USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 8
USA > Indiana > Franklin County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 8
USA > Indiana > Union County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 8
USA > Indiana > Fayette County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 8
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61
On the 26th of November, 1846, a marriage ceremony united the des- tinies of Rev. Mr. Lamb and Miss Sarah Jones. Five children were born to this estimable couple, namely: Mary, who is the wife of James Bryant, of West Richmond; Rebecca, who married Henry Owens, also of West Rich- mond; Edmond, also a citizen of Richmond; Ruth, who became the wife of James Duke, and lives in this city; and Albert, who lives on a part of the old family homestead. Mrs. Lamb, who survives her husband, is still a resident of West Richmond, where she has a host of sincere friends and well-wishers. She was born January 4, 1824, near Centerville, Wayne county, being next to the youngest of nine children, whose parents were Edmond and Ruth (Jarrett) Jones. Five of the number were sons, and three were born in Vir- ginia, while the other six were natives of this county. Mr. Jones was one of the pioneers of Centerville, his farm being situated four miles south of that place, formerly the county seat of this county. He was a successful agri- culturist and a man of considerable influence in his community. Politically he was a Democrat and for a score of years he served as a justice of the peace. In his religious faith he was a Baptist, and died, as he had lived, a sincere, trusting Christian. Though nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since his death, in 1875, he is kindly remembered by many of his old acquaintances and friends of former years.
GEORGE HOLLAND.
No compendium such as the province of this work defines in its essential limitations will serve to offer fit memorial to the life and accomplishments of the honored subject of this review, -a man remarkable in the breadth of his wisdom, in his indomitable perseverance, his strong individuality, and yet one whose entire life had not one esoteric phase, being able to bear the clos- est scrutiny. True, his were " massive deeds and great" in one sense, and yet his entire accomplishment but represented the result of the fit utilization
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of the innate talent which was his, and the directing of his efforts along those lines where mature judgment and rare discrimination led the way. There was in George Holland a weight of character, a native sagacity, a far-seeing judgment and a fidelity of purpose that commanded the respect of all, but greater than these was his absolute honesty, and "an honest man is the noblest work of God."
George Holland spent almost his entire life in eastern Indiana. He was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, September 28, 1811. There, nine years before, his parents, John and Ann (Henderson) Holland, had taken up their abode. They were poor Protestant peasants from the north of Ire- land, and after their marriage and the birth of two of their children they crossed the Atlantic, in 1802. Not long after the birth of their son George they removed to Ohio, and made their home near Zanesville until 1817, when they became residents of Franklin county, Indiana. The father purchased a farm upon the west bank of Whitewater river, about five miles from Brook- ville, the county-seat, making a partial payment upon the place, expecting soon, as the result of his labors, to have the money to discharge the remain- ing obligation. Death, however, set aside his plans, for in the autumn of 1818 both the father and mother were stricken with a malignant fever, and while their bodies were interred in a cemetery of their adopted land by the hands of strangers, their seven children, all yet in their minority, were ill at home, unable to attend the funeral. There were six sons and a daughter, and on this side of the Atlantic they had no relative. It was a sad fate, made still harder by cruel treatment which was meted out to them, and of which George Holland wrote in an autobiography found among his papers after his death:
"We now first began to learn something of the great world around us. Its rush and roar we had before heard only in the distance; but those being gone who had kindly preserved us from exposure and had borne for us all the cares of life, we found ourselves, helpless and unprotected, afloat upon the current. We tasted, too, for the first time, the bitter falsehood of human nature. The man of whom my father had bought his land came forward in the exigency and charitably administered the estate. His benevolence was peculiar. It resulted in appropriating to himself the real and personal prop- erty, and turning us, the children, as paupers, over to the bleak hospitalities of the world."
In Indiana, at that time, it was the custom, on the first Monday in April, to gather the poor of a county at the court-house and hire them out to such persons as would engage to maintain them at the lowest price. The winter being passed in the cabin of a neighbor, Mr. Holland and his four brothers were conveyed by the overseers of the poor to Brookville, on the
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first Monday in April, 1819, to be thus placed in the care of the lowest bidder. Although but seven years of age, Mr. Holland deeply felt the humiliation of the position, but kind-hearted people of Brookville interposed in behalf of himself and his brothers, and found permanent homes for them as appren- tices until twenty-one years of age. Thus it was that he became an inmate of the home and a member of the family of Robert John, a man who had no property but was possessed of a kind heart and proved a benefactor to the boy. In return, however, Mr. Holland was most faithful to Mr. John, and for many years was his active assistant in whatever work he engaged. When he was about thirteen Mr. John purchased an interest in a printing-office, and Mr. Holland began work at the case and press, soon gaining a practical knowledge of the business and becoming a good workman. When Mr. John became sheriff he served as deputy, and on retiring from office he worked in a woolen factory which his employer rented, having charge of a set of wool- carding machines for two seasons. In the summer of 1830 Mr. John was elected clerk of the circuit court, and took charge of the office in February, 1831, Mr. Holland again becoming his deputy. This was a year and a half before he attained his majority. His experience in the office had determined him to make the practice of law his life-work, and on coming of age he began reading without the aid of a teacher. The county clerk, John M. Johnson, witnessing his ambitious efforts, permitted him to use his law library, and at the same time he read all the miscellaneous volumes he could procure, thus daily broadening his general as well as professional knowledge. He was always a man of scholarly tastes, and throughout life found one of his chief sources of pleasure among his books. A short time before attaining his majority he successfully passed an examination, and was admitted to the bar. One who knew him well, in referring to his early life, said: "As a boy and youth he was gentle, kind and considerate, full of energy, and possessed of the most indomitable perseverance. His vigorous and unremitting efforts to educate and prepare himself for the profession of his choice in the midst of irksome and exacting duties, and his early struggles in the profession, in the face of poverty and ill-health, indicate the heroic spirit and fixedness of pur- pose which even then distinguished him, and which he afterward so conspicu- ously displayed under such trying circumstances."
Mr. Holland had not a dollar at the time of his admission to the bar. He, however, borrowed fifty dollars, purchased a small law library at auction and opened an office in Brookville. About this time he secured the office of county assessor and the outdoor exercise proved very beneficial to his under- mined health, while the nature of his business made him acquainted with many people and thus paved the way for future law practice. He received seventy-five dollars for his official services, which enabled him to repay the
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borrowed money. He was not only well equipped for his professional career by a comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, but his experience in the clerk's office had given him a thorough and practical knowl- edge of forms and practice. One from whom we have before quoted, said of him: "His early success at the bar was marvelous, and may be attributed mainly to the thorough knowledge of his profession, which he acquired by the most indefatigable reading and study. He read everything he could get hold of in the way of general and professional literature, Few lawyers of the day, at the Indiana bar, were as thoroughly grounded in the principles of law and as familiar with the English and early American reports as he was. His range of professional reading was most extensive and included most of the rare works in black-letter lore that could then be procured. At the same time, and in fact almost during his entire life, even when in later years he was almost overwhelmed with financial cares and responsibilities, his delight was in general literature,-it was his rest and recreation, -and in historical, political, scientific and religious learning his mind was a cyclo- paedia of facts. While he had none of the elements of a popular speaker, and, consequently, made no mark as an orator, he was a logical and persua- sive reasoner before a jury, and had great force in presenting an argument to a court. The care with which he prepared his cases, the skill and shrewd- ness he displayed in their management, his unrivaled power in dealing with a complicated and tangled chain of issues and circumstances, together with his extensive professional knowledge, made him a most formidable opponent in the lower courts, and gave him an excellent reputation at the bar of the supreme court, where he was admitted to practice in May, 1835, when twenty-four years of age."
Prosperity attended his efforts for many years. The important litigated interests entrusted to his care brought him handsome financial returns, and much of his capital he judiciously invested in property and added not a little to his income through wise speculations. At length, however, disaster over- took him. Honorable himself, he was slow to distrust others, and when those in whose worthiness and friendship he relied implicitly wished him to go security for them he complied. It was in November, 1853, that some of his merchant friends failed, leaving him to pay their indebtedness of fifty thousand dollars. This seemed a great deal, but was as nothing com- pared to what awaited him. In November, 1854, he awoke to the realiza- tion that he was endorser for a broken and bankrupt merchant for one hun- dred thousand dollars in blank, -all due within sixty days and for which he was unmistakably liable. Utterly discouraged and disheartened, in the midst of this gloom and desolation, yet encouraged by his sympathizing wife, he resolved that with the help and blessing of God he would pay the debt, and
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resolutely set to work to accomplish the task, with an abiding faith that he would live to accomplish it. And he did live to accomplish it after a struggle of twenty-one years, paying the last of these debts just fourteen years before his sudden death, and never was a word of suspicion breathed against his fair name. Anxiety pressed heavily upon him and he suffered a purely nervous fever, from the effects of which he never recovered, but he paid off dollar for dollar. The true character of the man now shone forth; his ideas of commercial honor and integrity were of the highest character and his deter- mination to pay that awful debt, most of it fraudulently put upon him, was inflexibly fixed. The financial skill and business ability he displayed at this critical period in his affairs; the zeal and ingenuity he exhibited in getting extensions of the bank paper upon which he was liable, until he could have time to turn about and handle his property; his unvarying success in dis- posing of the latter to the best advantage; in making, when necessary, new and advantageous loans, and generally, in meeting his obligations promptly as they became due, are simply marvelous. When one considers that all this was done in connection with the exacting duties of a large law practice, which he never suffered to be neglected, it indicates more strongly than words can express the strength and fertility of his mind and his great business and professional capacities.
In May, 1869, Judge N. H. Johnson died suddenly, leaving a vacancy on the bench of the criminal court of Wayne county, and to the position Mr. Holland was appointed. Previous to this time, his only child had married C. C. Binkley, a young lawyer, whom Judge Holland admitted into partner- ship in his business, this connection continuing until his elevation to the bench. In July, 1861, he had determined to remove to Richmond, and in May, 1862, had established his family in the new home. When elevated to the bench he was in very poor health, but after a few months spent at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, he returned much improved, and with characteristic energy entered upon his judicial labors. He was re-elected to that office, and administered justice without fear or favor until the court was abolished by legislative act. His professional brethren spoke of him as one of the foremost lawyers of Indiana of his day and his record reflects honor upon the bench and bar of the state.
When twenty-three years of age Judge Holland was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth John, daughter of Robert John, in whose family he was reared, and he never lost an opportunity to acknowledge his indebtedness to his wife and her parents for all that they were to him. To her mother, Mrs. Asenath John, he attributed all the ambitious and honorable influences which permeated his youth, and to the assistance and encouragement of his wife he attributed the success which crowned his many years of effort in paying off
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the debts of another. One daughter, Georgiana, was born of this marriage, and from the time of their removal to Richmond Mr. Holland and his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Binkley with their children lived in one family. Mrs. Holland survives and still resides with her daughter. In 1849, having no son of their own, they adopted Edwin Holland Terrel, then only nine months old. He was left motherless at that age, and his father, Rev. Williamson Terrel, was an itinerant Methodist minister. The boy proved entirely worthy the love and tender care bestowed upon him. For some years he was a prominent practitioner at the bar at Indianapolis. Having married at San Antonio, Texas, he removed there and entered the practice at that place. Soon afterward he drifted into railroad and other enterprises, resulting very successfully. In 1888, his merit and qualification being well known to Benjamin Harrison, president of the United States, he appointed him United States minister to Belgium, which place he filled with great renown and dis- tinction to the close of that administration. He is still living in San Antonio, occupied with the care of his property and accumulations, enjoying the com- forts of one of the most elegant homes of Texas and reveling in the delights of one of the finest private libraries in the state.
In politics Judge Holland was a stalwart Republican, and in 1860 he was a delegate to the national convention in Chicago, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. In the spring of 1842 he acknowledged his belief in the Christ and was ever afterward a follower in His footsteps, having an abiding faith in the Christian religion. He was always at his place in the church, and manifested his belief in that practical spirit of helpfulness of the One who came not to be ministered unto but to minister. Death came to him unexpectedly, November 30, 1875, but his upright life had fully prepared him to meet it, and he passed from earth as "one who wraps the draperies of his conch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams."
No death in Wayne county has ever been more deeply lamented than that of Judge Holland. He was a man who regarded home ties as most sacred and friendship as inviolable. Emerson says "The way to win a friend is to be one," and no man in the community had more friends than he. He was a man of very sympathetic and generous nature, a pleasant compan- ion, and especially congenial to those who cultivated all that was highest and best in life. Resolutions of the highest respect were passed by the bar of the county and circuit and the bar of Brookville,-his old home, -and the sym- pathy of the entire community was with the family. Almost a quarter of a century has passed since Judge Holland was called to the home beyond, but he is well remembered by all who knew him, his memory is cherished in the hearts of his friends, and his influence still remains as a blessed benediction to those among whom he walked daily.
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ENOS M. MCCREADY.
Enos M. McCready, of Falmouth, Indiana, is an ex-sheriff of Fayette county, Indiana, and is one of its representative farmers. Mr. McCready is a native of the Keystone state. He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsyl- vania, August 10, 1836, a son of Pennsylvania parents, Samuel and Rebecca A. (Taylor) McCready. Samuel McCready was a son of Samuel McCready, Sr., a native of the north of Ireland, who came to America with his parents and settled in Pennsylvania, where he worked at the trade of carpenter. In 1837 Samuel McCready, and his son Samuel, came to Indiana and located at Fairfield, in Franklin county. The elder Samuel McCready died at the home of his son in 1845. His children in order of birth were John, Nancy, Elizabeth, George, Samuel, Rachel and Isaac. John, the first of the family to come west, located in Hamilton, Ohio, and a few years later came over into Indiana and settled in Franklin county.' Other members of the family scattered in different states and some of them subsequently came to Indiana. Samuel, at the time he came to Indiana from Pennsylvania, had only limited means. He settled at Fairfield, as already stated, and during the first years of his residence there followed the trade of shoemaker. Later he bought a farm in Posey township, Franklin county, but sold out not long afterward and moved to Orange township, Fayette county, where he bought a farm and lived three years. His next move was to Blooming Grove township, Franklin county, where he continued his residence a number of years. After his wife died and his family scattered he sold out and moved to Iowa. He subsequently returned to Indiana, and died at Fayetteville, Fayette county, February 15, 1880, at the age of sixty-eight years. He was an active mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal church, from time to time filling its various offices, and for years his house was the home of the Methodist preacher, who always found a cordial welcome at "Brother McCready's." His wife, Rebecca A., was a daughter of Francis Taylor, who was of Scotch descent and a native of Pennsylvania. The Taylors were Presbyterians. Mrs. McCready was the only one of the family that came to Indiana. Samuel and Rebecca A. McCready were the parents of the following named children: Enos Miller, whose name introduces this sketch; Sarah, who has been twice married, her first husband being a Mr. Price and her second husband John Curry; Rachel, who died in infancy; Ray, deceased, left a wife and one child; John W., a Union soldier in the civil war, died in the service; James, deceased, was a railroad man; Joseph L., resides with his brother, the sub- ject of this sketch; and George is located in the far west.
Enos Miller McCready was reared on a farm from his eleventh year and remained a member of the home circle until he was twenty-two. At that
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age he started out in life to do for himself. In 1861, in answer to his coun- try's call for volunteers to help put down the southern rebellion, he enlisted, at Connersville, as a member of the Forty-first Indiana Regiment, Second Cavalry, which was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, under General Nelson. Mr. McCready's first battle was at Green river, and with his com- mand he was on active duty through the south. At Gallatin, Tennessee, he was wounded in the right leg, from the effects of which he has never recov- ered, the wound resulting in a running sore. He remained with his com- mand, however, keeping to his post of duty notwithstanding the wound. At the time his regiment was captured at Hartsville, Tennessee, he, with five others, was absent on detailed duty and thus escaped capture. During the whole of his army service he was home on a furlough only seven days. Four months after the term of his enlistment had expired he was sent to Indian- apolis and mustered out, receiving an honorable discharge in October, 1864.
At the close of his army service Mr. McCready returned to Franklin county, where he was married soon afterward and settled on a rented farın. He farmed for several years successfully on rented land, on his father's farm and on land which he bought. Selling out, he moved to Mount Carmel and engaged in the grocery business. Also at the same time he was for four years postmaster at that place. Honest to the letter himself, he trusted others too much, the result being that he lost the major portion of what he had saved. From Mount Carmel he came to Connersville and for a time was employed in the pork house. Turning again to agricultural pursuits, he rented land for several years and then accepted the position of superintendent of the county infirmary, which place he filled acceptably for three years. In 1890 he was elected sheriff of Fayette county, was re-elected in 1892, and ·served in that office four years, giving entire satisfaction to the officers and law-abiding people of the county. The proceeds of his office he invested in land, buying the one hundred and twenty-five acres where he lives and another tract consisting of forty acres. The year after his term of office had expired he spent in settling up a shoe business for which he was assignee. Then he moved to his present farm. He is a man of sterling integrity, and the old saying, oft quoted, "His word is as good as his bond," may be applied to him without fear of contradiction.
He married Miss Emaline Brothers, a native of Franklin county, Indiana, born September 14, 1841, daughter of Benjamin and Margaret (Swift) Brothers, natives respectively of North Carolina and Maryland. Ben- jamin Brothers was the elder of two children. Their mother dying when they were young and a stepmother later coming into the home, Benjamin and his sister, when the latter was twelve years old, came to Indiana, where she subsequently became the wife of Harrison Lynn. Benjamin learned the car-
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penter's trade, which he followed in Franklin county, where he spent the rest of his life and died, the date of his death being July 17, 1852. He was a strong temperance advocate and a leading member of the Methodist Epis- copal church. His widow became the wife of Thomas Genn. She died in 1893. There were no children by her second marriage. The two children by Mr. Brothers were Hannah and Emaline, the former dying in infancy, the latter being the wife of Mr. McCready. Mr. and Mrs. McCready have had the following named children: Frank, a traveling salesman for the Parry Manufacturing Company, of Indianapolis, with headquarters at Kansas City; Clara B., wife of V. M. Mendenhall, of New Castle, Indiana, died August 27, 1892, without issue; Benjamin F., a traveling salesman for the McFarlan Carriage Works, of Connersville, has his headquarters at Des Moines, Iowa; Birta B., wife of Harry Bragg, of Connersville; and Tina, at home.
Mr. McCready affiliates with the Republican party politically, and fra- ternally with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Republic.
JAMES E. REEVES.
One of the most prominent and respected citizens of Richmond is James E. Reeves, a man whose history furnishes a splendid example of what may be accomplished through determined purpose, laudable ambition and well directed efforts. Starting out in life a poor boy, he has steadily worked his way upward, gaining success and winning the public confidence. For thirty- six years he has occupied the position of president of the First National Bank of Richmond, but at the age of fifteen he was occupying a humble clerkship in a small store.
He was born November 27, 1814, in the village of Berkley, Glou- cester county, New Jersey, which was also the birthplace of his parents, Mark and Ann (Ewan) Reeves, who in 1823 came to Richmond with their family, consisting of two sons and two daughters. The father was a carpen- ter by trade, and was one of the pioneer contractors and builders of this sec- tion of the state. He died in 1855, and his wife passed away in 1842.
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