A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2), Part 52

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

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ROBERT MARION CASTEEL .- A well known farmer, active and enter- prising, Robert M. Casteel is pleasantly located in Van Buren township, where he is successfully employed in agricultural pursuits, having a well improved and well managed homestead. A son of Franklin Casteel, he was born May 2, 1848, in Madison county, Indiana, about a mile from the village of Elwood. His grandfather, Thomas Casteel, and his great- grandfather, Jeremiah Casteel, were both natives of Maryland, Thomas having been born in the extreme southwest corner of that state. Jere- miah Casteel, who was an iron worker by trade, moved from Maryland to Ohio, and there died at the home of his son Thomas in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He married a bonnie Scotch lassie who came to Mary- land from Scotland when a child.

Thomas Casteel grew to manhood in his native state, down in the southwest corner, and in after years used to say that when a boy he frequently went out before breakfast and ran around the boundary stone breathing the fresh air of three different states. At the age of twenty- two years he migrated to Ohio, and six years later married. Buying then a farm located about four miles from Zanesville, he resided there a number of years and then came to Indiana, stopping first, for a year, at Greenfield. Settling in Madison county in 1840, he purchased land near Elwood, and lived there until 1861. Selling out, he removed to Edgar . county, Illinois, purchased a farm, and there spent the remainder of his life, dying in 1876, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. He married Elizabeth Waltamyre, who was born near Zanesville, Ohio, a daughter of Amos Waltamyre, a native of Germany. Mr. Waltamyre was a hatter by trade, and also owned and operated a pottery near Zanesville for awhile. He subsequently purchased a farm near there, and that is now owned by one of his sons. His wife's maiden name was Mercer. Thomas Casteel's wife survived him four years, dying at the age of seventy-nine years.

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She was the mother of eleven children, all of whom married and had children.

A boy of sixteen years when he came with the family to Madison county, Franklin Casteel remained at home until his marriage, and then for two years worked his mother-in-law's farm. Buying then a tract of land of which only a few acres were cleared, he built a log cabin, and in this his son Robert, the subject of this sketch, first drew the breath of life. There being then neither railways nor convenient markets in this part of the country, every one lived on the productions of the farm and dressed in homespun and home-made garments. Little do the people of these later generations realize the hardships and trials endured, the great ambition required, and the physical endurance demanded to secure the homes established by the brave pioneers for themselves and their descend- ants. Selling out in 1856, Franklin Casteel came to Clay county and purchased land in Van Buren township, Brazil then being but a small hamlet, while the surrounding country was heavily timbered. Taking possession of the small frame house previously erected on the land, he cleared and improved the greater part of his estate, put up a substantial set of buildings, and was there employed in general farming until 1887. Selling in that year, he bought forty acres of land near Harmony and there lived retired until his death, in February, 1906, aged eighty-two years and three days. He married Martha Ann Dunlavy, who was born near Richmond, Wayne county, Indiana, December 24, 1830, a daughter of Anthony Dunlavy and granddaughter of Daniel Dunlavy.

Daniel Dunlavy was born in England, of French parentage, being the lineal descendant of a French Huguenot family. Emigrating to America at the time of the Revolution, he fought with the colonists for independence and at the close of the war settled as a farmer near Frank- fort. He subsequently lived for awhile in Indiana, and then went to Lebanon, Ohio, where his death occurred at the venerable age of ninety- two years. He married, in Kentucky, Jennie Yokam, who was born in Germany and died at the age of sixty-eight years. Born at Frankfort, Kentucky, April 11, 1806, Anthony Dunlavy was there brought up on a farm. Subsequently coming to Indiana, he located near Richmond, being a pioneer of that section, and there purchased a tract of government land. Later he sold that, taking in exchange a partially cleared farm near Williams Creek, where he resided a number of years. Selling out, he then removed to Wayne county, where in a very short time his death occurred. He married Sarah Benefield, who was born near Frankfort, Kentucky. She survived him nearly fifty years, dying at the home of her daughter in Van Buren township in the eighty-first year of her age. She reared but two children. Both Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Casteel were members of the United Brethren church, joining it when young. Mrs. Casteel, now living near Harmony, is hale and hearty, retaining her mental and physical vigor to a remarkable degree.

Robert Marion Casteel was eight years old when he came with his parents to Clay county. In the district schools he obtained a practical education, and on the home farm became familiar with the various branches of agriculture. After his marriage he settled on a farm in the southwestern part of section sixteen, and there resided until 1886, when he purchased the farm on which he now resides. Mr. Casteel owns two hundred acres of land, one hundred and sixty acres of which constitute the homestead property. Here he has erected a fine set of buildings.and

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made other improvements of value, his farm being one of the best in its appointments of any in the neighborhood.

On May 11, 1875, Mr. Casteel married Eliza Ann Pell, a daughter of William F. and Nancy (McMillan) Pell. Their only child, Bertha, is the wife of Morton Herbert. In politics Mr. Casteel is a stanch Demo- crat, and takes an active interest in state and local affairs. Since 1905 he has served as a member of the township council, an office to which he was at first appointed but afterwards elected. He has also been a member of the County Council.

ANDERSON WEBSTER .- A representative of one of the earlier families to settle in Clay county and a farmer of wide experience and much ability, Anderson Webster, of Dick Johnson township, is surely entitled to honor- able mention in a work of this kind, the lives of himself and his more immediate ancestors being closely associated with the development and growth of this part of Indiana. Tradition tells us that two brothers named Webster came to America a century or more before the Revolu- tion and that one of them, who settled in New England, numbered among his descendants Noah Webster, the lexicographer, John, the scientist, and Daniel, the statesman. The other brother located in Virginia, where succeeding generations occupied the homestead which he improved.

Anderson Webster was born November 18,, 1852, in Dick Johnson township, a son of Joshua Webster. His grandfather, Charles Webster, was, doubtless, born in Franklin county, Virginia. About 1828, with two of his brothers, Daniel and Reuben, he migrated to Indiana and located first in Parke county, later settling in Clay county, from the unbroken wilderness clearing the homestead on which he spent his remaining days.

Born in Franklin county, Virginia, about 1812, Joshua Webster was sixteen or more years of age when he came with his parents to Clay county. The country at that time was in its primeval wildness, and the land was mostly owned by the government. Entering a tract in section fifteen, Dick Johnson township, he soon built the log house in which the birth of his son Anderson occurred. It was rude of construction, having one door and one window. Game of all kinds abounded, wild turkeys then being as plentiful as barnyard fowls are now. There were then no con- venient markets, the people living on wild game and the productions of the land, and the energetic women of the household carded, spun and wove and made all of the clothing worn by the members thereof. Little do the people of these later generations realize the trials and hardships endured, the great ambition required, and the physical endurance demanded to secure the homes established by the brave pioneers for them- selves and their descendants. How well they succeeded in their efforts the broad expanse of cultivated fields and the large and productive orchards now occupying the place formerly covered by a dense forest, the commodious and even elegant residences that have superseded the log cabin, and the long trains of palace cars that are used for transportation in place of the wagon drawn by oxen or horses, are a strong testimony. In this wonderful transformation Joshua Webster took an active part, and on the farm which he cleared and improved lived until his death, in June, 1880, at the age of sixty-eight years. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Kerr, was born in Kentucky, a daughter of James Kerr.

In 1817, just after Indiana had been admitted to statehood, James

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Kerr made a trip to Parke county, and in Raccoon township entered a tract of government land. Returning to Kentucky, he remained there four years. In 1821 he brought his family to Indiana, assumed posses- sion of the land he had previously taken up and became one of the original settlers of Parke county. A man of sterling integrity and ability, he soon became influential and prominent in public affairs, and served as a representative to the state legislature. Clearing and improving a good homestead, he resided in Raccoon township until his death, at the vener- able age of eighty-five years. During the time he witnessed many won- derful transformations in the face of the country roundabout, and in its growth and development was an important factor.

Mrs. Mary (Kerr) Webster survived her husband, and with the assistance of her sons continued the improvements already inaugurated on the home farm, among other things erecting a substantial frame house in place of the primitive log cabin. She died in 1887, aged sixty-eight years. She bore her husband ten children, of whom one, Susan, died in childhood, and nine grew to years of maturity, namely: Mary E .; John K .; Sarah; James E .; Arminda; Anderson; Fernando; and George M. and Joanna, twins. George M., who was well educated and for a number of years was engaged in teaching, died at the age of forty-eight years, in August, 1907. This death was the first among his family of brothers and sisters since that of little Susan, sixty-five years before.

Anderson Webster attended school in his youthful days, and assisted in the work of the farm from his boyhood. He was endowed by nature with much mechanical ability, and for four years worked at the carpen- ter's trade. Ingenious and inventive, he put his talents to good use, making many articles of value in the household, and has now in his home a handsome bookcase which gives evidence of his skill. In it there are forty different kinds of wood, thirty-nine of which were grown in Clay county. With the exception of the four years spent in carpentering, Mr. Webster has devoted his time and energies to the care of his farm, which is located in Dick Johnson township, and in his free and independent occupation has met with well-merited success.

At the age of twenty-two years he married Arminda McMillen, who was born in Dick Johnson township, of thrifty Scotch ancestry, being a daughter of Michael and Sarah McMillen, early settlers of Clay county. Mr. and Mrs. Webster have one daughter, Nellie. They have had four children, namely : Clarence C., who died aged three years; Pearley E., who died aged fifteen months; Minnie Ethel, who married Franklin Bell and died leaving one child, Carl; and Nellie, mentioned above. In their religious beliefs, Mr. and Mrs. Webster are liberal, and Mrs. Webster is an active member of the Universalist church. In politics Mr. Webster is a Republican.

WILLIAM E. GRAESER is one of the largest property owners of Clay county and is one of its best known and most prominent citizens. He has served four years as the deputy assessor of Sugar Ridge township, for five years as its assessor, has served as a town clerk and on the town board and at the present time is a member of the advisory board of his · township. At the time of his father's death he came into possession of considerable money, which he has invested in three hundred acres of land in Harrison, Jackson and Sugar Ridge townships, also in real estate in Brazil and Center Point and in government bonds.

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Mr. Graeser is of German birth, born in Heidelberg, Germany, July 15, 1848, a son of Otto and Elizabeth ( Fries) Graeser, and a grandson of William and Annie ( Rens) Graeser and of Christian Adam and Louisa (Hadeus) Fries. His father died in Germany January 24, 1901, and his mother a number of years previously, January 15, 1891. Their son Will- iam received a college education in his native land, and during sixteen months he served in the Franco-Prussian war. Coming to America in 1873, he went from New York to St. Louis, Missouri, thence to Illinois, and some time later, on the 4th of July, 1878, arrived in Center Point, where he was first employed as a gardner and farmer, and his home has ever since been in this city.

Mr. Graeser was married on the 27th of August, 1881, to Barbara Giltz, who was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, July 3, 1850, a daughter of Ehrenrich and Catherine (Schuler) Giltz. They were born in Wur- temburg, Germany, and coming to America were married in Ohio, and from there came to Jackson township, Clay county, Indiana, about 1855. The two children born to Mr. and Mrs. Graeser are Elizabeth and Will- iam O. The daughter, born June 3, 1884, married Emery E. Schaffer, of Center Point. The son was born July 28, 1887, and since January of 1907 has served as the deputy auditor of Clay county. He married Floy Williams, who was born in Ashboro, Clay county, a daughter of Fred and Sarah (Tribble) Williams. Mr. Graeser gives his political allegiance to the Democratic party, and is a member of the Lutheran church.

SIMON BROWN, one of the leading agriculturists of Sugar Ridge town- ship, was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, February 22, 1850, a son of Christian F. and Elizabeth (Sheir) Brown, who were born in Germany, the father in Wurtemberg. They came in their early lives to the United States, and were married in Ohio, after which they farmed in Tuscara- was, Greene and other counties of that state until finally, in 1864, they came to Clay county, Indiana, and bought prairie land in Jackson town- ship, remaining there until their deaths, the father dying on the 6th of June, 1876, and the mother on the 26th of July, 1897.

Simon Brown, the seventh born of their eight children, five sons and three daughters, was with his parents on the farm in his early life with the exception of one year which he spent in Shelby county, Illinois, and after his marriage he rented land in Jackson township for two years. He then located on the eighty acres in section 19, Sugar Ridge township, where he is now living, and which belonged to his wife. Only eighteen acres of land had been cleared, but he has since cleared the remainder and placed the entire farm under an excellent state of cultivation and is engaged in diversified farming and stock raising. In 1888 he added eighteen and three-fourths acres to the boundaries of the farm, and just ten years afterward, in 1898, he bought fifty-four acres, twenty-nine acres lying in section 20 and the remainder in section 19.

He was married on the 30th of January, 1876, to Mary J. Morgan, who was born in Posey township of Clay county May 13, 1856, a daughter of John M. and Elizabeth (Wright) Morgan, the former born in Henry county, Kentucky, and the latter in Jackson township, Clay county, Indiana. They have had three children, Ira A., Harry E., and one who died in infancy. Ira A., born January 11, 1878, is at home, and Harry E., born January 7, 1882, is employed on the Erie & Terre Haute Railroad and resides in Evansville, Indiana. Mr. Brown upholds the

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principles of the Democratic party. Mrs. Brown is a member of the United Brethren church.

JOHN FRUMP .- On January 29, 1908, John Frump, of Bowling Green, Clay county, celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday in his spacious and beautiful country residence, which is almost literally the work of his hands, and, as such, is strikingly illustrative of his independent, sturdy, determined and unique character. Thirty-two years before he had burned the brick for the house on his own farm, cut the timber and had the lumber sawed which was to enter into the construction of his home, and to the minutest detail saw to it that the material was sound and the build- ing was honest. As it stands to-day, with its neat sandstone trimmings and its substantial appearance, an acre of velvet lawn, graceful shade trees and pretty flower beds for a frame, the homestead is a symbol of the industrious, solid, bright and mellow old gentleman, whose hard- working, venturesome and useful life has been crowned by the admira- tion and affection of his associates. At the age when many men are huddled in a corner, mumbling absently of the past, John Frump is actively alive to the present, tending his flowers with loving care, driving briskly over the country in his rounds of relatives and friends, or sitting at his desk and writing letters of friendship or business with the same clear-cut and bold hand which adorns the books of the county treasurer of more than forty years ago; and this latter accomplished without glasses! In alluding to this unusual retention of physical and mental strength a close friend gives the following gentle touch to his character: "As a memorist he is phenomenally endowed, his retentiveness so acute that he recites readily without reference or prompting, declamations committed in his schoolboy days more than seventy years ago. It is an unusual spectacle to see a man of eighty-six years repairing to the village or rural school house, in response to an invitation to recite for the entertainment and edification of the children, which Mr. Frump frequently does. When but ten or twelve years of age, when he began reading in the old English reader, then the only reader in the public schools of the west, he com- mitted a somewhat lengthy composition entitled 'An Address to the Young,' which he delivers to schools and parties at this time with apparently as much avidity and delight as in the days of his youth. 'At no time.' says Mr. Frump, 'during the lapse of more than seventy years since I memorized this address have I ever been in any way embarrassed or at any loss to reproduce and declaim it word for word.' In his retire- ment from the activities of farm life Mr. Frump devotes his time to reading and floriculture, his flower gardens being the admiration and envy of all passers-by."

This fine old pioneer of Clay county is a native of Highland county, Ohio, born near Hillsboro on the 29th of January, 1822, just twenty years prior to the birth of William H. Mckinley. His parents were John and Mary Ann (Crabb) Frump, natives respectively of Delaware and Ohio. In 1835, when he was but thirteen years of age, the family came to Clay county and located on. an eighty-acre farm in Posey township near the present site of Brazil. There the mother died in 1849, her husband sur- viving her until 1867, when he passed away at the age of seventy-six years. Both were buried in the Hill cemetery, Brazil. Eight children were born to them, of whom two sons and two daughters are living, John Frump being the eldest of the family.

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John Frump

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When Mr. Frump came to Clay county seventy-three years ago the family located in a forest well stocked with deer, wild cats and wolves, and the father, with his assistance and the help of everyone to the limit of his capacity, commenced the erection of a log house and the clearing of the eighty acres which was to constitute the farm. Their supplies were hauled from the vicinity of Terre Haute. At the age of seventeen his father gave him his "freedom," but a search for work among the farmers of the neighborhood indicated that there were neither surplus labor nor funds in circulation, so with three other young men the fortune-seeker walked to a locality in Vigo county near Fort Harrison. They tramped along all day without anything to eat but frozen turnips, and at night- John Frump stopped with a farmer named David Sassene, who hired the grateful youth at ten dollars per month. Mr. Frump remained thus employed for about two years, but during this period (in the spring of 1842) made a trip to New Orleans with his employer, their mode of con- veyance being by a flat boat down the Ohio and Mississippi. Upon his return to Clay county he traded in stock, split rails and otherwise busied himself for about three years. In 1845 he entered forty acres of land in Dick Johnson township, paying for it in stock at the rate of two dollars per acre. Later he purchased eighty acres in Van Buren township, for which he paid two horses and the remainder in cash-the latter being earned by splitting rails at twenty-five cents per hundred and cutting cordwood at twenty cents per cord. Having paid for his eighty acres, he added a "forty" through much the same process. As illustrating the advance in land values in about twenty years, it may be stated that in 1868 Mr. Frump sold forty acres of his farm at one hundred dollars per acre. In the same year he bought four hundred and forty acres in sec- tions 25, 30 and 36, Washington township, which comprised his present homestead of two hundred and eighty acres. About five acres of the farm he transformed into an orchard, which bears a variety of fruit, and in 1876 he erected his present residence of eleven rooms, constructed of home-made brick, with sandstone trimmings and pronounced the finest house of the kind in Washington township.

During the earlier years of his residence in Clay county Mr. Frump was an active Democrat and held many offices, both because of his popu- larity and real ability. He cast his first vote for James K. Polk in the fall of 1844; held the offices of constable and trustee of Van Buren township (the latter for ten years) and served as county treasurer of Clay county from September, 1865, to September, 1869. In all these offices he was a model of precision, faithfulness, honor and general efficiency. He is still a Democrat, but for many years has taken no active part in politics. His identification with the Christian church, on the other hand, is as earnest and steadfast as ever. At the organization of the church at Bowling Green, in the late 'sixties, he became an elder, and continued to hold the office for about seven years. He is now a member of the Washington township church at Bellair.

In March, 1848, Mr. Frump wedded Miss Betsy Jane Matthews, daughter of William and Susan (Storm) Matthews, of Parke county, Indiana. The father was a native of Tennessee and the mother of Ohio, and they were married in Parke county. Afterward they spent some time in western Illinois, and returned to Bowling Green, where they died and were buried. Mrs. Matthews spent her last days at the home of Mr. Frump. John Frump has become the father of five sons and six daugh-

Vol. II-24

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ters. Laura became the wife of M. B. Crist, of Morgan county, Indiana. Alice married Elias Kilmer, of Clay City, who was clerk of the circuit court at the time the county seat was removed to Brazil. After his death his widow married Joseph Lind, of Terre Haute, who died, the mother of three children. William M. Frump, another child, is now a resident of Bowling Green; M. B. Frump is of Washington township; Ben Franklin Frump, of Jasonville, Indiana ; B. D. Frump, also of Washington town- ship; Alma, wife of Bud Chapman, now deceased; Rosilla F., deceased ; and Mary C., wife of John W. Knipe, who lives with her father. The venerable and revered mother of this family died September 11, 1901, aged seventy-five years and five months. Mr. Frump has been blessed with thirty-nine grandchildren, of whom thirty-one are living, and with seventeen great-grandchildren, of whom thirteen are alive. These rising and honorable representatives of his own flesh and blood are the inspira- tion and the solace of his passing years, and in the younger generations he lives his earlier life anew. Thus his old age is lightened of its burdens, and is kept fresh and green.

WILLIAM FRANCIS WEBSTER .- Prominent among the native-born citizens of Dick Johnson township is William Francis Webster, who is the worthy representative of a family that for four-score years has been actively identified with the agricultural prosperity and progress of Clay county, his grandfather, Daniel Webster, having located in this part of the state in 1829. Mr. Webster was born in this township January 4, 1863, a son of John Lewis Webster, of colonial ancestry. Tradition tells us that two brothers named Webster came to America a century or more before the Revolution, and that one of them, who settled in New Eng- land, numbered among his descendants Noah Webster, the lexicographer ; John, the scientist ; and Daniel, the statesman. The other brother located in Virginia, where succeeding generations occupied the homestead which he improved.

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A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2), Part 52

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

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