Hiram H. Fawcett
Hiram H. Fawcett, former trustee of New Jasper township and the proprietor of a farm in that township, one and one-half miles south of the village of New Jasper, rural mail route No. 8 out of Xenia, now living retired from the active labors of the farm, his son, Hiram F. Fawcett, carrying on the operations of the farm, is a native son of Greene county and has lived here all his life. He was born in a log house on a farm in Caesarscreek township on December 15, 1850, son of Mahlon and Emily (Howell) Fawcett, Quakers, both of whom also were born in Ohio, the latter in Belmont county in 1826, a daughter of John and Eleanor Howell, Quakers and early settlers in Belmont county, where they spent their last days.
Mahlon Fawcett was born in Caesarscreek township in 1825, a son of John and Phoebe Fawcett, Virginians, who came to this county in the early '20s and settled in Caesarscreek township, where they developed a farm of about one hundred and seventy-five acres. They were Quakers and attended New Hope meeting. They had a large family of children, nearly all of whom established their homes in this county. Mahlon Fawcett grew up on the home farm and after his marriage continued to make his home there, his death occurring on that place in 1852, he then being but twenty-seven years of age. To him and his wife, Emily Howell, three children had been born, the subject of this sketch, the youngest, having had a brother, Harvey, who died in childhood, and a sister who died in infancy. The widow Fawcett in 1857 married William Huston and spent her last days on the Huston farm in New Jasper township, the place now owned and occupied bv A. D. Smith, her death occurring there in 1900, she then being seventy-seven years of age. By her second marriage she was the mother of two sons, A. J. Huston, who is living on a farm in New Jasper township, and John C. Huston, who is engaged in the hardware business at Xenia. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at New Jasper.
Hiram H. Fawcett was not two years of age when his father died. He grew up on the Huston farm, received his schooling in the Haslip school in that neighborhood and before he was twenty years of age was married. His wife was the owner of fifty acres of land in that vicinity and on that place he and his wife established their home, he also looking after the management of his mother-in-law's farm, the Nelson Smith place. About six years after his marriage Mr. Fawcett bought forty-seven acres of the Bruce farm nearby, one and one-half miles south of the village of New Jasper, and has ever since made his home on that place. In 1888 he erected there the farm house in which he is now living. Since taking possession of that place Mr. Fawcett has added to his acreage by purchase and now has a farm of one hundred and fifty acres, besides which he and his son own a farm of eighty-eight acres just south of the home place, on which farm his son makes his home, operating that place as well as the home place, his father having turned over to him the general management of the farms some time ago. Mr. Fawcett is a Republican and for several terms served as trustee of his home township. He and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at New Jasper.
On September 1, 1870, Hiram H. Fawcett was united in marriage to Kesiah Elizabeth Smith, who was born on a part of the farm on which she is still living, a daughter of Nelson and Lydia (Beeson) Smith, both of whom also were born in this county, the former in 1823 and the latter in 1827, Nelson Smith having been a son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Kimble) Smith, who had come here from Hardin county, Virginia, in 1814. and had become pioneers of the Caesarscreek settlement. Lydia Beeson was one of the fourteen children born to Thomas and Kesiah (Turner) Beeson, the former of whom was born near Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and was but a boy when he came to Greene county with his parents in pioneer days. Nelson Smith, who became the owner of a farm of three hundred and seventeen acres two miles south of New Jasper, died at the age of forty-two, March 27, 1866. His widow did not remarry and spent the rest of her life on the home farm, her death occurring there in September, 1912. She had four daughters, those besides Mrs. Fawcett, the third in order of birth, being Amanda, now deceased, who was the wife of John W. Fudge, of Xenia; Susan, who married William D. Sutton, and who, as well as her husband, is now deceased, and Emma, wife of A. J. Huston, of New Jasper township. To Hiram H. and Kesiah E. (Smith) Fawcett have been born four children, namely: Lydia Luetta, wife of Oliver M. Spahr, of New Jasper township, of whom a biographical sketch is presented elsewhere in this volume; Carrie Emily, wife of James Jones, of Beavercreek township; Hiram Fredwin, who married Mary Spahr of this township and is now operating the home place as well as a place of his own adjoining, making his home on the latter place, and Grace Elizabeth, wife of Arthur M. Peterson, of Cedarville township.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918