My Genealogy Hound

JACOB O. SCHELL, biographical historian, Greenville, is a son of Joshua Schell, and a grandson of Jacob and Elizabeth (Caylor) Schell; he was born in Pennsylvania Oct. 14, 1779; and she, Dec. 19, 1784; they were the parents of twelve children; six died in infancy, and six grew to maturity; these were Elizabeth, born March 27, 1807; George, March 15, 1809; Joshua, July 29, 1811; Sophia, Jan. 2, 1815; Nancy, July 30, 1819; and Jacob, Jan. 19,1827. They left Pennsylvania Oct. 14, 1830, and came to Ohio in a one-horse wagon, this was so crowded with their household goods that there was room for but one passenger; the mother and the youngest son occupied, by turns, the vacant space in the wagon; Jacob was not 4 years old, yet he walked a good portion of the way, and no doubt made a grotesque appearance, in his red linsey dress and cap of rabbit skins. Elizabeth was married to Joseph Fourman and came to this State at the same time in a wagon of their own; they traveled from twelve to twenty-two miles per day; in twenty-eight days they reached Montgomery County and stopped for a few days with Jacob Ryder near Liberty, and then went six miles below Hamilton to John Redsecker, who furnished them with an old log house to live in. When they landed, their stock consisted of the one-horse load of household goods, horse and wagon, and some less than $1 in money. They bought some 30 acres of timber land, and the next fall built a house and settled on their new home. It was mainly by the energy and economy of the two oldest boys that they were enabled to pay for this and improve it; George stayed at home till 25 years of age, and Joshua till 23 years old; they and their father were carpenters, and worked for 75 cents a day. In 1850, they sold their little home for $1,500, and afterward bought 92 acres in Clay Township, Montgomery Co., near West Baltimore; here he died Aug. 4, 1861. His widow then went to live with her son Joshua (who since the fall of 1851 had lived in Darke Co.), where she died Aug. 31, 1868. In 1839, Jan. 10, Joshua Schell was united in marriage with Mary White, born in Pennsylvania, Feb. 29, 1820; she is a daughter of Jacob White, who died a few years ago in Indiana, at the advanced age of 93 years. Joshua and Mary Schell were the parents of ten children— Amanda, born in Butler Co., Ohio, Aug. 30, 1839; Ann Elizabeth, Aug. 5, 1841; Mary F., Aug. 5, 1844; Sophy, Sept. 2, 1846; Jacob O., Sept 25, 1849; Adin H., born in Darke Co., Ohio, March 22, 1852; Nancy E., July 15, 1854; Joseph W., Sept. 24, 1856; Aurelia C, Nov. 28, 1860, and Milo M., Feb. 18, 1863. Five of these are married and have had in all nineteen children, of which seventeen are living. The subject of this sketch was brought up on the farm, and received a good common-school education; in the fall of 1869, he commenced teaching, and continued to teach in the winter season for several years, and attended school during the summer, or worked at the carpenter’s trade. On the 17th of June, 1875, just 100 years after the battle of Bunker Hill, he completed the English normal course at the Ohio Central Normal School at Worthington. On the 19th of June of the same year, he married Elizabeth R. Mundhenk, a daughter of Philip Mundhenk, whose biography appears in this volume; she was born Feb. 16, 1853; for several years she also was engaged in teaching. In the fall of 1875, they moved to Gettysburg, Darke Co., Ohio, and taught the schools of that place; the following year, they moved to Arcanum and remained three years; here their daughter, Judith Opal, was born Aug. 9, 1877. They are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in which he was brought up. On Oct. 22, 1879, they moved to Greenville, and he is now one of the solicitors for this work.