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 33
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He returned to Wayne county and followed blacksmithing at Boston, Indiana, until 1872. He then united with the Methodist Episcopal church at Boston and the following year was licensed to preach. He took work as a supply in 1876 and joined the conference of southeastern Indiana in 1881. His first work was at Brownville, where he remained four years, and afterward was at Mount Carmel, Indiana, where he labored three years, and was ordained by Bishop Cyrus D. Foss at Columbus, Indiana, in September, 1883. He was ordained an elder by Bishop G. Andrews in September, 1886. His third appointment was at Columbus, Indiana, where he remained three years, and was then at Irvington for two years, Milroy one year, Hartsville three years, Utica four years, Flatrock two years, Rockport two years, New Lebanon two years, and three years at Carlisle. During the above period he remodeled and paid off the debt of thirty-three churches and three parsonages. He has presided at almost seven hundred funerals and has united in marriage five hundred couples. He has added to the various branches of the church about three thousand persons. He was elected department commander in 1898 and 1899 of the Grand Army of the Republic. After the war he was grand chaplain of the Grand Army of the Republic of Indiana, and was appointed on the commission for the return of the "Texas Rangers'" flag at Dallas in October, 1899. He has attended conventions all over the country, and made the address of his life when the above flag, was returned to Dallas, where he received a great ovation. He loves historic trophies and has a fine collection of badges which he has had exquisitely framed and care- fully preserved. Mr. Ryan is a member of the Odd Fellows' order, having joined that society in 1868, and served two terms as grand chap-
RESIDENCE OF CAPTAIN AND MRS. JESSE HADDON
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lain of the order, and has filled all of its chairs and been a representative to the Grand Lodge two terms. He is also advanced in Masonry, and is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, Dumont Post No. 18, at Shelbyville, Indiana. Politically he is a stanch defender of Republican principles, and has delivered addresses in the principal larger cities of this country.
Of his domestic relations it should here be said that he was married March 5, 1867, to Nancy Jane Rife, born in Wayne county, Indiana, a daugliter of Daniel and Cynthia (Stanley) Rife. They were also natives of Indiana. Her father died before her birth, and she obtained her educa- tion in her native county. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ryan, as follows, in the order of their birth: Anna, wife of Nollis Beard, residing in Liberty, Indiana, and they have one daughter, Teressa ; William, residing in Cleveland, Ohio, was assistant superintendent of the reformatory school of Jeffersonville about four years; Teressa, wife of John T. Conover, a graduate of the Columbia University, and they now reside in New York city, where he is an important factor in the Fiske firm of bankers and brokers. His wife was the leading woman in the "Earl of Pawtucket" of New York city for six months. She played Miranda in "The Tempest," and traveled with Ward and James, going from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans on her tours and made five conti- mental trips and played in all the leading cities in the United States and Canada. Walter died in infancy ; Adolph F. is unmarried.
MRS. FLORA A. (MCCLURE) HADDON .- An accomplished and enter- prising business woman, Mrs. Flora A. Haddon, widow of the late Cap- tain Jesse Haddon, of Haddon township, Sullivan county, is devoting her energies to the care of her estate, which is among the best in the neighborhood. A daughter of Hiram McClure, she was born March 16, 1861, on Shaker prairie, Knox county, Indiana. Her grandparents, Samuel and Sarah (Curry) McClure, natives of Union county, Ken- tucky, were among the pioneer settlers of Knox county and for many years were leading farmers of Shaker prairie.
A lifelong resident of Shaker prairie, Hiram McClure was born there September 6, 1824, and died November 20, 1876. He was a farmer by occupation, and both he and his father used to market their hogs and grain in Vincennes and Evansville, sending it down the river on flatboats. He married Rosella Seaney, and into their home nine children were born, as follows: Sarah, wife of Cook Chapman, of Deming, New Mexico; Mary, deceased ; S. B., deceased ; Albert. B., of Bruceville, Indiana ; Hen- rietta, wife of Henry Frederick, a retired farmer residing in Bruceville ; Maggie, wife of James Whipps, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this book; Flora A., of this sketch; Edgar M., living near Oaktown, in the vicinity of the old McClure homestead; and Jasper F., living in the same neighborhood near Oaktown.
After her graduation from the Oaktown high school, Flora A. McClure taught for ten terms in Knox county, during her last term being
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a teacher in the graded schools of Oaktown. On February 1, 1901, she married Captain Jesse Haddon, an esteemed resident of Haddon township. A son of David Haddon, Captain Haddon was born July 24, 1837, on the farm where he spent his entire life, his death occurring November 26, 1906. He came of honored pioneer stock, his grandfather, John Haddon, a native of Virginia, having settled in that part of Sullivan county now known as Haddon township, in 1804, where he entered a tract of twenty- three hundred acres. His home, known as Fort Haddon, was a place of refuge for the early families that settled in this vicinity, all seeking pro- tection within the fort whenever the Indians became hostile.
Captain Haddon boasted of his life as a soldier and none could dispute him. Very soon after the breaking out of the Civil war he offered his services to his country, enlisting in 1861 as a private in the Twenty- first Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was a private until July 4, 1861 : then corporal until February 16, 1862 ; sergeant until June 1, 1862 ; second lieutenant until July 30, 1863 ; first lieutenant until October 8, 1864; then for gallantry and meritorious conduct was promoted to the rank of captain in Company D, Twenty-first Indiana Heavy Artillery. He took part in many important engagements of the war, among them the battle of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1862, and the siege of Port Hudson, where, while in the top of a tree, watching with a fieldglass the movements of the enemy, he received a gunshot wound in the right arm that came near proving fatal, and did maim him for life. His regiment was converted into heavy artillery. He was mustered out of service January 10, 1866, receiving his honorable and final discharge after four and a half years of service for his country. Captain Haddon was a man who did not know fear and was ever ready to perform his part as a faithful soldier, and his record as a soldier was most worthy of commendation.
Returning to Haddon township at the close of the conflict, Captain Haddon resumed his former occupation and on the old Haddon home- stead was for many years profitably employed in general farming and stock-raising, meeting with noteworthy success in his undertakings. The captain was noted as a breeder and raiser of exceptionally fine horses, and among some of those sold at public sale after his death having been five Norman Percheron mares which brought $1,598, others being sold at $400, $305, and $230 each. Four fat hogs were sold for $121, and four deer brought a good price. The captain was a lover of animals of all kinds, being especially fond of horses, dogs and birds. He was a man of strong individuality, peculiar perhaps in some ways, always wearing, his hair in long locks over his shoulders, and wearing a hat made expressly for him, of the finest beaver and after his own design, being of the som- brero order, with a brim fifteen inches in width, and he always carried a Colt's revolver in a holster attached to his belt. He was a stanch Repub- lican in politics, an active worker in the party, and belonged to the Republican county organization, and at one time was Republican nominee for state senator. Fraternally he was a member of Carlisle Lodge No. 50. of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He was owner and pro- prietor of the Carlisle opera house and donated the use of this institution
FAVORITE HORSES AND SCENES OF CAPTAIN JESSE HADDON
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for the Woman's Relief Corps chapter. By his request this corps accepted his offer. They still meet at the opera house, for after his death his widow extended to the corps the same privilege, knowing the earnest desire of the captain to perpetuate the loyalty of the rising generation in this com- munity. She is using every effort to carry forth his plans of promoting the loyalty which was so firmly instilled in his own bosom. He had a flagstaff erected upon the opera house, and as long as he lived he kept "Old Glory" afloat, to remind the youths that he was earnest in the affairs of his country.
Captain Haddon wedded Miss Flora A. McClure, February 1, 1901. Mrs. Haddon has one child, Jessie Helen, whose birth occurred January 2, 1902, and they reside on the old homestead. She is a bright little child and in the first grade of the Carlisle public school. Mrs. Haddon, like the captain, is a lover of animals, and is the owner of a full-blooded Norman Percheron mare, which is registered, and she is a shareholder in the National French Draft Horse Association, of Fairfield, Iowa, of which the Captain was a member and stockholder. Mrs. Haddon takes a leading part in the Carlisle Chapter No. 255, Woman's Relief Corps. She is press correspondent of this society, which is in a very flourishing condition. On Tuesday, January 8, 1909, the following officers were duly elected : Miss Dercie Kivett, president ; Mrs. Sarah Hoover, senior vice president ; Mrs. Mildred Yocum, junior vice president ; Mrs. Martha Risinger, chaplain ; Mrs. Arvilla Johnson, treasurer : Mrs. Frances Hutchinson, secretary ; Mrs. Ida Whalen, conductor ; Mrs. Flora Haddon. guard. This society has for its mission charity and a friendly hand to all .. Car- lisle Chapter No. 255 donated and assisted with proper ceremony in the erection of the beautiful flag on the public school building of Carlisle. Its very color speaks to one-Red for valor ; White, purity ; and Blue, justice and friendship. Under its folds is the motto: Fraternity, Charity and Loyalty.
CHARLES L. PIRTLE, one of the up-to-date farmers of Sullivan county soil, is a native of Haddon township, Sullivan county, born November II. 1871, a son of James W. and Mary A. (Cron) Pirtle. Of Mr. Pirtle's parentage, let it be said in this connection that his father was born August 8, 1837, in Haddon township, and died December 31, 1904, in the same subdivision of Sullivan county, Indiana. The mother was born July II, 1842, in Bloomington, Indiana, and died March 16, 1907. Both the father and mother were buried within the Odd Fellows' cemetery at Carlisle, Indiana. James W., the father, was a son of Alfred and Elizabeth Pirtle, the former a native of Kentucky who came to Sullivan county when but six years of age with his parents, Jacob Pirtle and wife, farmers. They came here in 1816, and were counted among, the early pioneer band in this section of the state of Indiana. They located near the old blockhouse at Carlisle. The Pirtles were all farmers by occupation. They were very active and influential in subduing and perfecting the county, aiding in transforming a wilderness into a fertile and productive garden spot.
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James W. Pirtle, the father, remained at home until the date of his marriage, when he commenced work in a sawmill, continuing one year, and then purchased a farm of sixty-six acres. He was industrious and frugal, so that from time to time he added more land to his place, until he owned a tract of one hundred and fifty-six acres of excellent farm land, all in Haddon township, and where he spent the remnant of his days. His wife, subject's mother, Mary (Cron) Pirtle, was the daughter of Jacob and Louise Cron. The father was a shoemaker and leather tanner. He served an apprenticeship beside Andrew Johnson. Mr. Cron and a part- ner laid out San Antonio, Texas, prior to the Mexican war. The chil- dren of Mr. and Mrs. James W. Pirtle were as follows: Dr. George, born November 17, 1868, and residing in Carlisle, Indiana, married Belle Julian ; Charles L., of this narrative ; Jacob A., born March 7, 1824, and now residing on the old homestead, is unmarried; and Edward, born August II, 1881, married Clara Fiddler and resides in Paxton, Indiana.
Charles L. Pirtle remained at home until his marriage, March 27, 1895, to Lizzie Wilson, born December 12, 1870, in Haddon township, this county, a daughter of James 'K. and Laura Wilson, both of whom are living east of Carlisle. Mr. Pirtle purchased fifty-five acres the year before his marriage and moved to the same, which forms a part of his present farm in Hamilton township. He now owns eighty acres, and all is well improved and cared for through his untiring industry and good management. He has but recently completed one of the most thoroughly modern farmhouses within Sullivan county. He operates a combined grain-producing and stock-raising farm, and is thoroughly interested in his work, which he performs with much intelligence, thus meeting with the success which always follows such labor as an agriculturist, as well as in any other calling.
In his political understanding Mr. Pirtle advocates and votes the principles of the Democratic party. Believing in protection for his family through the medium of mutual life insurance, he has wisely become a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, belonging to Camp No. 3967, at Sullivan. Both he and his wife are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Four children have blessed this happy home circle : Paul, born December 19, 1895; Lee, born September 14, 1899 ; Harold, born August 4, 1903 : and James Hinkle, born August II, 1908. The two older children are now ( 1908) attending the public schools.
JAMES E. BITTLE .- James E. Bittle, an extensive land owner and one of the practical farmers of Gill township, Sullivan county, was born December 21, 1865, in Champaign county, Illinois. He is the son of Silas and Fannie (DeVere) Bittle, the former born in October, 1842, in Put- nam county, Indiana, and now residing in Tippecanoe county. The sub- ject's mother was born in February, 1847, in Fountain county, Indiana, and died October 1I, 1908. Silas Bittle was the son of William and Landis Bittle, the former a native of Virginia who went to Indiana about
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1830, locating in Putnam county, where he entered government land and remained a few years, and then disposed of his land and moved to Mont- gomery county, where he purchased other lands. Later, thinking to better his circumstances, he sold this tract of land and went to Fountain county. In 1868 he sold out there and went to Anderson county, Texas, and there retired. He took about sixty thousand dollars with him when he went south. He was a wonderful worker and a shrewd trader and made many large deals in stock. He died about 1878 in Palestine, Texas, and was buried in that city.
Silas Bittle, our subject's father, remained at home and assisted his father until he reached his majority, when he married and removed to Champaign county, Illinois, where he worked two years and then returned to Fountain county, Indiana, where he bought an eighty acre farm, to which later he added sixty-six acres. He remained on that place for thirteen years, then sold his farm of one hundred and forty-six acres. He then moved to Montgomery county and purchased two hundred acres, and lived there seven years, after which he sold, and bought the two hundred and forty acre farm on which he now resides, the same being situated in Tippecanoe county, Indiana. This farm is said by good and unbiased judges to be one of the finest within the entire state. Mr. Bittle is an extensive swine raiser, running mostly to Poland-China stock. The children born to Silas Bittle and wife are as follows: James E. ; Frances, born March 12, 1867, married Charles McCorkle and lives in Tippe- canoe county, Indiana ; Alonzo, born December 14, 1869, resides in Chi- cago and is a traveling salesman for a drug firm, married Hattie Phillips ; Luther, born September 1, 1877, resides in Tippecanoe county, married Vera Buxton.
Leaving the common schools, James E. Bittle entered DePauw Col- lege at Greencastle, Indiana, where he took a one year's course, after which he went to Purdue college, and there took a course in mechanics, being at the last named school for two years. He then taught for three winters, working on the farm during the summer months. He worked at farming until twenty-eight years of age, when he purchased a quarter section of land in Fountain county, Indiana, which in 1902 he sold and came to Sullivan county, purchasing two hundred and fifteen acres, but he traded this in May, 1908, for two hundred and eighty acres in Gill township, where he now resides, and in addition to general farming he is extensively engaged in raising many hogs. Politically Mr. Bittle is a believer in the principles of the Socialist party, but so far has voted the Democratic ticket. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, while his wife is connected with the Christian denomination. He has been an extensive traveler, having been in more than half of the states within the Union. At one time he and his brother owned a line of elevators on the Clover Leaf railroad system, but he sold out in 1906.
He was united in marriage, June 29, 1904, to Cora E. Curtis, born June 29, 1883, in Sullivan county, Indiana, a daughter of J. R. and Olive (Mooney) Curtis, the former born March 4, 1840, in Sullivan county, and the latter October 20, 1842, in Floyd county, Indiana, both of whom
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are still living within Sullivan county. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Bittle : Burton Keith, born April 16, 1905, and Frances Jaunetta, born October 9, 1907.
CLARENCE EDWARD COFFMAN, widely known as a breeder and trainer of fast horses, whose farm and stables are located in Hamilton township, Sullivan county, was born on the 8th of March, 1876, and is a son of the late Dr. Stuart S. Coffman, one of the leading pioneers, practicing physi- cians and public men of the county. The father was a citizen of such unusual activity and broad usefulness, a factor so closely identified with the higher progress of Sullivan county, that a full account of his services and a delineation of his noble character will be found in other pages of this work. Clarence E. Coffman, of this biography, is the fifth and young- est child born to Dr. and Philena ( Rodman) Coffman. The mother, who is a native of Washington county, Indiana, was born September 12, 1832, and still resides in Sullivan, a devoted member of the Baptist church and an honored pioneer mother of the county.
Mr. Coffman was educated in the public schools of Sullivan, graduat- ing from its high school with the class of 1895. He then became asso- ciated with his father in the breeding and sale of standard and fast horses, and from 1899 to 1902 also conducted a drug business. Following his inclinations and obvious talents, however, he abandoned his drug store and resumed the sole raising and handling of horses, in which specialty he has attained such high standing. In 1903 Mr. Coffman centered his business on a fine stock farm of two hundred and seventy-seven acres, where he owns twenty-five head of registered trotting stock and operates a first-class boarding and training stable. Among this fine array of animals may be named: "Wyoming," a trotting sire with a record of 2:2914 ; "Joe W.," 2:1612: "Gertrude," 2:26; "Alleene W.," 2:25; "Molly Wilkes," 2:221/2 : "Philena Coffman," 2:2112 ; and "Bill Ijams," 2:2314-all these figures being trotting records. Since 1904 Mr. Coff- man has also been operating a public stable on his farm, which has met with marked success and which has enabled him to give records to other animals than his own, including the following: "Maxie C.," 2:161/2. trotting : "Fortune," 2:171/2, trotting ; "Nightingale," 2:36, pacing .; and "Red Hooker," 2:45, trotting. "Philena Coffman," before mentioned, is the first two-year-old to reach a record of 2:30 in Sullivan county, and "Gertrude" is the only horse in the county that ever won a purse over a Grand Circuit track. He has raised colts from such noted sires as "Axtell," "Margrave," "Baron Review," "Boreal," "The Captain," "Redette" and "Axcyone." He is also a well-known breeder of Jersey and Hereford cattle and fancy Berkshire swine. Mr. Coffman is a thor- ough believer in Democracy, both in the conduct of party and the general affairs of the world. He has made an eminent success of his business, but has never advanced at the expense of his good name or the deep respect of his home community.
Married April 19, 1899, to Miss Alice McDonald, Mr. Coffman's
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wife is a native of Roscoe, Ohio, born January 27, 1878, and a daughter of James W. and Margaret (Graves) McDonald. Mrs. Coffman removed to Sullivan with her parents in her early childhood, was reared and edu- cated in the county, attended the State Normal, and was engaged in teaching for four years preceding her marriage. The children of this union are Dorothy and Mary Catherine Coffman, and the mother is an earnest member of the Christian church.
STUART S. COFFMAN, M. D. (deceased)-One of the broadest minded and most useful citizens of Sullivan, and an able and deeply beloved physician of many years' standing, the late Dr. Stuart S. Coffman was born near Zanesville, Ohio, on the 12th of March, 1828, and died at his beautiful hotel and home in the city named, on the 15th of November, 1903. At an early age he came with his parents to Greenville, Floyd county, Indiana, and resided on a farm near that place until he reached his majority. During his boyhood he attended Greenville Seminary, and in 1851 was matriculated at the Kentucky School of Medicine, in March of the latter year entering the medical department of the Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky, from which he graduated in 1852, with his degree of M. D. He then located for practice at Orleans, Indiana, where he continued until 1859, when he became a resident of Sullivan, residing there for the remainder of his life as an active practitioner, an honored citizen and a public man of strong and high influence.
Dr. Coffman was engaged in the active practice of his profession from 1859 to 1881, and during that period he was perhaps as widely known and as deeply revered as any citizen of the county. This was also the time of his most prominent public service. Always a firm and earnest Democrat, he served as chairman of the county central committee for ten years ; was a member of the town board and the school board, and in 1872-6 represented Sullivan county in the legislature. In connection with his practice, Dr. Coffman engaged in the drug business, but when he retired from both, in 1881, removed to his farm near Sullivan, where for seven years he devoted his time to the raising of fine cattle and fast horses. In 1888 he returned to town, where he was an extensive real estate owner and the proprietor of a fine hotel until his death in 1903.
From the days of his early manhood Dr. Coffman was an active Mason, and at the time of his death had filled all the local offices, having been past master of his lodge for many years. Sullivan Lodge No. 263, of which he was so long a member, noted his death with the profoundest evidences of regret and high appreciation of his services and character. Its touching resolutions of respect and condolence referred to him as "eminently successful in his profession"; as one who "took an active part in all public affairs in connection with the history of the county in the earlier part of his life"; and "was respected and honored by the commu- nity in which he lived and died, and venerated by his neighbors and friends." After noting that "Brother Coffman was made a Mason prior
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to his coming to Sullivan in 1859"; that he had lived to see the roster of the local lodge completely changed, the resolutions concluded as follows : "Brother Coffman lived a consistent Mason and kept his mind and con- science divested of all the vices and superfluities of life, thereby filling his body as a living statue for that spiritual building-that house not made with hands-eternal in the heavens.
"Therefore, be it resolved, That in the death of Brother Coffman his widow has lost a devoted companion, his children a loving and kind father, Sullivan Lodge, A. F. and A. M., No. 263, a true and faithful member, and the community an honored and respected citizen.
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