USA > Indiana > Newton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 60
USA > Indiana > Benton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 60
USA > Indiana > Pulaski County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 60
USA > Indiana > Warren County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 60
USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 60
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 60
USA > Indiana > White County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume I > Part 60
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
530
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
memories. The eleven children of the family just mentioned were: Susan, deceased; Isaac, also deceased; William, who lives in Cameron, Missouri, and is a merchant; Sarah Jane, deceased; Abram, a resident of Hamburg, Iowa, a hardware merchant; Mary, wife of Isaac W. Coon, residing at New- town, Fountain county, Indiana; Lee, our subject, is the next in order of birth; Walter, who is a farmer in Fountain county, this state; Susan, who first married Thomas Freeman, had by that union a number of children, and afterward married William Bartlett, and finally died near Rainesville, this state; Isaac died in Fountain county from the effects of disease which he contracted in service in the army during the civil war, leaving a wife and child, who are now living in Iowa; and Abram, who also was a soldier in the civil war; both the last two enlisted from Benton county, Indiana.
Mr. Lee Dinwiddie was born in Pine township, Warren county, Indiana, on the 4th of November, 1854, and passed his early life amid the surround- ings and conditions of agricultural pursuits, while he spent the winter seasons at the district school and the summer seasons at work upon the parental farm. In this manner he gained a fair common-school education, which was supplemented by a course in the Northern Indiana Normal School, at Val- paraiso, while his farm life developed not only good muscle but also good nerve and brain. As Joubert, a French writer, says, "Agriculture engenders good sense, and good sense of an excellent kind."
He began the study of law in 1876, in the office of Straight & Wiley, then a prominent law firm in Fowler. Three years later he purchased a set of abstract books and entered upon the business already established by Phares & Redding, and from that day to the present, abstracting and con- veyancing have been prominent features in his legal work. As a lawyer he has been measurably successful and is recognized as one of the able attorneys of the Benton county bar.
He was one of the organizers of, and a prominent stockholder in, the Bank of Benton County, of which he has been cashier since its organization, May 12, 1892. The directors are William B. Fowler, president; James M. Fowler, of Lafayette; James A. McKnight, of Fowler, and James P. Smith, also of Fowler; LeRoy Templeton, Lee Dinwiddie, William B. Fowler, and Harry J. Caldwell,-the two last named being residents of Earl Park. This is one of the solid financial concerns of the town of Fowler. It transacts a general banking business, buys and sells exchange, lends money, etc.
January 12, 1881, Mr. Dinwiddie was united in matrimony with Miss Amy Hinkley, a native of Monmouth county, New Jersey, born March 12, 1855. A son and a daughter born of this union are Willard, aged fifteen, and Mary, aged three years. The son is a student in the Fowler high school.
531
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
Mr. Dinwiddie is prominently identified with the Masonic fraternity, being a member of Benton Lodge, No. 521, of which he is a past master, having served four years in that capacity. He also belongs to Lafayette Chapter, No. 3, R. A. M., and Lafayette Commandery, No. 3, K. T. He and his wife are members of the Order of the Eastern Star, of which Mr. Dinwiddie is the worthy patron. His political affiliations have been with the Democratic party.
The Dinwiddie family is traceable to Scotland. It was established in Maryland prior to the Revolution. Two brothers entered the patriot army and one of them was killed in the battle of Brandywine and the other, John, was the founder of the Dinwiddie family in America, locating in eastern Maryland. His son John was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch.
The Buckles family were very early settlers in Warren county, Indiana, and located the "Buckles homestead " in 1830, the father of our subject accompanying them.
JAMES S. VAN VOORST.
This gentleman, who is a successful stock-raiser of West Point town- ship, White county, was born in Crawford county, Ohio, September 7, 1836, and is a son of Salvynes and Elizabeth (Kerr) Van Voorst. His father was born in Ohio, where he lived until 1846, then coming to Indiana and locat- ing in West Point township, seven miles southeast of Wolcott. There he bought three hundred acres of land and engaged largely in stock-raising, hav- ing as many as five hundred head at a time. He served for one year in the civil war as wagonmaster and died in 1875, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife was born in Knox county, Ohio, in 1816, and died in the same county April 25, 1898. She was married in Crawford county, Onio, and was the mother of four children-James, John, Abraham and Elizabeth, all of whom are dead but James. Our subject's paternal grandfather was John Van Voorst, a native of Pennsylvania and of Irish ancestry. The maternal grandfather was James Kerr, who was born on the ocean, of Scotch ancestry.
James Van Voorst was seven years old when his parents removed to Knox county, Ohio, where he remained until 1864, and then came to West Point township, White county, arriving August 10 of that year. He there built and lived in a log house still standing just east of the West Point church. On February 28, 1865, the family removed to their present handsome resi- dence, where they hospitably entertain their many friends and acquaintances. To this property of one hundred and twenty acres, which our subject's grand- father presented to him in 1869, he has added three hundred and sixty acres,
53
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
and of this he has given eighty acres to each of two sons, forty acres to another son, and has sold forty acres. All of this land is located in West Point township, and the home place is situated seven miles northwest of Chalmers.
Mr. Van Voorst carries on general farming and is also largely engaged in stock-raising, which business he has carried on since 1865. He feeds from one to three car-loads of cattle every winter and about one hundred hogs. In 1865 he brought five hundred and forty-five head of sheep from Knox county, Ohio, and lost nearly every one after his arrival at home. He has practically made all of his money by stock-raising and has been quite successful with mixed cattle.
Our subject was married February 4, 1868, in Knox county, Ohio, to Mary Edith Debolt, a daughter of Reuben and Sarah French) Debolt, natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, respectively. Mrs. Van Voorst was born near Utica, Licking county, Ohio, May 22, 1837. Her grandfather, French, died in Pennsylvania, at the age of ninety-nine years, and it may be said in connection that none of our subject's ancestors have died under seventy-five years except his father.
Thirteen children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Van Voorst, eight of whom are now alive: Catherine is the wife of Joseph Kraft, and they live on a farm adjoining that of her father; Clara, before her marriage was a school- teacher, and is now the wife of B. C. Jackson, living near Lafayette; William lives on a farm west of his father's place; Charles is cashier of the Farmers' Bank at Chalmers; John is on a farm adjoining his father's place on the south; Oliver is deceased, as are also Edgar and Edward, twins; Frank lives on an adjoining farm of eighty acres; Mary is the wife of Noah Davis and also lives on an adjoining farm; Ole is deceased; and Laura is living with her parents. The children have been educated in the Monticello public-schools and are all worthy citizens. Mr. Van Voorst is a member of the West Point Baptist church and in politics is a Democrat.
FRANK DU TEIL.
The city treasurer of Lafayette, Frank Du Teil, was born in Haverhill, Ohio, October 2, 1845, the son of John and Jane (Boynton) Du Teil, the father a native of Ohio and the mother of New Hampshire. There were nine children in the parental family, three of whom are now living: Made- line, widow of William K. Rochester, of Lafayette; Lizzie and Frank. The father was a captain for many years on Ohio and Mississippi boats, and made his home most of the time at Haverhill or Cincinnati. He came to Lafay- ette in 1848 and bought a farm in Perry township, on which he resided until
533
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
his death, September 29, 1864, at the age of sixty-two years. His wife sur- vived him until November 21, 1890, when she passed away at the age of eighty-six years. They were members of the Universalist church and were estimable people.
The paternal grandfather, Francis Du Teil, was born in Paris, France, and after coming to America settled in Ohio, dying in Gallipolis, aged eighty- four years. He was a farmer by occupation and had a large family. The maternal grandfather was Asa Boynton, a native of Massachusetts and of English descent. The family in this country dated back to three brothers who came to America in the seventeenth century. Mr. Boynton settled in Scioto county, Ohio, in 1810, where he purchased four thousand acres of land, reared a family of thirteen children, and died at an advanced age.
Frank Du Teil was a child of three years when his parents settled in Lafayette, and here he has resided ever since. He attended the public schools and gained a practical education, which he put to good use. He began railroading and has followed that business until his election to his present office, to which he was elected in May, 1898. He was employed in the freight, ticket and machinery departments of the Wabash Railway Com- pany for eighteen years, but for the past three years has been with the Mo- non company. In every position he has filled he has won the esteem of his employers by the faithful discharge of his duties, and has made many friends among his fellow workers by his genial manners and kindly offices.
Mr. Du Teil was married September 12, 1882, to Miss Iola Damuth, daughter of George and Maria (Edwards) Damuth. One son, Claude, was born to them, and Mrs. Du Teil passed away October 15, 1890. She was a member of the Congregational church. The father belongs to the Odd Fel- lows fraternity and the Royal Arcanum. Politically, he is a leading Repub- lican and is highly esteemed by members of all parties. He entered upon the duties of his present office September 5, 1898, and his friends are assured he will fill the position with credit to himself and to the satisfaction of all concerned.
WILLIAM M. JONES.
The subject of this sketch is a native of Tippecanoe county, Indiana, born near Lafayette, January 18, 1839, a son of Lewis B. and Sarah (Baugh) Jones. His father was a native of Ross county, Ohio, and his mother of Pickaway county, in the same state; they were married at the parental home of the wife and came to Tippecanoe county in 1834. The father, a farmer, died in 1842, when William M. was but four years old. In the family were two sons and one daughter. Mary, the eldest, was born in 1837, and be- came the wife of James Sheetz, a farmer and stock-dealer near Lafayette;
534
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
William M. was the next in order of birth; and Lewis D. was born in 1842 and died in his native county, a farmer, leaving a wife and one child.
The ancestors of our subject were New England people, but little is known of their history. Young William was educated in the district schools of his native county until 1855, when he came to Benton county and was employed on a farm; attended the Farmers' Institute near Lafayette one year; was elected county auditor of Benton county when barely twenty-one years old, and served eight years in that responsible office; and he also served one year as deputy auditor following his retirement from the headship of the office. In 1870 he was elected county surveyor, but owing to his wife's ill health he resigned the office before the end of his term and spent a few months in travel and visiting. In 1883-5 he was deputy sheriff two years.
In October, 1872, he moved to Fowler, where he has ever since been a resident. His first year here was spent in the hotel business, as proprietor of the Summit House; he bought and shipped stock for five years; made contracts and built gravel roads in Benton and Tippecanoe counties for four years, and was superintendent of construction of roads in Benton county for two years. Since 1885 he has been retired from active business, excepting that he has continued to superintend his farm and other property interests. He also holds the office of justice of the peace in Fowler, a position whose duties pertain somewhat to those of mayors in incorporated towns.
May 6, 1861, Mr. Jones enlisted as a member of Company D, Fifteenth Indiana Infantry, for the term of one year, and was discharged in August, 1862. He has been a lifelong Republican, influential in the councils of his party. As a representative pioneer of Tippecanoe and Benton counties he has witnessed the wonderful growth and development of the country from trackless prairies and virgin forests into fertile farms, dotted everywhere with pretty homes and happy, intelligent people.
· Mr. Jones began life's duties without other aid than his own indomitable energy and determination to win. His possessions are wholly the result of personal effort on his own part and that of his estimable wife. As a result of their united efforts they have become well-to-do. A fine farm of one hundred and seventeen acres near Fowler, a nice, comfortable home and several pieces of improved real estate in the town represent a part of the proceeds arising from a lifetime spent in various interests.
Mr. Jones has been prominently identified with the order of Odd Fel- lows for thirty-three years; has also taken the encampment degrees and held all the offices in two branches of the order. Like all veterans of the civil war, he has taken an active interest in the Grand Army of the Republic from its organization and has held various elective and appointive offices in the local post.
535
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
In matrimony Mr. Jones was united with Miss Martha Wilkinson, Febru- ary 18, 1864. Her parents, Hiram and Barbara Wilkinson, were early set- tlers of the vicinity of Boswell in this county. Her father died in 1852, and her mother moved to Oxford, where she lived for forty years, dying in 1892, at a ripe old age. Mr. and Mrs. Jones became the parents of nine children, namely: Ella M., who died in June, 1894; Hannah, who became the wife of Clifford Hampton and resides upon a farm six miles west of Fowler; Bert H. is an electrician; Frederick H. is seeking his fortune in the gold fields of Alaska; Everett died at the age of two years; Sarah is a graduate of the Fow- ler high school, and is at home enjoying the results of a high training in the various branches of learning; Mary is a student in school, and is also pursu- ing a course in music; and Will E. may be dignified by giving the date of his birth, since he is almost a prodigy and an important factor in the Jones house- hold. The youngest of the family, he was born March 2, 1887, and is a bright and remarkably intelligent little boy. He possesses a retentive mem- ory and is a great reader. As a "historian" he eclipses all, and his decis- ions on historial facts and current events are seldom wrong. He is his father's companion and "right-hand man."
In religion Mr. Jones is not connected with any church organization, but Mrs. Jones is a member of the Christian church.
JOHN B. HEMPHILL.
John Bible Hemphill resides on the old homestead that was purchased and cleared by his father some time near the middle of the present century. It is located in White county, Indiana, and in the vicinity of Wolcott. Here Mr. Hemphill has lived for more than half a century, enduring the privations and wants which the early settlers alone have felt and can understand, and helping to lay the foundations of those sterling principles which have made White county what it is to-day. He was born in Fountain county, this state, June 3, 1830, his parents being Andrew and Mary Ann (Bible) Hemphill, and his grandparents, Edward and Susan Hemphill. The grandparents came from Ohio, and settled in that state at an early day. From there they moved to Tennessee, where the father of our subject was born. When he was four years old his parents moved to Ohio, where he remained until 1828, when he was married and moved to Fountain county, Indiana. He owned forty acres of ground, which he cultivated, and also ran a gristmill in con- junction with his agricultural operations. This mill was afterward converted into a woolen mill and the entire property exchanged for two hundred and forty acres in White county, in 1847. He chose for his helpmate Miss Mary Ann Bible, who was born in Adams county, Ohio, in 1809, and was there
536
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
married. She is a daughter of Louis and Mary Ann Bible, natives of Ger- many, and is now in her ninetieth year, making her home with John, the subject of this biography. The father died in 1866. Eleven children were born to them, John B. being the eldest of the family. Louis, James, Thomas, Sarah Ellen and William are dead; Edward owns and farms one hundred and twenty acres near Wolcott; George is a blacksmith of Remington, In- diana; Mary Ann is the wife of Ambrose Moore, of Indianapolis; and the two younger children died in infancy.
John Hemphill attended the district school and supplemented this with a course of study at Attica. When he was seventeen his father came to White county and purchased land, adding to the original until he owned five hundred and eighty acres. Five years later he began to do for himself, farm- ing a portion of this land. He now owns and cultivates one hundred and thirty-five acres of the original farm, which has become valuable property.
When he was twenty-three years old he led to the altar Miss Sarah Dob- bins, a daughter of John Dobbins, of Virginia. She died in 1863, at the age of twenty-five years. Of the three children born to them, Perry and Mary Catherine are dead, and Alice is the wife of Alonzo James, of Winamac, this state. Mr. Hemphill chose for his second wife Miss Mary Pugh, who was born in Virginia in 1846, and is a daughter of Henry Pugh, of that state, and later of Indiana. Four offspring resulted from this marriage : Edward is located at Logansport in the employ of the Pan Handle Railroad; William is deceased; George is also an employe of the Pan Handle at Logansport; and Otto lives at home. Mr. Hemphill has been a member of the blue lodge of Masons since 1863. He is a zealous worker in the Christian church, of which he is a member, and he is a stanch exponent of the Republican faith.
ALBERT PLUMMER.
Faithfully discharging the duties of trustee of West Point township, Benton county, is Albert Plummer, a representative agriculturist of the com- munity, who is numbered among Indiana's native sons. He was born in Cass county, on the 3d of January, 1847, his parents being John and Mary (Rader) Plummer. His father was born near Connersville, Fayette county, Indiana, and there resided until fourteen years of age, when he removed to Logansport with his parents. The grandfather of our subject then pur- chased one hundred and sixty acres of land, but the family remained in Logansport until 1848, when they removed to Miami county, this state. In 1852 they came to White county, Indiana. The father of our subject was the eighth voter in West Point township, and as one of the pioneer settlers took an active part in the early development of the locality. Here he
537
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, constituting the southeast quarter of section 8, and devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits. In his political affiliations he was a Whig until the dissolution of the party, when he joined the ranks of the new Republican party, and on that ticket was twice elected township trustee. In 1864 he built the frame school-house on section 6, West Point township, where now stands the fine brick school- house so recently completed by our subject. At all times John Plummer was a public-spirited and progressive citizen and did all in his power to promote the best interests of the community. He wedded Mary Rader, who was born six miles east of Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1830. With her brother she · removed to Cass county, Indiana, about 1836, and there was married. She died in White county, in 1886.
In the family of John and Mary (Rader) Plummer were seven children, namely: Albert, of this review; Stephen, a resident farmer of Cass county, Indiana; John, now deceased; Noble, who is living on the old family home- stead; Mary, who also has passed away; Nancy, twin sister of Mary, and now the wife of Joseph Moorhouse, of Tippecanoe county; Ella, wife of Frank Price, a farmer residing near Monticello, Indiana.
When a little lad of six summers Albert Plummer was brought by his parents to White county and amid the wild scenes of the frontier was reared to manhood. He acquired his early education in a log school-house, where the windows were made by removing a log. He also pursued his studies in Battle Ground for three winters, and this, with reading, experience and observation has made him a well informed man. He continued to assist his father cultivating the home farm until twenty-three years of age, when he began farming on his own account in Princeton township, White county, rent- ing iand on section 34 for two years. On the expiration of that period he returned to West Point township, where he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of wild prairie land on section 9. Not a furrow had been turned or an improvement made, but with characteristic energy he plowed and planted it and in due course of time gathered abundant harvests. He now has the greater part of the tract under a high state of cultivation and has made many improvements on the place, in the way of substantial buildings, good fences, etc. In 1886 he erected a tile factory on his property and conducted it with success for six years, burning about seventy-five kilns, or thirty thousand rods of tile, per annum. He withdrew from that industry in 1892 and has since devoted his attention solely to his agricultural interests.
On the 20th of February, 1870, Mr. Plummer was united in marriage to Miss Malinda Cotton, daughter of William R. Cotton, a native of Monon- galia county, West Virginia, whence he removed to Illinois in 1866. Three years later he took up his residence in White county, Indiana. Mrs. Plum-
538
BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY.
mer also was born in West Virginia, February 28, 1848, and there were born to this union three children: Leeota, December 29, 1871; Everett R., who died May 15, 1897, when about twenty-two years of age; and Letta, his twin sister, who is now teaching school.
The family attended the Methodist church. In his political views Mr. Plummer is a stanch Republican, and has held a number of local offices, including that of township trustee, to which he was elected in 1894, being the incumbent since that time. He is a warm friend of the cause of educa- tion and recently erected a substantial brick school building, containing two rooms. This was probably the first graded district school in this part of the state. Mr. Plummer withholds his support from no movement or measure which he believes will prove of public benefit, is progressive in his business methods, is genial in manner and is a favorite of many friends.
8365
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.