Born: 5/23/1809 at Franklin, Ohio
Died: 2/7/1874 at Cincinnati, Ohio (age 64)
Interred: Barkalow Cemetery
Father: Moses Vail
Mother: Mary Smalley
First Spouse: Rachel Barkalow married 12/25/1828 at Franklin, Ohio.
Children:
Mary Barkalow Vail (1830) Harriet Vail (1832) Derrick Garrett Vail (1834) Eleanor (Ella) Vail (1842) Edward Vail (1846)
Second Spouse: Eliza Wilson married circa 1870 at Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hiram's wife, Rachael died from childbirth of son Edward (d. 5/24/1846). Child is buried with mother.
He was a handsome man, over six feet in height with sandy hair. He was always immaculate and frequently wore a silk plug hat. He chewed tobacco until someone remarked to him "Mr. Vail you are always so careful of appearance I don't see how you can have such a dirty habit." He answered, "Well, I don't either." and never chewed again. He drank until the death of his first wife but reformed after that and never drank again. When a young man he was a pork packer at Franklin and was an expert at the job. He could could kill and dress a pig in record time
At age 19, he married Rachel Barkalow who was then 15.Rachel was the daughter of William P. and Mary (Tapscott) Barkalow, and was born 2/4/1813. She was very beautiful, especially her hair & was considered the belle of Warren County. She dis at birth of her fifth child, who was buried with her. She accidentally took half a glass of soda instead of salts, and it ate her stomach. She died on the southwest corner of Fifth and Center streets at the age of 33 (5/29/1846) and was buried in the Barkalow Cemetery.
After his wife's death, Hiram, then about 35, went to Cincinnati where he had a lumber yard at the corner of Hunt & Canal Sts. (where Alms & Doepke's building is. Here he accumulated a fair fortune which they always said was after age 40. He build a fine home in Walnut Hills, which, with the furnishings, cost $10,000, a considerable amount then. When he died, he was worth about $85,000 but the estate was never settled. When the courthouse in Cincinnati burned, all the records of the estate were burned, three administrators of the estate died. (Dr. Derrick T. Vail investigated the matter, but considered it hopeless).
He married his second wife, Eliza Wilson, in Cincinnati about 1870. She was the widow of a professor and was considered a real aristocrat. She lived to be 90 and is buried in Cincinnati.
Hiram died at Cincinnati on February 7, 1874 at 64 years 8 mos and is interred next to his first wife in the Barkelow Cemetery.
(Ahnentafel ID: 36 Relationship: 3/Great Grandfather)