James Mires

The Mires family, James, Hannah, and their six sons, certainly weren't looking for an easier life when they came north from Pickaway County in 1873. From a long-settled and established area near Columbus they came as nineteenth-century pioneers to fields from which the Indians and the black bears had departed less than forty years before.

But in their purchase of 80 acres on the south bank of Turkeyfoot Creek, on the edge of the Prairie du Masque settlement, they thought they saw an opportunity for their ambitious older sons, as well as for themselves.

To their dismay, however, the ground described as "planted to wheat" for an early harvest and ready cash, lay brown, barren, and hilly before them. To meet the immediate need for added farm tools and ready cash, they parted with 40 acres. Luckily, the banks of the Maumee were conveniently close for fishing, game was plentiful, and the younger boys were put to work pursuing it in whatever manner seemed expedient. Their gentle Quaker ways had to be laid aside as they reluctantly but firmly clubbed the young deer at the river's edge when the cupboard grew bare.

"The Mires boys," as the neighbors called them, were unmistakable even at a distance - tall and spare, with thin faces and high-bridged noses.

James (1818-1874) and Hannah (1831?1922) were parents of William Holmers (1851-1914), Samuel Landes (1854-1914), David Sloan (1857-1937), John Stimmel (1866-1960), Eugene Pratt (1870-1950), and Robert Gibson (1873-1924). Their only daughter, Charlotte, was buried in Pickaway County, in the family cemetery. Also coming north was Hannah's sister, Sarah ("Sally"), whose fiance had been killed fighting for the Confederacy. She never married, but made her home with the Mires family, helping where she could. "Sally" died in Liberty Center in 1916.

The Sloans were proud descendants of Richard Sloan, born in Monaghan, Ireland, (1757-1831) and Charlotte Van Horn Sloan (1773-1837) of Philadelphia. Richard had come to America on the Star of Hope, first passenger ship to sail from England after the Revolution. He was the son of George Sloan and Kitty O'Day, of Monaghan. He was apprenticed to the Philadelphia silversmith, David Van Horn, and married Charlotte, then 16, in 1789. Their oldest son, John, became a general in the United States Army (17901853), and their second son, David, was born October 11, 1792. Other children were George (1794-1872), Thomas, (1796-1863), Isaac (17981841), Mary (1801-), Sarah (1803-1829), Elizabeth, (1805-) and James (1812-1907).

David made his way south to Hampshire County, Virginia, and then later across the Cumberland Trail to Pickaway and Franklin Counties, in Ohio. Markers in the Sloan-Stimmel cemetery near Lockbourne indicate that David married a "Mary," since markers for their two infants, John and Mary, are there. It is a fact, though, that he married Sarah Landes (born 1805, died 1848), daughter of Samuel Landes, an established Franklin County family.

To Sarah and David were born Charlotte (1828-1873), Hannah (18311922), Sarah (1836-1916), and Richard. After David Sloan's death, Sarah Landes Sloan married Eleazer Mires, and her daughter Hannah became the wife of Eleazer's son James, in 1849. The Mires family had migrated from Pennsylvania, and were Quakers who attended a Quaker church near Lockbourne. James had two brothers, Alpheas C. and Bill, who served with the Union Army.

After their move northward to Henry County, the family affiliated with the newly established (1868) St. John's German Reformed Church in Liberty Center, no doubt finding in the discipline and theology of the followers of John Calvin something akin to their own principles. Four generations of the family were active in this church.

Almost immediately after their' arrival in "Damascus," the boys were enrolled in the school nearby, and attended as often as they could. The sudden and unexpected death of their father in 1874 put heavy responsibilities on all who could help, but especially on Will. A few years later, in 1882, Will married the teacher, Emma Roseborough, who boarded with the Mires family.

Having Miss Emma as a boarder gave John his first employment - an early morning dash across the fields and ravine to the one-room school he was later to refer to in his widely-read editorial paragraphs as "Damascus College." He built the fire and thawed the pump, when necessary, then dashed back home for his share of the chores and breakfast. After school he remained to sweep, adjust the draft and damper, and prepare for the next day. For this, Miss Roseborough paid him five cents a day from her own pocket, for such duties were assigned to the teacher, whether male or female.