My Genealogy Hound

SAMUEL WATERFIELD, retired farmer and prominent tobacco-raiser, P. O. Higginsport. The gentleman to whom we devote this sketch is of English extraction, whose ancestors came to America some time near the close of the last century. About the year 1780, the Waterfield and Watson families emigrated from Maryland to near Lexington, Ky., where the grandfather, Jacob, Sr., died, having manufactured the first brick in that town. His death occurred early in the year 1790, and on March 7 of the same year, his only child Jacob, Jr., was born. When the young son was eight years old, the widowed mother settled near Felicity, Clermont Co., Ohio, where she died at an advanced age. Jacob, Jr., was reared by his humble mother in their home near the present village of Felicity. He was many times thinly clad and barefooted in midwinter. On one occasion the young lad’s curiosity was so great to see the Ohio River when clothed with a solid sheet of ice, that he made the trip to and from the river barefooted. He possessed a good constitution, and successfully withstood the pioneer difficulties. In early life he manifested an interest in farming, to which pursuit he was brought up, and became a successful and wealthy land-holder. When about twenty-six years of age, he was married to Annie Metzger, who was born in what is now Brown County, Ohio, in 1798; she died August 7, 1817, leaving an infant son. Jacob, Jr., married for his second companion, Mary Metzger, a sister to Annie; she was born in the present limits of Brown County, Ohio, in 1800, and died October, 1839; of her eleven children nine are now living. The third and last wife of Jacob was Rachel Ramey, also a native of Brown County, Ohio, born about 1820; she died in the fall of 1862. One of her three children still survives. Jacob Waterfield, Jr., embraced the religion of the Baptist Church many years before his death, which occurred July 23, 1862. He was genial and social, and in all a good citizen. Samuel was his eldest child, and Annie (Metzger) Waterfield’s only son; his mother died when he was but nineteen days old. He was born in Clermont County, Ohio, but when yet in infancy his father came to Brown County, where he has ever since resided. He was reared as a farmer boy in Lewis Township, and would have acquired a fair education, but when fourteen years of age he forever injured his eyes by looking at the sun when eclipsed. With his ordinary education he has managed business very successful through life, and is now one of the large land owners and wealthy citizens of the county. His residence is in the northeastern part of Higginsport, designated as “Walnut Hill;” both the interior and exterior of the house and the manner in which it is kept make home attractive. Mr. Waterfield has been twice married; first, September 5, 1839, to Indiana, daughter of Squire Abraham F. Ellis; she was born in Brown County, in 1819, and died June 11, 1849, the mother of four children, three of whom witnessed her death, viz., Mary J., Ramey and James. Samuel’s second wife was Amanda J., daughter of Daniel Mohn; she was born in Brown County August 20, 1832, and nine of her eleven children survive, and three daughters are at home. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch is one of the solid farmers and tobacco-raisers and an influential citizen. He, as his father before him, has always been a supporter of the Democratic party.