My Genealogy Hound

JOSEPH W. HEBBLE, Secretary of the People’s Building & Loan Association, became a resident of Xenia in 1883, and is identified with its business interests. He is a native of this county, and was born in Fairfield December 5, 1843. His father, Henry E. Hebble, a native of Lancaster County, Pa., was born March 12, 1808. He there grew to man’s estate, and was married to Miss Kramer. He had learned the carpenter’s trade, and he also ran as an engineer on one of the first locomotives in Southern Pennsylvania, when the railroad was owned by the State, who employed engines and cars which were the property of a company. Engines then were built without cabs.

Mr. Hebble the father of our subject, was on the railroad three years, and later turned his attention to building both houses and bridges, and superintended the construction of the solid bridge across the Susquehanna at Columbia, Lancaster County, Pa. The exposure to which he was subjected on the railroad, being thus without shelter, undermined his health, from the effects of which he suffered nearly all his life. He came to this county in 1841, and occupied himself as a bridge builder and contractor until his death, in March, 1884. The mother is still living and makes her home in Dayton; she is now quite aged, having been born in November, 1810, and she is, as was her husband, a native of Lancaster County, Pa. They reared a family of ten children, all of whom are living and residents of Greene and Montgomery Counties. The youngest is thirty-seven years old.

The brothers and sisters of our subject are located as follows: Benjamin F. is a resident of Greene County; Mary A., Mrs. Casady, lives in Xenia; Amanda makes her home in Dayton; William H. lives in Osborn, Greene County; Louise, also a resident of Dayton; Joseph W. was the sixth child; Zebulon T. resides in Fairfield; Isaiah, G. L. and Charles L. make their home in the city of Dayton. The parents were members in good standing of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the father of our subject during his later years was a strong Republican.

Mr. Hebble spent his early years on a farm, remaining a resident of his native township until 1880. He learned carpentering and bridge-building of his father, and later officiated as a teacher, becoming Principal of the Fairfield School, which position he held three years. He was similarly occupied in Bellbrook two years, and thence removed to Yellow Springs, where he sojourned a year and a half. For five years he was Deputy Clerk of the Common Pleas Court from 1883 to 1888, and was one of the early members of the Building & Loan Association. In 1888 he was elected Secretary, and re-elected the two years following. The Association under his management has been placed upon a sound footing financially, and its business has been quadrupled, it having now about four hundred depositors, the deposits averaging $800 per week. This Association is of great assistance and encouragement to the working people.

The subject of this notice was married January 16, 1873, to Miss Fanny Hamma, of Yellow Springs. Mrs. Hebble was born January 17, 1845, and is the daughter of Adam Hamma, who has been a resident of this county for over fifty years. Her mother bore the maiden name of Katie Barton, and was also the offspring of a pioneer family of this county. Mr. and Mrs. Hamma are now living near Yellow Springs. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Hebble, one of whom, a daughter, Kittie, died February 27, 1889, at the age of ten years. The survivors are Roy and Mary Ada. The family residence is pleasantly located, and is the frequent resort of the cultured people of the city, among whom Mr. and Mrs. Hebble have found many friends.

After the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Hebble, when twenty years old, enlisted as a Union soldier in Company K, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Infantry, which was assigned to the Army of the Potomac. They went to Virginia, traversed the Potomac and Cumberland Valleys, and Mr. Hebble endured the hardships of army life until the close of the war. Two of his brothers also served in the Union ranks — Z. T., in the Tenth Ohio Battery, and W. II., in the One Hundred and Forty-sixth Infantry.