My Genealogy Hound

DAVID B. HUSTON. This gentleman is a representative of one of the oldest and most prominent families of Greene County and is himself one of the most public-spirited and enterprising of men. He is also one of the most good natured individuals to be met with in this section of country, and one whose energy has not prevented his enjoying life and its reasonable pleasures. He is now retired from agricultural pursuits which he followed for years, and is occupying a beautiful home in Osborn.

Before outlining the life history of our subject it will not be amiss to devote a brief space to the family of which he is so worthy a representative. His grandfather, Judge David Huston, was born in Pennsylvania. At the beginning of the nineteenth century he settled in Beaver Creek Township, this county, as one of the very first pioneers, entering land which he cleared and made into a nicely improved farm. His large estate was eight miles from Xenia. In addition to his agricultural labors he practiced law to some extent, and having become Probate Judge of the county occupied that position for twenty-seven years. He was one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Greene County. In politics he was a strong Whig.

To Judge David Huston and his wife, at their home in this county, in 1805, a son was born who was called Israel and who at a suitable age became a farmer. When twenty-one years old he located in Mad River Township, Montgomery County, buying one hundred and fifty acres of land upon which he made his home. He finally bought a mill on Holtz Creek, which he operated five years before his death, which occurred in 1846. He was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He married Miss Elizabeth Harshmann, who was born in Mad River Township, Montgomery County, was educated at Dayton, and died on the old homestead in 1884. She also belonged to the Presbyterian Church; she was the mother of seven children, the subject of this sketch being the third born; Susan, the eldest child, now lives in Dayton and is the wife of W. R. S. Ayers; Mary, Mrs. Harris, died in Mad River Township; Jane, Mrs. Moore, lives in Brooklyn, N. Y.; Harriet, Mrs. Harbine, lives in Dayton; Emily, Mrs. Huffman, died in that city; Joseph resides in Mad River. The latter spent three years during the Civil War as a member of an Ohio regiment.

The maternal grandfather of our subject was the Hon. Jonathan Harshmann, a native of Maryland, and a distiller by occupation. About the year 1800 he located in Mad River Township, Montgomery County, Ohio, entering forty acres of land and engaged in hand distilling. Soon afterward he sold and located where the town of Harshmannville now stands, the place having been named for him. He built a grist, saw and oil mill on the Mad River and ran them in connection with the distillery and also carried on a store there. He was one of the most successful men of the county and became the owner of about one thousand acres of improved land which he rented. He also carried on a dry-goods store in Dayton. His title was derived from his service in the State Legislature. He was an active member of the Reformed Church. In 1853 he breathed his last.

The gentleman with whose name we introduce this sketch was born in Mad River Township, Montgomery County, April 15, 1830. He was reared on the farm and had the advantage of attendance at good common schools until eighteen years old when he entered the Dayton High School, continuing his studies there for a year. He had carried on the farm after his father’s death, and when twenty-one years old took charge of the estate on shares, continuing to follow an agricultural life on the home place until 1870. He then crossed the line into Greene County and bought fifty-six acres of land adjoining Fairfield, to which he subsequently added a thirty-four acre tract adjoining. On this farm of ninety acres of improved land he carried on farming and stock-raising, being very successful in both grain and stock. He finally rented his farm but continued to reside upon it until the spring of 1889, when he bought a house in Osborn and became a dweller in the town. He has remodeled the residence which he purchased and has made of it a convenient and attractive place of abode.

The marriage of Mr. Huston and Miss Elizabeth S. Hagenbuch was celebrated in Bath Township May 30, 1854. The bride was born in Lehigh County, Pa., and is a daughter of Stephen Hagenbuch, who came to this county about 1835, engaging in hotel-keeping at Fairfield. Later he became a farmer here and finally removed to Dayton, where he resided until his death. Mrs. Huston is the mother of two children, in whose character and attainments she has taken a laudable pride. Ida M. still gladdens her parents’ hearts by her presence at home; Hattie attended Antioch College at Yellow Springs; she died at her home in Osborn in June, 1889, but a short time before she was to have been graduated.

Mr. Huston is an active member of the Reformed Church at Fairfield, and has ever been interested in movements which promise to benefit the community. He is a stanch Republican; he has served as a juryman on various occasions. He has been blessed with worldly prosperity and is able to surround himself and family with the comforts and many of the luxuries of life, to share in the good works of his fellow-men and take reasonable enjoyment in life.