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 289 Today's Topics: #1 WILLIAM A. WILEY - DARKE COUNTY [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] #2 MAJ. JOHN L. REEVES, M.D. - DARKE [AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M RE] ------------------------------ X-Message: #1 Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 11:03:21, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: WILLIAM A. WILEY - DARKE COUNTY A PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF DELAWARE AND RANDOLPH COUNTIES, IND. A.W. Bowen & Co., 1894 - Page 1486, 1487, 1488 WILLIAM A. WILEY, of Union City, Ind., is a son of Ezekiel and Jane (Moore) Wiley, and was born August 6, 1834, just over the Randolph county (Ind.) line, in Darke county, Ohio. When he was but three months old his parents removed to Illinois; in a year they returned eastward, settling in White county, Ind., among the Indians. After nine years they moved into Howard county, Ind., where his father died in 1844, at the age of twenty-eight, being the first white person buried in Kokomo. Howard county was still an Indian reservation. He left a widow with two sons and three daughters, William A. being the eldest. William A's father built the old log court house at Kokomo. William A. Wiley was then ten years old, and was put immediately to work and from that time onward earned his own support. The first boots he ever had were bought with money thus earned when a small lad. He had very little schooling in youth, learning to read at twelve, and having not above five months' schooling till of age. At twenty-two years old he went with a party of emigrants, comprising thirteen families, traveling in wagons and bound for the Blue Earth country, Minn., young Wiley helping drive their cattle to pay his board as he went. His intention was to buy land. On reaching the Mississippi, taking a steamboat he passed up the river, after which, with a single comrade, he "tramped" over portions of Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa. They traveled on foot, sleeping often under a clear sky on the ground. His adventures were many, being much among the Indians, who were hostile in feeling. One time, between Fairbruit and Canon City in Minnesota, he met a rough and savage Sioux Indian, with painted face and warrior costume. He says: "I saw him coming; terribly scared, I walked on nevertheless, till, as he came near, he looked so hideous that I stopped. He came up, and, as he passed, I 'shied' off and gave him the road. He turned toward me and I gave a fearful spring. The savage fellow gave a loud laugh, and went on, and I went on, too. He had a rifle, and I had nothing, but he was not so hostile as I had feared. I was in the Spirit Lake country, just after the massacre in that region, and the Indians were hostile, and great fear was on the people. After seven months I returned to Indiana, attended school, became myself a successful instructor, teaching at Bethel, Wayne county, Union City, Randolph county, and elsewhere." His teaching life was from 1859 to 1862. Since 1862 Mr. Wiley has been a farmer, a merchant and a grain dealer. He is an active and influential member of the Disciple church at Union City, having been chorister for twenty-five years, and superintendent of the Sunday school for fourteen years. He is also an efficient friend and supporter of education. For eight years he was a member of the city school board of Union City, and in 1881 he was elected for three years longer. He has also been city clerk. His first mercantile experience was at Holllansburg, Darke county, Ohio, in 1862. He returned to Union City in 1869, engaged in merchandising until 1871, and after those years was in the grain commission and milling business. In 1883 he was burned out, but continued in the grain trade until 1884. In 1885 he purchased the Junction mill, at Ridgeville; he and others were incorporated for running this mill in 1892, as a joint stock company, with a capital of $5,000, with Nathan Cadwallader as president, and Mr. Wiley as secretary. The mill has a capacity of sixty barrels per day, has the most modern machinery, and is situated at the juncture of the Pan Handle and Grand Rapids & Indiana railroads, in a fine wheat growing region. Mr. Wiley was married in 1860, to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Wiggs, daughter of Felix G. Wiggs, an old pioneer of Union city. To this union have been born two children -one living, Harry E. Wiley, of the Central Grain & Stock exchange, Chicago. Mr. Wiley's brother, Martin V., was a member of the Forty-Sixth I.V.I., under Gen Buell, and died in 1862; one sister, Mrs. Mustard, of Anderson, and the venerable mother are still living -the latter at Burnettsville, Ind., at the age of seventy-six. William A. Wiley's training was democratic, and his first vote was for James Buchanan, but, ever since, republicanism has been his faith. Mr. Wiley is an influential citizen, energetic in every matter of public welfare, and greatly esteemed by his fellow townsmen. His uncle, Thomas Wiley, was an early pioneer and preacher of Jackson township, whose fame as a missionary is in all the region. The standing of William A. Wiley, both socially and as a business man, is most enviable, and Union City is justly proud to have him enumerated among her residents. ------------------------------ X-Message: #2 Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 11:03:17, -0500 From: AUPQ38A@prodigy.com (MRS GINA M REASONER) Subject: MAJ. JOHN L. REEVES, M.D. - DARKE COUNTY A PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF DELAWARE AND RANDOLPH COUNTIES, IND. A.W. Bowen & Co., 1894 - Page 1407-1408-1409 MAJ. JOHN L. REEVES, M.D., now of Union City, Randolph county, Ind., was born in Darke county, Ohio, September 14, 1827, a son of James and Rachel Reeves. May 10, 1832, the family came to Indiana and settled on a farm four and and a half miles north of Union City, in Jackson township, the father being about the fourth voter to build his cabin in that precinct. John L. was reared like all other young pioneer lads were, going to school in inclement weather only, and attending the farm duties at times when the air was pleasant, and thus his life was passed until he reached his majority, and during this interval the farm was cleared up. He started to read medicine at home, however, before he was of age, and worked at plastering, at $8 per month, in order to defray expenses. He next studied under Dr. Noah Simons, of New Lisbon. In 1849 he married Angeline Milligan, but his lady was taken away from him in 1854. The same year he began practice at Pittsburg, Randolph county, Ind., and successfully continued until 1856, when he located at Lancaster, Jay county, Ind., where he built up a fine business and was actively employed until the war broke out. He then recruited a company of state guards at Lancaster, which was offered to the government at Indianapolis, but the rolls had been filled, and the company was distributed throughout various regiments, the doctor entering the Fortieth Ohio voluntary infantry, as lieutenant in company F, and was first sent to Camp Chase, Columbus, Ohio. Thence the regiment was sent to eastern Kentucky, and became part of the army of the Cumberland. The lieutenant was then made captain of his company, and was under Garfield at Pound Gap, and in all marches and skirmishes in which his regiment took part. At Chickamauga, September 20, 1863, he was wounded in the left ankle, which is still lame at times. He was also stunned by a shell, and supposed by his comrades to be dead. But, recovering from the shock, he was nevertheless disabled for three months. He came near being captured the same day, but was spared the horrors of Andersonville, and the perils, and perhaps the fact of an awful death in that fearful prison pen. His company was then placed to guard the crossing at Shell Mound, Tenn., and the captain remained with them, not going to the hospital, but lying on a brush heap until the spring of 1864. Here the company, as a company, veteranized January 1, 1864, and in March of the same year Capt. Reeves was promoted to be major, and served with that rank until mustered out December 10, 1864. In the meantime his company had gone into the Atlanta campaign, and after Gen. Hood; at the battle of Franklin, the major's regiment was consolidated with the Fifty-first Ohio, of which Major Reeves was offered the coloneley, but, as he had been in active service three years and four months, and his health was somewhat shattered, he declined the honor, resigned his commission as major, returned home, and was for a short time engaged in the grocery business at Union City. In 1866, he entered the Eclectic Medical college, at Cincinnati, graduated in 1867, and resumed his practice, but this time at Union City. He here enjoyed a very large and lucrative practice until 1882, when an old army trouble (diarrhea) returned, and he was compelled to relinquish active work. In 1890, however, he purchased his present drug store in the opera building, which he utilizes for both office and business room. To the first marriage of Dr. Reeves with Angelina Milligan there were born two children: James Samuel, of Union City, and Emeretta, who lived in Missouri with her grandmother, Margaret Milligan, a widow, but who were both driven out by the rebels in the fall of 1861, and both died seven years later at the home of John Milligan, in Darke county, Ohio, from nervous prostration and exposure caused primarily by their expulsion. The father of Mrs. Angelina (Milligan) Reeves, Samuel Milligan, came from Erie county, Pa., was married in that state, and, on coming west, first located in Shelby county, Ohio; whence he came to Randolph county, in March, 1841, remaining until 1855, and then went to Henry county, Mo., where he died in 1860. By his first marriage he was the father of four children; by a second marriage, to Margaret Graham, he became the father of twelve children. The second marriage of Dr. Reeves was to Esther McFarland, of Pittsburg, Randolph county, Ind., and of the four children born to this union three are still living, viz.: Elizabeth A., wife of Charles W. Truitt; John D. F., grocer of Union City, and William R., at home. The doctor is a stanch republican and cast his first presidential vote for John C. Fremont. He uses all his influence to strengthen the hands of the party, but he never asks a favor at those hands. -------------------------------- End of OH-FOOTSTEPS-D Digest V99 Issue #289 *******************************************