James F. Esterline
James F. Esterline, a grocer at Osborn, was born on a farm in the neighboring county of Clark on October 26, 1873, son of Jacob and Elizabeth (Dunkle) Esterline, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Pennsylvania.
The late Jacob Esterline, a veteran of the Civil War, who died at his home in Fairfield, on May 5, 1918, was born in Clark county, this state, and grew up in the neighborhood of New Carlisle, where he was living when the Civil War broke out. He enlisted for service in behalf of the Union and went to the front as a member of the Sixteenth Ohio Battery, with which command he served for four years. After his marriage he established his home on a farm in Clark county and there continued to reside until his retirement from the farm and removal to Fairfield, where he spent his last days. To him and his wife were born nine children.
Reared on the home farm, James F. Esterline received his schooling in the common schools and continued farming until after his marriage in 1895, he then being twenty-two years of age, when he made his home at Osborn and there began clerking in the store w'hich he now owns and was thus engaged as a clerk until 1906, when he bought the store from its proprietor, George Smith, and has since been engaged in business on his own account.
In 1895 James F. Esterline was united in marriage to Elizabeth M. Schroeder, daughter of John Philip Schroeder and wife, the former of whom, a blacksmith, died in 1912 and the latter of whom is still living, a resident of Fairfield, and to this union two children have been born, daughters both, Greta S. and Frances Gertrude. The Esterlines reside on William street and are naturally much concerned to know that, as the probable outcome of the present flood-prevention project, they may presently have to abandon the home that has for years meant so much to them, as well as the business in which Mr. Esterline has worked up to his present position in the mercantile life of the town which seems doomed to be deserted in behalf of the common welfare of the valley. Mr. Esterline is a Republican and is the present president of the Osborn board of education. Fraternally, he is afiiliated with the local lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Junior Order of United American Mechanics.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918