James W. Fitchthorn
A distinguished veteran of the Civil War and a substantial farmer of Jasper township, Fayette county, Ohio, is James W. Fitchthorn, who has lived his entire life in the township where he is now residing. He is a son of Louis and Anna (Hage) Fitchthorn. Louis Fitchthorn was the son of Phillip and Magdalene (Harpoe) Fitchthorn, and was born in Franklin county, Virginia, in 1808. Phillip Fitchthorn was in the War of 1812 and settled in Fayette county some years before his death. Louis Fitchthorn came to Fayette county, Ohio, from Virginia when he was twenty-one years of age, although he had previously stopped for a short time in Ross county, Ohio.
James W. Fitchthorn was educated in a rude log school house in his home neighborhood, and worked upon the home farm until he was nineteen years of age. He then enlisted in the Ninetieth Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry and served for the Union until the close of the war. He has taken an active interest in the Grand Army of the Republic Post, and is now the commander of the post at Millersville, the S. M. Yoeman Post. Mr. Fitchthorn was married December 13, 1866, to Sarah Shafer, and to this union three children have been born, Clara, Elsie A. and Samuel.
Fraternally, Mr. Fitchthorn is a member of the Free and Accepted Masons. He has long been identified with the Republican party in politics and has served for more than forty years as trustee of his township. It is possible that this record has never been equalled in the township, and is certainly a tribute to his efficiency as a public servant. No one in the community stands higher in the esteem of his fellow citizens than Mr. Fitchthorn, and his everyday life has been such as to merit the universal esteem in which he is held.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)
James W. Fichthorn, farmer, is a son of Samuel, who was a son of Philip Fichthorn, whose ancestry came from Germany, and who was born in 1763, and married Magdalene Harpole, who bore him
five children, of whom Samuel, the third, was born in 1808, December 29th, in Pendleton County, Virginia, and came to Ohio with his parents in 1813, settled in Ross County, and came to the farm he now occupies in 1883. In 1836 he married Anna Maria Hogue, who bore him six children: John P., James, Robert, Samuel, Eliza, and Melinda. Both parents are living.
The subject of this sketch was born on his father's farm. May 30, 1842, where he was reared, educated, and married, December 13, 1866, to Sarah Shafer, daughter of John Shafer. She was born in Clifton, Greene County, Ohio. The union was blessed by four children: Clara, Elsie, and twins, who died in infancy. In 1862 he enlisted in Company K, 90th O. V. I., and remained in the service till the regiment was mustered out, participating in all the battles. He received a slight wound at Chickamauga, but continued in the service. He was a brave and gallant soldier, and contracted poor health, from which he still suifers. He cleared seventy-three acres on his father's farm, near Milledgeville, and improved and ditched the same, bringing it to a high state of cultivation, and farms to grain and stock.
From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County