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 92
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.
James Johnson was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, November 2, 1821, and is one of a family of eleven children born to John and Mary (Burns) Johnson. John Johnson was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and came from the sturdy German stock which settled in that state, and whose descendants all over this broad land are noted for their thrifty, industrious habits and good citizenship. He was reared to the life of a farmer and in 1811 he came west as far as Guernsey county and made that his home for twenty-five years. He had been a hard-working man and had accumulated some capital, and in 1836 he came farther west to invest this money. He entered about eighteen hundred acres of land in this and Delaware counties, and one of the mementoes of those early days which our subject now prizes very highly is the old parchment deed which is in his possession and bears the seal of Martin Van Buren. Father Johnson was an old-line Whig and a consistent member of the Presbyterian church, in which he was an elder for sixty years. Mary Burns was also a native of Washington county, Penn- sylvania, and there met and married John Johnson. Her death occurred while they resided in Guernsey county. Seven sons and four daughters were born to them, four of whom survive, viz .: James, the subject of this biography; Jesse, a resident of Mill township; Ebenezer, a farmer of Guernsey county, Ohio; and Martha, wife of Jacob Laughlin, a resident of Logan county, Ohio.
James Johnson remained in his native state until he was twenty-two years of age, receiving his education in the log school- house, whose puncheon floors and clapboard roof, weighted down with poles, were ser- vicable in keeping out the cold, even if they
were not ornamental. Since the modern school furniture was unknown, the slab seat was taken as a matter of course, and the old- fashioned fireplace, five feet in length, which occupied one end of the room, threw a rosy glow over the boys and girls gathered to- gether there. Brick was not to be had in the new country and mud and sticks were used as a substitute in building chimneys and walls. When about twenty-two years old he was married and started with his bride in a four-horse wagon for the wilds of Grant county, Indiana. Their route was the "Na- tional" road, which led through Columbus and Zanesville, Ohio, and their destination was the property which had been entered a few years previous by our subject's father. It has been more than fifty years since they settled in the Indiana forests and the log cabin which was their first home still stands upon their premises. They have watched Marion attain its present size from a small beginning and every railroad in the county as well as in the state has been placed since they came here. They have been industrious and capable and have added to their posses- sions until to-day they have two thousand, eight hundred acres of land in this county, most of which is under cultivation. The im- provements, which are a credit to the com- munity, have all been placed by Mr. John- son and he has been among the most pro- gressive men of the age. His first crops were gathered in with the sickle; this was replaced by the cradle, an implement which he made for himself. Then came the old McCormick reaper, which required a man to drive and one to rake the grain from the machine. Mr. Johnson was among the first to purchase this machine. The heavy forest long ago disappeared from the coun-
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.
try and with it the Indians and wild ani- mals that inhabited those parts. When they first settled the wild turkey would come around the dooryard and sometimes orna- mented the pioneer dinner table.
On July 4, 1843, Mr. Johnson was mar- ried to Miss Elizabeth Shriver, and the fruits of this union were eight children, four sons and four daughters, only two of whom are living. They are Solomon, one of Jeffer- son township's most prosperous residents. He taught school for several years and then turned his attention to the pursuit of agri- culture. He is an active Republican ; and Emma, wife of Solomon Wise, a well-known farmer of this section. The youngest son, J. N., died leaving three children, who make their home with their grandfather. Bertha, the eldest, married Charles Snyder and has one son, little Clarence, whom the great- grandparents regard as the apple of their eye. Elva and Alva are twins; Elva has completed the seventh grade and Alva grad- uated with the class of 1900. Mrs. John- son was born in Guernsey county, Ohio. June 5. 1826, and is a daughter of Jacob and Sarah (Patterson) Shriver. Of the seven children in this family but two are now living. She, also, attended the log school-house and recalls many pleasing episodes of those early times. Mr. Johnson is a Republican and remembers the cam- paign of Tippecanoe and Tyler, too, when the log cabin, the ceonskin and the hard cider were prominent objects of the torch-light parade. When the black shadows of war overhung this fair land he hastened to offer his services to his country and enlisted in August. 1862, in Company I. One Hundred and First Indiana Infantry. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumber-
land and he took part in the engagement at Franklin, Kentucky, but the hardships of the field were too much for his health and he was rendered unfit for service. Receiving his honorable discharge he returned home, but his heart and interests were with the soldier on the "old camp ground." He has represented his party several times at con- ventions and at all times is subsevient to the public interests. He is always ready to as- sist a good cause and nine churches in this locality were the recipients of his generosity. He was made a Mason in early life and is a man whose record is above reproach.
TIMOTHY FOREHAND.
Timothy Forehand was born in Grant county, Indiana, January 13, 1842, on the homestead where he now resides in Jefferson township, which was one of the first tracts of land entered from the government in this county. His parents were James and Anna ( Roberds) Forehand. the father a native of North Carolina, born in 1809. and the mother a native of Darke county, Ohio. She was born in 1815. Both parents died on the old homestead, the father in 1878 and the mother some ten years later. She was a devout member of the Christian church. Nine children were born to them, three of whom are living. They are Will- iam, a farmer of Howard county; Lewis, a resident of Kokomo: and Timothy.
James Forehand followed the occupation of farming and in 1827 came to Randolph county. Indiana, with his father, a soldier in the war of 1812. After one year in that county they came to Grant county and en- tered forty acres of land near the present
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.
site of Gas City, and eighty acres in Jeffer- son township, receiving his deed from An- drew Jackson-"Old Hickory," as he was familiarly known. At that date Marion was not laid out and the population consisted of Mr. David Conner and a man named Boots. There were but three or four families in the entire township and of course no church or school-house. The solitude was unbroken by sound of whistle or clang of bell, the ax of the pioneer being the only sound to break the stillness. Here, in the midst of the wilderness, James Forehand cleared a space and built the family a home. Logs from the surrounding timber was used in its construc- tion, the wide-open fireplace and chimney being built of mud and sticks, the floor of puncheon and the doors of clapboards. Neighbors there were none, unless we so con- sider the Indian who had not yet been driven out, and still continued to inhabit the old hunting ground in large numbers. The country was infested with wolves that would howl around their door at night, and wild turkey and deer were abundant, often form- ing the principal dish at the pioneer's meals.
Timothy Forehand obtained his educa- tion in the old log school-house which was heated by the big fireplace and lighted from openings cut in the logs, over which greased paper was pasted. The children were seated on slab seats and practiced their writing lessons at a long desk fastened to the side of the wall, their pens being made from the quill of the goose. He grew up to become a farmer and remained with his parents, giving them his assistance and wages until he was of age. The wages re- ceived at that time was fifty cents per day for the hardest kind of work, clearing off brush and timber. At the age of twenty-
one he had no capital and purchase:l his farm from the other heirs, paying them from the product of the land. He has one hun- (red and ten acres of land, well improved, and is one of the substantial, practical agri- culturists of the county.
He was united in marriage with Miss Armstrong, by whom he had four children, three of whom have preceded him to the better world. The surviving son, Noah B., was a popular teacher in this township and resides at home. After the death of his wife Mr. Forehand was again united in mar- riage, the lady of his choice being Miss Rebecca Monroe, who was born in this county in 1847 and educated in the public schools. She is a faithful wife and mother and has made a good home for her husband and his children. Three sons and two daughters have blessed their union, only two of whom are left to brighten the lives of their parents, namely: Josephine and Al- bert.
A Democrat in politics, Mr. Forehand has always stood by the principles of his party since casting his first vote for George B. McClellan. He has repeatedly been chos- en delegate to township, county and con- gressional conventions and has used every honorable means in his power to advance the welfare of his community. He is a member of Arcana Lodge, No. 352, Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows, at Upland, and is also a member of the Encampment. He is public spirited and liberal, two churches receiving generous remembrance from him, while his aid is always freely given to any worthy object. It is such men as Mr. Forehand that form the bone and sinew of the state and make it the great producing center it is to-day.
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.
WILLIAM H. LEISURE.
William H. Leisure, a farmer of Sims township, Grant county, Indiana, was born in Rush county March 1, 1843. His parents were John H. and Elsie (Swain) Leisure. The father was born in Kentucky, and the family has been identified with the Hoosier state since 1836, on which date his grand- father, Nathan Leisure, located in Rush county. He was descended from Scotch ancestors, his father, and subject's great- grandfather, having emigrated from Scot- land and located in Virginia, where he at- tained the remarkable old age of one hun- dred and five years. Nathan Leisure was born in Virginia in 1783. He reared a fam, ily of nine children, viz. : William, George, Joseph, James, John Henry, Thomas, Mary (who married William Houston), Cassie Ann (who was the wife of William Rog- ers) and Rachel (who married Samuel Gruell).
The parents of William H. Leisure reared a family of six children, of whom Nathan, deceased, was the eldest; Rachel, the second born, is now the wife of Joseph Billings, of Rush county; William H., of this sketch, was the third in order of birth; George is the fourth; Sarah Jane, the wife of John Kirkpatrick, of Rush county, is the next; while the youngest was Laura, who died in 1887. She was the wife of Elijah Kirkpatrick.
William H. Leisure was reared to man- hood and educated in Rush county, Indi- ana, where he also spent the early years of his maturity in the avocation of a farmer, which has been his life work. In 1875 he moved to Howard county, where five years were spent, coming from there to Green
township, Grant county, and in the spring of 1899 he purchased his present farm home in Sims township. On the 13th of August, 1871, Mr. Leisure was united in marriage with Miss Samantha Billings, a daughter of Andrew and Harriet (Wyatt) Billings, of a family established in America by hen great-grandfather, who settled in Delaware. His son, Mrs. Leisure's grandfather, came to Rush county, Indiana, in 1836. Mrs. Leisure's parents lately removed to How- ard county. Their children were Sarah, now Mrs. James Lord; Joseph; Mary and Clarissa, both deceased; Harrison and Sa+ mantha.
Mr. and Mrs. Leisure have a family of five children, named a follows: Ida May, born September 12, 1872, is now the wife of Anderson Roe, and their children are Everett, Hazel and Elva; Osmer was born September 28, 1875. He wedded Stella Haines, and they have two children, Nola and Leo; Bertha was born June 27, 1885; and Lona, born August 3, 1890.
Mr. Leisure is a man of sterling integ+ rity and uprightness of character. For many years he was prominently identified with the I. O. O. F., being at first a mem- ber of Beech Grove Lodge, No. 399. By reason of his change of residence he trans- ferred his membership to Point Isabel Lodge, which has since surrendered its char- ter, hence he is not affiliated at present. He is public spirited and zealous in the sup- port of every enterprise which meets with his approval. He is a stanch supporter of the public-school system, and encourages with his vote and his means every enterprise calculated to enhance the moral, physical and intellectual status of the community. He has never sought nor held public office,
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.
nor taken an active interest in political af- fairs other than to exercise his right as a free American citizen.
EDMOND G. SEXTON.
Edmon G. Sexton, ex-soldier and ag- riculturist, has been an honored resident of Grant county, Indiana, since 1865, and has seen many surprising changes and im- provements during his thirty-five years here. He was born in Washington C. H., Fayette county, Ohio, September 8, 1843, and is second in a family of fourteen chil- dren born to Adniram and Elizabeth ( Rob- inson) Sexton. Seven of the family still live, namely: Mary, wife of Jonathan Ma- rine, a farmer of this township; Edmond, who is here represented; Emily, wife of Wal- ter Needler, a farmer of Blackford county, Elizabeth, wife of Dr. E. S. Fisher, a suc- cessful practicing physician and surgeon of Huntington county, Indiana; Eltan, wife of Charles Gibson and resident of the same locality; Elijah, a farmer of this township; Thomas R., an honored citizen of Upland; and Dolly, wife of William Wilson, a me- chanic of this neighborhood.
Adniram Sexton was a native of Fred- erick county, Virginia, was born February 3, 1819, and died April 13, 1882; his wife was born March 10, 1821, and died Feb- ruary 26, 1880. He attended the public school and learned the routine of farm work. At the age of seventeen he came with his parents to Fayette county, Ohio, where they purchased two hundred and sev- enty acres of land, making it their home until their death. In 1865 they moved to
Grant county, making the trip overland in a wagon and locating in Jefferson township, where one hundred and sixty acres of land was purchased. Their first home here was a log cabin. The mother was born in the District of Columbia, but was married in Ohio. She was a member of the Baptist church, as was her husband. He was a Re- publican, but was formerly a Whig.
Edmond G. Sexton was reared in his native county, and attended the old log school house, which bears about as close re- I semblance to the school of this day as the first McCormick mower bears to the mod- ern reaper. The slab seats and old-fashi+ ioned fireplace was a suitable interior to the rough log walls of the building, while the light which was admitted at one end of the building served to illumine the room. Be- fore he had arrived at his majority the Civil war shook the very foundation of the government, and on August 10, 1864, Mr. Sexton enlisted in Company D, One Hun+ dred and Seventy-fifth Regiment, Ohio Volunteers, at Washington C. H., and went at once to Camp Dennison, near Cincinnati. His regiment was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, under General "Pap" Thomas, and was ordered to Columbia, Tennessee. While Mr. Sexton was only in service one year, he was engaged in some of the most hotly contested battles of the entire war, and was in active service the greater part of the time. He took part in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, where the colonel received three severe wounds, his adjutant was also wounded and Captain Wilson B. Logan was killed. Comrades around him fell thick and fast, and a Rebel bullet even carried the canteen from. Mr. Sexton's shoulder, yet he escaped without
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BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIRS.
a scratch. Nashville witnessed another fierce battle in which he participated, and Kentucky was the scene of still other engage- ments. His regiment was stationed at Co. lumbia, Tennessee, when Lee's surrender put an end to the war and the soklier boys were sent back to Camp Dennison, where they were honorably discharged in July, 1865.
Mr. Sexton is a member of Benjamin R. Dunn Post, No. 440, G. A. R., at Cum- berland, and has made an efficient officer of that body. It was his pleasant privilege to attend the thirty-fourth annual encamp- ment of the G. A. R. recently held at Chi- cago, and the touching meeting of old com- rades who had not seen each other, many of them since on the camp ground, was fraught with a joy that made the memory of camp life a delightful one. Hand clasped hand as eyes, eloquent with emotion, spoke the greeting that lips could not utter. Camp life was talked over, incidents narrated and kindly and reverent mention made of the departed soldier who fell on the field or passed away amid more peaceful surround- ings. The city was given over to the grand old sokliers, everybody entering into their enjoyment. and the reunion of these beard- ed men who, as boys, had fought side by side for their country's flag, will never be forgotten by those who participated in it.
August 22, 1869. Mr. Sexton was uni- ted in the holy bonds of matrimony with Miss Mary Lyon, who has presented him with two sons and one daughter. Ida, the daughter, is the wife of Claude Monroe, a member of one of the pioneer families. Ida, however, had been previously married to Lona Lucas. By the second marriage she has one child. a bright little boy whom
they call Zelmer, the pride of parents and grandparents. John P. graduated in the class of 1892 and attended Taylor Univer- sity, after which he spent a period in the home district as teacher, abandoning that profession to accept a position under the state, which he maintained a considerable time, when he was married and took up his residence at Fairibault, Minnesota. Clay- ton R. also received a good common-school education, and is his father's right-hand man on the estate.
Mrs. Sexton was born in Guernsey county, Ohio, April 3. 1847, and is a daugh- ter of James and Nancy (Slater ) Lyons: The father was born in Virginia August 20, 1805, and died February 15, 1885. He was a mechanic by occupation, and came to this township in 1849. making it his home for the remainder of his days. He was a stalwart Republican, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, as was his wife. She was born in Guernsey coun- ty. Ohio. September 10, 1807. and died June 13. 1887. surviving her husband twelve years. There were ten children in the family, six daughters and four sons. Mrs. Sexton was a little tot of two years when her parents moved to Grant county, and has here grown to womanhood. Like her husband, she received her educational training in the log school house and has watched it assume improved features, chang- ing from log to frame and then to brick, and to-day their district has one of the most beautiful modern brick buildings in the county. It cannot be excelled either as to suitable location or modern and convenient appointments. Mr. and Mrs. Sexton have been partners in life in the true sense of the word, consulting together about their busi-
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ness and domestic affairs and keeping the members the old schol-house where he machinery of their establishment so oiled studied the elements of the three Rs, under the tuition of the backwood's schoolmas- with amiability and good fellowship that the roughest road is passed without fric- ; ter" of seventy years ago. As memory re- tion. They are active members of the verts to those early scenes of his boyhood, Methodist Episcopal church at Shiloh, and have aided in building three churches and four parsonages in their neighborhood. Mr. Sexton is a Republican and stands firmly by his party principles. He has not been an aspirant for political honors, but has several times served his party as dele- gate to county conventions. They have been very successful in life and have one hundred and twenty acres of land, which is adapted to the culture of all kinds of grain and is kept under high cultivation, while the buildings and other improvements are in good taste and well suited to the quiet, unostentatious couple who reside there.
CHARLES W. JOHSON.
Charles W. Johnson, a venerable pioneer of Indiana, and a resident of Swayzee, Grant county, was born in Butler county, Ohio, December 19, 1820. He is a son of John H. and Sarah (Stout) Johnson, natives of New Jersey. Charles W. was educated in the primitive log school-house of pioneer days. His parents were very early settlers of Butler county, Ohio, locating there while the country was undeveloped and the virgin forest covered a large area of the otherwise tillable soil.
There, amid the environments of pioneer life, Charles W. spent his youth, and be- came inured to the harships, trials and privations of a frontiersmen. He well re-
inadvertently his back tingles, and he can, in imagination, hear the swish of the ever present hickory gad, which in those days controlled the refractory boys and guided in the channels of moral rectitude and mus- cular development. The fitness of the "master" was oftener determined by his phy- sical proportions than his mental attain- ments ; and yet when the short duration of the schools is considered along with results attained, it cannot be denied that the pio- neer school-master served a good purpose. The school-houses were usually built of round logs, "chinked" with wood, and daubed with clay both inside and out. A log was cut, making an aperture a couple of feet long, and as wide as the log and "chink- ing." These holes were covered with greased paper or white cloth, and this served the purpose of windows. A commodious fireplace was made across one end, the base of stones, tipped with a stick-and-mud chim- ney. The fuel was contributed by the pa- trons of the school, and that was about the only necessity which was furnished in great abundance, for everybody had more wood than he wanted. The seats were made of slabs or puncheons, with wooden legs set at proper angles and height, though the lat- ter was often a miscalculation, as the little fellows frequently sat with their feet dang- ling in mid air. The desks were puncheons, boards or planks, resting against the wall. and supported by wooden pins driven into auger holes. A puncheon floor completed the arrangement, if we do not forget to men-
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tion the master's chair. The school com- mittee usually "examined" the teacher touch- ing his qualifications to teach and govern, and this process was as crude and primitive as the other arrangements for "universal education."
But outside of the educational process there were many other interesting features of pioneer life which live to-day only on the memories of the surviving participants. It is indeed a pleasant recollection to recall the personality of children companions and of father and mother, brothers and sis- ters, around the family hearthstone. The youthful diversions of those days were so different from those employed by this more aristocratic age. The pleasures and pas- times were usually of a chracter relating to, or furthering the interests of domestic labor. Log-rollings, raisings, "shucking" bees, flax-pullings, apple-parings, etc., often ter- minated with a social dance, when the young people, clad in the homespun garments man- ufactured from the raw materil by the indus- trious and frugal mothers, were the order of the day. As "civilization" advanced, there were spelling-schools and singing- classes introduced, which brought together the young people from far and near, for distance was annihilated in the universal interest in the occasion. The backwoods preacher, or "circuit rider" attended to the spiritual wants of the community and often, in meeting his appointment once a month, traveled hundreds of miles, and received very meager pay. The circulating medium of the country consisted largely of some rec- ognized domestic products, as furs, pelts or grains, for money was not only scarce as regarded quantity, but doubtful as to qual- ity, for these were the days of wild-cat cur-
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rency or state bank bills which was seldom pure outside of the community where issued. A gold or silver coin was always carefully hoarded by the possessor, and the fluctuating paper currency was kept afloat-if it would "float.""
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