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 77
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After being exchanged, in October, 1863. Mr. Howland rejoined his regiment at
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.
Natchez, Mississippi, and participated in General Canby's campaign against Mobile. He was at the storming of Fort Blakely, which occurred on the day of Lee's surren- der, soon after which he was sent to Selma, Alabama, and with four others was sent from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, where dispatches were sent in to Smith's Cavalry under a flag of truce, announcing the surrender of Lee. Soon afterward the veteran part of the division in which he was serving was sent to Galveston, Texas. un- der General Canby, and the reginy of which he was a member was stationed at Brazos, Texas, and at other points in that state until he was discharged, he being mus- tered out of the service in May, 1866, at Columbus, Ohio, after nearly four and a half years' service.
During this long period he participated ini thirteen different engagements and was in all the marches and battles in which his regi- ment participated, in the meantime rising from the ranks to the position of corporal. His regiment was composed principally of boys and young men, he being now only fifty-eight years of age, and very few of his age served for so long a period in the army. He is now a pensioner, highly es- teemed by all old soldiers, especially by his former captain, of whom he has always been a stanch friend, and he attends most of the reunions of his regiment.
After the close of the war Mr. Howland worked a farm on shares for about six years and then removed to Blackford county, In- diana, where he expected to secure land cheaper than could be done in Ohio. In Indiana he received at first thirty dollars per month, working in a saw-mill which stood on a portion of his present farm. Soon he purchased a one-third interest in
the mill, which was a saw-mill, shingle mill, edger, etc., and later he purchased a half interest, or rather enough more to make his a half interest. The mill did a large busi- ness in sawing black walnut, oak and ash trees into lumber. Having been connected with this mill about eight years he purchased a portion of his present farm, of which there was but little cleared and none in cultiva- tion, nor was there any drainage. Later he added to that which he owned until now he owns two hundred and seven acres, of which one hundred and eighty acres are in cultiva- tion, and upon which there are upward of twenty-five hundred rods of tile drainage. The farm is devoted to grain and grass and the raising of cattle and hogs. Upon it Mr. Howland erected a handsome residence in 1894. The farm is in the gas belt, and Mr. Howland has one of the best gas-power water systems in the country, having run- ning water in eight different places on the farm. He uses a gas pump by means of the pressure of gas in pipes, which gives him the greatest satisfaction, as the gas engine he has had in use six years has not cost one dollar for repairs. It is also very conven- ient, as it can be started from the inside of the house as well as from the outside.
Mr. Howland was married February 9, 1873, to Mary Agnes Kesler, a daughter of Adam Kesler, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work. Miss Kesler was brought to Indiana by her parents when she was but two years old. Mr. and Mrs. llowland have had the following children : Alvin, who lived at home until his death. which occurred when he was twenty-four years of age; Eliza M., who died when in her fifth year; Myron, who died at the age of five; Norman, a student, and Mary Alice. a school girl, the latter two living at home.
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Politically Mr. Howland was originally an abolitionist, and since that party ceased to exist because of the abolition of slavery, has been a Republican, but has never sought or desired office. Ilis attention has been given to his private business affairs, which have yiekled him a sufficient return, which politics frequently fails to do. Ile is a good neighbor, a good citizen and has hosts of friends who value him for his worth.
AARON LANNING.
Aaron Lanning, a prominent citizen of Jackson township, was born on the farm ad- joining that on which he now lives, March 16, 1852. He is a son of Robert and Mar- garet Ann (Kennedy) Lanning, the former of whom was from New Jersey, and the lat- ter from Guernsey county, Ohio, in which county they were married. Robert was taken to Guernsey county when yet a small boy by his father, Isaac Lanning. Probably in 1845, with his wife and one child, he re- moved from Guernsey county, Ohio, to In- diana, locating on the farm upon which he lived for many years, buying it of the origi- nal settler, the man who had entered it. . At that time there was no house upon it nor timber cut and he had to make roads for miles through the woods. In his part of the county there were but two families, one being that of Alvin Fuller and the other that of Calvin Bundred, the former of whom lived three miles to the northeast and the latter three miles to the southeast. As other settlers came into the country the home of Mr. Lanning became the center of the com- munity and a nucleus for all others as they
came in. Hunters made it their stopping place, and pioneer preachers radiated there- from in all directions on their missions of mercy. His family consisted of himself. wife and one child, and they had simply the necessary utensils for keeping house. He had a one-horse wagon, one horse and two cows, and it may easily be imagined that it required nerve on the part of both his wife and himself to remain in a country so thinly inhabited. His first house consisted of a common log one, with a board roof, the boards split out by himself, and what was then known as a puncheon floor. This was his home for about thirteen years, when he removed to a double log house finished with sawed lumber and having small windows. In some way he secured, in company with a relative, Robert H. Lanning, an eighty-acre tract of land in the cranberry swamp or marsh, which lay about four miles to the north, and it was his crops of cranberries that kept him on his feet, as he often had for his share from two hundred to three hundred barrels of cranberries to sell. hauling them to Farmland and shipping to Cincinnati and Dayton. This crop was his main dependence for several years, until the ditching of the swamp lands so drained them that the cran- berry vines were destroyedl. He then set himself to work clearing his farm and soon had it in good condition. When nearly fifty years of age he erected a store building at Mill Grove, the second building of the kind in the place, and in it placed a general stock of goods. It is still occupied as a store by his son. He followed the business of a country merchant with success for the next twenty-five years, until his death, on July 31, 1894, when he was seventy-five years of age. He was well and widely known during the whole of this time, for he
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had a large patronage among the country people, and he is well remembered by all the older citizens down to the present day. A portion of the time he kept his store he also acted as postmaster at Mill Grove, and for many years he was a justice of the peace. Ir politics he was one of the old-line Jackson Democrats, and unusually firm and decided in his views; but notwithstanding this he had thousands of friends, for he was of a most obliging and accommodating disposi- · tion. For the last twenty years of his life he lived in Mill Grove, and survived his wife nine years. She was, a Missionary Baptist, and a. there was no Baptist society in the vicinity her house became the center of the Old School Baptists, whose ministers often made it their headquarters. The Lan- ning school house was first built on Mr. Lan- ning's land, and it even now is known by that name. Mr. Lanning did a great deal toward securing other settlers for his neigh- borhood, and in his travels about the com- try always carried a compass, notwithstand- ing which he was often lost, and passed three weeks at a time without looking into another human face.
The family of Mr. and Mrs. Lanning consisted of the following children : Maria, who died at the age of eight years; Lydia, wife of Winfield S. Mercer, of Albany, In- diana; Isaac N., of Mill Grove, an all-around mechanic, and a preacher of the New Light church; Moses W., of Mill Grove; Aaron, the subject of this sketch; William J., a teacher at Mill Grove; Stephen A., a mer- chant at Mill Grove; Harriet Esther, who married Ross Peterson and died when thirty years of age, and Mary E., who married Thomas Stanley and died in Blackford coun- ty at the age of twenty-six.
The boyhood of Edward Lanning was
spent upon the farm, and he there remained until he was twenty-four years of age, man- aging the homestead, which was only about half a mile from the store. February 3, 1875, he married Miss Alfretta Robbins, a daughter of William H. Robbins, of Mill Grove, and afterward spent one year in Mill Grove. Then he took charge of the home farm, which he conducted about eight years, when he purchased the farm, upon which he resided about ten years, or until he became engaged in mercantile pursuits at Mill Grove, purchasing the store at his father's death. This business he conducted four years with satisfactory results. carrying a general stock of goods, such as was suitable to his trade, and rented his farm during this time. Fail- ing health, however, required him to take more outdoor exercise and hence he returned to his farm in 1898, to which he added an- other place, known as the Holderoft farm. and containing one hundred and twenty acres of land.
Mrs. Lanning died December 9, 1896. of typhoid fever, leaving a family of eight children : Bertha Olive, wife of William Mannix, of Hartford City; Mary E., who, together with her sister, Ruth, attends to the household duties; Robert, Goldie, Hattie, Frank and Dorothy, the mother dying at the time of the birth of the latter child. The loss of his wife with so many small children on his hands at first seemed very great, but the elder girls have proved excellent house- keepers and his family matters are well con- ducted.
Politically Mr. Lanning, formerly a Democrat, is now a Prohibitionist, and he is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which for the past twenty-one years he has been a trustee. He is a member of Wa- bassa Tribe, Improved Order of Red Men,
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at Mill Grove, and since the death of his wife he has given most of his attention to the care and education of his children.
ABRAHAM L. BLANKENBAKER.
Abraham Lewis Blankenbaker, one of the most prominent citizens of Jackson town- ship, whose postoffice is Mill Grove, was born in Madison county, Virginia, June 8, 1840. His father, Henry Blankenbaker, died in 1843, after which event his mother married A. K. Wayman, with whom she and her family removed in 1851, to Blackford county, Indiana, locating in Jackson town- ship, near Dunkirk, or rather near the pres- ent site of Dunkirk, for there was no Dun- kirk there then, their land being about two miles northwest. Here Mr. Wayman cleared up a farm, the country all around being covered with timber and the conditions be- ing anything but encouraging. Still,
as Mr. Wayman was by trade a shoemaker, he managed to make a good living, he being the only shoemaker in the vicinity. He still lives on the old homestead with his daughter, the wife of William McDell; and is now past eighty years of age. His wife, the mother of our subject, died on the old homestead about 1875. Abraham L. and his elder brother, Robert Blankenbaker, did most of the clearing and the latter still lives in the vicinity. Abraham lived at home un- til he was twenty-one years old, and on No- vember 7, 1861, was married to Miss Mary Gaar, daughter of James and Lurena (Wil- hite) Gaar, of Delaware county, and both natives of Madison county, Virginia, they removing to Indiana in 1854, from Vir- ginia, where they were acquainted with
both the Blankenbaker and Wayman fam- ilies. They settled a few miles south- west of Dunkirk, in Delaware county. Mary Gaar was about twelve years old when she came to Indiana and was but nineteen when married. Her mother is still living on the old homestead at the age of eighty- two, her father having died when about seventy-five.
Abraham Lewis Blankenbaker, after his marriage, settled near the old homestead, his farm being largely wild land, for which he went into debt, having only one hundred and twenty-five dollars with which to make huis start in life, in addition to a small sum coming to his wife. At first he erected a little log cabin of round logs, and cleared about twenty acres, in which and upon which they lived until 1868, when he secured his present tract of one hundred and twenty acres of land. During the year 1878 he pur- chased eighty acres of land, paying therefor seven hundred dollars and afterward he pur- chased forty acres more for five hundred dol- lars. When he began to establish for himself and family a home his farm was covered mainly with small timber, the heav. timber having previously been cut off and it was largely covered with underbrush. Besides the clearing away of the underbrush, which was more tedious work than the cutting of heavy timber would have been, he had to drain the land, involving much more hard work, but which when done more than paid for the labor involved in making the improvement. At this time he had about one hundred and sixty acres, one hundred and seventeen acres cleared and drained with good tile drains, and his farm is in an excellent state of culti- vation.
The little log house mentioned above was superseded after an occupancy of fif-
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teen years, when his present residence was erected, and in making all the improvements upon his farm and in the erection of better buildings he was cheerfully and ably assist- ed by his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Blanken- baker have reared a family of four children : Sarah Frances, wife of William Baker, liv- ing one-half mile east of the old homestead, and who has eight children living; Martha Cornelia, wife of John Edwards, a farmer of Grant county, by whom she has had ten children; Laura Jane, wife of Rollin Wooster, living on part of the old home- stead, and having three children, and James Henry, who died of typhoid fever when in his eighteenth year. There are now twenty- one grandchildren and two great-grandchil- dren. Mrs. Blankenbaker has a picture of five generations of her mother's family, which she prizes very highly. It contains her mother, herself, her daughter, Sarah, her daughter, Clara, wife of James Lutz, of Jackson township and their son, Clarence. All of these are living in Jackson township except the great-great-grandmother, who is in Delaware county, Indiana.
Abraham L. Blankenbaker is a Demo- crat in politics, and he and his wife are mem- bers of the Union Orthodox Friends church, having become members of that society late in life, and the children also belong to the same church. The family is among the very best in the county and is highly esteemed by all that know them.
HENRY W. GARR.
Henry W. Garr, a prominent and suc- cessful farmer of Jackson township, whose postoffice address is Hartford City, was born
near Culpeper Court House, Virginia, Oc- tober 15, 1847. He is a son of James W. and Lurena Garr, who, in 1853, removed from Virginia to Indiana, settling on a new farm, upon which the boyhood of the subject of this sketch was passed and upon which he continued to reside until he was twenty-six years of age. For some years afterward he conducted the farm in connection with his brothers.
On June 17, 1874, he was married in Jackson township to Miss Mary Huffman, a daughter of William and Talitha Huffman, both of whom are now deceased, and the lat- ter of whom was a daughter of John Beal. Mr. Beal came from Pennsylvania and set- tled in the early days in Blackford county, thus becoming one of its pioneers. The In- dians were yet numerous when he arrived and it was amid the wild scenes of the fron- tier that the girlhood days of Talitha Beal were passed. Mr. and Mrs. William Huff- man were married in Harrison township, the former having removed to this country when yet a young man, and living with his brother- in-law, Mathew Thompson, whose wife, Jane, was his sister. Mr. Huffman worked in a woolen factory at Highland, in Dela- ware county, and also at the Camden fac- tory in Jay county for some time and finally settled one-half mile east of where his daugh- ter now lives, the old homestead now owned by his daughter, Nancy J. Underwood, of Hartford City. On this farm Mary Huff- man was born February 10, 1856, and it was there that her girlhood was passed. There also she was married and there her parents lived and died, the father January, 6, 1875, at the age of fifty-six, and the mother October 29, 1877, in the forty-fourth year of her age.
Henry W. Garr previous to his marriage
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purchased forty acres of land, upon which. he lived for a time with Abraham Blanken- baker and was engaged in clearing his land. Originally this Jand was covered over with a heavy growth of timber, which he cut into staves, spokes, ties, cord-wood and lumber, realizing considerable money in this way and setting a good example to all who can fol- low it in clearing up their farms. To this original forty acres he has added other acres from time to time until at the present time he oívns one hundred and nineteen acres of land, over one hundred acres of which is in a high state of cultivation, all of it having been cleared and improved by Mr. Garr. Some of these improvements may be speci- fied as a commodious and comfortable house and a large, fine barn, which is conveniently arranged, and the tile drain- ing is also worthy of mention, as by this means his farm has been greatly in- proved. These numerous and great im- provements have not been made without much hard labor, he having during a por- tion almost literally worked day and night, and he has been faithfully assisted by his wife, who has always realized that her hus- band's success in life is her own, and con- tributes to her own happiness. This excel- lent farm is devoted by him to the culti- vation of a variety of crops and the raising of cattle.
Mr. and Mrs. Garr have had twelve chil- dren, as follows : Lillie Myrtle, wife of Dem- ing G. Friut, living at Dunkard Church, two miles west of Hartford City; James Will- iam, a teamster of Hartford City; Arminda Maud, who has been blind from childhood and who is a student in the State Institute for the Blind at Indianapolis, where she is considered by the officials one of the most intelligent of their students; she is now
twenty-two years of age and is preparing herself for a teacher in a similar institution ; Lewis E., living at home on the farm; Cora Belle, a bright young school girl, living at home; Walter Roscoe, Henry Wesley, Ger- ald Lloyd, Deming, Bernice and May, and in addition to the above a twin brother of Ar- minda Maud died in infancy.
Politically Mr. Garr is a Democrat and has served as supervisor of his township. Mrs. Garr is a member of the New Light church, and while Mr. Garr sustains no church membership, yet he is one of the honest and highly respected members of his community, who has the confidence of all who know him.
THOMAS MARSHALL HANEY
Thomas Marshall Haney, a prominent citizen of Jackson township, whose post- office is Hartford City, was born in Shelby county, Ohio, June 14, 1853. He is a son of Joseph and Eve (Livingood) Haney, the former of whom was born in Miami county and was a son of George Hancy, a pioneer of the southern part of Ohio, removing thereto from Kentucky, and entering land in the northeastern part of Miami county. Late in life Joseph Haney settled in Shelby county, in which he operated a saw-mill for many years, and in which county he died in 1885.
Thomas Marshall Haney, the subject of this sketch, passed his boyhood in Shelby county, remaining at home on the farm un- til he was thirty-five years of age. Soon after attaining his majority he engaged with G. H. Rundle, the proprietor of "Porter's Pain King," traveling from Piqua, Ohio,
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and continuing in this line of business some fourteen years. He also covered Preble and several counties in northern Indiana, and continued in this kind of work two years after his marriage, which event occurred in La Grange county, Indiana, November 1, 1886, his wife being Miss Lilly M. Con- rad.
In 1888 he located on his present farm in Jackson township, consisting of one hun- dred and twenty acres, and nearly all of which is under cultivation, he himself bay- ing cleared and improved one hundred acres. On this farm he has laid about fifteen hun- dred rods of tile, draining many ponds and swamps, which low places are now the best land on his farm. This farm he devotes mainly to general farming. Sine 1888 Mr. Haney has acted in connection with the Prohibition party, though he was originally a Democrat. He is at present chairman of the county committee, and has often been a del- egate to county and district conventions of the party of which he was at one time a mem- ber. He has been nominated by the Prohibi- tion party for county treasurer, he receiving ninety-five votes out of a total cast in the county of one hundred and seventeen. He and his wife are members of the United Brethren church, he being a trustee of the church at Hartford City, as well as of that at Mill Grove. He has been enthusiastic and active in all departments of church work, and has consistently endeavored to follow in the footsteps of the lowly Nazarine. He is al- ways ready to give support to the party and church to which he belongs, having now, as ever, the "courage of his convictions.'
Mr. and Mrs. Haney have the following children : Florence, Ethel, Lee W. and Beu- lah, all living at home, and all being reared in the way they should go by parents who
have their interests at heart. The family are ali numbered among the highly esteemed members of the community in which they live and are considered respectable and use- ful members of society.
LUCULLUS G. KNIGHT.
Lucullus G. Knight, editor and proprie- tor of the Montpelier Daily and Weekly Herald, also postmaster at Montpelier, is a native of Blackford county, Indiana, born on the 13th of March, 1868, in the town of Alill Grove. His father, A. T. Knight, a retired manufacturer of lumber and drain tile, is also an Indianian, born of English parentage, and his mother, whose maiden name was Sarah J. Robbins, is descended from German ancestry.
Mr. Knight's early educational training embraced the curriculum of the public schools in Union City and Kendallville, In- cliana, and later he entered the Hartford City high school from which he graduated in the year 1887. Shortly after leaving school he entered the office of Cantwell & Cantwell, Hartford City, and devoted eighteen months to the study of law, being formally admitted to the Blackford county ba: at the expiration of that period. Under the direction of the above able attorneys he made substantial progress in the profession, but after due consideration decided not to engage in the practice, finding a more congenial field for the exercise of his talents in journalism, to which he finally concluded to devote his time and attention.
His first work in the newspaper line was as reporter and advertising agent for the Hartford City Daily Press, in which
AsKnight
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capacity he continued until the spring of 1893 when he came to Montpelier and pur- chased a half interest in the Herald. He at once assumed entire control of the plant and succeeded in making the Herald one of the best edited papers in the county, his able editorials bringing it to the favorable notice of the public and winning for it a large sub- scription list and a liberal advertising pat- ronage. Mr. Knight conducted the paper with gratifying results until 1898, at which time he disposed of the same to S. L. Galvin, under whose management it continued to make its regular visits to patrons until Jan- uary of the following year, when the sub- ject was again induced to accept the editorial control. Later, March, 1899, he became sole owner and proprietor, and from that date to the present time has personally overseen each issue of the Herald, which has become one of the strong Republican papers of cen- tral Indiana.
Mr. Knight is a fluent writer and through the medium of his paper has done much to advance the material interests of Montpelier and mould political sentiment in Blackford county.
With the courage of his convictions, he is fearless in discussing the issues of the day and as a party exponent his influence has been duly recognized and appreciated. The Herald is a neatly printed paper, fully abreast of its contemporaries in all that pertains to typographical art, and its columns are the medium through which everything of local general or political interest is given public- ity. Although a young man, Mr. Knight has for a number of years been a potent factor in political circles, and his counsel and advice are frequently sought by the Republi- can management in this part of the county. He takes a lively interest in all that pertains 37
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