USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 33
USA > Indiana > Franklin County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 33
USA > Indiana > Union County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 33
USA > Indiana > Fayette County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 33
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To those who knew General Meredith well he had many other charac- teristics as pronounced as his stature, -his love for his friends, and his disin- terested efforts to serve them will be first recalled. Closely allied .to his genius for friendship was his hospitality; he delighted to share his home with his friends. He seems to have possessed in a high degree the quality of call- ing out friendship in others and inspiring a regard that seems enduring, for even after this long lapse of years there are many visitors in the old home- stead who come purely because they have loved General Meredith and want to visit his grave. His trait of eliciting true and deep friendship deserves to ibe emphasized in these days when selfishness is a bar sinister on many an 'escutcheon when rightly read.
Histories have been written reciting the stirring events of war, -the pomp and glory of war have been adequately celebrated, -but the soldiers' letters :to the home folk give a truer picture of soldier life. It may be interesting to
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quote from some of General Meredith's letters to his wife. Under date of March 19, 1862, he writes from " Headquarters Nineteenth Indiana, near Fairfax Seminary:" "On Saturday last we were notified that we must be ready to march in twenty minutes for Alexandria, to embark for Richmond. The whole army started in a few minutes. It had just commenced raining hard when we started, and it continued all day. We marched sixteen miles, then camped for the night, all as wet as water could make us; had to lie down in our wet clothes. Next day (Sunday) we were informed that the boat was not ready and would not be for a few days, and that we could return to our old camp and get some things we had left in the hurry. We returned there on Sunday evening. On Monday we invoiced all our camp property that we could not take with us. Yesterday we were ordered here to take our place with the grand Army of the Potomac, when it moves, which we think will be to-morrow, as the transports are arriving rapidly. So if I live ten days longer, I expect to be at the taking of Richmond, the capital of the southern Confederacy! "
An appreciation of the dark side of war grew with the process .of time, and almost two years later, in a letter dated from Fairfax Court-house, November 2, 1863, he writes: "This evening I rode out to where the Old Brigade (referring to the Iron Brigade, to which the Nineteenth belonged) was in camp, when we first moved on Centerville and Manassas, in March, 1862, under McClellan. We went in camp a mile and a half west from here and remained two days. There stand the same poles that poor Bachman and May assisted me to put up one night when it was raining as hard as it could pour down. The visit was a melancholy one; it brought to my mind old associations with the gallant dead who now sleep the sleep that knows no waking. The Nineteenth then numbered for duty about eight hundred and forty men; and to think of what has become of all that body of splendid men, and the rebels not whipped yet, makes me feel sad indeed. God only knows how many brave men are to be sacrificed!"
One must admire not only the courage in battle, but far more the stead- fast courage that through weeks and months and years impelled men to remain in camp, renouncing home and comfort, family ties and business emoluments. General Meredith was devoted to his wife; his letters are filled with expressions denoting his confidence in her ability to conduct their home affairs, and his regret in being separated from her. In a letter written from "Camp, near Fitz Hugh Crossing," dated May 23, 1863, he writes: "Enclosed you will find a sweet-scented flower from the garden of Mr. Fitz Hugh, near where I made the crossing on the morning of April 29. It is one of the most beautiful places I ever saw, overlooking the Rappahannock. I send it to you to put away until I return home." It was at Fitz Hugh Cross-
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ing that the Iron Brigade had been given the difficult and dangerous duty of forcing the crossing, and right gallantly it did its duty that historic April morning.
The eminence of General Meredith in agriculture; his marked career as a soldier, reaching by promotion the honorable rank of brigadier general of volunteers and major general by brevet; his success in public life, accent- uated by repeated elections and appointments to office, illustrate very forci- bly how a resolute will, joined to native ability, may serve the ambition and crown a useful life.
NICHOLAS SMELSER.
For three-fourths of this century the Smelser family has occupied a dis- tinctive place in the affairs of Wayne and Union counties. From a wilder- ness this section has been gradually transformed to a fertile farming country, dotted with happy homes, and in this glorious labor the Smelsers have been active and zealous, leaving to their children and to posterity the records of useful, well spent lives.
Jacob Smelser, the grandfather of our subject, was a native of Maryland, in which state and in Kentucky he naturally imbibed the old southern ideas in regard to slavery,-at least to a large extent. He married Elizabeth Smith in the Blue Grass state, and about 1824 they removed to Boston town- ship, Wayne county, Indiana, where they settled upon a farm and there con- tinued to dwell until death summoned them to their reward, he dying at the advanced age of ninety-two and she at seventy-five years. The old home- stead is still in the possession of the family, being now owned by James Hart, a nephew by marriage.
In the early days Jacob Smelser owned a distillery, the products of which he would occasionally load upon a flatboat and convey to New Orleans by the river route, then walking back the entire distance. He freed his slaves when he came to Indiana, but several of them accompanied him, nevertheless, and one of the number, " Old Ben," to whom he had not given his freedom, but had hired out for eleven years, afterward joined the family in this state.
The parents of our subject, Solomon and Lucinda (Stevens) Smelser, were married in Union county. Mrs. Smelser was a daughter of William and sister of Steven C. Stevens, and was born and reared in Harrison town- ship, this county. Her last years were passed at her birthplace, both she and her husband attaining their seventy-sixth year. He was a very success- ful farmer and business man and during the war of the Rebellion he raised mules which he sold to the government. In his various financial enterprises he usually prospered, and at the time of his death he owned about nine hun-
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dred acres of land. In his political views he was a Republican, and in his religious opinions he was a strong Universalist.
Ten children were born to Solomon Smelser and wife, and all but two survive. Their names are as follows: Harriet, wife of Bennett Depenbrock, of Salem, Illinois; Jacob, a traveling salesman, whose home is in Liberty; William, a life-insurance agent in Emporia, Kansas; Sarah, who married L. H. Price, and died when about thirty years of age, leaving three children; Emeline, who died at ten years of age; Nicholas; Kate, who became the sec- ond wife of L. H. Price and now lives in New Decatur, Alabama; Elizabeth, Mrs. Charles Coughlin, of Harrison township; Martha, wife of William Bill- ings, of New Decatur, Alabama; and Alice, wife of Joseph H. Bradbury, of Abington, Wayne county, Indiana.
Nicholas Smelser was born December 14, 1849, on the old Stevens homestead, where he now resides and where his father lived for forty years. When he reached his majority he went to Salem, Illinois, near which place his father had purchased land, and there he remained for seven years, engaged in farming. In the meantime, November 14, 1872, he had married Miss Sarah Slane, of Alma, Illinois, of which town her father was a merchant. They became the parents of three children, of whom the only daughter, Mat- tie; is the wife of James Driffill and has two children, -Clyde, six years old, and Mildred, one year old. The two sons of our subject and wife, John Lyman and Solomon Garfield, are still at home.
In 1875 Mr. Smelser returned to Indiana, and his venerable father was so desirous for him to remain here permanently that the younger man decided to do so, and purchased from his parents the farm he now owns, one adjoin- ing the old Stevens' place, which latter, also, later came into his possession, thus making his homestead one of one hundred and sixty acres. In addition to this, he owns a farm near Centerville, which property his sons cultivate.
In June, 1897, soon after the death of Albert Mitchell, Mr. Smelser was appointed to succeed the deceased in the office of county commissioner, and as such he is still acting. He is very popular with all who know him, is a man of wide influence in this, his native township, and he is now, by election, serving a term in the office he has so abundantly proved himself capable of filling. - that of county commissioner, in which his term expires in Decem- ber. 1900.
ROBERT A. CUNNINGHAM.
Occupying a charming country home in Liberty township, Union county, Indiana, his post-office address being Dunlapsville, we find this well known and highly respected citizen, Robert Armstrong Cunningham. The history of his life is of importance in a work of this character, and is as follows:
Robert A. Cunningham was born : in Brownsville township, Union
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county, Indiana, April 7, 1819, son of James and Susannah (Clark) Cunning- ham, the former a native of Washington county, Virginia, born October 12, 1779; the latter, born in Tennessee, in 1787, their marriage occurring in Virginia. In the year 1815, the year before Indiana was admitted into the union of states, James Cunningham and wife came west and took up their abode in Eastern Indiana, on what was known as the Henston J. Robinson farm, in Union county. Three years later, in 1818, he entered a tract of land lying just north of Clifton, where he improved a farm and where he spent the rest of his life, his death occurring there in 1853. His wife sur- vived him a few years, and passed away in 1864. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and both were people whose sterling qualities of mind and heart endeared them to a large circle of friends, for they were well known by the early pioneers of this locality. The children born to them were, in order of birth, as follows: John, Rebecca, William, James, Samuel, Robert, Mary, Sarah, George W. and Enoch. At this writing (1899) only two of this number are living, -Sarah, widow of Archibald Dunn, of Fayette county, Indiana; and Robert A., whose name introduces this sketch.
Robert A. Cunningham was reared on his father's farm, above referred to, and April 24, 1841, married Miss Mary, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth (Snyder) Harvey. She was born October 18, 1822, near Clifton, Indiana. After his marriage our subject lived for five years on the old homestead, in the same house in which he was born, and in that house three of their chil- dren were born. He then moved to the Moses Harvey farm, southwest of Clifton, where he lived until 1852, when he came to his present farm, five miles southwest of Liberty, in Liberty township. Here he owns three hun- dred and seventy acres of land, all lying in a compact body, along the Whitewater river, about half of it being bottom land, the rest extending into the uplands, where his handsome residence is situated. His home, occupying as it does the highest point along the river in this vicinity, com- mands a magnificent view of his broad acres, and indeed of the surrounding country for miles in every direction.
While Mr. Cunningham has carried on general farming all these years, he has made a specialty of stock-raising, his land being specially adapted for stock purposes, and he has given special attention to the raising of hogs. For the past twenty years or thereabouts he has rented the greater part of his land, chiefly to his son-in-law, Samuel B. Bond.
Mr. Cunningham has always affiliated with the Democratic party and taken an active interest in political affairs. For ten years he has served as township trustee. Twice he has been the candidate of his party for the office of county commissioner, but with his ticket was defeated each time,
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polling, however, on one occasion one hundred votes more than his party ticket. Since the division in the Democratic ranks he is on the silver side. He is a great convention worker, always active in promoting what he believes to be for the good of the party.
Religiously, Mr. Cunningham is a member of the Christian church. For fifty years he has been identified with the church at Liberty, and for a num- ber of years served as one of its trustees.
Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham have had six children, namely: Michael J., of Dunlapsville, Indiana; Eva A., wife of William R. Beck, of Liberty, Indiana; Sarah J., wife of Samuel B. Bond, who, as above stated, has charge of Mr. Cunningham's farm; Elizabeth S., who died at the age of twenty-one years; Franklin P., who died at the age of fifteen years; and Albert R., who died at the age of eighteen.
In speaking of his career as a farmer, Mr. Cunningham states that his most prosperous years were between 1853 and 1860. While, as already stated, he has carried on diversified farming, he has made a specialty of the stock business and has depended chiefly on hogs. Besides his fine home farm he owns real estate in other localities. He has assisted each of his children to get a good farm, and he has been more than generous to his friends. Indeed, he has often had too great confidence in human nature, and his loyalty to his friends has frequently caused him to trust them too far and has been the means of his having security money to pay. He is generous to a fault. His genial, jovial nature, and his honorable and upright life and Christian character have endeared him to a host of friends.
JAMES W. MARTINDALE.
James W. Martindale is of the fifth generation removed from his paternal ancestor who founded the Martindale family on the shores of America. Little is known of the founder of the family in America, save that he came from Wales, and possessed the sterling qualities which have characterized all of his descendants. His son William, the great-grandfather of the subject of this biography, was born in South Carolina, and the next in the line of descent was James, who was born in North Carolina and located in Wayne county, Indiana, in 1809. He made a home on a tract of land, the southeast quarter of section 26, in what is now Clay township. This place, adjoining the present village of Green's Fork, is now in the possession of his namesake, our subject. The first wife of James Martindale died before he became a resi- dent of this state, and their two daughters were Mrs. Martha Benson and Mrs. Rebecca Martindale. For his second wife he chose Elizabeth Adding- ton, a Quaker, whose sweet, gentle face and winning and lovable disposition won the high esteem of all who knew her, -not the least among her admirers
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being her grandson, James W., who cherishes her memory. The grand- father, who survived her several years, likewise possessed numerous noble traits, and to his enterprise and hardihood the little colony of pioneers in Clay township were indebted in many material ways. He was identified with the Baptist church and was ever ready to lend a helping hand to his fellow- men. The two sons of James and Elizabeth Martindale were John and William. The latter, a man of ability and zeal, was carried away by the Mormon doctrines in his early manhood, and accompanied that peculiar people in their wanderings until they settled in Utah. Subsequently he removed to Southern California, where he died. That he was truly sincere in his religious views no one that knew him could doubt, but his attitude on the subject was a great grief to his friends.
John and William Martindale were born in a humble log cabin which stood but a few rods from the present residence of our subject. John, father of the latter, was born in 1810, and though he had no educational privileges such as is afforded the youth of this generation, he read everything he could find, and was a great student. So well did he succeed in the task of self- education that he taught school for some time, and met with gratifying returns for his efforts. All great moral and public questions were studied deeply by him, and he joined the Washingtonian Temperance Society soon after its organization. Though he was a Democrat of the old school, he was strongly anti-slavery in his views and was favorable to the free-soil move- ment. He died while in the prime of young manhood, March 30, 1849. Religiously he was not associated with any church, though his life was not at variance with the precepts of Christianity, and, without question, the influ- ence and teachings of his sainted mother were all-powerful with him, causing him to leave an honored name and blameless record. For a wife he chose Lydia Hatfield, and three children were born of their marriage. The daugh- ters are Mrs. Sarah J. Dean and Mrs. Elizabeth Davis, both of whom are residents of this township.
James W. Martindale, an only son, was born near Green's Fork Decem- ber 5, 1829, and when he was about seven years old he accompanied the family to Cass county. His father was in very poor health and it was hoped the change would prove of benefit to him, but, after remaining there for two or three years, they returned and thenceforth dwelt upon the old homestead. In his childhood, when the country was very wild and the red men were more numerous here than the white settlers, James W. played with the Indian lads, and in this immediate section of the state all of the relations of the two races were peaceful and harmonious. Within his recollection most remarkable changes have been brought to pass, as the forests were felled and prosperous farms and villages took the place of the trackless wilderness. In
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this mighty work he has done his full share, aiding also in the establishment of law and good government, and upholding whatever has been calculated to advance the welfare of the community in which his lot was cast. He expects to pass the sunset days of his life on the old homestead, which has now been in the possession of his family for ninety years.
On the 20th of November, 1848, Mr. Martindale married Miss Lydia King, a daughter of Isaac and Ann (Davis) King. Mr. King was one of the pioneers of Dublin, Wayne county, where he built the first house, and there Mrs. Martindale was born, August 13, 1830. Her father died in Hancock county, Indiana, where he had lived for a few years, and the wife and mother departed this life at Richmond so ne years ago. Two sons and a daughter were born to our subject and wife, namely: John and Eden, and Emma, who is the wife of Alpheus Baldwin, of Richmond, this county.
The first vote of Mr. Martindale was cast for John P. Hale, but since the organization of the Republican party he has been loyal to its principles. For seven years he acted in the capacity of trustee of Clay township, and for the same length of time he was a commissioner of Wayne county. The influence and teaching of his beloved grandmother and the advice of his father, who late in his life counseled him to follow the precepts of the Quaker church, have largely molded his religious ideas, and recently he allied him- self with the Society of Friends, of which his faithful wife has been a mem- ber since her early years. They are sincerely admired and loved by those who have known them a lifetime, and in peace and content are passing their days, surrounded with the comforts and luxuries which are the fruits of their former years of industry and good management.
NATHAN F. GARWOOD.
Nathan Folwell Garwood is the owner of the Forest Home, one of the most beautiful country-seats of Wayne county. It is pleasantly located only a mile and a half from the city. The residence, built fifty-three years ago, is a very commodious structure, and its light, airy rooms, tastefully furnished, are most restful and attractive. Ease and comfort have supplemented rich- ness in the adornment of Forest Home, and the house is one of the old-time mansions which, in this day of cramped city quarters, prove most inviting. The house is surrounded with a well kept lawn adorned by fine old shade trees; commodious barns and outbuildings in the rear afford ample shelter for grain and stock; well tilled fields indicate coming harvests, and fine orchards, embracing five acres, are not the least attractive features of this ideal coun- try-seat. The farm contains sixty-seven acres in all.
The owner, Nathan Folwell Garwood, is one of the most highly respected .citizens of the community and a leading representative of the agricultural
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and horticultural interests of this section of the state. He was born October 18, 1831, at Mullica Hill, Gloucester county, New Jersey, and is the eldest child and only son of Amasa and Esther (Iredell) Garwood. The father was twice married, the mother of our subject being his second wife. He was a blacksmith by trade and conducted a smithy in the village, while Nathan Gar- wood assisted in operating the farm. The former died in 1853, and the follow- ing year our subject, in connection with Ephraim Tomlinson, proprietor of saw and grist mills, known as the Laurel Mills, extensively engaged in the manu- facture of flour and lumber at White Horse, Camden county, New Jersey, Mr. Garwood having charge of the mercantile department for one year. Throughout the following year he carried on general merchandising at Bridge- port, New Jersey, in partnership with a Mr. Jordan, and the summer of 1856 he spent in eastern Iowa. He afterward went to Omaha, Nebraska, and during the financial panic of 1857 he lost, through the failure of one of the banks there, a thousand dollars. This was a great blow to a young man just starting out upon a business career; but with great energy and determination he set to work to retrieve his lost possessions. Afterward going to Gentry county, Missouri, he there remained until 1859, when he went to Hannibal, that state. Having no money, he was obliged to accept any work that he could secure, and while in Gentry county, in connection with a young man by the name of Chambers, a cabinet-maker, he took a contract for making one hundred bedsteads. . When the contract was completed, in the spring of 1859, he had twenty dollars above and beyond his expenses. He then accepted a clerkship in the freight office of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Rail- road, at Hannibal, where he remained two years.
In the meantime Mr. Garwood came to Wayne county, Indiana, and was married, near Richmond, to Anna E. Iredell. He then returned with his bride to Hannibal and continued to fill his position in the freight office until after the inauguration of the civil war, when, railroad business being largely suspended, he returned to Richmond. In the spring of 1863 he went to Nashville, Tennessee, and entered the quartermaster's department in the United States service, under Colonel Crane, having charge of the railroad transportation south of that city, for at that time the government was in con- trol of all lines south of Nashville. Mr. Garwood was engaged in office work there until all the government business was closed up, in 1866, when he accepted a position with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, in the former city. He had his trunks all packed ready to return to Indiana, but the agent persuaded him to join the company, and he remained with the road at Nash- ville and at Chattanooga until 1876, attending to the transfer of all freight.
At length his health failed him, and Mr. Garwood determined to make a change. He visited the Centennial Exposition, at Philadelphia, and then
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came to Wayne county, where, in the spring of 1877, he purchased his pres- ent property, Forest Home. The farm formerly belonged to Benjamin Stratton, who built the house from brick manufactured on the place and from timber there cut, all the work being done by hand. The Friends' cem- etery, located one hundred years ago, occupies a corner at the southern end of the farm. For some years Mr. Garwood has made a specialty of the rais- ing of small fruits, including raspberries, blackberries, etc., and now has some five acres planted to fruit. He has given much study to the best methods of cultivation and to the requirement of the plants and has been an active worker in the Wayne County Horticultural Society, where his opinion is received as authority on many subjects. He is a member of the Wayne County Agricultural & Horticultural Society and has been an exhibitor at many of its fairs.
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