James Frederick Hartsook
The late James Frederick Hartsook, a veteran of the Civil War and a farmer of Caesarscreek township, who died at his home in the vicinity of Eleazar church in that township on November 12, 1912, was a native son of Greene county and had resided here all his life. He was born on a farm three miles east of Xenia on February 31, 1831, son of Elijah B. and Elizabeth (Stidley) Hartsook, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Virginia, who came to this county in pioneer days and became early settlers in Caesarscreek township. Elijah B. Hartsook was the first of the name to settle in Greene county. In 1834, some years after coming here, he bought an unimproved tract of land, the place on which the widow of his son. James F. Hartsook, now lives, in Caesarscreek township, and there establisiied his home, the fam.ily living in the open and cooking their meals by the side of a fallen tree while the first log cabin was being erected on the place. The tract eventually was cleared and in due time came to be profitably cultivated. Elijah B. Hartsook for many years served as justice of the peace in and for his home township. He and his wife were Methodists and not long after settling in Caesarscreek township he gave a plot of ground for a church site and buving ground and led in the work of erecting Eleazar church, most of the lumber that entered into the erection of the first church edifice there being contributed by him. He took an active part in church work and all the rest of his life took care of the church building, acting as custodian and care-taker free of charge. He was reared a Democrat, but later became a Whig and upon the organization of the Republican party became affiliated with the new party. He and his wife were the parents of seven children. Washington Harrison, Frances, James F., Jackson, Elizabeth and Catherine, three of the boys going to southern Wisconsin and there establishing their homes. James F. remained on the home place, which he later bought.
James F. Hartsook grew up on the pioneer farm on which he was born and received his schooling in the neighborhood schools. He enlisted his services in behalf of the Union and went to the front as a member of Company D, One Hundred and Tenth Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, with which command he served for two years and ten months, during that period participating in a number of the important battles and engagements of the war, including those of Winchester, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Hartsook returned to the farm and after his marriage in the spring of 1868 established his home there and continued to reside there the rest of his life, his death occurring in the fall of 1912. Mr. Hartsook had joined the Eleazar Methodist Protestant church in 1865 and ever afterward took an earnest interest in the affairs of the same, for more than forty years acting as care-taker of the church building, a labor of love which his father before him also had rendered for years. He was a Republican, and served at one time and another as an office holder in his home township.
On May 28, 1868, James F. Hartsook was united in marriage to Mary J. Hale, who was born at Bellbrook, this county, daughter of Silas and Miriam (Opdyke) Hale, the former of whom was born in that same vicinity on August 26, 1803, son of John and Sarah (Bowen) Hale, who had moved up here from Kentucky in 1802, the Hales thus being one of the very oldest families in Greene county, all of which, together with a comprehensive history of the Hale family in this county, is set out in a biographical sketch relating to Mrs. Hartsook's brother, Silas O. Hale. To James F. and Mary J. (Hale) Hartsook were born five sons, namely: Luther, who continues to make his home on the old home place, managing the farm for his mother, and who married Lavina Peterson and has two children, Vera Leona and Frederick Christopher; Allen S., who died at the age of seven months; Harper K., a farmer in Caesarscreek township, who married Cora Jessup and has one child, a daughter, Wanda; Silas, who died in youth, and Harry, who is engaged in the telephone business in the West.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918