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 II > Part 25
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FRANCIS M. NEAD, a member of one of the most prominent of Sulli- van county's early families, was born in Jackson township on the 16th of October, 1858, a son of John and Nancy A. (Tipton) Nead and a grandson of George Nead, who died on the 6th of February, 1856, aged about sixty-seven years. His grandparents were natives of Switzerland, but emigrated when young to Pennsylvania and thence to Carroll county, Ohio, where they spent the remainder of their lives and were there buried. George Nead was both a farmer and cooper, and in early life he married Sarah Mizer, who was born in Carroll county, Ohio, and died June 13, 1888, aged more than eighty-eight years.
John Nead also claimed Carroll county as the place of his nativity, born November 4, 1830, but three years later his parents moved to Coshocton county, that state, where the senior Mr. Nead became a prominent farmer. In 1854 the son came to Sullivan county, Indiana, and bought eighty acres of land in Jackson township, where he followed general farming until his enlistment, on the 26th of August, 1862, as a private in the Ninety-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, Company I. in which he served a little over a year and died on the 3Ist of August, 1863, from sickness contracted in the army. He was buried with military honors at Camp Sherman, Mississippi, on the Big Black river, but with those of other soldiers his remains were afterward taken to the burial ground of the National Cemetery at Vicksburg, and his grave was marked by a stone bearing the initials of J. N. Mrs. Nead, his wife, was born March 5, 1831, in Coshocton county, Ohio, a daughter of William and Patience S. (Pugh) Tipton, the former of whom was born in Virginia
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August 20, 1798, and the latter in Berkeley county, West Virginia, No- vember 18, 1794. Moving to Ohio when a boy William Tipton spent his early youth on the Maumee river, where he was married in 1818, and many years afterward, in 1847, they came to Owen county, Indiana, and farmed there until the death of the husband and father, May 29, 1854. The mother had moved with her parents to Ohio when a young girl, and after the death of her husband, in 1854, she came to Jackson town- ship in Sullivan county, and resided here until her death, March 1, 1868.
Francis M. was the eldest of the three children born to John and Nancy A. Nead, and he was but a little lad of five years at the time of the death of his father. His mother kept him in school until he was about eighteen, attending the graded schools of Hymera, Sullivan and Farmersburg, and for fifteen years after the completion of his education, beginning in 1879, he was engaged in teaching. During that time he had become the owner of the parental homestead, and at about the close of his professional career he was elected the assessor of Jackson town- ship and continued to reside on the farm until October of 1907. Previous to this time he had bought the site for the splendidly equipped home which he built at that time, and he still owns the old farm and about fifteen acres adjoining.
On the 22d of August, 1883, Mr. Nead was married to Adaline Payne, who was born in Jackson township August 22, 1858, a daughter of Hosea and Sarah A. (Asbury) Payne, the father a native of North Carolina, born on the 25th of December, 1815, and his wife was some years his junior. He came with his parents to Lawrence county, this state, about 1830, and from there to Sullivan county, where he bought a farm in Jackson township, married, and continued to reside here until his death in 1900. His wife died four years later, in 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Nead have four children: Conza C., born October 6, 1884, married in 1904 Evan G. Moreland and resides on the old homestead in Jackson township; Garland H., born October 30, 1887, taught school some years and is now with her parents; Wendell Holmes, born December 27, 1894, is in school, as is also Mary Esther, born September 13, 1901. Mr. Nead's politics are Democratic, and for five years, from 1895 to 1900, he served as an assessor, and he is now serving his fourth year as a trustee, having been re-elected as the trustee of the township of Jackson Novem- ber 3, 1908. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Hymera Lodge No. 603, in which he has filled all of the offices and is one of the present trustees, and has also represented the order in the Grand Lodge. This lodge was instituted here on the 6th of October, 1883. He is a prominent and worthy member of the Methodist church.
ROBERT G. JACKSON, who is numbered among the business men of Jackson township and Hymera, was born in Pleasantville, Jefferson town- ship, Sullivan county, March 4, 1869, a son of J. H. and Nancy C. (McClung) Jackson, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of
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Indiana. J. H. Jackson came with his parents to Indiana when ten years of age, in 1842, the family locating on a farm in Jefferson township, Sulli- van county, where the parents spent the remainder of their lives. The son has continued his residence on a farm near by the one selected by his parents. During the Civil war he served as a soldier in an Indiana regiment, but in a short time after enlisting he was wounded and crippled in a railroad wreck and was discharged from the service. Mrs. Jackson, his wife, was born in 1848.
Robert G. Jackson remained on the home farm with his father until the age of twenty-one, when he puchased land in Jefferson township, but after one year there he sold that land and bought another farm. There he resided for ten years, and then selling that farm he bought another in Jackson township, which he yet owns in connection with a tract of forty acres four miles north of Hymera. He also has valuable property interests in Hymera, and during the past seven years he has been engaged in plastering there.
On the 4th of December, 1891, Mr. Jackson was united in marriage to Minnie V. Steele, a daughter of Samuel and Anna J. (Murdock) Steele, the mother a native of Ireland and the father of Dearborn county, Indiana. During many years he was a blacksmith in Sullivan, and he died in the year of 1874. His widow was a resident of Youngstown, this state, and died on March II, 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Jackson have four children,-Lomie L., Vannessa L., Vida B. and Lowell G. Mr. Jackson is a member of the Masonic order at Hymera, is a Republican politically, and both his and his wife's religious affiliations are with the Methodist church.
THOMAS W. HAMILTON .- During a period of twenty years Thomas W. Hamilton has resided on his present estate in Jackson township, prominently identified with its agricultural and stock raising interests. His farm contains sixty acres of rich and fertile land, and he is exten- sively engaged in the breeding of Hereford cattle, and some years ago he sold an animal which was the pride of the stockmen of the vicinity, it weighing twenty-four hundred and eighty-seven pounds. During two years Mr. Hamilton served as the assessor of the township, elected by the Republican party, and he proved an efficient officer.
Mr. Hamilton is one of a large family of children born to William Hamilton, his natal day being the IIth of June, 1845, and his father was a native of Kentucky, but came to Indiana during an early epoch in its history, and both he and his wife have long since passed away. Their children were: Mary Jane, the deceased wife of Benjamin Maratta, of Sullivan ; Elizabeth, the deceased wife of M. H. Plew, also of Sullivan ; Nancy Jane, who has been blind from infancy, and she resides with a brother James in Jackson township; James, also of this township; and William, who has not been heard from for ten years, and he was then in New Mexico.
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In 1875 Mr. Hamilton was united in marriage to Sarah E. Gillmore, and they have four children,-Orin, Bert, Leland and Caroline, aged respectively twenty-nine, twenty-seven, twenty-one and seventeen years. Mr. Hamilton is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church.
KENNETH W. SELF, who has been an industrious tiller of the soil of Sullivan county since 1869, is a native of Montgomery county, Ken- tucky, born December 21, 1823, a son of Presley and Helen (Wilson) Self. The father was born July 7, 1787, and died in August, 1864, in Coles county, Illinois, and was buried at Greensburg, Indiana. He was a native of Culpeper county, Virginia. Kenneth W. Self's mother was born in' Greensborough county, West Virginia, August II, 1787, and died in Greensburg.
Presley Self was the son of John and Milly (Harden) Self. both natives of Virginia. They emigrated from there to Kentucky and were among the pioneer settlers of that region. Helen (Wilson) Self was the daughter of Newton Wilson, a native of Scotland who came to this country after his marriage and served in the Revolution in the cause of American independence. By trade he was a weaver, and first located in Virginia, but later moved to Kentucky, where he spent the remainder of his days. The subject's grandfather Self was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was captured at Dudley's defeat, and was never afterward heard of. Presley, the father Kenneth W. Self, was married about 1809 in Kentucky, and resided there until 1824, and then moved to Decatur county, Indiana. He retained his land, however, in Kentucky until about 1855, when he sold and retired from farming, which had been his calling and in which he was very successful. Up to 1840 he was a Jacksonian Democrat, but after that date voted with the Whig party, later espousing the cause advocated by the Republicans, and his last vote was cast for President Lincoln. He was a member of the Christian church, a devoted Christian in word and deed. He was the father of six children: John, born in 1810, was killed by a horse in 1836, in Indianapolis ; Joseph. born about 1811, died in 1844; Ruth, born about 1813, died in 1844 ; Harden, born in 1817, died in 1892; Randolph, born in 1819, died in 1862; and Kenneth W.
Kenneth W. was educated at the old fashioned subscription schools and at a select school for a short time. When seventeen years of age he taught school fifteen months, after which he attended college at what is now the State University. He then resumed teaching school and followed that profession until 1850. During that year he was married in Decatur county, Indiana, and taught school and farmed there until 1863, then moved to Coles county, Illinois, where he continued teaching and farming until 1869, when he went to Jackson township, Sullivan county, Indiana, where he now resides. After coming to this county he also taught school up to 1885. When he first settled in Sullivan county he purchased
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eighty acres of land, and added thereto until he owned a finely improved farm of one hundred acres, but sold a portion of the tract he had at one time to his son, this leaving him sixty acres. Mr. Self was married July 19, 1850, to a Miss Wood, who was born in 1825, in Mason City, Kentucky, and she died in 1900, on December 28th. She was the daugh- ter of Genoa and Comfort Wood, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. By this union were born seven children as follows: Viola (Stock), born 1852 and now residing in Lewis, Indiana : Samuel O., born June 1I, 1855, resides in Sullivan; Laura (Brown), born June 22, 1858, resides in Youngstown, Ohio; Joseph L., born December 19, 1860, resides in Farm- ersburg; Presley M., born February 27, 1863, resides in Farmersburg ; William L., born September 17, 1865, is now at home on the old home- stead, and Claborn O., born September 15, 1871, resides in Terre Haute.
In his political choice Mr. Self is a pronounced Republican, formerly being a member of the old-line Whig party, which was merged into the new party in 1856. He has served as a justice of the peace in Decatur county for a period of four years. He is of the Presbyterian church faith and a member of that denomination.
SIMPSON EDWARDS, a prominent farmer and stock raiser, whose methods have brought success to his efforts, is a tiller of the fertile soil of Gill township. He was born in Lawrence county, Indiana, June 30, 1852, son of Henderson and Cynthia (Cox) Edwards. The father was born in the same county, as was the mother, the former in 1820, and the latter in 1831. Henderson Edwards was a farmer through- out his entire lifetime. When about twenty-one years of age he entered land in the Vincennes district, which he cleared up and used for agricul- tural purposes. Here he resided and labored until 1885, then sold out and purchased the farm where his son now lives, at first purchasing eighty acres. His wife died in 1901 and he now resides with his son Simpson. The children born to Henderson and Cynthia (Cox) Edwards were five in number, as follows: Simpson, of whom further mention is made ; Geneal Edwards, deceased ; Clementine, deceased; Jane, wife of William Cox, of Haddon township; Margaret, wife of A. W. Engle of Gill township.
Like many a youth of his times, Simpson Edwards had but a limited opportunity for gaining an education. He attended the common schools of Lawrence county, and one term at the high school of Mitchell. At the age of seventeen years, he commenced working for others, continuing four years. He then purchased a farm in Lawrence county, which he owned two years, but to which he never moved. After he sold this he continued to reside with his father, and managed his place for him. He next bought land in Sullivan county. This was an eighty acre tract, which was purchased in 1885. Subsequently, he added another "eighty," which with an acre piece more recently bought makes him the present
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owner of one hundred and sixty-one acres of land, where he carries on general farming and makes a specialty of stock-raising. Besides raising many hogs and cattle, he also deals in this variety of stock to quite an extent. His farm has been well improved by his systematic methods and today is one of much beauty and great value, as compared to the date which he purchased the several tracts composing the whole.
Mr. Edwards, being of a progressive turn of mind, has identified himself with the Masonic fraternity, belonging to both blue lodge and Eastern Star degrees. In his church relations, he is a communicant of the Baptist church. Politically, Mr. Edwards believes in the general principles advocated by the Republican party. He has never sought public favor in way of local office, but has served as supervisor and held minor township offices.
He was married in October, 1894, to Mary E. Price, born near Terre Haute, the daughter of John W. Price, a prominent farmer of Vigo county. Mrs. Edwards' parents are now both deceased.
WALTER P. SPARKS, the efficient and truly obliging postmaster at Merom, Sullivan county, was born in Montgomery county, Indiana, March 29, 1842, son of Thomas and Jennie (Harwood) Sparks. Thomas Sparks was born in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, and his wife in Ohio. Thomas came to Sullivan county at a very early day and pur- chased a farm upon which he continued to reside until his death, his wife dying before he passed away.
Walter P. Sparks was left an orphan at the tender age of seven years. He attended the Montgomery county public schools, thus gaining a fair common school education. He worked here and there for various persons, up to the time he was sixteen years of age, when he commenced to learn the carpenter's trade in his native county, and followed this for his livelihood until about the date of the Harrison Presidential election, when he was appointed mail messenger from Merom to Merom Station, which position he filled until the end of a five year period. He was then appointed postmaster at Merom and is the present incumbent, having held the office continuously ever since, except four years during Cleve- land's administration. Mr. Sparks by prudence has been able to accu- mulate considerable property, including two dwellings in Merom, as well as six choice town lots.
He was among the men who braved the exposure and dangers of camp and field, during the Civil war period in this country. He enlisted in the month of September, 1861-first year of the war-as a member of Company B, Tenth Indiana Regiment, under Colonel Manson, and served three years, being mustered out of service September 18, 1864, at Indianapolis. He was in the battles of Mills Springs (Kentucky), Shiloh, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain and Atlanta. His only wound was a bruise caused by a spent ball which
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shattered the stock of his gun. He was also at Perryville, in which engagement his company lost eight men.
Politically, Mr. Sparks is a firm defender of Republican principles. Aside from being postmaster, he has held the office of member of the school board and other minor positions. In church relations, he is of the Methodist Episcopal creed. He is an honored member of the Masonic fraternity and stands for all that is good and true in the county and state in which he resides.
He was united in marriage, first in 1864, to Martha J. Lisman, born at Merom, Indiana, in 1847, daughter of David Lisman, an early settler who located near Carlisle, now deceased. To this union, two children were born: David L., born December 12, 1866, residing at Robinson, Illinois, a tailor by trade, and Thomas, born January 8, 1868, now living near Merom on a farm. Mrs. Sparks died in 1870. For his second wife, Mr. Sparks married Rebecca I. Curl, a native of Ohio, born March 13, 1858, daughter of David Curl and wife. The father, a farmer, moved from Ohio to Illinois in 1865 and settled on a farm east from Palestine, where they resided many years, but subsequently removed to Texas, where a son was living. There the father died about 1898, the mother having died several years before. By Mr. Sparks' second marriage the issue is : Helen May, married Dr. Boone, and died in September, 1904, leaving an only child, Helen, aged three years; Clara, wife of Elmer Pinkston, a hotel keeper and farmer of Merom; Guy, married Ora Ellis, and resides in Merom, where he is engaged in painting and paper-hanging; Lula, wife of Walter Mahan, a painter and paper-hanger, residing at Merom.
JOHN EMERY BREWER, well known in Sullivan county both as a suc- cessful business man and farmer, was born at Graysville, Indiana, Jan- uary 12, 1854, a son of Samuel S. and Cynthia Ann (Dodd) Brewer. The father was also born near Graysville on a farm April 20, 1830. He was the son of John Brewer, Sr., a native of Mercer county, Kentucky, born in 1796, and who moved with his parents to Butler county, Ohio, when eleven years of age. When he was twenty-four years old, he walked from that county to Sullivan county, Indiana, carrying with him an ax, which was his only article of defense. He entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, the same now being owned by the Davis heirs, in Turman township. When cutting down his first tree, which was a very large one, he discovered a she bear and cubs. As the tree fell, the dogs entertained the bear, which animal would have killed the dogs, had he not rushed to their rescue and killed her. After having cleared up four acres, he erected a small cabin and remained there in the wild forest land about one year, then returned to Ohio and brought his wife and one child back to Sul- livan county. The child mentioned was James Brewer, who later settled in Fairbanks township, one mile north of Fairbanks, where he lived and died, having amassed a goodly fortune.
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John Brewer, Sr., reared a family of nineteen children, twelve of whom reached maturity, and all of them took up their abode within Sul- livan county and cleared up farms. He possessed about seventeen hun- dred acres himself, in Turman township, which he gave to his sons and daughters. After disposing of his large land holdings, he engaged in mercantile business with his son, Samuel S. They purchased a stock of goods belonging to Lafayette Stewart, at Graysville, he being the pioneer merchant of that place. This transaction was in 1853, on the first day of June, and the business was conducted until the junior member, Samuel S. Brewer, died, in the month of August, 1860, and the following year the business of the firm was closed up. John, Sr., remained at Graysville for four years, after which he was associated with his son-in-law, Thomas Burton, in the mercantile business, under the firm name of Brewer & Burton, which relationship existed until 1876, when by mutual consent it was dissolved and William Brewer, a son of John Brewer, Sr., took the business and located at Sullivan and engaged in the hardware trade. John Brewer, Sr., died at Graysville in 1880 and was buried at the Mann cemetery. He was the first man to drive a team of horses with check lines within Sullivan county. His son, of this memoir, has in his pos- session the journal and ledger used by the old firm of Brewer & Son, which has the names of nearly all of the old pioneers of that township. Its pages show it to have been one of the most perfect and neatly kept set of books in the county, not excepting those of the present day busi- ness' houses.
Cynthia Ann (Dodd) Brewer, the mother of John Emery, was born in August, 1836, daughter of John and Elizabeth ( Osborne) Dodd. The Dodd family originally lived in Kentucky, the father of John being com- monly called Dickey Dodd, and he was the first sheriff of Sullivan county, Indiana. Elizabeth Osborne was the daughter of Isaiah Osborne, also a pioneer of Kentucky, who settled in Sullivan county, when all was yet a wilderness.
John Emery Brewer attended the schools at Ascension Seminary, under the tutorship of Major Crawford, whose sketch appears elsewhere within this work. Mr. Brewer entered that excellent educational insti- tution without much preparation at the age of eighteen years. He was a well posted farmer, but knew little else of the great, teeming world, with its various activities, but had an ambition to learn. He attended this seminary also at Sullivan and the Commercial College at Terre Haute, from which he was graduated in 1875. It should be recalled that Mr. Brewer's father died when the son was but six years of age, at a time when a boy most needs the tender watch-care of a father. He was "hired out" by his mother to one Thomas Pogue, with whom he remained for five years, then was employed by various farmers, near Graysville, until he was eighteen years of age, at which time young Brewer decided to obtain a good education, which he did in the manner stated above, beginning with a three years' course under Professor Crawford, whose school was then at Farmersburg. After graduating from the Terre Haute
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Business College, he engaged with the firm of Sherman & Davis, as a clerk, at Graysville, Indiana, where he was soon made manager of the business there and continued two years, when the stock was removed to Sullivan. Subsequently, Mr. Brewer engaged in business at Graysville on his own account, continuing until 1881, when he sold to Robert Car- ruthers. Mr. Brewer then purchased a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, near the village of New Lebanon, where he has since resided. Here he carries on a general farming business and raises stock. He has made decided improvements upon the farm since buying it. This place is known, far and near, as the William Gill place, and the township was named in honor of its former owner. Mr. Brewer is the eldest of a family of three children born to his parents. One brother was Theodore Frelingheisen, born in 1856, and died at the age of twenty-one years; he was also educated at Farmersburg under Major Crawford. This brother was a most thorough scholar and a faithful, hardworking student, whose career was suddenly cut short at the threshold of young manhood, when all looked fair for a successful life's voyage. As a musician, he ranked among the best of his years, and was among the attractive, bright stars which seemed destined to sink prematurely. Mr. Brewer's sister was Flora, born 1860, at Graysville. She married William T. Ingersoll in 1880 and died the year after her marriage, at Graysville. Mr. Brewer's mother remained a widow for eight years, then married J. W. Warner, and now resides with him, one mile north of Graysville. She is seventy- three years old.
In religious faith, Mr. Brewer and also wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, he having, united with this denomination in 1864, at Graysville. He has held the office of steward. Politically, he affiliates with the Republican party, and was postmaster at Graysville for six years, but aside from that has never aspired or held local positions of honor or trust.
Concerning his domestic relations, it may be said that he was married September II, 1877, to Jennie Cornelius, a native of Sullivan, born August 10, 1859, daughter of Rev. W. H. and Sarah Ann ( Robbins) Cornelius. The father was born at Maysville, Kentucky, April 4, 1810, and the mother was born October 22, 1819, at Elizabethtown, Pennsyl- vania. W. H. Cornelius was a ship-carpenter by trade, apprenticed when fourteen years of age, at Louisville, Kentucky. He moved to Cincinnati, where he was united in marriage, and where he engaged in ship-carpen- tering for a short time. He then went to Louisville, and there engaged at the same work until he entered the Indiana Methodist Conference in 1841. He was a regular traveling minister until his death, July 31, 1882, at Linton, Indiana, where he was buried. His wife, who died May 4, 1863, was buried at Corydon, Harrison county, Indiana.
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