My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL M. OAKS, farmer; P. O. Pleasant Hill; he was born in Union, Montgomery Co., Ohio, in 1833, and is a son of Samuel Oaks, born in Pennsylvania in 1806; Samuel was a smith by trade, and when about 6 years old, came to Dayton, Ohio, with his parents, the place then consisting of only a few houses. He married Isabella Hamel, of Pennsylvania, in 1828, by whom he had eight sons and four daughters; five still survive, as also do the parents at an advanced age. Our subject was inured to farm labor, and has made farming his occupation; in this he takes a great interest and exhibits great enterprise, the aggregate of his crops attesting his skill and success as a farmer; in 1858, he moved to this county and located in Concord Township, and, at the end of nine or ten years, he returned to his native county; some three or four years later, he located on his present place, where he has since resided, and made many improvements; he is a self-made man; in early life, thrown upon his own resources, he has, by industry and economy, risen to a position of affluence; socially, he is pleasant and affable, religiously, an earnest Christian, and, with his wife, a member of the Congregational Brethren Church of Pleasant Hill. He married Melinda J. Smith, nee Buley, in 1855; she was born in this county in 1837; of his five sons and one daughter, four sons have died, three upon the same day; Mr. Oaks takes a great interest in educating his children, giving them the best opportunities in this direction; his daughter, Ella S. Biteman, being a teacher by profession.