USA > Indiana > Clark County > Baird's history of Clark County, Indiana > Part 44
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 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
Judge Gibson was born in Charlestown, Indiana, on the 9th of September,
817
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
1851, and was the son of Thomas W. and Mary W. (Goodwin) Gibson. Thomas WV. Gibson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was brought when but six years old to Lawrenceburg, Indiana. At the age of sixteen he entered the United States Academy at West Point and at the expiration of three years he was appointed midshipman in the United States Navy. He served three years on the United States sloop "Vandalia," cruising near the West Indies. After an active career in the navy he retired in 1836, and re- turned to Lawrenceburg, where he studied law with George H. Dunn. In 1837 he moved to Charlestown, and in 1838 was united in marriage with Mary W. Goodwin, the daughter of Col. Amos Goodwin. After his marriage Thom- as W. Gibson practiced law at Charlestown until 1846, when in that stirring period he raised Company I, Third Indiana Vounteers, He became captain of his company and participated in the battle of Buena Vista in the Mexican war. In 1847 he returned to Charlestown, and in 1848 was elected to the In- diana Legislature on the Democratic ticket. He became a member of the Con- stitutional Committee in 1851, and afterwards served as an Indiana Senator. In 1852 he moved his law office to Louisville, Kentucky, but continued to reside in Charlestown until his death, which occurred in 1876, on the 30th of No- vember of that year. Thomas W. Gibson reached a high pinnacle of success · as a lawyer. He was a man of remarkable attainments and was a well known writer, having written several novels which were widely read. During the war period he was brought into considerable prominence and served as provost marshal in Louisville during the most critical periods of the Civil war. He also commanded a regiment for a short time in the defense of that city, and in after times his prowess as a fighter threatened to eclipse his fame as an at- torney.
Thomas W. Gibson had a family of three boys and three girls, of whom one girl and two of his sons are now deceased. They were : Lydia D. Gibson, who married B. F. Walter; Amelia A. Gibson died single ; Lieutenant Thomas W. Gibson, of the Eighth United States Cavalry, died single; Sarah G. is the wife of McDowell Reeves: Charles H. Gibson is an attorney-at-law in Louisville, and George H. D. Gibson, our subject.
Judge Gibson was reared in Charlestown and received his early education at the Barnett Academy in Charlestown. He spent four years in the Kentucky Military Institute and graduated in 1873. He then studied law at Louisville and graduated at the Louisville Law University in 1874. He immediately opened an office in Charlestown and was in 1876 elected Prosecuting Attorney. In 1877 he removed his law office to Louisville, K. tucky, but later returned! to Charlestown, and in 1881 was elected to the Indana Legislature. He was again returned by election to the session of 1883. In 1892 he was elected Judge of the Clark county Circuit Court, an honored office which he held with distinction until 1898. While still on the judicial bench he bought a farm
52
·
·
818
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
to which he later retired and engaged extensively in stock farming with much success until 1908, when he sold his farm and reopened his law practice in Charlestown.
He married in July, 1896, Virginia C. Van Hook, who came of a well known family. His matrimonial happiness was of brief duration, however, for Mrs. Gibson died in July, 1908, an occurrence which was a sad blow to her husband.
Judge Gibson, needless to say, is an influential and prosperous man. He is a large stock holder in and a director of the First National Bank, an insti- tution whose destiny he has taken no small share in bringing to its present suc- cess.
Judge Gibson is yet but fifty-seven years old, and it is safe to say that his already successful career is but a stepping stone to greater things.
JOHN McMILLIN.
John M. McMillin, of Charlestown township, Clark county, is a pros- perous and industrious farmer and an influential citizen, and there are a few men who are more prominently associated with the financial and business life of the community than he. He has shown himself to have inherited the dominant characteristics of the McMillin family, whose name has been associated with Charlestown township for nearly a hundred years. They were a Pennsyl- vania family of Scotch-Irish origin and were an industrious people, careful to husband their resources and endowed with a marked facility for successfully manipulating their financial affairs. The Indiana head of the family, William McMillin, fought in the War of 1812, at the close of which he settled in Ken- tucky and later moved to Charlestown, Clark county. He was grandfather of the resident of Charlestown township whose name heads this sketch.
John M. McMillin was born in Charlestown township, Clark county, on the 9th of February, 1856, and was the son of William C. and Mary F. (Brent- linger) McMillin. Grandfather William McMillin, referred to above, was a native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent. He was by trade a cabinet- maker and served in the War of 1812, then settled in Kentucky, and later came to Indiana. He worked at his trade in Charlestown until 1841, at which time he bought a farm of one hundred and fifty acres in grant No. 09. on which he lived until 1880, when his death occurred. His wife had died' pre- viously, in 1854. They were the parents of five children, all boys, namely : William C., John M., Thomas, George and Robert. All the members of the family migrated to Illinois with the exception of William C., the father of our subject, who remained on the old place in grant No. 99, until his death,
819
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
which occurred in 1897. His wife is still living, her seventy-seventh birth- day taking place in 1908. William C. McMillin was a man with a great talent for making money and the owner of many acres of land. He was of much importance to the township financially and was known as a liberal- hearted man. When the bank of Charlestown was organized in 1891 he be- came its second vice-president and an influential stockholder. Though he at- tended church and was a practical Christian he never belonged to any par- ticular church, but was a liberal supporter of many. In politics he was a Re- publican. He and his wife were the parents of two children : John M. (our subject), and William E., who is now one of the instructors in the carpentry department of the Jeffersonville Reformatory.
John M. McMillin was reared on the family homestead and in his youth was a regular school attendant and consequently got a good education. In after life he married Jennie B. Stierheim, born in the year 1859, whose father was a native of France. The couple have led a happy married life and one son has been born to them, H. R. McMillin, Deputy Sheriff of Clark county. Their son was reared on the family farm and received a good common school education. The McMillins belong to the Presbyterian church at Charlestown, in which our subject is a deacon.
In the fraternal world John M. McMillin is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and carries insurance in that organization. In politics he is a Republican. His farm embraces some three hundred and sixty acres of choice land and is well cultivated and stocked. As was his father, he is also a stockholder of the bank of Charlestown. He has met with much success in his financial ventures and this, no doubt, is to be attributed to his powers of judgment and discrimination. He is a director of the well known Charles- town Canning Factory. He and his wife and son are popular in all circles in Charlestown township and have the reputation of being hospitable and kindly neighbors.
THE TOWNSEND FAMILY.
Among the early settlers of Union township was the family of Isaac Townsend, who came to Clark county in 1817. Isaac Townsend was born in Bradford county, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1790, and was the son of Uriah and Dorothy Townsend. Uriah Townsend was a son of Elijah Townsend and Dorothy, a daughter of Rudolph Fox, who was among the earliest pio- neers of Bradford county, Mr. Fox having located there in 1770. In 1793 Uriah Townsend with his family moved to Yates county, New York, locating in the town of Jerusalem, near Pennyan. Here Isaac Townsend grew up and was married in 1810, to Meliscent Guernsey, daughter of Daniel Guernsey. They resided in Yates county until 1817, when Mr. Townsend resolved to
·
820
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
secure a home in Indiana. Traveling overland to what was then known. as Olean Point, they embarked and floated down the Alleghany and Ohio rivers to U'tica, where they landed, and Clark county became their permanent home. They settled in the Blue Lick country, within the present limits of Union town- ship. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend were both Methodists and lived quiet and happy lives. Mrs. Townsend died May 8, 1871, and Mr. Townsend June 17, 1875. They are buried with all their children except one, in Mountain Grove cemetery, three miles west of Henryville. The children of Isaac and Meliscent Townsend were: George Harmon, Elizabeth, Uriah, Julia, Isaac Monroe, Guernsey and Desire.
George Harmon Townsend was born in Yates county, New York, June II, ISII, came with his parents to Clark county in 1817, and grew up in the Blue Lick country. He became quite wealthy and was one of the first trustees of Union township. He was married September 13, 1832, to Sarah Maria Thompson. The children of George Harmon and Sarah Maria Town- send were: Phila Ann Townsend, born June 27, 1833; married to John S. Dunlevy February 9, 1857. They settled in Monroe township and had three children-Ann Eliza, George Townsend, and Simeon Crawford Dunlevy. Burritt Leroy Townsend, born April 15, 1835; married to Mary E. Biggs, March 22, 1860. Their children are: Ida, Emma, Annie, Hobart, Robert, Franklin, Byron and Pauline. They live in Cumberland county, Illinois. Isaac Franklin Townsend was born January 31, 1837; married to Julia F. Hart, March, 1861. . They live in Smith county, Kansas, and have four chil- dren : William B., Charles Hart, Lelah M., and George Franklin. Angeline Townsend was born May 31, 1842 ; married to John King, October 22, 1862. They located in Carr township and their children are: George Washington, John Franklin, Thomas Leroy, Lafayette Sampson, Charles Walter, Clela Dailey, Hamilton Ferguson, and Annie Ella.
Sarah Marie Townsend died June 10, 1845, and on August 31, 1847, George Harmon Townsend was again married, to Elizabeth Hart, of Barthol- omew county. The children of George Harmon and Elizabeth Townsend are: Lenora Jane Townsend was born June 7, 1849; married to Henry H. Carr, November 3, 1866. He died and she was married a second time to John WV. Batty. They live in the Blue Lick country and have four children-Ralph Covert, John Byron, Estelle Pink, and Helen Townsend. Thomas Matson Townsend was born March 7, 1851 ; married to Matilda Reed, September 30, 1869. They live in Silver Creek township and their children are-Tenry Augustus, Annie Laura, Cora Alice, Thomas Lafayette, George Harmon, Ella Reed, Frank Smith, and Martha Rave. Lafayette Demarcus Townsend was born December 27, 1852; married to Mary M. Buchler, September 9, 1875. They live in the Blue Lick country, and their children are-Nora Elizabeth, Annie Blanche, Lelah Belle, Paul Vernon, James Edwin, Charles
821
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
B., . Lucy Forest, Herman Ray, Ruth J., Elmer L., and Hazel M. Saralı Addie Townsend was born August 30, 1859; married to James Fred- erick Whitesides, September 14, 1876. They reside near Memphis and their · children are-Nora America, Catherine Ella, Goldie Lillie, Homer Townsend, Pearl Indiana, Mabel Elizabeth, James Otto, Mary Addie, and Daisy Grace. Ella Elizabeth Townsend was born September 2, 1861 : married to Edwin Orville Green, May 3, 1888. They reside in Cleveland, Ohio, and their chil-
dren are-Florence Catherine, Bernice Edna, and Amos Townsend Green. Lillie Alice Townsend was born November 24, 1863 ; married to James Madi- son Hawes, September 6, 1882. They live in Jeffersonville, and their children are-Bessie Beatrice, Edith Nathan, Blanche Townsend, Myrtle Foster, and Katharine Jeanette, Laura Pink Townsend was born February 23, 1868; married to Marcellus Mayfield, July 1, 1888. They live in Royal Center, In- diana, and their children are-Clyde Townsend, Hollis Earl, and Lecta Geneva. Daisy Forest Townsend, born June 19, 1870; married to Alvin E. Green, March 3, 1889. They reside in New Albany, Indiana, and have no children.
George Harmon Townsend died February 22, 1889, after a long and use- ful life. His wife, Elizabeth, having preceded him, died April 23, 1879. They with the first wife are buried in Mountain Grove cemetery.
Of the other children of Isaac and Meliscent Townsend : Elizabeth Town- send married Almond Roberts and located in Monroe township. Their chil- dren were-Wesley, Millie, Emily, Julia, Marintha, Huldah, and Nancy. Uriah Townsend married Elizabeth -, and settled in Union township. Their children were-Nancy, Minerva, and Elizabeth. Julia Townsend mar- ried Joseph Johnson and lived in the Blue Lick country. They left no de- scendants. Isaac Monroe Townsend married Julia Ann Harris and lived in Union township. Their children were-James Allen, Huldah and Elam. Dr. Terry Monroe Townsend, formerly of Jeffersonville, but now living in New York City, is a son of Elam Townsend. Desire Townsend married Joseph Biggs and lived in Monroe township. They left no descendants. Guernsey Townsend married and moved to Clinton county, Indiana, where he brought up a large family, and lived to a good, ripe old age. He is the only one of the children not buried in Mountain Grove cemetery.
Other members of the Townsend family in the Blue Lick country are of the same lineage, through John Townsend, a brother of Isaac Townsend. They are: Sophia Townsend, who married Parady Payne, and lived in Mon- roe township. Their children are-William. James, Lillie, George F., Blanche, Charles, Arthur, Kate, and John. James Townsend married Serena Trotter, and resided in Monroe township. Their children are-Albert, James, and Charles Townsend. Rexie Townsend married Thompson M. Dietz, and lived in the Blue Lick country. Their children are-Florence, Ruth, Grace, Fanny, Thompson M., Walter, and Bryan Deitz.
822
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
JACOB P. BARE.
Jacob P. Bare was for many years prior to his death a skilled agricul- turist and a well-to-do resident of Charlestown township, Clark county. He was one of those unassuming men who find ample scope for their abilities in performing industriously and consistently the duties which providence placed before them. He lived to a ripe age, conscious of a life well spent in an effort to rightly rear and to enrich his family, and enjoying the friendship and un- failing loyalty of a large circle of friends. He was born on the 17th of Sep- tember, 1823, near Washington, Indiana. His father was a Virginian. In his sixth year our subject came with his parents to Owen township, Clark county, in which county the remainder of his life was spent. He married Ann MI. Baird on the 24th of December, 1846. She was the daughter of John and Sarah (Martin) Baird. Jacob and his wife were the parents of nine children. In regular order they were : John H., born on May 13, 1848; Almira M. on September 24, 1849; William H. on the 25th of May, 1851 ; H. T., born May 20, 1853 ; Sarah A. on the 13th of April, 1855; Robert A. and Charles (twins), born August 23, 1857; Ida V., born September 13, 1859, and Harriet E. De- cember 27, 1862. Our subject and his wife on their marriage settled on the farm where Mrs. Bare still lives and where he afterwards died on the 4th of October, 1891. The farm contains two hundred acres of choice land. Jacob Bare was a deeply religious man through life and was a deacon of the local Presbyterian congregation ; his entire family also belong to that faith. In politics he was a Republican. His death was a loss to the community at large as well as to his family, and an overwhelming blow to his sorrowing wife, on whom the duty developed of caring for her children. From her husband's death in 1891 to the present day, Mrs. Anna M. Bare has admirably demon- strated her fitness as the head of the family. During that time she has shown herself to be possessed of a natural ability and talent to deal with all the prob- lems which have faced her. She is now past the age of eighty-two years, and lives a life of much less strenuousness than was her custom hitherto. She was born near Lexington, Kentucky, on August 30, 1826, and was, as we have stated, the daughter of John and Sarah (Martin) Baird. Her father was born near Coleraine, Londonderry county, Ireland, in 1789. In the year 1810, at the age of twenty-one, he crossed the intervening ocean to the United States and landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where for some time he worked in a factory, and in that city married Sarah Martin, a native of the nice. They then came to Tennessee and later to Kentucky, resided for some time in Ohio and finally came to Clark county, where they settled in Owen town- ship. Here he erected a building for a woolen factory, and was in his ninety- third year at the time of his death. John Baird and his wife were the parents of the following children : William, John, Henry, Sarah, Eliza, Ann M.,
.
823
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
George WV., James A., Robert and Martha H. The only survivors of the fam- ily in 1908 were Ann M. and Martha H. Ann M. was sixteen years old when she came to Owen township and she obtained a good common school educa- tion. On her marriage to Jacob P. Bare, the subject of our sketch, she went to live on her present farmstead. Here her family, whom we have already enumerated, grew up and here her husband died.
Mrs. Ann M. Bare is widely known and respected and lives peaceably in her advanced years with her son, Charles E., and her daughter, Elizabeth. Three of her children, Sarah, William H. and Harrison F., are deceased.
JOHN M. BOWER.
It is a rare privilege to spend one's life in the house in which one was born. The subject of this sketch has lived under the same roof for a period of sixty-two years, and judging from the success he has made in his life work, he was wise in remaining at home, rather than seek uncertain fortune in other states as so many of his contemporaries did, many of them to their regret.
John MI. Bower was born in Washington township, Clark county, Indiana, February 17, 1847, the son of Tobias and Mary A. (Piercy) Bower, the for- mer a native of North Carolina, and the latter of Virginia. Tobias Bower came from the old Tar state with his father, and located in section I, Waslı- ington township, this county, in 1810, and here he was reared and worked on a farm attending such schools as there were in those pioneer days. The Piercy family came to this county in an early day, settling on Fourteen Mile creek. Tobias Bower and Mary A. Piercy were married in Washington township. and here they lived and died, the former at the age of sixty-eight years, the latter surviving until she was ninety-four. They were the parents of the fol- lowing children : Edward T. was a soldier in Company I, Eighty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, having been wounded at the battle of Nashville, living only twenty-one days afterward when he died in the service of his country ; Wil- liam A. was in the same company and was wounded at the battle of Stone River, Tennessee, and also died in twenty-one days after, while in the service of the Union ; James S. was the next in order of birth; Carrie is the wife of Benton Wilson; Julia became the wife of William Snider, of Utica; Jennie is the wife of J. C. Lewman, of Louisville, Kentucky; Belle is the wife of John W. Bottorff ; Alice A. married P. F. Shilling ... .! they live at New Wash- ington, Clark county.
John M. Bower, of this review, was born and reared upon the farm where he now lives, as already intimated. He worked about the place in his boy- hood and attended the neighboring schools in the meantime, having remained
824
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
with his parents until he married Emma J. Bottorff in 1878. She was called to her rest in May, 1903, after becoming the mother of three children, two of whom are living, namely : May died when ten years old ; Jennie is the wife of Ed Patterson; Sudie is single ; both she and Jennie graduated in the com- mon schools.
Mr. Bower has been a successful farmer and is regarded as a very capable manager, and a good judge of live stock. He is the owner of a valuable landed estate consisting of three hundred acres. It is well improved and everything about the place shows careful management and thrift. The old home is beau- tifully located, surrounded by fine old trees, and everything to make home pleasant and attractive. Mr. Bower always keeps some good stock on the place, and he carries on a general farming with much satisfaction. He is fond of all kinds of stock and keeps good horses, cattle and sheep. Mr. Bower is a. stockholder in the First National Bank of Charlestown. He has shipped many horses from time to time. He has found time to travel some and is a man of good judgment and well informed on general topics.
In his political relations Mr. Bower is a loyal Democrat and he very ably served his township as Trustee for a term of five years. He is one of the sub- stantial and well known citizens of this part of the county.
WILLIAM H. LONG.
Among the representative citizens of Oregon township, Clark county, few have attained as distinctive prestige as Mr. Long, who is carrying on a general merchandise business at New Market, and in a perusal of the follow- ing biography it will be seen that he is a man of proper ideals regarding pri- vate, social and civic life, and that the esteem in which he is held and the suc- cess which he has won, are due rewards for the consistent life he has led.
William H. Long was born in Charlestown township, Clark county, Sep- tember 15, 1847, the son of Morgan and Isabelle ( Martin) Long, the former having been born in Virginia, but was reared in Kentucky, his ancestors having come to America from Ireland.
William H. Long was reared in Charlestown township, this county, where he worked on the farm and attended the common schools, receiving such edu- cation as was possible in these early days. When the dark clouds of Civil war darkened our national horizon, he was not satisfied to let his fellow country- men alone defend the flag consequently in the spring of 1864, before he was eighteen years old, he enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Indiana Regiment, and did guard duty, never having an occasion to engage in any of the great battles. He receives a pension.
825
BAIRD'S HISTORY OF CLARK CO., IND.
Mr. Long married Samantha Cortner, the youngest of a family of thirteen children. She was born in Oregon township, where she received her early schooling. To this union four children have been born, namely : Edmund E. is married and lives at Prather, Indiana, where he is clerking in the Union National Bank. He is a graduate of the Borden high school, and of a business college in Louisville, Kentucky; Maggie is the wife of William Cartright, of Charlestown township; Ada, the third child, who became the wife of Morgan Bower, is deceased ; Harrison R., who was born in 1892, is living at home.
Mr. Long is a faithful member of the Presbyterian church at New Mar- ket, being one of the deacons in the same. Mrs. Long was also a member of this church. In politics he is a Republican, and in 1904 was elected Trustee of Oregon township, in a township that is about ninety Democratic. He took office January 1, 1905, and he retired January 1, 1900. He made one of the best local officials the township has ever had, according to his constituents. When Mr. Long came into office the township was in debt seven hundred dol- lars. This has been paid and he built a good school-house at No. 1, in the township, which is also paid for, and the rate is lower now than it has been.
Mr. Long has been a general merchant at New Market for the past thirteen years, during which time he has built up a good trade with the sur- rounding country, for he is honest in his dealings with his fellow men, and he keeps a good quality of goods. He has a fine home in New Market, well fur- nished and modern, where he lives with his boy, Mrs. Long having passed to her rest in February, 1908.
BENTON B. BOWER.
The subject of this sketch has enjoyed the privilege of living nearly his en- tire life under the same roof, having devoted his life to agricultural pursuits, be- ing the owner of a good farm in Washington township, while he is honored as one of the useful citizens of the same and as an able exponent of its farm- ing interests.
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.