USA > Indiana > Newton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 10
USA > Indiana > Benton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 10
USA > Indiana > Pulaski County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 10
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 10
USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 10
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 10
USA > Indiana > White County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 10
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Benjamin F. Crow was reared upon his father's farm and early became familiar with the various departments of agriculture. He received an ordi- nary public-school education and, having made the best of his advantages and given considerable time to private study, he obtained a certificate to teach,
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and for several terms conducted local schools with ability and success. His chief occupation in life, however, has been that of farming, in which line he has been prospered to a gratifying extent. He owns a thrifty, well kept farm in Jordan township, and resides in a comfortable home, supplied with many of the luxuries and all of the necessaries of modern ways of living.
When a young man of eighteen years Benjamin F. Crow enlisted in the Union army. He became a member of Company K, One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry, on April 30, 1864, his regiment being under the command of Colonel William Wilson. His imme- diate officers were Captain William P. Rhodes, Lieutenant Peter W. Flem- ing and Second Lieutenant John H. Messner, all of Company K. The regi- ment was sent to Tennessee for services in the campaigns being waged in that locality. After about four months of arduous duty and exposure to the fierce southern summer the health of Mr. Crow became broken down, and he was obliged to be mustered out of the service, the date of his discharge being Sep- tember 21, 1864. He resumed the accustomed duties of the farm as soon as he had sufficiently regained his health, and from that time to the present he has given his time and attention to the management of his homestead. In politics he is a Republican, and fraternally he is an esteemed member of W. B. Fleming Post, No. 316, G. A. R.
The marriage of Benjamin F. Crow and Miss Armilda Lee, a daughter of Peter Lee, was celebrated May 10, 1866. They have one daughter, Mary J., who is now the wife of M. W. Leming, of Denver, Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Crow are held in high respect and honor by all who know them, and their friends are seemingly legion.
EDMUND THROCKMORTON.
The well known pioneer of Randolph township, Tippecanoe county, Indiana, whose name heads this sketch, is of English descent and comes from a family whose first settlement in America was in the Old Dominion. Three brothers who bore the name of Throckmorton came to this country in colonial times and located in Gloucester county, Virginia, and it was in that county, about the year 1766, that William Throckmorton, the grandfather of Edmund, was born. He became a lawyer and moved to Frederick county, Virginia, where he lived until his death, which occurred when he was about seventy years of age. In religion he was an Episcopalian. His children were Warner, Henrietta, and a daughter who married a Mr. Thompson.
Warner Throckmorton, the father of Edmund, was born in Jefferson county, Virginia. He received a college education-probably at William and Mary's College-and engaged in the same profession his father had fol-
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lowed, that of the law. He married Catherine Inskeep, in Hampshire county, West Virginia, where she was born, daughter of William and Susan (Forman) Inskeep. William Inskeep was a prominent citizen, a member of the Presbyterian church, a farmer and slaveholder, and owned a large plan- tation comprising nearly five hundred acres. His children were Isaac, For- man, William, Catherine, Sallie, Elizabeth and Rebecca. Mr. Inskeep spent his whole life in Hampshire county, Virginia. His portrait, painted in 1819, an excellent and well preserved likeness, is in the possession of our subject. The portraits of William and Warner Throckmorton were also painted by the same artist. William's portrait was destroyed by fire in the burning of the family residence; Warner's is still preserved in Bedford, Indiana. War- ner Throckmorton settled in Romney, Hampshire county, West Virginia, and there, in addition to engaging actively in the practice of law, was interested in farming and owned a number of slaves. He was a member of the state militia and was always called Colonel. He died at Romney, West Virginia, in 1825, at the age of forty-three years. He was a member of the Episco- palian church. A prominent and influential man, popular with all classes, he could have had, it has been said, any office in the state, including that of governor, had he so desired.
Edmund Throckmorton, the immediate subject of this sketch, was born December 5, 1820, in Hampshire county, West Virginia. He received a common-school education and in early life was a clerk in a store in Romney, Tippecanoe county, Indiana, where he arrived on March 20, 1838. This town was named in honor of the old town of Romney in Virginia. William Throckmorton, a brother of our subject, was here engaged in the mercantile business in company with W. F. Reynolds, and Edmund entered their employ. He had left Romney when a child of five or six years, shortly after his father's death, and, with his mother, went to live with his grandfather, William Inskeep, a farmer near the town, and there he lived until coming to Indiana. He clerked in his brother's store, as above stated, and subse- quently went with him in the same capacity to Lawrence county, Indiana, where he remained about eleven months.
He married in Dayton, Indiana, May 1, 1842, Mary E. Wolf, a native of Frederick county, Virginia, and a daughter of John S. Wolf and wife, née Walton. The Wolfs were an old Virginia family, and the children of John S. Wolf were Mathew, Ann, William, Frances and Mary E. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Throckmorton settled in Romney, Indiana, where he continued with his brother in the mercantile business for about two years. In 1845 he settled on his present farm, or a portion of it, his first tract comprising eighty acres. Also he had forty acres of timber land about two miles from this place. By honest and earnest toil he brought his farm under cultivation and
-
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had good buildings erected thereon, and as the years passed by and his efforts were attended with success he purchased more land, until he had two hun- dred and seventy acres. The children by his first wife were Sally and Ed- ward. Her death having occurred in September, 1850, he subsequently mar- ried Sarah Leaming, a native of Philadelphia and a daughter of Furman Leaming, Sr. In 1857 death again bereaved him of a loving companion. In May, 1858, he wedded Elizabeth Devault, of Lafayette, Indiana, born in Ross county, Ohio, February 17, 1830, daughter of Lemuel and Mary (Mc- Clure) Devault. For some years Lemuel Devault was a merchant of Lafay- ette. Later he settled on a farm in Randolph township, Tippecanoe county, was engaged in agricultural pursuits the rest of his life and died on his farm. His children were Wallace, Elizabeth, Margaret, Mary, James and Edward. By his third wife Mr. Throckmorton became the father of the following chil- dren: Warner T., George K. and Forman W. Warner T. has charge of the home farm. He was born here April 8, 1860; was educated in the pub- lic schools and Purdue University, taking a course in the mechanical depart- ment; and was married February 21, 1887, in this county, to Preda E. Detchorn, who was born in Ohio in 1862, daughter of Newman and Amanda (Agnew) Detchorn. Their children are Hugh, Eleanor, Warner and Her- man M. Edward Throckmorton, the eldest son of Edmund, married Anna Webster, of Romney, Indiana, and is one of the substantial farmers of Ran- dolph township. He and his wife are the parents of two children, Mary and George K.
For the long period of sixty-one years Edmund Throckmorton has re- sided in Tippecanoe county and for fifty-five years he has been on his pres- ent farm. Consequently he is well known here, and, what is more, those who know him best esteem him most highly. He is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church and affiliates with the Republican party, having left the old-line Whigs to enter the Republican ranks; but he has never sought or filled public office, as he has preferred the quiet life of a private citizen.
WILLIAM CROW.
The pioneers of Warren county are rapidly passing off the stage of action, only a few of the early settlers remaining, and one of the most widely known and thoroughly esteemed of these is William Crow, of Liberty township. He is considered an authority on the early history of this section of the state, and has witnessed almost its entire development, coming here, as he did, in 1830, more than two-thirds of a century ago.
The paternal great-grandfather of our subject, one Joel Crow (origi- nally spelled Crowe), a native of England, was the founder of the family in the
yours truly Htmlerea
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United States, long prior to the war of the Revolution, their home being on the James river, in Virginia, for some generations. Benjamin Crow, the father of our subject, was born on Christmas day, 1790, in Frankfort, Ken- tucky. He married Susanna Sullivan, a native of Virginia, and it is related that she, when an infant, was placed in a basket and thus carried by her par- ents in their journey on horseback through the almost trackless forests, when they emigrated to Kentucky. Her ancestors came to this country from Wales, and one of her grandfathers, a man by the name of Buckner, with his son, served under Washington in the Revolutionary war.
Born in Lincoln county, Kentucky, January 12, 1816, William Crow, the third in order of birth of fourteen children, is now the only survivor of this once large and happy family. He was but four years of age when the family removed to Bartholomew county, Indiana, and on February 4, 1830, they arrived in Warren county. The father bought land in what is now Lib- erty township, and cleared and improved a good farm. The wife and mother died in 1845, and subsequently the father returned to Kentucky, the home of his childhood, with the intention of passing the remainder of his life there. When the war of the Rebellion came on, he was so openly pro- nounced in his views on the subject and so strongly opposed to secession, that his son William, fearing that the venerable man's life was jeopardized, went to see him, and finally persuaded him to return to Indiana, and here he con- tinued to dwell until his death, in 1872. His eldest son, John, died in Polk county, Iowa, at the age of seventy-five years; Mary Ann, one of the six daughters, lived to be four-score; James died at fifty-two; Jane died when about thirty, and the others, save our subject, departed this life in early childhood.
As he was a youth of fourteen summers when the family located in Warren county, William Crow remembers the appearance of this region well as it was nearly seventy years ago. Once, while sitting on the porch of his father's cabin, in the spring of 1832, he counted forty-six deer as the herd leisurely passed into the edge of the forest near by. He was not a hunter, and took no pleasure in the idea of depriving of their life and liberty these beautiful denizens of the forest. December 13, 1834, was the date of the marriage of William Crow to Martha Young, whose birth had taken place February 14, 1818. Her parents were Matthew and Sarah Young. Her stepfather, William Warbritton, and her mother were also pioneers of this county, they having come here from Spencer county, Indiana, in 1830. Mrs. Crow was summoned to the home beyond on March 14, 1866. Five of the children of Mr. and Mrs. Crow are living, namely: Walter H .; Clarissa Jane, wife of John Swisher; Benjamin Franklin; Winfield Scott and Horace Greeley. Several of the number are residents of this immediate locality, and 6
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Winfield Scott is a distinguished minister in the Universalist church, of New York city. Three of the sons of Mr. Crow fought for their country in the Union army during the war of the Rebellion,-Walter H., William Harrison and Benjamin F. William H., a member of the Eighty-sixth Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, died at Louisville, Kentucky, while in the service, in June, 1863. The war record of the other sons is to be found elsewhere in this work. Three sons died in infancy, and Mary, Matilda and Abraham Lincoln are likewise deceased.
When they began housekeeping the personal effects of Mr. and Mrs. Crow did not amount to more than one hundred dollars' worth of goods, but by industry and economy they amassed a comfortable fortune and reared their children well. Many years ago Mr. Crow was numbered among the well-to-do farmers of this county, and is still classed as such, as he owns over thirteen hundred acres of valuable and finely improved land, and other property.
In his political faith Mr. Crow was a Republican for many years, but is now independent, exercising his franchise as he deems best under prevailing conditions at the time of elections. He has attained the thirty-second degree in Masonry, holding that exalted rank for a number of years past. Relig- iously, he is a Universalist. For a number of years Mr. Crow has served as one of the commissioners of this county, and as an appraiser of real estate, etc. A pleasant experience in Mr. Crow's life, in late years, was an extend- ed trip through the west, which he made in company with five old friends and neighbors, dubbed the "Pilgrims," by common consent. This memor- able journey was made in the autumn of 1891, and the route was as follows: To Chicago, thence to Saint Paul, and over the Northern Pacific Railroad to the National park, thence to Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, and back on the Southern Pacific Railway. The trip consumed seventy-three days, and fre- quent stops were made at points of interest along the lines of their route. Every one of the little party, all of whom were pioneers of Warren county (with the exception of Isaiah Houpt), thoroughly enjoyed the excursion, and according to agreement they were to continue to meet on the anniversary of the day on which they started out from home for the west, as long as any two of them were living. W. F. Evans and Mr. Houpt have both since passed away, each meeting a violent death, and now those who commemo- rate the pleasant pilgrimage of seven years ago are John Pugh, Rufus Prib- ble, George Crawford and Mr. Crow. The years will not be many ere all shall have started forth on a journey to a " better country," where they hope to meet again in renewed friendship.
As an interesting matter of early American history, it is worthy of record here that the old Indian trail from Detroit, Michigan, to Vincennes, Indiana,
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which was traveled so often by the bloodthirsty savages under Pontiac, the celebrated Indian leader, ran through the present home farm of Mr. Crow, passing about twenty rods west of his residence and along the edge of the beautiful grove for so many years bearing the name of "Crow's grove." It was along this Pontiac trail that General Harrison marched his army in that eventful campaign against the Indians which culminated in the battle of Tip- pecanoe. The oldest child of William Crow's grandfather, John Crow, also named John, was one of the gallant band that accompanied General Har- rison in this momentous enterprise. Traces of this old trail are yet to be seen.
WILLIAM S. VAN NATTA.
The name which heads this sketch has become a household word among the stockmen not only in Indiana, but also in many states of the Union. No doubt he is the most extensive breeder of and dealer in thoroughbred Hereford cattle in the United States. At the present time he has a herd of two hundred and fifty head on his fine farm north of Fowler. The number, however, varies from time to time, and this would be about the average number for a series of years. His elegant Benton county farm comprises eight hundred acres, devoted to stock-raising and general farming. His son Frank resides upon and superintends this farm, in which he has a financial interest. Mr. Van Natta also owns eleven hundred and sixty acres in New- ton county, which are devoted to the same purpose as the Fowler farm, and upon which he, in company with H. C. Harris, is at the present time feed- ing and preparing for market fifteen hundred head of grade steers. This gives some idea of the magnitude of his stock business, in which, with general farming, his life has been mostly spent. He owns a most beautiful modern residence in Fowler, besides other property and mercantile interests.
Mr. Van Natta was born in the western part of Tippecanoe county, Indiana, on the 27th of September, 1830, and his education was limited to the curriculum of the public schools of the pioneer period; yet his studies did not by any means end there, for he has been a close student of the secular press, and is exceptionally well informed upon the current topics of the day. He is a gentleman of pleasant and agreeable manner, hospitable and gener- ous-which virtues are also shared by his estimable wife:
Mr. Van Natta is a son of John S. and Sarah A. (Haigh) Van Natta. His father was born near Trenton, New Jersey, in 1801, and in childhood was taken by his parents to Kentucky, where he was reared to manhood. He returned to Ohio and married Miss Sarah Haigh, a native of England. The record of this is lost, but the marriage was solemnized probably about 1820.
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The mother of John S. was a widow with a family of five children when his father married her. In 1829 they removed to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, where they passed the remainder of their lives. She was born in 1792 and died in 1846, at the age of fifty-four years. Her husband survived till 1869.
Of the children of Mr. John S. Van Natta we give the following brief record: Aaron, the eldest, died at the age of sixty-eight years, at Mont- morenci, Tippecanoe county; Elizabeth died at the age of eleven years; Rachel in 1863, at the historic "Battle Ground " of Tippecanoe; Job H., William S. and Maria J. are living. Job H. served through the civil war as an officer in the Tenth Indiana Infantry, enlisting as first lieutenant, and was mustered out as major of his regiment. He is now a banker at Otter- bein, in this county, and also an extensive landholder and farmer, his home being at Lafayette. Maria J. is the wife of John Fisher, a prosperous farmer at Battle Ground.
The subject of our sketch was married November 10, 1858, to Miss Harriet Sheetz, a native of Tippecanoe county and a daughter of Frederick and Eliza (Taylor) Sheetz, Virginians by birth, who removed from their na- tive state (where they were married) to Tippecanoe county in 1831, and there spent the remainder of their lives. The father was a miller by trade, but his latter years were spent in agricultural pursuits. The Sheetz family, in its genealogy, is traceable to German origin, though being long established on American soil. One member of the family was a soldier in the war of 1812; and tradition says that the founders of the family were identified with the Revolutionary war.
Mrs. Van Natta's family consisted of eight brothers and one sister, eight of whom are living: Edward, Harriet, Alfred, Charles, William, Mary V., Robert and Fred. Edward is a farmer in South Dakota; Warren was the captain of Company D, Tenth Indiana Infantry, and served through the civil war, and now resides in Fowler; Margaret, now Mrs. Kelso, is a widow re- siding near Indianapolis; Alfred sacrificed his young life in the army, a mem- ber of Company D, Tenth Indiana; Charles is a farmer of Tippecanoe county; William lives on a farm near Crawfordsville, this state; Mary Virginia is the wife of Dr. Beasley, of Lafayette; Robert is a machinist at Muncie; and Fred is a freight agent at Indianapolis.
Mr. and Mrs. Van Natta are the parents of five children, the eldest of whom has previously been mentioned; Miss Harriet is still at her parental home; Alice married Eldon Jones, a druggist in Fowler; Margaret is the wife of Charles Snyder, an attorney in Fowler; and William S., Jr., assists his father in his business, residing at his parental home. All the children have enjoyed excellent educational advantages, and two of the daughters, Harriet and Margaret-are graduates of Purdue University.
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Mr. Van Natta has all his life been an uncompromising Republican, but has never entered politics as an office-seeker and has never desired that notoriety. He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity for many years, being a Master Mason. Mrs. Van Natta is a member of the Presby- terian church, at the services of which Mr. Van Natta is also a regular attendant and to which religious body he is a regular contributor.
The Van Natta and Sheetz families are two of the best known, most prominent and successful families in northwestern Indiana. Their history as early pioneers is identical, they having established themselves on the frontier about the same time and in the same locality. For seventy years they have been closely identified with this section of the state, and have witnessed the development of the country from wild and uninhabited prairie and woodland into productive farms, dotted everywhere with comfortable homes, some of which are even elegant, and the locality is thickly settled with intelligent and prosperous people.
There is no time quite so green in memory as the "good old times." Viewed in retrospection, what mammoth strides civilization has taken in the last seventy years! The pioneer's cabin, the log school-house, the trackless prairie, the virgin forests, the wild Indians, have all given place to the white man as a civilizer. Since that remote period the lightning has been harnessed until by its aid the voice of a friend is recognized a thousand miles away! The continent has been spanned with bands of steel and the prod- ucts of the nation are transferred from ocean to ocean in the bare space of one week; and the people on the Pacific coast are to-day nearer to us than were the loved ones " back east " in those days. The ox team and lumber cart have been succeeded by the " thoroughbred trotter," and fine carriage which was only " looked at " but never possessed by the common people in the pioneer days. Modern machinery takes the place of " harvest hands," and the old " turkey-wing " cradle is not known except as a curiosity!
But we could not enumerate all the changes wrought by civilization in this section during the last seventy years; and the families of Mr. and Mrs. Van Natta have witnessed all this, and they themselves have witnessed the most of it. What the succeeding seventy years have in store for the genera- tions immediately to come no prophet can foretell.
JOHN W. BROWN.
John W. Brown, deceased, one of the early settlers and much respected citizens of Pine township, Warren county, Indiana, was born in Ross county, Ohio, January 28, 1812, a son of Benjamin and Julia (Westfall) Brown, and was reared in his native county. He married Miss Margaret Peppers, who
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was born in the state of Maryland, June 13, 1813, and they continued their residence in Ohio until October, 1838, when they came to Indiana and selected Warren county as a place of settlement. During that winter they stopped at the home of Jacob Harmon, a well known pioneer, and in March they took up their abode where Mrs. Brown now resides with her son and daughter in Pine township. Their farm was then all heavily timbered and their neighbors were few and far apart. Here Mr. Brown diligently set about the work of clearing and improving, in time accomplished his purpose and enjoyed the fruits of his labors, and on this farm passed the rest of his life. He died at his home May 20, 1880. He was a most exemplary man, quiet and unassuming, true to his friends and to every trust that was ever placed in him. In his political views he was a Democrat, and at one time filled the office of township trustee.
Mr. and Mrs. Brown became the parents of eleven children, seven of whom are still living, namely: John P., of Liberty township, Warren county, Indiana; Mrs. Mary Grames, Pine township; William, Liberty town- ship; Jacob, a merchant of Rainsville, Indiana; Debby, at home; James F., of Boswell, Benton county, Indiana; and Benjamin, at the homestead. Those deceased were Martha J .; Mrs. Julia A. Grames; the eldest, an infant, died before the family left Ohio; and the youngest, Margaret A., died at the age of eighteen months.
Thus have we briefly sketched the history of one of Warren county's early families. Mrs. Brown, eighty-six years of age on June 19, 1899, is passing the evening of life at the old home where she has lived for nearly sixty years, and is kindly cared for by her daughter Debby and her son Benjamin.
ELIHU PETERS.
One of the venerable citizens of Lauramie township, Mr. Elihu Peters, is of substantial and sturdy German stock. His grandfather, a farmer of Ross county, Ohio, near the line of Pike county, was a well known tavern- keeper on the Portsmouth and Chillicothe road for many years. He was financially in comfortable circumstances, and besides, it is said that a large estate in the Fatherland was to come to him at some future date. His chil- dren were Thomas, John, Betsy and Langham. He lived to be very advanced in life, dying on his farm in Ross county.
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