USA > Indiana > Clay County > A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2) > Part 56
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aged sixty-five years, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Scott, near Zoar. He married Margaret Curry, who was born in Washington county, Penn- sylvania, a daughter of Robert Curry, a native of Scotland. She died March 15, 1842, in New Cumberland, Ohio, leaving four children, Mar- garet, Jane, John and William Wallace. Margaret married James H. Turner, of Jefferson county, Ohio. Jane married Robert Scott, of New Cumberland, Ohio. John was graduated from the Cincinnati and Phila- delphia Medical Colleges, and after practising his profession in different places in Clay county located in Brazil, where he continued as a successful physician until his death.
Laying a substantial foundation for his future education in the district schools of Harrison county, Ohio, William W. McGregor after- wards attended the village academy at Hagerstown, Ohio, and at the age of eighteen years began his active career as a teacher in the school at Stone Creek, three miles from New Philadelphia, Tuscarawas county. He afterwards taught at Cross Creek village, Washington county, Penn- sylvania, and at Mount Hope, West Virginia, and for awhile was an instructor in a private school near Lexington, Kentucky. Going to Iowa in 1858, Mr. McGregor taught first in Moscow, Muscatine county, and then in Crawfordsville, Washington county, after which he went to Steele county, Minnesota, and for awhile was employed in the schools at Bracketts Station. Coming from there to Clay county, Indiana, he here began his pedagogical career in Cass township, subsequently teaching in Jackson, Van Buren and Harrison townships. During the time that he was employed as a teacher, Mr. McGregor devoted his leisure minutes to the study of law, and about 1874 was admitted to the bar at Brazil. He immediately opened an office in Middlebury, and when Clay City was incorporated located there and continued in the active practice of his profession in that place until 1905, by his ability, skill and knowledge building up an excellent patronage. During the past three years he has lived retired on the farm which he had previously bought.
Mr. McGregor married, February 16, 1872, Mary M. Storm. She was born in Mill Creek township, Coshocton county, Ohio, August 12, 1855. Her father, John Storm, was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, a son of George and Barbara ( Miller) Storm. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. McGregor, namely: Deborah Jane, wife of Joseph C. Boston; Inez : Donald C., who died at the age of nineteen years, in 1900; Gertrude Grace, whose death occurred in 1903, when she was in the nineteenth year of her age; and Anna Belle, who died at the age of four years. Formerly a Democrat in his political affiliations, Mr. McGregor is now a Socialist. Religiously Mrs. McGregor is a member of the United Brethren church.
MRS. MARGARET (BURKHART) COOPRIDER, widow of the late Francis Marion Cooprider, is a woman highly respected throughout the com- munity in which she resides for her sterling traits of mind and char- acter, her home in Harrison township being the one in which she and her husband spent so many happy years. A daughter of Philip Burkhart, she was born June 5, 1845, in Coshocton county, Ohio.
Venable Burkhart, Mrs. Cooprider's grandfather, moved from his native state, Pennsylvania, to Ohio, becoming an early settler of Coshoc- ton county. Entering government land, he there cleared and improved a homestead, which he managed successfully until his death, both he and
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his wife dying on the home farm. They were the parents of ten children, namely: Catherine, Elizabeth, Mary, Christina, Lydia, Sarah, Abigail, Priscilla, Benjamin and Philip.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1813, Philip Burkhart was a small child when his parents moved to Ohio. He was there reared to rural pursuits, from his youth up being familiar with the various branches of agricul- ture. Coming to Indiana with his family in 1850, he located in Clay county, this place seeming to meet his requirements. He entered forty acres of land in Harrison township from the government, and in addition purchased forty acres of adjoining land. He built a log cabin of the true pioneer style, with a puncheon floor, and having cleared a space put in his first crop. He continued his operations, cleared a large part of the land, and was here engaged in farming until his death, in 1858. His wife, whose maiden name was Mary Rigle, died two years before he did. They were the parents of nine children, namely: Mary M., Elizabeth, Jacob, Emmanuel, Abigail, Venable, Margaret, George and Rhoda. Mary married George Boerstler. Elizabeth married David Royer, of whom a short sketch may be found elsewhere in this work. Jacob and Emmanuel were soldiers in the Civil war, and both died in service. Abigail is the wife of John Harshman. Venable married Mary Mishler. George married Ellen Niece. Rhoda is the wife of William Steiner.
Margaret Burkhart was but five years old when she came with her parents to Harrison township, and there she was reared and educated. After the death of her parents she returned to her early Ohio home, where for quite awhile she spent her time with relatives and friends. On April 10, 1884, she married the late Francis Marion Cooprider, and has since resided on the farm she now occupies. Mr. Cooprider was a life-long resident of Harrison township, and by his first marriage had three children, Caswell H., James and Lethie. In the sketch of the oldest son, Caswell H., which appears elsewhere in this volume, may be found further mention of the Cooprider family.
MARTIN LUTHER FRITZ .- Conspicuous among the leading agricul- turists of Harrison township is Martin Luther Fritz, who for many years has been an important factor in advancing the highest interests of the community in which he resides. Patriotic and public-spirited, he served his country in her time of need, serving bravely in camp or field, and since that time, as a law-abiding citizen, has been equally as faithful in the performance of his duties. A native of Owen county, Indiana, he was born May 1, 1844, in Jefferson township, a son of Peter Fritz. His grandfather and great-grandfather on the paternal side were both named Martin Luther Fritz. Martin L. Fritz, the first, was born in either Alsace or Lorraine, France, and as a soldier came with Lafayette to America and fought in the Revolutionary war. Subsequently remaining in this country, he settled in Pennsylvania, and was there a resident during his life.
Martin L. Fritz, the second, was born and reared in Pennsylvania. Inheriting the patriotism of his father, he enlisted in the war of 1812, and under that brilliant commander, Oliver H. Perry, took part in the famous naval engagement on Lake Erie, his services therein being sub- sequently recognized by a grant of eighty acres of land given by the government to his youngest son. In the later years of his life, about 1840, he came to Indiana, and thereafter lived in Owen county until his
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death. His wife, Sarah Huffman, was born in Pennsylvania, of Irish parents, it is thought. She died quite suddenly while on the trip to this state. Their children, eight in number, were all born in Pennsylvania.
Peter Fritz remained in the Keystone state until 1840, when he came with the family, in 1840, to Indiana, making the journey as far as New Albany by way of the Ohio river, bringing on their raft in addition to their teams and household effects a large load of lumber. Disposing of the lumber after landing, the family then came with teams to Owen county. Peter Fritz there entered forty acres of government land, and bought another tract of equal size, all of it being covered with its original growth of timber. Making an opening in the forest, he built the log cabin in which he and his family lived several years. He subsequently followed his trade of a stone mason until compelled by ill health to give it up. He died while yet in manhood's prime, in November, 1846. Peter Fritz married Margaret R. Reed, who was born in Pennsylvania, which was also the native state of her father, Henry Reed, coming from Scotch-German stock. Henry Reed, with his wife and children, came to Indiana with the Fritz family. locating near the present site of Coal City, Owen county, where he improved a farm from the eighty acres of land he took up from the government. Selling out in 1848, he removed to Crawford county, Illinois, purchased land, and was there employed in farming the remainder of his life. Mrs. Margaret R. (Reed ) Fritz survived her first husband, and was afterwards three times mar- ried. Her children, five in number, were all by her first marriage, namely : Sarah Jane; Elizabeth Ann; Mary Maria; Martin Luther, the special subject of this sketch; and Peter Melville.
Left fatherless when but eighteen months old, Martin Luther Fritz was brought up and educated in his native county, and while yet a very small lad became of great assistance to his mother, at the age of five years going on horseback to Littlejohn's mill, eight miles away, or to Clark's mill, ten miles distant, following the narrow bridle-path through woods from which the wild beasts had not yet fled. In 1861, animated by the spirit of his brave ancestors, Mr. Fritz enlisted in Company A, Fifty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, was mustered into service in September, 1861, and although he was on detailed duty a part of the time took an active part in several engagements of importance, among them being those at Fort Bank Head, at Island No. 10, where he was under fire night and day for thirteen days, at the siege of Corinth, and at the Battle of Iuka. At the latter engagement Mr. Fritz was wounded, and for twenty hours. laid on the battlefield, surrounded by the dead and dying. He was then taken first to the field hospital, from there being transferred to Iuka, where he remained three weeks. He then started for Jackson, but was halted near Corinth, detained until after the battle then in progress had been fought, and then continued his journey to Jackson, where he remained two weeks. Taken then to the hospital at Paducah, Kentucky, he was there until February 15, 1863, when, on account of physical disability, he was honorably discharged from the service. In addition to being wounded in each leg, Mr. Fritz had a small part of one ear removed by a ball, and in the blouse which he wore there were eleven bullet holes, while his trousers had seven, and his hat five, several of these bullet holes having been made while he was lying, wounded, on the field.
After his return to civic life, Mr. Fritz was for awhile engaged in
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buying and selling hogs, cattle and horses, carrying on a lively trade for a few years. Leaving Owen county in 1871, he purchased forty acres of land in Harrison township, it being covered with timber, a few acres of it being deadened. At the same time he bought a ten-acre tract, and on that built a log cabin, later replacing it by a substantial house of hewed logs, and still later building the commodious structure which he now occupies. When Mr. Fritz settled in the Eel River valley it was in its primeval condition, the forest unbroken, with neither drainage nor levees. Every breath of air was filled with malaria germs, and the mosquitoes floated about almost clouding the atmosphere. Since that day the valley has been cleared and drained, the sanitary conditions improved to the utmost, and the value of the country roundabout increased ten fold.
On November 14, 1863, Mr. Fritz married Mary E. Padgitt, who was born in Jefferson township, Owen county, June 1, 1844. Her father, Owen Padgitt, was born in Greene county, where his father, John Padgitt, a pioneer, owned several hundred acres of land, included in which was the present site of Washington township. John Padgitt was one of the earliest merchants of Greene county, for some time having a grocery at Fair Play on the White river, where he also operated the ferry. He spent his last years, however, in Owen county. Owen Padgitt took up land in Owen county when a young man, improved a fine homestead, and was there employed in farming until his death. He married Elizabeth Deyar, daughter of Thomas and Mary Deyar, pioneers of Owen county, and she died in early womanhood, her daughter, Mary E., being then a small child. Left without her own mother when so young, Mary was brought up by her step-mother, her father marrying again, and by her was well trained in the domestic arts and sciences.
Mr. and Mrs. Fritz have reared four children, namely: John W., Melville R., Lulia M. and Julia May. John married Elizabeth Rynes, and they have three children, Edith, Ogle and Oscar. Melville married Dora Cooprider, by whom he has three children, Vernie, Laura and Jennings. Lulia is the wife of Miles F. Brush. Julia May, who married Caswell H. Cooprider, died August 3, 1905, leaving one son, Cecil.
HOWARD MILLER, the agent at Ashboro for the Evansville & Indian- apolis Railroad Company, was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, Jan- uary 13, 1835, a son of Samuel and Maria Ann ( Huff) Miller, also of that county. His grandparents were Thomas Miller, of Pennsylvania, and George and Elizabeth Huff, of Virginia.
The early educational training of Howard Miller was received in the common schools of Muskingum county, Ohio, which was supple- mented by attendance at the normal school at Zanesville, that state. He then taught school in Ohio until going to Illinois in 1860, where he both taught and attended school, and from there went to Martin county, Indiana, and taught school and served as a deputy recorder for three years. In October, 1864, he enlisted in the One Hundred and Seventy- eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, Company F, and was transferred to the Twenty-third Army Corps and took part in the battles of Murfreesboro and Kingston, North Carolina. He was never wounded during his Civil war service, and was discharged in July, 1865. Returning then to his parents' home in Muskingum county, Ohio, Mr. Miller with his brother and brother-in-law bought a saw mill and conducted it for two years, when they moved the mill to Lawrence county, Indiana, and a few months
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later to Owen county, this state. From 1872 until 1874 they conducted a sawmill in Putnam county, Indiana, and Mr. Miller then bought an interest in a flour mill at Cloverdale, this state, which he sold after twelve months. From that time until 1880 he was employed at various occu- pations, moving thence to Cataract, Indiana, and from there to Bowling Green, this state, where he worked for a short time in a mill. In 1881 he was occupied in sawing lumber near Clay City, after which he operated sawmills in various parts of this vicinity until 1887, and then moving to Saline City he embarked in the timber business. In January, 1892, Mr. Miller was made the agent at Ashboro for the E. & I. Railroad Company, his present position.
He married on the 10th of October, 1867, Mary C. Taylor, who was born near Cambridge, Ohio, the daughter of John and Jane (Duke) Taylor, natives respectively of Ohio and Pennsylvania, and a grand- daughter of Samuel Taylor, of Ireland, and James and Jane ( Mount) Duke, who were born in Pennsylvania. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Miller are Lenora, now Mrs. John Zenor, of Bowling Green, Indiana ; Cora Alice, who became the wife of Carl Carpenter and died on the 29th of October, 1904; W. Ray, of Brazil, Indiana; Horace Glenn, who was employed as clerk for the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad Company in Terre Haute, and died in November, 1905; and Rome, who resides at home, and is a carpenter and builder. Mr. Miller is a Republican politi- cally and a member of the Presbyterian church.
JOHN FERNSEL, who is farming in Sugar Ridge township, Clay county, was born in Baden, Germany, May 1, 1834, and his parents, who were farming people, spent their entire lives in that country. He, how- ever, came to this country in 1851, locating in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, where he resumed the shoe maker's trade which he had learned in Ger- many, and he spent one year there. During the following eighteen months he was in Seneca county, Ohio, from there went to Crawford county and two years later went to Terre Haute and worked at his trade there for eight months. From Terre Haute he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was employed in making shoes from buffalo hides at the Brown Shoe Company. During four years of his stay in that city he was also a street car conductor, but on account of trouble with his eyes he resigned that position and coming to Sugar Ridge township, Clay county, Indiana, he worked at his trade and farmed, buying in the fall of 1870 forty acres of land in section 8. He has since added forty acres more to his original purchase, and has made this one of the best improved farms in the township, having followed general farming exclusively since 1870.
Mr. Fernsel married first, in August, 1857, in St. Louis, Sallie Emstead, who was born in Mt. Zeller, New York, and came with her grandfather, a Mr. Neil, to Illinois in an early day. She died in St. Louis in 1864, after becoming the mother of two daughters,-Julia, who died in infancy, and Sallie, who died at the age of ten years. In Jan- uary, 1866, Mr. Fernsel wedded Louisa Shuler, who was born in Ger- many, and came from Wurtemberg, that country, to Clay county, Indiana, with her parents when two years old. She died in October of 1893, leaving the following children : Clara Ida, the wife of Samuel Tribble, of Ashboro, Indiana; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Harney Smith and died in 1902; Martin, also of Ashboro; and Queen, the wife of
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Elijah Robinson, of Sugar Ridge township. In September, 1899, Mr. Fernsel wedded Mrs. Armilda ( Downs) Payne, who was born in Bullit county, Kentucky, and was there married to William Payne, who died August 16, 1896, leaving one daughter, Rhoda, who became the wife of A. M. Short and died on the Ist of January, 1907. Mr. Fernsel has been a Republican since the organization of the party, and has served as the assessor of Clay county, as the trustee of his township for one term and was elected a member of the township board in 1902.
REUBEN VAN COLE .- A well-known and highly respected member of the agricultural community of Harrison township, Reuben Van Cole is widely and favorably recognized throughout this part of Clay county as an honest, upright man, and a worthy representative of those cour- ageous pioneers who settled in this part of the state when it was in its primeval wildness. A native of Indiana, he was born January 7. 1845, in Marion township, Owen county, a son of William Simpson Cole and grandson of William Cole, one of Clay county's original settlers.
William Cole spent his earlier years in North Carolina, afterwards spending a few years in Tennessee, and from that state coming, in 1818, to Indiana, crossing the country with teams and bringing with him his family and all of his earthly possessions. He located in Clay county, which was then one vast wilderness through which the dusky savage and the wild beasts of the forest roamed at will. He entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, including the west half of the southwest quarter of section ten, and the east half of the southeast quarter of section nine, of what is now Harrison township. Erecting a log house, he labored earnestly and courageously to clear a farm, and with his wife, who before marriage was Nancy Luther, lived here until his death. A native of Tennessee, William Simpson Cole was but three years old when he was brought by his parents to Clay county. He was reared among pioneer scenes, and assisted his father in his pioneer labors. At the time of his marriage he located in Owen county, on a tract of one hundred and twenty acres given him by his father, and in the log cabin then standing upon the place all of his children were born. He set manfully to work to clear a homestead, on which he lived until 1848, when he traded with his brother for one hundred and twenty acres located in Harrison town- ship, it being a part of the original land taken up from the government by his father in 1818. He continued in his chosen occupation, and in the hewed log house which stood upon the farm resided until his death. March 9, 1890. His wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Oliver, was born in North Carolina, and when a child came with her parents to what is now Harrison township, this county. She died a few years before her husband, leaving four children, James, John Wesley, Reuben Van and Nancy Ann, all of whom grew to years of maturity and married.
In the pioneer log schoolhouse, with its puncheon floor, slab benches. and no desks, Reuben V. Cole obtained the rudiments of his education, while at home he was well drilled in agricultural arts. Leaving the parental roof-tree when twenty-four years old, he bought eighty acres of land in section nine, Harrison township, and lived there about two years. Then, succeeding his father in the ownership of the old homestead which his grandfather had entered from the government, and which had never passed from the family, he assumed its possession and has since lived
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here. Mr. Cole has made various and excellent improvements upon the place, including the erection of a new set of frame buildings, and in its care and management has been uniformly successful.
Mr. Cole has been four times married. He married first, November 4, 1869, Allie Ruanna Comer. She was born in Owen county, a daughter of William and Nancy (Luther) Comer, and died in 1874, leaving one child, Nancy E. In 1881 Mr. Cole married for his second wife Mrs. Catherine Ward, who was born in Owen county, Indiana, a daughter of Solomon Landers and widow of Wells Ward. She died two years later, leaving one child, William A. Mr. Cole married third Nancy E. Staley, who was born in Clay county, a daughter of Christopher and Elizabeth Staley. Thirteen years later she died, leaving six children, Clara, Matilda, Laura Belle, William M., Mary and Reuben V. Mr. Cole married fourth Mrs. Rosetta Kerns, a native of Harrison township, a daughter of Martin and Lydia (Harden) Rines and the widow of Joseph Kerns, by whom she has six children living, John, Perry, Henry, Harry, Clyde and Cecil. By this marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cole have four children, namely : Myrtle, Martha, Tina and Jesse Lewis. In politics Mr. Cole is independent, voting with the courage of his convictions, regardless of party affiliations. Religiously Mrs. Cole belongs to the United Brethren church.
EMANUEL MILLER, the enterprising and reliable undertaker and liveryman whose place of business is Brazil, Indiana, was born in Posey township, Clay county, Indiana, August 4, 1861, son of John N. and Almyra (Carbin) Miller. The father was born in Pennsylvania and died in Posey township, Clay county, Indiana, December 13, 1888, aged seventy-one years. The mother was born in Clay county and died in 1877, when she was forty-five years old. They were united in marriage in Clay county and were the parents of eleven children, eight of whom are now living, the subject being the eldest child. The father had been twice married-first to Hannah Carpenter, who was born in Pennsylvania and died in Clay county, Indiana. By the first marriage there were eight children born, five of whom still survive. It was in the early forties that John N. Miller, the father, emigrated to Indiana by teams and settled in Posey township, Clay county. At first he purchased three hundred and sixty acres, paying the government price of two and one-half dollars an acre. He was a pioneer in this section of the state, and provided himself and family with a pole house, which later he displaced by a fine hewed log structure common to those early days in all new countries and which indeed were warm and comfortable. But as times changed he built him a two-story frame farm house, which was finally burned to the ground, after which he built one of the first brick houses in his township. This home and two hundred acres of the homestead are now owned by Emanuel Miller. Here he spent the remainder of his life. He was a very energetic and honorable man, and at one time possessed thirteen hundred acres, of which he finally gave each child eighty acres. He never sought or seldom held public office but was an ardent supporter of Democratic principles.
Emanuel Miller remained on the old homestead until 1898 and farmed. At this date he went to Brazil and there engaged in the livery business and bought and sold horses and mules. In 1905 he engaged in the undertaking business in connection with his livery, having for a partner Mr. Lawson. He is still engaged in the above named combined
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