USA > Indiana > Newton County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 35
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > A standard history of Jasper and Newton counties, Indiana : an authentic narrative of the past, with an extended survey of modern developments in the progress of town and country, Volume I > Part 35
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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 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
He was born December 31, 1848, at Rockville, Parke County, Indiana, a son of John Darroch and a grandson of Daniel Darroch. His grandfather came from North Carolina and his ancestors were from the North of Scotland. John Darroch, who was born at Paola, Orange County, Indiana, in 1820, located in Newton County in 1851. Though a graduate of the Indiana Law School at Bloom- ington, he spent his active career as a farmer and stockman. He became the father of nineteen children, sixteen of whom grew to maturity and twelve of whom are still living. These were by two wives, six by the first and thirteen by the second. William Darroch's
"THE BARRACKS" Residence of Judge William Darroch.
The Lewis Pub Co
Jours July William Darrick
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mother was Caroline Puett, of Rockville, Indiana, and a daughter of Austin M. Puett, a pioneer from North Carolina.
William Darroch grew up on his father's farm in Newton County, and received a thorough practical training in the industry of cattle raising. He was too young for service in the Civil war, though two of his older brothers went into the Union army, and their absence from home threw upon his young shoulders at the age of fourteen the duties and responsibilities of a grown man. Many years later when the country fought its next war with Spain, Mr. Darroch was too old for service. From 1871 to 1874 Mr. Darroch was a student in old Asbury, now DePauw University at Greencastle, Indiana, and was graduated with the class of 1874 Bachelor of Science. In connection with other studies he took the law course, and his career ever since he began practice in the spring of 1875 has been primarily devoted to this great profession. How- ever, he followed the business to which he was trained as a boy, that of a cattle raiser, in connection with farming interests, until 1892.
The distinctive feature of Mr. Darroch's career as a lawyer has been its uninterrupted activity for a period of more than forty years. He has the record of not having missed a single term of court in Newton County since he started practice, and of having pioneered the work of all public improvement in the county authorized by statute. He has been engaged in many important cases, and of special note was his work from 1887 to 1889 in securing, through an act of the Indiana Legislature, the title to about 16,000 acres of land in Newton County, known as the bed of Beaver Lake. This litigation involved some very interesting history on the subject of land titles.
He has also been fairly successful in a business way, though this success has been more of an incident to than a purpose of his life. He now owns three good farms, comprising 634 acres, has been a director in the Discount and Deposit State Bank since its organiza- tion in 1908, and is a director of the Newton County Stone Company, having become interested in 1913 in the development of its stone quarry near Kentland, which has already become a successful insti- tution and has furnished some fine road material for public high- ways and is contributing to the development of Newton County, already noted for its excellent highways.
The only public office to which Mr. Darroch was ever elected was that of township trustee of Beaver Township. He held that office two successive terms. It was a case where the voters laid aside their politics for the purpose of having the affairs of the township, which had become embarrassed, rendered financially sound. It required four years to accomplish this. At the outset of his term the debts of the special school fund exceeded the value of all the school property real and personal in the township. At the end of four years Mr. Darroch turned over to his successor a township free from debt and with a fair working balance in all the funds.
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That was accomplished without any excessive taxation. In 1890 he was appointed by Governor Mathews judge of the Thirtieth Judicial Circuit of the state, but served only four months, being defeated at the next regular election. Mr. Darroch is a democrat, and the fact that his locality has been strongly republican accounts for the brevity of his political record. He has always been inter- ested in politics, believing it a civic duty to do so, and has usually accepted such nomination as has been conferred by his party, though without expectation of success. He was candidate for Congress from the Tenth Congressional District in 1906 and again in 1908, and though failing of election he had the satisfaction of reducing the normal majority of his opponent much below that given in previous years. He was a delegate to the National, Democratic Convention from the Tenth Congressional District of Indiana in 1916. Mr. Dar- roch never had but one fraternal affiliation, and that was with the Knights of Pythias. While not a member he has been a con- tributor to religious organizations, and he is a working member of the Hazel Den Golf Club, the golf club maintained by George Ade on his farm in Newton County.
On July 23, 1878, Mr. Darroch married Emma V. Sammons, who was born at Wellandport, Canada. To their marriage have been born two daughters, Ethel M. and Laura V. Ethel is married and has two sons, William and Robert.
EDGAR L. BRUCE. Here is a name that has been identified with Jasper County more than sixty years. It has become honored and respected through long years of successive industry, business integ- rity and moral character. Few families of the county have been longer established, and none have borne their part in community affairs with greater credit to themselves and with more practical usefulness to the community than the Bruces. The late Henry C. Bruce was an early settler, a thrifty farmer and stock man, develop- ing a large tract of land and becoming known all over this part of Indiana for his ability in handling stock, and he left a fine family to honor his memory and to continue the good work begun by him in the early days. Two of his brothers, Lawrence and Charles Bruce, accompanied him to Lafayette, Indiana. Lawrence Bruce died in Rensselaer in 1852, at the age of about forty- five years, and he had served as county recorder. Charles Bruce died in Lawrence, Kansas, about 1855. He had been a very successful lumber merchant there for about forty years. Henry Bruce was a well educated man, and taught school for five years in or near Lafayette. From there he came to Delphi, where he followed mercantile pursuits for four years, and then took up his residence in Jasper County, Indiana. One of his sons whose life has been spent in the same honorable activity in Jasper County is Edgar L. Bruce. The latter was born June 14, 1851, and his birthplace is in easy view of his present residence in Marion Town-
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ship of Jasper County. He is one of the six living children in a family of eight born to Henry C. and Harriet E. (Babcock) Bruce, his father having been born near Rutland, Vermont, and his mother near Rochester, New York. The names of their children were: El- bert J., who died at the age of twenty-two; Edgar L .; Annette, who is now Mrs. Warren B. Rowley and lives in South Dakota; Ruby, Mrs. George Barcus of Wabash, Indiana; Adaline, Mrs. B. E. Comer of Union Township, Jasper County; Charles F., who married Anna Wilson and lives in California; George, who mar- ried Edna Watson of Stuttgart, Arkansas; and Harry, who died when three years of age. All but the last of these children grew to useful manhood and womanhood, and they were all school teachers at some time in their lives. Henry C. Bruce, who was reared as a farmer with New England antecedents, came west to Indiana in the late '3os or early '40s, and for a time was engaged in teaching in the public schools of Lafayette. Subsequently he was in the mer- cantile business at Delphi. In the latter part of the '40s he removed to Jasper County, which though it had been organized in 1837 still had a population to the square mile hardly as great as will now be found in the semi-arid districts of the Far West. Thus he came upon the stage of pioneer life in Jasper County, and was able to secure 640 acres of land direct from the government at the regula- tion price of a dollar and a quarter per acre. His land was in Sections 4 and 5 in Marion Township, southeast of Rensselaer, a part of which family estate is now owned by his son Edgar L. Bruce. Henry C. Bruce on securing this land built from rough lumber a house of limited comforts and conveniences, and started the heavy task of clearing and improving his land. His lot was that of the early pioneer, with all its hardships and privations, and he was a factor in the many changes that occurred during the last half of the nineteenth century, spent his later years in prosperity and comfort and died in April, 1900. He was a man above the average even of the hardy pioneers. He possessed a collegiate education, and was always well informed on the subject of current interests. He joined the Baptist Church at Lafayette about 1848, and after removing to Jasper County became one of the organizers of the Missionary Baptist Church at Rensselaer, in which church he held office and active membership to the day of his death. While living on and occupying the large farm, he was essentially a stock man. He raised large herds of cattle and sheep, and proved un- usually skillful and successful in handling stock. Physically he was a large man, stood six feet in his stockings, had a corresponding vigor and vitality, and his many sterling qualities commanded the respect of an entire community. In the early days, like his neigh- bors, the latchstring of his home was always on the outside for the wayfarer, and it is said that no one ever left his home hungry. Though a strong republican, he was never an aspirant for public office. He died at Rensselaer at the home of a married daughter.
Vol. I-24
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With the example of his father before him, Edgar L. Bruce has spent all his life in Jasper County, and is a product of its early institutions and environment. His education came from the neighboring district schools, and like the other children he qualified himself for the duties of a teacher. He started out for himself at the age of twenty-one, though still making his home with his parents. On March 1, 1877, he was married to Miss Kansas Lefler, a daughter of Michael and Jane (Overton) Lefler, who were Jasper County farmers. To their marriage were born three children: Lora L., wife of John G. Culp; Harley, who lives near Crawfords- ville, Indiana; and Lawson L., whose home is in Rensselaer.
The attractive farm home of Mr. Bruce comprises 200 acres of land and practically his entire life has been spent in the immediate neighborhood of his birth. He is a republican of the stalwart kind, while he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church of Rensselaer.
GEORGE CULP. Of those names which are identified with the very earliest settlement of Jasper County that of Culp is one that claims attention, and on other pages various references are made to the Culps in Barkley Township.
The founder of the family was George Culp, who was born in West Virginia, or as it was then western Virginia, March 8, 1800. He grew up in his home state, and on December 7, 1827, married Mary Burton. His brother-in-law was Samuel Randle, another of the most prominent pioneers of Jasper County, whose sketch will be found on other pages. Culp and Randle both emigrated from the East to Indiana in 1832, and in the fall of 1834, leaving their families in Tippecanoe County, they came into what is now Bark- ley Township of Jasper County and spent several months in cutting hay and building log cabins, to which they removed their families in the following year. George Culp and wife had the following children : Harriett Ann, William G., James, Elizabeth J., Maria, John T., Matilda P., Nancy R., Rachel J. and Walter. Of these Rachel J., Walter and John T. are still living. George Culp the pioneer died April 18, 1847, survived by his widow until October 22, 1871. Both were Methodist Church people and were among the first members of that society in Jasper County.
Of the children of George Culp and wife, John T. Culp was born December 2, 1836, and is one of the oldest native sons of Jasper County, having been born in Barkley Township before the formal organization of Jasper County. He is a man of many interesting recollections, and recalls some of his early experiences with farming methods long since obsolete. In the early days he watched the men thresh the wheat by driving horses around over the unthreshed straw, trampling out the grain with their feet. He has also seen the work so familiar among the pioneers of hackling
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flax. He grew up in Barkley Township and for seventy-three years lived on the place where he was born, a substantial farm of ninety- eight acres. The last six years he has spent retired in Rensselaer. John T. Culp married Mrs. Victoria (Wade) Tennehill. Their two children were: Ursula, who died in early childhood; and John G., who is a farmer of Marion Township.
John G. Culp was born May 20, 1874. He was married April 10, 1912, to Lora L. Bruce, daughter of Edgar L. Bruce. Mr. and Mrs. John G. Culp have one daughter, Mary Kathryn, born Decem- ber 6, 1913.
B. FRANK ALTER. The Alter family has been identified with Jasper County since the period of early settlement and develop- ment. The members in the different generations have been known as successful farmers, as men of enterprise in an industrial direc- tion, and always as citizens of irreproachable character and effec- tive public spirit.
One of the well known residents of Rensselaer is B. Frank Alter, who was born in Clinton County, Indiana, February 28, 1865. His father, Benjamin F. Alter was born in Pennsylvania Febru- ary 8, 1835, a son of John Alter. The Alters came to this part of Northwestern Indiana in pioneer times, John Alter locating in Carpenter Township, where he did some effective work in clearing up a tract of land and spent many years as a farmer in that local- ity. A son, Benjamin F. Alter, was a machinist by trade, and this genius for mechanics has been an important factor in the various moves and activities of the family. In early days Benjamin F. Alter operated a sawmill, finally removed to Clinton County, con- ducted a tile factory there, and returning to Jasper County was for three years at the head of the tile factory which for many years has been located as an institution two miles north of Rensselaer. Benjamin F. Alter gave some service as a soldier during the clos- ing months of the Civil war, enlisting in the 154th Indiana Volun- teer Infantry in Company E. He married Louisa V. Sims, and of their eight children two are now deceased. When Benjamin F. Alter died in Clinton County on December 4, 1914, he left a record which may properly be prized by his descendants. As a boy he had limited advantages in the way of schools, but was almost a con- stant reader and from this source and by a faculty of keen observa- tion he gained a somewhat unusual knowledge of men and affairs and of passing events. He was hard working, and that quality was the foundation of his success, and in his lifetime he had accumulated property to the value of about $40,000, a very comfortable fortune. Fraternally he was affiliated with the Masonic Order and was a member of the Baptist Church.
B. Frank Alter spent his early life on the farm, and gained
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his education in the public schools and at Franklin College. Possess- ing good native business ability, he has applied himself successfully to a varied line of enterprises. For a time he operated a sawmill in North Carolina and for eight years had the management of the tile factory located two miles north of Rensselaer. For several years his home has been in Rensselaer and his somewhat extensive interests in farming and other affairs give him ample occupation for his time and energies. He is the owner of eighty acres of land in Jasper County and also has some property in Clinton County.
In politics Mr. Alter is a democrat. He was married December 24, 1905, to Miss Maude Hemphill, daughter of Marcus H. and Matilda J. (Baker) Hemphill of Rensselaer, and Mrs. Alter is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
MOSES F. FRENCH. While not a native son of Jasper County, Moses F. French has for fully forty years been identified with its agricultural activities and its material improvements, and having endured nearly all the hardships which went with pioneer farm- ing in this section of Indiana, he is well entitled to the rewards of peaceful retirement, which he now enjoys in the village of Reming- ton. His own labor has been the measure of his success, and his has been a steady upward progress since he left home during his youth.
His is one of the old American families. His grandfather, Aaron French, was born September 8, 1739, nearly half a century before the American colonies were united under the constitution as . a Union of States. He died August 31, 1805, at Amity, Penn- sylvania. The father of the Remington octogenarian was Asa French, who was the seventh child by Aaron French's marriage to Mary Clark. Asa was born July 8, 1780, in Essex County, New Jersey, and died August 9, 1845, in Miami County, Ohio. He moved from Greene County, Pennsylvania, to Miami County, Ohio, in 18II, and was one of the very early settlers in that part of the Buckeye State. In 1801 he married for his first wife Sarah Jackson who was born April 24, 1780, and died March 26, 1820. She became the mother of eleven children. Asa French married for his second wife Hannah Davis, who was born February 19, 1800, near Lex- ington, Kentucky, and died near Troy, Ohio, March 5, 1883. The oldest living child of Asa French is Mrs. Sarah French Ripley, who is now living at Brookston and is probably the oldest person in White County. She was born June 25, 1825. By his second marriage Asa French had twelve children, and altogether was the father of twenty-three. He followed farming as his occupation, was an energetic and hard working citizen, and came of the strong, long lived stock that is characteristic of this family.
The seventh of his mother's twelve children, Moses Frazer French was born February 21, 1832, near Troy, Miami County,
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Ohio. His lifetime covers a period of more than fourscore years, and his birth occurred while Andrew Jackson was still president of the United States. As a boy he had limited schooling in such institutions as were maintained on the subscription plan in his native section of Ohio, and most of his discipline came by hard work on the home farm until he was twenty-four years of age. In 1856 Mr. French came to Indiana and located in Prairie Township of White County, where he engaged in farming until erysipelas crippled him for that work and he then returned to Miami County. From 1860 to 1865 he employed his time in teaching school in his native county, and then returned to Prairie Township, White County.
On March 6, 1866, Mr. French married Martha Catherine Jordan. Her father, William Jordan was one of the very early settlers in White County. Mrs. French died October 7, 1878, and is buried in the Gilboa Cemetery in Benton County. There is only one child by her marriage, Independence, now the wife of Harry Bal- this, a paymaster in the United States navy, and their home is at Washington. Mr. and Mrs. Balthis have three children, Madge M., Edith and Herbert. On August 2, 1888, Mr. French married for his second wife Sarah Belle Pitts. Her family were also among the early settlers of White County.
After his first marriage Mr. French engaged in the lumber busi- ness for one year at Brookston, then conducted a general store there for more than three years, and from town moved on to a farm in West Point Township of White County. That was his home until the fall of 1875, when he came to Carpenter Township in Jasper County, locating just outside the city limits of Remington. That has been his home ever since, and out of his hard work and thrifty management of farm and other business matters he has effected a competence. Mr. French still owns about seventy acres of land and has considerable town property in Remington.
Though not a politician, Mr. French has long been identified with the republican party, practically ever since its organization, filled a place on the town board of Brookston and was one of the school trustees there. For years he has steadily exerted all his influence in behalf of better roads, the construction of ditches for drainage, and every improvement that would make this a better district. Though past eighty years of age, Mr. French is a wonderfully well preserved man, is large and strong and has a heart as big as his body.
SAMUEL LONG AND ABRAM F. LONG. Very few people now living can recall the time when the site of Rensselaer was covered by only a few houses and its importance as a trading community meas- ured by the possession of one store. Such was the condition in 1848 when Samuel Long, one of the pioneers of Jasper County, first
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located there. Continuously since that date, a period of more than sixty-five years, some member of the Long family has been actively identified with the life and enterprise of Jasper and Newton Counties. One of the oldest and best known business men of Rens- selaer is Abram F. Long, son of the pioneer just mentioned.
The first settler, Samuel Long, was born in the State of Mary- land in 1824 and there grew to manhood and served an apprentice- ship at the tailor's trade, though he never followed that as a voca- tion. In early manhood he made a journey through the West, and was so attracted by the appearance of the country around Rens- selaer that he decided to locate there permanently. In a short time he left Rensselaer and moved to Newton Township in Jasper County and began farming on rented land. His steady industry finally brought him landed possessions of his own, and some years later he moved to Newton County, and for many years was one of the solid farmers of this section.
His first marriage was with a Miss Stewart, who became the mother of a son and a daughter, both of them now deceased. After her death Samuel Long married Sarah Ann Freeland, whose parents were early settlers in Jasper County. To their marriage were born five children, and the three that reached maturity were Abram F., Edward and Addie, the last being the wife of W. W. Miller of Mount Ayr.
The late Samuel Long had a characteristic which he probably inherited from his Southern environment when a youth and which made his home one of pleasant associations for many people out- side his own family, and that was hospitality. He stood high in the community as a neighbor and a citizen, and although a demo- crat living in a normal republican community, his personal char- acter elevated him above the ordinary party prejudices so that he was frequently elected to township offices. He was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in religion was a be- liever in the doctrines of the Hard Shell Baptists. His rigid hon- esty and scrupulous integrity were pronounced, and for this reason his career is one most satisfying to contemplate, though he never acquired great wealth. He was a man of clean habits and moral ideals, and left behind him a stainless name. He died March 13, 1895, and his widow survived him until February 8, 1910.
His son Abram F. Long has for many years been proprietor of the leading drug store at Rensselaer. He was born November 7, 1862, on the old homestead in Newton Township of Jasper County, and was reared there and in Newton County, whither his parents removed when he was a boy. His early education came from the public schools, and when about eighteen he acquired his first ex- perience in the business which has subsequently become his per- manent vocation by hiring out as a clerk in a drug store at Rens- selaer. A year later he returned to the home farm and assisted in its cultivation until he was twenty-two. In 1883 he again came
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to Rensselaer as a drug clerk, followed that employment three years, and then with an eye to the future took a short course in the Chi- cago School of Pharmacy. This was followed by another experi- ence as a clerk, and in 1886 he returned to the Chicago College of Pharmacy from which he was graduated with his diploma in the spring of 1887. As a registered. pharmacist he had some experi- ence in the city of Chicago, and from there returned to Rensselaer and became a partner in a local drug store. In 1890 he bought out his partner, and since that time the drug store of A. F. Long has been one of the business fixtures of Rensselaer, and its continuous standing of a quarter of a century makes it one of the oldest con- cerns in the city. About 1907 Mr. Long bought the ground and erected the home of his present business.
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