Randolph County, Indiana
Henry Taylor Addington
Among the successful farmers and stock men of Randolph county is Henry Taylor Addington. Having grown up on a farm and handled stock all his life, he is familiar with that class of husbandry. It requires some thing more than carefulness to select the best animals in any herd or drove and to rear them in such a manner that the best points will be brought out and emphasized, and it requires a still greater talent to be a successful breeder. As the best stock brings the best price, the best farmers make it an object to raise the higher grades, knowing that the market will be the better for a given effort and outlay. These important points and others equally vital are borne in mind by Mr. Addington who has long been known as one of our most enterprising breeders of horses and hogs, the Norman and Poland-China breeds being his specialty. He has done much towards improving the breeds of these particular brands of livestock in this section of the state and his name has been carried to many remote localities through his fine stock, for he has been a close observer and a wide reader, in order that he might adopt the best and most advanced methods in this, this chosen avenue of endeavor.
Mr. Addington was born February 3, 1863, in White River township, eight miles west of Winchester. He is a son of Henry and Sophia (Bollinger) Addington. The father was born in Randolph county, was reared and educated and when the Civil War broke out, he enlisted for service in the Union Army and died while at the front, leaving a widow and four children, Henry Taylor of this review being the youngest. The others are: Anna, who married Benjamin T. Harris, lives in Missouri; Hannah married William Herron, and they live near Farmland; Ella is the wife of Albert Colliers, of Muncie, Indiana. The mother of these children passed away in 1871 when our subject was eight years old.
Henry T. Addington was reared on a farm in White River township, near where he was born, and when of proper age he attended the public schools in this district. When he was twenty-one years of age he went to Audrain county, Missouri, but after working on a farm three months he returned to Randolph county, which he believed to be a more satisfactory place to live and here he has since remained. He at once resumed farm work and here he was married on November 1, 1885 to Christine Green, daughter of Levi and Elizabeth (Bowers) Green, a well-known family of White River township. She is a sister of Levi W. Green, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Addington grew to womanhood in this county and received a good education in the public schools. One daughter has been born to our subject and wife, whom they named Clara May, now the wife of Milton Rineard, who is farming on our subject's land in White River township.
Mr. Addington began farming for himself after his marriage and has continued in this vocation, together with stock raising in the same vicinity ever since, each year finding him further advanced than the preceding, as a result of his excellent management and persistency. He is owner of one hundred and eighty acres of well-improved and valuable land which is under a high state of cultivation. For many years he has been a breeder of Poland-China hogs and is an extensive feeder, being regarded as one of the most successful stock men in Randolph county, a leading breeder and general farmer. He has also for a number of years been a successful breeder of Norman horses, which, owing to their superior qualities have always brought the highest prices and there is a great demand for them. He was formerly an extensive exhibitor at various fairs and stock shows and always was a prize winner. He has been very successful in a business way, has a beautiful home, large and substantial outbuildings and is a stockholder in the First National Bank of Farmland. He is also a stockholder in the Goodrich Brothers Grain Company.
Mr. Addington is a Republican, but has never been active in public affairs or a seeker of office. He and his wife are affiliated with and are liberal supporters of the Methodist church at Maxville. They are pleasant people and leaders in the community, in the circles, in which they move.
Past and Present of Randolph County, Indiana, 1914.
Contributed by Gina Richardson