Edward O. Gerlaugh
The late Edward O. Gerlaugh, who for years was looked upon as one of the leading agriculturists of Beavercreek township and whose widow is still living on the home farm in that township, the operations of the same being carried on by her youngest son, Earl C. Gerlaugh, was a native "Buckeye," born on a farm in the neighboring county of Montgomery on February 27. 1846, a son of Jacob arid Anna (Miller) Gerlaugh, the latter of whom was born in Virginia, but who had come to Ohio in the days of her girlhood and was making her home with an uncle in Montgomery county at the time of her marriage.
Jacob Gerlaugh was born on a pioneer farm in Beavercreek township, this county, in 1810, a son of Adam and Catherine (Haines) Gerlaugh, both of whom were born in Washington county, Maryland, in the year 1786, there having been but a few days difference in their birthdays. Adam Gerlaugh was a son of Adam Gerlaugh and was twenty-one years of age when he came with his parents and the other members of the family to Ohio in 1807, the family settling in Beavercreek township, this county, as is set out elsewhere in this volume in a further reference to this pioneer family. In the winter following his arrival here the younger Adam Gerlaugh married Catherine Haines, who had been his sweetheart back in Maryland and who had come to this county with her brother, coming through on horseback, about the time the Gerlaughs had come. After their marriage Adam Gerlaugh and his wife located on a tract of land that had been purchased by the latter's father during a trip he some time previously had made to this county, and there in Beavercreek township they established their home and proceeded to develop a property that is held in the Gerlaugh name to this day. Adam Gerlaugh was affiliated with the Beaver Reformed church and his wife held to the Lutheran connection. She died on April 19, 1852, and several years later Adam Gerlaugh went to Wisconsin on a visit to one of his sons and on his return stopped in Warren county, Illinois, to visit another son and there was taken ill and died. That was in 1856, he then being seventy years of age. Adam Gerlaugh and his wife were the parents of ten children, eight sons and two daughters, those besides Jacob having been David, Otho. Adam, Robert, Arthur, Jonathan, Henry, Frances, who married Benjamin Clark, and Mary Jane, who married Manuel Hawker.
Reared amid pioneer conditions on the farm on which he was born, Jacob Gerlaugh remained there until his marriage in 1840 to Anna Miller, after which he made his home in Montgomery county until about 1852, when he returned to Greene county and established his home on the farm in Beavercreek township on which the widow of his son Edward is now living. There he and his wife spent the rest of their lives, the latter dying in 1893 and the former, in February, 1897. They were tlie parents of thirteen children, those besides the subject of this memorial sketch, the fourth in order of birth, having been William, Oliver, Lydia Ann, Taylor, Mary Jane and Martha Ellen (twins), Haines, Harriet, Alice, Jacob, Henry and Sarah Belle. The eldest son, William Gerlaugh, went to the front as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, a member of Company E, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, was taken prisoner by the Rebels at Moorfield, West Virginia, and was starved to death in the Confederate prison hole at Salisbury, North Carolina, his death occurrmg there on February 15. 1865.
Edward O. Gerlaugh was reared on the home farm and received his schooling in the neighborhood district school. He was still in his teens when his brother William went away to war and the second son. Oliver, having died in childhood, he was thus left as his father's mainstay on the farm, the general management of which he assumed in due time and the ownership of which he later acquired, owning there two hundred and eighteen acres. The old farm house was destroyed by fire in 1887 and Mr. Gerlaugh then erected a new residence, where his widow still resides. In addition to his general farming Mr. Gerlaugh had long given particular attention to the raising of pure-bred Hereford cattle, was one of the first to introduce this strain in Greene county, did much to help the development of the live-stock industry hereabout and was for years an active member of the Hereford Breeders Association. Mr. Gerlaugh died on February 5, 1916, and since then the operations of the farm have been carried on by his youngest son. Earl C. Gerlaugh, who is making a specialty of the raising of Guernsey cattle for dairy purposes.
On January 11, 1870, Edward O. Gerlaugh was united in marriage to Martha Ellen Harshman, who was born in Beavercreek township, this county, a daughter of John C. and Anna M. (Miller) Harshman, the latter of whom was a daughter of Samuel Miller. John C. Harshman was born on a pioneer farm in Beavercreek township in 1807, a son of Philip and Frances Harshman, who had come over here from Maryland and had established their home in Beavercreek among the early settlers of that part of the county, spending there the remainder of their lives. Philip Harshman and his wife were the parents of six children. John C. Harshman grew up on that pioneer farm and in 1841 married Anna M. Miller, establishing his home in a log cabin on a tract of two hundred acres of woodland which he had bought in the neighborhood of his home, and there he continued engaged in farming the rest of his life, gradually adding to his possessions until he became the owner of four hundred acres. He died on June 27, 1880, and his widow survived him for twelve years, her death occurring in 1892. She also was born in Beavercreek township, in 1819, her parents, Samuel Miller and wife, having settled there upon coming to this county from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, about two years previous to that date. Samue! Miller died at the age of sixty-three years and his widow lived to be eighty-four years of age. They were the parents of eight children, those besides Mrs. Harshman having been Samuel, Martha, Alosa, John, Daniel, Reuben and Eliza. To John C. Harshman and wife were born nine children, those besides Mrs. Gerlaugh being Sarah E., Ephraim F., Anna M., Reuben M., Freeman, Lincoln, Samuel H. and Mary C. Of these sons, Samuel H. Harshman went to the front as a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, a member of Company C. Seventy-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, participated in some important battles of the war and was so broken in health by the stress of his army service that he died at the age of twenty-three years.
To Edward O. and Martha Ellen (Harshman) Gerlaugh were born seven children, two of whom, William and Anna, died in childhood, the others being the following: Edward, who became a resident of Dayton and died on November 26, 1905; Oscar, who formerly was a member of the Ohio National Guard, with which he rendered service on the Mexican border in 1916, and who now (1918) is attached to the National Army, a member of Company G, One Hundred and Forty-eighth Regiment, United States Infantry, for service in the war against Germany; Luella, who with her younger brother remains at home with her mother; Jacob, who married Elizabeth Herring, daughter of E. E. Herring, and is now living at Alpha, and Earl C, born on May 17, 1886. who. as noted above, is now operating the home farm on rural mail route No. 10 out of Xenia.
From History of Greene County, Ohio, by George F. Robinson (S. J. Clarke Publishing Co, 1902)