For the most part, I have no knowledge of events prior to the marriage of John Wessley Stover to Nancy Dill on May 15, 1845
Therefore, this Saga begins here :
John Stover was a cooper by trade and owned and carried on a shop in Ohio. At the time of the Civil war he responded to the country’s call for troops and joined the army, his death on Feb. 24th of 1865 at Vicksburg, Mississippi, during the progress of the war.
Philip Robert Stove born on May 15th 1845 also learned the cooper’s trade and he, too, put aside business cares after the outbreak of hostilities between the north and the south. He joined the One Hundred and Fifty-second Ohio Volunteer Infantry and was on active duty until the nation’s starry banner had been planted in the capital of the southern confederacy in 1865.
Philip Robert had resumed working at his trade after the war, he conducted a cooper shop at Palestine, Ohio, where he was also employed in a sawmill. He likewise devoted four years to railroad engineering and did various other things, such as selling lightning rods and sewing machines.He also conducted a real estate business but finally turned his attention to farming, securing a tract of land near Greenville, Ohio, which he continued to cultivate for many years. During this time,
On the 18th of January, in 1870, Philip R. Stover was united in marriage to Miss Alice E. Wilcox, who was born in Darke county, Ohio, .They had a family of nine children, of whom the first born, James, died at the age of five years, while the youngest child died in infancy. Victor A., the second son, was born in Darke county, Ohio, July 14, 1872, and acquired a public school education, after which he engaged in farming for a time with his father.
In 1904, he would dispose of that property and moved to Washington state to take up residence in the Yakima Valley where he purchased sixty acres of land six miles southeast of Sunnyside.
Victor A. ultimately came to Yakima county with his father, after which he purchased land in this section of the state. He now has thirty-six acres devoted to general farming and upon the place he has built a good home and all necessary buildings for the shelter of grain and stock. His farm is well improved according to modern ideas and he is progressive in all that he undertakes.
On March 16, 1900, Victor was wed to Miss Mae Shook, of Darke county, Ohio, who passed away on the 13th of September, 1917. They were the parents of three children: Ernest, Herbert and Virginia, but Virginia died at the age of three years. Victor A. Stover attends the Brethren church, in the work of which he takes an active and helpful interest. In politics he maintains an independent course. He has served on the school board and he was among those who established the first telephone system in this section, He has ever stood for progress and improvement in community affairs and his activity and enterprise have placed him in the front rank among the leading citizens. The third of the family, Marcus Stover, died at the age of eleven months. The only daughter, Retta Virginia, was born on the 10th of October, 1876, and is now the wife of the Rev. L. S. Bauman, an evangelist of the Brethren church now residing in California.
William S. Stover, born in Darke county, Ohio, May 8, 1879, obtained a public school education and was the first of the family to come to Yakima county, where he arrived in the fall of 1902, at which time he took up a homestead near Bickleton, Washington, where his sister, Mrs. Bauman, also later secured a homestead. He has since devoted his attention to the improvement of farms and other work in connection with the development of the valley. In 1903 he purchased twenty acres of land in the district in which the Stover brothers all now reside and where the father built his first house. William S. Stover has since purchased forty acres additional and throughout the intervening period has resided in this district. He now has fifty acres of land here and has built thereon a nice home and added other modern improvements. He has also purchased forty acres near by and is successfully engaged in general farming. He spentone year in Alaska on a geological survey. Like the others of the family, he maintains an independent attitude in relation to political affairs and his religious faith is that of the Brethren church, Garfield R. Stover, associated with his brothers in business affairs, was born in Adams county, Indiana, March 24, 1881, the family living in that locality for a period of six years. He, too, is indebted to public schools for his educational privileges and he also enjoyed the benefit of a commercial course in the A. D. Wilt Business College at Dayton, Ohio. In the spring of 1903 he arrived in Yakima county, joining his brother William, and he also took up a homestead in Horse Heaven, near Bickleton. He purchased his first twenty acres of land in connection with his brother William. His place is improved with a fine residence and the characteristic spirit of enterprise of the Stover family is manifest in all that he does. He married Blanche Hartman, a native of North Dakota, and they became the parents of two children, Jasper Garfield and Gerald Dean. In politics Garfield R. Stover is independent nor has he ever been an office seeker. He has served, however, as drainage commissioner of District No. 9 for two years and helped organize the district. He is interested in everything that pertains to the public welfare and cooperates heartily in all movements for the general good.
Philip Stover, the seventh member of the family, was born in Indiana, February 13, 1884, and obtained a public school education, while later he was graduated on the completion of a course in law in the Willamette University at Salem, Oregon. He practiced his profession for a short time in that state and later at Sunnyside, Washington, while subsequently he spent five years in Alaska with a geological surveying party. In 1911 he went to the Philippines and for six years was connected with the United States Constabulary Force with the rank of first lieutenant. He became a captain in the Officers’ Reserve Corps in 1918. He is now assistant superintendent of the penal farm at San Ramon, Zamboanga Mindanao, Philippine Islands
Conrad Stover, born in Indiana, April 15, 1886, completed a high school course and also a civil engineering course in Ohio. He, too, went to Alaska, where he remained for three years and later was connected with the United States Reclamation Service on the geological survey of the Yakima valley. He is now at Hoquiam, Washington, where he is engaged in shipbuilding work. He married Florence Mahaffy, a daughter of Professor Mahaffy, superintendent of schools at Sunnyside, and they have one child, Robert.
The three sons, Victor A., William S., and Garfield R. Stover, have adjoining homes. They have one hundred acres of land adjoining and eighty acres near by, together with the four hundred and eighty acres of the homestead in Horse Heaven, which is rented. They likewise lease sixty acres near the home farm and they are among the most prominent and progressive agriculturists of their section of the state. They have beautiful homes, splendid barns and all modern improvements upon the place. They are successful and well known ranchers and what they have undertaken has been accomplished. The boys have graded and seeded over four hundred acres of land for others. They had but little when they came to Yakima county and are now numbered among the most successful residents of the valley. They raise hay and corn, also have splendid orchards and are successfully carrying on business as raisers of live stock. They are actuated by a spirit of progress that produces splendid results and their course has contributed much to the development and up building of the district in which they make their home, while at the same time their labors have greatly enhanced their individual fortunes. All who know them speak of them in terms of high regard, for they are reliable citizens, progressive business men and thoroughly straightforward in every relation of life.