USA > Indiana > Washington County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 56
USA > Indiana > Harrison County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 56
USA > Indiana > Crawford County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 56
USA > Indiana > Clark County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 56
USA > Indiana > Scott County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 56
USA > Indiana > Floyd County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 56
USA > Indiana > Jennings County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 56
USA > Indiana > Jefferson County > Biographical and historical souvenir for the counties of Clark, Crawford, Harrison, Floyd, Jefferson, Jennings, Scott, and Washington, Indiana > Part 56
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efforts, nothing having been given to him by his father.
At the marriage of this first set of chil- dren he presented each of them with $1,500. His sale bill amounted to $3,000.
Mrs. Buchanan still lives on the home- stead, which belongs to her and her daugh- ters and son, who is now 14 years of age and who is walking in the footsteps of his father and alive to all home interests, and loves his books and will make his mark in the world. Mary E. and Hannah have married; the other five are at home with their mother. Mr. Buchanan was a good citizen and a choice man.
IRA CHAMBERS, farmer, Monroe town- ship, is a native of Jefferson county, Ind., was born December 7, 1842, was raised on a farm and is still living on one; he was educated in the common schools of the county. At the breaking out of the Rebel- lion he enlisted in the three months' service, at the call for 300,000 more soldiers by the President of the United States; he enlisted in the Tenth Indiana Cavalry, and was in all the engagements of his regiment, until he was taken prisoner at Huntsville, Ala., on the 14th day of December, 1864. He re- mained a prisoner at Andersonville four months and thirteen days, when he escaped and found his way to the Union lines at Jacksonville, Fla., ou April 29, 1865.
After his discharge at the close of the war he returned home, and settled down to the quite life of a farmer.
He was married in 1865, to Miss Nancy J. Patton, daughter of Robert R. Patton, of North Madison. They have a family of seven children: Burdett, Charles, Mollie, Harry, Willie, Frank and Stella.
Mr. Chambers has a comfortable little home and enjoys himself in life. He is a man prematurely old in consequence of ex- posure and injuries received while in the army. His father is Mr. James Chambers, a farmer of Monroe township (see his sketch). Mr. Ira Chambers is a member of the G. A. R.
JAMES CHAMBERS, farmer, Monroe township, was the oldest son of Isaac Cham- bers, an early settler in this county (see sketchin history of county), and Mehitabel . Goodwin, daughter of Samuel Goodwin, natives of Kentucky. Mr. Chambers was born in Jefferson county, Indiana, within four miles of the place on which he now lives, on a farm; was reared a farmer, and educated in the old log school-house days. His education was, through the necessity of the case, of a limited char- acter. He was married in 1842, to Mary Baxter, a danghter of Daniel Baxter, a pioneer of the year 1814 to this county, and was born in Pennsylvania, and was the father of a large family, the sketches
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of some of whom are to be found in this book.
Mr. Chambers and wife raised a family of nine children, viz: Ira B., Indiana, Nancy A., James W., Jolm M., Mary J., Robert D., Isaac D. and George A. Two of these, George and John M., are dead ; the others are living in Jefferson county. Ira and John were soldiers in the late war. Ira was a prisoner at Andersonville for some months (see his sketch) ; John served six months.
Mr. Chambers owns 300 acres of land of good quality and well improved, and is very comfortably fixed in a home. His wife is a member of the Baptist Church, and has been a consistent Christian for fifty years past.
RICHARD CHAPMAN was born in Wil- shire, England, in 1819, October 27. He was reared in England, and was appren- ticed at the age of fourteen, to learn the trade of blacksmith, and served for seven years as an apprentice, at Woodford, near Salisbury.
He worked at his trade for eighteen years in England, and came to the United States in 1852, on the ship "Liverpool," having left England between Christmas and New Year in 1851. He arrived in Madi- son, Ind., the last day of February, 1852, with only a nickel in his pocket. He walked out in the country four miles that
night on the Kent road; the next day he rented a shop two miles from Kent, and commenced work on the first day of April, where he continued to work for two and one-half years. The following July after he landed, his wife and child came to him from England.
In 1854 Mr. Chapman removed to Gra- ham township, and bought one-half of an acre of ground, and put up a house and shop upon it, paying $100 for the ground. He worked at his trade at this place for over twenty years, keeping a general coun- try store in connection with his shop. His wife was made postmistress at this point, and held the office for eight years.
When he left Graham township in 1878, he sold his premises for $1,100.
Mr. Chapman was married in 1846, in England, to Miss Alice Potter, a native of England, who died August 17, 1880, at the age of 60 years, leaving one son, John.
Mr. Chapman has been very successful in accumulating property, owning a farm of 240 acres of land in Graham township, besides a nice home of twenty-seven acres, where he lives, at the edge of the town of Lancaster.
He is a member of the United Presby- terian Church, and has always been a large contributor to the Church, and fore- most to assist in all charitable enterprises.
He has done a great deal to build up the county in the way of building and improv- ing property.
On May 29, 1886, he married Mrs. Cyn- thia (Hammond) Bailey, the widow of Com- modore Perry Bailey. She died Decem-
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ber 23, 1887, without issue. John Chap- man, son of the subject of. our sketch, married Josephine Lard, daughter of C. K. Lard, of this county, and has four children : Alice B., Sarah N., Jessie R. and Ruth C., all living at home. John owns a farm of 385 acres of land in Lancaster town- ship, and is one of the largest farmers in the township. Besides farming he deals largely in stock.
JAMES A. COCHRAN, farmer, Hanover township, is a native of Hanover township, Jefferson county, and was born Feb. 27, 1831. He was reared in this township on a farm: attended the common schools of the township.
He was married in 1869 to Miss Annie Morton, daughter of John Morton, of this county. He has two children, Jennetta and Moses A. He is a member, and an elder of Carmel (U. P.) Church.
Hc owns a farm of 216 acres of land where he lives, three miles west of Hanover town; the land is good and well improved. He is a large owner and dealer in Merino sheep.
His parents, Alexander and Margaret (Anderson) Cochran, were natives of Scot- land ; his father of Glasgow, and his mother of Dumfries. They came to the United States, the mother in 1818, and the father in 1821. His father was a prominent farmer of this county, and died in 1876, at the age of 85.
His mother died in 1884 at 90 years of age. Mr. Cochran was elected as County Commissioner in 1876 to 1885, on the Republican ticket.
WILLIAM COCHRAN, farmer, is a na- tive of Republican township; was born in the same house in which he now lives, Aug. 27, 1835. He was brought up on the farm, and attended the common schools of the county.
He owns the farm of 172 acres of land on which he resides, and raises grain and stock, especially sheep. Mr. Cochran is unmarried.
His parents were Alexander and Margaret (Anderson) Cochran, both natives of Scot- land; his father of Glasgow, and his mother of Dumfries. They came to the United States, the mother in 1818, the father in 1821. His father was a prominent farmer of this county, and died in 1876, at the age of 85. His mother died in 1884, at the age of 90. Mr. Cochran is a good citizen, and a good farmer.
CYRUS COMMISKY, farmer, Monroe township, is the second son of Joseph and Rebecca (Baxter) Commisky.
He was born in Monroe township, Jef- ferson county, Ind., July 3, 1849, on a farm and reared a farmer; attended the
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public schools. He was married at the age of twenty-two to Miss Sarah Walton. They are the parents of five living children : Rosette, John, Cyrus, Frank and Pleasant ; their third child, Charlie, died at the age of four.
Mr. Commisky owns 133 acres of land and is a thrifty, forehanded farmer. The family of Joseph and Rebecca Commisky consisted of six children : Daniel, who en- listed in the Twenty-second Indiana Regi- ment, and has never been heard of since a few months after the battle of Pea Ridge; Cyrus, John F., Joseph N., and two sisters, Anna and Susan, both of whom are mar- ried.
Joseph Commisky was a native of Penn- sylvania, of Irish descent. He came to In- diana when quite young, and died in 1856.
Rebecca Baxter was the daughter of Dan- iel Baxter, whose sketch is in this book, and native of this county. She died in 1887.
J. RANDOLPH CONWAY, farmer, Smyrna township, Jefferson county, Ind., is the son of John and Emily (Hoagland) Conway, and was born in Hunter's Bottom, Trimble county, Ky., Aug. 17, 1836. He came to Indiana in 1840, with his parents, and located on the land where he now resides. He attended the common schools of the county.
Mr. Conway and his two sisters own 115 acres of land, on which they now live. His
parents were both of them natives of Ken- tucky. His father was born on Dec. 27, 1800, and died Dec. 5, 1867. His mother died July 29, 1880, at the age of 77 years. His father owned 270 acres of the finest quality of land in the township; he always raised large crops of wheat and corn; the farm was called Egypt by the neighbors, on account of the corn raised upon it. One crop of corn produced ninety bushels of corn to the acre on thirteen acres. The same year, in an adjoining field of sixteen acres, the product was thirty-eight bushels of wheat to the acre; this crop brought two dollars in gold per bushel. This was dur- ing the Russian war, in 1856.
Mr. John Conway, the father, was for many years School and Township Trustee for this township. He was also a member of the Hopewell Baptist Church. He was a raiser of a great deal of fine stock ; he raised one hog, of a litter of seventeen pigs, that weighed 606 pounds net, and was not fat either. Another large animal of his raising, was a Durham steer that weighed 1260 pounds at two years of age. He was a man who took great interest in raising stock. On his farm was a great deal of very large walnut timber ; the stump of one tree measured five feet and two inches in diameter. There is also one of the largest grapevines in the county on this farm; it measures forty-six inches around the body ; it is on a beech tree. There is also a large poplar tree on this place, which is five feet through, and is one hundred feet high; it is covered by a vine of the American ivy- this vine covers it all over. There is a cave
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on the place, and when the beech leaves blow under or into the cave, they are petrified by the limestone water that drips on them; the leaves decay and leave their impression on the stone.
This is the finest land in the county, lots of walnut timber and some blue grass.
The subject of this sketch has four brothers and two sisters: John, Cornelius, Thomas, Edward, Mary and Cornelia. His sisters live with him. Edward is married and a farmer of this township; Thomas is a large farmer in Jackson county ; Cornelius died in 1861 ; John is a farmer in Crawford county, Ind.
Mr. Conway's grandfather, John Conway, was born in Culpepper county, Va., in 1770, and died in the house on this farm at the age of 93 years 1 month and 3 days.
WILLIAM CORDREY, ice dealer in W. Madison, was born near Lexington, Ky., February 11, 1828, the son of John and Malinda (Johnson) Cordrey. The father was a native of Maryland, the mother of Kentucky. His father settled on the hill near Madison, Ind., in 1828, on a farm; afterward opened in the grocery business, and continued in that for about ten years. He died in 1889, seventy-five years old. Mr. William Cordrey was reared in Madi- son, has farmed and followed carpentering ; engaged also in the grocery business, and boated on the river. The last fifteen years
of his life he has been in the ice business. He started in life a poor boy, and by his pluck, honesty and perseverance has made for himself a good living. He has a com- fortable home in West Madison, and owns twenty acres of land adjoining the city of Madison, and considerable real estate in West Madison. He is a good citizen, a member of the Trinity M. E. of many years standing, and a leading man in his church. In the year 1849 he was married to Miss Vashti Smith, a native of Bartholomew county, Ind. They have had three children, of whom two only are living-James W., and Anna M., wife of James Crozier, Audi- tor of Jefferson county. Mr. Cordrey is a member of I. O. O. F. He was out with Gen. Geo. Morgan, at Cumberland Gap, during the war.
J. RODOLPHUS CONWAY, farmer, Smyrna township, Jefferson county, Ind., is the son of John and Emily (Hoagland) Conway, and was born in Hunter's Bottom, Trimble county, Ky., August 17, 1836. He came to Indiana in 1840, with his parents, and located on the land where he now resides. He attended the common schools of the county. Mr. Conway and his two sisters own 115 acres of land, on which they now live. His parents were both of them natives of Kentucky; his father was born on December 27, 1800, and died December 5, 1867. His mother
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died July 29, 1880, at the age of 77 years. His father owned 270 acres of the finest quality of land in the. township. He al- ways raised large crops of wheat and corn. The farm was called Egypt by the neigh- bors on account of the corn raised upon it. One crop of corn produced 95 bushels of corn to the acre on thirteen acres. The same year, in an adjoining field of sixteen acres of wheat, the product was thirty-eight bushels to the acre. This crop of wheat brought two dollars in gold per bushel. This was during the Russian war, in the year 1856. Mr. John Conway, the father, was, for a great many years, school and township trustee for his township. He was a member of Hopewell Baptist Church. He was a raiser of a great deal of stock; he raised one hog-of a litter of seventeen pigs-that weighed 606 pounds net, and 'was not fat either. Another large animal of his rearing was a Durham steer that weighed 1,260 pounds at two years of age. He was a man who took a great interest in raising stock. On his farm was a great deal of very large walnut timber ; the stump of one tree measured five feet and two inches in diameter. There is also one of the largest grapevines in the country on this farm; it measures forty-six inches around the body; it is on a beech tree. There is also a large poplar tree on the place which is five feet through and is one hundred feet high; it is covered by a vine of the American ivy ; this vine covers it all over. There is a cave on the place, and when the beech leaves blow under or into the cave, they are petrified by the lime-
stone water that drips on them; the leaves decay and leave their impression on the stone. This is the finest land in the county, lots of walnut timber and some blue grass. The subject of this sketch has four brothers and two sisters: Jolm, Cor- nelius, Thomas, Edward, Mary and Cor- nelia. His sisters live with him. Edward is married and a farmer of this township. Thomas is a large farmer in Jackson county ; Cornelius died in 1861; John is a farmer of Crawford county, Ind. Mr. Conway's grandfather, John Conway, was born in Culpepper county, Va., in 1770, and died in the house on this farm, at the age of 93 years 1 month and 3 days.
E. S. COYLE was born October 16, 1854, in Madison, Ind., and was brought up in this city and attended the public schools. After leaving school he appren- ticed himself to learn the moulder's trade, and served over three years. In 1873 he went to Johnson's starch factory, and took the job of papering starch, and continued there for three years. In 1880 he engaged in the saloon business, and continued in that for eight years. In 1887 he engaged in the hardwood lumber business, and is still in that business, and has been quite successful.
His parents were both of Irish descent. Thomas Coyle, his father, was born in Bal- timore, Maryland, and came to Madison,
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Indiana, where he learned the trade of ma- chinist, at which he worked for a number of years. He was killed while engineer at Johnson's starch works. His mother's maiden name was Ladosky McClaran. She was born in Kentucky, and came to Indi- ana when quite young, and died at an early age, leaving a family of four children, two boys and two girls, the subject of our sketch being the oldest.
JAMES CRAIG, deceased, was born April 20, 1807, in Ireland, near Belfast. He was married in 1834 to Miss Margaret Roberts, daughter of Mr. John Roberts, of Belfast, Ireland, a noted merchant in the linen business.
In 1838 Mr. Craig came to America, leaving Belfast in May of that year. He engaged in the coal business in Pittsburgh, Pa., for about two years, when he came to Jefferson county, Ind., and settled on a farm in Monroe township, where he con- tinued to reside to the end of his life. He died, after a short illness, at his home, May 26, 1876.
In later life, he combined farming and school-teaching as his professions, and was an energetic man in both lines of busi- ness. He occupied many positions of profit and trust at the gift of the voters of his township, with credit to himself and benefit to the township. He was a promi- nent Mason. He was a man of strong con-
victions, and when once fixed in an opinion would hold out tenaciously.
He was a kind father and husband and a strong friend.
He enlisted, with four of his sons, in the Sixth Indiana Regiment, and served until he was disabled, when he returned home and taught school the balance of his life. He had many of the prominent men of the county and State among his pupils.
His family consisted of ten children, viz: Charlotte, Maggie, William R., John T., George D., Lizzie, Robert T., Susan, Hunter (died when two years old) and James.
His widow resides on the old homestead, with her youngest son, James.
JOHN CRAWFORD, blacksmith and farmer, was born in Scotland, in 1842, in Ayrshire, and emigrated to America in 1856, and settled in Jefferson county, Ind. He worked four years at farming, and then commenced to learn the blacksmith trade.
In 1864 he was married to Mary Scott, daughter of John Scott, a native of Scot- land. The same year he enlisted in Co. B, One hundred and fortieth Reg. Ind. Vols. and served to the end of the war; was in all the battles of the regiment. Came home and settled to work at his trade, and lias been at that and farming ever since. He is a first-class mechanic, and has the best shop and tools in the county. His
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business is the repair of farming ma- chinery, principally. He owns ninety acres of land, well improved and good land.
He has five children: Ada, James, Scott, Harry and Agnes, of whom the eldest is married and lives in Jefferson county ; the others are at home.
Mr. Crawford received but a limited edu- cation, but is determined that his children shall have a better one than he had. His father's name was James Crawford, who died before his son was five years of age, leaving him to make his own living; which he has succeeded in doing by his own good and honest labor and thrift. Mr. Crawford is a good citizen and honored by his neigh- bors.
WILLIAM W. DEMAREE, farmer, was born in Jefferson county, November 3, 1839. He is a son of William Underwood and Marietta (Wagner) Demaree, natives of Kentucky and New Jersey.
There were three generations of the Demaree family who settled, at early dates in this century, in Jefferson county, viz : Samuel, the father, who came in 1812, and entered a very large tract of land; Daniel, his son, and William U., a grandson. Dan- iel came from Shelby county, Ky., bringing his son, William U., with him, who was but a boy at the time. William U., the father of William W., lived until November, 1880, when he died. He built the Madi-
and Canaan Turnpike principally him- self, and was regarded as one of the most enterprising and progressive farmers in Jef- ferson county. The land upon which Mr. Demaree, the subject of this sketch, now lives was entered by his great-grandfather, Samuel Demaree.
The Demaree family was well represent- ed in the army in all the wars of this coun- try, Mr. William W. Demaree being one of the representatives in the late war, en- listing in Co. A, 55th Reg. Ind. Vol. Inf., for three months in 1862, and was out over four months. Since the war Mr. Demaree has engaged in farming.
He is the superintendent and treasurer of the Madison and Canaan Turnpike Company, and has been since his father's death.
He was married to Miss Susan E. Lee, of Jefferson county, in 1876. They have five children : Hattie, Maud, Marietta, Anna E., Ida May and William Buford. Mr. Dema- ree owns 200 acres of valuable land.
THOMAS DOW was born February 22, 1844, in Jefferson county. His parents were William and Agnes (Scott) Dow; they were natives of Scotland, and came to the United States in 1818. Both are dead; his father died in 1866, aged seventy; his mother died in 1872, aged seventy-one.
Mr. Dow was raised upon a farm, and
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lived there until 1874, when he came to Madison and engaged in the agricultural implement business, in which he continued for one year. In 1875 he formed a part- nership with Mr. W. P. Brown, in the lum- ber trade, which business he is still in.
They have been making walnut lumber a specialty. They have the largest lum- ber yards in the city. They have lately bought a large saw-mill and lumber yard, covering the block of ground between Front and Second, and Plum and Vernon streets, and are operating that in connection with their other yard. Their office is on Mul- berry street.
Mr. Dow was married in 1874 to Miss Minnie Witherspoon, of Switzerland coun- ty, Indiana. He has four living children : Thomas C., Willie S., James E. and Ella M. Mr. Dow is a member of the Masonic order.
ISAAC C. EARHART is the son of John and Sarah (Wood) Earhart. His father was a native of Pennsylvania, and his mother of New Jersey. They moved to Ohio in 1792 and settled near Fort Washington, now Cincinnati; they then moved to Williamsburg, Clermont county, Ohio, where the subject of this sketch was born on July 24, 1824; from this place they moved to Newtown, Hamilton county, same State, in 1826, and from Newtown to Jefferson coun- ty, Ind., to a place known as McCellands Mills, in 1837.
John Earhart was a carpenter by trade, and Isaac, the son, learned the same trade with his father. The father died in 1869, February 16, at the age of 89; was born October 20, 1780. His mother was born in 1778, and died November 30, 1859, at the age of 81.
The subject of this sketch was educated in the common schools of Ohio and Indi- ana. He worked at his trade and farming until 1855, when he bought James Park's saw-mill in Republican township, and ran it until 1862, when he sold it.
He then went to farming and worked at that until 1866 in this township, when he bought the Jordan saw-mill, also in this township, and ran that for two years. He sold that and bought the Kent mills, and run that for eight years, when he sold it and went to farming again on what was known as the Marshall farm. He con- tinued on this farm for four or five years, when he sold it and bought the Paris flour- 'ing mills at Paris, Jennings county ; this was in 1883, when he moved to Paris and continued to run that mill for three years. On account of the health of his wife he came back to Republican township, Jeffer- son county, and took charge of the Kent flouring and saw mills, where he is still engaged in business, doing a large sawing business.
He was married December 24, 1845, to Miss Rowena Hays, daughter of Samuel Hays, a farmer of this county. She died after giving birth to a boy baby, who lived only eight days, on January 2, 1847. Mr. Earhart was married again February 6,
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1848, to Miss Isabella Jones, the daughter of Thomas Jones, a prominent farmer of this township, by whom he had one child, Albert. Albert is married to Miss Jane Kelley, and has five children.
Mr. Earhart is a member of the Masonic Order; also a member of the M. E. Church.
He was elected Justice of the Peace of Smyrna township in 1849, and served but a short time and resigned. In 1858 or '59 was elected Township Trustee of Republi- can township, and served until 1864. He was the Democratic nominee for County Auditor in 1872, and was beaten by only 180 votes, the Republican majority being then 800 in the county. In 1878 was the Democratic nominee for Sheriff of the county, and was beaten by ballot box stuff- ing.
Mr. Earhart is still a strong Democrat, always has voted that ticket, and will con- tinue to do so, so long as the Republican platform is not as good as the Democratic.
JOHN W. GORDON (deceased) was born in Jefferson county, November 30, 1828, and was the son of William Gordon, who was born in Kentucky, July 10, 1795. His mother, Anna R. Warfield, daughter of John Warfield, was born in Kentucky.
Mr. John Gordon was raised a farmer, and educated in the old way.
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