Elam L. Truman
Elam L. Truman, proprietor of "Fair View Heights" at Spring Valley, where he is now living practically retired, is a native son of Greene county and is quite content to spend the rest of his days here, though his activities have taken him away from the county much of the time. He was .born on a farm in Spring Valley township on December 19, 1849, son of Jeffrey and Jane (Elam) Truman, the latter of whom also was born in this county, daughter of Capt. Josiah and Jane (Porter) Elam, the latter of whom was born in Kentucky.
Capt. Josiah Elam was a soldier of the American Revolution and was afterward attached to the expedition of "Mad Anthony" Wayne into the Northwest Territory, culminating in the victory over the Indians on the Maumee and the treaty of Greenville in 1795. While on this trip to Ohio in 1798 Captain Elam came over into this section and located a claim to a full section of land on the west hank of Caesars creek in what afterward came to be organized as Spring Valley township, Greene county, six miles south of where the county seat, Xenia, later came to be located. He employed men to clear a patch of this land and erect a cabin in the clearing and in 1802 he returned here with his family and established his home. His wife died on that place and he went down into Clinton county on business and died there in 1821. Captain Elam was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, in 1753, and was thus in the sixty-ninth year of his age at the time of his death. He and his wife were the parents of ten children, of whom eight grew to maturity, namely: John, who served as a soldier of the War of 1812 and afterward went over into Indiana to build mills; Isaac, who established his home in Greene county; James, who died in Missouri: Joel, who went to Cass county, Indiana, and there spent his last days; Ambrose, who remained on the home farm in Spring Valley township; Mrs. Emaline Cole, who also remained in Spring Valley township; Mrs. Cynthia Roberts, whose last days were spent in Logan county, this state, and Jane, who married Jeffrey Truman and became the mother of the subject of this sketch.
Jeffrey Truman was born in the city of Philadelphia in 1793, a son of Joseph Truman anrl wife, the latter of whom was a Llewellyn, both of Welsh stock and Quakers. Joseph Truman was a coppersmith and his son Jeffrey was early trained in the same art and in that of silversmith and also was given a mercantile training. In 1819 Jeffrey Truman came to this part of Ohio and located at Waynesville, where he became engaged in the mercantile business and also for a time taught school, also serving as the village doctor and dentist. He presently came up into Greene county and opened a store at Bellbrook, where he remained until 1827, when he laid out the townsite of Transvlvania, a long since vanished hamlet, across the river from Spring Valley, and erected the first house there, this house serving as a store, tavern and postoffice. Some time later he returned to Warren county and for four years was engaged as a silversmith at Franklin, but then returned to Transylvania and resumed his business there, conducting his tavern, working as a silversmith and teaching school. During the progress of the Mexican War Jeffrey Truman, who was then operating a store at Bellbrook, enlisted, leaving his store in charge of Jeremiah Gest, and was sent to Mexico as bookkeeper for the army paymaster, rising to the position of assistant paymaster before the war was ended. In the fall of 1850 he left Transylvania and returned to Waynesville with the expectation of opening a store there, but death interfered with his plans, his death occuring there on New-year's Day, 1851.
Jeffrey Truman was thrice married. By his first wife, who was a Lake, he had one son, Thomas H.. who went to Indiana and whose last days were spent at Covington, that state. By his second wife, Dorothy Ann Isham, he also had one son, Joseph M., who went to California, where his last days were spent. Jeffrey Truman then married Jane Elam, who is mentioned above, and to that union were born twelve children, four of whom died in infancy and of whom but two are now living, the subject of this sketch and his brother Arthur, the others having been Angeline, who married Job Lashley, of Warren county; George, a soldier of the Union during the Civil War, for years one of the best-known business men of Spring Valley, who served for some time as mayor of that village and who was twice married, his first wife having been Charlotte Simison and his second, Elvira Fisk; Elvira, who married and moved to Montana; Gorilla, who was the wife of Milton Scarff, of Spring Valley township; Arthur, who moved to Montana, where he engaged in farming and who is now living retired at Bozeman, that state; Jane, who died at the age of sixteen years, and Henrietta, who married William Adams, of Spring Valley township. The mother of these children lived to the age of eighty-four. She was a Baptist.
Elam L. Truman was reared in this county, receiving his schooling in the local schools, and remained at home until his marriage in 1875, he then being twenty-five years of age, after which he made his home at Bellbrook. where for four years he was engaged in the work of making carriages, to which trade he had been early trained. He then moved to Logansport, Indiana, where he became engaged working at his trade and where he remained for seven years, at the end of which time he returned to Spring Valley and there engaged with his brother George in the hardware business. Several years later he sold his interest in the store and moved to Waynesville, opening a hardware store there, but a year later sold that store and returned to Spring Vallev, where he resumed his mercantile vocation. Three years later he became engaged as a traveling salesman for the firm of Beyer & McMaster at Dayton and moved to that city, traveling out of there, his territory covering the states of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Not satisfied with the life of a traveler, Mr. Truman gave up that position and engaged in the carriage and garage business at Dayton, from which place, in 1908, he went to Limestone county, Alabama, and there bought a tract of land. Six years later he disposed of that tract to advantage and returned to Spring Valley, and located at "Fair View Heights," and has since lived there. Mrs. Truman also owns a farm at Roxanna. Mr. Truman also bought the A. J. Craig farm two miles east of Spring Valley. Mr. and Mrs. Truman are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Truman is a member of the local lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was made an Odd Fellow at Lexington, Kentucky in 1871.
Mr. Truman has been twice married. In September, 1875, he was united in marriage to Clara M. Warren, of Bellbrook, daughter of John and Cynthia Warren, and to that union four children were born, namely: John, deceased; Willard, deceased; Lyman W., who is now living at Athens, Alabama, where he is connected with the Watkins Remedy Company, and who married Leila Zaner and has two children, Leon and Clara; and Springer W., who is now living at Detroit, Michigan, where he is in the barber business. The mother of these children died in February, 1910, and Mr. Truman later married Mrs. Martha H. Talbert, widow of George B. Talbert, of Bellbrook, landowner and lumberman, who liad died on August 16, 1908. Mrs. Truman was born in this county, daughter of Jonas and Prudence (Smalley) Stump, both of whom spent their last days in this county, the latter living to the great age of ninety-two years, her death occurring in January, 1902. She was born in Warren county, a daughter of William Smalley, a Warren county pioneer, an old Indian fighter and one of the first settlers of Clinton county, Ohio, an interesting story of whose adventures with the Indians is set out at considerable length in this volume. Jonas Stump was born in Winchester, Virginia, and was ten years of age when his parents, Daniel and Mary Stump, came to Ohio with their family in 1817 and settled at Harveysburg, in Warren county. Daniel Stump secured two hundred acres of land in the Harveysburg neighborhood and that farm is still held in the family, now owned by J. F. Stump. Daniel Stump and his wife were the parents of ten children, of whom Jonas was the ninth in order of birth, the others having been Sarah, who married John Oglesbee; Hannah, who married Jessie Romine; Henrietta, who married Jonathan Clark; Matilda, who married Isaac Stump; Lydia, who died unmarried; Mary, who married Elias Oglesbee; Daniel, who remained on the home place, and William, who married a Hiatt.
Jonas Stump lived on a farm near New Burlington, Ohio, and at his brother Daniel's death was willed the old home place near Harveysburg. He moved there and owned the place until he died. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, of whom Mrs. Truman was the sixth in order of birth, the others being the following: Mary M., who died on January 15, 1917, widow of Allen H. Miars, a memorial sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; Catherine, also deceased, who was the wife of Isaac Evans, of Xenia, a biographical sketch of whom also is presented in this volume; Rachel, who died in infancy; Daniel S., a retired farmer, who is now making his home with Mr. and Mrs. Truman; William J., deceased, who married Ellen McWhorton, and Fremont J., who is living on the place that was settler by his grandfather, Daniel Stump, more than one hundred years ago.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918