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 79
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THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
(red dollars was expended in an open ditch, which simply afforded a suitable outlet for the hundreds of rods of tile drain that has been laid and which in opening up the water courses affords ample facilities for abundant drainage, thus making the tract one of the most valuable and productive of the many farms in the Walnut valley. Mr. Greenlee now has about sixty acres in cultivation and. having erected first-class buildings, inchuid- ing a tenant house and suitable accommo- dations of every character, has the satisfac- tion of realizing that the many years of in- cessant toil has received a reward and that easy circumstances are now and henceforth his to enjoy. Lying as it does in the recog- nized oil field, his own farm gives promise of proving valuable oil territory; as yet, however, but one well has reached the oil producing strata, the results from the one rewarding the efforts of construction and justifying further investment along the same line of procedure.
Mr. Greenlee holds strictly to the at- tractive doctrines of the Republican party, being recognized as one of the stalwarts. While of a retiring disposition himself and free from the taint of office seeking and self advancement, the party has found in him a stanch and reputable man in whom public confidence is felt regardless of party lines. the opposition holding him in the greatest estecm, and he has thus heretofore been called upon to attend to the duties of more or less of the local offices. His performance of the duties of these offices has demonstrated his ample fitness for more responsible positions, to which he is now being called. Recently nominated for the position of county com- missioner, his conduct of the campaign has won for him many additional friends.
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The Greenlee family consists of four
children, as follows: Anna Jane, George Samuel, Mary Mand and Thomas William. Pearl was taken from them when but one year old. Of the above, George is mar- ried, his wife being Miss Bertha Gerrett. They are now operating part of his father's farm. Mr. Greenlee and family are mem- bers of the church of the Disciples, his home being in close proximity to the church.
JACOB MARION SHRADER.
Jacob Marion Shrrader was born on the site of his present residence, five miles north of Hartford City, Washington township, on the 12th of July, 1862. He is a son of John R. and Margaret (Cochran) Shrader, he being a native of Marion county, Virginia, and being brought by his parents when six years of age to Henry county, Indiana, and four years later to Blackford county, the family settling one and a half miles cast of Dundee.
Here his father, Absalom, entered land of the government, and made it his perma- nent home, dying about 1870, and his wife, Julia, survived until the ripe and venerable old age of eightv-seven. They had resided on the old homestead which is now owned by their granddaughter and husband, Phil- lip Schmidt. They were the parents of two sons, John R., and Henry, who is residing in Richardson county, Nebraska, having gone from this state while yet a young man. Of the three daughters one only is living, Julia, widow of Joseph Sills, and living near the old homestead. Martha married Alfred Ratliff, and Elizabeth married Nicholas Willman.
John R. Shrader remained home during
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his minority, and was married, March 28, 1852, to the daughter of Thomas B. and
( Whitlock) Cochran. Her parents then lived in the same vicinity. re- moving, however. later to Selma, Delaware county, where they reached quite advanced years. Soon after John's marriage he set- tled in the woods on the present tract of land, erected a small log house with the most primitive furnishing, a board stuck in a crack for a table, slabs for a seat, and everything else along the same lines. Ilis life was de- voted to the making of a farm and was, like many another man's, remarkable for the perseverance and pluck that characterized the living under the difficulties of the times. He succeeded in placing about thirty acres in cultivation, and this, lying in a flat sec- tion of the country, demanded a great deal of drainage before it was in suitable condi- tion for the growing of large crops. He adopted the old style of timber ditches, of which he laid an immense amount, only, however, to replace it with a more modern system of tile, when the value of the latter was proven. The old log house in which they began housekeeping in that simple man- ner remained the home until it was replaced ir 1873 with the present more modern edi- fice. He died on November 4, 1879, at the age of sixty-nine, being survived by his com- panion, who also passed to the future world on February 5, 1900, aged sixty-eight. It can well be said of them that the commit- nity knew no better citizens, every help of a moral nature finding in them most ardent encouragement. Ile, being trained in the school of simple democracy, naturally iden- tified his life with the political party that embodies most of the principles that made for greater personal freedom and individual worth, ever casting his franchise for the
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nominees of the Democracy. His life was quiet, making little noise in his professions of religion or politics, but set a worthy ex- ample in the every-day living, whose emula- tion by the youth of today will redound to the honor of the community.
The family consisted of five children, of whom William Henry died at nineteen; Martha Jane is the wife of Phillip Schmidt, and, as stated above, resides at the old home- stead; Elva Viola died at sixteen, and one succumbed in infancy. Jacob Marion Shra- der spent his boyhood with the family on the home farm, attending the con: on schools. Upon attaining his twenty-first birthday he resolved to do for himself. He decided to learn the carpenter's trade, and joined an uncle in Nebraska, but not being specially impressed with the beauties of the hand-saw and jack-plane, returned soon after to the parental r of. Glad to see him back, and hoping to keep him near him his father gave him forty acres, to which he now began to direct his attentions-not, however, in full. dividing it with the young ladies of the neighborhood, the one most favored in this respect being Miss Phebe Lockett. The more he saw of this young lady the more he felt that her assistance was necessary to the proper conduct of the farm, a view in which she coincided. They were married on the 28th of April, 1887. She also represents an old family in the county, her father. James Lockett, who is ! living near, hav-
ing been born in the cou y in the '30s. He was the son of Esquire Lockett. one of the earliest residents. Her mother was Amelia Leffingwell, many of whose early graces and attractions have been inherited by the daugh- ter. At his father's death Jacob returned to the place, caring for his mother in her de- clining years. His father having purchased
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the old Shafer place, presented it to his daughter, as her share of the estate. thus leaving Jacob the sole heir of the home place. whic assed to him at his mother's death. About ninety-five acres are in a fine state of cultivation, the greater part of which was improved by his father. More than cight hundred rods of tile have been laid on the tract, and the same care and skill have been displayed in all their lines of improvement, which are on a commensurate scale. Being in the heart of the valuable oil field, five wells have been drilled, the product from them bringing an ap; eciable monthly reve- nue. which with the income from the conduct of the farm places the proprietor in circum- stances of affluence and ease. Mr. Shrader is quite well known in connection with the operation of threshing machines and hay bal- ers, having an extensive and lucrative pat- ronage in that line.
He is often found in the deliberative councils of the Democratic party. and is ever ready with time or means to contribute to its success at the polls. His family are: Mary Belle, Homer Marion and Carrie May : Delbert Earl died in infancy. He and his wife are members of Washington Center United Brethren church.
JOHN J. HAYES.
John J. Hayes, farmer and stock raiser of Licking township, of which he is a native, was born on the 25th day of October, 1837. His father was Henry Hayes, a Virginian by birt; . and his mother, whose maiden name was Lucinda Knowlton, was born in the state of Massachusetts. The Knowltons were among the early New England families settling in the town of Ipswich, Massachu- setts, as long ago as 1635, removing thence
in a later day to various parts of the west. Henry Hayes was for many years a pilot on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, but in 1835 retired from that service and came to Dela- ware county, Indiana, settling in the town- ship of Licking, where he entered a tract of government land and in due season developed a farm. His first residence is described as a frail pole shanty, bastily constructed and covered with bark, and it was in this pin- neer dwelling that John J. Hayes was born and. as stated by himself, rocked to sleep many a time in a sugar trough instead of a cradle. The date of the arrival of the Hayes family was also marked by the settlement in Licking township of the Gadburys, Hughes, Cunninghams and Springers and perhaps a few others whose names are now forgotten. Mr. Hayes made his journey to his new home in a small cart, which contained be- side himself and family the sum total of worldly effects then in his possession. After his death, which occurred not long after coming to the new country, his widow, left with six small children, had an exceedingly hard time in making a living for the help- less ones dependent upon her. By spinning for the neighbors and other kinds of work she managed to keep the wolf from the door. and in the meantime looked after the little farm, which under her care produced what eatables the family required.
After three or four years of widowhood she married a teacher from one of the east- ern states, who came to Licking township for the purpose of organizing a school for the benefit of the few children in the new settlement. This did not prove a happy union and after a short time it was dissolved by the wife, who obtained one of the first divorces over granted by the court of Black- ford county.
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THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
When the subject of this sketch was thir- teen years old he ran away from home by reason of ill treatment by his stepfather and went to live with a gentleman by the name of Ilenly, a tanner, under whom he served an apprenticeship to learn that trade. Young Hayes remained in the home of Mr. llenly for about five years, receiving for his services in the tanyard his board and cloth- ing. After becoming proficient in the trade he was allowed forty-two dollars per year, , together with the scraps, hair, hoofs, etc., which he could gather from the tannery, selling these for glue, plastering, etc., re- ceiving therefor considerable money in ad- dition to his regular wages. As time went by and his work became of greater valve, his wages were increased to one dollar per day, no mean sum in those days, and from this he managed to lay by sufficient means to enable him at the end of ten years to en- gage in farming.
On the 25th of April, 1860, Mr. Hayes was united in marriage to Miss Mary Jane Ward, daughter of Joseph and Ailcy ( Rob- erts) Ward, early settlers of Grant county, where Mrs. Hayes' birth occurred July 28, 1844. When Mrs. Hayes was five years old her parents moved to the county of Black- ford and settled on the section of land in Licking tow hip about one mile north of the original Hayes homestead. Her father died on the home farm, aged severty-one, and the mother departed this life later at the advanced age of eighty-two years. One son, Joseph Ward, occupies a part of the old farm, while Mrs. Hayes owns the remainder.
Immediately after his marriage Mr. Hayes erected a comfortable hewed-log house on a tract of unimproved land, a part of the Ward homestead, and at once began cutting away the dense growth of timber
preparatory to fitting the soil for cultivation. By working early and late be in due time had twenty acres ready for the plow, and as the years went by this area was enlarged until the greater part of his land was placed in a successful state of tillage. The farm was originally covered with exceedingly heavy timber, much of which he disposed of to great advantage and from this source alone he derived money almost equaling the value of the land.
Mr. Hayes states that the first year he deadened the timber on eighteen acres in addition to the land first cleared, and after standing five years the dand trees were cut down and with the aid of your hands, drawn into heaps and easily burned. The same season witnessed the blowing out of the stumps by dynamite, and thus in a com- peratively short time a goodly portion of his farm was broken the first time without a single stump of any kind to interfere. To remove the stumps from his place required over a ton of explosives, but the expense has been trifling compared with the benefits re- ceived.
Mr TTayes is a successful farmer and has sparer pains to make his place one of the most highly cultivated and productive in Licking township. By a thorough system of tile drainage, embracing in all over four thousand rods, he has greatly enhanced the fertility of the soil, besides reclaiming what was originally nearly covered with ponds and quagmires, the latter at this time being the most productive part of the land. In the course of time the old buiklings, which so well served their purpose, were replaced by now and more modern structures, includ- ing a large and commodious barn, which unfortunately was completely destroyed by fire in September, 1896, entailing upon Mr.
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Hayes great financial loss. Ile has since erected a more modest buikling, which, like all other improvements upon his place, is substantial and complete in all its arrange- ments.
In addition to regular farming Mr. Hayes also gives considerable attention to stock raising, keeping on hand at all times horses and cattle and hogs in sufficient num- ber to use all the surplus grain grown upon the place. In this he has been quite success- ful, his reputation as a breeder and dealer in superior kinds of stock being much more than local. In the matter of farming he be- lieves in doing everyth: in the best way, and the good condition of his fences, buikl- ings and in fact everything upon his premises bespeak for him great thrift besides a thor- ough knowledge of every department of ag riculture.
Mr. and Mrs. Hayes have a family consisting of the following children: Will- iam Henry, Perry, John. Wesley, Al- bert, Alfred, Rutha and Harry, the last four still under the parental roof. Be- sides the above, four members of the family are dead, namely: Nathaniel died at the age of twenty-seven; Elsie Jane, wife of Stephen Michaels, died at thirty-five; Minerva married Charles Niedeher and died when twenty-two years old; and Lorinia, who departed this life at the early age of twenty-one.
in addition to Mr. Hayes' career as a suc- cessful farmer, he also has a military record, having been one of the brave men who re- sponded to the c amtry's call when the safety of our institutions was threatened by the great Rebellion. He enlisted August 11, 1862, in Company D. Eighty-fourth Indiana Infantry, with which he served for a period of two years, taking part during that time
in a number of battles and skirmishes in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. By rea- son of almost complete loss of hearing, caused by exposure, he was discharged be- fere the expiration of his period of enlist- ment and he still suffers great inconveniences from this cause.
During her husband's absence in the army Mrs. Hayes exercised control of the farm and remained alone with several small children in the little cabin home. At that time the home was remote from neighbors, surrounded by dense woods, with nothing but a foot path leading to the nearest house, a considerable distance away. Her situation was indeed lonely, but with a fortitude most commendable she refused to become dis- con aged and nobly did her part in main. taining the family and keeping up the home while her husband and father was exposing himself to dangers and death on the battle field.
Mrs. Hayes is a woman of rare judg- ment, possesses many noble qualities of head and heart and has been a true helpmate to her husband throughout their wedded life. She has a large circle of friends in the com- munity where she resides and stands high in the esteem of all with whom she becomes acquainted.
In politic. Mr. Hayes is a stanch sup- porter of the Republican party and in re- ligion a Methodist. He and his wife be- long to the Mt. Carmel church, in which they have for years been active workers.
ORLANDO SIPE.
Orlando Sip , of Jackson township, whose postoffice address is Hartford City, traveling salesman for the Atlantic Refining
TITE BIOGRAPHIICAL RECORD.
Company, of Cleveland, Ohio, his territory including Indiana and Illinois, was born at Deerfield, Randolph county, Indiana, March II, 1852. He is a son of Alfred and Nancy (Sipe) Sipe, who, though of the same name, were not nearly related to each other. Both came from Pennsylvania to Indiana at an early day, and were thus among the pio- neers of this great western state.
The boyhood of Orlando was spent upon the farm, that institution which has given to the country so many of its leading business ' and professional men, and at the age of six- teen he entered Ridgeville College, where he prepared himself for the important work of teaching school. This work, so insufficient- ly appreciated even by those it benefits most, he carried on near Union City and at his old home for a period of six years, and in which he received at least as large a share of public approval as usually falls to the lot of the teacher. After giving up this profes- sion he was engaged by the Superior Drill Company, of Springfield, Ohio, for which company he traveled successfully four years through the states of Indiana and Illinois, and in whose employ he made for himself an enviable reputation as a salesman. Com- pelled by ill-health to retire from this busi- ness, he purchased his present farm in Jack- son township, to which be removed and upon which he has lived with the exception of two years for the past twelve years. The two : pars not spent upon the farm were spent at Dunkirk. Mr. Sipe's farm contains one hundred and sixty acres of land, all of which when he bought it was wild and covered over with a fine growth of forest trees. Upon this farm a great deal of work has been done, there being about sixty acres in an excellent state of cultivation, and most of which is devoted to the raising of stock,
very largely to sheep. Mr. Sipe also has a fine orchard of several hundred trees, his assortment including apples, plums, grapes, small fruits, etc., all in splendid bearing condition. The position which he now fills with the Atlantic Refining Company he se- cured in 1899, and he is now traveling the states of Indiana and Illinois.
Mr. Sipe was married December 20. 1871, at Ridgeville, Indiana, to Miss Re- becca J. Barrett, daughter of Fletcher and Osce (Whiteneck) Barrett, who was born at Ridgeville, and who received her educa- tion in the common schools. Her father came to Indiana when a boy of twelve years, or perhaps fourteen, from Pennsylvania, he being a son of Elisha and Mary Barrett, who settled at Day's Creek, and who later removed to Butler county, Illinois, where they lived and died. Fletcher Barrett was married to Miss Whiteneck near Ridgeville, and was a large and successful farmer near that place, dying when about sixty-six years of age. His widow still lives on the old homestead, a woman highly regarded by all who know her.
Mr. and Mrs. Sipe have had two chil- dren, viz: Nannie married Edgar Mann, of Dunkirk, where she died at the age of twenty years. leaving three children, two of whom are living, viz: Marie and Eva. Bessie is the wife of George Shrack, of Noblesville, Indiana, who is connected withi the gla factories of that place, and who has three children, Clarence, Orla and Ros- coe. Politically Mr. Sipe is a Democrat, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Trenton, in which he has been a class leader for two years. He is also a Mason, being a member of the lodge at Trenton and is an active worker in his lodge. Taken all in all, Mr.
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THE BIOGRAPHIICAL RECORD.
Sipe is one of the most energetic and pro- gressive citizens of his county, and is al- ways ready and willing to aid in the advance- ment of educational and religious work, for upon these lines depends the intellectual and moral improvement of the race.
HENRY BANTZ.
It is frequently the privilege of individ- uals of ability and energy to demonstrate to their fellow men what can be done through these qualities when an opport nity presents itself, and it is a pleasure to record an ac- count of such instances in this work. One of the individuals thus favored with opportun- ities is Henry Bantz, who was born near Al- bany, Delaware county, Indiana, October 3. 1836, and who is a son of Joshua and Bet- sy (Brenner) Bantz. The former was a na- tive of Baltimore, Maryland, where he lived until he was twelve years of age, when he was taken to Preble county, Ohio, and was there married to Betsy Brenner, who was a native of Ohio. Soon after their marriage they settled in Delaware county, Indiana, where Mr. Bantz entered land upon which he lived until late in life, when he removed to Muncie, Indiana, and there died at the age of seventy-four. Mr. Bantz was one of the sturdy pioneers of Delaware county, uncom- monly strong and an unusually hardworking man. His frame was very large and being inured to labor he accomplished much more than the ordinary pioneer, and his character was as strong and sound as his physical frame.
Henry Bantz remained at home, attend- ing school and working on the farm, until he was twenty-six years of age, renting a por-
tion of the homestead farm during the latter part of this time. He was married, March 5, 1865, to Sarah E. Bartlett, of Delaware county, where she was born and where they were married. Previous to his marriage he had purchased one hundred acres of his pres- ent farm, which was then covered with large and valuable timber, and had no buildings erected on them, he going in debt to the ex- ient of one thousand five hundred dollars. The timber he cut into ties and cord wood, from the sale of which he realized considera- ble money. Later he added forty acres, making one hundred and forty acres, and still later other acres, until he bad and now has land to the amount of three hundred and thirty acres, lying in Blackford, Jay and Delaware counties, and divided up into four farms. He has about two hundred and ten acres under cultivation, which is well drained with about thre. thousand rods of tile, and he expended about twelve hundred dollars in the construction of the Lick Creek ditch. The principal crop grown by Mr. Bantz has been corn, all of which he feeds to hogs each year, his p1 i being to breed only the best of stock. His present two-story brick house, which is large and convenient, he erected twenty years ago. His farm is well situated in tl gas belt and is crossed by the Panhan- dle Railway. The gas well on his farm is owned and operated by the Bantz-Patters Gas Company, of which he was one of the original stockholders, and which was incor- porated in 1895. It has a capital of ten thousand dollars and operates three wells, which supply a portion of the demand in Dunkirk. Mr. Bantz is still a member of this company, owning a portion of its stock.
Mr. Bantz, like his father before him, has a strong and powerful frame, and has always been an industrious, hardworking man. For
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THE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.
eight years after starting out in life for him- self he did not lose a day, but worked con- stantly in order to place his property in the fine condition it now is found. It was after he was twenty-one that he began to make sat isfactory progress, and at the time of his marriage he had a splendid start. The share he received from his father's estate he ha: husbanded well and has so invested it that it brings him in fair returns. No man has done more than Mr. Bantz to further public im- . provements, the Lick Creek ditch, mentioned earlier in this sketch, owing its existence mainly to his pers ering efforts, he going on the bonds of county commissioners at the time it was constructed to the amount of five thousand dollars. He has also contributed largely to the building of pikes and all simi- lar public improvements, knowing that good public roads largely increase the value of farm lands and make travel more easy and pleasant, saving time, team and rolling stock. Politically Mr. Bantz is a Democrat, but gives his attention mainly to the private affairs. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and an excellent citizen in every way.
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