USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 17
USA > Indiana > Franklin County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 17
USA > Indiana > Union County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 17
USA > Indiana > Fayette County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 17
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The last named, and the youngest of the family is Judge John F. Kib- bey, the honored subject of this review. He was born May 4, 1826, in Wayne county, Indiana, in which he has always lived. He remained in Richmond until the age of fourteen years, then removed to Centerville, at that time the county-seat, and in 1874 returned to Richmond, where he has resided continuously since. He acquired his preliminary education in the common schools, later attended the Wayne County Seminary, in Center- ville, and afterward became a student in Miami University, in Oxford, Ohio. In 1850 he entered upon the study of law, his preceptor being Governor O. P. Morton, of Centerville. His preparation was thorough and compre- hensive, and in 1852 he was admitted to the bar. While studying he engaged in teaching in the country schools and in Hagerstown. In 1851 he was appointed county surveyor, and in 1852, 1854 and 1856 was elected to that office, which he filled most acceptably until 1857, when he resigned.
In 1853 Judge Kibbey formed a law partnership with Governor Morton, which connection was continued until 1860, when the latter was elected chief executive of the state. In March, 1862, Judge Kibbey was appointed attor- ney-general of Indiana, and continued to fill that position until November, when the regular election occurred. During the two years following he engaged in the private practice of law to some extent, but his time was largely taken up with military duties. In 1863 he was appointed a com- mandant, with the rank of colonel, of the congressional district in which Wayne county is located, his duty being to procure enlistments for the army. He enlisted sixteen companies, of which he was commander while they were in Richmond. The greater part of these constituted the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry, and a portion were in the Ninth Indiana Cavalry.
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In March, 1865, he was appointed judge of the sixth common-pleas judicial district, composed of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, and in the autumn of that year was elected to that office, being re-elected in 1868 and 1872. In March, 1873, the common-pleas court was abolished, and Wayne county was made the seventeenth judicial circuit, of which Mr. Kibbey was elected judge, at a special election, in October, 1873. In 1878 he was re-elected, his term expiring October 21, 1885, when he resumed the practice of law, continuing therein until his retirement from the profession, in 1898. As a lawyer he soon won rank among the distinguished members of the bar of Indiana. The favorable judgment which the world passed upon him in his early years was never set aside or in any degree modified during his long career at the bar and on the bench. It was, on the contrary, empha- sized by his careful conduct of important litigation, his candor and fairness in the presentation of cases, and his zeal and earnestness as an advocate. His contemporaries unite in bearing testimony to his high character and superior mind. What higher testimonial of his able service on the bench could be given than the fact of his long continuance thereon ? A clear insight into the legal problems presented, combined with absolute fairness and a high sense of justice, made his decisions particularly free from bias, and won him high encomiums from the public and the bar.
On the 5th of May, 1852, was celebrated the marriage of Judge Kibbey and Miss Caroline E. Conningham, daughter of Daniel C. Conningham, of Centerville. They had five children, as follows: Joseph H., an attorney-at- law of Phoenix, Arizona, who went to that place in 1888 and was United States judge from 1889 until 1893, under the Harrison administration; Mary E., who became the wife of Rev. William E. Jordan, a Methodist Episcopal minister, who died in 1890, while her death occurred in 1883; John C., who is in the employ of the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad at St. Louis, Missouri; Frank C., a member of the Thirty-second Michigan Regiment, located at Grand Rapids, Michigan, who prior to entering the service was clerk of the court in Florence, Arizona; and Walter P., who died in 1876, at the age of ten years.
In his political associations Judge Kibbey was a Democrat until 1854, when, on account of the attitude of the party on the slavery question, he left its ranks. When the Republican party was organized, in 1856, he became one of its supporters and has since been most earnest in his advo- cacy of its principles. In 1871 he became a member of the Presbyterian church in Centerville and three years later transferred his membership to the Presbyterian church in Richmond. A prominent and exemplary Mason, he belongs to the blue lodge, chapter and commandery of Richmond. He has drawn about him a circle of devoted friends, and has at all times
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commanded the respect and esteem of his fellow men by his superior intel- lectual attainments and his upright life. Professional eminence is an indica- tion of individual merit, for in professional life advancement cannot depend upon outside influences or the aid of wealthy friends; it comes as the reward of earnest, persistent labor, and the exercise of natural talents, and is there- fore the fitting reward of labor. For years Judge Kibbey was accorded a prominent position at the Indiana bar and his professional career was an honor to the district which so honored him.
JACOB R. WEIST, A.M., M.D.
One of the most exacting of all the the higher lines of occupation to which a man may lend his energies is that of the physician. A most scrupu- lous preliminary training is demanded and a nicety of judgment little under- stood by the laity. Then again the profession brings one of its devotees into almost constant association with the sadder side of life,-that of pain and suffering, -so that a mind capable of great self-control and a heart respon- sive and sympathetic are essential attributes of him who would essay the practice of the healing art. Thus when professional success is attained in any instance it may be taken as certain that such measure of success has been thoroughly merited. In the subject of this review we have one who has gained distinction in the line of his chosen calling, who has been an earnest and discriminating student, and who holds a position of due relative preced- ence among the medical practitioners of eastern Indiana.
Dr. Weist was born in Preble county, Ohio, November 26, 1834, and is a son of John and Keziah C. (Scott) Weist. The family is of German line- age, and the grandfather, Jacob Weist, was a native of central Pennsylvania. He was reared to manhood in Little York, in that state, and thence removed to Preble county, Ohio, where he died in 1848, during a cholera epidemic, at the age of seventy years He followed farming throughout his life and was a man of intelligence and eminent respectability. He married Catharine De Coursey, a lady of French descent, who was born near Baltimore, Maryland. They had a family of seven children, six sons and a daughter. John Weist, the father of the Doctor, was born in Little York, Pennsylvania, in 1800, and during his boyhood removed with his parents to Preble county, Ohio, where he died in 1857. He carried on agricultural pursuits as a life work, and his capable management of his business affairs, and his energy and industry brought to him a well deserved success. He was a very prominent and influential member in the Methodist Episcopal church of his neighborhood, took an active interest in its work, and lived an exemplary Christian life. His integrity was proverbial and his word was as good as any bond that was ever solemnized by signature or seal. He mar-
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ried Miss Keziah C., daughter of George Scott. Her father belonged to a family of Swiss extraction and in early life was a sailor. He made his home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for many years, but subsequently removed to Huntington county, Indiana, where his last days were passed. In his family were three sons and two daughters.
In the common schools of his native county Dr. Weist acquired his pre- liminary education, which was supplemented by study in the Ohio Wesleyan University, at Delaware, Ohio, where he pursued a classical and scientific course. In 1878 the Jesuit College,-St. Xavier,-of Cincinnati, Ohio, con- ferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. Prepared by a broad general knowledge for entrance into professional life, he entered the office of Dr. Samuel Ferris, of Preble county, Ohio, and later attended a course of lect- ures in the Western Reserve Medical College, at Cleveland, Ohio, and then for a time practiced in his native county. He then entered the Jefferson Medical College, of Philadelphia, where he was graduated in 1861.
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The same year Dr. Weist opened an office in Richmond, and in March, 1862, was appointed assistant surgeon to the Sixty-fifth Regiment of Ohio Infantry, in which capacity he acted until July of the same year, when he was transferred to the Fourth Ohio Cavalry, with which he remained four- teen months. In September, 1863, he was appointed surgeon of the First United States Colored Troops, and continued with that command until the close of the war, being discharged in November, 1865, when he returned to Richmond, where he has since been engaged in private practice. His service as assistant surgeon was with the Army of the Cumberland, a part of the time in charge of a hospital in Nashville, and his service as surgeon was in eastern Virginia and North Carolina, first in the field and then in charge of hospitals in Newbern and Goldsboro, subsequently chief operating surgeon in the Eighteenth Army Corps hospital at Point of Rocks, Virginia, and finally becoming acting medical inspector and director of the Twenty-fifth Army Corps.
All this was a splendid training school for the young physician. With a comprehensive knowledge of anatomy and the science of medicine, he care- fully applied his wisdom to the alleviation of the suffering of the gallant men who were fighting for their country, and in so doing gained an ability that that has classed him first among the surgeons of eastern Indiana and gained him national reputation. He has always made a specialty of surgery, and his success has been most marked. He succeeded because he desired to succeed. He is great because nature endowed him bountifully, and he has studiously, carefully and conscientiously increased the talents that were given him. A perfect master of the construction and functions of the component parts of the human body, of the changes induced in them by the onslaughts of disease,
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of the defects cast upon them as a legacy by ancestry, of the vital capacity remaining in them throughout all vicissitudes of existence, he has gained an eminent place among the practitioners of Indiana and is recognized authority on many questions affecting not only surgery but the general practice of medi- cine as well. He has been surgeon of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for twenty consecutive years and for twenty years served on the United States board of pension examiners. He was one of the original members of the American Surgical Association, which is limited to a membership of one hun- dred, and served for fourteen years as secretary of that distinguished scientific body, with which he is still connected. This society was organized in New York city in 1880 and Dr. Weist was chosen its first secretary. He is also a prominent member of the Southern Gynecological Association, the American Medical Association, which he represented at the International Medical Con- gress in 1881, and the Indiana State Medical Association, serving as president of the last named in 1875. Through his connection with these various organi- zations, as well as through constant study and the perusal of the most reliable medical journals, he keeps in constant touch with his profession in its advance toward perfection. He has not always been a follower but has many times. been a leader in the investigation that has led to valuable discoveries, and has contributed many important medical papers to the journals of his profes- sion. Next to surgery perhaps his most important dissertations have been on hygiene and sanitary affairs.
In 1856 Dr. Weist was united in marriage to Miss Sarah I. Mitchell, of Portsmouth, Ohio, and to them were born three children, but only one is- now living, the others having died in infancy. Their son, Dr. H. H. Weist, has followed in the professional footsteps of his father. He was born in Richmond, July 10, 1868, read medicine under the direction of his father, attended lectures in the Bellevue Medical College, and was graduated in 1891. The following year he was a student in the medical department of the University of Michigan, and afterward at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Vienna, Austria. He then traveled extensively over the continent, and is now engaged in practice with his father in Richmond. He is a young man of splendid intellectual and professional attainments and exceptional ability.
Dr. Jacob R. Weist holds membership with various fraternal societies, is a Knight Templar Mason, a Knight of Pythias, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Loyal Legion. He is deeply interested in the affairs of the city which has been his home for thirty-seven years, and for a long period served as its health officer. He has always advocated the meas- ures which have advanced its welfare, and has labored for its improvement and progress. In private life he has gained that warm personal regard which
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arises from true nobility of character, deference for the opinions of others, kindliness and geniality. He inspires personal friendships of unusual strength, and all who know him have the highest admiration for his good qualities of heart and mind.
MARTIN V. BROWN.
This well known and prominent merchant of Milton, Indiana, who is a worthy representative of one of the honored pioneer families of Wayne county, was born in that city December 1, 1838, and was educated in its pub- lic and subscription schools. His parents, John and Ara Anna (White) Brown, were born, reared and married in Pennsylvania. The father was born August II, 1812, and was a son of John Brown, Sr., who belonged to a family of Scotch origin which was founded in America during colonial days. The lat- ter served through the Revolutionary war as a soldier of the Continental army and made his home in Pennsylvania. He was of long-lived stock, and he and his wife lived to the ages of eighty-five and eighty-six years, respect- ively. In religious faith they were Lutherans, he having been baptized by a Lutheran minister when only a few days old. Their children were John, Adam, George, Philip, Henry, Samuel, Regena, Eliza and Catherine.
John Brown, Jr., the father of our subject, left the home farm before he attained his majority and learned the tanner's trade. After working for a time as a journeyman in his native state he purchased a tannery in the west- ern part of Center county, Pennsylvania, which he conducted for a number of years. In company with another gentleman he then came west on a pros- pecting tour, going as far as Iowa and Missouri, but, deciding to locate in Indiana, he took up his residence in Wayne county in 1835. The first year was spent in Centerville, but at the end of that time he removed to Milton, where he purchased an interest in a tannery, which the firm remodeled and enlarged and conducted the same for ten or twelve years. He then sold his share in the business and purchased a tract of land. In 1849 he went to California, by way of the isthmus, and remained for a time on the Pacific slope prospecting and mining with reasonable success. He opened many camps and gave the name to several rivers and towns, but he met with no hairbreadth escapes. Returning east by the same route he rejoined his fam- ily in Milton, and devoted his attention to farming and stock-raising through- out the remainder of his life. He cleared and improved a fine farm, erecting thereon commodious and substantial buildings. In politics he was a pro- nounced Democrat and was once the candidate of his party for the state legis- lature, but was defeated by General Solomon Meredith, a very strong opponent, who beat him by only a small majority, however. He filled some important township offices and was a man of prominence in his community.
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He died October 1, 1898, aged eighty-six years, and his estimable wife passed away June 29, 1890, aged seventy-nine years. She was born December 20, 1810, and had two brothers, Jackson and Daniel, both residents of Pennsyl- vania. The White family were connected with the Methodist Episcopal church. Our subject is the oldest in a family of four children, the others being Jackson, who spent ten years in Montana, but died in Milton, Indiana; Martha J., now Mrs. T. Williamson, of Sherman county, Kansas; and Albert, who died leaving a wife but no children.
Martin V. Brown remained on the home farm until twenty-two years of age, then worked in a mill two years and engaged in clerking in a dry-goods store for the same length of time at Lewisville. On the Ist of March, 1868, he purchased a building and stock of groceries and hardware and embarked in business at Milton, where he has since successfully carried on operations. He also owns and conducts the old homestead farm, and in business affairs has met with well merited success.
On the Ist of November, 1866, Mr. Brown wedded Miss Mary J. Mack, who was born in Preble county, Ohio, September 20, 1844, a daughter of Alexander and Catherine (Hoover) Mack, natives of Pennsylvania, who went with their respective families to Ohio and were married in the latter state. They were farming people, who in 1848 removed to Carthage, Illinois, where they bought a farm. After their deaths, about eleven years later, the family was scattered and Mrs. Brown returned to Ohio, where she lived with an aunt for two years and later with her grandfather. In 1864 she came to Lewisville, Henry county, Indiana, where she made her home with an uncle until her marriage. She is the second in order of birth in a family of five children, the others being Mrs. Emerite Slater, now of Chicago, Illinois; Maria L., who first married a Mr. McClure, and afterward R. T. Rogers, of Denver, Colorado; Charles, a resident of Elmo, Missouri; and Catherine, wife of C. White. The parents of these children were faithful members of the Presbyterian church. To Mr. and Mrs. Brown have been born five children: Cora M., at home; Frank W., who died at the age of seventeen years; Will- iam, who is a clerk in his father's store and the master of the Masonic lodge; John A., who married Nora St. Clair, the daughter of a prominent physician of Milton, and Mary J., at home.
Mr. Brown is one of the prominent and influential representatives of the Democratic party in his community, and he takes an active interest in polit- ical affairs. He has held about all the town offices, and was once the candi- date of his party for county treasurer. He is one of the leading members of the Masonic lodge of Milton and has served as its treasurer for nearly thirty years.
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CYRUS O. HURST.
One of the earliest families making permanent settlement in Wayne county, Indiana, was that now worthily represented in this section of the state by the gentleman whose name forms the heading of this sketch. For almost a century the Hursts have been identified with the agricultural interests of their community, aiding materially in the development of the resources of their section and taking an active part in everything calcu- lated to promote the welfare and happiness of the majority.
As early as 1802 a little party of three, John and Benedict Hurst and Elizabeth, the young wife of the former, might have been observed making the tediously long and difficult journey through the almost pathless wilder- ness from Maryland to Ohio. The two young men, who were able-bodied and full of the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, walked the entire distance, over the mountains and through the forests, while Mrs. Hurst was on horse- back, with all of her own and husband's earthly possessions in the pack- saddle of the trusty animal she rode. Simple as was this primitive mode of traveling, the slender means of the three became nearly exhausted by the time that they reached Hamilton, Ohio, and there they concluded to remain for a period. The young husband worked at whatever he could find to do, clearing land and splitting rails, chiefly, and, assisted by his industrious wife, managed to accumulate a little money. Two of their children were born during their sojourn there, one in 1804 and the other two years later. In 1807 the family came to what has since been known as Wayne county, and here Mr. Hurst entered eighty acres of land. He not only devoted himself to the clearing and cultivating of this property but was one of the first to embark in the raising, buying and feeding of hogs, which he disposed of in the Cincinnati markets. Both he and his wife were extremely economical and hard-working, very little having to be expended for the maintenance of the household, for she spun and wove cloth for garments, and most of their necessities were produced on the farm. Thus they continually added to their substantial wealth, bought land and made investments, and, after providing each of their twelve children with a good start in independent life, left over two thousand acres of land to be divided among them. Mr. Hurst was a man of such strict honor and absolute integrity that his mere word was con- sidered as good as a written contract, and to his posterity he left an unblem- ished name and a record of which they should be very proud. After years had been spent in the little log-cabin home, a better structure sheltered the family, and from time to time the so-called luxuries of an advancing civiliza- tion found their way into the always happy home. Mr. Hurst was the proud possessor of the first cook-stove that was owned in this locality, and one of
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the first ingrain carpets of the period was treasured by his wife in her best room. In her girlhood she had married a Mr. Marshall, who died a short time thereafter, and thus she was a widow at the time of her marriage to Mr. Hurst. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hurst were natives of Maryland, and he was of Irish descent. She died November 5, 1850, having survived him a few years. Death came to him when he was comparatively a young man, or at least in his prime, in May, 1838, when he was fifty-six years of age. Their children were: Cynthia, born December 8, 1804; Benedict, December 11, 1806; Bennett, December 8, 1808; Sanford, April 5, 1811; Melinda, December 7, 1812; J. Marshall, February 13, 1814; Isaac, February 5, 1817; Anna, April II, 1819 (died when young); Dickson, December 7, 1821; Elijah and Silva (twins), born October 29, 1824 (the latter married R. Watt); and Mary E., born July 12, 1827, became the wife of John Orr.
J. Marshall Hurst, the father of Cyrus O. Hurst, was reared amid the environments of pioneer life, and early learned to perform all kinds of diffi- cult work. Ambitious and possessed of the same spirit of enterprise which had characterized his father, he energetically improved the forest-covered farm upon which he located after his marriage, and in 1859 he settled upon the place now owned by our subject. Here he and his family spent about a year in a small house which stood upon the place, and in the meantime he erected a large two-story brick residence upon a better site. At that time this was not only the finest house in the township but even one of the very best in the county, and even to-day but few farm houses excel it in every respect. Together with the large barns and other buildings which stand upon the farm, the superiority of the soil and the topography of the land, its gen- eral suitablity for the raising of various kinds of crops, and other notable features, it is undoubtedly one of the most valuable homesteads in the county. Mr. Hurst was extensively engaged in the stock business, raising, buying and selling cattle and hogs. Successful in most of his financial enterprises, he gradually amassed a fortune, and when death put an end to his labors he owned ten hundred and forty-five acres of land, besides having a large bank account to his credit.
For a companion and helpmate along the journey of life, J. M. Hurst chose Miss Sarah Willetts, a daughter of Elisha Willetts, of Virginia. He was a pioneer in this township, where he entered and improved land and spent the rest of his days. Social and cheerful in disposition, he was a general favorite with his neighbors, and his more substantial qualities gave him a high place among his associates. Mrs. Hurst had several brothers and sis- ters, namely: Nelson, Elias, James, Eldridge, Ervin, Mrs. Clarissa Busby, Mrs. Joanna Rogers and Mrs. Mary Jones. Their mother was a member of the Methodist church, but both Mr. and Mrs. Hurst were faithful workers in
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