Delaware County, Indiana - Sidelights on Local History, 1924 (part 19 of 21)

THE HEMINGRAY GLASS COMPANY of Muncie has, since its location in this city, developed until it now is recognized as the largest. manufacturer of glass insulators in the world. For thirty-five years the Hemingray plant on Macedonia avenue has been regarded as one of the most stable industrial institutions in Muncie. Coming in here at the very beginning of the extraordinary development period following the opening of the natural gas field hereabout in the late '80s, the Hemingray plant has ever since been a large employer of labor and thus has been one of the prime promotors of the growth and general development of the city in which it sought location back in 1888, while the worldwide distribution of its products has done much to extend the name and fame of "Magic Muncie," or as the newer and more meaningful catch-word has it, "Greater Muncie." It thus has been a real factor in helping to put the truth into the Chamber of Commerce's slogan: 'Muncie Offers More,' and in creating the widely accepted impression, emphasized by that chamber, that Muncie is indeed a "high tension town." This industry had unexpected difficulties to contend with in the early years of its operation here, difficulties that to some might have appeared wholly disheartening, but it bravely "carried on,' meeting these difficulties as courageous men meet all difficulties, until it presently was in a position to endure and to expand, and this expansion program has been continued until the industry long has been recognized as the leader in the field it dominates. The Hemingray Glass Company has been a continuing industrial force for seventy-five years. It had its inception in Cincinnati in the year 1848, when Gray & Hemingray started a small glass factory there. This firm carried on at Cincinnati until about 1861, when the plant was moved across the river to Covington, Ky., where the industry was maintained until the removal of the plant to Muncie in 1888, the proprietors being attracted to the latter place by the possibilities presented to the glass industry by the opening of an apparently illimitable source of cheap fuel in the natural gas field here. At this time the plant at Covington was being operated by the firm of Hemingray Bros., incorporated. Robert Hemingray, founder of the industry, and his brother, Samuel Hemingray, had succeeded to the firm of Gray & Hemingray in 1865, following the close of the Civil war, and the business was carried on under the firm name of R. Hemingray & Bro., until in 1870 the concern was incorporated, Samuel Hemingray retiring at that time and J. L Foley and Richard Evans taking an interest in the business. Robert Hemingray was elected president of this new corporation and he was retained in that position until his death in 1897. Evans was elected secretary-treasurer and he also retained that position until his death. In the meantime and prior to the time of the removal of the plant to Muncie in 1888, Ralph G., Robert C. and Daniel C. Hemingray, sons of Robert Hemingray, had become active factors in the affairs of the corporation and were in practical charge of operations when the company established its base of operations at Muncie. For two years after starting the Muncie plant in 1888 the plant at Covington was continued in operation and then was abandoned, the Muncie plant by this time being able to take care of the trade. With the abandonment of the Covington plant in 1890, J. L. Foley retired from the business. Richard Evans retained his interest, which has continued to be held in his family since his death in 1897. In the summer of 1892, just as the glass factory at Muncie had become definitely established and was on a promising going basis the plant was destroyed by fire, causing an interruption to the business which might have been permanently discouraging had not stout hearts been behind the enterprise. It was about this time that Robert Hemingray, founder of the company, pressed by the weight of growing years, retired from active participation in the company's affairs, though still retaining his title of president, and his elder son, Ralph G. Hemingray, assumed executive charge. The plant was rebuilt better than before and was going strong when the adverse effects of the Wilson tariff bill in 1894 began to be felt not only by this company but by the glass industry generally throughout the country. The memorable "hard times" period which struck in about that time also had an effect on the operations of the company. In the summer of 1893 Muncie suffered an epidemic of smallpox which resulted in a general quarantine against the city and the practical shut-down of all industries in the town. Banking troubles in the town were being ironed out at the same time and there was a long period of idleness and depression which was trying to all local industries. The Hemingray plant weathered all these storms, however, and when business presently '"'picked up" was in a strong position to meet the market which opened out so expansively following this temporary period of business depression and its pro- (38) when it became established in Muncie were lamps, lamp globes, table ware and hollow glassware generally, but with the extraordinary market which began to open out for glass insulators with the new expansion of the telephone and telegraph industry about 1900 it began to give its chief attention to the manufacture of glass insulators and these in time became its sole product, the plant long having been given over to the manufacture of insulators, and by the adoption of improved methods of manufacture has come to be recognized as the leading plant of the kind in the world, its products not only practically covering the field in the United States and Canada but entering extensively into the export trade, so that these products help to carry the name of Muncie into all parts of the civilized world. Ralph G. Hemingray, who succeeded his father in executive charge of the affairs of the Hemingray Glass Company upon the latter's retirement from active participation in 1892, was elected president of the company upon his father's death in 1897, and so continued until his death in 1920, when he was succeeded by Philip W. McAbee, the present president of the company. Robert C. Hemingray continued as active superintendent of the plant until his death in 1902, and Daniel C. Hemingray, who succeeded Richard Evans as secretary-treasurer of the company in 1897, and also had charge of the distributing end of the company's affairs, retained that position until his death in 1911. The plant employs at maximum production about five hundred persons and its products are known wherever electric wire construction is known. The present officers of the company are Philip W. McAbee, president; A. Clifford Shinkle, of Cincinnati, vice president; W. P. Zimmerman, secretary ; Charles S. Berger, treasurer, and C. H. Smith, assistant treasurer.

ROBERT L. BRANDT, who died at his home in Eaton in February, 1923, had for years been engaged in the mercantile business in that city. He had lived to a ripe old age and at his passing left a good memory. Mr. Brandt was a native son of Delaware county, a member of one of the pioneer families here, and had lived in this county practically all his life, the exception being a period during the days of his young manhood when he was engaged in mine prospecting in the West. He was born on a pioneer farm three miles west of the present city of Eaton in 1846 and was a son of David and Jane (Long) Brandt, the latter of whom was born in Clinton county,

Ohio, daughter of Robert and Jane (Woodruff) Long, natives of Kentucky. David Brandt was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, in 1815, and was a son of David and Martha (Hamilton) Brandt, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania and who were the parents of thirteen children, of whom David was the eighth in order of birth. The senior David Brandt was a school teacher, farmer and harness maker. When seventy-eight years of age he came to Indiana and his last days were spent in Dekalb county, his death occurring there in 1849. The junior David Brandt grew up to the shoemaker's trade and followed that vocation in Fairfield county, Ohio, until in 1840, when he came to Indiana and located in Cass county. Two years later he came to Delaware county and established himself in business at "Henpeck"' in Union township as a shoemaker and merchant. In the fall of that same year (1842) he married Jane Long and established his home at Henpeck, where he carried on his business for nearly ten years or until in 1851, when he moved to the point along the river now included in the Eaton town site and there set up a store, this trading point thus becoming the nucleus for a settlement which in 1854 was platted as a town site and given the name of Eaton. As the town developed David Brandt's business also developed and he was long one of the leading merchants of the town. He also became a considerable landowner, at one time having as much as 400 acres of land in the Eaton neighborhood. David Brandt, who died in December, 1904, was twice married and was the father of ten children. His eldest son, John Brandt, was a soldier of the Union during the Civil war and died in a military hospital at Chattanooga in 1864. Robert L. Brandt, the second son of the first marriage of this pioneer, was born on November 16, 1846, and thus had been a witness to the development of the town of Eaton from the very beginning. He remained at home, helpful in his father's enterprises, until he had attained his majority, when he took a prospecting trip throughout the West, leaving here in 1868 for Helena, Mont. He prospected around in the mining camps of Montana and Nevada for a couple of years and then, in 1870, returned to Eaton and resumed his connection with his father's store. In 1876 he secured a proprietary interest in the old Brandt store and carried on the business under the name of Brandt, Carter & Co., until in 1902, when it became Brandt & Armstrong. In addition to his ' mercantile interests at Eaton, Mr. Brandt also was one of the leading factors in the development of that town's interests following the opening of the natural gas field here in the late '80s and for years, during the height of its prosperity, was treasurer of the Eaton Gas and Mining Company. In his later years he had lived pretty much retired from the active duties of life and was seventy-seven years of age at the time of his death. He was a Republican and had served several terms as a member of the Eaton town board. Robert L. Brandt was twice married. In 1882 he married Emma Van Buskirk, who died in 1888, and on July 6, 1904, he married Mrs. Calista (Fitzpatrick) Simonton, widow of John Simonton, who survives him and is still making her home at Eaton. Mrs. Brandt was born in this county and is a daughter of James and Sallie (Thomas) Fitzpatrick, the latter of whom was a daughter of John Thomas, one of the pioneers of Delaware county, who had come here from Bowling Green, Ohio. James Fitzpatrick was a native of North Carolina, who became a resident. of Delaware county many years ago.

JOEL MADISON MARING, a veteran of the Civil war, who died at his home in Muncie in 1922, was in his generation one of the active and influential factors in the commercial and industrial life of this community, head of the old glass manufacturing concern of Maring, Hart & Company, head of the Muncie Trust Company, head of the Durham Manufacturing Company and in other ways interested in the manufacturing interests of the town in which he made his home at the time of the beginning of the industrial development which followed the opening of the natural gas field here thirty years and more ago. Mr. Maring was a native of the old Buckeye state, born in the village of Antioch in Monroe county, Ohio, and was a son of Peter and Edith (Davis) Maring, both of whom also were born in that state and the former of whom was a carpenter. Peter Maring and wife were Quakers and their children were reared in the faith of the Society of Friends. For same time after leaving school Joel M. Maring was engaged in teaching school. He served as a soldier of the Union during the time of the Civil war, a member of Company E of the 62nd regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and later became engaged in the drug business and in the glass supply trade, this latter phase of his business in time developing into a window glass manufacturing plant at Bellaire, Ohio. Upon the definite opening of the natural gas field at Muncie in the early 90s Mr. Maring, who was carrying on his business under the name of Maring, Hart & Company, established a plant for the manufacture of window glass at Muncie and thus became one of the early factors in the development of the town's industrial interests during the gas "boom" days. During the period of greatest activity of the natural gas industries here, this firm also had glass factories in the neighboring towns of Gas City and Dunkirk.

Joel Madison Maring

Mr. Maring extended his interests here to include banking and became president of the Muncie Trust Company. He also was the president of the Durham Manufacturing Company of Muncie and president of the Hoosier Cabinet Company of Newcastle and continued active in business until his death on January 29, 1922. Joel M. Maring married Grace Keiser, daughter of George and Clara (Blossom) Keiser, the latter of whom was a daughter of Mathias and Mary (Craft) Blossom, of Miamisburg, Ohio. George Keiser was the founder of a wholesale plumbing establishment at Muncie and further reference is made to him elsewhere in this work.

ELAM L. BAREFOOT, head of the Barefoot Produce Company of Cowan, this county, has been a resident of Delaware county for twenty-five years and is widely known in the produce business. Mr. Barefoot was born in Wayne county, Indiana, June 20, 1865, and is a son of Samuel R. and Barbara (Armstrong) Barefoot, both of whom were born in Pennsylvania. Samuel R. Barefoot became a resident of Wayne county in 1855, presently locating at Jacksonburg in that county, where he remained until in 1866 when he moved to Cambridge City and in this latter place became engaged in the hotel business. In 1876 he took up the general produce business at Cambridge City and thus established a business which has been going on under the Barefoot name now for nearly fifty years. Samuel R. Barefoot continued actively engaged in that business at Cambridge City until his death in 1890. 'To him and his wife were born six children, a daughter, Mollie, and five sons, the subject of this sketch, the fourth in order of birth of these children, and his brothers, Walter, John, William and Earl Barefoot. Elam L. Barefoot was ten years of age when his parents moved from Jacksonburg to Cambridge City and he was reared in the latter city, receiving his schooling in the schools there. He early became interested in the produce business established there by his father and after his father's death became associated with his brothers in carrying on the business, these brothers carrying on under the firm name of the W. B. Barefoot Company. That was in 1890 and this name was maintained for many years, or until in 1917, when Elam L. Barefoot and his sons incorporated under the name of Barefoot & Company, this being changed in 1920 to the present firm name of the Barefoot Produce Company. It was in 1899 that Elam L. Barefoot established the Cowan branch of the business, operating here in connection with the Cambridge City plant. In the meantime the two elder brothers, Walter and John Barefoot, had died. In 1910 Earl Barefoot retired from the business and in 1917 William retired, since which time the extensive business has been carried on by Elam L. Barefoot and his sons, who are engaged in a general butter, egg and poultry business, buying throughout this section of Indiana and shipping to the New York and Boston markets. Mr. Barefoot is a Republican of "independent" leanings. He is a Freemason and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Elam L. Barefoot married Mary Felton, daughter of Elijah and Elvina (Clemmons) Felton, and has three sons, Harry, Carl and James Barefoot, who are associated with him in the operations of the Barefoot Produce Company. Harry Barefoot married Nan Grooms and has two sons, Max and Phil. Carl Barefoot married Avis Carmichael and has two sons, Robert and Keith. :

ARCH A. HAMILTON, former trustee of Perry township and a substantial farmer and landowner of that township, residing on the Medford road, rural mail route No. 6 out of Muncie, is a member of one of the real pioneer families of Delaware county and has lived in this county all his life. Mr. Hamilton was born on a farm in Center township on July 19, 1871, and is a son of Stephen and Rachel (Moore) Hamilton, the latter of whom was born in Butler county, Ohio, in 1887, a daughter of Mark Moore who became one of the pioneers of Delaware county. Stephen Hamilton was born in Monongalia county, Virginia (now West Virginia), in 1825, and was but four years of age when his father, Stephen Hamilton, moved with his family to Indiana in 1830 and settled in this county, locating on a tract he had entered from the government in Center township, thus becoming one of the real pioneers of that section of the county. The junior Stephen Hamilton grew to manhood on that pioneer farm and was living there when the California gold "rush'' came on in 1849. As is narrated elsewhere in this work, he joined a party of Delaware county adventurers in quest of gold and went to California, starting in October, 1849, and was gone for something more than two years, at the end of which time he came back and resumed farming operations here. After his marriage in 1855 he established his home on a quarter section of land he had bought in Center township, developed a good farm there and on that place spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on February 8, 1901. His widow survived him more than four years, her death occurring on October 31, 1905. Of the ten children born to them five are still living, the subject of this sketch having a sister, Grace, and three brothers, Charles E., Frank E. and Henry Hamilton. There were two other daughters, Lillie and Anna E., and three who died in infancy. Arch A. Hamilton was reared on the home farm in Center township and upon completing his schooling was for two years engaged in teaching school, meantime continuing farming in association with his father and was thus engaged until his marriage at the age of twenty-five, when he established his home on a "forty" he had bought in that township. In 1906 Mr. Hamilton sold this farm and moved to Perry township, where he since has lived, since 1909 residing on the sixty acre farm he bought in that year on the Medford road, where he is now living. Mr. Hamilton is a Republican and in 1911 was appointed assessor of Perry township, in which capacity he served for four years. In 1914 he was elected trustee of his home township and by re-election served for two terms in that responsible office. He is a past worshipful master of the lodge of Freemasons at New Burlington and his wife is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church at that place. It was in 1895 that Arch A. Hamilton was united in marriage to Laura Margaret Bullock, also of this county, and to this union seven children have been born, all of whom are living save one, a son, Charles L., who died in his first year in 1907, the others being Gladys E., Lois R., Mark B., Harry D., Arch E. and Mary Althea, the two latter of whom are still attending local school. Gladys E. Hamilton married W. A. Richards and has one child, a daughter, Laura Ellen. Lois R. Hamilton, a teacher in the public schools of this county, married Evison Davis, of Muncie. Mark B. Hamilton married Lucile Lindsay and has two sons, Mark Lindsay and Charles Owen Hamilton. Harry D. Hamilton was graduated from the Perry township high school and is now a student at Indiana University. Mrs. Laura M. Hamilton was born in Center township and is a daughter of John W. and Elizabeth Amanda (Leverton) Bullock, both of whom, were born in Maryland, the latter a daughter of Arthur and Margaret (Turpin) Leverton. The late John W. Bullock, a son of Thomas Boone and Elizabeth (Emerson) Bullock, came to Indiana in the '60s of the past century and after a sometime residence in Fayette county came to Delaware county and established his home on a farm in Center township, where he spent the remainder of his life. Of the ten children born to him and his wife eight are still living, Mrs. Hamilton having three sisters, Ruth Hannah, Nebraska, and Mary Althea, and four brothers, Charles E., Arthur L., Oliver M. and Frank B. Bullock. The two deceased children of this family were Walter T. and Lena W.

CLARENCE G. WOOD, vice president and secretary of the Hoosier Clutch Company, manufacturers of clutches for the automo- _tive and machinery industries at Muncie, and a veteran of the World war, was born at Bluff City, Kansas, July 2, 1887, and is the son and only child of Jesse Porter and Elizabeth May (Pullen) Wood. The latter was born at Lebanon, Ind., daughter of William B. Pullen, whose last days were spent at Indianapolis, where he died about seven years ago. William B. Pullen, an honored veteran of the Civil war, was an Ohioan by birth, born at Mt. Carmel, Ohio, and when the Civil war came on enlisted his services in behalf of the cause of the Union and went to the front as a sergeant of a New York cavalry company. In one of the engagements in which that command participated he was captured by the enemy and before his exchange was secured had been compelled to spend three months in the detestable Libby prison at Richmond, Va., and nine months in the abominable rebel prison pen at Andersonville, Ga. After the war he went to Kansas and the Indian Territory, and after a number of years came to Indiana and made his home at Indianapolis, where he spent the remainder of his life engaged in the mercantile business. Jesse Porter Wood was born in Odessa, Mo., in 1861, and as a young man became employed on cattle ranges as a cowboy in Texas and what was then known as the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, and later in Kansas, in which state he was married. For some years after his marriage he made his home in Kansas and then went to Washington state where he became engaged in lumbering. In 1897, after suffering severe financial reverses because of the financial panic of that year, he obtained employment with the Northern Pacific railroad and in due course became a locomotive engineer. After a number of years residence in Olympia and later at Ellensburg, Wash., the family moved to Indianapolis, Ind., and he obtained employment with the Chicago & Southeastern railroad, and has for the past twenty years made Muncie the family home. Clarence G. Wood was fourteen years of age when his parents moved to Indianapolis and his schooling was completed in the schools of that city, at Lebanon, Ind., and at Muncie, that later being supplemented by a course in the International Correspondence School, in mechanical engineering and machine-tool designing and mathematics, and a business course with the Alexander Hamilton Institute of New York. After a four-year apprenticeship in a railway machine shop Mr. Wood became employed as a machinist in the plant of the Interstate Automobile Company at Muncie and later transferred his services to the plant of the Warner Gear Company, where for more than six years he was employed as a foreman in various departments and then was made superintendent of one of the plants, and was thus employed until in 1915, when he entered upon his present connection with the Hoosier Clutch Company, which was formed in that year to take over the affairs of the old B. T. K. Gear and Engine Company, which was organized about twenty years ago by Hugh Warner, inventor and patentee of the first practical automobile differential, and further reference to which concern is made elsewhere in this work in connection with the biography of Fred J. Lesh, president and general manager of the Hoosier Clutch Company, of which Mr. Wood is vice president and secretary, and which concern now gives its special attention to the manufacture of friction clutches for the automotive and machinery industries designed and patented by Mr. Wood, with a well equipped and modern plant in South Elliott street. When this country entered the World war in the spring of 1917 Mr. Wood tendered his services to the Government along with other members of the Society of Automotive Engineers as an automotive engineer, and in June of that year was assigned to service in this technical capacity at Washington, D. C., and in the following September was assigned to duty in that section of the Quartermaster's department having to do with the army's motor transportation. On January 4, 1918, he was commissioned a first lieutenant, Q. M. C., of the Army Motors Division, and assigned to inspection and production service in plants manufacturing Class B trucks and their component parts, presently being given charge of the Muncie district, and was thus serving when in July, 1918, he received orders for overseas duty. He sailed on the steamship "Olympic" for Southampton, England, and a few weeks later, at Paris, was transferred from the Quartermaster Corps to the Motor Transport Corps of the army and was assigned to duty as assistant to the chief purchasing officer of the Motor Transport Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces, in charge of the purchase of supplies for the corps in the A. E. F., and thus rendered service with Paris, France, as his headquarters, until on March 29, 1919, when he was relieved from his present duty and ordered to LeMans, France, as chief inspector of the LeMans Area Embarkation Center and the Motor Transport Corps, Overhaul Park, 762. On the following June 9 he was sent to St. Agenau to take command of a casualty company of 128 men, which he brought back to the United States, sailing on June 28 on the Italian steamship "Re De Italia" from Marseilles by way of Gibraltar, arriving at New York on July 9. At Camp Merritt he was relieved from his company and ordered to Washington, where on July 14 he received his honorable discharge from the military service and two days later, July 16, 1919, he returned to Muncie, resumed his position with the Hoosier Clutch Company and has since given his attention to the affairs of that concern. Mr. Wood holds a captain's commission in the Officers Reserve Corps of the army, is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, of the American Legion, of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and of the Military Order of Foreign Wars; is a Knights Templar (York Rite) Mason and a Knight of Pythias, and is affiliated with the Muncie Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club and the Dynamo Club, while he and his wife are members of the Church of Christ (Scientist). It was on July 15, 1908, that Clarence G. Wood was united in marriage to Esther Katherine Busch and to this union one child has been born, a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, born on August 9, 1909.

SYLVANUS 0. HAWK, a landowner and farmer of Mt. Pleasant township, now living retired at Muncie, is a native of the old Buckeye state but has been a resident of Indiana ever since the days of his infancy, a period of eighty years, more than seventy of which have been spent in Delaware county, so that he very properly may be regarded as one of the real "old settlers" of this county. Mr. Hawk was born in the village of New Paris, in Preble county, Ohio, December 25, 1842, and is a son of Samuel and Artemesia (Day) Hawk, the latter of whom also was born in Ohio. Samuel Hawk was a Virginian by birth, who followed his trade as a cabinet maker in Ohio, at one time working in Cincinnati, until in the middle '40s when he came to Indiana and settled in Wayne county, where he remained until about 1852 when he came with his family to Delaware county and bought a farm of 100 acres in Mt. Pleasant township, southeast of Yorktown. He was a good farmer and increased his holdings until he became the owner of about 400 acres, and there he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives. They were the parents of five | children, of whom the subject of this sketch now alone survives, he having had two sisters, Mary and Amy, and two brothers, George and William Hawk. Sylvanus 0. Hawk was but an infant when his parents came to Indiana and he was about ten years old when they left Wayne county and came to Delaware county. He completed his schooling in the schools of his home neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant township and continued as a help to his father on the home farm until after his marriage when he rented a part of the home farm and estab- ' lished his home there. Some fifteen or twenty years later his father made a division of his lands, his share in the apportionment being about 150 acres. On this place Mr. Hawk made many improvements, including a substantial modern dwelling house, and continued actively engaged in farming until his retirement about 1910. In December, 1928, he moved to Muncie and is now living with his son Ray at 650 North Elm street. Sylvanus O. Hawk married Louise Reed, who was - born in this county, daughter of William and Ruth Reed, and who died in 1907. To that union were born eight children, three of whom, Oliver, Daisy and Ray, are living, the deceased members of this family having been William, Belle and Laura and two who died in infancy. Oliver Hawk married Clara Jester and has five children, Essie, Lola, Cleo, Grace and Evelyn. Grace Hawk married Otto Oxley and has three children, Deloris, Loring and Robert. Daisy Hawk married Otto Curtis and has one child, a daughter, Crystal, and Ray Hawk married Mae Black.

REV. WILLIAM H. PEIRCE, a veteran of the Civil war and a retired minister of the Methodist Episcopal church, living at Selma, which has been his established home for many years, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1842, and was nine years of age when he came to Indiana with his parents, the family locating in Wayne county, where he completed his schooling and grew to manhood. He was living at Winchester, Ind., when the Civil war broke out and he presently got into the service of the Union army, going to the front as a member of Company H of the 84th regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, with which gallant command he served for nearly three years, or until mustered out on June 14, 1865, the war then being over. The 84th Indiana was a part of the Army of the Cumberland and thus participated in some pretty active service, including the battle of Chickamauga and the Atlanta campaign. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Peirce returned to Indiana and entered upon his studies in preparation for the gospel ministry. His elder brother, the Rev. John F. Peirce, at that time was pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Selma and he completed his studies under his brother's preceptorship and in due time was ordained a minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. For three years Mr. Peirce made his home at Jonesboro, in Grant county, and he had subsequent stations at Dunkirk, Eaton, Selma and Fountain City, after awhile establishing his home on a farm near Selma. In 1911 he retired from the farm and moved to Selma, where he since has resided. He developed a good farm of 120 acres in Liberty township, which he still owns. Mr. Peirce's first ministerial labor was in the Methodist Episcopal church at Albany. The church at Selma was organized about the year 1850, the congregation erecting the first meeting house in 1856, and during the long years of his residence at Selma, though now on the retired list of the ministry, he has done much to advance the interests of that congregation. Mr. Peirce is a Republican and is a member of Williams post, No. 78, Grand Army of the Republic, at Muncie. He also is a member of Fall Creek lodge (No..97) of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Middletown. In 1867 the Rev. William H. Peirce married Emily J. Cecil and to this union four children were born, Cornelia Anna (deceased), Walter G., Rosa (deceased) and Grace, the latter of whom married Horace L. Burr and has one child, a son, Horace Peirce Burr. Walter G. Peirce married Lola Barton and has a son, Rex B. Peirce. Mrs. Emily J. Peirce is a member.of the pioneer Cecil family which has been represented in this county since the early '380s of the past century. She was born in Liberty township and is a daughter of John S. and Rachel Cecil. .

ARTHUR M. SHAFER, superintendent of the great plant of the Muncie Products division of the General Motors Corporation at Muncie, is a member of one of the real pioneer families of Delaware county, his grandfather, Riley Shafer, having had the distinction of having been the first white child born within the confines of what is. now Hamilton township, this county, a son of Adam Shafer, who had settled there in 1829, the Shafers of this family thus having been represented here for nearly 100 years. Mr. Shafer was born at Royerton, in Hamilton township, November 9, 1887, and is a son of John Dunk and Ella (Thomas) Shafer, the latter of whom also was born in this county, at Granville, a daughter of Hardin and Amanda (Mott) Thomas. She died in 1915. John Dunk Shafer, a son of Riley Shafer, above referred to, grew up in Hamilton township and early became interested in the mechanical trades. After his marriage. in 1880 he continued to make him home at Royerton until in 1888, when he moved to Muncie, where he ever since has made his home, now residing at 315 North Vine street, his present employment being with the Retherford Lamp Company. To him and his wife were born two children, the subject of this sketch having a sister, Eva May. Arthur M. Shafer was but six months old when his parents moved to Muncie in 1888. He finished his schooling in the high school there and early became proficient in the mechanical trades, an expert tool maker. When about nineteen years of age he went to Toledo, Ohio, to take supervisory charge of the tool designing and tool making departments of the Warner Manufacturing Company there, and remained there for some years or until called home by the death of his mother in 1915. A few months later, January 1, 1916, Mr. Shafer made a connection with the Chevrolet Motor Company as efficiency engineer in that company's plant at Flint, Mich., and moved to Flint, where he remained until in January, 1920, when he was called back to Muncie to supervise the installation of the plant of the Muncie Products division of the General Motors Corporation. Upon the completion of this task he was made superintendent of the plant and has since been serving the corporation in that capacity. Mr. Shafer is a Republican. He is a member of the Muncie Chamber of Commerce and of the Young Men's Christian Association and he and his wife are members of the Jackson Street Christian (Disciples) church. On June 17, 1906, Arthur M. Shafer was united in marriage to Nora Frances Hamer, who was born at Springhill, Champaign county, Ohio, daughter of Joseph and Florence (Doty) Hamer, who were the parents of five children, Mrs. Shafer having three sisters, Mabel, Alta and Ruth, and a brother, Thurman Hamer. Mr. and Mrs. Shafer have three children, Doris Elaine, Hamer Dwight and Betty Joyce. They reside at 1423 Ebright street.

CHARLES MABERY KIMBROUGH, president of the Indiana Bridge Company, vice president of the Delaware County National Bank, past commander of Williams post, No. 78, Grand Army of the Republic, former county clerk, former state senator from this district, a former member of the city council and for many years one of the most active personal factors in the civil and industrial life of Muncie and Delaware county, is a native of the old Buckeye state but has been a resident of Indiana for more than fifty years and of Muncie since 1876, having thus been on the ground and well established in business here when a wider outlet for the expression of his energy was provided by the opening of the gas field here in the late '80s. Mr. Kimbrough was born in the village of Clarksville, in Clinton county, Ohio, November 5, 1847, and is a son of Ira and Clara H. (Howland) Kimbrough, both of whom also were born in that vounty, members of real pioneer families in that part of Ohio, and whose last days were spent there. Ira Kimbrough was a blacksmith and wagon maker. Reared at Clarksville, Charles M. Kimbrough received his schooling in the village schools and was living there when the Civil war broke out. In 1864 his father moved to Sligo and there, March 14, 1865, though but seventeen years of age, he enlisted his services as a soldier of the Union and went to the front as a private in Company I of the 18th regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, with which gallant command he served until mustered out on October 28,

1865, the war then being over. Upon the completion of his military service Mr. Kimbrough returned to Clinton county, finished his interrupted schooling and became engaged in farming and blacksmithing at Clarksville. He married when twenty-three years of age and two or three years later became engaged in the mercantile business in association with a brother-in-law at Connersville, Ind. That was in 1873. Three years later, in 1876, attracted to what he regarded as a wider field, Mr. Kimbrough came to Muncie and opened here the first exclusive book and stationery store established in the city. He bought the house which then stood on the corner now occupied by the public library and there made his home until he was able to erect a more commodious dwelling house. In 1886 a branch of the plant of the Indianapolis Bridge Company of Indianapolis had been established at Muncie and was incorporated as the Indiana Bridge Company, the original incorporators having been George F. McCulloch, J. E. Haffner, Theodore F. Rose and William H. Wood, with Rose as president and McCulloch as secretary and with Sol Godman and Wood in charge of technical operations. When the gas "boom" came on this concern was doing a good business here, iron bridges by that time having come into demand throughout eastern Indiana to supplant the old wooden bridges. In July, 1887, Mr. Kimbrough was called into the concern as general manager and was elected vice president of the company, John R. Marsh at the same time becoming chief engineer, in succession to William H. Wood, former engineer. The majority stock in this corporation presently came into the hands of George F. McCulloch and in May, 1888, a reorganization was effected and Mr. Kimbrough became president of the company, McCulloch vice president and John R. Marsh secretary-treasurer. Ever since then Mr. Kimbrough has been president of this company and Mr. Marsh secretary. In January, 1892, all the capital stock of the company was acquired by these three and two years later, in 1894, Mr. Kimbrough took over the controlling interest from McCulloch and in January, 1902, he and Mr. Marsh acquired all the capital stock of the company, which since then, a period of more than twenty years, has been maintained as a close corporation, Mr. Kimbrough's sons during this time also giving their active attention to the company's affairs, James Lloyd Kimbrough, treasurer of the company and a stockholder since 1904, having been general manager of the concern since his father's retirement from active participation in 1913, though the latter still retains his office as president. Frank H. Kimbrough, who became a stockholder in 1903, is vice president of the company and John R. Marsh is secre- tary, these and Hal C. Kimbrough, who became a stockholder in 1905, forming the directorate. The plant of the Indiana Bridge Company employs about 175 men and has created a wide market for its structural steel products throughout the United States and Canada. Dur- . ing the time of America's participation in the World war its resources were practically wholly devoted to war work, its operations being carried on under extra pressure during that time. A current example of its work in structural steel is seen in the great steel frame work of the new Masonic temple now (1924) being erected in Muncie. Mr. Kimbrough is vice president of the Delaware County National Bank and has been a member of the directorate of that institution since 1894. He is a Knight Templar Mason and is a past worshipful master of Muncie lodge, No. 433, F. and A. M. For years he has taken an interested part in the affairs of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic and was commander of the same when the Department of Indiana, G. A. R., held its forty-fifth annual encampment at Muncie in May, 1923, thus having had a conspicuous part in the ceremonies attendant on the entertainment of that patriotic order. Mr. Kimbrough has for years been one of the leaders of the Republican party in this county and has rendered considerable public service. His first local office was that of city councilman (1882-83), this being followed by a term as a member of the local school board. In 1890 he was elected county clerk and served one term in that office. In 1896 he was a delegate to the national Republican convention which nominated William McKinley and Garret A. Hobart for President and Vice President of the Republic. In 1902 Governor Durbin appointed him a member of the board of control of the Indiana state prison and in 1904 he was elected to represent this district in the state Senate, thus serving during the memorable sessions of the Indiana General Assembly in 1905 and 1907. While serving as a member of the prison board he was appointed by the Governor to represent Indiana in the prison congress at Albany, N. Y., and thus was able to be of service in inaugurating some much needed prison reforms in this country. He also by appointment was Indiana's representative at the notable convention called at DesMoines in 1896 for the purpose of initiating a movement in behalf of the popular election of United States senators and was appointed one of the five commissioners named to bring about a working program in that behalf, a movement which in good time became effective. It was in 1870, in Clinton county, Ohio, that Charles M. Kimbrough was united in marriage to Margaret A. Curry, daughter of James and Mary Curry, members of old fam- ilies in that county, and to this union were born the three sons above mentioned, Hal C., Frank H., and James Lloyd Kimbrough, the two latter of whom were born in Muncie. Mr. and Mrs. Kimbrough celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1920. They are members of the Methodist church. James Lloyd Kimbrough, general manager of the Indiana Bridge Company, was born at Muncie on November 8, 1879, and his local schooling was supplemented by attendance at the Howe School, Lima, Ind.; Worcester (Mass.) Academy and the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University, his course in the latter institution being directed with special reference to structural steel engineering. Upon his return from Harvard in 1901; he became associated with the work of his father's enterprise, the Indiana Bridge Company, and has ever since been thus connected, treasurer of the company since 1904 and general manager since his father's retirement from active management in 1913. In 1903 James Lloyd Kimbrotigh was united in marriage to Huda May Smith, daughter of J. H. Smith, of Muncie.

ROBERT E. GATES, a Muncie merchant, dealer in harness, tires and automobile accessories, who died in March, 1924, was born in the city of Columbiana, Ohio, August 15, 1872, and was a son of | Harry N. and Mary (Sheets) Gates, the latter of whom also was born there, a daughter of Samuel Sheets. The late Harry N. Gates, a veteran of the Civil war, who was for some years engaged in business in Muncie and whose last days were spent here, was born in York, Pa., and was a son of John Gates, also a native Pennsylvanian. Though he was but sixteen years of age when the Civil war broke out, Harry N. Gates presently was accepted for service and served for three years and six months as a member of the 22nd Pennsylvania Cavalry. Upon the completion of his military service he took up the trade of harness making and presently left York and went to Columbiana, Ohio, where he married and established his home, engaging there in the harness business. In 1882 he moved from there to Indianapolis, where his wife died on March 27, 1898, at the age of forty-five years. Following this bereavement he moved to Muncie, where he became engaged in the harness business and where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on December 12, 1908, he then being sixty-three years of age. He was a Republican and a member of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. He had three sons, the subject of this memorial sketch having had two brothers, John S. Gates, now living in Philadelphia, and William Ralph Gates, who died at Muncie on January 8, 1917. Robert E. Gates was ten years of age when his parents moved from Columbiana to Indianapolis, and his schooling was completed in the schools of the latter city. When sixteen years of age he returned to Columbiana and there became engaged at work in the boiler shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and was thus engaged for about ten years, or until in 1897, when he rejoined his father and his brother Ralph at Muncie, to take part in their mercantile activities here. From that time and until his death he was engaged in business at Muncie and came to be the owner of a well stocked establishment at 121 North High street. Upon their father's death in 1908 he and his brother Ralph took over the business and thus continued in partnership until in 1916, about a year before his brother's death, when he bought the latter's interest in the store and thereafter carried on the business alone until his death on March 5, 1924. Mr. Gates was a Republican and was a member of the local post of the Sons of Veterans, a Knight of Pythias, an Elk and a Red Man. On December 24, 18938, at Bradford, Ohio, Robert E. Gates was united in marriage to Dessie Moore, who also was born in Ohio, daughter of John Samuel and Mary A. (Deyarmin) Moore, and who survives him. Mrs. Gates has two daughters, Helen, who married N. E. Catterlin, of Muncie, and has a daughter, Barbara, and Edith, who married Paul Mann, now a resident of Milwaukee, and has a son, Robert Franklin Mann. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Gates has continued to make her home at Muncie and resides at 418 West Jackson street.

DR. ULYSSES GRANT POWERS, a member of the Delaware County Medical Society and for almost thirty years a practicing physician at Albany, was born at Albany on March 12, 1865, and has been a resident of that place all his life. Doctor Powers is a son of the late Dr. James H. Powers, the first physician to become permanently established in practice at Albany and who for many years was recognized as one of the leaders of the medical profession in this county. Dr. James H. Powers was born in Lawrence county, Indiana, in 1817, but was reared at Jamestown in Greene county, Ohio, where he read medicine with a local physician and then entered the old Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1850. In the next year he came over into Indiana and located at the then promising village of Albany, establishing himself in practice - there in succession to Dr. Isaiah Templin, who left for Iowa about that time, and in that pleasant village spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on March 9, 1882. His widow, who was Lucinda ana, survived him for many years, her death occurring in 1910, she then being seventy-four years of age. To Dr. James H. and Lucinda (Mann) Powers were born five children, but two of whom survive, the junior Doctor Powers having a sister, Miss Laura M. Powers, who for thirty-five years has been a teacher in the Albany public schools, rendering thus a life of service in that community that will be held in good remembrance long after this generation has passed. Dr. Ulysses Grant Powers was seventeen years of age when his father died. He supplemented the schooling received in the local schools by attendance on the normal school at Valparaiso, Ind., and the normal at Delaware, Ohio, and early began teaching school, a vocation he followed during the winters for seven years, teaching in the schools of Delaware township. Meanwhile he had been giving his attention to the study of medicine under the preceptorship of Doctor Murray, who for five years prior to the elder Doctor Powers' death had been the latter's partner at Albany, and in 1890 entered the Indiana Medical College at Indianapolis, from which institution he was graduated in 1895. Upon receiving his diploma Doctor Powers returned to Albany and became engaged in practice there in association with Doctor Murray, a mutually agreeable partnership which was maintained until Doctor Murray's death in 1915, since which time Doctor Powers has maintained his office alone. For two terms Doctor Powers served as health officer for the town of Albany. He is a member of Anthony lodge, No. 171, Free and Accepted Masons, at Albany and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. On June 26, 1901, Dr. U. G. Powers was united in marriage to Laura Helen Stafford, a member of one of the real pioneer families of Delaware county, and to this union one child has been born, a daughter, Caroline Lucile Powers ,who is now a student in Northwestern University at Chicago. Mrs. Powers was born in Delaware township and completed her schooling in Depauw University and in the Chicago Conservatory of Music and for some time prior to her marriage had been teaching instrumental music at Albany. She is a daughter of James E. and Caroline (Russell) Stafford, the latter a daughter of John and Susanna Russell, pioneers of Hamilton township, this county. James E. Stafford, formerly and for years a merchant and manufacturer at Albany and a large landowner in Delaware township, also was born in that township, a son of Ralph and Jane (Black) Stafford, the latter of whom was born in Clark county, Ohio, daughter of Andrew and Susan (Ross) Black. The pioneer Ralph Stafford, who entered his land in Delaware township, four miles west of the present town of

Albany, on March 7, 1836, was a Virginian, born in 1806 in Giles county in the Old Dominion, and was a son of George and Catherine (Fair) Stafford, natives of Ireland, who had settled in Virginia upon coming to this country. Ralph Stafford and his wife had five children and the descendants of this pioneer couple in this generation form a considerable connection.

DR. JOHN N. BELL, one of Delaware county's veteran physicians, engaged in practice at New Burlington for more than thirtyfive years, is a Virginian by birth, born at Morgantown in that section of the Old Dominion which since the days of the Civil war has been West Virginia, April 21, 1858, and is a son of Henry and Louise (Swisher) Bell, both also Virginians, who spent all their lives there and who were the parents of ten children. Nine of these children grew to maturity and five of them are still living, Doctor Bell having two sisters, Mrs. Agnes J. Stealey and Mrs. Carrie F. Myers, and two brothers, George W. and Charles F. Bell. The Doctor is the only one of this family residing in Indiana. John N. Bell completed his ordinary schooling at Fairmont, W. Va., and at the age of sixteen years began teaching school, a vocation he followed for ten years, meanwhile taking supplemental schooling in a normal school. While thus engaged he became interested in the study of medicine and for two. years followed this study under private preceptorship. He then, in 1884, entered the old Starling Medical College at Columbus, Ohio, and after two years of study there entered the Medical College of Ohio at Cincinnati and in the spring of 1888 was graduated from that institution. Upon receiving his diploma Doctor Bell opened an office for the practice of his profession at New Burlington, in this county, and in that same fall was married and established his home at New Burlington, which ever since has been his place of residence, he thus now being numbered among the real veterans of the medical profession in Delaware county. The Doctor is a member of the Indiana State Medical Association, of the Delaware-Blackford (counties) Medical Society and of the Muncie Academy of Medicine. He is a Republican and is a Freemason of many years standing, twice worshipful master of Whitney lodge, No. 229, F. and A. M., at New Burlington, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at New Burlington. Doctor and Mrs. Bell have a fine farm of 125 acres in Perry township and the Doctor has long been interested in the operation of this farm, giving special attention to dairying and swine breeding. It was on November 28, 1888, that Dr. John N. Bell was united in marriage to Carrie L. Will, who was born in Perry town- ship, this county, and to this union were born three daughters, Letha B., Enid A. and Mary F., the latter of whom died at the age of seven years. Letha B. Bell married Earl James and has one child, a son, Glenn N. James. Enid A. Bell is now attending the Perry township high school, a member of the class of 1926. Mrs. Bell is a daughter of John and Mary (Keesling) Will, the latter of whom also was born in this county, daughter of Daniel Keesling, a member of one of the county's pioneer families. John Will was born in Wayne county, Indiana, a son of Thomas and Margaret (Singer) Will, and after his marriage in 1869 to Mary Keesling established his home on a farm in Perry township. To him and his wife were born three children, Mrs. Bell having a sister, Martha, and a brother, Burton E. Will. ARTHUR EARL BOYCE, head of the A. E. Boyce Company of Muncie, printers, manufacturing stationers and office outfitters; former president of the Muncie Commercial Club, a member of the directorate of the Delaware County National Bank and in other ways interested in the general commercial and industrial activities of his home town, was born in Muncie, December 31, 1877, and is a son of James and Margaret (Mohler) Boyce, concerning whom further mention is made elsewhere in this volume, the late James Boyce having been in his generation one of the chief directing forces in the development of Muncie's material interests. Reared at Muncie, Earl Boyce supplemented the schooling received in the local schools by a year of study in Kenyon Military Academy at Gambier, Ohio, and one term in the Miami Commercial College at Dayton, Ohio, and then became engaged in his father's shoe factory, going on up through the establishment from the bench as a shoe cutter to the office as shipping clerk, and was thus engaged when the plant was sold and removed to Coldwater, Mich. He accompanied the new proprietors to help get things settled down, but presently returned to Muncie and became engaged as bookkeeper in his father's real estate and brokerage office. He married within less than a month after attaining his twenty-first year and then moved to Muskegon, Mich., where he became engaged in the brokerage business. Not finding the situation there to his liking he not long afterward returned to Muncie and on November 1, 1899, became engaged in that city in the bookbinding line, operating under the firm name of the Boyce-Campbell Company. On February 12 following (1900) this company acquired a printing plant and changed its name to the Hoosier Printing Company, presently extending its line to include general office supplies. In 1912 another reorganization was effected and the company since has been known as the A. E. Boyce Company, which not only has been locally successful but has extended its operations until now under Mr. Boyce's management there are no fewer than one hundred branch sales and service offices of the concern in the United States, these covering the country from coast to coast and from the gulf to the lakes, the general offices being maintained at Muncie, 321 East Main Street, where Mr. Boyce has his headquarters establishment. On January 11, 1915, Mr. Boyce was elected a member of the board of directors of the Delaware County National Bank and still occupies that position. He also since 1918 has been a member of the directorate of the Muncie Savings and Loan Company. On January 12, 1916, he was elected president of the Muncie Commercial Club (Chamber of Commerce) and for two terms held that office, later and for two years being a director of the club. In his: political views he is aligned with the Republicans. He is a Scottish Rite (32°) and York Rite (Knights Templar) Mason and a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and is also affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He is one of the charter members of the Muncie Rotary Club. He and his wife are members of St. John's Universalist church and for a number of years he was a member of the board of trustees of that congregation. Mr. Boyce has been, since its inception, one of the promoters of the work of the local Young Men's Christian Association, and has served for many years as a member of the Boys' Work committee of that institution. During the period of this country's participation in the World war he contributed generally to local war-work activities, being one of the organizers of the Muncie chapter of the American Red Cross, and has since served as a member of the executive committee of that chapter. As a vice chairman of the first Red Cross war drive of the Muncie chapter, Mr. Boyce conceived and inaugurated the plan by which a permanent fund of more than $50,000 was created, the income from which contributed largely to the maintenance of a local office organization which rendered efficient home service during the entire period of the World war and has since been active in the relief and care of the county's indigent World war veterans and carried on the other duties properly falling to it, the local chapter now being one of the few permanent, self-sustained local Red Cross chapters in the country. On January 25, 1899, Earl Boyce was united in marriage to Georgia Eugenia Patterson, of Danville, Ill. Mr. and Mrs. Boyce have one child, a daughter, Harriet Eugenia.

LEWIS SAMUEL CUNNINGHAM, who died at his home on the Burlington pike in Perry township a little more than two years ago and whose widow is still living there, rural mail route No. 6 out of Muncie, was born in that township, November 16, 1852, and was a son of Benjamin and Mary Ann (Rees) Cunningham, the latter of whom was a daughter of Lewis Rees, who had settled in Perry township in 1822 and who was one of the first associate judges of Delaware county, as is set out elsewhere, together with fitting reference to the pioneer Rees. family in this county. Benjamin Cunningham was a native of Maryland who in the days of his young manhood came to Indiana and after his marriage became a substantial farmer and landowner of Perry township, as also is set out elsewhere in this work. Heand his wife were the parents of eight children, so that the Cunningham connection of this family in the present generation is a considerable one. Lewis S. Cunningham, the second in order of birth of the children born to this pioneer couple, was reared on the home farm in Perry township and received his schooling in the neighborhood schools. When twenty years of age, in 1873, he went West and became employed in the coal mines in the San Juan country in Colorado, later took up farming and ranching in Kansas and in 1884, in Crawford county, Kansas, married Cora Elizabeth Page. A few months later he returned to Delaware county with his bride and established his home on the farm in Perry township which he had inherited from his father and lived there for some time. He then moved to another farm and there lived until in 1898, when he bought the place of eighty-seven acres on the Burlington road on which his widow now is living and there spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring on January 22, 1922. Mr. Cunningham made numerous improvements on this place and brought it up to the general standards of a modern farm plant. Mr. Cunningham was a Republican and a Freemason. Since the death of her husband Mrs. Cunningham has continued to make her home on the farm, where she has lived for more than thirty years. She was born in Logan county, Kentucky, and was eleven years of age when she went with her parents, Joseph and Betty (Riley) Page, to Crawford county, Kansas, where she grew to womanhood and was married. Joseph Page died in 1902 and his widow is now making her home with her daughter, Mrs. Cunningham. To Joseph Page and wife were born four children, those besides Mrs. Cunningham being another daughter, Maude, and two sons, Joseph and Walter Page. To Samuel L. and Cora E. (Page) Cunningham were born three sons, Page, Benjamin and Vernie, the latter of whom died at the age of nineteen years. Page Cunningham married India Turner and has one child, a son, Chalmer. Benjamin Cunningham married Jennie Brewer and has four children, Walter, Webb, Fay and Jack. Another child of this latter union, Cora Belle, is deceased. JOHN A. NEEL, a substantial farmer and landowner of Liberty township, living on rural mail route No. 1 out of Selma, was born in . that township and has lived there all his life. Mr. Neel was born on July 24, 1851, and is a son of Jordan and Malinda (Hedrick) Neel, both natives of Virginia, who had come to Indiana with their respective parents in the days of their youth, the Neels and the Hedricks having been pioneers of this section. John Neel, father of Jordan Neel, took over an "eighty" in the woods of Liberty township, established his home there, made a farm out of the place and there spent the remainder of his life. Jordan Neel grew to manhood on that pioneer farm and in turn became a farmer, a vocation he followed all his life. After his marriage he bought a farm in the Smithfield neighborhood but a few years later disposed of that place and bought the farm on which his son John is now living, and there he spent his last days. Of the six children born to him and his wife four are now living, the subject of this sketch having three sisters, Sarah E., Nancy J. and Leah P. Reared on the home farm in Liberty township, John A. Neel received his schooling in the local schools and continued farming with his father until after his marriage, when he began farming on his own account, starting in asa renter. After his father's death he bought the interests of the other heirs in the home "eighty" and has since made his home here, in the meantime increasing his holdings until now he has a well improved farm of 154 acres. John A. Neel married Frances Arbogast and he and his wife have three daughters, Della Mae, Goldie Demoine and Ruth Ellen, all of whom are married. Della Mae Neel married James Stephens. Goldie Demoine Neel married Simon Stephens and has three children, Howard Earl, Frances Elizabeth and Roger, and Ruth Ellen Neel married Leslie Jones and has one child, a son, Neel Aquila Jones. Mrs. Neel is a daughter of Sanford and Isabel (Hayes) Arbogast, who were the parents of nine children, four of whom are now living, Mrs. Neel having a sister, Louise, and two brothers, Henry M. and Albert Arbogast. Mr. and Mrs. Neel are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and are Democrats. Mr. Neel is a charter member of Pueblo Tribe, No. 234, Improved Order of Red Men, at Selma, which was instituted on April 15, 1897, and Mrs. Neel is a

DR. JOHN H. WILLIAMS, former coroner of Delaware county, and for the past fifteen years a practicing physician at Cowan, where he still makes his home, was born in Shawnee (a mining town), Perry county, Ohio, November 15, 1879. He is a son of John R. and Maria (Davis) Williams, both natives of Wales and the latter of whom, born near Cardiff in South Wales, is still living and making her home with her son, the Doctor, at Cowan. The late John R. Williams was born in 1836 at Holyhead on the Island of Anglesey in North Wales, where he lived and spent his early years working in the coal mines and later learned the blacksmith's trade at his father's forge. When twenty years of age he bade farewell to his parents, brothers. and sisters and having decided to cast his lot in the "land of promise," boarded a vessel bound for the United States and after many stormy days at sea landed safely at New York city, from where he went to Middleport, Meigs county, Ohio, where he became employed at his trade as blacksmith. After his marriage he established his home at Shawnee, Ohio, at which place he remained until 1882 when he moved with this family to a little hill farm which he purchased, in the West Virginia hills in Mason county, near the West Virginia coal fields. Here the family carried on the operation of the little farm, while he worked in the coal mines. He was thus engaged until, by reason of a mining accident, he was so severely injured that it became necessary for him to give up mining, but after several months was able to resume the duties of his little farm. To John R. Williams and wife were born nine children, five of whom are now living, Doctor Williams having two sisters, Miss Anna Williams of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Mrs. Sarah Jones, of Columbus, Ohio, and two brothers, Henry Williams of Pittsburg, Pa., and Dr. Robert J. Williams, of Pine River, Minn. John Hugh Williams was but three years of age when he moved with his parents to West Virginia where he lived until he was sixteen years of age. Here, under the influence of sturdy, honest, hard-working parents, he learned the value of work, for there was always plenty to do. From four to six months each winter he had to walk almost five miles daily over hills, through woods and mud, to the little country school where the "Three Rs" and prisoner's base and bull-pen were the principal parts of the curriculum. Here, under the home-made shingle roof of the log house called "home," of which the cracks and crevices between the logs were daubed with mud each fall to keep out the cold and snow, the family spent their winter evenings together before a great open fire-place, into which great logs were carried or rolled to keep the house warm and help light up the room. for reading and studying. As he grew older, his schooling was cut: shorter during the winter months on account of the éarly spring duties of the farm. At the age of sixteen he went to Rossville, IIl., to make his home with Dr. F. M. Mason, where he had a chance to enter the Rossville high school, from which he was graduated four years later. During the summer vacations and spare moments he spent reading medicine under the preceptorship of Doctors Livingood and Mason. In September, 1903, he entered the medical department of the University of Maryland at Baltimore, Md., and in the following year, in order to be near his home, entered the Starling Medical Col- - lege at Columbus, Ohio, from which institution he was graduated in 1907. Doctor Williams first opened an office for the practice of medicine at Waynesburg, Ohio, and two years later he located at Cowan, at which place he.is still engaged in active practice. Doctor Williams is a member of the Delaware-Blackford (county) Medical Society, of the Muncie Academy of Medicine, of the Indiana State Medical Association and of the American Medical Association. He is a Republican, and for the past seven years has been a member of the United States pension board for the Muncie district. He also served for three years as coroner of Delaware county. In 1909, while at Waynesburg, Stark county, Ohio, Dr. John Hugh Williams was united in marriage to Myrtle O. Muckley, daughter of Jerome and Mary (Farber) Muckley, and to this union two children have been born, a daughter, Bethyl Virginia, and a son, John Allen Williams. Doctor and Mrs. Williams are members of the Cowan Methodist Protestant. church at Cowan, and the Doctor is a member of the Cowan lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

EDGAR CRAW, a retired farmer of Union township, now residing in Eaton, where he is operating the dray line, was born in this county in 1897 and isia son of Jesse and Anna (Lambert) Craw, both of whom also were born in this county, the latter a daughter of Joseph and Clara (Edgington) Lambert. Jesse Craw is a son of Richard and Mary (Matson) Craw. He and his wife have five children, of whom the subject of this sketch is the second in order of birth, the others being Myrtle, Elizabeth, Eileen, Joseph and Jay, all of whom are married save the two latter. Myrtle Craw married Daniel Swingley; Elizabeth Craw married Peter Williamson; and Eileen Craw married Louis Henderson. Edgar Craw married Velma Morris, daughter of Otto and Lillie (King) Morris, and has one child, a son, Max R. Mr. and Mrs. Craw are members of the Christian church. J. ROLLEN BLACK, a substantial farmer and landowner of Delaware county, now living retired at Eaton, is a native son of this county, a member of one of the real pioneer families here, and has lived here all his life. Mr. Black was born on a farm in Niles township in 1847 and is a son of Edward and Mary (Brammer) Black, who were among the pioneers of Delaware township, the latter (born in 1827) having come in here from Ohio with her parents, Edmund and Nancy (Hatfield) Brammer, in the year 1837, the family settling in Niles township, where Mrs. Brammer died in 1873 and Edmund Brammer, in 1887. Edmund Brammer and his wife were the parents of ten children and the Brammer connection of this family in the present generation is thus a considerable one. Edward Black was born in Clark county, Ohio, in 1818, and was a son of Andrew and . Susanna (Ross) Black, both Virginians, whose last days were spent in Clark county (Ohio), the latter dying in 1845 and the former, in 1854. They also had ten children and their descendants in the present generation form a numerous family. It was in the middle '30s of the past century that the Blacks became represented in Delaware county. William Black, a brother of Edward, came over here from Ohio in 1834, the first of the family thus to settle here. Edward Black came over in 1845, about the time of his marriage to Mary Brammer, and settled on a half section of timber land he had bought in Niles township and for which he had paid $900. There he established his home and proceeded to make a farm out of the place. As his affairs prospered he added to his land holdings until at one time he was the owner of near 600 acres of land, which in due time he distributed among his children. There were five of these children, of whom the subject of this sketch was the second in order of birth, there being two other sons, John W. and Edmund Black, and two sisters, Malinda Jane, who married Samuel McDonald, and Susan E., who married John M. Fudge. Edward Black lived to have numerous grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. He died in 1894 at the age of seventyfive and his widow in 1907, at the age of eighty. J. Rollen Black - grew up on the home farm in Niles township, receiving his schooling in the neighborhood schools, and in time became a farmer on his own account, a vocation he followed until his retirement in 1912 and removal to Eaton, where he since has made his home. He is the owner of a well improved farm of 240 acres and continues to take an interest in the operation of the same, though long since retired from the active labors of the farm. Mr. Black has been twice married. To him and his first wife (Mary Harshman) were born seven children, Walter, Nellie (wife of C. Morris), Thomas, Edward (deceased), Marietta (wife of Ralph Johns), Jessie (deceased) and Joseph Black. The mother of these children died in 1892 and in 1912 Mr. Black married Dora Isgrigg.

ARETUS REKS, a substantial farmer and landowner of Perry township, residing on the Burlington pike, rural mail route No. 6 out of Muncie, was born on the farm on which he is now living, a part of the original Lewis Rees entry tract there along the river in section 31, and has lived there all his life. Mr. Rees was born on October 18, 1873, and is a son of Borter and Lavina (Rees) Rees, the latter of whom was born in Wayne county, Indiana. Borter Rees was born in Perry township and was one of the ten children born to Lewis and Mary Rees, Virginians of Welsh stock, who had settled here in 1822 and concerning whom further and fitting mention is made elsewhere in this volume, Lewis Rees having been one of the first associate judges of the old circuit court elected in this county and a man of large influence in the days of the beginning of social and civic order hereabout. Borter Rees was reared on the old home farm in Perry township and after his marriage settled down there to farming and stock raising, coming to be known as one of the large stock dealers of the county and the owner of 500 or 600 acres of land. He died in 1886 at the age of forty-eight years and his widow is now living with her son, the subject of this sketch. Of the nine children born to Borter Rees and wife, five are still living, the subject of this sketch having four brothers, Henry, Grant, Warren and Herbert Rees. Reared on the home farm, Aretus Rees received his schooling in the nearby Rees school house. He was thirteen years of age when his father died and he continued helping on the home farm in his mother's behalf until he reached his majority when he came into his inheritance of a tract of forty-six acres of the home place and then began farming on his own account, a vocation he since has followed, and continues to reside there, having established his home on that place after his marriage. Mr. Rees has enlarged his original holdings and now has a well improved farm of 149 acres. He and his wife are Republicans. Mrs. Rees (Glennie G. Chalfant) was born in Monroe township, this county, and is a daughter of Joel and Nancy J. (Gibson) Chalfant, the latter of whom was born in that same township, in 1852, a daughter of Garrett and Elizabeth (Clements) Gibson, the former of whom was a son of Valentine Gibson, one of the pioneers of this county. Joel Chalfant was born in Ohio in 1827, a son of Jesse and Elizabeth (Winders) Chalfant, and was ten years of age when his parents came to Delaware county with their family and settled in Perry township in 1837. He grew to manhood here, established himself as a successful farmer in Monroe sonnet and died there at the age of seventy years.

CHARLES M. ORR, formerly and for many years engaged in the railway mail service and now engaged in the mercantile business at Selma, member of the firm of Orr & Murray, dealers in hardware, implements and coal, is a member of one of the pioneer families of Delaware county, the Orrs having been represented here since in the 30s of the past century when James Orr came over here from Greene county, Ohio, with his family and settled along Campbell creek in the lower part of Delaware township a mile or two east of the present village of Desoto. Charles M. Orr was born on the old home farm in Delaware township on August 23, 1850, and is a son of James and Julia Ann (Hopping) Orr, the latter of whom was born in Greene county, Ohio, a member of the pioneer Hopping family of that county. James Orr, who represented this district in the state Legislature during the time of the Civil war, was later state senator from this: district and who also served the county for years as a member of the board of county commissioners, was a native of Ireland, born in the town of Omagh, County Tyrone, February 25, 1815, and was six years old when in 1821 he came to this country with his parents, James and Elizabeth (Jamison) Orr, the family locating in the White Sulphur Springs neighborhood in Greenbriar county, Virginia, later moving into Monroe county, same state, now included in West Virginia. There the Orr family remained until in 1836 when they moved to Greene county, Ohio, and two years later, in 1838, came over here into the New Purchase and settled in Delaware township, this county. The senior James Orr bought 320 acres of land here and put up his home in section 27, near the south border of Delaware township. He was accompanied here by his children, Joseph, Margaret, Samuel, Martha and James. The junior James Orr was twenty-three years of age when he came over here in 1838. In January of that same year, in Greene county, he had married Julia Ann Hopping and he and his bride settled down to the serious task of creating a home in a woodland wilderness. He was a good farmer and it was not long until he became recognized as one of the representative farmers of the new county, as well as one of the leaders in the Whig party in this part of the state. In 1844 he was elected to represent his district on the board of county commissioners and for five or six years he served in that important public capacity. In 1853 he was elected to represent this district in the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly and in 1861 was sent back to the House, thus representing this district in the Legislature during the stressful times of the Civil war. In 1871 he was elected to represent this senatorial district (Delaware and Madison counties) in the Senate. In other ways, in various local capacities, he also rendered public service and was accounted one of the strong men of his generation in this county. James Orr died in 1895. He was twice married. His first wife (Julia Ann Hopping) died on April 30, 1869, and in June, 1870, he married Martha J. Campbell, of Selma. To James and Julia Ann (Hopping) Orr were born eight children, those besides the subject of this sketch (the sixth in order of birth) being William, James David, Margaret J., Samuel, Joseph N., Elizabeth Matilda and Mary Rebecca. The eldest son, William Orr, was colonel of the 20th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry during the Civil war. Charles M. Orr grew up on the home farm in Delaware township, completed his schooling at old Asbury University (now DePauw) at Greencastle, Ind., and for something more than ten years was engaged in teaching school during the winters, meanwhile continuing his attention to the farm, and. was thus engaged until in 1879 he entered the railway mail service, a service in which he was engaged for something more than forty years, or until his retirement in 1920. During all these years of postal service Mr. Orr had but two "runs," that between Pittsburg and St. Louis and 'between Cleveland and St. Louis, and he was retired with honor. Upon his retirement from the railway mail service Mr. Orr settled down in his old home town of Selma and became engaged in the hardware and coal business in association with his nephew, James Orr Murray, of whom further mention is made elsewhere, and has since been thus engaged, doing business under the firm name of Orr & 'Murray. On July 14, 1875, Charles M. Orr was united in marriage to Kate A. Sayre, daughter of William and Margaret (Scott) Sayre. Mrs. Orr died on June 30, 1913. Mr. Orr is a Republican. From the days of his youth until a few years ago he had been a member of the United Presbyterian church, in the faith of which communion he had been reared. He then united with the Methodist Episcopal church at 'Selma.

CHARLES. B. KIRKLIN, former assessor of Perry township, formerly and for a quarter of a century a teacher in the public schools of this county, now engaged in farming in Perry township, residing on rural mail route No. 6 out of Muncie, is a native son of Delaware county and has lived here all his life. Mr. Kirklin was born in the village of Cowan on February 25, 1873, and is a son of John R. and Elizabeth (Holler) Kirklin, the latter of whom was born in Montgomery county, Ohio. The late John R. Kirklin was born in Wayne county, Indiana, in 1826, and was a son of Jeremiah and Martha (Ballinger) Kirklin, the latter of whom was a daughter of a soldier of the Revolution. Jeremiah Kirklin, who was a native of North Carolina, had a farm of 100 acres in Wayne county. In 1832 he sold that place for $600 and moved with his family to Coles county, Illinois, where he entered a tract of land from the government and established his home, in time becoming a large landowner there. John R. Kirklin was six years of age when his parents moved to Illinois and he grew up in Coles county and was there married. In 1854 he returned to Indiana and settled on a farm in the Blountsville neighborhood in Henry county, where he lived until in 1871, when he came over into Delaware county and located at Cowan, where he started a cooper shop. In 1883 he moved from Cowan to Mt. Pleasant and in the latter place spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring in 1910. He was twice married. In 1844, in Illinois, he married Eliza Jane Brewer, who died in 1862 in Henry county. She was the mother of seven children, James, Taylor, William, Martha, Jacob, John and George. John R. Kirklin then married Mrs. Elizabeth (Holler) Richardson and of the children born to this union four grew to maturity, those besides the subject of this sketch being Eli, Elizabeth and Susan. Charles B. Kirklin was ten years of age when his father moved from Cowan to Mt. Pleasant and he completed his public schooling in the schools of the latter place and early began teaching school, a vocation he followed for twenty-five years, all of this service Save one year spent in Monroe township being rendered in Perry township. He was largely instrumental in securing the establishment of a high school in Perry township and was the first principal of that school. Meantime he had pursued his studies at the Central Indiana Normal School at Danville and the State Normal School at Terre Haute and in 1899 was graduated from this latter institution. In 1907-08 he took the scientific course in Indiana University. In 1915 Mr. Kirklin retired from active service in the school room and he had bought in 1910. He now has something more than sixtyseven acres, which he has well improved. Mr. Kirklin is a Republican and served for three years as assessor of Perry township. He is a Freemason and is now serving his second term as worshipful master of the Masonic lodge at New Burlington. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at New Burlington and he is a member of the official board of that congregation and has been superintendent of the Sunday school. Mr. and Mrs. Kirklin have two children, a daughter, Frances E., and a son, George Kirklin, both of whom are attending school in Perry township. Mrs. Kirklin was born in this township (Mercedes Marshall) and is a daughter of Horace and Julia (Offtendinger) Marshall, both of whom were born in that same township, members of pioneer families there. Horace Marshall was a farmer and owned land both in this county and in Henry county. Of the five children born to him and his wife four are still living, Mrs. Kirklin having two sisters, Mabel and Ruth, and a brother, Lloyd Marshall.

FRED ILLINGWORTH, president and general manager of the Holderfield Supply Company, general builders' supplies, at Muncie, made his first acquaintance with Muncie during the time of the erection of the court house back in the '80s and was so much "taken" with the town that he has been quite content to remain here ever since. Mr. Illingworth is a native of England, born on March 16, 1857, but was but an infant when his parents, John and Martha (Watson) Illingworth, left that country with their family and came across the water, locating at Ottawa, Canada. It was thus that Fred Illingworth was reared in Canada. He grew up at Ottawa and learned the stone-cutter's trade. At the age of twenty-one, in 1879, he came to the United States and began working as a journeyman stonecutter, being thus employed at several different places until in 1882, when he took employment with the contracting firm that then was engaged in the erection of the court house at Warsaw, Ind. After that he was engaged on public works at Frankfort and at Valparaiso and in 1887 came to Muncie to give a help out on the finishing touches then being put on the Delaware county court house. He later was employed on the erection of the court house at Evansville, one of the leading craftsmen of the Pearce & Morgan Company, and was for years thereafter in this company's employ. In 1897 Mr. Illingworth was returned to Muncie to superintend the erection of the normal school buildings and he ever since has been a resident of this city. Upon completing the normal school job he became engaged in the general contracting business at Muncie, opening a stone yard in North

High street. From this beginning was developed the general builders' supply line in which he is now engaged and when the Holderfield Supply Company was organized he was made president and general manager of that concern and has since been thus engaged, with offices and yards in East Jackson street, where the company has a well established and admirably equipped plant. Fred Illingworth has been thrice married. His first wife, Elizabeth Gilchrist, died and was buried at Muncie, leaving two children, Mabel Elizabeth and Arthur G. Mr. Illingworth later married Mrs. Wilhelmina Holderfield and after her death married Mrs. Sadie Hogett. The Illingworths live at 317 East Gilbert street. Mr. and Mrs. Illingworth are members of the Baptist church. Mr. Illingworth is a Scottish Rite (32°) and Knights Templar Mason and a noble of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is also affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.