Grant County, Indiana - The whole text, 1914 (part 21 of 32)

During the early years of his residence before the war he was * an original abolitionist, not only consistently with the tenet of his Quaker faith, but also of the vigorous and uncompromising type of the William Lloyd Garrison kind. The cooperation of Northern abolitionists in assisting fugitive slaves to escape across the middle states into Canada had already begun, when Moses Bradford located in Marion. It was no uncommon thing to hear a soft scratch on the window pane or to hear the hoot of an owl, a signal that some black soul was asking for help on the road to freedom. He soon became one of the most helpful of the local organizations in forwarding this particular work, and was probably the most radical anti-slavery man in the entire county. It is noteworthy that his house on the north side of the river was a station of the famous ''under-ground railway," and before the war many a runaway negro was sheltered somewhere about his premises during the day, and the succeeding night was never too dark or the danger too great for him to go out and attend and assist the fugitive along the next stage of his north¬ ward journey. Fearless to a remarkable degree, he was not to be stopped by man or devil when he felt the cause of humanity needed hi« presence and help. During those limes he was threatened again and again and violence was even offered him, but it never, caused him to hesitate when once his mind was bent on the accomplishment of a definite task. Such had no effect except to make his determina¬ tion the more dogged and unyielding. He was outspoken in his opin¬ ion, and even harsh in his criticisms of others, since he could never entertain sympathy for those of a trembling and vacillating nature, whose hearts might be right, but whose fears kept them from action when action was most needed. Throughout his life he stood as a . man of action, and at the same time he had the rare gift of inspiring enthusiasm for action and efforts, as was instanced in the building of the first railroad. In conversation he lacked all the qualities of smoothness and polite suaveness, but made up for these in strength and vigor of utterance.

In the early days, on one occasion while enroute from the east Moses Bradford came near being mobbed in the vicinity of Cin¬ cinnati. His reputation was quite widespread, and word of his com¬ ing had preceded him, so that a reward was offered for his appre¬ hension. By the kindly assistance of Quaker friends he eluded the parties in search of him, and thus came through without injury. He was also warned by the Knighfs of the Golden Circle, whose training grounds were at Van Buren, that he would, be mobbed, but he kept on the even tenor of his way, though his home was fired into and other insults offered. Weighing two hundred and fortyfive pounds, he had physical strength in proportion, and very few men were able to handle him.

While never an aspirant for public recognition, he was well qual¬ ified to fill any post of trust. He assisted in the building and main¬ tenance of the old Wesleyan church, besides which he erected a church building on a tract of his own, donating its use to the congregation. His home was known far and wide as one where ministers of the gospel would find a royal welcome and a bountiful table always ready. He platted two additions to the city, embracing about fifty acres, and which are now covered with desirable residences. Moses Bradford died January 10, 1898, full of years and honors. He was the father of twelve children, eight of whom reached maturity.

Cassius C. Bradford. Everybody in Grant county knows bighearted, genial "Cash" Bradford, and every one knows him to be one of the most progressive and public spirited citizens of Marion. Few men have a wider acquaintance over the county, and few have more loyal friends. Cassius C. Bradford, traveling representative of the Ballard Packing Company, was born in Marion, July 30, 1857, a son of the late Moses and Mary Ellen (Van Horn) Bradford. The career of his father and his high place in Grant county history has been described in preceding paragraphs.

Reared at Marion, the son Cassius when a boy entered his father's store, and was connected with various lines of business enterprise in this county for a number of years. He first became prominent in public affairs in 1898 when he was elected to the office of sheriff. He was again returned to the office in 1900, after receiving nine hun¬ dred more votes at the primary election than the combined votes of his four opponents. As sheriff he made a model officer. As a mark of appreciation for his activity in the enforcement of law, the W. C. T. U. ladies presented him with a handsome souvenir at the close of his term. Mr. Bradford is a stanch Republican, and has taken much interest in local politics.

For the past seven years Mr. Bradford has been traveling rep¬ resentative of the Ballard Packing Company of Marion. In 1903 he built his present modern home at Christy and Lawrence Avenue. This is one of the picturesque places of Marion, located on a hiffh eminence which affords a broad view of the Mississinewa river and the little valley below. Mr. Bradford was married February 22. 1881, to Miss Victoria Cochrane of Marion. Their two children are Burr, who is connected with the Marion Street Railway, and Mapr, who is at home. Mr. Bradford affiliates with the United Commercial Travelers.

fruits of former years of toil, and the average Indiana farmer when he has reached the evening of life puts aside business cares and retires to a comfortable residence, content in the knowledge of a career well spent. In this connection it is not inappropriate to give a review of the life of Elias B. Rennaker, retired agriculturist and Civil War vet¬ eran, who is now living on a small property in the vicinity of Sweetser, Indiana.

Mr. Rennaker was bom in Carroll county, Ohio, December 14, 1840, and is a son of Michael and Rebecca (Steffy) Rennaker. His parents, both of whom were bom in Pennsylvania, near what was later to become the famous battlefield of Gettysburg, removed to Carroll county, Ohio, not long after their marriage, and in 1853 came to Indiana, purchasing 200 acres of land in Pleasant township, there spending the remainder of their lives. They had a family of ten sons and six daughters, and of these children twelve grew to maturity. The early education of Elias B. Rennaker was secured in the common schools of his native county, and this was supplemented by several terms in the district schools of Pleasant township, whence he had accompanied his parents as a lad of thirteen years. After completing his education, he settled down to agricultural pursuits on his father's farm, and was so engaged until the time of his enlistment, in August, 1862, in Company C, Twelfth Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which was connected with the Fourth Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, commanded by Gen. John A. Logan. He continued to serve with this organization until the close of hostilities in 1865, and during his military career partici¬ pated in some of the fiercest engagements of the great struggle between the North and South, including Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta and Richmond, Kentucky, and took part in the famous campaign of General Sherman, in his 4 'March to the Sea." At Atlanta, Georgia, Mr. Rennaker was seriously wounded in the left hand, still carrying the scar of the bullet wound, and at Richmond was captured by the Con¬ federates, but was imprisoned only two months, when he received his parole. He was known as a brave and faithful soldier, ever perform¬ ing ably and cheerfully the duties entrusted to him, and won the admira¬ tion of his comrades and the respect of his officers. For many years Mr. Rennaker was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, being connected with the post at Marion, Indiana.

After he had recuperated from the effects of army life, Mr. Rennaker resumed agricultural operations, and for many years was actively en¬ gaged therein, becoming one of the substantial men of his community, and owning an excellent property about three and one-half miles north¬ east of Converse. He was successful in his general farming operations, and also as a breeder of hogs and cattle, won an enviable reputation for his honorable business methods, and gained a wide circle of friends. In 1900 he retired from active life, and is now residing on a small property near Sweetser, Indiana, although he is still the owner of eighty acres of land in Richland township and four acres in Pleasant township.

In 1867 Mr. Rennaker was married to Miss Martha M. Julian, who was born, reared and educated in Pleasant township, Grant county, In¬ diana, and was a daughter of Louis and Sarah Julian. Mrs. Rennaker died in 1875, having been the mother of three children, of whom two died in infancy, while the third, Maggie, is still living and the wife of Jacob R. Fisher. In 1883, Mr. Rennaker was married to Miss Abigail Marks, daughter of Thomas and Mary Marks, Mr. Marks being said to have been the first blacksmith in Marion, Indiana.

to the Democratic party, and has since supported its candidates. He has never engaged prominently in political activities, but held the office of supervisor of Richland township for one term. He has been a mem¬ ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows for many years, with his membership in Beacon Lodge No. 320, of Converse. Since his bap¬ tism as a young man in the Lutheran faith, his religious life has been with that denomination.

Oliver S. Davis. Prominent among the most estimable and pros¬ perous farming men of Center township and one who has performed a worthy wrork in advancing the development of the rural districts, a work which was begun by his parents over a half century ago, Oliver S. Davis is a Grant county citizen whose career cannot fail to add a measure of completeness to the biographical contents of this publica¬ tion. A native son of the county, all his busy life has been spent within its borders, and he is widely known as the proprietor of Walnut Grove Farm and as a breeder of thoroughbred Holstein Friesian cattle.

Oliver S. Davis was bora in Liberty township, Grant county, Indi¬ ana, November 9, 1851, and is a son of George and Charlotte (Baldwin) Davis. His father, a native of Montgomery county, Ohio, accompanied his parents to Wayne county, Indiana, when he was eight years old, while the mother was three months old when her parents left North Carolina, where she was bora, and settled in Wayne county. Both par¬ ents were therefore reared in the latter locality, and were married there December 15, 1841. About seven years after their marriage they moved to Grant county, and arriving in the wilderness of woods and on August 12, 1848, began their residence in a log cabin home. Though for some years they lived with pioneer simplicity and in the midst of a crude and primitive environment, they enjoyed a happy, contented and industrious life. Their home was in the midst of the woods, and for days at a time the howling of the wolves among the trees was ever present. The location which they had first chosen in Liberty township, with constantly growing and increasing improvements and comforts, continued to be the abiding place of the family until the parents fin¬ ished their earthly pilgrimage. The father died on July 23, 1901, aged eighty-three years, two months and eleven days, and his loved and faithful wife had preceded him on December 6, 1882, aged fiftynine years, six months and twenty-five days. They were active, sturdy people, and their rugged out-door life doubtless contributed to their length of days, and they enjoyed a splendid measure of health and strength unto the last. Both were members of the Friends church, and the life they led exemplified the simplicity and beauty of their faith. They became the parents of ten children, five of whom are living at this writing, as follows: William F. Davis, of Fairmount, Indiana; Oliver S., of Marion, Indiana; Nathan F., also of Fairmount; Cather¬ ine, the wife of E. R. Neal, of Liberty township; and Joseph E., of Liberty township.

Oliver S. Davis was reared in Liberty township and as a boy attended the district schools. He shared in the strenuous work of clearing up the farm where his father had settled, and as the years went by he devoted much of his time to the development of the place. He continued to be his father's assistant until he married, when he rented a forty-acre tract and worked it for one year, and then bought it out¬ right. Since then his prosperity has been on the steady increase, and from time to time he has acquired other lands sufficient to bring his holdings up to ninety-one acres, with an interest in a place of ninety acres in Pleasant township.

Mr. Davis is a practical and business like farmer, and in many ways has demonstrated his capacity as a successful agriculturist. In the breeding of Holstein Friesian cattle he has accomplished considerable in the way of raising the standard for dairy cows in this district, some of his herd being of pure blood, while others are of high grade, and he has found that the best stock pays better dividends than the inferior cat¬ tle which some years ago ruled as the favorite among general farmers. The leader of his herd is a registered Holstein bull, said to be one of the best of its breed in Grant county. The success of Mr. Davis has from time to time been measured in terms of practical additions to his farming plant and his home. In 1897 he built a fine barn, and in the following year constructed the comfortable frame residence in which he and his family reside. These improvements were followed in 1899 by the erection of a substantial tenant house on the farm, and in 1905 he erected another residence. His most recent improvement was the building in 1911 of a thousand dollar dairy barn on the fafrn in Pleasant township.

As a member of the State Grange, Mr. Davis has long been active in Grange affairs, and through that organization has done much to advance community welfare. He is Republican in politics, but gives only the attention of a good citizen to such matters. He and his fam¬ ily follow the example set by the earlier members and adhere to the Friends church.

On March 14, 1872, Mr. Davis was married to Miss Evangeline Jay, who was born in Mill township, daughter of Denny and Annie (Coggshall) Jay. Mr. Davis and wife have three living children: Herman L., a graduate of the local schools, married Rosamond Cary, and their seven children are Gail, Miriam Marie, George Russell, Anna J., Homer E., Herbert Paul, and Arthur M. ; Melvin, the second son, died August 5, 1880; Harvey W., is the third of the family; and Ida F., the fourth, makes her home with her parents. Herman L. and Har¬ vey W. Davis attended the Marion Normal Institute. Ida F. Davis graduated from the common schools.

The Davis family, through their long association with this commun¬ ity, occupy a high place in the esteem and regard of the best people in the county.

William H. Anderson. For a quarter of a century the late Wil¬ liam H. Anderson was a resident and active business man of Marion. His was from every point of view a successful career, and his death ©n July 19, 1913, was a distinct loss to the business, civic and social welfare of the city. For a number of years Mr. Anderson had been vice president of the Grant Trust Company, and was recognized as a man of unusual business ability, with the judgment and energy to carry out all his plans. Both for what he did and for what he was William H. Anderson will long be remembered in this community.

William H. Anderson was born at Logansport, Indiana, where the family were pioneer settlers on the third of January, 1851, and was sixty-three years of age at his death. His parents were Peter and Mar¬ garet (Wright) Anderson, the former a native of the state of Mary¬ land, and the latter bom at Greencastle, Indiana. Peter Anderson came to Logansport in 1829, was one of the pioneer merchants of that city, and lived there until his death in 1868. His widow died there in 1884.

Mr. Anderson grew up at Logansport, had a public school educa¬ tion, and early in his career engaged in the livery business. That was his vocation until 1888, in which year he established his home at

Marion and engaged in the electric light and heating business. His interests increased and he prospered steadily, and in 1902 he gave up his management of most of his other affairs and became connected with the Grant Trust & Savings Company. His service with that company was continuous from 1902 until his death, and since 1905 he has been vice president. The late Mr. Anderson was active in affairs of a social and religious nature. He was treasurer of the Presbyterian church, His interest in affairs made him a member of the Masonic Order, in which he had taken thirty-two degrees of the Scottish Rite, and he was a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In politics, while supporting the Republican party with considerable regu¬ larity, he never found time to accept any of the more conspicuous poli¬ tical honors.

Mr. Anderson was married in 1899, on the nineteenth of July, to Miss Nettie Cameron. Mrs. Anderson was bom and reared in Marion, a daughter of Thomas Cameron, one of the well known residents of this county. Mrs. Anderson has no children, and now resides alone in her residence at 918 W. Fourth street.

Andrew J. Ferguson. A life of signal integrity, industry and worthiness has been that of Mr. Ferguson, who has been a resident of Grant county from his boyhood days and who has now passed the psalmist's span of three score years and ten, so that he is one of the venerable citizens of the county, even as he is one of its most honored representatives of the pioneer element in this favored section of the state. He has been in the most significant sense the architect of his own fortunes and is largely self-educated, as he received most lim¬ ited scholastic advantages in his youth. He is known as a man of mature judgment, fine mentality and exalted character, and thus it may be well understood that in the community which has long been his home he has a host of friends. His active career was one of close and indefatigable application to the great basic industry of agricul¬ ture, in connection with which he achieved substantial independence and prosperity, and he is still the owner of one of the valuable farm properties of Grant county, this homestead being situated in Monroe and Center townships, the farm aggregating 204 acres. He is now retired from the active labors and responsibilities which were his for many years and in his attractive home he and his devoted wife are passing the gracious twilight of their lives, compassed by peace and prosperity and the most pleasing of associations. Mr. Ferguson is a righteous, generous and high-minded man, is an ordained minister of the Christian church and has been one of the zealous and faithful workers in the vineyard of the Divine Master, with kindly tolerance and with an earnest desire to do all in his power to aid and uplift his fellow men. His standing in the community and his definite achieve¬ ment in connection with the practical activities of life render most consistent the specific recognition accorded to him in this history of the county in which his friends are equal in number to his acquaintances. He left the farm January 21, 1900, and bought and moved into his present residence, 705 West Second street, Marion.

Though by training and appreciative loyalty Mr. Ferguson is essen¬ tially and emphatically a Hoosier, he claims the old Buckeye state as the place of his nativity. He was bom in Clinton county, Ohio, on the 25th of October, 1842, and is a son of Drury and Charlotte (Oliver) Ferguson, the former a native of Virginia and of stanch Scottish lineage, and the latter a native of North Carolina. Drury Ferguson devoted his entire active career to agricultural pursuits and applied himself zeal- oudy, though he was unable to gain more than nominal financial suc¬ cess, owing principally to the fact that upon him rested the responsi¬ bility of caring for and rearing a large family of children. About the year 1848 he came with his family to Indiana and he became one of the pioneer farmers of Grant county. He first established his home on Walnut creek, and later removed to land owned by Martin Griffin. He always farmed on rented land and thus was unable to leave any material estate to his children, in providing for whom he had expended his best efforts. He passed the closing period of his life in Monroe township, this county, where he died in 1878, at the age of seventy-six years, his loved and noble wife having been summoned to eternal rest in 1868. Both were earnest, righteous and God-fearing persons and their memories are revered by those of their children who are still living, the while their names merit place on the roll of the honored pioneers of this section of the Hoosier state. They became the par¬ ents of twelve children, all save one of whom attained to maturity and of whom seven axe now living - Josiah, of North Marion, this county; Mrs. Susan Bole, of Van Buren township, this county; Mrs. Lucy Ann Davis, of Van Buren township; Zachariah, of Monroe township; Edmund, of Carroll county, Missouri ; Mrs. Charlotte Palmer, of Black¬ ford county, Indiana; and Andrew Jackson, the immediate subject of this review and the sixth in order of birth of the twelve children.

Reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer days, Andrew J. Ferguson received but meager educational advantages in his boyhood and youth, but he has effectually overcome this handicap through self-discipline and through the valuable lessons gained under the direction of that wisest of all head-masters, experience. He was a lad of six years at the time of the family removal to Indiana and thus he has been a resident of Grant county for more than sixty years, during which he has contributed his full quota to industrial and social development and progress and given himself earnestly and effectively to the labors of the farm. In this vocation he is familiar with the vicis¬ situdes that attended the reclamation and improving of wild land in the pioneer epoch and has stood exponent of the advanced methods and facilities which have attended agricultural pursuits in these latter days of opulent prosperity. He early began to do hard work and to assist in the support of the large family - a discipline which he has never regretted, since it gave to him self-reliance, ambition and a respect for the dignity and value of honest toil. He continued to assist his father until he was nearly twenty-one years of age, when he secured employ¬ ment on a neighboring farm. He was employed as a farm hand for eight years and in the meanwhile carefully saved the meager earnings received from his arduous work. His really independent career was initiated when he began putting in crops "on shares/' as it is designated, and here his energy and close application enabled him to make a profit within the four years of his operations along this line. At the age of twenty-three years Mr. Ferguson married, and with the added responsi¬ bilities he consulted ways and means for the securing of independence. He purchased on credit a tract of forty acres of land, and of this he later disposed at a profit, after which he went to live on the land of Shadrick Thornburg, where he worked land on shares for that man, who had a distinct liking for him and who manifested this by devising to him by will the sum of one thousand dollars. This generous and timely bequest enabled Mr. Ferguson to gain a substantial footing on the ladder of success, and thence onward he put forth his best energies and ability in working toward the mark of substantial success and prosperity, thus justifying the confidence that had been shown by his benefactor. He purchased one hundred and fifteen acres of land, par¬ tially improved, and in 1869 he took up his residence on his farm, situ¬ ated in Monroe township. With the passing of years he broadened the scope of his operations, besides making excellent improvements of a permanent order on his homestead. He made judicious investments in adjoining land and eventually accumulated a fine estate of two hun¬ dred and seventy acres, of which he retains in his possession two hun¬ dred and four acres, the remaining portion having been deeded to his two sons when they attained legal majority and were thus deserving of this tangible aid in starting their independent careers. Mr. Ferguson still finds much satisfaction in giving a general supervision to his farm and directing its affairs, as his long experience, mature judgment and thorough familiarity with all details of agricultural and stock-growing industry make his counsel authoritative and most valuable.

In politics, though never animated with aught of desire for official preferment, Mr. Ferguson accords a stanch allegiance to the Democratic party, and he has been most liberal in the support of measures and enterprises advanced for the general good of the community. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and both he and his wife are most zealous members of the Christian church, as was also his first wife. He has aided in the founding of many churches of this denomination in Grant county and for many years he continued his active ministrations and labors as an ordained clergyman of his church, having officiated at many weddings and funerals and in supplying vari¬ ous pulpits in the county. He is one of the veritable pillars of the Lugar Creek Christian church, known to many as the McKinney church, of which he is a deacon, besides serving as church clerk. The Ferguson family has many representatives in Indiana and they have formed a permanent organization, known as the Ferguson Family Reunion Association. Periodical reunions , are held and prove a source of much pleasure and gratification, the president of the association at the pres¬ ent time being he whose name initiates this review and who has been most prominent in making the gatherings of the family successful and profitable.

On the 1st of March, 1866, Mr. Ferguson wedded Miss Catherine Nebbitt, who was born at St. Mary's, Auglaize county, Ohio, of Hol¬ land Dutch ancestry and who passed to the life eternal about a decade after her marriage, her death having occurred in 1877. The three children of this union are : Absalom, who is the owner of a good farm in Grant county; Frank, who is likewise owper of valuable farm lands in this county, besides which he conducts a mercantile business, on Railroad avenue, Marion; and John, who resides in Peru, Miami county, Indiana, where he follows general teaming and incidental lines of enterprise. All of the sons are married and have children. In Decem¬ ber, 1878, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Ferguson to Miss Lusanie E. Hayes, who has been his devoted companion and helpmeet during the long intervening years and who has been a resident of Grant county from the time of her birth, her parents, Jackson and Mary Ann (Rock) Hayes having been early settlers of the county, where they continue to reside. Mr. and Mrs. Ferguson have two daughters, both of whom were born on the old homestead farm and both of whom were afforded good educational advantages. Mary is now the wife of Charles Nelson, of Marion, the capital city of her native county, and here also resides Martha, who is the wife of Doyle A. Pilcher.

The career of Mr. Ferguson illustrates emphatically the value of consecutive application along normal lines of enterprise, and the story of his life offers both lesson and incentive, for he has not only achieved definite and worthy success but has also proved himself mindful of the duties and responsibilities which such success involves, and has been earnest and self-abnegating in the aiding and uplifting of those who have come within the sphere of his kindly and sincere influence.

Henry C. Creviston. Prosperity in capital letters and in all its meanings belongs to Henry C. Creviston, whom every one in Van Buren township knows, and who knows everybody. He has spent all the fifty odd years of his life time there. Mr. Creviston is first of all a very suc¬ cessful farmer and stockman, and he is also the vice president of the First National Bank at Warren, Indiana. His father came to Grant county in pioneer time, and accumulated a splendid estate, but though indebted to his father's enterprise, Henry C. Creviston has really earned all that he has, and probably would have been equally prosperous if he had started without a cent from anybody. He has that quality of enter¬ prise in him.

Henry C. Creviston has his home farm on section one of Van Buren township, consisting of one hundred and seventy-five acres of land. In 1899 he put up the comfortable and attractive thirteen-room house in which he and his family reside. In live stock he makes a specialty of breeding Poland China hogs, and every season handles about one hun¬ dred and twenty-five head. At the present time he has one hundred and thirty-five hogs, and considerable other live stock. Mr. Creviston is well known in Grant county as a poultry breeder. He specializes in the Buff Orpington and Buff Leghorn, crossing these breeds with very satis¬ factory results. The record of his poultry houses aggregate about one hundred dozen eggs a week during certain parts of the year, and he has made poultry a very important item in his farm enterprise. He has a modern poultry house sixty by fourteen feet wide, and raises about five hundred chickens each year. He keeps three hundred and fifty hens for his laying pens all season through. The annual value of his poultry amounts to about six hundred dollars. Mr. Creviston keeps a number of shorthorn cattle, and has a herd of seven registered shorthorn cows. He has made a reputation as a breeder of this strain, and has a herd of thirty shorthorns. He keeps four brood mares and breeds each season a number of Percheron colts, having at the present time a total of eight head of this stock. For the season of 1913 Mr. Creviston has ten acres in wheat, thirty-five acres in corn, and twenty-five acres in oats. He has a large timber lot from twenty-five to thirty acres on his place, and pastures it. An interesting feature of his farm, increasing its value and availability, is its situation on the Marion, Bluffton & Eastern Traction Line, the cars of which pass his doors on a frequent schedule, every day in the year.

Henry C. Creviston was bora August 13, 1857, in Van Buren town¬ ship, a son of Daniel and Sarah (Pippinger) Creviston. Grandfather Nicholas Creviston was the son of an immigrant from Scotland, who set¬ tled in Pennsylvania. The Creviston name, perhaps as well known as any other in Grant county, was originally composed of two words, crev¬ ice and stone. It is an old Scotch name. In 1817 Nicholas Creviston moved from Pennsylvania to Ohio, in which state he died. Daniel Crev¬ iston, the father, was born in 1815, and died in February, 1880, Penn¬ sylvania being his native state. He moved at the age of two years with his family to Ohio, and in 1840 came to Grant county, settling on Sec¬ tion six in Van Buren township, where he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land from the government, and where he spent the rest of his life and reared his children. When he located in that part of Van Buren township, more than seventy years ago, all the country was a wilderness, and he cut his own roads, five miles through the woods from Thompson 's on the Huntington Pike. One room cabin, which he constructed himself, was the first home of himself and family in this county. He eventually became a very prosperous man, and at one time owned one thousand acres of land. Through his own labors and what he hired, he cleared up five hundred acres of this land in Yan Buren and Washington town¬ ships, and thus made it productive for subsequent generations. Daniel Creviston and wife reared a family of nine children, who are mentioned as follows: E. W., of Marion; Levi, who was an Indiana soldier in the army, and lost his life in the Battle of Lookout Mountain and is interred in the Union Chapel cemetery ; Elijah J., deceased ; Martha A. Dickens, of Washington township; Ellen Bradford, of Washington towmship; Harvey M., of Marion ; Mary Jane, who died at the age of fifteen ; Henry C. ; and Mrs. Anna Corey, a widow, residing in Marion.

Mr. Henry C. Creviston as a boy attended the district schools of his native township, and completed his education in the Marion Normal Col¬ lege. His first professional activities were as a teacher, and he taught four terms in district number three in Van Buren township, that being his home district. On September 15, 1880, when he was twenty-three years of age, he married Miss Josephine Lobdell, a daughter of Aaron T. Lobdell, a pioneer citizen of Grant county. Through teaching and farm¬ ing, Henry C. Creviston had saved some money, and had been very eco¬ nomical and thrifty wrhen a young man, so that he was able to buy one hundred and twenty-five acres of land, and used that as a nucleus for his present fine estate. With the aid and cooperation of his wife he has added to his possessions, and has also received his share of his father's estate.

In material circumstances, Mr. Creviston stands as one of the most prosperous men of Grant county. He has been not less fortunate in his family, and he and his wife reared six children to useful manhood and womanhood. These children are mentioned as follows: Mrs. Perlie A. Bigley, who lives now in Marshall county, was educated in the Marion high school and the Normal College, and for five years was a successful teacher ; Laura E. is the wife of Ernest Keller, of Kendallville, Indiana, and her education was obtained in the Yan Buren high school, and she also had musical instruction. Russell G. is a graduate of Van Buren high school, completed a course in the State University at Bloomington and in the Terre Haute Normal School, and is a very capable teacher, his home now being in Marion. Jessie F. is a graduate of the Van Buren high school, taught for two years in the home schools, and is now a student in the Muncie Normal College. Walter W., who has also been given a certificate to teach, is a graduate of the Van Buren high school, and also attended the Marion Normal College. Emma Josephine, the youngest of the family, is a member of the class of 1915 in the Van Buren high school, and it is her purpose to teach school when she has com¬ pleted her education. In politics Mr. Creviston is a Republican, and is still faithful to the old party, its principles and leaders. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Knights of the Maccabees and the Modern Wood¬ men of America. He and his wife are members of the Van Buren Dis¬ ciple church. Mr. Creviston is a stock holder and vice president of the First National Bank of Warren, Indiana, and has been identified with this institution since its organization in 1906, having taken part in its establishment.

Buchanan Family of Grant County. The history of a family written by a member of it naturally partakes largely of the personal element. The mutations of time change all things and all peoples and while "new occasions teach new duties' ' and this history deals with the past and its evolutional changes, it is also the story of the present, told today, which in time shall become the history of the past.

According to Madam's "Clans and Customs," a history of Scot¬ land, the genealogists of clan Buchanan derive it from a son of O'Kyan, an Irish prince, who came to Scotland in time of Malcolm II anno 1016 and obtained the, lands of Buchanan in county Stirling.

The condensed history of clan Buchanan, which tells of its honor¬ able miltary history, its adherence to Bruce, refusing allegiance to King Edward I of England in 1296; their marriages, births and deaths, all changing incidents of life; their landed possessions which stretched over a distance of about eighteen miles on the north side of Loch Lomond, justly celebrated in song and story, with the house of Buchanan on its banks, now the country place of His Grace the Duke of Montrose; the war-shout "Clan Innis" which passing quickly would in a few hours muster the clan of fifty heritors and their fol¬ lowers, all of their name; their armorial bearings, motto and badges, tartan and costume, with its large loose plaid and philibeg ; the buttons peculiar to the Highlanders; the sporan bearing the warcry "Clan Innis;" the hose, the bonnet with its badge of two feath¬ ers, and family portraits which are today in the possession of Her¬ bert Buchanan Esq. of Arden, - all matters of historical record have no particular bearing upon this paper other than to note their origin as a family and the significance of their Christian names. It is a far cry from Scotland, 1240, to America, 1914, but more than six hundred years ago the Lairds of Buchanan, chiefs of their clan, were the Sirs Alexander, James, John, George and Walter, and wher¬ ever the family of Buchanan is known in America these names have been repeated again and again.

This much by way of historical record, while tradition tells us that the American Buchanans trace their lineal descent from the three brothers of the name who were brought to this country while mere lads, too young doubtless to appreciate the importance of pre¬ serving knowledge of family connections in Scotland. Being sepa¬ rated these brothers became' the heads of families, one branch in Pennsylvania, one in Virginia and one in eastern New York.

The family to which the late Alexander Buchanan, for more than sixty years a resident of Marion belonged, was of the Penn¬ sylvania wing. His father, James M. Sr., was disinherited for marry¬ ing Rachel McCarthy, a young Irish girl employed in his father's family in the capacity of nursery governess. James' Buchanan Sr. moved to Trumbull county, Ohio, then in the Western Reserve and attached for government to the state of Pennsylvania, where were 'born to them nine children, of which Alexander was the fifth.

His early life was spent on the farm until his fifteenth year, when he was apprenticed to a cabinet maker with whom he worked until he attained his majority. His apprenticeship was served at Youngstown, Ohio, where he attended the village schools during the winter months. James Buchanan Sr. moved to Grant county in 1838, locating on what is known as the Robert Willson farm, south¬ east of Jonesboro. After some years they moved to their farm in Wabash county, southeast of the village of Ashland, now Laf ontain. Alexander Buchanan came to Marion in 1840, and with the late David Norton as partner manufactured furniture. This part¬ nership lasted for several years. After their dissolution, and realiz¬ ing the need of an undertaking establishment, Alexander Buchanan opened up the first one in the then village of Marion, and built the first hearse he used, his wife making the curtains and trimmings for it. In the meantime he continued to manufacture furniture, many pieces of which are still to be found in Grant and Wabash counties. Some of the best known men in the country worked with him, nota¬ bly Isaiah Cox and Daniel Barley, the latter of whom also served as postmaster for many years. In 1851 Alexander Buchanan sold his business to Samuel Whisler and having been elected county sheriff qualified for that office, which he filled for three consecutive terms, was again elected in 1867, serving three years under a new enact¬ ment by legislature, retiring from active political life in 1870, but never during life losing interest in the Republican party to which he was a faithful adherent from its birth.

When the first call for three months men to enlist in the war of the Rebellion wfas made, Mr. Buchanan enlisted as first lieutenant of Company I of the Twelfth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and before taking the field was made its captain, serving his term of enlistment was mustered out, and was prevented from re-enlistihg because of loss of his home by fire. At the time of his death, which occurred June 17, 1902, Alexander Buchanan had been for twentysix years the senior member of the firm of Buchanan & Son, under¬ takers and marble and granite dealers.

September 9, 1841, Captain Buchanan was married to Miss Julia Ellzroth, daughter of Frederick and Katherine Ellzroth, pioneer set¬ tlers of Marion. Mrs. Buchanan passed away in March, 1886. Six children were bom to them, namely : Simon Monroe, Harriett, Laura, James Monroe, David and Mary Christfield. Their first born and two younger children died in childhood. The second daughter, Laura, was married to H. C. Hathaway at Richmond, Indiana, December 9, 1869. They are the parents of four children, three of whom are still living.

James Monroe Buchanan was born August 21, 1850, and received his education at Miss Julia Norton's school and the "Old Academy" in Marion and at Stanford Biblical Institute at Sanfordville, New York. During his early manhood he .served his father as deputy during his incumbency of office and afterwards was associated with him in a general merchandise business until in 1876 he established the business of undertaking and granite and marble dealing, which has descended from grandfather and father to its present owner and proprietor, James Walter Buchanan.

James M. Buchanan was united in marriage on May 26, 1875, to Mary Thompson, youngest daughter of the late Samuel R. and Martha Thompson, pioneer settlers of Grant county. To them were born two children: Bertha, who .married Otis E. Little of Boston, Massachu¬ setts, June 6, 1900; and James Walter, who married Miss Elizabeth Hoobler April 12, 1910. The latter are the parents of 'a little son, nearly three years of age, the sixth James Buchanan in direct descent, five of whom have lived in that county.

James Monroe Buchanan passed away in the prime of life and usefulness April 1, 1913, aged sixty-two years. It is perhaps given to few men to leave a record of such unblemished character and upright living at home and abroad, wherever the vocation of a busy life called him. A man of broad outlook, generous impulses, tender charity and enduring friendship, few deaths have occasioned such a general sense of loss as has his, and only recently a friend in speak¬ ing of him said, "Today as at the time of his death I regard the death of such a man a public calamity, but the influence of such a life will live while memory of him lasts."

At th£ suggestion of a friend and church brother, is quoted the following tribute read at the first meeting of the official board held after his death, fittingly submitted by Captain J. W. Miles, who for more than a quarter century had been a brother trustee with James Buchanan in the Temple Congregational church, of which they had been members since early manhood, the parents and families of both also being members, while the grandparents of both men had been among its founders : ' ' It is eminently fitting for the official board of the Temple Congregational church of Marion, of which our late brother James M. Buchanan for many years was an honored member, to give an expression of its sense of loss at his passing from us, and to offer an expression of condolence to his immediate family whose loss is greater than words can express. The members of this board and of the church, as well as all who knew Brother Buchanan, can bear witness to his integrity and his good character as a Christian man and citizen. But it is in the church where his loss will be more keenly felt than anywhere outside of his family. His activity in the church he loved was known to all of us. Her interests and her success were dear to his heart, but his Christian work was not con¬ fined to his own church - he was a Christian at work everywhere."

And here in this brief history of a family whose interests are iden¬ tified with that of our home city Marion it is realized that if another chapter is added it must be of the future and the work of future his¬ torian. As it is only by the achievements of the past we may hope to measure the possibilities of the future and as the growth of any family of peoples, their various ramifications, their failures or suc¬ cesses cannot be prescribed, knowing that brave lives bravely lived may prove an incentive for future emulation, we pause with the hope that inasmuch as the opportunities of today for useful honorable careers are so great they may be appreciated and correspondingly improved. So we close looking trustfully forward in the belief that the fruit of every pure and honest life repeats itself as harvest fol¬ lows seed time through successive generations.

It might indeed be pleasing to ponder, if old conditions had remained unchanged ; if titles and landed estates had been handed down through succeeding generations ; since it is a human weakness to love and perhaps unduly estimate earthly honors such as these, it might indeed be pleasing to our " amour propre" to dream of family greatness, place and power, yet, since life is so much fuller than any book, when we consider the broader life and the greater opportunities that come to the people of a free land, of the privileges of being an American citizen, for, as a late writer has said, in spite of European and American criticism, of rancor and vehemence, of the cataclysmic era of change through which the world is now passing, the United States of America remains the greatest country in the world and the living hope of mankind. Therefore we close thoroughly m accord with the sentiment of Scotland's greatest poet, that

John T. Carey. Three generations of the house of Carey have left their imprint upon the life of Grant county, Indiana, and a fourth generation just coming into activity in the business of life gives promise of equaling the excellent work of their progenitors in the community that has so long known and honored the Carey family. The first of the name to locate in Grant county were four sons of John Carey, the paternal grandfather of John T. Carey, whose! name initiates this review.

John Carey, it is presumed, was born in Virginia, coming of an old and well established family, and he subsequently located in Clinton county, Ohio. He settled on a farm there and devoted himself to agricultural activities, spending the most of his life there. He came to Grant county, Indiana, to visit his sons, and his death soon after¬ ward occurred in Liberty township. He was then past seventy-five years of age, and his life had been one of singular usefulness in those communities that he had called home. His good wife later died in the same township, when she had reached the age of about eighty-three, and both lie buried in Oak Ridge cemetery. Her maiden name was Margaret Green, and, like her husband, was a Virginian, it is assumed, though accurate facts as to the early life of these fine old people are not of record and only reports by word of mouth are available. They were married in Clinton county, Ohio, where they first met, and together they continued to live there for a great many years. They were Quakers, and reared their children in that simple and fine old faith.

John Carey, their son and the father of the subject of this review, was born in Clinton county, Ohio, in 1816, and he died on July 19, 1895. He grew up in his native community, and there learned the trade of a carpenter, but after coming to Grant county he followed farming. In Clinton county he met and married Eliza Moon, and she died while yet in the prime of life, leaving her widowed husband With six children. In 1849 John Carey took his motherless brood of children and came to Grant county, here to locate on new and untried land in section 18 of Fairmount township. He brought to his new home and his new enterprise a vast and telling energy that ^oon made his wilderness farm a real home and a productive bit of soil. He improved his first possession, and with the passing years gradually acquired more until he soon owned 240 acres, eighty acres lying in Fairmount township and 160 acres in Mill township. He later, how¬ ever, sold 120 acres, and in 1888 took up his residence in Jonesboro, where he finally died. Soon after he took up his residence in Grant county Mr. Carey married a second time. The lady of his choice was Lydia Hollingsworth, nee Jones, the widow of John Hollingsworth, who died and left his widow with one daughter, Lucinda Hollings¬ worth.

Mrs. Lydia Carey was born in Wayne county, Indiana. She came to Grant county when five years of age, was reared within its confines, and she died here on the 6th of February, 1911, at the fine old age of eighty-eight years, having been born on the 11th of June, 1822. She was a daughter of Richard and Hannah (Thomas) Jones, old pioneer stock of Grant county and whose names will live in the community for many years to come. Like her husband she was a Quaker, and their lives were ideal in every respect. John Carey was for many years a Quaker preacher in his home community, and is still remembered for his life of singular clearness and devotion to duty and as a wholesouled Christian man. He was a citizen of commendable traits, and his loyalty and devotion to his home district was one of the fine things about him. None excelled him in his qualities of good citizenship, and he combined the duties of a preacher with those of a citizen in the most pleasing manner, in a day when it was quite generally held that a minister of the Gospel might not interest himself with material things to the extent of mixing in local politics. To these parents were bom eight children, of whom seven are still living. John T. Carey was the second bom as well as the second son in this family of five sons and three daughters.

John T. Carey was born on his father's farm in Fairmount town¬ ship on October 15, 1851, and was reared and educated in that com¬ munity. He has come to occupy a place of no little importance in his home township and has been more than ordinarily successful in his business activities. He has a fine farm of 135 acres, improved to its highest and most productive condition, and the buildings on the place are the kind that reflect genuine credit upon their owner. He owns ninety-five acres in Mill township, where he lives, the remainder lying in Fairmount township. Mr. Carey has inherited all the qualities of thrift and all the excellencies of character that marked his parents, and he is a man whose influence on the community is one of the highest order.

In 1875 Mr. Carey was married in Back Creek church to Miss Ruth T. Elliott, who was born in Miami county, Indiana, on Novem¬ ber 6, 1855, but when nine years of age she came with her parents to Grant county, where they located in Mill township. She is a daughter of Exum and Hulda (Knight) Elliott, both natives of Grant county and successful farmers of both Grant and Miami counties. They .died in this county in advanced life. Mrs. Carey is a woman of exceptional character and qualities. Since she was eighteen years of age she has been a minister of the Friends church, preaching in the Back Creek church in Grant county, in the Friends church at MantQn, Michigan, and in the Friends church at North Grove, Indiana. She has preached at many other places on occasions, and is known as one of the ablest exhorters to be found among the ministers of the church body. Her work has reflected forth many excellent qualities that are inherent within her, and few have wielded a greater influence for good than has Mrs. Carey wherever she has gone. '

Four children came to brighten the home of Mr. and Mrs. Carey r Maud, the first born, died in infancy; Ida, the second, died at the age of eighteen years ; Gervas Albert Carey has been a pastor and minister in Friends church since twenty years of age, but is now a student and teacher in Friends' University, Wichita, Kansas. His wife was for¬ merly Amy Gitchel. They have two daughters, Ruth and Elizabeth. The youngest child, John Stanley Carey, is engaged in operating his father's farm and has demonstrated his capacity as an agricultural man and in no uncertain terms. He has given special attention to stock raising and his success has been praiseworthy. He married Callie Leota Thomas and they have one daughter, Pauline Louise.

It would be difficult, indeed, to estimate the genuine worth to any community of the lives of such people as these. Aside from his activi¬ ties in the interests of the church Mr. Carey has for the twenty-eight years been an ardent Prohibitionist, and he has accomplished much, not alone by the power of his splendid example, but in what he has been able to do in the way of showing the need and possibility of better civic conditions in the community. None is held in higher esteem than he, and none is more deserving of the high regard of his fellows.

lished in that state several generations ago, and having held to its Virginia habitat down to the present day, when many of the name may yet be found within the borders of that state. In writing a fam¬ ily review of the Overmans it must of necessity be a brief one, by reason of the slender records that have been kept, and for that rea¬ son the first of the name to have specific mention in this review will be Elisha Overman, the paternal grandfather of Amos Overman, whose name heads this review.

Elisha Overman was born in Virginia, of Quaker stock, and he himself was a stanch adherent of the church of the Friends all his days. In his native state he wedded Mahala Burson, also a Virginia product and of good Quaker stock, and some years thereafter they came north, locating in Clinton county, Ohio, and taking up life as farmers there. There Elisha Overman died in 1824 when he was yet in the prime of his young manhood, and in later years his widow married Amos Davis, who was not a stepfather to his wife's children in the generally accepted sense, but who performed the full duties of a parent to them. He was a thrifty man and one who possessed many excellent qualities of heart and mind, and made an excellent home for his family. When they had passed the prime of life, they came to Indiana, some of the children having come hither previously and settled on a farm in Centre township, as early as the forties. There Mr. and Mrs. Davis spent their remaining days. Mr. Davis died first, being then past seventy years of age, and his widow passed on some five years later when she was eighty-six years old. They had lived in their Quaker faith and they died happily and content with their achievements in life and the knowledge of duty well performed.

Besides the children of her first marriage, Mrs. Davis had a son, Henry, and a daughter named Melissa. The son, it should be men¬ tioned, lives near Sweetser, Grant county, Indiana, and is one of the most capable and successful farmers of the county. He is married and has two children. The daughter, Melissa, is the widow of Reuben Small, and lives in Kansas. She has one living son. By her mar¬ riage with Elisha Overman, Mahala (Burson) Overman Davis became the mother of Jesse, father of Amos Overman; Benjamin, who died following his third marriage in this county, leaving children by each marriage; Sarah, the wife of Pearson Hosier, who early settled in Indiana, and died, leaving a family; Matilda, who married George lams and located in Iowa, and there died, leaving several sons and daughters.

Jesse Overman was bom in Clinton county, Ohio, on December 1, 1814. He was but ten years of age when his father died, and he made his home with his mother and stepfather until he was about eighteen years of age. At that age he launched out into life on his own responsibility, and he made the journey on horseback from his Ohio home to Grant county, Indiana. The trip was made via Muncie, and with his uncle, Reuben Overman, he located at Marion, in a day when the present city was the merest village, comprising but one log cabin, and the only activity carried on there being trading. His uncle was a blacksmith, and the youth learned that trade with him. Later he entered land in Center township, securing an eighty there in the heart of the wilderness. He married early in life, as was the good old custom, and on his eighty-acre farm he and his young wife began to build them a home. Hard work availed them something and it was not long before that had made a fairly good showing on their new place. From then on he devoted himself to farming entirely, with the exception of an occasional instance when he returned to the anvil And forge for the accommodation of a neighbor, or for his own sake.

In later years he disposed of the place by sale and came to Mill town¬ ship, here purchasing other land, and in the home he established there he died in 1891. His wife had preceded him in 1880, at the age of sixty-four years. She was, in her maiden days, Jane Griffin, and she was bom in Preble county, Ohio, but reared in Grant county. She and her husband were of a fine and wholesome type of citizen, made of the stuff that pioneers, and successful ones, are built, and their lives were worthy examples of thrift, courage, honesty and all the sturdy Christian qualities that characterized many of our pioneers. They were highly esteemed in their various communities, and when they passed away there were many to mourn their loss.

Mrs. Overman was the daughter of James and Jane (Ricks) Griffin, born in Virginia, but pioneers to Ohio. Mrs. Jane (Ricks) Overman died in Ohio, when the mother of Amos Overman was a small child. James Griffin was also a pioneer to Indiana, Mill township, in Grant county, being his last earthly home. He was a sturdy and admirable man of his time, and it is but fitting that mention be made here of him. In his young married life he migrated to the north, making the jour¬ ney through many difficulties that would have worsted any less hardy and courageous then they. The roads in those early times were mere trails, and were traversed with the utmost difficulty and discomfort. Mr. Griffin made the long and tedious trip in a wagon loaded with household goods, and, in fact, all his earthly wealth. When he reached Ridgeville, Indiana, after many strenuous days of travel and nights broken by the unfamiliar sights and sounds of the camp, he built a flat boat and upon it loaded his wagon, team, etc., and this he poled up the Mississinewa river to a point in Jefferson township, Grant county, known as Wittank's Ford, where he entered land and planned the building of a mill on the place. Later he traded this property for stock in a proposed railroad, which resulted in the loss of all he had in the world in the way of material wealth. After some struggle he was able to build a small grist and saw mill, his being among the first in the county, and located on Walnut river, near what is now Marion, but then a mere wilderness. Here he cleared a spot of land and planted an orchard, which, when it came into bearing, produced a quality of apple from which he made an " applejack' 9 that became very well known locally, and which was so potent in its powers as to result in much hilarity on the part of one who partook of more than a proper allowance, it is said. It had a wide sale and was said to be the best of its kind on the market in those days.

James Griffin became a prosperous man for his time, and enjoyed a deal of prominence and popularity among his fellows. He was a soldier of the War of 1812, and fought with General Harrison at the battle of Tippecanoe, Indiana. He died in Mill township.

Jesse Overman and his wife had children as follows: Elisha, who died in infancy; Elizabeth, the widow of John B. King, a retired farmer, who died in Grant county. (A sketch of Mr. and Mrs. King appear in this book.) James died in November, 1911, in Mill town¬ ship. He was a blacksmith and a farmer, and he married Janie Lewis, who died, and he later married Rebecca Kidener, nee Camby.

Amos Overman, immediate subject of this review, is the youngest of his parents' children. He was bom on February 14, 1848, on the Center township farm. He served in the Civil war, having enlisted on January 15, 1864, in Company C, Eighty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and his service continued until January, 1866, a few months after peace was declared. He saw much of real war, and was present and in action at the battles of Nashville, Tennessee; Guntown, Mis- sis&ippi; the siege of Mobile, and others. He escaped without injury and when he returned he became the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of fine land in section 26, Mill township. The place he even¬ tually supplied with fine farm buildings of all kinds and a good, sub¬ stantial home, it being one of the finest that lay along the Walnut creek. Here he and his wife resided for years, busy with their farm, and m the time that passed he brought it up to a splendid state of productiveness and fitness. In 1911 they retired to Gas City, and here they occupy one of the fine homes of the city.

Mr. Overman was married in Mill township to the daughter of a neighboring family. Her name was Louisa Parks, and she was bom on the old Parks homestead on August 26, 1852. She was reared by her grandfather, Silas Parks, who came here; from Ohio and entered land on Walnut creek, Monroe township, there ending his days. Mr. Parks was one of the finest men known to this section of the country, and was held in the highest esteem by all who knew him, even remotely. He was for years a preacher in the New Light Christian church, and much loved of all. His wife was Sarah Frame, and she survived him for some little time, dying at the age of seventy-five years. She was a member of her husband's church. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom John Wesley, the father of Mrs. Overman, was one of the oldest. Two daughters alone survive of this large family.

John Wesley Parks long made his home on one of his father's farms in section 26, Mill township. He married .Lydia A. Creviston, and she was all her life a faithful wife to him and a devoted mother. In later years they retired from the farm and settled in Marion, where they ended their days. He died on December 31, 1905, less than two weeks after she had passed away, her death having taken place in December 17th. They were fine Christian people, long mem¬ bers of the Christian church, but later adherents of the Baptist faith and members of the Marion church.

Mr and Mrs. Overman have only one child, Alverna, born on the home farm in 1882, and educated in the public schools of Gas City and Marion. She married B. B. Cross of South Carolina, a commer¬ cial man, and she makes her home with her parents. She has two children: Margaret, born on February 27, 1907, and Louise, born on October 22, 1908.

Thomas J. Crandall. Although comparatively a newcomer to Grant county, Thomas J. Crandall has already made a place for him¬ self among the substantial citizens of this part of the Hoosier state, for he has demonstrated his ability as a farmer and stock raiser, his worth as a citizen and his fidelity and loyalty as a friend and neighbor. He is at this time the owner of a well cultivated tract of eighty-eight acres located in section 12, Mill township, and during the four years he has resided here has shown his progressive and enterprising spirit by the making of numerous improvements and by installing a number of innovations. Mr. Crandall was bom March 30, 1859, in Cook county, Illinois, and is a son of Jonathan and Jane (Webb) Crandall.

Mr. Crandall comes of an old and honored family, being a direct descendant of Elder John Crandall, who came from England to America during the sixteenth century and established the name in Vermont, from whence it spread to the surrounding New England states. The great-grandfather of Mr. Crandall, John Crandall, was born in Vermont, where he married Eada Austin, and they- subse¬ quently moved to Franklin county, New York, where the great-grand- father died at the age of eighty-nine years and five months. Among his children was Philarmon Crandall, who was born in Vermont, and also died in Franklin county, New York, at the age of fifty-four years. He married Eliza Hapgood, a native of the Green Mountain state, and she died in Franklin county, New York, in 1876, when seventy-two years of age, having been the mother of twelve children.

Jonathan Crandall, the father of Thomas J. Crandall, was born in Franklin county, New York, October 16, 1825, and was there reared and educated. He married Miss Jane Webb, who was born in the same county and in the same year, and after the birth of their first child they went to Cook county, Illinois, where they remained three years, then returning to their native county. There they spent the remaining years of their active lives, the mother passing away on the home farm in 1887 and the father in November, 1892. They were the parents of six children : David, who is a Wisconsin farmer and mar¬ ried; Cornelia, single, a resident of Chicago; Thomas J. ; Orpha, now Mrs. Price, of Granville, Illinois, and the mother of one daughter; Victoria, the widow of John Goodrich, of Richmond, Indiana, and the mother of one daughter; and John I., an engineer on the Lehigh Val¬ ley Railroad, residing at Sayre, Pennsylvania, and married.

Thomas J. Crandall was sixteen years of age when he embarked upon a career of his own. He had been given ordinary educational advantages in the public schools of the East, and had been reared to habits of industry and integrity, and thus felt himself well fitted to grapple with the problems and battles of life. He first chose as his field of endeavor the state of Illinois, but after a short stay removed to Keith (now Perkins) county, Nebraska, where he entered a home¬ stead of 160 acres. This he improved and fitted out with substantial buildings, and after disposing of his interests therein at a good profit went to Wisconsin, and in 1890 became identified with the lumber business as a logger. He spent the following eight years thus engaged in Chippewa and Forest counties, and in 1898 went to Ford county, Illinois, and again turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, remaining in the Prairie state for four years. Succeeding this experi¬ ence he went to Miami county, Indiana, and purchased 120 acres of fine land, which he operated for five years, this property being now worth $200 per acre. On disposing of this tract he went to Dawson county, Nebraska, where he bought 160 acres of good soil, but in 1909 returned to Indiana, and for one year operated eighty acres of land in Starke county, of which he is still the owner. In the meantime, in 1909, he had purchased his present land in Mill township, Grant county, and on March 1, 1910, settled thereon, this having continued to be his home to the present time. Mr. Crandall has decided to remain here permanently, and has made numerous improvements which have added materially to the value of his home. His residence was built by John Mason in 1908. Mr. Crandall is a man of great energy and enter¬ prise, of force of character and resolute purpose, and at all times his business has been conducted along the lines of commercial honor and integrity. He has won the confidence and respect of the people of his new home locality and is well deserving of mention among the repre¬ sentative citizens of Grant county.

While a resident of Illinois Mr. Crandall was married to Miss Eva Crandall, who was born, reared and educated in Cook county, that state. Four children have been born to this union: Fayette, who is residing on his father's farm, in Starke county, is married and has two children, Robert and Thomas F. ; David C., also a farmer, is mar¬ ried and has two children, Robert and Thomas F. ; David C., also a farmer, is married and has two children, Eva and Helen; Gladys, who has been given excellent educational advantages, being a gradu¬ ate of the Marion high school and of the schools of Kearney Junction, Nebraska, and she is now a teacher in the schools of Howard county, Indiana; and Lydia, who was given the same training as her sister, and like her is also a teacher in the Howard county schools.

George G. Richardson, M. D. County health officer of Grant county, Dr. Richardson is one of the young and progressive members of the pro¬ fession in this county, and during his eight years' practice at Van Buren has proved exceptionally capable and has what his friends and associates regard as a " fine practice. ' ' As health officer for the county he has been alert in safe-guarding the community, not only from the more routine sources of contagion, but has used his efforts to extent the knowledge and practice of the fundamental laws of sanitation and personal health.

George G. Richardson was born at Laurel, in Franklin county, Indi¬ ana, on Christmas Day of 1880. His parents were Dow L. and Sarah (Lockwood) Richardson, both of whom were natives of the state of Ohio. Dow L. Richardson was born in 1833 and died in 1881, was a farmer by occupation, moved from Ohio to Franklin county, Indiana, and died at Laurel. He left ten children, named as follows: Elizabeth Cregor, of Indianapolis; Dow, of Seattle, Washington; Frank S., of Fayette county, Indiana; Phoebe Snider, of Dublin, Indiana; Austin, of Rushville, In¬ diana; I. P., of Dunreith, Indiana; Emma Murphy, of Glenwood, In¬ diana; Thomas, of Glenwood; Lamont, of Connersville ; and George G. After her husband's death, the mother moved to Glenwood in Rush county, and there reared her family. Her death occurred in 1899, and she was a member of the Christian church.

Dr. Richardson as a boy attended the Glenwood schools and was very liberally advantaged as to education, although he attained most of his equipment in that way through his own labors and economy. From the Glenwood schools he was a student in the Marion Normal Col¬ lege, and then was in Hiram College in Ohio, the institution of which former President Rutherford B. Hayes was once at the head. For six years he was a school teacher, and with the means obtained in this way defrayed expenses through medical college. He entered Indiana Medi¬ cal College at Indianapolis in 1901, and was graduated M. D. in 1905. In the same year of his graduation he came to Van Buren, and has since enjoyed a good practice. He belongs to the Marion County, the Eleventh Congressional District and the State Medical Societies, and the Ameri¬ can Medical Association. His church is the Christian. Dr. Richardson has been county health officer for the past three years. In August, 1900, he married Miss Jessie Leas, of Van Buren. Their two children are Dow and George G., Jr.

Verlin R. Spurgeon. The Spurgeon family has many interests in Grant county and Verlin R. Spurgeon is one of its younger repre¬ sentatives and has been chiefly identified with banking, being now cashier and one of the stockholders in the First State Bank of Gas City, and also occupying the same position with the Citizens Bank of Jonesboro. These two banks were established in 1906,* resulting from a reorganization of two other institutions. The banks have had the strongest of backing, and it is said that the collective responsibility of the officers and stockholders of the institution represent the total sum of two millions of dollars. The first officers of the banks were: J. Wood Wilson, the prominent banker of Marion, who was president; L. C. Frank, a Gas City business man; R. T. Calender, now cashier of the

Farmers Trust & Savings Company of Marion, and president of the two banks at Gas City and Jonesboro. In November, 1912, Mr. Spur¬ geon took over the interests of Mr. Wilson in the Gas City and Jones¬ boro banks, and has since been cashier and is practically manager of both institutions. The board of directors is now made up of the fol¬ lowing: Edward Bloch, a Gas City merchant and vice president of the bank; R. T. Calender; DeWitt Carter, who was formerly cashier and is now with the Indiana Insulated Wire & Rubber Company of Jonesboro; 0. Gordon, a furniture merchant at Gas City; John Malay, a grocer and farmer of Gas City ; A. R. Leisure, superintendent of the United States Glass Company of Gas City; William E. Mason, a farmer of Mill township; V. R. Spurgeon; and John L. Thompson, president of the Thompson Bottle Company. The capital stock of the Gas City bank is $25,000, and its deposits in September, 1913, amounted to $182,000, figures which indicate the confidence of the patrons in the stability of the institution. Both banks have been steadily grow¬ ing since organization.

Yerlin R. Spurgeon is the young man whose success as a banker has not come as a matter of chance or fortune, but is due to his sound intelligence, business judgment, and remarkable energy in everything he undertakes. Previous to his locating in Gas City, Mr. Spurgeon was connected with the Rush County National Bank at Rushville, and for about five years was with different traction companies operating in this state, at one time being with the Indianapolis & Cincinnati Trac¬ tion Company. He was bom in Grant county, October 9, 1877, had a public school education and training in the Normal College of Marion, and since leaving school has led a busy and successful career in busi¬ ness affairs.

Mr. Spurgeon's parents are John and Emma (Riggs) Spurgeon. His father was born in Ohio, and the mother in Virginia, but they were married in Grant county. The elder Spurgeon has long been prominent as an educator. For more than thirty years he was con¬ nected with the Marion Normal School, and in different high schools. He and his wife now live in Sweetser, and for several years the father has been identified with the large industry at Herbst in the manufac¬ ture of drain tile goods. He has been very successful as a business man, is a director in the Farmer's Trust & Savings Company of Marion, owns a large farm, and has been prosperous no less as a tiller of the soil than as a teacher and manufacturer. For many years he has been regarded as one of the leaders in Grant county Democratic politics, served at one time as deputy county treasurer, and has repre¬ sented his party in both state and county conventions. He is a mem¬ ber of the Christian church.

Verlin R. Spurgeon was married in Pleasant township, October 15, 1900, to Miss Bertha Johnson, who was born in Ohio, was educated in the high school of Sweetser, and is a cultivated woman who knows how to preside over her own home and take her share in the social activities of her community. They have four children: John W., bora June 4, 1904, and now in school; Margaret E., born December 8, 1906, and also in school; Albert F., born October 17, 1908; and James P., bom October 23, 1910. Mr. Spurgeon is a member of the Christian church, while his wife is a Methodist. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias at Gas City, and is independent in politics.

civilization, and in providing wholesome food is performing a service such as makes some more aristocratic pursuits seem petty by compari¬ son. His finely appointed bakery was established at Jonesboro, March 17, 1909. Mr. Hupp is a thorough man in his business, and an excellent executive. His output has a large local sale, and he makes it a strict policy to use only the best grade of material and follow the highest standards of the baking art. His shop is located on Main street, occu¬ pying a frontage of 22 feet by 100 feet depth.

Christ Hupp was born in Logansport, Indiana, December 30, 1870, was reared in that city, and from the public schools at once began an apprenticeship in the baker 's trade which has been his steady occupa¬ tion all his active career. He worked as a journeyman in his native city, and later was for a number of years employed in the National Biscuit Company's plant at Indianapolis, and also with the Alex Tag¬ gart Company of the same city, finally leaving Indianapolis, and locating in Jonesboro.

His parents were William and Augusta (Wandry) Hupp. His father was' born in Hesse Darmstadt, and the mother in Berlin, Ger¬ many, grew up in the old country and the father was for three years in the German army. After that the parents came to America, but were not married when they left the old country, that ceremony being deferred until they reached Logansport. The father during his youth had learned the trade of blacksmith, but after locating at Logansport, became a teamster and engaged in contract teaming, being still more or less active in that business. He and his wife live in Logansport, and are now respectively seventy-one and sixty-nine years of age. Both are members of the Lutheran church, and in politics he is a Democrat.

Christ Hupp was married in Indianapolis, Indiana, to Miss Christina Ihrig, who was born at Kokomo, reared and educated there. Her parents were both born in Germany but were married in Indiana, and now live in Converse, where the father conducts a bakery. Both are more than seventy years of age, but still active and well preserved, and are members of the Lutheran church. Mr. and Mrs. Hupp have one daughter, Nettie, who was well educated in Indianapolis, was bom in 1890, and is now the wife of George Burger, of Peru, Indiana. They have no children. Mr. Hupp and wife are communicants of the Luth¬ eran church, his politics is independent, and he is affiliated with the Jonesboro lodge of Masons, No. 109, and since 1898 has belonged to the Improved Order of Red Men at Indianapolis.

Hon. James E. Riley. Seldom have the honors and responsibilities of legislative functions fallen upon a more fitted candidate than in the election on November 5, 1912, of James E. Riley to represent Grant county in the sixty-eight Indiana assembly. Mr. Riley took to the capital a long and successful experience, as farmer, merchant and efficient local citizen. He came up from the bottom and learned to bear the responsi¬ bilities of manhood when a boy. In thirty-four years of residence at Van Buren he first of all made himself successful in business, and pro¬ vided well for his family. At the same time his relations with the com¬ munity were increasingly beneficial to the general welfare and Ms friends and fellow citizens throughout the county, regardless of politics, esteemed him as one of the best selections made in many years for his present office.

James E. Riley was bom December 28, 1851, in Tipton county, Indi¬ ana, a son of Nobie S. and Mary (Hinton) Riley, both of whom were na¬ tives of the state of Kentucky. Grandfather Edward Riley immigrated to Indiana from Kentucky about 1840. Noble S. Riley was born in 1823 and died in 1856. For some years he was a merchant at Manila in Rush county, and afterwards moved to Tipton county where he bought a farm. He became prominent in his locality and at the time of his death was serving as county commissioner. When his son James E. was about four years of age, the father contracted typhoid fever, and left a widow and three young children. The children were Lewis Cass, now of Tipton county ; James E, and Martha J. Yohe, a resident of Elwood, In¬ diana. The mother made a noble struggle to rear her family, and give them the proper comforts and advantages of life, but succeeded in that task, and lived in the esteem of her children until she was eighty -seven years of age, her death occurring July 29, 1911. During her later years she lived with her son in Tipton county.

James E. Riley had a common School education, and was brought up on a farm. When twenty-two years of age he married and for the next four years farmed as a renter, and it was only by thrift and good man¬ agement, and persistent industry that he got his start. In 1879 he located in Van Buren, where he established a store. That store, as older residents will recall, was on a very small scale, and at the beginning the total stock of groceries did not exceed one hundred and fifty dollars in value. Mr. Riley gave to his enterprise, however, the necessary qualities of push and good management, and in time built up a fine business and began accumulating property. As his children grew up about him he gave each one of them a high school education, and some of them have had the advantages of college. In September, 1911, Mr. Riley retired from the mercantile business, after more than thirty-two years in that line. At the present time he owns a fine farm of eighty acres west of Van Buren, having purchased that place in 1907. In 1889 he formed a part¬ nership with W. L. Duckwall, with whom he owns a large brick block in Van Buren, and also owns some land in partnership with Mr. Duckwall. He individually owns another block in the village, and has a very at¬ tractive residence property, his house being of twelve rooms and modern in every respect. In 1913, the Farmers Trust Company of Van Buren, Indiana, was organized and Mr. Riley was elected the president. Wm. Doyle is the vice president and C. C. Huff is the secretary-treasurer. The organization has a capital stock of $25,000.

Mr. Riley has been a life-long Democrat, and has taken an active interest in party councils from the time he cast his first vote. He served as assessor of Van Buren township for nine years, was postmaster at Van Buren under President Cleveland from 1892 to 1896, and in 1912 was elected representative. In the legislature he is a member of^ the fol¬ lowing committees: County and township committee; organization of courts; banks; state soldiers' and orphans' homes; and public expend¬ itures.

On March 19, 1874, Mr. Riley married Miss Sarah E., daughter of Dr. Daniel T. Black, of Marion, a very prominent physician of that city for many years. Eight children have been born to their marriage, seven of whom are now living: Blanch, who married Henry D. Nicewanger, and resides in Kennewick, Washington ; Grace, wife of John R. Brown, of Marion ; Pearl Allen, resides in Greenville, Ohio ; Roxey Haines, whose home is in Robinson, Illinois ; Mrs. Maude Sutton, of Michigan City, In¬ diana; Martha Howe, of Bartlettsville, Oklahoma; and Noble T., who is at home, aged sixteen. Fraternally, Mr. Riley affiliates with the Van Buren Lodge of Odd Fellows, and has been a member of that time-hon¬ ored fraternity for about thirty-five years. He and his family worship in the Christian church.

John L. Thompson. While the Thompson family history had its local beginning in Monroe, its base was changed to Gas City when natural gas transformed Harrisburg from a hamlet to a manufacturing center. In making the change from rural to urban environment, John L. Thompson was thinking of the future of his sons, who were ambi¬ tious fellows and who must have congenial employment. It is a rare thing for a man who has made a success of one occupation to change it for another, and it was simply the force of circumstances that caused it.

John L. Thompson married Elizabeth S. Hays, November 15, 1865, and the children born to them are : Oscar S. Thompson, who married Olivia Davis. He has one son, Arthur E. Thompson, who married Frances Peters, and their son, " Billy' ' Richard Thompson, is in the fourth generation - all of them closely associated in business relation.

Eva Thompson is the wife of Alva A. Nesbitt, and she is the rem¬ nant of the family still adhering to the farm surroundings. Their children are: Mabel, wife of Kemp Deering; Genevieve, Lucile, Francis T. and Howell D. Nesbitt.

William 0. Thompson married Lela May Yates and two children, John L., Jr., and Virginia, were bom to them. Miss Gertrude Thompson is now at the head of the Thompson household. Howell D. Thompson married Marie Neal and two children, Janet Elizabeth and Haydn, were born to them. Since November, 1872, Mrs. Ella Kelley Thornburg has been a member of the Thompson family.

John L. Thompson and his wife, now deceased, represent two pioneer Grant county families, he being a son of Samuel R. and Martha M. (Thornburg) Thompson, who located in Monroe township, July 20, 1842, in the green woods, and he cut away the brush to drive the wagon to the spot where he built his first primitive dwelling. After buying the eighty acres and paying on it all the money he had ($85), he had a considerable debt, a wife and two children. The present day financier wonders, how six years later, Mr. Thompson built the brick house now occupied by Edgar Thornburg but known to all as the Thompson family homestead. There were some secrets known to the settlers - economy and industry.

Samuel R. Thompson was a native of Clinton county, Ohio, and his wife came of old line Quaker stock in the same community. They had tried a home in Randolph county, Indiana, before locating in Grant county. He was a tanner, and put in a tan yard in the woods, now an unknown industry in Grant county. There were tanneries in Marion and Jonesboro, but from the beginning Mr. Thompson had excellent patronage. He was an expert at his trade and made an excellent quality of leather from cow hides when there were shoemakers around so many firesides in Grant county. Tan bark is now an obsolete term in local history. This farm house and about one section of land remained when Mr. Thompson and his wife had lived out their day and generation.

Samuel R. Thompson and his wife were married November 8, 1838, and the two daughters they brought to Grant county were: Judith, who married Dr. Mahlon Pugh, and Sarah J., who married W. H. Tay¬ lor, and their son, John L. Thompson, was born at the family homestead and all of his life has been spent in the community - Monroe and Gas City. Miss Alma M. Thompson, Uri H. Thompson and Mary A. who married J. M. Buchanan are all natives of Grant county. Mrs. Pugh and Uri H. Thompson are deceased ; Mrs. Pugh is survived by one son, John T. Pugh. Mrs. Buchanan's family is elsewhere enrolled in the biography section.

Mrs. John L. Thompson was a daughter of William and Sarah (Niccum) Hays, her genealogy the same as that of Mrs. D. S. James, Mrs. Joseph Lugar and Mrs. William Doyle. She was born in Mary¬ land, and her father came in 1849 to Grant county, after having lived in Wayne county and given up his proposed residence in Illinois. When Mr. Hays left Maryland he made a cradle for his one child that would fit into the front of the carriage, and that is the way Mrs. Thompson reached Indiana. After cradling her own children in it, this home made household necessity was consigned to the attic at Cedar Place, the John L. Thompson family homestead - now the home of the Nesbitt family in Monroe. When the mother of Mrs. Thompson died, William Hays went to Maryland for a second wife, and every year the sons and daughters in the entire family come together at ' ' Greenbush, ' ' the home of Mrs. Harriet Hays, and enjoy a dinner and social time, harmony being the keynote of the family association. Mr. Thompson is recog¬ nized as president of this family gathering.

While he lived at Cedar Place in Monroe, Mr. Thompson specialized in sheep husbandry, being an importer of Shropshires for many years, and he introduced Percheron horses and always had high grade Short¬ horn cattle. While he was a routine farmer, live stock was his specialty. He always read farm journals, and he was one of a group of progressive farmers to organize the Grant county farmers' institute which has attained to such high tide in popularity and usefulness. When Mr. Thompson laid his first drain tile, he was subject to criticism among his neighbors, and his friends in the local grange reasoned with him about it. They felt like it was waste of energy and money, and advised him not to lay the tiles against each other at the ends as they would adhere, and be of no service to him. He introduced the wire tooth sulky rake in hay making, buying one at Huntington because of the canal ship¬ ment there before there were shipping facilities in Grant county. Mr. Thompson had the first disc harrow, Keystone hay loader and harpoon hay fork ever used in Monroe township, and he was always alert for labor saving machinery.

Because of his improved live stock, Cedar Place was always a mecca for stockbuyers, and Mr. Thompson was active in agricultural and live¬ stock exhibits at both county and state fairs. For years he has had charge of the sheep exhibit at the Indiana state fair, and he is always officially connected with local fairs, having been many times president of the Marion Fair Association. One who reads up-to-date farm litera¬ ture, and goes about the country as he does, is a valuable member of such an organization. Mr. Thompson bought his first pure-bred Shrop¬ shire sheep at the state fair in 1875, and in 1887 he began his annual pilgrimages to England, making five trips there as an importer, and his wife sometimes accompanied him. He will always be interested in sheep husbandry.

When the Gas City Land Company first offered inducements to . manufacturers, Mr. Thompson's problem was the future of his sons, who did not incline so much to agriculture as business, and 0. S. Thomp¬ son was the first man on the ground, the Thompson Bottle factory being Gas City's first industry. While Mr. Thompson was president of the company organized in March, 1892, he remained at Cedar Place until September of 1893, when he decided to give his personal attention to manufacturing. At that time farm land was not in local demand, and he retained it until he recently transferred part of it to the Nesbitts, who have always looked after his interests there. From 1893 to 1897 was a strenuous period in the glass industry, but the Thompson factory survived the depression, and it has always been a paying proposition.

The year Mr. Thompson moved to Gas City, his second son, W. 0. Thompson, graduated from Purdue University, and he has since been active factory superintendent, while 0. S. Thompson is general business manager and Howell D. Thompson is secretary and in charge of the sales department. 0. S. and H. D. Thompson have traveled extensively in the interests of the business managed so successfully by them. J. L. Thompson has always employed the same tactics in manufacturing that he used in agriculture, and modern equipment in all of its departments is the history of the Thompson Bottle factory. Five automatic bottle blowing machines have been installed, but there is still demand for hand made bottles and men are still employed in that department. While there have been some warehouse losses, the Thompson factory has lost very little time from actual business in its more than twenty years of existence.