A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2), Part 6

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

USA > Indiana > Clay County > A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2) > Part 6

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

JOHN THOMAS KELLER, a farmer and stock raiser of Posey township, was born within the borders of this township, January 6, 1845, and the history of his father, Philip Keller, and his family is recorded on other pages of this work. The district schools of Posey township afforded the son John Thomas with his educational training in his youth, and in 1868 he made his first purchase of land, consisting of a little tract of forty acres south of his father's homestead, a part of which he cleared and improved, and he owned at one time in Posey township two hundred and sixteen acres of land. He remained on his first purchase until 1897. when he bought his present farm of twenty-six acres in section one, a part of which he has cleared, and the land is well improved and fertile. In addi- tion to his general farming and stock raising he also raises a great deal of fruit.

Mr. Keller was married on the 30th day of August, 1868, to Fred- ericka Kumpf, who came from her native land of Germany to the United States with her parents when but three years of age, and they settled at Dover, Ohio. After living there seven years, they moved to Clay county, Indiana. She is the youngest of her parents' family of four children, and the union of Mr. and Mrs. Keller has also been blessed by the birth of four children, namely: George William; Sophia, who is the wife of Walter Payne ; Charles P .; and Emma, who is the wife of Dennis Aeling. All were born in Posey township, Clay county. The son Charles P. is a graduate of De Pauw university and has served ( 1908) for four years as principal of the Brazil high school. In his political affiliations Mr. Keller has been a life-long supporter of Republican principles, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.

HARRY ELLIOTT, M. D .- Numbered among the rising young physi- cians of Clay county is Harry Elliott, M. D., of Poland, who during the brief time that he has here been in active practice has given evidence of his professional knowledge and skill. while by his genial manners and kindly courtesy he has gained the esteem and good will of the people. He is a fine representative of the native-born citizens of the place, his birth having occurred here October 4, 1878. He comes of honored pioneer stock. his paternal grandparents, Harrison and Elizabeth (Young) Elliott, natives of North Carolina, having been among the early settlers of Putnam county, Indiana, where their son, Thomas A., the Doctor's father, was born.

Brought up on a farm in Putnam county, Thomas A. Elliott received good educational advantages, and after teaching school a few terms began the study of medicine. Locating in Poland, Clay county, in 1878, he became one of the leading physicians of the place, and here enjoyed a large and remunerative practice until his death, June 15, 1907, at the age of fifty-six years. Dr. Thomas A. Elliott married Annie B. Collier, who was born in Putnam county, Indiana, a daughter of James T. and Lucy (Usher) Collier, the former of whom was born in Kentucky, while his wife, a native of New York state, was a sister of John P. Usher. a mem- ber of President Lincoln's cabinet. She survives him, and is now a resident of Terre Haute, Indiana. Five children were born to them, namely: Harry, the subject of this sketch; James, a physician in Terre Haute ; Jennie, attending college in Kansas City, Missouri; Frank; and John.

Following in the footsteps of his honored father, Harry Elliott began

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

life for himself as a teacher, and taught one year, in 1897 and 1808. He then attended the State University at Bloomington, Indiana. for a year, after which he was graduated from the Indiana Medical College at Indi- anapolis, receiving the degree of M. D. in 1904. Having obtained prac- tical experience in his professional work at Saint Anthony Hospital, Terre Haute, where he was for three months, and at the City Hospital in Indianapolis, with which he was connected as interne nineteen months, Dr. Elliott located in Poland, and having succeeded to his father's prac- · tice has here built up an extensive and lucrative patronage.

On April 7, 1908, Dr. Elliott married Maud Mendenhall, a graduate nurse of the City Hospital at Indianapolis. She was born in West New- ton, Indiana, a daughter of Edward and Ella ( Weatherly ) Mendenhall, natives of Marion county. Indiana. Politically the Doctor is a Democrat. Fraternally he belongs to Poland Lodge No. 364, K. of P., and to Clay Lodge No. 85, A. F. & A. M., of Bowling Green. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, in which he has served as elder since 1907.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN GOSHORN, V. D. M .- Noteworthy among the prominent and influential business men of Clay City is Benjamin F. Goshorn, who for many years has been intimately associated with the best interests of this part of Clay county, being a farmer and the pub- lisher of the Clay City Democrat, one of the leading newspapers of this section of the state. A native of Indiana, he was born in Marion township, Owen county, September 13, 1857, a son of Robert R. Goshorn.

The name of Goshorn was first known in America in 1655, when two brothers of the name emigrated from Holland to this country, settling here permanently. No definite knowledge of the family is subsequently obtainable until 1770, when four brothers of that name-John, Leonard, Jacob and Nicholas-were living in Pennsylvania. John and Leonard moved to Ohio, one locating in Cincinnati and the other near Wheeling. Jacob settled in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, and Nicholas took up his residence in Juniata county, five miles away. Nicholas had two sons -Robert, who located in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, and James, who settled at Hamilton, Butler county, Ohio-and five daughters, who mar- ried respectively Smith, Goshorn, Clemens. Orr and Funk. Jacob, who settled in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, had seven sons and five daughters, as follows: George, who had six sons and four daughters; Jacob, who had four daughters ; John, who had five sons and four daugh- ters ; Andrew, who had four sons and four daughters : Nicholas, who had seven sons and seven daughters; Samuel, who had four sons and three daughters ; and William, who had three sons and three daughters. The names of the daughters were: Mary, married to James Jones; Susan, married to Hugh Dorn: Nancy, married to John McClure ; Elizabeth, married to a Mr. Renner; and Margaret, married to David Heckadorn. The six sons and four daughters of George are: Jacob, John, Nicholas, George, Robert and Samuel; and Jane (married to Alexander McNeal), Susan ( unmarried), Mary ( unmarried), and Margaret (married to Aaron M. Shoop).

Through the third son ( Nicholas ) comes the line of Benjamin F., of this article. Nicholas was born and reared in Pennsylvania, where in his boyhood days he served a two years' apprenticeship as a tanner, during which time he missed but one day's service to his employer. In middle age he removed with his family to Holmes county, Ohio, where he pur-

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

chased a farm and also established a tannery, both of which he success- fully managed for a number of years. Disposing of all his Ohio interests. he came with his family, then consisting of himself, a son and a daughter. to Clay county, Indiana, and settled in Bellaire, where, in partnership with his son George V., he engaged in mercantile pursuits during the remainder of his active life. He spent his last years on the farm of this son, George. in Harrison township, dying when upward of sixty-three years old. He married Jane Robinson, a daughter of Alexander Robin- son. She died in middle life in Ohio, leaving four children, namely : Denny, Robert R. (father of Benjamin F.), George V. and Mary Jane.

Robert R. Goshorn was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania. November 7, 1833. came with his parents to Ohio at the age of two years, and was there brought up and married. Acquiring a good common school education when young, he began his career as a teacher in Ohio when but seventeen years of age. When eighteen years old he married, and with his young wife and her parents came to Owen county. Indiana. Shortly after his arrival in Marion township, he bought a tract of tim- bered land upon which was a log house, the only improvement made on the place. In this he resided until after the birth of his three older children. He continued his professional duties, teaching nine terms of school in Owen county, in the meantime clearing his land and tilling the soil with great success. He added to his landed possessions by pur- chase at different times until he had a farm of two hundred and twenty acres, well improved with a substantial set of buildings, he being among the first in Marion township to erect a frame house and barn. He was enterprising and progressive in his methods and always one of the first to try new machinery invented for the purpose of lessening the work of the farmer. He has now in his possession the first lamp in which he burned kerosene oil, it being one of the first if not the pioneer lamp of the kind in Owen county. He still lives in that county, retired from active pursuits, enjoying to the utmost the fruits of his earlier years of toil. For about fifty years he has been a member of the Church of the Brethren, in which he has served faithfully in almost every official capac- ity and is now filling the office of elder. He married in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, October 7, 1852, Julia Ann Sommers, who was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, April 22, 1828, daughter of Jacob Sommers and granddaughter of Michael and Catherine Sommers, natives of Ger- many. Jacob Sommers, an only child of Michael and Catherine Sommers, was a soldier in the war of 1812. enlisting when but eighteen years of age. Some time after his marriage he migrated to Ohio and, after living in Tuscarawas county a number of years, came thence to Owen county, Indiana, locating in Marion township, where he cleared and improved the farm on which he resided until his death at the age of seventy-seven years and six months. The maiden name of his wife was Martha Aucer- man. To them were born ten daughters and three sons, all of whom were brought up to mature age and all of whom married and raised families, with the exception of their son Benjamin, who died from injuries received in felling a tree while yet single. At the time of their deaths their descendants numbered considerably over one hundred. The children born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Robert R. Goshorn were as follows: Lydia Jane, wife of John Fair; Josiah S .; Benjamin F .. the special subject of this sketch : George V. : Flora Alice, who married Jesse Benham ; Ezra N .; Martha Etta, wife of George Kitch; and Martin R.

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

Goshorn. The mother of the family died at the family homestead in Owen county, October 2, 1899, at the age of seventy-one years, five months and ten days.

Benjamin F. Goshorn received his elementary education in the public schools of Owen county, after which he attended the Lancaster Normal School, where he had as classmates Hon. Robert J. Aley, Hon. Samuel Ralston, Professor Benjamin Wisely, Dr. Robert McKelvay, Josiah Goshorn (now a banker in Clay City, Indiana ), Dr. R. B. Kelley, Profes- sor William Hoffman, W. H. Chillson, and others of such prominence and influence. He subsequently continued his studies at the State Normal School in Terre Haute, and at the age of twenty years embarked in life as a teacher, teaching sixteen hundred and seventy days in Clay and Owen counties. During this time, with characteristic enterprise, Mr. Goshorn was employed for four years in mercantile business at Coal City. In November, 1897, he purchased the office fixtures and good will of the Clay City Democrat, which he has since published with marked ability and success, making it one of the leading journals of Clay county. He is also interested in agricultural progress, devoting a part of his time to the care and management of his farm, which is located at Danville Crossing, Harrison township.

On October 1, 1882, Mr. Goshorn married Miss Ida B. Smith, who was born in Worthington, Greene county, Indiana, August 21, 1862, daughter of James R. Smith. Her grandfather, John Smith, was born in Kentucky, but was brought up in Virginia. When a young man he removed to Ohio, whence in 1839 he came to Indiana, settling in Owen county. A few years later he again traveled westward, going to Marshall county, Iowa, where he was a pioneer settler. Taking up land, he im- proved a farm on which he lived and labored successfully until his death. He married Hester Metcalf, who was of New England birth, being the daughter of James Metcalf, who spent his last years in Ohio. James R. Smith was eighteen years of age when he came with the family to Owen county, Indiana, and two years later he began to learn the carpenter's trade at Old Point Commerce, Greene county. He subsequently worked at his trade for four years in Lafayette, after which he settled in Jeffer- son township on a tract of timber land which had been presented to his wife by her father. Moving into the little log cabin which stood upon the place, he occupied it for a few years and then built a good frame house. He cleared sixty or more acres of the land and lived there about thirty years, when he sold the farm and settled in Harrison township, Clay county, and for the past fifteen years has resided in Middlebury. He married Susan Amelia Heaton, who was born in Owen county, Indiana, a daughter of Isaac and Jane (Kelley) Heaton, who died shortly after their removal to Clay county. Isaac Heaton, a native of Connecticut, was one of the pioneer settlers of Owen county, clearing and improving a home- stead near what is now Farmers, where he subsequently resided until his death. He was graduated from the first class of the Indiana State Uni- versity, was a man of prominence in public affairs, and for a number of years served as judge. Mr. and Mrs. Goshorn are the parents of five children : Earl R., who married Mabel Blough and has one son, Wil- lard B .; Effie A., wife of Charles E. Kitch; Blanche M .; Ross R. and Ruth L. Goshorn. Mr. Goshorn and family are members of the Church of the Brethren. with which he united when seventeen years old and in which he has been a minister for nearly a quarter of a century.

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

WILLIAM B. HAWKINS, A. M., M. D., deceased, was born at the old college town of Washington, in Washington county. Pennsylvania, August 28, 1818. He descended from an English family who landed here at an early date, Sir John Hawkins having been sent out from his country to explore the Pacific coast, being a member of the Royal Navy at the time. In his fleet was also Sir John Drake. Dr. Hawkins attended the preparatory school and college until he graduated from the classical course in 1835, when but eighteen years of age. He had chosen medicine as his profession and immediately began its study with the distinguished Dr. John Wishard, with whom he studied for four years, including his lecture course, at the end of which time he graduated from Washington and Jefferson College with the degree of A. M. from Washington College and M. D. from Jefferson College (medical branch). In April, 1840, he commenced the practice of medicine in Connellsville, Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he remained ten years. During the panic of 1848 he lost ten thousand dollars, which money he had invested in iron works in and around Connellsville. Gathering up what little he had left, he went to Illinois in search of a new location, but upon arriving at Cincinnati, Ohio, on account of a cholera epidemic, the steamboats were all laid up and the doctor accepted a position as physician and surgeon to the out- door poor of the Sixth ward of the city, doing good service under very trying circumstances. Later the doctor went on to Terre Haute, where he practiced medicine until 1854, establishing in the meantime a well equipped drug store on the corner of Fourth and Main streets. At the end of two years he sold out to his partner, and located at Prairieton, Vigo county, where he had a large practice for thirteen years. In 1867 he saw a fine location in the then newly opened up block coal mines of Clay county and bought a home there on the corner of Main and Depot streets, Brazil, where he lived for nearly twenty-five years, actively engaged in his profession, to the very last days of his life in 1891.

October 15, 1840, the doctor was married to Christina Darling, a native of Scotland, who died in 1866. To them were born six children, three of whom lived to maturity, viz .: Alice, wife of Judge John Cosson, of Somerset, Kentucky ; Charles W., who was a member of the Thirty-first Indiana Infantry during the Civil war ; and James D. On March 12, 1867, the doctor married to Mrs. A. D. McLain, who was born at Marietta, Ohio, and educated at the Female Seminary of that place. Mrs. McLain had been a teacher for about fifteen years and was employed in the graded schools of Terre Haute at the time of their marriage. For years she has been devoted to literary work. Her book "The Odd Fellows' Orphans" was dedicated to the Daughters of Rebekahs and was highly honored by having a call for the second edition approved by the Supreme Grand Lodge of the I. O. O. F., with the permission that the emblems of that order be placed on the covers in gold. Her miscellaneous articles, some of which have been published, would make quite a large volume. Some of these are war time reminiscences from personal knowledge, and others on travel on the Pacific coast.

Mrs. Abigail ( McLain) Hawkins is the daughter of Stephen and Sophia ( Warren) Daniels. Her father was born in West Bloomfield. New York, in 1779. and served in the war of 1812-14. dying aged sixty- five years. The mother was born in Shirley, Middlesex county, Massa- chusetts, January 31, 1804. Their children were seven in number, three of whom still survive-J. J .; Mrs. Hawkins; and Sarah.

Digitized by Google

LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

Digitized by

Google

Jerome Boyle

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

Mrs. Hawkins is a charter member of the Daughters of the Revo- lution in Indiana. She was first married to J. M. McLain. a native of Ohio, by whom one daughter was born-Margaret W., now the widow of James M. Neece. Mrs. Hawkins was also a member of the board of twelve who organized the Orphans' Home in Clay county, Indiana, and was appointed chairman of the board by the judge.

Dr. Hawkins passed from earthly scenes December 24, 1891, after a long and useful career. He was a man of high literary culture and stood at the head of the medical profession in Indiana for nearly a quarter of a century.

ROBERT WARREN HAWKINS, M. D., one of the leading members of the medical profession practicing at Brazil, Indiana, was born in that city, January 7, 1872, the only child of Dr. William B. and Abigail ( McLain nee Daniels ) Hawkins. Dr. Robert W. Hawkins was educated in the high school at Brazil and graduated from the Medical College of Indiana, at Indianapolis, with the class of 1895, after which he located in his native city, where he has built up an excellent medical practice and enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fellow-townsmen. During the period of the Spanish-American war, from April 23, 1898, to Novem- ber 23, 1900, he was hospital steward for the One Hundred and Fifty- ninth Indiana Regiment, at Camp Alger, Virginia. He belongs to the Clay County Medical Society, of which he was secretary ; the State Medi- cal Society of Indiana : to Brazil Lodge, No. 215, Independent Order of Odd Fellows ; Tribe No. 61, of the Red Men at Indianapolis, and various other fraternities. He has been secretary of the County Board of Health, having served in 1896-97. He also has the distinction of belonging to the Indiana Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, he being a lineal descendant of Ephraim Warren of that conflict. During the great smallpox scourge in Brazil in 1903 Dr. Warren was secretary of the City Board of Health and materially aided in stopping the spread of the disease. In his political views he is a staunch supporter of Republican principles.

He was married to Claudia Tennant, October 12, 1898. She was born near Paris, Illinois, January 30, 1876, daughter of Lawrence and Prudence J. (Crooks) Tennant, both parents being natives of Parke county, Indiana. Their children were: Claudia, Mrs. Hawkins ; Oro A., the wife of R. P. Shattuck, now residing at Brazil, Indiana; Merle E .; Lillis M. The father of Mrs. Hawkins was a farmer, merchant and trav- eling expert machine man for the McCormick Harvester Company of Chicago. He died at Brazil, Indiana. He was prominent in Masonic circles, a member of the Christian church and in politics a Democrat. His widow now resides at St. Louis, Missouri. The one child born to Dr. Robert W. Hawkins and wife is William Lawrence, born February 2, 1901.

JEROME BOGLE .- The trade and industries of Clay county are largely indebted to the many years of work which different members of the Bogle family have spent in their advancement. Jerome Bogle, of this sketch, is a leading merchant of Brazil, and was for years engaged in carriage paint- ing, while his father was a pioneer builder of vehicles. He is also said to have been the first manufacturer of furniture in the county. Jerome Bogle is a native of Waveland, Montgomery county, Indiana, born on the

Digitized by Google

HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

21st of September, 1852, son of John and Elizabeth (Adamson ) Bogle. His father was born in Washington county, that state, on the 26th of March, 1822, and died in Bowling Green, Clay county, July 10, 1891. By trade he was what is known as a carriage-body builder, and followed that vocation at Waveland until 1859, when he located on a farm about a mile east of Carbon. But the more stirring ways of business and the manufactures were more suited to his temperament than the quieter life of the husbandman. and in 1860 he located in Bowling Green, forming a partnership with Elisha Adamson, his father-in-law, in the milling busi- ness. After thus operating the enterprise for a number of years Mr. Bogle founded the first furniture manufactory in Clay county, conducting it for some three years. During his residence in Bowling Green he was also quite a prominent public figure, his twelve years of service as justice of the peace making a most honorable official record. He was a stanch Democrat, who vigorously upheld the Union cause during the Civil war, and a Mason in good standing with the Bowling Green lodge. His widow was born in Rockville, Parke county, Indiana, and is now living with her son of this sketch, an honored pioneer mother in her seventy-sixth year. Her marriage to the elder Mr. Bogle occurred in the village of her birth, and of their union were two sons and three daughters, of whom the fol- lowing are living: Jerome, the oldest of the family, and John L. Bogle.

Jerome Bogle received a common school education, and quite carly in life learned the trade of carriage painting, following that vocation until 1884. He then located in Brazil and engaged in the grocery and baking business. He was for some time, earlier in his busy career, an employee of the first carriage and agricultural house in Clay county, the output of the concern being entirely hand-work. Although the road was long, it was continuously upward from the time that he worked for twenty-five cents per day until he reached the position of a leading merchant of the county. He is also a leading fraternalist, enjoying membership in the following organizations : Brazil lodge No. 264, A. F. & A. M .; Brazil chapter No. 59, R. A. M .; Brazil council No. 40, R. & S. M .; Brazil commandery No. 47. K. T., and the Knights of Pythias order,, No. 30. In his political affiliations he is a Republican, and has long been a stanch Methodist.

The Bogle family came originally from Virginia, both the great- grandfather and grandfather of Jerome being natives of Wythe county. The former was Ralph Bogle, whose wife was a sister of Richard Henry Lee, and the latter, James Bogle, the younger man being born January 16, 1796, and dying June 22, 1879. The grandfather married Miss Mary Clemens, born September 29, 1793, who died in Indianapolis, Indiana, on the Ist of November, 1866. The great-uncle of our subject, John Bogle, was a well-known circuit rider of the M. E. church. His son, the uncle, was a soldier of the Confederacy, and was attached to the body guard of the famous cavalry officer, General John H. Morgan. In 1863 he par- ticipated in the historic raid into Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, and was with General Morgan when he was captured. Mr. Bogle escaped by swimming the Ohio river, his superior officer being confined in the Ohio penitentiary for some time before his escape.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

A History of Clay County Indiana (Volume 2), Part 6

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

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