John Hart
Thomas Hart, a German by birth, married and came to the United States about 1790, and located in Bucks County, Pa., where, the same year, William Hart was born. Wm. Hart was reared in Bucks County and received a liberal education. After arriving at manhood he engaged in teaching school in New Jersey, where he formed the acquaintance of and married Elizabeth Petit in 1810. They remained in New Jersey until 1818, when he removed with his wife and three children to Hampshire County, Virginia, where he remained until 1827. Becoming heartily disgusted with the institution of slavery, he determined to seek a home in a free State; so he sold his farm at a sacrifice and removed to Dayton, Ohio, where he remained until 1836, when he moved to Darke County, Ohio, and died there in 1849. His wife died in 1870.
John Hart was the eldest son of William Hart. He was born in New Jersey in 1811. He lived with his father until he came to Dayton. In 1836 he married Nancy Hosier. The same year he married he came to Shelby County and purchased eighty acres of timber land in section 5, Orange Township. In the spring of 1837 he commenced clearing to make a home, erected a cabin, and brought his wife. They cleared up their home and had made a very desirable place. In 1867 he bought for one of his sons the present place on which he lives, but owing to the death of his son in 1868 he was compelled to move to it himself. Mr. and Mrs. Hart raised a family of four children, viz., William, Rhoda Ann, Isaac, and Robert. Of these four children only one now is living, viz., William. Rhoda Ann lived to be twenty-two years of age, when she was burned to death by her clothes taking fire. Isaac, the second son, lived to be twenty-five years of age. He was a graduate of Delaware College, having received his diploma in a scientific course in 1865. Robert, the youngest son, died in 1868. Mr. and Mrs. Hart are now living by themselves as they first commenced, not in the log cabin in the woods, but on a well-improved farm with good buildings, with a competence for their remaining days, all acquired by toil, industry, and economy.
William Hart, a son of the above, was born in 1837, and married Margaret J. Russum. They have three children, viz., Sarah E., John, and Manning W. He is located on the homestead of his father in section 6, where he carries on the farm and is also proprietor of a sawmill.
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History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883
