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 5
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 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
·
457
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
of which he was to the close of his life an earnest and active mem- ber, for years holding official positions therein, and was superin- tendent of the Sunday school for seventeen years. Kind, courteous and obliging, a Christian in the true sense of the word, he was one who commanded universal respect and esteem. He and his wife were the parents of one daughter, Mary Jane, who is now the wife of Charles H. Porter of Rensselaer.
JOHN C. MARTINDALE. Death removed one of the conspicuous citizens of Jasper County when John C. Martindale died on Octo- ber 8, 1912. For many years he had taken an active part in the public affairs of the county, and in his private industry was a highly successful farmer.
One of a family of twelve children, five of whom are yet living, John C. Martindale was born on a farm near Pine village in War- ren County, Indiana, December 25, Christmas Day, 1846. His parents were Samuel and Elizabeth (Mahuron) Martindale, who were natives of Pennsylvania but gave to their children an inheri- tance of Scotch and Irish ancestry. In the very early days of War- ren county settlement they moved from Pennsylvania, making the trip overland in the old Conestoga wagon, and were the first to make homes in their locality of Warren County. On the pioneer home- stead of his parents John C. Martindale grew to manhood and acquired from his early associations and training those rugged qual- ities which persisted throughout his life and proved the basis of a noble and worthy career. He worked at home, gained such edu- cation as the district schools of his time could bestow, and when about twenty-five years of age took the important step of marriage and the responsibilities of making a home not only for himself but for others.
On September 18, 1871, Mr. Martindale married Teresa Ben- jamin, a daughter of Jared Benjamin, a sketch of whom as one of the early settlers of Jasper County is found elsewhere in this · publication. About 1879 Mr. and Mrs. Martindale moved to Jas- per County to make this their permanent home, and located on a farm in Newton Township. Possessing an indomitable energy, Mr. Martindale threw himself with vigor into the improvement of his land and into all matters pertaining to the general good. By his industry, self-denial and intelligent management he acquired 240 acres of some of the best land in Jasper County. It was his reputation for practical good sense and natural ability as well as his standing in his home community that led to his election as a member of the county board for two terms. During his service as com- missioner he was largely instrumental in the construction of the new court house of which Jasper County people are proud and which as long as it remains will be an enduring monument to Mr. Martindale's honesty and good business judgment. In the disburse- ment of all the monies required in the building of this structure
458
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
not one word has ever been said except in praise of Mr. Martin- dale's connection therewith. For a number of years he also served as a member of the county council. In the fall of 1908 he removed to Rensselaer, though continuing to devote his attention to his exten- sive farming interests until his death. Mrs. Martindale is still liv- ing in Rensselaer, and has the comfort and solace of her two chil- dren, named Jared B. and Nina D. Jared B. was for two years a student in the Rensselaer High School, after which he entered and completed the course in the High School at Danville, Indiana, and graduated from the State Normal at Terre Haute with the class of 1898. For three years he was then employed as a teacher, two years of the time serving as principal of a school in Indiana. Leaving the school room, he was for nine years engaged as a postal clerk on the Monon Railroad, and is now employed in the post office department, as route agent from Rensselaer, where he resides. He inarried Miss Ora Donaldson, of Vigo County, Indiana, and they have two daughters, Thelma M. and Maxine F. He is a republican in . political affiliations and a member of the Knights of Pythias fra- ternity. Mrs. Martindale is a member of the Christian Church. Nina D., the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John C. Martindale, gradu- ated from the Rensselaer High School with the class of 1902, and entering the State University at Bloomington in the following year graduated in the literary course in 1910. After three years of teaching in Indiana she was offered a position as teacher at Spo- kane, Washington, but gave up the position on account of the ill- ness of her father, and resides at home with her mother in Rens- selaer.
Few men have lived in Jasper County who exerted a better moral influence in the community than the late John Martindale. His life was clean and upright throughout-one that commanded respect from all sources. His religion was the Golden Rule and few men have succeeded in practicing that fundamental principle of right living more effectually than John C. Martindale.
JARED BENJAMIN. The foundation of the prosperity which all residents of Jasper County now enjoy was substantially laid many years ago by the type of pioneers of which one of the best repre- sentatives was the late Jared Benjamin, who died at Rensselaer August 16, 1906.
His ancestry as well as his individual character and training well fitted him for the pioneer task which he undertook when he came to Jasper County. He was born October 10, 1820, in Fayette County, Ohio, a son of Jared Benjamin, while his mother belonged to the Yeoman family, a name which is likewise distinctive among the settlers of Jasper County. His two grandfathers, William Benjamin and Stephen Yeoman, served the colonies in their strug- gle for independence against Great Britain, and both made records which are properly a matter of pride to their descendants. Wil-
459
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
liam Benjamin was present at the surrender of Burgoyne's arny to General Gates and afterwards became owner of the house which the Britisht had used as a hospital and which is still owned by one of his descendants. Stephen Yeoman, owing to his intense loyalty to the colonial canse, drew down upon himself the especial enmity of his Tory neighbors, and he suffered almost inhuman persecution at their hands.
In 1838 when eighteen years old, Jared Benjamin came to Jasper County, and secured a tract of land in Newton Township for which he paid the government a dollar and a quarter an acre. For a period of fifty-three years he lived on that land, and succeeded in converting it from an expanse of marsh, prairie and woods into fruitful fields and one of the most desirable farms in the entire county. He was also active in public affairs and highly esteemed for his many admirable qualities of mind and heart. In 1891 he removed to Rensselaer, and lived at the county seat until his death.
On September 10, 1848, Mr. Benjamin married Miss Lettie Hal- stead, who is still living at Rensselaer and is now in advanced years. She was one of the early teachers of Laporte County. For one term of school she was paid wages amounting to twenty dollars and because she invested this in a cook stove, one of the first introduced into the county, it was freely predicted by some that her extravagance would involve her husband in financial ruin. The prophecy was never fulfilled, and throughout her life her inde- pendence of character was one of her best characteristics. To the marriage of Jared Benjamin and wife were born four daughters: Mary and Clarissa, who died in early childhood in 1858 from "milk sickness;" Teresa E., the widow of John C. Martindale; and Mattie.
ALBERT J. BELLOWS. Among Jasper County's citizens whose well directed efforts have contributed to the development of the county, one whose career is a reflection of intelligent industry, devotion to the best interests of the community, is Albert J. Bellows, who for forty-five years has lived in this county and is now retired from the more active cares of life at Rensselaer. His career has brought him substantial prosperity and the respect and esteem'of his fellow citizens, and his record is one of which his decendants will be justly proud.
Of New England birth and ancestry, with an ancestral line connecting him directly with a soldier of the war for independence, his birth occurred in New Hampshire October 31, 1843. He is the the only survivor of a family of ten children born to the marriage of John W. Bellows and Melissa Ames. Mr. Bellows' grandfather was Isaac Bellows, and going back still another generation his great-grandfather was one of the patriots who helped to win inde- pendence for the thirteen American colonies. John W. Bellows, the father, was born in 1807, and was by occupation a farmer. In
460
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
1852 lie moved with his family to Massachusetts, and from there in 1857, came west, locating in Kankakee County, Illinois.
With an education acquired partly by attendance at the schools of Massachusetts and partly in those of Kankakee County, Albert J. Bellows came to manhood in the latter state and locality, having been well trained to farm-life through his early experiences in assisting his father in the work of clearing, planting and harvest- ing. Few of the boys of his generation had opportunities for a liberal education, and his own schooling was confined to the advantages offered by the country schools. He gained a much more rugged and practical training in what might be called the school of "hard knocks," and has also been a man who keeps in close touch with the world by reading and observation. It was with mature deliberation and as a result of his inherent love for the land of free republican institutions that he volunteered his services dur- ing the closing years of the Civil war to the Federal government. For more than two years he was a member of Company K in the Fourth Illinois Cavalry, receiving his honorable discharge in 1866. His regiment while he was a member of it saw little of active fight- ing, since the war was already drawing to a close, and his duties were largely those of guarding the Federal positions in the South and Southwest, particularly in Texas, where he was stationed with the Federal troops for a number of months after the actual close of hostilities. On returning from the army to Kankakee County, he engaged in farming several years, and in 1870 removed to Jasper County.
For thirty-four years Mr. Bellows has followed farming in Carpenter Township, and the fruits of his labors during those years finally enabled him to retire to Rensselaer in 1906, and he has since spent most of his time in more or less nominal supervision of his interests. On September 21, 1876, he married Miss Jennette Dunbar. She was born in Florida, but her parents, Asaph and Mary (Doolittle) Dunbar, were of New England birth and ancestry. Her father was a contractor and it was for business reasons that he moved South. Mr. and Mrs. Bellows are the parents of two children: Mary Melissa, now Mrs. Charles Murphy of Berwyn, Illinois; and Edward, who married Ona Wilson, and is a farmer in Carpenter Township. In politics Mr. Bellows is a stalwart republican, having cast his first vote for President Lincoln in his second campaign during the war, and having supported the candi- dates of the Grand Old Party regularly for more than fifty years. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church at Rens- selaer.
DENNIS O'RILEY. By the appointment of Dennis O'Riley to the position of postmaster at Remington, a worthy honor was con- ferred upon a citizen who has been identified with that town and
Dennis, 'Piley
461
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
its business life for the past. twenty years, and who in all his rela- tions has been straightforward, capable and public spirited.
He was born at Van Wert, Ohio, February 5. 1868, a son of Daniel and Helen ( Driscoll) O'Riley. Both parents were born in Ireland, and his father, who died in 1890, became a railroad man after coming to America, and for a number of years was a mail clerk between Crestline, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Indiana. His body now rests in the cemetery at Delphos, Ohio. Of his children the three still living are Dennis ; Ellen, the wife of John Flynn, of Lima, Ohio; and Daniel, Jr., who lives at Greentown, Indiana, and is deputy gas inspector.
The home of Dennis O'Riley was at Van Wert, his birthplace, until he was about twenty years of age. In the meantime he had attended the country schools and he then completed his education by a one year course in the Ohio Northern University at Ada. Mr .- O'Riley is a baker by trade, has rendered his best service to the various communities in which he has lived by furnishing excellent food products. For about one year he was in the restaurant and bakery business at Ada, then moved to Frankfort, Indiana, followed his trade there for a short time, and his next location was at Flora, Indiana. Mr. O'Riley learned the baker's trade while in his native Town of Van Wert.
While at Flora on May 4, 1891, he married Miss Lucy Ferguson, daughter of John and Amanda Ferguson. There were two children by their marriage : Ralph, who is in the bakery business at Rensselaer and married Carrie Dedrech ; and Keith D., who is a carpenter at Greencastle, Indiana. The mother of these children died at Rem- ington, but was laid to rest at her old home town, Flora.
After three years at Flora, Mr. O'Riley moved to Remington in the summer of 1893, and resumed his trade as a baker under C. W. Horner. IIe and S. W. Rawlings bought the Horner establish- ment in November, 1896, and they continued it together for three years. It was sold in 1899 to W. C. Hallahan, after which Mr. O'Riley was baker for Fred Love for two years, then spent six months in a bakery at Greentown, Indiana, and returned to his trade in Remington in the fall of 1905. He continued actively in the same line of business until his appointment as postmaster.
Mr. O'Riley entered upon his duties in the Remington post- office March 10, 1914, and every patron of that office has had reason to be thoroughly well satisfied with his administration. This is a third class postoffice, with four rural routes radiating from the town.
On July 6, 1894, at Remington, Mr. O'Riley married for his present wife Janie Shearer, a native of Jasper County. Her parents, Robert and Carrie ( Undershot ) Shearer were early settlers in White County and are yet living. Mr. and Mrs. O'Riley have one child, Helen V., still at home. She is a graduate of Remington High School, class 1914, and is now her father's assistant in the postoffice.
* HENDERSHOTT
462
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
Mrs. O'Riley is a member of the Ladies' Aid Society of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church.
In politics he has been an active democrat, and was a member of the Remington Town Board for nearly thirteen years, and that was the only official position to which he ever aspired. His service on the town board continued until a short time prior to his appoint- ment as postmaster. He is past chancellor of the Remington Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, Castle Hall No. 58; is a member of Rem- ington Lodge No. 351, of the Masonic order in the same place, and is present master, and is also affiliated with the Modern Woodmen of America, Camp No. 4608. Mr. O'Riley owns some property in Remington and is one of its most substantial citizens.
WILLIAM H. BERRY. Shrewd business ability, capacity for persevering labors, appreciation of the many advantages of his vocation and belief in his own power to achieve success, has com- bined to make William H. Berry a successful man, and as such he is regarded in Jasper County, which has been his home for the greater part of the past fifteen years. He is the owner of one of the fine farms in that excellent agriculturai district of Jasper County known as Marion Township.
His life has been spent in many states and amid varied scenes. His birth occurred in the old Pine Tree State of Maine on August II, 1858. His father, Sabin J. Berry, was for a number of years a sailor on the Atlantic ocean. During the Civil war the vessel on which he sailed was captured by the famous Confederate cruiser Alabama, not long before the close of the war and before the close of the history of the Alabama, which shortly afterwards was engaged in battle and sunk by the Kearsarge. After being taken from the merchant vessel he was carried to England and finally made his way back to the United States. Apparently this was sufficient experience as a sailor, and he soon afterwards took up farming and moved to the Middle West, locating in LaSalle County, Illinois. He farmed in that county one year, then spent three years as a farmer in Tipton County, Iowa, returned to LaSalle County, and for seventeen years lived on a farm in Iroquois County, Illinois. He finally removed to Tennessee, where he died in 1889. The maiden name of his wife was Isabel King, and of their four chil- dren two are now living.
The second child of the oldest son in his father's family, William H. Berry spent most of his early life in Illinois at home with his parents. His boyhood was spent in attending the district schools and in doing such work as he was able on the home farm, and when twenty-one he started out to make his own way in the world as a farın renter. Two years later, he was able from the proceeds of his hard work and economy, to buy eighty acres of land in Iroquois County, Ilinois. He subsequently removed to Fayetteville, Ala- bama, was a merchant there two years and for the following four
1
463
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
years was in similar business lines at Bessemer, Alabama. Return- ing to Iroquois County he again resumed farming, and was also engaged in trading and merchandising for three years.
Mr. Berry first came to Indiana in 1898, locating in White County, where he had a farm near Monon for two years. In 1900 he moved to Jasper County, lived here five years, but failing health caused him to remove to Owen County, where he was a merchant five years. Since returning to Jasper County he has given his time and attention to the operation of his fine farm of 243 acres in Marion Township.
In his political attitude Mr. Berry is a republican, and he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian church. On May 26, 1886, he married Miss Flora E. Lindley of Iroquois County, Illi- nois, daughter of Enoch and Malinda ( Bales) Lindley. Her parents were Quaker people and substantial Illinois farmers. To their mar- riage has been born one son, Raymond L., who married Miss Carrie Gwin and is living at Danville, Illinois. They have one little daughter, Jannis.
ISAAC NEWTON WARREN. It is now fully sixty-five years since the Warren family became identified with Jasper County, and mem- bers of three successive generations have contributed the fruits of their character, experience, and ability to the life of the community. In the earlier generations were practical pioneers, who did their part in converting a portion of the wilderness into farms, and few families gave more of its members to the northern armies during the Civil war. Isaac Newton Warren, who represents the third generation, has been chiefly identified with the educational inter- ests of this section, was for a number of years superintendent of city schools of Rensselaer, and now is engaged in a successful enter- prise as a manufacturer of tile and building blocks at his home two miles north of the county seat. His services in all the rela- tions of life have been such as to establish for him a reputation for ability, resourcefulness and thorough public spirit. .
Born on a farm in Marion Township of Jasper County Octo- ber 30, 1869, Isaac N. Warren is a son of the late John Wesley Warren. The latter was born in Ohio in 1834 and at the age of sixteen was brought to Jasper County by his parents, Samuel and Rhoda Warren. Samuel Warren on coming to Jasper County in the early days located on a part of Section 13 about two miles Northwest of Rensselaer, lived there for a number of years, but subsequently moved into town and died there. He was a fine type of the early settler both as regards his activities and his char- acter. In addition to farming he also worked at the cooper's trade to a considerable extent, and made a number of chairs and baskets which were used among the early settlers. In his habits he was thoroughly domestic, was unobtrusive and never sought public notice, though his character was such as to command respect by
464
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
all who knew him. He and his wife had twelve children, all of whom reached maturity. It is one of the many honorable dis- tinctions associated with this family name that practically all his six sons as well as the husbands of his four married daughters saw service in the Union army during the Civil war. Thus during the war times, though he was a man in advanced years, there fell upon him a great deal of responsibility in looking after the inter- ests of his children. His descendants relate that when the family lived in Ohio, where all his children were born, Samuel Warren, after the day's work was done on the farm, would sit down on his bench and cobble hides into shoes while the mother would card, spin and weave material for the old-fashioned homespun cloth- ing. As a result of this experience Samuel Warren was well equipped for his duties as a pioneer in Jasper County.
John Wesley Warren, one of his sons, spent all his life on the farm. His ambition seemed to be to provide for the future of his children. No matter how urgent the work of the farm became and how greatly he was pressed for time and energy to attend to his duties, his children were never kept out of school in order to assist him. As a result his children all were well educated and became teachers. John W. Warren married Mrs. Rhoda (Coen) Sayers, a widow with one child. They had four sons and two daughters. John W. Warren died on his homestead west of Rens- selaer in 1899. His first wife had passed away in 1878 and in 1887 he married Alice Hendricks, who became the mother of two chil- dren. Some years after the death of her husband Mrs. Warren, in 1913, married Mr. Kellogg and now lives in Lafayette.
Isaac Newton Warren spent his youth and early manhood on the old farm in Jasper County, and during that time gained a public school education, and in 1891 graduated from the Rensselaer High School. In the meantime while pursuing his studies at Rensselaer he taught school one term, and immediately after his graduation took a position as a teacher in the grades at Rensselaer, remaining one term. In 1892 Mr. Warren entered the State University at Bloomington, from which he was graduated in 1897. In the mean- time he had paid most of his expenses through university by teach- ing. He spent one year in Chicago and one year as principal of the high school at Sheridan. In the fall of the year following his grad- uation from university he became principal of the Rensselaer High School, remaining one year, and was then principal of the high school at LaPorte, Indiana, four years. The next three years were spent as principal of the Fort Dodge High School in Iowa. In 1905 Mr. Warren returned to Rensselaer to become superintendent of the city schools, and it was his seven years in that capacity which has made his name best known in this community. In that time he did a great deal to raise the standards of the local schools, im- prove the facilities and adapt their work to the needs of a modern twentieth century community. Since leaving the schoolroom Mr.
-
.
465
JASPER AND NEWTON COUNTIES
Warren has been engaged in the manufacture of tile and building blocks, and in that connection looks after the management of his attractive little farm home of forty acres two miles north of Rens- selaer.
On August 30, 1896, Mr. Warren married Alice Irwin. They are the parents of five children: Russell; Stuart; Carroll who died at the age of eight years; Howard; and Mary Alice. In pol- ities Mr. Warren is a republican, and is affiliated with the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows. Both he and his wife are mem- bers of the Methodist Episcopal church.
ALTON GRANT. The winning of a comfortable prosperity after many struggles with fortune, and the establishment and provision for a home and place as an honored and influential citizen of his community, is short measure of the accomplishment of Alton Grant, who for a great many years has been identified with Jasper County as a resident of Marion Township. Mr. Grant, who has long since passed the psalmist's span of three score and ten, owns and resides upon a farm of eighty acres. For a period of sixty-five years he has witnessed the growth and development of this part of Jasper County, and bas himself been a not uninterested and inactive parti- cipant in local affairs.
This well known old citizen was born in Wabash County, Indi- ana, at Lafontaine, July 3, 1839, a son of Daniel and Rebecca R. (Hale) Grant, the former of Scotch and the latter of German ancestry. His parents were married in Kentucky, and after some years of residence in Wabash County they moved in 1850 to Marion Township in Jasper County, where Daniel Grant acquired seven hundred acres of land. He was one of the influential men of his time, and spent the rest of his life in the township. His wife also died there, and both are now at rest in the cemetery at Rensselaer. Daniel Grant followed farming and stock raising, was a republican in politics, but sought no official honors from his party. He was formerly a member of the Christian church and later belonged to the Church of God. He and his wife had ten children, and the three now living are Alton, Shelby and Josephine Warner.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.