about six miles east of Danville, Illinois. Mrs. Lewis died April 3, 1857, and April 10, 1859, Mr. Lewis was again married to Mrs. Mary (Vandine) Craviston, widow of Samuel Craviston. By his first marriage Mr. Lewis had fourteen children, eleven of whom reached maturity. Six are living at the present time whose names are -- Isaac, Eleanor, Sarah, Nancy, Joshua and Meredith. Those who died after reaching maturity are -- John W., James A., Samuel B., Elizabeth and Mary. Though now in his eighty-third year Mr. Lewis is still active, and in good health, and is surrounded with all the necessary comforts of life. He has been a faithful and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church for fifty-nine years.
JOSIAH SKIDMORE, farmer and stock-raiser, section 22, Helt Township, was born in the neighborhood of his present home March 13, 1831, a son of John Skidmore, who was a native of Pennsylvania, of English descent. John Skidmore came to Vermillion County in 1818, and entered 160 acres of land in Helt Township, and in the fall of the same year moved his family to their new home. February 19, 1819, his son William was born, and had the honor of being the first white child born in the county. He died in 1881, aged sixty-two years. At the time of Mr. Skidmore's settlement in the county he had few neighbors except Indians, and there was not a house between his place and Fort Dearborn, the present site of Chicago, Illinois on the West, the Wabash River on the east and Fort Wayne on the north. His first home was a log cabin and his furniture was of the most primitive description. He cleared and improved his land until it was one of the best in the township, and made it his home until his death. Josiah Skidmore was reared in his native township, and is a prominent and influential citizen in the county. He was married February 25, 1855, to Phoebe A. White, daughter of Enoch White, a pioneer of the county. Mr. and Mrs. White are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
RUFUS P. LITTLE, farmer and stock-raiser, resides on section 16, Vermillion Township, where he owns a good farm of 119 acres, and in addition to this he owns ninety-three acres on another section. His homestead is well improved, his buildings being commodious and convenient and his land being well drained and under good cultivation. He is a native of Vermillion County, born April 16, 1837, a son of Charles and Rachel (Moore) Little, his father a native of Virginia of Irish descent and his mother of Ohio, of Irish and Welsh descent. His parents came to Vermillion County in 1830, and settled near Eugene, where they lived seven years and then moved to the farm where our subject now lives, where the father died in 1854, aged fifty-seven years. The mother died November 27, 1881, on her eighty-first anniversary. They had a family of nine children, seven of whom are living -- Theodore and William, of Kansas; Rufus P.: Lucretia, wife of Joseph James; Rowena, wife of Francis Walthall; Charles, and Eliza J. At the time of his father's death Rufus P. was the oldest child at home, and the responsibility of managing the farm fell on him, and although he was only seventeen years old, he assumed the work of a man and was the main dependence of his mother and the younger children. He was married in 1863 to Sarah J. McNeely, who was born in Ver-
million County in 1846, and died in 1868, leaving two children -- Ella and Eunice. In 1869 he married Anna Noyes a navtive of Indiana, born in 1836. They have three children -- Fred G., Grace and Clifford R. Mr. Little is a Republican in politics. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
CAPTAIN JOHN LINDSEY, residing in the neighborhood of the old Indiana Furnace, Clinton Township, came to Vermillion County, November 4, 1839, and the day following his arrival he entered the employ of the Furnace company. Soon after he became superintendent of the furnace, and had charge of its working force until he entered the army. He was born at Portsmouth, Scioto County, Ohio, November 4, 1814, a son of William D. and Rhoda (Wilson) Lindsey the former a native of Pennsylvania, and the mother of new Jersey. The father was a soldier in the war of 1812, serving in a company commanded by his brother, John Lindsey, who died at Eugene, Vermillion County Indiana, fifty years ago. The parents of our subject were married in Scioto County, Ohio June 21, 1813, and of the nine children born to them, he was the eldest. The remaining children are as follows -- Johnson still residing in Scioto County, Ohio; James in Vigo County Indiana; Wilson in Franklin County, Missouri; Sely, who is blind, lives with his brother James; Martha Jane, deceased wife of John V. Bly; William D. lives in Crawford County, Illinois; Harriet Ann, widow of Edward Walton, lives in iowa, and Angeline died aged thirteen years. Captain John Lindsey, the subject of this sketch, is a self-made and self-educated man, his entire attendance at school being but three months in the subscription schools of his day. As soon as old enough he began work in iron production and became a molder. His father was a boatman on the Scioto River until coming to Vermillion County. All the family came to this county together, with the exception of Johnson, the second son, who remained in Ohio. The father entered the employ of the Furnace company, but not long afterward he settled on a tract of 160 acres, bought by our subject, where he died March 5, 1872, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. His widow survived until November 4, 1875, dying at the age of seventy-seven years cared for until her death by her son John. Our subject was united in marriage March 30, 1845, to Miss Mahala Boyce, a native of New Hampshire, born in 1819, coming in 1839 to Vermillion County, with her father. He was an employe of the Furnace company in Clinton Township. To Mr. and Mrs. Lindsey a daughter was born December 16, 1846, who died the day of her birth, Mrs. Lindsey dying four days later. Her father died the same year he came to this county, her mother surviving until 1874. Three of her sisters and one brother are living, named Polly, Roxanna, Diana and Edwin, all with Captain Lindsey, members of the same household. No man in Vermillion County is more widely known or more warmly greeted whereever he oes than Captain Lindsey. He recruited almost all of Company I, Fourteenth Indiana Infantry, sixty of the men in its ranks being employes under him from one to ten years. The Fourteenth was the first three years regiment from Indiana to reach the front, and participated in McClellan's first battle at Rich Mountain, West Virginia, July 12, 861, and at Winchester, Virginia, in Shields' battle with General Stonewall Jackson, March 23, 1862. At Winchester Captain Lindsey was shot through the right