KIMBLE, Charles J. - Putnam

KIMBLE, CHARLES J., was born in Gibson County, Ind., August 8, 1815; his father, Jesse - as did all the ancestry- spelled his name KIMBALL; his grandfather was an officer in the American Revolution; his mother, Sarah, was also of the same name as her husband, and all of the old Puritan stock from New England emigrating to Kentucky in 1790; afterward to Gibson County, Ind., before Indiana was a State. Mr. KIMBLE was married in 1842, at Mount Vernon, Ind., to Mariah WELBORN, daughter of Col. Jesse Y. WELBORN, who was twice a member of the Indiana Legislature, and extensively engaged in trade with the South. Mr. and Mrs. K. have had four children - George, Elizabeth, Mary and Charles (the latter died in infancy); the first is engaged in business with his father; the second is the wife of J. W. CULLEY, M. D.; the third the wife of Rev. G. C. WAYNICK, all living in Iowa. The subject of this sketch showed at an early age a taste for mechanics, which developed in a practical way; in 1848, he removed to Greencastle, where he established the first and only furniture manufactory run by steam power in the county, adding, from time to time, buildings and facilities for its rapid production; after supplying most families in the county with furniture, he sees the want of furniture dealers in Indiana and other States, so he finally drops the retail trade and takes up the exclusive wholesale manufacturing, employing a number of workmen; in this he succeeds, every year doubling his facilities for manufacturing in quantities. In 1874, the memorable fire, known as the "great fire," swept away in an hour his two furniture warehouses, lumber yards, factory buildings and machinery, as it did almost the whole of the business portion of Greencastle. Mr. KIMBLE was not to be discouraged, but, standing upon the ashes of his vanishing fortune, loses no time in securing commodious rooms and plants a new and beautiful furniture house, beginning again to supply the families in the county with everything in the line of household furniture. He is to be congratulated for his energy, skill and courage in all his enterprises in point of supply and demand of the people. Mr. KIMBLE has never engaged in the political strife of the county, nor been in office, but has closely attended to his labor, has been an energetic, patient Christian man, and his identity with the people will into the annals of the county as one of the useful, solid men of the State of Indiana.