Peter Noah Wickerham
Peter Noah Wickerham, son of Jacob and Eve (Ammen) Wickerham, and whose grandparents on both sides were pioneers of Adams County, was born January 31, 1832, near Sinking Springs, Highland County, Ohio, and lived in Highland County until the Civil War. He was postmaster at Sinking Springs in the fifties. During the Civil War, he kept a general store at Locust Grove, which was looted by Morgan's raiders in 1863. He afterwards enlisted as a Private in Company I, 141st Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served from May 2 to September 3, 1864, under Captain George S. Kirker. He served Highland County as its Representative in the Sixtieth General Assembly, 1872-1873, and was in that time admitted to the bar. In 1880, he returned to Adams County and has resided there ever since and is now conducting a general store in Peebles. Mr. Wickerham is a Republican in politics and was the successful candidate of that party for County Treasurer, being elected to that office in 1889 and 1891, and serving four years, from 1890 to 1894.
Mr. Wickerham was married May 15, 1856, to Elvira, daughter of George P. Tener, of Locust Grove, Ohio, and their children are Oliver C. who owns and resides in the house at Sinking Springs once owned and occupied by Charles Willing Byrd; Nancy E., wife of Theodore Gerchell, Secretary of the R.R.Y. M.C.A., of Philadelphia, Pa.; Sarah Jane, wife of E. E. Neary, a dentist at Delaware, Ohio; Martha J., residing with her parents; Peter Ammen, who served in the war with Spain in 1898 with the Second U. S. Engineers and was Clerk in the Quartermaster Department under Col. Guy Howard, at Augusta, Georgia, until the Cuban Volunteers were mustered out. In June, 1899, he accompanied his chief to Manilla, where Howard was killed October 21. Ammen remains there on duty. Philip Sheridan is in school at Delaware, Ohio.
Mr. Wickerham is a member of the G. A. R.; is a Mason and Knight of Pythias and a member of the Peebles Methodist Episcopal Church. Socially, he has few, if any, equals in the circle in which he moves. He is the soul and life of any assemblage where he is known. To him more than to any one else is due the success of the Annual Pioneers' Reunion of Sinking Springs. He loves to tell humorous stories occurring among his friends, and it is reported that he occasionally tells them of himself, although the writer had not the time and was not able to make the research necessary to verify this statement. Mr. Wickerham has the happy faculty of being able to make an interesting speech on any occasion. In the forum he is at home and is always able to please, to amuse and instruct an audience. He ridicules the idea of being old or growing old. and claims he will always be young. He never has any tales of woe to tell and is never discouraged. He always looks at the bright side of things and it naturally reflects itself in him. He is of a very happy disposition, and without seeming to do so, is always seeking to make others happy. With such a disposition and such faculties, he is a very remarkable man to the community.
Peter Wickerham, Senior, was a soldier of the War of the Revolution and settled near Locust Grove about 1799.
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