Mr John Smith was born in Ohio and came to Grant County with
his parents in 1845.
His father had entered 160 acres of land 3 miles northeast of
Upland at a dollar an acre two or three years before they came to live
on it. When they came to the farm, of course none of it was cleared
and the cabin had to be built.
While his father was putting up the cabin and getting things in
shape so that they could live there, the family stayed at the court house
at Hartford City.
He attended school at a log school house, but as there was no
law compelling anyone to go, and also because his father needed him to
help clear the land, he did not attend all of the time, which was usually
about three months or less.
The seats at the school house were made of planks without backs.
There was a long writing desk at one side of the school house with a window above it and this served to light the room because the door was made
of wood and there was only the one window in the building.
Mr. Smith volunteered for the army in February, 1865, and was discharged in September of the same year.
He said he could remember when there were only about twelve families
living within a circle of one or two miles around their farm.
There were very few roads at this time and most all of them were
very poor, having stumps in them, and winding in and out through the
woods in order to keep out of the swamps. There was one road that ran
from Hartford to Marion.
Their nearest railroad was at Muncie or Huntington because the Pennsylvania was not built until 1866 or 1867
Mr. Smith said he could remember well of driving the oxen to Muncie.
Their nearest towns were Hartford, Jonesboro and Marion. Upland is now
the nearest town to Mr. Smith's farm but there wasn't any town there
at that time.
Mr. Smith's father kept the post-office and a little country store. After
he came back from the army he carried the mail some of the time. He had
to make one trip to Marion and one to Bramen, Ohio once a week. The
trip to Marion took him a good day and the trip to Bramen, Ohio took
four days. He went by way of Portland, staying all night there and then
on to Bramen to stay that night. The hotel where he stayed in Bramen
was kept by Dutch people and he said that their language and the clattering
of their wooden shoes sounded something alike to him.
He said they didn't have to go to town very often because they raised
flax out of which they made their summer clothes and wool was spun for
their winter clothes.
They didn't raise many cattle at that time, but everybody raised a
number of hogs which were branded and turned out in the woods together.
All the brands were recorded at the court house so that everyone knew just
how many he had and that none of them would get lost.
They usually killed about one or two hogs in the winter, but as there
was plenty of deer, wild turkey and other game they didn't need to kill
many.
He said that he remembered of his father saying one day to his
mother: "While you are getting dinner ready I will go out and kill a deer."
It was only a little while until he came back and said he had the deer and
needed her to help him drag it to the house.
The wild turkeys were plentiful but as they were very shy one had
to be quick in shooting them.
When Mr. Smith got married he went five miles to borrow a buggy,
because that was the nearest one and only a few people owned a buggy
at that time.
Some of the amusements that they enjoyed were spelling schools and
singing schools. He said it was nothing for the girls to walk three or four
miles and the boy's walk five or six to the spelling schools. The best time
for these was in the winter when a big snow was on and twenty or thirty
could go in a bob-sled.
Mr. Smith is a fine old gentleman and is well respected throughout the
county. He cheerfully answered all questions asked and seemed very
anxious that we succeed in the work that we are doing on the Early History
of Grant County.
-Ada Hawkins.
JOHN SMITH
For many years one of the most prosperous farming men in the county,
John Smith, with the organization of the Upland State Bank, stepped into the
office of president of that young financial institution, and he has since
continued in his dual capacity of farmer and banker, with equal success in
both enterprises. As a well-to-do agricultural man, he is widely known in
the county, and his land holdings aggregate something like 525 acres,
designated much as follows: The home farm of 210 acres located in section
25 and section 26; forty acres adjoining the home place on the north; forty
acres in section 24; and one hundred acres in section 36, making about four
hundred acres in Monroe township. He also owns one hundred and twenty acres
in Blackford county. The bulk of the land he rents for a yearly cash
rental, but the home place of two hundred and ten acres he operates
himself. He is also a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted February 1,
1865, in Company B, 153d Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and served until
September 4, 1865, when he was discharged at Louisville, Kentucky. Did
detached duty during the most of his service.
John Smith was born in the northeast part of Mahoning county, Ohio,
on November 15, 1843, and is a son of Thomas and Mary (Leonard) Smith,
who reared a family of seven children, as follows: Wesley, of Huntington
county; John, of this review; Jane, who is deceased; Emily and Lavina, also
deceased; Mrs. Maria Smith, a resident of Milford Center, Ohio; and Hiram,
of Hartford City. The father of this family, Thomas Smith, moved to Grant
county in the spring of 1845 and here entered a tract of government land,
consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, and the home of John Smith is
built upon one forty of this original acreage. The land was a dense wood
at that time, and before he was able to build the rude log cabin that
sheltered his little family in those early days, he was obliged to cut a
road from the nearest settlement through his place. He gradually cleared up
the place, and in later years to be the owner of one hundred and twenty acres
in Blackford county together with another forty adjoining, but he was swindled
out land through his investment in a railroad line that was projected
through those parts. Thomas Smith died July 23, 1876, and his wife passed away
January 7, 1901.
Mr. John Smith's progress has been fairly rapid, and at all times certain.
No element of chance has entered into his operations, and when bought a new piece
of land, he did so secure in the knowledge that he was getting it at a fair price,
and that the top of the market had not yet been reached. When he married in 1873
he was the owner of a 100 acre tract. He soon bought another forty from his father
and engaged in potato growing, sometimes having as high as forty acres planted to
that indispensable tuber. He has raised as high as four hundred bushels to the acre,
but would average about three hundred bushels, which at market of twenty-five to
thirty cents, made money for him every year. He was dubbed the "Potato King" of
his locality, and was well entitled to the name. For twenty-five years he devoted
himself to the cultivation of this crop, his shipments running well into the carloads
each season. He continued to buy land until he had a large acreage to his credit,
and as has already been stated, much of the land he rents, confining himself to the
cultivation of the home place alone. An example of his thrift in the he matter of
buying land may be cited in the instance of his purchase, with his brother, of a
forty lying on a creek. The price paid was $100 and the consideration was offered
in a colt and $50 in cash. This forty, then considered worth little or nothing, is
today well drained and worth $100 an acre. Mr. Smith has paid high prices for some
of his land, however, much of it coming at $25 and $30, while some of it cost him
high as $50 an acre.
Mr. Smith's home farm is one of the finest in the county, and is likewise
one of the best improved and kept up. In 1889 a fine eleven-room house was built
on the place, modern in many ways, and decidedly ornamental to the landscape. A
beautiful sloping lawn adds to the beauty of the place, and numerous barns and
other buildings contribute to the general attractiveness of the ensemble.
On February 12, 1874, Mr. Smith was married to Lucy Bocock, the daughter of
James and Hester Ann (Shannon) Bocock, of Clark county, Ohio, and Brown county, Ohio,
respectively. They were married in Indiana and lived many years in Grant and Blackford counties, this state. They have reared a family of eight children Raleigh,
principal of the Jonesboro schools, is now assistant cashier of the Upland State Bank;
Pluma is at home; Arthur is a furniture dealer in Hartford City; Thana is deceased;
Ira, also deceased; Harry A. is a practicing dentist in Seattle, Washington; Charles
is a farmer in Monroe township; Lelah is at the Lewis Institute, Chicago, Ill., studying
domestic science.
Concerning Raleigh O. Smith, who is assistant cashier of the Upland State Bank,
it may be stated that he was born on November 22,1874, in Monroe township, and received
his education in the district in Fairmount Academy and Marion Normal College, finishing
his training in the State Normal College at Terra Haute, Indiana, in 1906. He began
teaching at the age of nineteen in 1894, and taught seven terms in Marion at different
times; two terms were taught in Franklin township, and he served as teacher of the
Mississinewa schools, finishing his pedagogic service with three years as principal of
the Jonesboro High School. In May, 1912, he became assistant cashier of the bank, of
which his father is president, and which was organized in 1909.
John Smith is a Republican and is a member of the Friends church, his son Raleigh
sharing in his politics and his religion. The parents of Mr. Smith were Methodists, but he
embraced the faith of the Friends some years ago, and has ordered his life largely in
accordance with the demands of that sect. He is especially enthusiastic on the subject
temperance, and is one of the stanch and true citizens of the community, where he has done
his full share in the good work of development upbuilding.
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