A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2), Part 50

Author: William Travis
Publication date: 1909
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 631

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WILLIAM R. JONES .- On the list of Clay county's honored dead appears the name of William R. Jones, who for many years was well known here as a thoroughly reliable, enterprising business man, well worthy the respect which was uniformly accorded him. He was born in Wales, April 22, 1827, and died on the 3d of February, 1901, so that his

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life record covered more than seventy-three years. His parents, Reece and Celia Jones, were also natives of Wales, where they spent their entire lives.

William R. Jones was reared and educated in his native country, where he remained to the age of twenty-two years, when attracted by the favorable reports which he heard concerning opportunities in the new world, he resolved to try his fortune on this side the Atlantic and engaged passage on a sailing vessel, which in due course of time bore him to the American coast. Five times he crossed the Atlantic in order to visit his people, who remained in their native land.

When Mr. Jones made the long voyage over the briny deep he de- termined not to tarry in the east and made his way to Clay county, Indiana, where he began farming. He was also engaged in the butchering busi- ness for many years, purchasing stock which he killed, selling the meat throughout the country. In 1880 he was joined by his son Thomas in a business partnership. The father purchased and killed the beeves, while the son conducted a market in Brazil, building up a good retail trade. Mr. Jones remained an active, energetic and successful business man until 1899 and as the years passed accumulated a handsome competence. He then retired and spent his remaining days in well earned rest, enjoying the fruits of his former toil.

It was after coming to this country that Mr. Jones was married on the 21st of April, 1862, to Miss Susan Crabb, their marriage being celebrated near Brazil, Indiana. Mrs. Jones was born in Clay, county, December 4. 1844, and is now living in Brazil. She is a daughter of Silas B. and Eliza (Wallace) Crabb. Her father was born in Ohio, October 18, 1805, and is now living in Dick Johnson township, Clay county. His wife, who was born in Ohio, December 15, 1825, passed away in 1896. They were pioneers of this county, where they arrived in 1835, the father spending his life as a farmer here. He worked industriously and untiringly to secure success and provide for his family and was respected as a thoroughly reliable and energetic business man. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Jones was blessed with sixteen children, six sons and ten daughters, of whom eleven reached years of maturity. Nine of the children are yet living and eight of the daughters reached womanhood and were married. Those who still survive are : Thomas P., Eliza, Sarah, Mary, Daniel H., Lemuel, Ethel, Ida and Emma V.

Mr. Jones was an exemplary member of Brazil Lodge No. 264. F. and A. M .. and received the honors of a Masonic burial by this lodge. He was true to the teachings of the craft, which are based upon mutual helpfulness and brotherly kindness and was also a valued member of Brazil Lodge No. 215, I. O. O. F. His political views were in harmony with the principles of the Republican party and his position on any ques- tion of vital importance was never an equivocal one. He stood loyally in defense of what he believed to be right and over the record of his life there fell no shadow of wrong or suspicion of evil. He reached his seventy-fourth year and ever maintained the good will and confidence of his fellowmen, while to his family he left a comfortable competence and the priceless heritage of an untarnished name.

JOSEPH D. ARMSTRONG .- Prominent among the native-born citizens of Perry township, Clay county, is Joseph D. Armstrong, a man of cul- ture and talent, who has long been an important factor in advancing the

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educational status of this section of the state, and is also identified with its agricultural development and progress. A son of George Dallas Armstrong, he was born in this township November 10, 1878. His grandfather, George W. Armstrong, was a native of Ohio and a son of George Armstrong, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.

An ambitious student in the days of his youth, Joseph D. Armstrong took advantage of every offered opportunity for advancing his early education, attending first the district schools and afterward the Terre Haute High School and the Indiana State Normal School of that city. Fitted for a professional carcer, Mr. Armstrong began teaching in 1901, and has taught school every year since, being a successful and popular educator. While living at home he became well versed in the agricultural arts and sciences, assisting his father in the management of the home farm, and since his marriage has carried on general farming on his own account. and is also interested to some extent in breeding and raising stock. He has a finely improved farm, it being a part of the parental homestead, which came to him by inheritance, and in its care he is meeting with a due meed of success.

Mr. Armstrong married, in 1899, Mary Fagan. She was born April 2. 1880, in Perry township, Clay county, which was, likewise, the birth- place of her father, Robert Fagan. Her grandfather, Stephen Fagan, was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, where his father, George Fagan, a pioneer settler, improved a homestead, on which he and his wife, Maria (Woodruff) Fagan, spent their last years. Stephen Fagan came from Ohio to Indiana in 1850, locating in Perry township, where he took up a tract of prairie land, from which he improved a homestead and on which he was engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death. His wife, whose maiden name was Eliza Donham, was born in Clermont county, Ohio, a daughter of Robert and Ruth Donham. The youngest of a family of eleven children, Robert Fagan came with his parents to In- diana, and for many years was a highly esteemed and respected resident of Perry township. Subsequently, on account of failing health, he started for Texas, but died before arriving at his point of destination. He mar- ried Nancy Staggs, who was born in Perry township, Clay county, a daughter of Franklin and Rachel (Reece) Staggs. She survived him, and married for her second husband Charles D. Jackson, of Perry town- ship. The union of Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong has been blessed by the birth of two children, Floy E. and Linda Argatha. Religiously Mrs. Armstrong is a member of the Christian church.

HENRY TELGEMYER .- An esteemed and highly respected resident of Washington township, Henry Telgemyer is an honored representative of the early pioneers of Clay county, and a true type of the brave, hardy and industrious men who courageously dared the privations and hard- ships of frontier life in order to here secure for themselves and their descendants permanent homes. A son of Harman Telgemyer, he was born September 29, 1828, in Prussia, Germany, where he lived until about eleven years old.

In 1839, accompanied by his wife and children, Harman Telgemyer emigrated to this country, and for a year lived in Missouri. Coming then to that part of Clay county bordering on Owen county, he entered land from the government and had begun the improvement of a homestead when, seven years later, both he and his good wife died. He married

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Elizabeth Ahlemeyer, a widow with three children, and to them two children were born, namely : Henry, the subject of this sketch, and Mena, who died in 1907.

After coming to Indiana Henry Telgemyer continued his studies for a time, attending a subscription school about six months a year. Leaving home after the death of his parents, he spent three years in the vicinity of the Rocky Mountains, prospecting for gold in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah. Returning then to Washington township, Mr. Telgemyer bought eighty acres of land in section ten, one half of which was then cleared and under cultivation. He has since cleared and improved twenty acres more, and in 1890 erected a frame house, one and one-half stories in height, and has also put up all other necessary farm buildings for successfully carrying on his work. That he has wit- nessed wonderful changes in the landscape since coming here as a boy, the broad expanse of cultivated fields that occupy the places formerly covered with dense forests, the commodious and even elegant residences that have superseded the log cabins, and the long trains of palace cars that are used for transportation in place of the wagons drawn by horses or oxen, and the many telegraph and telephone lines now visible everywhere, are a strong testimony.

On November 4, 1875, Mr. Telgemyer married Celinda Ahlemeyer, who was born in Washington township, February 25, 1844, a daughter of Henry and Lydia (Bauman) Ahlemeyer. Her father was born in Prussia, Germany, and her mother in Pennsylvania, and after their mar- riage, in 1838, in Union, Indiana, they settled in Clay county. Mrs. Telgemyer was a widow when she married Mr. Telgemyer, and had two children by her first husband, August Haug, namely : Catherine Haug, who died at the age of nineteen years, and Joseph A. Haug, of Harrison township, Clay county. To Mr. and Mrs. Telgemyer five children have been born, namely: Clara E., wife of Robert Kirby, of Louisiana ; Ida Mary, wife of Roscoe Capy, of Terre Haute; Estella M., wife of Oscar Keiser, of Washington township; Harry F., of the same township; and Roscoe W., who died in 1891, aged five years. Religiously Mr. Telge- myer is a member of the German Reformed church. Fraternally he belongs to Clay Lodge No. 85, A. F. & A. M., of Bowling Green, and politically he is a sound Democrat.

JOHN CALHOUN Moss bears an honored record as a business man and soldier, and Clay county has been his home throughout nearly his entire life. His boyhood days were spent on the home farm here, assist- ing to clear and prepare the land for cultivation, and when the outbreak of the Civil war occurred he enlisted on the 18th of April, 1861, at Paris, Illinois, in the Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, for three months, under Colonel McArthurs and Captain Rigley. On the 20th of September, 1862, he re-enlisted in Company G, Forty-third Indiana Volunteers, having assisted in the organization of his company, and he was made a second sergeant, from which he was promoted to orderly sergeant and at the close of the war was brevetted as first lieutenant under George K. Steele and Colonel McLean. The latter was made a lieutenant colonel and was mustered out of the service as a brigadier general. The company with which Mr. Moss belonged was placed in the Trans-Mississippi department and was a part of the land force which opened up the Mississippi river. He was mustered out of the service

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on the 14th of December, 1864, and returning home attended two terms of school at Westfield, Illinois, when he became totally blind as a result of his army service. For two years he was confined at St. Luke's Hos- pital in Cincinnati, where his sight was considerably improved, and on leaving the institution returned home for a week and then started on a trip to the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming, where he spent three years and a half. Returning once more to his Indiana home, he in time earned money with which to buy one hundred acres of land in section eight, Sugar Ridge township, to which he has since added until he now owns one of the finest farms in the county, consisting of two hundred and forty acres of well improved land and on which he has beautiful and convenient farm buildings.

Mr. Moss was born in section nine of Sugar Ridge township October 15, 1843, and he attended the district schools of this neighborhood and the United Brethren College at Westfield, Illinois. He is a son of Jacob B. and Zorada (Jenkins) Moss, both of whom were born in Shelby county, Kentucky, the father a son of George and Lydia ( Bilderback) Moss. They were born October 17, 1786, and March 24, 1789, were married in 1808, and died March 12, 1871, and October 12, 1871, respectively. The mother was a daughter of Ezekiel and Henrietta (Woodsmall) Jenkins, from Kentucky. The grandparents on both sides came to Sugar Ridge township, Clay county, Indiana, about 1820, enter- ing many acres of timber land in the vicinity of Center Point, and they lived here when the Indians were yet very numerous but friendly, and endured the many trials and hardships which are the concomitants of life on the frontier. Jacob B. Moss was given one hundred and sixty acres of timber land in section eight, which he cleared and placed under culti- vation, and he was a conservative farmer and a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal church. John C. was the third of his ten children, five sons and five daughters, and three of the sons and two of the daughters are yet living, but Rufus R., the last born, and John C. are the only ones living in Clay county.

John C. Moss married, July 3, 1868, Melissa C. Bucklew, who was born in Lewis township, Clay county, October 4, 1846, a daughter of Joel A. and Susan . Jane ( Edmondson ) Bucklew, of Tennessee. Her grandparents were William and Nellie (Holtz) Bucklew, of Tennessee, the former a soldier in the war of 1812, and John and Sarah (Grayson) Edmondson, also from Tennessee and the maternal grandfather was a Methodist Episcopal minister. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Moss are : Quincy, the wife of Charles Burris, of Lewis township; Yonnie, wife of Angus Wills, of Terre Haute; Zora, wife of Albert Hoag and a gov- ernment teacher in the Philippines; Xena, who became the wife of C. W. Smith and died in February, 1887; and John C., born March 24, 1884. Mr. Moss is a member of Governor Mount Post No. 82, G. A. R. He organized Company G of the Cuban Guards and was made its captain. while D. C. Witty was the first lieutenant, but they were never assigned to service. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity, Lodge No. 251, of Ashboro, and affiliates with the Populist party.

JAMES H. THROOP .- Prominent among the well known and highly esteemed citizens of Carbon is James H. Throop, who is there successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits, carrying a good stock of drugs and general merchandise. A son of Dr. George A. Throop, he was born

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July 12, 1848, at Carlisle, Kentucky. He is of English ancestry, being a lineal descendant of one Adrian Scroop, who for reasons which will subsequently be given changed his name to "Throop" after coming to this country. He is of the sixth generation from Adrian Throop, who was a life-long resident of either Connecticut or Vermont, the line being continued as follows: William, Thomas, George Lane, George A. and James H.

The early history of the Throop family has been compiled by Colonel Thomas J. Throop, and from it we have taken the following interesting extracts: "The name Throop had its origin in this manner. Adrian Scroop was of a good old English family, and in the time of the Civil war in England, in the time of Charles I, espoused the popular cause and was a member of the parliament that tried King Charles for his life and condemned him to the block. He was one of the far-famed, world- renowned regicides, and upon an examination of those perilous times you will find his name and seal the ninth on the roll on Charles I's death warrant. After Cromwell's accession to power he was an active and efficient officer of the army, being a colonel, and frequently during his

reign had a seat in parliament. When Cromwell died and Charles II ascended to the Throne, he, with Goff and other regicides, was compelled to fly the country, and as English rule extended to this country he changed his name from Scroop to Throop, our name. He settled in Connecticut, and was frequently compelled to hid in the caves near New Haven to escape the King's emissaries, who were sent over to arrest him. He had a large family of sons who scattered over New England, and it is no idle boast to say that some of the best blood of those states is derived from this stock. Edward Everett's mother was a Throop; Hon. E. T. Throop, former governor of New York, is of the same stock; and Martin Van Buren was nearly allied to the family."

William Throop, second in line of descent, son of Adrian, was of New England birth. Thomas Throop, his son, born at Elizabethtown, New Jersey, served in the French and Indian wars as an officer in the Provincial army. He subsequently settled in Virginia, where he married Catherine Lane. George Lane Throop was born in Spottsylvania county, Virginia, but was brought up and educated in Alexandria, that state. Moving to Kentucky in 1805, he became a pioneer of Scott county. In 1821 he migrated with his family to Indiana, making the journey with teams, and was one of the original settlers of Bloomington, Monroe county. He was a stone mason by 'trade, and prior to his removal from Alexandria had worked on the capitol at Washington. He continued work at his trade in Bloomington for several years, but spent his closing days with a son at Greencastle, Indiana, dying at the advanced age of eighty-six years.

George A. Throop was born at Georgetown, Scott county, Ken- tucky, January 20, 1821, and while yet an infant was brought by his parents to Indiana. Brought up in Bloomington, Monroe county, he took advantage of every opportunity offered for acquiring an education, attending the pioneer schools of those days. Making rapid progress in his studies, he entered the State University at Bloomington at an early age, and was there graduated. He then turned his attention to the study of medicine, subsequently beginning the practice of his chosen profession at Point Commerce. Removing from there to Kentucky, Dr. Throop was in active practice at Carlisle until 1856, when, his health being seriously

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impaired by his strenuous work in combating that dreadful disease, the cholera, which had just previous to that time been epidemic, he retired from the activities of his profession, and during the following nine years was engaged in the drug business at Shelbyville, Kentucky. Returning to Indiana in 1865, the Doctor was for a number of years a druggist at Greencastle, at the same time being a member of the Pension Board. The declining years of his life he spent with his son James at Carbon, dying there in 1900 at the venerable age of eighty-one years. His wife, whose maiden name was Abigail Milton Reeves, was born in Bloom- ington, Indiana, in 1818, and died in 1868, leaving seven children, namely : Irene, James H., John Bruce, George Reeves, Alice, Mary and Annie.

Having laid a substantial foundation for his education in the com- mon schools of Carlisle, Kentucky, James H. Throop subsequently com- pleted his early studies at the Shelbyville High School. In 1865 he began his active career as a clerk in his father's store at Shelbyville, remaining thus occupied two years. Going then to Reelsville, he con- ducted a store there for his father for three years. In 1870 he located at Harmony, but after a few months went to Rosedale. Coming from there to Carbon in the fall of 1871, Mr. Throop opened a drug store, and after conducting it most successfully for a few years enlarged his opera- tions by adding a stock of general merchandise. In 1905 he met with a serious loss, his store and stock of goods being destroyed by the con- flagration which wiped out the greater part of the village. With char- acteristic enterprise, however, he immediately began work, and was soon enabled to resume his old business, which he has continued until the present time, having built up an extensive and lucrative patronage in this part of the county.

On August 4, 1869, Mr. Throop married Eliza L. Barnett, who was born near Reelsville, Putnam county, Indiana, a daughter of Edward and Eliza (Lane) Barnett. Her parents were both natives of Harrison county, Indiana, and pioneers of Putnam county, where Mr. Barnett built the first grist and saw mill. Mr. and Mrs. Throop have four children, namely : Lillie Maud, George Edward, Annie and James Arthur. In fraternal circles Mr. Throop occupies a place of prominence, belonging to Brazil Lodge No. 264, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons ; to Carbon Lodge, No. 693, Independent Order of Odd Fellows ; to Carbon Encamp- ment No. 234, I. O. O. F., and to Carbon Lodge No. 145, Knights of Pythias. Both Mr. and Mrs. Throop are members of Silver Star Lodge No. 449, Daughters of Rebekah, of the Order of the Eastern Star, and of Beacon Light Temple, Pythian Sisters.

WILLIAM NELSON SINER .- A man of recognized business ability and integrity, William Nelson Siner is actively identified with the mercantile interests of Van Buren township, being senior member of the firm of Siner & Pell, of Carbon. A son of Hugh Lawson Siner, he was born April 25, 1840, in Linton township, Vigo county, Indiana, of Revo- lutionary stock.

Benjamin Siner, grandfather of William N., was in active service throughout the Revolutionary war, taking part in many of its battles, among others participating in the battle of Cowpens. At the close of the conflict he located in Virginia, and was there a resident for many vears. Removing to Kentucky in 1812, he remained there eleven years. In 1823, following the tide of emigration northward, he came to 'Vigo

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county, Indiana, in search of a favorable place in which to locate, and at once took up a tract of government land in Pearson township. In those early days the wild beasts of the forest had not fled before the advancing steps of civilization, and deer, wild turkey and other game helped to fill the family larder. Terre Haute was then a small hamlet, giving scant promise of its present thriving position among its sister cities. Working industriously, he cleared a homestead and there spent his remaining days, dying at a ripe old age. He married Sarah Malady, by whom he had seven children that grew to maturity, as follows : Nelson, Benjamin, Hugh Lawson, John, Alice, Fanny and Cynthia.

Hugh Lawson Siner was born in Culpeper county, Virginia, in 1811, and was twelve years old when he came with his parents from Kentucky to Vigo county. When a young man he learned the trade of a blacksmith, which he followed to some extent, although not exclusively, working at it in conjunction with farming. Soon after settling in life he bought a tract of wild land in Linton township, Vigo county, and having cut down a few trees built the log cabin in which his children were born. Later he built a smithy, and there worked at his trade a part of the time. Wild turkey, deer, and other game were abundant in those days of homespun, and, with the productions of the land formed a large part of the food of the people hereabout. Clearing a substantial homestead, he lived there until two years previous to his death, when he bought a home in Honey Creek township, where he died at the age of seventy-seven years. He married Ruhamah Welch, who was born in Madison county, Ohio, and died in Honey Creek township about two months after his death. Her parents, John and Mary (Kester) Welch, were natives, so far as known, of Ohio and pioneers of Vigo county, where they improved a farm, on which they spent the remainder of their lives. Hugh Lawson Siner and his wife reared six children, namely : Benjamin N., William Nelson, John M., Louisa, Emeline and Cynthia.

Brought up on the home farm, William N. Siner obtained the rudiments of his education in the log school house with its puncheon floor and its rude slab benches, which, set up against the wall, served for the scholars to write upon. When out of school he assisted in clearing the land and tilling the soil, doing pioneer labor while yet a boy. At the age of fourteen years he went to Terre Haute, where for eight years he was employed as clerk in a grocery. Coming then to Car- bon, Mr. Siner purchased Mr. Wright's share in the business of Wood & Wright, dealers in furniture, and undertakers, the firm name becoming Wood & Siner. Subsequently buying out his partner, Mr. Siner con- ducted the business alone for four years, when he sold one-half interest in it to William H. Pell, his present partner.

Mr. Siner married, in October, 1866, Emily Turner, who was born in 1839 in Vigo county, where her parents, John W. and Deliza (McGrew) Turner, settled in pioneer days, moving there from Kentucky. Politically Mr. Siner is a stanch supporter of the principles of the Republican party, and fraternally he belongs to Carbon Lodge No. 145, Knights of Pythias. Religiously both Mr. and Mrs. Siner are members of the Missionary Baptist church.

WILLIAM HENRY BRENTON .- A substantial and prosperous agri- culturist of Dick Johnson township, William Henry Brenton is eminently deserving of mention in this biographical work, being the descendant

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A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2), Part 50

Author: William Travis Publication date: 1909 Publisher: Number of Pages: 631

Author: William Travis
Publication date: 1909
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 631