John W. Hartsock
Ever since the second decade of the past century the Hartsocks have been represented in the Bellbrook neighborhood in this county. John W. Hartsock was born in that neighborhood and has lived there all his life, proprietor of a farm in Sugarcreek township, on rural mail route No. 1 out of Waynesville. He was born on a farm in Sugarcreek township on October 6, 1852, son of Samuel and Mary (Weller) Hartsock, the latter of whom was born in the vicinity of Dayton, in the neighboring county of Montgomery, and both of whom spent their last days in Greene county.
Samuel Hartsock was born on a farm in Sugarcreek township, this county, December 19, 1823, son of George Hartsock and wife, the latter of whom was a Cremer, born on April 3, 1828. George Hartsock was a native of New Jersey, who came to Ohio in the early days of the settlement of this county and took a farm in Sugarcreek township, where he spent the rest of his life. When he settled on that place there was a small log house on the same and a clearing of three acres. There were hundreds of magnificent sugar trees on the place and he long made a specialty of the making of maple sugar, the products of his spring camps being marketed in Cincinnati, to which city he made the long haul in person. He and his wife were the parents of seven children, David, Samuel, George, Fanny, Lucinda, Ann and Abbie, six of whom lived to maturity and reared families of their own, the Hartsock connection hereabout thus becoming a numerous one. Samuel Hartsock grew up on that farm and in turn became a farmer on his own account, here spending all his life, his death occurring on March 28, 1894. His widow died March 14, 1911. They were the parents of six children, namely: Laura, who died when seventeen years of age, October 18, 1866: John W., the subject of this biographical sketch; Perry, a farmer residing in the neighboring county of Warren; Euphemia, now living at Waynesville, widow of William Hough; George, a retired farmer, also living at Waynesville, and Frank, a farmer living in Montgomery county.
John W. Hartsock was reared on the home farm, received his schooling in the Sugar Creek school and in due time became a farmer on his own account, after his marriage establishing his home on the farm on which he is now living and has resided there ever since. Mr. Hartsock is a Democrat and for one term served as a member of the Bellbrook school board.
In 1881 John W. Hartsock was united in marriage to Eliza Nelson, of Auglaize county, this state, and to this union three children have been born, namely: William, who married Verda Cook and is now living at Dayton; Minnie, who married Charles Thomas, of Centerville, now deceased, and has one child, a daughter, Eva; and Edward, unmarried, who is at home assisting his father in the management of the farm. The Hartsocks are members of the Middle Run Baptist church. Mrs. Hartsock is a daughter of William and Mary (Maguire) Nelson, the latter of whom was born in Holmes county, Ohio.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918