Grant County, Indiana - The whole text, 1914 (part 14 of 32)

Mr. Shafer has been one of the working leaders in the Democratic party in Grant county since 1889. has served as delegate to county and state conventions, and is regarded as one of the most astute organ¬ izers and managers in this section of the state. In 1906 he consented to become a candidate for the state senate, and as already mentioned was the first Democrat elected from this district who ever succeeded in carrying Grant county. While in the senate Mr. Shafer was assigned to membership on several important committees, but his most con¬ spicuous service was done in the committee on labor, and his part in shaping legislation which came from that committee or was referred to it, was of such impartial and fair-minded character as to call forth the hearty commendation of laboring people all over the state, and was also indorsed by the regular press and political organization. Mr. Shafer has been appointed postmaster at Jonesboro by President Wilson. Mr. Shafer took his first degrees in Masonry in Jonesboro Lodge Na 109, F. & A. M., in 1890, and is a past master of the lodge and has been prominent both in that order and in the Knights of Pythias, which he has served as chancellor and for ten years as a member of the Grand Lodge. He is also a member of the Charter Lodge of the Order of Neptune at Marion.

Walter C. Keeghler. A very gratifying kind of success has been that of Walter C. Keeghler, the proprietor of the well appointed de¬ partment store of Matthews, carrying everything in stock which the public wants, from high grade pianos to needles and pins, including dry goods, groceries, all kinds of household supplies, queensware, brassware, and a full stock of five and ten cents goods, supplying the demands of both the country and town trade. Mr. Keeghler possessed a certain native ability in trade, otherwise he could hardly have made his record. He started out as a clerk, and with the experience and training thus acquired, finally borrowed a thousand dollars, and ventured on his own account. In a few years he had cleared up his indebtedness, and now has one of the best paying mercantile concerns in Grant county. Mr. Keeghler has been in business in Matthews since August, 1906, his location being at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Ninth Street. His store is forty-four by one hundred feet in dimension, and there is also a warehouse twenty-two by one hundred feet, while he is owner of a vacant lot adjoining his place of business. Mr. Keeghler also owns an attractive residence on Seventh Street, with three and a half lots of ground, a combined frame and cement structure, with a stone verandah, and all the modern improvements. Mr. Keeghler had several years experience as a clerk before starting out on his own account, and during that time was employed by his brother in-law, I. E. Powell, a merchant then at Matthews and now at Coffeyville, Kansas. In this way Mr. Keeghler learned the details of business, and then by his own efforts paid back the first thousand dollars he had borrowed and since that time his stock has been free from debt, and he has prospered steadily. Walter C. Keeghler was born at Half Acre Corner, in Wabash county, Indiana, October 9, 1870. He was reared and educated in and about Urbana, and worked at various occupations in several states before doming to Matthews in 1899. His parents were Oscar and Mary J. (Richardson) Keeghler. His father was a son of Henry Keeghler, of German parentage, and was five years old when brought to Wabash county, Indiana, by his widowed mother.* Oscar Keeghler 's mother died in Wabash county, and he himself lived there as a farmer, and died when still a young man at the age of thirty-two. His widow then married Joseph S. Sellers, and they both now reside in Long Beach, California.

Walter C. Keeghler was the only son, and the oldest of the family, his sisters being: Myrtle, wife of Mr. Powell of Coffeyville, Kansas, and the mother of two daughters ; Drexel and Artemisia ; and Clara

Mr. Keeghler was married at Converse, in Miami county, Indiana, to Miss Inez N. Roes, She was born in Richland township of Grant county, November 22, 1871, but was reared and educated in Miami county, near Converse. To their marriage has been born one daughter, Gretchen, on October 28, 1891. Her education was acquired in the city high schools, and for several years she has assisted her father as clerk in the store. Mr. Keeghler Js family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He is one of the vigorous Republicans in his section of Grant county, and a worker for good government and local improve¬ ment in every direction. He is also connected with several fraternal orders. He is treasurer and trustee of the local Matthews Lodge, F. & A. M., is affiliated with the Red Men of Matthews; belongs to the council and chapter of the Masonic bodies at Hartford City, and has affiliations with the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Converse.

William Miller. A life of quiet effectiveness marked by a record of many duties well done, and many responsibilities faithfully fulfilled was that of the late William Miller, who died at his home in Matthews, January 19, 1913. Outside of his service in the Civil war, where he made a record for coolness and bravery, he was never in the conspicu¬ ous activities of abnormal events, but in the faithful and intelligent performance of every task allotted to him during his long life, he left a record which may well be envied and admired by the generations to follow him.

William Miller was bom in Clermont county, Ohio, October 6, 1836, and was in his seventy-seventh year when death came to him. His parents were Daniel and Mary (Chapman) Miller. His father was a native of Ohio, and of German ancestry, and his mother was born in Kentucky of English stock. Daniel Miller and wife were married in Clermont county, Ohio, and there their careers began and all their children were born. About the time the Civil war broke out they moved to Indiana, and bought and located on eighty acres of land, located two and a half miles south of Muncie on the Middletown Pike. That was their home until 1871. Like many dwellers in the middle states, they were attracted by the high sounding promises of western lands, and moved out to Montgomery county, Kansas, buying a half section there. Their residence and activity as farmers in Kansas was brief, since the grasshopper scourge and the drought soon compelled them to abandon their enterprise and return to a more hopeful country. Thus in 1873 they reestablished their homes in Delaware county, and finally traded their three hundred and twenty acres of Kansas land for eightyfour acres in Washington township of Delaware county. There Daniel Miller died when seventy-three years of age. His wife had passed away some years previously when sixty-seven years old. They were good citizens, prominent workers in the United Brethren church, and Daniel Miller during his early manhood was a vigorous supporter of the Whig politics, and later equally strorfg in his advocacy of Republican prin¬ ciples. There were eight children. Two of them died in Ohio, four died in Indiana, and the two living are : Miss Angie, who is unmarried and makes her home with Mrs. Miller at Matthews, and Mary, wife of Edward McClelland, of Muncie, and the mother of one son and one daughter.

county, until the breaking out of the war. Then in May, 1862, he en¬ listed in Company C of the Second Ohio Volunteer Infantry, going in as a private and saw nearly three years of active service before his honorable discharge. He participated in the second battle of Bull Run, and later was in the armies under Sherman and other leaders and fought in the battle of Lookout Mountain, and many other engagements of the campaign. Much of his military experience was as driver of an ammunition wagon, and at the battle of Lookout Mountain he had a very narrow escape. His wagon in going up an incline road was stalled between two trees and was exposed to a crossfire, while the bullets were flying fast from both directions, he never flinched and stayed by the wagon until an orderly rode up and directed him to cut loose his mules and make a hasty escape. After the war he returned and rejoined his family, who in the meantime had taken up their residence in Delaware county, Indiana. He remained at home from 1865 until 1867, and in the latter year started out for himself and was married.

Mr. Miller married Miss Martha Pittser. Mrs. Miller, who survives her husband, and enjoys the high esteem of her neighbors in Jefferson township, was born in Henry county, Indiana, September 28, 1845, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Stewart) Pittser. Both her father and mother were born in Brown county, Ohio, but grew up in Henry county, where they were married. John Pittser was the son of Mathias and Sarah (Jones) Pittser. Mathias Pittser, who was born in Germany, came to America in early life, married in Ohio, and during the decade of the twenties, settled as a pioneer in Henry county, Indiana, where he entered eighty acres of wild land, direct from the government, and many years of his active career were devoted to the development and improvement of that estate. It was finally made a good home, and con¬ tinued to be the residence of Mathias and wife until they were both about threescore and ten years of age, at which time death came and removed them from the scenes of useful work and enjoyment. They were Methodist Protestants in religion. On her mother's side, Mrs. Miller is likewise related to pioneers in Henry county, Indiana, and the Stewart family has an ancestry which goes back to Scotland, and to the ancient clan of Stuarts, including the noted Mary Queen of Scots. Mrs. Miller's maternal grandparents, William and Margaret Stewart, built and established a home in Henry county, during the pioneer epoch, and lived there until a ripe old age. They were both members of the Christian church.

After their marriage, William Miller and wife took up their careers as farmers, and spent two years in Kansas, during 1871-73. There they experienced a share in the disasters already mentioned, and returned with other members of the family to Delaware county. Their home was on a farm in Delaware county until 1905, when they retired, and selected a home situated on five lots of land at the corner of Massachu¬ setts Avenue and Fourth Street in the village of Matthews. There Mrs. Miller still lives, and she is also owner of the farm of forty-two acres in Delaware county. Mrs. Miller is a fine type of the old-fashioned woman, a true lady, and possessed of the graces and the courtesies of the heart and mind which are so characteristic of the older generation.

Mrs. Miller is the mother of the following children: Lillian, who died in infancy; Ida, who died May 20, 1902, unmarried, and who for fifteen years was a successful educator in Delaware county, being a graduate of Fairmount Academy and the Terre Haute Normal School. Arthur, who was bom May 13, 1877, was educated in the public schools, and in Valparaiso University, now operates his mother's farm in Dela¬ ware county. Arthur Miller married Miss Myrtle Carmin of Delaware county, and they have four children - Ralph William, Walter I., Myra N., and Helen C. Mrs. Miller and family are members of the Christian church, and her husband was also a communicant in the same faith. His politics was Republican, and his son Arthur follows in the same political line.

Ruphas C. Nottingham. On section thirty-three of Jefferson town¬ ship, not far from the little city of Matthews, is a fine home and farm, and its proprietor, Mr. Nottingham, has a record which in many ways identifies him with Grant county, and his interest in the history of this locality is due not only to his own long residence, but to the fact that his family has lived here since the days of early settlement.

Ruphas C. Nottingham was born in Jefferson township of Grant county, August 29, 1855, so that he himself has lived here nearly sixty years. His grandfather, James Nottingham, who was of an old English family, and took its name from the Nottingham 'district in England, was a Virginian by birth and was four times married. His first wife was Elizabeth Russell, who died in Delaware county, after their settle¬ ment there at an early day. James Nottingham was a cabinet maker by trade and had a little shop in the pioneer village of Muncie, Indiana, when that town consisted of only a few houses in the woods and in the Hazel brush on the banks of White River. Mr. Nottingham and Miss Russell were married in Muncie. Later he traded his business to Bing¬ ham Simons for one hundred and twenty acres of land in Jefferson township, of Grant county. Mr. Simons had obtained that land direct from the government and had placed some improvements. James Not¬ tingham's first wife died in Muncie, leaving the following children: Owen P. ; Julia, who married Simon Clark, and left nine children; James Chaplain and Ellen, who died in girlhood. By his second wife, whom he married in Muncie, James Nottingham had one child, Thomas, who died aged about sixty years. James Nottingham then came to Grant county and married his third wife, who died without children. Hig fourth marriage was with Mrs. Sarah Litler, whose maiden name was Heal. She was a widow with nine children, and by James Notting¬ ham had four other children. James Nottingham and wife spent their last years in retirement in Jonesboro in Grant county, where they died when seventy-two years of age. They were active Methodists.

Owen P. Nottingham, father of Ruphas C., was born in Muncietown, as the city of Muncie was then called, on October 18, 1832. His prac¬ tical experience in business affairs began when a mere boy. He was given a contract to carry the mail, and on horseback and in all binds of weather, and over all kinds of roads, he rode throughout this part of the state, and went through hardships that now seem almost incredible. Oftentimes he was on the road and in the saddle all night long in order to get his mail to its proper connections. The very fact of his success¬ ful performance of those duties indicate his pluck and energy. He was a very capable horseman, and his skill in the management of the handling of horses enabled him the more easily to carry out his work as a mail carrier. When nineteen years of age he left the mail service, and in 1832 was married in Grant county to Miss Mary Ann Couch, who was born in Darke county, Ohio, February 1, 1830, and came to Indiana when young with her mother and grandfather, Samuel Todd. Her people settled in Jefferson township of Grant county. After his marriage, Owen P. Nottingham started out as a farmer in Jefferson township. Previously, however, he had acquired the trade of harnessmaker, and followed that occupation for some time. In 1863, quiet vocations of civil life were exchanged for military duties, and he enlisted in the Fifty-fourth Indiana Infantry, serving as teamster and wagon master, for fourteen months. After his return to Grant county, he spent the rest of his yearg in farming pursuits in Jefferson township, and died January 25, 1907. His wife had died some years before on October 10, 1883, at the age of fifty-two years. She was a noble wife and mother, and both of them were influential and very worthy people, acting as counsellors to the community on many occasions, and Owen Nottingham many times was able to secure peace among his neighbors. His politics was Republican. There were ten children, six sons and four daughters in the family, and five of the sons and four of the daughters are still living. All are married, and all have families and homes of their own.

Ruphas C. Nottingham, who was the second in number in this large family of children, was reared and educated in Jefferson township, and has always given his attention to farming. His home is in section thirtythree of Jefferson township, and comprises a fine farm estate of one hundred and seven acres, one of the conspicuous improvements on which is the fine brick house, surrounded with excellent barns and other facil¬ ities which indicate the progressive manner in which Mr. Nottingham carries on his farming operations. Directly across the road, only lying in Delaware county, he also owns eighty acres.

On November 11, 1874, Mr. Nottingham married Miss Ida Kirstead. She was born June 1, 1855, near Jackson, Michigan, was reared and educated in Indiana, and died March 14, 1889. She was survived by one daughter, Florence, the wife of Walter W. Slain, and they now live on a farm in Jefferson township, and have two children, Virgil and Ormal. Mr. Nottingham, on September 10, 1891, in Jefferson township, married for his second wife, Mrs. Lasina Newberger, whose maiden name was Richards. Her father is L. G. Richards, a prominent Grant county citizen, whose sketch will be found on other pages of this work. Mrs. Nottingham by the first marriage has one son, Clarence Newberger. Clarence Newberger was married in Philadelphia to Mrs. Anna Mann, and they now live in Richmond, Virginia, and have five children. The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Nottingham : Goldie, bom November 26, 1891, and now the wife of Clyde E. Harris, and living in Madison county, Indiana ; Ray and May, twins, born March 27, 1895; Ray married Pauline Lambert, and is a farmer in Washing¬ ton township of Delaware county; May is the wife of Earl Parkerson, of Delaware county; Mary, born September 5; 1898, is at home and attending the public schools. Mr. and Mrs. Nottingahm are members of the Harmony Primitive Baptist church at Matthews.

The politics of Mr. Nottingham is Republican, in which political faith he has acted and believed since he cast his first vote during the Hayes campaign.

Elisha Overman. One of the most interesting and best known families in Grant county is the Overman family, several generations of whom have been identified with the growth and progress of this section of the state, and many of whom have done more than the average citizen toward the upbuilding and advancement of their communities.

Elisha Overman, whose name introduces this brief family sketch, comes of Pennsylvania ancestry. His grandfather, one Elijah Over¬ man, came from that state to Ohio in the early days of Clinton county, and there he settled upon and improved a farm. He passed the remainder of his life there, and when he died he was but little beyond middle life. He left four children - Jesse, Benjamin and two daughters whose names do not appear in this record. All grew to years of maturity, all married and all reared families. All are now deceased. After the death of Elijah Overman, his widow married Amos Davis, and they came to Grant county and located in Center township. There they passed the remainder of their lives on the farm they settled upon, Amos Davis being about seventy-one when he passed away, while his widow survived him a few years. All were members of the Friends cfhurch. Mr. Davis was a Whig and later was a Republican, and was always an excellent citizen in his community. He and his wife had two children. Henry married and lives on a farm in the vicinity of Sweetser, in Grant county, and is without issue. Melissa became the wife of Reuben Small and lives in Anthony, Kansas. They have four sons.

- Benjamin Overman was bora in November, 1814, and died in March, 1906. When a young man he came to Grant county and located in Franklin township, but he had lived for some years prior to that with his mother and step-father in Center township. He was twice married. His first wife was a Miss Burson, who died a few years later in Franklin township where he settled soon after his marriage. She left him one daughter, Melissa, who is now married and who lives in North Marion and has two sons. The second wife of Benjamin Overman was Clarissa Marshall. She was born in this county and was here reared, for the most part, and she died in Franklin township while she was yet a young woman, death coming to her in 1857. Thus was Benjamin Overman widowed a second time in his young life. She was mother of three children - Henry, deceased; Elisha, our subject; and Riley, deceased.

A third time did Benjamin Overman marry, and the woman of his choice was a half sister of his second wife. Her name was Rebecca Marshall, and she too was a Grant county girl. She died some few years after the passing of her husband, her death occurring in 1908, when she was about fifty-three years of age. She was the mother of the following children: Elizabeth, who married Albert Brown and lives in Mill township ; they have two children, Della and Virgil. Dora, the wife of Abe Gross, lives in Wabash county; they have three children. Mahala, the wife of George Shaw, lives in Mill township, and is the mother of seven children.

Elisha Overman is the son of Benjamin and Clarissa (Marshall) Overman, and he was born in Franklin township, Grant county, on May 28, 1853. After the death of his young mother in 1857 he lived at the home of his Grandfather Davis, and was educated in the common schools of that period. When he reached young manhood he married in Mill township Martha Enterminger, who was bom in Mill town¬ ship in 1856 and died at her home in this township in 1886. She was the mother of three children. Leland died in infancy. David E. was born on November 9, 1884. He now owns and operates his own farm of 124 acres in Section 27, Mill township, the place being a .well improved and productive one. He is unmarried and lives at home. William died at the age of twelve years.

Mr. Overman was married a second time in White county, Indiana, to Miss Minnie McGinnis, who was bom in Carroll county on December 29, 1869, near Delphi. She is a daughter of Freeman and Hannah (Snethen) McGinnis, natives of Indiana who were engaged in farming in White, Carroll and Cass counties in later years of their lives. Late in life they took up their residence in Gas City, and they died in this place - the father in 1906, when he was sixty-two years of age, and the mother in 1904, at the age of fifty-eight. They were long members of the Christian church, both having been baptized at the same time, but later in life, as a matter of convenience, they united with the

Baptist church. They had five children. Willard, a resident of Gas City, is married and has a family; Andrew lives in Gas City, and he also is married and has six children; Mrs. Overman was their third child; Elijah, a resident of Cass county, married and has two daughters; and Mary, who died after her marriage as the result of a gas explosion at the Soldiers ' Home on January 21, 1904. Her husband, Charles 0. Beitel, was killed at the same time. The explosion caused a falling of the* walls of the place, and both were crushed in their beds. They left two children. Orval C. lives in the home of his aunt, Mrs. Overman, and Harry R. lives with Mrs. Rose, in Madison county.

The second marriage of Mr. Overman was blessed with two children : Ethel C., the wife of C. D. Smith, and Roy L., who lives with his sister, Mrs. Smith.

Following Mr. Overman's second marriage, they lived for ten years on a farm in Section 28, Mill township, the years from 1889 to 1899 being spent there. He then purchased a farm of 182 acres in Section 12, Mill township, and this place he has improved to a great extent in the years of his residence there. The place is now one of the finest in the whole county, and is noted for its bountiful crops of corn and other ' grains, Mr. Overman having demonstrated his capacity as a farmer of the finest merit. In 1899, when he took up his residence on the place, he built a fine barn, that being the crying need of the place, and in 1906 he further improved the farm by adding a splendid residence, in every way suited to the character and general quality of the farm. Here he lived until 1910, when he rented it to his son-in-law, C. D. Smith, and he and his wife retired from farm life and settled in Gas City, where they built a home on the corner of Fifth and B streets.

Mrs. Overman is a member of the Bible Students Association and is a woman of many excellent qualities of mind and heart. While Mr. Overman holds to no settled religious conviction as outlined by church doctrine and membership, he is a man of sterling character and one whose influence in his community has always been an excellent one. He is a Democrat, and at a recent election was elected Councilman-at-large for his community. His accomplishments have been most worthy, and after a busy career, in which he gained a considerable prosperity, he feels himself entitled to a few years of quiet life, in pursuit of those enterprises that appeal to his maturer wisdom and judgment.

Monte Sylvester Dunn. Here is a name that has been identified with Grant county settlement and history for three-quarters of a cen¬ tury. It has become honored and respected, through long years of successive industry, business integrity, and Christian and moral char¬ acter. Few Grfcnt county families have been longer established, and none have borne their part in community affairs with greater credit to themselves and with more practical usefulness to the community than the Dunns. Until death laid its restraining finger upon him, the late Monte S. Dunn was one of the ablest farmers and most public-spirited citizens of Jefferson township. His widow, who belongs to the old pioneer Littler family, has taken up the burdens laid down by her hus¬ band, and has quietly and effectively performed all the offices required of the head of a family. Mrs. Dunn is a woman of fine culture, of the essential qualities of heart and mind which are associated with the old-fashioned type of womanhood, and possesses a keen intelligence and interest much beyond the usual range of people who spend their lives quietly in one community.

Pennsylvania or Virginia, in 1790, and after seventy-five years of life passed away at the home of his son, Thomas, at New Cumberland in Grant county, on June 3, 1865. He was of Scotch-Irish ancestry. His occupation was that of farming, and so far as information is obtainable it is believed that he married in Virginia, Miss Cassandra Knight. She was a Virginia girl, born in 1795, and died in 1862. For several years after their marriage they lived in Virginia, then moved to Ohio, and some years later, during the early thirties, established a home in what is now Washington township of Delaware county, where John Dunn entered one hundred and sixty acres of wild land. He and his wife lived and labored there until old age, and were pioneers who succeeded in clearing off a considerable part of the wilderness and establishing comfortable homes. They were devout members of the Primitive Bap¬ tist faith, and were active in the history of that church in the early days, both in Delaware and in Grant county. John Dunn and wife had a large family of children, and these are briefly mentioned under the following numerical heads: 1. Thomas, who was born in 1812 in Vir¬ ginia or Ohio, in young manhood entered government land, in Wash¬ ington township of Delaware county, wrhere he lived many years, and later established a mill at New Cumberland in Grant county. His declining years were spent in Grant county and he died at the old home in New Cumberland, October 17, 1881, when past sixty-nine years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was Sarah Reasoner, of one of the old families of Grant county, died on the same place, July 19, 1891, being seventy-six years and four months of age. The children of Thomas and wife were: Mrs. Anna Lewis, deceased; John, who was a soldier in the Union army, and now lives in Mississippi ; Mary, wife of Esley Stephenson, of Matthews; Benjamin R., who was killed at the battle of Cliickamauga during the Civil war at the age of twenty-one; and Gehiel, who died unmarried at the age of twenty-one; Sarah J., wife of Richardson Watson, lives in Santa Paula, California; Car¬ olina, wife of James Littler, both of whom died without issue; Mrs. Samantha, wife of Monroe Darton, of Delaware county, and the parents of one son ; Thomas J., who was a miller by occupation and died leav¬ ing one son. 2. James Dunn, father of the late Monte S., was born probably in Virginia in 1814, and died in 1863. He married Cassandra Evans, who was born in 1824, and died in 1903. Further details con¬ cerning these parents are given in a following paragraph. 3. William, who was born either in Virginia or Ohio, was married on the line be¬ tween Blackford and Grant county to Sebra Reasoner, followed farming in Delaware county, until his death, and had seven children. 4. Har¬ mon, who like the others adopted farming as his vocation, was also skilled in mechanical pursuits, and in early life followed wagonmaking. He spent practically all his life in Delaware county, where he had acquired land direct from the government, and at his death left a fam¬ ily of children. 5. Sarah, married Benjamin Lewis, a Delaware county farmer, and lived and died on the old place without children. 6. Mary, became the wife of Benjamin Reasoner, a well known farmer of Grantcounty, and they left several children. 7. John, the youngest of the family, was a successful Delaware county farmer, where he died, leaving five children.

James Dunn, who was born October 12, 1814, and who died at his home on section four of Jefferson township in Grant county in 1863, was quite young when he first came to Grant county, and was a partic¬ ipant in the early development and history of his township, where he started his career as a farmer. After his marriage in 1847, he entered land and established his home at what is known now as the Dunn Home- stead, and having been originally entered by his father, John Dunn, about 1838. Mr. Dunn was a man of vigorous personality and in the course of his lifetime, although he died when in the prime of his years, made many improvements to his farm, and made his influence felt for good in the entire community. His place was improved in various ways, good barns were erected and a fine old frame house was the home in which he passed his last years. In 1847, James Dunn married Cas¬ sandra Evans, who was born in Allegany county, Pennsylvania, June 15, 1824, and died at the homestead, February 16, 1903. Her father was Thomas Evans. She joined the Presbyterian church on January 30, 1871, and died in that faith. She was a noble, whole-hearted woman, ever ready to assist in the troubles of her neighbors, and by her benev¬ olent activities and her kindly personal character was beloved through¬ out the entire country side. The children of James Dunn and wife were as follows : Randolph, who died in young manhood ; Almira Jane, who died also when young; Oliver Perry, who lives on and operates a large farm in Delaware county, is married, but has no children living; Monte S., who is next in order of the children; and Sarah P., a twin sister of Monte and the wife of A. T. Wright, of Marion, and the mother of three daughters and one son.

The late Monte Sylvester Dunn was born on the farm he occupied all his life in Jefferson township,, on March 10, 1857, and died at the Dunn Homestead, as it is familiarly known throughout Jefferson town¬ ship, April 23, 1913. Reared on the old place he had an education like that supplied most farmer boys in his generation, and after growing up came into the possession of the farm of one hundred and fifty-six acres, where he and his brothers and sisters had grown up. His was a very active life. He was a man of excellent judgment, and his indus¬ try and good management resulted in the addition of many improve¬ ments, besides those introduced by his father. He left a beautiful and valuable home for his widow and children. The old dwelling is a com¬ fortable ten-room house, mostly of frame construction, and beyond the house yard are a group of outbuildings, comprising red barns and other structures, required for up-to-date farming. As a farmer and stock raiser, the late Monte S. Dunn was probably as successful and as pro¬ gressive as any man in his township. His widow and her sons are still keeping up the standards set by the late Mr. Dunn, and have been no less successful in making the homestead pay regular annual dividends.

On April 26, 1888, in Hartford City, Indiana, Monte Sylvester Dunn and Miss Mary E. Littler were united in the holy bonds of matri¬ mony by Rev. McKean, then an old and beloved Presbyterian minister. She was bom in Jefferson township, of Grant county, September 13, 1858, was liberally educated in the public schools, and was well prepared both by native character and by her early influences for the career of motherhood and social beneficence, which has been hers. Her parents were Nathan and Katherine (Whistler) Littler. Her father was born in Virginia, and her mother in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. They met and married in Ohio, and their companionship as man and wife was begun on the banks of the Mississinewa river in Jefferson township of Grant county. Their first home was built of logs, and in spite of the crudities and hardships of such existence, they had the courage and true wisdom of patience which made those years not unhappy. Later they established a better home, and lived quiet and useful lives. Mr. Littler died there during the Civil war in 1863, being then in the prime of life, and his widow followed him in 1870. They were active Methodists in religion, and Nathan Littler took much part in church work, being possessed of a naturally beautiful voice, which he cultivated, and which he used in church and social affairs. He was also a great reader of religious and secular literature. Mrs. Dunn has one brother living, Joseph W. Littler, who now owns and runs the old Littler homestead in Jefferson township. Joseph Littler married Elizabeth Dunn, a daughter of Harmon Dunn, and they have four daughters. The two sons of Mrs. Dunn are: Phillip, born May 18, 1890, was graduated from the Matthews high school as one of a class of ten in 1909, and after taking a course in animal husbandry at Purdue University, has applied his practical experience and scientific training to the management of the home farm, being a very successful young agriculturist. James Homer Dunn, who was born July 13, 1896, is a member of the class of 1915 in the Matthews high school. Mrs. Dunn and her two sons are members of the Epworth Methodist church at Matthews.

George Frederick Slater. During the past quarter of a century it would not have been possible to estimate the sum total of Jefferson township enterprise without reference to the name of George Fred Slater, a man who has made farming a real business. He is one of the large land owners of the county and has been successful through the same qualities which brings prosperity to residence or factory owner. Beside the possession of a splendid homestead in section twenty-seven of Jefferson county, and land in other localities, Mr. Slater is vice president of the Matthews State Bank, having held that office since the reorganization of the bank three years ago. A further evidence of his standing in the community as a citizen is indicated by his service of five years in the office of township trustee from 1896 to 1901. The Slater farm in Jefferson township is well wdthin the gas and oil belt, and has been the scene of much productive operation. During the past, six gas wells and twenty-one oil holes have been sunk on the Slater farm, and in only a few instances did they prove dry, and some of these wells are still producing.

Mr. Slater's grandfather, James Slater, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, about 1800. His death occurred in Henry county, Illinois, in 1893 or 1894. His ancestry was about three parts of English to one part of German. All his active years were spent in farming, and he had moved to Illinois about the close of the Civil war. He was twice married, and his first wife having died in Ohio before 1840, and his second wife, who became his wife in Ohio, died in Illinois. There were children by both wives. By the first union the children were : William ; John; and Benjamin, who died unmarried, while John was married and reared a large family of ten children, both he and his wife having passed away in Henry county, Illinois.

William Slater, father of the Grant county farmer and business man, was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, in 1834. When a small child he lost his mother, and then lived on the farm with his father and step¬ mother in Ohio until he became of age. He received what was in that time a liberal education, and for his practical career learned the trade of carpenter, a vocation which he followed for several years. At the age of twenty-three he married Miss Mary T. Marks, who was of English ancestry, and a native of old Virginia. Her parents having been bom in Loudoun county, in that state. Mrs. William Slater was bom in 1834 and accompanied her parents to Ohio in 1840, locating in Guernsey county, where her father died when about sixty years of age, and her mother at the age of seventy-six. There were twelve children in the Marks family, ten of whom grew up and most of them married, all being deceased. In 1852, William Slater and wife came to Indiana, where he bought an almost new farm on section twenty-seven of Jeffer¬ son township. In the meantime, however, a daughter, Hannah, had been bom to them, but she died in infancy and another child, James Mason, died as a boy. On the quarter section of land which he acquired in Jefferson township, he made many improvements. A large bam ap¬ peared in 1861, and three years later was followed by the erection of a substantial residence, and these were only the more conspicuous among a number of improvements which made the Slater farm one of the best in that section. William Slater was a very prosperous man and besides the homestead he owned one hundred and twenty acres in one place and two hundred and ten acres including a part of the site of the city of Matthews. The death of William Slater occurred on the old farm in January, 1875. He was a Republican in politics, and he and his wife, whp died in December, 1879, were active members in the Methodist Episcopal church. Of their six children, four are living and all are married.

George Frederick Slater was born in Jefferson township August 20, 1864, and was reared to manhood in the locality which has always been his home. Like his father, he had more than ordinary advantages in preparation for life, and besides a public school course, he studied in Danville College, and later, in 1886, was a student in Bryant and Strat¬ ton's Business College, Indianapolis. A few years of his early manhood were spent in teaching school, but farming has been his regular vocation for upwards of thirty years.

In 1886 Mr. Slater took over the old homestead, and is now owner of two hundred and eighty acres of land in section twenty-seven, besides one hundred and twenty acres in Delaware county, that place being improved with fine large barns, and a very valuable estate in itself. General farming and stock raising have been the avenues through which Mr. Slater has prospered, and he has always been careful to keep up his grades of stock at high standard, and has profited accordingly. He raises and feeds a large number of hogs, cattle and fine sheep, and grows practically all the grain cereals.

Mr. Slater was married in Blackford county to Miss Joanna Cora Atkinson, who was bom in Licking township of that county in 1865, and had a public school education. Her parents, Addison and Har¬ riet (McVicker) Atkinson now live retired in Blackford county, where they were among the earlier settlers, her father being seventy years of age, and her mother one year older. Mr. and Mrs. Slater have the following children: William A., who is a farmer in Washington town¬ ship in Delaware county, married Etha Linder, and has two children, Martha and George ; Frank is a farmer on one of his father's farms, and by his marriage to Hazel Wills has a daughter, Bertha; Eva M., who lives at home is a graduate of the local high school, as were her two brothers, their school advantages having also been supplemented by business college courses ; Mary died at the age of one year ; and Mar¬ garet, the youngest, is now in the grade schools. Mr. and Mrs. Slater and family worship in the Methodist Episcopal church, in which he is a trustee and steward. In politics he supports the Republican party.

William C. Walker. A citizen who was known and esteemed for his many substantial virtues and his success as a farmer and carpenter was the late William C. Walker, who was born in Jefferson township of Grant county, October 29, 1844, and who died at his homestead in section thirty-four of the same township on October 7, 1907. Since his death Mrs. Sarah Walker, his widow, has owned and controlled the fine farm of seventy acres one mile north of the little city of Matthews, and has continued to enjoy the esteem which is paid to her both for her own gracious personality and for the part which her late husband played in this community.

William G. Walker was a son of John Walker, whose birth occurred in Rock Bridge county, Virginia, and in young manhood moved to Ohio, where he was a substantial young farmer at the time of his mar¬ riage to Marion Case. She was bom in Ohio, and of Irish parentage, while the Walkers of Scotch-Irish stock. After some of their children were born in Ohio, John Walker and wife moved to Jefferson township in Grant county. They were here among the early settlers, and the father undertook to clear up his land in the wooded section, but died in 1844, when his son William was but six months old. His widow sub¬ sequently married Jesse Ballenger, and they reared a family of children and spent their final years apart, he dying in Grant county and she in Delaware county, when past seventy years of age. Of the children besides William, the following are given brief mention: Samuel, who died at Upland, Indiana, after a career as a farmer, and whose widow and daughter and son live in Upland ; Mary, now deceased, whose hus¬ band was William Simons, a retired farmer in Fairmont; Katherine, now deceased, was the wife of James Needier, also deceased, and they left three sons and four daughters; Margaret is the widow of Amos Pugh, and lives in Jefferson township on a farm, but has no living children.

The late William C. Walker was only three years old when he went to live with his Aunt Jane, wife of Joseph Reasoner. His home was with that worthy couple until he was about seventeen years old, and in the meantime he was given such advantages in the local school as most boys of his time receive. Soon after the outbreak of the Rebellion, he enlisted in the Eighth Indiana Infantry, and saw three years of hard military service, only excepting a few months in which he was on an invalid's furlough, after drinking some poisoned spring water in Mis¬ souri. He was never hit with a bullet or captured, though one ball passed through his hat. On his return from the Civil war he remained on the farm of his uncle until his marriage.

In 1865 Mr. Walker married Mrs. Sarah Forsythe, whose maiden name was Graham. Mrs. Walker was born in Mercer county, Illinois. October 10, 1840. A year or so later her mother died in that state at the birth of twins, and John Graham, her father, in 1843, moved to Indiana, and lived in Grant county until 1846. He then took his chil¬ dren back to Illinois, and a few years later went to Wisconsin, which remained his home until 1860. In the meantime he had married a Mrs. Mary McMichael. In 1860 he once more came to Grant county for the purpose of securing treatment for cancer, and died at New Cumberland in the same year, at the age of seventy-six. He was three times married, and by each wife had children, he having been the father of sixteen. He also raised two orphans, having raised in all eighteen children.

Mrs. Walker first married Elijah Forsythe who died in the prime of life. He had gone to the front as a soldier in Company C of the Eighteenth Wisconsin Regiment of Infantry as a private and served faithfully as a soldier up to and including the battle of Shiloh. In that historic conflict he fought all day long in the rain without any food, and as a result he was taken ill and furloughed home, but died while on the way in a soldier's hospital at Keokuk, Iowa. lie was buried at Keokuk, and his remains now rest in the soldier's cemetery at that city. Mr. Forsythe was of a good family, of Scotch stock, belonging to the old seceder faith, and most of the male members were men of wealth or at least more than ordinary circumstance. Elijah Forsythe was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, in 1849. At his death he left one daughter that died in infancy. Mrs. Walker by her marriage to the late Mr. Walker had two daughters: Blanche, who is unmarried, is a young woman of splendid education and lives at home with her mother; Jennie, who is also well educated and was for some time a teacher, is the wife of Alvin Dickerson of Upland, and has two chil¬ dren, Cloyd and Geneva; Cloyd Dickerson is now a student in Purdue University, and his sister is a graduate of the Upland high school, and is now a student of music at Marion. Mrs. Walker has a foster son, Christian Ed. Walker, a noted tenor singer, with an established repu¬ tation in musical circles in Chicago. In April, 1913, he married Jennie Dancy. Mrs. Walker and family are members of the Presbyterian faith.

Henry Wise comes of a sturdy old Pennsylvania family, of German ancestry, and one that has through many generations furnished stanch and true men to the affairs of the nation. The Wise family was estab¬ lished in Pennsylvania, in Center county, prior to the Revolutionary war, and from then down to the present day men of the name have filled worthy places in their proper niches in life. The names of the grand¬ parents of Henry Wise are not now known to him, but he does know that they were born, reared and died in Center county, and that his grandsire was a blacksmith of unusual ability and merit, and that in his day he made many of the farm implements used by the sturdy Ger¬ man farmers of his region. Mr. Wise has in his possession a pair of nail nippers, interesting in their appearance, showing as they do their hand made origin, and valuable to him as having been made by his grandfather at his forge. The old stock were of the German Lutheran faith, and stanch religionists in every generation.

Samuel Wise, son of the blacksmith and the father of Henry Wise, whose name heads this review, was born in Center county in about 1812. He grew up in his native community and early learned the trade of a carpenter. When a young man he determined to come west, believing that greater opportunities lay in store for the ambitious young adventurer, and he walked the entire distance to Canton, Ohio, where he secured work at his trade at fifty cents per day. Later he advanced to the prosperous state where he was paid seventy-five cents a day for his labors, and was considered a high priced man at that figure in those early days. After a season he returned to Pennsylvania and there worked at his trade in his native state. He was an expert cabinet maker, and he was occupied in that work and in coffin making, as well as in making furniture. He enjoyed a busy trade in that work, and it is a notable fact that certain articles of furniture that came from his hands are now in the possession of his son.

Mr. Wise married in Center county, Pennsylvania, Miss Katherine, or Kate, as she was familiarly called, the daughter of a Mr, Bickel, a girl who was born and reared in Center county of good old Penn¬ sylvania stock. It was not until after the birth of their three sons, John Jacob, Henry and Samuel, that the family came to Grant county. That event took place in the year 1848, and they came all the long distance with oxteams, and in coming came in contact with only two railroads. They made their first settlement in Jefferson county, there purchasing 160 acres of wild land, whose only sign of civilization was presented in a deserted log cabin. Here they devoted themselves to the business of farming in genuine earnest, and the parents lived to see more than 100 acres of this wilderness well improved and in a fertile and blooming condition. It was, in truth, a fine farm, and there Samuel Wise and his wife lived for many years, later retiring, and both died at the home of their son, Jacob Wise, a sketch of whom will be found elsewhere in this work. The father was then ninety years of age, and his widow died a few years afterward, she too being well advanced in years. They never faltered in their allegiance to the German Lutheran church, despite the fact that there were in those days no other churches of that denomination in their new home. The father was a Democrat and a splendid type of citizen.

Henry Wise is the only surviving one of the four sons bom to his parents. Jacob, it should be said, is referred to fully in a sketch devoted to him, so that further mention is not necessary here. John died in Jefferson township, leaving a family, all of whom have since followed him. Samuel, the youngest of the family, was drafted into the army during the Civil war, but before his company reached the front he fell ill and died. He was unmarried.

Henry Wise was born in Center county, Pennsylvania, on March 25, 1835, and he was thirteen years of age when he came with his parents to Grant county. He was reared on his father's farm and had such schooling as the subscription schools of the day provided, in a log school house of the most primitive type. The puncheon floor, the rude bench, and the improvised writing desk made by resting rough boards on pins projecting from the log walls of the building, all were common to his day, and such training as went with the rough equipment was considered ample for the boy of that early period.

When Mr. Wise became of age he worked for his father on the home farm for three years, receiving for his services $100 yearly. After he had taken out $25 for what he called his " Sunday" clothes, hfe loaned the remainder to his father at five per cent per annum, and when his brother Samuel became of age a year or so later, they joined forces in the purchase of a horse power threshing machine. Together the young men each threshing season would traverse the country there¬ about, threshing for those small farmers and others who did not feel able to maintain a machine of their own. The money they made in this way the young men invested in an eighty acre farm in Jefferson town¬ ship, which they operated in connection with the home farm for some years. During the Civil war period they purchased and established the first portable saw mill in Grant county. After eighteen months of operation they sold the mill for $1,500 more than it had cost them. Later they employed substitutes to take their place in the army, the death of young Samuel before he reached the front having disheartened them for any similar service.

It was about then that Henry Wise began to farm on his own account. His first operations were in Jefferson township, but in 1869 he came to Mill township and here purchased 150 acres, partly improved, to which he later added 73 acres. Still later he purchased an additional 30 acres, and this total of 250 acres is now well drained and improved, and is held to be one of the best farms in the township. A fine house, commodious and complete, as well as a splendid bam, are in evidence, and the conditions existing about the' place reflect the energetic and progressive spirit of the man.

Mr. Wise has raised a quantity of fine shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs on the place, and his success as a breeder has been excellent.

In 1905 his success had reached a place where he felt able to retire from active business, and he purchased a fine house on North A and Sixth streets in Gas City. Here he lives quietly after a strenuous, but prosperous career.

Mr. Wise was married in Jefferson township to Miss Margaret Simons, who wa a bom there on April 1, 1861. She is a daughter of William and Mary (Walker) Simons, old settlers of Jefferson township. There Mrs. Simons died when past middle life and Mr. Simons resides in Summitville, Madison county, Indiana. Mrs. Wise is a Presbyterian in her religious faith.

Three children have blessed the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Wise. Lillian, the wife of Walter Vance, occupies the home farm with her husband; they have no issue. Chestie is the wife of Chester Carter, and they now live in Marion, Indiana. They have two daughters, Irene and Dorothy, Gladys married Frank Morrow, and they live at Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he is an overseer in a large factory of that city. They have no children.

Leander N. Millspaugh. Those who pass along the roads of Jeffer¬ son township are sure to comment with favor upon the attractive residence and farm of Leander N. Millspaugh, located in section six and on rural route No. 2 out of Gaston. The fences and the cultivation of the fields are an indication to the practical farmer that an energetic and businesslike farmer lives on that place, and the comfortable white dwelling house in the midst of fruit trefcs and the shade trees, and the large red barn and other buildings; also indicate thrift and prosperity. Prosperity has come to Mr. and Mrs. Millspatigh as a result of hard labor and close management, and while prospering themselves they have not been unmindful of the needs of the unfortunate and have borne a helpful share in community activities.

The Millspaugh family have a number of representatives in Grant and Delaware counties. Grandfather James Millspaugh, according to all information available, was born and spent all his life in New York state and was a farmer.. Of his children one daughter was Sallie, who married a Mr. Clark, and their home was near Cincinnati, Ohio. The son Gilbert C. Millspaugh, the father of Leander N., was born in New York state in 1806. The ancestry of the Millspaugh is German. Gilbert Millspaugh was reared on a farm and when a young man settled in Fayette county, Indiana, among the pioneers. In that county he was married to Miss Lucy Williams who was born prob¬ ably in southern Indiana, about 1812. After their marriage they lived on a farm in Fayette county where their seven sons and one daugh ter were all bom. This family of children are described as fol¬ lows: Harvey, who was a carpenter by trade and died in Fayette county, leaving a family of children; Oliver H., who, after a long career as a carpenter and farmer is now living retired in California, was three times married and had children by his two wives; William, who was a veteran of the Thirty-Sixth Indiana Regiment, and was for a time a prisoner of war, was a farmer until his death in Washington township of Delaware county; Peter, who was a skilled workman and successful carpenter and builder, lived and died in Jefferson town¬ ship of Grant county, and by two marriages left two sons and some daughters ; Catherine married Daniel Richards, a farmer of Delaware county, and there are two sons and a daughter still living of their union ; Leander N ; Milton J., who has a large family of children by two marriages, now lives on his farm near Marion in North Dakota.

The birth of Leander N. Millspaugh occurred in Fayette county, Indiana, January 8, 1847. There he was reared until 1860, and in that year the family moved to Delaware county. His father died in Delaware county in 1861 at the age of fifty-six, and when the mother was a second time married, Leander, though still but a boy in years, set out to make his own way, and soon afterwards came to Grant county. The second husband of his mother was William Hollis. Mr. Millspaugh 's mother died in Grant county when threescore years of age. With a common school education, acquired in the country school, Leander Millspaugh got his practical training for life on a farm, and has made a prosperous business out of tilling the soil. His beauti¬ ful farm of eighty acres is in section six of Jefferson township, and he and his wife have lived there since their marriage. It was inherited by Mrs. Millspaugh from her mother. They not only have a good farm but a comfortable nine-room residence and good barns and other facilities for successful farming, and the growing of livestock is one of the chief industries of the Millspaugh place.

Mr. Millspaugh was married in Jefferson township February 16, 1871, to Miss Sarah E. Burgess, who was born in Fayette county, Indiana, March 28, 1850. She was partly reared and educated in her native county, and partly in Grant county, and she finished her educa¬ tion in the Delaware county public schools. Her father, Israel Burgess, was born in Indiana about 1822 and was married in Fayette county to Ruth Crawford, who was born in Fayette county, March 9, 1821. Israel Burgess was a farmer by occupation and died in Fayette county in 1851. His widow was married February 17, 1857, to John D. Kirk¬ wood, of Fayette county. Mr. Kirkwood was born October 29, 1826, and in 1862 established his home in Grant county, locating on a farm of eighty acres in section six of Jefferson township. The Kirkwood farm was later increased by the addition of eighty acres more, and there on what is known as Kirkwood Creek, he and his wife passed the rest of their years. She died December 14, 1902. Mr. Kirkwood died on the old homestead in May, 1905. John Kirkwood was a Democrat in politics, and he and his wife held to no church creed, although they were excellent people, both morally and as citizens, were hard workers, and were charitable in all their relations. John D.. Kirkwood and wife had two sons, Frank H. Kirkwood, whose family history is given elsewhere in this publication, and Brooks, who died and left one son.

Mrs. Millspaugh was the younger of two daughters. Her sister, Margaret J., is the widow of William Millspaugh, a brother of Leander, who died in Delaware county in March, 1903, and his widow now occupies the old farm in Washington township. Mrs. William Mills¬ paugh has a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters, all of whom are living and all married but one. As already stated, William Millspaugh was a veteran of the Civil war

Leander K Millspaugh and wife had two children : Orla Corwin, who was born in Grant county, January 9, 1874, is a carpenter by trade, his home being in Anderson, Indiana. He married Ola Beck, who died, leaving three children, Willard L., Mildred A., and Gar H. Orla C. Millspaugh married for his second wife, Virginia B. Scott, and their children are Everett and George A. Arthur Floyd Millspaugh, the second child was born November 15, 1882, and is a carpenter by trade, and resides six miles from Rennsalaer, in Jasper county, Indiana. He married Fleet Beck, and they have one daughter, Evelyn R. Mr. Millspaugh votes the Democratic ticket, and is always ready to enlist his services in behalf of any undertaking for the general good of his community.

David Lemon Richards. Probably the most attractive and valuable country estate in Jefferson township is that of David L. Richards in section six. Prosperity, comfort, enterprise and good management are in evidence at every turn, and if one should wish to form a fair judgment as to the highest possibilities of Grant county agriculture, he could select no better place for his studies than the Richards farm. The farm comprises one hundred and sixty acres of land and has been known as the Richards place for two generations. The farm was located and owned for a number of years by Mr,. L. G. Richards, father of David L. Richards. Mr. Richards likewise owns one hundred and fifty acres of land in Jefferson township of Delaware county. That place has fifteen acres of timber, but all the rest is in cultivation, and has an excellent building equipment consisting of a comfortable white house and a large red barn. The home farm has a residence probably not excelled for size and comfort in this part of Indiana. It contains fifteen rooms, the entire structure is modern in architecture and furnishings, and it is heated by a furnace, has hot and cold water on all floors, and an acetylene gas plant in the basement which furnishes modern lighting facilities. Outside of the house, which is surrounded by a grove of fruit and shade trees, there are two large red barns, one of them for stock purposes and the other a seed and grain barn. Mr. Richards has specialized both in livestock and in fruits. His home has been there since 1900 and though not all the improvements are to be credited to his management, he has introduced many changes both in the cultivation and in the facilities, and realizing his responsibilities as the son of one of the best known old settlers of Grant county, he has maintained the family traditions and has developed a farm which is creditable alike to his own enterprise and to the county in which it is situated. He is successful in the growing of both small and large grains, and he keeps a large number of hogs, sheep and cattle, and also twelve good horses.

Mr.. L. G. Richards, father of this substantial farmer citizen, has a long and interesting career of his own, and it is told in appropriate manner on other pages. On the old homestead in section six of Jeffer¬ son township, and in a house which is still kept standing as a land¬ mark and for its family associations, David L. Richards was born April 16, 1870, and was reared and educated in this vicinity and has been known to the people from their youth up. He was one of a family of four children, and the others are: Rev. J. W. Richards, a farmer in Delaware county, and who was married and has a family ; Mrs. Ruphas C. Nottingham; and Mrs. J. W. Himelick.

David L. Richards was married in Jefferson township to Miss Lois Alta Fergus, a daughter of Warren Fergus. Mrs. Richards was born on the old Fergus farm in Jefferson township, April 10, 1869, and was educated in the public schools of this vicinity. To their marriage have been born two children, as follows: Della, born May 15, 1892, a gradu¬ ate of the Matthews high school in the class of 1910, and by her mar¬ riage to William Lewis, who now operates the Richards farm in Dela- . ware county, has one son, Richard R., born March 31, 1913. Ada Gulia, the second child was born May 19, 1896, and is a senior in the Matthews high school. Among his other interests and enterprises, Mr. Richards was one of the organizers of the Matthews State Bank, and is a stockholder and director in that substantial institution. He has always interested himself in matters of community welfare, is a public-spirited citizen and a supporter of moral and educational move¬ ments.

Isaac Lyman Carter. Five years after the organization of Grant county as a separate civil government of Indiana, the Carter family was planted in the wilderness along the Mississinewa in Jefferson town¬ ship. Nearly eighty years have elapsed since they came to this region, and three generations, comprising many individuals have performed their duties and upheld their responsibilities as citizens and members of families, and the name has always been associated with honest worth and upright manhood and womanhood.

More than a century and a half ago, this family had its seat in New Hampshire. A few years before the Revolutionary War, Edward, the great-grandfather of Isaac Lyman Carter was born in Hollis, New Hampshire, April 22, 1770,. He married Esther Powers, of the same place, and they lived and died there, Edward passing away September 18, 1826. There were a number of children in the family, including Isaac P. Carter, who was born in New Hampshire, probably at Hollis, July 3, 1793. The early youth was spent in New Hampshire, but he was probably married in Waldo county, Maine, where it is known that he lived for several years. In an early day, about the year 1825, he emigrated west to Ohio, landing in Muskingum county, Ohio, where he was a pioneer settler in the vicinity of Zanesville. There he fol¬ lowed farming, but in a few years his pioneer spirit led him to move on still farther west and in 1835 he arrived in Grant county, Indiana, locating on raw land in Jefferson township, situated on the banks of the Mississinewa. A log cabin home was the first shelter of the Carter family in Grant county, and Grandfather Isaac made a living partly by farming and partly by hunting and fishing. His labors were steadily directed towards the clearing and improvement of his land, and eventually a good homestead rewarded his efforts. For the con¬ struction of the second home replacing the old log cabin, a supply of brick was made, and from clay taken from the farm. That old brick house is still standing, but is no longer occupied as a dwelling. Isaac P. Carter spent his last years in that home, and died January 29, 1869. During his residence in Ohio he married Joanna Gage, and she was born June 9, 1802, in Waldo county, Maine, and died April 1, 1863. They were active members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and possessed the kindly and substantial qualities of the old pioneer. Their family consisted of ten sons, and seven of those grew up and were married, as follows: Ira J., Howard, Joseph, Elijah, John H., Lewis, and Oliver, all of whom were married and are now deceased, and all but Oliver had children. Farming was their vocation, and very few members of the Carter family in the various generations have followed any other vocation.

Ira J. Carter, father of Isaac L., was born in Muskingum county, near Zanesville, Ohio, March 15, 1822, and died near Matthews, in Grant county, March 21, 1899. At the time of the family migration to Grant county, in 1835, he was thirteen years of age, and here his years were spent until manhood, and he acquired an education much better than most of his contemporaries. He possessed talent both in penman¬ ship and in mathematics, and for a number of years taught school. For two years he served as justice of the peace, and many people were married in his office throughout his part of the county, and some of those marriages have endured happily to the present time. For many years he also did the work of a notary, and for twenty-seven years was postmaster of the place locally known as Trask Post Office, an office which was discontinued in 1901 under competition from the rural free delivery service. While attending to the various duties of these offices, he conducted his farm either directly or supervised its management, and was the owner of eighty acres of fine land. Through¬ out his career he voted and supported the Democratic party. Ira J. Carter was married in Jefferson township on July 25, 1844, to Eliza Ann Corn. Her birth occurred in Rush county, Indiana, June 5, 1825, and she is still living a venerable woman, though quite active in body and mind, eighty-eight years of age, a lovely old woman whose char¬ acter has long been an asset in the community. She is a Baptist in religion and has been identified with church and its kindred activities for the greater part of a lifetime. Her age was eleven years when the family moved to Grant county, and her parents were Joseph and Nancy (Said) Corn. Her father was a native of Georgia, moved in early life to Kentucky, where he married a native daughter of that state, and after two children had been born to them in Kentucky, Louisa and Lucinda, the family all moved to Rush county, Indiana. In Rush county Mrs. Carter was bom and also other children as follows: Permelia, Martha J., Joseph and John. All these children are now dead, except Mrs. Carter, and all except Louisa were married and had families of their own, some of them very large households, Joseph having twenty-one children by two wives.

The children bom to Ira J. Carter and wife were: Permelia J., who died in infancy ; Harriet, also deceased in infancy ; Gilbert, who did not survive babyhood; J. Newton, a carpenter, who lives in Upland, Grant county, and has a family; Olive, who is the widow of John Kibby, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work; Levi L., who is a farmer in Delaware county, and is married and has one daugh¬ ter; Mary E., whose first husband was Noah Hardy, and whose second was Elmer Hiatt, and living now in Gary, Indiana, and there were three children by the second marriage. Isaac L. ; Salina D., who died when seventeen years of age ; Jerusha, who became the wife of John Croush, living in Clark county, Indiana, and they have two sons and three daughters; Anna A., the wife of Wood Helms, a farmer in Fairmount township, and their family consists of three sons and two daughters.

Isaac Lyman Carter was born in the house he still occupies, on October 30, 1860. That old homestead is in section twenty-one of Jefferson township. His home has always been in this locality and from boyhood he has followed farming successfully, and in a prac¬ tical, progressive manner, which marks him as a true son of the soil. His place of eighty acres is well stocked with graded sheep, hogs, and cattle, and he is one of the extensive feeders in this part of the county. His buildings are good and substantial, and represent prosperous management.

Near the old home, Isaac L. Carter married for his first wife, Miss Mary N.. Wilcoxon, who was born in Delaware county in 1848, and who died at her home in Jefferson township, January 21, 1901. She was an active communicant of the Methodist church. Her six children are mentioned as follows: Glenn, whose home is with his father, and who is unmarried, is a graduate of Purdue University, and is now a seed and fertilizer inspector for the state of Indiana ; Alivila Blanche, died at the age of fifteen months ; R. Emory, who lives on a farm in Fairmount township, married Miss Lula Goodnight, and their children are John and Blanche; John Burl, who is a graduate of the high school in the class of 1909, lives at home with his father on the farm ; Asa E. was graduated in the home schools, and is living with his father; Mary A. is a sophomore in the Matthews high school. The present Mrs. Carter was before her marriage Margaret Ann Fitch, who was bom in Marion county, Indiana, February 26, 1869, was edu¬ cated in Wabash county, and is a woman of thorough culture and an excellent housewife and mother. Her parents were John and Sarah (Wiley) Fitch, who were bom respectively in Kentucky and Indiana, were married in Marion county of the latter state, and most of their lives were passed in Wabash county. Her father died in Huntington county, in 1907, at the age of sixty-four, while his widow now lives in Andrews, Indiana, and is seventy-one years of age. The Fitch family are members of the Methodist church. Mrs. Carter is the mother of three children: Lewis H., in the public schools; Sarah Ethlyn, aged two years; and Edith M. Mr. and Mrs. Carter belong to Kingsley Chapel Methodist church, and Mr. Carter is a trustee and for a number of years was steward in the church. His political affilia¬ tions are with the Democratic party.

J. Clay Ross, M. D. After graduating from the Louisville Medical College, at Louisville, Kentucky, with the class of 1906, Dr. Ross spent two years in that city as interne, in St. Anthony 's Hospital, then estab¬ lished an office at Florence, Indiana, where he remained about four years, and since April 21, 1910, has practiced at Gas City. Dr. Ross has already built up a large practice, both in the city and country. He takes his surgical cases to the Marion Hospital in conjunction with Dr. C. O. Bechtol. Dr. Ross is a very genial, happy-minded gentleman of a very sociable nature, and has friends wherever he has gone. These personal characteristics combined with his thorough ability as a physi¬ cian have brought him a large business and he enjoys the confidence and respect of a large patronage and hosts of friends all over Grant county. He is a member of the Grant County and Indiana State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association.

J. Clay Ross, who comes of a fine old Kentucky family, was born in Gallatin county, Kentucky, October 17, 1877. He was reared on a farm until he was eighteen years old, and his first work was as a teacher, after graduating in the scientific course in the National Normal Uni¬ versity at Lebanon, Ohio. Through school teaching he paid his way through college and university, and on March 29, 1901, graduated from the Commercial department of the Kentucky State University. After that for a short while he was bookkeeper in the First National Bank at Vevay, Indiana. In his ancestry and family connections were a number of physicians, and this wTas one of the influences which prompted him to take up medicine as his chosen calling.

Dr. Ross comes of old Virginia stock, which was early transplanted into Kentucky. There is a family tradition that Betsey Ross who made the first American flag belonged to one of the earlier generations. The doctor's grandfather was Milton C. Ross, who was bom in Gallatin county, Kentucky, in 1823. He married Nancy Hopkins, who was born in Carroll county, Kentucky, about the same time. Both were of Vir¬ ginia stock of Scotch-Irish people, and early settlers in Kentucky. The father of Milton C. Ross was rich in lands, holding a grant of ten thousand acres in Kentucky, had a great retinue of slaves who worked his plantations and attended to his household, and was an influential and wealthy citizen.

Grandfather Milton Ross died at the age of seventy-three years, while his wife passed away when seventy-nine years. They were mem¬ bers of the Christian church, and led lives of earnest Christian prin¬ ciple and usefulness.

There were thirteen children in the family of Milton Ross and wife. Of these the only ones now living are : Joseph, father of Dr. Ross, and Dr. John J. C. Ross, of Bloomington, Indiana. One son, Thomas, was a soldier in the Union army during the war in the Eighteenth Kentucky Regiment. However, grandfather Ross was a strong Confederate in his sympathies and had held slaves before the war, having inherited them from his father. Joseph Ross, father of Dr. Ross, has been a farmer all his life, and he and his wife now occupy the old Donley homestead near the Ohio river in Gallatin county, Kentucky. He was born January 19, 1855, and all his years have been spent in the vicinity of his birth place. He has been a Democrat and locally prominent. He was married in Gallatin county to Mary Donley, who was bora in the same county, May 19, 1855. They grew up in the same neighborhood, attended the same school, and have always lived in companionship and their married life has been a particularly happy one. Joseph Ross is a member of the Christian church, his family religion, but Mrs. Ross is a Catholic, and reared her children in that faith. Her parents were James and Margaret (Breen) Donley, w7ho were born in County Wexford, Ireland, were married there, and some time during the forties embarked upon a sailing vessel which was three months in crossing the ocean to New Orleans, and from there came up the Mississippi River to Ken¬ tucky. James Donley and wife died when quite old, he at the age of sixty-nine and she when seventy-four, and of their nine children, eight are still living. Dr. Ross was the oldest of three children. His brother, Charles, who was born November 30, 1880, lives on a farm in his native county, and is married and has two children, Joseph J. and Robert L. The sister Margaret, bora July 27, 1895, was educated in the public schools and in the Villa McDonough Academy of Kentucky, and is now at home with her parents.

Dr. Ross was married in Hopkinsville, Christian county, Kentucky, to Miss Mamie Massie. She was bora near Houston, Texas, August 10, 1884, grew up there and attended Texas schools and finished her education within six years in Washington, D. C. She is a grand¬ daughter of Dr. J. C. and Elizabeth (Sessums) Massie, the former a native of Virginia, and the latter of Tennessee, but they were married in Texas, and Grandfather Massie was a prominent physician at Houston for a number of years, but finally retired to his plantation near that city, and died there at the age of sixty years; his widow died June 27, 1913, aged eighty-eight. Joseph Massie, father of Mrs. Ross, was born and reared on his father's plantation in Texas, and married Mary Edrnundson, a native of Texas, a woman of many talents and of thorough educa¬ tion and culture, a graduate of Hollin's Institute of Virginia, and also of Vassar College. She was an accomplished musician, both vocally and instrumentally, having graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music and spent two years in study in Europe. She died in 1890 in the prime of life. Her husband now lives in New Mexico, and is serving as county clerk of Chavis county, with home at Roswell, the county seat. The Massie family are all Episcopalian in religion, and Mrs. Ross' cousin, Davis Sessums, is Episcopal bishop of Louisiana. Dr. Ross and wife have one child, Marion E., born October 10, 1906. Mrs. Ross has membership in the Episcopal church, while he retains his affiliation with the Catholic church.

Dr. Ross is very popular- and active in fraternal matters, being a member of the Knights of Columbus Council at Marion ; the Elks Lodge No. 195 ; the Orioles No. 9 ; the Lodge of Moose No. 253 ; and the Neptunes, the Mother Lodge of which order is at Marion. Dr. Ross in politics is a Democrat.

B. Frank Duling. Since the pioneer settlement of Grant county, three generations of the Duling family have been identified with the industrial and social community in a way to promote the welfare and improvement of this locality. They assisted in the clearing of the wil¬ derness during the early days, and in the quieter years that have followed their lives have been led along the paths of industry and prosperity, and as farmers and good citizens they have done their full share for the enrichment of community life.

Representing the family in the third generation, B. Frank Duling is one of the leading farmer citizens of Jefferson township. He was bom in Fairmount township, January 11, 1869, a son of William and a grandson of Thomas Duling. William Duling was bom in Coshocton county, Ohio, in 1838, and the grandfather, Thomas, a native of Vir¬ ginia, settled in Ohio at an early date, and lived there until most of his children were born. When William was still a boy less than nine years of age, the family started west and finally reached Grant county. The grandfather bought land in Fairmount township, erecting a log cabin, started to battle with the frontier hardships in the midst of the green woods. The Duling family had their full share of pioneer expe¬ riences and hardships, and Thomas Duling had the satisfaction of replacing his old log cabin with a substantial frame house, and seeing his family grow up about him in peace and plenty, and as factors in the community. He died at the end of a long and useful life, at the age of eighty-four, and his wife preceded him when about seventy years of age. Her maiden name was Elizabeth Muskimmons. They were both members of the Methodist Protestant church, and among the organizers of that faith in Fairmount township.

William Duling was one of the following children: Oliver, John, William, Thomas, George, Mary, Barbara Ann, and Elizabeth, both the last named dying in infancy. Oliver, William and Thomas are still living, and Oliver is a bachelor.

William Duling grew up on the old home farm in Fairmount town¬ ship, and subsequently bought sixty acres of land near the old estate, and started out as an independent farmer. That continued to be his home until 1876, when he left Fairmount township and bought the James Nottingham farm of one hundred and six acres in Jefferson township. That is his home down to the present writing, and he is also the owner of eighty acres nearby in Fairmount township. William Du¬ ling and wife have well deserved their prosperity, since they were hard workers from youth up, and by thrift and good management acquired a property aggregating at one time more than six hundred acres. They are members of the Methodist Protestant church. They were the par¬ ents of eight children, and they are briefly mentioned as follows: Mary A. is the wife of Oscar Lewis, a farmer in Delaware county, and has two children; John lives in Fairmount township, is married but has no children ; Flora is the wife of Calvin Jones, and their chil¬ dren are: Myrtle, Clarence, Walter, Effie and Mary. The fourth in the family is R. Frank Duling. Nettie is the wife of Rev. C. M. Hobbs, an active minister of the Methodist church, and their children are Donald, Sedrick and Malcolm. Elmer is the Delaware county farmer, and by his marriage to Emma Dunn, has one baby son. Effie is the wife of Frank Wright, an undertaker in the city of Washington, D. C. Glenn is a farmer in Fairmount township, and married Juanita Kuntz.

Mr. B. Frank Duling, after growing to manhood entered upon his career as a successful farmer, and his prosperity has been such as to make him one among the leading farmers of Grant county, and give him a distinctive place in affairs. At the present time he is the owner of two farms, each comprising eighty acres, and all the improvements and facilities for modern agriculture and stock raising are to be found there. In the little city of Matthews, Mr. Duling owns a nice home, and also has a stock and grain barn in the town, forty-four by one hundred and thirty-two feet in floor dimensions. His live stock comprises fourteen head of horses, and also hogs and other animals. Since 1909, Mr. Duling has made his home in the town of Matthews, and operates his farms from that point.

Mr. Duling was married in Washington township of Delaware county to Miss Amanda Dunn, who was bora and reared and educated in that township. They are the parents of four children, one of whom died in infancy, the others being: Lloyd, aged seventeen; Marjorie, aged thirteen ; and Norwood, aged eighteen months. Mr. Duling is a Republican in national affairs, and always interested in good govern¬ ment as applied to his home community.

Dr. Eli Mendenhall Whitson, who died in Jonesboro, November 7, 1905, belonged to the pioneer Whitson family, and had lived in the community since 1844, when he came as a child with his parents from Clinton county, Ohio. There is mention of the Whitson family in the Mill Township chapter.

In June of the Centennial year, Dr. Whitson married Miss Annie Watson, daughter of Lorenzo D. and Elizabeth (Carroll) Watson of Jefferson township. The Watson family had interests in three adjoin¬ ing counties, both Blackford and Delaware counties lying adjacent to their community in Grant. The four Watson daughters, Mrs. Whitson, Mrs. Margaret Craw, Mrs. Minerva Lewellen, and Mrs. Virginia Beuoy, were all well known young women, and their acquaintance was not limited to their immediate community. Mrs. Whitson died in 1893, at her home in Jonesboro, and because of an ante-nuptial agreement with her mother, Dr. Whitson buried her at Olive Branch, the Watson burial plot, near the old home in Jefferson. Dr. Whitson and wife bad two daughters: Mrs. Elizabeth Mabel Hill, and Miss Georgia Gladys Whitson. He later married Miss Emma Coleman, who, with his daughters, survives him. His grave is in the Jonesboro cemetery.

Few men live in a community and have higher tributes paid to them than Dr. Whitson. He was always identified with its every interest, and he had a wide professional acquaintance. He visited his patients on horseback, riding a sulky, and finally having buggies built to his order. When his services were desired, he did not always investigate the possibilities of the family from a financial standpoint. Dr. Whitson acquired considerable farm land, and had business interests besides, but at his death, since he had no son, and his daughters and Mrs. Whitson did not want to live in the country, all the farm land as well as the home in Jonesboro was sold. He had always been very watch¬ ful of the farm interests, and knowing his reputation &s a careful farmer, they did not want to see the property depreciate. Old Dick, the horse he had driven for many years was a problem, and he was left to end his days on the farm.

Dr. Whitson was abreast of the times in both professional and social ways. As his friends gathered at the funeral, and while viewing the remains, a relative (Mrs. Beuoy) unconsciously paid him the highest tribute, saying: 4 'It was always one cheerful place to come to." And what better thing can be said of any man or family? What higher tribute? While Dr. Whitson often reviewed his war record, three years of active service in the One Hundred and First Indiana Regiment, he did not have any more pride in it than in his citizenship in the community. He was a faithful member of the Jonesboro Meth¬ odist Episcopal church, and his name is on the cornerstone as a member of the board of trustees and building committee. When he died the church members felt their loss, and along at that time there were other losses in the same circle, but there are always others who assume the responsibilities laid down by those who die or leave a community.

Emaline Hill, and he had a position with the American Tin Plate Com¬ pany when it first located at Gas City. When the company's offices were moved to the east he went along, and he and his family have lived twice in New York city and twice in Pittsburg, and now occupy their own home on Linwood Avenue at Bay Side, Long Island. Mr. Hill is with the American Can Company in New York city, and is one Jonesboro young man who has made a success of business while living in the American metropolis. Their two little boys are Robert and Howard Hill.

Thirteen years separated the birthdays of Dr. Whitson's two daugh¬ ters, and he used to say he supposed the second one would go as far west as the first had gone east, and his prophecy has been fulfilled. While Miss Georgia Whitson always called Jonesboro her home, she made several trips back and forth to Pittsburg and New York city. In 1911 she graduated from De Pauw University at Green Castle, and she was for two years teacher of Latin in the Thorntown high school, and in the fall of 1913 she matriculated in the Southern California University, her purpose being to secure a degree from that institution and become a teacher in the western country. She spent two months with her sister on the Atlantic coast, and crossed the continent to Los Angeles, bathing in the surf of the Atlantic and Pacific in the same season. An education would have been her father's highest ambition for her. When he graduated from a school of medicine, he knew the handicap of poverty - his best coat when he finished having been his second best when he entered college. But fortune favored him and his daughters have had the benefit of his professional success. While Dr. Whitson accumulated considerable property at Jonesboro, it has all been converted into money, and his family have the advantages from it. The daughters still own a farm in Jefferson township, and Mrs. Emma C. Whitson still represents the household in Jonesboro.

Concerning the earlier generations of the Whitson household, it is noteworthy that ten children comprised the original family, but smaller families have been the rule in later generations. Tradition has it that three Whitson brothers went west from Pennsylvania, one to Indiana, another to Kentucky, and the third to Tennessee. It was the family of John and Sarah (Kimbrough) Whitson that located in 1844 at Jonesboro, where for three score and ten years their pos¬ terity has continued its existence. Some of the Whitson children were born at Jonesboro, and all but one died there, a record not shown by many pioneer families.

John Whitson went to the Chicago horse market in June, 1855, with a consignment of horses. He encountered "lampers" in the horse market and there being no demand for animals he left his string of horses, going back in September for settlement, and he was never seen again by his family. The wife (see Mill Township chapter) died at the family homestead in Jonesboro in 1892, her life having long been saddened by an unexplained absence. She had reared her own children, and some of her grandchildren had their homes with her, and she had a mother heart for all of them.