PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL ALBUM.

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ROBERT MENDENHALL.  The subject of this notice, a gentleman of fifty-five years, was born four and one-half miles south of  Xenia near the Burlington Pike, October 12,1834, and lives five and one-half miles in the same direction from the city, where he owns two hundred and seventeen acres of choice land.  His life-long interests have centered in this county, in which he has grown up from infancy, and he has naturally become identified with its advancement and prosperity.  He is the scion of an excellent old family, being the son of Benjamin and Ann (Simison) Mendenhall, the former of whom was born April 26, 1804, also at the place where he now resides south of the city.  He has lived on the farm of his birth all his life.  There were born to him and his estimable partner eight children, viz.: William, Robert; John, who served in the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Ohio Infantry during the Civil War and is now deceased; Rebecca E., Mary Ann, these two also deceased; Smith, a member of the Seventy-fourth Ohio Infantry, who died in the service; Margaret, the deceased wife of David Adams, and Nancy, who died when a child of six years.

The father of our subject was reared a Quaker, to which faith he still adheres.  He was a strong Whig during the existence of that party, and afterward identified himself with the Republican party.  The wife and mother died at the homestead in 1861, strong in the Presbyterian faith. Mr. Mendenhall was subsequently married  to Betsey A. (Thornburg) Compton.  The paternal grandfather of our subject, John Mendenhall by name, was a native of North Carolina, and came to this county about 1802.  He settled on a large tract of land, three hundred acres in extent, this lying in Spring Valley Township, and there spent the balance of his days.  He likewise was a Quaker in religious belief.  His wife bore the maiden name of Ruth Brown, and they reared a family of six sons and four daughters.

The subject of this notice spent his boyhood and youth under the parental roof, acquiring such education as the primitive schools afforded, and upon reaching his majority struck out for himself. His first purchase of land was a part of the farm where he now resides and upon which he settled in 1862.  Prior to this, December 22, 1859, he was joined in wedlock to Miss Jane Elam, who was born July 7, 1838, and was the daughter of Isaac B. and Mary (McKnight) Elam.  This union resulted in the birth of two children-Mary Ann, now the widow of William E. Ferguson, and Kelley, who remains under the parental roof. Mrs. Ferguson has a son and a daughter-Leon K. and Mildred J.  Mr. Mendenhall lives the life of a quiet and peaceable citizen, meddling very little with matters outside his firm, and uniformly gives his support to the Republican party.  

22 Mar 2000

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