USA > Indiana > Miami County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 48
USA > Indiana > Howard County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 48
USA > Indiana > Cass County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 48
USA > Indiana > Tipton County > Biographical and genealogical history of Cass, Miami, Howard and Tipton counties, Indiana > Part 48
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While the above family were in Ripley county Jacob T. married, and came to Tipton county in 1849, settling upon a tract of land which his brother had entered and deeded to him, two miles southeast of where Hobbs now is; and this is the place where he still resides. When he came here not a tree had been cut. He cleared a little spot whereon he built a cabin and com- menced the struggle of life in the wilderness; and ever after the first year the place has yielded him a support, the abundance of wild game being a great help during the first year; and even the coon-skins and deer-skins he collected were convenient in the place of money at the stores in the villages. But, as usual, it was a long distance to the nearest gristmill, and the roads, where there were any at all, often impassable, and the sloughs and many of the miry streams unfordable. Also he and the whole family had to take their turn at the "everlasting " shakes, the ague. When Mr. Hanshew located at this point scarcely any of the settlers had got to farming. Beginning here on one hundred and sixty acres he has since sold half of it, and of the remain- ing half he has seventy-two acres cleared, ditched, tiled and in a good state of cultivation. On the place he has erected a commodious frame residence, a large barn, outbuildings, etc., and planted an orchard. As a farmer he has always been a good manager, and, besides, he has done some carpentering and other miscellaneous work, as he is a " handy man " at almost anything.
He was united in marriage with Miss Amanda J. Morris, of an honored pioneer family of Ripley county. She was born November 18, 1824, a daughter of Claiborne and Mary (Pate) Morris, natives of old Virginia, who came to Indiana in 1811, locating in Dearborn county. Mr. Morris was a shoemaker by trade and a farmer generally by occupation, but being also by nature a good mechanic he was good at almost all kinds of work. He came to this county in 1870, and died about 1874, at the remarkably advanced age of one hundred and six years. His wife, surviving, returned to Bartholomew county, this state, where she died, in May of the following year, a pious member of the Methodist church. They had fourteen children, as follows: John, Betsey, Rista, Daniel, Amanda J. (wife of Mr. Hanshew), Mary, Henry, Cynthia, Charles, Columbus, Margaret, Catharine, Emily and Will-
.
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iam. All these lived to be grown excepting two. By a previous marriage, their father had had three children, -Paulina, James and David.
Mr. Hanshew's children are: Mary E., who first married Isaac Shaw, and after his death William Gants, and finally died, leaving five children; Matilda J., who died young; Jasper, who died February, 1897; Newton, a carpenter; Martha A., now Mrs. J. Murray; Henry C., residing in the state of Washington; Christina, now Mrs. H. Eaton; Monroe, in Idaho; Levi A., in Kansas; Enos M., who married and lost his wife, and is now farming the old homestead.
Mr. Hanshew is a Democrat, but never has aspired to office of any kind.
R OBERT RIDGWAY .- It is a peculiar pleasure to take up the record of a man who has a scientific trend and a humanitarian disposition; but, without any preliminary flourishes, we will proceed at once to outline the life career of a prominent citizen of Amboy, Miami county, Indiana, whose life has been a romantic one and who is now one of the substantial farmers of Jackson township.
He was born September 21, 1845, in Madison county, this state, a son of Abijah J. and Eliza (Ferguson) Ridgway. (For his genealogy see the sketch of his father in another place in this volume.) Robert was but five years old when brought to Amboy by his parents in their change of residence to this place. He was reared to the pursuits of the farm, at the age of eighteen learning the art of manufacturing tile and brick at Plainfield, in Hendricks county, this state. In the meantime, during his youth, he obtained an excellent education, attending school first at Amboy, next the Friends' Seminary at Marion, Indiana, the high school at LaFayette and an academy at Spiceland, this state, all the while paying his own expenses for his education by manual labor and school-teaching, beginning his pedagog- ical career at the early age of seventeen years and continuing in the profes- sion during the winter seasons for ten years. Having a scientific turn of mind and an energetic nature he soon became a drainage engineer and contractor.
After his marriage he settled on seventy-five acres of land adjoining Amboy, which had but twenty acres cleared, and this he improved in every
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way. It was in 1878 that he moved to Marion, this state, and engaged in the sale of sawmills, tile mills and machinery, and in this line he did an extensive business. He had in his youth built for his father the fourth drain- tile factory in the state of Indiana, and the first at Amboy, in the autumn of 1863. After a residence of five years in Marion he went to New Orleans, where he erected a large drain-tile factory, in company with J. B. Outland, formerly of Amboy, and for several years did a large business there. At the end of about four years he returned to Amboy, where he is now engaged in the development of the natural gas resources of the vicinity, having already put down three wells, and he is also successfully engaged in the manufacture of tile, and in farming, having about two hundred acres of land. Thus it will be observed that the career of our subject has been wonderfully varied and even romantic, and that he is emphatically a "self-made " man, in that he has educated himself and accumulated all that he possesses by his own energies and shrewd management. He is becoming more noted of late by his discovery of a remedy against that most devastating disease among swine called " hog cholera." Having been severely scourged five times in eighteen years by that destructive pestilence, he had unusual means for observation and experiment, which he utilized until he discovered a method, without the use of medicine, vaccination, inoculation or surgery, by which pigs, even before their birth, are "immunized " against the cholera. To the scientific character of his remedy, as well as to his own reliability, he has a sufficient number of testimonials from thorough physicians and fellow citizens. The remedy is founded on the well known modern principles of bacteriology, indorsed by all the scientific world, and it is practical, certain and cheap.
Both himself and wife are faithful members of the Society of Friends, in which he has held the office of clerk. In politics he was formerly a Repub- lican but is now a Prohibitionist. He is a man of good principles, thoroughly reliable, well informed, a great reader and an independent thinker.
For his first wife he was united in matrimony with Miss Mary E. Lamb, born at Amboy, the daughter of Benja B. Lamb and Susan (Thomas) Lamb, the marriage ceremony taking place at Amboy in 1870. The children by this union were Elwood O., who died at the age of eight months, and Mary E. Miss Mary E. Ridgway was educated at Amboy Academy, graduating in 1884. She secured thorough instruction in music under Professor George Jones, of the musical conservatory in Cincinnati and in Boston. She also attended the 31
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Indianapolis Conservatory of Music, and has a superior musical education. She has been a very successful teacher of music for the past five years. Mrs. Ridgway died in 1875, and December 31, 1888, Mr. Ridgway was united in marriage with Asenath J. 'Lamb, a sister of his first wife. Mrs. Ridgway was educated at the excellent Amboy Academy and at the noted Earlham College at Richmond, this state, which is the principal college of the Friends in the United States. She is a lady of extended reading and refined tastes and habits, and is interested in all the moral reforms of the day and a devoted member of the Friends' Society, in which she has been a teacher in the Sun- day-school for twelve years; she has also been secretary of the Wabash quarterly meeting for five years, is a member of the Society of Christian Endeavor and of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; was president of the Miami county union six years and a charter member of the Amboy union, the first union formed in Miami county which maintained a success- ful existence. She makes a specialty of the moral and spiritual interests of prisoners in jail, etc.
Mr. Ridgway is one of the founders of Amboy Academy and Liberal Institute, under the auspices of the Friends, and in point of thoroughness and range of valuable studies it is one of the leading educational institutions of the state.
As a miscellaneous item we may mention here by the way that Mr. Ridgway has a fine and interesting collection of archæological, geological and other curiosities, which have cost him considerable labor, time and money to make. It is indeed an interesting and instructive museum.
Benja B. Lamb, the father of Mrs. Ridgway, is one of the highly respected citizens of Amboy and the head of an excellent family. Restore Lamb, his grandfather, was one of four brothers, Friends, who came from England and located in different parts of the country, while he located in North Carolina. There was originally considerable wealth in the family, but tradition says that a large portion of two hundred and seventy thousand dollars they inherited was lost in some way before reaching these brothers. Restore Lamb married Keziah - - and their children were Stephen, Jacob, Caleb, Millie, Betsey, Keziah, one who married Reuben Perry, a well known preacher of the Friends' church in the early days of the Old North state, and Dollie, who married Henry Copeland. They were wealthy and prominent "Friends " and during the Civil war became famous for the aid
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and comfort they gave to the sick and disabled soldiers of both armies. She was known far and wide for her skill as a doctress. Mr. Lamb passed all the remainder of his life in North Carolina. Nephews and nieces of Restore Lamb in this country were two Thomases, Barney, Hosea, Jacob. Miles, Zeno, Henry, John and Jonathan Lamb,-most of them members. of the Friends' society.
Caleb Lamb, the father of Benja Lamb, and the grandfather of Mrs. Ridgway, was born in the pine woods of North Carolina and was a farmer. In Perquimans county, that state, he married Miss Sarah Nixon, a native of the same county, and a daughter of Nathan and Margaret (Bag- ley) Nixon. Nathan Nixon was also a Friend. His children were Sarah, Nathan and Pharabe. Mr. Nixon died and his widow afterward married Benjamin Albertson, and the children by that union were William, Polly and Margaret. Caleb Lamb settled in Perquimans county, and after a time sold his land there and emigrated to Indiana about 1836, locating first in Henry county, and a short time afterward purchased one hundred and forty acres of wild land in Madison county, which he improved and converted into a good farm. He died in July, 1844, aged about fifty years. He was an industrious and intelligent citizen, greatly respected by all who knew him. A few years after his death his widow also passed away on the old home- stead, and she also was a birthright member of the Friends' society and a woman of many virtues. Their children were Benja, Anderson, Edmund, David, Jonathan, Margaret, Mary Ann and Nixon, -all born in the Old North state excepting the last two, who were born in Indiana.
Benja Lamb was born on the 7th day of the 12th month of 1823, in Perquimans county, North Carolina, received but little education, having to begin hard work on the farm at the age of fourteen years, in 1837, when the family moved to Madison county, Indiana; and he remained on the farm until his father's decease and then began labor for others as a farm hand, doing also a considerable amount of carpentering. On the 25th day of the 4th month of 1849, in Grant county, this state, he was united in marriage with Susanna Thomas, who was born in Henry county, this state, the 7th month, 16th day, 1830, a daughter of Simeon and Olive (Elliott) Thomas. Simeon Thomas was born in Wayne county, Indiana, moved first to Henry county and then to Grant county, where he was a farmer and cleared a considerable tract of land; and finally, in 1850, he located in Michigan, on the St. Joseph river,
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where also he cleared land and made a farm and passed his remaining days, leaving the scenes of this world when aged about seventy years. He and his wife were both birthright Friends. Their children were Ruth, Henry, Susanna and Malinda. After the death of his first wife Mr. Thomas married Esther Coot, and their children were Nathan and Ezra.
Elijah Thomas, the grandfather of Mrs. Lamb, was the son of John Thomas, a member of the Friends' church from Wales, was originally of French stock and settled in South Carolina, whence he moved to the Old North state. Olive Elliott was born in Henry county, Indiana, a daughter of Jacob and Ann (Stone) Elliott. The Elliotts were from North Carolina, all Quakers by birthright. Jacob Elliott was a soldier in the war of 1812. Directly after marriage, in 1849, Mr. Lamb settled on his present farm, which he had entered the preceding year, his deed being signed by President Zachary Taylor. The land comprised the usual quarter-section, -one hun- dred and sixty acres, -was in the dense timber, and much hard work was required to clear it, but he persevered until the great task was accomplished. Mr. and Mrs. Lamb being Friends by birthright, were married at the Missis- sinawa meeting-house, near Marion, according to the rules of the society. He is an upright and highly esteemed citizen, well known for his sterling worth and honorable character. Aided by his faithful wife, he has also reared all his children to be excellent citizens. They have now occupied their present homestead for half a century, and are the only couple in this immediate vicinity who are still living on the farm they entered. They have twice crossed the continent to California, once to visit the exhibition in San Francisco, made two journeys to New Orleans, attending the exhibition there, and once they had visited the old home in North Carolina; and they attended the great World's Fair at Chicago in 1893.
Their children are: Ezra T., born 1850, 4th month, 30th day; Mary E., 1852, 5th month, 3d day; William N., 1854. 6th month, 14th day; Sarah M., 1856, 2d month, 4th day; Martha, 1858, 2d month, 23d day; Angeline, 1860, 8th month, 24th day; Asenath J., 1863, 6th month, 30th day; Walter H., 1869, 2d month, 17th day; and Simeon Harvey, 1879, 4th month, 9th day.
Mr. and Mrs. Lamb have always been devoted members of the Friends' church, both being birthright members. Formerly he was active in the meetings of the society.
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T HOMAS BOLTON .- Both materially and morally the agricultural ele- ment of the country is the foundation of its highest interests, and this statement we wish to emphasize; and while one extreme of society comprises those "muck-rakes" who in cities " loaf" around saloons, livery stables, etc., and talk about nothing but the faults of others and rehearse nothing but the roughest conversations they have heard, the other extreme comprises the noble yeomen who consider most the good qualities of their neighbors. From the facts here referred to may be drawn the maxim governing the policy of the publishers of this volume, as announced in their prospectus. It is therefore particularly pleasing to have such subjects as the gentleman whose name heads this record.
This pioneer and prominent farmer of section 23, Cicero township, Tip- ton county, was born in Knox county, Tennessee, April 13, 1828. His father, Peter Bolton, also a native of Tennessee, married, in that state, Miss Saloma Koffman, a native of the same state, and in 1830 moved to Indiana, locating first in Union county and afterward in Franklin county, where they both finally left the scenes of this world, he at the age of forty-seven years and she at sixty-eight. He was the youngest of thirteen children.
Their sixth child and second son, the subject of this brief record, was two years old when brought to this state by his parents, and he was there- fore reared in Union and Franklin counties. The old-fashioned log school- house, so often described in this volume and where nearly all the good people of the state obtained their only schooling, was the institution where young Thomas received his literary training and mathematical drill. In 1849 he married and settled on a rented farm in Franklin county, and five years afterward he moved to a point west of La Fayette, this state, and a short time afterward to Hamilton county, and lastly to Tipton county, in 1859, locating on the place which he now occupies. At that time there were a log cabin on the place and little or no improvements. Here he went to work for a long series of tedious years to clear the land and make a comfortable home. In order to raise money with which to pay for the land he chopped cord-wood. He now has one of the best farms in Tipton county, such has been his industry, guided by shrewd judgment. He has one hundred and twenty acres, on which he carries on both general farming and stock-raising. He is well known, well-to-do, prominent and highly esteemed by all who know him.
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In 1849, in Franklin county, he was united in matrimony with Miss Sarah E. Evans, a native of Maryland, who came with her parents to Indiana when young. They are the parents of eight children, namely: Peter, a resident of Tipton county, who married Florence Graham and has one daughter living, named Ruth, besides having had four children whom he has lost by death; Elizabeth, who became the wife of Nathan Cook, and both are now deceased: they left six children, only two of whom are now living; Saloma, the wife of Frank Smith, of Tipton; Andrew W., who married Jessie Mallory, had five children and is now deceased, his widow still living on the old place with the children; Laura, the wife of John Ludlow, in this county, who has brought up one child, named Orpha; Jennie, the wife of Charles Robinson, also of this county and residing on the farm belonging to the subject of this sketch, and they have one son, named Buford; Ida, who first married Albert F. John- son and had one son named Thomas, living ,with Mr. Bolton; and Martha, who is still at home with her father, Mrs. Bolton, her mother, having died September 7, 1893, and buried in the Sumner cemetery. She was a sincere, faithful and intelligent member of the New-Light church. Mr. Bolton has had nineteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. One of the latter is Garlin, the son of Robert Pettie, of Marion county, this state.
In his politics Mr. Bolton has been a Democrat all his life, and frater- nally he is a member of the time-honored Masonic order.
M RS. ELIZABETH JACK, whose maiden name was Rhodes, was born in Pennsylvania, August 11, 1822, and was about eight years of age when her parents moved to Muskingum county, Ohio, and when she was seventeen they moved further west, arriving in the old reserve, a part of which is now Madison township, Tipton county, Indiana, about 1839, when the settlers were few, occupying log cabins, far removed from each other with no cleared fields about them, no roads and scarcely a toe-path, but a great plenty of wild game and vermin and frogs, which made night hideous.
Joseph Rhodes, the father of Mrs. Jack, was a native of Pennsylvania, a farmer by occupation, married Miss Catharine Smith, also a native of the Keystone state, and early emigrated west in hopes of finding better condi- tions for the establishing of a comfortable home and a more independent
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status in life. To reach this El Dorado of his expectations he suffered many privations and hardships, and when he arrived at this reserve he stopped with the view of obtaining land and settling upon it. At that time Tipton county was not organized and the land was not yet in market, and withal it seemed to be one great swamp, covered with heavy timber, and the few set- tlers here were nearly all suffering more or less with fever, generally of the ague type, which was shaking the vitality out of their frames at a fearful rate. He himself took sick and died, and soon afterward the surviving wife moved with her children to Noblesville, where she remained until her daughters were all married, and then she came to Tipton county, and finally died at Tipton about twenty years after the death of her husband. Thus the career of these two honored pioneers closed in Tipton county.
The subject of this sketch was married to Robert Jack, December 7, 1846. He was born in Virginia, April 22, 1821, and moved to Ohio, whence he came with the Rhodes family to Indiana. He was employed in agricult- ural pursuits, and, buying a small tract after his marriage, he settled upon it and began improving it. Later he purchased more land, and with his wife's good cheer and assistance, and continued perseverance in clearing, fencing and building, he at length succeeded in making a comfortable home, where he could live in ease and enjoyment in his declining years. He died Janu- ary 4, 1879, a sincere Christian, conscious of having spent his life honorably and usefully, and respected by all who knew him. He was a good neighbor and a kind companion, always looking after the moral development of the community, being a member of the United Brethren church. He was a descendant of an old and honored family of Virginia, where his parents passed their entire lives. In his politics Mr. Jack was a strong Democrat, and locally he filled several offices of the township.
Mr. and Mrs. Jack never, had any children of their own, but they did a great deal of missionary work caring for orphans, partly rearing seven. One of these was a boy whom Mrs. Jack took in infancy and brought up to man- hood, and he is now looking after her comforts and wants. He bears her surname, as she adopted him in law, changing his name from Thomas Head- ley to Lemuel Jack. He appreciates the kindness of his adopted mother.
Lemuel Jack, a farmer by occupation, married Miss Dorsa Heflin, a daughter of Lewis Heflin, of Rush county, Indiana, who was a child when brought by his parents to this county. His father opened a farm, where he
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at length died. His wife survives, a pious member of the church of the United Brethren in Christ and living at the old homestead with her children, namely: Dorsa, the wife of Lemuel Jack; Alice, Matilda, Joseph and Riley. Mr. and Mrs. Jack have four interesting children.
Mrs. Elizabeth Jack has built for herself a comfortable cottage on the roadside of her farm, and, occupying it, she has rented the farm and the old buildings. She is now living with her adopted son and his family. Mr. Jack is a carpenter and builder by occupation. Mrs. Jack, the subject of this sketch, is a consistent member of the Christian church.
ANTY ARMSTRONG .- Through a residence of almost forty-five years in Howard county, Lanty Armstrong has become known to his fellow townsmen as a man who can be trusted at all times and in all places-one who is honorable in business, loyal to his duties of citizenship and faithful to his friends. Therefore, as well for his sterling rectitude of character as for his long connection with the history of this community, do we gladly present his life record to our readers.
He is numbered among Indiana's native sons, for his birth occurred in Jennings county on the 16th of August, 1836. His parents, Robert and Jane (Trousdell) Armstrong, were both natives of Kentucky, but were married in Indiana and located in Jefferson county, whence they removed to Jennings county, where Mr. Armstrong cleared away the forest trees from a tract of land and improved an excellent farm, upon which all his children were born. He was of Irish lineage and his wife was of English descent. In September, 1855, the family came to Howard county and the father purchased land in Taylor township, where he developed another farm. Subsequently he sold and removed to Hamilton county and later to White county, where his wife died, after which he returned to Howard county and spent the last seven years of his life in the home of our subject. Both he and his wife were members of the Baptist church. Their children were as follows: Mary A., wife of T. Jones; Thomas M., who served in the Civil war and died from wounds received in the engagement at Atlanta, Georgia; Margaret E., wife of W. S. Johnson; Lanty William, who died in childhood; Sarah J., wife of William T. Latta; and Andrew, who died in early life.
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