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 II > Part 10
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 II > Part 10
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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 | Part 41 | Part 42
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At the age of twenty years Mr. Biddle initiated his independent career by engaging in farming on shares, in Indiana. Later he broadened his experience by teaching in rural schools and clerking in mercantile establishments in Indiana, to which state he came in 1865, shortly prior to the celebration of his twentieth birthday anni- versary. During the first five years of his residence in Indiana Mr. Biddle maintained his home in Montgomery County, and he then removed to Benton County, where he rented land and engaged in farming in Gilboa Township. After three years of operations under these conditions he purchased a tract of 160 acres in Gilboa Township, contiguous to the Jasper County line, this property hav- ing virtually no improvements of appreciable order and but a minor part of the tract having been brought under cultivation. With characteristic energy and circumspection he bent his efforts to the reclaiming and improving of the property, which is now one of the most valuable and productive farms in Benton County and the ownership of which he still retains, the place, as previously inti- mated, being but 214 miles distant from Remington, to which village he removed in December, 1912. Here he has since lived virtually retired, finding adequate demands upon his time and attention in according a general supervision of his farm and varied capitalistic interests and having no desire to make retirement imply inactivity or sybaritic ease.
. Mr. Biddle was one of the organizers of the Remington State Bank, was its first vice-president and later served one year as president. He continued a member of its directorate until 1914 and is still one of its stockholders. Mr. Biddle is vice-president of the Fountain Park Assembly, and was one of the organizers of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Association of Benton, White and Jasper Counties, of which he served six years as president. He has exercised large and conspicuous influence also in almost every other undertaking that has inured to the development and progress of Remington and vicinity, and has stood exponent of vigorous and helpful civic loyalty. He headed the petition for the first gravel road in this section, the same starting at the line between Jasper and Benton counties and continuing to Fowler, the judicial center of the latter county. In his honor this highway has been named the Biddle Gravel Road. At the time of this writing, in the autumn of 1915, Mr. Biddle is the Indiana vice-president of the Farmers' National Congress, in the affairs and work of which splendid organ- ization he has taken vital interest.
In politics Mr. Biddle is found staunchly aligned in the ranks of the progressive republican party, which has always held his allegiance; he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity; and for several years past has held the office of commander of the Remington post of the Grand Army of the Republic, through his affiliation with which he perpetuates the more gracious memories and associations of his youthful military career. Both he and his good wife hold
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membership in the Missionary Baptist Church, and in all consistency may it be said that their circle of friends is limited only by that of their acquaintances. Identified with Sunday school work, Mr. Biddle helped to organize the first rural Sunday school in the vicin- ity of his father's home in Illinois, and acted as secretary, and taught a class in the school. He also helped to organize the first Sunday school of the Missionary Baptist Church at Waynetown, and was its secretary and taught the Men's Bible class. He helped to organ- ize one, superintended two Sabbath schools at different times in Benton County, and is now teaching an organized adult ladies' class in the Presbyterian Sunday school in Remington. He helped to organize and was president of the first farmers' club in Gilboa Township, Benton County, and also petitioned for and had granted the first public ditch in his vicinity. It drains a great deal of valuable land, and bears liis name. He also took an active part in farmers' institute work, was president of the Farmers' Institute at Reming- ton and an advocate of better and more scientific farming; helped to organize the first Horse Thief Detective Association in Gilboa Township, Benton County, and acted as its president and was also a charter member of a horse thief detective company at Waynetown, Indiana, when the Wabash Valley was infested with horse thieves and saw some service in running them down and bringing them to justice.
On January 17, 1869, Mr. Biddle married Miss Lydia J. Merrell of Waynetown, Montgomery County, in which vicinity she was born and reared. Of their two children the firstborn died in infancy.
Daniel W. Biddle, the only living son of Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Biddle, is one of the prominent young agriculturists of Benton County. He received a good education, first in the local common schools, the Remington High School and two years in the State University at Bloomington. He married Miss Janie Bartee, a native of Downers Grove, Illinois, and of English-Scotch parentage. She is a graduate of the Remington High School. There were two children born to their union: Chester B., a first year's student in the Remington High School; and Charles J.
Daniel Biddle and wife are both members of the Presbyterian Church at Remington and he is superintendent of the Sunday School and also on the church official board. He is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is president of the Farmers Elevator Company at Remington and secretary of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of Benton, Jasper and White counties, and a director in the Remington State Bank. He resides on his own farm of 160 acres in Benton County and he also has eighty acres in White County.
Dan Merrell, father of Mrs. Jerome H. Biddle, was one of the prominent early settlers and citizens of Montgomery County, Indi- ana. He was born in Butler County, Ohio, in 1819, and died after a long and useful and honorable career, May 4, 1894. His last years Vol. 11 -- 6
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were spent on a fine country home in Wayne Township of Mont- gomery County. His grandfather was a native of England, but born of German parentage, and he died in Ohio in the fullness of time. Benjamin Merrell, father of Dan, was born in Ohio, repre- senting a pioneer family and in turn himself becoming a pioncer, migrating with his wife and children to Montgomery County, Indi- ana, in 1827. He was one of the first to settle in what is now Ripley Township, locating on a tract of government land on the Perryville Road and spending his few remaining years in the hard task of producing a farm from the forest. Death stayed his labors in 1833. His widow survived until an advanced age in 1879. Their six children were : Dan ; Sarah, who married William White; Anna, who first married a Mr. Boyd, and later a Mr. Brown; Effie, who married Mr. White; James, who was born after the family came to Indiana and married Miss Rosanna Recde; and John, who fought with an Iowa regiment during the Civil war and died from disease contracted in the army .
Starting out for himself, Dan Merrell went to Waynetown and worked at his trade as a cooper, but subsequently bought eighty acres of land and paid for it by working at his trade. He added to his first purchase until his homestead comprised about 100 acres, and it was well equipped with buildings and all improvements neces- sary to make a valuable country estate. Early in his career his house and much of his property were destroyed by fire, but by patient labor he made up the loss and spent his last years in com- fortable circumstances.
In Wayne Township of Montgomery County he married in 1843 Ann Tracy, daughter of Basil Tracy. Her death occurred in 1861, after they had lived happily together for eighteen years. Their eight children were: Mary Elizabeth, who was born in 1844 and married Mr. Shipman; Sarah Ann, who was born in 1847 and died in 1848; Lydia, who was born in 1849 and is Mrs. J. H. Biddle; Thomas, born in 1851 ; Basil T., who was born in 1853 and married a Miss Bonnell; Nancy A., born in 1856; William B., born in 1858; and John D., born in 1860. In 1863 Dan Merrell married Mary Combs, who was born in Kentucky. She died in 1891, about three years before her husband.
Dan Merrell lived an exemplary life, in keeping with the pre- cepts and teachings of Christianity, and for many years was active in the Baptist Church. He was always interested in politics as a democrat, and filled with credit a number of local offices. He was justice of the peace and assessor for six years and at one time supervisor of the township.
HENRY T. GRIGGS. It is not only as one of the oldest residents but as one of the most successful business men and most public spirited citizens that Henry T. Griggs is known in Newton County, where he has had his home almost half a
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century. While he is now living retired in a handsome and com- fortable residence at Goodland, his influence is still felt in the pulse of business activity, and he is generally reputed to be the richest citizen of Goodland and has some of the largest and best real estate hollings in the county. Mr. Griggs has well deserved all his fair prosperity, since in his earlier years he put no dependence upon influential friends or upon luck as an element in fortune, but succeeded by doing the duty nearest to him and constantly working for the future.
So far as the records of history state, Henry T. Griggs was probably the first white boy born in Morris, Grundy County, Illi- nois. His birth occurred there October 29, 1845, at what was then the village of Morris. His parents were Peter and Catherine ( Moore) Griggs, natives of Pennsylvania and of English and Ger- man stock. They were among the early settlers in Grundy County, Illinois, and his father built the second house in the village of Morris.
In that locality IIenry T. Griggs grew to manhood, gained an education in the local schools, and was not yet nineteen years of age when he volunteered his services to the defense of the Union. He enlisted at Morris January 2, 1864, in Company C of the 76th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He was in the army until gaining bis honorable discharge at Springfield, Illinois, June 6, 1866. He fought in the ranks, and his most important service was in the storming of Fort Blakely, on Mobile Bay. In that engagement the detach- ment of forty-six men of which he was a member lost nineteen in the brief period of eighteen minutes. He was also in several other skirmishes.
After his return as a veteran soldier, he spent two years on a farm in Grundy County, Illinois, and then in 1868 identified hini- self permanently with Newton County as an early settler in Iroquois Township. His location was in Section 34, and there he started farming and general stock raising, at first on a modest scale, until his efforts brought him a cumulative prosperity, and gradually his interests extended until he became an important land holder and one of the county's leading business men.
From his farm in Iroquois Township Mr. Griggs moved to Goodland in 1888, and now for more than a quarter of a century has been identified with that town. On March 29, 1889, he mar- ried Miss Clara Retterath, a daughter of Peter and Clara Ret- terath of Iroquois Township. Her parents were among the very carly settlers there, and were of German descent. Two children were born to their marriage: Frank died in infancy, and Ella T. is the wife of George O. Bales and they live in Goodland.
Ever since the war Mr. Griggs has been a steady supporter of the republican party. He served as a member of the town board for one term, two terms as county commissioner, but cach time his election to office was in response to a general demand
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and not of his own seeking. He is affiliated with Lodge No. 445, Free and Accepted Masons; with the Knights of Pythias at Good- land, and with Goodland Post No. 57, Grand Army of the Repub- lic, in which he has taken much interest and has served as past commander. Mr. Griggs was one of the organizers of The State Trust & Savings Bank of Goodland and is still one of its directors. He was associated with Grant Hall and L. A. Wiels as receivers for the defunct Goodland Bank. Altogether Mr. Griggs owns about 1,000 acres of land in this section of Indiana and most of it is thoroughly improved and productive of crops and live stock. He is well able to retire and may take great satisfaction in reviewing the busy and productive past.
JOUIN FRANKLIN BRUNER. He who would reach the goal of prosperity must travel by the road of diligence. There are few short cuts, and these are closed to the average wayfarer on life's journey. The most successful men are usually the hardest work- ers, and it is generally the case that the hardest workers in every community are its most representative citizens. Among the stirring, successful men of Jasper County is John Franklin Bruner, whose record as farmer, business man, and promoter of an important public enterprise deserves a place in this volume. Mr. Bruner is a native of this state, having been born on a farm in Wabash County, February 28, 1860. When only four years old he was left an orphan by the death of his parents, Joseph and Lydia Bruner, and when eight years old he was brought to Jasper County by his married sister, Mrs. Mary E. Robinson. He was practically reared in Keener Township, and although his sister treated him well and did for him what she could, he was deprived as a child of parental love and care. His educational advantages were extremely limited and such knowledge as he has was principally obtained through reading and observation. Until he was twenty years old he was employed in farming, after which he embarked in mer- cantile pursuits, beginning in a small way at Demotte. For a short time he conducted business alone, after which he took as partner Seth J. Bentley, and they operated a store together until 1883. Mr. Bruner then disposed of his interests to his partner and resumed farming, locating for this purpose in Marion Town- ship. From there he went to Pleasant Ridge, and then back to Demotte, his return to the latter place being in or about 1895. Here he against engaged in mercantile business, but later sold out and moved to Surrey, where he conducted a store in association with his brother-in-law, G. M. Wilcox. After awhile, however, Demotte again attracted him and he returned and resumed business there. Soon after he was elected trustee of Keener Township and served by re-elections some 71/2 years. In 1895 Mr. Bruner came to Rensselaer as proprietor of the Makeever Hotel, which he operated two years. He then associated himself with Abraham Halleck
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in establishing a telephone exchange in Rensselaer for the Halleck Telephone Company. This enterprise having proved successful, Mr. Bruner continued in the telephone business with Mr. Halleck and Dr. Merry, establishing an exchange at Mount Ayr, and even- tually, with Dr. J. W. Merry, obtaining control of the south half of Jasper County, Mr. Halleck controlling the north half. Later, by special agreement, arrangement was made with the Jasper Telephone Company to do the switch work in Rensselaer for them. Some time after this Mr. Bruner and Dr. Merry separated their interests, Mr. Bruner assuming control of the business at Rensselaer and Dr. Merry at Mount Ayr. In April, 1915, Mr. Bruner bought the Dr. Merry interests at Mount Ayr and controlled the two until June 1, 1915, when he sold the Rensselaer part to the Jasper County Telephone Company. He yet, however, owns the Mount Ayr exchange.
Mr. Bruner is a republican in politics with strong progressive tendencies. He is an Encampment degree Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias, while his religious affiliations are with the Methodist Episcopal Church. To his marriage with Mahala J. Wilcox, solemnized on his twenty-first birthday, six children have been born : Jesse Franklin, Ora Fern, Earl E., True, Cora J. and Marie.
BENJAMIN WALTER PRATT, M. D. In the well chosen words of the minister who spoke the funeral address after the death of Dr. Pratt at Goodland on April 16, 1913, "it is not in my power to say anything that will add to your esteem and love for your physician, your neighbor, your friend. Yet you are unwilling to place his body in the tomb without some expression of love and reference. Some offering of praise to God for the gift he bestowed on our brother. A community's glory is not in its size or wealth, but in its collected glory of her men. Such men have a right to a monument, not of marble alone, but in warm hearts and emulation of their best in our lives."
In those few words is found perhaps the best expression of the esteem in which the late Dr. Pratt was held in Goodland and the surrounding country for his many years of faithful and un- selfish service, not only as a physician, but as a friend, banker and business man, and one who exerted his influence without stint for the welfare of a better and greater Goodland.
He was born at Johnstown, Ohio, February 6, 1859, and had finished his life work at the age of fifty-four. His parents were Dr. Benjamin W. and Jane M. (Bean) Pratt, also natives of Ohio and of old Yankee stock. The father was likewise a successful physi- cian, but lived on a farm for many years.
It was on that old Ohio farm that the late Dr. Pratt grew to manhood. After finishing the course of the public high school, lie took up the study of medicine under Dr. William Page, and in 1882 he took his degree M. D. from the Starling Medical College of Col-
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umbus, Ohio. At that time his uncle and aunt, Cary M. and Meroa W. Hopkins, lived in Goodland and it was through their influence that the young physician identified himself with Newton County in May following his graduation. Here he was in practice as a partner of Dr. Lovett until June, 1883. He then decided to change his location, going first to Kokomo and back to his native village of Johnstown, Ohio, where he practiced about two years. While in Goodland he had built up a circle of warm and admiring friends, and it was at their repeated solicitation that he returned to the community in 1885 .. That was thenceforth his home and the scene of his best endeavors for nearly thirty years. For twenty-two years he practiced medicine in Goodland and vicinity. He was de- voted to his profession, kept abreast of all development, and was re- garded as almost faultless in his power as a diagnostician and also in those finer faculties which have been so much estecmed in the type of the old family physician. He had lofty ideals and was a man of great breadth of sympathy and continued in practice until his health and strength would no longer permit, and retired in 1904.
What he accomplished as a constructive business man should not be allowed to pass unmentioned. He became president of the First National Bank of Goodland when it was organized on August 15, 1905, and held that position until his death. In 1897 he became president of the Newton County Building & Loan Asso- ciation, directed its affairs until they were in a most prosperous condition, then from 1903 to 1911 was connected with the asso- ciation as vice president and at the latter date resumed his former position as president. For many years he was a member of the school board, and the closing of the schools during his funeral was a deserved tribute to what he had done in their behalf. In fact, all business in the town was suspended during the hour of his funeral and men of all classes united in this impressive acknowledg- ment of the position and influence he had long held. Not only in his home community but in this entire section of Indiana was he known and respected. A large number of his brother physicians gathered and paid their distinctive tribute to his memory. He was a member of the State Medical Society, and was a staunch repub- lican politically.
On February 9, 1887, Dr. Pratt married Miss Leona Petit. Her parents Antoine and Felicie Petit were natives of France and coming to America in the early '50s settled in Iroquois County, Illinois. Surviving Dr. Pratt are his widow Mrs. Pratt and one daughter, Mary Lucile, wife of Von D. Johnson of Kokomo. Mrs. Johnson is the mother of two children, Felicie Jane and Benjamin Pratt. Dr. Pratt also left a brother, Father Robert Pratt of Koko- mo and a sister Mrs. Laura Recher of Morocco.
In order to give this brief record of an important life in Newton County as a proper conclusion should be quoted the words of an editorial that appeared in the Goodland Herald. "This commun-
V
LOLA ESTHER SKINNER
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1.1
MAPLE LAWN Residence of Mr. and Mrs. James Skinner.
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ity has lost a man who was first to place a shoulder to the wheel of progress and benefit. As a practicing physician he entered almost every home and has administered medical aid which saved many lives, and there were those who when in financial need have placed their troubles before him, and if he found them worthy and sin- cere they were given aid. After he had retired from the practice of medicine he assisted the family physician in cases that were hard to master and would not take a cent for his services.
"The doctor was a great temperance worker and the fruits of his labors are now in evidence-the saloons having been closed. He was a firm believer in the laws of our country and always lent his aid to have them enforced in his community. He was a man who united sound sense with strong convictions, and a candid, out- spoken temper, eminently fitted to mold the rude elements of pioneer society into form and consistency and aid in raising a high standard of citizenship in our young and growing county."
JAMES SKINNER. Perhaps no part of Jasper County is more substantially settled than is Carpenter Township. There large farms prevail and the land is well cultivated and well improved. A num- ber of the prosperous farmers and stockraisers here are members of families established here when pioneer conditions yet prevailed and these families have had much to do with the developing of the land and establishing the present high state of civilization. A prom- inent family of this type bears the name of Skinner and a leading member is James Skinner, who resides on his valuable farm of 100 acres, situated on section 33, Carpenter Township. He also has eighty acres in White County, making a total of 180 acres.
James Skinner was born at Sandwich, Illinois, August 12, 1866, and is a son of Samuel J. and Fannie (Daykin) Skinner. Both parents were born in England, the father in Nottinghamshire, November 22, 1827, and the mother in Derbyshire, December 21, 1827. They married there and afterward, on January 19, 1866, sailed for the United States, reaching the harbor of New York on February 8 of the same year. Samuel Skinner desired to follow an agricultural life and in search of suitable environment and con- ditions, brought his family to Sandwich, Illinois. He was prac- tically without capital but he possessed courage and industry and soon found employment and engaged in farming near Sandwich for eleven years. He then moved to White County, Indiana, and in- vested in eighty acres of land in Princeton Township and for many years thereafter engaged successfully in general farming and stock- raising, making a specialty of hogs. The last ten years of his life were spent with his son James, in Carpenter Township, where he owned 100 acres of well improved land at the time of his death, on March 12, 1913, having survived his wife eleven years, she pass- ing away on August 30, 1902. They had four children, three of whom died in infancy. Samuel Skinner and wife were members
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of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They were estimable in every relation of life and were very highly respected. Mr. Skinner identified himself with the republican party but he never consented to serve in any public capacity.
James Skinner was educated in the public schools. Ile has de- voted his life to agricultural pursuits, adopting progressive methods. His farm has been well tiled and is all under cultivation and the substantial improvements have all been made by Mr. Skinner. He has been very successful in raising a fine grade of stock. Mr. Skinner is one of the intelligent, wide awake agriculturists and his land, stock and surroundings all give proof of excellent manage- ment.
On March 27, 1895, James Skinner was united in marriage with Miss Mary C. Long, who was born in Jasper County, Indiana, Feb- ruary 14, 1866, the fifth of the six children born to Oliver M. and Charlotte (Hudson) Long. The children are all living and are: Sarah E., the wife of E. H. Blake, a farmer of Wabash, Indiana; Joseph E., a blacksmith at Milburne, Texas, married Mary Johns ; Emma J., the wife of Perry Coon, a farmer at Oto, Iowa; Martha J., the wife of Christopher Routh, of Remington, Indiana; Mrs. Skin- ner; and Charlotte C., the wife of William Weiss, of Wabash, Indiana. Mr. Long, the father, was a native of the State of Mary- land, was reared, educated and married there, and became an agri- culturist. He gave his political support to the democratic party, and was a member of the United Brethren Church. At the time of the refnoval West the family located in Cass County, Indiana, and from there came to Jasper County and purchased eighty acres of land. But Mr. Long sold that farm in 1877 and went to Tennessee, and thence to Texas, where he died on the 10th of November, 1908. Mrs. Long, who was also born in Maryland, died in Jasper County, Indiana, August 25, 1767, when her daughter Mary was but a child. Mrs. Skinner was reared, and received her educational training in Jasper County. She is a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and also of the Ladies Home Missionary Society. The only daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Skinner, Lola Esther, graduated from the Remington High School with the class of 1915, and then pur- sued a course in the state normal school at Terre Haute, after which she taught one year in her home township. Mr. Skinner and family are active workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church at Remington. In politics a republican, on numerous occasions he has been an important factor in township political councils and has served efficiently as road supervisor and on the township ad- visory board.
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