The Young Families of Montgomery County, Ohio

GEORGE MURRAY YOUNG.

George Murray Young was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, April 1, 1802, and was of Scotch-Irish descent and parentage, his father, Dr. Hugh Murray Young, who was born in 1742 and died in 1815, having been an early Irish emigrant to America, whose participation in the Emmett rebellion caused him to leave Ireland and seek a refuge in the New World. George Murray Young obtained his education at Exeter and Poughkeepsie Academies. He was fond of study, but, being thrown upon his own resources at an early age by the death of his father, he left school and learned the printer’s trade, becoming both a practical printer and publisher before reaching his majority.

While residing at Lyme, New Hampshire, in the year 1826 he married Sibel Green, a daughter of Benjamin Green of that place, and a granddaughter of Colonel Ebenezer Green, a Revolutionary soldier, whose grave may still be seen in the old Lyme burying ground. Colonel Green had married a daughter of Benjamin Grant, also of Lyme, New Hampshire, who was the great-great-grandfather of Alice and Phoebe Carey and whose parents were also the ancestors of General U. S. Grant.

In 1835 Mr. and Mrs. Young came west with their children and located at Newark, Ohio, where for ten years Mr. Young was extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits, being the owner, among other business properties, of a line of boats on the Miami & Erie canal. In the year 1840, having attained prominence in his new home, he became the whig candidate of Licking county for the state senate, and despite that county’s usual strong democratic majority, ran far ahead of his ticket and came within forty votes of an election.

In 1845 Mr Young removed to Cincinnati, where he conducted a large produce and commission business until 1851, when he took up his residence at Dayton, Montgomery county. After coming to Dayton, he retired from mercantile pursuits and served for some years as a justice of the peace, after which, in the year 1854, he was elected mayor of the city and subsequently reelected in 1855. Some years later he was appointed United States commissioner, an office which he filled with credit and ability until his death. His wife died at Dayton in the year 1865.

Mr. Young was pronounced in his opinions and was an earnest friend and supporter of all moral and religious movements, being especially prominent in his labors for the cause of temperance. While residing at Cincinnati, he was grand worthy patriarch of the Sons of Temperance, when that society numbered thirty thousand in Ohio, and he was one of the editors of its official paper, The Organ and Messenger.

He was, from early manhood, a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, by which organization he was elected to many prominent and ret sponsible offices, and in whose charitable and beneficial work he at all times took a warm and active interest. In politics he was first a whig and later a republican, and he was always a bitter and outspoken opponent of negro slavery.

While he resided in New Hampshire and for years after coming to Ohio he was prominently identified with the Congregational church, and when, subsequently, about the year 1869, the local church of that denomination at Dayton passed out of existence he was one of its deacons, and being especially appointed for that purpose, closed its financial affairs and disposed of its property. He, thereafter, at once allied himself with the Third Street Presbyterian church at Dayton, of which he continued a leading member until his death.

Mr. Young’s natural abilities were of a high order. He early made up for his lack of collegiate education by wide and diligent reading, and he was well informed in politics, history and general literature, having at the same time a mind well stored with that diversified practical information which comes from daily intercourse with men and extensive business experience.

While he was never admitted to the bar, he had published law books in his younger years, had read law attentively and had acted to such an extent as notary public, conveyancer, master commissioner and receiver and in other ways closely related to the law and the courts, that his legal knowledge and ability were well recognized and highly respected.

He was a great admirer of the Puritan race and character and was himself the possessor of many pronounced traits which gave marked evidence of his New England birth and education. While naturally modest and retiring in manner, he had the full courage of his strong convictions, and, when aroused, he was outspoken in their advocacy and fearless and uncompromising in their defense. Faultless in honor, fearless in conduct and stainless in reputation, he passed away at Dayton, Ohio, August 30, 1878, having always enjoyed in whatever community he lived the unqualified confidence and respect of all with whom he was associated.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

EDMOND STAFFORD YOUNG.

Edmond Stafford Young, for many years a leading and distinguished member of the Dayton bar, was the eldest son of George Murray Young, (a sketch of whose life precedes) and of Sibel Green, his wife, and was born at Lyme, Grafton county, New Hampshire, February 27, 1827. At the early age of eight he came west with his parents, who had removed from New Hampshire to become residents of Newark, Licking county, Ohio.

While a resident of Newark Mr. Young attended Granville College, (now Denison University) near that city, where he completed his sophomore year in 1845, but his parents having removed to Cincinnati, lie subsequently entered Farmers’ (now Belmont) College at College Hill, from which he was graduated in 1847. This institution, though comparatively small in size, has had among its alumni not a few men of distinguished ability and reputation, and among them Mr. Young was associated as a schoolmate with President Benjamin Harrison, Murat

Halstead and John W. Herron, of Cincinnati, and Hon. L. B. Gunckel and Judge Henderson Elliot, of Dayton.

Soon after leaving college lie began the study of law in the office of Hon. William J. McKinney of Dayton, and subsequently was graduated at the Cincinnati Law School in the year 1853, after which he served for a term as head deputy in the office of the clerk of the courts of Montgomery county, Ohio, an experience which he always considered of great value to him as a lawyer. After entering the practice of the law he became associated successively with George W. Brown, Hon. David A. Honk and Oscar M. Gottschall, his relation with the latter continuing from 1866 to 1879. In the spring of 1878 Mr. Young’s eldest son, George R. Young, was admitted to the firm, which, under the name of Young, Gottschall & Young, continued for a year, at the end of which period Mr. Gottschall retired. Mr. Young and his son subsequently remained together in the practice under the name of Young & Young until his death in the year 1888.

In September, 1856, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Mr. Young married Sarah B. Dechert, a daughter of Elijah Dechert, a leading lawyer of Reading, Pennsylvania, who was a son of Captain Peter Dechert, a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Young’s mother, Mary Porter Dechert, was a daughter of Judge Robert Porter, also of Reading, Pennsylvania, who sat for more than twenty years on the bench in that city and who was descended from Robert Porter, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to Londonderry, New Hampshire, and afterward removed to Montgomery county, Philadelphia, where he resided until his death. His most prominent and successful son, Mrs. Young’s great-great-grandfather, was General Andrew Porter, who was a prominent Revolutionary officer and a close personal friend and associate of Washington. After the close of the war he was commissioned major-general of militia of Pennsylvania, and he was subsequently tendered the position of secretary of war by President Madison, but declined the honor. His son, Judge Robert Porter, while still a mere youth but eleven years of age, served with his father in the army and having been commissioned lieutenant of artillery was probably the youngest soldier and officer in the colonial service. Both General Andrew Porter and his son, Judge Robert Porter, were members of the Order of the Cincinnati, an honor which has passed to their descendants and a detailed sketch of their lives is published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. IV, No. 3, published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Young is now one of the oldest members of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

When the Civil war broke out Edmond Stafford Young firmly espoused the Union cause and became a stanch supporter of President Lincoln’s administration. On October 16, 1861, a military committee was appointed by the governor of Ohio, to which was given charge and control of all recruiting and organization and of military matters generally in Montgomery county. Mr. Young served as chairman of this committee, and he was thus closely identified with the organization and enlistment of practically all the regiments raised in Dayton and its vicinity. In the fall of 1861 he was one of the “Squirrel Hunters" so called, who rallied to the defense of Cincinnati when that city was threatened by the Confederates under General Kirby Smith, and later he was appointed by Governor Brough commissioner of the draft for Montgomery county and made the largest draft in the state.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

GEORGE R. YOUNG.

In the history of the legal profession in Montgomery county the name of Young has now figured prominently for nearly sixty years, for during that period, the father, Edmond Stafford Young and the sons, George R. and William H. Young, have successively and continuously been leading members of the Dayton bar. And, in the course of time, it has come to pass that the firm name “Young

& Young,” under which the brothers are still associated and which has now existed for over thirty years, has become the oldest in use among Dayton lawyers.

George R. Young, one of Dayton’s native sons, was born in that city, October 2, 1857. He obtained his education in the Dayton public schools, having graduated from the Central high school (now the Steele high school) in 1875 as valedictorian of his class and having received a gold medal for scholarship. For a time he then studied under private tutors, but soon took up the study of the law in the office of his father Edmond Stafford Young, a sketch of whose life precedes.

He was admitted to the bar in April, 1878, and was probably at the time the youngest attorney in Ohio, having been admitted some months before reaching his majority. Mr. Young has made the practice of law his life work, and without any of those digressions which result from office holding or lengthy vacations, he has pursued it steadily ever since his admission with a diligence and ability which have both merited and achieved success.

Mr. Young is recognized as a sound lawyer and a forcible and convincing speaker, either before the court or jury, and his unusual command of pure and correct English always secures and retains for him close attention and careful consideration. His firm has always enjoyed a large and representative clientage, having been retained in many of the leading cases tried in the courts of Montgomery and adjoining counties. For the last ten years the brothers have been located in their own building, the Young Building, where their handsome suite of offices is widely celebrated for its commodious size and the unusual perfection of its arrangement and equipment.

Mr. Young was president of his local bar association when little more than thirty years of age, and he has been for years a member of both the Ohio State and American Bar Associations. Ever since his father’s death, in 1888, he has been a trustee of the Dayton Law Library Association, having succeeded his father in that position, and during that period he has been either its treasurer or vice-president.

Mr. Young is popular, not only in his profession but among a large circle of friends in his native city, where he enjoys the respect and esteem of the entire community. He is a charter member of the Dayton Club, was the first president of the High School Alumni Association and one of the founders and supporters of the Dayton Literary Union, which flourished for many years in Dayton. He has always been interested in literature and the diffusion of useful knowledge and is now the president of the Dayton Astronomical Society, formed to promote the study of astronomy and kindred sciences.

In politics Mr. Young has always been a republican, but never a politician in the sense of seeking office as a reward for party fealty. While absent in the east in 1881, without his solicitation or knowledge, his party nominated him for prosecuting attorney of Montgomery county. Remaining on the ticket with reluctance, notwithstanding a customary democratic majority of more than a thousand he was beaten by only a few hundred votes. In 1885 he was again nominated for office, this time for city solicitor of Dayton. The city was then reliable democratic, and though he ran far ahead of his ticket he was again defeated by a small majority. Since then he has neither held nor sought political office, confining his attention entirely to his professional duties.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

GEORGE R. YOUNG, senior member of the legal firm of Young & Young, and one of the most prominent members of the Dayton bar, was born in this city on October 2, 1857, and is the son of the late Edmond Stafford Young and Sarah (Dechert) Young.

Mr. Young was educated in the Dayton public schools, graduating with honors from the Central high school in 1875. He was valedictorian of his class, and also received the gold medal for best scholarship. After taking an additional course from private tutors, he read law in the office of his father, until his admission to the bar in April, 1878. He was admitted by the court (after passing on the question of his eligibility) some months before he reached his majority, and was probably at the time the youngest attorney in the state.

Immediately after his admission to the bar, he was taken in as a member of his father’s firm, which thereupon became Young, Gottschall & Young, and subsequently Young & Young, as stated in the preceding sketch of E. S. Young. While absent in the east in 1 88 1, Mr. Young was, without his solicitation or knowledge, nominated by the republican party for prosecuting attorney of Montgomery county. He made the race against a strong and popular candidate, and an adverse majority of over a thousand, but was defeated by only a few hundred votes. In 1885 he received the republican nomination for city solicitor, but the city then being largely democratic, he was again defeated by a small majority. Since this time he has never been a candidate for political office, attending strictly to the practice of his profession, and giving it all his time and attention, and he has met with marked and well merited success. He has taken a leading part in the trial of many important cases, and is recognized by the profession both as %a sound and able lawyer, and as an advocate of superior ability.

In the fall of 1894, Mr. Young’s name was suggested to the governor as a successor to Judge John A. Shauck, about to leave the circuit for the supreme bench, and a petition for his appointment was circulated. This petition was signed by every member of the Dayton bar, save one, who, having already recommended another aspirant, wrote a personal letter withdrawing his support and endorsing Mr. Young. Owing to want of time, in case of appointment, to close up his private practice, Mr. Young subsequently withdrew from the contest.

Mr. Young is a charter member of the Dayton club. He was one of the founders of the Dayton Literary union, which flourished for many years, and was the first president of the present High School Alumni association.

He has been for years a trustee, and is now vice-president of the Dayton Law Library association, and is a member of the Ohio State and American Bar associations.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected.

WILLIAM H. YOUNG.

William H. Young, who for more than a quarter of a century has been active in the practice of law at Dayton, is the second son of Edmond Stafford and Sarah (Dechert) Young, and was born in his home city, March 2, 1860. Upon his father’s death in 1888 he became a member of the well known law firm of Young & Young, in which he has ever since been, and still is, associated with his brother George R. Young. His education was obtained in the Dayton public schools, and upon leaving the high school he studied law in the office of his father and brother, being subsequently admitted to the bar in the year 1884 at Columbus, Ohio, after passing the examination prescribed by the rules of the supreme court. For many years after his admission he took a keen interest in politics, serving shortly after attaining his majority as president of the Blaine and Logan “First Voters,” and during this period he made many campaign speeches, some of which made so strong an impression that they are still frequently recalled and gained for him a wide reputation as a ready, eloquent and convincing speaker. At a later period he was often urged to become a candidate for the legislature or for congress, but, although possessing much personal magnetism and enjoying great popularity and being in all respects admirably fitted for public life, like his father and brother, he has continuously declined to enter politics.

When he was only about ten years of age Mr. Young suffered from a very malignant attack of scarlet fever, from which hip disease and other complications ensued, confining him to his bed for nearly four years, resulting in permanent lameness and causing a decided limp in his walk, but this disadvantage, which would have proved a serious handicap to many, has in his case, served only to add to his already marked personality, without detracting in any appreciable degree from his energy, his activity or his usefulness. In Dayton, his native city, he has long been a conspicuous and familiar figure, and his genial manners, unfailing good humor and buoyancy of spirits, together with his strong and unique personality, in many respects bearing marked resemblance to his father’s, have been such that it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that he has been known to almost every man, woman and child in the city. He has also a large circle of acquaintance throughout the state, not only among members of the legal profession, but including those who for the past twenty years have been prominent in political and official circles.

His personal characteristics are such that he is a good mixed and makes friends easily, and when once seen by any one he is rarely forgotten. He has, at various times, taken a leading part in public movements at Dayton, for the promotion of charitable objects and moral and civic reforms; and the removal from office, a few years ago, of an objectionable chief of police, who had obtained a strong and apparently impregnable foothold, was almost wholly due to his seasonable initiative and courageous, able and untiring efforts. His goodness of heart and sympathy with his kind are well known and constantly remarked upon, not only as exemplified by his devotion to his mother and brother, and to his sister, now deceased, but also by a broad philanthropy extending to persons in all walks of life which has earned for him the deserved gratitude of many who have been assisted by his timely advice and personal aid in hours of sorrow, sickness and adversity.

At the bar he has always borne a reputation as a strong jury advocate, and in this field, affording as it does, opportunity for the display of his attractive individuality, his sound common sense and great knowledge of human nature, his efforts have been attended by marked success. He is strong in his likes and dislikes and outspoken in his opinions, but while he is slow to forgive an injury or wrong, he never forgets a friend. While he gives close attention to professional matters, being an excellent judge of land values and experienced in matters of general business, he devotes a part of his time to the management of his own and his brother’s real-estate holdings, and to their other private interests.

Being unmarried, Mr. Young lives at home with his mother and brother in the family homestead, where his father formerly resided, spending part of the year at their country home near Dayton, whose beauty and popularity are largely due to his excellent taste and to his thoughtful care and attention.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

Samuel Young, an industrious and enterprising agriculturist of Montgomery county, is entitled to be classed among the self-made men of this vicinity. A native of Ohio, he was born in Jefferson township, this county, January 27, 1845, a son of Thomas and Susan (Dull) Young. The parents were natives of Maryland who came to Ohio about 1837, settling in Jefferson township, where the father became identified with farming. In 1847, they removed to Jackson township. In their family were the following children: Mary Catherine, John Thomas, Sarah Ann, Henry, Samuel and Susan. The last named was reared on his father’s farm and soon became familiar with the work that falls to the lot of the country lad. At an early age he undertook the task of providing for his own livelihood and throughout the intervening years has been identified with the agricultural interests of this community. Energetic, industrious and persevering, he has also been most careful in the management of his business interests until today he ranks among the progressive and prosperous farmers of this district.

On the 28th of October, 1873, occurred the marriage of Mr. Young and Miss Sarah Catherine Weaver, a daughter of George W. and Eliza (Patterson) Weaver, and as the years have gone by their home has been blessed with two children, Izore Ellen and Florence Elsie, both of whom are now married and have families of their own. The parents are members of the United Brethren church and have always been deeply interested in its various phases of work, doing all in their power to further its influence in the community. Mr. Young has never allied himself with any fraternal organization, seeking his happiness in the companionship of his own home, to which he is most devoted. Politically he supports the republican party at the polls but has never sought nor desired public office as a reward for party fealty. Depending upon his own resources from an early age, with no special advantages at the outset of his career, he has, through indefatigable energy and undaunted perseverance, made his way upward in the business world until he is today recognized as a substantial and prosperous representative of agricultural interests. His life has been one of continuous activity in which has been accorded due recognition of honest labor, while his sterling characteristics make him an honored and respected citizen of Jackson township.

As printed in the source¹. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

JOHN FOWLER YOUNG is a native of Dayton, Ohio, was born April 28, 1840, and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth (Fowler) Young. The father was born in Germany, served under Blucher in the war with Napoleon Bonaparte, and was still a comparatively young man when he came to America.

Henry Young was a gardener and nurseryman, and for a time was an overseer on a plantation in Louisiana; he came to Dayton about 1838, and was soon afterward married to Miss Fowler. He owned a tract of three acres in North Dayton, on which he carried on his business as a gardener until his death, which took place in 1846. His widow survived until 1883, when she was called away at the age of eighty-three years, dying in the faith of the German Reformed church.

Abel Fowler, the maternal grandfather of

Mr. Young, was a miller by trade, and brought his family from Reading, Pa., to Dayton, Ohio, about the year 1835, or soon afterward. He purchased a farm of forty acres in what is now known as Dayton View. There were five children in his family, of whom four came with him to Dayton, and here his daughter Elizabeth was married to Mr. Young. Mr. Fowler died about the year 1852, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years.

John Fowler Young was reared to gardening in Dayton, to which he devoted himself until 1876, when he opened business as a florist, locating his greenhouse at Dayton View. In November, 1868, he married Miss Elizabeth Herby, daughter of George and Lydia (Corby) Herby, natives of England. Mrs. Herby and two of her children died in England, and in 1853 Mr. Herby and his only remaining child, now Mrs. Young, came to America, from Earls Barton, England, where the father had been employed in a large mill. On reaching Dayton Mr. Herby engaged in teaming, drawing, etc. His life here, however, was very short, as he died in 1858, at the early age of thirty-seven years, leaving his daughter, then but fourteen years of age, alone in a strange land. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Young have been born six children. The home and greenhouse of Mr. Young are at No. 105 Holt street, and he also has a fine piece of property 04 the corner of Holt street and Young avenue; the store is at No. 21 East Fifth street, where Mrs. Young has charge of the cut flowers and takes care of the office business, while Mr. Young cares for his well-equipped greenhouses, supplying all kinds of floral decorations. The Young family are members of the Lutheran church, and fraternally Mr. Young is a member of the A. O. U. W. They have a pleasant home in Dayton View, and enjoy the association and esteem of a large circle of friends.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.

DANIEL W. YOUNG, Sr., of Miamisburg, and a retired hotel proprietor, was born in Munichweiter, Rhine province, Germany, January 16, 1839. He is a son of Daniel and Wilhelmina (Von Brecht) Young, his paternal grandparents having been Philip and Catherine (Weber) Young, and his maternal grandparents, Julius Von Brecht and wife.

Daniel W. Young’s early education was received in the public schools of his native country, and in his twelfth year he was admitted to the university at Speyer, with the view to being trained for the ministry of the Evangelical Protestant church. He had previously attended an art training school and had become proficient as an ornamental painter. And as will be seen, later on, this latter training entered, in part, into his future course of life. In 1853 he sailed for the United States from Havre, on the ship Arlington, and, after a tedious voyage of sixty days, landed in New York. From this city he went by canal to Buffalo, and thence by rail to Saint Louis, where he joined his uncle, Peter Weber, a 'noted musician, who sent him to Walter & Cook’s business college, from which institution he graduated with honor in the spring of 1856. He was next employed as clerk and steward in a hotel, remaining in this position for two years. In 1858 he went to Zanesville, Ohio, where he was employed in a confectionery store until the fall of 1859, when he removed to Miamisburg. In 1860 he entered the employ of Bookwalter & Kauffman, carriage builders, as foreman of their painting department, and was engaged with them, and the various firms that succeeded to that business, for a period of nearly eleven years. In 1870, having purchased the Valley house, he engaged in the hotel business, and conducted this hotel for two and a half years. Selling out the Valley house, he removed to Dayton, and there conducted the Galt house for three years, at the end of which time he returned to Miamisburg, purchased the Arcade restaurant, thoroughly renovated and remodeled the building, and conducted the restaurant until 1888. He then took charge of what is now known as the Hotel Young, and carried on a successful business until 1895, when he retired from active participation in business affairs.

In 1891 Capt. Young went to Germany, on a visit to his aged mother and other relatives, this being his first visit to his native land after he left there in 1853. In 1861 he married Elizabeth Jacobus, daughter of Frederick and Catherine (Graff) Jacobus, of the Rhine province, Germany, and pioneers of Miamisburg. To this marriage there have been born three children that are still living, as follows: F.

[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]

Fraternally Capt. Young is a member of Schiller lodge, No. 38, I. O. O. F., of Dayton, of the Knights of Pythias lodge of Miamisburg, and was the founder of and is past grand master of Mozart lodge, A. O. U. W. He is at the present time serving his second term as grand master of the D. O. H. Among other positions of trust that he has held may be mentioned that of president of the Miamisburg Cemetery association, which he has held for the past eight years, and under his efficient management of the affairs of the association the cemetery has been brought into a condition of high perfection and beauty. In politics Capt. Young is a democrat, and a man of high character and undoubted patriotism.

As printed in the source². Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.