Robert A. Hamelle was born in Blount County, Tennessee, May 5, 1812, and in the spring of 1833 came on horseback to Indiana, where, two years later, he settled on a farm in Carroll County, about four miles southeast of Monticello, where he lived until 1872, when he removed to Monticello, from which place, in 1874, he moved to Idaville, at which place he died January 2, 1885. On November 11, 1840, he married Margaret G. Montgomery, who died at Idaville, January 25, 1888. To this union was [sic] born eight children, four of whom survive and are living in White County. He was a member of the United Presbyterian Church, a man of strong religious convictions and a good citizen.
Abram Hanawalt, a pioneer and one of the best known citizens of White County, was born in Lewistown, Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, February 21, 1829, and died December 9, 1909, at the home of his son, Prof. Frank W. Hanawalt, Tacoma, Washington. He was one of twelve children born to his parents and in 1846 came to White County, locating near Burnettsville, but in 1851 he came to Monticello and engaged with his brother, Joseph, in the plastering business, one of their first contracts being the old Methodist Episcopal Church, which stood at the northwest corner of Main and Marion streets. On Christmas eve, 1854, he was married to Barbara Hartman, who died and exactly forty years from his first marriage, on Christmas eve, 1894, he married Mrs. Mary Baum, who died on Christmas eve, 1908, on the eve of their wedding anniversary. To the first marriage eight children were born, one of whom, Alva, now lives in Monticello, and Frank W., another son, is professor of mathematics in the University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington. Mr. Hanawalt was a model of industry and integrity and by a close application to his business had amassed considerable of this world's goods. He died universally respected by all who knew him.
Joseph Hanawalt, a member of an old and honored family, will long be remembered by the early citizens of White County. He was born October 10, 1823, in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, and died in Burnettsville, February 8, 1909. He came to Indiana in 1846 and on August 18th of that year was married to Catharine M. Grassmyer. To this union were born three children, William, Mary, and a son who died in early infancy. The daughter Mary died in 1872 and the mother followed in 1893. Two years after the death of his first wife he married Nancy Bennett, who died October 19, 1910. Mr. Hanawalt was a brother of Abram Hanawalt, deceased. In 1849, with his wife, he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which he ever afterward gave his earnest support and was one of the active members who assisted in the erection of the first Methodist Church built in Monticello, about 1850. Twenty-eight years prior to his death he organized a Sunday school at the White Oak church in Cass Township and for many years was its superintendent. Father Hanawalt left his influence for good in every locality where he was known and his loss was deeply felt in the circle in which he moved.
All the trials incident to pioneer life were not undergone by the stronger sex—woman has often proven herself to be as true a soldier as man. Mrs. Mary Hanawalt was born in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, on January 1, 1801. She was the daughter of Rev. Joseph Rothrock and about 1820 joined the German Baptist Church and in 1846 came to White County and settled near Burnettsville. "Aunt Mary," as she was generally known, died May 23, 1885, at the residence of her son, Isaac Hanawalt, about five miles northeast of Monticello, universally respected.
Jerry Hancock, who has lived the quiet life in Norway for over half a century is
well known to most of the people in Monticello and vicinity. He is an old veteran
of the Civil war and is entitled to a pension of $30 per month, having served in
the army for more than three years and being almost eighty years old. He came to
Norway in 1860, from Southern Indiana, when that village had a flour mill, a
woolen mill, three sawmills, a tan yard, three blacksmith shops and several
stores, all doing good business. Uncle Jerry has outlived them all and bids fair
to be with us for many years.
The following sketch contains some of the important facts in the records of a White County family which has been identified with this community some eighty years, since the beginning of civilized things in this portion of the Indiana frontier. It would be impossible to trace all the varied influences and activities of such a family, which has been represented here through portions of five generations. It must suffice to say that the name has always stood for all that is honest and of good report in this community, for successful thrift and business integrity, and for a position which all must respect. As the first generation made homes out of the wilderness, so their descendants have likewise borne worthy parts as citizens, farmers and business men. Their lives for the greater part have been strong and useful without the conspicuous eventfulness of many less serviceable careers. They have been notable for the quiet performance of the homely, simple duties that come within the scope of every life.
The first name to be noted in this article is that of a Robert Hanna, who was a sturdy patriot in the years which marked the struggle of the colonies with Great Britain and who served in a Virginia regiment during the war for independence. This Revolutionary soldier married Mary Boyd.In the next generation is Robert Hanna, Jr., who was known in the early days of White County. He was born September 1, 1771, and married Elizabeth Moony, who was born December 26, 1785. As will be mentioned, two of his sons had preceded him to White County, but Robert Hanna, with wife and other children, came to this section in 1834, and located in section 35 of Jackson Township. This Robert Hanna was a tailor by trade, but after coming to White County followed farming and lived about seven years in the county before his death, which occurred July 19, 1841. The children who preceded or came with him and his wife to White County were: Lucinda, who was born November 18, 1808, and who married William Irelan; John, who was born December 10, 1810; Andrew, born May 6, 1816; Elizabeth; James, who was born June 18, 1823; Mary, or Polly: Sarah; and Robert, who was born October 26, 1826. All these are now deceased.
The first of the family in White County were John and his brother Andrew. They came in 1833, and John entered land in section 35 of Jackson Township. John Hanna was born in Greene County, Ohio, at the date above given, and came to White County from Cedarville. At that time he was unmarried and pre-empted 120 acres of Government land. His first shelter was a hewed log cabin, a somewhat pretentious dwelling for that time. Later, about 1848, he had the distinction of building the first frame house in Jackson Township. John Hanna married Margaret Gibson, and of their eleven children six are mentioned as follows: Emeline, who married Samuel Townsley, and later a Mr. Clewell, and still later John A. Whiteman, and is now living at Burnettsville and is in all probability the oldest continuous resident of Jackson Township; Lucinda, widow of James Cochran and living in the State of Oregon; Isabelle, widow of Harrison S. Stine, and also a resident of Oregon; Margaret, now deceased, who was the wife of Adolphus Peter Kocher; John W.; and William, the two latter being both residents of Burnettsville. John Hanna, their father, died January 4, 1899, and his wife passed away October 7, 1882. In the early records of White County the name of John Hanna is mentioned as a member of the first petit jury ever empanelled in the county.
John W. Hanna, of the third generation of the Hanna family represented in White County, is now living retired from his activities as a farmer at Burnettsville. He was born in White County, November 17, 1854, and was married November 19, 1874, to Mary Chilcott. They are the parents of four children: Zula, now living at Monticello as the widow of R. J. Million; Thomas J., a lawyer of Monticello; Guy C., who is superintendent of the Boys Reform School at Plainfleld, Indiana; and Erma, wife of William Kocher, a resident of Casper, Wyoming.
John W. Hanna has spent his entire life in White County and has gathered his prosperity from the capable management of his farming interests. In early life he attended the old Burnettsville Academy, and later the high schools at Logansport and Crawfordsville. For three years he was a teacher. The original 120 acres pre-empted by his father in Jackson Township is now owned by William Hanna, and there has been only one private name connected with its ownership since it passed out of the control of the Government. This land is still being farmed and is occupied by a representative of the fifth generation of the Hanna family in White County. John W. Hanna and wife are both members of the Christian Church. He is a democrat and the family have always been identified with that political faith since grandfather Robert Hanna cast his first vote for Thomas Jefferson. John W. Hanna was for thirty-six years precinct committeeman at Burnettsville. In 1908 he built a three mile stone road north of Burnettsville known as the Reiff Read. Mr. Hanna is affiliated with Burnettsville Lodge No. 663, F. & A. M.; and with Burnett Creek Lodge No. 740, I. O. O. F., and has been twice through the chairs of this lodge.
Thomas J. Hanna, a son of J. W. and of the fourth generation in White County, was born at Burnettsville, August 3, 1876, grew up there, received his primary education in the local schools, and subsequently attended the State Normal School at Terre Haute, the University of Indiana at Bloomington, and the Northern Central Indiana Normal School at Danville. He was graduated from the Indiana Law School of Indianapolis in 1902, and came to Monticello to begin the practice of his profession, in which he has now been engaged for thirteen years. In June, 1898, Thomas J. Hanna enlisted in Company M of the One Hundred Sixtieth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, for service in the Spanish-American war. His command was stationed at Matanzas, Cuba, and he was in service about nine months until his honorable discharge March 1, 1899. Thomas J. Hanna was married December 2, 1899, to Miss Amy Hartman. He is affiliated with the Lodge, the Chapter and Council of the Masonic fraternity and also with the Knights of Pythias and the Improved Order of Red Men.
Mrs. Belle Hannum, daughter of Joseph and Eliza Rothrock and sister of Bowman and Samuel Rothrock and Mrs. James S. Wigmore. She was born in Monticello, where she spent her girlhood. She was married to George B. Hannum, December 31, 1868. In those early years there lived with them a younger sister of Mr. Hannum's, Miss Melissa Hannum, who, in her younger days, displayed considerable literary talent, writing several poems of local interest. Among these the most pretentious was "The Legend of the Tippecanoe," a lengthy production purporting to give the origin of the name of this beautiful river. This was printed in the local papers at the time, and a number of years later—July 26, 1901—was reproduced in the White County Democrat. Mrs. Hannum removed to Denver, Colorado, in the '70s, where she died November 18, 1907, leaving three daughters, Mrs. Marion Lord, Mrs. Julia Strong and Mrs. Maude Karstul, of Colorado, and one son, Joseph Hannum, residing in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Born November 14, 1830, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; died March 30, 1897. On December 23, 1856, he was married to Elizabeth Baker at Hanover, Pennsylvania. Located in Monticello in 1862, where he enlisted in Company G, Sixty-third Indiana Volunteers. He was stricken with paralysis in 1891 and continued an invalid until his death. He left two sons, George H. and Thaddeus E., the latter being at present (1915) the well known manager of the Monticello Telephone Company.
Jonathan Harbolt, who died at Monticello, August 12, 1872, in his sixty-seventh year, was a man who was an honor to White County. He was a native of Culpeper County, Virginia, and when a youth crossed the mountains on horseback, located in Monticello about 1835, and followed his trade of cabinet-maker and undertaker. The old cemetery north of town is filled with his old-fashioned coffins. He was for many years a justice of the peace and his probity has passed into a proverb: "As honest as the old Squire." He was a Presbyterian of the old school, a democrat and a man of unfeigned honesty of purpose. In the convention of 1850, that formed the present constitution of our state, he was chosen a delegate from the counties of Benton, Jasper, Pulaski and White, was present at its opening session and took an intelligent part in all its proceedings. He favored the election of one senator for each 3,000 voters, and a representative for each 1,000 voters, which would have made both bodies too large. He was instrumental in having a clause inserted in article 2, section 9, providing that in counties casting less than 1,000 polls the office of clerk, auditor and recorder, or any two of them, may be held by one person. His wife died December 25, 1872. Two young children are buried by their parents, one son, John, went west and died, one lost his life in the Civil war and one other son, the unfortunate "Billy," is the sole survivor of the family.
Juniata County, Pennsylvania, sent forth many of her sons to people our county and one of the older ones was Thomas A. Hardy, who was born in Mifflin, Pennsylvania, on December 19, 1832. On January 22, 1857, he married Miss Mary Sulaff, of Mifflin, who died December 28, 1878. In 1864 he enlisted in the army and at his death was a member G. A. R. Post No. 101 of Monon. He came to Wolcott in 1865, to Monticello in 1866, then to Monon in 1872. He united with the Presbyterian Church at Mifflin, Pennsylvania, when a mere youth, brought his letter to Monticello in 1866 and then to Monon in 1889 and was one of the original members of the latter church at its organization. He died at his home west of Monon, November 12, 1895. He had nine children, five sons and four daughters, but was survived by only two sons, David and Alexander, and one daughter, Mrs. George McDonald. His life was that of a consistent Christian.
The Harrison family have been prominently identified with White County for half a century. As a family they have been identified with the agricultural activities of Cass Township, have been known for their progressive work in the country districts, have stood as advocates for good roads and other improvements, have been excellent neighbors and friends of church, school and morality, though as a whole they have seldom accepted the medium of public office in order to render service to the community. One exception to the rule is found in Francis M. Harrison, who served as township trustee from 1905 to 1909, and also filled a vacancy as county supervisor.
The founder of the family in White County was the late Robert T. Harrison who moved from Greene County, Ohio, to Cass Township in the spring of 1865, and located in section 5, near the Village of Headlee. Robert T. Harrison was born in the State of Kentucky, March 6, 1816, went from there to Ohio when seven years of age and spent all his active career as a farmer. His first wife was a Miss Atkins. She died without children and he was married in Ohio to Elizabeth Bryan. By this union there were six children: Scott, who lives in Monticello and married Clara Boze; Martha A., who lives in Monticello, is the wife of William Fisher; Andrew A.; Francis M., who is a prosperous farmer in Liberty Township, where he owns eighty acres of land, and by his marriage in 1897 to Laura Benjamin has four children—Silas Ray, Cecil E., Mary and Madge; Nancy, now deceased; and Anna A., also deceased. Robert T. Harrison married for his third wife Mary Benjamin.
Robert T. Harrison was a republican but never sought any public position, was a liberal supporter of the Methodist Episcopal Church and gave the ground on which the White Oak Church now stands in Cass Township. Though he came to White County with practically nothing, he possessed 320 acres of land at the time of his death. He took a very active part in local improvements, especially those providing for the construction of roads and ditches. He was a man of quiet disposition, lived always at peace with his neighbors, attended strictly to his own business and was a man of large brain, with proportionate strength, vigorous and hearty and a congenial companion. His death occurred September 6, 1900, and he was laid to rest in the Buffalo Cemetery.
On part of the old homestead farm, owned by his father, Andrew A. Harrison is still living. His home is three-quarters of a mile west of Headlee. He was born in Greene County, Ohio, March 12, 1862, and was about three years of age when the family moved to White County. He grew up here, attended the local schools and by practical experience on the home farm was well trained for the duties and responsibilities of the agriculturist. Mr. Harrison now owns 120 acres of land, a part of which he inherited, but a larger part of his property represents his individual efforts continued through many successive years. He has stood for improvements in his home district and is one of the most esteemed citizens of Cass Township. While a republican, he has never sought office and has not the slightest desire for rewards and honors of that kind. He is affiliated with Buffalo Tent No. 125 of the Knights of the Maccabees.
On May 18, 1891, Mr. Harrison married Miss Ida Dowl, a daughter of Isaac and Mary (Morcraft) Dowl, who were early settlers in White County and lived for many years in Monon Township. Mrs. Harrison was a native of Monon Township, born July 28, 1866. She has done her part nobly in the rearing of her family. To their marriage was born one child, May C., who married Cecil Van Meter, and of that union became the mother of five children: Lawrence, Edward, Harley, Louise and Walter W.
Born in Trenton, New Jersey, October 6, 1819, Spencer C. Hart died at his home in East Monticello, Indiana, April 17, 1915, in his ninety-sixth year. He removed to Dayton, Ohio, when a young man, coming on to Indiana in 1863, locating at Battleground [sic]. He came to White County in 1864 and located in Prairie Township, near Brookston. About four years prior to his death he moved to Monticello. November 30, 1853, he was married to Miss Catharine Stine, who died January 2, 1886. They leave four children surviving. These are Lee S. Hart of Brookston, Mrs. Charles Alkire of West Lafayette, Mrs. James L. Stanford of Brockton, and Miss Nettie Hart, who kept house for her father in his closing years. Mr. Hart was one of the oldest Masons in the state, having been a member of the order sixty-five years. He was buried at Battleground [sic] under the auspices of the Masonic lodge at Brookston, of which he was a member.
Mrs. Carrie Hartman, the mother of Hon. Charles S. Hartman, and for half a century one of the beloved women of Monticello, died at the old Heckendorn home, where she had been her father's housekeeper so many years after the death of her husband, on the 15th of December, 1911. She was born in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, on the 12th of December, 1835, a daughter of Samuel and Ann C. Heckendorn. Her parents located in Monticello in 1838, where she resided until her marriage to Sampson Hartman on May 12, 1856. Shortly after their marriage the young couple moved to Hudson, Wisconsin, where Walter S. Hartman was born February 22, 1867, and Alpheus D. Hartman on March 6, 1859. Soon afterwards the family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, but owing to the ill health of Mr. Hartman they returned to Monticello in the fall of 1860. The illness of her husband terminated in his death on January 26, 1861, and on the following first of March, Charles S. Hartman was born. The widow bravely assumed the care of her three young children and, at the same time, was her father's housekeeper for nearly twenty years preceding his death in 1886.
In a lifetime of more than seventy years John Hartman has fulfilled his many obligations with a credit which does him honor. In the dark days of the Civil war he displayed a loyalty which brought him into the service of the Union army when still a boy, and the same quality of public spirit has been manifest in all his subsequent relations with every community where he has lived. A resident of White County for forty-five years, his influence and activities have been associated in various ways for the benefit of his locality at Brookston.
The Hartman family is of Scotch-Irish descent. His father, Abel Hartman, was born in Virginia in 1808. He married Eveline Downs, who was a native of Pennsylvania. From Virginia he moved to Ross County, Ohio, later to Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and in the spring of 1870 established his home in Prairie Township of White County. He was a blacksmith by trade, but after coming to Indiana followed agriculture. In politics a republican, he was more interested in church than in party affairs, and lived and died in the faith of the United Brethren denomination. He died July 1, 1897, at Fort Scott, Kansas; and was buried there. He was the father of a large family of ten children, whose names are: Rebecca, Henry, Catherine, Sarah, Margaret, Jemina, Lavina, Samuel, John and Libby. The only ones now living are Sarah, Libby and John.
Mr. John Hartman was born in Ross County, Ohio, May 20, 1844, but when less than two years of age the family moved to Indiana. He grew up with that education which most of the young men of his time have acquired in the common schools, and when about nineteen years of age, on May 3, 1864, enlisted at Brooklyn, New York, in Company D of the Second New York Cavalry. He saw active service with the Union army until his honorable discharge at Alexandria, Virginia, on June 23, 1865. On September 22, 1864, he was captured at Fisher Hill and spent twenty days in a Confederate prison.
On April 18, 1872, Mr. Hartman married Mary A. Mansfield, a daughter of William H. and Elizabeth (Shigley) Mansfield of White County. To this union were born five children. Henry, who is a practical farmer in Prairie Township, married Laura Stewart, and their three children are named Irma B., Ruth M. and John C. Amy A., the first daughter married Thomas J. Hanna, of the well known and prominent Hanna family of White County, and they live in Monticello. Effie I. is the wife of James I. Heman, of Tippecanoe County, and their two children are Lelia M. and Ray C. Carl E. is deceased. Mattie E. is the wife of Guy Stewart, and they live at Brookston.
Since his discharge from the army half a century ago, Mr. Hartman has made the farming the basis of his successful career. He has also participated actively in public affairs, and has been a republican voter throughout almost the entire period of the existence of that party. He served one term of four years as county assessor just prior to the beginning of the service of the present incumbent Mr. Snyder. For five years he was also township assessor of Prairie Township, and for three years deputy township assessor and in the fall of 1914 he was again elected township assessor. He is a director in the Perpetual Building & Loan Association of Brookston and is one of the substantial property holders of that community, being the owner of considerable town property and about forty acres of valuable and well improved farming land. He and his wife lend a liberal support and are regular attendants of the Baptist Church, in which he has served as trustee. He believes in the principles of fraternities, and has been particularly active in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, both the subordinate lodge, Brookston No. 164, and the Encampment at Brookston. He has been through the chairs of the local lodge and for three terms was representative to the Grand Lodge. He and his wife are members of the Rebekahs No. 376 at Brookston. He is also affiliated with Brookston Lodge No. 66, F. & A. M., and keeps up his associations with old army comrades as a member of Champion Hill Post No. 171, G. A. R. at Brookston and is the present commander of that post.
One of the most highly respected men who ever lived in Monticello was Rufus L. Harvey, who served as deputy clerk of the county, deputy auditor, and eight years as county recorder, being elected to that office in 1874 and again in 1878. He was again his party's candidate for recorder in 1886, being defeated by a narrow margin. After the death of his wife in 1897, failing health compelled him to cease work, and he went to the National Soldiers' Home at Marion, where he died September 10, 1901. He was a dependable, working member of the Odd Fellows and K. of P. organizations, and also of Tippecanoe Post No. 51, G. A. R., and under the auspices of these organizations his body was brought back to Monticello for burial. He was born in Orange County, Vermont, December 14, 1824, and came to Monticello in 1860. He enlisted in Company K, Twentieth Indiana Volunteers, in 1861, but was discharged on account of failing health in December, 1862. April 13, 1863, he enlisted in Company G, Sixty-third Indiana Volunteers, and served mostly on detached duty until May 15, 1865. He left surviving two children, William R. Harvey and Mrs. Victoria Winchell, both some place in the West.
James Hay, sheriff of White County two terms, from 1878 to 1882, died at his home in Brookston, February 4, 1902. He was a genial, warm-hearted man, well liked and highly esteemed by all who knew him.
Thomas S. Hayes, for nearly forty years one of the best known citizens of Brookston, was born in Kinderhook, New York, in 1835. His parents, Hiram and Mary (Lee) Hayes, were born in England but were brought to America when quite young and both died in Columbia County, New York. Mr. Hayes passed his early life in Canaan, New York, where he was educated and later married Adelia Stickle, daughter of William P. Stickle, and in 1878 came to Brookston, where he is still living. Soon after coming to Brookston he engaged in the grain business and in 1892 he was nominated by the republican party for the office of county auditor, but was defeated by Morris J. Holtzman, his democratic opponent. For several years he served as justice of the peace, is an adherent of the Baptist Church and it is needless to say is one of the most respected citizens of Brookston.
When Captain Hays came into White County to become a permanent resident in the Idaville community, though only about twenty-three years of age, he bore the distinguishing marks of a long army service and for about a year had held a captain's commission in the Union army. In the past half century he has lived with honored usefulness in the county, and no man enjoys and better deserves the esteem of a greater number of people in the county than this veteran of the great war between the states.
Captain Hays was born at Nenagh, in Tipperary County, Ireland, March 3, 1843, a son of Andrew and Johanna (Quinlan) Hays. In 1845 the family set out for America, locating first in Dundas, Canada, and after moving to the United States in several places, but finally settled in Michigan City, Indiana. Andrew Hays died at Niles, Michigan, and his wife at Keokuk, Iowa. Andrew Hays was also a soldier in the Union army and for three years was in Company B of the Thirty-fifth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, known as the "Wild Irish Regiment." The children of Andrew and wife were Patrick; Mary, who is living in Indianapolis; and Catherine and Margaret, both deceased.
There was a good deal of hardship in the early life of Captain Hays. When eleven years old he was "bound out" and for several years lived in the family of Job Northam, eight miles south of LaPorte, Indiana, where he was employed on a farm and for about one year with a railroad section gang. During all his life in White County Captain Hays has passed as a man of good education, and yet as a boy he attended the common schools very little and got most of his training while in the army. While a soldier, and in fact throughout the rest of his life, he has been constantly going ahead, and has learned all that was requisite for his advancement as he needed it. Before entering the army he began learning the shoemaker's trade with George Thomas at Medaryville, in Pulaski County. Six or seven months later he abandoned the apprenticeship in order to enlist at Medaryville on August 22, 1861, and about one month later was mustered in at LaPorte in Captain Allen's Company C of the Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was sent to Indianapolis, and thence to Mumfordsville on the Tennessee River, where his command was organized as a part of the Army of the Ohio, afterward known as the Army of the Cumberland, under General Buell. The late General Lawton was in the same brigade with Captain Hays. At the end of three years Captain Hays re-enlisted with the regiment for the remainder of the war. At the beginning of his service his command marched through Nashville and arrived at Shiloh in time to participate in the second day of that great battle. From that time on he participated in almost every battle of the Army of the Cumberland, until on the field of Chickamauga he was twice wounded. While recuperating he was sent on recruiting duty in Pulaski County and succeeded in getting twenty-two men. He filled up the quota of three townships and thus enabled those communities to avoid a draft. In April, 1864, he joined the army as first lieutenant, and from that time on participated in a number of battles and skirmishes. He was finally mustered out and given his honorable discharge at Marietta, Georgia, November 9, 1865, more than four years after his first enlistment. From time to time his services were given merited advancement. He was made corporal in February, 1862, fifth sergeant in May, 1862, orderly sergeant February 15, 1863, was commissioned first lieutenant April 11, 1864, and was captain from November 1, 1864, until the end of the war. After the war Captain Hays determined to finish his apprenticeship at the trade of shoemaker. In the meantime his employer, George Thomas, had moved to Jackson Township, in White County, and thus the young soldier became identified with that section of Indiana which has ever since been his home. In January, 1870, Captain Hays married Lauretta Irelan. The Irelans were pioneer settlers in White County. Mrs. Hays died at Idaville, February 3, 1893. In June, 1894, he married Elle Fry, daughter of Daniel Fry, also an early settler.
Having mastered the trade of shoemaker, Captain Hays steadily worked in that vocation until about 1875. From that he transferred his attention to merchandising at Idaville, and acquired large and substantial interests as a merchant and farmer, his business career being continued until his retirement in 1900. He owns a couple of hundred acres of land, considerable town property, and is one of the most substantial citizens of White County.
As a democrat, Captain Hays has long been the recognized leader of his party in
the country around Idaville. He served on party committees a number of times,
but has never been in politics for gain, and his many friends testify to his
disinterested service. At one time or another he has been offered almost every
office in the county. He was elected and served three years, from 1909 to 1912,
as county commissioner, and in 1912 was elected state representative from Caspar
and White counties, and served in the Legislature of 1913-14. This was
an honor which he accepted with reluctance, and it was practically forced on him.
Mrs. Hays is a member of the Church of God at Idaville, but his only fraternal
association is with the Grand Army Post at Monticello. His religion is to do
right, and few men have better fulfilled the scriptural injunction to walk
uprightly and do good. There are few men in that part of the county who have
given more liberal assistance to poor people and unfortunate than Captain Hays.
Truxton Head, long an active business man of Brookston, died at his home in Indianapolis on December 1, 1913. After conducting a general store at that place for a number of years, he located at Lafayette, where he engaged in the manufacture of brick. About 1903, with his wife and a portion of his family, he went to South McAlester, Oklahoma, and thence to Indianapolis. Mrs. Head, who had died in the preceding January, was born at Battle Ground, where her remains were interred. Seven sons and daughters, married and scattered from Indiana to California, survive the parents.
Charles Headlee was born in New Jersey March 15, 1794, and came to White County, Indiana, in 1856, where he died on March 3, 1877, aged eighty years. He was one of the early settlers of Cass Township and did his full share to redeem that locality from its wilds. He was a leading member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and lived an upright Christian life.
Silas Headlee, son of Charles and Mary Headlee, was born in Green County, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1832. On September 7, 1854, he married Margaret Emmons, who died on March 17, 1857. On December 20, 1857, he married Angeline W. Crowder, who died August 2, 1908. To his first marriage was born one son, Charles J., who survived the father, and to the second marriage was born one son and five daughters. He was a devoted husband, a kind and loving father. In the great civil conflict he gave four years of his life in support of his country—for three years in Company G, Sixty-third Indiana Volunteers, and one year in Company A, One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana Volunteers, in which he served until the close of the war. In early life he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church and lived an unselfish, devoted Christian life. He died February 18, 1909.
Samuel Heckendorn was one of the oldest and best known of all the early settlers of White County. He was born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, March 26, 1809, where he lived until 1838, locating July 4th of that year in Monticello. On October 23, 1832, he married Miss Ann C. McDonald. To this union was [sic] born three children, all of whom are dead. His first wife died March 1, 1857, and he was again married March 28, 1858, to Elizabeth M. Thayer, who died December 20, 1860. To this union was born one daughter, Ellen, who died at the age of sixteen. About 1833 he united with the German Reformed Presbyterian Church, but on coming to Monticello he joined by letter the Presbyterian Church, where he remained a consistent member until his death, which occurred at Monticello on June 10, 1886. It may safely be said that no citizen of this county was ever more universally loved than Father Heckendorn.
By a residence of almost three quarters of a century in the Idaville community the Heiny family has well established its position among the notable citizens, and there are many features of the record which deserve place in this publication. While Mr. Jonathan Heiny has during the greater part of his active life been in close touch with Idaville, his home up to two years ago was across the line in Carroll County. He and his wife now have one of the attractive homes of Idaville and are among the splendid people of that community.
The Heiny family in America was established about the middle of the eighteenth century by Jacob and Sebastian Heiny, who were natives of Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, and set out for the New World when Jacob was about seventeen and his brother fifteen years of age. They had no money to pay their passage, and according to a custom prevailing at that time, after arriving in this country, they were sold to labor to pay for their transportation. It is with Jacob that this history is particularly concerned. He worked out his passage money near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and after gaining his freedom married a Miss Diefenbach. Their first child was born in 1759. Jacob Heiny during the Revolutionary war served in the Pennsylvania regiment of artillery, a fact which is established by a certificate from the custodian of public records in Pennsylvania. His family record is contained in an old Bible, still in possession of a member of the family, the record being written in German. Jacob and his wife had twelve sons and one daughter.
Of these Samuel Heiny continues this lineage. He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, February 1, 1771, and died September 8, 1847. He was trained to read and write in the German, but had no knowledge of the English language so far as to write it. About 1795 he married Barbara Stern, daughter of Peter Stern, and she was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, March 3, 1774, and died February 31 [sic], 1862. They had ten children. About 1824 Samuel left Pennsylvania and lived a few months near Dayton, Ohio, and in 1825 moved to Wayne County, Indiana, locating on a farm about four miles from Cambridge City. Samuel died there as a result of a kick from a horse.
Benjamin Heiny, in the next generation, the first son of Samuel and Barbara Heiny, was born in Lancaster County, May 27, 1800, and died October 29, 1861. He was already a young man when the family came to Ohio and Eastern Indiana and in 1842 he moved to Carroll County, Indiana, and bought Wabash and Erie Canal land in section 3 of Adams Township. Benjamin Heiny married Elizabeth Lantz, who died February 28, 1880. The first of their eleven children was born in Montgomery County, Ohio, in 1829, the next five were born in Wayne County, Indiana, and the last four were born in Carroll County. Their names were Samuel, Joseph, Sarah, Rufus, Nancy, Henry, Jonathan, Jacob, Benjamin F., Elizabeth and Barbara.
Jonathan Heiny, who was the seventh of the children and the last to be born in Wayne County, was born January 15, 1840, and was three years of age when he came with his parents to Carroll County. He grew up on his father's farm in Adams Township, and prior to his army service had learned and worked at the carpenter's trade.
His army record is as follows: He enlisted October 10, 1861, at Logansport in Company F, Forty-Sixth Regiment of Indiana Infantry, and served as corporal and later as sergeant of the company. He was discharged January 1, 1864, at Algiers, Louisiana, but re-enlisted and was again enrolled January 2, 1864, as a veteran in the same company and regiment. His final discharge came September 4, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky. He participated in thirty-one battles: New Madrid, Island No. 10, Riddle's Point, Port Pillow, Osceola, Memphis, St. Charles, Clarenden, Helena, Napoleon, Grand Prairie, Plunkett's Bluff, Duvall's Bluff, Tallahatchie, Goldwater, Yazoo Pass, Fort Pemberton, Grand Gulf, Port Gibson, Fourteen-Mile Creek, Raymond, Jackson, Champion Hills, Big Black River, Vicksburg, Jackson's second battle, Grand Choteau, Spanish Lake, Vermilionville, Nelson's Farm and Sabine Cross Roads. He was captured with his regiment at Sabine April 8, 1864, and was prisoner eight months and twelve days, four months at Tyler and four months at Hempstead, Texas. He was paroled in December, 1864, and was exchanged in the latter part of January, and rejoined his regiment in February, 1865, and continued with the command until his final muster out.
After returning to his old home in Carroll County Mr. Heiny took up farming and also worked at the carpenter trade. In those years Idaville was his trading center, and three years ago he came to town, having sold his fine farm of 160 acres for $23,000. This was a property which he had accumulated through his own industry and good management, and he is now prepared to spend his declining years in comfort. He owns property in Idaville, and has a good home in the east part of the village, and operates his own automobile. He is a republican, has never sought any office, and he and his wife are members of the Church of God Incorporated. His father, Benjamin, owned about eighty acres of land, and combined its cultivation with work as a plasterer. He was a whig until 1856, and then became a democrat. Though a man of modest manner, he had hosts of friends, who called him affectionately "Uncle Ben." He knew almost every person in the county, and for two terms served as township assessor.
On February 4, 1877, Mr. Heiny married Rosa Lytle, who was born in April, 1848, and died October 2, 1878. There were no children of this union. On February 4, 1880, he married Mrs. Amanda (McCully) Barnes, who was born August 19, 1855, and died April 21, 1906, and is buried in the Idaville cemetery. By her former marriage there is a daughter, Mrs. Lorena B. Nicholas, who lives at Imperial, California. By his second wife Mr. Heiny had five children: Mabel Lucretia, who was born November 22, 1880, and died November 15, 1888; Frank Hamilton, who was born December 19, 1882, is now living at Santa Anna, California, and by his marriage to Ora Kennedy has a son Max; Wilda Vance, born November 26, 1885, was married June 7, 1905, to Nathaniel Benjamin, and their three children are Kathryn Josephine, John Cecil and Robert; the fourth child, a son, born October 3, 1893, died in infancy; Dale McCully Heiny, born March 22, 1895, is unmarried and is living in California.
On January 10, 1912, Mr. Heiny married Mrs. Laurinda (Dimmitt-Grantham) Wikle. This marriage was the termination of a most interesting romance, which attracted a great deal of attention and comment over the state. More than thirty-five years before the ceremony which pronounced them man and wife Mr. and Mrs. Heiny had been sweethearts and had plighted their troth to each other. Mrs. Heiny's maiden name was Dimmitt, and her grandfather, Miles Dimmitt, was one of the first settlers in Carroll County. The romantic plans of Jonathan Heiny and Miss Dimmitt were interrupted for some reason, and she became the wife of a Mr. Grantham. Later she married Mr. Wikle, and only when well advanced in years returned to the love of her youth.
The wives and mothers of our nation play a most conspicuous part in its history, and amongst the noble ladies of White County, Indiana, none are more worthy than Mrs. Heiny. She is a native of Carroll County, Indiana, born June 15, 1855, and was the fourth in a family of nine children, three sons and six daughters, born to Robert and Matilda (Sibbitt) Dimmitt. Only three are living besides Mrs. Heiny: Sarah J., wife of Jeremiah Cramer, residents of La Fayette, Indiana, Mr. Cramer being a soldier in the Civil war. James F., who is married and resides in Burlington, Indiana, is proprietor of a hotel; and Miles Alva, a resident of La Fayette, Indiana, and who married Anna Orr. Father Dimmitt was a native of Carroll County, Indiana, born March 31, 1827, and died May 16, 1904. He was an agriculturist, was educated in the common schools, and politically was formerly a democrat, but when he died was a republican. Both he and his wife were members of the Christian Church. Mother Dimmitt was a native of Wayne County, Ohio, born August 20, 1829, and died January 29, 1892. She and her husband are interred in the Hickory Grove cemetery in Carroll County, Indiana.
Mrs. Heiny was the recipient of a good common school education. Her first marriage was with John Willard Grantham, November 26, 1879, and two children were born: Viola Bell, wife of Nelson Underhill, a resident of Colbourne, Indiana, and a motorman on the interurban railroad. Mrs. Underhill was educated in the common and high schools, and is a member of the Lutheran Church. They have three children: Dorothy L., Harold Robert and Gilbert C. Gertrude, the second daughter, was the wife of Ezra Vayou, a mail carrier, and one little daughter, Mona Louise, was born to them, and she is now in the first year of the high school. Her mother died June 2, 1905. Mr. Grantham, who was an agriculturist, died April 12, 1885. Mrs. Grantham wedded George W. Wikle, but there were no children by this marriage. He was an agriculturist and also a machinist. He died August 26, 1910. Mrs. Wikie subsequently wedded Mr. Heiny. She is a lady of agreeable personality and cordial, and she and her husband enjoy their modern home in Eastern Idaville. They also have a five passenger Overland car and life is a fleeting pleasure. Their hospitable home is ever open to their many friends as well as the stranger.
A number of the agriculturists of White County are living on farms on which they were born and have passed their entire lives. These men have an advantage, in a certain way, for they have, from earliest manhood, been thoroughly familiar with the conditions of the locality, particularly as they relate to soil and climate, and have been able to develop their properties along well-established and practical lines, without the necessity of experiment. In this class is found William J. Helfrich, who with the exception of one year has lived all of his life on his present property in Liberty Township. He was born here June 13, 1869, and is a son of William W. and Mary A. (Kutz) Helfrich.
William W. Helfrich was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, October 20, 1832, and was there reared and educated and learned the trade of wagon and buggy maker. He was married in his native community August 9, 1853, to Mary A. Kutz, who was also born there, November 13, 1832, and about the year 1866 moved to the State of Ohio. Three years later, in March, 1869, he came to White County, Indiana, and bought eighty acres of land on section 2, Liberty Township, which at that time was only partially improved. Mr. Helfrich settled down to general farming and stock-raising, cultivated his farm and added to its acreage, and resided there for some years, then moving across the line into Pulaski County. After a short stay, he returned to White County, locating at Buffalo, which place continued to be his home until his death, which occurred July 24, 1911. Mr. Helfrich was a man somewhat above the average in stature, was exceptionally industrious, and through his own exertions and those of his faithful wife became unusually well-to-do. At one time he owned over 400 acres of land, and was considered one of the substantial men of his part of the county. In religious belief he was a Presbyterian, and in politics a democrat. Living an exemplary life, honest to the penny and of the strictest integrity, he was universally respected as an excellent citizen, a kind and considerate neighbor and a friend who could be depended upon in times of need. Mrs. Helfrich, who survives her husband, lives at Buffalo where she has many friends and is highly respected and esteemed. She and her husband were the parents of twelve children, of whom eight are still living.
The ninth in order of birth of his parents' children, William J. Helfrich as a lad helped in the cultivation and operation of the home farm and secured his education in the district schools of his home neighborhood. He was carefully trained in the various departments of farming, and has always made his home at the old homestead place with the exception of one year when he lived on a farm in the immediate neighborhood. Mr. Helfrich is now the owner of 260 acres of valuable land, devoted to general farming and stock-raising, in both of which lines he has met with a full measure of success. He had good, modern buildings, and has made his farm one of the attractive and valuable country places of Liberty Township. Mr. Helfrich is a democrat in his political views, but not a politician.
On December 26, 1892, Mr. Helfrich was married to Miss Sarah E. North, the daughter of L. M. North, a veteran of the Civil war and a resident of Liberty Township. To this union there have been born five children, namely: Ernest, who died in infancy; and Lova L., Hazel M., Byron N. and William W.
Though still an active factor in the business affairs of Wolcott, Edward Hemphill has reached that time of life where he can be said to have earned the right to leisure and the enjoyment of the fruits of a well spent career. Mr. Hemphill is one of the surviving Indiana veterans of the Union army, has spent nearly all his life in White County, has been prospered [sic] as a farmer and business man, and has a high place in popular esteem.
Though now past the age of three score and ten Mr. Hemphill belongs to such a long lived family that he may still be considered a young man. His father, Andrew Hemphill, was born in the Territory of Ohio in 1797, several years before Ohio became a state, and died in 1870. He married Mary A. Bible, who was born in 1810, and whose father, Louis Bible, a native of Germany, lived to the patriarchial age of one hundred eleven years. Andrew Hemphill was an early settler in Indiana, locating in White County, and on September 19, 1847, arriving at his chosen location in section 1, range 6 west, in Princeton Township of White County. He was a farmer and miller by occupation, and at the time of his death his visible prosperity was indicated by the ownership of 440 acres. His success was well earned, he was honest, upright and an industrious worker, lived quietly with his neighbors, was never sued and never prosecuted a suit in all his life, and though a democrat in politics never sought any official honors. He is buried in the Hemphill Cemetery in Princeton Township. He and his wife became the parents of eleven children. The two now living in White County are Mary A., widow of Ambrose Moore, and Edward. Another son, George A., lives near Remington, in Jasper County.
Edward Hemphill was born near Attica in Fountain County, Indiana, September 30, 1843, and the family removed to Princeton Township too early for him to have any definite recollections of that event. He attended some of the old time schools kept in the township during the '40s and '50s, gained physical strength by active contact with the duties of the farm, and was a vigorous youth of eighteen when the war broke out between the North and South. Three years later, in 1863, he enlisted at Lafayette in Company K of the One Hundred and Sixteenth Indiana Infantry. In 1865 he re-enlisted at Reynolds, and was assigned to Company G of the One Hundred and Fifty-seventh Indiana Infantry, continuing this second service until his honorable discharge at Indianapolis in the fall of 1865. Though he participated in several important campaigns during the war and was present at a number of battles, he escaped without wounds and capture.
With the consciousness of patriotic duty well done, Mr. Hemphill applied himself vigorously to his business as a farmer, which was his principal calling up to eight years ago when he moved into the Town of Wolcott and has since been proprietor of the Hemphill Feed Stable and Tie Barn. In addition to this he is the owner of some town property, and has a finely developed farm of 120 acres in Princeton Township.
In 1867, about three years after he returned from the army, Mr. Hemphill married Miss Harriet A. Dobbins, daughter of William and Elizabeth Dobbins of Princeton Township. For nearly forty years they traveled life's pathway together, sharing and dividing their experiences and burdens, and Mrs. Hemphill passed away December 4, 1906, and was laid to rest in the Dobbins Cemetery in Princeton Township. There are five children who survive and honor the memory of their mother and the example of their honored father. James T., the eldest, is a traveling salesman with home at Monon, and by his marriage to Leota Haskins has three children, Bervin, Mark and Gwendolin. Francis E. is the only one of the children now deceased. Gracie B. is the wife of Ed Right of Princeton Township, and they have a child named Philip. Jessie E. is the wife of Fern Kerr, a surveyor at Wolcott, and their two children are Hope and Nina. William H., who lives at Wolcott, married Leota Baxter, and they have a little daughter, Wilma.
In 1867 Mr. Hemphill joined the Masonic Lodge at Wolcott, and for many years
has been a member of the Grand Army Post at Rensalear [sic]. He belongs to the
Christian Church and is a republican who cast his first ballot for Abraham
Lincoln and has supported every presidential candidate of
that party since. It should be said that Mr. Hemphill has gained all his
prosperity through his own efforts, having inherited only forty acres of land
from his father's estate.
John Bible Hemphill, who died in Wolcott, Sunday, November 9, 1913, was born in
Fountain County, Indiana, June 3, 1830, and was the oldest son in a family of ten
children. December 3, 1854, be married Sarah Dobbins of White County, who died,
and in 1866 he married Mary E. Pugh, and to each of these marriages were born
four children. In his early manhood he united with the Christian Church and was
an active Christian worker until his death. He was one of the fourteen charter members of
Wolcott Lodge No. 180, F. & A. M., which was chartered May 30, 1866, and
James O. Johnson is the only one of this fourteen who is yet living. He was the
Master of this lodge for several years and was greatly attached to the institution
of Masonry.
A family that has long been identified with White County is that represented by the late James Hamilton Henderson, of Monticello. Mrs. Henderson, his widow, is still living at Monticello, and the name has been known and honored in this county for over two generations.
James Hamilton Henderson was born at Idaville, White County, December 27, 1860, a son of Matthew and Elizabeth (McCully) Henderson. His parents came to White County some years before the war and spent their lives here. His father was a blacksmith, a trade he followed at Idaville, and subsequently was a merchant, dealing in boots and shoes at Monticello, and also a blacksmith. For two terms he held the office of sheriff. He died May 30, 1887.
Matthew Henderson, the father of James Henderson, was married three times; first, to a Miss Barnes, and they had two sons, George and John. The second marriage was with Elizabeth McCully, and James Henderson was one of the children born of this union. The third marriage was with Maggie Ross, and two daughters were born to them, Maude and Jessie.
James Hamilton Henderson acquired a common school education and as a boy learned the blacksmith's trade under his father. When his father died he succeeded to the business. Monticello was his home and he died here after an honorable and successful career January 7, 1905.
The late Mr. Henderson is remembered as a useful citizen and one who was greatly interested in public affairs. He served as member of the city council and for several years was town marshal. He was a demoerat in politics, following in the same political faith as his father. His fraternal affiliations were with the Masons, the Maccabees, the Odd Fellows, all of Monticello, Indiana, and he belonged to the Methodist Church. On July 11, 1894, Mr. Henderson married Miss Lillian Southworth. To their marriage were born two children, Valorus H. and Doris, twins, but the daughter is deceased, and the son is a student in the eighth grade of the Monticello public schools.
Mrs. Lillian Henderson is a native of Carroll County, Indiana, born December 9, 1866, the younger of the children, two sons and five daughters, born to Valorus N. and Margaret (Linkhaur) Southworth. Only two of the family are living, Mrs. Henderson and her sister, Violet, who is the wife of Philip Parcel, residents of Monticello. They have a son and daughter, Gertrude, the widow of John Murray, and Frank, a resident of Logansport and a cigarmaker. Both of Mrs. Henderson's parents are deceased. Mrs. Henderson was educated in the public schools and she is a member of the Methodist Church at Monticello, Indiana.
The honors paid to a long and useful life were fitly bestowed upon the late Capt. Joseph Henderson, who died at Idaville, in White County, January 3, 1904. He had lived in this community more than half a century, spent his boyhood amid struggles and privations, gave a faithful service of nearly four years in the Federal army during the Civil war, and during the remainder of his active career was a farmer, county official and merchant at Idaville.
Capt. Joseph Henderson was born in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, May 16, 1841, one of ten children, only one of whom survive [sic]. His parents were Andrew and Martha (Harris) Henderson. Andrew Henderson and family came to Indiana in 1853, locating on a farm in White County. At that time the country was new and improvements were of a primitive kind. Soon after their removal to White County Mrs. Henderson died and Andrew Henderson passed away in 1855. The children, all of them young, were then parceled out among neighbors, and had their bringing up in the homes of strangers. Joseph Henderson was reared in the Hanna family and during boyhood did farm work, helped in the care of a younger brother, and as opportunity afforded attended the district schools. He had not yet reached his majority when on October 10, 1861, he volunteered for service in the Union army. He and other recruits rendezvoused at Logansport, and he was enrolled in Company C of the Forty-sixth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He reached the front at New Madrid, Missouri, saw his first real fighting at Tiptonville, later at Fort Pillow, and was with the first regiment entering the City of Memphis. He was afterwards in the campaign against Helena, participated in the White River expedition, witnessed the bombardment of Port Gibson, during the campaign around Vicksburg received a gunshot wound, was captured at Madison but soon afterward exchanged, was again wounded through the arm in the battle of Sabine Crossroads, rejoined his command at New Orleans and there enlisted for three years or during the war. At Lexington he was made first lieutenant of his company, and three months later was promoted to captain. His honorable discharge was dated September 4, 1865. From the official history of his regiment his record is noted briefly as follows: Enlisted November 7, 1861; wounded at Champion Hill, May 16, 1863; wounded April 8, 1864, at Sabine Crossroads, Louisiana; commissioned first lieutenant September 15, 1864, and captain January 1, 1865.
With his return from the army he engaged in farming in White County until 1886. In that year the people elected him sheriff and he gave an efficient administration of that office for one term. In 1889 he was appointed postmaster of Idaville and held that post four years. With the close of his official time he engaged in the lumber business, and continued that the rest of his life.
On August 21, 1866, Captain Henderson married Adeline, daughter of John M. and Elizabeth (Barnes) Carson. To their marriage were born four children: Minnie B., Mrs. W. P. Bushnell; Lizzie E., Mrs. Charles R. Zook; John M.; and Elsie L., deceased. At the time of his death Captain Henderson was a ruling elder in the United Presbyterian Church. He was a republican and was long affiliated with the Grand Army of the Republic. His widow is still living. Captain Henderson was a man of high character, commanded universal respect because of his sterling qualities, and was a character for positive good in the community where he lived.
John M. Henderson, his only son and successor of his father in the lumber business at Idaville, was born March 5, 1875. He assisted his father as soon as his strength and years permitted, and received his education in the public schools. On October 17, 1906, occurred his marriage to Miss Mary Townsley, daughter of James Milton and Vine (Delzell) Townsley. To their marriage were born two daughters, Margaret E. and Esther V. Both Mr. and Mrs. Henderson are members of the United Presbyterian Church.
Matthew Henderson, one time sheriff of White County, was born in Juniata County, Pennsylvania, March 6, 1828, and came to Burnettsville in 1850. Ten years later he removed to Monticello, where he resided until his death, May 30, 1890. He was married three times, the last time to Margaret Ross on April 5, 1864. He was twice elected sheriff of White County and at his death was a justice of the peace in Monticello. He was a prominent Mason and Odd Fellow and his funeral was one of the largest ever seen in Monticello.
Capt. James Hess, son of John and Elizabeth D. Hess, was born in Findlay, Ohio, February 10, 1839. He was of Welsh-English descent and came with his parents in 1856 to Big Creek Township, where he learned the mason's trade, and in April, 1861, enlisted in Company K, Tenth Indiana Volunteers, and served for three months. In October, 1861, he enlisted in Company G, Forty-sixth Indiana Infantry, and served until December, 1864, when he was mustered out of the service at Lexington, Kentucky, having been promoted to the captaincy on September 12, 1863. He was in many hard fought battles and he it was who planted the first Federal flag on the ramparts of Fort Pillow. In 1874 he settled on a farm in Honey Creek Township and after a residence of a few years there he came to Monticello, where he died October 5, 1909. He was married February 21, 1866, to Lottie E. Lawson, a native of Sweden, who bore him three children, Lena (deceased), Mary D. McCuaig of Monticello and Clara W. Warden of Coffeyville, Kansas.
The substantial kind of success which is the fruit of hard labor, intelligent performance of the duties that are connected with agricultural management, and the fulfillment of the obligations imposed by family and society, is that now enjoyed by William Hickman, who owns one of the largest rural estates in Liberty Township. About forty years ago he began his independent career with little more than willing hands and an earnest purpose, and has since surrounded himself with the comforts of prosperity, with home and children, and with a large circle of loyal friends.
The Hickman family have been identified with White County since the early '50s, and William Hickman was born in the south part of Liberty Township September 30, 1857. His parents were Bluford and Elizabeth (Nichols) Hickman. His parents were married in this county, and all of their nine children are still living. His father was a substantial farmer and stock raiser and died in 1893, being buried in the Hughes Cemetery. The mother is still living. Bluford Hickman was a democrat in politics, and a member of the New Dunkard Church. In his time he endured many of the vicissitudes that were inseparable from pioneering, and besides his material position left to his descendants an honored name.
After such education as could be obtained in the local schools, William Hickman started out at the age of sixteen to use his energies and talents to the best advantage consistent with his opportunities. Farming has always been his regular vocation, and after many years of well directed effort he now finds himself the possessor of a good acreage and also town property. He is a democrat in politics, and he and his family affiliate with the Christian Church.
The most important event in his early career was his marriage on June 6,
1885, to Miss Margaret Jarringer, a daughter of John and Jane (Travis)
Jarringer. The father was born in Delaware County, Indiana, in 1838. In
1875 he came to White County, Indiana, locating in Liberty Township,
where he died in 1906 at the age of sixty-eight years. He owned a farm
each in Howard and White counties. Both he and his wife were members of
the Christian Church, and he affiliated with the republican party. Mrs.
Jarringer was born in Franklin County, Ohio, October 24, 1840, and came
to Indiana with her sister, Elizabeth Williams, when but eight years of
age. She is still a resident of Liberty Township. Mrs. Hickman was born
in Howard County, Indiana, July 8, 1868, and was but a child of seven years when
she came to White
County, which has continued her home since that time. She is a lady of
great energy and executive ability, and has been a constant aid to her
husband in business and home affairs. They started their married life
with but twenty-two acres of land, on which was a small mortgage, and
they are now the owners of 404 acres in Liberty Township, besides town
property, and they reside in the Village of Buffalo, one-half mile from
one of their farms and 1 1/2 miles from the other. Seven of their nine
children are also alive. For thirty years now Mr. and Mrs. Hickman have
shared the struggles and successes of their career, and have a fine
family of children to do them honor. These children are named: Walter,
Gustavus, deceased; May and Fay, twins, both deceased; Amy, wife of
Frank Richardson of Logansport; and James. Walter Hickman resides on
his parents' estate, is a member of the Christian Church, is a democrat
politically, and affiliates with the Fraternal Order of Red Men at
Monticello. He married Eva Siddle, and they have two children, William
E., Jr., and Geneva V. Amy G. became the wife of Frank Richardson, of
Logansport, employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and they
have a daughter, Helen Marguerite. Mrs. Richardson graduated from the
common schools at the early age of thirteen, and she is a member of the
Church of God. James Hickman follows farming. He is a democrat
politically, affiliates with the Fraternal Order of Red Men and is a
member of the New Light Church.
Representing an old established family in Princeton Township, Louis Hinchman was born and reared in the Wolcott community, and for many years has been identified with the business enterprise of that village, and is now cashier of the State Bank. His has been a career in which industry, good judgment and integrity have been prominent factors, and his high standing in the community is also attested by various honors paid him as a citizen.
His father was the late William Hinchman, a pioneer of Princeton Township, and whose death in July, 1912, removed one of the fine old citizens of that locality. William Hinchman was born in Cabell County, West Virginia, August 1, 1830, a son of William and Elizabeth (Symms) Hinchman. His grandfather came from England, and there is also an admixture of Irish stock in the family. William Hinchman, Sr. was quite an old man when the war came on and was at that time living in West Virginia, and on account of his positive expressions in behalf of the Union was made a prisoner by the Confederates and confined at Salisbury, North Carolina, where the hardship he endured caused his death. William Hinchman, Jr. obtained his education in the old field schools of Western Virginia, and early in his career was impressed with the increasing prosperity of the country north of the Ohio River as compared with the slave states, and on October 13, 1854, arrived in White County and began settlement on section 29 of Princeton Township. In early life he acquired the trade of carpenter and used that skill to good effect in the construction of his farm buildings. In the course of time he acquired 270 acres of land in Princeton Township, and was not only a prosperous but influential citizen. In his time he was probably the chief apiarist in White County and for a quarter of a century or more made bee keeping a specialty. Though a member of the minority party, the democratic, he was elected township trustee in 1860 for one term, and in 1877 received the nomination for county treasurer, but was not elected. On December 18, 1856, William Hinchman married Miss Rhoda Nordyke. In 1893 William Hinchman removed to the Village of Wolcott, and died there and is buried in the Meadow Lake Cemetery. His widow is still living at Wolcott. To their marriage were horn seven children, a brief record of whom is as follows: John, now a retired farmer, married Ella Primmer; Emma Elizabeth is the wife of George Ferguson, proprietor of the Ferguson Hotel at Wolcott; James, who lives in Lafayette, has been three times married and has a son Fred by his second wife; Mary is the wife of Henry Waymire, a retired farmer living at Wolcott, and they have four children; William Jr. has been twice married and has two children by his second wife; Anna is the wife of A. U. Lux of Wolcott, and has five children; the seventh and youngest child is Louis Hinchman.
Louis Hinchman was born on the old farm two miles east of Wolcott, September 7, 1868, and has been a resident of Princeton Township practically all his life. While growing up on the farm, to the duties of which he was well trained, he also attended the common schools in Wolcott and completed his education by several terms in Valparaiso University. He has to his credit five years of successful teaching, two years in Honey Creek Township and three years in Princeton Township. Following this he was appointed deputy postmaster at Wolcott, and held that office from 1893 to 1897. On retiring from office Mr. Hinchman became associated with W. C. Kinney in the hardware business at Wolcott and they were in partnership until 1903. Since that year Mr. Hinchman has been identified with the State Bank of Wolcott, and has had a large share of the responsibilities of its management in the post of cashier since 1904. He is also a member of the firm of Nordyke & Company, well known Wolcott druggists.
Mr. Hinchman is a man whose character and activities have been such as to command the confidence and respect of the community, and evidence of this is found in his service as town treasurer for nine years from 1901 to 1910. As a democrat he was nominated in 1906 for the office of county treasurer, but was unable to overcome the normal republican majority of that year. His church home is the Baptist.
On October 26, 1897, Mr. Hinchman married Miss Anna J. Stahl, who is of German family and a daughter of Carl Stahl, of Remington, Indiana. They have one of the comfortable homes of Wolcott and it is cheered by the presence of one daughter, Frances L., who has received her diploma from the public schools and is now in her junior year of the Wolcott High School. She has also taken instrumental music. Mrs. Hinchman is a native of Germany, born November 19, 1871, and was only two years old when her parents came to America. She was educated in the common schools. In 1912 Mr. Hinchman built a beautiful residence in Wolcott, Indiana, which is the abode of hospitality and good cheer.
William Hinchman was one of the oldest and best known citizens of Princeton Township, where he located October 13, 1854. He was born in Cabell County, in what is now West Virginia, August 1, 1830, and died at his home July 26, 1912. On December 18, 1856, he married Miss Rhoda Nordyke, who survived him. He was a carpenter by trade, but devoted most of his time to his farming interests. He served one term as township trustee and during his long life was noted for his absolute integrity.
Among the native-born citizens of White County who have spent their lives within its boundaries, and as far as possible have aided its growth and development, whether relating to its agricultural or mercantile interests, is Richard Hinshaw, now prosperously engaged in the fuel business at Monticello. He was born April 23, 1861, in Liberty Township, a son of Richard and Mary (Hickman) Hinshaw, both of whom spent their last years in White County, their bodies being laid to rest in Clarke's cemetery. His father crossed the plains with the gold seekers of 1849, and after spending a few years in California returned to the East, locating in Indiana prior to the outbreak of the Civil war. Assuming contracts for digging ditches, he worked all through the northern part of White County.
Educated in the district schools, Richard Hinshaw began the battle of life for himself at an early age, and being a youth of energy and ambition met with assured success in his undertakings. He became thoroughly acquainted with the various branches of agriculture, and for twenty-four consecutive years was engaged in farming in Monon Township. Removing to Monticello in 1904, Mr. Hinshaw embarked in the coal business, and as a dealer in fuel has built up a large and highly satisfactory trade.
Mr. Hinshaw married, December 26, 1885, Miss Rosa Jost, a daughter of John M. and Elizabeth (Earl) Jost. Four children have been born of their union, namely: Earl, who married Sadie Burns; Glenn, who lived but four short months; Maud, wife of Earl Burns; and Ray, who married Merle Ginn. Politically Mr. Hinshaw is an earnest supporter of the principles of the democratic party. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, No. 107; of the Improved Order of Red Men, No. 578; and of the Loyal Order of Moose, No. 1549, all in Monticello.
Hard work and an earnest purpose to succeed have carried many poor men far along the road of prosperity, and the case in point is that of Fred Hintzman, whose name is well known to all White County's progressive agriculturists, and who has a fine rural home in Honey Creek Township, on Rural Route No. 11, out of Reynolds.
Many people who know of his success explain it briefly by saying that he is a German, and that means that he is possessed of the thrift and energy for which people of that country are noted. Mr. Hintzman, though he has spent most of his life in Indiana, was born in Mecklinburg, Germany, January 21, 1866, a son of Frank and Dorothy Hintzman. When he was about nine years of age the family left the old country, and after landing from the Atlantic vessel, in New York Harbor, in October, 1875, came on to White County and settled at Monticello. Here the mother died in February, 1876, and her body is now at rest in the Bunnell Cemetery near Reynolds. Frank Hintzman was employed in the paper mills at Monticello, but about fourteen years ago moved to Danville, Illinois, and is still living at that city. Fred Hintzman was the first in a family of four children, the others being: Mary, who is the widow of Davis Ewald of Virginia; John; and Dorothy.
The school training which had begun in the old country for Fred Hintzman was continued in the public schools near and in Monticello. At the age of eighteen he made himself responsible for his own career, and supported himself by employment in the pulp mills at Monticello and Norway for about three years. Then came several years of hard work as a farm hand. Industrious, willing and capable, he also had habits of economy, and when about twenty-five years of age made his first purchase of land and secured ninety-five acres in Honey Creek Township. He takes commendable pride in the fact that this land is still in his possession. More than twenty years have passed since he thus secured a foothold among the landed proprietors of Honey Creek and he now owns about three hundred acres, with such improvements that its acreage value measure up to the highest standards found elsewhere in White County.
Mr. Hintzman married Miss Mary Brandt, a daughter of Fred Brandt. Their home has been blessed with the birth of three children: Dorothy, Emelia and Albert. Mr. Hintzman is a democrat in national politics, but votes independently in local affairs. He is a friend of improvement and an advocate of progress, but has never sought the honors of public office. He and his family are members of the German Lutheran Church at Reynolds.
The general course of action in the life of Truman Holdridge, by whose citizenship the Town of Wolcott has profited greatly, has been an expression of practical and diversified activity, and in its range has invaded the realms of farming, merchandising and the various organized and co-operative movements by which a community gains its reputation for advancement and improvement.
The Holdridge family has been well known in White County since before the Civil war. The father of the Wolcott business man above named was the late George W. Holdridge, who was born in Monroe County, New York, April 6, 1839, a son of Jacob and Matilda (Heath) Holdridge. He was of combined German and Welsh stock. At the age of eighteen he began life for himself. He was a farm laborer and for about two years traveled in different sections of Canada. His arrival in White County was in the year 1859, when he found employment with Clark Johnson. His modest savings were next invested in five yoke of oxen, and with these he undertook the arduous task of breaking prairie sod. At that time the opportunities for such a business were almost unlimited, since vast tracts of White County landscape had known no other tending save that of nature since the beginning of the world. The five years he spent in that work contributed a large area of tillable land to the county. He next rented a farm and thereafter made that his principal calling. He was married April 13, 1870, to Miss Matilda Templeton, a daughter of James and Mary Templeton. She died in 1883 and is buried in the Wolcott Cemetery. Her four children were: Leroy D., who now lives in Coldwater, Michigan, and married Lillian Robinson, a daughter of Doctor Robinson, of Monticello; Emma, who married Clifford Bolden, and they now occupy the old homestead in Princeton Township; Truman, who is the next in order of age; and Theron, who lives in Princeton Township and by his marriage to Estella Fox has one child named George W. George W. Holdridge married for his third wife Lucy J. Lucas, who is still living in Wolcott. In 1870 George W. Holdridge moved into Princeton Township, locating northeast of Seafield, where he lived three years, then removed to Delphi in Carroll County, established a butcher shop and later continued the same line of enterprise in Monticello. After that he bought a farm in West Point Township, lived there about a year, and then moved to a farm in Princeton Township east of Seafield, and finally to his place of residence near Wolcott. George W. Holdridge died January 15, 1905, and is buried in the Wolcott Cemetery. He was a very successful business man, and prior to his death had accumulated about 550 acres of land. His varied activities were not only the means of bringing many broad acres under cultivation, but he also erected half a dozen or more substantial dwelling houses in different localities of the county. His belief was that of the Universalist Church, and in politics was a democrat.
The home farm on which Truman Holdridge was born July 13, 1878, was in section 19, range 5 west in Princeton Township. His early life was that of the average farmer boy, varied by school attendance and by work with the various implements and duties of farm management as his strength permitted, and after graduating from the Wolcott High School in 1898 he spent two terms in the Commercial High School at Logansport, and for six months was in Nelson-Myers law office at Logansport. At Wolcott he found an opportunity to get some practical experience in business as clerk in W. C. Kinney's hardware store, where he remained two years. After that he returned to the country and for two years was a practical farmer. He then became permanently identified with the mercantile affairs of Wolcott by purchasing a furniture store, and subsequently acquired the furniture and undertaking business of H. C. Westfall in 1909. His is now one of the conspicuous establishments in that village, known as Truman Holdridge's Furniture, Undertaking and Jewelry business. He has no failures recorded against him as a merchant, and has steadily progressed in favor and patronage and is not only successful in himself but lends a liberal hand to the promotion of movements which will make Wolcott a more liveable center of business and population. On June 6, 1906, Mr. Holdridge married Miss Maude A. Galloway, a daughter of Martin and Isabel Galloway of Wolcott.
Mr. Holdridge is vice president of the Wolcott Utility Company, which has recently completed a fine system of water works for the town. Local citizens pay him a special tribute of gratitude for his effective leadership in providing a public swimming pool, which has also been completed just recently. He carried around the subscription paper and by his own enthusiasm and persuasion succeeded in raising all the money required for that excellent improvement. While a democrat, Mr. Holdridge has no ambition for the honors of office, and is able to do a great deal for his community without assuming the burdens and cares of politics. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Church, and both are also members of the Order of the Eastern Star and the Rebekahs at Wolcott. Mr. Holdridge is past master of Wolcott Lodge, No. 186 F. & A. M., and is affiliated with the Royal Arch Chapter at Monticello, with the Council at Monticello, and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, No. 598, at Wolcott.
For three-quarters of a century the Holladay family has been represented in White County, where its members have been largely engaged in agricultural pursuits, although at all times being identified also with education, religion, politics and society. They have been men who have served their country and their community well, as soldiers during the Civil war, as the developers of farms and the founders of homes, and as friends of education, moral probity and good citizenship. Among them today are found at Monticello, Phillip A. and Charles A. Holladay, worthy bearers of the name, and sons of the honored pioneers, John and Charlotta (Marquam) Holladay. Another of the pioneers' children, and the only other of the thirteen who is now living, is Isabel, the wife of Augustus Martin of Brookston, White County.
John Holladay was born in the State of North Carolina, of Irish extraction, and was a young man when he journeyed westward with the tide of immigration to Indiana, locating in Tippecanoe County, where he met and married Charlotta Marquam, who had been born in Maryland, of English descent. About the year 1840, seeking a locality in which they could build up a home and develop a property for their family, Mr. and Mrs. Holladay came to White County and here, during the administration of President Polk, entered from the United States Government a tract of wild land located in section 26, Prairie Township. On this farm they lived for a number of years and although they moved to Iowa on two occasions, returned to Indiana each time, and died on the homestead, the father November 22, 1855, and the mother in 1865, and both were here buried. Mr. Holladay was a public-spirited citizen, contributing of his time and means toward the support of laudable enterprises, and was generally interested in the affairs of the democratic party, although he never himself held public office. A hard-working, conscientious man, the greater part of his attention was devoted to general farming and the raising of livestock, although he also dealt to some extent in farm lands. He was very highly esteemed in the community, while Mrs. Holladay was generally beloved for her kind-heartedness and sympathy.
Phillip A. Holladay, son of these noble pioneers, was born in Prairie Township, White County, Indiana, October 29, 1845. He grew up amid pioneer surroundings, and still vividly remembers moving the old frame house with sixteen yoke of oxen, this building still standing on the old homestead as a remembrance of the early days, although since then it has been greatly added to and improved. Mr. Holladay secured such educational advantages as were afforded by the primitive schools, did his full share of the work of clearing and development, and grew to sturdy young manhood. He was married January 8, 1868, to Miss Elizabeth Carr, daughter of William and Cynthia (Thompson) Carr, who came to Big Creek Township during the '30s and here spent the remainder of their lives. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Holladay: Eugene Griffith, who died December 25, 1895; and Anna Laura, who married Linden Wooley, and had one daughter, Lela. Mrs. Wooley then married Ernest Thompson, and has one daughter, Gladys, six years old.
On February 1, 1865, Phillip A. Holladay enlisted in Company F, One Hundred and Fiftieth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into the Union service at Indianapolis, as a soldier for the Civil war. He remained with that regiment until August, 1865, when he received his honorable discharge and was mustered out at Indianapolis, and at once returned to the farm. Mr. Holladay resumed his operations in general farming and stock raising and continued to be engaged industriously therein until his retirement, in 1902, since which time he has resided at his home at Monticello. He still, however, retains 168 acres, the old homestead place in section 26. Mrs. Holladay died February 16, 1914, at Monticello, and was buried at Brookston.
Mr. Holladay still retains an interest in his old army comrades, and is a popular comrade of Post No. 51, Monticello, Grand Army of the Republic, of which he has served for five years as commander, while his fraternal connection is with Chalmers Lodge of the Knights of Pythias. A stalwart democrat, he has been active as a worker in the ranks of his party, and has servcd as township supervisor and as a member of the county council of White County. During his long residence in White County he has formed a wide acquaintance, and a life of probity and straightforward dealing has gained many well-wishers and admirers for him. Mr. Holladay has two of the old parchment deeds executed under the hand and seal of President James K. Polk, dated May 10, 1848, which are valuable heirlooms.
Charles A. Holladay, son of John and Charlotta (Marquam) Holladay, was born in Prairie Township, White County, Indiana, November 14, 1850, and received his education in the township schools, which he attended during the short winter terms, the rest of the year being passed in the work of the homestead. He early had heavy responsibilities thrust upon him, for he was but fourteen years of age when the other male members of the family went to the front as soldiers, and the lad was called upon to take care of the family. He grew up to farming pursuits, and early chose the pursuits of the soil as his life's vocation. On May 26, 1875, Mr. Holladay was married to Sarah Jane Martin, daughter of Robert and Martha A. (Sortor) Martin, who came to White County, Indiana, from Ohio, died here, and are buried at Brookston. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Holladay: Ernest G., a graduate of Purdue University, and now a resident of Nashville, Tennessee; Fannie A., who was killed in a runaway accident, in 1882; Bessie Lucile, who died in 1886; and Mary Emma, who resides with her parents, and who is a graduate of the University of Indiana.
After engaging in farming and stock raising for many years, Mr. Holladay rented his 200-acre farm, and in 1896 retired from farming. He still is the owner of this property, however, which he rents, and is also the owner of 150 acres in Pulaski County, Indiana. He resided at Chalmers for nine years, then spent three years at Bloomington, Indiana, and finally came to Monticello, where he now makes his home.
A republican in his political views, Mr. Holladay spent six years as trustee of
Big Creek Township, and at the present time is a member of the White County
Council and of the county board of charity. His public service has been made
notable by conscientious faithfulness in the
discharge of duty and constant zeal in looking after the best interests of the
people. His fraternal connections include membership in the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and he and the members of his family are
identified with the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Holladay has been an eye-witness to
the great changes that have taken place during a long period of years, from the
days when he drove to church with the family in an ox-team to the present day of
automobiles. He has contributed his full share to the development of his part of
the county, and his honorable life, both public and private, entitles him fully
to the esteem and respect in which he is universally held.
One of the finely improved and essentially model landed estates of White County is that owned and occupied by Bartholomew Holmes, who is one of the substantial and progressive men who have come into this favored county within recent years and who have stood exponent of the best type of citizenship. Mr. Holmes has upheld the high standard of agricultural industry in White County with as great ability and loyalty as have the representatives of pioneer families in this section of the state, and such sterling citizens always prove a valuable and welcome acquisition in any community. The fine homestead of Mr. Holmes comprises 630 acres and is eligibly situated in sections 22 and 30, Union Township. He was for many years a successful farmer in Illinois and upon coming to White County, Indiana, he was admirably fortified with the experience and financial resources gained in his effective association with the agricultural interests of Illinois. His prosperity is consistently to be designated as the direct result of his energy, industry, progressiveness and administrative ability, and since establishing his home in White County he has brought his energies into effective play in developing his broad acres into one of the most valuable and fruitful rural demesnes in this part of the Hoosier commonwealth.
The family history of Mr. Holmes is one of specially interesting order and its record in England is one of ancient and worthy order. In the article that immediately precedes the one here presented the family history is reviewed somewhat in detail, and though the father of Mr. Holmes never became a resident of Indiana there is all of consonance in entering in this publication the memoir which precedes this article, since the same offers most interesting data pertinent to the son who has become an honored and influential citizen of Union Township, this county.
Bartholomew Holmes was born in the City of Crew, Chestershire, England, on the 3d of February, 1847, and is a son of William B. and Eliza (Wrenn) Holmes, concerning whose lives adequate record is given in the article immediately preceding this. In 1849 the family came to America and after remaining about three years as pioneers in Wisconsin they removed to Vermilion County, Illinois, whence, in 1854, removal was made to a farm in Ford County, that state, where the parents of the subject of this review passed the remainder of their lives.
About two years of age at the time of the family immigration to the United States, Bartholomew Holmes was reared to years of maturity in Ford County, Illinois, and he received his early education in the common schools of the locality and period. Upon attaining to his legal majority he initiated his independent career as a farmer in Ford County, and the passing years brought to him generous prosperity in reward for his earnest and well ordered efforts. For a number of years he was engaged also in the buying of horses for shipment to the Boston markets, and in this connection his operations covered a large area of territory in Illinois. He was recognized as one of the substantial and representative citizens of Ford County for many years and there accumulated a valuable farm estate, of which he disposed at the time of his removal to Indiana. He was there prominent and influential in public affairs of a local order and he served eight years as postmaster at Melvin, a village in his home county.
In 1906 Mr. Holmes came to White County, Indiana, and purchased his present fine homestead in Union Township. His progressiveness has been shown not only in the excellent permanent improvements he has made upon the place but also in the effective methods and policies which he has employed in carrying forward all departments of the farm enterprise. His homestead place is in section 22, Union Township, and comprises 300 acres, all under effective cultivation except 40 acres. In section 30 of the same township he owns another well improved farm of 330 acres, and thus he is one of the large landholders of this county, even as he is one who makes his land yield forth its maximum increase and who makes his course one altogether worthy of emulation on the part of other tillers of the willing soil.
Mr. Holmes and his wife are persons of strong mentality, sterling integrity and gracious and genial personality so that in White County they have gained and retained the respect and confidence of those with whom they have come in contact in the various relations of life. Their comfortable home is known for its generous and unostentatious hospitality and there a cordial welcome is always assured to their many friends.
In politics Mr. Holmes has always given stalwart allegiance to the democratic party, and he was active in party affairs while a resident of Ford County, Illinois, where he served as postmaster at Melvin for a period of eight years, as previously noted. In White County he has not given much attention to practical politics and has not become an aspirant for any public office. He is a charter member of Melvin Lodge, No. 811, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, at Melvin, Illinois, and is affiliated also with the chapter of Royal Arch Masons at Monticello, judicial center of White County, and with Mount Olive Commandery, Knights Templars, at Paxton, the county seat of Ford County, Illinois. Mrs. Holmes is a member of Crystal Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, at Monticello, and in that city both she and her husband hold membership in the Presbyterian Church.
On the 9th of December, 1869, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Holmes to Miss Hannah Bullis, who was born at Pinckney, Livingston County, Michigan, on the 30th of January, 1852 and who received good educational advantages in her youth. She is a daughter of William and Caroline (Slatford) Bullis who removed from Michigan and became early settlers in Grundy County, Illinois. Mrs. Holmes has been to her husband a devoted companion and helpmeet and he ascribes much of his success to her effective co-operation the while her unfailing solicitude in the rearing of her children shall cause her name to be ever revered by them and by her children. In the following paragraphs is given brief record concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Holmes:
Jennie Elizabeth, who was horn October 15, 1870, is the wife of William N. Scott, of White County, and her husband is in the employ of the great Chicago meat-packing firm of Swift & Company. They have five daughters: Maude Eliza and Mabel Rebecca are twins, and both received excellent educational advantages, Mabel having been graduated in the Monticello High School and having been a successful teacher in White County prior to her marriage. She is now the wife of Ray Fauber, of Carroll County, and her twin sister, Maude, is the wife of Charles Teator, of White County. Hannah Ruth, the third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Scott, is a member of the class of 1916 in the Monticello High School, and the two younger daughters, Alta G. and Fannie, are in the sixth and fifth grades, respectively, in the Mbnticello public schools.
William B. Holmes was born April 25, 1872, and died November 15, 1880.
Carrie is the wife of Jacob S. Holvarson, a prosperous farmer of White County, and they have three children, Marjorie, Bartholomew and Maurice.
Calvin Henry Holmes, who was born April 13, 1876, is a resident of Calexico, California, and is engaged in railroad employment. He wedded Miss Lillie Sullens, of Toronto, Canada, and they have two children, Genevieve Alice and Ellenor Rose.
Fannie B. Holmes was born August 14, 1878, and died December 6, 1880.
Ella Maude Holmes, who was born September 17, 1880, is the wife of Robert Eugene Volton, and they reside at Austin, one of the beautiful suburbs of the City of Chicago, Mr. Yolton being a civil engineer in the employ of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. Mr. and Mrs. Yolton have one child, Robert Holmes.
Melvin B. Holmes was born January 6, 1883, and died on the 27th of March, 1889.
In their home Mr. and Mrs. Holmes have two interesting and valued family
heirlooms. One is an old parchment deed executed nuder the hand of President
James Buchanan, under date of April 15, 1857. This deed lay in the Government
land office in Washington for forty-two years. It was recorded in the office of
the register of deeds at Paxton, Ford County, Illinois, on the 8th of April,
1898. The deed is to a tract of land that cost William B. Holmes, father of the
subject of this sketch, 75 cents an acre, and his daughter, Mrs. Koestner,
retained eighty acres, her inheritance, until 1912, when she sold this amount of
the land covered by the deed mentioned for a consideration of $16,000. The other
heirloom is in old English Bible in which appears the family record of births,
marriages, deaths, etc., of the Holmes family. This ancient and interesting
volume was printed about 1710 and was brought to America by the father of Mr. Holmes.
Apropos of the character and achievement of one who has become one of the honored and valued citizens of White County, Bartholomew Holmes, whose career is outlined in an article immediately following the one at hand, there is all of consistency in offering here a memoir to his father, with incidental review of the family history, though the father never became a resident of White County but was one of the honored pioneer citizens of Ford County, Illinois, at the time of his death.
William Bartholomew Holmes was born at Brimington, England, on the 23d of September, 1820, and was summoned to the life eternal, at his home in Melvin, Ford County, Illinois, on the 18th of July, 1897, the last in a family of seven children. It is a matter of well authenticated record that in Chestershire, England, the Holmes family occupied one sturdy old house for four centuries, the general vocation of the representatives of the name having been that of farming, as one generation followed another onto the stage of life's mortal endeavors.
When William B. Holmes was fourteen years of age he was apprenticed, for a term of seven years, to the trade of railroad carriage making, at Chesterfield, England, and in this connection he completed a thorough apprenticeship and became a skilled carpenter. At the age of twenty-one years he entered the English army, but during his two years' service he was not called from the shores of his native land. The ordinary discipline of the army was of benefit and not in the least repugnant to him, but being compelled, with the rest of his company, to witness the horrible whipping of a comrade with the cat-o'-nine-tails, his naturally kind disposition revolted, and his father obtained his release from the army. For the ensuing six years he was engaged in the work of his trade.
In 1844 Mr. Holmes took unto himself a wife, and five years later he immigrated with his family to the United States, the month of June, 1849, recording their settlement in the midst of the forest wilds of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, where Mr. Holmes built for his family a primitive log house of the pioneer type and then essayed the arduous task of reclaiming his heavily timbered land to cultivation. He finally capitalized this experience in an effective way by removing to a section when the material handicaps were not so great. Realizing that in a prairie district he could make more rapid advancement along the line of successful agriculture, he removed, in 1852, to Georgetown, Vermilion County, Illinois, where, as a means to an end, he worked at his trade, as a contractor and builder, until 1855. He then purchased a half-section of land in what is now Ford County, Illinois, and for this property he paid 75 cents an acre. Two years after his purchase of this property Mr. Holmes established on the embryonic farm the home of himself and family, and for more than forty years he there lived and labored to goodly ends, increasing prosperity crowning his efforts as the march of development and progress made its way in that section of the great State of Illinois. The wonderful appreciation in the value of the land which he thus acquired in the pioneer days may be realized when it is stated that his only surviving daughter sold her inherited eighty acres, in 1912, for the sum of $16,000. During the last decade of his life Mr. Holmes lived in gracious retirement and well merited peace and prosperity in the village of Melvin, Ford County.
Mr. Holmes was the first settler in the prairie section of Ford County, where he established his home as noted above, and many years elapsed before he was able to get enough men together to organize a school district. When the Prince of Wales visited this country, a part of the shooting party of the future King Edward made the Holmes residence their headquarters for a week or more. Mr. Holmes never sought or desired public office, yet his eligibility and his unqualified popularity made it impossible for him to hold aloof from such service. He held the office of school director, was twice elected supervisor of his township, and served many years as justice of the peace. He was an uncompromising advocate of the principles of the democratic party and voted for its every presidential candidate from Buchanan, in 1856, to Bryan, in 1896. In the only lawsuit of importance in which he was ever involved, Mr. Holmes retained Abraham Lincoln as his lawyer.
A man whose strong mind and intrinsic loyalty and integrity of purpose made him appreciative of the highest ideals and the spiritual verities, Mr. Holmes may be said to have had the true religious temperament, but he did not fully develop these tendencies until late in life, owing to the lack of opportunuities in the pioneer days. Concerning this phase of his life history the following pertinent statements have been written: ["]He was brought up in the faith of the Church of England, but when his people joined the Methodist Episcopal Church he could not reconcile himself to this denominational form of government, and thus he remained out of the church until he was sixty-eight years old. On the 30th of November, 1892, he became a member of the Melvin Congregational Church, during the pastorate of Rev. D. H. Snowden, and thereafter he continued an active and influential member of this church until his death, heartily entering into the deliberations of the church and often presiding over its meetings. Mr. Holmes was a man who was uniformly esteemed. His faith in God was strong and unwavering, and his life was one of righteousness, kindliness and worthy achievement."
On the 26th of December, 1844, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Holmes to Miss Eliza Wrenn, at Sheffield, England, and this noble and gracious companion and helpmeet survived him by several years, her death having occurred on December 9, 1903, at which time she was eighty-three years of age. She was of the same family line as was the distinguished English statesman and architect, Sir Christopher Wren, 1632-1723, whose most enduring monument is the great St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London, he having been the designer of this wonderful and historic edifice. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes became the parents of ten children, four of whom died in infancy and three of whom have passed away after attaining to years of maturity. Of the three surviving children the eldest is Bartholomew, a sketch of whose career immediately follows this article. William Spencer Holmes, who is a representative lawyer and influential citizen of Effingham, Illinois, married Miss Lena Heilaganstein, and they have three children,—Edith, Elizabeth and William. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. Fannie A. Holmes, the only surviving daughter, is the widow of Paul Koestner, and she now maintains her home in White County, Indiana, where she is the owner of a finely improved farm of 180 acres. She has two sons. Frank and William. Frank Koestner, who has the active management of his mother's farm and is one of the progressive agriculturists of White County, married Miss Nettie Copeland, and they have two sons. William Koestner received his higher education in the University of Illinois, is a civil engineer by profession and as such is retained in a responsible position of service by the Illinois Central Railroad Company. It is worthy of special note that he had supervision of the engineering corps that dredged the harbor of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, and made the same adequate for the passage of the large type of vessels.
A distinct loss to the citizenship and progressive business spirit of White County was the death of the late Morris Jacob Holtzman, which occurred at Brookston in Prairie Township March 24, 1915. Most of the years of his life were spent in Prairie Township and there are many reasons why his name should be held in respect and honor in that community. Over the county at large his name became especially familiar through his service as county auditor some years ago. He had a large personal following of friends and it would be difficult to enumerate and classify all the usefulness and valuable influences that came from his character, though his death came when only a little beyond his prime.
Born at Rehrersburg, Berks County, Pennsylvania, May 19, 1853, he was sixty-two years of age at the time of his death. His parents were Jonathan and Lucetta (Aulenbach) Holtzman. The family was founded in America by three brothers who came out of Saxony, Germany. In 1870, when the late Mr. Holtzman was seventeen years of age, his parents came to Brookston from Logansport, Indiana. Jonathan Holtzman was a stock dealer and butcher and devoted most of his active years to those pursuits. His death occurred in 1880, while the mother passed away in January, 1900. Both are now at rest in the Brookston Cemetery.
Morris J. Holtzman acquired his education in the public schools while living in Pennsylvania and Indiana. For two years he was a student in the old Wabash College at Crawfordsville, and was really a well educated man. For a number of years he taught school in Prairie Township and at Brookston. The death of his father threw upon him active responsibilities and the care of the family, and he acquitted himself of those duties with characteristic energy and ability. For a number of years he was a general provision dealer. After the close of his work as county auditor he became a farmer.
A democrat in politics, but regardless of party popular among all classes of citizens, he served the people of his home township as trustee for two terms, and in 1892 was elected county auditor. During the two terms in that office his home was in Monticello. He was always diligent, courteous, methodical, and efficient, and those characteristics impressed themselves upon his work as a county official. Mr. Holtzman was an able musician, was leader of the Brookston band for twenty years and cornet soloist in the Monticello band during his residence in that city. Mr. Holtzman was a member of the Masonic Order in the lodge at Brookston and in the Royal Arch Chapter at Monticello. His funeral was conducted by members of the Masonic fraternities of White County. In his youth he united with the Lutheran Church in Rehrersburg, Pennsylvania, and in 1903 he became a member of the Presbyterian Church of Brookston. At the time of his death he was one of the trustees of this church.
On September 25, 1889, Mr. Holtzman married Miss Emma Wigmore, daughter of James Stuart and Martha (Rothrock) Wigmore. Into their home came by birth six children, but the only two now living are Morris R., born August 28, 1890, and Harris, born October 30, 1897. Mrs. Holtzman and her sons now own a fine homestead of 180 acres in Prairie Township. They reside in a beautiful modern residence on East Third Street in Brookston.
Robert Baty Hoover came to Monticello in 1865 and entered the medical profession, but after a short time removed to Burnettsville and continued the practice in his chosen profession until his death on May 3, 1880. He was born February 22, 1825, near Lewistown, Pennsylvania, and in May, 1849, married Miss Sarah S. Roberts, with whom he afterwards joined in uniting with the Baptist Church. In our Civil war he became captain of Company B, Two Hundredth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, in which capacity he served for three years. In May, 1866, he lost his wife, and in February, 1867, was married to Miss R. A. Wickersham, by whom he had one child. He was the father of Will B. Hoover, deceased, who at his death was owner of the Monticello Democrat. Doctor Hoover was a democrat in politics and always took a deep interest in the success of his party.
Will B. Hoover, one time editor of the Monticello Democrat, was born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, in December, 1851, and removed with his father to White County in 1865, locating first in Monticello, but after a brief residence in that place his family removed to Burnettsville, where his father continued the practice of medicine. After serving for a short time as solicitor and reporter on the Logansport Journal he came to Monticello in 1877 and took charge of the Monticello Democrat, which he conducted until his death in September, 1879. Will B. Hoover always took great interest in all things connected with his chosen profession and possessed the true spirit of journalistic enterprise.
Noteworthy among the early settlers of White County was the late Christian Horen, who came here about the middle of the nineteenth century, and for many years thereafter was one of the foremost in advancing the business and agricultural prosperity of his adopted town. He was born, June 24, 1822, in County Kerry, Ireland, about a mile and a half from the beautiful Lakes of Killarney, being a son of Patrick and Nora (Prindiville) Horen, life-long residents of the Emerald Isle.
Brought up and educated in his native land, Christian Horen resolved as a young man to see America, which was looked upon by many as the emigrant's El Dorado, and to make it his future home if he found that it sustained its inviting reputation. Boarding a sailing vessel, therefore, in 1849, he crossed the ocean, landing in Boston, where he spent a year, from there going to Ohio, where he was a railroad contractor for a time, working on the Cincinnati and Marietta line. About 1853 he came to White County, Indiana, and during the ensuing four years ran a grocery store at Reynolds. Mr. Horen then bought 120 acres of land in section 26, and while improving it formed a contract with Governor Willard to build several ditches in the county. He acquired considerable property, becoming owner of land in other places, including 120 acres in Sheldon, Illinois. He met with much success in his undertakings, in addition to general farming being interested in raising graded stock. Mr. Horen earnestly supported the principles of the democratic party by voice and vote, and for two years served as township trustee. A Roman Catholic in religion, he was prominent in church work, helping to build the one he attended, and having the distinction of bringing to White County Father Clarke, the first priest to visit this part of the state, going to Lafayette to secure his services.
Mr. Horen married, December 5, 1861, Bridget Dunphy, daughter of Walter and Mary Dunphy, who spent their entire lives in Ireland. Eight children blessed their marriage, as follows: Patrick F.; John C., deceased; William; Mary; Jeremiah L.; Ella, deceased; Katherine, who married James Higgins, of Wolcott, and died in early womanhood, leaving one child, Helen C., born January 15, 1913; and Margaret, wife of Anton Altman, of Bemidji, Minnesota. Mr. Horen was very generous and charitable, and noted far and wide for his hospitality, in his home rendering assistance to the needy, and many a weary traveler. His widow survives him, and now makes her home with her son Jerry.
Born September 13, 1871, Jeremiah L. Horen received good educational advantages as a boy, and at the age of nineteen years started in life for himself, going to Nebraska, where he worked at the mechanic's trade for a number of years. Returning to White County in August, 1914, he has since cared for his mother, who has been a widow for more than a score of years, Mr. Horen having passed to the life beyond on September 10, 1893.
Nelson Hornbeck was one of the old settlers of White County, a man of sterling qualities and one whose death was a great loss to our people. He was born in Piqua County, Ohio, March 7, 1824, and died in White County, January 22, 1885. He came to White County with his parents in 1837 and for three years served as a county commissioner during which time he proved himself a faithful and prudent public servant. He was a republican in politics and was a member of the New Light Church, which he joined in 1845.
As a merchant and banker Cornelius M. Horner has been identified with practically every phase of development and progress in Monon during the past half century, having located in that town soon after the close of the war in which he fought on the Union side.
Mr. Horner was born in Auglaize County, Ohio, January 3, 1842, and is the only one living and the youngest of ten children born to Elias and Elizabeth D. (Smith) Horner. Both parents were born near Leeds, England, were married in the old country and came to the United States after their first child was born. After settling in Ohio the father taught school, bought stock and rafted them down the Ohio river to various markets. After coming to Indiana in 1844 he engaged in merchandising at New Durham in LaPorte County. In early manhood he became identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church as a minister, at a time when the preachers of that state followed the Peter Cartwright method of traveling from place to place. His death occurred at New Durham during the '50s and his widow survived many years.
Cornelius M. Horner lived in LaPorte County, Indiana, from infancy until about sixteen or seventeen years of age and there received most of his education in the public schools. Several years following were spent with a brother on a farm near Medaryville in Pulaski County. While there, at the age of nineteen, he was married to Miss Mary Elizabeth Brewer. The four children of that union were: Dorothy; Urban E.; William C., now in the banking business at Monon; and Emma.
Before the war Mr. Horner had also had some experience as a small farmer, and his crops were raised from the virgin soil through which he had directed the first plow. This was the manner of his life until the beginning of the war, when he endeavored to enlist at the first call for troops. The quota was full, however, but he subsequently enlisted in Company A of the 138th Indiana Infantry, and was with that command in one of the early campaigns of the Mississippi Valley, including the battle of Stone River. With the expiration of his first year of enlistment he re-enlisted in the same company, which became Company A of the 151st Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He remained with that regiment during all its service until the close of the war, when he received an honorable discharge.
In December, 1865, Mr. Horner located at Monon, and engaged in merchandising. For thirty years he was a prosperous merchant, and in 1892 established a bank in his store. His store was sold about 1894, and since then he has confined his attention to banking.
For his second wife Mr. Horner married Miss Lucy J. Kerr. Their five living children are: J. Francis; Mary E.; Florence; Alta K., who married Edward Smith; and Herbert H., who was graduated from the State University of Indiana.
Mr. Horner is a republican but has never been an aspirant for political office. He began life's battle on his own responsibility, and such success as he has attained has been entirely through his own efforts.
William J. Huff was born at Lafayette, Indiana, August 5, 1849, being the son of Samuel A. and Massie Farmer Huff, early settlers of that city. He was educated in the public schools and private academies of Lafayette and also in the Bryant & Stratton Business College. While still in the public schools, his father discovered his fondness for the printing business by his anxiety to collect old type, for which nothing he possessed was too good to barter in exchange, and the youthful student of the "art preservative" was supplied with an amateur outfit costing $125. With this equipment, in the basement of Basswood, his country home, he spent all of his spare moments in the publication of a 9 by 12 weekly euphoniously styled the Weekly Tickler. This venture perished under the scorching rays of the second summer, and after finishing his school life, he became shipping clerk and traveling salesman for a wholesale grocery and after two years thus employed, he embraced the dream of his youth and in 1870, before attaining his majority, engaged in the newspaper business at Monticello, in which he has since continued with the exception of five years spent in merchandising. He was postmaster at Monticello from 1871 to 1885 and is the oldest newspaper man in White County at the present time actively engaged in the business, being the senior member of the firm publishing the Monon News. Eye trouble has resulted almost in the loss of sight and has been a handicap to his efforts for the past thirty-five years.
Mr. Huff was married to Miss Alice E. Wright of Monticello, April 1, 1874, to which union five children were born, two dying in infancy and three are still living, Edgar J. and Walter S., constituting the other two members of the Monon News firm, and Mrs. Florence Sullivan of Crawfordsville, Indiana. In addition to his duties as editor, Mr. Huff finds unalloyed pleasure in entertaining two grandchildren, who control his movements with a despotic hand, but in no sense galling to him.
Some of the best ordered farms in White County are found in Cass Township, and one of them is located on section 34, of Rural Route No. 21 out of Idaville. This is the farm where Mrs. George Huffman has spent many years and where her husband, the late George Huffman, lived out his career of enterprise and quiet worth and good citizenship until his death on September 9, 1906. His body was laid to rest in Warden Cemetery near Monticello, and his passing marked the removal of one of White County's best known citizens.
George Huffman was nearly seventy years old when he died. He was born at Dayton, Ohio, January 4, 1837, a son of John D. and Jane (Nichols) Huffman. The Huffman family is of German descent, and both John D. Huffman and wife were natives of Germany, whence they emigrated to the United States, locating first in Ohio, and afterwards moving to Carroll County, Indiana, but they died in White County and are there buried.
George Huffman was seven years old when the family moved to Indiana, and he grew up in Carroll County, getting his education from the common schools and a practical training for a life of usefulness on the home farm. On October 3, 1858, when a little past his twenty-first birthday, he married Miss Elizabeth Jane Davis. The Davis family is one of the oldest in White County. Her parents were Jacob and Sarah (Wolf) Davis, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Wayne County, Indiana. They grew up in Ohio, and came among the first settlers to White County, where they lived until their death. Both Mrs. Huffman's parents were buried at Monticello. Mrs. Huffman was born December 24, 1839, her birthplace being a farm six miles south of Monticello on Big Creek. She and Mr. Huffman were married in White County, and then located on the edge of Liberty Township. They had been married about three years when the war broke out and Mr. Huffman responded to the call of patriotism and enlisted in the Union army in the fall of 1861. He went out with Company F of the Forty-sixth Indiana Regiment, and after his first term of three years had expired he re-enlisted in the same company and regiment and continued in the faithful performance of his soldierly duties until the close of the war. He received his honorable discharge at Indianapolis and then returned home to take up the practical duties of civil life as a farmer. In 1867 he bought eighty acres of land and the following year took possession of this new place in Cass Township. Thereafter until the close of the active period of his life he was identified with general farming, raised large numbers of stock, and showed his progressive spirit by introducing machinery into his farm operations wherever practicable. With the help of his good wife he did much to improve the farm, and at his death he left to his children an honored name and many substantial evidences of his industrious activity.
To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Huffman were born eight children: John D., who is a farmer in the country west of Brookston, married Tena Yelm, they have three children, Fred L., John D. and Donald; Sarah Jane, deceased; George, deceased; Margaret is the wife of Ridgeway Stillwell, of Monticello, and their three children are Benjamin, George and Wayne; Ellen, wife of John Smoyer, of Idaville, and they have one child, Charles; Charles, of Logansport, with the Pennsylvania Railroad, married Nancy Swallow, and they have two children, Charles and George T.; Frank and Grace, both living at home with their mother.
The late Mr. Huffman was a member of no church and no fraternal orders except the Grand Army of the Republic, in which he had membership in the Post at Idaville. Mrs. Huffman is a member of the New Dunkard Church, at Pious, White County. The homestead which she still occupies contains 100 acres, all under cultivation except ten acres of woodland, and it is known as Oak Lawn. It is a fine farm, and in addition to its material value it has many sacred associations for the family who have grown up and lived there in contentment and prosperity for many years.
Many worthy civilian efforts characterized the usefulness of the late James Hughes in White County, but he also had a clean and honorable record as a soldier during the Civil war. The traits of faithfulness and courage which he displayed in that great struggle were subsequently displayed during his long career as a farmer and stock raiser in Liberty Township, where his family had settled as pioneers in 1848, and while he was primarily a farmer, he had the ability and found the inclination at all times to serve his community, so that his abilities contributed materially to its upbuilding and development.
James Hughes was born on a farm in Greene County, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1839, a son of John C. and Lucinda (Smith) Hughes, of German and Irish extraction. The parents were married in Pennsylvania, and in 1847 made the journey overland to Indiana, settling for a year at Monticello and then moving into the country, where they took up Government land in Liberty Township. There they continued to be engaged in the development of their farm during the remainder of their lives, the mother meeting her death by drowning, in 1863, while the father died in 1872. They were the parents of eight children, of whom but one, Thomas, is living today. The father was a republican in politics and took a keen interest in public affairs, serving some years in the capacity of justice of the peace. He was a man of more than usual ability, and through industry and well-directed effort accumulated a good property, so that he was able to leave his children in comfortable circumstances at the time of his death.
James Hughes was eight years of age when he accompanied the family in their journey to Indiana, and, as were the great majority who came to the rescue of their country in its hour of need, was following the dull routine of the farm, his life up to that time having known little deviation from the strict fulfillment of home duty, interspersed by intermittent attendance at the district schools, where he was given instruction during three months each winter. He enlisted in Company D, Thirty-fifth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, an organization with which he served faithfully for ten months, and was mustered out of the service with his honorable discharge at Indianapolis. Returning to the home farm, he resumed the occupation of peace, and February 8, 1866, was married in Liberty Township to Miss Elizabeth Benjamin, daughter of Abel and Mary (Conwell) Benjamin. Twelve children were born to this union: Frank, Jeptha, Luta, Thomas, Pearl, Ethel, Cloyd, Owen, Estella, Silas, Benjamin and Roscoe, of whom the last four named are now deceased.
Mr Hughes remained on the home property, assisting his father, at whose death he
fell heir to the old home place. There he resided for a period of forty-five
years, being engaged in general farming and stock-raising, and at times breeding
blooded cattle. Like his father, he was an industrious, painstaking and practical
farmer, and his intelligent application of modern methods enabled him to gain a
full measure of success from his labors. He was an able business man, and the old
home place is in Mrs. Hughes' name for life. In November, 1911, Mr. Hughes retired
from his long and faithful labors and removed to his home at Monticello, but did
not live long to enjoy the fruits of his toil, as one month later, December 4,
1911, he died. Few men held in greater degree the respect and regard of their
fellow-men, his integrity and fair dealing being proverbial. He inherited his
father's republican tendencies, always took a keen and active interest in public
affairs, and served
efficiently for some years as a member of the board of trustees of Liberty
Township. Mrs. Hughes, who survives her husband, resides at Monticello, where
she has numerous warm and appreciative friends.
John C. Hughes was born in Pennsylvania in April, 1828, and came to White County at an early date. For a number of years he operated a sawmill at Norway. Later he moved to a farm on the east side of the river, just above that village, where he lived until he removed to Monticello, where he died September 1, 1903. He was a member of the Odd Fellows and K. of P. orders, being a charter member of Tippecanoe Lodge No. 73, K. of P.
Mrs. Nancy Hughes died May 31, 1899, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. Her maiden name was Nancy Imes. Born in Green County, Pennsylvania, December 15, 1816, where she was married to Rowland Hughes, April 25, 1833. Soon thereafter they located in Monticello, where her husband became the leading merchant of the town, continuing in business until his death in 1883. She was a woman of strong character, positive in her views, and though for many years in feeble health she retained a controlling hand in her personal affairs.
Rowland Hughes was born in Green County, Pennsylvania, June 15, 1886; died February 9, 1899. He located in Monticello in 1846, and after one year removed to a farm in Liberty Township, where he resided till death. April 10, 1851, he was married to Laura McConahay, who died May 9, 1874. One son of this union, Rev. M. Allison Hughes, is now (1915) a resident of Monticello. He was married a second time to Margaret J. Bowen on October 21, 1875, who with four children survived him. He was a member of Company G, One Hundred and Fifty-first Indiana Infantry.
It is a substantial tribute to a family when it can be said that what one generation has secured and won from the dominion of the wilderness the next following has continued to improve and has increased in value many fold. That is real progress and without its manifestation a community must stand still. Exceptional attributes of character, the sterling qualities of sobriety, industry and individual worth, and a continuing influence in community affairs have been conspicuous in the Hughes family during its residence in White County from the time of earliest settlement and the first attempts to clear up the wilderness. Several names representing as many different generations are given brief record in the following paragraph, and there is no family of White County that better deserves the memorial of the written page.
The branch of the family with which this sketch is immediately concerned was headed by John C. Hughes, who was the oldest son of Ellis and Sarah (Crooks) Hughes, and was born in Washington County, in that rugged district of Southwestern Pennsylvania, February 18, 1800. In passing it should be mentioned that a younger brother of John C. Hughes was the first representative of the family in White County, Indiana. The name of this brother was Rowland Hughes, who was born in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, December 9, 1813, was married in Greene County, Pennsylvania, April 25, 1833, to Miss Nancy Imes, and soon after his marriage, in 1834, came out to White County. John C. Hughes was probably of English descent. He was married October 1, 1820, to Lucinda Smith, a daughter of Stephen and Phoebe (Cooper) Smith. Though her parents came from Canada, she was born an Brooklyn, New York, November 18, 1802, and was drowned while fording the Tippecanoe River in White County, May 31, 1863. Some years after his marriage, and with a family of children, John C. Hughes emigrated by stage and wagon from Pennsylvania to White County. He came to the county as early as 1837, since his entry of land on section 35 in Liberty Township is dated August 14, 1837. He did not settle permanently on his land until October, 1846. In the woods of Liberty Township he lived for a time in a hewed log cabin containing two rooms and an attic. His land had previously been occupied by a squatter, but he secured a deed to it direct from the Government, and with the aid of his children cleared and improved the property, which is still owned by his descendants. John C. Hughes was a farmer, for many years held the office of justice of the peace, and was widely known as "Squire" Hughes, and was a member of the Baptist Church. He was a fine type of the early settler, and while he accomplished no great results in a noted or conspicuous way, he was liberal, steady, of decided opinions, a man whose character was for good in the community and universally respected. John C. Hughes died at his old home in Liberty Township, White County, January 13, 1872. He and his wife had seven children: Phoebe, John, Rowland, Thomas, Stephen, James and Nancy Anna Hughes. All these children were born in Pennsylvania, and the sons Rowland, Stephen and James were soldiers in the Civil war, the two former in the One Hundred and Sixty-eighth Indiana Infantry.
John Hughes, who carries the history of the next generation, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, June 28, 1828, being the second child of John C. and Lucinda (Smith) Hughes. He was a lad when his parents removed to White County, grew up on the old farm in Liberty Township, attended the district schools, and, possessing a talent for the handling of tools, early learned the trade of carpenter, which he followed most of his life, although owning a farm. He was a republican, a member of the Baptist Church, and possessed the characteristics of sobriety and sterling citizenship which marked his honored father. On November 29, 1849, John Hughes married Emeline Morgan, daughter of Murrel and Violet (Haff) Morgan, farming people in this section of Indiana. She was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, July 15, 1833, and died July 30, 1907. To this union were born nine children, seven sons and two daughters, all of them still living. Their names are: George K.; Rosannah, wife of S. J. Carney, now of Logansport; Murrel Morgan; Logan; Elmer; Charles; Samuel; Nellie, wife of Albert Moss, of Cass County, Indiana; and Perry. The father of these children, John Hughes, died at his home in Liberty Township, August 7, 1901.
George K. Hughes, representing the third generation in this family in White County, still an honored resident and business man of Monticello, was born on his maternal grandfather Morgan's farm in Liberty Township, November 3, 1852. He grew up in the country, and aside from the opportunities of the district schools his education has been acquired in the larger school of experience. His early career was spent in farming, but in 1873 he became a clerk in the store of his great-uncle, Rowland Hughes, in Monticello, and continued to be connected with that business some twenty years. He then engaged in business for himself, and has since had one of the chief supply centers or the general dry goods trade at Monticello.
George K. Hughes was married March 13, 1873, to Miss Susannah Bullard, who was born in Logan County, Ohio, February 28, 1852, a daughter of John V. and Susannah (Lease) Bullard. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have become the parents of six children, four of whom are living: Norine Elma, born May 9, 1874, is the wife of Robert F. Dobbins, of Wolcott; the next two children, twins, died in infancy; John Henry, born June 19, 1880, married Harriet E. Heath on January 25, 1905, and lives in Monticello; Rowland E., born May 19, 1883, married Effie Mae Wysong, and they live in Monticello; Goldie F., born August 19, 1886, married Ralph L. Wolfe. and their home is in Monticello.
The career of George K. Hughes has been an important factor in Monticello. He is a member of the Baptist Church, affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, No. 107, at Monticello, Indiana, and politically is a republican. He was the first councilman from the First Ward in the first City Council of Monticello at the time it became a city. To Mr. Hughes it is but just to add the credit for his work in putting on a paying basis the present city waterworks plant, and in many other ways he has been instrumental in accomplishing good in this community.
Prominent among the men whose ability, business judgment, agricultural foresight and steady industry have contributed to the wealth, character and good government of White County, one who is widely and favorably known is Andrew Humphreys, who has been living on his present farm in West Point Township for twenty-six years. Mr. Humphreys was born August 21, 1857, in Montgomeryshire, Wales, a son of John and Mary (Humphreys) Humphreys.
John Humphreys was born in Montgomeryshire, Wales, where he grew to manhood and learned the trade of blacksmith. He was married there to a very distant relative, Mary Humphreys, and after the birth of their children they came to the United States, in 1881. They came direct to Wolcott, Indiana, and after staying a short time at Pugh's Southwest, moved to Parmlee's Meadow Lake Farm, in West Point Township, and there Mr. Humphreys continued operations until his death, August 10, 1903, at the age of seventy-five years, ten months, twenty-seven days. After coming to the United States he did not follow his trade to any extent, confining himself instead to his agricultural work, and when he died was the owner of a well-cultivated property of eighty acres. He and Mrs. Humphreys were members of the Meadow Lake Presbyterian Church, and were buried at Meadow Lake Cemetery. They were the parents of three children: Mary, who is the wife of R. C. Pugh, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this work; Andrew; and Thomas, who married Mary Shine and has his residence in Chicago.
Andrew Humphreys, following in the footsteps of many of the male members of his family, learned the trade of blacksmith in his youth and received his education in the public schools of his native land. He came to the United States with his parents in 1881, and spent the next five years in getting himself established and in preparing a home for his wife. In 1886 he returned to Wales, where he was married in 1887 to Margaret Jones, a daughter of Maurice and Margaret Jones, whose family have been living on Tynrwtra Farm in Montgomeryshire, Wales, for over 100 years. Almost immediately after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Humphries [sic] came to the United States and located in West Point Township, White County, Indiana, where Mr. Humphries [sic] was employed as foreman by R. S. Streeter, who had bought from Mr. Parmalee the Meadow Lake Farm in West Point Township. There Mr. Humphreys continued to live for two years when, feeling he was ready to embark upon operations of his own, in 1889 he located on his present property, on section 7, range 5, west, West Point Township, which has continued to be his home. He now has about 280 acres of land, all under cultivation and all very productive. His improvements are of the finest character and his buildings substantial and attractive. As an agriculturist he follows the latest approved methods and his ability, knowledge and good judgment enable him to gain full returns for the labor he expends upon his land. He is also the owner of stock in the Farmers' Co-Operative Elevator at Wolcott. A democrat in his political views, Mr. Humphreys takes an active interest in civic and political affairs, and has at various times been called upon to act in public positions of trust in which he has displayed executive ability of a high order and a conscientious endeavor to contribute to the welfare of his community. He has been for eight years a member of the West Point Township advisory board and for two years township assessor, and in the fall of 1914 was chosen a member of the township board of trustees. He and Mrs. Humphreys are consistent members of the Presbyterian Church, in which he is serving as elder.
Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Humphreys: Margaret B., who married Chester Watson, of West Point Township, and has four children, Ada M.; Alta M., Harvey B. and Margaret A.; John M., who married Bessie M. Darrow and lives in Princeton Township, this county; and Thomas J., Mary E., Richard E., Maurice J. and Albert E., who reside at home with their parents.
Notwithstanding the marvellous and ever accelerating advance in other lines of material industry, that of agriculture must perforce continue as the stable basis of national prosperity in all lands, and White County, Indiana, is signally favored in the personnel of those who are so ably upholding its prestige as a center of progressive industry and enterprise along agricultural and stock-growing lines. A well known and highly honored representative of this element of citizenship is Uriah Stillwell Hussey, who is a scion of one of the old and sterling pioneer families of the Hoosier State, which has represented his home from the time of his birth and in which he has marked the passing years with large and worthy achievement, so that now, at the venerable age of eighty years, he finds just reward for his past endeavors in the peace and comfort that are his in his gracious retirement from the labors and responsibilities that were formerly his. He still resides on his homestead farm of eighty acres, in section 12, Monon Township, and, with mental and physical vigor that belies his years, he finds much satisfaction in giving a general supervision to his farm, the while he rests content in the confidence and esteem accorded to him by all who know him.
Mr. Hussey was born in Delaware County, Indiana on the 17th of December, 1835, and is a son of Rameth and Elizabeth (Thornburg) Hussey, both of whom were born and reared in Indiana and the marriage of whom was solemnized at Muncie, the judicial center of Delaware County. Both the Hussey and Thornburg families were founded in this state at an early period in its history and the names of both have been closely linked with the civic and industrial development and progress of the Hoosier commonwealth, the Hussey family lineage being of Scotch and English extraction. He whose name initiates this article was the second in order of birth in a family of ten children and is the eldest of those now living: Ida is the wife of Elwood O. Ellis; Arthur is a resident of Lafayette, Tippecanoe County; and all of the othars have passed forward to that "undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns."
Rameth Hussey was reared to manhood under the conditions and influences of the pioneer era in Indiana and that he made good use of the advantages afforded in the schools of the period is evidenced by the fact that as a young man he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors and became a successful and popular teacher in the common schools. He was a deep student and became a man of broad intellectual ken. He finally entered the ministry of the Methodist Protestant Church and thereafter devoted himself with all of earnestness and consecrated zeal to service in the vineyard of the Divine Master and to the aiding and uplifting of his fellowmen. He became widely known throughout Northern Indiana and held the reverent affection of all who came within the sphere of his exalted and gentle influence, his wife having been his loved coadjutor in his work and having been a woman whose life was a veritable benediction. He was implacable in his animosity to the liquor traffic and it is a matter of historical record and interest that this noble pioneer was the first to deliver a temperance lecture in Clirton County. His political allegiance was given to the republican party, with which he united at the time of its organization, but he had naught of worldly aspiration and never held public office. He died on the 7th of December, 1879, at the age of sixty-six years, and his widow was summoned to eternal rest in 1887, the remains of both being interred in the cemetery at Fairmount, Grant County. They established their residence in White County in 1865, but later removed to Jonesboro, Grant County, where they passed the residue of their lives.
To the public schools of Clinton County Uriah S. Hussey is indebted for his early educational discipline and he was signally favored in being reared in a home of distinctive culture and high ideals. He attended Oberlin College for a short time and at the age of twenty-one years he initiated his independent career. For a time he had the management of a general store at Newport, Madison County, Ohio, and he then identified himself with agricultural pursuits, with which he has continued his association during the long intervening years and through the medium of which he has attained to definite prosperity. He purchased and established his home on his present fine farm in 1887, and here he has made excellent improvements of a permanent nature, including the erection of a substantial brick barn of most modern facilities and a comfortable and attractive residence, the latter being known for its gracious hospitality and pervading atmosphere of peace and good cheer. The homestead is known as "Hickoryhurst Farm" and is one of the valuable rural estates of White County, the farm being given over to diversified agriculture and the raising of high~grade live stock. In partnership with Thomas A. Kennard Mr. Hussey established a tile and brick factory 3 1/2 miles east of Monon, and the enterprise was made very successful, Mr. Hussey having continued his association with the business until 1910.
Though he has had no desire to enter the turbulent current of so called practical politics, Mr. Hussey is a stalwart supporter of the cause of the republican party, is loyal and public-spirited as a citizen, and has served as a valued member of the advisory board of Monon Township.
June 26, 1860, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Hussey to Miss Emma A. Peck, who was born January 26, 1839, in Madison County, Ohio, where she was reared and educated. She is a daughter of Gideon and Deborah (Kilgore) Peck, who were natives of Ohio and came from the Buckeye State to Indiana where they passed the remainder of their lives, both having been members of the Methodist Protestant Church, to the faith of which Mrs. Hussey adheres. Mr. and Mrs. Hussey have two children: James C. is a prosperous farmer of White County, and S. Alice, who resides in the City of Monon, this county, is the widow of John Pogue and has two children: Hazel Dot, who was educated in the Monon High School and is the wife of C. C. Hughs, a resident of Monon; and Emma A., who also received her education in the Monon High School, and in the University of Valparaiso and is now the librarian of the Carnegie Library at Monon Township. June 26, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. Hussey celebrated their golden wedding and seventy-two guests were present to congratulate the dear old couple on this memorable day.