Grant County, Indiana - The whole text, 1914 (part 22 of 32)

While all the Thompson family traditions were Democratic, J. L. Thompson changed his political faith when he became interested in wool production, and since he is a glass manufacturer he is still more con¬ firmed in the doctrine of tariff protection to American industries. While he lived at Cedar Place he had splendid farm improvements, and the modern home in Gas City is one of the beauty spots of Grant county. The wall surrounding the property gives it a splendid setting, and ornamental shrubbery, a court and garage bespeak the manner of life of the family. The sons all have commodious homes, and Mr. Thompson realizes that his present comfortable surroundings are the direct result of industry and business foresight. Few men attain to eminent success in more than one vocation, but he mastered both agriculture and manu¬ facturing - and now the business built up for the sons is well taken care of by them, and Mr. Thompson has leisure for well merited enjoy¬ ment. He devotes his time to many things of public nature, and has been untiring as a member of the Gas City school board in securing the Carnegie library recently given to Gas City. The Thompson family and industry are certainly an important factor in the history of Gas City as well as of Monroe township, where the two old family home¬ steads - Samuel R. Thompson's and John L. Thompson's adjoining each other, will long be pointed out as landmarks of the community.

Henry L. (Erlewine. Although a young man in years Henry L. Erlewine is a business man of experience and ability as his career in Marion, Indiana, has proved. He is the manager of one of the most important manufacturing plants in Marion, the Marion Machine Foun¬ dry and Supply Company, and he has made this concern the success which it is. He has devoted to the process all the energy of a tireless nature and has not spared himself in the effort. Enterprising and progressive, this young man has won the confidence of the older busi¬ ness men of the town and is recognized as one of the leading men in the coming generation.

Henry L. Erlewine was born on the 28th of October, 1878, at Cam¬ eron, in Monroe county, Ohio. He is a son of John C. and Lena (Eberle) Erlewine, the former being a farmer in . Cameron, Monroe county, Ohio. He is yet living and is actively engaged in farming in that place.

Henry L. Erlewine is one of eight children born to his parents and he received his education in the grammar and high schools of Cameron, Ohio. His first assay at earning his own living was as a school teacher and for three years he taught in various schools in Monroe and Wash- ington counties, Ohio. He then took up clerical work for two years and in September, 1902, came to Marion, Indiana. Here he organized the Marion Machine, Foundry and Supply Company. This corporation does general machine work and manufacturing, clay working machinery, brass and iron castings, rocker grates for boilers, soot blowers and similar appliances. They are also dealers in oil well supplies and in new and second hand pipe. Mr. Erlewine has been secretary and treas¬ urer as well as general manager ever since the organization of the com¬ pany and he is a man of high standing in the commercial world. He is also a director in the Central Machine and Foundry Company of West Marion.

Mr. Erlewine is a member of the Christian church, and is chairman of the official board of the church in Marion. He has always taken a keen interest in sociological matters and is a member of the Civic Assembly and of the Federated Charities of Marion.

On the 18th of September, J.907, Mr. Erlewine was married to Miss Anna Louise Pierson, a daughter of W. W. Pierson, of Leslie, Michigan. They have two children, Susan Elizabeth, who was born August 30, 1909, and Janet, whose birth took place on the 12th of April, 1912.

Asa T. Baldwin. In the death of Asa T. Baldwin on October 13, 1913, was removed one of Grant county's oldest native sons. Of that substantial Quaker stock, which was so prominent in peopling and giving character to Grant county even unto this time, Mr. Baldwin had his home in Grant county, excepting a few months, through infancy, youth and manhood, and was in his seventy-ninth year when he answered the final summons. He had his share of the vicissitudes and also the prosperity of life, bore his responsibilities with Credit, and wherever possible exerted his influence for social and civic betterment.

In that center of Quaker population in Grant county, Fairmount, Asa T. Baldwin was born March 16, 1835, only four years after the organization of the first county government. The annals of the Bald¬ win family have necessarily bulked large in the history of Grant county, and many points of interest concerning the name might be found by referring to other pages of this volume. The parents of Mr. Baldwin were Thomas and Lydia (Thomas) Baldwin. His father was born in Wayne county, Indiana, April 26, 1813, his birthplace having been close to the site now occupied by Earlham College. The mother was born on Christmas day of 1814 near Fountain City, in Wayne county. The regular vocation followed by the former was farming, though at vari¬ ous times he engaged in other pursuits. In 1833 he came to Grant county, locating in Fairmount township, and was one of the sturdy pioneers who cut the forest, opened up the country to the sunlight, and plowed the first furrows in this county. He and his wife were both devout Quakers, and the families on both sides had been for many gen¬ erations. The original progenitors came from Wales many years ago. Thomas Baldwin continued to live in Fairmount county until old age, when he moved to the home of his son, Terah at Marion, and died May 25, 1899, in Marion. His wife had passed away four days previous, on May 21, and they were buried in the same grave in the Odd Fellows cemetery at Marion. Of their eight children three are now 'living, and all are named as follows: Terah Baldwin, of Marion; Ann, wife of John Fellow, of Tipton county; and Lucetta B., wife of Dr. Ed Stan¬ ley, of California ; A. M. Baldwin, who for eight years was recorder of Grant county, is now deceased; Mary, wife of Charles V. Moore, both deceased; Daniel, who died at the age of seven; and Stephen G., deceased, concerning whom mention is made on other pages of this

Though born in Fairmount, the late Asa T. Baldwin spent most of the years of his youth in the home of his parents near South Marion on a farm. His primary education was received in the local schools, and in the old Normal Academy, and also at the Friends Boarding School at Richmond, an institution which later was developed into Earlham College. Mr. Baldwin should be remembered as one of the old teachers of Grant county, having taught in this and in Wabash county for a period of twenty years. At the age of nineteen he went to Michi¬ gan, spent six months in that state for his health. He had suffered from the ague which was prevalent over all this portion of Indiana, in pio¬ neer days, and sought a better climate in the northern state. After his career as a teacher, he was engaged in farming southwest of Marion, and until his death owned a part of the estate which he worked for many years. The suburban home in which he spent his declining years comprised twelve acres of ground at the edge of the Marion City limits, the handsome house being located on a. high hill overlooking the city and the valley of the Mississinewa. Mr. Baldwin had his home in Marion or vicinity from 1869 onward, and at the place just described he lived for twenty-eight years. On August 11, 1859, Asa T. Baldwin married for his firat wife, Miss Emily Kelly, who was bom and reared in Grant county. Of their marriage three children are living and three deceased : Otto Kelly Baldwin, who lives in California ; Dean A. Bald¬ win, of Seattle, Washington; Clara B., wife of Willard A. Evans, of Sierra Madre, California. The first wife died March 13, 1884, and on March 16, 1885, Mr. Baldwin married Mary E. (Jay) Overman, widow of Anderson Overman. She was bora in Dayton, Ohio, but lived in Grant county from 1850. Her parents were Isaac and Rhoda Jay. Mrs. Baldwin had three children by her former marriage: Isaac Overman and Alhambra Overman, both deceased, and Rhoda Ann Overman, who is assistant librarian at the Marion Public Library. Mr. Baldwin became of age in 1856, in time to cast his first presidential vote for the first standard bearer of the newly organized Republican party, John C. Fremont, and from* that time forward gave his support unwav¬ eringly to that great political organization. He followed in the faith of his fathers, and worshipped in the Friends church, as did his wife, and his part in church affairs was more than that of a mere attendant, since for half a century he conducted a Sunday school class. It was one of the fine representatives of the older Grant county citizenship that was stricken down by the hand of death, and his name deserves a prominent place in the history of his native county.

Thomas B. Doyle. Notable among the well-to-do and retired men of Van Buren is Thomas B. Doyle, who makes his home on a remnant of his once extensive estate, which he has given away piecemeal to his sons and daughters as they were established independently in life. Mr. Doyle was born in a cabin home in Van Buren township on March 5, 1842, and is a son of Samuel Doyle, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work.

Thomas B. Doyle was early inured to the hardships of pioneer life, which in these early days was no sinecure, and he launched out for him¬ self as soon as he reached man's estate. Samuel Doyle, his father, gave to him a piece of virgin forest land, one hundred and sixty acres in the tract, the same having been originally entered by one William Barton, although the land was deeded direct to Thomas Doyle, who cleared it bit by bit, built a house upon it, and there established his home and reared his family. He accumulated a goodly bit of land in his day in the township, and when his children reached years of maturity he gave each of them a piece of land to start them out in life. Forty acres went to his eldest daughter, Sarah ; then he gave to his son George an eighty acre tract. He next divided an eighty between his son Samuel T. and a daughter, and he gave to John A. an eighty as well, while his daugh ter Rose was the recipient of a forty acre plot. In 1890 Mr. Doyle came to Van Buren and bought sixty -six acres, since that time making his home here. A part of the piece has been platted for town lots, but there yet remains forty-four and a half acres, upon which he makes his home. Mr. Doyle has led a busy and active life, and after giving to a large family land to make them independent, he still retains enough of desir¬ able property in the township to maintain him properly.

Mr. Doyle has been a man of no little prominence in his community for many years, and he has served the township in many important capacities. While still a very young man he was township assessor for eight consecutive years, and he has served in his private capacity as guardian and administrator for a number of estates in the township, being a man who was much trusted and esteemed by his neighbors and all acquaintances. He has a wide acquaintance in the county as a result of his long residence here and the nature of his activities during his busi¬ ness career.

Some four years ago Mr. Doyle sustained an injury to his head, as a result of falling from a shed to the ground while engaged in putting away hay, and since that time he has suffered excessively poor health, but prior to that he was a man of the greatest vigor of body and mind. He was in his younger days a great hunter, and when the game thinned out in Indiana, he betook himself to the wilds of Wisconsin and Minne¬ sota, where the nimble deer still may be found in season. He has in his possession a fine moose head trophy, which he secured in the Maine woods, this head being admittedly one of the largest mounted moose heads in existence today.

In November, 1860, Mr. Doyle was married to Miss Margaret Kessinger, of Monroe township. She is the daughter of George and Leah (Wilkins) Kessinger, natives of Highland county, Ohio, where they were married, moving later to Grant county in Monroe township in the year 1837. Mrs. Doyle was born in 1844. To her and her husband have been bom nine children, of which number they reared six. They are as fol¬ lows: Sarah J., the wife of John Anderson, of Van Buren township, bom September 21, 1863; George W., bom November 11, 1864, is a farmer at home; Samuel F., born January 29, 1867, lives in Van Buren; John A., born April 12, 1868, lives on the old home place; Mrs. Rose Waggaman, born March 13, 1876, lives on a farm near Van Buren; and Mrs. Nora Sellers, bom on September 29, 1880, lives in Wells county. The children who are deceased are: Mathew, born September 2, 1861, died August 29, 1862 ; Annette, born September 25, 1872, died November 10, 1874; and Addie, born March 19, 1878, died in October, 1878.

Mrs. Doyle is one of the eight children of her parents, they being named here in the order of their birth, as follows: Absalom, of Elk county, Kansas ; Abram, living in Tennessee ; Susanna, deceased, was the wife of Eli Coulter; Nancy Coulter, living in Florida; Margaret, Mrs. Doyle, who was born on February 11, 1844; Shadrach, now deceased; Eugene, who died in Kansas; and John, a resident of Arkansas.

Mr. Doyle is a Democrat in his political adherence, though not espe¬ cially active as a politician, and his fraternal relations are with the Odd Fellows, the Rebekahs and the I. 0. R. M. On November 18, 1910, Mr. and Mrs. Doyle celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, the event being attended by a large gathering of family and friends, and fitting ceremonials commemorating the happy event of a half century ago.

It is a fact worthy of mention here that the home place of Mr. Doyle today was once the camping ground of the Indians, who stopped there in the way from Godfrey's battle ground and pitched their wagons. Seen in the light of recent developments, it is difficult to reconcile this well established fact with the present metropolitan appearance of the place, but it serves to emphasize something of the extent of the progress of the community in the space of a half century.

John T. Williams. Highly respected for his industry and for the upright and honorable life which he has led, John T. Williams is one of the best known of the older residents of Marion, Indiana. Mr. Wil¬ liams has now retired from active life but for many years he was a prosperous farmer in this vicinity and he has held a number of public offices. In each position of public trust which he has held he has car¬ ried out the ideals of high living that he held in his private life, and he is widely known as a conscientious and a just administrator of the affairs of his fellow citizens.

John T. Williams was born in Warren county, Ohio, on the 22d of April, 1844, the son of William and Alice (Hopkins) Williams. Both the latter were born in Glamorshire, Wales, coming to the United States as a young married couple. They spent five years in Philadelphia and then located in Warren county, Ohio. After spending nearly twelve years in Ohio they removed to Indiana, locating in Washington town¬ ship in Grant county, Indiana. This was in 1847 and they bought the farm upon which they lived until their death. William Williams died at the age of eighty-seven and his wife died at the age of eighty.

John T. Williams lived on the farm during his boyhood, and passed the ordinary existence of a farmer's son until the outbreak of the Civil war turned his thoughts to arms. He was too young at the beginning of the war to go to the front, but in the spring of 1864 he enlisted in Company I, of the One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry. His regiment did guard duty in Alabama and Tennessee until the close of the war. Returning home he remained with his father, helping him on the farm until he was married at the age of twenty-four. He then became a farmer on his own account and in 1882 he purchased the home farm of one hundred and sixty acres near Marion. He later added to this property, until it comprised two hundred and forty acres. After a time he bought a tract of ninety acres and erected a home upon it, later adding more land until the farm comprised one hundred and twenty -two acres. He has now lived retired in Marion for many years.

In 1888 Mr. Williams was elected trustee of Washington township on the Republican ticket.. He wras chosen sheriff of Grant county in 1892 and in 1898 was elected county commissioner. In fraternal mat¬ ters he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows being a charter member of the Landesville Lodge.

Mr. Williams was married on the 28th of December, 1868, to Susan Middleton, a daughter of William and Margaret (Strickle) Middleton, of Center township, Mrs. Williams being a native of the latter district. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Williams, as follows : Will, a resident of Marion, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work; Ger¬ trude, who is the wife of Allen Culbertson ; John D. ; Agnes ; Claude and Burrell.

Will Williams. Among the men who have played a prominent part in the affairs of Marion, Indiana, may be mentioned the name of Will Williams. He is now a contractor handling a large business and he has taken an active part in public matters in Marion and in Grant county for a number of years. He is a man of wide personal popularity as has been shown by the number of offices which he has held, and in all of his positions of public trust he has always remembered that he was the servant of the people and their welfare has always been of the first consideration with him, a trait that is often not to be found in our public officials.

Will Williams was born in Washington township, Grant county, Indiana, on the 24th of April, 1870. His father is John T. Williams ' and his mother is Susanah (Middleton) Williams, well known citizens of Marion. Will Williams received his education in the public schools of Grant county and after his student days were over he went back into the school room as a teacher. He spent six years teaching school in Washington township, Grant county and it was not until 1892 that he entered public life. He now became deputy sheriff of Grant county, and for about two years he served in this office. He then went out of office and for a time was engaged in business as a general contractor. In 1898 he became deputy postmaster and served 'in this capacity until 1900 when he became secretary of the police board. After two years in this work, he being the first secretary of the Metropolitan Police board, he resigned to take the office of deputy sheriff. For four years he held this office and won the respect of criminals for the brave way in which he carried out his duties and of the public for his fidelity to his office. After his term as deputy sheriff was over he was elected treasurer of the city of Marion and served in this capacity from 1906 until 1910. During the latter year he was elected chairman of the Republican County Central Committee and served his party faith¬ fully in this capacity. He is now engaged in general contracting work again, devoting himself in the main to road and street work and he has attained considerable success in this business.

Mr. Williams is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, belonging to the Marion Lodge No. 105. He is a member of the Inde¬ pendent Order of Odd Fellows, affiliating with the lodge at Landesville and he is also a member of the Modem Woodmen of America. In politics he is a member of the Republican party. For a number of years he was secretary of the Grant County Fair Association and in every way that has been possible for him to show his interest in the progress and development of this section of the state he has been active.

On December 24, 1889, Mr. Williams was married to Miss Helen Howard, of Washington township, and three children, one of whom is dead, have been born to this union. The two living children are Glen, bom February 8, 1892, and Robert who was bom November 7, 1906. Wade, the first born, died at the age of two years and seven months.

Mrs. Williams who was born on her father's farm in Washington township, is a daughter of Capt. John A. and Susanah (Kirkpatrick) Howard. Capt. John A. Howard is a son of Morris Howard, a soldier in the War of 1812, and an early pioneer of Grant county, Indiana. John A. Howard's wife is a daughter of William Kirkpatrick, also a pioneer of Grant county, Indiana. Capt. John A. Howard and wife now reside in Marion. He is a retired farmer, and he was a captain in the Civil war.

Otto Small. In writing of those men of Marion and Grant county who have been undeniably prominent in the life of the communities with which they have been identified, it is due to the Smalls that extended mention be made of the family in this work. Otto Small, secretary of the Ballard Packing Company, and a resident of Marion, his birth city, practically all his life, is the representative of the family who is at this time chosen for especial mention, in connection with others of the family who have had their full share in the growth and development of the county in the past half century. A useful, though quiet career, has been his, and his name is one that is held in just esteem wherever he is known.

The Small family was located in Grant county in the early thirties, being established by the paternal grandfather of the immediate sub¬ ject of this review, Jesse Small - and he was one of the earliest settlers of the county. He married Millicent Ratliff, and seven children were born to them, Joseph Small, the father of the subject, being the eldest of the number. They were farming people, and gave their lives to the development of the farming industry in the county at a time when identity with that enterprise was associated with hardships that the agriculturist of the present day is utterly innocent of.

Joseph Small followed in his father's path, and he came to be a prosperous and well-to-do farming man. His last years he spent in retirement. He owned a fine farm where Thirty-first and Washington streets later were laid out, and he also farmed in the vicinity of the Marion Soldiers' Home, the present site of the building having yielded him bountiful crops in by-gone days. He died on December 10, 1906, at the age of sixty-eight years, after a life well spent in his native com¬ munity, where he enjoyed the esteem of all, and where he had been prominent in civic and social circles, as well as having shared in the duties of public service as trustee of Center township for two terms. He married in early life, choosing for his mate Sarah Ann, the daughter of Joel Overman and Mary (Smith) Overman, a pioneer family of Grant county. To Joseph and Sarah Ann (Overman) Small were born five children, all of whom are still living. Otto Small of this review was the first born of the five; Viola is still at home with her mother, who now lives on West Sixth street, Marion; Mrs. C. V. Wade, of Franklin township, is the third child ; Mrs. E. E. Leapley is a resident of Marion ; and Mrs. A. N. Wimpy is also a resident of this city.

Otto Small was born on the farm of his parents, the same having been located where the Evans Glass Factory is now busily engaged in the manufacture of lamp chimneys and globes that are famous the world over. He attended the public schools as a boy and after he had finished his schooling turned his attention to farming. He continued in that work for a number of years, and in 1901 united his fortunes with those of the Ballard Packing Company of Marion. His interest in the concern grew as the business expanded, and it was not long before he became a stockholder in the corporation, with the duties of the office of secretary and treasurer laid upon him. The firm is well officered and managed along the most conservative lines, yet the most modern methods are employed in the manipulation of its affairs. A general packing business is carried on, and the firm is one of the best known and most prosperous in the city.

Mr. Small was married on April 15, 1906, to Miss Rose Ward, a daughter of William Ward, a well known farming man of the county, who is now deceased. Two children were born to them - Edna M., who died on August 6, 1910, and Martha A. Small. Mr. and Mrs. Small are members of the Friends' church, of which he is a trustee, and it is a fact worthy of mention that his parents also ^vere members of the same church. His mother was a granddaughter of Eli and Polly (Thomas) Overman, stanch old Quakers of Grant county, and on both sides of the house for three generations that faith has been the pre¬ dominant one, its influence being felt as strongly in the present day representatives of the family as it ever was in the early days of the century.

Mr. Small is a Mason, affiliating with. Marion Lodge No. 105, and he is a life-long Republican, but never an office seeker or holder. He has a fine farm in Liberty township, to which he gives some attention.

David Edwin Boller. In writing of the many prosperous and suc¬ cessful farming men of Van Buren township, mention should not be omitted concerning the life and accomplishment of David Edward Boiler, the owner of two fine farms in the township, and one of the well-to-do men of the community. Mr. Boller has made successful farming the main interest of his career, and that he has realized his ambition is immediately apparent from an inspection of his property. In 1912 he cropped from one hundred and eighty acres, two thousand bushels of com, seventeen hundred bushels of oats and thirty tons of hay. He sold one hundred hogs at the close of the season, and this was not an excep¬ tional year by any means. The figures, however, serve to indicate some¬ thing of the extent of his activities in the agricultural line.

Born in Washington township, Grant county, October 11, 1858, David Edwin Boller is the son of James and Ruth E. (Atherton) Boller, natives of England and Pennsylvania respectively. The father died when Mr. Boller was a mere child. Of the eight children, the others are named as follows: John, Adam, Belle, Louise, Maria, Reuben, and Keturah.

David E. Boller was educated in the public schools of Washington township, and continued on the home place with his mother and the others until he was twenty-one years old. He then applied himself to farm labor for two seasons, after which he married and spent some time on the farm of Dr. Lomax in Franklin township. For some years thereafter he rented land and farmed on his own responsibility. It was in 1884 that he purchased his first land, a forty-acre tract in section 28, Van Buren township, directly across the road from his present farm. He later sold that forty acres, and in 1900 bought his present farm, built a fine home upon it, and moved his family into it. The house is a modern, up-to-date and comfortable ten-room dwelling, entirely suited to country life and lacking none of the essentials that make for com¬ fort and the well being of the various members of the family, among its modern facilities being a fine basement, hot and cold water service, bath¬ room and other conveniences. In 1901 Mr. Boller erected a barn on ground dimensions of thirty-six by sixty feet, the industry of his farm being such as to require a barn of that size and the same is cropped to its utmost capacity from season to season as a result of the husbandry of the owner.

On December 21, 1881, Mr. Boller was married to Belle Watson. Mrs. Boller was born in Kokomo, Indiana, March 22, 1864, and is a daughter of John and Mary Ann (Miller) Watson. John Watson was born in Darke county, Ohio, of Scotch ancestry. He came to Howard county, Indiana, as a boy and was always a farmer. His wife, Mary Ann (Miller) Watson, was a native of Grant county, and after their marriage John Watson and wife lived for a number of years in the western part of this county. Mrs. Watson died at their home there when Mrs. Boller was nine years of age. John Watson, late in life lived at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Boller, in Van Buren township, and died there March 14, 1912, lacking but a month of being seventynine years of age. David E. Boiler and wife have seven children as fol¬ lows : Carey, an oil worker, now living at Lawrenceville, Illinois, married Myrtle Fighner, and they have one child, Neva B. ; Charles, a farmer who resides on part of his father's estate in Van Buren township, mar¬ ried Cecil Anderson, and their two children aVe Harriet Kathleen and

Evelyn Maxine; Elva is the wife of John Allman, an oil leaser of Wells county, Indiana, and she is the mother of one son, Kenneth B. Nelson, by a former marriage ; John W., a farmer of Monroe township, married Hulda Hayes, and their two children are Dorothy E., and Nelson E. ; Roy is a farmer of Van Buren township, and married Elsie Lozier; Ethel is the wife of Homer Pulley, a Washington township farmer, and their child is Glen Leroy; Ruth E., is the wife of Burr Emdsley, a Van Buren township farmer.

Mr. Boiler is sufficiently progressive that he makes use of a fine automobile for business and pleasure, and the spirit that prompted that innovation in farm life has characterized his activities all his life. Polit¬ ically he is a Democrat, and he and his family are adherents of the Methodist Episcopal church of Van Buren.

Godlove G. Eckhart, M. D. Ideals are not attained without ideas, and thus a career must first be thought out and then fought out. One of the ambitious and resourceful representatives of the medical profession in Grant county is Dr. Eckhart, and he is a young man whose career has shown that he has had the sagacity to project a dream and the tenacity to perfect therefrom the means by which to realize his laudable ambition. He is engaged in the practice of his profession in the city of Marion and is now devoting his attention exclusively to surgery, the lessons of his personal experience and that of others hav¬ ing demonstrated to him the expediency of concentration or speciali¬ zation in his chosen vocation. His success has fully demonstrated his wisdom and he has gained secure and definite reputation in the domain of scientific and practical surgery, in which he exemplifies the most approved of modern ideas and systems, with many delicate and suc¬ cessful operations to his credit, both in major and minor surgery. As one of the able and popular representatives of his profession in Grant county he is well entitled to specific recognition in this volume, and his broad conceptions of citizenship are shown in his loyalty and marked public spirit.

Dr. Eckhart has a due measure of pride in adverting to the fine old Hoosier state as the place of his nativity, even as he has found it an attractive and satisfactory field for his productive activities in his chosen calling. He was born on a farm in Washington township, Tip¬ pecanoe county, Indiana, on the 18th of December, 1882, and his par¬ ents, Basler and Louise (Snyder) Eckhart, were both born in Germany, the latter being now deceased. The active career of the father has been one of close identification writh the great basic industry of agriculture and he now resides in the village of Buck Creek, Tippecanoe county, where he is living practically retired, after many years of earnest and honorable endeavor. He is well known and highly esteemed in the county that has long been his home and is a man of sterling character.

Reared to the sturdy discipline of the farm, Dr. Eckhart waxed strong in mental and physical powers and as a youth his ambition was quickened to definite action. After completing the curriculum of the public schools, including that of the high school at Colburn, in his native county, he took an academic course in Valparaiso University, at Valparaiso, this state, and in preparation for the work and responsibil¬ ities of his exacting profession he entered the celebrated and historic old Jefferson Medical College, in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsyl¬ vania. In this institution he applied himself with characteristic energy and appreciation and he was graduated as a member of the class of 1907, receiving at the time his well earned degree of doctor of medi¬ cine. He spared neither time nor effort in fortifying himself fully for his humane vocation, and while in Jefferson Medical College he gained excellent clinical experience in the hospital connected with the institu¬ tion, as did he also in the Philadelphia Lying-in Hospital and in the Atlantic City General Hospital, in which he served for a time as interne.

In July, 1908, Dr. Eckhart established his residence in the city of Marion, capital of Grant county, Indiana, and here he has been con¬ tinuously engaged in the practice of his profession, in which his success has been of unequivocal order. He built up a substantial general prac¬ tice, but since the 1st of January, 191?, he has confined his practice to surgery, of which branch he is one of the most authoritative and suc¬ cessful representatives in the county at the present time. He is a close student of his profession and through recourse to the best of its standard and periodical literature he keeps in close touch with advances made 'in both medical and surgical science. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Indiana State Medical Society, the Grant County Medical Society, and the District Medical Society of the Eleventh congressional district, of which last mentioned he is serv¬ ing as counselor at the time of this writing, in 1913. In politics, though never a seeker of official preferment, he accords allegiance to the Repub¬ lican party, and he id affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. His church relations are with the Methodist Episcopal church.

The 11th of October, 1910, stands as the date which recorded the marriage of Dr. Eckhart to Miss Esther Strange, daughter of Hon. John W. Strange, of Marion, who has represented this district in the state senate. Dr. and Mrs. Eckhart are popular and valued factors in the representative social activities of their home city. They have no children.

David H. Blumenthal*. Familiarly known as ''The Old Reliable," the large and well equipped dry-goods and clothing establishment of the firm of Blumenthal & Company is one that lends materially to the precedence of the city of Marion as a business center, and enterprise is one of the most important in the field of retail merchandizing in Grant county, with standing of the highest order and with a trade that is essentially representative in character. It may .well be understood that effective service and honorable methods have marked the conduct¬ ing of this substantial business, and he whose name initiates this review has been closely identified with the business from the initiation of his active career. He is an interested principal in the firm and is known as one of the most reliable, popular and progressive business men of his native city, where his circle of friends is limited only by that of his acquaintances.

Mr. Blumenthal was bom in the city of Marion, judicial center of Grant county, Indiana, on the 11th of January, 1870, and is a son of Morris and Ida (Marks) Blumenthal, the former of whom was bom in Germany and the latter in the city of Rochester, New York, where their marriage was solemnized. Morris Blumenthal was a lad of nine years at the time of the family immigration to America and he was reared to maturity in the state of Indiana, where he also gained his early experience in connection with business affairs. In 1863 he came to Marion and established his home in Marion, where he forthwith became connected with a leading retail business enterprise. He pur¬ chased the business of the late Jacob Baer, founder of the extensive interests now conducted under the title of Blumenthal & Company, and through ability and energy he soon proved himself one of the capable and aggressive factors in the local field of mercantile enter- prise. When he bought the business it was devoted solely to the hand¬ ling of men's clothing and furnishing goods. Mr. Blumenthal adopted the title of Blumenthal & Company and amplified the scope of his busi¬ ness to include the handling of dry goods and incidental lines. He kept pace with the march of progress and the growth and development of the thriving city of Marion, with the result that his establishment became a leading retail emporium of this favored section of the state, with a thorough system and with each department of metropolitan equipment and appointments. It was due to his honorable and well directed efforts that the business constantly expanded in scope and importance, and the establishment, which is now one of the largest of the kind in central Indiana, stands as a worthy monument to the memory of this able business man and loyal and honored citizen. He was held in high esteem in the community that represented his' home for forty years, and at his home in Marion he was summoned to the life eternal on the 24th of January, 1903, his remains being interred in the Jewish cemetery in the city of Wabash; his widow still resides in Marion and the city is dear to her through the memories and asso¬ ciations of many years. Of the three children one died in infancy and he whose name introduces this article was the first in order of birth; the other surviving child is Minnie, who is the wife of Maurice Blumenthal, of the same family name but of no kinship, and they reside in New York city.

David H. Blumenthal made excellent use of the advantages afforded him in the public schools of Marion, and thereafter completed an effec¬ tive course in the Rochester Business University, at Rochester, New York. In 1885, when a lad of fifteen years, he became a clerk in the mercantile establishment of his father, and with characteristic energy and appreciation he familiarized himself thoroughly with all details of the business, both in knowledge of stock values and executive affairs. He finally advanced to the position of assistant manager and in 1900 he was admitted to partnership in the business, with the administration of which he has since continued to be a most influential figure, with secure vantage-ground as one of the reliable, enterprising and essen¬ tially representative business men of his native city. It may well be inferred that he is especially loyal to Marion and Grant county, and this has been shown by his ready co-operation in the support of pro¬ gressive measures advanced for the general good of the community, along both civic and material lines. He is well known in his home county and is one of the prominent and valued business men of Marion, where he is well upholding the high honors of the name which he bears.

Liberal and public-spirited, Mr. Blumenthal takes abiding interest in all that touches the welfare of his home city and he is now serving with marked zeal and acceptability as president of the board of trus¬ tees of the Marion public library, of which body^he had previously been treasurer for two years, within which time the library was entirely relieved of its incubus of indebtedness, largely through his effective administration of its fiscal affairs. Mr. Blumenthal is affili¬ ated with the Masonic fraternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fel¬ lows and the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, and both he and his wife are popular in the representative social activities of their home city. In politics he accords a staunch allegiance to the Repub¬ lican party.

On the 1st of August, 1900, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Blumenthal to Miss Jeanette New, daughter of Isaac New, a prominent citizen of Wabash this state. Mr. and Mrs. Blumenthal have a fine little son, Morris D., who was born on the 12th of April, 1905.

Rev. John P. Durham. One of the able and honored members of the clergy of the Catholic church in central Indiana is he whose name initiates this review and who has gained secure place in the esteem and confidence of the people of the city of Marion, where he has been pas¬ tor of the parish of St. Paul's church since 1909. His high attain¬ ments and genial personality have gained him friends in all classes, and as a citizen he is broad-minded, loyal and progressive. In his present field he has labored with all of consecrated zeal and devotion and his success has been marked, both in his sacerdotal functions and in his executive administration of the affairs of. his parish, in which he has gained the affectionate regard and earnest co-operation of the people of his representative congregation.

Father Durham claims the national metropolis of the United States as the place of his nativity, as he was born in New York city, on the 22d of September, 1867, his paternal ancestors having settled in New York city many years ago and his father, John Durham having there been bom. The mother of Father Durham bore the maiden name of Rose Wiley and she was born in Ireland. In the parochial schools of his native city Father Durham received his preliminary educational discipline, and thereafter he was for six years a student in St. Bene¬ dict's College, at Atchison, Kansas, where he completed a thorough classical curriculum. Thereafter he completed a two years' course in philosophy in Niagara University, at Niagara, New York, and in preparation for the specific work of his high calling he entered Mount St. Mary's Seminary, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he completed his theological course of four years. In 1897 he was ordained to the priesthood, in Cincinnati, receiving holy orders at the hands of Arch¬ bishop Elder, and thereafter he served four years as assistant priest at the cathedral in the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, under Bishop Rademacher, the executive head of the diocese. He was next assigned to the pastoral charge of the parish of St. Mary's church at Huntington, Indiana, where he remained for eight weeks. For eight years thereafter he held a pastorate at Union City, this state, and on the 7th of January, 1909, he came to his present parish, where he has carried forward his work with indefatigable zeal and earnest¬ ness and made his labors count for good in every relation. Within his administration here he has effected the organization of a splen¬ did parochial school, for which a fine modem building has been erected, as well as an excellent residence for the sisters who are engaged in the school and in other departments of parish work. He has shown himself a man of much constructive genius and practical business acumen, and while at Union City he gave distinctive evidence of this, as he not only effected the liquidation of a large indebtedness against the parish of which he had charge but also compassed the erection of an excellent parish school building. About the time of his ordina¬ tion Father Durham had charge of about three hundred young men whom he had formed into a club and athletic association, and he has 'ever continued to manifest the deepest interest in young folk, to whom, in the formative period of their lives, he proves a guide, counselor and friend. He is a man of ripe scholarship and mature judgment, and has eminently fitted himself for the exalted vocation and stewardship to which he has consecrated his life and his powers.

Joseph E. Armstrong. An enumeration of the men of the younger generation who are worthily representing the agricultural interests of Grant county, Indiana, would be incomplete did it not include the name of Joseph E. Armstrong of section 6, Van Buren township, who with his wife owns and operates a farm of one hundred and forty acres of valu¬ able land. The home is situated on sixty acres in section 6 and eighty acres in section 5. He is a native of the Hoosier State, having been born in Wabash county, December 11, 1882, and is a son of Gipson and Lavina (Bogardus) Armstrong, natives of Rush and Wabash counties respect¬ ively, and now residents of Lafontaine, Indiana.

The career of Mr. Armstrong from early youth has been one of con¬ stant industry. Educated in the Brown school in district No. 10, at the age of fifteen years he began to work in Wabash county, and in the spring of 1904 came to Van Buren township. At this time, he and his wife are owners of sixty acres in his home place, in section 6, and also a farm of eighty acres in section 5 of Van Buren township, both of which have been brought to a high state of cultivation. By the use of progressive methods and modern machinery, in 1912 he was able to raise 2,000 bush¬ els of corn, 1,000 bushels of oats and fifteen tons of hay, and in addition was successful in his stock breeding operations, selling one hundred and twenty-five head of hogs, and is now raising Poland China hogs of the big type. He has a young fruit orchard, specializing in the small fruits, and has improved his property by the erection of substantial buildings, his neat frame residence being surrounded by a wide, well-kept lawn.

In 1908 Mr. Armstrong was married to Miss Lillie C. Landess, a daughter of Oscar E. and Sarah J. (Bradford) Landess, and a member of an old and prominent family of Van Buren township. Oscar W. Landess was born on the old homestead place in this township, June 10, 1849, a son of Lewis Landess, a pioneer of Grant county, who was born near Danville, Highland county, Ohio, October 17, 1825. He was the son of John and Sarah (Roush) Landess, natives of Kentucky and Virginia respectively, and John was a son of Jacob Landess, a native of North Carolina, who married a Welsh lady and settled in Kentucky from whence both families migrated to Highland county, Ohio. John Landess was twice married and was the father of sixteen children, of whom Lewis was the third of the sons of the first marriage. When sixteen years of age, Lewis Landess left his Ohio home and made the journey on foot to Grant county,. Indiana, eventually reaching the home of his uncles Michael and Philip Roush in Van Buren township. Here he was em¬ ployed by a Mr. Gardner for seven years, and during this time secured eighty acres of land, on which he settled at the time of his marriage, March 18, 1848, to Phoebe C. Whinnery, daughter of Joseph and Lydia Whinnery, pioneers of Grant county, whence they came in 1837 from Clinton county, Ohio. Lewis Landess spent the active years of his life in agricultural pursuits, and was successful in his operations, accumu¬ lating 277 acres of land, but in his declining years moved to Van Buren, and there his death occurred in November, 1912. He was married a second time, his wife being a widow, Mrs. Hannah S. (West) Johnson.

The oldest of his parents' children, Oscar E. Landess lived with his parents until he reached his majority, at which time, assisted by his father, he purchased a farm near the old homestead. On this he resided for four years, and then bought the old home place of one hundred acres, ' of which only thirty-five acres were cleared. He settled down to com¬ pleting the clearing of the land, and in 1879 built the residence in which Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong now live, and as the years passed added to his land and equipment, and became one of the successful farmers of his locality. At the time of his death October 22, 1902, he was the owner of one hundred and seventy acres, of which Mrs. Armstrong inherited ninety-five acres. On October 10, 1872, Mr. Landess was married to Miss Sarah J. Bradford of Washington township, and to this union there were born three daughters: Mrs. Eva White, who died June 29, 1911;

Lillie C., now Mrs. Armstrong ; and Myrtle, who died at the age of four years. Mrs. Landess died August 31, 1912, in the faith of the United Brethren church, of which she had been a lifelong member.

Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have one son, Charles Vernon, who was born May 23, 1910. They have also an orphan girl whom they are rearing, Elizabeth Hiatt. They are faithful brothers of the United Brethren church, and have actively supported its movements. In political matters Mr. Armstrong is a Republican. The farm Mr. Armstrong occupies is known and registered as the Plain View Stock Farm, while the farm of eighty acres which he owns in section 5 is named and registered as the Brown-Mead Stock Farm.

George A. Osborn. In review of his life, it can be said there are few men .who have had more to do with community affairs than G. A. Osborn, who was an educator in an epoch-making time - at a time when public policies were shaping themselves, and although business suc¬ cess has always followed his efforts, his retrospective pleasure comes from his experience as an educator.

His name in business affairs is probably most familiarly associated with the Osborn Paper Company, one of the substantial business con¬ cerns of Marion. It was established in a small way in 1892, and it has been extraordinarily successful under his personal management and the payroll of the company is widely distributed - traveling sales¬ men and help employed in the office and factory. The plant is cen¬ trally located, and once on the payroll of the Osborn Paper Company, men and women strive to hold their positions - a splendid moral atmos¬ phere surrounding the institution. Mr. Osborn has always had the faculty of organization, and as president of the company he has had opportunity of systemizing the business.

George A. Osborn is a son of George C. and Margaret (Nace) Osborn, who were "forty-niners" in Grant county, arriving from Ohio in time to give their son George a fortunate birth, January 15, 1850, - a Hoosier, and all his life has been spent in Indiana. His father married twice and older children bearing the relation of half-brother and sister to him are Lewis Osborn and Mrs. Mary Oliver, the latter a resident of the county, and it was in her home the fatheV spent his last days, dying in 1897. The other children born to the mother of George were: Theophilus Osborn, Mrs. Jennie Fowler, and Mrs. Mar¬ garet Weesner.

The Osborn family home was in Monroe at the time of his birth, but a few years later the family removed to Franklin, and that is the township of his early life associations. He was a student and pur¬ sued college studies unaided and alone while a young man at home, and early in life enrolled as a teacher, and while a resident of Frank¬ lin he served the township as trustee, and later, 1879, was elected county superintendent of schools. He had been through the degrees of advancement - teacher, trustee and examiner, and he fully knew the requirements of all.

Mr. Osborn's record as a county official - superintendent of school® and auditor of Grant county - is given in the chapter on civil govern¬ ment. Having acquired a comfortable fortune from his present busi¬ ness, he looks back over his life with more pleasure in affairs of an edu¬ cational nature than any other feature. He certainly accomplished a great forward stride when he held the first township examination in 1881, and graduated pupils from the district schools of Grant county - and he congratulates each recurring commencement day on an impetus started by himself and destined to such unrestricted popular- ity. The original list of county graduates was compiled in a book refused by the officials of another county, and purchased privately by him - and now the graduates from the common schools have reached many thousands. All innovations have to overcome objections, and teachers were divided on the subject of graduating pupils from the grades. Some of the teachers of that day were opposed to making col¬ leges from the district schools. There is a coterie of citizens now who are glad their names are in the graduating class of 1881 - the year the world did not come to an end, as prophesied by Mother Shipton, but instead was a new system inaugurated in the public schools of Grant county. Mr. Osborn installed the teachers' library, which has had such an important place in the lives of teachers before there were such excellent library advantages, and while he was in the Indiana legislature, as joint senator from Grant, Wells and Blackford coun¬ ties, he had opportunity of supporting several educational measures - all that work having been accomplished since his active days as a teacher. The superintendents of Grant, Henry, Wayne, Delaware and Union counties held a joint meeting on an Indian mound near New Castle the first year he was in office, and at that time they determined to issue a course of study and hold commencements, and although there was a wave of opposition, there .are now no objections to the sys¬ tem, and Mr. Osborn is the father of the local commencement idea, diplomas given township graduates from the eighth grade, which- is an educational monument to his memory.

Of all the material successes that have come to him - and prosperity has always been his portion - nothing accomplished in politics in county or state gives to Mr. Osborn the inward satisfaction that has come from the knowledge that he was the man of the hour when it came to raising educational standards in Grant county. His published course of study was among the earliest in Indiana, and while an educator he was abreast of the times - the same rule having been applied later to his business, the Osborn Paper Company.

Mr. Osborn married September 22, 1880, Miss Cora Jay. She comes of pioneer Quaker stock, that was introduced into Grant county the year Mr. Osborn was born, so that both are thorough-going Indianians. Mrs. Osborn has one brother, Arthur E. Jay, their parents being Walter and Nancy (Ellis) Jay, and their grandfather, Rev. Isaac Jay, having been one of the most prominent friends of the old Mississinewa Friends community. The children bom to Mr. and Mrs. Osborn are: Arthur and Anna, twins, the son having married Miss Isabel Beane, and the daughter being the wife of G. A. Wilkinson. Besides the twins the third child is Mrs. Lois Osborne Spencer. The grandchildren are Josephine Wilkinson, and Osborn and Catherine Ann Spencer.

There is no question about Mr. Osborn's attitude on moral ques¬ tions and he is a moral bulwark in the community. He belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Knights of Pythias lodges, and has filled positions of honor in both. The Osborn family is identified with the First Methodist Episcopal church, prominent members, and active in the work of the Sunday school. Mrs. Osborn has been prominent in woman's clubs, and she is the first president of the recently organized Young Women's Christian Association in Marion - both sides of the house having been active in community inter¬ ests. When there are citizen movements looking toward the moral uplift of the community, Mr. and Mrs. Osborn are in line with progress. The same success has come to him in business that attended him as an educator - due to the strong personality of the man - and the Osborn Paper Company is always reckoned with among the larger industries of the community.

Alonzo W. Carr. Spending his youth on a farm about Jonesboro, Mr. Carr entered manhood and the grocery business about the same time, held the subordinate position of clerk, until he had thoroughly mastered the trade, and then for upwards of twenty years conducted the largest and most popular establishment of its kind in the city of Marion. His place in business affairs at the present time is well known as head of A. W. Carr & Company, engaged in the wholesale fruit and commission business.

Alonzo W. Carr was born December 27, 1859, at Jonesboro in Grant county. His family, while not pioneers, were among the early settlers in the south half of the county. His parents were Abraham and Mar¬ garet J. (Fankboner) Carr, both having been born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio. About 1854 Abraham Carr came to Grant county, locating in Jonesboro, where he spent ten years, engaged in his trade as a wagon maker. Selling out his shop and business, he then began farming two miles from Jonesboro, but after a few years moved to a farm east of town, subsequently to another place east of Marion, which continued to be his home until the age of sixty-five when he came to Marion, and lived in that city until his death in April, 1894. The mother is now living in Marion. Their five children were : Emma J., deceased; Hattie A., deceased; and an infant son, deceased; E. J. Carr, of Oklahoma City ; and A. W. Carr.

Mr. Carr, who is the only one of the children now living in Grant county, was educated in the Jonesboro high school, and spent his youth on the farm, and followed its work until he was twenty-one. He then found a place as a clerk in the establishment of H. D. Thomas at Marion, and remained with that employer for five years, after which he went with R. W. Weaver, a short time. In 1887 he set up in busi¬ ness for himself, and until he retired from the retail grocery trade in 1904 conducted what was probably the largest grocery trade in the city. In 1904 he established a wholesale commission, fruit and vege¬ table business at the corner of Ninth and Washington streets, under the present firm name of A. W. Carr & Company. At one time Mr. Carr was president of the Marion Grocery Company, a wholesale con¬ cern, located in this city.

On June 20, 1883, Mr. Carr married Miss Myra B. Clunk, daughter of Henry F. and Catherine (Mitchell) Clunk, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. Her father is deceased, and her mother is living in the Carr home at the age of ninety-two. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Carr are Hattie A., wife of Willis A. Fahmey, who is associated with the firm of Carr & Company ; %nd Katherine, who is the wife of Henry C. Moore, of the Marion State Bank. Mr. Carr is affiliated with Marion Lodge No. 105, F. & A. M. and with the different branches of the York rite up to the commandery. He is a Republican in politics, but has consistently refused to be mentioned or nominated in connec¬ tion with any public office.

Thad Butler. A vigorous and enterprising Marion business man, whose home has been in Grant county for the past thirty-five years, Thad Butler in the earlier years was prominent in connection with a number of the industrial organizations and promotions which char¬ acterized the great boom period of Marion's history. For the past fifteen years his energies have been chiefly directed to the manufacture and sale of musical instruments and music supplies. He has a splendid business in Marion, and also a large store in Kokomo, and his enter¬ prise has been an important factor in Marion commercial history for many years.

Thad Butler was bora in Wabash county, Indiana, in 1858, and came to Marion in 1878 to enter the employ of the Spiker & Harrison Carriage Company. Two years were spent with that concern, when Mr. Harrison moved to Logansport, and Thad Butler, though only twenty-two years old, took the factory, and went into business for himself. During the ten years he manufactured and sold carriages, he became personally acquainted with nearly every farmer in Grant county. Then came the boom period in Marion history, and Mr. Butler turned his attention to real estate. In association with W. H. Wiley, he did much to locate the west side industry - the Malleable factory and the rolling mills, and all were excellent establishments until fires and trusts consumed some of them, but the Malleable factory is still a monument to his efforts.

While Mr. Butler has always been an active community business man, it is in connection with the Butler Music Company that he now cares to be remembered. His present business was established August 7, 1897, and has proved both profitable and pleasant. Mr. Butler was a member of the Chute & Butler Company, which manufactured organs at LaFontaine, later moving the factory to Peru, where the Chute & Butler pianos were manufactured. The Butler Stool & Bench factory in Marion is also his enterprise. For several years Mr. Butler operated a Butler music store in Wabash, until he sold it to his brother Tom. He is now owner of the Butler store in Kokomo which is carried on independently of the Marion establishment. In 1913 the Butler Music Company in Marion placed four hundred and twenty-seven pianos, besides all the sheet music and other instruments handled by the concern. The Butler store is well equipped, and a competent force is always at hand to look after the business interests of the company. While Mr. Butler is numbered among the original boosters of Marion developments, his efforts in subsequent years have not relaxed in that direction, and the Butler Music Company is not only a prosperous establishment, but is contributing to the larger development of Marion as one of the chief commercial centers in northern Indiana.

While the Butler family is not native to Grant county, it has a fine ancestral history. Mr. Butler is the oldest of three children born to John and Harriet (Wigmore) Butler. Harriet Wigmore Butler died in Marion, October 16, 1913. John Butler, ninety years of age, is still living, and is fortunate in retaining his mental faculties to a remarkable degree. The other two children are : Tom Butler, of Wabash ; and Miss Winnie Butler, of Marion, connected with the But¬ ler Music Company as bookkeeper. In her effort to establish the line of family descent, in order to becotne a Daughter of the American Revo¬ lution, Miss Winnie Butler made an exhaustive study of both the But¬ ler and Wigmore family history, and as a compliment to her brothers she presented them with copies of the family descent in artistic bind¬ ings, souvenirs which they all prize most highly.

There have been a number of Colonial and Revolutionary soldiers in the ancestry, and Miss Butler exchanged many letters with govern¬ ment, state and county officials while obtaining historical data of the family. Her father was born in Maine, and her mother in England. In establishing this family claim, Miss Butler discovered that the older ancestors never talked and the younger ones never asked questions, and yet she has accumulated a most interesting history. She found that both time and money had been spent by some members of the early ancestry in establishing facts, and in this family book Miss Butler wrote : ' ' The work has been exceedingly fascinating, and I hope some¬ time to continue the search. 7 7 In 1910 Miss Butler visited in Maine, carrying a camera, and she made many pictures of the Butler family homestead environment, among them the house in which John Butler was born. The Butler family tree is a result of Miss Butler's effort, and as she has made copies for each of her brothers, they have a price¬ less heritage.

Speaking of the Butler family in Maine, Miss Butler writes: "The history of our father's family in this country covers about three hun¬ dred years, and brings to mind very forcibly the strenuous military life of the Colonial and Revolutionary patriots. In our list of ances¬ tors are the names of eighteen men from whom we are descended in direct line, of these, twelve have military records. Our early ancestors were mostly English born and they all settled in the New England states. They must have been Puritans as they held office in a number of instances, and none but Puritans were allowed to vote much less hold office. The Butler family lived in Kennebunk, York county, Maine when father was a boy, and they had lived in that locality for several generations. Our two great-grandfathers, John Butler, Sr., and John Butler, Jr., served in the Colonial and Revolutionary wars. Our grandfather enlisted in the war of 1812 as John Butler III. His busi¬ ness was that of shipbuilder.

"Father left home at sixteen, going with a government crew to Louisiana to select live-oak trees for ship building. He returned to Boston by boat and wrote to his sisters. His father answered the letter, urging him to come home, but he never received the letter. The boat sailed out again and was lost at sea. As the family received no more letters, they finally believed that he must have gone down with the boat that was wrecked. However, his father remembered him in his will, leaving a field which was a part of the Butler farm. This has changed hands several times since and is now owned by a brother of s the cousin who first wrote me. He said he thought his brother would give it up if we asked for it." Miss Butler further traces the career of her father to Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where he met Miss Harriet Wigmore in cherry-picking time, and on July 4, 1853, they were mar¬ ried and went to housekeeping. Later came their removal to Indiana, with seven years of residence at Laketon, and nineteen years in Wabash. The residence of the family in Marion followed soon after the older son located here in the late seventies.

Mr. Thad Butler was married December 1, 1881, to Miss Winnie Fleming, daughter of Riley and Catherine (Harry) Fleming. They are the parents of the following children : Harry who died in 1891 ; Bernice, wife of Earl Newhouse ; and J. Edwin Butler, whose wife was Miss Clarice Hawkins. Mrs. Butler's mother, now the wife of William Hemphill of Washington, Kansas, is living, and since Mrs. Butler does not remember her own father, Mr. Hemphill seems like a father to her. Mrs. Butler is descended from a pioneer family on her mother's side, although her birthplace was at Mount Aetna, in Huntington county. Her grandfather, Jeremiah Harry, published the Marion Democrat-Herald, in 1842, the first newspaper polished in Grant county, and he was identified with much of the development of the community. He had one son Edwin C. Harry of Wheeling, West Virginia; and three daughters: Mrs. Catherine Fleming-Hemphill, mother of Mrs. Butler, and of George Fleming, who lives in St. Joseph, Missouri; Mrs. Cornelia Sanders and Miss Mary Harry. Only Mr. Harry and Mrs. Hemphill survive. Mrs. Butler with her children are the last representatives of this pioneer family in the community where they were so well known and connected with community affairs. There are three houses and Mrs. Butler and her son and daughter all live on the original Harry family homestead property. The Butler family

Zena M. Nye. Grant county has reason to be proud of its farms and its farmers. The bone and sinew of the country are in the men and women who produce the crops, who help "feed the people" of the nation. And there is a higher average of material prosperity in the country than can be found in the city for all its superior facilities of - urban life. What a progressive Grant county farmer can do and what he has to enjoy are well illustrated in Washington township at the place of Zena M. Nye, whose home is on section 11. He has a total of three hundred and twenty-eight acres as the basis of his agricultural industry. 179.75 acres in Washington township and the rest in Yan Buren. On the farm in Washington township in 1912 he raised fifteen hundred bush¬ els of corn, and ten hundred and eighty-six bushels of oats; sent one hundred and fifty hogs to market and eleven head of cattle. At the present writing he has sixty-five hogs and fourteen cattle, the former being of the Duroc-Jersey breed, and the latter shorthorn and Polled Angus. He keeps on his farm ten horses of the Belgian and Percheron breed. For home comforts is a fine nine-room house erected by Elijah Creviston, father of Mrs. Nye, in 1874. The improvements are all mod¬ ern, and the home stands in the midst of a grassy and well-kept lawn. Near the house stands a large white bank barn, also erected by Elijah Creviston. Mr. Nye had the following acreage for 1913 crops : forty-five acres of corn, sixteen acres of oats, and twenty-two acres of wheat. For the convenience of his family, Mr. Nye keeps an automobile, and lacks few, if any, of the comforts and conveniences which are deemed essential to modern living.

Zena M. Nye was born in the state of Michigan, January 25, 1865, a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Brown) Nye, both of whom were natives of Ohio. Benjamin Nye was born in 1814 and died in 1855, and his parents were Peter and Mary Nye, both from Virginia as their birthplace. The grandparents were pioneer settlers in Ohio. In that state, Benja¬ min grew up and married, and in 1835 transferred his home to Michigan, where he entered government land in Berrien county, spent a number of toilful years in clearing off the timber, cut and hewed the logs for his first cabin home, and spent the remainder of his honorable career in that state. He had one hundred and sixty acres at the start, and later gave his brother John fifty, and made the remainder his homestead. Ben¬ jamin Nye and wife reared four children out of five born, namely: Milton, deceased; Henry, a resident of Michigan; Elizabeth, deceased; James H., of Benton Harbor, Michigan; and Zena M.

Zena M. Nye attained his schooling in his native county of Michigan, and remained with his father until the latter's death, after which he continued on the home farm, and managed it in his mother's interest until her death in 1892. He then bought off the other heirs and thus came into possession of the Michigan homestead. In the fall of 1900 Mr. Nye moved from Michigan to Grant county, Indiana, and in 1910 sold his Michigan property. The Grant county home farm is an inheritance to Mrs. Nye from her father. In 1910 Mr. Nye bought that portion of his estate which lies in Van Buren township, and on which his son resides.

Mr. Nye on June 13, 1888, married Miss Ella Creviston, a daughter of Elijah and Lydia (Whinney) Creviston. Elijah Creviston was born February 8, 1844, and died June 4, 1907. His father, Daniel Creviston, was one of the pioneers of Grant county, and the Creviston family have a prominent place in Grant county history. Elijah Creviston at the beginning of his career, received forty acres of land from his father and used that as the nucleus around which he built up the large estate of which he was possessed before his death. He was regarded as one of the most successful farmers in Grant county, and in every other way was a good citizen. The three children of Elijah Creviston and wife were Ella C., Otto M., and Harry L. The mother of this family died June 24, 1874. The three sons of Mr. and Mrs. Nye are Roscoe C., a farmer in Van Buren township; Arthur H., a farmer in Monroe township, and John Vernon, at home. In politics Mr. Nye is affiliated with the new Progressive party, and he and his family worship in the United Brethren church. Fraternally he belongs to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks at Marion.

James Lafayette Barley. Death who is always sitting closely by the highways of human existence and removing one by one those upon whom its grim lot falls, selected a particularly conspicuous victim in the late James L. Barley, who died at Denver, Colorado, October ^2, 1913. Mr. Barley had long been one of the most prominent and wealthy citizens of Grant county, and there were few men in the community more closely in touch with its affairs. While many of his interests were in Marion, his possessions and commercial relations extended out into Grant county, and to different points in the state and in other states. Mr. Barley had spent two months in a vain endeavor to restore his health in Colorado climate. Both before and after his death it Was recognized that the city had in him a splendid man, one who did much to build up Marion, and give the city its high standing in the business world. While foremost in business enterprise, he was also a true friend, a kind neighbor, and a man liked by all who knew him.

James Lafayette Barley was born in Lugar Creek in Center town¬ ship of Grant county, April 5, 1851, and was thus in his sixty-third year at the time of his death. On October 2, 1872, he married Miss Louisa J. Gordon of Virginia, who was visiting relatives in Indiana, at the home of her uncle David Bish. The young couple began house¬ keeping in Jalapa, and after six' years moved to Pleasant Valley. The old millsite and adjacent lands at Pleasant Valley were a part of the estate of Mr. Bkrley until his death. In 1880 the family came to town, and in 1904, moved into the Barley home on South Adams street, one of the finest residences in Marion, and a center of much social life.

While Mr. Barley was one of eleven children bom to Henry and Mary (Snyder) Barley, his father was one of fourteen children born to the German emigrant, Nicholas Barley, who in 1784 first established the house of Barley in America. J. L. Barley was in the third genera¬ tion of Barleys in this country, and the second generation in Grant county. His brother Jacob S. Barley, and two sisters, Mrs. Aletha Blackman, and Mrs. Christiana Shira, are all that remain of his father's family.

While his ancestry had large families, Mr. and Mrs. Barley had only four children : Charles G. Barley, who married Miss May Har¬ wood; Albert C. Barley, who married Miss Mayme Brodrick; Miss Edith Barley, who married J. W. Stephenson; and Fred L. Barley, who married Miss Eva Shell. There are also some grand children. In the family of A. C. Barley are two, Albert C. Barley, Jr., and Anna Louise Barley. In the Stephenson family are four grandchildren, Helen, Dorothy, Mary Louise, and Mildred Verne Stephenson. The children and grandchildren all live near the Barley residence on South Adams street.

advanced with it. He was always fortunate in his investments, but his good fortune was due to his persistent energy, and his exceptional judgment in all business matters. While his interests were concen¬ trated in town for a number of years, for forty years he never missed a season operating a threshing machine, starting out July 4, 1872, and finishing the season of 1912, part of the time as chief owner, and part of the time with a partnership arrangement with others* Elihu J. Oren of Glen-Oren in Monroe township, had been operating a thresh¬ ing machine several years when Mr. Barley began, and at the latter's death the two were the oldest machine men* in the county.

In 1886 Mr. Barley entered into partnership with R. J. Spencer in the Barley & Spencer Lumber Company, and few partnership arrange¬ ments had a longer or more profitable duration in the county. Sawmill¬ ing is an old business in the Barley family. The mill property - Bar¬ ley's Mill, because Mr. Barley always owned land about it - wfts built in 1&46, and in 1912, it was razed, the material being utilized again in a cattle barn on the farm in Franklin township. Samuel Campbell, who is now a nonogenarian, and his brother ' 4 Sash" Campbell were the millwrights when that old land mark which stood there sixty-six years ago was built, and thus an early flouring mill went out of local history. Mr. Barley owned the bottom land along the Mississinewa at that point, and men employed in the Pleasant Valley garden occu¬ pied the houses there. Mr. Barley was extremely fortunate in his southern investment, the timber country at Bay Minette, Alabama. Time was when the old Barley Mills in Grant county were designated as the "Coffee-Pot," but the firm of Barley & Spencer became recog¬ nized as one of the strongest engaged in the timber business anywhere in the country.

When Mr. Barley first engaged in the lumber business at Japala he went into the woods with an ax and saw, and for twelve years drove a team, and he knew conditions when timber was on the market for miles around. In later years Mr. Barley left his home for business in a seven-passenger Lexington car with a chauffeur - quite a contrast to his days on the log wagon, but he was the man to come to the rescue if a driver had trouble with his load or a mishap of any kind befell him. He never forgot how to rig up "block and tackle" in an emerg¬ ency, and if his automobile needed attention, the chauffeur was not the only man who understood its mechanism.

Mr. Barley was always a busy man, and identified with many large organizations. He was one of the promoters and organizers and a large stockholder in the Marion Ice and Cold Storage Company, was identified in a similar capacity with the George W. Steele and Com¬ pany, flour manufacturers, and had an interest in the manufacturing company of Haas, Spencer & Barley at Vincennes. Mr. Barley was one of the directors in the Boston Big Store Corporation, and within the year preceding his death became owner of the Glass Block, one of the finest business and office buildings, of Eastern Indiana. The Franklin township farm remained as an investment and source of food supply to the family, furnishing vegetables and other articles fresh from the garden. When the Marion Commercial Club went out of active service, so many of the stockholders having been called from earth, Mr. Barley was chosen president, and through that organiza¬ tion and in other ways he interested himself personally in the com¬ munity development. When the Rutenber Motor Works were located in Marion, the Barley family had just disposed of its large southern timber interests, and therefore invested heavily in the factory stock. A. C. Barley who was then president of the Marion Chamber of Corn-

The late Mr. Barley always was actively connected wifh the Barley organized family affairs, although most of the meetings are held else¬ where, brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles, to the number of one hundred and seventy-five persons coming together annu¬ ally, and at one time or another he served the family organization as president. Mr. Barley was a stalwart Democrat, though never in poli¬ tics for office. While Dr. Stoner, a Marion druggist, was the first man in town to own an automobile, the Barley family came in second, and in later years there wrere from one to half a dozen cars in use by the family all the time. When Mr. Barley went to San Antonio, Texas, for the winter of 1911, he shipped his car there and left it for the 1912 season. When W. J. Bryan visited Marion in the 1908 campaign, the Barley car was at his disposal, Mr. Barley driving it himself, and when President W. H. Taft was here in 1911, Mr. Barley carried the secret service men accompanying the party. For more than forty years Mr. Barley had as his companion and counselor, a wife who performed well her many duties as manager of the household and as a unit in social affairs. Mrs. Barley is of domestic nature, and like the woman in Proverbs "She looketh well to the things of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. "

Leo Nussbaum. Actively identified with the business interests of Marion for more than a quarter century, Leo Nussbaum, president of the Canton Glass Company, has also been identified conspicuously and worthily with the moral and educational advancement of the com¬ munity, as well as its industrial growth and advancement. He has been a member and director of the Marion Commercial Club and Chamber of Commerce for a number of years. His business career in Marion dates from the year 1886, when he established the Trade Palace, a dry goods store, in the Wilson block. He operated this business suc¬ cessfully for about ten years, then sold it and embarked in the manu¬ facture of iron bedsteads. He organized the National Metallic Bed¬ stead Company which was the first company to manufacture that line of goods in Indiana, and later disposed of it and started the Indiana Brass and Iron Bed Company, which plant he continued to operate for two years and then sold advantageously. In 1902 he organized the Pacific Oil Company, purchasing leases on about five hundred acres of land and on fifteen producing oil wells, the property of the Citizens' Gas Company. After operating the property for some eighteen months, he sold his holdings that he might devote more of his time to the inter¬ ests of the Canton Glass Company, which he had organized in 1902, and of which concern he was secretary and treasurer, and is now president.

Mr. Nussbaum installed the first gas producer in Indiana, where gas had been used in manufacturing, annealing and finishing glassware, and has been a leader in introducing new methods into the business in which he is chiefly interested.

The Canton Glass Company manufactures a fine line of table ware, druggists, confectioners and photographers ware, sidewalk and deck light ware, novelties of many descriptions and private mould work. The company has been very successful and gives employment to a considerable number of skilled workmen during about eleven months of each year, one of the summer months being given to the workmen for a vacation season.

ings Bank at Marion. He is engrossed in the direction of the affairs of his company to a considerable extent, but gives a generous portion of his time to the civic interests of the community, and is known as one of the more valuable citizens of Marion. He was appointed in January, 1914, by Mayor J. O. Batchelor as Commissioner of Public Wor ks. He is a man of wide experience and culture, who has traveled exten¬ sively, and applies advanced ideas in the conduct of his everyday busi¬ ness life.

In 1886 Mr. Nussbaum married Miss Etta L. Michaels, of Logansport, Ind., and to them have been born four children, - Berthold M., Selma and Helen. Carl Nussbaum, the second born, died aged four months. The first named is a graduate of Howe Military School and of Harvard University, and the others have received excellent educational advantages. Berthold M. Nussbaum was a pupil of P. L. Nussbaum of Marion, Ind., and Prof. Singer of Stuttgart, Germany, the noted violin¬ ist, and while he is a very prominent violinist he does not make that his profession. He is now a stockholder and the manager of the Boston office of the Alexander-Hamilton Institute whose headquarters are in New York City. Selma Nussbaum, now a student in the Boston Con¬ servatory of Music, studied two years in Paris under noted vocal in¬ structors. Helen Nussbaum, the youngest, is a graduate from the Marion High School and Glendale (Ohio) College and was also a student at Lausanne, Switzerland, for one year, studying the languages, - French, German, etc.

E. H. Johnson. Newspaper men must always be influential forces in the life of a city, and especially in that of the smaller cities of the country, and E. H. Johnson, of Marion, Indiana, is no exception to the general rule. As president and general manager of the Leader-Tribune, of Marion he is one of. the prominent citizens of Marion.

Mr. Johnson was born on September 8, 1853, in Cattaraugas county, New York. He received his education in the public schools of Painesville, Ohio, and in 1876 went into business. He was engaged in the manufacturing of butcher's skewers in Painesville, Ohio, until 1889, when the plant was moved to Marion. In 1894 the plant was moved to Tennessee when he ceased to take active part in its management. On the 1st of January, 1909, he was appointed receiver for the Leader Publishing Company, publishers of the Marion Leader. - He was receiver for this company until October, 1910, and in June of the fol¬ lowing year he purchased the plant.

In March, 1912, he purchased the News-Tribune. The two papers were consolidated and the first issue appeared on March 17, 1912. Since then the paper has been made very successful.

Charles F. Boxell. No life is fuller than that of busy and prosper¬ ous farming communities, such as those of our Middlle West and Missis¬ sippi Valley states, where good roads and rapid transit have brought the farmers into close communication with the outer world, and yet here we find the very busiest men with time for public affairs, taking a keen interest not only in matters of local interest but also in national affairs. Such a man is Charles F. Boxell, one of the prominent farmers of Frank¬ lin township, Grant county, Indiana. Owner of a large farm and a successful stock raiser, he is also one of the most public spirited men in the community, and has always taken an active part in political and fraternal affairs.

Mr. And Mrs. Charles F. Boxell And Family

county, Indiana, and is the son of William Boxell, who was born in 1801 in the state of Virginia. He married Catherine Parson in 1827 in Vir¬ ginia, and during the following year they came to Ohio, locating in Guernsey county. There they remained until 1836, when they migrated to Grant county. Here they entered land in Van Buren township, on section 30, where they spent the remainder of their lives. William and Catherine Boxell were the parents of eight children, two of whom are now living, namely, Joseph H., of Washington township, and Robert B., of Van Buren township. Among those dead are Margaret, Nancy J., Thomas, Elizabeth, and John A.

Joseph H. Boxell was reared on his father's farm in Van Buren township, and he has spent all of his life as a farmer. He and his wife now make their home in Washington township. They have had five children born to them, four of whom are living, as follows : Charles F. ; Minnie, who is the wife of Herman Klage, of Huntington, Indiana; Wil¬ lie, who is a graduate of the county schools and a former teacher in Pleasant township, is now a farmer in that township; and Della, who after having finished the course of the Marion High school, married Thomas Bilbee of Washington township.

Charles P. Boxell was bom on the lSth of October, 1866, in Van Buren township. He grew up on his father's farm, attending the district school until he was sixteen years of age. He then began to work for his father on the farm, and until he was nineteen this was his occupation. At this time he became a school teacher in Washington township, and for eight terms taught in Grant county, and for one term he was a teacher in Illinois. During this time his father's house was his home and not until he was twenty-one did he really start out for himself. He first was engaged on a farm, but this was only for a short time. He then went to Marion and became a mail carrier in that city. , After eight years in this occupation he bought a farm in Pleasant township, and set¬ tled down to the life that his father and grandfather had led before him.

After four years on this place he sold out and bought another farm, this being the one where he now resides. He began with no financial aid, and saved the money to buy his first farm out of his own earnings, and he is now the owner of one hundred and fifty-two acres, part of this being valuable woodland.

Mr. Boxell and his family are all members of the Methodist Protestant church at Herbst. He is an enthusiastic member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to Lodge No. 96, and to the encamp¬ ment, and being Past Noble Grand and Past Chief Patriarch, as well as a member of the Grand Lodge of Indiana. He also belongs to the Mod¬ ern Woodmen of America. In political matters, Mr. Boxell is a staunch member of the Democratic party. He takes an active interest in county politics and in 1908 was nominated for county recorder of Grant county.

Mr. Boxell was married on the 28th of June, 1893, to Miss Ida M. Christman, of Washington township. She was born in Franklin county, Ohio, in January, 1875, the daughter of George W. and Margaret Bar¬ bara (Slocum) Christman. At the age of seven years she accompanied her parents to Indiana, where they located in Grant county. She received her education in the schools of Washington township and there grew to womanhood. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Boxell, Earl, who was born in December, 1894, is a graduate of the common schools and of Marion high school, and is teaching school in Pleasant township, and Kenneth, who was born on the 30th of March, 1905.

is a substantial family, and its men and women have been useful and respected in their communities. Several of the family reside in the county, while others have gone to other counties and states, some in the far west.

Mr. W. B. Kimbrough after a business and agricultural career, in which success has been fairly consistent, is now living practically retired in a comfortable home at Marion. He was born August 16, 1851, in Clinton county, Ohio, a son of Eli and Margaret (Townsend) Kim¬ brough. The father was born and reared in Clinton county, Ohio, and the mother in Darke county, near Greenville. The Kimbrough family is of English descent, though some genealogists claim the name is Ger¬ man. Grandfather Jeremiah Kimbrough was born in Guilford county, North Carolina, and with a family of six children he made the journey to Clinton county, Ohio, in 1809 in a one horse rig, and he died there in 1850. He married Sarah Mendenhall, who was born in Rowan county. North Carolina, and was of Quaker faith. In 1798 the family moved into the Northwest Territory on account of their views on slavery. The grandparents reared eleven children of their own and two orphan chil¬ dren after their own flock were old enough no longer to require their care.

Eli Kimbrough, the father, when a youth learned from his father the trade of blacksmith and wagon maker, but did not work at it regu¬ larly. Farming and carpentering were his chief vocations. In Decem¬ ber, 1868, he moved to Grant county, locating in Liberty township on a farm where he remained until his death in 1904 at the age of eightytwo years. He served in the office of Justice of the Peace, was a Republican, and a man of high principles and very much esteemed in his community. The mother passed away in 1876. The family is of hardy constitution, as is evidenced by the fact that the eleven chil¬ dren are all lining, at or past the meridian of their lives. The children are: John T. Kimbrough, a farmer in Mill township, Grant county; Owen C., a farmer in Liberty township; Mary E., wife of Samuel W. Stewart, of Pairmount, in Grant county ; Amos H., whose regular home is in Liberty township, but who is now in government service in Ore¬ gon, in Indian agency work; Zachary T., who is unmarried and lives with his brother, W. B. ; Thomas J., at Bogue, Kansas; Martha, J., wife of James E. Stewart at Fairmount; Sarah E., wife of William J. Howell, of Wells county, Indiana; Lydia A., of Pairmount, and Clark H., whose home is in the state of Oregon.