USA > Indiana > Washington County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Crawford County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Clark County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Scott County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Floyd County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Jennings County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 31
USA > Indiana > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 31
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William McDonald, grandfather of James G. May, was born in Philadel- phia and his parents were natives of Scotland. Hle served seven years in the revolutionary war ; married a Miss . Bell in North Carolina, she being a near relative of John Bell, who was a candidate for the Presidency in 1860. James G. May never remembered when he learned his letters. At six years of age he read sufficiently well to peruse the Bible unaided. From the time he was four years old he was always a student up to the time of his deatlı. When fourteen years of age he entered Morrison's Academy and there acquired an extensive knowledge of the sciences. Not possessing the means necessary to take a collegiate course, he began teaching at sixteen years, in his father's family and working on the farm, at the same time pursuing privately the course his academicclass- mates were taking at Center College, at Danville, Ky. In ten years he
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mastered the course without one day's attendance at college and in 1823 taught his first term of subscription school.
In November, 1824, he came to Indiana and that winter taught school in Brown township, Washington county. In 1825 he began reading law privately. The greater part of his useful life was passed teaching school ; about 7,000 days in Washington county, 1,080 days in Decatur county, Ind., 1,935 days in Harrison county Seminary, 1,170 days in New Albany as superintendent and general instruc- tor, 308 days scattering -making a total of some 11,000 days passed in the school room. It is not necessary to add that Prof. May made school teaching a success.
In 1838 he was admitted to practice law at Rushville, Ind., and engaged in legal pursuits. From December, 1832, to November, 1834, he was editor of
the Western Annotator, at Salem. He was a Jacksonian in polities up to 1833, when his views changed on the question of banking, and in 1834 he wrote the first article recommending William Henry Harrison for the Pres- idency.
In 1856 he became a Republican, and remained one till the day of his death. During the bitter struggle between the North and the South, he was ever found a warm supporter of the Union and Lincoln's administra- tion, and often was threatened all man- ner of violence for his outspoken and radical stand in favor of the Union. March 5th, 1829, he married Nancy, daughter of Benoni and Elizabeth (MeCoskey) Armstrong.
Prof. May, at the time of his death in the winter of '88, bore the honor of being the oldest schoolmaster in the State and longest in the service.
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CHARLES C. ANDERSON is the son of Samuel Anderson and Rebecca (Craw- ford) Anderson, and was born in the city of Philadelphia, January 29, 1813. His father emigrated to the West in 1817. He came from Philadelphia, across the State of Pennsylvania, by land, in a derburn car- riage, to Pittsburg, and they were some two or three weeks making the trip. At Pitts- burg his father and some of his friends jointly bought a flatboat, and in this boat floated down the Ohio river to Cincinnati, Ohio; arriving at Cincinnati, which was but a small town at that time, father en- gaged to work in a foundry owned by a Mr. Green, the motive power of which was a yoke of oxen. One of Mr. Anderson's early recollections is connected with this foundry. He used to go there, and the Irishman, Jimmie Ramsey, who had charge of the oxen and to keep the machinery in constant motion, would place him on the beam to which the oxen were hitched, where he would ride round and drive the oxen. That, he thought, was the most de- lightful time in life.
After working in Mr. Green's foundry for a time, he worked in Watson's clock fac- tory, and was engaged in manufacturing clock cases. His mother, who was a native of Philadelphia, died soon after they came West, in 1820, when he was but seven years of age. She was of a Quaker
family, and retained, until her death, some of their peculiarities. His father, who was a native of Trenton, N. J., died in 1834, at the age of forty years.
Mr. Charles C. Anderson, the subject of our sketch, learned the trade of foundry- man, in Cincinnati, with Robert C. Green, who owned and operated a large foundry and machine shop in that city. In 1832 Mr. Green removed to Jeffersonville, bring- ing Mr. Anderson with him, and built a shop and carried on the foundry and machine business for a number of years. Mr. Anderson remained with Mr. Green until he quit the business and engaged in other pursuits.
Some time about 1840 Mr. Anderson started a small machine shop a short dis- tance above Howard's shipyard, which he carried on about four years, when he formed a partnership with Hamilton Rob- inson, Richard Goss and James Kiegwin, and removed to an old carriage shop, situated on a lot adjoining where the City Hotel on Spring street now stands. Here the firm carried on business for a number of years, wlien a change was made in the business, and a shop was built on Watt street between Maple and Court avenue.
In 1860 this shop was burned and Mr. Anderson, who was its sole proprietor, lost most of his property. His friends came to his assistance and in six weeks had a tem-
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T
porary building and resumed business. Since then he has added to his buildings and stocked his foundry with tools and im- proved machinery so that he can and is doing a good business. The name of his foundry is "The Jefferson Foundry," but it is as commonly known as "Anderson's."
Mr. Anderson was married in 1835 to Miss Mary Lanciskes, a native of Zanes- ville, Ohio, but was residing in Jefferson- ville with some relatives at the time of the marriage. She died in 1880, leaving six living children,-Mary, George, John, Charles, Robert and Martha ; two, Levi and Laura, being dead. In 1882, after living a lonely life for two years, he married, for the second time, Mrs. Martha J. Terry, of Jeffersonville.
He was originally a member of the Christian Church, but is now and has been for thirty years, a member of the Church of God, meeting in the Advent Christian Tabernacle. His wife is also a member of the same church.
From 1840 to 1843 he resided in the town of Port Fulton, adjoining the city of Jeffersonville, and while there he was a member of its Board of Town Trustees, and was made president of the Board. He also held the office of Town Treasurer.
Mr. Anderson is one of the oldest and most highly respected citizens of Jefferson- ville; he has the universal esteem and confidence of all who know him, and those who have known him longest and best honor and esteem him the highest.
JAMES BURKE was born February, 1826, in County Limerick, Ireland. He is the son of William Burke and Catharine (Fitzgerald) Burke. His mother came to America.
Mr. Burke emigrated to the United States in 1848, and came direct to Jeffer-
sonville, to meet his brother John and other relatives who had preceded lim to this country, and entered into partnership with John Burke, and continued together for five years. He became a contractor for the grading 'and paving the public streets of Jeffersonville. As a street con- tractor he was a success, and made some money. In his dealings with the city and the public, he established a character for honesty and integrity, so that the people of liis ward, in 1863, elected him council- man, and continued him as one of its rep- resentatives in the council until 1872. In 1875 lie was elected city treasurer, and in 1877 and 1879 was re-elected, and served until September, 1881.
In 1886 he was appointed by Mr. Cleve- land postmaster for the city of Jefferson- ville, in which capacity he is now serving the people.
After he retired from the treasurer's office, he became one of the principal con- tractors on the Owensboro' & Russellville Railroad, and continued there until in 1884, and from that time until in 1886 was en- gaged in the coal business in Jefferson- ville.
He was married in 1855 to Miss Cor- nelia Craugler, a native of New York. The result of the union is five living chil- dren.
Hon. Frank B. Burke, a son, is now joint senator from the counties of Clark, Scott and Jennings; James Burke, in the coal trade; William Burke, a clerk in the post- office under his father ; Miss Maggie, also a clerk under her father in the postoffice.
HON. HENRY A. BURTT, an able and prominent lawyer of the city of Jefferson- ville, was born near the town of Utica, in Clark county, Indiana, October 8, 1852.
Harry a. Built.
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He is the son of Eli Burtt, a native of Clark county, born in Utica township, April 16, 1817, upon the farm where he now resides. He is a prominent farmer and a leading man in his township in all matters of public interest.
His grandfather Burtt was among the earliest pioneers of the West, and settled in Clark county for his future home. His mother was Paulina Hardin, a native of Oldham county, Kentucky, and belongs to that famous Hardin family of Kentucky of which the great and distinguished crimi- nal lawyer, Ben Hardin, was a conspicious member.
Henry A. Burtt was reared on his father's farm where he was born, and, when arriv- ing at a proper age, like all farmers' sons, went to work upon the farm, assisting in the labor of cultivating it. He remained at home with the family until he was sixteen years of age, going to school during the Winter months and acquiring such educa- tion as the schools of the neighborhood afforded. At the age of sixteen he was sent to the State University at Blooming- ton, and entered the Preparatory Depart- ment. He did not remain there continu- ously until he graduated, but returned home and taught school a number of years before he finally graduated. He however completed his full collegiate course, and graduated with all the honors in 1878.
Enough of the Hardin blood flowed in his veins to bias him in the determination of the question in choosing his profession in favor of the law, and he commenced its study soon after returning from the Univer- sity. After reading law in the office of Ferguson & Marsh, a strong law firm of the city of Jeffersonville, the senior mem- ber of which is now the presiding judge of the Clark and Floyd Circuit Courts, he entered the Law Department of the Uni-
versity of Louisville, and graduated with high honors in 1880. However he had, upon an examination, been admitted the year previous to graduation to practice law in all the courts of Clark and the ad- joining counties. He practiced alone until the summer of 1885, when he formed a partnership in the practice of the law, with James Edward Taggart, a young lawyer of fine ability and legal talent, who had just graduated and come into practice.
Henry A. Burtt, the senior member of the law firm of Burtt & Taggart, is a lawyer of distinguished ability. He is a hard student and leaves nothing to chance. He digs to the very bottom of his cases; he knows every weak and every strong point in them, and prepares himself by reading and study to meet his opponents in the courts by fortifying his weak points in his case, if there are any, and urging his strong ones upon the attention of the court and jury. A lawyer of his studious habits, energy and indomitable will is bound to succeed in his profession.
The firm have now grown into a large and lucrative practice in the Clark Circuit Court, and it is only a question of time when they will stand among the foremost at the bar in the city.
He was married to Miss Marietta Robin- son, daughter of William Fletcher Robinson, a substantial and wealthy farmer of Utica township, November 3, 1880, and three children is the result of their union.
GEORGE W. CARR is a native of the city of Jeffersonville. He was born February 13, 1855. He has made Jeffersonville his home all his life, and such education as he acquired during his school-boy days he ob- tained in the public schools of Jeffersonville.
He was a newsboy, and carried and sold newspapers for six or seven years, includ-
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CLARK COUNTY
ing the time of the war. He clerked in a news stand in Jeffersonville for James Fer- rier and Samuel MeGennigal, two years each, and in 1875 he accepted a position as clerk for Joseph Spillors in his news stand in Louisville, and remained with him about eighteen months; and then in 1877 he succeeded his father, Abraham Carr, in the merchant tailoring business in Jeffer- sonville and has continued in that busi- ness ever since. Of his success in business he has no reason to complain. He has a good trade, and hopes by close attention to business and honest dealing to largely, in the course of time, increase it.
He is now and has been for several years the agent of Adams Express Company for this city. He is a member of the Uniform Rank of the Knights of Pythias and the American Legion of Honor.
He was married in 1882 to Miss Josie Terry, daughter of Joshua Terry, of Jeffer- sonville ; she was reared in Jefferson coun- ty, Ky. The result of their union is three children, one boy and two girls,-Cleona, Altha and George W.
Mr. Carr is the son of Abraham and Sarah (Huber) Carr, both natives of the State of Pennsylvania, who came to Indi- ana in 1852. His father is still living in Jeffersonville, but his mother is dead.
Mr. Carr is one of our foremost young business men. He is sober, moral and in- dustrious, and has the confidence and re- spect of all who know him.
DAVID S. COOK was born February 9, 1857, in Chillicothe, Ohio. He was the son of William Cook and Margaret (Scott) Cook. His father, William Cook, was born in Scotland, and came to this country while he was yet quite a young man. His mother was a native of Scotland, and emigrated to the United States while a child.
All the education that our subject ever received he got in the common schools taught in the neighborhood where he was raised until he was fourteen years old. He was then put to work in stacking staves in a stave yard, and continued in that business for some five or six years. He then went to work in the Queen City Cement mills, and continued at that business for some time, and then he took a trip to Texas on a prospecting tour. Re- turning home he was engaged as master mechanic in the Oolitic Lime Stone Quar- ries, near Salem, Washington county, In- diana, and after serving in that capacity for some time, he accepted the position of superintendent of the Speed Cement Mills, situated a mile north of Sellersburg, on the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapo- lis Railroad, where he is at this time em- ployed. He thoroughly understands the manufacture of hydraulic cement, and han- dles the Speed Mills with efficiency and economy.
Mr. Cook was married in 1879 to Miss Ruth Hinton, daughter of Samuel Hinton, who is a native of Indiana. They have two living children-Sarah S. and David S.
He is a prominent and efficient member of the Knights of Honor and also a member of the Stationary Engineers' Association. He has never been an office seeker. His whole ambition is to improve and elevate the laboring classes. He is one of our best and solid citizens, an energetic business man. His highest ambition is to do good in the world and to make others happy. He is domestic in his tastes ; surrounded at home by his young, intelligent family, he is contented and happy.
EDWIN M. COOTS was born in Shelby county, Ky., January 3, 1847. He was brought up on a farm and lived there a
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SOUVENIR SKETCHES.
farmer until 1872, and during his school-boy days attended the common schools of his county, and acquired such limited educa- tion as they at that time afforded. He is the son of R. M. and Elizabeth (Morton) Coots, both natives of Shelby county, Ky., and are living on the old farm in Shelby county.
In 1872 Mr. Coots left the farm, and went to Harrisonville, Shelby county, and engaged in the undertaking business, and remained there about seven years, when he removed to Shelbyville and went into the furniture business in connection with the undertaking business, remaining the there one year.
In December, 1881, he came to Jeffer- sonville, Clark county, Indiana, and bought out the furniture and undertaking business of George C. Zinck, and went into business there, and has continued the business ever since.
In September, 1882, Mr. Coots gradua- ted in the Cincinnati Embalming School, and about two weeks later embalmed the first corpse that was ever arterially em- balmed in Clark county, Indiana.
At the November election, 1884, Mr. Coots was elected coroner of Clark county, and has been re-elected every two years continously, and is now holding the office for the third term. He is a good solid Dem- ocrat, and he holds his office by reason of that fact, and because he is well qualified for the office and is a good clever gentle- man to back it.
On the 1st of September, 1885, Mr. Coots entered into a copartnership in the furniture and undertaking business with Frank R. Willey, of Clark county, and they are now doing business under the firm name of "Coots & Willey."
He was married in 1869 to Miss Nannie J. Fry, daughter of Froman Fry, of
Shelby county, Ky; they have two boys, Froman M. and Glover. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church and lives the life of a consistent Christian He is a member of the I. O. O. F., the K. & L. H. and the Secret League. He he a charter member of the Funeral Directors' Associa- tion of the Falls Cities, and also a member of the Indiana State Funeral Directors' Association.
There are few better citizens than Mr. Coots. He is honest, straightforward, yet affable and liberal in business, and those who deal with him will always find him to be a Christian gentleman.
JESSE M. CRIM was born in Shelby county, Ky., Jan. 12, 1820. His father, Moses Crim, was also a native of Ken- tucky, and emigrated from that State and settled in Washington county, this State, some time about the year 1822. His grandfather, Charles Crim, was killed by the Indians in one of their predatory ex- cursions to the settlements. The family is of German descent. His mother, Sarah Jacobs, was a daughter of Samuel Jacobs, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He was an early settler in the Indi- ana Territory and served as a ranger on the frontier service for a number of years.
Mr. Crim was but a small boy when his father settled on his farm in Washington county, and there he was reared. Like all farmers' sons, as soon as he was of suf- ficient age, he was put to work in assist- ing in cultivating the farm. In those days schools were not so plentiful as they are now, and a common-school education was not so easily obtained as now. All the schooling he got, however, was during the winter months when a three months' school was taught in the neighborhood and he could be spared from work on his father's
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farm. The youths of those days had but poor opportunities to acquire school learn- ing, and it was precious little they got.
Mr. Crim was married in 1848 to Miss Tilsie A. Littell, daughter of Absalom Lit- tell, who was born in Fayette county, Pa., in the year 1788. In the latter part of the year 1799 Elder Absalom Littell of the Presbyterian Church, emigrated from his home in Pennsylvania to what was then the North West Territory, and settled on the west side of Silver Creek, now in Silver Creek Township, in Clark county, Indiana. At that time there were no purely Amer- ican settlements in all that vast territory stretching west to the Rocky Mountains, and only a few straggling settlements of French and mixed breeds connected with forts and military stations.
Twelve months prior to the settlement of the Littells, as above stated, the first Protestant congregation within the present boundaries of the State was organized a few miles north of the Littell settlement, and the first house of worship was erected on Silver Creek, near the Littell farm. This was a regular Baptist Church.
Absalom Littell, the grandfather of our subject's wife, was an earnest worker in the Presbyterian Church, and was promi- nent in organizing the first Presbyterian Church at Charlestown.
The younger Littell was one of the pio- neer preachers of the county. He re- mained in the regular Baptist Church, preaching and laboring in the cause, until the division in the church, which was known in those days as Campbellites ; he then left the old regular church and went with the division that took the name of Christian, which now constitutes one of the largest and most efficient wings of the great Protestant Church of this country. He was baptized into the Baptist Church
in 1816. Mr. Crim and wife have five children,-Axie C., Mary E., Absalom L., Azro C. and Sarah T. A. Axie died when but eighteen months old, and Mary was eleven years. Sarah T. A. was married to L. W. Robison, and died in her nineteenth year.
Azro was born in 1851, was raised on a farm and educated in the common schools of the neighborhood, and was married June 17, 1875, to Miss Maggie Horna- day, daughter of Ezekiel Hornaday. The result of their union is a daughter, Lillie E.
In 1876 Mr. Crim began working in the carpenter and joiner business, and is now prominent in these trades and is doing a good business in the prosperous town of Sellersburg.
Mr. Littell, the father of Mrs. Crim, was quite a prominent man in the early settle- ment of Clark county. He was a surveyor, and made a map of Clark's Grant of land. He acted as a justice of the peace of his township for many years. He died May 11, 1862, in the seventy-fourth year of age. Absalom L., our subject's second son, was born in 1859, raised on a farm, educated in the common schools of his township, and also went to school in Lex- ington, Ky., and attended Bible College, and studied for the ministry of the Chris- tian Church, and has labored in that cause for three years past. Was married in 1879 to Miss Maggie Allen, daughter of George Allen, and have as the result of their union three living children,-Jesse W., Archie E. and Esda A.
REUBEN DAILEY was born in Middle- sex county, England, March 6, 1844, and is a son of Nicholas A. and Hannah Dailey. He was one of a family of nine children- eight boys and one girl. The family came to America in 1848, and lived variously at
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SOUVENIR SKETCHES.
Cincinnati, Pittsburg and Newport, Ky. After the breaking out of the war he en- listed in Co. F., Fifth Ohio Infantry, and served three years and two months.
He commenced as a journalist in 1865, in Memphis, Tenn., which he continued about three and a half years, when he severed his connection with the press there and came to Louisville. In 1869 he be- came reporter of the Courier-Journal for New Albany and Jeffersonville. He read law for a period of eighteen months, and then bought the Democrat, of Jeffersonville.
In November, 1872, hestarted the Even- ing News in a hand-bill form, abont 6x10 inches. It was the first daily paper pub- lished in Jeffersonville, and is still con- ducted by Mr. Dailey. He was married December 26, 1865, to Miss Ann Eliza Devinney, at Newport, Ky. They have two children living.
DANIEL DOUGHERTY was born in Ireland, February 6, 1840. He was brought to the United States in 1849, by his parents, who emigrated to this country at that time, and located in the city of Louisville, Ky. He attended the public schools in Louisville until he arrived at the age of sixteen years, when he was apprenticed to learn the plumbing business, but before he had completed his time the firm with whom he had engaged went to St. Louis, Mo., and he went with them and remained with them until he had completed his trade. He then returned to Louisville, and in 1859 took a position as engineer and general mechanic at the Louisville Chemi- cal Works. In this occupation he con- tinued about four years. In 1863 a large hospital for sick and wounded soldiers was established by the Government on the Ohio river, above the city of Jeffersonville, and Mr. Dougherty did the plumbing work for
the Government. After that work was completed, he was sent to Nashville, Tenn., employed in the same kind of work for the Government. Remaining there only a short time he returned to the city of Louisville, and in 1864 went to work for the Louis- ville Gas Company. In 1865, at the close .of the war, he went to Huntsville, Ala., and accepted a position as superintendent of the water works of that city, which he held for one year, when he again returned to Louisville, and took employment under the Gas Company, which he held for about six years. In 1872 he was induced to accept of the position of superintendent of the Gas Works at Bowling Green, and re- moved to that city. He remained there, in that position over seven years, when he re- signed it. In the fall of 1881 he came to Jeffersonville and took charge, as superin- tendent, of the Jeffersonville Gas Works, and has continued as such ever since.
He is the son of John and Mary (Mul- lens) Dougherty, both natives of Ireland. His father died in 1873, at the age of sev- enty-two years. His mother died in 1857, at the age of fifty-four years.
Mr. Dougherty was married in 1864 to Miss Ellen McCarthy, of Louisville, Ky., daughter of Dennis McCarthy. They have eight children, three boys and five girls- Maggie E., Daniel J., Mary Adell, Lau- rence, Benjamin, Annie E., Clara and Grace. He and his household are mem- bers of St. Augustine Catholic Church, Rev. Ernest Andran, rector.
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