USA > Indiana > Blackford County > Biographical memoirs of Blackford County, Ind. : to which is appended a comprehensive compendium of national biography embellished with portraits of many well known residents of Blackford County, Indiana > Part 63
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 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89
On November 22, 1860, he was mar- ried to Miss Jenny Kirkpatrick, and soon after he moved on to his eighty-acre farm on which he erected a log cabin, 18x20 feet, which contained one room. The land was wild and unimproved. In the spring he put out five acres of corn, cleared the ground and fenced the same, and through the summer he worked at carpenter work. For the suc- ceeding five sur ners he worked at his trade of carpenter and cleared his land through the winters. In February, 1865, he enlisted as a private in Company G, One Hundred and Fifty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered in at Indianapolis, being sent to Louisville; later he was ordered to
Cadiz, Kentucky, when they were returned to Louisville and did garrison duty until dis- charged in September, 1865.
After his term of service expired he re- turned to his father's farm, where he re- mained one year, his wife having died while he was in the service. He then engaged in contracting and building which he conducted for three years, meeting with flattering suc- cess. In 1870 he moved upon the farm where he now resides, which consists of two hundred and eighty acres, of which two hun- dred and ten are under cultivation, and in connection with his farming he is engaged in stock raising.
By his first marriage Mr. Hart has three children: Melville, who resides in Harri- son township; Orlando, who lives at Albany, Indiana, and is an engineer ; and Cora, wife of George Early, who resides at Port Wil- liams, Ohio. Mr. Hart's second marriage occurred on November 24, 1868, when he was united to Miss Rosa A. Musseter, and by this union have been born four children : Mary A., wife of Manson Williams, who is engaged in farming in Harrison township; Arthur M., a farmer of Harrison township; Rufus P., also a farmer of Harrison town- ship; and Sarah E., the wife of Edward Knox. The last named and her husband re- side with Mr. Hart, as Mrs. William Hart died April 26, 1899. Mr. Hart's farm is in the oil belt and has upon it four wells. In connection with his general farming and raising, Mr. Hart is also engaged in the buy- ing and selling of cattle.
Politically he is an ardent Republican, and while not an office seeker, he believes the principles and policy of his party will best serve the interests of common people.
His religious connections are with the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is
533
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
a consistent member. He is also a member of Montpelier Post, G. A. R., and the K. of P.
JAMES McFEREN WELLS.
James McFeren Wells, the subject of . this sketch, belongs to one of the oldest fami- lies of Blackford county, and has witnessed the many changes in the gradual develop- ment of the country from its primitive con- dition into one of the most highly cultivated and progressive sections of Indian ..
John Wells, a father of James, was a na- tive of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and an early settler of Guernsey county, Ohio, where his parents moved when he was about nineteen years of age. By occupa- tion he was a tanner and for a number of years operated a tan yard near Birmingham, Ohio, where he lived until his removal with a family of six children to Blackford county, Indiana, in the spring of 1839. Mr. Wells made the journey to his new home in a wagon, and in due time found himself the possessor of three hundred and nine acres of land in section 7, Harrison township, which he purchased from the government. On this place he erected a small log cabin, 18x20 feet in size, containing a single room, which served the family as a residence un- til replaced by a more comfortable and com- modious structure a few years later. He was a man of great industry, worked early and late, in season and out, to develop his farm, and in due time was rewarded by a beautifully improved place upon which he spent the remaining years of his life, dying there on the 12th day of March, 1879, at the age of seventy-nine.
Mr. Wells was a man of local promi-
nence in the community, took the lead in laying out roads and otherwise improving the new country, and as a member of the Baptist church did much to promote the cause of morality and religion among the sparse settlements of Blackford and Wells counties, throughout both of which he be- came widely and favorably known. His wife, who was born in 1799 in Pennsylva- nia, departed this life on the home place in Harrison township in the year 1876. The following are the names of the children born to John Wells: James, whose name intro- duces this article; Martha, deceased; Eliza- beth, deceased; Sarah, wife of Albert Daw- son, resides in Michigan; D. Bungan, of Wells county; and Jacob T., deceased, all of whom were born before the family came to Indiana.
James McFeren was born March 9, 1826. He was thirteen years old at the time of his arrival at the new home in the wilds of Har- rison township, and being the oldest of the family, soon became practically acquainted with the toilsome duties incident to life in an undeveloped country. His first educa- tional training was imparted by a teacher who visited the family, there not being a sufficient number of children in the neigh- borhood to organize into a school, but later he obtained a knowledge of the American branches by attending as circumstances would permit a school taught in a small log cabin not far from his home; he also went to school some months in Montpelier and there obtained a fair knowledge of the com- mon branches of study. He assisted his father on the farm until early manhood, and did not leave the parental roof until his twenty-second year, at which time, 1851, he took possession of the place where he now lives, a part of the old homestead. Prior
·
534
THE BIOGRAPIIICAL RECORD.
to the above date, October 31, 1850, Mr. Wells entered into the marriage relation with Miss Catherine Miller, a native of Ger- many, and as soon as a house could be pre- pared the young couple set up a domestic es- tablishment of their own on the farm where he has since lived. To this marriage were born children as follows: Esther, deceased ; George resides at Ft. Scott, Kansas; Letitia, wife of George Gadbury; Mantea E. mar- ried Thomas Swain, who recently left her a ' widow, and the youngest died in infancy before being named. The mother of these children dying, Mr. Wells, on the 26th of May, 1881, married his present wife, for- merly Elizabeth Cusiea, who was born in Belmont county, Ohio.
Mr. Wells' farm consists of ninety- seven acres, all of which has been cleared and otherwise improved by his own efforts. He has never been content to eat the bread of idleness, but from early boyhood has been a hard worker and a firm believer in the dig- nity of honest toil. His industry has brought its own reward, as he is now in com- fortable circumstances with a liberal income which insures him immunity from hard labor the balance of his days.
Mr. Wells belongs to the large and re- spectable class of people who in a quiet, manly way do much for the good of a com- munity, and his life is an open book known and read by his many friends and neighbors who find therein little to criticize and a great deal to commend. Devoted to his vocation, he nevertheless takes a lively interest in all matters of a public character, and as a sup .. porter of the Republican party is an intelli- gent student and close observer of the trend of political opinion. Since his eighteenth year he has been a consistent member of the Baptist church, and his private character as
well as his daily life has been remarkably free from any taint of suspicion. He is one of Harrison township's most substantial citi- zens, and this tribute to his manly character and worth is honorably merited and freely bestowed.
HENRY LINCOLN KEGERREIS.
Henry Lincoln Kegerreis, the eldest son of Jacob C. and Margaret M. Kegerreis, of whom a full biography will be found in a preceding sketch, is one of the most noted of the educators of Jackson township, Black- ford county. He was born in Randolph county, Indiana, October 7, 1860, was reared on a farm and attended district school in the adjoining county of Delaware until seven- teen years old. He came to Blackford county in 1878, and attended the district school during the winter of 1880-1881, and in the summer of 1881 attended the normal school at Muncie.
Mr. Kegerreis did not abandon the in- vigorating and vivifying life of a farmer, however, until twenty-one years of age, but continued to labor on the home place when not at school. In the winter of 1881 he nevertheless seems to have adopted teaching as a vocation, but in the summer of 1882, to further qualify himself, he attended a term of school at Ridgeville, Indiana. Hle then assumed teaching in Blackford county, and, with the exception of one term, has here taught ever since, but in the interval attend- ed three terms-1884-1886-at college at Danville, Indiana.
. Mr. Kegerreis is a gentleman of fine lit- erary taste and ability, and is the author of several poems that have attracted attention, having been published in some of the lead-
-
535
THIE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
ing journals of the country. Among his productions having been an exceptionally meritorious poem on Columbus. He has also made several public addresses that have been commended as eloquent, dignified and logical.
September 4, 1884, Mr. Kegerreis was united in matrimony, in Blackford county, with Miss Susan J. Fulkerson, a native of Delaware county, this state, and a daughter of A. N. and Rebecca (Stewart) Fulkerson. To this union nine children have been born, of whom five still survive, viz: Claude Blaine, who graduated from the common schools of the county at the age of twelve years, being the second youngest to be thus distinguished; the others in order of birth are Rose Imogene, Amos Devoss, Elizabeth Beatrice and Jacob C., Jr.
In politics Mr. Kegerreis is a Republi- can, and fraternally is a member of the Im- proved Order of Red Men, as well as a mem- ber of the Teachers' Association of Black- ford county. Although he has devoted his life to teaching, he engaged in general mer- chandising in Mill Grove from 1890 to 1893, and is the owner of a residence and small business room.
SAMUEL HENRY HUFFMAN.
Samuel Henry Huffman, a leading farmer of Washington township, Blackford county, Indiana, comes from an old and re- spected pioncer family, and was born in Wells county, eight miles northwest of his present home, April 24, 1864, being the eld- est of four sons born to George R. and Elsie A. (Griffith) Huffman. His grandparents, Henry and Katie Huffman, natives of Penn- sylvania, came to Indiana in 1846, when
George was but two years old, and located four miles southeast of Warren, Wells coun- ty, which remained their permanent home, he there rearing a large family. After traveling life's pathway together for nearly half a century he passed away at the age of eighty-six, her own death occurring with- in a week thereafter. In death, as in life, they were not divided.
The parents of Samuel are now living, retired, at Mount Zion, the father having been an invalid for several years. Of their four sons, one other, Jonas G., resides in Blackford county, being engaged in the oil industry at Montpelier. Samuel's boyhood and youth were spent at home, he being at an early age innured to the hardships of a farmer's life and taking the responsibility of the work, under his father's supervision, as soon as he could handle the plow. He received a liberal education, having attended the district schools and later the normal school at Bluffton. At the age of twenty- one he learned the carpenter's trade, devot- ing three years to this industry, and then spent one year on his uncle's farm. He was now married to Miss Jennie Merriman, daughter of John V. Merriman, of Liberty township, Wells county, operating for one season the old home farm, when he pur- chased his present tract. This contained one hundred and four acres, only twenty of which had been cleared. The remainder was low, swampy land, covered with ponds and heavy underbrush and was of little value. Prairie creek, passing through it, afforded an excellent outlet for tile, of which he has laid upward of fifteen hundred rods, which extends in numerous branches, adequately draining the entire farm. What was once but ponds and quagmire has now become one of the most productive and valuable
536
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
farms of the community. His present hand- some dwelling which, in 1892, replaced the log house, their previous residence, and the well-tilled farm of to-day give ample cvi- cience of the thrift which has attended the labor and excellent management of the owner.
In addition to the growing of grain our subject has been for some years emphasiz- ing the breeding of thoroughbred stock, now having herds of short horn cattle, Shrop- · shire sheep and Poland China hogs. These he keeps registered in the standard herd books, and is increasing his facilities of sup- plying first-class animals for breeding pur- poses.
Lying in what ha: proven to be a pro- ductive oil territory, Mr. Huffman's farm was leased for development, the result being that five active wells are in constant opera- tion, the return from them contributing not a little to the easy condition in which the proprietor now finds himself. To Mr. and Mrs. Huffman have been born four chil- dren, namely: Vernon Lloyd, Sylvia E., Clifton McCoy and Herman Lee, constitut- ing a contented and happy family.
A Democrat in politics, he has for many years been active in the support of his par- ty's principles, serving on various party com- mittees and taking an active part in cam- paigns. Notwithstanding this, however, he numbers among his warmest friends many whose political faith is antagonistic to his own. Mr. Huffman received the Demo- cratic nomination for county clerk on August 23, 1900, and the county having a solid Democratic majority, his election is an as- sured fact. Fraternally he is a member of Montpelier Lodge, No. 410, I. O. O. F., also Hartford City Tent, Knights of the Maccabees.
SOLOMON M. BARNES.
One of the most prominent citizens of Blackford county, and one of the honored ex- soldiers of the war of the Rebellion, is Solo- mon M. Barnes, a son of Ozias Barnes, a native of Maryland, who died in January, :874, at the age of sixty-one. When Ozias was eighteen years old his parents removed with their children from Maryland to Fair- field county, Ohio, and when just past nine- teen years of age he was there married to Hannah Bowen, a daughter of Thomas Bowen, of Fairfield county. She was a sister of William and Thomas Bowen, both late of Blackford county. Her parents came to Blackford county about the same time as she and her husband, Ozias Barnes, in March, 1838. It was about one year before this that Ozias Barnes selected the land which, upon his arrival here, in March, 1838, he entered, walking to Fort Wayne to accomplish this act. One of his brothers, named John, about the same time located near Indianapolis. Ozias Barnes had to cut a road a distance of one and a half miles from the Crumley farin to the new farm he had selected, the Crumley family having moved here about one year before. At first he erected a log cabin, 16x18 feet in size, made of round logs and which remained his home for many years, and in which most of his children were born. Later he sup- planted it with a hewed-log house, which re- mained his home as long as he lived. The barn he built about 1868 is still standing. The lumber in this barn was sawed out by his son at Crumley Cross Roads, and the tim- ber constituting the frame of it was cut on his farm, which contained about one hundred and sixty acres of land. To this original farm he added three other tracts of eighty
537
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
acres each, but two of these eighty-acre tracts he gave to his sons.
Ozias Barnes in the carly pioneer days was a great hunter, and it was well for him- self and family that this was the case, for had it not been for his gun and his skill in its use he could not have lived. For eighteen years after locating in this country he de- pended largely upon his gun and his dog, with which he killed and caught hundreds of deer, several bears and many, coons and mink. In Decem- ber, 1863, he killed six deer in one day, there being two deer, each with two fawns, which he followed for two days before a favorable opportunity for shooting them pre- sented itself, but when this opportunity came he got them all. These were the last deer that he killed, and with this success his hunting days practically closed, though he kept up his interest in the chase to the day of his death.
Politically he was a Republican, but he was not active in the service of his party, nor was he ambitious for office or distinction in any way. Owing to the circumstances of his early life his education was then neg- lected and the effect of this neglect he always felt. After his marriage he attended school three months in order to learn to write. Re- ligiously he belonged in early life to the United Brethren church, but later he joined the Methodist Episcopal church, and was one of the largest contributors to the erection of the Kingsley Methodist Episcopal church. For many years he was a class leader in this church and was a trustee up to the time of his death. His wife survived him about twenty- five years, notwithstanding it was thought for the last twenty years of her life that she could live but a short time. She and her husband were the parents of eleven children.
Solomon M. Barnes, who owns the old
Barnes homestead, was born in Fairfield county, Ohio, September 5, 1837, and was six months of age when brought by his par- ents to Blackford county, Indiana. HIc re- mained at home until he was of age, when he was married, December 30, 1858, to Miss Elizabeth Sutton, a daughter of Isaiah and Katie (Shrack) Sut- ton, and a cousin of William Shrack, whose biographical sketch appears else- where in this work. Her father formerly owned two hundred and forty acres of land where the village of Dunkirk is now situated and it was he who laid out and started the town. His son, William G. Sutton, still owns a portion of the old homestead, and it was there that Mrs. Barnes was born, April 8, 1842.
For one year after his marriage Solomon M. Barnes farmed a part of his father's farm and after this for two years he lived upon the farm upon which Dunkirk now stands, in Jay county. Then he began on forty acres of his own given to him by his father, the entire forty acres being still in a primitive state of wild woodland. Not a stick of timber had been cut, and he had to erect a cabin in which to live. His progress in making a home was interrupted by his enlistment in the army of the Union, as a member of Company H, One Hundredth Indiana Volunteers, his service being mainly in the Western army. His first march was from Memphis, Ten- nessee, to a place in Mississippi, whence he returned to Grand Junction for the winter of 1862-63. In the following spring he went down to Vicksburg, where he performed service in guarding the rear of the army against any attack that the rebel general Johnston might make. After the fall of Vicksburg he took part in the bat- tle of Jackson, Mississippi, in which
538
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
Johnston was defeated, and then he returned to Black River where he re- mained some time. In the succeeding fall he was sent with his regiment to Chattanooga via Memphis, but being taken sick he re- mained for some time in the hospital at Mem- phis, whence he went home on a furlough. After an absence of three months he joined his regiment at Belmont Station, Alabama, and then took part in the Atlanta campaign, being present at the fall of that place. Par- ' ticipating in the pursuit of General Hood for a portion of the march, he was again taken ill, this time with rheumatism, and was absent from his command from November, 1864, to April, 1865, spending the winter in Nashville, and taking part in the pursuit of General Hood after the battle of Nashville, into Alabama. In April, 1865, he joined Sherman's army at Goldsboro, North Caro- lina, going via Louisville, Cincinnati, An- napolis and Newbern, North Carolina, and in the battle of Kingston carried a flag. This was just before reaching Sherman at Goldsboro, after which he went to Raleigh, was present at Lee's surrender and also at the Grand Review at Washington, D. C. At Dallas, Georgia, while on the skirmish line, he received a slight wound in the head, and for a time he thought surely that he was killed. For his services in the army he draws a pension, and is a member of Gen- eral Shields Post, G. A. R., at Dunkirk.
Returning to pursuits of peace, for a time he worked the little farm above men- tioned, and was the administrator of his fa- ther's estate, himself receiving the old home- stead, which, with the exception of two and a half years, was his home until 1899, when he removed to Dunkirk, which village is now his home. The farm has been well tilled and is now in a high state of cultivation, is
thoroughly underdrained and well prepared for raising profitable crops. Mr. Barnes has always been a Republican, and both he and his wife were members of the Kingsley Methodist church, of which he has been. steward for twenty-five years. Mrs. Barnes died June 14, 1899, of cancer, after suffering therewith for five years.
Mr. and Mrs. Barnes were the parents of seven children, as follows: George W., of Albany, and Charles M., of Dunkirk, both married; Effie N., wife of Frank Hedding- ton, of Dunkirk ; Ida A., at home; one that died in childhood; Bertha M., who died at sixteen years of age, and Emma, who mar- ried George Buckles and died at the age of twenty-two.
JAMES E. GOTHRUP.
James E. Gothrup, a successful farmer of Jackson township, whose postoffice is Mill Grove, was born in Delaware county, Indi- ana, October 30, 1852, and is a son of John T. and Mary (Rutherford) Gothrup, both natives of Virginia and married in their native state. Afterward they removed to Ohio, not, however, remaining there very long, but instead came to Indiana, locating in Fort Wayne. Being a farmer by occupa- tion he later settled in the woods in Dela- ware county, and after improving a farm in that county again removed, this time to Blackford county, about 1868, when he set- tled on the farm now owned and occupied by his son, William M. This was a sixty-three- acre farm, was partly cleared and had tolera- bly fair buildings upon it. Still later he added a tract of eighty acres, the farm on which James E., the subject of this sketch, now lives, of which he improved about twenty
539
THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
acres, and upon which he passed the re- mainder of his days, surviving his wife some ten years. John T. and Mary Gothrup had a family of eight children, as follows : Sarah, wife of Alexander Thomas, of Delaware county; Newton, a farmer of Delaware county ; Archibald, who died at his home when thirty-five years of age; John, who died at forty-two on the old homestead where he has always lived; Mary Ann, wife of Fred- erick Haynes, of Delaware county ; Mason, a farmer of DeWitt county, Illinois ; James E., the subject of this sketch, and William M.
James E. Gothrup remained at home until his father's death, when he bought eighty acres of the home farm at administrator's sale, going in debt to the amount of eight- een hundred dollars. At that time there were twenty acres cleared and such ditches as had been constructed were, like many others of the early farms of timber. The remain- der of the farm he has cleared, put all of it under a high state of cultivation, and has laid about one thousand two hun- dred rods of tile. A company ditch passes through the farm, furnishing an excellent outlet for his drains. Mr. Gothrup has erected good buildings, including house, barn and outbuildings, costing in the aggregate about three thousand dallars. The farm is all well fenced, being divided into fields of from ten to fifteen acres. He raises stock and grows grain, feeding all he grows to hogs, his main dependence, getting out of his crops in this way the greatest possible amount of profit. He keeps none but high grade stock, and has bred a good many Norman horses. While his farm is in the gas belt no well has yet been sunk upon it.
Politically Mr. Gothrup is a Republican, but takes little active part in the affairs of the party, except to vote, which he never fails
to do. He has never married, hence has no family, but has made a home for several of his brothers' children, thus having done what he could to assist the boys. His labors have been confined to his farm, which bears evidence of the care and close attention he has given to it. Mr. Gothrup is a man of sim- ple, honest and industrious habits and charac- ter, and has endeared to himself a large num- ber of friends, all of whom respect him for his real worth, and place in him all the con- fidence of their hearts, a tribute of which any man might well le proud.
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.