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 13
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 13
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His birth occurred May 18, 1833. eighty-three years ago, on Wea Plains in Tippecanoe County, Indiana. When he was three years of age his mother died. His parents were William and Maria (Steely) Newell, who were of Scotch descent, were married in Ohio and established their pioneer home in Tippecanoe County between 1830 and 1833.
It was in Tippecanoe County that Benjamin Newell spent his youth. He attended one of the old fashioned primitive schools and acquired only the fundamentals of a literary education. He also learned how to work hard, how to be honest and strictly upright in his relations with men, and those qualities have stood him well in the battle for existence.
On March 24, 1870, Mr. Newell was married in Shelby County, Indiana, to Nancy J. R. Webb, who was born in Flemingsburg, Kentucky, March 13. 1846, the eldest of the four children, three sons and a daughter of Samuel and Lovey Ann (Jones) Webb. The four children are all living, as follows : Mrs. Newell; William W., engaged in business in Greenfield, Hancock County, Indiana, who married Margaret Richardson, and they have one child; John S., a farmer of Roseland, Missouri, who is married and has six chil- dren; and Thomas L., of Lafayette, Indiana, and the father of two children. Samuel Webb was born in Pennsylvania on the 23d of November, 1810, and died in Perrysburg, Ohio, in 1854. He was a hatter by trade. In young manhood he left his native state for Kentucky, and in 1848 moved from there to Ohio, thence to Indiana, and later, returning to Ohio, he died in that state. Mrs. Webb was born in Kentucky March 17, 1824, and was reared, edu- cated and married in that state. She died at the home of her daugh- ter in Brook, Indiana, in about 1890. Both Mr. and Mrs. Webb were affiliated with the Methodist Church.
From early manhood until quite recently Benjamin Newell made farming his profession and business. For about six years he lived in Missouri and directed the operation of a farm, but then returned to Tippecanoe County and in 1880 he moved to Washington Town- ·ship in Newton County. For thirty-four years he directed the operations of 1,400 acres of land in that township. In 1894 Mr. Newell moved to the Village of Brook and has since lived there, though still maintaining an interested eye over his farming inter- ests. He has always favored improvements, and particularly such as roads and ditches. He also owns some town property in Brook.
Mens Benjansen Newell
Benjamin Newell
ـها مرك شوب راكقبة خمس الثقة فى
كبشاب
MR. AND MRS. BENJAMIN NEWELL'S COTTAGE AT FOUNTAIN PARK
Residence of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Newell.
ROSE LAWN
.
·
T
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Mr. Newell is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows at Brook and in politics he is a republican. He served on the town board for one term, and for a number of years was road supervisor. He is a member of the board of trustees of the Chris- tian Church, and his wife Mrs. Newell and Mrs. Frank Rich were chiefly responsible for the establishment of the Christian Church at Brook, having worked steadily for two years to effect that organiza- tion. Mrs. Newell is also a member of the Welfare Club of Brook. The pretty home of Mr. and Mrs. Newell is known as "Rose Lawn."
WILLIAM TOWNSEND. Well may this publication pay a tribute of honor to that sterling citizen whose name introduces this memoir and who left deep and benignant impress upon the community that long represented his home and in which his influence was ever given in support of those things that are good and true and that touch most closely the communal welfare. His death, on the 23d of May, 1915, was the direct result of a pitiable accident, for on the preceding Sunday, May 16th, while attempting to examine the roof of one of his store buildings in his home Town of Remington, he fell from a ladder and sustained such severe injuries about the head as to render him unconscious. He was borne to his home, where he lay in a semi-torpor, until his death, it having been impossible to revive him sufficiently to gain the actual details of the accident which he had encountered, as he was alone at the time. It has been deemed within the realm of probability that he suffered a stroke of apoplexy and that this was the cause of the accident which brought his death and a shock of loss and bereavement to his home com- munity. His life was guided and governed by the loftiest princi- ples, he was a man of thought and action, and his career was one of signal usefulness and honor. Kindliness and generosity were in- trinsic elements of his being, and it may well be understood that such a man and such a citizen when called from the stage of his mortal endeavors must leave a distinct void in the community in which he has worthily lived and worthily wrought.
William Townsend was of distinguished American ancestry and his genealogy traces back to sterling forebears who came from England to this country in the earlier part of the sixteenth century, representatives becoming prominent in both the New Jersey and Maryland colonies. At Greencastle, the judicial center of Put- nam County, Indiana, the late William Townsend was born on the 30th of September, 1854, and he was a son of William S. and Catharine L. (Peck) Townsend, who were honored pioneers of that county, where they established their home in 1829, upon their re- moval from Kentucky, the historic old Bluegrass State having given many splendid families to Indiana in the pioneer era of the history of the latter commonwealth.
William Selby Townsend, father of the subject of this memoir, was a son of James and Catherine Hodge (Davis) Townsend, and
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James Townsend was a son of Major and Leah (Selby ) Townsend. James Townsend was born near the historic okl colonial City of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, on the 31st of August, 1786, and his wife was a close kinswoman of Jefferson Davis, who became the president of the Confederate States at the time of the Civil war. From his native state James Townsend removed to Snow Hill, Worcester County, Maryland, whence, about the year 1809, he removed with his family to Kentucky and became one of the pioneers of Union County, where he laid out and became the virtual founder of the present thriving little city of Morganfield. He be- came a prominent and influential citizen of that section of the Blue- grass State and served in both the Lower House and Senate of the Kentucky Legislature. He was a man of substance, owning valuable property, including a number of slaves whom he gave their freedom many years prior to the Civil war. In 1829 this sturdy pioneer, great of mind and heart, came with his family to Indiana and established a home in the wilds of Putnam County, now one of the most opulent of that section of the Hoosier State. He platted the Town of Putnamville, on the National Road, and finally he removed to Clay County, where he passed the residue of his life and where his death occurred on the 3d of November, 1851, his widow surviving him by a score of years and being summoned to eternal rest on the 18th of April, 1871. Of their nine children William S., father of the subject of this memoir, was the third in order of birth, and he became one of the prominent and represen- tative citizens and prosperous agriculturists of Putnam County. William S. Townsend served as county clerk for some time and was a resident of Greencastle at the time of his death, when he was in the prime of life. His widow survived him by many years and they became the parents of two sons and two daughters, three of whom succumbed to tuberculosis after attaining adult age, Wil- liam of this review, having been the only one who reached years of full maturity, so that he was the last of the immediate family when deplorable accident brought to him untimely death. It is deemed but consistent to offer in this connection the more intimate and appreciative estimate of the character and services of William Townsend that is possible through recourse to quota- tion, with minor elimination and paraphrase, from the article that appeared in a Remington newspaper at the time of his death :
"In the year 1875 William Townsend, whose educational ad- vantages had been of excellent order and who was reared to maturity in Putnam county, came up to the prairie country of Jasper county for the benefit of his health, and here he main- tained his home until his death. His mother came soon after his arrival and made a home for him, and after his marriage, in 1880, to Elnora Garrison, she resided with them until her death. Mr. Townsend's filial solicitude and unfailing devotion to his venerable mother marked him as a man of great heart and loving appre- ciation.
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"Mr. Townsend has been engaged in the drug business for many years and has lived a very active and useful life. He has given freely of his time and talents to civic affairs, serving as a member of the school board and also of the town council. At the time of his death he was clerk of the village council, a position which he had held more than fifteen years, and he had held also a number of other positions of public trust. Mr. Townsend was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and its ad- junct organization, the Daughters of Rebekah. In politics he was a republican, in religion a Presbyterian, a church with which he united April 5, 1886, as a member of a class of thirty-three mem- bers. In the local church he served as trustee, deacon, choir leader and teacher in the Sunday school, his efficiency as musical direc- tor in the church having been pronounced.
"In the death of Mr. Townsend the community loses not only one of its most prominent business men but also a model citizen and a good man. He was a friend to all,-young and old. The school children, with whom he had much association, attest to his kindly qualities by their friendship and regard for him. What more could be said as to a man's qualities than that he was a friend of the children? But Mr. Townsend's finer characteristics were ex- hibited in his relation to his home and family. He was most tender and affectionate in his attitude as a husband, self-sacrificing as a father, and kind and generous to those close to him in the kinship of the family. His taking away was a shock to the community and will be a deep and abiding sorrow for the family, whose members may find a measure of consolation and compensation in the thought that their loss is also that of the community, and that with them the community mourns."
The remains of this honored citizen rest in the beautiful ceme- tery at Remington, and as enduring as any material monument is his place in the affectionate memory of those who came within the sphere of his kindly and noble influence. Mr. Townsend is sur- vived by his wife and their two sons, Claude B. and Lowell, con- cerning whom more specific mention is made in following para- graphs.
Claude B., who succeeded to the management of the drug busi- ness upon the death of his honored father, was born at Reming- ton on the 15th of April, 1881, and as a loyal citizen and progressive young business man he is well upholding the prestige of the name which he bears. He acquired his early education in the public schools of his native place and later completed a pharmaceutical course in Purdue University. He is a republican in his political proclivities and is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity Lodge No. 351 ; also with the Chapter at Goodland and the Council at Monti- cello and with the Modern Woodmen of America. On the 5th of November 1902, Mr. Townsend wedded Miss Blanche Eck, and they have two daughters,-Elnora and Catherine.
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Lowell Townsend, younger son of the subject of this memoir, is a young man of distinctive musical talent, in the cultivation of which he received the best of advantages. For three years he was an instructor in music in the University of Illinois, and he now holds a similar position at the University of Wisconsin.
JOHN J. PORTER. There are few residents of Remington, Jas- per County, who have a more practical acquaintance with historic points in what was once called the far West, than has John J. Porter, whose travels have extended also into the far South and incidentally thrice across the Atlantic ocean. Mr. Porter, a large landowner in both Jordan and Carpenter Townships, now lives re- tired, a man of public influence, at Remington.
John J. Porter was born in Northamptonshire, England, No- vember 28, 1836, a son of Samuel and Martha (Hurst) Porter. The parents spent their entire lives in England. The father was a saddler and harness-maker by trade, an honest workman and a worthy man. They had relatives living at that time in Lorain County, Ohio, and when John J. Porter's future was considered it was thought advisable that he should join these relatives in America and on his maternal uncle's farm learn the principles of agriculture. He was only eleven years old when he started for the United States, a passenger on the sailing ship, The Queen of the West. This ves- sel brought him safely across the ocean although it took five weeks and one day to make the voyage.
Mr. Porter spent nine years on his uncle's farm in Ohio and then decided to start out for himself, in 1856 going to DeKalb County, Illinois, where he labored as a farm hand for $17 a month for a Mr. Jewett, who afterward became his father-in-law. In the meanwhile homesickness overcame him and in 1857 he went back to his native land but, after a short visit was satisfied and once more became a resident of the United States. At this time he located in La Salle County, Illinois, and in 1858 was married, and in 1859 made his first trip to Pike's Peak, in the Rocky Moun- tains of Colorado, gold having been discovered there in the pre- vious year. He returned home in the fall but in the spring of 1860 went back to the mountains and in all made seven trips across the plains. He met with thrilling experiences while operating in the Colorado mountains and at Walla Walla, Washington. Mr. Porter spent two seasons in New Mexico and his last trip home from the West was made by the way of the Nicaragua route, and after getting to the east side of the isthmus he took passage on the well known steamer, the Golden Rule, which was then one of the largest vessels afloat.
In the fall of 1864 Mr. Porter returned to the East permanently and located at Mendota, Illinois, where he engaged for a time in buying stock. In 1869 he came to Jasper County and rented farming land until 1874, when he purchased and located on section 2 in
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Carpenter Township. He now owns 293.65 acres of valuable land in the county, which lie in both Carpenter and Jordan townships. This land he cultivated under his own supervision until 1889, when he moved to Remington.
Mr. Porter was married in 1858 to Miss Sarah Ann Jewett, who died August 14. 1902, having been the beloved mother of three children : Ollie S., Burdett and Thomas A.
For fifty years Mr. Porter has been an Odd Fellow and he is likewise well known in other organizations, being a Mason and a Knight of Pythias and belonging to the Rebekahs and the Eastern Star. He has always been a republican in political sentiment. Time has touched Mr. Porter lightly.
THOMAS HOLLINGSWORTH. Like most towns which are en- joying a steady and healthy growth that of Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, owes its prosperity to the progressive and ener- getic character of its leading citizens. Those who have assisted materially in its development are Emmet Louis Hollingsworth and George K. Hollingsworth, sons of Thomas Hollingsworth, who for some years was a prominent merchant here. Thomas Hollingsworth was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, near the town of New Lis- bon, in 1836 a son of Samuel and Sarah Leach Hollingsworth. He was reared to manhood in his native county and served an appren- ticeship to the cabinetmaker's trade. Having received a practical education and taken the necessary examination, he taught school during the winter terms for some years. In 1861 he married Elizabeth, a daughter of George Kannal, and in 1865 came to Jas- per County, Indiana, locating in Rensselaer, where he embarked in general merchandise pursuits with Joseph Willey. He was thus continuously engaged until 1871, when, for reason of failing health, he retired from the active business cares of life. He died January 25, 1872. Thomas Hollingsworth was born and reared in the Quaker faith, in which he was a leader while residing in Ohio. He was old-fashioned in his ways, dressed in black clerical garb, and used the "thee's" and "thou's" peculiar to the Quakers until his marriage, which was outside of the denomination. Subsequently he embraced the religious faith of his wife, uniting with the Church of God in Rensselaer, in which he became a ruling elder. He took no active part in politics but was interested in all matters pertaining to the public weal, particularly that of schools and churches. He was noted for his methodical habits, close attention to business, and for his unostentatious charity. Few men ever lived in this community who were more universally respected than was he. His wife did not long survive him, dying in October, 1873. She bore her part in the struggle of her husband for a living, cheer- fully bearing her burden in life, with its joys and sorrows, and was particularly noted for her devotion to church and missionary work. They were the parents of two children, Emmet Louis and George
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Kannal. The latter, born in Rensselaer, September 26, 1868, is now a resident of Chicago.
EMMET LOUIS HOLLINGSWORTH, was born in Columbiana County, Ohio, January 22, 1864, and was thus less than two years old when he was brought to Rensselaer, which place has since been his home. In 1880 he was graduated in the first class from the Rensselaer High School, and for two years thereafter was a student in the literary course of the University of Michigan. Returning to Rensselaer in the fall of -1882, he at once became clerk in the old banking establishment of A. McCoy and T. Thompson, and was thus continuously employed until 1893. In that year he became one of the organizers of the Commercial State Bank, which later he- came the present First National Bank. Besides being the cashier of the Commercial State Bank during its entire life, he held the same position in the First National from its organization until he was elected its president, January 1, 1912. On March 1, 1913, he resigned and has since devoted his attention to real estate and pri- vate interests. He was instrumental in the organization of what is now the Trust and Savings Bank of Rensselaer, and is a large stockholder in the same. Mr. Hollingsworth is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, Adoniram Temple, Indianapolis, be- longing also to the subordinate lodge of Odd Fellows 143, The Knights of Pythias, No. 82, and the Modern Woodmen, Camp 4412. In politics he is a republican.
He was married December 31, 1887, to Miss Fannie May Allen, daughter of Oscar M. and Hannah Allen of Kalamazoo, Michi- gan. To this union five children have been born, namely : Cecilia G., now Mrs. Horace Barker Chadbourne of Harmony, Maine; Lois Dorothea, now Mrs. Ralph T. Upjohn, of Kalamazoo, Michi- gan ; Gerald E., Emmet L., Jr., all living and Ruth Irene, who died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Hollingsworth are members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Hollingsworth has been a ruling elder for twenty years ..
GEORGE KANNAL HOLLINGSWORTH is the younger son of the late Thomas Hollingsworth, one of the pioneer business men of. Jasper County, and though a resident of Chicago is still keenly interested in Jasper County affairs and is well known here.
He was born at Rensselaer, Indiana, September 26, 1868, grew up in that town, attended the public schools, and like his older brother Emmet L., whose sketch is given above, has been chicfly engaged in real estate and banking. He is now in the real estate business at Chicago.
He was vice president of the Commercial State Bank of Rensse- laer, and during his residence in his home city served as a member of the city council and on the school board. Mr. Hollingsworth is a republican, a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Wood-
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men of the World, belongs to the City Club of Chicago and the Art Institute in that city. and is a member of the Presbyterian Church.
On September 26, 1889, at Rensselaer he married Nora A. Hop- kins, a daughter of Ludd Hopkins, who was one of the pioneer merchants of Rensselaer. Mr. and Mrs. Hollingsworth have two children : Donald II. and Thomas. The son Donald married Doro- thy Fox on April 18, 1915.
GEORGE H. HEALEY. Rensselaer people feel a sense of com- fortable security in such citizenship as has been exhibited by Major George H. Healey, editor and one of the proprietors of the Rensse- laer Republican. Some refer to him as a "live wire" in the com- munity. He has in fact, with a due amount of conservatism, made his influence count for good is Jasper County in more ways than one.
He is a member of the firm of Healey & Clark, the second member of which is Leslie Clark, publishers of the Republican at Rensselaer, the strongest and most influential paper in Jasper and Newton counties. It is a daily paper published every evening and there is also a semi-weekly edition.
Major Healey, while a comparatively young man, is an old time printer, since he learned that trade when he was a boy. He was born at Rensselaer November 14, 1872. His parents were Joshua and Julia ( Howland) Healey. Joshua Healey, a native of Canada, came to Indiana at the age of nineteen, and for three or four years taught school. At the very outbreak of the Civil war he joined a company made up at Rensselaer, and went to the front as a mem- ber of Company G, Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry. He was made captain of this company at the end of three months, and later promoted to major of the One hundred and Twenty-eighth Regiment and finally to colonel of the One Hundred and Fifty-first Indiana Regiment. He was one of the Union soldiers of whom Jasper County was especially proud. He died at Goodland, Indiana, January 2, 1880, from diabetes, a disease he had contracted in the army. While home on a leave of absence from the army he married Julia Ann Howland, who was born near Peru, Miami County, Indiana, and was a school teacher before her marriage. She died at the home of her son, George, in Rensselaer May 14, 1913.
After finishing his school work in the Rensselaer High School George H. Healey gained his first acquaintance with the printer's trade at the age of sixteen in the News office at Remington, Indiana. His was the usual experience of the journeyman printer, and he worked at different times in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee; Cali- fornia, Missouri; Sedalia, Missouri, and shifted from the case as a compositor to the circulation, reportorial and advertising depart- Vol. II-8
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ments. He has had extensive experience as a publisher, and for several years published papers at Brookston and Chalmers. For four years he was employed as a printer in the government print- ing office at Washington, the greatest institution of its kind in the world. Since January 1, 1906, Mr. Healey has been one of the publishers and since October 1, 1907, has been the editor of the Republican at Rensselaer.
Newspaper work by no mean circumseribes all his interest. He is now a major in the Indiana National Guard, having command of Companies M, C, I and L of the Third Infantry. These companies are located respectively at Rensselaer, Monticello, Plymouth and Valparaiso. His son, George W., is quartermaster in this bat- talion.
Both as a private citizen and as a newspaper man he has naturally been identified with politics. He describes himself as "a republican with a balance wheel." He believes in correcting party faults from within and not trying to wreck the party in order to create reform. In line with this principle he kept his newspaper straight down the middle of the road during the troublesome days of 1912. He has been in politics for the good of the cause and has neither sought nor held any official position. But his home community gives him much credit for public spirited work, particu- larly as a temperance advocate. He is not only opposed to the liquor business in any form, but is a thorough exemplar of the best princi- ples of temperance, having never tasted liquor nor tobacco in any form. He took an active part in driving the saloons out of Rensse- laer, and he is not alone in his opinion that the city is a hundred per cent better than when these institutions were running about nine years ago.
Mr. Healey and all his family are members of the Christian Church and fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Sons of Veterans.
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