SADLER, GERE, KING, DWIGHT, ADAMS, DOUGLASS (Oxford Twp., p. 548)
Among those who have been identified with Oxford Twp. is the SADLER family. Elijah & Cordelia SADLER were natives of MA, & were married at Williamsburg in 1828. He was a carpenter, & not being satisfied with his routine work in the employ of Isaac GERE, as foreman of a box factory, he decided to come West, & in the Winter of 1834, putting his worldly goods into a sleigh, came with his family to Oxford. After a few years residence in the village, he purchased & removed to what is known as the SADLER farm, where he resided at the time of his death, in 1850. His wife & nine children survived him. Mrs. SADLER was a woman of more than ordinary force of character, & she kept her family together, & with the help of her children carried on farming. She was of a family of KINGs, & he was related to the DWIGHTs, of colonial fame in MA. She was a woman whose excellence in character & life is vindicated in her children, every one of whom grew to adult age. Her two daughters, Sarah R. & Cordelia A., are still living. The former is the wife of G. W. ADAMS, a merchant of Oxford, & the latter is the wife of C. M. DOUGLASS of Fowler, IN. Of her 7 sons, five are living, & all have made a worthy record in life. The oldest, George W., is a resident of Peoria, IL, where he with three of his brothers have arrangements for feeding stock in large numbers, of which George has immediate supervision. William K., deceased, was physician & entered the army as regimental surgeon, & at the time of his death, Dec 1864, was in charge of the medical department of Baton Rouge Post. Elijah D. is still a resident of Oxford, having entire charge of the SADLER estate. He has been treasurer of Oxford Twp. for the past 6 years. Jerome F. is a resident & stockbroker of New York City, & interested in the extensive stock-feeding & dealings of the brothers. Edward W., deceased in 1872, being about 30 years of age, was the most extensive resident stock-dealer known to Oxford. Lewis L. is a resident of Cincinnati, & has been for some time president of the city council. He is also one of the firm of SADLER Brothers, & looks after their extensive interests in Cincinnati. The youngest son, Silas P., resides in Pittsburg, where he does a brokerage business, & attends to the interests of the "Brothers," of which firm he is also a member. Mrs. SADLER's decease occurred in Oxford, Feb 1, 1881. A memorial pamphlet, containing a short sketch of her life & an account of the funeral services, was published by the children & distributed to all the friends. SMITH, SLACK, WINDER, ROUNALD, HILL (Oxford Twp., pp. 548-549) About 1810 there came from Martha's Vineyard, & settled in the vicinity of Mixerville, IN, Mr. John SMITH, who reared a large family, of whom John T. & William H. were residents of Oxford, the latter having practiced law here a number of years previous to his death, which occurred in 1876. John T. was a farmer, & lived on the road to College Corner. He was successful in his private business, & active and influential in matters of public concern; was a leading member of the Universalist Church, & was one of the trustees to whom the first church property was deeded in trust for the congregation. He always took an active interest in education, filled the office of director in his district almost continuously, & five of his children graduated at one or the other of the schools of Oxford. His wife was Miss Anna SLACK, a resident of the same neighborhood. Her father was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, & a worthy & esteemed citizen. His son, the Rev. Joshua SLACK, a Baptist, was a pioneer in higher school education in Cincinnati. The issue of this union was five children, as follows: John T., Jr., deceased, who had a large ranch in Arizona, & was a member of the territorial Legislature. Anna S. married Mr. WINDER, & is now residing in Grandview, IA. Mary married William J. ROUNALD, a graduate of Miami University, & also resides in Grandview. Arabella married O. P. SMITH, a farmer near Wapella, Louisa Co., IA. Palmer W. is now a successful practitioner of law, having been admitted to the bar in 1870. He married in 1871 Miss Virginia, dau/o Samuel V. HILL, who was a wholesale tobacco merchant of Cincinnati, who removed with his family to Oxford, where his declining years were comfortably & pleasantly spent. His decease occurred in 1876, his first wife having preceded him several years. Mr. & Mrs. P. W. SMITH have a family of two children, Hall and Virginia, living, & one, Palmer W., who died in infancy. SHERA, MUNNS (Oxford Twp. p. 549) John SHERA, of this town, was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, Dec 16, 1815. His father's name was James SHERA & his mother was Ann MUNNS. The family, consisting of the two parents & 8 children, emigrated to America in 1821, & took up their home in the West, in Franklin Co., IN. While helping the father & mother in the work of the farm the children enjoyed the slight advantages of the pioneer school of the day. The mother dying in 1830, & the father in Jan 1832, the children remained on the farm, & attended school Winters. When about 18 years old Mr. SHERA went to live with a brother who had bought a farm near by, & was with him some four years. October 18, 1838, he was married to Miss Margaret SHERA, & the Spring of the year following the young couple, in all the hopeful enthusiasm of early man & womanhood, took up their home on a farm in Oxford Twp., which John had purchased a year or two previous. This farm they continued to cultivate for 32 years, having 7 children born to them during this time. In 1871 the family broke from the old farm & moved into the village of Oxford, where they have ever since resided. Two children have been taken away by death. One daughter is married & lives on a farm near the old homestead. The three sons & the other sister are residing in town, two of the former being the firm of Shera Brothers, in the grocery trade, corner of Main & High Streets. Just before the death of the older brother Mr. SHERA made a profession of religion, uniting with the Methodist Episcopal Church. To this faith & Church the parents have adhered, & have nurtured their family as they have grown to man & womanhood. SCHLENCK, WEIDNER (Oxford Twp., p. 549) Moritz SCHLENCK, of College Corner, Oxford Twp., OH, is a native of the town of Balwick, Bavaria, who came to the United States in 1849, in Oct. For three or four years he made his home in some of the Atlantic seaboard cities. In 1850 he, with another friend, crossed over the mountains to the Ohio Valley, stopping at Pittsburg, Cincinnati, & so on to St. Louis, MO. He also went north as far as Galena, but returned up the Ohio, by the way of St. Louis & Cincinnati, & for about 15 months resided in Portsmouth. From here he removed to Brookville, IN, in the Fall of 1852, & for a year and a half was in this State, returning to Portsmouth, OH in 1854. In the Winter of 1854-5 he was in the towns of Brookfield, Richmond, & Quincy, IN, working a portion of this time at his trade as house & sign painter. Returning again to Brookfield, he engaged in the business of brewing until Dec 1863. In August, 1856, he was married to Mrs. Charlotte WEIDNER, then of Brookfield. In 1864, Mr. SCHLENCK, with his family, was engaged in keeping a public house in Cincinnati, from which place he removed to College Corner, OH, purchasing & taking possession of the hotel property which occupies the extreme north-west corner of the twp. of Oxford, the house upon which was built in 1828 by Jason HOWE. Mr. SCHLENCK has twice revisited his native country since making America his home. STEWART, HUESTON, COULTER (Oxford Twp., p. 549) William H. STEWART was born in Belfast, Ireland, on the 10th of June, 1847, & came to this country in 1850 with his parents, William & Mary STEWART. They settled on the old HUESTON farm, in Hanover Twp., & their son went to school at Seven-Mile, and afterwards went to Miami University, where he graduated in the classical course in 1870. He then taught school three years in Indiana, & for the past 8 years has been superintendent of the public schools of Oxford. He holds a life certificate from the State board of education. He was married on the 25th of December, 1873, at Connersville, to Miss Bell COULTER, of Oxford. Her parents were Thomas & Lucinda COULTER, & she was born on the 23d of November, 1850. They have three children. Robert Howard was born Jul 9, 1875; William Thomas, March 17, 1878; & Martha, Jan 6, 1882. TRUFANT, GROSS, MARSH (Oxford Twp., pp. 549-550) Professor Isaiah TRUFANT, of Oxford, OH, was born in Harpeswell, ME, the 18th of Dec, 1831. His father, William C. TRUFANT, was a descendant of an English family of that name, the earliest American history of whom locates them at Hingham, MA, in 1635 or 1636. The elder TRUFANT died in 1879. The mother, Lucy Rich TRUFANT, who had also an English ancestry, was born in 1813, & is still living as a hale & well-preserved woman at Harpeswell, ME. In boyhood Mr. TRUFANT enjoyed the privileges of the common schools of the town, after which he entered the Maine State Seminary at Lewiston. After leaving this school he was engaged in teaching occasionally until he was 25 years old, when he entered Bowdoin College. Here he remained the next four years, pursuing the full prescribed curriculum of the college, & graduating with the full honors of his class. It had been the expectation & intention of Mr. TRUFANT to have entered the profession of law, but circumstances drew him into engagements as a teacher soon after leaving college, & the Fall of 1863 found him in care of Somerset Academy, in Athens, ME. In the following Spring he was prostrated with a severe attack of typhoid fever, & was obliged to relinquish teaching for a time. Jan 17, 1865, he was united by marriage to Miss Sarah R. GROSS, whose home was in Brunswick, ME. The following Summer he accepted the charge of the high school in Castine, ME, for one year, leaving this position in the Fall of 1866 to accept the position of principal in Nichols Academy in Dudley, MA. In this school Professor TRUFANT was very successful, but the health of Mrs. TRUFANT becoming delicate, & her physicians advising a change of location & climate, he removed with his family to Hackettstown, NJ, & took charge of the schools of that place, himself taking the position of teacher of the college preparatory class. Such was the success of Professor TRUFANT in this relation & through his instrumentality, that the students sent forth from under his hand were enabled to take their positions in the freshman classes of Lafayette College, to which institution the city schools graduated a class of six young men at one time. The professor remained at Hackettstown for 10 years, coming to Oxford in the Summer of 1877. At this time the buildings of Miami University were unused, the college having been suspended in 1873 for want of the requisite funds. Professor TRUFANT associated with himself his brother-in-law, Professor B. F. MARSH, an experienced and zealous educator, who had for years been connected with some of the finest schools of the East, the last being Pelham Institute at Poughkeepsie, NY, on the Hudson, & in the Fall of 1877 the two undertook the experiment of opening & conducting a boys' collegiate preparatory school in the university buildings, engaging such other assistants in their work as the demands of the school seemed to warrant from time to time. At the commencement of the undertaking, the two earnest projectors of the enterprise, while having the sympathy of the Oxford people, found the effort to start & establish their school a work demanding great patience & perseverance. The opening was made with a class of sixteen or eighteen boys, which number has steadily increased in the five academic years during which the work has been progressing, until the attendance upon the last closing term was 75 or 80 pupils, & the class graduated thirteen. Professor & Mrs. TRUFANT have had six children born to them, of whom two daughters and a son are now living. With his family he occupies the south end of the university building, known as Washington Hall, & his colleague, Professor MARSH, with his family, resides in Franklin Hall, which building has been pleasantly fitted up & furnished as a boarding department for the school, the study & recitation rooms being in the main building of the university. The school takes the name of the Miami Classical & Preparatory School, & the curriculum & high standard of graduation have sent their pupils into junior classes into junior classes in neighboring colleges. WILSON, MOORE, CROSCORT, RIDENOUR, BARNUM (Oxford Twp., p. 550) Josiah WILSON, a native of Lewistown, PA, was born in 1776, & came to OH in 1802, & settled in Butler Co., four miles below Rossville, where, with others, he entered land of the government for a home. Three year aged 71 years. The other, Mr. George WILSON, was born in 1814, at Rossville, & removed to Union Twp., IN, as one of the pioneers, March 14, 1831, at which time there were but a half dozen settlers at the hamlet of College Corner. August 25, 1835, the latter was married to Miss Nancy RIDENOUR, who was born in Preble Co., (OH) in 1818. Five children were born to them while residents upon the farm. Of these two sons & two daughters are living. One of the former, Thomas M., is at present a resident & property owner of College Corner, whose wife was Elizabeth A. BARNUM, of Union Co., IN, born Mar 12, 1841. They were married Feb 6, 1861. They have one child, a daughter. The great-grandfather of Thomas M. WILSON was a native of Ireland, who came across the ocean when but 21 years old, & for several years made a practice of returning to his native country & bringing to the United States some of the peasantry & poorer class of that country, whom he was accustomed to bind out in service to the Americans for an advance upon the price of their passage money, & in this way made his first start toward a future competency, as he settled in PA. George WILSON was the first one to organize Sunday-school in College Corner. WOODRUFF, STIBBINS, MOFFERD, PARKER, FIELDS, WESTCOTT, DORRETT (Oxford Twp., pp. 550-551) Nathan WOODRUFF, son of Nathan & Sarah (STIBBINS) WOODRUFF, was born in Delaware. His father was twice married. To his first union there were born three children, Samuel, Sarah, & Mary. Their mother's name was MOFFERD. In 1800 he married Sarah STIBBINS, & had by her five children, Nathan, Nancy, John K., Margaret, & Katy Ann. The first three were born in Delaware, & the other two in Ohio. The father moved from NJ to DE, & from there to OH, in the Fall of 1817, & located in Warren Co., near Waynesville. In the Spring of 1829 he removed to Butler Co., & located in Fairfield Twp. By occupation he was a farmer. He died in 1849, & his wife the same year. The present Nathan WOODRUFF was born Apr 22, 1808, & learned the trade of shoemaker, at which he worked until 1848. He was married Sep 12, 1839 to Lydia PARKER, & to them two children have been born, Thomas J. & John. Mrs. WOODRUFF died in Oct, 1842, & her child at the same time. He married for his second wife, on the 5th of Apr 1846, Mary, dau/o William FIELDS. To this union there were born two children, Nathan W. & Anna Martha, both dead. Mrs. WOODRUFF died in May, 1852. Thomas J. WOODRUFF was born Jul 5, 1840, & graduated at the Miami University in 1864. He served in the 86th Regiment in the three months' service in 1862, & in the 167th in the hundred days' service in 1864. He was married Mar 11, 1873 to Susan, dau/o of Daniel & Phoebe (WESTCOTT) DORRETT. She was born near Cincinnati, May 18, 184the 86th Regiment in the three months' service in 1862, & in the 167th in the hundred days' service in 1864. He was married Mar 11, 1873 to Susan, dau/o of Daniel & Phoebe (WESTCOTT) DORRETT. She was born near Cincinnati, May 18, 1845.