Anthony Banning

As printed in 1902

HON. ANTHONY BANNING.

In pioneer days Anthony Banning came to Ohio and was actively identified with the development and improvement of this section of the state when it was a frontier region. He was associated with agricultural and industrial interests and was also active in promoting the intellectual and moral growth of the community. He was born in Talbott county, Maryland, May 13, 1768, and his full name was James Mansfield Anthony Banning. He was the only son of James Banning, a landed proprietor of large influence in that locality. The only sister of our subject became the wife of Benjamin Chew, a most intimate friend and associate of George Washington. He became chief justice of the state of Pennsylvania and resided in Philadelphia.

When our subject was quite young his father died, and his uncle, Henry Banning, a sea captain, became his guardian. He took him on several sea voyages and provided him with good educational privileges, intending him for the priesthood, for the family were Catholics, but in his fourteenth year Anthony Banning left the church of his fathers and joined the Methodist church, a course which cut him off from his own people, who regarded him as lost on account of his abandonment of the Romish church. However, a long life of usefulness lay before him, and he accomplished great good in the world. At the age of eighteen he began preaching as a circuit rider in Greenbriar county and the mountainous districts of Virginia, and his zealand earnestness in presenting the cause of Christianity gained to his Master's cause many followers.

Mr. Banning was married, July 30, 1 79 1, to Mrs. Sarah Pierce, a daughter of Jacob Murphy, who became one of the first settlers of Redstone, Pennsylvania, near Uniontown. She was born on the eastern shore of Maryland and was reared near Ellicotts Mills, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Banning became the parents of eight children. Sarah married Daniel S. Norton, and resided in Knox county. Jacob M. wedded Miss Sophia Zimmerman, daughter of Gottlieb Zimmerman, of Mount Vernon. With her children she removed to Hardin county, and one of her family is now in Los Angeles, California. Rachel became the wife of Rev. Elnathan Raymond and their daughter, Mrs. George K. Norton, is living in Mount Vernon. James S. has a son who is represented on another page of this work. Mary became the wife of a Mr. Caswell. Betsy married a Mr. Bronson, of Mount Vernon.

Priscilla. who was born May 1, 1801, was married to Sewell Gray, of Massachusetts, whose birth occurred April 9, 1806. He died at Mount Vernon in May, 1862, and her death occurred in 1891. Anthony Banning, the youngest of the family, married Jane Dudley, of Mount Vernon, and their children are William B. and Frank Banning and Mrs. Errett, of Mount Vernon.

In 1 79 1 Anthony Banning was ordained to the Methodist ministry by Bishop Asbury. While residing in Pennsylvania, near Mount Braddock and Connelsville, he engaged in preaching in those places, also conducted a tan yard and a general store. He likewise served as justice of the peace from 1 79 1 until 1799, and was a prominent factor in the business, political and moral life of the community. Between 1808 and 1812 he made several trips up the Muskingtmi river with goods, and on some of these trips purchased land in Knox county, whither he removed in 1812. He traded tanned leather and saddlery goods to Samuel Kratzer for an interest in the site of Mount Vernon, and during the long period of his residence in this city he engaged in many pursuits, prospering in all, for he was a man of marked enterprise, determination and business ability. He conducted general stores at Mount Vernon, Tymochtree and Danville, and was the proprietor of a mill at Clinton, also conducted a tan yard and extensively engaged in farming. Though his business pursuits were so extensive and varied he yet found time to devote to his Christian work, and was much of the time engaged in preaching on Sundays and at all times exerted his influence, which was strongly felt in behalf of the moral advancement of the community in which he made his home. His political support was given the Whig party, and he served as associate justice of the county from 1827 until 1834. He was active in every movement for the benefit of the county and town, and was the promoter of many measures for the general good. He built a church upon his own land just at the time Bishop Purcell was denied the use of all the other churches, thereon Mr. Banning placed his at the disposal of the Catholics, and the first Catholic sermon delivered in Mount Vernon was in the Banning church, as it was called. He held to his own religious views tenaciously, but accorded to others the same privilege. In the month of February, 1844, Judge Banning was accidentally drowned while crossing the ice west of Mount Vernon while going to his farm. He was honest and conscientious, resolute yet liberal, and was most kind-hearted and generous. Knox county profited by his citizenship, and the world is better for his having lived.

As printed in The Biographical record of Knox County, Ohio : to which is added an elaborate compendium of national biography (1902). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.