William John Tarbox
William John Tarbox, secretary-treasurer and general manager of the Tarbox Lumber Company at Cedarville, this county, and secretary-treasurer and general manager of the Cedarville Realty Company, was born in Cedarville and has lived there all his life with the exception of three years during the days of his young manhood, when he was engaged working at the carpenter trade at Chicago. He was born on November 25, 1860, son of John M. and Rachel (Nichol) Tarbox, the latter of whom died in 1905 and the former of whom is still living at Cedarville, being now past eighty-eight years of age.
John M. Tarbox was born at Buxton, Maine, December 3, 1829, a son of John and Lucy (Merrill) Tarbox, both of whom were born and spent all their lives in that same vicinity, and who were the parents of six children, two sons and four daughters, of whom John M. Tarbox is now the only survivor. The latter grew up in his home town of Buxton and there learned the carpenter trade. In 1849 his brother, Samuel Tarbox, a surveyor and stonemason, came to Ohio and located at Cedarville, in this county. A year later, in 1850, John M. Tarbox joined his brother here and the two became engaged in business together, general building contractors and stonemasons, during that period of their activities building several of the stone-arch bridges that are still in use along the line of the Pennsylvania railroad through this section of the state. The Tarbox brothers bought the old Nichol saw-mill on Massies creek and for years successfully operated the same. Not long after coming to Ohio John M. Tarbox had married and he established his home at Cedarville, where he was living when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted for service in behalf of the cause of the Union and went to the front as first sergeant of Piat's Zouaves, attached to the Thirty-fourth Regiment. Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and with that command served for three years, most of the time in West Virginia, and during that service was shot through the wrist. Upon the completion of his military service he resumed his operations in Cedarville and in 1885 he and his elder son, the subject of this sketch, abandoned the old water-power mill and erected at Cedarville a steam saw- and planing-mill and established the present lumber yards there. John M. Tarbox continued actively connected with the affairs of that concern until his retirement in 1915, he then being eighty-six years of age, and is still living at Cedarville. His wife died in 1905. She was born, Rachel Nichol, in Belmont county, this state, in 1823, daughter of John Nichol and wife, the latter of whom was a McMechan, and was twelve years of age when her parents settled in Cedarville township in 1835. John Nichol was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, not long after his parents, who were of Scottish descent, had settled there following their immigration from Ireland. They later moved to Belmont county, Ohio. Upon coming to Greene county in 1835 John Nichol bought about five hundred acres of unimproved land west of the village of Cedarville and proceeded to develop the same. He was a practical miller and soon after locating there erected on Massies creek an "up-and-down" water-power saw-mill, which he continued to operate until it was taken over by the Tarbox brothers in the '50s. John Nichol and his wife were members of the old Associate Reformed church on Massies creek, and upon the "union" in 1858 they and their family became members of the United Presbyterian church, at that time organized at Cedarville and remained connected with that congregation ever afterward, Mrs. Tarbox at the time of her death in 1905 being the last surviving charter member of that congregation. John Nichol and his wife were the parents of three sons and two daughters, all of whom save Mrs. Tarbox went West. To John M. and Rachel (Nichol) Tarbox were born six children, two of whom died in infancy, the others being Lucy, wife of W. H. Barber, of the Tarbox Lumber Company at Cedarville; Maria, wife of S. K. Williamson, of Cedarville township, a biograpliical sketch of whom is presented elsewhere in this volume; William J., the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, and Thomas, who also is connected with the Tarbox Lumber Company at Cedarville.
William J. Tarbox grew up at Cedarville and upon completing his studies in the high school there. took a supplemental course in the Miami Business College. From the days of his boyhood he was an assistant in the labors connected with his father's mill and lumber business. Upon leaving school he went to Chicago and was for three years engaged there, working as a carpenter. He then returned home and in 1885 was made a partner in his father's milling and lumber business at Cedarville and has since been connected with that concern. In 1903 this concern was reorganized and incorporated under the laws of the state and has since been doing business as the Tarbox Lumber Company, the present officiary being as follows: President, W. H. Barber; vice-president, B. W. Anderson, and secretary-treasurer and general manager, W. J. Tarbox. William J. Tarbox, general manager of the company, is also the secretary-treasurer and general manager of the Cedarville Realty Company, owners of an important subdivision of the village of Cedarville.
On March 19, 1885, William J. Tarbox was united in marriage to Mary A. Harbison, who was born in the neighborhood of Clifton, in Miami township, this county, and who is now the only survivor of the family of six children born to her parents, Robert B. and Janet Harbison, both also deceased, and to this union have been born four children: Janet, wife of H. A. Waddele, of Springfield, Ohio; Robert Merrell, who died at the age of five; Rachel, who is teaching in the Ross township high school, and Ellen, who is now a student in Cedarville College. Mr. and Mrs. Tarbox and their daughters are members of the United Presbyterian church and Mr. Tarbox is a ruling elder in the local congregation of that communion at Cedarville. Politically, he is a Republican.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918