Alright. One more Preble County Biography, and then I will quit. Now this county is full of farmers. Still to this day. Preble is a county filled and fueled by agriculture.

The early settlers… those agricultural types… were very hard working folks, I’ll tell you. Yessirreeee. So this story is about one family in the northern part of the county. Jackson Township to be exact. The McWhinneys.

They certainly knew about working the land. One in particular, Matthew McWinniney, Sr., emigrated to Preble County. He was born in Tennessee in 1790. The American Revolution was still fresh in the minds of everyone at that time. I wonder if he knew Paul Revere, or any one like that?

At any rate, Matt met a gal named Temperance Kendrick. The two of them got hitched. And apparently they couldn’t stand their in-laws…. or something like that. Because shortly after the wedding, they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly. Hills that is. Swimming Pools. Movie Stars.

Oh wait. I’m getting my stories screwed up. The McWinneys loaded up one wagon and one horse…..and came here. They entered in 80 acres of land. Cleared it and farmed it. They were good farmers, hard workers, and they kept on planting lots of hay. They turned those 80 acres into 320. I am telling you… they could turn a row of weeds into a cash crop.

Not only were they good hard working farmers … they got busy in other ways too. They had 12 children in all…. many of whom laid roots in Preble County. Prolific bunch. So much so, you’d think they were Catholic.

Ahhh…. but they weren’t Catholic at all. They were one of the first members of a group called “The People’s Church” up near New Westville. Up, Up With People. The minister was one T.M. McWhinney… which probably stood for…. Tall Man McWhinney. Or Tacky Mittens McWinney. Any way. There were a couple of Elders in that church… and a little bit of a power struggle ensued between them.

It ended in a challenge and a duel. McWhinney and the other elder… one James Neal… paced it off with pistols one Saturday afternoon behind the church. Ten paces and blammo….

Neither one got shot… but three members of the congregation who were watching the duel… were injured by stray bullets. Thankfully, no one died.

So… they decided to start two separate and different churches. One in West Florence, and the other in New Westville. That is all I can write tonight… …. I just can’t tell you the West.

Except for this. I am not quite sure about the duel… but I had to add a little drama to this otherwise mundane tale.

So there you have it. Good thing they were hard-working hay farmers. If they would get arrested for being in more duels…. they could always get out on bale.

“Talent in cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.” – Stephen King