James Britton

AMES BRITTON. Like many of the representative and much esteemed citizens of Marion County, our subject is a native of the township in which he lives, having been born on section 9, Big Island Township, February 13, 1834. He still makes his home on the old estate which was the property of his parents, William and Sarah (James) Britton.

The father of our subject was born in New Hampshire, and there learned and followed the shoemaker’s trade up to 1815, the date of his removal to this state and county. He at once located in Big Island Township, entering eighty acres of land, and made this place his home until his death, in 1873, at which time he was the possessor of four hundred and thirty acres. He was a man of prominence and influence in his community. Having lived through some very exciting times here, were he living he could fill a volume with interesting reminiscences of his eventful career. He was a man possessed of very little book knowledge, and as no record was ever kept of his family history, but little is known of his ancestors.

Of the fourteen children born to William and

Sarah Britton, seven lived to mature years. Of this family, Lorenzo, Cynthia, Clinton, Roxy, Gitto, Nealon, Samuel, Sarah and Clarinda are deceased. Melissa married Nelson Williams, the owner of land in both Big Island and Salt Rock Townships, Marion County; and James is the subject of this sketch.

When the father came West he conveyed his household effects on a raft down the Ohio River, but before landing with them met with a great misfortune, the raft sinking to the bottom of the river. This loss made him feel so poor that he felt compelled to remain here, although he had desired to return to the Granite State, and, entering a tract of land, settled down and prepared to gain a good income from its cultivation. This he did in time and was never sorry afterward that he did not follow his inclination to abandon the scene of his misfortunes. Pie was married, January 16, 1857, to Lydia McNabb, daughter of Angus and Lydia (Shippy) McNabb. Pier father was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and was married to Lydia Shippy after coming to the United States, in Massachusetts. The mother was born June 28, 1795, while her husband, who was some years older, was born in 1783. Their only child was our subject’s wife, whose birth occurred June 26, 1838.

To Mr. and Mrs. Britton has been granted a family of eight children. Asa, born September 10, 1858, is now a farmer of Big Island Township. William A., born December 10, 1860, died January 16, 1869. Sarah, born July 6, 1865, died March 19, 1892; she had formerly married C. C. Brady, and was the mother of one child. Eleanor, born December 29, 1870, died April 6, 1871. James, Jr., born April 15, 1871, is at home with his parents. Lydia R., born December 20, 1873, and Maye M., June 7, 1876, are at home; and Marion W., born July 8, 1880, died May 6, of the following year.

Our subject lived at home for a year after reaching his majority, and on commencing the battle of life for himself those the occupation of a farmer, to which pursuit he had been reared. His possessions now include one hundred acres, on which he carries on general farming. He was as well educated as were the youth of his day and locality, but it is his intention to give his children every advantage. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and in politics is a Prohibitionist.

USTUvS A. MOUSER, M. D., is one of the honored old physicians of Marion County, who since the war has been located at Larue, though his practice is widespread. He has been very successful, both in a financial and profes- --sional sense, and is the owner of valuable property here and in Texas. At one time he made extensive purchases in Abilene and vicinity, with the intention of becoming a resident of that place.

The Doctor’s parents were Isaac and Ann E. (Strawbridge) Mouser, he being the eldest child. Mar>r J., the second, died at the age of fifty-six years; George A. died of typhoid fever during his army service, at Cumberland, Md., in October, 1865, when only twenty-two years of age; Emily H. is the widow of Rev. George Burns, of Bloomington, Ill.; Abram C. is an attorney and realestate dealer in San Diego, Cal.; Homer S. is a lawyer of Hitchcock, S. Dak.; and Isaac J. is an attorney-at-law in South Harvey, Ill. The father was a native of Virginia, and lived on a farm there until 1833, when he emigrated to this county and bought a farm near Scott Town. Subsequently he became the owner of a large farm in Marion Township, and while living there was killed, at the age of fifty-four years, by a railroad train. His father, Jacob Mouser, was also a Virginian, and enlisted in the War of 1812 when only sixteen years of age. He died in this county’ about 1834, in middle life. His father, who bore the same Christian name, was a native of Germany. The Doctor’s mother was born in Pennsylvania, and her death occurred in Illinois, when she was in her sixty-ninth year. Her father was of Irish j lineage, but was born in England, from which country he emigrated to the United States in early manhood. Her mother, who before her marriage was Ann Maus, was born in Germany.

Dr. J. A. Mouser was born on the 13th of December, 1835, near Cochranton, this county, and until he was twenty years of age spent his time in farming and in attending the district schools. Later he went to the high school in Marion, and at the age of twenty began teaching in a district school near Claridon, receiving $19 per month and his board for a three-months term. He then entered college at Delaware, Ohio, where he remained during the next six years, his studies being interrupted one year, as he was obliged to farm in order to get money for the completion of his education. He graduated July 26, 1862, and soon took up medical studies under Dr. Sweeney, of Marion. He also taught the Larue school for one winter. In the fall of 1863 and the following winter he attended a course of lectures in the Ohio Medical College of Cincinnati, and during the intervening summer engaged in farming, at the same time keeping up his medical woik. After attending lectures during the winter of 1864 and 1865 at the Ohio Medical College, he was graduated, March 2, and the next day was examined for United States Surgeon. He was later employed by the Government and sent to Camp Butler, Ill., where he remained until the close of the war.

Returning to Marion County, Dr. Mouser located for practice in Hardin County, but before long settled in Larue, where he has been in continuous practice ever since. Many years ago he discovered a new treatment for diphtheria and typhoid fever, and though in twenty-nine years he has had over fifty cases of the former and more than one hundred of the latter disease, he has only lost one patient. For eighteen years he has been a member of the School Board of Larue, and has also been a member of the City Council. In 1873 he left the ranks of the Republican party and joined the Prohibitionists, with whom he is in warm sympathy, and as a temperance worker he is well known. He belongs to many of the leading temperance organizations, and was the first one initiated in the Masonic order here, this being about twenty years ago. For twenty-eight years he has been a member of the Odd Fellows’ society.

March i, 1864, Dr. Mouser married Sarah E. De Long, of Larue. They have had nine children, namely: May D., who is the wife of Francis M. Holland, of Delaware, Ohio: Ambrose H., a practicing physician, of Paulding, Ohio, and a graduate of the Columbus Medical College; Grant E., Whose sketch will be found elsewhere in this work; George B., who graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and is now a leading attorney at Marion, Ind.; Maude A., who is teaching school in Larue; Lloyd H., a graduate of the local school, and now a teacher in Paulding County, Ohio; Justus Howard, now attending the Larue schools; and Roy H. and Carl PI., who are at home.

For thirty-five years Dr. Mouser was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was the founder of and main contributor in building the Larue Church. Of late years he has been an active member of the Baptist denomination, havrefused fo support a church whose minister voted to allow the liquor traffic to go on.

As printed in Portrait and biographical record of Marion and Hardin counties, Ohio (1895). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.