John W. Penny
John W. Penny, farmer, P. O. West Jefferson. The maternal grandfather of our subject was Reason Francis, a native of Virginia, who came to Ohio about the year 1800, and settled near the present site of Jefferson. About 1805, he moved on the farm one mile north of Jefferson, now owned by James Davis. During the war of 1812, he settled on the farm now owned by George W. Blair, and finally on the National road, in the western part of Jefferson Township, where he died during the fifth decade of the present century, well advanced in years. He was a large, portly man, jovial, and of many peculiar characteristics. His wife preceded him to the shores of eternal bliss. They had five children who grew to maturity – four sons and one daughter. The latter was born in 1814, and became the wife of Henry Penny, and died in 1862, the mother of three chldren, [sic] all now living. Henry Penny was born July 15, 1804, in Pennsylvania, but in 1810 his parents came to Madison County, Ohio, and settled in Monroe Township, where Henry was left parentless when only eight years old. He was then raised by one of the Johnsons, on the farm where James Peene now resides near Jefferson. He was the eldest of a family of five children, of whom but one survives. Henry was a pioneer farmer and frontier woodsman. About 1827, he settled on his farm, about one mile due north of where the Urbana road branches off from the National road. There he cleared and farmed until his death, April 6, 1880. He was three times married – first to Cynthia Johnson; second to Elizabeth, only daughter of Reason Francis; and lastly to Mary, a sister to his first wife, and daughter of Jacob Johnson. John W. Penny, to whom this sketch is dedicated, was born September 9, 1835, in Jefferson Township, since which his residence dates unbroken in his native county. SInce 1877, he has been a land-owner of Jefferson Township. He was married to Margaret Norris, of Franklin County, Ohio, who is three years his junor. The issue of this union is two children. He is one of the well-to-do farmers, and is now filling the office of Township Trustee, with which he was honored at a recent election.
From HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY - W. H. Beers [Chicago, 1883]