USA > Indiana > Grant County > Biographical memoirs of Grant County, Indiana : to which is appended a comprehensive compendium of national biography with portraits of many national characters and well-known residents of Grant County, Indiana. > Part 81
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On the 14th of May, 1882. Mr. Babb was united in marriage with Miss Amanda Mor- gan, daughter of Willis and Elizabeth (Hill) Morgan.
Three children have been born to this union, two of whom are now living. Minnie was born April 1. 1883. Marion was born August 14. 1888, and died December 16, 1891. and Raymond was born January 24, 1890.
Mr. Babb is independent in his religious views and has never connected himself with any religious organization.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.
ROLLIN J. CAREINS.
Rollin J. Careins is the descendant of a family who has played a conspicuous part in the early history of Jefferson township and Grant county, and is, himself, a citizen of integrity, who occupies an enviable post- tion in this community, where he was born and reared. He was introduced to this mundane sphere on June 1I, 1872, and is the second of four children born to Robert J. and Elzina (Dunn) Careins. The eld- est, a daughter, is deceased. Rollin J. was next in order. George is engaged in the hardware business in Matthews. Harman is the youngest and lives with his mother and brother on the homestead which is sit- uated just south of Cumberland. He com- pleted his schooling with a term at Fair- mount Academy.
Robert J. Careins, the father, was born in Muskingum county, Ohio, March 30, 1837, and departed this life July 3, 1884. He came with his parents to Grant county when he was but five or six years old and here received a liberal education. His fa- ther purchased two hundred and sixty acres of wild land where they made their home amid the wild beasts which roamed through the forests. Grandfather Careins was a Whig and took an active part in the cam- paign of "Tippecanoe and Tyler too." Rob- ert Careins was also a Whig, but at the birth of the Republican party became identified with that organization. He and his wife were prime factors in establishing the Pres- byterian church in Cumberland, and were found ready to aid in all worthy charities. He was a very successful man and had en- gaged in various business, at one time being extensively engaged in stock-raising and
farming, and at another he was the leading contractor of this township. His taking off, in the very prime of life was a blow to the community among whom he held a high place.
Harman and Mary (Minnich) Dunn, the maternal grandparents of Rollin J., were among the early settlers of Jefferson town- ship, and their family bore a prominent part in the development of the county. Their children were five in number and all living but one. These are Elzina, mother of Rollin J. ; Amanda, wife of Thomas Lucas, a mer- chant of Fairmount; Loretta, widow of Harry Shoemaker and a resident of Fair- mount; Sarah E., wife of Joseph Littler, of this township. Elzina Careins was born in this county, January 24, 1851, and was edu . cated in the public schools. She makes her home with her two sons on the old home- stead and is a woman of great strength of character and occupies a warm corner in the affections of her friends.
Rollin J. Careins is one of the rising young men of this county and has already established a reputation as a practical agri- culturist and dairyman. His primary edu- cation was received in the common schools, after which he entered Fairmount Academy and took a literary course. He accepted a position in the Farmers State Bank at Eaton, this state, where he remained one year, when he returned to the farm as a more agreeable life and one better suited to his requirements. He is wide-awake and up-to-date in his methods of farming, bringing common sense to bear in the solution of all knotty problems with which he has to contend, and his success is but the reflection of the energy and push he has imparted to his work.
He was married, November 15, 1894,
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with Miss Nellie Spence, who was born in Delaware county, April 30, 1877, and edu- cated in the schools of that vicinity. She is a devout member of the Presbyterian church and a most estimable lady. Mr. Careins is a member of Lodge No. 383, Independent Order of Odd Fellows at New Cumberland, and his wife is a member of the Daughters of Rebecca. They are among the best peo- ple in the county and have a high standing in social circles. In politics he is a Repub- lican and a firm believer in the Mckinley administration.
GEORGE STRANGE.
George Strange is a prominent farmer of Monroe township, Grant county, Indiana, and is one of those men whose sterling worth and physical endurance enabled then to withstand the privations and dangers of pioneer life and lay the foundation of those principles which make Grant county the prosperous community she is to-day. It is impossible for the present generation to realize the great hardships and suffering which attended the opening of the new coun try. Coming from homes, oft times, of com- fort and luxury, the privations were some- times well nigh unbearable, while the hard work and exposure necessary to clearing the land and getting it ready for cultiva- tion called for industrious perseverance.
George Strange is a native of Highland county, Ohio, and was born November 12, 1819. He was the eldest of eight children born to Absolom and Margaret (Tedrick) Strange. Absolom Strange was born in Montgomery county, Kentucky, in 1797. and died in 1873. He learned the trade of a stone-mason and followed it many years and
also engaged in farming. He came to Chio in young manhood at a time when the state was almost a wilderness and but little attempt had been made to inhabit it. One of his brothers, William, was a soldier of the war of 1812, and was the second person on the spot when the old Indian chieftain, Te cumseli, was killed. Absolom Strange re- mained in Ohio until his death, and had accu - mulated one hundred and thirty acres of land in Highland county. He was a Jackson Democrat and upheld the principles of that party during his entire life. Margaret Strange was born and reared in Randolph county, Virginia. Her birth occurred in 1801 and she was a maiden of twelve years when her parents moved north. Her mar- riage with Mr. Strange resulted in the birth of three sons and five daughters, four of whom are yet living, namely : George, the subject of this sketch; Margaret, wife of Allen Pence, a resident of Highland county. Ohio; Stephen, a citizen of Marion, Indiana ; and Sallie, wife of William Stockwell, who resides in Kansas. The mother died in 1845 at the age of forty-four years. Both parents were Christians whose lives were paterned after the Divine example, and the world was the better for their presence. The Strange family were of English origin and trace their ancestry to three brothers who left their na- tive shores, took passage in a sailing vessel and landed on American soil. Here they sepa- rated, one locating in Virginia, one in North Carolina and one in South Carolina. Stephen, the grandfather of George, settled in Cul- peper Court House, Virginia. The grand- mother had been an inmate of Daniel Boone's fort on the Cumberland river at the age of eleven years.
George Strange spent his boyhood in his
GEORGE STRANGE. LYDIA STRANGE
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native county and obtained his education in the schools of his day which were maintained partly by tax and partly by subscription. The building was such as was common to that time, a log structure with clapboard roof, puncheon floor, slab seats sustained by wooden pegs for legs, and a fireplace some seven feet across which was constructed of mud and sticks. Light was admitted through greased paper pasted over holes which had been cut in the sides of the building, while the writing desk was a wide board resting upon pins which were driven into the wall. Steel pens were unknown so the pupil was well satisfied with his goose or turkey quill pen and did not dream it could be improved upon. George Strange was an industrious youth and showed an early preference for the independent life of a farmer, shirking no duty and bravely taking up any work that came to his hand to be done. His first plow was the old wooden mold-board, when a boy with his parents in Ohio, and many the acres of mellow earth he has turned for the plant- ing of crops. Plowing among the stumps was not accomplished with the ease attending the cultivation of the same land to-day, and few of the men who make up the present farming element of the state would make the success they do if compelled to work with the rude implements used by their ancestors. to say nothing of the many impediments thai existed to otherwise prevent progress. Mr. Strange was an expert in the use of the sickle, the implement with which all the grain was cut in those days, and has worked from early morning until night for the munificent wage of fifty cents per day. He became a wage- earner while in his teens and was married when about twenty. His father came to this state in the fall of 1836 and took out patents 39
on four pieces of land of eighty acres each. Each eighty has a patent deed, executed under the hand and seal of Martin Van Bu- ren under date of August 20, 1838. The choice of these four pieces of land was given by the father to his son, George, a lad of seventeen years, and another piece of eighty acres became the home of George upout his marriage.
The return to Ohio was made on foot, his way laying through dense forests and across swollen streams which he was obliged to wade, and was attended with danger. It was to this property he took his young bride, making the journey by wagon, their first meal being eaten on the banks of the Little Miami river. They arrived at their destina- tion on October 18, 1841, and in two weeks they had built and located in their cabin. To be sure the house was without a door, but boards were set up to keep out the storms and marauding animals, but the younger couple made the best of everything and later a door was put in place, the lock being a wooden pin. This eighty is part of their present home which has grown in dimensions until to-day it comprises six hundred acres of land situated in Monroe township, all good till- able land. The land was not always in till- able condition by any means, being botlı swampy and covered by dense growth of timber and underbrush, and it required years of persevering toil of the hardest kind to bring it to its present condition. Mr. Strange did the first blind ditching in the township and has generally taken the lead in progressive farming, and to-day his land is all thoroughly tiled and productive.
February 13, 1840, was solemnized the marriage of George Strange and Miss Lydia Duckwall, and it has been their blessed privi-
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lege to journey together the path of life for upwards of three score years. Sunshine and shadow have fallen across their pathway and they have learned that what was ill on yes- terday works to their good to-morrow, as the clouds are tinted by the sunlight into a glor- ious coloring, so the sorrow in our lives are the means of purifying our natures and awakening our best thoughts and actions. Nine children, four sons and five daughters, formed the home circle. Four have preceded them to the golden dawn of an eternal life, and five are left to bring comfort to their parents in the evening of their life. Mar- garet, the widow of George Roush, lives with her parents ; Joshua, one of the leading agri- culturists, is represented elsewhere in this work; Catherine, wife of Isaiah Wall, is also represented ; John, a successful attorney at law, resides at Marion; and James B. is a practical farmer of this township, which he served for many years as trustee. His biog- raphy appears on another page. Mrs. Strange was born September 18, 18rg, in Highland county, Ohio, where she was married. She is a daughter of George Frederick and Cath- erine (Ellis) Duckwall, and was one of twleve children, five sons and seven daugh- ters : Susie, (deceased), resided in Monroe township and was the widow of Jefferson Hults; Mrs. Strange is next oldest ; Betsey also lives in this township and is the widow of Abraham Roods; Charlotte is the wife of John Barker and resides on a farm in Hugh- land county, Ohio; Abraham L. is a resident of the same county and youngest living of the family.
George Frederick Duckwall came from the Virginia Dutch stock, whose thrift and in . dustrious frugality have placed the state of Virginia among the foremost of the Union,
although he was a native of Virginia, where he was born about 1816. Some of his rela- tives fought in the war of 1812, and Abram Ellis, the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Strange fought for seven years for liberty in the Revolutionary war. He had an acquain- tance with the famous George Washington and participated in the same battles. The lives of Mr. and Mrs. Strange have been characterized by strict integrity and honesty and the benevolent, kindly dispositions which have proffered the helping hand and spoken the cheering word to those in need. Every opportunity was grasped to prosecute the common welfare and promote the best inter est of the community. Politically Mr. Strange is a Democrat. He remembers "Old Tippecanoe and Tyler, too," and has sat in the same room with the former. Mr. Strange served eleven years as township trustee and (icclined a re-elcetion. He has used every ef- fort, both as private citizen and in official ca- pacity to raise the standard of public schools schools and to improve the condition of the township. He was one of the principal pro- moters of the pike road and of ditching the low lands, and is always found on the right side of all important questions that have to dic ·with the public good.
Almost sixty years have passed since this worthy couple located in the wilds of Indiana, and the changes which they have witnessed in those years are almost beyond belief. Many and many a log-rolling and cabin-raising was attended when these were the social events of the time, quiltings being the social recreation of the women and in later days, carpet-rag sewing. The for- ests and swamps have given place to rolling fields, whose golden grain wave in the breeze like vast seas, and the country once barren
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of improvement is threaded by railroad and steam engine in every nook and corner, while electricity lights the way an'd carries our thoughts over miles of space almost be- fore we can utter them in words. Villages and cities have sprung up and the once sparsely populated country is now teeming with life and activity. Modern inventioni lias placed in the hands of her children im- plements of utility which are almost magical in their practical results, and has promised them even greater wonders for the morrow.
Some of the relics of pioneer days have been preserved by Mr. Strange and now form a valuable collection, many of which have 110 duplicates. He holds three parchment deeds, patents of the land entered by his fa- ther in 1836, each bearing the autograph of President Van Buren. The fourth deed was presented to his son, Joshua. An old beaver trap which was plowed up on his estate and
· preserved by him must have been used by trappers in Beaver Lake, when the French inhabited this country over a century ago. Beaver Lake was situated on his land. But the greatest objects of curiosity are four blocks of wood about fifteen inches in diame- ter, taken from a white oak tree which had been felled with the intention of using it for staves. This tree also grew on his premises and was fully one hundred and fifty years old when cut down. They represent drawings made by the Indians with their tomahawks, and are fac similes of scenery, ducks; and one is a perfect fish in which the fins,tail.etc., show plainly. The fourth piece shows where a sharp instrument had been used to extract a bullet which had been imbedded in the tree, its impression being clearly discern- ibie, and the entire marks, hatchet marks and bullet hole, being in the center of the wood
and enclosed by subsequent layers of wood as the tree gained in age. Mrs. Strange has two bed covers made of wool and cotton which she made herself when a girl, spinning the yarn in her father's barn. She also has two quilts made by herself when a girl and the sewing indicates that our gentle ances- tors were more proficient with the needle than are the offspring. An heirloom which is among their cherished treasures is the old eight-day clock which belonged to Mr. Strange's father and is over sixty-five years old. Many interesting reminiscences are called to mind by this worthy couple which would form most instructive reading did space permit, and many valuable lessons could be gleaned from their lives which have been rich with experience. The following beautiful lines are quite applicable to their lives :
It was just sixty years ago, while yet the earth was white with snow,
Nor even the robin's daring strain told that the Spring had come again;
Two human hearts forgot the cold, forgot the ice on stream and wold,
And full of sunny Summer weather, tried building a new world together.
In calm and storm this happy pair who built Love's world so bright and fair,
Have kept its sunshine and its stars, its fragrant flow- ers and rainbow bars.
They are standing now amid the sheen of golden light which falls between
The ruddy morning's opening glow and splendors which the sunsets know.
1
L. G. RICHARDS.
The name of Richards is an honored one in Grant county, Indiana, and is synonymous with sterling worth and Christian integrity of character. The family who bore it were
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.
among the early settlers of Grant county and did much towards the early growth and development of the community, one of them being the gentleman whose name appears above. He was born in Jefferson township October 25, 1834, and is a son of John and Effie (Roberts) Richards. He is probably the oldest native resident of Grant county living there to-day.
John Richards was born in the Keystone state March 3, 1809, where he grew up and received his education. He was a man of shrewd judgment and keen perception, and by improving his opportunities managed to acquire a valuable fund of knowledge which proved of great use to him in his later years. He married Effie Roberts who was born in Guernsey county Ohio, whither he had moved with his father, April 25. 1809. She died January 2, 1848, and he on March 28, 1863. Seven sons and two daughters blessed their union, two of whom, a son and a daughter, have been re-united with them in the choir invisible. Seven are now living honorable, useful lives, namely : Henry, who fought in the Civil war and is at present a resident of Oklahoma; L. G., who is here represented ; AAbraham B. a well- to-do farmer of this township; Daniel, who also fought in the Rebellion and is now liv- ing on his farm in Delaware county; Mar- tha J., now Mrs. Philip Miller, of Randolph county : Jacob and Isaac, both substantial farmers of this township.
Father Richards was a Democrat of the Jeffersonian type and a man of noble Chris- tian character. He it was who was a prime factor in establishing the Baptist society in the township, and for many years before a church could be built he preached to the people, the meetings being held in the homes
of the members. These trips were made on horseback and were continued until the little frame church was erected, when serv- ices were held in that, Mr. Richards serving as pastor for upwards of forty years. He had moved to Indiana soon after his mar- riage and entered two hundred and forty acres of land in what was afterwards Jef- ferson township, later adding to this pur- chase until he owned five hundred and sixty acres, much of which is now in the posses- sion of his descendants.
L. G. Richards was born in the log house first occupied as the residence of the family in the wilderness of Indiana. In a similar building he received such educa- tional advantages as fell to the lot of the average farmer boy, the weighted clapboard roof, rude desk resting against the side of the building on which the more ambitious student industriously labored with his goose quill pen to trace the copy set by the master, the slab seats with their five wooden legs and the huge fireplace usually completed the furnishing. The wood used in the school was usually cut by the boys and the immense backlog was carried in by the larger pupils with hand spikes. The school was kept up by subscription and usually lasted three months. Wolves, deer and wild turkey were plentiful at that time and neighbors were few and far between. The contrast between that time and the present is a most remark- able one. Now may be seen large cities and flourishing villages ; land then covered with forests, wild and untrodden, now covered with splendid farms and dwellings; exten- sive navigation of rivers and a network of railroads crossing the country from corner to corner : on every hand are school houses and churches to spread the light of knowl-
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edge throughout the length and breadth of our land; while at the annual conventions and fairs held throughout the country we find intelligent farmers with a large and varied assortment of produce derived from the soil they till, while merchants without number flock to the mart which offers the best opportunity of disposing of their stock. Something of all this has come under the observation of Mr. Richards during his so- journ here. Upland, Jonesboro and Gas City he has seen begin with the first building and grow to their present proportions.
L. G. Richards remained at home with his parents until he was twenty-three years old, his father, in the meantime, having given him eighty acres of land on his twen- ty-first anniversary. This property was situated in the forest and was innocent of roads of all description. Here he labored, clearing off timber, cultivating the land, making roads and the thousand and one things necessary for the proper development of the land, and his industry has been crowned with the most flattering success. At one time he owned seven hundred acres and has been able to assist his children in a handsome manner. This wealth is the outcome of hard toil and is the more en- joyable for the reason that it represents his own honest labor. One thing which is rather unusual in the accumulation of so much land is the fact that he has never given a mortgage on any of it, each ac- cession being added as he had the means to purchase, and not in anticipation of obtain- ing the price at some future period.
Mr. Richards has been twice married. The wife of his youth was Miss Mary E. Craw, who bore him five children ere she passed into the light of the eternal morning
on May 27, 1892. Her spotless life was the exemplification of her religious faith and the outgrowth of her pure, loving na- ture. Four children survive her, viz. : Lu- cinda, who married Rufus Nottingham, a farmer of this township and has an inter- esting family; John W., who is a prosper- ous agriculturist of Delaware county and a licensed minister in the Baptist church; David L., who resides in the southwest cor- ner of this township on the old homestead; and Sarah S., who married John Himelick, a prosperous and highly respected citizen of Fairmount, who has been one of the most efficient instructors in the county for a num- ber of years. They gave their children the advantage of good schools and the example of upright, honorable, God-fearing lives, and had the pleasure of seeing them develop into intelligent, Christian men and women, whose sturdy principles have been a bulwark against evil.
The present Mrs. Richards, nce Maria Martin, was born in Fayette county, this state, February 18, 1837, and became his wife September 4, 1896. She is a daughter of Russel and Ida (Sutphen) Martin, and one of seven children. Five are living, and with the exception of Mrs. Richards and her brother Maxwell, who is a prosperous resi- dent of Colorado, they all live in Muncie. Her mother is in her ninety-third year and has retained her mental faculties in a won- derful degree, being as vivacious as a per- son of fifty years. Mrs. Richards was ed- ucated in the common schools and is a lady of intelligence and refinement whose genialty and kindly disposition inspire good feeling ir the breasts of others and has tightly bound the golden cord of friendship around those with whom she has been associated.
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Mr. Richards is one of the leading mem- bers of the Harmony Baptist church and is a liberal contributor towards the support of that body. He is a Democrat in politics, having been affiliated with that party since casting his maiden vote for James Buchanan. He is generous to a fault and the worthy and deserving never appeal to him in vain. They live in the vicinity of Matthews in a neat, comfortable home, surrounded by peace and plenty as the purple shadows lengthen and the sun of life creeps slowly along toward the golden-hued cloud-land of the western horizon.
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