USA > Indiana > Union County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 14
USA > Indiana > Fayette County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 14
USA > Indiana > Franklin County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 14
USA > Indiana > Wayne County > Biographical and genealogical history of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 14
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the war of the Rebellion came on he was anxious to go to the front with the first troops. Enlisting in Company B, Fortieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, September 17, 1861, he took the place assigned him in the ranks of the pri- vate soldiers. Soon afterward he suffered a severe siege of illness, and when convalescent resumed his service for the government in the dispensary at Nashville, Tennessee, and remained there until the war closed.
The following year he embarked in the building and contracting business in Richmond and later became connected with the planing-mill company here. In time he was promoted to be foreman of the plant of Cain & Son. and subsequently he engaged in business on his own account. Politically he is a Republican and has served most efficiently as a member of the city coun- cil, but has preferred to leave public honors to others. In the Masonic order he has received the chapter degrees and stands deservedly well in the estima- tion of all.
On the 24th of December, 1873, Mr. Middleton married Miss Susanna Mulloy, who had been successfully occupied in teaching in the public schools of Richmond for several years, a lady of refinement and excellent education. They have a very pleasant and attractive home at Earlham Place and enjoy a large and representative acquaintanceship. They have four children: Walter Guy, a graduate of Earlham College; Joseph Burke, Elizabeth Alice and Donald Rich, students in the high school.
Dr. David Mulloy, the father of Mrs. Middleton, was a successful physi- cian, with a most promising future, when, in 1854, he was stricken by the hand of death. He was a son of Thomas and Susanna (Morton) Mulloy and was born at Mount Hygiene, Clermont county, Ohio, in 1824, the oldest of five children. He was reared in his native county, and after leaving the common schools he graduated in Parker's Academy, and soon afterward entered the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati, and in due time received his diploma. Subsequently he located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was there during the fearful cholera epidemic. His last years were spent in the neighborhood of St. Louis, where he had built up a large practice ere his early demise. He had married Elizabeth Burke and had three children, of whom Mrs. Middleton is now the only survivor.
Hugh Mulloy was born in Albany, New York, in 1751, a descendant of ancestors who came from the north of Ireland and were of Scotch-Irish parentage. When a boy he emigrated to what was then the province of Maine, and lived in Brunswick and Georgetown. In the latter place, in May, 1776, while home on a furlough from the Continental army, he married Priscilla Thompson, daughter of Benjamin Thompson. When the news of the battle of Bunker Hill was received, he, with other patriots from his locality, in 1775, started for Boston and at once enlisted as a private in the
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army at Cambridge. In April following he was promoted corporal, in June following to the position of sergeant, and November 6, 1776, was commis- sioned ensign, in the company of which George White was captain. His commission was issued at Boston, by order of congress, and signed by John Hancock, president. In May, 1778, he was promoted again, this time to the rank of first lieutenant. He had engaged in the battle of Ticonderoga, in May, 1777, in the battle of Hubbardstone, both battles of Saratoga (Stillwater), and witnessed the surrender of Burgoyne, October 17, 1777. He also had been in several skirmishes, in one of which he was wounded twice severely, one of the wounds proving so troublesome as to incapacitate him from active duty, and he was honorably discharged from the service, his dis- charge being written on the back of his commission, in the handwriting of General Washington. This paper, which was on file in the pension department at Washington, was destroyed in 1814 by the British when they sacked the town. Lieutenant Mulloy enjoyed a personal acquaintance with both Washington and Lafayette. He was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry in Washington's tent, and was secretary of the lodge that existed in the army.
Immediately after his discharge from the army he moved with his family to Monmouth, Maine, where he was among the first settlers. He held sev- eral positions of trust in the plantation, among them that of plantation clerk. It was subsequently found that the land upon which he had settled belonged to General Dearborn, who then bought out his improvements, giving him a note in payment, worded as follows:
WALES, MAINE, June 27, 1783. For value received I promise to pay Hugh Mulloy the sum of fifty Spanish milled dol- lars, by the 15th day of October, 1784, until paid. (Signed)
HENRY DEARBORN.
Upon selling out his interest in Monmouth, Mr. Mulloy settled in Litch- field upon land now owned by Warren R. Buker, by the side of Pleasant Pond, where he made his home for more than thirty years. He was fre- quently moderator of the town meetings and also a member of the school board and took a lively interest in education. In 1817 he moved to a point near Williamsburg, Clermont county, Ohio, where he ever after made his home until his decease, July 11, 1845. At the time of his death he was the last commissioned officer of the regular Continental army, and as such his portrait was painted by Frankenstein, the celebrated artist.
One of Lieutenant Mulloy's sons, David, born in 1779, married Mary Stevens and lived in Litchfield until 1817, when he moved to Ohio and shortly afterward to the distant Oregon, where he was lost trace of. One of David's daughters, Mary, widow of Elisha Burgess, has recently died, in
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Caribou, Maine, at an advanced age. Another daughter, Lucinda, married Elijah Closson, and has a daughter living in Augusta, Maine, now Mrs. Charles Bennett. John, the second son of Hugh, was born August 27, 1783, and died in 1807. James, the third son, was born in 1788 and died in his youth. Thomas, the fourth son, moved to Ohio with his father and was a prosperous farmer, who died leaving a large number of respectable descendants.
Of the daughters of Hugh Mulloy, Abigail, the eldest, was born in 1781, married first David Colson and lived in Bath, and secondly Jeremiah Norton, who was a resident of Webster, Maine. One of her children was James M. Colson, who for so many years, until his death, was an honored and respected citizen of Gardiner, was lieutenant of Company C, Third Maine, and for many years city marshal of Gardiner. Catherine, the second daughter, born in 1786, married Samuel Herrick and moved to Ohio. After his decease she inarried William Bowler and lived in Indiana. Hannah, the third daughter, born July 3, 1790, married Hon. Ebenezer Herrick, then residing at Bow- doinham. Mr. Herrick was a school-teacher and the first principal of Mon- mouth Academy. He was a representative to the general court of Massa- chusetts and a member of the constitutional convention in Portland in 1819, from Bowdoinham. Soon afterward he moved to Lewiston, where he was for so many years a resident. From 1821 to 1827 he was a member of con- gress from Lewiston district and subsequently a member of the Maine senate. One of his sons, Anson, was a prominent editor and a member of congress from New York city. Another son is Hugh Mulloy Herrick, now editor of the Hackensack Republican, at Hackensack, New Jersey. Priscilla, the fourth daughter, married a neighbor's son, Benjamin Ring, of Litchfield. He was a merchant in Hallowell, Maine, and while returning with a vessel of goods from Boston in the fall of 1814, the vessel and all on board were lost. In 1815 Mrs. Ring moved to Clermont county, Ohio, married Rev. Daniel Parker, and with her husband and son was instrumental in founding Cler- mont Academy, one of the leading educational institutions in Ohio. Martha, the fifth and last daughter, was born in 1796, went to Ohio with her father, became the wife of William Sherwin, and while living in Ohio was a near neighbor to and an intimate acquaintance of the family of Jesse R. Grant at the time of the birth of Ulysses S., who became the most noted hero of the world.
BENJAMIN BRANSON BEESON.
For generations the Beeson family has been identified with the Society of Friends and noted for sterling qualities. Patriotic and loyal to the govern- ment, strongly in favor of peace, right and justice, and faithful in the dis-
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charge of every duty devolving upon them, whether in their public or domestic relations, they have embodied the ideal citizen of this great republic.
Benjamin Branson Beeson, one of the most prominent inen in Wayne county, is a worthy representative of his family, which, as old records show, was founded in the United States by two brothers of the name who accom- panied William Penn to the colony in Pennsylvania. One brother settled in Philadelphia, and the other, from whom our subject is descended, went to Guilford county, North Carolina. Benjamin Beeson, the grandfather of the latter, was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, about 1765, a son of Isaac Beeson. In 1786 the marriage of Benjamin Beeson and Margaret Hockett was celebrated, and in 1826 they removed to Wayne county, Indiana, locating about a mile south of Franklin. Of their ten children who lived to maturity, five sons and three daughters eventually emigrated to this county, and, though most of them left children, only two, our subject and his cousin, Lewis Beeson, are left to represent the name in this county. The five sons were: Isaac W., Benjamin F., Ithamnar, Dr. Silas Beeson, the first physician of Dalton township; and Charles, who came here with his parents. The daughters were Hannah, who married Seth Hinsshaw, and located in Greensboro, Henry county, Indiana; Margaret, who became the wife of Jesse Baldwin; Ruth, who married James Maulsby; and Rachel, who died unmarried. The father attained an advanced age and lies buried at the side of his wife in West River cemetery, two and a half miles east of Dalton.
Isaac W. Beeson, the eldest son of Benjamin and Margaret Beeson, was born in Randolph county, North Carolina, December 19, 1789. Physically he was of medium size, with fair complexion, dark hair and light-brown eyes. Of a frame none too robust, he nevertheless endured the numerous privations and hardships incident to frontier life, and lived to the advanced age of eighty-two years. He was a student by nature, quiet and thoughtful, and in his early manhood taught several terms of school, successfully. Later he learned the wheelwright's trade, which he pursued to some extent throughout life. He possessed great determination and industry, and one rule which he fol- lowed, that of saving at least one hundred dollars a year from his earnings (and that at a time when money was especially scarce), is worthy of the emulation of all young men. His favorite brother, William, a man of fine business talent, and large and varied financial interests throughout North and South Carolina and Virginia, and subsequently to his death Isaac W., was occupied for about four years in settling his estate.
"All the world loves a lover," and one of the most pleasant things in the life of Isaac Beeson was his lifelong devotion to the woman who finally became his wife. As young people they were fondly attached to each other, but, owing to some opposition on the part of relatives, their marriage was
.
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postponed from time to time. In the spring of 1822 Isaac Beeson started for Wayne county, Indiana, with a small outfit, which served him for many such journeys between his old and new homes. It consisted of a horse and rustic cart, a skillet, a small iron pot for boiling vegetables, a tin pan or two and a few pewter dishes. He usually traveled alone, sleeping nights in his cart, the trip taking seven or eight weeks. Upon his arrival here he made several entries of land, including two hundred and forty acres of the home- stead in Dalton township, now owned by the subject of this article. Here he made his headquarters, and here his death took place nearly half a cen- tury later. The autumn of 1822 found him on the return journey to the south, where he worked at his trade until 1828, when, there being a great wave of immigration into Indiana, he came with the tide and entered "con- gress " land in various parts of the state. Again he went back to the home of his childhood, to which he finally bade a last farewell in the spring of 1833, casting in his lot with the people of the Hoosier state. He located near Franklin, Wayne county, where his father and several brothers were living, the firm of Beeson Brothers having already become widely known. The three brothers who were in this partnership were S. H., Benjamin Franklin and Ithamar, and among their numerous enterprises were the running of a gristmill, a tannery and a general mercantile business. The town which sprang into being as the result of their industry and enterprise was widely known as Beeson town in honor of the family, and everything was in a most flourishing condition when the great financial crashes of 1837 came and swept away the fortune and prospects of the little community. Isaac W. Beeson lost heavily on securities, but he was not disheartened, and ere many years had passed he had retrieved his fortunes.
Through all these years the attachment between Isaac W. Beeson and Mary Branson had continued, and at last, in the fall of 1837, she left her girlhood's home and many sincere friends in the sunny south and set out on the long journey to become the wife of the man she loved. They were mar- ried near Green's Fork, in this county, on the 27th of February, 1838. In less than thirteen years thereafter, Mrs. Beeson was summoned to the better land, and though he survived her a score of years, the devoted husband remained true to her memory and never married again. Her death took place October 10, 1851, and on the 26th of November, 1871, he was laid to rest by her side in the Friends' burying ground at Nettle Creek.
In religious faith Mr. Beeson was liberal, as might be expected of a man of his deep and broad views of life, his cherished hope being that some day the human brotherhood would be united on the central principles of Chris- tianity, each reserving for himself the right of private judgment on minor forms and points. Needless to say, that he was strongly opposed to slavery
BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL HISTORY.
and all forms of tyranny and injustice, and in common with those of his sect did not favor resorting to law, whether as individuals or as nations, but rather the submitting of all points of disagreement to arbitration. That he was a inan of broad thought and an able writer, is amply demonstrated by manu- scripts which he penned at various times on divers subjects. He was, so far as known to the compilers of this sketch, the original " Greenbacker " (not fiatist), for along in the '5os he earnestly advocated the issue of all paper money by the government, to be made equivalent to the coin money then in circulation, and the interest and profits to be applied to public improvements and . the reduction of taxes.
Benjamin Branson Beeson, the only child of Isaac W. and Mary (Bran- son) Beeson, was born on the old homestead which he now owns and carries on, March 17, 1843. He has always given his chief energies to farming and stock-raising, and owns some eleven hundred acres of fine land, four hundred of which are comprised within the home place. He is public-spirited, and to him, perhaps, more than to any other person in his township, is the com- munity indebted for the excellence of its highways. He has given consider- abie time, money and influence to their improvement, being specially inter- ested in the Dalton turnpike. When the company was organized in 1876, he became its secretary and treasurer, and he has served in similar capacities for many years for the Hagerstown & Bluntsville Turnpike Company. He was a charter member of the Nettle Creek Grange, which he represented oft- times in the county council and in the State Grange, and though the influence of that body has declined it has exercised a lasting influence for good upon this generation of farmers. It has been largely superseded by the modern agricultural societies, and in 1880 Mr. Beeson assisted in form- ing what is known as the Wayne, Henry & Randolph Counties Agricultural Association, of which he was president for twelve years. He upholds churches and schools and all worthy institutions and methods of elevating the people, taking an active part in the political and moral questions of the day. He greatly admired President Lincoln and gave his support to General Grant at his first presidental.election to office. For six years, from 1891 to 1897, he ably conducted the Richmond Enterprise, which attained wide circulation and won the most favorable notice of the public and contemporary journals. The columns of the paper strongly reflected his views on the prohibition of the liquor traffic, and it is conducted in the same lines by its present owner, the Rev. DeVore, to whom Mr. Beeson sold the journal in 1897, owing to other pressing business cares.
Ou the 14th of October, 1865, the marriage of Mr. Beeson and Miss Olinda Lamb, a daughter of Thomas and Elvira (Finch) Lamb, was solemn- nized. Mrs. Beeson was born in Clay township, Wayne county, in 1841,
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and by her marriage she is the mother of four children, namely: Isaac Francis, born August 13, 1866; Mary Lenora, born January 23, 1868, and now the wife of J. C. Taylor, of Dalton; and Edward Orton and Frederick Loten, twins, whose birth occurred July 3, 1877. The family are identified with the Society of Friends, following the example of generations of their forefathers, keeping ever in view the responsibilities and duties of life that rest upon them as individuals.
JOSIAH REYNOLDS.
Josiah Reynolds, of Dublin, Wayne county, is a citizen of worth and integrity, and for a quarter of a century he has been identified with the inter- ests of this place. His parents, Daniel and Margaret (Morris) Reynolds, were born in the same year, 1805; the former died in 1889 and the latter in 1879. Mr. Reynolds was a man of prominence in his community, and for years was prominently and intimately connected with the development and prosperity of Dudley township, Henry county, Indiana. For several terms he served as township trustee and in other local offices, and for years elections were held at his house, while he was living on a farm.
Josiah Reynolds, born September 29, 1838, near Hopewell, Henry county, is one of eleven children, six of whom are living. In the order of birth they were named as follows: Mary, Milton, Morris, Thomas, Phoebe, Josiah, Anna, Benjamin, Henry, Isaac and Martha. Four of the sons, Mil- ton, Thomas, Henry and Isaac, were volunteers in the civil war. Thomas and Henry died while in the service; Milton is now a resident of Rocky Ford, Colorado; and Isaac went to the Indian Territory after the war and subse- quently lived in Kansas, where he died.
The early years of our subject passed uneventfully upon the old home- stead, until he reached his majority, when he was married. At one time he was engaged in carrying on a mercantile business in Dublin, but not finding it a profitable undertaking he later operated a sawmill, with better financial success. Then he turned his energies to the real-estate and insurance busi- ness, and now represents the following companies: the Northwestern Mutual Life; the Home, of New York; the Phoenix, of Brooklyn; and various acci- dent companies. In 1875 he was elected to the office of justice of the peace, but declined to serve; was appointed notary public in 1890, and is still acting in that capacity, and has filled the position of township assessor several terms. Politically he is an ally of the Republican party.
On the 20th of June, 1859, there was performed a marriage ceremony by which the destinies of Josiah Reynolds and Lucretia Macy, a daughter of James and Anna Macy, were united. Their son and only child, Will H. Reynolds, went to the Pacific slope a few years ago, and has since been act-
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ively engaged in various enterprises there. In 1890 he located in Seattle, Washington; two years ago proved some important mining claims; built the first hotel in Cascade City, British Columbia, where twelve others are being carried on at present, and has extended his business investments to Spokane, San Juan de Fuca and other points. He is now in British Columbia, and is prospering in his numerous enterprises. He possesses the qualities which rarely fail to bring success, and a promising future is opening before him.
JAMES B. ALLEN, M. D.
Numbered among the leading professional men of Cambridge City, Wayne county, is Dr. J. B. Allen, whose residence here dates back to October, 1897. The eldest of the four children of Jacob and Martha (Brown) Allen, he was born on the old family homestead, in Jefferson town- ship, Wayne county, in 1844. His father is living, making his home in Hagerstown, with his daughter Carrie. He is now well advanced in years; the mother of the Doctor died in 1891, when in her seventy-third year. The only sister of the Doctor is Carrie, wife of George Fulkerson, and the two brothers are Lewis C. and Thomas B., and all are residents of this county.
Dr. Allen supplemented his common-school education by a course of study in the Hagerstown Academy, and later he attended Delaware Uni- versity. Then for some time he engaged in teaching, being employed in the schools of Williamsburg, Milton, Centerville and Decatur, Indiana, as superintendent. He has been agent of the Adams Express Company at Hagerstown since 1886, and since 1878 he has been connected with the firm of Allen & Company, druggists, of the same town. Having pursued the study of medicine, and graduating in the Ohio Medical College, at Cincin- nati, in 1881, he established himself in practice in Hagerstown, where he continued actively engaged in professional work until his removal to Cam- bridge City, a year and a half ago. He served as a township trustee for five years in succession, and was a member of the pension board during Cleve- land's last administration. Though exercising the right of franchise, as every citizen should, he has never devoted much time to politics.
On Christmas day, 1872, Dr. Allen and Miss Ellen Starr were united in marriage, and one child, Harry S., blesses their union. Mrs. Allen is a lady of excellent education and culture, and is a daughter of John and Mary (Jamison) Starr, of Centerville.
OLIVER FERGUSON.
A prominent citizen of Milton, Wayne county, the subject of this article is a worthy scion of one of the foremost pioneer families of eastern Indiana. From the early days of this century the Fergusons have materially aided in
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the development of the county, helping to place it on a stable basis and to maintain the order and good government which it has enjoyed from the first.
The father of our subject, Linville Ferguson, whose history is given at some length elsewhere in this volume, has spent almost his entire life in this region, as he was brought here when but six months old. He was born in North Carolina, August 17, 1815, a son of Micajah and Frances (Isbell) Fer- guson, the former born in 1793, and the latter in 1791, in the same state. Micajah was a son of Thomas Ferguson, whose ancestors emigrated from Scotland to Virginia, and thence removed to Wilkes county, North Carolina, in the early part of the eighteenth century. Frances Ferguson was a daugh- ter of Thomas Isbell, of English descent, and a hero of the Revolutionary war, in which he enlisted at eighteen years of age and served for five years. In the spring of 1816 Micajah Ferguson, with his wife and three children, emigrated to Indiana. They located upon wild land situated about three miles south of Milton, and there the next few years were filled with the most arduous kind of toil, as it was no easy task to hew the forests of heavy tim- ber and to prepare the ground for cultivation. In the course of time, how- ever, much was accomplished by the sturdy frontiersman and his boys, and they turned their attention to the raising and feeding of live stock, which found ready market in Cincinnati. As stated, the three eldest children, Matilda, Horton and Linville, were born in the south, but the others were natives of this county. Matilda became the wife of Joel Hiatt; Salena wedded C. Saxton, and after his death Joseph Caldwell; Savanna was the wife of I. B. Loder; and Jane, born in 1833, died in 1841. The younger sons were Levingston; Finley, now of Kansas; Sanford, born in 1828, and died in 1833; Kilby, who is a minister of the Christian church; and Olive, born in 1835 and died in 1854. The father departed this life in 1866 and the mother died October 23, 1871.
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