Custer - Franklin
FRANKLIN A. CUSTER
Source: History of Montgomery County, Indiana. Indianapolis: AW Bowen, 1913, p. 1159
Another of the young farmers of Sugar Creek township who must in all fairness be included in the category of those whose names have been entered on the lists of the energetic is Franklin A. Custer, a man who would have, we have no doubt, succeeded in whatever locality he might have selected for his arena of action, however his success would have, doubtless, been more marked as a general agriculturist than in any other vocation, for he seems to have been born to it, or at any rate has had excellent training from his early boyhood up, so that his pronounced success early in his career is not to be wondered at. Mr. Custer was born on July 3, 1876 in the township and county where he still resides. He is a son of William H. and Rachael (Cox) Custer. Both these parents were natives of this county, also, each representing old families. The date of the father's birth is 1842 and that of the mother's 1849. Here they grew to maturity, received fair educations in the old-time schools and here they were married. The father is still living, making his home in the village of Darlington, the mother having passed away in 1901 at the age of fifty-two years. William H. Custer has devoted his life, for the most part, to general farming, however he was for some time engaged in the grocery and hardware business in Darlington, enjoying a large trade with the people of the surrounding territory, but most of his life was spent on the farm where our subject is now living, the father having retired from the active work of the farm in September, 1904 and moved to his pleasant home in Darlington. He is one of our honored veterans of the Civil war, having enlisted in 1861 in the Tenth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, being among the earliest to give his services to the Union, of the many thousands in the Hoosier state, and he saw much hard and trying service for a period of three years, taking part in many engagements, and proving to be a most faithful soldier. Three children were born to William H. Custer and wife, two sons and a daughter, named as follows: Charles B., born April 3, 1869, married Belle McGuire, and they live just north of the old home place; Laura; and Franklin A., of this review. Franklin A. Custer received a common and high school education. On September 9, 1904 he married Eleanor Turnipseed, who was born February 8, 1882, in Montgomery county and here grew to womanhood and received her education in the public schools, and was graduated from the high school in her native locality. For a sketch of her family the reader is directed to that of Thomas B. Turnipseed, her brother, appearing elsewhere in this volume. Our subject and wife have one child, Truth Maurine, born May 21, 1908. Mr. Custer has always been a farmer and a general stock raiser, raising a good breed of live stock, making a specialty of Red hogs, Black cattle and Langshang chickens. He is operating in a most successful and commendable manner the farm of one hundred and fifty acres which belongs to his father. It is all tillable but about twenty acres, and even this could be placed in cultivation. The farm is well improved in every respect and the substantial buildings were built by our subject's father. Politically, Mr. Custer is a Republican. His wife belongs to the Potato Creek Methodist Episcopal church. -- typed by kbz