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 30
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 30
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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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well family, its present occupant being Mrs. Ida Rockwell Faylor, daughter of Levi Clark Rockwell. Levi Clark Rockwell and wife had eight children: Oscar Boynton, Wallace Harrington, Alphonso Page, Francis Marion, Edward Stoddard, George Shelly, Ida Erwin, and Holcomb Vanny. Levi Clark Rockwell, their father, died at San Pierre, Indiana, July 10, 1897, while his wife was laid to rest October 7, 1890.
Oscar Boynton Rockwell, the oldest of the family, is an old soldier, a prominent farmer and citizen, active and well known not only in Jasper County and Kankakee Township but in Starke County, grew to manhood in Jasper County, on the old homestead already mentioned. In 1860 he was elected trustee of Kankakee Township for a two year term. lle resigned this office and on September 11, 1861, enlisted as a private in Company C of the Twenty-ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry for a term of three years or during the war. On the reorganization of this regiment he was made corporal. He was wounded in the battle of Stone River or Murfreesboro, Tennessee, December 31, 1862, but soon recovered and was on the march with his command. On December 16, 1863, he veteranized and re-enlisted in the same regiment at Bridgeport, Alabama. In May, 1864, he was appointed first or orderly sergeant of Company C of the Twenty-ninth Regiment and was commissioned captain of Company F in the same regiment on January 1, 1865. He continued with his command in some of the most strenuous campaigns of the war, particularly through Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and received an honorable discharge at Marietta, Georgia, December 2, 1865. After the war he returned home and took up a career as farmer and stock raiser, which has employed much of his energy and which has been the basis for his considerable success and prosperity. Many of his years have also been demanded bý his fellow citizens. He served four years from 1868 to 1872 as trustee of Kankakee Township. For eight years, from 1907 to 1915, he was county assessor of Starke County, Indiana. In politics he is a loyal republican.
Oscar B. Rockwell married Louisa Gannon. To their union were born four children : Grant R. ; Louisa B., now deceased ; Arthur E .; and Elmer H. The three living children are all married.
DAVID MILLER. It is one of the oldest families of Jasper County that furnished material for this brief sketch. David Miller himself has lived in Walker Township of Jasper County ever since he was twenty-one years of age, and his recollection of local events and incidents covers a period of almost half a century. The various members of the Miller family, while they have pursued somewhat uneventful lives, have been industrious, thrifty, honorable in all their relations, and on the whole have done a greater service to the community through the exercise of such virtues than many men who receive greater space in newspaper accounts.
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The Miller family came to Indiana from Mahoning County, Ohio, where David Miller was born October 2, 1846, and his parents were Peter 1 .. and Lydia (Duterer) Miller. They were married about 1830, and became the parents of nine children : Levi, Martha Mag- dalena, Elizabeth and Susan, all now deceased ; Mary, Lydia, David, Catherine and Sarah Aun, all of whom are married and are still alive. Peter L. Miller, the father, a great many years ago owned and operated a grist mill and carding machine, and all did carpenter work in Mahoning County, Ohio, and from there came to Harrison County, Indiana, where in addition to his work as a farmer he employed his skill as a carpenter in the building of many houses and barns in that locality. All the children were born in Mahoning County and gained their education in whole or in part in the local schools there, though the youngest of them attended school in Harrison County, Indiana. Peter L. Miller was originally a whig in politics but became identified with the republican party on its organ- ization and was a very loyal exponent of its principles ever after- ward. The son Levi, enlisted in Company K of the Eighty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry in 1862 for three years. He fell ill and died while in the service and was buried in the Arlington Cemetery at Washington, in 1863.
It was in March, 1867, that the Miller family came into Jasper County, headed by Peter L. Miller, the father. He settled in Walker Township, occupying about eighty acres of the old John Dillingham homestead. Here he spent a number of years as a farmer, and his labors went into the carly development of the county and he performed one of those units of service out of which have been evolved the great material prosperity of this section as it is today. Peter L. Miller was laid to rest in November, 1879, at San Pierre, Indiana, and his beloved wife followed him in June, 1881.
David Miller completed his education in the common schools of Harrison County, Indiana. He lived with his parents, worked industriously on the farm, and helped them develop a new home in Jasper County. When he was twenty-six years of age he took up an independent career. December 10. 1872, he married Martha J. Biggs, daughter of Isaac Biggs, of a well known Jasper County family. There were four children by this union : Emmons M., William E., John A., and Bertha N., all of whom are married except Emmons. The mother of these children passed away July 6, 1882, and was laid to rest in Pulaski County. With the care of young children upon him David Miller continued to maintain his home and work his farm alone until December 10, 1883, when he married Rebecca Seegrist. There were also four children by this union : Charles E., unmarried ; Benjamin F., still single ; Naney N., deceased ; and David P. Mr. Miller and his good wife have done much to edueate their children and train them properly for places of useful- ness in the world.
Since early manhood David Miller has consistently voted with
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the republican party and has been one of the men of influence in his section of the state. He has supported every public enterprise, has worked to improve the material aspect of Walker Township, and endeavored to make his own farm as highly productive as pos- sible so as to serve as an example for others in the same occupation. He and his family have long been identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he assisted toward building two churches in Tefft. For thirteen years he served as Sunday school superintend- ent, was a trustee for years and also steward. In the early days Mr. Miller carned most of his ready money by cutting railroad ties and putting up wild hay. He has a good many interesting recollec- tions of the old stage line that at one time ran over the road by the homestead. In the early days as he can remember railroad ties were practically legal tender in this section of Indiana, as much so as coon skins had been at a still earlier epoch in pioneer life.
ISAAC KIGHT. Now engaged in the general merchandise busi- ness in the Village of Fair Oaks, Isaac Kight has been a resident at Newton and Jasper counties for nearly half a century and has contributed his quota to civic and industrial development and prog- ress. He has been active and influential as a loyal and public- spirited citizen and since establishing his present business enterprise he has served as trustec of Union Township.
Isaac Kight was born in Scotland County, Missouri, on the 16th of November, 1846, the fourth in order of birth in a family of seven children, of whom five are now living. He is a son of Joseph and Maria (Nichols) Kight, both natives of Ohio and representatives of pioneer families of the old Buckeye State. Joseph Kight, when a young man became a pioneer settler in Missouri, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. When news came of the discovery of gold in California, he became one of the intrepid argonauts who ventured across the plains and made their way to the New Eldorado. He made the long and weary journey as a representative of an ox-team caravan, and he remained about eighteen months in California, where he was successful in his quest for the precious metal. He returned to his home, but died shortly afterward, as a result of typhoid fever, which he had contracted while absent in the far West.
Isaac Kight was a boy at the time of his father's death, and when nine years of age he accompanied his widowed mother and the other children to the home of his maternal grandfather, in Momence, Illinois. There he was reared to adult age and there he duly availed himself of the advantages of the common schools of the period. As a youth he assisted in the work of his grandfather's farm, and after attaining to his legal majority he continued his activities as a farm workman in the employ of others. In 1867, accompanied by his mother and other members of the family, Mr. Kight came to Indiana and established his residence at Beaver Lake,
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Newton County, where he engaged in the raising of and dealing in cattle. Later his mother removed to Lake Village, that county, and there she continued to maintain her home until her death, in 1893, at a venerable age. Mr. Kight was a pioneer in the live-stock industry in this section of Indiana and recalls the time when the conditions were those of a virtual unbroken prairie and swamp country. Wild game was plentiful, and in the early days he trapped fur-bearing animals, killed deer and brought down other wild game in what is now a thickly settled and opulent section of the Hoosier State. Ile and his brother William T. killed seventy-eight swan in a single afternoon, their firearms being muzzle-loading shot-guns of the oldtime type.
In 1874 Mr. Kight removed to a large tract of land one mile west of the present Village of Fair Oaks, and he continued his activities as a farmer and stock-grower in Newton County until 1897, when he came to Jasper County and established his home at Fair Oaks, where he has since remained and where he had become interested in the mercantile business in 1893. With this line of enterprise he has been successfully identified at this place during the intervening period of nearly a quarter of a century, and he is senior member of the firm of Kight & Eggleston, which has a large and well equipped general store and controls a substantial and profitable trade.
In politics Mr. Kight is a stalwart advocate of the cause of the democratic party, and he served ten years as trustee of Colfax Town- ship, Newton County. In 1908 he wes elected trustee of Union Township, Jasper County, and by successive re-elections he con- tinued the incumbent of this office for a period of six years. Both he and his wife are earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in their home village, and they have a wide circle of friends in both Jasper and Newton counties.
On the 8th of January, 1874, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Kight to Miss Eliza Spry, daughter of the late Enoch and Mary (Burton) Spry, who removed from Kentucky to Kankakee County, Illinois, in 1855, and who came to Newton County, Indiana, in 1867. Mr. and Mrs. Kight have three children: Allen G., married Miss Alice Peck and they reside on a farm in Jasper County ; Stella is the wife of Michael Shehan and they maintain their home at Monon, this state; and John T. and his wife, whose maiden name was Pearl Dodge, reside in the City of Indianapolis.
ELIAS HAMMERTON. For many years the name of Hammerton has been known and respected in Jasper County, Indiana, and no more worthy bearer of this name could have been found than was the late Elias Hammerton, who passed out of life at his home in Rens- selner, in October, 1911. He was born in England, June 29, 1841. and was a son of John and Anne Hammerton, who reared eight children.
In England, the Hammertons were agriculturists and when they
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came to the United States in 1854, they sought desirable farming land, finding it in Iroquois County, Illinois. Elias Hammerton was then thirteen years of age, old enough to give his father material assistance on his pioneer farm, and there the young man remained until the outbreak of the Civil war. In 1861 he enlisted for service in the Federal army, and for three long years bravely faced the dangers of war, taking part in such notable battles as Shiloh and the siege of Vicksburg. It was his good fortune to escape serious injury and after his term of enlistment had expired he returned to his home in Ilinois and resumed farming.
Elias Hammerton was married twice, first to Lucinda Rader, and second to Mrs. Sadie Sullivan. His eleven children were born to his first marriage and eight of these are yet living. In 1874, with his father and his own family, he moved to Jasper County, Indiana, settling in Hanging Grove Township and engaging there in farming for a number of years. Later in life he moved to Rensselaer but not to retire, for afterward, for thirteen years he served as carrier on rural mail routes. Of a deeply religious nature, he became prom- inent in the Methodist Episcopal Church and during the greater part of his life served in some official capacity, such as Sunday school superintendent, steward and class leader. Honesty of word and deed was a part of his nature and his practical ideas of charity made him dependable when deserving objects came to his attention. He cast his political influence with the republican party. For many years he was an Odd Fellow and almost from its organization was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
GEORGE HENRY HAMMERTON. As a trustee of Union Township and a leading merchant at Parr, Indiana, George H. Hammerton may justly be called one of the representative men of Jasper County. He was born August 26, 1873, in Iroquois County, Illinois, and thus was but. one year old when his parents, Elias and Lucinda (Rader) Hammerton, came to Jasper County. He grew up on his father's farn: and until he was seventeen years of age assisted during the summer months and attended the public schools during the winters. He remained with his father until he was twenty-one years old and then assumed the direction of his own affairs, about this time entering the Northern Indiana Normal School at Val- paraiso, where he continued, at intervals, to be a student for two years. During this time he began to teach school, his first experience being in Hanging Grove Township, and for sixteen years he remained in the educational field, teaching four terms in Jasper County and the rest of the time in Iroquois and Vermilion counties, Illinois. In the meantime he had purchased a farm in Union Township, which he operated for two years and then sold and caine to Parr, where, in 1912, he embarked in a mercantile business which enter- prise has proved a satisfactory investment. As a merchant he is no less popular than he was as a teacher and the general confidence
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and esteem in which he is held has been practically proved by his election to responsible public office. In politics he is a republican and in 1914 on that ticket he was elceted a trustee of Union Town- · ship and his performance of duty has been efficient in every way.
On September 27, 1903, George H. Hammerton was united in marriage with Miss Rosa Chupp, and they have three children : Gladys Edith, Cecil Lawrence and Winifred Glen. Mr. and Mrs. Hammerton are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He is identified fraternally with the Odd Fellows and with the Modern Woodmien of America.
JOSEPH STEWART. Ever since he established his home in Hang- ing Grove Township a little more than a quarter of a century ago Joseph Stewart has been a factor in local progress. One evidence of this in the fine stone road, 11/2 miles in length, which extends in front of his farm and is known as the Joe Stewart Road. There is no improvement of greater moment to a live and progressive rural community than good roads. Good roads typify the vital health of a district, just as bed roads indicate sloth and backwardness. If he had performed no other service in the township, Joseph Stewart would deserve much credit for his work in behalf of improved high- ways. It was he and Robert S. Drake who got up the petition for the C. C. Randle or Rensselaer Road, which was the first improved highway in Hanging Grove Township.
Though the greater part of his active career has been spent in Jasper County, Joseph Stewart was born in Richland County, near Mansfield, Ohio, June 6, 1855, a son of William and Rhoda (Stew- art) Stewart, both of whom are natives of the same state and were of Scotch-Irish descent. Joseph Stewart grew up in Ohio, gained his education there, and for a few years lived in Michigan. He then returned to Ohio and in Williams County in that state near Bryan he married in 1877, Rachel Tressler, a daughter of Joseph and Catherine Tressler, who were natives of Pennsylvania and of Ger- man stock.
For twelve years after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Stewart continued to live in Ohio, and in 1889 came to Hanging Grove Township and settled on a farm in section 26. Mr. Stewart has a highly improved and valuable place of eighty acres, situated 21/2 iniles north of Lee.
Five children have constituted their home circle, though the four who are now living are all married and settled in homes of their own. Arthur E., the oldest, lives in Hanging Grove Township and married Harriet Jordan. Bessie A. is the wife of John Jordan and also lives in Hanging Grove. Olin S. is a Methodist Episcopal pastor at Waveland, Indiana, and married Ethel Pearson. Rollin J. lives in Hanging Grove Township and married Hazel Drake.
The deceased child was Claude J., who was next to the youngest. From an article that appeared in the local papers at the time of his Vol. II-17
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death the following quotation is made: "Claude J. Stewart, son of Joseph and Rachel Stewart, was born near West Jefferson, Ohio, April 22, 1884. In 1889 he moved with his family to Hanging Grove township, Jasper county. In infancy he was consecrated to God by his Christian parents in baptism and at the age of eleven he joined the Methodist Episcopal church at Osborne, and was received into full connection with that branch of the church. While at the breakfast table June 27, 1905, he was seized with an alarming hemorrhage and died in less than twenty minutes, at the age of twenty-one years two months and five days. It is only simple truth when we say that Brother Claude was a good and upright young man, a thoughful son, a kind friend to all, and a quiet humble Christian. All who knew him testify to his kindly disposition, his excellent character and standard of honor. An attack of the measles left him with a cough from which he never fully recovered, though he spent two winters in Oklahoma with a view of regaining his health. He was at no time confined to his bed with protracted sickness. Yet for several months before his departure he realized that he had not long to live. This was indicated by his life of prayer and his selection of the beautiful hymn The Home of the Soul to be sung at his funeral. The esteem in which he was held was indicated by the very large concourse of sympathizing friends in attendance at the funeral and numerous beautiful floral offerings. The Sabbath school class of which he was a member attended in a body with their offerings of flowers. The funeral services were held in the home conducted by his pastor Rev. W. H. Fertis. The interment was in the Osborne cemetery."
It has been a somewhat active part that Mr. Stewart has played in local politics since coming to Jasper County. He is a democrat, has been a township committeeman four or five years, served on the township advisory board six years, filled the office of township trustee four years, and was for six years township supervisor. He is now serving as superintendent of the Erb ditch through his locality. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Lee, of which he was a trustee, and is now superintendent of the Sunday school.
FRANCIS E. MARION. No richer or more productive land in Indiana can be found than that embraced in the agricultural districts of Barkley Township, and a fine farm near the Village of Parr northwest of Rensselaer gives illustration of the thrift and energy which have characterized the life of Francis E. Marion. Mr. Marion has spent nearly all his life in Jasper County, having been a resident fully half a century and has made his work and his example count for good in the community.
A native of Illinois, where he was born July 31, 1860, he is a son of Elias and Sarah (Farmer) Marion. They were both born in Ohio, and were the parents of nine children, the names of seven
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of them being John Leslie, Mary Elizabeth, Eliza Jane, Francis E., Isaac Britton, George Washington, and Laura Belle. Elias Marion was born in 1835 and died March 31, 1901. A farmer by occupation, during his long residence in Jasper County he acquired a large tract of land in Barkley Township. He was an active republican, and for twenty-five years filled the office of justice of the peace in his home township. Both he and his wife were working members of the Methodist Church, and his wife lived to a ripe old age.
On September 25, 1886, Francis L. Marion married Hannah M. Davis. They were married by Squire Marion, his father. She was the daughter of James M. and Sidney (Taylor) Davis, who came from Ohio to Indiana, first locating in Boone County, and in 1885 coming to Jasper County, where they found a small home of twenty acres on a part of the Hamilton homestead. Mr. Davis is remem- bered for his hard working ability, and he prospered as a farmer and provided well for his family of ten children, whose names were Mary, Luther, Lucinda, Joseph MacD., Kadilda, Eliza Jane, Sarah Elizabeth, Hannah M., and Emma Josephine.
Mr. and Mrs. Marion had three children born to their marriage. Sidney, the oldest, is now deceased. Stella Josephine was married October 2, 1910, at Rensselaer to Roy Beaver, and they are now engaged in farming in this county. The youngest is Elias Estel.
The Marion home in Barkley Township comprises 100 acres, and it is a farm that in value and character of improvements measures well up to the standard set by the best places in this section of Indi- ana. Mr. Marion is a strong republican, and served five years as school director. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Church. Having spent all his life since he was three years of age in Jasper County, he has naturally been a witness to all the important phases of its development. He recalls many of the old time methods of farming, and modern agricultural machinery had hardly come into any general use even during his early manhood. Just back of where his country residence now stands there existed in his boyhood a large marsh, and he recalls how the eagles used to circle around this marsh and occasionally dart down among the reeds and seize their prey. Around the old home of his boyhood the wolves used to howl at night, and practically within his lifetime have been effected the transformations which have wrought a peaceful smiling landscape of farms and villages out of Jasper County.
HORACE G. DANIELS. It is one of the oldest and best known families of Barkley Township that Horace Daniels is a representa- tive, and his own active career has been pursned with substantial benefit to himself and the community for more than thirty years.
Born August 28, 1865, on the old Daniels homestead in Jasper County, he is a son of Shelby and Mary (English) Daniels, who were early settlers of Jasper County, having come to this section from Ohio, and secured a quarter-section of land direct from the
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Government. Horace was the youngest of eight children, the others being Martha, William, Ellen, Rhoda, George, Charles, and Thomas.
When Horace Daniels was still an infant his mother died, and his father died when Horace was about twelve years of age. Both he and his brother, George, attended the old Burns school in Barkley Township and his early education was limited in time of attendance and in quality of instruction After growing up to manhood Horace Daniels married, in 1888, Malinda Pullins, daughter of John and Mary Pullins. Mrs. Daniels died April 8, 1892, having been the mother of two children: Chattie, now deceased; and Mary, who is married and lives in a home of her own. Mr. Daniels was married October 11, 1894, to Cerilda Ginn. They also have two children, named Dora and Omar. Mr. Daniels is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, No. 143. at Rensselaer, Indiana.
ADELBERT EIB. That men not yet past middle life should have witnessed the transformation of important sections of our well settled country from primitive and careless conditions to the present state of most modern improvement in numerous directions, seems, at first sight, unusual, but it must be remembered that the trans- portation facilities for so long a time interfered with agricultural development and with the building of good roads prosperity and improvement have gone hand in hand. As the prosperous farmers of today transport their stock and produce to market expeditiously . and easily, and, with great personal comfort roll over the smooth highways in their speedy vehicles, few would be willing to go back to the time, not so far distant, when, in Jasper County, Indiana, there was not a single stone or gravel road. This time is well remembered by Adelbert Eib, one of the county's leading farmers, who has always been much interested in the subject of good roads, as he has been in many other lines of improvement.
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