FRANK A. CUSHWA, one of Bethel Township's substantial citizens and large farmers, owning 300 acres of valuable land in this section, was born in Washington County, Maryland, October 20, 1832, and is a son of Benjamin and Sophia (Angle) Cushwa.

The parents of Mr. Cushwa were both natives of Washington County, Maryland, and when they came to Ohio they had four children. Benjamin Cushwa settled first on a farm of 160 acres on the Clifton Turnpike, near Springfield, in Clark County, where he built a house, but finding that the land would require a great amount of fertilizing to make farming profitable, he moved to Harshmansville for three years, and then came to Bethel Township, Miami County, where he first bought fifty acres and then added twenty-five more. Both he and wife spent the remainder of their days on that farm, he dying in 1871 and she when aged sixty-eight years; both were buried in Bethel Cemetery. They were worthy members of the German Reformed Church. In politics he was a strong Democrat, but no persuasion would have induced him to accept any public office. Of his family of eleven children, the following survive: Katherine, George W., Martin B., Frank A., John, Mary Elizabeth, James, Anna and David.

Frank A. Cushwa attended school in Bethel Township, mainly at West Charleston, and from boyhood assisted his father on the farm. Subsequently he bought the home place of seventy-five acres and purchased 225 adjoining acres, making his whole estate a large and valuable one. He has all his land cleared with the exception of eighty acres still in timber, has two dwelling houses on his property and helped to put up all the buildings. He cleared about ninety acres by himself, and has put down a large amount of tiling, making his land well drained and capable of producing almost any crop. Mr. Cushwa attends the Brethren Church of Bethel Township. He is a Democrat in his political views. A pleasant country road runs from Tippecanoe City, some three and one-half miles south to Mr. CUSHWA property.