| Notes |
- JAMES P. OSBORN, the widely known farmer of Salem township, Mercer County, PA. A native of Jackson county, Ohio, born March 13, 1842, he is a son of John Osborn, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1806 and died in 1893. The father attended school until he was eighteen years of age, taught for two terms and then engaged in farming on the property now known as the Osborn homestead. He was married to Abigail Allen, who died in 1848, and their children were: Hiram, a farmer in Kansas; Stephen A., an agriculturist of Salem township, Mercer county; William, a farmer of South Dakota; and James P., our subject. For his second wife, John Osborn married Mary Lewis, of Jackson, Ohio, who died in Salem township in 1885. Politically, John Osborn was a supporter of the Republican party and in his religious belief he was of the Methodist Episcopal faith.
James P. Osborn obtained his education by attending the common schools until he was eighteen years of age. When but seven years of age he accompanied his parents to the farm upon which he now resides, where he was reared in the manner common to industrious sons of farmers. On October 6, 1864, he abandoned the plow for the gun and joined the Union cause as a member of Company I, Second Cavalry of Pennsylvania. He enlisted for three years, and was honorably discharged at the end of his term. Mr. Osborn fought and campaigned with General Sheridan, and was with his famous cavalry at the battle of Gettysburg. At the close of his military career he returned to Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and commenced farming on a one hundred and twenty-acre tract.
In 1866 Mr. Osborn was married to Mary J. Minnes, daughter of Asa Minnes, of Sandy Creek township, Mercer county, PA, who died in 1866, leaving two children: Elma, now her father's housekeeper, and Elda, who married Finley Dick, a farmer, and died in childbirth. For his second wife, Mr. Osborn wedded Miss Maria Armour, daughter of Thomas Armour, a farmer who died in 1866. Mrs. Maria Osborn died in 1905, and the children by this marriage were: John, now deceased, and William, engaged in farming.
James P. Osborn, of this review, is a fine representative of the industrious and successful American farmer of the East, wedded to his home soil, a lover and promoter of the institutions founded by his fathers, and, as was so conclusively proven on the battlefields of Virginia forty-four years ago, quite willing to give his life in defense both of that soil and those institutions. He cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln the month after he joined the Union army and has never abandoned Republicanism. Since he was a young man he has always been a steadfast member of the Methodist church.
From: A Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, Pennsylvania, 1909, p. 670, and edited by Tom Allen.
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1842 - 1921 (79 years)
