My Genealogy Hound

JOHN N. STOCKSTILL, M. D. The fact that Dr. Stockstill has been a successful practitioner of New Carlisle, Clark County, for the long period of over forty-eight years, is sufficient indication of his standing among the people. He not only stands high in his profession, but also in church and social circles, and there are few old residents of the county to whom his face and form are not familiar. He was born in Bethel Township, Miami County, this State, three miles south of New Carlisle, October 16, 1815, and is thus a veteran of nearly seventy-five years. He comes of a good family, being the son of Thomas and Catherine (Hain) Stockstill, the former of whom was born about nine miles from Baltimore, Md.

When the father of our subject was about nine years old, his parents removed to North Carolina, and from there to Fayette County, Tenn., where they spent the remainder of their lives. It is a fact somewhat singular that although Thomas Stockstill was of Southern birth, ancestry and training, he, when having attained to years of thought and discretion, became bitterly opposed to slavery, and as early as 1802 left the scenes of his childhood and youth for a section of country untainted by the peculiar institution. Coming then to Miami County, this State, he located in what is now Bethel township, purchasing one hundred acres of land, at 13 per acre, whereon he settled and thereafter lived until called from earth, December 20, 1860, at the age of seventy-eight years, six months and eleven days. He was prospered financially, and at his death left one hundred and eighty acres of land with excellent improvements. During his younger days he served in the War of 1812. When but a boy he united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he was a Class-Leader for more than sixty-five years. In politics he was first a Whig, until the abandonment of the old party, and thereafter he was a stanch Republican.

The paternal grandfather of our subject was Zebediah Stockstill, a native of England, who emigrated to America during the Colonial days, and spent his last years in Tennessee. He died in 1832, leaving a large number of slaves and extensive land property. The next year his son Thomas journeyed to Tennessee on horseback to settle the estate. All the slaves that fell to him in the division of the negro property were set free, and in accordance with the law he was obliged to give security for their good behavior if left in the State, the majority, however, were sent to free States. Slaves were bringing a high price at that time, and Thomas Stockstill paid $1500 for young Dave, son of old Dave and Nell, who had raised a large family, and whose care in old age was made a condition for the purchase and setting free of young Dave by his new master, the parents likewise being liberated.

A second trip was made by the father of our subject to Tennessee, in 1835, when the final settlement of the affairs took place, and young John accompanied him to visit a host of relatives he had never seen. The father used often to say to his children that slavery would be the cause of the greatest war that a nation was ever scourged with and that he did not wish to live to see it. It seemed providential that his death took place in December, 1860, but three months before the beginning of the conflict that was to prove a fulfillment of his prophecy.

Mrs. Catherine (Main) Stockstill, the mother of our subject was born in North Carolina, and died in Miami County, Ohio, March 20, 1843. Her father, Leonard Hain, likewise a native of North Carolina, was one of the first settlers of Clark County, this State, coming hither in 1801, while it was still a territory. He took up land from the Government, and with his good wife suffered the hardships and privations of frontier life, but finally was rewarded in being able to build up a comfortable home where he first settled, and where he and his wife spent the closing years of their lives.

Eight children were born to the parents of our subject, all of whom lived to mature years, and five of whom survive. They were named respectively — Elias, Rachel, Sarah, Susan, John N., Stephen, Irwin and Catherine. John N., our subject, was the fifth in order of birth. He was reared on the farm in his native township, and received a good education, completing his studies in the High school at Springfield. Subsequently he taught school and read medicine for five years, and finally entered the Medical College of Ohio, at Cincinnati, from which he was graduated in 1842. He commenced the practice of his chosen profession in New Carlisle, and from that day his course has been steadily onward, and he has probably treated more cases than any other man within the county. His uniform success, good judgment, close attention to the duties of his profession and promptness in meeting the calls made upon him, soon placed him upon a solid footing both socially and financially. He is prominently connected with the Clark County Medical Society, and the Ohio State Medical Association. He has always been fond of agricultural pursuits, and during the early days wisely invested a portion of his capital in land, from which he built up a good farm, the operations of which he has always superintended, and which has been the source of a comfortable income.

During the first two years of Dr. Stockstill’s practice he devoted his leisure time to macerating the bones of an entire human skeleton, which he had dissected while in college. He then wired the bones together making an entire artificial skeleton, and securing in the process a fine review of osteology. The skeleton he thus made now hangs in a case in his office, probably being the only one put up in the State by a practitioner of medicine.

Dr. Stockstill cast his first Presidential vote for William Henry Harrison, being then a member of the old Whig party. Upon the organization of the Republican party he wheeled over into its ranks, and has since been one of its most ardent defenders. After having practiced medicine about fourteen years he was unanimously nominated to represent Clark County in the Ohio Legislature, and, while there was no doubt of his being elected, he declined to run for the office. He was next unanimously nominated to act as Treasurer of Clark County, but this he also declined to accept, and ever afterward he neither desired or would accept any office, although frequently solicited to do so. For years he has been a member of the Presbyterian Church, at New Carlisle, and is endeavoring to live a consistent life.

For more than forty-two years there has been steadily traveling by the side of our subject, a most worthy lady, who in her girlhood was Miss Juliet Hay, and to whom he was joined in wedlock February 25, 1847. Mrs. Stockstill was born in New Carlisle, September 12, 1825, and is a daughter of John and Mary (Smith) Hay, who were natives of Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Hay left the Blue Grass State at an early day, and were among the first settlers of New Carlisle. The father departed this life in 1845, and the mother in 1849. The parental household included seven children, six daughters and one son, four of whom are now living. The son, H. C. Hay, deceased, is kept in memory by the Grand Army Post at New Carlisle, which is named for him.

Four children came to bless the union of our subject and his estimable wife, the eldest of whom, a son William, and a very capable business man, is operating a planing-mill at New Carlisle; Clara is the wife of Giles T. Collins, a liveryman of Muncie, Ind.; Edgar and Harry are engaged in merchandising at New Carlisle.