Joseph Hardesty
Joseph Hardesty was born in Pennsylvania in the year 1800. He is a son of Robert Hardesty, one of the early settlers of Shelby County. His parents came to Ohio in 1803, and located in Monroe County, where they lived five years, then removed to Hamilton County, where they remained until 1813, when they came to the present limits of Shelby County, and settled on the bank of Loramie Creek, in Loramie Township. Mr. Hardesty says at the time of their settlement there were but three families who had preceded them in that part of the county; they were James Thatcher, Robert McClure, and Zebediah Richardson. John Wilson was their next nearest neighbor; he was some four miles distant. Mr. Hardesty lived here to grow up to manhood. He was present at the first court held in the county. It was held in a block-house in Hardin. He also was present at the treaty made with the Indians at St. Marys in 1818, and was well acquainted with Charley Murray and his Indian wife, and with Judge Armstrong. He had charge for a time, in the year 1819, of the Government stores at St. Marys. In 1819, Mr. Hardesty married Catherine Saunders, who had come to the county in 1819. He lived here to raise a family of nine children. His wife died in 1866. Mr. Hardesty is still living. Although enfeebled with age, he is still in the enjoyment of good health, having spent almost threescore and ten years in the same neighborhood, with but short intermission.
Robert Hardesty, the old pioneer, and one of his daughters, were suddenly killed by lightning in June, 1819
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883