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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CHARLES LEDBETTER was born two miles southwest of Xenia, on the Columbus and Cincinnati Pike, November 2, 1844. Although only a boy when the Civil War broke out he was fired with the spirit of patriotism which swept broadcast over the North, and as soon as it was possible to do so, joined the Union forces, being a member of Company D, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Ohio Infantry in the one hundred days’ service. The most important engagement in which he took part, was at New Creek, W. Va., the one hundred day men being mostly given the duty of guarding stores, roads, and a similar needful service, thus relieving the older soldiers, and enabling them to devote their time to more aggressive warfare. Our subject had received a common-school education, which in this State, and in the latter half of the nineteenth century, is sufficient foundation for a useful and honorable career. He has always lived with his parents, and now works the homestead, which comprises one hundred and fifty-five acres in Xenia Township.

The father of our subject was John H. Ledbetter, who was born in Virginia, and went with his parents to Kentucky, thence coming to Greene County many years ago. After the war he located on sixty-three acres of the land now owned and occupied by our subject, increasing his possessions until they reached the acreage before noted. His death occurred in December, 1887, when he was seventy-one years old. He was the father of six children: Joseph, the first-born, belonged to the Seventeenth Ohio Battery, and served in his countrys cause until April 9, 1863, when he was sent home from Vicksburg, and died five days after reaching the parental roof. The other members of the family circle are Charles, Addison, Newton, Laura, and Dicey Ann, who died when two months old.

The wife of John H. Ledbetter, and the mother of our subject, was in her girlhood Miss Jane Richardson; she was born near Brookville, Ind., April 5, 1820. Her parents William and Ann (Boone) Richardson, lived for some time in Virginia, thence removing to Lebanon, Ohio, and from there to Indiana, where both died. The father was a tanner, distiller, and miller. He was a son of Edmund Richardson, of Maryland, and his wife was a daughter of Valentine Boone, an early settler in Caesar’s Creek Township, and of German origin. The parents of Mrs. Ledbetter had twelve children — Andrew, Samuel, Elizabeth, Mary, Edmund, Lycons, Margaret, Rebecca, Henry, Jackson, Jane, and Ann. After the death of the mother, their father married Jane Collis, by whom he reared two children, John and Sallie. Both the parents of our subject believed in the tenets of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which they became identified many years ago.

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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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