Miami County, Ohio Genealogical Researchers -- Sponsored by the Computerized Heritage Association


    JOHN PENCE STOCKSTILL

    JOHN PENCE STOCKSTILL,, a prominent retired farmer, residing on his valuable property of 160 acres, situated in Section 4, Bethel Township, one mile west of New Carlisle, has resided here for the past thirty-years. He was born March 20, 1841, in Shelby County, Ohio, and is a son of Elias and Elizabeth (Shroyer) Stockstill.

    Thomas Stockstill, the grandfather, was born in North Carolina, from which State he came to Ohio seeking a home where slavery was not permitted. He reached Dayton and at the one store which was then the only mercantile establishment in the place, he applied for work and was directed to T. Haines, who lived near Palmer Chapel, which he had built. Mr. Stockstill came up to the requirements of Mr. Haines and after working for him for one year, was accepted as a son-in-law, Mr. Stockstill, marrying Catherine Haines, the only daughter of his employer. A family of nine children was born to them, namely: Elias D, John, Stephen, Irvin J., Rachel, Sarah, Susan, Katherine and an infant daughter, who died unnamed. After marriage, Thomas Stockstill and wife established themselves on a farm of 1,30 acres near Palmer Chapel, to which Mr. Stockstill later added eighty acres. He served in the War of 18l2 and for a number of months was Stationed at the blockhouse at Sidney. He was a man of Christian life and character, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and a very earnest temperance worker. The ashes of both Thomas Stockstill and wife rest in the family vault on the old home farm in Miami County.

    Elias D. Stockstill settled in Salem Township, Shelby County, Ohio, after his marriage, on land which he secured from the government and continued to reside, on that farm for thirty years, when he retired to Sidney, where the remainder of his life was spent. In his early years of political activity, he voted with the Democratic party, but for the twenty years preceding his death he was a Prohibitionist. Both he and wife were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Sidney and they were buried in the cemetery belonging to that church. He married Elizabeth Shroyer, a daughter of Thomas Shroyer, and they had four children Thomas, Elizabeth, David W. and John.

    John P. Stockstill went to school in his boyhood in Salem Township and he remembers the little log structure with it's slab benches and its poor accommodations. He attended one term of school at Fort Jefferson, but just at that time the Civil War began and he determined to be a soldier. He enlisted in Company 1, 118th Volunteer Infantry, in which he served from, August, 1862, until the close of the war, being mustered out at Chicago, Illinois. He took part in many hard fought battles and endured many of the hardships of military life, but survived them all. After the war he returned to Shelby County and then worked at the tinner's trade for ten years, at Sidney, after which he engaged in bridge building for six years for the Chicago Dayton Railroad. Shortly after his marriage he decided to settle on his present farm, which was then uncleared and unimproved property. In addition to clearing the land and putting up all buildings, he had to drain 200 rods. He retained four acres as a timber tract but put all the rest of the land in tillable shape and continued to cultivate it himself until others were able to assume the responsibility, when he retired from active labor.

    He first married Mary L. Miller and they had two children: Carrie, who died at the age of eight years; and Bessie, who married O. B. Key, resides in Shelby County, and has three children, Frederick, Oat, and Allen.

    On October 30, l879, Mr. Stockstill was married, second, to Miss Jennie Varner, a daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth Varner, and they have had two children: Varner, and W. N. Stockstill.

    In politics Mr. Stockstill is a Democrat, and for one year he served as assessor of Bethel Township. He is a member of Palestine Commandery in the Masonic fraternity and belongs to the Odd Fellows and order of Rebecca, at New Carlisle.

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