USA > Indiana > Sullivan County > A history of Sullivan County, Indiana, closing of the first century's history of the county, and showing the growth of its people, institutions, industries and wealth, Volume I > Part 5
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
Alonzo F. Estabrook was for many years surveyor of the county.' He was born in Reading, Windsor county, Vermont, March 7, 1814, and came west during the construction of Wabash and Erie Canal, being one of the surveyors connected with that enterprise. He studied medicine and practiced for a year but later resumed surveying, and for a long time resided at Carlisle. He died at the home of a son near Gordon, Nebraska, April 3, 1892. At the time of his death his son J. Alonzo was living near Carlisle.
Dr. William A. Fleming practiced a quarter of a century at Pleasantville before his death, which occurred July 10, 1892. Dropsy was the cause of his death. He was born in Jefferson county, Ohio, in 1841, read medicine there until this was interrupted by service in the army, being connected with the hospital service part of the time, and after the
53
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
war continued his studies in the medical department of the University of Michigan, coming to Pleasantville in the summer of 1866. For fourteen years he was the partner of Dr. James McDowell, later with Dr. McClung, and then with Dr. L. C. McDowell.
One of the veterans of the Mexican war, who was also in the Civil war, was Col. James H. Garrett, who lived at Carlisle a number of years, but who died at Newton, Iowa, January 30, 1877, being fifty-two years of age at the time of his death.
The Giles family was located in the vicinity of Merom about 1830. At least one member of the family, John Giles, was engaged in the flat- boat commerce to New Orleans, and was later a merchant and county treasurer, and president of the Farmers State Bank of Sullivan. Hugh H. Giles, a native of New Jersey, was the original immigrant to this county, coming here in 1830. Hopkins Giles died in Gill township August 3, 1867, aged 71. John Giles died in November, 1894.
Robert A. Gilkison and wife, natives of Kentucky, came to Sullivan county in 1816, not long after the close of the war of 1812. For a number of years their home was on the prairie near Carlisle, but they spent their last years on the Gilkison farm a mile and a half west of Sullivan.
John Gilkison (or Gilkerson), who was born in Fleming county, Kentucky, in 1815, and died at his home in Sullivan, July 25, 1899, was a year old when brought to this county. For many years he lived on a fine farm along the Merom road a short distance from Sullivan. He married, in 1839, Mary A. Canary, who died in 1879, and in 1882 he married Mrs. Sarah Ann Freeman.
54
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
A well known and honored citizen passed away on February 6, 1893, in the death of William H. Griffin. He was seventy-seven years old, and many years before had located at Fairbanks, where he was a saddle manu- facturer. He entered local politics, was one of the county commissioners during the war, having been elected from the second district in 1862, and in 1866 was county treasurer and re-elected to that office in 1868. He was a Mason and Odd Fellow.
Messages of condolence from Senator D. W. Voorhees and Col. W. E. McLean of Terre Haute read at the funeral of Major William C. Griffith, who died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Zerilda Reed, in Sullivan, February 5, 1892, showed the high estimate placed upon that worthy soldier and citizen who for more than half a century had been a resident of Sullivan. He was ninety-four years old. at the time of his death. His father was one of seven brothers who came to Pennsylvania from Wales and all served in the Revolutionary war, and about 1816 moved to Kentucky. In 1817 William C. Griffith married Fannie Mc- Grew, and fifty years later they celebrated their golden anniversary, their wedded life continuing three years longer. During the latter part of the war of 1812 he recruited a company of volunteers and was chosen major of the regiment to which it was attached. He was one of the last, if not the last, survivor of that war in Sullivan county. He had been a member of the Baptist church since 1823. He was clerk of the Sullivan circuit court four years.
Some of the older residents will recall the old Irishman, Robert Griffith, who was the town tailor of Merom for about thirty years, until his death at that place, December 12, 1875. He was at one time an official of the county, and at a very interesting period, when the county seat was removed from the bluffs of the Wabash to a more central location at
55
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Sullivan. Some time before he had been appointed by the county com- missioners to the office of treasurer and collector, and was later elected to that office, and held that office when the county seat moved to Sulli- van. He was a native of Belfast, Ireland, learned the tailor's trade, and had worked at Natchez, Mississippi, before coming to Sullivan county.
One of the old teachers of the county who will be readily recalled by many, especially in Jackson township, where he lived many years, was Peter Grant. He was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, Scot- land, and after coming to this county about 1855 was engaged in teaching for about twenty years. He died May 16, 1884, aged seventy-six. He was one of the original members of Claiborne Presbyterian church.
The carpenter and contractor who remodeled the court house was William Greenlee, a citizen who was well known in Sullivan up to the time of his death, August 11, 1896. He had lived in Sullivan since 1851. He is also credited with having built one of the schoolhouses of Sullivan. He was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, April 5, 1821.
For seventeen years the postoffice at Carlisle was held by David Hackney, who died there about May 1, 1878, at the age of seventy. As a citizen he had for many years been a leader in promoting temperance and other moral reforms in his community.
A native of old Shakertown who passed most of his life in this county in the vicinity of Carlisle was Isacher Hancock, who was born February 7, 1808, and died September 19, 1877.
Owen C. Hancock, who was sheriff of the county during the seven- ties, had just completed one term in that office and was on the ticket for
-
56
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
a second term when he died, September 6, 1876. He was born in Owen county in 1830. He had six children.
Joel Harris, who was born January 17, 1818, was said to have been the first white child born in Fairbanks township. He died July 11, 1890. He was an enterprising farmer, and had the distinction of raising the first large acreage of wheat in his township. His first wife was Lydia Ransford, by whom he had five children.
James Heap, one of the most honored citizens of Curry township, died August 4, 1892, and was buried at Friendship church. His wife was Sarah J. Davis, and they had seven children.
John Hammond, who died August 10, 1899, was born in Kentucky October, 1816, and at the age of sixteen began working on the Ohio river as steamboat engineer, an occupation he followed until 1854, when he moved to Sullivan county. For several years he was an engineer in the Seth Cushman grist mill at Merom. After the beginning of the war he enlisted in Company I, Sixth Indiana Cavalry, and was made veterinary of the company. During his residence in the county after the war he was employed as engineer in some of the flour mills at Sullivan. In 1842 he married Nancy Pinkston, by whom he had eight children, and in 1858 married Louisa J. Kelly.
The late William Hosea Hawkins, who died in October, 1905, served as sheriff of the county from 1888 to 1892, and then under the Cleveland administration was appointed a United States marshal, a position he held during the trying months of the strike of the American Railway Union. When an injunction was issued against interfering with the trains at
57
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Hammond, he was ordered to serve the order of the court. The Monon placed a special train at his disposal. The news of the coming of Haw- kins and his deputies preceded and created the rumor that a train-load of soldiers was approaching the town. A crowd of five thousand gathered at the depot, in an ugly mood, but on the arrival of the train Hawkins quietly left his car, read the order of the court in the presence of the strikers and their sympathizers, and two days later brought the strike leaders back to Indianapolis. Marshal Hawkins was the only son of Jesse Hawkins, a well-to-do farmer of near Graysville, and during his youth had been a clerk in a general store at Shelburn. During his later years he became prominent in the Democratic politics of the state. He resigned the position of secretary of the county central committee to accept a similar position with the state central committee, which he held four years. In business he was district superintendent of the Prudential Insurance Company, with headquarters at Terre Haute, until about a year before his death, when he became superintendent of the American Association, with headquarters at Indianapolis.
Philip Hinkle settled in the southeast corner of Sullivan county in 1819, coming from Kentucky. He lived there at a time when it was nec- essary to take corn to Shakertown to have it ground. The Hinkle family, of which Philip was the first immigrant to this county, have been well known and numerously represented since that time.
1
Nathan Hinkle was a Revolutionary soldier who spent his last years in Sullivan county. Some of the gray-headed men of the present century. who were boys sixty years ago, remember an old resident of Jackson township, who had been voting ever since the beginning of our national government, and who until his extreme age took a keen interest in elec-
58
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
tions and was assisted to the ballot box. When he died near Hymera in December, 1848, he lacked only half a year of having completed a century of life. He was born in Pennsylvania, and early in 1776 enlisted in the colonial militia at Lancaster, and for three years served in the continental army. In 1832, while living in Lawrence county, Indiana, he applied for and received a pension for his army services. He lived in Kentucky before coming to this state, and in 1844 moved to Jackson township, this county, where he made his home for a time with Uncle Martin Hale.
Jackson Hinkle, who died a few years ago, nearly ninety years old, was a member of the Hinkle family first mentioned above. He was born in Kentucky and came to this county with his parents when five years old, in 1819. He lived at first near Pleasantville and later moved to Farmersburg in order to educate his children. He was a merchant there, and was also appointed postmaster during the administration of President Grant. He also practiced as a pension attorney at Washington. He married, in 1856, Eliza J. Alkire, who died in 1892, the mother of nine children.
Stephen Hiatt died at Sullivan, November 27, 1907. He was a native of the county, and in 1860 married Miss America Laycock of Carlisle. Five of their children survived his death. He entered the army in August, 1862, in Company F, Ninety-first Illinois Infantry, and was wounded at Sabine Crossroads with eleven balls. He was captured by Morgan at Elizabeth, Kentucky, and after being released from the hospital he was detailed to the body-guard of President Lincoln. He was discharged in May, 1865, at Madison, Indiana.
John Higbee, who represented this county in the legislature by elec- tions in 1892 and 1894, died at his home north of Sullivan, January 9,
59
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
1902. He was a son of John L. Higbee, of Sullivan, and was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, in 1843. He married Miss Mary Turman of Turman township, daughter of Thomas Turman, February 20, 1864, and they were parents of eight children.
Thomas Allen Hughes, who died in 1903, was born December 13, 1820, in a house that stood just southwest of the site of Sullivan, and which is now included in the town limits. He served as deputy auditor after the removal of the county seat from Merom, probably the first to hold that position. He was a member of the Home Guards during the war, being one of the influential Union men of this section, and in the latter part of the war enlisted in the 149th Regiment. He took part in some of the last marches of the army in the south, and the exposure and hardship permanently impaired his health. He was one of the ear- liest members of the Methodist church at Sullivan, having joined the church at the age of sixteen, and he helped build the first church, a frame building that stood on the site of the present church.
One of the old residents in the New Lebanon vicinity, a member of the Methodist church there and an ardent Democrat ever since he had cast his first vote for Jackson, was John R. Hunt, who died at his home there August 15, 1877. He was a son of Meshack Hunt and a native of Kentucky, born in 1802, and had lived in the county about fifty years. He married Hannah Davidson and had nine children.
David Hutchinson, who died at Sullivan, January 31, 1892, was one of the original members of the Presbyterian church of this place, and had served as elder. He had come to the county in the early fifties, and later moved to Sullivan to take charge of the mill built by M. E. Chase.
60
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Venerable Squire Joel Hendricks, who died at his home in Farmers- burg, where he had long resided, in January, 1892, was one of the well- known characters of that vicinity. He had been a justice many years, and was said to have possessed the confidence and esteem of the people to an unusual degree.
Among the pioneer families that came to Sullivan county before 1840, at least one that has since been prominent, brought to the county's citizenship some of the excellent qualities of the Pennsylvania Dutch. The Hoke family has been prominent as farmers and business men in Sullivan county for the greater part of seventy years. since Jacob F. and Susanna (Brentlinger) Hoke settled here some time in the thirties. They were of Pennsylvania nativity, but they followed the general tend- ency of emigrants to this county, and lived for a time in Kentucky before moving to this county.
Jacob Hoke was born in Jefferson county, Kentucky, June 30, 1809, and died January 25, 1875, on the farm in Haddon township where he had settled in 1830. He was a man of considerable wealth, and at one time was a county commissioner. He had been converted in a Methodist revival in 1839, and was connected with that church the rest of his life.
Among the various family claims to priority in Sullivan county, it is asserted that Thomas Holder, Sr., built the first cabin put up by a white man north of Knox county and that he located in the vicinity that after- ward became Haddon township before the Ledgerwood family, though the latter is usually given precedence in the settlement of the county about Carlisle. At any rate, Thomas Holder came to this vicinity several years before the Tippecanoe campaign and the war of 1812, and was a soldier in those hostilities under General Harrison. One of the block-houses in
-
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY 61
the vicinity of Carlisle was usually designated by the Holder family name, and there is no doubt that Thomas Holder deserves the prominence that is due one of the first men who braved the hardships and dangers of life on the edge of civilization. The Holders were from Virginia, thus adding another name to the notable list of the pioneer citizens furnished this county by the south. The pioneer had a large family, one of them being Thomas, Jr., who was born in Haddon township in 1828, and whose associations with the farming and civil activities of this township are well remembered facts of the past century.
The founder of the Jamison family near Sullivan, and the father of James and William Jamison, was Matthew Jamison, who died at Sullivan in August, 1883. at the age of seventy. He was a native of Fayette county, Ohio, and had lived in this county since 1875.
South Carolina was the state which gave to Sullivan county the pioneer Jenkins family. Thomas and Nancy (Gill) Jenkins left Chester county, South Carolina, in 1807, and the former died during the long journey to the territory of Indiana, but his widow continued on to what became later Sullivan county and joined the Shaker community, being identified with that sect the rest of her life. The son, John Jenkins, who was born in South Carolina the year before the family migration, was at the time of his death one of the oldest residents of Sullivan county. and one of the largest farmers of the Carlisle neighborhood.
James L. Johnson, who died in April, 1882, at Sullivan, where he had lived for the past ten years, became a member of the Hopewell church at Graysville in 1827, and was one of the oldest of that pioneer congregation. He was born in Tennessee January 1, 1800, and came to
62
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Indiana during territorial days, living first in Knox county and later moving to the vicinity of Graysville.
One of the early settlers of Jackson township was Wyatt Johnson, who died at his home near the Greene county line, July 14, 1878, having come to the township nearly a half a century before.
Robert Kirkham, who died October 5, 1879, at the age of 82, had lived in this county since 1832. He was a native of Nelson county, Kentucky.
One of the veterans of the war of 1812 who afterwards lived in Sullivan county was James Land, who died at his home near Carlisle, July 24, 1866. As a Kentucky volunteer he had seen hard service in Harrison's army, and was under the gallant Dudley at the capture of Fort Meigs by the British. He was born in Jessamine county, Ken- tucky, October 14, 1792, and settled near Carlisle in 1821.
Jacob N. Land was a native and almost lifelong citizen of Carlisle, a member of one of the old families, and his life history is strongly per- vaded with the military activity which has been characteristic of the family. He was born three miles northeast of Carlisle, December 25, 1838, and died at Battle Creek, Michigan, July 26, 1899. He was edu- cated at Carlisle, and enlisting as a private in the 59th Infantry served from the first year of the war until 1865, being promoted to first ser- geant. He was in the drug business at Carlisle, 1870-72, and then studied law and was admitted to the bar, and being appointed justice of the peace was for more than twenty years Squire Land. He was a charter member of the George Rotramel Post, G. A. R., and was its .
63
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
commander at the time of his death. He married in 1868 Mrs. Sarah J. Milner, and they had six children.
Peter Lisman, of the well-known family of that name, was a soldier in the war of 1812, and had fought at the battle of Tippecanoe. He died in July, 1867, at the age of eighty-one. He had been a member of the Methodist church over forty-five years.
The death of John Lisman, at the home of his son in New Lebanon, July 8, 1906, removed a native of the county whose name and the cir- cumstances of his early career connected him intimately with some of the best remembered traditions of early Sullivan county. He was born on the Lisman homestead one mile southeast of Carlisle, November 19, 1814, and it is claimed that he was the fifth white child born in the county. When he was only three or four months old occurred what has since been known as the Dudley Mack massacre. On that day the parents 1 of the Lisman baby were busy making maple sugar, and had put the boy in comfortable yet secret quarters in a hollow tree. When the word came that the Indians had massacred two boys, the mother left her baby concealed in the tree until she had roused her immediate neighbors, and the Lisman block-house was crowded until the fear and excitement passed over the frontier settlement. Having begun his life in such frontier scenes, it was the lot of John Lisman to live through all the remarkable epochs of development during the last century, and in many ways his life was a link between the period of first things in Sullivan county down to the twentieth century. He married in 1838 Elizabeth Johnson, who was born in the county a few weeks earlier than he, and was the fourth white child born in the county.
64
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
Hugh Moore, who died at Sullivan June 24, 1901, was considered the pioneer in the development of the coal fields of this county. He was born in Northumberland county, England, in May, 1825, and migrated to the United States in 1852. He was a practical miner through wide and extended experience, and after he came to Sullivan county in 1866 he was identified with several of the important mining properties of the county. In 1870 he became a member of the Shelburn Coal Company and had charge of the sinking of the shaft at that point. He was superintend- ent of the Sullivan mine until it was abandoned in 1879. The daughters who survived him were Mrs. Charles P. Walker, Mrs. William Wilson, and Mrs. James Hargraves.
One. of the active workers for temperance during the seventies was William C. McBride, who died at Sullivan March 11, 1882. A few years before he had served as a justice of the peace, and had also been a preacher in the Christian church.
Hugh McCammon, of near Carlisle, was a veteran of two wars. He was one of the Kentucky volunteers who followed General Hopkins in the campaign against the Indians during the war of 1812, and over thirty years later had been a private in Captain Briggs' company in the Mexican war. He was a native of Hickman county, Kentucky, and came to Sulli- van county about 1817. He died at his residence near Carlisle January 17, 1863.
Mathew McCammon, of the same, family, and prominent in politics, who died April 26, 1876, was born on a farm south of Sullivan in 1820. He had been elected to the office of sheriff in 1860 and 1862, and in 1872 was again the Democratic nominee for the same office, but was defeated.
65
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
William McCammon, who died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Cora Gilbert, October 1, 1903, was the thirteenth of the fourteen children born to William McCammon and Jemima St. Clair. He was born six miles south of Sullivan, March 1, 1841. With the exception of five years spent in Terre Haute his life was passed in Sullivan, where he was a successful business man. In 1881 he built the McCammon Hotel, in which his funeral was held. He married in 1864 Rose D. Pearce.
For two terms the office of county treasurer was filled by Abram McClellan, a well-known citizen of Gill township, whose death was recorded in January, 1890, at the age of about 65. After two terms as trustee of Gill township he was elected to the office of county treasurer in 1875 and again in 1877, and later was again township trustee and also a justice of the peace. He was a member of the Christian church.
Thomas F. Mackey, who died October 30, 1889, is best remembered for his activity in church work and also for his interest in local politics in behalf of the laboring men. He had been a member of the Methodist / church since 1849, for many years was an official member, and was earnest in Sunday school affairs.
James A. Marlow, who was elected the first superintendent of schools in Sullivan county, met accidental death in July. 1896, being struck by an engine of a passenger-train at Shelbyville. He was a native of Sullivan county and about fifty-two years of age. Since leaving the office of superintendent he had been traveling agent for a school book publishing house.
The Kentucky family named Mann, which had several well-known representatives at different periods of history, was established in this Vol. 1-5
66
HISTORY OF SULLIVAN COUNTY
county in 1819, their homestead being near Merom. A former circuit clerk and prominent Democrat in the county was the late Thomas J. Mann of this family, a grandson of the original immigrant. The grand- father "Judge"-Mann, was a prominent citizen of Merom, in and prior to the forties. One daughter became the wife of the Hon. Henry K. Wilson and one married O'Boyce, one of the prominent merchants of that place, who subsequently moved to Terre Haute and engaged in the wholesale business. "Mann's Tavern," which was on the stage line between Terre Haute and Vincennes, and gave entertainment to "man and beast," was a noted hostelry and often entertained many men of note such as Gen. Harrison, "Dick" Johnson, Lewis Cass and others equally well known.
A pioneer family who have been in the county since the time of the war of 1812 and before the county was organized was represented by John Maxwell, who died July 27, 1882. He was born in Bourbon county, Kentucky, January 30, 1803, and came with his father to Wayne county, Indiana, in 1806, and thence to Sullivan county about the close of the war of 1812. From the south part of the county the family moved to the vicinity of Caledonia in 1820. There they began the erection of the usual pioneer dwelling, a log cabin. When the timbers were ready for the "raising" the son John was sent out to invite the neighbors, and in order to get a sufficient force it was necessary for him to visit every home on Curry's prairie. The family tradition is to the effect that at that time there was not a white man's cabin from the eastern edge of Sullivan county to the White river. John Maxwell married Polly Polk, September 11, 1823, and the following year settled one mile south of his father's home. His first wife died in 1844, and he then married Mary M.
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.