James P. Wasson
James P. Wasson was one of those men for whom the world is better for his having lived in it. He was born in Wayne Township. December 18, 1837, the son of Thomas Campbell Wasson and Martha Patton Campbell, his wife. His childhood and youth were spent at Cherry Fork and he received such education as the schools of his vicinity afforded. His religious training was careful and thorough by his father and mother and he was brought up in the United Presbyterian Church at Cherry Fork. Any one familiar with that denomination knows just what that means, and that training dictated and governed the whole course of his life. He was trained to the strictest habits of industry and economy and taught the art of farming. His father was one of the most industrious and energetic farmers in Adams County and our subject was like him. It was always a maxim in the life of James P. Wasson to make the best and the most out of every situation which confronted him, and in this he never railed.
On September 1, 1859, he was married to Martha Ann McIntire, his third cousin, daughter of Gen. William McIntire and Martha Patton, his wife, so that both he and his wife were great-grandchildren of John Patton. of Rockbridge County, Virginia. Directly after their marriage, they went to housekeeping on a farm of his father's south of North Liberty. In 1863, JuIy 10, he enlisted in Capt. David Urie's Company G,129th O. V. I., and here the writer, who served with him, knew him best. He was appointed a Corporal and discharged all his duties as a soldier with the utmost fidelity. He marched over five hundred miles in the Summer heat and in the Winter's snow, and aften went hungry. He endured all the hardships of a severe campaign and never uttered a word of complaint. He seemed to think that he had enlisted to do and suffer these things for his country and he served the latter as he did his God, faithfully, and upon his conscience. In this service, the writer was his intimate friend and was with him every day. Had he lived in Cromwell's day, he would easily have been one of his "Ironside." With an army made up of soldiers like he, the United States could have subdued the world, if the war had been for a just cause, for he would have fought in no other. When he returned from his service in the army, he resumed his vocation as a farmer and resided on the same farm until 1869, when he took the Gen. William McIntire farm, where he continued to reside until March, 1877. In all of this time he and his wife were faithful members of the Cherry Fork church. Mr. Wasson was one of the most active and energetic men. This was his heritage, both from his father and mother, and their traits were intensified in him. For a long time he had felt that the rewards for farming in Adams County were inadequate, and he determined to remove to the fertile prairies of Kansas. Therefore, in March, 1877, he located in Douglass County, Kansas. Here he and his wife and family entered the United Presbyterian Churth at Edgerton, in which he was made a ruling elder and held the office during his life. He was a faithful teachers in the Sabbath School. In the church, as in the community, he was always consulted and his advice taken and followed. He was of most excellent judgment in things, both temporal and spiritual. He was a wise counsellor and always maintained the highest Christian character. In all things for the good of his church or community, he was foremost. He was taken with his mortal illness on the tenth of January, 1898, and died on the seventeenth, following. His death was a great loss to his family, his church and the community. His wife survives, and he left the following children: Cora Esther, the wife of Frank Wilson; Nora, the wife of Tweed Patton. formerly of Cherry Fork; Albertina, the wife of Clarence Wasson, also from Cherry Fork, and James Ormand, a son. He had a son, William Campbell, born in 1868, and who died in 1885. His daughters, sons-in-law and son all reside near the home in which he died. It is a gratification to the writer that this testimonial is in the History of his native county, where those who knew him for forty years in his childhood, youth and manhood, may recall his correct life and many virtues.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900