in the Ohio Cavalry : John served throughout the war and came home at the close; he was in Company D, I5th 0. V. I., 1st Brigade, 3d Division.

SIMMONS, WILLIAM B., farmer ; P. 0. Butler. Mr. Simmons was born Aug. 19, 1820, on the northwest quarter of Sec. 15, Worthington Township ; he was the eldest son by a second marriage ; his father, Thomas Simmons, was born in Westmoreland Co. Md., and at an early period of his life removed to Virginia ; by occu- pation he was a farmer ; his first wife was Ruth Fla- hart, by whom he had seven children, two dying in in- fancy; his wife died in 1816; he afterward married Mary Piper, who bore him twelve children. Thomas Simmons came to Richland Co.'Jan. 1, 1813, and en- tered 160 acres of land in Sec. 15; he was in the war of 1812, from which he returned in safety ; he had two sons, John and Jacob, who were in the Mexican war ; John, Abraham and Otho served in the late war, on the Union side, where Otho died; Jacob was first a Cap- tain, afterward a Colonel in the same war on the rebel side. Thomas Simmons died in 1844; his second wife lived five years after this. William Simmons was mar- ried to Mary McClellan Nov. 11, 1841; his wife's birth occurred but nine days before his own ; they had seven sons and five daughters, only three of whom are living. In 1850, he bought 80 acres in Sec. 28, for |900 ; after- ward, 26 acres in the same section. He was so unfor-

��tunate as to lose his wife in 1870, March 14 ; July 14, 1873, he was married to Margaret Simmons. The 26th day of May, 1876, he and his son Stewart were washing sheep in the Clear Fork, near Independence ; Stewart went into water twenty-two feet deep to bathe, after they had finished their work, when he was seized with cramps, and drowned ; the following lines were composed by his father and are engraved on his tomb- stone in the Bunker Hill graveyard: " Stewart Simmons died May 26, 1876, aged 29 years 4 months and 28 days.

" Low down in the deep waters my life I give o'er. But then I was arisen and carried to the shore, Where means were abplied my life to restore ; But it was extinct and would never return to me any more." SMITH, JOHN D., farmer; P. 0. Newville Mr. Smith is of English and German descent ; he was born near Ashland, Ohio, Jan. 11, 1852. He married William Darling's second daughter, Selena, Nov. 25, 1873 ; Mrs. Smith, at 4 years of age, left her father's house to live with her Grandmother McCurdy, where she stayed till her marriage ; they then went to Indiana and bought 51^ acres of land for $2,000, lived on it three years, when they were called home to see her father die ; they promised on his death-bed to stay on the homestead until his son Winfred became 21 years of age. They have one daughter, Elizabeth Ann by name. For the rest of this family history, see Ann McCurdy' s and S. M. Darling's biographies.

SMITH, HENRY, farmer; P. 0. Newville ; was born in Germany in 1802 ; he and his father were both farmers ; they emigrated to Stark Co. in 1837, and bought 40 acres of land. Our subject was married to Elizabeth Sprou ; they had two children in Ger- many, three in Stark Co., four in Richland Co.; came to this county in 1843 and bought 160 acres for $1,500, afterward bought 9 acres for $700. He and his wife belong to the Lutheran Church ; his wife was born in 1804 ; her ancestors were also farmers. His sons farm for him.

SNAVELY, JOSEPH, farmer; P. 0. Newville; was born in Franklin Co., Penn.. March 80, 1822; his father, George Suavely, was born in Lancaster Co., Penn., in 1779 ; he was of German descent; he was married to Barbara Aldspaugh, whose ancestors were Germans ; in 1815, he removed to Franklin Co., Penn., and purchased 124 acres of land ; he continued to reside there twenty-two years ; in 1839, he sold this farm and removed to Ohio. On the last day of April, 1869, he bought one-fourth of Sec. 5, Worthington Township, of Peter Layman, for $2,000. This farm was partially cleared and had a log cabin upon it ; he spent the remainder of his days on this farm ; he had to work very hard for a few years in clearing and cultivating; but, as he grew older, his sons removed the burden of toil from their father's shoulders, and he spent his declining years in ease and comfort. George Suavely and wife were the parents of eleven children, seven sons and four daughters. They united with the United Breth- ren Church early in life, and continued to grow in grace and the knowledge of the truth up to the day of their death. Mrs. Snavely died Dec. 26, 1846 ; Mr. Snavely departed this life, Aug. 17, 1862.

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