USA > Indiana > Clark County > Baird's history of Clark County, Indiana > Part 48
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JAMES LEE COLE.
A well known and influential business man of Charlestown, Clark county, Indiana, is James Lee Cole, who was born here March 17, 1861, the son of Mordicai B. Cole, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. He was reared in Charlestown, his native town, educated in the public schools, and at Barnett Academy, one of the old and well known private educational institutions of Charlestown in the early days. After he finished school he pur- chased his father's farm adjoining Charlestown, and he has carried on general farming very successfully ever since. He owns two hundred and twenty acres under excellent improvements, and which has been so skillfully managed that it is just as productive as when he first took possession of it. He has a fine and commodious residence, good out buildings and he keeps some excel- lent stock of various kinds, dealing extensively in Jersey cattle, and no small part of his yearly income is derived from his successful handling of live stock, of which he is regarded by his neighbors as a splendid judge.
In 1885 Mr. Cole established a creamery on his farm and it soon grew into an extensive business. He purchased large quantities of cream in addition to that furnished by his own cattle. This was operated quite successfully by Mr. Cole until 1900, when he closed his creamery. He also engaged in the . farm implement business in Charlestown for a period of ten years, under the firm name of Cole & McMillin.
In August, 1906, Mr. Cole was elected president of the Bank of Charles- town, and he continues in this position, ably managing the affairs of this, one of the soundest institutions of its kind in the state. He is also a director and stockholder in the same.
Mr. Cole's domestic life began March 20, 1883, when he married Ella S. Barnett, who was born in 1862, in Charlestown township, the daughter of Allen and Edith (Jacobs) Barnett, also natives of Clark county, and represen- tatives of old and well established families. To Mr. and Mrs. Cole two daugh- ters have been born : Laura, the wife of Cortland S. Hughes, a well known and extensive contractor ; Nita, the second child, a graduate of Butler University, Indianapolis, is still a member of the home circle.
In politics Mr. Cole is a Republican, but he has ne r taken much interest in party affairs, preferring to devote his time exclusiv. . y to business. In his fraternal relations he is a member of the Knights of l'ythias and the Modern Woodmen of America, at Charlestown.
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Personally Mr. Cole is a gentleman of unblemished reputation. He is essentially cosmopolitan in his ideas, a man of the people, and in the best sense of the word a representative type of the strong, virile American manhood, which commands and retains respect by reason of inherent merit, sound sense and correct conduct. He has so impressed his individuality upon the com- munity where his life has been spent as to win the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens. Measured by the accepted standard of excellence, his career, though strenuous, has been eminently honorable and useful, and his life fraught with great good to the people of Clark county, according to those who know him best, although he is unconscious of this, being unostentatious and unassuming, at the same time courteous and kind, and always considerate of the welfare of others, and ever ready to aid in any manner possible the up- building of his native community ..
WILLIAM J. BOTTORFF.
More than eighty-five years have dissolved in the mists of the past since the well known and representative citizen whose name appears above, first saw the light, during all of which time he has lived in Clark county, and the greater part of the time figured prominently in the affairs of the community in which he resides. The Bottorffs were among the early pioneers of this part of the state, the subject's grandfather migrating from Pennsylvania to Jefferson county, Kentucky in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He was a Pres- byterian minister, and settled near Louisville. It is supposed that he was killed by wild beasts while on a journey through the wilderness to perform a mar- riage ceremony, as his horse returned. and portions of his clothing were after- ward found. John Bottorff, the subject's father, a Pennsylvanian by birth, was seventeen years old when the family moved to Kentucky and in the year 1800 he came to Clark county, settling on a farm in what is now Charlestown township, and from that time until his death, a number of years later, he was one of the leading farmers and influential citizens of Clark county. He was a true type of the sturdy pioneer of the period in which he spent his early manhood, strong, industrious and energetic, and took an active interest in the improvement of the country, and the development of its resources. To him belongs the credit of literally fulfilling the scriptural injunction to "multiply and replenish the earth," having been twice married, and the father of twenty- three children, nine by the first and fourteen by the second wife.
John Bortorff with his two companions has 'ong been sleeping the sleep of the just, and of the large and interesting family that formerly gathered around the hearthstone, eight survive, all except one brother and two sisters living within two miles of Charlestown, and five of the number having passed
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the ripe old age of eighty years. This is certainly a remarkable record, and it is doubtful whether another family in the state can produce as many living representatives, ranging in age from seventy to ninety years.
The following are the names and dates of birth of the surviving children of John Bottorff: Louis, born in the year 1817; Gabriel, March 29, 1819; Sophia, November 5, 1820; William J., of this review, May 3, 1824; L. D., February 17, 1826; Joshua, January 27, 1831 ; Lucinda A., August 20, 1833, and Mary A., who was born on June 21, of the year 1834.
William J. Bottorff whose birth is noted above is a son of his father's second wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Stonecipher. He was born on the family homestead in Charlestown township and like the majority of boys in a new and sparsely settled country was reared to habits of industry and at an early age learned by practical experience the true meaning of hard work. When old enough to wield an axe he was assigned his task in the woods, and from early morn until late in the evening, labored at clearing away the forest and undergrowth and tilling the soil for cultivation. Blessed with strong, vigorous physical powers and splendid health he nobly did his share in clearing and developing the farm and being an adept with the axe he was enabled while still a youth to do a man's part at any kind of labor in which that implement was required. Owing to his laborious duties he had little leisure to attend school, nevertheless he made the most of his opportunities and in due time obtained the rudiments of an education which supplemented by reading and close observation in later years made him an intelligent and well informed man.
In addition to farming the subject's father operated for some years a com- bination saw and grist mill, in and about which young William was required to work during the winter months, devoting the rest of the year to labor in the clearing and cultivating of the fields. Although deprived of many privi- leges and obliged to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, he grew up to strong and well developed young manhood. He not only passed his minority on the home farm assisting in its cultivation but remained with his father five years longer and it was not until he chose a wife and helpmeet and set up a do- mestic establishment of his own that he left the parental roof. This important event occurred in the spring of 1850, and the one who agreed to take his name, preside over his home, and share his life and fortune was a most es- timable and popular young lady by the name of Eliza J. Nett, a native of Jef- ferson county, Kentucky, where she was born in the year 1834. Meantime Mr. Bottorff had entered a tract of land in Jackson county, Indiana, and some months previous to his marriage he erected a log cabin of the conventional type to which in due time he brought his bride and be: n life for himself, his father assisting him in the momentous undertaking to the extent of one cow and four sheep. After clearing twenty acres of his land he sold it and purchased a place in Owen township, Clark county, where in due time he cleared about
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one hundred and fifty acres and developed one of the finest and most pro- ductive farms in the locality. He not only cut the timber and split the rails to enclose the three hundred and sixty acre tract which he now owns, but at odd times made rails for a number of his neighbors having become an expert in this particular kind of work as well as skilled in all lines of labor in which implements of woodcraft were required.
By industry and excellent management Mr. Bottorff succeeded in making his farm one of the best in the county and his reputation as a successful and enterprising agriculturist soon made his name widely and favorably known. In connection with tilling the soil he has devoted considerable attention to live stock and always made it a rule to keep on a sufficient number of cattle and lings to consume the produce of his farm, besides buying and shipping from time to time to Cincinnati and other leading markets of the Middle West. He has worked hard in his time frequently form sixteen to eighteen hours a day, but of recent years has been in a situation to enjoy the fruits of his many years of toil and take 'life easy, being at this time not only in independent circumstances but the possessor of a handsome fortune which places him in the front ranks of the financially solid and well-to-do men of Clark county. His . beautiful and attractive homestead in Owen township, one of the most valuable farms in the county, nearly all of which was cleared and made ready for tillage by the labor of his own hands, represents a value considerably in excess of twenty thousand dollars in addition to which he owns a comfortable and commodious modern residence in Charlestown where he moved in 1897, and where he is now spending the evening of a long and useful life in honorable retirement.
On state and national issues he has always been an unwavering supporter of the Democratic party, but in local affairs he votes for the best qualified · candidates irrespective of political ties.
Mr. Bottorff and his good wife are the parents of eight children, four of whom are living and whose names and dates of birth are as follows: Columbus, February 13, 1851 ; William E., May 19, 1857; Mattie, April 19, 1865; Lettie, August 8, 1867.
Mr. Bottorff gave his children the best educational advantages the schools of the county afforded. Mr. and Mrs. Bottorff have lived to see their descend- ants to the fourth generation and now rejoice in a happy family circle of four children, thirteen grandchildren and their five great-grandchildren, in all of whom are reproduced many of the amiable qualities and sterling character- istics of the venerable old couple whom they deligh! . love and honor. Re- ligiously Mr. Bottorff and wife have been active members of the Methodist Episcopal church since the year 1865. He has held at intervals important of- ficial positions in the local church to which he belongs and for a number of years has been one of the pillars of the same.
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LEWIS C. BAIRD.
Lewis C. Baird was born in Jeffersonville, Indiana, July 3, 1869. The Baird family is one of the older ones in the city of Jeffersonville, being resi- dents here in 1837. The material side, the Howard family, were resi- dents in Jeffersonville in 1835. The early youth of the subject of this sketch was passed in Louisville, Kentucky, Augusta, Georgia, in West Virginia, and in Dallas and Waxahatchie, Texas. He was educated in the public schools of Jeffersonville until the spring of 1887 when he withdrew, being a junior in the high school at the time, to prepare for admission to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. He entered the class of '92, U. S N. A., and re- mained a midshipman until June, 1891, when he resigned. In 1892 he was com- missioned captain in the First Regiment Indiana National Guard, serving at such until 1895, commanding his company in the field during the miners' riots in Sullivan county in 1894. In 1898 he was commissioned captain in the One Hundred Sixty-first Indiana Volunteer Infantry, war with Spain, and served with his regiment in the Army of Occupation of the Province of Havana.
Captain Baird was made a Mason in Clark Lodge No. 40, Free and Ac- cepted Masons, at Jeffersonville September 19, 1895, and was raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason November 21, 1895. He was master of Clark Lodge in 1900, 1901, and 1902, and is at present secretary. For thirteen years he was lay reader of St. Paul's Episcopal church, of which he is a mem- ber, and is at present a member of and the clerk of the vestry. For a number of years he has been engaged in the practice of his profession of civil and landscape engineering in Louisville, being the civil engineer at Cave Hill cemetery at the present time. On June 1, 1896, he was united in marriage with Miss Martha H. Johnson, the eldest daughter of the Hon. S. S. Johnson of the Clark County Bar.
Captain Baird is a member of the Jeffersonville Commercial Club and takes a keen interest in the development of the city and county.
THE SHARPLESS FAMILY.
John Sharpless was baptized August 15, 1624; died April, 1685; mar- ried April 27, 1662, to Jane Moor. He was the first of the Heaton ances- tors in this country, and was the son of Jeffrey harpless, of Wybunb .. . y, Chester, England. He died near Chester, Pen .Ivania. He had a giant of land from William Penn on April 5, 1682, paring twenty pounds, or $100, for one thousand acres. John Sharpless, with a forethought unusual in American immigrants of that period, instead of disposing of all his posses-
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sions, reserved the lease of the house and lands which he held at Blakenhall, probably with the idea that, if dissatisfied with his new home he would have one to return to in England. He, therefore, made his will before emigrating and left it behind him in the custody of his executors. He was a tenant of Sir Thomas Delves, the lord of the manor, from whom he held a lease for nine- ty-nine years, and that he was able to retain this after the purchase he had made in Pennsylvania and the necessarily considerable expense of transporting so large a family there, speaks well for his thrift and proves conclusively that he was in comfortable circumstances. Although he called himself a "yeoman" he was entitled to a coat-of-arms and was born to command. His will, dis- posing of a large amount of property, is still extant.
James Sharpless, born in England, first month, 5th day, 1670-1, died in Chester, Pennsylvania, about 1746, married Mary Edge first month, 3d day, 1697-8; then married Mary Lewis twelfth month, 20th day, 1699-1700; died in 1753. The certificate of his marriage to Mary Lewis is still in existence- also his will. The ideas in those days of distributing much property does not accord with our times.
Rachael Sharpless, born the 9th day of the 5th month, 1708, was married 8th month, 17th day, to James Dell. He also had much property, land and money. Her daughter, Sarah Dell, married Isaac Weaver 7th month, 20th day, 1750. She died aged eighty-two years; he died aged eighty-nine years.
Isaac Weaver was assessed in Nether Providence, 1764, with one hundred ninety acres and buildings, seventy acres of uncultivated land, nine horses, six cattle and five sheep.
Isaac Weaver, Jr., born in Nether Providence, 3d month, Ist day, 1756, died in Green county, Pennsylvania, 5th month, 22d day, 1830, and was buried upon his own farm upon Sactile Run. He married Abigail Price. Isaac Weaver, Jr., was educated in Philadelphia and while a young man taught school for several years. He also fought in the Revolutionary war. He received a good education for that day and was a very fine penman. In person he was large, being six feet four inches in height and weighing about two hundred forty pounds. He possessed great physical strength, was very erect and in appearance handsome, stately and dignified. He was a man of un- swerving integrity and served in both houses of the State Legislature of Pennsylvania. In 1800 he was Speaker of the Assembly, in 1802 State Treas- urer and carried money from Lancaster to Washington City on horseback, filling the office with credit to himself and honor to the state. He was four . times elected Senator from the district composed o Washington and Green counties, in 1806, 1812, 1816, 1820 and in 1817 w ... Speaker of the Senate. . His wife, Abigail Price, was the daughter of David Price and Ann Husband Price, of Cecil county, Maryland, and was descended from Barnabas Wilcox, · who gave three of his daughters to colonial mayors of Philadelphia.
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His daughter, Nancy Weaver, daughter of Isaac Weaver, Jr., born June 17, 1797, married John Heaton.
WYATT EMORY WILLEY.
The family of which the subject of this review is an honorable representa- tive has figured for over a century in the annals of Clark county and before migrating to Indiana was well known in the colony of Connecticut where the original ancestors settled a number of years prior to the War of Independ- ence. Brazilla Willey, the first of the name to seek a home in the West was a native of Connecticut and when a young man served two terms of enlistment in the War of the Revolution, at the close of which he located in his native state where he remained until migrating to Southern Indiana nearly one hundred years ago. Arriving at his destination in 1811 he settled a short distance above Jeffersonville near the site now occupied by the Zulauf residence, but the following year moved to the tract of land northwest of Memphis where he built his cabin and stockade to which he brought his family the same year. Mr. Willey was a fine mechanic and made three trips to New Orleans making the return journey on foot and meeting with not a few thrilling experiences on the way. Owing to the failure of his partner, a Mr. Bowman of Jeffersonville, his last trip was far from being successful, but to reimburse · him for the loss sustained that gentleman subsequently deeded him the two hundred acres northwest of Memphis referred to which at that time was valued at a little more than the government price per acre but which in the end proved fortunate indeed to the possessor. Southern Indiana being on the frontier and exposed to the depredations of hostile Indians, the settlers took the pre- caution to protect their cabins by surrounding them with well constructed stock- ades and well it was that they did so for it was not long after the completion of Mr. Willey's fortification that the terrible Pigeon Roost massacre occurred in which so many settlers and their families fell victims to the ruthless savages and which for a long time caused great uneasiness on the frontier. When Mr. Willey moved to his possession it was a wilderness but with the energy characteristic of the true pioneer he resolutely addressed himself to the task of its improvement and in the course of a few years had a goodly portion cleared and under cultivation. Meantime as opportunities permitted he con- tinued his mechanical work which consisted principally of building boats for the river trade, the material used in the construction of these crafts being whip- sawed and but little iron required. In 1813 he built a boat sixty-feet in length on Silver creek which he floated to the river when the water rose, and sold at a good price. Several years later he constructed another boat near
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the mouth of the same creek which was propelled by steam forced through a pipe projecting from the stern into the water, this being one of the earliest at- tempts to utilize steam as a motive power on water. In addition to boats, a number of which he constructed and disposed of Mr. Willey built a grist and saw mill combined on the Blue river which burned when nearing completion but he immediately rebuilt it which he operated about two years and then sold the same. He furnished the lumber for the Collins Mill on the Kentucky side of the Falls. He was a man of great energy and ability and his mechanical skill proved of immense service to his own and other localities. When quite young he united with the Methodist Episcopal church and not long after moving to Indiana entered the ministry of the same and discharged the duties of his holy office for many years first as a local preacher and later on the regular work of the circuit.
Brazilla Willey died in 1851 and is buried in the cemetery at Bowery Chapel, a church about one mile west of Memphis which he organized and to which he ministered from time to time for a number of years besides erect- ing the building in which the society worships. The children of Mr. Willey were as follows : Allen, Brazilla, Elam, Dennis, John W., John F., Martha A., Clarissa Ann, who married James S. Tricker; Mary Elizabeth, wife of Lewis Tuttle; and Damrus who died in childhood. At the breaking out of the War of 1812, Allen the oldest son, who was in Canada, was conscripted into the British army and for a time forced to serve against his own country. When a favorable opportunity presented itself, however, he deserted, crossing Lake Erie in a canoe, a hazardous trip of three days, and after a long journey and · somewhat strenuous experience in the wilderness on foot finally arrived at the family home where a royal welcome awaited him. He was a well educated man for those days and was a rival for the nomination as first Governor of In- diana against Jonathan Jennings.
For many years the Willeys were quite numerous in Clark county and prominent in the affairs of their respective communities, but some time prior to the War of the Rebellion all of the name except John Fletcher Willey moved to other parts and are now with their descendants scattered over various states.
John Fletcher Willey, who was the youngest son of Brazilla Willey, was born in Cincinnati in 1800 and was brought to Clark county when an infant two years old. Like his father he was a man of intelligence and great energy, a believer in progress and few citizens of Clark county have done so much as he to promote the material interest of their pl. es of residence or been more influential in advancing the moral and social condition of the people. He was one of the first men in the county to engage in horticulture on more than a nominal scale and for a number of years he ranked among the largest and most successful fruit growers of Southern Indiana besides earning a wide repu-
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tation among horticulturists of his own and other states. He was a public spirited man and a representative citizen and ever endeavored to keep bright and untarnished the escutcheon of the esteemed old family of which he was for many years the honored head. He died in Wood township, in 1899, at the age of ninety years.
WYATT E. WILLEY.
This enterprising farmer and gallant ex-soldier of one of the great wars in the annals of time is a son of John F. and Pauline (Garner) Willey, the latter a daughter of Shieveral Garner, whose antecedents came to America many years ago from France.
Wyatt Willey is a native of Clark county, Indiana, born March 2, 1841, in Utica township, and combines many of the estimable qualities and sterling . characteristics for which his family for many generations have been distin- guished. He was reared on the farm. In the fields in the summer seasons and attending the district schools in the winter he spent his time until the breaking out of the great rebellion, when with the spirit of patriotic zeal which characterized so many of the loyal young men throughout the north he laid aside his implements of husbandry for the death dealing weapons of war. In the month of December, 1861, when but a few months past his twentieth year he enlisted in Company H, Thirty-eighth Indiana Infantry, which in due time was attached to the Fourteenth Arm Corps and with his comrades he was soon experiencing all the realties of war on the march, in camp and on the field of bat- tle. The first engagement in which he participated was fought near Louisville, Kentucky, following which he took part in some of the most noted battles which made his period of service historic including Perryville, Stone River, Hoover's Gap, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the various engagements of the Atlanta campaign following which he marched with Sherman to the sea, thence to Goldsboro, North Carolina, and on March 19 and 20, 1865, took part in the battle of Bentonville. After the surrender of Johnston's force at Raleigh he proceeded with his command to Washington, D. C., where in the presence of President and other high officials of the civil and military departments of the government, he took part in the grand review, the closing scene in the long and sanguinary struggle which it is hoped will make rebellion in the country here- after forever impossible.
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