My Genealogy Hound

Below is a family biography included in Portrait and Biographical Album of Greene and Clark Counties, Ohio published by Chapman Bros., in 1890.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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CYRUS ALBIN, a native of Clark County, born here in pioneer times, the son of an early pioneer family of this region, is closely identified with the industrial interests of Springfield, where he established himself in business as a contracting painter more than forty years ago. Twice he has laid aside his vocation at the call of a higher duty. At one time during the late war he served his country as a soldier, and he abandoned military life only to accept a civic position, filling the important office of Sheriff of Clark County with signal ability for two terms.

August 2, 1825 our subject was born in Mad River Township in a log cabin which his father had built in the primeval forests on the homestead that he had bought from the government a few years previously. His grandfather, John Albin, and his father, George Albin, who was a native of Winchester, Va., removed from the Old Dominion to this state in 1810, the removal being made with teams. Ohio was at that time very sparsely populated, the rich soil was covered with forests of primeval growth, or open woodlands, prairies and meadows, and in all the land, where the Indian still lingered, and deer, bears and other kinds of wild game were very plentiful, there was but little sign of the approaching civilization that was to make this one of the proudest commonwealths of this great country. The grandfather of our subject settled in the Southwestern part of Mad River Township, where he made his home till death closed his life at a ripe old age.

George Albin, the father of our subject selected a tract of heavily timbered government land in Mad River Township, and at once built a log cabin on the place to shelter the family. His wife had no stove and used to cook over the fire in the rude fireplace that served to heat the humble abode, and as an adept in all the housewifely arts of the day she used to spin and weave all the cloth used in the family. Mr. Albin cleared quite a tract of land there, and resided on it some years, and then bought a farm four miles west of this city, and in the home that he established there his life was terminated at the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was a man of excellent character and firm principle, was greatly respected by his neighbors and other friends, and was a help in developing the agricultural interests of Clark County, occupying a worthy place among its pioneers. He had not been in Ohio long when the War of 1812 broke out and he volunteered in the defense of his country, doing good service in the army. The maiden name of the mother of our subject was Elizabeth West. She died on the home farm many years ago.

Cyrus Albin passed his early life on the old homestead where he was bred to the life of a farmer. He wished to gain an education and took every opportunity offered to attend winter school. At the age of eighteen he came to Springfield to learn the trade of a painter, and served two and one half years for that purpose. After that he worked under instruction in Cincinnati, remaining there a few months and then returned to Springfield and did “jour” work a short time. His next move was to establish himself as a contractor in the line of his trade, and he continued to carry on that business very profitably till May, 1864. In that month he laid aside his work to go into service to aid in suppressing the rebellion, enlisting in the Fifty-second Regiment, Capt. Bushnell’s company, for one hundred days and went at once to the front in West Virginia, and was with his regiment in much hard service till the expiration of the term of enlistment when he was honorably discharged, having done his duty faithfully at all times whether in camp, or on the march or on the battlefield, and showing excellent qualities for a soldier. While he was thus honorably engaged he was not forgotten at home by his fellow-citizens, who placed his name on the Republican ticket for Sheriff of the county, to which responsible office he was elected in the same fall. By the zeal and sound judgement and wise discretion that he displayed in the discharge of the numerous duties devolving upon him while holding that position he showed himself to be the right man in the right place, and in the fall of 1866 he was re-elected, and served two full terms with distinction. After his retirement from public life Mr. Albin engaged as traveling salesman for the Champion Reaper Company, was with them three years, and at the expiration of that time resumed his old business as a contracting painter, which he has continued to the present time, and has thereby accumulated a comfortable competence.

Mr. Albin’s success in life is due in part to the fact that he has a good wife, to whom he was united in marriage in 1850. Her maiden name was Charlotte Wilkes, and she is, like himself, a native of this county, and is a daughter of pioneer parents, Charles and Delitha Wilkes, natives, respectively, of Massachusetts and North Carolina. Mr. and Mrs. Albin have four children — Belle, Bruce, Rodney and Elmer.

Mr. Albin was a well-known figure on our streets, and his whole course throughout a blameless life that has passed its sixty-fifth milestone has been such as to entitle him to the cordial respect and esteem accorded to him on all hands. It has been his privilege to witness the wonderful growth of this county and of the whole State since his birth, that has transformed the ancient wilderness into a populous and wealthy community, with thriving cities, towns, and villages, and fruitful farms where once stood primeval forests in all their glory, interspersed with open woodlands and beautiful prairies and meadows that were as nature made them when his parents first took up their abode here. Mr. Albin is a popular member of Clark Lodge, No. 101, A. F. & A. M., Springfield Council No. 17, and of Springfield Chapter No. 48; he is also connected with the G. A. R. as a member of Mitchell Post, No. 45.

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This family biography is one of the many biographies included in Portrait and Biographical Album of Greene and Clark Counties, Ohio published by Chapman Bros., in 1890. 

View additional Greene County, Ohio family biographies here: Greene County, Ohio Biographies

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