Joseph Bookwalter
Joseph Buckwalter, the owner of a farm in Caesarscreek township, located on rural mail route No. 9 out of Xenia, is a native of the Old Dominion, born in that section now comprised within the confines of Hampshire county, West Virginia, but has been a permanent resident of Ohio and of Greene county since 1872. He was born on July 19, 1841, son of Anthony and Mary (Buzzard) Buckwalter, whose last days were spent in West Virginia.
Anthony Buckwalter was born at Phoenixville. Pennsylvania, and there received an excellent education, becoming particularly proficient as a penman and a mathematician. In the days of his young manhood he began teaching school in that section of Virginia which during the Civil War demanded separate statehood and has since been known as West Virginia and there he married, established his home in Hampshire county, where he and his wife spent their last days, she dying at the age of seventy-six and he at the age of eighty-two. Anthony Buckwalter was reared a Whig and during the days of the Civil War was an ardent Union man. His wife was a member of the Presbyterian church. They were the parents of thirteen children, Mary, Sarah, George, David, Elizabeth, Jacob, John, Susan, Daniel, Maria, Esther Ann, Virginia and Joseph, all of whom are now deceased save the subject of this biographical sketch. His brother John, who died in 1918, lived on the old home place in Hampshire county, West Virginia, up to his death.
Joseph Buckvvalter was reared on the place just referred to and there received his schooling in the neighborhood "subscription" schools. In 1864, he then being twenty-three years of age, Mr. Buckwalter rode through to this section of Ohio on a three-year-old colt and made a visit to friends in Greene county, liking things here so well that he remained until the fall of 1865. In 1866 he returned to this county and here spent another year, at the end of which time he returned home, where he remained until 1872, when he and the two Keiter boys drove through from West Virginia with a wagon and five-horse team, the trip occupying twenty-one days, and Mr. Buckwalter since has been a resident of Greene county. In the spring of 1874 he married here and for a year thereafter he and his wife made their home on the place just north of the place on which they are now living. Mr. Buckwalter then bought the place where he is now living and established his home there, now the proprietor of a farm of two hundred and sixty acres. He is a Republican.
On May 26, 1874, Joseph Buckwalter was united in marriage to Esther Jane Keiter, who was born in Caesarscreek township, this county, a daughter of Frederick and Mary (Weaver) Keiter, both of whom were born in Virginia, the former in Hampshire county and the latter in Frederick county, the former being in what is now West Virginia and the latter in old Virginia, and who came to Ohio after their marriage in 1855 and settled in Greene county. Upon coming to this county Frederick Keiter bought a tract of land in Caesarscreek township and there established his home, he and his wife spending the remainder of their lives there, both dying at the age of seventy-four years. They were members of the Old School Baptist church and their children were reared in that faith. There were twelve of these children, of whom Mrs. Buckwalter was the ninth in order of birth, the others being Elizabeth (deceased), Harrison (deceased), John (deceased), Mary (deceased), Margaret, widow of Elisha Bales of Jefferson township; Nancy (deceased), Susan, widow of Daniel Beam, of Caesarscreek township; George .A., (deceased), Esther Jane, James and Edward (twins), of the neighboring county of Clinton, and Sarah Catherine, who married Asaph Haines, of Caesarscreek township. The first six of these children were born in Virginia and the last six in Greene county. Mr. and Mrs. Buckwalter have five children, James Keiter, Mary Jane, George William, Franklin M. and Clara Elizabeth, all of whom are at home. The family are attendants of the Baptist church.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918