My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH CROMWELL. It is universally conceded that Southern Ohio is settled up a by a class of people more than ordinarily intelligent and enterprising. This applies to Greene County especially, and likewise to Xenia Township. Among the leading men of the latter may be mentioned Joseph Cromwell, who has just passed his seventy-sixth birthday, and who has made for himself an admirable record as a man and a citizen. For nearly forty years he has been accompanied on his life journey by a most estimable lady who still remains the partner of his joys and and sorrows. Mrs. Cromwell shares with her husband the esteem and confidence of the people among whom they have spent so many years, and who have learned to value them for their sterling worth of character, their kindness as friends and neighbors and their hospitality to all who come within their door.

The subject of this notice was born in Washington County, Md., in March, 1814, and is the son of Richard Cromwell, who died there in the prime of life. The mother, Mrs. Susan (McLaughlin) Cromwell, likewise a native of Washington County, Md., came after the death of her husband to this county in the fall of 1832, accompanied by her family and settled on a tract of land in Xenia Township south of the present flourishing city. She reared her children and died at the residence of her son-in-law, James Hawkins, about 1872. To herself and husband there was born a family of eight children, of whom Joseph, our subject, was the fifth, and four of whom are living.

Mr. Cromwell lived with his mother in Xenia Township until approaching manhood and then went to Montgomery County and commenced learning the miller’s trade. Two years later he started for the West and for five years thereafter followed his trade in Alton, Ill. We next find him in Pekin, that State, where he sojourned about four years. He then went into Peoria County, where he operated a mill about one year. At the expiration of this time he returned to this county and has since followed his trade within its limits, doing business in Bellbrook and Oldtown and is at present part proprietor of the Oldtown Mills. He has been prospered, financially, and owns a fine residence northwest of the city limits of Xenia.

Mr. Cromwell was married, in Xenia Township, January 8, 1861, to Miss Bathsheba, daughter of John and Wilmoth (Foreman) Allen, who were natives, respectively, of Virginia and North Carolina. They came to this county during its pioneer days, where the father for a number of years followed farming and then retired from active labor and took up his residence in Xenia, where he and his estimable wife spent the remainder of their days. Their family consisted of seven children, of whom four are living.

Mrs. Cromwell was the third child of her parents and was born in Xenia Township, March 20, 1830. Her childhood and youth were spent in a comparatively uneventful manner during which period she learned all the arts of housewifery and acquired those habits of industry and economy which fully fitted her to be the partner of a good man’s home. She remained with her parents until her marriage, and of her union with our subject there have been born five children, viz: Oliver; John, who died when thirty-two years of age; Charles R., Harry and Emma B.

Mr. Cromwell cast his first Presidential vote for Van Buren, and since that time has affiliated with the Democratic party. His estimable wife is a member in good standing of the Methodist Church. They have a very pleasant and attractive home which is the frequent resort of the friends which they have gathered around them during their long residence in Xenia Township, and by whom they will be kindly remembered long after they have departed hence.