INSLEY-Noah - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Noah Insley, farmer, New Richland, was born March 13, 1807, in Highland County, Ohio. His father, Job Insley, was born near the eastern edge of Maryland. When sixteen years old he was captured by the British, who attempted to force him to fight, but he resisted. To escape them he dressed in woman's clothes, and was engaged in watching over a sick woman, and was mistaken for a nurse by his seekers. He soon made his way to North Carolina, where he married Elizabeth Stafford, mother of Noah Insley. She was born near Guilford Court House, and was there when the battle of Guilford was fought. Her ancestry came from Staffordshire, England. Mr. and Mrs. Insley moved to Ohio, and there she died in 1832, and he came to Montgomery County, Indiana, in 1835, and died at his son's, in Fountain County, in 1836. He was steward and class-leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years. They had ten children, three of whom settled in Tippecanoe County, four in Fountain County, and one in Montgomery County, Indiana; Elizabeth King, now of Attica, Indiana, and Noah. Noah Insley immigrated to Fountain County, Indiana, in 1826; is a cabinet-maker, cutting his material from the woods, and shaping it into furniture. He probably cut the first timber for a given purpose ever cut in Coal Creek Township. He returned to Ohio, and while there bought his present farm of John Greathouse, in 1832. He was married in Ohio, April 9, 1833, to Sallie C. Terry, daughter of David and Elizabeth (Anderson) Terry, who were raised and who died in Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Insley moved in 1833 to their new home in the west. In a round log cabin, with homemade furniture, lived Mr. and Mrs. Insley. They toiled amid all the drawbacks and privations of early settlement. They added to their property until they owned 304 acres of land, a part of which they have sold. Both are old and feeble, having given largely of their substance toward to the development of the country. Politically Mr. Insley, since his first vote for Jackson, has been a Whig, and later a strong Republican. Mr. and Mrs. Insley have been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church for over forty years. She was raised a Quaker, but on account of marriage without the Church she was dismissed. They have had seven children: Elizabeth A., now Mrs. James Stallard, and lives at home; Maria, now Mrs. William H. Neely; David, died at Murfreesboro in the Civil War; Mildred J. (Mrs. Utler), burned to death by the explosion of a bottle of alcohol in 1878. She left a family of four children; John, Mary E. and Harriet Q (deceased). Mr. Insley is widely known, and a successful farmer. His settlement is further noticed in the township history.