One of the most highly esteemed citizens of Staunton township is Martin V. Houser. His well spent life has at all times commended him to the confidence and regard of his fellow men. He is also an honored representative of a pioneer family of Miami county that through many decades has been connected with the growth and improvement of this section of the state. He was born in Spring Creek township February 14, 1830, and is a son of John Houser, a native of Virginia. The paternal grandfather, Martin Houser, removed with his family from the Old Dominion to Ohio, making the trip by team and wagon in 1805. He located about two and a half miles from Dayton, where his wife's father, John Neff, in 1817, gave him a tract of wild land, consisting of two hundred acres, upon which he remained until his death. However, in 1819, be entered three hundred and eighty acres in Spring Creek township, constituting the farm upon which our subject was born.

John Houser was born in Shenandoah county, Virginia, January 27, 1790. An interesting incident in. his life was related by him. In 1810 Mr. Houser, in company with six young men, made a visit to Vincennes, Indiana, the state being then a territory. They traveled on foot and on the way one of their pack horses was drowned. When they reached Vincennes, General Harrison, who was then governor of Indiana Territory entertained them until evening. He then took them to a tavern where their expenses were paid by the people, and when they left five days afterward, General Harrison presented them with a horse in place of the one they had lost. They were six weeks making the trip. In 1821 Mr. Houser removed from Montgomery county, Ohio, to the farm in Spring Creek, township, which his father had entered two years before. There was a log cabin upon the place and an acre of land had been cleared, but the remainder was covered with a heavy growth of timber, composed of walnut and sugar-maple trees. As a companion and helpmeet on the journey of life Mr. Houser chose Miss Margaret Booher, of Montgomery county, their marriage occurring April 17, 1817, and was blessed with a family of eight children: Samuel, who was born February 27, 1819, and died July 6, 1882; John, who was born April 13, 1821, and died in 1891; Levi, who was born May 20, 1823, and died April 26, 1834; Barbara, who was born September 20, 1826, and died in April, 1893; Martin V., of this review; Mary A., who was born February 28, 1832, and died in 1896; Jacob, who was born February 5, 1835, and died May 6, 1864; and Bartholomew, born March 21, 1841.

The two last named were soldiers of the Civil war. Jacob became a private in the One Hundred and Tenth Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was killed at the battle of The Wilderness, May 6, 1864. Bartholomew became a member of the One Hundred and Forty-seventh Ohio Infantry and died at Fort Ethan Allen, Washington, July 28, 1864. The father of this family carried on agricultural pursuits in the old family homestead until September 2, 1870, when his life's labors were ended in death. That was the first death that had ever occurred on the old farm. His wife survived him until October 16, 1881. He was a member of the Baptist church, an active worker in its interest, and a successful and enterprising farmer.

Martin V. Houser, whose name introduces this review, was reared on the old family homestead, where, he worked in field and meadow, following the plow in early spring, aiding in the planting and assisting in the work of harvesting the crops in the autumn. He attended the common school near by, which was one of the first schools on the Urbana pike. His training in boyhood amply fitted him for his labors in later life. In 1857 he took charge of a part of the old homestead, which he operated until his removal to the farm upon which he now resides. He was married, November 6, 1856, to Miss Margaret Duncan, and to them have been born two children: Ida, who was born December 9, 1857, and is the wife of Willis Peterson, a farmer of Staunton township, and Flora, who was born March 8, 1862, and is the wife of J. Todd Small, by whom she has two children: Ray, born September 5, 1888, and Birdie M., born September 3, 1892. Mrs. Houser passed away March 2, 1886.

Mr. Houser, of this review, owns eighty acres of the old homestead farm and also has eighty acres of land on section 16, Staunton township, together with property elsewhere. His landed possessions aggregate two hundred and ninety-one acres in Spring Creek, and Staunton townships. He still resides on his farm on Loy pike, four miles from Piqua, but has retired from active business affairs, assigning to others the labor of cultivating the fields. All the improvements upon the place stand as monuments to his thrift and enterprise and he has been very successful in his business affairs, having so managed his interests as to gain a very handsome competence. Success is not a matter of genius or of talent, but results from untiring industry, close application and sound business judgment, and it is these qualities which enabled Mr. Houser to win a place among the wealthy farmers of his neighborhood. His business methods were ever above question, for his straightforward and honorable dealing have gained him the unqualified confidence of all with whom he has been brought in contact. He exercises his right of franchise in support of the Democratic party, and has been a consistent member of the Bethel Methodist Episcopal church since 1868. He has served as trustee and treasurer of the church and has done all in his power to promote its growth and secure the object for which it labors. His life has been an active, useful and honorable one, well worthy of emulation.