from A Centennial Biographical History of the City of Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio
John Hart
This prominent citizen of Norwich township, Franklin county, Ohio, is of old Virginia stock, and some of his ancestors fought for American liberty in the Revolutionary war. Moses Hart, the grandfather of our subject, was a native of Virginia and was reared a farmer. He married Elizabeth Hight and in 1818 came to Ohio, bringing his wife and six children, and locating in Sullivant’s bottoms, Franklin township...The journey was made with a wagon and four horses and one mule.
1820 Mr. Hart bought six hundred acres of land in Norwich township, for a part of which he paid one dollar and a quarter an acre and for the remainder a dollar and a half an acre. When they moved from Sullivant's bottoms to Norwich it required five days to cut their way though the forest.
Mr. Hart and his boys built a small log cabin, in which the family was domiciled until a better residence was erected several years later, and gave themselves with might and main to clearing the land and developing a farm. Later Mr. Hart sold part of the land to Ephraim Fisher, and at his death four hundred acres were divided equally among his four boys. He died on his farm in Norwich township, September 8, 1841, aged seventy-seven years, and his wife died September 22, 1847, aged eighty-four years, five months and twentythree days. They had children named as follows:
Joseph. who died in Iowa in 1851;
Moses, father of John Hart, of Norwich township;
Valentine, who died in childhood in the year 1826;
Betsey, who married Henry Krider and died near Chillicothe, Ohio;
Mary, who died unmarried; and
John, who died in Norwich township in 1858.
Moses Hart, son of Moses Hart, Sr., and father of John Hart, was born in Rockbridge county, Virginia, in 1791, and was married there to Sarah Margaret Nicely, who was born in Alleghany county. Virginia, in April, 1802, a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Circle) Nicely, both of whom were born in the Old Dominion.
He came to F ranklin. county with his father, from whom he bought fifty acres of land, upon which he began the work of improvement, and there erected a log house. For some years he returned every spring to Virginia, sometimes on horseback, oftener on foot, and worked there during the summer, coming back to Ohio in the fall. He was a natural sportsman and in his early days here shot much game. He served in Captain Davidson’s command in the war of 1812. There were plenty of maple trees on his land and he made much maple sugar. He raised hogs also and sold them at a cent and a half a pound, using the money to buy salt, kettles and other necessary supplies for his farm and family. The children of Moses and Sarah Margaret (Nicely) Hart were:
Jacob, who died in Norwich township in 1897;
Moses V., of Hilliard;
Martha, who married Edward Brown and lives in Columbus;
John, who is the immediate subject of this sketch;
Mary, who married Joseph Thackeray and after his death Jackson Flynn and is now living widowed at Hilliard;
Margaret C., who married John Weeks, who died in Putnam county, Ohio;
Joseph, who lives in Columbus, Ohio;
Sarah R., who is Mrs. William Walton:
and Amanda, who is Mrs. Ferdinand Grace.
John Hart was born on the old Hart homestead in Norwich township, Franklin county, Ohio, June 18, 1832, and was reared to farm life with limited educational advantages. His first teacher was Mr. Versell. He was only a child when he took up farm work and he helped to clear part of his present farm, which now consists of one hundred and three acres. He owns another farm of eighteen acres, in his landed possessions, making a total of one hundred and twenty-one acres. He is a Master Mason and a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in politics he is a consistent Democrat in general elections, while in local elections he votes for the men whom he believes will best fill the otfices. He was married in Alleghany county, Virginia, December 22, 1891, to Miss Sarah Margaret Nicely.
