PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM 

pg 236, 237 

     JOHN S. CLICK, a well-to-do and respected citizen of Springfield, within those limits he owns a valuable and highly-improved tract of land, where he and his wife have established a pleasant home, comes of a worthy pioneer family who located in Clark County among its early settlers in the ‘30’s and identified themselves with its agricultural interests, assisting in developing the land from the primeval wilderness.

     Rockingham County, Va., is the birthplace of our subject, and June 28, 1831, the date thereof.  His father, Samuel CLICK, was born, reared and married in that State, Mary GARBER, also a native of the Old Dominion, becoming his wife.  In 1838 they started Westward with their three children, having decided to build up a new home in the forest wilds of Ohio.  They made the entire journey overland, taking their cooking utensils with them, and when they camped by the way cooked their food, and after traveling thirty-one days they arrived in Clark County.  Mr. CLICK bought a tract of land in German Township, of which a small part was cleared of the heavy timber that covered it, and in the dense forest that stood on the remainder, wild turkeys, deer and other game were plenty, and richly furnished the larder that in those pioneer times might otherwise occasionally have been scantily supplied with food.  The family resided in that place some years, and during that time the father by hard and skillful labor cleared and cultivated quite a number of acres.  He finally disposed of the whole at a good price, and buying elsewhere in the same township, was a resident there until his death deprived the community of an industrious and useful citizen.  His wife also spent her last years on the home farm.  They were the parents of eight children, seven of whom were reared to maturity.

     The son of whom we write was seven years old when he came to this county with his parents, but he still has vivid remembrance of the long journey from his early home and of the incidents of their pioneer life here.  There were no railways or canals here for some years after their removal to this State, and all transportation was with team over rough roads.  Settlements were scattered, and the country generally was in a wild condition, and it has been our subject’s privilege to witness the gradual upbuilding and to promote its prosperity in a measure.  He lived with his parents until he had attained to manhood, and then started in life on his own account.  He first visited Indiana and invested in a tract of wild land in Clay County.  He never located on it, however, but returned to German Township, Clark County, when he engaged in farming until his marriage.  That important event in his life took place in 1864, when Miss Sarah HYER, a native of Greenfield, Ohio joined hands with him in matrimony and became his active assistant in the upbuilding of a house.  After his marriage Mr. CLICK resided in Mad River Township, Clark County, one year, and then traded for property in this city and engaged in the grocery business the ensuing year.  At the expiration of that time he bought the place where he now resides.  Here he has twenty-three acres of finely-improved land, all included within the city limits, which has greatly increased in value with the growth of Springfield.  Mr. and Mrs. CLICK’S pleasant home circle is completed by the three children that have blessed their union—Austi?, who is the wife of Beecher T. BLACK; Samuel and Mary, who are at home with their parents. 

     Coming to this county when it was still in its primeval state, our subject has seen farm after farm hewn from the forest wilds, by the industrious and persevering labors of the hardy, intelligent pioneers who laid the foundations for the present prosperity and high standing of this glorious Commonwealth.  During the fifty and more years that he has lived here as a boy and man he has seen thriving villages and busy towns spring up where once the Indian chased the wild game through the forests and over the uncultivated prairies; and the city of Springfield that he chose for his abiding place, has grown from an insignificant hamlet with but few inhabitants to a large and enterprising metropolis, with evidences of wealth and prosperity on every hand, and a population of nearly forty thousand people.  Our subject has led an honorable, upright life that entitles him to the esteem in which he is held by all about him.  By the exercise of those inherent traits of thrift, prudence and a capacity for intelligent labor, with which he is so well endowed, he has, as we have seen, placed himself far above want, and with his wife, to whose active co-operative labors he is greatly indebted, he is quietly passing his declining years in peace, plenty and comfort.  He and his wife are working members of the German Baptist Church, and by the example of their daily lives show the reality of their religion.  Politically, he is a Republican.