Capt. O. E. Hardway
One of the prominent men of Fayette county is Capt. O. E. Hardway, a captain in the Ohio National Guard and a prosperous farmer of Union township, where he was born. A man of broad education and milittary training, he has applied himself to the profession of farming with a zeal which has been attended with success. Although a comparatively young man, yet he has accumulated a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, and while primarily engaged in advancing his own material interests, he has nevertheless taken an active part in the life of his county and state. He served in the Spanish-American War in 1898 and was first duty sergeant in Company E, Fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and served in the Porto Rico campaign.
O. E. Hardway, the son of William and Margaret (Nebbergall) Hardway, was born March 15, 1877, in Union township. His father, the son of John Hardway, was a native of Nicholas county, West Virginia, as were the Nebbergall family. Rebecca Hughes, the mother of Margaret Nebbergall, located in Fayette county in its early history, and is now buried at the Sugar Grove cemetery. William Hardway and wife reared two children, Capt. O. E., and Emma, who died at the age of sixteen.
Captain Hardway received. a good common school education and then entered the Ohio Northern Normal School at Ada, where, in addition io his classical studies, he took the full course in military training. After leaving the normal school he returned to the farm and has lived there ever since with the exception of tlie time which he has spent with the National Guard.
Captain Hardway enlisted in Company E, Ohio National Guard. August 20, 1895, as a private, and was made a corporal on July 29, 1896. He was promoted to the rank of sergeant December 4, 1896, and on April 25, 1898, enlisted in the Fourth Ohio Regiment as first duty sergeant. On October 27. 1913, he was elected captain of Company M. Fourth Regiment of the Ohio National Guard, and has been since serving in that capacity.
Captain Hardway has a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres two and one-half miles from Washington C. H.. where he raises all of the crops common to this section of the state, and also engages in the breeding and raising of live stock. His farm is well improved and is equipped with all of the latest machinery for successful farming, so that he is thus enabled to get results from his efforts.
Captain Hardway was married November 28. 1900. to Anna Mae Arehart, the daughter of Amaljah L. and Mary (Taylor) Arehart, and to this union has been born one son, Leo Emmett.
Politically, Captain Hardway is independent, while, religiously, he attends the Methodist Episcopal church. Fraternally, he is identified with the Masonic order, holding membership in Fayette Lodge No. 107, Fayette Chapter No. 103, Royal Arch Masons, and Fayette Council No. 100, Royal and Select Masters ; he also belongs to Confidence Lodge No. 265, Knights of Pythias.
From History of Fayette County Ohio - Her People, Industries and Institutions by Frank M. Allen (1914, R. F. Bowen & Company, Inc.)