William M. Fee

As printed in 1880

W. M. FEE.

The subject of this sketch is an example of that class of men who, by earnest and honest industry, have achieved success in the battle of life. Without the aid of advantageous circumstances, such as fortune und influential friends, he bas arisen from the humbler walks of life not only te an honorable position in society, but also in the commercial arena. W. M. Fee was born in Washington township, Clermont Co., Ohio, on the 9th day of November, 1825. His first view of life was upon a farm among the yeomanry of the country, and upon which his childhood and youth were spent. His was the life of the ordinary farm lad, working on the farm in the miller weather, and attending the district school in the winter, His first earnings saved were from chopping cord-wood, At length the critical period in his life arrived. He was twenty-one years of age anda free man. He must now make a decision which would affect his whole future,—he must choose the vocation of his life. His inclinations from boyhood were for merchandising. Farming offered but little inducement to him, a short experience in which, had already proved unsuccessful. He came to Moscow in the spring of 1848, where he was employed as clerk in the store of Nathan Keyt until October, 1849, when he embarked in the mercantile business in company with J. R. Downs. From that time until 1857 he conducted a successful business with different partners, viz., J, W. Fee, B. F. Fisher, and Robert Smith, at which time he purchased the interest of his partner, and has since continued the business with like success. In 1851, our subject having formed an acquaintance with and attachment for Miss Emeliza E. Pinney, they concluded it was not best to be alone, and therefore resolved to enter into copartnership as man and wife for the rest of their days. The lady is a daughter of the Hon. H. N. Pinney, and a native of Windsor, Vt. In 1848 he received his first degree in Masonry, from which he passed to the Middle Chamber, and was raised to the Sanctum Sanctorum, He was soon known as an ardent and devoted student of Masonry, and has frequently held important positions in the lodge. Haying a desire within him to unravel the hidden mysteries of the ancient craft, and for further light, he became a member of the Royal Arch Chapter at Felicity, Ohio. A chapter being subsequently organized in Moscow, he was elected High Priest,” and represented the chapter in the session at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1869, He has also represented Moscow Lodge in the Grand Lodge sessions at Columbus and Toledo, Ohio. Masonry to him is more than a mere name: it has a spirit anda power. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Moscow, during a revival meeting, under the ministry of the Revs. Edward Estell and Wesley Roe, in April, 1841. His wife was formerly a member of the Presbyterian Church, but after their marriage united, by letter, with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which she is an active member, energetic, industrious, and ever ready to lend a helping hand where her services are needed, her health permitting. Both have been long connected with and useful members of the Sabbathschool, and have often united in deeds of charity and the relief of the distressed. Politically, Mr. Fee was a Whig during the days of that party. His generous and sympathizing nature led him instinctively to espouse the cause of the oppressed, and from the beginning of the anti-slavery struggle he was one of its firmest adherents and steadfast defenders. With such feelings, he naturally associated with the Republican party upon its organization. He regards this as the great party of truth and patriotic duty, the party of principles, and the only one that has the ability and integrity successfully to administer a republican government. He keeps himself thoroughly acquainted with the questions and issues of the day, and votes as he talks, intelligently and consistently. During the days of the Rebellion in our land he was a cordial supporter of the Union cause; and, though he was unable to take an active part in defense of the nation’s honor, he rendered substantial aid to the government by his assistance in procuring men and liberal donations from his private means,

He has been connected with the general merchandising business for nearly thirty-one years. He has also, in addition to his commercial business, been engaged in agricultural pursuits during his later years, being the possessor of a considerable quantity of land. The instructions received in the science of farming during his youth have thus been of practical benefit to him in the later years of his life, and his Iubors have been substantially rewarded. He has been an active participant in the development and progress of the town with which he has linked his fortunes, and has added to its beauty by the erection recently of a substantial business house and a handsome residence. In company with his wife he has visited important places in nearly one-half of the States of the Union and Canada, including Boston, New York, and the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, In a lifetime of business activity and commercial enterprise he has been uniformly successful, and has in the aggregate secured a competency satisfactory to himself. He sacks wealth only for its uses, and while he allows himself but little time to administer to his own personal enjoyment, he neglects none of his domestic duties, nor does he turn an indifferent or impatient ear to the wants of friends or of society.

We close this sketch, not because we have exhausted our subject, but because we have said enough to command attention to a man who, by his acts, is entitled to high consideration for what he has done and for what he is doing. He has opened wide paths to industry and enterprise, and extends a helping hand to all honest and well-disposed men who seek labor either for themselves or their families.

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James McMaru was born two miles and a half east of Moscow, Washington township, in this county, Aug. 21, 1821, at which place he lived until the spring of 1838, when his father, William McMath, moved to Neville. His father was born near Brownsville, Pa, and married Mary McGee, a native of Ireland, by whom he bud the following children: Samuel; Daniel; Hannah; Mary, married to John Hobbs; Jobn; Jane, married to John Gilbreath; and James MeMath, the subject of this sketch. His father, thinking James was too delicate for the life of a farmer, bound him, in 1836, to Benjamin Quinlan for five years to learn the tailor's trade. In 1888 he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church under the labors of Rev. Mr. Hance. Benjamin Quinlan moving to Missouri in 1889, James McMath went to Moscow on April 8th of that year, and finished his trade with A. J. Shelley. In the spring of 1842 he was appointed class-leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and has been connected with the quarterly conference of that charge ever since, being its oldest member. In 1846 he was licensed as an exhorter, and has become a popular local preacher in the county. He worked for A. J. Shelley seven years, attending school a portion of the time during the first two years, and working for his board morning and evenings. Mr. McMath recollect with pleasure the kindness with which Mr. Shelley and his family treated him when a poor boy working for and boarding with them. Mr. MeMath was married, April 21, 1846, to Miss Gloryina S$. Conrey, and the same summer started a small store in Moscow in connection with his tailor-shop, which was the first merchant tailor-shop in the county. In 1858 he received his license as a local preacher. In 1855 his wife died, and on July 31, 1856, he married again, this time taking as a companion Miss Abigail R, Senteney. He was ordained a deacon in the church Sept. 7, 1862, and an elder Sept. 1, 1872. He never sought honors from the church, but ever willingly obeyed its orders, and performed with his might whatever his hands found todo. He has been an untiring and earnest worker in the Sabbath-schools for thirty-five years, and was one of the organizers of the Clermont County Methodist Episcopal Church Sunday-School Union, and himself organized the Washington Township Sunday-School Union. At Chilo Mr. MeMath supplied the circuit twice as its preacher by the appointment of the presiding elder, and his two years of useful labors at that point are remembered with pleasure by the church members and people generally of that town. For twenty years continuously he has been recording steward of the Moscow Circuit, and was twice president of Clermont County Metho.ist Episcopal Sunday-School Convention. Probably no man lives in Clermont who in the last third of a century has been so zealous in behalf of the ehureh as Mr. McMath, or contributed so much in time, money, and work for its spiritual and material growth. He has two living children by his first wife, Charles, a merchant, of the firm of McMath & Grimes, of Moscow, and James C. MeMath, a prominent attorney of the Clermont bar, residing at Batavia. By his present wife he has one son, William 8., and two daughters, Cora B. and Etta McMath. James Mc- Math has served eighteen years as postmaster of Moscow, a long time as a member of the town school board, acting as its president in 1875, and aided largely in the erection of the, present fine school edifice. He served several years as mayor of Moscow. Vor thirty years he engaged profitably in mercantile pursuits, and was succeeded in his business a short time ago by the firm of MeMath (his son, Charles) & Grimes. In later years he has been engaged in the banking business with Jared Lemar, under the firm-name of Lemar & McMath. He came to Moscow with no capital but his industry, resolute will, and honesty, and possessing but a limited education obtained in the district school, but in forty-one years he has achieved great financial success, and, what is far better, thename of being an honest, Christian gentleman and business man. The impress of his earnest and able works in the cause of religion and in the interests of good society is plainly perceptible in the growing town of Moscow, the material and moral prosperity of which is largely attributable to his labors and influence.

Gray. Michael Gray was born in Kentucky, but his parents were from Pennsylvania, while his wife Nancy (Carr) was born in Ohio, but her parents came from Martinsburg, Va. By this second marriage three children were born,— Walter G., born Nov. 10, 1868; Nancy E., born Dec. 29, 1871, and Dick G.,

Joux Day, a son of Matthew Day, was born Jan. 20, 1755, in Maryland, and married, Aug. 1, 1776, Abigail Poe, born April 16,1760. Their children were Martha, Matthew, John, Edward, Mark, Thomas, Isaac, Jesse and Mary (twins), and Joseph B. Day. John Day, with his family, moved to Ohio in 1802, and located on the farm where Joseph B. Day now lives. He died in the year 1817, but his wife Abigail (Poe) lived to the age of eighty-five years, and died April 22, 1845, He was one of the earliest pioneers of Clermont, a man of resolute will and strong Christian character. His youngest child, Joseph B, Day, was born June 25, 1800, and was married to Deborah Lambert, born Feb, 12, 1800, and whose father, Joshua Lambert, having been a fifer in the British army, born in England in 1743, settled at an early period at Williamsburgh, in this county.

To Joseph B. and Deborah (Lambert) Day were born ten children, to wit: Anna L., married to W. H. H. Browning and deceased; Mary, married to Dr. David Wood, father of County Recorder M. A. Wood; Joshua L., deceased; Abigail, married 10 William Poe; Jesse; Martha, married to Henry B. Shinkle; Isaac H.; Lucretia, married to Samuel Salisbury and deceased; Malissa, married to Joseph P. Bolender; and Minerva, married te Daniel F. Trout. Joseph B, and his wife, Deborah (Lambert) Day, both yet live, and each in their eightieth year of age. They were married in 1819, and have lived most happily for sixty-one years as man and wife, and reside on the farm their father, John Day, located in 1802. Dr. Isnac H. Day, the subject of this sketch, was the seventh child of his parents, and was born Sept. 17,1833. The doctor was married, Oct. 29, 1857, to Nancy E. Wiley, daughter of Samuel and Mary (Richards) Wiley, born in Ohio; but the father of Samuel was an emigrant from New Jersey, and of Mary, from Maryland. By this marriage the doctor had the following children: Mary C., born Oct. 10, 1858; Maggie G., born March 20, 1860; Clara D., born June 13, 1862; Samuel C., born Sept. 3, 1864, and dicd June 19, 1865. The doctor’s wife, Nancy E., died Sept. 19, 1865, and July 7, 1867, he was married to Mary J. Gray, daughter of Michael and Nancy (Carr)

born Aug. 20, 1875. Dr. Isaac H. Day was educated in the district schools, and worked on the farm until the fall of 1852, when he began reading medicine with Dr. David Wood, of Point Isabel, and after the latter's death he completed his studies with Dr. Robinson, of Henning’s Mills, He attended his first course of lectures in the winter of 1854-55 at the Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, and graduated at that institution in 1856. In March of that year he located at Point Isabel, where he has ever since resided, and has been engaged in the successful practice of his profession. As a practitioner he has met with eminent success. Being of humane and generous impulses, his very presence in a sickroom inspires the patient with confidence, such is his tender care in speech and action. His practice extends to distant townships, and he is a leading member of the Clermont County Eclectic Medical Association, which holds its annual meetings at Amelia. Dr. Day is also one of the most noted horsemen in Clermont, and perhaps in his knowledge and judgment of horse-flesh he is not equaled in the county. At the county fairs he yearly carries off premiums for the best horses, and when not competing for prizes is always selected as a committee-man, owing to his superior qualifications. The Day family bas been one of the largest and most favorably known of any in the county, and the doctor is a worthy descendant of a lineage so honorably associated with our annals. His uncle, Thomas Day, was in the war of 1812, under Col. Sumatt, and died at Fort Ball, on the Sandusky River, in 1815, from disease contracted by exposure in the service. Connected with the Poes, Lamberts, Grays, Carrs, Wileys, Richards, Woods, Shinkles, Bolenders, and other leading families of Southern Clermont, the doctor has a very extended relationship, and probably no person in the community stands higher in the public estimation than he, both as a citizen and a physician.

James IsRakEL SELBY, son of James W. and Gertrude (Sturges) Selby, was born in Monroe township, of this county, Nov. 29, 1827. His father came with his family from Worcester Co., Md., to Ohio, in 1823. James I. is the second child born in Ohio and the fourth of ten children, of whom seven are living. His father and mother, aged respectively eighty-two and eighty years, are living in easy retirement at their pleasant home at California, Ky., on the Ohio River, James I. Selby was married, Dee. 3, 1849, by the noted circuit rider, Rev. Benjamin Lakin, to Sarah Demaris. By this union were born five children, of whom his son, James Edward Selby, grown to manhood, is the only one living. His first wife died in October, 1860, and March 12, 1861, he was the second time married, by Rey. Mr. Cassett, to Emma Marshal, of New Richmond, Mr. Selby is one of the most distinguished members of the Masonic order in the county, and was initiated, passed, and raised in Moscow Lodge, No. 122, F. and A. M., in the spring of 1849. Subsequently he took the degrees in Orion Chapter, No, 49, of Felicity, and those of Royal and Select Master in Connell Council, No. 19, in the same town. The Knights Templar degrees were conferred upon him in Cincinnati Commandery, No. 3, on March 11, 1877. He and his family are attendants upon the Christian Church. He has been for ten years a director of the First National Bank of New Richmond, and is now vice-president of that institution. He has been for several years a township trustee, deputy county treasurer, and is now president of the school board. He is of English extraction, and the first member of his family in America came over from England about the year 1701, and located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Mr. Selby is a Democrat in his political sentiments, and has been quite prominent in the campaigns and caucuses of his party. His farm embraces over two hundred acres of land lying on the Ohio River, half a mile from the pleasant and enterprising town of Moscow. He is the largest fruit-raiser in Clermont County, and a leading member of the Ohio State Horticultural Society. He cultivates principally berries, peaches, grapes, years, apples, etc., and has a peachorchard of eighty acres, the finest in the county. He ships his berries and fruits by steamers to Cincinnati, and in their culture has acquired a marked reputation and amassed a nice fortune. His residence, overlooking the beautiful Ohio River, is a nice two-story frame dwelling, handsomely furnished, and its surroundings ornamented with choice flowers and shrubbery. Mr, Selby is a gentleman of high personal worth and purity of character, and enjoys the esteem of his fellow-men. He has been very successful in life, accumulated a fair share of this world’s goods, and enjoys in comfort and peace his beautiful home, the result of his own labors.

TUE McKENDREE CHAPEL OF THE METHODIST EPIS- was built some time before 1840, on an acre of ground donated by John G. Buchanan, on the headwaters of Maple Run, by a board of trustees composed of Enos Richards, Joseph Owens, Erastus Turtin, John Buchanan, and John Fallan. These and John Kennedy, John and Ww, Sargent, the Daughters, the Hill, and Barkley families, were also among the first members, and _previously belonged to Hopewell and Calvary, The house is about 30 by 45 feet, of brick, and the present trustees are Elijah, Joseph, and George Marriott, Enos Richards, Hrastus Turtin, P. Evans, and R. L. Richards. This charge forms a part of Moscow Circuit, as does also the

As printed in Rockey, J. L. - History Of Clermont County, Ohio (Everts, 1880) (1880). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.