Henry C. Chalfant, who died at his home in Portland in
the spring of 1917 and whose widow is still living there, was for many years
engaged in the hardware business in Portland and was regarded as one of the
forceful factors in the business life of that city. Mr. Chalfant was a
native of Ohio, born on a farm in Perry County, that state, March 7, 1848,
the fourth in order of birth of the eight children born to Robert and Mary
(Hanks) Chalfant. He remained on the farm until he was twenty-one years of
age, when he bought a hardware store at Somerset, Ohio, and was there
engaged in business until 1876, when he disposed of his interests at that
place and came over into Indiana, locating at Portland, where he bought the
Fulton Hardware Store, which then was located at the site now occupied by
the Long Sporting Goods Store. Four years later he sold that store and was
for three years thereafter engaged as a traveling salesman for the Binley
Hardware Company, of Pittsburgh. He then returned to Portland and was there
engaged as manager of the Fulton Hardware Store until 1907, when he again
engaged in business in the hardware line on his own account, opening a store
where Bebee Bros. now are located, and there continued in business the rest
of his life, his death occurring on May 6, 1917, and he is buried in Green
Park Cemetery.
Mr. Chalfant was a Republican and was a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as is his widow. Henry C. Chalfant
was twice married. His first wife, Lucy James, of Perry County, Ohio, died
about five years after their marriage. To that union, two children were
born, Owen (deceased) and Mary A., who completed her schooling in Indiana
University and was for about ten years engaged in teaching in the schools of
Portland. She married Prof. H. H. Jurnay; former principal of the Portland
High School, now superintendent of schools at Hooper, Colo., and has three
children, Harry, Dorothy and Mildred Journay. On January 20, 1884, Mr.
Chalfant was united in marriage to Ida F. Moots, who since the death of her
husband continues to make her home at Portland, where she is very pleasantly
situated. Mrs. Chalfant was born in Preble County, Ohio, the third in order
of birth of the six children born to Christian and Eleanor (Robinson) Moots,
the latter of whom was born in that same county, a member of one of the
pioneer families of that section of Ohio. Christian Moots was a native of
Germany, but had been a resident of this country since he was eleven years
of age, his parents having come here many years ago. He was widely known as
a buyer of livestock and also carried on a retail meat business.
Biographical && Historical Record of Jay County, Indiana
Lewis
Publishing Company, 1887
Contributed by Jim Cox