Benjamin Wolf
Benjamin Wolf, a veteran of the Civil War and a retired farmer of Bath township, this county, now living at Osborn, was born in Bath township on December 15, 1842, son of John W. and Rebecca (Swadener) Wolf, the latter of whom also was born in this county, in Beavercreek township, and the former in the state of Pennsylvania.
John W. Wolf was a memlaer of one of the first families to settle in the northern part of Greene county, he having been but a lad when his parents, George Wolf and wife, came here from Pennsylvania and settled in what later came to be organized as Bath township, where they were living, according to public records, when the first enumeration was taken in that township in the spring of 1807. George Wolf, the pioneer, was a native of Germany. Upon coming to this county he entered a half section of Congress land, the tract on which now stands the village of Byron, and there established his home. On that tract he set apart a plot for cemetery purposes, the Byron cemetery, and was the first person to be buried therein, his death occurring in 1813. He and his wife had seven children and the Wolf connection throughout this part of the country in this generation is therefore a quite numerous one. John W. Wolf, one of the sons of these pioneer parents, served as a soldier during the War of 1812 and afterward took up farming, which he followed the rest of his life. After his marriage he established his home on a farm in Bath township and there lived to the age of eighty-five years and eight months, his death occurring in June, 1877. His widow survived him for sixteen years, her death occurring in 1893. They were the parents of six children, two of whom are still living, the subject of this sketch and his sister Martha.
Reared on the home farm in Bath township, Benjamin Wolf received his schooling in the local schools of that neighborhood and then was engaged in farming with his father until his marriage, after which for three years he lived on a rented farm nearby. He then moved up into Clark county and was there engaged in farming for seven years, at the end of which time he returned to Bath township and there bought a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, established his home on the same and there continued to reside until his retirement from the farm and removal to Osborn, where he and his wife are now living. Mr. Wolf is a Republican and for some time served as school director in his home district while living on the farm. During the progress of the Civil War he enlisted, in 1864, as a member of Company K, One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was with that command during the hundred-davs service. He and his wife are members of the Lutheran church.
On November 8, 1870, Benjamin Wolf was united in marriage to Lenora Schauer, who also was born in the vicinity of Byron, this county, a daughter of George and Catherine (Brown) Schauer, the former of whom was born in this county, in 1825, and the latter in the state of Maryland, in 1830. George Schauer, who spent most of his life as a farmer in Greene county, was a son of Samuel Schauer, who had settled here in 1818, and he was reared on a farm in the Byron neighborhood. After his marriage he for a time lived in the neighboring county of Miami, but later returned to this county. He and his wife were members of the Lutheran church and were the parents of children, of whom Mrs. Wolf was the second in order of birth, the others being Sarah C., wife of Simon H. Wolf. of Springfield, this state; Samuel Wilham, deceased; G. K., the seed man, of Osborn, and Flora, wife of J. C. Smith, a dry-goods merchant at Dayton. Mr. and Mrs. Wolf have two daughters. Cora, who married George Williamson and has one child, a daughter. Grace Mae, who married Harvey Ferguson and has one child, a son, Richard Benjamin; and Harriet, who married Frank Routzong and has three children, Wilfred Wolf, Cora Eleanor and Catherine Louise.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918