Robert Harvey Nash
The late Robert Harvey Nash, former county commissioner and the proprietor of a fine farm on the Hoop road, a mile and a half east of Xenia, rural mail route No. 8 out of that city, where his widow still lives, was born in this county and all his life was spent here. He was born on a farm on the Columbus pike in Xenia township, March 20, 1851, son of John R. and Mary (Jackson) Nash, both of whom also were born in this county, members of pioneer families, the latter a daughter of Gen. Robert and Minerva (Eddy) Jackson, further mention of whom, together with a comprehensive narrative relating to the Jackson family in this county, is made elsewhere in this volume, the Jacksons having been among the foremost pioneers of the Cedarville neighborhood.
Elsewhere in this volume, in a biographical sketch relating to the venerable John R. Nash, of Xenia township, there also is set out a comprehensive history of the Nash family in this county, this family having had its beginning here with the coming of Nathan and Polly (Ward) Nash from Washington county, Pennsylvania, about the time Greene county was erected into a civic unit, one hundred and fifteen years ago. This pioneer couple were the parents of ten children, hence the Nash connection in this particular branch became a numerous one in the succeeding generation. Hugh Nash, the fourth in order of birth of the six sons of Nathan and Polly Nash, there having been four daughters in the family, grew up in this county and married Rebecca Graham. He died in Xenia at the age of sixty-five years and his widow survived him to the age of eighty-three. Originally members of the Associate Reformed church, they became affiliated with the United Presbyterian church after the "union." Their two children are still living, John R. Nash, now past ninety years of age, having a sister, Mrs. Mary Miller, of Chicago, Illinois. As noted elsewhere, John R. Nash established himself on the farm on which he is now living, in Xenia township, in 1859, about nine years after his marriage to Mary Jackson, who died September 3, 1904, she then being past seventy-two years of age. To that union two sons were born, the subject of this memorial sketch having had a brother, Hugh Leander Nash, who is still farming the old home place east of Xenia, his father continuing to make his home there. John R. Nash has been an elder in the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia for more than forty years and his sons were reared in that faith.
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Robert H. Nash, elder of the two sons of John R. and Mary (Jackson) Nash, was reared on the home farm, completed his schooling in the Xenia high school and in the old Xenia College and remained at home until his marriage in 1876. Shortly before his marriage he bought a farm on the Nash road in Xenia township adjoining his father's farm. He built a new house on that place and there continued to reside until 1898, when he purchased the farm formerly owned by his father-in-law on the Jamestown pike, where he resided until the spring of 1910, when he sold that place and bought the Lauman farm of two hundred acres, on the Hoop road in Xenia township, a mile and a half east of Xenia, where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there on November 25, 1917. Upon taking possession of that place Mr. Nash made numerous substantial improvements on the same and the work he inaugurated there is now being successfully carried on by his sons, Walter L., who bought eighty acres of his father's place, and William H. Nash, who remains with his mother on the remainder of the farm. Robert H. Nash was a Republican and served two terms as a member of the board of county commissioners from his district, elected for the first term in the fall of 1900. He was an earnest member of the First United Presbyterian church at Xenia, as is his widow, and the family has ever taken an interested part in church work, as well as in the general good works of the community. As was written of Mr. Nash during the time of his service as a county commissioner: "As a public official he is true to his promises and is most active and earnest in supporting every movement and measure which he believes will contribute to the general good," and he continued thus to the end, faithful and true in every relation of life.
On November 28, 1876, Robert H. Nash was united in marriage to Agnes Gordon Watt, who also was born in Xenia township, on a farm on the Federal pike, daughter of William and Sarah G. (Carruthers) Watt, whose last days were spent in Xenia, the former dying at his home there on June 12, 1894, he then being in the eightieth year of his age, and the latter, June 13, 1898, she then being in her eighthieth year. Both William Watt and his wife were natives of Scotland, but were married in this country. William Watt came to the United States upon attaining his majority and was for a time thereafter engaged at working at his trade, that of a carpenter, in New York City. He then came to Ohio and worked at Bainbridge until 1849, when he came to Greene covmty and established his home on a farm of one hundred acres in Xenia township. Some years later he disposed of his interests there and moved to a farm in Cedarville township, where he remained for twenty-three years, or until his retirement in 1884 and removal to Xenia, were he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. William Watt was a Republican and for some time served as a member of the board of county commissioners from his district. He and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church and were ever active in good works. They were the parents of ten children, of whom Mis. Nash was the sixth in order of birth, the others being the following: Mary E., wife of D. H. Cherry, of Xenia township; Sarah J., wife of Warren Johnson, of Wichita, Kansas; Margaret E., who died at the age of eighteen years; James B., who became engaged in the wholesale clothing business at Chicago; the Rev. John C. Watt, a minister of the Presbyterian church, stationed at Moss Point, Mississippi; David B., a substantial farmer in Xenia township; Robert C, a Cedarville township farmer; Emily H., who died at the age of four years, and Rosetta, who died at the age of six months.
To Robert H. and Agnes G. (Watt) Nash were born five children, four sons and one daughter, all of whom are still living save the latter, Sarah May, born on April 22, 1888, who died on April 6, 1889. The first-born son, Herbert Watt Nash, born on March 1, 1878. completed his schooling in the Xenia high school and is now living at Xenia, engaged as general foreman for the Wilson Engineering and Construction Company. He married Pearl Edwards, daughter of Frank Edwards, and has one child, a son, Roger Herbert. The second son, Walter Leigh Nash, born on April 5, 1883, also had his schooling in the Xenia high school and in Cedarville College and is farming the eighty acres bought from his father. He married Nellie Ireland, daughter of Frank and Jane (Padgett) Ireland, and has two children, daughters both, Pauline Augusta and Esther Marie. The Rev. Charles Elmer Nash, the third son, born on February 20, 1886, a minister of the United Presbyterian church, now at Shushan, New York, was educated at Cedarville College and at Muskingum College, took theology at the Xenia Theological Seminary and after his ordination was for some time in charge of a church in Wisconsin, later in Ohio, then in Pennsylvania, and is now at Shushan, pastor of one of the oldest United Presbyterian congregations in the United States. He married Florence Smith and has two children, Robert Lewis and Elizabeth Lucile. The youngest son, William Harvey Nash, born on January 19, 1892, completed his schooling at the Xenia high school and is still at home operating the farm for his mother. The Nashes have a delightful home and are very pleasantly situated.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918