James M. Hartman
The men most intiuential in promoting the advancement of civilization and in giving character to the times in which they live are of two general classes, the men of study and the men of action. Whether we are more indebted for the improvement of this age to the one class or to the other is a question of honest difference in opinion. Neither class can be spared and both should be encouraged to occupy their several spheres of labor and influence. J. M. Hartman is a man who combines the leading characteristics of the scholar and the energy of the public-spirited man of affairs. For more than a quarter of a century he has been a teacher in Union township, Fayette county, Ohio, and has made his influence felt, not only in the school life, but in all phases of the life of his community.
James M. Hartman, the superintendent of the Union township schools, the son of John and Sarah (Smith) Hartman, was born April 19, 1869, in Marion township, this county. His father was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, and settled in Fayette county before the war. He served in that memorable conflict as a member of Company D, One Hundred and Fourteenth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was in the Army of the Potomac for three and one-half years. After the close of the war he returned to Fayette county, where he purchased a farm of eighty acres in Union township, where he is still living. John Hartman and wife were the parents of seven children, Charles, Frank, James M., Edward, Thomas, Margaret and Maud. All of these children are still living except Edward, Margaret, Maud and Thomas.
James M. Hartman received his education in Fayette county and later took a course in the Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio. He began teaching at the age of nineteen and has been connected with the schools of this county ever since. For the past five years he has been superintendent of the township schools of Union township, being the only township superintendent in the county and he is now district superintendent of Union, Wayne and Marion townships. He keeps fully abreast of the latest methods of teaching and. being a diligent student of educational matters, is recognized as one of the ablest teachers of the county. He lives on a small farm of twenty-four acres about three miles from Washington C. H.
Mr. Hartman was married October 7, 1897, to Grace McCoy, the daughter of Thomas and Eliza (Cockerell) McCoy. Mrs. Hartman's mother is one of the oldest settlers of the county and is still hale and hearty.
Mr. Hartman is a Democrat in jxilitics and has always been interested in political matters. At the present time he is a candidate for the office of auditor of his county. Mr. Hartman has devoted his life to the teaching profession and has lived an unseltish, helpful and altruistic life, whereby the hundreds of young people who have gone to school to him will become better men and women. Because of the good he has done and the life he has lived, he is eminently entitled to representation in the historv of his county.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)