Benjamin Mellinger

As printed in 1908

BENJAMIN F. MELLINGER, a much esteemed citizen of Mad River Township, who is engaged in general farming on a tract of seventy-eight acres, was born July 17, 1851, in Mad River Township, Clark County, Ohio, and is a son of John E. and Mary Elizabeth (Pfoutz) Mellinger.

John E. Mellinger was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and was the eldest of a large family of children, of whom those now living are as follows: Johu, father of our subject; Jacob, Henry, a resident of St. Louis, Mo.; David; Mrs. Beard; and Elizabeth, who is unmarried and lives in Pennsylvania. The father, Benjamin Mellinger, followed farming in Pennsylvania all his life, also operating a small distillery and mill for some years.

John E. Mellinger was reared on his father's farm in Lancaster County, and assisted in the work of the mill, distillery" and farm. He was married in Hagerstown, Maryland, to Mary Elizabeth Pfoutz, a native of that village. In about 1851, when forty years of age, he and wife came to Ohio and settled on a farm in Clark County. They subsequently bought the farm, which the subject of this sketch now owns, from the Martin heirs, and there his wife died shortly after, leaving two children: Benjamin F., and Ann Elizabeth, the latter of whom is unmarried and lives at Yellow Springs, Ohio. Mr. Mellinger subsequently married Sarah A. Lewis, who died twenty years later, in 1870. There were no children born of the second union. Mr. Mellinger died in June, 1901, at the advanced age of'ninety-one years.

Benjamin F. Mellinger has spent the greater part of his life in Mad River Township, where he has always been engaged in agricultural pursuits. His early life was spent on the home farm, assisting in Its work, and he attended the Rock Point district school for three months during the winter. He was married January 10, 1878, to Emma L. Johnson, who was born at Yellow Springs, Green County, Ohio, and is a daughter of Asahel and Mary A. (Gilmore) Johnson. Her father came to Ohio from Kentucky, and here married Sarah E. Elwell, who died leaving no children, and he later married Mary A. Gilmore. Mr. Johnson's occupation in early life was that of a wagon-maker, but he subsequently conducted a general store at Yellow Springs, during which time he was appointed ticket and freight agent of the Little Miami division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, conducting that part of his business in the store. The last few years of his life were spent on a farm, where he died at the age of seventy-two. He was the father of three children: Emma, wife of our subject; Frank W., who lives on the home place in Green County, Ohio; and Charles S., who conducts an undertaking establishment at Xenia, Ohio, and is coroner of Green County.

After Mr. Mellinger's marriage he spent four and a half years on his father-in-law's farm in Greene County, and on April 1, 1881, returned to the old home farm in Mad River Township and purchased his sister's interest in the farm. Here he has since been successfully engaged in general farming, and is recognized as one of the township's substantial and representative citizens. The large brick house which he and his family occupy was erected in 1869 by his father, who had the brick burned on the place. Mr. and Mrs. Melhnger have one child, Charles J., who was born July 16, 1881. He passed the Boxwell examinations at the age of thirteen years, attended the Springfield High School for two years, as a graduate of Wilts Commercial College of Dayton, Ohio, and also attended the Ohio State University a short time. Politically Mr. Mellinger is a Republican.

As printed in 20th century history of Springfield, and Clark County, Ohio, and representative citizens (1908). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.