A portrait and biographical record of Delaware and Randolph counties, Ind., containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all of the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Indiana, Part 38

Author:
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, A. W. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 1474

USA > Indiana > Randolph County > A portrait and biographical record of Delaware and Randolph counties, Ind., containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all of the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Indiana > Part 38
USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A portrait and biographical record of Delaware and Randolph counties, Ind., containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all of the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Indiana > Part 38

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).

While carrying on the trade of black- smithing in Muncie, he was compelled to send to Cincinnati for iron, hauling it home by teams, and often had to leave his work here and make a personal visit to that city, when important purchases were to be made. This slow and expensive method of transportation set him to thinking, and with characteristic promptness, his thoughts developed into action. In the spring of 1847 he determined to move to secure the location of a railroad to Muncie, by some practical route; and acting upon this determination, circulated a subscrip- tion paper to secure funds with which to pay for posters to advertise a railroad mass meet- ing, to be held at Muncie. A hard canvass resulted in his securing only a part of the funds necessary, and, contributing the balance from his own purse, he had the bills struck and posted up, designating June 26, 1847, as the

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day of meeting. This meeting was almost barren of results, and was adjourned to August 20, when men of talent and public spirit from abroad were invited, resolutions were passed recommending Delaware county to vote a tax of $12,000, at the ensuing fall election, to aid the enterprise. Mr. Neely, although unac- customed to public speaking, yet led in the public discussion of this question throughout the county, and had the pleasure of seeing it settled by an affirmative vote.

The happy choice of a companion in early life proved the solace of other years; and they were each spared to bless the other, and see their children grow to honorable and useful maturity. Eliza is the wife of A. J. Wachtell, of Muncie; M. Jennie resides with the father; Thaddeus A., prominent manufacturer of Muncie, married Miss Harriet Huston, of Par- is, Ill .; Leonidas M., married Miss Welthy Berkey, of Grand Rapids, Mich., and resides in Muncie. Mrs. Neely died September 19, 1886, since when Mr. Neely has lived with his daughter, Miss M. Jennie.

J EREMIAH FULLER NICKEY (de- ceased), for many years an active busi- ness man and prominent citizen of Muncie, was a native of Pennsylvania, born on the 3d day of March, 1826, in the county of Cumberland. His parents were Samuel and Elizabeth Nickey, both natives of the Keystone state, where their ancestors had resided from an early period in the history of the country. At the age of sixteen Jeremiah F. Nickey left the parental roof and located at Fairfield, Greene county, Ohio, but previous to that time he had learned the tailor's trade in the county of his nativity. Owing to circum- stances, over which he had no control, his means of obtaining a literary education were

greatly limited, but possessing a mind of great activity, and desirous of acquiring a knowledge of books, he devoted his leisure moments to the accumulation of knowledge, frequently poring over his studies at a late hour, with no other light than that afforded by a blazing pine knot. After becoming proficient in his trade, he worked at the same for four years, in Ohio, and, at the same time, read medicine under the instruction of Dr. McElhaney, of Fairfield. Later, he added to his literary knowledge by a course in Wesleyan college, Delaware, Ohio, which institution he attended for some time, and after his marriage, in 1850, with Miss Christina Miller, he located at the town of Quincy, Ohio, where, in addition to working at his trade, he taught school until his removal to Muncie, Ind., in the year 1858.

On locating in this city, Mr. Nickey ef- fected a co-partnership in the drug business with Dr. William Craig, which relationship terminated after five years' duration, the place of business being on Main street. After the retirement of his partner, Mr. Nickey con- tinued on the half square between Walnut and Mulberry streets, where he carried on business until his death. Mr. Nickey's life was characterized by energy and probity, and by his long residence in Muncie and active association with the people became widely known. He fairly solved the problem of suc- cess, so far as material wealth is concerned, earned the reputation of a man of honor and integrity, and ended a well rounded life on the 7th of July, 1886. He was a life-long member of the Methodist church, and in the Masonic fraternity he was for many years an active worker, having taken a number of de- grees, including that of Knight Templar. Politically he was a republican. Mrs. Nickey, who survives, her husband, was born in Greene county, Ohio, April, 1830, and is the mother of three living children: Vinton I., Mary V.

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and Frank B .; a daughter, Artemissa, is de- ceased.

Frank B. Nickey, third child of Jeremiah F. and Christina Nickey, was born June 9, 1867, in Muncie, Ind., in which city his life has been passed to the present time. His lit- erary education was received in the Muncie schools, and in 1889 he graduated from the St. Louis college of Pharmacy, since May of which year he has been actively engaged in the drug trade. He is a Mason, being a mem- ber of both chapter and commandery, belongs to Welcome lodge, No. 37, K. of P., and is also connected with the K. O. E. M. Mr. Nickey was married, in 1889, to Miss Ina C., daughter of James N. and Sarah (Mills) Cropper, the fruit of which union is one child, a daughter, Pauline.

OBERT I. PATTERSON .- "Biog- raphies should not be published unless there is something in the life or char- acter of the individual worthy of emu- lation or imitation by others under like circum- stances-certainly not for self aggrandizement." Such were the words of Mr. Patterson when approached by the publishers of this work, but sufficient was drawn from him to learn that there was something in the inner life of the man worthy of more than incidental mention. Robert I. Patterson was born in Muncie, Ind., March 28, 1843. His father, S. R. Patterson, was a native of Vermont, and his mother was born in Lexington, Ky., to which place her father, Burns Turner, moved with his family from the state of Delaware to assist in build- ing a house for that sterling patriot and states- man, Henry Clay. Here her mother died, and upon the completion of the building the family came to Indiana and located near Econ- omy, Randolph county, but later, in 1828 or

1829, moved to Muncie, where her father, and her brothers, Minus and William Turner, engaged in burning brick, brick laying and plastering. At that time Muncie was little more than an Indian trading post, containing but a few log houses, and they built the first brick dwelling ever erected in Delaware county -the dwelling being on Main street and the business house on the ground now occupied by the Delaware County National bank. Minus Turner also built the first hotel (or tavern), on the present site of the Patterson block, corner Main and Walnut streets. In this hotel the parents of our subject first met and were married. After a few years of hardship and privation incident to pioneer life, they moved in a covered wagon to Chicago, Ill., where the father went into the tin and stove business, and became the owner of several lots at the corner of Lake and State streets. Here, also, the subject of this sketch (then a child) strayed from home and was lost for two days and a night, an event which so prostrated the mother that she was confined to her bed for many months. Disheartened by sickness and business losses, the father sold what little was left him and endeavored to retrieve his fortune at various points in Illinois. In Bloomington he was associated with the great land owner and cattle king, Isaac Funk, and later became ac- quainted with the then young lawyer, Abra- ham Lincoln. Being the only whig, or republican, at that time in a family of eight brothers, he was always an ardent supporter of this great and good man, and finally was killed at Kenesaw Mountain, Ga., in the serv- ice of this great chieftain. Robert I. Patter- son inherited this love of country and the cause of human freedom, and he, too, at the age of seventeen years, enlisted, in 1861, and served his country four years in the Nine- teenth Indiana infantry, and re-enlisted in the field for three years more. He was wounded

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at Antietam and Gettysburg, and at the latter place was also taken prisoner.

The services of Mr. Patterson throughout the war were rendered in the celebrated Iron brigade, it being the First brigade, First di- vision of the First army corps of the army of the Potomac, being the first brigade organized in the Union army, and the official records show that it sustained a greater loss in actual killed than any other. He has an individual record of fourteen general engagemets, beside the minor battles and skirmishes in which the brigade took part. Up till the time of his enlistment, the life of Robert I. Patterson was passed in helping to batter the wolf of hunger and privation from his cabin home, and he was consequently deprived of even a common school education, but his father having been a school teacher, and the son being of a very studious nature, the latter mastered the rudi- ments of an English education, which were later supplemented by knowledge gained in the great school of experience. The precepts and examples of an earnest christian mother were fortitude and devotion at all times, especially through the dark days of the Rebel- lion, when she was left at home with eight small children to care for, one of whom died just before the father was killed and while the subject was lying wounded in the United States hospital. The good people, however, have been considerate of the claims of worthy soldiers, and Mr. Patterson has been honored by them. Being an ardent but consistent partisan and writer, his influence was appreci- ated, and he was appointed to a clerkship in the Indiana house of representatives during its session of 1876-77, a part of which term, however, he resigned to accept a position as railway postal clerk between Pittsburg, Pa., and St. Louis, Mo. He was subsequently transferred and distributed mail between In- dianapolis, Ind., and Cleveland, Ohio. The

service was severe and the strain on his nerv- ons and physical system immense, aggravating his army injuries, and he was compelled to re- sign. About this time his name was men- tioned as a candidate for county treasurer, but the convention was corrupted and he lost the nomination. February 7, 1882, he was ap- pointed postmaster at Muncie by President Arthur, and filled the office very satisfactorily, and a change of administration alone prevented his re-appointment. The faculty of invention and construction is largely developed in Mr. Patterson, and he is the patentee of several useful inventions, among which are the J. I. C. steel wire curry-comb, and two patents on fruit jar fastenings, the complete jar, with its fastening, being now manufactured at West Muncie by the Patterson Glass company, and being pronounced by experts the most simple, cheap and durable of any invented. Mr. Pat- terson, however, is perhaps best known as a poet, and many of his poems have had an ex- tensive publication in the poetical and secular press, some of them in the Indianapolis Jour- nal, the Judge, Cosmopolitan and other peri- odicals. Some have become more favorably known through their rendition by his daughter, Pearl, (now Mrs. W. R. Bean) who has earned a wide reputation as an elocutionist.

J WALLACE PERKINS is a native of Delaware county, Ind., born in the city of Muncie on the 8th day of Octo- ber, 1846, the son of William H. and Susan (Russey) Perkins. The father was a native of Kentucky and located in Muncie when it was but a mere village and started the first tailoring establishment in the place. He followed his trade in Muncie continuously until February, 1855, when he moved to Vandalia, Mich., thence two years later to the city of

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Niles, that state, where he resided until his death in 1875. William H. Perkins displayed commendable energy in his chosen calling and his death was the result of over exertion and exhaustion brought on by the sickness of his wife, who for a number of weeks had required his constant attention. He was the first man to introduce the sewing machine into Indiana, and the one he operated in Muncie cost him the sum of $250. He died at the age of sixty- three; his widow still survives, having reached the good old age of seventy-five years, and at this time resides with her youngest daughter in the town of Carthage, Ind. Mr. and Mrs. Perkins reared a family of three sons and three daughters, namely: Harvey W., Mary A., John S., J. Wallace, Martha J. and Minnie E. Of the above sons, Harvey W. and John S. served in the late war as members of Michigan regi- ments.

J. W. Perkins spent the first nine years of his life in Muncie, and in 1855 was taken by his parents to Michigan, in which state he re- ceived his educational training, attending the common schools until his fourteenth year. On quitting school he entered a printing office in St. Joseph, Mich., where he worked for six months for $12.50 and board, and then se- cured a position in an office at Niles, where he was employed for about a half year at $30 and board. He remained at Niles until 1868, and for one year thereafter worked in a job office at Indianapolis, thence came to Muncie, where for six months he held a position in the office of the Muncie Times. Returning to Indianapolis at the end of that period, he fol- lowed his trade in that city until, in partner- ship with William Chandler, he became asso- ciate publisher of the Muncie Telegraph, with which paper he was identified for about eighteen months. On the suspension of the Telegraph, Mr. Perkins again accepted a posi- tion on the Times, with which he remained

until 1877, when he accepted a place in the government printing office at Washington, D. C., where he remained for a limited period. Returning to Muncie, he again engaged with the Times, and in 1880, started a job office, which he has since successfully conducted, and with judicious management has made one of the leading printing establishments of the city. Mr. Perkins is a practical printer, thor- oughly familiar with all the details of the trade, and his office is equipped with all the modern improvements and latest appliances, and its reputation for first class work is second to no other printing house in eastern Indiana.

Mr. Perkins is a republican in his political convictions and stands high in the councils of his party in Muncie and Delaware county. He is prominent in the Masonic order, having taken all the degrees of the York and Scottish rites of the fraternity, including the thirty- second degree. He held the responsible posi- tion of eminent commander of Muncie com- mandery, No. 18, for two years, and for the past twelve years has served as secretary of Muncie lodge, No. 403. Mr. Perkins was mar- ried on October 25, 1877, to Miss Mary L. Winton, daughter of Dr. R. Winton, a late prominent physician of Muncie, whose sketch appears elsewhere in these pages. Mrs. Per- kins was born in the town of Wheeling, Dela- ware county, and has passed the greater part of her life in Muncie, to which city she was brought, when a mere child, by her parents. Mr. Perkins has an enviable reputation both as a citizen and business man, and his success in life has been altogether due to his own efforts. He may be truly styled a self made man, in all the term implies, and his example should serve to encourage others who start out to fight life's battles empty handed. Person- ally, he enjoys great popularity in Muncie and is highly esteemed by all for his integrity, good character and sterling qualities of man-

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hood. He is strictly temperate in his habits, having always abstained from the use of all intoxicants and tobacco, and with his wife be- longs to the Episcopal church, in which he holds the office of vestryman. In a financial sense, Mr. Perkins has met with well deserved success and owns several valuable pieces of property in the city.

J OHN S. PETTY, deceased, was probably one of the most extraordinary, as well as one of the most successful business men that ever resided in the city of Muncie. He was a son of Joshua and Sarah E. (Sheets) Petty, was born at New Paris, Ohio, July 12, 1830, and when a child was taken, by his father, to Wayne county, Ind., where he was reared on the home farm and received a good common school education. At the age of eighteen years, his father having a large family to maintain, he was given his "freedom," and his first business venture was to work one hundred days, at fifty cents per day, for Alvah Macy; he also worked for a while in the saw mill at Economy, Ind., near Hagerstown, and even at that early day the spirit of speculation was made manifest within him. He was commissioned by an old Quaker gentleman to make a purchase of live stock, and his great success in filling this order confirmed this spirit. His father, who origi- nally came from near Winston, N. C., and was married at New Paris, Ohio, moved from Wayne county to Miami county, Ind., and thither young Petty followed, and began buy- ing stock in a comparatively small way, on his own account, realizing handsome profits on every venture. At the age of twenty-three, April 22, 1855, he made his first venture on the sea of matrimony, and wedded Miss Fran- ces Bailey, of Wayne county, Ind., and then

made his appearance in the city of Muncie, the scene of his future business exploits and triumphs. Here he was employed as a clerk in the dry goods store of S. P. & E. Anthony, whom he served about two years, and while with them sus- tained the most serious accidental injury of his life. The firm carried, in addition to their stock of dry goods, a line of groceries, and in an effort to lift a barrel of rice somewhat heavier than the scope of his strength, Mr. Petty strained his spine, and for a year after- ward was invalided. The effect of this injury was to reduce his stature and to render his posture a stoop, but he recovered his health in a general sense, albeit somewhat malformed physically. On his coming to Muncie, with his usual astuteness Mr. Petty had invested his early earnings in western lands, and these he sold at the proper time at handsome profits. With the proceeds he embarked in the dry goods trade about a year before the breaking out of the Civil war. As an instance of his business sagacity, it may be mentioned that on one occasion during the war he had pur- chased a bill of dry goods from a firm in Cin- cinnati, foreseeing the advance in prices forthcoming, and at the same time took an option at duplicating the order-which he did -but the Cincinnati firm saw how they had been overreached by a superior tradesman, and offered Mr. Petty $2,000 to be released from the contract-but Mr. Petty was too far- seeing to consent to any such scheme, and realized a handsome profit. His surplus earn- ings were wisely and judiciously invested in town and city real estate, and with invariably remunerative results. So well established was his reputation for sagacity in business, that he was constantly consulted by his fellow mer- chants and others on all important ventures, and his advice never went amiss. During his mercantile career he never lost sight of the

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fact that there was money in live-stock, and his farm was in a great measure devoted to grazing and breeding, and profitably so.

April 3, 1865, Mr. Petty had the misfortune to lose his wife by consumption. Her four children were also swept away by the same fell disease, two in infancy and two after having reached the years of maturity. The second marriage of Mr. Petty took place September 24, 1867, to Melissa A. Lewis, but a second time death deprived him of his companion, May 28, 1868. August 1, 1869, he was most happily married to Melissa J. Bole, daughter of William Bole, Esq., of Delaware county, Ind., and to this felicitous union two children were born, Wilbur A. and Walter E., both now at home. Mr. Petty continued in active business until 1875, when failing health warned him to retire, and the last seventeen years of his life were devoted to the care of his farm and vast city property, not so much for the purpose of adding to his already large fortune, but more for the reason that he was of that nervous temperament that precluded his being unemployed. He could not abstain, indeed, from working early and late, and while his health was unimpaired, he was vigorous to an extreme. When the time came, however, as it must come to all, he went to Martinsville for a week's rest and recuperation, but he went too late. Tired nature asserted herself, and for two years had tampered with his stomach and eventually with his heart, and on September 13, 1892, the strong man yielded to the inevi- table, and passed to the spirit land at the age of sixty-two years and two months. He had been a life long communicant of the Methodist Episcopal church, and had lived faithfully up to its precepts, and yet he had had an abiding faith in the return to earth of the disembodied spirits of those who had gone before, and with whom he felt assured that he was in constant communication. Mr. Petty was a member of

the I. O. O F., and was fully in accord by nature with that benevolent fraternity, exercis- ing the doctrine of friendship, love and truth in and out of the order, none, really deserving, appealing to him in vain.

EV. ABNER PERDUIE was born, reared and married in Guilford county, N. C. He obtained a most ecxellent classical education and was trained to preach in the Methodist Episcopal church when about seventeen years of age. He was actively engaged in the ministry in his native state and Virginia until about 1831, when he removed his family to Indiana, stopping first, for a few years, in Henry county, then coming to Delaware county. He entered land and settled two miles west of Muncie, where he made a good farm. He taught several schools and did much preaching, and after his remov- al to Indiana changed his relation in church from his early choice to the Protestant Meth- odist. In this relation he organized and started most of the churches of that denomi- nation in Delaware and Henry counties. Mr. Perdiue was a good orator, fine preacher, well versed in the theology of the Bible, always earnest for what he believed was the right, and popular in the pulpit and out. In his day he preached more funeral sermons and solem- nized more marriages than any minister in this part of Indiana. He died in 1876, aged 72 years.

R EV. NER H. PHILLIPS, retired Methodist Episcopal divine, of Mun- cie, Ind., was born in Washington township, Randolph county, Ind., September 11, 1829, and is a son of Thomas and Rebecca (Hammitt) Phillips, natives of

REV. NER H. PHILLIPS.

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Burlington county, N. J., and pioneers of In- diana, who entered 160 acres of land in Ran- dolph county in 1818, and made settlement thereon in 1819. On this farm the father passed the remainder of his life, being called to his final home April 9, 1874, and the mother followed him to his heavenly abode October IO, 1886. They were parents of nine chil- dren, viz: Lydia A., wife of William Millman; Thomas, who died at the age of six years; Welsey, deceased, and William, twins; Rebec- ca, widow of John H. Bakehorn; Ner H., the reverend gentleman whose name opens this sketch; M. H., a merchant of Warsaw; Ancil B., a grocer of Muncie, and Hester Ann, wid- ow of John Hudson, of Lynn, Ind. The par- ents were both sincere in their belief in the tenets of the Methodist church. The father was an industrious, hard-working man, had cleared from the wilderness over 100 acres of his 160 acre farm, and paid for his land twice over through going security for either unscru- pulous or unfortunate neighbors.

Ner H. Phillips assisted in the clearing and the cultivating of his father's farm until he had attained twenty-four years of age, in the meantime, however, availing himself of the means of education that the neighboring schools of the period afforded. He never at- tended college, as the expense of tuition would be too great a hardship for his father to meet; but, following an opposite course, became a mechanic by learning the carpenter's trade, which he followed as an adjunct to farming from the age of eighteen until that of twenty- four -- working in the spring and fall, or before and after the crops had been cared for. Dur- ing the winters of 1850-51-52 he taught school, and then at twenty-four years of age entered the ministry of the Methodist Episco- pal church, receiving appointments to circuits and stations in the following consecutive order: Selma circuit, Delaware county, Ind., one

year; Windsor, Randolph county, one year; Peru station, one year; Selma, again one year; Albany, Delaware county, one year; Marion station, one year; Pendleton, Ind., two years; Williamsburg and Centreville circuit, one year; Knightstown station, two years; Pearl street, Richmond, Ind., two years; Berry street, Fort Wayne, two years; thence to the Simpson chapel, now High Street church, Muncie, and was presiding elder of the Muncie district for four years; then on the Warsaw district for four years, two years in Goshen, Ind., and then again at Knightstown, for two years, but during his second year here his health broke down and he was compelled to rest for a year and one half; he then went to Hartford City for three years, then to Kendall- ville, Ind., two years; to Fishersburg three years. and finally was retired to Muncie with impaired health. But he remains actively em- ployed in church work. During all these years of labor in the ministerial field his piety and eloquence have been duly recognized, and his work in the vineyard of the Lord perforce ac- knowledged. He holds membership in North Indiana conference, which came to him with- out seeking for it, and was twice a delegate to and member of the general conference-once in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1872, and once in Baltimore, Md., in 1876 -- an honor not to be slightingly looked upon.

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A portrait and biographical record of Delaware and Randolph counties, Ind., containing biographical sketches of many prominent and representative citizens, together with biographies and portraits of all of the presidents of the United States, and biographies of the governors of Indiana, Part 38

Author: Publication date: 1894 Publisher: Chicago, A. W. Bowen & Co. Number of Pages: 1474

Author:
Publication date: 1894
Publisher: Chicago, A. W. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 1474