McCalip - Hugh N.
Source: Portrait & Biographical Record of Montgomery, Parke &
Fountain Counties, Indiana, (Chapman Brothers, 1893) p 400
Hugh McCALIP, a retired minister of the Missionary Baptist
Church is now identified with the farmers and stock raisers of
Montgomery County and has a finely appointed farm in Scott Twp.
He is a native of this state and was born Aug. 17, 1835 in
Bartholomew County. His father, HK McCalip, was born in Kentucky and was 12
when the family settled among the early pioneers of Bartholomew
County, this state where he grew to a stalwart mandhood and in due
time was married to Miss Catherine RAY. He was a farmer and was
actively engaged in his occupation in the same place in
Bartholomew County until his demise in 1883. His wife survived him
until March 1890 and was then laid to rest by his side. They
were people of high moral character and were devout members of
the Missionary Baptist Church, to which he had belonged 40 years
and he was a deacon of the church. The following of their
children survive: our subject; Goodson, a farmer living in
Nebraska; William a resident of Columbus; John, a resident of
Crawfordsville and Margaret wife of David VANSHIKE, a harness
maker at Scotia, NB.
The subject of this biographical review
passed his boyhood on his father's farm in his native county and
besides receiving a thorough drilling in all that pertains to
farming obtained such an education as was afforded by the
district schools. In early manhood he married Miss Samantha J.
daughter of Daniel TERRY, a farmer of Shelby Co. After his
marriage, he located on a farm and continued to farm in Barth.
Co. until the war broke out.
When Pres. Lincoln issued his call
for 300,000 volunteers he laid aside his work to help fight his
country's battles, enlisting in Aug 1861 in Co. I, 67th Ind. Inf.
He saw much hard service in the ensuing years, but performed his
part well in camp and on the field. He was with his regiment at
the battle of Ark. Post and during an engagement with the enemy
at Munfordsville, Ky he was taken prisoner but was paroled, and
his military experience was brought to an end subsequently by his
honorable discharge April 11, 1863.
After he left the army Mr.
McCalip engaged in the boot and shoe business at Hope, Indiana
for two years and was then elected Township Trustee. He served
in that capacity two terms and then devoted himself exclusivesly
to the ministry, whose sacred duties he had taken upon himself in
1864. He first filled the pulpit of the Sharon Church in his
native county occupying it for four years. His next charge was
the Dry Fork Baptist Church in Shelby County and he afterward
presided over the Acton & Brookfield churches for two years.
The succeeding two years the churches at Geneva and Hawk Creek
had the benefit of his pastoral care.
Having very acceptably
filled thesee various appointments, his health gave way from his
too zealous labors and he abandoned the ministry. Removing to
Greensburg, he resumed his former business for a time. The third
year with renewed health he took up his sacred calling again,
receiving the apointment as missionary from the Flat Rock
Domestic Missionary Association. He did good work during the
year that he held the office and at the end of that time he
resumed preaching and looked after the spiritual intersts of the
Brookfield and Acton Churches. Two years later he exchanged the
pulpit for secular work once more and for a year kept a hotel at
Hartville. Returning to Hope he was elected Justice of the Peace
by his old fellow citizens. Mr. McCalip's next move was to
Osborne, KS where he turned his attention to the barber business.
He remained there two years and then came back to this native
state and for a year was occupied at the same trade in Rockville,
Parke County.
He spent the ensuing two years at Crawfordsville,
living retired the first year and the second accepting a
clerkship in a grocery store. While there his first wife died
May 2, 1881 and on June 22, 1882, he was married to Amanda E. GALEY
the daughter of John MUNNS of Ripley Township. After his second
marriage our subject located in Scott Township, where he now
lives. He has a fine farm 190 acres whose well-tilled fields
yield large harvests, and its improvements are of the best, the
residence, a handsome structure of a modern and appropriate style
of architecture and the out buildings well planned and
substantially built.
Mr. McCalip does a general farming business
and raises stock of good breeds. His sheep are the celebrated
Oxford variety and he has a valuable flock of 140. Mr. McCalip
is the father of four children by his
first marriage: Luella, who
lives at Crawfordsville; William R, Amos, who is a printer in the
Star office; and Mary, who lives in the family of the Rev. Mr.
Hayes, a Presbyterian minister at Muncie. Mrs. McCalip has one
child by a former marriage who is now the wife of Dr. Waldon at
New Market.
This brief outline of the life of our sujbect shows
him to be a Christian gentleman of irreproachable character, who
has exerteedd a good influence in whatever community he has lived
and the Missionary Baptist Church has in him one of its most
earnest and faithful workers, who has been a very useful
instrument in spreading its doctrine and promoting the healthy
growth of the church. His wife is also a member of that church.
He is a Prohibitionist in politics and takes an active interest
in the temperance cause. -- kbz