Adin Slaughter Stickle, my 2nd great grandfather in my direct paternal line, was born February 12, 1845, probably in Coshocton county in east central Ohio.  He was the oldest of ten children in the family of Thompson Stickle and Martha Jane Chapin Stickle.  Adin was named for the man (Adin Slaughter) who had raised his father after Thompson's own parents died when Thompson was quite young.

Thompson and Martha moved their rapidly growing family about 18 miles west to Eden Township in Licking county in about 1852 when Adin was about 7 years old.  Northern Licking county would be "home" to Adin for the rest of his life.  It's also where I grew up, and it is my home today.

Like most young men of his generation in the United States, Adin's life was impacted by the Civil War.  He enlisted for two brief terms of service -- 100 days each -- in May of 1864 and February of 1865.  Both times he served with an Ohio militia unit, and it appears that he saw little or no heavy combat, although at some point he was slightly wounded.  His enlistment record states that he was 5 foot, 6 inches tall, and lists his occupation as "farmer."

During the few months that he served in the military Adin kept a combination diary and daybook.   No one in my line of the family seems to have known anything about this amazing record, but I learned of it a few years ago from a descendant of Adin's daughter Addie Belle Stickle Farmer.  Apparently the book had spent most of the 20th century packed away in a trunk.  Most of the diary's penciled entries were single brief lines.  Many of them simply noted the weather or the fact that Adin found his service very boring.  Much of his time appears to have been spent building fences or chopping wood, and many days Adin complained of having nothing at all to do.  Reflecting the state's critical status as a border region and a potential pathway for a Confederate invasion of Ohio, Adin's unit served in Kentucky.  In two tantalizing entries Adin describes his capture by a band of "guerillas" [I find it surprising that the word was part of his vocabulary.] and his release the subsequent day. True to form, though, Adin provides no elaboration on the experience or his reaction to it.

The diary also contains a daybook, essentially a ledger in which Adin kept minutely detailed accounts of his spending, mostly for items of clothing that were necessary for his service.  (No frills!)  Above all, Adin was focused on the $100 signing bonus that awaited him on his muster out date -- no doubt he regarded it as his ticket to independence and to the new life he was about to begin.

On March 25, 1866, about 10 months following his return home from his second stint with the militia, Adin married Sarah Elizabeth Hickey.  Sarah was quite literally "the girl next door." The Hickey farm was on the eastern border of Washington township, and the Stickle family's farm in Eden township hugged the western edge of Eden township.  The land of the two families came together along the township borders.

Adin's bride had been born in Licking county in June of 1848, the oldest child of Joseph Hickey and Sarah Elizabeth Pound Hickey.  The Hickeys were among the earliest settlers of Licking county, and Sarah's grandfather had amassed rather significant land holdings.  Adin definitely "married up." While Sarah's parents probably did not qualify as wealthy, they were much more prosperous than the Stickles.  From this distance we have no way of knowing how Sarah's parents regarded the match, but we do know that Adin and Sarah remained close to both their Stickle and Hickey kinfolk throughout their lives.

Following their marriage Adin and Sarah took up farming, first in Newton township a few miles to the south of the family homestead, and then (sometime after 1870) in Washington township.  It's important to stress that BOTH Adin and Sarah took up farming; in the North during the 19th century farming was very much a family enterprise, and the wife was an active (even if not always equal) partner in ensuring its economic success.  Much of what a family consumed was produced on its farm, and participation in the external economy was far below the levels that would be reached in the 20th century.  In addition to managing the household and "putting up" canned goods for the winter, the wife was typically responsible for production and sale of commodities such as butter and eggs.  In 1880 Adin and Sarah reported producing 50 dozen eggs and 500 lbs. of butter -- much of this would have been consumed by the family, but it is likely that a portion of the butter would have been sold. Based on information contained on the Agricultural Census returns and on family traditions, it is clear that while may not have been the poorest family in the neighborhood they were definitely in the bottom tier.  On the 1880 Agricultural Census return their farm and its improvements were valued at $600.  For Sarah's father and brother, both of whom lived nearby, the comparable figures were $7575 and $2800.

Despite the family's apparent lack of prosperity, we have a hint that Adin was involved to at least some degree in real estate speculation.  The December 13, 1883 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer carried a classified advertisement in its Real Estate section that read as follows:  "Farm - Fine, in Eastern Kentucky to exchange for a stock of dry goods and groceries, with fixtures any where in Ohio or Indiana.  Address A. S. Stickle, St. Louisville, Ohio." Based on both available public records and family tradition I do not believe that Adin and the family ever lived outside Licking county.  How had he come to own this piece of land? What were his intentions?  Had he become aware of the land during his militia service in Kentucky during the war? Had Adin become friends and remained in contact with his "guerilla" captors? Why was he proposing an "exchange" of the land for goods and groceries instead of an outright sale?  These are only a few of the questions that come to mind.  All of them serve as a reminder that no matter how well we think we know and understand our ancestors, there are always new questions to explore, more mysteries to solve.

Adin and Sarah had six children.  Their oldest child, William, (known as Willie or Billy) was born in 1868.  He was followed by a son and daughter who both died in infancy -- Elva and Allie.  A daughter, Addie Belle, was born in 1872, and son Wylie Murphy was born in 1874.  My great grandfather, Edward Eugene  was the youngest child, born in 1881.

Adin died of complications related to heart disease on May 10, 1912, three months after his 67th birthday.  Sarah lived until September 1925.  They are buried together at Barnes Cemetery in Licking county, less than 5 miles from where they both grew up.