Joseph Eylar
Joseph Eyler, the pioneer, was horn in the Kingdom of Wurtemburg, Germany, September 22. 1759. He was a son of George and Catherine Eyler who lived and died in that country. In 1777 he ran away from home to escape service in the army, and after walking 800 miles to the coast, shipped for the United States, arriving at Baltimore in the autumn of that year. From that time until the period of his marriage little is known of him except that he was engaged as a wagoner, and accumulated enough to own a four-horse team and a "Cannestoga" of his own. In 1787 he married Mary Ann Rosemiller, a daughter of John George Rosemiller, living in the vicinity of Philadelphia. The Rosemillers were wealthy Tories, and objected to their daughter's marrying the unknown and poor wagoner; an elopement followed, and Mary Ann Rosemiller became Mary Ann Eyler. How ever, John George Rosemiller had other daughters "Ann" to cheer his declining years. They were Ann, Rose Ann, Catherine Ann, Barbara Ann, Elizabeth Ann, Julia Ann. Mary Ann, who eloped with Eyler, and a son named John George Lewis.
The breach in the domestic life of the Rosemillers made by the clandestine marriage of Mary Ann remained until her death. Her sisters had married well, and they never lost the opportunity to remind her of the fact, so that she and her husband shortly after the birth of their first child, the late Judge Joseph Eyler, of Adams County, removed to Bedford, Pennsylvania, then a frontier town from which goods were distributed to the settlements in western Virginia and Kentucky. It was a point where the young wagoner found ready employment.
In 1795, Joseph Eyler and his little family, in company with others, came down the Ohio River by keel-boat and landed at the "Three Islands" where Nathaniel Massie had founded the town of Manchester. Eyler tended a patch of corn on the lower island that summer, and the following winter built a cabin on a tract of three hundred acres purchased near Killinstown. The next year, James B. Finley passed over Tod's old trace to the new settlement at Chillicothe and noted the fact that there was a "cabin near the present site of West Union, built by Mr. Oiler, but no one was living in it." Eyler's original tract is now owned by Sandy Craigmile, John Crawford, and Samuel McFeeters.
Joseph Eyler moved into his cabin in the year 1796. He then had four small children, Joseph, Mary, Sarah and Catherine, and there were born here John, Samuel, Martin, Henry, David, Lewis, George, and Elizabeth. Of these, Samuel, Martin, David, Lewis, and George died in childhood and are buried at Killinstown. He cleared away the forest and soon possessed one of the best farms in that portion of the country. He was industrious and economical and accumulated considerable wealth for those times. He was frequently called on to serve in local official positions such as "lister" of property, being a man of good judgment and a great deal of common sense. From Killinstown he moved to a farm near Winchester, on what is now known as the "Massie Farm." He resided there a few years and then bought a farm near Berryville, in Highland County, where he conducted a distillery. He remained there until 1834, when he disposed of his property and removed to Brown County, on a farm now owned by his grandson, Carey C. Eyler, north of the village of Fincastle. Here he died July 29, 1839, and was buried in the Wilson cemetery about one mile east of the village of Fincastle. His wife survived until March 13, 1841.
In personal appearance Joseph Eyler was strikingly peculiar. He was five feet, five inches in height and weighed over three hundred pounds. His complexion was very fair, hair dark, and eyes steel blue. He spoke English tolerably well, but preferred to use his native language when possible to do so. His household language, until his family was grown, was the German, and he always read and prayed in that tongue. It was the rule in his household to read a portion of God's Holy Word every evening, followed with a simple family worship in the way of prayer.
A strong trait of Joseph Eyler was his love of good horses, of which he always kept a number of the "largest and fattest." In pleasant weather he would turn them out to pasture, and as they galloped over the fields they fairly shook the earth. It was a common remark among his neighbors when it thundered, that "Joe Eyler's horses were having a romp."
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900