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 71
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In 1880 he burned one kiln of brick and in 1881, in company with Howard Batten, he began the manufacture of tile, which he continued until 1893. This proved a most
profitable business, he making during the time as his share of the profits over five thou- sand dollars. In 1893 he transferred his in- terest in the business to his sons, John Wes- ley and Jesse Lewis, who have since con- ducted it as well as carrying on the farm. But they now manufacture only to the de- mand.
Mr. and Mrs. Blankenbaker are the par- ents of the following children : John Wesley, Louisa Alice, wife of John N. Philabaur, of Jackson township; Jesse Lewis married Nora F. Arnold; Amanda Frances ; Robert Henry; Georgia Mansfield; Orella Catherine, wife of Webb Philabaur, brother of John N. Philabaur; Minnie Iceola, Wilmer Alexan- der, Orpha Neola, who died in infancy, and Lelia May.
Robert B. Blankenbaker cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, in November, 1861, but in recent years has been a Demo- crat, believing in the principles advocated by William Jennings Bryan, especially in his doctrine of the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. At the present time he is a member of the township advisory board, and is in every way a most exemplary citizen.
ANSEL KIRTLEY WAYMAN.
Quite a large number of the early and excellent pioneer families of Blackford coun- ty came originally from Virginia, one of these families being that of the subject of this sketch, Ansel Kirtley Wayman, who was born in Madison county, Virginia, Jan- uary 10, 1820, and is now a retired farmer, his postoffice address being Dunkirk. His grandfather Wayman removed to Virginia from Georgia and his son, Henry Wayman, was the father of Ansel K. He was a black-
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smith as well as a farmer, married July (Finks) Wayman, whose father was of German ancestry and whose mother was an English lady. Henry Wayman died in 1822, when the subject of this sketch was but two years old. Ansel K. remained at home with his mother on the farm until he was twenty-one years old, and while carrying on the work of the farm learned the trade of shoemaking, He was married in Virginia to Mrs. Frances Blankenbaker, a widow with four children. She had lost her husband, Henry Blankenbaker, and her maiden name was the same as it was before her marriage, but she and her first husband were not in any way related. The names of her four children by Mr. Blankenbaker were as follows :Cather- ine, wife of Joseph France, of Delaware county ; Robert, who lives in Jackson town- ship; Elizabeth, who married Henry Clore, and died in Canada, and Abraham, who lives in Jackson township.
At the time of his marriage to Frances Blankenbaker Mr. Wayman was twenty-five years of age. He at that time owned a small farm and had for some years been working at his trade, in addition to man- aging his farm. In the fall of 1851 he drove through in a two-horse wagon from Virginia to Indiana, his brother-in-law, Joel Batten, having previously left Virginia with the view of coming to Indiana, but had re- mained in Ohio. Mr. Wayman, however, on reaching Indiana made his home for a time with an old Virginia neighbor, James Snyder, an uncle of David O. Snyder, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. James Snyder was then living in Blackford county and there were several other Vir- ginia families, old acquaintances and friends of Mr. Wayman, already in this county, so that he had the good fortune to settle
among his friends and soon felt as much at home as he had done in Virginia.
In establishing himself in Blackford county Mr. Wayman first purchased sixty- five acres of land, which he still owns. It was but slightly improved, there being on it only a log cabin and the roof was blown off that and the small clearing which had previously been made had grown over with underbrush. For this sixty-five acres he paid one hundred and seventy-five dollars, going into debt seventy-five dollars. The old log house he fitted up so as to make it a tolerably comfortable home for the times, but it had no door, only a quilt hung at the opening where the door should have been, and at the only window he was compelled to place his shoemaker's bench, in order to h. ve sufficient light. Having collected to- gether a few tools, he began in this then new country working at his trade. For the first pair of boots he made in this log cabin he received one hundred pounds of flour, the man for whom they were made furnishing the leather. There was then a tan yard at Camden to which farmers were accustomed to take hides to be tanned on shares, and it was in this way that the above mentioned leather had been obtained.
Mr. Wayman began the work of clearing up his farm, first getting rid of the trees that had been deadened in the small patch partially cleared, and so successful was he that the thin. year he had enough business to enable him to finish paying for his land. Besides doing his own work he worked some of the time for his neighbors, but for the most part he devoted his time and ener- gies to his own farm and trade. After pro- ducing his first crop he had no difficulty in making a living. While not in any proper sense a hunter, yet he did occasionally kill
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some small game. The wolves howled around his cabin every night for many months, and when the dogs were out hunting coons aud 'possum they were considerably interfered with by the wolves.
After being in this county twelve years Mr. Wayman added more land to his farm, having in the meantime greatly improved his original purchase, erecting a hewed-log house at the end of the first three years. To the saw-mill at Camden, which was also a grist-mill, he hauled logs, using only the fore wheels of his wagon on account of the lowness and wetness of the land, and it was the same when carrying grain to the grist- mill to be ground into flour or meal. On account of the low, wet nature of the land there was a great deal of malaria in this sec- tion, and all the pioneers used large quanti- ties of quinine, ginseng, cherry bark and whiskey in making bitters. Mr. Wayman himself used for curing malarial diseases two barrels of whiskey, but it cost less than now, besides being of a better quality, the price being twenty-six cents per gallon, while honey, considerable quantities of which was made by bees kept by Mr. Wayman, sold for twenty-five cents per pound.
It was about 1864 that Mr. Wayman be- gan to buy more land, his second tract, for which he paid three hundred and ninety dol- lars, containing sixty-five acres, as was the case with his first tract. For this second tract, which was heavily timbered, he paid the cash. Later he paid two thousand dol- lars for one hundred and five acres lying near the railway. The land cleared and put in cultivation by Mr. Wayman amounted to about one hundred and fifty acres, which is all improved by thorough drainage, he hav- ing laid a great deal of tile, and thus greatly improved his farm, which is principally de-
voted to the growing of grain. Mr. Way- man's land is divided into four separate and distinct farms, the original sixty-five acres being still the homestead. Besides manag- ing his farms he continued to work at his shoemaker's trade for twenty years, making boots and shoes for all the old settlers, until the village of Dunkirk was started and then, as shops were started in the village, he had to discontinue his work in this line. Since then he has devoted his attention almost ex- clusively to his farm. Both of his step- sons remained at home with him until they were of age.
Mr. and Mrs. Wayman were the par- ents of three children, viz: Ansel H., who lived on a portion of the old homestead, married and had two children, Lewis and Guy, and died at the age of forty years; Mary F., wife of William McDill, who is living on one of the four farms, and now has one child, viz: Bertha Ethel McDill; and George T., who lives on one of his fa- ther's farms, is married and has six chil- dren, as follows: Cora Frances, Bertha Eu- gene, Joseph, Erwin, Homer and Dewey. Mrs. Wayman died March 27, 1885, at the age of seventy-four. Mr. Wayman is one of the old style of Virginia Democrats, but has never held nor sought office, having been all his life content to remain in the frost of honor, the private station, doing his duty to his family and his neighborhood, and thereby has gained and still holds the respect and confidence of all.
ANDREW M. SANDERSON.
Andrew M. Sanderson, a successful farmer of Jackson township, whose postoffice is Hartford City, was born at Port William, Clinton county, Ohio, January II, 1855, and
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is a son of Ambrose Milton and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Sanderson, the former of whom, previous to 1830, removed from Pennsyl- vania to Ohio, and the latter came north from Tennessee to Ohio when a child of six or seven years. She died on the farm and her husband has since retired to Wilmington, Ohio, where he is engaged in the real estate and insurance business. He is a well educated man, having graduated from college and being a teacher during his younger days; but for some reason he failed to give his chil- dren the educational advantages he himself enjoyed.
The boyhood of Andrew M. Sanderson was spent upon the farmuntil he was twenty- one, he receiving his education in the com- mon schools. Remaining still on the farm three years more, he was married, December I, 1878, to Miss Nettie Hartsook, a native of Greene county, Ohio, he and she having been brought up as children of the same neighbor- hod. After his marriage he continued to work with his father for six years more, and from that time until 1890 he rented farms, and in February of the latter year purchased his present farm in Jackson township, three miles southeast of Hartford City, on the line of the Pan Handle Railway and on the line between Jackson and Licking townships. Here he has forty-two and a half acres of land, all in an excellent state of cultivation. When he bought it there was a small log house and stable, in the former of which he and his wife lived eighteen months. There were at that time only about eight or nine acres in culti- vation, but since 1890 Mr. Sanderson, by energy and industry, has brought it all under good control, putting in good tile drains in the low ground and thus making the poorest of his land the best, and all of it as good farming land as any in the vicinity. Notwith-
standing that he agreed to pay one thousand two hundred dollars, he has made his pay- ments regularly and is no .. out of debt. The farm is in the gas belt, but he has no well on his farm.
Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson have one child, Ethel May, who is in her sixth year. Polit- ically Mr. Sanderson is a Republican, and works hard for the benefit of his party, but has never sought office. He is a member of Ilartford City Tent, No. 50. K. O. T. M., in good standing, and is a most valuable member of general society, highly esteemed by all that know him. Mrs. Sanderson has always been a worthy helpmeet to her hus- band and shares with him the good opinion of the community in which they live.
CHARLES B. MULVEY, M. D.
The name of this popular physician and surgeon is familiar to nearly every man, woman and child in Montpelier and sur- rounding country, as he has practiced his profession at this place with encouraging success ever since entering upon his chosen calling in 1894. The Doctor is a native of New York state, born in the city of Auburn July 21, 1866, the son of James and Mary (Kirwin) Mulvey. In youth he enjoyed ex- ceptional advantages for obtaining an edu- cation, and such was his progress that at an early age he was graduated with honors from the high school of his native city.
Following his graduation the Doctor was for some years traveling representative of the Auburn Manufacturing Company, his particular duty being the purchase of timber for that concern, and this he followed to the satisfaction of his employers until about the year 1890. Prior to that time,
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however, he had made up his mind to enter the medical profession ; accordingly, after a preliminary course of reading under the di- rection of competent instructors, he en- tered, in the above year, the Indiana Medi- cal College, Indianapolis, from which he was graduated in March of 1894. Imme- diately thereafter he chose Montpelier as a favorable location and at once began the practice of his profession in partnership with Dr. Sellers, a relation which has since been sustained to the satisfaction of both par- ties, and also to their mutual financial ad- vantage. Their office, in the Sinclair block, Main street, is equipped with all the mod- ern appliances requisite to the successful prosecution of the healing art, and from the beginning their progress has been marked by a success which attests the great confi- dence the people repose in their professional abilities.
Dr. Mulvey combines with an extensive theoretical knowledge of his profession the rare skill to apply it, also the sympathizing nature and tender touch characteristic of the true healer. His patients are found among all classes of people, none of whom he turns away on account of inability to remunerate him for services rendered; hence his friends are many and his praises everywhere spoken. He has good business tact and careful judg- ment, and by diligence and close applica- tion has already laid the foundation for the comfortable competence which must surely be his, provided he continues the course he has thus far pursued.
On the Ist day of August, 1894, the Doctor entered into the bonds of wedlock with Miss Mary A. Miller, daughter of F. G. and Charlotte (Lowry) Miller, a union blessed with one child, John S. Mulvey, whose birth occurred December 12, 1899.
AARON H. CLOUSE.
Aaron H. Clouse, one of the enterpris- ing and successful farmers of Jackson town- ship, whose postoffice is Dunkirk, was born in that township within one mile of Dun- kirk, toward the west, October 2, 1851. is a son of Leonard and Mrs. Kavie Ann (Anderson) Bowen Clouse, the former of whom was a native of Maryland, reared in Pennsylvania, and the latter of whom it is believed was born in Ohio of Scotch parent- age. She was married to her husband in Jackson township, they settling on a farm of one hundred and four acres, upon which he lived until he had converted it into a good farm and home. But having invested its value, or thereabouts, in railroad stock, he finally lost the most of his property in this way, realizing but little from his farm when it was sold. He then removed to Bunker Hill, Miami county, Indiana, where he died at the age of seventy-six. His wife died when Aaron H. was about three days old, she being the mother of but two children. The other one was Augustus, whose life was passed in Blackford county up to the time of his death, which occurred when he was about twenty years of age, in Jay county, whither he had gone a short time before.
Leonard Clouse was the father of sev- eral children by a marriage which took place previous to the marriage above referred to, but none of these children are living in Blackford county. After the death of Aaron H. Clouse's mother Leonard Clouse married Maria Barnhart, a widow, but to this mar- riage no children were born.
The boyhood of Aaron H. Clouse was passed upon the farm, he receiving such ed- ucation as was afforded by the common schools, and performing such labor as he
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was capable of from year to year. He was married, January 14, 1875, to Miss Eliza- beth Kesler, a daughter of Adam Kesler, whose biography appears elsewhere in these pages. Soon after their marriage they went to Dakota, and there, in 1879, took up a claim, which they not long afterward abandoned, returning to Indiana and pur- chasing his present farm in 1882. The farm was then completely covered with woods, in- somuch that he had to clear away a place on which to erect a house. Since then he has devoted himself to his farm, of which he has now under cultivation about seventy acres, and in addition to this he has cleared and improved about twenty acres of his fa- ther-in-law's farm, which he has purchased, and thus has placed in cultivation over ninety acres of land in all. His entire farm is thor- oughly underdrained and is devoted to the growing of grain, which he feeds to stock upon the farm, a practice gradually coming more and more into vogue with the farmers of the country. However, for the past two years Mr. Clouse has lived in Dunkirk, in which village he owns property.
Politically Mr. Clouse is a Mckinley Re- publican, but is not an office seeker nor what may be called an active worker for the party. His duty as a voter, however, he always performs, regarding the right to exercise his franchise as one of the dearest to Ameri- can citizens. He is a member of the Meth- odist Episcopal church at Dunkirk and is steward of the church. He is also a member of Dunkirk Lodge, No. 338, K. of P., has passed all the chairs, including that of past chancellor, and has always been active in the work of the lodge. His wife (Miss Eliza- beth Kesler) died April 5, 1886, after a brief illness, leaving two children, viz: Re- becca Jane and Cora Alice, aged, respective-
ly, twenty-one and seventeen. These daugh- ters Mr. Clouse has given a good common- school education and superior musical ad- vantages. By his second wife, who was Sarah Kiplinger, of Delaware county, he has no childr. 1. Mr. Clouse is one of the best citizens of his county, always alive to its welfare and prosperity, and enjoys the confidence of his many friends to an un- usual degree.
DAVIS GILMORE DEAN.
The Scotch-Irish race has furnished many distinguished and able citizens to the United States, and it is a most interesting and valuable study to trace to its source any trait possessed by any portion of humanity. The Scotch, from the climate to which they are accustomed, are a strong and sturdy people; the Irish are quick-witted, warm- hearted and genial, and the blending of these qualities produces the peculiarities of the "Scotch-Irish" race. As a member of this peculi: race of people, it is a plea: re to present in this work the genealogy and an account of the life work of Davis Gilmore Dean, who was born August 18, 1852, in Grant county, Indiana, and who is a son of Thomas and Hannah (Anderson) Dean. Thomas Dean was born near what is now Wheeling, West Virginia, and was a son of Thomas Dean, also a Virginian and of Scotch-Irish descent. The father of this last mentioned Thomas Dean, who was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was an American soldier in the Revo- lutionary war, and hence it is not surprising that his descendants should in times of necessity manifest the patriotism inherited from him.
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Thomas Dean, the father of the subject, was four years of age when, in 1827, his . parents removed to Coshocton county, Ohio, and he was thirteen years old when they re- moved to Grant county, Indiana. It was in this county that they died, one at the age .of eighty-one, the other at the age of eighty- three. Hle served as auditor of Grant coun- ty for a time, and his mother, Elizabeth Davis, was a native of Wales. Davis G. Dean was named in honor of her family. Thomas Dean was married when he was twenty three years of age, in 1846, to Han- nah Anderson, a native of Coshocton county, Ohio, the marriage taking place in Grant county, Indiana. Her father, Samuel An- derson, was of Irish ancestry, his father hav- ing been born in Ireland. Thomas Dean and his wife were the parents of three children when they settled in Blackford county, In- diana, in 1857. Soon after his marriage he began teaching school, his wages being twelve dollars per month. He was in re- ality a self-educated man, having attended school but sixteen days after his fourteenth year, and having received only what was called a "hickory bark" education. But so fond was he of study and so conscientious as a teacher that he kept himself thoroughly informed in the branches he was called upon to teach and also in the improved methods adopted from time to time in the art of teach- ing. His period of labor as a pedagogue extended over twenty-seven terms, sixteen of these terms being in the home district in Blackford county and his own children at- tending the school taught by him. As a teacher he acquired an enviable reputation and during his entire life kept up a lively interest in educational matters.
In his earlier life he advocated the prin- ciples of the Democratic party, but later
became a Republican, but politics was not his forte, and he seldom did more than to vote and to defend his party upon occasions of neighborly controversy and never in a bitter or rigid partisan spirit. When he settled on his farm in Blackford county it was unim- proved; he erected upon it a little log cabin in which his family lived until 1880, when he erected his present home. In this home he lived until his death, which occurred January 9. 1894. his wife having died in May, 1880. They were the parents of the following children: Annie, wife of I. N. Ault, a lumber manufacturer of Dunkirk; Rebecca, who married William Davis and lived near the home place until her death, which occurred when she was thirty-seven years of age; Davis Gilmore, the subject of this sketch, and Elizabeth, wife of Augustus Anderson, who owns the original homestead in Grant county, which was handed down to him through his father. Thomas Dean was always an active member of the Trenton Methodist Protestant church, which has been in existence since 1830, he being a member of the original class at Trenton. For a number of years he was class leader, was active in the organization of the society at Trenton and in the erection of its church building. He was often a delegate to its conferences and was a most able and en- thusiastic worker along religious lines, and while not given to argument, yet he was always willing and able to uphold his views. In all religious work he was ably and gen- erously assisted by his wife. So thorough- ly did he master all the subjects commonly taught in the schools that his children found competent and willing assistance at his hands, and two of his daughters taught school for a time. So high did he stand in the estimation of the community that he was
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selected as administrator of several estates and as guardian of numerous minor children. He was agent for non-residents, and served as justice of the peace about the time of the war. When public improvements began to be made in this county he served one term as county commissioner and while he was licensed as an exhorter yet his work was mainly local in its nature. Notwithstand- ing all his active labor performed with the view of uplifting his fellow man yet he found time to cultivate one hundred and ten of his one hundred and sixty acres of land, and to drain the entire farm, so that at his death it was for the most part well improved, and when he died it was generally felt that a useful and honorable and excellent man had departed.
Davis Gilmore Dean spent his boyhood upon the farm and remained at home until he reached his twenty-seventh year assisting - his father in the management of the farm. His grandmother Davis, wife of Thomas Dean, Sr., had a bachelor brother, named David Davis, who owned one hundred and sixty acres of land in Grant county and who lived with her. Two of his relatives were named in honor of the family, Davis G. Dean and Davis McVicker. Some years be- fore his death he willed each of these two thus named eighty acres of his land. He died when Davis G. was seventeen years old and at that time the latter came into posses- sion of his bequest. At length, however, he sold this eighty acres and purchased his present tract of land, then all woods, but adjoining his father's homestead. This he soon began to clear and open up into a farm, still living at home.
On January 23, 1881, he was married to Miss Hattie Curry, daughter of Aaron S. Curry, who is more extensively mentioned
in connection with the biography of W. A. Curry on another page. Not long after his marriage he moved into a little log cabin, about thirty-five acres of his land being then in cultivation, and the little log cabin re- mained his home for a couple of years, at the expiration of which period he erected his present commodious house. IIe also erected a large and convenient barn, which is 36x46x20, and cost about seven hundred dollars, and which was completed in 1900 .. The extent of his underdraining is about twenty-three hundred rods of tile, and his well improved farm is devoted to the rais- ing of grain and stock, the latter consisting of horses, cattle and hogs, from fifteen to sixty of the latter being fed by him each year.
Mr. Dean was executor of his father's estate, and himself received forty acres of the homestead. Politically he is a Republi- can, and though not in any sense an office- seeker nor a politician, yet he has attended numerous conventions and always performs his duty as a member of the party and as a citizen. He and his wife are members of the Kingsley Methodist Episcopal church, which stands two miles south of his home, and they are both faithful to their religious as well as their social duties, and are known by all as most excellent citizens. Their fam- ily consists of one son, Walter E., born May 27, 1882, now a student at Marion College. David G. Dean is a member of Dunkirk Lodge, No. 306, I. O. O. F., and of En- campment No. 120, having passed all the chairs of both orders and having sat in the grand lodge of both. Both he and his wife are members of Charity Rebekah Lodge, No. 18, of Dunkirk, Mrs. Dean having passed all the chairs of this lodge and having been sent as a delegate to the state assembly sev-
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