USA > Indiana > Newton County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume II > Part 1
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume II > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GC
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02300 0182
A Standard History of
Jasper and Newton Counties Indiana
An Authentic Narrative of the Past, with an Extended Survey of Modern Developments in the Progress of Town and Country
Under the Editorial Supervision of LOUIS H. HAMILTON, Rensselaer For Jasper County and WILLIAM DARROCH, Kentland For Newton County
Assisted by a Board of Advisory Editors
Volume II
ILLUSTRATED
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO AND NEW YORK 1916
1524883
MR. AND MRS. WALTER V. PORTER AND FAMILY
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Jasper and Newton Counties
WALTER V. PORTER. The Porter family in Jasper County not only deserves distinctions associated with long residence, but also with those sterling activities and civic character which are so im- portant in the upbuilding of any community. The people of that name have been identified with the county more than sixty-five years, and it is consistent with the prominence of the family that some of its members should receive individual mention in these pages.
The first of the family to locate in Jasper County was Asa Porter, Sr. He was born in Orange County, Indiana, and came to Jasper County in 1849, locating land in the southeast part of sec- tion 35 and the northeast part of section 2 in Marion Township in the country south of Pleasant Ridge. There he spent the rest of his days as one of the industrious farmers, and his efforts enabled him to accumulate considerable property. Asa Porter, Sr., married Lucinda McGrew, and they became the parents of fourteen children. Three of their sons, Jonah, Asa and Rice, all gave up their lives as sacrifices to the Union cause during the Civil war. Asa Porter was a member of the Baptist Church and most of his family have been connected with the same denomination. By the old settlers yet living Asa Porter is recalled as a man who did much good in the community, was always ready to lend a helping hand to all worthy causes and in every way an ideal citizen.
Rice M. Porter, one of the sons of Asa Porter, Sr., was born in Orange County, Indiana, in 1834, and was a boy of fifteen when his parents removed to Jasper County. Very few of the Indiana counties of that time had improved school facilities, and Mr. Porter attended one of the old time schoolhouses, a rough building with slab benches for seats, puncheon floor, learned his lessons from his very hmited range of text books, principally a speller and reader, wrote his copy with a goose quill pen, and his education was pronounced complete when he had mastered the fundamentals of arithmetic, reading, writing and spelling. In the meantime his practical train- ing for the real duties of farm life had not been neglected, and for several years he applied himself to the duties found on the old homestead, clearing, planting and harvesting the crops. Rice M. Porter married Mary A. Clark, and to their union were born four children : Jessie F., Walter V., William M. and Asa. In the spring of 1865 Rice M. Porter enlisted in a company of the 151st Indiana Volunteer Infantry. His regiment went to the front and was assigned to guard duty, and while in the service Mr. Porter was
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taken down with malaria and died from that disease at Nasliville, Tennessee. As already stated, he was one of three brothers who gave up their lives as sacrifices during the war. His widow survived him nearly half a century, passing away in June, 1913, and had spent her last years with a married daughter in Kansas.
Walter V. Porter, son of Rice M. and grandson of Asa Porter, Sr., has for many years sturdily upheld the reputation of his family in Jasper County, where he was born April 24, 1858. His name has been linked not only with the farming but the business affairs of his locality, and he has discharged liis obligations as an individual with unvarying fidelity.
His boyhood was spent on the old homestead in Marion Town- ship, and his education came from public schools which were only a few degrees advanced above those which his father attended. As the oldest son, he began helping his mother as soon as his strength permitted, and was her main dependence in keeping the home and her little family together until he reached his majority. He then found work as a farm hand, and earned his living in that way for three years.
March 23, 1882, Mr. Porter married Miss Amanda E. Parkin- son, daughter of Joseph Parkinson of Jasper County. After his marriage he paid $25 an acre for a quarter section of land 21/2 miles east of Rensselaer on the Pleasant Ridge Road, and there began his independent career as a farmer. After making his home there and' continuing his agricultural operations for eight years, Mr. Porter in the fall of 1890 became one of the partners in the management of the McCoy Ranch in Jordan Township. The McCoy Ranch for many years was one of the large farms and stock centers of Jasper County, and Mr. Porter was a responsible factor in its management for about sixteen years. He later continued the management of the ranch under the administrator of the McCoy estate until the estate was settled and the property sold. In 1907 Mr. Porter moved into Rensselaer, and has since had his home in the county seat. In 1891 he sold his original farm 21/2 miles east of town, and in 1892 bought a half section in Jordan Township near the Newton County line. This he sold in 1894, and then bought the old Richey place on Carpenter Creek in Marion Township. Since then Mr. Porter has increased his holdings in that vicinity and is now the owner of a fine farm of 480 acres. In addition to his general farming and stock interests he has for the past three years been engaged in building bridges and roads throughout Jasper County, and has undertaken and carried out most creditably a num- ber of important contracts of this kind.
He has been identified with all movements tending to promote the best interests of his locality, and his record is that of a man of strict probity and sincere motives. Politically he is a republican and for about fourteen years has been a member of the county council. Fraternally he is a Royal Arch Mason, No. 125, and is also identified with the Knights of Pythias, No. 82.
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Mr. and Mrs. Porter are the parents of six children : Joseph V. Rice, Fannie, Ella Dale, William Ross, Charles W. and Walter, Jr. Joseph V. Porter is a graduate of the Rensselaer High School, and a member of the graduating class of 1906 from the North Western Military Academy at Highland Park, Illinois. At the present time he is serving as deputy sheriff of Jasper County. He married Miss Lola Fountain, of Newton County, a daughter of one of that county's leading citizens, and they have a little son, Darwin. Joseph V. Porter is a Republican and a member of the Masonic and the Knights of Pythiias fraternities at Rensselaer. Fannie, the only living daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Porter, after attending the common and high schools of Rensselaer, was a student for two years in the Staunton Seminary at Staunton, Virginia, and also a student in the school of Faribault, Minnesota. She is the wife of Rev. Vaughn Woodworth, a clergyman in the Presbyterian Church near Omaha, Nebraska. William Ross Porter attended the common and high schools in Rensselaer, and is now a leading young agricul- turist of Jasper County. He is a republican, a Mason and a Knight of Pythias. Charles W. Porter, another of the rising young farmers of Jasper County, received a good educational training, and sus- tains the same political and fraternal relations as his brothers. Walter, Jr., the youngest of the children living, is a member of the first year class of the Rensselaer High School. The daughter Ella Dale died in infancy. Mrs. Porter, the mother, is a native of Jasper County, where she was reared and educated, and is a member of one of the county's oldest and most prominent families. She is a devout member of the Presbyterian Church.
HIRAM BURGESS. One of the pioneer business men of the town of Goodland was the late Hiram Burgess, who died April 8, 1915, in Los Angeles, California. More than forty-five years have passed since this branch of the Burgess family became identified with Newton County, and in his time the late Hiram Burgess was identi- -fied with farm development, with the drug business at Goodland, and with many of the movements and organizations which have been most beneficial in the welfare and progress of that community.
A son of John C. and Acsah (Christe) Burgess, and of Scotch- German descent, Hiram Burgess was born in Washington County, New York, July 9, 1832. His parents were among the early settlers of Washington County where his mother died in March, 1860, and his father in July, 1865. As a boy Hiram Burgess obtained com- mon school education in New York, was thoroughly trained in business system and detail, and at the death of his father succeeded to the ownership of the old Burgess homestead, which occupied a picturesque site on the shores of Lake George.
It was in 1867 that he came West, locating first in Will County, Illinois, and from there three years later coming to Grand Town- ship in Newton County, Indiana. He was a man of considerable
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. means when he came to Newton County and his first enterprise was the purchase of one hundred twenty acres of wild prairie land two miles West of Goodland. He developed much of this land and made it his home while cultivating its crops until 1873. From that year forward for a great many years he was identified with the drug business in Goodland. He was one of the men who had faith in the village and as early as 1872 expended nearly seven thousand dollars in the construction of the Burgess Block, which in its time was the most conspicuous structure in the village. It had a frontage of sixty-two feet on Newton Street and cighty-six feet on Union Street. It was in that building that Mr. Burgess had his drug store. He sold out his drug business to Constable & Pierce and moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1905, where he spent the remainder of life retired.
The first presidential vote Hiram Burgess cast was for John C. Fremont, the first presidential standard bearer of the republican party. Ever afterwards he loyally supported the party, but never manifested any strong desire for the honors of politics. He was especially active in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and for thirty years was superintendent of its Sunday School. His wife was also identified with the same denomination.
On January 14, 1855, Mr. Burgess married Miss Tirsa Warren. Her father was N. A. Warren of Essex County, New York. To their marriage were born three children: Eliza G., who married E. J. Hunter and has two children, Graham and Fannie. Mr. Hunter is deceased and his wife lives in Los Angeles, California. Elmer married Estella Hamilton and has one child, Lyle L. The family live in Los Angeles, California. Edward A. died in 1877. No direct descendants of Hiram Burgess live in Newton County.
CHARLES E. BURGESS. For more than a quarter of a century the leading hardware merchant at Goodland has been Charles E. Bur- gess, whose home has been within the borders of Newton County · nearly forty-five years, and whose standing as a business man and citizen requires little comment by way of introduction.
He was born in Washington County, New York, March 17, 1854, a son of Charles and Jane ( Barrett) Burgess. Charles Bur- gess, his father, was also born in Washington County, New York, March 14, 1824, and was a son of John Burgess of Scotch-German stock. In 1857 Charles Burgess moved his family west to Will County, Illinois, and from that locality came in 1871 to Newton County, Indiana, locating three miles west of Goodland in Grant Township. A year later he moved to Goodland and was a resident of that town until his death. He was highly prosperous in all his undertakings, and at the time of his death left an estate of more than four hundred acres, part of it included within the city limits of Goodland. It was by the rugged industry of pioneer farming that he accumulated the generous competence which he enjoyed in his later years and which he left to his descendants. Charles Burgess
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married Jane Barrett, who was also born in Washington County. · His remains are now at rest in the Goodland cemetery. A brief record of their six children is: Sophronia M., who lives in Good- land; Charles E. : George L., of Goodland; Harry A., who married Emma Drake, lives in Grant Township; May J., wife of George R. Sapp, who lives in Mecosta, Michigan; and Fayette A., a resi- dent of Grant Township, who married Bernice A. Jakway, son of A. G. Jakway. The father of these children was a republican in politics, but was not a seeker for office, belonged to no secret orders, and exemplified in his individual career the sterling traits of man- hood and character which were his essential possessions. He died in March, 1880, being survived by his widow.
When Charles E. Burgess was three years of age his family moved to Will County, and he was about seventeen when they came to Newton County. Since then his home has been within the borders of this county, and his education was finished in the public schools at Goodland. Quite early in his career, on account of the poor health of his father, he took the management of the home farm, and he demonstrated much practical ability in agricultural matters, though his real career began after he left the farm in 1888 and bought a half interest in the hardware store of T. J. Gray at Goodland. For many years the firm of Gray & Burgess carried the largest stock of hardware and implements in Grant Township, and was a successful concern under that name sixteen years. In 1904 Mr. Gray retired from business and since then the enterprise has been carried on under the individual name of Charles E. Burgess.
On December 9, 1886, Mr. Burgess married Lilly S. Stryker, daugliter of Rev. William M. and Isabel Stryker of Emporia, Kansas. Her father, who was a minister of the Presbyterian Church and lived in many localities during his active career, was born in Pennsylvania of German descent, while her mother was a native of Ohio and of Scotch descent. Mr. and Mrs. Burgess have one child, Olive Virginia, now the wife of Brewster B. Hoornbeek of Elgin, Illinois.
In addition to his success as a merchant Mr. Burgess is known for his varied public and social activities. He has served as a member of the town board three years, as member and treasurer of the school board eight years, and was on the building committee during the construction of the handsome new school building at Goodland. In politics he is a republican, and he has been a member of the Presbyterian Church for many years, served as its treasurer twenty years and ten years as an elder. His wife is also active in the same denomination. Mrs. Burgess is a member of the Library Board at Goodland and is secretary of the local Women's Christian Temperance Union.
GEORGE R. THORNTON. When one considers the hopes and enthusiasm, the labors accompanied by the sweat of the brow, the
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trials and misfortunes, and the nobility of self-sacrifice which have been woven into the early history of Jasper County by the lives of its early settlers, there comes a sense of the responsibility con- nected with giving appropriate record wherever possible to those men and women who really laid the foundation of the present pros- perous conditions and who since their work was accomplished have gone on to the future world. One of those most deserving of such memorial is the late George R. Thornton, who was in many ways conspicuous among the early settlers of the county.
Born in Ohio in 1818, George R. Thornton was a son of Phineas Thornton. Phineas Thornton was born in Vermont, and early in the history of Ohio as a state settled in Champaign County. George R. Thornton grew up to the life of a farmer. While living in Ohio he married Mary E. Roberts, and about 1842 they moved from that state to Indiana locating one mile from Surry in Newton Town- ship of Jasper County. Buying some land, he entered some from the government, in a totally wild condition. He built a house, typical of the structures of the time, and set himself vigorously to the work of clearing, plowing, planting and general improvement. For many years he lived there harvesting successive crops and gradually growing in prosperity and influence. When he and his wife came to Jasper County they had one daughter, Mercy E., who subsequently married Ira J. Baker. At their home in Jasper County were born four children: Malvina, now Mrs. Theodore F. Warne; George Jerome, who died when about nineteen years of age; Greenleaf L .; and Minerva, who died in infancy. The mother of these children died in 1855, and Mr. Thornton married for his second wife Louisa Blankenbaker, who became the mother of eight , children.
George R. Thornton was a man of only limited education, but being a great reader remedied this early handicap and was regarded as one who possessed an unusual range of information and knowledge on many topics of interest. In religion he was a Baptist and died in that faith, while in politics he was first a whig and then a repub- lican, but never aspired to public office and performed his best service as a neighbor, a father, and an upright citizen. Sober and industrious, and with a good practical sense, he met the issues of life as they arose and was rewarded with an ample share of material prosperity. Honest to the core, kind as a neighbor, and acting his belief in doing all the good he could, he commanded universal esteem. George R. Thornton died in 1892 at the age of seventy- four.
His son Greenleaf L. Thornton has been one of the honored residents of Jasper County for many years, and his position in affairs is now that of county assessor, and both as an official and as a man he is one of the best known citizens of Jasper County. He was born on the old Thornton homestead in Newton Township May 1, 1852. The first twenty-one years of his life were spent
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at home and while there he gained a great deal of the practical training which has served him so well in his independent career. Such education as he obtained was acquired in the district schools, but the schools he attended during the decade of the '6os were far inferior in point of facilities and breadth of instruction to those which country boys now attend, although many of the noblest men and women of the country were products of just such institutions of learning.
On March 2, 1876, Mr. Thornton married Lydia A. Pillars, a daughter of Samuel and Adaline ( Hammond) Pillars. The Pil- lars family were early settlers in Owen County, Indiana. After his marriage Mr. Thornton followed farming and stock trading until 1884 and then with such capital as he had accumulated he moved out to the State of Kansas. His residence in the Sunflower State during the next ten years was the most disastrous period of his career. The Kansas of thirty years ago was not the Kansas of today, and very few of its residents escaped the almost contin- uous vicissitudes which beset the farmer and settler. While there Mr. Thornton lost practically every dollar he had in the world, and when he returned to Jasper County it was to begin life's battles entirely over again. He was soon on his feet and making headway as a farmer and trader. and that has been his chief business in the county for nearly twenty years, with the exception of four years spent in business at Surry.
Mr. Thornton is a vigorous member of the republican party of Jasper County and his experience in public office has been largely in the duties of assessing. For four years he was assessor of Newton Township, for one year was assessor of Marion Township, and in the fall of 1914 was the choice of the people of Jasper County for county assessor. He is now giving a most capable administration in that office. Fraternally Mr. Thornton is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 143. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Church. To their mar- riage have been born four children: Melvin J .; Raymond Earl; Malvina May, now Mrs. Orlo A. Abbott ; and George Taylor.
ADALINE (HAMMOND) THORNTON. Among the faithful, de- voted, hard-working and self-sacrificing women whose lives adorned the early history of Northwestern Indiana, mention should be made of the late Mrs. Adaline (Hammond) Thornton, who died at her home in the northern part of Rensselaer March 12, 1910, at the age of eighty years two months thirteen days.
Adaline Hammond was born in Jackson County, Indiana, December 30, 1829, a daughter of Oliver and Lydia Hammond, who removed from Jackson County to Monticello, White County, in 1835, lived there until 1838, and then came as pioneers into the new country of Jasper County. The Hammonds were among the early settlers, and the late Mrs. Thornton spent her early life in the en-
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vironment of seventy years ago, with such conditions as have since been completely transformed by the marchi of progress.
In 1855 she married Samuel Pillars, who was likewise of the early settlers of Jasper County, but who did not live long after his marriage, passing away December 5, 1857. To their marriage was born one child, Lydia A. Pillars, now the wife of G. L. Thorn- ton, Jasper County's popular assessor. In 1865 Mrs. Pillars married Henry T. Thornton, who died November 27, 1897. The two children of this marriage are: Dora May, Mrs. George Clark, and Josiah C. Thornton. At the time of her death Mrs. Thorn- ton was survived by two brothers and a sister, and several grand- children and great-grandchildren. As a child she was united with the Free Will Baptist Church and remained a faithful member and an earnest Christian until her death.
DR. FRANCIS AUGUSTUS TURFLER. With the general advance of science in modern times various new methods of healing have sprung up, one of the most prominent of which is osteopathy. This is based on the theory that all diseases are due to some abnormal position of the bones of the body, and treatment is directed, there- fore, wholly or chiefly, to that part of the human organism. A leading practitioner of this science in Jasper County is Dr. Francis Augustus Turfler, of Rensselaer, a man of more than average ability who has gained more than a local reputation. Dr. Turfler was born in Orange County, New York, October 13, 1878, and was educated in the public and high school at Warwick, that county. At a later period he went west and for some two years resided at Kansas City, Missouri, while there being engaged in various occupations, having previously had some mercantile experience as a clerk in New York State. In the fall of 1900 he entered the American School of Os- teopathy at Kirksville, Missouri, (the parent institution of the science), and was graduated therefrom in 1902. He began the practice of his profession in Seward, Nebraska, but remained there but a short time, coming in 1903 to Rensselaer, where he has since followed it very successfully. In fact, his fame is so wide spread that he was selected as demonstrator before the National Osteopathic Association at the Jamestown Exposition, held at Norfolk, Virginia, and was also selected as a demonstrator before the National Society in the following year at Chicago. Later he demonstrated before the New England Society at Boston, and several times since before the Chicago Society. He has also been invited to demonstrate before the National Society at the meeting to be held in 1915. Doctor Turfler has contributed to the medical press articles on special sub- jects, one on cervical lesions attracting more than ordinary attention. The state organizations before which he has demonstrated are those of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Kentucky and Ohio. His practice has outgrown Jasper County and his patients come to him from various points throughout the United States. He is a member
F. CA. Jurfler, 2.0.
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of the American Osteopathic Association, the Indiana Osteopathic Association, and also the Chicago Association. His other society affiliations are with the Atlan Club of his school and the Knights of Pythias, Castle Hall No. 82. In religion he is a Methodist.
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Aside from his profession Dr. Turfler is interested in onion production, and owns 500 acres of land, a large part of which is devoted to onion culture. He is the present president of the local society of onion growers. Doctor Turfler was married April 12, 1903, to Anna Francis, of Jasper County, who is also a graduate of the American Society of Osteopathy. They have had three sons : Francis Augustus; Arthur, who died in infancy, and Robert Still. The doctor's successful career illustrates the value of mental concen- tration upon any pursuit undertaken, and shows that "whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well."
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