The Way It Was

"THE WAY IT WAS"  
Generously transcribed by Nancy Bray with the permission of Debbie Dennie, Editor of the Falmouth Outlook.
Thanks Nancy & Debbie! 


Oetzel Hill, Dixie Hwy. West of Falmouth


The following article was taken from the Falmouth Outlook -Friday, November 2, 1984.
  Written by Mr. Kenneth T. Marquette



THE WAY IT WAS   

A short history of western Pendleton County and other related subjects.



THE WADSWORTHS     

John S. Wadsworth was married to Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of Joseph Lindsey Thompson February 5, 1850.  His father was Samuel Wadsworth and his mother Katherine Molisse.  Samuel was a gunsmith.  Charles W. a son of John and Elizabeth acted as a flag man for the survey of the first Falmouth and Williamstown turnpike by a man by the name of I. P. Morrow.  It followed the old Morgan Road to a point near the present state barn, crossed over a creek and came out on what is now Ky. 22 at the Turner Ridge Cemetery.  Later it was extended to Williamstown following the ridge between two watersheds.  This Wadsworth family was of English origin and came to New England quite early. John and Samuel walked to Pittsburgh, then worked their passage to Cincinnati.  John was about 21 years old at this time.  Samuel settled in Campbell and John went to Short Creek.

The John R. Wadsworth home at Short Creek, a huge log house, was built prior to1859 and at that time some of this area was almost a wilderness.  It was one of the outstanding early homes in Pendleton County.  I remember it well.  When the highway was rebuilt in 1924 it was occupied by the contractors and their families, the Ruth Brothers from Owen County.  I worked for them that summer driving a four horse team drawing a wagon hauling rock from the fields to a rock crusher.  I was only 14 years old and was paid $2.50 per day for my labor and my father received $4.00 per day for the four horse team and wagon.  This house was owned by James Mitchell Ballinger.  Shortly after the Ruth brothers vacated the house the logs were sold and moved to Kenton County.  It was reconstructed and is still being used.  It stands near Pleasure Isle on Ky. 17 near Covington.  A daughter of John R. Wadsworth, Mary Alice was married to Harmon T. Clinger. They had several children of which two are living, Heather Clinger and Mrs. Fann Gulick.  A great, great granddaughter of John R. Wadsworth is Linda Gulick Moore presently employed by Houchens Shoe Store in Falmouth.  A detailed record of the Clinger family is noted elsewhere in this account.

THE ARNOLDS

John Arnold Junior was the son of John Arnold Sr.  He married Lena Pock. Both are buried at Short Creek.  They had these children:  Mollie who married Miles Daugherty, Ada who married Ethel West, Frank Leslie who married Chaney Asbury.  Frank Leslie and Chaney had two children, Emmaline and Allie.  The family lived about a mile west of the Short Creek Church. Emmaline, Allie, and Jenny Arnold, later to become Mrs. Leslie Conrad, were the first High School graduates from the Short Creek community so far as I am aware.  They attended Williamstown High.
Charles Conrad also had gone to High School but after he left home at the age of21 and went away to school.  The next High School graduate from Short Creek was in 1928 when Kenneth T. Marquette received a diploma from Falmouth High School. No, there was one other I have omitted, Harley Chiles who must have graduated from Falmouth about 1925.

Rev. James M. Arnold wrote and spoke five languages.  He never accepted money for his preaching.  He organized twenty churches or more and donated and raised money fro them.  He worked at building the Short Creek Church. His mother was a Monroe.   He was  a great nephew of President James Monroe.  Dr. Charles Burkhardt of Biloxi, Mississippi traced this ancestry back to President James Monroe.  This information was given by Mrs. Emma Davis in 1945 to attorney E. E. Barton.

Rev. Arnold married Zelda Jane --------.  Their children were; Marion, Tilberry, Artissa, Julie, Nancy, Phebe, Eliza, and George.  Tilberry married Elizabeth Pock and they lived about a half mile west of the John. J. Marquette place (next farm beyond the Jim Mitch Chiles place).  Their children were;  Benjamin Franklin who married Nannie Ewing.  I was very closely associated with this family, playing semipro baseball with three of the boys, Ewing, Floyd, and Ralph, and visiting  in the home frequently and courting the youngest daughter, Lucille.  George Walker married Carrie McNay, William Floyd married Lydia Wadsworth, John Milton married Clara Blackburn, Cora married Fred Gulick, Abijah married a Whaley, Elijah Bailey married Ora. F. Asbury, Charles Edwin married Lou Asbury, Edwin married a Whaley.  I was also attracted to this family and courted their daughter, Dorothy for about two years.  She was a wonderful person, but we drifted apart when she went away to college. Another son Elmer E. who married a Day.

Apparently there was another son of Rev. James M. Arnold who is not listed above.  He was Andrew Jackson Arnold and he resided on Ky. 1054.  He had twelve children including R. Risk Arnold, Frank, Emma, Lou who was Seamon Rule's mother, and Maude who married Claude Neal whose farm adjoined the John J. Marquette on the south side.  All the above were descendents of Elias Arnold who came from Virginia down the Ohio River on a flatboat.  It was said that he first lived at Concord, but moved to Short Creek because there was more game there and hunting was better.  He gave $2.50 per acre for his farm.  He died February 1872 at the age of 82 and is buried in the Monroe Cemetery on the Fishing Creek Pike.

THE CONROYS

Patrick J. Conroy from Roscommon County, Ireland and his wife Elizabeth O'Donnell came to Pendleton County about 1867 and bought a farm from William Sutton.  It was the old Jim Doan farm on upper Short Creek, later owned by Leslie Conrad and now by Jack Biehn.  Children of Patrick and Elizabeth were:  Philip Edward, Henry Joseph, John William, and Mary Josephine. Philip married Mary Ann Aylard in 1890.  She died in 1926.  They had a large family of children all now dead.  I think except three.  One, a girl lives in Ohio, and the other two, Frank and Dorothy both never marrying, live at the old home place on the Fishing Creek Pike.  Henry married Alice Flynn of Dry Ridge and they had two boys, Charles and James Leo.  Both are deceased.  We were close neighbors to this family and James Leo and I were inseparable companions.  Leo and I attended High School together and graduated in 1928.  James Leo married Blanche Ashcraft - daughter  of Charles Ashcraft of Falmouth.  John William died single.  Mary Josephine married James W. Flynn and also lived a close neighbor  to us until the early 1920's when Jim died.  She moved to Williamstown.  They had no children and later Mary became mentally ill and eventually was sent to Eastern State Hospital in Lexington where she resided for many years before she died.

Patrick J. Conroy was about twenty one years of age when the family arrived in New York and from there to Cincinnati, and then to Pendleton County.  His wife came to America when quite young.  She had a sister, Mary O'Donnell who married Ed Reddy, a saloon-keeper  at Falmouth.

The following was quoted by Phillip E. Conroy to the Conroy Family:  "The winds don't blow; Nor the seas don't roar; Where sleeps not Gaffney's silent dead."  (Gaffney said to be a clan name)

THE MCMILLIANS

Dr. George Washington McMillan practiced medicine at Short Creek after graduation from the Louisville School of Medicine in 1894.  He then left Short Creek about 1915 and established a practice in Covington, Kentucky.  He was born May 3, 1869 and died January 8, 1950.  He was a brother of Cash, Lum, and Cole McMillan.  He went to school to Bob and Mitch Ballenger and as a young man taught at Star Grove which was located just west of the Marquette homestead.  My father also attended this school and remembered when Miss Emma Arnold taught there.  There was a story about Howard Marquette misbehaving and getting in a shoving match with Miss Emma.  He suddenly stepped aside and she went sprawling in the floor. She told Howard's father about the incident.  He said, "Send the young man to me" and proceeded to give him a good whipping.

Brooker McMillan, and early pioneer and hunter was the father of Robert McMillan who married Martha, daughter of Robert Fornash of Doubton.  Robert had a son, John Riley who married Charity Race.  Their children were:  Ida, Cash, Dr. George W., Dr. Frank, Cole, Lum, Ethel, Clara Edith, Chloe, and Walter.  Robert McMillan lived at short Creek and was a noted railsplitter.  He is buried at Roanoke.

BALLINGERS

Professor R. F. Ballinger married Lenora Gulick in 1881, and James Mitchell Ballinger married Rosetta, both daughters of Joe Gulick and Lenora Pock.  George W. Ballinger, the father of James Mitchell, John William, and Woodford lived in Kenton County near Visalia, but had formerly owned a farm at Short Creek.  Children of James M. and Rosetta were:  Nora who married John Doan, Buelah who married John Monroe, Spencer who married a Lowe, and Hazel who married Roy Cooper, Woodford married Minnie Robinson, and had one son Junior, born in 1908. He married Lillian Cooper in 1931.  They reside at Short Creek.



EWING

Elmer E. Ewing was a merchant and a Postmaster at Goforth.  He ran the large general store there.  His first wife was Betty Taylor.  They were married January 13, 1891.  He married his second wife, Mamie Harris, August 15, 1908.  There were a total of twelve children by the two wives. He built a large white house just north of the intersection of the Fishing Creek Pike and Ky. 22 which later became the residence of James Mitchell Ballinger family.  About 1914 Mr. Ewing sold out and moved to Panhandle, Texas, near Amarillo where he engaged in farming on the plains.  He died there  at the age of 83 on January 22, 1950.  One of his children, Ethel, married a Steinfort of Covington and another, Effie, married Columbus, (Lum), Marquette.  They had four children but were later divorced and Effie married a Zewister of Covington.  Also Elmer E. Ewing Jr. married Lillian Marquardt, sister of Charles Marquardt.  They also lived in Covington.



COOPER

Robert Clay Cooper's father  was Martin Cooper and his mother was Elizabeth Whaley.  He married Lizzie Mae Kenner and heir children were Lillian, Roy, and Emma Grace who married Winston Sharp.  No children were born to Lillian and Roy and Emma Grace had one daughter.

Martin Cooper, father of Robert, and Elizabeth Whaley had these children; Emma who married Lewis J. Wilson, Minnie who married Herman Miller of Harrison County, Susie who married Henry Wilson, Rosie who married George Wolf, Lucy who married Lance Wolfe, Robert, and Myrt who married Clara Simpson.



SIMPSON

John W. Simpson married Sally Martin.  They lived on Ky. 1054 near where Mable Whaley now resides.  They are both buried at Short Creek cemetery 191950 and 1951.  Surviving children were:  Mrs. Clara Cooper, Mrs. Lula Highouse, Mrs. Iva Henry, Mrs. Emma Elliston ( wife of Obie Elliston), Rev. Ethel Simpson and Allie Simpson.



FLETCHER

William Christopher Fletcher was born in Clermont County, Ohio.  His  father was John McClain Fletcher.  He married Lina Marquette.  Their children were:  Malcom, Nancy Gulick, Anna Mary Ammerman, Mayme Boggess, and William Ellis.



FOGLE

David Morgan Fogle was the son of David Fogle and named after John Hunt Morgan. He married Mary Said.  Their children were:  Sadie, Walter, Wilbur, Matthew, and Mary.  After Morgan died, Mary then married Jessie Winkle.  They were tenants on our farm for many years, and Mary worked for us both before and after my mother died.  She was a dependable and hardworker and a good woman.   Morgan and Mary are buried at Short Creek.



SHEITZ

Nicholas Sheitz son George William was married to Martha Martin.  They lived close to the Frank W. Conrad home.  Their children were:  Frank who married  an Adams, Eva who married Jim Adams, George who married Margaret Cahill, Walter who married a widow O'hara late in life, and Jane who never married.  Walter lived to be rather old and was buried November 16,1981.  Nicholas was a brother of my great grandmother, Margaret Sheitz Conrad.



AMMERMAN

John J. Ammerman, born 8/9/1866 was married to Gertrude Carter on 12/25/1894. He was the son of William Thomas Ammerman and Millie Ann Justice.  Their children:  Violet who married Anna Mary Fletcher, Sebree who married AliceHolback, Ester who married Roy Bennett and a second marriage to William Hamlin, Herbert who married a Poore, Harley who married Aileen House, and Kenneth who married Marian Webster.  John, Jr.'s grandfather was William Clay whose wife was Mary Ann Bell.  Their farm in the Locust Grove vicinity was one of the better ones in the area.  John J. ran a grist mill and many times when I was a small boy I rode a horse, with a sack of corn lying crosswise in front of the saddle, to the mill to have it ground into corm meal.


In the 1890 census the following veterans of the Civil War were living in the Short Creek precinct:  James Hall, John Draper, George Wolfe, John Frakes, John Vanlandingham, John Simpson, Thomas Baird, John Courtney, John J. Marquette, Charles Steinford, James Carr, Marshall Jones, George Arnold, William Garrett, James Isabell, John Wadsworth, John Gulick, Nicholas Scheitz, John Haydon, and Sanford Daugherty.  At this time John J. Marquette was suffering from Fistula and sunstroke according to the record.  

John L. Chiles owned nine slaves and William Ellis had four in 1860.



HIGHFILL

Stokes Highfill was the father of John William Highfill, Mrs. Pearl Race, Mrs. Ora Walthers, and Mrs. Tillie West.  Their mother was Isabelle Riley. Pearl married Elmer Race in 1902.  Stokes father was Leonard Highfill who had a big farm on Short Creek.  His wife was Sally Taylor.  Stokes' first name was "Themistocles" after the Greek statesman and general(514-499 B. C.) Mary Isabell married T. Stokes Highfill September 13, 1860. Leonard Highfill, his father once had possession of a large tract of land on Short Creek which eventually became owned by the Durkins, Moore's Brann, Sutton, Wolfe, Payne, and William Gulick.  There was a lengthy lawsuit after Alfred Riley died over titles to these lands.  Riley was married to a sister of Stokes, Lucy.



RACE

The Race family apparently came to Pendleton in the early 1800's.  Lawson Race married Phebe Hawkins January 22, 1824. But a bit more on Mrs. Pearl Race. She was aging but widowed in 1948 when my youngest son, Quinten, was born. I persuaded Mrs. Pearl to come and stay with us and help with the housework during the period of my wife's recovery from childbirth.  She agreed and did us an excellent job.  We were very grateful to her.



MCNAY

Robert McNay first came from Ireland.  He married Rachel Mullins.  Children: Robert J., Andy H., Calvin, and Becky.  Robert J. Jr. and wife Martha Jane Stith had these children:  Martha, Jesse T., Richard T., Robert J., Willie, Rachel, and Frank.  Jesse T. and wife Elizabeth Frances Cramm had children:  Clay Francis who married Vertie Tomlin, Julie who married Joseph Thompson, Lula who married Charles Marquardt, Homer T. who married Fronie Wilson, and Viola who married Langley Parker.  As I remember Jesse T. and Elizabeth McNay, they were a very frugal and efficient farm couple.  I remember visiting them with my father and them giving us several kinds of garden seed they had saved.  Their farm house, barns and outbuildings were always kept painted and groomed.  Dawson McNay, son of Clay Francis, owns the oldJ. T. McNay farm and resides there at Short Creek.



JUSTICE

Mortin T. Justice, the T. probably from Thompson, was the son of John Justice. He lived in the old Toll Gate house across the road from the Goforth Storeat the intersection of Ky. 22 and the Fishing Creek Pike.  His father served in the confederate army under captain Ben Mullins.  "Mort" as he was known in the community was a janitor at the Short Creek church and I think owned a small tract of land back of his house on which he raised vegetables.  I remember both he and his wife, who was Lizzie Merril.  Her fathers name was probably William Merril who owned a farm in the Short Creek vicinity.  I am not sure but I think Mort and Lizzie may have raised Fred Merril who was my father's hunting companion in their young days.  He was an excellent shot.  I have heard my father refer to their hunting of quail and how good a shot he was.



DAUGHERTY

Jesse Daugherty, born 1882 and died 1939, lived in the next house down the road toward Falmouth from the Sant Daugherty place on the Fishing Creek Pike.  The remodeled place is now occupied by Donald Sharp.  Jesse was married to Edna Mae Johns and they had three children:  Robert of San Francisco, Sarah Alice, and Anna both of Cincinnati.  John M. Daugherty was the father of Sanford Marion and the grandfather of Jesse.  Sanford married a Webster, sister of Ezra Webster.  They had these children:  Jesse, John T., Oscar, Riley, Lissie, and Estella.  John T. became a Baptist minister, died July 28, 1950 and is buried at Hardinsburg, Kentucky.  Riley's son, Stanley is married to Mary Conrad, daughter of Wilbur Conrad and Bess Gulick.  Estella, better known as Lou was an eccentric old maid who I remember as the only woman I ever saw riding a horse on a side saddle.  This type saddle had two horns in front which the woman could grasp while both of her legs were  on one side of the saddle.  In this way she could hold on and not fall off the horse.



GODMAN

William B. Goodman was married to Harriet Henry.  They had five children, one of which was James Henry (Crow) Godman.  They were members of the Short Creek church and are buried there.  "Crow"  married Lola Etta Wadsworth and they had these children:  Maude Alice, Claude Wadsworth, Bertie, Viola, James H. Jr., Lorine, Charles K., and Lois Lola.  They lived on the South Licking River and had a bottom farm there.  When I was young we would go to the Crow Godman place to fish.  Lorine married Frank Hill, and Lois married Spencer Brann first and later married Richard Thompson.  Claude's children are Claude Jr., Georgia, Patricia, and James Emery.  James runs a garage in Falmouth.

Most of the information in this narrative is from the Barton films with some added things from other sources and my own remarks about things I remember. I have not included all families, some of which may have been inadvertently omitted, or it could have been I had no information available.  My apologies to you if you are not mentioned.  I did not do it purposely or intentionally.

Please note that I have omitted relative to my own family on both sides (the Conrads and the Marquette's).  They were two of the largest families in the Short Creek community, there being 15 children in the Conrad clan and 14children in the Marquette.  I have written a genealogy which includes detailed information on them as well as several families that were related. This includes the Marquardts, the Stephensons, the Mires, the Dahms, the Dahlenburgs, the Nunnemakers, the Clingers, the Thompsons, the Demenes, TheBrandts, the Gulicks, the Monroes and probably some others.  This account of these families may be printed at a later date.  

In my retirement years I have spent a great deal of time delving back into the past through sources available to me and I have discovered so much that it amazes me.  I write these things so that you can also be aware of our past heritage.  I feel a certain obligation to leave something behind when I have finished my sojourn in this world.  Please keep in mind that I have not tried to omit anything to keep from offending.  These are strictly facts.  There may be errors, but this is nearest to the truth that I have been able to comprehend from sources available to me.  I hope you like it and it has been a pleasure to serve you.



Kenneth T. Marquette