Samuel X. Nesbit
Samuel X. Nesbit, school teacher, and farmer, Vineyard Hill, was born December 12, 1840, on the farm now owned and occupied by him on Gift Ridge, Monroe Township. His father was Alexandria S. Nesbit, who married Miss Mary Peden, a native of Clermont County, Ohio. The Pedens were Pennsylvania Quakers, most of the family now living in West Virginia in the vicinity of Peden Island. The paternal ancestor, John Nesbit, came from Scotland to York County, Pa., in 1732. His son, William Nesbit, the grandfather of Samuel X., had a brother Alexander, who was a Captain in a Pennsylvania Regiment in the War of the Revolution. He also commanded a company in the Whiskey Rebellion.
William Nesbit married Mary Sanderson, a sister of William Sanderson, who commanded a battalion under General Wayne at Brandywine. Samuel X. Nesbit, the subject of this sketch, inherited a taste for literature and general reading which he has cultivated as opportunity would permit all his life. When eighteen years of age, his father died and upon him fell the burden of caring for his mother and six little children, and this greatly interfered with the plans of his future life. Shortly after the death of his father, the War of the Rebellion broke out, and in December, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the famous 70th Regiment, O. V. I., at Camp Hamer. He was at Shiloh, storming of the Russell House, Siege of Corinth, and was in every skirmish line of battle formed by the regiment excepting two, and although touched by balls on several occasions, was never seriously wounded. On the night before the battle of Missionary Ridge, William Hornbeck, a vidette, was charged by three cavalrymen and driven in. Samuel X. Nesbit, John Love and Sergeant Mathew McColm volunteered to assist Hornbeck to retake the post, which they did after killing one of the Rebel cavalrymen. After the war, Mr. Nesbit engaged in teaching school, which profession he followed until 1886. In 1894, his home was burned and with it his fine library, the acquisition of many years' toil. He now resides in happy bachelorhood on the old home stead in Monroe Township. He has always been a Republican in politics and a Liberal in religion.
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