JOSEPH C. MADDOX is a native of Chester Township, Wells County, Indiana,. born on the old Maddox homestead February 25, 1855, a son of Wesley Harvey and Eliza Ann (Grove) Maddox. He was reared on the home farm, receiving his education in the common schools of his township and at Bluffton. After leaving school he adopted the teacher's profession, which he followed principally for fifteen years, part of this time following the avocation of a farmer. He was united in marriage June 11, 1879, to Miss Elizabeth O. Dawson, who was also a native of Wells County, Indiana, a daughter of George Dawson, who is now living in Union City, Ohio. Mrs. Maddox lost her mother by death when she was but three years of age. Mr. and Mrs. Maddox are the parents of one child, a son named Hugh. Mr. Maddox discontinued teaching in 1884, and since that time has devoted his entire attention to farming, and has a well-cultivated farm in Chester Township. In his political views Mr. Maddox affiliates with the Republican party. He is an active and public-spirited citizen, and always takes an interest in every enterprise which has for its object the advancement of his township or county.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 805-806.

Fully three-quarters of a century have passed since the Maddox family invaded the wilderness of Chester Township in Wells County, and through the collective energies and resources of this one family many acres of wild land have been cleared, the fruits of the field have been gathered season after season, good homes have been established, families reared, and the name is identified with everything good and useful in the county. The life of Joseph C. G. Maddox has been in keeping with the record set by the family as a whole, and for a number of years he gave his services as an educator and for over thirty years has lived on the farm where he was born in Chester township. His home is on Rural Route No. 2 out of Keystone.

Mr. Maddox was born on his present farm February 25, 1855, a son of Wesley H. and Eliza A. (Groves) Maddox. His grandparents were Michael and Frances (Williams) Maddox, natives of Virginia and of about the time of the Revolution. Michael Maddox married for his first wife in Virginia Miss Fraley, by whom he was the father of ten children, and altogether he had eighteen children by two wives. In 1795, he removed to Adams County, Ohio, and still later to Highland County, where he married Frances Williams. In the fall of 1839 he removed with his family to Blackford County, Indiana, settling two miles east of Montpelier. He entered a hundred sixty acres in Section 11 of Harrison township of that county, cleared away a spot in the woods, built a log cabin, and remained a faithful worker and a public spirited resident of that community until his death on September 10, 1845.

He was a regular worshipper in the Methodist Episcopal faith. His widow moved out to Nebraska in 1866 and died in Richardson County of that state December 10, 1874. She was a very noble woman, deeply inclined to religious work, possessed a great deal of business-like and practical energy, and did well by all her children. These children, all of whom reached maturity, were Polly, Joseph C., Wesley H., William M., Wilson M., James J., Eliza A. and Sarah, all of whom are now deceased.

Wesley Harvey Maddox, father of Joseph C., was the founder of the family in Wells County and for many years one of its most highly esteemed citizens. He was born in Highland County, Ohio, September 2, 1821, and in 1837 at the age of sixteen came to Indiana and joined a brother in Randolph County. A little later he moved to Blackford County, where his parents subsequently joined him, and he was with them until after his father's death. In 1842 he and a half brother bought a hundred sixty acres of land in Section 36 of Chester Township, Wells County. It is said that his half brother gave a horse in payment of his share. Wesley H. Maddox did not have a dollar of capital, and he paid for the land by the proceeds of his hunting ability. He caught many coons and killed numerous deer, and in the course of two years had his eighty acres paid for. In 1845 he bought the eighty acres of his half brother. To pay for this he worked at wages of $10 a month or thereabouts for four years in Wayne, Fayette and Union counties. The first home on this farm was a log building 18 by 24 feet, erected by the first occupant, who had settled there in 1841.

After coming to Wells County, Wesley H. Maddox became acquainted with the Groves family, and on November 8, 1849, married Eliza Ann Groves, oldest child of Thomas and Ann (Wilson) Groves. She was a native of Licking County, Ohio. Her parents came to Wells County, Indiana, in 1839, and it is said that they made their home under the wide spreading branches of an oak tree until their log cabin was completed. Thomas Groves, a son of Robert and Susanna Groves, was one of four brothers, Thomas, George, Joseph and Lewis, all of whom came to Wells county and settled near Poneto. Joseph Groves set aside a portion of his farm for a cemetery, and Susanna Groves, who died in 1840, was the first person buried there. Eliza A. Groves was teacher of the first school in Chester Township, and was a woman of much culture and thorough education. She died May 9, 1874. Wesley H. Maddox and wife settled on their farm two weeks after their marriage. Their land was in the midst of the heavy timber, only one acre had been cleared, and their joint possessions consisted of a bedstead, a few dishes, two cows and two colts. Mr. Maddox soon made a table out of black walnut, and that was one of his prized possessions for many years, and is now owned by Joseph C. G. Maddox. Wesley Maddox made a living from his farm and from his prowess as a hunter, and his property and prosperity increased until at one time he owned over 300 acres, with more than 200 acres in cultivation. He became a republican upon the organization of the party, and filled various places of trust, including that of township trustee. He and his wife had eight children, seven of whom grew to maturity: Leander E., who became a physician and married Mary E. Newman; Frances A., who married George W. Leach, and she lost her life in the terrible Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago in 1903, her daughter, Estella, who was with her at the time, being one of the few who escaped; Joseph C. G., next in age; William M., who married Alice Tribell; Sara E., wife of Amaziah Shields; Wesley H., Jr., who married Lulu Shields; and Laura Belle, wife of John E. Markley.

Joseph C. G. Maddox grew up on the old homestead, acquired his early education in the district schools and at Bluffton, and qualifying as a teacher he spent the greater part of his time for fifteen years in that work. On June 11, 1879, he married Miss Elizabeth O. Dawson, who was born in Nottingham Township of Wells County, and was educated in the common schools. She was only three years of age when her mother died, and her father was George Dawson. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Maddox began keeping house a half mile east of Keystone, but in 1884 he gave up teaching and has since devoted his entire attention to looking after his well cultivated farm in Chester Township. He owns 240 acres, and in addition to building up this fine estate has ample provision for his children in the way of making a good home and giving them a liberal education. Mr. Maddox is a republican in politics and is always ready with his support for any movement that would benefit the community.

Mr. and Mrs. Maddox have three children, Hugh G., Chella D., and J. Glenn. The oldest, Hugh G., was educated in the common schools at Keystone, in the Montpelier High School, and took the law course at the State University, graduating LL. B. in 1908. He is now on the farm with his father. He married Carrie B. Steele of Bloomington, Indiana, and has one child, Geraldine, born May 3, 1908. Mrs. Hugh G. Maddox died February 25, 1918. Chella D., the second child of Mr. and Mrs. Maddox, is a graduate of the Keystone and Montpelier schools and was awarded the degree Master of Arts by the Indiana State University. She is now the wife of Howard W. Strait, and they live in Chester Township and have two bright young children, J. Lowell and Elizabeth. J. Glenn, the youngest child, is a graduate of the Keystone High school, and married Shirley A. Gaiser. Their two children are Gaiser and Eulonda.

Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties Indiana. John W Tyndall for Adams Co and O. E. Lesh for Wells County. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1918, pp. 535-537.
Contributed by Narnie Woolley, who states that Joseph's full name was Joseph Collins Grove Maddox.

LEANDER E. MADDOX, M. D., of Keystone, was born in Chester Township this county, May 11, 1851, son of Wesley H. and Eliza Ann (Grove) Maddox. His father was born in Highland County, Ohio, of English descent, and his mother was born in Fairfield County, same State, her parents being early settlers in that county. Both came to Indiana with their parents when young, the parents of the father settling in Harrison Township, Blackford County, and those of the mother, in Harrison Township, Wells County. Both families found their land covered with a heavy growth of timber, and both started to make clearings and erect necessary buildings. Wesley H. bought land in Chester Township, section 36, about 1845 or 1846, and in 1849 he was married. He is still a resident of the township, but his wife died May 9, 1874. Leander E. was reared in Chester Township, and has always made that township his home with the exception of six years' residence in Newville. He commenced his education in the common school at the Maddux schoolhouse, section 36, Chester Township, and at the age of fifteen years commenced attending the school of Professor J. S. McCleary, where he studied three or four terms, He then went to Liber College, Jay County, and attended there two years. In 1871 he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Doster, of Poneto, and attended the medical department of the Michigan State University, at Ann Arbor, 1873-'74-'75, graduating the last Wednesday of March, 1875. He then went to Vera Cruz and commenced the practice of his profession. In 1881 he settled in Keystone, where he has since practiced, and he is the only physician in Chester Township. He was married August 20, 1871, to Miss Mary E. Newman, a native of Huntington County, this State, and daughter of John and Lydia Newman. They have two children-Myrtie and Katie. Politically the doctor is a Republican. He is a member of Bluffton Lodge, No. 142, A. F. & A. M. H is mother was the first school-teacher in Chester Township, and the first lady teacher in Wells County.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 738.

Wesley Harvey Maddox, retired farmer, residing in Chester Township, was born in Highland County, Ohio, September 2, 1821, a son of Michael and Frances (Williams) Maddox, natives of Virginia, and of English and Scotch descent respectively. His paternal ancestors came to America about the time of the Revolutionary war. Michael Maddox was twice married. He was first married in Virginia to a lady by the name of Fraley, by whom he had ten children. After his marriage he came, in 1795, to Adams County, Ohio, and later removed to Highland County, where his wife died. He was then married in Highland County, to Frances Williams, and in the fall of 1839 he removed with his family to Blackford County, Indiana, where he lived until his death September 10, 1845. In 1866 his widow went to Nebraska and died in Richardson County, that State, December 10, 1874.
Wesley H. Maddox, the subject of this sketch, was reared till his sixteenth year in Highland County, when, in 1837, he came to Indiana, having a brother in Winchester, Randolph County, with whom he remained from February till the following April, when he came to Blackford County, and after his parents came to that county, he made his home with them until after his father's death. In 1842 he and a half brother bought 160 acres of land on section 36, Chester Township, his half-brother giving a horse in payment for his share. At that time he had not a dollar, but at once set to work hunting coon and deer, and at the close of the year 1844 had his eighty acres paid for, and in 1845 he purchased the eighty acres belonging to his half-brother, when he went to Wayne County and began working for $10 per month. After working four years in Wayne, Fayette and Union counties he had paid for his land, besides making a trip home every year, and going to Bluffton to pay his taxes. A log house, 18 x 24 feet, had been built on his land by the former owner, who had settled here in 1841.
Mr. Maddox was married November 8, 1849, and on the 22d of November he and his wife settled into place. It was then wild timber with only an acre cleared, and their joint possessions consisted of a bedstead, a few dishes, two cows and two colts, but Mr. Maddox soon made a table out of black walnut, which he still has in his possession. He had been quite a hunter from the time he came to Indiana until he settled on his land, and from that time devoted his time to clearing and improving his place, remaining there until he moved to his present farm on section 24 of the same township, and from his small beginning he has accumulated 328 acres of land, of which about 218 acres have been cleared. Mrs. Maddox was formerly Miss Eliza Ann Grove. She was born in the state of Ohio, a daughter of Thomas and Ann Grove, who came to Wells County, Indiana, in 1839, living in this county until their death. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Maddox, of whom seven are living--Leander E. (a physician), Mrs. Francis M. Leech, Joseph Collins, William McKendree, Sara Ellen (wife of Amaziah Shields), Wesley Harvey, and Laura Belle. Thomas is deceased. Mrs. Maddox died May 9, 1874. In politics Mr. Maddox has been a Republican since the organization of that party. He has held among other local offices that of township trustee. He takes an active interest in the affairs of his township, and in the advancement of the cause of education, and has given his children good educational advantages. His wife taught the first school in Chester Township, on the land now owned by John Graves. Mr. Maddox has experienced the privations as well as the pleasures of pioneer life, and has witnessed the surrounding county change from a state of nature into well cultivated fields and thriving towns and villages.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 982-983.
Contributed by Tammy Rable

WILLIAM McKENDREE MADDOX was born in Chester Township, Wells County, March 1, 1858, son of Wesley Harvey and Eliza Ann (Grove) Maddox. He was reared in this county and educated in the schools of Chester Township, and also at Bluffton. He was married August 17, 1881, to Miss Laura Alice Twibell, also a native of Chester Township, and daughter of John J. and Amelia (Boyd) Twibell. Mr. and Mrs. Maddox are the parents of one child, Harry. Mr. Maddox owns sixty-five acres of land, all of which is cleared. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 715.

Henry A. Mann was born in Monroe county, West Virginia, July 8, 1828. His father, Michael Mann, was born in Virginia, August 12, 1795, his father being Jacob Mann, a native of Germany. The maternal parent of the subject, Cynthia (Walker) Mann, was also a native of Virginia, born January 5, 1797. The parents of the subject were married March 14, 1816, and settled on a farm in Virginia, where the father engaged in farming, also conducting the business of blacksmithing. In 1833 they came to Henry county, Indiana, entering land in the new country where the wife died September 30, 1871. Michael afterward married a second wife, who died prior to his own death, which occurred at Rensselaer, Indiana, December 21, 1889. Michael Mann was the father of the following children: Jacob C., born July 20, 1821, a resident of Howard county, Indiana; Christopher D., born December 11, 1830, now a resident of Marion, Indiana; Henry A.; Clayton W., born June 29, 1819; Marinda, born July 5, 1823; Leroy, born March 7, 1826; Lucinda C., born October 6, 1833.

Henry A. Mann attended the district schools of Henry county until he was about eighteen years of age, but at that period of time the terms of school were very brief and the most of his time until that age was spent in assisting his father until January 3, 1856, at which time he married Martha Allen, a daughter of William and Sarah (Prathee) Allen, the father a native of North Carolina, born September 7, 1798, and the mother a native of Virginia, born October 8, 1806. William Allen was a son of Reuben Allen, also a native of North Carolina. William and Sarah Allen were married October 19, 1826, in Wayne county, Indiana, where they settled, remaining there for a time. They then removed to Madison county, Indiana, where they lived the remainder of their lives. William was the father of eight children, four of whom are yet living: James, born July 30, 1827, died February 15, 1893; Thomas C., born September 10, 1829, died November 11, 1854; Martha, born October 16, 1831, the wife of the subject; W. A., born in March, 1834, a physician now practicing in Rochester, Minnesota; Jonathan P., born August 12, 1837, died January 5, 1862, of disease contracted in the army; Benjamin F., born February 6, 1840, now a dentist in Glencoe, Minnesota; Mary E., born November 16, 1842, died September 19, 1845, and Rachel, born December 15, 1846, now the wife of C. W. Wymant, of Danville, Indiana. The subject, after his marriage, settled in Henry county, Indiana, renting a farm for a period of three years. He then removed to Wells county, settling in Nottingham township, purchasing one hundred acres of land, which he cleared and brought under cultivation. After remaining on this farm seventeen years, he purchased eighty acres, where he now lives, also clearing the greater part of this place. The subject now owns one hundred and eighty acres of fine farming land and, besides being a general stock farmer, is one of the four stockholders interested in the grain elevator at Poneto, Wells county.

Mr. Mann is the father of two children, one of whom is yet living; Emma, born August 16, 1857, died September 2, 1850; James M., born April 15, 1860, married Sarah Stahl, and is now a resident of Nottingham township, and is the father of one child, Lillie. The subject and family are connected with the Baptist church, of which he has been a clerk for thirty-one years and a deacon for about thirteen years. He answered his country's call during the great Rebellion, enlisting in the army on October 16, 1864, in Company K, Fifty-third Regiment Indiana Volunteers, and served until the close of the war. While the husband was absent in the army serving his country, his wife was left alone on the farm with her little son, then five years old. Owing to the absence of nearly all the men in the army she did her own plowing, but she says that her old horse knew more about the business than she did herself.

In politics the subject of this sketch has been a Republican all his life, and, as in all the relations of life, he has performed his civic duties from conscientious mtovies of duty, and when he is convinced that he is right is hard to swerve from his course. He is a type of the solid, resonsible yeomanry of our state, possessing all the traits of economic thright and industry possessed by the German people.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 166-168.

DANIEL F. MARKLEY, farmer, Harrison Township, was born in Wells County, Indiana, August 22, 1854, son of Gabriel Markley. He was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools. He remained with his parents until he reached his majority, and December 31, 1874, he was married to Miss Jennie Hale, a daughter of Bowen Hale. He resided with his father-in-law one year, then settled upon his present farm, which his father had previously purchased. He has 128 acres of well-improved land. They have had seven children, six of whom are living——Alfred (deceased), Edith, Mary, Mertie, Hattie, Bowen and Archie. Politically Mr. Markley is a Republican.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 882.

GABRIEL MARKLEY, deceased, one of the early settlers of Wells County, was born in Maryland, January 11, 1814, a son of Jonathan Markley, also a native of Maryland. When he was three years old his parents removed to Pennsylvania, thence to Madison County, Ohio, where he resided upon his father’s farm until 1836. During that year he was married to Miss Hannah, daughter of Solomon Tuttle, who was born in Athens County, Ohio, March 30, 1818. One year after marriage Mr. and Mrs. Markley immigrated to Wells County, this State, which was then a dense wilderness. Here he entered seventy-two acres of land from the Government on section 18, Harrison Township, on the Wabash River. There were then only four white families in that part of the county. He erected a cabin and began to clear and improve a farm. By industry and good management, he added to his original purchase from time to time, until he owned a landed estate of eleven hundred acres, most of which was in a state of cultivation. Mr. and Mrs. Markley passed through all the usual hardships of pioneer life. When he first arrived here his property consisted of a horse and a cow; the latter died soon after reaching here. They were the parents of twelve children, of whom eight survive-Jonathan, Nancy A., wife of Daniel Shoemaker, John W., Henry C., Oliver P., Mary A., now the wife of William A. Markley, Isabel, now Mrs. William Prelliman, and Daniel F. Both parents were active members of the Christian church. Mr. Markley died June 12, 1873, and his wife, March 30, 1883.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 723-724.

GABRIEL MARKLEY, deceased, one of the early settlers of Wells County, was born in Maryland, January 11, 1814, a son of Jonathan Markley, also a native of Maryland. When he was three years old his parents removed to Pennsylvania, thence to Madison County, Ohio, where he resided upon his father's farm until 1836. During that year he was married to Miss Hannah, daughter of Solomon TUTTLE, who was born in Athens County, Ohio, March 30, 1818. One year after marriage Mr. and Mrs. Markley immigrated to Wells County, this State, which was then a dense wilderness. Here he entered seventy-two acres of land from the Government on section 18, Harrison Township, on the Wabash River. There were then only four white families in that part of the county. He erected a cabin and began to clear and improve a farm. By industry and good management, he added to his original purchase from time to time, until he owned a landed estate of eleven hundred acres, most of which was in a state of cultivation. Mr. and Mrs. Markley passed through all the usual hardships of pioneer life. When he first arrived here his property consisted of a horse and a cow; the latter died soon after reaching here. They were the parents of twelve children, of whom eight survive-Jonathan, Nancy A., wife of Daniel SHOEMAKER, John W., Henry C., Oliver P., Mary A., now the wife of William A. MARKLEY, Isabel, now Mrs. William PRELLIMAN, and Daniel F. Both parents were active members of the Christian church. Mr. Markley died June 12, 1873, and his wife March 30, 1883.

Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties Indiana. John W Tyndall for Adams Co and O. E. Lesh for Wells County. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1918, p. 723.
Contributed by Colleen Rutledge

GEORGE F. MARKLEY, of the firm of Markley and Son at Bluffton, is one of a number of successful men of the Markley name who from pioneer times to the present have been identified with Wells County. The history of his branch of the Markley family in Wells County goes back to his grandfather, Gabriel Markley, who was born in Maryland January 11, 1814, a son of Jonathon Markley, a native of the same state. When he was three years of age his parents moved to Pennsylvania, and later to Madison County, Ohio. In 1836 Gabriel Markley married Hannah TUTTLE, who was born in Athens County, Ohio, March 30, 1818, a daughter of Soloman Tuttle. In 1837, Gabriel Markley and wife came to Wells County, Indiana, which was then completely covered with woods and all the wilderness nature. He had a farm in section 18 of Harrison Township, along the Wabash River. Only four white families were to be found in that part of the county. He and his wife endured many privations, but their outlook was promising, and in the course of time Gabriel Markley was the owner of some 1,100 acres of land. It is said that his property when he first arrived in Wells County consisted only of a horse and a cow, and the latter died soon after they came to the county. Gabriel Markley and wife had 12 children. They were active members of the Christian Church. Gabriel Markley died June 12, 1873, and his wife on March 30, 1883.

Jonathan Markley, father of the Bluffton Merchant, was born in Wells County June 4, 1838, soon after his parents arrived in this wilderness. For many years he enjoyed the distinction of being the oldest living white person in Wells County. He had to be satisfied with such education as was obtainable in the old subscription schools taught in a log cabin. On December 21, 1858, he married Miss Catherine STURGIS, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (BRASIER) Sturgis. Following his marriage he worked a farm near the old homestead for several years, continued farming at Newville until the spring of 1882, when he returned to Harrison Township and acquired 160 acres of land which he brought under a high state of cultivation. The years brought him prosperity and the honor paid to a useful citizen, and death came to him in his seventy-ninth year on April 28, 1917. He and his wife were active members of the Six Mile Christian Church and in politics he was a prohibitionist. He and his wife had thirteen children, and eight of the sons and two of the daughters are still living.

One of them was George F. Markley, who was born in Harrison Township of Wells County February 5, 1861. The farm, rural environment and country schools offered the chief experiences of George F. Markley during his boyhood. After work in the County Normal he was qualified as a teacher and he continued teaching in the winter and farming in the summer until he came to Bluffton and engaged in the grocery business in 1893. His store was on Market Street for two years, until it was burned out, and he then moved to Main Street and in 1899 came to his present location at 222 West Market. In 1902 the firm became Markley & Son, and they have long been among the leading purveyors of high class provisions in Bluffton.

Mr. Markley married for his wife Ellen ARNOLD, who died in 1888. Their three children were Jessie, Vernon C. and Augusta. They were all educated in the Bluffton public schools. In 1893 Mr. Markley married Lillian GETTLE, who was born in Bluffton, daughter of Sarah Gettle. Mr. & Mrs. Markley have four children: Harold, who is a graduate of Bluffton High School, is married and is now connected with the Leader Company Store at Bluffton; Paul, a graduate of the high school, who has enlisted in the army and is now serving in the United States at Fort Dupont, Delaware; Edna is the wife of Claude FARLING; Herman completed the course of the Bluffton High School in 1917. The family are active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and Mr. Markley is a member of its official board. Fraternally he is identified with Bluffton Lodge No. 114 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, is a past noble grand of the lodge, and belongs to both the Encampment and Canton of Odd Fellowship. Mr. Markley is an active democrat, but his chief public service has been rendered to the public schools of Bluffton. For twelve years he was a member of the board, three years its secretary, was treasurer six years and president three years.

Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties Indiana. John W Tyndall for Adams Co and O. E. Lesh for Wells County. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1918, pp. 494-495.
Contributed by Barbara Besecker

Henry C. Markley, farmer, Harrison Township, was born on the farm where he now resides July 18,1855, a son of Gabriel Markley. He was reared on his father's farm, and remained at home until his death, then succeeded to the old homestead. He was married October 23, 1883, to Miss Alice Williams, daughter of James and Harriet(Bullinger) Williams, and they have two children- Alta Bell, born September 15, 1884, and James Thomas, born December 31, 1885. Mr. Markley owns 352 acres of improved land, in a good state of cultivation. Himself and wife are members of the Christian church, and politically he is a Prohibitionist.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 992.
Contributed by R J Meredith

HENRY C. MARKLEY, farmer, Harrison Township, was born on the farm where he now resides July 18, 1855, a son of Gabriel Markley. He was reared on his father's farm, and remained at home until his death, then succeeded to the old homestead. He was married October 23, 1883, to Miss Alice WILLIAMS, daughter of James and Harriet (BULLINGER) Williams, and they have two children-Alta Bell, born September 15, 1884, and James Thomas, born December 31, 1885. Mr. Markley owns 352 acres of improved land, in a good state of cultivation. Himself and wife are members of the Christian church, and politically he is a Prohibitionist.

Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties Indiana. John W Tyndall for Adams Co and O. E. Lesh for Wells County. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1918, p. 992.
Contributed by Colleen Rutledge

John Markley, was born near the city of Baltimore, Maryland, March 10, 1809, and died December 19, 1870. His wife, who in her maidenhood bore the name of Melinda WILSON, was born in Madison county, Ohio, January 12, 1816, and died April 20, 1888. John Markley remained upon the home farm during his boyhood, assisting his father in the clearing and development of the land, receiving in the meantime but little education. On the 2d of March, 1834, he was married to Melinda Wilson, the daughter of Valentine Wilson, reputed to be the wealthiest man in Madison county, Ohio. In 1835, accompanied by his young wife and his brother Gabriel and wife, he emigrated to Wells county, Indiana, and located on the north bank of the Wabash river, five miles above where the city of Bluffton now stands. He entered there two hundred acres of land and proceeded at once to the task of clearing and developing it. He at first erected a rude log cabin, in which they made their home for a number of years and in which the subject was born. Subsequently Mr. Markley was enabled to purchase five hundred acres of additional land, which he cultivated with marked success for a number of years. Healways followed the pursuit of farming, in which he was prosperous, was honorable and straightforward in his intercourse with his fellow men and enjoyed the respect and esteem of a large circle of friends and acquaintances. When he first went to that locality there were not enough settlers there to fill a jury and officer a court. In politics he was a Republican and took a keen and active interest in all things affecting the interests of his county. He and his wife were members of the Christian church and were consistent and faithful in the performance of their religious duties, bringing up their children in the light of the gospel and of their own examples. They were the parents of eleven children, briefly mentioned as follows: Valentine is deceased; Rachael Ann is the wife of Stephen ADSIT, of Hoopeston, Illinois; Jonathan J. is the subject; William D. live at Vera Cruz, Harrison township, this county; Hester is deceased; Matilda J. is the wife of CAPT. E. Y. STURGIS, of Bluffton; Amanda, deceased; Ellen is deceased; Louis P. lives at Vera Cruz, this county; Samuel T. resides at Elwood, Indiana, and Wilson A., of Harrison township, this county.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 447.
Transcribed by Colleen Rutledge

JOHN W. MARKLEY, farmer, section 18, Harrison Township, was born in that township February 3, 1843, second son and third child of Gabriel Markley, now deceased, He was reared on a farm, and obtained his education in the subscription and common schools. He remained with his parents until the breaking out of the late civil war, when he enlisted, August 15, 1862, in Company B, One Hundred and First Indiana Infantry. He participated in many hard fought battles. Among the most prominent were the battles of Chickamauga, Atlanta, and with Sherman to the sea. During the fight at Chickamauga he received a wound from a ball passing across his breast, which disabled him from active duty for about two months. While following Morgan's troops he met with a narrow escape from the rebel prisons; he was captured, and released the same night. After serving three years he was honorably discharged June 19, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky. He was married October 24, 1867, to Miss Araminta, daughter of David and Catherine (Gates) Powell, the former a native of Hancock County, Maryland, and the latter of Belmont County, Ohio. They came to this county in 1845, where Mr. Powell died in 1877. Mrs. Markley was born in this county October 20, 1848. After his marriage Mr. Markley settled upon his present farm in Harrison Township, where he owns 272 acres of improved land in a high state of cultivation. They have had five children, four of whom are deceased - Leora died January 19, 1881, aged ten years and four months; Alma died January 28, 1884, aged eight years and seven months; Hannah C., born February 9, 1881, died May 13, 1882; Franklin, born January 13, 1873, still survives; one child died in infancy. Mrs. Markley is a member of the Christian church. In politics Mr. Markley affiliates with the National party.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 695.

JONATHAN MARKLEY, farmer, section 20, Harrison Township, was born in this county June 4, 1838, and is the oldest white child now living that was born in the county. His parents were Gabriel and Hannah Markley. He was reared on a farm, and obtained a limited education in the early subscription schools that were taught in the primitive hog cabin. He remained under the parental roof until his marriage, which occurred December 21, 1858, with Miss Catherine, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Brasier) Sturgis. After his marriage Mr. Markley resided on a farm near the old homestead for seven years. He then removed to Newville, where he followed farming until the spring of 1882, when he sold out and purchased his present farm in Harrison Township. He owns 160 acres of well-improved land, in a good state of cultivation. He also owns forty acres on section 19. Mr. and Mrs. Markley are the parents of thirteen children, eleven of whom are living - Gabriel T., George F., John E., Lulu May, Hannah Bell, Oliver E., William Henry, Ernest E., Jonathan Leander, Wilford I. and Charlie D. The deceased are Elva, May and Katie. Both parents are active members of the Christian church, and politically Mr. Markley affiliates with the Prohibition party.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 677-678.

JONATHAN MARKLEY, farmer, section 20, Harrison Township, was born in this county June 4, 1838, and is the oldest white child now living that was born in the county. His parents were Gabriel and Hannah Markley. He was reared on a farm, and obtained a limited education in the early subscription schools that were taught in the primitive log cabin. He remained under the parental roof until his marriage, which occurred December 21, 1858, with Miss Catherine, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth (Brasier) Sturgis. After his marriage Mr. Markley resided on a farm near the old homestead for several years. He then removed to Newville, where he followed farming until the spring of 1882, when he sold out and purchased his present farm in Harrison Township. he owns 160 acres of well-improved land in a good state of cultivation. he also owns forty acres on section 19. Mr. and Mrs. Markley are the parents of thirteen children, eleven of whom are living-Gabriel T., George F., John E., Lulu May, Hannah Bell, Oliver E., William Henry, Ernest E., Jonathan Leander, Wilford I. and Charlie D. The deceased are Elva, May and Katie. Both parents are active members of the Christian church, and politically Mr. Markley affiliates with the Prohibition party.

Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties Indiana. John W Tyndall for Adams Co and O. E. Lesh for Wells County. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1918.
Contributed by Colleen Rutledge

REV. JONATHAN J. MARKLEY is a native of Wells County, Indiana, born in Harrison Township, March 7, 1839. His parents, John and Melinda (Wilson) Markley, were natives of Maryland and Ohio respectively, the father born near Baltimore March 10, 1809, and reared in Pennsylvania, and the mother born January 12, 1816. They were married in Madison County, Ohio, and to them were born eleven children, eight of whom grew to maturity, their names in order of their birth being as follows: Mrs. Rachel Adsit, living in Iroquois County, Illinois; Jonathan J., the subject of this sketch; William D., residing in Wells County; Mrs. Ellen J. Studabaker, of Wells County; Mrs. Tillie J. Sturgis, of Bluffton; Lewis P., of Greene County, Ohio; Samuel T., of Clinton County, Indiana, and Wilson A., living on the old homestead in Harrison Township. The parents were pioneer settlers of Wells County, settling in the wilderness of Harrison Township in February, 1837, about two years after their marriage. The father died on his pioneer homestead in 1869. He came to the county a poor man, but by industry and frugality he accumulated a large property, leaving at his death about 700 acres of land besides considerable personal property. He was a man of sterling character, and one whose word was considered as good as his bond, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him. In politics he was formerly a Whig, and later a Republican. For about twenty years previous to his death he was a consistent member of the Christian church. The widowed mother still resides on the old homestead in Harrison Township with her son Wilson.
Rev. Jonathan J. Markley, the subject of this sketch, has spent most of his life in Wells county, receiving his early education in the common schools of the county. He was a student at Liber College in Jay County, and later attended the Union Christian College in Sullivan County, Indiana, finishing his studies when twenty-eight years of age. In 1865 he united with the Christian church, and from that time has devoted himself to the cause of the Master. He commenced his ministerial work in 1869, and was ordained in 1872. Since 1869 he has had charge of the Christian church at Murray. Mr. Markley was united in marriage, January 18, 1871, to Miss Mary Hoffman, who was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, August 18, 1840, a daughter of Philip Hoffman, of Wells County. Immediately after his marriage Mr. Markley made his home on section 19, Lancaster Township, near his present residence, and is still living in that section. He owns a fine farm property containing 210 acres, which is under a good state of cultivation. In politics Mr. Markley is a Republican. He is an active temperance worker, and in sympathy with prohibition.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 674-675.

Each business or calling if honorable, has its place in human existence, constituting a part of the plan whereby life’s methods are pursued and man reaches his ultimate destiny. Emerson said that "All are needed by each one." And that is as true in one avenue of life’s activities as in another. However, the importance of a business or profession is in a very large measure determined by its beneficence or usefulness. So dependent is man upon his fellow men that the worth of each individual is largely reckoned by what he has done for humanity. There is no class to whom greater gratitude is due than to those self-sacrificing, sympathetic, noble-minded men whose life work has been the elevation of their fellow men to a higher conception of God, their duty to him and their duty to their fellow men. There is no known standard by which their beneficent influence can be measured, but it is certainly safe to say that to no class of men in the country today indebted for the present high moral and spiritual standard of the community in as large a degree as to the early ministers of the gospel, those earnest and consecrated men who, disregarding personal comfort, spread abroad a knowledge of the Christ and taught the great truths of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. The subject of this sketch for many years labored faithfully in the cause of the Master and by a long life of earnest and self-denying toil accomplished great good in this community and now possesses the confidence and respect of all who know him. Because of the prominent part he took in the development of this region he is justly entitled to representation in a volume of this character.

The first ancestor of the subject of whom anything definite is now known was his great-grandfather, probably Gabriel Markley by name, who was driven by religious persecution from Holland in the year 1720. With a number of his fellow countrymen, he emigrated to America and settled first in Maryland. His son, Jonathan Markley, grandfather of the subject was born in Maryland in 1760. In 1815 he emigrated to Pennsylvania and after residing there a few years went to Madison county, Ohio, where he remained until his death. The subject’s father, John Markley, was born near the city of Baltimore, Maryland, March 10, 1809, and died December 19, 1870. His wife, who in her maidenhood bore the name of Melinda WILSON, was born in Madison county, Ohio, January 12, 1816, and died April 20, 1888. John Markley remained upon the home farm during his boyhood, assisting his father in the clearing and development of the land, receiving in the meantime but little education. On the 2d of March, 1834, he was married to Melinda Wilson, the daughter of Valentine Wilson, reputed to be the wealthiest man in Madison county, Ohio. In 1835, accompanied by his young wife and his brother Gabriel and wife, he emigrated to Wells county, Indiana, and located on the north bank of the Wabash river, five miles above where the city of Bluffton now stands. He entered there two hundred acres of land and proceeded at once to the task of clearing and developing it. He at first erected a rude log cabin, in which they made their home for a number of years and in which the subject was born. Subsequently Mr. Markley was enabled to purchase five hundred acres of additional land, which he cultivated with marked success for a number of years. He always followed the pursuit of farming, in which he was prosperous, was honorable and straightforward in his intercourse with his fellow men and enjoyed the respect and esteem of a large circle of friends and acquaintances. When he first went to that locality there were not enough settlers there to fill a jury and officer a court. In politics he was a Republican and took a keen and active interest in all things affecting the interests of his county. He and his wife were members of the Christian church and were consistent and faithful in the performance of their religious duties, bringing up their children in the light of the gospel and of their own examples. They were the parents of eleven children, briefly mentioned as follows: Valentine is deceased; Rachael Ann is the wife of Stephen ADSIT, of Hoopeston, Illinois; Jonathan J. is the subject; William D. live at Vera Cruz, Harrison township, this county; Hester is deceased; Matilda J. is the wife of CAPT. E. Y. STURGIS, of Bluffton; Amanda, deceased; Ellen is deceased; Louis P. lives at Vera Cruz, this county; Samuel T. resides at Elwood, Indiana, and Wilson A., of Harrison township, this county.

Jonathan J. Markley, the immediate subject of this biographical sketch, was born in Harrison township, Wells county, Indiana, on the 7th of March, 1839, his birth taking place in the little log cabin which his father first erected on the clearing he had made there. The subject remained at home until he attained his majority, faithfully assisting his father in the arduous task of clearing the land and cultivating the soil, and developing at the same time that strength of body and those sturdy qualities of character which served him so well in the after years of his life. During his teens he received the advantages of such mental training as was to be obtained in the common schools of the neighborhood. Not being satisfied with such education as he had received, after attaining his majority he secured a position as teacher in the schools of Vera Cruz, holding this position for three years and also teaching one year in another school. In this way he earned enough money to enable him to enter Liber College in Jay county, this state, where he spent three years in earnest study. During his attendance at college he found it necessary to work out on Saturdays and in evenings in order to defray his expenses. He selected his studies with a view of entering the ministry and all his ambitions and efforts were centered upon that purpose. Upon leaving college he returned home, but after remaining there about two years he, in 1871, came to Lancaster township and occupied forty acres of land which he had previously purchased. He was a member of the Christian church and in 1869 he began preaching, his first charge being the Christian Church at Murray, Lancaster township. That his services in the capacity of a pastor and minister of the gospel were satisfactory is evidenced by the fact that he was retained in this one charge for the remarkably long period of thirty-one years, a period in which his influence in the community was constantly manifest and acknowledged by all who were conversant with his labors. In 1900 Mr. Markley resigned his ministerial work and retired from active pastorate, much to the regret of many who had sat under his preaching and been the recipients of his ministrations. During this long pastorate he labored earnestly and indefatigably for the uplifting of those with whom he came in contact and by an exemplary life influenced many to turn from sin and follow the teachings of the Nazarene.

In 1898 Mr. Markley erected a handsome large brick house and in 1900 he erected a fine new barn, being now the owner of one of the finest pieces of farm property in Wells county. From the original tract of forty acres he has, by thrift, economy and enterprise, been enabled to increase his holdings to two hundred and forty acres of as good land as can be found in Wells county. Mr. Markley enjoys the distinction of being one of the oldest ministers in the county and also of having married more couples and preached more sermons than any other preacher in the county. In politics he has been a lifelong Republican and has always taken a keen interest in the trend of public events, though at no time an aspirant for public office. A bit of early history is connected with Mr. Markley’s home in the fact that where his house now stands occurred the first marriage ceremony performed in the county, a minister from Ft. Wayne officiating. The couple then married are yet living at Buena Vista, the wife having celebrated her eighty-fourth birthday during the first week in July, 1902. Another noteworthy fact is that Mr. Markley officiated at the funerals of eight of his neighbors within two years, all residing within sight of his home and their aggregate ages being six hundred and forty-three years.

On the 18th of January, 1871, Mr. Markley was united in the holy bonds of matrimony with Miss Mary M. HUFFMAN, who was born August 18, 1840, the daughter of Philip and Margarite Huffman, of Bluffton. This union has been a most happy and congenial one and in many ways Mrs. Markley has proven her devotion and faithfulness to her husband’s best interests. A devout and consecrated Christian, she has always so lived as to cast no discredit upon the religion which she professes and by her many acts of charity and kindliness has endeared herself to a host of warm and loyal friends.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 447-448.
Transcribed by Colleen Rutledge

Wholly devoted to home and domestic duties, doing through all the best years of her life the sacred work that comes within her sphere, there is not much to record concerning the life of the average woman. And yet what station so dignified, what relation so loving and endearing, what office so holy, tender and ennobling as those of the home-making wife and mother? A celebrated writer has said that the future destiny of a nation depended upon its wives and mothers. In a biographical compendium such as this, woman should have no insignificant representation. As man’s equal in many respects, and even his superior in the gentle, tender and loving amenities of life, she fully merits a much larger notice than she ordinarily receives. The foregoing was suggested after a perusal of the leading facts in the career of the worthy and respected lady whose name forms the caption to this article, a lady who has done well her part and whose career has been a simple, but beautiful poem of rugged, toilsome duty faithfully and uncomplainingly performed as maiden, wife and mother.

Mrs. Martha Markley, widow of the late Jacob B. Markley, is a daughter of Samuel and Susan (Jackson) Wallace, and was born in Rock Creek township this county, on the 12th of April, 1852. Samuel Wallace was a native of Ireland and in that country was reared and educated. He remained there until he was twenty-eight years old, when, in 1833, he came to America, where he believed better opportunities existed. He landed in Philadelphia, where he worked as a laborer for a short time, and about 1837 came to Wells county and entered a tract of land in Rock Creek township. The land was wild and unimproved, but he was strong, energetic and ambitious and in course of time succeeded in creating for himself a comfortable home and a valuable farm. He was united in marriage, in 1840, with Miss Susan Jackson, a native of North Carolina, but whose parents were among the first settlers in Liberty township, this county. To them were born thirteen children as follows: Fannie, Rachael, Anna, James, David, Elizabeth, Catherine, Martha, Mary, Thomas, Matthew, Finley, and one that died in infancy unnamed. Samuel Wallace was a firm and uncompromising Republican in politics and in religious belief was a Presbyterian.

Martha Wallace was early taught the lessons of successful housekeeping, growing into a well developed and graceful womanhood, and was given the advantages of as good an education as the schools of that day afforded. On the 24th of April, 1872, she was united in marriage with Jacob B. Markley, who was a resident of Harrison township, though born in Ohio and coming to Wells county in 1864. To this union were born the following children: Arthur Wallace married Anna Markley and resides in Lancaster township; Bessie Florence, who was educated in the Northern Indiana Normal School and subsequently taught four terms. She became the wife of Archie Norton and resides in Winters, Michigan; Lora Jane attended the normal schools at Danville and Valparaiso and then taught three terms of school at Newville, Indiana; she was married April 1, 1902, to Arlie Thompson and now resides in Ft. Wayne, Indiana; Carl Boyd; Ruth Agnes. Mr. Markley was a stanch Republican and took a keen interest in the trend of passing events. He was a man of more than ordinary energy, sound judgment and superior business abilities, and as a farmer took high rank, being regarded as an up-to-date agriculturist, a man of broad intelligence and a leader in enterprises for the general prosperity of the community.

Since her husband’s death Mrs. Markley has manifested business abilities of a high order in the management of the estate. She is of a sincerely religious nature, belonging, with her children, to the Presbyterian church, and her life has abounded in good works in the church and among the deserving poor in the world outside. She is held in the highest esteem and numbers warm-hearted friends by the score in the community where she has spent so many years. She has experienced many of life’s vicissitudes, and sorrows, but she has also enjoyed many of its triumphs and is now surrounded by those who have long known and respected her.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 517.
Transcribed by Colleen Rutledge

Among the prosperous native-born farmers of Harrison township, Wells county, Indiana, William D. Markley stands most prominent. He is a son of John and Malinda (Wilson) Markley, was born April 25, 1841, and Harrison township has always been his place of residence.

John Markley, the father of William D., came from Madison county, Ohio, to Wells county, Indiana, in 1836, and entered one hundred and eighty-five acres of forest land in section 18, Harrison township, where there had about half a dozen settlers preceded him, including Dan and Adam Miller, Thomas Van Horn and Higgins Gentry. Mr. Markley put up the inevitable log cabin for temporary shelter and set resolutely to work to clear up a farm, or rather to clear off the heavy timber surrounding his cabin. He added gradually to his possessions until he owned about six hundred acres, but continued to make a dwelling of his original cabin the remainder of his life. He was a fiery public-spirited gentleman and did all his means would allow in assisting financially the making of public improvements. He was well known throughout the county of Wells, although a quiet, unassuming man, and was recognized as a useful citizen and a good neighbor, being deeply mourned at his death, which took place in the faith of the Christian church, and his name is still kept green in the memory of his surviving relatives and friends. In politics he was a Republican, but never was officious or intermeddling in forcing his views upon others, and as a farmer was one of the most successful stock raisers in his township. To John and Malinda (Wilson) Markley were born eleven children, of whom eight grew to maturity, namely: Rachel, now the wife of Stephen Adsit; Rev. J. J., of Lancaster township; William D., with whose name this biographical record opens; Ellen, widow of Ben Studabaker; Matilda, married to Capt. E. Y. Sturgis; Lewis P., of this township; Samuel, of Elwood, Indiana; Wilson, still in this township.

William D. Markley was reared to farming on the old homestead, but was given an opportunity to attend school three months each year until he was eighteen years old. He was quite apt at his studies and on relinquishing these engaged in teaching school in Wells county until he was twenty-three years of age, when, in 1864, he married Miss Mary E. Dougherty, a native of Darke county, Ohio, and a daughter of William and Margaret (Studabaker) Dougherty, as well as a sister of the Hon. Hugh Dougherty. To the marriage of W. D. and Mary E. Markley were born five children, viz: Cora, who was a teacher in Wells county for several terms and was then married to Jules Meredith; Franklin, deceased; Carrie, wife of Earnest Morrow; Anna, married to Arthur Markley, and Jane, wife of Gus Baker. Mrs. Mary E. (Dougherty) Markley was called from earth in 1884, and Mr. Markley chose for a second helpmate Margaret Dellinger, whom he married in November, 1891, and this union has been brightened by the birth of one child, Marie, born June 27, 1895.

Mr. Markley is a member of the Christian church at Six Mile and is also one of the trustees. He is very active in his church work, contributes liberally toward its support and maintenance and lives strictly up to its teachings. In politics Mr. Markley is a stanch Republican in principle, but seldom takes an active part in advancing the interests of the party, excepting in the way of regularly casting his vote in its favor, as he has never felt any desire for holding a public office, although he is very popular in his township and he and family are among the most prominent and respected residents of Wells county and Harrison township.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 383-384.

CYRUS S. MARSH, farmer, Washington Town ship, was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, February 28, 1837, son of Alexander and Margaret (Stanley) Marsh, the former a native of Coshocton County, Ohio, and the latter of Virginia. In 1852 the family removed to Indiana and located in Nottingham Township, this county, where the father died the same year. The mother now resides in Bluffton. Our subject was reared to the age of fifteen years in his native county, and has followed farming ever since coming to Wells County. He has owned his present farm, consisting of eighty acres of land, since 1879. He was married in this county, April 8, 1859, to Miss Nancy Heller, born in Wells County, whose parents came from Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and both parents died in this county in 1884. To this union were born fourteen children, of whom two, Oliver and Noah, are deceased. Those living are—John Wesley, justice of the peace of Nottingham Township; George Washington, William Alexander; Eliza Ann, wife of Dan Bashaw, residing in Allen County; Amanda, wife of William R. Schooley; Jacob, of Salina, Ohio; Emma E., wife of Jacob Reinhardt, residing in Blackford County; Mary C., Lewis Edwin, Fred Lee, Elmer and Norah Alice. Politically Mr. Marsh is a Democrat, and has held the office of constable. He is a member of the Lutheran church, as is also his wife, and he served as elder in that church for several years.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 695.

AUGUSTUS N. MARTIN, attorney at law was born at Whitestown, Butler County, Pennsylvania, on March 23, 1847, on his father's farm, his parents being John and Eveline W. Martin, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent. At the age of twelve years, within a common-school education, Mr. Martin began and took a course of several terms in the Witherspoon Institute, at Butler, Pennsylvania. On July 3, 1863, he enlisted in Company I, Fifty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, assisting in the capture of General John Morgan and his command, near Salineville, Ohio. On February 22, 1865, he enlisted in Company E, Seventy-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, serving until August 30, 1865, when he was discharged at Nashville, Tennessee. In February, 1867, he graduated in a business course at Eastman's College, Poughkeepsie, New York. He has taught three terms of school. On the day he arrived at the age of twenty-one years, he left his father's house for the West, settling in Wells County, Indiana, near Ossian, in June, 1869, where he was a day laborer on farm and railroad, until he began the study of law November 3, 1869, in the law office of Todd & Shinn, of Bluffton, Indiana, pursuing his studies day and night with such assiduity that he was admitted to the bar in September, 1870, at Bluffton, entering the practice first as junior member of the law firm of Todd & Martin, and then of Burwell & Martin. He engaged in the practice alone in April, 1874. During that year line was elected a Democratic member of the Legislature from the counties of Adams and Wells, serving as chairman of the committee on corporations and second on the committees on judiciary and the organization of courts. On April 19, 1876, he was nominated for Reporter of the Supreme Court of Indiana, on the Democratic State ticket led by "Blue Jeans" Williams for Governor, which ticket was elected in October, 1876. In 1880 Mr. Martin was renominated by acclamation, and, although the whole Democratic State ticket was defeated, he was beaten by less majority than any other nominee on that ticket. During his four years' term he edited and published volumes LIV. to LXX., seventeen in all, of Indiana Reports. In May, 1881, he removed to Austin, Texas, where he engaged in the practice of the law with his brother, Homer L. Martin, continuing at Austin until July 19, 1883, when the brothers began practice together again at Bluffton, Indiana. On September 21, 1881, Mr. Martin was married, at her parents' home, to Ida L., eldest daughter of Owen T. and Lizzie Curd, of Charleston, Coles County, Illinois. Mabel Martin is his only child, who was born at Austin, Texas, on June 30, 1882. Mr. Martin, with his wife and daughter, resides at Bluffton, where he is engaged in practicing his profession, with success. He was leading counsel for the State in the celebrated prosecution of William Walker for the murder of George Shaw, the trial occupying the whole of the April term, 1884, of the Wells Circuit Court, resulting in a judgment sentencing Walker to twenty-one years in the State prison. He was also engaged in the trial of the celebrated case of William A. Davis vs. Dr. John C. Fulton, for malpractice, which occupied the attention of a jury for two weeks, in March, 1887, resulting in a verdict for Dr. Fulton, Mr. Martin's client. He is a Democrat, is a member of the Presbyterian church, is over six feet in height, and has hair as black as night itself.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 678-679.

HOMER LEAKE MARTIN, an attorney at-law of Bluffton, Indiana, is a native of Pennsylvania, born in Butler County, October 13, 1851. He received his elementary education in the common school, completing it at the Witherspoon Institute at Butler, Pennsylvania, and at the age of twenty-three years began the study of law in the law department of the Columbia University at Washington, D. C., completing a full course from that institution in June, 1875. The following November he came to Wells County, Indiana, and began the practice of his chosen profession.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 694.

L. MASON, M. D., was born in Carroll, Fairfield County, Ohio, November 3, 1837, and removed with his parents to Wells County, Indiana, April 8, 1838. He attended school during the first years of life at distances varying from five to one and a half miles; being brought up a farmer. He attended Liber College, Jay County, Indiana, a part of 1860, 1861, 1862 and 1866. He was married to Miss M. A. Fitzsimmons August 3, 1861. He read medicine and taught school in Indiana and Ohio for several years, and afterward attended the Ohio Medical College, graduating in the spring of 1872, and also graduated from the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery in the spring of 1873, but had practiced medicine some time before receiving a degree. He has given his undivided attention to the practice of his chosen profession since receiving a degree.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 750.

Abraham Mast, retired farmer, is a native of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, born November 30, 1811, a son of Abraham and Sarah (Yoder) Mast, natives of Berks County, Pennsylvania, the father a son of George Mast, and the mother a daughter of Jacob Yoder, both being of German ancestry. Our subject was reared on a farm in his native county, remaining at home until twenty-two years of age, when he went to work by the month for David Albert, and three years later, in 1836, accompanied Mr. Albert to Montgomery County, Ohio, remaining there a year and a half, when he returned to Pennsylvania to visit his friends. He spent the winter at home, and in the spring of 1840 went again to Ohio, when he found that his friend and employer had died the 24th of October, 1839. He then went to work by the day, making his home with Mrs. Albert, and the following fall took charge of her farm, which he worked on shares three years. December 25, 1942, he was married to Elizabeth Albert, a native of Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, daughter of David and Elizabeth (Houtz) Albert, and granddaughter of Nicholas Albert. In 1853 Mrs. Albert sold her farm, and with Mr. Mast moved to Wells County, Indiana, and bought 240 acres of land in Rock Creek Township, twenty acres of which was partially improved. Mr. Mast bought eighty acres of land in Lancaster Township, although he located on his mother-in-law's farm and carried it on for her, subsequently buying 160 acres of her. She made her home with him as long as she lived. In February, 1883, Mr. Mast retired from the active and arduous labors of farm life, and removed to Bluffton, where he is now living in the enjoyment of a competency gained by years of toil. Mr. and Mrs. Mast have had eight children - David, Uriah, Amanda A. (died, aged one year and eight months), Eliza, Laura, Lucinda, Jennie, and Ida. In politics Mr. Mast is a Democrat. He and his wife are members of the Reformed Church.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 904-907.
Contributed by Tammy Rable

One of the leading farmers and an ex-business man of Rock Creek township, Wells County, Indiana, is Uriah Mast, who was born in Montgomery county, Ohio, February 26, 1847, and is a son of Abraham and Elizabeth (Albert) Mast, the former of whom was a native of Pennsylvania, born in Lebanon county, and who, when about twenty-three years old, migrated to Ohio and located in Montgomery county, where he renewed his friendship for the Albert family, with whom he had been acquainted before leaving Pennsylvania, and, although a poor young man at that time, was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth. About 1853 Abraham Mast brought his family to Wells County, Indiana. He had previously been to Wells county and purchased a tract of land in Rock Creek township, in section 22, but did not then settle on this land. He first moved in with his mother-in-law, Mrs. Albert, who resided in Rock Creek township, on section 14, and at first rented her farm, which he afterwards purchased and on which he resided until moving to Bluffton, where his death took place in June, 1891, his wife having passed to the other world three weeks previous. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Mast comprised eight children, named as follows: David, who is now a resident of Iowa; Uriah, whose name opens this biographical record; Amanda, deceased; Eliza, widow of John Eichhorn; Laura, unmarried; Lucinda, wife of Edward Souers, of Bluffton; Jennie, wife of Abe Simmons, of Bluffton, and Ida, wife of Benjamin Ashbaucher.

Uriah Mast was a child of about six years of age when he came with his parents to Wells county, Indiana, and here, at the proper age, he was placed in the district school, which he attended during the winter seasons until twenty-one years old, but in the summer seasons dutifully assisted in caring for the home farm, and for a year after attaining his majority he worked for his father on the same conditions as would a hired hand, after which he went to Illinois and remained some time. On his return to Wells County, Indiana, he rented the home farm, which he conducted for a couple of years.

In 1874 Uriah Mast was united in marriage with Miss Maggie Eichhorn, a daughter of Philip and Margaret (Hostler) Eichhorn. She was born in Ohio and when about eleven years old was brought to Wells County, Indiana. She did not, however, long survive the ceremony which made her a wife and within one year thereafter was called to rest. The second marriage of Mr. Mast took place November 4, 1878, to Mrs. Lucetta Brehm, widow of John Brehm, but who had borne the maiden name of Cassel. No children, however were born to either of these two marriages. Mr. and Mrs. Mast are devout members of the Reform church at St. Paul, in which Mr. Mast had officiated as elder and deacon for many years. In politics Mr. Mast is a Democrat in principle but has never been particularly active in the affairs of his party. Fraternally he a member of the Improved Order of Red Men at Bluffton.

The doctrine or theory that agriculture is the veritable source of wealth been exemplified in the experience of Mast. About the year 1887, he left farm and went to Bluffton, and for eighteen months was identified with Studabaker, Sale & Company warehouse, then also for eighteen months was with Jacob Brown. Next, he rented the H. Frieze feed barn for five years; but although he did a fairly paying business, he was not as well satisfied as when farming, and so returned to his home place in Rock Creek township, where he is now one of the leading farmers and most respected citizens.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 497-499.
Transcribed by Paul Bender

One of the most extensive stock raisers and farmers of Rock Creek township, Wells county, Indiana, is Jacob McAfee, a native of this township, born February 26, 1851, and a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Lesh) McAfee. The McAfee family is of Irish origin and the American branch from which Jacob McAfee descended were early settlers in Virginia, where Samuel McAfee, father of Jacob, was born and reared, though he subsequently settled in Pennsylvania. Subsequently both the McAfee and Lesh families came to Indiana and located in Rock Creek township, Wells county, where Samuel McAfee spent the greater part of his life after moving to the county, though in later years he lived in Liberty township. The family of Samuel and Elizabeth McAfee comprised five sons and three daughters, of whom six still survive, viz: Jacob, John, Peter, Catherine, wife of Chester Scotton, Prescilla, wife of James Gordon, and Hattie, married to William D. Gordon.

Jacob McAfee was reared to agricultural pursuits on the farm on which he had his nativity, and received a very good common school education. At the age of twenty-two he was first married, selecting for his helpmate Miss Jane Logan, daughter of the late John Logan, and to this union was born one child, Mollie, a resident of Toledo, Ohio. Mrs. Jane (Logan) McAfee was called away soon after the birth of her child, and Jacob McAfee in due course of time married Miss Amanda A. Lamm, daughter of Waverly Lamm, of Lancaster township, and this marriage has been crowned by the birth of five boys and three girls, of whom five are still living, and all single.

At the age of twenty-one years Jacob McAfee was a poor young man as far as this world's substantialities were concerned. But he was possessed of robust health, a clear and comprehensive intellect and an indomitable spirit of enterprise, united with indefatigable industry. He first found a means of earning money by working out by the job at ditching, chopping and clearing, from which labor he realized about three hundred dollars, of which amount he was the possessor at the time of his first venture on the sea of matrimony. For two years after marriage Mr. McAfee engaged in farming, a pursuit to which he had been well trained, and next went into the saw-mill business, having by this time acquired a capital of seven hundred dollars. This mill, known as the McAfee Brothers' mill, was located near Rock Creek Center, in Wells county, and here Mr. McAfee did custom work, and also bought, cut and sold lumber for thirteen years, at the close of which period he was worth six thousand dollars and the owner of one hundred and forty acres of good land, to which he has since added one hundred and eighty acres, and is now worth twenty-four thousand dollars. Mr. McAfee has also been largely engaged in stock raising, in which he has been very successful, as he has been, indeed, in all his undertakings, being what is usually known as a "hustler" and naturally a shrewd business man.

In politics Mr. McAfee is one of the reliable Democrats of Rock Creek township and is active in his support of his party, but has never sought to advance his personal interests by aspiring to public office. Mrs. McAfee is a member of the German Reformed church, to the support of which both she and her husband are liberal contributors. As the reader will naturally infer from the fact that Mr. and Mrs. McAfee are both natives of Wells county, they are widely and favorably known, and their upright walk through life has augmented the great respect in which they are held throughout the community in which they have their residence.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 444-445.

This native-born and respected farmer of Rock Creek township, Wells county, Indiana, was born January 6, 1854, and is a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Lesh) McAfee, of whom mention of greater length will be found on other pages of this volume. He was educated in the district school of his neighborhood, which he attended until about seventeen years of age, and then began working on a farm by the month, the father absorbing whatever compensation was granted to the son. At the age of twenty-one years, John McAfee was presented with a horse, as a capital with which to begin his business career in life, and, as the sequel will show, he did not misapply this small means toward advancing his future progress. In 1875 he took a third interest in a saw-mill with his father and George Riley, but after a few months the father and son bought out the interest of Mr. Riley in this mill and for some time ran it on their mutual account. John, Jacob and Peter McAfee then bought the mill and conducted it for thirteen years, buying and cutting their timber, taking such contracts for custom sawing as they could secure, and disposing of their own outfit at a very fair profit. The father and son John each owned a one-hundred-and-sixty-acre tract of wooded land, valued at five thousand dollars per tract; but John was rather improvident at that time and gave his obligations for his investment, all of which he promptly met as they fell due.

John McAfee next moved upon his present farm in section 17, Rock Creek township, on rural route No. 3 from Bluffton, the greater part being then in the forest, but this portion he has since cleared up and improved and added to it until he owned four hundred and twenty acres. He later disposed of eighty acres, so that he now owns a trifle less than three hundred and forty acres, which is valued at twenty-seven thousand dollars. He deals largely in hogs, but is also a farmer who looks well to what pays him best, and figures on about two thousand dollars net profit per annum from his farm produce, most of which he invests in additional land. He is a scientific agriculturist and keeps himself well posted by reading the best farming journals. He also is quite regular in his attendance at farmers' institutes and is a good listener, but not an orator. He has never wandered far from the spot where he was born and now lives within a mile of his birth place, of which he in fact owns a part.

March 31, 1877, John McAfee was united in marriage with Miss Isabella Light, who was born in Jackson township, Wells county, November 12, 1856, and is a daughter of Isaac W. and Phebe (Pouless) Light. The father was called away, however, and the mother became the wife of George Spraks [sic]. The marriage of John McAfee to Isabella Light has been crowned with four children, viz: Lillie, born August 25, 1878, who is now the wife of Charles W. Decker, a farmer in Rock Creek township; Earnest, born March 28, 1882, still unmarried; Winnie, born August 21, 1885, is assisting in caring for the household; John, born June 12, 1887, is attending the district school.

Mr. and Mrs. McAfee are members of St. Paul Lutheran church of Rock Creek township, of which Mr. McAfee is a deacon. He has always been a liberal supporter of this church financially, and on its being rebuilt contributed very freely to the building fund. In his political views he is in sympathy with the Democratic party, but has never felt any ambition as to filling public office. Mr. and Mrs. McAfee are both very pleasant and affable, and their advice upon farming and many other subjects is freely sought by their neighbors, far and near, as it can be implicitly relied upon as being honest and sincere.

Samuel McAfee, the father of the gentleman whose name opens this record, and who now has his residence in Liberty township, Wells county, was one of the patriots who gallantly went to the front during the dire need of the nation for defenders at the time of the Civil war. August 20, 1862, he enlisted in Company G. One Hundred and First Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Captain Wilson, and took part, among others, in the following named serious engagements: Perrysville, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge and Chattanooga; he was also all through the Atlanta campaign and at the siege and fall of that fated city; was at the battle of Peach Tree Creek, Georgia; Bentonville, North Carolina; was present at the surrender of the rebel general, Johnston, and was honorably discharged at the close of the war at Louisville, Kentucky.

Elizabeth (Lesh) McAfee was a native of Berks county, Pennsylvania, was married to Samuel McAfee in 1851, and died at her home in Rock Creek township in September, 1894, truly honored by all who knew her.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 437-438.

SAMUEL J. McAFEE resides on section 4, Lancaster Township, where he has one of the best improved farms in his part of the county. His fine residence was erected in 1886, and his farm buildings are correspondingly good, the entire surroundings of the place proving the owner to be a thorough, practical farmer. The homestead was first opened by his father, James McAfee, who was the first man to introduce underdrainage in Wells County, which he did in 1855. The farm, consisting of eighty-four acres, contains 1,200 rods of tile drainage. The parents of our subject, James and Rachel (Dinsmore) McAfee, were born in County Antrim, Ireland, and were descendants of the Scotch Covenanters. Immediately after their marriage they came to America, and for a short time made their home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Samuel J. was born December 29, 1829. Soon after his birth they removed to Wayne County, Ohio, where the mother died in 1844, and in 1853 the father came to Wells County, Indiana, with his family. He was married again, taking for his second wife Miss Eliza Cherry. He died on the old homestead in Lancaster Township, July 9, 1861, in his fifty-eighth year. William J. McAfee, a brother of our subject, lives at Bluffton. He has two step-sisters, Mrs. Matilda J. Earl, living in Lancaster, and Hannah M.
Samuel J. McAfee was reared on the home farm in Lancaster Township, remaining there until his marriage September 28, 1865, to Miss Rachel Nelson, who was born in Wells County, a daughter of James and Elizabeth Nelson, of Lancaster Township, her parents being pioneers of the county. She died November 9, 1871, leaving two daughters, Etta A. and Florence E. Mr. McAfee was married a second time, September 29, 1873, to Miss Catherine Maddux, born in Lancaster Township, December 28, 1848, a daughter of Jacob and Anna Maddux, and to this union were born two sons - Ernest W. and Jacob M. Mr. Maddax came from Miami County, Ohio, to Wells County in the pioneer days, and settled on section 9, Lancaster Township, in 1838, where he entered 160 acres of Government land. He was a native of Pennsylvania. After clearing a little of his land and erecting a cabin in Lancaster Township, he married Anna Evans, whom he brought to his pioneer home. To them were born five children- John N. died after reaching manhood; Martha J., wife of W. J. Parkinson, of Lancaster Township; Catherine, wife of our subject; Sarah, wife of Elijah Miller, of Lancaster Township, where he lives on part of the old homestead, and Alice, wife of Isaiah Bush, who also lives on the old homestead. The parents lived to an advanced age, the father dying February 9, 1884, at the age of sixty-six years, and the mother dying two months later at the age of sixty-five years. For two years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. McAfee lived on rented land on section 8, Lancaster Township, when they went to Allen County. One year later they returned to Wells County, to the old homestead of his parents, of which he is now the owner, and here they have since made their home. Both are members of the Presbyterian church. In politics Mr. McAfee has always been a Republican.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 847-848.

WILLIAM J. McAFEE, of Bluffton, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, October 3, 1841, a son of James and Rachel (Dinsmore) McAfee, natives of County Antrim, Ireland, where they were reared and married, and in 1836 came to the United States and settled in Wayne County, Ohio, where they engaged in farming. The parents of James McAfee accompanied him to the United States, and both died in Ohio. To James and Rachel McAfee were born two sons-Samuel J. and William J. Mrs. McAfee died in 1842, and the father afterward married Eliza Cherry, and to them were born two daughters-Matilda J., wife of James Earl, and Maria. October 3, 1853, the father came to Wells County, Indiana, and bought eighty-three and a half acres of land in Lancaster Township, where he passed the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1862, at the age of fifty-two years.
Samuel J. McAfee was reared on the home farm in Lancaster Township, remaining there until his marriage September 28, 1865, to Miss Rachel Nelson, who was born in Wells County, a daughter of James and Elizabeth Nelson, of Lancaster Township, her parents being pioneers of the county. She died November 9, 1871, leaving two daughters, Etta A. and Florence E. Mr. McAfee was married a second time, September 29, 1873, to Miss Catherine Maddux, born in Lancaster Township, December 28, 1848, a daughter of Jacob and Anna Maddux, and to this union were born two sons - Ernest W. and Jacob M. Mr. Maddax came from Miami County, Ohio, to Wells County in the pioneer days, and settled on section 9, Lancaster Township, in 1838, where he entered 160 acres of Government land. He was a native of Pennsylvania. After clearing a little of his land and erecting a cabin in Lancaster Township, he married Anna Evans, whom he brought to his pioneer home. To them were born five children- John N. died after reaching manhood; Martha J., wife of W. J. Parkinson, of Lancaster Township; Catherine, wife of our subject; Sarah, wife of Elijah Miller, of Lancaster Township, where he lives on part of the old homestead, and Alice, wife of Isaiah Bush, who also lives on the old homestead. The parents lived to an advanced age, the father dying February 9, 1884, at the age of sixty-six years, and the mother dying two months later at the age of sixty-five years. For two years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. McAfee lived on rented land on section 8, Lancaster Township, when they went to Allen County. One year later they returned to Wells County, to the old homestead of his parents, of which he is now the owner, and here they have since made their home. Both are members of the Presbyterian church.
The subject of our sketch, William McAfee, was twelve years of age when his father moved to Wells County, and here he was reared and educated. He remained on the farm with his father until after the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion, and July 12, 1861, enlisted in the defense of his country, being the first man to enlist in the three years' service from Wells County. He was assigned to Company I, Twenty-second Indiana Infantry, and saw active service the greater part of the time of his enlistment, participating in many of the most noted battles of the war. He was with Fremont on the frontier, and at the battles of Glasgow and Warrensburg, Missouri, was at Pea Ridge, Corinth, Bay Springs, Perryville, Stone River, Hoover's Gap, Liberty Gap, Chickamauga, Mission Ridge, Buzzard's Roost, Resaca, Rome, Rocky Face Ridge, Big Shanty, New Hope Church, Burnt Hickory, Kenesaw Mountain, Dallas, Chattahoochie River, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro, with Sherman to the sea, and at Averasboro and Bentonville. He participated in the grand review at Washington, and was honorably discharged August 5, 1865. He was wounded twice, in the head at Mission Ridge, and in the foot at Kenesaw Mountain. At the close of the war he returned to his home in Wells County, and engaged in farming on the old homestead, his father having died while he was in the army. In 1867 he bought eighty acres of land in Jefferson Township, and built a house, and cleared twenty-five acres. In 1870 he sold his farm and went to Osage, Kansas, where he lived three years; then returned to Wells County, and bought eighty acres of improved land in Lancaster Town-ship. In 1882 he bought 160 acres on section 17, Harrison Township, which is one of the best farms in the county. He lived on this farm three years, and in March, 1885, rented it and moved to Bluffton. For a year and a half he was engaged in the farm-implement business, and in the fall of 1886 became associated with George H. Maddox in the livery business.
Mr. McAfee was married September 27, 1867, to Mary E. Taylor, a daughter of Levi and Keziah (Calahan) Taylor, who came from Trumbull County, Ohio, to Wells County, in 1861. Mr. and Mrs. McAfee have five children-Orpha, Harry L., James T., Ellsworth and Ella. In politics Mr. McAfee is a Republican, and is chairman of the Wells County Republican Central Committee. He is a member of Lew. Dailey Post, No. 33, Bluffton.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 975-976.

Patrick McCaffrey, deceased, was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in the year 1845, and was a son of James and Lizzie (Irvin) McCaffrey. He was reared in his native country until attaining his eighteenth year, when he immigrated with his father's family to America. The father had come to America seven years before, and worked on his farm of 120 acres which he had entered in Chester Township, Wells County, Indiana, until he returned for his family. After coming to this country they located in Dayton, Ohio, and after remaining there about three weeks Patrick and his father came to Fort Wayne, leaving the rest of the family in Dayton. They came on foot from Fort Wayne to Wells County to inspect their future home in Chester Township, which the father had improved from a state of nature, and later brought his family here. Thinking his farm too small for his family he located on a larger one belonging to his brother John, who lived in Piqua, Ohio. James McCaffrey died March 17, 1882. His widow still survives, and is now a resident of Morris County, Kansas.
Patrick McCaffrey, our subject, was united in marriage November 6, 1868, to Miss Catherine Meehan, a native of Ireland, born in County Donegal, a daughter of Patrick and Winnifred (McGroaty) Meehan, of whom her mother died in Ireland. Her father afterward came to America and died in Springfield, Ohio. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. McCaffrey, named as follows - Lizzie, James, Charles, Mary, Annie, and William. Mr. McCaffrey resided in Wells County from the time he first located here until his death, which occurred January 28, 1884. In 1871 he purchased eighty acres of land in Chester Township, which is still occupied by his widow. He was a kind and affectionate husband and father, and a good neighbor, and was held in high esteem by all who knew him.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 787-788.
Contributed by Tammy Rable

DR. JAMES R. McCLEERY was born near Lancaster, Ohio, on October 22, 1822. He studied medicine under the celebrated Dr. Brusler, at Lancaster, and completed his medical education at the University of Pennsylvania in the winter of 1848-'49. He was married to Miss M. Gutelius, October 23, 1849, at Carroll, Fairfield County, Ohio, where he practiced his profession up to the time of his emigration to Bluffton, Wells County, Indiana, August 30, 1851. Shortly after his arrival he entered into co-partnership with Dr. Henry Courtney under the firm of Courtney & McCleery, which contained harmoniously for several years, when the senior partner emigrated to Iowa. In the spring of 1853 he united with the fraternity of Masons at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and continued as a worthy member of that order up to the time of his death, which took place on his farm, a few miles southeast of Bluffton, on April 21, 1874, in his fifty-second year. In the spring of 1861 he entered into co-partnership with Dr. Melsheimer in the drug business, under the firm of McCleery Melsheimer. A fine three-story brick building was erected, which is now occupied as a hardware store by Mr. Brickley. The firm continued their business for several years, when it was amicably dissolved by a withdrawal of the doctor to assume the duties of clerk of Wells County, to which office he had been elected in the fall of 1867, and also re-elected in 1871. Dr. McCleery was a man of fine social qualities, by which he became endeared to all his acquaintances. He was a prudent and cautious practitioner of marked ability. He had a very extensive knowledge of the theory of medicine, and possessed that very rare faculty of reducing it to successful practice.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 669-670.

For over sixty-five years the name McCleery has been identified with Wells County, where its associations are most honorable and where it is spoken with the respect due to success in business, public service and duty well performed.

The present Mr. Samuel McCleery is now a retired merchant and carpenter, and is a native of Bluffton, having been born on Wabash Street May 8, 1852. Many of his most active years were spent away from Bluffton, but he has always regarded it as his permanent home. His parents were Samuel and Mary (Forbes) McCleery. His father was born in County Antrim, Ireland, and his birthplace was a stone house known as Iva House. At the age of nineteen he came to the United States, first locating in Philadelphia, where he married a Miss Daugherty, who died in that city. Not long afterwards he came to Wooster in Wayne County, Ohio, and there married Mary Forbes. They were the parents of five children. The daughter Elizabeth was born in Wooster, Ohio, and is the widow of Lafayette Shinn, living at Montpelier, Indiana. The second child, William A. McCleery, was born at Edinburg, Ohio, and is now deceased. In 1849 the McCleery family came to Bluffton, and the first child born here was Charles McCleery in 1850, whose death occurred in 1916. Samuel McCleery, Sr., died at Bluffton in 1893. His second wife passed away in August, 1863.

Samuel McCleery, Sr., on coming to Bluffton was employed by the firm of Studabaker & Winters, and then started a shop of his own as a boot and shoe maker. He built up quite a business and had several men working under him. In 1856 he moved to the old town of Murray in Wells County, and lived in a log house there. He also conducted a tavern at Murray and built a shoe store there in 1859. In 1860, returning to Bluffton, he resumed his trade as shoemaker and in 1861 he erected the store room now occupied by W. H. Merriman on North Main Street, at the corner of Wabash Street. At one time he served as town marshal of Bluffton.

Samuel McCleery, Jr., grew up at Bluffton and remained at home until he was twenty-two years of age. In the meantime he had benefited by the instruction of the public schools. Concerning his early education it is interesting to recall the fact that he attended a school in the house where he now lives and which then stood at the northwest corner of West Market and Johnson streets. He was also a student in the first high school established at Bluffton.

Mr. McCleery learned the shoemakers' trade and followed it for eight years, but then took up work as a carpenter. He was employed in the bridge department of The Clover Leaf Railway in 1879, 1880 and 1881 and was then engaged in building bridges with the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway for a year. In 1882 he went with the Wabash Railroad, and on May 26, 1886, he joined the Santa Fe Railway Company at Wichita, Kansas, and was in the bridge building department of that western railroad until 1900. From 1900 to 1903 he was connected with the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway Company and was superintendent of bridges and building over the entire road, a distance of over 500 miles. In October, 1903, Mr. McCleery returned to Bluffton and for several years concerned himself chiefly with looking after and repairing his property. In January, 1910, he engaged in the grocery business, but soon sold out and is now retired. Mr. McCleery has never married. He owns sixty acres of land at the old town of Murray, and has several properties in Bluffton, including a business room at the corner of Main and Wabash streets.

He is an active member of the Presbyterian Church, is affiliated with Bluffton Lodge No. 145, Free and Accepted Masons, and also with the Royal Arch Chapter and Council and is a past sachem of the Improved Order of Red Men. Politically he has always cast his vote as a stanch democrat.

Standard History of Adams and Wells Counties Indiana. John W Tyndall for Adams Co and O. E. Lesh for Wells County. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1918, pp. 474-475.

The career of the subject of this sketch forcibly illustrates the old axiom, "Where there is a will, there is a way." Becoming an independent factor in life at the early age of fourteen, with an empty pocket and no one to give him friendly counsel or advice, he resolutely faced the world and after a long and hard struggle, before which most young men would have retired in defeat, he finally succeeded in gaining a sure foothold and in time rose to the respectable position he now occupies. The name by which he is now known is not the one given him by his parents, but was assumed for a special reason. The family patronymic was Beabout and by such he went until a youth in his teens. His father, Moses Beabout, was a native of Pennsylvania and his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Smallie, was born and reared in Mercer county, that state. The subject was born in the county of Mercer on the 28th of February, 1832, and remained under the parental roof until reaching the age of fourteen. Like many other youths, he became impatient of home restraint and for reasons which he cares not to explain decided to sever these ties and make his own way in the world. He carried this resolution into effect between two days and for fear his parents might apprehend him, changed his name to McCollister and by this he has since been known. Making his way to Pittsburg, he there took a boat for Cincinnati and after working at various vocations in the latter place made his way to Clinton County, Ohio, where he worked for several years as a farm hand. He also found employment for a while in a saw-mill and later entered the service of a railroad as brakeman. He continued railroading for quite a while in various capactities and in this and other kinds of work finally earned sufficient money to enable him, as he supposed, to support a wife. Accordingly, on the 23d of December, 1855, he was married in Clinton county, Ohio, to Elizabeth Smith, daughter of James T. and Lydia M. (Wait) Smith, the father a native of Delaware and the mother of the Buckeye state.

After his marriage Mr. McCollister settled down in Clinton county for a couple of years, but being quite poor in this world's goods he experienced considerable difficulty in making a livelihood, to say nothing of laying aside the little surplus for the proverbial rainy day. His principal work during his residence in Ohio was sawing lumber, but this kind of employment not proving remunerative, he finally moved with his father-in-law to Jay county, Indiana. There he rented land and followed agricultural pursuits until 1866, at which time his wife's father purchased forty acres of land in Wells county and to this place the subject moved in Feburary of the same year. The only improvement on the place at that time was a small log abin and into this Mr. McCollister moved his little family, after which he addressed himself to the work of clearing the land. One year later he returned to Jay county, but continued to devote his spare time working on his own palce until he had all but ten acres in cultivation. At the end of three years he again took up his residence on his own soil and bent every effort to make a comfortable home for those dependent upon him. He worked in a saw-mill to pay for the lumber for a new house, alter built a fine barn and, being blessed with health and strength, his progress from that time on was altogether satisfactory. In the course of ten years he not only brought his own little farm to a fine state of cultivation, but purchased eithy acres of good land in the county of Jay, which in due time became quite valuable in that it lies within one of the richest of the Indiana oil fields. Subsequently he transferred the latter farm to his son, but he still owns forty acres in Jay which, with his home in Wells, leaves him an estate of eighty ares, more than sufficient for his needs seeing that he received every year a handsome income from the five producing oils wells on his land.

Mr. McCollister has always been an industrious, hard working man and many times the world looked dark and the future held out nothing in the way of promise. Of a sanguine temperament and inclined to make the most of circumstances, he never allowed himself to be cast down or become discouraged, but always looked on the bright side in the firm belief that the goal of success would eventually be reached. The sum total of his earthly possessions at the time of marriage was a very limited supply of inferior household goods and a cow, bhbut with the assistance of his brave hearted, faithful wife, who was his sunshine in days of adversity and firm support under all circumstances, he patiently endured the frowns of ill fortune, gradually surmounted unfavorable environment and at last reaped the reward of hsi labors and waiting in the comfortable fortune which has placed him in independent circumstances for the remainder of his days. Of recent years Mr. McCollister has rented his land and lived a life of honorable retirement on the liberal income which he now receives. He enjoys his well earned rest as only such as he can and with his good wife is now bent upon filling up the measures of his days by helping his fellow men and making the world better. Politically he is an earnest supporter of the Republican party and takes an active part in local and general public affairs, though never asking official position at the hands of his fellow citizens. Religously he is a devout member of the United Brethren church, in which his wife is also a zealous and faithful worker.

Mr. and Mrs. McCollister have had four children, only one of whom is living. The oldest of the family, James M., was born Octobert 12, 1856, and died on the 26th of September, 1878; William, born May 16, 1858, married Jane Straley and is the father of two sons and two daughters, viz: Martha M., James L., Wilber and Esther; Rebecca, whose birth occurred on the 14th of December, 1860, married Allen Wall and departed this life August 8, 1887, leaving six children, namely: William, Moses, John H., Hattie, Oscar and Francis, the last two deceased; Ella was born on the 26th day of February, 1863, and died November 18, 1887. She was the wife of Samuel Alberson and the mother of three children, Sophonia A., Nellie J. and Lulu M., the second and third twins.

In the foregoing brief account are embodied the salient features in the career of a man whose life abounds in many practical lessons for the young and rising generation. He is essentially a self-made man and his success has resulted from industry, indomitable perseverance and the habit of doing well everything which he found to do. Integrity and a high sense of honor are among his more pronounced characteristics, to which may be added good judgment, keenness of perception and a desire always to do as he would be done by, without which principle no man's life can be called successful. He has lived according to his high standard of manhood and is ready when the time comes to enter that mysterious bourne to which all humanity is tending.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 338-339.

JAMES McCONKEY, a retired farmer, Chester Township, was born in Fayette County, Ohio, October 6, 1819, son of James and Jemirna (Burt) McConkey, the former a native of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His parents were married in Ohio, and when he was a small child he had the misfortune to lose his mother by death. His father then removed to Fayette County, Indiana, which was then entirely new, and they were among the pioneers of that county. The father afterward removed to Henry County, where he passed the remainder of his days. James came to Blackford County in 1840 and bought 160 acres of land, which was in its primitive condition. He went to work and made a clearing, and erected his own log cabin. Game was plenty, and deer and wolves were far more abundant than domestic animals. The wolves often made night hideous with their howlings. Mr. McConkey was married March 28, 1889, in Henry County, to Miss Sarah Ellett, a native of Randolph County, North Carolina, and daughter of Jeremiah and Margaret (Aldred) Ellett. Mrs. McConkey's ancestors were in America long before the Revolutionary times. Her parents removed to Henry County, Indiana, in 1834, remaining there four years, then removed to Missouri, where they lived until their death. Mr. and Mrs. McConkey lived on their homestead in Blackford County until August, 1882, when Mr. McConkey bought 153 acres of land in Chester Township, this county, where he has since resided, and has now retired from active labor. Their son Walter manages the farm. They have had eleven children, of whom four are living: Margaret Elizabeth, wife of Ephraim Perry; Amanda, now Mrs. Jackson; Azubah Ellen, wife of John Fritz, of Huntington County, and Walter. The deceased are: Pretty Jane, James Branson, John Franklin, Mary Adaline, Julia Ann, Thomas Jefferson and Sarah Lucretia. Both parents are members of the Christian church. Mr. McConkey has been a life-long Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote for James K. Polk. They have lived to see all the great changes in the county. When they first came here they had to go twenty-five miles to get their milling done.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 1018.

Henry C. McCullick, a resident of Chester Township, removed to Wells county, February 11, 1835. He was born in Tyler county, West Virginia, October 11, 1828. Has been twice married. His first wife, Elizabeth Anderson, to whom he was married in November 14, 1850, died March 27, 1876. She was the mother of Jasper, born September 9, 1851, died September 12, 1852; Nun, January 23, 1853; Lot, April 24, 1855; Wyley, March 27, 1857, died November 17, 1857; Isaac N., September 3, 1858; William A., January 23, 1861; Sarah J., April 15, 1863; Lucy, August 27, 1865. Mr. McCullick married his second wife, Miranda Hadway, August 17, 1876, in Chester township, Wells county. She was born in Jackson county, Ohio, December 6, 1837. Her father, Robert Hadway, died September 14, 1857; her mother, Hester (Martin) Hadway, died September 21, 1857. They removed to Wells county ten years previous. Henry McCullick, (father of Henry C.) died October 11, 1863; his mother, Martha (Twibell) McCullick, died February 7, 1847. They removed to Wells county in 1835. William T., a brother of H. C., served three and a half years in the late war; was a member of the 130th Regiment Indiana Infantry. Mr. McCullick is engaged in farming. Address, Montpelier, Indiana.

Historical Hand-Atlas, With Complete Reference Map of the World, History of Wells Co., IN, Chicago & Toledo: H. H. Hardesty & Co., 1881, p. 223.
Transcribed by Kathy Davis

HENRY C. McCULLICK, farmer, Chester Township, was born in Tyler County, West Virginia, October 11, 1828, a son of Henry and Martha (Twibell) McCullick, who were natives of Maryland. They removed from Maryland to Virginia with their respective parents and were married in the latter State. In 1830 they removed with their family by team to Athens County, Ohio, remaining in that county until October 1, 1835, when they started for Wells County, Indiana. A road had been made as far is Muncie, Indiana, but from there they had to cut their own road. On coming to the county the family remained with Thomas Blunt, while the father and his son John came to their future home, and the latter entered forty acres of land. In February, 1836, the family removed to their new home, which was then occupied by Indians. Henry McCullick had been reared from boyhood among Indians in the States of Kentucky, Virginia and Ohio, and had followed hunting from the time he was able to carry a rifle, becoming an expert marksman, and in Virginia, the home of the hunters, he had accomplished feats that few could imitate. In that State on one occasion he shot seven panthers, one after another as fast as he could load his gun. After clearing a little of his land Mr. McCullick built a rude log cabin, with puncheon floor and clapboard roof, to which his family removed the following May. Game of all kinds was abundant, and the product of the rifle was the principal support of the family in those days, and it is an undoubted fact that Mr. McCullick shot more deer and other game than any man in Wells County. When he came here there was but one settler in Warren. Muncie was their nearest milling place. He continued to reside in Chester Township until his death, October 10, 1863, his wife having died in 1847. Both are buried in the Twibell graveyard in Blackford County.
Henry C. McCullick, the subject of this sketch, passed his youth amid pioneer scenes, and was early in life inured to hard work, helping to clear the home farm from the wilderness. He was no hunter, but devoted his time to agricultural pursuits, although he would go coon hunting at night sometimes after his day's work was done. He was married in November, 1850, to Miss Elizabeth Anderson, a native of Washington County, Ohio, and daughter of Samuel Anderson, who came with his family to Wells County in 1819. To this union were born seven children: Nun, living in Warren; Lot; Isaac N.; William A.; Lucy, wife of William Alexander; Jasper, deceased; and Sarah Jane, deceased, wife of Tilton Jones. Mrs. McCullick died March 27, 1876, and August 19, 1876, Mr. McCullick married Mrs. Mandana McIntyre, by whom he had one daughter-Emma. Mrs. McCullick was a daughter of Robert D. and Esther (Martin) Hadway, they being natives of Jackson County, Ohio. They removed to Wells County, Indiana, in 1843, where both died in 1851, the father dying September 14, and the mother September 21. Mrs. McCullick was first married to Thomas McIntyre, who died in 1876, leaving two children-Isaac, and Amanda, who is now the wife of Nun McCullick. Mr. McCullick has experienced many of the hardships and privations, as well as the pleasures, incident to pioneer life, and has seen the surrounding country transformed from a state of nature into its present prosperous condition. He is the oldest resident of Wells County, having made his home here more than half a century ago. He is a public-spirited and enterprising citizen, and takes an active interest in anything which has for its object the advancement of his township or county. In politics he affiliates with the Greenback party.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 972-973.

One of the original pioneers to whom the present generation is indebted for the comforts and blessings which attend the denizens of a well improved and highly cultivated commonwealth is Henry C. McCullick, a son of Henry McCullick, a native of Maryland, but of Scotch parentage. The father of the subject married for his first wife Martha Twible (Twibell), a native of Maryland whose parents, John and Elizabeth Twible (Twibell), were natives of Scotland, John, the father, having come to America with the British army. His inherent love of Freedom, however, later led him to desert the British and attach himself to the American cause and thereafter he fought in many battles for independence, passing through many narrow escapes, having at different times had five bullet holes shot through his clothing and one through his hat. After his marriage the elder McCullick settled in Tyler county, Virginia, where he remained until 1832 when he removed to Henry county, Ohio, remaining there until the fall of 1834, at which time he again removed to Wells county, Indiana. February 11, 1835, when the subject was seven years of age, Henry, Sr., became one of the first settlers of Chester township, Wells county, a typical pioneer belonging to that class to whom too much honor can not be accorded by succeeding generations. Upon his arrival in the new country Henry, Sr., settled upon land which is still in the family, being the farm now occupied by Isaac McCullick.

At the first election held in Chester and Jackson townships there were but seven votes cast. Henry, Sr., was chosen for office and his oldest son was also elected to fill the office of justice of the peace. The oldest brother of the subject of this sketch was the first man who took out a marriage license in the new county of Wells. When the subject with his father's family came to Wells county, they moved into an Indian settlement of three hundred souls, with whom he run, played and slept and declares that they are the best class of citizens the United States ever had if they had only been let alone. Henry, Sr., was a soldier of the ware of 1812, and died in 1863 at about the age of seventy-five years. His wife, Martha, died in 1847. The subject was three times married. To his first union nine children were born. John, deceased; Rachel, deceased; Josiah, deceased; Elizabeth, deceased; Lindy, deceased; Henry, the subject of this sketch; Mary J., the wife of St. Claire Raush, who is deceased; Penelope, the wife of Silas Jones; William, who is a resident of Michigan and married to Margaret Goodfrey. Henry, Sr., married the second time, and this wife dying, he chose for his third wife Susie Hunt, the widow of Harvey Hunt. To this third union was born one child, Ellen, who married Edward Terhune.

Henry Clay McCullick went to school but thirteen days, there being but few school facilities until after he had attained his majority. His parents being uneducated, he, by his own efforts, learned to read, write and cipher. The first lesson he learned to read as a whole was the third chapter of Matthew, after which he soon learned to read well, an accomplishment which he cultivated through life. He remained with his father until he was nearly twenty-five years of age. The latter having been confined to the house for fourteen years a sufferer from white swelling, Henry C., aided by his sister, Lindy A., cleared the farm, she working with him every day. Just before he was twenty-five years of age he put out the first crop, of which he received a share, which was one-fourth of the product. The next year he went to work on his own land, having traded a yoke of oxen, a one-horse wagon and a colt for a tract of land in the woods. He went to work clearing it up, and the first summer had cleared thirteen acres, built a house and got himself a wife. He moved into the house before it had any windows. This farm was in section 30, Chester township, on which he lived until 1872, when he purchased the Hammer farm and moved on to that. This farm is now occupied by Isaac McCullick. In the year 1870 he owned three hundred and fifty-five acres of land, which he sold for ten thousand dollars, but owing to the failure of the parties to meet the payment either of interest of principal he was compelled to take back the land. He moved onto the farm where he now lives in 1880. His present home is a farm of sixty and three-fourths acres of finely improved land. The subject has devoted his time exclusively to farming, occasionally shipping stock, etc.

Mr. McCullick has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was married November 23, 1850, was Elizabeth Anderson, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Cochran) Anderson, natives of Virginia. Elizabeth was born in March, 1827, and died March 7, 1875. As a result of this marriage nine children were born: Jasper, deceased; Nun, a resident of Montpelier, Indiana acquired a high education; Lot; Wyley, deceased; Isaac, a farmer in Chester township; William, a resident of Wells county; Sarah J., deceased; Lucy, the wife of William Alexander, of Fairmount, Indiana. For his second wife Mr. McCullick married Mandania McIntyre, the widow of Thomas McIntyre and daughter of Robert Hathaway, this marriage occurring August 18, 1876. To this union one child was born, Emma, now living at home with her parents. Mr. and Mrs. McCullick are both workers in the church of Christ. Politically the subject is a Prohibitionist, having never voted any other ticket save once when he voted for the Hon. A. N. Martin for congress.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 378-380.

Lot McCullick was born in Chester township, Wells county, Indiana, April 24, 1855. The parents of Lot emigrated to and were married at an early date in Chester township, Wells county, where his father is still living at the ripe old age of seventy-five years. The subject attended school in Chester township until he was about seventeen years of age and remained at home with his parents until he was twenty-five. The year preceding his marriage he received one-third of the crops which he raised on his father's farm. December 25, 1879, the subject was married to L.M. Ashbaugh, who was born in Ohio, December 9, 1855, the daughter of Andrew and Martha Ashbaugh, both of whom are now deceased.

Lot, after his marriage, settled in Chester township about one mile from where he now lives, renting a farm where he remained about one year. He then moved onto Mr. Bell's farm in Chester township and remained there for about two years. He then rented the Mollie Hall farm for money rent, where he remained for one year and then removed to the Kilander place in Chester township and was there for one year. In 1855 he removed to Harland county, Nebraska, where he remained for about two years, going then to Thomas county, Kansas. After remaining there about eight months, he returned to his first love, Chester township, moving onto the place where he now lives and owns a fine farm of fifty acres of good land. The one well on his place proves its value as oil territory, but the possibilities in that line of his farm are yet undeveloped. When the subject was twenty-two years of age he made a trip into and through the state of Minnesota for eleven months. He is a wide-awake, general stock farmer. He is the father of seven children, five of which are still living; Harry, born October 7, 1880, now an oil pumper in Grant county; Ollie, born July 26, 1883, at home, graduated this year.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 327-328.
Transcribed by Dawn Montgomery

ERASTUS BASCOMB McDOWELL, Recorder of Wells County, Indiana, was born in Greenville, Darke County, Ohio, the date of his birth being September 21, 1847. His parents, George and Eliza (Henning) McDowell, were natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania respectively, the father of Scotch-Irish origin, and the mother of German parentage. They were the parents of eight children-Erastus B., our subject; Thomas J., of Bluffton; Kate, wife of Warren Tappy, of Muncie, Indiana; Eugenia, wife of T. W. Barton, of Bluffton; Douglas E., of Ness City, Kansas; David, of Bluffton, and two who died in infancy. The father came with his family to Wells County, Indiana, locating at Bluffton in 1848, and opened the first drug store of the place. He carried on the drug business about eight years, after which he was engaged in no particular business for a time. In his political affiliations he was a staunch Democrat. In October, 1851, he was elected a member of the Lower house of the Indiana State Legislature, to represent Wells County, being a member of the first Legislature after the adoption of the new State constitution. In 1856 he was elected clerk of Wells County for a term of four years. In 1868 he was again elected and served one term as a Representative in the Indiana State Legislature. In 1870 he received the appointment of steward of the Northern Indiana Prison at Michigan City by its directors, and served as such until 1872. In 1876, the Democratic party again coming into power, he was again appointed steward of the Northern Indiana Prison, which position he held until his death, which occurred February 14, 1878, at the age of sixty-two years. Mrs. McDowell died at Bluffton in 1876, at the age of fifty-three years. She was a member of the Universalist church at Bluffton.
Erastus B. McDowell, whose name heads this sketch, was but an infant when brought to Wells County by his parents, and here he was reared and educated in the public and high schools of Bluffton. At the age of sixteen years he began learning the painter's trade, which he followed at Bluffton for twelve years, after which he was variously employed until 1883. He was united in marriage at Bluffton, March 9, 1871, to Elizabeth J. Wilhelm, a daughter of Simon and Mary (Willis) Wilhelm, former residents of Hancock County, Ohio. They have four childen-George B., James E., Homer Lee and Harry Tombs. In November, 1883, Mr. McDowell became recorder of Wells County, having been elected to that office in November, 1882. During 1881-'83 he was chief of the Bluffton Fire Department, and in 1882 was State statistician of the Indiana State Fireman's Association. Mr. McDowell is a member of Bluffton Lodge, No. 138, K. of H. He is an attendant and his wife is a member of the Universalist church at Bluffton.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 956-957.

Among what may be termed the early settlers of Wells county, Indiana, are the McDowell family, who came from Mercer county, Ohio, about 1837 and settled on the banks of the Wabash river two miles from Bluffton, where the father had already purchased and partially cleared a tract of land, on which he passed the remainder of his life, owning at the time of his death four hundred and twenty acres Abraham McDowell, the pioneer alluded to above and the father of William, whose name opens the biographical notice, married Mary Higgins, who bore him eight children, of whom William of this sketch is the only survivor. One son, John, married Catherine Blue, a sister of Hon. M. C. Blue, and went to live in Missouri, where he passed the remainder of his days. John, David and James, three of the eight children alluded to above, served in the Civil war and proved themselves worthy of the family name and the glorious cause in which they served. William McDowell was reared upon the home farm and thoroughly learned his calling or vocation, through the instruction of his father, whom he faithfully assisted until his majority had been attained. His educaton [sic] was but limited, yet sufficient for all the purposes of a rural life and a successful career as a farmer. In due course of time Mr. McDowell succeeded by inheritance to eighty acres of the home farm, to which, through his industry, he has since added forty acres, and thus is the owner of a compact farm of one hundred and twenty acres.

Mr. McDowell was united in marriage October 11, 1866, in Wells county, with Miss Margaret Miller, daughter of Fielding Miller, a native of Perry county, Ohio. This union has been crowned by the birth of one daughter, Alice, who is now the wife of H. E. Shoemaker, of Bluffton.

Religiously Mr. McDowell is not a member of any particular denomination, but is a liberal contributor to the maintenance of all the churches of his neighborhood. Politically, he is one of the stanchest Democrats in Wells county and an ardent worker for the advancement of his party's interests at the polls as well as the promulgation of its principles throughout the state, county and township. As a farmer he is one of the most skillful and successful in Harrison township, and as a citizen he is substantial, reliable and useful, is widely known as an honorable man and one ready at all times to contribute of his means to the promotion of all projects designed for the advancement of the welfare of his fellow citizens. His farm is one of the best kept and neatest in Harrison township, being well drained and cultivated and improved with every modern convenience. His dwelling is an ornament to the neighborhood, and his farm buildings are equally creditable. Mr. McDowell conducts general farming and raises all the cereals usual to the section of the country in which he lives, besides large quantities of hay, which he feeds in a great measure to his live stock, which he raises in large numbers. Some of his animals are of choice grades, which he fattens and ships to the various markets, excepting, of course, those requisite for home use. Although his chief object in carrying on farming is for profit, yet he takes great pride in the vocation and loves it for its own sake, feeling it to be the most honorable and independent of all industries, as well as the fundamental calling of man, and it is a matter of gratifying commendation that he may be classed as among those who stand at its head.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 360-361.

George Washington McElhany a farmer who has served two terms as Constable of Liberty township, of which he is a resident; was born in Franklin county, Virginia, July 8, 1839. His parents, with whom he removed to Wells county in 1845, are Samuel F. and Margaret J. (Abshire) McElhany, the former deceased. He was married in Liberty township, March 1, 1863, to Mahala Merriman. Their children number five. They are: James J., born December 7, 1863; William F., February 23, 1865; Marada E., August 28, 1867; Carrie T., August 7, 1870; Evert Q., January 9, 1877. Mrs. McElhany was born in Liberty township, December 10, 1840. Her parents, James M. and Ann (Tracy) Merriman, removed to Wells county in 1839. Address, Liberty Center, Wells county, Indiana.

Historical Hand-Atlas, With Complete Reference Map of the World, History of Wells Co., IN, Chicago & Toledo: H. H. Hardesty & Co., 1881, p. 215.
Transcribed by Kathy Davis

PHANUEL McINTIRE, an enterprising agriculturist of Jackson Township, engaged in farming and stock-raising on section 34, was born in Jackson Township, Wells County, Indiana, April 1, 1855, a son of Dick and Mary McIntire. He was reared in his native county, his youth being spent in assisting his father on the farm and in attending the common schools. He made his home with his parents until his marriage, which occurred March 1, 1879. His wife's maiden name was Olive C. Kilander, who was also a native of Jackson Township, Wells County, her parents, Perry and Sarah J. (Martin) Kilander, being yet residents of Jackson Township. When Mr. McIntire was married his father gave him 200 acres of land, and he and his wife began housekeeping in a one-roomed log cabin which stood on part of this land. Since then he has cleared about sixty-five acres, and has now 120 acres cleared and improved, he having put about 1,000 rods of tiling on his land. He built a fine, substantial barn in 1881, and in 1883 erected his present handsome residence at a cost of about $3,000. Mr. McIntire is a young man of public spirit, and has done much toward the progress and advancement of Jackson Township since starting out in life for himself, and is well respected by all who know him.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 729-730.

William McIntire, farmer, section 25, Jackson Township, is a native of Virginia, born in Frederick County, October 14,1813, a son of Charles and Catherine (Dick) McIntire, who were natives of the same state, and of Irish descent. The paternal grandfather of our subject came from Ireland, and was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. He was a great hunter, and followed hunting for the army, Charles McIntire was a soldier in the War of 1812, returning from the service to his home on the day of our subjects birth. The parents lived in Frederick County, in their native State until their death. They had a family of eleven children, of whom five sons and four daughters grew to maturity. The mother was a Presbyterian in her religious belief. The father being a farmer, William, our subject, was reared to the same avocation which he has followed principally through life. He grew to his manhood in his native county, receiving such educational advantages as the common schools of that early day afforded. He was married in 1838 to Miss Mary Fearnow, who was born April 13, 1818, in Morgan County, Virginia, her parents being natives of the same county. Of the four children born to Mr. and Mrs. McIntire only two are living- Richard and Emily. Emily married Robert A. Kilander, March 25, 1882, and they have three children- Charles Edward, Mary Olive and William Perry. Robert A. Kilander is a native of Wells County, Indiana, born in Jackson Township, March 23, 1861, a son of Perry Kilander. In 1868 Mr. Mcintire came to Indiana in company with his brother Harrison, they buying a farm in Jackson Township, Wells County, from Isaac Bonham, an old settler. Mr. McIntire and his son-in-law subsequently purchased his brother's interest in the farm, which they still own and occupy, and are engeged in general farming. The farm now contains 170 acres of improved land, and is under good cultivation.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 920.

WILLIAM PATRICK McMAHON was born at Sidney, the county seat of Shelby County, Ohio, February 24, 1855. Parents were from County Kerry, Ireland. He received a limited education in the public schools of that place, but could have had better were it not for a roving disposition that led him to run away from home at the age of twelve and go West. He followed railroading in almost every line until he reached the age of twenty-two. He first came to Wells County in 1870, but left in a short time, returning at different times until he at last settled down in Bluffton in 1876. August 28, 1878, he married Ida Ann Ridgley, the only daughter of Westal Ridgley, one of Wells County's first settlers. This marriage is blest with one son-Thomas. Mr. McMahon entered political life almost as soon as he was old enough to vote, a warm Democrat, but severed his connection with that party when the Greenback party was organized, and became one of its most ardent advocates. In the start of his work for this party he followed ditching for a living, but stumped the county at night, proclaiming its principles. At the request of the leaders of the party he purchased the Wells County Times in 1879 from James Gary Smith, under whose control the paper had suspended publication. The first issue from his hands appeared about the middle of January, 1879, since which the paper has never suspended publication up to this date. May 2, 1879, he bought out the Daily Times, the first daily paper ever published in Wells County. He owned and published both the papers successfully until August, 1880, when John Studabuker, who held a mortgage on the paper, and a leading Greenbacker at the time, disagreed with him on the land question, in consequence of which Mr. Studabaker forced him out of the paper. Mr. McMahon started at once the Daily and Weekly Herald, which he moved to Fort Wayne. Associated with George B. Fleming and William B. Walters, he started the People's Advocate, which collapsed after a short period on account of the incompetency of his partners. In the eventful campaign of 1886 [illegible - probably a comma] Wells County, in which the people's movement made such a hard fight for success, Mr. McMahon took a prominent part, and started the Daily and People's Advocate, and is now engaged in that business. Politically he still remains in the labor movement. He was the first charter member of Bluffton Local Assembly of Knights of Labor 6,282. Religiously he was raised a Catholic, but at present is a free-thinker.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 707-708.

The gentleman whose name introduces this review enjoys worthy prestige as a successful farmer and stock raiser and as a neighbor and citizen is held in the highest esteem by the people of the township in which he lives. Mr. Merriman is the scion of an old Maryland family whose history in this country antedates the Revolutionary period. His great-grandfather, William Merriman, was born in Maryland about the year 1756 and there married Elizabeth Gooin, whose ancestors were also among the earliest settlers of that colony. From Maryland William Merriman moved his family to Union county, Pennsylvania, thence, about 1850, migrated to Wayne county, Ohio, where he entered six hundred and forty acres of land which he subsequently divided among his eight children. He became a prominent farmer and leading citizen and departed this life a number of years ago in the county of Wayne. Among the children of William and Elizabeth Merriman was a son by the name of Elijah, whose birth occurred in Maryland in the year 1788. He married Mary McCoy, who was born in 1792 in the same state, and in 1816 moved to Wayne county, Ohio, where his father had settled the previous year. This couple reared sons and daughters, one of the former being James Merriman, whose birth occurred in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on the 23d of December, 1814. When two years old James was taken by his parents to Wayne county, Ohio, and it was there that he grew to manhood amid the hard work and stirring scenes of pioneer times. On the 6th of April, 1837, he was joined in wedlock to Miss Anna Tracy, daughter of George and Leah Tracy, early settlers of Wayne county, Mrs. Merriman having been born there on the 8th day of February, 1818. One year prior to his marriage James Merriman entered eighty acres of land in Huntington county, Indiana, but for some reason he never moved to this place, returning to his home in Ohio immediately after making the purchase. In October, 1839, he moved his family, consisting of a wife and one child, to Wells county, entering one hundred and sixty acres in section 20, in what is now Liberty township, there being no township organization at that date. The country at the time was a dense wilderness, uncheered by the slightest presence of civilization, and for several years following the pioneer family experienced their full share of the vicissitudes and hardships incident to life in the backwoods. Mr. Merriman built a log cabin which answered the purposes for which intended until a more comfortable dwelling took its place and in due time cleared a fine farm, which became one of the best cultivated and most valuable places in the township of Liberty. He continued to reside on this farm until about 1889, when he became an inmate of the household of his son, the subject of this sketch, where his death occurred on the 27th of February, 1896. Mrs. Merriman preceded her husband to the grave, departing this life May 15, 1889. They were the parents of eleven children, namely: Samantha, widow of Ruel Wright; Mahala, deceased wife of George McElhaney; Bruce, a resident of Smith county, Kansas; John, a farmer of Liberty township, Wells county; Tracy, who also lives in the township of Liberty; Anna, widow of Asberry Luce; Dallas, who lives in Huntington county; Mary L., deceased, was the wife of William Heckman; Joseph H., a farmer of Wells county; George O., of Pulaski county, and Alfred T. James Merriman was for many years prominent in the public affairs of Wells county and in his immediate neighborhood was to a large extent a leader among his follow citizens. He served three years as magistrate, was always an active worker in the Democratic party and contributed much to its success in an early day. Mrs. Merriman was a devout Christian, having been a member of the Disciples church from early womanhood.

Alfred T. Merriman was born on the old homestead in Liberty township, December 20, 1865. From the age of six to his seventeenth year he attended winter seasons the district schools near which he lived, spending the other months assisting his father with the labors of the farm. In his eighteenth year he entered a normal school at Bluffton and after attending one term was sufficiently advanced in his studies to pass successfully the required examination for a teacher's license. During the next five years he divided his time between teaching and attending school and from the expiration of that period until 1894 devoted the greater part of his attention to teaching. With the exception of one term, Mr. Merriman's educational work w as confined to Liberty township and his retention year after year in the same district speaks louder than words in praise of his efficiency and success as an instructor. While engaged in teaching he spent his vacations at home helping with the farm work until 1894, when he abandoned the educational field for the purpose of engaging in agricultural pursuits upon his own responsibility. In 1892 Mr. Merriman purchased the farm of eighty acres on which he now lives, going in debt to the amount of two thousand dollars, the greater part of which he has since paid, besides buying forty-eight acres of the home place, making the sum total of his real estate at this time one hundred and twenty-eight acres, all but sixteen being in cultivation. He has made many improvements on his farm and is justly considered one of the most enterprising agriculturists of the county, as well as one of its representative men.

Mr. Merriman was married December 31, 1888, to Miss Josephine Petty, who was born in Hocking county, Ohio, on the 25th of July, 1868, the daughter of Joseph and Lucinda Petty, and their home has been brightened by the advent of three children: Justin, born June 6, 1891, Don G., born September 3, 1893, and Floyd V., who first saw the light of day on the 18th of December, 1896. In his political views Mr. Merriman is a Democrat, but in local affairs he pays little heed to party claims, voting for the man best qualified for office. In matters religious he subscribes to the belief of the Methodist Protestant church and for a number of years has been one of the pillars of the congregation worshiping at Liberty Center. In 1899 he was elected secretary of the quarterly conference, which position he still holds, and since the year 1894 he has been the efficient superintendent of the Liberty Center Sunday school. He is also superintendent of the Liberty township Sunday school convention and as such has been instrumental in promoting the work in this part of the county. Like her husband, Mrs. Merriman is a Sunday school worker. Socially both are popular with a large circle of friends and their wholesome moral influence has added much to the high standing of the community in which they reside. It is to such people that the body politic is indebted for its moral tone and stability and the hope of every good citizen is that men and women of this type may ever increase in number.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 542-544.

JAMES M. MERRIMAN, a pioneer of Liberty Township, was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, December 23, 1814. His father, Elijah Merriman, was born in 1788, and his mother, Mary (McCoy) Merriman, was born in 1792. The father was a native of Maryland, and a son of William Merriman, who was born in 1756. The mother was a daughter of John McCoy, who was a native of Pennsylvania and of Irish parentage. The parents removed to Wayne County, Ohio, in 1816, where our subject passed his youth in helping to clear the farm and in attending the common and subscription schools. He helped to hew the logs for the school-house in which he was educated. He was married April 6, 1847, to Miss Ann Tracy, daughter of George and Leah (McCoy) Tracy, who was born in Wayne County, Ohio, February 8, 1818; the parents were natives of Pennsylvania. In 1836 Mr. Merriman came to Indiana, where he entered eighty acres of land in Huntington County, then returned to Wayne County. In October, 1839, he removed his wife and one child to Wells County, and entered 160 acres of land on section 20, Liberty Township, where he began clearing and making a home. This was previous to the organization of the township, and there were no roads. He endured all the hardships and privations incident to the pioneer. Mr. and Mrs. Merriman are the parents of eleven children—Samantha, wife of Ruel Wright, of Huntington County; Mahala, wife of George McHaley, of Liberty Township; Bance, of Smith County, Kansas; John, of Liberty Township; Tracy, also a resident of Liberty Township; Dallas, a resident of Huntington County; Jasper and George O., of Liberty Township; Annie, wife of Asbury Luce; Mary Leah, now Mrs. Heckman, and Alfred, who lives at home. Mr. Merriman has served as township trustee, township treasurer, and held the office of magistrate fourteen years. Mrs. [sic] Merriman is a member of the Christian church, and in politics he is a Democrat. He owns 270 acres of excellent land, all in a good state of cultivation.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 805.

JOHN V. MERRIMAN, farmer, section 20, Liberty Township, was born in that township February 11, 1845, the second son of James M. Merriman. He was reared on a farm and educated in the common schools. He remained with his parents until he attained his majority, then went to Preble County, Ohio, where he was married, January 1, 1868, to Miss Mary E. Stamback, daughter of William and Nancy A. (McElbana) Stamback, who were natives of Preble County, and probably of German ancestry. Mr. Merriman settled upon a farm in Jackson Township, this county, where he remained until the death of his wife, which occurred February 8, 1872. They had two children?Jennie I., and Rosa B., who died at the age of four months. Mr. Merriman returned to the old homestead and remained with his father until his second marriage, which occurred February 28, 1874, with Miss Mary E. Foreman, daughter of Obadiah and Sarah (Hamilton) Foreman. The father was a native of Virginia, and removed to Clinton County, Ohio, when a young man. The mother was born in Kentucky, and removed to Clinton County, Ohio, in an early day. Mrs. Merriman was born in Clinton County, Ohio. Mr. Merriman first located in Huntington County and lived there six years, then purchased his present farm, which contains eighty acres of improved land. By his second marriage were seven children?Curtis, Lena M., Otto M., Milton E., Leroy, Anna B. and Fanny. Lena M. died April 6, 1887. Mr. Merriman served one term as township assessor; is a member of King Lodge, No. 246, F. & A. M., and is a member of the Methodist Protestant church. Politically he affiliates with the Democratic party.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 895-896.

WILLIAM B. MERRIMAN, a prosperous citizen of Lancaster Township, residing on section 21, has been identified with Wells County since 1851, in which year he settled on the land he still occupies, buying at that time forty acres from James Daily, a pioneer of Wells County. He owned before that an adjoining eighty acres, purchased by him in 1844, and has since added another forty acres, his home farm now consisting of 160 acres of well improved and cultivated land. Mr. Merriman is a native of Ohio, born in Wayne County, November 22, 1816. His parents, Elijah and Mary (McCoy) Merriman, made their home in Wayne County only nine days before his birth, they coming from Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where they were born, reared and married. They spent the rest of their lives in Wayne County, the father dying at the age of forty-five years, and the mother in her seventy-ninth year. Of the eleven children our subject was the fourth child and second son. Nine of them are yet living, their average age in 1887 being over sixty-seven years. James lives at Liberty Center, Wells County, where he settled in 1838; Thomas and Elijah live in Whitley County; John lives in Wayne County, Ohio; Mrs. Mahala Johnson is also a resident of Wayne County; Mrs. Sarah Griffith lives in Iowa; Mrs. Eliza Muncy resides at Liberty Center; Mrs. Huldah Wire lives in Huntington County, and the two youngest children died in childhood. William B. Merriman, the subject of this sketch, spent his youth on his father's farm. At the age of nineteen years he began learning the carpenter's trade, which he followed over thirty years, working at his trade in Wells County over thirty years. He was united in marriage, November 12, 1838, to Miss Elizabeth Knight, who was born in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, September 16, 1820, a daughter of Daniel Knight. Her parents subsequently removed to Wayne County, Ohio, and in 1854 came to Wells County, both dying in Lancaster Township. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Merriman--Mrs. Lucinda Daily, residing in Arkansas; Mrs. Mary Ann Patte, of Jefferson Township, Wells County; Ezra, living at Murray; Mason, living in Arkansas; Mrs. Almira Davis, deceased, and William Henry, a resident of Bluffton. Mr. Merriman came to Wells County comparatively poor, but is now in good circumstances, surrounded by all the necessary comforts of life. He is a Democrat in his political views, having voted that ticket since casting his first presidential vote for Martin Van Buren in 1836.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 980.

WILHELM MERTZ, of Harrison Township, was born in Thieringen OA Balingen KR Würtemberg, May 19, 1821, the youngest of nine children of Siegfried and Ann Mary Mertz. When fourteen years of age he went to learn the shoemaker’s trade, serving three ycars as an apprentice. He then worked as a journeyman in his native country for three years, and in Switzerland six years. May 10, 1849, accompanied by his affianced wife, he started for the United States, and was on the water thirty-six days. During this time he was seriously ill with the small-pox, not being able to leave his berth. They arrived in New York on the sixteenth day of June, went up the Hudson River to Albany, thence to Buffalo by canal, then across Lake Erie to Cleveland and Toledo, thence by canal to Fort Wayne, occupying a period of over three weeks. From Fort Wayne they walked to Decatur, near where they had relatives living, but not being able to speak English they went six miles beyond their destination before discovering their mistake. Tired and foot-sore, they were obliged to retrace their steps over the rough roads. From Decatur they again started in pursuit of their relatives, a distance of twelve miles, reaching their destination at night. On the way they met a man named Diehl who volunteered to show them the way. He took his gun, which, being a strange article to the travelers, made them a little afraid of their guide. After a tedious journey they found their friends, but Mr. Mertz was again taken sick, and for thirteen. weeks was confined to the house with ague and bilious fever. August 3, 1849, he was married to Anna Engeler, daughter of John and Magdalene Engeler, and the following October came to what is now Vera Cruz, there being one frame house and one log house at that time. They moved into a cabin near the town, making a table of a trunk, and two chairs of clapboards, and in this way they went to housekeeping, as happy as it was possible for two persons to be. Mr. Mertz at once began to work at his trade, going from house to house among the farmers to make their shoes. Upon one occasion he went to the house of Mr. Prillaman and repaired all the old shoes. Not being able to tell them that he was ready to take their measures for the new shoes, he began packing up his tools. They, thinking he was going, all put up their feet. He took their measures and completed his work. He soon built a house for himself, and the town began to grow. In 1853 he built a shop in his residence and diligently followed his trade until 1860, then added to his business as the necessity of the country demanded. He carried on a shoe store until 1867, then purchased a half interest in a woolen factory, having Frederick Engeler for a partner three years. In 1870 his health began to fail, and he has been unable to attend to active business since. Mr. and Mrs. Mertz have three children—Siegfried died at the age of sixteen years and the eldest, a daughter, died in infancy, and William, Jr., who is in the drug business. The parents are members of the Evangelical Association, and in politics Mr. Mertz affiliates with the Democratic party.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 893-894.

WILLIAM MERTZ, Jr., druggist, Vera Cruz, was born in Wells County, Indiana, December 22, 1852, a son of Wilhelm and Anna (Engeler) Mertz. He attended school until fourteen years of age, and in October, 1868, went to Kendallville, Noble County, to learn the harness-maker?s trade, serving an apprenticeship of three years. He then returned to his native village and opened a shop and followed his trade about two years. In January, 1874, he pur chased a drug store, and has since followed that business. He was appointed postmaster under the administration of President Grant, which office he has since retained. He has also held the office of town clerk and of school trustee. He was married August 1, 1875, to Miss Lucinda Miller, who was born in Nottingham Township, November 11, 1854, a daughter of Michael and Mary Miller. To this union three children have been born? Edward Leander, John Roy and Mary Ann. Himself and wife are members of the Evangelical Association, and politically he affiliates with the Democratic party.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 893.

DR. JOHN I. METTS, of Ossian, was born in Licking County, Ohio, June 16, 1832, son of James W. and Miranda (Sutton) Metts. September 10, 1837, the family came to this county and settled near where Murray is now located. At that time Murray had no store. Noah Toby and Jesse Whitmer, only a short time before, had erected a saw-mill. James Metts entered a quarter section of land, built a log cabin and began the work of clearing up a farm. Three children, William H., John I. and Milton S., constituted the family at that date, all born in Licking County, Ohio. Later other sons and daughters came to grace their Western home—Alfred H., Norville W., Mary E., Elza B., Maranda D. and Sarept L. The parents took great pride in the education of their children, and all have made their mark in professional and social life. William, the eldest son, attended Franklin College, and afterward entered the ministry, remaining in that profession during his life, and was filling the sacred desk at the Methodist Episcopal church at Dublin, Indiana, when his death occurred. Milton S. Metts attended college at Fort Wayne, and entered the ministry in 1860. He was also a physician and a student of John I. A. H. Metts was also a student of our subject, and attended lectures at Rush Medical College of Chicago, prior to his enlistment in the One Hundred and First Indiana Infantry. He began practice in part nership with John I. Metts in 1865, at Ossian, which has been continued to the present time. Mary E. was a teacher in the public schools previous to marriage; she is now the wife of Thomas A. Doan, proprietor of the Ossian saw-mills. Elza B. studied law after his return from the war, during which time he was a member of Company A, Thirty-fourth Indiana Infantry. He has become prominent in legal matters, and has served as judge of the court in St. Mary’s Parish, Louisiana, of which State he is now a resident. He is also attorney for the Louisiana & Northern Rail road. Maranda D. was also a teacher, and is now the wife of Robert Archbald, a farmer and merchant of this county. Sarept L. became the wife of Dr. George N. Worley, of Williamsport, Indiana; she was also a teacher for several years. Dr. John I. Metts attended Fort Wayne College in 1852, having previously taught school during the winter seasons. He also began the study of medicine during that year, under the tutelage of Dr. Adam Davidson, resident physician at Murray, and attended medical college at Louisville and Cincinnati. He was matriculated at the noted Miami College of that city in 1854—’55; has also taken an honorary degree at the Fort Wayne Medical College. He located at Ossian May 6, 1855, and four years later was married to Miss Nancy C. Cartwright, daughter of John and Margaret (McCorkle) Cartwright, who were among the early settlers of this county. The doctor and his wife are the parents of five children, all living except the eldest son, William E., whose death occurred when nineteen years of age. The others are—Josephine, John W., Robert E. and Fred A. Miss Josephine is a graduate of Fort Wayne College, and the two eldest sons are graduates of the Ossian High School. Only two physicians are living in this county who were in practice when Dr. Metts located here. He owns and resides upon a nice farm near the village, and has been one of the most successful men of his neighborhood. He was elected trustee of his township in 1859, and held the office until 1878; four years later he was reelected and served two terms. He was a charter member of Ossian Lodge, No. 297, A. F. & A. M., and was the first treasurer. The second year he was elected master and served ten years. He was one of the instigators of this lodge. The graded school at Ossian was established during his term as trustee, which met with a bitter opposition from many, but the good people of this town now highly prize the effort made by the doctor, as the school ranks second to none in this county.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 936-937.

Notwithstanding the fact that the republic of Switzerland is one of the smallest countries of the world, it has sent a large number of emigrants to the United States during the years that have elapsed since independence was secured. The people of that country, appreciating the blessings of liberty, of which they had had a strong example in their own land, were not slow to recognize the possibilities that opened out in splendid perspective for all who located early in this country. Accordingly, large numbers of the hardy Swiss have crossed the Atlantic and created for themselves homes in the great middle west of the United States. And here their descendants have become among the most intelligent. patriotic, industrious and upright of our great and wonderful cosmopolitan population.

Peter Meyer, father of the subject, was born in Switzerland on the 22 of May, 1831. He came to the United States with his parents when about four years of age. They first located in Stark county, Ohio, where they lived about one year, then moved to Adams county, Indiana, and settled in French township. He remained on the farm with his father until reaching his majority, and at that age began learning the carpenter's trade. After finishing his trade he came to Vera Cruz. Wells county, and here was united in marriage with Miss Sauer, of that village. To this union was born one child, but the mother and child both died late in the 'fifties. In 1860 Peter Meyer chose for his second companion Miss Elizabeth Moser, likewise a native of Switzerland, born April 5, 1842. To this union were born eight children, namely: Albert, the subject of this sketch: Jonas; Sarah, wife of William Frauhiger; Bertha married Philip Frauhiger; David of Bluffton, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume; Jacob, Elizabeth and Ida, the last two named still unmarried. Although Peter Meyer was a poor man when he attained his majority, he was industrious and economical and eventually became fairly well off as regards this world's goods. In 1860 he bought eighty acres of land in Wells county, which he succeeded in converting into a splendid farm. Altogether he has owned about four hundred acres of land, the larger part of which he has divided among his children as they have attained to maturity. In religion he is a member of the Reform church and in politics has always been a Democrat.

Albert Meyer, the immediate subject of this sketch, as born in Harrison township, Wells county, Indiana, on the 5th of May, 1867, the third in order of birth, and the oldest son of the eight children born to his parents. He was reared upon the parental homestead in his native township and is indebted to the common schools for his mental training. He remained at home until reaching his majority, assisting his father on the farm, then started out in life for himself. He was steady and reliable in his work, and was economical in his habits and was thus enabled to save some money. He was at length enabled to purchase an eighty-acre tract in section 19, Harrison township, which has since been his home and where he has successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits, combined with stock raising.

In November, 1890, Mr. Meyer was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Schwartz, who was born in Vera Cruz, Indiana, though of German descent. She received a good common school education, is an intelligent and amiable woman and has indeed proved to Mr. Meyer a helpmate in the truest sense of the word. Their union has been a most congenial and happy one and has resulted in the birth of the following children: Edward E., Levi, Pearl M., deceased, Fannie, Charles and Emma. In political views Mr. Meyer is a Democrat, manifesting an intelligent interest in the party of his choice and keeping well informed upon the issues of the day. He has never sought nor desired official station of any kind, preferring to devote his time and attention to his farming interests. There are no more progressive farmers in Wells county than Mr. Meyer and he has acquired a reputation as a farmer and stock raiser which is more than local. He is familiar with the latest methods of agriculture and in tilling his land he uses modern machinery and implements of the most approved type. His place contains many valuable improvements in the way of a residence. barn and splendid outbuildings and he has spared no reasonable expense in surrounding himself with the comforts and conveniences which make rural life attractive and desirable. His course through life has been prudent and upright and his example is worthy the emulation of all young men who desire to live so as to leave clear records behind them. While successful in the accumulation of wealth, he is also rich in the possession of a reputation above reproach and a character which will bear the world's closest and strictest scrutiny. Respected as an upright, broad-minded, influential citizen, his name will long adorn the roster of Harrison township's enterprising and representative men.
[Note: Albert died Jan. 7, 1937.]

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 575-576.
Transcribed by Randy Meyer

One of the most prosperous young business men of Bluffton, Indiana, is David Meyer, a native of Wells county, born in Harrison township, January 17, 1872, and a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Moser) Meyer, of whom a more complete biography will be found on another page of this volume. To Peter Meyer and wife were born eight children, of whom David was the fifth in order of birth. Until seventeen years of age he attended the schools of his district and acquired a good education. After attaining his majority lie went to work on a farm for his brother, Albert, with whom he remained one year, after which lie worked a year for his father, and then entered a partnership with Daniel Gilliom in the drilling of wells. This partnership existed until May 25, 1898, when it was dissolved and Mr. Meyer entered a partnership with Jacob Klopfenstine in the harness business at Bluffton, and has probably the best establishment devoted to this line of trade in the city, his business extending throughout the counties of Wells and Adams. Mr. Meyer erected his present brick business block in the fall of 1900 at a cost of five thousand two hundred dollars. It is situated on Main street, is twenty by one hundred and twenty feet in size, and is one of the handsomest business blocks in town.

June 15, 1899, Mr. Meyer was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Engeler, daughter of Frederick and Rosanna (Beberstein) Engeler. Mr. Engeler was a prominent business man of Vera Cruz, Indiana, and a justice of the peace for many years. Mrs. Meyer was born in Vera Cruz, this county, October 22, 1875, and was highly educated in that town. She is a member of the Presbyterian church at Bluffton, is a refined and cultured lady and is highly respected by all who know her.

Mr. Meyer exhibited considerable wisdom when he selected his present line of business as his vocation, as his firm has almost an exclusive command of the harness trade over Wells and Adams counties, the only competition, in fact, being through the agents of manufacturing companies that turn out and place upon the market machine-made products, which, all the world knows, are never equal, either in finish, quality or material, to hand-made articles. That Mr. Meyer has made a success in his business is manifest from the high standing he occupies in commercial and trade circles, in which his integrity, has never been called in question and in which his credit has never been impaired. The social position of Mr. Meyer and wife is in the best circles of Bluffton, and both are highly esteemed for their many personal excellence of character. Few young men have attained a more exalted consideration by their fellow citizens than that reached by David Meyer. In his political affiliations he is a Democrat and he always takes an interest in the success of his party, though he does not aspire to public life.
[Note: David died April 3, 1946. He and Margaret had two children, Ruth and Raymond.]

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, p. 577.
Transcribed by Randy Meyer

Jonas Meyer is a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Mosure) Meyer, of whom mention is made on another page of this volume, in the sketch of Albert Meyer. Jonas Meyer is the fourth child of a family of eight children and was reared to manhood on the home farm in Harrison township, where his birth took place November 28, 1869. He was educated in the district school, which he attended until sixteen years of age, but worked on the farm industriously throughout his school days when not engaged in study, continuing so to work until he was twenty-one years old, when he began working out at ditching and such other work as he could find to do, appropriating his earnings to his own use, but saving by far the greater portion. In 1894 he engaged in partnership with Daniel Gilliam in well drilling, working in 1896 with his brother David and in 1897 with Wm. Engler, having saved during that time about two thousand five hundred dollars.

Jonas Meyer was united in the holy bonds of matrimony with Miss Mary Rich, a daughter of Joseph Rich, of Adams county, and about the same time he invested his means in an eighty-acre tract of land, for which he paid in full. This farm he has improved with a fine dwelling and also a well built barn, forty by seventy-six feet in dimensions, together with other farm buildings of equally substantial construction. To the marriage of Jonas and Mary (Rich) Meyer have been born four children, namely: Joseph, February 21, 1895; Peter, November 21, 1897; Lillie, April 14, 1900, and Chance, born August 8, 1902. Though not active in politics, Mr. Meyer is of Democratic proclivities and usually votes as suits his judgment, irrespective of party nominations. He looks at both sides of a question, weighs the matter carefully and with deliberation, and having thoroughly digested it mentally, arrives at a conclusion decisive and permanent, and this conclusion becomes the rule for his future action. He thus weighs political issues and never permits his prior predilections to interfere with or bias his judgment.

As a farmer, the success of Mr. Meyer has been phenomenal for so young a man, and this fact is but another evidence of the thoroughness with which he studies and weighs everything which comes under his control or his observation. His integrity has never been questioned, and he stands before his fellow citizens the peer of all.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, p. 336.

As far back as 1835 the Meyer family came from Switzerland to America. Peter Meyer was a native of the unconquerable little republic, having had his nativity May 22, 1831. He has since had his home in the grander republic of America, now being a resident of this country about sixty-seven years, or more than an ordinary life time. On coming to this country, Peter and Margaret Meyer, the parents of Peter, who is made the especial subject of this biographical notice, first located in Starke county, Ohio, where they lived about one year, and whence Peter, the father, in company with John Buler, came on foot to Wells county, Indiana, in 1836. From here he went to Adams county with an ox-team and located in French township and lived on a farm in the midst of a forest for several years, sold the farm and came back to Wells county, where he died in the 'seventies, at the home of his son Abe.

Peter Meyer, of this sketch, until twenty-one years old worked on his father's farm, and then began learning the carpenter's trade. Having finished learning his trade, he came to Vera Cruz and here married a Miss Mary Sauers, of Newville, but a native of Switzerland, who bore him one child; the child and the mother were both called away sometime late in the 'fifties. In 1860 Mr. Meyer chose for a second wife Miss Elizabeth Mosure, who was likewise a native of Switzerland, and to this happy union have been born eight children, namely: Albert; Jonas; Sarah, wife of William Frauhiger; Betta, married to Philip Frauhiger; David, a business man in Bluffton, and of whom more may be learned by a perusal of his life sketch on another page of this volume; Jacob, married, Elizabeth and Ida, still single.

Although Peter Meyer was a poor man even until his having attained his majority and up to the time of his first marriage, he was always industrious and economical and a good manager of his earnings as they came to him. He used these earnings judiciously, and with unusual foresight invested them in such a manner that they were sure to bring him a satisfactory return. He was filled with energy and courage, and in 1860 made his first venture in real estate, buying eighty acres in an almost impenetrable forest in Wells county, but which he succeeded in developing into one of the best farms in Harrison township, taking into consideration its dimension. But his industry and enterprise have not been confined to this tract only, as he has owned as many as four hundred acres, which he has divided among his children as they grew to maturity and chose life partners for themselves. The fact stands forth as an evidence of his perseverance and he deserves the most commendable credit for the successful manner in which he has developed his own homestead.

The Meyer family belong to the German Reformed church, and in politics Mr. Meyer has always been a Democrat. As a farmer, he stands today among the foremost of Harrison township, and his strict integrity in all his dealings has made him one of the most honored men of his community as well as one of the most influential.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 375-376.

JONATHAN MICHAEL, hotel-keeper, at Zanesville, was born in Germany, in the village of Sults-am-Neckar. The village was noted for its salt manufactories. The village derived its name from the Neckar River which passed through it. Jonathan was born November 16, 1832, son of John G. and Mary (Smith) Michael, natives of Germany. John G. was born in Sults and his wife in Rosenfeldt, nine miles distant. Mr. Michael possesses an interesting photograph of his native village. There were three children born before their immigration to America—John C., Gotleip and Jonathan, the latter at that time being eighteen months old. The family located at Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, West Virginia in 1834. John G. was a cloth shearer by trade, and at once engaged with George Price at his factory at Shepherdstown. When Jonathan was eleven years old his parents removed to Williamsport, Washington County, Maryland, where the father engaged as cook on the "company's boat," running on the Chesapeake arid Ohio Canal, remaining several years in their employ. Afterward the parents removed to Clear Spring, Maryland, where the mother was accidentally drowned in a spring on their own premises. Seven of their children were born in America---Mary V. and Henry H. were born in Shepherdstown, Virginia, and both are residents of Canton, Illinois; Mary married Joseph Irely, a mechanic, and Henry, also a mechanic, married Mary McQuade, of Canton. George W., William H. and Catherine M. were born in Williamsport, and are buried there. After the death of his wife, John G. married Catherine Lindamon. They were engaged in business at Clear Spring until 1863, and then their son Jonathan, our subject, brought them to the town where he had become a prosperous man, and where the father died in his seventy-seventh year. The mother is living at Zanesville, aged sixty-four years. Jonathan learned the shoemaker's trade in Clear Spring, with Darlington & Turnbolt. He was only twenty-two years of age when he came West to seek his own fortune. Jonathan heard of the new town while stopping at Fort Wayne, and having an opportunity to work at his trade with William P. Wilson, arrived in the spring of 1854, with $5 cash in his pocket. Three months later he began business for himself and ever since that time has been actively engaged in business in the village. He was prosperous from the beginning, and after a lapse of thirty years Mr. Michael finds himself rich in the enjoyment of his family and the esteem of his friends. In 1856 he purchased the tannery that was owned and operated by W. P. Wilson, which he conducted more than a quarter of a century and at the same time carried on an extensive boot and shoe manufactory. During the war he employed several hands, but never introduced machinery into the business. The tannery produced about 2,000 hides and skins per annum, and the products over what he used in his shoeshop were sent to Johnson, Eaton & Co., Boston, Massachusetts. In 1864 Mr. Michael purchased the Nelson Jarvis farm, one mile south of Zanesville, which he still owns, and has since made other additions to the original purchase. He also purchased the Enoch Sink and F. M. Wilson farms one-fourth of a mile south of Zanesville, and he now owns 220 acres of valuable land. January 29, 1855, he was married to Miss Sarah A. Kline, only daughter of Jonas Kline, Joseph Beaty, J. P., performing the ceremony. Her parents are deceased. In 1861 Mr. Michael purchased the hotel property and has conducted it ever since. The Zanesville House is celebrated for its neatness and the elaborate menu which greets the weary traveler. Their children are—John Barrett, named in honor of the president of St. James College, Maryland, Amanda V., Juniata, Arbelan M., Almissa H. and Sarah J. The death of Mrs. Michael occurred October 1, 1865. She was a loving mother and one of the best of wives. She was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, October 5, 1833. Mr. Michael has never married again. John B. is now engaged in the mercantile and drug business at Zanesville. He married Laura Wilkinson, who is of English ancestry. They have two children—Talmage V. and Lulu P. He is postmaster at Zanesville. Amanda is the wife of D. W. Simmers, a farmer of Allen County. They have five sons—Jonathan U., Daniel D., Charles W., Jewell and Roscoe T. Arbelan is the wife of Elve C. Kelsey, a dealer in meats in Zanesville; their children are—Dessie E. and Glendale. Besides rearing his own children he has practically reared three nephews, Jonathan A., William H. and Harvey B. Michael. They are sons of his brother Christopher, who married Mary A. Beaver. They have had six children, the three mentioned and Annie, Alido and Agnes.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 798-799.

JOSEPH MILHOLLAND, farmer, residing on section 22, Lancaster Township, was born in Butler County, Ohio, September 10, 1840, a son of John and Jane Milholland, both of whom are deceased. Joseph was the second son and fifth child in a family of ten children. When quite young he was brought by his parents to Franklin County, Indiana, and later to Decatur County, where he was reared on a farm. He remained under the home roof until October, 1861, when he volunteered in Company B, Fifty-second Indiana Infantry, his regiment being assigned to the Army of the Tennessee. He received his baptism of fire at the battle of Fort Donelson. His regiment and the Second Iowa, the day before the surrender of the fort, charged the rebel right, meeting with severe losses. After the siege of Corinth the Fifty-second was engaged in repairing the railroad from Corinth to Memphis, and later garrisoned Fort Pillow, Tennessee. After the taking of Vicksburg the regiment was sent there and was under Sherman in the Meridian campaign, during which time Mr. Milholland re-enlisted as a veteran. His regiment, as a part of the Sixteenth Corps, under General A. J. Smith, fought at the victorious battle of Tupelo, Mississippi. After a long and exhaustive campaign the regiment returned to Tennessee, and participated in the battle of Nashville, under General Thomas, where the rebel General Hood's army was destroyed. The last campaign of his regiment was in the Gulf Department, and the last battle in which he participated was at Fort Blakely. He was discharged at Montgomery, Alabama, September 10, 1865, when he returned to Decatur County, and October 5 of the same year was married to Miss Sarah Ann Pierce, a daughter of Reuben E. Pierce. She was born in the State of Virginia, but reared from childhood in Decatur County, Indiana. Mr. and Mrs. Milholland are the parents of eight children: Charles Victor, Ida Belle, George Edgar, Willie Andrew, Hattie Eveline, Kendry Allen, Eugene Porter and Alpha Winfield. Mr. Milholland made his home in Decatur County until he came with his family to his present farm in October, 1875. His farm now consists of eighty acres of well-improved land. All the improvements have been made since he settled on the place. At that time only a small clearing had been made and a log cabin built, which his family occupied for a time. The log cabin has since been replaced by a substantial frame residence, and sixty-five acres of his land has been brought under a fine cultivation. In politics Mr. Milholland is an ardent Republican. Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. For disability contracted while in the service of his country Mr. Milholland now draws a pension.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 1022-1023.

This well known business man, farmer and ex-assessor, whose residence is in Rock Creek township, Wells county, Indiana, was born in this township, June 8, 1859, a son of Isaac and Mary A. (Bachtol) Miller, who came from Stark county, Ohio, but whose parents came from Pennsylvania and were of German descent. Isaac Miller was born, reared and educated in Ohio, and married, about 1830, in Stark county, the same state. He first came to Wells county, Indiana, in 1853, and purchased land, but returned to Ohio, where he resided a short time, and then moved his family out, settling on the land which he had purchased during his previous visit. In politics Isaac Miller was a Democrat and was a justice of the peace for several years. He cleared up his farm and made all the improvements, which are still standing, and here he and his wife passed the remainder of their lives and died in the faith of the Lutheran church. To them were born nine children, in the following order: David H., who resides in Markle, Huntington county, Indiana; Helen J., wife of W. H. Herron, of Wells county; Mary E., deceased; Andrew J., the subject of this sketch; Uriah, who makes his home with Andrew J.; Charles E., of Rock Creek township; Elmer I., a resident of Huntington, Indiana; Alice L., wife of Sherman Johnson, a resident of Grant county, and Cora F., deceased.

Andrew J. Miller was a child of but three years when his parents settled on the farm on which he now resides. He was educated in the district school and reared on the homestead, which he assisted in cultivating until he was nineteen years old. At the age of twenty-two he engaged in the lumber business with J. H. Preskey, their saw-mill being located three miles east of Markle, Indiana. This partnership business continued eight years, and realized them quite a handsome profit. Mr. Miller first rented the old homestead of eighty acres in the fall of 1891, but later on purchased it.

Andrew J. Miller was united in marriage, November 1, 1883, with Miss Luella M. Lesh, a daughter of Jacob Lesh, of Rock Creek township, by his first wife, and who was educated in the district and Bluffton schools. The marriage of Andrew J. Miller and Luella M. Lesh has been crowned with five children, namely: Herman L., born August 22, 1884, and now in his senior year in the common school; Lizzie, born August 20, 1886; Edna E., born February 15, 1889; Vera, born November 17, 1892, and Roy J., born November 18, 1901.

Mr. and Mrs. Miller are members of the Lutheran church at Horeb, to the maintenance of which they liberally contribute and otherwise aid, Mr. Miller having officiated as elder for many years, and also as superintendent of the Sunday school. Fraternally Mr. Miller is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is recording secretary of his lodge; in politics he is one of the leading Democrats of Rock Creek township and Wells county. In 1894 he was elected township assessor and served with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his party and his fellow citizens until 1900. He has also served as township committeeman for years, and likewise as delegate to several important Democratic conventions. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are among the prominent and influential residents of Rock Creek township, and Mr. Miller is honored as a public-spirited citizen, ready at all times to aid with his advice and means every project designed for the increase of the happiness and comfort of the community. He has recently been selected and served as a juror in the United States federal court for this district at Fort Wayne.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 375-376.

MRS. CATHERINE MILLER, the first white woman who settled in Wells County, was born in Wythe County, Virginia, June 10, 1801. November 10, 1832, she and her husband, Henry Miller, settled on the farm where they lived until her death. From the time of her arrival here until the 4th of June following she saw but one white woman. Mr. and Mrs. Miller lived fifty-four years without a death occurring in their house; then, August 1, 1877, she died. At that time all her ten children were living except the youngest son, who died in Andersonville prison.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 738.

CHARLES MARCHANT MILLER is a native of Wells County, Indiana, born near Murray, Lancaster Township, May 20, 1851. He is the third of five sons and one of ten children of Jacob and Mary (Sutton) Miller. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, of German ancestry, and came to Wells County in 1837. He is by trade a millwright, but was employed as a miller when he first came to the county, afterward settling on a farm in Lancaster Township, where he still lives. The mother of our subject is a native of Licking County, Ohio, a daughter of Rev. Elijah Sutton, a pioneer Baptist minister, of Wells Connty. Charles M. Miller lived on the home farm until seventeen years of age, where he was variously employed, teaching school during the winter seasons. At his own expense he attended the graded schools of Bluffton, and in 1873, with James Sewell, engaged in the mercantile business at Murray, the firm of Miller & Sewell continuing until the following fall, when L. F. Shreve succeeded Mr. Sewell. In 1879 he retired from the firm, and the following year was employed as clerk for G. F. McFarsen. From 1880 until 1883 he was in the employ of H. C. Arnold, and from 1883 until 1886 was in the grocery business at Bluffton, and in the latter year he was employed by H. C. Arnold to buy grain. In November, 1886, he was elected auditor of Wells County, his duties beginning in November, 1887. Mr. Miller was married September 27, 1877, to Miss Lizzie Burgan, a native of Wells County, daughter of George and Sarah (Widmer) Burgan. They have one child: Guy Burgan, born July 18, 1878. Mrs. Miller is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Miller is a member of the Masonic fraternity, a member of both lodge and chapter at Bluffton.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 1002-1003.

Charles M. Miller was born on a farm in the vicinity of the village of Murray, Wells county, Indiana, on the 20th of May, 1851, being the sixth in order of birth of the ten children of Jacob and Mary A. (Sutton) Miller, the family comprising five sons and five daughters, of whom four of the sons and five of the daughters are living at the present time. Jacob Miller was born in Pennsylvania of stanch German ancestry, the name having been identified with the annals of the Keystone state from an early epoch in its history. He became one of the pioneers of Wells county, Indiana, whither he came as a young man in the year 1837. In his native state he had learned the trade of millwright, and to this he devoted his attention until after his marriage, when he took up his abode on a quarter section of land in Lancaster township, this county, effectually reclaiming the same and developing a valuable farm, upon which he continued to reside for many years, the old homestead being the birthplace of all his children. In his declining days Jacob Miller retired from the farm and passed the golden evening of his life in the home of his eldest daughter, where he received that deep filial solicitude which was so justly due him. Here he died at the age of eighty-two years. The mother of the subject was a woman of noble and gracious attributes. She was a daughter of Rev. Elijah Sutton, a pioneer clergyman of the Baptist church in this section of the Union, and who is said to have preached the first sermon ever delivered in Wells county. His descendants assembled each year in reunion on the old homestead farm, one and one-half miles north of Murray, this county, the twenty-fourth annual reunion having been held in the month of June, 1902.

Charles M. Miller, whose name initiates this review, received his preliminary educational training in the common schools of the village of Murray and continued to assist in the work of the old home farm until he had attained the age of about seventeen years. During the ensuing four years he devoted his attention, through the winter months, to teaching in the district schools of Lancaster township, while through the results of such effort he was in the interim enabled to defray his expenses while continuing his personal study in the graded schools of Bluffton. In the spring of 1873 he entered into a partnership association with James Sewell and opened a general store at Murray, the enterprise being conducted under the firm name of Miller & Sewell until the autumn following, when the junior member was succeeded by L. F. Shreve, and the business was continued successfully under the title of Miller & Shreve, until April, 1879, when Mr. Miller sold his interest to his partner and removed to Bluffton, where he accepted a clerkship in the dry goods establishment of H. C. Arnold, with whom he remained consecutively until January, 1883, when he effected in this city the purchase of the stock and business of Killerman Brothers and established himself in the grocery and queensware business, which he continued until his election to public office. Ever according a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party, Mr. Miller became an active and efficient worker in its ranks within a short time after taking up his residence in Bluffton, and his zeal in the cause, as well as his unmistakable eligibility, received recognition of definite and gratifying order when he was made the nominee of his party for the office of county auditor, to which he was elected by a satisfactory and flattering majority in November, 1886. After his election he disposed of his grocery business and in the interim of a year which elapsed before his induction into office he devoted his attention to buying grain for H. C. Arnold. In November, 1887, Mr. Miller entered upon the discharge of his duties as auditor, and served in this capacity for the ensuing four years. The important work of constructing the fine new court house was consummated during his regime. With the discovery of natural gas in Indiana Mr. Miller became financially and actively interested in the development of the gas fields, and thus was led to later identify himself with the concomitant industry of developing the oil wells of the state. He was one of the original members of the directorate of the Bluffton Light & Fuel Company and for two years was secretary of the company. In 1893 he had engaged in the drug business in Bluffton, but in 1896 he disposed of this enterprise to devote his entire attention to his oil interests, which had greatly increased in scope and importance. Since the year last mentioned he has operated extensively in the oil fields of the state, both individually and as an interested principal in various corporations, and his energy, discrimination and administrative ability have been the potent factors in insuring him a high degree of success in this important field of productive enterprise. He was actively concerned in the organization of the Midway Oil Company, his interests in which he subsequently sold at a good profit, and he is now actively identified with a number of fine properties and the exploiting of new prospects of distinctive promise.

On the 27th of September, 1877, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie L. Burgan, daughter of George F. Burgan, now deceased, one of the first settlers of Bluffton and one of its most honored pioneers. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have three children, namely: Guy B., who was born July 18, 1878, is a traveling salesman for a wholesale drug house in Kansas City, Missouri; Dwight C., born April 29, 1887, and Edith, born January 28, 1891, remain at the parental home, which is recognized as a center of gracious hospitality. Fraternally Mr. Miller is identified with the time-honored order of Freemasons, in which he takes a lively interest, being fully appreciative of the noble teachings and beneficent values of the fraternity.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 398-400.

George W.G. Miller was born June 18, 1857, in Chester township, Wells county, Indiana. He is a son of Henry G. Miller a native of Germany, and Franciena (Morris) Miller, a native of the state of Pennsylvania. Henry came to America when a boy, running away to evade serving in the standing army of his native country, which is, by law, required of every citizen in Germany. After his arrival in this country, he located in Muncie, Indiana, where he remained for two years, working in a distillery. He then went to Montpelier, Indiana, where he went to work in a flouring mill, and was there for about four years, then came to Wells county, and built another mill and commenced grinding wheat. He continued in this business a few years, when he bought the farm where George W. G. Miller now lives. Removing to this farm he remained there until his death, his wife, Francenia, also dying on this farm. Henry G. was the father of ten children, six of whom are yet living; Nancy J. was the wife of John Jellison and is now deceased; Sarah M. was the wife of William Walker, and is also deceased; Hannah E., deceased, was the wife of P. C. Shadle; Amanda M. the wife of William Miller; Mary Ann, the wife of Jess Miller; Jonathan married first a Miss Julian and, second, a Miss Strupe; Charlotta married Eli Carney; Ellen, the wife of Levi Markley, deceased; George W. G., who now lives on the home place, and Rosa F., wife of John Bennett.

George was a pupil at district school No. 3, in Chester township, Wells county, until he was about nineteen years old, after which he remained at home with his father until he was of age. Soon after this he was married and built his first house within forty feet of his birth place on the old homestead. He still lives on a part of the old place, fifty acres of which he owns. On January 6, 1878, he was married to Florence Raymond, a daughter of Henry and Candis (Rogers) Raymond, both of whom are deceased. George W. and wife are the parents of five children; Henry G., born October 30, 1879, married Ida Pearson; Andrew M., born March 13, 1882, at home with his parents; Newton B., born March 17, 1885; Lucretia B. born October 6, 1889; and Merla R., born March 13, 1892.

Mr. Miller is a general farmer, devoting himself to the cultivation of his farm and raising of stock. He and his family are connected with the Christian church, of which he has served as deacon for the past five years. In politics he has always been a Republican, until within the last two years, since which time he has advocated the Prohibition cause. G. W. Miller belongs to the younger class of that large army of bright, energetic and go-ahead cons of the soil, whose influence will so largely predominate in the future advancement and material prosperity of the country. He is the son of a sire who, in his young manhood, felt impelled, by a spirit of independence, to flee from the tyranny imposed by the military proclivities of his native land to the freedom of action vouchsafed under the waving folds of Old Glory. Animated by the same spirit of independence and love of freedom which caused the father to seek a home and larger liberty in the new world for himself and descendants, the son will, in the active performance of all the duties imposed upon a good citizen and neighbor, demonstrate his appreciation of the aspirations of his paternal ancestor. He is in the prime of life, and with the ambition to better his environments of life, which is the birthright of every American citizen, supplemented by the love of family and the high esteem and respect in which he is held in the community, will inspire him to many years of future usefulness in life. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are godly people and it has been their aim to rear their children in the nurture and the admiration of the Lord. Their three sons are earnest devotees of the religion of the lowly Nazarene.

Biographical Memoirs of Wells County, Indiana. B.F. Bowen, Logansport, Indiana, 1903, pp. 357-358.
Transcribed by Dawn Montgomery

HENRY MILLER was born in Carter County, Tennessee, March 2, 1802, a son of Daniel and Elizabeth (Miller) Miller, and died at his residence in Lancaster Township June 25, 1882, aged eighty years, three months and twenty-three days. In priority of settlement he was the oldest settler of Wells County at the time of his death. He made his home near where Murray now stands, November 10, 1832, having been preceded by only a few men, viz: Mr. Norcross Dr. Knox and Robert Harvey. Here he purchased the land on which he lived almost fifty years. He was united in marriage in Union County, Indiana, April 15, 1823, to Catherine Seek, who was born in Tennessee June 10, 1801, and died August 1, 1877. To them were born ten children?John, a resident of Kansas; Mrs. Melinda Frybuck, of Michigan; Mrs. Matilda Matthews, of Bluffton; Daniel, living in Illinois; Simon, of Wells County, Indiana; Mrs. Elizabeth Harvey, living at Murray; Henry and Adam, living in Kansas; William, deceased; Mrs. Catherine Weaver, of Lancaster Township. Four of the sons, Adam, William, Simon and Daniel, served as soldiers during the war of the Rebellion, and William died in Andersonville prison. Mr. Miller was an enterprising and public-spirited citizen of Wells County, and was always active in anything having for its object the advancement of his township or county, building churches and school-houses, roads and bridges. Few men have been more favorably known for generous, kindly hospitality. He was not wealthy, but always had plenty and to spare to those less fortunate. He practiced the Christian virtues of love and charity toward all, and was beloved and esteemed by all who knew him.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 742-745.

JACOB MILLER, one of the old and honored pioneers of Wells County, and a respected citizen of Lancaster Township, was born in York County, Pennsylvania, February 8, 1814, his parents, Frederick and Susan Miller, being natives of the same county, and of German descent. They were the parents of nine sons and five daughters, all of whom grew to maturity and reared families of their own. Ten of the children are yet living—Michael, living at Bluffton; Jacob; William, of Rock Creek Township; Samuel, a resident of Neosha, Neosha County, Kansas; Benjamin, of Montgomery County, Kansas; George, of Fairfield County, Ohio. Three widowed daughters, Mrs. Lena Fisher, Mrs. Catherine Weist, and Mrs. Eliza Wagner, live in Fairfield County, Ohio, and Mrs. Mary Ann Stimmer lives in Franklin County. Of those deceased, John, Charles and Susan died in Wells County, Indiana, and Henry died in Ohio. When our subject was eleven years old the parents removed with their family to Baltimore County, Maryland, and four years later to Fairfield County, Ohio, where they spent the remainder of their life. Jacob Miller was their third son and fifth child. He was reared to the avocation of a farmer, receiving such education as the subscription schools of that early day afforded. He resided on the home farm until twenty three years of age. He was united in marriage October 14, 1841, in Wells County, to Miss Mary A. Sutton, who was born in Licking County, Ohio, March 8, 1822, a daughter of Rev. Elijah and Diana (Bowel) Sutton, the mother dying when Mrs. Miller was a child. The father of Mrs. Miller was one of the pioneers of Wells County, settling in Lancaster Township in 1839, where he died ten or twelve years later. He was a minister of the Regular Baptist church. Of the eleven children born to Mr. and Mrs. Miller ten still survive—Benjamin, living at Banner City; Diana, wife of James Park, of Bluffton; Elijah, of Lancaster Township; Catherine, a school-teacher, living at home with her parents; Nancy, wife of Jonathan Brown, of Bluffton; Charles, of Bluffton; Jesse, at home; J. Miles, living at Banner City; Josina, at home, and Letta, engaged in teaching school. A son, John, died at the age of two years. Eight of the ten children have been or are now engaged in teaching school. After his marriage Mr. Miller settled where he now lives on section 17, Lancaster Township, his first home being a rude log cabin. He felled the first tree on his land, and one of the first orchards in the county was planted by him. He came to the county without capital but by persevering industry and good management, assisted by his noble wife, he has prospered in his agricultural pursuits and they are now surrounded with all the necessary comforts of life, enjoying the fruits of a well-spent life. Mr. Miller is suffering from a fractured hip, the result of an accident August 14, 1884, otherwise he feels as well as at any time in many years. Mr. Miller has been identified with Wells County since 1838. He had visited the county two years previous, and in that year, 1836, his father had bought 320 acres of timber land in Harrison Township, but never occupied it. In politics Mr. Miller has always affiliated with the Democratic party, casting his first presidential vote for Martin Van Buren in 1836.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 970-971.

NAAMAM T. MILLER, auditor of Wells County, Indiana, is a native of Ohio, born in Fairfield County, May 11, 1848. In 1856 he was brought by his parents, Samuel B. and Mary K. (Tevis) Miller, to Wells County, they settling in Chester Township, and there he was reared till reaching the age of sixteen years. He then entered the high school at Bluffton, from which he graduated in the class 1867, after which he attended Eastman's National Business College at Poughkeepsie, New York, and graduated from that institution in the spring of 1868. He was soon after appointed deputy auditor of Wells County by Auditor M. C. Blue, and served under him and his successor for six years. May 8, 1873, he was married at Bluffton, to Miss Jennie Smith, who was born in Rock Creek Township in 1852, a daughter of Thomas T. and Catherine (Gary) Smith, both of whom are deceased. Her mother was a direct descendant of Governor Gary of Massachusetts. Mr. and Mrs. Miller are the parents of four children -- Maude, May M., Hugh S. and Ralph. In 1873 Mr. Miller was elected clerk of Bluffton, and served in that capacity for seven years. In October, 1883, he was elected to his present office, auditor of Wells County for a term of four years, and has since filled that office with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of his constituents. Mr. Miller is a member of Bluffton Lodge, No. 145, A. F. & A. M., of Bluffton, and Mrs. Miller belongs ot the Order of the Eastern Star, A. F. & A. M., at Bluffton. Both are members of the Bluffton Baptist church.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, p. 667.

WILLIAM MILLER, one of the early settlers of Wells County, and a prosperous agriculturist of Rock Creek Township, where he resides on section 13, is a native of Maryland, born November 3, 1824. His parents, Frederick and Susan (Paulus) Miller, were natives of Pennsylvania, the father born in York County, that State, of German ancestry. They were the parents of fourteen children, of whom our subject was the seventh son and eleventh child. When he was three years old they removed to Fairfield County, Ohio, remaining there a number of years, and from there went to Franklin County, where they passed the remainder of their lives. The father being a farmer, our subject was reared to the same avocation, which he has made his lifework. His educational advantages were such as could be obtained in the rude log cabin subscription schools of that early day. In 1851 he came to Wells County, Indiana, and he and his brother purchased a tract of 200 acres of heavily-timbered land in Rock Creek Township, which they began clearing and improving. His brother died during the war of the Rebellion, when he came into possession of the whole farm, and is now the owner of 291 acres of well-improved and highly cultivated land, all the improvements on his land having been done by himself. March 3, 1859, Mr. Miller was united in marriage to Miss Susan Bender, a native of Pennsylvania, coming to Wells County with her parents, John and Barbara (Mast) Bender, when about eleven years of age. To this union seven children were born—Franklin T., Barbara E., wife of John Staver; William S., Lydia M., John B., Charles H. (was killed at the age of eight years) and Ada M. August 15, 1861, Mr. Miller enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and First Indiana Infantry, and served his country three years. September 19, 1863, he was wounded at the battle of Chickamauga in the left hip, and was also captured. He was held a prisoner twelve days, and then sent to the Union lines by an agreement with both armies. He returned to his regiment May 1, 1864, and served until the close of the war. In politics Mr. Miller was formerly a Democrat, but since the war of the Rebellion he has affiliated with the Republican party. Although his political party is in the minority in Rock Creek Township, he was elected to the office of township trustee in April, 1886. Both Mr. and Mrs. Miller are members of the Lutheran church.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 937-938.

WILLIAM H. MILLER, an enterprising and public-spirited citizen of Wells County, and justice of the peace of Chester Township, is a native of Indiana, born in Henry County, April 7, 1852, a son of John and Rachel (Rodgers) Miller. John Miller was a native of Boone County, Kentucky, and when a boy three years old was brought by his parents to Henry County, Indiana. May 29, 1852, he came to Wells County and purchased 100 acres of wild land on section 14, on which he located. Game was very plentiful, especially deer, wild turkeys and squirrels, when he first settled in the county, but he did not follow hunting except for fur animals, of which he hunted and trapped a considerable number. He made his home in Wells County until 1880, when he removed to Reno County, Kansas, remaining there until his death in June, 1885. His widow still survives, and is making her home on the farm near William H. in Chester Township. William H. Miller was but seven weeks old when he was brought by his parents to Wells County, and here he has since lived with the exception of about three years, from 1880 until 1883, spent in Wexford County, Michigan. He was reared to the avocation of a farmer, his youth being spent in assisting on his fatherÂ’s farm and in attending the schools of Chester Township. November 1, 1875, he was married to Miss Amanda M. Miller, a native of Wells County, Indiana, a daughter of Henry G. and Francina (Morris) Miller, natives of Germany and Ohio respectively. Five of the six children born to this union are living—William H., George E., Laura Ellen, Ida Elsie and Lewis Elmer. Helen Viola is deceased. Since 1878 Mr. Miller in connection with his farming pursuits, has followed blacksmithing and carpentering. His farm consists of his interests as an heir in 145 acres of land which is mostly all improved. When the family first settled in the county settlers were few, and many were the hardships and privations endured by these pioneers. The road which runs past the home farm was then nothing but a trail through the woods, and the improvement of Chester Township had hardly commenced. When they could not go to mill, they would have to grate corn on an iron grater late into the night to get enough corn meal for the next day, or they would sometimes pound the corn in a mortar. Wheat was a great rarity in those days. For two or three years after coming to the county the father, John Miller, made a living by hunting minks and selling their skins. When John Miller first settled in this county he had a hard time to make a living. The foxes would catch and carry off the pigs, and opossum would visit the hen roost. The howling of the wolves made the night hideous; so bold did they become that they would come near the house and fight the dog, and often when Mr. Miller would go out hunting for raccoon, the howling of the wolves would drive the dog back and he would be obliged to return. One hard winter when feed was scarce, he had to take his ax and cut down the elm trees for the cattle to browse upon to keep them from perishing. Their meat consisted principally of turkey and squirrel, and when the old gun got out of fix they had to do without even that. In politics Mr. Miller affiliates with the Democratic party, but in local elections votes independent of party ties. In the spring of 1884 he was elected justice of the peace, which office he has since filled with credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. He is a memher of the old school Baptist church, and Mrs. Miller is a member of the Christian church.

Biographical and historical record of Adams and Wells counties, Indiana. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1887, pp. 865-866.