USA > Indiana > Warren County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 28
USA > Indiana > Jasper County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 28
USA > Indiana > White County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 28
USA > Indiana > Newton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 28
USA > Indiana > Pulaski County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 28
USA > Indiana > Benton County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 28
USA > Indiana > Tippecanoe County > Biographical history of Tippecanoe, White, Jasper, Newton, Benton, Warren and Pulaski counties, Indiana, Volume II > Part 28
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living,-Robert J., Martha E., Mary E. and Reuben. Those deceased are Hannah P., Minerva A., Ruth A., Myrtle T. and John E. This worthy couple are members of the Free Baptist church, and reside in their pleasant home in Rensselaer surrounded by lifelong friends and neighbors.
FERNANDEZ E. PEARCE.
A well known citizen and a representative of one of the pioneer families of Benton county, is Fernandez E. Pearce. His family is of English origin, dating back to colonial days in the history of the United States. John Pearce, paternal grandfather of our subject, was born in that part of the Old Dominion now known as West Virginia, and he, in turn, was a son of Thomas Pearce, who was born, reared and died in the city of New York. His father, John Pearce, Sr., was a native of London, England, and came to the city of New York in a sailing-vessel which was owned by his brother. The records of the family have been carefully preserved and have been handed down from one generation to another, the oldest son receiving the old papers according to the request of the founder of the family in the new world. As F. E. Pearce is an only son the precious documents came into his possession. John Pearce, the Englishman, married a lady from one of the representative old Holland-Dutch families of New Amsterdam, later called New York city.
Joseph B. Pearce, father of our subject, was born in Urbana, Champaign county, Ohio, in the opening year of the present century, and in 1816 came to Indiana and for nearly a year lived on the land whereon Indianapolis is now situated. Then, going to Fountain county, he spent one year there, his home being at a point about five miles east of the present town of Attica. There he married Louisa Martin, and soon afterward removed to Grant town- ship, Benton county. In 1859 they settled in Wea Plains in Wayne town- ship, Tippecanoe county, and there the wife and mother was called to her reward, March 13, 1874. Soon after this sad event the father returned to his old home in Grant township, Benton county, where he passed to the home beyond on February 1, 1886. His two daughters, Mrs. Lucinda Bromley and Mrs. Hattie Taylor, wife of Hiram Taylor, are deceased.
Thus it is seen that Fernandez E. Pearce is the only surviving member of his father's household. He was born at the Grant township homestead, May 14, 1858, and in his boyhood attended the public schools. Later it was his privilege to be a student in a school in Greencastle, Indiana, and to fit himself for business life in Bryant & Stratton's Business College, in Indian- apolis. Then putting his newly acquired knowledge of banking and business into practice he took a position as a teller in a bank at Lafayette and retained that office for about a year. His chief occupation in life has been, however,
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the one which his father followed, agriculture, and in this direction he has made a success. He owns a beautiful homestead on section 27, Grant town- ship, and is here engaged in the raising of a general line of crops commonly grown in this region, and keeps a good grade of live stock. He also deals in agricultural implements. In politics he is an ardent Republican, and every- thing which pertains to the welfare of this community is of special interest to him.
On New Year's day, 1879, Mr. Pearce abandoned a life of single bless- edness and was united in marriage with Miss Margaret E. Keys, daughter of James H. and Letitia (Stone) Keys. Two sons and a little daughter were born to Mr. and Mrs. Pearce, namely: Charles B., Jennie Louisa and Clay Keys.
JONATHAN ASA COFFELT.
One of the life-long residents of Warren county is Jonathan Asa Coffelt, who for a number of years has been a well-to-do and progressive agricult- urist of Prairie township. He is of German lineage on the paternal side, as his grandfather Coffelt was a native of Germany, but made a settlement in the United States about a century ago. The father of our subject, Joseph Coffelt, was born in 1809, and passed his early years in Virginia and Ohio, later coming to Warren county, Indiana, and taking up his abode in Adams township, where he spent the rest of his days, dying when sixty-seven years of age. When a young man he married Mahala Huffman, whose death oc- curred many years previous to his own, about 1855. They were pioneers of Adams township, and were actively interested in the upbuilding and develop- ment of this county and state.
Born on the old homestead in Adams township, Warren county, Decem- ber 23, 1850, the boyhood of our subject was spent after the usual manner of farmer lads, and before he was half way through his 'teens he was thor- oughly competent to manage a farm. He was deprived of his mother's care and counsels when he was but five years old, but his father took the place of both parents toward the motherless boy, and reared him to the best of his judgment.
When twenty-four years of age Mr. Coffelt was united in marriage with Miss Anna Keys, daughter of James H. and Letitia (Stone) Keys, pioneers of this county (see their sketch elsewhere in this work). The ceremony which united the fortunes of Mr. and Mrs. Coffelt was solemnized July 30, 1874. They have but one child living, namely: Joseph Harvey, whose birth occurred September 4, 1890. Their first-born, Theo Randolph, died at the age of eight years. Mrs. Coffelt is a native of Pine township, Warren
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county, and when she was a child her mother died, but her father passed away only recently. (See sketch spoken of above.) Mr. and Mrs. Coffelt own about four hundred acres of fine land and have a beautiful home in Prairie township. Mr. Coffelt is a Republican in politics, an Odd Fellow, and a member of the Tribe of Ben Hur.
WALTER V. PORTER.
Walter V. Porter, a descendant of one of the pioneer families of Jasper county, Indiana, where he was born, in Hanging Grove township, April 24, 1858, receiving his education in the district schools and being reared to farm life on the homestead of his father. At the time of the latter's death, which occurred while he was in the army, our subject was eight years old, and he remained at home with his mother, assisting her on the farm, until he was twenty-one years of age. For the following three years he was em- ployed by a stockman, and being an industrious and thrifty young man he saved his earnings and in 1882 was married and settled on a farm in part- nership with Joseph V. Parkison. He remained on this place doing general farming and stock-raising for eight years, when he located on his present farm, going into partnership with A. McCoy and dealing extensively in stock. He sold his farm east of Rensselaer and bought land in Jordan township, which he sold two years later at a good profit, and has since bought a four- hundred-acre farm in Marion township, and also, in conjunction with Mr. McCoy, owns one thousand acres in Union township. He has devoted him- self almost entirely to stock-raising and trading and has made a great success of the business.
On March 23, 1882, Mr. Porter was married to Miss Ella Parkison, daughter of the well known pioneers, Joseph and Fannie (Kenton) Parkison, and granddaughter of the famous Indian fighter, Simon Kenton. A full his- tory of the Parkison family will be found on another page of this volume. To Mr. and Mrs. Porter six children have been born: J. V. Rice, February 8, 1884; Fannie, May 29, 1886; Ross, March 16, 1889; Ella Dole, July 14, 1891, who died July 27, 1891; Charles, March 31, 1893; and Walter, Jr., March 11, 1899. Mrs. Porter is a consistent member of the Methodist church. Mr. Porter is a member of the Masonic fraternity and of the uni- formed rank of the Knights of Pythias. He is a stanch Republican in his political belief but has never aspired to office.
The parents of our subject were Rice and Mary (Clark) Porter, the former a son of Asa Porter, who was among the first settlers of Jasper coun- ty, where he entered land and spent the remainder of his life in farming. He was an old-line Whig and later became a Republican. He and his wife were
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members of the Missionary Baptist church. Their children were eleven in number, namely : William, Jonah, Rice, Asa, Isaac J., Robert B., Sarah, Jennie, Eliza, Mary and Ella. Rice, the father of our subject, came to Jasper county when about twenty years of age and there married and spent the re- mainder of his life. He enlisted as a soldier and died at Nashville, Tennes- see, while in the service, as did his two sons, Jonah and Asa, who were killed in battle. Of his family, his wife and three children are still living, the mother now residing in Kansas, where two of her family also live. The sur- viving children are Jessie F., wife of F. Hammon, a farmer in Kansas; Walter V., the subject of this sketch; and William, a farmer and grain dealer in Kansas. Both parents were members of the Baptist church.
WILLIAM HINCHMAN.
This prosperous carpenter and farmer of Princeton township, White county, was born near Logan, West Virginia, August 1, 1830, his parents being William and Elizabeth (Symns) Hinchman. The father was born in old Virginia December 25, 1800, and moved to West Virginia when eighteen years old. Here he became the owner of two hundred acres of land and carried on general farming, but, contrary to the general custom of those days, he had no slaves, as he was vigorously opposed to the practice of slavery. During the civil war his sympathy was all with the Abolitionists, and this fact led to his arrest and imprisonment by the Confederates. He died in the rebel camp at Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1863. His wife was born in Monroe county, West Virginia, in 1802, her death occurring in the same state in 1831. The paternal grandfather was William Hinchman, a native of England, and the maternal family name was Symns, the progeni- tors originating in Ireland.
William Hinchman, whose name initiates this review, was reared to manhood in his native state and remained with his parents until 1854, when he came to Princeton township, arriving here on October 13, of the same year, and he has ever since been closely identified with the interests of this locality. For a number of years he worked at the carpenter's trade and then purchased forty acres of land, in 1860, adding to the same until he became the owner of two hundred and seventy acres, of which he still possesses one hundred and seventy acres, besides his residence and four other dwellings in Wolcott, all of which he built himself. The success he is now enjoying is the result of his industry, perseverance and strict attention to business, and his prosperity is well merited. In 1898 he erected another house in Wolcott.
Mr. Hinchman was united in marriage December 18, 1856, in Princeton township, to Miss Rhoda Nordyke, a daughter of Robert and Elizabeth
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(Shaw) Nordyke, both of whom were natives of North Carolina and early settlers of White county. Mr. Nordyke is the father of Captain Nordyke, of Seafield. Mrs. Hinchman was born December 10, 1836, in Tippecanoe county, where she attended the district schools, and came with her parents to White county when ten years old. To Mr. and Mrs. Hinchman were born the following children: John, who lives on a farm two miles northeast of Wolcott; Emma, who married George Ferguson, of Wolcott; James, a barber in Morocco, Indiana; Mary, who became the wife of Henry Waymire and lives on the old homestead two miles east of Wolcott; William conducts a general store at Brook; Anne is the wife of Gust Lux, of Wolcott; and Louis is in the hardware business at Wolcott. Mr. Hinchman has one brother and one sister, the former a farmer living near Eureka, Kansas, and the latter a widow of Jacob Sexton, now residing at Wolcott.
Mrs. Hinchman is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. In his political belief Mr. Hinchman is a stanch Democrat, and served as town- ship trustee in 1860-61.
JOSEPH C. HENKLE.
This well known farmer of Barkley township is the descendant of an honored pioneer family, and has a most enviable record as a brave soldier of the civil war. He was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, January 27, 1838, and was nine years of age when he came to Jasper county with his father, and spent his younger days in attending the common schools and assisting upon the farm. After the death of his father he was the mainstay of his widowed mother, assisting her with the other children and in every way trying to fill the place of the head of the household. In 1861, when the news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon by rebellious citizens flashed over the land, and Abraham Lincoln issued his call for seventy-five thousand volunteers, our subject was one of the first to respond. He enlisted in Company G, Ninth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, in which they participated in many hotly contested battles and assisted in the capture of General Garnett at Carricksford. At the expiration of three months, the time for which he enlisted having expired, our subject returned home; but in August, 1862, he re-enlisted in the Eighty-seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which was mustered in at Indianapolis and assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, of which "Pap" Thomas was in command, and later General Rosecrans. Mr. Henkle saw much hard service during the famous march with Sherman to the sea, and received three slight wounds, the first of which was caused by the fragment of a shell in the battle of Kene- saw mountain that fractured his ankle bone; the second was at Chattanooga,
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from a bullet in his side, both wounds received during a charge on the picket line; the third wound was on the top of the head, received at Kenesaw mountain in a charge; but in neither case would our subject consent to be taken to the hospital, for, though not able for duty, he preferred to remain with his comrades. He took part in the grand review at Washington and returned to Louisville, Kentucky, where he was mustered out and received an honorable discharge, July 29, 1865, from the Forty-second veteran regiment, to which he had been transferred, at Washington, July 28, 1865. In conse- quence of exposure and wounds Mr. Henkle contracted diseases of the eyes and lungs, with which he is still afflicted, and has never since been able to perform any hard labor.
On his return from the army our subject was married, in 1867, to Miss Mary E. Kessler, and two years later came into possession of his share of his father's estate, comprising eighty acres, situated five miles north of Rensselaer. He has made all the improvements on it, and in the meantime has bought and sold other farming lands, and has also at times acted as agent for a Bible house. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Henkle, namely: George K., who resides in Rensselaer; William B., who died December 25, 1895, when twenty years of age; and Ora, who is a well known singer and music teacher in Rensselaer. Both parents are members of the United Brethren church. Mr. Henkle is a staunch Repub- lican, and for ten years was postmaster of Pinkamink post-office.
The parents of Mr. Henkle were Samson and Margaret A. (Henkle) Henkle, who were cousins. The father was a son of Moses Henkle, who was born and spent his life in Virginia. He was a natural mechanic and was skillful at all trades, but his principal occupation was farming. He was a slave-owner, as most men of that state were in those days. His children were as follows: Joel, Silas, Samson, Benjamin, Betsy A. (wife of William McCray), and Mary A. (wife of Thomas Vanmeter). Samson Henkle was born, reared and married in Virginia, whence he emigrated to Cincinnati in 1830, remaining there about three years. He was there engaged with James Gamble in the tallow chandler's business and at the same time ran a stage line to Hamilton, Ohio. The factory, as well as all the coaches and horses, was destroyed by fire, and Mr. Henkle went out of the business. He was succeeded by a Mr. Proctor, the firm now being the well known one of Proc- tor & Gamble. In 1833 Mr. Henkle removed to Lafayette, Indiana, where with a partner he carried on the mercantile business until the spring of 1842, when he went to Jasper county, entered land and made a farm. At that time the country was very primitive, Indians being the principal inhabitants, and game of all kinds and wild beasts being found in abundance. Where Rensselaer now stands there were but two cabins, their occupants being
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George W. Spiller and Samuel Sparley, and the principal and best custom- ers of Mr. Henkle's store were his Indian neighbors. After the red men began to leave the country he gave up merchandising and turned his atten- tion to clearing and improving his land. Soon after coming to Jasper county he secured a license to preach as a local minister in the United Brethren church, and was a faithful exponent of the gospel until his death in 1855. He left a good estate to his family.
Mrs. Henkle survived her husband and spent the remainder of her life among her children, dying at the home of a son in Kansas in 1893, at the ripe old age of ninety-three years. She was a cousin of her husband and a daughter of Daniel Henkle, a prominent farmer and slave-owner of Virginia. Her parents had five children, -Enos, Coke, Fletcher, Margaret (the mother of our subject) and Mahala (Mrs. Sweet). To Samson Henkle and his wife the following children were born: Amelia F., wife of Nathan Parker; Joseph C., the subject of this sketch; John A. and William, farmers in Kansas; and Martha B., wife of James Chamberlin.
Mrs. Joseph C. Henkle was born in Tippecanoe county, Indiana, Jan- nary 14, 1840, a daughter of George and Abigail (Shaw) Kessler, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Wayne county, Indiana. Mr. Kessler removed to Jasper county in 1845, where he bought land, built a cabin, set out an orchard and in the course of time made of it a fine property. He also opened and improved other land and was a successful farmer. In his old age he and his wife made their home with his daughter, Mrs. Henkle, where the father died May 24, 1897, aged eighty-three years, and the mother June 20, 1899, eighty-three years old. They had but one other child besides Mrs. Henkle,-James S., who died while a soldier in the civil war.
SAMUEL GLASGOW.
Samuel Glasgow, a progressive farmer of Jackson township, White county, Indiana, possesses the sturdy, honorable characteristics of his Scotch ancestors. Devoted to his home and family, to his country and his fellow men, he strives to perform his entire duty toward all, and merits the esteem in which he is held by his acquaintances.
Born in Shelby county, Ohio, December 17, 1842, he is a son of Arthur and Eliza (Mccullough) Glasgow, both natives of the Buckeye state and of Scotch extraction. Some of the Glasgows served in the war of the Revolu- tion, and in every war in which this country has since been engaged members of the family have gone to the defense of the stars and stripes and the prin- ciples represented by it. Led by a desire to reap some of the advantages which his former neighbors and friends were having in the far west, Arthur
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Glasgow left his family and started across the continent in 1849, little dream- ing that he was destined never to see them again. For two years after reaching the Pacific slope he mined for gold and was very successful, but at length the longing for home became so strong within his heart that he em- barked on a sailing vessel bound for New York. When nearing the end of his long voyage he was seized with the dread disease, cholera, which proved fatal and he was buried at sea. Great credit is due the brave wife and mother, who kept her children together and managed the old homestead until the elder ones were able to be of material assistance. Both she and her husband were faithful members of the United Presbyterian church. Her long and useful life came to a close August 13, 1870, in the old home she had dwelt in for so many years. Of her nine children only three are now living. In order of birth they were named as follows: Jane, wife of John Ewing; Joseph, of this township; John, who entered the Union army during the war of the Rebellion and died with the measles; James, who was drowned in the canal at Sidney, Ohio, in 1858; Samuel; Mary, Mrs. John Neal; Anna, who died in 1850; and two who died when young.
The boyhood of Samuel Glasgow passed uneventfully upon the old homestead, where he was still living at the time that our civil war was com- menced. In 1864 he enlisted in the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Ohio Volunteer Infantry, in answer to the call for one-hundred-day men. Assigned to the Army of the Potomac, he and his comrades were placed on guard duty, and were required to build forts and other military works. After the surren- der of General Lee's army he was mustered out of the service near Peters- burg, Virginia, and was honorably discharged at Columbus, Ohio.
Resuming agricultural pursuits, Mr. Glasgow helped to carry on the old homestead until 1870, when he came to Indiana, and located upon a tract of eighty acres, -the nucleus of his present farm of two hundred and ninety acres. He has made a great many valuable improvements, has increased the dimen- sions of his homestead, has remodeled and enlarged the barns and buildings, and erected a large two-story frame house. Tiling and proper cultivation have added to the productiveness of the fields, and everything about the place shows that care and systematic labor are constantly maintained. In his political affiliations he is a stalwart Republican.
In 1867 the marriage of Samuel Glasgow and Miss Elizabeth J. Stipp took place in Ohio, in which state her birth had occurred twenty-one years before. They are the parents of three children: Maggie; Wilda, now the wife of J. A. Carson; and James, who aids in the care of the home farm. Mrs. Glasgow is a daughter of Abram and Ann (Commages) Stipp, natives of Virginia, who made the journey to the Buckeye state one winter in a wagon, and thenceforth were residents of Ohio. At first they lived at Sidney, where
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the father engaged in merchandising, and later they dwelt upon a farm. After the death of Mr. Stipp his widow sold the homestead, and during the remaining fifteen years of her life made her home with Mr. and Mrs. Glas- gow. She died November 3, 1896, at the ripe age of eighty-six years, a faithful member of the Presbyterian church. Three of her sons-William, Martin and John-were heroes of the civil war, the last-named being a mem- ber of the Twentieth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. William died while in the service; Samuel, another son, died in Ohio; and Maggie is the wife of William Snodgrass. All the children are now dead except Mrs. Glasgow and her brother John, who lives on the Ohio homestead near Sidney.
LAFAYETTE MULLEN.
For a period extending over forty years Lafayette Mullen has been a resi- dent of Warren county, and is well and favorably known here. Left an orphan at an early age, he was thrown upon his own resources to a large extent in youth, and has been the architect of his own fortune. Self-made and self- educated, he enjoys the respect of all who are acquainted with the brave endeavors he has made to secure a good home and position in the community in which his lot is cast. Honor and uprightness characterize all his dealings with others, and injustice and over-reaching are entirely foreign to his nature.
Lafayette Mullen is a native of Felicity, Clermont county, Ohio, his birth having occurred July 24, 1848. His father, Mathew Mullen, died when the son was but eight years old, and the mother, Eliza Mullen, was sum- moned to her final rest only one year later. When he was ten years old Lafayette Mullen came to this county and has since regarded it as his home, his only continued absence from it being when he was away fighting the battles of his country in the south. He first enlisted in Company H, One Hundred and Sixteenth Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, with which organ- ization he served about six months. His second enlistment was in Company F, Seventy-second Indiana Volunteer Infantry, which was a part of Wilder's brigade; and at the close of a twelve-months service in that regiment he was transferred to Company D, One Hundred and Forty-fourth Regiment of Indiana Infantry, and continued with that branch of the state's troops until the close of hostilities. He participated in the military operations at Selma, Alabama, Macon, Georgia, and other important campaigns in the war, and though he was fortunate in always escaping unwounded, his health became much impaired by his long and hard service, and this has been a permanent reminder of the "past unpleasantness." Since his return Mr. Mullen has devoted his time and attention to farming, and his pleasant and well-kept
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