CORY HARRISON NOLAN, general farmer and well known citizen of Staunton Township, resides on his well improved farm of forty- one acres, which is situated on the Sidney Road, about two and one- half miles north of Troy. He was born January 12, l868, on his father's farm in Staunton Township, Miami County, Ohio, and is a son of Michael and Phebe Kathryn (Conrad) Nolan.

The ancestors of the Nolan family came to America from Ireland. The grandfather, Israel Nolan, was the first of the family to come to this county. He worked as a weaver for a time in Cincinnati, Ohio, and then settled on a farm in Miami County, two miles east of the present Nolan farm. He had seven children, namely: John, James, Daniel, Michael, Elizabeth, Hannah and Sarah, all of whom are deceased.

Michael Nolan, father of Cory H., was born in I818, in Miami County, Ohio, where the greater part of his life was spent. In 1849 he went to California by way of the plains and remained in the gold regions for three years. He became the owner of a mine and met with more success than did many other prospectors, and when he returned to Miami County he possessed enough capital to purchase a cleared farm of eighty acres, situated three miles northeast of Troy, in Staunton Township, on the Urbana Turnpike Road. He resided on that farm for seven years and then bought a farm of 101 acres and later disposed of his eighty acre farm. This land was formerly the property of Hiram Smith. It lay about one mile north of his first purchase, near the DeWeese schoolhouse. Eight years later he bought the eighty acres which is now the old homestead, but was the Eckert Shaffer farm, and also a farm of 101 acres adjoining his other 101 acres. he was an excellent business man and carried on blacksmithing in connect ion with his farming. He died in June, l889. He married Phebe Kathryn (Conrad) Kaw, a widow, who had one child, Caroline K. To this marriage were born six children, namely: Emma; John Elizabeth, who is the wife of Charles Waters; Cory Harrison; Hattie, who is the wife of Marc Kurtz; and Nora. The mother still survives and resides on the home place.

Cory H. Nolan was about one year old when the family moved to the second farm and eight years old when his father came into possession of the old homestead. He attended the country schools and remained at home until his marriage. For a short time after this event, he resided on his father-in-law's place, but in the following year, December 3, 1897, he moved to his present farm, which he had bought from the John C. Winans estate. Here he carries on farming and devotes eight acres to tobacco growing and six to potatoes. He erected a large tobacco shed on his property and he disposes of his cured tobacco to local dealers. His comfortable 12 room house was on the property when he bought it but he has considerably improved and added to the other farm buildings.

Mr. Nolan was married December 16, 1896, to Miss Grace P. Speagh, a daughter of Lewis L. and Sarah C. (Marshall) Speagh, who was a graduate of the Troy High School class of 1892, and they have two children-Mary Catharine Speagh and John William. Mr. and Mrs. Nolan are members of Raper Chapel, Methodist Episcopal Church, and Mr. Nolan is superintendent of the Sunday School. In politics he is a Republican and as a main of intelligence he is much interested in all that concerns his county and especially in the public matters in which his own community plays a part.