Capt. Joseph C. Abbott is a native of Henry County, Ky., was born June 5, 1881. Came to Milton, Ky., with his parents at five years of age. He was raised in Milton, Trimble County, Ky., attending the city schools of Madison, Ind. Afterward he went to college at Carrollton, Ky. After finishing his education he engaged as clerk on the steamboat "Leonora," packet between Carrollton, Madison and Louisville, and continued as pilot and clerk for about two years. Then he took a trip down South on a flatboat. In 1874 he built the steamer "St. Francis Belle" at Cattlettsburg, Ky., and ran her in the St. Francis river, Ark, and afterward ran her in the White river, Ark., from Memphis, Tenn., to Jacksonport, Ark. In 1876 he brought her up and ran her from Louisville, Ky., to Leavenworth, Ind. In 1877 he took her to New Orleans and sold her.
He came home in 1877, and his father retired from the ferry business, and turned it over to him; he has continued in that business ever since. Mr. Abbott's parents were John M. and Mildred (Garriot) Abbott. His father was a native of Culpepper County, Va., born September 11, 1803, and came to Kentucky in 1816. Is now living in Milton, and is very active for one of his age. His mother was a native of Trimble County, Ky. She died in 1875, at the age of 63.
Capt. Abbott was married in 1876 to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. Nat. Williams, of Madison, Ind. He removed to Madison in 1876, and has resided there ever since. Capt. Abbott is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church. He belongs to Masonic Order, and has taken the Thirty-second Degree in Masonry, is a member of Union Lodge, No. 2, in Madison, and belongs to the Consistory at Indianapolis. The Captain is also a member of the I.O.O.F., Madison Lodge, No. 72; also of Madison Lodge, No. 21, K. of P.; also of Red Men and Knights of Labor. Was chairman of the Democratic committee for eight years.
Charles W. Allfrey, schoolteacher, was born in Switzerland County, Ind., and was raised on a farm. He is the son of Joseph Allfrey and Elizabeth Grey. His father was a native of Nicholas County, Ky., born in 1789, of Virginia people. His grandfather was a soldier in the War of 1812.
Mr. Allfrey's mother was the daughter of James Grey, and was born in Virginia; she came to Indiana with her father in 1800, and settled in what is now Switzerland County. They were the earliest settlers of that County. Her father was a soldier in the War of 1812.
Mr. Allfrey was educated in the common schools of his County, and then took a course at the Woodward School, located in Cincinnati, Ohio. He commenced teaching in 1853, and followed in until 1869; then for two years he flatboated. In 1871 he was appointed School Examiner, and served at that for two years; then he went at the traffic of goods on the river. While from home on this business he was nominated on the Decmocratic ticket for Recorder of Jefferson County He was elected to that office and served for four years; after which he resumed his profession as teacher, which he still follows.
When a boy he was engaged as cook on a flatboat, and in that capacity made quite a number of trips to New Orleans. He has made several trips through portions of the Southern country since he arrived at manhaood. Mr. Allfrey is considered on of the best teachers of the County, and is well liked by scholars, parents and the school officers.
William M. Amsden, County Superintendent of Public Schools, Smyrna Township, the son of Caleb and Nancy (Moncrief) Amsden, was born July 28, 1857, in Smyrna Township, Jefferson County, Ind.; was brought up in this township, attended the public schools of this County, and graduated from Hanover College in 1886. While attending college, during the vacations, for six years, from 1880 to 1886, for four months of each year, he acted as traveling salesman for McCormich Harvesting Machine Company, of Chicago, Ill. After graduating he was clerk of the Indiana House of Representatives, remaining there the session of 1887.
In June, 1887, was elected County Superintendent of Public Schools for Jefferson County, on the Republican ticket.
Mr. Amsden was married, April 19, 1888, to Miss Sophia Dean, daughter of Mr. A. C. Dean, of this Township.
He was Deputy Assessor of Smyrna Township form 1881 to 1886, four years; and has been a law student since 1881. He was made secretary of the Republican Committee from 1888 to 1890. He has been Delegate to two Republican State Conventions, to two Congressional and one Judicial Conventions. And is chairman of the Smyrna Precinct Committee. He was a candidate for the Legislature in 1888, but was defeated in convention.
His father, Caleb Amsden, was a native of New York State, and came to Indiana in 1830 and located in Jefferson County, at Madison. He was a traveling salesman for Mr. E.C. Barbour, of Madison. Has been a traveling salesman for the greater part of his life. In 1865 he located in Smyrna Township, on a farm, where he has been ever since. He is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, and is member of the Baptist Church of Wirt. He is now in the seventy-second year of his age.
Mrs. Amsden, the mother of the subject of this sketch, is a native of Jefferson County, Ind., and was the daughter of Abner Moncrief, who was a native of Kentucky, and came to this cCounty in 1808, and was one of the first settlers of the County. He was a farmer, and died in 1872, at the age of seventy-two years. He was an active member of the Baptist Church at Wirt, and was a deacon of his church for many years. Mrs. Amsden is still living, being fifty-nine years old.
Capt. John Armstrong (deceased), was born in the State of Maryland, on the Susquehanna, about the year 1789; owing to the death of his father when he was quite young, and no family records remaining, the exact date of his birth is not positively know.
Captain Armstrong remembered the Cold Friday---which was February 6, 1806, and always thought he was about seventeen years old at that time. His mother removed to Montgomery County, Ky., when he was an infant, and there remained and died, leaving one half-sister to the Captain, named Axia Carson. The Captain was bound (as was the custom in those days, in Kentucky, with orphans), but he did not like his boss (he was a cabinet-maker), and ran away. He passed through Maysville, Ky., and finding a canoe there, he paddled down the Ohio to Sedansville, and from there made his way to Hamilton County, Ohio; there he found a home with an old lady named Scott, and lived with her for a short time. He next worked for a man named Moore for two years, at four dollars per month.
Later he worked for some years for Thomas Marshall, with whom he made his home for many years. In 1814 he embarked, as a bargeman, on the keelboat "None Such," and made a trip to New Orleans. The wages for the trip was $40 for the downward trip, and $100 for the upward trip. The "None Such" arrived at New Orleans a few days before the last battle of the war of 1812 was fought there by General Jackson against Packingham. Armstrong was on the barge at the time of the battle, and distinctly heard the noise of it. He followed the life of a keelboatman for some years, making four trips from Cincinnati and Pittsburg to New Orleans and back. This was a slow business and it took about twelve months to make a round trip.
In 1819 he commenced steamboating as a deck hand on the old "Gen. Pike," the first steamer ever built in Cincinnati. "It was built and principally owned by, John H. Piatt. Jacob Strader, a clerk in Piatt's bank, was clerk on the vessel." Then Armstrong became pilot and afterward captain of many boats: "Rodolph," which he built, "Empress," and other boats that ran on the Kentucky river, and a number on the Ohio. He was at one time owner of the entire Mail Line from Cincinnati to Louisville. He continued at boating until June, 1847 (his family had been living on a farm for many years previous to this time), when he retired to his farm, in Jefferson County, Ind., above Brooksburg, at about the age of 56. In 1833 he had bought this farm, and had afterward improved it to suit his ideas of a home, so that it was all ready for him when he retired from the river: it had been his intention for many years to enjoy life as a farmer, and he did so for about thirty years. He died at his farm February 2, 1880.
In 1822 he was married to Miss Sarah Marshall, the daughter of Thomas Marshall, with whom he had made his home for many years. The issue of this marriage was seven children, vis: James, John, Thomas, George, Eliza Ann, Henrietta and Charles; of these, three are living: Thomas, George and Eliza Ann.
Mrs. Armstrong died January 16, 1838, and in 1839 Captain Armstrong married Harriet, a sister of his former wife, and they had six children, all of whom are living. viz: Sarah, Margaret, Frank, Florence, Florida and Harriet.
Capt. Armstrong was successful in business and accumulated quite a little fortune, and at the same time made for himself many friends in all the classes of life which he had passed through. He was a kind husband, father and friend, esteemed by all of his neighbors. His dust rests in peace in the burial place on his farm, which overlooks the river which he loved so well, and on which so much of his life was passed.
Holly Austin, a farmer near North Madison, was a native of Jackson County, Ohio, and was born in 1829, April 6. His parents were William and Sarah (Erwin) Austin, natives of Ohio and Virginia. His father is a farmer and is still living at 84 years of age. Mr. Austin came to Jefferson County in 1848, and has been engaged in farming and saw-milling for the most of the time since then. His is now engaged in farming and making cider and vinegar. He makes vinegar during the entire year, from crab-apples. He has an orchard of 1200 trees on the farm; controls 277 acres of land. Mr. Austin was married in 1853 to Miss Aurelia Castle, of Licking County, Ohio. They have three children,---William A., Henry C., and Fred. Mr. Austin sent the first substitute to the war from Indiana---sending a substitute before there was a call for a draft in the state.
Matthias Bader was a native of Germany, and the son of John and Katherine (Bihler) Bader; both of his parents died in Germany.
Matthias Bader was born December 3, 1826, in Wurtemberg, Germany, and came to this country in 1854, and located in Indiana in the same year. He went to work by the month on the farm, and continued to do so for about four years.
In 1858 he was married to Miss Mary Holwager, daughter of Frederick Holwager, a farmer in this County. After marrying, he rented a farm at money rent, and in 1861 he bought 40 acres of land, and since then has bought, at different times, land adjoining, until now he has a farm of 200 acres of good land, seven miles from Madison, very well improved and well stocked.
He has four children, three boys and one girl, viz: William and Annie, Charlie and Edward. William is now a farmer in Kansas; the others are at home.
Mr. Bader was drafted in 1864; for one year, was in Co. B. Fortieth Indiana Volunteers. He served nine months, and was in the battle of Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville, Tenn. He was taken sick and sent to the hospital at Jeffersonville, where he was sick about two months, when he took small-pox, and was sent to the hospital at Louisville. He is a member of the M.E. Church at Kent.
Samuel Baker, farmer, Monroe Township, was the son of a Dunkard preacher, Michael Baker, a native of Maryland, whose father came from Germany and was sold for his passage money, for which he broke hemp for some time.
The mother of Samuel Baker was Catherine Everly, and belonged to one of the oldest families in Pennsylvania.
The subject of this sketch was born in Fayette County, Ps., July 14, 1817, and was raised on a farm until 18 years of age, when he came West, with two brothers, one of whom was a cabinet-maker. They landed at North Landing, near Rising Sun, Ind.
Mr. Baker served an apprenticeship of three years, with his brother, at the cabinet making business, and then set up a shop of his own at Barkworks; he was a house joiner also.
He married, at the age of 22, Miss Nancy Wallick, whose grandmother was a daughter of Co. Crawford, who was burned at the stake by the Indians. Mrs. Bakers grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier, a ranger and Indian spy, or scout, in the early days of Indiana.
Mr. and Mrs. Baker were the parents of three children, Elzina Sylvania and Nancy. Mr. Baker's wife died about 1847. He remarried, in 1849 to Nancy J. Haddock, whose parents were natives of Indiana; the result of this union was three children: Alice, Belle and John. This wife died in 1865. Mr. Baker was married a third time, in 1866, to Sarah Kelley, daughter of William Kelley, a native of Pennsylvania. Some of his family are dead, the living are in Texas and Indiana. John, the youngest son, is at home.
The greater part of Mr. Baker's life was spent in Switzerland County, Indiana, at his trade and in the undertaking business, though he had traveled in the Far West somewhat before the Territory was made into States.
In 1865 he bought a farm of 220 acres of good land in Jefferson County, near Bryantsburg, where he has since lived as a farmer.
He is an earnest Christian, a member of the Christian Church and a good citizen.
George Barber---firm of Barber & Cravens, paper manufacturers, Broadway and Fifth street Madison, Ind.---was born in Madison June 28, 1836, and reared here and attended city schools. In 1854 he went on the river, learning the business of steamboat piloting from Cincinnati to New Orleans, which business he followed from 1858 to 1873. In the year 1873 he formed a partnership with Mr. Henry C. Watts, for the manufacture of paper, the firm name being Watts & Barber. This firm continued until 1885, when Mr. Charles Cravens bought out Mr. Watts' interest. Since then the firm name has been Barber & Cravens. The mill turns out about 2,400 pounds of paper every twelve hours. They employ seven men, and sell the paper principally in Louisville, St. Louis and Memphis. The parents of Mr. Barber were Timothy and Susan (Horton) Barber, and were natives of Connecticut and Ohio, both of them coming to Indiana when quite young. His father died in 1874, at the age of 71 years. His mother is still living. Mr. Barber was first married in 1859, to Miss Sallie Fisher of Madison Ind. She died in 1865, leaving two children, one of whom died the next year after its mother; the other Carrie, is still living, and married to Mr. Charles Friedersdorff, of this city. Mr. Barber was married a second time to Miss Mary Zuck, daughter of Mr. Andrew Zuck, of this city. They have four children: Willie, Nellie, Clay W. and George Cravens. Mr. Barber is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Barber is a good citizen, of quiet, retiring disposition, and well liked by those who know him.
William Baxter (deceased) was the son of James Baxter, who was a native of Ireland, and emigrated to this country in the last century, first locating in Pennsylvania, afterward removing to Ohio and settling near Dayton, or rather where that city now is; here he remained for a number of years, when he migrated to Jefferson county, Ind., and settled in what is now Monroe township, where he died.
The subject of this sketch was born near the Little Miami, Ohio, in 1804, and came to Jefferson County with his father when quite young, and spent his youth and manhood days, and died August 25, 1861. He was a farmer, and by careful saving of what he made by his industry, he was enabled to own 360 acres of land at the time of his death.
He married Jane Kerr, August 29, 1828, and they begot the following named children: James R., born November 25, 1829; Josiah K., September 19, 1831; Daniel T., October 1, 1833, died January 5, 1859; Oliver H.P., October 31, 1835; William A., May 27, 1838, died September 15, 1877; Hiram P., September 22, 1840; George W., March 16, 1843; Alonzo H.H., August 31, 1845; Edward A.Z., October 14, 1847; Leonidas N., November 17, 1849; Havanna S., July 25, 1852; Emlona H., August 28, 1854, died when 16 months old. His wife died May 27, 1855, and on August 26, 1857, he was married to Margaret Kerr, a sister of his first wife. By this union there was born one son, Erastus V., who was born February 3, 1859, who died at the age of two years and ten months.
Mr. Baxter was a man of prominence and never sought office. He was a member and an earnest supporter of the M.E. Church for twenty years before his death. Six of his sons were in the army during the war, and another served an enlistment in the United States army.
James W. Bayless was born in Madison, July 1, 1829, was raised on a farm and educated in the common schools.
He has never sought office, and does not like secret societies.
He owns 157 acres of good land, and runs the farm, his sister Sophronia keeping house for him, as he has never married.
His father, Nathanial Bayless, was born March 12, 1796, in Harford County, Maryland, near the head of Chesapeake Bay; he came to Madison, Ind., about 1817. He was a house carpenter and joiner, and built many houses; among them he built was the house Mr. Chas. Allings lives in. He built the paper mill on Indian Kentucky creek, known as Sheet's Paper Mill. He sharpened a dirk knife for Mr. John Sheets, which, it is said, was the one with which Sheets killed White, in Madison, some sixty-five years ago.
In 1824 he married Miss Mary A. Whedon, who was born in New York, in March, 1806, and came to Jefferson County when 12 years of age, with her father, Stephen Whedon, and early settler of Madison.
By this marriage thre were six children: George, who died at the age of 48; James W.; Nathanial, living in Monroe Township; Stephen, who died in 1884; Anna M., who is married to John Riggle, and lives at north Madison, and Sophronia, who lives with James W., who furnishes this sketch. Mr. Nathaniel Bayless moved from Madison about 1837, to Madison Township, where he bought 720 acres of land, and where he died in 1885. His widow died March 13, 1879.
There is a clock and fire shovel that has been in the family some sixty-four years.
Perry E. Bear is a native of Jefferson County, Ind., and was born September 22, 1860. His parents were Joseph Bear, a farmer, who was born in Jefferson County, in 1834 and Margaret Whitmore, who was born in Kentucky.
His paternal grandfather, Christian Bear, was a native of Pennsylvania, and settled in Jefferson County, Ind., before the State was admitted to the Union. He was of German origon, his father being a native German.
Perry E. Bear was educated in the schools of the County, having graduated from the High School. He read law with Edward Leland, and was admitted to the practice of law in 1881. He was with Judge E.R. Wilson, of Madison, for two years.
In 1884 he was elected City Attorney of Madison; was re-elected in 1885. In 1886 was appointed deputy prosecutor of Jefferson County. He became the nominee of his (Republican) party for prosecuting attorney for the Fifth Jusicial Circuit in the fall of 1888, and was elected. In 1883 he was married to Miss Vhampney. He is a member of the I.O.O.F.
Wm. H.H. Benefiel, merchant and farmer of Barbersville, Jefferson County, Ind., was born in Jefferson County, March 8, 1825.
He is the son of Wm. B. Benefiel, who, at the age of 23 years, came from Kentucky to Indiana Territory among the peoneer settlers, and located in the neighborhood of Buchanan's Station (or fort), Jefferson County in the spring of 1814; and was married, in 1816, to Miss Phoebe Conner, daughter of Lewis Conner, a native of Tennessee, and who emigrated to Indiana Territory prior to 1814.
George Benefiel and Mary Buchanan Benefiel, father and mother of Wm. B., came, with their family of seven sons and five daughters, to Indiana in the fall of 1814. The seven sons and five daughters all lived to raise large families and to an average age of seventy-three years, reconing the ages of the deceased at time of death and the living at present age.
George Benefiel, father of this family of twelve children, was a native of Virginia, and the head of a numerous branch of the Benefiel family, emigrated to Kentucky in early time, and thence to Indiana; was a pioneer of Kentucky and also of Indiana, and did much to improve this State. His descendants are in almost every State and Territory of United States, and in religion in general adhere to the Presbyterian faith, and in politics uphold the principles of the Republican party.
Wm. H.H. Benefiel, subject of this sketch, was raised on a farm and educated at the district schools and Hanover College. He was married in 1856, to Marand Johnson, daughter of Wm. Johnson, a native of Kentucky. The result of this union was three children---Nancy A., Wm. T and Mary A. All are married and live in this (Jefferson) and the adjoining (Ripley) counties.
In 1857 he engaged in the dry goods and grocery business, at Barbersville, Jefferson County, Ind., and has continued in the same business, in the same place, ever since (thirty-two years). He has also carried on farming the greater part of the time. He owns a part of the farm his father owned before Indiana was a State, 290 acres, which is well improved and very productive.
He was among the first to introduce and advocate the use of commercial fertilizers in his section, and has lived to see the great benifits derived therefrom.
He belongs to an old Whig family, and at the organizstion of the Republican party espoused the principles of that, and has been an ardent supporter of that party ever since.
Mr. Benefiel has been successful in his business, and has accumulated some valuable property.
He has an uncle and aunt, aged 88 and 80, the last of the original settlers of the twelve brothers and sisters of the second generation of his branch of the Benefiel family.
George R. Bolen, hardware merchant, was born, in Madison, November 14, 1860. He attended the public schools of Madison; and is a graduate of Halbert's Business College.
After leaving college he entered the post office as clerk, under the late Col. M.C. Garber, and continued with him for four years.
In 1879 Mr. Bolen took a position with Mr. F.G. Wharton, who was in the hardware business, with whom he remained until July 1, 1888, when he bought him out.
The firm name being Geo. R. Bolen & Co., they carry a full line of shelf hardware and carpenters' tools; and make a specially of breech-loading shot guns and small arms. They have a firne trade, and the long experience of Mr. Bolen in the business gives him a great advantage in the trade, as he is complete master of it.
Mr. Bolen is a member of the K. of P., and a past chancellor of the order. He is a member of the Trinity M.E. Church, of which he is an officer.
He is the son of Sims B. and Elizabeth Bolen, natives of Kentucky, who came to Madison just before the war. Mr. Sims Bolen, the father, has been superintendent of the Gas Co.'s works for about thirty years.
He was a member of the 67th Ind. Vols. during the late war, and a man respected by all who know him.
Mr. Geo. R. Bolen, the subject of this sketch, is a man of integrity and good business habits and qualifications, affable and pleasant in manner. He made many friends while in the post office, a place which tries the patience of both the patron and the employe, but George came out of it with more staunch friends than when he went in to it, and with his pleasant ways only made brighter by the constant trial.
Joseph T. Brashear, Mayor of the city of Madison, is a native of Washington County, PA. Was born May 10, 1832. His parents were Basil and Margaret (Trotter) Brashear, who were born in Stubenville, Ohio, and Claysville, Pa. His father was a tailor by trade. His mother died when he was three years old.
Mr. Brashear received only the education afforded by the common schools of the County.
In 1848 he removed to Stubenville, Ohio, where he commenced the trade of blacksmithing, and worked there until 1851, when he came to Madison, Ind.
He continued at his trade here, and started in to work for J.S. & R.E. Neal, foundrymen, for whom he worked up to 1860. In that year he, with others, began the steamboat building, at which he continued until 1865, when he went into partnership with Mr. A. Campbell, in the manufacture of steam boilers, and remained in this for three years.
In 1868 he, with John W. Vawter, engaged in the manufacture of agricultural implements at N. Madison for four years, at which time he sold out his interest and engaged again in blacksmithing as foreman for Cobb, Stribling & Co., foundrymen, in Madison.
In May, 1875, he made the race for mayor of Madison on the Democratic ticket, beating the incumbent, Alexander White, 157 votes. Served for two years, when he was re-nominated, and ran against Captain Powers whom he defeated by 474 votes. This was the election of 1877. In 1879 he again made the race for mayor, this time against John W. Linck, and was elected by forty-two votes.
In 1881 he was defeated in the Democratic Convention for the nomination, and Mr. S. J. Smith, a Republican, was elected. In 1883 the Republicans re-nominated Mr. Smith, and the Democrats nominated Mr. Brahsear, and he was elected by 183 majority. In 1885 he was again nominated as a candidate by the Democrats, and defeated Mr. John Pattie, Republican nominee, fifty-five votes. In 1887, ran again, his opponent being Capt. H.B. Foster, whom he beat by a majority of twenty-four.
September 8, 1853, he was married to Miss Nancy Conaway, of Madison. They have eight children.
He is a member of the I.O.O.F. and Knights of Honor. In ten years he has been absent but two times from meetings of the City Council.
William P. Brown is a native of Scotland. He was born July 9, 1841. He came to the United States in 1845, with his parents, who located in Jefferson County, Ind.
He was brought up on a farm in the County, and attended the common schools of the County.
He came to Madison in 1871 and worked at the carpenter's business until 1874, when he formed a partnership with Thomas Dow in the lumber business, under the firm name of Dow & Brown, making walnut lumber a specialty, which business they have been successfully engaged in ever since.
This firm has recently bought the sawmills situated on the corner of Front and Plum streets, Block No. 12. Their lumber yard office is on Mulberry street. They are the largest and most prominent lumber merchants in the city.
Mr. Brown was married in 1871 to Miss Mary Graham, of this County, daughter of Mr. James Graham, and has four living children; William A.,
Thomas M., James G. and Agnes W.
His parents were Alexander and Isabella (Martin) Brown. His father was a prominent farmer of this County, and died in 1882, at the age of 92 years. His mother died in 1858, at the age of 50 years.
E. Buchanan (deceased), formerly of Shelby Township, Jefferson County, Ind., was born October 21, 1821, in Ripley County and was the son of Wilson Buchanan, a native of Pennsylvania. Wilson and his three brothers came to Indiana at an early day, and made the first settlement in this neighborhood, and helped to build the first fort or blockhouse here, as a place of refuge for the settlers and of defense against the Indians. The fort was called Buchanan's Station. They raised families under the difficulties attending pioneer settlement. The subject of this sketch wa one of the children, and was raised a pioneer, getting an education of the best afforded at that time, which was of the simplest, and of what could in these days of advanced schools be considered the poorest kind.
At the age of 19, in 1841, he married Miss Lucinda Conner, daughter of Mr. Louis Conner, who was also an early settler. The result of this union was six children: Wm. H.H., who enlisted in the Twenty-second Indiana Volunteers, and returned home in six months and died the same year form illness contracted in the service; Minerva J., Lavina H., Eliza E., John W. and Edith E. His wife died September 2, 1857, and he re-married Feb. 14, 1859. This time he married Miss Rebecca Hillis, daughter of Hiram Hillis, a native of Indiana. Her mother was Louisa Atherton, daughter of Joseph Atherton, a native of Virginia. The result of this marriage was seven children; Mary E., Hannah, Victoria, Hattie L., Effie M., George T. and Nellie S.
The subject of this sketch died February 19, 1883. He had been successful in life, educated his children well, and at the same time, by careful management and patient industry, had accumulated quite an amount of valuable property. At the time of his death he owned some 900 acres of well improved land in Ripley and Jefferson Counties, which is still owned by the heirs. All of his property was obtained by his own efforts nothing having been given to him by his father.
At the marriage of this first set of children he presented each of them with $1,500. His sale bill amounted to $3,000.
Mrs. Buchanan still lives on the homestead, which belongs to her and her daughters and son, who is now 14 years of age and who is walking in the footsteps of his father and alive to all home interests, and loves his books and will make his mark in the world. Mary E. and Hannah have married; the other five are at home with their mother. Mr. Buchanan was a good citizen and a choice man.
Ira Chambers, farmer, Monroe Township, is a native of Jefferson County, Ind., was born December 7, 1842, was raised on a farm and is still living on one; he was educated in the common schools of the County. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he enlisted in the three months' service, at the call for 300,000 more soldiers by the President of the United States; he enlisted in the Tenth Indiana Cavalry, and was all the engagements of his regiment, until he was taken prisoner at Huntsville, Ala., on the 14th day of December, 1864. He remained a prisoner at Andersonville four months and thirteen days, when he escaped and found his way to the Union lines at Jacksonville, Fla., on April 29, 1865. After his discharge at the close of the war he returned home, and settled down to the quiet life of a farmer.
He was married in 1865, to Miss Nancy J. Patton, daughter of Robert R. Patton, of North Madison. They have a family of seven children; Burdett, Charles, Mollie, Harry, Willie, Frank and Stella.
Mr. Chambers has a comfortable little home and enjoys himself in life. He is a man prematurely old in consequence of exposure and injuries received while in the army. His father is Mr. James Chambers, a farmer of Monroe Township (see his sketch). Mr. Ira Chambers is a member of the G.A.R.
James Chambers, farmer, Monroe Township, was the oldest son of Isaac Chambers, an early settler of this county, and Mehitabel Goodwin, daughter of Samuel Goodwin, natives of Kentucky. Mr. Chambers was born in Jefferson County, Indiana, within four miles of the place on which he now lives, on a farm; was reared a farmer and educated in the old log school-house days. His education was, through the necessity of the case, of a limited characted. He was married in 1842, to Mary Baxter, a daughter of Daniel Baxter, a pioneer of the year 1814 to this County, and was born in Pennsylvania, and was the father of a large family, the sketches of some of whom are to be found in this book.
Mr. Chambers and wife raised a family of nine children, viz: Ira B., Indiana, Nancy A., James W., John M., Mary J., Robert D., Isaac D. and George A. Two of these, George and John M., are dead; the others are living in Jefferson County. Ira and John were soldiers in the late. Ira was a prisoner at Andersonville for some months (see his sketch); John served six months.
Mr. Chambers owns 300 acres of land of good quality and well improved, and is very comfortably fixed in a home. His wife is a member of the Baptist Chruch, and has been a consistent Christian for fifty years past.
Richard Chapman was born in Wilshire, England, in 1819, October 27. He was reared in England, and was apprenticed at the age of fourteen, to learn the trade of blacksmith, and served for seven years as an apprentice, at Woodford, near Salisbury.
He worked at his trade for eighteen years in England, and came to the United States in 1852, on the ship "Liverpool,"
having left England between Christmas and New Year in 1851. He arrived in Madison, Ind., the last day of February, 1852, with only a nickel in his pocket. He walked out in the country four miles that night on the Kent road; the next day he rented a shop two miles from Kent, and commenced work on the first day of April, where he continued to work for two and one-half years. The following July after he landed, his wife and child came to him from England.
In 1854 Mr. Chapman removed to Graham Township, and bought one-half of an acre of ground, and put a house and shop upon it, paying $100 for the ground. He worked at his trade at this place for over twenty years, keeping a general contry store in connection with his shop. His wife was made postmistress at this point, and held the office for eight years.
When he left Graham Township in 1878, he sold his premises for $1,100.
Mr. Chapman was married in 1846 in England, to Miss Alice Potter, a native of England, who died August 17, 1880, at the age of 60 years, leaving one son John.
Mr. Chapman has been very successful in accumulating property, owning a farm of 240 acres of land in Graham township, besides a nice home of twenty-seven acres, where he lives at the edge of the town of Lancaster.
He is a member of the United Presbyterian Church, and foremost to assist in all charitable enterprises.
He has done a great deal to build up the County in the way of building and improving property.
On May 29, 1886, he married Miss Cynthia (Hammond) Bailey, widow of Commodore Perry Bailey. She died December 23, 1887, without issue. John Chapman, son of the subject of our sketch, married Josephine Lard, daughter of C.K. Lard of this County, and has four children: Alice B., Sarah N., Jessie R. and Ruth C., all living at home. John owns a farm of 385 acres of land in Lancaster Township, and is one of the largest farmers in the Township. Besides farming he deals largely in stock.
James A. Cochran, farmer, Hanover Township, is a native of Hanover Township, Jefferson County, and was born Feb. 27, 1831. He was reared in this township on a farm: attended the common schools of the township.
He was married in 1869 to Miss Annie Morton, daughter of John Morton, of this County. He has two children, Jennetta and Moses A. He is a member, and an elder of Carmel (U.P.) Church.
He owns a farm of 216 acres of land where he lives, three miles west of Hanover town; the land is good and well improved. He is a large owner and dealer in Merino sheep.
His parents, Alexander and Margaret (Anderson) Corchran, were natives of Scotland; his father of Glascow, and his mother of Dumfries. They came to the United States, the mother in 1818, and the father in 1821. His father was a prominent farmer of this county, and died in 1876, at the age of 85. His mother died in 1884 at 90 years of age. Mr. Cochran was elected as County Commissioner in 1876 to 1885, on the Republican ticket.
William Cochran, farmer, is a native of Republican Township; was born in the same house in which he now lives, Aug. 27, 1835. He was brought up on the farm, and attended the common schools of the County.
He owns the farm of 172 acres of land on which he resides, and raises grain and stock, especially sheep. Mr. Cochran is unmarried.
His parents were Alexander and Margaret (Anderson) Cochran, both natives of Scotland; his father of Glascow, and his mother of Dumfries. They came to the United States, the mother in 1818, the father in 1821. His father was a prominent farmer in this County, and died in 1876, at the age of 85. His mother died in 1884, at the age of 90. Mr. Cochran is a good citizen, and a good farmer.
Cyrus Commisky, farmer, Monroe township, is the second son of Joseph and Rebecca (Baxter) Commisky
He was born in Monroe township, Jefferson County, Ind., July 3, 1849 on a farm and reared a farmer; attended the public school. He was married at the age of twenty-two to Miss Sarah Walton. They are the parents of five living children: Rosette, John, Cyrus, Frank and Pleasant; their third child Charlie, died at the age of four.
Mr. Commisky owns 133 acres of land and is a thrifty, forehanded farmer. The family of Joseph and Tebecca Commisky consisted of six children: Daniel, who enlisted in the Twenty-second Indiana Regiment, and has never been heard of since a few months after the battle of Pea Ridge; Cyrus, John F., Joseph N., and two sisters Anna and Susan, both of whom are married.
Joseph Commisky was a native of Pennsylvania, of Irish descent. He came to Indiana when quite young, and died in 1856. Rebecca Baxter was the daughter of Daniel Daxter, whose sketch is in this book, and native of this county. She died in 1887.
J. Randolph Conway, farmer, Smyrna Township, Jefferson County, Ind., is the son of John and Emily (Hoagland) Conway. and was born in Hunters Bottom, Trimble County, Ky., Aug. 17, 1836. He came to Indiana in 1840, with his parents, and located on the land where he now resides. He attended the common schools of the county.
Mr. Conway and his two sisters own 115 acres of land, on which they now live. His parents were both of them natives of Kentucky. His father was born on Dec. 27, 1800, and died Dec. 5, 1867. His mother died July 29, 1880 at the age of 77 years. His father owned 270 acres of the finest quality of land in the township; he always raised large crops of wheat and corn; the farm was called Egypt by the neighbors, on account of the corn raised upon it. One crop of corn produced ninety bushels of corn to the acre on thirteen acres. The same year, in an adjoining field of sixteen acres, the product was thirty-eight bushels of wheat to the acre; this crop brought two dollars in gold per bushel. This was during the Russian war, in 1856.
Mr. John Conway, the father, was for many years School and Township Trustee for this township. He was also a member of the Hopewell Baptist Church. He was a raiser of a great deal of fine stock; he raised one hog, of a litter of seventeen pigs, what weighed 606 pounds net, and was not fat either. Another large animal of his raising, was a Durham steer that weighed 1260 pounds at two years of age. He was a man who took a great interest in raising stock. On his farm was a great deal of very large walnut timber; the stump of one tree measured five feet and two inches in diameter. There was also one of the largest grapevines in the county on this farm; it measures forty-six inches around the body; it is on a beech tree. There is also a large poplar tree on this place, which is five feet through, and is one hundred feet high; it is covered by a vine of American Ivy-this vine covers it all over. There is a cave on the place, and when the beech leaves blow under or into the cave, they are petrified by the limestone water that drips on them; the leaves decay and leave their impression on the stone.
This is the finest land in the county, lots of walnut timber and some blue grass.
The subject of this sketch has four brothers and two sisters; John, Cornelius, Thomas, Edward, Mary and Cornelia. His sisters live with him. Edward is married and a farmer of this township; Thomas is a large farmer in Jackson County; Cornelius died in 1861; John is a farmer in Crawford County, Ind.
Mr. Conway's grandfather, John Conway was born in Culpepper County, Va., in 1770, and died in the house on this farm at the age of 93 years 1 month and 3 days.
William Condrey, ice dealer in W. Madison, was born near Lexington, Ky., February 11, 1828, the son of John and Malinda (Johnson) Condrey. The father was a native of Maryland, the mother of Kentucky. His father settled on the hill near Madison, Ind., in 1828, on a farm; afterward opened in the grocery business, and continued in that for about ten years. He died in 1889, seventy-five years old. Mr. William Condrey, was reared in Madison, has farmed and followed carpentering; engaged also in the grocery business, and boated on the river. The last fifteen years of his life he has been in the ice business. He started in life a poor boy, and by his pluck, honesty and perseverance has made for himself a good living. He has a comfortable home in West Madison, and own twenty acres of land adjoining the city of Madison, and considerable real estate in West Madison. He is a good citizen, a member of the Trinity M.E. of many years standing, and a leading man in his church. In the year 1849 he was married to Miss Vashti Smith, a native of Bartholomew County, Ind. They have had three children of whom two only are living---James W., and Anna M., wife of James Crozier, Auditor of Jefferson County. Mr. Condrey is a member of I.O.O.F. He was out with Gen. Geo. Morgan, at Cumberland Gap, during the war.
E. B. Coyle, was born October 16, 1854, in Madison, Ind., and was brought up in this city and attended the public schools. After leaving school he apprenticed himself to learn the moulder's trade, and served over three years. In 1873 he went to Johnson's starch factory, and took the job papering starch, and continued there for three years. In 1880 he engaged in the saloon business, and continued in that for eight years. In 1887 he engaged in the hardwood lumber business, and is still in that business, and has been quite successful.
His parents were both of Irish descent, Thomas Coyle, his father, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and came to Madison Indiana where he learned the trade of machinest, at which he worked for a number of years. He was killed while engineer at Johnson's starch works. His mother's maiden name was Ladosky McClaran. She was born in Kentucky, and came to Indiana when quite young, and died at an early age, leaving a family of four children, two boys and two girls, the subject of our sketch being the oldest.
James Craig, deceased, was born April 20, 1807, in Ireland near Belfast. He was married in 1834 to Miss Margaret Roberts, daughter of Mr. John Roberts, of Belfast, Ireland, a noted merchant in the linen business.
In 1838 Mr. Craig came to America, leaving Belfast in May of that year. He engaged in the coal business in Pittsburgh, Pa., for about two yearsw, when he came to Jefferson County, Ind., and settled on a farm in Monroe township, where he continued to reside to the end of his life. He died, after a short illness, at his home, May 26, 1876.
In later life, he combined farming and school-teaching as his professions, and was an energetic man in both lines of business. He occupied many positions of profit and trust at the gift of voters of his township, with credit to himself and benefit of the township. He was a prominent Mason. He was a man of strong convictions, and when once fixed in an opinion would hold out tenaciously.
He enlisted, with four of his sons, in the Sixth Indiana Regiment, and served until he was disabled, when he returned home and taught school the balance of his life. He had many prominent men of the county and State among his pupils.
His family consisted of ten children, viz: Charlotte, Maggie, William R., John T., George D., Lizzie, Robert T., Susan, Hunter (died when two years old) and James.
His widow resides on the old homestead, with her youngest son, James.
John Crawford, blacksmith and farmer, was born in Scotland, in 1842, in Ayrshire, and emigrated to America in 1856, and settled in Jefferson County, Ind. He worked four years at farming, and then commenced to learn the blacksmith trade.
In 1864 he was married to Mary Scott, daughter of John Scott, a native of Scotland. The same year he enlisted in Co. B, One hundred and fortieth Reg., Ind. Vols. and served to the end of the war; was in all the battles of the regiment. Came home and settled to work in his trade, and has been at that and farming ever since. He is a first-class mechanic, and has the best shop and tools in the county. His business is the repair of farming machinery, principally. He owns ninety acres of land, well improved and good land.
Mr. Crawford received but a limited education, but is determined that his children shall have a better one than he had. His father's name was James Crawford, who died before his son was five years of age, leaving him to make his own living; which he has succeeded in doing by his own good and honest labor and thrift. Mr. Crawford is a good citizen and honored by his neighbors.
WilliamW. Demaree, farmer, was born in Jefferson county, November 3, 1839. He is a son of Eilliam Underwood and Marietta (Wagner) Demaree, natives of Kentucky and New Jersey.
There were three generations of the family who settled, at early dates in this century, in Jefferson County, vis: Samuel the father, who came in 1812, and entered a large tract of land, Daniel, his son, and William U., a grandson. Daniel came from Shelby County, Ky., bringing his son William U., with him, who was but a boy at the time. William U., the father of William W., lived until November 1880 when he died. He built the Madison and Canaan Turnpike principally himself, and was regarded as one of the most enterprising and progressive farmers in Jefferson County. The land upon which Mr. Demaree, the subject of this sketch, now lives was entered by his great-grandfather Samuel Demaree.
The Demaree family was well represented in the army in all the wars of this country, Mr. William W. Demaree being on of the representatives in the late war, enlisting in Co. A, 55th Reg. Ind. Vol. Inf., for three months in 1862, and was out over four months. Since the war Mr. Demaree has engaged in farming.
He is the superintendent and treasurer of the Madison and Canaan Turnpike Company, and has been since his father's death.
He was married to Miss Susan E. Lee, of Jefferson County, in 1876. They have five children: Hattie, Maud, Marietta, Anna E., Ida May and William Buford. Mr. Demaree owns 200 acres of valuable land.
Thomas Dow was born February 22, 1844, in Jefferson County. His parents were William and Agnes (Scott) Dow; they were natives of Scotland, and came to the United States in 1818. Both are dead; his father died in 1872, aged seventy-one.
Mr. Dow was raised upon a farm, and lived there until 1874, when he came to Madison and engaged in the agricultural implement business, in which he continued for one year. In 1875 he formed a partnership with Mr. E. P. Brown, in the lumber trade, which business he is still in.
They have been making walnut lumber a specialty. They have lately bought a large saw-mill and lumber yard, covering the block of ground between Front and Second, and Plum and Vernon streets, and are operating that in connection with their other yard. Their office is on Mulberry street.
Mr. Dow was married in 1874 to Miss Minnie Witherspoon, of Switzerland County, Indiana. He has four living children: Thomas C., Willie S., James E. and Ella M. Mr. Dow is a member of the Masonic order.
Isaac C. Earhart is the son of John and Sarah (Wood) Earhart. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother of New Jersey. They moved to Ohio in 1799 and settled near Fort Washington, now Cincinnati; they then moved to Williamsburg, Clermont County, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch was born on July 24, 1824; from this place they moved to Newtown, Hamilton County, same State, in 1826, and from Newtown to Jefferson County, Ind., to a place known as McCellands Mills, in 1837.
John Earhart was a carpenter by trade, and Isaac, the son, learned the same trade with his father. The father died in 1869, February 16, at the age of 89; was born October 20, 1780. His mother was born in 1778, and died November 30, 1859, at the age of 81.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of Ohio and Indiana. He worked at his trade and farming until 1855, when he bought James Park's saw-mill in Republican township, and ran it until 1862, when he sold it.
He then went into farming and worked at that until 1866 in this township, when he bought the Jordan saw-mill, also in this township, and ran that for two years. He sold that and bought the Kent Mills, and ran that for eight years, when he sold it and went into farming again on what was known as the Marshall farm. He continued on this farm for four or five years, when he sold it and bought the Paris flouring mills at Paris, Jennings County; this was in 1883, when he moved to Paris and continuted to run that mill for three years. On account of the health of his wife he came back to Republican township, Jefferson County, and took charge of the Kent flouring and saw mills, where he is still engaged in business, doing a large sawing business.
He was married December 24, 1845 to Miss Rowena Hays, daughter of Samuel Hays, a farmer of this county. She died giving birth to a boy baby, who lived only eight days, on January 9, 1847. Mr. Earhart was married again February 6, 1848, to Miss Isabella Jones, the daughter of Thomas Jones, a prominent farmer of this township, by whom he had one child, Albert. Albert is married to Miss Jane Kelley, and has five children.
He was elected Justice of the Peace of Smyrna township in 1849, and served but a short time and resigned. Ind 1858 or '59 was elected Township Trustee of Republican township, and served until 1864. He was the Democratic nominee for County Auditor in 1872, and was beaten by only 180 votes, the Repulican majority being then 800 in the county. In 1878 was the Democratic nominee for Sheriff of the county, and was beaten by ballot box stuffing.
Mr. Earhart is still a strong Democrat, always has voted that ticket, and will continue to do so, so long as the Republican platform is not as good as the Democrat.
Hiram Francisco, Sr., is a farmer, but on princely scale. He owns and farms 1,800 acres of land in one body. He is one fo the most influential and advanced farmers in the county and wholly self-made.
He was born in Auburn, Cayuga county, N.Y., and was the son of David and Persis (Morley) Francisco, who were natives of New Jersey and Massachusetts respectively. The name of Francisco is of Spanish origin.
The subject of this sketch was reared upon a farm. He commenced life for himself, chopped cordwood to get money to come to Indiana, in 1840. Was agent for three years for a clock firm and wheat-fan firm, both selling and collecting for same; then he sold clocks for fifteen years for himself, and since then has been a farmer and extensive trader, principally in live stock, and is a natural, or born trader.
He settled on the place where he now lives in 1843; it is well improved in all points, and is as fine a farm as there is in the county, and is well stocked with registered stock and cattle. Howns in all eleven farms.
Mr. Francisco was married, in 1843, to Miss Mary McNutt, of Switzerland county, Ind. They have four children: Oliver, Annie, George and Hiram.
In 1870 Mr. Francisco was nominated by the Democratic party of this county for the State Senate, and overcame 700 Republican majority, being elected by a majority of seventy-two over Col. W.T. Friedley. He was the first Democratic Senator elected from Jefferson County for thwenty-five years previous to that time, and there has not been one elected since by the Democratic party.
Hiram Francisco, Jr., attorney and counselor at law, Madison Ind., is a native of Jefferson County, and was born January 28, 1851. He was brought up on a farm, attended the common schools of the county; also attended a private school in Shelby county, Ky., in 1866-67.
In 1869 he commenced reading law in the office of Harrington & Korby, of Madison, Ind. He was admitted to the bar in 1872, and in 1874 began the practice at Indianapolis, with Mr. Harrington as a partner, and remained there for one year, and in 1875 returned to Jefferson County. Ind 1877 he came to Madison, and resumed the practice of law there.
In 1878 formed a partnership with E.G. Leland, under the firm name of Leland & Francisco. This firm continued until February, 1880, when Mr. Francisco formed a partnership with Capt. A.D. Vansodol, under the firm name of Vanosdol & Francisco; they are still together, and is one of the strongest law firms in the county.
Mr. Francisco is a member of the K. of P.
He was married, in 1877, to Miss Louisa Otto, daugher of Mrs. Annia M. Otto, of Madison Ind. They have five children, all girls; Mary, Helen, Louisa, Martha and Georgia.
His father and mother are Hiram and Mary (McNutt) Francisco, of Wirt, Jefferson county, Ind.
Thomas J. Francisco is a native of Jefferson county; was born in Madison township, Jan. 4, 1839, and was brought up in the city and attended the city schools.
His parents were Alonzo and Ursula (Ellison) Francisco. His father was born in Cincinnati, O., and raised there. His mother was born in New Jersey, but was raised in Ohio. They came to Indiana and located at Madison in 1837, where they have lived ever since. His father died September 20, 1885, aged seventy. His mother is still living, in her sixty-ninth year. His father was a butcher.
Mr. Francisco, after leaving school, went to work for Mr. James Middleton, in order to learn the trade of burchering, and continued with him until 1864.
In the same year he started in business for himself, having to borrow the money to start on, and has continued in this business, and from a financial standpoint has been a success ever since.
Mr. Francisco owns a handsome residences just outside the city limits, and a farm of one hundred acres, on the Graham Road, four miles from town. He is engaged pretty largely in feeding stock on this farm, carrying an average of one hundred cattle during the winter. He is one of the thorough business men of Jefferson county, and deserves his success as the result of his labors.
Mr. Francisco was married, February 20, 1861, to Miss Mary A. Grensling, a native of Madison. They have three children: Annie L., Gilbert E. and Maud L.
Mr. Francisco joined the I.O.O.F. at the age of twenty-one years. Is also a member of the Masonic order.
Capt. Rufus Gale, farmer, Monroe township, the subject of this sketch, was born in Madison in 1831. His father Elmore Gale, was born in Massachusetts, Nov. 18, 1795. He came to Madison on a raft, in Nov., 1813, and was therefore on of the early settlers of the city and county. Elmore Gale and his father Rufus Gale (who was a native of New Hampshire, born in 1771, and was a great bee fancier), settled on a farm which is now a part of the lower end of the city of Madison. He married Miss Elizabeth Brown, who was the daughter of Thomas Brown, a native of Maryland, who was an early settler of Madison in the pork business. Capt. Gale was raised in the city of Madison, and attended the common schools of the place. He enlisted in the United States service, in the 6th Reg. Ind. Vols. in the three months' service; was among the first sworn in the State; was mustered in as first lieutenant of Co. R, and served as much till the close of the term. He then re-enlisted in the 39th Reg. Ind. Vols. (8th Cavalry) in September, 1861; he was mustered in captain of Co. H, and served until August, 1865, and was with his regiment in all of the principal battles of the regiment. The most noted of these campaigns was with Gen. Sherman, from Shiloh of North Carolina, know as the march to the sea. The regiment was Gen. Sherman's escort at the time of Gen. Johnson's surrender. After the war Capt. Gayle returned home, and was elected County Auditor of Jefferson county, and served two terms. After his second term as Auditor expired he engaged in farming in Monroe township, where he still resides upon his farm of 160 acres of well-improved land.
In 1870 he was married to Miss Harriet M. Sering, daughter of John G. Sering, one of the early inhabitants of Madison. Mr. Sering was one of the first greensware merchants of this city. He and his father-in-law, Mr. John Mellen, where the first firm who dealt exclusively in china, glass and greensware. Mr. Sering was Clerk of the county for many years.
Western Christian Advocate.
Nicholas Gasaway (deceased) was born November 1, 1806, in Clark County, Ind., near the Gasaway Church, the second Methodist society formed in the State.
December 22, 1831, he was married to Miss Elizabeth Jackson, of Jefferson county, Ind. He removed to this county and located in Smyrna township in 1832, where he continued to reside during the remainder of his life.
He was converted and joined the church when only seventeen years old, under the ministry of Rev. James Armstrong, at Shiloh, on Kent Circuit. Many a Methodist preacher remembers the genial face and hearty welcome of this good brother. His home was ever open for the itinerant, when the best was always brought out to grace the occasion. In the theology of Methodism he was well read,---it was his study. New and novel notions found no place in his belief. What the bible taught, as interpreted by Wesley, Fletcher, Clark, Watson, he took as the basis of his belief, and conformed his life to it. To the young minister he was a safe counselor and warm friend. Many of the ministers who, at different times, found rest at his home, also found they could obtain the soundest of instruction from the man of God.
He served the church in the capacity of steward for twenty years, and for forty-two years he was a constant reader of the
He died in 1879, at the age of 72 years. He left a widow and seven children, three boys and four firls---Elmore Y., Wilber F., Charles D., Margaret, Mary, Louisa and Clara. Elmore Y. is married and living in Chicago, where he is agent of the Pacific Express Company.
Wilber F. is married and farming in Kansas. Charlie D. is living in Chicago, and is agent of the American Express Company. Margaret is living in Grand Forks, Dak., with her son Miles E. Harbin. Louisa is married to E. L. Smalley, a layer, and is living in Waverly, Iowa. Clara is married to L.C. Tate, a marble dealer at Bloomfield, Ind. Mary is unmarried, and lives on the old home-place, which consists of ninety-two acres of fine land, situated just north of Volga.
Mrs. Gasaway, widow of Nicholas, died in 1883.
Nicholas Gasaway was school trustee for many years, and was a kind father and a devoted husband.
Marcus Aurelius Gavitt was born in Madison, Indiana, June 27, 1824, son of M.A. and Elizabeth (Handy) Gavitt. He was brought up in the city, and attended the Presbyterian Sabbath-school. About all of his scholastic education was obtained there. His father was of French origin; his mother was a Pennsylvania Dutch woman.
His father died in 1842, at the age of forty-four years. His mother died in 1835, at thrity-seven years of age. When only ten years of age he commenced to make his own living. His first venture was driving oxen. The next he apprenticed himself to learn the confectionery and bakery business in 1837, at which he continued for five years.
In 1842 he went into a dry goods and grocery house as a clerk, and remained one year. The he hired himself as a teamster, and drove a team for six years for one man. In 1849 he commenced driving a dray on his own account, and continued this for one year.
In 1856 was elected City Marshall on the Democratic ticket, and served one year. In 1857 was appointed on the police force of the city, and continued in that place until 1861; was then appointed City Marshall, to fill a vacancy caused by the Marshal, Mr. John Gerber, volunteering as a soldier in the war of the Rebellion. Served as a Marshall for three months, when he resigned, to join the army himself.
In 1861 he went into the 24th Ind. Inf. Vols., and was soon after commissioned Quartermaster of the regiment. Served until May, 1864, when he resigned his commission; coming home entered the auctioneering business, which he has constantly engaged in ever since, excepting the years 1875 and 1876, when he was Sheriff of Jefferson county. He was elected on the Democratic ticket; at that time the Republican majority in the county was 450---his majority was sixty-six.
Mr. Gavitt was married in 1849 to Miss Clara Denning, of Jefferson County. She died in 1856, leaving two children---Julia and Howard. He married again in 1857, to Miss Emeline Vorhees, who died in November, 1888, leaving two children---Clara and Ida. Clara is married to John Vogelsang, and lives in Chicago. All of his children are still living.
Charles H. George is a native of Jefferson county, and was born December 4, 1849. He is the son of Thomas D. and Elizabeth (Clark) George, natives of Trimble county, Ky., and Cincinnati, Ohio, respectively.
His grandfather Milton George, came from Kentucky and settled in Madison township, Jefferson county, in 1830.
His maternal grandfather, Capt. Samuel Clark, is a native of Baltimore, Md.; he came to Madison, Ind., in 1831. He was a steamboat captain on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and lost his life by the explosion of the boilers of the "Gen. Brown," November 25, 1838.
Thomas D. George, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Trimble county, Ky., and died November 15, 1869, at the age of 45 years. He was a man honored by those who knew him, and was prominent in his own township, holding township offices at one time. He was actively engaged in the Baptist ministry during the last fifteen years of his life.
Thomas George, great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was one of the early settlers of Madison, having taught school there. He was a Revolutionary soldier. Mrs. E. Heorge, the mother of Charles H. George, was one of the earliest pupils of the Lower Seminary at Madison, Mr. Reynolds being the teacher. Mr. C.H. George owns 179 acres of land.
Bruce Gillespie was born February 26, 1831, in Dearborn county, Ind. He is the son of Robert and Margaret (Robertson) Gillespie, natives of Scotland. Robert Gillespie was born in Leith, educated in Edinburg, at the School of Medicine. He was a classmate of Dr. Wm. Davidson, who practiced medicine for many years in the city of Madison. Margaret Gillespie was born at the Frith of Forth. They were married in Scotland, and came to the United States in 1819, and settled in Dearborn county, now Ohio county, Ind. They raised nine children. Dr. Gillespie bought a half section of land, and made a home for his family on the Frontier. He was the pioneer Doctor of that country, and lived to see the wild woods of his early home converted into peaceful homes, and towns and villages of Christian people taking the place of wandering tribes of savages. He died in 1846. The subject of our sketch was raised on a farm, and educated in the common schools. He worked at machinery and gun-making in his younger days, and still does that kind of work along with farming. In 1857 he was married to Miss Laura A. Gould, whose father, Samuel Gould was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1797. In 1805 he moved to the State of New York, and settled near Seneca Lake, where he learned the trade of tanner. In 1818 he emigrated to the White Water Valley in Indiana; there he married Nancy Wiley, in 1822. In 1836 he removed to Ohio county, Ind. In 1860 he removed to Osgood, Ripley county, Ind., where he remained the rest of his life. He died in 1882. In 1815 he worked at the same shop with Gen. W. H. Harrison. Bruce and Laura Gillespie are the parents of six children: William R., who graduated at the Ohio Medical College in 1887, and is now practicing in Rising Sun. Ohio county---he married Miss Bina Shiverly, of Deerfield, Mo.; Nellie, married to Dr. Firth, of Madison, Ind., and now practicing at Deerfield Mo.; Mary C., married to John Land, living in Deerfield Mo.; John B., who lives in Washington Territory; Stephen B., and George W., who are both at home.
Bruce Gillespie owns a fine farm of 135 acres of well-improved land.
Green B. Giltner, Lancaster township, lives on a little farm of twenty acres, which he owns, that lies adjacent to the town of Lancaster, in Lancaster township. He is highly esteemed by his neighbors, as is evinced by the fact of electing him township trustee in the year 1886, and re-electing him in 1888. He is a good citizen and an upright, moral man, and a member of the Baptist Church.
He was born November 17, 1846, in Smyrna township, Jefferson County; attended the schools of that township; whas married in 1869 to Miss Ella Spielman, of that township; was elected trustee of the township in 1872; elected justice of the peace in that township in 1876, and lived in that township until 1878. He then removed to Lancaster township, wher he still resides. He has six living children three boys and three girls; Leora, Thomas D., Flors, Myra C., Philip and Robert E. He enlisted on the 26th day of September, 1861, in Co. D, Fiftieth Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and served till the 9th of June, 1862, when he was discharged on account of disability. He is a member of the G.A.R. He was appointed Notary Public for Lancaster township in 1879, but resigned this office in the spring of 1886, when he was elected trustee of the township. His parents were Philip and Nancy Jane (Conway) Giltner. His father was born in Bourbon county Ky., but raised in Hunter's Bottom, Trimble county, Ky.: he came to Indiana when about 21 years old, and settled on a farm in Smyrna township, Jefferson county, wher he now lives. His mother was a native of Indiana, and is now living. Mr. G.B. Giltner is a Republican.
Joseph R. Gorgas, photographer, a native of Westmoreland county, Pa., was born Feb. 7, 1829. His parents were William and Ann Gorgas, who were natives of Pennsylvania. His father died in 1845, at the age of 56 years. His mother died at the age of 87 years, at her home in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Gorgas learned the business of photography in Pittsburgh, Pa. He came to Madison, Ind., in 1853, and engaged as clerk in the dry goods store of Mr. Irby Smith, where he remained for about three months.
He then opened a gallery for photographing, and has continued in that business ever since in Madison, whith the exception of about three years, during which time he made an extended trip through the South on a floating photograph gallery.
He subsequently returned to Madison, Ind., and re-established himself in his business. He has built up a fine trade in this line, having the best in the city. He is a superior artist in his line and deserves the great popularity which is now his.
In 1865 he married Miss Delphina Verry, daughter of Mr. John Veryy, an old citizen of Madison. He has one child Anna, who is the wife of MR. Edward E. Powell, also of Madison.
Mr. Gorgas is a member of the I.O.O.F. and Knights of Pythias, and is Captain of the Madison Division, No. 10 of K. of P. He has held this office for two years.
George W. Graston, dealer in flour, grain, lumber and timber, Dupont, Lancaster township, Jefferson County, Ind., and proprietor of the Dupont Flour and Saw-Mill. Mr. Graston was born in Silver Creek Township, Clark county, September 20, 1834. He was brought up in Clark County until he was sixteen years of age, when he went to Jennings county and remained there until 1854 engaged in farming. In 1854 he went to Shelby County Ind., wher he engaged in farming for two years, and in the latter part of 1856 returned to Jennings county, and engaged in the milling business. He remained in this mill for two years, and then came to Jefferson county September 1, 1858, where he has been ever since, engaged in the lumber and milling business.
On December 15, 1858, he was married to Miss Minerva C. Corya, daughter of Isaac Corya, a farmer of this county. They have a family of seven living children, five girls and two boys, vis: Luella, Mary I., Michael E., Perry A., Laura A., Minnie and Eva. Ella is married to John Dunn, and engineer on the O. & M. R.R., and lives at Deputy, Ind. Perry and Mike are both married; Mike lives in Dupont, Perry lives in Newport, Ky.
Mr. Graston is the son of William and Catherine (Hitch) Graston, who were natives of Knox county, Tenn., and came to Indiana in 1829, and settled in Silver Creek township, Clark County. They came on horseback, and brought all their wordly goods with them, also on horseback. Mr. William Graston was a blacksmith by trade. He died in Missouri in June, 1876. His wife died in 1842, at the age of forty years.
The subject of this sketch commenced his life without any money, and by energy and industry has made a good living, raised a nice family, and is still doing well. The mill he wons at present is of the roller process, and he does the best work and makes good flour. He is also the largest farmer in the township, having raised in 1886 one hundred acres of corn.
Mr. Graston has built up a large trade in his line of business and employs more men than any other person in the township. He pays out more money for hired help and does more to help the people. He has bought, paid for and shipped $12,000 worth of wheat since harvest; in 1887 he cut over 1,000,000 feet of lumber. Mr. Graston is a member of the M.E. Church and is superintendent of the Sunday-school, and also a trustee of the church and one of the stewards of his church.
He is a member of the I.O.O.F. and of the Masonic Order; and is an inflexible Democrat in politics.
Rev. Louis Gueguen, Rector of St. Michael's Church, Madison, Ind. Father Gueguen is a native of France, and was born February 25, 1834, near Rostrenen, Department of Cotes du Nord. He graduated from the Ecclesiastieal College of Plouguernevel in 1855, and went through the theological course at St. Briene, the seat of the Department, in the years from 1855 to 1859.
He came to the United States in 1859, having, before leaving France, received the order of deacon, and was ordained as priest in Vincennes, Ind. on the 8th day of December of the same year, by Bishop De St. Palais, by whose solicitation he came to this country. After ordination he was appointed as assistant to the Rev. H. DuPontavice, at Madison, Ind., with whom he stayed the better part of one year, when he was called to Washington, Daviess county, Ind., where he was stationed for only a few months. From there he was appointed pastor of a congregation in Floyd county, near New Albandy, wher he stayed nearly three years, when he came, at the call of his ecclesiastical superior, to the City of New Albany, where he had charge of the Church of the Holy Trinity for a short time.
From New Albany he was appointed, in 1864, as pastor of a congregation at Loogotee, Martin county, Ind., and attending from there two country churches--one in Martin and one in Daviess county---besides having a smaller congregation in Martin county. Being relieved from two these churches after eighteen months of service, he was retained at the Loogootee and St. Marin Churches, together, for nineteen years. At both of these places he was inftrumental in buildng churches; and at Logootee he built a parsonage.
In 1885 he was appointed rector of St. Michael's Church in Madison, Ind., wher he has been for over three years.
The school in connection with Sr. Michael's is managed by the Sisters of Providence; the attendance is about 150 pupils.
Alonzo J.(I)Hall, teacher, Volga, Smyrna township, Jefferson County, Ind., is a native of Jefferson County, Ind. was born December 18, 1853 brought up on a farm, was educated in the common schools of the county and graduated in 1878, at the Lebanon National Normal School at Lebanon Ohio. After leaving school he engaged in teaching district schools in this county, and has been engaged in this work, principally, ever since; is now teaching Fairview school, in Republican Township, this county. He married, in 1885, Miss Mary A. Gasaway, daughter of Mrs. Mary A. Gassaway, of Deputy, Ind. Has one child---Homer G. Mr. Hall is a member of the Lick Branch Baptist Church. He owns a farm of eighty-eight acres of good land, one mile west of Volga postoffice. His parents were Abner and Malinda (Walton) Hall, both natives of Indiana, and now living on a farm in Graham township. Both are members of the Lick Branch Baptist Church. His father is a prominent farmer of Graham Township.
John F. Hammell, is the son of John and Mary (Aston) Hammell. His father was a native of Salem, Washington county, N.Y., and his mother of East St. Louis. His father settled in Harrison county in 1846; was a teamster in the Thirty-ninth Reg. Ind. Vols., served eighteen months, when he was captured. Being attacked with rheumatism he went home. He was 58 years old when he went into the army. He was born May 31, 1803, and died in 1887.
Mr. John F. Hammell, the subject of this sketch, was born in Harrison county, Ind., May 7, 1847. He was the only son of his parents. He was reared in Jefferson county, his father removing to Trimble county, Ky., when he was but four or five years old.
In 1862, August 20, he enlisted in the Eighty-second Ind. Vols. as a private, then being only 15 years old. He served until the close of the war.
At the close of the war he worked in the ship-yard until 1874, when he opened a retail grocery, and is now doing a good business. He owns eleven homes in West Madison, and holds the office of treasurer of West Madison.
He is a member of the I.O.O.F., K. of P. and G.A.R. Is Past Post Commander of G.A.R. Was the delegate from the Fourth Ind. Congressional District to the G.A.R. National Encampment, at San Francisco, Cal., in 1886.
He is at present Captain of Sons of Veterans. He was married, September 22, 1867, to Miss Sophia Blackard, of Madison, Ind., daughter of Peter and Rebecca (Johnson) Blackard, who were Virginians. They have no living children; but have one adopted daughter.
William Wallace Hinds, is a native of Madison, Ind., born June 8, 1855; brought up in Madison, attended the city schools and Hanover College. He is also a graduate of the Commercial School of this city.
He became the city editor of the Madison Daily Star, June 1, 1880, and continued as such until it was absorbed in the Madison Daily Courier.
He was then offered the circulation department of that paper, in January, 1884, which he accepted and held until August, 1888, when he gave up that position.
He was elected one of the trustees of the City Water Works in the spring of 1888, on the Republican ticket against a Democratic majority in the city. The trustees elected him president of the Board, and superintendent of the Water Works, which position he is still holding (Dec., 1888)
While with the Daily Courier, he was elected a member of the City Council in 1885 on the Republican ticket, and was reelected to the same position in 1886, from fourth ward of the city.
Mr. Hinds is an active Odd Fellow and a prominent member of K. of P. Order, having held the position of Grand Inner Guard of the State, and is now District Deputy. He was captain of the Madison Division No. 10 U. Rank K. of P. He is now president of Walnut Street Fire Co. No. 4. He is an attendant of the Second Presbyterian Church of this city. Mr. W.W. Hinds is the son of James W. and Ruth C. (Cook) Hinds. His father was a native of Brattleborough, Vermont, born September 24, 1809, and came to Madison, Ind., when a young man.
He was a bricklayer and contractor; he built a great number of homes in Madison and built Hanover College and the Court House in Madison. He also engaged in the mercantile business at Madison and in the coal business. He was County Commissioner of Jefferson County, and served in the City Council of Madison for a number of years. He was a prominent Republican and was chairman of the Republican County Central Committee for some years.
He was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church in Madison. He was a prominent member of Odd Fellows, having been made at one time Grand Master of the State, of that order. He was a good citizen. He died May 22, 1878, in the 69th year of his age, leaving a widow and five children; three boys and three girls.
The mother of W.W. Hinds was the daughter of David and Mary Cook and was a native of Eeast Tennessee; she is still living at the age of seventy-six, and is quite an active, hale woman.
She is a member of the Second Presbyterian Church of Madison, Indiana, and in quite prominent in the work of that church and all other good works of that kind in the city; a benevolent spirit being one of the chief adornments of her character.
She was married to Dr. Joseph F. Lingle, at Paoli, Orange County, Indiana, in 1831. By this marriage she had one son, William Summerfield Lingle, who became the editor if the Lafayette (Indiana Daily Courier, and was a prominent man in newspaper circles of the State. Mr. Lingle was also postmaster of Lafayette for four years.
In the year 1836, Mrs. Lingle was married to J.W. Hinds, and the fruits of this marriage were nine children---five boys and four girls.
Henry Jackson, farmer, Shelby Township, is the son of John Jackson and Matilda Jackman. His father was born in New Jersey in 1801; moved to Tennessee about 1807, with his father Thomas Jackson, who was in the war with the Indiana at the battle of Horseshoe.
They all come to Indiana in 1822. His mother was the daughter of Robert Jackman , who was from Maryland and also came to Indiana in 1822. She was born in Pennsylvania. They were of Irish descent.
The subject of this sketch was born on a farm in Jefferson County, in 1836; was educated in the common schools of the county. He was married, in 1858, to Nancy Griffin, daughter of James Griffin, a native of Jefferson County; his people from Kentucky. Immediately after marriage he removed to Kansas, where he remained ten months, and then returned to Jefferson County where he still resides. He has six living children---Robert, James, Matilda, Henrietta, Grace and Harry. He owns forty-six acres of well-improved land.
He succeeded in giving to all his children a better education than he had. One, Elmet was educated for a teacher, but died at nineteen from a wound in his hand. Four of his children are married, and all live in Shelby Township; they are all farmers.
Mr. Jackson never sought office, and is a good, trusty, honerable citizen.
Henry Jines, farmer, Monroe township, is the son of Silas Jines; the latter born in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 8, 1812, and came to Ohio, when 19 years of age, with his fathers family. They lived there but two years, when they came to Indiana and settled in Jefferson County, Monroe Township, in 1835.
His father's name was Jacob Jines; was a brave soldier in the Revolutionary war, and while marching to meet Gen. Ross, what shot by two young Britishers; and he was celebrated pioneer preacher, as well as an expert fiddler before he began to preach; he organized Big Creek Church, and helped build up Marble Church both in Monroe Township.
Silas Jines was a soldier in the 6th Reg. Ind. Vols. during the Rebellion, as were his two sons, Henry, the subject of this sketch, and William, who were in the 22 Reg. Ind. Vols., as musicians.
Mr. Silas Jines was a prominent freesoiler abolitionest in the days that it took courage, both moral and physical, to stand for the principles avouched by those parties. He was a conductior, and his house a station, on the Undergroung Railroad.
Henry Jines, subject of this sketch, was born Feb. 27, 1839, in Hamilton County, Ohio, and came to Indiana in 1842, with his father, Silas Jines.
He was raised in a cooper shop, and received a very limited education. On July 4, 1961, he enlisted as a musician in the 22 Reg. Ind. Vol. Infantry, and served until discharged on Aug. 22, 1864. He was in all the thriry-two battles of his regiment except Pea Ridge, at which time he had small-pox. He enlisted as a private in the 16th Mounted Infantry (Ind. Troops) stationed at New Orleans, La.; he served in this regiment eight months, when he was transferred to the 13th Ind. Cav., unser Johnson, on the 19th day of June, 1865. He was honorably discharged from the service of his Country on the 13th day of November, 1865.
On the 6th day of December, 1865, he was married Kesiah Kirk, daughter of Joseph Kirk, a Virginian, who came to Kentucky, and then to Indiana, in an early day. The result of this union was six children, viz: James F., Fanny L. J., Hester A., Levina L., Jacob J. and George W.
Mr. Jines is postmaster at Faulkner; is a charter member of John A. Hendricks Post, G.A.R., and was Adjutant of the Post three years, and Surgeon one, and now this year Junior Vice Commander. He owns nineteen acres of land.
It would seem that a vein of martial music ran through the blood of the Jines family, as the two paternal great-grand-fathers of Henry and and Dean were fifers in the Revolutionary was; then jumping over two generations, Henry and his brother William served as fifers in the late war, serving four years one month and sixteen days.
Henry Clay Jones, of Madison, Ind., is the son of Joshua E. and Rachel (Coons) Jones, natives of Ross and Hamilton counties, Ohio. He was born September 26, 1837, in Cincinnati. When he was only two years of age his mother moved to Jeffersonville, Ind., his father having died previous to this time; there she remained for about two years, and moved to Madison, Ind., in 1841. Mr. Jones afterward went back to Jeffersonville, to his grandfather Coons, and attended school. In 1858, he engaged in the grain and produce business in Madison, Ind., in which he continued till 1866. At this time he engaged in steam and flatboating to New Orleans and up the Kentucky river, and following this business up to 1876, since which time he has been engaged in the log and lumber for the Government work upon the Ohio and Kentucky rivers. He, with Mr. Wm. Kirk, took tje contact and built the Rising Sun dike, and he was one of the contractors to furnish the lumber for Dam No. 1, on the Kentucky river, and for the Portland dike at Louisville, Kentucky. Is now in sawmill at Madison, Ind. Mr. Jones was married on December 18, 1859, to Miss Margaret Bishop, and has three living children: Elmer G., Richard J. and Ruth P. His Grandmother Jones lived to the very old age of 97 years, died near Chillicothe, Ohio. His mother died in Madison in 1871, at 63 years.
William Johnson, farmer, Shelby township, was born in the State of Kentucky, March 1, 1802. He was the youngest child of Thomas Johnson, a native of Virginia, who took a trip down the Ohio and rivers about the year 1804 and never returned. William Johnson's mother moved near Lexington, and afterward to Shelby County, Ky. Her family consisted to three boys and one girl. At the age of 23 Mr. Johnson came to Indiana; he landed at madison, which was then a very small town. He settled in Shelby Township, on the farm where he now lives with his son, and built himself a stone house, in which he has always resided. Previous to this, however, at the age of twenty-one, he was married to Miss Nancy Spaulding, daughter of Robert Spaulding, a native of Virginia and one of the pioneers of Kentucky.
He and his wife were the parents of ten children: William, Sally A., Jordan, Rhodes, Henry, Elizabeth, Miranda, Mary Jane, Francis and John. Of these all are living but Sally A. and Elizabeth, and all live in Jefferson County but William and Mary Jane, who both live in Kansas.
Mr. Johnson's wife died July 31, 1880. He has never held an office. He was educated in the log school-house days, when the chimney was in the corner of the house, and the education was of a limited and poor character. When he first settled in Indiana, two or three months were spent every spring at log rollings, until the lad of his neighbors was cleared and their houses built. In those early days the equipment of a farmer, in the way of tools, was a bull-tongue plow and a chopping axe; some time after the wooden mould board plow was introduced; then came the old Barshear, which were considered in their day as superion in kind as the advanced machinery of the present day is now. Trace chains were a luxury belonging to the richer class of farmers--the poorer were content with hickory wythes.
Mr. Johnson has laid off corn ground without either line or collar. John R. Johnson, the third son of the above, and with whom he makes his home since the death of his wife, was born November 4, 1839, on the farm where he now lives, and was raised a farmer. August 14, 1862, he was married Cythia Barber, daughter of James Barber, a farmer of Jefferson County. They have but one child--Ettie L.
Mr. John R. Johnson was a soldier in Co. C, Eighty-second Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and was in all the principal engagements, of his regiment during the time of service.
He is a member of the A.O. Buchman Post, No. 26, G.A.R. He is a prominent member of the Baptist Church.
He owns 67 acres of good, well-improved land.
Edward Kampe, merchant, corner Third and Walnut streets, Madison, Ind., was a native of Germany, born in 1840, June 29. He came to the United States with his parents when only twelve years of age, and located in Madison.
He attended the common school learned the trade of carpenter, which he continued to work at until 1865, when he engaged in his present business, that of dry goods and grocery store; he also handles feed and all kinds of seed. Mr. Kampe has continued at this business at the same place ever since, and has built up a large trade, and has been very successful. He is one of the principal stockholdres and one of the directors and vice-president of the First-National Bank of Madison. Is also one of the stockholdres and vice-president of Building Association No. 6. Mr Kampe is a Mason and a member of the German M.E. Church. He is also a correspondent of the German National Bank of Cincinnati, collecting much money for the Germans through them. He is a notary public, and is a stockholder in the Firemen and Mechanics Insurance Company of this city, and has held stock in most all of the enterprises of the city.
He was married, in 1866, to Miss Cecelia Grebe, daughter of Jacob Grebe, an old settler of this city, and a prominent business man for many years; in the latter part of his life he was a farmer.
Mr. Kampe has one child, as son, Wesley, who is now a student at Hanover. His parents were George and Anne (Von Disen) Kampe. His father is still living in Madison, at the age of 74 years. His mother died in 1875, at the age of 62, years. Mr. Kampe is one of Madison's best business men.
Frances M. Landon, Lancaster, Lancaster Township, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, November 23, 1839; is the son of William and Elizabeth (Riggle) Landon. His father was born in Kentucky, December 22, 1810; his mother was born at Walnut Hills, Ohio, October 7, 1811. They were married at Walnut Hills, February 12, 1828, and raised a family of five children, of whom Francis M. is the second child. His father was a miller and farmer of this county and died October 9, 1863, at the age of 53 years. His mother died January 2, 1860, at the age of 49 years.
His parents removed from Ohio to Scott County, Ind., when he was an infant, and about five years anfer removed to Jefferson County, and located on Big Creek, his father buying what was know as "Settle Mill," a flour, grist and saw-mill. His father farmed also.
The subject of this sketch attended the common schools of this county. He was married, April 15, 1856, to Miss Malinda Aenor, daughter of David Zenor, who was born at Harper's Ferry, Va., of German parentage, and who died in this county, January 5, 1887, at the age of 80 years.
Francis M. Landon and wife have five children, one boy and four girls: Elizabeth, William A., Jennie, Agnes and Clara.
Mr. Landon commenced the milling business when only twelve and one-half years old, and has been engaged at the same business ever since. He took charge of the mill at that early age because the failing sight of his father incapacitatated him for that work. Francis M. and his brother George built a new mill in 1856, a stone structure, 37 X 40, four stories high, with capacity of 100 barrels per day, at a cost of $10, 000. It was destroyed by fire in 1869. His father was in debt at the time, but the young man succeded in makng a living, and paying the debt, and at the same time building up a large trade, which has remained with him ever since. His long experience has made him thorough in all departments of the mill, so that when he gets any improved machinery he is able to put it up himself, also can repair almost anything about the mill.
Except for a few months of that time that he was in Jennings County, the whole of that time has been spent in Jefferson County. The mill he is now running is located at Lancaster; it is a merchant custom mill (flour and grist). His son William A. is now with him in the mill, the firm being Landon & son.
In 1878 Mr. Landon was appointed county commissioner, to fill the unexpired term of James Baxter, and in 1880 was elected county commissioner for the term of three years, on the Republican ticket.
Mr. Landon is a member of the Baptist Church at Lancaster. Mr. Landon has been successful in his business, and very few have started out to make their fourtunes at so young an age as he have succeeded so well. Honesty in business and probity of life have been his rule of life, and once a friend of his always a friend has been the result. He has now customers who have dealt with him forty-five years. Such a testimonial is vouchsafed too few men in this world.
Mr. Landon is in remarkably good health for a man who has been so long engaged in the milling business, night and day. He deserves his success as the reward for such perservering labor, as well as for his pluck. A boy who at that age was laden with the responsibility of a family and of debt, is seldom able to some out from under the load, and if he does is usually soured. Mr. Landon is as cheery as if everything had gone smoothly for him in this world, and does not show in his manner the troubles he has come through.
John W. Linck, attorney-at-law, was born in Jennings county, Indiana, December 7, 1843. He was the son of Federick E. and Ester (Todd) Linck, who were natives, the father of Germany, and the mother of Ireland.
His father came to the United States when sixteen years old. He was farmer and teamster.
John W. Linck, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the common schools and at Asbury College--now DePauw Unitversity---at Greencastle, Indiana, which he attended for two years after leaving the army.
On June 19, 1961, he joined Co. K, 13th Ind. Inf. Vols., as a drummer boy; was out in the field in active service, over three years, in that capacity, and was in all of the battles in which his regiment fought during that time.
He began the study of law in 1866, under the Hon. William Hale, of Iowa. He attended the lectures at the law school at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. He returned to Madison, Indiana, and continued the study of law in the office of Messrs. Allison & Friedley, and was admitted to the bar in 1867. During the time of studying in the office of Allison & Friedley, he was elected Justice of the Peace, and served as such, for the double purpose of continuing his studies and of maintenance, as he was quite poor. He was appointed Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, which office he held for two years. He was appointed by Goc. Baker, Prosecutor of the Criminal Court of Jefferson County, upon its organization, and was afterward elected, and held the office for nearly four years, or so long as the court was in existence.
He was director of the Indiana State Prison, South for four years, up to 1880, when he resigned, before the expiration of his commission, in order to accept the place of elector for the Fourth Congressional District of Indiana on the Garfield ticket.
From 1881 to 1885, he was postmaster at Madison. In 1885 he was elected as Representative from Jefferson County to the State Legislature. While in the House of Representatives he was chairman of the committee of public buildings; chairman of the special election committee; also chairman of one branch of the committee on prisons. He was re-elected in 1888, Representative from Jefferson County on the Republican ticket. In politics he is a Republican.
He was married in 1868, to Miss Julia LaCroix of Nashville, Tenn., who died in 1870, leaving one child, Stella Ester, and was again married to Miss Mina Frevert, who died in 1884, leaving one child, Lizzette.
Mr. Linck is a member of the G.A.R., and the order of Masons, of the I.O.O.F., Red Men, of the Grand Lodge of U.O. and K. of G.R. He was an original stockholder in the Madison Woolen Mills. He assisted in organizing the Madison Stove Foundry, and was its first secretary. He was also one of the original stockholders in the Cotton Mill. He is a member of Fire Co. No. 1., of Madison; and a member of M. and M. Club, Board of Trade. Mr. Linck owns 160 acres of land in Jefferson County, Ind., and a fine orange grove in Florida, together with several houses in the city of Madison.
Zephaniah Lloyd, farmer, Republican township, Jefferson County. The subject of this sketch is a farmer, and has always resided on a farm, having been born on one. He was born in Somerset County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, in the year 1805.
Mr Lloyd was left an orphan when only five years of age; his mother died when he was only three months old. He was reared by his half-brother, Mr. Tubmond Wright, and came West and settled in Switzerland County, Ind., in the spring of 1817, when he (Lloyd) was only twelve years old. He remained with his half-brother until 1822, when he was seventeen years old, when he came to Jefferson County, where he has resided ever since.
His brother Tubmond Wright died in March, 1828, at the age of 39 years; he was a farmer of Switzerland County, Ind.
Mr. Lloyd was married, in 1824, to Miss Anna Latimore, who was a native of North Carolina, and came to Indiana, in 1811, with her father Daniel Latimore, who was a farmer of this county.
Mrs. Lloyd died September 13, 1881, at the age of 81 years and 8 months. She was a member of the M.E. Church for sixty-two years. Mr. Lloyd has raised nine children, and has lived to see them all married---six girls and three boys, viz: Isabel, Elizabeth, Rhoda, Jane, Rebecca, Delpha, Oliver, Zephaniah, and Marion. Rebecca died January 31, 1868; Elizabeth died June 18, 1882; Rhoda died August 1, 1883. Mr. Lloyd bought the eighty acres of land upon which he now lives in 1830.
Mr. Lloyd is the only one of his family now living; he is one of the oldest citizens now in the county, and is a good citizen, a man who is well liked by his acquaintances, respected by his neighbors, and loved by his friends.
He now resides in the family of his son, Zephaniah, who takes care of him, as he is almost blind, so much so as to be unable to read or do any labor which requires sight.
In June, 1887, Mr. Lloyd visited his old home, in Switzerland County, to attend an old settlers' meeting, it being seventy years since he landed in that county; there were only three persons that were then living in the county, who were still alive. Mr. Lloyd attended all of the old settlers' meetings of Jefferson County, and says that there are very few of them who are still living.
Mr. Lloyd has had a long and useful life, and now, at the age of 83, cannot expect to tarry much longer on earth, but when he is called he will be sorrowed for as one who has done his duty.
Zephaniah Lloyd, Jr. (or young Zeph, as he is called by his friends and neighbors), is married and has a family of two children, Eva J. and Thomas L. Eva is married to Orlando Cooperiden, a farmer of this township; Thomas L. is in his sixteenth year, and is at home with his parents. Young Zeph. married Miss Sarah I. Cosby, of Smyrna township.
Joseph H. Lochard (deceased) was born October 22, 1810, in Cumberland County, Pa. His father, James Lochard, was a Revolutionary soldier, of Scotch birth. After the war he came to Pennsylvania, and there married Mary Hicks (or Heicks), daughter of George Hicks, who was a large land owner in Cumberland County; he was bitterly opposed to the match, and the young people eloped and were married. Several children were born of this marriage, the youngest of whom was the subject of this sketch. The father emigrated, with his family, to Indiana in 1810, and settled on the site of Brooksburg, on the Ohio river, in Jefferson County. He died shortly afterward--about 1815--and was buried near the mouth of Locust Creek, Kentucky. This left the family dependent on the mother and themselves. The mother, who was an invalid, suffering severly with sick headache, died a few years after the father, leaving the family in a strange, wild land without any parental protection or guidance.
In his boyhood the subject of this sketch was bound to Mr. James McCarty. During this time clothing and shoes were hard to procure, and the boy was compelled to dress in the summer in a tow linen shirt as his entire suit, always barefooted--often he would be barefooted until midwinter. When he first went to Mr. McCarty's his clothing was so wretched that Mrs. McCarty---afterward Mrs. Stewart--pitied him so much that she made his first pair of pants from a large linen apron of her own. Upon the death of Mr. McCarty the boy returned home and being very desirous of procuring an education, he went to a Mr. Simmons, who was teaching a subscription school in the neighborhood, and bargained with him for a winter's schooling, for which he paid with beans. During this winter he found that he must have a slate in order to succeed with his studies, and how to get it without money was a problem of considerable trouble to study; after a time he procured work for a day from a neighbor, for which he received one bushel of corn in payment, then he worked another day for the use of a horse, and took his bushel of corn to mill, and had it ground, and then he carried it to Madison (seven miles) and sold the corn-meal for eighteen and three-fourths cents, and with that purchased a slate. He studied at night by the light of burning hickory bark, and thus got a little information which was of very great value to him in after life.
He was first married when only eighteen years old, on the 18th of June 1829, to Miss Nancy Bear, who was born April 5, 1815, and died August 15, 1844. There were three children from this union who were reared to maturity: Vilitta, Solomon B. and Sarah E. Just before this marriage he worked for three months for the sum of twelve dollars, with which he bought clothing at Madison, paying prices for it which would now be considered enormous.
When first married he made the furniture for his cabin himself. The bedstead was made by boring holes in the house logs for one end of the rails and setting up posts for the other end of the rails; the rails were made of sapling poles cut in the woods, and the ends dressed down with the axe to a size to fit the holes in the house logs and in the posts; then across these poles, for a bottom for the bed, were placed smaller poles. The chairs or stools where made by splitting logs of a proper diameter and hewing one side smoothly, the boring holes through the slab he put legs to them. About this time he began to chop cordwood for steamboat use. The first winter was spent in chopping wood for a very pious old mand, who prayed much. He let his account stand open, not drawing any wages until the last of the wood was cut and delivered to Madison; then he found that the old man had overdrawn his account and not a cent could be collected for his winters work. With the money from this wood he had hoped to get a hose and some other property of which he was sadly in need.
He continued to chop wood, and in the course of a few years he moved to Kentucky, where he owned an interest in a wood yard. From there he returned to Jefferson County, Ind., again in 1840, and settled in the place now known as Manville, where he engaged in a grocery store; his beginning was on a small scale. A few years later he built a business house in that place, known as Lochard's store, wher he continued to do business until 1866, when he removed his store to Canaan, Shelby Township (his store was formerlly in Milton Township), where he continued in business until 1878 when he sold out to his two sons, S.B. and C.H. Lochard. From this time he only engaged in his private business, assisting his sons by advice in their store until March 22, 1887, when he died.
Mr. Lochard was three times married; his second wife was Phoebe SHerman, who had before married George Bear. She was born on the 23rd of June, 1819, and died May 18, 1875. There was born one son Cyrus H., who attained majority, by this marriage.
His third marriage was to Anna M. Wick, who survivied him about one year.
Mr. Locahrd served as Justice of the Peace for about fourteen years; in his younger days he flatboated on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. He was a prominent Mason.
Mr. Lochard was emphatically a self made man, coming in his old age to a position of ease and affluence; having started in early life in want, by industry, energy and perseverance and strict application to business, overcame all obstacles and made himself a success in life as a business man, and in an old age enjoyed the fruits of his labors.
He acquired quite a fortune in money and stock.
Charles V. Loring (deceased), the subject of this sketch, was born in Jefferson County, March 20, 1827. He was the son of Richard Loring, a native of Kentucky, who came to this county at a very early date. Mr. Charles V. Loring was raised a farmer, educated in the common schools of the county.
At the age of 23 he was married to Cynthia McClelland, daughter of Robert and Esther (Benefiel) McClelland. Robert McClelland came to Indiana in the year 1814. The result of this marriage is three children: Mary, married to John H Selick; Mahala and William.
Mr. Loring was a man of prominence among his neighbors. He held the office of Justice of the Peace for one term. He was a member of the Home Guards during the war. He lived on his marm near Bryantsburg till the day of his death, which occurred January 10, 1888. He was a kind husband and father, a good citizen. He owned a farm of 100 acres of well improved land at the time of his death, where his widow still resides. Se is cared for and supported by her son William who is a good son, therefore a good citizen.
John Mathis (deceased) was a farmer of Shelby Township. He was born in Trimble county, Ky., in 1808. He came to Indiana at an early date, with his mother, who was Miss Mary Warden previous to her marriage to Mr. William Mathis, father of the subject of this sketch. His father died some time before his widow; and she, with a family of young children, came to this State, and made a new home for them, and raised them to be good citizens.
Mr. Mathis was married March 24, 1831, to Miss Elizabeth Lee, daughter of Nathan Lee, who came to Indiana from Kentucky about 1815. Mr. Mathis and wife were the parents of twelve living children: William W., Nancy A., Mary J., Nathan L., Elijah, Susan, Rachel, Cytha, Elizabeth, Warner H., Malinda, Ealy and Richard. They are all married who are living, but two, Ealy and Richard, who are still at home with their mother, their father having died in 1876.
Mr. Mathis was one of the pioneers of this county, and one of its best men. He was a prominent member and earnest supporter of the Baptist Church for forty years before he died. He was liberal and honest with his neighbors, and is much missed by his large circle of friends and relatives.
He voted for Mr.s William H. Harrison for President in 1840, and was a Whig in politics, and an ardent supporter of Henry Clay. When the old Whig party ceased, he voted the Republican ticket. He owned 115 acres of well-improved land, which is now owned by his youngest son, Richard, who cares for his widowed mother and youngest sister.
Three of the sons, William W., Nathan L. and Elijah, served through the whole of the war. William was a Sergeant, and served for five years - he lives in Nebraska; Elijah lives in Jefferson County, and Nathan L. is a farmer in Kansas.
Richard Mathis, the youngest son, was born Jan. 1, 1854, is not married, and is one of the best and foremost farmers of Jefferson county.
Wm. H. Matthews, county clerk, is a native of Hanover township, Jefferson county , and was born June 16, 1849. The names of his parents are William and Martha (Pogue) Mathews, both natives of Pennsylvania. His mother was raised in Madison, was a member of one of the old families in Madison, and is now dead. His father is still living at the age of 85. Mr. Mathews was raised on a farm and was educated at Hanover College. On leaving the farm he was engaed as a drug clerk. In 1876 he went into the county clerk's office, with Mr. A.L> Shannon, and remained there a deputy clerk for eight years, with Mr. Shannon and Mr. W.E. Jackman. In 1884 he was elected county clerk. In November, 1882 he was married to Miss. Mollie DeLaste, of Madison.
Mr. Matthews was recently a candidate for re-election to the clerk's office as the nominee of the Republican party, and was elected.
Robert Mathews is a native of Jefferson county, Ind. Was born November 15, 1837. Is a son of Richard and Nancy (Jackman) Mathews, who were natives of Kentucky and Pennsylvania. His father settled Shelby township, this county, in 1818, on a farm. He died in 1869.
The subject of this sketch was raised on a farm. In 1862 he joined the Fifty-fifth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Co. A, which fought in Kentucky.
In 1864 he married Miss Nancy A. Demaree, daughter of William U. Demaree. Two children blesses this union, - Ida and W.R.
Mr. Mathews owns 317 arcres of land. Has been secretary of Madison and Canaan Turnpike Company since 1874. This pays about six per cent on capital stock. He is one of Jefferson county's most thrifty and successful farmers.
William Matthews, farmer, Hanover township, was born in Indiana county, Pa., January 23, 1803. In 1812 came to Butler county, Ohio, with his parents, where his father farmed for eighteen months, and then moved to this county.
The subject of this sketch was then only twelve years of age, when his father settled on a farm in what is now Hanover township, and is consequently one of the earliest settlers of this county. He attended the schools, such as they were, log cabins and puncheon seats. There were no public schools in those days.
Mr. Matthews has been on the same farm that his father settled on at that time ever since, except one summer spent in Pennsylvania. He made three trips to New Orleans on a flatboat - the first in 1820, the second in 1825, and the third in 1833. This country was very wild when he made the first trip. He is perhaps the oldest citizen of the county who flatboated to New Orleans; and one of the oldest citizens, as he came here before Indiana was a State, and settled in the woods.
He was married in 1832 to Miss Martha Pogue, daughter of John Pogue, who came here from Kentucky, but was a native of Virginia.
Mrs. Matthews was one of the pioneer school-teachers of the county. They raised six children, three boys and three girls: Elizabeth, Ellen C., John P., Salome J., Harrison H. and William H. Ellen C. died in the 19th year of her age, May 27, 1855. Mr. Matthews has served for two years as supervisor of roads.
Mr. Matthews is a member of Carmel U.P. Church, and three-quarters of a mile south of the Lexington and Hanover Pike.
He is a son of James and Elizabeth (Coleman) Matthews, both natives of Pennsylvania.
His father died in his 84th year, and his mother in her 76th year.
Francis Fresh Mayfield, farmer, Wirt, was born in Trimble county, Ky., April 29, 1819, is a son of Joshua and Lucinda (Ouseley) Mayfield, who were natives of Kentucky, his mother being a cousin of Governor Ouseley, a former Governor of Kentucky. She died in 1876. His father came to this county and settled in what is now Monroe township, in 1831; was a farmer and held the office of Justice of the Peace. He was in good circumstances and a prominent member of the Baptist Chruch. He died in 1876. He raised eight children, Francis F. being the oldest.
Mr. Francis F. Mayfield sold goods and packed pork in Dupont, from 1845 till 1868. He married, in October, 1850, Miss Adelaide, daughter of Capt. Samuel Wilson, an Englishman by birth, who was an old citizen of Madison. In 1851 and '52 Mr. Mayfield was a member of the State Legislature, and assisted in the revision of the Statutes of Indiana. In 1868 he went to Columbus he returned to Dupont, in this county, where he lived several years; during this time he was Justice of the Peace for that township, for three years. In 1884 he moved to a farm near Wirt. He was provost marshal during the war. He has three sons and five daughters. His oldest son is chashier in bank at Edinburgh; the younger son also there. Is a Freemason.
George T. Mayfield is a native of this county, and was born October 17, 1856. His parents were Jeptha and Emilie J. (Dailey) Mayfield, natives of Kentucky and of Jefferson county, Ind.
His Grandfather Dailey was an early settler of this county, from Kentucky. His father was also an early settler here. Mr. G.T. Mayfield received an academic education. He has been deputy assessor of the township, under D.J. Ryker, in 1880. In 1879 was deputy U.S. Marshal of Nebraska, under his uncle Wm. Dailey, who was marshal of that state.
In 1880 he started a business in Rising Sun, Ind., and in October, 1883, commenced business in Wirt - dry goods. He does a business of about $10,000.
He was married to Miss Addie W. Mayfield, of Wirt, 1888. Mr. Mayfield is a prominent member of the I.O.O.F., and a successful business man.
Burditt Mayfield, farmer, is a native of Jefferson county; was born Aug. 16, 1835; is the son of Joshua Mayfield and Lucinda Mayfield, both of whom were natives of Kentucky; both are now dead. Joshua Mayfield was born in Kentucky, and removed to Indiana at an early date. His mother's father. Willis Ouseley, was a Revolutionary soldier.
Mr. Burditt Mayfield was raised on a farm and received an ordinary education of the time of his youth.
He was married, at the age of 28, November 4, 1858, to Mehitabel Chambers, daughter of Isaac Chambers, of Jefferson county, who was native of Kentucky, and a pioneer in the settlement of Indiana. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was at the Battle of New Orleans.
Mr. and Mrs. Mayfield were the parents of only one child, who was born August 25, 1859 and died October 13, 1864.
He was elected township assessor in 1886, and now fills that office. He owns forty acres of good land, well improved. He is a good farmer and citizen.
James A. McGee, farmer, Monroe tp. The grandfather of Mr. McGee, whose name was James McGee, was a native of Ireland, a linen weaver by trade. He emigrated from there about 1800. and came to the State of Virginia, where he resided until 1822, when he came to Jefferson county, Ind., where he died.
His wife's name was Mary Hook, and she was also a native of the Emerald Isle. Mr. McGee was a soldier in the war of 1812-15, taking the Irishman's side of the fight where England is engaged - that is, against her. There is a relic of his service still preserved in the family of his descendant, James A. McGee, in the shape of a bayonet which the old Irishman carried during his service.
In Virginia, in April, 1802, was born to this pair a son, whom they called William. William came to Indiana, with his parents, and here raised a family.
Mr. James McGee was one of their sons and was born December 21, 1830, in Jefferson county, and has made it his home ever since. Mr. McGee was born on a farm, and has been a farmer all his life except when he was engaged in the army. He was educated in the schools of his youth time.
In 1855 he married Mehitabel Smith, and they had six children: John W., Albert T., George F., Jennie, Howard H., and Harry S. His wife died in 1871, and he married again in 1877, Sarah C. Mower, who was Henry Smith's widow, daughter of Jacob F. Mower, a native of Wirtemberg, Germany. From this union there are three children: Arthur B., Effie E. and Robert R.
Mr. McGee enlised in Co. H, 40th Ind. Vols., in 1864, and was in the following battles: Spring Hill, Columbia, Overton's Hill, Franklin and Nashville, besides a number of minor engagements. He was in the front rank at the battle of Franklin, Tenn., where the regiment went in with seven hundred men, and could muster only one hundred and fifty coming out.
After the war he settled down to the quiet life of a farmer. He owns 154 acres of well-improved land in this county. He is a prominent member of G.A.R., and is a prematurely old man by reason of his life in the army.
He has never been an office seeker, but has held some positions of profit and trust with credit to himself.
John F. McKay, farmer, Smyrna township, was born in the house in which he now resides, May 10, 1831. He was brought up on a farm, and attended the district schools of this county, and commenced a course of study at College Hill College, but was prevented from completing it by sickness. His parents were George and Elizabeth (Francis) McKay.
His father was a native of Barren county, Ky., and came to Indiana with his parents in 1816, and located at this place, where he continued to reside until his death in 1835. His mother was a native of Ohio; died May 12, 1849.
His Grandfather Alexander McKay was a native of Scotland, and was married in Scotland, died in Jefferson county, Ind., 1819. His Grandfather Francis came to the United States from Ireland, and settled first in Ohio; afterward came to Jefferson county, and settled two miles east of Dupont, about 1820, where he continued to reside until his death in 1838. He was a weaver by trade, and worked some at his trade in this country.
Mr. McKay owns 165 acres of land, 40 timbered, one and one-half miles west of home place. He raises a number of cattle every year. Mr. McKay was never married. Mr. McKay is a man always ready to help in a good cause, and is well liked by all who know him. He has the esteem of his neighbors, as is shown by the fact that he was elected five years successively as constable from 1855 to 1859 inclusive; afterward in 1870, he was elected for two years, but resigned before his term expired.
He was appointed County Commissioner the last day of January, 1887, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Wm. L. Cosby; the term of office expires this Mr. McKay is one of our best citizens.
William E. McLeland was born September 21, 1814, Clark County, Ky., and on the 5th of November of the same year landed with his parents at Buchanan's Station, in the northeast corner of this county. This State was then a territory. This would make Mr. McLeland one of the oldest living inhabitants of this county. He was brought up on a farm until he was seventeen years of age, when he engaged as a clerk in a country store at Canaan, for Mr. John Cain, whith whom he remained for about one year. He then engaged as a clerk for Mr. E.B. Ayres, who was a merchant in Canaan.
In 1837 he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Wesley McCoy, and bought Mr. Ayres out, and continued in business with Mr. McCoy for several years, when Mr. McCoy withdrew from the firm. Capt. McLeland then formed a partnership with Mr. R.M. Salyers, and they continued in business until August, 1855, when they closed out their business and came to Madison, Mr. R.M. Salyers as Sheriff of the county and McLeland as his deputy. In 1847 Capt. McLeland was elected Justice of the Peace at Canaan, and held the office for eight years.
December 24, 1835, he was married to Miss Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. R.L. Wilkinson, a Virginian, living at Canaan, and has seven living children, four boys and three girls: Matilda J. who married John D. Schmidlapp, and lives in Denver, Col.; Thomas E., living in Shoshone county, Idaho, County Auditor and Recorder; Louisa E. died in 1843, two years old; Lizze E. married Dr. W.A. McCoy, of Madison Ind., Charles R., druggist; Hosier Durbin, insurance and real estate business in Denver, Colorado, married Cara, daughter of A.S. Partridge, St. Louis, Mo.; William O., secretary F. and M. Insurance Co., Madison, Ind., married Eva S., daughter of D.G. Phillips, Madison, Ind.; Harriet N., living at home.
In 1858 the subject of this sketch was elected Sheriff of Jefferson county, on the Republican ticket, and served until 1861. He then went into the army as Quartermaster of the Sixth Indiana Vol. Infantry. One year later was promoted to rank of Captain and Commissary od substance, and served on the staff of Gen. R.W. Johnson, of regular army. At the close of the was was appointed postmaster at Madison. After serving nearly two years was removed by President Johnson, because the Captain did not approve of his politics. Afterward was appointed Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue, and served five years, when the office was abolished.
In 1871 he engaged in the manufacture of harness and saddles, in this city, and continued at it until his health gave way and he was not able to work any longer, when he sold out the business in 1880.
Capt. McLeland has held the office and commission of notary public for twenty-one years, and still holds the commission.
In 1884 he was taken with something like paralysis, from which he has not been able since to walk without crutches; two years of the time was confined to his bed.
Capt. McLeland has been a member of the M.E. Church since 1836, and was one of the trustees and a member of the building committee of Trinity Church of this city. Has been a member of Monroe Lodge, I.O.O.F., since 1839, and a member of the Encampment for thirty years; also a member of G.A.R. His parents were Robert and Esther C. (Benefiel) McLeland, both natives of Montgomery county, Ky.
His father died in 1853, aged 62 years. His mother died in 1873, at the age of 78 or 79 years.
John G. Moore, recorder of Jefferson county, is a native of Madison, and was born October 9, 1834. His father was a Quaker; he was an early settler in Madison, and married Miss Sarah A. McIntyre, daughter of John McIntyre, who came to Madison in 1814, and was long a merchant of this city. Mr. Moore, the father, was a merchant here, but has been dead many years past. Mr. Moore, the subject of this sketch, was raised in Madison and educated at the school of Rev. Mr. Adams. In 1862, joined the Fourth Indiana Cavalry as a private. On June 11, 1863. was promoted to first lieutenant in Commisary Department of the regiment; he resigned in June, 1864, on account of sickness. He was in many battles of the regiement. Prior to the war was engaged in the drug business in 1855 or '56, and resumed that business after the war. He was elected to the City Council from the First Ward twice, it being a strong Democratic ward, and he a Republican. Was subsequently elected Commissioner of Water Works for the city; also served as City Clerk for one term. In November, 1886, was elected Recorder of Jefferson county, and is now holding that office. He was married in 1862 to Miss Adelaide Hill, of Madison. He has no children, haveing lost five. His wife was a daughter of Dr. Parley Hill. He is a member of G.A.R. and I.O.O.F. He was a delegate from his district to the National Encampment G.A.R., at Columbus, Ohio, September, 1888.
Robert Morton, farmer, Hanover township, is the son of John and Jeanette (Weir) Morton, who were natives of Scotland, and came to the United States in 1819. Mr. Morton was born March 7, 1845, in Switzerland county, Ind., and was brought up in that county until he was eleven years of age, when he came to Jefferson county with his parents, and located in Hanover township. He is unmarried and lives on his farm of 89 acres on the Hanover and Lexington Pike, three miles west of Hanover. His farm is well improved and well stocked. He is a great admirer of blooded stock, and is trying to get the best for his farm. He also owns a farm of 86 acres, two miles south of this one. He is a member of Carmel (U.P.) Church, and is one of the trustees of that church.
John W. Morton is the son of John and Jeanette (Weir) Morton, who were natives of Scotland.
He was born in Switzerland county, Ind., April 3, 1835. Was raised on a farm and had been a farmer all of his life. In 1864 he joined the 137th Reg. Vols.; was a private, and was out until near the end of the war.
He owns 93 acres of land.
He was married in 1860 to Miss Rhoda Swann, a native of Jefferson county. She died, and he married Miss Nancy Hastie, of Scott county. He has four children: James, Harry, Robert and Frank.
His father located in Jefferson county, in 1857, and died the same year. His mother died in 1875. He has two brothers and five sisters.
Louis Muth, farmer, Monroe township, was a native of Bavaria, Germany; came to this country with his father, John Muth, who settled in New Marion, Ripley county, Ind. Louis learned the tailor's trade, but preferred farming.
He married, in 1872, Miss Margaret Friedersdorff, of Jefferson county, a daughter of Peter Friedersdorff, a native of Hesse-Darmstade, Germany.
The result of this marriage was four children; George aged 17; William Bright, aged 14; Minnie aged 11; and Maggie, aged 8. Mr. Muth belongs to the Lutheran Church, and is opposed to secret orders.
He owns 150 acres of land, and is a good farmer and a contented man.
Col. Jno. N. Patton, farmer, Monroe township, was born in Belfast, Ireland, about the year 1750; emigrated to this country before the Revolution of 1776-83, and served in that war on the side of the Union Colonies. Among other children born to him was Matthew Patton; Matthew was Hezekiah E. Patton, in Bunkum county, N.C., July 25, 1779. Hezekiah migrated to Indiana in 1814, and settled in Jefferson county, at what is now the site of Mud Lick. Afterward bought Section 21, Township 10, Range 5 North, where he resided in 1850; then removed to North Madison, where he died.
Upon this farm, the subject of our sketch, Major (as he is usually called) John N. Patton, was born August 31, 1825. He was raised on a farm, got a good plain education, the best afforded by the schools of the time. Taught school for a number of years, and was married on January 1, 1850, to Eliza Woodfill, daughter of Daniel Woodfill, of Jefferson County. After marrying he settled down to life as a farmer on the farm upon which he was born, and still resides there. The result of this union was seven children, viz: Kitty, who married George W. Altizer, and moved to Kansas, and died there; Sarah A., who died in infancy; Mary married C. Kohl; Julia A. married Frank M. McLelland (now a widow, 1888); J. Morton married Annie Taylor; Alice Cary married to John Spann, living at New Albany, Ind.; Robert E. died an infant; Eliza H., now at home.
June 16, 1862, he was mustered into United States service as first lieutenant of Co. C, Fifty-fourth Regiment Indiana Vol. Infantry, promoted to the rank of captain, served until August 25, 1863; then organized company in First Independent Battalion Infantry, and was made Major; at the close of service, brevetted Lieutenant-Colonel for services rendered. After close of the war settled down again to the life of the farm; and he has since lived on his farm of 100 acres of land in Monroe township, Jefferson county. Is a member of the G.A.R., John A. Hendricks Post, No. 107. His father's mother was Kate McColough, who was a sister to Ben McColough, the Confederate General and daughter of Elijah McCollough, whose father settled in the mountains of Virginia, near the North Carolina line, in the last century, and came from the Highlands of Scotland. The mother of Col. Patton was Anna Wilson, who came to this county as early as 1809; Ohioans by birth, they went to Kentucky, then Indiana.
Margaret Patton, an aunt of Col. Patton, organized the first Sunday-school in Jefferson county; all who were her pupils, except James Baxter, now in Oregon, are dead.
Hezekiah E. Patton, the father of the subject of our sketch, was a soldier in the War of 1812; was an advocate for freedom and free speech, he, with Captain Isaac Chambers and James Baxter, having held a mob of some sixty persons at bay, while a free-soil abolitionist delivered a lecture in the log school-house in the year 1836. The mob were armed and equipped with all things necessary to tar-and-feather and ride the speaker on a rail, but so soon as they saw the three old stalwart soldiers on picket, armed with their old squirrel rifles and their hunting knives in their belts, they considered discretion the better part of valor, and retired to the woods and held a picnic, and our subject, the son, is a firm believer in the theory
The Freedom's battle once begun,
Bequesthed from bleeding sire to son.
He died in July, 1856.
Dr. Benjamin A. Penn was born in Shelby township, Jefferson county, July 22, 1824. He was the son of Ephraim and Mary Ann (Warfield) Penn.
His father was a native of Pennsylvania and a descendant of William Penn, the founder of that State.
Benjamin Penn, grandfather of Dr. Penn, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The father of Dr. Penn was born in 1784, and came to Kentucky about the year 1800; he first stopped in Maysville a short time, and removed from there to Frankfort, where he located.
He bought or entered three different trancts of land, which he lost by priority of title in other names. He married in Kentucky, and removed to Indiana about the year 1816, so that part of his children were born in Kentucky and the younger part in Indiana.
He settled in Shelby township, about two miles west of where the town of Canaan now is, and built the first brick house in that township.
Dr. Penn was born on this farm, and spent his life here until his thirteenth yeear. He attended school, first going to John Gillespie, one of the pioneer teachers of the county. Among other teachers to whom he went were Thomas Hicklin, Wm. H. Phillips, and Henry Mavity, who all became prominent men. The school-house was built by his father and two or three other settlers.
Dr. Penn studied in these schools, besides the elementary branches, Latin, Chemistry and Natural Philosophy. At the age of sixteen he spent one year in the office of Dr. Thomas Watson, of Shelby county, Ky., in the study of medicine. The he returned home and read in the office of Dr. Howard Watts, of Madison. About this time he went to Lewis county Ky., and read and practiced one year with Dr. T.O. Mershon. Then he put up is shingle independently, or on his own hook, Sept. 20, 1846, at Oldtown, Ky., and practiced for three years, and then removed to a point near Camden, Carroll county, Ind. In 1853 he remvoed to Miami, and remained there until February, 1857, from whence he removed to Jefferson county, Ind., where he has since resided, first at Canaan for two years, and since then at Bryantsburgh.
After coming to this county he attended lectures at Cincinnati, and graduated in the class of 1854-65.
On the 4th of November, 1856, at Miami, he was married to Miss Rebecca E. Guest, and they have five children; Luke, born July 23, 1857; Mary, June 8, 1860; Ben F., April 5, 1866; John S., September 10, 1867; and Silas, September 22, 1872. The eldest son is a practicing physician in Aurora, Ind.; he read medicine with his father and attended lectures at the Louisville School of Medicine. Mary married J.G. Butt, of Illinois, and has three sons. Ben F. is traveling in Montana; John is in Janeswille, Wis., attending a school of telegraphy, and Silas is still at home with his parents.
Dr. Penn's parents both died in the 73rd year of their age, his father in 1856 and his mother in 1860.
At the age of 17 Dr. Penn joined the Baptist Chruch, but left that church at Miami, Ind., because there was no Baptisit church there, and united with the Christian Church; he the withdrew from that church on account of peace principles and established a church called the Church of the Princes of Peace; but owing to a difficulty in procuring a room for meeting, it was discontinued, and he became a member of the Hebron Baptist Church, and has remained a member in that church to the present.
Dr. Penn owns and resides on a very nice little farm of fifty acres of good land.
Since his graduation at Miami Medical College he has studied the German and Greek languages, so as to speak, read and write with the German and to read and teach the Greek.
Dr. Penn was ordained a minister of the Christian Church, and has devoted a large portion of time, study and hard service in teaching and preaching the pure and unadulterated word of God as given to the world by Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, and His Apostles, and in opposition to human creeds, human churches and war under all shapes and forms.
Squire Phillips, farmer, Shelby township, was born in Jefferson county, in 1832. He never went to school more than three months in his life. About the time that boys are in school now, he was busy as a hand at log rolling, cabin building, and other work. He has been a farmer all of his life, and is a very good one, as the farm he now lives on, of 172 1/2 acres, testifies by producing more now than when he first settled on it.
He is the son of Presby and Sarah (Hall) Phillips. His father was born in Ohio, of Virginia parents, and was one of the first settlers of Jefferson county, Ind. His mother was the daughter of William Hall, who was a soldier at Valley Forge.
At the time Mr. Phillips was a boy the old wooden mould board plough was in use, and the farmers raised the flax from which clothing was made.
He was married in 1857 to Mary E. Cardinal, daughter of John Cardinal, native of England. They have four living children: Charles W., John, Samantha J. and Susan. Charles W. is practicing medicine in Scipio, is a graduate of Ohio Medical College; first studied medicine with Dr. S. B. Lewis, of Canaan. John is farming in Jefferson County, and Susan is at home. Mr. Phillips has never sought office, and belongs to no secret order, and is a good citizen in every sense of the word. He is a Republican in politics.
John J. Piles, farmer, Monroe township, was born Nov. 23, 1823, in Kentucky, and is the son of William Piles, a native of Henry county, Ky. His father, Conericus Piles, a native of Virginia, was one of the famous "hunters of Kentucky" of Daniel Boone's days, and was a Revolutionary soldier.
William Piles settled in Switzerland county, Ind., as early as 1825 or '26, where he lived for many years. There married Elizabeth Haydon, who was the daughter of William Haydon, a native of Virginia, who removed to Kentucky at an early time of his life and lived there a great many years. Of this family, Ben, Jackson, Thomas and Bland Haydon were soldiers in the War of 1812-15.
Mr. John J. Piles was a son of these parents, and was raised on a farm. In 1846 he was married to Miss Cynthia A. Rayburn, daughter of R. Rayburn, a native of Kentucky, of Irish ancestry. Her mother, Nancy Ryden, was a native of Kentucky.
Mr. Piles and wife have never had any children of their own, but have furnished homes for five of other parents, namely: Chas. U. Kenen, Martin L. Rayburn, Nancy J. Piles, and her two daughters, Laura B. and Elizabeth. Mr. Piles went at the first call for troops in the Rebellion, as a private in Co. D, Thirty-seventh Regiment, Indiana Volunteers, and was in all the battles of his regiment, viz: Stone River, Lookout Mountain, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, etc. The regiment was with Sherman in his famous "March to the Sea." Served three years, and came back to farmer's life, settling in Jefferson county, Monroe township. He is a mamber of the G.A.R. and is a good citizen.
John F. Pommerehn was born in Germany, March 20, 1839.
His father's name was Frederick Pommerehn. Both of them came to the United States in 1850, on a sailing vessel, being seven weeks on the passage, arrived in October. His father died in 1882.
John F. Pommerehn settled in Jefferson county. His education was received in Germany. He is a farmer and has worked at milling.
He was married in 1868, to Miss Nancy Taylor, daughter of James Taylor, a native of Scotland. They have nine children: William, Jane, Anna, James, John, Mary, Thomas, Ellen and Cahancy.
He owns 142 1/2 acres of well-improved land in Jefferson county, and has a sawmill on his farm.
Mr. Pommerehn has succeeded in making a good living, and has accumulated some property besides.
All of his children are living at home with their parents.
Mr. Pommerehn is a member of the Masonic Order, and a well respected citizen.
James V. Rawlings, M.D., Wirt, Jefferson county, is a native of Jefferson county and was born on a farm in Lancaster Township, January 3, 1859. His parents are James E. and Margaret (Walker) Rawlings, natives of Jefferson county, Ind., and of England. His grandfather Vincent Rawlings was a native of Kentucky, and was one of the early settlers of Clark county, Ind., and afterward came to this county; was a tanner by trade, but became a farmer in Lancaster township, where he lived to a good old age.
The father of Dr. Rawlings lives in Lancaster township, on a farm. Dr. Rawlings was reared on a farm, and was educated at the college in Danville, Ind. He studied medicine with Dr. J.W. Flanders, of Dupont, Ind., and graduated in the spring of 1887, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Baltimore, Md. He began the practice of medicine at Wirt, has a large practice thus far, and a fine promise for future work.
Earl T. Rector was born in Lancaster township, Jefferson county, January 12, 1842. Daniel Rector, the great-grandfather of E.T. Rector, was founder of the Rector family in Jefferson county; was a native of Virginia, and came to Jeffferson county as early as 1807. Daniel was in the Ranger service in the War of 1812-15, and was killed at a muster near Kent, Jefferson county, Ind. Daniel Rector, son of Hezekiah, was the father of the subject of our sketch; was born and raised in Lancaster township, Jeffferson county, Ind. He married Jane C. Ferris, daughter of Leonard Farris, a native of New York. They had ten children, of whom Earl T. Rector was the eldest. Born and reared on a farm, was educated in the common schools of the county. Lived on the farm and learned the plasterer's trade. At the call of President Lincoln for troops, he enlisted in Co. K, Twenty-second Reg. Ind. Vols., Col. Jeff. C. Davis. He was with his regiment in all the battles in which the regiment was engaged; the principal ones were Pea Ridge, Ark., Corinth, Miss., and Perrysville, Ky., Stone River, Chichamauga, Mission Ridge and others. He was one of the men of his company who came out of all the battles unhurt. During his last months of service he was in the Pioneer Corps. He came home in 1864, and returned and served until 1865, when he was discharged at close of war. On one occasion, while following Price, he was detailed as forager for provisions, and during the raid he lost all of his clothing but boots and shirt; at a store he foundd a pair of linen pants, a cut-away coat and a stove pipe hat, all of which he appropriated as contraband of war; and in this costume fought the Johnies for some time during the spring of 1862.
He came home and settled down to a farm life, taking unto himself Miss Irene Craft, as a wife, in 1867. She was the daughter of John B. Craft, a native of New York.
They have three children: John B., Daniel P. and Jennie, who are all at homr.
Mr. Rector is a member of the I.O.O.F. and is commander of John A. Hendricks Post, G.A.R.; was a Freemason. He spent the four best years of his life in the army. He is a good citizen and farmer.
Hezekiah Rector, grandfather of Earl T., was a captain of a company in our Colonial war, and he was shot by one of the company's sentinels who refused to be released from duty.
Dr. John H. Reynolds was a son of Simeon L. and Charity (Tomlinson) Reynolds, and was born in Jefferson county, Ind., July 17, 1820. His parents were natives of Connecticut and of Irish and English origin.
His father settled in Madison, Ind., in 1815, and was a carpenter by trade. For thirteen years in early life he was a mariner on the ocean. In 1820 he went from Madison to a farm in Jefferson county, and died in 1847.
Dr. Reynolds was raised on a farm, one of thirteen children, educated in the ordinary schools, afterward in a select school. At the age of 24 years he began the study of medicine under Dr. Parley Hill, of New York (who died in Madison, Ind.), and graduated from the University of St. Louis in 1849. He began the practice of medicine in 1844, where he now is, near Wirt, and has continuously practiced medicine since.
He was married to Miss Maria Hall, of Jefferson County, daughter of Robert M. Hall, of Kentucky, but formerly of North Carolina, and has six living children: Lou, wife of D. Morris, of Kentucky; Sallie C., wife of L.C. Holmes, a Kentucky merchant; Allie, wife of Louis Levey, publisher, Indianapolis; Blanche, wife of John Ross, teller in the First National back of Madison; Geo. E., M.D., at Kent, Jefferson county, graduate of Indiana Medical College, and Scott H., M.D., at Scipio, Ind., graduate of Miami Medical College Cincinnati, O. Dr. Reynolds owns 85 acres of land. He is a fine physician, a good citizen, honored of his neighbors and the public generally.
Joseph T. Reynolds, farmer, Lancaster township, is a native of Lancaster township, Jefferson county; was born Feb. 13, 1846, on a farm, and reared on a farm. He attended the common hand high schools of the county.
He was married in 1864 to Miss Harriet E. Bonnell, a native of Ohio, but a resident of this county at the time of the marriage. They have four living children, three boys and one girl: George W., Ruth C., Andrew F., and William L.
Mr. Reynolds was elected Justice of the Peace in the township, in 1886, on the Republican ticket. He lives on a farm of 160 acres of good land, which is in a fine state of cultivation, lying at the edge of Dupont. His parents were William L. and Delilah (Johnson) Reynolds; mother a native of Kentucky: father a native of Vermont. He came to Indiana and located at Madison in 1813; when he first came there were only log babins in the town.
He drove the first dray in Madison. He entered one-half of the farm wher his son now resides. He died in 1876, at the age of 73. His widow died in May, 1882.
John Richert, firm of Fischer & Richert, carriage and wagon manufactureres, 315 East Main street, opposite Court House.
John Richert was born on the 16th day of July, 1835, in Baden, South Germany. Came to the United States in 1857, and located in Johnstown, Pa., where he remained about twenty-one months, working in a rolling mill; but, with the desire to better his condition, he left Pennsylvania in 1859, and came to Madison, Ind. He he applied himself to the trade of carriage and wagon making, and worked at it for about two years with Mr. J.B. Miller. At the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, he went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he remained about thirteen months working on Government wagons; while there he enlisted to help build the pontoon bridge, that was constructed with coal barges over the Ohio river, from Cincinnati to Covington, to expedite military forces and supplies. Soon after his return to Madison on board the boat, it was necessary for the boat officials to arm the passengers with muskets to fight their way, should they be attacked by Confederates; they however reached Madison unmolested and in safety. Here he began work to lay the foundation for his present business. He enlisted with the Home Guards, and during the exciting period when Gen. Morgan was expected to cross the Ohio river and make a raid on Madison, he was one of the troops who stood guard on the river front.
He joined partnership with Mr. V. Fischer, and started in the manufacture of wagons upon a small scale. By doing good work and giving their business close attention they have established a large and growing business. They commenced their business where they now are, in an old two story frame building, but having enlarged their shops as their business increased, in the year 1874 they built the large two story brick warerooms at present occupied by them, and commenced the manufacture of carriages also. They employ from eighteen to twenty skilled workmen.
Mr. Richert is a member of the German Lutheran Church, and for many years was one of the presiding elders; many of the improvements made are due to his good judgement, of which the congregation can be proud. He is also a member of the I.O.O.F. He was married in 1865 to Miss Elisabeth Keller, of Tell City, Ind.; born in the village of Ruedlinzen, Canton Shaffhausen, Switzerland. Eight children were born to them, six girls and two boys. Their names are - Anna, Elisabeth, Catherine, Magdalene, George, Caroline, Julia and Lemuel. Mr. Richert is a good citizen; upright and honest in his business, his success is deserved, and his integrity has won him the esteem of his friends and the respect of all who know him. He is a good example of what may be attained in the way of competency by any who will employ the same means, honesty and perserverance.
John R. Ritchie, farmer, Creswell P.O., Smyrna township, Jefferson County, Ind., is a native of Smyrna township, and was born May 27, 1832; was raised on a farm; attended the common schools of the county, and went to Hanover College for one year. After leaving school he taught a district school in this county for three sessions. At that time teachers were elected by vote. In 1856, October 23, Mr. Ritchie was married to Miss Mary A. Dean, of this county, daughter of John Dean, a native of New York. He has three living children, two girls and one boy; Walter, Lucy and Bertha. Walter married Miss Sarah A. Amsden, of this county; Lucy and Bertha are both living at home. Mr. Ritchie is a member of the Grange Ins. Co., and helped to organize the company. He has a farm of 247 acres of good land, well improved. He is now making a specialty of thoroughbred Jersey cattle. He started his herd with "Miss Fannie," of well-known herd of Mr. John B. Poyntz, of Maysville, Ky., and has now a very fine herd, which he is always pleased to show to anyone. Mr. Ritchie was among the first who run a steam thresher in Jefferson county, and was the first to take a steam thresher on the hill in Trimble county, Ky. His parents were John and Sophia (Branham) Ritchie. John Ritchie was born in Ohio in the year 1807, and came to Jefferson county, with his parents, when only two years old, and lived in this county till his death in 1877, July 9. In 1829 he was married, and in the spring of 1830 located at Harbert's creek, near the present postoffice of Creswell, Smyrna township, where he and Robert Branham built a grist and saw-mill that was run by water; this was one of the first water-mills in the township. They continued to run this mill for a few years, when they put in a steamengine, making the first steam grist and saw-mill in the township. The same engine is still at work in the saw-mill to this day, having used up four boilers. At the time of starting the steam mill, Mr. Ritchie formed a partnership with Mr. Smiley Sample, the firm name being Ritchie & Sample, for running the mill and a store. This firm continued about two years, when Ritchie bought out Sample's interest in the whole concern, and continued in the milling business til he died. Mr. Ritchie was 69 years old at the time of his death, at which time he owned 500 acres of land, and some houses and lots in Madison, making him worth in all about $30,000. He was the largest tax-payer in the township. He was a good manager. He was one of the first members of Smyrna Presbyterian Church, and was a deacon in the church for many years, and gave liberally to the church, and was foremost in assisting all deserving persons and enterprises. He gave $500 to Hanover College. He was the largest stockholder in the Smyrna and Graham Turnpike Road.
Hiram F. Robbins, farmer, Monroe township, was born in Worchester county, Mass. His parents were Rufus Robbins and Harriet Farnham, both natives of Massachusetts. His father died when he was eight years old. He lived a few years with a man named Smith, who was a man of wealth and influence; while here he was educated in business and chose a guardian, Daniel Fisk. He began to learn the trade of a carpenter with a man named Wilson, in Southbridge, and served as an apprentice for three years and saved all his money. He then went to work at farming. He attended the manual labor school at Worster, it being so constituted that boys could work their way to education. While here he worked at stone masonry. He then went to work at his trade and built a house for a cotton manufacturer.
After that he started to New Orleans to work at his trade of carpenter, but at Stubenville, O., he met with a Mr. Cook, who was a contractor, and was employed by him. He was made the superintendent of the work by Cook. He came to Madison, Ind., Dec. 13, 1839, on the old steamboat "Columbia."
Here he was employed by the civil engineers of the railroad which was being constructed at that time. Next he began wort at house building; he worked on the First Presbyterian Cjurch on Main street (this church stood on the south side of Main street and the west side of the alley), and on many other houses well known to old citizens.
In 1841 he married Miss Amanda Cosby, the daughter of Archibel Cosby, a native of Kentucky. From this marriage came five children: Charles, Benjamin, William H., Edward and Amanda Eliza. William H. died when five years old and Amanda Eliza while an infant. Mrs. Robbins died September 20, 1856, aged thirty-one years one month and eighteen days.
In 1860 he was married a second time to Miss Ella Crittenden, of Columbus, Ind. There were two children born of this marriage, Willie C. and Albert B. Willie is married to Miss Alice Hilbert and lives in Monroe township. Albert B. is unmarried and lives in Illinois. Mr. Robbins was contractor for and built more houses in Madison than any other man who worked in the city. From 1840 to 1852 he carried on a shop as builder and contractor. In 1852 he built a furniture manufactory, the second built in the State. He operated this for twenty-eight years, shipping furniture all over the country. In 1877 he bought a farm in Monroe township and settled down on it. There are 133 acres of it. His wife died there.
Mr. Robbins has been an Odd Fellow and is a member of the Christian Church.
William Robbins (deceased), the subject of this sketch, was born in Kentucky in 1794. He was brought up in perilous time from the wild beast of the country and the still wilder and more cruel men, the Indian. His first visit to Indiana Territory was in 1804, when he came to visit his mother's brother, John Rykere, who had a claim in Eagle Creek Valley, about three miles east of where Madison now is
He bought flour, sugar and coffee to his uncle, luxuries which were not to be had at that time in the little settlement of Indiana. During this journey he saw deer, bears, panthers and various kinds of smaller game. He crossed the Ohio in a pirogue, his horse swimming by the side of the boat.
In 1809 Mr. Robbins settled permanently in Jefferson County, or what was afterward so named, making his home with his uncle, Mason Watts, who had built a log cabin two miles north of the present site of Canaan. The indians were troublesome about this time, and he enlisted as a ranger, and was several months in that service, headquarters at Buchanan's Station. The company in which he served was along Indian Kentucky creek, and was commanded by James McCoy as captain; this was in 1811-1812.
He was with Gen. W. H. Harrison when Detroit was taken, and at the battle of the River Thames were Tecumseh was killed; but just who fired that fatal shot he could never twll. After the war he settled on a tract of land, two and one-half miles north of Canaan, which he bought of the Government.
He was married on the 21st of January, 1816, to Elizabeth Wildman, who was the daughter of James Wildman, an early settler. He was married by Elder Jesse Vawter.
Mr. Robbins was a great hunter, and kept his family well supplied with meat by the use of his gun. Game of all kinds was plenty in the forest at that time -beasts and birds. He was in Madison at the first sale of lots by John Paul and Jonathan Lyons; the lots were about where the court-house now stands; they sold for about fifteen dollars apiece.
The result of his marriage was eight children, who lived to the age of maturity, vis: Eliza, Mary A., James, Aaron, Elizabeth, Martha, Ryker and John W.; of these, two girls and four boys are now living (in 1888).
Mr. Wm. Robbins died in 1884, at his son Aaron's; he had been blind for some years. He was a centenarian, and the last of his compeers to pass away to the Spirit Land. His wife died in 1856. He was a member of the Baptist Church for many years before his death.
His youngest daughter, Martha, was married to James Christie, February 24, 1846, and to them were born two children: John W. and Mary Elizabeth. Her husband died July 11, 1850, and she re-married in October, 1855, to William B. East, and to them were born five children, viz: George O., Ryker A., Minerva A., Fannie D. and Bailey S. Her second husband died January 26, 1865, and she married a third time, in 1884, to Enos Miles, who died in 1887. SHe still lives in the village of Bryantsburg. Her eldest son enlisted in the Tenth Reg. Ind. Vols., and served through the war.
Mrs. Miles has raised her family almost unaided, and has been successful in giving all of them a good common-school education. She has lived to see all of her children grown and married.
She has been an earnest member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for some twenty years.
Edward Roberts, merchant, Bryantsburgh, was born in Switzerland county, Ind., in 1839. His father, John S. Roberts, was an early settler of that county, and was a farmer. His mother was Jane Salyers, daughter of John B. Salyers, and grandaughter of a Revolutionary soldier. The family were from Virginia. Nathan Roberts, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, a native of Maryland, settled at a point opposite to the present city of Cintinnati before there was any town there. He entered a tract of land, but afterward lost it because of leaving it.
Mr. Edward Roberts was raised upon a farm; at the age of twenty-two he enlisted in the 76th Reg. Ind. Vols., Co. D, and served three months. He enlised a second time in Co. D, 137th Ind. Vols., in which he remained till the end of the war. He was inall of the battles of his regiments, and was a good soldier. He saw service at Atlanta and other points of the same campaign.
After the war he came home and worked at house-carpentering for some twenty years. He is now engaged in a general merchandise business at Bryantsburgh, Jefferson county. He also has the postoffice at that place. He was trustee of Shelby township for one term. In 1873 he was married to Miss Mary J. Mitchell, of Jefferson county; no issue. Mr. Roberts is an energetic, honest business man, and a good citizen.
Dan. A. Roberts, farmer, Smyrna township, was the son of Dan. and Ann (Walker) Roberts, both of whom were born and raised in Lancastershire, England. They came to the United States about 1844, and located in Jefferson county, Ind.
His father taught school in this county, and bought a farm, and remained here for about two years, when he went to Cincinnati, Ohio; remained there until 1848, when he went to Louisville, Kentucky, where he died of cholera in 1849. His mother is still living on her farm in this county, aged 67 years.
Dan. A. Roberts was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, January 15, 1846, removed to Louisville, Ky., with his parents, in 1848, and remained there until 1853, when he removed with his mother to Jefferson county, Ind., where he has resided ever since.
He attended school in Louisville, and in Smyrna township. In 1869 he was married to Miss Perntha E. Robinson, the daugher of John Robinson, who was a native of Ohio, but came to Indiana in 1847, and located on a farm in Graham township, where he remained until his death in 1855.
Mr. Roberts has five children, three boys and two girls: Edgar A., Claude A., Clarence J., Esma A., and Myrtle E. Mr. Roberts owns three farms, containing about 300 acres of good land, located in the western part of Smyrna township. He raises a great deal of stock.
In the spring of 1864 he enlisted in Co. E, 137th Regiment Indiana Infantry, and in the winter of 1854 enlisted in Co. H, 145th Regiment Indiana Infantry, and was mustered out at Macon, Georgia, January 21, 1866. His regiment was engaged in guard duty the most of the time.
He has been twice elected to the office of Trustee of Smyrna township. He is the only Republican ever elected to that office in Smyrna township.
Leander M. Robinson, firm of D.C. Robinson & Co., saw-mill and lumber business. He is the son of Jesse and Lydia C. (Miles) Robinson, natives of Ohio, both living, and was born December 8, 1844, in Hamilton county, Ohio. In 1852 his parents removed to Madison, Ind., where they still live. He attended the city schools. In 1861 he engaged with Mr. P. W. Ramsey to learn the watch and siversmith trade, and worked at this until 1856, when he quit on account of his health. The same year he took a position as bookkeeper at the ship-yard here in Madison, and remained three or four years. In 1869 he formed a partnership with D.C. Robinson, and engaged in his present business. They have been very successful and have built up a large business in this line, having a large lumber yard at the saw-mill, Front and Vernon streets, and another at the corner of Main and Vernon. They employ about fifteen men. Mr. Robinson was married in 1868 to Miss Mary F., daughter of John Crawford, deceased, of Madison, Ind. Has four children: Mary F., Leander M., Jr., Clara M. and Jessie C.
He is a member of the Christian Church; an I.O.O.F., member of the Madison Lodge, No. 72. He has been secretary of Buliding Association No. 8, for the last fourteen years. He was elected as member of the CIty Council from his ward (the 6th), first in 1880, then in 1884, and again in 1886. He is a Republican, and the ward is strongly Democratic.
James Robinson (deceased) was born in 1822, in Alleghany county, Pa. His father was Andrew Robinson, a native of the same State, of Irish descent. His mother's maiden name was Stilly. He was raised on a farm and had a common-school education.
In 1845 he married Miss Mary Barnum, of Jefferson county, Ind., where he resided during the rest of his life. He died in 1858. He was a good citizen.
By this marriage there were six children, viz: John, Levi B., Elizabeth O., George L., James F. and Mary F. Of these, two live in Jefferson county and the rest in Kansas. Capt. Daniel Barnum, the father of Mrs. Robinson, was a man of considerable note. He was born in the State of New York, in 1786. He was a soldier in the War of 1812-15.
He came to Indiana in 1823 and settled in Lancaster township - now Monroe - in Jefferson county, where he lived a good, orderly citizen for many years. He came down the Ohio river on a raft of lumber, starting from the region of Olean, N.Y., on the Alleghany river. With this lumber he erected the house and barn on his farm. In 1837 he removed to Missouri and remained some years, returning again to Indiana; later he went to Oregon, and after some ten years returned again to Jefferson county, Ind. where he died.
He was twice married, and raised eight children: Samuel, Ellizabeth, Eli, Sylvina, Thomas, Noah, Mary and Emmeline, all of whom are still living but Thomas, Noah and Samuel. He was one of the early Democratic Abolitionists of early times in this county, and was a worker on the Underground Railroad, between slavery on the south and Canada on the north; the trains ran principally in the night time and on foot.
John T. Royce (deceased) Mr. Royce was born near Rochester, N.Y., in the year 1817. His father Sardius Royce, and two brothers came from Pittsburgh, with their families, on a raft. Sardius and family stopped at Madison; the other brothers continued their journey, one of them stopping at or near New Albany, the other one went farther down the river. Madison was at this time almost an unbroken forest. There was scarcely any work to be had, so the subject of our sketch left his father's settlement - near the site of the old chain mill at Clifty Hollow - and went some twelve miles, near the present village of Brooksburgh, to work at chopping cordwood for Mr. Noah Brooks. He was married in 1837 to Jennette Brooks, daughter and eldest child of Noah Brooks. He has lived in Jefferson county pretty nearly all his life. For four or five years he lived in Ripley and Decatur counties. In Ripley he built a saw-mill (about the first in the county), and sawed the plank to make the plank road from Madison to Greensburg. Along this plank road was the first telegraph line that was put up in the State, and he put up the poles along the route. Some time after this he bought a farm in Madison township, Jefferson county, where he lived to raise most of his family, which sonsisted of eleven sons and two daughters.
Three of his sons died when young; the others lived to maturity. From him the Royce family of Jefferson and Scott counties was descended. One of the daughters lives in Louisville; two of the sons in Minnesota, one in Washington Territory. In about 1881, he removed to Minnesota, where he died September 9, 1883. He was a member of the M.E. Church, and had been from boyhood.
Jared D. Ryker, a representative of one of the earliest and first families of Jefferson county, and also one of the most prominent and successful farmers of the county, was born January 8, 1821, at the old Ryker homestead, Jefferson county, Ind. His parents were John G. and Sarah Ryker (nee Jones), who were respectively born in Shelby and Boone counties, Ky. John G. Ryker was born August 9, 1793, and remvoed with his father, before he became of age, to Jefferson county. His father was Geradus Ryker, a native of the State of New Jersey, born in 1769, who emigrated in the latter part of the last century to Shelby county, Ky., and subsequently to Jefferson county, Ind., in about 1811.
John G. Ryker was a soldier in the War of 1812, and was known as one of the "Rangers," and for his meritorious services drew a pension from the Government until the day of his death, in 1875. Jared D.'s maternal grandfather, David Jones, a Revolutionary soldier, emigrated from Kentucky and settled in an early day within two miles of what is now the village of Canaan.
His mother Sarah Jones Ryker, was born in Kentucky, in 1798.
He has three times been married; first in 1841, to Miss Eliza, grandaughter of Col. John Ryker, and of this union three children survive - Sarah, Jane and Mary Ann. His second wife was Miss Mary Howard, a native of Jefferson county, and two children of this union are also living - John and Permelius. His present wife, a very estimable and clever lady, was Miss Anna Harris, who is still living, and a native of England; this marriage occured in 1857. The children by this marriage are Benjamin H., Walter H., Thaddeus H., Herbert H., Jared H. and Edgar H.
Mr. Ryker has a farm of 361 scres of well-improved land, and is nearly the sole owner of the Madison, Ryker;s Ridge and Wolf Run Turnpike. He has long been one of the leading members of the Ryker;s Ridge Baptist Church, and is one of its deacons. While Mr. Ryker did not receive any of the advantages of a collegiate education, he is nevertheless a man of fine sense, liberal in his views as to both politics and religion, and affable and courteous in his dealings with his fellow-men.
John G. Salisbury, farmer, Monroe township. His grandfather, James Salisbury, was a native of Vermont, of English descent. John C. Salisbury, son of James, was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, in the year 1805. He emigrated in early times to Kentucky, and came to Madison, Ind., in 1832. In 1836 he came to Monroe township, where he permanently settled and lived the balance of his life. He was a pioneer school-teacher, and taught school in Kentucky, Madison, and here, afterward, he became a farmer. He married in Jefferson county, Ind., Miss Leah Ryker, daughter of John Ryker, one of the earliest settlers of this county. They had nine children. The eldest son, James T., was a member of Co. H, Tenth Indiana Cavalry, and died in Black Swamp, near Vicksburg.
John G. Salisbury, who furnishes this sketch, was born December 4, 1842, in Monroe township; was reared on a farm, educated in the common schools, and now lives upon - and owns - the farm upon which he was born. June 9, 1869, he was married to Miss Lauretta Elliott, daughter of Robt. Elliott, of the same township. Mr. and Mrs. Salisbury have two children: Sadie M. and Robert E. Mr. Salisbury and wife are both members of the Monroe Presbyterian Church. He is the superintendent of the Sabbath-school. Mr. Salisbury owns 205 acres of good, well-improved land.
His father, John C. Salisbury died in 1870, January 14. His mother is still living and resides with him, and retains her faculties of mind to a remarkable degree, being 74 years old. Mr. Salisbury is a good citizen.
Otis Bartoll Sappington (deceased) was born in Baltimore, Md., January 1, 1832, and was reared in that city until he was sixteen years old. He sttended the city schools until 11 years of age. At that time he commenced the business of live for himself.
His mother died when he was only five and one-half years old. His father, who had been a large hat manufacturer, and was broken up by endorsing, died shortly after the death of his mother, leaving Otis an orpan without patrimony.
At the age of sixteen he came to Indiana and stopped at Madison, where he was employed as clerk in the grocery and commission house of Weyer & McKee. He remained with this for many years.
In 1863 he became a partner of Mr. Hargan in a wholesale grocery business, under the firm name of Hargan & Sapington, and was still in that firm at the time of his death in 1868.
He was lost in the disaster to the steamboat "United States of America."
Mr. Sappington was married, in 1856, to Miss Sarah H. Crane, a Presbyterian minister, and a native of Newark, N.J.
To them were born three children: Charles C., Mary M. and Otis B., all of whom are living.
Charles C., the eldest, was born December 22, 1860, in Madison, Ind., where he was reared and attended the city schools. In 1878 he took a position as check clerk in the J. M. & I.R.R. depot at Madison, and has been connected with this depot ever since, excepting from May 1 to September 1, 1883, when he was teller in the FIrst National Bank of Madison.
On leaving the bank he was made freight and ticket agent for the J., M. & I.R.R. in his native town, and still holds the place.
He is a member of the Masons and K. of P. order.
He was elected as member of the City Council, from the fifth ward, on the Republican ticket, in the spring of 1888, and is at present a member of that body.
Mr. Sappington, while he is quite a young man, is making a remarkable record in pushing and placing himself among the successful and enterprising business men of Madison.
John W. Scott, native of Jefferson county, Ind., was born June 3, 1834; was reared in the county until his seventeenth year, when he emigrated to the town ow Moorfield, Switzerland county, Indiana. At Moorfield he learned the blacksmith trade, and worked at there until 1862. Then he purchased a farm on Pleasant Ridge, in Jefferson county, and removed to it, where he remained three years; when he sold out and purchased a farm of 105 acres of land on Ryker's Ridge, in Jefferson county, which he still owns, and where he resides during the summer.
Mr. Scott was educated in the common schools of the county, which, by the way, are the best class, and will give a boy or girl the best practical education in the world.
Mr. Scott is engaged in the wholesale and retail grocery business at the corner of Main and Jefferson streets, Madison, and resides in the city during the winter and spring months, in his city residence, No. 601 N. Mulberry street.
In 1865 he bought the farm mentioned, which is one of the finest in the county, and, removing to it, engaged in agricultural business in Madison, in which he continued until 1876, when he sold out the business, and that fall was elected treasurer of the county on the Democratic ticket, overcoming a Republican majority of over 600.
During the two years of service in the treasurer's office, he made the largest collection of taxes ever made in the county. In the fall of 1878 he was defeated by a small mahority for the same office. During the fall he engaged in the grocery business, which business he has been engaged ever since. His place was known as the "Temple" grocery, as he occupied the salesroom in the lower part of the Masonic Temple. He remained in the "Temple" until about one month ago, when he removed to his present stand, corner of Main and Jefferson. He has built up a large trade, and has one of the best groceries in the city.
In 1887 Mr. Scott took his two sons, William A. and Elmer E., into partnership with him in the grocery business; the firm name is J.W. Scott & Sons. Mr. Scott is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the M.E. Church. He has belonged to the church for twenty-five years, and is now trustee and steward of his church.
He has been a member of the Democratic Central Committee ever since 1878, and is a stockholder in Madison Herald Newspaper Company.
Mr. Scott was married in 1851, to Miss Sarah Protzman, of Switzerland county, daughter of John Protzman, who was also one of the largest farmers of that county. He has seven children living, three boys and four girls: Elias J., William A., Elmer E., Mary Ida, Annie, Nora M. and Bertha E. He is the son of John and Rebecca (Welch) Scott. John, his father, was born in Jettburg, Scotland, and came to this country in 1818. He was prominent farmer of this county, and died in 1878, at the age of 90 years. The mother was a native of Lexington, Ky.; she died in 1868, at the age of 68 years.
Francis M. Schoolcraft, farmer, Monroe township, was born in Lee county, Virginia, January 28, 1843. His father, Michael Schoolcraft, was a native of Pennsylvania, of German descent. He removed to Virginia after the War of 1812, in which he was a soldier; there his son Abraham was born.
Abraham married in Virginia, and lived in Lee county, where his sixteen children were borne by three wives. He then removed to Ouseley county, Ky., in 1856, and from there he came to Madison, Ind., in 1863, where he died, at the age of 47.
He was a strictly loyal man to his country, and had to leave Kentucky on account of his loyalty to the Union.
The subject of this sketch was the eldest child, and at the death of his father, took charge of the young family of six who were left, and cared for them and found homes for them all. Mr. F.M. Schoolcraft was born and raised on a farm.
In 1861, October 26, he enlisted in Co. G, Eighth Reg. Ky. Infantry, and served until January 6, 1863, when he was discharged for disability. He entered the United States Navy August 31, 1864, and served until discharged in June, 1865, at the close of the war.
He came home and settled down to the quiet life of a farmer, taking to himself Mary Commisky as his wife, December 30, 1874. She was the daughter of Joe Commisky and Rebecca (Baxter) Commisky.
The family of these two are five children, viz: Daniel B., Mary L., Cyrus E., Benjamin G. and Anna R.
Mr. Schoolcraft owns a farm of 114 acres of good land, with a new house and good barn, and lives comfortably and happy with his family.
George Schwartz (deceased), the subject of this sketch, was born near Wildach, Bavaria, Germany, March 23, 1823. He was raised in a butcher's shop, and learned the milling business. In 1849 he came to America, and located for a short time in Ohio, where he was married to Anna M. Dosler, the daughter of Jacob Dosler, who was also a native of Bavaria. In the same year he removed to Jefferson county, Ind., and settled in Monroe township, upon a farm, where he lived until August 2, 1887, where he died after a long illness. He was educated in Germany, his parents intending him for a Lutheran preacher. He was a man of mind and thought beyond the common run, and was always looked up to by the German population of Monroe township as a leader and adviser. He was noted for his mild, equable temper and pleasant manners. He was just, and always considerate of the rights of others. In connection with his farm, he carried on a mill. Some years before his death he had turned that business over to his son, who built a mill on the Michigan road, three miles from the old one on Big creek.
Mr. Schwartz was a prominent Mason, and for many years was a leader in the Grange movement in his county. He was a member of the Lutheran Church. He owned 108 acres of land, which he farmed in a thorough manner. His family consisted of himself and wife and eight children, viz: Margaret, who is married to Enos Baglan, lives in Madison; Mary, married to Henry Byer, lives at Seymour; Eva, married to John Smith, lives at Rockford, Ind. - now a widow; George M. married Miss Lizzie Walmer, lives in Jefferson county, is a miller; John F., Anna M., Elizabeth and Michael - the last four are all single and live with Mrs. Schwartz on the homestead farm on Big creek.
Rev. John B.H. Seepe, Rector of St. Mary's Church, Madison, Ind., is a native of Hanover, Germany. He was born in 1830, and came to the Untied States in 1836, with his parents, who located in Cincinnati.
He remained there until 1842, and attended the parochial school of the Holy Trinity Church. He attended college at Latrobe, Pa., studied theology at Vincennes, Ind., and was ordained Priest, in 1859, at Vincennes.
He was first stationed at Richmond, Ind., from 1859 to 1868, where he built St. Andrews Church and School. Subsequently he was Rector of St. James Church in Gibson county, Ind., until 1875; afterward he was Rector of St. Gabriel's Church in Connersville, Ind., until 1881.
Father Seepe was appointed Rector of St. Mary's Church, of Madison, Ind., April 22, 1881, and arrived at Madison on May 5, 1881.
St. Mary's congregation was organized in 1850, and the church was built in 1851. The present school-building - a commodious and fine building - was built in 1876, and contains four large school-rooms on the first floor, and a large hall on the second floor. The congregation numbers 250 families; and the school is attended by about 200 children, and is under the care of three Ursuline Sisters and one male teacher.
The church was renovated in 1887 and 1888, to the amount of about $3,500, and is now one of the finest church buildings in Indiana.
Michael Sheets, farmer, Monroe township. The subject of this sketch was born in Prussia, September 12, 1827. He is the son of John Sheets, a native of that country. Michael emigrated to this country in 1841, and settled with the family of his father in Pittsburg, Pa.
His father removed to Ripley county, Ind., and there bougt 240 acres of land. He was the donor of land and money for the founding of the St. Magdelen Chruch and School in that county. He died in 1875. He was a farmer.
His mother was Elizabeth Lisman, who was the daughter of a teacher in Prussia. Her only brother was forced into the army of Napoleon Bonaparte, and served under him; while returning home he was starved to death - some of his comrades lived to return home and tell the sad story.
The father of the subject of this sketch raised a family of six children, four sons and two daughters. Michael was the youngest of the fa mily, was raised on a farm and educated in the county schools of his time.
In 1840 he enlisted in the war with Mexico, in Capt. Sullivan's company, in the Third Regiment of Indiana Volunteers. Was in all the battles of his regiment, along the Valley of the Rio Grande. At the close of the war he crossed the Gulf of Mexico to New Orleans, where his regiment was disbanded.
In August, 1849, he was married to Miss Mary Ann Miles, of this county. The result of this union was six sons and four daughters: Enos J., Evan, Marion, John A., Chas. F., Michael J., Mary F., Nettie, Anna and Ida.
The subject of this sketch was also in the late war for ten months and fifteen days, in the Twenty-second Regiment Indiana Volunteers. Entered September 22, 1864, erved to the end of the war; was with Gen. Thomas at Nashville, Tenn. After the close of the war he returned home and engaged in farming, especially fruit culture.
For twenty years past he has been quite successful in this line, and has now a very nice nursry. He also engaged in the fish culture a few years since, and now has a pool of fine carps on his farm.
He has raised and educated his large family, giving to them all of the benefits of schools and teaching which the country afforded. He is a good farmer and citizen.
James H. Smith, county surveyor, Shelby township, Jefferson county, Ind. Mr. Smith's parents were Wm. Smith and Anna M. (Tull) Smith. His father was a native of Maryland, and came to Kentucky in 1806 and was one of the pioneers of that State. He removed to Indiana and settled in Jefferson county in 1823, on a farm in Shelby township, owned at present by the subject of this sketch. He served as a county commissioner of Jefferson county for a number of years. He died August 4, 1843. The mother of James H. Smith was the daughter of Handy and Eleanor Tull; her father was a Revolutionary soldier. Mr. James Smith was of Scotch-Irish descent.
Mr. Smith, the subject of this sketch, was born in Woodford county, Ky., January 27, 1821, and was raised on a farm in this county. He was educated in a log school-house, having none of the modern apparatus used in education nowadays. At the age of 18 he began teaching school, and continued at that for ten years. All of this time was spent in his own county.
He was married at the age of 23 to Catherine Overturf, who was of German descent; her parents came from Kentucky. They are the parents of six children: Elizabeth A., Wm. W., Sylvanus G., Mary E., John S. and James H. All of his sons are married but one. John S. is a physician practicing in Cass county, Ind., and was a graduate of the class of '82 in the Ohio Medical College.
Mr. Smith was elected justice of the peace in 1852, and served eight years. After that, was county school examiner for four years. Then was captain of Home Guards during the war. During the war he was elected county surveyor and has served as such ever since, except for four years, and was re-elected in the fall of 1888 for two years more.
Capt. Smith is a Mason, a member of the Blue Lodge. He is a Republican, and has been prominent in that party in this county ever since the party was organized. His father was a Whig, and was an admirer and earnest supporter of Henry Clay. Capt. Smith's first vote was cast for Henry Clay.
Granville T. Smitha, farmer, Monroe township, was born September 1, 1814, in Woodford county, Ky. He is the son of John Smitha, who was born in Penn county, Va., and remvoed to Kentucky in the beginning of this century; and came from there to Indiana in 1819; settled in Jefferson county, at the head of Crooked creek, lived there for some years, then removed into the Woodfill neighborhood, and then moved to Ripley county; after remaining there for some time came back to Jefferson county, near Bryantsburg, where he bought land near the Robbins' farm, in Shelby township. The boyhood of the subject of this sketh was passed principally on this farm. In 1832, October 18, Granville T. Smitha was married to Eliza E. Robbins, daughter of Wm. Robbins (whose sketch appears in this book). They had fourteen children as the result of their marriage: Wm. R., John, Willis H., Elizabeth R., Granville T., Mary A. R., Eliza Jane, Susan A., Melissa J., James B., Jepths, Jerusia, Albert, and an infant.
Mr. Smitha was born on a farm, and raised a farmer's boy and man, and is now an old farmer. He was educated in the schools of his youth (very different from those of this day). He is an earnest supporter and a prominent member of the Baptist Church. He saw Indians here, and tasted of all of the hardships of a pioneer life, and is now in declining health and years, enjoying the products of his labors, both physically and socially, of early life. He owns 106 acres of land, and lives comfortably uponit. His oldest son, Wm. R., was raised on the farm, and at the second call for volunteers enlisted in Co. C, Eighty-second Regiment Indiana Infantry Volunteers, August 13, 1862, and was with Sherman on his "March to the Sea," and in all of the engagements of his regiment. He was wounded twice. He lives at Edinburgh.
Albert A., the youngest son of Granville T., was born December 13, 1857; was educated in the schools of his township, and married March 14, 1878, to Mollie Anderson. They have four children: Charles, William, John and Florence. He is a young and energetic farmer and a good citizen.
Christopher Smart, farmer, Monroe township, was born in Otsego county, New York, February 18, 1824. His parents were Abraham and Elizabeth (Abby) Smart, who were natives of England.
His father was a farmer and emigrated to America in June, 1819. He remained in New York State until 1834, when he came to Indiana, and settled in Lancaster township, Jefferson County, now Monroe township, where he and his wife both died )see sketch of Mrs. Matilda Willoughby).
Christopher Smart came to Jefferson county three years later, and is still living on the old homestead. He was educated in the schools of his day; his principal instructors were a Welshman, by the name of David Jones, and an Irishman by the name of Craig (see his sketch).
In 1850, on the 6th day of October, he was married to Miss Maria L. McGee, daughter of William and Margaret A. (Large) McGee. Her father came to Madison from Ohio in 1823, formerly from Virginia and of Irish descent.
The children of their marriage are: Pirene, married to G.A. Valilie, living in Carroll county. Ky.; William A., died aged 17 years and 6 months; Arabella, at home; Christopher W., killed by the fall of a tree in Obion county, Tenn.; Thomas L., at home; Georgiana, a teacher of Jefferson county; James M., teacher of Jefferson county; and Riley L.
Mr. Christopher Smart taught school four terms, the first three in a log school-house with split logs for seats, and one term in a stone school-house; his salary was 75 cents and $1.00 per day. His own school-day advantages were meager.
During the dark days of the late civil war he was township trustee for two years, and has held the postoffice at Big Creek ever since it has been established.
Leonard D. Spann. The Spann family was of English ancestry. A short time before the Revolutionary war, the head of the American branch migrated to America and settled in the Colony of South Carolina. There were four of the sons and brothers of this family engaged as soldiers in that war, on the side of the Colonies. Three of them were soldiers in the ranks, and Jesse, the youngest, born in 1756, being too young for regular enlistment, acted as a scout or helper in the service. He saw and conversed with General Washington.
After the war he married, and lived, until 1801, in Sumter District, South Carolina; then moved to Garrard county, Kentucky and in 1816 he came to Indiana, and settled in Lancaster township, Jefferson county, Indiana.
Moses Spann, the son of Jesse, was born June 3, 1799, in Sumter District, South Carolina, and came with his father to Kentucky and Indiana. He was a carpenter by trade, and assisted in the log rollings of the early settlement of this county, one spring being present at thirty-three of these interesting gatherings. In those early days the whole county voted at the county-seat, Madison. About forty started from Lancaster to go to town to vote; a foot race to Madison was proposed, distance nine miles. Only four of the entire number made the race; they were Moses Spann, Solomon Spann, Miller Hall and Lacy Reynolds. Moses Spann died in 1886.
Leonard D. Spann, who furnishes this sketch, was the son of Moses, and was born May 26, 1841, in Jefferson county, Ind. His mother's name was Nahala Smith, and she was the daughter of Asa Smith, who settled at an early date on the land where Dupont now stands.
Mr. Leonard D. Spann was raised on a farm and educated in the common schools, and took a course of study at the High School at Dupont. Taught school for three years. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he enlisted in the State service, and served there two years and six months, being the United States service some sixty-five days.
He was married in 1865, to Miss Laura Driggs, daughter of Lloyd Driggs, a native of Baltimore, Md., and a resident of Madison, Ind., since 1820. Mr. and Mrs. Spann have eight children: Minnie L., is married to Mr. E. Bennett, and lives in New Albany, Ind; John E. married Miss Alice Cary Patton, and lives in New Albany; Clara died when sixteen years of age; the younger children, Frank D., Harley, Lloyd, Ethel E. and Bessie L. are all at home.
Mr. Spann was for some years representing the Farmer's Mutual Insurance Company, of Madison, Ind. and is now one of the directors. He is also a director of the Jefferson County Fair.
He is a member of John A. Hendricks Post, No. 107, G.A.R. He owns eighty acres of well-improved land.
Elder Robert Stevenson, preacher and farmer, Shelby township, Jefferson county, Ind., was born February 5, 1815, in Ayrshire, Scotland, and came to the United States in 1828. He is the son of Robert Stevenson, who was also born in Scotland in 1787, and was a large woolen manufacturer in that country, at Kilmanark; came to Indiana and bought a farm in Shelby township, Jefferson county, which is still owned by the Stevenson family , and spent his remaining life there. The ancestors of this family were of the town of Kickerton. The mother of Robert the subject of this sketch, was Jennet Wallace, of the family of Sir Wm. Wallace, and her people were of the same county, at Manchlien, on the farm Bergour. In Scotland the women retain their maiden names after marriage. She died in 1883, at the age of 88 years and 6 months.
Mr. Robert Stevenson, the subject of this sketch, was raised on the farm and educated in Scotland, not having any advantages of schooling after he came to this country. They had only boards for slates and firecoals for pencils. In this way he became able to enter the ministry. He has been an active working man all his life; has worked at carpentering, built his own house and made his own furniture, some of which is still in his possession. He is a minister of the Baptist Church, and has preached in many counties in this State, and has also preached in other States. He began his work in the ministry in 1843, and may be called one of the pioneer preachers of this State. He was engaged in a State work for one year.
He was married in 1837 to Miss Barbara Sterrett, who was born in Scotland, but came, when quite young, with her parents to Jefferson county. Their children were James, Robert, William and Mary. His wife died April 17, 1846, and he was re-married May 4, 1847, to Sarah Rutledge, a native of Kentucky; her parents were of Virginia. The result of this marriage was five children: John, George, David, Sarah and Charles. Three of his sons were in the army: James and Robert in the Sixth Indiana Infantry, and William in the Tenth Indiana Cavalry. His sons are all of them farmers, three of them live in Jefferson county, one in the Far West and one in Shelby county. Both of his daughters are married. Mary lives in Ripley county and Sarah in Galveston, Ind.
Mr. Stevenson once labored in the Long Run Mission for three years, and preached 342 days in one year.
James was wounded at Stone River, and died from the effects of the wound; his body was brought home for interment.
Robert Stevenson, Jr., farmer, Shelby township, Jefferson county, Ind. He is the second son of Robert Stevenson, Sr., of same township and county. He was born May 28, 1844, and was raised on a farm, and educated in the common schools. In August, 1861, he enlisted in Co. A, Sixth Regiment Indiana Vols., and served two years and six months, when he was discharged for disability received at Chattanooga, Jan. 6, 1864. He was the battles of Shiloh, Corinth, Chickamauga and others. He was taken prisoner at Lawrenceburg, Ky. Upon returning home, as soon as he had sufficiently recovered from his disability, he resumed the life of a farmer, and has followed it ever since. In 1865 he was married to Mary E. Barber, who had formerly been married to John W. Hicks (a soldier), who was the daughter of James Barber. The result of this union was four children: James W., Lucius L., Minnie E. (who died at twenty-three months of age) and Robert F. Mr. Stevenson is a prominent member of the Baptist Church.
He has never sought an office of any kind. Having felt the great need of a good education, he is endeavoring to give his children better school advantages than he had himself. Owing the hardships of his life in the army he is physically a wreck.
Marcus B. Sulzer, a promising young lawyer of Jefferson county, is a native of Madison, Ind. He was born April 19, 1860, and is a son of Paphael R. and Rachel (Heimidingor) Sulzer, who were natives of Alsace, France.
His father came to Madison in 1854, and engaged in the merchandise business, and retired from business about six years ago.
Mr. Sulzer was raised in Madison, and was educated in the common schools, having no money to attend the higher schools. Began to read law in 1879 with Linck & Bellamy, and was admitted to practice in 1881. He conducted many important trials before he was admitted to the bar. He made a good argument in the cases of the State vs. Cooper, and other murder cases; since coped with Jason Brown and others.
In the case of Peter Cooper for murder he made the closing speech, and sent him up for life; Brown making the closing speech for the defense. When only 19 years of age he wrote articles pertaining to river and marine matters, which were extensively copied by leading papers of the country, which attracted the attention of Governor Williams, who appointed him, at 19, delegate to the River Convention at Quincy, Ill., and while there he responded at a banquet for Indiana. In 1880 Governor Gray removed him for being a Republican, and Governor Porter re-appointed him in 1884, and he holds that position now.
In 1882 he was elected as city attorney, which place he held for two terms. Whilst in that office he revised the city ordinances and made a book of them, which is received as the standard of the laws of the city. When his term expired the Democratic Council of the city have him a unanimous vote of thanks fro the manner in which he had performed his duties.
In 1884 he was elected as prosecutor of the Fifth Circuit; re-elected in 1886 by a majority of 769. His majority, the first time (in 1884) was 356, and is the only official who ever carried both counties in this circuit.
He is a member of the I.O.O.F, has been president of local Lodge and member of Grand Lodge, being the youngest member; he has been district judge of Grand Lodge Bnai Brith. He is one of the members of the Republican State Central Committee, representing the Fourth Congressional District, and in 1889 was elected by the Annual Convention of Indiana Republicans Clubs to represent Indiana at the National Convention of Republican clubs, which convened at Baltimore, Md., February 18 and March 1.
Robert H. Swan, farmer, Hanover township, is a son of John and Mary R. (Thorn) Swan. His father was a native of Scotland, and came to the United States when a young man, and entered a farm in this county when James Monroe was President.
He died in 1860, at the age of 66 years, leaving a widow and eight-children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the youngest. His mother was a native of Kentucky and died in 1868, at the age of 60 years.
Robert H. Swan was born June 15, 1849, upon the farm on which he now resides, in Hanover township, Jefferson county, Ind., and was reared there. He attended the common schools and the College at Hanover, and the Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio.
He took charge of the farm when only 17 years of age, and though almost with-out stock or farming tools, and with an invalid mother and two sisters to support, by perseverance and energy, he succeeded in making a living and stocked his farm well and put it in a good state of cultivation. His farm contains 160 acres of land, well improved, and is situated four miles southwest of Hanover.
In 1875 he was married to Miss Mattie L. Arnott, daughter of Rev. Moses Arnott, who was pastor of Carmel U.P. Church for twenty-eight years. She died in 1884 leaving three children, two of whom are now living, one boy and one girl - Mary Prudence and Robert Arnott. In 1885 Mr. Swan married again to Miss Emma O., daughter of Wm. McDonald, a farmer of this county. There are no children by this marriage. Mr. Swan is a member of the Carmel Church, and acted as one of the trustees of that church for six years.
In 1881 he engaged in mercantile business in Hanover, where he remained in business for two and one-half years, when he sold out and went to Kansas.
He engaged in the confectionery business in Clay Centre, the county-seat of Clay county, Kan., and continued in business there for eight months, when he came back to his farm in this county, and has been there ever since.
Jesse B. Thomas is the son of Elias Thomas, who was born in Virginia, and removed to Kentucky, and from there to Indiana, before the subject of our sketch was born, and was one of the pioneer settlers of the State.
Mr. Jesse B. Thomas was born in 1807 near Madison. At that that time the site of Madison was almost an unbroken forest; there was only one buckeye cabin there, built by James Hall.
The subject of this sketch was married, at the age of 21, to Jane Miller, a daughter of Robert Miller, who was also a pioneer.
Mr. Thomas and wife raised a family of six children: William H., Sarah E., James M., Daniel F., Henry C. and Robert P.
Mrs. Thomas died in 1852. Some ten years later he married Anna Staten, who was born in Kentucky; they had no children. James and Henry C., sons of Mr. Thomas, served through the war of the Rebellion, and were at the surrender of Richmond.
The father of Mr. Thomas was a noted hunter; he killed bear, deer and turkeys enough to keep the family in meat. He was one of the Rangers in Indian times.
Daniel F. Thomas, fourth son of the subject of this sketch, was raised on a farm; was born in 1840, and educated in the common schools; owns 80 acres of land, and is taking care of his father in his old age and an orphan daughter of his brother Robert. He cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, and still votes the Republican ticket.
Mark Tilton was born in Wilmington, Delaware, August 22, 1822. His father was Dr. James Tilton, a native of the State of Delaware, and his mother was a Miss Fanny Gibson, a native of the eastern shore of Maryland.
His grand-uncle, Dr. James Tilton, after whom his father was named, was the first surgeon-general appointed in the United States army, and was the first member of Congress sent from the State of Delaware. He was also a member of the Order of Cincinnatus, the badge of which order was presented to him by the Marquis De Lafayette. His badge is still retained in the family and is handed down regularly to the oldest living male member of the family. It had been in the possession of Mark Tilton for many years and up to the time of his death.
In 1827 Mark Tilton's father left Delaware with his family, and settled in Madison, Jefferson county, Indiana, where he remained many years before his death, which occourred in 1841, he removed to a farm in the northern portion of which land he located the site of the present thriving village of Dupont.
Mark Tilton, when about seventeen years of age, obtained a situation in the Branch Bank, at Madison, of the State Bank of Indiana, where he remained twenty-one years, occupying most of the time the position of teller. He was married to Miss Amanda Dunn, a daugher of Judge Dunn, of Hanover, Indiana, January 4, 1848. and has but one child living. Elizabeth R. Tilton. While in the bank he was appointed by President Lincoln, United States Pension Agent for the district in which he lived.
It was not long after he was appointed that the business of the agency so increased that he was obliged to resign his position in the Bank and devote his whole attention to the duties of his office. He retained the Pension Agency seventeen years until, during the administration of President Hayes, the agency was removed to Indianapolis.
Mr. Tilton had the reputation of being one of the most faithful and efficient officers in the pension service. His systematic habits and thorough acquaintance with the details of the office, the neatness and correctness of his accounts with the Government, and his untiring pains to accommodate and protect the pensioned soldier and the soldier's widow from the extortion of unworthy claim against agents, made him a valuable officer to the Government and very popular with the soldier element of his district.
In 1877 he was appointed to a clerkship in the pension office in Washington, and moved his family to that city. He had not served long in the office before he was promoted to the position of assistant chief in one of the divisions in the Pension Bureau; and retained the position up to the time of his death, which occurred March 10, 1887.
Mark Tilton was a Knight Templar of the Masonic Order and a consistant member of the Presbyterian Church. He was a good citizen, a kind husband, and an indulgent father, a faithful and warm hearted friend; he had a heart that always responded to the wants of the needy and afflicted. His success in life was achieved by his following strictly the old adage "What is worth doing at all is worth doing well." There are few men that have gone through life with a cleaner record than Mark Tilton.
Rev. James W. Turner, A.M., Pastor of Trinity M.E. Church, Madison, Indiana, was born August 11, 1857, in Dearborn county, Ind., and brought up in Southern Indiana. His father, being a Methodist preacher, moved around a great deal. His father, Isaac Turner, and his mother, Alice Kenyon, were natives of England, and were married there and came to the United States in 1854, and located in Southern Indiana. His father was one of the pioneer reachers of Southern Indiana, and is still in the ministry, in active work; he is now located at Paris, Jennings county, Ind. Mr. James W. Turner was educated in the common schools of the county, and finished his education at Moore's Hill College, spending five years at that institution, and receiving the degree of A.M. in 1876. Two years before this time, he had preached his first sermon, at Delaware, Ripley county, Ind. In 1878 he began regular work as a preacher in the Southeastern Indiana Conference of the M.E. Church, and has been engaged in that service ever since. At present he is Pastor of Trinity Church, Madison, in his second year. It is the finest church edifice in the city and has a membership of 630.
He was married, July 29, 1880, to Miss Lizzie Woodfill, daughter of William S. Woodfill, of Greensburg, Indiana, of one of the oldest families of Decatur county. They have four living children: Rollin A., Sarah A., William W. and Wesley J.
Rev. Mr. Turner is a member of the Freemasons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and the Order of the Golden Cross. He has delivered lectures on all of these orders in the principal cities of Southern Indiana. Mr. Turner's library is one of the finest in the State, containing the best encyclopedias, choicest works on theology and history, the leading books of science and fiction, and apparently all books that would pertain to the library of a student; thus having the tools at his hand to fit him thoroughly for his work.
Patrick Wade, dealer in grain, 251 and 253 W. Main street, Madison, Indiana, was born March 6, 1842, in Ireland. When only eight years old he came to the United States with his mother, his father having come over to America less than two years before this time, and located in Madison, Ind.
His parents were natives of Ireland, and were named Martin and Ann Wade. His father is still living. His mother died September 19, 1872.
Mr. Wade was educated in the Catholic and public schools of Madison. After leaving school he went to work for his father. In 1864 he secured a position with F. Prenatt & Co., wholesale dealers in groceries and liquours; he ramianed with them as clerk about three years, and in 1867 went to Louisville, Kentucky, and secured a position there as stock keeper in a wholesale grocery kept by McKee, Cunningham & Co., remaining two years with them. Then he came back to Madison, Ind., and took a position with Jas. Hargan & Co., as a clerk in their wholesale grocery and liquor house, remaining with them over thirteen years.
In March, 1882, he succeeded his father in the feed and grain business, which business he is still in. He also handles seeds in large quantities. And with his business experience, and by giving it his undivided attention, he has built up the largest trade in this line in the city.
Mr. Wade has been a very successful business man; commencing with a small capital, he now owns two storehouses and one of the finest residences in the city.
He is a member of the Catholic Church and of the order of the Catholic Knights of America.
He was married in 1864 to Miss Celia Langan, of Madison, and has six living children, four girls and two boys: Mary, Ella, Maggie, Annie, Martin and John.
Mr. Wade is a Democrat; he has never held any office, although he has been importuned to run for office at different times, but always refused because of his busness needing his attention.
Mr. Wade is a man of best character for attention to business, and in all points a good citizen.
Martin Wade, Patrick Wade's father, was born October 2, 1818, in the County Galway, Parish of Kilkerrin, Ireland. He came to the United States March 7, 1849, and located in Madison, and was engaged in driving a dray for Mr. Martin Mullen, in which employment he remained nine months. He then went to work for Mr. Dawson Blackmore, who was engaged in the commission and pork-packing business. He continued with him between six and seven years.
In the latter part of 1856 he was engaged as wharf master at the depot warf, where he remained two years.
In October, 1858, he opened the feed and grain house now carried on by his son Patrick. He continued in this business until 1881, when he was succeeded by his son. Mr. Wade commenced business with a capital of only $1,000; now he owns three large store buildings on Main street, two of them occupied by his son Patrick and the other by himself. He has been very successful in business, having made his start in life by hard work, principally by hauling merchandise for some of the largest business houses in the city.
He is a member of the Catholic Church, and was married by the Rev. Patrick Henry, a Catholic priest, to Miss Anna Burns, on the 31st day of January, 1841. They had two children - John and Patrick. John was born June 29, 1844, and is now in business in Memphis, Tenn.
His perents were James and Elinor (McLoughlin) Wade. His father was born in 1788, and died in 1858. His mother died about 1866.
William Walch, of the Madison Machine Company, was born February 4, 1845, in Cincinnati, Ohio; was the son of William and Anastia (Cavinaugh) Walch, who were both natives of Ireland, and came to this country in 1843. His father was a cooper by trade, and died in Memphis, Tenn., where he was at work, at the age of 33 years. His mother died in 1868, at the age of 48 years, at her home in Madison, Ind. Mr. Walch came to Madison, Ind., with his parents, when only six months old. He attended the Catholic schools of this city, and when only 14 years old commenced to learn his trade, that of a machinist, at the old Neal foundry of this city, where he continued for three years. At the breaking out of the war this foundry closed down. In 1862 Mr. Walch worked as journeyman in the Indiana foundry of this city, where he remained about fourteen months, when he took a position with Cobb, Stribling & Co., foundry men, also of Madison, and worked for them as journeyman for four years, when he was made foreman, and continued as foreman for them for four years more. In 1872 Mr. Walch formed a parternership with John McKenna and Julius Halfenberger, and bought the Indiana, foundry, firm name being McKenna, Walch & Co. This firm continued for three years, when McKenna withdrew from the firm, and the firm name became Walch & Halfenberger. This firm continued for four years, when Mr. Halfenberger died. Mr. U.B. Stribling bought the interest of the heirs, and the firm name was changed to Stribling & Walch, and they continued for five years, when they sold out to the Madison Machine Co. (the present company), in the year 1885. Mr. Walch is now superintendent of the Madison Machine Co., and one of the principal stockholders of the concern. Mr. Walch was married in 1869 to Miss Mary Cavinaugh, of Madison, Ind., who died in 1882, at the age of 37 years, leaving three children, of whom only two are now living - Maggie and Thomas. Mr Walch is a member of the Catholic Church and of the order of the Catholic Knights of America.
William Watlington, farmer, Madison township, was born in New Jersey, in 1810. His father, William Watlington, was a native of Bermuda, and came to America in 1804, and settled in Philadelphia. In 1814 he came to Indiana, and settled in Madison township, Jefferson county. He was a sailor in the United States service, and was taken by the English as an English subject, but was released by a friend swearing that he was American born. He died in 1815.
Our subject's mother was Phoebe Loper, daughter of Evan Loper, of New Jersey; she died in 1867.
William Watlington was raised on a farm, and received a common-school education.
In 1839, Nov. 26, he was married to Miss Mary Hewson, of Madison, Ind., and a daughter of Thomas and Mary Hewson. Her father was a teacher, merchant and preacher.
The result of this marriage was seven children, all of whom attained maturity: William who enlisted in the Fifty-fifty Indiana Regiment during the late war - he was afterward discharged from that regiment, and re-enlisted in the Fifty-fifth Indiana Regiment during the late war - he was afterward discharged from that regiment, and re-enlisted in Third Indiana Cavalry; Thomas H., Mary F., Emma, Charles E., Abraham L. and Elizabeth.
From 1833 to 1839, Mr. Watlington was engaged in mercantile business in Madison. At this time he settled on the farm where he now lives, it being the same 80-acre tract entered by his father.
Mr. Watlington was succeeded in raising his large family, and giving to each one a good education, and is accumulating some little of this world's goods. He lives well and confortably. His children are now scattered - one in Kansas, one in Illinois, and the rest in Jefferson county; two of them are married.
Mr. Watlington has been prominent as an Odd Fellow, and was the first man initiated into that Order in Madison. He has been a member of P. of H.; was also a school-teacher. He may properly be placed among the pioneers of Jefferson county.
Dillard C. Whitham, farmer, Shelby township, was born in Ripley county, in 1828. He is the son of Benjamin Whitham, and was raised a farmer. Was educated in the schools of his day.
In 1854, he was married to Elizabeth Buchanan, whose father was an early settler of this county (Jefferson). They have the following named children: Festus M., Nancy J., Adrain, Orbia and Carrie.
Mr. Whitham has 400 acres of good land in Jefferson county, where he lives comfortably. The grandfather of the subject of this sketch came to Indiana in 1812, and settled near Buchanan's Station, in Jefferson county, while the Indians were still here, and raised a family of seven sons and five daughters.
Mr. Whitham is an enterprising and successful farmer.
George Whitham, farmer, Shelby township, is the son of Benjamin Whitham, who was born in Maryland, but spent his boyhood days in Kentucky, and came to Ripley county, Ind., about eighty years ago, where died twenty-four years ago. The mother of the subject of this sketch was Nancy Birchfield, daughter of Robert Birchfield, daugher of Robert Birchfield, who came from Kentucky in early times to Indiana. Her father was a Revolutionary soldier.
Mr. George Whitham was born in 1832, in Ripley county, Ind., was raised on the farm, and was educated in the country schools of his day.
At the age of 24 he married Emily J. Schnetger, daughter of Charles Schnetger, a native of Germany, and they are the parents of eight children: Benjamin B., Charles C., Anis, Mollie, William M., Joseph W., Robert Newton and John L. Mr. Whitham entered the service in 1854 as private in Co. I, Fortieth Reg. Ind. Infantry, and served some eleven months. He was in the battles of Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville and in some minor engagements. After the close of the war he returned home and settled down to the quiet life of a farmer. He owns some 600 acres of well-improved land in Jefferson and Ripley counties, and is one of Jefferson's best and most energetic citizens.
He was married a second time to Miss Sallie E. Conner, daughter of Louis Conner, who was a son of Louis Conner, a pioneer of this county.
He has never been an office seeker, and is not a member of any order save the G.A.R.
George L.T. Wilderin, pastor of St. Patricks, North Madison, Indiana, is a native of Louisville, Ky. He was born June 20, 1847. His father, Christian Widerin, as a native of Austrian Tyrol; and his mother, Mary Anna Meder, a native of Baveria.
Father Widerin was about fourteen years old when his father, a tailor by trade, enlisted in Co. A, Twenty-third Indiana Vol. Infantry; being disabled was discharged in about 1863.
George L.T. Widerin was a private of Co. A, One hundred and forty-fourth Indiana Vol. Infantry. He was educated at St. Meinrads, Spencer country, Ind., excepting one year course at Indianapolis, Indiana.
In May, 1877, he was ordained priest at St. Meinrads, Spencer county, Indiana, by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Maurice De St. Palais.
His first charge was Haubstad, Gibson county, Princeton and Abertsville, Indiana. In 1882 was removed to North Madison, Jefferson county, Indiana, attending to St. Anthony's Church, China P.O., and to Imaculate Conception, Vevay, Switzerland county, Indiana.
The parish of North Madison, as by late census taken, shows up seventy-six Catholic families, the parish of China P.O. fifty, Vevay thirty-eight.
The North Madison Church was established March 22, 1853. The first pastor proper was Father Hypolite Du Pontavice, residence at Madison.
At time of building of the church, the congregation numbered over one hundred and twenty-five families. The J.M. & I. car shops, and other important enterprises, removed from North Madison, families also removed. The church is a brick building, forty by ninety feet; parsonage a comfortable stone cottage; the school building and Sisters' residence is a frame building. Sisters of Providence, of St. Marys of the Woods, Vigo county, Indiana, and conducting the boys' and girls' school
Benj. B. Williams, Lancaster township, Jefferson county. The subject of this sketch was born and reared on a farm in Lancaster township. He learned the blacksmith trade from his father, and has been engaged in that business the principal part of his life - the greater part of the time in this county.
He was born four miles southeast of Dupont, April 7, 1826. and attended the schools of that day.
In 1847 he started to work at his trade in the town of Dupont, in a shop of his own, and continued at that business until 1854, when he went to Rising Sun and engaged in the retail drug business. He remained there until December, 1857, when, on account of his health, he was compelled to sell out the business. At that time he came back to Jefferson county, and purchased an interest in the mill at Lancaster, now known as the "Landon Mills." The mill was owned by John B. Craft and himself, the firm being Craft & Williams.
This firm continued until 1860, when Mr. Craft sold out to Mr. T.G. Payne, and the firm name became Payne & Williams. This firm continued until December, 1868, when Mr. Williams sold out his interest in the mill. In all, about eleven years spent in the milling business.
In 1868 Mr. Williams came back to Dupont and engaged in the blacksmith and agricultural implement business, and has been engaged in these two businesses ever, since. In connection with his agricultural implement business he has dealt largely in the sale of fertilizing material ever since bone dust was first introduced into this county.
He is a Democrat in politics, and was elected as Township Trustee of Lancaster township, in 1880 against a majority of seventy or eighty on the Republican side.
Mr. Williams is a member of the Baptist Chruch at Dupont, and is a trustee for the church.
He has been an Odd Fellow since 1874.
He was married in November, 1852, to Miss Esther J. Craft, daughter of John R. Craft, Sr. They have five living children, three boys and two girls: Mary E., married May 12, 1875, to Rev. John E. McCoy, a Baptist preacher of Indianapolis: James R., who now practicing medicine in Indianapolis; John C., city editor on Democrat, Anderson, Ind.; and Benj. A. and Myra are still in school
Mr. B.B. Williams is the son of Robert and Elizabeth (Blue) Williams, who were the parents of twelve children (Benjamin being the eldest), nine sons and three daughters.
Robert Williams was born a few miles back of Louisville, in Nelson county, on Salt river, and went, while quite young, with his father, to Greene county, Ohio, and from there came to Indiana in 1814, and settled four miles southeast of where Dupont now is, where he died February 24, 1876, at the age of 78 years.
Elizabeth Williams died at the old homestead, Jefferson county, Ind., May 25, 1872, aged 65 years.
Rememberance J. Williams was a son of Roberts Williams; the latter a native of Kentucky, and who left Kentucky when two years old, with his father, Rememberance Williams, and migrated to Greene county, Ohio. From Ohio he removed to Jefferson county, Lancaster township, in 1814, where he died at an advanced age.
In 1804 or 1805, his elder brother, Rememberance, passed through Jefferson county in the employ of the United States surveyors. Rememberance, the father of Robert, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was with Washington during the distressing winter at Valley Forge.
Sarah Moncrief, a native Kentuckian, was the mother of Rememberance J. Williams.
'Squire Williams was raised on a farm, and educated, in a manner, in the log school-house when puncheon floors were famous. One of the teachers was in the habit of "getting in liquor" occasionally; one day he got too much, and, to punish him, the "big boys' and the "giddy girls" buried him and dismissed his school.
When quite young, 'Squire Williams learned the blacksmith's trade in his father's shop, and has wrought at it until of late.
In 1844 he married Miss Emily Fenton, daughter of Bartholomew Fenton, who was born in Kentucky.
The children from this marriage are as follows: Mary E., who married Willis Singer, and lives in Ripley county, Ind.; Robert A., who married Miss Baxter, and lives in Monroe township; Sarah E. married Wm. A. Shuck, and lives in Jennings county, Ind.; Joanna B., who married Rev. John Threlkeld, and lives in Bartholomew county, Ind.; Willard R., who lives at Haney's Corner; John B., M.D., practicing at Honey Creek, and George H., who is also a practicing physician.
'Squire Williams enlisted in the Sixth Indiana Volunteers in the year 1861, and was discharged for disablility in 1862.
He has been Justice of the Peace in his township for some ten years. He owns 145 acres of land in this township.
Mrs. Matilda Willoughby, farmer and trader, Monroe township, Jefferson county. Mrs. Willoughby was born in the State of New York, July 31, 1825. Her father was Abraham Smart, a native of England, and came to the United States in 1820. His family were James, born March 12, 1819; Christopher, 1824; Matilda, July 31, 1825; Isaac, November 22, 1828; Elizabeth, December 10, 1830, and Alford B., August 5, 1831.
The subject of our sketch was married June 14, 1859, to David McKay, a native of Virginia, who died October 21, 1870. She lived a widow for three years, when she was married to Thomas Willoughby, who was born in Virginia, and came at an early date to this county. Mrs. Willoughby owns 110 acres of land, some valuable stocks, and other property of various kinds.
She never raised any children of her own, but has raised three of other parents. She has been a church member for the greater part of her life, and is now an earnest supporter of the Adventist doctrine of faith.
James C. Woods, farmer, Monroe township, was born in 1828, in Dearborn county, Ind.; was raised on a farm, and educated in the common schools.
His father, Joseph Woods, was born in Pennsylvania in 1793; he came to Indiana in 1816, and settled in Dearborn county. Here he remained until 1837, when he removed to Jefferson county, into what is now known as Monroe township, where he died in 1853.
He was one of the first Justices of the Peace in Dearborn county, and was elected to that office in Jefferson county, where he held the office for nine or ten years, and was serving at the time of his death.
The mother of Mr. James C. Woods was Miss Isabel Bushfield, daughter of Samuel Bushfield, all natives of Ireland. The family of Joseph Woods was composed of nine children, seven of whom lived to maturity.
Mr. James C. Woods, at the age of 22, began to learn the trade of coach blacksmithing. He served part of his time in Madison, Ind., and finished at Frankfort, Ky. He worked at this trade for five years.
He married Susan A. Read, in December, 1852. She was the daughter of Andrew Read, a native of Virginia, who removed to Kentucky after his daughter was born. He was of Scotch-Irish extraction. His father, Frank Read, was a Revolutionary soldier, and he himself, was a soldier in the War of 1812-1815.
Her mother's family, of French extaction, named Leftwich, were early settlers of Virginia.
The result of this marriage was six children, viz: Belle, Kate, Elizabeth, Anna, Howard and Ida. Kate is married to George Craig, and lives in Johnson county, Ind.; the others are at home, except Belle, who is at Indianapolis, Ind. Mr. Woods owns 200 acres of good land, well improved. Is a member of the I.O.O.F and the Grange. Once held the office of township treasurer, and is a good citizen.
Robert H. Wood one of the most enterprising and progressive farmers of Jefferson county, was born in Jefferson county, in 1852, March 25, and is a son of Ezra and Cassandra T. (Mayfield) Wood. Mr. Ezra Wood is a native of New York State. His father, Thurston Wood, came to Jefferson county in 1837, and bought a quarter section of land in Madison township, bordering on the line of Monroe township. Cassandra Mayfield was a native of Trimble county, Ky., and came to Indiana with her father in 1834. Ezra was born in 1827. Served in the Home Guards during the war of 1861-65. Was elected to different township offices and as justice of the peace.
The subject of this sketch is the second child of six sons and three daughters. Was educated in the common schools of the county. He was for two years gardener at the State House of Refuge, in Hendricks county, this State. He owns sixty acres of land and farms it in vegetables, fruit and flowers, and is in good substantial condition in business. June 12, 1879, he was married to Miss Clara T. Seidel, a native of Carrolton, Ky., whose parents are Germans. They have four children: Jessie A., Alfred C., Nelda A., and R. Emmet.
Mr. Wood is a director in Patrons Mutual Insurance Company; also director of Jefferson County Agricultural Society.
Mr. Wood is the largest grower of vegetables under glass in the county. He was the first man in the county to put in a system of pipes for supplying water for stables, dwellings, greenhouses, etc. In 1887 he built three greenhouses, 20 X 50 feet.
He is more extensively engaged in market-gardening than any man in the county, and beside, in connection with general farming, he is interested in breeding thorobred Jersey cattle and fancy poultry.
Dr. C.H. Wright was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, December 22, 1839. His parents were John H. and Anna M. Wright.
His father was born and raised in Maryland, his mother in Virginia. They were of English and German origin.
In early life Dr. Wright was thrown upon his own resources and had to make his own way and educate himself; with pluck and energy, he succeeded in getting almost through his collegiate course at the Hartsville University, and one course of lectures in medical college. When the war broke out he volunteered as a private soldier on the 16th of April, 1861, for three months. At the expiration of this term he re-enlisted with Col. Lew Wallace in the Eleventh Indiana Zouave Regiment, for three years; in which regiment he served as a private soldier until after the battle of Shiloh, being in the battles of Fort Donnelson and Pittsburgh Landing, and after the battle was detailed to take charge of a number of sick and wounded on board a floating hospital (or Hospital barge) "Ripley." When this boat was retired, was made hospital steward and assigned duty on board the hospital boat "Stephen Decatur," and remained in this capacity until late in the summer of 1862, when, by reason of the injuries previously received while on the road to Cornith, was so incapacitated for any kind of duty, was, by special order, sent to St. Louis, Mo., and discharged, totally disabled.
During the following winter recuperated, and finished a second course of lectures in the St. Louis Medical College, graduating in the spring of 1863. Commenced the practice of medicine in that city, but getting stronger determined to go to the front again; this time passing an examination by board of examining surgeons, became and acting assistant surgeon, U.S.A., in which capacity he served for several months, when the exposure and hardships were too much for him, and he was again compelled to return North, or die from injuries and hemorrhage from the lungs. During the following winter he improved very much in health, and again, in the spring of 1864, assisted in organizing the 134th Indiana Regiment, and went South with it as regimental guartermaster, in which regiment he served his time out, and was mustered out with the regiment at the expiration of its term.
During the fall of 1865 went North, and while there, having an opportunity, took a third course of lectures at Ann Arbor, Mich., coming back to Indiana in April, 1866 much improved in health. In June he married Miss Jennie Davis, a former schoolmate, and immediately commenced the practice of his profession in Jackson county, Indiana. In May the following year his wife died. In 1869 he again broke down in health; this time consulted the eminent surgeon, Dr. Geo. C. Blackburn, of Cincinnati, and while under his care and advice became much stronger, and attended another, the fourth course of lectures, at the Ohio Medical College, graduating from that college March 1, 1870.
He was again married, to Miss Jennie Vawter, of Jackson county, and remained there until April, 1873, when he moved to healthier location at North Madison, where he has resided and practiced his profession to the present date.
During his professional life he has been for many years a member of the National Medical Association, having represented both County and State Societies in that body; also for twenty years a member of the State Medical Society; is at present Assistant Secretary of the Indiana State Medical Society and Secretary of the Jefferson County Medical Society.
He has been nineteen years a member of the I.O.O.F., having represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge of Indiana; is at present a member of Madison Lodge, No. 72, in Madison. He has, for some years, been a member of Alois Bachman Post, G.A.R., and one term surgeon of the Post; was appointed Examining Surgeon on the Board of Pension Examiners, at Madison under President Arthur, and was relieved from duty, for being an offensive partisan, when President Cleveland came into office.
He has at present a pleasant home, a fine practice, and a very productive as well as beautiful farm near his home.
He is one of the most successful practioners in the county, and has attained to more than an ordinary degree of success in his profession, and is regarded as one of the most progressive members of the mdeical fraternity.
Milton S. Vawter was born February 17, 1829, in Madison township, Jefferson county, Ind. He is the son of James and Sarah B. (Watts) Vawter, where natives of East Tennessee and Boone county, Ky. (see sketch of James Vawter, among the early settlers of the county).
Milton S. Vawter was born in the house which he now lives, on a farm, and was reared upon it.
At the age of 20 he became a clerk for his brother, John W. Vawter, at North Madison, in the spring of 1849. He afterward engaged as a clerk for R.M.J. Cos, in the business of merchandise, at Taylorsville, Bartholemew county, Ind., for one year.
In June 1850 he commenced business for himself, and continued until the fall of same year, when he sold out to Mr. George Brown, and returned to Jefferson county, to assist his brother, J.W. Vawter, in building plank roads.
In 1851, went to Elizabethtown, Bartholomew county, Ind., and commenced merchandizing, and continued until 1855. He then went to Baton Rouge, La., to assist his brother in building plank roads. In 1856 he went to Amity, Johnson county, Ind., with a new stock of merchandise, and continued there until 1868. From there he went to Martinsville, Morgan county, Ind., and ran a flouring mill for one year.
Early in 1860 he opened a dry-goods store in Madison, Ind., and continued until fall of 1861, when he sold out his stock.
In 1863 he was engaged on the river, on which he filled several places, from watchman to captain - was on Clara Dunning, David White and Alice V., part of the time in the United States Govermant service, on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Continued river life until spring of 1867. In December, 1867, he opened up in business again in North Madison, and in 1869 sold out, and again went to Madison, where he sold goods for a short time; then constructed a storeroom at his home on the farm, where he continued to do business.
Mr. Vawter was married in Adams county, Chio, December, 1865, to Miss Aurena L. Vawter, a native of Jefferson county, Indiana, by who he had three children: Frank C., Lennie F and Bert W.; the later died in infancy, September 4, 1872. His wife died October 31, 1872.
He was married a second time, November 16, 1876, to Susan G. Sebree, a native of Gallatin county, Kentucky.
Mr. Vawter owns 275 acres of land in Jefferson county. He received a very limited education, but is a through business man.
Judge John Watts, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in Virginia in 1767, and came to Dearborn county, Indiana, about 1817; was a Baptist preacher and was a judge of the county courts in very early times in this State.
The name of Vawter is derived from the French.
Capt. Argus D. Vanosdol is a native of Jefferson county, Ind. He was born September 18, 1839, and came to Vevay, Switzerland county, Ind., in the year 1818. In 1833 he located in Madison. Was a cutter and dealer in stone, and a builder. He spent the last thrity years of his life on a farm, in Switzerland county, Ind. He died April 11, 1886. Charlotte Eastwood Vanosdol was born in Ohio.
The great-grandfather (Stewart) of Capt. Vanosdol was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was a native of Massachusetts Colony, but entered the army from the State of New York.
Capt. Vanosdol's paternal grandfather, Jacob Vanosdol, was one of the Kentucky Rangers during the war of 1811-12; was at the battle of Tippecanoe with Gen. W.H. Harrison, and was engaged in other battles in the war. His maternal grandfather, Eastwood was a German by birth, and was also a soldier in the War of 1812.
July 4, 1861, Captain A.D. Vanosdol enlisted in Co. A, Third Regiment Indiana Cavalry, as a private soldier. He was made Sergeant-Major, and afterward promoted to the captaincy of Co. I, same regiment, in February, 1862. He continued in this position until the summer of 1863, when he was discharged on account of injuries received in the battles of 1862 and at Stone River.
After his health was resored, early in 1865, he enlisted as a private in Co. B, 156th Regiment Indiana Vols., and was immediately promoted to the first lieutenantcy of his company, and served the most of the time on detached duty, until his discharge in August, 1865.
Capt. Vanosdol was educated in the common schools and at the State University; and from the law department of that institution he graduated, with honor, in 1870.
In May, 1871, he located at Madison in the practice of law. He is a hard student, possesses a fine memory, and stands high at the bar as a lawyer. In 1886, while in California attending the National Encampment of the G.A.R., he was tendered the nomination for Congress in his district by his party, but declined.
Capt. Vanosdol was Inspector-General of G.A.R. in 1886, upon the staff of Gen. S. Burdette, Commander-in-Chief of G.A.R., and is at present Department Commander of Department of Indiana G.A.R. He is also colonel of the Fourth Regiment of Indiana Brigade Uniform Rank of K. of P. In politics he is a Republican.
His wife was a Miss Mary C. Henry, to whom he was married in August, 1862.
John A. Zuck, City Clerk, Madison, Indiana, is a native of Jefferson county, and was born in the city of Madison, May 19, 1851. He is the son of Andrew and Elizabeth (Roberts) Zuck, who were natives of Pennsylvania and Kentucky respectively.
His father came to Madison in 1832, and was for many years a prominent business man of the city, engaged in the grocery business; he served the City Council in 1851.
Mr. John A. Zuck was raisedd in Madison, was educated in the public schools; commonly he was out of school at work in his father's store.
At the age of thirteen he went into the army, in Co. E, One hundred and thirty-seventh Regiment Indiana Vol. Infantry, as a drummer boy; was out about six months, when he came home and resumed his studies. He graduated from National Business College in 1869. Afterward he became a clerk in the dry goods business; was clekr on a steamboat in the Kentucky river trade, in the employ of the Cincinnati and Louisville Mail Line Company, for three and one-half years.
Mr. Zuck was elected City Clerk in May, 1885 and re-elected in 1887. He is a Democrat.
In February, 1876, he was married to Miss Lelia L. Flora, of Madison. Mr. Zuck is a member of the I.O.O.F., Order of Red Men, K of P. Is Grand Senior Sagamore of Indiana in the Order of Red Men, which is the second office in rank in that Order; and is in line of promotion to the office of Great Sachem in that order. Is a P.G. in the I.O.O.F and P.C. in the K. of P.