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HON. NOAH H. ALBAUGH The life records of the successful business men of Miami county are with but few exceptions those of men who in the early years of their career had to depend upon their own efforts for the common necessaries of life, and they had before them the problem how to live on a meager income. The life of self-denial and frugality, however, gradually bore fruit until little by little they got a small amount ahead that was the foundation upon which was built the superstructure of a successful business life, and the attainment of positions of trust and honor. Such has been the record of Hon. Noah H. Albaugh, the second son of Samuel and Anna (Rodkey) Albaugh, who was born in Union township, Miami county, Ohio, May 22, 1834, in a log cabin erected by his father on eighty acres of land, which he entered, in 1829, at the land office at Cincinnati, and paid for at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. There, in 1830, he erected a log cabin, and there raised and educated a family of six children, three sons and three daughters, each one of whom has made a record as a useful member of society. The ancestors of Mr. Albaugh came to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in September, 1734, on the ship "Hope," from the Palatinate of Rhenish Bavaria. Their names were Johann Wilhelm Ahlback, and four sons: Zachariah, Johann Wilhelm, Johann Gerhardt and Johann Peter. The name was changed to Albach, Aulabach, Allbach, and, in the branch to which Hon. N. H. belongs, to the form which he uses. The literal translation of the name into English is Allbrook. Zachariah Albaugh is an immediate ancestor of the Miami county Albaughs. He entered Government land in Frederick county, Maryland, and there settled and lived until 1782. The records of Frederick county show that his will was probated August 19, 1782. He had a large family of children, two of whom the writer will mention in this sketch. First, Zachariah, who was born in Frederick county, Maryland, in September, 1747, and died in Newton township, Licking county, Ohio, at the residence of his son, Solomon Albaugh, November 9, 1856, at the remarkable old age of one hundred and nine years and nine months. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war and entered the army as a private soldier, serving in the bloody battle of Germantown, fought October 31, 1777. After the war he removed to Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where he resided forty years. One of his close neighbors was General Arthur St. Clair. In 1817 he removed to Licking county, Ohio. David Albaugh, the other son, was born in Maryland, April 1, 1760, and after his marriage removed to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. He was a preacher in the German Baptist church. He had a large family and one of his sons was Samuel Albaugh, the father of N. H. Albaugh. The writer has briefly sketched the ancestry of Mr. Albaugh, because it is a subject of general interest in this county, and of special interest to the young and rising generation of kinship, who proudly trace their pedigree to the old Bavarian who came from his Fatherland to the new continent, across the wide and restless ocean, in search of a home where his spirit of religious and civil liberty was unvexed by a tyrant king or bigoted priests. To return to the subject of this sketch, the writer has learned of no incident in the boyhood life of N. H. Albaugh other than the usual hard work on a farm in a new country, where forests were to be felled and ground to be cleared in order that a home of comfort might be made. In the winter he attended school in a log school house, and, fortunately for him, his father was a fair scholar, so that, in addition to what he learned at the log school house, he received instruction in the humble log-cabin home until he had acquired good education. When he was seventeen years of age he obtained a certificate to teach school, and taught for several years, establishing such a reputation for thoroughness in the English branches that he was appointed county school examiner for this county, and re-appointed until he had served twelve years. In 1855 he removed to Bethel township, Miami county, purchased a small farm of thirty acres, and taught school in winter, while in the summer he farmed, until 1861. In 1858 he started a small nursery and his business prospered and grew, so that in 1888 it was incorporated with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, under the name of The Albaugh Nursery & Orchard Company. He was elected president and has been re-elected every year since. The company is very prosperous and the extensive enterprise is the outgrowth of the small nursery started in 1858. It now comprises about five hundred acres devoted to nursery stock. Peach trees are his specialty, but he is growing extensively apples, cherries, plums and pears, and employs constantly fifty men, and about fifty additional men during the packing and shipping season, the annual output being sold principally in the central states of the Union. Mr. Albaugh also started a nursery, in 1870, at Carmi, Illinois, where he owns a body of land, and at a later date he established a nursery at Burlington, Kansas, and also one at Sparta, Wisconsin, all of which are in successful operation. Mr. Albaugh is a leading horticulturist and is prominent in the county and state horticultural societies. He served for two terms as president of the American Association of Nurserymen, and is now president of the Nurserymen's Mutual Protective Association, and was elected again, June 13, 1900, for the tenth time. In 1890, in company with a number of prominent horticulturists, he traveled through Georgia, with the result that. the Albaugh Georgia Fruit Company was formed, with a capital stock of thirty-two thousand dollars, of which he is now president, and so successful has been that company that four other fruit companies have been formed, and are now in successful operation. In these he is also largely interested. In 1885 Mr. Albaugh was elected representative to the Ohio legislature from this county, and re-elected in 1887. His record as a legislator was approved by his constituents, and, although he had no ambition to shine among those who aspired to be leaders, yet he was noted for his practical sense, sound judgment, and the merit of the bills he introduced. He drafted the present excellent school law of Ohio, and was untiring in his efforts to secure its passage. He established the reputation of being one of the best parliamentarians in the legislature, and in his second term was elected by acclamation in the house as speaker pro-tem, in which office he served with credit to himself. While a member of the legislature he was elected president of the Troy National Bank, and he is at present a prominent stockholder in the Fourth National Bank, of Dayton, Ohio. In 1892 he was chosen one of Ohio's presidential electors on the Republican ticket. He has always been an ar-dent and devoted Republican, and has done good service as a public speaker for the party, and yet his neighbors in the Democratic township of Bethel, in which he resides, have elected him justice of the peace, and notwithstanding his otherwise busy life he has served as such for twenty-four years, and for over twenty years has served as president of the school board of the township. One of Mr. Albaugh's strong characteristics is his devotion to his township and its best interests, especially its educational interests. Under his management and forcible influence, Bethel township has one of the finest high schools in the county, occupying a beautiful building, which is the pride and honor of the citizens of that agricultural community. The township is dotted with nurseries, and his influence has brought into the township thousands of dollars for the benefit of its citizens. During the civil war he enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty- seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, as a private soldier, and was promoted to orderly sergeant of Company B, of that regiment, which was in General Augur's division of the Twenty- second Army Corps, and took a gallant and effective part in repelling the Confederate army under General Early, in its attacks on Washington city. He is a member of the Milton Weaver Post, of the Grand Army, at Vandalia, and is an active worker in that military order. Fraternally, Mr. Albaugh is a devoted Mason and has enjoyed the honor of filling many high and responsible positions in that mystic order, from master of the lodge up to the highest honors, and is a member of the Scottish rite, thirty-second degree, of the Cincinnati Consistory. In 1854 Mr. Albaugh was married to Lucinda Beeson. They had three children: Clifford L., born in 1855; Ida May, in 1857, and Jesse E., in 1861. The youngest son, when eighteen years of age, lost his life by an accident with a team which he was driving. Clifford L. married Francis L. Anderson in 1883, and they have four children. Mr. Albaugh and his wife are members of the Bethel Reformed church, and he has served that church as elder for thirty years, and for fourteen years as superintendent of the Sunday school. The record of the busy life above written would not lead the reader of this sketch to surmise that Hon. N. H. Albaugh was fond of literature, yet he is a careful reader of good books, and has a well selected library, and what is more, he has found time to write poetry. How much he has now in manuscript form, the writer does not know, but in 1855 he published a neat little volume called "Wayside Blossoms," with the following dedication, which speaks more eloquently than the writer can portray, his home life: "TO HER WHO HAS WALKED BY MY SIDE, Space will not permit inserting in this sketch some of the poetic gems found in this little volume, but its publication was a complete surprise to the many friends of the practical man of method and good business sense, who is its author. Hon. N. H. Albaugh is a large, portly man, with a mannerism peculiarly his own. He is a genial, pleasant companion, a solid, practical speaker, with now and then a flash of wit, the more pleasant because unex-pected from a man of affairs. He has a reputation for honesty and fidelity that is the secret of his influence, both in private and public enterprises. His is the record of a long and useful life, with the promise of many more years of activity to come, for he will never rust out, but work until the Master calls. Return to the Biography Index Copyright © 2000 by Computerized Heritage
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