My Genealogy Hound

HENRY TILLMAN, retired farmer; P. O. Greenville; one of the old settlers of Darke Co.; born in Preble Co., Ohio, Jan. 20, 1818; he was a son of John Tillman, Sr., who was born in Virginia April 17, 1780, and when 10 years of age removed to Tennessee, and came to the Territory of Ohio about the year 1800, two years previous to its admission into the Union as a State; he was married in Tennessee to Nancy Harlers; she was also a native of Virginia, born Sept. 10. 1790; they were the parents of seventeen children, of whom thirteen lived to grow up; Mr. Tillman died in Preble Co., Feb. 24, 1850; his wife died Sept. 1, 1863. The subject of this memoir was raised to farming in Preble Co. until 22 years of age, when, in 1840, he came to Darke Co. and located in Van Buren Township, upon 160 acres of timber land which had been entered by his father; and upon this place he resided until 1871, a period of thirty years, during which time he cleared upward of 500 acres, and brought the same from a howling wilderness to a good state of improvement, and in 1862 he was in possession of 1,000 acres of land; he has since disposed of a part of the same, and now has about 600 acres divided into improved farms. Mr. Tillman has been one of the hard-working and industrious men of Darke Co., and by his energy, industry and correct business habits, has placed himself among the large land holders of this county; in 1872, he purchased his present residence in Greenville, with 15 acres of land within the corporation of Greenville, upon which he then located, and where he has since lived, retired from active labor, having his farm rented. June 16, 1840, he was married to Rachel Townsend; she was born April 3, 1820, and died March 18, 1848; two children are now living by this union Noah H. and Lydia. His marriage with Martha Thorn was celebrated Aug. 12, 1849; she was born in Indiana in 1824, and with her parents came to Darke Co. in 1831; she was a daughter of Thomas A. Thorn, one of the early pioneers of Darke Co.; he died in this county in 1852; they have three children by this union, viz.: Belle, now Mrs. Henry Hetzler; John A., farming in Brown Township; and Susie, now Mrs. Cliff Boyde. Mr. T. has taken a deep interest in the cause of religion, having been a member of the Christian Church for a period of thirty years; his wife and four of the children also belong to the church.