John L. McKillip
John L. McKillip, for some years past living practically retired at his farm home in Silvercreek township, is a native "Buckeye"' and has been a resident of Greene county and of the farm on which he is now living ever since his marriage when twenty years of age. He was born on a farm west of the village of Jeffersonville, in Jefferson township, in the neighboring county of Fayette, in sight of his present home, February 17, 1840, son of James and Rachel (Mills) McKillip, the latter of whom was born in Greene county, a member of one of the pioneer families here.
James McKillip was born in Jefferson township, Fayette county, a son of John and Elizabeth (Whicker) McKillip, who had come to Ohio from North Carolina in pioneer days and had settled on a tract of land north of Jeffersonville, in Fayette county. John McKillip had been drafted for service during the Revolutionary War, but sent his brother-in-law in his stead. Before his death he was given a land warrant, but the same was lost. He became a pioneer of the Jeffersonville neighborhood, the owner of four hundred acres of land, and both he and his wife lived to the age of eighty years. Their children were Bettie, John, James, Sallie, Jane, Martha, Polly, Nancy and Thomas, and the McKillip family thus became a numerous one in this part of the state in succeeding generations. James McKillip married Rachel Mills when twenty-two years of age and established his home in the neighborhood of the place on which he was born. Upon his retirement from the farm he came over into Greene county and located at Jamestown, where he and his wife spent their last days, both living to be seventy-one years of age. They were the parents of ten children, those besides the subject of this sketch being the following: Thomas, who died in the days of his youth; Nancy, who also died young; Clarissa, who died in the days of her girlhood; Sallie, who married Robert Walton and is now living in Iowa; William, deceased; Geneva, wife of Sanford Browder, a veteran of the Civil War, living in Fayette county; Riley, who married Mollie Spahr and went to Kansas, where he spent his last days, and Harlan and Octavia, who died in the days of their childhood.
Reared on the home farm in Fayette county, John L. McKillip received his schooling in the schools of that neighborhood and remained at home until his marriage in 1860, he then being not quite twenty years of age, after which he established his home on the place on which he is still living, in Silvercreek township, this county, securing there a tract of eighty-seven acres and starting his farming operations with a cash balance of twenty-six dollars. As time passed he gradually added to his land holdings until he became the owner of more than twelve hundred acres of land, five hundred and fifty-five acres of which he still owns, having given more than seven hundred acres to his children as they began to do for themselves. In addition to his general farming Mr. McKillip was for years engaged in the live-stock business. For the past eight years he has been living practically retired from the active labors of the farm. Mr. McKillip is a Republican and he and his wife are Baptists, in which faith they reared their children, When Mr. and Mrs. McKillip fifty-eight years ago entered upon possession of the place on which they are now living the only buildings on the place were a little old log cabin and a ramshackle stable, but it was not long until they began to see their way clear to the substantial improvements of the place and in 1871 built the brick house which has ever since served them as a place of residence and in which their children were reared.
It was on January 8, 1860, that John L. McKillip was united in marriage to Mary Webb, who was born on a farm south of the village of Jamestown in this county, daughter of Thomas B. and Martha (Bryan) Webb, the former of whom also was born in this county and the latter in Dinwiddie county, Virginia, daughter of Thomas and Mary Bryan, who had settled south of Jamestown upon coming to this county in pioneer days. Thomas Bryan and his wife were the parents of nine children, those besides Mrs. Webb having been Morrison, Joseph, Reese, Thomas, Mary J., Sidney, Catherine and Betsy Ann. Thomas B. Webb was born in Silvercreek township, this county, son of Samuel and Mary (Bull) Webb, Virginians, who had become pioneers of Greene county. Samuel Webb was a soldier of the Revolution and upon coming to this county settled on land south of Jamestown, where he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They had four children. Maria, Harriet, Asaph and Thomas B. The last-named was born in 1816 and grew up on the farm on which his parents had settled upon coming to this county. After his marriage to Martha Bryan he continued farming south of Jamestown. He died at the age of seventy years and his wife lived to be seventy-four. They were the parents of five children, those besides Mrs. McKillip having been Mary, who married George Weymer, of the Jamestown neighborhood; John L., who is living in the vicinity of Cedarville; James, now a resident of Dayton, and Samuel, deceased.
To John L. and Mary (Webb) McKillip eight children have been born and six are living. Amy S., their first-born, is the wife of William Shiflett, of Jamestown. Lester, their only son, is now farming in the vicinity of Jeffersonville, over in Fayette county. He has been twice married, his first wife having been Ivy Armstrong and his second, Catherine Matthews, and has two children, Ray and John. Irene C, the second daughter, married Walter Adsit, of Dayton, and has six children, Harry, who is employed at Dayton; Warren, who is now connected with the aviation corps of the National Army; Mary, who is employed as a stenographer in the service of the government at the aviation field at Fairfield, and Elmer, Roscoe and Roy. Flora, the next daughter, is the wife of William Johnson, a sergeant of the Dayton police force, with which force he has been continuously connected for twenty-three years. Mollie, the next daughter, married Frank Gordon, a farmer, of Silvercreek township, and has one child, a son, Guy H., and Lena, the last-born, is the wife of Foster Jenks, a farmer of Fayette county. In 1910 Mr. and Mrs. McKillip celebrated the golden anniversary of their marriage and the occasion was made one of much felicitation on the part of their many friends.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918